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FORTY YEARS AGO 
 
 A CONTRIBUTION TO 
 
 The Eap^ly Mistop^y 
 
 OF 
 
 ]JoLiET AND Will County 
 
 TAT^O XiECX'TTK-ES 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORI-: THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF JOLIET. 
 
 GEORGE H. WOODRUFF. 
 
 M 
 
 December 17th, 1873, and March 24th, 1874. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY JAS. GOODSPEED. 
 
 1?^ 
 
 JOLIET: 
 
 JOI.IET RKPUBLICAN STEAM PRINTING HOUSE. 
 1874. 
 
 ;.^ 
 
 ^-T05.f^' 
 
 1 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in <he year 1874, by James Good- 
 speed, in the office of Librarian of Congress, Washington. 
 
 
k 
 
 LETTER FROM HON. JOHN M. WILSON. 
 
 Chicago, July 4th, 1874. 
 James Goodspked, Esq., 
 
 Dear Sir: — The advance sheets of the Lectures of Hon. 
 Geo. H. Woodkuff, on the '■"Early History of Joliet and Will County,'' 
 are received. With most of the persons named I was accxuainted, and many 
 of the incidents related were known to me more than thirty years ago. The 
 style of the Lectures is characteristic of the writer, direct and truthful, and 
 at the same time fringed with a bit of good-natured exaggeration, which 
 gives piquancy to the narration. A man who can so happily do this with 
 the pen, has no cause to regret that he has not the pencil of Nast. To the 
 early settlers of Will county, and their descendants, these Lectures carmot 
 fail to be intensely interesting ; recalling, as they do, persons and events 
 that had been forgotten or but imperfectly remembered. To the general 
 reader they give a reliable history of the early settlement of the county, and 
 photographs by description and anecdote, of a large number of the early set- 
 tlers, so accurate that the most unimaginative can realize the state of soci- 
 v.ity at that era, made up as it was of the Yankee, the Hoosier, the Southron, 
 the Celt, the Teuton— and of each class, representative men of more than 
 average intelligence and enterprise. Friend Woodruff has rendered a valu- 
 able service to posterity in thus perpetuating the memory of persons and 
 events which rest only in the remembrance of the generation to which he 
 belongs. It is only by publishing in permanent form the essays or lectures 
 embodying the history of an early settlement, that posterity can appreciate 
 either the character of the early settlers or the condition of the country in a 
 state of nature, and the wondertul changes wrought by civilization in less 
 than forty years. The history of Will county is substantially the history of 
 
IV. LiKTTKR FROM HON. JOHN M. WILSON. 
 
 every county iiortii of Peoria. The only men who can write the early his- 
 tory of these northern counties are fast passing awaj', and in a few years 
 no one will be left to gratify that tiiirst for a knowledge of the Genesis, or 
 beginning of things, which is so striking a characteristic of all races of men. 
 Fable is sure to fill the gap which history leaves unoccupied. 
 
 Other settlements would do well to follow the example set by the " Will 
 County Historical Society,"' and secure a reliable history and biography of 
 those who laid the foundation upon which others have built. 
 
 Yours, truly, 
 
 JOHN M. WILSON. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ^J|T may seein like affectation to dignify so humble an eflbrt with a 
 "M^ preface; yet I have a word or two to say by way of explanation 
 and apology. 
 
 I began the work of gathering material for these Lectures at the 
 request of Capt. Egbert Phelps, of the Historical Society. When 
 the suggestion was first made, I doubted that I could find enough to 
 make one lecture; but I soon found that the difficulty would be to 
 select and condense what I had gathered, into two; and that I should 
 be obliged to leaye many things unnoticed. 
 
 There is considerable inatter in them which, from pity to my hear- 
 ers, I omitted in the delivery, and some has also been added since. 
 
 I have taken considerable pains to make the historical portions coi- 
 rect, especially the names of " First Settlers," but still there may be 
 errors. Any corrections or additions would be thankfully received. 
 One or two errors disco\'ered too late for correction in the text, will be 
 found correcteci in an appendix. 
 
 Some of the '' Incidents " are given from recollection, others I 
 tell as they were told me — carefully excluding everything that could 
 give offense. 
 
 These Lectures are published in compliance with a general request 
 from those who heard them, and through the generous proposal of 
 Mr. GooDSPEED, who, I trust, will be amply rewarded. 
 
 I wish to make my most grateful acknowledgements to Judge 
 Wilson, of Chicago, for his kind and flattering letter of introduc- 
 tion, and especially for bestowing the title of which I have been so 
 long deprived! The ambition of a lifetime is satisfied ! "Nunc," 
 
 etc. 
 
 Geo. H. Woodkl'fk. 
 
CONTENTS OF LECTURE 1. 
 
 Introduction — Contrast of Forty Years Ago — First exploration of this 
 region — French and Indian possession — ^Fnglish — Organization of our State — 
 First suggestions of a Canal — Legislation thereon — Exit Mr. I.o— First Set- 
 tlements — Jesse Walker — Tames Walker and his mills — Other First Settlers 
 atPlaintield — On HickoryCreek — The old Saw-Mill — First Ball in the county 
 — First Settlers in this township — Norman's mill — First cabin — Sac trail- 
 First Settlers in Jackson, Reed's, Troutman's and Starr's Groves — Yankee 
 Settlement — Hadley — Gooding's Grove — Lockport— Frankfort — First Church 
 organized in county — Father Beggs' Stations — Personal notices — First Set- 
 tlers on East Dupage — Channahon — Troy — Forked Creek — Twelve Mile Grove 
 etc., etc.— Personal notices — Black Hawk War — First Settlement of Joliet — 
 Charles Reed — McKee and his mill — Dr. Bowen — James B. Campbell— M. 
 H. Demmond — List of Settlers in 1834 — Arrivals in 1835 — in 1836 — Where we 
 went for our mail in 1834-5 — PostoflBce in Joliet — A letter in the wrong hands 
 — First Minister — First Church — First Fourth of July — First Wedding — 
 Birth — Divorce — First Meeting House — County set off^First election — Land 
 fever — First visit to Chicago — Judge Caton — An amateur mail carrier — First 
 Stone Block — Ball — No-bridge era — Incidents — Bridges built — Carried away 
 — Incidents — New Year's Calls — Taxes — A Lockport Justice— A case for 
 Bergh — Dr. Comstock — Conclusion. 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, IN 
 JOLIET, DECEMBER 17th, 1873. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 It seems to be a characteristic of all great states and 
 great cities, that when they have arrived at a period of assured 
 prosperity, and their importance has come to be fully recognized, 
 that they begin to inquire into the beginnings of their history, and 
 to ask : "Under what circumstances, and by what men, were the 
 foundations laid ?" 
 
 Hence, Rome had her story of Romulus and Remus ; New 
 York, the chronicles of the veracious Knickerbocker ; and the 
 sons of New England never tire of the story of the Mayflower. 
 
 It is not strange, then, that this Historical Society should wish 
 to collect and preserve some record of the early days of JOLIET 
 and Will County, and to ask for the names of those who first 
 trod in the retreating steps of the red man. This evening's lec- 
 ture is an attempt to answer, as far as may be, these inquiries. It 
 is, of course, an imperfect record ; yet it is the result of consider- 
 able inquiry. In one respect I labor under a great disadvantage. 
 There are many still living — perhaps some here present — who 
 know as much as I do about the matter, and hence I dare* not 
 avail myself of the usual resource of the annalist, and draw upon 
 
6 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 niv fancy for the embellishment of the few meagre facts. You 
 must, therefore, expect only a dry detail. 
 
 One other thing eml)arrasses me. I shall be obliged to speak 
 often in the first person singular — a thing which is disagreeable to 
 a modest man — and I may occasionally seem to make myself the 
 hero of my own story. But let it be charitably considered ; this 
 is my only chance to get into history ! 
 
 Deidrich Knickerbocker, in his history of New York, begins 
 M'ith the creation of the world. I shall not go back as far as this, 
 although I feel that the importance of my subject would justify 
 me in going back to the flood, or the dispersion of Babel, did time 
 permit. 
 
 Our story, then, will be for the most part, one of Forty Years 
 Ago. Forty Years! How brief seems the period ! It is indeed 
 but a small fragment of the ages, and yet how great have been the 
 changes, especially in Northern Illinois, which forty years have 
 brought? Forty years ago, Chicago was little more than a trading 
 and military post on the outskirts of civilization. Forty years ago, 
 the Indian still lingered up and down these streams and groves, 
 loath to leave the beautiful land he loved so well, and the bottoms 
 where his squaw cultivated the maize, while he pursued the deer 
 over the prairies, or trapped the mink and the otter along the 
 streams. Forty years ago, although the "gorgeous surroundings " 
 were here, Joliet was not even a dream. How much, too, of what 
 we now consider indispensable to our comfort, has come into use 
 within this brief period. Forty years ago, there was not fifty miles 
 of railroad in the United States. Forty years ago, the telegraph 
 was still sleeping, coiled up in the brain of Morse. California was 
 only known as the name of a Mexican territory : and the Sacra- 
 mento, the Colorado and the Oregon, 
 
 " heard no sound, 
 
 Save their own dashings," — 
 
 and the ledges and gulches of the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky 
 Mountains were unvexed by the pick of the miner. Forty years 
 ao'o, no one had " struck oil," and the reaper and the sewing ma- 
 chine had not been invented. Forty years ago " crinoline " had 
 
JoUef and Will County, Forty Yeai's Ago. 7 
 
 not been introduced, and ten yards of calico was good enough, and 
 ample enough, to cover the fair forms of our wives and daughters ! 
 With this climax, I come back to my subject! 
 
 In the 17th century, while France held possession of Canada 
 and the Lakes, and disputed with England the possession of the 
 entire north and west, the Jesuit Missionaries under the protection 
 of France, and animated by the same zeal and self-sacrifice which 
 has shed such lustre upon that society in China, India and Japan, 
 accompanied the explorer and the trader, and in some instances 
 preceded them, cheerfully confronting hardships, cruelty and death, 
 in upholding before the red man the symbol of the cross. Many 
 are the names, hardly less famous than that of Xavier, that adorn the 
 records of French exploration in the northwest. Conspicuous 
 among these is that of James Marquette, who, accompanied by 
 a trader of the name of Louis Joliet, in 1673, (just two hundred 
 years ago the past summer), with five countrymen, pushed their 
 canoes out from the head of Green Bay, up the Fox river to the 
 divide which separates it from the Wisconsin, crossing which, they 
 embark upon the latter in pursuit o-f that great river, which west- 
 ern Indians had told them, flowed somewhere at the west. In due 
 time their voyage is successful, and they pass into the Mississippi, 
 and float down its ample bosom as far as the Arkansas. Returning, 
 they enter the Illinois. A tribe of Indians of that name occupy 
 its banks, and invite Marquette to remain among them, but he 
 returns with Joliet to Chicago, and there tarries for a time to preach 
 the gospel to the Miamas, a tribe which then dwelt about that 
 locality. Tradition says that Marquette and Joliet encamped 
 upon the mound just below the city. However this may 
 be, it, as well as that widening of the river just below, which we 
 call a lake, and also the stream which we call Hickory Creek, were 
 baptized with the name of Joliet. A few years subsequently. 
 La Salle and Hennepin crossed the short portage between the St. 
 Joseph and Kankakee, in Indiana, and passed down into the Illi- 
 nois as far as Peoria, where a trading and missionary post were 
 established, and a fort was built, named by La Salle, Oreve Cceur, 
 from the hardships and disappointments of the enterprise. This 
 
8 Joliet and Will County, Forty Yearn Ai/o. 
 
 point has a history of much interest, and was known in early 
 times as Fort Clark. 
 
 And here, for a hundred years, the French and Indians, who 
 seem to have taken kindly to each other, held possession of this 
 region. Of this period little is known, and therefore it is a rich 
 jfield in which the poet and romancist may weave his tales and 
 idyls. No doubt Joliet had its Hiawathas and Minnehahas. Per- 
 haps upon this very spot many a dusky wife or maiden has broid- 
 ered the moccasins, or wove the Avampum belt for the husband or 
 Jover, absent upon the chase or the war path. But our business is 
 with sober history, and we leave romance to Capt. Phelps. 
 
 But it was not the design of Providence that this country 
 should remain in the hands of France. Another type of civiliza- 
 tion, and another type of Christianity, was to come into the perma- 
 nent possession of the lakes, and streams, and jirairies of the 
 northwest. 
 
 The peace of Paris, in 1763, terminated the rule of France; 
 and, although for years many of the explorers, traders and mis- 
 sionaries remained, so that at the time of the admission of this 
 State in 1818, it was estimated that there were within its limits 
 two thousand of their descendants, now, there is nothing but a few 
 names on different localities to remind us of French possession. 
 
 By the treaty of 1833, at Chicago, the red men surrendered 
 their last claim to these fair lands; and in 1835, to the number of 
 five thousand, they a&sembled at Chicago to receive their annuity — 
 dance their last war dance in Illinois, and take up their march for 
 new hunting grounds on the far Missouri. 
 
 At the admission of this State in 1818, it was almost an entire 
 wilderness north of Alton and Edwardsville; yet Shadrach Bond, 
 the first governor, in his first message, recommended a canal con- 
 necting Lake Michigan with the Illinois. The project had been 
 suggested in 1814, during the war, in Niles' Register. In 1821, 
 an appropriation of ten thousand dollare was voted for a survey, 
 which was made, and the project was pronounced eminently prac- 
 ticable. In 1826, coiBgress made the magnificent donation of three 
 hundred thousand acres of land for its construction, being every 
 alternate section in a strip ten miles wide, along the route. In 
 
Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 9 
 
 1829, the general assembly created a board of canal commissioners, 
 and authorized them to sell lands; and under this act the title to 
 some lands in this vicinity was obtained. Fortunately, however, 
 they were soon withdrawn from market. In 1834-5, an act was 
 passed creating a new canal board, and authorizing the governor 
 to negotiate bonds, pledging the canal lands for their redemption. 
 But it was not until at a special session in 1835, Avhen, through 
 the active exertions of Col. Strode, of Galena, who, as a senator, at 
 that time represented all that part of the state north of, and inclu- 
 ding Peoria, the act was so amended as to pledge the credit of the 
 state, that the bonds could be negotiated. This was done by Gov. 
 Duncan, in 1836, and in the same year preparatory operations were 
 commenced. 
 
 Meanwhile, stimulated by this canal project, and by the survey 
 and bringing into market of the lands of the United States and 
 the granting of pre-emption rights, as well as by the beauty^ and 
 fertility of the country, emigration had set in toward this region, 
 some of the earliest eiforts of which I now proceed to detail. 
 
 We assign to the Rev. Jf:.ssp: Walker the honor of being the 
 first white settler within the present bounds of Will county, although 
 it might admit of question whether an itinerant preacher of the 
 Methodist church could properly be called a settler. Jesse Walker 
 was one of the early pioneers of Methodist Christianity in Illinois. 
 He was born in the state of Virginia in 1766, twenty-five years 
 before the death of Wesley. He joined the church when twenty 
 years of age, and entered the ministry on probation in 1804. He 
 had married the daughter of a wealthy planter, who was an heir 
 to much property in slaves. These she manumitted, and chose to 
 suffer affliction with the people of God, and as the wife of a jNIetli- 
 odist preacher, rather than enjoy the ease and plenty which would 
 bo secured bv the sweat of the slave. In 1806, he accompanied 
 Wm. McKendree (afterwards bishop) to Illinois, then a part of 
 Indiana territory, to look at the country. They were highly 
 pleased with it; and at the next meeting of conference were both 
 appointed to a circuit Mathin its bounds. 
 
 Walker returned from this conference to his family, arriving 
 about noon — commenced immediately to prepare for the journey, 
 
10 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 and by ten o'clock the next day, he and his family were on their 
 way. The journey had to be made on horseback, and four horses 
 were required — one for himself, one for his wife and youngest 
 daughter, and one for his oldest daughter, a girl of sixteen, while 
 the fourth carried the stock of books, which was part of the outfit 
 of a Methodist preacher, the sale of which aided in ekeing out their 
 scanty salary. Of course they could carry no " Saratoga trunks." 
 Nor was there any need, for their wardrobe was confined to the one 
 suit, beside that they wore, which was spun and wove by the mother 
 and daughter. And yet there was no complaint of "nothing to 
 wear ! " 
 
 Jesse Walker became an able and efficient preacher of Meth- 
 odist Christianity in Illinois, although he had received but a very 
 limited education. In 1821, we find him reporting to conference 
 in refcpect to his labors as a missionary among the Indians, and it 
 was in this capacity that he came to the vicinity of Plainfield in 
 1826, where there was then, and for several years subsequently, an 
 Indian village. In 1827 he was superintendent of Fox River 
 Mission. He is said to have held the first camp meeting in the 
 state, and the first quarterly meeting in Chicago, and also to have 
 preached the first protestant sermon in St. Louis. In 1829 he had 
 charge of the Des Plaines Mission, and formed the first class at 
 Walker's Grove. 
 
 Many of these facts I have gathered from Mrs. D. C. Searles, of 
 Troy township, who is a grand-daughter of Jesse Walker, and daugh- 
 ter of James Walker. I am also indebted to the book of " Father 
 Beggs" for some of the incidents of his early life. He died in 
 1835, at the age of 69. Many valuable manuscripts left by Jesse 
 Walker were in possession of Mrs. Searles, but they were burned 
 a few years since, with the house of Mr. Searles. 
 
 He was accompanied in his journey to Plainfield, or, rather, 
 WalUer's Grove, as the beautiful grove was subsequently called, 
 about one mile south of the present village of Plainfield, by his 
 son-in-law, James Walker, a Tennessean, then from Ottawa, of 
 which he was one of the earliest settlers. James Walker did not at 
 that time remain, but returned to Walker's Grove in March, 1830, 
 and made a permanent settlement. He brought with him from- 
 
Joliet and. Will County, Forty Years Ago. 11 
 
 Ottawa a horse power mill, which he set up, and proceeded at once 
 to construct both a saw and grist mill on the Dupage. The grist 
 mill was destroyed by a flood in 1837 or 1838. At this saw mill 
 the lumber was sawed of which a Mr. Peck built the first frame 
 house in Chicago, upon the southeast corner of La Salle and South 
 Water streets, which lot had cost him eighty dollars. Reuben 
 Flagg, named below, hauled the lumber to Chicago. Jas. AYalker 
 was a prominent man in the early history of our county, and I 
 shall have occasion to mention his name again. He was one of 
 our first representatives in the legislature. 
 
 Another Methodist preacher, S. R. Beggs, was also identified 
 with the early history of Plainfield, and of the Methodist church 
 in Will county, who settled on section sixteen of that township in 
 1831. Father Beggs is well known in Will county, and still sur- 
 vives, enjoying the honored old age promised to the servants of 
 •God. 
 
 In 1829, a Frenchman by the name of Vetel Yerraette, settled 
 in the same vicinity. Another importation was made to Chicago 
 from Plainfield in the year 1832, when Father Beggs held his first 
 quarterly meeting at Chicago. Timothy B. Clark (named below) 
 took an ox team loaded with provisions to Chicago, to meet the ex- 
 traoi'dinary demand which would be made upon the provision 
 market of Chicago by a few extra Methodists ! 
 
 In the summer of 1830, Mr. Reuben Flagg left Vermont with 
 his fiimily, and after a journey of two months they arrived in the 
 same vicinity on the 9th day of July. Passing through Chicago, 
 they found it a village of about a dozen log houses, and on the 
 route down passed two log cabins on the Des Plaines. He found on 
 his arrival at Plainfield, besides the families of Walker and Ver- 
 mette, already named, two others, those of Timothy B. Clark and 
 Thomas Covel, who had come in the same spring from New Eng- 
 land. From Detroit, Mr. Flagg was accompanied by Jedediah 
 Wooley, sr., who bought out the claim of the Frenchman, Ver- 
 mette, who left for pastures new. 
 
 These facts are gathered from a letter of Mr. Flagg's, written 
 to H. N. Marsh, Esq., in 1851. Mr. Flagg also states thaf? he 
 knew of no other settlers in the county at that time, except three 
 
12 Joliet and Will County Forty Years Ago. 
 
 families on Hickory Creek, Mr. Rice, Mr. Brown and Mr. Ker- 
 cheval, and that the nearest white settler on the west was at Dixon's 
 Ferry. We also gather from this letter, that the first white child 
 born in Will county was his daughter^ Saraanthe E., born Septem- 
 ber 9th, 1830. We owe an apology for presuming to tell a lady's 
 age — but the interest of this history demands it. 
 
 To this settlement was added, Wm. Bradford, John Shutliff, 
 David, Chester and Enoch Smith, in 1832. Chester Ingersoll^ 
 James Gilson, Oliver Goss, Dea. Goodhue, Hardy Metcalf, Benj. 
 Shutliff, Jason Flanders, John Bill, W. W. Wattles, Robert W. 
 Chapman and others, soon after the close of the Sac war. The 
 village of Plainfield was laid off by Chester Ingersoll in August,. 
 1834. 
 
 We pass now to the settlement on Hickory Creek. The com- 
 piler of the new "Combination Map of Will County," quotes a 
 letter from a Mr. W. R. Rice, in which he says : "In June, 1829, 
 Miller Ainsley, William Rice and myself, left Fountain county, 
 Indiana, to look at the far west. We struck the Iroquois, which 
 we followed to the Kankakee, keeping down the latter to the Des 
 Plaines, up which we went until we reached Hickory Creek, where 
 we found a Mr. Brown, and old Col. Sayer, living in an old Indian 
 bark shanty, near where Dr. Allen's house now stands, and about 
 eighty rods west, across the creek, was an old Mr. Friend, who 
 had the body of a log cabin up." These statements are no doubt 
 reliable. I will add, that the Mr. Brown spoken of, die.l soon 
 after, in November, 1830, and was buried on the Davidson firm — 
 probably the first burial of a white person in Will county. Col. 
 Sayer, above named, built a saw mill on the north side of the 
 creek from where the red mill now stands, and Mr. Mansfield 
 Wheeler, who came in the fall of 1833, went into partnership 
 with him. At this mill was sawed the lumber of which the first 
 frame houses in Joliet were built. 
 
 To this Hickory Creek settlement were added in 1830 : Mr. 
 Lewis Kercheval and son, William Rice, sr., John Gougar, Michael 
 Runyon, Jerrod Runyon and James Emmett. In 1831, John and 
 Joseph Norman, Aaron Ware, Thomas and Abram Francis, Isaac 
 
Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 13 
 
 Pence and Samuel Pence. In 1832, Cornelius C. Van Home, John 
 Stitts, Peter Watkins and his two sons, William Gougar and sons, 
 and Joseph, Alfred and James Johnson. The Johnsons located 
 on Spring Creek, in the edge of Yankee Settlement To these 
 were added in 1833, John M., Isaac and Milton Reynolds, Judge 
 Davidson and Matthew Van Home. Henry Higginbotham came 
 in 1834, and bought out Col. Sayer, and the saw mill iirm became 
 Wheeler & Higginbotham. 
 
 C C. Van Home was, in early times, one of the most promi- 
 nent men in all the region. . He was postmaster and justice of the 
 peace, and transacted the business of the early settlers, and aided 
 them in procuring pre-emptions. He was afterwards our first 
 mayor under the present city charter. 
 
 Mrs. Kinzie, in her " Waubun," gives an account of a ball on 
 Hickory Creek, (probably at Kercheval's), in 1831, at which 
 three of the^we single gentlemen then residing at Chicago were 
 present. The ball commenced at two p. m., after a hospitable 
 dinner, and lasted until the next morning. I su])posethe Chicago 
 gentlemen were better dressed, and could even then put on " city 
 airs and style," — at any rate, they had the smiles of the " belles '* 
 of Hickory and the other precincts, and the native beaux had to 
 take back seats. This, of course, highly gratified the Chicago 
 gents; but their satisfaction was dampened when, in the early 
 dawn, they brought out their fine horses to return, and found that 
 during the night, all three had lost their manes and tails ! 
 
 About the same time another settlement was made, mostly on 
 the south side of Hickory, in this townshiji. Robert Stevens and 
 David Maggard made claims in 1830, and came with their fami- 
 lies in 1831. Robert Stephens located on the well-known Ste- 
 phen's place, and David Maggard on the Bluff, about opposite the 
 rolling mills. Philip Scott, William Bilsland, Major Cook and 
 father, Daniel Robb, Jesse Cook, Reason Zarley and Benj. Mag- 
 gard, also came in 1831. Seth Scott and Aaron Moore, in 1832. 
 William Hadsell, in 1833. Joseph and Jacob Zumalt, in 1834. 
 Reason Zarley, above named, was one of our earliest J. P.'s, and 
 a prominent and influential man, and it is to him that our city is 
 2 
 
14 Joliet and Will County^ Forty Yearn A(jo. 
 
 indebted for a city clerk, and two editors, who know how to run a 
 reliable democratic news^paper! David Maggard built the first 
 house within the present city limits. 
 
 The old Sac trail divideo somewhere near the cemetery, and 
 one branch crossed at a ford a little below the presentj tannery, and 
 passed up the bluif, through a ravine, and on west. The house of 
 Maggard was on the edge of this ravine, and was standing not 
 many years since. The other branch of the trail crossed at the 
 ford just beloW the island, and passed on to Ottawa. This trail 
 was a well-worn path, made by the Indians in their annual jour- 
 neys from the west to Fort Maiden, in Canada, to receive the 
 presents which it was the cunning policy of the English govern- 
 ment to continue to give them long after our independence. The 
 fruit of this policy was seen in the war of 1812, in the massacre at 
 Chicago, and other barbarities. 
 
 John Norman built a mill on this river, at the head of an island 
 M'hich took his name, just above the penitentiary. He built a dam 
 across one branch, which threw the current into the other, in which 
 he placed his wheel, while the shaft at the other end connected with 
 the mill-gearing in a log mill. This mill, which is said to have 
 had the tremendous capacity of twelve or fifteen bushels of corn 
 in twenty-four hours, and which drov^e such a brisk opposition to 
 the mills of Rochester, and the Wabash, was projected and com- 
 pleted without any municipal aid! I suppose that this mode of 
 making the poor contribute to the capital of the rich, was not then 
 devised. I remember visiting this mill in 1834. The island was 
 .then quite a romantic spot, being covered with a heavy growth of 
 timber. The digging of the canal has almost obliterated the 
 locality. 
 
 In the edges of the timber, lying along ike Des Plaines and 
 Jackson Creeks, and in the groves known as Jackson's, Reed's, 
 Starr's and Trout man's, settlements were early made, Chas. Reed, 
 Joseph Shoemaker and Wesley Jenkins, settled in Reed's grove in 
 1831. John and Thomas Coon, the two Kirkpatricks, Thomas 
 Underwood, Eli Shoemaker, Charles Lougmire, James Hemphill, 
 Peter Eib and sons, Archibald Crowl, Henry and Lewis Linebar- 
 
Jollel anrl Will County, Forty Years Ago. 15 
 
 ger, Daniel Haight, John and Samuel Catron, Theopliilus and 
 Robert Watkius, settled in some one or other of these groves iu 
 1831-2-3; and Benjamin and Joseph Shanks, Smith Johnson, 
 John Brown, George Young, Peter Brown and son, and U. J. Boy- 
 Ian, in 1833-4. 
 
 To the credit of Jackson grove settlement it ought to be men- 
 tioned, that they built a school house as early as 1833, and Henry 
 Watkins, of the Hickory Creek settlement, taught the same. 
 
 We have mentioned "the Johnsons" as settling on Spring 
 Creek, in the edge of Yankee Settlement. They were " Hoosiers," 
 in the language of that day ; but most of the settlers in Homer 
 were from the east, and it was early called •' Yankee Settlement." 
 
 In the summer of 1831, Holder Sisson, a resident of Chattau- 
 que county, N. Y., wlio had previously visited the west, with his 
 family, and Selah Lanfear and Orrin Stevens, with their families, 
 from the same county, came around the lakes in a schooner, and 
 after a somewhat stormy passage, landed at the obscure port of 
 Chicago, in the latter part of July. Harry Boardman, who settled 
 in East Dupage, came in the same vessel. After a short stay in 
 Chicago, they came to Yankee Settlement, made "claims," and 
 commenced improvements, and built log cabins. They found 
 already there, the families of Armstead Runyon, Edward Poor, 
 and Benjamin Butterfield. I think Edward Poor was the first 
 settler in this neighborhood. His is the first name that occurs upon 
 our county records, as transcribed from Cook county, of which we 
 were then a part. 
 
 The following are the names of other settlers in those localities 
 now included in the town of Homer, and that part of Lockport 
 east of the river, and which were known in early days as " Yankee 
 Settlement," Gooding's Grove and Had ley: Before the Sac war, 
 Jas. Richie, James Glover, Abijah Watson, John Pettyjohn, Wm. 
 McGaifery, Peter Polly, Joseph McCune, Daniel Mack, John 
 
 Blackstone, Nathaniel Weeks, William Ashing, Goodenow, 
 
 Joseph Cox, Dick Boilvin and Uriah Wentworth. Some of these 
 persons did not return after the "stampede" occasioned by the 
 
16 JoUet and Will Comity, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 Sac war. Goodenow, Potly aud McCune, on their return, settled 
 in other localities in the county. 
 
 The following persons settled in the localities named, soon after 
 the war, say in the years 1832-3 and 4: Thomas Smith, Eben 
 Beach, Charles M. Grey, George Grey, Orange Chauncy, Levi 
 Partwell, Jiroh Rowley and sons, W. H. Frazier, Alanson 
 Granger, Addison Collins, Horace Messinger, John Lane, Lucius 
 Case, H. S. Mason, Dr. Moses Porter, Abram Snapp, Deacon Wil- 
 liams, Benjamin Weaver, Hiram Rowley, Levi Savage, 1j. C. 
 Chamberliii, Frederick CoUins, William Bandle, Samuel Ander- 
 son, John Griswold, Comstock Hanford, Nathan Hopkins, John 
 Fitzsimmons, Cyrus Cross, Andrew Frank, Aaron Hopkins, Rev. 
 Mr. Ambrose and Lyman Cross. 
 
 The following persons settled in "Gooding's Grove," aud gave 
 the name to the locality: Deacon James Gooding and his three sons, 
 James Gooding, Jr., William Gooding and Jasper A. Gooding, 
 aud his nephew, Charles Gooding, in 1832-3. 
 
 A Rev. Mr. Kirov was also an early settler, and had charge of 
 a Presbyterian church in Hadley, organized by Rev. Jeremiah 
 Porter, the pioneer of the American Home Mission Society in the 
 northwest. This, I think, was, exclusive of the " classes " formed 
 by itinerant preachers of the Methodist church, the first church 
 oi'ganized in Will county. 
 
 A Mr. Freeman, also organized a Baptist church in Yankee 
 Settlement about the same time, of sixteen members. Yankee Set- 
 tlement was also a station of Father Beggs' in 1833, together with 
 Walker's Grove, East Dupage, Hickory Creek and Reed's Grove. 
 
 John Lane was famous in the early days as a manufacturer of 
 breaking plows. Addison Collins was, at one time, our county 
 surveyor, and also represented us in the General Assembly. 
 
 John Blackstone, generally known as Judge Blackstone, was a 
 man of property and influence. He was the first justice of the 
 peace in Yankee Settlement. Judge Caton remembers going down 
 there from Chicago to try a suit before him in 1833, which was 
 probably the first law suit in the county. 
 
 Jiroh Rowly, generally known as Capt. Rowly, was a promin- 
 
Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 17 
 
 ent man in the early history of our county. He had formerly been 
 a contractor on the Erie canal, having built the great embankment 
 near Rochester. While engaged in this job, Gov. Clinton passed 
 over the route to look after its interests, and visited the jol) of 
 Rowley, about which he had a good deal of anxiety, as it was a 
 heavy and difficult work. While the Governor was looking on 
 with some gentlemen visitors, Rowley spoke pretty sharply to him 
 and his friends, telling them to get out of the way. Governor 
 Clinton, instead of being offended, remarked to his friends, that 
 he should go home with his mind at ease about the job, as Capt. 
 Rowley evidently "meant business." 
 
 William Gooding (named in the above list) was subsequently 
 well known as the able and efficient engineer-in-chief of our canal. 
 
 Yankee Settlement was especially famous among the boys of 
 1835-6, as a good place to go to see the girls. I presume it still is! 
 
 Holder Sisson, above named, who was one of the first county 
 commissioners of this county, settled on the Hanford place, in the 
 present town of Lock})ort, in 1831, and afterwards moved across 
 the river, and located on, or under, the western bluff. Lyman 
 Havvley and sons, Justin Taylor, Thomas and Harvey Reed, and 
 William Rogers, settled on the same side in 1831-2 and 3. It is 
 said that Butterfield, whose name was mentioned in the Yankee 
 Settlement list, built the first house within the present township 
 of Lockport, and that a Mr. Everden built the first log house on the 
 site of the present city, in 1831, which he sold to Armstead 
 Runyon, who laid out the first town plat in 1836, now called North 
 Lockport, but formerly called Runyon's Town. The site on which 
 most of the present city is now located, was laid out by the canal 
 commissioners, in 1837, and the good taste of the engineer-in-chief 
 is apparent in its \vide and beautiful streets. West Lockport was 
 laid out by William Rogers, Lyman Hawley, William Gooding 
 and E. S. Prescott, who also built the stone mill, in 1836. West 
 Locicport, at one time, was the most flourishing part of the town. 
 
 In the upper Hickory Creek timber, in what is now known as 
 the town of Frankfort, it is said that a Mr. Osborn settled as early 
 as 1828, but finding it rather lonesome, he returned to the State of 
 
18 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 Indiana. William Moore, Robert WilliamSj John iVIcGoveny and 
 sons, John McDeed, and a Mr. Ghost, came in 1831. Daniel 
 Lambert, John Duncan, James Troutman and Hiram W^ood, in 
 1832. Allen and Lysander Denny, Ambrose Doty, Charles Mar- 
 shall, Francis Owen, Eliphalet Atkins, Samuel Haven and Josiah 
 Holden, in 1834 or 5. 
 
 A settlement was made on the east branch of the Dupage as 
 early as 1830, by Pierce Hawley, Stephen J. and Willaid Scott, 
 and Ralph Stowell. In 1831, it was increased by the coming of 
 Israel Blodgett, Robert Strong, John Dudley, Harry Boardman, 
 and Seth Westcott; and 1832, l)y Jonathan Royce, Isaac Scarritt, 
 Lester Peet, Simon Ferrill and John Barber; and in 1833 and 4, 
 Samuel Goodrich, Andrew Godfrey, Harry and Philip Lord, Sam- 
 uel Whallen and William Smith. 
 
 Isaac Scarritt was a Methodist itinerant preacher, a cotempo- 
 rary of Beggs and Walker, and succeeded Walker in 1828, as 
 Superintendent of Fox River Mission. Samuel Whallon was 
 county commissioner in the years 1841-2-3, and has lately died at 
 the ripe age of 94. Col. Smith, will be well remembered as one of 
 the prominent residents of this city. 
 
 Mrs. Kinzie, in "Waubun," speaks of stopping at Hawley's 
 over night, alter a long exposure in traveling from Fort Winne- 
 bago to Chicago, in the winter of 1831. A brother of Hawley's, 
 a Methodist preacher, was killed by the Indians, near his place, in 
 1832, after cruel torture. 
 
 In that part of tiie town of Channahon which lies east of the 
 Des Plaines river, Joseph McCune, recently deceased, settled in 
 1832, also John Troutman, the same year, and Robert Thorn- 
 berg and sons, in 1833. On the river, Seymour Treat and Dr. 
 Treat, his son, settled in 1833, and built a grist-mill at the tbot of 
 an island which took their name. 
 
 The following persons settled in that part of the town which 
 lies between the Des Plaine and Dupage, in the years 1832-3-4: 
 Isaac Jessup, William E. Peck, H. D. Risley, Peter McCowan. 
 Capt. Willard, Michael Morehouse, Jedediah and Walter Emes, 
 Joseph N. Fryer, Ira Knapp, Hosea Buell, George and Russelt 
 
Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 19 
 
 Trjon, Uncle "Boat" Sclierinerhorn and his two son.s, Peter and 
 Jacob B. and John Ward; and in 1835, Joseph and Dr. Lewis, 
 Isaac and Burke Van Alstine, and, under the Fifteenth Amend- 
 ment, we must not omit to mention " Nigger Dick." 
 
 This locality was a favorite one of the Indians. They had a 
 village there at one time, and the traces of their cultivation could 
 be seen there in 1835, and the mounds where they buried their 
 dead. I believe they cultivated corn there as late as 1834. It is 
 said the squaws made very neat cultivators. There used to be the 
 grave of an Indian near Treat's, in which the body was partly out 
 of the ground, in a sitting posture, and surrounded by rails. This 
 wiis supposed to be the grave of a prominent man, as they took 
 great pains to visit it when going up and down the river. 
 
 I remember having seen, north of Joliet, just this side of the 
 Sanger farm, in 1834 or 5, the grave of an Indian child, buried in 
 the top of a tree — if one may be allowed so grave a bull. The 
 body was placed in two rough slabs, hollowed out and fastened 
 together, and to the tree, by strips of bark. I do not know what 
 the Indian's idea was in thus disposing of an infant's body, but I 
 can fimcy it a dim reflection from the memorable words of our 
 Savior, "of such is the kingdom of heaven." As the spirit of 
 the child had taken its flight to the skies, they would fain place 
 the deserted casket as near to it as possible ! 
 
 The village of Channahon was laid out by the Canal Trustees, 
 by whom it was named Stiifton, after one of their number. 
 Through the influence of Judge Peck it was changed to Channa- 
 hon — an Indian word, which means, the meeting of the waters — a 
 beautiful and appropriate name, and I presume the change has 
 been no material damage to W. H. Swift, Esq. Judge Peck was a 
 prominent man in our county, a commissioner in the years 1839 to 
 1842. J. B. Schennerhorn was also a county commissioner in the 
 years 1848 and 9. 
 
 It is generally supposed that Troy was first settled by the Irish, 
 in canal times, but such was not the fact. A little north of Channa- 
 hon, on the Dupage, in the present town of Troy, Jedediah Woolley, 
 Jr., settled in 1831 , and commenced building a mill, which, owing 
 
20 Joliet and Will County Forty Years Ago. 
 
 to the war, was uot completed until 1833. Two men of the name 
 of Rexford, also settled in that locality, and rented Woolley's mill. 
 John Van Rij^er and sons, and a Mr. Fleming and Carey Thorn- 
 ton, were early settlers in this vicinity. 
 
 Just west of the Joliet Mound, Andrew and Marshall King 
 settled in 1833 or 4. Edward and Ephraira Perkins settled in 
 Five Mile Grove, in 1833. Joseph Lawton and Samuel Holcomb 
 at Twelve Mile Grove, in 1832. 
 
 On Forked Creek, in territory which would now be included 
 in the towns of Florence, Wesley and Wilmington, John Fra- 
 zier, Hamilton Keeney, John Williams, Robert Kilpatrick, James 
 Kelly, James Jordan, John Howel and George Beckwith, settled 
 in 1834, and Joseph Hadsall and William Goodwin in 1835. 
 
 There were also settlements farther up the Kankakee river, 
 but as they are not included in the present limits of the county, 
 we make no record of them, although one of our first county com- 
 missioners, Thomas Durham, was from Bourbonnais' Grove. 
 
 After the breaking out of what is known as the Black Hawk 
 War, in the spring of 1832, there was great alarm felt by the set- 
 tlers in this region. Although the seat of war was to the west and 
 north, on Rock river, and although the Indians in this immediate 
 vicinity claimed to be friendly, or neutral, yet none could tell how 
 soon the war wlioop would be heard on the Dupage and the Des 
 Plaine, or how much dependence could be placed upon Pottawat- 
 tamie friendship. That their fears were not without reason, appears 
 from the massacre on Indian Creek, about fifteen miles above Ot- 
 tawa, on the 21st of May, where the settlers belonging to three 
 families, to the number of fifteen, men, women and children, were 
 suddenly assailed by a band of Sacs, and butchered with all the 
 usual barbarities of Indian warfare. One boy escaped and carried 
 the news to Ottawa; and two girls, named Sylva and Rachael Hall, 
 fifteen and seventeen years of age, were carried oif and held for 
 ransom. As we shall see, by and by, the history of Joliet is closely 
 connected with this event. 
 
 The settlers at Walker's Grove, with some who had fled from 
 Fox River, to the number of one hundred and twenty-five, col- 
 
Joliet and WUl County, Forty Years Ago. 21 
 
 lected at the house of "'Father Beggs/' on section 16, which seemed 
 most favorably located for defence, and this they fortified by pulling 
 down the log sheds and stables, and forming a barricade with the 
 logs. They chose James Walker captain, and resolved upon a 
 vigorous defence. They collected all the weapons which could be 
 of use, such as hoes, forks, axes and guns, and melted their pewter 
 spoons and plates into bullets. After a while, they concluded that 
 as they had but four available guns, the better part of valor was 
 discretion, and they withdrew to Chicago for a while, where, from 
 the over-crowded state of the fort, they suffered nearly as much 
 as from their fears of the Indians. The settlers in Yankee Settle- 
 ment, and other localities, also fled to Chicago for protection. The 
 alarm was given to the settlers here by Hiram Pearson, of Chicago, 
 and Dan'l Mack, of Hadley, who had started for Danville, and met 
 refugees from the west, near the Des Plaine river. They returned 
 at once and gave the alarm, and the families were gathered together 
 and went to Chicago. While there, they organized a company of 
 twenty-five, aud chose Holder Sisson, from the Yankee settlement, 
 captain. This company went out on a scout, to ascertaiu 
 whether there were any Indians in the vicinity. They stayed the 
 first night at Lawton's, on the Des Plaiues; went thence to Naper- 
 ville and Walker's Grove, stopping the second night at Fort Beggs. 
 They proceeded to Holdeman's Grove, where they met a company 
 from Ottawa, and with them went to the scene of the massacre on 
 Indian Creek, where 'they found and buried the mutilated bodies, 
 fifteen in number, including six children. They then went to 
 Ottawa, where they found the remains of a regiment which had 
 retreated from the aifair at Stillman's Run. They then returned 
 over the same route to Chicago. On their return they found the 
 body of a Mr. Payne, a Dunkard preacher, who had been mur- 
 dered by the Indians — his long beard being no protection. 
 
 After a few weeks, the settlers from Yankee Settlement re- 
 turned, and built a fort on the Sisson or Hanford place; and 
 also most of those from Walker's Grove returned to Fort Besfffs. 
 
 When Scott arrived at Chicago, bringing the cholera with him — 
 
 a foe more dreaded then than even the savage Indian — there was 
 
 almost as great a stampede from Chicago to the country, as there 
 3 
 
22 Joliet and Will County, Forty Yearf< Ago- 
 
 had been from the country to Chicago. Lanfear and his ox team, 
 with others, were pressed into the government service by Scott, 
 to take his " impedimenta " to Galena. At this time there was a 
 Pottawattamie encampment between Fraction Run and Big Run, 
 in Lockport, and remained for two or more years. 
 
 The settlers on Hickory Creek, in Jackson's Grove and neigh- 
 boring-localities, and this township, being from Indiana, naturally 
 sought safety by flight in that direction. Hearing that the Indians 
 were at Walker's Grove, they got their teams ready, and their fam- 
 ilies, and sent one of the Normans, in the meantime, to reconnoi- 
 tre. He saw some Indians on the prairie near the Lillycash, and 
 returned at once and gave the alarm. It was afterwards ascertained 
 that they were friendly Pottawattamies, coming to assure the set- 
 tlers that there was no danger. But the settlers commenced at 
 once to flee toward the Kankakee. 
 
 When gathered together on the prairie there were about seventy 
 in number, and about twenty teams, mostly drawn by oxen. Some 
 of the men also formed a guard on horseback. Some ludic- 
 rous accounts are given of the coolness aud presence of mind dis- 
 played by the fugitives. It is related of one from Jackson's Grove, 
 that in his haste and confusion he mounted his horse facing the 
 wrong way, and his horse being as badly frightened as the rider, 
 he could get no chance to change front until he reached the Kan- 
 kakee ; and also that he had loaded his horse with supplies of 
 bacon, flour and sugar, which he threw overboard, one after the 
 other, to increase his speed, and was pulling off his coat when his 
 flight was arrested. This story is, I presume, somewhat exagger- 
 ated, but if true, he could at least claim the merit of facing the 
 enemy ! 
 
 These fugitives met a company of armed men from Indiana, 
 who had come out to aid in protecting the settlers, and some returned 
 with them. It was this company which built the Ibrt, known in 
 early days as " Fort Nonsense," which used to stand Oii the spot 
 now occupied by the residence of H. N. Marsh, Esq. I have this 
 statement from Mr. Jesse Cook, who was one of the company that 
 returned, and assisted in building the fort. Mr. Cook also states, 
 that they found on their return to their homes, that the friendly 
 
Joliet <ind Will County, Forty Years Ago. 23 
 
 Pottawattamies had taken care of the chickens and pigs which they 
 left on their flight — such good care that they never saw them again ! 
 Robert Stevens and David Maggard also returned, and concealed 
 themselves for a while in a cave, a little above town. Most of the 
 families returned in the fall and ensuing spring. 
 
 I have now given the names of those who can be considered 
 " first settlers " in Will county, as now bounded, so far as I have 
 been able to gather them. The rush of immigration in 1835-6, 
 was too great to attempt any record of those years. We will come 
 now to the history of the first settlement of this city. 
 
 In 1 833, Charles Reed, who has been mentioned as one of the 
 first settlers at Reed's Grove, made a claim on the southeast quar- 
 ter of section nine, town thirty-five, north range ten, east, and 
 built a log house on the same, just below where the National Hotel 
 now stands. He also commenced building a dam, and making 
 pre[)arations for a mill. It was his design to start his mill on the 
 Housier, or Norman plan ; putting his wheel in the race, depend- 
 ing on the current for power to drive the machinery. In March, 
 1834, James McKee, a Kentuckian, from Jacksonville, bought out 
 the claim and improvements of Reed, for the sum of $1,960, 
 "which improvements," says the original document, now in my 
 possession, " consists of a dam partly made, on the east side of 
 the river, a house, some fence, a mill race, and some machinery for 
 a mill, both of wood and iron, on the west side of the river." 
 
 McKee proceeded at once to the erection of a mill on an im- 
 proved scale, and in the fall of 1834, got help enough together to 
 raise, in two days, the heavy oak frame, which still stands just 
 above and between the bridges, (one story of it now under water), 
 and is used by Charles Ward for storing sash, doors, etc. I had 
 the honor of assisting at this raising, and remember it took some 
 tall lifting! 
 
 McKee was provided with a state " float," which he laid on 
 the quarter section, and thus secured the title to the land. This 
 "float," as it was called, was obtained in this way: At the time 
 of the attack on Indian Creek, to which allusion has been made, 
 all except two girls, of the name of Hall were killed, to the num- 
 
24 Joliet and Will Oounti/, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 ber of fifteen, as 1 have already stated. These two girls, named 
 Sylvia and Rachael, and of the ages of fifteen and seventeen, were 
 carried oif by the Indians and held for ransom, which was eifected 
 after a while through the agency of a Winnebago Chief. The leg- 
 islature of the state, being no doubt- composed of very gallant and 
 sympathetic men, donated to each of these girls eighty acres of the 
 canal lands. McKee bought the grant to Sylvia of hcM- husband, 
 William S. Home, who, it seems, had married her. The patent 
 from the state is to Home and his wiff' Sylvia, and they conveyed 
 to McKee, December 18th, 1833. To this deed Sylvia makes her 
 mark, from which we cDnclude that the schoolmaster had not made 
 his appearance at Indian Creek in 1832, and that she married (as 
 girls sometimes will) before she had completed her education. It 
 is the general impression that James B. Campbell bought the float 
 of the other Hall girl, and that he laid it upon the other quarter 
 on the east side. But this 1 think is a myth, as the patent is direct 
 from the state to Campbell, and for the consideration of one hun- 
 dred dollars. Camj)bell was the treasurer of the board of canal 
 commissioners, appointed under the act of 1829, and probably got 
 his title under that act. Campbell laid his quarter off into town 
 h)ts — the original town of Joliet — in 1834, and held a public sale 
 of the same on the 18th and 19th days of June. Campbell was 
 from Ottawa, and was never a resident of Joliet, he has recentl}^ 
 deceased, leaving, it is said, a widow, who by the efforts of her 
 attorneys, is disturbing the slumbers of some of our property own- 
 ers. At this sale the lots brought from nineteen to one hundred 
 and eight dollars. The lots on Jefferson street generally brought 
 about fifty dollars. This seems low now, but then Jefferson street 
 had no ;^rand sewer! 
 
 Campbell' named his town "J?*&^," being more desirous to 
 perpetuate the name of his daughter than that of the French 
 explore, and by this name our city was known until changed by 
 an act of the legislature in 1845. There are still many who do 
 not secia to knaw the origin of the name, or how to spell or pro- 
 nounce it. Many spell it with two 'I's,' two 't's,' and a terminal 
 *e,' — a great waste of the alphabet — and it is pronounced JoUy-ette. 
 
Joliet and Will County, Fwty Years Ago. 25 
 
 I presume because we are supposed to get our name from the 
 *'jolly" character of the inhabitants. 
 
 Early in March, 1834, Dr. A. W. Bowen, from Herkimer co., 
 N. Y., came to this vicinity, and boarded for a time with Lewis 
 Kercheval, made a claim on the Luther Woodruff place, and in 
 May built a small house on the edge of the slough near where the 
 Union School House stands, wJiich he occupied soon after, on the 
 arrival of Mrs. Bowen. Dr. Bowen subsequently, in 1835 and 
 1836, added East Joliet and Bo wen's addition to the town plat. 
 Dr. Bowen was for many years one 6t our most enterprising and 
 respected citizens, but has now for some years resided in Wilming- 
 ton. 
 
 In the fall of 1833, Charles Clement left New Hampshire and 
 came west, through Michigan, following the Sac trail from Niles 
 through northern Indiana and Illinois, crossed this river at the 
 upper ford, and passed on to the Dupage, and down to Peoria. At 
 this time this spot had attracted no attention, and he saw nothing 
 except the log house of Maggard, of which I have spoken. Re- 
 turning again in the spring of 1834, by way of Walker's Grove, 
 he there heard of this point, and that a town was to be built here. 
 He came over and found McKee on the ground, engaged in his 
 mill enterprise. Thinking that perhaps something might come of 
 it, he made a purchase of one acre, lying west of the proposed mill 
 yard, for $125. I believe he has never regretted the investment. 
 He proceeded to build a house on the spot where Bush's block now 
 stands, and which afterwards, with some additions, became the 
 famous "American Hotel." His brother, Daniel Clement, and 
 his wife, and a Mr. Clark, joined him in May, and they took pos- 
 session of the house. Mr. Charles Clement now enjoys the honor 
 of being the " oldest inhabitant," and that is better than to be 
 Mayor! I have received much assistance from him in making 
 up these reminiscences, and if there is anything in them that you 
 do n't like — lay it to him ! 
 
 In June, of the same year, M. H. Demmond, from Herkimer 
 county, N. Y., in company with George R, Makepeace, on an ex- 
 
26 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 ploring tour, (iame down from Chicago, and were so well pleased 
 with the prospect of Mc'Kee's town, that each purchased one of 
 his acres for $ 1 25. They returned to New York, settled up their 
 business, and with their families came hither in the latter part of 
 September. Miss Murray, a sister of Mrs. Demmond, now Mrs. 
 Folts, a young man by the name of Jenney, and myself, accom- 
 panied them. The journey occupied us two weeks. From Detroit 
 we came through to Niles by stage — a rough and tedious experi- 
 ence, the roads being through a new and heavily timbered and 
 swampy country, were bad enough. At Niles we hired teams to 
 bring us through to " Juliet." As we came on, the roads grew 
 much better, as the character of the country grew more rolling. 
 But there was but little settlement, and the cabins grew less fre- 
 quent as we came west, and the road became a mere trail. But we 
 were in no danger of losing our way, for we followed near the 
 famous "Sauk trail." We were now confined by no artificial metes 
 or bounds — 
 
 " For here the fair savannas know 
 
 No barriers in the bloomy grass, ^ 
 
 Wherever breeze of Heaven may blow, 
 Or beam of Heaven may glance, we pass."' 
 
 At long intervals the smoke of a pioneer's cabin under the lee 
 of some sheltering grove, gave indication of human settlement. 
 It was a lonesome and yet a delightful ride, for the weather was 
 fine, and everything was a new experience. The prairies, unlike 
 the level monotony of those we had passed in Michigan, remind us 
 of the description of our own Bryant, as they 
 
 " stretch in airy undulations far away, 
 As if the Ocean, in his gentlest swell, 
 Stood still, with all his rounded billows fixed 
 And motionless, forever." 
 
 The groves, unlike the dense and swampy forests we had toiled 
 through, look more like the parks and orchards of some old and 
 cultivated land, while at every step flowers strange and beautiful^ 
 greet the eye. The prairie-hen starts up from the grass, and from 
 the oak openings the antlered deer gazes at us with more of won- 
 
Joliet and Will Courtly^ Forty Years Ago. 27 
 
 der than of fear. A strange haze mellows the rays of the cloud- 
 iess sun, and gentle breezes, untainted by the breath of city or 
 hamlet, regale us with the perfume of unshorn fields and count- 
 less flowers. 
 
 As we come on toward " Juliet," we see now and then a log 
 cabin in the edges of the Hickory timber; pass Van Home's point, 
 and the cabin of " Uncle Billy " Gougar, and cross Hickory at 
 Sayer & Wheeler's mill. On we press, eager for the first glimpse 
 of that "town" of which we have heard so much. We come out 
 upon the open valley, through the tall grass of the Spring Creek 
 bottoms. We reach the first house, on the edge of a formidable 
 looking slough. This is the palatial residence of Dr. Bowen, of 
 which we have spoken, at least fourteen feet square. But this is, 
 then, but the suburbs of the great city, and we cross the boggy 
 slough, tull of rank grass and weeds, and press on. We come into 
 the region of upper Chicago street, and there two mansions greet 
 the sight. They are those of Thomas Cox and Benj. F. Barker. 
 They are not equal to Dr. Raynor's, but then they are human hab- 
 itations, and the sight is welcome. We pass on. Coming to the cor- 
 ner north of the Central Church, we find another building in process 
 of erection, which afterwards became the famous " Juliet Hotel." 
 A little farther is another house, on the lot now occupied by Mrs. 
 Kinney, built by the brothers Bailey, in which Campbell had held 
 his sale. 
 
 Such was the town on the east side of the river. Four new 
 but unpretending houses, standing all out doors — not a fence, or 
 enclosure of any kind, on a rough and rocky bottom, only here 
 and there a scrub oak to relieve the desolation. But we are headed 
 for McKee's town, and we pass on in search of the Des Plaines 
 river, upon the west side of which, we have heard, it is located. 
 Soon we come upon it, a very tame and modest stream, — it seems in 
 the dry September, such as we had been used to call a " creek," — 
 and we cross it at a ford just below an island, without the slightest 
 apprehension of drowning. Coming out and up the western bank; 
 we see some men at work on a dam, other men digging a race, and 
 
28 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 some hewing timber. We find the log house built by Reed, where 
 "vre are welcomed with true Kentucky hospitality, by James McKee 
 and his wife Sally, Just below the house is a little enclosure, 
 "which we take to be a garden, although we find it called a "truck 
 patch,^' through which flows a little brook from a beautiful and 
 abundant spring, welling up under a rocky and beetling bluff. 
 This spring is now changed into a well, some six or eight feet be- 
 low the present surface, and its water is dispensed by a vulgar 
 pump; all its beauty is gone, but not its usefulness, as it still con- 
 tinues to supply " Adam's Ale" freely, to all. Happy those who 
 are content with its healthful refreshment, rejecting all human sub- 
 stitutes in its vicinity, or elsewhere ! A little to the north we find 
 the house built by Clement, where we find the hands at work 
 on the mill are boarding, and where we, too, tind a temporary 
 home. Among these boarders was Richard Hobbs, familiarly 
 known as " Uncle Dick," and who will be well remembered by 
 many, and whose sons perpetuate his name among us. A little 
 north is another building, which has been erected for Mr. Dem- 
 mond, in part of which the family is to live, and in part of which 
 a store is to be opened, with the goods on their way around the 
 lakes. A little way above the middle bridge we also find a log 
 house, just erected by a Mr. Campbell, who sold out the next sum- 
 mer to Barton Smith. 
 
 These are all the indications of the future city on the west side. 
 We climb up the bluff by way of a gully, which is now Cross 
 street, and find still to the west another bluff, which is heavily 
 wooded. On the highest part of the first bluff we find the fort 
 and palisades, of which mention has been made, and this is the first 
 intimation we have had that Juliet is a fortified city. A little to 
 the north of this, the bluff is interrupted by a deep woody ravine, 
 (the present location of Spring street), which is the outlet to a large 
 swamp covering the area between Hickory street and the west 
 bluff, and extending up as far as the present breweries. The log 
 cabin of Mr. Maggard is so far to the north that we cannot 
 see it. 
 
 Such was Joliet as we then saw it, on a late September day in the 
 
Joliet and Will Countyy Forty Yea7\s Ago. 29 
 
 year 1834. I sat down upon the l>row of the bluif, and "viewed 
 the landscape o'er." I confess that I felt a choking sensation in 
 my esophagus ! You will not wonder that to a boy just from home, 
 and from an old, cultivated and populous village, the prospect of 
 passing the winter in such a locality, was anything but cheering. 
 To my eyes, which had not been touched by that prophetic vision 
 which only an investment of dollars can give, the future city — then 
 predicted, now, happily, partially realized — was not discernable, 
 and an opportunity to return would have been gratefully accepted. 
 In which case, Juliet would have lost one of its tallest citizens, 
 and you would have escaped the present infliction. 
 
 In the course of the fall the mill is erected, and also a saw mill 
 is built and run by Clement and Clark, and a brisk lumber trade 
 is created, for the logs are near by, and "Uncle Sam" does not 
 keep watch. Mr. Demmond opens his store, and we take a posi- 
 tion as clerk, and make the acquaintance of the people. These 
 we find to be of two kinds, Yankees and Hoosiers. All who came 
 from any state east of Ohio, are called Yankees; and all who are 
 of western or southern origin, and who wear "jeans" clothing, 
 and use such phrases as " right smart chance," " powerful weak," 
 " ornery," " heap," etc., and to every question or remark, answer 
 " which," are called Hoosiers. 
 
 During the winter, Mr. Demmond bought out McKee's quar- 
 ter section, except the portions already sold, and the mill and mill 
 yard, and immediately surveyed and recorded " West Juliet." 
 
 According to the best of my recollection, refreshed by Dr. 
 Bowen and Mr. Clement, the number of those who passed the 
 winter of 1834-5, within the present city limits, was less than 
 fifty. I give the names as far as I am able. 
 
 A. W. Bowen and wife, Charles Clement, Daniel Clement and 
 wife, Thomas H. Blackburn and wife, Thomas Cox and wife, O. 
 D. Putnam, Henry Bone and wife, two brothers Baily, Asaph 
 Webster and wife, Harlow Webster, George West and wife, N. H, 
 Cutter, James McKee and wife, Richard Hobbs, Chas. W. Bran- 
 don, M. H, Demmond and wife. Miss Murray, Mr. Campbell and 
 wife, Jay Lyons, Eri Dodge and wife, N. H. Clark, D. Maggard, 
 
30 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 Edw. Perkins, Jas. C. Troutmau, a family named Lumereaux, and 
 last, but 710^ least, G. H. Woodruff. These, and their families, are all 
 that I can now recall. (Mr. Makepeace and his wife had gone on 
 to Fox river). Kev'. J. H. Prentiss, under the auspices of the Am. 
 Home Mission Society, visited Juliet during the winter, and finding 
 that there were even then heathen enough to justify the step, came 
 on the next summer with his family, and established preaching, 
 and soon after organized a Presbyterian church — sometime in 1835. 
 George West, named in the above list, was a Methodist local 
 preacher, and probably preached the first sermon in Juliet. But 
 the first organized religious society was, I think, " Christ Church," 
 Episcopal, which was organized by Bishop Chase, the 16th day of 
 May, 1835. Comstock Hanlord, John Griswold, Miles Rice, Or- 
 len Westover, A. W. Bowen, Julia Ann Hanford, Amorette B. 
 Griswold, being the original members, all of whom, except Dr. 
 Bowen and wife, resided in the adjacent country. 
 
 Some here will remember a little stone building on the lot now 
 owned by Mr. Plant, on Broadway, and used as a stable. It was 
 pulled down within a year or two. It was in this building that 
 Mr. Prentiss preached for a while, until the first school house was 
 built, which is still stantling on Hickory street, west of the Catho- 
 lic church, now occupied as a residence by Mr. Terrill. This house 
 was built by Demmond, McKee, Beaumont, and some others, and 
 was used for school and church purposes. 
 
 The first teacher in this school house was John Watkins, who 
 had previously taught in Chicago. He is still living in New 
 Lenox, nearly blind. He was not, however, the first teacher in 
 either place. Mrs. Kinzie tells of one earlier than him in Chicago, 
 and the first attempt at a school in Joliet was made by Miss Persis 
 Cleveland, now of California, in the old log fort, of which I have 
 spoken. 
 
 The Kev. S. R. Beggs, in 1836, was appointed to the Joliet 
 Circuit, and commenced the work of building the first Methodist 
 church, which was also the first church edifice in Joliet, in 1837. 
 This building is now the blacksmith's shop of Rock Island Rail- 
 road; and in this year, 1837, the Methodist church of Joliet became 
 an organized legal body. 
 
Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 31 
 
 The season of 1835 made considerable additions to the embryo 
 city. Among them we?-e John L. and Richard L. Wilson, George 
 Higley and family, Levi Jenksand family, Archibald Growl, Wra. 
 Walters, O. F. Rogers, Rev. J. H. Prentis and family, Abel Gil- 
 bert, George Squire and wife, Rodney House and family, William 
 A. Chatfield and family, S. W. Boweu, C. C. Pepper, Abijah Cag- 
 win and family, a Mr. Boland and his two sons, Ahner and An- 
 drevv, H. N. Marsh and wife, Elias Haven and sons, David Rattray, 
 James Brodie, Francis Nicholson and wife, W. R. Atwell and 
 wife, Allen Pratt, Dr. Curtis Haven, Barton Smith and two sons 
 and family, Joel George and wife, Sullivan Demmond, Jonathan 
 Barnett, Charles Sayer, J. Beaumont and family, E. M. Daggett, 
 E. C. Fellows, Fenner Aldrich, George Howlistou, Asa Rowe, 
 Elias Hyde, Dr. Daniel Reed, William Sheriff, S. B. Hopkins, 
 Walter Seeley, Edsoa White, O. W. Stillman and John M. Wil- 
 son. Several buildings were erected on each side of the river 
 during this year, but the exact number cannot be told. Many of 
 the new comers livtd for a time in "shanties;" Rev. Mr. Prentiss 
 had one on Oneida street, under the bluff. 
 
 I will say a few words here, by way of explanation of what I 
 said above in reference to the lumber trade; and also explanatory 
 of several other matters to which I shall refer in the course of this 
 lecture. 
 
 In the first settlement of this county, the title to the land was 
 in the United States, except that which had been granted to the 
 state for canal purposes; and also, except every sixteenth section 
 in each township, which had been given to the state for school 
 purposes. To encourage settlement, persons were allowed to locate 
 on any lands not already occupied, to make a claim, and on build- 
 ing a cabin and enclosing and cultivating a few acres, they estab- 
 lished a "pre-emption right," that is, a right to purchase the land 
 in prefereuf^e to all others, at one dollar and a quarter per acre, 
 whenever the same should come into market. Settlers were, of 
 course, allowed to make use of timber lor building their cabins 
 and making their fences. This indulgence on the part of the gov- 
 ernment was grossly abused. Every one in those days regarded 
 the timber as free plunder, and only took care not to trespass upon 
 
32 Joliet and Will County, Forty Y^ears Ago. 
 
 a settler's claim. To steal from " Uncle Sam," was regarded then 
 (as I fear it still is) as a very venial sin. Persons who had no claim 
 as settlers, cut down the timber and hauled it to the mills, and had 
 it manufactured into lumber for sale. Nor did they confine them- 
 selves to United States' lands, but canal lands and school sections 
 were also subject to depredation. The bluifs about our city, and 
 also the groves, all over the county, were then covered with a heavy 
 growth of full grown timber, mostly oak and black walnut. These 
 were, to a great extent, sacrificed to the greed of the trespassers, 
 and manufactured into lumber and sold at ten dollars per thousand. 
 Great, splendid black walnut trees, the lumber from which would 
 now bring one hundred dollars per thousand, were cut down and 
 made into common lumber. The saw mills were kept running 
 nio-ht and day, and Sundays too. All the woods which we now 
 see, are of a subsequent growth. Almost all the buildings erected 
 previous to the opening of the canal, were made of this hard wood 
 lumber. You have noticed that when one of these takes fire, it is 
 long enough in burning to accommodate the fire department. 
 
 At the time of the land sale, in the summer of 1835, many 'of 
 the settlers were unprepared to pay for their land, even at the low 
 price asked by the government. But there were many speculators 
 here from the east, who were anxious to invest in land. They dare 
 not, however, bid against a "settler," even though he might not 
 have established a pre-emption right; for the settlers had organ- 
 ized a kind of court to decide on all settlers' claims, and they were 
 bound to protect each other against not only Uncle Sam, but '* the 
 rest of mankind." The lands were worth more than double the 
 government price, and hence compromises were efiected between 
 the settler and the speculator, by which the speculator su}>plied the 
 money to buy the land, and the settler gave him one half. Thus 
 the settler got a reasonable amount of land for nothing. In con- 
 sideration of the grants made to the state of lands for school and 
 seminary purposes, and a per cent, upon all sales, these lands were 
 exempted by the state from taxation for five years after sale. 
 
 As a matter of course, for the first few years, we were mainly 
 dependant upon older settlements for our supplies. These were 
 brought mostly from the "Wabash." This region, somewhat iude- 
 
Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 33 
 
 finite perhaps, was a kind of nursing mother to the northern part 
 of our state. Flour, bacon, corn meal, dried fruit and whitewood 
 siding, were the principal articles of commerce. These were trans- 
 ported in those curious and capacious old wagons, which originated, 
 I believe, in Pennsylvania, but which we used to call "Hoosier 
 wagons," or " Prairie schooners," and which, with their canvas 
 covers and long ox teams, traveling in company, reminded one ot 
 the caravans of the east, as they slowly moved over the unob- 
 etructed prairie. A curious specimen of humanity, too, was the 
 driver, armed with his long whip, which he cracked with a noise 
 like the report of a pistol, as he sat perched up in the bow of hi.- 
 schooner, or plodded his way beside his cattle, clad in butteruui 
 jeans, his face, hands and feet about the same color as his "bacon." 
 
 This " bacon," by the way, was a curious product. It con- 
 sisted of the "sides" of the hog, with the ribs removed and cured 
 by salt, in stacks, then smoked a little, and was handled loose and 
 unprotected by any khid of package or cover. It thus became 
 exposed in summer to the flies, and was often well stocked with 
 maggots. In this state it was not particularly relished by Yan- 
 kees, and before offering it for sale, it is said to have been the cus- 
 tom to stop outside of town and subject it to the action of smoke, 
 with sufficient heat to cause a stampede of the maggots. I suppose 
 after a week or two at Andersonville or Libby, one would not be 
 so fastidious ! 
 
 The Hoosier and his team traveled in entire independence of 
 taverns. His capacious wagon carried his supplies for the journey. 
 His wants were simple. Corn meal and bacon, coffee and tobacco, 
 and most likely some whisky, formed the "common doings" with 
 which he was content. And for his cattle he carried some corn, 
 and allowed them to feed upon the rich herbage of the prairie night 
 and morning. Camping by a spring or brook near the timber, he 
 made his coffee with water from the spring, and toasted his bacon 
 by a fire of faggots gathered from the woods, and now and then, 
 when these were hard to find, a rail or two from the settler's fence. 
 He slept at night under his canvas cover, secure from rain and dew. 
 
 The years 1835 and 1836 were characterized by a rush of im- 
 migration, and a rage for land speculation all over the west. The 
 
34 Joliet and Will County^ Forty Years Ago. 
 
 land sale at Chicago in June, 1 835, brought many into the county 
 eager to invest in lands and city lots, and in 1836, the fever reached 
 its acme. We have had many epidemics since, such as the 
 gold fever, the oil fever, the super-heated steam fever, and 
 the fever and ague ; but I think none have equaled in 
 intensity and universality the land fever of 1836. Everybody 
 was eager to invest in lands and city lots. Many were the cities 
 located, projected, and most beautifully platted, with liberal appro- 
 priations for public squares, churches and academies ; and these 
 were taken to eastern cities for the benefit of those who could not 
 come west, and there sold. Indeed, town lots may be said to have 
 been the only export from the west. We imported our flour and 
 baeon, as at that time sufficient was not raised for the wants of the 
 settlers and visitors. I presume that many here present are not 
 aware of the fact, that Will county is dotted with the ruins of 
 great cities. Yet such is the case. Palmyra, Williamsburg, Mid- 
 dletown, Vienna, Carlyle, West Lockport, Kew Kochester, Buf- 
 falo, Lunenbergh, etc., etc.; these are the names of some of these 
 cities, which flourished in imagination and on paper, but they have 
 passed away, leaving no vestige except upon the county records, 
 and in the memory of their victims. 
 
 But there was also another famous city, just over the line in 
 another county, of which a little Dutchman, Johnny Beard, was 
 the proprietor. Johnny thought this was to be "one very great 
 city." He made a splendid looking one on paper, with the great 
 Kankakee coming down from the east, and the Des Plaine and Du 
 Page united Iroui the north, the " city of Kankakee" reposing in 
 native beauty at the junction. Johnny used often to come up 
 with his wife in a little old "coachee," and was alwtys full of his 
 "city." He used to squeeze in a little whisky, too; but the old 
 horses and coachee used to take him safe home, whether he could 
 drive or not. He built a dam across the Des Plaine, a little above 
 its junction with the Kankakee, (which forms the Illinois), and 
 commenced building a mill. But the next spring the Kankakee, 
 which drains a great extent of country far to the east in Indiana, 
 got on a rampage long before the Des Plaine, which rices much 
 farther in the north, and coming down with its great volume of 
 
Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 35 
 
 water and ioe, dammed up the Des Plaines — turned its current north- 
 ward, and sent Johnny Beard's dam, city, mill and all, a kiting 
 up to Treat's Island, where it deposited the fragments. This was 
 the last we heard of " Kankakee city," until some of our citizens 
 " struck ile " there a few years since, and sunk a well, — and sunk 
 a little pile of money, too ! 
 
 The additions to our population in 1836, became too many to 
 attempt a full enumeration. Among these were : J. A. Matteson, 
 Orange Clmuncey, A.lbert Shepard, Uri Osgood, James Stout, 
 Thomas, Edward and Bennett Alien, Mr. De Berard, John Our- 
 rey, J. J. Garland, Dr. Comstock, Otis Hardy, Edmund Wilcox, 
 Thomas R. Hunter, W. J. Heath, David Richards, Hugh Hen- 
 derson, J. C. Newkirk, Hervey Lowe, Richard Doolittle, William 
 Blair, Rufus Colton, Elnathan Bassett, William A. Boardman, 
 Stephen Hubbard, Dr. Scholfield, William G. Hubbard, Dr. Lit- 
 tle, Henry Fish, M. Worth ingham, David L. Roberts, Isaac H. 
 Palmer, E. E. Bush, Dr. Simon Z. Havens, Theo. Woodruff. We 
 attempt to give only a few prominent well-known names. 
 
 Building was prosecuted rapidly during this year. Of the 
 names given in the preceding lists, some are still citizens of Joliet. 
 Many have passed away from earth ; some have found homes else- 
 where. Thomas Cox laid out the town of W^inchester, (now Wil- 
 mington,) and built a mill there. McKee initiated the town of 
 Pontiac, by building a mill on the Vermillion. M. Worthingham 
 is the Lieut. Worthingham who fills a soldier's grave in Oak wood, 
 having been killed at the battle of Stone River. Allen Pratt was 
 for many years one of our most active men, built a considerable 
 number of buildings, but has been dead for some years. John M. 
 Wilson is the well-known and honored Judge Wilson of Chicago, 
 and the proprietor of the Joliet Mound Tile Manufactory. Some, 
 such as William Blair and Thomas Allen, were afterwards, when 
 hard times came on, seduced away by Chicago, and — poor fellows, 
 they deserved a better fate — got rich ! 
 
 I see I have omitted one prominent name from the list of 1836, 
 and I will introduce it by a little story. It was sometime in this 
 year that I received from the post office a letter, directed to George 
 Woodruff. The address was wanting one initial letter, and it was 
 
36 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 in a delicate chirography, but I did not for a moment doubt that 
 it had reached its proper destination, and I opened it and began to 
 read. It began, "Dearest George," — this was just what I had 
 long wanted her to say! — and it proceeded in a very tender and 
 affectionate style. I liked it, so I read on until it seemed to imply 
 some things that I had not been guilty of, so I turned to look at 
 the signature. Now, I am not going to tell what this was — as I 
 don't know but it might make trouble even at this late day — but 
 it was not the name of the girl I left behind me, and so, very 
 reluctantly, I returned the letter to the post office, when I learned 
 that there was " another Richmond in the field," to maintain the 
 honor of the name, and to become the banker of the family ! 
 
 To relieve the tedium of the winter of 1834-5, I made my 
 first visit to Chicago. My old friend Risley, of Channahon, was 
 going up, and I took passage. Many here will remember him 
 as the second sheriff of the county. He has now been dead sev- 
 eral years, but when living he used often to tell the story of that 
 ride. It was a cold day in January — cheerless was the way and 
 rough the road. We filled the wagon with straw, and Mrs. Dem- 
 mond, having a tender regard for our "creetur comfort," gave us 
 a little bag of doe-nuts to beguile the way. Risley, when he told 
 the story, used to aver that there was a pillow-case full, but I think 
 this was a slight exaggeration. Well, the wind was cold and I was 
 unused to the exposure, so I soon got down into the straw, along 
 side the bag of doe-nuts. After a while I asked Risley if he did 
 not want a doe-nut, to which he replied in the negative. This 
 question was repeated several times as we rode along, and always 
 received the same reply. Of course, after a while I ceased to press 
 the matter. After riding along in silence some time longer, Risley 
 himself began to feel an aching void under his vest, and he says, 
 "I don't care, George, if I do try some of those doe-nuts." 
 " You spoke too late," was the mildest way in which I could break 
 to him the fact that the bag was empty ! The moral ot this story 
 is : Take your doe-nuts when you can get them, especially if you 
 are in " cahoot " with a hungry boy ! 
 
 In due time we arrived at Chicago. The last nine miles of 
 the road was splendid. In those days, the prairie from the 
 
Joliei and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 37 
 
 Chicago river out to the De&> Plainer was covered in the 
 fall with water, which, freezing up, made a fine road-way 
 in the winter. We stopped at the " 8aug-a-nash," the crack 
 hotel of those days. It was part frame and part logs, and 
 stood at the forks of the river, on the spot where the wig-wam 
 in which Lincoln was nominated lor president, was afterwards 
 built. Upon the west side, close to the river, there were two or 
 three buildings, and from the Saug-a-nash down to the few stores 
 and houses on Lake and Water streets, was a long stretch of prai- 
 rie, — while the old log fort, '^ Dearborn," its offices and palisades, 
 brilliant in whitewash, was the most conspicuous object in all that 
 vast area now covered with marble palaces. I suppose the popu- 
 lation of Chicago was then less than two thousand. 1 called at 
 the office of Collins & Caton, where I found an old college friend, 
 and made the acquaintance of that law firm, so well known subse- 
 quently. I well remember the appearance of Judge Catr n — not 
 then Chief Justice, but at the other end of the judicial ladder, be- 
 ing a justice of the peace. He was a good specimen of the '"style " 
 of that day, — broadcloth pants, tucked into the tops of " stoga " 
 boots, satin vest, plug hat, ruffle shirt, and over all the blanket 
 coat, then so universally worn by all classes. The "stoga" boots 
 were a necessity in those days, as in no other rig could the streets 
 of Chicago be navigated. But 1 have got away from my subject, 
 and yet not altogether, for Chicago was as much a suburb of Joliet 
 then as now. 
 
 During this first winter of 1834-5, we were obliged to go to 
 " Uncle Billy Cougar's," a little way above the red mill, to get our 
 mail, and a letter then cost us twenty-five cents. This was the 
 nearest post office, and was on the route of a weekly horse-back 
 mail from Danville to Chicago. C. C. Vanhorne was the post- 
 master, but the office was kept by one of the Gougar boys. I am 
 not able to state what was the revenue of this office, but I know 
 that the box rent was not much, as the entire office was but one 
 old dry goods' box, divided off into a few pigeon holes. I wish I 
 had the pencil of a Nast, that I could here illustrate this produc- 
 tion with the picture of a young man I remember, astride an Indian 
 pony, with his long legs drawn up behind him to keep them out of 
 
38 Joiiet and Wilt County, Forty ^'^ears Ayo. 
 
 the wet grass or saow, eagerly taking his way every Saturday to 
 '' Unele Billy's " for the anxiously expected letter. I should like 
 to catch the look of eager expectation on his arrival, or the satis- 
 fied expression of his phiz as he reads the letter for the twentieth 
 time, slowly riding home; or the downcast, disconsolate air with 
 which he turned about when the postmaster told him there was 
 nothing. Oh, fathers and mothers ! don't forget to send promptly 
 the desired letter to your absent boy ! Young woman, do not let 
 juiy other engagement interfere with the duty of writing to the 
 absent lover — and don't be backward about calling him "■ Dearest 
 George," or John, as the case may be ! Be as gushing as you feel ! 
 he can stand it ! 
 
 In February, 1835, Dr. X. W. Bo wen obtained an appoint- 
 ment as postmaster for Juliet, and a post office was soon after 
 opened, and we got our mail by a cross route from Plainfield, con- 
 necting with the stage route from Ottawa to Chicago. For a while 
 in 1836, there was some trouble about the mail arrangements, and 
 Dr. Bowen used to commission any reliable person who happened 
 to be going to Plainfield, to bring over the mail. On one occasion 
 Charley Sayer had been over after the mail, and returning just at 
 night found the office closed, the doctor having gone to supper. 
 Charley liad of (sourse been solemnly sworn safely to keep and 
 deliver the mail, and he stood upon the doorsteps of the office in a 
 quandary what to do. Just then a newly arrived lawyer passed 
 by, and Charley told him his trouble, and asked the lawyer what 
 he would advise him to do. The lawyer pondered a moment to 
 give his opinion due weight, and then told him to take the mail 
 bag home with him, get his own supper, and return with it, by 
 which time the doctor would undoubtedly have returned, and he 
 could relieve himself of his responsibility. Charley concluded to 
 do so, and was about starting off, as was the lawyer, when it occur- 
 red to him that he had been taking legal advice, and so, withsorae- 
 thinu' of an air, he put his hand into his {)ocket and asked, ''How 
 much is your charge, Mr. O. ? " Now, Mr. O. was then a young 
 lawyer, and not so celebrated as he afterwards became, but I never 
 heard of any lawyer, old or young, so green as not to be ready 
 with a reply to such a question, and he promptly replied, " Five 
 
JoUet and Wilt Cotintt/, Forty Years Ago. o 9 
 
 dollars." Charley hardly knew whether he was in earnest or not, 
 but he handed over a " V^' to Mr. O., who coolly placed the same 
 in his pocket, and bade him good evening. "AVhat! what!" says 
 Charley, "you don't mean to keep that five dollars, do you ?" 
 "Certainly, certainly," was the reply, "you don't expect legal ad- 
 vice tor nothing, (\o yoii'^" Charley went lionie crest-fallen, mad 
 at Mr. O., mad at the postoffioe department, and above all, mad at 
 himself; and the more he thought about it the madder he got, and 
 the story getting out, and the boys laughing at him, he got so mad 
 that he went off and sued Mr. O. for the recovery of the five dol- 
 lars. Of course he lost his suit, and another five dollars went for 
 costs. 
 
 Now this slory has two great moral lessons; one is, if you put 
 money into a lawyer's hands, c/o n'^ think it a joke! and the other 
 is, never sue a lawyer, for, like throwing fire at the devil, it won't 
 scare muck ! 
 
 During the summer of 1835, Mr. Demmond built the old stone 
 block opposite the National. This was quite an event, and it was 
 duly celebrated by a ball in the upper story. Plainfield, Yankee 
 Settlement, Channahon and Hickory Creek, were canvassed for 
 girls, and though you might not think it, our fellow-citizen, Chas. 
 Clement, was particularly keen and active on the scent ! 
 
 The next stone building was that of the Wilson's, south of the 
 City Hall, which was built in 1836, and the stone block known as 
 " Merchants' Row," was built in 1837. This, and the wooden 
 block opposite, (which was burned in the late fire), was the centre 
 of business on the west side, while the two wooden blocks on upper 
 Chicago street were the centre of business on the ea^^t t^ide, and all 
 were at one time filled with stores of the various kind. 
 
 During this summer of 1835, occurred the first 4th of July 
 celebration in Joliet, which was quite an affair. O. W. Still man 
 and Dick Wilson were prime movers, and they got together quite 
 a crowd from the surrounding country. We had all the usual pro- 
 gn\mme. Noise, music, procession, marshal, chaplain, reader, ora- 
 tion, dinner, toasts and champaigne — no essential was omitted. 
 Rev. J. H. Prentiss was chaplain ; Jonathan Barnett, equipped with 
 Major Cook's sash and sword, and mounted on a gray horse, cav- 
 
40 Joliet and Will County , Forty Years Afjo. 
 
 orted as marshal, to the admiration of the natives. The exercises 
 were held iu a little cluster of scrub oaks, somewhere near the St. 
 Louis Round House. Dr. Bowen read the Declaration, and a 
 young man who had lately rubbed through college, and who was 
 supposed to have the nece.ssaiy spread-eagle eloquence, was selected 
 to deliver the oration. 1 am sorry, on your account, that thei'e is 
 no record of this oration. It ought to have been preserved, and 
 to have gone down to posterity bound up with those of Webster 
 and Adams. But we had no reporter to embalm it. You may 
 believe, however, that it did ample justice to the Pilgrim Fathers, 
 and the heroes of the revolution ; drew lessons of warning and in- 
 struction from ancient Greece and Rome ; deprecated the evil of 
 party spirit; and, while ignoring tlie subject of domestic slavery, 
 commiserated the down-trodden millions of Europe, and closed 
 with visions, almost apocalyptic, of the future glory of this great 
 republic. I remember with what rapt attention my Hoosier friend, 
 Joe Shanks, listened ; and how he inquired afterward if the speaker 
 warn't a preacher ! It detracts somewhat from this estimate of the 
 impression it made, that my friend. Dr. Bowen, did not even re- 
 member who was the orator ! But such is fame ! 
 
 But a still more important event occurred on this same 4th of 
 July, 1835. This was no less than the first wedding in Juliet, 
 which must be recorded. You will remember Henry Bone and 
 wife as among those who passed the winter of 1834-5 in Juliet. - I 
 shall have to disturb those Bones again. This man Bone is enti- 
 tled to the questionable honor of opening the first doggery in town. 
 Mrs. Bone was the daughter of the Mr. Pence I also named as 
 one of the early settlers on Hickory. Mr. Pence, notwithstand- 
 ing his name, was rich in the j)ossession of another daughter — 
 Ann Pence. And now comes the old, old story — ever fresh, and 
 ever new ! and always interesting, especially to the ladies, of the 
 doings of the little god of the bow and arrow! But I am not go- 
 ing into the detail, and only say that one Thomas Ellis saw this 
 sweet Anne Pence, loved, and told his love. And the sweet Anne 
 Pence, she too, owned the soft impeachment, and in due time the 
 all-important day was fixed, and came, as I have said, on this 4th 
 of July, 1834. The event came off at the residence of the said 
 
Joliet and Will Cowity, Forty Years Ago. 41 
 
 Henry Bone, who occupied a building on the northeast corner of 
 Chicago and Heuton streets, having his saloon in fro.it and living 
 in the rear. The officiating justice was B. F. Barker, Esq. The 
 guests were A. W. Bowen and wife, Charles Sayer, James Draper 
 and James Smith, (was there ever an occasion when some mem- 
 ber of this family was not present ! ) and the wife and daughter of 
 the officiating justice. And it is from this daughter that I have 
 the details of this event. Of course, ladies will want to know how 
 the bride was dressed. Thanks to the good memory of the lady 
 I have mentioned, I am able to tell you. The bride was dressed 
 in pink De Laine and white apron, calf-skin shoes and hose of her 
 own manufacture ; and for head dress, she wore a cap with a double 
 ruffle all round, and I presume her own hair. The groom wore a 
 full suit of Kentucky jeans. The wedding "de'jeuner" consisted 
 of gingerbread, imported for the occasion, by ox-team express, 
 from Chicago, and whisky sling, compounded by the skillful hands 
 of the iiost. The hostess passed around the circle of guests with 
 a card of gingerbread in each hand, and each one broke off as much 
 as they pleased, and the host followed with two tin cups of sling, 
 of which each one sipped as much as they pleased. The wedding 
 tour consisted of a ride in a one-horse wagon to the plantation of 
 Reason Zarley, Esq. 
 
 I presume the honey-moon was, in all essential particulars, 
 much like other honey-moons, and passed as happily as if they had 
 made the tour of Europe, or as if the wedding had been as magni- 
 ficent as that of Boss Tweed's daughter, a few years ago. Indeed, 
 at such times the parties, whether dressed in silks and broadcloth, or 
 calico and homespun, are supposed to be equally indifferent to time 
 and place and circumstance. 
 
 As somewhat germane to this matter, I would say, that I have 
 made considerable enquiry in order to ascertain who was the first 
 person born in Juliet. But I have found so many first ones, that 
 I do not undertake to settle the question. My own impressions 
 would be in favor of a McKee, as, according to my recollection, 
 such an event was a yearly one at the McKee mansion. And it 
 thus happened that the original mansion received numerous addi- 
 tions in the shape of lean-to's, made necessary by the fast growing 
 
42 Joliet and Will Countyy Forty Years Ago. 
 
 family, until it looked like a summer squash covered with warts. 
 The boys used to say that they could tell when "coming events 
 cast their shadows before," by seeing "Jimmy" at work on an- 
 other "lean-to " > But although wo are not able to settle absolutely 
 the question as to the priority of birth, this much has been shown 
 by the inquiry : that such events did occur, even in those early 
 days, and are no modern invention ! And I would say, in passing, 
 that the Hon. George C. McKee, representative in congress from 
 Mississippi, is one of those McKee children, though I think born 
 a little too late to be the "first-born" of Joliet. But we don't 
 disown him because he is a congressman ! 
 
 Perhaps I ought to notice here the first divorce which occurred 
 in Will county. This occurred in 1837. Levi Button obtains a 
 divorce from " Matilda Button," on the ground of dceertion. 
 This is all I know about the matter ! Why Matilda deserted Levi 
 I have not the slightest idea. Perhaps he had cold feet ! — perhaps 
 she had found an "affinity." Evidently these "Buttons" were 
 not matched ! And whether Levi ever got any one else to look 
 after his buttons, I don't know. The only thing I do know iurther 
 about the matter is, that it cost him only ten dollars to get the 
 decree. Now, my good " Benedicts," don't make a rush for court; 
 the price of this, as of all other luxuries, has greatly advanced ! 
 
 During the winter of 1835-6, through the active efforts of Dr. 
 Bowen and James Walker as lobbyists, the legislature passed an act 
 organizing Will county, and locating the county seat at Juliet. An 
 election was ordered for three county commissioners, a sheriff, cor- 
 oner, and recorder. At a convention held in Demmond's stone 
 block, without regard to party, Holden Sisson, Thomas Durham 
 and James Walker, were nominated as commissioners ; Robert 
 Stevens for sheriff'; E. M. Daggett, coroner; and Geo. H. Wood- 
 ruffj recorder ; and, although the ticket met with some opposition, 
 it was handsomely elected. For these were the early — the better 
 days — the golden age of Will county, when the best men w-ere 
 selected for office ! Robert Stevens, however, decliued to accept 
 the office of sheriff, and Fenner Aldrich was chosen at the fall 
 election. 
 
 I need hardly say, that the county commissioners' court an- 
 
Joliet and. Will County, Forty Years Ago. 43 
 
 swered to our board of supervisors, doing the business of the 
 county. They held their first meeting at the Juliet Hotel, then 
 kept by William H. Blackburn, March 14th, 1836. They ap- 
 pointed Levi Jenks clerk and school commissioner, and Charles 
 Clement treasurer of the county. They divided the county into 
 twelve election precincts. They also fixed the price of tavern 
 charges at six and a quarter cents for all liquid refreshments, and 
 twenty-five cents for meals, and twelve and a half cents for lodg- 
 ings. After finishing the county business, they voted themselves 
 six dollars each for their four days of service. Certainly not a 
 very big salary steal ! 
 
 The county commissioners rented the second story of the Wil- 
 son's store for a court room, and here the county and circuit courts 
 were held until the building of the first jail and court house. 
 
 I rode an Indian pony to Plainfield, and took the stage for Chi- 
 cago, purchased a large sized ledger for a record book, and opened 
 the recorder's office in the back end of Demmond's store, in the 
 stone block which he had built, and which still remains, having 
 somewhat of an ancient look. 
 
 It is probably well understood that a pretty sharp rivalry had, 
 from the first, been kept up between the two sides of the river, and 
 soon complaints were made that I was not keeping the office at the 
 county seat. Such was indeed the fact. Demmond had recorded 
 liis plat as " West Juliet," and not as an addition, as he claimed 
 that his town was the "true, original Jacobs," and he scorned the 
 idea of being an " addition." So they had me, no mistake. But 
 1 was equal to the occasion. Anticipating Grant and Sherman, I 
 made a "flank" movement, and moved down a few rods into a 
 small frame building on the school section, which was surveyed 
 and recorded in 1835 as an addition to Juliet, where I was joined 
 by Levi Jenks, clerk, etc., and for a time at least, we were head- 
 quarters for Will county. 
 
 I have a few words more to say about this old Recorder's 
 office. It was about sixteen feet square, and stood on the south 
 side of Lafayette street, on the edge of what was then a rocky ra- 
 vine, full of red cedars and other shrubs, vines and wild planta. 
 It was the outlet for the water which accumulated on the low 
 
44 Joliet and Will County^ Forty Years Ago. 
 
 ground on Centre street, known as "Comstock's Pond," and after 
 heavy rains, had a very pretty cascade. All this has been obliter- 
 ated by the march of improvement. We held the office there but 
 a short time, while a better building was being put up a little north, 
 on Bluff street, by J. J. Garland. While we were there an amus- 
 ing incident occurred. The office had one door in front, and two 
 small windows, and one large window in the rear. Jenks had his 
 desk by one of the front windows, and a lawyer, J. C. Newkirk, 
 had a desk by the other. The recorder's desk stood in front of the 
 back window. 
 
 I have mentioned Rev. J. H. Prentiss as the first minister who 
 located in Joliet. He came here from Onondaga county. Is. Y. 
 He was an excellent man — a fair preacher, extremely diffident and 
 modest, and easily embarrassed. He knew no more what to do 
 with a joke, than a hen does with a hot potato. One Sunday he 
 preached a sermon in the old school house on Hickory street, from 
 the text, "Curse ye, curse ye Meroz," etc. The Dominie had been 
 unusually eloquent and earnest, and closed up with an application 
 of the passage to his audience, " Curse ye, curse ye Juliet^'' etc., etc. 
 It so happened that the recorder had been to church on that day, 
 and the next Monday, having got tired with writing, he took his 
 favorite position, %. e., turned his back to the door, lit his pipe, and 
 put his feet out of the window. Suddenly the sermon he had 
 heard came to mind, and he repeated the closing sentences, with 
 the text as applied to "Juliet," in a loud voice, and imitating the 
 style [of the preacher. He did this for the edification of Jenks 
 and Newkirk, who had not heard the sermon. He expected that 
 his effi^rt would meet with applause and a hearty " encore." But 
 instead of that, there was a profound silence that seemed ominous 
 of something. Surprised at this, he turned round to see what 
 could be the matter, and there, in the door, stoiKl Dominie Pren- 
 tiss — the reddest faced, mo?t embarrassed man you ever saw, un- 
 less we except Jenks, who had risen up and stood looking as 
 though he wished the floor would open and let him out of sight, 
 his big eyes looking like peeled onions, — while Newkirk, partly 
 behind the door, was cramming his handkerchief into his mouth 
 to prevent an explosion. Now, according to all rules of propriety, 
 
Joliet and Will County, Forty Yeais Ago. 45 
 
 the recorder should have been most embarrassed by the situation, 
 but I think he was the least so, and relieved himself by saying: 
 "Good morning, Mr. Prentiss, arn'tyou glad to find that one man 
 at least, was impressed by your sermon?" 
 
 One great reason for this rivalry, aside from the diverse inter- 
 ests of the proprietors and speculators on either side, was the ab- 
 sence of bridges. Our modes of communication were verv incon- 
 venient, sometimes dangerous, and sometimes we had none at all. 
 Sometimes we crossed in a "dug-out," or a "skiif," and sometimes 
 we had a "ferry," sometimes a "ford," and sometimes a precari- 
 ous " foot bridge." During this bridgeless era, which lasted until 
 the incorporation of the town in 1837, many incidents occurred — 
 some comic and some tragic. Some lost their property, some lost 
 their lives, and many more lost their temper. Of the latter num- 
 ber was Thomas Allen, who was crossing on the mill pond in the 
 ferry boat, which was pulled over by a rope strung from trees on 
 either bank. The boat had already got loaded to its full capacity, 
 and was about shoving off when two more jumped aboard, against 
 the protestations of Allen and others, consequently they had gone 
 but a little way when she dipped, and went down with all on board, 
 who got a thorough wetting. Tom came out puffing and blowing, 
 mad as a hornet, for he had on his "store" clothes, and turning 
 to the party who was the cause of the catastrophe, and shaking 
 his list in his face, says, " I owe my death to you, sir ! " 
 
 On another occasion John Ward, who will be remembered by 
 some, for he has but lately passed away, undertook during a season 
 ot liigh water to make the passage of the ford. He had gone over 
 on the west side in the morning without much difficulty. But 
 Jt)!m loved a drop in those days, and he had been laying in a 
 iiv h supply, some of which he carried under his jacket, and some 
 ir. :i jug, which he had placed in a bag and slung over the saddle. 
 'i'->'i river had risen some in the meantime, and his judgment Avas 
 I'i' >i)ably not as clear as when he came over. At any rate, the horse 
 soon lost his footing, and began to go down stream in the strong 
 current. The horse was a light one, and not a strong swimmer, 
 i\r\(\ the matter began to look pretty serious, and John concluded 
 had better "desert the ship." But he had no thought of de- 
 
46 Joliet and WUi County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 serting the cargo ! So he slung the bag over his shoulder, and 
 struck out for an island near which the current had taken him, 
 which, with great elibrt, he succeeded in reaching, — wet, cold and 
 shivering; his hat gone ; his horse and saddle gone; but satisfied, 
 for the whisky was safe ! and with the air of a conqueror, he swung 
 the jug before the spectators on either bank. I am glad to be able 
 to add that soon after, under the combined influence of Methodism 
 and Washingtonianism, John was saved from a worse flood — from 
 a current swifter and more perilous, and for many years led a sober, 
 christian lite ; showing that a strong will, supplemented by the 
 grace of God, can conquer even the demon appetite for strong 
 drink. 
 
 Another little incident occurred during this bridgeless era, 
 which I am at a loss how to classify. O. F. Rogers had been over 
 the river to attend a Methodist meeting, and was accompanying a 
 Miss Allen home, to whom he was paying serious attention. They 
 had to cross on a narrow foot bridge, only one plank wide. Miss 
 Allen was i)robably deeply affected by the sermon she had heard, or 
 by Rogers' comments, and was a little careless, or perhaps she 
 wanted to put Rogers' professions to some test ; at any rate, she 
 made a mis-step, and plump she went into the water. Rogers saw 
 his opportunity — plunged in, and most gallantly rescued the fright- 
 ened girl from a watery grave! Rogers had been up to this time 
 unsuccessful in his suit ; but now, having the law of salvage and 
 the rights of "flotsam and jetsam" on his side. Miss Allen grace- 
 fully surrendered, and in due time became Mrs. Rogers. • Whether 
 this "finale" should bring the incident in the category of the 
 * comic' or the 'tragic,' I am at a loss to say — ask Rogers ! 
 
 There was one more incident of this era which I will relate, 
 and which was almost a tragical one. A man of the name of 
 Gould — a first rate mechanic, who built the " Higley House," a 
 building still extant, (though moved from its original position) was 
 sadly addicted to whisky. During one of the times of high water 
 in spring, Gould crossed in a boat over to the other side to get a 
 supply of his favorite fluid. He first got filled himself and the 
 surplus he had put in a jug, and started out just at night to return. 
 He was in that condition when it was not easy to navigate on dry 
 
Jollet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 47 
 
 laml, and when to attempt to manage a boat in a swollen stream is 
 madness. But in that state men are usually ready to commit any 
 folly, and Gould placed his jug in the boat and pushed it off into 
 the current. The result will be readily anticipated. All his efforts 
 at paddling were of no avail. The strong current soon took boat, 
 man and jug, over McKee's old dam together. But they parted 
 company in the plunge. The Jug went to the bottom of the river, 
 the boat on its way to New Orleans, and poor Gould was fortunately 
 carried by tlie current against the roots of a tree which had been 
 carried over the dam before him, and he instinctively grasped hold 
 of them, and drew himself up out of the water, and employed what 
 strength he had left in calling lustily for help. He was heard — 
 and very soon a crowd was gathered upon either bank. But how 
 to rescue him was a problem. Ropes were thrown out to him, 
 but he was too weak and chilled, and perhaps too drunk, to catch 
 hold and fasten them to his body; and if he could have done so, 
 he would have been drowned in the act of being pulled through 
 on either side. No one dare venture in a "dug-out," the only 
 remaining boat, and it really seemed as though the poor fellow 
 must perish there in the middle of the stream, for his voice was get- 
 ting weaker, and he could evidently hold out but a little longer. 
 At this critical juncture, a stranger, mounted on a good horse, who 
 had just come into town for the night, seeing the crowd, rode up 
 to see what was the occasion of it. He took in the situation at a 
 glance, and without a moment's hesitation rode down the bank, 
 and up the edge of the river until he had got to the spot above 
 Gould, which he judged was right for the force of the current, he 
 boldly struck out and swam his horse to the tree, snatched off the 
 half dead Gould, swung him on to the horse in front of him, and 
 swam out to the other side, and handed the half-drowned man over 
 to his friends, who took him into the nearest house and restored 
 him to consciousness. His rescuer swam his horse back to the east 
 side, and quietly made his way to the hotel, seemingly unconscious 
 that he was the hero of the day. Gould's first inquiry, on coming 
 to a state of consciousness, was — for the friend who had so nobly 
 rescued him from a watery grave? — Alas! no — 'twas for the jug 
 which held the enemy that had put him in such fearful peril. 
 
48 Joliet and Will Count)/, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 Gould had auother water experience somewhat disagreeable, 
 though not quite so perilous. It seemed as if the genii of cold 
 water were bent on revenging the slight which Gould had so long 
 pat upon that element. 
 
 Tliere used to be in those days a large pond, over in what is 
 now Centre street, just back of Dr. Comstock's, and which was 
 known as Comstock's Pond. There was then no outlet to the water 
 except when it got very high, and the waters that used to accumulate 
 there, would remain for a long time. On the edge of this pond, 
 at wJiat might be called low water, Gould had built his house. 
 The ground was sloping and the rear end was well set up on a very 
 loosely constructed foundation of stones. Une night during a 
 poweiful rain the water rose very fast, and flooded all around 
 Gould's house, and while Gould and his family were asleep, the 
 current took out the rear wall, and the house took a sudd< n lurch 
 into the pond. The family were obliged to roost on the chairs and 
 tables until day came, and the neighbors rescued them from their 
 uncomfortable, though not perilous, position. 
 
 I wish now, that in Gould's case, I could add that he reformed. 
 But, alas! I have no such record to make in this instance. These 
 experiences seemed only to deepen his hatred of the element, and 
 despite all — despite the perils he had encountered — despite the 
 poverty and wretchedness he brought upon his family — despite the 
 solemn warning of God's word: no drunkard shall inherit the 
 kingdom of heaven! Gou4d died as the fool dieth. His fate was 
 the fate of all, whether they be humble mechanics or gifted states- 
 men, senators or governors, who will cling to the damning cup ! 
 
 But this state of things could not be tolerated forever. The 
 public voice and the- public necessities called for bridges. So a 
 special act of incorporation was obtained in 1837, and soon after — 
 having no money — that ingenious substitute, " scrip," was devised, 
 and two bridges were built where the lower and middle ones no'.v 
 stand. They were, to all appearance, substantial wooden struc- 
 tures, and so tlie two sides were married and became one town, 
 and for a time everything was lovely, and the union was duly "cel- 
 ebrated." But this union was not for life. A divorce was coming 
 without the aid of a Chicago lawyer. The spring of 1838 was 
 
Joliet and Will Comity, Forty Years A<jo. 49 
 
 one of unprecedented high water. The river broke up while the 
 ice was still strong, and as the ice went out of the basin it took the 
 upper bridge along with it ; and ice, bridge and all, going over the 
 dam, piled up against the lower bridge with a force that nothing 
 made of wood could resist, and so they both went, and we were a 
 divorced couple. It was a grand and sublime spectacle ! The en- 
 tire town, and many from the country, were 'gathered upon either 
 bank to witness it. A sad, sad sight it was, to tax-payers and 
 scrip-holders! It had its comical aspect, too. When it became 
 apparent that the bridges must go, each one took care that the 
 oatastrophe should find him on the side where he took his hash 
 and lodgings — all except two. Westly Jenkins, a great six-footer 
 from Reed's Grove, and Thomas Underwood, a boon companion, 
 were over on the west side, and so absorbed were they by the sight, 
 being a little muddled withal by ''corn juice," that they forgot 
 where they were, until just before the lower bridge began to start, 
 when Jenkins woke up, and shouting to Tom to "come on," and 
 without the slightest reii^ard to the siofu forbidding the crossiuii; of 
 the bridge faster than a walk, witii ihe stride of a Titan he tore 
 over the creaking bridge, and Tom followed, while the spectators 
 shouted after them, "Five dollars tine! Five dollars fine!" Jen- 
 kins had the start and led the race, and got over all right, but be- 
 fore Tom reached the other end it parted from the shore, and he 
 had to make a tremendous leap for the land, and barely reached 
 it, while a shout of congratulation went up from the crowd at his 
 success. This same Jenkins was noted for his voice. The boys 
 used to say that they could hear him here in town when he called 
 his cows. I don't know how this may have been, but when a cer- 
 tain chaj) in that neighborhood took it into I lis head that he ought 
 to be a preacher, and insisted that he heard '' a call from the Lord," 
 the boys said to him, " Fhsaw ! plisaw! John, it was nothing but 
 old Jenkins calling his hogsT^ 
 
 Thomas Underwood became a good Methodist soon after the 
 aifair of the bridge, and when he told his experience, he attributed 
 his conversion to this incident, and averred that when he took that 
 last leap for the shore, he " saw all hell staring at him, and fore- 
 swore sin and whisky from that good hour." So what was our 
 loss, was Tom's great gain ! 
 
50 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 I am not able to state what was our population in the winter 
 of 1836-7, but that it was not very large will appear from the fact 
 that J. C. Newkirk, (who, by the way, was oue of the best law- 
 yers, and one of the best fellows Joliet ever had,) wishing to intro- 
 duce the Xew York custom of making New Year's caiLs, proposed 
 to a friend to call on every family in town. Accordingly they sallied 
 forth to make the attempt. I think they woukl have accomplished 
 it but for one circumstance. Late in the afternoon they called on 
 Dr. Bowen, who was then living in upper Chicago street, and had 
 his office adjoining his residence. The Doctor, in the exuberance 
 of his hospitality, brought from his office a bottle of wine. Now 
 the Doctor did not pretend to give the date of the vintage, or even 
 the name of the wine, so I cannot tell whether it was "Tokay," 
 or " Heidsiek," or " Johanesberger," or what not, but 1 have 
 never doubted that he kept it strictly for '* medicinal purposes," 
 and his bringing it forth on this occasion was no violation of the 
 rule. From its effects I have always suspected that the bottle from 
 whicli he took it was labeled, " Vinum Ipecacuanha," or "Vinum 
 Antimonalis." At any rate, it did not seem to agree with what 
 had gone before, and — the callers soon left — and they did not make 
 any more calls that day ! The Doctor might perhaps urge that it 
 is not fair to lay the breaking of the camel's back to the last straw ! 
 The moral of this story is not far to seek. If you make New 
 Year's calls, don't drink any wine — at a doctor's — ^unless you see 
 the original package ! 
 
 Probably nothing will show the contrast between 1836 and 
 1873 so well, and I may say so impressively, as the matter of taxes. 
 Here is my first tax receipt : 
 
 " Received of (xeorge H. Woodruff, for his taxes for the year 18.'W, f 1,81 
 Fenner Aldrich, (S'/«e/v;/^' o/ Will county. 
 
 How brief, vague, and unsatisfactory ! Evidently the science of 
 taxation had not then become a high art ! Contrast with this the 
 last receipts for 1873. Here they are, most elaborately and artis- 
 tically divided and subdivided into town, county, state and city — 
 into real and personal — (for my part, I find them all intensely real, 
 and intensely pei^sonal, too) — into district school, district road, and 
 
Joliet awl Will County, Forbj Years Ago. 51 
 
 district bridge; into bridge tax, school tax, school house tax, gas 
 tax, well tax, interest on funded debt tax, rolling mill tax, and dog 
 tax — amounting in the case of this poor crlttur, to the comforting 
 sum of nearly two hundred dollars, — he don^t keep any dog either ! 
 Ain't that richness ? I suppose two more — a water tax and a sewer 
 tax will be added to the bill of fare! And if this be not enough, 
 we can have any amount of " special tax," and a tobacco tax, and 
 a whisky tax, as often as we please ! And yet we are not happy, 
 not even Jefferson street is happy ! 
 
 I have found in the public mind sometimes, an impression that 
 the boys were a little fast in those early days. Nothing could be 
 farther from the truth. We were slow then. Boys were not ini- 
 tiated into the mysteries of tobacco until they had graduated from 
 the trundle-bed, and young men were expected to forego cigars 
 when in the presence of the girls. To be sure, each important 
 event, such as getting the sto,ge route, the passage of the county 
 bill, and of the canal bill, etc., etc., had to be celebrated ! But it 
 had not then become fashionable for the " upper ten," to which 
 we all belonged, to drink that vilest of human inventions, called 
 " whisky." No, no — we drank " champaigne," — that [)ure, spark- 
 ling beverage, produced in the sunny orchards of New Jersey, and 
 who-eonly sophistication Was the addition of carbonic acid gas, an 
 innocent, harmless drink, comparatively, at least; expensive, to be 
 sure, for when charged with gas, sealed with a green seal, and orna- 
 mented with a French label, it was worth two or three dollars per 
 bottle, owing in part, no doubt, to the high tarilf between New 
 Jersey and Yew York. I say a harmless beverage, of which a 
 man might drink enough to get sick, but not vulgarly drunk — 
 slightly exhilarating it may have been, owing to the gas ; there are 
 some traditions of such effects; but surely it was better that a man 
 should be exhilarated — elevated even to the top of the table, than 
 to be thrown under it, or into the gutter ! This was before the 
 advent of our Teutonic friend, with his ''fust rate lager," and 
 theretore the experience of those days throws no light upon the 
 question whether lager will intoxicate. From observation, how- 
 ever, I judge it will, if properly reduced with "corn juice." 
 
 It wa.s at one of these celebrations, at the "Old American/* 
 
52 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 that one of the boarders, whose name I am not going to give^-but 
 it was not " High^^ (perhaps it ought to have been), made so much 
 sport for the boys peeking in at the door, as they watched his des- 
 perate efforts to light a candle made out of a turnip, which one of 
 them had substituted for the "regulation tallow dip." I don't 
 know whether he ever found out what was the matter, but he 
 thought at the time it was because the lani]) on the mantle he^it 
 dodging about so f 
 
 Joliet has had some notable justices of the peace ; but I think 
 that in this matter our neighboring town of Lockport has beat us. 
 She once had a justice of the peace, whose name we will call C. J.. 
 Justices of the Peace were authorized to take the acknowledgment 
 of deeds, and the law required that the wife of the grantor shoiild 
 be examined by the justice separate and apart, and out of the hear- 
 ing of her husband, to relinquish her dower. Now it happened 
 that this C. J. was himself an operator in lots, and on one occa- 
 sion having made a sale, he executed the deed with his wife, and 
 then, as justice of the peace, took his own acknowledgment, and 
 also that of his wife, "separate and apart and out of the hearing 
 of her said husband." Uoio this feat was accomplished, I am un- 
 able to inform you, but that he did it there can be no doubt, for 
 there it stands under his hand and seal, on the county records ! I 
 am free to tell this now, as the man has been dead over seven 
 years, and It is too late for our lawyers to bring an ejectment on 
 the score of defective acknowledgment. 
 
 It was one of the curious provisions of the law in the times of 
 which I am speaking, that each person could let his cattle and 
 hogs run at large, and that he could identify them by certain ear 
 marks, which were to be recorded iu a book kept by the county 
 clerk. Hence it happened that, even in those days, when we had 
 no mayor and common council, no marshal and ])oIice, and not 
 even a city ordinance forbidding it — I say without any of these 
 modern eneourajjements, hoo;s and cattle ran at large in our streets. 
 Hence the following incident: Demmond & Curry were trading 
 in the old stone block, and doing a bartei" business, and took in 
 considerable butter, which they kept in the cellar. Now it hap- 
 pened also, that Dr. Adams owned a fancy hog, of the " school 
 
JoHet and Will County^ Forty Years Ago. 53 
 
 aection breed," one of the loDg-uosed kind that are said to 
 stick the snout through a fence and pick off the third row of corn. 
 This hog, by a kind of prescience which only a hog has, seemed to 
 know in a moment when the cellar door was left open, and no 
 matter in what part of the township he might be wandering, or 
 what might be his previous engagements, he instantly appeared 
 upon the scene, and slipped in ; and thus it happened that many a 
 jar of butter was rendered unfit for anything except a Chicago 
 restaurant. The boys had stood this until forbearance had ceased 
 to be a virtue, and they swore vengeance. One rainy night as they 
 were about to close up, they heard his hogship enter the cellar ; so, 
 instead of driving him out, they shut the outside door and held 
 iiim prisoner. They caught him, and saturated him thoroughly 
 "with spirits of turpentine, and taking him to the door, touched the 
 <5andle to him and bid him go! And he went! He stood not 
 upon the order of his going — but with an unearthly yell he tore 
 through the street, lighting up the darkness with the lurid blaze, 
 -and terribly frightening the canal -ers, men and women, who verily 
 believed it was the ^'divil himself" fresh from hell; and they 
 'Called uj)on all the saints in the calendar for protection. On, on 
 went Mr. Hog! — straight for Higley's barn, one of his lodging 
 places; and the boys began to think that they had got into a worse 
 scrape than (he hog. Bat, fortunately, the hog concluded not to 
 stop, but went through so quick that the fire did not catch; and 
 ■putting straight for the river, like the swine of old, plunged in the 
 water, and "silence and darkness, solemn sisters," reigned again. 
 I am sorry for it, but I don't think this story has any moral, 
 fortunately for the boys, this was before the advent of Bergh ! 
 
 I had intended to give several personal sketches of some of our 
 >early settlers who have passed away, but I have already, I fear, 
 wearied your patience, and will postpone all but one to chapter 2d 
 •of this history. 
 
 Dr. Comstock will be well remembered as (for a long time) one 
 ^of our most respected citizens and physicians. He was somewhat 
 eccentric, and many anecdotes could be told of him. He was a 
 aaan of strong mind, and of considerable culture, both literary and 
 .professional. He could repeat the standard poeta by the yard, and 
 
64 Joliei and Will County, Forty Yeam Af/o. 
 
 was at home in Virgil, in the original. He was not remarkable for 
 his "style," either in dress or equipage. He was also a local 
 preacher of the Methodist church, and often supplied acceptably 
 the pulpit of his own and other churches in the absence of the reg- 
 ular preacher. He had a brother living in Michigan, who often 
 came to visit him, and who was in some respects very much like 
 him, while in others he was very wnlike. He had held the posi- 
 tion of chaplain to Congress at one time, and was always very sleek 
 and well dressed, and carried a gold-headed cane. He was also a 
 physician, and also a preacher, but of the Baptist faitli, although 
 not of the "hard shell" variety. I used to think of Dickens' 
 "Cheeryble brothers" whenever I saw them together. They were 
 very much attjiched to each other, and (»ur Methodist doctor always 
 marked with a white stone the day when his brotlier came to visit 
 him. On one occasion as our Methodist doctor was in front of his 
 house, about getting into his old wagon for a professional tour, — 
 house, horse, wagon and himself, very much alike in their general 
 makeup — the Baptist doctor drove up in a splendid new "sulky," 
 one of those unsocial vehicles which will hold but one. The Meth- 
 odist <loctor saw him comins, took in at a y:;lauce the whole ria^ — 
 in such marked contrast to his own — and although longing to rush 
 up and take his brother by the hand, he coolly folded his arms, sur- 
 veys for an instant the Baptist and his "turn-out," and with a 
 merry twinkle of the eye, exclaims: "Close communion — carriage 
 and all." 
 
 The brothers have long since [)assed away from earth, and have 
 no doubt met and embraced each other where the things in which 
 they were ?/;wlike are as nothing, and the things in which they were 
 alike, have become all in all! 
 
 ?»'Iany, many are the memories that rush upon me — but I must 
 close. Our subject is only another illustration of the oft told tale. 
 Change, change is written upon all human things! Plow much of 
 what was so real forty years ago has passed away ! The present 
 seems almost another civilization. We hear no more of "claims," 
 and "floats," and "pre-emptions;" of "squatters" and "squat- 
 ters' rights," and " Indian payments," and "land sales." "Wolf 
 hunts" delight us no longer. The " Hoosier," with his peculiar 
 
Joiiet and Will Cou7ity, Forty Years Ago. 55 
 
 dress aud dialect, cracking his Ibrniidabie ox-gad as he drives his 
 long breaking team, aud with his huge plow turning over the vir- 
 gin sward, and ruthlessly burying whole hecatombs of flowers, and 
 leaving behind him those long ribbons of black, rich earth, inviting 
 the foot of the planter — he, and his plow, are things of the past. 
 The long trains of "prairie schooners," laden with flour and bacon 
 for Chicago and intermediate ports, which used to form such a 
 picturesqe sight, slowly wending their way over the prairie swells, 
 have given place to the longer and swifter railway train. The 
 "Indian trail," once so well defined, has been obliterated by the 
 track of the locomotive. The prairies themselves have disap- 
 peared. True, there is the same soil — the same townships and 
 sections, but they are the 
 
 " ■■ '*■ * gardens of the deaert ; 
 The unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful " 
 
 no longer. The great magician, "labor," the sound of whose 
 coming footsteps was just beginning to be heard forty years ago, has 
 waved his wand, and lo ! all those fair wastes have been changed to 
 cultivated farms — the landscape is checkered with fences, hedges 
 and roads — dotted with orchards and dwellings, with churches and 
 school houses, and all the evidences of an advanced civilization. 
 
 And while the same wooded blufls still shut in this valley, and 
 form so beautiful a frame work, — hei'e upon this rocky bottom, forty 
 years ago so barren and uninteresting, lo! a city is here ! Here 
 are streets lined on either side with the palaces of trade, — the 
 smoke of manufactories ascends where was then seen only that of 
 the wigwam or the prairie tire, — and homes of wealth, comfort and 
 refinement, churches and school houses, hotels, warehouses and 
 opera houses, fill in and complete the picture. 
 
 I have but one tear of regret to shed over all this change. It 
 is for the flowers — the native flowers, once so abundant and so 
 beautiful. For, with the prairies, these too have passed away. I 
 search long, now, to find the Hepatica of spring. The " Lobe- 
 lia Cardinalis" no longer flaunts its scarlet banner; the fragrant 
 "Spiranthes" has ceased to breathe its perfume; and it is onlj 
 in hidden nooks that the " Dodecatheon " still lifts its graceful 
 
66 Joliei and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 stem, crowned with its nodding, starry umbel; — while in all mj 
 walks I meet no more the "Fringed Gentian/' that beautiful; 
 flower, dyed in heaven's own blue -^ 
 
 " That waitest late, and com'st alone, 
 When woods are bare, and birds have flown. 
 And frosts, and short'ning days portend 
 The aged year is near its end." 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
CONTENTS OF LECTURE 11. 
 
 Inlroduction — History of Canal — Its conimencerrjent^ — Its suspension — 
 Reasons — Internal Inrvprovement Act — Work res\imed — Change of base — 
 Completion — Celebration — Sad Accident — Tribute to Engineer-in-Cliief^ 
 Old Stage Times — Haven "boys and their mill— The great Celtic Invasion — 
 The Irishman, philosophically viewed — First Irish War — The first Posse 
 Comitatus of Will County— Trial of Rioters^An Irish Repartee— Joliet 
 Mound — A case of Vandalism— Interesting tradition — Effects of the Canal 
 Suspension — Era of hard times — Compensations — Washingtonian Move- 
 ment—Happy case of reformation— The old Stone Block— First Printing 
 Press and Newspaper — First Theatre — Churches — Lodges — Protracted Meet- 
 ing — Revival — Village Incorporation — Election — First Board of Trustees — 
 Second Board — County Judges — Second Election of Recorder— The Old 
 Foundry — Discovery of Coal — Steam Plow — Steam Mill — How Charley 
 Smith began his Fortune— The old Jail— Baptist Church — Revival— A 
 Murder Story— A Wolf Huntr-Peter Stewart— Underground Rail Road— 
 A Sleigh Ride— A Case of Kidnapping — A Houev Feast — Jiidge Nortou— 
 Cionclusion, 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 DELTVERKD AT TIIK (>PERA HOUSE, .lOLIET, MARCH JAth. 1874. 
 
 Some one has defined History to be "Philosophy, teaching by 
 example." I suj)pose this is a very good definition. I think it 
 exactly describes the kind of history I am trying to give the pub- 
 lic, of early days in Joliet and Will county. Of course, iu one 
 lecture only a beginning could be made. This was all I expected 
 to do Avhen I gave my first lecture, juntas 1 had several "exam- 
 ples" left over, and as I have gathered new matter since, I have 
 tlionght that another chapter of our early history might prove 
 equally interesting. I think it will be found (pilte as historical, 
 and quite as philosophical as the first. Of one thing you may 
 rest assured, that everything is founded upon fact ! 
 
 It has often occurred to me while collecting memoranda, and 
 trying to recall events, that it would have been a happy thing if 
 Mr. Clement, or myself, had kept a diary from our first arrival in 
 this county. If I had access to such a record, I could have made 
 these lectures much more interesting, with much less labor. I 
 urge, therefore, upon my young friends here, as one of the lessons 
 to be got from this effort, the duty of keeping a diary. I mean a 
 record of facts, occurrences, dates, characters, etc. A note or two 
 each day, of whatever happens, (and you will find that something 
 happens every day) is easily made, and might ])rove very valuable 
 liereafter. You may wish to give a historical lecture; yourself some 
 day. So, young man, young woman, begin such a diary at once 
 
62 Joliet and Will County, F&rtij Years A(/o. 
 
 and please set down for the first entry, that on the 24th day of 
 March, 1874, Mr. George H. Woo Iriifi-', one of the longest resi- 
 dents of Joliet, delivered a highly interesting lecture, etc., etc. 
 Perhaps some one digging in the ruins of Joliet some centuries 
 hence may stumble ujxmi the record, and your name and mine, 
 together, go down the ages! Please be careful that you do not 
 omit the " H," for my good friend "the banker" has already had 
 the credii ol' too many of my good things, while I have had to 
 hear the blame — well, well — he belongs to the family, and I won't 
 be hard on him. 
 
 From the year 183C, the history of Joliet and Will county has 
 been iutimaiely associated with the canal. 1 gave in my former 
 lecture the })oints in its history, from its conception to commence- 
 ment. The first ground was broken at Bridgeport, July 4th, 
 1836. Chicago celebrated the event in the style of that day. ^Dr. 
 William B. Egan delivered an able address on the occasion. The 
 work was commenced on the plan of the "deep cut," that is, feed- 
 ing it directly from Lake Michigan, through the south branch of 
 the Chicago river, as is now done. At the time of letting the first 
 contracts the mania for speculation was at its height, and labor and 
 provisions were extremely high for those times. Labor was twenty 
 to thirty dollars per month, with board. Pork twenty to thirty 
 dollars per barrel; flour nine to twelv^e dollars, and other things 
 m proportion. The first contracts were predicated upon these high 
 prices. To facilitate the construction of the canal, a road was 
 opened from Chicago to Lockport, known as " Archer's Road," 
 from the acting commissioner, on which ^40,000 dollars were ex- 
 pended. The propriety of this expenditure was much questioned 
 at the time, and unfortunately for the reputation of Archer for 
 disinterestedness, he was the proprietor of an addition to Lockport. 
 But it is certain that supplies for the laborers had mainly to be 
 brought from abroad, as at this time no great surplus was raised 
 along the line. 
 
 The work was prosecuted by means of the money obtained 
 from the sale of bonds, and of canal lands and lots, in Chicago, 
 Lockport, Ottawa and La Salle, until 1842, at an outlay of over 
 five million dollars, when the work was suspended. 
 
Jolkt and Will Cow.tij, Fortij Yearn A(,o. 63 
 
 Although the enterprise was coniuienced when everything had 
 to be done in the most expensive way, and when the country was 
 on the eve of a great Hnatieial crasli, vet tiie State oould easily have 
 gone through witii it, and uiaintained her credit, if other projects 
 had not been connected with it. The central and southern portions 
 of the State, with very narrow views, looked upon the canal as 
 entirely for the benefit of the north, and insisted uj)on com[)ensa- 
 ting railroads, as the price of their votes for further appropriations 
 to the canal ; and, in 1837, the act was passed, which ultimately 
 swamjied the credit of our State and brought on our financial 
 ruin. By this act a loan of eight millions was authorized, on the 
 faith of the State, for the purpose of grid-ironing the State with 
 railroads, and a four milh'on loan for the further prosecution of 
 the canal. The sum of two hundred thousand dollars from the 
 eight million loan, was to be given to those counties througii which 
 no railroad passed, for the construction of roads and bridges. 
 And, absiu'd as was this scheme at that time, loans were made to 
 the amount of nearly six millions. 
 
 As the practical result of ali this, a short railroad was built 
 from Springfield to Meredosia, and various others commenced at 
 either end, as the act required, and great quantities of railroad iron 
 were imported, free of duty, by special act of congress. But be- 
 fore any other road was completed, the whole scheme came lo a 
 disgraceful end. It may not be improper to remark in passing, 
 that it was by the purchase afterwards, (paying in depreciated scrip 
 at par) of this railroad iron of the State, and selling to eastern 
 roads, that Governor Matteson laid the foundation of his fortime. 
 The great commercial prostration which struck the east in 1837, 
 was, by means of the disbursement of these canal and railroad 
 loans, warded off from us for a year or two, and the work of the 
 canal was kept along, although feebly, until 1842, by the help of 
 canal scrip, and of the " contractors' loan," as it was called, from 
 the fact that the contractors had sent General Thornton to Europe 
 to sell bonds, they agreeing to stand the discoimt, even to twenty- 
 five per cent, if necessary. This they could afford to do, now that 
 the prices of labor and provisions hail greatly fallen. 
 
 By the full of 1840, a debt had been contracted by the State 
 
6-i Joliei and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 of $14,237,348, vvliiclinuwt be paid by a population of 478,929 — 
 nearly thirty dollars lor every man, woman and child. And this 
 amount does not include what the State had misapplied from the , 
 school fund, and from the surplus deposits of the United States. 
 By great exertion the interest on the canal debt was paid up to, 
 and inchuling 1841 ; but for 1842 no provision could be made, and 
 the work stopped entirely. An expenditure, as I have already 
 said, of over five millions had been made upon it, and the con- 
 tractors abandoned their jobs, claiming heavy damages of the 
 State. An act was passed for a settlement with them, limiting the 
 amount to two hundred and thirty thousand dollars. 
 
 To the credit of our State let it be said, that the idea of repu- 
 diation was never seriously entertained by our people, to any ex- 
 tent, and subsequent prosi)erity and wise legislation have long 
 since obliterated the debt. 
 
 But the canal could not, of course, be allowed to remain long 
 In this condition. The bondholders were equally interested with 
 us in devising some means for its speedy completion. It was a 
 work of too great and too general importance to be abandoned alto- 
 gether. In the session of 1842-3, an act was passed which ultim- 
 ately succeeded in accomplishing this purpose. By this act, the 
 canal itself, and all its unsold lots and lands, were to be transferred 
 to a board of three trustees, two to be chosen by the bondholders 
 and one by the governor of the State. The bondholders were to 
 advance the further sum of $1,600,000 to complete the canal on 
 another level. The trustees were to prosecute the work and retain 
 possession of the canal and its revenues until the debt and further 
 cost of its construction, and interest on the same, should he. fully 
 paid bv the tolls and moneys derived from the sale of lands and 
 lots. The board was organized and the work was resumed in 1845, 
 and prosecuted until fully completed in 1848. 
 
 The debt of the canal, and all costs of its construction, and the 
 interest thereon, were paid from these resources in the year 1871, 
 and the canal surrendered to the State, with a balance on hand of 
 $95,742. 
 
 In 1865, an arrangement had been entered into by the trustees 
 with the Board of Public Works of Chicago, by which the canal 
 
JoUei and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 65 
 
 has been completed upon the original plan of a deep cut, feeding 
 directly from the Chicago river, thus making it the grand sewer of 
 Chicago nastiness, and justifying at times to our olfactories the 
 theory that the name " Chicago," was originally derived from that 
 animal familiarly known as "skunk." The Indian who christen- 
 ed it, must have had a prophetic smell of 1873 ! Let us console 
 ourselves with the fact, that we have now an abundant water power, 
 and that our basins are always full, if not fragrant ! 
 
 In closing this brief history of the canal, I wish to pay a trib- 
 ute to its chief engineer, William Gooding, who was its firm friend 
 from first to last, its efficient director, and against whom no sus- 
 picions of jobbery were ever entertained. Fully a master of Iiis 
 profession, prepared i"or all emergencies, urbane in his intercourse 
 with all, lie is entitled to the grateful remembrance of every citi- 
 zen of this State, to the prosperity of which he has been so largely 
 instrumental. 
 
 The opening of the canal in 1848, was of course a day of great 
 rejoicing, from Chicago to La Salle. Boats started simultaneously 
 from each end to pass over the route. The boat from Chicago ar- 
 rived here about noon, with a load of notables, bands of music, 
 etc., etc., and while stopping here, speeches were made, champaigne 
 corks flew, and there was a "high time" generally. But there 
 was one sad accident, which marred the general joyousness. The 
 Joliet boys had procured a cannon, which they placed on the east 
 side of the basin and fired across it. The cannon by some means 
 got elevated too high — I guess the boys who were handling it had 
 got elevated themselves — at any rate, a heavy wad came across the 
 basin and struck a highly respected citizen of the name of Peter 
 Adams, in the region of the stomach, whereupon he fell at once, 
 and the cry arose that a man was killed ! The shouting of the 
 crowd was hushed at once, and due sadness and solemnity fell upon 
 all countenances. But after Peter got over his astonishment and 
 his nausea, it was discovered that the only serious injury he had 
 sustained, was the loss of his breakfast ! 
 
 I have brought down the history of the canal to a late date, in 
 order to present all the points in a connected sketch, and will now 
 
66 Joliet and JVill County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 go back to the earlier period, to wliich I wisii generally to confine 
 myself. 
 
 The construction of the canal of coarse destroyed McKee^s 
 water power, and made his mill useless. The present dam was 
 commenced ill 1839, and completed in 1841, McKee recover; d 
 damages of the commissioners in 1841, to the amount of !^17,655 
 and costs. 
 
 The opening of the canal was a new era in the history of this 
 city and vicinity. Hitherto goods had been transported from Chi- 
 cago chiefly by ox-teams, drawing the old Pennsylvania canvas- 
 covered wagon, generally called " prairie schooner," and not inap- 
 propriately. 
 
 A stage route was established as early as January, 1834, he- 
 tween Chicago and Ottawa, running by Plainfield, or Walker's 
 Grove. Judge Caton informs me that he piloted the company 
 which first went through and established the stations, and that the 
 party suffered greatly from the intense cold. In 1837, the stage 
 came from Plainfield across to Joliet, and then passed down the 
 river to Ottawa. After a year or two more the mute was changed 
 again, going to Chicago directly up this river, on the west side, and 
 leaving Plainfield out in the cold. A tedious ride it used to be, 
 by stage, \o Chicago, especially when we went round by Plainfield. 
 Just think of it, you who are so impatient at the hour and a half 
 required now to pass from the one point to the otiier; an entire 
 day used to be required to make the passage, and sometimes when 
 the roads were bad, considerable of the night, too. I remember 
 when coming back from the East in the fall of 1837, the driver of 
 the stage lost his way in coming across from Plainfield, and wan- 
 dered about quite a while on the trackless prairie. In those days, 
 the arrival of the stage and the mail was the event in our daily life. 
 Frequently there were two or three '^ extras," and the capacity 
 of the "Old American" and the "Higley House," and later, of 
 the "]S"ational," were often taxed to their utmost to supply the 
 "wheat bread" and "chicken fixings" which the travelers re- 
 quired, while the regular boarders very often had to take up with 
 "corn bread and common doings." When the canal was completed 
 in 1848, of course the day of stages was over, and friend "Kipp,'* 
 
Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 67 
 
 and others, had to give up the "ribbons," and the day of the 
 Packet Boat and "Captain Connett" had come, — only to be super- 
 seded in its turn, by the rushing railway train. What device shall 
 displace the last, who can conjecture? 
 
 In 1839, two young men of limited means, but of great energy 
 and perseverance, Philo A. and Orlando 11. Haven, having pur- 
 -chased lots on the school section on each side of the river below 
 the city, and finding that between McKee's dam and their lots, 
 there was a fall of four or five feet, constructed a dam and com- 
 menced a saw mill, and afterwards a grist mill. This, with subse- 
 •quent improvements, is now known as the "City Mills." At 
 the time they began their operations the plan of the canal had not 
 been changed. But when the canal was completed upon the sub- 
 sequent plan, the water power was of little value, as during the 
 season of navigation the river was required to feed the level below. 
 They recovered some damage of the trustees for the loss. This 
 water power has been greatly benefited by the deepening of the 
 <;anal. 
 
 The digging of the canal introduced a new element into the 
 history of civilization in Will county, — an element which produced 
 great physical, social and moral changes. For it was then that 
 the great Celtic invasion took place. To dig a canal, at least four 
 things are necessary — a shovel, a pick, a wheelbarrow and an Irish- 
 man. And it is something wonderful, that wherever a canal or a 
 railroad is to be constructed these instrumentalities instantly ap- 
 pear upon the scene, ready for the work. Here, now, is the place 
 for a disquisition upon the Irishman. I wish I was equal to the 
 task. It is a subject upon which a great deal has been said and 
 written, and on which much more might be said, and yet the sub- 
 ject would not be exhausted. Many, looking only at one side of 
 him, have drawn partial and unjust conclusions. Some have un- 
 duly elevated him, especially just before an election; others have 
 unduly depreciated him, especially just after an election. What- 
 ever I say of him shall be in a purely philosophical spirit, remem- 
 bering the high office of the historian. I can affijrd to do this, as 
 I do not expect ever to run for office. The Irishman has unques- 
 tionably a great many traits of character. I have come to this 
 
68 JoUet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 conclusion after many years of observation and much intercourse 
 with him, in social, business and political relations. He is a very- 
 composite character. He has more human nature than any other 
 member of the human family with which I am acquainted. For 
 he resembles the Yankee in his fondness for office, and his shrewd- 
 ness at a bargain. He is like the Englishman in his obstinacy and 
 utter inability to see anything he does not wish to see. He is like 
 the Scotchman, in his love of polemics and whisky; and like the 
 German in his love of metaphysics 9,nd tobacco. He resembles the 
 Frenchman in his mercurial temper, and the agility with which he 
 gets up when knocked down ; and the Italian in his love of poetry, 
 song, and dirt. He is like the Spaniard in his love of a fight, and 
 his readiness to back out when getting worsted. And he resembles 
 that great character, "Jack Falstaff," in being not only witty him- 
 self, but the cause of wit in others; — while in his gift of gab, in 
 his love of palaver, and his powers of blarney, he is " sui generis" 
 — like himself, and nobody else ! If you have not now a clear 
 conception of the Irishman, it is not ray fault. That he will con- 
 tribute his full share to the make-up of the coming American citi- 
 zen, there can be no doubt. 
 
 As an example of his readiness for a fight, it becomes my duty 
 to relate the history of the first Irish War. Oh ! for that pen 
 which recorded the doughty deeds of Antony Van Corlear and the 
 Heroes of " Communipaw ! " But I havn't got it, and must use 
 the one I have, poor as it is. As to the origin of this war, I find 
 there is now a difference of opinion. Some contend that it was 
 only the chronic quarrel between the Corkonians and the Fardowns. 
 Others, that it was because they were not promptly paid, or paid 
 in "wild cat" money. I should not be surprised if the "byes" 
 themselves did not understand at the time what it was all about. 
 For, indeed, I have never seen that it made any difference with an 
 Irishman, whether he understood what he was fighting for or not. 
 But be this as it may, on the 4th of July, 1838, word came down 
 the line early in the morning, that there was a terrible riot up on 
 Wallace's job, near Romeo, and that they were killing each other 
 and the contractors at a terrible rate, and help was called for with- 
 out delay. So, instead of celebrating the deeds of our fathers of 
 
Jollet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 69 
 
 1776, as we were prepariiif]^ to do, we were ourselves called upon to 
 "mount our barbed steeds" and sally forth to "grim visagedwar." 
 Tenner Aldrich, our sheriff at that time, — many of you know 
 *' Uncle Feuner," — called out the largest force he could muster, 
 under the name and style of the '^ Posse Comitatus'^ of Will county, 
 and among the rest, my old friend N. H. Cutter and myself Nvent 
 along. I had never been called by this big latin name before, and 
 I felt quite proud of the honor. I still do; and I wish hereby 
 to transmit to my posterity the fact that I was an integral part of 
 the first great Posse Comitatus of Will county. I think this is 
 about the best thing I shall have to transmit I We had also a 
 military company, called the " Juliet Guards," Edmond Wilcox, 
 captain, armed and equipped for bloody war. This was also mus- 
 tered in by the sheriff. But '''Uncle Fenner" himself had no 
 military title, and therefore did not understand the science of war. 
 So he delegated the strategic direction of the expedition to Ca])tain 
 Fellows, who had acquired great skill and experience by long ser- 
 vice in the New York Militia, and knew how to advance and 
 retreat, " shoulder arms" and "fix baganets," etc., and who, being 
 equipped in Major Cook's uniform, and girt with his terrible sword, 
 looked as though he could 
 
 "Fright the souls of fearful adversaries," 
 
 even though they came in the shape of paddies, armed to the teeth 
 with stout shellalahs, and brimful of wrath and whisky. Thus 
 ^' Uncle Fenner " and Captain Fellows led on, supported by Capt. 
 Wilcox and the Juliet Guards, while the great Posse Comitatus, in 
 solid column, brought up the rear. After oue or two hours of hard 
 riding we drew near Romeo, and soon came in sight of the enemy, 
 flourishing scythes, pitchforks and shellalahs. A halt was ordered, 
 and we, the Posse Come-and-take-us, sat upon our horses in deep 
 silence, while the leaders held a council of war. It was a solemn 
 time ! 
 
 I suppose nothing can equal in impressiveness that brief mo- 
 ment which precedes a battle. W^e thought of the day, and of the 
 deeds of our fathers, and nerved our stomachs for the fight which 
 seemed about to open. Some examined their "pocket pistols," 
 and " kept their spirits up by pouring spirits down." Uncle Fen- 
 
70 Joliet mid Will County, Forty Yeari^ Ago. 
 
 ner^s chin quivered. And now occurred one oi those beautiful 
 examples of modesty and self-renunciation which redeems poor 
 human nature, for no one seemed covetous of the post of honor — 
 each was willing to give his neighbor the front rank ! I don't 
 think I wished to be conspicuous myself! But there was no shrink- 
 ing from the fight! We boldly advanced — slowly, and with great 
 caution. Kashness is not heroism ! We did not even throw out 
 skirmishers. The music sounded, and we unfurled the stars and 
 stripes^ What should we, the great Will county '' Posse Comita^ 
 tus" and the Juliet Guards, prove craven at such a time! — on such a 
 day as this! No! no! — Our wives and children should never 
 blush at the mention of our names. The Guards are ordered to 
 fire a blank volley! They did so without winking. Tremendous 
 was the effect ! The enemy could not " bide the smell of powder." 
 Forthwith they drop their weapons, break ranks, and skedaddle 
 over the hills ! Now, now, the great Posse Comitatus feel equal to 
 anything? We could each one of us face the heels of a thousand 
 paddies ! We chase them over the hills and hunt them through 
 the shanties, and drive them from under the beds, equally unawed 
 by the threats, billingsgate and hot water of the women, and unse- 
 duced by their blandishments and blarney ! We had come out as 
 the great Posse Comitatus of Will county, for the high and holy 
 purpose of maintaining justice and good order, and we would be a 
 Posse Comitatus until these high ends were secured. And so we 
 eirculate up and down the works, and through the woods, until 
 about forty prisoners were secured with which to grace the triumph- 
 ant return of the great Posse Comitatus. 
 
 And now, the battle being over and victory having perched 
 upon our banners, the majesty of the law being vindicated — the 
 great Posse Cowi^a^ws having shown itself equal to the emergency — 
 it is apparent that, after all, the great Posse Comitatus is only hu- 
 man, for it is terribly dry and ravenously hungry. And now we 
 discover that one of the great sinews of war has been overlooked. 
 The Posse Comitatus have provided no rations, either liquid or solid. 
 We could not levy contributions upon the enemy, for they had 
 nothing suited to the stomachs of a Posse Comitatus. And so, 
 tired and hungry, we turn f ur faces homeward, and each roan, with 
 
Joliet and WiU County^ Forty Years Ago. 71 
 
 one hand pressed upon an " aching void," rides slowly back, and 
 by the time the great "Posse Oomitatus'^ arrived at Joliet it was 
 so badly demoralized that it did not wait for a public reception and 
 the thanks of" a grateful country ; but having delivered over the 
 prisoners, each man started for his homo, or a hotel, or a groeeryy 
 with a haste that was sublime, and the great " Posse Gomitalus'' — 
 
 " * # melted into air, into thin air, 
 
 And, like the baseless fabric of a vision, 
 Tjeft not a rack behind." 
 
 Yes, it did leave a small "rack," in the shape of some forty 
 prisoners. These were examined, and fourteen of them held for 
 trial. And inasmuch as our jail facilities were limited, and the 
 weather hot, a special term of court was ordered for their trial. 
 They were accordingly tried, the grand jury having found indict- 
 ments for riot, assault, attempt to murder, etc., etc. John M. Wil- 
 son, now Judge Wilson of Chicago, was the principal lawyer in 
 the defense, although he had formed one of the great " Posse Gom~ 
 itatus.''' It was said at the time to be a nice stroke of business. 
 The principal witness was the contractor, Wallace, who had been 
 the principal subject of the assault. There is no doubt that he 
 had been badly scared. He told such a bile of the numbers that 
 assaulted him, and the variety of weapons with which he had been 
 belabored, that it would have been a miracle for any one to have 
 come out of such a melee alive; and yet he was unhurt. His whole 
 story was so extravagant and improbable that Wilson turned the 
 whole thing into ridicule, by reading from Shakespeare the account 
 ■which Falstaif gave of the attack made upon him by the "men in 
 buckram," which, if you don't remember, please see and read. It 
 was so pat, that notwithstanding the ruling of Judge Pearson, that 
 "it was not law in this court" it led to the disagreement of the jury 
 and the final abandonment of the prosecution. 
 
 It is a curious fact, that when the late war broke out no one 
 thought of looking to the survivors of this great Posse Gomitatus 
 for generals to lead on our armies. The memory of its heroic 
 deeds seems to have passed entirely from the minds of men. I pre- 
 sume that not one in a thousand of my hearers ever heard of it. 
 
72 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 Another proof of the ingratitude of Republics! It is some conso- 
 lation that I have rescued a iew names from oblivion ! 
 
 We had several Irish wars after tljis, but none so terrible and 
 bloody. Timid people lived in constant fear of what the Irish 
 would do. And this reminds me of an incident, I have spoken 
 of Jenks, as county clerk, etc. Well, about this time he had to 
 surrender these offices. He was an ardent Methodist, and he 
 thought he would take up preaching. Among other qualifications 
 which he possessed for this profession, he had a loud, strong voice, 
 and he was specially gifted in prayer; and when he got deej)ly' en- 
 gaged — so to speak, got on a full head of steam — he could be 
 
 heard all over the village. One evening Mrs. W , who lived 
 
 in chronic fear of an Irish riot, came running into a neighbors 
 house, greatly excited, saying that there was a great noise over the 
 river, and she was sure there was an Irish riot, and that her hus- 
 band was over there, and she begged the neighbor to go with her 
 and get him home. So the neighbor Avent along. He too heard 
 the noise, and after crossing the old foot bridge on the island, and 
 coming up toward the old Methodist church, he presently divined. 
 
 the occasion of it, and turning about he said to Mrs. W that 
 
 she could dismiss her fears, and go home, as it was nothing but 
 brother Jenks praying! 
 
 You probably do not need any illustration of the wit, and 
 readiness of the Irish at repartee. It is proverbial. But I 
 have one which is entirely new and original, and has never got 
 into the papers, and belongs to Joliet. It may have occurred a lit- 
 tle later than the time of which I speak, but as I give it as an 
 illustration of character, I shall not be guilty of an anachronism. 
 A good old lady of our city, who chanced to be the mother of a 
 prominent citizen, one who either was, had been, or expected to be 
 a Congressman, had in her employ a "Biddy," who was, in most 
 respects I presume, like other "Biddies." At any rate she was in 
 one thing — a disposition to absent herself at very inconvenient 
 times. On one occasion, when the good lady was especially busy, 
 and did not know how to spare her, Biddy announced her intention 
 to be "gone of a morning," giving as her excuse that it was a 
 "howly day." "Ah, indeed, and what kind of a " howly " day is 
 
Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 73 
 
 it?'' the mistress asked in her vexat'on. "Well, sure, and she 
 did'iit exaetiy know, l)iit it was the Vai-gin Mary's (hiy." "Vir- 
 gin Mary, indeed," says i\]fi mistress, "what if it is, the Virgin 
 JVfary was notiiing but a woman — no better than I am." "Indade, 
 that may be so," says Biddy, '^ hut sure you'll allow (here was a 
 ivondcrful difference in the sons ye bore!" 
 
 With this, we dismiss the Irishman from our special notice, 
 except to say that very many of the laborers brought in here by 
 the canal accumulated money, invested it in lots and lands, and 
 they and their descendants Ibrm a considerable and valuable por- 
 tion of our population, both in town and county, and have fur- 
 nislied some of our best citizens, never failing in their duty at the 
 polls — as Yankees often do — or refusing to hold office, even that of 
 alderman, when the public good demands it ! Some of our 
 best business ycung men, and some of our prettiest girls too, are the 
 descendants of these old canal-ers. And here is the place to say, 
 that the Catholic Church which forms so prominent an object on 
 the Blnff, was mainly built b}^ contributions from the canal boys, 
 under the active efforts of Father Plunkett, one of the first priests 
 of that church here. It was, I believe, while on one of his tours of 
 collection, that he came to his death. While riding through a piece 
 of timber near Channahon, against a driving storm, with his head 
 bent down to avoid its force, and riding very hard, he struck his 
 head against a tree with such force as to kill him instantly. 
 
 The construction of the canal was the first occasion of the mar- 
 ring of the contour of the Joliet Mound. This spot I suppose is 
 familiar to all my hearers. It attracted the attention of the early 
 explorers. Schoolcraft describes it, and has a view of it in his 
 book of western travel. He conjectured it to be the work of the 
 mound builders. But I think that it is now generally conceded 
 to have been formed by the action of water, nn<l was probably an 
 island made by an eddy in the great river which once swept through 
 this valley from bluff to bluff. The ridges and bluffs in the vicin- 
 ity are composed of the same material, which shows the action of 
 water. This origin is almost demonstrated, now that the mound 
 has been dug into a considerable depth, and found to be com- 
 posed entirely of sand and gravel, deposited upon a bed of clay, 
 
74 JolM and Will County, Forhj Yr^.rs Ajo. 
 
 and not the v-liglitest evidence of an artificial origin has been found. 
 This mound was a place of some resort in the early day for drives 
 and pic-nics, being the only "lion" which we had to show our 
 visitors. There was once a iiouse upon it, built in 1835, to secure 
 a pre-emption. From the toj) of it there is a view of the lake and 
 of the encircling wooded blu!fs, which was pronounced very pretty 
 by Aliss Martiueau, who visited it in an early day, and who thought 
 it fine enough to be noticed in her book of travels. Its beauty 
 and symmetry have been much injured by the excavation for ma- 
 terial to <'onstruct the bank of the canal which passes at its foot, 
 along the south-eastern side. Our friend Judge Wilson, of Chi- 
 cago, happened to be riding past it just about the time the canal 
 diggers were laying tiieir sacriligious hands upon it, and was filled 
 with .10 little indignation thereat, branding the actors as "rmicZoAs." 
 I presume time and a change of circumstances has mellowed some- 
 what his judgment of the act, since the " Joliet Mound Tile Com- 
 pany" have continued the vandalism by the sale -of gravel from 
 its bowels, and by turning i(s clay bed into tile and brick, and so 
 into cash. The Judge often visits that locality now, and I am 
 credibly informed, looks on very complacently while the j>addies 
 vandalize with their picks and shovels ! 
 
 In a very interesting work just published, written by N. Mat- 
 son, of Bureau county, on the "French and Indians of the Illinois 
 "River," I find a very interesting tradition in connection with this 
 mound. One of the most celebrated Indians of history was Pon- 
 tiac, the chief of the Ottawas of Michigan. After the surrender 
 of the Northwest by the French to F/Ugland in 1763, Pontiac for 
 a while contested the claims of the English, and was known as 
 their most able and bitter enemy. When he could no longer main- 
 tain the contest, he left the vicinity of Detroit, where he was born 
 and had always lived, and with the remnants of his once powerful 
 tribe, (about two hundred warriors and their families) found a 
 refuge on the banks of the Kankakee, in this county, somewhere 
 in the vicinity of Wilmington. He merged the remnants of his 
 tribe into that of the Pottawattamies. This region was claimed 
 by the " Illinois," and a conflict arose between the tribes especially 
 in reference to the right to hunt the buffalo to the west of the Illi- 
 
Joiiet and Will Covnty^ Foiiy Yecn Ago. 76 
 
 nois river. Alter lighting over the matter a while, a cctnnci! 'Aas 
 agreed upon to settle the question. This couneil "niet at Mound 
 Joiiet, in 1761*. During u speech which l^)nti;u■ wa-. making in 
 sup])Ort of his side of the (juestion, he was treacherously assassin- 
 ated by "A7?7,f6oo," the head chief of the Illinois. This act of 
 treachery led to the bloody war which resulted in the destruction 
 of the great Indian city, "La Vantani," which stood on the site 
 where the paper city of Utica was afterwards built, and to the 
 tragedy of Starved Rock, and the ultimate extinction of the great 
 nation of the Illinois. 
 
 As the prospect of a canal, the commencement of work upon 
 it, and its vigorous prosecution tor a time, greatly contributed to 
 our growth and prosperity, bringing in numerous additions to our 
 population, and furnishing a ready market for the surplus produc- 
 tions of our farmers, and for the goods brought on by our mer- 
 chants; so, of course, the suspension of the work added to the 
 evils of a worthless currency, and the general commercial revulsion 
 of the country — greatly depressed business, and arrested for a time 
 all improvement. Then followed years of great business famine, 
 all over the State. All the canal towns were the greatest sufferers. 
 It is a curious fact, that an act w^as passed for the relief of those 
 who had purchased on credit canal lots in Chicago — purchasefi at 
 prices which would hardly buy a foot of ground now, even at 
 Bridgeport. Imigration avoided a State thought to be so hope- 
 lessly in debt, and many left our incipient city never to return. 
 Our streets yielded a magnificent crop of mustard and stramonium, 
 and the merchants and thfeir clerks, and others, pitched quoits and 
 played ball in them, undisturbed by teams or customers. It would 
 have been a splendid time to dig sewers, for it would not have in~ 
 terrupted business ! We had plenty of time to botanize, to hunt 
 prairie chickens, gather wild plums and hickory nuts, and enjoy 
 " the shakes." 
 
 It was during this period that a well-known citizen, whom, it 
 was feared, had become a hopeless ''old bach," got interested in 
 the study of botany, and somehow he got a young lady interested 
 in the same study, and the happy result was that she became Mrs. 
 C — and I am happy to see them both now before me, with a son 
 and a thuigiue/, both old eiM'Ugh to f/wij Lotani/ too! 
 
76 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 There were other compensathig circumstaaces. It cost but a 
 trifle to live. Provision.-; and fuel were chea[), rents low, taxes 
 light, no gas bills or special taxes; whisky and tobacco, and all 
 other necessaries, could be had at a trifle compared with present 
 prices. I could aliuO'it wish a return of the time — not on account 
 of the cheap whisky and tobacco ! It was also a great compensa- 
 tion that the Goddess of Fashion was not then so exacting and ex- 
 orbitant in her demands. I do not suppose a Ave dollar feather 
 could have been found in Will county. Our ladies did not study 
 "Harper's Bazar'' or "Mrs. Deraorest," and the omnipotent 
 "Mrs. Grundy" was little regarded. 
 
 But there were other and still better compensations. The peo- 
 ple had time for the consideration of great mond questions. As it 
 is a law of physics, that no two bodies can occupy the s;ime space 
 at the same time, so it seems to be a law of mind th.at it can enter- 
 tain but one controlling subject at a time. A man who is absorbed 
 in the one object of acquiring money, especi ii y if successful, is 
 prone to forget all other and higher interests i: !iii!is(!lf, his iam- 
 ily, or society at large. Hence commerci.ii ■•■.•v-^tscs may prove 
 our greatest blessings. "In the day of af\ r-itv he may <'on- 
 sider." It was during this era of "hard ti u s" that the great 
 temperance and anti-slavery interests floui'i;-; n-J and produced 
 abiding effects. Revivals of religion also Ov; -un-.d, which wrought 
 great and happy changes. The Washington! i.i n 'VCMieut, which 
 occurred in the years 1841-2, produc^ed at the tijic a woiidcrful ex- 
 citement, but one of the healthiest and happiest kind. A repeti- 
 tion of it would he a blessing now ! 
 
 It is true, that in some instances the reforniition (»f the Wash- 
 ingtonian movement proved only to be tein])«ti'arv. But in many 
 ©thers. it was permanent, and its trophies ar.- stJ! Icf among us. 
 I confess I take great pleasure in reterriui; to -^wU cases. The 
 man who conquers this habit is the greatest o" iicioes ! But that 
 such achievements are possible, our historv aouiidantly shows. I 
 gave one or two instances in my foriner lecture .^et me relate one 
 more. You may perhaps remember the name (n \ndrevv il(»hiiid, 
 as one of our early settlers. He had been a IJniled States' soldier, 
 and in 1819 he passed down through this valley, on a match from 
 
Joliet omd Will County, Forty Years Ago. 77 
 
 Chicago to, St. liOiiis, and was so pleased with the beauty of the 
 region, that after his discharge from the army he came here in 
 1834, with others of his family. Boland was — I say, was — for 
 though still living, he has gone to Kansas — a man of strong sense 
 and great native wit. But unfortunately he had formed intemper- 
 ate habits. He had sprees, and at such times he would hang 
 around the groceries as long as they would keep him. A "hoo- 
 sier" — one of those men who always said "ichich," and whom we 
 used to call "Chat," — kept a doggery in those days, and Andrew 
 was one of his best customers. Indeed it was not easy sometimes 
 to get rid of him. One time, while sleeping off his potations on 
 a bench in "Chat's" grocery, the time having come to close up, 
 Chat took hold of Boland, and shaking him rather roughly, told 
 him to wake up and to get out. Boland rose up, and steadying 
 himself with one hand on the counter, improvised this epitaph as a 
 parting word for Chat : 
 
 •' Chat vs'as an old Hoosier, who, while on earth, was very rich, 
 
 When the archangel's trumii shall sound he'Jl rise, and answer, " WacA/" 
 
 Well, as I have said, Andrew afterwards reformed thoroughly, 
 under the joint influence of the Washingtonian movement and a 
 Methodist revival. But 1 am not sure that these would have been 
 sufficient in his case, had not a third poM'er come to the rescue, in 
 the form of a tvidoio, who took him in hand, married him, and 
 made the work permanent and complete ! 
 
 I have mentioned the old stone block of six stores, on Bluff 
 street, as being- at one time the centre of business on the west side. 
 The history of this block would itself furnish sufficient matter for 
 a longer lecture than you would listen to, could but a tithe of it be 
 recalled. Besides the mercantile establishments which occupied 
 the first floors, there were offices in the second stories, and in the 
 third, residences and halls for public uses. Runways from the 
 bluff made these upper stories easily accessible from that part of 
 the town. In the third story of the south store, then occupied and 
 owned by B. & T. Allen & Co., was set up the first printing press, 
 and published the first newspaper of Joliet. This was done in the 
 spring of 1839, by thirteen of our citizens of democratic faith, 
 
 10 
 
78 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 among them the Allen's and Mr. Clement. A press which had 
 been shipped to Ottawa, but for some reason was not wanted there, 
 was oifered on favorable terras, which theylaonght. In the course 
 of the spring they got an elderly man by the name of Balch, vvho' 
 had edited a paper in Michigan, to take chargje of it, and he issued 
 in the spring the first number of this paper, calling it the ^'Juliet 
 Courier.^' The first impression which was taken is still preserved 
 by Mr. Clement. It is dated April 20th, 1839, and is a very cred- 
 itable paper, both in its mechanical and literary make up. Of 
 course it has no telegraphic column, with its flaring headings. 
 The principal items of general nens which it contains, is tlic armis- 
 tice brought about by General Scott between Governor Fairchild 
 of Maine, and Sir John Harvey of Xew Brunswick, in relation to 
 the Maine Boundary — a question which well nigh involved us in 
 a war with England. Also, an item in respect to the Florida 
 war, in which the Indians seem to be getting the best of it. It 
 contains the proceedings of a county temperance society, reported 
 by H. N. Marsh, secretary, which contains a vote of " thanks to 
 J. M. Wilson, Esq., for his able and interesting address." It con- 
 tains also the organization of the newly elected board of tru-stees,. 
 as we called the city fatiiers of that day. This was the third board 
 elected, and was composed of Wm. A. Chatfield, Wm. Scholfield, 
 Charles Clement, George Woodruff and Franklin Mitchell. It is 
 also stated that the canal basin was being excavated, and the walls 
 built in the most substantial manner. The coming of spring is 
 also noticed, with due respect. It contains also (as what issue of 
 the press the world over does not?) in juxta position, deaths and 
 marriages ! The deaths were the wife of Eri Dodge and a child of 
 J, J. Garland. The marriage was that of a Mrs. Coon, of Reed's 
 Grove. The man who "treed that Coon" was George Roderick, 
 and Wm. A. Chatfield, justice of the peace, was accessory before 
 the fact ! There are also two poetical effusions, inspired by the 
 occasion of the first paper, one by Leila B. M. — I am not able to 
 tell who she was. The other bears the initials, M. X. H., which 
 should be read' backwards, and will give the initials of a well- 
 known citizen, who has often been guilty of a like ofience, and yet 
 he still lives! The further history of this press it; deserving of 
 
Joliet and Will Cov.nft/, Forty Years Ago. 79 
 
 brief notice. It passed in a short time into the hands of D. L. 
 Gregg, a lawyer, and a brilliant young man, who was a prominent 
 politician of those days, and who edited the paper and published 
 it in company with a printer of the name of Hudson. He, Gregg, 
 was afterwards a member of the legislature, and then Secretary of 
 State, and afterwards United States Consul to the Sandwich Is- 
 lands, and at the time of his death was Receiver of a land office 
 in Carson, Nevada. The press afterwards passed into the posses- 
 sion of persons on the east side of the river, and was about to be 
 removed, and to be edited by Wm. E. Little, Esq., who will be 
 remembered as one of our most prominent and brilliant lawyers 
 and politicians. It was understood, that under his control it would 
 oppose the interests of "Long John," who was a candidate for 
 nomination to Congress. Hence it became an important matter 
 for "Long John" to have the Juliet Courier silenced, for a time 
 at least. Just before the press was removed, some one, between 
 Saturday night and Monday morning, gained access to the room 
 where it was, and an essential part thereof was abstracted. I do 
 not know that it was ever known who perpetrated the outrage. 
 But it was known that "Long John" was in town the Saturday 
 night before it occurred. A poor substitute was procured after 
 some delay, and the paper made a short fight against Long John. 
 But it availed nothing, and it was afterwards obliged to swallow all 
 it had said, and advocate his election. 
 
 But to return to the old stone block. In another of these 
 third story rooms was set up the first theatre which visited Joliet. 
 I do not mean to discuss the question of the moral influence of 
 theatres. I do not think this the province of the historian. Hap- 
 pily, however, there is no need, for they no longer exist, and the 
 whole question has been most curiously relegated to the domain of 
 dead issues, by the establishment of the modern institution of the 
 "Opera House." But in those days we had theatres, and the one 
 of which I speak had no such invidious distinctions as "parquette," 
 ^'box," or even "reserved seats." "First come, first served," was 
 the rule, so that it at least taught the democratic doctrine of equal- 
 ity. Nothing, perhaps, could show more strikingly the contrast 
 between that day and the present, than the room where this first 
 
80 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 theatre was set up, and the one where we are now assembled. 
 And I think that whatever differences of opinion may obtain re- 
 specting some of the uses to which this beautiful house may be put, 
 all will agree that it is a matter for mutual congratulation that we 
 have such a place, which can be appropriated not only to the uses 
 of music and the drama, but to those of temperance and religion 
 as well — ^and which is even ample enough to hold the masses which 
 turn out to listen to a historical lecture ! 
 
 The company of which I speak, was composed of *' star" act- 
 ors from the cities, and was supplemented by amateur performers 
 picked up in town, for the subordinate parts. Among the latter 
 was Charley Gardner, a lawyer, who fancied that he had a genius 
 for the stage. On one occasion he was playing the part of Rodri- 
 go, in Othello. He went through the part very well until he 
 came to the scene in whicii Rodrigo is stabbed by the arch villain 
 lago. He received the stab all right, but forgot that persons who 
 are fatally stabbed are expected to fall, and he maintained his up- 
 right position, until the prompter behind the scene called out to 
 him in a voice audible all over the house : "Die, die, you fool ichy 
 don^t you dief when, down he came upon the stage, in a 
 style which turned "high tragedy" into " low comedy ;" and the 
 curtain fell amidst the shouts of the audience, who called an 
 "encore'^ in yells that were terrific. An Irishman next day on 
 being asked how he liked the performance, said : " It was all very 
 foine, but that lah-yer made a nasty die of it ! 
 
 James McKee and wife had never been to a theatre, and one 
 night they thought they would go and see what it was like. They 
 went early and got front seats, and enjoyed the play very much, 
 until when (between the acts) a ballet girl came upon the stage, 
 and danced in such a sensational and spectacular manner, in one of 
 her pironetts bringing her heels in such close proximity to Jimmy's 
 head that he was disgusted, and seizing his hat he says to his wife, 
 " Forsooth, forsooth, Sally, this is no place for us;" and they left 
 with their minds fully made up as to the moral character of thai 
 perlorraance. 
 
 In this old stone block was also organized the first Masonic 
 lodge, and the first lodge of Sons of Temperance. Here also was 
 
Joliet and Will Coaniy, Fvriy Ytars Ago. 81 
 
 taught tlic first attempt at a " High School/' l»y a Mr. Emerson, 
 and also the family school of Mrs. Crowly — at one time a very 
 flourishing Young Ladies' Seminary. 
 
 But there are other and holier associations connected with these 
 old rooms. In November, 1838, Rev. Hiram Foote, a graduate 
 from Oberlin, came to Joliet and commenced preaching in a little 
 room in the second story. Soon a larger one in the third story 
 was obtained, and fitted up for church purposes ; and affer a little 
 the Rev. Lucius Foote, an evangelist oi some note, and a brother 
 of Hiram's, was induced to come and hold a protracted meeting. 
 The result was a revival of great power, which changed the moral 
 aspect of tilings in Joliet. The remnants of the old Presbyterian 
 church organized by Mr. Prentiss, some old professors of religion 
 who had come in subsequently, but had hid their lights under a 
 bushel, and the new converts, were organized into a Congregational 
 church, under the name of the " Union Church," and Hiram 
 Foote was chosen pastor, and continued to be for three years. 
 
 The Episcopal church also occupied one of these upper rooms, 
 under the rectorship of Rev. N. W. Bostwick, of sainted memory. 
 Also the Congregational church formed later by B. W. Dwight, 
 and which subsequently built the present Central church. 
 
 There, in one or the other of these upper rooms, at one time or 
 another, have been heard the voices of the two Foote's ; of the two 
 Comstock's ; of the two King's ; of the two Taylor's ; of Porter ; 
 of Dr. Lansing ; of Dr. Post ; of D wight ; of Foster ; of Champ- 
 lin ; of Farnham ; of Strong-; of Bostwick ; of Bishop Chase, 
 and others whose names have passed from recollection, proclaiming 
 the " blessed gospel of the Son of God." There, too, have been 
 heard the voices of Fathers Cook and Dickey ; of Cross ; of 
 Allan ; of Lovejoy and Codding, pleading for the slave. There 
 have been held bible meetings, missionary meetings, anti-slavery 
 and temperance conventions, and singing schools. Oh ! how many 
 and how precious are the memories that a sight of these old stone 
 walls awakens in the minds of some of us whose heads are grey ! 
 Many, many are the prayers which have gone up from those "upper 
 rooms" from voices which have cha ^ed from ''prayer below" to 
 'Upraise above ;" and, like the " ur er room " in which the disci- 
 
82 JnJid anrl Will Count Uy Fortij Years -Ayo. 
 
 pies gathered after the ascension of their Lord, the presence of the 
 Holy Spirit iias been seen and felt there, and men have spoken 
 with new tongues ; and of this man, and that man, it may be said, 
 " he was born there," — born to a higher life, and to a realization 
 of the powers of the world to come ! And how many and how 
 sweet iiave been the voices which have sang the songs of Zion 
 there! — many of wiiieh are now swelling the heavenly chorus in 
 that building not made with hands, whose walls are jasper and 
 whose gates are pearl, and joining in tiie ascription: "worthy is 
 the Lamb that was slain, to receive power and riches and wasdom 
 and .'-trength, and glory and honor and blessing." Yes! Yes! 
 although those old walls have since been devoted to other and baser 
 uses — and althougli at times these rooms have been empty, and 
 windowless, and rats and dogs have held high carnival there — and 
 although other and nobler structures have arisen to answer the 
 ends of business, and of education, and of worship, there are stiil 
 left a few who can never forget the purposes which those old walls 
 have in their day subserved. T» these, they are 
 
 "Like the vase, in wliich roses have once been distilled, 
 You may break, you may ruin the vase if you will, 
 But the scent of the roses will hang round it still !" 
 
 Sometime in March, 1837, a meeting of the legal residents of 
 the village of Juliet, pursuant to ten days' notice, M'as held at the 
 house of Fenner Aldrich, under the provisions of a general act for 
 incorporating towns, etc. J. A. Matteson was chosen president, 
 and George H. Woodruff clerk. This "Joel A. Matteson" is the 
 same man who was afterwards senator, and then governor ! This 
 George H. WoodruiF is the same man who, afterwards, was not 
 senator and governor ! The meeting voted upon the question 
 whether or not the village should be incorporated, and it was de- 
 cided unanimously, by seventy-eight votes, in the affirmative — not 
 a dissenting voice. I guess this is the only public meeting ever 
 held in Joliet where all were of one mind. In pursuance of this 
 vote an election was held at the old " American," on the 31st of 
 March, 1837, for five trustees, when J. A. Matteson, J. J. Gar- 
 land, Daniel Reed, Fenner Aldrich and R. C. Duncan, were 
 elected, and Dr. Scholfield was appointed clerk by the board. This 
 
Joliet aiui ]Vill Coantij, Forti/ Yearti ^9^- ^3 
 
 flrHt charier clcclion AMsy ])iol tilily full fis cxciliiig ix^ llio lusl ow. 
 The town was divided into two wards, by the river. The point 
 contested was to get the odd trustee, as by ,the charter each ward 
 had two. It was necessary to own real estate in the town to be a 
 voter. The boys on each side counted noses, and it was found tiiat 
 the west ward had a small majority. There were some then on 
 the east side who were not willing- to be fairly l)eaten. A plan M'as 
 accordingly devised to overcome this majority. There happened 
 to be a circus in town, and Charley Sayer executed to thirty-six 
 of the circus employes a deed of a lot, supposed to be somewhere 
 in Bowens' addition, and they were allowed to swear in their votes ! 
 This gave the victory to the, east side. But although the concoct- 
 ors of the scheme were so elated at their success that they had a 
 big drunk over it, I don't think they ever reaped any material ad- 
 vantage from it. One good thing, however, came out of the affair. 
 Of course the circus boys did not stay to look after the lot and pay 
 the taxes, and Charley Sayer would'nt, so our worthy citizen, N. 
 H. Cutter, bid it off at a tax sale for a poor widow, Margaret Mc- 
 Ginnis, who built a little house on it, and so gelt, a hom" very 
 cheap, which she occupied many years, it is the same lot now 
 occwpied by Mrs. Glass. 
 
 The principal work done by this board was the building of the 
 two bridges, of which I spoke in my former lecture. The contract 
 was let to Chester Ingersoll at ipoOOO. Scrip was issued for $3,500, 
 bearing twelve per cent, interest, and it was greedily taken. These 
 were the bridges destroyed by the flood of 1838, as before described. 
 A new board was elected in the spring of 1838, w^ich consisted of 
 Amos Fellows, George H. Woodruff, Bennett Allen, John C. 
 Newkirk and William A. Boardman. At this election, as there 
 was no circus handy, the west side had the odd trustee. There is 
 not much to report of their doings which would be of interest 
 now. TKey gathered u[) the debris of the bridges — establisked a 
 ferry, and built a foot bridge. Let me say, in passing, that this 
 ferry boat was built by our worthy citizen, Otis Hardy, for the 
 sum of $75.50. 1 do not know as he ever built any more boats, 
 but he has done something since in t!ie way of building churches, 
 (without ]uiy), and his life has bee:- rich in oth.cr good deeds, for 
 
84 Joliei and WW County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 which the Lord reward iiini ' But this l)i)ard did not dig any 
 " dutch gap canals," or .sink any artesian wells. The public neces- 
 sities did not then require them. They probably acted very much 
 as city fathers do in these days — ground their little hatchets, if they 
 had any, intent upon \k\Q public good ! And I wish to say here, 
 that I am perfectly satisfied with one year's experience as a city 
 father ! I felt glad, and greatly relieved, when the last democratic 
 caucus adjourned and did )u»t nominate me for alderman ! I am 
 conscious that I am not fitted for the })osition. I can find fault 
 with what others do, as well as the best, but don't want to "run 
 the machine" myself. I might even do worse than others have 
 done, and that would be needles-s. And I have no ax, or even a 
 hatchet to grind. We don't want a town clock on our side, for we 
 have the ^^ Deacon' s'^ watch and Woods' thermometer, and these 
 keep us all right ! This town organization continued until the 
 spring of 1841, when it was repealed by an act of the legislature, 
 at the instigation of some of our citizens who had beconie tired of 
 " playing city." 
 
 But besides the honor of being a city father, I have 
 discovered that in this same year, 1838, I also filled another 
 exalted position, 1 was County Judge! or Judge of Probate. I 
 had forgotten it, but so it was. Judge Henderson had held it the 
 year before, and though an able lawyer, he could never find out 
 either how to settle an estate under the probate law, as it then ex- 
 isted, or how to get any money oii.t of the office, and he resigned. 
 It was thought that ])robably a man who knew nothing about law 
 could succeed better, and so I was chosen. But although I had 
 just the qualification that seemed to be needed, 1 did not succeed 
 any better, and was as glad to get rid of the office as Judge Hen- 
 derson. Abijah Cagwin succeeded me, and as he held on to the 
 office for three or four years, I suppose he found out how to do it. 
 It guess he drop't the law altogether, and run it on " general 
 principles." And here I have to say, that l>oth Mr. Cagwin and 
 myself have been shameful ly treated by this community. Who 
 has ever called either of us Judgef or prefixed "Hon." to our 
 names? I have been called "doctor," and " deacon," and Cagwin 
 is known only as " Uncle Bige." Now I don't knovv how "Uncle 
 
Joliet and Will County^ Forty Yedm Ayo. 85 
 
 Jiige" feels about it, but 1 insist upon my rights, and hope that 
 'ere I die 1 shall have tardy Justine done me in this matter, for 1 
 flatter myself that I have as large an understanding as some of my 
 successors who have been more fortunate. 1 am not particular 
 which title you apply, "Hon." or "Judge," — either will do. 
 Yes, I hace got a choice in the matter — please let it be Judge. If 
 it should be " Hon." some might think 1 had been to Congress or 
 the Legislature ! 
 
 I must mention one more personal matter, and this I hope will 
 be the last. My first term as Recorder expired in 1838, and I was' 
 elected to the second term by Charles Gardner, Ksq. Robert C. 
 Duncan was nominated by the democrats, and I ran on my " own 
 hook," as the representative of whiggery, temperance, abolition, 
 and every other mean thing. As the canal was being dug, there 
 was no lack of democratic voters. There was a fine stock of them, 
 all the way from Chicago to La Salle. Of course I was beaten. 
 They could beat anybody then, — I am afraid they hav'nt forgot 
 how. And that's what an old democrat, friend Clement, thinks, 
 too ! But when the judges met to canvass the returns, the poll 
 books of this precinct and of Lockport, in which the canal vote 
 was given, were found missing, and nobody could tell what had 
 become of them. This gave me a handsome majority, and I was 
 declared elected, and to save the county the expense of another elec- 
 tion, I most magnanimously accepted of the office ! Charley Gard- 
 ner always had the credit of doing this job, and though it was not 
 done from any love to me, I wish to take this, the first public op- 
 portunity I have had, to thank him. I feel the more obliged to do 
 this, as it must have been from the abundant receipts of the office 
 during the era of " hard times," that I laid the foundation of my 
 immense fortune ! Charley is now somewhere in Oregon, but of 
 course the fame of this lecture will reach him there ! 
 
 r suppose most of you have noticed an old stone building a 
 little way above the middle bridge, fronting on the canal, and also 
 on Bluff street. This was the first Foundry in Joliet, and the 
 second one in the State — that of Gates, in Chicago, being the first. 
 This was built in 1840, by M. L. A lams. In building his fur- 
 nace he had great trouble to find sto.ie that would stand the heat, 
 11 
 
86 JoliA ai)'/ WiU Counh/, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 aud no iire brick could be got nearer than Buffalo. " Hoosier" Smith 
 shewed hitn some stone in his chimney in the old log house which 
 stood near, and told him where he procured the same. Adams 
 saw that it wiu? just what !)e wanted — sand stone. So next day he 
 started for the Au Sauble with five teams, to get a lot. He found 
 the place somewhere near where the canal crosses the Au Sauble, 
 and forthwith began to quarry. While engaged at this, one of his 
 men who had been a miner in the old country, said that that was 
 the kind of rock which overlaid cx^)ai, and he believed that coal 
 could be found there. So they dug down about five feet, and sure 
 enough they found coal. He loaded two of his wagons with sand 
 stone, and three of them with coal, and returned to town. The 
 next morning, the discovery being noised around, there was great 
 excitement over the coal, and a company went down next day to 
 see the spot. Some of them, it was said, got excited with some- 
 thing besides coal. This was the first discovery of coal north of 
 Peoria. x\.dams took a load into Chicago and sold it to Gates, and 
 this was the first load of Illinois coal taken into Chicago. After 
 Adams got his foundry iti operation he manufactured stoves for 
 William Blair, then the first hardware and stove dealer of 
 Joliet, now one of the " heavy men " of Chicago, and one of the 
 best men, too ! Mr. Adams claims that, these were the first stoves 
 manufactured in the State. He also manufactured the castings for 
 McCormick's reapers, then just starting on the Au Sauble. Mc- 
 Cormick tried to get Matteson and Demraond to join him in set- 
 ting up an establishment in Joliet. That was the time we missed 
 a good thing. 
 
 This old foundry took it into its head to blow up one day, and 
 the engineer, a little dutchman named Swatts, was found buried in 
 the debris, and carried home on a board, supposed to be dead. 
 His family made great lamentations over him, and the neighbors 
 and doctors examined him, and removed the sand and dirt. No 
 external mark of injury was found upon him, and after a little 
 while he opened his eyes and recovered his speech, only however 
 to insist that he was a dead dutchman. But after a more critical 
 examination the doctors assured him that he was not hurt, and he 
 
Joliet and M^Ul County, Forty Years Ago. 87 
 
 got up and went about his business, verv much disappointed and 
 disgusted at the result ! 
 
 A little farther up BhilF street, on the corner of Spring, there 
 was once another stone building, which, in its time, was a flourish- 
 ing steam flouring mill. No trace of it now remains. This mill 
 had a curious origin and history. In the year 1830 a Mr. Jones, 
 a retired and wealthy merchant of New York, became interested 
 in the project of a steam plow, which he thought would revolu- 
 tionize western farming, and wholly supersede the "Hoosier" and 
 his long and slow breaking team. I do not know whether or no( 
 he originated the thing, but at any rate he had it constructed in 
 Brooklyn, from drafts and models which he had furnished, and had 
 it transported to Chicago, and from Chicago it was brought by ox 
 power to Joliet, requiring forty loads to accomplish it. He had it 
 set up in the vicinity of Spring street — a great unwieldy monster 
 ol a thing it was, and the engine which he had attached to it 
 could not even move it, much less would it plow a four-foot fur- 
 row, as he had designed it to do. So the thing was abandoned and 
 was disposed of piece-meal — the iron supplying the blacksmith 
 and the foundryman, and the wood work the wagonmaker. But 
 he thought that he could utilize the boiler and engine. So he got 
 Allen Pratt to put up a stone building on the corner of Spring 
 and Bluff" streets, on a lot which was then a ravine, and he bought 
 two sets of fancy mill stones, very small, both stones revolving in 
 opposite directions, which he expected would revolutionize the arfe 
 of milliug. He obtained millwrights from Chicago, who constructed 
 his mill after his ideas. When all was ready, after great outlay of 
 money, it was found that the engine would drive the stones, and 
 the stones would grind the wheat, but they created so much heat 
 that they cooked it too. So he had the whole thing torn out, en- 
 gine and all, for that was not powerful enough for the old-fashioned 
 kind of mill, and he put in a new engine and the old-fashioned 
 stones, and in time, after spending a small fortune, he had a good 
 mill. He put it in charge of a nephew of his, who was not a suc- 
 cess as a miller, and after a few years he got tired of keeping up 
 the thing, and sold out to a Mr. Stewart, who turned it into a 
 planing mill. This took lire one morning and burned down, and 
 
6o Jo/iet and Will County, Forty Yearfi Ago. 
 
 so the old mill passed into history. But there were some good 
 tilings growing out of this. It brought down from Chicago one 
 of our good citizens, Mr. Keegan, who resides on Centre street. 
 It was also the means of starting Charlie Smith on the high road 
 to fortune. Charlie was one of the sons of "Hoosier" Smith, as 
 we always called Barton Smith, to distinguish him from the rest 
 of a somewhat numerous family. 
 
 He had the job of hauling the steam plow from Chicago, by 
 which he made about eight iuindred dollars. With this capital 
 he commenced the business of peddling clocks. Jt used to be 
 thought that only a Yankee born could peddle clocks; but Char- 
 lie, although a born Tennessean, made as successful a clock peddler 
 as if he had originated in the land of wooden nutmegs. The pro- 
 fits of his clocks he invested in cattle, and the profits of his cattle 
 he invested in land, and he is now one of the greatest land hold- 
 ers and stock dealers in our county, and a highly respected citizen 
 of the town of Channahon. 
 
 In the new map of Will county you can see a picture of his 
 fine residence and plantation, and a sprinkling of his horses and 
 mules. It is said to be a good place to get dinner — I have never 
 tried it, but I mean to, some day. N. B. — This is not an advertise- 
 ment ! 
 
 Another old stone building which once had an existence and a 
 history, but has now gone to the limbo of things that were, was the 
 old stone jail, which stood nearly on the ground occupied by the 
 present one. This was built in 1837, by Bluckburn & Wilson, 
 contractors for the county agents, at a <'ost of two thousand dollars, 
 and answered the purposes of jail, jailor's house, and court room, 
 until our present court house was built. The courtroom was also 
 used for public meetings, and also for religious services on the Sab- 
 bath. It was in connection with this old room that the first Bap- 
 tist church was organized. I remember a protracted meeting held 
 there bv a Mr. Powell, an evangelist of that denomination, an able 
 and excellent man, which resulted in a revival of considerable 
 power. 
 
 To add variety to this narrative, I will now give you a murder 
 story. You remember that I mentioned in my former lecture the 
 
JnliA aixd Will Count j/, Forty Years Af)o. 8d 
 
 name of 0. C. Van Home as one of the first settlers on Hickory. 
 He was one of the most prominent men of our earliest timas — a 
 man of strong; mind and of good information and education, very 
 positive and self-assured, tenacious of his own opinions, and per- 
 sistent in carrying out his plans and convictions. Such a man 
 would have strong friends and bitter enemies. That Van Home 
 had enemies, the following narrative will show. 
 
 In the summer of 1840, an old man over six feet high, very 
 spare, and afflicted with some kind of nervous affection which ren- 
 dered him liable to sudden fits, passed through this place on his 
 way to his former home in Pennsylvania, He traveled on foot, 
 and gave his name as Kramer. He had paroxysms of extreme 
 suffering, when he was entirely helpless, and at the mercy of who- 
 ever might find him. After leaving Joliet, the Hrst heard of him 
 was in an old deserted lilaeksmith shop, near the residence of the 
 late Samuel Haven, about ten miles east of this, where he was 
 found in one of his fits. He was taken to the house of a 2vlr. Mc- 
 Laughlin near by. His clothes were examined by those who found 
 him, and a considerable sum of money was found, the amount as- 
 certained, and left upon him. After partially recovering he went 
 on his way, and was again found helpless by some travelers in the 
 vicinity of "Skunk Grove." They brought him back to the head 
 of Hickory and left him at the house of a settler, some relation 
 of Van Home. The old man muttered, somewhat incoherently, 
 about having been robbed, and on examination no money was 
 found upon him. After lingering a few days he died, and was 
 buried by charity, on the north side of the creek, near the resi- 
 dence of Chester Marshall. The coffin, it was stated by the man 
 who made it, was long enough for a man six foot three. 
 
 A good deal of excitement arose about the missing money, and 
 the McLaughlins were suspected of having robbed the old man. 
 Van Home was outspoken in the matter, and did not scruple to avow 
 his belief. The matter was taken up by the grand jury, and a bill 
 was found against young McLaughlin. In procuring this indict- 
 ment Van Home was active. Young McLaughlin gave bail for 
 his appearance at court, and when the term of court came on, he 
 started on foot for town, as he gave out, but he never made hia ap- 
 
90 Joliet and Will County, Fmiy Years Ago. 
 
 pearanceat the court house. Tlie Van Home party said that he 
 had run away to avoid trial. But old man McLaughlin alleged 
 that he had been foully dealt with, and charged it upon the Van 
 Homes, who he claimed were the real robbers of old Kramer, and 
 were afraid to have his son's case come on lest the truth should 
 come out. He spent days in traveling up and down the creek, 
 and searching the woods for his lost son, and made so many demon- 
 strations of this kind that he got up a good deal of sympathy, and 
 a portion of the community were disposed to believe him, and 
 many turned out to assist him in the search. Just above the spot 
 where the Rock Island Railroad crosses the creek, some of you 
 have probably noticed a pond and a saw mill. This was in exist- 
 ence at that time, and the creek at that point was then heavily tim- 
 bered on either side. Many went up from this place, for by this 
 time the excitement had become very great, and the woods were 
 thoroughly searched for the missing man. A wagon track was dis- 
 covered running by a blind road from the house of one of the 
 Van Homes to the pond, and a wheelbarrow track from the place 
 where the wagon track terminated to the edge of the water, and in 
 the mill was found a wheelbarrow, on which there was found some 
 hair. Thereupon the pond was drawn down, and the body of a 
 man considerably decayed was found. Old McLaughlin was told 
 of the discovery, and he immediately said that if it was the body 
 of his son, certain teeth would be found missing. The body was 
 examined, and found to correspond with McLaughlin's description. 
 The excitement now became intense. A coroner's jury was called, 
 and an investigation was had. The body was much decayed, but 
 so far as it could be examined, it seemed to be that of a man much 
 older and taller than young McLaughlin, who, according to the 
 testimony of those who knew him, was some six inches shorter, and 
 who had long black hair; while he had not been missing long 
 enough to present such an appearance. But notwithstanding these 
 discrepancies in the appearance of the body as found, and the miss- 
 ing man — as old man McLaughlin and his wife both swore posi- 
 tively that they believed it to be the body of their son — the jury 
 " found " that it was the body of young McLaughlin. They did 
 not bring a ehai'ge against any one, but McLnughlia swore out a 
 
JoliM and WW County, Forty Yearn Ago. 91 
 
 warrant and had Van Home arrested, and he was brought to town 
 for examination. McLaughlin employed Newkirk &■ Wilson to 
 conduct the prosecution. Public opinion was divided. Some 
 were ready to hang Van Home without judge or jury. Others 
 refused to believe that the body found was that of young Mc- 
 Laughlin. I had ray office with Newkirk & Wilson, and I well 
 remember the eagerness of old McLaughlin to fasten the charge on 
 Van Home, It became an object, of course, for those who sided 
 with Van Home, to ascertain whose was the body that was found. 
 At length the grave of old Kramer was thought of, and a delega- 
 tion sent up to examine, when it was found that it evidently had 
 been disturbed within a little time, and when the coffin was exam- 
 ined it was found \yithout a tenant. 
 
 While this party was absent a surveillance had been put upon 
 the post office, and a letter having come for old McLaughlin, mailed 
 somewhere in Pennsylvania, it was opened by consent of the post- 
 master and found to be written by the missing son. The tide of 
 public opinion had already turned, when the grave was found 
 empty, and now those who had been eager to hang Van Home, 
 were still more eager to hang McLaughlin and his wife. But they 
 had got wind of the turn the matter had taken in time to make 
 good their escape, and the places which had known them in Will 
 county, knew them no more ! It is evident that old McLaughlin 
 and his wife and son, had conspired to ruin Van Home, and that 
 they had dug up the body of Kramer, refilled the grave, taken it 
 two miles to the pond, and having examined it close enough to 
 detect the missing teeth, deposited it in the pond. They had taken 
 the wagon of Van Home, drawn it down to the pond and back, 
 to turn suspicion upon him. Some labor it must have required, 
 and some nerve too, to have gone through with this during the 
 short hours of a summer's night. But there can be no doubt that 
 they did it, and I presume they would have carried out their plan, 
 even to the hanging of Van Home, without flinching, if tliey had 
 not l)een detected. This is the murder story. I hope you are not 
 disappointed because there was no murder ! There was at least a 
 ^' corpus ! " 
 
 Suppose now, for variety, we take a " wolf hunt." This was 
 
92 Joliet and WiU Coxmly, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 one of the recreations of "Forty Years Ago/' combining with it 
 utility; for, in the early days, wolves were very numerous, and 
 very destructive to sheep and poultry. So much of an object was 
 it to get rid of them, that the state or county paid a bounty on 
 each one killed. " Wolf scalps" thus became " legal tender." 
 Besides the ordinary way of killing them by traps and ])oison, 
 wolf hunts used to be organized. I attended one in the fall of 
 1842. By pre-concerted arrangement, on an appointed day, at an 
 early hour, the settlers living all around the area which was to be 
 hunted over — well mounted — formed a circle, the diameter of 
 which was from twenty to thirty miles, and the centre near 
 "Twelve Mile Grove." Each settlement formed that part of the 
 line nearest to it, and stretching out, sparsely at lirst, each person 
 riding over a considerable space to insure a thorough traverse of 
 the ground, gradually worked toward the centre, scaring up any 
 wolves or deer that might be found lurking in the sloughs. No 
 one was allowed to fire, the sole aim being to turn everything to- 
 ward the centre, and thoroughly to canvas the territory. The 
 shooting was to be done by chosen marksmen when the cordon had 
 been drawn so close as to prevent an escape. Such was the "modus 
 operandi" of a wolf hunt. 
 
 I know of but few things which are so truly exhilerating, 
 so full of physical enjoymej t, as a ride on horseback — if the health 
 be vigorous, the day fine, and the horse spirited and easy. The 
 excitement of the animal spirits, both of the horse and the rider, 
 seems to create so strong a sympathy between them as almost to 
 realize the old fable of the " Centaur." All these circumstances 
 combined to make our first experience of a wolf hunt thoroughly 
 enjoyable, at least at the outset. It was one of those beautiful days 
 of the early November, to which the name of "Indian Summer" 
 has been given — when the sun, mellowed by that peculiar smokey 
 haze which then obtains, vouchsafes his blandest smiles. Summer 
 seems to have come back to bid the earth one more good bye, and 
 to linger, as if unwilling to go and leave the scenes she bad warmed 
 and beautified, to the cold embrace of winter. The woods have 
 exchanged their summer greenness for their garniture of crimson 
 and gold — and the Blue Gentian, last of all the beauteous sister- 
 
JoUet and Will Oowntyy Forty Yea/rs Ago, 9S 
 
 liood of flowers, remains to grace the parting, and enlivens the 
 otherwise sere and colorless prairie. It ia a luxury to breathe the 
 pure, crisp air, of the early morning, and to scour over the billowy 
 prairie, still unvexed by the plow and unimpeded by fences — for 
 the cultivation is still confined to the edges of the prairie near the 
 timber, and once beyond this narrow limit, we may go where we 
 will. We pity those who have stayed at home in the dull and 
 sleepy village. We fancy ourselves Bryant's "Hunter of the 
 Prairies," and shout as we coursp over the ground — 
 
 " Aye, this is ireedom ! these pure skies 
 Were never stained with village smoke. 
 The fragrant wind that o'er them flies 
 Is breathed from wastes by plow unbroke!" 
 
 On, on we go, inhaling health and pleasure; the bounding 
 
 pulse, the heaving lungs, and glowing skin, joyfully responding to 
 
 nature's bracing tonic. We scare up now and then a graceful deer, 
 
 or a sneaking wolf, from their lair in the sloughs, and grouse and 
 
 quails at every step. But what is that pretty little black and white 
 
 animal on yonder ridge? This is something new, and we give 
 
 chase. A fierce dog is already on his track, and we follow eager 
 
 to protect the weak and frightened animal from harm. It looks 
 
 like a cat, but it cannot be — a cat would never venture so far from 
 
 home; or, is it a rabbit; yes, it must be, and we are in thorough 
 
 sympathy with Cowper in his hatred of cruel sports, and resolve 
 
 that this poor weak hare also, shall be saved from the cruel dog 
 
 that is already close upon it. We put spurs to our good horse and 
 
 press on, when — whew ! Shade of Lubin ! what is that? Odors 
 
 from Araby! Balm of a thousand flowers! Sweet south wind 
 
 over a bank of violets! The dog beats a hasty retreat, and we 
 
 follow with hand on nose as fast as our good horse can go. We 
 
 waste no more sympathy on pretty little black and white animals, 
 
 on the prairie. Weak ! so far from that, this is the strongest thing 
 
 we ever encountered. Not until we have got a good distance to 
 
 the windward, do we philosophically admire that compensating 
 
 provision of nature which furnishes every animal with some means 
 
 of defense ! 
 
 Well, about three o^cIock the circle has become sufficiently con- 
 13 
 
04 Jolid and Will Countyy Forty Years Ago. 
 
 tractcd. Most of the area can now be seen, A bait is ordered,. 
 and the chosen marksmen step into the area and commence the 
 'tt-ork of destruclion. We do not care to witness this. For the 
 wolves we have no great sympathy — but it is not a pleasant sight 
 to us to see a pretty deer fall before the rifle of the hunter, and 
 when one breaks through the cordon and makes his escape we wish 
 him god-speed. Besides, it is getting late, and we are ten or 
 twelve miles from supper and a bed, which begin now to seem 
 very desirable objects. So we turn our horse's head toward home^ 
 not caring to wait for a share in the wolf scalps, or in the feast of 
 venison with which the hunt is to be crowned. We soon find that 
 •we have to pay for our pleasure by a ride home against a cold wind^ 
 which, hungry as we are, and tired, quite takes all the poetry out 
 of the thing; and by the time we reach home we are so thoroughly 
 demoralized that we creep up to our little crib firmly resolved that 
 this, our first wolf hunt, shall also'be our last ! 
 
 I was confirmed in this resolution, when at the next prayer 
 meeting at the old Union church, to which I then belonged, a 
 jsanctimonious brother, an Englishman of the name of Waters, 
 took us to task for joining in Avorldly amusements ! To be sure 
 the effect of this rebuke was somewhat weakened soon after, when 
 this same sour-visagf d brother indulged himself in the worldly 
 amusement of ihrashiiig his wife ! 
 
 There is one name which ought to have honorable mention in a 
 history of AVill county. Peter Stewart Avas born in Scotland, in 
 the year 1783, at "Callen(yle Ford," in (he parish of "Callender," 
 the spot made classic by the muse of Walter Scott, as the scene of 
 the enconntcr between Roderick Dlui and Fitz James. He came 
 to the United Slates in 1818, married and settled in Amsterdam, 
 N. Y., where he resided until 1835, when he visited this county 
 and purchased land near Winchester, now Wilmington, and re- 
 moved his family there in 1836. Mr. Stewart was a man of con- 
 siderable wealth, which he had made by his shrewdness and energy 
 in connection with public works. He held the position of super- 
 intendent of this canal after its completion. He laid out an addi- 
 tion to Wilmington on Forked Creek, and I believe built a saw 
 mill thereon, and erected a fine mansion on the bluff overlooking 
 
Joliet and Will Cbicntyf Fbrt^ Vearn A;jo. 95 
 
 that stream and the broad and beautiful Kankakee, into which ife 
 empties at this point. Wilmington had early attracted attention 
 as a most desirable locality, on account of" its water-power and the 
 beautiful country by which it is surrounded. At that day no one 
 had suspected that such vast deposits of coal underlayed the prai- 
 rie on the south. He built, as I have said, a mansion, which is 
 even now a large and fine one, but for that day was almost [)ala- 
 tial. He came here in the full vigor of manhood. He was a 
 8cotch Presbyterian, but — or, rather, of course — liberal and cath- 
 olic in his views and feelings. He was a strong advocate of tem- 
 perana? and abolition — always outspoken in his convictions, but 
 courteous and full of Scotch humor and bonhomie Such a man 
 of course made his influence felt in the county, in church and pub- 
 lic affairs. He was for many years the main stay of the Presby- 
 terian church at Wilmington, and a liberal supporter of all moral 
 and philanthropic movements. We always expected to see "Uncle 
 Peter" at all conventions held in the interest of morals and reli- 
 gion, and always drew upon him at sight for liberal contributions, 
 and such drafts were never dishonored. Of Mrs. Stewart, his wife 
 1 know not how to speak in language which will express the ad- 
 miration and regard which the remembrance of her awakens. Al- 
 though it is now many years since she passed from earth — she died 
 in 1846 — her memory is still green in many hearts. I can oidy 
 think of her as perfectly at home in the society of those precious 
 women who ministered to Christ in the days of his flesh,\vho were 
 *' last at the cross, and first at the sepulchre." Well, well do I re- 
 member the sadness which fell upon many hearts in Joliet wlien 
 the tidings came that Mrs. Stewart was dead. Those who ever 
 enjoyed the hospitalities of the Stewart mansion will never forget 
 that pleasant home on the banks of the Kankakee, much less those 
 who made it so rich a treat to make a visit to Wilmington in those 
 early days. 
 
 From what has been said, it will be easily inferred that the 
 house of Peter Stewart was one of the stations on the " under- 
 ground railroad." This was so. His house was always open to 
 the fugitive. Indeed, he used to be called the president of the 
 road. 
 
U JoHet and Wm Covmiy, Forty Yearn Ago. 
 
 On one occasion he had a specimen of the kind on hand, and 
 he took him to a public meeting, where he trotted him out to tell 
 his story. But the poor fellow was so much embarrassed — having 
 never been lionized before — that he made a complete failure — 
 could'nt say a word, Jonathan B., who had hung out a law shin- 
 gle in Wilmington, having studied in Joliet, and who had spoiled 
 a good cabinet-maker to make an ordinary lawyer, thought it 
 was a good chance to banter " Uncle Peter" a little, so he says to 
 him, "Mr. Stewart, had'nt you better keep this fellow here and 
 make a preacher of himf" "Na, no," says Uncle Peter, "we're 
 ga'eu to send him to Joliet, and make a lali-yer of him!" Mr. 
 Stewart died in 1868, at the ripe age of eighty-five. 
 
 Some explanation may be necessary to the younger portion of 
 my audience in respect to the institution of which I have spoken 
 as the " underground railroad." For their information, then, I 
 would say, that in the times of which I speak, there were scat- 
 tered all over the northern states, (and some few also in the south) 
 a class of men who had imbibed the fanatical idea that "all men 
 were created free and equal, and endowed by their creator witii 
 certain inalienable rights, among which were life, liberty, and the 
 pursuit of happiness." I quote the language of an ancient docu- 
 ment on which they greatly relied to justify themselves in these 
 notions. They inferred from this dogma that our southern breth- 
 ren were wrong in holding four millions of their fellow-men in 
 bondage. It was an easy corollary of this — that the slave had a 
 perfect right to run away from his master, and seek refuge from 
 the talons of the American Eagle in the arms of the British Lion, 
 in Canada. A second inference whicli they drew, was, that it was 
 right to help such fugitive, even although our State laws forbid 
 them to give even a crust of bread to any one who was guilty of 
 a colored skin. These fanatical abstract ideas took a practical form 
 in the establishment of numerous lines of communication with 
 Canada through the States bordering upon the Ohio. One of these 
 lines passed through Joliet, and the first station below was Peter 
 Stewarts, and the first one east was Samuel Haven's. I have heard 
 it said, that here in Joliet, there were several places where the fu- 
 gitive could find harbor ! The railroad, or rather the trains upon 
 
/o/ief and WiU Cawtty, Forty Years Ago. 97 
 
 it, generally ran in the night only, as being better fitted for deeds 
 of darkness. 
 
 Being acquainted with several of those fanatics, I had frequent 
 opportunities of conversing with these fugitives, and it is a curious 
 fact, that so ignorant were they, so dulled in moral sense, that I 
 never found one who seemed to feel the least compunction for his 
 escape, although he must have known that he was running off 
 with a piece of property far more valuable than a horse ! Well, 
 these people who thus assisted this kind of property in stealing 
 itself, were of course very obnoxious in the eyes of a virtuous 
 community, and considered unfit for any office of responsibility* 
 although in most other respects I am bound to acknowledge they 
 were very good citizens. They were called by ihe opprobrious 
 name of '* Abolitionists," — a name which was then considered the 
 embodiment of everything despicable. I think time, the great ad- 
 justor, has modified somewhat this feeling against them ; and this, 
 too, although they persisted in their unwise and fanatical course, 
 until our southern brethren were obliged to take up arms against 
 the United States in defense of these rights ! 
 
 I should not wonder if tho?e who still survive of these old 
 abolitionists, should look with peculiar satisfaction upon such hu- 
 miliating sights as were exhibited during the past winter in Con- 
 gress, when such persons as Ranney, Elliott and Cain — who at the 
 time of which I speak wouhl have been obliged to skulk through 
 the free states on this underground railroad, and who if caught 
 would have been handed over to their w^iite masters — now boldly 
 standing up in Congress, and presuming to reply to such men as 
 Cox, Stephens a!)d Kobbins, gentlemen born; and not only reply- 
 ing, but doing it in such a masterly manner as to silence them by 
 their superior logic and eloquence. I am afraid that these old fel- 
 lows enjoy the sight of one of this dispised race now filling Jeff. 
 Davis' seat in the senate, and another owning his plantation I 
 Something of a change, surely, since Peter Stewart, Samuel Cush- 
 ing, Allen Denny and others, were indicted before the Will county 
 circuit court for harboring and feeding just such men ! 
 
 Well, such a state of things as I have described, would of course 
 
98 JolM arid. \VV1 Omntt^y Forty Venr>i Ar/o. 
 
 give rise to " inoidentH." I suppose I ought to ieil oue to illustrate 
 the subject. 
 
 On one occasion, there arrived here on one ot thp night trains, 
 an interesting fugitive of the gentler sex — one who was fleeing 
 from slavery, and soirietliing worse. It was usual to wait over until 
 another night, hut in tliis e^Lse there was reason to apprehend that 
 the pursuer was close U}>on the track, impelled by more than one 
 passion. Hence it was tliought the safer plan to hasten on. For- 
 tunately it was winter, and the morning was snowy and the sleigh- 
 ing good. So Dr. Adams, who was one of the fanatics of that day, 
 Lrought out his horse and cutter, and a friend of mine, another 
 fanatic, handed into the sleigh a lady closely veiled, and taking the 
 ribbons, started out on a sleigh ride. He drove boldly through 
 the streets, returning the salutations of all he met, who naturally 
 supposed he was taking a ride with his wife. The sleighing was 
 good, the horse fleet, and although the morning^ was cold, they were 
 nicely tucked in with plenty of blankets, buffalo robes and hot 
 bricks, while the excitement of the affair helped to render liim in- 
 sensible to the cold. After getting out of town he dismissed all 
 fears of detection, and thoroughly enjoyed the romance of the sit- 
 uation. He felt like some Don Quixote, rescuing a captive maidec 
 from her foes. He listened with rapt attention to the thrilling 
 story of her sufi^rings and her escape, hot recusing to open hia 
 heart in tender sympathy, because, forsooth, her skin was tinged 
 witli olive. Thus they sped, swiftly and prosperously over the 
 ground, until in passing through the timber at Van Home's point, 
 my friend having got a little careless perhaps in his driving, the 
 cutter struck a stump, and, presto change! io the twinkling of an 
 eye, knight errant, captive maiden, buffalo robes, blankets and hot 
 bricks, were scattered promiscuously in the snow ! The horse, 
 loosened from the cutter, went on! Here was a situation indeed! 
 but the romance had vanished! To add to his embarrassment, 
 tliey were near the house of a well-known negro hater, and he 
 dare not apply ior hel|), and would be only too glad if not discov- 
 ered. Fortunately the horse did not go iur before he stopped, 
 turned round, and "smiling, looked upon the wreck he made." 
 My friend approaolied him with the most pathetic appeals to him 
 
Joliet and Will (ountf/, Forty Yearn Ago 99 
 
 to staj. The horse seemed to be touehcd with a pity that was 
 more than liuman, and allowed himself to be caught and bro'ight 
 back, and attached to the cutter. But tJiis could only be done in 
 an imperfect manner, as the whiffletree attachment was broken. 
 My friend had to send the rescued maiden on ahead, while he fol- 
 lowed leading the horse. After a tramp of two miles, which the 
 rescued maiden stood much better than he did, they arrived at the 
 hospitable mansion of Samuel Haven, fortunately without meeting 
 a single soul. A good dinner and plenty of hot coffee restored the 
 spirits both of knight and maiden, and the cutter being in the 
 meantime repaired, after a tender parting with the rescued maiden, 
 our knight returned to the city, on the whole well satisfied with the 
 adventure. Afterwards, however, when the story leaked out, he 
 was not a little annoyed at times, when the neighbors asked him 
 if he had a pleasant ride with his wife ! 
 
 But it was not only the actual fugitive from slavery that was 
 in danger of the man-stealer in this State. Our laws presumed 
 every man who had a trace of African blood in his veins to be a 
 slave, and the burden of proof was thrown upon him. If he 
 could not show free papers he could be arrested, thrown into jail, 
 and advertised like a stray pig, and any one who could make out 
 a plausible claim, could take him on payment ot jail and printer's 
 fees; and if no one claimed him, he could be sold temporarily to 
 the highest bidder, to pay the charges. 
 
 We had, here in Joliet, a colored boy of the name of Henry 
 Belt. He was a freeman, and had in his possession a paper issued 
 by some clerk in Pennsylvania, I think, certifying to his freedom. 
 Henry was a barber at the Exchange, and very popular, and had 
 many friends despite the color of his skin. He was thus exposed 
 to the eyes of a couple of professional slave hunters. They .=aw 
 that he was a nice boy, and would be worth probably two or three 
 thousand dollars in the St. Louis market. While one of them 
 stays to watch the game, the other went to Missouri and gets some 
 trumpt up claim for a runaway slave, answering to Henry's de- 
 scription. They had him arrested, and he was taken before a jus- 
 tice of the pca^e, known to be a negro-haler, and by him he was 
 quickly handed over to the men-stealers. But Henry had friends 
 
lOO Joiiei and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 who wonid not allow this without a struggle to save him, and be- 
 fore they could get away with their prey a writ of habeas corpus 
 was procured, and he was brought before the Circuit Judge for an- 
 other investigation. All this of course produced great excitement. 
 The feeling of indignation was not confined to Abolitionists. In 
 fact the efforts in his behalf were mainly made by those who would 
 have scorned the name. The trial came off in the old jail, (now 
 demolished). The court room was filled to overflowing with par- 
 ties for and against the victim. The men-stealers produced their 
 proof, and Henry showed his paper. But the judge was of the 
 same stripe as the justice, and while he summed up the matter in 
 a long opinion worthy of " Dogberry," it became apparent how 
 the matter would go; and when he concluded by deciding that the 
 kipnappers should hav^e their victim, there was great rejoicing on 
 their part. They already began to count their chickens, and they 
 turn round to take possession of the prize, when lo! like the Irish- 
 man's flea, he was not there ! While all eyes had been intent upon 
 the learned Judge, and ajl ears listening to his profound utter- 
 ances, Henry's friends had quietly taken possession of the stair- 
 way and the space between it and Henry, in the supposed custody 
 of the sheriff, and he had been very quietly slipped through the 
 crowd, and was ^^non ed inventus!" Great was the excitement 
 •when the fact was known. The kidnappers were raving. They 
 found great difficulty in getting out of the Court House — every- 
 body seemed to be in their way. When they got out, they and 
 those of the crowd who sympathized, of course made at once for 
 the bouses of the "dam'd abolitionits," to search for their victim. 
 Some admitted them — others kept them out, and demanded legal 
 :steps before they would submit to have their homes searched, which 
 only made the kidnappers more certain that the prey was there. 
 I remember one humble house which the crowd threatened to pull 
 down — but they didn't. All this delay was favorable to the escape 
 of Henry. Well, all the search was vain. Henry was nowhere 
 to be found — never was found ; and after hanging around town for 
 a few days the kidnappers gave up the job, believing that he had 
 escaped by that mysterious means, the "underground railroad." 
 The feet was, the abolitionists had nothing to do with Henry'« 
 
JoUet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 101 
 
 escape, and knew iiotliing about it. It was effected by different 
 parties altogether, and Henry Avas concealed for a while in the old 
 wooden block on Chicago street, which was not an abolition block ! 
 1 guess Frank Mitchell, now of Wilmington, could tell something 
 about it. 
 
 I believe that this occurred while liisley was sheriff. It used 
 to be said that that old jail never could hold a negro under his ad- 
 ministration. I do not think that this ought to subject his mem- 
 ory to very much obloquy. 
 
 I want you to take one more ride with me into the country. 
 This time it is summer, and we will go on a sweet and pleasant 
 <'rrand — in search of honey! You are probably aware that the 
 honey-bee is the precursor of civilization, and that she stores her 
 sweets in hollow trees. Hence among the characters well known 
 in early times, is the " bee-hunter." We had such a one in the 
 early day, a well-known pioneer and famous hunter. Wo to the 
 deer on whom he "drew a sight" with his deadly rifle, and a 
 a "bee on the wing" he soon tracked to her hidden storehouse. 
 One time some of our women heard that he had found a 
 well-stocked bee-tree, and it was proposed that they should 
 make up a load, and go down and have a honey feast. Some of 
 them had often been urged by the hospitable family to make the visit. 
 So they got up a party, and Mrs. Wilson, the wife of our well-known 
 friend, the Judge, was invited to go along. She was a new-comer 
 then — a bride which the Judge had just brought from Lowell. 
 Wishing to see as much as possible of western life, she accepted the 
 invitation, remarking that she loas very fond ef honey. Well, the dis- 
 tance was not far, and in due time they came in sight of the hunt- 
 er's log cabin in the edge of the timber. As they drew near they were 
 not a little surprised to see three or four big, bouncing girls come 
 out of the house with divers articles of apparel in their hands, and 
 disappear behind some hay stacks. They conjectured what the 
 reason of the movement was, on entering the house and finding 
 tlmt it consisted of but one room, in which all the operations of 
 eating, cocking, sleeping, washing and dressing had to be per- 
 formed; and when, after a little, the girls re-appeared dressed in 
 their best "Turkey red," to assist their mother in entertaining the 
 
 13 
 
102 JoUet and Will Count;/, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 visitors, they understood the meaning of the moveraent. Mrs. 
 Wilson, lo whom everything was a new experience, wondereH what 
 the girls did when they had no hay stacks. She conjectured, too, 
 from the appearance of the two be Is which occupied one end of 
 the cabin, that of the several operations I have named, one 
 was often omitted. She studied, too, on the problem how 
 all the persons that seemed to belong to the family could be dis- 
 posed of in those two beds, without violating the proprieties ; never 
 dreaming that the pegs which projected from the wall in one 
 corner were the means of ascent to a loft above, where the hoys 
 could sleep, or watch the stars through the "shakes" which formed 
 the roof. She wondered, too, where the honey, and other family stores 
 could be kept, as there was no indication of closet or pantry to 
 be seen. With such queries Mrs. W. occupied her mind, while the 
 object of their visit had been broached by the other ladies, and the 
 hostess commenced preparations for the feast of honey. Mrs. 
 Wilson, who kept close watch of every movement soon saw where 
 they kept things. The good hostess having fresliened up the fire, 
 and put over the bake kettle, drew forth from under one of the 
 beds, an ohl-fashioned cradle, which, being for the time released 
 from its normal use, was compelled to do duty as a flour chest. In 
 this she mixed up the quick biscuit, which were to serve as u vehi- 
 cle for the honey; and she and her girls drew. forth from the same 
 mysterious region, the various articles necessary to spread the 
 board, and among the rest the vessel of honey so ardently longed 
 for. Presently, all being ready, the ladies were invited to "draw 
 up." This they eagerly did — all but Mrs. Wilson. She had not 
 got hardened to frontier life. The close observation which she had 
 kept upon the operations of the hostess, and the glimpses she had 
 caught of the mysterious region where they Z;ep< things, had taken 
 away her appetite. She suddenly remembered that ^^ honey did not 
 agree with her, in fad always made her sick!" And so she sat 
 looking on with no little astonishment and disgust at the way the 
 biscuits and honey disappeared ; while the others compassionated 
 her for her abnormal and sensitive stomach ! I presume she 
 learned, in time, that it is not best to be too fastidious, or to watch 
 things too close in a new country. And that is the moral of this 
 story. 
 
Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. lOH 
 
 I believe 1 have nowhere mentioned the name of Jesse O. Nor- 
 ton. It won't do to overlook the Judge in a history of the early 
 days of Joliet, for although not among the first, he was one of our 
 early acquisitions. He came, I believe, in 1838 or 9, and was for 
 many years a prominent lawyer and politician, holding the offices 
 of Probate Judge, Circuit Judge, and member of Congress. It 
 is but a few years since he departed this life — for Chicago; and 
 he is so well known that I need say no more. But there is a good 
 story of him which I might tell. I could'nt tell any but a good 
 one if I would, and I would not if I could ; for having gone, as I 
 said, to Chicago, I hold that the maxim, "nil nisi bonum mor- 
 tuum," ought to apply. This story belongs to Judge McRoberts, 
 and I only borrow it, as a man would an umbrella — for the occa- 
 sion. You ought to hear the Judge tell it; but perhaps you never 
 will have a chance, and so I try my hand at it, and with this I will 
 conclude. 
 
 While Judge Norton was in Congress he availed himself largely 
 of the "garden seed" dodge to make new frieuds, and show his 
 o!d ones that they were remembered. I remember to have seen 
 once, one of his rooms full of great bags of seeds — enough to 
 .stock a Rochester seed store. Well, one time he received through 
 the postoffice a box marked " Yarn Seed." He took it up to his 
 office, opened it, and saw that it was lull of a very fine seed, which 
 looked — for all the world — just like sand. Now Horticulture was 
 not the Judge's "strong holt," in fact he knew no more about 
 seeds than a man "living in the tropics knows of icicles." Of 
 coui'se he had no idea what "yam .seed" was, or how it ought to 
 look ; but he was very much gratified that Uncle Sam had sent 
 him such a fine lot for distribution. He \eft the box on his desk 
 and went out to invite some of his friends to come up and get 
 some "yam seed." While he was gone his partner happened to 
 come in, and noticed the liox; running his fingers down into it, 
 he fished out three or four little tubers, about the size of your fin- 
 ger — the real "vam seed." These he laid away in his desk, 
 smoothed over the contents oi the box, and sat down to business. 
 Soon Norton came in, with three or four friends he had found, and 
 some wrapping paper, and proceeded to distribute freely of the 
 ''yam seed." Some remarked how fine it was, and how much it 
 
104 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 looked like sand, " Oh, yes/' says the Judge, "it does indeed, 
 but I have just got it out of the post office, and it's all right — a 
 very valuable thing it is — take it home and sow it, and let me 
 know whatyou think of it." His partner kept dark, although it 
 was hard work to keep from an explosion. Norton kept on some 
 days dispensing his "yam seed." At last he got hold of a man 
 who knew what " yam seed " was, and then the joke came out, 
 and poor Norton found that he had been distributing, and his friends 
 had been sovnng Potomac sand, for " Yam Seed!" 
 
 N. B. — Chicago papers are forbidden to copy this story, as it 
 has been copyrighted — for the benefit of Judge McE-oberts. 
 
 Probably, the most sensible way in which I could close this 
 lecture, would be simply to stop ! But bear with rae while I in- 
 dulge in a parting word or two. The work of gathering these 
 reminiscences has been a labor of love. I came to this spot when 
 a young man, and here I deposited ray first ballot, and here I have 
 lived almost forty years. Within tliis period, many liave been 
 born and died. Nine ])residential elections have agitated the 
 country. Two wars have stirred our patriotism, ani sacrified our 
 brothers and sons. Slavery has been abolished throughout the 
 land. Railroads, of which there was then less than fifty miles, 
 now spread like a spider's web over all our territory, and bring 
 into neighborhood the Atlantic and the Pacific. Immense terri- 
 tories have been added to our domain, yielding their rich products 
 and deposits to the labor of our people. How much, bow much, 
 of human history has bee;i crowded into this forty years! The 
 mind is overwhelmed at an attempt to realize it. 
 
 I love my native State, especially that 1 eautiful spot in the 
 valley of the Oriskany where I was born; but, most of all, I love 
 this snot, where I have lived these forty years of my manhood, and 
 where I expect to die. I love its memories and associations, sad 
 though many of them are. All these years I have watched the 
 growing city, from almost the first log hut to this just completed 
 Opera House. It is hardly an exaggeration to say, that I have 
 seen every plank and every stone that have gone into its construc- 
 tion. And though very little of it all stands in my name upon 
 the county records, (for which I am devoutly thankful once a 
 
Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 105 
 
 year!) yet it is all — all mine; for I have the highest, richest use 
 of it all! 
 
 A splendid sight it used to be, in the early days, when the city 
 had not extended beyond Scott street on the east, when the rank- 
 grass of the slough and of the spring creek bottom were burning 
 over at night! A cordon of lire, with its fierce, roaring and hur- 
 rying flames, stretched from the river below all around the ea.-)t 
 to the river again on the north, lighting up the whole heavens with 
 its lurid glow. It almost seemed an anticipation of the final con- 
 flagration. And when, its force having been spent, there Avas left 
 all along its track, the scattered fires of the still burning hillocks, 
 it needed but little imagination to fancy them the camp-fires of a 
 mighty host beleaguering the city. 
 
 But it is a richer, if not so grand a sight, now to look out at 
 night from the same bluff u])on the extended city, and see the gas 
 lamps in long array up and down the streets, like sentinels keep- 
 ing watch over the place; arc! the other lights which shine out 
 from thousands of homes, telling of the happy families gathered 
 around the evening lamp; — and looking northward, see the great 
 fires of the iron mills belching forth their lurid flames from so 
 many chimneys — seeming to realize the fables of Tartarus, and 
 of Vulcan and his Cyclops, forging the thunderbolts of Jupiter. 
 
 And a beautiful sight it is now, in the early morning, to look 
 out again upon the awakening city, and note the great columns of 
 smoke and steam going up from its mills, and foundries, and man- 
 ufactories; and mingling with these the lesser columns, ascending 
 from thousands of fire sides, telling of the happy families gathered 
 again around the morning meal; — and, added to these, the long 
 trails of smoke and steam which stretch out after the flying rail- 
 way trains, like great anacondas in swift pursuit. These arc sights 
 of which the eye never tires, and never will tire, until closed in its 
 last sleep. And this f:uggests my closing thought. On all these 
 wooded bluffs which encircle the city and so delight the eye, 
 whether in their summer greenness or in the rich and varied hues 
 of autumn, there is left only here and there an aged oak, of all the 
 trees which clothed them forty years ago. All the rest have given 
 place, one by one, and year after year, imperceptibly but surely, 
 
106 Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 to another growth, younger and more vigorous. So now, among 
 all those who walk our streets and fill these homes and places of 
 business, there is left only here and there a whitening head of those 
 who witnessed the beginnings of which we have been speaking. 
 And "yet a few days," and these 
 
 " The all-beholding sun shnll see no more 
 In all his coarse!" 
 
 Does this seem a sad refrain with which to close ? It will not, 
 if we have given heed to those other words of the same sweet poet: 
 
 "So live, that when thy summons comes to join 
 The innumerable caravan, that moves 
 To that mysterious realm, where each shall take 
 His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
 Thou go not, like the quarrj'-- slave at night, 
 Scourged to his dungeon, — but, sustained and soothed 
 By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave. 
 Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
 About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams ! " 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTES AND CORRECTIONS. 
 
 I. In the list of tirst settlers on Hickory Creek, page 13, the name of 
 " Henry Watkins " should be substituted for that of " Peter Watkins," and 
 the latter name should be added to the Jackson Grove list, and it was the son 
 of the latter who taught the school in that locality. The sons of Henry 
 Watkins were, John (the old school teacher) and Morgan, a well-known citi- 
 zen and soldier. John Watkins came to Chicago in 1832, just as Scott was 
 leaving for the West after the close of the war. He opened a school in an 
 old log stable on the North side, near the river. After a little he got better 
 quarters, in Father Walker's (the old pioneer) double log house. In one end 
 of this Walker lived, and in the other held his meetings, and this I'oom he 
 allowed Watkins to occupy with his school. Thus, then, as in all its history, 
 has the living Church fostered education. 
 
 It was in 1836 that John Watkins came to .Joliet, and taught in the old 
 school house on the classic borders of Comstock's pond. 
 
Joliet and Will County, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 107 
 
 II An error also occurred in the date of the first Fourth of Jnlj* cele- 
 bration. It should have been 1830, one year later. I am glad that I have 
 discovered this error in time to be corrected here, as it was i)utting alto- 
 gether too much upon one day — the first celebration of our Independence, 
 and the first wedding celebration too! Besides, it subjected my credibility 
 as a historian to a pretty severe strain when I made "the Doctor" read the 
 Declaration, after partaking of that wedding collation ! 
 
 III. I was also wrong in the conjecture that Edward Poor was the first 
 settler in Yankee .Settlement. Mr. Poor himself, states that Mr. Pettyjohn 
 was the first, having come as early as 1829. 
 
 IV. Some few typographical errors have escaped correction, which my 
 readers (if I should have any) can correct for themselves. 
 
 p s —The writer was not strons; in the Latin forty yeirs ago;— it is not strangp, then, that 
 after so many years' rust, he should have blumere'l in quoting the maxim, " Do mortiiis nil nisi 
 boinim " on page 103. For tht. henefit of those who may know even \et% Latin than he does, he 
 now gives it in English : ' Of the dead, (speak) nothing but good." 
 
 The following list of business men and firms, and professional 
 men and mechanics, who flourished during the first decade of our his- 
 tory, may be interesting to some: 
 
 MERCH.ANTS AND GKOCERS. 
 
 VVilliam Sherriff. 
 W. H. Demmond. 
 
 A. W. Bowen. 
 Russel Frary. 
 Charles Clement. 
 Bassett & Col ton. 
 
 John L. ifc Richard L. Wilson. 
 George Woodrufl". 
 Fellows & Doolittle. 
 J. A. Matteson. 
 Demmond &, Woodruff. 
 Demmond, Curry & Co. 
 Clement & Wilcox. 
 Wm. Blair & Co. 
 
 B. & T. Allen <fc Co. 
 Wm. G. Hubbard <fe Co. 
 Roberts tfc Whitehead. 
 Henry Bailj^ & Bro. 
 George West. 
 
 Daniel Ratti-ay. 
 
 F. Mack, Boots and Shoes. 
 
 Wm. H. Brown, 
 
 Davis 6: Burgess. 
 
 Taylor, Breeze * Co. 
 
 Tuthill King, Clothing. 
 
 J. A. Smith. Hats and Caps. 
 
 Elias Haven. 
 
 R. E. W. Adams, Drugs. 
 
 Haven & Rood, " 
 
 Adams & Glover, " 
 
 Glover & Woodruff, " 
 
 Geo. H. Woodruff, 
 
 Scholfield & Little, 
 
 Allen Pratt. 
 
 O. H. Pratt & Co., 
 
 J. W. Taylor. 
 
 Franklin, Mitchell & Rolf. 
 
 Hopkins & Morris. 
 
 Finch, Lowe & Green. 
 
 Matteson <fe Shoemaker. 
 
 R. C. Duncan. 
 
 Duncan & Fake. 
 
 John B. Woodruff. 
 
 McDougall & Cagwin. 
 
 Daggett & Chatfield. 
 
 Wm. Walters. 
 
 S. B. Brown. 
 
 •J. J. Garland, Clothing. 
 
 Lewis Mason. 
 
:08 
 
 Joliet and Wi/l Countij, Forty Years Ago. 
 
 List of Business ^fKX, ktc. — Concluded. 
 
 C. S. Fassett. 
 Frank Baker. 
 Aaron Kinney, Jetveler. 
 Miv DeBerurd, " 
 Charles Saver, Tailor. 
 Burton & Reader, '* 
 George Squires, " 
 F. Nicholson, " 
 
 Abel Gilbert, Wagonmaker. 
 J. Beavimont, '* 
 
 R. House, " 
 
 Joel George, Carpenter. 
 O. F. Rogers, " 
 
 Otis Hardy, " 
 
 Gould, *' 
 
 Pratt <fc Richardson, C'a6me<i\faA;ers 
 
 H. N. Marsh, " 
 
 O. W. Stillrnan, Shoemaker. 
 
 Johnson <k Wilcox, " 
 
 Hunter & McMasters, Blacksmithn. 
 
 E. R. Atwill. 
 
 Chas. W. Brandon, Stone Cutter. 
 
 James Brodie, " 
 
 E. C. Fellows, Lawyer. 
 
 C. C. Pepper, " 
 
 J. C. Newkirk, " 
 
 John M. Wilson, " 
 
 Uri Osgood, " 
 
 Hugh Henderson, " 
 
 Wm. A. Boardman, " 
 
 D. L. Gregg, Lawyer. 
 Chas. Gardner, " 
 
 R. E. W. Adams, Physician. 
 Daniel Reed, " 
 
 A. VV. Bo wen, " 
 
 M. K. Bromson, " 
 
 J. S. Glover, 
 A. M. G. Conislock, " 
 
 Little, 
 
 Wm. Scholfield, " 
 
 Curtis Haven, " 
 
 Simon Z. Haven, " 
 
 J. D. Baleh, Printer. 
 
 Hudson, " 
 
 O. Hardy, P'i.st Lumber Dealer. 
 Benjaaiin F. Barker, Livery. 
 
 HOTKLS. 
 
 E. E. Bush, Old American. 
 Isaac Merrill, " 
 Isaac Fillmore, " 
 George Higley, Higley House. 
 Seely,^ 
 
 F. Nicholson, " 
 Elhanan Gay, National. 
 
 Jas. A. Troutman, Juliet Hotel. 
 
 Wm. H. Blackburn, 
 
 Fenner Aldrich, " 
 
 Daniel H. Wade, 
 
 Enoch S. Blackstone, Kvchange. 
 
 Thos. J. Wade, 
 
 Jacob Patrick, Waving Banner. 
 
 Wm. E. Little, 
 
 Besides there was a full supply of grocery-keepers, as they were then 
 called, whose names I will not perpetuate. I suppose they kept a lull sup- 
 ply of samples. 
 

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