Winnebago County, Illinois - The whole text, 1877 (part 5 of 17)

[*The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each ; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit, sealed, to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed ; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President ; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in like maimer choose the President. But in choosing the President, the vote shall be taken hj states, the representation from each state having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the Electors shall be ; the Vice-President. But if tliere should remain two or more who have , equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice-President.]

The Congress may determine the time of choosing the Electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes ; which day shall be the same - throughout the United States.

< resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-Pwesident, and the Congress , may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inabil- ; ity, both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall 5 then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the dis- \ ability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the , period for which he shall have been ' elected, and he shall not receive : within that period any other emolument from the United States or any of ^ them.

" I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the -f office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, f preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." } Sec. 2. The President shall be commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when f called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the I opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive 5 departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective , offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardon for offenses I against the United States, exoept in cases of impeachment. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the

I; Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present con- 1' cur ; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice of the Senate, f shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of )j the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States whose I appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be i established by law ; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment ' of such inferior officers as they think proper in the President alone, in \i the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

Sec. 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information il of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such mea- I sures as he shall judge necessary and expedient ; he may on extraordinary occasions convene both houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper ; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers ; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.

Sec. 4. The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

Section I. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.

Sec. 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority ; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls ; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction ; to controversies to which the United States shall be a party ; to controversies between two or more states ; between a state and citizens of another state ; between citizens of different states ; between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects.

In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, and those in which a state shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction.

In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.

The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury ; and such trial shall be held in the state where the said crimes shall have been committed ; but when not committed within any state, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed.

Sec. 3. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted.

Section 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the Congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.

A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice and be found in another state, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdicl'on of the crime.

No person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on the claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.

Sec. 3. New states may be admitted by the Congress into this Union ; but no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state ; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the Legislatures of the states concerned, as well as of the Congress.

The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States ; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States or of any particular state.

Sec. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, and on application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature can not be convened), against domestic violence.

The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress. Provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article ; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

All debts contracted and engagements entered into before the adoption of this Constitution shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution as under the Confederation.

This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the Judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.

Constitution Of The United States

bers of the several state Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution ; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

The ratification of the Conventions of nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the states so ratifying the same.

Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states present, the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the independence of the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.

No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public danger ; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state.

The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot I for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an i inhabitant of the same state with themselves ; they shall name in their ballots the person to be voted for as president, and in distinct ballots the { person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice- President, and of the number of votes for each, which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed ; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest number not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from twothirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice- President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be the majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a major- ity, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist witliin the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Sec. 2. Representatives shall be appointed among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed ; but when the right to vote at any election for the choice of Electors for President and Vice- President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged except for participation in rebellion or other crimes, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.

Sec. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or Elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath as a Member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state to support the Constitution of the I United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the I same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, h by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability. fi^. Sec. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States author- I'ized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and boun- Ijties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be ques- I tioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall pay any debt I or obligation incurred in the aid of insurrection or rebellion against the I United^ States, or any loss or emancipation of any slave, but such debts, ''obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any state, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Electors Of President And Vice-President

Note. - It is generally ussunied that the gross weight of Hogs diminished by 1-5 or 20 per cent, of itself gives the net weight, and the net weight increased by X or 25 per cent, of itself equals the Rross weight.

Rule. - Multiply (by short method) the number of cubic feet by 6308, and point off one decimal place - the result will be the correct answer in bushels and tenths of a bushel.

NOTK. - Ill estimating corn in the ear, tlie quality and tlie time it lias been cribbed must l)e taken into consideration, since corn will shrink considerably during the Winter and Spring. This rule generally holds good for corn measured at the time it is cribbed, provided it is sound and clean.

Rule. - Multiply the scxuare of the mean diameter by the depth (all in feet) and this product by 5681 (short method), and point off one decimal place - the result will be the contents in barrels of 31^ gallons.

Rule. - Under the square of the mean diameter, write the length (all in inches) in reversed order, so that its units will fall under the tens ; multiply by short method, and this product again by 430 ; point off one decimal place, and the result will be the answer in wine gallons.

Rule. - Multiply the length (in feet) by the width (in inches) and divide the product by 12 - the result will be the contents in square feet.

Rule. - Multiply the width, the thickness, and the length together (the width and thickness in inches, and the length in feet), and divide the product by 12 - the result will be square feet.

Rule. - Multiply the length by the width (in rods), and divide the product by 160 (carrying the division to 2 decimal places if there is a remainder) ; the result will be the answer in acres and hundredths.

Bricks are usually made 8 inches long, 4 inches wide, and two inches thick ; hence, it requires 27 bricks to make a cubic foot without mortar, but it is generally assumed that the mortar fills 1-6 of the space.

Miscellaneous Information

To find the length of the rafters, at one-fourth pitch, multiply the width of the building by .56 (hundredths) ; at one-third pitch, by .6 (tenths) ; at two-fifths pitch, by .64 (hundredths) ; at one-half pitch, by .71 (hundredths). This gives the length of the rafters from the apex to the end of the wall, and whatever they are to project must be taken into consideration.

NoTK. - By Jif or 3^ pitch Is meant that the apex or comb of the roof Is to be K or X the width of the buikiiiiK liigher thiui the walls or base of the rafters.

Rule. - Level the grain ; ascertain the space it occupies in cubic feet ; multiply the -number of cubic feet by 8, and point off one place to the left.

If the corn in the box is in the ear, divide the answer by 2, to find the number of bushels of shelled corn, because it requires 2 bushels of ear corn to make 1 of shelled corn.

In measuring land, the first thing to ascertain is the contents of any given plot in square 3^ards ; then, given the number of yards, find out the number of rods and acres. -

The most ancient and simplest measure of distance is a step. Now, an ordinary-sized man can train himself to cover one yard at a stride, on the average, with sufficient accuracy for ordinary purposes.

To make use of this means of measuring distances, it is essential to walk in a straight line ; to do this, fix the eye on two objects in a line straight ahead, one comparatively near, the other remote ; and, in walking, keep these objects constantly in line.

Farmers and others hy adopting the folloiving simple and ingenious contrivance, may ahvays carry with them the scale to construct a correct yard measure.

Take a foot rule, and commencing at the base of the little finger of the left hand, mark the quarters of the foot on the outer borders of the left arm, pricking in the marks with indelible ink.

To find hoiv many rods in length tvill make an acre, the tvidth heing given. Rule. - Divide 160 by the width, and the quotient will be the answer.

Rule. - Multiply the square of one-fifth of the circumference in inches, by twice the length, in feet, and divide by 144. Deduct 1-10 to 1-15 according to the thickness of the bark.

Rule. - The reciprocal of the rate is the time for which the interest on any sum of money will be shown by simply removing the decimal point two places to the left; for ten times that time, remove the point one place to the left; for 1-10 of the same time, remove the point three places to the left.

Note. - The reciprocal of tlie rate is found by inverting the rate ; thus 3 per cent, per month, Inverted, becomes >^ of a month, or 10 days.

U. S. Government Land Measure

A quarter section, half a mile square - 160 acres. An eighth section, half a mile long, north and south, and a quarter of a mile wide - 80 acres.

The sections are divided into quarters, which are named by the cardinal points. The quarters are divided in the same way. The descrijDtion of a forty acre lot would read : The south half of the west half of the south-west quarter of section 1 in township 24, norih of range 7 west, or as the case might be ; and sometimes will fall short and sometimes overrun the number of acres it is supposed to contain.

Surveyors' Measure

A league is three miles, but its length is variable, for it is strictly speaking a nautical term, and should be three geographical miles, equal to 3.45 statute miles, but when used on land, three statute miles are said to be a league.

How To Keep Accounts

Every farmer and mechanic, whether he does much or little business, should keep a record of his transactions in a clear and systematic manner. For the benefit of those who have not had the opportunity' of acquiring a primary knowledge of the principles of book-keeping, we here present a simple form of keeping accounts which is easily comprehended, and well adapted to record the business transactions of farmers, mechanics and laborers.

Interest Table

Multiply the principal (amount of money at interest) by the time reduced to days; then divide this product by the (3Uotte7it obtained by dividing 360 (the number of days In the interest year) by the per cprtt. of interest, and the quotient thus obtained will be the required interest.

Miscellaneous Table

Virginia. - The oldest of the States, was so called in honor of Queen Elizabeth, the "Virgin Queen," in whose reign Sir Walter Raleigh made his first attempt to colonize that region.

Florida. - Ponce de Leon landed on the coast of Florida on Easter Sunday, and called the country in commemoration of the day, which was the Pasqua Florida of the Spaniards, or " Feast of Flowers."

Texas is the American word for the Mexican name by which all that section of the country was called before it was ceded to the United States.

Productions Of Agriculture, State Of Illinois

In Janiiarv, A. D., 1818, the territorial legislature of Illinois petitioned Congress for the admission of the territory into the Union as an independent state. ISTathaniel Pope was the territorial delegate in Congress, at that time. The petition was sent to him, and by him presented to Congress. By reason of a pressure of other business, the petition was not acted upon until the April following, when, with certain amendments prepared by Mr. Pope, it became a law, and Illinois was declared an independent state. The amendments proposed by Mr. Pope were: first, to extend the northern boundary of the new state to the parallel of 42 degrees 30 minutes north latitude; and second, to apply the three per cent, fund, arising from the sales of the public lands, to the encouragement of learning instead of the making of roads leading to the state, as had been the practice on the admission of Ohio and Indiana. These important changes, says Ford's History of Illinois, were proposed and carried through both houses of Congress by Mr. Pope, upon his own responsibility. The territorial legislature had not petitioned for them, no one at that time having suggested or requested the making of them, but they met the unqualified approbation of the people of the state.

Under the ordinance of 1787, there were to be not less' than three, nor mpre than five states erected out of the territory northwest of the Ohio Eiver. The boundaries of these states were defined by that ordinance. The three states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois were to include the whole territory, and were to be bounded by the British possessions on the north. But Congress reserved the right, if they thereafter found it expedient, to form one or two states in that part of the territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southern bend of Lake Michio-an. "That line, it was generally supposed," continues Mr. Ford, "was to be'^the north boundary of Illinois." Judge Pope, seeing that the port of Chicago was north of that line, and that it would be excluded by it from the state, was led to a critical examination ol the ordinance, which resulted in a clear and satisfactory conviction that it was competent for Congress to extend the boundaries of the new state as far north as they pleased, and found no difficulty in convincing others of the correctness of his views.

Under the same ordinance Congress was vested with the power, if they should find it expedient, to establish a state north of Illinois, in that part of the northwestern territory which lies north of the parallel running through the southern bend of the lake. Under this provision, Wisco^nsin, at one time, laid claim to a certain part of the northern section of Illinois, "including " said Mr. Ford, at the date of his writing (1847), "fourteen counties, embracing the richest and most po])ulous part of the state."

When Illinois was admitted into the Union in 1818, the whole people numbered only about forty-five thousand souls. Of these, some two thousand were the descendants of the old French settlers at Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, Prairie du Pont, Cahokia, Peoria and Chicago. These people lived m the style of the French peasantry of two hundred years ago. They had made no improvements in anything, nor had they adopted any of the improvements made by others. The other forty-three thousand were made up by people from Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania. In that year (1818) the settled part of the state extended a little north of Edwardsville and Alton; south, along the Mississij)pi to the mouth of the Ohio; east, in the direction of Carlysle, in Clinton county, to the Wabash, and down the Wabash and the Ohio to the confluence of the Ohio with the Mississippi, where Cairo has since been built. But the country included within these boundaries was not all occupied at that time. Between the Kaskaskia Kiver and the Wabash, and between the Kaskaskia and the Ohio there was a large wilderness that could not be traversed in less than three days. The entire northern part of the state was a trackless prairie. But gradually the settlements extended northward. Year by year immigration increased, but, as a rule, the early settlers selected homes in the timbered districts, leaving the prairies as worthless for agricultural uses, because of tlie scarcity of timber for fencing and other purposes. Gradually, however, a change came over the minds of men in regard to these things, and the prairies were sought after and put under cultivation; and as their easy subjection to farm tillage and rich returns came to be known, their fame spread abroad, and Illinois began to be regarded as a very Yaljparaiso.''' But with all their wealth and productiveness the prairies of J^orthern Illinois remained comparatively unknown, and almost entirely unoccupied by white men until after the close of the Blackhawk Indian troubles, in 1832.

The first part of J^orthern Illinois to be permanently occupied by white men, so far as any records can be found, seems to have been La Pointe (now Galena). As to who made the first settlement the authorities diifer. Ford's history ascribes that honor to Colonel James Johnson and a party of miners, from Kentucky, who located there in 1824, and commenced mining operations about one mile above the present site of the city. Another authority gives the honor to Ira Barker, who went from Terre Haute, Indiana, with an exploring party in the summer of 1824. This party made the entire journey across the state without seeing a single white man or sleeping in a house until they reached La Pointe, which, on their arrival, only boasted three or four log huts. The same authority from which this information is derived says that in the same summer three other men, Smith, Meeker and Harris, also, arrived at the same place. La Pointe. Whatever the differences of opinion as to wlio were the first settlers there, all agree as to the time - the summer of 1824. These men, it is fair to presume, were all mining adventurers, and the extraordinary success that attended their ventures induced a great rush there in 1825; while in 1826 and 1827 fortune hunters poured in by thousands. In 1825 Galena was mapped out, and February 17, 1827, Jo Daviess county, extending across Rock River and embracing the territory which is now comprised in nine counties, was erected. With the exception of the Galena miners of 1824 and a few scattered fur traders, there were no white settlers in all ol Northern Illinois at that time.

The men composing General Scott's army, in his campaign against the Indians, were disbanded at Dixon, in the fall of 1832. During that campaign they had traversed a large part of the country tributary to Rock River, and observed its great natural beauty and fertility of soil, and upon their return to their respective homes they carried with them such glowing descriptions of tlie Winnebago country, that it were strange, indeed, if if did not become to be regarded as an almost second Eden.

In 1833, the Fox River valleys began to settle up with immigrants from the older states, and in 1834 and 1835 the prairies along Kock JKiver and the Kishwaukee Creeks began to receive the advance guard of the thousands of industrious and prosperous people that now dwell in their midst.

The earliest permanent white settler in the territory now included in Winnebago county, of whom there is any knowledge, was Stephen Mack. His cabin was built in a grove about half a mile above the mouth of the Pecatonica Kiver at a place that was subse(|ucntly called Bird's Grove. The time of his coming and casting his lot with the Winnebagoes is not definitely known. INeither is there much known of his early life, or of the motives that caused him to isolate himself from kindred, friends and his own race. All that was ever known of this strange recluse is presented in /the following sketch:

/ Stephen Mack was born in Vermont. He was the son of a retired army officer, who w^as largely engaged in the fur trade. After receiving a good common school education, Stephen was entered as a student at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. From some cause, he could not reconcile himself to the routine of college life, and, finally, abandoned it without waiting for commencement day. His father, hoping to reclaim him from the wild ^habits into which he had fallen, sent him out among the Western Indians to buy furs. Whither he drifted, or how he was occupied from the time he left parental guardianship until he came to the Rock River country is left to the conjecture of the curious. Having mixed a great deal with the Indians, gradually assimilating to their habits and customs, he at last married an Indian woman named Ho-no-ne-gah, the daughter of an Indian chief. The peculiar circumstances that led to this "match" are not definitely stated - that it was not a love match is beyond doubt. Some

authorities state that Ho-no-ne-gah once saved Mack's life, from the fury of some Winnebagoes whom he had offended, and that out of gratitude he offered Ho-no-ne-gah his hand, his heart and his fortune as a recompense. Other authorities ascribe the marriage to selfishness and greed on Mack's part, hoping thereby to become enriched by the possession of the lands Hono-ne-gah would inherit from her father. Whatever the true cause, it is a secret with the others of his life, both of which have passed beyond the judgment of men. Of this marriage eight children were born - four girls and four boys. Two of the boys were named Henry and William, The names of the other two are not remembered, if ever known. The girls were named Rosa, Mary, Louise and Caroline. In afteryears,when Rock Ford had become Rockford, and a seminary had grown up with the city, Louise and Mary were sent there to be learned in the ways of the whites, but their wild natures were a proof against its civilizing influences, and finally followed their people to their new reservation in Minnesota, where they still remained at last authentic reports. Of the eight children born to Stephen Mack out of his wedlock with an Indian wife, not one became a citizen of the commonwealth of Illinois. Ho-no-ne-gah, the Indian mother of Mack's children, died in 1847, and a year afterwards he married a white woman. This marriage was an unfortunate alliance. The woman he chose for a second helpmate was not as good as his squaw wife. She robbed him whenever occasion offered, and, finally, set fire to their house while under the influence of opium, to the use of which she was a great slave. A short time after this occurrence the life of Stephen Mack went out,and followed that of his Indian wife into the spirit world, while his mortal remains were buried amid the trees and flowers around the spot where his cabin had been reared, sometime about the year 1829.

Those who knew the subject of the above sketch say that Stephen Mack was di£:;nified and manly in his bearing, affable and pleasant in his intercourse with his white neighbors, and particularly pleasant with those with whom he had an intimate acquaintance. It is said that he hardly ever used a profane word. Sometimes he would manifest religious inclinations, and at one time hired a man named McDowell to come to his house, read the Scriptures, and pray with his lamily. But this kind of devotion did not last long. Mack was tall, and as erect as any of the Indians among whom he dwelt, and possessing a good common education, and withal a close reader - always keeping a good stock of books in his cabin - he might have been a man among men, but he chose otherwise, -p

In the summer of 1&33, Mr. John Phelps, who died a few years ago in Oregon, at the age of seventy-eight years, in company with a Frenchman, started down the Pecatonica from Mineral Point, Wisconsin, on a voyage of exploration or discovery. Their vessel was an ordinary canoe or dug out, and the propelling power a paddle in the hands of Lewis Lemon, a bov of color that Mr. Kent had brought from Alabama, and of whom we will speak more in detail in another place. These men made a short stop at the mouth of what was subsequently named Kent's creek, at the same place where Messrs. Germanicus Kent and Thatcher Blake landed in the late afternoon of an August day, 1834. Phelps and his companion du voyage were pleased with the location, and but for the seeming scarcity of timber would have located here. But that objection overruled their otherwise favorable impressions, and they passed on down the river and selected claims at the site now occupied by the town of Oregon, thus leaving Rockford to be founded by representatives from two extreme sections of the country - Germanicus Kent, of the State of Alabama, and Thatcher Blake, of the State of Maine.

In 1833, Mr. Kent with his family and his colored boy, Lewis Lemon, came up to Galena, where his brother, Rev, Aratus Kent, a Presbyterian clergyman, was located. Soon after his arrival there, Mr. Kent learned from some of the soldiers that had been with Scott's army, of the exceeding beauty of the Rock River country, and he determined to visit it at the earliest opportunity.

In June, 1834, Thatcher Blake, who combined the qualifications of school teacher and farmer, set out from his native county of Oxford, Maine, to find fame and fortune in the "far west." As he had no settled point in view, he traveled along from place to place, occasionally meeting a returned soldier from the Blackhawk war, from whom he heard glowing accounts of the Rock River country, and the immense and quickly acquired fortunes of the Galena miners. More impressed with the advantages the valley offered for farming than with the mineral resources of the Galena district, he determined to visit this valley, and if he found the half said of its beauty and wealth of soil to be true, to make it his home for life - a determination he has so far carried out. The only railroad in those days between Illinois and Maine, was the one from Albany to Troy, N. Y. The rest of Mr.

Blake's trip was made by the New York and Erie Canal, to Buffalo, thence by Other conveyance to Pittsburg; thence by steamboat down the Ohio to tiie Mississippi, and up that river iiia St. Louis to G-alena.

Soon after his arrival at Galena, and expressing his purpose to visit Rock river, he heard of Kent's purpose to make a similar trip, and he at once sought that gentleman's presence, made his acquaintance, and together they made arrangements for the prosecution of that tour of discovery that not only resulted to their own advantage, but to the advantage of many thousands of others.

They started from Galena in a "Democrat" wagon, passed up into Wisconsin, and struck the Fecatonica about four miles from what was then known as "Hamilton's Diggings," operated by a son of Alexander Hamilton, who was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr. A man named Eansom had settled on the Fecatonica at that point, and of him they purchased a canoe, and made the balance of the trip by that means of conveyance. The first halt they made was at Winnishick's village, where Freeport now is. There Mr. Kent went ashore to examine the land, leaving Mr. Blake in charge of the canoe, provisions, etc., and during his absence the Indians gathered around in such numbers that Mr. Blake was obliged to lay oft" in the middle of the stream to prevent them from plundering his " boat." Not exactly suited with the " lay of the land" at that point, their journey was resumed and continued until they glided into Rock river, upon whose silvery waters they floated down to the mouth of the creek that was named in honor of one of its discoverers, Germanicus Kent. Here they landed, late in the afternoon of an August day, 1834. Drawing their canoe ashore, tired with the fatigues of their long and tortuous journey, they soon disjjosed themselves to rest and slumber. On the morning of the morrow, after partaking of a camp breakfast, they set about an examination of the surroundings, and the impressions formed from reports of the beauty and fertility of the country, were more than confirmed hj actual examination, and the conclusions then reached were never afterwards changed. At the close of the day they returned to their camp to partake of their evening meal and discuss the situation. Blake had selected a site for a farm, and Kent had selected a location for a saw mill on the little creek that now bears his name, a few rods above its mouth, little dreaming that the building of a mill there would be the nucleus around which would spring up one of the greatest manufacturing centres in the western country. But such have been the accomplishments of less than half a century. Another night's rest beneath the wide-spreading boughs and thick foliage of a friendly tree, an early breakfast, and their camp equipage re-packed and transferred to their canoe, and they again committed themselves to the current of Rock river, by which they were borne down to Dixon. From Kent's creek to Dixon they found no landmarks that pleased them so well as their discoveries here, and at Dixon they gave up the hunt, disposed of their canoe, and made for Galena, to perfect arrangements for the immediate occupancy and improvement of their claims at the junction of Kent's creek with Rock river. Wagons and teams were purchased, supplies laid in, and a gang of men employed to build a dam, dig the race and prepare the timber for the saw mill which Kent had determined to build. These preparations completed, the return trip was commenced. The country was then known as Winnebago. There were no roads - not even an Indian trail - to guide them from Galena directly to their new El Dorado. Their route was by way of the Galena and Dixon line of travel as far as Cliambers' Grove, from which point they struck out on the open prairie in a northeast course, and in the evening of the fourth day the pioneer cavalcade drew up and went into camp on the site of their future operations, and a manufacturing city in 1877 of at least 15,000 population.

We have been somewhat minute and elaborate in these followinos of the settlements and incidents pertinent to tlie earlier history of the Winnebago country, that its historical connections with the Present might l)e the more fully defined and preserved. And having traced the origin and history of the first settlement, in the fall of 183i, we come now to the immediate history of Winnebago County, first presenting its Physical Geography; second, its Geological Formations; and third, a brief reference to its Indian Anticpiities, Mound Builders, etc.

Physical Geography

Winnebago County is bounded on the east by Boone County ; on the south by Ogle County ; on the west by Stephenson County, and on the north by the Wisconsin state line. It was organized by an act of the Legislature, in January, A. I). 1S3<J, and derives its name from a tribe of Indians that once included its territory in their hunting grounds. It is twenty-four miles wide from east to west, and twenty-two miles long, on an average, from north to south, and contains about 540 sections of land. The townships as named are not all bounded by township fines, but in part by streams and. imaginary lines, making the townships thus ditt'erent in size and shape. Its general level is perhaps somewhat higher than that of Stephenson Coun'ty, although we have no information of the actual figures. The face of the country is high, dry, somewhat more sandy, rolling and undulating than Stephenson. A considerable portion of the surface is covered with timber of various qualities. In the northwestern part of the county, along Sugar river and its tributaries, and along portions of the north bank of the Pecatonica, there is much scattering timber and brush land, interspersed with occasional swampy tracts. A few miles lielow Rocklord, along the north bank of Rock river, and extending north and west from the same, there is a tract of barrens covered with brushwood and a rather light growth of white oak and black jack timber. In the southeastern portion of the county, along and near the Kishwaukee creeks, the face of the country is rough, hilly, barren, brushy, and. covered with an occasional growth of fair timber. The rest of the county is chiefly prairie, interspersed with many beautiful but small groves.

It is well watered with many fine streams. Rock river enters it about six miles from its northeast corner, at Beloit, runs nearly due south some eighteen miles to Rockford, then bears ofi" gradually to the west and enters Ogle County some fifteen miles south and west of this latter city. This noble and beautiful stream, and its broad, rich valley, fill the mind of the beholder with admiration. The waters of this stream are silvery and clear, beyond any other river in the State; its bottom, for the most part, rocky and sandy; its current, swift and strong; its flow and volume constant. Heavy water powers at Beloit, Rockton, and Rockford, aflbrd splendid manufacturing facilities; and all along the stream, every few miles, dams might be constructed which would cause thousands of busy wheels to toil in the service of man. At these three places scores of foundries, factories, machine shops, manufacturing establisliments, paper mills, grain mills, and other similar enterprises attest the capabilities and power of this magiiilicent river.

The next stream in size is the Pecatonica river. It enters the county on the west, some eight miles from its southwestern corner, and flows in a general east and north course, about twenty miles, to near the town of Rockton, where it mingles its turbid waters with the bright, flashing current of Rock river. If possible, its course is more tortuous and its waters more muddy in Wiimebago than in Stephenson county. Sugar river comes in from the northwest and enters the Pecatonica near the village of Shirland. Both these streams have bottoms of rich, deep alluvium from one to perhaps three miles wide. Neither of them aftbrd any water power. Both of them, we believe, are dammed in the water mill sense of the term, but such lazy rivers will never make whirling wheels hum the songs of busy labor. The two branches of the Kishwaukee unite near the southeastei-n corner of the county, and flow in a considerable stream, until their commingled waters fall into Rock river, in the township of New Milford. Killbuck creek, in the southeast, Kent creek coming in at Rockford, the Keunikinick creeks in the neighborhood of Roscoe, and another considerable stream, a tributary of Sugar river, in the northwest, known as Coon creek, are the most important of the smaller streams, and with their little feeding tributaries atford plenty of water for agricultural purposes, together with a number of light water powers.

Some of the Indian names of these streams have a very descriptive significance. Pecatonica, as before mentioned, means "crooked stream " or '-muddy waters," and so far as the steam is descriptive of the name, it ought to mean them both. Sinissippi, the Indian name of Rock river, signifies "rocky river." Kishwaukee means "clear waters" or "sycamore," a name reasonably descriptive of the stream. Winnebago means the "fish eaters."

Taking, therefore, all things into consideration, Winnebago County is hardly so good a county for agricultural purposes as its western neighbor, Stephenson. The soil is hardly so fat; the amount of poor land is proportionately greater. But taking into account its manufacturing interests and facilities, the unexampled fertility and Rhine-like beauty of its Rock river valley, and the enterprise and wealth of its grove-besprinkled city of Rockford, it would puzzle a jury to decide which is the more desirable county.

Geological Formations

The geology of Winnebago County is of the simplest character. First, there are the usual quaternary deposits, consisting of sand, clays, gravels, boulders, subsoils and alluvium. After these, the three well-known divisions of the Trenton limestone outcrop along the streams and hills, and show themselves in the railroad cuts, wells and quarries in different parts of the country. These are the Galena, Blue and Buff limestones of the Western Geologists. A perpendicular section, as near as we can construct it, exhibits tlie following strata:

The measurements of the limestones were made at actual worked outcrops. At no place was the St. Peter's sandstone discovered, although it is supposed that it comes well to the surface about Beloit and Rockton. No remains of the Cincinnati group were discovered, althouirh the thick'ness of the Galena indicated that patches of it might exist. The Trenton limestones were the only ones exposed or dug into in the county.

Sukface Geology

Alluvial Deposits. - The usual alluvial bottoms exist along the Rock, Pecatonica, and Sugar rivers. These are from one to live miles in width. On the two latter named streams, the deposit is deep, black, fat and rich, supporting in places a heavy growth of timber, and, where cultivated, affording the usual superior Indian corn land of flat river bottoms. The deposit along Rock river is not so rich, being composed of more sands and clays, with occasional patches and strips of the fatter soils.

Loess.'^ - Some of the bluffs along Rock river are in part composed of loess clays, in which no fluviatile shells were noticed. But this formation was found to be of very limited extent.

The Drift Proper. - The drift, a subject of grave discussion among scientists and geologists, is very largely developed in this county. It is composed of loose detrital matter, often of considerable thickness, brought from long distances and deposited over large areas of the county. The materials making up this loose mass were not derived, to any great extent, from the underlying Trenton rocks, but came from the metamorphic regions of the north. Whether brought by the currents and flow of the waters, or transported adhering to the sides of the slow moving, pale green mountains, the ice-bergs; or ground and pushed and moved along by creeping, allpowerful glaciers, will, perhaps, never be positively known. All of these causes may have contributed to these results, but the appearance of the gravel beds themselves indicates the long continued action of water. This is much more evident in Winnebago County, says the report, than in the Stephenson county gravel beds. The railroad track from Peloit to Caledonia, every few miles, cuts through the top of long, undulating swells of land. These swells are pure, unmodifled, unstratitied drift. They are made up of assorted and well rounded gravel of all sizes, from that of a pistol bullet to that of a goose Q^'^^ intermingled with a white or yellowish-white sand, and occasional small boulders, and are sometimes ten or fifteen feet in thickness. All the railroads exhibit the same beds along their tracks, though in a less prominent degree. Every township in the county has more or less of these gravel beds, and their underlying associate deposits of clay and sand. Along some of the prairies, and in the little streams, huge boulders, the size of a hay-cock are sometimes found, partially sunk into the soil by their great weight. Two of these particularly attracted the attention of the State geologists. One was as black as night, but bisected through the middle by a flame of flesh-colored granite three-fourths of an inch in thickness. They once saw one ]»recisely like it, and evidently from the same original locality, in Clark county, Missouri. The other was flamecolored and planed smooth on two sides, nearly at right angles, evidently by glacial action. These lost or transported rocks, the story of whose journey from the north is wrapped in deep mystei-y - clay and sand banks, with faint lines of stratification in some instances, assorted gravel beds, nuggets and boulders of copper, rounded to smoothness by erosion of the waters; all these left in their present positions by the waves of the retirini^ seas, slightly modified, in some cases, by subsequent agencies - make the study of the drift in this country attractive, and are full of lessons of thought to the contemplative mind.

The Tbenton Fokmation

The Galena Limestone. - Two-thirds of Winnebago County is underlaid by this rock. It is a heavy-bedded, yellowish, cream -colored dolomitic limestone, compact, irregular, somewhat crystaline towai-ds the middle and bottom strata, light-colored, porous, crumbling, and full of sand in little cavities towards the top. In some localities the bottom layers pass gradually into the blue, shaley parts of the Blue division, so that it is difficult to place the line of demarkation between the two. An imaginary line entering the county about the southeast corner of the township of Roscoe, drawn thence in a southeast course until E.ock river is reached; thence in a slight bend towards the northwest until within a short distance of the Pecatonica, at a point about f mr miles above its mouth; thence meandering along the Pecatonica from one to two miles south of the thread of that streamuntil the western boundary line of the county is reached; thence starting south and keeping around the boundary line to the place of beginning, and embracing about two-thirds of the county, would indicate the superficial extent of this division, to which might be added a narrow strip extending from the village of Pecatonica up towards and nearly to the northwest corner of the county. The most notable quarries and outcrops within these boi;ndaries are the following: The first heavy outcrop of the Galena limestone is on Rock river, about three miles above Rockford. A high bluff on the north bank of the river presents a bold escarpment some seventy -five feet in height. Here a large quarry has been opened. The stones are hard, compact, and sub-crystal ine, and burn into the very best quick-lime. Large quantities of this stone are transported down to Rockford and burned into lim.e at the New York lime-kiln. The next heavy outcrops are found at Rockford. Along the Prairie ridge, one mile east of Rockford, there is an exposure of about forty feet in thickness, where a light-colored, whitish, friable stone is quarried to a considerable extent. In a timbered ridge, about one mile north of the fair grounds, there is another deposit of about ninety-six feet in thickness, where the quarrymen have penetrated entirely through the Galena limestone, and entered the Blue limestone below it. The line of demarkation is strongly defined. Three miles below the city, in a bluff on the west side of the river, is a worked out crop thirty-five feet thick. Still farther down the river, and near the Ogle county line, is an exposure in the timber, about six feet in depth. Thus the valley of Rock river, for twothirds of its extent in Winnebago County, is hollowed out of the Galena limestone.

In all the cuts and excavations along the line of the Galena division of the North- Western railroad, which enters the county near the village of Pecatonica on the west, and leaves it on the east line, lead-bearing rocks are shown. At Cherry Valley a heavy quarry of these cream -colored limestones has been M^orked. The massive stone for the railroad bridge and piers at this place, was taken from this quarry. From a crevice in this quarry several nuggets of pure copjDer were taken, the larger of which were sold to tmners, or found their way into eastern museums. Two and a half miles below Cherry Yalley, on the Kishwaukee, is another quarry, at which a lime-ldhi has been operated. At Trink's quarry, a mile farther down, there is an exposure of fifteen or twenty feet, from which many cords of stone have been taken.

One of the heaviest outcrops is found a little east of the station of Harlem, on the line of the railroad leadino^ from Rock ford to Caledonia. The cut passes through a rocky hill, several hundred yards in length and about eighty feet in depth at the comb of the elevation. The strata here are massive and solid, and furnish splendid material for heavy masonry. The top of the hill is covered with a fine, limey, white clay. Gravel and boulders also abound in the neighborhood. About Winnebago, Argyle, and along south of Harrison, are a number of light quarries worked into the Galena. Without particularizing, says the report, all that part of the county bounded by our imaginary line circumscribing the Galena, is nnderlaid, at no great depth, by this famous lead-bearing rock. The only fossil found in abundance is the characteristic Receptaculites sulcata. Quarrymen and miners speak of it as the "honey-comb," "sunflower coral," or "lead fossil." Specimens are numerous, but generally break to pieces before finding their way into the cabinet, on account of the friable nature of the upper strata in which they are mostly found.

The Blue Limestone. - The Blue limestone, or Trenton proper of the older western geologists, next succeeds the Galena in the descending order. It is largely developed in the northern and northwestern part of the county. It is here a thin-bedded, bluish-gray limestone, calcareous, or with a lime base - but some of the shaley partings have a clayey base. In the bottom of the deeper quarries, a very blue stratum always exists. This is massive and conchoidal or glassy in fracture, and in the mining region is known as the "glass rock." A line drawn from a point in the western boundary line of the county, some two or three miles north of where the Pecatonica river enters it, along the north edge of the alluvial bottom of this stream to a locality about midway between Shirland and Rockton; thence east of north to the northern boundary line of the county; thence west round the county line to the place of beginning, would bound the superficial area underlaid by this deposit, except that the extreme western part occasionally shows beds of passage into the overlying Galena, and except that a considerable patch of the Blue rocks exist in the extreme northeastern part of the county.

The first and second railroad cuts east of Shirland, made by the Western Union railroad in excavating for their track, afibrd the best exposure examined for investigating the Blue limestones of the Trenton series. The first is about eight hundred feet long and thirty feet deep; the second is about four hundred and fifty feet long and fifteen feet deep. The rocks "are of a whitish-gray color, with conchoidal fracture, becoming darker colored as the lower strata of the quarries are reached. Further west, about Durant, the stone shows a nearer aj^proximation, in lithological characters, to the Galena. The elevations here are capped with the latter rock. The Sugar river hills are rock-ribbed with the division of the Trenton.

The fossils noticed in the railroad cuts near Shirland are numerous, but mostly small and fragmentary. Some of the thinner and more shaly strata are covered with shells, fragments of trilobites, stems of the encrinites, and pieces of corals, so thick as to resemble masses of fossils stuck together by some adhesive ]>aste.

J^~'os&ils. - The characteristic fossils of the bufi* limestone, observed at ;'Kockton,consist of fragments and indistinct traces of fucoids: lof the genus Ortlioceras, Cyrtoceras, and Lituites; Gasteropoda, of the genera Pleurotoniaria and M'U7'('hisonla\ Bracldopoda, of the genera Orthis and Strophomena,' Lamelllhranchiata, of the genera Tellinomya and Amhony- -chia^' and zoophytes, or corals in fragments.

T\\& Pleurotomaria siibronica^Oncoceras pandion,Tellinomya cuneata, . Ormoceras teiivijilum, Tellinomya ventrieosa, and species of Orthocera and Amhonychia, are the fossils occurring in the greatest abundance. The ;casts of some of these come out in great perfection.

[ Pleurotomaria. - -A species of the above, but with square outer surface to the whirls. f MuRcnisoNiA. - A long steeple shell named from Sir R. I. Murchison, an eminent {English geologist.

Brachiopoda. - Like an ordinary bivalve, in which the mouth of the animal faces the fcorner of the shell ; Orthis family, a thin D-shaped bivalve ; Strophomena. a variety of the iOi'this^ the difference being in the hinge.

Economical Geology

i: Building Stone. - Stone adapted to building purposes is plentiful. ffhe quarries at Harlem and Cherry Yalley furnish excellent materials for solid and massive masonry. Many of the private residences in Rockford. as well as the public school building, are built from stone taken from the Hockford quarry. These buildings present a rich cream colored appearance SxA beauty that cannot be easily excelled. The general appearance is (Superior to walls built up with the famous Milwaukee brick. I The Butf and Blue limestone also furnish stone of good quahty for all ttrdinary mason work. LiiJie. - The Buif limestone of Rockton does not burn a good quickime, but, if properly managed, would no doubt return a good lime for |iydraulic uses. Some of the Blue limestone makes a fair quicklime, but the Galena excels all others in the quality of this nseful material. It can be obtained in inexhaustible quantities from convenient quarries.

Sands and Clays. - Sands tor all economical purposes are found almost anywhere alon<^ the river banks or from thickly strewn drift deposits. Clay for good common red brick is abundant in almost any of the underlying subsoils.

Mineral Wealth. - Of this the county possesses very little. Although covered to so large an extent by the real lead-bearing rocks, no bodies of mineral have ever been found in the county. Some traces of lead have been found in many of the worked exposures, and bits of float mineral are sometimes picked up in the gravel beds, but these are simply matters of curiosity, and do not denote any workable deposits of lead ore.

Bog iron ore exists about many of the springs, but is worthless for economical purposes. Copper in its pure state has often been met with, No deposits of the metal exist. It is all float material, found in connection with the drifts. The largest boulder or nugget ever found was by a railroad laborer in the southeast part of the county. Its weight was fourteen pounds. Another nugget of several pounds' weight was found in digging a well some thirty feet below the surface. While these are matters of interesting speculation, they do not add much to the economical uses of the county.

Peat. - The land is too well drained to afibrd favorat)le conditions for the growth of this useful material. No beds of value have ever been found.

Indian Antiquities

The Indian race is fast fading away before the resistless march of the Anglo-Saxon race, and at his present rapid rate of decrease the Indian will soon be a historic name. But he has left memorials which will last when the proudest builded monuments of his all-conquering foes have crumbled into oblivion. The geography and significance of our Indian names is a wonderful subject. Flint arrow points and spear heads are frequently picked up, while stone axes and smooth, oblong instruments, sharp at one end, and used for skinning animals, are of not unfrequent finding.

The mound builders, whoever they were, once swarmed in the valleys and woodlands, sat down upon every picturesque spot along the streams, and left their mound-builded structures as memorial monuments of their busy lives. These things do not belong to the geology of the county, and are only introduced here because they are subjects of interest to thoughtful men.

Three classes of these mounds have been noticed in this county - the common round mound, from ten to fifteen feet in diameter, and from two and a half to five feet high. There is a large group of them on the banks of Kock Itiver, six or seven miles below Rockford. At many other places along the river they exist in scattered groups. On the north bank of the river, within the city limits of Rockford, several large ones are preserved in private grounds. But by far the largest number of them are found on the banks of the Kishwaukee, in the southeastern part of the county, near the confluence of the two streams of that name. Scores of them are scattered about there, and scores more have been nearly obliterated by the sacriligious hand of the plowman. The older inhabitants recall many

The oblong shaped mound is of much rarer occurrence. At the locality in Rockford, already alluded to, there is a very remarkable one. It is one hundred and thirty feet long, about twelve feet wide at the base, and three or four feet high. Near by this one is a mound of the third class, or those having a fanciful resemblance to some form of animal life. In Rockford it is called the "Turtle Mound," but it resembles more an alligator with its head cut oft' than it does a turtle. Its dimensions are: Whole length, one hundred and fifty feet; width, opposite fore legs, fifty feet; width, opposite hind legs, thirty-nine feet; length of tail, from point opposite hind legs to end of tail, one hundred and ten feet; length from a point opposite hind to a point opposite fore legs, thirty-three feet; distance from opposite fore legs to where neck should begin, fifteen feet. The figure lies up and down the river, on a line almost north and south, the tail extending northward. The body rises into a mound as high as a standing man. The feet and tail gradually extend into the greensward, growing less distinct and indefinable, until they cannot be distinguished from the surrounding sod. The ef^^y, w^hether of alligator, lizard, or turtle, seems to be headless, and no depression in the surrounding soil would indicate that the materials oiit of w^hich it is constructed were obtained in its immediate vicinity. It is a curious structure, and one would like to know its true history as he looks upon its partially defaced form. What were its uses, and who builded its uncouth animal proportions, may be better answered by the researches of the antirpiarian than by the geologist or historian.

In prosecuting a search in one of these mounds for relics, August 12, 1874, Hiram li. Enoch, Esq., Editor of the Rockford Journal^ uncovered a gypsum tablet bearing the inscriptions represented on the subjoined engraving.

The tablet was about three-eighths of an inch in thickness. The mound from which it was taken was located six miles below Rockford, and was about seven feet in height. The tablet was found at the bottom of the mound, on a level with the surrounding claim.

The figures as represented on this cut ^ are reversed from those on the "tablet." tl They should change sides, yet face towards the central fisrure as now.

General Histoey

We left Germanicus Kent and Thatcher Blake, the first permanent settlers of Winnebago Conntj and the real founders of Kockford, together with the few men who accompanied them, going into camp on Kent's Creek, on their return from Galena with teams, supplies, etc., preparatory to beginning improvements on the claims they had selected in August. From this point we take up the text of the Past and Present of Winnebago County, and will seek to make it as detailed and accurate as accessible data will permit. That some errors will occur in the dates and the names of prominent characters in the county's history, cannot be denied, but studious care will be taken to avoid as many such inaccuracies as possible.

The first work undertaken by these pioneers was the erection of a cabin 12x14 feet, which was soon completed. The site selected for that house was on the c-outh side of what are now the grounds of Mr. Robert H. Tinker, on the north side of Kent's Creek, and only a few rods from what is now Main street. Their rude cabin completed, preparations were undertaken for the erection of the saw mill. The timber for this inill was taken from the finest on the east side of the river on the grounds now occupied by the Rockford Female Seminary. In November, after the timber for the mill had been hewn out and hauled to the ground where it was to be erected, Mr. Kent returned to Galena, where he remained during the winter, making only one trip to the site of his new home towards spring to bring down supplies. While the other men were hard at work on the mill, Mr. Blake erected a cabin in the grove on the claim he had selected, in which himself, Jefferson Garner, Squier Garner and Joseph Garner, the mill men, spent the winter of 1834-5.

The next settler came in the early part of April, 1835. The first intimation the founders of RockforJ had of his coming was the sight of his covered wagon on the east side of the river. The ice had not all gone out of the river, but had become somewhat weakened by the mildness of the weather. Messrs. Kent and Blake (Kent had just broudit down the supplies spoken of above) crossed the river, and met Daniel Shaw Haight. Accompanying Haight were two or three other men who were on an exploring expedition. Haight selected a claim on the east side of the river, and in a short time returned to Geneva for his wife and family. In May he came back, bringing in addition to his wife and one child, his wife's sister, a Miss Carey, and a hired man - Mrs. Haight and her sister being the first white women to visit and become settlers at Rockford. For a time, and until a cabin could be built, and this was delayed until Haight made a second trip to Geneva to bring up the balance of their household goods, the family ii\ed under the wide spreading boughs of a burr oak tree. Haight was a native of Balton, Warren county, New York, from whence, a year or two previous to his appearance on Rock River, he had moved to and selected a claim in Kane county, near Geneva. He sold that claim to a Mr. Harrington, father of Mr. Gus. Harrington, who, in after years, became a noted Democratic politician. Haight's cabin was the first one built on the east side of the river, and was a double cabin, that is, a cabin of two rooms about the same size. It afterwards became a place ot note, serving in ,turn as hotel, meeting house, post ofiice, circuit court room, etc. These first cabins were very primitive affairs, but the manner of their con- struction has been so often described as to render an additional description superfluous. Suflice it to say, that Haight's cabin was made and finished without nails. Door hinges were made of wood; the floors of puncheons, logs split in thicknesses of three or four inches, one side dressed down'^vith a broad-ax, and the ends of the other side, where they wei-e to reston. tlie sleepers, dressed down to a level in like manner. There were no attempts at building frame houses until 1836, when Bundy and Goodhue built a frame store house, on what is now lot one on block eight. The floors were made from sawed lumber, the siding from split stult, and the studding from small saplings hewed on either side. Thomas Lake and Sidney Twogood were the carpenters.

Kent's mill enterprise met with its set-backs. Soon after they came in the fall of 1834, they commenced to build the dam, but in January following, when the ice was sixteen indies in thickness, a thaw came, the creek began to rise, and, breaking over its icy barrier, the water rushed down in one huge torrent and carried the dam away, together with huge pieces of shelving rock that cropped out along the banks of the creek. Early in the spring, workmen commenced digging the race, but the re-building of the dam was not undertaken until in June, nor was the mill completed until July. In the fall of 1834, Kent had commenced to build a good log house, which was completed in the spring following, and into which his family moved immediately on their arrival from Galena. Kent's claim embraced a section of land including Mr. Tinder's estate, extending south as far as Montague's addition ; on the west, it included the property of S. M. Cliurch, and extended north to State street, the eastern line following the bank of Rock river. The vast manufacturing establishments that follc>wed the building of the Eock river dam, are located on a part of the Kent claim, the ownership of which land, if now vested in one man, would be an immense fortune. Blake's claim included the northwest quaj-ter of section twenty, and the southwest quarter of section twenty-nine. The third claim was made by Mr. Kent for an Englishman, named John Wood, a former superintendent of the Bell Factory cotton and woolen mills, about nine miles from Huntsville, Alabama, owned and operated by Messrs. Patton, Donaghon & Co., of which firm Mr. Kent had been a member. This claim was made in the fall of 1834, but Mr. Wood did not come to occupy it until the spring of 1835. These claims were all located on the west side of the river. James Boswell made the second claim on the east side of the river soon after Haight's arrival.

In June, 1835, the Rockford settlement numbered only eleven persons. The first religious services held at Rockford were at the house of Germanicus Kent, on the second Sunday of June, 1835, and were conducted by his brother. Rev. Aratus Kent, of Galena. On that occasion every soul in Rockford attended divine service. The audience was composed of Mrs. Haight and Miss Carey, her sister, Mrs. Kent and Germanicus Kent, Thatcher Blake, Albert Sanford, Daniel S. Haight and his hired man, and Kent's mill-wright, a Mr. Yan Zandt.

The first claim tvas made here in 1834. During that winter and up to the second Sunday in June following, the population numbered only eleven persons, whose names we have just repeated. In the latter part of that year an increase of the following names had been added: Ephraim Wyman, Wm. E. Dunbar, John Yance, Eliphalet Gregory, P. P. Churchill, Mr. - Smith, Lewis Haskins, Joseph Jolly, John Caton, Chas, Hall, Milton Kil- burn, Luke Joslin, Israel Morrell, D. A. Spaulding, Lova Coy and Adam Keith. There may have been some others, says the authority from which we quote, that have been overlooked. These names increased the Rockford population to twenty-seven adults, in the fall of 1835. But these were not all that had come in and claimed an abiding place in what is now Winnebago County. Settlements had been commenced in different parts of the county, and according to a speech delivered before the early settlers in Rockford, in June, 1860, by Selden M. Church, there were the following settlers in what are now the different townships, in the summer of 1835:

New Milford. - Samuel Brown, Wm. R. Wheeler, Richard Hogaboom, Phineas M. Johnson, John Adams, James Campbell, John B. Long, and a Mr. Paddleford.

Howard (now Durand). - Harvey Lowe and Nelson Salisbury. These parties made claims in 1835, but did not occupv them till the spring of 1836.

In the fall of 1835 a rapid increase of immigration set in, which was kept up from that time forward. In 1836-7, the increase was very large. As each new comer was pleased or displeased with the country, so were their friends in the old home influenced. But few were dissatisfied, however, and their glowing letters descriptive of the beauty of the landscape, fertility of the soil, etc., were only incentives to increased immigration.

In the summer and fall of 1835, the necessity for some kind of local government began to be agitated, and steps were taken to organize the county. In January, 1836, an act was passed by the Legislature for the organization of Winnebago, Kane and Ogle counties. That act defined the county lines of Winnebago as follows: " Commencing at the southeast corner of township number forty-three, range number four, east of the third principal meridian; thence west to said meridian; thence north, along a line of said meridian, to the southeast corner of township number twenty-six, in range number eleven, east of the fourth principal meridian; thence west to the dividing line between ranges numbers seven and eight; thence north along said dividing line, to the northern boundary of the State; thence east along said boundary line, to the northeast corner of range four, east of the third principal meridian; thence south to the place of beginning."

As thus defined, "Winnebago included all of the present county of Boone, and the two tier of townships on the western part of Stephenson County. Boone was set off and erected into a separate county in the winter of 1836-7, the first election being held on the first Monday of Maf, 1837. Stephenson was created a year or two later.

The same act designated Robert Stephens and Rezin Zorley, of Cook county, and John Phelps, of Jo. Daviess County, as commissioners to " establish the permanent seat of justice of Winnebago County," and appointed the first Monday in May of the same year as the time, and the house of Daniel S. Haight as the place, where they should meet preparatoi-y to a discharge of their duties as such commissioners.

Section 8, of the same act, provided that, until public buildings should bo erected, the courts should be held at the house of Germanicus Kent or Daniel S. Ilaight, as the county commissioners should direct.

The law under which the county was organized required that there should be three hundred and fifty legal voters before the county could hold an election. Dr. Daniel H. Whitney undertook the task of census-taker, and succeeded in obtaining the requisite nnmber of names, which evidence was submitted to Hon. Thomas H. Ford, then Circuit Judge, who gave the necessary order for the election. At that time, and from the adoption of the constitution under which Illinois Territory had been admitted into the union as a sovereign and independent state, the county and state elections were held on the first Monday in August annually. Since then the time has been changed to November. At the same time Judge Ford ordered the election, he appointed Germanicus Kent, of Rockford, Joseph P. Griggs, of Cherry Valley (then Butler precinct), and Robert J. Cross, of Roscoe, as judges or inspectors of the election.

Notwithstanding the first Monday in May, 1836, had been appointed bv Leo-islative enactment for the meeting; of the commissioners to locate the county seat, they delayed meeting for the discharge of the trust re230sed in them until the f )urteenth of July following.

In August, 1835, Nicholas Boilvin, of Chicago, aided by a Major Campbell, (said to have been a resident of Ottawa) purchased of Catherine Mayott, a woman of Indian extraction, her right to an unlocated section of land, for the sum of eight hundred dollars. This land, as was shown by subsequent events, belonged jointly to Nicholas Boilvin, a free trader, of Chicago, Charles Reed, of Joliet, and Major Campbell. The instrument of writing conveying this right of ownership from Catherine Mayott to the parties above named was the first deed entered on record in Winnebago County, and, as the land it conveyed entered largely into the early history of the county, we copy it entire :

Know all men by these presents, that I, Catharine Mayott, of the town of Chicago, and State of Illinois, for and in consideration of the sum of eight hundred dollars, to me in hand , well and truly paid by my relative and friend, Nicholas Boilvin, of said Chicago, the receipt whereof I hereb}- acknowledge, have granted, bargained, sold and conveyed, and by these presents do grant, bargain, sell and convey unto the said Nicholas Boilvin, his heirs, executors and assigns, the unlocated section of land which was granted to me by the tiftli article of the treaty between the United States and the Winnebago Nation of Indians, made and concluded at Prairie du Chien, on the first day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eisjlit hundred and twenty-nine, (the other section granted to me having been sold 10 Henry Gratiot), toizelher with all the right, title, interest, claim and control which I, the said Catharine Mayott, have, or may, or can have, by virtue of the treaty aforesaid. To have and to hold to him, the said Nichohis Boilvin, his heirs, executors and assigns, to liis and tiieir sole use and behoof forever. And furthermore, I, the said Catharine, for myself, my heirs, executors and assigns, liereby covenant, promise and agree to and with the said Nicholas Boilvin, his heirs, executors and assigns, that all acts and doings in the premises which have hitherto been done, or may yet be perl'ormed under ihe direction or authority of the said Boilvin or his lawful agent," I will ratify and confirm; aud I herel)y bind myselt, my heirs and executors, to the fultiUmenl of the contract between the said Boilvin and myself, hereby granting and selhng unto tlie said Nicholas Boilvin all my right, title and interest in and to the premises aforesaid, in as full, perfect and absolute a manner as it is possible to be done, performed or executed. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my iiaud and seal, at Chicago aforesaid, tiiis twenty-fifth day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five.

State op Illinois, Cook Co. This day came before me, Catharine Mayott, to me personally known as the real person who executed the foregoing deed of conveyance; and then before me, after the sanie was read, aud the contents thereof being fully explained to her, acknowledged that she hail executed the same freely and voluntarily for the uses aud purposes therein contained, and acknowledged herself satisfied with the consideration therein named and received thereof. Given under my hand and seal this 25th day of August, A. D. 1835.

Recorder's Office, Cook Coltvtty, Illinois. I, Richard J. Hamilton, Recorder of Cook County and State aforesaid, do hereby certify that the within and foregoing deed of conveyance from Catharine Mayott to Nicholas Boilvin is a true copy of the original as recorded in my ofiice, on the third day of September, 1835, in Book I, page 428. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal of office, this 29th day'of August, 1836.

Ten years after the date of the certificate of the Recorder of Cook County, the copy ot the deed certified to by him was entered for record in Winnebago County, as the following endorsement certifies:

With the warranty conveyed in this deed, Nicholas Boilvin claimed section fourteen, township number forty-four north, range one east of the third principal meridian, about two miles above the city of Rockford. Soon after Boilvin made this selection, Mr. Charles Reed appeared as principal manager, and a town was mapped out and named Winnebago. Reed's purpose was to make this place the county seat, and so far as the action of the gentlemen appointed by the Legislature to establish the "permanent seat of justice for Winnebago County" was concerned - at least two of them, Robert Stephens and Rezin Zorley (the third one, John Phelps, never appearing) - he was successful. The time fixed by law for the discharge of that duty, was the first Monday in May, 1836, or as soon thereafter as practicable; but the two commissioners named above (Stephens and Zorley) did not appear at the place appointed for them to meet, until the fourteenth day of July following. After being first duly sworn by James McKee, a justice of the peace for Will County, they proceeded to discharge their trust. On the sixteenth day of the same month, they reported that, governed in the matter bj the best judgment they were able to form respecting the same, they had determined on, fixed and selected, the following place or location ibi* the permanent seat of justice lor Winnebago County, to-wit: In section fourteen, township number forty-four north, range one, east of the third principal meridian, at a point fourteen chains south of the quarter-section corner, on the line dividing sections thirteen and fourteen, and four chains west of said line, upon which point the stake was struck, on the sixteenth day of July, A. D. 1836, on lands owned by Nicholas Boilvin & Co., on the express condition that said Boilvin &, Co. are to make a good warranty deed to said County of Winnebago, of thirty acres, for the purpose of erecting public buildings for said County, so long as it shall remain the permanent seat of justice for said County," etc.

This selection of a site for the "permanent seat of justice for Winnebago County," was not satisfactory to the people - at least to that portion of them included among the friends of Kockford, and they were more numerous than the friends of Winnebago, and it was intimated among a good many of the settlers, that Reed had seen the commissioners before they came to discharge their duty. However true this intimation may have been, his seeing them and the honor of having secured their report favorable to Winnebago, proved of little real value to him and his associates, Messrs. Campbell and Boilvin, for the county business was never transacted there. To quote the language of the surviving settlers of 1836, "they were *bull-dozed' out of it."

The law providing for the organization of Winnebago County further declared "that the said county seat should be located on lands belonging to the United States, if a site for said county seat on such lands can be found eligible, or upon lands claimed by citizens of said county; but if such location should be made upon land claimed by any individual having title or pre-emption right to the same, the claimant or proprietor upon whose claim or right of pre-emption the said seat of justice might be located, should make a deed in fee simple to any number of acres of said tract, not less than twenty, to the said county; or in lieu thereof, such claimant or owner or owners of such pre-emption right should donate to the said county at least three thousand dollars, to be applied to building county buildings within one year after the location of said county seat; and that the proceeds of such quarter section, if the county seat should be located on government lands, or the proceeds of such twenty acres of land, if it were located on pre-emption right of individuals, or the said three thousand dollars, in case such pre-emption right or owner or owners shall elect to pay that sum in lieu of the said twenty acres, shall be appropriated to the erection of a sufficient court house and jail."

Reed, for himself and associates, carried out in good faith, so far as making and tendering a deed for the land (as specified in the bill under which the county was organized) was concerned, to the county commissioners at their first meeting in August; but it was rejected in consequence of the following objectionable clause: "To have and to hold (the said thirty acres of land), with all the privileges and appurtenances thereunto belonging, as long as the same shall remain as the permanent seat of justice lor said county."

From the time the locating commissioners struck the stake desio-nating the ground whereon the county seat should be located, Mr. Reed spared no eftbrt to herald the advantages of Winnebago, and to improve the place by tlie erection of bnndino;s, etc. He at once built a two-story lionse, which he used as a hotel and store. S. S. Richardson and Kingslej located there and joined Reed in making- improvements. John Yance started a provision store, and a son of Vulcan opened a blacksmith shop. With these buildings, seven dwelling houses, a free ferry, a lime kiln, etc., the opening of a road through the timber east from Winnebago, to meet the state road from Chicago to Galena, at Beaver creek, and sundry other local undertakings, Winnebago really began to wear the appearance of thrift. No man knew better than Reed that all these things were necessary to bolster up and sustain the report of the commissioners. But other agencies were at M'ork, which, in the end overcame all his aspirations and rendered useless his expenditures of time and money to make Winnebago the "permanent seat of justice for Winnebago County." This was the beginning of county seat troubles, which continued until settled by the people on tlie iii st Monday in May, 1839, of which farther mention will hereafter be made.

Although dissatisfied with the location of the county seat, there was nothing left to the settlers, at least for the time, but submission; and the first election having been set for the first Monday in August, and tlie time being only a few days distant, the settlers turned their attention to the selection of candidates to be voted for. Political considerations, from a partizan standpoint, did not enter into the manipulations of that election, and instead of calling a convention, as is done in these latter days, the honors were divided between the voting settlers of the different sections of the county, which at that time, and until May, 1837, included Boone county. Besides a member of Congress and two members of the State Legislature to be voted for, the following county officers were to be chosen: Three County Commissioners, Recorder, Sheriff, County Surveyor and Coroner. The duty of the commissioners of those days of the Past were the same as devolve upon the supervisors, in these days of the Present. Upon them devolved the duty of putting the count}' machinery in motion, and the future of the county depended, in a great measure, upon their character and business capacity, upon the same principle that

To Squaw Prairie (now Belvidere), were assigned two of the candidates - commissioner and recorder; to Rockford, one commissioner and the candidate for sheriff, and to the north part of the county, the other candidate for commissioner. In adjusting the distribution of the Rockford candidates a dissension arose between the east and west parts of the town. Daniel S. Haight, of the east side, had been named as the candidate for sheriff", and his interests all being on that side of the river, and looking forward to a final and permanent adjustment of the county seat question, he was naturally desirous that the candidate for commissioner sliould also be chosen from among the settlers of his bailiwick. Kent and his west side friends were equally determijied in their adherence to the terms of the treaty entered into for a fair and equal distribution of the offices to the different sections of the county, and upon the eve of the election advised Mr. Haight that unless he also adhered to the agreement that the west side would select both the candidates for sheriff" and commissioner and vote for and elect them. This argument convinced Haight of his error, and

Elections in those days were not conducted as they now are. Written or printed ballots were not then in use in Illinois, and hence citizens voted viva voce. And without previous organization and without statutes to guide them in their duties, it may be readily imagined that the first election in Winnebago County was conducted without much form. Mr. H. R. Enoch, editor of the Rocklbrd Journal^ in speaking of this election through his paper, said:

"JSTeither one of the judges knew anything of the election laws of Illinois, and not a statute was to be obtained in the county. Of the judges, Mr. Kent knew something of the laws of Virginia and Alabama; Mr, Robert J. Cross was familiar with those of Xew York and Michigan, and Mr. Griggs with those of Ohio. D. A. Spaulding had some knowledge of the laws of Illinois, so he was selected as one of the clerks, and intrusted with the duty of making the poll books, and upon him devolved the honor of principally conducting the first election in the county."