Lee Center Township

Lee Center Township

Was laid out in 1846; is situated in the northwestern corner qf the township ; present population 240 ; is the polling-place of the township.

The first object liable to attract the attention of the visitor is the old seminary. This building was erected in 1847, at a cost of $2,000. This school was for some years the principal educational point in this part of the state, and attracted to Lee Center many students from adjoining counties who wished to avail themselves of the excellent educational advantages the school then afforded. The branches taught were the same as are taught in our preparatory academies of the present day. A. J. Streetor, who has since that time attained a considerable prominence as a politician, and who was the greenback candidate for governor in the campaign of 1880, was at one time a student in this seminary. The school first opened in 1847. The first principal was

Hiram McChesney, a graduate of Rensselaer Institute, of Troy, New York. The average attendance at that time is estimated at 150 pupils, a large percentage of whom were from al>road. Mr. McChesney served one year and was then succeeded by H. E. Leonard, of Napierville, Illinois. Mr. Leonard after having taught two j'ears was succeeded by the Rev. James Brewer, a native of Massachusetts and a graduate of the Jamestown college in that state. Mr. Brewer presided over the school for one year. Mr. Simeon Wright, formerly of Battle Creek, Michigan, comes next on the list of instructors. Mr. Wright took an active interest in the welfare of the school, and during the three years that he was principal the seminary passed through an era of prosperity never exceeded before or since. The attendance was very large and the school was in a flourishing condition. Mr. Wright was succeeded by Prof. Nash, a native of Massachusetts, who conducted the school until 1859, in which year he died. In the meantime other institutions of a similar character had sprung up in different points that were accessible by railroads: at Amboy a high-school building was erected in 1857; academies had also been established in Dixon and Paw Paw ; so that in 1859, the attendance being very small, an act was passed authorizing its incorporation as a graded district school.

The Methodist Ejnscopal congregation was first organized in 1837, at the residence of Corrj-don R. Dewey, at Inlet Grove. Their first church building was erected in 1842, in which services were held nntil 1858, when a larger and more commodious one was erected, which building they still occupy. The congregation now numbers thirty-four members. Trustees are John Lane, B. F. Lane and S. Trowbridge. The present stewards are S. Trowbridge, John Lane, J. li. B. Thornton, S. Thayer and Mrs. M. A. Fox. Present pastor, J. G. B. Shadford.

The Congregational Church. - This society was organized in 1843 at the residence of Moses Crombie, near Binghamton, in Amboy township ; the congregation then consisted of eleven members. First pastor was Rev. Joseph Gardner. The building now occupied by them was erected in 1856, at a cost of $1,500. The congregation now numbers fifty members, and is in a flourishing condition. Present pastor is the Rev. F. C. Cochran.

The Episcopal Church. - Congregation organized in 1855, and the church building erected in 1857, costing $2,500. The windows of the church were presented to the congregation by Bishop Whitehouse. The present rector is Rev. N. W. Herrmans, who has presided since 1879.

The only secret organization now in existence in Lee Center is the Masonic Lodge, No. 146. This lodge was organized on July 28, 1854 ; charter granted on October 2 of the same year. The first officers were A. P. Stinson, worshipful master; John Gilmore, senior warden ; Daniel Frost, junior warden ; Simeon Wright, secretary ; Lot Chadwick, treasurer. This was the second Masonic lodge oi-ganized in the county; and from the time of its organization to the present date 142 members have reached the degree of master mason. James A. Hawley, who was for two years grand master of the Grand Lodge, was here initiated into the mysteries of Masonr3\ The present membership of the organization is thirtj^-one members. Present officers are Wm. S. Frost, worshipful master; Wallace Hicks, senior warden; W. W. Depew, junior warden ; B. F. Lane, secretary ; Willard Salsbury, treasurer.

Shaw station, situated on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad, near the center of the township, promises to be one of the prominent trading points of this part of the county. Mr. F. D. Clapp, an enterprising young merchant, is here engaged in the dry-goods and grocery business and also owns a half interest in a large and commodious elevator on the north, side of the railroad track. Surrounded by an excellent farming country, this station promises to become one of the thriving villages of Lee county. Prominent aniong the celebrities of which this village can boast is Mrs. Eva Katharine Mink, a young authoress of growing popularity, who has recently embarked upon the sea of literature, and whose productions have created quite a sensation in the literary world.

Among the many daring robberies perpetrated b}' the banditti in different parts of the country is the case of Mr, Haskell at Inlet Grove. On a stormy night in June, 1844, Mr. Haskell's residence was entered by masked men, one of whom afterward proved to have been the notorious Fox. Creeping silently into the bed-room occupied by Mr. Haskell and wife they succeeded in dragging a trunk containing money from under the bed. The noise caused by sliding of the trunk on the floor was drowned by the rumbling thunder, and so cunningly was the deed planned and executed that the sleepers were none the wiser until the next morning.

On tlie evening of June 3, 1860, a terrible tornado passed through the northern portion of the township, spreading death and desolation in its path. Isaac Gage, now a resident of Lee Center village, lost two sons in this terrible storm. Tiie loss of life and property was not so

War Record

In the spring of 1861, w4ien the news came over the wires that Fort Sumter had fallen and the banner of the stars iiad been trampled under rebel feet, the citizens of Lee Center were among the first to send up the shout " down with the rebellion," her hills and forests echoed to the stirring strains of the " red, white and blue" and "star spangled bauner;" and when the long roll sounded scores of her patriotic sons stepped to the front and helped to swell the vast throng of troops hurrj'ing forward in response to their country's call ; many of them took their places by the side of the flag-staff and followed it to the sea. In the great battles of Stone river, Pittsbui-g landing, Lookout mountain, and Chickamauga, her sons bore a noble part, and many of them fell, mangled and bleeding, under the shadow of the banner they had so bravely defended. Lee Center township furnished troops for the 13th, 75th and 34th 111. Inf., and for the 7th 111. Cav.

Biographical

Charles F. Ingalls, farmer, Sublette, Lee county, Illinois, born in Windham county, Connecticut, in 1817. At the age of twelve went to Windsor county, Vermont, attending school for some time and afterward teaching. In the summer of 1884 came to Morgan county, Illinois, where he also taught school two years. In 1836 he in company with his brother George A. Ingalls removed to Lee county and entered claims in the southern part of Lee Center township. Mr. Ingalls was married September 6, 1838, to Miss Sarah Hawkins. At that time an Indian village stood on a part of his farm, the inhabitants of this village were Pottawatomies. Mr. Ingalls frequently found buffalo horns and carcasses in the vicinity of his farm, which, from their fresh appearance, convinced him that among the former inhabitants of the country the king of the prairie had been a conspicuous member. Mr. Ingalls is father of five children : Charles H., Ephriam F., Sarah D., Ara M. and Mary S. With the exception of the latter named daughter they are all grown and married. He has been a member of the Baptist church since 1841. In 1850 he had an attack of the gold fever and consequentlj^ took a berth in a wagon-train bound for California, and was there four years, during which time he was engaged in mining and stock raising. He returned in 1854 by way of New York city. Mr. Ingalls was left an orphan at an early age, and was cast adrift to fight life's battles single-handed and alone. By industry and enterprise he has acquired a respectable portion of the world's goods. He has a beaiitifnl residence, .surrounded by all the luxuries necessary to make a bright and happy home. His parlorwalls are adorned by beautiful oil paintings, the handiwork of his accomplished daughters. And here in this sequestered spot, surrounded by the fruits of his toil, under the shadow of the tall oaks who have been his silent companions in his adversities and triumphs, he will spend his remaining years. Mr. Ingalls furnishes an instance of how, in this great broad land of ours, an orphan boy with nothing to rely upon but a strong will and an energetic brain may, by industry, economy and honesty acquire both wealth and honor.

Lewis B. Rex, teacher, Lee Center, born in Summit county, Ohio, in 1831, received his early education in that county, and attended one term at the Mount Vernon Seminary, after which he was three years a student in the Otterbise University, at Westerville, Ohio. He afterward taught school in different parts of the state until 1859. In that year he came west to Mendota, Illinois, and taught one year in that place ; afterward taught one term in Sublette. Devoted his time entirely to teaching until 1862, when he enlisted in the 75th 111. Inf., and served three years in the army. Was married in 1866, to Miss Electa Jane Minnerly, a native of Ohio, and is father of two children.

Edwin Morey, farmer, Shaw Station, born in Cortland county, New York, in 1820, came with his father in 1836, to Calhoun county, Michigan, where he resided nine years. In 1845 he removed to Cook county, Illinois. Worked three years on a canal in that county. At the end of that time he came to Lee county, and located in Lee Center township. Mr. Morey brought the second grain separator ever used in the county. Was married in April 1849, to Miss Harriet Mayo, a native of !N"ew York state. Is a member of the Masonic Lodge, No. 146, at Lee Center.

John Deek, farmer, West Brooklyn, born in Columbia county, Pennsylvania, in 1820. In 1863 removed to Lee county, where by industry and careful calculation he has become possessor of a large tract of excellent land. Mr. Derr is a member of the Reformed church, with which he united in 1840. Was married in 1849, to Miss Rebecca Gersinger; is father of ten children, nine of whom are living.

Moses Ckombie, grain dealer, Lee Center, was born in Chesliire county. New Hampshire, in 1804. He was married in 1828, to Miss Louisa Morse, a native of the same state. In the same year he removed to Rochester, New York, where he resided nine years. In 1837 he removed to Lee county, residing near Rock river, opposite Grand Detour, where he resided three years. During that time he was engaged in millwrighting and other work of a like nature. He done the wood-work on the first plows made in Lee county. He re- moved to the village of Lee Center in 1840. In 1841 he took the contract for building the seminary at that place. Was on the grand jury in the first court held in Lee county. Is now dealing in grain at Shaw Station, in Lee Center township.

Thomas Nicholson, farmer, Lee Center, was horn in England in 1826; resided there until twenty-three years of age. Came to Lee county in 1848. Bought land in China township, where he resided four years. In 1852 went to California, and was there engaged in the mining business for three years. In 1855 sailed to Australia, where he also spent three years in tlie mining district near Yictoria. From tiiere lie sailed to England and spent several months in the home of his boyhood ; while there he was married to Miss Ann Burrows. He then returned to Lee county. Located in Lee Center township in 1859. Is a member of the Episcopal church, and is also a Freemason.

Okrin M. Lev/is, farmer, Amboy. Mr. Lewis' father, Iliel Lewis, settled in Lee county in 1842. Orrin M. was born in China township in 1847 ; received most of his early education in a district school in that township. Removed with his father to St. Croix county, Wisconsin, in the spring of 1855, where he resided until 1860, when they returned to Lee county, and resided in Amboy one year; then bought land about three miles northeast of Amboy, where he now resides. Mr. Lewis united with the United Brethren church at the age of twentylive. Was married in 1871, to Miss Luella Matteson, a native of Wisconsin, who died in March 1881.

Sabin Trowbridge, merchant, Lee Center, was born in Broome county, JSTew York. He received his early education in the town of Windsor. In 1821 came to Illinois. Located in Lee Center in 1858, where until the year 1868 he earned a livelihood by tilling the soil. In that year he embarked in the dry -goods and grocery business. Was made postmaster under Grant's administration ; is doing a thriving business and is a very popular merchant.

Lewis Complon, stone dealer, Lee Center, was born in the southern part of France in 1823; married to Miss Julia Henry in 1860; came to Lee Center in 1861. Has four children: the elder, Eniil Alfonso, born 1861 ; Alfred, born 1863 ; Theodule, born 1866; and Leona Alice, born 1876.

Christopher Wellman, farmer, Lee Center, was born in New Milford, Susquehanna count}-, Pennsylvania, in 1821 ; here he received his early education ; married in 1850 to Miss Amanda E. Brown, also a native of Pennsylvania; came to Lee county in 1851; resided in the village of Lee Center seven years ; in 1858 removed to Knox's grove, in Sublette township, where he resided five years ; then bought land in W. -S- of Sec. 7 in Lee Center township, where he has since resided.

Is the father of four children : Annie D., the elder child, now the wife of James Johnston, and resides in Brooklin township, born in December 1851 ; Levi William, born in 1853, died in 1877; Mary Ann, born April 1856; Henry H., born in 1859.

L. Cyeenus Sawyer, farmer, Lee Center, Illinois, was born in Clarke county, Ohio, in 1818; came west in 1835; entered a claim in N.E. J of Sec. 1 in Lee Center township; married in 1842. His father, Joseph Sawyer, was the first postmaster in Lee Center township, appointed during the administration of James K. Polk. Mr. Sawyer has three children. Was a democrat up to the time of the formation of the republican party ; since that time has been a staunch republican ; owns 240 acres of good farm land, and is surrounded by all the modern improvements and conveniences of the model Illinois farmer.

WiLLARD Salsbury, Carpenter, Lee Center, was born in 1820, in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania; resided where he received his early education ; came west in 1847 and bought land near Temperance Hill, in China township, where he resided two years; then removed to Lee Center. Mr. Salsbury was married in 1849, to Lydia Jane Frost, a resident of Lee Center. Is father of three children : Florence, born in 1850, died in 1854; Frederic Augustus, born in 1853; and Willard Aurthur, born 1859. Mr. Salsbury is a prominent member of the Episcopal church. Math which he united at an early age.

VoLNEY Bliss, farmer and stock raiser, Lee Center, was born in Milan, Huron county, Ohio, in 1827; in 1829 removed with his father, Adolphus Bliss, to Michigan. The family remained in that state until 1834; in that year they removed to what is now Lee county, then a part of Jo Daviess. His father entered a claim on W. ^ of S.W. ^ Sec. 4, and N. ^ of N.E. ^ Sec. 9. Yolney received his early education in a log school-house that stood eighty rods west of his present residence. When at home his only playmates were Indian boys who lived in a village that stood near his father's dwelling. Mr. Bliss was married in 1853, to Miss Paulina Tredwell. Deals largely in stock, and by industr}' and economy has become owner of a half-section of excellent land. His residence is beautifully situated in the center of a beautiful and spacious lawn, and possesses all the beauties and attractions of a model country residence. Mr. Bliss was a lieutenant in Co. D, 15th 111. Inf.

Ebenezer Woodbrige, farmer, Lee Center, was born in Wayne county, Pennsylvania, in 1814; removed from there to Tioga county, New York, where he received his early education ; resided there eighteen years, then removed to Jay county, Indiana, in 1838; was married in 1840, to Eliza Ripley, a native of New York state ; remained in Indiana until 1855 ; in that year he removed to Illinois; desiring to locate in a place possessing good educational advantages lie selected Lee Center ; bonglit N.E. -j of Sec. 1, where he erected a residence and has since resided. Mr. Woodbrige is a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal chnrch, with which he united in 1840. Has four children, the elder being Sarah B., now the wife of B. I. Hitchcock, of Chicago, born in 1841 ; Joseph Egbert, born Jnlj 1844; Ann Eliza, born Marcli 1848 ; and John Ripley, born 1851.

John Wedlock, farmer, West Brooklyn, was born in Cornwall, England, in 1825. At twenty-three years of age he came to Lee county, and bought land in China township near Temperance Hill, where he resided eight years. He then removed to Lee Center township, where he has since resided. Was married in 1858, to Miss Marj' Jane Phillips, a native of New York, who died in 1876 ; was again married in 1880, to Mrs. A. L. Miller. In politics he is a republican.

Warren D. Clink, farmer, West Brooklyn, was born in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, in 1835; came with his father in 1841 to Bradford township, their postoffice being at Bliss's Grove, now known as Inlet Grove, in Lee Center township; was married in 1862, to Miss Amelia Perkins. Mr. Clink has been a successful farmer and stock raiser, and has accumulated considerable property. Was a witness to the great storm that passed through the county in 1860, and after the storm had passed he assisted in giving relief to many of the sufferers.

James W. Winbolt, farmer. West Brooklyn, was born in Port Hound, Canada east, in 1835 ; removed with his father in that year to Cuyahoga county, Ohio; received his early education in Cleveland. In 1850 he again removed with his father to Chicago, Illinois, and was there for seven years, engaged in the upholstering business on Randolph street ; was married in 1864, to Miss Sarah A. Hart ; united with the Methodist Episcopal church in 1877; has been a staunch republican since the organization of the party.

Ephraim Whitney, farmer, Amboy, was born in Somerset county, Maine, in 1801 ; removed to West Virginia in 1816 ; resided for a number of years in that state and then removed to Ohio ; in 1845 he moved from that state to Lee county ; was married in that 3'ear to Miss Mary . Livingstone, a native of Ohio. Mr. Whitney is now eighty years of age, and in so feeble a state as to render his memory very poor ; consequently the information the writer receives from him in regard to his past life was very meager.

Hodges was married in 1850, to Miss Olive Tourtillott. Is a prominent member of the Baptist church, with which he united in 1876; is also a Freemason. Mr. Hodges is quite an extensive farmer and stock raiser, and owns one of the model farms of the county.

Sherman Shaw, stock raiser, Lee Center, was born in Ontario county, New York, in 1811 ; received his early education in Erie county in the same state. In 1837 Mr. Shaw packed his earthly possessions into a wagon and started toward the setting sun. He drove from JSTew York to Lee county in this rude conveyance, bringing two hogs, which followed after the wagon the entire distance. Mr. Shaw is a member of the Baptist church, with which he united in 1841. Was married in 1835, to Miss Malinda Dewolf. Is father of seven children, three of whom are living. Owns quite a large amount of land in different parts of the township. He is one of the landmarks of Lee county, and one of its most respected citizens. He came to the county when the great State of Illinois was almost a wilderness, and has lived to see towns, villages, churches, school-houses and beautiful dwellings rise, as if by magic, where but a few years ago nothing greeted the eye of the observer but a vast expanse of prairie, over which bounded the wild deer and the prairie wolf.

John W. D. Blake, merchant, Lee Center, born on Staten Island in 1833, resided there until eighteen years of age, then removed to N^ew York city, where he was for two years employed in a wholesale dry-goods house. Came to Logan county, Illinois, in 1853; remained there until June 1854, at which time he removed to Lee Center and embarked in the dry-goods and grocery business. Remained in Lee Center until 1857 ; in that year he removed to Niles, Michigan, remaining until 1877; then removed to Kansas and bought land, and was there engaged in farming until 1879. In that year he returned to Lee Center, where he has since been engaged in the dry-goods and grocery business.

De. Clark E. Loomis, Lee Center, was born in November 1839, at Pulaski, Oswego county, New York ; and in 1845 he removed to Auburn, Cayuga county, where he lived until 1856. He came west and stopped at Chicago one year, and in October, 1857, settled at Franklin Grove in this county. The next spring he began the study of medicine with Dr. G. W. Hewitt ; and on the 15th of February, 1862, graduated from Rush Medical College at Chicago. He located at once in Grand Detour, Ogle county, to practice his profession. At this place, on the 15th of July 1863, he married the only daughter of John Parkhurst, by whom he has become the father of four children, all daughters, the 3'oungest of whom died in 1879. From Gi'and Detour Dr. Loomis went to the army in 1864, and served until the close of the war as first assistant surgeon of the 115th reg. IH. Yols. Shortl}^ after his return home he settled with his family in Lee Center, where he has since had his residence. On Febrnary 1, 1881, he purchased from E, W. Faxon & Co. the " Amboy Journal " newspaper and job office, and lias done the editorial work of the paper in connection with his practice at Lee Center.

Source changes here: from History of Lee County, Illinois, by Stevens, Frank Everett, published 1914; 9,670 words in this source stream.

Lee Center Township

In the field of human activities, Lee Center township has witnessed scenes ranging from the very highest social and intellectual refinement and culture, as well as the sweetest religious privileges, down to revolting crimes and a veritable reign of terror.

Inlet, the first settlement of Lee Center township, in section 9, on the banks of Inlet creek, was the rendezvous of thieves, counterfeiters, fence-men and even murderers.

The house of one was made a common hiding place for stolen property. On the broad highway of the great state road, men came and left by night. Strange horsemen would alight; their horses would remain tethered in the deep grove near by, mitil the small hours of the morning, w^hen as if by magic, horses and riders would disappear. The noise of loud voices would be heard, and behind those doors plans were concocted for all manner of crime from the stealing of peddlers' packs to their last crime, the nuirder of Colonel Davenport, July 4, 1845.

Did a settler at Inlet own a fine team, the circumstance was learned in Nauvoo, a favorite retreat, very soon, and very jDresently the settler's team disappeared. Did the settler remonstrate, a letter attached to a stone was thrown at night, through a window, to the effect that any further demonstrations by the settler would be followed by a hasty exit of the settler, dead or alive, from the settlement.

The ravages of this banditti of the jirairie extended from Ohio and Kentucky to Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin. Inlet lieing a central and well known point, and favored by nature as well as by a small number of the first settlers, it early became a rendezvous of its members. Of those wlio at last resolved to take tlieir lives in their hands and make the attemj)t to lid Inlet of their presence, were Sherman Shaw, Charles F. Ingalls, Rev. Luke Hitchcock, Dr. R. F. Adams, Moses Crombie, Lewis Clapp, Benjamin Whittaker, a Mr. Starks and his sons, and throiigh their heroic efforts Inlet was cleansed. Those sturdy pioneers of Lee Center township sent to the penitentiary at Alton, Joseph Sawyer, Adolphus Bliss and Daniel Miller Dewey, and the witness who squealed. Charles West, so soon as he had delivered his testimony, left the country for his country's good. This drastic action was not taken so soon as the vigilance committees from Ogle, DeKalb and Winnebago, when in 1841, they shot the Driscolls ; but the very instant the evidence was secured, that minute the Inlet branch of the banditti was dealt its death blow.

The heroic bravery required of that Lee Center Vigilance Committee cannot be comprehended fully today, surrounded as we are by the highest safeguards of civilization. The Haskell robbery in June, 1844, and its extraordinary success, emboldened the thieves to the point of careless bi'avado, and in that moment of weakness the opening wedge was secured by which a conviction was made possible.

Dewey "got up the sight" for the Haskell performance and Fox and Birch did the work ; Fox on the inside of the Haskell house and Birch on the outside. Bonney in his " Banditti of the Prairie, ' ' page 14, second edition, mentions the matter thus :

"West accused one Fox, alias Sutton, and John Baker of having conmiitted the robliery at Troy Grove, and said that most of the goods had been secreted at Inlet Grove, and subsequently taken to Iowa. He also avowed that Fox and Birch, alias Becker, alias Harris, committed the robbery for which Bliss and Dewey were sent to prison, and that the former was totally iimoeent, while the latter was accessory, having 'got up the sight." He further stated, that Fox had robl^ed one Ilaseal, a merchant at Inlet, by entering the house during a very severe thunder storm, and crawling upon the floor till he reached the trunk, wherein was deposited the money, and having secured it, left without being heard, although Mr. and Mrs. Ilaseal were lying in the bed a wake, at the time. To prove this, Fox sulisequently stated the conversation that had passed between them while he was in the act of rifling the trunk !" P. 14, 2d ed. 1881.

The operations of the banditti at Inlet contributed materially towards the establishment, in lSi6, of the village of Lee Center, further to the northwest, on the Chicago road. Of course, rivalry and "feeling" had their influences, but the presence of such evil doers contributed most. Luke Hitchcock denominated Inlet, "A perfect Sodom."

Adolphus Bliss, the first settler, who came in 1834, was followed by Joseph Sawyer, Daniel Miller Dewey and Charles West, in 1836. With the opportunities afforded by the stage road for making a little ready money by keei)ing tavern, 8aw_ver took out the first license to keep a tavern ever issued in Ogle county and Dliss took out the second. They were issued by the county connnissioners of Ogle county while in session at the house of F. Cushman, Buffalo Grove, March 6, 1837, and each paid therefor the sum of ten dollars. A schedule of charges they were permitted to make, will be found in that part of this work which treats of Ogle count}'.

Bliss called his taAern The Tra\'elers Home. The sign, a rough board, was lettered irregularly, and nailed to the long log cabin. In order to boom the same he }jroceeded \ery nmch after the fashion of the present day town site people. On the next day, March 7, 1837, he and others presented a petition to the commissioners asking that viewers be appointed to \'icw for a road, a route past The Travelers Home. He dei^osited the sum of five dollars to pay the viewers expenses, which according to the rules of the day, was to be returned to him in case the road was located according to the prayer of the petition. If not, it was to be used to pay the expenses of the commissioners. Th()se connnissioners were John Dixon, Corydon R. Dewey and Zaeliariah Melugin and they reported unfavorably to the proposed road. .

On the 6th of jMarch, 1837, at that same meeting. Inlet was set off as an election precinct and so far as its political independence was concerned, that day was the beginning of Inlet.

Inlet took in a vast territory as must be noticed Idv the distance these commissioners lived one from the otluT. It was l)ounded on the north by Dixon, Grand Detour and Oi'egon City precincts; on the east by the county line and on the south and west b,y the "lines of said county." The house of Corydon R. Dewey was made the polling place. At the same meeting an election was called for Dixon and Inlet, the only voting precincts in what now is Lee county, to be held April 12th, following, at which justices and constables were to be elected. Now, notice with what care the interests of the gang were conserved. Daniel Miller Dewey was elected justice and Charles West was elected constable, each receiving seventeen votes. Quoting frum an old Ogle county history we are told, "Justice Dewey, Constable West, Adolphus Bliss (of the old Travelers Home), his wife, Hannah, and a few others of their gang, because of their 'close' connection and secret and suspicious ways of transacting public and private business, came to be known to the pioneers as 'Bliss, Dewey, West & Co.' "

If Dewey issued a writ against a member of the gang, Constable West never was able to hud the offender. But he always provided himself with a very large supply of iuforuiatiou as to the point in Iowa, Wisconsin or Indiana the culprit had fled.

The killing of the Driscolls on Monday, June 28, 1841, was sujjposed )iy thinking men to be sufficient evidence of the determination by the settlers to rid the country of the banditti and to awe the other members of it. But that action only sul)dued certain of the Ogle county members. Other robberies continued with shocking frequency. On the night of Sept. 18, 1843, the store of William McKenney, of Rockf ord, was robbed of a trunk containing between seven hundred and eight himdred dollars. Scarcely had the excitement over this enormity subsided when a four-horse mail coach of the Frink and Walker line, about four miles out of Rockford on its way to Chicago, was robbed. The coach was full of passengers at the time and in full motion, yet the loss of the trunks and baggage was not discovered until the coach had reached Newbui'gh. Next morning the trunks and baggage were discovered, near the road, broken open and their \'aluable contents gone. It was a dai'ing and a skillful robbery, but not more so than the one pei'petrated a few weeks later, in which the house of William Midford was entered.

It had been rumored that Mulford had received $15,000 from New Yoi'k. That report soon I'eached the Inlet and other members of the l)and. Mulford lived in Guilford township. Winnebago county. Part of the gang stood over Mr. and Mrs. Mulford, while others searched the house and found $400 which they carried away. Of course the countryside was aflame with indignation ; but so well did the thieves cover their tracks that for the moment, they escaped.

In the summer of 1845, West became offended at other members of the hi'in "Bliss, Dewey, West & (^o.," which fact very soon reached the ears of some members of the committee. West was prevailed on to scpieal, and convictions followed. To repeat the matter as the story comes to me, let me coi^y an old diary I resurrected just the other day in the family of the late J. H. Adams, of Amboy. It was kept by C. F. Ingalls. No names are mentioned for the very good reason that it was unwise to even coimnit to paper the names of members of the gang:

. . . "These miscreants had a line of operations extending from Texas, through Indian Territory, Missouri, the corner of Iowa, and Illinois. The route of this gang extended through Lee county and directly through our settlement, and by my cabin.

"Members of the gang lived among us and often supposed to be worthy, first class citizens, harbored, lodged and fed these traveling cut-throat thieves and scoiuidrcls. Those committing overt acts of crime, traveled mostly l)y night and were imknown among us, even if they were ever seen.

"The gang operated mainly among people who were neither rich nor poor. If the settlements were poor, there was not much to steal, and if rich, detection and punishment were likely to be dealt out to them. Dr. Adams had a valualjle horse stolen, and the track was followed twenty-five miles to Princeton, Bureau county. A stream ran through a deep, unfrequented common in the neighborhood, and the horse had slipped its bridle and came out to its owner making its search.

"George E. Haskell, a mei'chant of Inlet Grove, had his little trunk with its cash contents taken from under his bed one dark, stormy night, and broken open at the neighboring blacksmith shop, and of course, the money taken. Nobody could explain the probable villain concerned, yet four of our best appearing citizens were the transgressors.

"A quantity of merchandise had been stolen in an adjoining county, and samples of the stolen goods Ijetra^-ed clothes of the same cloth in the tailor's shop of Tliomas Brown, at Inlet Grove. Four of our honest neighbors had engaged garments made l^y Mr. Brown, and had furnished material corres]>onding with samples two gentlemen carried who were in pursuit of the transgress- ors. The magistrate contided the fact of the tiud to only a few of us until the papers of ari'cst were ready and the four gentlemen sinniltaueously were arrested by the sheriff and taken to prison.

"These men, when taken before two of our magistrates, were ordered to be delivered to the sheriff of LaSalle county, where the goods were stolen. By (their ) counsel, the verdict was declared to be illegal and I'esistauce was advised. The people then came forward in a rage. We took the ground that two judges had decided the law, and they were the best and only civil court just then at hand; S(^> the people volunteered what necessary aid the sheriff" might need to see the verdict executed.

"The prisoners were l(>aded into the LaSalle county conveyance and the play, up to that point, was complete. After examination, I think three were allowed bail for appearance at the circuit court, and the fourth one sent to jail for want of bail bonds. The fourth man in jail threatened to turn states evidence if his richer confederates did not bail him out. He was duly encouraged to do so, and he did. Some of the giiilty gang were allowed to visit the jail, and sleep there so they would converse and acknowledge facts the people wanted the jury to know. Before the final trial came testimony sufficiently fatal was gained. Thi'ee of the prisoners went t<» states prison and he whu testified against the gang disappeared from sight and hearing among us to this day. We watched him with rifles as citizens, in his and our own defense. I think he might have been spirited away and his valuable testimony lost, had we not given him needed protection."

With the publication of this valuable diary, the story of the conviction in the LaSalle county circuit court, of Adolphus Bliss, Joseph Sawyer and Daniel Miller Dewey, is told. Never before has it been possible to tell the story accurately. Reasons of fear, or maudlin sympathy for others, has kept it from the pages of history imtil at this minute not one living person rmt near the old scenes of action knows for what crime the culju-its suffered. In every single instance I have ))een told that it was for fencing stolen projterty, instead of receiving it, even by the few who were alive though yomig, at the time. Once West had told his story and his ('(>ni})anions had 1)een removed, he disclosed other important stories. Among the names disclosed of other guilty participants as Avell as actors, wei-e (Uiarl(>s Oliver, Jr., and William McDowell, of Hockford, Fox and Birch, Bridge, Davis, Thomas Aiken and Baker. Among other I'evelations made by West, was the plan by which McKenney's stoi'e was robbed, and the names of the rolibers, Tu

There, the gang tried to I'ailroad another member to the penitentiary who was feared to be getting weak-kneed. While in jail the fellow confirmed the secrets of the Mulfurd robbery, already communicated by one Irving A. Stearns and West, and in consequence Oliver and McDowell of Winnebago county and William K. Bridge of Ogle county were indicted for conunitting the Mulford robbery, and after considerable strategy, all were arrested and taken to Rockford. Bail was refused. A month later, the murder of Colonel Davenport, July 4, 1845, fanned the slumbering anger of the people into a fury. Aug. 26, 1845, the trial of Oliver et al. was commenced at Rockford before Judge Thomas C. Browne. Stearns, who had gravitated into the Michigan penitentiary, and West were produced as witnesses. West testified that while Oliver was not present, he planned the Mulford robbery and received a shai'e of the stolen money. A sharp cross-exannnation failed to break his story and Oliver was found guilty and sentenced to the Alton penitentiary for eight years. Later McDowell was convicted. Bridge took a change of venue to Ogle county, where he pleaded guilty and was sentenced.

Bliss died in the penitentiary. Miller Dewey never returned. Sawyer, however, did return to brave public feeling and he lived not far from the early scenes of his activities until the day of his death many years afterwards. In this connection it may be interesting to know that Sawyer was appointed first overseer of the poor for Lee county on AjDril 16, 1840.

It took courage to combat that lawless gang ; but the good people of the Inlet community Iiad that courage, and in a new center of social activity the connnunity's refined enjo3anents were carried to loftiest points.

That removal was Ijegun in 1844, and very soon thei'eafter it was completed. Lee Center was planned in 1846, and Avith the erection of the Academy, Inlet left the map. But before leaving its actors altogether I may as well add that an Inlet man, Milan Barnes, drove the stage coach from Chicago to Dixon which contained Bonney and his prisoner. Birch.

Inlet was located on lioth sides of Inlet creek at the point where the Chicago mail and stage road crossed it. The business portion of the place was located on the east side, although improvised taverns were to be found on the west side, and Bliss and the Deweys lived on the west side. The Travelers Home was on the west side.

Oscar Dewey, son of Corydon R. Dewey, who was born in the old log cabin at Inlet in 1840, informed me that his father located there in 1836. He told me also that Thomas J. Gray kept tavern on the east side and also the barns where the stage horses were changed. Gray and his sister, subsequently Mrs. DeWolf (now of Dixon), kept a grocery store whose stock included tobaccos. And right here it should be explained that Corydon R. Dewey, though related, shoidd not in any manner be associated with Miller Dewey. He also is my anthorit,y for the statement that David Tripp, Sr., kept a log tavern on the east side of the creek, one room of which was used as a school room. Corydon R. Dewey permitted his house to be used as a tavern during the California fever, but that was all.

He erected a sawmill on the west side of the creek and a Major Chamberlain erected one on the east side. By a trade made soon after, Dewey became owner of the (.!hamberlain mill and he ran both imtil into the fifties.

Mr. Albert Z. Bodine confirmed the Tripp tavern and school room story and added that there had l)een three David Tripps in Lee Center, the grandfather of tlie tavern and his son and grandson.

At Lee Center, when Inlet had removed there, Mr. Bodine clerked in the Hitchcock store for two years while Lidce Hitchcock was postmaster, in fact, the first postmaster of Lee Center; and during that time he received the mails from the stages going in each direction ; that from Chicago was due at 10 :30 P. M., and that from Dixon was diie at 10 P. M., when on time. When, however, the roads were muddy and the going bad, the mails came along at any time of night and sometimes not until the noon following, pretty much as trains nowadays come along.

Corn at market then was worth in trade 10 cents; wheat in Chicago was worth 35 and 40 cents; cattle on the hoof, 2 or 21^ cents ; dressed pork, 2y._> cents.

From Dixon, Lee Center was the first stop, then at Inlet, the stage still sto])pe(1 to change horses; jNlelugin's Grove was the next stop, where at John Gilmore's the horses were changed. Then at West Paw Paw, the next stop was made, it being the desii-e of the Prink and Walker people to make no more than twelve miles at a time. Trips were mode every day but Sunday.

Mrs. James M. Shaw, daughter of Russel Linn, of Lee Center, gave me the best account of the old days I was able to get in all of my Inlet work. The old red and yellow stage coaches, droning along, appeared to her vision as distinctly as when they used to travel past the home of her father, on the old Chicago road. They were of the old Concord type, rounding up front and rear, and given their easy swinging motion because they rested on leather springs, layered together in fourteen layers.

Mrs. Shaw went through the fearful tornado or cyclone of 1860. She and Mrs. E. M. Grose, who live in Dixon, and Ira W. Lewis, also of Dixon, all of whom passed through the storm, have given me the infoiination from which I am a])le to give the first connected story of that devastating storm.

The storm struck Lee comity at aliout the center of the west line of Harmon township. It passed directly through Harmon and Marion townshiios, almost in a straight easterly direction, and aside from little destruction of fencing, did nothing destructive in either town. In continued its easterly course into Ainboy township, but almost immediately it veered to the northeast and, passing to the north of the city of Aiu])oy, it did the first real damage when it reached the farm of Michael Morse on the northeast quarter of section 9 in Ainboy township. Here the Imildings were demolished. Mr. Morse was badly hurt and his wife. Trial, and their daughter, Emma, were killed.

Continuing northeasterly, it reached the farm of Isaac Gage. In passing it shook the Linn house in which Mrs. Shaw was sitting, like a cradle, and the vilirations of that awful evening come back to her in all their awful realism, whenever the day retui'ns to hei" memory. >

Every building on the Gage place on the northwest quarter of section 1 in Amboy townshij) was destroyed, and Ethelbert, a yoimg son, was killed. Another son was injured so badly that he died soon afterwards. Another son, Luke, also was injured so seriously that he was an invalid for many years. A daughter. Helen. Ijy name, also was disabled for a long time.

At the same instant almost, the wind struck a tenant house just across the road from the Gage i^lace, on the premises of Judge Lorenzo Wood, lifted it from the groimd and never again did anybody ever hear of that house. Not a single board or splinter of all the debris was ever found or recognized. The homestead in which Judge Wood lived was wrecked a little but not much. The tenants in the tenant building were spilled out, but not injured to speak of. The ceiling above in the Wood house was pushed down and it pinned down Judge Wood, who was lying on the bed, so that he could scarcely move ; yet he was not scratched. The Peter LaForge house was hit next. His kitchen was cut off neatly from the main part of the house, but the damage was very slight indeed.

The Horace Preston i^lace was visited next. Mrs. Grose is a daughter of Mr. Preston and she went through experiences in this storm which come to few people, and she earnestly prays that it never will come again to any members of her family. Upstairs, Mr. Preston said to his wife, "Go down into the cellar." Mrs. Preston jiicked up the little three-year-old boy and started down stairs and Mr. Preston })ickod up the little eight-year-old daughter, Ella, now Mrs. Grose, and the little four-year-old daughter, one under each arm, and started for the cellar ; but before Mr. Preston had advanced six feet the roof went oft" and he and the children, still in his arms, were sent sailing over the tops of trees, and he landed on his feet in the garden, about three hundred and fifty feet away. JNL's. Preston held on to the l)oy, Horace, Jr., and lie was killed in her arms.

In the cellar of the Preston house there were eggs, pans of milk, and other articles, ))ut not one single thing was disturbed by even so little as a hair's Ijreadth. The clothes (^f the girls were torn to shreds.

W^hile visiting Mrs. Gi'ose on Nov. 21. 1913, she Iji'ought me the family Bible which was sent over the fields a great distance and later recovered. This book sustained scarcely any damage, but another smaller book, entitled "The School and the Schoolmaster," by Alonzo Potter, ]>ul)lished by Har])er and Brother in 1844. was so covered with rand that its contents were nearly obliterated, and to this day the mud sticks just as closely as it did the hoiu- it was recovered. A churn was blown five miles. In the Preston house stood a stove. Its top was taken off as smoothly as though removed

Between the Preston h(»use aud barn stood a straw hog house. When tlie storm had passed it was discovered that uot one straw seemed to have been disturbed. The cattle and horses all were driven away, but the horses all I'eturued aud the cattle were found subsecjueutly and brought back iKnue.

One incredible incident occurred on the Prestou place which has been vouched for by many who saw it. A corn stalk was driven clear through one of the boards of the wagon bed. Chickens were plucked of their feathers and the next morning the poor things were running wildly about the place until relieved of their sufferings by shooting.

At the Daniel Frost place next in its path, little damage was done. At the Martin Wright i)lace the tornado did some very freakish antics. Every bit of the house was demolished with the exception of one pai't of one wall. On a couch against this wall Mrs. Wright, an invalid, had been lying. While her sister sustained fearful lu'uises, including a l)r()kcu jaAv, Mrs. Wright was not disturbed.

The storm just grazed the village of Lee Center. From this point it veered northeasterly aud caught the barn of Cyreno Saw- 3^er and killed a horse. On the John Lane place on the Franklin Grove road, not far from Lee Center, the premises were leveled off as smoothly as a floor after a sweeping.

Then crossing over still further to the northeast, the Colton place was struck. The house was demolished and Nettie Colton, a beautiful young girl in her eai'ly teens, was killed instantly. Her older sister, in her night I'olie, ci'ossed the flelds to the house of her uncle, Cephas Clapp, for help.

The Woodruff' place was the last to suft'er in those parts ; l)ut uot extensively. The loss was slight although the inmates of the house were shaken badly. Returning to an easterly course, the storm swept over the swamps and by reason of the lack of houses, no damage was done until it entered the town of Willow Creek. In that town it was very destructive and a detailed account of it will be found in that part of the book refei'ring to Willow Creek township.

111 Lee Center the cliurelies were moved from their foundations, l:)ut it remained for the siil).seqneiit storm of 1862 to complete the work of destruction of the church property. In that year a cyclone destroyed the Methodist Episcopal church and played as many fantastic tricks with stoves and other articles as the one of '60 did at the Preston house. Aside from this damag'e, however, no serious damage was done around Lee Center.

In the storm of '60 everything struck by the cyclone was plastered with mud; the Preston baliy was covered in a manner almost to defy human skill in the efforts made to remove it.

Mrs. Grose said the storm roared very like the passing of a train of cars at lightning si>eed. The day had been excessively hot and the air was humid. The destro.yiug cloud was inky black and as I have stated, it seemed to Mrs. Preston as though no more than one minute at the very outside was consumed in its passage from the Gage house to its flight across the swamps.

Though third in point of settlement, Inlet early took on an importance second only to Dixon's Ferry, and although the lady did not settle in Inlet when fii'st introduced to Lee couiit3% a Lee Center lady came into the county in 1832.

Mrs. S. W. Phelps, starting from New York city, came via the Kellogg trail from Springfleld in 1832 and her letter describing that journey, found in the- section of this history which concerns trails, will be read with consuming interest.

Prom the most reliable sources at hand, I am led to believe that Mr. and Mrs. Adolphus Bliss became the first permanent settlers of Lee Center township. They reached this township in May, 1834. Mrs. Bliss was the first white woman to come to the township and the second white woman to settle in Lee county. The family lived in their new home about a year before a neighbor came to settle near them, the Dixons being their nearest neighbors. Not far from their home two hundred Indians were encamped, waiting for their pay under recent treaties. John Fosdick was the blacksmith employed by the Government to mend their guns. These Indians must have remained some time for their money because when later Mrs. Ira Brewer and Mrs. Lewis Clapp had moved in, both testified to some quiet scares sustained from the Indians. In the ease of Mrs. Clapp, she was frying douglmuts when several Indians walked unceremoniously into the kitchen and ranged themselves around the wall. Then the leader or chief relieved her of her doughnuts.

Prom well authenticated authorities, I have fouud the following settlers to have reached Inlet in the tV>llowing years. iSouie of them may have settled just outside of Lee Center township, but they were regarded as Lee Center people.

Volney Bliss came with his people in 1834. His father, Adolphus, took up for claims the west half of the southwest quarter of section four and the northeast quarter of section 9, in Lee Center township. Charles P. lugalls settled in the southern part of the township in 1836. Sherman Shaw, who drove from ISTew York state all the way to Inlet with two pigs as part of his worldly possessions, reached Iidet in 1837. Moses Crombie came in 1837 ; Cyrenus Sawyer, 1835 ; Joseph Sawyer, 1835 ; Ira W. Lewis, 1842 ; Warren D. Clink, 1841 : Orrin M. Lewis, 1847 ; Ephraim Whitney, 1845 ; Joseph A. Hodges, 1845 ; Edwin Morey, 1847 ; Willard Salsbury, 1847; Thomas Nicholson, 1848; John Wedlock, 1848.

Several families moved into the Inlet district in 1835-36 and 37. Besides ]Mr. and JNIrs. I^ewis Clapp and Mr. and Mrs. Ira Brewer, I find the names of John Fosdick, the David Tripp family, Sherman Shaw, C. R. Dewey and Orange Webster ; in 1837 ^Ir. Birdsall and his sons-in-law, Luke Hitchcock and Oscar F. Ayres, all of whom stopped at the Tripp house. The Tripp house seems to have been a popular tavern because so many stopped with him.

Roswell Streeter made a claim in Lee Center, but he did not settle on it until the following year when he moved his family out from Allegany coimty. New York. This man's claim included the sjjot upon which Lee Center ^-illage now stands. These with a Doctor Hubbard, a Doctor Welch, Dr. Charles Gardner, Charles Ingalls, C. F. Ingalls, Dr. Ephraim Ingalls, C. L. Sawyer, Revei-end DeWolf (who stopped at the Tri})p house). Miss Ann Chamberlin, Otis Timothy, were among the munber who settled thus early in Lee Center township.

Inlet comprised everything clear through to the western and southern eoimty lines. In Inlet and Lee Center the abolition movement in Lee county had its origin. In the fall of 1846, the first abolition society was formed in the log schoolhouse one mile west of Lee Center. John Cross, a Congregational minister and a man who boasted of keeping an underground station for the assistance of negroes into Canada, issued a call t(^ meet in that schoolhouse for the piu'pose of forming an abolition society.

Owen Love joy was present and made a rousing speech. A Free Soil club was organized of which Russel Linn was made president. Among the members of the society who were present then were: Martin Wright, Lewis Clapp, Sylvester Frisbee, Ransom Barnes, Joseph Farwell, Bononi Hannon, Daniel Frost, Ira Brewer, Moses Crombie and John Cross.

So, too, the first temperance society was a I^ee Center product. Joseph Gardner was its president and President Francis Leonard of the Academy made an address at its first meeting. Among the members were Doctor Wasson; Rev. Charles Cross, Doctor Welch, Rev. John Ingersoll, Rev. ]juke Hitchcock, Rev. Erastus DeWolf, Rev. George Benton, Reverend Fisk, H. H. Andrews. (Last two from Dixon.) These gentlemen all addressed the meeting. Other members present were Charles F. Ingalls, Joseph Lewis, Bernard Whitney, Betsey Hale, Caroline Whitney, Miranda Strickland, N. Peterson, Warren Henry Badger, Michael Henry Blooker, John C. Church, William S. Frost, O. W. Clapp, Ciyrus Bridgeman, Ransom Barnes, Lyman Wheat. At some of their meetings Deacon Joseph Farwell led tlie singing with his violin. On one Sunday a temperance tune was struck up to the tune of Old Dan Tucker. The minister remonstrated mildly, but the tune went to a finish.

The name of this temperance society was the Washington Temperance Society of Palestine Grove and its first meeting was held in the Wasson schooUiouse, September, 1847. Some four hundred signed the ])ledge, tlic first being Charlotte Doan and the last one Chester Badger.

As an educational center, Lee Center is entitled to more than passing notice and connnent. For many yeai's the village of Lefl Center was the l)est known community in the county and students from every section of the country attended the Academy there.

In respect of education, Lee Center was staffed right. Almost every one of the early settlers, beginning with Inlet, were from New England and had received more than a casual education. Many were teachers and it is astonishing to notice the mnnbers of physicians and ministers who gravitated to that place. Xaturally their first thought was of education for their children.

So early as ISol), a school was opened in the Adolpluis Bliss house, one room serving the pur])ose. A room in Tripp's tavern also was used. Miss Ann ( 'liambei'lain taught the same during the summer of 1836 and thus became the first teacher in Lee Centeitownship.

lu 1837, 1 believe, the first school building was built of logs ; its cracks were chinked with mud ; the floor was laid with sj^lit logs. A fireplace with chimney made on the outside, of rough stones, fui'- uished heat when the weather demanded a fire. Split logs or puncheons were made into seats ; a desk for the teacher was constructed after the same pattern as the seats. The building was built in the edge of the timl^er, not far from Mr. Bliss's house. A hazel thicket on the Bliss place screened it oft' from the road effectualh^ Over the creek which had to be crossed by some, there was no bridge, and those pupils who came from the opposite side took off their shoes and stockings, and fording the stream, resumed the shoes and pushed forward to school. Ira Brewer helped to build this log school.

For three months in the winter of 1837-38, Mr. Otis Timothy taught in this school. Afterwards George E. Haskell, who came to Inlet early, taught in that scluxdhouse and a most satisfactory teacher he proved to he. Mr. Timothy's salary was $15 per month and he was boarded round. During his stay he had twenty or twenty-five pupils. A. (f. Streeter was one of his pupils, a gentleman of national renown sulisequently, having been a prominent candidate for President of the United States.'

By the year 1813 there were several schools around Inlet. In one of those Mrs. Sallie P. Stark, or Starks, taught five boys and five girls ranging in age from the lisping child to the yoiing person of twenty or a little more perhaps. This teacher taught twelve hours per day and the year round, I am told.

In the year 1844, by reason of the manner of terrorizing the people of Inlet l)y the l^anditti, most of the settlers moved over to Lee Center as stated already.

At that time a school for higher education was demanded, and once the agitation was begun, it was characteristic of the people to go ahead with it. The subject w^as not permitted to slumber for an instant, and nothing arrested the progress of the scheme until the Lee Center Union Academy, ))ell and all, became a reality.

With the year 1846, the project had assumed a definite shape. A])out that time Moses Crombie moved into Lee Center. He was a carpenter by trade, and he conti'acted to do all the carpenter work in and al^out the building.

In the year 1853, a stone addition was made to it, during the administration of Simeon Wright, principal, a noted educator who begun his work in 1853. He came west from Battle Creek, Michigan.

Lee Center immediatel}' tocjk on a great rejjutatiou. Students from all over the country came here to attend. Parents who came along to settle their children comfortably, were astonished to find such an institution nestling snugly among the pretty homes, most of them still standing, and to find such a cultured people.

Oh! Those were glorious days in old Lee Center. Lyceums, lectures, traveling troupes giving entertainments in the chapel, entertained the residents and the students. The debates in those famous old days were fought out with all the industry of a contemporaneous session of Congi-ess. Societies then, as now in university towns, switched the students into little cliques. And what a melody of nOise they made on every special function or society victory! The big university town today is not a whit different from old Lee Center in its palmy days. For fifteen lively and happ)' years at least, Lee Center occupied the most important place in Lee coimty history. College life entered into the routine of every Lee Center famil3^ But with the coming of the railroads and their town-building influences all around, Lee Center declined in a worldly way, liut unto this day, its people i^ossessing great I'iches in moneys and in the better parts of human accomplishments, proud as Lucifer, stand as proud of the Lee Center of today as their ancestors were proud of old Lee Center. It is ttxlay a bcautifid little place ; its old homes, beautifully kept, lend glamour and romance. But look at the W'ellman, Shaw, Haskell and other homes, tidily kept, and the visitor will retire with sentiments I have endeavored to describe.

During last September, one of the most beautiful buildings of the county, erected through the generous boimty of Mrs. Abigail L. Haskell, widow of the Ceorge E. Haskell of 1810, was dedicated and Mrs. Haskell at ninety- three attended the ceremonies. Above, the Odd Fellows have their lodge rooms and banquet hall. In the basement the kitchens are located. The ground floor contains a couunodious storeroom.

The ful'iiiture of walnut is designed after the hitest patterns. Tlie decorations of blue and gold present the most substantial as well as the most gorgeous lodge rooms in Lee county.

Hand in hand with the college life of the old days, interest centered in church life in old Lee Center, and it is safe to say, in no other community did church life hold such general and generous sway as there.

Peter Cartwright preached the first sermon at Inlet at C. R. Dewey's house in the spring of 1836. During the same yeai'. in the summer, the first ^letlKjdist class was organized with John Eosdick leader. Mr. David Tripp Avho settled there in 1837, was the tirst Baptist to settle in Inlet, and a man named Heyler and another named Tourtillott settled there and preached occasionally in tlie Tripp house. This same Tripp was Lee county's first collector.

When Mr. Tripp built his new barn, a protracted meeting was held in it and a number of converts were secured. The fii'st Baptist church was organized at about that same time and services were held in the Tripp house until the schoolhouse was erected near the Dewey mill on the bank of the creek in the northeast quarter of section 9, when church services were held in it. The circuit rider who held services there was a young married man named Smith. His circuit trips east and west from Inlet took generally two weeks and while at Inlet he stopped always at Mr. C. R. Dewey's. There one day he was taken ill and in a few days he died, and his was the first funeral at Inlet, in 1837. Luke Hitchcock filled the pulpit at the time for the Methodists, and he preached the funeral sermon for the unfortunate young JNIr. Smith. That was the first funeral sermon preached in Lee Center.

Considering the privations and the meagre emolument for the preacher in those days, it is astonishing that so man}' of Inlet's first settlers were preachers. When Mr. Birdsall came there in 1837 and took up his quarters at Mi'. Tripp's house, his two sonsin-law, Luke Hitchcock and Oscar P. Ayres, came with him, both Methodist preachers.

The circuit rider always made Inlet. It was customary in those days to receive notice that the preacher woidd arrive in a neighborhood about a certain time. His entertainment was provided for first and then the word was passed from settler to settler to be present. Invariabl}^ the preacher had a good congregation. Many times he slejit on a clay floor of a log cabin. The winds may have wliistled through between the unchinked logs and through the windows which at best were glazed with cotton cloth.

Buttermilk may have constituted the drink and most of the victuals, in many instances, but with such men as Peter Cartwright victual and drink and sleeping apartment made little difference; they were one and the same. The old circuit riders were all alike in standing up under the most rigorous life.

Newspapers were generally a month old by the time they reached Inlet; books were scarce and the Bible generally constituted the most valued member of every library.

Three pretty churches have been built in Lee Center, the successor of Inlet, the Methodist, the Congregational and the Episcopal. For a time, in the morning, the Congregationalists held services and a Sunday school; in the afternoon, the Episcopalians held their services and in the evening the Methodists. In the Congregational church, Deacons Crombie and Barnes took up the collection ; at the Episcopal services. Dr. Charles Gardner and Carrett La Forge. At each service, nearly the same congregation attended, thus giving to Lee Center a religious influence and character which is present today. So much for a proper influence in the beginning of things in a community.

The Congregational society was organized at the home of Moses Crombie and was called the "Congregational Church of Palestine Grove." Afterwards and until Ibi-lO, services were conducted in the Wasson schoolhouse, after which date they were removed to Lee Center.

For some time l)ef(>re the Lee Center churches were built, church services were held in the academy, the people coming over from Palestine Grove to join. Here are some of the names of a congregation preserved to us from the correspondence of one of the worshippers, Mrs. James Crumble : Mr. and Mi's. James Farwell. Mr. and Mrs. John C. Church, Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus Davis, Miss Mary Barnes, C'harles Hitchcock, Dr. and Mrs. R. F. Adams, Dr. and Mrs. Ingalls, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Cla])]), Deacon Barnes and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Moses Crombie, Lyman Wheat, Josephine and George, Mr. and Mrs. Swartwout, Abram and Nelson, Mr. and Mrs. Bradford Church, iNIr. and Mrs. Charles Frisbee, INIartin Wright and Helen, Rev. James Brewer, principal of the Academy, Miss Harriet Rewey, the i)i'imary teacher, Da\T.d Smith and two daughters, Mrs. Bourne and jNIrs. Saucer, Mrs. Lee Clapp and Alice, Mr. and Mrs. Jact>b Bodine. Albert Z. Bodine, Ira Brewer, l^ncle Elisha Pratt and Sarah. 'S(|uire Haskell, John Waruick, Sabra, and Mrs. John Croml)ic. Tlic i)astor was Rev. S.W.Phelps, and it was his first pastorate. Mi'. Brewer pitched the tunes: John

Wetherbee, the Misses Barnes, Mrs. Henry Frisbee and Mrs. Martin Wright composed the choir. Among the many old Lee Center folks who spread sunshine over the community were Uncle Russel Linn, LTncle Dan Frost with their life companions. Aunt Abbie and Aunt Eulalia, Mrs. Birdsall, her daughter, Mrs. Luke Hitchcock, Mrs. Warnick, Mrs. John H. Gardner and so many quiet, beautiful, heroic women, yet so deferentially unobtrusive that their names with their beautif id lives slipped away so tenderly that time has permitted them to remain undisturbed even by the raitliless historian who grubs and digs into graves and garrets indiscriminately.

But old Lee Center had its troubles as well as its joys. It seemed as if Inlet was annoyed more than any other community by the terror of the prairies, the Ijanditti of the prairie. Claim jumpers too made life miserable for some of the pioneer settlers until in eonunon with every other conmiunity, its honest members were compelled to Innd themselves together by not only moral and physical ties, but by written indentures. Here is a copy of the Inlet document:

"The encouragement which Congress gave to the pioneers of this country stinndated the present inhabitants to sacrifice property and ease and commence a long and fatiguing journey in order to better themselves and their offspring; not only the fatigue of a long and expensive journey, but the privations to which they were exposed in consequence of the scarcity of the comforts of life and the exposure to the inclemency of the weather in an open log cabin. Ever_ything considered, we think it no more than right, just and honorable that each man should hold a reasonable claim, and at the land sales ol^tain his lands at Congress price.

"Therefore, We, the sul)scril)ers. feel willing to come under any rules and regulations that are warranted by honor and principle in regard to our honest claims.

These rules were adopted July 10, 1837, after having been drafted by the conunittee composed of George E. Haskell, Benjamin Whitaker, Joseph Sawyer, Lewis Clapp and Martin Wright.

At the public sales of land, the Government required the cash, $1.25 per acre. One class of sharpers had invented the scheme of pretending to bid w^hen the land was offered, so that he might be bought ulf ; but this was soon spoiled by one settler for each neighborhood standing near by, and where a piece of land, "claimed" by an actual settler, was offered to cry out, "settler!" With the sentiment of the home-seekers around lum running strongly against the speculatoi', but one or two instances were enough to stop that means of trying to extort from poor settlers slight bonuses to prevent bidding. Physical force was used to stop it and when resorted to the officers of the law were conveniently absent.

AVheu Mr, Haskell came to Inlet, he bought the "grout" building belonging to Mr. David Tripp and moving it nearer to the east bank of Inlet creek, he opened the first store at Inlet. As Mr. Haskell was the first postmaster of Inlet, that building was used as the postofiice. 8ubse(|uently it was moved to Lee Center. At first Mr. Llaskell lived in a log cabin; subsequently he erected a frame building. He, with Lewis Clapp was known always to have ready money at hand and so when it was "tipped off " to Fox of the banditti that Mr. Haskell had the money secreted in a trunk under his bed Fox planned to get it.

These desperadoes terrorized the whole country until 1841, when the enraged community covering territory from Rockford to Inlet and Dixon, led out the Driscolls over in Ogle county and shot them to death. Civilization triumphed by the same means employed by the bandits. Courts and penitentiaries had no terrors for the bandits. Their fiiends and sympathizers were so numerous and so strongly were they intrenched that a jury could not be found in some coimties to render a conviction. In one instance a jail was burned in order to facilitate the escape of a member of the gang.

Inlet was about twelve miles from Dixon. It was one of the important points in the state for years and the Inlet ladies went to Dixon to shop when one or more item of finery was demanded. But with the birth of Lee Center, that in'^tentious ])la(-e liad fineries of its own to sell, even to a millinery st(»re. Miss Mary Barnes who had learned something of the milliner's art in LaSalle, did lionnet trimming.

AMien the Illinois Central railrojul waiitt'd to enter Lee Center, that ]ir(isp('i-ons little ])l;i('(' may liave l)een somewhat proud and unyielding in lier notions of ])rosperity and the possibility of its disa])]>eai-an('e was considered pi'ciiosterous. Railroads were new and untried and might not be worth to a conununity half so nuich as an academy. Perhaps that inasnmch as the stage coach had been good enoiigli to sei've them in the ]iast. the ncAV rail invention might not be able tu supplaut it. At all events the raili'oad took all the business to Anibo_y and in the face of the life which at once ajDpeared in Ainboy, Lee Center could not stand. Tor nearly fifty years Lee Center, so far as business was concerned, lay dormant.

At various times efforts to interest another raili'oad have failed. Under the direction of Mr. George H. T. Shaw, an electric line was partially graded between Dixon and Lee Center; but by a cruel stroke of fate, a death and the consequent failure to respond in money to the needs of the road, ciit its career short and the grade and the project were abandoned.

LTndaunted by failures however. Elijah L. King, Andrew Aschenbrenner, Reinhai't Aschenbrenner and Sherman Shaw, })rovided funds and built an electric road between Ainboy and Lee Center and equipped it with stock to carry passengers, coal, grain and live stock. More than this, these gentlemen extended the road northward and eastward until it runs now almost to Ashton and with the possibility of its going forward to Rochelle in the near future, the success of the road seems to be assured.

Under present management, the farmers along the line can have a sidetrack nui into their yards, if they choose and there load grain and stock and mdoad coal. It has proved one of the greatest blessings to the people of Lee Center and Bradford that could possibly come to them.

The progressiveness of the Lee Center people has been evidenced year after year by the splendid hard roads which have been built in the township and toda}^ Lee Center has the best system of hard roads of any townshiji in Lee county.

Lee Center is a beautiful place; its homes are suggestive of comfort and contentment. The township is iidiabited by the same class of sturdy people which settled there in the early days. It is doubtful if there is a richer farm community than Lee Center. Its people always have enjoyed the distinction of being what we term rich in property. At the time of his death, Lewis Clapp was the richest man in the county. This township has furnished Lee county with many of its most important officers l;)eginning with George E. Ilaskdl, who was elected clerk of the circuit conrt and recorder. Charles F. Lynn was made sheriff.

Ijands in Lee Center now range in price from one lumdred and eighty-five dollars to two Imndred and fifty dollars per acre. Some of the large land holders are Sherman Shaw, a son of one of Lee

Instead of the log cabin, unehiueked aud floorless, doorless and windowless, there are everywhere beautiful homes, heated by steam and hot water and hot air. Sanitary plumbing is installed. With the prevalence of electric ])ol('s over the county, which may be tapped at any place, those houses are lighted with electricity.

It may be true that in the south cud of the townshii) the land is more or less sandy, but the quantity and extent may be said to be so small as to fail to affect the average values in the township.

The early markets for Lee Center were the same for other towns, Chicago and the towns along the canal. Ox teams prevailed, though of course teams were used by some for freight transportation. A week was consumed to make the trip from Lee Center to Chicago and return, with a horse team; with an ox team, two days longer were required.

Farmers haiding their grain from Lee Center and vicinity, jilauned to reach the Desplaines river by evening of the third day. The next day they drove to Chicago, sold their grain and got back to the Desplaines river that evening, thus spending two consecutive evenings or nights at that point. The old hotel stands today telling its story in memories which every old settler carried to his grave. It is a long low l)uilding near the west bank of the Desplaines and on the north side of the tracks of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad Company. It is seen easily just west of River Forest.

When the wagon got stuck in a sl()Ugh, it was customary to imload the cargo, carry it to high ground, pull out the wagou. reload, and without di-yiug one's clothing soaked with water, to pursue the journey unconqjlainingly.

Of coui'se there was moiv o])poi'tunity for company along the Chicago Stage road which runs today diagonally across the county from northwest to the southeast almost as it did then, than was to be foiuid along the Peru road, and that circumstance had its influences. Beginning with Jan. 1, 1834. the stage ran along the stage road through Inlet and at intervals carried the mail f i<im Galena to Chicago and back.

When Col. John Dement was receiver of the United States land office, many plots were laid to rob his messengers, but none succeeded. Beginning with the year 1840, when he came to Dixon with the laud office from Galena, it ever was his haljit to study means to thwart the plans of the banditti, and they expressed marvel at the vigilance which could defeat them. In those days the Government money was sent by Colonel Dement to Peru, from which p(unt it was sent by boat to St. Louis.

How vast was Inlet once ! Three sides of the county were its ))orders. Now Inlet is a tradition. Lee Center al)sorbed it thrt)Ugh its civilizing agencies. Then as though to avenge the grievances of poor Inlet, the railroad appeared to the westw^ard and all the glory of Lee Center trembled.

But though its power might dissolve and though its people may have been attracted to Amboy and its railroad, Lee Center had been built upon foimdations too massive to permit its sturdy superstiaicture to topple. Today there remain of the old families, worthy sons and daughters who cauuot be drawn away : Mrs. Mary Rebecca Linn-Shaw, widow of James M. Shaw, born in the township, a daughter of George Russel Linn; Sherman L. Shaw, her son ; Oscar Dewey, son of Corydon R. Dewey, born at Inlet in 1840 ; George W. Brewer and Mrs. Brewer, daughter of a Tripp; James E. Gray ; W. S. Frost, one of the original stock, and his son, W. S. ; Mrs. Will Gray, daughter of Tripp, the tavern keeper east of Inlet; Ei'nest Leavens and Mrs. Isaac Wood, descendants of the DeWolfs. They remain. Everywhere the influence of old Lee Center remains. The pretty little stone office of Doctors Adams and Ingalls stands today and is used as a residence. On the site of the old academy there has arisen a fine brick school building of three rooms, the primary, the intermediate and the high school of thirty-six, twenty and fourteen pupils respectively. Presiding over these grades are the Misses Grace Starks, Emil}' Williams and Alf reda Steinei]\;er. Two hundred and fifty comprise the population. The INIethodist Church is vacant and the Episco])al Church has been con^-erted into a Modern Woodmen hall, but the Congregational Church is presided over by Rev. Fi-ederick Kempster.

Mr. L. E. Lippineott's orchestra of sixty pieces is an institution. The same gentleman also has a photograph studio and job printing establishment.

The telephone exchange is operated l)y Mrs. Lucy LTtley. Prank Starks, the contractor, is kept busy all the time. Then too the powerhouse, which furnishes light for the village and power for the railroad, deserves more than passing mention. The Illinois Northern Utilities Company have contracted to install very soon a powerful generator which will revolutionize the service offered Lee Center and Bradford.

The Modern Woodmen of America have a membership of 140. A. P. Jeanblanc is Y. C. ; L. E. Lippincott is W. A. ; Charles N. Frost, clerk; Philo L. Berry, banker, and Reinhart Aschenbrenner, P. W. Harck, Jr., and G. W. Puller are trustees.

There are eight^^-four members of Abigail Lodge of Rebekahs. Mrs. Genevieve Prost is N. G. ; Laura A. Bronson, V. G. ; Ada Henschel, recording secretary; Addie Pomeroy, financial secretary; Ada Miller, treasurer, and Eva Miller, chaplain.

There are sixty members of Lee Center Lodge 146, Ancient Pree and Accepted Masons, established in 1856. Prank Kesselring is W. M. ; Pred Gross.is S. W. ; Warren Leake, J. W. ; Reinhart Hillison, S. D. ; P. S. Berry, J. D. ; A. Aschenbrenner, secretary ; John C. Smith, treasurer, and J. B. Piatt, tyler.

Haskell Lodge 1004, Independent Order Odd Pellows, has eighty-six members. G. Hasselberg is N. G. ; H. Brunson, V. G. ; G. L. Richardson, recording secretary; A. J. Carlson, financial secretary; G. P. Miller, treasurer, and George Perry, chaplain; F. Kempster is district deputy.