USA > Illinois > Kane County > The past and present of Kane County, Illinois : containing a history of the county a directory war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion statistics history of the Northwest etc., etc > Part 33
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A. N. Locke built a carding-mill in 1837, which for a time succeeded, and gave employment to about twenty-five hands, but is now standing va- cant, upon the East Side.
Ira Minard took an active part at this time in all the enterprises for the promotion of the welfare of the town, was elected one of the first Justices of the Peace, in 1836, and to the State Senate in 1842. In the latter year, he started, in company with L. B. Flint, a castor and linseed oil manufactory, between the paper-mill and Miller's blacksmith shop; but the business was unsuccessful, and the building was sold for a store, to O. M. Butler, about 1850, and burned down some years later.
In 1840, Read Ferson built a blacksmith shop on the East Side, which was converted, in the following year, into a paper-mill, by William Debit. Paper is said to have been made in it for some time by hand, but Debit soon quit the business, when the property was owned for a short time by R. J. Haines and P. C. Simmons, and at length by Butler & Hunt, who first fitted it with suitable machinery. The West Side paper-mill was built by Butler & Hunt, 1847-8, and was subsequently greatly enlarged, but was nearly destroyed by fire in the Summer of 1856. It was repaired, however, and great additions made ; was employing eighty hands, and making 7,000 pounds of print paper per day, when it was again burned, February 5, 1866, and has never been re- built. The stone walls alone are standing, and the property has been in liti- gation for ten years. The East Side grist-mill was built about 1845, by E. C. Chapman.
The first house of worship was the little school house upon Adams & Pierce's corner, which was used by all societies, and was soon abandoned for school purposes. Father Clark first preached in it, but long before its erection. and some say as early as 1834, there had been preaching in the vicinity. On the 4th of March, 1837, the Congregational Church was organized, with nine members, to wit: Robert Moody, Elizabeth Moody, Alexander Ferson, Abigail Ferson, Dean Ferson, Prudence Ferson, John Fisk, Calvin Ward and Abby Ward. The meeting for organization and the first communion service was held at the log house of Robert Moody. Father Clark met for worship with this small flock for nearly a year, in private houses. His pastorate continued for
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
three years and a half, during which time he gathered a church of about twenty-five members. In July, 1841, he resigned, to accept a call from the church at Elgin. In 1842, preparations were made to build, which resulted in the completion of the present edifice, in November, 1848. In 1844, twenty members were dis- `missed, to form a church at Wayne Center ; and in 1851, eight more were dis- missed to form the church at Campton. Present membership about 140.
The Baptist Church was organized in the Winter of 1835. in the house of John Kittredge, and comprised, during the years immediately following, mem- bers from St. Charles, Dundee, Elgin and Campton, who held their central point at Rice Fay's double log house, at Fayville. While meetings were held there, churches were organized, at Elgin, Dundee and Campton (then Fairfield), from this single germ. The parent church was then moved to St. Charles, where the building now occupied was erected, about 1853, and repaired and enlarged in the Summer of 1876.
A Universalist society existed in the place at a very early day, and the build- ing commenced in the Fall of 1839 was the first in the place, and probably the first in the State. Rev. William Roundsville, who organized the society, was the first pastor. Preaching was held for a time in the old school house, previous to building, and Rev. A. Pingree, now of Pingree Grove, was active in establish- ing the organization. It ran down, however, about 1857, and for years the building has been closed.
The Methodist Episcopal Society was one of the first formed in the village, and commenced a church building about 1843, which has since been greatly im -. proved. As its early records have been lost, or destroyed, we have no means of obtaining an extended account of the organization of the society. It is prosper- ous, and one of the largest religious denominations in the city.
In 1859, according to the statement of a reliable Free Methodist, a number' of the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church became unusually noisy from " getting blessed." The pastor, D. C. Howard, unused to such a racket, under- took to keep them quiet, but signally failed. They objected to his interference ; a meeting was called to take their case in hand, and twenty-one of them were expelled. Organizing immediately, under the celebrated Dr. Redfield, they re- solved themselves into a Free Methodist Church. Their building was originally an elevator, belonging to T. A. & R. A. Wheeler, and standing just north of where S. S. Jones' vacated elevator now stands. It was purchased of the orig- inal owners June 20, 1860, and is still used as the house of worship. There are now between fifty and sixty members.
In 1843, mass was held in the house of Michael Flannery, by Father Keegan ; but previous to this date, Father O'Donnell, from Joliet, had visited the Catholics of St. Charles occasionally, and administered to their spiritual wants. In 1851, a stone church, the only one of this material in the place, was commenced, on the West Side. The membership is large, and the number on the increase.
The first bell in the town was placed upon the Congregational Church, in 1847.
JAMES MANN BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
THE PRESS.
Journalism commenced in Kane County with the publication at St. Charles of a small sheet devoted mainly to the presentation of certain religious views of Dr. John Thomas, its editor, who had moved to the place from Kendall County, and brought a small press with him. It was short lived, however, and about the Fall of 1841, Dr. Thomas commenced the publication of the St. Charles Patriot, Fox River Advocate and Kane County Herald, which eventually failed-per- haps from a lack of vital energy to keep its name before the public-but after continuing a number of years. In the fall of 1842, it was burned out and the press destroyed, but Ira Minard purchased another for the good of the place, and the paper was issued as The Fox River Advocate for some time, by Dr. D. D. Waite. The Prairie Messenger was started in 1846, by Smith & Kelsey, changed hands several times, and went down like its predecessors. In the years which followed there successively appeared The People's Platform, The Demo- cratic Platform, The Kane County Democrat, The Democratic Argus, The St. Charles Argus, and The St. Charles Transcript. It should also be men- tioned that a Universalist paper was started in January, 1842, by Rev. William Rounsville and Seth Barnes ; was continued for about a year, when it was removed to Chicago, where it was published in the following years under the title of The New Covenant. The St. Charles Transcript commenced its career under S. L. Taylor, March 1, 1871. Having received a bonus of about $400 from the citizens of the town in consideration of its establishment, the editor placed it under the able management of Samuel W. Durant, to whom whatever merit it possessed was due, as but a small part of Mr. Taylor's energies were devoted to it. In July, 1871, it was purchased by Tyrrell & Archer, who pub- lished it until June, 1873, when it was sold to Frank McMaster and H. N. Wheeler. It was then a seven-column folio, with a circulation of about 300. The name was changed to The Northern Granger in the same Fall, and again to The St. Charles Leader, in December, 1874, when it was enlarged to a six- column quarto. Since then it has been steadily increasing in influence and im- portance, and in November, 1875, was for the first time issued from a cylinder power press, having been previously struck off on one of the dimunitive and bungling hand concerns. In 1876, one of its able editors, Frank McMaster, sold his interest to his partner, who remains the sole editor and proprietor. In June, 1877, a new departure was taken in country journalism, by introducing upon its title page an elegant engraved heading, the design being one of especial local interest. In politics the Leader is Democratic, its circulation is about 1,200, while its rank among the papers of the county, in energy, vigor of thought and the independence of its views, is clearly indicated by its title. Its office is also one of the best in the county in the convenience of its equipment for news- paper and job work. In September, 1874, a dimunitive publication was com- menced by Tyrrell, the former editor of the Transcript, but it went ont after a six months' struggle.
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
FIRES.
Several destructive fires have occurred aside from those already mentioned. Two stores have been destroyed upon the site of the building afterward erected by Minard & Osgood, and now occupied by W. F. Osgood & Co .; and a con- flagration, in 1843, destroyed the buildings west of Hunt's Mills. Epidemics have also visited the place and spread destruction in their track, and at this point a few brief remarks upon the prevailing
DISEASES
of the county when first settled, and their modifications and successors, will not be irrelevant to the subject under consideration, since no other town in the county suffered as much from them at one period as did St. Charles, althoughi its location is-generally speaking-extremely healthful. As .in other regions of the West, intermittent and remittent bilions fevers sorely afflicted the pioneers, and probably shortened the lives of many ; yet, when "there were scarcely well people enough to take care of the sick," the mortality from the above diseases was surprisingly light. Their effect was rather to postpone improvements and retard labor. But pernicious fevers properly belong to a lower latitude. Dysentery and erysipelas were far more malignant and fatal than now. About 1847, the intermittents began to give way to typhoid fevers-rare previously- and, though generally mild, the latter carried off quite a number, until about 1857, when diphtheria and cerebro-spinal diseases displaced it to a marked extent. From 1857 to the present time, diphtheria has made many households desolate ; while its ally and next of kin, scarletina, has been increasing the bills of infantile mortality. It would seem that the most striking change of diseased action was a relief from bilious and malarious maladies, and an increase of those affect- ing the blood and nerves. Since the abatement of malaria, consumptive disease is also probably a little on the increase. These discouraging statements are more than offset, however, by the increasing vigor of the general population, and by the rapidly diminishing death rate from infantile dysentery and cholera in- fantum, which are not one-fourth as prevalent nor one-tenth as fatal as in 1845. Then, these complaints commenced in May, but now, they are deferred until August, and "Dr. Frost" comes to the relief of the juvenile sufferers. On the whole, the health of the people has steadily improved since the first settlement, and St. Charles and the vicinity are now-and ever have been-as salubrious, at least, as any locality in the State. Malarious diseases yielded to the lower- ing of the beds of the river and water courses, constantly going on, thus in- creasing the rapidity of their currents ; the cultivation of the soil, the thinning of the densest strips of timber, prairie fires, better water, and other causes ; and the hope will be doubtless realized that blood and nervous diseases will also yield . to hygiene when more generally taught in the public schools.
The above meager notice will be more complete by adding a short account of the visit of Asiatic cholera to Kane County, which first appeared in Aurora
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
in 1849, and, invading all the river towns with more or less fatal results, disap- peared in 1854. It may be safely estimated that from three hundred to three hundred and fifty victims yielded to the cold embrace of the destroyer in the above period, within the limits of the county. Two-thirds of these were foreign emigrants, who brought the seeds of the disease with them. This was notably the case in St. Charles, where the Swedes suffered the most-the cholera decimating a small colony. We have it on the best authority that cholera killed far more people than is now commonly imagined, as its presence was often de- nied by well meaning people, and physicians denounced for calling public atten- tion to genuine cases. This policy was sometimes suicidal. It was at first hoped and believed that Dr. Eastman, a talented physician, of Aurora, had hit upon an efficient treatment, but events proved that no physician in the county or elsewhere could boast of signal success in staying its ravages where it had once appeared ; and more than one of Dr. Eastman's own family fell victims to the epidemic. A few dozen sporadic cases, so-called, occurred in Elgin, Batavia, Clintonville, and even in Geneva, during the Summers of those five years, and quite a number of them were fatal ; but, in 1852, St. Charles had to bear the brunt of the disease, which appeared there in its most malignant form.
The name of Dr. H. M. Crawford deserves honorable mention here for his faithful treatment of the sufferers, and for the warning which he sounded in season and in the face of strong opposition, thus preventing, in a great measure, the fearful spread of the contagion which must otherwise have occurred. No ' doubt there are many who daily walk the streets of St. Charles whose lives were saved by him at that time; and he risked his own for the public welfare, as so many zealous physicians have done from time immemorial. As already mentioned, the Doctor was one of the last of the early settlers, having sailed from Ireland, where he had received a thorough education at various colleges, and arrived in New York in the Spring of 1848. Forming an unexpected liking for the Americans, he made the tour of the States, and, being delayed in St. Charles by a snow storm, in the Fall of the above year, he was induced to settle in the town and practice his profession. He soon established a reputa- tion, scarcely paralleled in the State, as a surgeon and physician, and his prac- tice has been unsurpassed, at least for devoted and laborious philanthropy. In July, 1852, a case of cholera occurred on the East Side, the patient being one of the first arrivals of a considerable body of Swedes. Dr. Crawford, who was called to attend him, quietly advised his immediate isolation, and also the sep- aration of the sick from the well in other families-suspecting the existence of cholera germs among them. The suggestion was disregarded. "It is only typhus," said some, and the cold pestilence was allowed to take refuge by other firesides. As many as a dozen of those exposed to the contagion took refuge in an abandoned cooper's shop, which was soon a hospital, while other houses occupied shortly presented the same appearance. Dr. Crawford and one faith-
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
ful nurse stood to their posts, night and day, unaided and alone, for nearly a week, until some benevolent ladies came to the rescue with full hands and kind hearts, and the village authorities, with their eyes now opened by the death of some five citizens and nearly twice as many Swedes, hastened to establish a hospital, and appointed Dr. Crawford as physician in charge. These hastily improvised shanties stood on the Aldrich place (then woods), north of the town, and, although the death rate was high, the needed generosity of the St. Charles people was nobly exhibited, and all done which could be done under the cir- cumstances.
The nurse who assisted Dr. Crawford in the first outbreak sacrificed her life to save her suffering friends and neighbors, and the writer regrets his inability to ascertain her name. After a first attack of cholera, she relapsed from go- ing to her work too soon and despite the best efforts of her physician, succumbed among those she had helped to save. The annals of the human race present few instances of a more exalted heroism than that exhibited by this nameless woman, and her memory should be forever embalmed in the hearts of the citizens of St. Charles. The glory of the conqueror or the statesman is mean and contempt- ible compared with hers, for personal interest could have had nothing to do with her devotion. When the inevitable decay which awaits all that man can build has become the last inhabitant of the village in which she suffered and died, and its shapely masses of material shall have crumbled back into the original dust from whence they arose, let her faithfulness be remembered. Especially should her own countrymen honor her with an immortality which the granite shaft or marble mausoleum can never confer. Let them teach her story to their children as soon as they are old enough to understand the meaning of words, as one of the rarest recorded exhibitions of philanthropy, and let them in turn continue its rehear- sal to their offspring, from generation to generation, down to the most distant ages.
At least seventy-five persons lost their lives at this time in the city and township of St. Charles alone ; and it is clear that as many more would have died had it not been for the heroic devotion of a few who made an unselfish effort in their behalf.
During this epoch, several cases of an amusing as well as tragic character occurred. One illustrates the toleration of "heroic " and even poisonous doses by cholera patients. John Maguire, living east of St. Charles, came home from Chicago in the clutches of the prevailing disease. His son hastened to St. Charles, only to see Dr. Crawford taking his departure, on a fleet horse, in a furious rain storm. A vial dropped unbroken from his pocket in a pool of water, and, seeing that he could not overtake the doctor, the young man hied home with the medicine. The father, in the agony of the disease, seized the vial as the son approached and swallowed at a dose the contents, viz., one oz. of lauda- num and an equal amount of creasote. He is still living, in the State of Iowa.
A powerful Swede, fifty years of age, would trust to nothing but prayer and water, and waded, while in cholera, into the middle of the river and raising his
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
hands in supplication to Heaven, fell into the deep water. He was rescued from the stream only to die of the disease in a few moments after being conveyed to the old " cooper shop " for medical treatment.
A family of Pennsylvanians by the name of Camp, consisting of husband, wife and six children, passed through St. Charles, westward, in July of the fol- lowing year, when they were attacked with cholera on the road west of the town. Three, including Mr. C., died on the road in a deserted log shanty, which stood above King's Mill Creek, near where Lake's cheese factory now stands, in Campton Township. When under the shelter of this poor refuge the balance of the family were gathered, the insatiable monster was not at all contented with his havoc, but immediately siezed upon all the others. The neighbors bravely flocked to their assistance. Dr. Crawford was called, and at the end of three days and nights of unremitting labor pronounced all safe, with careful management. One interesting and beautiful girl of 19, who had hung trem- blingly in the balance between life and death for three days, was cheerful again and convalescent. The mother was ordered to see to it that no food should be given unless by the hand of the doctor, and she was not to be raised in the bed. But no sooner did the uncontrollable sleep overcome for a few minutes the giver of this order, than the poor girl, yielding to the morbid desire for food, per- suaded her mother to fetch her a tin cup of bread and milk, a large spoonful of which she greedily swallowed. A faint cry awoke the doctor, whose head had rested against a projecting log, the cup was snatched from the trembling hand and the head quickly lowered, but all efforts at resuscitation were unavailing, and Annie Camp, like a rosebud stricken from the stem by some rude blast, was laid with her father and three brothers on the north bank of the little stream.
RAILROADS.
The railroad history of this city is of melancholy interest. After the Chi- cago & Galena Railroad Company had extended their track from Chicago to Turner Junction, the people of St. Charles began to discuss the prospect of ob- taining a further extension to their own town. Ira Minard was active in advo- cating the feasibility of the plan, and subsequently liberal in 'securing its opera- tion.
In 1849, a road was commenced from the city to connect with the Chicago & Galena track, three miles northwest of the Junction; and on the 12th of Decem- ber, in the same year, the first train entered St. Charles, and the scream of the locomotive was heard for the first time in Kane County, or in the Fox River Valley. In the following August, the Chicago & Galena Road completed their track to Elgin, and changed their route from St. Charles to that place. The citizens of St. Charles, seeing that the salvation of their town depended upon the thorough- fare which they had opened, took the matter into their own hands and ran two trains a day from their town to the Junction. Ira Minard controlled it until
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
October, 1856, when it passed into other hands. The depot stood upon the East Side, just east of the position now occupied by the Free Methodist Church. B. D. Mallory was the Agent from August to November, 1850, and Leonard Howard from the latter date until 1857.
In 1853, Minard and others obtained a charter for the St. Charles & Galena Air Line Road, into which the charter previously granted for the Branch Track was merged. Ira Minard became President of the company, and heavy stock was taken all along the line ; while at Galena the people contributed handsomely, as the road would, when completed, furnish them a competing thoroughfare with the Chicago & Galena Road and the Illinois Central, as well as a more direct route to Chicago.
The Chicago & Galena Road, commenced with the ostensible purpose of ex- tending to Galena, had never approached nearer that town than Freeport, but from there had depended upon the Illinois Central track. The inhabitants of the place, groaning under the monopoly of a single thoroughfare, rejoiced at the prospect of completion. In an evil hour, one E. C. Litchfield, from Cazenovia, N. Y., appeared in St. Charles, representing that he and his friends possessed sufficient means to build the railroad if he was allowed to take a controlling interest in the stock. He was permitted to subscribe for it, the thoroughfare was commenced and graded from Chicago to St. Charles, the culverts were generally built ; also, the piers 'and abutments for a bridge across Fox River, and the track was laid for nine miles from Chicago. Minard had staked his whole ample fortune, $80,000, upon the success of the enterprise, while hundreds of poor men all along the line had taken stock for all they owned. It must be understood that Litchfield had promised that the road should be finished, and that it should not previously pass out of his hands into the possession of the Chicago & Galena, or any other competing line.
Never was a villainous scheme more successfully executed. When the con- troller of the stock had crippled the only man who had any power to oppose him, and was assured that any opposition to his own designs would result in that man's ruin, he coolly informed Minard that he had concluded to sell his stock to the Chicago & Galena Company, and promised to make ample reparation for any personal inconvenience which such a course might occasion him, if he would raise no objections. He was thus permitted to take his choice when there was no choice to take. The refusal and loss of his property could not have helped his friends, who were already ruined, nor saved his town, which was then doomed ; and he, accordingly, took the course which any other sanc man would have taken. The road ended at the Des Plaines River, and the grading upon the west bank of the Fox River, since it was not for the interest of the Chicago & Northwestern Company to continue it: $700,000, paid by the hard-working farmers and industrious mechanics across the State, was lost, and many families reduced from wealth to poverty, and the useless piers stand to this day in Fox River, appropriate monuments to the perfidy of E. C. Litch-
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
field. . Minard has been unjustly blamed for his course in the disaster, but it is sufficiently apparent from the above that he was guiltless. The loss of the railroad was the severest blow ever given to the prosperity of St. Charles. It nearly annihilated the village for more than fifteen years. She had arisen tri- umphantly from pestilence and repeated conflagrations, but now many false proph- ets gravely shook their heads and quoted, with a dolorous whine, Byron's line,
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