| HOME » online historical archives » research books » Past and Present of Lake County, 1877 » Chapter 2 - Lake Co. History, 1877 » |
| [index] [part 1] [part 3] |
The first contested lawsuit in what is now Lake County, and indeed, probably the first judicial proceeding occurring therein, was in the Fall of 1837, before Hiram Kennicott, a Justice of the Peace, at his place near Indian Creek. It was a proceeding in the name of the People against Michael Dulanty, for an alleged assault and battery, at the instance of Arthur Patterson, on whom the offense was charged to have been committed. Dulanty pleaded justification--that his integrity had been impugned by the complainant. Patterson, who had recently been elected a Justice of the Peace, urged as an aggravation of the offense the high dignity of his official position. The parties lived near the lake shore, in the vicinity of what is now Highland Park. The scene of the alleged conflict was at the Green Bay House, a log tavern which stood on the Green Bay road, between Highland Park and Highwood. The Justice concurring in the position of the injured party, that it was a high offense to assault a person representing the dignity of a magistrate of the law, read to the defendant an impressive lecture as to his duty in future toward the magistrates of his adopted country, imposing a fine of $5.00.
In August, 1837, Dr. J. H. Foster settled at Libertyville. He was the first physician who settled in the county.
A large proportion of the early settlers were young men-- unmarried. Many married men came and made improvements before bringing their families. This gave rise to that institution so well remembered by the early settler called "bachelor's hall," or, as commonly expressed, "keeping bach." This institution acquired more than ordinary respectability in Lake County; for which credit is due to the example of Joseph DeHart, whose name is before mentioned as an early settler in the north part of the county, who is said to have received frequent calls from delegations of ladies in the neighborhood, to compliment him for his excellent example in domestic affairs.
In June, 1837, the Rev. Samuel Hurlbut settled near Independence Grove. He was of the Methodist denomination, and the first minister of the Gospel who preached and settled in Lake County.
In the Spring of 1837, the county of McHenry was organized pursuant to an act of the General Assembly, approved March 1, 1837, comprising, with other territory, that which is now Lake County.
The first election for county officers of McHenry County was held June 5th, at the house of Hiram Kennicott. Henry B. Steele was elected Sheriff; Michael C. Maguire, Coroner; Seth Washburne, Recorder; and Mathias Mason, Charles H. Bartlett and Solomon Norton, County Commissioners. The whole number of votes cast for the entire county being 138.
At a regular election in August following, Arthur Patterson was elected Probate Justice of the Peace; Lewis G. Schenck, County Treasurer and Assessor; and a Mr. Dennison, Clerk of the County Commissioners' Court. The last named soon resigned, when Joseph Wood was elected to fill the vacancy.
That part of the county east of Fox River became divided into four precincts or election districts, called Abingdon, Indian Creek, Oak and Lake. The first two were on the west, and the last two on the east of the Aux Plaines River.
In June, 1838, Mr. Schenck, as ex officio Assessor, proceeded to assess the taxable property of the county. This was the first assessment of property in the county--being solely of personal property, as all the lands yet belonged to the United States Government.
In the Fall of 1838, the county of McHenry being considered quite thickly settled, it was deemed advisable for convenience of the inhabitants, in regard to public affairs, that measures should be taken for a division into two counties. Accordingly, a petition to the Legislature was circulated, praying for such division, in response to which the General Assembly, at its session of 1838-9, passed an act dividing the county of McHenry and creating therefrom the county of Lake, establishing its boundaries as follows: "All that portion of McHenry County east of a range or sectional line, not less than three miles, nor more than four miles east of the present county seat (McHenry Village) of McHenry County, shall constitute a new county, to be called the county of Lake."
About this time, an attempt was also made to create a new county, to be called the county of Michigan, out of a portion of Cook and a part of that portion of McHenry lying on the east of Fox River, so as to bring the county seat at Wheeling, which, if accomplished, would defeat the plan of creating the county of Lake and render more certain the continuance of the county seat of McHenry County at McHenry Village. But the scheme was unsuccessful. Joseph Filkins, of Wheeling, a prominent citizen of that day, was one of the principal movers in this project.
By the act creating the county of Lake, Edward E. Hunter and William Brown, of Cook County, and Col. E. C. Berry, of Fayette County, were appointed Commissioners to locate the seat of justice. The two first named were appointed at the suggestion of the friends of the measure, and Col. Berry was selected from his thorough acquaintance with the geography of the county, having a short time previous been engaged in surveying the government lands therein, under the direction of the Surveyor General.
The commissioners, or a majority of them, were required to meet at the house of Henry B. Steele, at Independence Grove (now Libertyville), on the first Monday in May, 1839, or as soon thereafter as might be convenient, and after being duly sworn by some Justice of the Peace, faithfully to perform the duties required of them as such commissioners, to preceed to locate the seat of justice for the new county, having due regard to the geographical situation, the settlements and convenience of the population at that period, as well as thereafter. As all the lands in the county, at that time, belonged to the government, it was required that a relinquishment should be obtained from the claimants of the lands on which the county seat should be located to a tract not less than twenty acres, for the use and benefit of the county, upon which to erect the county buildings; and it was made the duty of the county commissioners to obtain a title from the General Government of said lot of land as soon as the same could be accomplished, and they were required to appropriate from the funds of the county so much as would be necessary for that purpose.
The legal voters within the territory of the new county were required to meet at the several places of holding the last general election, under the organization of McHenry County, on the first Monday in August, 1839, for the purpose of choosing county officers. The returns of said election were to be made by the Judges and Clerks thereof, to the County Commissioners' Court of McHenry County, according to the law in other cases, and the Clerk of said Court was required to give certificates of election to the officers elect of the new county.
The new county of Lake was, by this act, attached to the Seventh Judicial Circuit.
About the 1st of June, 1839, two of the Commissioners, Hunter and Brown, appointed to locate the county seat met at Libertyville, and after a brief deliberation on the subject, selected that place as the location, and upon conference with the inhabitants, gave to the new county seat the name of Burlington-- being the fourth name applied to the place during that number of years. Libertyville was probably at that time nearer the center of population in the county than any other point. This fact rather induced a temporary acquiescence in the action of the commissioners in locating the county seat at that place. There was a settled intention, however, on the part of certain influential parties in the vicinity of the lake shore--the most prominent of whom were Elmsley Sunderlin and Nelson Landon--to try, as soon as increase of population and other circumstances would warrant it, and effect a removal of the county seat to Little Fort. This scheme entered secretly into the first election of county officers which occurred on the first Monday in August, 1839. The result of this election was as follows: Henry B. Steele was elected Sheriff; Chas. H. Bartlett, Nelson Landon and Jared Gage, County Commissioners; Mathias Mason, County Treasurer; A. B. Wynkoop, Recorder; Lewis G. Schenck, School Commissioner; John A. Mills, County Surveyor; Arthur Patterson, Probate Justice of the Peace; Starr Titus, Coroner; and Lansing B. Nichols, Clerk of the County Commissioners' Court. These were the first county officers.
The friends of Little Fort secured a portion of the county officers. These were Nelson Landon, Arthur Patterson and Lansing B. Nichols.
Two Justices of the Peace and two Constables were also elected at the same time, in each precinct. The total number of votes cast in the county was 375.
A special term of the County Commissioners' Court was immediately called and convened at the county seat. At this term the county was divided into eight precincts, or election districts--Lake, Oak, Middlesex, Burlington, Mill Creek, Bristol, Fort Hill and Zurich. Afterward, Lake was divided, forming a new precinct called Little Fort; and Oak was divided, forming a new precinct called Le Clair, in honor of Pierre Le Clair, a French half-breed of influence among the Indians, who lived for a time at the Indian village near the mouth of Indian Creek.
The subject of erecting county buildings was soon agitated, but it was urged by Mr. Landon, and finally concurred in by the other Commissioners, that the finances of the county would not justify such an undertaking for some time to come. Whereupon an arrangement was entered into by the County Commissioners, with Burleigh Hunt, of Little Fort, for the erection of a suitable building at Independence Grove, to be rented to the county for a term of years, for county purposes. The building was completed during the Fall of 1839.
The first term of the Circuit Court in Lake county was held in the aforesaid building in April, 1840. Judge John Pierson presided; Alonzo Huntington was present as State's Attorney; A. B. Wynkoop, Clerk, and Henry B. Steele, Sheriff. The lawyers present were Horace Butler, Nathan Allen, W. W. Kellogg, Charles McClure, Grant Goodrich, Justin Butterfield, J. L. Loop, and James M. Strode. The following were the Grand and Petit Jurors at this term: Grand Jurors--Philip Blanchard, Richard D. Hickox, Richard Archer, Rufus Soules, David Wait, Jonathan Rice, Leonard Loomis, John Robinson, Abraham Vandewacker, W. B. Wattles, David Rich, Oliver Booth, Laomi Pearson, Samuel Burlingham, Elmsley Sunderlin, George Thompson, Hiram Clark, Alexander Russel, Zabina Ford, John Olmsby, Lathrop Farnham, Geo. A. Drury, Moses Sutton. Petit Jurors--Elbert Howard, Andrew Luce, Leonard Spaulding, Godfrey Dwelley, Morris Robinson, Daniel Hubbard, Levi Whitney, William Briggs, Charles S. Cary, Joshua Leach, Hiram Butrick, George Gage, John Murray, Job W. Tripp, Milton Shields, Lewis Beecher, William Ladd, Ransom Steele, Caleb Davidson, Malachi T. White, Hezekiah Bryant, Nathaniel King, Solomon Norton, A. S. Wells.
The first civil case disposed of, being number one on the docket, was that of Samuel Hurlbut vs. William Easton. The first criminal case was The People vs. John J. Gatewood, indicted for stealing five dollars from Absalom Funk, a drover. About this time there was a State Senator of note in this State, whose name was Gatewood. The prisoner, when arrested, manifested great surprise, and demanded an apology from the officer for imposing on so high a dignitary, announcing that his name was Gatewood--Senator Gatewood. The power of this name, he fancied, would bring the officer to terms; but it failed to do so. When put on trial, he gave the name of Shepherd as his real name. He was convicted and sentenced to one year in the penitentiary.
At the June term of the County Commissioners' Court, Capt. Morris Robinson was appointed by the Court to take the census of the county, by authority of the State, enumerating the inhabitants resident on the 1st of September of that year. The census was also taken in the same year by Dr. Richard Murphy, by authority of the United States, commencing on the 1st of June, showing a population as enumerated by State authority of 2,905; by United States authority, of 2,634--an increase in three months of 271.
The mission of Capt. Robinson seems, however, to have been mostly that of ascertaining the minds of the people of the county on the subject of removing the county seat from Libertyville to Little Fort, and exhorting them to favor the project. At his instance, petitions to the General Assembly, praying for such removal, were put in circulation in every portion of the county where the question was likely to meet with the least favor, which petitions were numerously signed.
At the August election for county officers for this year, L. B. Nichols was elected to the office of Sheriff; Thomas H. Payne, County Commissioner; Henry B. Steele, Clerk of the County Commissioners' Court, and Joseph Wood, Coroner.
In November following, came the great Presidential contest between Harrison and Van Buren. The number of votes polled in the county, at this election, was 548, giving a majority of fourteen votes for Harrison.
The Legislature having convened on the first Monday of December, Capt. Robinson was selected by the friends of Little Fort to attend its session, for the purpose of presenting the petitions for the removal of the county seat, and using his exertions in behalf of the prayer of the petitioners, which resulted in the passage of an act submitting the question of removal to the people of the county on the 5th of April, 1841; at which election there were 744 votes cast, showing a majority of 188 in favor of Little Fort. The county seat was, therefore, on the 13th day of April, formally re-located and permanently established at Little Fort, on the southeast quarter of Section 21. All the county offices were removed accordingly.
By an act of Congress, the county would be entitled to 160 acres of land by pre-emption, at the place where the county seat should be located; that is to say, the land upon which the county seat of any county should become located, it being government land the county should have the right by pre-emption to enter 160 acres of the same, at the proper Land Office, by paying $1.25 per acre. Accordingly, such persons as had any claims upon the southeast quarter of Section 21 very generously released them in favor of the county. About the 20th of April, 1841, the land in question was purchased at the Land Office at Chicago by the County Commissioners, Charles H. Bartlett, Nelson Landon and Thomas H. Payne, for the County of Lake, it being the first transfer of land in fee simple in the county. It was then, by order of the County Commissioners, subdivided into lots and blocks by the county Surveyor, John A. Mills, with the assistance of his deputy, George Gage; after which, a sale of the lots was ordered, sufficient to meet the expenses incurred in perfecting the title to and surveying the land, which sale took place on the 26th day of May, 1841. The terms of the sale were: One-fourth of the amount of the purchase money in advance, and the balance in three equal installments, in six, twelve and eighteen months.
At the time of the removal of the county seat, the county had no money in the treasury wherewith to purchase the land upon which the county had become entitled to a pre-emption. Elmsley Sunderlin, prompted by the interest he felt in the removal of the county seat, was heard to remark on several occasions, that he had just two hundred dollars in gold that the county could have the use of, with which to make the purchase, if desired. This coming to the knowledge of the County Commissioners, they applied to him and obtained the money with which the purchase was made.
The removal of the county seat, as it materially affected local interests, created much feeling among the people of the county, especially in the sections more immediately interested. This feeling grew to bitterness among citizens, and entered into the general politics of the county. The two great political parties of that day were the Whigs and Democrats. But in Lake County the issues between these parties were for a time entirely ignored, and the county seat question became the all-important one at all elections. The two factions were styled "the Grove party," and "the Little Fort party." The former was confined mostly to the inhabitants of the southwestern portion of the county. The policy of the Grove party was to elect such county officers as were in favor of delaying the erection of county buildings at Little Fort, and would lend their influence for removal of the county seat back to Independence Grove.
Among other things, it was claimed, in the interest of Libertyville, that some defect in the law or informality in the proceedings had been discovered whereby the county seat had not in fact been legally removed. Whereupon the Recorder of Deeds, Mr. A. B. Wynkoop, holding to the same opinion, caused his office to be removed back. This question was put at rest, however, by the passage of an act at the next session of the Legislature declaring the county seat permanently located at Little Fort, on the site selected by the County Commissioners.
The first term of the County Commissioners' Court, held at Little Fort, for general purposes, was a special session in May, 1841. Commissioners Landon and Payne favored the location of the county seat at Little Fort.
At the election in August, following, Mr. Landon, whose term of office then expired, was re-elected. He thereupon called a special term of the Commissioners' Court, at which Henry B. Steele was removed from the office of Clerk of the Court, on the ground of not giving personal attention to the duties of the office, and Arthur Patterson was appointed in his stead. It was subsequently decided, in a suit brought on the question, that Mr. Landon had no authority to call a special term of the Commissioners' Court, in manner as he did; that therefore the term was illegally held, and Mr. Steele was restored to his office.
The first term of the Circuit court, held at Little Fort, convened on the 20th of October, 1841. There were present Hon. Theo. W. Smith, Judge presiding; Henry Brown, Esq., State's Attorney; L. B. Nichols, Sheriff; and I. R. Gavin, Clerk. Among the lawyers present were Horace Butler, Isaac Hopkinson, Giles Spring, Grant Goodrich, P. Ballingall, J. M. Strode, B. S. Morris, James Turney, C. B. Hosmer and E. A. Rucker.
About the time of adjournment of the court occurred the first instance of burglary committed in the county. The subject of this offense was the store of H. Buell & Son, situated on the Milwaukee road, about a mile south of the Aux Plaines bridge, in the present town of Warren. Nearly the entire stock of goods was taken therefrom. The property was found secreted in the barn of William Kellam, living some two or three miles down the road. Kellam and one Edward Allen were convicted of the offense and sent to the penitentiary.
At the December term of the Commissioners' Court, a contract was entered into with Burleigh Hunt for the building of a county jail, which was completed the ensuing Summer.
In 1842-3 occurred what is known as the "cold Winter"--the longest and coldest remembered by the oldest inhabitants. During the Winter the county was visited by that great religious excitement known as Millerism.
At the September term, 1843, of the County Commissioners' Court, the Commissioners entered into contract with Benj. P. Cahoon, of Southport, Wisconsin (now Kenosha), for building a court house. The consideration was the unsold lots and blocks in the original town plat of Little Fort, belonging to the county; said Cahoon agreeing to pay the amount of outstanding county orders on account of county land, and the balance due for county jail--the total amount not to exceed $950.
The court house was completed in the Fall of 1844, in time for the Fall term of the Circuit Court.
The election for county officers, in August, 1844, was the last of the contest between the two county seat factions.
In 1844, a steam saw-mill was built at Lake Zurich. It was the first steam engine in the county applied to any kind of machinery.
On the 4th of March, 1845, the first number of a newspaper, entitled the Little Fort Porcupine and Democratic Banner, was issued at Little Fort, by N. W. Fuller as publisher, and A. B. Wynkoop as editor and proprietor. This was the first newspaper published in the county. It continued about two years, when its publication was suspended.
The Lake County Herald, by N. P. & S. M. Dowst, was the second newspaper in the county. Its publication was commenced in the Summer of 1845, and was continued for one year only. It was Whig in its politics.
The Porcupine was succeeded in the Spring of 1847 by a paper entitled the Lake County Visitor, N. W. Fuller, publisher, H. W. Blodgett, editor. It was neutral in politics, and continued only about six months.
The Visitor was succeeded by the Lake County Chronicle, the publication of which was commenced about the 1st of October, 1847, by W. H. H. Tobey & Co., publishers, A. B. Tobey, editor.
During September, 1847, a murder was committed in the Goodale neighborhood, then called Fort Hill, which caused great excitement throughout the county. In the morning, after a ball at Goodale's Tavern, on the McHenry road, in what is now the town of Grant, the lifeless body of one Silas Marble was found in the barn-yard, a short distance from the house, in a mangled condition. Several large clubs near by showed that the death had been caused by violence. Coroner Dorsett was notified and a jury summoned, who returned a verdict that the death had been caused by violence, and that there was reason to suspect that Joel B. Sherman, Jacob Sherman and Spencer Miller, living in the neighborhood of Fort Hill, were guilty of the murder. They were, accordingly, on the following morning arrested and confined in jail. They were subsequently brought, on a writ of habeas corpus, before Judge Dickey, but were remanded, that the matter might have a further investigation at the next Court, a special term of which was ordered to be held in the fore part of December following, at which they were indicted for murder and put on trial. They were ably defended by J. J. Brown, of Chicago, E. W. Hoyt and H. W. Blodgett, of Waukegan, and John T. Clarke, of Antioch. The prosecution was conducted by Wm. A. Boardman, State's Attorney. After a protracted trial, the accused were acquitted. It appeared from the evidence that the deceased was a young man whose occupation had been that of a peddler, traveling on foot with tin trunks, and that in the afternoon of the harvest party he was in the neighborhood of the Shermans, traveling in the direction of Goodale's. He was accosted by one of them and invited to tarry awhile, when he could ride up with them, as they intended going to the party themselves. He accordingly did so.
| [index] [part 1] [part 3] |