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 34
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"'Tis Greece, but living Greece no more,"
and declared that she would never rise again. But prophets are sometimes mistaken, as the sequel shows ; and intelligent manufacturers were not so blind to their interests as to overlook such water power as the river affords at this point, nor were families of means and culture, who chanced to visit the town, unsus- ceptible to the charms of its natural surroundings. Glancing carelessly from the hill, on the West Side, up the river beyond the great stone piers, "to him who in the love of nature holds communion with her visible forms," the view is one which will never be forgotten. And then, where in Northern Illinois can the spot be found which rivals in beauty the grounds on the opposite bank, . belonging to L. C. Ward, with the residence which rises above them, recalling in its commanding position and graceful architecture the stories of the Alhambra ? Such scenery had its effect, and the town gradually awoke. In 1870, in con- sideration of an agreement entered into with the *Chicago & Northwestern Rail- road, by which the company promised, for the sum of $35,000, to be paid by the citizens of St. Charles, to build and operate perpetually a track connecting the place with the main line at Geneva, trains again entered the village. The entire cost of the road, including right of way, exceeded $45,000. The depot still used is a reconstructed dwelling, built by Capt. Richard Sargent. Since the completion of this track, business, which had already given some indications of reviving, has more than doubled, and the town may be considered in a more prosperous condition than ever before. In 1875, the place, which had formerly been under village government, became a city under the general statutes, and elected a Mayor and Board of Aldermen. The first Mayor was Dr. J. K. Lewis, one of the early physicians, the son of an old settler, and a man in every way qualified to hold the position.
MILITARY RECORD.
Few cities of its size in the State present a more brilliant war record than St. Charles. The names of all her soldiers appear upon another page in this work, but a few deserve special notice. Among these Gen. J. F. Farnsworth occupies the front rank. By him the Eighth Illinois Cavalry was organized, in 1861, a regiment the most active of all the cavalry regiments in the Army of the Potomac. The General went out as Colonel, but was subsequently promoted. J. S. Van Patten, now in the Kane County Bank, was Quartermaster. Com-
* The new name for the old Chicago & Galena Railroad
.
354
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
pany A was raised in the city, and Company I in the county. Of the former, William G. Conklin (Second Lieutenant in the Sixth Illinois during the Mexi- can war) went as Captain, was promoted to the office of Major and resigned. The Colonel of the regiment (Farnsworth) served from 1861 to 1863, was in all the battles in front of Richmond, in 1862; at Antietam, Fredericksburg, South Mountain, and many of the smaller cavalry skirmishes, but in 1863 resigned to take his place in Congress, where he had been a Representative for four years before the outbreak of the rebellion, and where he remained for ten years after leaving the army. Previous to the great struggle, he had figured in the organ- ization of the Republican party, was a strong Abolitionist and contributed in no small measure toward the Anti-slavery movement. He still resides in St. Charles. It should here be mentioned that Capt. Conklin did gallant service in the Mexican war, as did Lient. Lewis Norton, now in California. Thirty- four men of the ninety-four who enlisted for that struggle in the company formed in St. Charles, were killed or died of diseases contracted during their absence. In the Seventh Regiment (war of rebellion) we notice the names of George Sill and D. B. Chamberlin, still residents of the place. The Seven- teenth Illinois Cavalry also rendezvoused at St. Charles in the Fall of 1863, where they were organized by Gen. Farnsworth. In the Thirty-sixth A. H. Barry, well known at the Kane County bar and at present a resident of Elgin, was Major, and John Elliott, one of the first Board of Aldermen in St. Charles, was First Lieutenant. The latter was captured by the rebels and had many thrilling adventures and hair-breadth escapes. The laws of the South were at that time the " Laws of Draco," and on one occasion Mr. Elliott was delivered to the civil authorities for some trivial offense and sentenced to be hanged. He escaped by breaking through a box-car, in which he was confined, and still pre- serves an unbroken spinal column in the city where he enlisted.
In the Fifty-second, Capt. F. H. Bowman, now in the hardware business, H. N. Wheeler, editor of the St. Charles Leader, and Frank McMaster, now in Colorado, may be mentioned.
Dr. H. M. Crawford went as Surgeon in the Fifty-eighth, and found abun- dant scope for his high talents at Fort Donelson and Shiloh, where he earned an enviable record. At the battle field, the the regiment was broken up and deci- mated, and the doctor was assigned to the post of Chief Operator and to the charge of general hospitals, until its re-organization, in 1864. At the hospitals of Monterey and Corinth, he exerted himself so arduously in the care of the sick and wounded, that his health became seriously impaired. By a leave of absence, however, after the second battle of Bull Run, it was recruited, and he returned to the appointment of Chief Surgeon in Hospital No. 4, in Jackson, Tenn., and was subsequently promoted to Chief of Hospitals at La Grange, Tenn., where 1
he again injured his health by his unremitting labor for the comfort of his patients. Light duties at Vicksburg were imposed in place of the laborious ones at La Grange. He was next Brigade Surgeon on Sherman's raid to
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
Meridian, then Division Surgeon on Red River Expedition, and was Chief Operator for A. J. Smith's corps after Pleasant Hill and Yellow Bayou. From thence he again joined his regiment, and, after filling various other appointments with credit to himself, was honorably discharged in the Spring of 1865.
N. T. Roach was Commissary in the same regiment.
Capt. Richmond, now of Chicago, was a favorite of the One Hundred and Twenty-seventh, and well deserving of the good will of his regiment, while Samuel W. Durant attained an honorable record in the same regiment as Quartermaster.
ST. CHARLES TO-DAY.
The cloud of desolation which at one time threatened to envelop all the interests of the town has, as we have seen, passed by, and the streets, from the crevices of whose sidewalks the grass was beginning to grow, are now thronged daily with life and activity, while several important manufactories are in suc- cessful operation. Prominent among these is the Hardware Company, repre- sented and controlled by S. L. Bignall, which gives employment tofifty-five men, and melts 1,000 tons of iron a year. The iron business was commenced about 1844, by Burdick & Clark, who built a small foundry, which subsequently passed into the hands of John Lloyd, who remained sole proprietor or partner in the business until his death, when, after some changes in ownership, it became the property of S. L. Bignall & Co., who sold, in 1876, to the S. L. Bignall Hard- ware Company, the stock company by which it is now owned. Pumps, wind- mills, grind-stone fixtures, sad irons, corn shellers, and various articles for which Mr. B. possesses letters patent are manufactured. The buildings have recently enlarged to more than triple their original size, and the foundry and machine shops, combined, rank as one of the great manufactories of Fox River.
Brownell & Miller's paper mill, which is the old Debit mill enlarged, is oper- ated in the manufacture of straw wrapping paper, of which about a car load is shipped weekly to Chicago. The quality is said to be as good as any in the market, and the company employ eighteen hands. The present proprietors purchased the building of O. M. Butler in 1867, and Mr. Miller states that it was the first manufactory of the kind west of the Ohio.
The St. Charles File Company-J. P. Doig and J. T. Gallagher-com- menced operations in St. Charles in June, 1877, in the large stone shop back of Haines' mill, having previously been in the same business, between six and seven years, in Chicago, and gained in the meantime a No. 1 reputation for their files, which have, in a great measure, superseded the English ones, with which the Western market was previously stocked. They employ twenty-two skilled workmen.
Louis Klink's Wagon and Carriage Shop, commenced in 1866, was the first establishment of the kind which has made that industry successful in St. Charles. His sales during the past year amounted to $20,000. The Doyles
356
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
also have a similar manufactory, upon the east side of the river, and are consid- ered excellent workmen.
St. Charles Mills, on the East Side, and already referred to, were purchased from William G. Conklin, in September, 1877, by A. Fredenhague, who oper- ates them for both custom and merchant work. The building contains three run of stones, and four hands are employed.
R. J. Haines' mill, upon the West Side, has received mention upon another page.
One of the great interests of the eity is the dairy business, and farmers for a circuit of five miles send milk here to supply the cheese and butter factories. The building of the St. Charles Dairymen's Association, upon the East Side, one of the finest cheese factories in the United States, was ereeted in the Spring of 1872, cost $11,500, and has sinee received additions and improvements to the amount of $3,500. The association was chartered by the State, in April, 1877, and operates the factory for the patrons, making and selling the products, and deducting from the market price two and one-half cents per pound for the manufacture of cheese, and five cents for butter.
The following statistics will convey to the reader a elear understanding of the extent of its patronage :
REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1877.
No. Pounds No. Pounds No. Pounds
No. Pounds No. Pounds No. Pounds Milk Cheese Made. Received.
Butter Made.
Milk Received.
Cheese Made.
Butter Made.
January .
192,000
14,907
5,443
July
609,000
48,994
8,993
February.
215.000
16,037
5,800
August
548,000
45,009
8,564
March
288,000
21,511
7,325
September
465.000
35,402
10,751
April
319,000
22,841
7,611
October
360,000
28,000
9.000
May
502,000
40,883
8,388
November
310,000
24,000
7,750
June
652,000
54,331
9,356
December.
300,000
24,000
7,750
Within the past Summer (1877), Martin Switzer has erected, upon the West Side, on the bank of a never-failing spring-brook, a stone cheese factory of vast di- mensions, which will doubtless eventually obtain much of the patronage of that part of the township. As it has only been operated a part of the season, no fair estimate of the amount of its yearly business can be presented.
Leaving now the manufactories for the mercantile interests of the town, we find several large and elegant business bloeks : W. F. Osgood's, L. C. Ward's and the one built on the West Side by John Gloss, during the Summer of 1877; also, on the East Side, the gigantic pile of stone which William Irwin, one of the early settlers, has been more than a seore and a half of years in rear- ing. "You'll never again see the man," observed its honest and industrious builder, as he pointed to it, " who has piled up such a mass of material as that with his own fingers;" and we left him, convinced of the truth of his statement.
357
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
ELGIN TOWNSHIP.
Solitary wanderers, returning to New England firesides, from prospecting tours to the Great West, in 1832-3, were regarded with a feeling akin to superstition by the neighbors, who flocked to hear their reports. The inter- est manifested by the dwellers beyond the sea, for the navigators from the New World, in the early part of the sixteenth century, could not have far exceeded theirs, for they beheld in the voyagers, whom they quizzed with Yankee perti- nacity, men who had reached the end of the world and had seen sights never before beheld by any but the semi-barbarous trappers, Indians, a few explorers and military expeditions. Even those who studied the primary geographies, among those Eastern hills, at a more recent date, can remember when Indiana was regarded as the last State within the confines of civilization, while Minne- sota was the grand "jumping off place "-" that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returned." No reports from the West could be too exaggerated to find ready believers; and despite his proverbial shrewdness, many a credulous Yankee was firmly convinced that herds of wild buffalo thundered through the streets of Chicago by day, and prairie wolves howled under the windows of Peoria by night. Stories of the climate and soil were equally ex- aggerated and one of these, portraying Michigan as the long lost Garden of Eden, at length reached, in 1833, a little village in New Hampshire, where there lived, in rather straitened circumstances, a young man by the name of Isaac Stone. With a friend, E. K. Mann, he took his carpet bag and bid farewell to the Green Mountains, the White Mountains and the purling brooks of those mountains, and went forth in quest of the fortunes that were to be obtained in Michigan, " without money and without price."
In process of time, the young men reached a place called White Pigeon Prairie, and there they halted, and, having hired as laborers to the farmers of that country, remained until the following year, when they were attacked with intermittent and bilious fevers, and, if Mr. Stone is not mistaken in this part of his narrative, "shook down two or three log shanties," and thus rendered themselves unpopular. "I liked the country," said he, " and I liked the peo- ple, but I never did like ague," and therefore they left the State; Mann, whose condition had become dangerous, returning to his Eastern home, and Mr. Stone proceeding to Chicago.
Finding nothing in that place to induce him to remain, he continued West- ward, and after much wandering up and down the country, found himself, early in the Spring of 1835, upon the bank of Fox River, at Elgin, where he says that he found a pioneer named Ransom Olds,* residing in the northern part of
* Further investigation has convinced us that Mr. Stone's statement concerning this man is correct ; and Ran- som Olds' cabin was the first one erected by a white man within the present limits of Elgin city or Township. He arrived there early in 1835, and left the town years ago.
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
the present city limits, in a finished log house, upon a claim afterward owned by Reuben Jenne. Proceeding southward, he came to the claims taken by the Giffords, who will be further mentioned in the chapter upon the city. These men were building their first log cabin. Mr. Stone further states that Olds sold his orig- inal claim about a year later, and took up the land now owned by Oscar Lawrence.
Journeying from the river to the west, Mr. Stone came to the tract where he now resides, a mile and a half from the spot afterward occupied by the post office of Udina, and being pleased with the situation and convinced that it was far enough removed from the river to insure freedom from the prevailing dis- cases of Michigan, he staked out a large claim and built his cabin.
A little later, Mr. Mann, who had recovered and learned of his comrade's settlement, made his appearance and took up his abode in the same cabin, hav- ing previously come to an agreement in regard to a division of the claim, when either one should take unto himself a wife. Thus they lived several years, par- ticipating in the hardships of their wilderness home; and here for a time we will leave them to follow the fortunes of other settlers in the township.
While Stone and Mann were in Michigan, an enterprising young man from a section far removed from New Hampshire was preparing to settle in the same Western State, which seems to have had peculiar attractions for pioneers from every part of the country. This man was Joseph P. Corron, of Nicholas Co., Va. (now West Virginia), who left his home in 1834, and proceeded to the Wol- verine State, remaining a year in Cass County, and then, with a brother-in-law, Jacob Amick, and one John Donalds, betook himself to the Fox River, which he reached at Batavia, April 28, 1835. Donalds had been at this place in the previous year, and taken a claim a little below the present site of the village. Early in the history of the settlement, he left his land and traversed almost the entire West, from Texas to Oregon, and never returned. Mr. Amick took up a claim at Plato Corners, in the Spring of 1836.
From Batavia, Mr. Corron journeyed to the Garton settlement at Round Grove, and thence to the land where he now resides, near South Elgin, and took up the claim which joined one just taken by Mr. Laughlin, who now occu- pies the old Garton farm.
At this time, George Tyler was living just north of Elgin, on land now owned by MeNeal and McAllister ; and later in the Summer of 1835, John Spitzer located in St. Charles Township. Still later, in the Fall of the same year, Mr. Corron was rejoiced at the arrival of neighbors, Anson Leonard, from the State of Ohio, and a man named Duncan, from New York, who took up adjoining claims.
In October, 1835, Mr. Corron married Miss Hannah A. Tucker, the daughter of a family who had settled just the other side of the township line on the south. The marriage ceremony was performed in Chicago.
In the meantime, other settlers were coming ; and prominent among them was Dr. Joseph Tefft, still an honored resident of the city of Elgin. Leaving
359
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
Madison Co., N. Y., with a colony composed of himself and wife, his father and family, Dr. Nathan Collins and family, and P. C. Gilbert, with their teams, he had stopped for a time at a place known as Yankee Settlement, upon the Des Plaines River, and from thence the male members of the company went West, prospecting-crossed Fox River at Aurora, then visited the small settlement at Blackberry, and afterward returning to the river, followed it to Herrington's store on the present site of Geneva, where they were assigned a lodging in the storeroom, and left there during the night. Dr. Tefft still expresses himself astonished at the unsuspicious nature of a man who would trust entire strangers alone with his valuable stock of goods. From this point they struck north, to the settlement of Ira Minard, on the present Asylum farm, and finally settled in the vicinity ; Dr. Collins taking a claim upon the west side of the river, where South Elgin now stands. Dr. Tefft was upon the opposite side, and Jonathan Tefft, his father, another about a mile east of Elgin, within the pres- ent limits of Cook County. This was late in the Fall of 1835. The party had passed the Kimball emigrants, when on their way to the Des Plaines, but upon arriving in their cabins in December, they found them already located in Elgin.
Great annoyance was experienced by the Teffts and Collinses, from the delay of their goods, which had been shipped to Chicago. Many times they went to that frog pond by the lake to inquire for them, but for a long time no tidings were received, and they failed to arrive in port until the following June, when the most of them were found to be spoiled from a bath taken during a gale in Lake St. Clair. Such a loss at that period of the settlement was almost irre- parable. Supplies of all kinds were obtained at the expense of long journeys to some of the earlier established towns ; and some, flour for example, could not be obtained at any reasonable price. But the peopling of Elgin progressed steadily, the settlers contenting themselves with the coarsest kind of fare in the absence of the comforts of their Eastern homes; and the last months of the year 1836 found cabins dotting the prairie from South Elgin to Dundee. Early in that year, Asa Gifford, now a resident of Cook County, had located on a claim south of and adjoining that of his brother, Hezekiah, who was the first claimant in the Bluff City, although not the first to build there. During the Spring of the same year, Truman Gilbert settled upon the farm which he still occupies, at South Elgin.
Though far inferior, now, in population, the prospects of that village were fully as good then as were those of Elgin. A number of settlers had clustered around it, shops and mills arose nearly as early as in the place which was des- tined to eclipse it, and for more than two years the only physician in the vicinity was settled there. A school house also arose in the edge of the woods, just east of the place, upon the Laughlin claim, in 1837; and there Miss Maria Tefft gathered the little boys and girls from throughout the neighborhood and taught them the three R's ("reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic"), until she herself entered
-
360
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
the matrimonial school as the wife of E. K. Mann, in the following year. The lit- tle log school house was erected by Isaac Spest and Thomas Mitchell, who pur- chased the Laughlin claim, in 1836; Joseph and James Corron, the latter having settled near his brother's claim, in the same year; and the Teffts. James Corron has been years in his grave, and the same may be said of Thomas Mitchell. Mrs. E. K. Mann also died long ago, in Beloit, Wis., and her hus- band, more recently, in extreme poverty, in Kane County.
In the Fall of 1836, a dam was commenced by Gilbert & Tefft, about eighty rods below the present one, at South Elgin, and the place which it was hoped would arise was called Clintonville, from De Witt Clinton, the eminent New Yorker. During the Winter, the dam was finished, but was carried away the next Spring. It was well built, but a mistake was made in constructing it upon the sand instead of placing it on the rocks above. In the following year, therefore, a second one was commenced by Gilbert, Tefft & Collins, and this time placed in the proper position. As a result it remained, and, in 1838, a saw-mill was built upon the East Side, and was soon in operation removing the forests in the neighborhood ; and three frame dwellings soon took the place of log ones. And now a long period ensued, when Clintonville remained station- ary. True, about 1838, the industries of the settlement were increased, as well as the noise, by the arrival of Samuel Hunting, a blacksmith, but further than this little worthy of note occurred until July 3 and 4, 1847, when the village was laid out on the West Side for Dr. Tefft and B. W. Raymond, by Adin Mann, County Surveyor. It was the design of Mr. Gilbert, who laid out, the East Side somewhat later, to build up a temperance town, and he therefore ascertained the intentions of purchasers previous to selling them lots. The first one which he disposed of was bought by a young mau in whom he had perfect confidence, but was immediately deeded to one Nathan Williams, from Elgin, who put up a distillery near the line afterward taken by the railroad, and com- menced the manufacture of liquors. Rather discouraging for temperance. It was likewise discouraging for the village, and may be said to have partially paralyzed it. Its history henceforth became one of distilleries for a number of years. Williams was was in the center of the place, and the owner not making the business successful, soon sold; and others followed him, each successive owner leaving the buildings in a worse condition than the last, until hopes were entertained by temperance people that the business would never be revived in them. About this time, one Mason, from Chicago, appeared upon the scene, purchased the decaying buildings for a trifle, and rebuilt them at an enormous expense. Probably not less than $50,000 was devoted to the preparation for the manufacture of alcohol. But he had scarcely commenced operations when officials detected him in an attempt to defraud the Government, and his plans were suddenly nipped in the bud. The buildings again went to waste, and were at length burned down, having been supposed to have taken fire from a passing locomotive.
361
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
1
But previous to these events, a man of great enterprise had become iden- tified with the village, and did much to make it an important town. About 1848, G. M. Woodbury proposed to the owners of the place to take the water power and keep the dam in repair forever, and erect a flouring-mill upon either side, upon condition that he should be granted mill sites and water privileges. The offer was accepted, and a stone mill, 40x60 feet, and three stories high, arose upon the East Side, in accordance with the terms of the contract. The privilege upon the opposite side was sold to H. Brown, and the agreement in regard to it was likewise fulfilled. Woodbury attached a stone distillery to his mill about 1850, and operated both for several years ; but subsequently left the township, and the property was in litigation until a comparatively recent period.
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