Kendall County, Illinois - Chapter 39: Townships and Railroads, 1877

Chapter 39: Townships and Railroads

N 1850 the old county government by Boards of County Commissioners gave way to new Boards of Supervisors, by which at present seventy-four of the one hundred and two counties in the State are governed. The first Board in Kendall county were : Ebenezer Morgan, James McClellan, A. Sears, Thomas Finnic, J. K. LeBaron, William D. Townsend, A. Jordan, Horace Moore and H. G. Wilcox.

In Lisbon, George F. Norton was elected town clerk, and with the exception of two or three years has held the office ever since. All the Township Record Books begin at this date, though nothing of importance transpires in them for several years.

It was the great year for township naming, under the law. Some of the townships, as Big Grove and Little Rock, were named after the grove or the creek within their boundaries. Others, as Oswego and Bristol, were named after their principal villages, and still others owe their titles to the happy suggestion of some leading spirit at the town meetings. John Moore has the credit of having named the town of Lisbon, while D. J. Townsend and A. K. Wheeler receive the same credit for the town of Na-au-say. The latter was the name of an old Indian town on Aux Sable creek, and means " Head waters of the Aux Sable." In many cases several names were proposed and vigorously supported by their authors, and only after much discussion was a majority vote obtained for any one.

In Na-au-say, Charles F. Richardson gave the ground for the Union Cemetery to the town. Mrs. Nancy E. Johnson was first buried there. There was a growing need of more convenient places of interment, as well as places of education, as the population increased. By the census that year there were seven thousand seven hundred and thirty souls in the county. It was the first general census since the organization. And yet our broad acres were not only not all occupied, but not all entered from government, for John Litsey, of Lisbon, that year entered at the Land Ofiice the eighty he still owns, opposite his present residence. The probable reason of so long neglect is that it was far from timber.

Union Stores Favored

nearer the center of the district. Amono- the teachers have been Mrs. Storey, Hannah Badgley, Mr. Bosworth, Mina Crum, Charlotte Seymour and Elizabeth Petty.

there was a movement in favor of union stores. The people of a community would club together, hire a building, put in a stock of goods, and hire a clerk to do the selling. By these means the consumers were to have the benefit of the profits. One was started at Pavilion, on a basis of fifty-three names, at five dollars each. Moulton and Ives were the clerks. Another store was opened at Plattville. But the plan did not work as well in practice as it was expected to, and after a few years was abandoned. Competition is, after all, the best guarantee for fair profits in any business. That year the entered the present building. There had been a school for four years previous in Mr. Brown's house, taught by Richard Pope, Sarah Harkness and Miss Campbell. The following are the early teachers, names : Livonia Martin, H. Merrill, Prudence Johnson, Libbie Avery, Mary Hare, E. H. Pletcher and Helen Manchester.

This school has graduated, since its commencement, nearly thirty teachers from among its scholars, and has in this respect a record to be proud of.

The Na-Au-Say Presbyterian Church

was founded as a Congregational church, and Rev. Mr. Chapman, of Plainfield, became the first pastor. He was followed by Mr. Reed, Mr. Walker, Mr. Loss, and Mr. Wood. During the latter's pastorate, the meeting house

In Newark, at the old Messenger shop, Lot Preshur was making a few reapers that found a ready sale. Their chief peculiarity was that they cut a very wide swath, and were slow geared, having only a driving wheel and one pinion. They could, therefore, cut nothing but grain. The castings and sickles were made in Ottawa. After a little time, Mr. Preshur removed to Mendota, added a spur wheel to his machine, and came out with a new mower, cutting six and one half feet at a swath. Asa Manchester still owns one, and it will do fine work yet, though more than quarter of a century old.

IN 1852 was another Presidential election. Franklin Pierce carried Kendall county, though John P. Hale, the free soil candidate, received one hundred and fifty-two votes out of the thirteen hundred that were cast. During the year, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster died. The winter was unusually cold. January 19th was the coldest day that had been known since the winter before the Indian war. On March 13th was a great change in the weather ; the thermometer fell during the night fifty-one degrees.

Railroad Enterprises

was born in 1835 and died in 1837, was aroused again, and led to the further crash of 1857. The following extracts are from Gov. Matteson's message: "The Chicago and Galena Union Railroad has been pushed forward with success, which gave a strong impetus to the desire for railroad improvements. The 'St. Charles Branch,' though but short, has given great business facilities to the town and country, and will no doubt soon be extended to the Mississippi. A little further south the ' Aurora Branch ' has given life and activity to one of the most fertile portions of Illinois. The Chicago & Rock Island Rail Road, commenced at a later date, proposes to furnish facilities to another inland section. This road is in rapid process of construction. Cars are already running from Chicago to Morris, sixty-five miles, and before two years expire from the time the charter was granted, one hundred miles will be finished, to the city of Peru.. The balance of the distance to Rock Island is in a state of great forwardness, and will be completed within a year. * ={= * The manner in which these changes will afi'ect the prosperity of the State is too palpable to need comment.

" Twenty years ago if those works had received a passing thought they were regarded as dreams of imagination. Then the commerce of Chicago was but a few thousand dollars and her population but a few hundred souls. Her commerce now is over $200,000,000, and her population fifty thousand. Then Waukegan, Elgin, Belvidere, Rockford, Freeport and Galena were almost unknown. Now thev have become large and flourishing cities, growing with a rapidity most incredible. The canal going into operation has made lively and flourishing towns of Lockport, Joliet, Morris, Ottawa, LaSalle and Peru, and added to the growth of all the towns along the Illinois river. These again have thrown back their wealth and forced Chicago into a growth which challenges a parallel in any city, unless those in California." Another road not mentioned by the Governor, and which more immediately concerns us, was the " Ottawa, Oswego & Fox River Rail Road." The company was incorporated August 22d, 1852. The road was to run from Ottawa to Elgin, via Oswego, and directors were chosen from each of the counties through which it was to pass. The Kendall county directors were Lewis B. Judson, Nathaniel Rising, William Noble Davis, Samuel Jackson, Samuel Roberts, John L. Clark and Johnson Misner. Among the LaSalle county directors were Robert Rowe and William L. F. Jones. But little progress, however, was made, and two years afterwards, February 28th, 1854, the charter was amended so as to make the road run by Naperville to Chicago. But the C, B. & Q. Road succeeded in getting in first on that line.

The Johnson school house, town of Fox, was built in 1852, by subscription, for the use of the Lutheran society, but after six years it was turned over to the district. A Lutheran parochial school is kept in it four months of the year, but is entirely separate from the common school. A Norwegian teacher is employed, and the woodshed even is divided, one side being known as "district coal," and the other "church coal." Some of the teachers have been : Mr. Foltz, Oley M. Johnson, Oliver Hill,

Bristol Station Founded

Anna Brown, Marthan Oleson, Miss Cassem, Caroline Dayton and Andrew Brown. The Lutherans have two other parochial schools in the vicinity ; one by the North church and the other in the east edge of Big Grove.