Dundee Township Historic District

The village of Carpentersville is in the township of Dundee and situated sue mile north of the village of Dundee, on Fox river. It was first settled by Daniel G. and Charles V. Carpenter in 1837. The village was surveyed and plaited in 185 1. The same year J. A. Carpenter built the first bridge across the river at his own expense. A school building was erected about 1855, two stories in height. The upper story is occupied by the Sons of Temperance, whose organization dates back to 185 1 and, what is remarkable, has been in active operation ever since. They have about forty members and a fine library of four hundred or five hundred volumes. There is one religious organization (Congregational) but no church building. A flourishing Sabbath school is kept up, however. An elegant iron bridge was built in 1869-70 at a cost of $10,000. The village has grown up entirely in consequence of the location of heavy manufactories here. The water power is good and well improved. It is almost exclusively owned by Hon. J. A. Carpenter, one of the most extensive and enterprising manufacturers in the West.

Passage source: History of Kane County, Ill., published 1908.

The Carpentersville Literary and Library Association - This association was organized in March, 1871. the late Hon. Julius Angelo Carpenter, of Carpentersville, being the prime mover, he, at that time, being a member of the state legislature. The charter members were George Marshall, William W. Norton, W. G. Sawyer, H. G. Sawyer, \\'illiam H. Webb, Delos Dunton, Oscar Diezman, George Robinson, George Plumleigh. John Donovan. Luther D. Wright and Swain Dahlbom. The reason for the non-appearance of ]Mr. Carpenter's name among the charter members is that he was at Springfield when the papers were made out. The three school districts, comprising the villages of East Dundee, West Dundee and Carpentersville. united and became one district about the year 1870 and a union school building was erected on the blufif in West Dundee about two years later. The district, as it was thought, having no further use for the old building at Carpentersville, which building, by the way, was owned and occupied jointly by the school district and a temperance organization known as "Hand in Hand Division Sons of Temperance No. 292," the interest of the school district was sold at auction to George Willard. of Dundee, and by him transferred to the L. & L. Association, a subscription paper for the purpose having been successfully circulated, the association thereby becoming the owner of the lower room of said building. It very soon became apparent that the building was too small to accommodate the needs of the growing village. Expansion having been decided upon, the building was sawed asunder in the middle, one end moved several feet away and the gap enclosed as a part of the building, thus doubling its size.

Passage source: History of Kane County, Ill., published 1908.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Dundee Township - 4,451 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.