Kendall County, Illinois - Chapter 25: Crowding Into the Wilderness, 1877

Chapter 25: Crowding Into the Wilderness

N 1836, the village of Yorkville was laid out bv Rulief Durvea. Only his cabin, in which he kept store, stood there at the time, but soon after Mr. Howe and Mr. Hav, a tailor, now living in Sandwich, built homes. Palmer Sherman and George Evans, father of John Evans, settled on the south side of Long Grove. As yet no from Massachusetts. He found the groves pretty well circled, and determined to pitch his camp far out where the prairie flowers invitingly bloomed, and make a grove unto himself. It was a long time, however, before he secured neighbors, as there were no stage roads through that prairie to attract them. Mr. Shepherd's daughter, Cecelia, now Mrs. E. S. Satterly, was the first child born on the prairie south of AuxSable Grove.

Bristol

were Dea. James McClellan, Dea. S. S. Lathrop, B. F. Alden, Rev. H. S. Colton, Dr. Calvin Wheeler, John Eglington, Mr. Grimwood, John and Nathaniel Burton, and many others, who stayed but a short time. Dea. McClellan was from Chatauqua county, New York. He built the first frame house in Bristol, and having capital, was a leader in every worthy enterprise until his death, July 11, 1867. Deacon Lathrop came to Chicago in 1834, and was a member of the First Baptist Church there when I. T. Hinton was pastor, and there were but twelve members. He was with that veteran missionary, Rev. A. B. Freeman, at his death. Mr. Lathrop still lives in Bristol ; so does Mr. Alden. The latter came around the lakes with Rev. J. F. Tolman, who had been east for his health, and returned in 1836. Mr. Alden has dug over one hundred wells in Kendall county, and in the winter of 1837 split for Lyman Bristol and James Gilliam, fifteen thousand oak and black walnut rails. He has worked as hard, too, on the underground railway, and still carries a deep scar as a memorial of a conflict with slave catchers.

Mr. Colton also still survives. He settled at Princeton in 1835, and the following fall came to Bristol. He organized the Congregational churches at Bristol, Oswego and Aurora. When he went from Chicago to Princeton, there was but one bridge on the road - that at Plainfield. It was made of poles laid across on stringers.

Death Of Dr. Wheeler

with Abijah Haymond, at Long Grove. He was a man of extraordinary benevolence, giving medicines free and keeping open doors to all the poor. He and Dr. Kendall were for some time the only physicians within many miles. He was a member of the Congregational Church, a temperance man, an active abolitionist, and a great Bible reader. He died in May, 1876. The first Sunday School in Bristol was held in 1836, in Deacon Johnson's house; Mrs. H. S. Colton, Superintendent; and she is Superintendent to-day of the Congregational Sunday School of Bristol. At

OSWEGO we find Samuel Thomas and Henry Hopkins. Samuel bought out William Wilson, where Mr. Loucks lives, and was Justice of the Peace for years. He now lives at Chebanse. Henry lives in Aurora.

James Greenacre and Mr. Ross settled over the river. Mr. Hubbard kept the first store. Stephen B. Craw, Bainbridge Smith, and Maurice and Rufus Gray were prominent settlers. Joel Warner settled one mile east of Oswego, and afterward removed to Newark. Calvin B. Chapin, of New York, built the first blacksmith shop in Oswego. He came to Downer's Grove with old Mr. Downer in 1832.

Merrit Clark had a chair factory at his mill, and made wooden chairs in 1836, some of which are in existence yet, and valued at more than when they were new. A grist mill was begun by Levi and Darwin Gorton and finished the following season. They subsequently sold to N. A. Rising, who opened a store in connection with the mill. D. C. Cleveland, now of Newark, came that year, and lived two years in Oswego. Harrison Albee, of Clinton county. New York, still lives on his farm east of Oswego. Deacon Cyrus Ashley, of Plainfield, came out from Martinsburg, New York, with a consignment of wagons, and was only prevented from settling at " Hudson " by the solicitations of some of the "Walker's Grove" people.

Mr. Sargent lived where John Seeley does now. Clark W. Wormley bought his present place of Wendell King, of Aurora. George W. Kellogg passed through our county on his way to Peoria, from Rutland, Vermont, in the fall of 1835. Stopped over night at Plattville, where was only a log house and a few acres of sod corn. In the spring of 1836 he returned and settled on George Parker's place, opposite Oswego. Went to Naau-say in 1846.

Mrs. Mary Young

still living in Na-au-say, says: "My husband, William Young, and myself came to Chicago in the fall of 1835. We were from England. He found work in a wagon shop during the winter, and there Isaac Townsend, being in Chicago, happened to meet him, and asked him if he would like to go out into the country. Mr. Young said yes, for he had the ague very hard in Chicago. So we came out here in February, 1836. Mr. Townsend lived with Major Davis, and when we arrived, the wife of an Irishman who was keeping house for them said to me, ' 0, I am glad to see a woman, for I have not seen one for three months.' Well, thinks I, we have got into a wilderness now, sure enough. However, we stood it better than I had feared, though we did have some times that were pretty hard. We moved into a large log house, twenty-by-thirty, built by John Hough, and there, February 20th, 1837, my son, Richard Young, was born, the first white child born in the town of Naau-say." In

John Davis settled on the lower Aux Sable, on the Henderson place, and Mr. Sidebotham settled a mile above him, on the Thomas Fielding place. Mr. Sidebotham took up a large tract of land, but died the following year. He was a brother-in-law of Alanson Milks, who had just bought out Mr. Davis, and opened a tavern, w^ell known afterwards as the Patrick stand, and there Mr. Sidebotham was buried.

was organized out of LaSalle, the line running through Kendall and cutting ofi" our eastern townships, making Oswego, Bristol and Little Rock to be in Kane county. Following is an extract from an eflfort of a local poet enshrining the advantages of the new county in rhyme :

" The timber here is very good. The forest dense of sturdy wood, The maple tree its sweets affords, And walnut it is sawn to boards, The giant oak the axman hails, Its massive trunk is torn to rails ; And game is plenty in the State, Which makes the hunters' chances great ; The prairie wolf infests the land. And the wild-cats all bristling stand."

There is nothing said about town sites, corner lots, unlimited water privileges and prospective railroads, which made up a large share of the hopes of 1836. In the State of Illinois one thousand miles of railroad had been projected by the State Committees on Internal Improvements, besides extensive improvements in navigable rivers. Several of the roads had to pass over government lands where there were scarce settlers' cabins enough to mark the stations. In the entire county of LaSalle the land tax for 1835 was but $76.29 - less than hundreds of single farms now pay. The railroads, however, came to nothing, though the river improvements were many of them made. There is one subject, however, which our fathers must be praised for, viz : their enterprise and forethought on the subject of

Education

They felt the necessity of some system of public schools, and this more largely after an influx of eastern emigration. The want of teachers was deeply felt, and the following extracts are from the Senate report of 1836, proposing to establish county seminaries for teachers. Read and remember them and be thankful for our school houses :

" Ours is a government of laws and rights which, to to be appreciated, must be understood. The distinctions in society so much and so often complained of are to be attributed more to the different degrees of intelligence among men, than to wealth, or rank, or any other cause. If in our own community a certain portion of the people be permitted to remain in ignorance, that portion will be better fitted for the use of the other than thev will be to discharge the duties imposed upon them by their country. The nations of the old world are not now adapted to free institutions like ours. Even England and France, enlightened as they are, are probably as happy under their own monarchies as they would be under a republic; not because there is a want of intelligence among certain classes, but because there is a want of intelligence among the people. In some portions of our country the schools have been left almost entirely to individual exertion. In these portions many persons are found who are unable to read. The same may be said of States where schools for the poor are established by law. ' Let the rich educate themselves,' they say, 'and we will educate the poor.' Now whether this principle of regarding education as an act of charity be right or wrong, its operation will at least show that it would be impracticable to adopt it here, for where it has prevailed - according to the best information that can be obtained - onethird of the whole people are unable to read. But in every State where free schools have long prevailed, it is very difficult to find a single person who is unable to read and write. Where free schools prevail, the State exacts of its people what they may have to give - of the rich man, his money ; of the poor man, his children. There is one evil not yet provided for, and that is the lamentable want of qualified teachers. It is well known that in many settlements the people are obliged to depend upon the wandering refugees of other States, and such transient persons as may happen to come along, to teach their schools. The evil, however, is not without a remedy - by erecting county seminaries, in which the Latin and Greek Ianguages, and the higher branches of an English education, may be taught. We must have education. So popular is the subject of education now in this State, that it is advoca.ted in every newspaper and its praises are sung on every ' stump.' The public mind may be convulsed in discussions concerning the State Bank or the Canal, but such matters are as the dust in the balance when compared to a subject like this. In the day of small things let us plant the tree under whose branches millions of the future inhabitants of this great Valley will repose in security and peace."