HomeMy Public PortalAbout2. Chapter 2 - Context History of the Rural Survey Area Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Page 5 CHAPTER 2 CONTEXT HISTORY OF THE RURAL SURVEY AREA Geologic and Topographic Background to the Illinois Region As with most of Illinois, the Plainfield area was pr ofoundly altered by glaciation. Over approximately one million years during the Pleistocene era, the northern hemisphere was alternately covered by, and free of, large ice sheets that were hundreds to a few thousand feet thick. Pleistocene glaciers and the waters melting from them changed the landscapes they covered. The ice scraped and smeared the landforms it overrode, leveling and filling many of the minor valleys and even some of the larger ones. Moving ice carried colossal amounts of rock and earth, for much of what the gl aciers wore off the ground was kneaded into the moving ice and carried along, often for hundreds of miles. A significant feature left by the advance and retreat of glaciers in the northeast corner of the state are glacial moraines—low mounds tens of miles long left by the furthest advance of a glaciers in the Wisconsinan period. The Plainfield area lies to the west of one of the most pronounced moraines, the Valparaiso Morainic System. Along the Kendall–Will county line is the Minooka Ridge, which is a minor topographic feature compared to the Valparaiso Moraine.3 The Village of Plainfield is located at the northeast edge of the Mississippi River drainage basin. The survey region is drained by two rivers, the DuPage Rive r and the Fox River, both of which flow in turn to the Illinois River and on to the Mississippi. The DuPage River flows genera lly south, meeting the DesPlaines River in Channahon Township, just north of the junction of the DesPlaines and Kankakee Rivers, to form the Illinois River. Each of the rivers has a number of tributary creeks and streams. In Wheatland and Plainfield Townships (east of Minooka Ridge), small streams typically drain directly to the DuPage River, which generally flows north to south through the middle of these townships. In Na-Au-Say Township (west of Minooka Ridge), a numb er of smaller streams combine to form the Aux Sable Creek, which flows south and joins the Illinois River in Grundy County. In Oswego Township (also west of Minooka Ridge), Morgan Creek flows east to west, joining the Fox River in the western portions of the township outside the survey area. The last ice sheets in this area began to retreat approximately 13,500 years ago. The retreating and melting glaciers continued to impact the area for a few more thousand years, as the outflow deposited sand and gravel. As the Valparaiso ice sheet wa s melting, the Des Plaines River valley overflowed, forming the beds of Lily Cache and Mink Creeks, wh ich then flowed through a network of creek beds into the DuPage River. The waters flowing through th is network, located east of Plainfield, deposited the gravel present in the region and exposed underlying lim estone beds in isolated locations. Another effect, present along parts of the Des Plaines River and on th e east bank of the DuPage River in Section 14 of Wheatland Township, was the formation of sandst one and conglomerate rock from cementation of outwash sands and gravels.4 3 Nonetheless, the Minooka Ridge is perceptible when look ing west across the farm fields of western Wheatland and Plainfield Townships. This is partic ularly true when traveling westbound toward the Kendall–Will county line. The Valparaiso Moraine is perhaps less perceptible because of the greater amount of development that has occurred in that area. 4 D.J. Fisher, Geology and Mineral Resources of the Joliet Quadrangle, Bulletin No. 51 of the Illinois State Geological Survey (Urbana, Illinois, 1925), 84–85.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Page 6 Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Illustrated above are the moraine systems in northeastern Illinois. Much of Plainfield (dotted lin e) lies over the former Lake Wauponsee. The Minooka Ridge, generally along the Will–Kendall count y line, is a primary featur e of the area’s glacial topography. (H.B. Willman, Summary of the Geology of the Chicago Area , Illinois State Geologi cal Survey Circular 460 (Urbana, Illinois, 1971), 43.) First Nations in the Illinois Region Human habitation of the North American continent fro m the Paleo-Indian culture has been dated to the end of the last glacial advance (about 15,000 to 12,00 0 years ago). Increasing warmth toward the close of the Pleistocene Era caused the melting and disappearance of the ice sheet in approximately 9000 B.C. The arrival of the First Nations, or Native Americans, in the region between the middle Mississippi valley and Lake Michigan appears to date from the earliest peri od following the retreat of the polar ice sheet. This time is known as the Paleo-Indian Period, when peop les in the region briefly occupied campsites while subsisting on deer, small mammals, nuts, and wild vegetables and other plants.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Page 7 The first signs of specific colonization date from th e Archaic Period, prior to 1000 B.C., when deer hunting and wild plant gathering supported a disper sed population. As climatic conditions changed over the next several thousand years, populations tended to concentrate near river floodplains and adjacent areas. In the Woodland Period (1000 B.C. to 1000 A.D.), crude grit-tempered pottery appeared in northeastern Illinois. The end of this period saw the a dvent of large fortified towns with platform mounds, such as the community at Cahokia located east of St. Louis. Further north, villages in the upper Illinois River Valley lacked large platform mounds.5 It was also a period of a widespread trading network known to modern anthropology as the Hopewell Interaction Sphere. The villages of this period were typically located on valley bottom lands, close to river tran sportation. Agricultural development included cultivation of floodplain lands; by 650 A.D. mai ze was being grown in the Illinois River valley.6 The time span between 1000 A.D. and the coming of European explorers and settlers is known as the Mississippian Period. Northeast Illinois was at the fringe of the larger Middle Mississippi culture present in central and southern Illinois. At the beginning of this period, the communities of large fortified towns and ceremonial platform mounds reached their zenith. Among these sites in northeastern Illinois is the Fisher site in Will County, located in Channahon Township. The Arrival of European Settlers French Explorers and Settlers in the Illinois Territory By the time of the French explorations of the sevent eenth century, the native inhabitants of Illinois as a group belonged to the Algonquian linguistic family, cl osely related to the Chippewa. The specific tribes in the northeast Illinois region included the Miami (lo cated on sites near the Calumet River, the juncture of the Des Plaines and Kankakee Rivers, and the Fox River) and the Illinois (present throughout the rest of modern-day Illinois). “Illinois” was a native word signifying “men” or “people.”7 By the early to mid-1700s, the Potawatomi moved into the area from th e region of Michigan and northern Wisconsin. In 1673, the expedition of Father Jacques Marque tte and Louis Jolliet traveled primarily along the Mississippi River and up the Illinois River to the region of Cook and Will Counties.8 This expedition claimed the region for France. In 1678, an expedition led by Robert de La Salle with Henry Tonti and Father Hennepin explored the region along the Missi ssippi River and adjacent territory on behalf of France. A Jesuit mission was established at Chicago in 169 6 by Father Pierre Pinet, but it failed to last more than a year. As time progressed the French centered their principal activities in the middle Mississippi valley, focusing on Fort de Chartres near Kaskaskia and its connections with Québec via the 5 Several Woodland sites are present in the river valleys of the Des Plaines and DuPage Rivers. (John Doershuk, Plenemuk Mound and the Archaeology of Will County, Illinois Cultural Resource Study No. 3 (Springfield, Illinois: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 1988), 11–14). 6 James E. Davis, Frontier Illinois (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1998), 25. “The Late Woodland is a period of increasing dependence on corn agriculture, although northeastern Illinois groups appear less corn-dependent than do central and lower Illinois River valley peoples.” (Doershuk, Plenemuk Mound and the Archaeology of Will County, 13–14.) 7 John R. Swanton, The Indian Tribes of North America (1952, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin Number 145; reprint, Washington, D.C.: Smit hsonian Institution Press, 1969), 241. 8 Louis Jolliet was born at Beauport, near Québec, in Sept ember 1645. He began to study at the Jesuit College of Québec in 1655 and in 1 662 he received minor religious orders from Bishop Laval. Af ter leaving the seminary and becoming a fur trader, he gained proficiency in surveying and mapmaking. Jolliet was chosen by the government of France to be a member of a delegation meeting with the chie ftains of the Indian tribes assembled at Sault Sainte Marie in 1671. Beginning the next year, Jolliet led an expedition down the Mississippi, during which he traveled up the Illinois and Des Plaines Rivers. During this expedition he surmised that digging a canal from to connect the waterways in this region would allow transportation from th e Great Lakes to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. The Illinois and Michigan Canal constructed in the 1830s and 1840s was the realization of this route.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Page 8 Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Ohio, Maumee, and Wabash rivers and the Great Lak es, well to the south and east of the upper Illinois valley. During this period, the Native Americans were under going migrations, often leading to conflict among the various tribes. The Sauk, Fox, Kickapoo, and Po tawatomi displaced the Miami and Illinois in the Chicago region. The Potawatomi, followed by the Sauk and the Fox, were the predominant peoples in the northeastern Illinois by the later 1700s. Also present in the region were the Winnebago and the Shawnee.9 The above map is an excerpt of “Indian Trails and Villages of Chicago and of Co ok, DuPage, and Will Counties, Illinois (1804)” prepared by Albert F. Scharf, 1900. The network of Native American trails in northeastern Illi nois served the purposes of European settlers in the 1830s and 1840s, and m any of these routes developed into roads that are in use today in the survey are a. For Plainfield, this includes the Naperville-Plainfield Road and portions of Illinois Route 126 and U.S. Route 30. (Map reproduced from Milo M. Quaife, Chicago’s Highways Old and New: From Indian Trail to Motor Road (Chicago: D.F. Keller and Company, 1923), facing page 236.) French colonial settlers in the southern and central portions of Illinois brought with them traditional agricultural practices from northern France, including open-field plowlands divided into longlots, and communal pasturing areas.10 However, unlike labor practices in France, colonial settlers utilized African slaves. By the middle of the eighteenth century, black slaves were one-third of the region’s population. Early settlements founded as missions and fur trading posts, such as Cahokia and Kaskaskia, developed into the core of agricultural communities.11 French colonial farms produced wheat for human consumption and maize as feed for hogs. A staple of the settlers’ diet was wheat bread. Livestock for use as dairy production, meat consumption, and draft an imals were also present on the region’s farms. The open field agriculture system continued in use beyond the era of French domination, and ended only with the influx of settlers from the east coast after 1800.12 Illinois in the English Colonial Period and Revolutionary War Land ownership was not an original right when th e Virginia Company settled Jamestown in 1607. The company owned the land and paid its employees for their labor in food and supplies out of a common 9 Jean L. Herath, Indians and Pioneers: A Prelude to Plainfield, Illinois (Hinckley, Illinois: The Hinckley Review, 1975), 20–21. 10 Carl J. Ekberg, French Roots in the Illinois Country: The Mississippi Frontier in Colonial Times (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1998), 2–3 . “Longlots” are, as the name implie s, long narrow plots of cultivated land that developed because of the difficulty for plowing teams to turn around. Forms of longlots date back to ancient Mesopotamia; French colonial forms developed from Medieval European models. The longlots in Illinois typically had length to width ratios of 10 to 1. 11 Ibid., 33. 12 Ibid., 173–251.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Page 9 storehouse, limiting their motivation to farm. After a period of starvation that nearly wiped out the settlement, the company gave each employee an incentive of a three-acr e garden, which led to regular land distribution consisting of a 50 acre “headright.”13 French influence in the Illinois territory began to wane by the mid-1700s. Québec on the St. Lawrence River fell to the British in September 1759 during the Fr ench and Indian War, opening a route through the Great Lakes to the middle part of the continent. In 1763, the French ceded land east of the Mississippi to the British. In October 1765, the British took possession of Fort Chartres (and briefly renamed it Fort Cavendish), extending British aut hority across the continent east of the Mississippi River. Unchallenged British control of the Illinois region lasted until the Re volutionary War. In 1778, at the direction of the Governor of Virginia, George Roge rs Clark led an expedition against the British and captured their posts in the frontier northwest. Clark marched across sout hern Illinois, and by July 1778 had disarmed the British-held frontier forts of Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes, claiming the region for the newly independent American colonies. Land Division and Distribution in the New Nation When land claims of several of the newly independ ent states overlapped, Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, struggled to maintain control over th e territory extending to the Mississippi River. After making all land west of the Pennsylvania Line to th e Mississippi common national property, a system of land division was developed based on meridians and base lines, which were subdivided further into a series of rectangular grids. In the “Rectangular Sy stem,” distances and bearing were measured from two lines which are at right angles to each other: the Prin cipal Meridians, which run north and south, and the Base Lines, which run east and west. Subdividing lin es called Range Lines are spaced at six mile intervals between the meridians and base lines. Range Lines defined territories known as townships.14 On 20 May 1785, Congress adopted this system as th e Land Survey Ordinance of 1785. (Eventually, frontier settlers west of Pennsylvania and north of Texas could walk up to a plat map on the wall of a regional land office and select a one quarter secti on property for farming, which was thought to be sufficient to sustain individual farmers.15 ) In 1787, after about twenty months of surveying work, the first national public land sales occurred, consisting of 72,934 acres with $117,108.22 in revenue.16 Also in that year, the Ordinance of 1787 organized the Northwest Territory, including what would become Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. After the ratification of the new United State Constitu tion, land legislation was not addressed for several years. Meanwhile, settlement continued on the portions already surveyed and sold by the government, and extended into unsurveyed land with settlement by squatte rs (many of whom were later evicted by federal 13 John Opie, The Law of the Land: Two Hundred Years of Farm Policy (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994), 19. 14 Townships were the largest subdivision of land platte d by the United States. After the Township Corners were located, the Section and Quarter Sectio n Corners were established. Each Township was six miles square and contained 23,040 acres, or 36 square miles, as nearly as possible to fit specific geographic conditions such as lakes and rivers, political boundaries such as State boundaries, as well as survey erro rs. Each Township, unless irregular in shape due to the factors cited above, was divided into 36 squares called Sections. These Sections were intended to be one mile, or 320 rods, square and contain 640 acres of land. Sections were numbered consecutively from 1 to 36, utilizing the same criss-cross numbering pattern on each section regardless of national location or actual township configuration. Sections were subdivided into various smal ler parcels for individual farms. A half section contains 320 acres; a quarter section contains 160 acres; half of a quarter contains 80 acr es, and quarter of a quarter contains 40 acres, and so on. Today, legal descrip tions of real estate continue to desc ribe parcels according to the portion of the section within whic h they are located. 15 Opie, The Law of the Land, 10. 16 Ibid., 15.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Page 10 Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey troops). Additional federal land sales took place in 1796, and in 1800 the govern ment opened land offices in Cincinnati, Chillicothe, Marietta , and Steubenville, all in Ohio. Development of the Northwest Territory In 1801 Illinois, then part of the Northwest Territory , became part of the Indiana Territory. Eight years later the Illinois Territory was formed, including the region of Wisconsin. By 1800, fewer than 5,000 settlers lived in the territorial region, with most lo cated in the southern portion of what became Illinois along the Mississippi, Ohio, and Wabash Rivers. The northern portion of the st ate was more sparsely populated, as European settlers did not begin to ente r this area until the early years of the 1800s. At this time, the Native American tribe leader Tecu mseh organized the tribes of the Northwest Territory against European settlers. Although defeated in the Battle of Tippecanoe of 1811, Tecumseh remained active throughout the War of 1812 and aided British fo rces in capturing many European-settled areas. These reverted to American control at the end of the war. A series of treaties with Native American populations influenced the future of northeast Illi nois. In 1795, a peace treaty with Native Americans included the ceding of “one piece of land, six miles s quare, at the mouth of the Chicago River, emptying into the southwest end of Lake Mich igan, where a fort formerly stood.”17 It was on this land that Fort Dearborn was established in 1803, wher e a settlement of French traders and their Native American wives developed. The site grew initially from the fur trad e, and despite the Fort Dearborn Massacre of 1812, more settlers came to the area. Cutting across the western half of the region later known as Will County was a land corridor ceded by the Potawatomi, Ottawa, and Chippewa in a treaty si gned in St. Louis on 24 August 1816. The corridor, defined by the cartographic features now known as the Indian Boundary Lines (and still present on many maps of the area), was meant to allow European settlers access to Lake Michigan for the construction of a waterway (later developed as the Illinois and Michig an Canal). The corridor was physically surveyed by James M. Duncan and T.C. Sullivan in 1819; its s outhern boundary was defined by a line drawn from a point on the shore of Lake Michigan ten miles sout h of the Chicago River, to a point on the Kankakee River ten miles north of its mouth.18 Illinois Statehood The United States Congress passed an enabling act on 18 April 1818 admitting Illinois as the twenty-first state as of 3 December 1818. A bill had passed Cong ress in early 1818 moving the northern boundary northward to include the mouth of the Chicago River within the Illinois Territory.19 The act passed despite the fact that the population of the state was only 40,258, less than the 60,000 required by the Ordinance of 1787. The state capital was established first at Kaskaski a and moved to Vandalia two years later. Much of the land in the state was the property of the United States government. Early sales offices were located at Kaskaskia, Shawneetown, and Vincennes. Until the fina ncial panic of 1819, there was an initial rush of sales and settlement at the southern end of the stat e where navigable streams and the only road system were located.20 17 As quoted by A.T. Andreas in his History of Chicago, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time (Chicago: A.T. Andreas, 1884), 79. 18 Will County Property Owners, 1842 (Joliet, Illinois: Will County Historical Society, 1973), 1. 19 The northern boundary of the Illinois Territory was on an east-west line from the southern line of Lake Michigan. In order to give the future state a portage on Lake Michigan, the boundary line was moved 10 miles north of the initial boundary. The Congressional legislation was amended before passage, moving the future state’s northern boundary a total of 51 miles north. This gave the region more potential economic security as well as less potential for the area to align politically with the slave states of the South. 20 Olin Dee Morrison, Prairie State, A History: Social, Political, Economical (Athens, Ohio: E. M. Morrison, 1960), 24–25.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Page 11 The Native Americans who occupied the area at this time were divided into powerful tribes who at times fought the European settlers to hold their hunting grounds. Chief among these tribes was the Kickapoo, who were among the first to engage in war with Europ ean settlers and the last to enter into treaties with the United States government. On 30 July 1819, by th e Treaty at Edwardsville, the Kickapoo ceded their land to United States and began to retreat to Osage C ounty. By 1822, only 400 Kickapoo were left in the state. The 1832 Peace Treaty of Tippecanoe was negotia ted with the Potawatomi tribe, resulting in the ceding of the land now occupied by Chica go and Joliet to the federal government. The early 1830s saw the greatest land b oom to that date in American history. Land sales gradually came under the control of the General Land Office as the su rvey moved westward. In 1834 and 1835 alone, 28 million acres were shifted from closed to open land for purchase. Two years later the Van Buren administration placed an enormous 56,686,000 acres on the market. These lands were located in some of the most fertile farming regions of the nation: Illinois, Iowa, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Missouri.21 The building of the Illinois and Michigan Ca nal in the later 1830s and 1840s (discussed in Chapter 2) led to a land boom in Chicago, which had been platted in 1830 and incorporated in 1833.22 The rate of growth in northern Illinoi s soon matched and then surpassed that in the southern portion of the state. Settlement and Development of Northeast Illinois By 1826, more European settlers began to move to the northeast Illinois region, so that by 1831 a few hamlets were present between LaSalle and Chicago. Also present in the region was a tribe of nearly 1,000 Potawatomi in the area along the DuPage River south of what would become Plainfield.23 At the beginning of the Black Hawk War in 1832 the largest settlement north of the Illinois River (except for Chicago) was on Bureau Creek, where there were a bout 30 families. A few other settlers had located along the river at Peru and LaSalle, and at Ottawa. At Walker’s Grove or Plainfield, there were 12 or 15 families.24 Along the DuPage River, partially located in the region that would become Will County in 1836, there were about twenty families. In Yankee settlements, which embraced part of the towns of Homer, Lockport and New Lenox, there were 20 or 25 families. Along the Hickory in the town of New Lenox, including the Zarley settlement in Joliet Town ship, there were approxima tely 20 more families, and at the Reed’s and Jackson Grove there were 6 or 8 more.25 The initial settlement of Oswego also occurred in August 1832, when William Wilson of Ohio settled on the south bank of the Fox River at the site of the present-day Village of Oswego.26 In 1832, a band of Sauk Indians led by Black Sparro w Hawk resisted their deportation by Europeans settlers from their ancestral lands. Although most of the fighting occurred in the Rock River area in Northwest Illinois and southern Wisconsin, an Indi an panic swept through Will County settlements. The settlers in Walker’s Grove together with about 25 fugitives from the Fox River area hurriedly constructed a stockade from the logs of Stephen Begg’s pigpen , outbuildings, and fences (“Fort Beggs”). The prospect of engaging Indians in pitched battle from the confines of “Fort Beggs” prompted the settlers to leave the 21 Ibid., 51. 22 Between 1840 and 1860 the population of Chicago increased from 4,470 to nearly 100,000, growth tied to the economic boom resulting from the opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. By 1890, Chicago’s population was more than 1,000,000 persons (Harry Hansen, ed., Illinois: A Descriptive and Historical Guide (New York: Hastings House Publishers, 1974), 176–83). 23 Herath, 21. 24 A Potawatomi village was located to the south of Walker’s Grove. (Helen Hornbeck Tanner, ed., Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987), Map 26, 140.) 25 Ibid. 26 Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., History of Kendall County (Chicago: Munsell Publishing Co., 1914), 883–884.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Page 12 Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey makeshift stockade in favor of Fort Dearborn in Chicago. Meanwhile homesteaders in the eastern Will County area gathered at the Gougar hom estead and decided to flee to Indiana.27 Also in 1832, northwest Will County was the scene of an epidemic of smallpox among the Potawatomi, inflicting a mortality rate at least twice that of Eu ropean settlers. Approximately one-third of the Native American population in the region died during the epidemic.28 The end of the Black Hawk War brought about the expulsion of the Sauk and Fox from lands east of the Mississippi River. Also in 1832, the Winnebago cede d their lands in Wisconsin south and east of the Wisconsin River and east of the Fox River to Green Bay. The Potawatomi, Ottawa, and Chippewa tribes still held title to land in northern Illinois outside of the Indian Boundary lines. In September 1833, a gathering of Native American chiefs and leaders was held in Chicago to “negotiate a treaty whereby the lands might be peaceably ceded, and the Indians remove d therefrom, to make way for the tide of white emigration which had begun to set irresistibly and with ever incr easing volume to the coveted region.”29 A Chicago historian, A.T. Andreas, writing in the 1880s, emphasized the disadvantaged pos ition of the Native Americans, who had seen the effects of war on other Native Americans and experienced the ravages of epidemic on their own peoples: Black Hawk’s ill-starred campaign, followed by the subsequent treaty made by his tribe, showed them the inevitable result [that] must follow resi stance. They knew quite well that they had no alternative. They must sell their lands for such a sum and on such terms as the Government agents might deem it politic or just or generous to grant. The result of the treaty was what might have been expected. The Indians gave up their lands an d agreed for certain considerations, the most of which did not redound to their profit, to cede all their lands to the Government, and to leave forever their homes and the graves of their fathers for a land far toward the setting sun, which they had never seen and of which they knew nothing.30 In the resulting treaty, the three tribes ceded la nd “along the western shore of Lake Michigan, and between this lake and the land ceded to the United States by the Winnebago nation at the treaty of Fort Armstrong. . . .”31 As compensation, the tribes received land on the east bank of the Missouri River and a series of monetary payments.32 Emigration into the Plainfield area after the Black Ha wk War increased so markedly that settlers began agitating for separation from Cook County. Residents of these settlements, then part of Cook County, demanded a more convenient place to record their land purchases and to pay their taxes. Accordingly, Dr. A. W. Bowen of Juliet and James Walker of Plainf ield went to the state capital of Vandalia and successfully lobbied a detachment petition through th e General Assembly. On 12 January 1836, an act was passed creating Will County from portions of C ook, Iroquois, and Vermilion Counties. Will County also included at that time the northern part of what would later become Kankakee County. (In 1845, the 27 Robert E. Sterling, A Pictorial History of Will County , Volume 1 (Joliet: Will County Historical Publications, 1975). 28 Tanner, ed., Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History, 173. 29 Andreas, History of Chicago, 123. 30 Ibid. 31 As quoted in Andreas, History of Chicago, 124. 32 It has been reported that Native Am ericans returned to Will C ounty as late as 1900 on pilgrimages (Herath, 21): Though officially ousted, the Indians, being great trav elers, made pilgrimages back to the land of their childhood for many years. Small ragtag bands of women and children were seen as late as the 1870s along the DuPage, wending their way north in the spring and south in the fall. In 1900 an old Indian man, a small boy and a horse pulling a travois were seen along the Kankakee River.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Page 13 boundaries of Will County were changed to their presen t locations.) The county was named in honor of Dr. Conrad Will, a member of the state legislat ure who lived in the southern part of Illinois.33 On 7 March 1836, an election was held to select Will C ounty’s first public officials. They in turn set the price of tavern licenses and created a book for record ing the ear markings of livestock. Since swine, sheep, cows, and other livestock freely roamed the city streets and open fields, settlers devised special ear markings consisting of slits, crops, and holes to identify their animals. These “brands” were recorded with pen and ink drawings in the county clerk’s office.34 Kendall County was established in an act of 19 Febr uary 1841, and named in honor of Amos Kendall.35 The county seat was at first in Yorkville, but a new courthouse was begun in Oswego in 1845. The county seat was returned permanently to Yorkville in 1864.36 The above excerpt from the 1851 “Map of the counties of Cook a nd DuPage, the east part of Kane and Kendall, the north part of Will, State of Illinois,” drawn by James H. Rees, shows the first roads established in the survey area. The originally platted locations of the villages of Plainfield and Oswego are also visi ble, although neither street gr id reflects the built reality of the time. The population listed for each township reflects the 1850 census. 33 Born near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 3 June 1779, Conrad Will emigrated westward after studying medicine. He was instrumental in the formation of Jackson County fr om the lower half of Randolph County and part of present day Perry County. Will served first in the Illinois state Senate and later the state House of Representatives, until his death on 11 June 1835. On the following 12 January, the state legislature passed an act sectioning the southern portion of Cook County in northern Illinois, naming it after Conrad Will. (Alice C. Storm, Doctor Conrad Will (Joliet, Illinois: Louis Joliet Chapter of the Da ughters of the American Revolution, 1917), 1–5.) 34 Address of George H. Woodruff, Sixth Annual Reunion of the Will County Pioneer Association (Joliet: The Press Company, 1886), 5–6. 35 James N. Adams, Illinois Place Names, (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Society, 1989), 587. 36 History of Kendall County (1914), 886.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Page 14 Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey The primary concern of pioneer farm ers was providing food for their families and livestock. Most farmers homesteaded around wooded land to provide building materials and fuel.37 On cultivated land, settlers would need to grub out tree stumps before breaking the prairie sod with a walking plow. This latter activity was often difficult, since the soil tended to ball up on the plow. In 1833, John Lane of Lockport invented the breaking plow, which eliminated th is problem. Lane’s innov ation developed from an improvised steel plow attached to the plow molding board. It successfully cut the prairie sod so that the soil could be turned over.38 The boom in agricultural production coincided with th e opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1848 was soon followed by the introduction of railroad service in the following d ecade. Plank roads were also a significant mode of transportation in the mid-eighteenth century. In 1855, the Lockport, Plainfield & Yorkville Plankroad Company was formed. In the late 1840s, the United States still owned 14 ,060,308 acres of land in Illinois. Between 1848 and 1857, much of this land passed into private hands. In addition to land that could be purchased from the government, alternate five mile sections each side of the route planned for the Illinois and Michigan Canal in western Will County were offered for sale by the canal authority. Later, alternate six mile sections on each side of the route granted to the Illinois Central Railroad (which passed through eastern Will County) were available for purchase from the railroad.39 In 1848, Illinois adopted township government as th e basic level of local government, although in most locations functioning governments were not set up until 185 0. By law, three services were to be provided by the townships: general assistan ce to needy, property assessment for tax purposes, and maintenance of township roads and bridges. A unique feature of town ship government was the annual town meeting, held each April in all townships. This system continues to the present day.40 Until the twentieth century, almost all public infrastructure (such as roads) wa s thus maintained by each township with local tax revenue. Agricultural Development By the 1850s, Illinois was a major agricultural state. Its corn production was 57.65 million bushels, which increased to 115.2 millions in 1860, making it the leading corn producer in the nation.41 Wheat was also a major crop—the state was fifth in wheat production in 1850 and first in 1860. Acreage in improved 37 Wood was so important that the lack of wooded land in Wheatland Township was one of the issues that dissuaded settlers from buying land in the region until the later 1830s and 1840s, when land in surrounding townships was selling out. 38 Fayette Baldwin Shaw, Will County Agriculture (Will County Historical Society, 1980), 1. The site of Lane’s farmstead has a Will County historical marker commemorating his importance due to the invention of this plow. 39 The lands were sold to settlers and speculators. It is estimated that six million acres passed into the hands of speculators between 1849 and 1856. There were several types of speculators. Small farmers bought the land for pasturage, timber, or simply as an investment. Small businessmen also bought land as an investment, and in this group was included practically every prominent politician in Illinois except Abraham Lincoln. Professional speculators operated on a large scale, with corporations or individuals owning land in many states. Finally, East Coast capitalists invested in western lands—Samuel Allerton , a wealthy resident of New York, owned 2,000 acres in Frankfort, New Lenox, and Homer Townsh ips in Will County and an additional 400 acres in Cook County. In time, settlers purchased the land from speculators. The Chicago La nd Office was the last one opened and the last one closed, except for Springfield which took over all the unfinished work of all offices and remained open until 1877. (Shaw, Will County Agriculture, 1–2.) 40 Bryan Smith, “Township Government in Illinois: A Rich History, A Vibrant Future.” [http://www.comptrollerconnect.ioc.state.il.us] 41 “Corn” was the medieval term used in England for the grain known later as wheat. Settlers given “Indian corn” (maize) by the Native Americans began to sow it themselv es, and corn (maize) became one of the leading grain crops in the United States by the 1800s. (United States Department of Agriculture, Yearbook of Agriculture (1936), 496.)
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Page 15 farmland increased two and one half times in the decade. Other principal farm crops were oats, rye, and barley. The average price for corn and wheat was $1.25 per bushel. In the early- to mid-1800s, agricultural implements were primitive and included r eapers, iron plowshares, and hay tenders. The first McCormick reaper in the county appeared in Wheatla nd Township in 1846. Some local inventions that could be attached to modify the McCormick included gearing produced by W. Holmes of Hickory Creek in Will County, produced at Adams’ Fou ndry, followed by a turf and stubble plow.42 The major crops in Will and Kendall Counties histori cally have been corn and wheat, although wheat production declined in the later 1800s after infestati ons of the chinch bug and the army worm. (Wheat farming revived during World War I due to incentives from the U.S. government.) As early as 1850, corn was the leading crop in the survey area, since it coul d be fed to livestock as well as processed into other products.43 Other grain crops included oats, barley (used in beer production), and rye. Potatoes were also grown in the region through the late 1800s, but sever al seasons of wet summers led to rotting crops, followed in subsequent years by potato bugs. Strawb erries and grapes were grown in limited areas by the 1870s.44 The change from self-sufficient farming to cash cr op farming occurred during the mid-nineteenth century. Prior to that time, farmstead typically had less than ten acres. Most farms were 80 acres in size by the end of the century, sometimes with a dditional parcels of 40 and 80 acres.45 However, a few individuals in Will County owned larger parcels of land. C.C. Smith of Channahon owned about 1,800 acres in various parcels, while J.D. Caton, at one time Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, owned two full sections (1,200 acres) in Plainfield Township.46 In order to divide their parcel s of land and enclosure pasturage, farmers used split-rail fencing and vegetation such as osage hedges. Other means included wire fencing, available after 1860, and barbed wire, introduced in the 1880s.47 Cattle, hogs, and sheep were also a significant part of northeastern Illinois agriculture. The Chicago Union Stock Yard, incorporated by act of the Illi nois State Legislature in 1865, was a ready market. Horses were also bred, as they were an indispensable for the operation of farm machinery; oxen were also used into the 1870s. The dairy industry also was initially a significant part of the region’s agriculture.48 42 Shaw, Will County Agriculture, 13. 43 Souvenir of Settlement and Progress of Will County Illinois (Chicago: Historical Directory Publishing Co., 1884), 244. 44 Shaw, Will County Agriculture, 8. 45 However, it should be noted that plat maps from the period reflect land ownership, not tilled land or the extent (through land leasing or barter) of a farmstead. 46 Shaw, Will County Agriculture, 3. 47 Ibid., 5. 48 The dairy industry in the Midwest was centered on Elgin, Illinois, and the western counties around Chicago until the beginning of World War I, after which Wisconsin came to be known as “America’s Dairyland.” (Daniel Ralston Block, “The Development of Regional Institutions of Agriculture: The Chicago Milk Marketing Order” (Ph.D. diss., University of California at Los Angeles, 1997), 49–52).
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Page 16 Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Rascher’s Birds Eye View of the Chicago Packing Houses & Un ion Stock Yards (Charles Rascher, 1890; Library of Congress collection). The average value of a southern Illinois farm in 1910 was $15,000; in the northern part of the state it was $20,700. The annual value of farm products measure d in dollars rose from $186 million in 1896 to $277 million in 1912; this was accompanied by an increase in production of field crops by 70 percent and 76 percent respectively for those years. During this time, wheat, rye, and oat production was on the decline. Livestock production remained fairly constant in overall value but sales of animals decreased by 50 percent during this period. Vegetabl e production was led by root crops lik e potatoes, turnips, and carrots. Of orchard fruits, apples had the greatest production.49 With the development of the gasoline engine and adap tation to the tractor, working conditions on the farm improved considerably. Water could be pumped using gasoline engines instead of depending on the wind to run windmills. Engines also provided power to oper ate milking machines, grind feed, and run various kinds of machinery. The coming of the gas powered au tomobile and truck led to demands for better roads in Illinois. At the 1913 meeting of the Illinois Farmer s’ Institute, Illinois State Highway Engineer A.N. Johnson recognized these needs: In particular, there is a vast field for the development of motor truck traffic, which it has not been necessary heretofore to consider in plans for road improvement. It is believed that in many sections of the State the opportunity is big for the development of this class of traffic, and provision should be made in the future for road building on a majority of the main roads for the eight and ten ton motor truck. Already truck farmers in the vicinity of Chicago have clubbed together in the purchase of a motor truck by which a 24-hour trip has been reduced to 8 hours, while the delivery of milk from the farm to the city by motor truck is already an economic proposition. It is believed therefore that the construction to be undertaken on our main roads should be a character that can withstand the heavy motor traffic, heavy horse drawn traffic, as well as the lighter forms of traffic, and that a serious mistake will be made to put down any other than rigid, durable forms of pavement. In I llinois this reduces the choice of the road surface to brick and concrete.50 49 Morrison, Prairie State, A History, 98. 50 A.N. Johnson, “Cost of a System of Durable Roads for Illinois,” in Eighteenth Annual Report of the Illinois Farmers’ Institute, edited by H.A. McKeene (Springfield, Illinois: Illinois State Journal Company, 1913), 149.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Page 17 With the implementation of the Civil Administrati ve Code in 1917, which formed the departmental structure within the executive branch , the Illinois Department of Agriculture was formed as a regulatory and promotional agency.51 Twentieth Century Developments Land area of farms in the Chicago area declined from 88.7 percent of total area in 1900 to 84.9 percent in 1920 and to 80 percent in 1925. Be tween 1830 to 1925, the number of farms reached its maximum in 1900. In 1925, the total number of farms was 5,000 less than in 1880.52 During that same period livestock production (including swine) peaked in 1900. For the c ounties within 50 miles of Chicago, the number of dairy cows per square mile of fa rmland declined from 46.1 in 1900 to 42.8 in 1925. Acreage in cereal production showed a gradual increase after 1925. Sh eep and wool production peaked in 1880 and horses and mules in 1920, declining as a direct result of the introduction of the tractor and motor truck. Dairy production in the Chicago region peak ed in 1900 and declined mark edly in the following two decades.53 Although the Great Depression of the 1930s had a dram atic impact on all Americans, for American farmers the economic decline began a decade earlier. Nu merous factors led to the decline of the farm economy in the post-World War I era. To meet th e needs of the wartime economy that was feeding American and European populations, American farmer s increased production by cultivating lands that formerly were kept fallow. Following the war, fa rmers continued this trend, overproducing despite reductions in demand. As commodity prices fell, so did the standard of living of many farmers since prices in the rest of the economy were increasing. Farmers went into debt, mortgaged their property, and in many cases lost their farms to creditors. The coming of the Great Depression deepened the cr isis further. Agricultural production in Illinois collapsed from almost $6.25 billion in 1929 to $2.5 billion in 1933. As unemployment in industrial centers soared, some people fled to rural commun ities, putting additional pressure on rural areas as most did not have access to welfare relief.54 Within days of the inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt, legislation was formulated that would later pass Congress as the Agricultural Adjustment Act. The numerous adjustment programs initiated under the New Deal led to limitations in agricultural production in order to raise crop prices to acceptable levels. These included 20 percent of the land or 1,218,062 acres used in corn production being retired; over 1,000,000 acres of land in wheat production were also retired.55 In 1934, 15,734,600 acres of land were in production, for a total crop value of $218,569,000 nationally; this grew to 17,692,100 acres and a crop value of $273,931,000 the following year.56 Soybeans were first planted in the late 1930s as a forage crop mainly to be fed to dairy cows and cattle. Although some soybeans were processed through a thr eshing machine and sold on the market it was not at that time a very popular grain product. Ten or fi fteen years later, however, soybeans became a valuable food and commercial product as new uses were devel oped with the assistance of state and federal agricultural programs. 51 Information from the website of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, www.agr.state.il.us/aghistory.html. The department actually dated back to 1819, when the Illinois Agricultural Association was formed. Although little is known of the activities of this early group other than a collection of letters by its founders, it established an organization that became the I llinois State Agricultural Agency in 1853. This semi-public organization continued to function until replaced in 1871 by the Department of Agriculture under the supervision of the State Board of Agriculture. 52 Edward A. Duddy, Agriculture in the Chicago Region (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1929), 3. 53 Ibid., 4. 54 Morrison, Prairie State, A History, 108. 55 United States Department of Agriculture, Yearbook of Agriculture (1936), 1155–6. 56 Ibid., 1146.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Page 18 Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey During World War II, farmers were encouraged by th e federal government to increase their production by the use of power machinery and the latest scientific processes. When a decline in demand arose, the farmer was forced to continue his heavy producti on rate. Cash crop income in 1950 was $2.038 billion nationally. Of this livestock and livestock products accounted for $1.26 billion; crops, $763 million; and government pay for adaptation of production program, w ith $10.6 million paid to the farmers in Illinois. Principal crops were corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, hay, fruits, and greenhouse products. The average value of a farm in Illinois in 1950 was $28,400.57 The farm population in Illin ois declined from 1,341,104 in 1900 to 772,521 in 1950.58 The abandoning of farms and the consolidation of sma ll farms into large ones resulted in many buildings being razed or abandoned, while many new ones were built. Moreover, changes in farming meant that many old farm buildings were too small, or unsuitable for other reas ons, and were replaced by larger, more suitable and flexible structures. By the early twentieth century many barns were constructed by professional builders following plans influenced by fa rm journals and using mass-produced lumber from a nearby yard or sawmill. In 1987, there were 1,239 farms in Will County w ith 328,729 acres of land involved. In Kendall County at the same time, there were 535 farms on 186,440 acres of land. Ten years later, the continued decline in agricultural production in northeastern Illinois w as apparent, as farmland was lost to suburban development. In Will County in 1997, there were only 910 farms, and thou gh the average farm was larger, the total acreage devoted to ag riculture had declined by more than 10 percent to 293,526 acres. In 1997 in Kendall County, there were 441 farms on 167,486 acres, a similar decline of about 10 percent.59 By 1997, there were 79,000 Illinois farms utilizing 28 million acres and about 80 percent of the total land area in the state. Illinois was the leading state in agricultural-related industries such as soybean processing, meat packing, dairy manufacturing, feed milling, vegetable processing, machinery manufacturing, foreign exports, and service industries.60 Recent decades has seen tremendous suburban growth in formerly rural areas near Chicago, particularly in the northwestern portions of Will County borderin g Naperville, Plainfield, and Bolingbrook, and other communities in the eastern portions. Along with this suburban development has come conflict between the “new” settlers and established farmers: A while back, farmer Ray Dettmering was arrested for plowing his fields late at night in Matteson, Illinois, a rural community 30 miles southwest of Chicago. The 28-year-old farmer told police officers that he needed to prepare his fields for spring planting after days of rain had put him behind schedule. The real problem? A few years earlier, subdivisions had been built near Dettmering’s corn and soy bean fields. The new residents claimed they couldn’t hear their TVs above the tractor noise. Others were having trouble sleeping. Two neighbors complained to the police, and Dettmering was booked and fingerprinted. “What where these people thinking when they moved to the country?” he asked. “It’s not like these farms snuck up on them.”61 57 Morrison, Prairie State, A History, 116. 58 Salamon, 35. 59 Ibid. 60 Illinois Agriculture Illinois Farm Facts Illinois Agricultural Statistics Service, April 1999, www.nass.usda.gov/il/ website/farmfacts.htm. 61 Ibid., 82–84.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Page 19 Plainfield Township Plainfield Township, as laid out in 1836, originally included Troy Township to the south. In April 1850 it was set apart under the same name and a township government organized. The village of Plainfield has dominated the township for most of its existence. However, in recent decades, Joliet has annexed substantial portions of the southern portions of the township, and in the 1990s Romeoville and Crest Hill began to annex land at the periphery. Plainfield The first non-native settler known at the site was Vete l Vermette, a French-Canadian by birth. Vermette was a fur trader and stayed in the area in 1822 or 1823. He returned in 1825 as a squatter—claiming land as his own by occupying it. He soon courted and married the daughter of one of Ottawa’s leading citizens, and eventually left the area to continue as a fur tr ader on the upper Missouri River. George Firk was another of the early traders to settle in the Plainfield area.62 In 1828, Captain James Walker made his claim to la nd in this area. Born in Virginia in 1793, James Walker had been a soldier in General Andrew Jack son’s army at the Battle of New Orleans in 1814. James was joined at the site by his father-in-law Reverend Jesse Walker,63 a Methodist circuit rider who passed through the region about this time. Revere nd Walker had previously worked as a traveling preacher in Tennessee, Kentucky, southern Illinois, and Missouri before establis hing missions at Fort Clark at the site of Peoria and in Ottawa. In the la te 1820s there was a village of Potawatomi south of the site that James Walker had settled, and Reverend Walker briefly establis hed a mission at this site. While in the area, Jesse Walker stayed with James Walker and his family.64 Having built the first permanent dwelling (a cabin) in the Plainfield area in 1829, James Walker was joined by Timothy Clark (also spelled Clarke), Thomas Covell, John Cooper, Edmund Weed, Reuben Flagg, Jedediah Wood, James Gilson, and Elisha Fish (or Fisk). Walker established a post office in 1833. The settlement, located along the DuPage River at the north end of contemporary Plainfield, came to be known as Walker’s Grove and was described by a descendant of one of the early settlers: . . . On September 1 st 1832, Stephen R. Beggs and Elizabeth Heath, my grandparents were married at Hollen’s Grove, now Washington, Illinois. The following winter they purchased a claim upon two hundred forty acres in the region where we ar e now assembled and a log cabin upon this claim became their home. . . . Farther south along the Du Page River were the Wa lker, Clark, and Flagg cabins, along with a few others, the settlement being known as Walker’s Grove. . . .65 The area was attractive to settlers because of the he avily wooded section in the southern portion of the township. In 1829, James Walker built a temporary mill, followed by a more permanent structure between 1830 and 1832. It was located on the DuPage River appr oximately one mile south of the center of present day Plainfield. This first permanent mill was dest royed in a flood in 1838, and until then it was the only source of sawn lumber in the region. The mill provi ded the lumber for a house for a man named Peck at LaSalle Street and South Water Street (now Wacker Drive) in Chicago.66 Within Plainfield Township, a house at the southwest corner of modern-day Route 59 and Renwick Road contains Walker Mill lumber 62 Herath, 31; comments provided by the Plainfield Historical Commission. 63 Ibid., 35. Herath refers to speculation that James and David Walker were brothers, and that David’s descendant (possibly grandson) James married Jesse’s daughter Jane. Ho wever, David and James Walker appear to have come from different family backgrounds and (James) Walker’s descendants stated that the two were not related. 64 Ibid., 52. 65 Mina Beggs Neef, spoken at the dedication of a marker at the site of Fort Beggs, as quoted in Herath, 56. 66 Ibid. 52–53.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Page 20 Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey in the original rear portion of the structure.67 Timothy Clark was a carpenter and builder who constructed the first box or braced frame house in Chicago.68 Many of the other settlers na med above stayed for only a few years before moving further out on the frontier—to Iowa and other western states. However, by that time other settlers had come to the area. As the area developed there were few homes being built in the village area as most of the settlers were farmers. The work of these early settlers was described as follows: They hitched five oxen in a single file to a hand made plow that would turn about a two foot furrow. It took a man and a boy to drive the oxen and the best man to manage the plow. In this way they could plow about two acres a day. By striking the axe in the sod, dropping in the corn ahead of the plow and turning the furrow on it, was the method used for planting. It grew fairly well, averaging about twenty bushels per acre and was of good quality.69 In 1833 Blacksmith Shutliff opened his shops. The villa ge of Plainfield was pl atted over the course of 1834 and 1835 in several phases. Chester Ingersoll platted the southwestern portion in 1834 (the area south of Lockport Street and west of Division Street , part of Section 16); Matthews Addition was platted in 1835 (the area east of Division Street and north of Lockport Street, part of Section 10); and Squire Arnold platted Arnold’s Addition in 1835 (the triangu lar area north of Lockport Street, east of Division Street, and south of Main Street, part of Section 9). The first house of worship in Plainfield was erected in 1836 by the Methodists and another was constructe d by the Baptists later in that same year.70 The first store was operated by Jonathan Hager and Samuel Sargent over John Bill’s Wagon Shop.71 The oldest documented building in the town is “P lainfield House,” otherwise known as Halfway House because it was located halfway between Chicago and Ottawa on the stage coach line operating on the Chicago and Ottawa Trail from 1838 to 1852. The h ouse was built by Squire Arnold in 1834 as a one story building to house a tavern. It was also the firs t official post office in what became Will County and remained in use until 1845. In 1836 the tavern and some adjacent land were leased by Dr. Erastus G. Wight of Naper Settlement. Dr. Wight, the first practic ing physician in northern Illinois, remodeled the structure for his home and office. He continued to pr actice until his death in 1845. The house continued to operate as an inn as late as 1886.72 In 1849, the state legislature passed a law allowing th e construction of plank ro ads. Two years later the Chicago and Oswego Plank Road was incorporated w ith a scheme to connect Oswego, Plainfield, and Joliet by plank road with a plan to exte nd it eventually to the Indiana state line.73 The road was opened on 1 December 1851. The toll rate was 2 cents a mile one way, 3 cents round trip. In use until 1869, the road eventually failed since farmers would drive miles out of their way to avoid tolls and because of lack of proper maintenance.74 67 This information was brought to the attention of the project team by Mr. Michael A. Lambert of Plainfield. 68 Ibid., 55. The introduction of the balloon frame occurred at approximately the same time. See Chapter I for a discussion on the development of the balloon frame. 69 Michael Henry Crider (sour ce unknown), as quoted in Herath, 65. Compar e these yields with those stated in the agricultural statistics quoted for significant farmstead in this chapter. 70 Souvenir of Settlement and Progress of Will County Illinois, 362–364. 71 “Village of Plainfield,” in A History of Plainfield “Then and Now,” 51. 72 Ruth Rouse Brockway, “Halfway House,” in A History of Plainfield: “Then and Now,” 10–11. 73 Construction of a plank road involved grading the dirt road bed to a width of 21 feet with ditches on both sides. Wood stringers were laid six feet apar t and dirt was packed in between (similar to a subfloor). With planks laid lengthwise on the stringers, the road was approximately eight feet wide. 74 Joliet Herald News, 2 September 1961, as quoted in A History of Plainfield “Then and Now,” 77. Toll houses were located at the northwest corner of U.S. Route 30 and Renwick Road and in Joliet at the corner of Raynor Avenue, Black Road, and Ruby Street. A third toll house was located in Plainfield at Lo ckport Road and Van Dyke Road. Twenty years later a similar radi al route around the outlying Chicago area was followed in the alignment of
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Page 21 On 28 February 1861, the northern part of Plainf ield was incorporated under a special act of the Legislature. In April 1869, both the northern and sout hern parts of the village were again incorporated together. Then on 30 June 1877, the town was incorporat ed under the general law of the state. The village boundaries were established and a number of ordinances were passed. The first ordinance dealt with the laying of wooden sidewalks and the fencing of proper ty. Other ordinances dealt with election procedures, licensing of exhibitions, shows, fairs, circuses, and peddlers, selling of intoxicants, misdemeanors, disorderly conduct, lewdness, games, raffles, and ba wdyhouses. Provisions for a well were discussed in 1874 and a water system for the village was installed in 1895. That same year, a franchise was issued to the Chicago Telephone Company. In 1907, the West ern United Gas Company of Aurora was granted a franchise to lay its mains.75 In 1884, the Joliet, Aurora and Northern Railway Co mpany was founded. The initial line from Joliet ran northwest through Plainfield to Aurora. Service began in 1886. In 1888, this line was incorporated into the new Elgin, Joliet and Eastern (E J & E) Railroa d. This company established service to connect the smaller industrial cities surrounding Chicago to a void routing freight traffic through Chicago. Electric interurban passenger train service came to Pl ainfield in 1904 with the Aurora, Plainfield, and Joliet Railway. From Joliet, the interurban was rout ed in the street right-of-way on present-day U.S. Route 30 to downtown Plainfield, then west on Loc kport Street to present-day Wood Farm Road, then north to the route of the E J & E, to which the interu rban ran parallel the remainde r of the route to Aurora. The interurban was replaced by bus service in 1924.76 The rise of the automobile demanded the developmen t of a safe, structurally sound roadway across the United States. Most road networks were dirt; few were gravel, and fewer we re paved. The Lincoln Highway Association planned a road to extend from New York to San Francisco in 1912. Plainfield residents, including U.S.G. Blakely, owner and editor of the Plainfield Enterprise, lobbied to have the road routed through the town.77 Because of the United States’ involvement in World War I, the Lincoln Highway was not completed until the 1920s. In 1921, the portion of the highway through Plainfield was paved with concrete by Ralph H. Newkirk Construction Co. of Joliet.78 Today the former Lincoln Highway is known as U.S. 30. Present-day Illinois Route 59 has been the primary north -south road through Plainfield since at least the 1850s. As seen on historic atlases, in the southern po rtion of Plainfield Township the road detoured east in Section 27, following portions of the alignment of present-day Lily Cache Road, crossed the DuPage River at or near present-day Caton Farm Road, and co ntinued south at the centerline of Section 34 (Bronk Road in present-day Joliet). Sometime during the 1920s, the road was paved and designed as Illinois Route 59. As part of that work, the road was re aligned to follow a direct north-south path over the DuPage River and southward along the Section 33-3 4 boundary line; compare the 1920 and 1928 plat maps of Plainfield Township in Appendix A. North of downtown Plainfield, Illinois Route 59 origina lly detoured slightly west and crossed the DuPage River on a northwest-southeast line. In the late 1930s , the road was straightened, and a new bridge was the Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern Railroad. 75 Ibid., 52. 76 A History of Plainfield, Then and Now , 74. Reportedly, evidence of the former A P & J right-of-way remains in Wheatland Township along the E J & E, including limestone abutments; however, these features were not observed during the rural survey. 77 The material of the new road was a subject of debate. Blakely reportedly traveled to Detroit in 1913 to examine the concrete roadway placed there; he returned to Illinois to promote the idea to U.S. Senator Richard J. Barr and Illinois Governor Edward Dunne. (Ione Mueller, Lincoln Highway Mirror, 1939, as quoted in A History of Plainfield “Then and Now,” 78–79.) 78 Ibid.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Page 22 Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey constructed as a WPA project. One limestone abutment of the original bridge survives just west of the present-day bridge; see the photograph on Page 4. Another well known highway that shaped the twentieth century development of Plainfield was U.S. Route 66. In 1940, the alignment of Route 66 was shifted to bypass the center of Joliet. The new route entered Plainfield from the northeast on Illinois Route 126, the turned south on Illinois Route 59. This alignment remained until the opening of Interstate 55 in the 1960s.79 The presence of gravel beds on the east side of Plainf ield allowed the town access to gravel in the later 1800s. The Chicago Gravel Company purchased this la nd in 1900 to quarry gravel for ballast on railroad and road construction. (Further discussion of the grav el quarrying industry is provided in Chapter I). The pit did not fill with water (and become known as La ke Renwick) until the 1910s, by which time it had a beach for recreation purposes. Sand had been brought in and a pier constructed. In the 1920s, a dance hall was constructed, followed by a windmill in the vici nity. The windmill no longer exists, but the dance hall was moved near the intersection of Renwick Road a nd Route 30, where it is now used as a beauty salon.80 By the 1960s the village had grown to include ma nufacturing and industrial businesses: Continental Can (later known as Kerr Glass), McLaughlin Manufacturing, Radiation Polymer, Ideal Cabinet, Distillers Ltd., Fleischmann’s, Super-Value Warehouse, Gee Lumber, Southern Door, Peterson Manufacturing, Leslie Manufacturing, Chicago Bridge and Iron, and Theobald Manufacturing. The region around Plainfield is known by some as “tornado alley,” and on 28 August 1990 the most destructive storm in the recent hist ory of the region occurred. The st orm had originated in southern Wisconsin and passed to the southeast, cutting a 16.4 mile long path of destruction across Illinois. In Will County the storm left 27 dead, more than 350 injure d, and more than $140 million in property damage.81 Plainfield Grain Company One of the major businesses was the Plainfield Grai n Company, incorporated in March 1911 for the purpose of handling grain, but eventually selling coal, lumber, building materials, animal feed, and farm supplies. The company later purchased a number of other businesses including the Barr Grain Company; the Farmers Square Deal Grain Company, in Morris, Illinois; Truby Grain Company’s grain elevator at Caton Farm; and grain elevators at Plainfield, Normantown (see below), and Wolf’s Crossing.82 In 1914, they took over the Ed Alder Lumber Yard. The comp any built new offices in 1916 and a large concrete grain elevator in 1920 (illustrated below).83 By the late 1930s, the company was valued at $150,000 with an annual profit of $50,000. Its business volume w as an average of $1,500,000 and 1,500,000 bushels annually.84 The Plainfield Grain Company was dissolved in 1970 when other means of marketing grain came into use. 79 The 1941 map of Na-Au-Say Township, included in Appendix A, has the notation “Ill. Rt. 126 (Formerly S.B.1 Rt. 66).” Although the exact meaning of this notation is unclear, U.S. Route 66 was never routed through Na-Au-Say Township. 80 Donald G. Beahm, “Lake Renwick,” in A History of Plainfield “Then and Now,” 92–94; information on the relocation of the dance hall provided by Mr. Michael A. Lambert of Plainfield. 81 “Winds of Fury”: The Will County Tornado of 1990 (Sun City West, Arizona: C.F. Boone Publishing Company, 1990), 1. 82 The elevator at Wolf’s Crossing is located just over the county line in Kendall County. 83 August Maue, History of Will County Illinois (Topeka: Historical Publishing Company, 1928), 1024–9. The grain elevator was built by Downey Construc tion of Decatur, Illinois (information pr ovided by Mr. Michael A. Lambert of Plainfield). 84 “Joe Henebry Celebrates 25 Years at Plainfield,” Farmers’ Elevator Guide, 5 April 1937, 22.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Page 23 The main office of the Plainfield Grain Company built in 1916 no w houses the Plainfield Historic al Society. The concrete grain elevator constructed in 1920 behind the offic e also still exists. (August Maue, History of Will County Illinois (Topeka: Histor ical Publishing Company, 1928), 1024). Schools in Plainfield Township The first schoolhouse, a rough log structure, was built in 1833. By 1851, two school districts had been formed. Twenty years later there were eleven dist ricts in the township, with one schoolhouse in each district. In 1891, the districts were consolidated in to eight districts, with seven wood frame schoolhouses and one stone schoolhouse. Like othe r schools in predominantly rural to wnships, the schools were located to allow easy access for children from area farms.85 The population in Plainfield Township was over 1,000 i nhabitants in 1850, but fell to a low point of fewer than 700 in 1880. The population did not rebound to 1850s levels until the census of 1920. The number of schools in the township declined during this period as well. The eight separate districts continued until 1921, when four grade school districts were consolid ated to form District 202 U. Reorganization of school districts in the region in 1948 led to the inclusion of schools in Wheatland Township as well.86 No one-room schoolhouse structures are known to exist today in Plainfield Township. 85 Farrington, “Development of Public School Administration in the Public Schools of Will County, Illinois,” 48–49. 86 Ibid., 123, 129, 213, and 214.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Page 24 Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Wheatland Township Wheatland Township was first settled somewhat later th an Plainfield Township. There were two primary reasons for this: much of the territory was officially owned by Native Americans until 1833, and after that date many settlers in the area were not interested in coming to a region without significant amounts of wooded lands. Early farmers relied of wood as a source of fuel and for building materials. It was also thought that if the land apparently could not support trees, it was not good for farming. However, as land in adjacent townships sold out by the later 1830s and 1840s, Wheatland became more attractive to settlers. The first settler to the region of Wheatland Township was Isaac Foster, who arrived in 1837. He was joined the following year by Josiah Wightman, a nd in 1839 by L.G. Colgrove and Chester Ingersoll.87 Other settlers, such as the Clows, Pattersons, and Fi ndleys, arrived in the 1840s. Wheatland Township, formerly known as the Oregon Precinct, was officially organized in 1850. A post office was established on 30 May 1849, with the name of Vermont Settlement . The post office name was changed to Wheatland in 1854; it was dissolved in 1866.88 The tax levy in 1884 was $9,181.62 including the school tax of $3,120.26. The population in 1880 was 1,098.89 No sizable town or village of any significance deve loped in Wheatland Township. In this region, schools and churches had secondary functions as community centers. Numerous small settlements known as rural crossroads developed across the township, as discu ssed below. The region did have a strong sense of community, and a primary reason for this was th e annual Wheatland Plowing Match. For a detailed discussion of the Plowing Matches, which were held beginning in 1877, refer to the 1999–2000 survey report. It is the Plowing Match that has made this township the most fertile and productive in the State of Illinois. It has made farm life beau tiful and attractive. It has interested the boys in the development of the farm along practical and paying lines. It has made Wheatland one compact brotherhood, and wherever there is union and determination there is strength. Furthermore, it has developed social intercourse, and one of the most beneficent results is the high standard of intelligence that has come as a natural sequence.90 The matches were held for 100 years, interrupted only by hiatuses during World Wars I and II and if bad weather occurred on the scheduled day of the match. The last match was held at the Lewis Tower farmstead in Section 27 in 1976. A marker has been placed near the intersection of 119th Street and Illinois Route 59, commemorating the plowing matches. 87 Souvenir Sketch of the Wheatland Plowing Match with Programme for Meeting of 1898 (Joliet, Illinois: Republican Printing Co., 1898), 7 and 9. 88 Illinois Place Names, 533 and 544. 89 Maue, History of Will County Illinois, 369–376. 90 Souvenir Sketch of the Wheatland Plowing Match with Programme for Meeting of 1898 (Joliet, Illinois: Republican Printing Co., 1898), 7.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Page 25 The Rural Crossroads of Wheatland Township Wheatland Township never developed any large-scale incorporated settlements. However, Wheatland Township contains numerous types of smaller settleme nts or gathering of people and functions, such as hamlets and rural crossroads. Hamlets have b een defined as places with less than 250 permanent residents. Rural crossroads are ev en smaller, although they have the same combination of rural and formal, almost urban qualities found in larger commun ities. Rural crossroads are of two types: social centers and commercial centers. These include the presence of institutional structures and sites, such as a post office, a school, a church, a commercial struct ure, or a park or recreation space as the core.91 These institutions were established to meet the needs of th e residents of surrounding farms: a post office to send and receive mail; a school to educate children; a chur ch for the religion common to the farmers in the region; a shop or business conveniently located for trading purposes; or simply a gathering space. The placement of such centers depended on the distance fr om which area farmers could complete a round trip in one-half day’s time. Besides buildings and parks, physical features may include some basic elements, such as groups of fences defining different property owners’ land (which are usually smaller tracts than typically found in the surrounding rural areas); roadside parking for several vehicles, defined by gravel areas; or short lengths of sidewalks. Several smaller settlements meeting the criteria of ru ral crossroads developed in Wheatland Township in the period after initial settlement in the 1830s. T hose centered around post offices included Tamarack (discussed below, which included a blacksmith s hop); East Wheatland Post Office (at Plainfield-Naperville Road and 111th Street, which included a cr eamery); Wolf’s Crossing Post Office (at Wolf’s Crossing or Oswego Road and the Elgin, Joliet and Au rora Railroad tracks heading to Aurora); as well as the Hoddam and Tokio Post Office, located at W.D. Patterson’s and John B. Clow’s farmsteads respectively.92 As discussed below, Wheatland Township had numerous schools spread throughout, although these were not as significant at serving as anchors as post offices and churches. Three churches served as settlement anchors in Wheatland Township; two exist today. Wheatland Presbyterian Church is discussed below. Zion Luther an Church, located in Section 14 at the corner of Book Road and 111th Street, is beyond the boundari es of this study but is discussed in the 1999–2000 report. The third (whose name could not be determined from available ar chival information) was located at the corner of 248th Avenue and 111th Street and also included a school, although neither structure is extant today.93 Finally, the settlement at the center of Section 29 known as Normantown was founded at the juncture of two lines of the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railroad. Th e juncture between the line to Aurora and the main “Belt Line” of the railroad served as an anchor for a variety of structures, including a large facility of the Plainfield Grain Company. Tamarack, Normantown, and the Wheatland Presbyteria n Church are included within the limits of the present study and are discussed below. Refe r also to the 1999–2000 survey report. 91 However, the presence of a school does not always define a rural crossroads, since schools are typically positioned more frequently on the landscape because of the limited distances that children could walk (Michael A. Lambert, “Rural Crossroads: Meaning and Architecture,” Master’s thesis, Univer sity of Illinois, 1985). 92 East Wheatland Post Office was established 23 February 1855, closed 17 January 1889, reopened 28 January 1889, and closed 3 July 1889. Hoddam Post Office was established 7 October 1893 and closed 3 July 1899. Tokio Post Office was established 26 August 1893 and closed 3 July 1899 (Illinois Place Names, 349, 393, and 526). 93 The church is present on the 1940 plat map of the township but not on the 1948 plat map; the school is indicated on the 1948 plat map but not on the one from 1970. Since litt le information was found on this third church-anchored crossroads settlement, no discussion on it is provided herein.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Page 26 Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Tamarack The settlement at Tamarack was one of the most de nsely populated of the rural crossroads in the township, rivaling that present around Wheatland Presb yterian Church. At one time the crossroads included a post office and store, a church, a school, a blacksmith shop, and several residences. (On the next page is a sketch plan showing th e placement of buildings at this site.94 ) The plat map of 1873 shows the Tamarack Post Office. The post office at the cros sroads was first established in 1858. Two unlabelled structures at these crossroads are shown on the 1862 map of Will County. The post office closed in 1893, reopened less than six months later, and closed finally in 1901.95 Tamarack continued to be indicated on plat maps through the 1970 map. By the time of 1999–2000 survey, Tamarack had all but disappeared, as few of the defining structures were still extant. In addition, several single-family homes have been built in the immediate vicinity, lessening the impression that a historic rural crossroads was once sited here. Today, only one historic house, at 26042 127th Street, remains at the site of Tamarack. Th is building may be the “Post Office/Store” indicated on the plan on the next page. 94 The sketch map of Tamarack obtained from the Plainfield Historical Societ y has a few inconsistencies of scale when compared with plat maps. It is being presented to communicate the general types of structures and relative density at the crossroads. Additional research would be necessary to confirm the layout of the settlement. 95 Illinois Place Names, 522.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Page 27 John Brown Residence Tamarack Hall of Education H e g g s R o a d Tamarack Road (127th Street)McCullough Residence Charles McNeil Residence Well Hugh Nairn and daughter Mary [Residence?]Post Office and Store L o a d i n g P l a t f o r m Glen Church William Nairn Residence John and Morris Cowan Residence Jas. Sime [Residence?]James Nairn Residence William Nairn Blacksmith Shop Tom Resbin Residence North Sketch of the four-corners area of Tama rack in Wheatland Township, based upon a dr awing from the Plainfield Historical Society. Due to inconsistencies in the original sketch, the illu stration presented above is meant to show the general placement of the buildings at the crossroads; additional re search or archaeology is required to further document this settlement.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Page 28 Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Wheatland Presbyterian Church Rural Crossroads Like Tamarack and Normantown, the rural crossroads at the Wheatland Presbyterian Church, is one of the settlement cores that formed in Wheatland Township after its lands became available in the 1830s. However, unlike those other regions, the settlement known as the Wheatland Presbyterian Church Rural Crossroads is relatively intact. The architectural styl es used by the Scotch Presbyterians reflected their beliefs in simple, austere forms, a quality evident in the Wheatland Presbyterian Church.96 The Wheatland Presbyterian congregation dates from 1844, when Stephen Findley and his wife Isabell emigrated from Scotland and settled in Section 30 of Wheatland Township. Findley sought to found a Scotch settlement, with the church as the community fo cus. Other Scots immigrated to the area, including Andrew Findley, who settled to the north of Stephen in Section 19. After meeting initially in Findley’s home, the congregation met in a one room wood frame schoolhouse located in Section 29. In 1855, Andrew Findley donated land at the intersection of the roads now called Heggs Road and 111th Street. A Greek Revival style church facing south was cons tructed on this site in 1856. A parsonage was constructed in 1863.97 These structures remained until 1906, when the new chur ch was built. The lot on the west side of the street opposite from the church was donated to the congr egation in 1907. In 1920, the original parsonage was replaced with brick structure. In 1927, the chur ch lot to the west was converted to a playground and baseball field. The brick school building in the so utheast quadrant was built in 1929 and remained open until 1958. After 1900, several houses were constructe d on both sides of 111th Street to the east.98 Despite several minor changes and additions, the rural crossr oads at Wheatland Presbyterian Church retains much of its historic and architectural integrity. 96 Lambert, “Rural Crossroads: Meaning and Architecture,” 9. 97 Ibid., 19–20. 98 Ibid., 20–21. The school was subsequently converted to a house, with a wood frame mansard roof constructed to give the structure a full second story.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Page 29 The Rural Crossroads at the Wheatland Presby terian Church is the most intact settlem ent of this type in Wheatland Township. Although spatially somewhat similar to the settlement at Tamarack, th e “anchor” in this grouping is the church and supporting buildings and sites. At middle right is a 1955 view of the sc hoolhouse and crossroads (John Drury, This is Will County, Illinoi s , The American Aerial County History Series, No. 26, 1955).
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Page 30 Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Normantown In the late 1880s, the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern (E J & E) Railroad established service to connect the smaller industrial cities surrounding Chicago, ra ther than routing traffic through Chicago.99 This brought the railroad across a northwesterly route from southeast Plainfield Township through northwest Wheatland Township. At Section 29 of Wheatland, th e railroad split into two lines: a branch route continuing directly to Aurora and a main route runni ng north-south and bisecting Sections 5, 8, 17, 20, and 29 known as the “belt line.” At this rail line split or junction, several structures were erected including a large grain elevator built circa 1890; several w ood frame buildings housing o ffices and worker housing; and a cast-in-place concrete silo dating from the 1920s. The branch line to Aurora was removed sometime between 1970 and 1990. The grain elevator was demolis hed in the 1970s, although its concrete floor slab is extant. At present, the concrete silo is the only structure at the site known to date from Normantown’s use as a railroad junction. 99 The Joliet, Aurora and Northern Railway incorporat ed 30 April 1884 for the purpose of constructing a new railroad from the Indiana state line westerly through Joliet and Aurora to the banks of the Mississippi River opposite Dubuque, Iowa. Actual operations began two years later between Joliet and Aurora. By that time, another concern later known as the Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern Railroad planned to construct a rail line from Valparaiso, Indiana, to Joliet and then north to join the Milwaukee Road near Elgin. The Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern purchased the completed portions of the Joliet, Aurora, and Northern in October 1888 and began its own operation 1 January 1889. The railroad was incorporated into the new United States Steel Corporation in 1901. Currently, the railroad is owned by Transtar, Inc., a subsidiary of U.S. Steel. (www.tstarinc.com)
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Page 31 The gathering of buildings at Normantown Crossing, as illustra ted from the 1920s to the present, was centered around the large grain elevator that was demolished in the 1970s. The top two views show the elevator from the sout hwest along with some of the wood frame buildings for offices and worker housing. The bottom view shows the gr ain elevator under demolition, with the cast-in-place concrete silo visible in the righthand photograph. The view at middle right (looking northwest up the former right-of-way of the E J & E railroad) shows the area today, now the site of a gas company. The silo is no longer used.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Page 32 Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey At left is a detail view of the cast-i n-place concrete silo on the grounds of the Plainfield Propane Company. Based on the presence of deformed reinforcing bars in th e silo (observed at concrete spall areas and embedded bars used as ladder rungs), th e silo likely dates from the 1920s. Excerpts from the 1893 (left) and 1909 (right) plat maps for Wh eatland Township, showing the relationship of the Tamarack, Normantown, and Wheatland Presbyterian Church Rural Cr ossroads in the southwest portion of the township.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Page 33 Schools in Wheatland Township It has been reported that the first schools in Wheatla nd Township were located in Sections 5 and 13 and were built in the mid- to late-1840s. Settlement of the township led to the establishment of ten single-school districts by 1872. Five years later there were 368 pupils in the ten districts. Over the next 50 years, the general population, and therefore the student popu lation, declined by 50 percent. Nonetheless, there were 10 districts with 9 schools present in 1920. In 1948, the eight Wheatland School districts were reorganized into District 40 C. A new school building, located in the southeast corner of Section 9, was built in 1960. Other than the school building illustra ted on page 29 as part of the Wheatland Presbyterian Church rural crossroads, no historic schoolhouses are known to exist today in the survey area in Wheatland Township .100 100 Farrington, “Development of Public School Administration in the Public Schools of Will County, Illinois,” 50, 51, 130, and 216.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Page 34 Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Oswego Township Oswego is the oldest settlement in Kendall County. William Wilson of Ohio settle d on the south bank of the Fox River at the site of the present-day village of Oswego in August 1832. S oon he was joined by the Pearce brothers (Daniel, John, Walter, and Elijah), Ephraim Macomber, the Van Fliets, the Wormleys, and the Townsends.101 In July 1833, a stagecoach, driven by John D. Caton (later Judge Caton, Illinois Supreme Court judge in the period 1 842–1864 and owner of a large farm in Plainfield Township), passed through the area en route from Chicago to St. Louis. Settlement of the township proceeded rapidly in the 1830s. The first village lots were platted in 1835 by L.F. Arnold and L.B. Judson, and Arnold opened the first store in that year.102 Other stores and mills powered by da ms on the Fox River soon followed. The first post office opened in 1837, at which time the name “Oswego” was adopted, after the town of Oswego, New York, where some of the earliest settle rs are reported to have originated. Oswego was incorporated as a village in 1842.103 The agricultural development of the to wnship proceeded along with the grow th of the village. By the first Kendall County census in 1850, the township (inclu sive of the village) had a population of 1,559 persons.104 The Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad bypassed the village of Oswego in the 1840s when the tracks were built on the north bank of the Fox Rive r. A small settlement called “Oswego Station” developed around the train depot in Section 7 of the to wnship. However, a branch to serve the village known as the Fox River Valley Railroad, crossing the rive r just north of the village and continuing on the south bank to Yorkville, was open by 1870. Oswego w as also served by the Au rora, Elgin, and Chicago electric interurban trains from 1896 into the 1920s. Many students in Oswego Township presumably atte nded schools in the village; however, several one-room schoolhouses did exist in the more remote portions of the townships, incl uding the survey area. One schoolhouse was in the southeast quarter of S ection 26 on Gilmore Road. Another was at the northwest corner of Section 34 at the intersection of Plainfield Road and Simons Road. Neither of these buildings is known to exist today. The Village of Oswego had not expanded much be yond its original boundaries even as late as the 1940s. Contemporary subdivision developmen ts began in Oswego Township in 1957 with the Boulder Hill subdivision, north of the village and east of the Fox Ri ver. Later growth in the twentieth century typically occurred near to the village. The portion of Oswego Town ship in the survey area (the southeastern corner of the township) has remained pre dominantly agricultural up to the year 2000. A few small subdivisions along Plainfield Road had been developed as early as the 1970s. Since 2000, the Village of Plainfield corporate limits have expa nded into Oswego Township. 101 Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., History of Kendall County (Chicago: Munsell Publishing Co., 1914), 883–884. 102 Ibid., 884. 103 Ibid., 886. 104 Kathy Farren, ed. A Bicentennial History of Kendall County, Illinois, (Yorkville, Illinois: Kendall County Historical Society, 1976), 97.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey Page 35 Na-Au-Say Township Township government in Kendall County was organi zed in 1850. The unusual name for Na-Au-Say Township was reportedly chosen by Daniel J. Town send and A.F. Wheeler from the name of an old Indian village in the township, which meant “Headwaters of the Aux Sable.”105 The earliest non-native resident of Na-Au-Say Township was David Laughton, and his Indian wife, Waish-kee-shaw, who are recorded as living in the area as early as 1829. Waish-kee-shaw and her children were given a reservation covering parts of sec tions 5 and 6 in the township, an area that still bears her name, although the land was sold to Charles Davis and Isaac Townsend in 1835.106 Pioneering farmstead families came to the area in 1835, and by 1840, much of the township had been claimed. In the survey area, the early families included the Kelloggs, Wheelers, Johnsons, Austins, and David Smith.107 Prior to settlement, most of the township was prairie grassland. However, at the northwest corner of the township (outside the survey ar ea) was a heavily wooded area known as the Aux Sable Grove. It was in this area that the most signifi cant early settlement occurred. About 1850, a steam-powered sawmill was established by Daniel Townsend in Section 5.108 Across the northeast corner of Na-Au-Say Township ran the stage coach r oute from Plainfield to Oswego. On the 1851 James Rees map of northeastern Illinois, one building, “Smith’s Tavern,” is shown in Section 2 along the stage route.109 It was in this area of Section 1 that the Na-Au-Say post office existed in the 1850s.110 After the 1850s, this route was altered to run due south through Section 12 to intersect with Lockport Road and continue due east into Plainf ield. Also shown on the 1851 map was another stage route running northeast to southwest across the town ship, the Ottawa and Chicago Road. Only small portions of this route survived after the 1850s, as present day Chicago Road in Sections 32 and 33. By 1870, a town hall had been built at the center point of the township, at the northwest corner of Section 22. Schools were established at dispersed locat ions around the township. The earliest schools, established in the 1840s, were in Sections 5, 16, and 19 in the western part of the township. Within the survey area, one room schools historically existed in the northeast quarter of Section 2 along Plainfield Road, and in Section 13 facing the intersection of Pl ainfield Road and present-day Illinois Route 126. Neither of these school buildings is known to survive today. Na-Au-Say never developed a village center of its own. It remained a sparsely settled agricultural area: the population at the first census in 1850 was 559 persons, and even as late as the 1970 census, the population was actually less, with only 514 persons.111 The first contemporary subdivision in the township was the Oswego Plains development, in S ection 2 off Plainfield Road on the former Gaylord farm, begun in the early 1970s. Beginning in the late 1 990s, the Village of Plainfield and the City of Joliet have annexed land in the township. However, as of 2005, the vast majority of the area of the township remains in active agricultural use, as it has since the 1830s. 105 History of Kendall County (1914), 923. 106 Kathy Farren, ed. A Bicentennial History of Kendall County, Illinois, (Yorkville, Illinois: Kendall County Historical Society, 1976), 106. 107 History of Kendall County (1914), 923. 108 Ibid., 924. 109 James H. Rees, Map of the Counties of Cook and DuPage, the east part of Kane and Kendall, the north part of Will, State of Illinois. (Chicago, James H. Rees, 1851). 110 See 1859 Kendall County map; Illinois Place Names , 448. 111 Bicentennial History , 106.
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. Page 36 Plainfield Rural Structures and Farmsteads Survey This garage building in Section 22 of Na-Au-Say Township at the corner of Wheeler and Schlapp Roads is at the site of the original Na-Au-Say Township Hall. The building has a lime stone foundation and wood double hung windows. This may be the township hall, remodeled to serve as a gar age, but further investigation is needed to establish the history of this building.