From the 1874 DuPage Atlas – Philip Beckman

In 1853, the Peter and Eleanore Beckman family emigrated from Bavaria with three daughters and four sons. One of the teenaged sons was Philip, who had already been apprenticed in harness-making. Starting on the east coast, Philip worked his way to Chicago and by 1859, he was settled in Naperville with his new bride, Elizabeth Pfeiffer.

Philip was employed at Martin Ward’s harness shop on the corner of Washington Street and what used to be known as Water Street, now an extension of Chicago Avenue. Philip eventually bought out Ward and ran the harness and saddlery for many years, tanning hides and furs, making his own horse collars, and selling manufactured goods such as buggy whips. By 1893, it became obvious that buggy whips were going the way of, well, buggy whips and Philip sold the business. 

Philip tore down Ward’s original frame building and built a two-story brick structure in its place. That building was then taken down during the 1920s and Jimmy’s Grill now operates on the point where his shop once stood. 

During his Naperville years, Philip served as a volunteer fireman, school director, and city road commissioner. He and Elizabeth also owned farmland that they rented out and grew their family to nine children, all of whom were musical. The Beckmans owned both a grand piano as well as a pump organ and everyone enjoyed singing. 

The Beckmans are also credited with installing one of the first telephones in the city, which meant there weren’t many locations to call. The Beckman phone in the harness shop connected to the family home on Loomis Street, with vibrating screens on each side as alerts. The family story is that Philip could yank on the wire at the shop which vibrated at the house so his wife knew he was on his way home for lunch. 

On the Riverwalk where Chicago Avenue dead-ends at Main Street, there is an iron trough-turned-fountain. While the facts are still being debated, it is likely that the horse trough was originally erected by the Beckman family. An advertisement in the 1886 Hollands Business Directory points out that the Beckman harness shop is “Near the Fountain” and the Naperville Area Farm Families History recalls that Philip established a horse trough in the street near his shop for customers and others to water their horses. 

According to Beckman family lore, when Philip passed on in 1910, his children presented the iron trough to the city as a replacement for the original. Once horses no longer strolled through downtown Naperville, the trough was removed, served as a flower planter for a time, and was re-installed as a fountain on the Riverwalk in 1981. Check it out the next time you are strolling along the DuPage River at that plaza! 

From the 1874 DuPage Atlas – Joseph S. Ferry

Joseph Sanford Ferry arrived in DuPage County in 1838 as a nine-year-old when his parents, Sylvanus and Rhoda, moved from New York via Terra Haute. The family lived in Warrenville at first until his father bought his own land. Sylvanus, unfortunately, died not long after. 

When Joseph was sixteen, his uncles helped the family purchase fifty-three acres of farmland. Within a few years, Joseph had sold that farm and bought another more than twice the size. During that time, Joseph married and started a family. Joseph didn’t have access to much education in his youth, but his wife, Sophronia, was a school teacher. In order for the children to attend school, they moved into the city of Aurora a few years later and Joseph sold the farm. 

While the Civil War certainly was an unfortunate influence, Aurora grew rapidly in the mid-1800s, aided by the many factories that were powered by the Fox River. Joseph became a builder and developer while living in the city and “purchased residence property and vacant lots on which he erected several neat dwelling houses.” 

The expansive “farm scene” depicted in the atlas engraving is probably the farm he moved to in 1873 since the atlas was published in 1874. According to a map in the same atlas, Joseph’s acreage was southwest of the town of Naperville. Northwest of Naperville is another plot labeled “M Ferry,” which belonged most likely to Melancthon, Joseph’s brother. Melancthon was married three times and sired a number of children. His family farmed the homestead until the 1970s and inspired the name of Ferry Road. There was also a sister, Louisa, who never married. 

Joseph Ferry only remained on the farm in the engraving until 1890 when he and his wife, Sophronia, moved back into Aurora. Sophronia taught school in DuPage County as well as in Vermont and New York, where she lived before her marriage. Both her great-grandfather, Col. Seth Warner, and her grandfather, Israel Putnam Warner, were Revolutionary War veterans, although Israel was only a nine-year-old messenger and scout during the war. 

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Israel and his wife Esther settled in DuPage County and their daughter, also named Esther, was Sophronia’s mother. In 2008, Israel’s headstone in the Big Woods Cemetery, Warrenville, was rediscovered, restored, and then rededicated in a 2008 ceremony. This was a big deal because, unlike the eastern states, there are very few graves of Revolutionary War veterans in Illinois.

From the 1874 DuPage Atlas – Dr. John A. Bell

Over his long life, (90 years!) Dr. Bell made it his mission to serve.  Born in Ohio in 1838, Bell’s family moved to Abingdon, Illinois when he was about fifteen years old. 

At eighteen, Bell started studying medicine with Dr. Andrew McFarland, Superintendent of the Insane Asylum of Jacksonville, Illinois. During the end of his training, the Civil War broke out and Bell served the 10th Illinois Infantry as Assistant Surgeon during the years 1861 and 1862. 

Also in 1861, Bell married a girl he was courting in Jacksonville, Elizabeth Eagle. Once Bell was released from war duties, the young couple lived in Jacksonville and then in Cambridge before resettling in Naperville in 1868. 

While already practicing medicine, it was during this time that Bell received a medical degree from the Hahnemann Homœopathic Medical College of Chicago. Soon after, he went into partnership with Dr. Charles Nauman, another Hahnemann student, which continued for about ten years, until 1884.

In 1881, Bell and a partner took over a drug store on Jefferson Avenue which had previously been operated by Frank Morse, a druggist, and Dr. Hamilton Daniels. Dr. Daniels house is now one of the featured buildings at Naper Settlement, moved from its former location on Washington Street. Morse has many connections to Naperville’s earliest settlers, including being brother-in-law to Robert Naper, Joseph and Almeda’s son, through his sister, Amelia.

Bell’s partner at the drug store was William Wallace Wickel and the shop was known as Wickel and Bell. Apparently Wickel became the sole owner within a year or two and continued operating the drug store until 1915 when he turned it over to his son-in-law, Louis Oswald, who changed the name of the store. Louis eventually ceded ownership to his own son-in-law, but they kept the name Oswald’s, which is what the pharmacy is still known as today, although it is no longer on Jefferson Avenue. 

In addition to practicing medicine and owning a drug store, Bell also served as a village trustee and alderman. He was president of the Nichols Library board, presiding over its grand opening, and was elected Master of the local Masonic lodge, Euclid, more than once. 

His wife Elizabeth passed away in 1908 after 47 years of marriage and a few years later, at age 73, Bell married a local widow, Ida Lucetta Murray Goodrich. When she passed in 1918, Bell did not remarry again.

There are two known depictions of Dr. Bell’s house. The engraving from the 1874 DuPage Atlas would be the house he and Elizabeth lived in soon after their move to Naperville and around when he received his medical degree. One can imagine that the people playing croquet on the lawn are John and Elizabeth with their daughter Allie May, who would be about twelve at the time and wearing that shorter skirt. Perhaps younger daughter Nettie is playing under the trees where we can’t see her.

There is also a photograph in the 1917 Souvenir of Naperville Homecoming that is labeled “Home of Dr. and Mrs. John A. Bell.” Mrs. Bell in 1917 would be Ida as Elizabeth died in 1908. This house looks very different from the earlier engraving, but one can see enough similarities to wonder if it’s the same house, remodeled. 

Holland’s Business Directory, which was published in 1886, lists Dr. Bell’s address as “n. s. Jefferson ave., east of Main.” The “n. s.” means “north side,” and it seems like quite a few locations are “east of Main” and since they can’t all be on the same corner, there is no indication on how far east they actually are. 

Most doctors practiced out of their homes at the time, so it wouldn’t be unusual to have his home and office at the same address. Dr. Daniels is listed as practicing out of his Washington home as well. 

Poring over old Sanborn Insurance maps, there aren’t very many houses east of Main. The atlas picture makes it look like the house is on a corner, but which corner is difficult to say. The Kendall home, the basement of which houses Quigley’s Irish Pub, is on the corner of Jefferson and Court and has been at the same location since 1845. 

In the photograph, the driveway is in front of the house instead of to the side. Is this then a different piece of property? Or did the land just get re-developed? Some other clues include the 1886 map which shows a house west of Kendall’s that seems to be the right footprint and St. John’s Episcopal Church, of which the Bells were active members, is just down the street.

The search for answers continues!

From the 1874 DuPage Atlas – Daniel Strubler

In 1832, George and Salome Strubler emigrated from Alsace, France to Warren, Pennsylvania with their young son, George Jr.. Two more sons, Philip and Frederick, were born before the Strubler family decided to relocated to Illinois, just a few years after the founding of Naper’s Settlement. Son Daniel was born in Naperville in 1837.  

All four of Strubler boys were in livery-related businesses as horses were still required for every form of transportation, including farming. Until the railroad was built in town, brother Philip drove the stagecoach between Naperville and Winfield. 

 

Daniel was trained as a blacksmith and opened his own shop. Not only did he shoe horses, but he also made and repaired farming equipment and eventually sold wagons and repaired wagons as well. His empire included a series of storefronts along Washington Street, as seen in the atlas engraving. 

 

In 1859, Daniel married Mary Kribill and they shared 53 years together, throwing a big golden wedding anniversary party in 1909. Unfortunately, none of their children lived to adulthood, but he and Mary adopted and reared one of her nieces, Lorena. 

 

The Strubler family was very involved in community activities. Daniel served with the Evangelical church and the local Masonic Lodge and brother Philip was serving as town sheriff the night of Wheaton’s raid on the county courthouse.

 

While Daniel Strubler’s blacksmith and wagon shops have long gone the way of the buggy whip, the family home, which in the engraving is barely visible behind the trees, is still on Washington Street. It has hosted a number of businesses and is currently the location for Karisma Boutique.

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!