Shabbona Grove Church, undated photo. No longer intact. The Origins of the Town
Edmund Town and David Smith built the first permanent wooden house in the area during the winter of 1836. The woodland was known to be a seasonal stop for Shabbona’s family and was hence given the name “Shabbona Grove”. Before Town’s house was built, Edmund and David helped themselves to the cleared areas made by its regular inhabitants as the proximity to Indian Creek and forested areas made the spot very attractive. A 1871 history states that “While building this [Edmund Town’s first] house, they lived in the deserted wigwams of the Indians, who had gone west about three months before. The Indians never made a permanent home at this place, but came and went every year or two. During this time, many whites had been attracted to the grove, and became settlers at this place, and were on friendly terms with the Indians, and ever since that time, the country surrounding the grove has improved very fast.”[i] The fear of Indians in the area had been replaced by the confidence in the friendly countenance of its name-bearer Shabbona. The histories all confirm Shabbona’s gentility and amiability, earning him the nickname “Friend of the White Man” and separate entry into the histories apart from his Potawatomi brothers. He even got featured in A.E. Strand’s 1905 History of the Norwegians of Illinois, which related the sad story of Shabbona and his family’s treatment. In a bought of bad timing, Shabbona and his family went west of the Mississippi in 1837 and when they returned to Illinois in 1855 all of his former residences had been claimed by speculators. Although he had been promised his tract of land by the government, white settlers claimed he had either abandoned or sold his right to the land before he left. No longer welcomed in his own Shabbona Grove, citizens of Ottawa Illinois “generously” donated 20 acres for Shabbona and his entire extended family near Seneca. He died in 1859 at approximately 84 years and was buried there. Plans for a monument in his honor were proposed, but never fulfilled for a lack of funds following the financial hardship of the early 1860s.[ii]
Memories of the devastating fear surrounding settlement in Indian country were quickly replaced with a paternalistic concern and nostalgia for the local Indians. But that nostalgia and remembrance would not stop the influx of new settlers into the area. The town grew according to the pattern of other small Illinois towns, in places with forest and access to a sizable stream.[iii] The area that was to become Shabbona township was mostly prairie, excepting Shabbona Grove.[iv] So that is where people settled. Following the idea that woodland cover promoted easier and more fertile agriculture, settlement was contained to the Grove. Within 10 years of the first white settlers, a new legal precinct of Shabbona was carved out of southern Paw Paw and in 1848 the township organization was enacted. Economic hardship and the lack of cash made settlement difficult still in this “frontier” place; in 1845 “Settlers were more anxious to leave the county than to move to it.”[v] An idyllic remembrance, however states that “The Indians…lived by [the white settlers’] side in perfect peace and good fellowship. The children of the white families were numerous, and in 1842 two school houses were built at the grove for their instruction…They were an honest and law abiding population, and struggled courageously with the poverty and many hardships which were common to all the inhabitants at this early day.”[vi] These settlers were committed to the land and when questions surrounding the legality of the titles of the land were brought up in 1848, 150 armed citizens mobilized north to Dixon to prevent speculators bidding on the land. “Arrived at Dixon, they found a number of men prepared to purchase their lands, and they arranged to seize any bidder, and drown him in [the] Rock River. Their resolute aspect overawed all opposition and they secured their lands at the minimum rate” of $1.25 an acre.[vii] Within a matter of a decade, Indian Country had transformed from the base of settlers’ fears to a strong Anglo community with roads, houses, schools, and legal precedence.
Shabbona was still a small place, however. Confined to the small grove, the “town had steady growth in early years, but…lapsed into gradual decay.”[viii] Shabbona could not grow as a community without expanding outside of the wooded area. In 1855, seven years after formally being recognized, the population stood at 966. At the next census in 1861, however, the population had stagnated, dropping by 3.[ix] However, interest in the area suddenly exploded when rumors of railroad coming through DeKalb County spread. Railroads came north and south of the area within 15 miles in 1851 and 1853, through DeKalb and Ottawa. “Most of the lands in [DeKalb County] were taken up during [1852], as there was a prospect that the county would soon be made accessible to market by railroads; therefore it induced a good many settlers and speculators to purchase the wild prairie land…the first Agricultural Society of the county was organized and held an exhibition.”[x] Although Shabbona could still transport its goods to these major areas and property values had risen markedly, it remained outside railway’s direct influence. Construction for a line through the township itself did not come until 1871, and it is unclear when the line was actually serviceable. More than that, the line was not constructed towards the actual town! Rather, the railway cut through the center of the township on the prairie, where there had been little settlement. An 1868 property map labels “Shabbona Village” in segments 25 and 26, south of the future railroad and well within the defined grove.[xi] The village was not meant to stay there, however.
[i] Thompson and Everts, 1871. Combination Atlas Map of DeKalb County Illinois. Geneva, IL. Page 6.
[ii] .E. Strand. 1905. A History of the Norwegians of Illinois: A concise record of the struggles and achievements of the early settlers together with a narrative of what is now being done by the Norwegian-Americans of Illinois in the development of their adopted country. John Anderson Publish Company, Chicago. Page 58.
[iii] See John M Faragher, 1986. Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie. Yale University Press, New Haven.
[iv] Lewis M. Gross. 1907. Past and Present of DeKalb County, Illinois. The Pioneer Publishing Company, Chicago.
[v] Thompson and Everts, 1871. Page 6.
[vi] Henry L. Boies, 1922. “History of Shabbona, IL” in The History of De Kalb County, Illinois. O.P. Bassett, Chicago. http://history.rays-place.com/il/dek-shabbona.htm Accessed March 14, 2011.
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] Lewis M. Gross, 1907. Past and Present of DeKalb County, Illinois. The Pioneer Publishing Company, Chicago: 122.
[ix] Thompson and Everts, 1871. Combination Atlas Map of DeKalb County Illinois. Geneva, IL. Page 6.
[x] Ibid.
[xi] Boies, Henry L., 1868. History of DeKalb County, Illinois. O.P. Bassett Publishing, Chicago.
No comments:
Post a Comment