From the 1874 DuPage Atlas – The Stolps

Highlighted in this atlas are three farms owned by families named “Stolp.” The name may be familiar to people who have been to the Paramount Theatre or Hollywood Casino in Aurora, Illinois as both of them are located on Stolp Island. It turns out that DuPage and Kane counties have a wealth of Stolps in their histories. 

The Stolp ancestors were originally from Germany and immigrated to New York in the late 1700s, serving in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, before sending roots westward. They had large families and often named their children for parents and grandparents, so it gets pretty tricky to sort them all out. Several times over the past decades Stolp family members have recorded histories, many of which are available online, but there is still some confusion.

Just trying to focus on the DuPage Stolps was a challenge! Of the three that are depicted in the atlas, it seems Henry P. and Chas. W. were brothers, the sons of Frederick. Frederick walked from New York to Naperville in 1833, which is just a couple of years after it was founded. He was 52 years old, a brickmaker by trade, and decided the area around Big Woods was suitable for his needs. So Frederick walked back to get his wife and nine children. 

 

Frederick, apparently a champion walker, lived until he was 91 years old. He was married to Jannetje Peper, (the “P” in “Henry P.” stands for “Peper) who was the mother of all those children, for 24 years. A couple years after her death in 1837, he remarried, sharing 34 years with Amanda Rosier. In the 1870 census, which was taken just before this atlas was published, Frederick is listed as a “retired farmer” with his son Henry in charge. Presumably, this is the farm shown in the engraving. 

 

One of Frederick’s other sons was Charles West, the Chas. W. mentioned in the atlas. He and his wife Sarah had six children and apparently lived their last years in Kansas with daughter Harriet, although they are both buried in Aurora. Alfred, yet another son, is listed on a county land map. His property, west of downtown Naperville, is bordered by land labeled “Thatcher,” which should be explored since Alfred married Roxanna Thatcher. 

 

Peter M. was the son of Johan, Frederick’s brother, and Margaret Marlett, which is his middle name. He was married to Mary Jane Briggs in 1841 and they raised their family in DuPage, but by the time of the 1880 census, Peter and Mary Jane were farming in Crawford County, Wisconsin, which is only a few years after the atlas was published.

 

Another brother of Johan and Frederick was George Stolp. George and his wife Katharine started their family of eleven children back in New York. Some stayed, some moved out to Illinois, and some traveled even farther across the country. Son John was among the first of the family to settle in the area, farming in Naperville, so that’s where his brother Joseph stayed when he arrived. It was Uncle Frederick who secured the island for Joseph.

 

The twenty-five-year-old Joseph was apprenticed in wool manufacturing and was planning to start a woolen mill empire. The island location was perfect because he was counting on the Fox River to power the mill. Joseph was enormously successful, at one point employing 150 people, mainly women. Milling stopped in 1887 and the mill burned down in 1906, but the Woolen Mills Store and the Dye House buildings are still standing on Stolp Island if you want to see them. 

 

This only scratches the surface of the Stolps who were numerous and active. If you do any poking around in local history books, you are bound to find a Stolp! 

From the 1874 DuPage Atlas – W.H. Wright

W.H. Wright’s farm looks tidy and prosperous, but who exactly was W.H. Wright? 

Naperville’s history features a number of Wrights. One of the most community-minded was James Gregson Wright. James was born in England, emigrated to New York, and by 1843, he had settled in DuPage County where land was reasonably easy to obtain. He farmed for a number of years, and then became a banker, launching Producers’ Bank in 1857 with partner George Martin II, the Scot who built the mansion at Naper Settlement. 

 

Continuing to be involved with Naperville, James was appointed postmaster and served six terms in the Illinois General Assembly. He was also the first owner of the farm that is now the site of the Meson Sabika restaurant, but this engraving is not of that farm and James is obviously not W. H. Wright. 

James married Almira Van Osdel, whose father was a noted architect, and they had seven children, one of whom was named William. William also lived a life of public service, but dedicated himself specifically to the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic), an organization for veterans of the Civil War. The G.A.R. was actually founded in Illinois and grew to be a national organization. 

Captain William had served as an officer in the 156^th Illinois Volunteer Infantry and it apparently had a deep impact on him. Building on his local involvement, William was eventually elected the 66^th Commander-in-Chief of the national organization. He served from 1932 until 1933 when he died in Pittsburgh at the age of 88 years old while attending a G.A.R. encampment. 

 

In 1872, William had married Ida Sleight, whose father, Delcar Sleight, and grandfather, Morris Sleight, were both major real estate developers in Naperville. Delcar donated the land for North Central College and there is a Sleight Street in one of their developments. There is also a Wright Street which was named for William, Delcar’s son-in-law.

But William’s middle name is Parkinson, which was his Grandmother Wright’s maiden name, and he moved to Chicago in 1871, just before the Great Fire, so he can’t be the W.H. Wright of this farm engraving either. 

W.H. Wright is mentioned twice in the 1874 DuPage Atlas. His residence is listed as Naperville Township, Section 17, with Eola as the post office. The other listing is as a “patron” of the atlas, which no doubt means he paid for inclusion, but cemetery, census, newspaper, and other records reveal nothing else about W.H.. 

So the search continues! 

Notable Naperville Women - Clarissa Hobson

Clarissa Stewart Hobson was Naperville’s first female European settler. Joseph Naper’s wife, Almeda, long held that title, but as city borders extended to include the Hobson land, Clarissa now claims it. 

A Georgia girl, Clarissa and husband Bailey spent their early married life in Indiana not far from Louisville, Kentucky. She was already a 26 year old mother of five children when they decided that greener — and less rocky — pastures were to be had in Illinois. 

Leaving Clarissa behind with the farm work and the children, Bailey checked out some land in Illinois before returning to pack everything up for the move. They left on September 1, 1830 and were three weeks on the road, camping with their household goods, their kids and their cattle. 

After another three weeks bunking with a friendly family, Bailey had a cabin roughed out in Kendall County. The Hobsons were settled in their new home toward the end of November, but by December, Bailey was already thinking about moving closer to civilization. 

Leaving Clarissa in charge once again, he scoped out the DuPage River and chose a spot for their next cabin. 

1830 was the legendary Winter of Deep Snow which made traveling and cabin-building treacherous. Also, the brand-new farm had no harvest in storage. More than once over the winter, Bailey slogged out to buy provisions and was snowed in by fierce blizzards. Not knowing for weeks if he was alive or dead, Clarissa managed the hungry children, melted snow for drinking water, tore apart a shed for firewood and shoved aside a cow which died of cold on the doorstep.

They settled on the DuPage River in March of 1831, eventually building a saw mill and then a grist mill. They also opened their home as a tavern for the farmers waiting for their grain to be ground. You can still see their mill stones at Pioneer Park on south Washington Street.

Clarissa went on to birth seven more children and continued to run the mill after Bailey died in 1850. Despite her early hardships, Clarissa herself lived to be 84.

Notable Naperville Women - Genevieve Towsley

If you’ve ever walked or driven by the Barnes & Noble Bookstore on the corner of Washington Street and Chicago Avenue, no doubt you’ve seen the bronze statue of Genevieve Towsley sitting near the door. 

Part of the Century Walk public art initiative, the statue shows Genevieve much as she was when she passed away in 1996 at the age of 88. Commemorating her nearly 50 years of writing for Naperville newspapers, she’s holding the familiar notepad and pencil.

Naperville became Genevieve’s “home town” in a round-about way. She was born in Oak Park, but spent many years on an Idaho farm when her family moved there when she was eight.  They returned to Illinois in 1924 so she could attend her chosen college, North Central, at that time still known as Northwestern. 

Genevieve stayed on at North Central College as a teacher until 1932 when she left to raise her family. By 1948 she was writing for The Clarion, a local newspaper. 

One of her former NCC students, Harold White, Jr., bought the Naperville Sun and convinced Genevieve to write for him starting in 1954. She wrote two columns for the Sun over the years:  The Grapevine and Sky-Lines. The Grapevine dealt with local news and issues in the Naperville community. Her column was influential in the desegregation of Centennial Beach and when the Naperville Heritage Society was formed in 1969, she was a charter member. Her writing helped generate interest moving Century Memorial Chapel to the grounds of the Martin Mitchell Mansion, becoming the first addition to Naper Settlement.

Sky-Lines had more of a historical tone. Genevieve re-told local legends, interviewed long-time residents and waded through old books as research. Because of her work, the Sky-Lines articles are a major resource of local history. A selection of columns was gathered up in 1975 under the title A View of Historic Naperville and has been through several printings.

Daughter Dr. Caryl Towsley Moy, a professor, a clinical therapist and many other distinguished things, wrote a book of her own to honor her mother, Genevieve.

When the statue was first installed, Genevieve was wearing her customary glasses, but unfortunately those have disappeared. Still, it’s a pretty faithful depiction of a lovely and smart writer who probably loves sitting outside a bookstore and is happy to share her bench with you.

Naperville 50 Years Ago — The Park District

 

1966 was also the year our Park District was born. Park districts weren’t a novel idea — Chicago launched it’s first incarnations in the 1850’s. While a little rural town didn’t need a park district in the nineteenth century, as Naperville became more suburban, visionaries started considering ways to preserve parkland for the citizens.

Dr. Robert Steunenberg was one of those visionaries. A WWII vet who was marooned for 30 days after his ship LST 808 sank, he later became  a research chemist at Argonne. After initiating studies in 1964, he was instrumental in forming the Park District and also served as commissioner.

A referendum passed in December of 1966 to establish a Naperville Park District, but the first 31 programs weren’t offered until 1968. That first year, 3,000 people participated at a time when Naperville’s population was about 18,000.

In 1967, the Park District purchased it’s first property, the Fraley farm, which later became Springbrook Golf Course. Frank Fraley was a long-time Wheatland Township farmer who passed away that same year. He and his wife Jenny were among those who organized the Naperville Rural Life Progress Club in 1917.

Ernie Nance was our first Director with a newly-minted Masters degree in Park and Recreation Administration and previous experience in the Mundelein Park District. He later moved on to other park districts across the country, winning numerous awards. In his last years, he was Executive Director of the Illinois Conservation, Park and Recreation Foundation.

Dorthea Weigand was the  sole woman on the first Board of Park Commissioners and was re-elected for a second six-year term in 1971. Enthusiastically committed to the Naperville Park District, Weigand has lovely park named after her on south Washington Street near Ring Road.

The Naperville Park District has big plans for their anniversary year from selling wine at the Riverwalk Café to the completion of the Fort Hill Activity Center.

Stretching Our Mind Muscles

"Networking" is huge today in the business world and we're all hustling to keep our families fed.

But "talking shop" gets old quickly and we start to sound one-dimensional.

Knowing a few quirky facts about our state's history makes for a richer conversation. Will knowing history make us better business people? Perhaps not. But it will make us better people in general.

I am now using paper.li to curate and share some of the fascinating articles I've been reading. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do. You can subscribe to my weekly "newspaper"
Brief History - Illinois at paper.li or check in from here.

This week are some interesting stories about Al Capone, Japanese internment camps, War of 1812 batttles in Illinois, an historic black orphanage in Elgin, and Naperville street names. "Extra! Extra! Read all about it" at Brief History - Illinois!

The American Civil War - 150 Years

Throughout 2011 museums will be observing the anniversary of the Civil War. For some history buffs, that means re-evaluating the politics that triggered the rupture of our young country. Others intently analyze the battles as if the campaigns were real-life chessboards. Still others like to compare our everyday experiences with those of our ancestors 150 years ago to see how things have changed and what has stayed the same.

It’s not so very far back when you think about it. Maudie Hopkins, the woman widely thought of as the last Civil War Widow died in 2008, just three years ago. Of course she didn’t experience the War herself, but she spent several years with a man who did.

Illinois has particularly deep Civil War connections, even though no battles were ever fought on our state’s soil. We are of course the Land of Lincoln, the President forever remembered for his efforts at holding our nation together. The politics of Stephen Douglas fanned the fires of War and Ulysses S. Grant led the Union army into War.

Several prisoner of war camps existed in Illinois including Camp Douglas in Chicago, named after Stephen Douglas and considered the largest mass grave in the western hemisphere. Nearly 6000 Confederate soldiers were buried there at one time. Since then, the remains were moved to Lincoln Park and then on to Oak Woods and Rosehill Cemetery.

An Illinois native also claims to have fired the first shot at Gettysburg. Marcellus Jones of Glen Ellyn and later of Wheaton borrowed a gun from his buddy Levi Shafer, a Naperville native, and is supposed to have fired on advancing Confederate troops. He missed and a couple of other soldiers may have also fired around the same time, but Jones ensured his place in history. He, Shafer and a third friend, Alex Riddler, had a stone marker cut in Naperville commemorating their contribution. Then they dragged it all the way to Pennsylvania, purchased a bit of land from a local farmer, and erected their monument which still stands today.

Whether your interest is in battlefields, photography, recipes or fashion, you’ll no doubt find a Civil War exhibit this year that interests you. Visit one or two. This is your history, too.

Stephen Douglas, We Hardly Know Ye

While most folks have heard of the Lincoln-Douglas debates and some are familiar with “The Little Giant” nickname, that’s usually the extant of their knowledge of Stephen Douglas. Particularly from residents of Illinois, however, Douglas deserves a little more attention.

“The Little Giant” moniker refers to his short stature – he was only five foot four – as well as to his standing in political circles where he was well-respected. Douglas served in the Illinois House of Representatives, the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. He was also States’ Attorney, Illinois Secretary of State and an associate justice of the Illinois Supreme Court. Douglas also ran for President against Abraham Lincoln in 1860, but the famous debates actually occurred in 1858 when the two men were both seeking election to the Senate. Douglas didn’t win the Presidential race, but he did win the Senate seat.

Stephen Douglas and the slavery issue are much discussed. He wrote the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 which inflamed the Republican Party and helped polarize the northern and southern states. Douglas wasn’t really pro-slavery, but he wasn’t really anti-slavery either. In fact, he was in possession of slaves inherited from his first wife who owned a cotton plantation.

Douglas bought lots of land in Chicago and intended to make a good profit on it once the railroads started reaching across the Mississippi River. For that to happen, he needed to move along the laws that would open up Kansas and Nebraska to settlement. Illinois, whom Douglas represented in Washington, was a slave-free state and so Douglas was expected to prohibit slavery in the new territories. But he needed the support of southern lawmakers to get the bill passed and they of course wanted to allow slavery.

Trying to fill his role as the ultimate compromiser, Douglas proposed that the residents of those territories be given the right to determine whether they would or would not allow slavery. Besides, he figured the climate was such that southern-style plantations would never take hold in Nebraska and so slaves wouldn’t even be needed, making the whole debate moot.

Douglas’s attempts to compromise backfired and the fall-out became more fuel to the fire that was smoldering between the North and the South. By the time President Lincoln took office 150 years this month, the Confederate States had already declared succession.

He may have lost the Presidency to Lincoln, but Douglas wasn’t about to lose the country. He immediately turned all of his considerable energy toward supporting the new President and reconciliation. Unfortunately, he contracted typhoid fever and died just a few weeks after the Civil War began at the age of 48.

Mormon Beginnings in DuPage and Will Counties

On the twenty-sixth day of November in 1829 Pierce Hawley claimed a portion of Section 30 in Kendall County, Illinois. Since it included a large stand of trees, locals called it Hawley's Grove for a while until Pierce sold his property and it took on the new name of Holderman's Grove. Originally from Vermont, Pierce had a hard time staying put anywhere.

Early Illinois history is peppered with Hawley references. Juliette Kinzie from Chicago tells of staying the night in Hawley's home during a particularly grueling journey. Aaron Hawley, Pierce's brother, was one of the few casualties of the Black Hawk War. Several Hawleys are buried in Naperville, including Pierce's daughter and Joseph Naper's mother.

Stephen Scott was also an early Illinois settler, living on the DuPage River. His son Willard often traveled to Peoria and broke his journey at the Hawley's just as Juliette Kinzie did. While there, he took a shine to Pierce's daughter Caroline and asked to marry her. Father Pierce agreed, but Caroline thought a few hours' courtship was rushing things, so Willard continued on his way.

A couple of weeks later on the return trip, Willard stopped by the Hawley House again and Caroline agreed this time to marry him. They spent their wedding night, as Willard loved to relate, with "the sky for our ceiling -- the stars for our light," under a tree in Plainfield.

Willard and Caroline are both buried in Naperville, the town which they helped grow from its earliest beginnings.

Pierce lived for a time in Naperville as well, becoming a valued member of the Methodist community that Rev. Jesse Walker was developing in his mission to the Potawatomi. But somehow, Pierce heard of Joseph Smith's preaching. As his son later wrote: "Mother at this time felt as though Father had almost committed the unpardonable sin in leaving the Methodist Church and joining the Mormon Church as they was both good Methodist members, but Mother soon got over hurt bad feelings and united with the same church and was one with her husband in faith and doctrine."

Along with other Mormons, the Hawleys (minus Caroline and husband Willard) moved to Missouri, then Iowa and Wisconsin. In the aftermath of religious persecution in Nauvoo and Joseph Smith's subsequent death, many Mormons moved out of Illinois under varying leaders. Brigham Young of course took a group to Utah, but the Hawleys went with Lyman Wight to Texas.

The Texas community flourished for a while. Pierce was chosen to be an elder and his daughter Mary Hawley became one of Wight's plural wives. Eventually Pierce soured on Wight's Mormon Church and along with his wife and married children, he moved to Indian territory in Kansas and then Arkansas, finally coming to rest on August 16, 1858 in Cherokee Nation, Arkansas, where he is buried.

More on the Mormon Story

Local history books from DuPage and Will Counties and even Chicago are great resources to learn more about Pierce and Aaron Hawley, but much of Pierce Hawley's story is also recounted in the book Polygamy on the Pedernales; Lyman Wight's Mormon Villages in Antebellum Texas, 1845 to 1858 by Melvin C. Johnson.

Written around the time that the YFZ (Yearning for Zion) Ranch was in the news, the parallels are obvious. Lyman Wight was a charismatic yet not-mainstream-Mormon leader, much like Warren Jeffs. Wight's religious compound was in Texas, just like Jeffs'. Both men also advocated plural wives and marrying very young girls.

Wight's group collapsed from within due to unrest and disillusionment. About two thirds of Jeffs' group have returned to their Texas compound, although Jeffs himself is serving time in a Utah prison for arranging the marriage of a fourteen-year-old girl. He still faces trial in Texas and the announcement that the Utah Supreme Court will not block extradition hit the newspapers, strangely enough, last week on November 26, which is where this research started!

Farming the Illinois Prairie

Illinois became a state in 1818, and a steady stream of settlers arrived due to land grants from the War of 1812 and the opening of the Erie Canal in New York.

The earliest settlers in northern Illinois came from the New England states. They were used to rocky soil and heavy forests. The prairies of Illinois were viewed with distrust by many.

Sure, the land wasn't nearly as hilly and studded with rocks, but there weren't many trees on it either. Yankee farmers took that to mean the soil was too poor to support trees and would therefore make lousy farmland.

Little did they know that centuries of grasses had enriched the soil, growing tall and falling back to the earth to decompose with the help of plentiful rain and sun. The land was fertile enough, but the thick thatch of grass roots was difficult to slice through with the plows available to early nineteenth century farmers.

Kate's book Ruth by Lake and Prairie tells of how Joseph Naper, born in Vermont, brought a group of settlers to Illinois in 1831. Just a few years later, another Vermont man arrived in Illinois as well. He was a blacksmith by the name of John Deere and he opened up shop about 80 miles west of Naper's Settlement in Grand Detour.

While farmers were busily clearing land, it was tough work to turn over the prairie soil with traditional cast iron plows. Deere tinkered with the shape of the moldboard to turn over the sod more efficiently and used polished cast steel instead of iron to slice through the soil with greater ease.

Deere sold the first "Plow that Broke the Plains" in 1838 to Lewis Crandall, a local farmer, who was so pleased with how it worked, soon every farmer in northern Illinois wanted one. In the next ten years, Deere sold 1000 plows and 10,000 plows in the ten years after that.

Due to a disagreement with his partner, Deere moved his operations to Moline, but you can still visit the John Deere Historic Site in Grand Detour. The site has regular hours during the summer season, but if you call and arrange a tour, you can still visit Mr. Deere's home during the winter as well.

The Oregon Trail in Illinois

While recently reading "Searching for Tamsen Donner" by Gabrielle Burton, Kate learned that two of the families of the doomed Oregon Trail party were from Illinois. James Reed was a businessman from Springfield who operated a general store, sawmill and furniture factory, among other ventures, and George Donner himself was a fellow Springfield citizen.

Googling to see if there were any other Illinois ties to the Oregon Trail, Kate found a rather surprising connection: Oregon Trail Days in Oregon, Illinois.

While Oregon has long been a favorite place to visit, Kate had never heard of Oregon Trail Days, and for good reason. This summer will be its inaugural event.

Prompted by the threat of budget woes closing two nearby state parks, a group of concerned citizens decided to launch the festival as a way to boost awareness of the Oregon area as a tourism destination. While one of Oregon's charms is that it is NOT over-run with tourists, it certainly makes sense to get more people aware of what a treasure the area is and ensure that it remains open to all.

Planned for July 16 through 18, the event will celebrate Oregon's Native American and Western heritage. Activities will include Native American dancing and drumming, a cowboy medicine show and covered wagon rides.

The event's committee says: "We are sure that you and your family will have a rip-roaring, foot stomping, knee slapping, gosh darn good time," and they mean it! You have to go to the Oregon Trail Days web site to see all of the fun and interesting events they have planned.

Illinois Governors Are an Interesting Study

The governor of Illinois writes:

"The internal improvement system, the banks, the great plenty of money, had made every one morally drunk. The failure of all these brought about a sobering process."

The governor who wrote this was speaking of Illinois in 1842, but you know what they say about those who don't learn from history being doomed to repeat it.

Thomas Ford was a one term governor who stepped into office knowing the job was going to be a tough one. Hostility toward Mormons settled in Nauvoo was growing and becoming violent. The state of Illinois was in debt to the tune of $14 million and building. The budget wasn't even close to being balanced and anyone holding currency issued by the state banks basically owned scrap paper.

The I&M Canal project was renewed by Ford and was instrumental in revitalizing the economy and getting the state back on track. It would take forty years, but those crippling debts would eventually be paid off, even with a Civil War interrupting things.

Ford was dying of tuberculosis when he wrote his "A History of Illinois." He hoped the proceeds would support his children after his death. Half of "A History" tells of the four years he served as governor and the other twenty nine years are jammed into the other half, so it's a personal sort of book rather than a impartial review.

You can buy a copy of Governor Ford's "History" on Amazon. An original leather-bound 1854 edition can be had for $1,500, but a new paperback version will only cost you $22.72.

Rod Blagojevich's "The Governor" is a bargain at $16.47, brand-new.

Have You Found a Lincoln Penny Yet?

The last of four re-designs of the Lincoln penny was unveiled last month in Springfield, ending a year-long recognition of the President's 200th birthday.

Last February, the first penny was released featuring a log cabin on the back side. The next one shows Lincoln taking a break from log-splitting to read a book. The third one pictures him standing in front of the Illinois State Capitol building and the coin which debuted last month depicts the United States Capitol with the dome still under construction.

Keep an eye on your change to get a good look at the new Lincoln cents. It's also a great way to get your children and grand-children interested in our state's history. See what you're looking for at The Huffington Post.

Illinois Agricultural History

The Illinois State Museum and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library recently completed a two-year project that culminated in the Audio-Video Barn web site.

Chock-full of stories and histories of rural life in Illinois, the Audio-Video Barn has so much to browse, you could spend months going through it all. Included is more than 300 hours of interviews with people who farmed our area since the 1950's.

The niftiest part of this web site is how you can search it. Instead of having to listen to all 300 hours, you can search for a particular county, time period or topic and just find clips that have to do with your search term.

There are also lesson plans to help bring this information into the classroom, so get your children or grandchildren to tell their teachers about this fascinating web site. They might get extra credit points!