Month: December 2019

Christmas in Dayton – 1881

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Christmas greetings

Rural Happenings
From Dayton

Dayton, Dec. 28, 1881. – Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all your readers!

Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Brown, of Chicago, spent Christmas in Ottawa, and on Monday visited relatives in Dayton.

Mr. McGrew closed his school last week. Mr. N. Clawson took charge yesterday.

Mr. James Green is “teaching young ideas how to shoot” at the McMichael school, east of Wedron, this winter.

Every one is going around these days with a sore arm, the result of vaccination. “Ouch, don’t you touch my arm.”

Mr. and Mrs. John Gibson, of Rutland, attended the Christmas exercises and spent Christmas in Dayton.

Mr. Will Davis’s Santa Claus costume was the finest ever in Dayton. It was from Mrs. Hentrich, Ottawa’s popular costumer. It made Will appear like the old Nick in the story books.

Mr. O. W. Trumbo and Miss Jessie are visiting friends in Iowa.

A private Christmas tree was held at Mr. Chas. Burch’s Saturday evening.

Rev. E. C. Arnold, of Ottawa, delivered a sermon at the school house last Tuesday evening.

Mr. T. R. Brunk, of Ransom, will deliver a lecture in Dayton next Saturday evening. All are invited to attend.

Mr. David Dunavan, of Newark, and the Misses Dunavan, of Rutland, were visiting in town this week.

Miss Jennie Dunavan, of the Ottawa High School, is spending her vacation at home.

The Union Christmas tree and entertainment at the school house last Saturday evening were a complete success. The house was filled with children and people of all ages, every one of whom was kindly remembered by the good old Saint Nick. The exercises were opened by the beautiful anthem “The Prince of Peace” by the choir, after which Mr. Basil Green made a very appropriate prayer. “While shepherds watched their flocks by night,” a pretty carol was sung in good time and taste by the children; Mr. Clarence Griggs, of Ottawa, then followed with an appropriate address which was listened to attentively by the audience. Mr. Griggs is a bright and promising young attorney, and has formed many acquaintances here who think he is destined to make his mark in the world. “From our Merry Swiss home,” a duet, was sung in a delightful manner by Misses Myrtle Stadden and Mary Barnes, and was applauded by the audience; “The Legend of St. Fredo,” a recitation by Carrie Green, and “Gathering Sheaves,” by Lizzie Bogard, were spoken with good effect; “Christmas day,” a semi-duet and chorus, was sung with considerable taste by Misses Myrtle Stadden, Carrie Green, Gertie Grow, and Lona Root; “Old Christmas,” a recitation, by Miss Maude Green, and “The Fortune-teller,” by Miss Mary Barnes, assisted by little Grace and Kent Green, were rendered very tastefully; Santa Claus (Mr. Will S. Davis) was then introduced to the children in a neat little speech by Eddie Hess, and was enthusiastically received. Then the distribution of presents began. How the little hearts throbbed with delight as the good Santa called their names and delivered to each a pretty present. Nearly an hour passed before old Nick fulfilled his mission. Then every heart having been made joyous at this celebration of our Saviour’s birth, the exercises drew to a close. Before dispersing the audience gave a vote of thanks to Mr. Griggs for his kindness in delivering the address. The occasion will long be remembered as one of the most pleasant entertainments our little town has ever enjoyed.1

Occasional

  1. The Free Trader, December 31, 1881, p. 8, col. 1

Dayton Centennial – Part 2

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continued from the Ottawa Republican-Times, September 16, 1929

FOSTER BLAMES TARIFF

“Long ago though they lived, riff raff of Europe though they have been proved to be, the first pioneers of America are worthy of our emulation,” was the message brought by W. R. Foster, county superintendent of schools to the big crowd gathered about the speakers stand.

“I doubt whether we of the present day posses that fearless determination which inspired the Shavers, the Greens, the Brumbachs, the McKees and their followers to their long travail across country, under the most adverse conditions, from Licking county, Ohio, to Dayton and Rutland in the fall of 1829,” Foster stated.

Family and wagon

“They were the first settlers of this rich section of Northern Illinois, descendants of those outcasts of European nations who were driven to the shores of this country a hundred years before.

“They taught me the ‘three r’s’ when I went to school as a boy. Think how infinitely more important than those pedagogic classifications of simple knowledge was the mastery over the three r’s of resolution, resource and reverence possessed by those early pioneers.”

Explanation for the failure of rich woolen mills which at one time bade fair to make Dayton one of the most important communities of the state was given by Foster who decried in emphatic terms the manipulation of the wool tariff by politicians at Washington which led to the crash of Dayton industry.

“The first flour mill in Northern Illinois had been constructed by the Dayton and Rutland pioneers in 1830,” he stated, “and on July 4, 1830, the first wheat was ground and made into flour for bread eaten at their independence day dinner. By 1840 their woolen mill was well established and in 1860 a 100,000 project was doing business down here on the banks of the Fox river.

“I have always regretted one of the old-time Dayton settlers could not have come to life at that time, could not have taken his ancient shotgun to Washington and have laid down the law to those scheming politicians. Because with $65,000 worth of wool on their hands, purchased at $1 per pound, owners of the Dayton woolen mill saw their dreams snatched from them and the bottom knocked out from under them when manipulation of the tariff sent the price of wool tumbling to 40 cents a pound.

“That forever shattered Dayton’s golden opportunity, forever doomed this little town to relative unimportance in the scheme of industry. All that is left now is the memory of what was and what might have been.”

[to be continued]

Dayton Centennial – Part 1

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from the Ottawa Republican-Times, September 16, 1929

Dayton and Rutland Townships Dedicate Marker and Celebrate Centennial of Settlers Arrival

            Old-time residents of Dayton and Rutland who have gone out to find a niche elsewhere, practically the entire present population and representatives of most La Salle county towns were at Dayton Saturday afternoon and night for a celebration commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of these communities.

A program of platform speaking, songs by the assembled school children of both communities, dedication of a marker on the spot where the mill-stones were found which were used in grinding the first wheat flour made in northern Illinois, and addresses by W. R. Foster, county superintendent of schools, and Kent Greene, former Daytonite and now a Chicago legal light, featured the day’s festivities.

Thomas O’Meara, Ottawa attorney, who was reared in Dayton, was master of ceremonies in the afternoon, when crowds gathered to hear addresses dealing with the significance of the origin of Dayton and Rutland. He was introduced by a member of the committee which evolved the celebration.

Relics which accumulated through the years provided a point of interest for visitors. All former and present residents were tagged with their names and addresses, facilitating renewal of old acquaintanceships.

Of particular interest in the celebration was the unveiling of a stone marker commemorating the vicinity where John Green, one of the village founders, and his party built their flour mill. A boulder set in a cement base, identified by a bronze plate inscribed with the story of the discovery, was veiled by a historical blanket woven in Dayton’s own woolen mill in 1860.

The blanket, now in the possession of Miss Catherine E. Rhoads of Ottawa, was bought by Thomas Rhoads, her father, at the mill and has been in the possession of the Rhoads family ever since. It is one of the few remaining tokens of the woolen mill which once apparently had Dayton headed on the road to industrial importance.

Blanket from Dayton Woolen Factory

Another example of the Dayton Woolen Mill blankets – this one from the Green family.

The dedication address was by J. Kent Greene of Chicago, a descendant of the John Green whose industry resulted in the flour mill.

He traced the events leading up to the founding of the mill, beginning with the first trip to the then new state of Illinois in 1829, when four pioneers, led by John Green, came to Dayton from Licking county, Ohio, on September 14, 1829.

They returned with their families on the 6th of December, 1829, and, despite the impending rigors of winter, established their colony by erecting shelters and clearing 240 acres of land before spring. Their saw and grist mill was put in operation on July 4, 1830, and the village of Dayton had been officially founded.

A vigorous folk, they with stood the menace of the Blackhawk Indian war, and not only stood their ground themselves but attracted other Ohio pioneers who populated Dayton and Rutland.

[to be continued]

An Ottawa Tombstone in Colorado

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The following article appeared in the Ottawa Daily Times. 7 Jun 1978, p.28

Story of Basil Green and his family begins in LaSalle County
By Joan Hustis

Dorothy Masters of suburban Chicago is a distant relative of Basil Green, the man who buried three children in Central City, Colo., in 1869.

Green died in 1911 and is buried in the family cemetery in Dayton. Although he has no direct descendants in this area, there are still several distant cousins who live in and near Ottawa.

Elmer Williams of Ottawa came across the tombstone earlier this spring when visiting near Central City. Elmer could find nothing on the Green family, but he took several photographs of the tombstone and loaned them to this column for reprint. The tombstone was engraved “Johnnie, Kittie and Charlie. 1869. Basil Green, Ottawa, Ill.”

Miss Masters is the Green family historian. She was in Dayton over the Memorial Day weekend, visiting with her cousin, Grace Clifford, and read the article on the Central City tombstone. She has old family diaries and also a narrative written by Basil Green in 1910, a year before he died. She loaned the narrative for reprint.

Basil Green was born in 1830 in Licking County, Ohio, and was married in Crawford County, Ill., in 1859. He may have been a freight hauler or a wagon master for he made several trips to California and back during the days of the gold rush. He lost a leg, something Miss Masters called a traumatic experience, but no mention of the incident is made in his narrative.

On one of his trips west Basil Green lost two of his children, but the narrative says nothing of their ages or why they died. He came back to Dayton later and placed an order with a Central City firm to lay a tombstone on the grave.

Miss Masters said Charles and Catherine, the “Charlie” and “Kittie” on the tombstone were Basil Green’s children. The “Johnnie” was not his child. This child was apparently buried with the Green children, but no mention is made in the narrative as to the reason why nor is the other child identified by any other than the first name on the tombstone.

Basil Green had three children when he was in Colorado. The third one survived. When Green returned to Dayton, he became the father of six more children, according to Miss Masters.

Green’s narrative is eight typewritten pages, all single spaced. Portions of this narrative are as follows through the courtesy of Miss Masters.

[The compete narrative may be found here.]