Kane County, Illinois - Chapter 1: Introductory, 1908

Chapter 1: Introductory

History is composite biography. There has been no great event but what has affected us all. The spirit awakened by the struggle in 1776 lives by heredit}' in all American hearts and l)y arloption and education in the hearts of those who were foreigners but are now citizens. Any people become what they are by the combined experiences, failures, and successes of their chain of ancestry. Too little thought is given, too little credit attached to this fact. We cannot change what is back of us. if we would, and what is there determines our ecjuipment. So history - the history of a State, Nation, City or County, is but a composite biography of those who there worked, and by their efforts left to us who here follow them a hundred forces and tendencies that aid i>r retard our advancement. They left public opinions, social notions, business methods, forms of government, standards of morality, etc.. etc., by which we are now controlled ; and which are changed with difficulty. So it is with all communities ; their standards are largely set by those who first established themselves in control. To them came others of like standards and methods and cemented the recognized ways of doing and thinking. History is the composite picture of the past ; setting forth the common outline.

The subject of this historical sketch is a piece of land thirty miles long and eighteen miles wide, within whose borders dwells a population of nearly 100,000 people of many dift'erent nationalities ; a people whose products are distributed to the four ends of the civilized world. Less than seventy-five years ago it was a wilderness peopled by native Redmen, whose ancestry had dwelt here many centuries, living liy the chase and the hook. Today it is the home and workshop of a prosperous poinilation. It is the story of the evolution of this territory that we shall here present, seeking to make intelligible its varied activities, their origin and progress, and the men and women who directed them.

The word "County" is doubtless a thousand years old. for it originated in the Feudal System of about 800 A. D. Charlemagne, after conquering an unwilling territory, sent out officials to sfovern it. Some of these were named

Counts, and in time the district tiiey controlled came to be known as a County. When William the Conqueror readjusted English land tenure the County or Shire became a political division over -which one of the new nobility was set as owner, judge and law maker, subject to the King and owing allegiance to the throne. The word "Shire" is an English name and was used as a synonymous term, and is yet common in England and New England.

Under the Feudal System, the Count or Earl was the chief person of the County or Shire. He was "lord of the manor.'" The people had little power or privilege, their value being as contributors to those in power and place, whose occupations ran much to wars and political strife. We here today can but vaguely picture the subjection of the general people of those ancient Counties. The Count held court, collected taxes and spent them as he willed. No workman could leave his County without consent of the overlord. Freedom of act was unknown. The common idea was that the lesser man was created to give support to the powerful and privileged.

But times have changed. Some battling has been done; many lives sacriticed. Today the Count and Earl and his followers have disappeared, and we here control the government and conduct of County affairs. \\'e with difficulty realize that this territorial and political division was ever other than it is. Therein is the value of history - of such local history as is here presented. To those who read it. it gives a larger and more intelligent view of the conditions now realized. Today is ever the child of yesterday.

Another old word grown new is "Sheriff." which in its origin was "Shire-reeve," which became, by spelling it as it sounds, spoken quickly, S h e r - i f f. It anciently denoted the bailiff' of the Court of the County, then termed the "Shire-gemote," or meeting of the general people to do justice.

Modern counties comprise farm lands and cities, living peacefully together, ruled by like laws and customs, each buying and selling their products, the one to the other. No such fact existed in the early history of Counties and Shires. Each City was an independent commonwealth about whose limits ran a protecting wall sharply distinguishing it from the general territory about it. Each City was a fortress. The existence and peace of the City, which was continuously harassed by the nobility and highwaymen, and its merchants plundered as they conveyed their produce to inarket, necessitated armed protection. Each City kept its own army, and some built navies. Each elected its own officers, built its own churches, and within the safety of its protecting walls conducted its affairs much as a modern City does without such walls or protection.

In the Middle Ages walled Cities were built all over Europe, and the Lord of the County built his fortified castle upon the highest hill lest his neighbor lords come in and wrest from him his place and property. There was no cooperation - no agreement between City and Country.

In ancient Greece and Rome each City was a political and religious unit. which could combine or cooperate with another in no manner except by conquest. Each City recognized its gods as superior to all other gods, and all who were not citizens or slaves, or clients of citizens, were barbarians undeserving charity or mercy. Each City fought its own battles, save where the necessity of existence compelled union of forces against a common enemy. There was no method by which a citizen of one City could become a citizen of another City. To be ostracized from the City of your birth meant to wander over the earth dependent upon }-our own powers alone for life and living. Greece and Rome knew no political unit but the City. To some City or some citizen all property belonged.

The Greeks and the Romans invented and developed the City ; the Teutons of the [Middle Ages, the County and Township. The Germans were organized by villages and tribes. Each was a democratic form of government controlled by what in later years became the town-meeting, where gathered all the people of the town, decided upon their customs and laws, and did justice between men. The Shire-gemote is the original from which our modern County Court was derived.

Under stress of the chaos of the jMiddle Ages, when no central government existed strong enough to hold the plundering hand of marauders and highwaymen, the ancient German Villages walled in the lands, usually held in common ownership, and prepared to, and through centuries did, defend themselves and perpetuate the liberties and privileges which they had secured by continued strife; and did as much, if not more, than any other agency to keep alive within the hearts of the many those standards of liberty and freedom, the full fruits of which we here enjoy.

While we speak of our progress and present advanced conditions, it should not be forgotten that we arose not by magic in a day, nor were our institutions conceived anew, but are a development and evolution from that older time where struggled our ancestors. W'e here now enjoying some individuality, are product of that time. Our Counties, our Cities, our institutions and laws are lineal descendants of that ancient day.

Before the coming of the pioneers some seventy-five years ago, the territory now known as "Kane County" was an untilled but beautiful wilderness; unknown to white men, but well peopled by savage tribes of Indians.

About the year 1671 the Frenchmen, LaSalle and Hennepin, started westward from the region of the St. Lawrence river and following the shores of the Great Lakes came to what is now northern Illinois. They passed down the Mississippi valley, and by virtue of their exploration of this region the French governnient claimed all land touched by the Great Lakes or drained by the ^Mississippi river and its tributary streams, among which was necessarily included our Fox river and the land of northern Illinois. The English did not concede this claim, but asserted that the New England states extended (by virtue of the grants on which they were based) from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean.

It being impossible to adjust contentions so obviously conflicting, the French and Indian war resulted during the years 1754 to 1763. The French were for several years successful in repelling attempts of the English to drive them from the line of forts they had established through the Ohio valley from Louisiana to Quebec. In 1757 \Mlliam Pitt became prime minister of England and inaugurated a campaign that proved uniformly successful against the French, until in February. 1763, France signed the Treaty of Paris, In' which

England became possessed of the Oliio and Mississippi valleys, of whicli Kane county is part. This district then passed from French to English hands and its subsequent history changed, to what extent, who shall tell ?

For citizens of German birth or descent there is this thought - that the destinv of the Northwest Territory determined by the French and Indian war was settled favorably to England by tlie assistance of Frederick the Great of Prussia, with whom England was then in alliance, and who, by warring upon the French in Europe, relieved the English there and weakened France. By the alliance of England and Prussia in Europe the success of England in America was in no small degree made possible. So those of German origin coming to the States in the latter days may yet feel that their ancestry, struggling in Europe, were assisting in the making of a W'esern Empire, where today millions of their descendants enjoy the blessing of civilization and prosperity - not without justice for service in that day of beginnings.

Many French settlers had taken land in southern and central Illinois before this war. They determined the English should not settle in Illinois and, assisted by the Indians, who had been their allies in the French and Indian war, entered into a conspiracy with Pontiac. an Ottawa chief, who stirred up the Indians to attack the English. This was in May. 1763. Fourteen forts were captured, hundreds of families killed, and the existence of the settlements of the West threatened. The war continued until 1765. when Pontiac made a treaty with the English. Pontiac was killed a few years later at Caliokia, Illinois, and was buried on the present site of the city of St. Louis.

Following the overthrow of Pontiac the Western territory rapidly filled with settlers - the Ohio valley first attracting pioneers ; and peace reigned, save for the infrequent depredations and frontier attacks by small bands of Indians.

When the struggle of the Revolution had severed the relations of the Colonies with England, the new nation, the United States of America, was by treaty acknowledged owner of all the land between the Atlantic ocean and the Mississippi river. A new complication, however, at once arose. The New England states had claimed, and still claimed, all the land immediately west of them to the Mississippi. This claim placed what is now northern Illinois partly in Massachusetts and partly in Connecticut, the line running east and west through the northern part of what is now Kane county.

All the territory gained by the French and Indian war had been claimed by the states lying directly east. When the Articles of Confederation were submitted to the states for adoption in 1777. all ratified them except Maryland, which refused ratification until all the states claiming land in the west should cede them to the new nation. Maryland held no western land, while other states claimed lands that would many times double their area and power. New York ceded her land in 1780. The others followed. Massachusetts transferring her title in 1784; Connecticut in 178(1. The territory now included in Kane county then first became general public domain.

In 1787, Congress, realizing the need of general laws to govern the settlement of this vast territorj^ and to set up a local government over it, passed the famous "Ordinance of 1787," which was largely based on an instrument of government drawn up by Thomas Jefl'erson, then a member of Congress from A'irginia. He proposed dividing the territory into ten states bearing the names : Sylvania, JNIichigania, Chersonesiis, Assenisipa, IMetropotamia, IHinoia, Saratoga, Washingtonia, Polypotamia and Pelesipia. The Congress adopted many of Jefferson's suggestions, but abandoned the names he had proposed. H for no other reason, we who dwell within this territory shall thank Congress for that.

This Ordinance of 1787 Daniel Webster pronounced one of the most notable pieces of legislation in ancient or modern times. It provided that not more than five states should be formed from the territory, which number have been formed : Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. A general territorial government was provided for, controlled by the laws of the nation. Slavery was forever barred, which fact had large bearing on the future, not only of this western land, but upon the destiny of the nation which seventy years later was in mortal civil combat over the question of involuntary servitude.

General Arthur St. Clair, a Revolutionary hero, was at once appointed the first governor. The land was surveyed and offered for sale, and despite the presence of hostile Indians through most of the district, settlers came in rapidly. In fifteen years Ohio was admitted as a state. The first white settlement west of the Alleghanies had been made at Marietta, Ohio. In 1818 Illinois had acquired the 60.000 inhabitants necessary to statehood (mostly in the southern and central parts) and was admitted to the Union.

But as yet no white man had set foot within view of the splendid Fox River valley, where only the tepee of the Indian betokened the presence of humankind, and the fertile earth lay rich for the hand of husbandry. If, in those days, when the nation was being tried and seasoned for its destined work, any white man trod the soil of Kane county, no record of his wandering has been preserved. The Sac. the Fox. the Illinoi and the Pottawottamie hunted and warred where now a contented people pursue the occupations of peace and progress. Until about the year 183a the presence of numerous bands of hostile Indians in the Fox River valley discouraged the coming of settlers, although the land now within the states of Michigan and Ohio was filling rapidly.

In 1832 an Indian chief named Black Hawk, famed for his enmity to the white man, formed a conspiracy of the tribes then in the vicinity and attacked the settlements. The national government at once sent troops to the seat of trouble along the Mississippi and Rock rivers.

The exact route taken by these troops in crossing the territory, now Kane county, is not known with certainty, but tradition says the Fox river was crossed at the big bend at Five Islands, and two mounds, claimed to be the graves of soldiers who died and were there buried, may still be seen upon the hillside south of where the Traction bridge now crosses the river. This route has in general been accepted, but in the Aurora Daily News for September II, 1908, the following appeared : "To the Aurora Historical Society :

"Colonel John S. Wilcox, if he was correctly reported, in addressing the Old Settlers' meeting, about the 30th of June, 1907, at Riverview park, gave some account of the passage of General Scott's army in the march from Chicago, or Fort Payne, to Rock Island, about the month of August, 1832. substantially as the same is given on page 632 of the recent 'History of Kane County," published in connection \vith the 'Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois,' in these words: 'From this camp (Fort Payne) General Scott moved nearly due west, and struck the trail probably a little northerly from Warrenville. following that trail he entered Kane county near the dividing line of sections 12 and 13 in St. Charles township. It passed through the southwest corner of Elgin the whole diagonal breadth of Plato township, across the northeast of Hampshire, and left the county over the old Hagebone farm, on section 30.'

"This route is not borne out by the facts in the case. Now what are the facts ? Let us see. The Kane County Historian depends on the testimony of the old settlers. It has ever been said that testimony transmitted by the memory of persons of a reminiscent character should be taken with great care, at a time, too, in which there was not a white resident or inhabitant north and west of the Fox river until Dixon's Ferr)' on Rock river was reached, making it certain there was not a white resident in what is now Kane county at the time of the passage of General Scott's army.

"In his 'History of the Black Hawk A\'ar,' Frank Stevens, on page 247, writes: "Then on July 29 he (Scott), finding the spread of contagion once more checked, set out with three stafif officers for Prairie du Chien, following the route adopted in 1834 for the mail route from Galena to Chicago, via Fort Payne (Xaperville) and x\urora, along through what subsequently became DeKalb county, across Lee county, up to Dixon's Ferry, arriving there August 2 with his stafif officers. On his leaving Chicago, General Scott left orders for Lieutenant Colonel Abraham Eustis to follow his (General Scott's) route to Fort Crawford with the well known troops, which had or might arrive before the 3d of August, which Colonel Eustis did. but upon arriving at Dixon's Ferry an express from General Scott informed Colonel Eustis that the war was over and ordered him to follow down the left bank of Rock river and to establish his camp at Rock Island. By this march Colonel Eustis reached Dixon's Ferry August 17, 1832, resting there until August 22. Then he resumed his march, reaching the mouth of Rock river in good time.

"It must not be forgotten that the county of Kane had no corporate existence until 1836, and until the organization of Kendall county, in 1841, the three northerly townships of that county were a part of the county of Kane, hence at this point of our investigation it becomes necessary to introduce a part of the historj- of Kentory of Kendall county. In Hicks' history of Kendall county, published in 1877, at page 96 we read as follows : 'The war being closed, Scott's troops were not needed, and about August i*the remnant of the little army, with baggage, wagons and a drove of cattle for supplies, marched through the northern part of what is now Kendall county on their way to Rock Island. Fresh deaths occurred every day and nearly even.- camp was marked by graves. The second night out they encamped near Little Rock, and three soldiers' graves left behind were seen for years by the early settlers.'

" 'David Evans, from western North Carolina, was the first settler in Little Rock, He had a friend and neighbor in General Scott's army in the Black Hawk war, who with conu'ades under that general marched throvigh northern Kendall ; he liked the appearance of the country. He found his way back to his North Carolina home the latter part of the year 1832 and told Mr. Evans where to find the best land in the Fox River valley, Mr. Evans followed his directions in the spring of 1833. Reaching the Illinois river at Ottawa, he crossed the river and went up Fox river to the mouth of the Rock creeks, then up the Big Rock nearly four miles he made his claim, between Big and Little Rock creeks, which to this day is owned and occupied by a member of Mr. Evans' family.'

"The route of General Scott and his three staft' officers, and a few days thereafter by Colonel Eustis and his army, was substantially as follows : From Fort Payne, or Naperville, to Aurora, thence to Gray's Ford ( as it was later called) at Montgomery Crossing, thence in a westerly direction through what is now Riverview park, to a point afterwards on the west line of Oswego and east line at Bristol - for it must be borne in mind that the countrv was not surveyed for some six or seven years from the time we are considering. This point is some thirty-five rods from the north line of Kendall county, thence diagonally across what is now section i, Bristol, in a southerlv direction to a point near Blackberry creek on section 11, thence down said creek to a crossing of the same on what became in the United States survey sections 5, 6, 9 and 10, passing near the late residences of C. H, Raymond and C. H. Renton, thence still in a northwesterly direction across the lands of the estates of Lewis Steward and Tom Lye to the east line of section 3 of Little Rock township, thence north to the county line along the so-called base-line road ( erroneously so called ; the line is actually a correction line, not a base-line ) , thence westerly to Little Rock village and still westerly to DeKalb county line. It niav not be the actual route on which Scott's army passed, as this road as traveled in after years may have been modified by the authorities in locating the road legally, and the government surveys may have modified it somewhat. It is, however, in a general direction of that route.

"Wdiatever the facts may be, this route was the first stage and mail route into and out of what is now the city of Aurora on the route from Galena to Chicago, and from Dixon's Ferry to Naperville it is almost an air line. In 1834 the streams were made passable, and the road work by such labor as the INIcCarthys and their neighbors could give was a mail and stage route well into the '50s. It was by this route that Edward Bonney conveyed the murderers of Colonel George Davenport to Rock Island via Dixon's Ferry in September, 1845. See Bonney's book, 'Banditti of the Prairies,' page 190.

"Not the least important to the student of history is the mention of the old charters to the early adventurers or proprietors. More particularly tiie charters covering what is now Kane and adjoining counties. All that part of Kane county lying between the north line of DuPage and the south line of Kankakee county lies within the Connecticut grant; that lying north of the north line of DuPage county lies within the Massachusetts Bav grant.

"The claim that Virginia took anything by the George Rogers Clark expedition was resisted by the northern states and finally relinquished by the claimant, who relinquished the claim by reserving to her officers and soldiers of the Revolution certain lands in the 'MiHtary Tract,' which was confirmed by Congress in 1812. In 1780 New York authorized her delegates to Congress to limit her boundaries in such a manner as they might think expedient and to cede to the general go\ernment its claim to western lands. New York filed her cession to western lands in October, 1782. Virginia followed one year later and Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1785 and 1786. The only claims aft'ecting Illinois already mentioned are those of Virginia south of the fortieth parallel and those of Connecticut and jNIassachusetts to the north of that line.

"In conclusion, just a suggestion in regard to the alleged route mentioned by Colonel Wilcox in his address mentioned above. Why should Colonel Eustis select that route some twenty-five or thirty miles out of a direct line when his general had already selected and majiped the route upon which to proceed with his command ?

"Section i of Article 2 of the Constitution of the Aurora Historical Society provides that among the objects of the society shall be: 'To search out, procure and preserve in permanent form facts and data in the history of the city of Aurora, Kane county, Illinois, and the region in its immediate neighborhood as relates to persons, places and all objects of interest therein."

"Hence this communication is addressed to the Aurora Historical Society, with the hope that it may be sufficiently interested in the matters of which it treats to cause the historian of the society to formulate a suitable record of such matters to be entered in the proceedings of the same for the information of all, as the society has well said among other things : 'These materials exist now in rich variety, and unless steps are taken to collect them and place them in the keeping of some authoritative body, they will in the course of time be scattered and finally will he lost." Should the society take this view of the matter the writer will feel amply repaid for the time spent in the preparation of this article. G. M. Hollenb.\ck.

This was the last attempt of the redmen to prevent the settlement of northern Illinois. The Indians remaining were friendly and all were shortly after removed to lands provided for them west of the Mississippi, the United States having purchased their lands. But few remained when the first jiioneers to Fox river. These fast disappeared westward, the last departing in 1836.

Not many marks of the presence of these sons of the forest now remain. An arrow bead or stone war club, or the vestiges of ancient graveyards now and then found in opening gravel pits being the only reminders of the savages who once here hunted and fished and warred, as their ancestors had done for ten thousand vears before them.

Kaxe Couxty History 15

The chief seats of the Indians appear to have been at Alill Creek, just south of Batavia; in the hills east of the river just south of what is now the village of Dundee; and on what is now the site of the city of Aurora and northeast through the Big Woods on the east side. Well worn Indian trails led from one to the other. Others ran west to Indian settlements on Rock river; others east. An Indian village also existed where Dundee now stands.

Where Calvary cemetery, Aurora, is now located, was in early days an Indian graveyard, and on the hill just north of where D. C. Cook's publishing house stands at Elgin, an old burial ground was disclosed in excavating for a gravel pit. This was seen by one of the authors about two years ago and indicated a collection of perhaps a dozen graves on a hill overlooking the river. Mounds have also been opened at St. Charles and Batavia and on \\^ing farm, a mile west of Elgin on Tyler creek, the inviting valleys of which tradition says were once the home of the Indian.

The colonization and settlement of new lands is an old story begun so long ago that no history or tradition tells of its first movements. Of the Egyptian, the Babylonian, the Chinese, and general settlement of Asia, httle is known. But of the great movement of which the settlement of America and of Illinois and of this beautiful Fox River valley, where now dwell in peace the descendants of nearly every race that has peopled the world, much is known.

We here, battling with our problems day by day, and in our time passing as pass all, forget that we are but a link in a chain, but a branch in a tree vast and widespreading; but a tributary brook of a broad moving stream covering the western world from Russia and India to San Francisco, and now threatening to invade the Orient ; the Aryan race - the Indu-European group of mankind.

The settlement of Kane county \\-as no spasmodic incident, but was part of the onward movement of humankind that began beyond the Caspian sea when Europe was a wilderness and America an undreamed of continent. There is interest in that fact, rightly seen ; that we here are not disconnected but are a related part of world history ; that our ancestry dwelt there on the Caspian mountain hills and tended their sheep and cattle and raised their crops, ten, perhaps fifty thousand years ago. Yet there are few men now dwelling in Kane county but who, could they trace their lineage, would have fijund kin among the Aryans of the Himalaya mountains north of India, in that remote past. Frenchman, Italian, Spaniard, Irish, German, Hindoo, Russian, Englishman, American - all were there, speaking then one language from which has come all the languages these peoples now speak.

For thousands of years they had dwelt in those mountains and filled the valle}-s, until their communities grew too large for the earth to support, though none more willing than she.

The western movement began with the Greeks, who left the home of the Aryan race, possibly 3000 or 4000 B. C, and in going north around the head of the Caspian sea, spread into the Danube valleys and finally through the mountain passes into what is now Greece, to the sea. They went not as individuals, but as tribes, carrying their wnmen. children and possessions with tlK'iii, \\ hercxcr tliey settled the oreneral go\-ernnient and trilje remained tlie same. Tliev came to Greece, fought the people found there, enslaved them, and possessed the land. They developed in time the most splendid civilization the world has ever seen, and in many regards never since equaled. A second emigration followed, and became the Romans of later days. They moved farther west to Italy and repeated the experience of the first emigration.

Still the Arvan ])opulation increased and a third movement began, which continued until times when history was written. Its later story is well known. This was the invasion of what is now Europe. Forced out of the old home, they were unable to go south, for their cousins, the Greeks and Romans, had for a thousand years held the land. They turned north, passing through the Alps into what is Germany, Austria. Sweden, England. Ireland and Spain. The first to come in were the Irish, old Welsh and Britons. They found a small, dark race, known as Basques; a remnant of which still dwells in the mountain fastnesses of the Pyrenees. They drove them to the mountains and poorer lands. Following this first movement to Europe, came wave after wave of new and younger blood, the Gauls. Goths, Visigoths. Vandals, Huns, Slavonians, and numerous Russian tribes. Each pushing on from the Caspian sea forced the tribes next west further west : these in turn pressed on those in Europe proper.

Added to this, the Romans came into Europe by way of France and held all Europe west of the Rhine. The story of the conflict of these barbarian tribes with Rome in the first centuries A. D. is well known history ; as is also the result, and the final formation of France, Germany, England, and all European states, from the peoples who had contested so hotly for the advantage. The}' were of one race - of the race that is now American - but knew it not; and would doubtless have fought as well had they known it. Kinship of blood has dulled few swords. So by tribes and moving villages of men was Europe settled.

When America had been well discovered and land claims between nations adjusted, its invasion began in a manner not unlike that early invasion and settlement of Greece. Rome and Europe. The nations were dealt with peacefully, if possible. Init in any event, were dealt with, disposed of, and the land occupied. These invaders came not as barbarian tribes in paint of war, but none the less they came as communities, not as individuals. The force of united numbers was necessary to make a permanent stand against the native Indian. And here was repeated the storv of everv settlement in everv country since the world began. Those in possession have never willingly shared with new comers. It is ever a question of power, and the \-ictory to the strong. In no place has th.e native maintained his ]ilace against the better equipped invader. It is the survi\-al of the fittest.

But. as above suggested, when the American nation had become a nation, and the government established - when the movement of settlement begun in the Caspian hills those thousands of years ago, had come over the Alleghanies to the western prairies, it assumed a different aspect. The eastern colonies had all been settletl by groups of men; by communities armed and equipped for a contest, they knew they must and did meet. This li-cstcrn country zvas settled by individuals. This was a new fact, a new experience in the history of the world, - that an individual might go into a new country alone or with his family, there build his home and dwell in comparative peace, contesting less with fellowmen than with nature; bringing with them no tribal gods or set standards save those dictated by the well-being and happiness of free men. That this western country has so rapidly advanced in the arts and standards of civilized conditions is accounted for doubtless by the fact that they met few hostile fellowmen, but only a fertile soil and kindly climate, where the toil of men gave back full profit. To defend against the savage or wild beast required little attention in the middle west. To the land and its development went the energies of the pioneers. It was a new fact - a new condition. No walled city was required, and after 1832, no fortress and no soldiery. The pioneers came in, built their cabin homes, touched the waiting hills and they blossomed into fields of grain. There were none to dispute them ; none to question their possession or the fruits of their industry.