Sterling Township (part 2 of 5)

German Lutheran Chu7-ch: - This church forms the German branch of the Lutheran church in Sterling, and was organized in 1874 with only six members. The roll has been steadily increasing until it now reaches over forty. Services are held every Sabbath at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Rev. F. Luskey has charge of the church, in connection with one at Round Grove.

1870 by the Lutherans of Swedish birth or extraction, with a membership originally of only eleven. Now there are fifty. Rev. Mr. Boomer is the pastor, and has two charges in addition to the one in Sterling. The church edifice is yet small, but very neatly fitted up. The Sunday School has an attendance of twenty-five scholars, with John Lawson as Superintendent, assisted by four teachers.

Evangelical Association: - The church and society is made up of German families, and was organized in 1865, the members of the church being five in niimber. At present there are forty-five. The church edifice was erected in

1871 at a cost of twenty-five hundred dollars. Rev. Mr. Burckhardt is the pastor. The Sunday School has fifty scholars, with John Meister as Superintendent, assisted by six teachers.

Christian Church: - The Christian Church was organized in 1875, with twenty members, and hold services at Farwell Hall. Elder J. H. Wright is the pastor. The membership is now about one hundred. A flourishing Sunday School of over fifty scholars is attached to the church, under the superintendence of W. F. Eastman, one of the editors and proprietors of the Sterling

Educational Institutions: - The First Ward School, and now District No. 7, in Sterling township, was organized in 1856. The district at that time was unable to build a school house, but Mr. Hezekiah Brink, always ready for any emergency of the kind, came promptly to the rescue, and put up a stone house which was rented for school purposes until 1860, when the present building on Spring street, between Fourth and Fifth was erected, costing three thousand dollars. The district employs three teachers. The grounds have a large number of native shade trees, making them very attractive. The average attendance of pupils in 1877 is two hundred and twenty. The School Directors are, E. Bowman, A. Landis, L. H. Woodworth.

The Second Ward School forms District No. 3, and the school for quite a time was held in a wooden building erected in 1859, on the ground where the present building now stands. The building originally cost two thousand dollars, and with some addition served until 1867, when the noble structure which is now the pride of Sterling was erected. This building is four stories high including basement, and contains eleven well furnished school rooms which will seat six hundred pupils. Its original cost was sixty-five thousand dollars. School was first opened in it on the first of April, 1867, under the principalship of Prof. C, C. Buell, with five assistants. The school has grown steadily since that time, until thirteen teachers have to be employed. The Principals of the school have been successively: Clinton C. Buell, Mrs. S. S. Robertson, Harlan_ P. French, 0. J. Stowell, M. W. Smith, and Alfred Bayliss. The school is organized into four departments - Primary, Intermediate, Grammar, and High School, the three lower departments being divided into grades. The time spent in a grade is not fixed, but pupils are advanced as fast as their abilities demand. The High School course covers a period of three years. The first class graduated in 1873, and among them are some of the most successful teachers in that school, as well asin others in the county. The number of scholars now attending the school is over six hundred, filling every room to its utmost capacity. The number of graduates so far have been: 1873, nine; 1874, eleven; 1875, eleven; 1876, sixteen; 1877, nine. The Second Ward has had for sometime a Board of Education, the present one being composed as follows: John G. Manahan, P]lias LeFevre, W. F. Eastman, lialph B. Colcord, M. S. Henry, and Sidney T. (3smer.

The Third Ward School comprises District No. 8, of the township, and was organized in 1866. Until 1874 the departments of the school were kept in three wooden buildings originally erected at a cost of about five thousand dollars These buildings were separated from each other, and caused a great deal of inconvenience. As the Ward grew in population, it was found that now buildings had to be erected for the convenience of teachers and scholars, and in 1874 the present imposing structure was erected at a cost of twenty-eight thousand dollars, including heating apparatus, wells, fencing, etc. The building is constructed of Milwaukee pressed brick, and situated on Fourth street, between E and F streets, and has a seating capacity for five hundred pupils, every department being now occupied, recjuiring nine teachers. The rapid growth of the Ward will soon call for more school room. The Board of Directors consist of William A. Sanborn, B. C. Church, and James M. Wallace.

To show the generous manner in which the citizens of Sterling support their schools, we append the following tables of taxes for school purposes from 1865 to 1876.

Churches And Other Organizations

The Edwards Seminary was instituted in 1875, the school year of 1876 showing an attendance of one hundred students, requiring the labor of three teachers.

We omitted to mention particularly the school districts outside of the city while writing up the township. District No. 1, is known as the Science Ridge District, the school house being located nearly in the center of Section 10. The number of children under twenty-one years of age in the district is about one hundred and twenty -five. B. F. Hendricks is the Principal; the amount of tax raised for school purposes in 1876, was $492,03. Mount Parnassus, or District No 2, has the school house located on the northeast corner of Section 23, and is liberally patronized; the tax in this district in 1876 for school purposes was $512,84. District No. 9 is a union district embracing territory in the townships of Jordan and Hopkins, as well as Sterling, the school house being located on the northwest corner of Section 5.

Rack River Lodge No. 612, A. F. & A. M. : - This Lodge was instituted in 1868, the charter members being M. S. Bowman, George L. Kline, N. W. Brown, Andrew J. Tuller, R. Laurie, W. S. Peebles, Henry S. Street, J. W\ Wallace, A. A. Terrell, Chas. M. Worthington, L. C. Johnson. The first ofiicers were: M. S. Bowman, W. M.; George L. Kline, S. W.; N. W. Brown, J. W.; Andrew J. Tuller, Treasurer; R. Laurie, Secretary; W. S. Peebles, S. D. The Lodge held its communications for several years in the Boynton Block, where they had a nicely fitted Lodge room, but in time it became too small for the number of members, and when Hull & Ingersoll put up their fine block on the northwest corner of ThiVd and A streets, a more commodious room, together with others needed for the proper performance of the work, and regular Lodge business, were secured. The Lodge room is beautifully furnished with Brussels carpet, and elegant and appropriate furniture. It is also lighted with gas, the chandeliers being rich and heavy. In size and appointments it is equal to any in this section of the State. Regular communications are held on the first and third Fridays of each month. The following are the present officers of the Lodge: M. S. Bowman. W. M.; T. Y. Davis, S. W.; William A. McCune, J. W.; G. B. Kitel, Treasurer; W. S. Peebles, Secretary; C. F.Ward, S. D.; D. Gould, J. D.; J. W. Niles, S. S.; H.,W. Earle, J. S.; W. Murray, Tyler.

Rock River Co^incil No. 33, R. & S. 31. : - This Council meets at Masonic Hall, on the first Tuesdays of each month. The present officers are: M. S. Bowman, T. J. G. M.; Lorenzo Hapgood, J). G. M.; Sidney T. Osmer, P. C. of W.; Henry S. Street, Capt. of G.; T. Y. Davis, Conductor; G. B. Kitel, Treasurer; W. S. Peebles, Racorder; J. M. Martin, Steward; T. Fulton, Sentinel.

Sterling Lodge No. 174, /. 0. 0. F. : - Sterling Lodge was instituted October 12, 1855, when the present city was even yet in its infancy, the charter members being. Miles S. Henry, Edward N. Kirk, Lorenzo Hapgood, George H. "Wells, Amos Tapscott, and Andrew McMoore. It has been a flourishing one from the start, the best of feeling always existing between its members. The Lodge room is over Stambaugh's paint store, opposite the Postoffice, on Mulberry street, and is elegantly fitted up and arranged. It is one of the wealthiest Lodges in Northwestern Illinois, having several thousand dollars in its treasury, besides owning one of the finest cemeteries in Rock River Valley. This cemetery comprises two acres of ground, on an elevated piece of land overlooking Rock river, and is beautifully laid out with gravelled walks and drives. Prominent among its monuments is that of Van J, Adams, one of Sterling's most valued citizens. The cemetery was first designed for members of the Order only, but its beauty attracted the attention of those not belonging to it, and it was finally decided to sell lots to all. The present officers are: E. V. H. Alexander, N. G.; C. E. Goshert, V. G.; A. Bayliss, R. S.; J. M. Roper, P. S.; W. A. Golder, Treasurer; Sidney T. Osmer, A. A. Terrell, Henry S. Street, Samuel Sigler, C. W. Harden, Trustees. In connection with the Lodge is iibraham Encampment, No. 49, instituted March 21, 1860, and Rebecca Degree Lodge No. 26, instituted July 28, 1870, both of which are in a prosperous condition.

Knights of Pythias : - Corinthian Lodge No. 63, Knights of Pythias, was organized November 23, 1875, with twenty-one members. Now there are over forty. Officers: Julius E. Pappe, Past Chancellor; E. G. Allen, Chancellor Commander; Aaron J. Hull, Vice Chancellor; Caleb C. Johnson, Prelate; H. R. Edwards, Keeper of Records and Seals; John S. Miller, Master of the Exchequer; 0. J. Stowell, Master of Finance; William A. McCune, Master at Arms; J. W. R. Stambaugh, Inner Guard; A. M. Burkey, Orator. The object of the organization is friendship and benevolence.

Ancient Order United Workmen: - Union Lodge No. 3, Sterling, was organized February 13, 1875, with fourteen charter members, by 0. J. Noble, D.

E. L. Wilson, Receiver; James Summers, Watchman; E. G. Feigley, Guide; S. S. Lukens, E. D. Jackson, C. U. Crandall, Trustees;" and S. S. Lukens, W. H. Cadwell, and W. S. Wilcox, Representatives to the Grand Lodge. The officers for the present term are: W. A. Hall, P. M. W.; H. S. Tuttle, M. W.; W. N. Harrison. G. F., J. K. Aument, 0.; H. S. Hooke, Recorder; F. S. Aument, Financier; E. L. Wilson, Receiver; G. W. Capp, J. W.; Rae Frazier, 0. W.; G. M. Brown, Guide; W. A. Hall, G. M. Brown, C. U. Crandall, Dr. F. W. Gordon, Trustees; S. S. Lukens, W. S. Wilcox, and E. S. Wilson, Representatives to the Grand Lodge. The Past Masters are: S. S. Lukens, W. H. Cadwell, W. S. Wilcox, W. H. Tuttle, M. H. Culver, and W. A. Hall. The present membership is over fifty.

Churches And Other Organizations, 443

May, 1873, with twenty charter members. The object of the Order is to render such needed assistance as may be required by the families of the unemployed members, more particularly in case of sickness and death.

Germania Macnncrchor: - This Society, which is now one of the largest in Sterling, was organized in June, 1869, and incorporated in 1874. The organization was effected under the leadership of Prof. Fred. Buck, and other wellknown musicians and singers. The first ofiicers were: L. Stoeckle, President; G. A. Schober, Secretary; and E. Ellinger, Treasurer. The first meetings of the Society were held in the hall, now the present Council Room, over the Postofiice, on Slulberry street. The membership grew so rapidly, however, that the Society erected a building of its own, a few doors south of the Postoffice, the second story of which they now use. The building is of brick, and thirty-six by seventy feet in size. The hall is beautifully fitted up, and every convenience made for the comfort and pleasure of the organization. The stage of itself is fifteen by thirty-five feet, and is supplied with a large variety of rich and splendid scenery. The music of this Society is of a high order, both vocal and instrumental. The membership now numbers over one hundred, and is composed of many of the best German citizens of Sterling. The regular meetings of the Society are held on the first Tuesday of each month, but there are singing meetings on every Monday and Thursday evenings of each week, from 8 to 9 o'clock. The present officers are: B. Struckmann, President; G. Naef, Vice President; August Frank, Recording Secretary; Adam Hutten, Finance Secretary; David Wolf, Cashier; G. Naef, Janitor; Prof. Fred. Buck, Leader; F. Haberle, Nicholas Gaulrapp, and David Wolf, Trustees.

Sterling Turnverein Society: - This Society was organized in June, 1873, and has grown to be a leading one of its kind in this section of the country. Their hall is on Locust street, between Fourth and Fifth. It is forty by sixty feet in size, with fifteen feet in the clear, and contains all the gymnastic and other appliances peculiar to such institutions. The membership is now over eighty. The business meetings are held on the first Tuesday of each month, and those for the practice of gymnastics on Tuesday and Friday evenings of each week.

Sterling Reading Room Association: - This Association is a private incorporation, and was organized several years ago, its object being to furnish suitable accommodation for reading and library rooms, and also for recreation and amusement. The rooms are located in the second story of Hull and Ingersoll's block, corner of Third and A streets, and are finely and comfortably fitted up for the convenience of the members, and such friends as they choose to invite. Their reading tables are supplied with a large number of newspapers and magazines, and their book shelves with a choice variety of books. The officers are: Henry S. Street, President; F. L. Ingersoll, Secretary; George B. Kitel, Treasurer; H. S. Street, Samuel C. Harvey, and William McCune, Trustees.

Sterling Christian Association: - This Association was organized in the spring of 1873, its object being the promotion of Christian fraternity, union in evangelical labors, and the circulation of unexceptionable literature. The rooms of the Association are on Mulberry street, between Third and Fourth. Union prayer meetings have been held for most of the time since its organization. In the fall of 1873 the Association founded a free Reading Room, for the maintenance of which one thousand dollars were freely subscribed by the citizens at the start. The Reading Room was opened to the public on the first of January, 1874. The Sterling Library Association placed six hundred volumes of their books in the room, besides which several hundred volumes have been added by purchase and donation. The tables are also supplied with a large number of the best newspapers and magazines. The rooms are open from 8 A. m. to 9 P. M. The officers of the Christian Association and the Reading Room are the same, and are as follows: Rev. J. T. Mason, President; M. H. Kreider, Vice President; W. F. Eastman, Secretary; R. B. Witmer, Treasurer; B. C. Church, Librarian; Mrs. C. Bowman, Acting Librarian.

Stcrluig Temperance Reform Cluh: - This club was organized February 21, 1875, after a series of meetings held by the celebrated temperance lecturer, Francis Murphy. Five hundred and fifty names were enrolled at the time of the organization, and the number has been considerably increased since. The club holds its meetings in Bobbin's Hall, in the rear of the First National Bank, every Saturday evening. The officers are: P]. L. Champlin, President; Wm. Little, T. H. Mack, E. E. Hecker, Vice Presidents; S. B. Dill, Secretary; M. M. Warner, Treasurer; T. H. Mack, Corresponding Secretary.

Sterling Reform Protection Cluh: - This club was organized in 1876, and is composed wholly of reformed men. Meetings are held every Tuesday evening at the Union Temperance Rooms, 441 Third street. M. B. Fitzgerald is President, and E. L. Champlin, Secretary.

Ladies Relief Association: - The Ladies' Relief Association, of Sterling, was organized in June, 1874, the object being the noble one of bestowing relief upon the worthy destitute of the city, and at the same time advance the cause of temperance. Since the organization of the society a large number of indigent persons have been seen, and their wants provided for. The society is growing in strength and influence, and is one of the best institutions in the city. It is composed of about one hundred of the first ladies of the town - ladies who mean to relieve the distressed. The meetings arc set for every Friday afternoon at the Christian Association Rooms. The present officers are: Mrs. J. T. Mason, President; Mrs. Nelson Maxson, Vice President; Mrs. M. H. Kreider, Treasurer; Mrs. E. M. Smith, Secretary; Mrs. R. C. Andrews, Corresponding Secretary.

Sterling Lecture Association: - This Association was organized in 1874, and had its first course of lectures and entertainments during the following winter. Each course has been largely attended, and proved of incalculable benefit. The best lecturers are secured, and although the expense is large, the citizens have promptly responded, thereby making the efi'ort a financial success. Such an Association is worthy of any city or town. A. A. Terrell is the President; Joseph M. Patterson, Treasurer; and H. B. Utley, Secretary.

Biographical

Republic, was organized June 15, 1874, with twenty-three charter members. The officers elected at that time were: Frank W. Gordon, Post Commander; J. W. 11. Stanibau<i,h, Senior P. C; S. S. Bradshaw, Junior P. C; E. H. Kingery, Quartermaster; Theo. H. Mack, Adjutant; W. N. Harrison, Officer of the Day; llev. J. H. More, Chaplain; Dr. Thomas Eckles, Surgeon; Andrew K. Haberer, Officer of the Guard; H. H. Higby, Sergeant Major; William Little, Quartermaster Sergeant. These officers are in the main the present ones. The meetings of the Post were first held in theannory of the City Guards, Farwell Hall, and afterwards in the Hall of the 0. U. A. M., Boyntou Block. A new Hall was then nicely fitted up in Stoeckle's building, on Third street, which is now jointly occupied by the G. A. R.; 0. U. A. W.; and A. 0. U. W. The meetings of the Post are set down for every Wednesday evening.

Sterling City Guards: - The Sterling City Guards were organized in 1870, and were then composed mostly of veterans of the War of the Rebellion. The Guards have always maintained a high order of efficiency in tactics and drill, and undoubtedly stand among the first military companies in the State. They have been highly complimented wherever they have taken part in reunions, celebrations, etc.

Sterling Cemetery Association: - This Association was organized February 16, 1865, and soon secured a beautiful location in the upper part of the town, at the east end of Third street. The Cemetery comprises about fifty acres of beautifully rolling ground, interspersed with a natural growth of trees and shrubs, making the landscape scenery unsurpassed. In it are interred many of Sterling's departed, and the burial places of many of them have monuments of elegant design and finish erected to their memory. The officers are: S. S. Patterson, President; Wm. A. Sanborn, Treasurer; Hon. James Dinsmoor, Secretary; and J. M. Gait, Superintendent. The old cemetery of Sterling was located over thirty years ago, and contains about two acres. The entrance is at the north end of Locust street. The Odd Fellows Cemetery is mentioned in the notice of the Lodge. The Mennonites have a cemetery of about two acres, which was laid out in 1869. The entrance is near the north end of Locust street. No other persons besides those belonging to the Mennonite church are buried in this cemetery. The old cemetery used by the citizens of Sterling was abandoned some years ago, and the remains have mostly been taken toother cemeteries.

Whiteside County Agricidtural Society: - This Society was organized at Morrison in 1855, but for the past ten years the Fairs have been held on their grounds located on the river, just west of the distillery, in Sterling. It is in a very flourishing condition, and largely attended at all of the annual meetings. More full notice of this Society will be found on page 99 of this history.

We add to the biographies already given in the history of Sterling township, the following of some of the leading representative business citizens of the city of Sterling, and to whom it is indebted for much of its present wealth and prosperity. Space precludes giving a greater number:

Thomas A. Galt was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, January 13, 1828. His education was obtained at the common school, and even this was interrupted at intervals by work on the farm upon which he was brought up. The death of his father when he was only fourteen years of age, compelled him to rely entirely upon his own exertions for a livelihood. He first engaged as a clerk in Concord, Pennsylvania, and afterwards at Strasburg, and Philadelphia, in the same State, and continued as such until 1849 when he entered into business for himself at Strasburg, in which he was quite successful. Finding the place unsuited to his enterprising nature lie sold his property there in 1855, and upon leaving the town came to Sterling with the intention at first of visiting some relatives. Upon arriving there he found a good point for business, and determined to remain. His first enterprise was in the hardware trade in company with D. M. Crawford, the firm name being Gait & Crawford. This firm continued until 1858, when Mr. Crawford retired, and Mr. Gait admitted his brother, John M., into partnership, the firm name being then changed to Gait & Brother. The business was continued under this name until 1863, when two additional partners were brought into the firm. During the same year Mr. Gait, in addition to his hardware store, commenced the manufacture of farm implements, and shortly after doing so became associated with George S. Tracy, who was then carrying on a planing mill in Sterling. Under this consolidation the mill and the manufactory were merged into one establishment, under the firm name of Gait & Tracy. The title of "Keystone Works" was shortly afterwards adopted. In 1864 the manufacturing undertaking had grown to such an extent as to demand Mr. Gait's whole attention, and he therefore sold his interest in the hardware business to his other partners, and retired finally from the retail trade. The wholesale manufacturing business as he continued in it became highly successful. In July, 1867, the whole premises and stock of the factory were destroyed by fire, causing a loss to the firm of some thirty thousand dollars, the property being uninsured. The activity and vim which were characteristic of Mr. Gait's natui'e, were not crushed by this blow, and measures were soon taken for the restoration of the firm's business. The factory in Sterling was rebuilt, and so vigorously was the work pushed forward that in three weeks from the fire the new structure was not only finished, but furnished with machinery, including engine and boiler. This factory was appropriated to sash and door manufacturing, and planing mill. In the meantime, the firm purchased a water privilege and some land at Rock Falls, opposite Sterling, and commenced a new factory, including foundry, machine shops, and implement works, which were pushed on so vigorously that within three months from the burning of the old works, the new were all in working order. This manufactory was the first one of any kind erected in Rock Falls. Within fifteen months after commencing business the firm turned out about fifteen hundred agricultural machines of all kinds, besides a large amount of wood work from the planing mill. In 1870 the trade had increased so much that a joint stock company was incorporated under the name of the Keystone Manufacturing Company, with a capital of $150,000, which has since been increased to $350,000. The officers were: Thomas A. Gait, President, and George S. Tracy, Vice President and Superintendent. This Company is now among the largest manufacturers of farm implements in the West, and their trade extends throughout the United States, and Central and South America. Mr. Gait is also interested in several other manufacturing firms in Rock Falls, and Sterling. In addition to his other enterprises, Mr. Gait commenced the erection of the Gait House, in 1876, and completed it in 1877, at a cost of $65,000. A description of this structure will be found in the history of Sterling. In connection with George S. Tracy, he is engaged the present year (1877) in erecting a large block on the southeast corner of Locu-st and Fourth streets, at a cost of $45,000. The building is three stories in height, with a basement, and has a front of one hundred and forty-two feet on Locust street, and ninety feet on Fourth street. The first floor is divided into three large double stores. The south part of the second floor will be used for the Free Reading Room and Library, and the fronts on Locust and Fourth streets, on the same floor for offices. The Fourth street front will be occupied as a Conservatory of Music, and the main part of the second and third floors is designed for an Academy of Music, to be used for public purposes. Mr. Gait may fairly be regarded as the manufacturing pioneer of this section of the country, and his successful progress from the condition of a poor and fatherless boy to his present position of wealth and influence, is an evidence of the natural result of determined and persistent efi"ort. He was elected Mayor of Sterling in 1867, and served one term, besides which he has held no public official position.

Ansel A. Terrell is a native of Exetei-, Otsego county. New York, and was born October 19, 1831. He received only a common school education, and when quite young turned his attention to the manufacture of cotton goods, and continued in that business until 1854 when he went to Northampton, Massachusetts, and engaged with the Bay State Tool Company in the manufacture of hoes, forks, and edge tools. In 1856, he came to Illinois and became a clerk in the then extensive dry goods establishment of Cumins & House at Grand De- Tour, Ogle county, and remained in that capacity until 1859 when he settled in Sterling, and entered the grocery and crockery trade with Henry G. Harper, under the firm name of Terrell & Harper. In 1859, he sold his interest in the business to Mr. Harper, and in 1862 was appointed Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue, and in 1869 a United States Internal Revenue Storekeeper, both of which positions he held until 1871, when he resigned, and became actively engaged with the Sterling School Furniture Company as Secretary, and finally as General Manager. He was elected School Director for the Second Ward, Sterling, in 1866, and succeeded in having the large and elegant school building in that Ward erected during his term of office. In 1862, he was elected Alderman for the Second Ward, Sterling, but resigned after serving one year. In 1869, he was again elected and served two years. In 1864, he was elected Supervisor of the township of Sterling, and re-elected in 1865. In all these positions he discharged the duties ably, faithfully, and to the entire acceptance of the Government, and the people. Mr. Terrell is one of those active, thorough, go-ahead business men to whom the town in which they reside is indebted for much of its spirit and enterprise. Sterling is certainly much indebted to him for a great deal of its development.

Joseph M. Patterson was born in Mt. Joy, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, August 12, 1837, and received a thorough academic course of education. He came to Sterling in the spring of 1857, and entered as a partner in the firm of Patterson, Witmer & Co., and continued as such until January, 1866. When the late war broke out, he entered heartily in the work of assisting to raise troops, and in 1861 joined Company B, 15th Illinois Volunteers, as an enlisted man, and was soon afterwards made Orderly Sergeant. In February, 1862, he was promoted to Second Lieutenant of the same Company, and in 1863 to First Lieutenant. In 1864, he was honorably mustered out, having served in the army three years. He retained his interest in the firm of Patterson, Witmer & Co., while in the service, and upon being mustered out, entered actively again into the business. In 1867, he became a member of the banking firm of Rogers, Patterson & Co., and remained with it until its dissolution, and then became a member of the present banking firm of Patterson & Co. Mr. Patterson was elected Alderman for the Second Ward, Sterling, in 1868, and served two years. During the time he was Alderman he was elected Supervisor of the township, and served four years, when he resigned, having been elected in the fall of 1872 as a Senator for the Eleventh Senatorial District, to the General Assembly. While a member of the Board of Supervisors he served two years as chairman. In 1876, he was again elected Supervisor, and served one year, and at the charter election in the spring of 1877 was elected Mayor of the city of Sterling, which position he now holds. To the duties of each of these positions he brought a clear, active, comprehensive mind, and sound judgment, and that he discharged the duties of the trusts ably and well is universally acknowledged. Mr. Patterson is one of the leading business men of Sterling.

R. B. "WiTMER was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, August 8, 1827, and was engaged in mercantile pursuits while a resident of that county. He came to Sterling in the summer of 1855, and during the same year engaged in mercantile business as one of the members of the firm of Patterson & Witmer. Business was done under that name for several years, when James Gait became a member, and the firm name was changed to that of Patterson, Witnier & Gait. Mr. Gait soon withdrew, and his place was taken by Joseph M. Patterson, and the firm became Patterson, Witmer & Co. In 1866, Mr. Witmer purchased the interest of the Messrs Patterson, and assumed sole charge of the business. He soon afterwards took in a partner, and the firm became Witmer & Co., and so remained until 1872 when the Sterling Mercantile Company was formed, of which he was the principal stock holder, and so continues. Mr. Witmer has steadily refused to accept any public position, as his extensive private business has demanded all of his time. He has been for a long time one of the leading men in the temperance movement in Sterling, and to his efforts in a great measure is due the fact that Sterling is a no license town. Mr. Witmer is an active, energetic man, and to him Sterling is much indebted for its rapid growth.

William A. Sanborn is a native of Perrysburgh, Cattaraugus county, New York, and was born January 13, 1832. He resided in his native State until the spring of 1852, when he came to Chicago, but remained there only a short time, and then returned to New York. In the fall of 1853 he again came to Illinois, and located at LaSalle. During the following spring he went to Chicago, and in November, 1854, came to Sterling in the employ of the contractors who had the completion of the railroad in charge. Soon after settling in Sterling he engaged in the coal, and agricultural implement trade, and was also express agent, holding the latter position until 1858. In 1860 he established a private banking house, which he conducted until 1870, when, through his influence, the First National Bank of Sterling was chartered and commenced business. He was chosen its first cashier, and has held the position ever since. When Sterling became a city Mr. Sanborn was elected its first Treasurer, and held the office for a number of years. In 1877, he was elected Supervisor of Sterling township, and is a leading member of the Board. He is an able financier, and has done much in other business capacities to add to the development of Sterling.

David M. Crawford was born in Buyerstown, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, April 5, 1830. Previous to his coming West he was for three years a clerk in a large mercantile establishment in Philadelphia. He came to Sterling in the spring of 1850, and in 1852 became a partner in the firm of Gait Jk, Crawford, remaining with it for three years, and then with Thomas A. Gait engaged in the hardware business, lie remained in the hardware trade until 1858 when he established a dry goods store, in connection with his bi other, J. L. Crawford. The firm continued until the death of his brother, when he assumed entire charge, and so continued until 1871, when James A. Gait, and E. Diller Davis, became partners with him, the firm name becoming D. M. Crawford & Co., and has so remained. Mr. Crawford has devoted his whole attention to business, resisting all efforts to induce him to accept public positions. As a business man and a citizen, he stands deservedly high.

28, 1829, and was brought up on a mountain farm until he was sixteen years of age. lie then went to Newark, New Jersey, and commenced tlie nursery business which he continued until 1849. During that year he went around the cape to California, and engaged in mining about a year, and then went to Chili, and Peru, in South America, and was engaged for five years constructing railroads in those countries. At the end of that time he returned to California, and engaged in mining and building, continuing in these occupations for about a year and a half, when he went back to Massachusetts. In 1857, he came to Sterling and started a planing mill, and sash and door factory, which he carried on part of the time individually, and part of the time with partners, until 1863, when he entered into partnership with Thomas A. Gait, in the manufacturing business, under the firm name of Gralt & Tracy, the firm being still in existence. The business conducted by this firm is particularly referred to in the biography of Thomas A. Gait, which precedes this. Mr. Tracy has served as Alderman of the city of Sterling, but has refused to take other positions, as he desired to confine his attention strictly to business. He is one of the most respected citizens of Sterling.

James M. Wallace is a native of Whiteside county, and was born October 25, 1841. He was educated at the Mt. Carroll and Galesburg Academies and upon coming home commenced the study of law which he had continued after returning from the army, and was admitted to practice January 1, 1867. In the fall of 1862 he went into the army as a member of Hawthorne's Battery, afterwards Henshaw's Battei-y, serving as Sergeant Major. This Battery was incorporated in the 23d Army Corps, and their first duty was to assist in driving Morgan, the rebel raider, out of Ohio. The Corps followed him for seven hundred and fifty miles, and finally drove him back into the rebel States, capturing before doing so a large part of his force. Mr. Wallace was in all the principal campaigns in East Tennessee and Kentucky, and was honorably mustered out of the service, July 19, 1865. He is in the insurance business, in partnership with his brother, Hamilton, besides conducting his legal business, aud is also connected with several of the enterprises of Sterling. During the present year Mr. Wallace has re-purchased the Wallace House property, and has added largely to the size of the building, besides refitting it in a splendid manner, which will make it in every respect a first class hotel. He has also erected during the year the fine three story brick block on the corner of Third and B streets, now occupied by the Sterling Mercantile Company, and is engaged in other building projects in that part of the city. While occupying the position of School Director he superintended the erection of the present elegant school building in District No. 8, Third Ward. He has also been Alderman of the city, and assistant Supervisor of the township, holding each position for several terms. He is a gentleman of enterprise and ability.

Bradford C. Church is a native of Portageville, Wyoming county. New York, and was born April 28, 1835. At the age of nineteen he came to Chicago, and was a clerk in a store in that city for five years, when he went to Kankakee, Illinois, and carried on the hardware business for three years. From Kankakee he went to Morris, Grundy county, Illinois, where he also engaged in the hardware trade, remaining five years. In the spring of 1868 he came to Sterling, and soon afterwards became interested in the milling business. In 1871 he entered into partnership with Samuel Patterson, the firm name being Church & Patterson. This firm have two mills in operation, and do the largest milling business in the county. Mr. Church was elected Mayor of the city of Sterling in 1875, and filled the position so acceptably to the people that he was re-elected in 1876. He is one of Sterling's active, and most valued citizens.

E. W. Edson was born in Hazelton, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, in 1834, and came with his parents to Dixon, Illinois, in 1837. His education was received at Rock River University, Mt. Morris, Ogle county. Among his classmates were Governor Shelby M. Cullom, Gen. John A. Rawlins, and Judge Moses Hallett, United States Judge in Colorado. The four roomed together for some time. When Mr. Edson left the University, he was employed for eight years in school teaching. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he joined the Sturgis Rifles, at Chicago. The company was an independent one, and performed guard duty at Gen. McClellan's headquarters until that officer was relieved of his command, when it was mustered out of service. In March, 18G3, Mr. Edson went to California, and engaged in business in San Francisco for four years. In 1867 he returned to Illinois, and settled in Sterling, where he has since remained, carrying on the dry goods trade during the whole time. He has been School Director, and xUderman for the Third "Ward, Sterling, and is now a member of the Board of Aldermen, from that Ward. Mr. Edson is a public spirited man, and takes a deep interest in all that pertains to the prosperity and growth of the city of his adoption.

Aaron J. Hull is a native of the town of Lewisboro, Westchester county, New York, and was born November 13, 1833. He first came west in 1857. and remained about six months on a prospecting tour, and then returned to New York. In 1858 he came back, and located in Sterling, where he opened a wholesale rectifying establishment, and conducted the business for seven years, when he closed out, and entei-ed into the hardware business, on Locust street. He continued in that trade about a year, and commenced the iron foundry business, in connection with Frank T. June, the firm name being Hull & June. The business was afterwards changed, and resulted in the organization of the present School Furniture Company, of which he was President for three years. Mr. Hull patented the first school seats manufactured by the company. On the 1st of January, 1871, he resigned his position as President of the School Furniture Company, and in the following June commenced the manufacture of pumps. One of his patents is a valve to use in any kind of pump for sandy wells. On the 8th of December, 1875, he patented " Hull's Double Surface Washboard," about five hundred of which are manufactured daily by the Sterling Pump Works Company, of which company he has been Pi-esident from its organization. Mr. Hull has been frequently elected Alderman of the city of Sterling, and is now one of the members of the Board from the Third Ward. Mr. Hull was educated in the common schools of his native State.

John S. Miller is a native of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and was born April 13, 1849. He lived there until 1857, when he came with his father's family to Freeport, Illinois, and continued to reside there until 18G4, when he moved to Chicago. In 1865 he came to Sterling, and took charge of the business of the distillery erected and run by his father, John S. Miller, Sr. Upon the death of his father, in February, 1874, he assumed sole control of the business. In June, 1877, the entire interest in the distillery came into his hands and that of his brother, William H. Miller, the firm name becoming J. S. Miller it Co. The distillery is the second largest one in the United States, the business amounting yearly to about one and a half million dollars, exclusive of the Government tax, which is yearly about one million seven hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Miller is a large stockholder in the First National Bank of Sterling, and has been President of the institution since 1874. He is yet a young man, and possesses business abilities of a very high order,

Source changes here: from Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois : Containing Full-page Portraits and Biographies of All the Governors of Illinois, and of the Presidents of the United States, by Chapman Brothers, published 1885; 1,258 words in this source stream.

Sterling Township

TERLING Township comprises all that part of Congressional township 2t north, range 7 east, lying north of Rock River. Originally it formed part of Harrisburg Precinct, then F.lkhorn Precinct, where it remained until organi/.ed as a civil township in 185.2. . Along the banks of the Rock River east of the city of Sterling, the land is somewhat bluffy ; back from the river it is a rolling prairie, except along Elkhorn Creek, which is broken in places and more or less covered with timber. The township is watered by Rock River and Elkhorn Creek. Stone of a good quality for building purposes is quarried at the foot of the bluffs in the upper part of Sterling and in the rapids of the river.

The finest permanent settlement of the township was made by Hezekiah Brink in 1834. He located in what is now the eastern portioto of the city of Sterling. At that time his nearest neighbor was Samuel A. McClure, at Prophetstown.

Luther Bush, an old pioneer of the township, was a native of Connecticut, but came to this county in 1836 from New York. He was a plasterer by trade, well respected and a sincere Christian. Mr. Bush died in October, 1870.

Jesse Penrose, one of the first to locate here, was from Northumberland Co., Pa. Samuel Geer came early. He was from Indiana. His wife was the mother of Hezekiah Brink.

John W. McLemore, an old pioneer of this county, came in 1836. He was a native of Tennessee. In 1839 he was Deputy Sheriff and subsequently held the office of Sheriff. He died at Sterling in 187 r.

Wright Murphy came with Mr. Chapman and lived with him. He was one of the first school-teachers in the county. During the war he enlisted, served three years, contracted disease while in the service, and died shortly after his return home to Fox River, where he had moved.

Elijah Worthington came in 1836 from Pennsylvania, though he was a native Connecticut. Purchasing part of Mr. Brink's claim, he became interested with that gentleman in the future growth of Harrisburg, but did not live long enough to witness its growth, dying in December, 1839.

Whites1De County

1836, and making a claim two miles east of Sterling. He served the county in the General Assembly of the State for two years. Mr. Adams died in April, 1871, from the effects of a kick of a vicious horse.

Henry Brewer first located in Portland Township in 1836. In 1837 he moved to this township. He was a native of New York. Mr. Brewer died in 1848.

Hugh Wallace, a prominent pioneer, came in 1837. A sketch of Mr. Wallace will be* found elsewhere. Jonathan Stevens, a native of Connecticut, came to Sterling in 1838 and died on the homestead that he then claimed in "1870.

Geo W. and James C. Woodburn were brothers, natives of Pennsylvania, who came in 1837. The latter was the first Sheriff of the county. He died in 1848. The former lived till 1872.

1837, locating two miles north of Sterling. He died in 1869. John Platt came in 1838. Henry Tuttle came to Sterling in 1837. Martin Montgomery was from New York. He died about 1862.

Ezekiel Kilgour came from Pennsylvania in 1837. He was quite a noted man in the early days, a strong temperance man, one always true to his convictions. He died Jan. 16, 1848.

Nelson Mason was from Vermont, though a native of Scotland. He was one of the original proprietors of Chatham, and was instrumental in effecting the union between that village and Harrisburg. For a number of years past, he has resided in Chicago. John 1). Barnett, who came to Chatham with Mr. Mason, remained only until 1841, when he returned East.

Margara, daughter of Hezekiah and Martha Brink, was born Feb. 25, 1836, and was, without doubt, the first white child born in what is now Sterling Township. She grew to womanhood, and in 1855 married A. B. Crandall.

A son was born to John and Sarah Ogle in May, 1837. He was doubtless the first male child. Chas. M. Worthington has usually been said to be the first. The birth of the Ogle boy is given on the authority of Mrs. E. B. Worthirigton.

The first death in the township occurred in 1838. Elijah Worthington had a claim on the south side of the river, on which another person was a trespasser. Although frequently warned, he still persisted in his lawlessness, until it was determined by citizens of Harrisburg and Chatham to teach him a lesson. As the party proceeded on the way, an accidental discharge of a gun in the hands of one of the party struck a young man in the leg, inflicting a serious wound, which rendered amputation necessary some weeks after, from which operation the patient died. His funeral occurred at Harrisburg.

Mrs. E. B. Worthington taught the first school, at her residence in Harrisburg, in the spring of 1 838. L. Whipple, William H. Andrews, John W. Chapman and Rev. Mr. Stebbins were among the early teachers of the township. At present the schools of the township, which include those of the city, are classed among the best in the State, as well as in the county.

The minister of the gospel follows steadily in the wake of the pioneer as he proceeds westward, and in the rude log cabins first erected he proclaims the unsearchable riches of Christ. This was true in Sterling as in every oilier section of the West. Hezekiah Brink, Luther Bush and others opened their cabins to the followers of the meek and lowly one, and the praise therein offered were from hearts filled with gratitude for the blessings received. Rev. Barton H. Cartwright, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was probably the first ordained minister to officiate, and in the cabin of Hezekiah Brink the first class was organized. In the history of the cily of Sterling the various organizations are treated more at length.

About one mile east of the cily of Sterling is situated the farm of Samuel Alberlson. For years it was known that abundant springs of water were there, but of their medicinal qualities nothing was known

Finally a test was made and the water analyzed by an expert chemist, proving that it contained the following qualities : Bi-carbonates of soda, lithia, potassa, iron and magnesia, sulphate and bi-carbonate of lime, and traces of the chlorides and silica. When the medicinal qualities of the water were fully determined, Mr. Albertson erected bath-houses, a large hotel and other buildings for the convenience of guests. The grounds were laid out in walks and drives, and the place assumed the appearance of a fashionable watering resort. Physicians have been constantly employed and everything done that was possible to promote the comfort and restore the health of those who sought the health-giving waters. Dr. Hannah Pettigrew was in charge for six years. Dr. E. S. Hoag is now in charge, although the works are personally under the management of Mr. Albertson. Hundreds of testimonials have been secured from those benefited. The springs are situated in a beautiful grove, and the drive to it from Sterling is over a well graveled road. Picnic parties find it a pleasant resort.

Sterling Township was organized in 1852, and at the first meeting the following named were elected : Jesse Penrose, Supervisor; Norton J. Nichols, Clerk ; Henry Tuttle, Assessor; Henry Aument, Collector ; Joseph Colder, Justice of the Peace. SUPERVISORS.

Source changes here: from History of Whiteside County, Illinois from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908 : Illustrated, with Biographical Sketches of Some Prominent Citizens of the County, by Davis, William W, published 1908; 46,418 words in this source stream.

Sterling Township

If any one walks Third street from east to west, two miles long, now lined with stores and residences, and thinks of the time when there were a few scattered cabins on either end, he will soon have an idea of the wonderful development of the city. For years there were indeed two rival towns, Harrisburg on the east and Chatham on the wast. Hezekiah Brink was the pioneer who, in June, 1834, put up the first log hut in what is now the first ward. Every year following brought accessions. In 1835 the Albertsons; in 1836 Luther Bush, Nelson Mason, Van J. Adams; in 1837 Hugh Wallace, E. B. Worthington, the Woodburns, Ezekiel Kilgour; in 1838 Luther Wetherbee, the Whipples, Jesse Penrose, Jonathan Stevens; in 1840 R. L. Wilson, John Dippell. But there was a jealousy between the two towns. Between the west line of Harrisburg and the east line of Chatham were six blocks called neutral territory. It was soon found that" to exert any influence the towns must sink their differences, and unite for the common good. This necessity was hastened by the importance of securing the county seat. At a conference in 1839 the consolidation was effected, and Sterling adopted as the name, at the suggestion of Hugh Wallace, in compliment to his friend, Col. Sterling, of Pennsylvania. Broadway was made the dividing line, and the new courthouse was erected on its west side in 1844. This became the center of business, and stores sprang up. But a large gap, a long hill still separated the eastern part of Sterling from the west. It was so as late as 1856. After the excitement due to the removal of the postoffice to the west end by Joseph Hutchison, to quiet the enraged patrons, Mr. Hutchison put up a small

Third Street, Sterling, In 1868 Library

It will be noticed that the avenues of Sterling, running north and south to the river, are much wider than the streets east and west, Rock river was considered a navigable stream, and small steamers in good stage of water came from the Mississippi. So delighted with the arrival of Capt. Harris in 1836 in his steamer Pioneer that the proud citizens of upper town named it Harrisburg in his honor. As late as 1844, when Gait and Crawford were carrying on a general store, they sent lard, butter, and other produce to St. Louis by occasional boats that made the trips up and down the river. A political incident is pleasantly recalled in connection with the block built on Third street in 1858 by J. H. Boynton. Hon. John P. Hale, the famous anti-slavery senator of New Hampshire, was advertised to speak, Oct. 30, but the wind was so wintry, that an out-door meeting was impossible, and as the partitions of the Boynton block were not up, the whole lower floor was seated, and several hundred men made comfortable. He spoke for two hours, keeping his audience in good humor with his argument, ridicule, and illustration, and there was a sigh when the genial speaker left the stand. No more delightful piece of political oratory was ever given in the city.

The Hotels

Four of the older hotels are gone, the Central House, Sterling House, the American somewhat later, the Wallace House, now the office of the Gazette. The Boynton has been metamorphosed into a European hotel. The old WTallace House, built in 1854-55 by Hugh Wallace, enjoyed a high reputation for twenty years, secured chiefly through the management of Mr. and Mrs. William McCune, who, like the landlords of English country inns, gave their personal attention to office and kitchen.

The opening of the Gait House, erected in 1877 by Thomas A. Gait, drew together the largest assemblage of prominent persons since the railroad inauguration in 1855. The reception and ball on the evening of August 21 was attended by five hundred invited guests, comprising state officers, editors, men in high station from various cities. Flowers, music, decorations, made the brilliantly lighted halls a scene of Arcadian revelry. A sumptuous banquet. Toasts and replies by Attorney General Edsall, Speaker Shaw, Congressman Burchard, Sullivan of Chicago Journal, Judge Eustace, Win. Barge, M. S. Henry, C. C. Buell, E. B. Washburne stood on the stairway, and said a few words, the last appearance of our distinguished diplomat in the city. The enterprise represents an investment of $75,000. J. H. Gray, of Chicago, was the first lessee. The building is brick, four stories above basement, and one hundred by hundred and twenty feet on the ground. Accommodations for two hundred guests.

Built a few years later is the Randolph House, corner Third and A avenue, on the site of the oldest grocery in Wallacetown, kept by Robert and Edgar Randolph, whose gray-haired father, a soldier, was until his death, the oldest citizen, and regularly given the place of honor on the platform at public celebrations. It is just north of the Northwestern station, convenient for travelers, and until her decline of health, was conducted by Mrs. Emma Randolph, widow of Edgar.

Some Early Memories

Before the cities of Sterling and Rock Falls existed, the place they occupy was called Rock river rapids. In 1837 a town of about one half mile square was laid out on the north bank of the river at the head of the rapids, called Harrisburg in honor of Capt. Harris, who ran the first steamboat up the river to this place. Soon after a town of the same size was laid out on the same side of the river, at the foot of the rapids, about one-third of a mile below Harrisburg, called Chatham. At this time the State of Illinois began a series of internal improvements, one of which was a canal up and down the rapids, to enable boats to pass them by a lock. The canal was located along the south bank of the river, and about $40,000 expended toward its construction. This gave the south side of the river a great advantage in future prospects, and a town one mile square, called Rapid City, was laid out on that side opposite Chatham, and while the state work was in progress, completely overshadowed the prospects of the two north side towns. The work done on the canal was one-half mile in length, between avenues A and D in the pre-- ent city of Rock Falls. A dry stone wall, eight feet wide at the bottom, and to be four feet wide at the top, was laid along the margin of the river far enough out from the bank to give the canal the proper width, the stone quarried from the bank to build the wall, and the stripping and waste from the quarries deposited on the river side of it, making a bank about fifty feet wide and a little higher than the wall. When the work was stopped, the wall, was from six to eight feet in height, but no part of it was completed. The failure of this work put a stop to any further improvements in Rapid City, and it passed out of existence.

When Whiteside county was organized, Lyndon was fixed upon as the county seat, and the courts were held there for a few years. The town did not furnish a suitable building in which to hold courts and keep the county records, and it became a question between the towns in different parts of the county as to which could hold out the greatest inducements and secure the prize. Harrisburg and Chatham both realized that neither could succeed if opposed by the other, and immediately decided to unite their fortunes and the towns at the same time, which they did by laying out a street north- westerly from the river bank, through the center of the piece of land between them, one hundred and fifty feet in width, called Broadway, and extending the streets in each town until they intersected it, distinguishing the numbering of the blocks, by east, or west, of Broadway. A committee from each town was authorized to decide on which side of Broadway the county building should be located, and on a name for the new town. Block fifty-seven west of Broadway was selected, and the new name was Sterling, given in honor of a personal friend of one of the committee. In 1844 a courthouse was erected, and the courts were therein located. There were then about two-thirds of the inhabitants of Sterling living east of Broadway, but as stores and hotels were built, they were mostly located west, and in 1855, when the first railroad was built, a majority of the people were living there. When the first depot was located there were but two or three buildings in the town west of Third avenue, the lower dam was built the same season, and the stone used in its construction was taken from the old canal wall, and the quarries that were opened in both banks of the river above the dam. Wallace's addition was laid out and stores, hotels, and other business enterprises grew up in the new part of the town. Mills and factories were built on the water power, and the city which was incorporated in 1857 has had a steady growth to the present time.

In 1857, Morrison, then an important station on the railroad, and located near the center of the county, raised the question of a new location for the county seat. An act was passed by the General Assembly enabling the people to vote on it. Out of a total vote of 3,203, it was carried for the town of Morrison by a majority of 59, and the county offices were moved to that place in 1858, where they have since remained.

At the time of the earliest settlement of Rock river rapids, the nearest point where the people could receive their mail, was at Dixon's ferry, where the mail route from Peoria to Galena crossed Rock river, and a postoffice was established. The first postoffice was opened within the limits of the present city of Sterling in 1837, and was kept in a store on River street, on the west side of Chestnut street in the town of Chatham.

Ferries And Bridges

In the days of Harrisburg, a ferry propelled by horse power was run across Rock River above the rapids for a few years and discontinued. From that time until the lower dam was built, the only way of crossing the river at Sterling with teams, was fording in summer, or crossing the ice in winter. A fund was raised by subscription in 1856, and the first bridge was built from avenue B, crossing the north channel to the island, from the island to the south bank. The bridge was completed with the exception of the floor planking at the south end, when it was carried out by the i<!e in the spring of 1857. The railroad bridge west of Nelson was at the same time taken from the piers and left standing with the track on it, on the bottom lands on the east side of the river, about half a mile down the stream. A boat was then built, and a ferry established about two hundred feet above the present location of the First avenue bridge. A cable chain was laid across the river, and the boat was propelled by a tread power, the chain running over the drive wheel, and over pulleys at each end of the boat. A few years afterward another ferry was established at Broadway, and was operated by anchoring one end of a wire cable about a thousand feet in length, in the center of the river above the ferry, with the other end attached to the boat in such a manner that it could be swung across the river by the current. The cable was supported above the water by small boate located at intervals of about two hundred feet, under the line of the cable; it did not prove a .success, and only ran one season. About the same time a rope ferry was started on avenue B below the dam, which was operated until in 1863 a stock company was formed, and a toll bridge was built at the same place, and maintained until a few years after the present bridge was built.

The present free bridge between Sterling and Rock Falls was voted by a large majority, and completed in 1878. It is a six-span bridge, each span 171 feet long, the superstructure of iron being twenty feet above the bed of the river, with a road bed eighteen feet wide, and a walk five feet wide on each side. The abutments and piers of Batavia stone. The structure is guaranteed to sustain a weight of 1,800 pounds to the lineal foot.

In 1874 George W. Barr fitted up a steam tug, purchased at Lyons, Iowa, and operated it as a ferry boat between the cities. It was called the White Swan, and did a good passenger traffic for several years.

- Avenue G Bridge, completed in December, 1907, is the latest structure thrown across the river. It is the second on the same site. The first barely completed and ready for travel, was swept away bodily in the tremendous ice gorge of March, 1906. The solid iron and stone work snapped like pipe stems before the resistless wall of moving blocks. Steps were taken at once to rebuild, and the rapid reconstruction is worthy of all praise.

The committee in charge of the construction of the bridge were Supervisors A. E. Parmenter of Lyndon, Frank Thomas of Tampico, and Rollin Halsted of Rock Falls; Road Commissioners F. S. Bressler, Amos Hoover and John I. Phillips, the clerk of the board being Roy R. Baer.

The approximate estimate of the cost of the superstructure is $32,000; the concrete abutments $8,000; the fill and grading $1,500, making the total cost of the bridge $41,500, which is $3,500 less than the appropriation provided for the building of the bridge. The town of Sterling voted the sum of $22,500 to rebuild the structure and the county appointed a committee of supervisors to act for the county, which is equivalent to appropriating $22,500 for the county's share of the bridge.

The total length of the Avenue G bridge is 1,200 feet and is built in two parts, covering channels on each side of the island at the foot of Avenue G. A truss bridge was erected across the south channel. It is a 300 foot span, the largest single span on Rock river and is a magnificent structure. There are nine spans of 100 feet each on the north side. This is plate girder .superstructure. The width of the roadway is twenty-four feet, and the floor is twenty feet above the normal surface of the water. This is five feet and four inches higher than the old structure. The plate girders are ten feet deep. The floor of the bridge was built on the bottom of the girder. On the old bridge the floor was built in the center of the girder. The girders will act as a wind break during winter. It was necessary to re-enforce the girders and at intervals of fifteen feet "wind" braces were> erected to brace the girders.

The new bridge is believed to be even more substantial than the other. It looks firm enough to stand for all time. A magnificent prospect up anddown the stream. Really the most picturesque spot in the city's landscape.

Our Older Houses

The cabins of the earliest settlers, Brink, Brewer, Kilgour, and others,. Wallace's fort, are gone. So the hotels, Sterling House and Central House, and later, the American in first ward, torn down in 1908. The stone house west of Central Park, sometimes called the Glass house, was built, says M. M. Warner, about 1847, by Captain McCabe, who many years ago navigated Rock river at the time from Como to Rock Island and operated the stone flour mill at Como. The mill at the time was the largest on Rock river. The captain went to California, and died there.

Kilgour's log hut stood near the site of Walter Haskell's mansion. George Brewer's father built his first house with bass wood sides, near the river, south of Mr. Brewer's present home. Luther Bush built a low onestory house in 1838 near the present Lincoln school. The stone foundation is two feet thick, heavy enough for tower of Babel. Mr. Bush and his sons Ed and Henry burned brick, and erected that large double dwelling on Broadway, lately purchased by John Hoover. This was in 1856. The son, Henry, with his family, occupied it, and he died there in 1907. John Arey says Hugh Wallace's first cabin was near Power's coal shed, and that he moved into the old wooden fort in 1844.

Of all the antique dwellings, the Wilson house is the best known. R. L. Wilson came from Sangamon county in 1840, and his family the next year. For awhile they lived in a house near the river, and in 1846 occupied 'the present brick near the Central School. It is only one story, the style in that day, as there are some in Prophetstown, with thick walls. It will yet outlast many of our modern dwellings. Here the Col. and Mrs. Wilson entertained a large circle of friends. Here the children grew up and married. Both liked company. Soon after the colonel returned from his trip to Europe, the writer called, and was received .in a front room. He heartily enjoyed the tour which he had planned long before. No more intelligent and gracious man ever lived in the city.

Ben Butt house on Third street, first ward, a white-washed frame on a high bank, was put up, says Mrs. R. C. Thompson of De Kalb, sometime in the forties. An old timer is the small dingy trick once occupied by Sheriff John Dippell. It is on Broadway, north of Fourth street, The American House, first ward, Mrs. Susan Shultz says, was erected in 1857. Luther Bush built the old courthouse with bricks burned by himself in eastern part of Sterling. According to Mrs. M. F. Spalsbury, that narrow house, corner of Third and Fifth avenue, was erected by Dr. Benton for dwelling and drug store about 1849. The lower story is grout, or a mixture of lime and gravel poured into a frame. Early fashion. Now they call it concrete.

The lower story of the northwestern corner of the casket factory on Third street, it will be observed, is made of even blocks, carefully dressed. These were quarried along the river and trimmed into shape by Edward Jamieson, a Scotch marble cutter from Edinburg. This on the authority of Mrs. Spalsbury. He afterward went south, and was killed by Morgan raiders during the war. She also says that Andy McMoore had a one story brick for the sale of candy and groceries, where Schmoeger's meat shop is now.

The second set of old buildings may be dated after the fifties. The Wallace House, long the leading hotel, being near the depot. The Patterson & Witmer, store block, now the Rock Falls Manufacturing Company. The Commercial block, just west on Third street. Among the private houses are the spacious mansion of Hugh Wallace, west of Simpson's lumber yard, now owned by Mrs. Emma Randolph; next the smaller stone dwelling erected by Gabriel Davis in the same year, 1855; the Smith Patterson residence of Tsrick, further west. Near the park is the old home of Nelson Mason, erected about 1855, where he resided till his removal to Chicago. The postoffice is on part of his lot. The stone in the Wallace, Davis and Mason houses was taken from the river.

Things That Have Vanished

Just as the Roman Empire arose, flourished and fell, so do various enterprises in the young cities of the West. Conditions change, and they are given up. The mitten factory stands in Rock Falls, but no more mittens .are made. The hand corn-planters of Batchellers are a thing of the past. Zollinger's grist mill makes no more flour. In Sterling, we hear no more of the Williams & Orton Company, the Empire Feed Mill; the Mineral Paint Works, the pruning shears shop, the packing house, which an old directory claimed was the largest west of Chicago, having a capacity for slaughtering 500 hogs per day. After the dam and race were completed in 1853, Joshua and William McKinney built a stone mill, which long had a reputation for its flour. Then Church & Patterson, Dillon and Bowers. Of all our industrial establishment?, the distillery started in 1864 by John S. Miller, was the most extensive. The huge buildings covered five acres, two thousand head of cattle grew fat in the sheds, two thousand bushels of grain were used every day, and 8,500 gallons of alcohol daily manufactured. The government tax was $5. (100 a day. or a yearly revenue to Uncle Sam of nearly two million dollars. The business of the works required the services of 117 men, whose weekly wages amounted to $0,000. The alcohol was shipped to Europe and South America. For convenience of shipment, the railroad made a switch to the ware house. It was a busy spot. Farmers were sure of a market for their grain, and the highest prices were paid. Nearly every day a procession of teams. In 1880 a disastrous fire involved the sheds and the helpless cattle in common ruin, but the sheds were rebuilt. After th'e death of Mr. Miller, the sons, John and William, carried on the business until the works were closed, 1884, by agreement with other distillers to regulate the production. The buildings remained vacant until they were finally taken down, and today not a brick is left to mark the site.

Two nurseries once in Rock Falls, now not one. The city has spread over the early gardens of Mr. Lukens, and the evergreens and apple rows of Grove Wright, east of town, have been converted to other uses. The old brick 'Courthouse in Sterling on Broadway was a prominent landmark as it stood, lonely and forlorn, for many years, after the removal of the records to Morrison, until it was taken down to make way for cottages. The early Presbyterian church is a mournful memory. In your mind's eye, Horatio, you can picture it where the high school now rears its quaint facade. And the little white Lutheran church on the prairie is gone with all its traditions of struggle and sacrifice.

Farewell, a long farewell, too, to the primitive schoolhouses. Yes, two generations of them. Not only those rooms in which Mrs. Worthington and Martha Millikan presided but the next set in the wards: the brick in the first ward, the brown one-story depot in the third, and the two-story square frame in the second, moved to Locust, opposite Burlington station. Wallace's -old fort and the diminutive brick of Thomas A. Gait stocjd on or near the site of Simpson's lumber yard. There was a hill, but it was cut away. William Miller's spacious frame mansion is on the spot occupied by Wallace's barn. D. R. Beck's incomplete brick, Fourth street, is now metamorphosed into a cozy cottage by Prof. Chaplin.

East of St. John's Lutheran church, fronting on Seventh street, was for several years after 1858 a desolate graveyard. The tombstones were ready to tumble. John Arey attended funerals there, but no burials were made after the cemetery was opened. In time the bodies were taken up, the ground reverted to the original owners, and cottages are now on the site. The old Sterling House, where Prof. Chaplin's mansion stands, was moved there, and was kept awhile by the late George Wells, a tailor and well-known citizen. His widow, Becky, long survived him.

In 1854 William Hess came from Pennsylvania and put up a combined bouse and carriage shop on the corner of Fifth street and Ninth, avenue, and for thirty years buggies for repair stood in front of his place. Now the buildings are both gone and grass is growing on what appears to be a vucmt lot. John Arey speaks of T. Winn's hotel in the eastern part of Sterling about 1845 as quite a large building, but it disappeared very early. Nelson Mason and his brother, Carlyle, had a small blacksmith shop near Isaac Bressler's store, in the middle of the prairie, but only for a short time. Carlyle went to Chicago, started iron works, and grew rich.

And where is the Sunday tabernacle? Where go the figures when they be "rubbit" out? asked the Scotch lad of the master. On Monday evening, March 14, 1904, closed the most remarkable series of religious meetings Sterling ever saw. For nearly five weeks Rev. William A. Sunday spoke in ti wooden tabernacle to several thousand people, afternoon and night. It was the sensation of the city, and men, women, and children crowded to the plain, felt-covered structure. An immense choir sang the songs of Zion. The number of converts was placed at 1,647. Every church received large accessions. On the conclusion of the meetings the tabernacle was removed.

As the stranger gazes at the imposing brick tower of the First Congregational church on Second avenue and Fourth street, he will never know that for over thirty years a generation of excellent New England people met Sunday after Sunday for worship in the familiar white frame on the same

Where is Wallace Hall, from whose rostrum Wendell Phillips, Horace Greeley, and Henry Ward Beecher addressed admiring audiences, and later Farwell Hall, on whose platform Camilla Urso and Wilhemj drew their bows, and Ingalls and Dr. Swing uttered their messages?

For twenty years the Agricultural Fair was the yearly jubilee of town an country on Sanborn's forty-acre pasture along the river. Several good wooden buildings were erected in the shape of a floral hall, stables, amphitheater, and other requisites. Although the display of vegetables and stock was never very attractive, the week was always anticipated with pleasure because the fair was a common meeting ground of friends from all parts of the county. But the weather man so often sent rain and mud that week that the profits failed to pay the premiums, and when Morrison started her fair the Sterling show died a natural death. The visit of Grant and Logan in 1880. widely advertised by A. A. Terrell, drew an enormous crowd, and was the third illustrious occasion in the history of Sterling.

Gone is that wing dam built by Wyatt Cantrell in 1838 at the foot of Walnut street. It was made of loose stones thrown up in the river, making an angle of forty-five degrees with the bank. For ten years people from Whiteside, Henry, and Bureau brought their, grists to this primitive mill, as it was the only one in the country. Cantrell was a Kentuckian, coming to Illinois in 1812 and settling in Sangamon until he removed to Whiteside in 1836. He died in Kansas, but his body was brought to Sterling, and his tomb may be seen in Riverside, with other of his compeers of the thirties

The City Organization

Sterling was organized as a city under a special charter granted by the legislature, 1857. At the first election held in April, Lorenzo Hapgood was chosen mayor, John Pettigrew and D. H. Myers, aldermen of first ward; Henry Bush and D. R. Beck, for second; James Gait and B. G. Wheeler, for third. At council meeting L. K. Hawthorne was made city clerk; E. N. Kirk, city attorney ; W. S. Wilkinson, surveyor. The charter was amended in 1869.

From Lorenzo Hapgood to John L. Janssen, elected in 1907, the city has had thirty-nine mayors. In the long list appear the names of several old and prominent citizens. Most were chosen for one term, but a few were in office for the second or third term : Hapgood, Nelson Mason, Coblentz, J. G. Manahan, B. C. Church, C. Burkholder, J. R. Johnson. In 186.6 was the temperance issue, T. A. Gait, mayor. Generally, the contest turns on personal popularity. Of the past mayors .several yet survive the strain of office and live in the city: Street, Green, Lawrence, Hershey, Burkholder, Miller, Johnson, Bell, Lewis. Bennett lives in Minneapolis and Patterson in Kansas City.

The Tale Of The Postoffice

At the time of the earliest settlement of Rock River rapids the nearest point where the people could receive their mail was Dixon's Ferry, where the mail route from Peoria to Galena crossed Rock river, and a postoffice was established. The /first postoffice was opened within the limits of the present city of Sterling in 1837, and was kept in a store on River street, on the westside of Chestnut street, in the town of Chatham. River street is occupied by the C. & N.-W. railway and Chestnut street is now Fourth avenue. John D. Barnett was postmaster. The next location was on the south side of Fourth street, between Main and Fulton streets, in Harrisburg, now Sixteenth and Seventeenth avenues. Daniel D. Guiles was postmaster. Eliphalet B. Worthington was next appointed, and kept the office in his residence, on the southeast, corner of Third and Main streets, now Third street and Sixteenth avenue. During his term, which was about twelve years, the towns of Harrisburg and Chatham' were united, and he purchased block 52 on the east side of Broadway and built a residence, where he kept the office to the satisfaction of all parties. Lewis D. Crandall was Mr. Worthington's successor, and at the time of his appointment kept a small stock of groceries and notions in the northeast room of the courthouse, where he kept the office, until he finished the building now standing on the northwest corner of Third street and Eighth avenue, into which he moved his store, and from there the office was taken to a store across the street in the west part of the brick front now standing on the south side of Third street, east of the alley, between Seventh and Eighth avenues. Bradly Nichols succeeded Mr. Crandall, and during his term the office was moved from the brick front to the rear room of a building occupied as a bank on the northeast corner of Third street and Sixth avenue. This room was not a suitable place for the office, and a building was erected for it on the northwest corner of Third street and Fifth avenue. This building was the first one erected for a postoffice, and in it were put up the first boxes for rent to the patrons of the office. Joseph Hutchinson, who kept a store in the building now standing on the north side of Third street, the fourth east of Avenue A, was next appointed by President Buchanan, and moved the postoffice into his store. The people, with the exception of a few that were interested in the development of the new western part of town, were so incensed at this action they signed an order authorizing Charles Ginkinger, who was a deputy under the former postmaster, to go to Hutchinson's store and get their mail, take it to the old office and distribute it. In a few days the postoffice department sent an official to Sterling, who told the parties they could not have two postoffices in one town. This made the people furious, and the leading citizens to the number of about forty met in the old part of the town and marched in a body through the middle of the road, where the mud was three or four inches in depth to Hutchinson's store for their mail, and while it was given out to them they occupied themselves by stamping the mud from their boots, and some were careless enough to get up on the counters to do it. This demonstration caused Mr. Hutchinson to promise the people, if they would wait until he could put up a building on the hill, he would move the office into it. He immediately erected a building on the north side of Third street, on the west side of the alley between First and Second avenues, where the postoffice remained through the rest of his term and through the term of L. King Hawthorne, who was appointed by Abraham Lincoln as Mr. Hutchinson's successor. Mrs. Emily J. C. Bushnell wa? next appointed by President Lincoln. She moved the office to a building now standing on the east side of First avenue, the third north of the Germania Maennerchor. Mrs. Electa E. Smith, who kept the office in the same place, was Mrs. Bushnell's successor. During Mrs. Smith's term Thomas A. Gait and George S. Tracey erected the Academy of Music block, and fitted up the north room for a postoffice, which was occupied by Mrs. Smith during the latter part of her term, in which place the office remained until the present postoffice was built and opened for the first time, Oct. 1, 1905. During the time the office was in the Academy of Music building the following persons kept it, in the order named: Mrs. Electa E. Smith, Charles M. Worthington, William A. McCune, Thomas Diller, John R. Johnson and Thomas Diller, who moved the office into the government building. Mr. Diller's successor is James P. Overholser, the present postmaster. Mail delivery by carriers was established in the term of W. A. McCune, and rural mail delivery in the second term of Thomas Diller.

In addition to Mr. Arey's excellent sketch we take some items from an article read by George O. Stroup at the postoffice banquet in 1907. It seems that Nelson Mason carried the sacks from Dixon to Sterling, on a horse in summer and on a sledge in winter. He received the princely compensation of eight cents a mile. The postoffice in Barnett's store was in a box kept under the counter, and there were only a dozen families to receive mail. As there were no postage stamps, the postage, 25 cents, had to be paid

The new government building, erected in 1905 at a cost of $45,000 is a handsome one-story structure of brick and stone, on the corner of Fourth street and Second avenue, on the west part of the old Nelson Mason property. The business of the office has increased rapidly. At the close of the fiscal year, June, 1907, the total receipts were nearly $23,000 and the expenses $14,000, including salaries and other outlay. The amount of money passing through the office in the form of money orders was $110,000. In 1894 the receipts were only $13,000, almost doubled in thirteen years. Including the janitor, there are thirty-five people connected with the office.

The Sterling postoffice for the calendar year 1907 made the greatest gain in its history, the receipts showing a gain of twelve per cent over the year 1906. The receipts for the year 1907 were $24,000, while the year 1906 the receipts were $21,500, or a net gain of $2,500. The receipts of the Chicago postoffice during the same period showed a net gain of eight per cent.

P. O. Account Book

Before the writer lies a little book bound in leather, eight inches by four, which was kept by Mr. E. B. Worthington in part of his administration of the early Sterling office. He was appointed during Harrison's term, 1841, and this book appears to be a sort of cash book or record of moneys received for letters or merchandise. Reading one page recalls a host of old Sterling names: H. Whipple, pills, 50 cents, quinine, 25 cents; Hugh Wallace, 5 cents; Luther Bush, letter sent, 12V2 cents; Col. Wilson, sent, 37J/2; Van J. Adams, 18%; L. H. Woodworth, 18%; Capt. Woodburn, 1834 ; Albert S. Coe, 121/2 ; Dr. Pennington, 25; N. Mason, 25; John Gait, 25; Carlisle Mason, 27; R. C. Andrews, 10; Jesse Penrose, 12% . Some names occur over and over. In fact, the patrons of the office were easily counted. Rev. George Stebbins, the minister, appears frequently, and Hugh Wallace, M. S. Henry, lawyers; R. S. Wilson, county clerk, and the Gaits, John, Maria, James, Mary, and then a mixture, Asa Emmons, Samuel Albertson, Joel Harvey, Kilgore, De Garmo, Manahan, Crawford, BrewTer, Moore, Platt, .Dippell, Wells. A big business in pills and quinine. No doctors or drugs and plenty of ague and bile, and the doses had to be sent by mail. So we find frequent receipts of 50 cents and a dollar for medicines. Accounts were kept of money sent for papers. Charges occur like these: March 21, sent one dollar for Dollar Newspaper for S. Albertson; January 1, sent one dollar for Chicago Democrat for Isaac Merrill; in January, Dr. Pennington sends one dollar to Greeley and McElrath for New York Tribune; in March, sent one dollar to Wilson & Co., for Amer. Book of Beauty for James Gait ; Thomas Gait sends 25 cents for Youth's Friend, Philadelphia; February, R. C. Andrews sends one dollar for Prairie Farmer.

This fascinating nugget of old postoffice operations runs from 1843 to 1847. The book was in possession of Jesse Johnson, grandson of Mr. Worthington, and given by him to the W. Co. Historical Society. Accompanying it is a thin ledger in which the dates run from 1846 to 1850. According to this some things were charged. That is, under each name is a Dr. account of various items of postage for letters and papers not paid as received. For instance, after Noah Merrill's is footed up on the Dr. side for journals and letters he has credit on the Cr. side by cash and on April 8, 1850, "By use of team and boy for half a day, one dollar." It would make a modern city P. M. grin to glance through the closely written charges of 14 and 25 cents to be balanced on the other page by occasional payments of cash, or sometimes in trade, as so many bushels of wheat or so many pounds of salt pork. Verily, the world moves, and the days of our grandmothers have gone.

Note. - The writer is in possession of a fact never published. When Joseph Hutchinson received the nomination for postmaster it fell like a thunderbolt upon the people, as he was a stranger recently from the east, and it was not known that he was an applicant for the office. The mystery was soon explained. Mr. Hutchinson was from Pennsylvania, President Buchanan's state, and they were personal friends, so that it was perfectly natural for Mr. H. to ask for the office and the President to grant it. So Col. Wilson was made paymaster by President Lincoln during the war, because he and Mr. Lincoln were in the legislature together and belonged to the Long Nine who moved the capital from Vandalia to Springfield.

The permanent improvement of the streets was begun several years ago and is steadily prosecuted as finances permit. A large extent of Third, Fourth and Locust streets is paved with brick, and many of the other streets and avenues curbed and macademized. Sewerage will soon be installed all over the outlying districts. A long, narrow park in the center of Broadway, attractive with flowers and shrubbery in place of the rank growth of weeds so long a disgrace, adds much to the beauty of that fine thoroughfare, destined to become one of the fashionable drives of the future city. A Euclid avenue or Drexel boulevard.

Group Of Pioneer Mothers

During my first visit to Sterling in 1851, in company with my father, we made our home with Hugh Wallace, a Cumberland county lawyer, wh>> had married Mary Gait of Lancaster county. They were both close friends of my father, so intimate, indeed, that he was invited to "stand up" at their wedding. They lived in the old fort, a one-story frame building near the present spacious mansion of Mrs. Randolph on West Third street, built by Mr. Wallace, as he became prosperous.

A delightful visit of a week. Both were genuine western hosts, doing everything for our comfort. Mr.*. Wallace was a thorough housekeeper. How we ate and how we slept. A bountiful table. This hospitality continued to her death. During her whole life she was a good Samaritan, another Dorca«, ever ready to make sacrifice for her own family or her neighbors. The Wai- lace home was a Mecca for every eastern visitor. A woman of wonderful self-control. Although trouble after trouble came into her household, her face always wore the same gracious expression.

Mrs. Maria Gait belonged to the Buyers family, who had lived for generations on a tract of land near the Gap in Lancaster county, deeded by the Penns.

The farm of John Gait, still in possession of the family, lies along the Elkhorn, near Gait station west of Sterling, and here in 1851 I first saw Aunt Maria, whose kindness was so often enjoyed after my removal to the west. Deer were then about, and I remember a pet fawn running in the front yard.

Aunt Maria was a woman of intelligence and refinement, somewhat retiring, finding her highest enjoyment in her own household, not caring to visit, but always delighted to welcome her friends at her hearthstone. Her last years were spent in Sterling, and even at ninety she found great pleasure in rising early to prepare the family breakfast.

Mrs. Mason's maiden name was Barnett. Nelson Mason, her husband, was a Scotchman .from Paisley. She was a sister of the first Mrs. Pennington. That substantial dwelling between postoffice and park, constructed of stone from Rock river, was erected by Nelson Mason about 1855, the same year the Wallace mansion in the west end. Mr. Mason was mayor during the Civil war. A man of excellent judgment.

My acquaintance with the Mason family began in 1857. It then consisted of the father and mother and the two daughters, Emily and Ann, an older sister, Mrs. Bross, living in Chicago. Never in all my experience have I entered a home where the welcome was so spontaneous, so cordial, from every inmate of the circle. The soul of good cheer pervaded the very atmosphere. The memory of those calls is very fragrant, and I sigh to think that every member of that charming group is no longer among the living.

The death of Emily in her prime was a blow to the fond maternal heart and ever afterwards there seemed to be a touch of sadness in the old joyous greeting.

Only a vestige is left of the neat Worthington cottage on Broadway, which, with its barberry hedge, was once a familiar landmark. This was the postoffice in 1851, and here we came for our letters from the east. Of a large family, Anna, Mary and Edward are dead, Mr.-*. Norwood in Chicago, and Josephine, wife of C. C. Johnson, Esq., of Sterling, only remaining. The father, Eliphalet, was a native of Connecticut.

Mrs. Worthington was a delicate woman, a neat figure, and always wore a curl in front. She received a good education in her Philadelphia home and was ready to give her unsophisticated neighbors the benefit of her accomplishments. She opened a school, and also taught a class in painting. Like Titian, who used his brush at ninety-nine, Mrs. Worthington never lost her love for art, and in her old age, living alone, the visitor would find her busy at some new painting which she would explain with the genuine enthusiasm of an artist.

Both Elizabeth Kilgour and her husband, Ezekiel, came from Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. She was a Graham, a famous name in Scotch genealogy, and the sturdy spirit of the clan survives in her descendants today. They came in 1837, and Mr. Kilgour died in 1848, leaving her the care o/ a growing family. She was equal to the emergency, and trained them well A woman of decided convictions. One physical feature which I recall was her voice, which continued loud and strong even in old age.

Could her children speak, they might arise and call her blessed, for they all led excellent lives. Two were soldiers, Ezekiel dying in the Nashville hospital in 1862. William, of the Seventy-fifth Illinois, who became general, was severely wounded, participated in all the dreadful battles of the Tennessee campaigns, and saw more desperate service than most of our veterans. For a long time in front of his residence on the Pennington road he had a board labeled "Chickamauga Street."

Mrs. Col. Wilson, as she was generally called, was Eliza Jane Kincaid, of a prominent Kentucky family. John Kincaid, who died in 1873, was an intimate friend of Henry Clay. Of all our pioneer mothers, Mrs. Wallace and Mrs. Wilson saw most noted people, because their husbands were in politics. While Mrs. Wallace met Stephen A. Douglas and U. F. Linder, Mrs. Wilson knew Lincoln, Edwards, Herndon and the worthies of early Springfield.

Mrs. Wilson was the last of the pioneer inothers of Sterling to pass away and one of the oldest. She died in March, 1907, and had she lived to the following May, would have been ninety -two. A woman of remarkable firmness and composure. A placid brow amid all the trying times of a long career.

Some Early Doctors

Dr. A. S. Hudson was in Sterling in 1856, and perhaps several years before. Some prominent families held him in high esteem, and were not willing to be sick under the care of any other physician. Poor Mrs. Coblentz

He was scientific, studious, read much in his profession, and had the bearing of a scholar. For awhile our early library was stored in his house. He built the dwelling now occupied by Ed Bowman. Across the street was Kirk, now the Wash Dillon property, and over on Second street was Sackett. J believe these men had in view a select corner of professional aristocracj1, an intelligent Four Hundred.