USA > Illinois > DuPage County > Hinsdale > Village on the county line ; a history of Hinsdale, Illinois > Part 6
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These papers recall the names of many Brush Hill residents of that period. Among them are: Richards, Bedell, Parker, McInder, Sackett, Carpenter, Couch, Porter, Cable, Hanson, Huchins, Pitts, Sucher, Winchop, Sutherland, Ketcham, Kinyon, Avery.
Just before the opening of the school, the directors invited the School Commissioner of Du Page County to come over for an inspec- tion and to give them a talk. The Commissioner replied as follows:
Naperville Dec. 6, 1853
To G. M. Fox, M. D.
My Dear Sir:
In compliance with your request I will endeavor to be at Brush Hill on Friday the 16th inst. to address the people of your neighbor- hood in your new school house. The meeting I suppose will be in the evening, somewhere from six to seven o'clock. If the weather shall be stormy you will not expect me.
Yours respectfully, H. BROWN
On Page 50 the certificate appointing Miss Caroline Bates as the teacher is reproduced.
50 State County Sf 4 School 2/ 8 1.30
Regeived of
NAPERVILLE, Du Page County, Ills. John I love
1846
SAX the amount of his County and State Taxes for the year A: D. 1846.
Sheriff and Collector of DuPage County, Ils.
John Coe's tax receipt, 1846.
I, HOPE BROWN, School Commissioner of Du Page County, hating examined Med Caroline Abater do certify that the sustains a good moral character, and that the is well qualified to teach the following branches, vis: Orthography, Reading in English, Penmanship, Arithmetic, English Grammar, Modern Geography, and the History of the United States.
Witness my hand, this A 3 day of Muy 185 %
Hofer Braun
School Commissioner.
The certificate appointing Caroline Bates as teacher at the Fullersburg school.
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How did these early farmers around Brush Hill live? They brought with them a good heritage from their New England or German an- cestors, a few hand tools, utensils, and small pieces of furniture. Fertile land was easy to obtain for a comparatively low price. There was plenty of game in the woods, also crab apples, berries, and fish in the creek. Clothing was more of a problem; also certain required manufactured articles were scarce, but taxes were low, and farm life was healthful.
Here, as elsewhere on the frontier, currency was not plentiful so farmers did much bartering, with labor, goods, and produce. Certain manufacturing of a crude sort, mostly in the form of wagons, small implements, and shoes, took place in settlements such as Brush Hill. These articles were used or consumed near the place of their manufac- ture. After 1845 it became increasingly easy to obtain manufactured goods in Chicago, only a day's journey, one way, weather and road permitting. Salt, tea, and coffee also were purchased there; that is, until John Coe and others opened their general stores.
The Du Page Historian, a publication of the Du Page County His- torical Society, gives us these glimpses of life on the early local farm:
"The first cabins were constructed of logs fitted closely together and mortised with mud. . Nails were scarce so wooden pegs were used instead. The stone fireplace . ... was used for both cooking and heating, except in warm weather when much of the cooking was done out of doors. Candles afforded the only illumination. Flint and steel were used to start the fire. (Matches, patented in this country by Alonzo Philips in 1836, were long a luxury) .
"Hospitality was warm, and the traveler was given the best in the house and invited to stay as long as he liked. The newcomer was given assistance if he needed it, his hosts helping him to build his cabin and even donating live stock if he had none. Only one rule the new settler might not transgress and remain popular with his fellows. He must not criticize the new country, com- plain of its disadvantages, or talk of the superiority of the place from which he had come.
"Every blacksmith with an inventive turn of mind was tinkering with plows. Sometimes mold boards of cast iron were tried on the plows by way of improve- ment. (The Oliver plow, the first factory-made plow in the United States, was not manufactured until 1855) .
"Livestock was allowed to wander freely over the fields. Hogs fed themselves on roots and acorns. Cows strayed for miles on the open prairie and were identified by the tones of bells placed around their necks. The settlers had to fence in their crops to keep the animals out." Rail fence, ditches, sod embank- ments, and osage hedge were used for this purpose. Barbed wire was invented much later.
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VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
Chester C. Bratten Photo
Castle Inn as it appears today.
"A tavern was built, to lodge the newcomers until they could stake their claims."
These families had some time for reading, around their candles or lamps in the evening, especially in the winter. The newspaper was the chief dispenser of news, and probably, then as now, newspapers from Chicago, though often a day or two late, were the dailies read by Brush Hill citizens. Eventually there were a few county papers, such as the Naperville Observer and the Lockport Courier, but these were con- fined mostly to the towns in which they were printed.
Chicago newspapers of the 1850's and 60's had larger pages than the papers of today, though not so many, and the type was smaller. They carried many special dispatches "by telegraph" from distant places and much space was given to happenings of a general nature throughout the world. Advertisements were mostly small and very numerous. Many of them extolled the virtues of remedies of one kind or another such as:
BUCHAN'S HUNGARIAN BALSAM OF LIFE The great English remedy for colds, coughs, asthma, and consumption.
(1846)
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Or, from a paper of an earlier period:
Dr. L. B. Crane's Vegetable Ointment for the prairie itch. (1839)
In the same year a state lottery, called "a brilliant scheme" was ad- vertised. This was authorized by the legislature to raise money for the purpose of draining swamp lands.
In 1864 C. H. De Forrest was notifying the public of his hoop skirt manufactory and sales room at 84 Lake Street in the city.
Nor was the press of that day lacking in bits of wit and wisdom. In issues of 1854 these are found:
No man can avoid his own company, so he had best make it as good as possible. Spell murder backwards and you have its cause.
For entertainment in the city there were announcements of the Lyceum, the Athenaeum, and exhibits such as Napoleon's Funeral,
Toll Gate House was built during the 1840's.
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VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
shown in the evening at the City Hall, besides The Sea of Ice and other performances at McVicker's Theatre, and at the Coliseum on Clark Street.
And if you would like a sample of pioneer food, here is a recipe for corn bread that appeared in The Chicago Democrat August 3, 1842:
"Take corn meal, a sufficient quantity to make a stiff batter with 3 pints of sour milk; 3 eggs well beaten; 2 oz. of shortening; 1 gill of beet molases; a little salt and saleratus; grease pan well and bake quick."
The Brush Hill folks had neighbors at Cass, Lyonsville, and Sum- mit to the south, Pierce Downer's settlement to the west, Lyons on the east, and Addison up north. In those days the people of these surround- ing towns were looked upon as close neighbors. A wagon trail that is now York Road led north to Addison, another now called the County Line Road, led south to the Plainfield and Joliet Roads. Cass usually was reached over the southern extension of what is now Garfield Street, or over the route of the present Highway No. 83. Ogden led east to Lyons and Chicago, while Downer's Grove was reached by another set of wagon tracks, which later became the road cutting through the course of the Hinsdale Golf Club.
The main east-west road through Brush Hill was improved some as early as the 1840's, and it became known as a "turnpike" with toll gates at intervals to help defray the cost of improvement. These toll gates lingered on through the era of the plank road bubble.
Before the building of the Graue grist mill, on the south bank of Salt Creek at York Road, Mr. Torode erected a saw mill on practically the same site as early as 1845. The house opposite the present mill, on the north side of the creek, is said to have been constructed of lumber sawed there. (A recent remodeling of the building, now a tavern, re- vealed the original timbers of black oak) . The Torodes built a house in 1842, using stone from a nearby quarry bound with mortar made of native clay and straw. In that same quarry many youngsters have gone swimming during the past seventy-five years. In 1844 John S. Coe opened his blacksmith shop, using an anvil he had hauled all the way from his former home in the East. Later he operated a general store.
A second tavern was built, this one on the north side of the road, a little east of the Cass Street intersection. It became known as the Grand Pacific, and later, as Fullersburg Tavern. There was also a corral for transient live stock in town over night while being driven
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to the city. The fact of two taverns being required in such a small town is ample evidence of the density of the horse-drawn, and oxen- drawn traffic that must have passed through. At one time John F. Ruchty, father of Mr. George E. Ruchty operated both of these inns.
As far as we have been able to determine, Brush Hill "just grew" from this time forward. People came through continuously, the flow of traffic being mostly westward for a number of years, and every so often a man or a man and his family, would pull up at one of the inns in his prairie schooner and "anchor" for a while, then settle down on a piece of land. Prior to 1855, especially after the plank road was con- structed, the travel through Brush Hill was heavy, both to and from the city. But for this it would have been a quiet little town indeed, with the only other sounds coming from the blacksmith shop, a few boys, girls, roosters, and dogs. The population in 1855 was 200.
It must have been less than that in 1839. That was the year in which Du Page County was formed. In that year also, a political con- vention was held in the county, at which a "Committee of Vigilance" was appointed for each of the precincts, and to serve on this committee for their precinct, these men were appointed from Brush Hill: Levi C. Aldrich, William Fuller, Sherman King, and J. G. Yorrick.
The Chicago newspaper in which this announcement was found gives no hint of the purpose of the "committee of vigilance," nor do either of the two histories of the County. The committees could have been appointed for police protection, but in as much as they emanated from a political party, perhaps we are safe in assuming that they were the pioneer counterpart of the modern "ward heeler."
Here is another of the rare items of news about Brush Hill found in Chicago papers of the day. This one appears in an issue of August 13, 1847:
"A man died at Brush Hill, in Du Page Co., on Saturday night last. He had left Chicago that day, arrived at Brush Hill in the evening and put up at a tavern for the night. Being unwell he got some medicine of a doctor that lived there, and died during the night. On Sunday he was boxed up and buried in a pasture. The people there do not know his name, or where he belonged. The fact of his having a load of crockery may lead to the discovery of his name and residence. Not having got his load at Mr. Burley's Crockery Store it is probable that he got it from some of the warehouses."
This announcement adds a touch of color to our picture of the town in those times, and it implies that taverns of the day kept no
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VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
register books for guests. Concerning the doctor's medicine, there is no comment.
The hotels had various proprietors and owners as time passed. Grant, Fuller, Walker, Ruchty, and a man named Lugin are the names usually seen in connection with the ownership or operation of these inns.
The war with Mexico started in 1846 and a meeting was called at the county seat in June of that year to raise a company of volunteers. Perhaps a few men from Brush Hill attended, and it may be that some of them enlisted. Possibly we never shall know. The service lists for that war indicate the recruit's place of enlistment, but not his place of residence, and none of the living old-timers remember having heard of any Mexican War veterans among the villagers.
IN APRIL 1854 a Vermonter, Alfred L. Walker arrived in Brush Hill. With him were his wife Fanny Ann, his mother Sophia Pettigrew Walker, and a son Clifford. This family came out by stage coach to Chicago, then west over the plank highway to a house on York Road, where they remained for some time while looking for farm land.
From Benjamin Fuller, Mr. Walker bought more than 300 acres, also the tavern and Castle Inn, and moved into the latter, where the family remained until their house was built. This was to be a com- modious farm house. Placing it according to present-day landmarks, the house stood east of Garfield, at the eastern end of Ayres Avenue. Remnants of the house now are incorporated in the home of Mr. W. F. Price at 429 N. Garfield. Thus Mr. Walker's house was the first to be erected within the boundaries of Hinsdale as they were before Fullers- burg was annexed. The Lane was so named by Mrs. E. F. Hines, Mr. Walker's grand daughter, because it actually was the lane through which the cows came up to the barn when the place was a farm. A patent for the Walker property was issued originally to one Grove Lawrence of New York State and signed by Martin Van Buren Jr., Secretary to President Van Buren. This document has been preserved in the Edward Hines family. Later the land was deeded to one Joseph Battells, then to Benjamin Fuller, and finally to Alfred Walker.
A progressive farmer, coming of a long line of New England agri- culturists, Mr. Walker experimented with various farm produce, the
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1
2
--
5
3
4
7
8
6
Test & McQuarrie Photo
Household articles brought from Vermont by the Walkers, and flax grown on their Hinsdale farm.
1. Ink Well, 2. Flax, 3. Mr. Walker's Spectacles, 4. Spatula, 5. Spoon, 6. Carpet Bag, 7. Cheese Tester, and 8. Wooden Chopping Bowl.
preparation of meat, and the manufacture of cheese and other things. This was recognized by the Federal Government as a "model farm." to which it assigned a Japanese, Ineye Katsumasa, to be educated in American agriculture.
According to Blanchard, one of the County historians, there was not a dwelling house within several miles, to the south, when the
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VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
The Walker farm house stood at the eastern end of Ayres Avenue.
Walker home was built, in 1857. The wolves were numerous then, and a bear occasionally was seen poking its nose through the rails of the pig pen. The farm proper was north of Hickory Street; south of there it was partly wooded, which gave the name Walker's woods, or Walk- er's grove to the wooded area at the northern end of Elm Street.
Mrs. Hines now has various articles her grandparents Walker brought with them from the East. Among these are the ones pictured on page 57.
At this point let us turn to a state of Illinois business directory for the year 1854. For Brush Hill it gives the following names and occupa- tions:
JOSIAH B. DODSON
.Attorney
JOHN S. COE
Blacksmith
ALVA MCDONALD
Boot and Shoe Makers
ELIAS OSTRANDER
LUTHER COUCH
MARK DAVIS
Carpenters and House Builders
FRANKLIN PACKARD
E. WINSHIP
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BRUSH HILL
F. LEONARD, Episcopal. . Clergyman
JACOB W. and
Dry Goods Store and General Merchants
BENJAMIN FULLER
FREDERICK GRAUE
Flour and Grist Mill
WM. ASHE
JOHN FULLER
Hotel
BENJAMIN FULLER
Postmaster
GEO. M. Fox
Physician
ARTHUR YOUNG 1
FRED GRAUE
Saw Mill
WM. ASHE
A flourishing enterprise, started after publication of this directory, was Henry Bohlander's harness shop which was patronized by farmers within a long radius. Henry was the father of George Bohlander, har- ness maker and violinist. Henry Dietz operated a slaughter house and meat market during the 60's and 70's.
A number of grist mills were erected in this region between 1830 and 1860 and one of these was built by Frederick Graue, on Salt Creek. After purchasing 200 acres of land, mostly north of the creek, Mr. Graue, in 1849, completed a mill building which had been started two years previously. This was near the site of the former Torode saw mill, which had burned in 1848.
The foundation stones for the Graue mill were quarried near Lemont, the white oak for the timbers of the building was cut in that same district, the bricks were manufactured in the brick-yard back of Morell Fuller's home, from clay dug in the vicinity. Some say that Mr. Graue originally devised his own mill machinery, but that later he bought some in the East, and that a millwright came from New York to install it.
The first dam here was built of logs and brush, as the Indians used to build them, by that versatile Sherman King whose name appears so frequently in the early annals of the village. This dam was replaced by a crib-and-plank type dam in the 1870's. Originally, power for the mill was obtained from an under-shot wheel, like the one that is there now, but later, in 1868 a water turbine drive was installed, the tur- bine being shipped from Springfield, Ohio.
The volume and velocity of the flow of water, which was adequate for operating this mill in the early days, seemed to diminish over the years until, in the 1870's, it became necessary to supplement the water
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Graue's Grist Mill
Interior, First Floor
One of the Mill Stones, Dismantled
The Mill Race
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power with a small steam driven engine. At first this steam plant was on the island just north of the mill race. Later it was moved to the east side of the mill building. Apparently the flow of Salt Creek became less re- liable during the mill's useful life, covering a span of 70 years.
Mrs. William Graue, grand-daughter-in-law of the original Fred- erick, was an old lady when she died a few years ago. She had come to the red brick dwelling south of the mill as a bride, and her husband inherited the mill in 1881.
In an interview shortly before she passed away, Mrs. Graue told how the mill ground whole wheat, white, and rye flour, and feed for farm animals. Sorghum, maple syrup, and cider also were produced there. She remembered Indians living in huts on the north side of the creek, on a clearing east of York Road; how they would wander over to the Graue's place when the syrup was being boiled down, and how the family would always give them some of it, spread over corn cakes. Today, in the parlor of the Graue home, there are various Indian im- plements and relics.
Her memory seemed quite clear also concerning a visit paid to the mill by the State Legislator Abraham Lincoln, one day while he was journeying through here from Chicago. Lincoln chatted with the elder Graue for a bit before continuing on his way.
Historical side-lights often turn up in unexpected places. Many years ago Mr. Graue employed one Patrick Kammeyer as foreman of his mill. Kammeyer, who not only worked there, but also made his home in the mill building, evidently was a thrifty and thoughtful in- dividual; for in 1926, at the age of 88, he drew up a will and sent it to his brother residing in Rome, New York. In the letter transmitting this will, he said, among other things: "When I die I want you to have everything I own. I have saved more than $4,000. This money is in a box hidden in the mill. It is yours when I die." Directions for finding the money were not explicit.
Two years later Kammeyer dropped dead; and soon afterward rela- tives came from the East to search the building for the money. They did not find it.
In 1934, while the building was in process of restoration by the Civilian Conservation Corps, a worker uncovered some money behind bricks in one of the interior walls. The money is known to have con- sisted of the old-style large paper currency, because a few of the bills
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were seen by others, one of them having been spent at the tavern across the stream. When interviewed, the worker said the money was only of a small amount. The exact amount has never been determined.
The settlement known as Brush Hill was incorporated as a village in 1851 and what was more natural than "Fullersburg" as a name for the newly organized town, with so many Fullers living there-about and having had such a large part in the shaping of the community. Rumor has it that sentiment was ripe for a change in name anyhow, because Brush Hill, in the olden days had been chosen as a hidingout place by certain gentry who stole horses, and that this rightly or wrongly, had left a slight blot on the town's reputation.
Fullersburg it was, when Fort Sumter was fired on in 1861, and soon thereafter the school house at the foot of cemetery hill on Ogden Avenue was serving as a recruiting station, enlisting men for the war, with Julius Kurth one of the volunteers acting as recruiting officer. Here Christian Henrick, Henry Hahn, Fred Werden, George Hoehne, Morrel Fuller, John Schultz, and Charles Gager joined the Union forces, and there the same little school house stood until about 1938 explaining the three R's to new generations of Fullersburg youngsters. Miss Alice Warren and Miss Emma Ostrum are among those of Hins- dale who attended there.
Many places throughout the northern states have, according to rumor, tradition, or fact, been designated as stations of the "Under- ground Railroad," that system by which "contrabands" from southern plantations made their way north, to freedom. It is a fact that Fullers- burg was one of these points of slave refuge and transfer, and John S. Coe was the man, or at least he was one of those who served as station master. Activities that are conducted in secret usually go unchronicled, but in the absence of documents or personal diaries of those events, we quote this word-picture from a 1923 issue of the Chicago Daily News:
A REFUGE IN THE DAYS OF SLAVERY
"In the little Hamlet of Brush Hill not a light is to be seen. The two stores, the taverns, the grist mill, the half dozen houses shrink into the protecting shadows of the huge elms and maples and are hardly visible from the road. The white- painted posts at the bridge loom weirdly against the somber curtain of willows along the banks of the mill stream.
"A farm wagon, driven by an obscure figure muffled to the ears in a great coat, rattles across the bridge and continues on to the turnpike. The bed of the
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wagon is covered with a tarpaulin. An hour or so later the wagon rattles over the bridge across the Desplaines near Riverside and continues northeast over the route of Ogden Avenue. Near dawn it draws up quietly before the barn at the rear of the residence of Philo Carpenter, at Randolph and Carpenter Streets. A light in a first floor window blinks a signal that 'all is well.'
"The driver pulls off the tarpaulin, and three figures crawl from the pile of hay in the wagon-bed and dart toward the cellar door of the Carpenter home, which opens to receive them and closes behind them. The driver makes his way to the Bull's Head Tavern to find refreshment for man and beast."
When Mr. Heman Fox was a boy, he saw two sleigh loads of negro slaves pass his father's house at Ogden and Lincoln one day before the war. The cargo was covered to resemble a load of live stock.
FOR WANT OF better accommodations in a pioneering community, Loie Fuller was born in the little Castle Inn. It was an extremely cold night during the 1860's, and the bar room of the hotel had the only cast iron stove that gave off enough heat for such an important event. The neighbors, though perhaps not the transients, who were not aware of these proceedings, were willing to forego their use of these quarters until the new arrival and her mother were up and around.
After Loie was able to walk, her parents took her with them to several presentations of the Chicago Progressive Lyceum, that early movement toward culture which a few of the living still can remember. On one of these occasions, when Loie was two and a half, she slipped away from her parents, climbed up on the Lyceum platform and re- cited the prayer she had learned to say at home. There was applause, and she returned the salutation. This initiative and acumen impressed the manager no less than it surprised the parents, but most of all it was an early indication of Loie Fuller's native talents. Thereafter she did Mary's Little Lamb at the Lyceum, and not many years were to pass before she began taking parts in plays at other theatres. She had a rare gift of being able to remember pieces after one or two readings, and of giving expression through movement as well as speech.
During the gas-light era Miss Fuller, in her early Twenties, was traveling from one place to another in the United States experiencing the fluctuations between success and disappointment that are known to most of those who become prominent on the stage. In the East she created her Serpentine Dance, acquired a manager, and, accompanied by her mother, went to Germany to try her fortunes there.
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