DeKalb County, Illinois - Chapter 7: The Resurrectionists (2 of 2 so headed), 1868 (part 5 of 8)

Burgess Lewis, (wagoner) Cortland, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Atwood Morris, Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1863. Allen Benjamin, South Grove, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Artlepp Homer, Cortland, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Anderson Frank, Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Brown Depue, Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Brown Herbert E., Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Beeson William H., Sycamore, rejected. Crosby William. Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Cobb Henry, Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Davis Orville, Sycamore, mustered ont Oct. 17, 1864. Dayton Lewis, Sycamore, mustered out. Oct. 17, 1864. Fields Delancey, Cortland, mustered out Oct. 17. 1864. Flood Matthew, Lodi, musteced out Oct. 17, 1864. Granger Eugene, Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1 S ' > t . Gilbert Leonard, South Grove, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Gieenfield I. Squire, DeKalb, mustered out. Oct.. 17, 1864. Hibbard Alfred, Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Holcomb Orator, Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Hampton William S., Paw Paw, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Haish Christian, Cortland, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Haish Henry W., Cortland, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Hathaway William C, Cortland, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Johnston James B., Sycamore, mustered out. Oct. 17, 1^04. Kellogg Homer W., Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Lester Almiraem, Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Lott Frank W., Cortland, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Lindsay William, Sycamore, mustered out (Jet. 17, 1864. Llnderman Levi, Sycamore, mustered out. Oct. 17, 1864. Lloyd Louis, Malta, mustered out. Oct. 17, 1864. Marshall Lucius W., Cortland, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864, Mason Seth M., South Grove, mustered out Oct. 17, is: it Partridge Zelotes B., Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Perry Ambrose S., Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1804. Richmond Merwin, Lodi, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Reef John, Cortland, mustered out Oct. 17. 1864. Spring Herbert, Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Smith Charles, Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17. 1864. Smith Enoch, DeKalb, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Stephenson Charles Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Snyder William, Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Stone Almond D., South Grove, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Stanton Oliver J., Paw Paw, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Tewkesbury Charles, South Grove, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Tewkesbury Warren F., Sycamore, mustered out. Oct. 17. 1864. Talbot William, Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Williams Theodore, Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Warren Daniel F., Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Warren George M., Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Willis Henry B., Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864. Wilkins Joseph, Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 186 I. Wright George, Sycamore, mustered out Oct. 17, 1864.

Company II of this regiment was raised principally by Hon. William Patten of Sandwich, who was made its Captain. It was one of several hundred regiments called out for one year's service, and to which was assigned the duty of guarding the communications of the great armies at the front, and, while they swept on the foe, preventing the ravages of rebel guerrillas in their rear.

It was mustered into service March 9th, 1865; and the rebellion having been crushed about three months after, it was discharged from service on September 20th of the same year.

The commissioned officers of Company II were : Captain, William Patten ; 1st Lieutenants, William Jobs and Eugene M. Fuller ; 2nd Lieutenants, Caleb Walker and John W. Libley, - all of Somonauk.

Warren Walker, Somonauk, mustered out May 16, 1865. Homer A. Wagner, Somonauk, mustered out May 20, 1865. George A. Smith, Somonauk, mustered out July 29, 1865, as private. William T. Shiland, Somonauk, mustered out Aug. 18, 1865. David O. Cole, Somonauk, absent sick at muster out of regiment. Henry C. Medebach, Somonauk, mustered out Aug. 1, 1865.

Part Second

Although the annals of DeKalb County might more properly commence with the organization of the County which occurred in the year 1837, yet many events of interest and importance occurred before that time, which ought properly to be recorded.

As the territory from which this County was subsequently formed was remote from all water communication, and from the customary routes of the earliest travellers, it is probable that no white man had ever made even a temporary sojourn within its borders, until in the year

1832, a little army of United States troops under command of General Winfield Scott, passing from their head-quarters at Fort Dearborn, or Chicago, in pursuit of Black Hawk's marauding bands, crossed the Fox River near the present site of the village of St Charles, and encamped on the banks of the Kishwaukee in the present town of Kingston. Their camp was made near the outlet of Deer Creek, on lands now belonging to the estate of George L. Wood. The trail which the army made, was broad and plainly marked, and three years later, when the first settlers moved in, coming with but vague ideas of what direction they had best pursue, many followed Scott's trail for want of something better to follow, and, finding upon the banks of the Kishwaukee, or Sycamore river, as fertile and beautiful a region of country as they could desire, they made their homes there.

Eighteen Thirty-Three And Four

The battle of Stillman's Run, in which an advanced and too ambitious portion of our army organized to drive out Black Hawk's forces, were defeated and driven back, occurred in this summer, as elsewhere related, near the north-western portion of this County, and the entire army of volunteers returning for re-organization to Ottawa, passed through Pawpaw Grove and, encamped there.

In the autumn of this year, some hunters from Ottawa or that region which was one of the earliest settled points of the country, report having penetrated into the southern portion of the County in pursuit of game. They found the Indians still sore over their defeat, and still sufficiently numerous and irritable to cause their yarty to make a speedy evacuation of the country.

1834. In the spring and summer of this year, we have accounts of exploring expeditions into this section of the country, by three or four individuals. Among them was Frederic Love, who subsequently became a leading citizen, and a Mr. Hollenback, from near Ottawa. Love soon returned to his temporary home upon the Fox River, and did not move to this place until a year or two later. Hollenback, who had been driven from his home near Newark during the Indian war, came north through Newark, Somonauk, and Lost Grove, as far as the " Rig Woods " in Sycamore, and on his return, made a claim in settlers" fashion, to a portion of the fine grove since known as Squaw Grove, and to which he gave that name, because of the large numbers of Squaws that were encamped there, the male Indians being off on a hunting expedition. A mail route from Chicago to John Dixon's residence on the Rock River was this year established, which crossed the southern end of the County ; and during the summer, a log hut was built for a station house on this line at the crossing of Somonauk Creek. This was probably the first habitation of a white man, erected in the County. Whoever it was that first inhabited it, he abandoned it in the autumn, for when Mr. William Sebree, who had been charmed by the description that Hollenback had given of the attractions of this section of country moved in from the South and settled at Squaw Grove in the fall, this cabin stood vacant. A short time after, it was occupied by a Mr. Robinson, who occupied it a few months, then sold to Mr Reuben Root who kept a tavern in it, during the following year. It subsequently became, and still remains the property of the Beveridge family.

Mr. Sebree seems to have been the first settler who became a permanent resident of the County. He was a Virginian, brought a large family with him, and a considerable drove of stock. He lived for a few days in a deserted Indian wigwam, then, with crotches for a frame, and the bark of which a number of these wigwams were composed for a covering, he built a shelter, slightly more convenient, in which he lived a few weeks ; then, as winter came on, put up a solid, substantial double-lo2 cabin, which remained the home of a numerous family, and a stopping place for travellers for nearly twenty years.

It was in the spring of this year when the treaty with the Indians which followed the Black Hawk war had bound them to leave this country for the wilderness beyond the great Father of Waters, that the first considerable body of white settlers came into the County. So soon in the early springtime as the groves began to put out* their leaves, and the emerald grass of the beautiful prairies afforded food for the travellers' teams, the gleam of the white-topped wagon of the early settler might have been seen moving over the prairie to hesitate, stop, and finally encamp near some grove, spring or stream, that seemed to afford the requisites and advantages of a good claim. The wagon was generally propelled by three or four yoke of oxen, and canopied with white cotton. It contained the family clothing, bedding, and provisions. It was garnished on its exterior, with pots, pans, pails, and other cooking utensils ; generally, also, by a coop of chickens and a diminutive pig or two : and it was usually followed by a small drove of colts, cows, sheep, calves, and other young stock. Early settlers say that it was not uncommon in those days for the careful mistress of the wagon to milk the cows in the morning, place the milk where the motion of the wagon would churn it during the day, and thus keep up a supply of fresh butter ; while the poultry in the coops did not refuse to contribute a supply of eggs, which with other substantiate from the wagon, enabled the emigrant's wife to " scare up " a pretty good meal at short notice. Each night they camped, made a fire, partook of the evening meal and then retired into the recesses of the wagon to sleep the sleep of health, of hope and innocence.

Hundreds of such wagons passed into DeKalb county in the early months of this year, and many went beyond its boundaries, to the Rock River country, which was first settled during this year. Among the occupants of one of these was Ambrose Spencer, Esq., who, after thirty years of eventful life in various sections of the country, has now returned to take up his residence on the identical spot in the thriving village of DeKalb, where thirty-three years ago he pitched his tent, in what was then a complete solitude.

The first work of the new comer, after having selected a spot of land that suited him, was to stake out, or with a plow to furrow around, as much of the prairie as he wanted, and to " blaze" the trees in a line surrounding a sufficient quantity of timbered lands. These processes gave him what was called a squatters claim to the land that he thus enclosed, and his claim, if not too unreasonably extensive, was regarded as sacred by all who came after him. His next work was usually to construct a dwelling of some kind. Some commenced at once to build good solid substantial dwellings of logs, notched at the ends and laid up thoroughly and durably ; finished with a roof of shakes or split staves, and made convenient with a window and door. But to many of the new comers, hurried with the imperatively necessary duties of breaking up the land and planting a crop for future subsistence, this was thought to involve too much labor ; such houses were a little extravagant. Many of the homes in which settlers, now wealthy, spent the first months of their residence here were built entirely of shakes and saplings.

A tall straight oak was felled, cut into four or five foot lengths, then split in broad thin sections, and when a cord or two of these was prepared and a few crotches and poles were cut, the material was all ready. Four crotches were set in the ground, poles laid across, shakes laid up perpendicularly against these poles and fastened with withes, enclosing a space about eight by twelve feet. Then a roof of these shakes was laid on and made secure by the weight of heavy poles or boulders from the prairie. One end was of tenleft open for an entrance, and the shanty, although without floor, door or window, was complete. A person could stand erect in the middle but not at the sides. It furnished little more space than was necessary for the bed and family valuables : the cooking was done out of doors.

The new comers were generally young ardent and hopeful. Most of them had been accustomed to the comforts, and indeed, to the luxuries of life. The founders of a new settlement, they looked forward with eagerness to the time, when their fertile acres should be transformed into finished and well stocked farms, their wretched shanties and log stables, into elegant dwellings and spacious barns. They regarded their present comfortless habitations, with that peculiar pleasure which every person feels for work that his own hands have made, and hopeful for the future, they looked upon their present discomforts with that cheerful indifference that robs trouble of its sting, and wards off the annoyances of the present with a panoply of confident hopes for the future.

Eighteen Thirty-Five

kind of courts and civil officers. It is true that as a general rule, the best of good feeling prevailed among them. Everybody regarded everybody else with a friendliness, and each treated the other with a degree of kindness and good fellowship that old settlers now recall with warmest satisfaction. The troubles of one were shared by all his neighbors, and every mans necessities were supplied with a generosity and unselfishness that is now remembered almost with tears of gratitude. But there were some black sheep in the flock. It was plain that they could not always live in this style of Arcadian simplicity.

This section of country was then known as the Kishwaukcc country, and was a part of the great county of LaSallc, which extended from the Illinois river on the south, to the line of Wisconsin territory on the north, and on the cast to Cook county. A commission was procured from Ottawa, then as now, its county seat, for the election of two Justices of the peace, and in June of this year an election was held. Stephen Mowry and Joseph Collier were chosen Justices, the first public officers ever elected in this section of country. It is well remembered that the terrors of the law to be administered by these formidable courts induced a very prompt and satisfactory settlement of many little debts that had been incurred by some of the new comers. There were not many suits commenced, but there was a general liquidation of accounts, and that instanter.

But the most troublesome and weighty controversies that vexed the souls of the Squatters upon these new lands, were the disputes about the boundaries of claims and the rights of claimants. How much land might a man claim ? Might he make a claim for himself; another for his brother ; a third for his maiden aunt, and so through his family ? Might he sell his claim ? Must he reside upon it in order to hold it ?

These and like questions, threatened to make serious trouble, and to avert threatened conflict upon these questions, a meeting of settlers was held on the 5th of September, at the shanty of Harmon Miller upon the east bank of the Kishwaukee or Sycamore river, at which a Claim Association was organized to decide such disputed questions as should arise, and a constitution was drawn up and signed by most of the settlers, in which all agreed to abide by the decision of the five Commissioners then selected, and to aid in enforcing their decisions.

Another means of keeping peace and promoting tranquility was the establishment of religious services. In the autumn of this year almost before the new comers had got a roof over their heads ; before the Indians had removed ; before the first semblance of civil government had been established ; the devoted missionaries of the Methodist Church made their way into the country, gathered together little audiences of eight or ten, wherever in grove, hut or shanty, they could be found, preached, prayed, sang hymns, and exhorted the new comers to found a community of christian people, and amid the pressing cares of this, not to forget to prepare for another - an immortal life. Rev. Leander. Walker, now an eminent clergyman of the Methodist denomination, was probably the pioneer preacher of DeKalb county.

As winter approached and the discomforts of their new houses became less endurable, large numbers of the new comers seeing no especial necessity fur remaining, moved back to more comfortable residences on the Fox river, to Joliet or whatever places might have been their former homes.

Of those who remained and spent this winter at the north part of the county, were Dr. Norbo, a Norwegian, after Avhom Norwegian Grove was named, and who made some pretense of being* a physician, Mr. Charters, a Frenchman, who gave name to Charters Grove, Dr. Lee, who first claimed the farm since occupied by Ephraim Hall; Rufus Colton, Lyman Judd, Eli Barns, Phineas Stevens, Alpheus Jenks, Shubael Jenks, James Root, Levi C. Barber, James Peaslee, Norman C. Moore, Stephen Sherwood, W. A. Miller, Henry Madden,

Peter Lamois, Lysander Darling, Robert Robb, Isaiah Fairclo, Harmon Miller, James Green, Nathan Billings, Lewis Griggs, Benj. Schoonover, John, Frail and Morris, Erasmus and George Walrod. At Squaw Grove were William Sebree and sons, Samuel Miller, Jacob Lee, John Esterbrooks and David Leggett. At Somonauk were David and William Sly, Reuben Root and Dr. Arnold.

Late in the autumn of this year Mr. Edwin Town and his brother David Town, established themselves at Shabbonas Grove, lived for a few weeks in the deserted wigwams of the Indians, and on the first day of January 1830, raised the first log cabin and became the first white settlers of Shabbona's Grove. Peter Lamois, who, with Jesse C. Kellogg and Lysander Darling were among the first settlers of what is now the town of Sycamore, remained to spend the winter in Kellogg's cabin. Peter was a shrewd, speculating, half-yankeefied Frenchman, and had with him, as companion and help, a half-civilized Indian lad called Shaw-ne-neese. It occurred to him, that with the help of the boy, who had relations living near what is now Aurora, and of course spoke the language of the Indians around, a good trade could be established with the straggling Indians who still remained in the sale of whisky. So off goes Peter with his oxen and wagon, and soon returned with a barrel of whisky, which was duly broached and advertised among the Indians in all the country round. Little money had the poor Indians, but they had ponies and blankets, and trinkets to sell, so that a flourishing trade was speedily established ; the Indians promising to deliver ponies when they had received the. equivalent in whisky. The whisky went off rapidly, yet so convenient was the spring to Peter's shanty, that the quantity in the barrel was not seriously diminished ; he filled water at the bung as freely as he drew good ne tosh from the spigot. Soon Peter's best customers had each become indebted to him in the sum of a pony or two, and he began to hint that it was time to settle. Peter unfortunately, broached the subject at a time when a party of them were present, all well warmed up with good ne tosh. The Indians held an indignation meeting, at once and on the spot. They put in a plea of failure of consideration - the good ne tosh that Peter had sold them was no good - he had cheated them - had sold bad liquor. Peter attempted to explain, but the thing could not be explained. They grew madder and madder. Shaw-ne-neese and Peter each fell under their indignation. Soon an old Indian snatched up Shaw-ne-neese upon the pony behind him and galloped oft*. Then a real old fashioned Indian war-whoop burst from the drunken group, and drawing their knives, they rushed upon the first original liquor-dealer of DeK alb County, like so many fiends from the pit.

Peter had a good pair of legs, and he used them. He made tracks for the brush, and was fortunate enough to hide from their search, until tiring of the chase, they went back to the shanty, absorbed the remainder of the whisky, appropriated Peter's little stock of clothing, provisions, and cooking utensils, and than left the premises. When darkness came, the friendly voice of Shaw-ne-neese, calling cautiously through the brush, delighted the ears of the discomfitted Peter, and working together, they got the oxen yoked, loaded up what little remained of their wordly goods, and made tracks for Walker's Grove, the settlement from which they came. So it happened that the first white man's house in Sycamore was a whisky shop, the first settler a rum-seller, and the first row a whisky riot.

In September of this year the Indians were removed west of the Mississippi, in accordance with the provisions of the treaty made at Prairie du Chien 1832, at the close of the Black Hawk war. They were gathered together at Pawpaw Grove, by a government contractor named Rogers. They there received a large payment from the government, then sorrowfully loaded their property upon their ponies and left for their new homes farther toward the setting sun.

Eighteen Thirty-Six

at Pawpaw Grove to get by gambling, the glittering coin paid the Indians, were successful in that object but were set upon by those whom they had cheated and narrowly escaped with their lives. Straggling bands of Indians travel through the country even to this day, but this was the end of Indian occupation of the country.

For many reasons the year 1836 could hardly be reckoned as a bright one in the annals of this section of country. Comparatively few settlers came in ; the timbered lands of the county had nearly all been claimed during the previous year, and those who were not able or willing to pay the prices demanded by claimants were forced to go further to the west. Although the changes of ownership were many, yet the additions to the number of the population were few as compared with the previous twelve months. Provisions also grew more scarce. The supplies of flour, sugar, salt and other articles, now reckoned as the necessaries of life, which the new comers had brought with them, had been consumed.

Hurried by the arduous and constant labors incident to making comfortable homes and planting their first crops, they found no time to go to distant markets to renew their supplies, and, indeed, most of the new comers had exhausted their stock of ready money, and had as yet raised nothing with which to exchange for, or purchase these commodities. They had little or no wheat. The corn raised the previous year alone furnished them with bread, and as Green's mills, near Ottawa, fifty miles distant furnished the nearest opportunity for grinding, many of the settlers pounded their corn with pestle and mortar, rather than go so far to convert it into meal.

Their clothing was also in a most dilapidated condition : but worse than all, it was a year of sickness. Most of the settlers had built upon or near the banks of the streams, and in the shelter of the groves. The decaying sod of the newly broken prairie, which surrounded their dwellings, filled the air with malaria. From the streams, whose sluggishness was a main characteristic of this level country, there also arose a constant and palpable effluvium that was a fruitful source of disease. The ague, that curse of new lands in the fertile west, this year became the prevalent complaint.

At a general election held in August of this year, Henry Madden, a well known citizen of intelligence, education and shrewdness, who resided in what is called the Brush Point settlement in the present town of Mayfield, was elected as Representative to the State Legislature. His district was immense in extent if not in population. Most of the population of the State at this time was in its southern portion. Excepting the old French settlements at Ottawa, LaSallc Joliet, and the mining town at Galena, there were no large towns in northern Illinois. Chicago then consisting only of a few log houses, clustered around Fort Dearborn upon the banks of the sluggish Chicago river, was indeed now making some boastful promises of future commercial importance, but they were ridiculed by the incoming settlers ; who hurried through the wretched little hamlet of mud and misery to take up lands more pleasant to look upon, on the banks of the Rock, the Fox, or the Kishwaukee rivers, while they might have obtained at the same low rate, those portions of Chicago which tens of millions could not now purchase.

When Benjamin Worden came through the place during autumn, and Mark Beaubien, the French trader who kept the hotel then, offered to trade him his own claim to eighty acres of land near the present Court House, for a pair of French ponies that Worden had just before purchased while coming through Michigan, for $130, uncle Ben laughed at the idea, and told him that he wouldn't take the whole town as a gift if he should be required to live in it.

County on the south, to the Wisconsin line upon the north, embracing land enough to make a half dozen respectable States - land which was fertile and productive, enough to support a population of millions. The County of Kane had been created during the provious session of the Legislature. It was thirty-six miles square, embracing the present County of DeKalb, and part of Kendall. But the people of this western portion of Kane County, found that Geneva, then as now, the County-scat, was too far from their settlement. The difficulties of travelling were much greater than at present. The country was much more wet, the streams and sloughs the great obstructions to prairie travel, were more full of water than now. It was a long day's journey to Geneva, and to go that distance to try suits, record deeds, and examine titles, was too severe a tax upon their resources, of time and money. But the more powerful inducement for the erection of a new County in this district was, that several embryo villages about this region, were ambitious of acquiring the added glories of being made the seat of justice for the new County, and the people of each, confident that it would be selected, worked zealously to secure. as a necessary preliminary, although a matter of secondary importance to them, the erection of a new County. Having within their borders the home of the Representative for this district, they felt that this was the time to strike for independence.

The creation of new Counties was then a principal item of business of the State Legislature, and so soon as Mr. Madden, after a weary horse-back ride of two hundred and fifty miles across the country, reached Vandalia, then the Capital of the State, he speedily set himself to introduce and secure the passage of, a bill for the creation of a new County, and the location of a County-seat. lie was stimulated to zeal in this work, by the fact that his own farm at Brush Point, now

On the 4th day of March, 1837, the act for the creation of the County of DcKalb was passed, and in the same bill the Counties of Stephenson, Winnebago, and Boone were created if this should be sanctioned by the -whole body of voters in the respective Counties from which they were detached. The whole act, although containing some irrelevant matter, is here given : "an act to create certain counties therein named.

" Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the Gfeneral Assembly, That all that tract of country within the following boundaries, to wit : commencing on the northern boundary of the state where the section line between sections three and four, in town twentynine north, range five east of the fourth principal meridian, strikes said line, thence cast on the northern boundary of the State, to the range line between ranges nine and ten east, thence south on said range line to the northern boundary of Ogle County, thence west on the northern boundary of Ogle County to and passing the north-west corner of the county to the line between sections thirty-three and thirty-four in township twenty-six north, range five cast, thence north to the place of beginning, shall form a County to be called Stephenson, as a tribute of respect to the late Colonel Benjamin Stephenson.

" Sec. 2. That the boundaries of Winnebago County shall be as follows, to wit : commencing on the state line at the north-east corner of the County of Stephenson, thence east on the state line to the section line between sections five and six, in township forty-six north, range three east of the third principal meridian, thence south on said section line to the south boundary of township forty-three north, range three east, thence wrest on said township line, to the third principrl meridian, thence north on said meridian to the ^south-east corner of township twenty-six north, range eleven east of fourth principal meridian, thence west on said line to the range line between ranges nine and ten cast, thence north to the place of beginning.

" Sec. 3. And that all that tract of country beginning at the north east corner of township forty-six north, range four east, thence south with the line dividing range four and five east, to the sonth-west corner of township forty-three north, thence west on said line to the south-east corner of Winnebago County, thence north to the place of beginning on the north boundary of the State, shall form a County to be called Boone, in memory of Colonel Daniel Boone, the first settler of the State of Kentucky.

" Sec. 4. That all that tract of country beginning at the south-east corner of township thirty-seven north, range two east of the principal meridian, thence north to the north-east corner of township forty-two north, range two, east of the third principal meridian, and thence along the northern boundary of township forty-two in ranges three, four, and "five, east of the third principal meridian, thence south on the south-cast corner of township thirty-seven north, range five east, thence west on said township line, to the place of beginning, shall form a County to be called DeKalb.

" Sec. 5. The Counties of Stephenson, Boone, and DeKalb , hereby created shall be organized in the following manner, to wit : for the purpose of fixing the permanent seat of justice of Stephenson county, the following persons are appointed commissioners, viz : Vance L. Davidson and Isaac Chambers, of Jo Daviess county, and Minor York of Ogle county, who, or a majority of them, being duly sworn before some justice of the peace of this State, faithfully to take into view the convenience of the people, the situation of the settlements, with an eye to future population and eligibility of the place shall meet at the house of William Baker in said county, on the first Monday in May next, or as soon thereafter as may be, and proceed to examine and determine on a place for the permanent seat of justice for said county, and designate the same : Provided, that said county seat shall be located on lands belonging to the' United States, not occupied by the citizens of said county, if a site for said county seat on such lands can be found equally eligible, or upon lands claimed by citizens of said county ; but if said location shall be made upon land claimed by any individual in said county, or any individual having pre-emption right or title to the same, the claimant or proprietor upon whose lands, claim or pre-emption right the said seat of justice may be located, shall make a deed in fee simple to any number of acres of said tract, not less than twenty to the said county ; or in lieu thereof such claimant or owner or owners of such pre-emption right shall donate to the said county at least three thousand dollars to be applied to building county buildings, within one year after the locating of said county seat, and the proceeds of such quarter section, if the county seat shall be located upon government lands as aforesaid, or the proceeds of such twenty acres of land if it be located on lands claimed or owned by an individual or individuals ; or the said three thousand dollars in case such claimant, or owner or owners shall elect to pay that sum in lieu of the said twenty acres, shall be appropriated to the erection of a sufficient court house and jail ; and until public buildings are erected for the purposes, the courts shall be held at such place as the county commissioners shall direct.

" Sec. 6. An election shall be held at the house of William Baker in said county, on the first Monday of May next, for one sheriff, one coroner, one recorder, one county surveyor, three county commissioners, and one clerk of the county commissioners' court, who shall hold their offices until the next succeeding general elections, and until their successors are elected and qualified ; which said election shall be conducted in all respects agreeably to the provisions of the law regulating elections : Provided that the qualified voters present may elect from among their own number three quali-

Eighteen Thirty-Seven

Sec. 7. For the purpose of fixing the permanent county seat of Boone county, the following named persons are hereby appointed commissioners, viz : John M. Wilson of Will county, James Day of LaSalle county, and James II. Woodworth of Cook county, who or a majority of them being first duly sworn before some justice of the peace of this State, as required in the fifth section of this act, shall meet at the house of Simon P. Doty, in said county, on the fourth Monday in April next, or as soon thereafter, as may be, and shall proceed as is required in the fifth section of this act, to locate the county seat of said Boone County.

Sec. 8. For the purpose of fixing the permanent seat of justice for the county of DeKalb, Benjamin Thruston of LaSalle county, James Walker of Cook county, and Germanicus Kent of Winnebago county, are hereby appointed commissioners, who or a majority being first duly sworn before some justice of the peace of this State, as is required by the fifth section of this act, shall meet at the house of Frederick Love in said county, on the first Monday in June next, or as soon thereafter as may be, and shall proceed in all respects as is required in the fifth section of this act, Provided, That the qualified voters of Kane county shall meet at the usual places of holding elections in said county, on the first Monday in May next, and vote for or against the county of DeKalb, and if a majority of said voters shall be in favor of making the said county, then the county of DeKalb shall be created, but if it shall appear that there is a majority against the division, then the said county shall remain as it now is.

Sec. i>. The county and circuit courts of said Boone and DeKalb counties, shall be held at such place as the county commissioners' courts shall respectively appoint, until the county buildings are erected, and the times of holding the circuit courts in the counties hereby created, shall be fixed by

" Sec. 10. And elections shall be held in said Boone and DeKalb counties, for county officers in the following manner viz : In the county of Boone, at the house of Simon P. Doty, on the first Monday in May next, and in the county of DeKalb at the house of Frederick Love, on the first Monday in July next, and shall be required and conducted in the same manner as is prescribed in the sixth section of this act, when the same is applicable.

" Sec. 11. It shall be the duty of the clerks of the county commissioners courts of the counties hereby organized, to give notice at least ten days previous to the elections to be held as is above provided in said counties, and in case there shall be no clerk in said counties, it shall be the duty of the clerk of the commissioners' court of Winnebago county, to give notice of the elections to be held in the counties of Stephenson and Boone, and for the election to be held in the county of DeKalb notice shall be given in like manner, by the clerks of the commissioners' court of Kane county.

Sec 12. The citizens of the counties hereby created, are entitled in all respects to the same rights and privileges as are allowed in general to other counties in this State.

" Sec. 13. The counties of Stephenson and Boone shall continue to form a part of the county of Jo Daviess, until organized, and when organized according to this act, shall continue attached to the county of Jo Davies in all general elections, until otherwise provided by law. The county of DeKalb shall continue to form a part of the county of Kane, until it shall be organized, and shall vote with the county of LaSalle in all general elections, until otherwise provided by law.

" Sec. 14. The commissioners appointed to locate said county seats, shall receive the sum of two dollars per clay for each day necessarily spent by them in discharging the duties imposed on them by this act, to be allowed by the county

Eighteen Thirty-Seven. 3G5

" Sec. 15. The judges of elections shall deliver to each officer elected, a certificate of his election. The poll books shall be retained by them until the clerk of the county commissioners' court shall be qualified, and then deliver the said poll books to such clerk, who shall make and transmit to the Secretary of State an abstract of the votes given at such election, in the same time, manner, and form as is required of clerks of county commissioners courts in elections in other counties in this State.

" Sec. 16. After the election of county officers as herein provided, the persons elected county commissioners, are hereby authorized to administer the oaths of office to each other, and they are severally authorized to administer the oaths of office to all other county officers. And said commissioners shall within ten days after their election, meet together as a court, and lay off their county into justices districts, and order elections to be held for justices of the peace and constables at a time to be fixed by them ; and justices of the peace and constables elected and qualified, shall hold their offices until others are elected and qualified under the law providing for the election of Justice of the Peace. The clerks of the county commissioners' courts shall deliver to each person elected justice of the peace and constable, certificates of such elections ; and each person elected justice of the peace is hereby authorized, upon executing bonds as required by law to enter upon the duties of his office, and to exercise and perform all the duties of justice of the peace as fully as though such person had received a commission from the governor. This act shall be in force from and after its passage.

This year, 1837, was noted as the first in the series of the regular Septennial wet seasons that have recurred every seven years since that time. From the first breaking up of winter, the rain poured down daily, with very few days exception.

until late in the autumn. The windows of heaven were opened, the rain descended, and the floods came. The country was inundated : the roads would have been impassable if there had been any roads : the crops were poor and sickly, for want of sufficient sunshine. Shabbona, the sagacious old Indian, had predicted the wet season. lie had asserted that as far back as Indian tradition reached, every seventh year had been similarly visited with a superabundance of rain - with almost constant storms and flood, and swollen streams. Seven years before, the soldiers at Fort Dearborn, then the only white inhabitants of the country, had made record of a similar year of constant storms and endless floods ; and it is certain that on every succeeding seventh year, such seasons have recurred. All of those who have resided in the county during the succeeding four septentriades, will testify that 1844, 1851, 1858 and 1865, were each seasons of extraordinary moisture, and noted as wet summers. Whether there may or may not be anything mystical or magical in the number seven, whether this recurrence may have anything to do with the Scriptural seven years of plenty and seven years of famine, with the seven days of the week, the seven ages of man, the seven vials of wrath, the seven seals, seven trumpets, seven witches, or seven Pleiades, certain it is, that most of the old residents admit the regular return of this seventh year of floods and storms, and plan their farming operations with reference to it It is worthy of remark, however, that the last of these wet seasons, which occurred in 1865, was but a comparatively moderate specimen of the kind. The floods began in July, and would have attracted no very marked attention, but for the general looking for and expectation of it.

A wet season in those early times, was different from what it is at present. It caused far greater inconvenience. Then, the country had no artificial drains, no broken and open soil to drink up the showers ; it was all covered by the thick, tough sod of the native prairie, into which the rain penetrated with difficulty. It flowed off into the lowlands or sloughs, and being undrained, remained there, 'till evaporated by the summer's sun, making them almost impassable for teams. The country, ever sinee its first settlement, has been growing more and more dry. Lands that ten, or even five years ago, could not bear a team at any season of the year, now are constantly passable : and that is remarked, even in places where there is no artificial drainage or cultivation of soil in the vicinity to account for it. This year is also memorable in the annals of the country, as the occasion of one of those commercial crises, when speculation and extravagance having reached its culmition, there comes a financial revulsion which sweeps fortunes away like autumn leaves before the whirlwind. Thousands of embryo cities had been laid out all over this western country, and lots were sold in them at enormous prices. Chicago, which during this and the previous year, had been rapidly settled and built up to a city of several thousand inhabitants, had excited the amazement of the country by stories of the immense fortunes so suddenly made by the advance in her ands. What had occurred there, it was argued, would soon occurln all the young cities farther west. The legislature of the previous winter had chartered thousands of miles of railroad which it wras expected would stimulate an almost magical growth of cities and towns. Chicago became a market for the sale of towns. They were sold there at auction. Eastern people caught the mania, and town plats were sent to them for a market, and were greedily purchased. But now came the crash. Multitudes of men, ambitious of making a speedy fortune, had gone into debt for the purchase of these inchoate cities. They were unable to meet their obligations, and unable to dispose of the lands. Confidence was now gone, and with it. the beautiful castles they had built in the air vanished like the mists of the morning ; the brilliant-hued bubbles burst and disappeared. The nation was whelmed in general bankruptcy. But the spirit of speculation had not yet reached the section of country embraced in this County. The storms of the commercial world swept harmlessly by the little commu- nity of quiet farmers gathered here to make their living by the peaceful pursuit of agriculture. There were indeed some embryo towns laid out, and their proprietors were contending for the location of a county scat, but lots were cheap as yet. Any man could have one or more if he would build upon it and become a resident. A village palt was staked out on the north side of the Kishwaukee - then called the Sycamore river - and another about the residence of Rufus Colton at Coltonville. The Kishwaukee river then, like all of the streams of the conntry, much larger, more rapid in its flow than now, was supposed capable of furnishing good water power. A tract of two miles square, enclosing the present village of Sycamore, had been claimed by an association under the name of C. Sharer & Co. It was composed of Christian Sharer, a wealthy capitalist of N. Y., Clark Wright, E. Wherry and Mark Daniels. They built a dam and a large mill race, whose channel is yet to be seen, and upon it Robt. Crawford had commenced to build a factory, designed to manufacture chairs and other articles of furniture. Eli G. Jewell had a blacksmith and wagon shop in the borders of the grove, near the present residence of Roswell Dow, and had, also a small collection of goods for sale in his little log house. It was regarded as one of the smart rising towns of the county, and as a possible county seat. At Coltonville also, the proprietor had a little store, and his spacious log house was a well known point for travellers. Colton and the few settlers who lived in the vicinity, were confident that there Mould be the future seat of justice for the County.

On the first Monday in May of this year, in accordance with the provisions of the bill, an election was held in the thirty-six square miles, composing Kane County, to determine whether the new County of DeKalb should be set off. The Geneva interest favored the division, as it made that toAvn more central in that County, and would make its continuance as the county seat, more probable, but a part of the present Kane County was opposed to the division. It was so contrived however, that they had no opportunity to express their opposition by their votes. The traveling this spring, was extremely bad. The mud was unfathomable, the rain continuous. The Sheriff of Kane County was unwilling to start out on the long and tedious journey necessary to post the notices of this election, and readily accepted the offer of Mr. Madden, who was going that way, to do it for him. Report says that the shrewd Madden was careless about posting notices of the election in precincts unfavorable to the division of the county, while all of those precincts in favor of it, were fully notified. The result was a huge majority in favor of division, no vote whatever being held in considerable parts of that county. It having been decided that the new County was duly set off, the Clerk of Kane County issued a call for an election to be held at the residence of Frederic Love, at which there should be chosen three County Commissioners, one Sheriff, Recorder, and Coroner. It was held on Monday, the 3d of July, 1837. The two parties which as is well known, are indispensable to every well-arranged and conducted election, went by the name of claim-jumpers and anti-claim-jumpers, and divided on the question of sustaining or abolishing the claim associations. The people came from all parts of the County, and in large numbers. With their wagons and horses distributed over a large space, they presented the appearance of an animated camp-meeting. After the usual amount of log-rolling, caucusing, and liquoring, the polls were opened, the votes cast and counted, and a large majority were found to be in favor of the Anti-Claim-Jumpers' ticket. This was :

Rufus Colton was an active, stirring, shrewd New Englander, formerly editor of a Vermont paper - a warm friend - a fair, uncompromising enemy. R. Sterrctt ofSomonaukwas of Penn. origin, always a decided Democrat - an honest, reliable, true man. Levi Lee of Kingston, was a shrewd, intelligent man, active in the temperance cause. He filled many public offices, and was of late, a member of the Legislature of Wisconsin. Jesse C. Kellogg, the Recorder, was of Vermont puritan stock, has been for thirty three years, and still is one of the worthiest citizens of DeKalb County, active in every good work, the uncompromising foe of all wrong and oppression. Captain Barnes, for over thirty years a venerated citizen of this County, died in 1867, leaving a large family of descendants here. Sheriff Lander, an honest, pleasant old Indianian, had all of the peculiarities of speech and dialect of the Iloosicr race. Lysander Darling was a pleasant, kind-hearted, honest popular citizen, said to be the first settler in Sycamore.

On Tuesday, the 11th of July, 1837, the first regular session of the County Commissioners' Court for DeKalb County was held at the hou^e of Rufus Colton. The selection of a place of holding Courts before the county seat was fixed and buildings erected, was left to the decision of the County Commissioners : and they concluded that no more convenient place could be found than the spacious and comfortable log house belonging to the head of the Board of Commissioners. It was a substantial structure, eighteen feet by twenty-four, made of hewn logs, famished with doors and a window, chinked up with none of your common mud, but with good lime mortar. Altogether, it was a spacious and superior building for those times. But liberal as were the accommodations, they were yet rather too limited for the convenient transaction of public business, in addition to the ordinary routine of the housekeeper's duties. So as the day was fair and warm, a table was placed out of doors on the shady side of the house, at which the Commissioners being seated, the Sheriff made proclamation in good Hoosier style, of the opening of the Court, and they proceeded to business. This Commissioners' Court was not intended for the trial of suits. Its duties embraced those which are now accomplished by the Board of Supervisors. The County had been ransacked to find a suitable book for Record, but at last Mr. Clerk had procured an old merchant's ledger, a little used, and in it the first recorded transactions were minuted. The first formal action of the Board was to select and appoint Jesse C. Kellogg as Clerk of their Court, and the next was the important business of laying out five election precincts, and justices' districts. They were :

First, Kingston district and precinct, commencing at the northwest corner of the County running south twelve miles, thence northeast crossing the Sycamore river so as to include Benjamin Stephens' land, and then north to the County line. It was ordered that elections be held in this precinct at the residence of Levi Lee. George II. Hill, John Whitney and Jonas II ait were appointed its judges.

The second was Sycamore precinct, including the northeast corner of the County, and extending as far south as. Charter Grove, but not including the present village of Sycamore. The elections were to be held at a school house near Lysander Darling's, and William A. Miller, James A. Armstrong and Samuel Cory were made its judges.

The third was named Orange district, and comprised the territory south of the Sycamore district as far as Lost Grove, in the present town of Cortland. Elections for this district were ordered at Rufus Colton's house, and Frederic Love, James Root, and Eli Barnes were made its judges.

The fourth was named Somonauk district, and comprised the territory south of Orange district, ten miles in width, and about twenty in length to the south line of the County. Elections were ordered to be held at the house of Woodruff and Lane ; William Davis, Frederic A. Witherspoon, and Simon Price were made judges.

The fifth district was called Paw Paw, and comprised the southwest portion of the County. No recorded provision was made for elections in this district, and it was subsequently abolished, but afterwards upon the indignant protest of some of its people, was re-established.

In October, the Commissioners appointed by the Legislature to fix the County seat, met at the house of Mr. Frederic Love as directed by the law of organization. They were received by the citizens representing the three competing points with all of that cordiality that was to be expected toward men upon whose decision important interests depended. Escorted by a large number of residents of the County, and men who were interested in the decision of the question, they spent most of three days in riding about the region, viewing the country and comparing the advantages of the rival locations. There seemed to be little to choose between them. One of the Commissioners, Mr. Walker of Plainfield had been a member of the Legislature with Mr. Madden. He was also an intimate friend of Mr. Harvey Maxfield, who had recently visited this section of country and came back with a glowing account of its attractions, and of the advantages of the present location for a county seat. He had also reported to Walker a remark said to have been made by Madden to the effect that he had secured Walker's appointment as Commissioner, and expected to control him so far as to induce him to locate the County seat upon his own claim at Brush Point. This naturally aroused opposition in the mind of Mr. Walker.

Much to Madden's chagrin, he found his friend prejudiced against his own point, and unable to see its advantages. The inhabitants of the little collection of losr houses on the bank of the Kishwaukee north of the present County seat where the village had been laid out, had become convinced that their village was upon ground too low to secure its location as the seat of justice, and they combined to assure the Commissioners that the place where they intended the village should be, was on the higher ground upon the other side of the stream.

This being agreed upon, on the third day of their travels and explorations, the Commissioners determined upon placing it where the Court House now stands, and in the presence of quite a crowd of interested observers, they set a long pole upon the green prairie, placed on it a streaming flag, and declared it to be the location for the County seat of the new County of DeKalb. Captain Eli Barnes now advanced, and christened the new town by the name of Orange. No objection was raised to this, and for some years thereafter, the point was called by that name. Some objection had been made to the exact spot selected, by parties who thought the land a half mile south more favorable. This was admitted, but it was decided that this spot was as far out on the broad prairie as the center of the town ought to be placed, and here it was put.

It did indeed seem to be^n the phrase of the country, "clear out of sight of land," a lonely, windy, grassy, desolate spot. The inhabitants of the rival locations, disappointed at the result, ridiculed and denounced the selection, chiefly for this reason. It was argued, however, that the great State Road from Yandalia, the Capital of the State, north to Lake Superior, passed through this place, that the State Road from Chicago to Galena would cross here, and that it would consequently be more accessible than the Coltonville and Brush Point settlements, which were further to the West. It was also held that there was a great deal more timber on the eastern side of the county than on the western side ; and as of course the settlements must always he near the timbered lands, the center of population would be rather at the east than at the west. The location was made north of the center of the county, partly because it was thought that the southern end, divided from the north by a broad stretch of bare prairie, would ultimately be set off into some other county, to be formed at the south of it.

that a term of the Circuit Court should be held, for the trial of civil and criminal suits ; and at the February term of the Commissioners' Court, it was ordered, that, as no court-house was yet provided, the first term of the Circuit Court should be held at Rufus Colton's residence, and the next term of the County Commissioners' Court, should be held at the residence of Riley Hall in Sycamore precinct.

Grand Jurors Petit Jurors

As the coming Circuit Court was expected to cause an unusual demand for stationery, the Clerk of the County Commissioners' Court was authorized to purchase two dollars' worth, and in addition was voted the sum of ten dollars to pay for a book of record.

Three tavern licenses were granted this year - one to Russell Huntly, at what is now the village of DeKalb, one to John Esterbrooks at Squaw Grove, and one to IT. N. Perkins at the present village of Genoa, and to guard against extortion the Board enacted " that the rates for the government of tavern-keepers for the ensuing year be as follows viz : For each meal of victuals, thirty-one cents, for lodging each person twelve-and-a-half cents ; for each horse to hay over night, twelve-and-a-half cents ; for each bushel of oats, seventy-five cents." These were great prices in those days, and were more than were usually charged. Two years later, the price of a good dinner at a first-class hotel in DeKalb County, was twelve-and-a-half cents, and a man was boarded for a week, for one dollar.

The total County tax levied on the first year of its existence as a County, was $216,50, but Mr. James Phillips, the deputy Sheriff who was also Collector, reported that after a hard winter's work in collecting, he had been able to get together and pay into the Treasury only $84,87.

There was a new election of County Commissioners in August, and by a change in the law, three new Commissioners were elected, instead of one as had hitherto been provided. E. G. Jewell, Burrage Hough, and Henry Hicks were elected. They were warmly in favor of the County seat then located, and issued an order that the October term of the Circuit Court be held at a house now being erected by Eli Barnes, at or near the seat of Justice of this County. But it was not held there. The house as yet, existed only in imagination. There was no sign of civilization, except a fence enclosing a field nearly two miles long and sixty rods wide, built this year by C. Sharer A: Co., the New York Company, who claimed this location. Mr. Colton who had been appointed Clerk of the Circuit Court, had made all processes returnable at his own residence. He hoped that before any suitable County buildings should be erected at this point he would obtain a vote to change its location to his own place. In addition to the other attractions of his own village, a lawyer, one John M. Crothers, had taken up his abode there, and opened an office in a corner of one of the three or four houses that constituted the village called Coltonville. "With a store, a tavern, a blacksmith's shop, a doctor, a lawyer, and a distillery in

Another meeting of the Commissioners was held in September, at which they proceeded to consider the expediency of erecting a Court House and Jail at the seat of justice, but no definite plan was devised.

They were engaged in negotiating with Captain Eli Barnes for the erection of buildings, but it was evident that no provision could be made for the coming term of Court, and it was accordingly by general consent, held at Coltonville. About this time, a new disturbing element had been introduced into the affairs of the new County.

Madden and Colton both being sorely vexed at being overruled in their choice of a County seat, had put their heads together to procure a removal by combining against Orange the two parties who favored Brush Point and Coltonville : and they managed it in this wise. Mr. Madden, who was still a member of the Legislature, had during the last winter's session, procured the passage of an act providing that a vote should be taken first for or against the removal of the County seat from Orange. It was presumed that the two parties favoring Brush Point and Coltonville would combine and could carry this measure, for removal, in that case a second vote was to be taken upon Coltonville or Brush Point, and the place receiving the highest number of votes was to be the County Seat.

Madden returned, and made no public mention of the passage of this act, but it was strongly suspected by the Orange men, that something of this kind had been done, and was to be "put through on the sly." It was finally discovered in this way. A certain bachelor of Genoa, Gleason by name, who was attached to the Orange party, invaded the Brush Point settlement one Sunday night, in search of a wife. From his fair Dulcinea, he learned to his surprise, that on the next Monday week, an election was to be held in that settlement to remove the County scat. Gleason informed his friends of what be had learned, and it was agreed that the Orange men should meet them at the polls and vote the removal project down. J. C. Kellogg and E. G. Jewell were dispatched South in the night, to rouse their friends in Somonauk.

In due time the polls were opened, and to the surprise of the Brush Pointers, were opened in those precincts opposed to the change, as well as those which favored it. The unfairness of the secret conspiracy was so apparent that in Somonauk precinct, which then included six townships, forty-five of the forty-seven votes cast were against removal. The project was voted down by seventeen majority, in the whole County.

Coltonville had grown since the summer before when the first term of the County Commissioners Court was held there. There were four or five houses there now, but how the crowd of people that assembled on this memorable occasion was provided for must ever be a mystery to future generations. The first term of the Court was held in a small framed house one story and a half in height, which, a few years after, was moved down to Sycamore, and is now the residence of Dr. W. W. Bryant and standing nearly opposite the Universalist Church. Hon. John Pearson, the Judge, resided in Danville, Vermillion County, and the extent of his circuit may be judged from this fact. He was subsequently removed for incompetency. Rufus Colton was the clerk, and Amasa Huntington States Attorney. There were but twenty suits upon the docket, none of them sharply contested cases. The first suit was one in which Erasmus D. Walrod was plaintiff and Stephen Harwood was defendant, but before the trial commenced it was settled by agreement of parties - a good, first example which has not since been followed so closely as would have been to the advantage of the County.

even at this early day was infesting the country, and swindling the honest citizens. Not being ready for trial, he was retained in charge of the County until the next term. After being comfortably boarded for several weeks by the Barber family the County Commissioners ordered him to the Will County jail, at Joliet, which was then the nearest available place of confinement ; and out of the scantily furnished treasury of the County they paid $45 to a guard for conveying him there. When he was next brought out for trial he escaped from the guard and was seen no more in this section of country ; and when in addition to this misfortune, the Will County jailor sent in a bill for $25 for his board, it bankrupted the Treasury ; the commissioners indignantly refused to allow it and demanded the items. After this dear experience in the capture of criminals it became the policy to overlook all crimes that were not too public and heinous, and when an offence had been committed that could not be overlooked, the County officers sometimes contrived that a hint should be given to the offender that he would probably be arrested, and that it would be expedient for him to leave the country before that event should occur. In this way they rid themselves of the elephant. In December of this year, a meeting of County Commissioners provided for ascertaining upon what section of land the County seat had been placed. The County had not yet been surveyed by the United States. Nobody knew where the boundaries of the County were, nor were any other lines definitely ascertained. It was necessary that the County should first make its pre-emption claim to the quarter-section that the law required it should own, as private individuals made their claims, and then should survey and sell the village lots : out of the proceeds of which sale the public buildings were to be erected, guarantying of course to the purchasers, that when the land came in market the County would purchase and pay for it.

and bring a line or lines from some survey made under the authority of the General Government down to the County seat, and there cause a number of town lots not exceeding eighty, to be laid out, platted and recorded ; the expense of which survey it was prudently provided should be paid out of the proceeds of the sale of the lots. At this term the rate of compensation to jurors was fixed at seventy-five cents per day, but as this rate was found to cause a heavy drain upon the Treasury, it was subsequently reduced to fifty cents.

Frederick Love was appointed first School Commissioner for the County, and was also granted a license to keep tavern. Love's capacious cabin was as public a place as any in the County. He called it Centerville, and hoped that at some time it would become the County seat. Henry Durham of Genoa, was granted a merchant's license at this term of the Court. A few years later, the village at that point had become the largest and most lively in the County. In September 1838, Shabbona, the old Indian, employed Mr. James S. Waterman to survey the two sections of land which the Government had granted him in that section of country. During this year a company under the name of Jenks & Co., representing cqnsiderable capital, constructed a mill upon the Kishwaukee, in the present town of DeKalb on the land now occupied by Mr. Albert Schryvers farm, and projected a village which however, was never built up. The large barn now standing upon that farm was one of the first framed buildings in the County, and was used on several occasions for the religious services of the quarterly-meetings of the Methodists.

Since the departure of the Indians, game had rapidly increased in this district of country. Deer became very numerous. Mr. R. F. Watson, who was one of the first inhabitants of the northern portion of the County, states that during this winter he, hunting in company with Solomon Wells and William Driscoll, killed more than one hundred of these animals, and at times had counted one hundred and twenty-five in one drove. They ran them down with grey hounds. The deer, fleet as they were, were no match for the hounds, who would often catch them by the throat before they had run a quarter of a mile. But the hounds frightened the deer from the country, and for many years subsequently

The year 1839 was memorable as one of great suffering among the new settlers, from sickness. During the spring and autumn months, over most of the County, there were hardly enough of the well to take proper care of the sick. Ague and billious fevers were the prevailing diseases. They resulted from the close proximity to the groves and streams to which the new comers all built their houses, and were aided by the insufficient and comfortless little dwellings; also by" the bad surface water from the sloughs which they used in the want of wells of proper depth to supply pure water. It was difficult also, to secure medical attendance, and the physicians who practiced through the country, rarely had a sufficient supply of medicine. A citizen relates his disappointment when after having gone shaking with ague seven miles on foot to a doctors for a dose of quinine, the doctor told him solemnly, " No young man, I cant't let you have it : you are young, and can wear out the disease. I must save my little supply for cases in which it is needed to save life, for I don't know when I shall be able to obtain any more."

Deaths were numerous, and the few carpenters in the country who were able to work, were at times busy night and day in making coffins. It was noticed that one settlement on the borders of the County, in Franklin, afterwards known as the Pennsylvania Settlement, was quite free from the prevalent diseases. The three or four houses that composed this little village, were built by Dr. Hobart, Albert Fields, and William Ramsey, two miles from the timbered lands and in the middle of the prairie. To this was due their exemption from disease.

Eighteen Thirty-Nine. -381

But the citizens in the vicinity of the County seat found time to build a new Court House. The survey lines ordered by the County Commissioners, had been brought down from the neighborhood of Rockford, where some Government surveying had already been done, and the village of Sycamore was staked out. The inhabitants of this place for all future time, may thank Captain Eli Birnes and James S. Waterman for the broad streets that now add so much to the beauty of the village. To many of the people, they seemed at the time unnecessarily wide, but the sensible plea that there was a whole continent of prairie before them, and that when Sycamore became a city they would be needed to accommodate its business, prevailed, and they were all laid out one hundred feet wide. From the time the village was laid out, its original name of Orange was dropped, and Sycamore adopted by common consent.

During the previous winter, Captain Barnes had got together materials for building a spacious tavern at the new County seat, and early in the spring it was erected - the first building put up in this village. It is still standing, directly east of the Public Square, and has ever since been occupied as a Hotel. As an inducement for building it, it was agreed that the block on which it stands should be given to the Captain, free of cost. The village having been laid out, the Commissioners directed Mr. Jewell to proceed to sell lots at public auction, and with the proceeds to contract for building a Court House and Jail.

The auction was held, and the bidding was spirited. Some fifteen or twenty lots were sold at prices ranging from twenty to fifty dollars. Among the purchasers were Frederick Love, J. C. Kellogg, James S. Waterman, Harvey Maxfield, Daniel Bannister, Almon Robinson, Erastus Barnes, and Timothy Wells.

The proceeds of the sale constituted a little fund out of which, some of the materials for the Court House were purchased. Those most interested in the matter, then took teams and drove to all the saw-mills in the country round, and begged or bought, or traded for the necessary lumber- The labor upon the building was done by voluntary contribution. Every one could do something, and all worked with a will.

By the time fixed for the June session of the Circuit Court, a two-story building twenty feet by thirty had been enclosed, and the County Commissioners, who were hastily summoned together, ordered their Clerk of the Court to notify the Judge of the Circuit Court that they had erected a Court House at the County seat, and that it was ready for occupancy, and requested that he direct the Circuit Clerk to keep his office there.

Captain Barnes served the order upon the Judge now sitting in Court at Coltonville, and the crowd of attendants, augmented by a large body of citizens assembled to see what action would be taken upon this order, awaited with great interest the argument upon the proposition to remove to Sycamore. When the Judge decided that the Court must be removed thence, a shout of triumph went up from the Sycamore party, while the opponents of removal were correspondingly depressed. Judge Ford took his record under his arm, States Attorney Purple bundled up his papers, the Sheriff", the lawyers, juries parties and witnesses followed suit, and led by Captain Barnes, on that well-known spotted horse that he rode upon all public occasions for more than twenty years later, all took up their line of march through the thick woods and across the green prairie, to the new seat of empire at Sycamore. The assemblage was entertained at a grand public dinner at the new tavern, where all the luxuries that, the country afforded were freely provided by the successful party.

When the Court repaired to the new Court House, it was found that the declaration of the Commissioners, that the Court House was ready for occupancy, was rather more than its condition warranted. It had a frame, a roof, and some siding upon it, but there were no doors nor windows, and the only floor was some loose boards covering one half of the upper story. When the officers of the Court had clambered up to the seat of justice in the second story, it found furniture somewhat scarce. A tilting table was the Judges desk, and a broad, rough board was provided for the Clerks and attorneys' tables - ct praeterea nihil. Itwas a rough and primitive arrangement for the entertainment of the blind goddess, and if she had had her eyes about here she would have fled from the spot in alarm. A question arose whether process having been made returnable at Coltonville, suits could be tried at another locality, and except a few agreed cases, no litigation was carried on. William Taylor, the only criminal, having fortunately run away, and the arrest of all others being carefully avoided, there was no use for a Grand Jury, and it had been at once dismissed, and the Court speedily adjourned.

The districts of Franklin, Kingston, and Kishwaukee constituted the first, and of this II. F. Page was chosen Assessor. Sycamore, Orange, and Ohio districts made the second, and of this, Austin Hayden was Assessor. Somonauk and Pawpaw made the third, and of this Stephen Arnold was Assessor. The three Assessors were each paid for three days' service in assessing the entire property of the County.

At the August election, Mr. John R. Hamlin was chosen Clerk of the County Commissioners' Court, and Lysander Darling County Treasurer, in place of George H. Hill. William M. Maxfield was chosen County Collector, Alpheus Jenks, Recorder.

In this year, the land in the three Northern townships which had previously been surveyed by the United States, and put in market. It was a part of what was called the Rockford or Polish survey.

The United States Government, in sympathy with the roles who had just been overwhelmed in their contest for their independence by the power of Russia, had made a grant of a that nation as chose to settle upon it. It was accordingly surveyed some years earlier than most of this part of the State. Very few of that nation however, availed themselves of this privilege. Claims had been made on the same land by other and earlier settlers. These combined to drive away the new claimants. Numerous little stockade forts were built with loop holes for muskets, and a dctermintion was expressed to drive the Polish emigrants out of the country, and they were entirely successful. They never occupied their grant.

At Coltonville,the large two-story house still standing there was built this year for a tavern, and was opened with a grand ball in the autumn. To make a sufficient party, the Avhole country was summoned. Some twenty of the guests came from Oregon, thirty miles west, and as many more from St Charles, twenty miles to the east. It was a noted event.

In the summer of the previous year, a convention was held at Ottawa to nominate candidates for the Legislature. Delegates went from Orange, now called Sycamore, to see that men favorable to their point as the County seat should be nominated, and they selected William Stadden for Senator, and J. W. Churchill for the Assembly. But they were disappointed in their men. At the winter's session, another act was passed; authorizing a vote upon the removal of the County seat.

The Session Laws in these times, were not circulated 'till six months after the sitting of the Legislature, and before any opponents of removal were aware of the existence of such an act, the time had arrived for a vote upon the question. A poll-book was opened at Coltonville, a dozen votes or so were cast for removal to that place, and the terms of the law were considered to be complied with. The seat of justice technically was removed.

But Kellogg, the County Commissioners' Clerk refused to deliver the books. He was arrested and tried before Justice Harvey Maxfield, and after a savage, wordy warfare, was discharged.

Capt R. A Smith Eighteen Forty

The total receipts and expenditures of the County this year amounted to the sum of $452,15 a very moderate amount considering that a Court House had been constructed, and that, although built from another fund, it naturally increased sonic of the County expenses.

The year 1840 found the County of DeKalb increasing in population, if not in wealth. Around all of the groves which dotted the prairies like oases in a desert, or like islands in tl e blue ocean, little communities of farmers were gathered, full of ambition and hope for a prosperous future for this new country, but grievously oppressed with poverty in the present. They raised bountiful crops of the finest winter wheat and the fresh virgin prairie soil produced of all kinds of grain such crops as have never since been equalled; but nothing found a market. They drew their wheat to Chicago over roads that were passable only in a time of drought, and when drawn there it was sold at from thirty to forty cents per bushel. He was a lucky man who made from his load more than enough to pay the expenses of the journey. There was little encouragement for energetic systematic labor.

sat upon the floor or on slab benches, and at meal time went out doors from the sitting-room door to the kitchen, where bountiful meals were provided, for provisions were abundant. The women of this house spun and wove woolen garments for the whole family beside doing the household duties and caring for a large dairy. They only complained that their husbands would not raise flax so that they could have some tow to spin when they had nothing else to do. At Franklin, in the North part of the County, at Somonauk at the South end, and at Paw Paw, were similar settlements of Southern people, but most of the new settlers were from New York and New England.

The country was over-run with horse-thieves and counterfeiters. There being no jails, the labor of confining the prisoners in Sheriffs' houses and such other places as could be found for them was so burdensome that few arrests were made, and when criminals were imprisoned the great effort was, to get them to run away, so as to relieve the County of the expense of their keeping.

The County Treasury was generally empty. County orders were issued for all expenses, and they were at a great discount, but as they were receivable for taxes, little else could be collected and no money went into the Treasury.

At the County seat, a little village was being built up. It now contained twelve houses. The Mansion House kept by Captain Barnes, was the great center of population. It was crowded with occupants. In one corner was the store kept by John and Charles Waterman, who had moved their goods from the place north of the river where the town had first been started, and where in a little log cabin sixteen feet by eighteen they had first established business. The house was overcrowded with boarders, mostly young men who had come out seeking their fortunes ; many of them have since become particularly well known, and prominent in the history of the County. Among them were John, James, Robert and Charles Waterman, Reuben Ellwood, Dr. H. F. Page, Frank Spencer,

Eighteen Forty

Jesse Rose, John R. Hamlin, E. P. Young. They were a gay set, as full of pranks and fun, and practical jokes, as ever a dozen wild fellows could have been. For some reason the hotel came to be called the Nunnery, and went by that name for many years. It was a most inappropriate title as there was nothing more like a nun about it than the one hired girl in the kitchen. Indeed, there were but three marriageable women in the place, and when dances and parties were made, the country for twenty miles around was scoured in search of lady partners.

The school was kept in the Court House by Dr. Bill, and it was well attended. The same building also furnished a place for religious meetings, but when Dr. Whitney of Belvidere came to deliver a great Whig speech, he gathered his mass-meeting in Carlos Lattin's log cabin. At the time of the election of Harrison and Tyler, there was a grand jollification. The United States Surveyor, who was working through the County, furrish free liquor to all the town and

A stage route was established duriug this year, running from St. Charles to Oregon. Timothy Wells and Charles Waterman were the proprietors of the line. They had an elegant four-horse coach, and carried a large number of passengers.

School Trustees for the Northern townships seem to have been elected at some previous time, for it is recorded that Frederick Watkins and Andrew Miles, former trustees of Township forty-two, range three, resigned their offices, and Daniel Cronkhite was appointed in their places. Trustees of school lands were also appointed for Townships thirty-seven thirty-eight, and forty-one, in range five. The place of voting in Somonauk precinct was changed from the house of R. Woodruff, to that of Burrage Hough.

The grand struggle for the establishment of the County seat was finished at the August election of this year, by a Waterloo defeat of the opponents of Sycamore.

The County seat seems to have been technically considered to have been removed from Orange or Sycamore, by the vote of the dozen or so who had assembled and voted that it should be removed to Coltonville, in an election held in pursuance of the law, but kept secret from the great mass of the people.

On January 3d, of this year, another act had been passed by the Legislature " permanently to locate the seat of justice for the County of DeKalb."

I, John R. Hamlin, Clerk of the County Commissioners' Court of said County, and Frederic Love Probate Justice of the Peace, and Harvey Maxfield, Justice of the Peace in and for said County of DeKalb, do hereby certify that at an election held in the several precincts of said County, on the Third Monday in August, A. D. 1840, in pursuance of an act entitled an act permanently to locate the seat of Justice of the County of DeKalb approved January 3d, 1840, there were given two hundred and forty votes in favor of the removal of the seat of Justice of DeKalb County from Coltonville. There were given one hundred and fortythree votes against the removal of the seat of Justice from Coltonville ; showing a majority in favor of the removal of the seat of justice from Coltonville, of ninety-seven votes. And there were also given at said election two hundred and seven votes in favor of Sycamore to he the seat of justice of DeKalb County. And there were given at said election one hundred and thirty-seven votes in favor of Brush Point to he the seat of Justice of DeKalb County. Showing a majority of seventy votes in favor of Sycamore to be the seat of justice. This was the last formal attempt to change the location of the County seat, and as it is likely that a local contest of this kind brought out all of the voters, it is probable that three hundred and eighty-four was about the number of voters then in the County. Morris AValrod was at this time, the Sheriff of the County, and a very efficient officer he proved to be. To induce him to take and keep open the hotel at the County seat, he was promised this office of Sheriff. The horse-thieves and counterfeiters who infested the County found in him a dangerous foe. It was during this spring that he arrested one Winthrop Lovelace, who was supposed to be one of that gang. He was bound over for trial, but it was several weeks before his trial could be held. Walrod kept him securely ironed, and by day chained to a bed-post in a little back room of his tavern. At night he was secured by irons, to constable Alvah Cartwright, who slept by his side. One night Cartwright attended a grand ball at Coltonville, and coming home fatigued, slept unusually soundly. When he awoke his prisoner was gone. A well-known citizen, and a suspected associate of the gang had supplied him with a file, with which he had cut his bracelets and escaped. But as he fled northward across the mill-dam, daylight had come and he was discovered. A party was soon got out to surround and search the Norwegian Grove, and the hunt was kept up all day as it was certain that he could not have escaped from it, but the search was without success until toward evening a place was discovered where the tall grass of the mill-pond had been parted. The trail was followed, and the poor shivering wretch finally discovered sitting nearly chilled to death, in the cold shallow pond. It took some hours of smart rubbing to save his life. When he was finally brought to trial, he escaped from the Court House, probably amid a crowd of his fellows of the banditti, and was seen no more in this County.

For many years, it was the custom for the Sheriff to keep his prisoners manacled, but to board them at the same table with his other guests at the hotel. They came shuffling in at the first table, usually took the head and did the honors to travellers and other guests, in their best style. It sometimes astonished strangers, but was considered all right by the regular boarders.

John Riddle, one of the first settlers of Franklin, was this year appointed Assessor of District No. 1, F. Love of District No. "2, and Stephen Arnold of District No. 3. It took them six days each to assess the County, and as the result, a tax of three hundred and thirty-four dollars and seventy cents was collected.

The first resident lawyer in the County was admitted to practice during this year, the County Commissioners Court certifying that he was a man of good moral character. His name was Andrew J. Brown. lie settled in Sycamore, but the most of the practice at the bar at this time, was monopolized by W. D. Barry, A. N. Dodge, B. F. Fridley, and Crothers Champlain.

The great State Road from. Ottawa to Beloit, was laid out this summer. It was made eighty feet in width. It is described as entering the County at Somonauk, passing Sebra's, Esterbrooks, and Lost Grove, to the south-east corner of the

Eighteen F0Rty-1W0

The winter of 1841-42, was one of uncommon severity. A heavy coating of snow fell on the 8th of November, and it remained on the ground until April 14th, during all which time, with the exception of the usual January thaw, the sleighing was excellent. For a winter of such unusual length and severity, no sufficient provision had been made. Forage for the stock became very scarce, and hundreds died of starvation. Hay sold at twenty dollars per ton. The snow became crusted over, and the deer entrapped in it could be slaughtered with axes and clubs. They would "yard" Together in large numbers in the woods, where they lived on the bark of trees. If driven out into the crusted snow, they could make no progress, and were easily killed. Five hundred of these animals are said to have been killed this winter in the northern part of this County, and in the woods of Boone County.

The terrible winter ended in the middle of April, and the spring bright, balmy and beautiful, opened at once. The crops were all sown in good season, and produced abundantly. In this year for the first time, the bright steel scouring ploughs came into use, and proved one of the most important improvements ever invented for the prairie farmer. Previous to this, the soil had in the expressive phrase of the country, been "buggered over" with the old cast-iron plows, or some strange-looking contrivances of iron rods with a plough-share - tools that would not scour, that must be cleaned every few rods, and that were quite ineffective for the work required of them. Nothing but the extraordinary fertility of the fresh prairie soil enabled the settlers to raise any crops with such culture.

" This day in pursuance of an act entitled an act permanently to locate the seat of Justice of the County of DeKalb, approved January 80th, 1840, the Commissioners of said County have selected one hundred and sixty acres of land for County purposes, bounded as follows to-wit : From a point which bears N 54J° W. 10 R. 21 Links from the S. W. corner of M. Walrod's dwelling house and S. 70° East 4 R. 22 Links from the S. E. corner of Carlos Lattin's house, running thence X. 9° E. 80 R. thence S. Si- E. 1C0 R: thence S. 9° W. 160 R. thence X. 81° W. 160 R. thence N. 9° E. 80 R. to the place of beginning, containing 160 acres.

Lysander Darling as Treasurer of DeKalb County, presented the following account which is interesting as showing the amount of taxes then collected :

These amounts are small as compared with the present revenues of the county, and smaller yet when it is remembered that they were all collected in County orders and Jurors certificates, which could hardly be sold for fifty cents on the dollar.

This was the time of very deepest depression in the financial condition of the State as well as of the county. The failure of the State Bank, which occurred in February, had overwhelmed the people with destitution and ruin. When Governor Ford entered upon the duties of his office during this year, he stated formally that in his opinion there was not enough good money in the hands of all the people in the

Eighteen Forty-Two

State to pay the interest which then came due upon the State debt. The public officers found it difficult to get enough money from the Treasury to pay their salaries and the postage on their letters. The State failing to pay the interest on its debt became the subject of most bitter aspersion and reproach through all of this country, and even in England where some of its bonds were held. It was taunted as a Repudiator, and indeed a considerable party in favor of repudiation was growing up in the State. Its name became a hissing and a byeword in distant lands. Illinoisans travelling in eastern States or foreign countries were ashamed to acknowledge the State that they came from.

Mr. John R. Hamlin who held the offices of Clerk of the County Commissioners' Court, Recorder, and Postmaster and out of the whole of them managed to make only about enough to pay his board - cheap as boarding was - at the June term of the County Commissioners' Court of this year, was granted the privilege of advancing twelve dollars to purchase a Book for Records, with the promise that it should be paid for out of the first money received into the Treasury, Mr. Hamlin always a gentleman of genial, kindly, temper, an universal favorite, subsequently became a wealthy merchant of Chicago, and still later removed again to this County where he became an extensive land-owner, but it is reported that about this time, he was accustomed to travel through the County to collect deeds for record and urge upon those who had deeds the necessity of having them placed upon record, and it is said that for convenience and economy, he often went bare-footed. But current rumors are not always true. Certain it is that all of these offices at that time were not enough to give one man a living. A dozen years later, the Recorders' office alone constantly employed four or five men, and was reported to be worth eight thousand dollars a year to the fortunate holder. Such facts, better than any array of figures, give an idea of the remarkable growth and increase in the population and business of the County.