LaSalle County
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1932 Stories

DAYTON'S BEGINNING

By Arthur Henicksman, Dist. 209.

The vicinity of Dayton must have presented a very different appearance when John Green came here in 1829 than it does now. The Fox River valley was a favorite feeding ground for the buffalo and hence attracted the Indians. The river furnished an abundance of fish.

Mr. Green visited the man who had homesteaded on the land where Dayton now stands. This man not only sold the land to Mr. Green but he also agreed to plant winter wheat in order that the people might have wheat early the next year.

Mr. Green then returned to Ohio and formed a company of hardy pioneers. There were several married men each having one child: David Grove, Henry Brumback, and Resin Debolt. Mr. Green himself had seven children. The younger, unmarried men of the party were: Samuel and Joseph Grove, Jacob Kite, Alexander McKee, and Harvey Shaver.

Their equipment besides the household goods of each family consisted of a four-yoke ox team, two wagons, and a carriage.

The roads were passable to the Indiana border. Here at Whitewater they were forced to wait several days with other bands of westward-bound people unless, it is said, they were able to travel on top of the wagons already mired.

Pressing westward they were forced to cut their own road and could advance only about ten miles a day. When streams, which were too large to cross, blocked the way they "headed" them, that is, they went upstream til it became small enough to cross.

They reached a settlement on the Iroquois River where they purchased a canoe and eight bushels of corn.

After sending the canoe down the river laden with part of the household goods the rest of the party pushed westward.

The streams of the vicinity through which they were now passing were swollen from the almost constant rains of the autumn. At one of these streams trees were felled from both sides to form a bridge. The household goods had barely been carried over when the water swept the bridge away. A friendly Indian, however, showed them a crossing. At another time a single log lay across the stream. One lady became so nervous watching the others cross on the treacherous footing that she refused to try to cross. John Green, on his hands and knees, carried her across on his back.

The cold wet weather of late fall now began to hinder their progress. Mrs. Green, when she sat down on the ground to rest a moment fell asleep. She found in the morning that she could not rise because her clothing was frozen fast to the earth.

At last, reaching a spot near what he supposed to be the Baresford farm, Mr. Green rode ahead to find if it really was for they were sadly in need of provisions. Mr. Green arrived to find Mr. Baresford butchering a beef. He loaded a quarter of a beef and some corn on a wagon and drove back to meet the party.

They were now near their destination and soon they had settled on the Fox River where Dayton now stands. They built a fort-house on the top of a high bluff overlooking the river.

This was superseded by one built on the face of the cliff.

Mr. Green's next question was how to provide food for his family because to quote him, "He had a large family and good appetites." He was able to buy twenty-four hogs, thirty bushels of wheat and about eighty bushels of corn. Many times before the crop was raised they subsisted on "pound cake" a composition of ground corn soaked in water and baked.

But, despite hardships, the men of the company who numbered only nine had fenced, with rail fence, and had broken most of 240 acres of land. They also built a dam and race to supply power for a sawmill. This mill had a pair of burrs in one end for grinding wheat.

In the spring of 1831 the high water took this mill out. It was replaced with another built farther up the bank. Two more mills were constructed, the last in 1855. This one known as the "Pioneer Mill" ground grain for people for one hundred and fifty miles around.

Later, a frame building was built to the north of the grist mill, and used as a woolen mill. This was partly torn down and a building of Joliet stone replaced it. The remaining part of the old building was used as a collar factory.

At that time Dayton was a thriving village of about 500 people. Now it has less than one hundred!

To be sure the landmarks which the people erected are disappearing, but the story of their deeds will live in the hearts of many.

CONTINUE to NEXT 1932 story

Extracted 08 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from Stories of Pioneer Days in La Salle County, Illinois, by Grammar Grade Pupils, published in 1932, page 74.


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