DAYTON
One of La Salle County’s Flourishing Manufacturing Centers

Dayton, as some of your readers may not know, is located four miles from Ottawa, on the Fox River branch of the C., B. & Q. R. R. Its most solid attraction is one of the best water powers to be found in the West. The dam that supplies the power is owned and kept in repair by the state, so that lessees of power feel assured that if the dams or locks should ever be impaired by the ravages of time or floods, the damages will be speedily repaired, without tax or expense to them.

The paper mill of Williams & Co., situated at the lower end of the manufacturing portion of the town, is one of the best in the state. Their products are so favorably known that running night and day the year round they are unable to supply the demand.

The Tile and Brick Works of D. Green & Sons are yet in their infancy, yet the perseverance of its proprietors, and the excellence of the material close at hand, is sufficient evidence that the surrounding country can soon be supplied with the very best tile and brick to be found anywhere.

The grist and merchant mill of D. Green & Sons is presided over by Mr. Stover, widely known for many years as one of the best millers in the state,

The Fox River Horse Collar Manufacturing Co. is an incorporated company, composed of a body of modest and unassuming men, their modesty being only equaled by the superior quality of their goods, which are widely known from Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia on the east, to Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri on the west, to be the best in the world. They use about forty tons of rye straw yearly for filling horse-collars, and the hides of about 2,000 head of cattle are required yearly to supply them with leather.

The elegant massive building known as the Dayton Woolen Mill is now owned and run by J. Green & Sons. They are so well known for the excellence of their goods and their honorable dealing that the simple announcement that they are again in business is sufficient to flood them with orders.

Adjoining the town is the splendid grain and stock farm of Isaac Green. Mr. Green makes a specialty of raising Norman and Clydesdale horses and thoroughbred cattle, and can show some of the finest in either class to be found in the state. Among the minor attractions are many fine driving teams, single and double. I would like to give you the names of the owners, but their objections to seeing their names in print forbid it.

And last, though not least, we have the nicest girls, the most dashing beaux and the most enchanting Groves to be found anywhere. Go a fishing and come and see us.

Full Stop¹

1. The Ottawa [IL] Free Trader, July 12, 1879, p. 8, col. 1