New Lenox Township

New Lenox Township

This pretty little village is situated on the banks of Hickory Creek, and on the Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, thirty-three miles from Chicago, and about six miles from Joliet. It is surrounded by a beautiful grove of timber, and grand old forest-trees shade it in Summer and protect it against the storms of Winter. The village of New Lenox was laid out in 1858 by George Gaylord, of Lockport, and surveyed by A. J. Mathewson, County Surveyor. The village is known on the original plat by the name of Tracy, and was given in honor of the General Superintendent of the railroad at the time of the layingout of the village. But with a modesty rarely met with in tne present day, he shrank from such notoriety, and at his urgent request, the name was changed to New Lenox, to correspond with the name of the township. A man of the name of Robinson built the first residence in the village, and Van Horne put up the next one. Both of these were built before .the village was laid out.

The first storehouse was erected by Paschal Woodward, who owned both the building and the stock, though it was managed by a man named Haines. The first post office was established in 1858, and John B. Saulsbury was appointed the first Postmaster. The mail-bags are now handled by Ward Knickerbocker. An excellent-grain warehouse was built by Samuel Woodward, and is now owned by the railroad company and rented by George Hilton, who handles grain pretty extensively. The first schoolhouse was built long before the village was laid out, and stood just across the street from Ward Knickerbocker's store. The present handsome school edifice was built in 1869, is a two-story frame and cost about $3,000. Prof. Frank Searles is principal of the schocl, and employs an assistant during the Winter seasou. The following is a summary of the business carried on in the village: Three stores - W. Knickerbocker, Tunis Lynk and George Hilton; three blacksmith-shops, one grain warehouse, two wagon-shops, one hotel, one tin-shop, one physician - Dr. F. W. Searles. J.B. Saulsbury carries on a butter-factory, which is quite an establishment, and adds materially to the importance and business of the village. He does not make cheese, but devotes his entire attention to the manufacture of butter, and works up from four to five thousand pounds of milk daily, which is made up on shares for his patrons.

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

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