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Reflections: Here we are in Quebec…and Indiana? · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Reflections. Here we are in Quebec and Indiana, written by
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  Speaker 1: Roger mattel Forshaw Local News Network. This article is being
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  Speaker 1: read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett.
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  Speaker 1: Has this always been Kendall County? A youngster asked me
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  Speaker 1: several years ago. I explained that the area in which
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  Speaker 1: we live has not always been part of Kendall County.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, we have not always been part of Illinois,
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  Speaker 1: or even of the United States. When the Revolutionary War
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  Speaker 1: began in seventeen seventy five, the Fox Valley was considered
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  Speaker 1: part of and was administered from Quebec Province under British rule.
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  Speaker 1: The British had gained control of the vast area of
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  Speaker 1: Canada and much of North America south of the Great
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  Speaker 1: Lakes after defeating France in the Seven Years War of
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  Speaker 1: the seventeen sixties. Then, thanks to George Rogers Clark and
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  Speaker 1: his band of hardy frontiersmen, however, Illinois was established as
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  Speaker 1: a county of the state of Virginia in seventeen seventy eight,
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  Speaker 1: and that control proved very important because a few years
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  Speaker 1: later the lands drained by the Fox River were won
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  Speaker 1: by the United States as part of the peace Settlement.
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  Speaker 1: At the end of the war, Realizing it could not
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  Speaker 1: govern an area so far away, however, Virginia surrendered Illinois
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  Speaker 1: to the US government in seventeen eighty four. Three years later,
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  Speaker 1: we became part of the Northwest Territory, a huge area
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  Speaker 1: comprising the current states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.
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  Speaker 1: Under terms of the Northwest Ordinance of seventeen eighty seven,
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  Speaker 1: Arthur Saint Clair, a mediocre Revolutionary War general with good
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  Speaker 1: political connections, was appointed Northwest Territory governor, promptly naming the
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  Speaker 1: territory's first county after himself in April of seventeen ninety.
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  Speaker 1: On June twentieth, however, Saint Claire created another county, Knox,
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  Speaker 1: and that's when Kendall County story really begins, for our
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  Speaker 1: small county was a portion of that new giant political division.
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  Speaker 1: Old Knox County included about half of the current state
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  Speaker 1: of Illinois, plus the whole of Indiana, a good deal
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  Speaker 1: of what became Ohio, most of modern Michigan, and a
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  Speaker 1: huge chunk of Wisconsin. The county was named for Secretary
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  Speaker 1: of War Henry Knox, another former Revolutionary war general, but
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  Speaker 1: to give Saint Claire a little credit, Knox, a former
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  Speaker 1: bookstore owner and self taught military genius, had been a
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  Speaker 1: true hero of the Revolution. Then in eighteen hundred, the
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  Speaker 1: Territory of Indiana was carved off the original Northwest Territory,
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  Speaker 1: and in eighteen oh one the Fox Valley was included
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  Speaker 1: in a redesigned Saint Clair County of that new territory.
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  Speaker 1: We remained hoosiers in part of Indiana until the brand
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  Speaker 1: new Illinois Territory was itself established in eighteen oh nine.
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  Speaker 1: A cycle was begun in eighteen twelve that would soon
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  Speaker 1: become familiar. As population grew in the southern part of
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  Speaker 1: the territory, new counties were formed to provide more accessible
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  Speaker 1: local government. Although the nation went to war again with
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  Speaker 1: England in eighteen twelve, political reorganization and population growth did
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  Speaker 1: not stop. In September of that year, the Fox Valley
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  Speaker 1: became part of Madison County, named for President James Madison.
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  Speaker 1: The county was huge, extending all the way from southern Illinois,
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  Speaker 1: where the Embarrass River joins the Ohio in modern Lawrence County,
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  Speaker 1: north all the way to the current state line. On
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  Speaker 1: November twenty eighteen fourteen, the Territorial Legislature established Edwards County
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  Speaker 1: and included the Fox Valley in its bounds. The new
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  Speaker 1: county was named for illinois first territorial Governor, Ninian Edwards.
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  Speaker 1: The War of eighteen twelve ended in eighteen sixteen, and
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  Speaker 1: Illinois just kept growing. Crawford County, named for senn William
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  Speaker 1: Crawford of Georgia, a prominent politician, was established in December
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  Speaker 1: and included today's Kendall County, and then in eighteen eighteen,
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  Speaker 1: thanks to quite a bit of chicanery and dealing with
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  Speaker 1: population figures to make sure the population minimum was met,
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  Speaker 1: Illinois finally became a state in its own right. A
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  Speaker 1: year later on March twenty six and eighteen nineteen, Clark County,
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  Speaker 1: including the Fox Valley, was established, named for General George
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  Speaker 1: Rogers Clark. As settlement moved north, county boundaries kept changing.
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  Speaker 1: It must have been confusing in those days trying to
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  Speaker 1: figure out exactly in which county you were living in
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  Speaker 1: any given year. In eighteen twenty one, we became part
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  Speaker 1: of Pike County, named for Zebelon Pike, the famed explorer
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  Speaker 1: in general during the War of eighteen twelve, and in
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  Speaker 1: eighteen twenty four part of Fulton County, named for Robert
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  Speaker 1: Fulton of steamboat fame. In eighteen twenty five, we were
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  Speaker 1: included in the bounds of the new Putnam County, named
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  Speaker 1: for Revolutionary War general and all around interesting character Rufus Putnam,
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  Speaker 1: where we remained until eighteen thirty one. Then on January fifteenth,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty one, the General Assembly formed LaSalle County, which
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  Speaker 1: ran from the center of present day Livingston County all
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  Speaker 1: the way north to Wisconsin, including today's Kendal County. We
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  Speaker 1: remained part of LaSalle, named for the seventeenth century French
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  Speaker 1: explorer Robert Cavalier de la Sal, until eighteen thirty six,
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  Speaker 1: when Kine County was formed. It was during this period
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  Speaker 1: that settlers began flooding into northern Illinois directly from the
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  Speaker 1: northeastern states, instead of coming up from the south. The
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  Speaker 1: formation of Kine County, named for Elias Kent Kane, Illinois
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  Speaker 1: first Secretary of State and a US Senator, absorbed three
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  Speaker 1: of Kendall County's current nine townships, Oswego, Bristol, and Little Rock.
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  Speaker 1: The other nine townships Kendall now say Fox Big Grove,
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  Speaker 1: Lisbon and Seward remained part of LaSalle County at least
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  Speaker 1: for a few years. Spurred by the heavy traffic on
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  Speaker 1: New York's Erie Canal and the creation of a safe
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  Speaker 1: Lake Michigan Harbor at Chicago, population was growing too fast
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  Speaker 1: in northern Illinois for things to remain stable. On February nineteenth,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen forty one, Kendall County was finally formed by act
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  Speaker 1: of the state legislature. The county was named for Amos Kendall,
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  Speaker 1: Postmaster General of the United States, political crony of Andrew Jackson,
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  Speaker 1: journalist and partner with Samuel F. B. Morse in the
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  Speaker 1: development of the telegraph. Ironically, a county that voted solidly
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  Speaker 1: Republican from the time the party was formed in eighteen
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  Speaker 1: fifty four until the early twenty first century was named
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  Speaker 1: for a prominent nineteenth century Democrat. It's been a long
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  Speaker 1: road since the seventeen seventies when we were part of Quebec,
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  Speaker 1: and I suppose we would all have spoken French had
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  Speaker 1: we been here at the time. After that dangerous swerve
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  Speaker 1: towards becoming Hougiers, we at last settled for being regular
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  Speaker 1: Illinois suckers. It's all probably turned out for the best,
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  Speaker 1: even if we do speak broken French at best these days.
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  Speaker 1: Looking for more local history, visit