Will County, Illinois - The whole text, 1878 (part 13 of 29)

-on the road, and arrived in the settlement on the 9th of July. Chicago at the time consisted of about a dozen houses, mostly the huts of Indian traders and half-breeds. From Detroit, Flagg was accompanied by Woolley, noticed as huying out the Frenchman Vermette. In a letter written by Mr. Flagg to H. N. Marsh, in 1851, he stated that when he settled at Plainfield, there were, besides Walker and Vermette, Timothy B. Clarke and Thomas Covel, and that he knew of no others then in the county, except three families on Hickory Creek, viz., a Mr. Rice, Mr. Brown and Mr. Kercheval, and the nearest white settler on the west was at Dixon's Ferry. He is said to have hauled the lumber to Chicago to build the first frame house erected in that city, and which was sawed in James Walker's saw-mill, on the Du Page, near Plainfield.

Timothy B. Clarke, from Trumbull County, Ohio, came to Plainfield in 1830. He emigrated to Illinois in 1820, and settled in Tazewell County when that part of the State was an almost unbroken wilderness. He remained there about eight years, when he removed to Fort Clarke (now Peoria), remaining there a year or two, and moved up and made a claim within seven miles of Ottawa. This claim he afterward sold to Green, who built a mill on it, so extensively patronized by the early settlers of Northern Illinois, many coming to it from a -distance of from fifty to one hundred miles. From this place, Mr. Clarke removed to the Plainfield settlement, as already noted, in 1830. This was before the Sac war, and the Indians, who were quite plenty in the neighborhood, were friendly disposed, but exceedingly troublesome. They would go into the fields and help themselves gratuitously to corn, potatoes and anything else they wanted, without so much as "By your leave, sir." He could not stay there in peace, and so, in 1834, moved up into Dupage Township, near Barber's Corners. He had several sons, one of whom, B. B. Clarke, is a prosperous merchant in Lockport, where he has been since 1868. The elder Clarke was a carpenter and builder, and erected the first frame house in Chicago, then a little suburban village in this section of the country. In that house the Indians were paid ofi" before leaving for their new hunting-grounds toward the setting sun. He removed to Missouri in 1835, and from there to Iowa in 1847, but returned to Dupage, and died at his son's in 1848. B. B. Clarke was 16 years old when his father removed to Plainfield, in 1830, and remembers distinctly the Indian troubles of that rather stormy period. He served in the Black Hawk war, first in Walker's company, which soon disbanded, however, and afterward enlisted in Capt. Sissop's company.' During the most perilous times, he went from Plainfield to Ottawa with a team after provisions, with a guard of only four men. They made the trip in safety, though several hats were found along the trail pierced by bullets, whose wearers had been murdered by the Indians. Mr. Clarke says that when his father first removed to Plainfield, the nearest mill was in the vicinity of Peoria, distant 180 miles. His father went there once to mill - bought grain there to save hauling it both ways - and the " rainy season " setting in, the waters arose (there were no bridges) and as a consequence, he was gone six weeks. His family, in the meantime, had to live on potatoes, and by pounding corn in a kind of mortar, which was sifted and the finest of it was made into bread, and the coarse into hominy. The elder Clarke was a soldier in the war of 1812, and had a soldier's claim to land in the Military District lying between the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, and had bought the claims of other soldiers to lands there. He sold a quarter- section of land in this military territory for $75, and took pay in augers, which, next to the ax, was the principal implement used by the pioneer. He also had a claim to canal lands in Dupage Township, a part of which is now owned by his son, B. B. Clarke. The latter went to California in 1850, overland with teams, and was five months on the way. He remained about two years in the Golden State, and then returned to the old home. A brother, Hiram Clarke, went out in 1849, when the gold fever first broke out, and William, another brother, went with his brother B. B., in 1850. At this latter period, so many had crossed the plains with teams that the grass had been devoured by their stock for a space of two miles on both sides of the trail, and they would take their teams in the evening to the grazing and remain by them during the night to prevent their being stolen. William and Hiram Clarke still live in California. Mr. Clarke tells the following incident of the early times : He and one of his brothers took a lot of ponies to Chicago, for the purpose of selling them to the Indians when they received their stipendiary remuneration, as Wilkins Micawber would put it, and stable accommodations being more meager then than now in the Garden City, could find no barn in which to put their stock, were forced to turn them loose in a lot. Hearing a racket among them during the night, his brother went out to learn the cause, when he found an Indian trying to get them out. Without a word, he fell upon the savage with his big horse-whip, and the faster he ran the faster he rained the blows upon him, the Indian indulging in the guttural Ugh ! Ugh ! every jump. Arriving at the fence, he made no efibrt to climb it in the ordinary way, but scrambled to the top and fell over on the opposite side. This caused them some alarm, lest he should return with assistance, but the night passed without further molestation.

Another of the very first in this settlement was Thomas Covel. He came from Ohio in 1830, made a claim near Plainfield village where he remained for a time, then sold out and moved up on Salt Creek, where, some years later, he died. Though one among the very first settlers, beyond this no information of him could be obtained. John Cooper, a brother-in-law' of Clarke's, came from Ohio in 1830. After remaining in this place a few years, removed to Iowa, and from Iowa to California in 1862, and resided there until his death, in 1872. James Gilson was another of the early ones who settled here in 1830. He came from Tennessee, and lived near the village, and kept a shop on his farm and did quite a business in repairing guns. He was a pioneer by nature, and when the country began to settle up around him, he "moved on " to Iowa in search of a location more congenial to his tastes, and there died. From New York, the settlement of Plainfield received John and Benjamin Shutliff and Jedediah WooUey, Sr. John Shutliff and WooUey came in 1832, and the former, after a few years, sold out and moved jaway, but where we could not learn. Woolley bought out Vermette the Frenchman, then sold the claim to Rev. Beggs and improved another farm on the east side of the grove, on which he lived several years, sold it and removed into Troy Township, about eight miles from Plainfield. Benjamin Richardson was from the East, but what State could not learn. He settled here in 1834, and in a year or two moved to Joliet, where he is noticed further. Benjamin Shutliff settled in this town in 1834, and was a brother of John Shutliff. In a few years, he moved " West to grow up with the country." Jonathan Hagar was born in the city of Quebec, C. E., and, when 10 years of age, removed with his parents to Vermont, where he resided until 1829, when he came West and settled in Michigan, and five years later removed to Ohio. In 1835, he came to Plainfield, making the journey from Cleveland to Detroit by steamer, and from thence to Chicago by stage. The village had been laid out the year before (1834) by Chester Ingersoll, as elsewhere stated, and contained, on Mr. Hagar's arrival, a blacksmith-shop, tailor-shop, a wagon-shop^ two taverns, and perhaps one or two other houses, of which a man named Royce owned a shop, in which he manufactured fanning-mills. James Gilson had a shop on his farm, and being quite a genius, did an extensive business in repairing guns. Robert Chapman lived near the village, and now lives in Elwood. Mr. Hagar was one of the first merchants of Plainfield, and has always been one of its active and enterprising business men. He remembers when he could stand in his store door of mornings and see the wolves scampering across the open common of the village. Jason Flanders came from New Hampshire in 1834, and settled in Plainfield Township. He came overland in wagons to Troy, N. Y., thence by water to Detroit, and the remainder of the way by land, arriving at his destination in June. He had six children, one of whom is the present State's Attorney of Will County, Hon. James R. Flanders, of Joliet, A few years after his settlement in Plainfield, Mr. Flanders built a house of hewn logs, " sided " it with walnut, finished it inside with walnut, upper story walls, floor and ceiling finished in walnut, neatly " planed," and after it was all finished in fine style, had it immediately whitewashed, showing how much a fine walnut finish was appreciated in those days. He and his neighbors used to cut timber in the Plainfield woods, have it sawed into boards, and then haul them to Chicago to build some of the first frame houses put up in that city. He used to tell a story of a uian that accompanied him on one of these trips, who had a fine Indian pony, and was bantered to trade by a stranger, who offered him forty acres of land in Chicago. Completing the trade and making out the papers, they started the next morning to look up the land. After proceeding a short distance, they had to take a boat and rowing out a little way, " There," said the man, "your land is rightabout here, under this water." The purchaser considered himself "sold," but wisely determined to hold the land - probably because he could not sell it - and years afterward sold it for $80,000. Another man offered to Mr. Flanders a tract of land that was "in sight" for one of his horses, but he declined it. Had he made the trade, and held the land until the proper time, it would have made him a millionaire. He lived a highly respected citizen of Plainfield, and died a few years ago at a ripe old age.

The Green Mountain State furnished the settlement Lorin Burdick, S. S. Pratt, Oliver Goss, Thomas Rickey, Deacon Goodhue and Hardy Metcalf Burdick was one of the early settlers of Plainfield - a man of exalted charity and benevolence and an enterprising citizen. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and one of the heroes of the battle of Plattsburg ; had one son in the Mexican war, and three in the late war ; and a brother, Timothy Burdick, also a, soldier of 1812, died of sickness in the army in Mexico during that war. We extract the following from the Plainfield correspondence of the Commercial Advertiser. Speaking of Mr. Burdick, it says ; * * " Jje hauled the first lumber from Chicago used in building the Court House in Joliet ; hewed the timber used in building the first bridge across the Du Page at Plainfield, and assisted in building the first saw-mill in this section of the country, located on the Du Page ; also in erecting the first church, the first schoolhouse in Plainfield, and the first hotel in Lockport. He donated liberally in money toward purchasing the land for the first burying-ground, and assisted in laying it out, and is one of the early settlers to whom Plainfield owes her existence. His sudden illness, resulting in death August 3, 1878, was caused by taking Paris green through mistake for sulphur, which he was in the habit of using. Deacon Goodhue settled here in 1832. He entered land about a mile northeast of Plainfield village, on the Chicago road, and when he died in 1856, still lived on his original claim where he settled forty-six years ago. Goss came to the settlement in 1834, and made a claim just south of the village, where he died in 1842. Metcalf came in 1834 or 1835, made a claim, sold out and moved away many years ago - where, no one now remembers. Pratt settled in the township in 1835, where he still lives. Rickey settled here in 1834, and died more than thirty years ago.

William Bradford, Daniel, Chester and Enoch Smith, Chester IngersoU, John Bill and J. E. Matthews came from the old Bay State - the home of Charles Francis Adams and Ben Butler. The Smiths settled in the town in 1832. David sold'out and died soon after; Chester went to Wisconsin in 1833, and what became of Enoch no one now remembers. Chester IngersoU was here during the Sac war, and has a son now living in Homer Township. He laid out the south part of the village of Plainfield, sold out his lots and entered other lands three miles northeast of the village ; improved a large farm, sold it ultimately, and, in 1849, went to California, where he died some years later. Bradford settled here in 1834. He entered land below the village of Plainfield, on which he died the year following. John Bill was a wagon-maker by trade, the first mechanic of that " stripe" in the settlement, and located here in 1834. He entered land and made a claim about a quarter of a mile from the village, where he lived until about two years ago, when he removed to Maryland, and died soon after. Matthews came to the settlement in 1831, and made a claim on the river just above the present village of Plainfield. In 1835, he built a mill here which, with some additions and improvements, is still doing service in that line. B. B. Clarke says he helped to raise it, and very distinctly remembers of some rather heavy lifting at the green timbers. Matthews went to Oregon when people first began to emigrate to that magnificent country. Another early settler of Plainfield was John Fish, who came to the place as early as 1833. He was from Indiana, and in a short time moved up on Salt Creek, fourteen miles west of Chicago, where he died. Edmund Reed came from Kentucky in 1833-34, and finally moved up near Racine, and whether he is yet alive could not be learned. W. W. Wattles also settled here in 1833. He came here from Chicago, but his native place could not be ascertained. He bought out Timothy B. Clarke, finally sold out himself, and moved up north of Chicago. Robert Chapman, Scofield and a few other early settlers located about Plainfield and Walker's Grove, concerning some of whom but little information could be obtained.

This includes the early settlers of Walker's Grove, as Plainfield was called, up to 1834 or 1835, or at least all of whom we have been able to learn anything definite. Since that date, the town has settled up and increased in population until, from the. few names here given, it had at the last census, in 1870, about eighteen hundred inhabitants, with as handsome a little village as may be found in Will County. As a township, Plainfield is described as Town 36 north, Range 9 east, and lies in the western tier of towns, with Wheatland on the north, Lockport on the east, Troy on the south, and Kendall County on. the west. The Du Page River flows through the town from north to south, thoroughly watering and draining the country along its course. A peculiarity of the stream in this section is displayed by the two Lilly-Caches, a couple of little brooks that have their source in the immediate vicinity of each other, one flowing very nearly south into the Du Page, the other due west into the Des Planes - one dull, dark and sluggish, the other clear, bright and pure as crystal drops. Plainfield is mostly high, rolling prairie, except the grove of timber that lined the Du Page River, and as farming lands, is not excelled in the county, nor perhaps in the State. No railroads pass through it, but it is devoted almost wholly to agriculture. The old Indian boundary, mentioned in the general history, crosses diagonally the northwest corner, and the plankroad from Joliet- to Plainfield, one of the first regularly laid out roads in the county, is still a great thoroughfare of travel, though the " plank " does not make much show.

The first white child born in Plainfield Township, of whom there is any definite information to be had, was Samantha E. Flagg, a daughter of Reuben Flagg, and was born September 9, 1830. This is also supposed to have been the first birth among the whites in 'Win County. The first death was that of Albert Clarke, in 1831, a son of Timothy B. Clarke, mentioned among the first settlers of Walker's Grove. The first marriage remembered was James Turner to a Miss Watkins, in 1831 or 1832, and were marriedby Kev. Mr.Beggs. The first physician who ever practiced medicine in this neighborhood was Dr. E. G. Wight. He came from Massachusetts and settled in Naperville in 1831, and the circle of his practice was bounded by Chicago, Mineral Point, Ottawa and Bourbonnais Grove, and was more than a hundred miles across either way. He built the first frame house in Naperville, and removed to Plainfield in 1847, but had been practicing here since 1831. He died in 1865. He became blind when scarcely past middle life, and for eight years his son, R. B. Wight, went with him on his professional visits and led his horse. He finally went to an oculist at Rochester, N. Y., who partially restored his sight, and for fifteen years before his death he could see to get about with comparative ease and safety. The experiences of this pioneer physician would fill a volume Perhaps the first resident physician was Dr. Charles V. Dyer, who came to the settlement in the Fall of 1835, and practiced medicine during the Winter. But the settlement being small, the next Spring he concluded to risk his fortune in the then unpromising marshes of Chicago. The subsequent greatness of that city and the prominence of the Doctor there up to the time of his death, prove the wisdom of his decision, and illustrate the mutability of human conditions in the careers of both individuals and cities. The first blacksmith in the town was one of the Shutliffs, who opened a shop in 1833-34, and did the light work the settlement needed. The first bridge in the township was built across the Du Page at Plainfield, and was a rough wooden structure. The timbers were hewed by Lorin Burdick, as noticed in the sketch given of him elsewhere. The rude affair presented a striking contrast to the excellent stone and iron bridges at present spanning the Du Page and Lilly-Cache.

The first mill built in Plainfield Township, or Walker's Grove, was by James Walker. It was a horse-power mill, which he brought with him from Ottawa, and at once set to work. But he built without delay both a saw and grist mill on the Du Page, which was swept away by a flood in 1838. At this mill was sawed the lumber of which a man named Peck built the first frame house erected in Chicago, and which stood on the corner of La Salle and South Water streets. Reuben Flagg, a? elsewhere noted, hauled the lumber to Chicago, and with an ox-team at that. Matthews, as mentioned in another page, built a mill north of the village of Plainfield which, with some additions and improvements, is still in operation. It is owned by Noah Sunderland, but is run by M. H. Avery, who is doing quite a lively business with it. It has three runs of stones, with all the modern attachments. Quite an item in the history of Plainfield Township is Clarke & Co.'s cheese factory, erected last Spring, just outside of the limits of the village of Plainfield. It is a frame building with stone basement, and has a sufficient capacity to consume twenty thousand pounds of milk per day. Cheese is the principal product of the factory, and they turn out about sixty cheeses a week, of fifty-two pounds weight each, besides making a small quantity of butter.

The first school in Plainfield Township was taught by a man, whose name is now forgotten, in the Winter of 1833-34, and the first regular schoolhouse was built in 1833 of rough logs with a stick chimney, the exact type, and counterpart of many others described in these pages. But the schools have kept pace with the other improvements, and, in 1872, we find there were eleven school districts, five hundred pupils enrolled, twenty-two teachers employed, two graded schools.and'a comfortable schoolhouse in each district. The amount paid teachers was $3,026.38 ; total expenditure for the year, f4,597.90, leaving a balance in the treasury of $1,381.05. The schools of Plainfield at the present time are in a flourishing condition, and will compare with those of any tQwn in the county. The first Supervisor of Plainfield after township organization, was L. Hamlin for the year 1850. Since then, the following gentlemen have served in the Board of Supervisors for the years as given with their names : J. Ballard, 1851 ; A. Culver, 1852 ; L. Hamlin, 1853 ; Cyrus Ashley, 1854 ; W. Wright, 1855-56 ; A. Culver, 1857 ; D. Van Dersoll, 1858 ; A. Culver, 1859 ; W. Wright, 1860 ; W. C. Caton, 1861-68 ; A. McClaskey, 1869-76 ; H. Strattan, 1877-78. Other township officers are J. D. Foster and E. Corlin, Justices of the Peace ; H. R. Frazer, Town Clerk, and George N. Chittenden, School Treasurer. The township is Republican in politiss, giving from one to two hundred Republican majorities in all important elections. Having thus followed the history of Plainfield from the first settlement at Walker's Grove to the present fiourishing period of its existence, we will now take a brief glance at the

Village Of Plainfield

Plainfield is beautifully located on the east bank of the Du Page River, about one mile north of the center of the township of Plainfield, and is nine miles northwest of Joliet. Chester Ingersoll is accredited with laying out the village proper, which is sometimes termed South Plainfield, while the north division was laid out by 'Squire Arnold. He was a New Yorker, and came here in 1834; laid out the village that year, and was one of the first to keep a tavern in the place. Being a little at " loggerheads " with Ingersoll, as our informant expressed it, his addition was laid ofi" a little " catering." The meaning of the latter word was gathered while taking a stroll through the village, when we found the streets of the two sections coming together at an angle of about forty-five degrees. But even with this defect, it is a very pretty little village and claims from one thousand to twelve hundred inhabitants. James Walker put up the first dwelling within the present limits long before it was laid out as a village. It was a small log house, and was occupied by Walker some time as a residence. Ingersoll built the next house, which was soon after .the one above-mentioned. Arnold put up the first house occupied purposely as a tavern, though Walker had kept a house of entertainment previously. " Uncle Fen " Aldrich also kept a tavern here. This was one of the stopping-places on the stage-route between Chicago and Ottawa, and the half-way point between the two places, hence, it was a good place for hotels. Jonathan Hagar and Samuel Sargent opened the first store in the upper story of John Bill's wagon-shop. The next year, they put up a storehouse, which has since been converted into the Congregational parsonage. Mr. Hagar continued in business here until 1861, when he retired, and is one of the wealthy men of the place. He tells the following anecdote as an example of the pernicious effects of sowing " tares :" An old lady, one of the early settlers of the village, brought with her from the East a quantity of burdockseed, declaring it to be " such an excellent yarb," that she was bound to have a crop growing. She accordingly sowed it in every available spot. That the crop did grow, the citizens of the village can bear witness, notwithstanding their utmost efibrts to the contrary.

The village was incorporated under special act of the Legislature February 23, 1861. This embraced North Plainfield only, we believe. In April, 1869, it was again incorporated by special act, including both the north and south divisions of the place, and June 30, 1877, it was incorporated under the general law of the State. The first Board of Village Trustees were as follows : J. McAllister, George N. Chittenden, Robert Webb, Jonathan Hagar and John D. Shreffler. The Board organized for business by making J. McAllister President, and George N. Chittenden, Clerk. The present " City Fathers " are: Alexander McClaskey, President; A. J. Perkins, C. E. Eraser, Joseph McCreery, George W. Flagg, P. Y. Dundore, and H. A. Tounshendeau, Clerk ; Ira Vanolinda, Police Magistrate. The business of Plainfield presents the following outlook : Two general dry goods and grocery stores, two grocery and hardware stores, two drug stores, one book and stationery store, one furniture store, one hotel, one restaurant, two livery stables, five blacksmith-shops, three wagon-shops, four practicing physicians, two cider-mills ; with barber-shops, meat-markets, harness-shops, tailor-shops, paint-shops, millinery-shops, etc.; but neither saloons nor lawyers. It has, however, a Red Ribbon Club of 382 members - John D. Shrefiler, President, and H. A. Tounshendeau,- Secretary.

The first schoolhouse was built in North Plainfield in 1837, and was rather, a small aifair. It was burned in 1846 or 1847, and the present two-story frame building erected, at a cost of f 1,500. Prof. Giden Bartholf is Principal, and Miss Amanda Dillman, teacher of the Primary Department. In 1851 the village was divided into two districts, and a good two-story frame house erected in the lower district, or South Plainfield, at a cost of $1,200. Prof John H. Stepman is Principal, and Mrs. M. C. Dresser, teacher of the Primary Department. The first post ofiice was established in Plainfield in 1833, and James Walker was the first Postmaster. This was one of the points on the stage route between Chicago and Ottawa, and, after coaches were put on the mail was brought to Plainfield over this route. The benighted citizens of Joliet used to come here for their mail, as opportunity occurred. This was in the good old times when Dr. Bowen was Postmaster there, and he would frequently carry the entire mail for Joliet in his hat. It would take several hats to contain the Joliet post office now, or even that of Plainfield. The present Postmaster of Plainfield is John Sennitt, who has been in the service of Uncle Sam in this department for the past ten years.

Plainfield is sometimes called the "Village of Churches,' and, for a place of its size, is well supplied with temples of worship. This is one of the first spots in Will County where the sound of the Gospel was heard. Here, Father Walker established an Indian Mission, it is said, in 1826, and here, ih 1829, he formed a class composed of the following members : Jesse Walker and wife, James Walker and wife, Mr. Fish and wife, Timothy B. Claike and wife, and Mr. Weed and wife. Father Beggs, in his book, several times referred to in this work, and from which this information is taken, thinks that this was the first class formed within the bounds of the Rock River Conference, and states, further, that when the Mission* was abandoned the class was given up. In the Fall of 1832, Rev. Mr. Beggs succeeded to the charge here, with Father Walker as Presiding Elder. The first church edifice built at Plainfield was by the Methodists, and was erected in 1836. It was a rather small, plain affair, compared to the elegant stone church of the present time. In 1854, Lockport and Plainfield were united, and so remained for a number of years, until the strength of each church became sufficient to admit of their being formed into stations. The fine stone church of the Methodists was erected in 1868, and dedicated by Bishop Simpson. It is built of Plainfield stone, and cost about $22,000. The Church numbers upon her records more than three hundred members, with Rev. J. A. Phelps as Pastor, and John D. Shreffler, Superintendent of the Sunday school.

The Baptist society was organized October 16, 1834, on the principle of total abstinence, and Rev. J. E. Ambrose was the first Pastor. The original members were : Leonard Moore, Elizabeth Moore, Rebecca Carmon, Thomas Rickey, Jane Rickey and Alfred B. Hubbard, six in all. It was one of the four churches that entered into what was called the Northern Baptist Association. The Church at Plainfield is the only one of these that has not changed its place of meeting. In the Fall of 1836, the first church-house was built, at a cost of $2,500 ; was 26x36 feet, and is now used as a blacksmith-shop. In giving place to the following anecdote, in this connection, we intend no sacrilege or disrespect toward this venerable Church : Soon after the completion of their church-building, a Baptist minister of the name of Edwards made his appearance in the village and announced his purpose of holding revival meetings. The new church was accordingly placed at his disposal, and he entered upon his work. For an entire week did he labor with that "wicked and rebellious people." Day after day, he went about among them praying and exhorting ; night after night, he held up to them the joy of the redeemed, or portrayed in glowing words the anguish of the lost. But neither the gentle voice of persuasion nor the terrible thunders of Sinai had the desired effect, and on the last night of his labors, after an impassioned appeal, in which he vainly implored them to "flee from the wrath to come," he declared that they had "sinned away the day of grace:" that "Ephraim was joined to his idols," and that all that remained for him was to " shake off the dust from off his feet." Taking his handkerchief from his pocket, he proceeded to literally carry out the Scripture injunction by wiping the dust from his feet in their presence, strode out of the house, and was seen no more in that neighborhood. The present church edifice was erected in 185-7, and cost between $4,500 and $5,000; dedicated by Rev. Charles Button. Rev. A. D. Freeman was the first Pastor, now residing at Downer's Grove. The present membership is 131, and Rev. H. C. First is Pastor, a position he has held for the past four years. Mrs. H. C. First is Superintendent of the Sunday school, which has an average attendance, of seventy children. There have been 536 admissions to the Church, by baptism and otherwise, since its organization.

The Congregational Church was organized in September, 1834, by Rev. N. C. Clarke, who had been preaching in the vicinity as early as 1832 and 1838. The original members were James Mathers and wife. Deacon Ezra Goodhue and wife, Andrew Carrier and wife, and Oliver Goss and wife. The first regular Pastor of the Church, was Rev. Alfred Greenwood, mentioned elsewhere as the first preacher in Lockport Township. He remained with the Church but a year or two. A resolution appears upon the Church records at an early date, requiring members "to abstain from drinking ardent spirits, manufacturing, trafficking in it, or otherwise using it, except for medicine." The first case of discipline was that of a brother, reported as having sold whisky to the Indians. During the first two years the Church did little more than maintain its existence. It suffered much from trouble among its members, growing out of land claims. A council was finally called to aid in settling the difficulties. As the course most likely to bring peace and harmony, and agreeably to the advice of the council, the Church disbanded, and out of its elements a Presbyterian Church was formed in 1836, by Rev. Mr. Gould. This organization continued about seven years, when the form of government was changed, and it again became a Congregational Church, with Rev. E. W. Champlin, Pastor. The Rev. Daniel Chapman succeeded him, and through his energetic efforts the present church edifice was erected in 1850, at a cost of $2,200, exclusive of the foundation, and was dedicated in June, 1851. The present membership of the Church is near eighty, and since August, 1878, at which time the Rev. Mr. Ebbs closed his pastoral labors, it has been without a regular minister. The Sunday school was organized about 1843, with Jonathan Hagar as Superintendent. About sixty scholars are in attendance, and Mr. Hagar is still Superintendent.

The Universalist Church was built in 1868, at a cost of $6,000, and is one of the handsomest church-buildings in the village. It was dedicated by Rev. W. S. Balch, of Galesburg, and the first regular Pastor was Rev. Mr. Rowland. The present membership of this Church is small, but flourishing for a small village like this. Rev. Mr. Tibbitts was their Pastor until within the past few months, when he resigned, since which time they have been without one. The Sunday school was organized in 1868, and has a large attendance.

The Evangelical Church was built in 1855, and cost about $3,000. It was dedicated by Rev. Mr. Tobias, Presiding Elder, and the first Pastor was Rev. John Kramer, now of Watertown, Iowa. The present Pastor is Rev. Henry Messner, with a membership of 113. The Sunday school was organized cotemporaneously with the Church, and the first Superintendent was David Shreffler. The average attendance is about ninety-seven, and P. Y. Dundore is the Superintendent. The iNorthwestern College was located here in 1851, under the auspices of this Church. The building was a stone basement, with a frame, two stories high, 46x66 feet in size, and cost $10,000. The founder and originator of the school was Bishop Esher, and its first President A. A. Smith, with a general average attendance of 180 students. The College was destroyed by fire in 1873. Until the year 1869, it was under the patronage of the Evangelical Church, as above stated. In that year it was removed to Naperville, and the building in Plainfield lay idle until 1871, when it was re-opened, and changed to the Fox River Union College, and was under the direction of the Congregational Church. In March, 1872, it passed into the hands of individuals, with Mrs. J. D. Field as Principal, under the name of Plainfield Academy, under which organization it remained until destroyed by fire.

The Plainfield Ucho was established in 1876, by H. A. Tounshendeau, as a family newspaper, and was an excellent little paper during its brief existence. It was one of the half-dozen newspapers embraced in the Phoenix confederation, as noted in the history of Joliet. The former editor of the Echo is now the Plainfield correspondent of the Lockport Commercial Advertiser and has charge of<the Plainfield department of that paper. Plainfield Lodge, No. 536, A., F. & A. M., is located in the village, but we have received no information in regard to its organization. The stone quarries of Plainfield are of considerable importance. While not comparing with those of Joliet, Lockport and Lemont, either in quality or quantity, yet they furnish a very fair building stone, which is being much used in the immediate neighborhood. But without facilities for shipping, there is no demand for it beyond home supply. A railroad would make Plainfield, in a little while, quite a business town, and a fine grain point. Why the Michigan Central does not extend her " cut-ofi"" railroad through to Aurora, via Plainfield, is a conundrum, and we give it up. Such a movement would prove a paying enterprise beyond any shadow of doubt.

Plainfield Cemetery is a beautiful spot, and is eligibly located about half a mile southeast of the village. Much care has been exercised in laying out and beautifying the grounds. They are inclosed by a substantial fence, and many fine monuments and marble slabs, with flowers and shrubbery, testify the aifection of surviving friends for their beloved dead. It is a beautiful spot, and the care taken of it by the citizens, is an honor to them, and to their pretty little village.

In New Lenox Township was embraced the larger portion of what, in the early times, was termed the Hickory Creek Settlement - a neighborhood celebrated for its hospitality, and for more pretty girls, perhaps, than any section of the county, unless we except Homer's famous Yankee Settlement, and with it, Hickory Creek was, in this respect, a foeman worthy of its steel. There are many old grizzled fellows still to be found whose countenances become animated, and whose eyes kindle with pleasure, as they recall the pleasant reminiscences of Hickory Creek Settlement - of the quilting parties, "kissingbees " and miscellaneous gatherings of young and old. How, at those little parties and upon those interesting occasions, they followed the poet's advice, and throughout the long Winter night kept up the fun, untrammeled by society rules or modern etiquette. A newspaper correspondent, writing under the name of " Styx," describes a " kissing-bee" he attended there in the good old days of the long ago. With such interesting and innocent little plays as " Old Sister Phoebe," "Green Grow the Willow Tree," "Johnny BiOwn " and all others of like character, laid down in the programme, the night waned, and as the first faint streaks of dawn began to gild the eastern horizon, they decided to wind up the affair with one grand kiss all around. The girls were placed in line, and the boys were each to begin at the head of the line and kiss all the girls. As the business proceeded, one little dark-eyed lass, who stood at the foot of the line, exclaimed, impatiently, " Why don't you kiss at both ends of the line, and get through quicker." This remark brought the performance to a close rather abruptly, by some one remarking at the moment, that it was " broad daylight and time to be ofi" home."

New Lenox is known as Township 35 north, Range 11 east of the Third Principal Meridian, and is well drained and watered by Hickory Creek and its North Fork. These streams, at the time of early settlement, were lined with fine forests, much of the timber of which has since been cut away. Perhaps one-fourth of the town was timbered, while the remainder is prairie, much of it rolling, while some of it is so uneven as to be termed knoUy. It is intersected, by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, and the Joliet Cut-Ofi" of the Michigan Central, the history of which is given in another department of this work. The township is devoted almost entirely to farming and stock-raising. Corn and oats are the principal crops and are grown in abundance, while much attention is devoted to raising and feeding stock, of which large quantities are shipped from this section annually. Taken altogether, New Lenox is one of the wealthy towns of Will County. Its population, in 1870, was about 1,120 inhabitants.

The first whites to erect cabins in the Hickory Creek timber, were, probably, two men named, respectively, Joseph Brown and Aaron Friend, but of them very little is known. They were here as early as 1829, and Friend was a kind of Indian trader. He always had a rather rough set of French halfbreeds and Indians around him, and when the latter moved West to grow up with the country, he followed them. Chicagoans used to come down, and they would get up a ball at Friend's ; and once upon a time, some young fellows from Chicago had their horses' tails shaved there. He went to Iowa after the retreating Indians, and died there, when his wife came back to Illinois, and went to live with her daughter, on what was then called Horse Creek. Of Brown, still less is known beyond the fact that he died here in the Fall of 1830. In 1830, the Summer and Fall preceding the deep snow, several new-comers settled on Hickory Creek. Of these, perhaps, the Rices were the first, and came early in 1830. They were from Indiana, and consisted of William Rice, Sr., his son William, and their families. They laid claim to the place where William Grougar afterward settled, and where his son John Gougar now lives. They built a log cabin on this place and had broken five acres of prairie, when John Gougar came on in the Fall of 1830 and bought them out. After selling out to Gougar, they made a claim where the village of New Lenox now stands, put up a shanty, and, after a few years, moved out somewhere in the vicinity of the town of Crete, where some of the family are still living. In September, 1830, John Gougar came from Indiana and, as stated above, bought Rice's claim. A man named Grover had been hired by the elder Gougar to come out with his son and assist in preparing quarters for the family, who moved Out the next June. William Gougar, Sr., was a native of Pennsylvania, but moved to Ohio in 1818, and, in 1822, to Indiana, where he resided until his removal to Illinois, and to this township, in the Summer of 1831. As already noted, he settled on the place where his son, John Gougar, now lives. William Gougar, Jr., another son lives within a mile of the village of New Lenox. He went to California during the gold fever of 1849-50, and remained about three years and a half, during which time he did reasonably well in the land of gold. The elder Gougar died in 1861. John Grover, who, as stated, had been hired by Mr. Gougar to come out with his son in 1830, brought his family with him and remained with the Gougars a year or two. He then made a claim in the Haven neighborhood, where he lived four or five years, then sold out and moved down near the present Will County Fair Grounds. Here he made a claim upon which he lived several years, when he finally sold out and removed to Iowa where he died. Mrs. Stevens, a daughter of Mr. Kercheval, mentioned below, remembers Grover and of his being out on the prairie one cold day when the piercing wind caused his eyes to waiter, which froze on the lashes, until he became totally bliad for the time, causing him to lose his way, and to nearly freeze to death before he succeeded in reaching home.

Lewis Kercheval came froin Ohio and settled in this township, arriving on the 19th day of October, 1830. His wagon was the second that crossed the prairies south of this section of the country. In his trip to the new country, in which he designed making his future home, he had no way-marks across the trackless prairies but his own natural judgment as to the direction of this promised land. The compass, then unknown, except to a favored few, he did not have, and thus was forced much of the time to travel by guess. Upon his arrival here, he erected a tent in which to shelter his family until he could build a house, or cabin, as the habitations of the early settlers were usually called. This tent was simply four posts driven in the ground, with slabs or puncheons laid across for a covering, and quilts hung around the sides. He cut logs in a short time, and raised a cabin when his wife and daughters, who were anxious for a more substantial house than the tent, "pitched in" and assisted the husband and father to "chink and daub" this primitive palace. Perhaps it did not deserve the name of palace, but it was their home in the wilderness, and as such a palace to them. In two weeks from the time of their arrival, their house was ready and they moved into it. Mr. Kercheval seems to have been a man of the strongest sympathies and the most tender heart. Mrs. Robert Stevens, a daughter of his, now living in the suburbs of the city of Joliet, and from whom we received much of the information pertaining to the early settlement of her father in this section, says she has often seen him shed tears over the hardships his wife and little ones were forced to undergo in these early times. His first Winter in the settlement was that of the "deep snow," the epoch from which the few survivors who remember it, date all important events. During the time this great fall of snow remained on the ground, and which was four feet deep on a level, he used to cut down trees, that his horses and cows might "browse" upon the tender twigs. With little else to feed his stock, from sleek, fat animals in the Fall of the year, they came forth in the Spring - those that survived the Winter - nothing but "skin and bones." He would sit down and weep at the sufferings of the poor dumb beasts, and his inability to render them material aid in the way of nourishing food. But it used to exhaust his wits to provide food for his family at all times during that first Winter. Once they run out of meal, and though he had sent to Chicago for a barrel of flour (the mode of communication with Chicago not then being equal to what it is at the present day), it was long in coming; and before its arrival the larder had got down to a few biscuits, laid aside for the smallest children. Mrs. Stevens says her father declared if the flour did not come he would take as many of his children as he could carry on his back, and attempt to make the settlements, but good luck or Providence was on his side, and the barrel of flour came before they were reduced to this extremity.

A sad story was told us by Mrs. Stevens, who, though but a little girl of fifteen or sixteen years of age at the time, remembers the occurrence distinctly. It was of a family who had settled near the present village of Blue Island, and during this deep snow their store of provisions became exhausted, and the husband and father started for the settlements to procure fresh supplies. Being unavoidably detained by the snow, the last crumb disappeared, and the mother, in the very face of starvation, started for Chicago, as is supposed, to get food for her children, and got lost on the prairie and was either frozen to death or killed by wolves. The former supposition is probably the correct one, and after freezing was devoured by wolves, as nothing was ever found but her bones, which were recognized by her shoes. Her children were discovered by some chance passer-by when almost starved to death, and were taken and cared for by the few kind-hearted people in the country at the time. The husband's return was a sad one. His wife dead and eaten by wolves, and his children cared for by strangers, it would almost seem that he had little left to live or care for. The reader will pardon this digression, but it is given in illustration of the privations experienced by the few settlers in the country during the time of the deep snow ; and to return to the original subject, Mr. Kercheval, we are informed, hauled most of the provisions consumed by his family during the first year, one hundred and fifty miles, from the Indiana settlements. He died in February, 1873, a man honored in the community where he lived, and a much-respected citizen.

Samuel Russell came from the Nutmeg State among the very early settlers, and bought land of Gurdon S. Hubbard, of Chicago. He settled in this township and lived here for a number of years. Judge John I. Davidson came out in the Fall of 1830, and bought Friend's claim. He was originally from New Jersey, but had lived some time in Indiana, and after purchasing the claim of Friend, returned to Indiana, and removed his family to the settlement in the Spring of 1831. He had two daughters, one of whom married a Mr. Thompson, and still lives in the township, while the other married a man named Higginbotham, of Field & Leiter's, Chicago, and is living in that city. Joseph Norman was from Indiana, and settled here in 1830, before John Gougar, of whom much of this information is obtained, came to the settlement. He eventually returned to Indiana, and died there a number of years ago. A man named Emmett was here during the Winter of 1880-31, but where he came from, we do not know. He went ofi' with the Mormon Prophets and Elders, and perhaps became one of their "big guns." A man of the name of Buck also spent that Winter here, and he, too, turned Mormon, and followed the elect to Nauvoo. The Winter that Buck spent in this settlement, which was that of the deep snow, he had nothing in the way of bread during the entire Winter except that made from two bushels of meal, and yet he had a wife aud three children. He had two cows, one of which he killed for beef, hung her to the limb of a tree, and when he wanted meat, would take an ax and chop off a piece of the frozen

COW. John Gougar gave him half a bushel of corn, which, with his two bushels of meal and cow, was all that he is known to have had to keep his family during the Winter. Gougar once found him during the Spring in the Woods gathering what he called " greens," and asked him if he was not afraid of being poisoned. He replied that one would act as an antidote to another. John Stitt was another Indianian, and settled here in 1831 or 1832. He moved to Missouri, where he died a few years ago. Col. Sayre .settled here probably about 1829, as he was here when John Gougar came, in 1880. He lived alone, was either a bachelor or widower, and as he had few associations, living a kind of hermitlife, little was known about him. He built a saw-mill near where the Red Mills now stand in Joliet Township, though he lived in New Lenox Township. Mansfield Wheeler, who settled on Hickory Creek in 1833, went into partnership with him in this mill.

Cornelius C. Van Home came from New York, and settled in this township in 1832. He was a man of considerable prominence and intelligence, and is noticed elsewhere as holding many positions of importance. He died in Joliet several years age. The following incident is given in " Forty Years Ago " as illustrative of Van Home's bold, outspoken way of giving vent to his honest convictions. In 1840, an old man, over six feet high, came through the settlement, making his way to his former home in Pennsylvania, on foot. He was troubled with some kind of nervous affliction which often ended in fits of a rather serious character, rendering him entirely helpless and at the mercy of whoever might find him. He was found in a fit in an old blacksmith-shop near where Samuel Haven lived, when it was discovered that he had a considerable sum of money upon his person, and he was taken to the house of one McLaughlin. After recovering partially, he went on his way, and nothing more was heard until he was found in another fit, near " Skunk's Grove," and in his mutterings were something of having been robbed, and search revealed the fact that his money was all gone. In a few days he died and was buried by charity. Suspicions rested upon McLaughlin as having robbed the old man. Van Home was outspoken and made no hesitation in avowing his belief as to McLaughlin's guilt. The matter was taken up by the grand jury and a bill found against old McLaughlin's son, principally through the instrumentality of Van Home. The young man gave bail for his appearance at court, and when the term came on he started on foot for the town, as he gave'out, but he never made his appearance at the Court House. The Van Home party said he had run away to avoid trial - the McLaughlins alleged that he had been foully dealt with, and charged it upon the Van Homes, whom they charged as being the real robbers of the old man, and were afraid to have young McLaughlin's case tried, lest the truth should come out. The excitement run high. Old McLaughlin spent days in traveling up and down the creek and searching in the woods, ostensibly for his lost son, while others, feeling some sympathy for him, assisted in the search. In the old mill-pond, just above where the Rock Island Railroad crosses Hickory

Creek, was discovered a wagon-track running by a blind road from one of the Van Home's, and from where the wagon track terminated a wheelbarrow track to the mill-pond. The wheelbarrow was found in the mill and upon it some hair. The pond was dragged and the body of a man considerably decayed was found. Old McLaughlin was told of the discovery, and he said that if it was his son certain teeth would be missing. The body was examined and found to correspond with the old man's description. The excitement was intense and public opinion divided. The Coroner held an inquest, which resulted about as satisfactorily as such things generally do. Old McLaughlin and his wife swore positively that they believed the body was that of their son, while many others believed it too tall, aged and too much decayed. But notwithstanding these discrepancies, the Coroner's jury found it to be the body of young McLaughlin, and while they did not bring a charge against any one, old McLaughlin swore out a warrant and had Van Home arrested. And in the excitement and division of sentiment, many were ready to hang Van Home without judge or jury. It became an object to those who sided with Van Home, and who did not believe the body " sat on " by the Coroner to be that of young McLaughlin, to find out whose it was. At length, some one thought of the grave of the old man who had been robbed, and a delegation was sent to examine, when it was found to have been recently disturbed, and when the cofiin was opened, it was tenantless. In the mean time, a surveillance had been put upon the post office, and a letter having come for old McLaughlin, mailed somewhere in Pennsylvania, it was opened by consent of the Postmaster and found to be from the mis>«ing son. The tide of public opinion had changed when the discovery was made at the grave, and now those who had been so eager to hang Van Home were still more eager to hang McLaughlin and his wife. The development of the matter shows that old McLaughlin, his wife and son had conspired to ruin Van Home, and that they had dug up the body of the old man, taken it to the mill-pond - a distance of two miles - examined it closely enough to detect the missing teeth, or extracted them on purpose to make it correspond with the son, and then deposited it in the water. They had taken the wagon of Van Home and drawn it to the creek and back to turn suspicion on him. The old man got wind of the turn affairs had taken upon the opening of the letter, and made his escape before the infuriated people could get hold of him, or perhaps the historian would have the melancholy duty to perform of chronicling a sure-enough murder story, instead of one with the murder left out.

Samuel Haven was also a New Yorker, and settled in this township in 1835 or 1836. He had four sons, viz., Dwight, Carlos, Rush and Alvin. Rush Haven is a physician, and lives in Chicago ; Carlos died here, and was buried in the little cemetery of New Lenox village ; and Dwight and Alvin are still living in the township. Joseph S. Reynolds was from Ohio, and settled in the town in 1833.. He had lived some time at Ottawa before coming to this settlement. He died some twenty-five years ago, but has sons still living in the township, who are honored and respected citizens. Jason Rugg and David Hartshorn came from Vermont in 1836, and settled near where the village of New Lenox now stands. They had made arrangements for removing here in 1832, hut rumors of the Indian war going on at that time deterred them, and their coming was postponed until the date given above. They have both been dead several years, and both sleep in the pretty little village cemetery. James C. Kercheval was a son of Lewis Kercheval, mentioned in an earlier part of this chapter. Though but a boy, he took part in the Black Hawk war until the settlers were forced to flee to the older settlements for safety. He died in 1873, and his widow is still living in the town.

The Francises came from Ohio, but were originally from England. John Francis, an Englishman, removed from England to Ireland in the year 1690, settled in the county of Cavan, and married Jane McGrregory, a Scotch lady, whose father fled from Scotland to Ireland in the time of the persecution waged by the Catholics against the Protestants. They had two sons, William and John. William died when a young man. John married Mary Sharp, by whom he had five sons - William, John, Richard, Edward and James ; and three daughters - Mary, Jane and Margaret. John married Margaret Cranston, of Scotland, by whom he had two sons. James married Esther Ingram. William married Jane Love, who was of Scotch ancestry ; and Jane married Alexander Meharry. William Francis, who married Miss Jane Love, had four sons - John L., Thomas, Abraham and Isaac; and three daughters - Jane, Margaret and Mary. William Francis, who married Jane Love, emigrated from Ireland in the year 1815, and settled in Brown County, Ohio, where his family all remained until the year 1831, at which time Abraham married Mary Ann J. Davison, of Adams County, Ohio, and moved with his brothers Thomas and Isaac to the site where the widow of Abraham Francis now lives with her son, A. Allen Francis, in the town of New Lenox, Will Co., 111. The next Spring, Mary, with her husband, Aaron Wear, came and settled on the section just west of Abraham Francis. Thomas removed to Bates County, Mo., where he died two years afterward. Aaron Wear removed to Morgan County, Mo., in the year 1857, where he died a few years later. Abraham Francis had five sons and six daughters, of whom four sons, A. Allen, John, Charles and George L., and four daughters, Margaret (wife of N. P. Cooper), Mary A. J. (wife of John S. Blackstone) Lydia E. (wife of A. S. Haven), and Addie A. (wife of Jesse Meharry), are still living, and all but two of them live in their native town, New Lenox. Abraham died on the place where his widow now lives, an active, intelligent lady, apparently but little beyond the prime of life. She was married when but 16 years of age, and came at once to Illinois, and with her husband made a home where she still lives, awaiting the summons to join the companion of her youth, up beyond the blue sky. She relates the following of Father Beggs, the pioneer Methodist preacher : He came to their cabin one day, soon after they had settled in the neighborhood, and asked where her father was. She told him he was at home in Ohio. He then inquired what she was doing away out here in the wilderness, so far away from her father's ; when, with naivete, she answered that she " had come here with her husband;" at which revelation he seemed a little surprised, from her childlike appearance. John Francis, another of her sons, is living within a short distance of her ; while a married daughter, Mrs. Cooper, also lives in the immediate neighborhood. The four sons reside on one street, and their farms join each other, making a continuous stretch of two and a half miles. Henry Watkins, father of the pioneer -school-teacher, came from New York and settled in New Lenox Township in the Fall of 1831, where he lived until his death, about fifteen years ago. Of others who settled on Hickory Creek at a very early period, we may mention Michael and Jared Runyon, Isaac and Samuel Pence, Joseph, Alfred and James Johnson, and Henry Higginbotham. There were, perhaps, others who are entitled to mention as early settlers, but their names have escaped the few who survive them. Higginbotham bought out Col. Sayre in 1834, and the saw-mill firm before alluded to became Wheeler & Higginbotham. The Johnsons settled near the line of Yankee Settlement, on Spring Creek. The Fences and Runyons were among the very early settlers. The Fences were in the settlement before the Sac war, but the exact date of their coming is not remembered. Edward Foor, an old soldier of the war of 1812 and of the Black Hawk war, is living on Maple street with his son, Robert Poor. He first settled in Homer Township, where he receives further notice.

As stated in the beginning of this chapter, settlements were made on Hickory Creek as early as 1829, which were among the first made in Will County, perhaps Plainfield, or Walker's Grove having a little the precedence. As a natural consequence of this early settlement, births, deaths and marriages occurred here at an early period. The death of Mr. Brown, mentioned as one of the first settlers on the Creek, who died in the Fall of 1830, was the first death in this township, and is supposed to be the first person who died in Will County. The first marriage was Miss Anne Fence and Thomas Ellis. The marriage took place on the 4th of July, 1834, and was a part of the programme of the "day we celebrate," and the happy event was solemnized in Joliet, by B. F. Barker, a Justice of the Peace. This wedding is graphically described in " Forty Years Ago," to which our readers are referred for particulars of the bridal costume and "fixins." It is also supposed to be the first wedding in the county. The first white child born in New Lenox Township, and perhaps in the county, was Elizabeth Norman, born in January, 1832, and Margaret Louisa Cooper, nee Francis, was the next child born in the township, and was born the 3d of January, 1834. The first practicing physician in the Hickory Creek Settlement was Dr. Bowen, now of Wilmington, and the first preacher was Father Beggs, or Rev. Mr. Prentiss, who located in Joliet in an early day. We are informed by A. Allen Francis, who derived the information from the man himself that Joseph Shomaker was the first settler in what now comprises Will County, probably arriving in the Spring of 1828, in what is now known as Reed's Grove, in the township of Jackson. We have it from Mr. Francis, also, that the first marriage in the county was that of Jedediah Woolley, Jr., of Troy Township, to Betsy Watkins, daughter of Henry Watkins, of Ne>v Lenox Township, January, 1832; and that Father Walker preached the first sermon, in 1832, in the fort or blockhouse, and Stephen Beggs, the second.

The first mill was built by Joseph Norman, on Hickory Creek, about 1838 or 1834. Col. Sayre's mill was built previously, but was just over in Joliet Township. The first bridge was built across Hickory Creek, near .John Gougar's. It was built of logs, and was a rough affair. The township is well supplied with excellent bridges at the present day - having two iron bridges of improved patent, one across Hickory Creek, at New Lenox village, and the other across the north branch, while there are a number of excellent wooden bridges of substantial build. The first road laid out was the State road from Chicago to Bloomington, but was a little off the direct route, and was never used. The first traveled road was from Joliet east to State line, and passed by Gougar's. The first post office was kept at Mr. Gougar's, though C. C. Van Home was the Postmaster. This was not only the first post office and Postmaster in New Lenox Township but in Will County. The mail was carried on horseback from Danville to Chicago. Sometime after its establishment in 1832, the office was removed to Joliet, and Dr. Bowen became Postmaster. The first Justice of the Peace was C. C. Van Home. The present Justices are: T. G. Haines and Dwight Haven. Township Clerk, Sinclair Hill ; Township Treasurer, T. G. Haines, and John Francis, Supervisor. Since township organization, the following gentlemen have represented the town in the Board of Supervisors : J. Van Dusen, 1850 ; A. McDonald, 1851; B. F. Allen, 1852; G. McDonald, 1853; J. C. Kercheval, 1854-55; D. Haven, 1856-57; J. C. Kercheval, 1858; D. Haven, 1859-60; Allen Francis, 1861-63; T. Doig, 1864; D. Haven, 1865; T. Doig, 1866-67; D. Haven, 1868 ; T. Doig, 1869 ; C. Snoad, 1870-71; John Francis, 1872; P. Cavenagh, 1873; John Francis, 1874, and is still Supervisor. "

The first school was taught in New Lenox Township in the Winter of 1832-33, by C. C. Van Home. In the Summer of 1832, a schoolhouse had been built in the timber on Hickory Creek, which was a small log structure, and in this building Van Home taught the following Winter. John Watkins, the pioneer teacher, taught in this house afterward. He, it is said, taught the first school in Chicago. The school facilities of New Lenox have increased since that day, as, in 1872, the reports showed 8 schoolhouses ; 366 pupils enrolled; 14 teachers; amount of special tax $2,896.88; amount paid teachers, |2,210.13 ; total expenditures for the year, |3,342.57 ; balance in treasury, $1,338.96. The first chjjrch edifice built in New Lenox Township was the Methodist Episcopal Church, erected in 1850, and was called Bethel Methodist Church. Before this church was built, services were held in the schoolhouses, and before schoolhouses, in the people's cabins. The Mormons -were the first who preached in the settlement, and used to promulgate their heavenly revelations as early as 1831, and next after them came the Methodists, who are mentioned as the first "real, sure-enough" preachers. The camp grounds of the Methodist Church, belonging to the Rock River Conference, located a little west of the village of New Lenox, in a beautiful grove, are very beautiful, and admirably adapted to the purposes for which they are used.

The name New Lenox was taken from Lenox, N. Y. The first Supervisor under township organization was J. Van Dusen, and came from Lenox, N. Y., and when asked to name his township by the County Commissioners, gave to it the name of his native town. Previous to that it was known as Van Home's Point, from a point of timber near the center of the town, and at a still earlier date it went by the name of Hickory Creek Settlement. Maple street is a road running through the north part of the town from east to west, and was so named in consequence of the first settlers planting a number of maple-trees along the line of the road. On the political issues of the day, New Lenox is pretty evenly divided. Some years ago it was largely Republican, but with National Grreenbackers and Democrats, the Republican majority has been whittled down to the little end of nothing.

As this is one of the early settled portions of Will County, its history could hardly be considered complete without some special reference to the Indians and the Sac war of 1832, so often mentioned in these pages. Although nearly a half-century has passed since those rather "ticklish " times, and most of the participants are gone where " wars and rumors of wars " come not to disturb their peace and tranquillity, there are a few left who remember well the great excitement of that period. And the very Indians themselves are almost forgotten by the masses, or only remembered through the reports from the distant West of their robbing, plundering and murdering. But on the 18th day of May, 1832, Hickory Creek Settlement, for the small number of inhabitants it contained, perhaps was about as excited a community as one will generally meet with in half a life-time. On that day news was brought to the settlement of the death and destruction being dealt out by Black Hawk and his dusky warriors. A committee of a dozen men who had the best horses were appointed to go to Plainfield and reconnoiter, and bring back news as to the truth of the reports. Thomas and Abraham Francis were on the committee, and the news brought back was not calculated to allay the existing excitement in the least. On approaching Plainfield, they discovered Indians firing on the fort or blockhouse, and the committee stood not on their retirement, but fell back precipitately, to put it into the mildest form possible. On their return, they reported to the settlers that the Indians were coming and killing everything before them. A council of war was called at " Un^le Billy " Gougar's, and it was determined to seek safety in flight, and on the 18th of May they commenced the line of inarch. The majority retreated toward the Wabash settlements, while some few went to Chicago. The bustle and excitement of getting ready to start, and the momentary expectation of hearing the terrific yells of the savages, gave rise to some ludicrous scenes, as serious as was the cause of alarm. Mr. Pence's girls came to Mr. Gougar and asked him to yoke up their oxen for them. " Yes, in a minute," said he; but before he could get ready to do so, the brave girls had yoked the cattle themselves, hitched them to the wagon, and were gone on the way toward safety. (Young ladies of Will County, how many of you could perform such a feat to-day, if an emergency should arise to demand it ?) The first day the cavalcade arrived within four miles of the Kankakee River, where they encamped for the night, intending to start at daylight and drive to the river before breakfast. But just after starting the next morning, a man named Lionbarger came up hatless, riding bare-back, and did "a tale unfold" of Indians in pursuit and of murder and carnage, that completely dispelled the appetites of the already frightened fugitives, and they did not stop for breakfast until 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and " thirty miles away " from their encampment of the previous' night. As the women and children would see the trees along the way that had been buri^ed and blackened, they would shriek, Indians ! and thus the march or retreat was continued through to a place of safety. It was discovered afterward that Lionbarger had mistaken fence-stakes for Indians, and hence his story of the pursuit and of his own extreme fright. He rode, it is said, eighty miles without stopping, bare-headed and without a saddle, a feat that has never been excelled, as we are aware of, even by Jim Robinson the great bare-back circus-rider. But the storm of war soon passed ; the dark and lurid clouds rolled away toward the west, and the sun came forth in all his glory - the olive-branch of peace waved over the land, and the fugitive settlers returned to their claims in July of the same year which witnessed their precipitate retreat, never more to be disturbed in their peaceful pursuits by the red men of the forest, who, like Dickens' little Jo before the " peeler," have moved on before the "superior race," the white men, and are still moving on toward the "golden sunset," where erelong they will hear the roar of the last wave that will settle over them forever.

The Village Oe New Lenox

This pretty little village is situated on the banks of Hickory Creek, and on the Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, thirty -three miles from Chicago, and about six miles from Joliet. It is surrounded by a beautiful grove of timber, and grand old forest-trees shade it in Summer and protect it against the storms of Winter. The village of New Lenox was laid out in 1858 by George Gaylord, of Lockport, and surveyed by A. J. Mathewson, County Surveyor. The village is known on the original plat by the name of Tracy, and was given in honor of the General Superintendent of the railroad at the time of the layingout of the village. But with a modesty rarely met with in the present day, he shrank from such notoriety, and at his urgent request, the name was changed to New Lenox, to correspond 'witli the name of the township. A man of the name of Robinson built the first residence in the village, and Van Home put up the next one. Both of these were built before the village was laid out. David Letz built the next house, which is now a part of the hotel kept by Doxtader . The first storehouse was erected by Paschal Woodward, who owned both the building and the stock, though it was managed by a man named Haines. The first post office was established in 1858, and John B. Saulsbury was appointed the first Postmaster. The mail-bags are now handled by Ward Knickerbocker. An excellent grain warehouse was built by Samuel Woodward, and is now owned by the railroad company and rented by George Hilton, who handles grain pretty extensively. The first schoolhouse was built long before the village was laid out, and stood just across the street from Ward Knickerbocker's store. The present handsome school edifice was built in 1869, is a two-story frame and cost about $3,000. Prof. Frank Searles is. principal of the school, and employs an assistant during the Winter season. The following is a summary of the business carried on in the village : Three stores - W. Knickerbocker, Tunis Lynk and George Hilton ; three blacksmith-shops, one grain warehouse, two wagon-shops, one hotel, one tin-shop, one physician - Dr. F. W . Searles. J. B. Saulsbury carries on a butter-factory, which is quite an establishment, and adds materially to the importance and business of the village. He does not make cheese, but devotes his entire attention to the manufacture of butter, and works up from four to five thousand pounds of milk daily, which is made up on shares for his patrons.

The village has two pretty little churches, viz.: The Methodist and Grace Episcopal. The Methodist Church was built in the village in 1859, and is the same, as mentioned in another page, as being built in the township in 1850, and called Bethel Church. It was taken down in 1859 and moved to the village and new material added to it and the present edifice erected, at a cost of about - $1,000. It has about sixty members, under the pastorate of Rev. George P. Hoover. Allen Francis is Superintendent of the Sunday school, which is well attended. Grace Episcopal Church was opened to service in September, 1870. It is a frame building, painted stone-color, and cost $2,000, with a membership of about fifty, under the pastoral charge of Rev. Mr. Turner. Quite a flourishing Sunday school is maintained under the superintendence of Sinclair Hill. Upon a sunny slope of the village, where the south winds sigh through the forest-trees that shade it, is the beautiful little village grave-yard, where sleep the loved ones, who have gone to their rest. It is a pretty spot and shows many traces of loving hands in the planting of shrubs and flowers above the sleeping dead.

The village of Spencer is situated on the cut-off division of the Michigan Central Railroad,, about nine miles from Joliet, and is two miles from New Lenox village. It was surveyed by A. J. Mathewson, County Surveyor, for Frank Goodspeed and Albert Mudge, who owned the land on which it is loca- ted. It was laid out in 1856, about the time the railroad was built through this section. The first storehouse erected in the place was the one occupied by Russell Kennedy in 1856, the same year the village was laid out. The post office was established in 1857, and James Holmes was appointed Postmaster, an office he still holds. The first grain elevator was built in 1857 by the railroad company, and, on its completion, was dedicated by a rousing ball, in which the boys and girls of the surrounding country participated to their entire satisfaction. In 1875, H. S. Carpenter built another large elevator, and this, likewise, was similarly dedicated. Indeed, this seems to be the usual mode of opening elevators in this section of the country. It is now operated by W. M. Dudley, who, also, has the other elevator rented, in order to keep other parties out of the business at this point. He handles annually something like 800 carloads of grain - principally corn and oats. The general business of Spencer is two stores, by N. P. Holmes and Knapp Brothers ; one saloon, a post office, a blacksmith-shop, a shoe-shop, two grain elevators and one grain dealer. There is neither a church or schoolhouse within the limits of the village. A considable amount of business is transacted in this little and apparently unimportant village - far more than a stranger would imagine at first sight ; but it is in the midst of a rich and fertile region, and immense quantities of grain and stock are annually shipped from this little station.

" Frankfort-on-the-Main," otherwise Frankfort Township, comprises one of the stair-steps of Will County, forming a "jog" in the line, and is bounded on the north and east by Cook County, on the south by Greengarden Township, on the west by New Lenox, and had a population, in 1870, of about one thousand nine hundred and twenty inhabitants. The town is mostly fine, rolling prairie, with the exception of a few sections bordering Hickory Creek, the only water-course of any consequence. Frankfort Township is termed the summit of this portion of the State, and is said to be the highest point between Chicago and the Mississippi River. It is described as Town 35 north, Range 12 east of the Third Principal Meridian, and is as fine an agricultural region as Will County can boast.

Forty-eight years have come and gone since white men began to settle in the territory now embraced in Frankfort Township. William Rice is supposed to have been the first white man whose footsteps marked the virgin prairie in this portion of Will County. He made a kind of prospecting tour through here in 1828, but did not make a permanent settlement until in the Summer of 1831. During the Spring and Summer of that year, John McGovney, William Moore, William Rice and a man named Osborne settled near where the village of Mokena now stands. Not long, however, were they allowed to remain in peace and tranquillity. The notes of war were wafted to them upon the prairie winds, and the war-whoops of Black Hawk and his warriors warned them that this was no safe abiding-place. Early in the Spring of 1832, safety demanded a retreat to a more thickly-settled country, and they accordingly returned to the Wabash settlement, or to Lafayette, Ind. McGovney, Moore and Rice were from Ohio, and Osborne had come from Indiana, but whether that was his native place or not could not be learned. After the close of the Indian war, McGovney and Rice came back to their claims, in the Spring of

1834. Moore and Osborne, it appears, however, were fully satisfied with frontier life, and never returned - at least not to this settlement. Mr. McGovney pre-empted eighty acres of land, and succeeded in getting a "float" on another " eighty," a portion of which is embraced in the present village of Mokena. He is considered the first permanent settler of Frankfort Township. The land was not in market at the time he settled here, and settlers chose their locations and " squatted," provided there were no prior, claims Range 11 was sold in 1836, and Range 12 in 1838, at Chicago. Mr. McGovney died on his original place March 11, 1859. W. W. McGovney, a son, now lives in New Lenox Township ; another son, Ozias, is a prosperous merchant in the village of Mokena ; Thomas G., another son, lives in JoHet, and Elijah, the youngest, lives on the old homestead. The family consisted of eight children, and all lived until the youngest was 32 years old.

Matthew Van Home settled here, it is said, in 1832, and remained during the Black Hawk war. He was from New York, and was good-naturedly termed by his neighbors a Mohawk Dutchman. He settled one mile west of the present village of Frankfort, in the Hickory Creek timber, where he lived and died, and where his widow still lives, in the same old house where they spent more than half their lives. Peter Clayes came from New Hampshire, and settled first in the vicinity of Lockport, but removed to Frankfort Township in the Spring of 1837. Orlando and Levi M. Clayes, his sons, came in the Fall of 1836 ; CharlcS, another son, came out and worked on their claim during the Winter, and in the Spring the remainder of the family came. They bought their claim from one Robert Smith, who was from Vermont, and settled here in

1835. The elder Clayes is dead, and Charles lives on the homestead place. E. Atkins and a brother, John Atkins, came from Vermont, and were among the first settlers in the township after the close of the Sac war, and about the same time came Weir and Duncan, from the Wabash settlements. Their first names are now forgotten. Foster Kane and Archibald Crowl were from the same section. It is said that Kane was in the settlement all through the Black Hawk war, and settled on the place afterward occupied by Matthew Van Home ; but this we are inclined to doubt somewhat. Crowl settled near the village of Mokena, in 1834 or 1835. He finally moved to Missouri ; Kane moved South in a short time after the war was over, and afterward to Missouri, where he died many years ago. Daniel Wilson came from Ohio and settled in 1834 or

Ambrose Doty came from Ohio, in 1834, and settled on the line between Frankfort and New Lenox Townships. His land lay on both sides of the line, and his first cabin was built just over the line in New Lenox Township ; but when, some years later, he built a new and more pretentious residence, he set it on the opposite side of the line, and thus became a resident of Frankfort Township. As stated, he came from Ohio, but was born in Norris County, N. J. He has been living for some years in Frankfort village. Isaac Francis also came from Ohio, but was a native of the "Ould Sod," and settled in the town in 1835. Allen and Lysander Denny, a Mr. Wood, and David Ketcbum came from New York in 1834 or 1835. Wood had two sons, Hiram and Sydney ; one of them, a Methodist clergyman, moved to the Rock River country ; the father and the other son moved away, also, but where, we could not learn. The Dennys settled in the Hickory Creek timber - Allen near Mokena, and Lysander on the Creek, where he built a saw-mill, and after a time sold out and moved to the village of Spencer, where he died. Allen finally returned to New York, where he died several years ago. William Knight, also a New Yorker, came in the Fall of 1834, and settled in the Grove, but sold out in a few years and returned to New York. This includes a number of the early settlers of Frankfort Township, and, perhaps, a majority of those who settled in the town prior to the (and sale, are mentioned in this list. After the sale of these lands, the community rapidly filled up until not a section was left unoccupied. There are no better farming lands in the county, as shown by the following statistics from the Assessor's books for 1877.

John W. McGovney, a son of John McGovney, noticed as the first settler this township, was the first white child born in the settlement. He was born in the Spring of 1832, just before the settler left the place for the Wabash settlements, at the beginning of the Sac war. As to the first death and marriage, the few survivors of the early days, are somewhat uncertain as to -who they were, or when they occurred. The first physician who practiced the healing art in the neighborhood was Dr. Moses Porter, of Hadley ; Dr. W. P. Holden was the first resident physician in the township, and practiced many years, but has at length retired and given the field to younger men. The first mill was built by Matthew Van Home, about 1835-36, and was originally a saw-mill only, but a run of stones was afterward added, for grinding corn. A saw-mill was built prior to this by Denny, but it was a saw-mill only.

A store was opened, in 1836, by 0. & L. M. Clayes, which was the first mercantile effort in the township. They continued in the business for eight or ten years, when they closed out, and one M. C. Farewell opened a store in the same house they had occupied. The latter did business under the firm name of Farewell & Case. Case lived in Chicago, and furnished the goods, and Farewell conducted the store. A post ofiice was established in 1837, with L. M. Clayes as Postmaster one of the merchants mentioned above. The name of the oflSce was Chelsea, and after the Clayes Brothers discontinued their store, the office was moved to Van Home's, and he was made Postmaster, an office he held until some years after the post office had been moved to the new village of Frankfort, as noticed hereafter. When the office was first established, the mail was brought by "horse express fast line" from La Porte, Ind., to Joliet once a week. A village was laid out here in 1848-49 by Charles Clayes and M. C. Farewell, which was called Chelsea. The former owned the premises, and the place had some show of becoming quite a town; but upon the completion of the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad it was abandoned, and the last traces of it have now disappeared.

The first sermon preached in the town was perhaps by Father Beggs, who, as noticed in other parts of this work, was one of the pioneer preachers of the county. The Rev. Mr. Blackwell, another of the early Methodist itinerants, formed a class at Mr. Doty's about 1836 or 1837, just over the line in New Lenox Township, but at that day was included in this settlement, or this was included in that, and all known as the Hickory Creek Settlement. Mr. Doty's residence was a regular preaching-place until the era of schoolhouses, as there was no church edifice built until after the village of Frankfort was laid out. There is but one church-building in the town outside of the villages - the German Lutheran Church - which is located about three miles northeast of Frankfort village. It was built in 1877 ; is a neat frame building, costing about |1,500, and has quite a flourishing membership. The church history will be again referred to in the history of the villages. The first schools taught in the town were by Mrs. Knight and Mrs. Hiram Wood, but to which belongs the honor of teaching the first, no one can now tell. They both taught in a little log schoolhouse, which stood on Section 19, built for school purposes, but afterward converted into a dwelling. The school facilities have somewhat increased since' then, and will compare favorably with any town in the county. In 1872, wefind there were ten districts and nine schoolhouses. There were 652 pupils enrolled, and fifteen teachers employed, with two graded schools in addition to the common schools. The amount paid teachers was $2,724.90, leaving balance in treasury of $2,818.14. Further notice of the schools will be made in connection with the history of the villages of Frankfort Township. The first Justices of the Peace were Thomas Lang and Matthew Van Home. Lang had theprecedence by a few years, and after his term Van Home dealt out justice to the offenders of the law. The present township ofiicers are John McDonald, Supervisor; J. S. Glaus and George Morgan, Justices of the Peace; John Cappel, Town Clerk, and Moriz Weiss, School Treasurer.

In 1852, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad was built through the town. The first freight shipped over the road was consigned to Ambrose Doty and Isaac Francis, and consisted of a couple of car-loads of lumber. There were nostations, and when the railroad men asked where they should put it off, were told anywhere in the township, said they could leave it one place as well as another, and put it off near the present village of Mokena. In 1855, the " Cut-Off," or Joliet Division of the Michigan Central was completed through, and the townhas since been blest with unbounded railroad facilities. These roads were built without aid from the township, and so were independent of the town, and the town of them. There has, we believe, been another road projected, and, perhaps, partly graded, but has been dropped or discontinued. But as the railroadsof the county are extensively noticed in the general history, we will pass without further mention of them here.

The cheese-factory of Messrs. Baumgartner & Co. is an extensive establishment. It is owned by a stock company, consisting of John and Jacob Baumgartner, George Geuther, Francis Maue and E. Higgens. They have an excellent brick factory with stone basement, built at a cost of $6,000.. It is about two miles north of Frankfort village, and was built in 1875. The manufacture of butter and cheese is carried on rather largely, but not to the full capacity of the factory, owing to the lack of material. About $10,000 is the amount of business annually, but much more could be done if a greater supply of milk could be obtained.

This township was named by Mr. Cappel, an old German citizen, for Frankfort-on-the-Main, his native place, a name it has always borne. The town is largely Republican, and has always been so. It is remembered by many that at one period of its history there were. not half a dozen Democratic votes in the entire town. But the latter party has gained some strength in the last few years, and the National Greenback party at present bids fair to create a revolu- tion in its political record. The war history, like all portions of Will County, is good, and many brave soldiers are accredited to this township.

The Village Of Mokena

Mokena is situated on the Chicago & Rock 'Island Railroad, about ten miles east of Joliet. The original village was laid out in 1852, before the Railroad was fully completed, by Allen Denny. An addition was made to it soon after, by John McGrovney, which- was surveyed by A. J. Matthewson, County Surveyor. Knapp & Smith put up the first building, which was used for the double purpose of store and dwelling, and they were the first merchants in the place. The first hotel was built by Charles Gall, in 1853, and was the next next building erected after Knapp & Smith's store, which had been put up in the Winter of 1851 - 52, before the village was laid out and before the Railroad was completed. William McCoy built the first blacksmith-shop, in the Winter of 1853-54. Ozias McGovney was the first Justice of the Peace in the village, and was elected in 1850, an office he held for twenty-one years uninterruptedly. He is also a lawyer by profession, but has not practiced for a number of years, and at the present time is engaged in the mercantile business. A post office was established in the village in the Spring of 1853, and Warren Knapp was the first Postmaster, receiving his commission soon after the inauguration of President Pierce. Ozias McGovney is the present Postmaster, and has been for the past three years. McGovney bought out Smith, of the firm of Knapp & Smith, and the firm became Knapp & McGovney, and so continued for a number of years. They were the first grain buyers, and bought from wagons and loaded into the cars without the aid of elevators. Cross & Jones built a steam-mill in 1855, and about 1865, took out the machinery and shipped it to Kansas, when the mill building was changed into the Mokena Elevator, and is owned and operated by Charles Hirsch, the only grain dealer now in the village. Noble Jones speculates in grain and has an office here, but does business mostly on the Board of Trade, in Chicago.