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ILL HIST. SUWl
VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2012 with funding from
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
http://archive.org/details/villageoncountylOOduga
VILLAGE OH THE CGXJHTY LINE
A HISTORY OF HINSDALE, ILLINOIS
HUGH G. DUGAN
PRIVATELY PRINTED 1949
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
THE LAKESIDE PRESS • R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. AND CRAWFORDSVILLE. INDIANA
"k
Commemorating Ten Tears of Friends of the Library
BOARD OF DIRECTORS, 1949
Mr. G. L. Seaton, President Mr. R. H. Trenholme, Vice President
Mrs. Robert B. Ayres, Secretary Mr. Clifford C. Pratt, Treasurer
Mrs. Harold T. Moore Mr. Everett Addoms
Miss Irene Helland, Librarian
THE HISTORY COMMITTEE Mr. Hugh G. Dugan, Chairman Miss Naidene Goy
Mrs. Felix Caruso Mrs. Gertrude Ketcham
Mr. Lester C. Childs Mrs. Chauncey T. Lamb
\ Mr. Otis R. Cushing Mr. Philip Williams
BOOK DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE
Mr. Ernest B. Johnson and a large number of volunteer helpers.
To avoid the semblance of a textbook, and to minimize expense, this book contains no detailed bibliography. The committee used care in determining its facts, and believes all its sources to be reliable. Any evidence of mis-statement of fact will be gratefully received, and readily acknowledged.
FOREWORD
THROUGHOUT the past few months I have had an occasional inquiry from Hugh Dugan about some phase or incident of Hinsdale's early life. There is no topic upon which I would more readily or agreeably discourse— dealing as it does with a period that in retrospect has become more precious to me with the passing of each succeeding year. Thus when I learned that his inquiries were part of a material gathering prelude to the writing of a Hinsdale history under the sponsorship of the Friends of the Library, my first reaction was one of unmixed gratification that so worthy a project was being under- taken, and by such an eminently constituted and well-qualified group. Upon further reflection however, this initial enthusiasm gradually gave way to skepticism and apprehension. The more I pondered the matter, the more convinced I became that no one less than a Dickens or a Hawthorne could produce a portrait of that beloved Hinsdale of by-gone days, that would satisfy the critical and exacting demands of all those who had had the great good fortune to have been a part of it. Hence it was not long until I found myself hoping that the attempt would be abandoned rather than carried through to what I feared would be an inadequate and disappointing result.
But to convey these reservations to Mr. Dugan without appearing unpardonably presumptuous, posed a problem that I shortly decided I had neither the skill nor the temerity to undertake. And now that he and his colleagues have all but completed their work and I have just had the privilege of reading a final proof of the manuscript, how glad I am that I so refrained. My misgivings are dispelled and though many of the older natives could, like myself, cite countless experiences whose inclusion might add flavor to the story, I feel confident they will agree with me that a remarkable job has been done of recreating the Village as we knew it in our youth as well, as recording its less familiar but equally interesting earlier history back through the first settlers even to the glacial age.
Hinsdale's more recent residents as well as those of the future may find compensation from these pages only to the extent of their explora-
vii
viii FOREWORD
tory interest in community background but to the "old timers" the book should be an exciting adventure in reading and also a nostalgic one. At least it was for me.
Venerable landmarks and institutions, most of them long since gone, come alive again together with many all but forgotten names and faces. A notable example is the old Garfield School before it was enlarged, where a succession of tolerant and kindly teachers— bless them all— accorded me twelve hectic but happy years of education, beginning with kindergarten and ending with high school graduation. Another fond memory that the book awakens is that of the water tower on the school grounds that someone was always climbing to its precari- ous one hundred and fifteen foot summit largely because it was un- lawful to do so; likewise the skating at Beckwith's Pond and the more extensive skating as well as the swimming and fishing and boating on Salt Creek— particularly before its waters were contracted so greatly in 1916 with the breaking of the dam. Still others were the gay parties at the Club; the coasting on the Garfield and the Sanitarium hills; the hay-rides and the sleigh-rides; the morning paper routes traversed on the run by high school athletes and incidentally, the medium through which more than one young man, myself included, made his debut into America's system of free enterprise; the Saturday afternoon football and baseball games at the "end of Washington" where Hinsdale's "Town Team" usually vanquished its visiting opponent; and finally, the village rendezvous at any and all hours — Evernden's Drug Store and its beloved proprietors, William Evernden and Nelson Webster.
How many more such recollections could be recounted — recollec- tions of events and places all inextricably woven into the daily existence of a community not yet so grown that its population wasn't individually known each to the other and a newcomer seldom remained a stranger more than overnight.
The particular period of which I reminisce was the decade just before and after the turn of the century and even though the Village had been chartered perhaps some twenty-five years previous, I believe that the adults of that period— my parents who came to Hinsdale in 1 886 and their contemporaries— could properly be classified among the pioneers of the community. At least they were the later pioneers. These families included prominent Chicago business men who preferred the country, particularly Hinsdale's wooded and hilly regions, to either
FOREWORD ix
the city or the flat expanses of its more immediate surrounding sub- urban areas. They were cultured as well as capable and the Hinsdale that they encountered during its formative years and that developed under their influence could hardly have resulted other than in a com- munity of character, charm and distinction. They took over their rich inheritance from the founders— the Robbins, the Stoughs, the Walkers, the Ayres— they planted more trees; they paved the streets; they put in the utilities; they established churches and schools— and most impor- tant of all, they enacted ordinances to preserve Hinsdale as a superior residential community. With land relatively low in cost their own roomy houses were surrounded by ample grounds. Every home had its vegetable garden and many had cherry and apple orchards in addition to tennis courts and croquet grounds. And the Village abounded with open fields for baseball, football or any other form of athletics. There was in consequence, vastly more out of door living.
It was essentially a pedestrian community. Nearly everyone walked to the train or to market or to school and thus individuals met fre- quently if not daily. A community on foot is a gregarious community and such was the Hinsdale of that day— a warm-hearted, sociable and gracious one.
Differences in degree of material wealth existed, of course, then as now. There were those who were always referred to as the "well to do" and perhaps there was envy at times and small bitternesses here and there. Yet there was very little class society. If someone was ill my mother or some other mother faithfully visited that home with things to eat. My father's diary frequently records an all-night vigil that he would keep at the bedside of some sick friend. None of this was charity —none condescension to ease the conscience— it was neighborliness. I don't mean to imply that human kindliness doesn't abundantly exist in our society today. There are undoubtedly many Hinsdaleans who pres- ently are giving as much if not more of their time and energy to public service than did those earlier ones of whom I write, but our welfare efforts of today are largely supervisory and impersonal. They are per- formed primarily as institutional officers or trustees whereas the minis- trations of those days were direct and intimate. And as such, they were symbolic of the compassion and simplicity and wholesomeness that characterized the age.
Half a century has elapsed since those days— a half century that has
x FOREWORD
brought probably as many changes as have ever occurred in a similar period of history. Hinsdale is much larger— therefore less "homey." The strange faces I see these mornings on the station platform far out- number the familiar ones. But the character that the pioneers gave to the community has changed but little. Its citizens of today impress me as evaluating life much as did their predecessors— sharing their love of country and believing staunchly as they did, in Christian living and in the American principles of individual freedom and democratic government.
I count myself as singularly fortunate to have lived in both eras— to have had my entire life unfold in this beloved village. This book is an authentic and for me a stirring story of its background— bridging the span between those who made it and those who are keeping it. It deserves an important place in every local library and all Hinsdaleans —past, present and future— will be enduringly grateful to Mr. Dugan and his collaborators for the prodigious effort and skill and vision that its production so manifestly reflects.
Philip R. Clarke February 3, 1949
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many old-time residents who, through interviews and voluntary contributions have furnished reminiscences, photographs, and other mementos of the past.
ESPECIALLY:
Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Blackman
Mr. John G. Bohlander Jr.
Mr. Chester C. Bratten
Mr. and Mrs. Philip R. Clarke
Mr. George Coffin
Mr. Arthur F. Collins
Mr. Alex L. Dawson
Mrs. Pearl Dunphy
Mrs L. M. Fee
Mr. Wade Fetzer
Mrs. Courtney D. Freeman
The late Mrs. Walter Field
The late Mrs. William Graue
Miss Bessie Hinckley
Mrs. Edward F. Hines
Mrs. William R. Jordan
Mr. Harry Larson
Mr. Frederick H. McElhone
Miss Emma Ostrum
Mr. Paul Richert
Mrs. Bruce E. Richie
Mr. Charles O. Ring
Mr. Agard Ross
Mr. and Mrs. George E. Ruchty
The late Mary E. Saunders
Miss Gertrude Van Liew
Miss Alice Warren
Data collected by Maud Wright Hiatt's Committee for Hinsdale's fiftieth
birthday celebration in 1923.
Gilpin Library of the Chicago Historical Society.
The Newberry Library.
The Merrill Printing Company.
The Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company.
Corina Melder Collier, for drawing the pioneer map.
Mrs. Harold Dunton Mr. Walter M. Givler Mr. and Mrs. Ford Porter
Wheaton Naperville Warrenville
FOR TYPING THE MANUSCRIPT:
Mrs. Robert Sifferd Mrs. Arthur Bethke Mrs. Ernest Root
Mrs. John Janak Mrs. Frank Skold
Miss Ruth Riggs Mrs. Fred Townsend
CONTENTS
PAGE
Foreword ........ vii
Introduction xvii
chapter part one Background
I Land, Stream and Native .... 3
II White Pioneers 9
III Black Hawk's Threat ..... 17
IV Settlement Under Way ..... 29
part two The Village
V Brush Hill 45
VI Coming of the Railroad ..... 69
VII The Elegant Era 93
VIII From 1900 Onward 141
IX Symbols of a Good Society .... 158
X The Pivots of Village Life .... 167
Addenda . 187
Index 193
PICTURES AND MAPS
Map of the Hinsdale Vicinity in Pioneer Times . . . Front endsheet
Shabbona, Chief of the Pottawattamies 28
The Horace Aldrich House 36
Scene Along the Illinois-Michigan Canal 38
Bull's Head Tavern 42
Jacob Fuller's House 47
School Appointment Certificate 50
John Coe's Tax Receipt 50
Castle Inn 52
Toll Gate House 53
Household Utensils, 1850 57
Farm House of Alfred L. Walker 58
Graue's Grist Mill 60
Class of 1889, Fullersburg School 66
Petition for the Railroad 1°>11
Locomotive of 1865 . .......... 75
The First Baptist Church 84
Railroad Timetable, 1868 87
Joel Tiffany's House 94
Interior of the Tiffany House 94
The Baker's Dozen ........... 102
Hinsdale Business District, 1883 ........ 105
First Graduating Class, Hinsdale High School ..... 107
Washington Street Crossing, 1883 ........ 108
Miss Blodgett's First Grade 110
Hinsdale "Old-Timers" 113
The Stone School House 116
Heineman Building, 1895 . . . . . . . . . 117
The Oldest Existing Dwelling ........ 122
Members of the G. A. R. on Mr. Allen's Porch . . . , . 124
Walnut Street, before It Was Paved 133
Program, Eighth Grade Graduating Exercises, 1893 . . . . 136
The Grant Street Hill 138
The Park Hotel 139
Map of Hinsdale, 1869 . Back endsheet
INTRODUCTION
WHEN, at the request of Mrs. Paul Burt, a history committee of the Friends of the Library was assembled, it was decided that we could serve best by collecting information about Hinsdale's past so it could be made available to all who cared to peruse it. Toward this end a fairly large number of pamphlets, books, personal memoranda, and pictures relating to the subject have been accumulated over many months, and this book is mostly a compendium of those data.
The book makes no attempt to boost the town, or to eulogize any- thing or any person. It carries no banner for a cause. Its only purpose is to relate, as they happened, those events and circumstances which seem especially pertinent to Hinsdale's origin and growth. It is our hope that this has been done in readable form.
It has been the committee's desire to present as complete a story as possible, but it soon became apparent that there would be restrictions on the size of the book, owing to its limited circulation. So it was de- cided at the outset to make it a story of Hinsdale the Village; a story beginning with the reasons for its being here, and continuing on through the stages of settlement, early, and mid-period growth, but leaving off at the threshold of modern times; at that point where the interests that are purely historical begin to fade. It seemed especially desirable to record those happenings of bygone years that otherwise might be lost to the memory, never to return.
This plan of procedure has served its practical purpose, that of confining the history within the bounds of a single, medium-sized volume, but it leaves much to be desired; for a great deal of informa- tion, that is of interest concerning Hinsdale, has necessarily been omitted. It has been impossible, for instance, to do justice to the service records of those who took part in World War II. Perhaps some day those records will be preserved in another Memorial War Review, such as the one compiled after World War I. Similarly, it is sug- gested that supplemental data might be prepared dealing with Hins- dale organizations, proceedings of the Board of Trustees, or other phases of village life that are worthy of more detailed treatment.
xvii
xviii INTRODUCTION
Certainly some committee of the future should undertake a compi- lation of the town's history following 1930, at about which year the present story terminates. So many people have arrived in Hinsdale since that year, people who have done much to make the village what it is; and interesting events are occurring daily. Modern homes and buildings would take their places among the illustrations. In view of the possibility of such a future undertaking, the preliminary chapters of the present book are somewhat more comprehensive than might be called for by a single volume.
My parents moved to Hinsdale as recently as 1908, so this history has not been written by a genuine old-timer. This shortcoming has largely been ameliorated by the assistance that has been had in the book's preparation. The writer is most grateful to members of the history committee, and to others who helped furnish the data.
H. G. D.
May 2, 1949
VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
chapter i Land, Stream and Native
HINSDALE, ILLINOIS, lies within the Desplaines River Basin, in which Salt Creek forms a tributary, as do Flagg Creek and the two stems of the Du Page River to the west. The Desplaines origi- nates in southeastern Wisconsin. Its confluence with the Kankakee above Ottawa marks the beginning of the Illinois River.
During a past age, so many years ago that it is difficult to compre- hend such a span of time, the area now designated as Du Page, Cook, and their adjacent counties was submerged. A shallow sea extended this far inland. Much of the bottom of this body of water became rock, largely through the formation and deposition of marine fossils, and it now comprises the belt of bedrock beneath the surface of our county. The belt extends from New York state to points in Iowa, and the rock has been called Niagara Limestone. It is the only massive rock found in Du Page County.
For reasons that appear obscure in the reference works on the sub- ject, the bottom of this inland sea, which covered the central part of the continent, slowly emerged. The land thus formed became subject to erosion, the accumulation of soil, and to the furrowing and billow- ing action of glaciers that repeatedly visited the upper Middle West, over eons of time, and through cycles of climatic changes.
Owing to their tendency to flow, as water flows, these mountains of ice moved, down from the north, carrying much of the land surface with them. Movements of earth have determined local topography, and this, in turn, has influenced the economic and social trends of particular areas. Climate, land formations, and the location of lakes and water courses, formed by the past movements of ice and land masses, have influenced the flow of commerce, and this has had much to do with the location of towns and cities.
The glaciers brought to this district a heterogeneous mixture of drift, or soil, much of which is stratified, representing the different periods in which it was deposited. Stratified gravels and sands are visible in artificially cut embankments at Lemont, Willow Springs, and Joliet. Old strip mines near Joliet have yielded agate, jasper, and
3
4 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
other semi-precious stones. The high banks of Salt Creek reveal no layers of drift, but glacier-borne rocks and boulders are scattered along both sides of the stream.
Along the line where the last glacier stopped in this district, about 25,000 years ago, it left a well defined ridge or moraine, roughly parallel to the shore line of Lake Michigan and from five to thirty miles inland, through northern Indiana, Illinois, and southern Wis- consin. This ridge has been named the Valparaiso Moraine, because of its prominence at Valparaiso, Indiana. Hinsdale is situated on the lakeward border of this moraine.
We are told that the Great Lakes were formed by the glaciers, and that after the last ice sheet had receded, Lake Michigan extended as far west as La Grange. Its shore line at that time has remained as a clearly defined but lesser ridge running north and south along the eastern edge of La Grange. "Chicago Lake," as the older Lake Mich- igan has been designated for geological reference, receded at progres- sive intervals eastward to its present shore line, and the progressive recedings have left other, smaller ridges or "beaches." There is the Glenwood Beach which touches La Grange, the two Calumet Beaches, and the "old" and the "new" Tolleston Beaches. These irregular heights of land seem to converge in a general way, in the area between Riverside and Summit.
While Chicago Lake was contracting, the Desplaines is said to have emptied into the lake, possibly through a juncture with the Chicago River. "The Desplaines seems to have had a free choice between a course to the Mississippi or to the St. Lawrence. Its present course (to the Illinois and the Mississippi) appears highly accidental."
The aberrations of that river seem to have been duplicated in a way by two of its tributaries. Most Hinsdaleans are not aware of the fact that the two small streams, Salt Creek and Flagg Creek have been of interest to geologists, especially regarding the directions they have taken, and why they do not join. Both streams occupy a north-south depression within the eastern ridge of the moraine, but Salt Creek makes an abrupt turn to the east, along Spring Road in the Forest Pre- serve, and cuts through the eastern ridge to join the Desplaines, instead of continuing to flow southward with Flagg Creek. (See map in front of book.) A state geological survey, made in 1 909, devotes several para- graphs to this unusual expression of nature.
LAND, STREAM AND NATIVE 5
Originally, Salt Creek was known as the " Little Desplaines." Later, during the era of hauling goods by wagon, when bridges over streams were few, a wagon load of salt became mired in its muddy bed. The wagon sank deeper, the salt melted, and so the stream got its name, ''Salt Creek." The teamster was one John Reid, and his load of salt was destined for Galena. Flagg Creek was named for Reuben Flagg, an early settler at Walker's Grove, now called Plainfield.
Another geological survey says the glacial drift at Hinsdale is less than 100 feet deep, and that the underlying limestone contains water- bearing crevices, conditions that are favorable for a large water supply at shallow depths. Untreated, the water is hard, made so by its content of calcium and magnesium bicarbonates.
There were many natural springs in this vicinity. Western Springs, the neighboring village to the east, derives its name from them, as does Spring Road, north of Fullersburg. As the artesian water table of the region has lowered, the springs have become less numerous, but as late as 1862 a "gusher" spring was recorded, one which broke out suddenly through the earth's crust. This occurred three miles north of Fullersburg. The crater, formed by the eruption, was so large that it was called Mammoth Spring. Salt Creek is partly spring fed, as were some of the ponds that were found on the site of Hinsdale.
This village lies within a soil belt indicated on the maps as "fine type clay and loam." It consists of these parts: decayed residue of orig- inal rock layers, formed before the first ice sheet arrived, and weath- ered material brought by the glaciers. With the addition of humus formed by the decay of organic matter, the black prairie soil was developed. Although, in spots, its clay content is high, it is especially suited to the growth of corn, wheat, hay, and small grains, the vine crops, potatoes, fruit and vegetables. Flowers of course should be added, as all Hinsdaleans well know. Through many centuries this vital substance accumulated, aged, and matured, to be ready for the arrival of man, both red and white.
Mr. Charles S. Winslow in his Indians of The Chicago Region says this area was first occupied by the Illinois tribe "as far back as history records." As he points out, Lake Michigan, during the era of French exploration, was called "Lake of the Illinois," and its later name
6 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
"Michigan" was derived from the Metch-i-ga-mi branch of the Illinois nation. The name "Illinois" in the Indian language means strong or capable men. Both Father Marquette, during his short sojourn with the tribe in 1673, and La Salle a few years later, according to the his- torian Francis Parkman, were impressed by the uprightness, intelli- gence, and friendliness of these Indians.
The principal village of the Illinois was situated on a large flat tract of land on the north bank of the Illinois River just east of the present town of Utica. It was there Marquette visited and preached among them. It was also there that La Salle arrived in the autumn of 1680 and found the village deserted, the tribe being far away on its annual hunt. This village too was the objective of various parties of maurauding Iroquois from what is now New York state, one of which Tonti, La Salle's faithful lieutenant, and his small party of French attempted in vain to divert, a year or so later.
It was undoubtedly the Iroquois who eventually reduced the Illi- nois to a minor position in the region. They made numerous forays against the Illinois, the Fox, and the Winnebagoes, sometimes in the middle of winter, and their audacity and cunning were always the prelude to torture and inhumanities of various sorts, a kind of war- fare with which the comparatively peaceful tribes of the Midwest were unable to contend. This wearing down of the Illinois did not come suddenly. It took a long time. After Pontiac's war of 1764 came to a close, the remnants of the Illinois tribe were practically extermi- nated by enemy tribes here in the west, on Starved Rock, near Ottawa, and following this episode a few scattered members of the tribe were seen living on the western side of the Mississippi. Thus one of the best of the native groups, intellectually, gave way to superior physical force.
After the Illinois, the Miami temporarily became influential in the Chicago region. The Miami were originally an Algonkian tribe from farther East. They had led the fight against northwestward expansion of the white people following the American Revolution, defeating our Generals Harmar and St. Clair. But they finally gave up the fight after they were badly beaten by Anthony Wayne at Fallen Timbers, in northwestern Ohio in 1794.
From then on, the Pottawattamie predominated around the foot of Lake Michigan, with the Ottawas and Chippewas as their con-
LAND, STREAM AND NATIVE 7
federates. Eventually, by treaty, most of these Chicago area natives were removed beyond the Mississippi, in 1835, and the Indian influ- ence in this neighborhood had vanished.
As far as the vicinity of Hinsdale is concerned, we know little of the part it played in the lives of the Indians. An archeological map of Chicago and vicinity drawn by Mr. Albert F. Scharf forty-nine years ago for the Chicago Historical Society indicates an Indian signal sta- tion on a hill in Proviso Township, in Cook County, a little east of York Road, and gi/£ miles north of Fullersburg. He also shows three Indian camps, one Indian village, a flint chipping station, and a small mound along the banks of Salt Creek. These points are indicated as lying north of the bend in the creek, except for one village located on the north side of Ogden, east of York Road. (See map in front of book.) The evidence on which Mr. Scharf based his conclusions con- cerning the location of these Indian sites is not revealed, but there is no reason for questioning the authenticity of his chart. The Indians were nomads, and their villages were not permanent. It is well estab- lished that the last one in this neighborhood was on ground that is within, or near, the St. Francis Retreat, or Mays Lake property. It was there during the years 1835-40. Also during that same period, a few wigwams and huts were located in the area north of Salt Creek, on both sides of York Road.
Indian relics of the neighborhood have been found mostly in the Salt Creek areas. Arrow heads and other flint implements continue to be uncovered in the vicinity of the creek.
Ogden Avenue and Plainfield Road are believed to have been well worn trails before white people arrived here, so perhaps the na- tives of many tribes passed by the site of Hinsdale. Local tradition im- plies the existence of one or two former Indian trails traversing the Fullersburg and Salt Creek area. The "Black Hawk trail" referred to by old-time residents of Fullersburg, and which formerly could be traced over the hill from which Brush Hill got its name, probably was a part of the old southwest trail. When the trail was developed into a road it was made to go around the hill instead of over it. Indians, however, preferred to mount hills in their travels, in order to obtain a view of the surroundings. They were ever alert and on guard. Mr. T. E. Clark old-time resident of Fullersburg said: "The old Indian trail to the Mississippi River was right in front of my house
8 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
and ran directly across the Mays Lake property About
the year 1 860 some of the Indians from the west used to come on their ponies to visit the graves of their forefathers along the Desplaines River. Old settlers told me of seeing them occasionally."
Very likely, one or more of the secondary roads of the Salt Creek area was formerly an Indian path, and one of these could have been Spring Road. According to County records, Spring Road was one of the first in this area to be surveyed, and early roads often followed Indian trails. The natives could have needed that route along the creek, the same as the pioneer farmers needed it, as a way of travel between the hinterlands and the main East-West trail. Flowing springs are found along Spring Road, and this further is suggestive of
an Indian path.
# # #
A pleasant, though rigorous, healthful climate; a rich soil; both flat and rolling ground; forest and prairie; and an altogether favorable location for enjoyable living, the pursuit of industrial progress, and of happiness; that was the setting for Hinsdale's origin, growth, and pros- perity. Only a brief three hundred years ago, amid the heavy quiet that must have enshrouded this rolling countryside, broken only by the raucus call of a crow or the eerie whine of a cougar, this setting was in its primeval state. Eventually the paddle of a white man's canoe made little whirlpools in the still, autumn waters of the Desplaines, and this region began to stir from its long slumber.
CHAPTER II
White Pioneers
LOUIS JOLIET and Father Jacques Marquette, after exploring the J Mississippi, returned north by way of the Illinois River. At the large village of the Illinois Indians, mentioned previously, the natives told them of a short route by which they could return to Lake Mich- igan. This was in the month of September, 1673.
After paddling up the Illinois to the Desplaines, they ascended the latter stream, traversing the southeast corner of this township, to the mouth of a small creek emptying into the Desplaines at a point about midway between the present towns of Riverside and Summit. Pad- dling eastward up this creek a distance of two miles, they found them- selves on a muddy lake. Pushing on, they crossed the lake to its eastern end, from where the party carried its canoes one and a half miles over a stretch of prairie to another stream, which is now known as the west fork of the south branch of the Chicago River.
The lay of the land which made this portage possible is most unusual and has proved of far-reaching significance to Chicago and to all of its suburbs. For it is there that a slight ridge, the old Tolleston Beach, one of the shore-lines of the ancient Lake Michigan, forms a low continental divide, which was the shortest land barrier to a com- plete water route from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, with all the water courses and their tributaries in between. On one side of this ridge, rainfall flowed to the east; on the other to the west. At times, following the summer rains or the spring freshets, the water levels on both sides of the ridge would meet, enabling the crossing to be made entirely by canoe or batteau. In the drier seasons a portage was required, but at all times, until the railroads came, this was the most direct route between Canada and the Mississippi Valley.
It was largely the importance attached to this avenue of commerce that led the United States Government to build Fort Dearborn, at the mouth of the Chicago River in 1804. For many centuries the portage had been used by the natives in their travels and migrations. For over a hundred years it was crossed by Indians and whites in the fur trade, by both individual traders and representatives of large fur
io VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
companies. During and after this time, the agriculturists made use of the route. After the middle of the nineteenth century, better and more direct forms of transportation outmoded the old portage, but its place in history is legibly inscribed as the channel through which Chicago's commerce first began to flow.
Had it not been for this shorter portage, the large center of popu- lation known as Chicago probably would have begun its growth near the longer portage between the St. Joseph and Kankakee Rivers, pos- sibly at Michigan City, and Chicago now would be just another of the small cities along the lake shore, with no suburbs of consequence. Forts Miami and St. Joseph on the St. Joseph River in Michigan, and Fort Dearborn at the mouth of the Chicago River, were all built to guard portages. The portage has been called the "efficient" cause of Chicago.
A part of Portage Creek, which connects the Desplaines with Mud Lake and the portage, is still in its natural state, although in recent years the surface of the land on both sides of it has been altered con- siderably by bull-dozer and power shovel. A section of the creek that is still in its primeval condition can easily be seen by driving east on 47th Street to Harlem Avenue. Turn south on Harlem. A little south of the Santa Fe viaduct, on the west side of the road, there is an en- trance to a small forest preserve. Within this entrance a broad lawn leads south about two hundred yards to Portage Creek. The trees along its banks have never been cut, and probably it now looks much the same as it did to Marquette and Joliet 275 years ago.
In 1920-23 Robert Knight and Lucius H. Zench, for the Chicago Historical Society, made a painstaking investigation of the chronicles and maps of various explorers and surveyors, from Marquette on down through the 19th century, in order to locate the exact route of the portage, and various points of historical interest in the vicinity. Their findings were presented in a paper read before the Society in 1923, and are now available in a book entitled The Location of the Chicago Portage Route of the Seventeenth Century.
If any spot in "Chicagoland" can be called the first "community," probably it is Lyons; or at any rate Lyons was born simultaneously with Chicago. For Lyons was situated at "le portage," mentioned in
WHITE PIONEERS 11
early French writings, not as a town or hamlet, but as a way-station, a meeting place, where roads converged. Here was the western end of the portage, and here also the main trails from the southwest came to- gether, continuing on eastward into another well-traveled way to Lake Michigan, known in later pioneer days as the Barry Point Road, running diagonally from Lyons to Fort Dearborn, and now corre- sponding roughly with Ogden Avenue in Chicago. It was at Lyons that taverns and trading posts were later built. Indian chiefs gathered here for their "pow-wows," among themselves and with the traders. We can imagine that this also was a way-station, where travelers met; an exchange point for news from distant places, such as political and military news, and news about the prices of pelts, trapping grounds, and the prevalence of game.
At Lyons a British military force encamped during the American Revolution. In 1779 Charles de Verville, a French Canadian in the English service, recruited a company of whites and Indians at Mackinac for the purpose of harrying the American settlement at Peoria. He camped at Lyons on the way down and possibly on his return.
Origin of the name Lyons is unrecorded. The romantically in- clined might like to connect it with the city in France of the same name, but the early French always referred to the place as "le por- tage." The Chicago Tribune of February 12, 1900 has this to say of the community after white settlement of this area had begun:
"Lyons is the oldest suburb west of Chicago, so old in fact that all its first settlers have long passed to their reward, and with them has gone memory of the identity of the sponsor of the place, if it ever had one. Lyons it was in 1830 when the old Buckhorn Tavern was a noted hostelry on the stage road from Fort Dearborn to Joliet, and Lyons it has persisted in being through all the vicissitudes of time and expansion."
"David and Bernardus Laughton are known to have settled on the site in 1827 or 1828. Elijah Wentworth, who was Chicago's first letter carrier, bringing the mails from Fort Wayne before there was any post office in Chicago, went to Lyons in 1830 and kept, if he did not build, the Buckhorn Tavern."
This tavern was on the Plainfield Road, southeast of Hinsdale. David Laughton had a trading post on the east bank of the Desplaines a little south of the Chicago-Joliet highway bridge, and according to S. S. Fuller, historian of Riverside, his brother, Bernardus, operated
12 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
an inn on the same side of the river within the present boundaries of Riverside. There is some doubt concerning the exact location of these buildings, excepting David Laughton's trading post. A depression in the ground still remains as evidence of its excavation, in the forest preserve south of Lyons. As far as we know, these were the first, and the nearest, buildings to be erected by white men within the vicinity of Hinsdale.
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"a* *?v" "7r
Aside from Lyons, the towns in Cook County, before Du Page was set apart, were Chicago, Naperville, Desplaines, Brush Hill, Warren- ville, Keepataw, and Thornton, according to an early map. The area now known as Du Page County is said to have passed through a series of political alignments; to have been a part, in turn, of St. Clair, Madi- son, Crawford, Clark, Pike, Fulton, Peoria, and Cook Counties, before those counties were reduced in size.
Furthermore, Du Page County and Hinsdale came very close to lying within the state of Wisconsin, instead of Illinois. When Wiscon- sin was formed in 1805 its southern boundary passed westward from the southern tip of Lake Michigan. Organization of the state of Illinois in 1818 brought this boundary line into legal dispute, which finally resulted in its movement farther north. The case of the state of Illinois was based on the circumstance of Chicago serving as a juncture of waterways; the Great Lakes to the north and east, and the Desplaines and Illinois Rivers to the south, and with a new canal in this direction in contemplation. This incident is further reflection of the significance of the old Portage, and of Chicago's importance as a center of trans- portation.
The year 1 830 is not so very long ago, and yet it was only then that the land of this area began to be used for farming. Prior to 1 830 north- ern Illinois was engaged solely in the fur trade. It was a hunting and trapping ground, with some lead mining done on the side, around Galena, in the northwest corner of the state. The fur trade, from its beginning to its end, was big business. During the period of French occupation it was administered from Quebec, through a system of highly prized outposts, privileges, and concessions, among the most de- sired sources of supply and markets. These were a frequent cause of dispute and intrigue between the Jesuits of France and her empire builders.
WHITE PIONEERS 13
When the British influence spread westward, starting about 1760, the Hudson Bay Company, the Northwest Fur Company and the Mackinac Fur Company, all English controlled, for a brief span of years took many pelts from our neighboring woods and ravines. Then came John Jacob Astor with his American Fur Company. Astor was instrumental in obtaining the passage of an act through Congress which prohibited foreigners from engaging in the fur trade within the United States, and this gave him a virtual monopoly. It is no figment of the imagination to say that many a beaver, otter, and bear, trapped along Salt and Flagg Creeks went toward the purchase of Astor real estate in New York City. The transition from furs to farming was not an abrupt one. Gurdon Hubbard, the well remembered pioneer trader and Chicago business man, was hauling pelts to his warehouse on the Chicago River when Du Page became a county in 1839, and for several years thereafter.
Here, as in other parts of America, exploration and trade preceded settlement. The early French crossed the southeast corner of Du Page County many times in their journeys to and from the Chicago Portage, as did hundreds and thousands of traders who followed them, through the Portage, and over the early trails now known as Ogden Avenue, the Plainfleld Road, and the old Joliet Road. Even La Salle, in his notes, mentions a few traders and voyageurs he met in the Illinois country who had preceded him to this region, men who passed through, perhaps many times but left no record of their journeys.
Among these adventurous commercial travelers, but a man who came long after La Salle, was one Du Pazhe now spelled and pro- nounced "Du Page," a trapper and trader who set up his establishment at the forks of the two branches of the river that bears his name, a few miles south of Naperville, just over the present Will County line. We know little of Du Page other than the facts of his having been here, and of the county having been named for the river near which he settled. He is said to have been an agent of the American Fur Company, giving cutlery, gunpowder, trinkets, and cloth to the natives in trade for bear, deer, beaver, and other pelts which were carried to Mackinac or St. Louis for European destinations. Du Page's post, in 1800 consisted of a number of buildings surrounded by a stockade, around which gath-
14 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
ered the Kickapoo, the Pottawattamie, and the Fox, ready to make their trades. Du Page, as most of the traders, was influential with the Indians and they did not resent his presence.
With the homesteader, the agricultural settler, it was a different story. Thirty years were to pass before the first venturesome farmers began to erect their cabins along the Du Page, the Desplaines, and on Salt and Flagg Creeks. A massacre occurred at Fort Dearborn in 1812 and the Indians remained hostile toward permanent settlers. A hand- ful of prisoners who had survived the Fort Dearborn fight had been brought out to Indian villages along the Fox. English and French trappers, the "Sauganash," and the Couriers du bois, were still free to come and go, as they always had been, but the homesteader was not wanted, and he was slow to arrive. Around Fort Dearborn a hamlet began taking shape, and mention has been made of the accommoda- tions for travelers at Lyons and along the trail to Ottawa. West of Lyons and throughout what is now Du Page County, there was no inhabitant of whom there is a record until the year 1 829.
In that year Bailey Hobson, looking for a new home, came to the Du Page River district from North Carolina, on horse-back. He chose a plot of land along the southern reaches of the Du Page River, and a year or two later brought his family there. In 1831 Joseph Naper came from Ohio by boat through the Great Lakes. Where the city now bear- ing his name has grown, he built a cabin and a trading house. His brother John followed soon after. Hawley, Blodgett, King, Strong, Murray, Butterfield, Stewart, Landon, Sweet, Rogers, and Paine are among the names of those who arrived in this neighborhood within weeks or months after Bailey Hobson, and who formed the first com- munity of settlers within the present boundaries of Du Page County. This was known as Naper's settlement, but it was a part of the County of Cook, and it soon fell within the political designation of "Scott's General Precinct, Flagg Creek District, Cook County, Illinois." #
Mrs. John H. Kinzie, wife of the well known trader of early Chi- cago, in her book Wau-Bun, meaning "the early day," has left a picture of this countryside as it was in the winter of 1 830. She and a small party were just completing a journey from Detroit through the lakes to
* Some local historians, and the pioneer map in the front of the book, indicate Lisle as being the "oldest town" in Du Page County. This is because most of the first arrivals built their cabins within what is now Lisle Township. In the early 1830's, however, that area was con- sidered as being a part of Naper's settlement.
WHITE PIONEERS 15
Wisconsin; down the Fox River to a point south of Aurora, and from there across country to Chicago by horse-back. Here, let Mrs. Kinzie tell of this last lap of her trip:
"A long reach of prairie extended from Piche's to the Du Page, between two forks of which, Mr. Dogherty, our new acquaintance, told us we should find the dwelling of a Mr. Hawley, who would give us a comfortable dinner.
"The weather was intensely cold; the wind, sweeping over the wide prairie, with nothing to break its force chilled our very hearts. I beat my feet against the saddle to restore the circulation when they became benumbed with the cold
. Not a house nor a wigwam, not even a clump of trees as a shelter,
offered itself for many a weary mile. At length we reached the west fork of the Du Page. It was frozen, but not sufficiently to bear the horses. Our only recourse was to cut a way for them through the ice. (The Du Page ordinarily is a shallow stream but its depth varies considerably.) It was a work of time, for the ice had frozen to several inches thickness during the last bitter night. Plante went first with an ax, and cut as far as he could reach, then mounted one of the hardy little ponies, and with some difficulty broke the ice before him until he had opened a passage to the opposite shore.
"How the poor animals shivered as they were reined in among the floating ice! And we, who sat waiting in the piercing wind were not much better off. Probably Brunet was of the same opinion: for with his usual perversity he plunged in immediately after Plante, and stood shaking and quaking behind him, every now and then looking around him as much as to say, 'I've got ahead of you this time.' We were all across at last, and spurred on our horses, until we reached Hawleys, a large commodious dwelling, near the east fork of the river.
"The good woman welcomed us kindly, and soon made us warm and com- fortable. We felt as if we were in a civilized land once more. She proceeded immediately to prepare dinner for us; and we watched her with eager eyes, as she took down a huge ham from the rafters, out of which she cut innumerable slices, then broke a dozen or more of fine fresh eggs into a pan, in readiness for frying— then mixed a Johnnie cake, and placed it against a board in front of the fire to bake. It seemed to me that even with the aid of this fine bright fire, the dinner took an unconscionable time to cook; but cooked it was, at last, and truly might the good woman stare at the travellers' appetites we had brought with us. She did not know what short commons we had been on for the last two days.
"We found, upon inquiry, that we could, by pushing on, reach Lawton's place on the Aux Plaines (Desplaines) that night. We should then be within twelve miles of Chicago. Of course we made no unnecessary delay, but set off as soon after dinner as possible.
"It was almost dark when we reached Lawton's. The Aux Plaines was frozen, and the house was on the other side. By loud shouting we brought out a man from the building, and he succeeded in cutting the ice, and bringing a canoe over to us; but not until it had become difficult to distinguish objects in the darkness.
"A very comfortable house was Lawton's, after we did reach it— carpeted, and with a warm stove— in fact, quite in civilized style. Mr. Weeks, the man
16 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
who brought us across, was the major-domo, during the temporary absence of Mr. Lawton.
"Mrs. Lawton was a young woman, and not ill-looking. She complained bitterly of the lowliness of her condition, and having been 'brought out there into the woods; which was a thing she had not expected when she came from the east.' We did not ask her with what expectations she had come to a wild unsettled country; but we tried to comfort her with the assurance that things would grow better in a few years.
"We could hardly realize, on rising the following morning, that only twelve miles of prairie intervened between us and Chicago le Desire, as I could not but name it."
The house in which the party stopped for dinner was the home of Pierce Hawley, one of the earliest arrivals in this area. It must have been located near the east branch of the Du Page River, on the west bank, and roughly east by north of Oswego. "Lawton's" place, on the Desplaines, where the party spent the night, was the tavern of Bern- ardus Laughton, trader and innkeeper, who, with his brother David, was mentioned previously. They had formerly conducted a trading post at Hardscrabble, the pioneer name of a district near the forks of the south branch of the Chicago River. It is probable that the furnish- ings of the establishment in which the Kinzie party spent the night, including ''carpets and a warm stove" were unusual for the frontier of that period.
Although the gathering of homesteaders around Naper's settle- ment was the first in the area to be denominated politically, undoubt- edly there were many other persons who had arrived during or prior to 1831. In those frontier days when the fundamental requirements of existence occupied so much thought and energy, and before county governments were functioning, the keeping of statistics was altogether secondary. With so much desirable land between the Desplaines and Naper's settlement, it is likely that a dozen or more settlers, such as Thomas Covell, mentioned by Harley Mitchell in his Early Chicago, had chosen scattered sites in the Salt Creek-Flagg Creek area at aboul the same time, registered with no precinct and with no record of their arrival having been kept.
chapter in Black Hawk's Threat
IN 1 83 1 rumblings along the Rock River were heard in Cook County; and it wasn't thunder. A year later the western part of the county was to be touched by war.
Black Hawk, sometimes called Black Sparrow, was a chief of the Sac, or Sauk, tribe having its principal village and lands on the Rock River, near its confluence with the Mississippi. He had fought with the British in 1812, and rose to his position of authority with the Sauks largely through his ability as a warrier.
A disagreement arose between the Indians and Whites concerning the site of the Sac village, which culminated in the tribe being ejected and removed to the west bank of the Mississippi, where it remained for several months. During this time Black Hawk made plans for recaptur- ing title to his home territory and for regaining other rights which he believed due his people.
It is generally conceded that he wanted to avoid open conflict if his purposes could have been realized through conference with the white authorities, but failing in this he was ready to fight, in which event he looked for support from other tribes. His strength in fighting men, among the Sacs alone, was not formidable enough to win in a long struggle, but if reinforced by the comparatively large population of Pottawattamie of the Chicago region, their confederates the Chip- pewa, and by the Fox and the Winnebagoes, a full scale conflict, during which scores of isolated settlers would have been killed, could easily have resulted. The settlers were scattered, out-numbered, and inferior in armaments to the Indians, who had become well equipped with small arms over the years.
So Black Hawk counted heavily upon support from the other na- tives. (He had been assured of these increments to his forces by a sly old Indian named and known among the tribes as the "prophet," who lived at the place now called Prophetstown.) No doubt the rank and file of these neighboring tribes, having nursed their real and fancied grievances against the whites over many decades, were eager to fall in line. It was not a pleasant outlook for the settlers along Flagg Creek.
17
18 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
At this point in our story there enters a character who appears to be unique in the annals of the American frontier, an Indian Chief named Shabbonee, or Shabbona, as he was called by the whites. A number of years after the Black Hawk uprising, General Lewis Cass introduced this chief to President Van Buren, in Washington, with these remarks:
"Shabbona is the greatest red man of the West; he has always been a friend of the whites, and saved many of their lives during the Black Hawk War."
Born in 1775 on the Kankakee River, the son of an Ottawa who had fought under Pontiac, Shabbona joined the Pottawattamie tribe, became a chief, and was closely allied with the famous Tecumseh, until the latter's death at the battle of the Thames in 1813. From then on, Shabbona displayed traits of character most uncommon for an Indian. He visioned the day when the whites would be supreme in the land and he saw the futility of resistance to white expansion. He urged his tribesmen, for their own good, to adopt the same view. Thus as moni- tor, as well as commander in chief, he was the leader and spokesman for all the Indians of the Chicago region, at the time these events were taking place.
It was in this spirit that he had argued with Big Foot at Lake Geneva to dissuade that chief from war in 1827. Big Foot was so in- censed, he threatened Shabbona's life and drove him from the village. Five years afterward, and again in the role of conciliator, Shabbona called his chiefs together.
Early in the month of May 1832, when, according to the frontier "grapevine," war appeared imminent, the Pottawattamies held a meet- ing on the banks of the Desplaines for the purpose of deciding on the stand the tribe should take in the event of hostilities. Although the exact place of this meeting is not given by historians, probably it was held at Lyons because so many trails converged there. It was attended by Shabbona, chief of the Pottawattamies, by Billy Caldwell and Alex- ander Robinson, two half-breed chiefs of the same tribe whose names are mentioned frequently in the history of this region, and by the wife of David Laughton who was a Pottawattamie squaw.
A full report of this council would be of considerable interest now, but like so many happenings of the past, a mere statement of the fact of the occurrence is nearly all we have. Nehemiah Matson, an Illinois
BLACK HAWK'S THREAT 19
historian, says that "after some deliberation it was decided to remain at peace. But many of these Indians had ill feeling toward the settlers and were ready to raise the tomahawk as soon as the Sacs and Foxes commenced hostilities." Mrs. Laughton is reported to have remarked to some of those standing by that some of her people were with Black Hawk and would begin to raid the settlements as soon as he gave the word.
While this meeting on the Desplaines was in progress, the first move of the uprising was taking form. Out on the west bank of the Mississippi, Black Hawk was gathering his followers, his warriors and their families around him, to lead them back to their homeland on the Rock River, and to re-establish themselves on their former lands, peaceably, or by force. When his band landed on the east bank of the Mississippi, the alarm quickly spread. Governor Reynolds decided the regular army contingents in the state, under Brigadier General Henry Atkinson, were insufficient to cope with the situation, and quickly called for volunteers. Black Hawk did not stop at his former village. At the head of his band he marched on, up the Rock. At Dixon's Ferry (now Dixon, Illinois) the Indians crossed the river, and camped a few miles beyond.
By happenstance, Major Isaiah Stillman, with 240 volunteer militia, out on a reconnoitering expedition, was likewise encamped in the same vicinity, at White Rock Grove, in Ogle County. Black Hawk became aware of his enemy's proximity, but he was not intent on a fight if battle could be avoided. Instead, he sent three envoys of peace toward Stillman's camp. These messengers, while on their way, and carrying a flag of truce, met a platoon of Stillman's soldiers, who were either extremely "green," drunk, or both. The soldiers opened fire, killing two of these emissaries of peace.
This incident infuriated the Indian Chief. He ordered an immedi- ate attack on the white force, and in the running fight which followed, Stillman's battalion was practically annihilated. The Black Hawk War had started.
News of this event spread rapidly throughout the frontier. Perhaps the first to hear it were the other Indian tribes and their leaders. In the jabbering native dialect it must have traveled quickly from campfire to village, through the woods and over the prairies. The news reached Fort Dearborn, and it was heard at the scattered settlements, including
20 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
those along the Du Page and the Desplaines. According to one writer, "The story of Stillman's defeat inaugurated a reign of terror between the Illinois and Wisconsin Rivers, and great consternation throughout the entire West." Probably the Indian victory had given the settle- ments an exaggerated impression of Black Hawk's immediate numbers and strength; but if his anticipated allies were to join him, as many thought they would, the consternation was well founded.
Events of the next few days did nothing to allay the general appre- hension. On Indian Creek, a stream which empties into the Fox River about ten miles above its mouth, forty-five miles south-west of Hins- dale, fifteen members of three families were slaughtered in that fiendish, exuberant spirit of barbarity of which the American Indian was so adept. Rifle, tomahawk, hatchet, and club were used in this attack. After the victims fell they were hacked and butchered. Some were strung up by their ankles to trees or cabin roofs. Two daughters of one of the families, Hazel and Rachel Hall, were taken captive and carried away to a Winnebago village in Wisconsin, where several months later they were ransomed and returned to their friends. A few Pottawattamie were with the Sauks in this massacre at Indian Creek.
Reverend Hawley, a brother of Pierce Hawley, at whose house Mrs. Kinzie's party had stopped, was tortured and murdered by roaming Indians, not far from the Hawley home. A mile or two from Plainfield Adam Payne was dragged from his horse and beheaded. Possibly there were other, similar depredations near by that have gone unrecorded.
(Interestingly enough, the name of Girty appeared on the Illinois frontier of these times. During the earlier Indian wars, in Kentucky and Ohio, the name of Simon Girty, the renegade American who helped the British incite the Indians against the settlements, was a household word used by parents to keep their children quiet at night. According to Matson, a Mike Girty was similarly active among the natives of this region during the initial phase of the Sauk uprising. He is said to have been present at the torture of Reverend Hawley, but to have been a friend of Adam Payne. Unfortunately, Mike was with a group of Indians who found Mr. Payne's head a few days after it had been removed, south of Plainfield.)
Black Hawk was not sure of Shabbona, but he thought the latter's sub-alterns, together with the general war-like sentiment that per- meated the tribes, would win him over. Then too, he of course was
BLACK HAWK'S THREAT 21
encouraged in this belief by his recent victory. At the first opportunity, he sought and obtained a council with Shabbona.
Never since then has Illinois seen a meeting such as this one that took place at Paw Paw Grove, near the head of Indian Creek. Accord- ing to P. A. Armstrong, one of the chroniclers of the uprising, ''Black Hawk, mounted upon his favorite milk-white pony, clad in the red coat and epaulets of a colonel of British cavalry, with ponderous sword and belt, came trooping into the Pottawattamie village, followed by Neapope, Pashepaho, and other Sauk chiefs, at the head of the entire band of braves and warriors, accompanied by the beating of tom-toms and the singing of their war songs." On the other side of the council circle, the chief of the Pottawattamie sat with his lieutenants Wau- ponsee, Shemenon, Shaata, and Meaumese.
Shabbona flatly told Black Hawk that his people would not join in the fight against the whites, "because the palefaces will raise an army whose numbers are like the leaves on the trees" against which the Indians no longer could contend. And this was the decision, not of a pacifist, but of a shrewd and calculating warrior; the one who had taken over command at the Battle of the Thames, after Tecumseh had fallen. Shabbona could not speak for the Fox or the Winnebago, but the Pottawattamie, the Ottawa, and the Chippewa would not join in the uprising. And needless to relate, from that time on, Shabbona and Black Hawk were implacable enemies.
There still was danger that malcontents among the Pottawattamie would attack the settlers, if they had not already done so. In view of this possibility and of the uncertainty of the next move on the part of the Sauks, Shabbona, his two sons, and two or three of his lieutenants set out on their ponies to warn the settlers of their danger. Up the ravines, across the prairie, and to the cabins fringing the woods and along the streams rode these Mid- Western Paul Reveres. They called at Ottawa, at Holderman's, Hollenbeck's, and Walker's Groves; at the Big Woods settlement (Aurora), at Naper's settlement, and as far east as the Desplaines and Fort Dearborn. Shabbona's pony gave out, and he obtained another from a settler, but finally the mission was accom- plished.
Immediately, volunteer companies were formed; one under Joseph Naper, called the Du Page Company, and another was recruited at Fort Dearborn. General Atkinson ordered a company stationed at
22 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
Joliet to proceed to Naper's settlement, to build a fort there. It was called Fort Paine, in honor of the captain of that company. A few miles south of there, at Walker's Grove, a rough stockade was thrown up around the cabin of one Reverend Beggs, and Beggs became the name of this "fort."
The women, children, and the elderly at Naper's and at Walker's settlements were transferred to the fort at Chicago, and according to one historian some of them were almost intercepted, near the site of Hinsdale. Out where the old Plainfield Road crosses Flagg Creek, about a mile and a half southeast of the village, the land reaches to considerable heights on both sides of the tiny stream. Thick woods and underbrush at the bottom of that vale would make it an excellent spot for an ambush. According to the legend, it was there, where the trail crosses the creek, that a band of Indians lay in wait for the refugees from Fort Beggs. When, however, the Indians saw the settlers approach under military escort, they decided not to attack, and not to reveal their presence.
While Fort Paine was under construction, two young soldiers of the Joliet company, named Brown and Buckley, were sent with a wagon to Sweet's Grove near by for a load of shingles. As they approached their destination, Buckley jumped off the wagon to make an opening in a rail fence through which the wagon could pass. At that moment Brown was killed by three rifle balls fired from a nearby thicket. Buck- ley ran back to the fort for aid. When the soldiers arrived at the scene of the shooting, they found Brown's body, but the two horses were missing. A stone in the Naperville cemetery now marks the grave of young Brown.
An intermixture of tragic and amusing events took place in this neighborhood during that spring and early summer of 1832. In the midst of planting their crops, the farmers had to choose between aban- donment of their lands, or remaining and running the risk of massacre. They were faced with both the imminence and the doubtfulness of war. Dispatch riders frequently passed between Fort Dearborn and points to the west, carrying warnings, pleas, and other messages.
Those days in this neighborhood are clearly pictured by Mrs. Caroline Strong, wife of Robert Strong, a member of the Naper settlement, in a letter she wrote to her sister back East. Her letter follows:
BLACK HAWK'S THREAT 23
„, , ,7 ., Fort Paine, July 12th, 1832
My dear Venilea, J ;
Our box which our kind friends in Ogden sent us was brought to this place last Monday. It came safe and uninjured. We were very glad of & thankful for the contents; they are very dear on account of their being sent to us such a distance by very dear friends. We were disappointed to see so few letters. We think it a pity so good an opportunity was not better improved. I did indeed laugh on seeing some particular things which you in your extreme kindness & thoughtfulness provided for me. I assure you I have no present use for them but I will keep them a while *k if they continue to be useless to me I will give them to some of my richer neighbors. You know strange things happen some- times & I am not sure but you may want such before I do. I expect before I see you (if I ever have that pleasure) you will be as (word illegible) as (word gone) light can make you. I hope you will make a good choice and not be disappointed or deceived. I hope you will be as happy and contented as I am, then I will be satisfied. Married or not do come to see me. You who are con- stantly surrounded by intimate friends, can have no idea how I (who have seen but one for more than a year) do long to see you.
I was glad to hear that you continued to have protracted meetings and that exertions are making for the conversion of sinners. O, that a faithful devoted missionary would come into this dark corner of the earth! I wish this for my own sake and for the sake of the wicked wretches around me. You cannot imagine how sin and iniquity doth abound here. It is enough to make one shudder to see how the Sabbath is spent here, particularly by the soldiers stationed here (to whom we have given about one hundred tracts this week) . Surely here the "Harvest is great but the labourers few". Here is a wide field for some missionary to labour in. 'Tis true there are preachers here, but they are not the right kind. A man who would do good here must be one who is willing, for Christ's sake, to deny himself many of the comforts of life, the pleasures of society, meekly and cheerfully to submit to the derision and scoffs of a mocking multitude. We want just such a man as Mr. Sedgewick here. It is thought that if there is not a Protestant church formed at Chicago very soon there will be a Roman Catholic one. There are some good people here & some very bad ones.
I suppose by now you hear much said of the present affliction of this State. How eagerly must you search for and listen to all the news concerning us! How your affectionate heart must beat with anxious and tender solicitude for the fate of your far off R. 8c C. who are really in the midst of trouble! I tell you I am tired of war times & war fare Sc I guess you would be too if you had to live as I do. For four days after we came to this place we had to live entirely out of doors 'tho we were permitted to sleep under shelter. Since then we have had a comfortable house. There are 2 small rooms & six families to occupy them. There are twenty-two children. There are five or six crying, two or three scolding almost constantly besides all the rest of the confusion naturally ex- pected in such a place as this. And here I am in a crazy chamber (in the midst of this confusion) sitting on my feet, with my paper on a chair, scribbling to you. I tell you this, not as troubles but to let you see how pleasantly I am situ- ated! We stayed at Chicago nearly four weeks when thinking we should be as safe at home as there we ventured to return. A day or two after we got home
24 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
General Atkinson sent forty of his men, commanded by Captain Paine, to build a fort 8c to remain at this place which is four miles from our house. The day after they arrived here one of their men was killed by hostile Indians. The wretches after scalping him escaped with a span of horses. They had lurked about the place a number of days watching the road. We passed within a few rods of them on our return from Chicago. If we had had horses we should probably have lost our lives as these animals seem to be their first object. Where they find two or three men alone with horses they are sure to kill the men and take the horses. Where there is no danger of discovery they mangle them in the most horrid manner. Some were found, their heads in one place and bodies in another. Some with their eyes picked out 8c noses cut off. One man's body was cut to pieces, his entrails taken out and wound around his neck. One's heart was taken out 8c cut and chewed to pieces. But our unworthy lives are still spared, our Heavenly Father has delivered us from dangers seen and unseen whilst our neighbors (literally speaking) have fallen victims to the blood thirsty savages. Two months ago we were quietly pursuing our labours, thought not of danger or interruption, especially from such a quarter. But what a contrast! What before was peace 8c prosperity was suddenly re- versed into scenes of fear, distress 8c poverty. Homes were deserted, farms left uncultivated, large droves of cattle left to range unmolested their boundless fields. Now, people are just beginning to creep out of their hives 8c tremblingly take a peep at their old homes which I assure you do not look as though they had ever been inhabited by human beings. Some houses where the unfortunate owners were providentially permitted previously to escape, were visited by Indians 8c everything destroyed. It was not carried off or burned but left in the house to aggravate and distress the now destitute owners. Good furniture, iron ware, crockery smashed to atoms, clothing and bedding torn and cut to pieces. Murdered cats, dogs 8c hogs lay about the house. Other houses with their contents were burned. I never before realized the uncertainty of life so much as at present. Never before did I feel the importance of living every day as though it were our last to be so spent. I never felt so little desire to accumu- late worldly riches as at present. I look abroad upon the earth covered with all that is lovely 8c inviting to the eye. It looks mournfully pleasant but emptiness 8c vanity fear 8c danger seem to be inscribed upon everything I behold. In imagi- nation I visit all parts of the earth. I find war, pestilence, famine or discord of some kind raging throughout the whole of this sin abounding world. I cast my thoughts upward where there is such infinity of bliss, such abounding never ending happiness awaiting those who live as they ought to 8c then I wonder why poor shortsighted mortal / am anxious to have her days lengthened out. Yet, there is one tie, one strong tie which binds me to earth. There is one, a frail worm like myself for whom & with whom I would wish to live still longer. Here is human nature! With this desire would a mere nothing in the shape of a man wish to hurry his Maker, counteract His Own Almighty Plans 8c stoop to the gratification of his desires 8c wishes? O, pray for me all my praying friends that I may be enabled to say from the heart "My Father, Thy Will be Done." If I am not deceived I feel that it is good to be in the hands of the Lord— I feel sweet confidence in commending myself to him. I wish to put all my trust in him.
BLACK HAWK'S THREAT 25
It is thought there is little or no danger about here at present. The two young ladies who were taken prisoners by the Sac Indians were ransomed by the Winnebagoes & assisted by them in getting to their uncles. Their parents, brothers 8c sisters fell victim to the tomahawk & scalping knife. The young ladies said they were well treated. A young Indian Chief was calculating to marry one of them as soon as the war was over.
Tell your Ma that since she has sent me some "certain small furniture" I would like to have her remember a promise she used to make to me when I took care of her children in her absence. If she remembers it she had better select one or two of the best nurses out of the family 8c send them along. I would be willing to make her think it was time to fulfill her promise if I knew that would bring any of you here. Tell F. I thank her for her letter. I will answer it in a year or two if I have an opportunity to send it. I must bid you good bye 8c say a few words to Fidelia in answer to her diverting letter. Write again 8c do not forget your sincere friend & sister
Caroline Strong
On the margin of the letter, is a post script written by Robert Strong:
"P.S. Gen. Scott is expected to march with his troops, in the course of a day or two from C. against the Indians. His soldiers are recovering of the cholera. Two steamboats have arrived loaded with troops."
Mrs. Strong, like Mrs. Kinzie, was better schooled than most of the pioneer folk of their times and her letter is the only one found in Chicago or vicinity giving a first hand personal impression of those days along the Du Page.
President Andrew Jackson evidently considered the Black Hawk uprising sufficiently serious to warrant the services of one of his best commanders, for in the early summer of 1832 he ordered General Winfield Scott, with a suitable force, to the scene of hostilities. The contingent came West by steamboat, an innovation in that day, though the boats carried sail as auxiliary power. While on their journey through the lakes, an unexpected and violent attack of the Asiatic cholera broke out among the troops. This was a new disease in Amer- ica, which had filtered down from Canada, where it first appeared. While contending with this epidemic, the force landed at Chicago, on
July 9-
In regard to this sojourn into the West, Winfield Scott, the hero of Lundy's Lane, Queenstown, and later one of the commanders of our
26 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
expedition into Mexico, makes the following remarks in his memoirs: "In 1832, Indian hostilities of some magnitude broke out against the then frontier settlements of the upper Mississippi. Brigadier Gen- eral Atkinson, a dear friend of the autobiographer collected such
forces as were at hand— regulars under Colonel Taylor, with a much greater number of Illinois volunteers— and marched against Black Hawk and his - - Sacs and Foxes, who were supported, not only by the sympathies, but material secret aid, of their neighbors the Winnebago tribe. As the example of Black Hawk was likely to become infectious among many other Indians in that quarter— Sioux, etc., Scott, who commanded at the time in the eastern half of the United States, was ordered to the northwest, with a respectable number of regulars." He goes on to tell of the cholera, the landing at Chicago, and of subsequent events.
The troops, considerably reduced by disease, soon were moved to an encampment on the Desplaines at the site of Riverside, for convales- cence, and with orders to proceed northwestward as soon as the men were able to travel. Scott, with three members of his staff, immediately proceeded in two wagons over the road we call Ogden Avenue. They arrived at Fort Paine (Naperville) by sun-down. While spending the night there Scott wrote a letter, of which this is an excerpt: "I am hastening via Dixon's Ferry and Galena to Prairie du Chien, or, with three officers, to join Brig. Gen. Atkinson. Colonel Eustis and all the well men will follow nearly in my route in three or four days. The cholera had, on my leaving Chicago this morning, nearly subsided." (Note the trip from Chicago to Naperville, with doubtless a stop at the encampment on the Desplaines River, was made in one day.)
When the main body of troops was able to move, it marched north- ward on the east side of the Desplaines to a point corresponding with present-day Maywood. There it forded the river and took a trail through Wayne and on to Beloit, Wisconsin. A few young farmers in the Du Page district served as teamsters for Scott's force. One of these was Robert N. Murray, who, fifty years later was Judge of Du Page County.
Over the years we have heard the legend in Hinsdale of "Scott's army passing through Fullersburg," and possibly some of it did pass this way on the return journey after Black Hawk was defeated; but the force did not return as a unit. As often happens after military opera-
BLACK HAWK'S THREAT 27
tions, Scott's army came back in disconnected groups. In fact, a few of the soldiers who retained their health did not return at all. They decided to settle in Wisconsin or in Illinois.
Those families from the Desplaines valley who went to Fort Dear- born for protection had a disagreeable time of it. The Fort was so crowded that most of them camped out, in the vicinity. The Clybourns, a pioneer Chicago family, and others, furnished the refugees with food while they were there, but as time went on, the refugees began return- ing to their settlements, especially when Scott's troops arrived with the cholera.
The question might be asked: "How did General Scott know, in those days before the telegraph, what the situation was out on the fron- tier, and what direction he should take in pursuit of the enemy?" The answer is found in a small group of fleet-footed scouts who surveyed the field for the General, way beyond the Fox River, and returned to headquarters before the army began to move.
The news they brought was most reassuring. Black Hawk's band was in full retreat, and was in fact crossing the Wisconsin border, with Generals Dodge and Henry in pursuit, at the time Scott's force began its march. On August 2nd at the battle of Bad Axe in southern Wiscon- sin, which almost degenerated into a massacre, the last serious obstacle to white settlement in the Middle West was voided.
Thus the Black Hawk uprising, for this neighborhood, was a threat rather than a war. The conflict is remembered for the turmoil it caused, and for certain participants who were, or later became, prominent. Aside from Winfield Scott and Henry Atkinson, there were these among the Federal troops and volunteer militia: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Zachary Taylor, Robert Anderson, and Henry Dodge. A resident of Brush Hill, (later called Fullersburg, and now a part of Hinsdale) was a member of Joe Naper's volunteer Du Page Company. His name was Sherman King. A relative of General Scott now lives in Hinsdale, in the person of Mrs. Willis L. Blackman.
Before leaving that episode, which had its bearing upon the history of this locality, there is one tribute that cannot be over-looked, a recognition of the services of the Indian Shabbona.* Let the tribute be given by Gurdon Hubbard, one who knew him well: " — From my
* But for him, Black Hawk's threat could have been a stark reality, especially for those in this neighborhood where the Pottawattamie dwelt in such large numbers.
28
VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
first acquaintance with him, which began in the fall of 1818, to his death, I was impressed with the nobleness of his character. He was ever a friend to the white settlers, and should be held by them and their descendants in grateful remembrance."
Chicago Historical Society Photo
He kept trouble away from Robert Strong, Thomas Covell, and their neighbors.
Evidently the photographer thought it appropriate for Shabbona to be holding a bow and arrow, a weapon his generation had discarded.
chapter iv Settlement Under Way
To this new land, like a new sun They came in days now long since gone And like the silver spears of light That drive the sable hosts of Night They ushered in Du Page's dawn.
—From Ode to Old Settlers of Du Page County
AS MIGHT BE EXPECTED, the close of the Black Hawk up- L rising heralded a flow of migration to Cook County, including as it then did, Du Page, Will, and Lake counties. The danger had gone, the land was fertile, climate agreeable, and Chicago was just beginning to give indication of its commercial potentialities. An inviting land finally was opened to eager immigrants.
At first the newcomers arrived mostly from other states, largely from New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, in the order given. Soon, this interstate migration was supplemented by those coming from foreign lands. The foremost countries from which they came were Germany, England, France, Ireland, British America, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Scotland, and Denmark.
The first settlers to be recorded in Downers Grove Township, the township in which Hinsdale is situated, were, according to Richmond's History of Du Page County, Pierce and Stephen Downer, a Mr. Wells, a Mr. Cooley, and Horace Aldrich. In addition, there was John J. Monell, "a land speculator and settler" who purchased from the Gov- ernment in 1830 the original tract that now comprises most of Claren- don Hills.
With a rapid increase in population from this time forward, the economy of the area, its centers of population, and its political align- ments began to take form. Soon after Naperville, the settlements of Warrenville, Brush Hill (Fullersburg), Downers Grove, Winfield, Du Page Center (Glen Ellyn), Babcock's Grove (Lombard), Addison, Cass, Cottage Hill (Elmhurst), and Bloomingdale, in the approximate order of their settlement, came into being. Then Itasca, Western Springs, Hinsdale, Roselle, Clarendon Hills, and Bensenville started to grow. Each little community had its reason for being there, these
29
30 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
reasons relating to fertility of the soil, attractiveness of the surround- ings, or transportation facilities. Proximity to transportation in most instances, however, was the locus casus of nearly all these towns. Brush Hill and Naperville were on the southwest highway. Bloomingdale and Addison found the northwest highway convenient. Elmhurst, Lom- bard, and Glen Ellyn grew up on the old St. Charles Road. When the railroads were built, the four lines, now running suburban trains through the county, roughly paralleled old highways, serving villages already established, and brought new towns into being along the rails.
For many years the first settlers to arrive here, and throughout northern Illinois, were plagued with troubles concerning the claims to their land. Most of the land had not been surveyed before the home- steader arrived and the survey at the time of making claim often was crude and inaccurate. So many a family found, after having lived on the property for a year or two, that its claim overlapped the claim of an- other, or vice-versa. This state of affairs was further aggravated by the presence of numerous speculators or "land sharks" throughout the frontier. Claim protection societies were organized in the county in order that their members might protect themselves in their claims until the Government surveys were completed. The foremost of these was the Big Woods Claim Society. These groups did much to bring order out of chaos in the matter of title to the surrounding land.
Later, a county agricultural society was formed, "to promote a friendly intercourse among the citizens, as well as improvement and enterprise in the cultivation of the soil, the raising of stock, and the manufacture of useful farming and household utensils." This organi- zation sponsored county fairs, the first two of which were held at Naperville, the third at Wheaton. Its minute book now rests in a glass case in the Wheaton Court House.
The first arrivals built their cabins along the fringes of the woods, and near a stream too, wherever such combined advantages could be found. Timber was useful as fuel, for fence building, furniture, and many other purposes. The sinking of wells was not easily accomplished during those early years, and water was needed for both the household and the live stock. Prairie land was the least wanted, but it too was claimed, after the more desirable sites had been occupied. The first settlers in this county were representative of the typical American pioneer; honest, hard working, close to the soil. The frontier for many
SETTLEMENT UNDER WAY 31
years was rugged, unpoliced, and lonesome, but not entirely devoid of amusements and community events.
The year 1835 saw a mass exodus of the Indians from this area. By treaty, and by persuasion in one form or another, the Pottawattamie and their tribal associates agreed to leave this part of Illinois for lands beyond the Mississippi. On the appointed day, they gathered in large numbers in the vicinity of Lyons. There Colonel J. B. F. Russell met with Chiefs Caldwell, Robinson, and La Fromborse to make final ar- rangements for the journey. The long procession passed through Brush Hill, and after several days, the new home at Council Bluffs, Iowa, was reached. It is interesting to note that these tribes later were removed from there to Kansas where they prospered better than most Indians do on the reservations. Shabbona eventually returned to his grove near Ottawa, and Alexander Robinson to his farm on the Desplaines.
Preoccupation with settlement, the establishment of farms, means of transportation and markets for their produce probably was the cause of a delayed interest in politics and political subdivisions on the part of Du Page and Salt Creek settlers, but as the population increased, these additional precincts were formed:
NAPERVILLE DEERFIELD DU PAGE
WEBSTER WASHINGTON BIG WOODS
ORANGE
The area of Brush Hill fell within the Washington Precinct.
It was at about this time, before 1 840, that the proposal arose of separating this area from Cook and of creating a new county. But there was opposition to the move, in one of the local Precincts at least, as indicated in the following story found in the Daily Chicago American of December 5, 1835:
"A meeting of the citizens of Cook County, convened at the house of Capt. Joseph Naper on the 21st. day of Nov. 1835, for the purpose of considering and acting upon the proposed erection of a new county, to be composed in part from a portion of the territory to be taken from this. Capt. Joseph Naper was called to the chair, and William Smith and George W. Lard, chosen as Secretaries. The object of the meeting having been stated from the chair, it
was
Resolved, that a committee of three be appointed by the chairman, to pre- sent to the meeting, resolutions expressive of their sense of the proposed divi- sion of the County of Cook— when Nathan Allen Jr., Stephen J. Scott, and William Smith, were appointed such committee.
32 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
The committee, by their chairman, reported the following preamble and resolutions, which were adopted unanimously,
Whereas, a new attempt is now making to divide the County of Cook, with the view to the erection of a new county, by which the interests and conveni- ence of many of the good citizens of our said County would be seriously and injuriously affected: and whereas the period has not yet arrived, when the im- portant business sites are sufficiently developed to designate the permanent location of the public buildings required by such new organization: and whereas most of us are but planted upon the soil, and upon unsurveyed lands, very illy prepared to contribute beyond the current expenses of our families: and whereas, the public interest does not, in our judgment, in any sense require any new seat of justice in this section of our State, nor any new corps of public officers to administer our laws, or fatten upon our property: and whereas, we are so connected with our present seat of justice by the common and necessary business relations of life, as materially to mitigate the inconveniences and lessen the expenses incident to the discharge of public duties in infant communities: and whereas we cannot but view* this renewed attempt to divide our territory, and draw us away from our chosen and convenient channels for the trans- action of public business, to places unconnected to us by any natural or im- portant business relations, to be premature, and prompted by a spirit of self- ishness, alike regardless of the public good or general convenience. Therefore Resolved, That we firmly and unyieldingly oppose said project by every lawful and honorable weapon in our power.
Resolved, that we will protest against the passage of any law setting off any part of Cook County, as at present impolitic and uncalled for.
Resolved, that we recommend to our fellow citizens of the different precincts, to express their views upon the subject before us.
Resolved that the proceedings of this meeting be published in both the
newspapers printed in Chicago."
Joseph Naper, Chairman
W. Smith ) c , . _, TAT T V Secretaries G. W. Lard^
Editorially, the Chicago American pronounced the conclusion drawn at the meeting as being "just and satisfactory." The necessity of dividing Cook County was deemed not yet to exist, and it was thought that Cook County, undivided, would have a stronger repre- sentation in the Legislature.
About a year after this protest meeting at Naperville, the Demo- cratic party of Cook County held its first convention. The location of this gathering, remembered as the Flagg Creek Convention, was on the Plainfield Road, near Flagg Creek, at the combined tavern and post office operated by Joseph Vial. It was not far from another tavern, the one owned by Elijah Wentworth, brother of Chicago's first mayor. Delegates came on horseback and in wagons from all over the vast
SETTLEMENT UNDER WAY 33
territory then comprising Cook County. The taverns could not have held them all, so it must have been partly a camp meeting. This event serves as evidence that there was quite a settlement to the southeast of us at that time. The settlement later gave rise to the Lyonsville Church, still to be seen at the juncture of Wolf and Joliet Roads. Descendants of Joseph Vial now reside in La Grange.
Although there was local sentiment, as well as sentiment in Chicago, toward retention of the status quo, as far as county boundaries were concerned, we know that four years later, in 1839, Du Page County finally was set apart as a separate political entity. The reason for this rather quick change of opinion is not clear unless it merely reflected the growth of the region, which was more rapid than had been expected. Whatever the cause, the local people did change their minds, and the petition for division was granted by the Legislature. The Chicago America?! of May 8, of that year published the result of the first county election, and had this to say editorially concerning the new division:
"We sincerely hope that the new county will learn somewhat wholesome les- sons from its mother Cook, and shun its follies, while it emulates (if any it can find) its virtues, let it avoid if possible, its debts and embarrassments; let it strive to keep its orders in good credit and at par. The law which creates it, secures a good fitting out for public buildings. Under the management of faith- ful and intelligent commissioners, we wish it all desirable prosperity."
The first county election soon followed, and the political parties which presented their candidates to the voters were the Whig Party and the Loco-Foco Party. The offices voted upon were those of Sheriff, County Commissioners (6), Clerk of the Court, Treasurer, Probate Justice, Surveyor, and Coroner. The Whigs were completely vic- torious, carrying the majority for every office. The term "Loco-Foco" was applied to what later became the Democratic Party, or, initially to members of that party. The name had its origin in New York. The Whigs were the forerunners of the Republicans.
News from the surrounding counties was given considerable prom- inence in the Chicago newspapers of those days. Then, there was not so much difference in size between Chicago and other towns, and the tele- graph had not arrived to bring news quickly from more distant places.
Another event in the lives of the pioneers was the "general" wolf hunt, participated in by large numbers of people. Richmond, in his
34 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
history of the county, quotes an early citizen of Downers Grove, giving a description of a hunt which occurred during the 1 840's. Parts of the description follow:
"Until within a few years this part of the country was infested with wolves, which were a source of great annoyance to the whole community. The farmers, however, were the principal sufferers by their depredations; for sometimes whole flocks were destroyed and scattered by them in a single night. To rid the country of these mischievous animals it was the custom for all who were able to 'bear arms', to rally once every year for a wolf hunt, which was usually a scene of much amusement, and oftentimes of most intense excitement. These expeditions were conducted in various ways. The general hunt, which was perhaps the most common, was conducted upon the following plan:
"Notice of the time of starting, the extent of country to be traveled over, and the place of meeting, which was usually at the common center of the circle of territory to be traversed, was first given to all the participants in the hunt. At an early hour on the morning of the day appointed the hunters assembled and chose a captain for each company, whose duty it was to station members of the company at short intervals on the circumference of the circle alluded to, and then the game was completely surrounded. At a given time the line of hunters began their march, and when they had approached near enough to the center to close in and form a solid line, they halted and remained sta- tionary, while the captains advanced with their sharpshooters to ascertain whether any game had been surrounded."
We are told that as many as sixty wolves were known to have been ensnared in this way during a day's hunt. Unfortunately, deer too were often among them, and usually were shot, along with the wolves. These hunts were conducted on foot or on horse-back.
No American custom has its roots more thoroughly entwined in our history and tradition than is found in the Fourth of July celebration; and no American locality has observed this day more faithfully or more appropriately than our immediate neighborhood from pioneer times to the present.
The celebrations were different in the earlier period. Fireworks, as we know them, were not manufactured; addresses broadcast over the air were a long distance off; parades, with decorated floats were con- fined to only a few of the larger cities. There were no carnivals with booths and amusement devices. But the frontier Fourth of July was none-the-less an institution for the people who engaged in it, and they gave up the greater part of the day for the observance, because it often involved a journey of several miles to the farm of some neighbor where the celebration was held. Invitations were issued to relatives and
SETTLEMENT UNDER WAY 35
friends. Speeches were prepared; and so was a large home-cooked dinner, to be eaten out of doors.
Mr. Horace Aldrich, one of the earliest settlers in this township held such a celebration at his farm house out on Ogden Avenue in the year 1839, and it was reported in the Chicago American on July 19 of that year. This newspaper account is given here almost in full because in its quaint way, it paints such a clear picture of the Fourth celebra- tions of that era:
FOURTH OF JULY DU PAGE COUNTY CELEBRATION
"A numerous company of ladies and gentlemen assembled on the 4th of July, at the house of Horace Aldrich to celebrate that eventful day; and although the notice given was short, the number attending, their smiling faces, the spirited ceremonies, and the cheer of our host, left nothing to be desired.
The company walked in procession to a neighboring grove, where the com- mittee had made arrangements for their reception. The Declaration of Inde- pendence was read, in a style peculiarly fitting that important document, by John W. Walker, Judge of Probate. The oration was delivered by James C. Hatch, Esq., in which he enforced the propriety of commemorating the 'Glori- ous Fourth' by pointing out the lessons it should teach, the advantage gained, and by contrasting and showing our celebration of that day to proceed from causes and principles, to which the celebrations of the most enlightened na- tions, ancient or modern, ought not be compared.
The ceremonies being completed, the company returned in the same order and sat down in the garden to a dinner, the excellence of which was acknowl- edged by the ample justice done by all to the abundance of good things pro- duced. S. M. Skinner, Esq., was President, and N. B. Moreton Vice-President. The following toasts, among others, were proposed.
REGULAR TOASTS
1. The day we celebrate— Consecrated by the noble daring of gallant hearts, in defense of Freedom, Home, and Country, may it ever be observed 3 cheers.
2. The fifty-six Signers of the Declaration of Independence— The heaviest fifty-six the world ever saw; the whole strength of Great Britain could not move them. 6 cheers.
3. Washington the father of his country.
4. The President of the United States.
5. The Congress of the United States.
6. The heroes of the Revolution.
7. Our Country.
8. The State of Illinois.
36 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
9. The Internal Improvements. The vessel of State, though a staunch bark, and emulous to outstrip some of her elder sisters, has evidently more sail than ballast; let her reef, her top-sail and gib- keep her main-sail to the wind trim ship- have a good hand at the wheel, and there is nothing to fear; she will steer between the Scylla and Charybdis. 6 cheers.
10. The Northeastern Boundary Question— May Queen Victoria not under- take to jump Uncle Sam's claim till she is out of debt. (This referred to the state of Maine's boundary dispute) .
1 1 . The Press.
12. The County of Du Page— Divided in politics, subdivided by interest; may she add virtue to patriotism, subtract envy from interest, multiply unity of sentiment by a desire for the public good, and reduce the whole to practice; the result will be peace and prosperity. 6 cheers.
13. The Fair America.
The Chicago newspaper reported each of the foregoing toasts in full. Only enough of them have been quoted here to indicate the nature of the celebration.
Judging from the general tone of this gathering and from the known population of the county in 1839, friends must have been in- vited from far and wide. Can we not picture the scene as the celebration came to an end: as the sun went down and the shadows lengthened, the
Chester C. Bratten Photo
The Horace Aldrich house as it appears today. "A numerous company of ladies and gentlemen assembled on the Fourth of July."
SETTLEMENT UNDER WAY 37
guests bid good-bye, walked out to a neighboring grove where they had hitched their horses; mounted, or climbed back into their wagons, and were off for home, to arise early the following morning.
See page 36 for a picture of Horace Aldrich's house as it looks today. It is situated on the north side of Ogden Avenue four miles west of York Road.
Throughout the history of the Chicago region there was a continu- ous need of more and better transportation. From 1 835 onward, the westward migration of new settlers was a continuous procession. They came, they departed, and many remained. In Chicago, during thirty or forty years of the middle 1800's, the Post Office handled such a large volume of mail for transients, that the newspapers were called upon to publish long lists of persons passing through, or who had not yet settled down, for whom letters had arrived at the Post Office. There were "ladies' lists" and "gentlemen's lists," and these continued until after the Civil War.
This influx of new people meant growth— of towns, farms, factories, and all phases of life. This expansion had to be served by the transport of people and goods from one place to another.
Steamboats were introduced on the Great Lakes and the navigable rivers in the 1 830's, but aside from these natural water courses Chicago had poor transportation in all directions. The first major attempt toward the betterment of transportation facilities was the Illinois- Michigan Canal. In 1816 a treaty between the United States and the Indians had ceded a strip of land twenty miles wide, running diago- nally from the southern end of Lake Michigan to the Illinois River. This tract was set out for the purpose of digging a canal to connect the lake with the river, thus improving upon the natural Chicago portage. The canal was begun in 1835, completed in 1848, and served until 1910, during which time it had a useful and romantic existence, carry- ing a great deal of traffic from the south branch of the Chicago River to the Illinois River at LaSalle.
During those years, the call of the canal-boatman to his mules, and the crack of his long whip were familiar sounds in Willow Springs, Summit, and Lemont. Business reached its peak in 1865, when 275 barges were in operation. Several travelers of the period, some of them
3»
VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
Chicago Historical Society Photo
Scene along the Illinois— Michigan Canal in the 1880's. Travelers of the period have left written accounts of their trips along this waterway.
from distant lands, have left written accounts of their trips on this water-way.
The dry bed of the canal is still there, also the tow-paths, and some of the locks along the way. The canal company's office building still can be seen at Lockport. As far back as 1673 Louis Joliet had envisioned this canal, cutting across the portage, and some of the great-grandparents of present-day Hinsdaleans helped to make it pos- sible by investing in the company's shares. Although the State Legis- lature attempted to protect those investments by prohibiting the early, paralleling railroads from carrying goods at rates lower than those charged by the canal boats, the canal was doomed to a slow demise. The rails, and another canal; the present Sanitary 8c Ship Canal, dug and maintained by the Government, put it out of business.
The growth of farms in number and productivity, and the growth of centers of population, was accompanied by further extension of roads for wagons and coaches, and a rapid increase in the number of those vehicles. This, in turn, called for taverns and hotels. One of the most colorful phases of life in early Chicagoland, and one which
SETTLEMENT UNDER WAY 39
touched the immediate neighborhood of Hinsdale, was the era of the stage coach. Hinsdale is situated between two of the best traveled routes over which those cumbersome vehicles lurched from Chicago to Galena and to Ottawa.
Prior to 1831 the old southwest highways, Ogden and Plainfield Roads were in their "natural" state, having been beaten down through the centuries by the passage of Indian and trapper. For travel by foot, they probably presented an agreeable surface, but the coming of wheeled vehicles brought ruts and mud holes.
At a meeting of the first court of the newly organized Cook County, in 1 830, a resolution was adopted for improving the road leading from Chicago to Plainfield, and of Ogden Avenue as far west as the Des- plaines River. These are the first recorded instances of road improve- ment in this region, but the work consisted mostly of straightening and widening, without much betterment of the surface. During all the years before the Civil War, the highways of this district were rough, muddy, and dusty, and often treacherous, especially at those points where inadequate bridges were thrown across the streams. Little skill went into their construction and they were quite unsafe, especially at night.
The first stage coach line from Chicago to the southwest is said to have been opened by Dr. John L. Temple. In 1834 his line ran to St. Louis, using the Plainfield Road for the first leg of the journey. The next line to pass through here, or at any rate the first to advertise a regular service, after 1834, was a line operated by John D. Winters. The following advertisement was inserted by him in the Chicago Morning Democrat, Sept. 11, 1841 :
STAGE LINE
CHICAGO TO GALENA
VIA DIXON'S FERRY
FARE THROUGH TO GALENA $5
Leaves Chicago
Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday
at 4 O'clock a.m. via
Brush Hill, Downers Grove
Naperville and Aurora.
Mr. Winter's line had only a brief tenure, because it was soon super- seded by the line of Frink and Bingham, later known as Frink and
40 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
Walker. This firm operated stages over both of the southwest highways and within a few years had obtained Government contracts for carrying the mails throughout several of the mid-western states. The company was highly regarded for its service under the trying conditions then existing on the frontier highways. According to its advertisements, $12 became the charge between Chicago and Galena.
Judging from everything we read about the roads of those days, and traveling accommodations in general, the chief impression to be gained is how bad they were. These included crowded coaches, deep depressions in the roads filled with mud, highwaymen, delays, dirty taverns, poor food, and long periods of waiting between connections.
Milo Quaife in his Chicago Highways, Old and Neiv makes these observations concerning early travel by stage: "The traveler who em- barked upon an extended journey by stage committed himself to a venture whose outcome no man could foresee." In the taverns there was little privacy, the beds were likely to have been slept in by various guests and without a change of sheets, before the traveller arrived. Flies and insects shared the accommodations. "If a generalization may be attempted," says Mr. Quaife, "it would be that the food served in pioneer taverns was abundant as to quantity; commonly, however, there was little variety in the menu, and both quality and manner of service left much to be desired. Charles Cleaver, a prominent citizen of Chicago, who came West in 1833, records that the staple bill of fare of the typical tavern was bread, butter, potatoes, and fried pork, but variations, both seasonable and otherwise were occasionally en- countered." The traveler who could spend the night at a private home was fortunate, even though the home were only a cabin. All the early taverns were not uncomfortable, of course. Then, as now, each place was operated according to the attitude and ideas of its proprietor. But the general run of stopping places on the stage routes were below par, even for those times when modern conveniences were unknown.
Taverns of those days, in this neighborhood, were the Laughton's, previously mentioned, the Buckhorn and Vial establishments on the Plainfield Road, Castle Inn and the Grand Pacific at Brush Hill, the Tremont operated by Thomas Andrews in Downers Grove, Mark Beaubien's Toll Gate Inn, a few miles east of Naperville, the Pre- emption House in Naperville, Grave's Tavern in Lisle Township, and Mong's Tavern in Elmhurst.
SETTLEMENT UNDER WAY 41
"Engineers," continues Mr. Quaife, "were scarce in the western country, and the early bridges were rude structures, oftentimes of wonderful architecture. Some were known as 'shaking bridges,' others as 'floating bridges.' One of the latter type spanned the Desplaines on the Chicago-Elgin road in the early forties. It was composed of planks, laid down on stringers which floated in the water." When wagons passed over this bridge it sank beneath the surface and rested on the bottom of the river, there preventing the wagon wheels from sinking into the soft bed of the stream. But the planks often came loose and floated away, increasing the difficulties for the next team of horses, or oxen.
In 1857 a piece °f nostalgic fiction appeared in the Chicago Maga- zine, which has long since discontinued publication, describing an easterner's journey by stage from Chicago to Ottawa in the 1840's, and revealing incidentally something of the story writing style of those days: ". . . He left in the night in one of John Frink's stages, on the route toward Ottawa; to say road at that time would be trenching on the veritableness of history. He paid his fare to the good Mr. Stowell, the stage agent, and while he looked into his face and saw his honest good nature standing out, he felt as if the light of Massachusetts had fallen upon him. The old coach had much of a home look about it; it seemed the very same thing, the red body and green stripes, that twice a week came down over the hill, rolling and pitching like a ship on the waves, down by the old homestead (back east) .... Daylight sprang upon him and revealed to him the bright green of the prairies, twenty miles south-west of Chicago
The carriage and delivery of mail, and express packages, during the stage coach era is a most fascinating subject, one that could make up a book of its own. In the newly settled districts, letters were taken to the main centers along the highways by stage. From there they were carried by men on horseback to the more remote settlements. To obtain these letter carriers the Post Office Department inserted in the newspapers long lists, in fine print, under the heading: proposals for carrying the mail, between different points. Persons desiring the work would then put in bids for the various routes that were open.
The transportation of boxes, chests, and packages was accomplished by no established system or service until express companies such as Adams and Wells Fargo came into being. Even then, the sizes and
42
VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
weights of the packages carried were closely limited, and many were the hazards and uncertainties of delivery.
Roads were a serious problem in the 1830's and 40's, as attested by the various discussions and complaints on the subject that appear in the Chicago newspapers of the period.
"So far as our experience has extended," says one paper, "we have never seen worse roads than that to Barry's Point and five miles west to Doty's on the Naperville Road. (This was approximately Ogden Avenue as far west as Riverside.) In an enterprising community like ours, such obstacles to commerce and inland trade ought to be re- moved. ... If the Commissioners of this county will not do it, let them authorize the city to make the road. But in all events let the road be made." It was the deplorable condition of the city approaches to the southwest highway that accounts for Ogden Avenue, both in and be- yond Chicago, having been the first road to be covered with wooden planks.
The idea of building plank roads came from Canada where many
Chicago Historical Society Photo
Bull's Head Tavern was the eastern terminus of the southwestern plank road, which extended to Brush Hill on the west. The building was located at Ogden Avenue and Madison Street in Chicago. Later, it was moved to the corner of Ogden and Harrison,
where it stood until ipio.
SETTLEMENT UNDER WAY 43
stretches of marsh land had been made passable by this means, and after it was introduced to the United States the idea spread rapidly. The Southwest Plank Road, as it came to be known, extended from Bull's Head Tavern at the corner of Ogden and Madison Street in Chicago, to Brush Hill (Fullersburg) reaching the latter point in 1850. It was a one lane road, eight feet wide, made of planks three inches thick placed crosswise on parallel log stringers which were embedded in the ground.
It naturally followed that this first plank highway, which ended at the Cook County boundary line, would be extended on to the west. So we find that in 1847 Morris Sleight of Naperville was authorized by the "Commissioners Court" of Du Page County to "establish a plank causeway from Naperville to the east and west lines of said county, 20 feet wide to connect with a plank causeway to be built in Cook County, the following schedule of prices to be charged for use of the plank road":
Carriage, cart, or buggy (one horse) . . . 25^
Carriage and two horses 37 lA$
Horse 10^
Head of cattle 4^
Hog 3<f
Sheep 3^
These fees were collected at toll gates.
The southwest plank road was built and maintained as a private stock enterprise and was such an immediate financial success that five other plank roads were soon under construction leading in as many directions from the city. Good transportation between Chicago and points West, for a few years at least, was assured.
Better roads were a commercial necessity, quite aside from any consideration of the traveler's comfort. Produce from the farms, mines, and timberlands had to be taken to the towns and cities. There was no way of doing this except by wagon, and these vehicles became ex- tremely numerous, especially on the main roads, before 1855. The towns of this neighborhood were not known as "suburbs" in those days. This district was out in the country, and farming was the principal occupation.
A Mr. Hunt of Naperville, who remembered the plank road from there to Chicago wrote, some years ago—
44 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
"Yes, we thought that we had a good thing when we got the plank road. Our town was always crowded with farmers on their way to Chicago. They came from miles around. This was the only good road into the city. The string of teams never ended. It was like the belt of a great pulley, with its sheaves at Chicago and Naperville, the full wagons going up on the right, the empty coming back on the left (the drivers vice versa) . In the busiest seasons the wagons had to keep their places as exactly as a rope. If a kink got in the line anywhere, the whole machine was stopped."
This most celebrated of the plank roads, the "Southwestern," was so called from Chicago to Fullersburg. From there to Naperville it was the "Oswego" plank road. It ended at Naperville and was never ex- tended to Oswego, but extensions were completed to Warrenville and to St. Charles. For about ten years the plank road boosted traffic be- tween Naperville and Chicago. It was just a day's journey between the two places, and Brush Hill was a convenient stopping point, about mid-way.
Deacon Horatio N. Field, an ancestor of the Walter Fields of Hins- dale traveled through Brush Hill on the plank road many times from Galesburg. When Knox College was being built there, wagon owners were asked to go to Chicago for loads of brick for the college buildings. Horatio Field offered his services and "many a trip was made over the plank road with a load of brick to help erect the new college."
A notice in the Chicago Journal February 5, 1 850 said: "The whole amount of stock of the Naperville and Oswego Plank Road has been taken." This venture was, for a while so popular, and so many of Naper- ville's leading citizens had stock in the enterprise, that Naperville refused to allow the Chicago and Galena Union Railroad to build through their town. So when the plank roads deteriorated, Naperville was isolated for a time, until the building of the Chicago Burlington and Quincy.
The plank roads did not last, for obvious physical reasons. They wore out, and periodical replacement of the planks was found less economical than the surfacing of the roads by other means. Rock crushers were coming into use. And there was a good deal of talk about a new means of transportation that was meeting with considerable success in South Carolina, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsyl- vania. It was called the "rail road."
chapter v Brush Hill (Fullersburg)
CLASSICAL POEMS have been written about such commonplace transitory objects as a daisy, or a butterfly; and enduring passages of prose retain for posterity an autumn landscape, or the sound of a running brook. Brush Hill, too, is such an object. Not for its accom- plishments, not for its affluence or grandeur, will it be remembered, but just because it was a picturesque little hamlet with a character so representative of early America. That is reason enough for a place in history.
It was settled by sturdy homesteaders from the east who first built their cabins on prairie and timberland surrounding the site of the village that was to grow there. Then a tavern was built, to lodge the newcomers until they could make up their minds where to stake their claims, and the transients who decided to move on, in hope of finding a more likely spot. After a while the tavern keeper was made Postmaster to handle letters to and from the neighboring settlers. Gradually there was felt the need of a store, a church, a blacksmith, a shoemaker, a doctor, a carpenter, and the town came into being. Yes, there were thousands of Brush Hills throughout the length and breadth of our land.
But there are some features of its history that are unique in this hamlet: for one, various notable persons passed this way even before Chicago was large enough to boast of many such of her own, for the community straddles one of the ancient southwest highways, the origin and beginnings of which go back so far as to be unrecorded. For cen- turies perhaps, this road was traversed by leading Indian chiefs, their squaws, warriors, and couriers, from the first habitation down to 1835 when most of the Indians of the region were removed. There were the chiefs Checagou during the French era, and later such Indian notables as Keokuk, Black Partridge of Fort Dearborn massacre fame; Wanata "the charger," grand chief of all the Sioux; Mahaska, chief of the Ioways; Red Wing, Big Foot, and Black Hawk, principal enemies of our first settlers, and many others who came out of the West to the foot of the big lake.
45
46 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
Three small armies, and other military detachments, marched past the site on which Brush Hill grew. In 1730 there was De Villiers, with 50 Frenchmen and 500 Indians on their way to battle with the Fox at Maramech, near Piano, 35 miles west of here. During the Revolution, Charles de Verville and his band marched from Lyons to Peoria over the Ogden or the Plainfield Road. The Black Hawk uprising saw several of the locally recruited companies pass and re-pass the site. Winfield Scott and members of his staff drove through. Some say he named the place, but this probably never will be known for sure. The prairie schooners of countless Forty-Niners and others, whose deeds now are inscribed across the histories of the far West, passed here too.
There were statesmen and soldiers who used the road, between Chicago and western points, during both war and peace: Lincoln, dur- ing his residence in Springfield, and before the Illinois Central Rail- road reached there; Stephen Douglas, Zachary Taylor, during his Mid- Western army service, also Albert Sydney Johnston, and Henry Dodge; Ulysses Grant, while he was a resident of Galena, and Governor Lewis Cass of Michigan very likely were among those who passed through on Ogden Avenue at one time or another, before the rails came. So the main road through Fullersburg is a well-worn street over whose dirt, plank, macadam, and concrete, in their turn, have traveled many of the great, the near great, a host of the unknown, and un- doubtedly many a frontier reprobate.
This also was the birthplace of Loie Fuller, a dancer of interna- tional reputation. It was the site of a grist mill which served the farmers over a wide area for many years. And it is now a part of Hinsdale.
We do not know who was the first man to settle on farm land adjacent to the town, or who was the first to occupy a lot on the town site. Elisha Fish could have been the first, or Jesse Atwater, John Tal- madge, Orente Grant, or John Rieder; it makes no great difference, but we do know that these were the first five to settle on or near the site of Brush Hill. Probably the next was Sherman King who moved there from Naperville, and who had been a member of Joe Naper's mounted volunteer company in the Black Hawk War. Soon afterward, the Fullers and the Torodes arrived. Orente Grant very likely was the first to set out a lot and build within the town, because it was he who erected Castle Inn, the first hotel, and this occurred before the town was platted. The others established farms near by, mostly north along Salt
BRUSH HILL
47
Photo lent by Mrs. Pearl Dumphy
Jacob, the father of all the Fullers, built his house west of Spring Road, north of Thirty-First Street.
Creek. There probably were no dwellings within the present village boundaries when Castle Inn was built. There were no surveyors around as yet, so these people, and many of those to follow, simply drew the boundary lines of their property between certain designated trees or rocks. Mostly the land was "preempted"; that is, it was settled on with the intention of establishing exact boundaries later. Legally, this was permitted.
Benjamin Fuller, one of those many progressive young men of New York State who was able to anticipate Horace Greeley's well known piece of advice, came West, riding a horse, in the year 1834, seeking a likely spot to make his home. This survey led him to Brush Hill, with which place he was so well pleased that he went home for other mem- bers of his family. He convinced his wife, Olive, his father, Jacob Fuller, his mother, and his five brothers and six sisters, of the attrac- tions of this locality, so they all packed up and moved, sight unseen, but with utmost confidence in Benjamin's judgment. Time has shown their confidence to have been well placed.
Three of the daughters came overland with the family by wagon,
48 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
the other three girls preferring a steamboat through the lakes. These new boats in those days were popularly known as "propellers," and it took the girls six weeks to reach Chicago from Buffalo by this novel means of travel. Mr. and Mrs. George E. Ruchty, from whom most of these facts have been gathered, do not know how much time was oc- cupied in the overland journey, but most of the pioneer treks by wagon from eastern states took well over a month. After completing the final lap through the swamps west of Chicago, they finally reached high ground in what is now York Township where they settled, in 1 835, on land that Jacob purchased from the Government. This land comprised most of the area afterward known as Natoma Farm.
The sons of Jacob and Candace Fuller were Benjamin, Morell, Ruben, Lewis, George, and David. The daughters were Mary, Louise, Tammy, Ann, Harriet, and Katherine. Mary, the third daughter soon became the first school teacher, the first in this vicinity in fact. She went by foot from the house of one pupil to that of the next, always accom- panied by two large dogs, Pedro and Nero, for protection against the wolves that often roamed through the high prairie grass that grew in the fields at that time. Mary married Barto Van Velzer, who came here from New York State. He purchased land that is now the Mays Lake property, helped in laying out the plank road, and became toll-gate keeper at Brush Hill. Barto and Mary had ten children, and their house is still standing where the toll gate spanned the highway, east of Cass Street (York Road). See page 53.
Benjamin Fuller platted the original town, and purchased land on both sides of the main highway. Morell served as drum major in the Civil War, and all of the sons and daughters became good citizens of the growing village. Their numbers increased until many of the people in the town were either a Fuller or a relative, and so it has been through the years.
Following the earliest settlers of the Salt Creek area, there came the Thurstons in 1837, tne Goes in '39, Marvin Fox in '50, the Wagners in '55, and John Hemshell in '59. "The folk tales of the 1830's and '4o's mention few women, but undoubtedly there were women, who were mostly busy with the family chores . . . ." All of the Pottawattamie Indians did not leave with the main body of the tribe when it was removed from this region, and some of them lingered on the north bank of the creek, both east and west of York Road, at the time the
BRUSH HILL 49
neighborhood was being settled. ''They were good and kindly neigh- bors, and the children of the Indians and those of the white people played together. Benjamin Fuller showed the Indians how to shoe their horses." It is said that the Indians, as an expression of their grati- tude, presented his son with a pony. Mrs. Levi Pease, an early arrival, remembered seeing Indians in their canoes on Salt Creek.
The late Mrs. Harvey Brookins, daughter of Morell Fuller, in her notes alludes to this small community of Indians and tells of her father having had Indian playmates as a child. Among the Brookins family antiques are a deer gun, candle mold, spoon mold, and harvesting cradle, brought to Brush Hill by her grandparents when they came West.
The first school house in Brush Hill, according to Mrs. Brookins, was built by Lieutenant King in the early 1850's. The Hinsdale Public Library's historical collection contains several of the original papers pertaining to the building and the administration of this school, among them being minutes of the school director's meetings, cost accounts relating to construction, and a check-sheet which records the attend- ance of each student throughout the year.
These papers recall the names of many Brush Hill residents of that period. Among them are: Richards, Bedell, Parker, Mclnder, Sackett, Carpenter, Couch, Porter, Cable, Hanson, Huchins, Pitts, Sucher, Winchop, Sutherland, Ketcham, Kinyon, Avery.
Just before the opening of the school, the directors invited the School Commissioner of Du Page County to come over for an inspec- tion and to give them a talk. The Commissioner replied as follows:
Naperville Dec. 6, 1853 To G. M. Fox, M. D. My Dear Sir:
In compliance with your request I will endeavor to be at Brush Hill on Friday the 16th inst. to address the people of your neighbor- hood in your new school house. The meeting I suppose will be in the evening, somewhere from six to seven o'clock. If the weather shall be stormy you will not expect me.
Yours respectfully,
H. Brown
On Page 50 the certificate appointing Miss Caroline Bates as the teacher is reproduced.
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BRUSH HILL 51
How did these early farmers around Brush Hill live? They brought with them a good heritage from their New England or German an- cestors, a few hand tools, utensils, and small pieces of furniture. Fertile land was easy to obtain for a comparatively low price. There was plenty of game in the woods, also crab apples, berries, and fish in the creek. Clothing was more of a problem; also certain required manufactured articles were scarce, but taxes were low, and farm life was healthful.
Here, as elsewhere on the frontier, currency was not plentiful so farmers did much bartering, with labor, goods, and produce. Certain manufacturing of a crude sort, mostly in the form of wagons, small implements, and shoes, took place in settlements such as Brush Hill. These articles were used or consumed near the place of their manufac- ture. After 1845 ^ became increasingly easy to obtain manufactured goods in Chicago, only a day's journey, one way, weather and road permitting. Salt, tea, and coffee also were purchased there; that is, until John Coe and others opened their general stores.
The Du Page Historian, a publication of the Du Page County His- torical Society, gives us these glimpses of life on the early local farm:
"The first cabins were constructed of logs fitted closely together and mortised
with mud Nails were scarce so wooden pegs were used instead. The
stone fireplace .... was used for both cooking and heating, except in warm weather when much of the cooking was done out of doors. Candles afforded the only illumination. Flint and steel were used to start the fire. (Matches, patented in this country by Alonzo Philips in 1836, were long a luxury) .
"Hospitality was warm, and the traveler was given the best in the house and invited to stay as long as he liked. The newcomer was given assistance if he needed it, his hosts helping him to build his cabin and even donating live stock if he had none. Only one rule the new settler might not transgress and remain popular with his fellows. He must not criticize the new country, com- plain of its disadvantages, or talk of the superiority of the place from which he had come.
"Every blacksmith with an inventive turn of mind was tinkering with plows. Sometimes mold boards of cast iron were tried on the plows by way of improve- ment. (The Oliver plow, the first factory-made plow in the United States, was not manufactured until 1855) .
"Livestock was allowed to wander freely over the fields. Hogs fed themselves on roots and acorns. Cows strayed for miles on the open prairie and were identified by the tones of bells placed around their necks. The settlers had to fence in their crops to keep the animals out." Rail fence, ditches, sod embank- ments, and osage hedge were used for this purpose. Barbed wire was invented much later.
52
VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
Chester C. Bratten Photo
Castle Inn as it appears today.
A tavern was built, to lodge the newcomers until they could stake their claims."
These families had some time for reading, around their candles or lamps in the evening, especially in the winter. The newspaper was the chief dispenser of news, and probably, then as now, newspapers from Chicago, though often a day or two late, were the dailies read by Brush Hill citizens. Eventually there were a few county papers, such as the Naperville Observer and the Lockport Courier, but these were con- fined mostly to the towns in which they were printed.
Chicago newspapers of the 1 850^ and 6o's had larger pages than the papers of today, though not so many, and the type was smaller. They carried many special dispatches "by telegraph" from distant places and much space was given to happenings of a general nature throughout the world. Advertisements were mostly small and very numerous. Many of them extolled the virtues of remedies of one kind or another such as:
BUCHAN'S HUNGARIAN BALSAM OF LIFE The great English remedy for colds, coughs, asthma, and consumption.
(1846)
BRUSH HILL 53
Or, from a paper of an earlier period:
Dr. L. B. Crane 's Vegetable Ointment for the prairie itch.
(1839)
In the same year a state lottery, called "a brilliant scheme" was ad- vertised. This was authorized by the legislature to raise money for the purpose of draining swamp lands.
In 1 864 C. H. De Forrest was notifying the public of his hoop skirt manufactory and sales room at 84 Lake Street in the city.
Nor was the press of that day lacking in bits of wit and wTisdom. In issues of 1854 these are found:
No man can avoid his own company, so he had best make it as good as possible.
Spell murder backwards and you have its cause.
For entertainment in the city there were announcements of the Lyceum, the Athenaeum, and exhibits such as Napoleons Funeral,
■ ■■■■■. -■■
Toll Gate House was built during the 1840' 's.
54 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
shown in the evening at the City Hall, besides The Sea of Ice and other performances at McVicker's Theatre, and at the Coliseum on Clark Street.
And if you would like a sample of pioneer food, here is a recipe for corn bread that appeared in The Chicago Democrat August 3, 1 842 :
"Take corn meal, a sufficient quantity to make a stiff batter with 3 pints of sour milk; 3 eggs well beaten; 2 oz. of shortening; 1 gill of beet molases; a little salt and saleratus; grease pan well and bake quick."
The Brush Hill folks had neighbors at Cass, Lyonsville, and Sum- mit to the south, Pierce Downer's settlement to the west, Lyons on the east, and Addison up north. In those days the people of these surround- ing towns were looked upon as close neighbors. A wagon trail that is now York Road led north to Addison, another now called the County Line Road, led south to the Plainfield and Joliet Roads. Cass usually was reached over the southern extension of what is now Garfield Street, or over the route of the present Highway No. 83. Ogden led east to Lyons and Chicago, while Downer's Grove was reached by another set of wagon tracks, which later became the road cutting through the course of the Hinsdale Golf Club.
The main east- west road through Brush Hill was improved some as early as the 1 840's, and it became known as a "turnpike" with toll gates at intervals to help defray the cost of improvement. These toll gates lingered on through the era of the plank road bubble.
Before the building of the Graue grist mill, on the south bank of Salt Creek at York Road, Mr. Torode erected a saw mill on practically the same site as early as 1845. The house opposite the present mill, on the north side of the creek, is said to have been constructed of lumber sawed there. (A recent remodeling of the building, now a tavern, re- vealed the original timbers of black oak) . The Torodes built a house in 1842, using stone from a nearby quarry bound with mortar made of native clay and straw. In that same quarry many youngsters have gone swimming during the past seventy-five years. In 1 844 John S. Coe opened his blacksmith shop, using an anvil he had hauled all the way from his former home in the East. Later he operated a general store.
A second tavern was built, this one on the north side of the road, a little east of the Cass Street intersection. It became known as the Grand Pacific, and later, as Fullersburg Tavern. There was also a corral for transient live stock in town over night while being driven
BRUSH HILL 55
to the city. The fact of two taverns being required in such a small town is ample evidence of the density of the horse-drawn, and oxen- drawn traffic that must have passed through. At one time John F. Ruchty, father of Mr. George E. Ruchty operated both of these inns.
As far as we have been able to determine, Brush Hill "just grew" from this time forward. People came through continuously, the flow of traffic being mostly westward for a number of years, and every so often a man or a man and his family, would pull up at one of the inns in his prairie schooner and "anchor" for a while, then settle down on a piece of land. Prior to 1855, especially after the plank road was con- structed, the travel through Brush Hill was heavy, both to and from the city. But for this it would have been a quiet little town indeed, with the only other sounds coming from the blacksmith shop, a few boys, girls, roosters, and dogs. The population in 1855 was 200.
It must have been less than that in 1839. That was the year in which Du Page County was formed. In that year also, a political con- vention was held in the county, at which a "Committee of Vigilance" was appointed for each of the precincts, and to serve on this committee for their precinct, these men were appointed from Brush Hill: Levi C. Aldrich, William Fuller, Sherman King, and J. G. Yorrick.
The Chicago newspaper in which this announcement was found gives no hint of the purpose of the "committee of vigilance," nor do either of the two histories of the County. The committees could have been appointed for police protection, but in as much as they emanated from a political party, perhaps we are safe in assuming that they were the pioneer counterpart of the modern "ward heeler."
Here is another of the rare items of news about Brush Hill found in Chicago papers of the day. This one appears in an issue of August 13,
1847:
"A man died at Brush Hill, in Du Page Co., on Saturday night last. He had left Chicago that day, arrived at Brush Hill in the evening and put up at a tavern for the night. Being unwell he got some medicine of a doctor that lived there, and died during the night. On Sunday he was boxed up and buried in a pasture. The people there do not know his name, or where he belonged. The fact of his having a load of crockery may lead to the discovery of his name and residence. Not having got his load at Mr. Burley's Crockery Store it is probable that he got it from some of the warehouses."
This announcement adds a touch of color to our picture of the town in those times, and it implies that taverns of the day kept no
56 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
register books for guests. Concerning the doctor's medicine, there is no comment.
The hotels had various proprietors and owners as time passed. Grant, Fuller, Walker, Ruchty, and a man named Lugin are the names usually seen in connection with the ownership or operation of these inns.
The war with Mexico started in 1 846 and a meeting was called at the county seat in June of that year to raise a company of volunteers. Perhaps a few men from Brush Hill attended, and it may be that some of them enlisted. Possibly we never shall know. The service lists for that war indicate the recruit's place of enlistment, but not his place of residence, and none of the living old-timers remember having heard of any Mexican War veterans among the villagers.
In april 1854 a Vermonter, Alfred L. Walker arrived in Brush Hill. With him were his wife Fanny Ann, his mother Sophia Pettigrew Walker, and a son Clifford. This family came out by stage coach to Chicago, then west over the plank highway to a house on York Road, where they remained for some time while looking for farm land.
From Benjamin Fuller, Mr. Walker bought more than 300 acres, also the tavern and Castle Inn, and moved into the latter, where the family remained until their house was built. This was to be a com- modious farm house. Placing it according to present-day landmarks, the house stood east of Garfield, at the eastern end of Ayres Avenue. Remnants of the house now are incorporated in the home of Mr. W. F. Price at 429 N. Garfield. Thus Mr. Walker's house was the first to be erected within the boundaries of Hinsdale as they were before Fullers- burg was annexed. The Lane was so named by Mrs. E. F. Hines, Mr. Walker's grand daughter, because it actually was the lane through which the cows came up to the barn when the place was a farm. A patent for the Walker property was issued originally to one Grove Lawrence of New York State and signed by Martin Van Buren Jr., Secretary to President Van Buren. This document has been preserved in the Edward Hines family. Later the land was deeded to one Joseph Battells, then to Benjamin Fuller, and finally to Alfred Walker.
A progressive farmer, coming of a long line of New England agri- culturists, Mr. Walker experimented with various farm produce, the
1
BRUSH HILL
57
%>,
7
Test & McQuarrie Photo
Household articles brought from Vermont by the Walkers, and flax grown on their
Hinsdale farm.
i. Ink Well, 2. Flax, 3. Mr. Walker's Spectacles, 4. Spatula, 5. Spoon, 6. Carpet Bag, 7. Cheese Tester, and 8. Wooden Chopping Bowl.
preparation of meat, and the manufacture of cheese and other things. This was recognized by the Federal Government as a "model farm." to which it assigned a Japanese, Ineye Katsumasa, to be educated in American agriculture.
According to Blanchard, one of the County historians, there was not a dwelling house within several miles, to the south, when the
58
VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
The Walker farm house stood at the eastern end of Ayres Avenue.
Walker home was built, in 1 857. The wolves were numerous then, and a bear occasionally was seen poking its nose through the rails of the pig pen. The farm proper was north of Hickory Street; south of there it was partly wooded, which gave the name Walker's woods, or Walk- er's grove to the wooded area at the northern end of Elm Street.
Mrs. Hines now has various articles her grandparents Walker brought with them from the East. Among these are the ones pictured on page 57.
At this point let us turn to a state of Illinois business directory for the year 1 854. For Brush Hill it gives the following names and occupa- tions:
Josiah B. Dodson Attorney
John S. Coe Blacksmith
Alva McDonald 1 _. . 0: _ _ ,
J. Boot and Shoe Makers
Ellas Ostrander J
Luther Couch
Mark Davis Franklin Packard E. Winship
Carpenters and House Builders
BRUSH HILL 59
F. Leonard, Episcopal Clergyman
J ' L Dry Goods Store and General Merchants
Benjamin Fuller f
Frederick Graue ] _, , ~ . ,,.,,
I Flour and Grist Mill
Wm. Ashe J
John Fuller Hotel
Benjamin Fuller Postmaster
Geo. M. Fox Physician
Arthur Young
Fred Graue
Wm. Ashe
A flourishing enterprise, started after publication of this directory, was Henry Bohlander's harness shop which was patronized by farmers within a long radius. Henry was the father of George Bohlander, har- ness maker and violinist. Henry Dietz operated a slaughter house and meat market during the 6o's and 70's.
A number of grist mills were erected in this region between 1830 and 1 860 and one of these was built by Frederick Graue, on Salt Creek. After purchasing 200 acres of land, mostly north of the creek, Mr. Graue, in 1 849, completed a mill building which had been started two years previously. This was near the site of the former Torode saw mill, which had burned in 1848.
The foundation stones for the Graue mill were quarried near Lemont, the white oak for the timbers of the building was cut in that same district, the bricks were manufactured in the brick-yard back of Morell Fuller's home, from clay dug in the vicinity. Some say that Mr. Graue originally devised his own mill machinery, but that later he bought some in the East, and that a millwright came from New York to install it.
The first dam here was built of logs and brush, as the Indians used to build them, by that versatile Sherman King whose name appears so frequently in the early annals of the village. This dam was replaced by a crib-and-plank type dam in the 1870's. Originally, power for the mill was obtained from an under-shot wheel, like the one that is there now, but later, in 1868 a water turbine drive was installed, the tur- bine being shipped from Springfield, Ohio.
The volume and velocity of the flow of water, which was adequate for operating this mill in the early days, seemed to diminish over the years until, in the i87o's, it became necessary to supplement the water
6o
VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
Graue's Grist Mill
Interior, First Floor
One of the Mill Stones, Dismantled
The Mill Race
BRUSH HILL 61
power with a small steam driven engine. At first this steam plant was on the island just north of the mill race. Later it was moved to the east side of the mill building. Apparently the flow of Salt Creek became less re- liable during the mill's useful life, covering a span of 70 years.
Mrs. William Graue, grand-daughter-in-law of the original Fred- erick, was an old lady when she died a few years ago. She had come to the red brick dwelling south of the mill as a bride, and her husband inherited the mill in 1881.
In an interview shortly before she passed away, Mrs. Graue told how the mill ground whole wheat, white, and rye flour, and feed for farm animals. Sorghum, maple syrup, and cider also were produced there. She remembered Indians living in huts on the north side of the creek, on a clearing east of York Road; how they would wander over to the Graue's place when the syrup was being boiled down, and how the family would always give them some of it, spread over corn cakes. Today, in the parlor of the Graue home, there are various Indian im- plements and relics.
Her memory seemed quite clear also concerning a visit paid to the mill by the State Legislator Abraham Lincoln, one day while he was journeying through here from Chicago. Lincoln chatted with the elder Graue for a bit before continuing on his way.
Historical side-lights often turn up in unexpected places. Many years ago Mr. Graue employed one Patrick Kammeyer as foreman of his mill. Kammeyer, who not only worked there, but also made his home in the mill building, evidently was a thrifty and thoughtful in- dividual; for in 1926, at the age of 88, he drew up a will and sent it to his brother residing in Rome, New York. In the letter transmitting this will, he said, among other things: "When I die I want you to have everything I own. I have saved more than $4,000. This money is in a box hidden in the mill. It is yours when I die." Directions for finding the money were not explicit.
Two years later Kammeyer dropped dead; and soon afterward rela- tives came from the East to search the building for the money. They did not find it.
In 1934, while the building was in process of restoration by the Civilian Conservation Corps, a worker uncovered some money behind bricks in one of the interior walls. The money is known to have con- sisted of the old-style large paper currency, because a few of the bills
62 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
were seen by others, one of them having been spent at the tavern across the stream. When interviewed, the worker said the money was only of a small amount. The exact amount has never been determined.
The settlement known as Brush Hill was incorporated as a village in 1851 and what was more natural than "Fullersburg" as a name for the newly organized town, with so many Fullers living there-about and having had such a large part in the shaping of the community. Rumor has it that sentiment was ripe for a change in name anyhow, because Brush Hill, in the olden days had been chosen as a hidingout place by certain gentry who stole horses, and that this rightly or wrongly, had left a slight blot on the town's reputation.
Fullersburg it was, when Fort Sumter was fired on in 1861, and soon thereafter the school house at the foot of cemetery hill on Ogden Avenue was serving as a recruiting station, enlisting men for the war, with Julius Kurth one of the volunteers acting as recruiting officer. Here Christian Henrick, Henry Hahn, Fred Werden, George Hoehne, Morrel Fuller, John Schultz, and Charles Gager joined the Union forces, and there the same little school house stood until about 1938 explaining the three R's to new generations of Fullersburg youngsters. Miss Alice Warren and Miss Emma Ostrum are among those of Hins- dale who attended there.
Many places throughout the northern states have, according to rumor, tradition, or fact, been designated as stations of the " Under- ground Railroad," that system by which "contrabands" from southern plantations made their way north, to freedom. It is a fact that Fullers- burg was one of these points of slave refuge and transfer, and John S. Coe was the man, or at least he was one of those who served as station master. Activities that are conducted in secret usually go unchronicled, but in the absence of documents or personal diaries of those events, we quote this word-picture from a 1923 issue of the Chicago Daily News:
A REFUGE IN THE DAYS OF SLAVERY
"In the little Hamlet of Brush Hill not a light is to be seen. The two stores, the taverns, the grist mill, the half dozen houses shrink into the protecting shadows of the huge elms and maples and are hardly visible from the road. The white- painted posts at the bridge loom weirdly against the somber curtain of willows along the banks of the mill stream.
"A farm wagon, driven by an obscure figure muffled to the ears in a great coat, rattles across the bridge and continues on to the turnpike. The bed of the
BRUSH HILL 63
wagon is covered with a tarpaulin. An hour or so later the wagon rattles over the bridge across the Desplaines near Riverside and continues northeast over the route of Ogden Avenue. Near dawn it draws up quietly before the barn at the rear of the residence of Philo Carpenter, at Randolph and Carpenter Streets. A light in a first floor window blinks a signal that 'all is well.'
"The driver pulls off the tarpaulin, and three figures crawl from the pile of hay in the wagon-bed and dart toward the cellar door of the Carpenter home, which opens to receive them and closes behind them. The driver makes his way to the Bull's Head Tavern to find refreshment for man and beast."
When Mr. Heman Fox was a boy, he saw two sleigh loads of negro slaves pass his father's house at Ogden and Lincoln one day before the war. The cargo was covered to resemble a load of live stock.
For want of better accommodations in a pioneering community, Loie Fuller was born in the little Castle Inn. It was an extremely cold night during the 1 86o's, and the bar room of the hotel had the only cast iron stove that gave off enough heat for such an important event. The neighbors, though perhaps not the transients, who were not aware of these proceedings, were willing to forego their use of these quarters until the new arrival and her mother were up and around.
After Loie was able to walk, her parents took her with them to several presentations of the Chicago Progressive Lyceum, that early movement toward culture which a few of the living still can remember. On one of these occasions, when Loie was two and a half, she slipped away from her parents, climbed up on the Lyceum platform and re- cited the prayer she had learned to say at home. There was applause, and she returned the salutation. This initiative and acumen impressed the manager no less than it surprised the parents, but most of all it was an early indication of Loie Fuller's native talents. Thereafter she did Mary's Little Lamb at the Lyceum, and not many years were to pass before she began taking parts in plays at other theatres. She had a rare gift of being able to remember pieces after one or two readings, and of giving expression through movement as well as speech.
During the gas-light era Miss Fuller, in her early Twenties, was traveling from one place to another in the United States experiencing the fluctuations between success and disappointment that are known to most of those who become prominent on the stage. In the East she created her Serpentine Dance, acquired a manager, and, accompanied by her mother, went to Germany to try her fortunes there.
64 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
In Germany she was beset with troubles. The Opera house was closed and only a music hall was available for her appearances. Her mother became seriously ill, and soon her manager quit. Despondency affected her performances; the music hall contract terminated, so, until her mother was able to travel, she was reduced to the necessity of ap- pearing in a beer garden. This time they moved to Paris.
In that city she found her Serpentine dance being imitated at the Folies-Bergere, and Loie considered it such a poor imitation that she induced the manager of the theatre to employ the originator of the dance instead.
It was at this point in her career that Loie Fuller's fame as a dancer had its beginning. In Paris she devised other new dances: The Violet, the Flame, the Butterfly, Fire and the Lily, and others. Electric lights had arrived and Loie displayed ingenuity in the arrangement of light- ing effects for her dances; lights of changing color, some overhead, others shining through glass in the floor of the stage, all of this as mere trimming, however, to her natural charm and terpsichorean vivacity.
There were more trials. A contract to appear in St. Petersburg had to be broken because of her mother's illness, and the Russians brought suit making her pay large damages for breaching the contract. She made many friends in Paris, however, and the reputation she was building there held much promise for the future. Sarah Bernhardt, whom she had first met in America, attended some of the dancer's per- formances and solicited her advice concerning lighting arrangements for her new play that was about to open there. An old friend Loie had met in Jamaica introduced her to Alexander Dumas, through whom she became friends of M. and Mme. Flammarion, the astronomers, and Rodin the sculptor.
Children were fascinated by Loie Fuller's dancing; the dances were so fairy-like and appealing to a child's imagination. After a certain performance for children one little girl was taken behind the scenes to meet the dancer, who by that time had changed to her street clothes. According to Miss Fuller, this tot, when she saw her, said to her mother, "No, I don't want to meet her. She's just a fat lady, not the person I saw dancing."
Royalty too (it was still in vogue in Europe at the turn of the cen- tury) liked to see Loie Fuller dance. She appeared at the palace in Bucharest for Princess Marie, the two becoming life-long friends there-
BRUSH HILL 65
after. She danced for the Duke and Duchess of Mecklenberg at the Hague, and for the king of Senegal at the Colonial Exposition in Marseilles in 1907. Queen Alexandria of England went to the theatre to see her dance in Paris.
An appearance at the Chinese court was cancelled after the journey to China had started, because of the illness of her mother. By now she had given her interpretation of the Dance of Fear, from Salome, and had created her Dance of the Pearls, and others. One time, when she was dancing at the Athenee in Paris a group of students showered the stage with violets. After the performance they unhitched Miss Fuller's horse from the carriage and themselves drew the vehicle to her house, with her in it.
As her personal appearances tapered off with the passing of the years, Miss Fuller helped several aspiring younger artists along the road to success. She sponsored two or three Japanese theatrical com- panies, largely through her interest in things Oriental and in one little Nipponese actress in particular. For one of these troups she wrote the plays, and they were successful wherever they appeared. She helped a poor dancer toward a career, and other people, who were blind, or in need of one thing or another.
At a function given in honor of Kawakami, a notable Japanese playwright, who understood neither French nor English, and at which there were none present who knew Japanese, Miss Fuller acted as inter- preter. How? By means of interpretive gestures, of which art she was master; and they were understood by the others at the gathering.
Anatole France, in his introduction to Loie Fuller's autobiography says, among other things: "This brilliant artist is revealed as a woman of just and delicate sensibility, endowed with a marvelous perception of spiritual values. She is one who is able to grasp the profound signifi- cance of things that seem insignificant, and to see the splendor hidden in simple lives.— not that she is especially devoted to the lowly, the poor in spirit. On the contrary she enters easily into the lives of artists and scholars. She has formulated, without desiring to do so, and per- haps without knowing it, a considerable theory of human knowledge and philosophy of art." #
* Summarizing Fifteen Years of A Dancer's Life, the autobiography of Loie Fuller.
66
VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
The class of 1889, Fullersburg School.
By the year 1 874, when an atlas of the county and its principal towns was published, Fullersburg had emerged from the frontier and was acquiring the aspects of a residential village. Where the main road ran through, it was called Main Street. York and Cass Streets joined to cross it north and south. Jackson and Washington Streets were being developed, lots had been plotted, and a few more homes were going up within the village.
Owners of the land surrounding Fullersburg at this time, most of them being resident farmers, were Marvin Fox, D. K. Foot, David Thurston, T. S. and J. W. Rogers, John Hemshell, C. Fellows, A. Mc- Allister, David Roth, Benjamin Fuller, M. Coffin, Fred Graue, D. and H. Mayer, A. Frank, H. Bergman, F. Wegner, Winkelman, and Boerger.
Before publication of the 1874 atlas, there were three farms in particular adjacent to Fullersburg which were to be associated with the development of Hinsdale. These were the farms of Jarvis Fox, Anson Ayres, and Alfred Walker, all three of them extending south- ward from Ogden Avenue, to about the line of present-day Chicago
BRUSH HILL 67
Ave. The Ayres farm was on the west, Fox in the middle, and Walker on the east. All three of these properties eventually were subdivided into Hinsdale home lots.
Have you seen that attractive little white church on the sloping west side of the northern extension of Washington Street, a little south of the Creek? The church is especially picturesque when viewed across the meadow from York Road. It was established in 1878 and called St. John's Lutheran by the eleven German families that built it. Later, the name was changed to St. John's Evangelical and Reformed Church. Ax first, the German language was used in its services, but this has long since been discontinued. Since the beginning, its membership has been drawn from both farm and village. Charter members of St. John's Church were Joachim Ross, Henry Heinke, Frederick Timke, William Ostrum, Charles Schmidt, J. H. Papenhausen, and John Bohlander.
We come now to 1886, a year in which the state of Illinois pub- lished another business directory. Since the first directory in 1854, there have been many changes and additions:
Reverend F. Boeber is listed as a Lutheran minister and Physician.
W. Bullerman Blacksmith
C. T. Coe Manufacturer of Birch Beer
W. Delicate . Painter
H. Flechtner Mason
Almeron Ford General Store
Adolph Frosher \ Carpenters
William Wegener I
Morell Fuller Plasterer
(He was also a musician. When square dances were held it was Morell Fuller who furnished the music with his violin.)
Fred Graue Miller
S. Heineman General Store
W. Hix Meat Market
John C. Eidam j Blacksmiths
H. Ignatz
C. Karnatz Shoemaker
William Ostrum Mason
John F. Ruchty Hotel, and Ice
Paul Rudolph Physician
Fred Tunk Wagon Maker
Richard Wrede Shoemaker
Ernest Zschack Saloon, General Store and Dance Hall
Almeron Ford Postmaster
68 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
The village of Cass, on the Plainfield Road southwest of Hinsdale, was an early neighbor of Brush Hill, so much so that the road leading south from Brush Hill was called Cass Street. In 1 85 1 Benjamin Fuller, J. S. Coe, and D. W. Boyd of Brush Hill had petitioned the county to build a road between the two places. This road would have cut diag- onally across the site of Hinsdale, and the route actually was surveyed, but the road was never constructed. There was talk of other develop- ments in the same area and possibly the people of Brush Hill foresaw a day when they would have neighbors closer than those at Cass. Indeed much closer; for seventy-two years later Brush Hill was to become an- nexed to the village of Hinsdale.
chapter vi Coming of the Railroad
IN THE 1840^ the carriage of freight in northern Illinois cost the shipper about $10 per ton for twenty miles, a charge that was so high as to deter commercial expansion. Passenger travel was uncom- fortable. So it was not long before rails were laid, running westward from Chicago. By 1850 this road, the Galena & Chicago Union, had reached Elgin and was aiming for points beyond.
Another thriving settlement to the west, Aurora, was in need of better transportation. So the enterprising citizens of that place ob- tained a charter from the state legislature, in 1 849, to build a railroad from Aurora northward, to connect with the Galena & Chicago Union, thus giving Aurora access by rail to the city of Chicago. This juncture- point with the Galena line was Turner's Junction, later to be known as West Chicago. Over wood and strap-iron rails the new line from Aurora was soon hauling its cars all the way to Chicago, and it was named the Aurora Branch Railroad. This new road then expanded westward from Aurora to Mendota, to Galesburg, Peoria, Quincy, and to Burlington, Iowa, and eventually its name was changed to the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. *
It was not long before the need of a direct route between Aurora and Chicago became apparent, to avoid the 12 miles from Aurora northward to Turner Junction before entering the city. Rails of its own, leading into Chicago, were advisable for other reasons also. The time could be foreseen when traffic would be heavy enough to demand double and perhaps triple tracks over the city approaches, and land for freight terminals, yards, maintenance, and switching facilities would be needed. But in addition to these requirements, the towns of Lyons, Brush Hill, Downers Grove, Lisle, and Naperville wanted a railroad to pass through their communities. Although the name of Mr. Alfred Walker does not appear on the petition of these towns (Page 70) he too was desirous of having the rails come through; so much so that he donated the southern fringe of his farm lands for road-bed purposes.
* During this year, 1949, the C B & Q observes its "milestone 100.
69
To the President, Board of Directors and Stockholders of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company.
Gentlemen :
We respectfully beg leave to submit for your consideration a few facts connected with the building of an independent track from Chicago, via Naperville, to connect with your road at Aurora.
This route, which is at present deprived of Railroad facilities, is not surpassed for diversified beauty and productiveness by any section of Northern Illinois. With these natural advantages it is not surprising that it is now for the most part thickly set- tled with an enterprising population.
No section of the country between Lake Michigan and Fox River affords equal inducements to the farmer and mechanic, and no part of the West, of easy access to Chicago, presents the same attractions to families in the city who are seeking resi- dences in the country ; for, while no portion of the route is too remote, it lies through a beautiful region which is proverbial for its healthfulness.
We would add, for your consideration, the following statistics of the business transacted during the past year at the different points on the route of your contem- plated road.
Lyons, ten miles west from Chicago, is a point which your road would soon bring into notice for business and for suburban residences, and although it is but a short distance from Chicago, its business would be desirable to any Road. It is estimated that this would be one of the most remunerative stations within fifty miles of the city. There are inexhaustible quarries of stone here of the very best quality for lime and suitable for building purposes. The demand for rubble stone, for the city of Chicago, on this place would be immense, and could be supplied to any extent.
The Lime business, as now carried on, has furnished, during the past year, to Chicago, over 100,000 barrels, equal to 20,000,000 lbs., at a cost for transportation of more than $13,000. Your road would open a new and extensive market to this busi- ness, from the west, which could be supplied to any amount.
There is an extensive Brewery at this place, which now furnishes freight equal to one car-load per day. With Railroad facilities this establishment would more than double its present freight, for at least nine months in the year, and has capacity to supply any increased demand which the building of your road would create.
Other local freights, not enumerated above, would equal, if not exceed, any other station within the same distance from the city of Chicago.
Brush Hill, six miles west from Lyons and sixteen from Chicago, is the centre of a well settled and productive country, where a fair business is now transacted, and, with a Railroad, would soon grow into importance. There is a Flouring Mill at this place which keeps two teams constantly on the road to and from Chicago.
Downer's Grove, five miles west from Brush Hill and twenty-one miles from Chi- cago, is also the centre of a rich farming country which is well settled. This point would draw the business of a large section, the produce of which now finds a market either at Lockport or is taken directly to Chicago by teams. The grain raised in this section of country, which would make this its depot, during the last year was 397,560 bushels.
The merchandise tonnage for the same time, to and from Chicago, amounted to 250 tons or 500,000 lbs., besides Lumber. That may be safely estimated at 550,000 feet, or equal to 1,650,000. Total, 2,150,000 lbs. freight. The passenger traffic at this point would be no inconsiderable item.
Naperville, the county seat of Du Page County, seven miles west of Downer's Grove and 28 miles from Chicago, is situated in as productive and well settled a por- tion of the country as can be found in the State.
Its population exceeds 2,000. It is over seven miles south of the Galena and Chi- cago Union Railroad and three miles from the village of Warrenville, a flourishing town, with a good business, a flouring mill and a saw mill.
On the south, twelve miles, is the village of Plainfield, and on the south-east, Lock- port, fifteen miles, and Joliet twenty miles. These are the nearest business points in this direction.
Naperville enjoys a large trade from the country for many miles around, drawing business from the north, south and south-east — principally from the south and south- east.
There are eighteen stores in this place, a large plow and wagon factory, and other manufactories, two lumber yards, two extensive breweries doing a large business and keeping in their employ six teams, two flouring mills and two saw mills at and within
|
Wheat, - - |
- - 215,236 bushels. |
|
Oats, - - |
- - 285,960 " |
|
Vegetables, |
- - 85,052 " |
one and one-half miles of the town. Few towns with Railroad facilities, and none without, having continued to thrive equal to this.
The produce of this section finds its way to market by the G. & C. U. R. R. and by teams to Lockport and Chicago direct, at least nineteen-twentieths of which goes to the two latter places.
The amount of grain raised during the past year, in the section of country that would make this point its depot, was as follows:
Corn, - - - 239,300 bushels.
Rye, Barley and Wheat, 22,436 * '
The amount of Wool marketed at this place last year was 71,000 lbs. The above amount of grain was obtained by actual census, under direction of the Du Page County Agricultural Society.
The merchandise tonnage for the past year, to and from this place, was 3,900 tons, or 7,800,000 lbs. Lumber for dealers, 2,000,000 feet, or 6,000,000 lbs. Estimated amount of lumber for others, 750,000 feet, or 2,250,000 lbs. — making a total of 16,050,000 lbs. freight.
There are two lines of stages from this place to the G. & C. U. R. R., each making two trips daily to and from said road, which carried, on an average, during the past year, twenty-six passengers per day; making an aggregate of 8138 passengers per annum. It is estimated that at least one-third as many more go and come by private conveyance, making a total of 10,851 passengers to and from this point annually.
This town is well supplied with lime and stone for building purposes, and gravel which could be used for ballast.
The foregoing statistics, for the accuracy of which we hold ourselves responsible, founded, as they are, upon facts, show the actual business of the different points without Railroad facilities. We firmly believe that the business of all kinds, in the section alluded to, would quadruple within two years from the completion of your road.
No Railroad leaving Chicago traverses as beautiful and well settled a section of country as would your contemplated road. We confidently believe that the business between Chicago and Aurora would be as remunerative as any section of your road of equal length. The passenger traffic alone, on this route as shown above, would be very large. Not on this part of the road alone would this be increased; but by bring- ing Aurora in direct communication with Chicago, by a straight line, and shortening the distance over six miles, the number of passengers would doubtless increase. As before stated, most of the grain and other produce of this section now finds market either at Lockport or Chicago direct, which would find its way to market over your road.
As representatives of the people along the line of the proposed road, we offer you their united support and pledge you the right of way between the west line of Du Page County and the Desplaines River at Lyons, — embracing some twenty-four miles of the route, — and probably the greater portion of the distance from the last named point to the city limits of Chicago, — free of cost, provided the road is soon built.
July 28th, 1858.
MORRIS SLEIGHT, JOS. NAPER, JOHN COLLINS, GEORGE MARTIN, JAS. G. WRIGHT, HIRAM BRISTOL, S. M. SKINNER, JOHN JASSOY,
Members of Committee residing at Naperville.
H. CARPENTER, ) _
WALTER BLANCHARD, \ Downer s Grove«
FREDERICK GRAY, ) „ , _„ BENJAMIN FULLER, \ ^rusn miL
STEPHEN WHITE, )
F. T. SHERMAN, Lyons.
S. T. SWIFT,
Courtesy of the C. B. & Q. R. R. Co.
72 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
With arguments and reasons accumulating daily in favor of the new line, the die was soon cast. The following resolution, adopted at the C B & Q stockholders meeting June 20, 1862, set the machinery in motion, and it gives expression to the chief factor in determining the location of Hinsdale:
Resolved, that the Board of Directors of this company, be and they are hereby authorized to construct a branch road from the company's main line, in the city of Aurora in Kane County, to, and into the City of Chicago, by the way of Naperville, and to acquire depot and station grounds, and such other lands as may be required . . . pursuant to authority granted by an act of the Legis- lature etc., etc
It will seem strange to present-day readers that the directors should have referred to the new line as a "branch road." It was, of course, so considered because the main line at that time was the one to the north of us.
Actual construction was hampered by the war between the states which made labor scarce and slowed the delivery of materials. Little mention was made of the progress of the new line in the Chicago papers of the day, owing partly to the preponderance of war news. The con- flict was entering its crucial stage, and in Chicago at this time there was a flurry of excitement arising out of an alleged conspiracy to free all the Confederate prisoners at Camp Douglas, out on Cottage Grove Avenue. Moreover, there was censorship of news about railroad and industrial building. Confederate spies are known to have operated in Chicago, one having been captured there in 1862. A Railroad strike during the latter part of the war did nothing to help the project, and the winter of 1 864 was one of the most severe on record.
Although Frederick Graue (spelled "Gray" in the petition) and Benjamin Fuller of Brush Hill were among the petitioners for the new road, the line was not run directly through their village, because of engineering considerations, having to do with land contours and the desirability of straight track wherever this could be achieved. Also there were difficulties in building south of Fullersburg. The "flats," that stretch of land between Highlands and Western Springs, which then was an extensive swamp where boating and skating were popular, presented a serious obstacle. Old timers remember stories of the new track and its embankment sinking into the mire. Some say that a few cars sank out of sight one night, as happened on a section of the Cana-
COMING OF THE RAILROAD 73
dian Pacific when it was building. Whether that occurred here is open to question, but in the railroad company's annual report of 1865 we find this statement: "A large amount of earth-work has been done be- tween Lyons and Hinsdale, where the road crosses a low marsh, in con- sequence of the sinking of the embankment for a distance of about 700 feet." Further, the report says, "New fence has been built along eight- een miles of the Road, which completes the fencing." This was to keep the cows off the track, a problem that presented more difficulties through the suburbs than it did out in the country! These fences are noted in early sketches of scenes along the line.
It seems strange to picture a railroad construction crew at what is now the center of town, when there was nothing else here at all, other than temporary quarters for the track workers and Mr. Walker's farm buildings a quarter of a mile to the north, with perhaps a path and a wagon trail here and there.
Finally the rails reached all the way to Aurora, and on the morning of May 23, 1864, The Chicago Tribune carried this news item:
"The new line of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railway between this city and Aurora is completed, and the cars have been running over it for several days past. This new road will bring us into direct railway connection with Lyons, Brush Hill, Downers Grove, Naperville, and other points ... a matter of very considerable interest to the residents along this new line, as also to our city. This arrangement is very important to the Company, as every rail- way must control its termini in order to do an independent really successful business."
The new road was double tracked from Chicago to the Desplaines River, and consisted of a single track from there to Aurora. According to the Land Owner map of 1 869, (see back end-sheet) there were two passing tracks where the line ran through Hinsdale, and the station was located between the two sidings, a little west of Washington Street. This first passenger station was erected in 1 864, and has served as the freight depot since the present passenger station was built. The old building, still west of Washington, has been altered occasionally, to meet new conditions, but its remaining walls are of the original brick.
Hinsdale's rail fans will be interested in this 1864 letter written by Edward L. Baker, Chairman of the C. B. 8c Q., to C. G. Hammond, Superintendent in Chicago, concerning the purchase of two locomo- tives.
74 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
Boston, 6th Mo. 18th 1864 C. G. Hammond, Esq. Esteemed Friend
Your favor of the 15th is at hand. The engines were bought today for $21,000, the two. They have just been painted and varnished, one of them is having cylinders cased with brass instead of iron .... I have set George Weed at work to get a good Master Mechanic to inspect the engines before delivery, and to get a good trusty engineer started with them from Concord, N.H. with plenty of oil to put them through by way of Troy and Buffalo.
Yours very truly, Edward L. Baker
These "funnel" stacked veterans were to pass and re-pass through Hinsdale hundreds of times after their arrival from New Hampshire.
The cars of that day, viewed from the outside, were square looking at the ends, and were painted a bright color. Inside, the seats were ar- ranged much the same as they are today except that there were no long side seats near the doors of the car. But space was provided for a stove at each end, though sometimes a single stove served, in the middle of the car, with a box of wood for fuel. Kerosene lamps gave light. The car trucks were a combination of wood and iron members, bolted to- gether. At this date air brakes had not arrived, nor had the automatic coupler. Hand operated brakes, and the old link and pin coupler were to serve until well along in the Eighties.
Train dispatching by telegraph had become standard practice back in the Fifties, but automatic block signals, electrically operated, were a long way off. The old "high ball" signal, consisting of a sphere about eighteen inches in diameter which could be raised or lowered on a high pole, had been replaced by the hand operated semaphore. With the dispatching of trains by telegraph, "train orders" became standard practice. The engineer was handed a written message, before starting on a run, instructing him concerning other trains he was to meet on the way, the stops to be made, and any other information that was pertinent to a safe and expeditious journey. These train orders were subject to cancellation and revision, in which event the engineer would be handed new orders at some station along the way, all these arrange- ments being made by telegraph. Operators of telegraph instruments were important people in those days, for the safety of trains depended upon the accuracy of their messages; and special examples of alertness
COMING OF THE RAILROAD
75
Courtesy of the C. B. & Q. R. R. Co.
Number nine hauled trains through Hinsdale between 1865 and 1885.
on their part often were mentioned in the novels of the period, in which the dispatcher frequently was the hero of the story.
According to the company's records, two passenger cars were con- verted into sleepers in 1859. A contract for laying track in 1865 called for rail weighing "not less than 50 pounds to the yard" and for "iron chairs," these preceding the present-day tie plates. The prevailing length of rail in those days was 27 feet. Today's rail weighs well over 125 pounds per yard, and is 35 feet long.
The locomotive shown in the accompanying photograph is one that hauled trains through Hinsdale during the period 1865-85. It was an experimental engine. Note the driving rods are on the inner sides of the wheels; the rods worked on crank throws on the axles, instead of on crank pins on the outer sides, on the wheel hubs. The design was not continued. Originally a wood burner, later changed to coal, this locomotive was built in the early i85o's.
The length of the new line was 35 14 miles. The maximum grades east and west were 28 feet to the mile and the highest point was 140 feet above the level at Chicago. The grades have been reduced over the years.
76 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
Cause and effect. What resulted from the building of this railroad line? The first, and one of the most portentous results was the arrival of Mr. William Robbins, a most unusual person. Originally from New York state, Mr. Robbins, who joined the Forty Niners as a young man, was a merchant on the Pacific coast for a while, but returned. He finally entered the real estate business in Illinois. Having sensed the impending development of Chicago's western suburbs, he bought eight hundred acres of land here in 1862, built a house the following year, the one (remodeled and enlarged) now occupied by Mrs. S. W. Banning at 120 E. Fifth Street. He fenced in a large part of the tract and started out as a stock farmer, while keeping an eye on further developments. His land was purchased from one Robert Jones of New York, who had obtained it from the Government, possibly from the Commissioner of the Illinois-Michigan Canal, because this area lay within the canal strip. But most of the land around here was then held by speculators who were offering it at from $7 to $25 per acre, according to Blanchard.
Mr. Robbin's acres were south of Alfred Walker's southern bound- ary and comprised, roughly, the south-east quarter of Hinsdale with Seventh Street as the south boundary, and including the west half of section 7 in Cook County. This tract was rolling, and attractive in other respects, with tiny Flagg Creek bordering it on the north. It included several ponds of various sizes and a tributary to the creek cut- ting across the farm. The terrain was high, and dry too, except for thoses undrained spots. Wild geese flocked through as the seasons changed, and deer were frequent visitors. Most of Mr. Robbin's tract was almost treeless. A dense belt of oaks across the County Line ex- tended northward along the moraine into Walker's farm, and there were many trees west of there, but this plot south of Flagg Creek was mostly bare except for patches of tall prairie grass. At about this time John Hemshell, a newly arrived resident of Brush Hill, shot a wolf near the Garfield and Third Street intersection.
Jarvis Fox was building a big house on the hill now occupied by the Memorial Building, and there were farms in every direction. Fullersburg was the nearest village. A few huts and cabins were clus- tered around the mineral springs east of the swamps. Cass, to the south- west, and Lyonsville, southeast were, like Fullersburg, well established communities on main highways. The old town of Downers Grove, an-
COMING OF THE RAILROAD 77
other center of agriculture, was to the west. A dirt road along the County Line, passing through the property on the east was little more than a wagon trail, and a similar road ran north and south on what is now Garfield Avenue, which served as a line of communication be- tween Brush Hill and the Plainfield Road. Over these paths a buggy or wagon could reach a stage road to the north or south.
Farming, however, was not Mr. Robbin's ultimate objective. He visualized the potential value of this land, and the figure was too high for the growing of crops. Instead, he foresaw here a residential com- munity, having as many desirable attributes as could be brought together, endowed by nature with the charm of a rural setting, but close enough to the metropolis, with its larger industrial interests. Improved transportation would bring them together. So Mr. Robbins set his objective, and went to work.
After completing his small temporary residence on Fifth Street, on a rise of ground which at that time overlooked a spring-fed pond at the bottom of the hill, to the northwest, he had become so convinced of a promising future for this area that he decided to build a larger house. This he erected on the north side of Sixth Street about midway between Oak and County Line, the house that was later to be occupied by the Washburns for many years, and which is now owned by Mr. W. H. Payne. This place was developed into a fine country estate, with meadows for lawns and secondary roads for its driveways, and with stock raising soon to be combined with real estate development. In the year 1 866, according to Blanchard, Mr. Robbins laid out the north- west quarter of Section 1 2 in lots, varying in size from one acre to lots having sixty-six feet of frontage. In the same year Mr. H. W. G. Cleve- land, a noted landscape gardener, was employed to mark off the streets, some of which were to be curving, and to plant trees along their bor- ders. Today those Elms are the most venerable now growing in the vil- lage. There were graveled walks, adjoining wooden sidewalks. This area, the central part of which was at first called Robbins Park, and all of which is now known as Robbin's First, and Robbin's Park additions, extends from the railroad south to Seventh, and from Garfield to County Line.
Two or three small houses were built along these streets, for sale to those who wanted them, and the first to occupy one of these was the family of James Swartout. The Swartout family remained there for a
78 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
long time. Afterward their house was occupied by the Carl Thayers. Reverend C. M. Barnes, who later opened a large book store in Chi- cago, next bought a lot of Mr. Robbins and built a house on it. When a son, William Robbins, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Barnes, he was presented with a lot by Mr. Robbins. At about the same time Mr. Edwin Bowles arrived and built the house which stands immediately south of the First National Bank. The Bank site used to be the Bowles' side yard.
The mail came through Fullersburg during these formative years. Summit was also an active settlement then, and it is said that while the Civil War was still in progress a boy was frequently sent over there for papers and the war news.
After the railroad had been built through in '64, and a station erected, the place still had no name. Usually there is more than one version of how places acquire their names, and Hinsdale is no excep- tion. According to The Hinsdale Doings of Sept. 7, 1944, the name could have had any one of three separate origins: First, H. W. Hins- dale, a Chicago merchant told a Hinsdale writer in 1890 that the town had been named for him because he had assisted the railroad con- tractors financially.
Second, Isaac S. Bush, early Postmaster of Brush Hill and Hinsdale merchant, told a writer in 1897, tnat when the Burlington was laying its tracks Colonel Hammond, in charge of the project, asked Bush what they should call the new station. Bush said, "Brush Hill." Ham- mond disagreed, and asked Bush to submit other names. "Hinsdale" was then suggested by Bush, remembering his owji birthplace at Hins- dale, N. Y., and he also suggested Olean, another New York town. "Soon after this," said Mr. Bush, "the name Hinsdale appeared, at- tached to a shanty at the Main Street (Garfield) Crossing." Prior to this, the name Brush Hill had appeared, and before that, the name Hazel Glen, at the same location.
Third, Mr. Robbins is said to have named the station "Hinsdale." A Hinsdale writer of 1 897 feels quite certain that he was the one. This third version has been sustained by the late Mrs. Walter Field who thoroughly investigated Hinsdale's past.
A book written by Henry Gannett, entitled Place Names in the United States, published in 1905 by the United States Geological Sur- vey, gives this: "Hinsdale, village in DuPage County, Illinois, named
COMING OF THE RAILROAD 79
for H. W. Hinsdale, a prominent railroad man, and from the town of Hinsdale, New York." Possibly this book was the source of a rumored belief that Mr. Hinsdale was a director or an officer of the C. B. Sc Q.; the Burlington, however, has never had an official of that name.
Mr. Lester Childs, while he was a student at Ann Arbor, Michigan, met a woman who knew a Doctor Hinsdale who was practicing in Ann Arbor. She said she had heard that this Dr. Hinsdale had a brother for whom Hinsdale, Illinois was named. That was in 1898.
After reviewing the various rumors and traditions concerning the naming of the village the Friends of the Library's history committee wrote to the town clerk of Hinsdale, N. Y., asking for information about Mr. H. W. Hinsdale. The clerk replied: We have no record of an H. W. Hinsdale." So, as the saying goes, ''you pay your money and take your choice."
Little or no significance is attached to the absence of a record of Mr. H. W. Hinsdale in Hinsdale, N. Y., because that town has no public library, and Mr. Hinsdale has been away from there quite a while if he moved to Chicago prior to 1 864.
This suggestion is offered: It is possible for all three of the claimed origins to be correct. In fact the larger the number who favored the name Hinsdale, the more likely it was for that to have been the name selected.
With all the speculation concerning the origin of this name, which implies, of course, a sense of its importance and the pride Hinsdaleans take in it, how humiliating it is to learn what happened one day soon after the name became official. A farm woman coming through by train heard the conductor call out the name of the station. "Hen's tail," said she, "what a funny name for a town."
How did our neighboring villages along the "Q" acquire their names? The first neighbor to the west was named for Clarendon Hills, Massachusetts, a suburb south of Boston. Western Springs is the name that was given to the mineral springs found flowing there (south of the railroad on the rise of land east of the "flats") and which had at- tracted a few persons to the site before the railroad was built. La Grange was named after La Grange, Tennessee. The name Westmont is said to have originated because it is descriptive of a westerly location on high ground. Fairview Avenue replaces the old flag-stop station long
80 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
known as Greggs. Downer's Grove hails back to its early settler, Pierce Downer.
In 1866 Mr. Robbins built a stone school house at the top of the hill on Main Street (Garfield) where the large brick grade school now stands. It was thought by some that there would not be enough children to occupy the new building, with its two fair-sized rooms and a larger room above them. But the need was imminent, as disclosed by events of the months which followed.
The late Mary H. Saunders, formerly residing at the King- Bruwaert House, tells of the arrival here of her father, C. M. Saunders, in 1866. He had come to Chicago from Boston to study at the Union Park Theological Seminary, and her mother soon followed.
"Father was assigned to the village church at Lyonsville as student pastor. The railroad did not touch Lyonsville, so when father came out Saturday for the Sunday services he was met at the Hinsdale sta- tion by one of the members of the Lyonsville Church. He used to tell of his first sight of Hinsdale— 'A half dozen scattered houses and trees.' Driving up the hill, they passed a pile of stone.
'What are these stones for?' he asked his companion.
'For a school house,' replied the man.
'A school house? But where are the children coining from?' asked my father.
'Oh, Mr. Robbins is going to build a town here,' said the man."
A town in the making was a new experience for the young man just from the well established towns and villages of New England.
"A few months later father was asked to commence holding re- ligious services Sunday afternoons at Hinsdale. No place for such serv- ices was available other than the Railroad Station, now used as the freight depot. The agent's family lived in the station— his wife had a piano and could play it; so with the help of the Lyonsville choir they had good music from the first. Boards laid across drygoods boxes supplemented the seating capacity of the room. Often, late comers had to stand outside by the open windows."
Others were investigating and investing in this promising new locality, and with its future so bright, it seemed quite in order to plot a village, with streets and boundaries. The building of a village on such a rapid schedule, from the ground up, probably called for solemn mo- ments of decision even for these ardent emissaries of progress, and the
COMING OF THE RAILROAD 81
exact boundaries of ''the village" was one of the points to be decided. Unlike other towns, that had some particular or natural cause for starting where they did, Hinsdale's center and original boundaries were largely subject to human decision.
The railroad station had been placed on the north side of the track, about 300 yards west of the crossing of Mr. Robbins' "Main" Street. The reason for locating it beyond Main Street, where there was no other street, is not certain, but it seems a logical place to have built it, with so many rolling, beckoning hills to the west and with no good reason for clustering the town too close to the swamp adjacent to the highlands. A town must have a business section, and the stores must be near the railroad station, so the original village was laid out, in 1 865, around the depot, bounded on the north by Chicago Ave., the south by Fifth Street, and between Garfield and Grant, east and west. Within this area streets were laid out, and given names: Washington, Lincoln, and Grant, for that new General who had accomplished so much in the war. Chicago Avenue was not so named then, but the numbered streets, to and including Fifth, came into being. The streets actually plowed and graded at this time were Washington, Garfield, and Sixth Street as far as the County Line. Originally, Sixth was a double-laned street with a parkway in the middle. When the street was paved it was made a single drive. A mowing machine was run over all the streets in the summer time, before they were paved. In that year, 1865, village government was a long way off, but the original boundaries, which designated the village proper, were defined. Thus the village had its start, mostly south of the railroad, but other tracts of land or "subdi- visions," north and west, were in the making.
Chronologically, Oliver J. Stough was not the next purchaser and developer of suburban lands to begin his work here, but following Robbins his operations were the most extensive, and represent the second important result of the arrival of the railroad. Starting in the year 1866 with acquisition of the Jarvis Fox farm, he gradually came into possession, piece by piece, of over 1,000 acres north and northwest of the platted village. His lands reached to the southern outskirts of Fullersburg and it was not long before Stough's first and second ad- ditions to Hinsdale were entered in the record books. Mr. Stough, like Mr. Robbins, planted many trees and made other improvements. He built his dwelling on the tract bounded by Lincoln, Vine, Maple, and
82 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
Walnut. This was a large lot, but his dwelling was a comparatively small one. He too envisioned the community's future, and did much toward its realization.
Other early purchasers of large blocks of land, some of whom were builders as well, were D. S. Estabrook, J. M. Walker, H. C. Middaugh, J. H. Hannah, J. I. Case, Marvin Hughitt, W. S. and E. Banker, A. T. Hall, David Roth, Robert Harris, Azel Dorathy, J. Blanchard, Reuben Farr, C. B. Holmes, and A. N. Towne.
During the 1860's and 70's a weekly paper, the Land Owner, de- voted to the interests of real estate development, was published in Chi- cago, and one of its issues, in the year 1 869, carried a description of the development at Hinsdale, including the chart reproduced on the back end sheet. Note the extent to which the village had been mapped out by that year, "on paper" of course, but indicative of the foresight of the early settlers. Hinsdale's population was less than 500 in 1869, but in keeping with the growth that was anticipated, the boundaries, from Ayres Avenue to 10th Street and from Jackson to the County Line, were laid out to encompass an area of 1 1/2 square miles, within which were 175 residential blocks. At that time this was planning on a grand scale.
Note the ponds between Elm and the County Line, north and south of Third Street, the "Academy," (Mr. Robbins' stone school house) at Main and Third, the railroad station between Washington and Lin- coln, with a passing track and a freight siding. The area of Mr. Stough's estate can be seen on north Grant Street. Note the absence of trees, except along the belt of woods that cuts diagonally across the County Line, and small patches elsewhere. The trees or shrubs bordering the Robbins estate evidently were planted. Allowance must be made for errors in this map, which was drawn for the purpose of land sale pro- motion rather than historical reference. Incidentally, the Land Owner refers to it as a "cartoon," a term used generally in that day meaning a "diagram."
A written description of the village, which accompanied this chart, is quoted here in full:
"Hinsdale is situated 17 miles from Chicago, on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad. The land is elevated, and the situation is unsurpassed in the west. In the short space of four years it has risen from a single dwelling house, to a place of nearly 1000 inhabitants. The station house is about 16
COMING OF THE RAILROAD 83
miles from the Central Depot, or forty-five to sixty minute's ride from the city by any one of the eight or nine trains that stop there. The distance by driveway is about the same, and will be rendered shorter yet by a proposed connection with the Riverside boulevard."
"The scene which Hinsdale now presents has a more natural beauty than can be found at any of our nearer suburbs, as the land is 150 feet above the surface of the lake and is delving and almost hilly, there being a constant rise and decline, the picturesque effects of which can be well appreciated by all who have been accustomed to blank outlooks upon sandy deserts. The soil is of a richer clay than most prairie land, and without the sub-stratum of sand which is found nearer the lake. This renders the roads the ideal of country roads,— soft without being muddy, shedding the water by reason of their incli- nation, partly grass grown, and wending their way up and down and around their gentle slopes. On this account Hinsdale has natural advantages, the attain- ment of which by means of art would require immense expenditures of money and time.
"The richness of the soil is abundantly attested by the splendid groves at one end of the tract, covered with superb trees of oak and maple. But proofs of this, and strong ones, are found in the success of the fruits of all kinds,— pears, peaches, plums, grapes, etc. The character of the country to the south is such as to afford the finest drives. Along the Aux Plaines River the great timber gives the effect of mountainous scenery. Salt Creek, a fine stream with good fishing, runs near Hinsdale on the north, and there is abundance of water easily attainable with wells of from 20 to 25 feet depth at the highest point.
"But the value and desirability of suburban villages, for residential purposes, is not fully determined by all the above features. It is still the school house and the church that give tone and character. In this respect Hinsdale stands fore- most. The academy located there, under the superintendence of Professor Glea- son, an educator long and favorably known in Chicago, is one of the best in the country. Its advantages are second to none. Socially, Hinsdale is one of the pleasantest residence towns around Chicago. The social recherche, and a tone of refinement seems to pervade the place. There is not a grog-shop in the village, the charter especially prohibiting such unpleasant features.
"Among the residents of Hinsdale are many of our best business men, whose ample means enable them to retire in a few minutes' time from the noisy city to the quiet of their country homes. Among them are Mr. A. T. Hall, Mr. J. M. Walker, Mr. Robert Harris, Mr. Samuel Powell, and Mr. W. McCredie. Mr. O. J. Stough, who has very large interests here, and Mr. William Robbins, also one of the large landowners, have fine residences; as have also Mr. W. S. Banker, Mr. Charles B. Holmes, Mr. Jerry Nottingham, Mr. H. R. Thompson of the John Hancock Life Insurance Company, Mr. N. H Warren, Mr. J. Blanchard, Mr. J. Parker, Mr. Reuben Farr, Mr. W. Leland, Dr. F. H. Walker, Gen. Briggs, Mr. M. A. Donohue, Mr. D. S. Estabrook, the Messrs. J. P. and E. P. Hinds, and many other prominent individuals. J. I. Case, Esq. the Racine manufacturer, is making arrangements for the construction of a fine villa.
"Trains run to and from Hinsdale almost every hour of the day; and it has the special advantage of two Hinsdale accommodation trains to meet the wants of every class of business men."
84
VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
The old Baptist Church stood on the southwest corner of First and Garfield.
This description requires deflation in a few particulars. The popu- lation was close to 400 in this year, instead of 1,000, there were only six daily trains to the city, and Mr. Case did not build his villa. Never- theless, it is full of the enthusiasm, hope, and promise that pervaded the local thinking and planning of the day.
Among the permanent organizations that have been formed in Hinsdale, the Congregational Church was the first. Other "firsts" of the village were: the first general store, conducted by Mr. L. E. Moreley, with William Evernden as its first clerk; the first baggage de- livery service, operated by Eben Millions who had sailed on American clipper ships before settling here; and his daughter, Fannie Millions, the first dressmaker. There was Tommy Using, whose horse and phae- ton constituted the first livery service. Over Evernden 's drug store, the first instruction in dancing was given by Mr. C. P. Frey, who taught dancing and played the fiddle at the same time. The first drug store had as its proprietor Dr. J. C. Merrick, who simultaneously was the first practicing physician.
The first club for educational advancement, of which there were
COMING OF THE RAILROAD 85
many to follow, was called the Cultivators, or more exactly, the Culti- vator's Society. It engaged in Shakespearean Plays, erudite readings, and social affairs. Mrs. N. H. Warren was the leading spirit. Mrs. Belle Robbins Knight, and the Misses Ella and Alice Warren were among its members.
The first church building, that of the Baptists (Page 84) stood on the site of the present Community House, facing north. This church was also known as the "music hall" because of many concerts that took place there. After the Baptists relinquished the building, it sheltered dancing classes, and a few present-day citizens who were youngsters at that time can remember a troupe of Kickapoo Indians that came to Hinsdale once each year to sell patent medicine, through the customary medium of a vaudeville act. Their performance took place in the base- ment of this same structure. In the early 1890's it burned. A "flaming youth" of the village was suspected of having set fire to the building, but this was never verified.
News from the county came mostly by way of Chicago. On the morning of June 6, 1867, The Chicago Tribune, which was reaching the village a few hours after coming off the press, carried a long news item entitled "Excitement in Du Page County," concerning removal of the county seat from Naperville to Wheaton.
The latter town had claimed the right to serve as the seat of justice owing to its central position in the county, but this claim was ener- getically refuted by Naperville, whose stand was augmented by her age, numbers, and wealth. The State Legislature authorized an election in the county to settle the dispute, which was won by Wheaton, by a small margin. The removal was accompanied by violence of a minor sort, expressive of interest in the seat of government rather than an- tagonism.
Mud, dark brown mud, is mentioned frequently in all of the accounts and stories of this part of the country during the pre-Cleveland era. For the first ten or fifteen years Hinsdale's streets were just as nature made them, and the sidewalks too, except for those stretches that some public-spirited person had covered with boards or cinders. But most of the sidewalks were merely footpaths paralleling the carriage and wagon tracks. During wet spells, vehicles often sank nearly to their
86 VILLAGE ON THE COUNTY LINE
hubs. Pedestrian's rubbers would stick and come off. Dogs tracked the stuff into homes and stores.
The streets must have been subject to this muddy condition for a long time, because Otis R. Cushing, well known citizen and business man says, "I recall that in the late '90's Fifth Street was not paved and there was a mud hole in front of our property. Dad used to be out with a two-by-four helping pry the carriages out of the mud on Sunday afternoons during the wet seasons."
The early houses were mostly far apart and well scattered over the entire area. Then, as now, the houses were built of frame, usually with clapboard siding, or of stone or brick. But frame houses predomi- nated, with inside chimneys, cedar shingles, and "caps" over the win- dow frames, the upper part of the frame being slightly arched, in a plain or fancy design. Many of the early homes were designed without benefit of architect. Nevertheless, examination of the houses built during the '6o's and '70's reveals more pleasing designs than some of those which went up in the '8o's and 'go's. "Gingerbread" and gewgaws were con- sidered attractive after 1875, but apparently not before.
Water came from wells and from cisterns that were supplied with rain water from the roof. Many, if not all, of the older places still have these cisterns in the back or side yards, though they have long been out of use. They were used, however, up until about 1915, when the water softening plant was installed in the village. Pumps forced the water from the cistern to a tank in the attic, from which the various out- lets in the house were supplied. Buckets at each home served as fire protection. Coal oil lamps furnished the light. "Coal oil" was a yellow- ish petroleum product that became known as "kerosene" in later years, when refining processes were improved. Candles also were used, until gas arrived. This modern improvement, however, did not wait for gas mains and pipes from the outside. Some of Hinsdale's residents in- stalled machines that manufactured gas in their basements, and rem- nants of those devices still can be seen in the basements of some of the older dwellings. Whatever the kind of lighting, each house was equipped with hand kerosene lanterns, to be carried by those who went out at night. Some of the early homes had furnaces of a sort, but the majority relied on those barrel-shaped cast iron stoves, that now are confined to lumber camps and remote country stores. Some of these stoves had bright nickel trim.
COMING OF THE RAILROAD
87
FROM CHICAGO
Stations
.Central Depot. Chicago Station . Cicero
. Riverside . . .
. West Lyons . .
. . Hinsdale . . .
Downer's Grove
. . Lisle
Naperville . .
Aurora.
Freight,
No. 13.
B
9.45a.m. Lv 10.10 10.25
10.48
11.05 11.15 11.37 11.53 12.10
12.56
Freight,
No. 11.
B
8.15a.m. Lv 8.45
9.08 9.25
9.42 9.53 10.13 10.30 10.48 11.30 11.45
Ar.\ Lv./
Ar.\ Lv./
Night
Express.
No. 9.
C
11.30p.m. Lv 11.50
:12.07
12.22
12.33
12.40
12.55
fl.06