THE HISTORY OF JO DAVIESS COUNTY ILLINOIS, CONTAINING A HISTORY OF THE COUNTY-ITS CITIES, TOWNS, ETC. A BIOGRAPHical direcCTORY OF ITS CITIZENS, WAR RECORD OF ITS VOLUNTEERS IN THE LATE REBELLION, GENERAL AND LOCAL STATISTICS, PORTRAITS OF EARLY SETTLERS AND PROMINENT MEN, HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST, HISTORY OF ILLINOIS, ILLUSTRATED. CHICAGO: H, F. KETT & CO., TIMES BUILDING, 1878, Nearly sixty years have come and gone since white men came to occupy and develop the rich mineral and agricultural lands of the Fever River country. These years were full of changes and of history, and had some of the vigorous minds and ready pens of the early settlers been directed to the keeping of a chronological journal or diary of events, to write a history of the country now would be a comparatively easy task. In the absence of such records, the magnitude of the undertaking is very materially increased, and rendered still more intricate and difficult by reason of the absence of nearly all the pioneer fathers and mothers who came here more than half a century ago. Of those who came here in pursuit of fortunes and homes, between 1821 and 1827, and who founded the City of Galena, only a very few are left to greet those who now come to write the history of their county—a county second to none in point of historic interest. The struggles, changes and vicissitudes that fifty years evoke are as trying to the minds as to the bodies of men. Physical and mental strength waste away together beneath accumulating years, and the memory of names, dates and important events become buried in the confusion brought by time and its restless, unceasing changes. Circumstances that were fresh in memory ten and twenty years after their occurrence, are almost, if not entirely, forgotten when fifty years have gone, and if not entirely lost from the mind, they are so nearly so that, when recalled by one seeking to preserve them, their recollection comes slowly back, more like the memory of a midnight dream than of an actual occurrence in which they were partial, if not active, participants. The footprint of time leaves its impressions and destroying agencies upon every thing, and hence it would be unreasonable to suppose that the annals, incidents and happenings of more than fifty years in a community like that whose history we have attempted to write, could be preserved intact and umbroken. The passage of several years was recorded on the pages of time after the first settlement was made at Galena by white men, before any written records of a public nature were made. The first and only record we were able to find was a poll book of an election held in Fever River Precinct, Peoria County, August 7, 1826-one year previous to the organization of Jo Daviess County-and this record, with the names of 202 voters, was procured from the archives of the County Clerk's office at Peoria. With this single exception the gentlemen entrusted with the duty of writing this history were forced to depend upon the memory and intelligence of the few surviving pioneers for a very large share of facts and information herein presented, until after the organization of the County and the first session of the County Commissioners Court, in June, 1827. For reasons already indicated, it is not to be expected that this volume will be entirely accurate in all its details of names, dates, etc., or that it will be so perfect as to be above and beyond criticism, for the book is yet to be written and printed that can justly claim the meed of perfection; but it is the publishers' hope, as it is their belief, that it will be found measurably correct and generally accurate and reliable. Industrious and studied care has been exercised to make it a standard book of reference, as well as a book of interest to the general reader. In the absence of written records, recourse was had to the minds of such of the “ Old Settlers" as have been spared to see the wilds of 1821-'5 reduced from Indian hunting grounds and camping places to the abode of thrift, wealth, intelligence, refinement-schools, colleges, churches and cities. In seeking to supply such missing links by personal interviews, different individuals would render different and conflicting, although honest and sincere, accounts of the same events and circumstances. To sift these statements and arrive at the most reasonable and tangible conclusions, was a delicate task, but a task we sought to discharge with the single purpose of writing of incidents as they actually transpired. If in such a multiplicity of names, dates, etc., some errors are not detected, it will be strange, indeed. But, such as it is, our offering is completed, and it only remains for us to acknowledge our obligations to the gentlemen named below for the valuable information furnished by them, without which this history of Jo Daviess County would not be so nearly perfect as it is. To Captain DANIEL SMITH HARRIS, Dr. E. G. NEWHALL, WILLIAM HEMPSTEAD, Esq., JOHN LORRAIN, Esq., DANIEL WANN, Esq., Capt. GEORGE W. GIRDON, H. H. HOUGHTON, Esq., J. M. HARRIS, R. S. NORRIS, Esq., Judge W. R. ROWLEY, L. A. ROWLEY, Esq., FREDERICK STAHL, Esq., GEO. FERGUSON, Esq., ALLEN TOMLIN, Esq., D. W. Scott, Esq., WM. H. SNYDER, Esq., W. W. HUNTINGTON, Esq., B. C. ST. CYR, Esq., A. M. HAINES, Esq., STEPHEN MARSDEN, and others of Galena; Augustus Switzer, Esq., Mayor THOMAS MAGUIRE and C. S. BUSH, Dunleith; HARVEY MANN, of Vinegar Hill; W. O. GEAR, of Okahoma, Iowa; HIRAM B. HUNT and JAMES W. WHITE, of Hanover; Hon. H. S. TOWNSEND, of Warren; WILLIAM T. GEAR, of Guilford; Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, Gen. A. L. CHET LAIN, Gen. JOHN C. SMITH, of Chicago, this paragraph of acknowledgement is therefore respectfully dedicated. To the venerable Mrs. FRENTRESS, widow of ELEAZER FRENTRESS, wife and mother of the first white family to settle in what is now Dunleith Township, we are also indebted for the early history of that part of the county. To the press of Galena-Messrs. BROWN and PERRIGO, of the Gazette, and Messrs. CUMINGS and SCOTT, of the Industrial Press-to the county, city and various township authorities, to the ministers and official representatives of the various churches, and to the Principals and Teachers of the schools of the county we are also under obligations for statistical and historical information, without which this volume would be incomplete. To the parties named above is due, in a large measure, whatever of merit may be ascribed to this undertaking. To the people of the county in general, and the people of Galena in particular, our -most grateful considerations are due for their universal kindness and courtesy to our representatives and agents, to whom was entrusted the labor of collecting and arranging the information herein preserved to that posterity that will come in the not far distant by-andby to fill the places of the fathers and mothers, so many of whose names and honorable biographies are to be found in the pages of this book. In conclusion, the publishers can but express the earnest desire that before another fifty years will have passed, other and abler minds will have taken up and recorded the historical events that will follow after the close of this offering to the people of Jo Daviess County, that the historical literature of the country may be fully preserved and maintained complete from county to nation. March, 1878. H. F. KETT & Co., Publishers. |