Kendall County, Illinois - The County Seat, 1877

The County Seat

f LTHOUGH Peter Lott was, in 1845, a member of the Legislature from Adams county, our representative was Georofe W. Armstrong, and no less than four several petitions were sent in by him, praying for an addition to Kendall county from the borders of DeKalb and LaSalle. Our people felt it to be unfair that these two counties should have fifty townships between them while Kendall had but nine. Nor could it be said that the inhabitants of the territory proposed to be annexed were altogether averse, for one of the petitions was from the coveted township in DeKalb, and another was signed by sixtv-nine voters in LaSalle. The addition would have given us Sandwich and Somonauk, and the towns of Northville and Mission. But the petitions were denied, and as a consequence the dwellers just over the line in LaSalle are twice as far from their own county seat as they are from ours. The committee probably thought that overgrown county, with its one hundred and fifty-six miles of coast line, would not cut up well if only thirty townships were left to it. But it is well - moderate sized families are generally the happiest. And then there are thirteen counties in the State still smaller than Kendall, and two, Gallatin and DuPage, the same size. Hardin and Putnam are but about one-half as large. Eighteen hundred and fortyfive is the limit usually assigned to the privilege of being an old settler. The following are prominent persons who came in that year : In Na-au-say, L. M. and II. P. Whitlock, Mr. Smith, Christopher Stryker. In Fox. Ransom Whiner, John Thomas. In Lisbon, F. 0. Alford. In Bristol, John Smith. In Oswego, F. Cofl&n, Preston Burr, Martin Hinchman, G. Danford, John B. Hunt, Daniel Hunt, William and Dwight Ladd, Laureston and Seth Walker. In Big Grove, Henry Bingham, S. C. Sleezer, Isaac and Peter S. Lott, C. C. Thuneman, David and Simeon Brown. The latter settled on the shore of ihe beautiful Chatauqua Lake in New York in 1817, when the country was a wilderness, and lived there twenty-eight years. They thus have been twice pioneers, and have helped settle two new countries. At Newark, William 0. Clark, a Latter Day Saints preacher from Ottawa, held meetings in the precinct-house every evening for four weeks, and a society of thirty-nine members was formed, bidding fair to become a strong church ; but emigration set in, and nearly all rem.oved to homes further west. There was yet, however, miles and miles of unbroken prairie in our county, and some of it is still government land. In Newark all was prairie sod east of D. C. Cleveland's, and after passing Big Grove, going towards Plainfield for ten miles, there was

During the season Titus Howe built the Yorkville dam. It was a favorable time, as the summer was very warm and dry, and the river low. There was no rain in this vicinity from May to December. It was thus a direct contrast to the preceding summer which had been a time of heavy floods. Yet there was water enough to drown, for that season William Bidmead and a companion were drowned in the river at Bristol.

The Holderman school, Big Grove, began about 1845. The early teachers were Frank Barber, William Cody, Mr. Carpenter, Mr. Allison, Mary and Eliza Knox.

The Davis scliool house, in Oswego, was built in 1845, and following is a list of the teachers : Messrs. Charles Smith, Scott, Derby, E. W. Barnes, N. Gaylord, Shibley, Vinson, Updyke, J. Burnet, and Misses Andrews, Drew, M. and S. Flanders, Rich, Wood, Houser, Miles, and Murray.

An effort was made to have regular preaching in the school house in town, where also court was held. A public meeting was called, but after long talking they could not agree, and the project failed. Most of those who put their names on the subscription list, signed three dollars each - a larger sum in those days than it is now.

Introduction Of Reapers Mc Cormick Reaper

into the county, and it did good work, but was hard on man and beast. It was a heavy load for four horses, and that without the driver riding, for with the first machines, the one who raked off was obliged to walk. About the same time, the Woodward reaper, pushed before the team, was also used. The appearance of these improved and costly machines was evidence that the keen edsje of the hard times was turned. The travel was immense, both of emigrants passing through and of farmers going to the lake with their grain. At Piatt's tavern, one morning, forty wagons were counted - part going west, but more going to Chicago. Farmers came with their produce from a hundred miles below. Such long journeys, however, were expensive, and though tavern rates Avere but from fifty cents to one dollar a night for man and team, yet often the farmer had little left when he reached home. Another sort of travel was going on briskly, too - that of the which ran on top of the ground. An intensely interesting volume might be written on this subject. The fugitives came mostly from the southwestern States, by St. Louis and the Missouri border, and having once found a friend on the Illinois side, they were taken from point to point to Chicago and the lake ports, and from there by friendly captains around the lakes to Canada. Edward Wright, living at Lisbon, hitched up his team and took a slave, through the night, to Joliet, taking care to leave before the neighbors were up, lest the "depot" should be suspected. Two panting fugitives came to Yorkville. They had hired as hands on a boat from St. Louis up the Illinois river, and at Peru made their escape. They were pursued by two men, who arrested them at Yorkville, and would have them held until a warrant could arrive from Newark - for it seems there was a Newark Justice inhuman enough to lend himself to the business. But before the process could be served, the slaves were gone. A wagon was w^aiting on the edge of the town to take them beyond Bristol, from whence they were taken to St. Charles, and so on to freedom. Loud and bitter curses and a law suit followed, but it came to nothing. Another fugitive was brought from New Orleans by a Cincinnati merchant, and was covered with scars. He learned to read the Bible during the little while he was on the way. Petitions praying a repeal of continued to pour into the Legislature ; one from Chicago was several feet long and had eight hundred signatures. When they first began to come, they were quietly laid on the table, or postponed " until the Fourth of July," but still they came, and a special committee was appointed to take charge of them. The majority of the committee recommended a modification of the laws, but the report was not accepted. A minority report was accepted and printed. It begins with saying :

" The various petitions, though they do not precisely agree in phraseology, are all intended to accomplish the same object, which is to remove all distinctions in law and civil society between the white population of our own State and the African race. The motions of the petitioners may be dictated by the purest benevolence and the most patriotic feelings, but the undersigned are firmly impressed with the belief that they are governed by erroneous views and false notions of philanthropy. * * By nature, education and association, it is believed that the negro is inferior to the white man, physically, morally and intellectually ; whether this be true to the fullest extent, matters not, when we take into consideration the fact that such is the opinion of the vast majority of our citizens !"

from Yorkville to Oswego. The subject had been agitated for some time, and in January a petition with one hundred and seventy-five signatures was sent to the Legislature, praying for the removal. This number was increased in a few days to three hundred and sixty-five names, and was followed two weeks after by another petition to the same efi"ect, with sixty-seven signatures. The energy thus displayed resulted in the passage of " a bill for the permanent location of the seat of justice in Kendall county," allowing it to go before the people on the first Monday in August. It was a busy time with farmers, yet such another election had never been held here. Each side exerted their utmost strength. Oswego, with the highest generosity, set a free table, in the stone building above the depot, and kept fifty teams runniug all day carrying voters. A second election was required, however, and then Oswego won. Their first court was held in the old National Hotel, Judge Caton presiding.

Kendall county in 1845 raised ninety bushels of wheat and one hundred bushels of corn to every man, woman and child in the county. The population was 5,400.