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 40
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In 1842, H. E. Hunt drove a team from the State of New York to the town- ship, and three years later, commenced keeping grocery in a store built at a cost of only $75, where his dwelling stands. He now occupies the finest business block in Dundee, which was erected in 1871, on the West Side. It is built of the Dundee brick; contains Hunt's extensive dry goods store, a bank, and the printing office of the Dundee Record. The manufacture of brick has been. during the past, the most important industry of Dundee. The clay is of a superior quality ; and the brick, when burned, are of a delicate cream color. The business was commenced as early as 1852, near the house of Jesse New- man. Subsequently, Hull & Gillett manufactured them for a time, upon the West Side; and later, the same parties operated a yard where the Methodist Episcopal Church now stands, on the opposite side. About twenty-five rods south of this point, E. H. Hager & Co. are now manufacturing them. Several millions of brick, from Dundee, were used in the building of the Insane Asylum, at Elgin. From three to four millions of them have been made in the village yearly, and the clay is practically inexhaustible. About 1844, a foundry was built on the East Side, by A. C. Kibby and William Carley, who operated, for a short time, employing five or six hands; but the business proving unsuc- cessful, was discontinued, and the building is now used as a pump factory, by Mr. D. Waterman.
The newspaper history of Dundee has been extensive, considering the size of the town, and commenced about 1855, when a Mr. Farnham published, for a short time, the " Dundee Advocate." Some eleven years later, the "Dundee Weekly" was commenced by Mr. P. Sevick, and was continued a number of years, being owned, at one time, by C. P. Thew, and purchased of him, in the Spring of 1871, by R. B. Brickley. In 1875, the "Dundee Citizen," formerly the Algonquin Citizen, commenced its brief career in the village, under .the editorship of George Earlie ; but after a single year, was removed to the center of journalism, Elgin, and sold, at length, to J. Stoddard Smith, who published it, until recently, as the Elgin Free Press. It is now owned by Taylor & Van Gorder. On the 29th of March, 1877, S. L. Taylor, of Elgin, published the. first number of the "Dundee Record." Dr. Cleveland, of Dundee, a gentle- man of rare culture, was employed as editor, and later, in the same year, pur- chased the establishment of the proprietor. It is now an eight-page paper, with
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
a supplement, containing scientific, educational and home departments-each under special assistant editors-and as a family paper, is one of the best of the numerous publications in the country. Circulation, about 500.
As already shown, Dundee is one of the greatest dairy regions in the coun- try. Aside from the butter and cheese factories already mentioned, one was built in the village, in the Spring of 1874. It is a large building, constructed mainly of wood and owned by a stock company. The stock is valued at $6,000, and the patronage extensive. Six or seven of the largest dairies in the town- ship send their milk to the condensing factory, in Elgin, and the freight upon the milk shipped direct from the Dundee depot to Chicago may be seen by the following statistics :
For January, 1877. $1,774 08
For July. 1877. $2,445 30
February, 1877
1,714 68
August, 1877 2,207 70
March, 1877
2,041 38
September, 1877 1,835 46
April, 1877.
2,003 76 October, 1877.
1,918 62
May, 1877.
2,348 28
November, 1877. 1,728 06
June, 1877. 2,403 72
December, 1877. 1,919 76
A single milk ticket, paying for the transportation of eight gallons, costs nineteen and four-fifths cents.
In 1877, a steam grist-mill was built upon the East Side, near the railroad depot, and is operated by George Taylor. Previous to its last erection, it was twice destroyed by fire within the space of a year.
Dundee, East and West, is composed of two separate villages, having a President and Council for each side, but they are so closely connected geograph- ically and socially, that it has been deemed expedient to devote but one chapter to both. They are situated southeast of the center of the township, about five miles north of Elgin, in a portion of the valley unusually rugged and beautiful.
VILLAGE OF CARPENTERSVILLE.
A mile northwest of Dundee lies the Village of Carpentersville. Here the valley widens, and the railway which followed the river to the village below diverges to the east at that point, leaving the more northerly place with no thoroughfare but the wagon road. Yet Carpentersville possesses advantages which more than offset this inconvenience and has gained a name as a manufac- turing center. The village was first settled in 1837, by Daniel G. and Charles V. Carpenter. In the Spring of 1838, John Oatman & Sons and Thomas L. Shields built a mill-dam there, with the intention of conveying the power to Dundee, and about the same time erected a saw-mill and commenced converting the surrounding forests into lumber. Valuable black walnut logs were drawn there from Plum Grove, Cook County, and the patronage was equally extensive upon all sides. The mill was sold early to George J. and S. H. Peck, who sold it to Joseph Carpenter, from Providence, R. I., uncle of the present proprietor.
410
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
In 1844, a carding-mill and cloth-dressing establishment was started between Dundee and Carpentersville, by William Dunton, who operated it for five or six years, and then sold it to J. A. Carpenter, who removed it to Carpentersville, where it was continued as a cloth-dressing factory for some time ; was , finally enlarged and converted into a manufactory of stocking yarn and flannel. It went into the possession of the present stock company in 1866. From twenty to thirty hands are employed, and the stock is valued at about $25,000. J. A. Carpenter owns an extensive part of it, and of nearly every manufacturing and business establishment in the village.
The grist-mill, still running upon the East Side, was erected about 1845, and is now owned by Mr. Carpenter.
The village was surveyed and laid out July 15, 1851; and about the same time, the first bridge was built, by subscription, Mr. Carpenter defraying nearly the entire expense. It was replaced by an iron one in 1869. About 1855, a school house, two stories high, was built, the upper part being used as a hall by the Sons of Temperance, who have succeeded in maintaining an active organi- zation in Carpentersville since 1851.
But by far the most important institution in the place is the mammoth man- ufacturing establishment of the Illinois Iron and Bolt Company. In 1853, Mr. George Marshall opened a shop for the manufacture of reapers and agricultural implements. The business was continued, in a small way, until 1864, when a radical change was made, a joint stock company formed, and the manufacture of thimble skeins, sad irons, pumps, copying presses, garden and lawn vases, seat springs, etc., commenced. The buildings are of vast proportions, including a foundry and machine shop. The main structure is of brick, and was erected in the Summer of 1871. In the following season, a wooden building, where the large brick office now stands, was destroyed by fire, and replaced, the same year, by the present one.
A brick foundry was built, in 1875, in connection with the larger shop. The stock amounts to $110,000, of which Mr. Carpenter owns a controlling interest, and became Manager, in July, 1868. Over 120 hands are employed, and the annual sales amount to $200,000. The manufactured articles are sold from Maine to California.
The Star Manufacturing Company (agricultural works) was established in 1873, in a large building belonging to J. A. Carpenter. It is a stock company, employing about twenty hands, engaged in making horse powers, cultivators and feed cutters. These, with a small planing mill, upon the East Side, com- plete the main manufacturing establishments of the place.
The post office was established in the village about 1866. The mail is obtained from Dundee.
During the Fall of 1877, the appearance of Carpentersville was much im- proved by an elegant business block, built by T. L. Whitaker, who has an ex- tensive trade in dry goods and groceries.
411
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
The vast deposits of peat, extending over several hundred acres, east of Car- pentersville, have received some attention during the past year, and the propri- etors entertain the hope that in the near future, the demand for it as an article of fuel may be sufficient to warrant them in making efforts for its removal.
SUGAR GROVE TOWNSHIP.
As a Congressional township, Sugar Grove is known as Township 38 north, Range 7 east of the Third Principal Meridian. It occupies a position west of Aurora, north of Kendall County, south of Blackberry and east of Big Rock Township. Its surface, though gently undulating, presents more of the features of the prairie than that of the adjoining township on the east, and its name, Sugar Grove, was given by the Indians, from a beautiful grove of sugar maples situated mainly in Section 9. The earliest settlers recollect seeing the remains of sugar camps, scars upon the trees, and sap troughs strewn upon the ground, at the time of their arrival in the country, and there is no doubt that the Pot- tawattomies had manufactured there, as late as 1833, the saccharine food, which they seem to have relished next to whisky. The first
SETTLEMENT
in the township was made by a party from Ohio and New York, composed of James, Isaac C. and Parmeno Isbell, James Carman, an old gentleman by the name of Bishop and Asa McDole. All but the last hailed from Medina County, Ohio, and on their way to the new country, in a cart drawn by two yokes of oxen, had overtaken, at a place then known as the Black Swamp, in Wood County, Ohio, Asa McDole, who had left his home, in the State of New York, several weeks previous, and was also traveling toward the setting sun. They agreed, therefore, to east their lots together, like the company who lay "at Southwark at the Tabard," some five centuries before, and thus continued their journey to Oswego.
Mr. James Isbell, who owned one of the *ox teams, and was our worthy in- formant, states that there were then but two houses in the place, one on each side of the river. Crossing there, they proceeded to the northwest, and arrived in Sugar Grove on the 10th day of May, 1834, eighteen days after the Ohio party had left home. Taking up their abode in a vacated Indian wigwam, which stood in the edge of the grove, they commenced building a more conven- ient residence, and early in the Summer occupied it. This shanty was the first built by white men in Sugar Grove Township, and was located within the limits of Section 9.
Later in the same Summer, Mr. Bishop left the settlement and took up his abode further south.
* The other belonged to Lyman Isbell. James Isbell also drove in four cows, two belonging to himself, the others to Lyman.
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
As Lyman Isbell, an older brother of Isaac and James, was expected, with their mother, sister and his own family, consisting of his wife and two children. a log house was built, on a more ample plan, to receive them. It stood not far from the residence of P. Y. Bliss, and some of the logs from its walls are still in existence.
In due time the expected friends came and took possession of the house, dur- ing the month of July. They drove into the township a span of horses, the first seen there; while it is supposed that no white woman or children had crossed its boundaries previous to the arrival of Mrs. Lyman Isbell and her children, old Mrs. Isbell and her daughter, Miranda. It may be well here to state that the Ohio parties now remaining in Sugar Grove were all related ; James, Isaac C. and Lyman Isbell being brothers, from Granger Township, Ohio, while Parmeno was their nephew, from Copeley Township, and Carman, a brother-in-law of Lyman Isbell, had left a home in Bath.
On the Fourth of July, James Isbell went to Oswego, purchased a bottle of whisky, and returning, drank it with his friends .* There were five persons at this celebration, and it was the first held in Sugar Grove.
Of the original settlers, Asa McDole now sleeps in the graveyard, near the residence of P. Y. Bliss. Parmeno and Carman have also gone to their final resting place ; and I. C. Isbell, now in California, and James Isbell, our in- formant, now living in Batavia, at the age of 77, are all that are left. Lyman Isbell is likewise in his grave.
During the Winter of 1834-5, Joseph Ingham settled on the creek, east of . the place now owned by Esquire Densmore. A number followed in the Spring and Summer of 1835, among whom we may mention a Mr. Gould, who located near the Densmore farm, and returned East after a few years. Rodney Mc- Dole, first settler, now living in the township ; Cyrus Ingham, a son of Joseph, mentioned above, who came out, bringing his father's family, and Harry White. Many others flocked in in rapid succession during this and the years immedi- ately following. Silas Reynolds, a native of Sullivan County, New York, who still resides near Sugar Grove post office, and who settled in the township on a tract which he still owns, in the Spring of 1836, states that he found, upon his arrival, the following men living around him, aside from those already named : Silas Gardner, Samuel Cogswell, Joseph Bishop, Samuel Taylor, Silas Leonard, Isaac Gates, Nathan H. Palmer and Lorin Inmann. The Barnes', too, were early settlers on Blackberry Creek, as was a Mr. Horr, west of the present site of the cheese factory, and Jonathan Gardner, from the shores of Lake Ontario. The latter became homesick, after a short residence in the West, pined for the fishing coasts of his native bay, and, after sighing through the settlement for a time that he would rather have what "gudgeons" he could catch from the shores he had left, at a single haul, than all the land in Illinois, he returned home, where he no doubt remains, still fishing. But the land in Illinois is
*This was the first celebration in Kane County.
1
.
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY. '
worth more than his fish, now. Thomas Judd, from Franklin County, in the old Bay State, settled in Sugar Grove, in the Fall of 1836. Land had begun to rise even at that date, and Mr. Judd paid I. C. Isbell $200 for his claim, forty acres of which was timber. In the same Fall, H. B. Densmore located in the township, where he still remains. In 1857, Mr. Densmore was elected Town Clerk, and has retained the office ever since. P. Y. Bliss, one of the oldest and most respected residents in Sugar Grove, who settled on his present location in 1837, states that, in riding from his residence, in the following year, direct to Geneva, he passed not a house, furrow nor fence of any kind, and that the old Court House at the county seat was the first building which appeared to his view. In the year of his arrival, B. F. Fridley was High Sheriff, being the second elected in the county. Several settlers took up claims, that same year, in the vicinity of Jericho. Reuben Johnson, I. S. Fitch, the Austins and Capt. Jones were among them. A number of settlers flocked in during the year 1838, and among them Ira M. Fitch, now a Justice of the Peace in Aurora, and the founder of the Fitch House, in the Spring of 1867.
CLAIMS.
The land throughout this and the adjoining townships had not been surveyed by the Government at the time of its settlement, but was taken up by the pioneers, and staked out in farms of such shape as suited their convenience, the main consideration being that there should be a grove of good timber included within the limits. The beautiful and fertile prairie farms, which are now the most valuable in the country, were then considered almost worthless, and were the last to be claimed. The various tracts were known as "squatters' claims," and they were' cultivated and eventually fenced with the same zigzag boundary lines which are found in all the farms, townships and counties in the Eastern States to this day. But in 1839 and '40, the United States Surveyors came and placed those inflexible lines which swerved not for farm, house nor garden, and in June, 1842, the sections were sold at auction in Chicago. Parts of several claims were thus frequently embodied in one section, and sold to a single pur- chaser. Much injustice might thus have arisen from settlers losing their improve- ments, had they not formed regular claim organizations, placing themselves under bonds to observe certain salutary measures for the general welfare. A special agent was selected to bid in the sections or parts of sections for $1.25 per acre, on the day appointed for the sale, naming as the purchaser in each case that settler who owned the largest share in the tract sold. At the end of the sale, each settler who had purchased any portion of his neighbor's farm deeded it back to him at the same price which was paid for it. Col. S. S. Ing- ham was the purchasing agent of the farms of Sugar Grove. From the above explanation, the reason why none of those farms have straight section lines will be evident. It is impossible to repress, if we would, a sincere admiration for the calm and philosophical course pursued by the settlers of this township during
414
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
its entire history. They were men of more than common intelligence, possessed of broad and liberal ideas upon all subjects, and a far-reaching sagacity. Hence there has never been any narrow and suicidal policy, nor grappling for spoils in any of their public acts, while the efforts which have been made to promote gen- eral intelligence would have been creditable to a city containing many times the population of Sugar Grove, which has not a single village. Peace and good order prevailed through the period when many sections are scenes of violence and crime. For years there was nothing like an aristocracy to be found within its limits, and Mr. Densmore, who passed through there, says "they were the happiest days in the country." Harmony and a general reciprocation of good services was too common to be generally noticed, and Mr. P. Y. Bliss gives the following as an illustration of this statement: Mr. I. C. Isbell called at his store one morning and announced that, as he intended to kill a steer on the fol- lowing Saturday, Mr. B. might tell any of the neighbors who happened around to call at his house and get a piece of beef. On the day named, a number of the settlers appeared and found the steer slaughtered and the quarters standing out against a post waiting for them, with a knife and hatchet near at hand with which to cut off whatever part they wished. Thus the meat was divided among them gratis.
FIRST DEATH, BIRTH, MARRIAGE, ETC.
Death commenced his work among the settlers before they had completed their second year in the West. The first to fall was a child of Carman's, in 1835. Others followed, and a broken and disfigured slab lying upon the ground in the old graveyard, near the residence of P. Y. Bliss, states that Asa McDole, one of the founders of Sugar Grove, died September 16, 1839. On the 7th day of August, two years previous, he had been elected the first Justice of the Peace in the township, while Sugar Grove was still a part of the old Fox River Precinct.
In the Fall of 1835, the first marriage in the township, that of Dr. N. H. Palmer and Miranda Isbell, occurred; and on the 19th of August, in the same year, Charlotte, a daughter of I. C. Isbell, was born. This has been generally considered the first birth in Sugar Grove, although the McDoles and some others claim that the birth of A. G. McDole, a son of Rodney McDole, was prior to it. It is safe to say, at least, that McDole's was the first male, and Isbell's the first female child.
ROAD, TAVERN, POST OFFICES, STORE, ETC.
A road ran through Sugar Grove, on the way from Chicago to Dixon, as early as 1834, and, in 1836, a tavern stood upon the route on Section 14, and was kept by Robert Atkinson. The old building is now used as a dwelling, on the original site.
Several years more passed before a post office was obtained, and it was not until 1840 that one was established, near the center of Section 15, at the house
415
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
of Thomas Salter, its first Postmaster, who still lives in Aurora at the advanced age of 89. About two years later, one was located at Jericho, I. S. Fitch be- ing in charge of it. These offices are still known as Sugar Grove and Jericho, the former having been removed to Sugar Grove Station. Later, the Grouse and Winthrop offices were established, but the latter is now no longer in existence.
On the 22d day of November, 1838, a man popularly known as " Boss " Read, who still lives in Blackberry, erected for P. Y. Bliss a frame house, which is still occupied by its original owner, on its original site. In the Spring of 1839, the Methodists held their quarterly meeting in one of its rooms, before it was quite completed ; but religious exercises had been introduced into the township some time previous, the first sermon having been delivered by the devout and conscientious " Father" Clarke.
On the 1st of June, 1839, Mr. Bliss filled the new building with such goods as are demanded by the country trade, and opened the first mercantile estab- lishment in the township. Its trade extended over a territory reaching from Dundee to Yorkville, and from the borders of Kane County on the east to Johnson's and Shabbona Groves, DeKalb County, on the west. No other store in Kane County ever drew such a wide range of custom, and, according to Mr. Bliss, the annual sales exceeded those of any other in the county by thousands of dollars. In order to have exceeded the sales of any establishment by thou- sands, the population must have increased very rapidly during the two or three preceding years, for when, in 1837, a vote was taken for the division of Kane and De Kalb Counties, the ballot stood 170 for to 83 against the erection of the proposed new county. It is known, however, that it had increased thus rapidly, and that real estate had become proportionately dear, while, in the main, other property which had been previously introduced into the settlements at a greater expense had become relatively cheaper.
"In 1836," says Mr. Silas Reynolds, "a calf was worth $10 in Sugar Grove, while in 1837 a yearling, in 1838 a two-year-old and in 1839 a three- year-old sold for the same price." Not at all encouraging for the farmer who had kept the calf, in 1836, with the hope that it would increase in value.
The first cemetery in the township was situated, in 1839, in the low ground near the slough, east of the residence of P. Y. Bliss, but, after interring one of the old settlers there in a grave half filled with water, the neighbors of the de- ceased unanimously concluded that it would be sacrilege to bury another friend in such a location, and, accordingly, a burying ground was purchased a little north of the former position and in a place adapted for the purpose. It is now surrounded by a good stone fence, and contains several elegant and costly monuments.
Sugar Grove has, at various periods in its history, established organizations which are seldom found in rural districts, and never excepting among a popula- tion of superior intelligence. Prominent and first among these was the
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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
FARMERS' INSTITUTE,
organized in 1841, for mutual improvement, by the interchange of ideas upon agriculture and every theme of general interest. The proceedings of its first meeting were published in the first number of the Prairie Farmer, and many useful ends were accomplished under its direction in the following years, which it would have been difficult to effect by any other means. The business statistics of the township, collected by the Club, and read by Mr. Thomas Judd before a meeting called in St. Charles to consider the feasibility of ex- tending the Chicago & Galena Railroad west of that place, were taken as a basis on which to compute the estimated products of the other townships, and had their due proportion amid the various other considerations, which led the company to extend it. The second State Fair in Northern Illinois was held at
Aurora. In the previous year it had met at Naperville, with the promise by the citizens of that place that a free dinner would be given on the grounds. The dinner was a failure. The citizens of Aurora resolved to excel their sister town, and not disappoint the assembled multitudes, and, accordingly, announced that on that occasion all should eat and be filled. The day approached, and the farmers of Sugar Grove were called upon to assist in the preparations. Several of the delegates from the Institute, who met with Aurora to consider the matter, pro- posed a warm dinner, but this proposal seemed so utterly impracticable to the people of Aurora that they laughed at them. But Sugar Grove resolved that there should be hot tea and coffee, and warm vegetables, with meats enough to supply the State, if necessary, and to this end a plan of operations was arranged by the Farmers' Institute. A steer, three years old, was dressed, and sent around the township in parts to be cooked, while pigs, turkeys and chickens were killed without stint. Coffee and tea were boiled in huge brass kettles, and vegetables cooked in caldron kettles on the ground, and after all had enjoyed a repast such as Kane County never furnished before or since, Mr. Judd states that " they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets, and distributed them to the citizens of Aurora." When Kansas, suffering from drouth and anarchy combined, sent a wail eastward for help, the Farmers' Institute of Sugar Grove donated 1,000 bushels of wheat and sent them to her. Two
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