Kane County, Illinois - Chapter 15: Agricultural and Dairying Interests, Stock, Etc, 1908

The early settlers of Kane county, though accustomed to wooded country, soon discovered that in the soil of the beautiful prairie, which made up the most of its area, there lay unbounded resources for the benefit of the agriculturist, and it did not require long for them to learn to take advantage of these. All the small grains were successfully grown, and corn came in time to be the staple crop. Fruits of various sorts were raised in greater oi; less abundance. In time the profits in attempting to raise wheat became so small that attention was turned to other branches of agriculture. About 1864 or 1865, a few experiments were tried in the dairying line, and proved so successful that the business soon became general throughout Kane and other counties in the northern part of the state, and has grown to mammoth proportions. Among the pioneer dairymen in this county were D. E. ^^'ood. of Elgin; ]\Iartin Switzer and L. C. Ward, of St. Charles; Rodney McDole and Joseph Ingham and J. B. Paull of Sugar Grove, and H, L. Ford, of Batavia, These were all in the business as early as 1865-66. Mr. ^IcDole managing a private dairy, and others erecting factories for the manufacture of cheese. Others in Dundee, Elgin, Plato, Campton, Blackberry, Geneva. Burlington, \'irgil. etc., fell into the new line, and the result was manifest in discharged farm debts and fine improvements in nearly all sections of the county. Experienced cheese makers came on from the East - Herkimer and Oneida counties. New York, and elsewhere - to superintend the factories. At length the manufacture of butter was also commenced, and has practically superseded cheese making, which is less profitable. The products of the Kane county creameries command the highest prices in the markets. East, West and South.

In march, 1872. a board of trade was organized at Elgin for the benefit of dairymen, and up to August, 1877, it had transacted business amounting to S22. 180.204. 49J 2, being a monthly average of 8120,544.59. The quotations upon the Elgin market control the prices of butter and cheese throughout the United States, and aftect many foreign markets as well.

Aside from the vast amount of milk manufactured in Kane county, many thousand cans are shipped each year to dealers in Chicago, direct from the various railway stations on several lines of the road. Dundee and Carpentersville furnish the greatest amount, with Elgin, St. Charles. Geneva, Elburn and other points closely following.

With the introduction of the dairy business into this region naturally came the desire to weed out inferior grades of cattle, and replace them by those of greatest profit. As a consequence the fields and pastures of Kane county nurture as fine stock at the present day as can be found in the United States. The premium herds of the old countries have been drawn upon in order that the very best might be secured ; the principal breeds finding favor in the eyes of dair^-men being the Holstein-Friesian. the Shorthorns, the Jerseys, the Herefords. and the Polled-Angus : some being preferred for their milk yield alone, and others for both milk and beef. Among the noted stock breeders and dealers of the county were Dr. W. A. Pratt and the Manns, of Elgin; M. W. Dunham and N. S. Carlisle, of St. Charles (the latter's farms lying in Hampshire); Frank H. Hall, of Sugar Grove: George E. Brown & Co.. George Leigh & Co., Blair Bros. & Curry, and Hiram Norris, of Aurora; and Hon. John Stewart, of Campton. besides numerous others engaged in stock raising to a considerable extent in various parts of the county.

Some of these became so extensively interested also in the importation and raising of fine horses that their names are known throughout the civilized world. Particularly was this the case with Mark W. Dunham of St. Charles, and George E. Brown & Co.. of Aurora, from whose stock farms have come many of the finest animals in the world. The specialty of the Dunham farm was the magnificent Percheron horse, and in handling these 'Sir. Dunliam acquired, during the years he followed the business, a splendid fortune. His annual importations from France amounted to hundreds of the very finest horses which money can purchase, and he was the heaviest dealer in this class of horses in America. George E. Brown & Co., owners of two large stock farms, one in Aurora and the other in Batavia, acquired a national reputation as dealers in the fine English draft horses, Cleveland Bays and Exmoor ponies, and their annual importations are scarcely behind those of Mr. Dunham. Their Batavia farm, known as "Brookside," was formerly the property of Col. B. H. Campbell, also a noted stock dealer. \\'. S. Frazier, of Aurora, was for a number of years engaged in the culture of fine horses, and some of the most noted racers of the country were housed in his stables.

The settlers of this portion of the state early turned their attention toward exhibiting the products of the soil and of making displays of their best stock. On October 2, 1842, a state fair, so-called, was held at Aurora, and is said to have been the first in the state, although an unsuccessful attempt had been made in the year previous to hold one at Naperville. The stock exhibited comprised half a dozen cattle and a few hogs, and Charles Hoyt purchased nearly all of them after the "fair" was over. Five or six hundred people attended. Aurora had agreed to furnish a free dinner for the occasion, but, owing to a misunderstanding between the managers and the citizens, it was not done, and the inhabitants of Sugar Grove provided roast pigs, coffee, bread, etc.. the pigs being artistically carved with a hatchet. Dinner was eaten on an open spot of ground west of Ri\-er street, in the rear of the present business district. On the same day the first stone was turned in the old Black Hawk mill.

The Kane County Agricultural Society was organized ^lay 18, 1857, although exhibitions had taken place annually since 1853. The first officers of the socity were: President, William P. West; secretary, S. W. Curtis; treasurer, George W. Waite. Its fairs were for years almost the princioal annual events in the county, and were very largely attended. As the population became more dense, interest commenced to lag, and now the old fair grounds are deserted, and the ancient race tracks are overgrown or cut up into building lots. Several attempts to revive the interest proved failures, and finally the idea of holding fairs in other portions of the county were broached. The Aurora Agricultural and Horticultural Society was incorporated in 1869, with a capital stock limited to $10,000. Fifty-five acres of land, lying east of the city, were purchased for a fair ground, costing about $7,000, and the total expenditures were carried up to over $20,000. The first fair Was held September 21 to 25, 1869, and several others followed in succeeding years. In the spring of 1874 the society found itself badly in debt, and the grounds were sold in June of that year to a newly organized association, called the

Northern Illinois Agricultural Society, having a capital stock of $15,000. The experience of this association was, in the end, no more encouraging than that of its predecessor, and no fairs have been held for several years. The Elgin Agricultural Society was organized in 1870, and expended $10,000 in grounds and buildings; but after a few attempts at holding fairs the scheme was abandoned as unprofitable.

The only exhibitions of this character that are held in this vicinity are the county fair at Woodstock, McHenry county, and the so-called horse shows. The chief farm products now raised are corn, wheat, oats ; and within the past few years considerable land has been planted to the sugar beet, a large crop being raised this year. Foreign laborers are brought in to work the crops, as the local farmer is as yet unfamiliar with its culture. No factories have been built in this county to date, the crop being contracted for by factories in Wisconsin and shipped there. The belief is that more land will be given to this product. The days when farming was chiefly done by the labor of the individual have gone. Machinery has everywhere come into use until nearly every farm process is now done with a machine. Plowing alone seems to hold its own and require the hand to guide the blade in the furrow. The reaper is an old story, but the corn cutter, upon which one man sits, and driving his horses through the corn field, cuts it down, row by row, is a modern invention that saves much labor. To buy the mechanisms now considered necessary to farming alone requires an expenditure of several thousand dollars. And lands that, in the '40s, could be bought for from 25 cents to $1.25 an acre now sell for from $90 to $125 an acre.

Another fact conspicuous in farming is the change of nationalities in the owners. Fifty years ago farms were owned and worked largely by the Yankees, who entered them in the first place. Later these original settlers sold out or leased to Germans, and within the past fifteen years the Germans are being displaced in large numbers by the Scandinavians, who buy them out. The rural free delivery list of the Elgin postofiice shows the present predominance of the Germans and natives of Sweden and Norway. While many Germans are found among the very earliest settlers, the wave of immigration from Germany did not begin until after the Civil war, and the coming of the Scandinavians may be noted in the early '70s by the appearance of their names in the directories. Both these classes make good farmers, and accumulate property by frugality and toil where the native Yankee would not make ends meet, owing to his more expensive ways of living.