History of Will County
1878

By Hon. George H. Woodruff.

INTRODUCTORY.

It is probably well known to most who will read these pages, that the writer, some few years since, delivered two lectures on the early history of Joliet and Will County, which Mr. James Goodspeed thought worth printing and publishing. Those lectures were hastily prepared, and the record which they gave was very imperfect. Many names of early settlers were overlooked, and one entire settlement was strangely omitted in copying. The writer is, therefore very glad of an opportunity to revise and rewrite the sketch, adding many more names of the first settlers and noticing many matters in our later history. We will, at the same time, omit much that appears in "Forty Years Ago," that was not strictly historical. There will be found in the following pages brief notices, also, of many of our early prominent citizens who have passed away. But no one will be more sensible than the writer that the record will still be imperfect, and that some names will probably be left out, and many matters escape notice which some one will think to be unpardonable omissions. This is one of the things which detract from the pleasure of writing local annals; but it seems unavoidable, as no one can know and remember everything, and both the time and space allotted to the writer are limited.

In one respect, the writer is happy. In the previous effort to preserve a little of our early history, the letter "I" occurred quite often—disagreeably so. The writer did not then know that he had the right to use the word "we." He supposed that the editorial fraternity had the exclusive privilege of hiding behind that impenetrable shield. But having discovered that there is no law to prevent its free use by any one who desires to do so, he has adopted it and will use it freely, leaving the reader to guess when it means only the writer and when it means a clique, a city, a township or a county.

The writer regrets that circumstances have made him a fixture in Joliet, and that, like the sessile crustacean known as the barnacle, he cannot go about in search of historic food, and can only gather up that which comes within the reach of his tentacles. But, fortunately, he is to be followed now by others, who will gather up the history of each township separately, and will thus record the many names and facts which he will overlook. This, too, will atone for the prominence which he has given to Joliet—a thing which was unavoidable, as an annalist must necessarily say most about events and circumstances "most of which he saw, and part of which he was."

BOUNDARIES AND TOPOGRAPHY.

Will County, as it is now constituted, consists of twenty-three and about one-half townships of land, and is bounded on the north by Du Page and Cook Counties; on the east by Cook County and the State of Indiana; on the south by Kankakee County, and on the west by Grundy and Kendall Counties. It has an area, therefore, of (about) 541,440 acres, or 840 square miles. In its widest part it is (about) thirty-seven and one-half miles east and west, and thirty-six miles north and south. The fractional half township is occasioned by its embracing a strip about one and a half sections wide of Townships 33 and 34 north, Range 15 east, which lie between Range 14 and the State line, and are added to the towns of Crete (34) and Washington (33). Otherwise, and excepting the towns of Wesley and Custer (which are divided by the Kankakee), and the town of Reed, which is the west half of T. 32, R. 9, the town organizations are identical with the survey of townships—that is, each town consists of a township of land. This will be apparent at once to the eye by reference to the map which forms a part of this work.

The plan of survey, which was early established for the public lands, renders the description and identification of tracts of land easy and certain. This plan, which is said to have been devised by Thomas Jefferson, and was adopted in 1786, consists in establishing, first, at convenient distances, meridian lines, which are called "principal meridians," and which are started from some well-known point and are run due north and south. Next, a parallel of latitude is run at right angles with the meridian, and is called the base line. From these main lines others are run, called township lines, just six miles each way, which divide the land into townships of six miles square, which are subdivided into thirty-six sections, of 640 acres each, which can again be subdivided, by imaginary lines, into quarters, half-quarters, etc. The lines running north and south divide the townships into ranges; and those running east and west, into townships. The meridian line from whch we count starts from the mouth of the Ohio River, and is the Third Principal Meridian. Our ranges are east of this meridian, and the townships are north of the base line. The base line from which we count is somewhat below Centralia, so that the southern line of townships in our county is 32 north, and the western range is 9 east. It is from this Third Principal Meridian that most of the State of Illinois is surveyed. By this simple mode of survey, any piece of land is definitely and easily described, even down to ten acres. In all townships the sections are numbered, beginning at the northeast corner and numbering through first course west, then returning on the second, and so on through the township. Of course, along large rivers and on lakes, fractional sections occur. Plats of the surveys are recorded in the general and local land offices, and secton corners are marked on the prairie by stakes, and in timber by "blazed" trees.

The county is largely prairie, although it exhibits a great variety of soil and surface. There are several townships in which there is not a stick of timber (except as introduced by cultivation), yet considerable bodies of timber are found along the streams, and in isolated groves which were early called "islands." In the early settlement of the county, and of the Northwest generally, the settlers were very careful to select locations adjacent to some grove, and to secure a timber lot was deemed indispensable to settlement. It was then supposed that the prairie land two or three miles from timber would be always open to the range of cattle. The prairie is generally of the kind called high or rolling, and many of the low portions were called "sloughs," as they contained water except in the dry season. There is, however, very little of actual swamp land (although considerable was returned as such) in the county, and at present scarcely an acre that is not inclosed. The system of drainage by tiles is coming largely into use, which is making the "sloughs" the most valuable portions of the land.

The county is well watered, except in the eastern townships, which are the highest part of the county. A considerable stream is the Des Planes,* or as it is often called, the Aux Planes, which rises far to the north (in Wisconsin) and passing through Lake and Cook Counties, enters this county on Section 24, Township 37 North, Range 10 East, or the town of Dupage, and passes on through the towns of Lockport (Township 36 North, Range 10 East), and Joliet (Township 35 North, Range 10 East), a corner of Troy, and through Channahon (Township 34 North, Range 9 East), into the edge of Grundy County, where it is united to the Kankakee, and with it forms the Illinois. Just before leaving the county, it is united with the Du Page, a beautiful stream of about the same size and naturally the fullest in dry seasons, which rises in the northern part of Du Page County, where it is fed by copious springs, and enters this county in the town of Dupage by two branches—East and West Du Page—is united on Section 7 of the township, passes through the towns of Wheatland, Plainfield and Troy, and unites with the Des Planes in the town of Channahon. This union of the two rivers (by the way) is what gives rise to the name Channahon, that word being the Pottawatomie word for "meeting of the waters." The name was given to it by Judge Peck, one of the early settlers in that locality, of whom mention is made elsewhere. The Kankakee, which is the largest, perhaps larger than the Du Page and Des Planes united, enters the county at the southeast corner of Township 32, Range 10, and dividing it unequally, passes into Township 32, Range 9, then into Township 33, Range 9, which forms the town of Wilmington, near the southeast corner,

*We give what we believe the correct spelling of the name, although it is often spelled O'PIain. We suppose the word to be of French origin, and that the meaning is the river of planes, or button-woods, which resemble the European plane tree.

and, passing through the town diagonally, goes into Grundy County near the northeast corner of the town. A smaller stream, known as Hickory Creek, and which on some old maps was put down as Joliet River, which rises in Cook County, enters the town of Frankfort (Township 35, Range 12 East), passes through it and New Lenox (Township 35, Range 11), and empties into the Des Planes in the town of Joliet, just below the city. Of these streams, the Du Page, the Des Planes and the Kankakee afford good water-powers, which have been more or less improved as will be elsewhere noted. Hickory Creek has also a good water-power at times. Besides these there are minor streams of much value as water-courses. The most considerable are Forked Creek, which enters the Kankakee in the town of Wilmington; Prairie Creek, which enters the Kankakee from the northeast in the township of Wilmington; Jackson Creek, which enters the Des Planes from the east in the town of Channahon; Spring Creek, which enters Hickory in the town of Joliet; the *Lilly-cache, which enters the Du Page in the town of Plainfield; Horse Creek, which enters the Kankakee in the town of Reed, and Rock Run, which enters the Des Planes in the town of Troy. These last mentioned streams and several others for which we have no names, are considerable streams in times of high water, sometimes becoming impassable where not bridged, but in dry seasons become mere brooks or dry up altogether. The Lilly-cache, however, being fed by springs which are permanent, is always a beautiful little stream. In the extreme eastern part of the county in the town of Washington (Township 33, Range 15), there is a small lake or pond called Eagle Lake, covering perhaps, a half quarter of land, and surrounded by a considerable tract of marsh. The Des Planes River below Joliet Mound, expands to a considerable width, and is called Joliet Lake. The county also, especially along the water-courses, abounds in springs of good water.

All the larger streams abound in fish of the kinds known in common language as pike, buffalo, red horse, bass, sunfish, etc., etc. In the times of Indian occupation they were favorite resorts of the natives for fishing and trapping, and abounded in muskrats, mink, otter, beaver, etc., some of which still remain for the delectation of amateur trappers. The muskrat still tells the weather prophet whether we are to have a mild or hard Winter, and is almost as reliable as the moon. This region furnished large supplies in the early days for the fur traders. The various kinds of water-fowl are still abundant and furnish "sport" for those whose hearts and consciences will allow them ruthlessly to take the life of God's beautiful creatures. The prairies also abound in the native hens and quails, the destruction of which has been restrained by game laws. In the early settlement of the county, deer were very abundant and an occasional one is seen still, but they have mostly gone with the Indian. Prairie wolves were also very abundant in the early day, and a source of much vexation

*This name is often spelled Lillycash, which we suppose to be incorrect as there is no unusual amount of cash on its banks so far as we know. The word cache is French and means a hole or hiding place, the name given by traders and Indians to the places where they often hid corn and other things.

and damage, and are not yet extinct. Buffaloes, no doubt, once roamed in vast herds over Will County, but had disappeared before settlement. The timber which filled the native groves and bordered the streams consisted of the various varieties of oak, black walnut, hickory, elm, hard and soft maple, button-wood and iron-wood. Of these and others there was a large and vigorous growth of fine trees on the first settlement of the county, most of which in a few years fell before the ax of the settler for the purpose of building log houses, rail fences, fire-wood, etc., and, as soon as saw-mills were built, for lumber. There were also numerous groves of the wild crab-apple, the fruit of which was tolerable for sauce, when we could get nothing better, and when in blossom the trees were a sight which cannot be excelled in beauty. Wild plums were also abundant and good, and wild grapes festooned the trees and furnished a fruit which was fair in quality and made good wine. The present growth of timber has mostly grown up within the memory of the older settlers. The scarcity of timber has now been amply compensated by the discovery of coal and the substitution of other material for fences, as well as the bringing in at low rates of the products of the great pineries of Michigan and Wisconsin. For building purposes, a substitute has also been found in our abundant quarries, and also in the manufacture of brick, the material for which are found in abundance within our own borders. The bluffs and bottoms of the streams—notably of the Des Planes—furnish a limitless supply of the most beautiful limestone. The quarries of this county and Cook, on the line of this river, have become known the United States over. The southwest corner of the county—embracing portions of the towns of Wilmington and Reed, which is a rich, level prairie—is included in the coal-fields of Illinois, which furnishes, at cheap rates, the coal needed for our manufactures and our firesides. The extent of the Wilmington coal-field is not large, but it furnishes a large supply of valuable coal. The area is estimated at twenty square miles, and the thickness of the vein averages, it is thought, three and a quarter feet. This, according to the usual mode of reckoning, would give sixty-six million tons. This corner of the county is honey-combed with shafts, the depth of which varies from twenty to seventy feet. Hundreds of thousands of tons are annually sent to market. This industry has built up a considerable city in the township of Reed, of the name of Braidwood, the name of which has figured somewhat in our recent history. To show the different overlying and underlying strata in this locality we give a section of the Eagle shaft as we find it in the geological survey of the State:

Soil and drift, 22 feet, 6 inches.
Sandstone (water-bearing), 24 feet.
Clay shale (soap-stone), 27 feet, 6 inches.
Coal, 2 ft., 10 in. to 3 ft. 10 in.
Coarse, porous, water-bearing sandstone, 12 feet.
Fire-clay, 3 feet.
Coarse sandstone, 6 feet.
Greenish fire-clay, 15 feet.

This boring below the coal was made in the hope of finding a second bed of coal, which, as yet, has not been found.

Through the valleys of the three principal streams, alluvial deposits constantly occur. In the Kankakee Valley, these are mostly in the form of sandy ridges, similar to those found on the shores of Lake Michigan. In the valley of the Des Planes, are found extensive beds of limestone gravel and sand. The most noted of these is the Joliet Mound, one fourth of a mile long and two or three hundred feet wide, and sixty feet high. This is composed of gravel and bowlders lying upon a bed of blue clay six feet in thickness. The early explorers imagined this to be the work of the mound-builders, but its composition and that of neighboring ridges and bluffs show very clearly its alluvial origin. The symmetry of the mound which was once so striking, and which led to the belief that it was of artificial orgin, has been in part destroyed, first, by the canal, and subsequently by the "Joliet Mound Tile Company," which has exported its gravel, and made use of its clay in the manufacture of tile and brick. All along the valley on either side and above and below it are ridges of gravel, and a still larger mound, known as Mound Flat Head, presents the same appearance on its western side, a bold, gravelly bluff some sixty feet high.

Quarries of limestone of different varieties, and of more or less value, are found in the valley of the Des Plaines from the northern line of the county to the Joliet Mound. These furnish a supply of stone for building and flagging that is practically inexhaustible. The particulars respecting the various workings will be given in the township histories. There is also a good limestone quarry at Twelve-Mile Grove, in the town of Wilton, but its distance from rail-roads, has prevented its being worked, except for the wants of the immediate neighborhood. Good stone is also found on Jackson Creek and on the Du Page. Some of these varieties of limestone furnish the right material for lime, which is largely manufactured, especially in Joliet. Peat has been found in small patches in the eastern part of the county, but there are no extensive beds.

Specimens of copper have been found, and iron nodules are found in the shales overlying the coal; and it is found in the form of pyrites in the lime-stone; but there are no important deposits of either metal. Indications of petroleum have been found in a boring upon the island at Wilmington, and in the Des Planes River, near its mouth. Considerable oil fever was generated at the time, and some money thrown away in boring for oil.

A sandstone quarry has been opened between the Kankakee and the feeder on Section 6, in the town of Wilmington, and also one on Section 20, just across the Du Page, near its mouth. There are also fine beds of molding sand in the town of Channahon. This sandstone quarry, a few years since, promised to become a valuable property. It was opened by a company, of whom our citizen, M. Haley, was one, and large quantities were sent to Chicago to aid in the rebuilding of the city. The Sherman House, and other extensive blocks are built of it. Quite a town grew up about the locality, but, for some reason or other, it is not now worked, and the town of Shermanville is deserted. The opening of the quarry showed, after the removal of the surface soil, two feet of molding sand, two feet of fire sand, eight feet of sandstone and clay, and then twenty-five feet or more of bluish sandstone. This was considered to be what Chicago especially needed—something that would not burn. But its beauty, we have heard was impaired by containing traces of iron, which soon gave it a rusty appearance; and Chicago doesn't like to be thought rusty, and abandoned its use.

Artesian wells have been sunk in Joliet and Lockport, and the number in Joliet is not less than twelve. From most of these, a steady and copious flow of water is obtained, and very clear and pure, except that some of them contain a little sulphur. It is believed that in almost any part of the county a flow of water could be obtained at less than six hundred feet. Water was obtained in Joliet at less than five hundred feet. The drilling of one of these wells showed 220 feet of limestone, 80 feet of soap and slate stone, 110 feet of sandstone, bearing the water. When the first one was successfully accomplished in Joliet, a great number of our citizens assembled to witness the flow. So deeply interested, it is said, did some become, that they actually drank more or less of the crystal fluid, a thing which some had not done before for many years, thus renewing the experiences of their youth.

SURVEY, ETC.

The reader has perhaps observed on the maps of this State two lines running parallel to each other and diagonally across the townships, and called the Indian Boundary. The land included between these lines—a strip twenty miles wide—was surveyed in 1821-22 (the Indian title having been extinguished to this in 1818) for canal purposes, as hereafter explained. The land lying outside of this was surveyed in 1837-38. Consequently the portion lying between these lines was brought into market earlier than the other. At the time of the first survey, the parties who did the work were obliged to go to Fort Clark, as Peoria was then called, for their supplies.

To each of the townships the same act which provided for the survey gave the sixteenth section for school purposes. Another section, the thirty-sixth, is also set apart for the same purpose by a later act, but this was too recent to benefit our State.

At the time of the first settlement of our county the title to the land (the Indian title having been purchased by treaty) was in the United States. Acts of Congress had, however, been passed for the purpose of encouraging settlement, by which actual settlers were allowed to gain a pre-emption right, as it was called, or a right to purchase, to the exclusion of all others, 160 acres of land, or a quarter-section, at $1.25 per acre, whenever the same should be brought into market. Land offices were established where settlers could prove up their rights and receive certificates in the form of receipts for the purchase money, for which patents were afterward given by the United States. In cases where the whole amount could not be secured in one place, or when prairie or timber could not be secured contiguous, a right to locate one eighty on unclaimed lands was given, which was called a "float." After the lands had been opened to pre-emption for a time, public sales were held, and outside parties, not actual settlers, were allowed to purchase. Early settlers will recall how conflicting claims often occurred between "squatters" and other claimants, and how neighborhoods often established a kind of mock court for their settlement. These were without any authority of law, but their decisions were generally received without appeal. Certain acts were required by the law to entitle a person to pre-emption—such as a certain amount of fencing, a cabin and actual residence for a certain period. When public sales occurred, however, "squatters' rights" were enforced by the combined settlers against speculators, whether the claimant had done what the law required or not. Many actual settlers also had not secured their pre-emption by reason of their not having the money to pay for the land. Speculators and squatters often compromised by the speculator paying for the whole claim and giving the squatter one-half. These various terms, pre-emption, float, claim, squatter, etc., have now become obsolete in this region, but they were, forty or fifty years ago, words of great significance.

Another act had been passed by Congress, in 1826, giving to the State every alternate section of land in a strip ten miles wide, lying along and each side of the contemplated route of a proposed canal. This act appropriated 300,000 acres of land for the purpose of constructing the canal, and laid the foundation for the Illinois and Michigan Canal, a brief history of which is given further on. It was, no doubt, this act, as well as the natural beauty and fertility of the region, which gave rise to the tide of immigration which set in hither forty to fifty years ago.

EARLIEST HISTORY.

In tracing up the history of any locality or people, it is always pleasing to go back to the beginning of things, and to learn who first trod its soil and voyaged upon its streams. Such an investigation in reference to Will County carries us back to 1673, when Louis Joliet, a French trader, and James Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, started out from Green Bay on their successful voyage for the discovery of the great river which, the Indians informed them, flowed to the Great West. Going up the Fox and across the "divide" into the Wisconsin, they came, in due time, to the great river, on whose ample bosom they floated as far as the Arkansas. This was far enough to satisfy them that it emptied into the Gulf of Mexico, and they retraced their steps. Coming to the mouth of the Illinois, they returned by that stream to Chicago, having learned from the Indians that it was a shorter route, passing, of course, up the Des Planes. Tradition says that they encamped upon the mound below Joliet. However this may be, it has borne the name of Joliet Mound from earliest times. This was probably the first time that the region now known as Will County was trodden by a white man. A few years after, two other early French explorers—La Salle, a trader and explorer, and Father Hennepin, another Jesuit missionary—passed from the St. Joseph River into the Kankakee, and down it into the Illinois. These facts and the following incident from Indian history, ought to make the Des Planes and the Kankakee classic rivers. In a very interesting work published a few years since by N. Matson, of Bureau County (and who, by the way, seems to be one of our indefatigable searchers after the Indian history of this region), we find the following tradition respecting the mound:

"One of the most celebrated Indians of history was Pontiac, the chief of the Ottawas, of Michigan. After the surrender of the Northwest by the French to England, 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 maintain 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 Pottawatomies. 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 Illinois River. After fighting over the matter awhile, a council was agreed upon to settle the question. This council met at Mound Joliet, in 1769. During a speech which Pontiac was making in support of his side of the question, he was treacherously assassinated by "Kineboo," 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 Vantam," which stood on the site where the paper city of Utica was afterward built, and to the tragedy of Starved Rock, and to the ultimate extinction of the great nation of the Illinois.

After the visits of Joliet, Marquette, La Salle and Hennepin, there is no record of these regions having felt the tread of the white man for nearly one hundred and fifty years. But it was no doubt a favorite hunting and fishing ground for the Indians; and many a tale of peace, of the chase and of war could be woven from the imagination, without doing violence to the facts. The portage from the South Branch of the Chicago River to the Des Planes was easy and short, and the canoes of the Indian and of the Indian trader made frequent passages up and down the Des Planes. The next white man who explored this route, of whom we have any certain knowledge, was Gurdon S. Hubbard, now the oldest white settler of Chicago, and who was an Indian trader there, as early as 1824, and who entered the employ of the great American Fur Company much earlier. He, no doubt, and other white men in their employ, used to convey goods along this route and gather up furs in exchange. We have a record of one such trip (the first), made in 1818. Mr. Hubbard is still living, and we think the world might be challenged for another such experience as his. To have seen Chicago, the mere outpost it was, in 1818, and for some years after, and then to have lived to see its morasses transformed into a well-built city of half a million inhabitants! Old Methuselah, in his nine hundred and sixty-nine years, saw nothing like it.

In high water then, as even now occasionally, the Des Planes emptied through Mud Lake a portion of its surplus waters in the Chicago River. Thus the practice of the Indians and of the earliest traders seems to have been prophetic of that great traffic which it was decreed that future years should open up through this beautiful valley, and which, immense as it is, has not yet probably reached its acme. No doubt many now living, if not those who are called old settlers, will yet see the steamers plying busily up and down an enlarged canal and river.

The peace of Paris, in 1763, terminated the rule of France over the Northwest, and it passed into English possession, a fact which was destined to secure to this region another type of civilization and of Christianity. Of course, many of the early explorers, traders and missionaries remained, and of these and their descendants it was estimated that two thousand remained within the limits of our State when (1818) it was admitted into the Union. Now, however, there are only the names of a few localities to remind us that the mercurial Frenchman once exercised the right of eminent domain here. By the Revolution of 1776 and the treaty with England, the country passed into the domain of the United States, and, by the treaty of 1833, at Chicago, with the Pottawatomies, the red man surrendered his domain, also. In 1835, the Indians to the number of five thousand, were assembled at Chicago, received their annuity, danced their last war dance in Illinois, and took up their march for new hunting grounds on the far Missouri.