History of Du Page County, Illinois

Preface

A FTEK several months of laborious research and persistent toil, the history of P/u Page County is complete, and it is our hope and belief that no subject of general importance or interest has been overlooked or omitted, and even minor facts, when of sufficient note to be worthy of record, have been faithfully chronicled. In short, where protracted investigation promised results commensurate with the undertaking, matters not only of undoubted record, but tegendary lore, have been brought into requisition. We are well aware of the fact that it is next t<> impossible to furnish a perfect history from the meager resources at the command of the historian under ordinary circumstances, but claim to have prepared a work fully up to the standard of our engagements. Through the courtesy and assistance generously afforded by the residents of Du Page, we have been enabled to trace out and put into s^ystematic shape, the greater portions of the events that have transpired in the county up to the present time, and wo feel assured that all thoughtful persons interested in the matter will recognize and appreciate the importance of the work and its permanent value. Jl dry statement of facts has been avoided, so far as it was possible to do so, and anecdote and incident have been interwoven with plain recital and statistics, thereby forming a narrative at once instructive and entertaining.

To the many friends who have contributed special portions of the matter herein contained, and to those who have assisted Mr. Blanchard with dates and other memoranda, our thanks are due, and we trust that the earnest endeavors that we have exercised to present our patrons with a work worthy in all respects will, in part, repay them for their kindness.

November, 1882. 0. L. BASKIN & CO.

1288700

Part I

HISTORICAL. PA

CHAPTER 1.— Du Page a Spanish Possession— The French Take Possession of the Northwest — The Country Comes Under English Rule— George Rogers Clarke— Territorial Subdivisions— First Conveyance of Lsnd in Du Page County — The Pottawatomies— Great American Treaty of 1833— The Chicagou Portage— The Removal of the IndinnB— Their Present Condition— Origin of the name Du Page- Spanish Conquest and Its Aims — Baron de Carondelet — The Spanish Close the Lower Mississippi — County Organization and Subdivision— Northern Limits of Illinois — The French Traders— Act Organizing Du Page Couoty .. CHAPTER II— The Pioneer— Stephen J Scott— The Scott Settlement— Blodgett Hauley— Bailey Hobson, the First Settler of Du Page County— Building the First Cabin— Crossing a Slough— Williard So>tt— Social Entertainments — Corn Pancakes— The Napers— First Ground Plowed— The First School — Joseph Naper — John Napcr — The First Stove— Christopher Paine— The First Saw-Mill— Home-made Spinning Wheels and Looms— Cold Winterof 1830- 31— Portage to Chicago— The Lawtons— The Pottawatomies—Flight to Fort Dearborn— Horrible

Indian Creek— Exploits of Col. Beaubien

CHAPTER III.— Capt. Paine arrives at the Naper

— Fort Paine Built— Ji.rnes Brown Shot by the Indians — Expedition to Half Day's Village— Maj. William Whistler Arrives at Fort Dearborn — Capt. Paine's Company Return to Danville— Gen. Scott arrives at Chicago— The Cholera — Gen. Scott Encamps on the Desplaines — Gen. Scott at Fort Paine — Gen. Scott's Army at Rock Island — John K. Clark — Black Hawk Sent to Fortress Monroe — His Death —Poll-Lists— The Pre-emption House— Claimants— The Prairie Schooner— The First Grist-Mill— Fowler's Grapple with the Wolf— The Pioneer of Pioneers— Early Preachers

CHAPTER IV— Public Land Surveys— The Land Claim System—Necessity for the Higher Law— The Big Woods Claim Protecting Society— The Land Pirate Company — Land Speculators — Indian Burying Grounds — The Fox River Country— Method of Grinding Corn— Indian Villages—Indian Agriculture— Indian Modes of Travel— The Country North, East and South of the Du Page Settlements-The Du Page County Society for Mutual Protection—The Hognatorial Council

CHAPTER V— First Introduclion of Slavery into the Colony of Virginia — First Anti-Slavery Literature — Southern Origin of Anti-Slavery Societies— Action of the Quakers — " The Genius of Universal Emancipation "—Early Abolitionists—The Old Federal Party— Origin of the Democratic and Whig Parties— Origin of the Republican Party —Gov. Coles— Elihu B. Washburne— Stephen A. Douglas — Abraham Lincoln — The Western Citizen Introduces Abolitionism into Chicago— Its Effect— Illinois the First State to Take Political Action in the Abolition Movement — John Brown — Fort Sumter

CHAPTER VI.— Record of Du Page County in the War of the

CHAPTER VII.— The First Election— County Commissioners' Court— The County Line Surveyed— The County Divided into Precincts — Townships Organized — List of County and Town Officers— Valuation of Taxable Property— The First Grand Jury— Pubtic Schools— The Old Stage Coach — Railroads — Removal of the County Seat — The County Fair— Geology of the County 139

CHAPTER VIII. — Milton Township — Its First Settleis — Wheaton— How It Received Its Name— The Galena & Chicago Union Railroad — Churches of Wheaton — Pioneer School— Stacy's Corners— Babcock Grove— Prospect Park— Its Churches l^y

CHAPTER IX— Downer's Grove Townshili— The Old Indian Boundary— Cass — Pierce Downer — Thomas And. us— Chicago Reminiscences— The Village of Hinsdale— Brush Hill Memories — Clarendon Hills — Fredericksburg— Downer's Grove Village— An Ox Team Hitched to an Oak Log— What Grew Out of It— The Underground Rail-

CHAPTUR X — Napcrville Township— List of Early Settlers- Village of Naperville— Churches— Schools— Manufactories— The Northwestern College — Temperance Movements— Newspapers — Fire Department— Military Company—Nurseries— The Lodges— Bank— Stoue Quarry I

CHAPTER XI— Lisle Township— The First Settler— His Hardihood—Thanksgiving— A Female Pow-wow— The Old Grist Mill— The Chronic Pioneer— His Generosity 5

PART II CHAPTER XII.— York Township— Origin of Its Name— Its

Early Settlers— The Hesplaines Bridged— Sunday Service

BIOGRAPHICAL.

PAGE.

on Slab Seats— The Pioneer School Mistress— The Widower's Cabin— Praying Matches— Suicide— Bursting Forth ofa Spring — Elmhurst — German Evangelical Seminary —

Lombard 246

CHAPTER XIII.— Winfleld Township— Warrenville— Water of July— The Schoolgirl's Handkerchief- The Old Saw- Mill— The Hotel and Dancing Hall— What was in a Trunk

Addison Towiishij of Old Papers— Churches— The Warrenville Academy — Gary's Mills— Methodist Church at the Place— A Shylock

Member Excommunicated— Winfleld — Turner Junction

PORTRAITS.

CHAPTER XIV.— Wayne Township— Pioneer Life of Its Set-

Albro, Ira tlers — Corner on Whisky and Its Result — Indian Burial

Bates, Gerry

— Indian Importunity— Wolves on the Rampage — Going to Mill— Father Kimball— Pioneer School— Gimletville—

Benjamin, R. Y

Its Hopes Dashed to the Ground— Hillocks, Spas and

Blanchard, Walter

Rivulets— Wayne Station— Relics of the Stone Age 268

Carr, John

CHAPTER XV.— Bloomingdale Township— Indian Burying-

Curtiss, Samuel

Fischer, Henry I)

Graue, Frederick

Graue, Deidrick

Grounds — The Meacliams— Pioneer Burials— Early Road

Districts— Scene in a Sunday Service — Tragical Termi-

nation ofa Law Suit— School Districts— Petrifactions—

Bloomingdale Village — Churches — Business Men of

Middaugh, H. C

'128

Bloomingdale — Roselle— Its Business Men— Meacham —

Strange Phenomenon on Kelley's Farm 274

CHAPTER XVI —Addison Township— The Mountain Daisy-

Scott, Willard

Indian Encampment— The Army Trail— The Soldier's

Smith, John

Grave— The Log Cabin— Home Talent— The German

Struck man n, Deidrich

Vanguard— The Pioneer Tavern— The Old Galena Trade

—Salt Creek— Francis Hoffman, a Lay Preacher— The

Walker, James B

„' 27

Village of Addison — The German Evangelical Teachers'

Warne, John

Seminary — The Orphan Asylum — Professional and Business Men of Addison— Itasca— Its Business Mon — Lester's

Wheaton, J. C, Sr

PART I.

History of Du Page County.

Chapter I

DU PAGE A SPANISH POSSESSION— THE FRENCH TAKE POSSESSION OF THE NORTHWEST— THE COUNTRY COMES UNDER ENGLISH RULE — GEORGE ROGERS CLARK— TERRITORIAL SUBDI- VISIONS—FIRST CONVEYANCE OF LAND IN DU PAGE COUNTY— THE POTTAWATOMIES —GREAT AMERICAN TREATY OF 1833— THE CHICAGOU PORTAGE— THE REMOVAL OF THE INDIANS— THEIR PRESENT CONDITION— ORIGIN OF THE NAME DU PAGE— SPANISH CONQUEST AND ITS AIMS— BARON DE CARON- DELET — THE SPANISH CLOSE THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI — COUNTY ORGANIZATION AND SUBDIVISION— NORTHERN LIMITS OF ILLINOIS— THE FRENCH TRADERS— ACT ORGANIZING DU PAGE COUNTY.

THE history of the world has a grandeur, like a distant landscape — too far away for the eye to take in its infinite detail — such as the delicate tracery of plant life or the stubborn structures of rock formations which make it up.

But the history of our age, and especially our own locality, comes home to us personally. Commonplace as it may seem to us now, in the distant future, it will help to make up a whole; deepening in interest as time chops off the centuries, one after another. All great men must have a constituency, but little if any inferior to themselves in intellect, and it is the actions and deeds of the citizen which speak through some representative whose talent for becoming their advocate has given him a famejustly to be shared by his coternporaries, and of these, county history is to speak. They constitute the delicate tracery and details of the historic landscape destined some day to be as grand as it is distant.

We propose to give a history of Du Page County from the earliest records pertaining to it, to the present time.

Not long ago, comparatively, as to the world's chronology, but primitively as to our history, this count}' was lost for want of a suit of clothes, nor was it but a small part of the loss for such default. The circumstances are these: When Columbus was casting about from king to king in Europe to obtain patronage wherewith to pursue his plans of discovery, he had dispatched his brother Bartholomew to the court of Henry Vllth of England to beg his royal favor and material aid. On his way

HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY.

thither, he was taken by pirates, and during his captivity was robbed of all his valuables, including his pretty suit of clothes with which he was to be attired when he made his humble petition to the king, and after finally reaching England he was obliged by the labor of his hands to earn another suit in which to appear before him ere his mission could be executed. At last this was done, and he gained the king's ear, who listened to his proposals with favor, but alas for courtly etiquette ! — while Bartholomew was at work earning money to pay his tailor's bill, Queen Isabella, of Spain, had fitted out Columbus, and Henry's hopes were dashed to the ground. Not the last time that the impulses of a woman have circumvented the mature but tardy plans and ambitions of man.

Du Page County is but an infinitesimal part of the New World which Columbus promised to give to the king who should fit him out and which, as far as such a title could go, fell into the hands of Spain by right of priority of discovery, a precarious title as the sequel proved, but nevertheless' an honor which England will regret the loss of, till Macauley's New Zealander shall sketch the ruins of St. Paul.

Beginning with this pretentious right of Spain to the soil of Du Page County, let us trace the National claims to it, till private claims began to be granted to actual settlers. The Spanish claim vanished out of existence as other nations began to take possession of parts of the New World, for occupation based on priority of discovery soon began to transcend any decree not sustained by the sword.

The French found their way up the St. Lawrence River as early as 1534, settled Quebec in 1608, and under Father Alouez took national possession of the Great Northwest on the 14th of June, 1671, at the falls of Ste. Marie (the outlet of Lake Superior). Courcelles was then Governor of Canada, and the entire country along the lakes through the latter was an unknown quantity. Frontenac was Governor from 1672 to 1682, during whose administration Marquette and Joliet discovered the Mississippi River in 1673, and on their return trip, passed up the Desplaiues River, which washes the soil of Du Page County. These with their five attendants were the first white men who ever beheld its soil. They might have encamped on it, but this is only speculation. La Barre became Governor of the country from 1682 to 1685, during whose term of office La Salle, Tonty and numerous missionaries and fur traders passed along the Desplaines River to and from the " Chicagou " portage, which route of travel is older than history.

Denonville was Governor from 1685 to 1689. Frontenac a second term from 1689 to 1699. De Calliers from 1699 to 1703. Vandreville from 1703 to 1726. Beauharnois. from 1726 to 1747. Galissoniere from 1747 to 1749. Jonquiere from 1747 to 1752. Sonquill for 1752.

Du Quesne from 1753 to 1755, during whose term of office the French built forts where Erie and Pittsburgh, Penn., now stands, the latter being named after him. The Marquis de Vandreville de Cavagnal was the last French Governor; his authority ceased when the English conquered the country under Gen. Amherst ; the chief victory by which the conquest being made was Wolf's on the heights of Abraham in 1759. Though Canada now was under English rule with Sir Jeffrey Amherst as Governor, yet the French posts of the Illinois country were not taken possession of by the English till 1765, when Capt. Stirling, with a force of one hundred men, established himself at Fort Chartres, at which time the English flag first waved over the soil of the Prairie State.

Gen. James Miller succeeded Amherst as Governor the same year, 1765, who, in turn, was suceeded by Paulus Euielius Irving in 1766. The latter was succeeded by Sir Guy

HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY.

Carleton, who was Governor till 1770. Hector T. Cruinahe was Governor till 1774, and Sir Guy Carleton again till 1778, during whose term of office the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 raised a new and then strange issue in the minds of men. During all these past j'ears of French and English occupation, the native inhabitants of Du Page Count}', as well as their white companions, the fur traders, took interest in all that was passing in the political world, and when the American fires of the Revolution were kindled along the Atlantic coast, the issue was explained to the Indians of the entire Northwest as the English viewed it, which, of course, won their sympathies. The Americans were represented to the Indians as being cruel and savage to the last degree, and the quiet French of the Illinois couutr}', together with their loving red companions, believed the story, yet a combination of events in 1778 dispelled this illusion and changed the destiny of the Northwest. This was George Rogers Clark's conquest of the Illinois country, which was the first raising of the American flag on her soil. By virtue of this conquest, the country was transferred from English to American rule, and by the peace of Paris in 1783, the entire Northwest, as far as the Mississippi River, became a part of the United States.

Until the year 1784, it was within the jurisdiction of the Old Virginia Colony, at which time it passed into that of the United States, and three years later, in 1787, St. Clair was appointed to govern the entire Northwest, of which Du Page County formed a part.

In 1800, the Territory of Indiana was set off, which included the present States of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and the Peninsular portion of Michigan, and William Henry Harrison was appointed Governor, with Vineennes on the Wabash as the seat of government. In 1809, the Territory of Illinois was set off and Ninian Edwards was appointed Governor, who held this position till Illinois became a State, and Shadrack Bond was its first Governor. Edward Coles was, in 1822, elected the next Governor, after a struggle between the advocates of slavery and those of freedom, perhaps never before equaled in a State election in sanguine bitterness, for particulars of which see E. B. Washburne's Life of Edward Coles.

During all these years, the original owners of the soil (the Indians) were resting in a happy but treacherous security that they should ever retain it. No white people had settled on it or manifested any disposition to do so, and although six miles square had been ceded to the United States by the Pottawatomies and other tribes at the treaty of Greenville in 1795> yet up to this time no use had been made of it except to build a fort and establish a tradingpost there. The first special conveyance of lands within the limits of Du Page County from the Indians to the United States was made August 24, 1816. The Pottawatomies (who then held the whole of Du Page County) uniting with the Ottawas and Chippewas in making a grant to Ninian Edwards, William Clark and Auguste Chouteau acting in behalf of the United States. The cession included the southeast corner of Lisle Township, all of Downer's Grove except the northwest corner and the southeast corner of York.

The whole cession was a strip of land which the Government bought for the purpose of constructing a military road on it from Chicago to Ottawa to facilitate the building of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, a scheme to which public attention had early been called. Says Mr. Edwards : " Having been one of the Commissioners who treated for this land, I personally know that the Indians were induced to believe that the opening of the canal would be very advantageous to them, and under authorized expectations that this would be done, they ceded the land for a trifle." (See Edwards' History of Illinois, page 99.)

HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY.

The Pottawatomies, or Peuteowatamis as they were sometimes called, were found by the French adventurers along the shores of Lake Michigan when the country was first discovered by them. The position they held was a commanding one as to locality, as it is known that their hunting-grounds extended at one time all around the Southern extremity of Lake Michigan, though shared at various times with the Ottawas, the Cherokees and the Miamis.

When Alouez was exploring the shores and islands of Lake Superior, even before the interior of the country had been entered except by Nicolet, he met a delegation of 300 Pottawatomies at Chagouamigon (an island in Lake Superior) as early as 1668. Among them was an old man of. 100 winters. Says the relation: He appears to have been a great " medicine man " among his tribe, and was regarded by them as a wonderful prophet. He could fast for twenty days, and often saw the Great Spirit. This venerable seer died while on the island on his visit to Alouez here.

Father Marquette makes frequent mention of the Pottawatomies in his journal, which he kept, in the winter of 1674-75, at " Chicagou,'' and to them and the Illinois tribes was he indebted for many acts of kindness extended to him during his detention at Chicago on account of sickness.

This tribe continued to be the transcendent Indian power along the Southern shores of Lake Michigan from its first discovery till the final removal of all the Indians from the country by Col. Russell in 1836. They took sides with the British in the war of 1812, and struck heavy blows against the Americans in that war, of which the massacre at Fort Dearborn and other casualties in the early part of that war bear testimony.

They had joined with other tribes in ceding six miles square at the mouth of Chicago River to the Americans at the treat}- of Greenville in 1795, as already told, and when the progress and development of the country demanded further cessions of territory, it was to them chiefly that the Government looked as the highest authority to apply to for the purchase of needed lands.

As late as 1833, they had only sold to the United States Government the small part of their Illinois hunting-grounds contained within the limits of the treaty of 1816, and up to this time they owned, perhaps, in common with the Ottawas and Cherokees, all that part of Northern Illinois which lies east of Rock River and northwest of the strip of land ceded by the three tribes in 1816. Settlers were coming into the country and staking out their claims, knowing full well that the Government would soon extinguish the Indian title.

Under this pressure, the United States Government summoned the Pottawatomies, Ottawa and Chippewa, tribes to a great council to be held at Chicago in September, 1833. This was the greatest event the little then mushroom town had ever seen. Besides the interest the Indians felt in the treaty, there were scores of white men gathered around the spot to put in various speculative claims as to propert}- alleged to have been stolen by the Indians, or to bring in enormous charges for services rendered to the Government by virtue of contracts of an indefinite character.

The Government had made immense preparations to feed the Indians, of whom three tribes were on the ground with their squaws and papooses stretched on boards or slung in pocketshaped blankets.

After several days of palaver in which the whims of the Indians were artfully humored, and the bright side of their natures had been brought to the front by those arts which had the result of years of practice, the Indians finally affixed their sign to the treaty, by which they sold the entire northeastern portion of Illinois (an area embracing more than ten of its present counties, among which Du Page was one) to

HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUXTY.

the Government. G. B. Porter, Thomas J. V. Owen and William Weatherford, in behalf of the Government, negotiated the treaty. It bears date of Chicago, September 26, 1833. It was the last treaty of importance ever held with the Indians in the Northwest, and was the instrument by which the Indian title to the country became extinguished after its joint occupation by the red and white races (the latter including the French) ever since 1673, more than a century and a half.

At no other place in America had the Indians lingered so long after the advent of the whites, aud it is not strange that a great variety of associations had sprung up between the triple alliances of native, French and English races, as they had mingled together at the "Chicagou" portage. Here was the great carrying-place between the immense prairie country to the southwest, and the lakes and along the shores of Lake Michigan, from " Chicagou " to the straits. Indian canoes were frequently passing to and fro during the summer season, and Mud Lake and the Desplaines River was in this direct line of travel. The first interest that drove the American element to Chicago was the Indian trade, and the American Fur Company was its first representative. Most of those engaged by this company were men bred on the frontier, and felt no repugnance toward the Indians, but on the contrary not a few felt a friendship for them, strengthened by years of companionship in the fascinating sports of border life, which not only level social distinctions, but accept a good fellowship through a rough exterior, intolerable to the uninitiated civilian, whose motto is " the tailor makes the man." Many of the Indians could make nice discriminations in issues when natural rights were at stake, and the higher law to them was a tribunal from which there was no appeal. This is not too much to say of them till they were brutalized by bad whisky, and theirtnorals corrupted by the vices without being elevated by the virtues of the whites. The former they could imitate, but the latter were sealed books to them. The amount of goods dispensed to them at Chicago to fulfill treaty stipulations, was often very large, and in order to distribute them equitably, men were chosen for the service whose personal acquaintance with the Indians would enable them to do it in the most satisfactory manner. On these occasions the hugh piles of goods, consisting largely of Indian blankets were dispensed by peace-meal to the different Indian families, according to their necessities, but sometimes a discarded Indian lassie, whose place had been substituted by a white wife, came in for an extra share of finery as an offset for lacerated affections — a cheap way of satisfying such claims. Nowadays it costs as many thousand dollars as it did then yards of cheap broadcloth.

The removal of the Pottawatomies from the country was effected in 1835-36, as before stated by Col. J. B. F. Russell.

Previous to the death of his widow, which took place in the present year 18S2, she allowed the writer to take items from her husband's journal, and the following is one of the items :

" The first party of Indians left Chicago September 21, 1835, with the Chiefs Robinson, Caldwell and La Fromborse, and proceeded to their place of rendezvous twelve miles from Chicago, on the Desplaines — a place of meeting usual on such occasions. I met them in council and presented to them the object of the meeting, and the views of the Government relative to their speeciy removal to their new country. They wished to defer answering what I had said to them for two days, to which I consented. Sunday, 28th, provided teams and transportation for the removal of the Indians."

The journal next proceeds to detail the particulars of his thankless toil in satisfying the real and whimsical wants of his captious charge, who honored him with the appellation of father,

HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY.

and vexed him with complaints continually. Their course la3T westward through Du Page County, and their first stopping place was on Skunk River, in Iowa. Patogushah started with his band to winter at this place. His was the first party to start independent of Government assistance. Robinson had command of a separate party, Caldwell another, Wabunsie another, and Holliday another, and Robert Kinzie and Mr. Kirchival assisted Mr. Russell in superintending the whole. Fort Des Moines lay on their route to Fort Leavenworth, near which was their reservation on the Missouri River. They were to draw their supplies from the fort as stipulated by the Government at the treaty, after they had settled themselves in their new home adjacent to,it.

Two years after their settlement, owing to feelings of hostility which the frontier settlers felt toward them, they were removed to Council Bluffs, from whence, after remaining a few years, they were again removed to the Kansas Territory, where they now live, diminished in numbers from 5,000 at the time they left Illinois to less than half that number, but they are now in a prosperous condition. The report from the office of Indian affairs in Kansas September 1, 1878, says: "The Pottawatomies are advancing in education, morality, Christianity and self-support. A majority of them have erected substantial homes, planted fruit trees, and otherwise beautified their surroundings. The average attendance at a school which the Government has provided for them is twenty-nine, from an enrollment of forty-four. The school buildings are well supplied with facilities for boarding and lodging the pupils, and also for teaching the females household duties.

This reservation contains 77,357 acres of land in Jackson County. Their wealth in individual property amounts to $241,650. On their farms they have reapers, mowers, planters, cultivators, and other agricultural machinery, all of the latest approved patterns. Such is the history, and present condition of the people we drove from the soil of Du Page County, or rather our civilization obliged them to sell out to us, inasmuch as we were mutually unendurable to each other. The bones of their fathers are now a component part of the dust beneath our feet, with no stone to perpetuate their memory, except those of Alexander Robinson and Shabonee, both of whom were esteemed b}- all who knew them for their many manly and benevolent traits of character, and whose lofty virtues deserve historic acknowledgment. A tombstone marks the grave of each, which is still beheld with respect by man}' who well remember them. As already stated, ere the Indians had left the country, their grounds had begun to be claimed by the pioneer settlers, and his plowshare had already scarred the soil never before turned up to the mellowing influence of the sun.

The Du Page River had, from time immemorial, been a stream well known. It took its name from a French trader who settled on this stream below the fork previous to 1800. Hon. H. W. Blodgett, of Waukegan, informs the writer that J. B. Beaubien had often spoken to him of the old Frenchman, Du Page, whose station was on the bank of the river, down toward its mouth, and stated that the river took its name from him. The county name must have the same origin. Col. Gurdon S. Hubbard, who came into the country in 1818, informs the writer that the name Du Page, as applied to the river then, was universally known, but the trader for whom it was named lived there before his time. Mr. Beaubien says it is pronounced Du Pazhe (a having the sound of ah, and that the P should be a capital). This was in reply to Mr. Blodgett's inquiry of him concerning the matter.

The county organization of the great Northwest grew into, or, rather, was, reduced into its present conditions by successively subdividing the immense areas over which its first courts cA-ev &lb^r

HISTORY OF DU PAGE COUNTY.

held jurisdiction after Territories and States had been established.

After the conquest of the Illinois country by Gen. George Rogers Clark, in 1778, according to the old Virginia claim, the whole Northwest was a part of her territory. This claim rested on her original charter from King James (which, according to the view taken of it by Thomas Paine, was absurd). But, without discussing its merits, let us record the commendable part this State took to preserve the fruits of Clark's conquest.