Kendall County, Illinois - Treaties and Wolf Hunts, 1877

Treaties and Wolf Hunts

|VER the river, in the town of Bristol, were Deacon David Johnson, George Johnson, Horatio Johnson, J. W. Gillam, Truman B. Hathway, Lyman Lane, John Burton, Nathaniel Burton, John Pearson, Galusha Stebbins, William Curran, John Windett, James Teaby, William Bull and Lyman S. Knox. Nearly all are dead. Mr. Knox still lives on his original claim at Bristol Station. He was from Monroe county, New York, and was the first actual settler on Blackberry creek. Mr. Dodge was a lawyer. Mr. Ball built a mill on Big Rock creek, one mile south of Piano, and sold it two years afterwards to John Schneider, the Bristol miller. Rev. Mr. Eddy, a local preacher, claimed the John C. Scofield place. He used to have prayer meetings at his house. Mr. Ross claimed the Rickard farm. Mr. Bailey had a shantv on the nrairic iust over the line in Little Rock.

were John McCloud and Jonathan Ricketson, from Livingston county, New York. The following year Mr. Ricketson moved to Plattville, and built the second house in that burg. It stood by the creek at the west end of the bridge, and is now owned by the Wilkinson estate. He made the first wagon track from Fox river to Plattville. Mr. McCloud also removed after two years, and settled a mile and a half east of Plattville. Rufus Gray came from Montgomery county. New York, and still lives on his farm near Montgomery, above Oswego. Daniel S. Gray settled in Bristol. Stephen English was from New York. Also, Truman Hathway. William A. Randall was from Pennsylvania, and walked all the way to Oswego. In Chicago he was offered a large tract of the marshy prairie in exchange for his rifle, but refused. The rifle he could use, but the land appeared absolutely worthless, except as a haunt for frogs and wild ducks, and a revealer of the total depravity of teamsters. Mr. Stebbins and family came at the same time. A son, Glucins Stebbins, resides on Blackberry creek. Mr. Randall worked for John Pearce, and the following spring married his daughter, Miss Deborah, and set up a blacksmith shop, built of round logs, on the west side of the river. He made axes, hatchets, knives and steels, for both whites and Indians ; also, guns, wagons, plows and implements of all kinds. He died at Newark in 1874.

Major W. N. Davis

in a carriage. He and another Davis (no relation), Isaac Townsend, Robert Townsend, afterward a rear admiral in the war of the rebellion, and a French halfbreed by the name of Leframbeaux, came out to locate their claims. The Frenchman and two brothers - Francis, Joseph and Claude were their names - lived in a little grove on the site of Bridgeport, by the South Branch. The place was then called " Hardscrabble." Major Davis and Tow^nsend located a large tract of land, including the Mohahwa reservation in Oswego and the Weskesha reservation in Na au-say. These they bought of the Indian proprietors, receiving deeds signed by them and by the Indian agent. Such deeds are a curiosity. There is one on exhibition in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, given by the chiefs of the Six Nations to some traders in indemnity for goods stolen. The chiefs signed, by each making on the appointed place on the deed, the symbol of his tribe. The chief of the Mohawks made a rude representation of a steel, such as was used for striking flints. The chief of the Oneidas made a stone ; the Tuscaroras, a cross ; the Onondagas, a mountain, a round mark much like the Oneida's stone ; the Cayugas, a pipe ; the chief of the Senecas made what he said was a high hill, a mark like a bell-glass, ten times as large as the Onondaga's mountain, and with a rude atteiupt at ornament or shading, iifter each mark was put a seal of red wax and the explanation in writing. The signatures of several w^itnesses completed the instrument. The trail from Detroit to Canada passed by the reservations bought by Davis and Townsend, and was traveled a hundred years before by the western tribes going to Maiden, Canada, to receive British pensions. Major Davis built his house on the divide or water-shed, which running parallel with Fox river enters the county at the north-eastern corner and leaves it at the southwestern corner, below Holderman's Grove. From the back stoop of the house one may look over a territory of forty miles in diameter, from Lemont around to Sandwich and Paw Paw Grove. Mr. Townsend settled in Na-au-say. His brother, Claudius Townsend, settled across the river from Oswego. Mr. Arnold settled in Oswego, and he and L. B. Judson laid out the village, calling it a name by which it was known for several years. Mr. Arnold opened the first store in the place the same season. It stood on the present site of Levi Hall's drug store. Rev. Wilder B. Mack, a Methodist traveling preacher, held occasional services at Daniel Pearce's, and a class was organized there by Rev. William Royal. Stephen Ashley and Mr. Moss, a bachelor, were other settlers. John W. Chapman came in and stayed a few months, and then passed on to Dixon, where he remained seven years, returning in 1842. In

John Hough and his brothers, Berridge and Jerry, each made claims by the Grove. Isaac Townsend bought out Selvey, and continued to add other claims from time to time. His family did not come until afterwards. He had three sons, Daniel J., Isaac and William D. When his family came he built a gravel house - a pretentious one for those days. Alexander Reed came here with him.

January 1st, 1835, a Land Office was opened at Chicas:o for what was known as the Northeast Land District. In each office there were two officers, a Register and Receiver, with salaries of $500 each. Col. E. D. Taylor and James Whitlock were the officers appointed at Chicago, and in six months took in half a million dollars. Only a small part of this county came into market at that time - the part south of the Indian boundary line, embracing half of the towns of Big Grove and Lisbon, three-quarters of Seward, and two sections in Na-ausay. All lands purchased were exempt from taxation five years after purchase.

War Dance

held in this section was celebrated at Chicago. Five thousand braves, painted and armed with tomahawks and clubs, assembled on the North side, having paraded the village street for an hour, to the great alarm of women and children, and not a few men.

They existed in great numbers, and would often kill hogs that were fattening in the woods. Chester Smith, of Plainfield, had a drove of hogs in the Aux Sable timber, and coming after them in the fall, he caught them, tied their feet and let them lie in the grove till morning. It was a cruel act, and in the morning some of the hogs were missing, - all but their bones. The wolves had eaten them alive. Others were killed and not eaten. A light snow fell in the night, and it was trampled and dyed with blood like a battle-field. Wolf hunts were common. A stake would be set up, say, on the prairie beyond Lisbon. The settlers would be engaged, and would come in a narrowing circle from miles in every direction, driving every thing before them. As they neared the central point and the enclosed game came in view, the excitement became intense. The wolves and deer tried to run the blockade, but were beaten back from every point, until they were nearly crazy with fright. Then the slaughter commenced, and it was rarely that one escaped. After all was over an equitable distribution was made. In the hunt of 1835, eighteen wolves and twenty-four deer were killed. Two years before, in a Chicago hunt, forty wolves were killed. These hunts, however, like every other amusement, soon degenerated. The settlers in some localities would privately agree to shoot their game on the way, and afterward come in for a share in the common stock, thus defrauding their neighbors from other places. This cheating brought the hunts into disrepute. That year a bear was killed in a lumber yard on the South Branch, Chicago, though such game was scarce. He was probably driven out of his forest home by hunger. The preceding winter was severe. February 8th, 1835, the thermometer stood at thirty-five degrees below zero - the coldest day known for years.

One night in October occurred a grand auroral display, paling the moonlight. 1835 was, on the whole, a year of prosperity with those who had anything to sell, but, unfortunately, the new settlers had to buy.

The Following Story

went with an ox team to Chicago for provisions, and, with the rest, brought home a barrel of salt pork. Squire Ives and another neighbor took half of it, and then the question arose where to dispose of the rest. It could not be put down cellar, for there was none. Nor up stairs, for the same reason. Nor was there a square foot to be spared in the living room. So it was put outside the cabin door. But in the morning it was gone, and after a diligent search was given over as lost. No, not lost, for towards evening a traveler reported having seen a terrible sight on the prairie ; it was something half bovine, half monster. Mr. Tolman rallied his forces and reconnoitred the field, and lo ! it was an ox with the missing pork barrel on his head, and the pork was still in it ! The animal had put in nose and horns after salt, and unable to extricate itself, had gone away. Samsonlike, with the barrel and all.