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Reflections: Kendall County marks 185 years, nearly 2 centuries of growth and change · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Reflections Kendall County marks under the eighty five years nearly
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  Speaker 1: two centuries of growth and change. Written by Roger Mattel
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  Speaker 1: for Shaw Local News Network. This article is being read
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  Speaker 1: by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett. There
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  Speaker 1: will be a lot of historical doings this year as
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  Speaker 1: the nation celebrates its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, and
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  Speaker 1: right here in Kendall County will be celebrating a little quieter,
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  Speaker 1: but celebrating nonetheless our small corner of northern Illinois one
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  Speaker 1: hundred and eighty fifth birthday. In February eighteen forty one,
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  Speaker 1: the Illinois General Assembly, in a veritable fit of positive
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  Speaker 1: actions seldom seen before or since, was feverishly working to
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  Speaker 1: establish four brand new counties. Three new counties had already
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  Speaker 1: been formed that January. The four set for approval in
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  Speaker 1: February would bring the grand total for the first two
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  Speaker 1: months of eighteen forty one to seven new counties. Debate
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  Speaker 1: on each of the proposals that February was hot and
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  Speaker 1: heavy as Whigs and Democrats maneuvered to get the best
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  Speaker 1: possible political advantages. When the dust cleared and a vote
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  Speaker 1: was finally held, February nineteenth, eighteen forty one, exactly adeoned
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  Speaker 1: years ago today. The second new county formed that month.
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  Speaker 1: The first on February seventeenth, was Grundy County was voted
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  Speaker 1: into law. It was officially named Kendall County after former
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  Speaker 1: President Andrew Jackson's Postmaster general and political fixer Amos Kendall.
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  Speaker 1: The flood of settlement into the Fox River Valley that
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  Speaker 1: began in eighteen thirty three continued right through the eighteen thirties.
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  Speaker 1: Enough people made their way to the banks of the
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  Speaker 1: Fox River by the end of that decade that most
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  Speaker 1: of Kendall County's towns had been surveyed and laid out.
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  Speaker 1: Boosters Optimists all laid out as we Go on the
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  Speaker 1: valley edge overlooking the Fox River and the mouth of
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  Speaker 1: wabon Sea Creek in eighteen thirty five. Newark also was
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  Speaker 1: laid out that year. Yorkville followed in eighteen thirty six,
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  Speaker 1: along with Little Rock, and then Lisbon and Millington in
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  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty eight. As population increased, so did the need
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  Speaker 1: to do business at the county seat. For those living
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  Speaker 1: in what eventually became Bristol, Little Rock, and Oswego, townships
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  Speaker 1: that meant a long trip north to the Kane County
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  Speaker 1: seat in Geneva. For those living in what became Fox Kendall, Naasse, Sewart, Lisbon,
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  Speaker 1: and Big Grove townships, conducting official business meant a trip
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  Speaker 1: down river to LaSalle County's courthouse in Ottawa, in the
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  Speaker 1: midst of the area's biggest spurt in population growth ever
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  Speaker 1: in terms of percentages, The Panic of undered a thirty
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  Speaker 1: seven struck like a sledgehammer blow. The word panic doesn't
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  Speaker 1: carry the emotional baggage that depression does these days, but
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  Speaker 1: the Panic of eighteen thirty seven was a financial depression
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  Speaker 1: in its fullest and most devastating sense. Unlike the Great
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  Speaker 1: Depression of the nineteen thirties, the Panic of eighteen thirty
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  Speaker 1: seven almost led to the financial destruction of state government
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  Speaker 1: in Illinois as the nation's monetary system collapsed. Finding themselves
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  Speaker 1: at the neglected fringes of Caine and LaSalle Counties and
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  Speaker 1: still feeling a bond forged during the Blackhawk War of
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  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty two, residents of the nine townships decided to
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  Speaker 1: petition the state to form a brand new county they
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  Speaker 1: could call home. In the fall of eighteen forty one,
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  Speaker 1: on nine settlers signed a petition asking the General Assembly
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  Speaker 1: to establish a new nine township county. As originally proposed,
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  Speaker 1: the new county would have included today's Bristol and Little
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  Speaker 1: Rock townships in Kane County, Kendall, Fox, Big Grove, Lisbon
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  Speaker 1: Mission and Northfield townships in LaSalle County, and Sandwich Township
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  Speaker 1: Intkalb County. As finally proposed to the General Assembly, however,
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  Speaker 1: the boundary of the square nine township county was shifted
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  Speaker 1: one township east, eliminating Sandwich Mission in Northfield townships and
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  Speaker 1: adding Oswego now Say and Sewer to the new county's makeup.
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  Speaker 1: The tentative name given to the new county by the
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  Speaker 1: General Assembly was Orange County, after the county in New
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  Speaker 1: York named after British King William of Orange, so many
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  Speaker 1: Northern Illinois settlers came from, but Democrats then in the majority,
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  Speaker 1: voted to change the name to honor Amos Kendall, Andrew
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  Speaker 1: Jackson's powerful former patronage Chief. Jackson did not seek reelection
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty seven, and Kendall had retired from government
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen forty. While we decried the often childish behavior
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  Speaker 1: of modern politicians. It seems things in Springfield weren't much
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  Speaker 1: better Back in eighteen forty one. In a move to
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  Speaker 1: embarrass Democratic sponsors, Whig Party legislators made a tongue in
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  Speaker 1: cheek effort to amend the county name to include the
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  Speaker 1: words honest amos to Kendall, who had been made out
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  Speaker 1: to be a corrupt influence on the popular Jackson. The
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  Speaker 1: effort was easily quashed, however, and just playing Kendall County
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  Speaker 1: it remained. The bill worked its way through the legislative process,
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  Speaker 1: getting House approval and moving to the State Senate on
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  Speaker 1: fid on February nineteenth, eighteen forty one. It was finally approved.
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  Speaker 1: On April fifth, Eligible voters in the newly formed Kendall County,
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  Speaker 1: all males at the time, held its first official election
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  Speaker 1: of county officers. Illinois County government was then operating on
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  Speaker 1: the commission form of government. The first county Board of
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  Speaker 1: Commissioners elected were Jeremiah J. Cole, Levi Hills, and Reuben Hunt.
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  Speaker 1: That June, a three man commission appointed by the General
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  Speaker 1: Assembly came up from Springfield to survey the county for
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  Speaker 1: a site for a county seat. After looking around, the
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  Speaker 1: commission picked Yorkville since it was smack in the middle
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  Speaker 1: of the new county. The newly elected three member County
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  Speaker 1: Commission quickly rented a private home owned by Daniel Johnson
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  Speaker 1: for use as a courthouse. The house was situated on
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  Speaker 1: Lot eight, block fifteen in Yorkville, just a couple of
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  Speaker 1: blocks from the current historic courthouse. In eighteen forty five,
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  Speaker 1: county voters decided to move the county seat to Oswego
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  Speaker 1: thanks to the efforts of boosters in that town, But
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  Speaker 1: by eighteen fifty nine, the problem was traveling all the
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  Speaker 1: way from the county's southernmost areas to Oswego in extreme
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  Speaker 1: northeastern Kendall County by horse drawn vehicles were becoming as
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  Speaker 1: bothersome as those previous trips to Geneva and Ottawa two
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  Speaker 1: decades earlier. That year, voters decided to move the county
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  Speaker 1: seat back to Yorkville, and in June eighteen sixty four,
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  Speaker 1: during the Civil War, the current historic courthouse was finally
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  Speaker 1: completed and the county's official records were moved to the
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  Speaker 1: new facility and in Yorkville. The county seat has remained
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  Speaker 1: ever since the decision of those one hundred nine settlers
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  Speaker 1: to strike off on their own in eighteen forty one
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  Speaker 1: was as important then as it is today eighteen five
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  Speaker 1: years later. They certainly didn't foresee the recent growth that
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  Speaker 1: has taken place, but they did foresee the need to
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  Speaker 1: keep local government as close to hand as possible, something
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  Speaker 1: that benefits all county residents today. Interested in more local history,
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  Speaker 1: visit to State