Kendall County, Illinois - Chapter 50: Accidents and Improvements, 1877

Chapter 50: Accidents and Improvements

N Kendall County we have two tanneries. The Yorkville tannery, now owned by Wellington Mason, is the oldest, and does a uood business. The Piano tannery was Iniilt by Mr. Gardner, of Yorkville, in 1864, where the present one was built by Lewis Steward. B. F. Jacobs became the superintendent in 1868. It contains forty vats, consumes six liundred tons of tan bark, dresses three thousand hides a year, and has capacity for much more. The object in tanning is to unite the tannic acid in bark with the gelatine of the hide, thus making firm leather. The process of tanning a hide is, briefly : First, put to soak in water ; second, flesh it ; third, put in lime water; fourth, unhair it; fifth, mill it through a mill with pegs ; sixth, put in water and guano, to work the lime out ; seventh, put in the wheel and colored with hemlock liquor ; eighth, changed from weaker to stronger liquor until tanned, occupying from two to six months, according to the thickness of the skin ; ninth, prepared, skyved, scoured, dried, greased, &c. The finished hide gains in value a little more than double.

The Martin school, Seward, dates from 1864. The first teachers were : Artie Stolp, Mary Williams, and Emma Teed. The Sunday school, held in the school house, was commenced in 1873. John Jordan, Jackson Conklin, and Henry Bamford have been the superintendents.

May 7th, 1864, the "Kendall County Record" was established by J. R. Marshall. Five hundred subscribers were all that was asked for, and it was two years before they came; but since then the circulation has grown to nearly three times that number.

In May, Lewis Rickard found a piece of solid copper weighing eighty-four pounds, and worth thirty dollars, on the river bank three miles above Bristol. Other pieces are reported to have been found in the county before.

Black Hawk Cave Blown Up

A notable event of the year was the blowing up of Black Hawk's cave by Mr. Post, to get stone to build his new dam. The cave was in the limestone in the river bank, and was a crooked hole three feet high, four feet wide and thirty feet long. It owed its fame to the tradition that Black Hawk and his followers had hidden there. Mr. Post exploded twenty-six kegs of powder in it, but only cracked the top. The operation was witnessed by more than one thousand people from all parts, who were disappointed in not seeing more terrific damage done. A man was then kept at work all winter with drill and blast, preparing for another charge. Twelve kegs of powder were used, and the historic cave was entirely demolished.

a great fire broke out in Oswego, which consumed a business block and a hotel, and burned up the town and corporation records. Loss, $12,000. Plans for rebuilding were at once begun. During the season, six stone and brick fronts were erected, a cheese factory opened, and the new iron bridge built.

Improvement was the order of the day at Millington. Hon. B. C. Cook had obtained an order from the government for the survey of Fox river, with a view to make it navigable by locks and dams, and a meeting was held May 25th to consider the subject. S. L. Rowe, Jacob Budd, Lewis Steward, J. S. Seeley and Enoch Spradling were appointed a standing committee. The government surveyor passed up the river in the fall, arriving at Yorkville September 21st. It was found that Oswego was one hundred and forty-five feet higher than Ottawa, and that Fox river fell fifty-eight feet in the sixteen miles between Oswego and Millington.

At the Latter Day Saints' publishing house, in Piano, an edition of five thousand copies of the Book of Mormon was printed. Joseph Smith, Ebenezer Robinson and Israel L. Rogers were the publishing committee.

The Chapman cemetery, Seward, was opened at the same time with the new school house. Bodies w^ere taken up from the old ground and removed into the new.

The Year 1868

was signalized by another great freshet. The Oswego bridge was damaged, the Bristol bridge damaged, and Black's dam partially washed out, at a loss of two thousand dollars. Post's bridge was entirely carried away, and three spans of the new Millington bridge were taken. This introduced the year that seemed to be unusual for its accidents.

The same month an incendiary fire at Newark consumed Manchester's drug store, Winchell's hardware store, Bingham's shoe store, and Hanchett's art gallery. Loss, $8,000.

Suspended Manufactures Millington Woolen Factory

were built during the year ; the latter by a stock company. It is thirty-six by fifty feet, four stories high, and cost $25,000. It commenced running in 1868, with Dwight Curtis as superintendent. The machinery is from Worcester, Massachusetts ; of the best make, and is adapted for the manufacture of every quality of goods from varn and flannels to fine doeskin.

After a time, the factory was rented to other parties, who failed to make it a success, and finally went away, leaving behind them so large an indebtedness that nothing has been done there since. Everythino; in the building remains as it was left when the work ceased, five or six years ago. Even the oil jug and the oil of vitrol case and the nitric acid bottle still are there, with their contents untouched. The sack of fuller's clay, scarcely begun on, leans up against the pillar, and the box of teasels, used for raising the nap on fine cloth, is but half emptied. The teasel frame, or gig mill, the fulling machine and the other finishing machines, wait- in their places. The belts are yet on the wheels, and the racewater can be heard wasting its power down below, as it rushes through the grated gate and through the buckets of the great turbine Up stairs, the shuttles are hanging on the looms, and baskets of bobbins are ranged along the wall. On the third floor are the carding machines ; on the long spinning-jenny the spindles are as bright as if new from the shop, and some of the parti-colored yarn is not yet unwound from the spools. On the fourth floor are the wool cleaners and pickers. The rafters above the "blower" are still hung with the shreds of wool, as if the operatives had but stopped for dinner. In a small building adjoining is the empty tub and dye vat. Desolation reigns around, and, as if to make it more impressive, on the brow of the hill in front, five forsaken burial mounds overlook the forsaken factory, - the shadows of the dim past and enterprise of the bustling present meet together. But should better times come, the factory may be utilized and made profitable. Another silent factory is black's paper mill, at Yorkville. It was running up to the end of 1876, and will open again so soon as the paper market improves. It is a supplement to the woolen factory, or rather to the cotton factory, as it uses only cotton rags. The bales of rags are first elevated to the second story, where they pass through the hands of the pickers, and are then sent down to the bleach tubs to be boiled and bleached. These are three huge tubs elevated above one's head, and entered by steam pipes from the boiler in the boiler room. The steam discharges the colors. From there they go into four rag engines, holding three hundred pounds each, and are ground up into pulp; passing from th :;nce into four drainers - deep vats dug in the ground - and are bleached with chloride of lime ; returning to another grinding in the engines. The white pulp then begins its travels amonpi; the heated cylinders of a machine six feet wide and sixty feet long, coming out at the other end firm, white, print paper. The mill is driven bv six water wheels. E, A. Black, a settler of 1846, is the proprietor.