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Contents | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
Foreword
Lest we forget the fortitude, the fearless courage, the determination, the frugal living, the hard work with none of the facilities that are so abundant today, this history has been written as a record of the success of those who left the comforts of civilization in the East and came west to a wild country, and of those who came to America talking a strange language, having very little equipment but bare hands and willing hearts, to wrest from a wilderness or an uncultivated country a living for a large family in a land where they could enjoy freedom from oppression and from pursuit.
They came with sons in their teens who grasped the plow of good government, and, having done a masterful work in the township, came to the new station when the railroad arrived, and repeated their success in the town government and experiences in getting up the country school, by organizing and establishing a new village and its government.
They builded better than they knew. Today we are enjoying his American heritage. This record may keep the picture before us that we may not take for granted the blessings we enjoy today.
Many interesting and important events and experiences of the past are slipping into oblivion. May these recordings preserve faithful memory of what our forebears, these pioneers, did for us.
In some places in this book the account may be quite in detail perhaps, but many questions have been asked by students at school, or by some who find it hard to realize how far we have come in a hundred and twenty-five years. For years I have saved data and kept a card index file of historic items, but herein have studiously avoided anything that might be derogatory or embarrassing to anyone. No attempt is here made to write a biography of our people, for due credit is hard to give. Although great diligence has been exercised to avoid slights or oversight, some may be discovered.
I have talked with many of our early people, with a number of persons who were here when this was but a prairie of grass; and so often with my grandfather, M.B. McIntosh, who was one of he organizers and second President of the village after it was chartered. My gratitude to them and to all.
1962 Arnett C. Lines (1882-1970)
Historical Location
The first permanent settlers arrived in the land we now speak of as the Barrington area in 1834. The story of Barrington might well start there, but it seems proper to establish our chain of title. By what countries and states has the soil of Barrington been claimed? Under what flags?
In 1492 Spain claimed the Western Hemisphere by virtue of Columbus' discovery. Long before Columbus, the white man had visited our northeastern shores, according to history and legend, but accounts are vague and indefinite.
In 1498, Cabot's discovery, England claimed the continent of America.
In 1541 Barrington land was under the Spanish flag. DeSota had discovered the Mississippi river and claimed the land that it drained for Florida.
In 1606 this land was claimed by Virginia, under the British flag, and in 1629 by the Massachusetts Bay colony through consolidation with the Plymouth colony of Virginia.
In 1670 France established its claim, in the name of "New France," to Canada and all lands in the Northwest Lakes Regon through treaty with the Indians. Nicolett and Alouez came down the Fox river of Wisconsin, crossed inland, and reached the Mississippi.
In 1673, still under the French flag, Marquette and Joliet explored the Mississippi and Illinois river valleys, to be followed by LaSalle five years later.
In 1682 LaSalle reached the mouth of the Mississippi and claimed all lands drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries from the Gulf to New France, calling the country Louisiana.
In 1763 Great Britain reestablished its claim by the treaty of Paris, ending the French and Indian War. In 1778 George Rogers Clark captured Fort Chartres, established by the French in 1719 near the present Prairie du Rocher, and Illinois was organized as a county of Virginia.
In 1784 Virginia relinquished its claim on Illinois to the United States, followed by Massachusetts in 1785 and Connecticut in 1786.
In 1787 the Northwest Territory was organized to include all lands northwest of the Ohio river.
In 1800 Indiana Territory, including Illinois, organized by Congressional action. William Henry-Harrison was Governor.
In 1809 Illinois Territory was established, to include the present state of Wisconsin, with Kaskaskia as the territorial capital and Ninian Edwards as Governor.
In 1818 Illinois was admitted as the twenty-first state. Its north boundary line, first drawn along the south shore of Lake Michigan, was fixed at latitude 42 degrees, 30 minutes north. Nathaniel Pope, territorial representative, had persuaded Congress to apportion to the new state a part of Lake Michigan, shown on earlier maps as Lake Illinois. State capital at Kaskaskia, the legislature meeting there in 1818 and 1819. In 1820 the state capital was moved to Vandalia, and in 1839 the seat of government was removed to Springfield.
The "Illinois Herald," first newspaper in Illinois, was published by Matthew Duncan at Kaskaskia in 1814.
Although slavery was forbidden in the Northwest Territory by the Great Ordinance of 1787, slaves were still advertised for sale in Illinois in 1816.
Illinois was now a state. But yet to be extinguished were the titles of the original proprietors of the soil the American Indian.
When the Indians Were Here
Having always understood that the Indians around here were the Pottawatomies, and then hearing that there were Fox Indians here, I did extensive research; I found no authentic accounts of the Fox in this region. A history of Kane County in the Newberry Library tells of the Pattawatomies and Mascoutins in the neighborhood of this section of the Fox River. When some books speak of other tribes along Fox river, reference may be to the Wisconsin Fox, flowing into Green Bay.
Pottawatomie means "the people of the place of fire." The Pottawatomies, the Ottawas, and the Chippewas were once all one tribe. Some were called the Prairie Pottawatomies and the Mascoutins were a band of that tribe, according to William Duncan Strong. He quotes DeGannes, who for a time lived among the Indians. Strong says these Indians were docile, affectionate, and friendly to the French but not to the English. He describes them as idolaters, yet with a feeling for a more personal God; and very fettish. They were polygamists, Strong says, and named their children after natural phenomena. There were 23 clans of Prairie Pottawatomies in male descent. They raised corn, for Illinois soil was suited to the crop. Their tepees were usually round and of birch bark or buffalo hides. Larger tepees were rectangular, with mats for a roof. They used birch bark canoes and dugouts, and the plains Indians used many made from hides stretched over frames.
In 1883 at the close of the Blackhawk War, a grand council of chiefs and headmen took place in Chicago and all lands east of the Winnebago River were ceded to the United States. In 1835 the Pottawatomies came again and got their annuities and left the region. In 1918 there were still in the United States, according to the census, 3731 Pottawatomies.
An old map of 1804 in the Chicago Public Library (917.731 IN2) by Albert Scharf shows that Algonquin Road, Rand Road, Higgins Road, Grand Avenue, Lake Street (Chicago Elgin, Rockford Trail), St. Charles Road, Warrenville Road, Aurora Road, Plainfield Road, Barry Point, Portage (from Indian Village and chipping station on east bank of Des Plaines River at Lyons) northeast, Archer Avenue, Vincennes Avenue, Green Bay Road, and Little Fort Road were all Indian Trails. Lake Street out of Chicago was marked "Mound Builders Trail." Indian Villages were in Lincoln Park, Harlem, Blue Island, at 95th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, and in the north end of Des Plaines. There is a mound marked on the map a little way southwest of Bartlett. Others at Morton, Kennicott, one northwest of Oak Park, East of Lyons, Maywood, Glen Ellyn, Glen View, Evanston, Naperville, west side of Park Ridge and the site across the river from Lyons; all were Indian Villages. Signal Stations were in Proviso southwest of Maywood, West Chicago, Norwood Park, Lyons, Bonaparte, Addison and in Chicago north of the river. Chipping stations, where flint was chipped for arrowheads, and camps were all along the north shore to Wilmette as well as at Lyons on the east bank of the Des Plaines river. All of which seems to have little to do with Barrington, except for the interest in Indians in general and that we hereabouts are on the trail between what later became the route from Chicago to Fox river and the lake region north and northwest of us.
I have heard "Deacon" Joseph Whitney of Lake Zurich, and others, tell of the early days when folks awoke in the morning to find Indians peering through their windows. "Mother knew what they wanted. She baked a batch of johnny-cake (corn bread) for them and they went away happy." There was a tale of an Indian massacre at Buehler's Curve in the Lake Zurich road, but I never had it confirmed. Henry L. Elfrink told of stories of an Indian burying ground on the left of the road entering Deer Grove from the viaduct, where that road crosses the creek at the southwest corner of Ela's Flat. He said that Indian relics were often picked up there in early days. Many arrowheads were picked up on the William Sandman farm (now Biltmore Country Club) and other farms in the vicinity and later sold to A.W. Meyer, a Barrington merchant, who mounted them on black velvet in frames. Some of Meyer's exhibits were presented to the Barrington public schools after his death.
What was the situation before our early settlers arrived? Father Marquette and Joliet came through here in 1673 and found in this general area the Pottawatomies, Ottawas and Chippewas. The Pottawatomies were the inhabitants of this place later called Cook County. Father Francois Pinney in 1696 founded a French Jesuit Mission at or near Gross Point west of Wilmette at the headwaters of the North Branch of the Chicago river overlooking Skokie Marsh which the Indians called "Quiet Lake." It was named the Mission of the Guardian Angel for it stood at the portage from the North Branch to the Des Plaines Rivers. A history of the Cook County Forest Preserve says that there was a long period when the Indians were not so friendly with the French, possibly dependent on which nation secured them as an ally in their European wars that spread to colonial America; and that this mission was abandoned by the French in 1699 as well as the other portages in the Checaugau area. The Pottawatomies established a chain of villages and forts connecting their many trails. At the close of the Seven Years War between England and France, the French gave up all territory west to the Mississippi River.
In all of these white men's wars, where the Indian was always brought into another man's war, there were two outstanding white men: Alex Robinson (Chee-chupin-quay) and Billy Caldwell (Sauganash). Because of them the Pottawatomies became more civilized, embraced religion, and took more kindly to agriculture instead of the chase. After the successful work of George Rogers Clark in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan up to Detroit, the British by the Treaty of 1783 gave up to the United States this territory acquired from the French north to the Great Lakes. Anthony Wayne, after his victory over the Indians at Fallen Timbers in 1794, got from them by a treaty at Greenville a tract of six square miles at the mouth of the Chicago river, and some 15 other tracts, but these were never surveyed. The Indian Boundary Line (Rogers Avenue) fixed definitely the boundary of the Redman's territory in 1816. Fort Dearborn had fallen and the Eighteenth Street Massacre had taken place, with the household of John Kinzie escaping to St. Joseph, Michigan, by Chee-chupin-quay and Sauganash's ever kindly protection of the whites. Billy Caldwell (Sauganash) was the son of Col. Caldwell, a British officer of Irish birth. The Forest Preserve history says that he was educated by the Jesuit Fathers at Detroit, married an Indian girl, spoke English, French and a dozen Indian languages and was an ally of Tecumseh. He lived for years north of the village of Chicago at State Street and Chicago Avenue in a house built for him by the United States Government; he had an annuity of $400 and by the Treaty of 1833 the U.S. gave him a further award of $5,000. His friendship for the white man saved many. He was an accredited Chicago Justice of the Peace, although he never became a citizen, one historian says. The Caldwell Reservation was on the Chicago River between Bryn Mawr and Kenilworth Avenues as "fixed under the original grant by President Tyler Dec. 28, 1843." "He left Cook County with his people in 1836 for Council Bluffs, Iowa, thus accomplishing the Indian removal in which the law and the soldiers had failed. Alex Robinson (Chee-chu-pin-quay) owned the reservation on both sides of the Des Plaines River between Addison and Foster. He lived there until his death in 1872. His age was reputed to be anywhere from 85 to 110 years. He was a citizen, a voter, and a taxpayer. He was married to an Indian squaw by Justice of the Peace John Kinzie. He and Shabona kept the Winnebagoes from getting the Pottawatomies and the Sauks to help them in a final war against Chicago. The Indians met on Ela's Flat in Deer Grove in the Big Foot Camp in 1827. Here Alex Robinson argued for three days and averted the Winnebagoes' wish for more trouble in this area. Robinson is buried on the east side of the Des Plaines River just north of Irving Park road.
After this settlement on Ela's Flat of Indian troubles and the big treaty of 1833, the first white settlers thought it safe to venture farther inland, locating claims around here. Indian history tells us that the last of the Indians left this locality in 1835 and 1836. In 1834 when the first white settlers came into this township they found a few hundred hereabouts. They had remained several years to collect their government annuities.
Indian Defeats and Treaties
1763 -- Pontiac defeated. France gave up Canada to England.
1790 -- Treaty with the Indians at Greenville, Ohio. Pottawatomies hereafter were more friendly with the white people.
1794 -- In August Little Turtle was defeated by Anthony Wayne. Six square miles at the mouth of the Chicago river granted the whites but never recorded. More settlers came into the Chicago a area.
1806 -- Tecumseh and Prophet tried to form a confederation of Indians farther South. Winnebagoes and Pottawatomies refused.
1803 -- Fort Dearborn built.
1811 -- Prophet, in Tecumseh's absence, began war and was defeated by William Henry Harrison.
1812 -- Fort Dearborn fell.
1813 -- Tecumseh defeated by Gen. William Henry Harrison.
1823 -- Fort Dearborn evacuated till 1828 and withdrawn in 1831.
1827 -- Treaty or agreement after three day council on Ela Flat in Deer Grove wherein Pottawatomies of this region refused to join the Winnebagoes in a raid on Chicago.
1832 -- Fort Dearborn regarrisoned because of Blackhawk War. Battle of Bad Axe on Mississippi river in Wisconsin ended the war. Chief Blackhawk, a Sac Indian pursued by the Winnebagoes who began to fear the power of the Whites, and took him captive to Gen. Longstreet at Jefferson Barracks where a treaty was concluded. He was later taken to Washington, D.C., but was returned to his people. Indian prisoners were set free by President Jackson in 1833. Blackhawk died Oct. 3, 1840. He was said to be 80 years old.
1816 -- By treaty in St. Louis, tract 10 miles north and 10 miles south of Chicago River ceded by Indians to United States.
1829 -- By Treaty of Prairie du Chien (Sept. 29) Chippewas, Ottawas and Pottowatomies released to U.S. all lands in Northwestern Illinois.
1832 -- By Treaty at Fort Armstrong (Sept. 15) the Winnebagoes gave up to U.S. all lands south and east of the Wisconsin river and the Fox river which flows into Green Bay, Wis.
1833 -- At a treaty (Sept. 26) ending the Black Hawk War, the Chippewas, Ottawas and Pottawatomies ceded to the U.S. all lands along the west shore of Lake Michigan and west to area ceded by Winnebagoes in 1832 and north to area ceded to U.S. by Menominees and south to area ceded by treaty at Prairie du Chien -- about 5,000,000 acres. All title by Sacs, Fox, Winnebagoes, Chippewas, Ottawas and Pottawatomies east of Mississipi River was killed. $100,000 annuities and grants paid to Pottawatomies, Ottawas and Chippewas after 1833, which they collected in the next two years. Robinson remained and helped build Chicago; Caldwell stayed only until 1836.
In What Counties
In the half century between the erection of Northwest Territory and the final drawing of county lines, Barrington area was under the rule of ten county governments. In chronological order, they were:
1790, Knox County, a part of Northwest Territory.
1801, St. Clair County, Indiana Territory.
1812, Madison County, in Illinois Territory.
1814, Edwards County, Illinois Territory.
1816, Crawford County, still Illinois Territory.
1819, Clark County, State of Illinois.
1821, Pike County.
1823, Fulton County.
1825, Putnam County, geographically, with the seat of government in Peoria County.*
1831, Cook County erected, to include all that is now Will, DuPage, Lake, and part of McHenry counties.
1836, McHenry County formed, embracing what is now McHenry and Lake counties.
1839, Lake County set off from McHenry.
Will County was erected in 1836 and DuPage county in 1839, reducing Cook county to its present size.
*Putnam county was established January 13, 1825, to include all territory lying north of the Illinois and Kankakee rivers. Peoria County was created, in its present size, on the same day. Putnam County failed to organize for several years and the seat of government for the Barrington area was in Peoria County until Cook county was created.
It is an interesting but little known fact that but for the failure of another county to organize, Barrington township and its neighbors, Palatine, Wheeling, Hanover, Schaumburg and Elk Grove, might today be in Michigan county. Created by legislative act March 2, 1837, Michigan county was to contain, besides the present territory of DuPage county, all that part of Cook county lying between the DuPage county line and the south boundaries of Lake and McHenry counties. It was one of 13 "lost" counties that failed to take advantage of their enabling acts.
Cook County was named for Daniel P. Cook, first Attorney General of the State and Representative in Congress 1819 to 1826.
Kane County was named for Elias Kent Kane, Territorial Judge, member of the Constitutional Convention of 1818, first Illinois Secretary of State, and United States Senator.
McHenry County was named for Col. William McHenry, a soldier in the War of 1812 and in the Blackhawk War, Representative in the 1st, 4th, 5th and 9th General Assemblies and Senator in the 6th.
Lake County was so named because of the many lakes within its borders.
Land Survey Townships
Congress made provision in 1785 for a system of survey for the purpose of land locations and descriptions. The unit is a topographical township of 36 square miles, six miles square, counted as "townships" north or south from a "base" line and as "ranges" east or west from a "principal meridian."
Barrington township, six miles square, overlies Township 42 North, Range 9 East of the 3rd Principal Meridian.
Cuba township, four miles east and west and six miles north and south, overlies the east four miles of Township 43 North, Range 9 East of the 3rd Principal Meridian.
The 1st Principal Meridian is the east boundary line of Indiana; the 2nd P.M. is 18 miles west of Indianapolis; the 3rd P.M. runs north from the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers at Cario through Centralia and Rockford. The Base line runs about three miles south of Centralia and is the dividing line between Marion county, north of the line, and Jefferson on its south side.
The 36 square miles in these survey townships, often called Congressional townships, were numbered consecutively, back and forth beginning at the northeast corner. They were later designated as sections and each section was laid off in quarters, and these quarter sections again quartered, making it an easy matter to definitely fix the location of each 40-acre tract of land.
The Ordinance establishing the survey ordered that section 16 in each township should be reserved for school purposes.
Surveys of Government Townships 42 and 43, Range 9, more frequently referred to now as Barrington and Cuba townships, were not completed until 1839. It was 1840 before the early settlers who had located in these townships could file their claims.
Settlement around Barrington Center
After the Indian powwow on Ela's Flat in Deer Grove, and the Treaty of 1833 by which the Pottawatomies relinquished their claims, the rugged pioneers began coming into these unsettled regions in a wider circle around Chicago.
The news spread back East that good new and cheap land was available and settlers began to come.
The first white men known to have settled in Barrington township were Jesse F. Miller and Williarn Van Orsdal, who arrived in 1834, before the three year period which had been given the Indians to vacate the region, and before the land surveys.
The first settlers hereabouts either walked overland from Chicago, driving a cow or an ox team, or came in from the Fox river. Rivers and lakes were the usual way of travel. Fox river towns were begun before Barrington, and some settlers gradually worked their way from the river. Thus pushing back from Adams (now Dundee) and from Elgin, a group from Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and others from New York State settled around the area that was to become known as Barrington Center, that "centered" both ways from the present Sutton road and from Algonquin and Higgins roads. Their early market was Dundee on the river. These Yankees who settled the center and west portions of the township were a vigorous, industrious and courageous people. Their sons were young, mostly in their teens, and were the ones who organized the government of the township, who grew up, with the government of the township, who grew up with the township and the area, who developed it and were its officials, and who, with those from Deer Grove area and some from Cuba township became the backbone of the town and village of Barrington.
Compiled from personal biographies, from their own statements, from the works of earlier historians, and from old newspaper articles, here follows a listing of some of our pioneers, the years of arrival, the section on which they settled, and, where known, from whence they came, and their ages:
First settlers, as noted above, were Jesse F. Miller, who came from Steuben County, N.Y., and William Van Orsdal, both settling on Sec. 16 in 1834 and later moving to Sec. 17 when they found they were on the school section.
The next year found Henry Clawson on Sec. 2; Benjamin Irick, who was 42, on Sec. 20; and Phillip Hawley Sr. from Amherst, Mass., on Sec. 12.
In 1836 Alex H. McClure, 31, came from Broome county, N.Y., to Sec. 1, John McKnight to Sec. 17 and Sam Wardlow to Sec. 29.
The year 1837 saw a dozen arrivals. A.C. Bucklin from South Adams in Berkshire county, Mass., came with his mother to Sec. 19; E.N. Miller, 21, and Jesse M. Miller from Steuben county, N.Y., to Sec. 16, subsequently taking claims in Secs. 24 and 25; William H. Otis was 30 when he came from Ellisburg, N.Y., to settle on Sec. 15; Martin Freeman was on Sec. 2 and Gilbert A. Applebee and Benjamin Richardson, 49, or Sec. 5; Chas. D. Miller staked a claim on Sec. 16; others coming that year included Dr. Hall, Thomas Perkins, John Giddings and Horace Rosenkranz.
William C. Waterman came from North Adams, Berkshire county, Mass., in 1838, when he was 30, but went back, returning when he was 39; he owned land in Secs. 22, 26 and 27. Also coming from North Adams in 1838 were Homer Willmarth, 31, and his son, Galusha, to Sec. 17. Other arrivals that year were L.O.E. Manning and George S. Browning, Sec. 19; Henry Smith, Sec. 8; William B. Freeman, Sec. 5, and Alvah Miller and sons on Sec. 16.
Shubuel W. Kingsley, 22, came from North Adams to Sec. 20 in 1840; Lyman Dunklee, 34, from Windham county, Vt., to Sec. 28, and Lysander Beverly, 21, to Sec. 30.
Henry Jeneks, 45, and his sons, D.R. and Dan S., 14 and 16 years old, came from North Adams, Berkshire county, Mass., in 1841; Ed. G. Sabin from Lake county, Ohio; J.C. Allen and Phillip N. Gould to Sec. 21 and Nelson Messer and Daniel Jr. to Sec. 28.
Geo. T. Waterman, 46, and his son, Geo. W., 16, from North Adams, Berkshire county, settled on Sec. 21 in 1842 and on the same section Hezakiah Kingsley, 46, and Jerome W., 21, also from Berkshire county; John W. Seymour came from Steuben county, N.Y., that year.
S.W. Slade, his wife and sons Chas. F. and Geo. E., came from Cheshire, Berkshire county to Sec. 20 in 1843, and Charles Church, 46, and sons settled on Sec. 23; William DeVol arrived the same year.
John Hendrickson, 47, and son, DeSalva, came from Oswego county, N.Y., in 1844, to Sec. 14; D.N. Haven, 21, from Jefferson county, N.Y., to Sec. 23, and George Prouty 24, from Stamford, Vt., to Sec. 27. Asa T. Beverly was born here that year.
Lambert Meiners came from Germany in 1849 and Bernhard H. Landwer and his brother, Lambert, and son, Gerhart H. arrived from Germany to settle on Sec. 1. Others who came about this time were George W. and Coleman Robinson, Ira J. Chase and Warren Hough.
Zebina Hawley, 55, and Austin Hawley came from Amherst, Mass., to County Line road in 1854 or 1855.
Coming into Cuba Township
First settler in Cuba township and probably in the Fox Valley of Lake county was Amos Flint, who came with his father in 1834 to build a cabin on section 10 where the creek that takes his name empties into the Fox. Joseph Flint returned to the East. The log cabin, which was jointly occupied by Amos Flint, an aunt, Mrs. Grace Flint, and V.H. Freeman and family, burned to the ground and the occupants suffered great hardship that winter, Charles A. Partridge, an early editor of the Waukegan Gazette once wrote.
John K. Bennett came to Sec. 12 in 1837. Other early settlers were Robert Conmee on Sec. 1; Lewis H. Bute from Summit, N.Y., on 27; Eli and Oscar Bute; Jared Comstock and George H. from Vermont on 33; Philetus Beverly, Francis Kelsey, Thomas W. White, Joshua Streator Harnden, Noble R.Hayes, John J. Bullock, Innis Hollister, and E. Nelson.
Martin Freeman came from Vermont and settled on Sec. 33 in 1841; Robert Bennett to 13 in 1842; Chester and Wallace Bennett; Olcott A. White on 23 in 1844. That year also saw the arrival from England of Abraham Howarth and William H.
John Lewis Brooks visited the township in 1837, returned to New York and came back an ordained Baptist minister in 1845, taking up land near the center of the township. He sold a few years later and bought a farm at what is now Tower Lakes. He was an early preacher at the South Barrington Church and was instrumental in building the Baptist Church in Wauconda.
Early Settlers in Ela
George Ela came to Ela township in 1835, settling on Sec. 33 at Deer Grove, and taking up a claim also in Palatine township. He had the first post office, was elected to the Legislature in 1846, and kept a store, which he moved to Barrington when the railroad came. Ela township was named for him. Abraham Vanderwerker settled on Sec. 34, A. Russell On 10. John Robertson Sr. first took up land in Sec. 20. Leonard Loomis was on Sec. 25. Erastus Houghton built the Yankee Tavern at the cross roads in See. 3 in 1836. Seth Paine bought a claim that year and came there with his wife to live in 1841. John D. Huntington came to Sec. 4 in 1842.
M.A. Brockway, father of H.K. Brockway, Barrington postmaster, and L.O. Brockway, for years Lake County Recorder, was on Sec. 25. In a sketch of Ela township written some 50 years ago, L.O. Brockway lists among early residents the following: Dennis Putnam, L. Whitney, Stebbins A. Ford, Zabina Ford, Levi Price, Henry Pepper, George Spunner, Frederick Berghorn, and I. Willard Fox.
Along Ela Road
Settling along Ela road or adjacent to it in Palatine township were Edward and Lester Castle, John Catlow from England, John Page, James Creet, Uriah Stott, Ezekiel Cady, William Freeman, and the four Elfrink brothers. Also John Kitson, John Page, Peter Davidson's father, Lambert Listhartke, Luther Pinney and Mr. Elvidge and Mr. Vander Bogart. George Ela had a claim in Sec. 4 and John Robertson in Sec. 5.
Among those who settled along Ela road north of the county line in early days were Willard Stevens, who platted the early village north of the tracks in 1854 and called it Cuba, and Reuben Pomeroy, who founded the Pomeroy clan.
The East to West Trek
Some of our pioneers came west by way of the Erie Canal, opened in 1825, to the Great Lakes and then by water to Chicago, where it was the custom of business men, to come down to the river and welcome them. Many came overland by the emigrant wagon or the famous Conestoga wagon. Linus Lines Senior came in such a wagon in 1848; it had a stove in it, complete with stovepipe. Many walked out from Chicago; one man drove a cow along with him. A man and his wife walked to Rand (now Des Plaines) where they were urged to stay overnight, but they insisted on going on across the prairies, with but few landmarks, till they came to their friends or relatives in the Barrington area.
Folks came from Europe many around here from Germany, by sailing ship, a journey which often took as much as six weeks. Some were on the water twelve weeks. Two of our pioneers were shipwrecked and floated on a raft at sea, living on coconuts, until they touched land at New Orleans.
Those early settlers were industrious. Their sturdy sons in their teens accepted the challenge of new, raw, uncultivated land in an unpopulated country. Some of them were pioneers in business in the village later on, but first were builders of the new township.
They were a closely knit group, bound by ties of blood and marriage. They reared large families, their sons and daughters married, and many family names are still represented in the village in third and fourth generations:
Col. Wm. Waterman married Sarah Bucklin; Julia S. Jencks married A.C. Bucklin of North Adams. Dan Jencks of South Adams married Nancy E. Waterman, and later, Sophia Rawley. Henry T. Jencks married Amelia Robinson of the Barrington Center Robinsons.
Homer Willmarth of North Adams, was a cousin to Wm.G. Waterman, son of Col. Wm. Waterman,, and married Mary A. Wells, a sister of Johanna Wells, who married Hezakiah Kingsley, father of Jerome W. Kingsley, which made him and Luke Willmarth cousins. Waity Waterman married Shubuel Willmarth Kingsley of North Adams; Ann Waterman married Charles B. Hawley; Susan Waterman of North Adams married Henry Hawley; Eliza Waterman married a Sabin; George W. Waterman married Alvira Applebee, and after her death married her sister, Rhoda Ann, whose first husband was David R. Richardson. (They were the parents of Dr. D.H. Richardson, well known Barrington physician.)
Gilbert A. Applebee had nine daughters. Six, besides Alvira and Rhoda Ann, married men of the Barrington area: Polly married Lewis H. Bute; Almira married Ed Hawley of Amherst, Mass. (They were the parents of Hylan Hawley); Clarinda married Jerome W. Kingsley; Eliza married Ansel K. Townsend; Jane married George W. Robinson.
Nancy Hawley married Jared Comstock.
All of these men and women lived in Barrington township in the early days, and all came from Berkhire county, Massachusetts, except Comstock, Applebee, Richardson and Bute. The Hawleys were from the adjoining county.
Townships are Organized
Walking out Higgins Road or Algonquin Trail, land seekers came to a grove called Miller's Grove, so named because a number of Miller families had settled there, living along what in later years was to be known as Sutton Road. They were in Congressional Township 42 North, Range 9 East.
By 1840 Cook county had a population of more than 10,000 and this township, had a population of 292. The school sections were sold that year and the settlers held a meeting at the Wm. Otis house to organize a township school system. The Otis home was at the Southeast corner of the Freeport (Algonquin) Road and Bartlett Road, in the original house which stood just west of new brick house built in 1866, which is still standing.
Under authority of the constitution of 1848 the General Assembly had provided for township organization within counties to give the people a higher degree of local self government. Cook and Lake counties with most counties of the state, had voted for township organization in November, 1849. It was to go into force on the first Tuesday in April, 1850. As the law provided, three commissioners were appointed to divide the county into towns corresponding, as nearly as possible, to the lines of the Congressional townships. Towns were to be named in accordance with local preference.
The minutes of that first town meeting, as written in the original minute book, read as follows:
"In accordance with an Act of the Legislature of the State of Illinois ... and agreeable to a notice previously posted up by the Sheriff of the County of Cook, the inhabitants of the Town of Barrington met at the school house at the south end of Millers Grove, on Tuesday, the Second day of April, one thousand eight hundred and fifty, for the purpose of holding their first Town. Meeting, and on being called to order made choice of William Adams for moderator and Jerome W. Kingsley for clerk for the day, and proceeded to cast their votes for the several various officers for the ensuing year."
All the old timers this author has talked with agree the name Barrington was taken from Great Barrington, in Berkshire county, Mass. I never learned of any settlers coming here from Great Barrington. But many did come from Berkshire county the Bucklin family from South Adams; the Waterman, Willmarth, Kingsley, Jencks and Cowdin families from North Adams, and the Slade family from elsewhere in same county. (George Waterman's house in North Adams, was moved to make way for the end of the Hoosack Tunnel.) Many of our influential pioneers settling around "Barrington Center" were from North Adams. They may have wanted to use the name Adams, which had been home to them but that was the name for a part of what is now the neighboring village of Dundee. Another town back in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, was Great Barrington, (surveyed in the middle 1700s), and their second choice was Barrington, named after Lord Barrington of England, the first of that peerage. (When Great Barrington was named the Massachusetts-Rhode Island boundary line was being legally determined by a survey based on old English Colonial land grants. If the line went too far south the several Barringtons in Rhode Island would have been in Massachusetts. So the Berkshire county town was called Great Barrington.)
The officers elected at that first town meeting were: William Devol, supervisor; Alvah Miller, town clerk; Edward Hawley, assessor; Henry M. Campbell, C.I. Wilsie, Philip N. Gould, commissioners of highways; Homer Wilmarth, William Devol, justices of the peace; William Hitchcock, Aaron Billings, constables; Graves Ward, collector; Hezekiah Kingsley, overseer of the poor.
The next town meeting was at the school house in Miller's Grove, but by 1854 we find the annual meeting place moved to the Wm. Otis home, and there it apparently remained until 1866, when it was held in the school house in District 3. At that meeting it was voted to hold the next town meeting, in Sinnot's hall in the "village of Barrington Station." Thus did the village become the seat of town government.
Early Township Officers
It is interesting to observe that most of the early township officials were men whose names were known long after them, or who later moved to the village and lived long in retirement: Among them were:
Town Clerks -- Jerome Kingsley, for 20 years, Jim Stott, John White, Leroy Powers, Fred Hawley, Charles Hawley.
Assessors -- Hezakiah Kingsley, father of Jerome; George T. Waterman, a veteran of the War of 1812; H.M. Campbell, David Richard, and Jerome Kingsley.
Supervisors well remembered included Wm. Devol, Wm. James, Jerome W. Kingsley, Homer Willmarth, Shubuel W. Kingsley, who alternated with Willmarth from 1855 until 1868. Other early supervisors were Wm. G. Waterman, Leroy Powers, Charles Kellogg, Uriah Stott, Tom Freeman and Woodbridge Hawley. Fred E. Hawley served two one-year terms; E.R. Clark served eight (1866 to 1894) when John C. Plagge took the office for five terms and was followed by A.H. Boehmer for ten one-year terms. C.P. Hawley was elected supervisor in 1909 and held office until 1929, when he was succeeded by his son, V.D. Hawley.
Before township organization, county government was by three commissioners, elected by the people; Homer Willmarth of Barrington was a County Commissioner in Cook County from August, 1844, to November, 1849. From 1850 until the Constitution of 1870, when the present system was adopted for Cook County, county government was by the Board of Supervisors, as in other counties. During this interim, Homer Willmarth was chairman of the Board from June, 1855, to June, 1856; William James from June, 1857, to June, 1858; and Homer Willmarth from June, 1858, to June, 1859.
Familiar names of collectors were: Rensselaer Nute, Lyman Dunklee, William Wortman, George Browning, Shubuel Kingsley, George T. Waterman, Nathaniel P. Cilly, David Richardson, John Collen, George Robinson, Robert Jackson, Vet Jackson, Joseph Collen, A. Hendrickson, Louis Gilly, John Cowdin, Fred Lageschulte.
Overseers of the Poor, now a part of the supervisor's work, included: S.W. Slade, John Hendrickson, Nelson Messer, Hezakiah Kingsley, Charles B. Hawley, and Abel Cowdin.
Road Comissioners whose names will be familiar to all old timers were: William Hawley, George Jackson, Miles R. Church, Charles B. Hawley, Sam Freeman, Alva Miller, A.C. Bucklin, Freeman Martin, G.C. Gardner, Tom McDonald, S.W. Slade, William Freeman, Lambert Meiners, Linus Lines Sr., Henry B. Landwer, Charles Waterman, John Silker, Robert Nightingale, L.D. Castle John Applebee, Henry Bauman. Many of the men listed in the rosters of other township officers, also served as road commissioners.
Township School Trustees well remembered were: Shubuel W. Kingsley, Philip Hawley Sr., Homer Willmarth, Thomas Perkins, Lyman Dunklee, John Seymour, Norton Miller, George W. Waterman, George Jackson.
Justice of the Peace was a position of regard. Homer Willmarth, when he was not serving as supervisor, was a Justice for many years, almost to his death in 1882. Jerome Kingsley for 20 years; D. Briggs, David Richardson, A.B. Van Gorder, Oscar Lawrence, George Jackson, M. B. McIntosh (from whose decision no case was ever appealed), and Fred H. Frye.
Some early constables were: Cilly, Light, Nute Olmstead, D. Dawson, Henry Smith, Irick J.B. Covey, Jillson, John Waterman, Norm Hendrickson, Chas. Kellogg, C. Dunklee, John Harrower, Charles Otis, and Hylan Hawley for many years.
Cuba Township
Cuba Township, lying north of Barrington Township, across County Line Road, in the southwest corner of Lake County is bounded on the north by Wauconda Township, on the east by Ela Township, and on the west by McHenry County. Like Barrington Township, which is drained largely by Popular Creek and the beginning of Spring Creek, Cuba is drained by Flint Creek, Spring Creek (once known as Chunn's Creek) and several smaller streams, all flowing into the Fox River, putting both townships in the Fox River watershed. The Fox encloses more than a thousand acres in the western part of the township. Cuba is one of those townships referred to as fractional townships, being only four miles East to West. As a Congressional Township it is Township 43 North, Range 9 East of the Third P.M.
The first Town Meeting was held at the home of Noble R. Hayes. His home stood on the south side of Cuba Road, between Harbor Road and the North Western Railroad, and is now the rear part of the Frick farmhouse at the northeast corner of Buckley and Cuba Roads, diagonally across from the old Frick Swiss cheese factory.
John J. Bullock was chosen Moderator at the 1850 organization meeting, 84 votes were cast and the following officers were elected: Philetus Beverly, Supervisor; Noble R. Hayes, Town Clerk; Jacob McGilvra, Assessor; Robert Conmee, Collector; Francis Kelsey, Overseer of the Poor; James Jones, Lewis H. Bute and Harvey Lambert, Commissioners of Highways; Innis Hollister and Robert Bennett, Justices of the Peace; Chester Bennett and Wallace Bennett, Constables. The valuation of both personal and real estate property war $44,750.00 and the tax levied was $672.73.
The settlers had chosen Troy as the name for the new town but when it was learned from State authorities that there was another town in the State named Troy, the, name, was changed to Cuba. L.H. Bute related that he offered the name and it was accepted. The Island of Cuba, then as now, was in the news.
Amos Flint was the first white man to settle in the township, in 1834. His log cabin burned down the first winter. The dwelling that replaced it was occupied jointly, by Flint and the V.H. Freeman family. Flint, a bachelor, died in 1838, according to Charles H. Partridge, an early county newspaperman and historian. Early settlers in the neighborhood have said that they remember the house, which stood back to the north of Kelsey Road and west of River Road.
Flint Creek was named for Amos Flint and was so known until it appeared as "Flynn Creek" on a government topographic survey map of 1923. New typographic maps, of the region issued by the United States Geological Survey in l962, restore the historic name.
Early historians describe the military route of travel for the army and those connected with the Indian service, from Chicago to Fort Winnebago in Wisconsin, as passing through or near the southwest portion of the township, crossing the Fox River above what is now Algonquin and what was afterward Denney's Ferry. Mrs. John McKenzie, whose husband was then Government Agent of the Winnebago Indians, followed this trail in 1831 from Chicago to Ft. Winnebago with her husband and wrote about it in her book, "Early Days in the Northwest."
The Kelsey road crossing of the North Western railroad was long known as Cuba Station, a "milk train" stopping mornings to pick up cans and afternoons to leave empties. It was discontinued as a shipping station, and the milk platform and the train stop abandoned after the big dairy companies built plants at Barrington, Cary and Wauconda. The cluster of houses surrounding McGraw's place, Conrad Krause's general store, and a blacksmith shop, was never incorporated. A post office, started there in 1892 and discontinued in 1904 was called Langenheim after a prosperous farmer at the crossing. Cuba Station then became known as Langenbeim, but is now more frequently referred to as Cuba.
L.H. Bute was elected supervisor in 1852 and between that Year and 1880 he served 12 one-year terms, and was chairman of the county Board in 1870-71-72. Among other supervisors during the period were: Darius Mills, J.J. Bullock, Henry Lawrence, Peter Mills (chairman in 1861) Dr. E.S. Kimberly, James S. Davis, and S.C. Jayne.
George H. Comstock was elected Supervisor in 1881 and served four years; Henry Meier was in for seven years and Comstock went back for another four years. Miles T. Lamey became Supervisor in 1896, serving until 1911 and was chairman of the board in 1900.
Fred C. Kerschner was supervisor for 15 years and when he died in 1926 Roberts P. Howland filled out his unexpired term. Harold D. Kelsey, grandson of early settler Francis Kelsey, became supervisor in 1928, and when he was elected to the Legislature in 1938, Joseph P. Welch filled out his unexpired term. Welch was elected to the office in 1941 and has served continuously since, and was twice chairman of the board. He is the grandson of Joseph Welch, who came to Cuba township in 1841, settling on Sec. 21.
How Different Was Life Then
The first frame house in Barrington township has always been said to have been built in 1841 by Shubuel W. Kingsley on his first farm on Penny Road west of Sutton Road and west of the creek. It was 13 x 20 feet. As a leading dairyman, he shipped the first milk to Chicago from Dundee. Before that, all the houses in the township were of logs. Homes were few and far apart.
Lights in the evening, if they stayed up after dark, were from candles made at home. Every home had a candle mold for making tallow candles. Or plenty of light was had from the fireplace. But they usually went to bed with the chickens and got up with them. Evening meetings or gatherings were usually in the church or school house and were lighted by each one bringing his lantern and hanging it up in the room. The first kerosene lamp in the Village was about or soon after 1857, when M.B. McIntosh (this author's grandfather) brought one into his home at the southeast corner of Lake and Cook. People came a long way to see it and stood off at a safe distance for fear it would blow up. They weren't the safest thing to kick over when going to bed, as related in the chapter on fires.
Cooking was in the fireplace or on the wood stove--if they had that luxury--a hot place for the housewife in the summer, cooking and canning for a large family. Iron kettles hung on a crane and swung over the fire, or they baked in a hole in the brick wall serving as an oven. Many folks had a chunk stove in the parlor in later years, with a box of wooden "parlor matches" to light fires or the kerosene chandelier. Coal furnaces were luxuries of the gay 90's, when people had one or two story frame houses with a cellar beneath.. The pioneer had no convenient corner store to run to for tin cans and boxes of prepared food. They prepared their meals with home made or home cooked foods. They raised their own wheat and corn for flour, cane sorghum was used in place of sugar. They made their own cheese and churned their own butter. How we children hated to stand and splash it till the butter came.
What would the modern home do with a barrel of flour, or a barrel of beans, a big bin full of potatoes, or barrels of apples? At "Hog Killing Time" the neighbors helped one another and "put down" some meat in big jars and smoked a lot of it. Much fruit was dried and vegetables were put in pits or underground cellars. In the cellar or dugout beneath the house were bins or barrels of apples. Nuts and popcorn were in every home. They were so pleased to entertain a visitor or someone passing through the country, and it was easy to put on another plate or two, with provisions always handy.
They raised, combed and spun their own wool; dyed, knit or wove much clothing. Who of us does not remember the scratchy, home-knitted woolen long stockings. No wonder we were willing to go barefooted till cold weather and after in the dread of those tortures. And some cobbled their own shoes or wore wooden ones which, too, were often made at or near home.
Signals or messages were often made by colored table cloths or white sheets on a 1ine, a candle in a window, smoke from a chimney, or a bonfire.. Because the ox team was too slow, or was working in the field, people often journeyed afoot. Their experienced eye knew every bit of landscape. Their experiences and natural observation foretold the weather without referring to the newspaper which was scarce and maybe a week old. That was a television to them, and they knew signals. If no smoke came from a distant home across the prairie or valley, neighbors knew someone may be sick or gone. They had a large metal or an iron hung from a tree, or later a bell on a post, which, when well hammered, called men in from the field.
Some cabins had only a dirt floor at first; many had a puncheon floor--logs hewn with an adz to make rough planks. When the luxury of carpets came, folks used to pad under the carpet with straw or old papers. Bedticks were filled with straw or corn husks; renewed freshly at harvest time. Then a feather mattress, as soon as they could acquire one, was put on top of that. A child could not crawl up into that kind of bed. It had to be lifted up into it. Many a pioner or his son tells of father climbing up the ladder into the loft of the cabin during the cold winter nights to brush the snow from a leaky roof off the bed covers and see if the children were snug and warm in their "shake down" of leaves or straw and blankets.
Going to town, to church, or to school was more often on foot. To walk miles to school and carry a cold lunch in all kinds of bad weather was a common thing. Oxen were used as much or more than horses for they were better for breaking sod, and plowing in stony soil or among stumps. Getting more prosperous, a horse or two for horseback or buggy travel was a necessary luxury.
Folks in those early days were much like one of Trowbridge's characters, "A.T. (tremendous) Walker". They did do much walking. John Catlow Sr. and Mr. Boeck, both of Ela Road, used to walk every day to Rand -- what is now Des Plaines--to work all day on the railroad bridge and walk home again at night after a hard day's work. Others walked daily to Cary to work in the gravel pits. Ed Groff's father, when, as a young man he worked for Mr. Beerman at Barrington Road and Central, five and a half miles south of town, used to walk to the South side of Chicago every Saturday afternoon to see his girl friend and walk home again Sunday afternoon to be ready for work the next morning. Men often walked to Chicago to meet friends or relatives coming from the East or from Germany to settle here. On such occasions Mrs. George Waterman, who was an Applebee girl, said that it looked as though half of Chicago closed up and came down to the river to welcome the newcomers, and hear the news, and shake hands.
Elliott Porter and Silas Jayne, both of Cuba Township, were two among others who walked to Chicago to file claims on government land on which they had settled. The circuit riding preacher walked or rode hoseback which used to be quite common at one time. Horseback riding was a business necessity then where it is a mere pleasure now. John Landwer, Henry Elfrink, Lambert Meiners and Barney Elfrink used to walk to Chicago to work on the Illinois-Michigan Canal.
Social life was centered around the church, spelldowns, lyceums or debating societies in the country school house, or husking bees, barn raisings, or quilting parties in the home. They worked hard, and they played hard at these happy get-togethers.
Government Land
The first settlers "took up government land". That is, they recorded in the U.S. Land Office in Chicago their claim to a certain piece, and lived on it and improved it as required. Such land sold at prices from 25 cents to $1.00 per acre and up. Garret H. Landwer said that the farm on the Dundee-Wheeling Road east of Hough Street Road on which Henry Schaefer later lived was "taken up" or bought from the Government for 25 cents an acre for the lower land and $1.25 for the better land. Christ Rieke and his father came here in 1854 and bought their farm of two eighties on South Hough Road for $1,000.00 or $6.25 per acre from Norman Hendrickson. Lambert Landwer, father of Garret H. and Henry H. Landwer bought his farm of 80 acres Southeast of Christ Rieke from Woodbridge Hawley for $700.00. Bernard H. Landwer bought his 80 acre farm in 1847 on Hillside Avenue for $500.00 or at $6.25 per acre, as did many others at similar low prices. Charles Moorehouse came here in 1848 and bought a patch of something over 100 acres which was "the last of the Government land."
Old U.S. Land Patents were found frequently in later days and most of them were signed by Presidents Tyler or Polk. It has been said that land in the southwest corner of Barrington Township was given to soldiers of the War of 1812, but among all the early and best informed persons talked with there were none who ever heard of any such soldier awards hereabouts. The real facts about such awards and prices of government claims or purchases can not be ascertained or verified now because Cook County records were burned up in the Chicago Fire of 1871, although a very few had their deeds recorded a second time on the new books after the fire.
Deer Grove Starts Something
While the Yankees were settling around Barrington Center, the English were settling along Ela Road, centering at Deer Jose where the Dundee-Wheeling Road now crosses the Chicago and Northwestern Railway. The Northwest Highway was not there then, but was a product of the 20th Century. The railroad started in Chicago in 1848 as the Illinois and Wisconsin Railroad, and at first came only to Des Plaines. Later it came to the crossing of Ela and Dundee-Wheeling Roads, and was named Deer Grove Station. Fred Freye said that the depot stayed there for two years (maybe two summers) or until 1854. The depot was built west of the present viaduct "on the first hill west of the old wooden viaduct on Ela Road on the south side of the track" as Garret Landwer said it. If there were a store there previous to that time, there soon were three stores, a church, several residences and a blacksmith shop not far away.
Some of the early families settling along Ela Road or closely adjacent were the Freeman, Fosket, Bradwell, Pinney, Elvidge, Boothman, Boyce, Page, Cady, Swick, Catlow, Stott, Knight, Castle, Elfring (which became Elfrink), Lawrence, Listharke, Kitson, Pomeroy, Sutherland, Moorehouse and Robertson families. The neighborhood of Ela and Palatine Roads is said to have been called Englishman's Grove.
This author talked with Garret Landwer, Fred Freye, Tom Creet and Mrs. Louis Elfrink and others about their personal recollections of Deer Grove, for, with the exception of Mrs. Louis Elfrink, they all lived near enough to go there frequently. Fred Freye lived with his Uncle Lambert Bauman on the west end of Gilly Road in 1853 and crossed the prairie country afoot to Lambert Listharke's home on Ela Road either daily or very frequently. Tom Creet lived at what is now Inverness Corner of Baldwin Road (S.E.) where his father had a blacksmith shop. Garret Landwer came to Hillside Road in 1852. Mrs. Louis Elfrink was the niece of "Barney" Elfrink, who, with Ezekiel Cady, owned the land near the growing settlement.
Besides these early German settlers mentioned, there were many others of that sturdy pioneer group who came here to the surrounding farming area with that great German influx of the1840s and the 1850s. A strong settlement of Irish folks grew up in Cuba Township at the North, and a like settlement of Bohemians along the Fox River area West and Northwest.
Ela Road crossed the track at a grade level then just West of the present viaduct. The Dundee-Wheeling road turned from the hollow east of Ela Road at a right angle to the North up the steep hill to the present Dundee-Wheeling Road near the Jimmy Moorehouse farm house. Later on a wooden viaduct was built for Ela Road over the track running past the Deer Grove Cemetery but that wooden viaduct was removed when the cement viaduct was built for the D-W Road to cross the railroad tracks and the new Northwest Highway.
Uriah Stott had a store west of Ela Road and south of the Deer Grove depot. Feif (or Fife) Friend had a store on the east side of Ela Road south of the track. South of Friend's store was the home of John Catlow Sr. (grandfather of Wright Catlow). South of that was the Evangelical cemetery and the Evangelical Church, built in 1854. On the Southwest corner of Ela and the Dundee-Wheeling Roads on the Louis Landwer corner was a store run by a Mr. Stege who was grandfather of Mrs. Herbert Plagge. That store was later sold to Mr. Fosbinger.
Barrington Village Is Planned
Ezekial Cady's farm was south of, and Barney Elfrink's farm was west of the Deer Grove settlement and depot. As told by a member of one of those families and further related by several pioneers, those two land owners preferred not to sell a pact of their farms for a village to be laid out there. Their objection was that the new village, under the Dram Shop Act, allowed saloons to be licensed, and that their influence on growing youth was not desired.
So the civil engineer for the railroad went farther northwest and bought a forty acre farm from Benjamin Felter. Mr. Felter did not want a railroad running through his farm, so he sold it all. The railroad's engineer, Robert C. Campbell, laid it out in blocks and lots according to the English measurement of links and chains. Each lot was one chain wide and two chains deep, or, in our measurement, sixty-six feet by one hundred thirty-two feet, or four rods by eight rods. There were eight lots to a block. Each block changed the arrangement of the numbering of the lots by starting the first in a different corner so that alternately the lots in each block would face the street on the side, thus avoiding the making of any street a main street and the making the other streets only side streets. Usage, however, worked it out otherwise. Thus the original village was bounded by Hough Street, County Line Road, a point east of Spring Street, and a line a few feet south of Russell Street. It was planned, and was not a widening of the road.
Willard Stevens is said to have soon laid out the Cuba side of the village with the lots being lettered instead of numbered as on the Cook County side. The lots on the Cuba side were two hundred feet by sixty-six feet.
There was only one farm house and barn in that part bought for the original village site, and one house outside to the west. Benjamin Felter's log house stood near the creek on the south side of the County Line Road and where Mrs. Purcell's house stood (now the Liquor Store). The log barn stood just west of the house about where the Ford Garage now is at the end of Ela Street. Fred Frey said there was but one road in here then, and we remember that the County Line Road ran through here to Ela Road only. East of Ela Road the County Line was laid out in more recent times. The other house in the nearby area was the Warren Hough farm house west on the County line outside of the original forty acres. His eighty acre farm laid south of Main Street, and from Hough Street (not open then but named for him) to what is now the E.J. & E. Ry. His was a block house and stood on the south side of the road, Gerhart Landwer said. On that site just east of the Deep Rock is the farm house of later owners, Clawson, Wolf, and Wessel. Mrs. George W. Waterman said the Hough house was moved and became the west wing of the Luke Willmarth-Joe Catlow home at 117 West Main. Besides these two farms in and out of the place, there were somewhere nearby, several small grain shacks used by grain buyers. Another log building much worthy of attention was the District No. 9 school house that stood at the northwest corner of the County Line and Hough, although Hough Street was not there yet from the south, and Fred Frey said it had not come in from the north yet. Soon afterward Hillside Road came through out in the country south of the village.
Topography
Why anyone should have picked a site for a village with such topography is not known and few seem to understand. It was up hill and down, picturesque for the future, and conducive to good drainage in most places, but was full of ponds, creeks and sloughs. East of Spring Street was a peat bog slough traversed by "Billy's Ditch" draining all of the southeast hills into a creek crossing the Cuba side through the northeast corner of Mrs. Purcell's yard northwest under the corner of the old telephone building, back of Henry Gieske's on Cook Street, and on out Liberty Street west into "Spile Creek" which flowed westward across the north side of the village, having its source in McClure's Slough east of the Jewel Tea Co. plant.
The northwest corner of Lake and Grove was a frog pond and in consequence the well at the southeast corner of Station and Cook Streets had water till the pond went dry. A wash ran down Park Avenue (Market Street then). A cattail pond was where the First National Bank now stands, and a store was planted there on wooden posts as soon as the railroad came. There your author learned to skate, sliding from supporting post to post under Plagge's Store. The outlet was down a ditch in the middle of Park Avenue south of what is now the railroad to another cattail pond or slough at the northeast corner of Main and Hough. The Kilgobbin Creek drained the south and southwest corner of the neighborhood running northward west of Hough, crossing West Main Street on the lot line east of the Rest Home, east of the present Post Office and along the C. & N.W. Ry. south of the "J" tower to "Spile Creek". All of these empty into Flint Creek northwest of the village. Southwest corner of Hough and Lincoln was a cattail slough with a sink hole well in the midst where Grandfather McIntosh's horse and Marshall's cow in turn got stuck in the well. All of the west side of South Hough Street in that block to Russell Street was very low and is filled in very much.
The Move Is On
A pioneer country is always interested in improvements that will confirm that its risk was well taken. A railroad was a new thing to most and a means of faster outlet to bigger loads of produce.
Friend's store at Deer Grove, which was run by two brothers, Fife Friend and Matt Friend, was moved to Barrington shortly after the depot came and when little else was here but those two houses and barns and a grain shack or two on the County Line Road. It was early winter and the store was moved here by thirty-two yoke of oxen. Five yoke went ahead and broke the way through the snow. A 12-year-old lad driving the fifth yoke from the lead tells of the event. There was no lunch to warm the inner man in that cold outdoor work in the snow, but there was a keg of something with a wooden spigot and a tin dipper, in the doorway. The grownups doing the house moving partook, but when they got home where it was warm inside they were affected. The next Sunday the preacher got those men to sign the pledge. For years, as told by one who did not partake, they dated many events by the year of, or the year before, or the year after they signed the pledge. Shall we withhold their names? They did well. This incident is here related as told by one of the crew, not in derision nor in jest, but to show what a part of early life was like in a new, country with no "Corner Pantry" or "Coffee Pot" near by for a bracing cup of coffee; and to show how effectual was the influence of the Church.
Friend Brothers' Store was set down on the south side of County Line Road (Main Street) back of where the depot now is and where the east part of the Miller Oil Station is now. Later it was used by Mr. Diekman as a saloon. It then stood on a high stone foundation. It was last used by John Hatje and his son, William Hatje, as a blacksmith shop -- the only lathed and plastered one we ever saw. Mr. Hatie lowered the building to ground level by taking out that high foundation. It was bought and torn down, the lumber used in building a barn east of town. Nate Friend, a brother of the two, came over from Germany and bought out Fife, who moved to Chicago. The Friends built the house next door East which home was still standing till the Hudson-Ford Garage replaced it. There was a passageway from the home to the store. The figuring of the Friend Brothers on the wall outside of the back door was often pointed out as long as the building stood. The old barn which stood for many years back of the house was the place where they had a rabbit kill their meat for them.
Other early stores were begun at the new railroad station. It may be a question whether Squire George Ela or John Moody was first; at least both about the same time. Squire Ela, one in the Illinois legislature and for whom Ela Township was named, moved his stock of merchandise here from West of Long Grove into what some say was one of the first buildings built here after the depot came. It was later enlarged a two story building.
His house was attached as an ell at the rear and to the east. He had a well and a garden in the front, back of a picket fence among the lilacs between Ela's and Friends' stores. The store building was moved up to Northwest Highway as No. 138 South and brick veneered by its new owner, Aug. Scherf, when Emil Miller built his oil station where the Ela and Friend Stores were.
John Moody began on Park Avenue, (then Market Street) where William Howarth followed him and was followed in turn by August Meyer, then the Lipofskys; and, after remodeling, by the National Tea Co., then the Continental Store. These early buildings were razed in 1962 to make room for an expansion of the First National Bank.
Nathan Squires began a store in the community, and J.U. Stott started business on the Cook County side and Ed Foster on the Lake County side, as related by our pioneers. Uriah Stott's store building was hauled to Barrington from Deer Grove. The building first stood on East Station Street east of Garret Landwer's store. Mr. Landwer moved it to its present site at 536 South Hough Street and changed it into a dwelling. It became the William Meyer home (later Olmstead's). While it stood on Station Street it was once Mrs. Milton Henderson's millinery store.
The Creet house and blacksmith shop stood at the southeast corner of Baldwin Road at the beginning of Schaumburg Road at Wilson's Crossing diagonally across from Inverness Towers. The house and the household contents and the blacksmith shop equipment were moved to Barrington on a flat car by the railroad. The fire in the kitchen stove did not go out in the short moving journey. The house was set down at the southwest corner of Cook and Station Streets. Tom Creet said that he stood beside his father at that corner when it was still a vacant lot when Robert Campbell, the developer, told his father that the triangular Block 10 diagonally across the intersection was intended to be a park. It can be said with Bobby Burns "the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft aglea". However, " 'twere a noble ambition." A park there today would look well. For many years that house, with its addition to the south, stood there behind a white picket fence where tall spruce trees and creeping periwinkle filled the yard. The house was moved to 201 West Station Street. His shop, listing to port in its senior years like the Tower of Pisa, was built on the west end of the lot with his barn at the south of his blacksmith shop and about where the rear of the delicatessen store now is. Tom's shop stood for many years, active like Longfellow's village smithy, where "the children passing by to school looked in at the open door; they loved to see the flaming forge and hear the bellows roar."
And Another Way of Moving
While talking of moving houses and barns, we are reminded that almost everything was moved by horse power, except trains and they were moved by horses until it was thoroughly proven that a steam engine could do a surer job of it. Even street cars were drawn into the Chicago loop at Adams and State Streets by a team of horses in the late 1890s.
Horses displaced oxen because they moved faster. Houses were moved about our village by horses. A windlass was staked down in the middle of the road or street and a team of horses walked endlessly around it, ever tightening the rope or chain run through pulleys attached to the house to be moved. Then they pulled up the stakes, moved the windlass ahead some rods, staked it down again, and began winding up and slowly pulling some more. Many a house we've seen John Broemmelkamp move that way.
Then at the turn of the century August "Foxy" Scherf made his tractor, and how it sped up the move. They used to say that "Foxy" and his boys could move anything. When they moved the Methodist parsonage to Russell Street, it went along at almost a dog-trot pace.
The single horse was attached to a sweep at our grain elevators, walking around and around hoisting the grain in belt buckets to the big bins. Tread power was used for threshing machines. The horse was always walking up hill and the poor thing never got anywhere. There again the steam tractor helped to put the horse in the museum.
Early Appearances
In 1888 when the community was but 34 years old, let us recall its appearance. In wet weather it was a floating sea of mud, mud, and more mud. Crosswalks were usually of plank, except down town where rectangular slabs of Bedford limestone soon began to be used. Later on the police officer, who usually had charge of the streets, used to shovel the mud from the crosswalks, especially from the Bank Corner northeast to the old depot for the few coming home from Chicago on the later afternoon "paper train." In dry weather the dust, which was copiously perfumed with horse manure from the streets, blew through the village in clouds.
Coming down town from Grove Avenue which was lined both sides solid with soft maple trees, when one came to Shubuel Kingsley's house at the southeast corner of Park Avenue (which did not go any farther east then) he was facing the old grain elevator owned once by Horace Church and later by George Comstock till it fell a prey to fire. Gray with age and without paint that anyone recollects, it stood by the track at the foot of Grove Avenue. A long ramp ran up the south side of it from toward the depot up to the level of Grove Avenue up or down which teams of horses hauled loads of grain.
North of the elevator and a little to the East was the square "Round House" for the railroad engines with its turn table in front of it. Along the track to the southeastward beyond the turn table for steam engines was the much used cattle yard with a chute for loading cattle to be shipped out. It was a frequent thing to see a drove of cattle going through town, usually at a nervous dog-trot, followed by several boys and a man cracking their long blacksnake whips and hollering for the animals to keep going, often toward the cattle yard for shipment. The old wooden depot with a plank walk all round it, wagon box high at the west end, and a long wooden platform between it and the track, sprawled its length along the south side of the track. All was dirt road from the depot back to the business houses south of it.
Dr. Filkins' home stood at the southwest corner of Grove Avenue and Station Street, with horse chestnut trees on the curb. Harnden's marble shop stood beyond the point of the block at Station and South Railroad Street (Park Avenue.) Going on down South Railroad Street next was Grunau's barbershop -- selling strawberries, oysters, peanuts and cigars; then Wm. Stott's general merchandise store, then Grebe's Hardware store where he burned out, then was Sandman's and later it was C.C. Hennings' saloon where Grebe is now. A high plank sidewalk along the front of these business houses. down steps past the saloon to ground level, a tight board fence in front of a vacant yard of grass till on the corner was Sodt Brothers' Store which formerly had been Sinnott Brothers Store.
On Station Street west of Filkins' yard was the C. Dickinson Drug Store, later Parker's drug, jewelry and watch repairs, at one time Robt Comstock's store and once as Wm. Cronk's saloon. Further west was the open yard of Joe Catlow, with a huge box-elder tree in the front yard. It once was the Ed. Hawley home and his livery stable. Next west was Dell Loomis' Post Office, then Mrs. Milt Henderson's Millinery Shop and on the corner was G.H. Landwer's general merchandise store.
Turning south on Cook Street next was Tom Freeman's furniture store and undertaking parlor, then was a small home occupied by Henry Sodt Sr. South of the dividing tight board fence was the M.B. McIntosh yard --south half of the block-- with a white picket fence along Cook Street and half way to Grove Avenue along Lake Street. His yard was full of trees and bees.
Back of that high white picket fence and among the conifer and basswood trees was a croquet layout and it was much used even though well filled with natural hazards. Here could be found Barney Sodt, Charles Wool, and Fred Frye trying to beat "Mack" on his own ground. Every January 6th the ground was shoveled of its snow and the contest was on to beat "Mack" on his birthday. And the bees? Many a swarm was retrieved by your humble servant from some tall tree to be returned to the yard in a new hive among the others. How the bees paid their friendly respects to us when extracting the honey in the beehouse before the open door on a warm sunny day! His white house with a long porch across the full length of the house was an enlargement of a Mr. Boyse's tavern (which was but the parlor portion of the house or the southwest quarter of the McIntosh house). Across the street on the northwest corner lived Woodbridge Hawley in the VanGorder house. Creet's corn patch used to be there. Next north was the Dell Loomis house, later occi-,pied by John Robertson till he built his new home, now the Rest Home on Main Street. Dr Clausius lived there (on Cook Street) while in Barrington. Next north of that was Creet's yard and home. His yard, too, back of a picket fence was full of evergreen trees and periwinkle. Entrance was on Station Street, and to the west of the house was the blacksmith shop, all occupying a quarter of the block.
Louis Schroeder had a hardware store on the northwest corner of Station and Cook where Bela Abbott had recently been with his carpenter shop. Next was a vacant lot, except for its occupancy of healthy weeds. Hank Abbott's drug store and watch repair shop was next. Parker's Drug and Jewelry was next for a while. M.B. McIntosh had his lumber office in the next of these two buildings he owned. The Post Office was there too when he was Postmaster, and so was the bank. Next was Leroy Powers general merchandise store and a small lean-to was attached to it at the north where his former partner, Homer Willmarth, used to have his Justice of the Peace office. Next was John C. Plagge's frame general merchandise store with offices upstairs for Dr. Charles Coltrin, dentist, and Bridget Lamey' millinery shop. Across the street on the east side of Cook Street was the side of Sodt Bros. frame store with a side entrance and a tight board fence the rest of the way south to Station Street and along that street east to Henning's saloon. Every house and business place had an outdoor toilet in the back yard -- so did that one -- for the boys to push over on Hallowe'en night.
Coming down Hough Street at Lincoln on the southeast corner was a small one story home of the Anholz family and formerly the Fred Hawley home. On the northwest corner of Lincoln Avenue (South Hawley) was the former Lutz house. The Widow Lutz dug the cellar for that house herself. The rest of the block was the school yard for the old white frame two-story three-wing school house with its open eight sided belfry. A well was in the front yard north of the walk and there was a decided hill from the entrance north down Hough Street. Across the way the Zion Chuch faced south, and on the north part of their half block of property along Hough Street where the Jillson, Healy, and Moorehouse homes had been were the church sheds that seem to have never been painted. To the modern youth, the sheds were for the housing of teams of horses which brought a large congregation to Church from the surrounding country.
Dr. Chas. B. Otis lived on the northeast corner of Lake. His house has been moved east to make way for the Kranz gas station. His buggy shed stood where the line is between the Kranz and Standard gas stations. Wallace W. Bennedict's home was on the southeast corner of Station, back of a three-board fence with a barn in the back yard in which George Hansen said Chas. Jahnke started the first livery stable in Barrington.
A cow pasture was on the west side of Hough, where the Canteen now is, graced by a four-board fence. The Anholz house was next, then was the odd looking village hall, in front of the present one, with its wide steps coming down to the Hough Street sidewalk from the little building set up in the air on the old stone calaboose. A small one story cottage stood where Jack Wichman's house is now and next was Billy Spriggs house, which then stood in the middle of what is now West Station Street. Two homes were next, now moved to the end of North Avenue to make way for the former Jewel Tea store. Then was Wm. Howarth's barn and barn yard where Dayton Nance had his real estate office.
Wm. Howarth's home stood on the southwest corner of Hough and Main back of a low picket fence where the Pure Oil is now. That home was moved to the northeast corner of Grant and West Main to make way for that oil station. In another chapter on Streets will be an interesting mention of that corner. On the east side of Hough at the northeast corner of Station Street was Leopold Krahn's house standing close to the sidewalks; his mother's (widow Kortzhalz) house was attached to the north end of his. Mr. Krahn, a cavalry officer, in the Civil War, was a painter in business life, and his shop, next north of the house (it was a shed Much like a small barn) stood close to the sidewalk about where the shoe repair shop is.
At the southeast corner of Main was a house with a picket fence along the Hough Street side of the house with flowers along the narrow walk inside of the fence. That house, too, stood rather close to both streets.
Lewis H. Bute's one-and-a-half-story house stood on the northwest corner of Main and Hough with his barn to the rear. Applebee Street was not there yet.
On the northeast corner of Main was a cat-tail slough through which from Main Street north ran a narrow walk set up on posts with a wooden railing along its sides to prevent people from falling off into the water and mire. This walk led to the Parker Store -- drugs and jewelry repairs -- at the north end of the lot. Upstairs of this small building was the G.A.R. hall. North of that was Lewis H. Bute's Justice of the Peace office on which spot before had stood the Kortzhalz blacksmith shop near the railroad track. East of this cat-tail slough on the County Line Road, or Main Street, was the August Jahn wagon shop. August Krueger worked for him. They were experts in their line. Next east was the Hatje-Stiefenhoefer blacksmith shop; then after that was the H.C.P. Sandman grain elevator which was later sold to John C. Plagge, and moved one night after the midnight train had come in and was put away across the track to Plagge's grain and lumber yard (now Shurtleff's) where it burned to the ground in July, 1909.
On the south side of Main east of Hough were several dwellings. East of these homes at the bend of the building line into Park Avenue was a livery stable operated by Ed. Peters and George Hansen. Then next was Fred Freye's blacksmith shop and farm machinery sheds which had been Camm's Mill, and then was Wm. Howarth's store with high steps in the sidewalk to get up there.
Across the track on Cook Street was the frame building of Lamey & Co., lime, paint and glass down stairs, and upstairs the office of Miles T. Lamey, editor and publisher of the Barrington Review, plus insurance office, or later, as Village Board President. That building stood between North Railroad Street and the railroad tracks where M.B. McIntosh once had his lumber yard. Across Railroad Street next north was Jacob Zimmerman's saloon in the present Hager Company store on North Cook. Next was an open yard till on the southwest corner of Franklin Street was the home of Eddie Ernst, which was moved to Liberty Street when the Schauble machine shop was built; they did lumber planing and made gasoline engines.
The northwest corner of Franklin on Cook was the Abraham Howarth yard. Where the Hager Company office is now on North Railroad Street was a clump of willow trees beside Jacob Zimmerman's ice house, now a home on North Hough Street. The northeast corner of Cook and North Railroad was "Burdock Park," used for small circuses and merry-go-rounds. North of where the depot was then and where the depot is now and where the lumber yard of Johnson and VanGorder (and for a short time McIntosh) stood, the milk can platform for the return of the farmers' milk cans which had been to Chicago, emptied and returned. That was a thriving business. East of it and maybe beyond the Turntable was a cattle yard and chute where once had been Church's lumber yard. George Ela's tight board fence ran along his yard west of his store down to the milk can platform, or to a point in the west end of Miller Oil Co.
George Froelich and H.C.P. Sandman built the flour and feed mill, at southeast Franklin and Hough in 1885 after their Dutch Mill on Hillside burned down in 1884.
All sidewalks were wooden, some merely a running single plank; downtown, in front of the stores, entirely of plank crossways on stringers. Burdocks grew large and healthy between the stores, or between store and plank walk. Hitching posts were in front of every business place with the top of the post well chewed by gnawing horses. A pipe or so-called rail ran, through the posts and got well bent by the restless horses. A horse block and hitching post was in front of most homes. Sidewalks had many nail heads sticking up above the boards for barefoot boys to stub their toes on in the summer and to hinder snow shovelling in the winter. Boards would break through or get loose for people to trip on. They were, also, an invitation for Halloween stunts. Some were on posts, and some rattled and squeaked on dark nights. Kerosene lamps on posts at each corner were lighted individually with a match each night by the night watchman's boys and the lamps were set so they would go out when and if, the moon came up.
Downtown the edge of the plank walks were well broken and notched at the outer edge by pawing horses. Burdocks and dandelions grew luxuriantly between the walk and buildings and always between the buildings where much refuse got kicked. High wooden false fronts were the style and wooden awnings were the necessity to shelter the occasional outdoor display of merchandise as well as the universal bench for loiterers. Truly, those benches may have been, economically, a social necessity. Tight board fences or four board fences seem odd to us now.
The grade level often changed, and steps up or down were frequent, so handy for the large baby carriages used in those days. A series of six or seven steps were between Foreman's saloon and Hatje & Stiefenhoefer's shop on the north side of East Main; one at Fred Frye's up going East about where the variety store is on Park Avenue, and one up going east at Henning's saloon where the northwest corner of Grebe's store is now.
Four town pumps and a large watering trough at each were evidence that the horse was then the mode of rapid transit. How it broke the silence and quiet of the peaceful town to have an occasional runaway team drawing a rattling wagon speed thoaugh town toward home till some bold man dared to dash out in front of it and flail his arms 'till it swerved, sometimes to a disastrous stop, at times against a tree, or the wagon was upset. One well and water trough was on East Station Street at the southeast corner of Cook beside Garret Landwer's store. One was on the north side of East Main across from McLeister's. Until the pavement was blacktopped, a circle in the cement showed where it stood beside Sandman's elevator. A third well was at the southeast corner of Hough and Franklin, in the yard of Froelich & Sandman's flour mill. Another, the most used, was at the west end of the depot park on Cook Street and possibly some sixty feet north of the State Bank Corner, in a floating sea of mud. That spot deserves a little further mention. When the sewer system was put into the village, the workmen found there what must have been once a well but had no knowledge of its palmy days. And it was the old well, bringing back memories. Adjacent to the well was the eighty-five foot wooden flag pole and a band stand built high up around it. There was the scene of many band concerts and Fourth of July fireworks. Then, even after the flag pole was gone, the well platform remained. Being so centrally located, it was a favored spot for the Village Board or Trustees to meet on a hot summer night, and when so occupied it was hallowed ground, not approached by those not board members.
Earlier houses were of cottage type or small story-and-a-half. Then in the '80s came the "ell" or cross shaped house with a wing each side of the middle. In the first decade of the 20th century were the square houses; then came the bungalow and now the rambling ranch house. In the early days before the auto was thought of, the majority of homes had a two-story barn in the back yard and an upper door for the hay mow, a hitching post out across the front ditch and a horse block near it. A very few of the old square barns are left, probably only one, and those that are left are made over into garages.
Besides keeping a horse, many kept a cow and some a pig or two. On one occasion a petition was sent to the village board to banish a pig and its pen, which smelled very bad in warm weather.
Cackling hens and crowing roosters were heard everywhere, often to the irritation of some not so rurally minded, but to the soothing comfort of others to whom the hen-yard noise was "music to the ear." Occasionally a chicken would stray into a business street. Many yards had a picket fence because horses and cows were often getting loose, to the detriment of other folks yards and gardens. In fact, a public pound was necessary in which stray animals were impounded till the owner claimed them and paid the elected Poundmaster the penalty fee. The Village Pound was where the reservoir is now, back of the village hall -- a high slat board fence with a roof over the yard. Such a place today would seem to our youth as a sideroom to a museum.