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Reflections: 2026 is the bicentennial of the arrival of Kendall County’s first settlers · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Reflections. Twenty twenty six is the bi centennial of the
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  Speaker 1: arrival of Kendall County's first settlers. Written by Roger mattel
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  Speaker 1: Forshaw Local News Network, this article is being read by
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  Speaker 1: an automated voice brought to you by Everlett. Looks like
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six is turning out to be a banner
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  Speaker 1: year for celebrations, despite our national and international problems. We're
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  Speaker 1: taking time this year to recognize the nation's beginning as
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  Speaker 1: we celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the
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  Speaker 1: signing of the Declaration of Independence, which marked the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of our history as a separate nation. But along with that,
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  Speaker 1: here in Illinois Fox River Valley, we're celebrating the one
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  Speaker 1: hundred eighty fifth anniversary of the formation of Kendall County.
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  Speaker 1: It was in February eighteen forty one that the Illinois
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  Speaker 1: General Assembly formally established the County of Kendall by clipping
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  Speaker 1: three townships as we go, Bristol and Little Rock from
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  Speaker 1: Kine County and six townships Nausea Kendall, Fox, Big Grove, Lisbon,
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  Speaker 1: and Seward from LaSalle County to create the new nine
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  Speaker 1: township county. But another anniversary, one so important that it's
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  Speaker 1: actually one of Kendall County's major historical inflection points is
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  Speaker 1: also being observed this year, one that I admit sort
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  Speaker 1: of snuck up on me. In eighteen twenty six, exactly
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  Speaker 1: two hundred years ago, and just fifty years after those
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  Speaker 1: revolutionaries gathered in Philly, Robert Beresford, his wife, and their
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  Speaker 1: two sons came up the Fox River from Ottawa, staked
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  Speaker 1: to claim at the southernmost point of what later became
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  Speaker 1: known as Holderman's Grove, and thereby became Kendall County's first
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  Speaker 1: permanent white settlers. And what is an inflection point. A
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  Speaker 1: historical inflection point is the moment an event happens that
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  Speaker 1: causes a profound turning point in history. The Beresford family's
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  Speaker 1: arrival was Kendall County's second historical inflection point. The first
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  Speaker 1: f was created when the first native people arrived around
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  Speaker 1: these parts about thirteen thousand years ago. They likely came
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  Speaker 1: following the Big Game Ice age animals that populated the
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  Speaker 1: verges of the Titanic ice sheet that was then slowly
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  Speaker 1: retreating to the north. By their very presence, these efficient
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  Speaker 1: hunter gathers called the Clovis people, by anthropologists, began modifying
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  Speaker 1: the landscape itself. We like to believe that it took
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  Speaker 1: millennia for humans to gain the ability to modify the
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  Speaker 1: Earth's environment, but the process began with those early people.
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  Speaker 1: They hunted that big game, and probably with the glaciers
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  Speaker 1: retreat helped wipe it out. That created opportunities for other
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  Speaker 1: animals to arrive and thrive. The gathering part of hunting
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  Speaker 1: and gathering also had a growing effect on the region's landscape,
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  Speaker 1: as beneficial food plants were modified through selective breeding. Even
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  Speaker 1: the mundane task of fishing had an impact on the landscape,
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  Speaker 1: as the fish, weares and traps native people crafted, installed
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  Speaker 1: and abandoned led to silting, trapping, floating logs and brush,
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  Speaker 1: and changing the area streams aquascape. Most of those landscape
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  Speaker 1: modifications were accidental, but the native people's efforts to create
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  Speaker 1: better habitats for desirable game such as whitetail deer they
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  Speaker 1: found so useful weren't Deer meat was nourishing, Deer hides
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  Speaker 1: were used for clothing and other purposes, and the bones
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  Speaker 1: and antlers were crafted into useful tools. Deer are creatures
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  Speaker 1: of woodland edges where their preferred brows grows. So our
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  Speaker 1: resident native people set about creating as many edges as
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  Speaker 1: they could by encouraging prairie fires that cleaned underbrush from
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  Speaker 1: patches of woodland in wet areas and along streams and rivers.
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  Speaker 1: Mother Nature herself set a lot of those fires in
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  Speaker 1: spring and fall through thunderstorms lightning strikes, but when she didn't,
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  Speaker 1: local native people took over and set them themselves as
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  Speaker 1: a result, When the Beresfords arrived and staked their claim
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  Speaker 1: at the southernmost point of Holderman's Grove in what less
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  Speaker 1: than twenty years later would become Kendall County's Big Grove Township,
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  Speaker 1: they found not a dense forest, but an open woodland
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  Speaker 1: savannah with some but not much understory. In addition, they
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  Speaker 1: found the stands of hardwoods growing along the region's watercourses
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  Speaker 1: had been changed by centuries of landscape manipulation. Those prairie fires,
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  Speaker 1: both natural and purposefully set by the resident native people
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  Speaker 1: and driven by the prevailing westerly winds, had thinned and
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  Speaker 1: sometimes eliminated the timber on the east side of streams.
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  Speaker 1: Trees that were resistant to fire, like white oaks, came
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  Speaker 1: to thrive on the east banks of those streams, while
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  Speaker 1: those susceptible to fire damage like black walnuts, elms, basswoods,
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  Speaker 1: and maples predominated on the east sides of those streams.
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  Speaker 1: So when the Beresfords arrived, they found a landscape that
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  Speaker 1: had been modified over millennia to support the culture of
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  Speaker 1: the native people who were living here. Then at which
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  Speaker 1: point the Beresfords began modifying the landscape to fit their needs.
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  Speaker 1: They cut trees in the grove that bordered their claim
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  Speaker 1: for materials to build their log cabin home, outbuildings and
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  Speaker 1: rail fences, and they also began the laborious task of
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  Speaker 1: breaking or plowing the tough, thick prairie sod for the
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  Speaker 1: first time to turn the natural prairie land into cropland.
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  Speaker 1: Later that same year, eighteen twenty six, Pierce Hawley brought
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  Speaker 1: his family up the river from Ottawa and settled at
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  Speaker 1: the north end of Holderman's Grove. He was never really
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  Speaker 1: satisfied with the location of his claim, and so within
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  Speaker 1: a few years up to his claim stakes and moved
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  Speaker 1: east to the DuPage River, becoming one of Naperville's first settlers.
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  Speaker 1: It took a few more years for the settlement floodgates
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  Speaker 1: to open wide, but by eighteen thirty three they were
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  Speaker 1: in the area's population began truly booming. Kendall County subsequently
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  Speaker 1: had two other major inflection points, the Civil War and
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  Speaker 1: the end of World War II. Some ten percent of
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  Speaker 1: the county's total population went off to serve in the
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  Speaker 1: Civil War, and the war had profound effects on all
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  Speaker 1: of them. Wanderlust and untreated unidentified PTSD led to a
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  Speaker 1: population exodus to the extent that Kendall didn't surpass its
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty population for a full century after the war.
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  Speaker 1: And as for the post World War II impact, we're
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  Speaker 1: still feeling it, as Kendall is annually the fastest growing
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  Speaker 1: county in percentage terms in Illinois. So just a gentle
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  Speaker 1: suggestion that as we recognized the two hundred and fiftieth
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  Speaker 1: anniversary of the nation's independence and the one hundred eighty
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  Speaker 1: fifth anniversary of Kendall County's establishment by the Illinois General
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  Speaker 1: Assembly this year, how about we spare a few thoughts
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  Speaker 1: for the bi centennial of the arrival of those first
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  Speaker 1: trailblazing settlers out here on the prairies. Amongst the groves
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  Speaker 1: along the Fox River. Looking for more local history, visit