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Reflections: Wondering why, not just when and how, all those settlers came here · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Reflections wondering why, not, just when and how all those
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  Speaker 1: settlers came here? Written by Roger Mattel for Shaw Local
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  Speaker 1: News Network. This article is being read by an automated
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  Speaker 1: voice brought to you by Everlett. We sort of take
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  Speaker 1: for granted that the pioneer era took place, with most
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  Speaker 1: of us figuring it was inevitable for settlers to move west.
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  Speaker 1: But pioneering was a dangerous, difficult business. So in this
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  Speaker 1: the year we're celebrating the Declaration's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary,
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  Speaker 1: it's natural to wonder why so many abandoned their homes
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  Speaker 1: and families and moved to northern Illinois the Western frontier
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  Speaker 1: of the eighteen thirties. First was the thirst for good farmland.
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  Speaker 1: Soil along the Atlantic Coast, especially in New England and
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  Speaker 1: much of the old Middle Colonies, was thin and rocky.
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  Speaker 1: North and west of the Ohio River, west of the
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  Speaker 1: Appalachian Chain, dense forests required immense labor just to clear
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  Speaker 1: enough land a farm. So when settlers wagons rolled out
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  Speaker 1: of the forests of western Indiana onto the tall grass prairies,
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  Speaker 1: they were astonished at the site, and they were even
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  Speaker 1: more astonished when they discovered the richness and productivity of
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  Speaker 1: those seemingly endless grasslands. Then there were the businessmen who
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  Speaker 1: saw the needs of those pioneer settlers had created rich opportunities.
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  Speaker 1: Mill rights, for instance, found a rich vein of water power,
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  Speaker 1: especially here along the Fox River. Too shallow for non navigation,
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  Speaker 1: it featured instead a deceptively strong current and plentiful sites
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  Speaker 1: for mill dams. Eventually, the Fox had more dams than
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  Speaker 1: any other river in Illinois, powering literally dozens of mills,
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  Speaker 1: from merchants to blacksmiths to wheelwrights. The business opportunities catering
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  Speaker 1: to the needs of the farmers who came were seemingly endless.
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  Speaker 1: Our earliest settlers came up from the South, following the
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  Speaker 1: Illinois River and then the Fox. But then two innovations
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  Speaker 1: open settlement from the old Northeastern states. First, the Erie Canal,
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  Speaker 1: connecting the Hudson River with Lake Erie, was finished in
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  Speaker 1: eighteen twenty five. That opened westward travel to thousands via
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  Speaker 1: the Great Lakes, but with no good safe harbor at Chicago,
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  Speaker 1: captains were leary of placing their ships in danger, But
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty three, the US Army began digging a
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  Speaker 1: ship channel through the sandbar at the mouth of the
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  Speaker 1: Chicago River. By eighteen thirty five, the channel had opened
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  Speaker 1: the Chicago River as a safe haven for lakes shipping.
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  Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty three, just four ships called it Chicago.
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  Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty five, thanks to the new harbor, two
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty ships called at Chicago, and that opened
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  Speaker 1: the floodgates to Northeastern immigrants from New York, Vermont and
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  Speaker 1: other states. Gradually, those folks predominated, with many of the
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  Speaker 1: early Southern emigrants deciding to move on due to cultural
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  Speaker 1: differences ranging from views on public education to religion, and
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  Speaker 1: that of course had some Syria political consequences a few
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  Speaker 1: decades later, when the Civil War broke out. What kind
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  Speaker 1: of folks were those early settlers. Some came to stay,
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  Speaker 1: some came to pause before moving farther west. Brothers Lyman
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  Speaker 1: and Burb Bristol came in eighteen thirty four and left
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  Speaker 1: their names behind on a Kendall County township and village.
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  Speaker 1: Lyman didn't stick around, however, and joined the forty nine
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  Speaker 1: er rush to California, where he was killed in a
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  Speaker 1: wagon accident. An instructive example of The Easterners who came
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  Speaker 1: west Illinois during the settlement era is the extended Pierce family.
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  Speaker 1: The first member of that group was Jake Carpenter, who
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  Speaker 1: came west from Ohio with his wife, Nancy Pierce Carpenter,
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  Speaker 1: Elijah Pierce's daughter. The Carpenters arrived at Chicago in November
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  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty two. They moved west to Naperville the next summer,
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  Speaker 1: and then in December eighteen thirty three moved farther west
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  Speaker 1: to the Fox River Valley. There they built a loghouse
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  Speaker 1: close to the east bank of the Fox, the first
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  Speaker 1: house in King County and in but eventually became the
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  Speaker 1: village of Montgomery. In eighteen thirty two, Elijah's brothers, Daniel, John,
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  Speaker 1: and Walter Pierce, and their brother in law William Smith Wilson,
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  Speaker 1: came west to Illinois from Logan County, Ohio, prospecting for
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  Speaker 1: land to settle on, Possibly drawn to the region by
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  Speaker 1: the reports of northern Illinois by their niece and her husband.
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  Speaker 1: They found what they were looking for at Oswego, just
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  Speaker 1: a few miles south of the Carpenter's claim. The four
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  Speaker 1: returned to Ohio, sold their farms there, and came back
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  Speaker 1: with their extensive families to settle in eighteen thirty three.
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  Speaker 1: Then in April eighteen thirty four, Nancy's parents, Elijah and
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  Speaker 1: Mary Polly Davis Pierce, arrived and built their cabin nearer
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  Speaker 1: the Fox River, not far from their daughter and son
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  Speaker 1: in law that became a stop on the stagecoach road
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  Speaker 1: from Chicago to Galena. Another daughter, Rebecca, married blacksmith William T.
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  Speaker 1: Elliott in the first marriage in what became Aurora Township.
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  Speaker 1: The Elliott Cabin has been reconstructed and, with a marker
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  Speaker 1: placed by the Aurora Historical Society in nineteen thirty four,
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  Speaker 1: is located on the grounds of the Dieturial Memorial Home
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  Speaker 1: on Illinois Route twenty five. In Montgomery, Daniel Pierce settled
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  Speaker 1: where as we Goo's Fox Bend Golf Course is located today,
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  Speaker 1: while his brother in law, William Smith Wilson, and sister
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  Speaker 1: Rebecca Pierce Wilson staked their claim at what's today the
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  Speaker 1: busy intersectiontion of US Route thirty four and Illinois Route
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  Speaker 1: twenty five near downtown as we Go. A few years later,
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  Speaker 1: Wilson and Elijah Pierce left their claims and moved to
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  Speaker 1: the banks of Big Rock Creek, near today's Silver Springs
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  Speaker 1: State Park, where they built a mill, but they didn't
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  Speaker 1: stay there very long either. Pierce and Wilson sold the
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  Speaker 1: mill in site in eighteen thirty eight. Elijah and family
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  Speaker 1: bought a claim in today's Little Rock Township, where they
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  Speaker 1: spent the rest of their lives. But William and Rebecca, Pierce, Wilson,
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  Speaker 1: and Rebecca's brother John and family apparently had the wanderlust
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  Speaker 1: and left Illinois altogether, first going to Jasper County, Missouri,
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  Speaker 1: and then on to Mills County, Iislea. Meanwhile, Daniel, John
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  Speaker 1: and Walter continued to live around the Oswego area until
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  Speaker 1: their deaths. The one thing all those pioneer families seemed
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  Speaker 1: to be looking for was a better life for themselves
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  Speaker 1: and their descendants. Some of them found what they were
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  Speaker 1: looking for here on Illinois tall grass prairies, while others
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  Speaker 1: decided to keep moving west to see if there wasn't
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  Speaker 1: something better over the next hill. Within a decade or
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  Speaker 1: so of those first arrivals, more newcomers arrived, this time
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  Speaker 1: from Great Britain, Germany, Norway and other countries who were
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  Speaker 1: also looking for the same better lives the original pioneers
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  Speaker 1: from the old Eastern States were seeking, and today all
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  Speaker 1: those groups have merged and added to the rich prairie
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  Speaker 1: culture were still enjoying here in Illinois, Fox River Valley.
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  Speaker 1: Looking for more local history, visit Looking for more local history,
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  Speaker 1: visit