Month: October 2017

Dayton’s Exhibit in the La Salle County Centennial

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Family and wagon

One of the exhibits in the 1931 La Salle County centennial parade was a covered wagon, drawn by oxen, that held a group representing the John Green party, arriving in 1829 from their home in Ohio. John and Barbara Green and family were played by their descendants:

John Green was represented by his grandson, Lyle Green
Barbara Green by her great-granddaughter, Mabel Myers
Their daughter Eliza by her great-niece, Ruth Mary Green
Their daughter Nancy by  her great-great-niece, Helen Myers
Their son Jesse by his great-grandson, Lewis Myers
Their son David by his great nephew, Kenneth Green
Their daughter Katherine by her great-great niece, Ruth Van Etten
Their daughter Rachel by her great-great niece, Ann Van Etten
Their son Joseph by his great-great nephew, John Van Etten

Buy Your Drain Tile Here

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Tile works letterhead

Drain Tile. – We have been shown specimens of Drain Tile manufactured by the Green Brothers at the Dayton Tile Works, and if all are like these, and we are assured they are, there are no better tile made in the country. They are made in all sizes from 2 to 8 inches. Sold at Ottawa prices, with 10 per cent. off for cash. For sale at the works in Dayton or at Freeman Wheeler’s on the Chicago road, east of Dayton.

Ottawa Free Trader, September 20, 1879, p. 1, col. 2

110 Years ago today this appeared in the Ottawa Free Trader newspaper

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OLD PIONEER GONE
Resided in County for Seventy-Eight Years
JESSE GREEN GONE TO HIS REWARD
The End Came Peacefully at Ryburn Hospital Saturday Night – Had Been For Years Actively Identified With Life of County

Jesse Green died at six o’clock Saturday night at Ryburn hospital. To the younger generation, and to the newcomers among us, that may not mean much. But to the old residents of the county, it will come as the notice of the close of a long eventful and useful life. As man and boy he had lived in La Salle county for almost eighty years. The notice of his death will be read with regret by a wide circle of friends.

Jesse Green was born in Newark, Ohio, in 1817. With his father, John Green, he came to Dayton in 1829. Father and son were long identified with the growth of the county in many ways. The elder Green built the first mill at Dayton, the first flour being ground there on July 4th, 1830. A sawmill was also run in connection and it furnished the lumber to build the first frame house in Ottawa in 1831.

In 1840 they built the first woolen mill with power looms in the state. This ran very successfully until the close of the war. In the early 70’s they met with a series of reverses, but Jesse Green bought in the property and ran it until 1882, when it was sold to Williams and Hess. They organized a stock company for the manufacture of pressed brick.

In 1849 Jesse Green was one of an adventurous party of about fifty others who made the overland trip to California. After remaining in the west two years he returned to La Salle county to make it his home until his death.

He was married June 22, 1843, to Isabella Trumbo, daughter of Mathias and Rebecca Trumbo. His first wife died December 1, 1854, leaving five children – John B., Rollin T., Newton M., Clara J., and an infant who died soon after her mother. Mr. Green subsequently married Hannah Rhoades, a native of Brownsville, Pa. From this second marriage, nine children were born – Thomas H., Joseph, James A., Cora R., Sarah (deceased), Frank, Jesse A. (deceased), John K. and Mabel (deceased). In politics Mr. Green was a Democrat. He was a Universalist in religious faith. He has served three years and supervisor, two terms as justice of the peace, and about six years as postmaster at Dayton.

The children now surviving are Newton M., of Serena; Mrs. C. B. Hess, of this city; Thomas H., Frank, and J. Kent, of Chicago; Joseph, of Coffeyville, Kansas; James A., of Grand Junction, Col.

The funeral will be held from the C. B. Hess residence Monday afternoon at 2 o’clock. Interment in the Dayton cemetery.1

  1. The Ottawa [Illinois] Free Trader, 11 October 1907, p 5, col 3

First winter

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The winter of 1829-1830, when the Green party had just arrived in Illinois, was a difficult one. Even though John Green had arranged with William Clark to plant a crop of winter wheat, they had no mill to grind it into flour. Small amounts could be ground by hand, in a coffee grinder, but this was tedious and time consuming. Jesse Green recounted in his memoir one way they tried to deal with the problem.

Soon after our arrival here father sent a team down to a mill in Tazewell County for flour and got what was supposed to be sufficient to last until we could grind some of our own wheat, but he did not take into consideration our increased appetites, which we thought had nearly doubled. Then Uncle Samuel Grove and I took a grist of frostbitten corn to Mr. Covil’s ox-mill below Ottawa on the south side of the river. We were ferried across the Illinois River just above the mouth of the Fox, by two daughters of Dr. David Walker who ran the ferry in the absence of their father. We followed an Indian trail, not a wagon track was visible. Probably owing to the fact that our corn had been caught by an early frost before reaching maturity, we did not succeed very well in grinding it in the Ox-mill, and we returned home with a good portion of our grist unground. Some time later we took another grist up to Mission Point where Rev. Jesse Walker had a similar mill in connection with his mission and school for the civilization and education of the rising generation of our Indian friends and neighbors, but his mill did not prove to be any more successful in grinding our soft corn than Mr. Covil’s mill.

They must have been very relieved when their own mill was built the following spring.

The mill  illustrated above is the type of the Dayton mill, but in Illinois the mill was built of wood, not of stone.