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

Eighteen Sixty-Eight

No notable events have yet occurred in the history of our County of De Kalb during this year. Perfect peace, general prosperity, and extraordinary quietude have been the characteristics of the year. The crops were excellent, their prices fair, the people industrious, and well repaid for their labor. The County debt has been reduced to $85,350. The taxable property has been increased to $3,308,330. The assessors report that there are owned in the County 14,019 horses, 27,792 cattle, 375 mules, 33,849 sheep, and 20,823 hogs. The number of acres of wheat grown was 46,949, of corn 49,344, and of other field products 38,826.

De Kalb County, at theCongressional convention of the Republican party this year, gave her vote for the first time for one of her own citizens, Hon. Reuben Ellwood, of Sycamore.

At the election General E. F. Dutton was chosen Circuit Clerk and Recorder ; C. W. Marsh, Representative to the Legislature; Captain Edward Safford, Sheriff; Lorenzo AVhittemore, Coroner; Charles Kellum, States-Attorney, and W. M. Simmons, member of the State Board of Equalization. The largest vote ever cast in the County was given at this Presidential election. Its total was 4331, of which 3441 were given to General Grant and 890 to Horatio Seymour.

The publication of this History of the County may be an event' not unworthy of mention in the annals of our County, and with it this record is completed. It is a picture of growth, progress, and prosperity, not unprecedented in this growing West, but yet sufficiently remarkable to fill the minds of its first settlers with surprise In the thirty years of its existence as a County, its population has increased from a few hundreds to nearly thirty thousand. Its progress in has been yet more remarkable. To the early settlers it seems but yesterday that the County was dependent on charity for the $200 necessary to procure the title to the lands on which its County Seat was located. Now it pays an annual tax of $200,000 without embarrassment.

The log cabins of its first settlers have been replaced by farm dwellings as elegant as any section of the country can boast. The broad, open prairies have all been converted into handsome farms, and peopled with a dense and prosperous population. Its numerous villages are the centres of refinement and wealth. Over the smooth, iron railway its people now travel farther in an hour than they could then go in a day, and the telegraph places them in instant communication with the whole civilized world. Their energy and enterprise have converted the desolate waste of thirty years ago into the abode of refinement and luxury, and surrounded them with the numberless advantages of old and highly cultured communities.

Genoa

Few townships in this County of ours have more natural attractions than Genoa. The rolling prairie land which occupies the greater portion of the township is diversified by more than the average extent of natural groves, and is watered by several fine streams. The Kishwaukee flows through a portion of the town, giving a tolerable water-power, - not so powerful as at an earlier day, when, as everywhere, the streams were larger and their flow more constant, - but capable of being put to use, and contributing to the growth of the town and convenience of the people. Wood and water are the two great wants of this land of the prairies, and these Genoa possesses, if not in abundance, yet in much more liberal quantities than most parts of the County.

The first white inhabitant of the town was Thomas Madison* who came to the place in 1836, and built a spacious log cabin on the spot where, for thirty years after, a hotel was kept by H. N. Perkins and Luke Nichols. Mr. Perkins moved to the place in the autumn of 1837, and he, with Samuel Corey, Thomas Munnahan, and Henry Durham, bought the claim of Madison, who moved off to Texas. It was said to embrace two sections of land, and they paid $2800 for it.

In the spring of 1837 Mr. Henry Durham had moved into Madison's cabin, and opened a small stock of goods for sale to the few settlers who were now rapidly filling up the country. He was a sharp, shrewd, energetic citizen, lived in the place for nearly thirty years, and died there, having accumulated a considerable fortune by trade, by hotel-keeping, and by well managed speculation in lands. He, with Samuel Corey, Henry Preston, and Daniel T. Whittemore, were among the first comers.

Whittemore had the reputation of being a leading member of the gang of horse-thieves, counterfeiters and burglars who infested the country at this early day. Genoa was always one of the headquarters of the gang.

In the spring of 1838, Mr. Perkins' house was entered by a party of them, Avho robbed him of $300. He had good evidence that it was taken by the Brodies, of Brodies' Grove, who were understood to be confederated with Whittemore and others at Genoa, but no prosecution was made, nor was any of the money recovered.

During the year 1838 many new settlers came in, and Genoa became quite a lively little village. Dr. H. F. Page commenced the practice of medicine there, James S. Waterman opened a stock of goods, and one E. P. Gleason, who afterwards figured extensively as a leader of the banditti, came in, and bought the claim of Whittemore and Corey. He had the reputation of being a man of wealth, and began to talk about building flouring mills, starting stores, and otherwise contributing to the growth and enlargement of the business of the place. During the spring of 1838 he set out that fine row of maples that now constitute a conspicuous ornament of the village.

On the 4th of July, 1888, a great celebration was held at Genoa, at which George H. Hill delivered an oration to an audience of over a thousand people, gathered from Rockford, Aurora, St. Charles, and all the country round. Genoa was then as large and as promising a town as any of these places. Belvidere contained only two houses, and was by no means so important a place.

Gleason, in his subsequent career, acquired an unenviable notoi'iety. Not long after his arrival, while he was boarding at Perkins' log tavern, a carpet-sack well filled with counter- feit money was found in his possession, and, the fact becoming notorious, his wealth was easily accounted for. He was a man of fine appearance, agreeable manners, fair in his dealing with his neighbors, and generally liked. He never passed bad money in his ordinary business transactions, but had it manufactured, and wholesaled it to his confederates. In 1839 one of his gang, a traveling pedlar, was arrested in Chicago, and during his confinement confessed his guilt, and implicated Gleason as one of the chiefs of his gang. Gleason was arrested, but, although the testimony of this witness had been promised, when the trial came on he could not be procured, and Gleason was set at liberty.

Not long after, a message wTas again sent from Chicago, saying that if our officers would again arrest Gleason, the evidence against him should be forthcoming. Three or four deputies wTere now duly commissioned to go to Genoa, and effect his arrest. They reached his place at midnight, and after watching till dawn, had the satisfaction of seeing him come to the door of his dwelling, when they approached and captured him. But Gleason hospitably insisted that his captors should stop and get breakfast before they started away, and they consented. Meantime, he took them out into his garden to show them his fine crop of corn, of which he was justly proud. In an instant he had disappeared in the tall corn, and for several years after was not seen in this country.

Some months after, when the evidence against him had again become unattainable, Gleason came back, and started business again. He had a store, and a saw-mill, and a fine farm, all in full operation. He had married a respectable young woman of the neighborhood.

A few years after, he became ill, and a traveling doctor, named Smitch, who had boarded in his family, and was reported to be attached to his wife, attended him. He grew worse without any evident cause. After eating one day of some porridge, prepared by his wife and the doctor, he complained that it did not taste quite right, but ate heartily, and soon after died in convulsions and delirium.

Not long after his burial, the doctor and Mrs. Gleason were arrested on a charge of murdering hiui by poison. The body was exhumed, and the contents of the stomach examined. A special term was held for their trial, but the evidence of guilt was insufficient, and they were discharged.

They were soon after married, and moved to La Salle County, where the doctor died, under circumstances that led to the suspicion that he too had been poisoned. His wife soon after died very suddenly.

Such was the miserable end of one who undoubtedly was a leader in much of the crime that disturbed the early settlers of this County. He escaped the punishment of his crimes against the law, only to meet a more terrible fate.

Genoa was established as a post-office in 1836. It was named by Madison, its first settler, who was also its first postmaster. He came from Genoa, in New York, and finding here, as there, a Geneva and Batavia, he concluded to carry out the parallel by giving it this name. For many years it was decidedly the most flourishing village in the County.

In 1848 its trade supported four large dry goods stores, each of them doing a larger trade than any other in the County. They were kept by E. A. Durham, Robert Waterman, W. H. Allen, John N. Maxfield and John Ball. There were two large, well-built taverns, kept by Henry Durham and H. N. Perkins, at which a line of stages from Elgin to Galena made a stopping place.

to enable benighted travelers to keep that road on the broad, unbroken prairie, they annually plowed up a series of parallel furrows on each side of the track, and this was about all of the road work that was done.

Genoa furnished the Union army with 100 men, and at the time of the first enrollment for a draft had already sent out sixty-eight per cent, of her arms-bearing population. Of those who lost their lives in the war were :

Tn the spring of 1835 the only human inhabitants of Kingston were the Pottawattamie Indians, who occupied a considerable village upon the farm since claimed by Lewis Driggs, and who, upon the low-lands near the Kishwaukee river, had two or three flourishing fields of corn, cultivated by the squaws, and protected from the depredations of their ponies by a shabby defence of stakes and poles.

But the report had gone abroad that the Indian occupancy of this section of country must cease with the fall of this year, and a number of white men, attracted by the story that timbered land, not claimed, could be found upon the banks of the Kishwaukee, made their way into this section, and speedily claimed all of the timber in the town. Among these first comers were: Thomas Robb, George H. Hill, Isaiah Fairclo, Harmon Miller, Lewis Driggs, John Judd, Benjamin Schoonover, James Green, Nathan Billings, and John Freel. They built for themselves rude shanties, somewhat like the Indian wigwams, of poles and bark, and lived in them until the approach of winter compelled them to erect substantial, though small, log cabins.

Mr. George H. Hill, who was always a favorite among the people of the County, for his candor, intelligence, and integrity, was stripped of his entire property this winter by the destruction of his house by fire.

Kingston, in addition to the. benefits of the rich, black, fertile soil that is common to all the land in this County, has more than one-third of its surface covered with excellent timber, and is remarkably well watered. These advantages early

But poverty and destitution were the prevalent complaints of the early inhabitants. They started in life without much property, and for many years found it difficult to acquire it.

They raised small crops. In 1837 Mr. W. A. Miller raised ten acres of corn, and he had then the largest crop in the County. Mills were to be reached only by traveling long journeys, and the people avoided this necessity by pounding corn or buckwheat in a mortar, and living upon the rough cakes made from this coarse provender. Fish was a great resource. They were taken in great abundance, and, barrelled for future use, they constituted a permanent article of diet. Gradually the new comers acquired the comforts of life, but nearly a score of years elapsed before the real hardships incident to the new settlement were ended.

An unusual proportion of the first settlers now remain upon the lands which they first occupied, and enjoy that wealth and comfort to which the hardships endured in the early times have given them the best of titles.

In April, 1860, a fearful tornado swept through the town. It was first seen as a black cloud, in tunnel shape, sweeping along at the rate of a mile a minute. Huge trees were taken up in the air, and carried oft* like straws. A house belonging to Isaac McCoy was torn in fragments, and not a stick of it was left near its former position. Even the stones of its cellar were carried off'. It was occupied by Mr. Weaver, but fortunately empty at the moment. The earth, in the course of the tornado, was swept and hollowed out so that it resembled the bed of a rapid river. Large stumps were torn out by the roots. Mr. Luke Penwell, seeing it approach, ran to avoid it; but being caught, seized a sapling, to which he clung with the energy of despair, while the wind whipped his legs around his head with great violence.

Town Of Kingston

In April, 18(32, Mr. George Magenety was killed by being shot by Asa Baldwin, a wealthy money-loaner of Belvidcre, while resisting Baldwin's attempt to take possession of some property conveyed to him by a chattel mortgage. Baldwin was arrested for murder, and lay in jail for many months ; but obtained a change of venue to Belvidere, and wras finally acquitted.

Among the dead of the war from this town were three sons of John Russell. They were : Wesley Dickson Eussell, of Company F, in the Thirteenth Infantry, R. W. Russell, of Company K, Forty-Second Illinois Infantry, who was wounded at Stone River, remained seven days on the battle-field, was then re-taken, and died of his wounds, and David F. Russell, of the Ninety-Fifth Infantry, who died at Yicksburg. Richard W. Atwood, of Company C, in the One Hundred and Fifth, lost an arm and leg at Dalton, Georgia, and after intense suffering, died two weeks after. Ira G. Burzell, of Company L, Eighth Cavalry, was drowned in the Mississippi. Arba Lankton, of the Ninety-Fifth, died in hospital at Vicksburg.

The names of a large portion of the enlisted men will be found in the roster of those regiments to which they belonged. Amoug the commissioned officers were : Colonel Lorenzo H. Whitney and Lieutenant William Whitney, of the Eighth Cavalry, Lieutenant William Hill, of the Ninety-Fifth Infantry, Lieutenant John Hickman, of the Ninety-Fifth, and Captain J. W. Foster, of the Forty-Second Infantry, who was desperately wounded and reported dead, but survived to suffer the horrors of a rebel prison. The story of his sufferings, escapes, re-captures, and final flight to the Union lines, is of thrilling interest.

A small hamlet, called Stewartville, consisting of a store, post-office, wagon and blacksmith shop, and a handsome Masonic hall, is the only village in the town.

Among the many wealthy farmers of the town, Messrs. N. Saum and John and James Russell have been long noted for the encouragement they have given to the Agricultural Societies, and for their noble herds of high-bred Devon cattle. There are three good churches in Kingston, at which public worship has for many years been regularly maintained by the Methodist denomination.

Franklin

This town, the northwesternmost of the County, contains more running streams and a larger surface of timbered land than any other town in the County. It has also some quarries of stone, mostly a soft, inferior limestone, which is used for building, and is also converted into very good lime.

Andrew and William Miles and Samuel Corey were probably the first settlers in the town They came in 1836, following close upon the footsteps of the Indians, who had been removed but a year before. Mr. Miles brought the first fruit trees, and the fine orchard on the Humphreys place was a part of this first importation.

Hicks' mills were built in 1837, by the Hicks brothers and Gilchrist. They did both the sawing and grinding. The water-power wras pretty good, and the mills have been in use till this day. In 1838 these mills were kept busy in sawing lumber to build the new town of Kishwaukee, which was projected and designed to be an important place. It was located at the mouth of the Kishwaukee river. Several buildings were constructed, stores, shops, etc., started, but the town never acquired any considerable size, and is now abandoned*.

The early settlers were all quite poor; indeed, many of them were thriftless and improvident. Some, who are now wealthy, subsisted for the most of the time, during their first residence, principally upon suckers, which they caught in immense numbers in the neighboring streams.

The builders of the mill were desperately poor, and when their land came in market, they were unable to purchase the title to their mills, and they became the property of Dr. Hobart. lie was a marked character, - a man of much general information, - and thoroughly educated, and enthusiastic in his profession, of fine appearance, and possessing great ambition, he played a prominent part in the affairs of the town in its early history, and acquired a large amount of property ; but, to the surprise of all who knew him, died of deliriumtremens at last.

This township, with the other two which form the northern tier of the County, was surveyed and put in market some five years earlier than the twelve towns south of it. This accounts for the fact that the survey lines do not coincide with those of the towns below it.

Very little of the land, however, was entered at this early date. It was held by means of claim associations, composed of men who Avere banded together to lynch any one who should enter lands held by claim title. In 1845 Dr. Hobart was President of such an association. Its by-laws provided that any person entering land claimed by any of its members soould be compelled to deed it back to the claimant, on payment of the price ($1.25 per acre) paid for entry, or should pay the claimant the same sum, in addition to what he had already paid the government, and take the property. This association, holding vast tracts in this manner, kept many who otherwise would have become permanent residents from settling there.

Many of the first settlers of the town were from the Southern States. Among them were William T. Kirk, one of the most extensive and wealthiest of the farmers in the County, and who has borne a prominent part in its political affairs ; Spencer Myers, an energetic, wealthy farmer : the Riddles, men distinguished for sound judgment and good sense ; and the Rowins, extensive, spirited, and wealthy farmers.

Town Of Franklin

town, came from New Hampshire in 1844. He bought a fine farm of one hundred and forty-four acres for one thousand dollars, and has since added largely to its extent. At that time most of the town was not settled, or entered. There was but one house between Kingsbury's grove and the little town of Belvidere.

Thomas J. Humphrey, a gentleman of education and culture, and a lawyer by profession, came in 1848. He died soon after his arrival, leaving a large family of children. The eldest male member of this family was Thomas W. Humphrey, Avho was then but eight years of age. Although left thus early, struggling with the hardships of frontier life in Illinois, he acquired a superior education for his circumstances, passed through the scientific course at Beloit college, subsequently became deputy Circuit Clerk of He Kalb County, married at twenty-one, and purchased the Humphrey homestead. He was always a bold, brave, ventursome youth, whose intelligence, integrity, and manliness of character made every one his friend. He crossed the plains to California in 1861, and on the expedition heroically rescued a wrounded emigrant and his family from a tribe of hostile Indians.

Returning in 1862, he raised a company of volunteers from about the borders of De Kalb, Boone and McIIenry Counties. This company was made a part of the 95th Illinois Infantry, of which he was chosen Lieutenant-Colonel. Devoting himself with characteristic ardor to his new profession, he was from the first really its first officer.

At the storming of Vicksburg, on the 19th and 22nd of May, 1863, he was wounded on the first day, but, continuing at the head of the regiment, was on the 22nd stunned by the explosion of a shell, and reported killed, but crawled back to camp in the night.

At the disastrous battle of Guntown he lost his life, and with that loss the army lost one of its most distinguished and most fearless officers, and De Kalb County one of the most heroic of her sons.

His body was returned to Franklin, and beneath the grand old oaks of the family home the largest concourse ever assembled in the town gathered to honor the memory of their martyred hero, by one of the grandest of funeral ceremonies.

A younger brother of General Humphrey, Captain James Humphrey, enlisted early in the war as private, in the Eighth Cavalry, and fought his way up to a Captaincy.

Of the ninety-nine men enlisted from this town seven became commissioned officers. They were, in addition to those mentioned, Captain John B. Nash, Lieutenants Hiram Harrington, Samuel Williamson, John M. Schoonmaker, and John W. Burst, all of the One Hundred and Fifth. Lieutenant Burst first entered the Fifteenth Infantry, but lost his sight while on duty in Missouri, by the poison of a scorpion. After nearly six months of blindness, he recovered; and, full of ardor for the great cause, he re-enlisted in the One Hundred and Fifth, and after two years faithful service at the battle of New Hope church, he lost his leg, which was three times amputated before it finally healed.

Toavn Of Franklin

A terrible tornado passed through the northern portion of the town of Franklin on one Sunday in May, 1853. It prostrated immense trees, fences, buildings, and everything that stood in its course. The first house struck was Mr. John Youngs'. It was a large building, but in an instant it was lifted up, shattered to splinters, and considerable parts of it carried off' so far that they were never found. Mrs. Young was killed instantly. The residence of Mr. Ira Dean was next struck. It was torn in pieces ; and a lady relative, who chanced to be visiting there, had her back broken, and died soon after. In a chamber were two boys, engaged in playing cards. Both were blown out of the window, but not seriously injured. Several other houses were unroofed, and some barns destroyed.

In 1860 another tornado passed through the central portion of the town, passing, like the former, from the southwest to the northeast. It carried off one house, of which the occupants were absent, and twisted off and carried away huge trees, which could never after be found. Some electric force seemed to be at work in this terrible gale. It tore the ironwork from tools and machinery, and played numberless strange pranks.

Upon Mr. Charles Buckman's place may be seen a curious relic of the Indians. It is a stout stick of timber, about eight inches square, hewn out so as to resemble an Indian with four faces. It is reported to be an Indian idol.

The population of the town was 837 in 1855, 936 in 1860, and 951 in 1865. The town was organized under the present form of government in 1850.

This pleasant farming town, with its pretty name, so suggestive of green fields, May-flowers, and all of the beauties of spring-time, was first settled in 1835. The valuable timbered lands upon the shore of the Kishwaukee, which courses along its eastern border, early attracted settlers, and it was claimed and occupied by adventurous white men even before the departure of the Indians. A large Indian village then occupied the present site of Coltonville.

John Tower, John Thorn, Morris and Erasmus D. Walrod, James and Samuel Gilbert, Ira Douglas, Robert Graham, James McCollum, and Henry Madden, were among the first to occupy this very attractive section of the County ; but with them were a number of rough fellows, who made claims of great extent for the purpose of selling them out, and who defied the regulations of the claim association, and kept up a war which drove emigrants away.

Stephen Mowry first settled the place afterwards purchased by Rufus Colton, and which, a few years after, was known as Coltonville. This, about 1838, became a smart little village, at which the courts of the County were first held, and which it was supposed would be the County Seat. Mr. Cox, Mr. Peaslee, Spafford and Curtis Smith, Phineas Stevens, and Timothy Richardson, first settled this southern portion of

Dr. Henry Madden, an active and intelligent citizen at Brush Point, was the first Representative to the Legislature from this district, and labored hard to secure the location of the County Seat at his place.

Town Of Mayfield

A distillery was built by Phineas Stevens and Rufus Colton in 1840, but it never was a source of much profit. The proprietors couldn't prevent their fattening swine from getting drunk ; and when Stevens finally barreled them up, took them one hundred and fifty miles north to the pinery for a market, and then obtained only two cents a pound for his pork, the distillery was abandoned.

The little village at Coltonville gradually declined, its buildings were removed, and now the entire town contains no village, nor even a post-office, being better accommodated for these purposes by the neighboring village of Sycamore.

Liberty was the name given to the town upon its organization in 1850. It was selected by the Townsends, Nichols', and Nickersons, - those earnest, active members of the Liberty party of those times, who were neither ashamed nor afraid to be known as station-agents on the underground railroads, - but the name had probably been previously given to other townships; for a few months after, it was changed to Mayfield.

Deer, wolves, and massasaugers (or the prairie rattlesnakes), were particularly numerous in the first years of its settlement. In the autumn of 1837, Mr. Godfrey Carnes killed twenty-five deer on his farm, and one new comer was startled, on finishing up the center furrow on a ten-acre "land" which he was breaking, to find twenty-five lively massasaugers hissing and rattling their warnings at him.

The town was kept in a broil for many years by claim jumpers; but when the claim wars were settled by the perfection of their titles through purchase from government, and the claims of the rival points for the seat of justice had been disposed of, the affairs of the town moved on the even tenor of their way. with perfect quiet. The old settlers gradually acquired the comforts of life, the outlying prairie became settled, and the country increased in population and wealth.

Mayfield sent 103 men to fight the slaveholders' rebellion, and scarcely any town in the County was more prompt in responding to the calls of the government.

The first religious meetings in the County were held in Mayfield, by the Methodists, and for a year or two they were held regularly at Mr. Ira Douglas' house. They were subsequently continued at the school houses ; and in 1860 a fine church was built at Pleasant Hill, by that denomination, the inhabitants contributing with unusual liberality for its construction.

South Grove

This township, which was organized in 1850, was first called Vernon. It had previously been known as Driscoll's Grove ; but the name it now bears was, soon after its organization, agreed upon by the settlers.

It is considered one of the best farming towns in De Kalb County. The land is very pleasantly undulating; the subsoil seems peculiarly adapted for the drainage of the surface, and vegetation is early and rapid. There is scarcely an acre of waste land within its borders.

A pleasant little stream of water, called Owen's Creek, following a meandering course, passes nearly through its whole length, rising in the southeast portion, and flowing towards the northwest, where, in the adjoining town of Franklin, it empties into the Kishwaukee river, In its course the stream widens several times, forming miniature lakes, which, in the warm season of the year, with their wide borderings of deep green, the many flocks of water-fowl, hovering high above them, or settling down into the clear waters where the pickerel and a variety of smaller fry abound, form pictures, not only very attractive to the lover of nature, but to the eye of the sportsman and angler.

Uniting the two groves, and running away over the prairie, on the one hand to Brodie's Grove, and the other to the Kishwaukee timber, the early settlers found the Indian trail over which, it is said, Big Thunder sometimes led his braves, more than once making the larger of the two groves a place of temporary encampment. But the deer had well-nigl1 'lis- appeared before the bowstring of the dusky hunter had snapped for the last time in these regions, though the howl of the prairie wolf has, until within a few years, been almost nightly heard.

On the borders of the creek are two bodies of fine timber, one, called Orput's grove, containing about sixty acres, and the other, South Grove, formerly called Driscoll's grove, of three hundred, or more, acres.

The groves abound in a variety of wild fruits : the native plum, sometimes very sweet and rich, the wild crab and thorn apples, the mandrake, gooseberry, etc.. and nuts of various kinds.

In 1851 Ichabod liichmond, an erratic, though enterprising genius, built a saw-mill and grist-mill on Owen's Creek, in section twenty-six ; but a quantity of water sufficient to operate it was never found, except in the time of a freshet. A similar experiment, and with like success, was made by Mr. Barney Hatch, farther down the stream.

The first settlements in this town Avere on the east side of the grove, and as late as in 1858, though portions of land, scattered wide apart, had been pre-empted and purchased of the government, the most of the inhabitants were still in the neighborhood of the grove, and it was a question whether these broad prairies, destitute of timber or surface water, would ever be converted into farms.

In 1853, when it became certain that a railroad would be built near, or through, the town, the land speculators became purchasers of nine-tenths of what remained in government hands, entering with land-warrants which were bought at eighty cents, or less, per acre, - lands which are now worth, with the improvements made upon them, thirty or forty dollars per acre.

During the past five years nearly all of this land has been purchased of these speculators, and made into farms, leaving but very little unbroken prairie ; but no village has ever existed in this rich, long-settled, and flourishing town.

Town Of South Grove. 4G9

The population of South Grove is made up of several nationalities. The majority of the present inhabitants were originally from the State of New York; a few came from New England ; and the foreigners are Scotch, English, and Irish ; there are, also, a few families of German descent.

In 1838 came the first settler, William Driscoll, from Ohio, who built him a log cabin on the east side of the grove, near the spot where is now situated the pleasant residence of his estimable widow and her son. He was followed by his father and brothers. The subsequent career of these men, and their tragic fate, will be found, described at length, in a foregoing chapter.

The second arrival was also from Ohio, - Mr. Solomon Wells, - who purchased of Driscoll the south end of the grove - a hundred acres or more - for sixty dollars. He was entitled, of course, to all the adjacent prairie he chose to claim.

In 1841 - -there were then six families of actual settlers - came Mr. James Byers, Mr. Tindall, and Mr. Benjamin Worden; and in 1843, Mr. Jonathan Adee and Mr. Matthew Thompson, - the four families, Byers, Worden, Adee, and Thompson, emigrating from the same neighborhood in "York State" ; and they and Mr. Tindall still remain on the same farms they first purchased. These early settlers, by their industry, enterprise, and good management, have given tone and character to the town. Their married sons and daughters have, with few exceptions, settled not far from the old homesteads.

In 1846 Mr. John S. Brown purchased the Beeman place, on the northwest side of the grove, and settled there with his family. He became a prominent actor in politics of the town and County, and in 1862 assisted in the raising of a company of soldiers for the Fifty-Second regiment. He was made Captain, but soon resigned his commission.

In 1845 came the Safford family, and settled in the east part of the town. Mr. Henry Safford, belonging to the dominant party in politics, has been twice elected sheriff' of the County; and a nephew, - who, with a brother, came to the town several years later, both enlisting in the One Hundred and Fifth regiment, both afterwards created Captains, and both dangerously wounded in battle, - was elected sheriff* of the County in 1868.

After that the emigration was more rapid ; the llickard and Becker families in the west part of the town ; the McLellan and Mason families in the north; E. Currier in the east; and in the south several families from New England.

The first school in South Grove was taught by Mr. James Byers, senior, who furnished a school house for his twenty-five pupils, - the second room in his double log cabin, - and boarded himself, for ten dollars per month. A dollar was a dollar in those days, for it would buy twenty pounds of coffee in Chicago; but Mr. Byers' salary was paid in potatoes "and such."

The young men and women about the grove will never forget that school, - how the kind, genial voice of the teacher, softening down its rugged Scotch, cheered them over the frightful Alps of "a, b, ab," and "two times one are two," - how the eyes were always blind to any fun, and the laugh was ever as long and loud as that of the merriest urchin. No wonder that those boys and girls, a portion of them, "played the mischief" with some of the teachers who succeeded this model one.

The first school house was erected in the grove. It was of logs, but nicely built, and considered quite a capacious one; though it was, after a time, pretty well filled with its sixty scholars. It was twenty by twenty-two feet, and well lighted,

Town Of South Grove

The second school house was built on a fine site donated to the district by Mr. James Byers, senior, in 1854, and in 1868 another, - a very pleasant and commodious one, the former having been destroyed by fire, - was erected in the same place.

There are now seven schools in the town, all furnished with comfortable school houses. The number of pupils in the districts in 1868 is 248 ; and the amount paid to teachers is $834.31. Total expenditures for school purposes for the year ending September 30, 1868, $1676.97.

During the time when a large portion of the land belonged to speculators, the people adopted a shrewd device for building their school houses with slight cost to the inhabitants. They attached the sections thus owned, successively, to every district which wished to build a school house, promising the few scattered inhabitants that the taxes levied on them should be refunded by contributions out of their own pockets. Then levying the highest possible taxes on the speculators' lands, they supplied themselves, cheaply, with school buildings, astonishing the said speculators, who could not understand how they were taxed, for several successive years, for the construction of those buildings, and yet have not one within miles of their lands.

Churches are yet to be built, - the people, sume of them at least, evidently thinking, with Horace Greeley, that it is best for a man to attend first to the business of the world he lives in.

There are now two religious bodies in town. The Methodist church was organized in 1855 by Rev. Mr. Jennings, a man of good abilities, and evidently a very sincere and devoted Christian. This church and Sabbath-school holds its religious services in No. 1 school house. The Advent church, with which is also connected a Sabbath-school, was organized

A great camp-meeting was held at the grove in 1860, at which leading ministers from abroad addressed vast audiences, and much religious interest was aroused. At a much earlier day there were occasional religious revivals, which were re markable for the great earnestness exhibited by the converts among that primitive population ; and, it may be added, by extraordinary and exciting scenes in their meetings.

Among many anecdotes still related, with great gusto, is the following: A very worthy, but previously profane, convert, rising; to his feet to urge his hearers to greater zeal and earnestness in religious duty, fell, unconsciously, into his old mode of expression, and exclaimed:

''Brethren, I like to see a man, if he pretends to be a man, to be a h-11 of a man ; and if he pretends to be a Christian, to be a h-11 of a Christian !"

The first post-office was established in 1841, called the South Grove Post-office, the postmasters of which, have been, successively, Timothy Wells, James Byers, senior, II. Safford, E. Currier, Jonathan x\dee, and Mrs. E. A. Palmer.

The second one was established in 1858, called Deerfield Prairie Post-office ; postmaster, P. Waterman, succeeded by Mr. Wiltse ; and Dustin Post-office, established in 1868, - Henry Crisman, postmaster.

Hotels are things of the past, but they Avere "institutions" in their day, when the St. Charles and Oregon State Road, running through South Grove nearly at its centre, was the great highway of the region, and traveled by teams heavily loaded with grain, even from so far west as the Mississippi river.

One of the hotels, that which stands on the farm of Mr. Masterson, and occupied by him as a dwelling house, was kept, for a while, by Mr. Beeman. It is still in a good state of preservation, especially the hall, which was dedicated to the goddess Terpsichore ; and many a resident of De Kalb County will remember, as long as he lives, the pleasant gatherings at Beeman's, when what was wanting in elegance was made up in merriment.

The other was kept by Mr. Adee, near the grove ; and it is not to be wondered at that that gentleman is now so well off in life, when it is remembered how exorbitant were his charges, - forty or forty-five cents being required for only supper, lodging, breakfast, and hay for a span of horses or a yoke of oxen.

But while the hotels were so well patronized, it was a hard time for the farmers. Again and again the teamsters who had taken the loads of grain - the product of the whole season's hard toil - over that long, weary way to Chicago, would not bring back money enough even to pay their trifling bills, - a few groceries, a little bundle of cloth, perhaps a pair or two of cheap shoes, besides food for their families, being all the avails of a year's hard stragglings. But the men and women of this region put their shoulders to the wheel, and called upon the gods ; and by-and-by Hercules came, in the form of a railroad.

And then, very speedily, the prairie fires went out; for the lands which they had swept over, in the autumn of so many years, were being crossed here and there by '"highways and hedges"; and dwelling houses, not very imposing structures many of them, but vastly superior to the log cabin, and built with reference to the addition which would soon appear, in the shape of a handsome front, with stables, and young orchards, and a variety of fruit-bearing shrubs and shade-trees, were springing up in all directions.

The log cabins of the earlier settlers had then mostly disappeared, and the dwellings were being enlarged and improved; new stables were being built, the old "Virginia rail-fence" was fast disappearing, and the town was losing its uncomfortable look of newness.

At the present time South Grove has many well-enclosed and highly cultivated farms; commodious, pleasant dwelling houses, and large and convenient stables and granaries; fine, bearing orchards, and handsome shade-trees. In 1868 about one hundred miles of hedge were set in town, and hedging is just commenced.

In 1857 it was estimated that more than 100,000 bushels of wheat were raised in this town; and in the third year after, the yield was supposed to be still greater ; though it is not thought, by the best informed farmers, that wheat-raising is a remunerative business.

Since I860 other cereals, with grass seed and flax, have been more extensively grown, and stock-raising has considerably increased, the farmers every year improving their breeds by the introduction of fine, blooded animals.

The population of South Grove in 1855 was 400; in I860, 662 ; in 1865, 789. It is credited upon the records of the State with 103 soldiers furnished for the great war. The town raised by taxation for war purposes $11,127.

Sycamore

The annals of the County, whose incidents naturally group themselves about the County Seat, have already given a pretty full history of this town. It is a pleasant town, unusually favored by nature with an abundance of timber and running streams. Its soil is particularly rich, black and unctuous, destitute of sand or gravel, and hardly as productive as that of some other portions of the County. This may, however, be due to its having been longer tilled; for when Erasmus Walrod first came here, in 1835, he raised ninety bushels of corn to the acre, on the upturned prairie sod.

The first settler of the town was probably Lysander Darling, who came in 1835. Dr. Norbo, a Norwegian, came the same year, and claimed Norwegian grove, which thus received its name. Also, Mr. Chartres, a Frenchman, who gave name to Chartres' grove. J. C. Kellogg, E. F. White, Zechariah Wood, and Peter Lamois, were also among those who made their homes within the borders of what now constitutes this township, in this first year of its settlement by the whites.

In 1836 the New York Company, composed of Christian Sharer, a wealthy New Y^orker, Evans Wherry, Clark Wright, and Mark Daniels, under the firm name of C. Sharer & Co., claimed two square miles of land, running from Marshall Starks' farm on the north to the south line of the town. They laid out a village plot at the north of the creek, damned the Kishwaukee river, built a mill, enclosed with a hi^h, heavy rail fence a tract sixty rods wide and two miles lon<>-

This was in the flush times, when wild-cat money in abundance filled every ones pockets, and the speedy growth of great cities in the west was confidently expected.

When these bubbles had burst, and hard times came on, the company, although they had expended a large amount of money, abandoned their claim, dissolved their co-partnership, and never "entered" their land.

The old town of Sycamore, north of the creek, consisted of two or three log cabins, in some of which Esquire Jewell kept a blacksmith and wagon shop, and J. C. and Charles Waterman kept a store. It was abandoned next year for the higher land where the present village of Sycamore stands.

Captain Eli Barnes built the first house in this village, - the large tavern now the Sycamore Hotel. The construction of so extensive a structure was considered a wild, extravagant expenditure of his means; but it did much to establish the town, and retain the County Seat, which it was then thought would soon be removed. The Captain was full of zeal for the welfare of this village, and for years labored, perhaps more than any other man, to secure friends and votes to counteract the numerous efforts to procure the removal of the seat of justice.

A little framed house had before this been moved down from the Hamlin farm, and was occupied by Dr. Barrett, the first physician of the place. It stood, till 1855, where D. B. James subsequently built a handsome residence, and was then burned down, on suspicion that it had been used for the sale of liquor.

The old Court House was built in 1889, nearly opposite the present structure, and in 1840 the dreary little village consisted of a dozen houses, scattered over considerable land, but without fences, and with but one well.

Town Of Sycamore Sycamore In 1840

A Congregational church was organized in 1840 with eleven members, and, with Rev. David Perry for pastor, held services in the Court House. Captain Barnes gave the church the lot on which their handsome church edifice now stands, and the building was erected in 1844, but not completed till two years after. A Methodist church was built the same year, on a lot given by Carlos Lattin. The Episcopal church was built in 1856, and the Baptists, Universalists, and Roman Catholics, built churches two or three years after.

Eli G. Jewell and Captain Barber did most of the law business for many years; but in 1841 Andrew J. Brown opened an office, - the first regular lawyer. He was succeeded by Mr. Masters, and he, in 1842, by E. L. Mayo. W. J. Hunt practiced law here in 1844. There were then eighteen houses in Sycamore.

Much of the land now included in the village was still owned by government in 1848. During that year, Mr. J. S. Waterman entered his fine farm, and W. J. Hunt took up a half-section north and east of the village.

In 1855 there were in Sycamore six dry goods stores, two hardware stores, two cabinet ware-rooms, one drug store, four grocery and provision stores, two saloons, three taverns, one banking and exchange office, two wagon shops, one livery stable, two harness shops, two tin shops, one jeweler shop, three shoe shops, four blacksmith shops, one shingle manufactory, one tailor shop, one meat market, one cooper shop, seven lawyers, four physicians, ten carpenters, four painters, three circulating libraries, three churches, and one steam saw-mill. The population of the township at this time was 1646.

In 1858 Mr. D. B. James erected the fine brick block now called George's block, which was dedicated with an old-settiers' celebration and festival. During the same winter a series of interesting lectures were delivered there by Horace Greeley, Bayard Taylor, George Sumner, and other distinguished speakers.

expense to the citizens, for the times were hard and money scarce; but it has proved a source of great advantage to the business and growth of the town, which has steadily Nourished and increased from that time to the present. The receipts of the road, which were only $4500 in 1860, have increased to over $12,000 in 1867.

The village of Sycamore is one of the most attractive of its size in the western country. It contains many fine residences, and a population wealthy, enterprising, and remarkably social.

Among its leading citizens are the brothers Waterman, five of whom have, at times, resided here, and been among its most active business men, since the first settlement of the County. Mr. James S. Waterman, the first merchant in the place, and the first banker in the County, has become its wealthiest citizen, and his elegant mansion has ever been the seat of an hospitality almost unlimited.

Of the Ellwood family of six sturdy brothers, noted for unbounded energy and enterprise, shrewdness and bonhomie, four have resided here, and two at De Kalb. Mr. Reuben Ellwood was a citizen of the place in 1838, but subsequently removed to New York, where he filled some important public positions. He was presented as the candidate of this County for Congress, in 1868.

Hon. E. L. Mayo, a lawyer of marked ability, moved to this place from Vermont in 1842, has held many public offices, and was a candidate for Congress in 1854.

Hon. D. B. James, formerly a lawyer in Lyndon, Vermont, removed to this place from California in 1852. He built a number of the best buildings in the place; has been an especially active member of the Republican party of the County since its organization; was appointed Aid-de-Camp to Governor Oglesby, with the rank of Colonel, delegate to th< National Convention of 1864, and was chosen Judge of the County Court in 1865.

Vermont, removed to California in 1850; was a member of the Legislature of that State; moved to Sycamore in 1856; raised a company for Farnsworth's Cavalry in 1862; was chosen Colonel of the One Hundred and Fifth Infantry in 1863; served two years as commander of a brigade, and made one of the most faithful and popular officers in the service.

General Charles Waite, one of six worthy sons of Hon. Daniel Waite, of Sycamore, enlisted, at twenty-three years of age, as a private in the Twenty-Seventh Michigan Infantry, fought his way up to the Colonelcy of that rough, ungovernable band of miners, whom he alone ever succeeded in reducing to proper discipline, was severely wounded in service in Virginia, and received the star of the Brigadier for gallantry displayed in the battle of the Wilderness.

General Charles Stolbrand, a Colonel in the revolutionary forces of Sweeden, and an eminently skilful military officer, was engaged in making an abstract of titles to the land of this County when the war broke out. He raised a company of artillery in this County, which, under command of Captain John W. Lowell, did excellent service in the Second Illinois Artillery. General Stolbrand was speedily promoted to Chief of the Artillery in the Army of the Tennessee, and he, with General Tom Humphrey, of this County, bore the reputation of being the coolest, bravest officers in that army. He is now a resident of Beaufort, South Carolina.

General E. F. Dutton enlisted, at twenty-two years of age, in Company F, of the Thirteenth Infantry, of which he was made First Lieutenant. In 1863 he was chosen Major of the One Hundred and Fifth, rose to the rank of Lieutenant- Colonel, and served through the war with that regiment. He was brevetted Brigadier for gallantry on the march to Atlanta, and in the battle of Goldsboro, North Carolina.

Sycamore is credited on the State record with 307 men furnished for the suppression of armed rebellion. Many gave their lives to their country, and many have returned maimed and crippled ; but the record of casualties is not now attainable.

Of the Supervisors of this town, Dr. James Harrington served from its organization in 1850 until 1856, when E. L. Mayo was elected. D. B. James succeeded him, serving in 1857-58 ; James Harrington followed in 1859-60-61 ; Roswell Dow in 1862-63-04; Samuel Alden in 1865-66; Henry Wood in 1867; and N. S. Cottreil in 1868.

In 1858 the village of Sycamore was incorporated, and in accordance with the provisions of its charter, has been represented upon the Board of Supervisors by the President of its Board of Trustees. These have been: For 1850, E. L. Mayo; 1860, C. M. Brown; 1861, Alonzo Ellwood ; 1802, C. O. Boynton ; 1863, Alonzo Ellwood ; 1864-65, Charles Kellum ; 1866, Luther Lowell ; 1867-68, C. O. Boynton

It was on one mild day in October, 1835, that a party of emigrants, pushing rapidly northward from Ottawa, on the line of an Indian trail, and traveling after darkness had set in, suddenly, and to their surprise, found themselves in the midst of an Indian village, situated on what is now Section Three, in the town of Cortland. They halted for the night, and in the morning, pleased with the appearance of the country, proceeded to make claims, and ultimately to build houses, and surround themselves with some of the comforts of the pioneers' home.

The party consisted of George W. and Isaac Gandy, John and Perry Ellet, David Wood, and Henry Smith, with their families, who thus became the first settlers of this township. They lived for the winter in close and peaceful proximity to the Indians, a few of whom remained in the grove, and in the spring they were joined by a considerable number of new settlers. These were the Springs, Crossetts, Hale Perry, Norcutts, Alvin Dayton, Kites, Dowries, Osgoods, Ralph Wyman, John Champlin, Peter Young, and Elias Hartman. They all settled as near as possible to the borders of the Ohio Grove, which gained its name from the fact that most of the new comers were from Ohio, and which borders the eastern line of the township.

A small grove in the centre of the town, which had the appearance of having strayed away from the main body of timber, and which, for this reason, was named Lost Grove, was claimed at an early date by James and Joseph Roberts, two old bachelors, who for many years entertained travelers in their little log house, fourteen feet square; but most of the remainder of the town remained unsettled and the property of the government until about 1852, when a number of dwellings were built on the open prairie, and the population of the town was considerably increased. A Baptist church was built near the grove during this year.

About this time a little village of a half-dozen houses, with a tavern, a store, and the usual shops and dwellings, was commenced at Luce's Corners, a half-mile south of the present location of the village of Cortland; but most of the buildings were subsequently moved to the railroad station.

The railroad was built in 1853, and a smart little village soon grew up around the station. But its prospects seem to have been not considered brilliant, for in the following year the railroad company bought the farm of Marcenus Hall, upon which the eastern part of the village now stands, at ten dollars per acre, and laid out a village upon it; and when, in the terrible storm of the following winter, Mr. S. L. Porter, one of their engineers, had his leg crushed, while endeavoring to force his engine through a snow-bank in this vicinit}% the company made him a present of the village. The Hersha farm, upon which Artlipp's and Croft's additions were laid out, was sold about this time at twenty-five dollars per acre. In 1856 a very lively village had been built up, inhabited by a smart, enterprising population, among whom were a good many young men, full of enterprise and full of fun.

But the hard times of 1857 checked its prosperity, and the construction of the Sycamore and Cortland Railroad in 1858 cut off some of the grain trade from the north. Its increase has not been rapid since that time.

The population of the township in 1855 was 1182; in 1860, 1298; and in 1865, 1324. Only the three towns of Somonauk, De Kalb, and Sycamore, have a larger population, or a larger amount of taxable property.

Crossett, from the resemblance of its prairies to the pampas or plains of South America. In 1864 this name was changed by the Legislature to Cortland, the name of its village and postal station.

The first school house in the town was a log hut, built in Ohio Grove about 1838, and the first teacher was Rev. Castle Churchill, who was succeeded by Miss Mary Ann Hamlin.

In 1866 the spacious and elegant edifice, a view of which is here inserted, was built by the village of Cortland. Its cost was $7000. It is a conspicuous ornament to the town, and honors the enterprise and liberality of its people.

Cortland gave liberally, of the best blood of her township, to the country, in the defence of the flag, when traitors assailed it. One hundred and thirty-four of her sons enlisted in the Union army, and the names of sixteen who lost their lives in the service have been preserved. These are :

Ruthven and Alonzo Russell, Robert Close, W. Stark, and Charles Plopper, the date and place of whose death is not ascertained ; Spafibrd Deford, who died at Savannah, Georgia, January 20, 1865 ; John Young, at Camp Nelson, Kentucky, March 5th, 1864 ; Charles F. Bannister, at Alexandria, Virginia, April 11, 1863 ; Charles V. Peck, at Ringgold, Georgia, March 27, 1864; Oliver Wilson, at Shiloh, July 6, 1862: Emery Marshall, at Beardstown, Kentucky, December 6, 1862 ; George H. Gould, at Nashville, Tennessee, November 4, 1853; T. D. Packard, at Shiloh, April 6, 1862; W. II. Rose, at Kingston, Georgia, January 6, 1864 ; and Morris R. Wilson, at Corinth, Tennessee, June 23, 1862. The last mentioned was but a lad of fifteen, when a rebel bullet ended his career.

When an apprenticed lad in Chenango County, N. Y., he twice ran away to enlist in the Mexican war, but his regiment was not admitted to service. Removing to Cortland in 1856, he eno-ao-ed in the grain trade, and worked as a mason, until, at the first breaking out of the war, he raised a number of recruits, and enlisted in Company F, of the Thirteenth Infantry. After two years of very hard service, during most of which time he commanded that company, the regiment was thrown into the terrible abyss of fire and death which met the first assault on Vicksburg; and there he lost his right arm, and was fearfully wounded in the thigh.

The village of Cortland was incorporated in 1800, and T. T. Peck in 1807, and John King in 1868, have, jas President of its Board of Trustees, been members of the Board of Supervisors.

The town of De Kalb, located near the centre of the County, is second to none other in the County in its natural advantages, and in its prospects for future growth and wealth.

The surface of the town, like the remainder of the County, is mostly occupied by handsome rolling prairie; hut, unlike some others, it is favored with a handsome stream, - the head waters of one branch of the Kishwaukee, - and is liberally supplied with timber from an extensive grove bordering this stream, formerly known far and wide as Huntley's Grove.

The first settlers of this township were John B. Collins and Norman C. Moore. Collins settled the farm now owned by Captain Burpee, and Moore made a claim a mile or two north of him. They came in the spring of 1S:> ">, and during that summer all of the timbered land in the town was claimed. McClellan claimed the south end of the grove afterward held by Mr. Huntley. James Cox claimed a farm now owned by C. W. Marsh, and James Paisley the place on which some of his family now reside.

There was a large Indian village at Coltonville, on the northern border of this township, but during this fall they were removed beyond the Mississippi.

It was probably a, company of United States mounted troops, engaged in assembling these Indians at their rendezvous at PawPaw Grove, preparatory to removal, that passed along the east side of the grove during this fall, and camped for the night on the site of the present village of De Kalb.

While here, one of their number attempted to desert, and he paid McClellan a sum of money to secrete him; but beingthreatened by the officer in command, McClellan gave him up again, and he was tied to the rear of the army wagon, and dragged on foot through the remainder of the route. The neighbors, indignant at McClellan's treachery, threatened to lynch him, and he was obliged to fly the country to secure his safety.

In the autumn of 1835, Messrs. Jcnks & Co. claimed the land now occupied by Albert Schryvcr, damned the creek, built a mill, and projected a town in the vicinity. The streams were much larger then than now, and it was thought that the water-power would be of permanent value ; but a dry summer or two convinced them of their mistake, and they never completed their proposed village.

In February, 1837, Mr. Russell Huntley, representing a company of capitalists, who designed to build mills and carry on farming, moved to the south end of the grove, and bought the claim of James Root, who had succeeded McClellan. Wild-cat money was plenty then, and claims sold at higher prices than they would bring ten years after. Mr. Huntley bought all of the south part of the grove, paying $5300 to the several claimants. His purchase embraced about five hundred acres of woodland, and as much of the prairie as he chose to call his own. As it seemed desirable, however, that each should know where his line was, he made an agreement with the Brodics, of Brodic's Grove, about ten miles west of him, that the division line between them should be half way between the two groves: and he made a similar verbal arrangement with the inhabitants of Shabbona Grove on the south.

In the autumn of 183(3 was the first election held in the County. It was held in Captain Eli Barnes' house, in this town, and the voters came from all parts of the County. It was an election for Justice of the Teacc. Mr. Samuel Miller, of Squaw Grove, relates that ten dollars was sent down to him by one of the candidates to pay him for bringing up ten voters, and that these ten voters carried this election. It was

After the first two years, settlers came in very rarely. Hard times came on, money became very scarce, the people grew poor; and in 184-3, when the land, for the claims to which they had paid such liberal prices, came in market, most of them found great difficulty in raising the money to enter it. As late as 1850, Mr. Huntley was offering half of the land upon which De Kalb village now stands to any man who would furnish $1.25 per acre to enter it.

For nearly twenty years he kept an excellent tavern at this place, and in the busy season it was constantly crowded by teamsters from the Avest, as far as the Mississippi river, who were on their way to Chicago with grain. The proceeds of the load, oftentimes, did not pay the expenses of drawing to market. For this reason, thousands of bushels of excellent wheat raised in this town were fed to cattle without threshing. This poverty among the people continued until the railroad was built through, in 1853.

In 1850 the township was organized, with the name of Orange, and Thomas M. Hopkins was chosen its first Supervisor. In that year the first store in the place was opened by J. M. Goodell, in one end of the dwelling now owned by Rufus Hopkins. In 1852, J. S. Waterman and Alvah Cartwright started another, and they, with Goodell and Ruby's store, Huntley's tavern, and a blacksmith's shop, constituted the village in 1853, when the railroad was built, revolutionizing the business affairs of the country. After this, a large and flourishing village was speedily built up at this place. Its progress was remarkable. Houses sprang up as by magic. The nei^hboringr farmers who visited it one month would hardly recognize the place when they visited it the next. Mr. Huntley sold part of his land to three directors of the railroad company, - Holland, Robinson, and Van Nortwick, - and they together laid out the village, and speedily sold the lots at good prices. Stores, shops, warehouses, hotels, and dwellings, filled up the village plat, and the evidences of taste and refinement were to he seen in its streets and dwellings. For several years it went by the name of Buena Vista.

In 1855 its population was 557. It was eonfidently ex. pected that, owing to its central location and its being upon a railroad, it would soon be made the seat of justice for the County.

The financial crash of 1857 impeded the progress of the' thriving little village. Money scarce, trade dull, credit gone, prices low. Like all new towns, it was settled by a population full of enterprise, but of small capital, and the destruction of confidence and depression of trade was a serious injury to ts progress. But its people were full of enterprise, courage and enthusiasm for the prosperity of their town. They taxed themselves heavily for all needed improvements, and worked with a will for the o-ood of their town.

In 1860, a County Society for the promotion of agriculture and the mechanical arts was established, beautiful grounds selected and handsomely furnished, and flourishing annual fairs have ever since been held.

In 1361, the elegant brick building was erected for a Graded School, - for many years the finest common-school building in any town of its size in the State. It was designed io cost $8000, but its total expense has been over $25,000. The first school house in the town was a small structure built of bass-wood logs, and roofed with shakes, which stood near the grove, and near the line of the railroad, and for many years served both as school house and church.

In 1854, churches were built by both the Baptist ami Methodist societies; in 1860 the Catholics constructed a spacious church, and in 1864 the Sweedish population, a large number of whom had gathered around this place, built a small church, in which worship is conducted in the Sweedish form and language. A number of the most reputable citizens have embraced the Mormon faith, and the services of that sect have frequently been held in the place.

In 1858 a newspaper, under the name of the Western World and Be Kalb Review, was published in De Kalb by Mr. Andrews. This was succeeded in 1860 by the Be Kalb Leader, edited by E. B. Gilbert; and this, in 1861, by the Be Kalb Times, edited by G. I). It. Boyd. In 1867 the Be Kalb Count// Neios was started, and now publishes a superior country journal.

The first lawyer in the place was Marcus White, who commenced practice in 1855. The first resident physician was Dr. Ilyslop. In 1859, Dr. Rufus Hopkins, of Sycamore, who had always had a considerable practice in that town, removed to the place, and as a physician, banker, and active man of business, has been a prominent actor in the affairs of the town. The first bank was established here in 1859, by J. R. Hamlin and E. T. Hunt.

The four brothers Glidden, who first settled here in 1841, have been among its most worthy and active citizens. E. B. ( rilbert, Esq., who came to Sycamore in 1847, and to De Kalb in 1852, was elected Justice in 1853, and by successive reelections has ever since held that office. Harvey Thompson, J. M. Glidden, and Jabez L. Chccsbrough, have long been among the most popular and reliable grain dealers in the County. The brothers Isaac L. and Hiram Ellwood have been amono- its most active business men. B. K. Chandler has long been a merchant in whom all have confidence. It is such enterprising men as these, with the Vaughans, Smulls, Roberts, Millers, and others that might be mentioned, that have given tone and character to the town.

The village was incorporated under a general act in 1856, and in 1860 by a special charter, which made the President of the Board of Trustees a member of the Board of Supervisors. This position lias been filled by A\r. IT. Allen in 1861-62; Silas Tappan in 1863; Leonard Morse in 1864; S. 0. Vaughan in 1865; E. B. Gilbert in 1866; and W. 11. Allen in 1867-68.

De Kalb furnished 22o men for the war for the preservation of our nation from the armed rebellion. The story of their toils, their losses, their sufferings, and their triumphs, will be found in the record of the part that De Kalb County took in the war of the great rebellion.

This town, situated far out upon the billowy prairie, remote from proves, and streams, and other attractions to the early settler, was one of the later-settled townships of the County. Its first inhabitant was Mr. Ezekiel Whitehead, who commenced a farm in 1851. A large portion of the land was at this time in the hands of the government ; but was entered, during this and the following year, by C. C. Shepard, II. A. Mix, Mark Howard, and other speculators, who have since gained great wealth by the rise in their value.

In 1854 the citizens of South Grove, which lies directly north of this town, petitioned the Galena Railroad Company, which had built the Dixon branch through the town, to establish a station for their accommodation; and after some months' delay, the company acceded to the request. The station once established, settlers rapidly filled up the township. It had been a part of the town of ]>e Kalb, but in 1855, a sufficient number having moved in to give them a right to a separate town organization, a petition was presented to the Board of Supervisors, asking this privilege, which was granted; and the new town, under the name of Milton, embracing this township and one-half of that one south of it, was admitted into the Union. The village at the station was named Malta, and a thriving town rapidly grew up at this point.

The name of Etna was, soon after its organization, substituted in place of Milton, and this, a few years later, was changed to Malta, the name of its village and post-office.

Town Of Malta

try, reduced the vitality of this ambitious little village, and gave it a blow from which it was many years in recovering. Building was stopped; houses were vacant and valueless; merchants and grain dealers' failed; every body grew poor, and multitudes left the country.

In 1857 a large steam mill was built, but it was never a profitable property; and four years later it was burned down, under circumstances that led to the suspicion that it was burned by the lessees. Suits growing out of this charge are still pending before the courts.

In 1867, aided by a liberal subscription of the citizens of the village, Mr. Abraham Peters erected another large and substantial steam grist mill, which is now doing a good business.

Toward the close of the great war, Malta again acquired a fresh increase of growth and prosperity. The high prices of grain attracted settlers, and gave increased value to her new prairie lands. Money became plenty, business increased, new buildings were erected, real estate doubled in value, and sales, which for many years were impossible, now became frequent.

Malta is now on the high tide of prosperity. The village is the natural center for a large extent of very rich country, which, filled up with the substantial farming population which now is rapidly centering there, will support a town of three or four times its present population.

The first census of the town was taken in 1860, when it was found to have 620 inhabitants. This number, in 1865, had increased to 849, and is now probably over 1200.

Milan

Milan, the youngest of our sisterhood of towns, was born into the family in 1857. Its parents were Malta and Shabbona, who each contributed three square miles to the endowment and fitting out of their newly-born sister.

Mr. Lewis McEwen was the first inhabitant of Milan, and although a bachelor then, and for many years after, he may properly be called the father of the town. He came here in 1852. At this time not a foot of the land in the township had been entered from government. lie built a small house, broke up his land, and for two or three years spent most of the winters in hunting. In the winter of 1853-54, more than one hundred deer were seen from his cabin door, and wolves were extremely troublesome. The deer disappeared as soon as the railroad was built.

Most of the land of the township was "entered" in 1853. Before that time it was considered of no value, being so far removed from timber that purchasers thought it doubtful if it ever would be settled. Bat during the last five years its settlement has been very rapid. Nearly every acre is now occupied as a farm, and land sells at as high a price as in any part of the County.

In 1853, (J union Hewitt entered nine sections in one day, with warrants worth eighty cents per acre. This land Avas purchased by settlers at from eight to thirteen dollars per acre, and all of the land in the town has now passed into the hands of actual residents.

Town Of Milan

township school fund of over $8000. The first school house was built in the center of the town in 1855; but before that time schools had been kept in private houses.

In the summer of 1868, a handsome two-story building was erected at the center, the upper part of which belongs to the township, and is used as a town hall and place of worship, while the lower story is used as a district school.

A large colony from Norway own and occupy the southwest portion of the township, and constitute a very honest, industrious, frugal, and respectable population.

The monotony of the prairies, which occupy the entire surface of this town, has of late been broken by miles of hedges of the rapid growing willow, which tend to diversify and beautify the landscape.

Mr. Lewis McEwen, who stood godfather to the town at its first creation, has ever since been its Supervisor, except in 1861, when Mr. John Banfield was elected.

The population of Milan was 202 at the time its first census was taken, in 1800, and five years after had increased to 524. It now probably contains 800 souls. Its property is assessed at $158,206. It furnished 88 soldiers for the Union army in the late great war.

Afton is jet a stripling in our family of towns. Its brief existence has been so little chequered with incident that it can hardly be said to have a history. It is one of those towns that, being far removed from natural groves, and rich only in a soil of unsurpassed fertility, were considered by the early settlers undesirable for farming purposes, and consequently remained unsettled.

The emigrants from the heavily wooded Eastern States, accustomed to eight-rail Virginia fences, huge wood fires, and an abundance of timber for building, could not at first believe that farming could be carried on successfully without large tracts of woodland in the immediate vicinity of their cultivated fields; but they have discovered their mistake. No farms in the County are more profitable than those in Afton, and towns of like character, ten, fifteen, or twenty miles removed from woodland.

Afton is one unbroken prairie, very undulating in its surface, with an abundance of gravelly knolls, and with some ledges of stone, which, however, have not yet been worked. It has one handsome stream. The head waters of the Little Uock Creek, a fine stream of pure water, burst from the ground on Section Fourteen, and run southeastwardly through Squaw Grove.

This stream suggested the pleasing name adopted for the town. Mr. John A. Hayden, one of its first settlers, was a great admirer of the song, "Flow gently, sweet Afton," and while at work breaking up and preparing to cultivate his farm, he was continually singing it. He insisted upon calling

Town Of Afton

Afton was organized in 18/34. Previous to that time the northern half had been attached to De Kalb, and the southern half to Clinton. Mr. W. R. Campbell was probably the first white resident of the place, and John A. Hayden the next. Other early settlers were Daniel Washburne, Timothy Pierson, John McGirr, Benjamin Muzzy, Charles Ward, Fran?is Bemis, and Alex Folger.

In the autumn of 1854, Mr. Ezekiel Noble, who, with Silas Tappan and Oscar Tyler, had just moved into /the place, erected temporary shanties, and commenced breaking their land, canvassed the township with a petition for its organization as a town, and obtained the signatures of twenty-three male inhabitants. It was admitted by the Board of Supervisors at their next session.

At the election next spring, Mr. Noble was chosen Supervisor, and has ever since, by successive re-elections, held the same office. Timothy Pierson and Orson Pearl were elected Justices ; Sanford A. Tyler, Town Clerk ; Clark Glidden, Assessor and Collector.

In 1855 the first school was held, in a private house belonging to Mr. Goodell. It was kept by Mr. Lord. Next year the school section was sold, the town was divided into two school districts, and a good school house was built on the northeast corner of Section Twenty-Four, in District One, which comprised the east half of the town. In 1858 the town was divided into nine school districts, to which one has since been added.

the ranks of the Union army. Its total population, by the census of 1860, was but 516. Fifty-nine men had volunteered, when, the necessities of the government calling for more men, a tax was levied upon the town, and seven more were procured. In the summer of 1864, an additional tax was voted upon the town, amounting in all to $14,000, and fifteen more recruits were enlisted.

Among those who gave their lives in the defence of their country were Charles Elliot, Dempster Wheeler, Alexander Campbell, Emerson T. Knight, and Lewis Olverson, who went out in the One Hundred and Fifth Regiment, and L. Deforest, of the Eighth Cavalry.

Among the leading citizens of Afton are Mr. Ezekiel Noble, a shrewd, intelligent New Yorker, who has always been active in its public affairs, and may be said to be the father of the town, and Mr. C. W. Broughton, one of the wealthiest and most extensive farmers of the County.

Clinton

Clinton is now one of the populous and prosperous towns of our County, but was not settled so early as those towns which were more favored with timbered lands. One small grove of about one hundred acres borders the Little Indian Creek, which has its head in the town; the remainder is handsome rolling prairie.

In 1835, when old Deacon Pritchard came through this section of country, on foot and alone, prospecting for a home in the west, he found at this grove just the spot he desired, and he resolved to possess it; but returning next year with his family, after a journey of forty days by wagon from New York, he was disappointed by finding it claimed and occupied by Mr. 0. P. Johnson, who has given his name to the grove. Pritchard moved on to Grand de Tour, on Rock River; but eight years after, returned and bought the property, and upon it he and his sons, - among the worthiest and best citizens of the County, - have ever since resided.

In 1843, nine families constituted the population of the town. These were the families of W. B. Fields, Parker Thomas, Alexander McNish, Silas Hines, John and James Walker, Preston Curtiss, William Robertson, and C. B. Whitford, most of whom still reside in the place. In 1845 and 1846, came Shelburne J. and Tracy Scott, Felix and Baldwin Woodruff, and Sylvester Hall; and in 1847 and 1848, when Shabbona's Grove (which is on the west line of this town) was sold by the old chief, and divided into lots by the wily speculator Gates, so that all could procure timber, a dozen more settlers made claims on the prairie, and became permanent inhabitants of the township. Among these were N. S. and Thomas J. Greenwood, Benjamin Matteson, William Sherman, Sylvester and Elbert Hall, J. L. Bailey, J. L. Mighell, Aruney Hill, and John Secor.

In 1850, when the township organization was adopted, the boundaries of Clinton included- one-half of Victor and of Afton, as well as its present territory. In 1853 it was reduced to its present dimensions.

The commissioners appointed to organize and give names to the towns found that the citizens of four of the original thirteen had selected the name of Clinton, and it was awarded to this town by lot. The Scotts and a uumber of other settlers had migrated from the vicinity of Clinton, in New York, and retained an attachment to the name.

The Baptists and Presbyterians organized the first churches, and for several years had regular services, which were well attended. But the Methodists have since been in the ascendancy, and in 1807 built an elegant Gothic church, near the center of the town, - one of the finest church edifices in the County.

Claim wars were not unfrequent in the early history of the town, and the sacredness of the claimants' rights was rigidly enforced by the people. As late as 1851, some of the settlers had not yet paid for their lands, but held them by claim only. In that year occurred the last of the claim wars. One Hugh McKerg had deeded some land claimed by John Secor. The people of the town rose in a body, and chose a committee to demand of him a release of the land, threatening to destroy his property if he refused. But Hugh's heart was hardened, and he refused to let the land go, but watched his property by day and by night. After several nights' watching, he ventured to sleep; but woke to find his fences on fire, his well filled up, and much of his moveable property carried oft'. He found it politic to settle that claim without further delay. It would hardly seem that land at that time was worth fighting for. It kept the people, however hard they worked, yet miserably poor. They raised fine crops; uld settlers speak of having raised forty-two bushels of choice winter wheat to the acre, but it brought them little money. When they had carried it sixty miles to market, over roads almost impassable, it sometimes failed to bring enough to pay the teamsters' bills. It is as easy to raise five hundred dollars now from a farm as it was to raise fifty in years from 1840 to 1850.

About one person in nine of the total population of Clinton enlisted in the Union army during the war of the rebellion. She sent 111 men, and raised by taxation and contribution $13,746 for war purposes.

The latter, a Captain in Company II, of the Thirteenth Infantry, was a bright example of the Christian soldier. A native of Malone, N. Y., he moved with his father's family to Clinton in 1845, pursued the study of law at Aurora ami Cincinnatti, and obtained a good law practice at Aurora; but impelled by motives of purest patriotism, he left his young family at the first outbreak of the war, served for three years most honorably in the gallant old Thirteenth, fighting its every battle; but lost his health in the service, and returned, to fall a victim to consumption, just when the people of De Kalb County were about to elect him to an honorable civil office. He was, - in intelligence, in culture, in every manly virtue, - one of the very foremost men of our County.

Reuben M. Pritchard, his brother, a gentleman of ability and high integrity, has been for six years Supervisor of the town, and one of the leading citizens of the County.

Charles Wesley and William Wallace Marsh, who settled in Clinton in 1850, have gained both fame and fortune by the invention of the famous Marsh Harvester. The first machine was used and first patent obtained in 1858. The first made for sale were used in 1861, when twenty-five were manufactured. Five thousand will be built for the harvest of 1869, and the admirable invention promises to supercede all other modes of harvesting; grain.

Pierce

Pierce is a prairie town, remote from woodland. The head waters of Big Rock Creek rise in the eastern part of the town, bursting from the side of a natural elevation sixty feet above the lowlands near it. The spring is impregnated with sulphur.

The northern portion of the town is very undulating, the southern portion very level. Its soil is particularly adapted to wheat, and for the past eight years it has probably produced more of this cereal than any other town in the County. The towns of Pierce and South Grove have been the principal wheat-growing towns of the County; and although it has been the fashion to decry the raising of wheat as an unprofitable business, yet the people of these towns have in ten years been elevated, - principally by the production of this crop, - from a condition of poverty and destitution to comparative independence.

Three-fourths of the population of Pierce are natives of Germany and Ireland. A considerable portion of the Germans are, however, from Pennsylvania, but speak the German language, and preserve the German customs. The only church in the town is a Lutheran church, in which, for ten or twelve years, a German minister has been maintained, and religious services conducted in the German language. The Germans occupy the level plain in the southeastern portion of the town, while the Irish are principally in the rougher land of the north. They are generally an industrious and economical population, who came here twelve or fifteen years ago with nothing, but have now grown independent, if not wealthy. They are fast buying out the farms of the adjoining American settlers, and promise soon to monopolize the whole township. They are a prolific race, and raise more babies to the acre than any other town in the County !

The first settler of Pierce was Elder Nathan Wilcox, who made a farm in the northern part of the town in 1848. In 1850, Harrison and Horace S. Champlin bought 1100 acres in this and the adjoining town of Afton, and running thirteen breaking teams, they broke up over 600 acres during that summer. Their friends called them crazy for settling so far from woodland, and predicted that they would not see that section of the County settled for thirty years, if ever. There was then not a house between them and the Somonauk timber, ten miles south. Levi and Moses Hill at that time resided in this town, and during the same season came Thomas Ilalloran, P. Home, P. Dunn, L. Ilennegan, John Ferrick, the Butlers, and the Dillons.

In the eastern part of the town the German settlement was started by Christian Myers, Henry Ramer, Josiah Jacob, and George Eberly. Most of the land was "entered" in 1852, and the remainder was bought up in the following year.

The School Section was sold in 1857 at $1.25 per acre ; but the purchasers were an improvident population, who failed to pay even the interest upon their purchases, and the land reverted back to the school fund, and was again sold in 1858 for from $5 to $6 per acre. All predicted that the latter purchasers would fail to pay, as their predecessors had done. No man, they argued, could afford to pay so large a price. It was as hard to raise $100 then as to raise $1000 now. But that land is now worth $40 per acre, and the purchasers have grown rich upon it.

For many years the interest upon the fund created by this sale paid all the expenses of the schools. The first school was kept in the German settlement, and was opened in 1853.

This section of country was at first included in Somonauk precinct, subsequently in Orange precinct, and before the township organization was adopted, was incorporated with

Town Of Pierc Y.

Cortland (or Pampas) in Richland precinct. Until 1853 tlie north half was attached to Pampas, and the south half to Squaw Grove. In that year it was organized into a township, and named Pierce, in honor of the President. The name was selected hy Mr. Champlin and that jolly eccentric, George W. Kretsinger.

The majority of the population of this town were not enthusiastic in favor of the war; but when a draft was made, they promptly raised nearly $11,000, and filled their quota; $4500 of this sum being contributed by subscriptions of the citizens, and $6000 borrowed upon a note signed by twenty of the wealthy towns-people. This sum was subsequently paid by a tax upon the town. To the two last men procured as substitutes $1400 was paid by the town, in addition to $600 of County bounty and the same by the United States government; and both of these substitutes deserted as soon as they reached Chicago. The total number of men furnished was 100.

Squaw Grove

Squaw Grove was probably the first township settled in De Kalb County. In the summer of 1834 one Hollenbeck, who lived near Ottawa, made a journey into this terra incognita as far as the present town of Sycamore, and on his return made a claim to the fine grove in this town. This he called Squaw Grove, because he found here, alone, a large number of squaws, whose dusky partners had gone on a hunting expedition. He made his claim at the north side of the grove where Mr. Oscar Tanner now resides, and this was probably the first land claimed in the County.

He did not remain on his new claim, but, returning to Newark, in La Salle County, told such a flattering tale of the charms of this newly discovered country, that William Sebree, an old Virginian with a large family, who was looking for a place to settle, started at once to possess it.

Jn September, 18-34, he reached the spot, and, camping down in the midst of the Indians, he built a temporary shelter of crotches and poles, which he covered with bark taken from their forsaken wigwams; and there housed his family until he could construct a small log house for the winter, which was now rapidly approaching.

It was a very cold winter. When he went on Christmas day to cut the slough grass for his famishing cattle, he had his ears and nose frozen. The family lived principally upon deer and prairie fowl for the first six months. The latter game were not so numerous as they were in after years, when grain fields were more plenty; but wolves abounded, and were very troublesome, snatching up everything eatable that chanced to be left out of doors.

Town Of Squaw Groak

A man name! Kobson lived this fall in a log cabin at the crossing of Somonauk Creek, a few miles south, but abandoned the place at the approach of winter, and left Sebree the only white inhabitant of this section of country.

In the following spring a hoosier, named Leggett, claimed and settled upon the farm long afterward occupied by the Wards; and in October, 1835, Mr. Samuel Miller, a Kentuckian, moved to the grove, and commenced a farm. Jacob Lee and John Easterbrooks came in January, 183(3, and William Ward in the autumn following.

The new comers lived in the most primitive manner. Most of them had cattle, horses, sheep, and swine, and Sebree rejoiced in the possession of a pair of hand mill-stones, with which the settlement all ground the corn that they raised. They made clothing from the wool of their sheep. For three years the only plow in the place was one owned by Sebree, and made with a wooden mould board. They broke up the prairie, sowed oats, and planted sod corn; and in the fall of 1830, Miller went with four yoke of cattle carrying thirty bushels of oats to Chicago. These he sold for fifty cents a bushel, returning with salt and boots for the settlement.

Their nearest neighbors at the north were upon the banks of the Kishwaukee, twenty miles distant, and in 1835 they went, as a neighborly act, to raise the first log house in that country, on Wrilliam A. Miller's claim in Kingston.

Many of the first settlers still remain upon their land, and have grown rich with the rise in the value of lands, and from the results of their industry.

Mr. Miller, who paid his first tax in 1837, to 13. F. Fridley, and paid sixty-two and-a-half cents, now has the doubtful pleasure of paying yearly over $200 in taxes; and his property, then worth $000 or $800, would now sell for $20,000. The Sebrees, Wards, Lees, and other families, have been equally fortunate. They have lived through times of great destitution, but have been rewarded with the possession of abundance.

The first school was taught in Mr. Lee's house, by a lady ; and in the winter Mr. Cleveland, a farmer of the town, taught in the same place. In 1838, a log school house was built in the grove, in which Mr. James II. Furrnan kept an excellent school. There are now nine school districts, in each of which are handsome and convenient school houses. There is no church edifice in the town. A store, a tavern, a blacksmith's and a shoemaker's shop, constitute the little village.

The town is now all settled, mostly by farmers of wealth, whose handsome farm houses and barns indicate the possession of taste, as well as wrealth, and excite the admiration of the traveler. The assessed valuation of the property of the town in 1868 was $242,290, which is a larger amount, in proportion to its population, than any other town in the County.

The population in 1865 was 515; in 1860, 795; in 1865, 679. Ninety-three men were furnished by this town for the war of the great rebellion.