Kendall County, Illinois - Departure of the Indians, 1877

Departure of the Indians

'v^^&T^ was opened in a log granary owned by Levi Hills, and was taught by Elizabeth Bushnell, now Mrs. A. J. Ford, of Chebanse. The school-room was warmed by a stove Mr. Bushnell brought from New York. William and Samuel McCloud settled a mile east of Plattville. At Piatt's, Rev. Mr. Lumry held occasional preaching service. Chester House, the pioneer of the town of Seward, died that season of consumption, brought on by exposure. Two of the present settlers of that town - Daniel Gleason and J. L. Van Cleve - came in at the same time. Both were young men. William Gleason came in two years after.

Millington was added to by the removal there of Fletcher Misner, who left the Newark business to Mr. Messenger, and built a shop where Mr. Van Osdel's house now stands. Work on the grist mill also w^ent on

Naming Of Milbrook

The saw mill was built first, with a twenty-four foot overshot wheel, and the grist mill not for some time afterwards. William Whitfield took it in 1844, but the water ran low and finally the old mill was sold piecemeal. The course of the race can be traced yet, a little above the Millbrook ford. All our streams are lower to-day than when the country was first settled. About the time they were building the mill, the lady who was to name the future village was on her way west. It was Mrs. Rachel Blanding. Her husband. Dr. Blanding, was in poor health, and as a restorative, they entered, in company with an aunt, on a western tour. Going down the Ohio river to its mouth, they passed up the Mississippi to the head of navigation ; then back to the mouth of the Illinois river and up to LaSalle, and thence by teams to the homes of their friends, Rev. Royal Bullard and Wm. Vernon. While here, Mrs. Blanding named Mr. Bullard's place Millbrook farm. Several years after, she left, by will, one hundred dollars to help build a meeting house there, two conditions being attached, viz : It was to be near Millbrook farm, and was to be called Millbrook church.

there were, Solomon Heustis, Lyman Lane, G. W. Lane, M. W. Lane, W. W. Marsh, J. Pratt. At Yorkville, Mr. Duryea built a blacksmith shop and a cabinet shop. Robert Casler, from New York, and now residing in Little Rock, worked the former ; and Isaac Fouch occupied the latter. Other settlers of this year about Long Grove, were Palmer Sherman, John Boyd, John Parker, Joab Austin, D. C. Shepherd, F. A. Emmons, W. M. Hallock. In Na-au-say, Ralph Gates, Dr. T. Seeley, Edmund Seeley, Francis Foulston.

In Little Rock, A. McLeary, Matthew Patterson, Solomon Stebbins, Nathan C. Mighell, Edward Lewis, Isaac Hatch, Mr. Scott, John Shonts, Amer Cook, Daniel Burroughs, Morris Hadden, William Ryan, Thomas Lye. The two latter came together. The senior Cook was an old Revolutionary soldier, and though more than eighty years old, was often seen with a gun on his shoulder, meandering up Little Rock creek after game. Patterson and Stebbins Avere the first on Blackberry creek. The claim made by the latter is now Levi Gorton's farm. A notable event this year was

Moving The Indians

MOVING THE INDIANS. William Mulkey reports his share in it as follows : "The contract to move them was advertised for by government, and given to Christopher Dobson as the lowest bidder. William Rogers, of Paw Paw, known as ' Blackleg Bill,' had the contract to feed them while on the road. I hired to him at $2.50 a day, out and back. He put in five teams. The farmers in diiferent parts were hired first to bring them in to Chicago, and from there we started for the Platte purchase on Platte river, seven hundred miles west. At Shabbona Grove we made a halt, and paid the Indians their annuities. It was known that we were going to do so, and some parties from Princeton were soon in sight with the inevitable load of whisky. They did not dare to come within the limits of the reserve, but camped outside and showed the whisky to an Indian. He told the others, and in a little while they were all yelling drunk, and the whisky sellers were taking in the silver half dollars in a stream. The contractors saw it was going to delay their march until the Indians' money was all gone, and Bill Rogers went out boldly with an axe and stove in all the barrels. We thought that was the end of it, but when we were a little past Princeton the sheriff's posse overtook us with a warrant to arrest Bill. A petty chief, by the name of Lefiambeaux was with us, a French half-breed. He raised the war cry, and such a whooping and yelling and brandishinor of hatchets as followed was enouorh to curdle a white man's blood. They drove the sheriff and his men back to town, and Bill escaped arrest. We were nearly two months on the outward journey. There were sixteen wagons altogether in the company, some of them belonging to the wealthy Indians, who were allowed the same pay by the government as was given to the rest of us. We carried the women and children and their household furniture, while the men walked. We crossed the river where Kansas City now is, and then the tribe separated, part going to the Osage and part to the Platte. When we arrived at our journey's end we set the Indians out on the open ground, unloaded their traps alongside, and came away and left them there. I was gone three months."

In Oswego, Mrs. Pease, L. B. Judson's mother, kept tavern. Mr. Osborn kept store, and Ezra Smith opened the first shoe shop. He was a fine performer on the tenor drum, and was a manufacturer of drums. Many were sold during the war. G. W. Wormley, Daniel Cooney and Henry A. Clarke came in and took up claims. The latter settled, at first, on the place where William and John Pearce now live. He opened one of the first dry goods stores in Oswego, and continued in the business twenty years.

Mr. Sutton was a transient settler who used to sell claims. A great claim fight occurred this year near Oswego, between the friends of H. A. Clarke and Thomas Strobridge. On an appointed day, about thirty on a side met, and weapons and bad language were used, and such a moral dust raised as did not settle for years.

This season, the Oswego postoffice was established, and the first school was opened in a log building on the hill above where the brewery stands. George Kellogg was the first teacher ; then Mr. King. The next season a frame building was put up on the same lot with the store. The studdings were hewed out of rails. It was the first frame in Oswego, and is now a part of Albert Snook's residence. It was made for a store, but school was held in it. Adaline Warner, sister of Mrs. George Parker, was the first teacher. Four of the village lot owners, L. B. Judson, L. F. Arnold, Mr. Green and Dr. Trowbridge, voted for a name for the new post-office, and the result was that " Lodi" and "Hudson" became Oswego by two majority. Mr. Green and one or two others and school opened. Day school was commenced in the fall in a log school house, built by subscription, on Daniel Bagwell's farm. It was the forerunner of the present Millington school. Miss Lester, sister of Lemuel Lester of Sheridan, was the first teacher. She was followed by Tunis Budd, Mr. Bates and Mr. Montenoy. Titus Howe built the Yorkville mill this season. He had for two years been running a mill in Batavia. On the Bristol side of the river, was built, near Dea. Johnson's, and Emily Webster taught the first school in it. Eleanor Miller, from Aurora, followed. After two years it was moved nearer the river, and Charlotte Bushnell, a sister of the first Lisbon teacher, was the first to occupy the new position. The school was subsequently held in different buildings after the original house was moved toward Oswego. George Bristol, Rhoda Godard, and Miss Beardsley were among the early teachers. Not many records were kept, for it was all the people wanted to do to live. Money was very scarce, provisions sometimes hard to get, teachers' wages six dollars a month, and there was but little attempt on the part of either parents or teacher to provide for more than present necessities. Indeed, no people on earth at that day, and in those circumstances, beside the American people, would have striven so hard to provide a common school education for their children at all. From every other country, even from enlightened Britain, emigrants were coming by scores who could not read their own names, while out in the wilderness wilds of the country there was scarcely a boy not able to read the paper containing the notice of their arrival. As the royal monogram on the clothing of the infant prince marks it as belonging to the royal family, so the rouojh school house in each settlement was the royal mark, telling that it belonged to the people foreordained of Almighty God to be the royal nation of the world. The bulk of the nation might be far away toward the eastern ocean, and the settlement consist of but six scattered cabins, whose occupants were struggling for daily bread, yet the humble, log-ribbed school house showed the blood relation between them, and was itself the rough-robed prophet of a future time when on these shores the grateful world shall see what it never yet has seen - the national power of Christian education.