Stephenson County, Illinois Genealogical Records Information

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Stephenson County History and Information

Stephenson County Facts

Stephenson County was created on March 4, 1837 (Laws, 1837, p. 96) and was formed from Jo Daviess and Winnebago Counties. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: JoDaviess County (1826–1837), Winnebago County (1836–1837), Putnam County (1825–1826), Fulton County (1823–1825), Pike County (1821–1823), Bond County (1817–1821), Madison County (1812–1821) and St. Clair County (1801–1812).

The County was named for Benjamin Stephenson, prominent pioneer, a Colonel of the Territorial militia, and Adjutant General of the Territory (1813–1814). The County Seat is Freeport (1837-Present). See also County History for more historical details.

Counties adjacent to Stephenson County are Green County, Wisconsin (north), Winnebago County (east), Ogle County (southeast), Carroll County (southwest), Jo Daviess County (west), Lafayette County, Wisconsin (northwest).

Stephenson County Townships include Buckeye (Original spelling was Buck Eye), Dakota (Formed from Buck Eye in April, 1861), Erin, Florence, Freeport, Harlem (Name changed from Wayne in December, 1850), Jefferson (Formed from Loran), Kent (Formed from Erin on March 17, 1856), Lancaster, Loran, Oneco, Ridott, Rock Grove, Rock Run, Silver Creek, Waddams, West Point, Winslow Townships

Cities, Towns and Communities include Cedarville, Dakota, Davis, German Valley, Lake Summerset, Lena, Orangeville, Pearl City, Ridott, Rock City, Winslow

The Stephenson County Official Government Website
Map of Stephenson County and its civil and congressional townships
Stephenson County, Illinois History Books at Amazon.com
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Records at the Stephenson County Courthouse

See Also Illinois Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.

The Official County website is located at http://www.co.stephenson.il.us/. All departments below at located at the Stephenson County Courthouse, 15 North Galena Avenue, Freeport, IL 61032 , unless a different address is listed below. NOTE: The record dates below are from the earliest date to present time.

Stephenson County Circuit Court Clerk has Probate Records from 1837 and Court Records from 1837 and is located at the address above. Phone Number: (815) 235-8266
The Clerk of the Circuit Court, commonly known as the Circuit Clerk, is the keeper of the files and records of the Circuit Court. The Circuit Clerk works at the direction of Circuit Court, Appellate Court and Supreme Court of Illinois and is mandated to follow and enforce the laws of the State of Illinois. The Circuit Clerk's Office processes all documents in criminal law, chancery, support, probate, adoption, juvenile, drainage, local improvement, mental, small claims, traffic, ordinance violations, prepares appeals to the higher court, issues passports, summons jurors, tax deeds and handles approximately ten million dollars in costs, fines, restitution, investments and support each year. The Office also issues summonses, writs, attachments, subpoenas and all other tasks as mandated by the courts.

Stephenson County Recorder has Land Records from 1837 and is located at the courthouse. Phone Number: (815) 235-8289
The County Recorder of Deeds serves the people of County by receiving, filing and maintaining all records related to real property in our county. These documents range from all types of conveyance deeds, mortgages, releases and assignments, property liens, as well as, assorted federal, state and local liens. The Recorder’s office is responsible for the recordation and storage of plats of subdivision, land surveys and monument records. Many other types of miscellaneous documents are recorded, such as; foreign birth certificates, foreign marriage licenses, and military discharge paperwork to name a few.

Stephenson County Clerk has Birth / Death Records from 1877 and Marriage Records from 1837 and is located at the courthouse. Phone Number: (815) 235-8289
The County Clerk maintains records and issues certificates of vital statistics (birth certificates, death certificates, and marriage certificates) for the entire County.

Click Here to Search Illinois Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Below is a list of online resources for Stephenson County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Stephenson County Court Records by clicking the link below:

Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
Stephenson County, Illinois Court Books at Amazon.com
Illinois Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.

Stephenson County Vital Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

The first known tax authorization in Illinois fell under the jurisdiction of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio. The tax was based on every hundred acres of unimproved uncleared prairie or wood land, divided into three classes based on quality of earth surface and soil. The rates were thirty, twenty, and ten cents, to be paid annually. Property with delinquent taxes was sold at public auction. There do not appear to be any surviving tax records from this territorial period.

Beginning with statehood, tax records form a large part of county archival material. The 1819 laws provided the first taxation process, imposing taxes on land, bank stock owned, slaves and indentured negroes or mulattoes, plus a poor tax. The tax was collected by the county with income divided between the county and state. Taxpayers lists were eliminated in 1824, and in 1825 a county road tax and school taxes were enacted.

Original and microfilmed tax records at Illinois Regional Archives Depositories include taxable land lists, assessors books, railroad tax books, road tax records, and collectors books, the earliest record dated 1817. Other county tax records are located in county seats.

Below is a list of online resources for Stephenson County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Stephenson County Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Stephenson County, Illinois Tax Books at Amazon.com

Stephenson County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Illinois Genealogical Addresses

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Stephenson County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Stephenson County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

Lena Area Historical Society, PO Box 620, Lena IL 61048
Stephenson County Genealogical Society, PO Box 514, Freeport IL 61032
Stephenson County Historical Society, Freeport
Illinois Regional Archives Depository, Northern Illinois University, c/o Regional History Center, Founders Memorial Library, Room 400, DeKalb, IL 60115; Telephone: (815) 753-1807. Map and Directions. Covers the following counties: Boone, Bureau, Carroll, DeKalb, DuPage, JoDaviess, Kane, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle, Lee, McHenry, Ogle, Putnam, Stephenson, Whiteside, Will and Winnebago. Hours: Monday – Friday, except state holidays 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.; 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Local Illinois Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
National Archives - Great Lakes Region(Chicago), 7358 South Pulaski Road, Chicago, Illinois 60629-5898; 773-948-9001; E-mail: chicago.archives@nara.gov (Maintains retired records from Federal agencies and courts in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.)
General Information Leaflet
Illinois State Archives, Norton Building, Capitol Complex, Springfield, IL 62756; TELEPHONE: (217) 782-4682, Fax: (217) 524-3930; HOURS: Monday – Friday 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
The Illinois State Historical Society, 210 1/2 S. Sixth, Springfield, IL 62701-1503; Phone: (217)525-2781, Fax: (217)525-2783, [EMAIL]
Illinois State Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 10195, Springfield, IL 62791; Phone: (217) 789-1968, [EMAIL]
Illinois State Library, 300 South 2nd Street, Springfield, IL 62701-1796; Phone: (217) 785-5600
Illinois State Historical Library, Old State Capitol, Springfield, IL 62701
County histories, plat books, census indexes, cemetery indexes, city material, family and association files, microfilmed newspapers, manuscripts, and photographs are located beneath the restored old state capitol between 5th and 6th streets and Washington and Adams streets.
Illinois Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Illinois Genealogical Society Books at Amazon.com

Stephenson County Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search Illinois Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Stephenson County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Stephenson County Tombstone Transcription Project.

Despite the early Catholic missionaries in Illinois, their church had almost totally disappeared from the state by the time of the American Revolution. Later migration of English-speaking Catholics reestablished the church in the state. In 1850 the largest religious denomination in Illinois was the Methodists. Baptists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Congregationalists followed. Episcopalians had organized in the state in 1835, the Disciples of Christ were in Illinois prior to 1830, and the Lutherans grew in numbers with the German and Scandinavian emigration of the 1840s.

The Genealogical Society of Utah and the Daughters of the American Revolution have compiled cemetery records for the state of Illinois. Soldiers' Burial Places in State of Illinois for Wars 1774-1898 is available on thirty-one reels of microfilm from the FHL. Local genealogical societies may have information and possible printed records of cemeteries in their locale.

Below is a list of online resources for Stephenson County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Stephenson County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Click Here to Search Illinois Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Stephenson County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Stephenson County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Sites on USGenweb: [ Stephenson County ] [ Illinois ] [ Main Page ]
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County History

The first permanent settlement in Stephenson County was made by William Waddams, in West Point Township, at Waddams Grove, in the summer of 1833, Brewster’s Ferry was established in the spring of 1834 by Lyman Brewster, near Winslow. In the spring of 1835, James Timms (Sr) and family settled in the cabins at Kellog’s Grove. In 1835, Miller Preston, who had evidently prospected in the county in 1833, brought a drove of cattle through from Galliopolis, Ohio, and settled in what is now Harlem Township, on section 22 near the old Galena stage road. Benjamin Goddard and family settled between Freeport and Cedarville in December, 1835, and December 19, that year, William Baker came to the present site of Freeport and built a cabin before the close of the year on the Pecatonica near the present location of the Illinois Central Railroad station.

The first settlers came from the west. The attraction of lead mining was too strong for the time for the simple agricultural and trading life that might be offered in Stephenson County. The tide of settler pioneers swept around or through this county, and went on to Apple River, Galena, Gratiot Grove or Mineral Point.

The first man to build a cabin in Stephenson County was a man named Kirker. It appears that he left St. Louis in 1826 and went to the lead mine regions about Galena. Here he was in the employment of Colonel Gratiot for a year. Then in 1827, he came into Stephenson County and built a cabin at Buffalo Grove. His idea was to establish a trading station there. Nothing is known of Kirker after that. He remained in his cabin less than a year and it is very probable that he left because of impending trouble with the Indians.

As far as the definite records go, the first white man to cross Stephenson County was Colonel E. H. Gratiot. His father had come to the lead mine district soon after the discovery of lead there. In the fall of 1827, Colonel Gratiot with a single companion, traveled on horseback from Jacksonville, Illinois, to Gratiot’s Grove in Wisconsin. After leaving Peoria, Colonel Gratiot and his camp did not see a white man until they reached the Apple River district. There was no ferry at Dixon, and they forded the Rock River at that place. They rode on through Stephenson County by way of Kellog’s Grove.

The outlying settlements of advancing civilization were approaching Stephenson County in all directions from 1825 to 1830. Peoria and Ottawa were settled and the lead mine regions were overflowed from 1824 to 1832. It is believed that there were from seven to ten thousand people in that district in the summer of 1827. Dixon was settled in 1827; Polo in 1831; Rockford in 1835; and Chicago in 1830.

In 1827 several men, including William Baker and the Prestons, came into the county. Their stay was only temporary, but Baker in passing what is now Freeport, was impressed with the value of the point as an Indian trading station. From the discovery of lead about Galena, no doubt, many traders and adventurers crossed the county. It is no more than likely that at times the county was visited by those traders and trappers, a kind of Courier de bois, which formed the skirmish line of advancing civilization. They took no permanent possession of the land. They lived in simple log cabins and only to a very small extent engaged in agriculture. They depended mainly on fish and game and the Indians for a living. These were men of a peculiar type; men who were here to enjoy the solitude of the prairie and the forest, and were not cordial to the first permanent settlers who came near their cabins. In fact, they were more antagonistic to the advance of civilization than the Indians themselves. They were silent men, anti-social, by nature constituted in such a way that they preferred life just beyond the frontier settlements, between the Indian and civilization. As the line of permanent settlements closed about him, he became restless and suspicious and suddenly and quietly, he gathered together his few simple household effects and moved out into the wilds, away from what was to him the monotonous life of permanent civilization. The rule with them was, “When you hear the shot of your neighbor’s gun, it is time to move on west.”

George Flower, in his “History of the English Settlements in Edwards County, Illinois,” gives us the best description of the home of one of these men who was blazing the way for the advance guard of permanent settlements. “Following a trail through a dense grove, I came suddenly on a worm fence enclosing a small field of fine corn, but I could see no dwelling. Looking closely I observed between two rows of corn a narrow path. In twenty steps, I came in sight of a cabin. Looking in the direction of a voice calling back a savage dog about to attack me, I saw a naked man fanning himself with a branch of a tree. What surprised me as I approached him was the calm, self-possession of the man. There was no surprise, no flutter, no hasty movements. He quietly said, he had just come from mill 35 miles away and was cooling himself.

His cabin was 14 feet long, 12 feet wide and 7 feet high. The floor was of earth. There was a bedstead made by driving four posts in the ground. The posts were sprouting and had buds, branches and leaves growing upon them. A small three-legged stool and a rickety clapboard table were the only other furniture. Two heavy puncheons made up the door. The culinary apparatus for this family of seven, consisted of a rim of an old wire sieve furnished with a piece of buckskin, with holes punched through it for sifting the corn meal, a skillet and a coffee pot. There was an axe at the door and a rifle leaned against the wall. The man and his boys wore suits of buckskin and the wife and her three daughters wore dresses of flimsy calico, sufficiently soiled and not without rents. The wife was a dame of some thirty years, square built and squat, sallow and smoke-dried, with bare legs and feet. Her pride was in her two long braids of shining black hair which hung far down her back. Two or three slices of half dried haunch and a few corn pones made us a relishing supper. As night advanced, my host, Captain Birk, reached up among the clapboards and pulled down a dried hogskin for my especial comfort and repose. The entire family of seven slept in the one bed and I lay my hogskin upon the floor and myself upon it.”

Such was the type of home life among these peculiar men who lived always just beyond the borders of our civilization. Yet they served a purpose. They broke out the trails. They were experts with the axe and aided the settlers to build their cabins. Then, when the settlements crowded about them, they moved on to live alone, without neighbors, without law and beyond the irksome restraints of law and civil government. Yet in our midst we have after types of these men, who yield grudgingly, small pittances to public good, unsocial to the end.

The close of the War of 1812 and the crushing defeat of Tecumseh in 1811i had paved the way for the great advance. The Winnebago scare gave a slight check to the advancing tide, and the Black Hawk’s “bad heart,” threats of war, and the war itself kept back the would-be immigrants. The removal of Keokuk and the peaceful Sacs and Foxes into Iowa and the final defeat of Black Hawk and the restriction of his power at the battle of the Bad Axe, August 2, 1832, removed the last formidable barriers to the permanent occupation of Stephenson County. The settlements followed closely on the defeat of Black Hawk. He was defeated August 2, 1832, and in the fall of that year, William Waddams came into the county and selected the site at Waddams Grove as a good place to settle. In the spring of the next year, 1833, as stated above, he built his house and brought his family. William Waddams moved from Jo Daviess County into Stephenson County. He had first lived down on the Ohio River, then in southern Indiana, then near Peoria, Illinois, then in Galena when he built the first water mill, Shullsburg, Wisconsin, Apple River, and White Oak Springs. He was evidently pleased with the country at Waddams, for here he remained till death.

The first permanent home built in Stephenson County was the typical frontier log cabin. It was, in fact, hewed out of the forest. The trees were selected, cut down and shaped into logs, notched near the ends. The rafters and joints were cut and split out of the green saplings. The puncheon floor was of the usual order. The boards were rived on the ground and the window frames were smoothed up by use of a jack-knife. The great fireplace occupied almost all of one end of the house. Such a house could be built, as many of them were, with no other tools but an axe and an auger. A thatched roof log barn was quickly built and afforded protection for grain and stock. Mr. Waddams was a native of the State of New York and Mrs. Waddams of the State of Vermont. There were no schools in the first years of Mr. Waddams life in Illinois but, being interested in the education of his children, he procured the services of a private teacher for his children. He was forty-seven years old when he built the first permanent residence in this county on section 13, in West Point Township. He was a man of decided opinions and in politics was first a whig and then a republican. Mr. Waddams was the pilot who led the way for many a family into Stephenson County. Many a settler partook of his hospitality while on his way to select a claim here. Frequently he hitched his team to the end of the newcomer’s wagon tongue and pulled him through mud holes or across the fords on the Pecatonica. He was for a long timr justice of the peace, and earned the title of Squire Waddams.

One of his specialties as justice was marriages. On such occasions, joy was unrestrained and rule was “to let melody flow,” and “all was as happy as the marriage bells.” The “fiddle” played an important part, and the old time “fiddler” who knew not one note from another sawed to hearts content way into the morning hours on “Fisher’s Hornpipe,” “The Devil Lookin’ up the Lane,” “Dan Tucker,” “The Squawking Hen,” etc. The dancing if not as finely polished as today was quite as full of glee and vigorous enthusiasm.

In the fall of 1834 the Robeys came to Stephenson County. Levi settled in Waddams Township, February 14, 1835, and his father took up a claim near Cedarville. Of the Robeys there were, Wm. Robey and wife, Levi Robey and wife and John, Wm. W., Thomas L., Frances L., Elizabeth and Mary, all children of Wm. Robey. Levi Robey’s grandfather was in George Rogers Clarke’s army when it conquered the Northwest Territory in 1778-9.

With an axe and a jack-knife, Levi Robey built a log house on his claim in 1835. With a yoke of steers, he hauled the logs over the river on the ice. The logs were with great difficulty placed in position, but he persevered until he had completed his frontier home.

George W. Lott had settled in a cabin between Winslow and Oneco. It is claimed that a son was born in the Lott family in 1835. If true, this was the first white child born in the county. Others claim that the first white child born in the township was Amanda Waddams, born at the Waddams home in February, 1836. Lucy, the daughter of Dr. Bankson, was also born early in 1836, and the honor of being the first white child born in the county is also claimed for her.

In 1835, James Timms and family moved from Jo Daviess County into Stephenson County and settled at Kellog’s Grove. Mr. Timms bought the old Kellog site from a man named Green, who got his title from Lafayette, a French adventurer who was the next in possession after Kellog. Lafayette left at the opening of the Black Hawk War. The old house stood till 1862, when a new house was built on the site.

Mr. Timms was a native of South Carolina and his wife a native of New York. He was a soldier in the Black Hawk War and his family was protected in Funk’s Fort and in the Apple River Fort during the war. One son, James B. Timms, living at Kellog’s Grove, was then a boy four years old.

Many settlers came into Stephenson County in the year of 1835. Benjamin Goddard settled north of Freeport, stopping first with Mr. Robey. Luman and Rodney Montague and William Tucker settled near Waddams Grove. Hubb and Graves built a cabin near that of Levi Robey in Waddams Township. Richard Parriott, Sr., George Trotter, Henry and William Hollenbeck located in Buckeye Township. Nelson Waite, Charles Gappen, Alijah Warson, John and Thomas Baker and William Willis settled in Waddams. In Winslow Township settled Alvah Denton, Lemuel Streator, Hector W. Kneeland, and James and W. H. Eels, Jefferson and Louis Van Metre settled in Oneco. John B. Kaufmann in Erin; Miller Preston, to Harlem; Jesse Willett, Calvin and Jabez Giddings, to Kent; Albert Alberson and Eli Frankenberger, and Josiah Blackmore to Rock Grove; Thomas Crain and family to Silver Creek; Conrad Van Brocklin and Mason Dimmick and Otis Love and family to Florence. Thomson Wilcoxen spent part of the year in the county and settled permanently in Harlem the next year. Harvey P. Waters and Lyman Bennett spent the winter near the mouth of Yellow Creek and in the spring settled in Ridott township, where they were joined by A. J. Niles.

Probably the most important settlement in some ways in 1835, was that of William Baker, who built a trading post and established his family in a cabin on the banks of the Pecatonica River at the foot of Stephenson Street in the city of Freeport. Baker had picked out the site earlier and in 1835, with his son, Frederick, and his family, began the history of Freeport.

William Baker came from Orange County, Indiana. He first moved to Sangamon County, Illinois, in 1823, and in the spring of 1827 came to the lead mine region in Jo Daviess County. In 1829, they went back to Peoria, and in 1852 went to the lead mine country in Lafayette County, Wisconsin. The Bakers had come north just in time to get into the thick of the Black Hawk War. To escape the dangers from Indians, the family “forted” in Fort Defiance. Baker and his son, Fred, returned to this county and December 19, 1835, built the cabin above mentioned which was the first house built in the city of Freeport. Mrs. Baker came the following February. Having completed a hewn log home, Baker and Benjamin Goddard with an ox team and wagon drove into Wisconsin to bring the family to the new home. It was a long and tedious journey, over unbroken, February roads. But through all the difficulties and dangers, there was the inspiration that lifts up every family as it moves into a new home. In due time the ox team was back again, and Mrs.

William Baker was the first white woman to live in the limits of the present city of Freeport. Mr. William Baker then entered and owned the land on which the city of Freeport now stands. Before his wife arrived Baker, assisted by Benjamin Goddard and George Whiteman, erected another log mansion near the first. They were assisted in raising it by Fred Baker, Miller Preston and Jos. Van Sevit. Baker was favorably impressed with the location and decided to establish an Indian trading post and a hotel. A tribe of Winnebagoes was still in the community and the tavern would be able to earn something from immigrants who were sure to be coming through to the west. He also established a ferry, and did a fair business bringing people across the Pecatonica. Mr. Baker was not here long before he became convinced that here was a desirable location for a village. That is why he laid claim to all the land of the present city. Besides, it cost him only the fee at the Dixon land office. The next move was to organize a land company and Baker secured as partners, William Kirkpatrick and W. T. Gaibraith. This was the first organization in Freeport, a real estate firm, under the title of Baker, Kirkpatrick, Gaibraith & Co. The purpose of this company was to offer inducements to immigrants.

They anticipated a large increase in westward bound settlers and were prepared to exploit the advantages and prospects of the village to be. The town was laid out early in 1836, in the north part of the northeast portion of section 31. This was later removed because the Indians, when they had sold their lands, had reserved certain tracts to the half-breeds, to be selected in any part of the territory they might choose. As soon as it became known that Baker, Kirkpatrick & Co. had laid out a town, Mary Myott located her claim on this section and the town builders moved their stakes farther west. Later, John A. Clark obtained title to this section and calling it Winneshiek Addition, opened it to settlement.

In 1836, Baker & Co. put up two log cabins, one at the corner of Galena and Chicago Streets, and One opposite the monument on Stephenson Street. Mr. L. 0. Crocker built a small hut on the banks of the river and in the fall occupied it as a store. The real estate visions of the company seemed to brighten in 1836. During the year 0. H. Wright, Joel Dodds, Hiram Eads, Jacob Goodheart, John Hinkle, James Burns, William, Samuel and Robert Smith, John Brown, Benjamin R. Wilrnot and several others came in, so that when winter arrived there was quite a colony in the new location. F. D. Bulkley came but settled on Silver Creek township and E. H. D. Sanborn settled in Harlem.

A few points of interest have been preserved in regard to these earliest settlers. Luman Montague, above mentioned, was of English descent. He was a native of Bennington, Vermont. He married Miss Elmira Clark in Massachusetts and, soon after, with his young bride set out on a marvelous honeymoon trip. With an ox team and wagon in 1835, they drove the entire 1000 miles from Northampton, Massachusetts, to Stephenson County, and settled on section 18 in West Point Township. The first Montague to come to America was Richard, who settled in Hadley, Massachusetts 1660. With an ax alone, Luman Montague built his log home in this county. He set out the first nursery and one time had an orchard of 1000 trees.

Hubbard Graves had learned the stone cutter’s trade on the Scioto, in Ohio. He married and came first to Hennepin, Illinois. He settled in Waddams Township, 1835, and built his cabin before the land was surveyed. He sold this claim and took two others in Rock Grove Township. He was the first sheriff of Stephenson County and was a member of the legislature from 1842-1844.

Richard Parriott, Sr., was a native of Tyler County, West Virginia. He came to southern Illinois in 1826, settled in Indiana a short time, and then through Stephenson County to Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1835, and not finding anything to suit him returned to this county and settled in Buckeye township. George Trotter, also an early settler in Buckeye was a native of Bourbon County, Kentucky, and first came with his father’s family to Springfield, Illinois. He walked from Springfield to the lead mine region and secured employment in a smelter at $16 a month. He enlisted for the Black Hawk War and was in the battle of the Wisconsin River and the Bad Axe. After the war, with his wife and two children, two horses, two oxen and a wagon, he drove to Honey Creek, Wisconsin, but not being pleased there, returned to this county and settled in Buckeye Township, 1835. Not having money to enter his land, he held it as a claim till he secured a title. James and W. H. Eels drove from

New York to LaSalle County, Illinois, and in 1835 came on to Stephenson County, settling in Winslow township and built a double hewed log house. In 1836, they moved to Ransomberg and built another log house and made it into a tavern, where was held the first election that occurred in that section. The nearest mill in 1835 was at Gratiot, Wisconsin, and it was a poor corn cracker. Galena was the nearest place for supplies and the nearest post office. It often cost 25 cents to get a letter out of the office and this the settlers did not always have, as coin was a scarce article. But a letter from the home folks way down east was highly prized, and the good natured postmaster frequently let the pioneers have the letters on “tick.” At the age of 17, W. H. Eels purchased his “time” from his father for $250. He then worked for $i6 a month on a farm and in 1838 bought a yoke of oxen. Later he bought a claim of 16o acres in Winslow Township and married in 1841. He owned the first threshing machine in that section. He was a great reader, and was admitted to the bar in 1872. T. J. Van Metre came west as a boy from Ohio to the lead mines. He served in the Black Hawk War, and in 1836 came to Oneco, paying $100 for a claim of 150 acres. In 1837 he made a horseback trip to Cincinnati.

Thus were laid the foundations for the history of Stephenson County. It had its beginning with one family, that of William Waddams in 1833, at Waddams Grove, 77 years ago. The next year, 1834, saw several new settlements. The year 1835 closed with a large number of additional settlers of high quality. These settlements formed centers scattered in every direction, around which the county was to be built up. In addition to the those mentioned above, there were many others whose names have not been preserved. While the population was yet small and the settlements isolated, yet the tide of immigration had set in strong, and the rapid occupation of the county was assured. The settlers were pleased with the outlook and sent back east glowing reports of the climate and the resources of the county, telling in words of praise of “The beautiful land, with her broad, billowy prairies, replete with buds and blossoms, with her wooded fastnesses, in which the deer and smaller game roamed at pleasure; of the water power that the streams would afford, and many other items of interest which conspired to render the country not only fascinating to the traveler, but productive under the horny hand of toil.”

About 1840 a newspaper man passing through the county gave the following description in the Madison Express: “Since I have been here I have been about the county considerably, and am well convinced that it is well deserving of the high reputation it has attained. From Rockford to Freeport the road passes through one continuous prairie, with the exception of a grove about a mile in length. The prairie is quite rolling, in many places amounting to hills with an uncommonly rich and fertile soil. There is in this county less waste land on account of sloughs and marshy places than in most prairie countries with which I am acquainted. Yet the land is admirably well watered, there being a clear creek nearly every mile, wending its way through the prairie to the Pecatonica River. These, I am told, originate in springs, the water always being clear and pure and the streams never dry. The banks of the creeks are usually high and the land on either side of the water’s edge, is perfectly dry. A heavy body of timber is to be found on the north side of the Pecatonica River, the best growth I have ever found in the state. It is mainly oak, and in many places we find a variety of timber.”

Many of the early settlers came from two sources. One was from the men who were attracted to the lead mine regions. Many of these men passed through Stephenson County by way of the old Kellog trail. They were impressed by the beauty and the wealth of the agricultural resources of the county and, in due time, when fortunes did not hastily develop in the lead regions, they thought of necessity to return to the slower but surer road to competence — agriculture. Remembering what they had seen of this county and its opportunities, they turned back to the eastward along the old trail and from Waddams and Kellog’s Groves, they took up claims along the valleys of Yellow Creek and the Pecatonica.

Another source of settlement was the soldiers of Black Hawk’s War. They too had crossed and recrossed the county and had not failed to be impressed by its opportunities and resources. The Indians were driven out and many of the veterans of the war, returned here with their families to take up claims. The land down the state was well taken and prices had advanced. But here, they could own a quarter section, for a small payment to the land office at Dixon. For the most part, they were progressive and courageous men and good citizens, who were not afraid to leave a settled community to find larger opportunities amidst the dangers and privations of life on the front wave of civilization.

Naturally a few worthless characters drifted into the county. They had been undesirable citizens in the east and in the older communities, and had been compelled to go towards the west. But here they found too many people of the better class and many of them soon moved on to the farther west. The settlers here were devoted to industry and to orderly civil government. It was not an enticing place for the idle or the outlaw.

Mr. Lyman Brewster settled in the county and built a ferry near Winslow in the spring of 1834. Lyman Brewster was a native of Vermont. He settled first in Tennessee. From Tennessee he moved his family to Peru, Illinois, and in’ 1834 settled in Winslow township where he entered a claim, built a cabin, cleared 8o acres of ground and opened Brewster’s Ferry, the first on the Pecatonica. He soon thereafter rented the ferry to William Robey and returned to Peru. In 1835, Lemuel W. Streator purchased the Brewster property, the ferry and 640 acres for $4,000, which was paid to the Brewster heirs, Lyman Brewster having died at Peru. In 1836, Stewart and McDavel opened a store in Ransomberg. Later they moved to Oneco. George Payne also stopped at Brewster’s Ferry that year, and George W. Lott built a shanty in the present limits of Winslow. Others who settled near Winslow were Harry and Jerry Waters and A. C. Ransom.

LOCATING THE COUNTY SEAT

The State Legislature had appointed three men, Vance L. Davidson, Isaac Chambers and Miner York, to locate the county seat. This kept up considerable excitement among the settlers till the location was agreed upon. Propositions and petitions came in from all parts of the county where any considerable settlement had been made. Each section set forth as particular claims and pressed them with great persistence. The two strongest contenders were Cedarville and Freeport. Cedarville’s claim was that it was near the center of the county. Its claims were pushed by Thompson and Rezin Wilcoxen. But it was a case of an argument of real town against a “paper” town. Cedarville, as a village, was yet to be built. It was not surveyed or laid out. Freeport had been surveyed and laid out, contained a half dozen houses, a store, a hotel, trading post, a kind of ferry and a saloon. Besides, it seems, the business men of Freeport got busy. The land company that had laid out the town, offered to give $6,500 for the erection of county buildings and William Baker, merchant, real-estate dealer and promoter, offered the additional argument that besides donating the lot for the county buildings each of the commissioners should receive a lot. Many, including the Rev. F. C. Winslow, claimed that these “inducements” influenced the judgment of the three commissioners and prejudiced their decision in locating the county seat. Whatever the truth may be, in June, 1837, the commissioners set forth the following proclamation: We, the commissioners appointed by the Legislature of the State of Illinois, to locate the county seat of Stephenson County and state aforesaid, have located said Seat of Justice, on the northwest quarter of section 31, in Township 27, North, Range 8, east of the fourth principal Meridian, now occupied and claimed by William Kirkpatrick & Co., William Baker and Smith Gaibraith. Whereunto we have set our hands and seals this 12th day of June, A. D. 1837. (Signed.)

The real town of houses and business had won out against the theoretical. Whatever the inducements may have been, if there were any at all, there have been few people to criticise the judgment of the commissioners in locating the county seat at Freeport.

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