Kendall County, Illinois - Chapter 22: Speculation and Business, 1877

Chapter 22: Speculation and Business

E NOW enter upon the year 1835 - the year of the beginning of the seven years' Seminole war in Florida - the year of the great fire in New York, December 16th - the year the public debt of the United States was wholly paid up, and the ship of State, losing its ballast, went plunging on into extravagant speculations and appropriations for internal improvements, which ended in the wreck of 1837. Emigrants in 1835 came West in increased numbers. In the town of

Big Grove

John C. Phillips and Geo. B. Hollenback laid out the village of Newark, calling it Georgetown. Major Hitt, now living in Ottawa, was the surveyor, and made his corners by running out from the Indian boundary line on the south end of Dr, Sweetland's farm, by Kellogg's grove. Mr. Phillips was from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and died in 1849 of the cholera. He went one Friday to the Illinois river to do some work for Abe Ilolderman, died the next day, and was buried on Sunday. In 1835 he bought Geo. B. Hollenback's second buildins, now Mr. Wunder's ice house. It is one of the oldest frame buildings in the county. Another is Dr. Kendall's first house, now Simeon Brown's barn. Mr. Brown moved it in 1851, and the operation took sixty yoke of oxen and seventy-five men three days. The old roof was replaced ten years ago, and the frame is as sound as ever. At the other end of the town, Levi Hills moved his log house from the grove to the present site of Lisbon. It was the first house in Lisbon, and stood where Henry Sherrill's stone house now stands. The prairie settlement was immediately increased by the arrival of Horace Moore and his two sons, who took up a large tract of land, and have been identified with Lisbon ever since. James Root came with them, but afterward returned east. William Richardson, a single man, drove one of Root's teams. He died at Lisbon in 1857. These were all from Oneida county, New York. From the same vicinity came Rev. Calvin Bushnell. His wife and family of ten children joined him the following spring. Also Zenas McEwen and his sons William and Ezra. He went back after his family and returned in 1838, settling at Lisbon. Also, William B. Field, who entered the farm now owned by Rev. J. H. Kent. He kept it three years, and sold to Mrs. Sears, a widow with three children, and removed to Newark. He died in Morris in 1866.

A Log School House

During the fall a log school house was built in the center of Big Grove, so as to accommodate the settlers on the borders of the timber, each of whom made a path of their own among the trees and through the hazel and wild gooseberry bushes, along which the children went to school and the families went to meeting. Earl Adams was the first teacher, and George Norton succeeded him. Mr. Adams died two years ago. Mr. Norton is still the popular town clerk of Lisbon. The official schedules of that early school in the woods would be interesting, but they are undoubtedly lost. In addition to the settlers already mentioned in the town of

Lisbon

George W. Edmunds, from New York, settled near Piatt's - the only cabin between Piatt's and House's. Another was T. G. Wright, but the prairie towns did not fill up as rapidly as the timbered towns. In a log school house was built on Mr. House's land, in the Aux Sable timber, by Messrs. House, Mattison and Whiteman. Miss Sarah Gilman, now Mrs. Miles Royce, of Plainfield, was the first teacher. The children she taught are our grandfathers and grandmothers now, and some are passed away to the better land, but doubtless she still loves to remember that homely school house, around which the wolf tracks could be seen on winter mornings, and to recall the happy faces of her scholars as they ranged themselves after recess on the rough benches. Several families afterward moved away, and there was no more school for two or three years. In the town of frame of the saw-mill went up, and the dam was started at a point opposite a large island, covered with heavy timber. Of the island, only a little remnant is left, and the saw-mill was carried away by the freshet a year ago. In the fall, Jesse Jackson came out on horseback prospecting, from Fayette county, Pennsylvania, and made arrangements for moving his family out in the ensuing spring. Fletcher Misner, the only survivor of our pioneer blacksmiths, came in and worked in a shop on the Millbrook road, opposite Mr. Crimmins'. In the fall of the next year he removed to Newark, and had his shop where the hotel stands, and his residence where D. E. Hunger lives.

In the timber between H. C. Myers' and the river, a new store was opened by William Vernon and Willet Murray. The frame still stands, and is used by Robert Barron for a shop. Over the line in LaSalle, Levi Rood settled on the same farm on which he died. His brother, Lancelot Rood, came out in 1834, and was for years the surveyor and one of the leading men of the settlement.

Joseph Mason, who settled afterwards near Norway, was in 1835 the blacksmith at Holderman's, using the tools bought by Holderman of George B. Hollenback. He lived a little while at George HoUenback's, Sr., and while there dug the first grave in the Newark and Millington cemetery. It was in 1836, for a man by the name of Smith, who lived with Owen Haymond and who formerly owned the Bates claim, at Millbrook. After a year or two, Mr. Mason was able to buy a set of tools for himself, and he opened the shop on the place where he now is.

Pioneer Of Millbrook

Isaac Grover may be claimed as the pioneer of Millbrook. His farm covered the site of that village, and he lived first down by the ford, and afterward in the edge of the river timber, west of the town and north of the railroad track. An old house belonging to Edward Budd still stands there. In

Little Rock

John Raymond bought out Mr. Cox, in the Rob-Roy timber. Barnabas E. Eldridge, commonly called Barney Eldredge, bought out Mr. McJimpsey, in the Big Rock timber, and resided on the claim until his death. John Cook claimed on the other side of the creek.

Mr. Eldredge and John Wheeler came together from Schoharie county. New York. On the boat they fell in with J. S. Cornell, who told them of the beauties of the Fox river country, and invited them to accompany him. From Chicago, however, they went out along Rock river, but not finding a spot to their liking, they came to the Fox and settled. Mr. Wheeler lives still on his original claim.

James Mason, for sixteen dollars worth of breaking, bought of Robert Ford his slender title to a thousand acres, more or less, along the river, in the southern part of the town, taking the mouth of Rock Creek for the center. No mortal plow could run a claim furrow around such a romantic tract, so Mr. Mason confined his plowing to a little field for corn, and built his cabin among the trees down by the Greenfield spring, in Fox, and was "right glad" to sell out to Fred. Witherspoon, after a few months, for one hundred dollars, in " truck."

Moses Inscho and Henry Winters came in August, and the former bought Mulkey's claim, and let Winters have it. Mr. Inscho had several sons. He was an old man, and after three years' residence here was found one day by the Little Rock ford, dead. It was supposed that he laid down to drink and was taken with apoplexy.

A family of Clark boys, Josiah, Joseph, Merritt and Porter, settled along the east side of Little Rock timber. Their father did not come. Jacob Crandall, Alonzo Tolman, Amos Tenney, N. I. Robbins, Benjamin J. Beck and Sheldon A. Tomblin were also settlers of 1835. Mr. Farley opened a store where John Gilman now lives. His clerk, William L. Church, was afterward sheriff of Cook county. He sold to Mr. Penfield, who kept the post office. Josiah Lehman opened a hotel on the same place about 1844.

were John, James and Robert Evans, from Huron county, Ohio. John came first, making his way on horseback and alone. He bought William Paul's claim,- near Pavilion, where he still resides. The other two settled at HoUenback's Grove. They went to Missouri in 1857, and died there. Mr. Paul removed to Little Rock. John Evans' log house, built in the fall of 1835, yet stands, and is used as a storehouse. Samuel Inscho came with the Evanses, and settled on the east side of Long Grove. William Campbell settled south of the Grove, near Mrs. Needham's. His brother John came a year or two after.

A New Store

Franklin Winchell, of Chatauqua county, New York, opened a little store near the present site of the Pavilion school house. His brother Horace, unmarried, came with him. Herman came in 1836, Darwin in 1838, and Gurden and George W. with their parents in 1839. There were ten children in the family. The father, Rev. Heman Winchell, Sr., was a Baptist minister, but did not preach here. He died near Piano in 1843. Franklin, Horace and Darwin went to California during the gold fever. George W. was a Newark merchant for twenty-five years.

Rulief Duryea and James S. Cornell had been in business together in New York, and came to Yorkville as a firm. Mr. Cornell came by water with a stock of dry goods, and Mr. Duryea and family came overland. On his journey he bought a span of black horses, ''John and Charley." They were true and gentle, and would follow wherever there was a track. He crossed Fox river at the Galena ford, near Montgomery. Arriving at their chosen location, they purchased of Mr. Bristol the claim on which Yorkville stands, and adopted the famous cabin on the court house hill as their future residence. The cabin Avas twelve by fourteen, one story, slab floor, puncheon door on wooden hinges, rived shingles " staked and ridered " on, logs notched together. Not a nail in all the building. But one window, of four seven-by-nine lights, by the door, and the room was so dark that when pegs were put in the upper log to hang articles on, the occupants would often strike their heads against them. Those wooden pegs were Mrs. Duryea's improvement. Mr. Bristol had got along without them, but she mentally resolved that she would not live in a house with no " place to put things," and soon succeeded in having the matter fixed to her liking. A new frame building was put up for a store, and the business of Yorkville commenced. The partnership continued until 1838, after which it was continued by Mr. Duryea alone until his death in 1846. He was a generous, kind hearted man, and still remembered with gratitude by manv whom he befriended in their need. Mr. Cornell married Marion, a daughter of Titus Howe, and made the first farm on the Rob Roy prairie, in Bristol. The frame then erected still forms part of his residence.

During the summer, John L. Clark and John K. LeBarron, after a horseback tour down the river, bought out the renowned Specie, at Specie grove, claim, personal property and all, for $2,000. There were some fifteen horses, six yoke of oxen, and fifty hogs, all running at large on the prairie. He said to Clark and LeBarron : '' This is your boundary through the grove, and southward you will always be open to the Illinois river." The old man's "pasture," to which he could so calmly give a verbal warranty deed, was eighteen miles long, and now supports four or five thousand people. About the same time, claimed the Cowdry place, near Mr. Morgan's, and built a log cabin there, but Specie outwitted him by staking out for himself nearly all the claim, leaving only a narrow strip where the cabin stood. Mr. Townsend told the neighbors, and nine of them turned out and hauled all of Specie's rails and logs up to Towns- end's cabin. Kane county had just been organized, including the eastern towns of Kendall, and Specie brought suit in that county against the nine separately for trespass. Each of them subpoened the others, so that each had nine suits on hand. But the trespass was proven on Specie, and he had to go up to the county seat with the shot bag full of silver paid him by Clark and Le Barron, and settle costs to the amount of $400. Soon after he went down on the Vermillion, where he died. He was found dead in his cabin. Thus passed another of the advance guards of civilization. He was half Indian in his habits, and would as soon eat muskrat as pig, but the early settlers were indebted to him for many acts of kindness, which, sometimes, it must be confessed, were poorly requited. He and Stephen Sweet parted soon after the Indian war, and Sweet worked around Yorkville for a time and then removed to McLean county, and married.