Barbara Grove Green was born November 15, 1792, in Rockingham County, Virginia. She was my great-great grandmother and by the time she died, she was regarded as the grandmother of a large area of the county. Here’s what was said about her in the Free Trader on May 22, 1886:

From Dayton
Barbara Grove Green

            Died May 5^th, 1886, at the age of ninety three years, five and a half months. She had been confined to bed for about two months, and gradually and gladly passed away like an infant going to sleep. It was her desire to cast off this earthly tabernacle and be present with her Lord.

She retained her faculties to the last, with the exception of her sight, of which she had been deprived for the past seven or eight years. She was never heard to murmur or complain of her misfortune, but on the contrary seemed cheerful and happy.

She was born in Shenandoah county, Virginia, November 15^th, 1792. At the age of thirteen she, with her parents, removed to Licking county, Ohio, being in the year 1805, and lived there until the fall of 1829, when she and her companion, John Green and family, removed to this county. A few incidents of their journey will show the hardships and privations of those early pioneer days. We quote her own words from statements made by her to one of her grand daughters, who has recorded them:

“We started from Licking county, Ohio, on the first of November, 1829, for the state of Illinois. There were 24 in the company. Father had gone to Illinois the September before we started and bought land. He and three other men rode on horseback around by Cleveland and along the lakes. When they reached Chicago, where there were only two families besides the garrison, father bought some provisions and in paying for them pulled out quite a roll of bills. That night his brother, Wm. Green, dreamed there were robbers coming and woke the others up, but they refused to start out in the night just for a dream, and he went to sleep again only to dream the same thing again, and when he had dreamed it three times he told them they could stay there if they wanted to, he was going to leave; so they all started and soon after they saw three men following for the purpose of stealing they [sic] money.

“When we reached the ‘Wilderness,’ in Indiana, a man who lived on the edge of the woods told us it was impossible to go on, as the mud was so deep, unless we could travel on the wagons already stuck in the mud; but if we were foolish enough to try it, we must leave ‘those two smart little boys’ (Jesse and David), for we would surely freeze to death. But we did go on and the men cut a new road through the woods for sixty miles, about ten miles a day.

“The, when we got to Cicero river, we had to take the wagons over with bed cords. One wagon, loaded with mill irons and blacksmith tools, was so heavy it tipped over, and we lost a good many things.

“Then the next place we came to was Sugar creek, and it was so high we had to pull the wagons over with ropes again and cut trees for us to walk on. Then there was a swamp next to the creek that the men had to carry the women over on their backs. Between Iroquois and Nettle creek there were five days the horses had nothing to eat, as the prairie was burnt, and they became so weak they got stuck in a ravine and could hardly pull the empty carriage out.

“One evening we had only bread and tea for supper, but that night father came back with corn and beef that he had obtained at Holderman’s Grove, and we were the happiest people you ever saw. We spent the next night at the Grove and the next day home, at what is known as William Dunavan’s farm.”

She lived in the town of Rutland something over a year when she removed to Dayton, being at this place at the time of the Black Hawk war in 1832. Of this war she says: “On the 16^th of May, 1832, the girls and I were at the spring, near where the feeder bridge now stands, when Eliza came down on horseback and told us that the Indians were coming, and we would have to go to Ottawa immediately. Then we went to a place a couple of miles below Ottawa and stayed there all night, and the third day returned home again. This was Sunday, and the next day the men made a stockade around the house out of plank. After it was finished they tried it to see if a bullet would go through it, and as it did, they hung feather beds all around. There were about sixty people here at the time, and we were so crowded that they had to sleep on tables, under the beds and all over the house.”

Mr. Green had intended to remain in his improvised fort during the war, but at about twelve o’clock at night, hearing of the massacre on Indian creek, and fearing there might be too many Indians, all those in the fort went to Ottawa. “When we got to Ottawa, there was no fort there, only a log cabin on the south side of the river, but they soon built a fort on top of the hill. We went to the fort, but there was so much confusion there that we had the log house moved up on the hill and lived in it. The next day a company of soldiers from the southern part of the state passed through Ottawa on the way up the river.”

Grandma Green bore all the hardships and privations incident to the settlement of two new countries and lived to see the development of this vast prairie country far, very far beyond her anticipations. When she came here she supposed that in time she might see the country settled around the skirts of timber, but never in her early days did she anticipate seeing the prairies settled up.

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 4^th, 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

When Albert Charlier died in Ottawa on June 5th, 1945, his obituary, reporting his burial in the Dayton cemetery, said only that “the deceased, of whom little is known, lived in a cottage near Dayton.” He has no tombstone in the cemetery. He never married. Nonetheless, it is possible to reconstruct the outline of his life and make his history known at last.

Albert was born in Fréconrupt, La Broque, Alsace, on September 26, 1879, the son of Jean Baptiste and Marie Claire (Charlier) Charlier. The Catholic Charlier family had lived in Fréconrupt for hundreds of years.

When Albert was about 15, an older friend, Josef Beller, decided to go to America. He must have written home with good news about his prospects, because at age 25 Albert also decided to emigrate.

He left Antwerp on March 18, 1905, on the S S Kroonland [photo above] where he traveled in steerage. He arrived in New York City on March 28. He was 25 years, six months old, single, a laborer, and able to read and write. He paid his own passage and had $44 with him. He had been living in Rothau, in Alsace, which had recently changed from being part of France to belonging to Germany, so he was listed on the manifest as German, although actually Albert was French. He said his final destination was Dayton, Ill, where he was going to join his friend Josef Beller.

Apparently he found work in Dayton, as in 1908 he was able to buy lots 6 and 7 in block 13 of the original town of Dayton from Elizabeth Benoit for $175.

In 1910 he was living in Dayton working at odd jobs. He owned his house and had filed his first papers for naturalization.

In 1918, when he registered for the draft, he was a mine worker for the Dayton Clay works. He was of medium height and weight, with brown hair and eyes.

In 1920, he was living in his own home in Dayton and working as a railroad section laborer. He had not yet become a citizen.

In 1921 he sold his house and lots in Dayton to John Garcia for $450. He went back to France, probably to see how his family had fared during the war.

In 1923 he returned from Europe on the S S La Lorraine, sailing from Le Havre on April 16. His nearest relative in France was his father, Mr. Charlier in Schirmeck, Alsace. He was bound for Dayton, Illinois. He was going to join a friend, Mrs. Klari Hess Green in Dayton, Illinois. This is most likely Clara Green Hess, daughter of Jesse Green and wife of C. B. Hess.

On January 14, 1938 he went to the circuit court in Ottawa and became a naturalized citizen.

In April 1940 he had been out of work for 6 months . He had worked for 6 weeks in 1939 at the power plant in Dayton for a total of $100.

By 1942, when he registered for the WWII draft, he was again employed at the Dayton power plant. He listed Lindo Corso of Dayton as someone who would always know his address.

He died of stomach cancer June 5th, 1945, in the hospital in Ottawa, and was buried in the Dayton cemetery on June 7th.

Unknown at his death, he is unknown no longer.

Naomi Trent
March 2, 1902 – January 15, 1974

 Mrs. Trent was born March 2, 1902, in Norcatur, Kansas, to Charles and Mary Patanoe Pool. On Jan. 21, 1921, she married James Trent, who preceded her in death in 1963.

She was a retired school teacher and former principal of the Dayton School. She also taught at Central School. She was a member of the Ottawa and Dayton Women’s Club, the Retired Teacher’s Association, and World War I Woman’s Auxiliary.

Survivors include two daughters, Mrs. George (Dorothy) Haas of Morris and Mrs. George (Maxine) Heide of Lagos, Nig.; one son, James of Melrose Park; a brother, Clifford Pool of Clearlake Highland, Calif.; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents and her husband.¹

Mrs. Trent ruled over the upstairs room of the Dayton school, which held grades five through eight. In addition to her teaching duties, she was involved in many school activities, not the least of which was presiding at the annual Christmas pageant at the clubhouse.

When I was in Mrs. Trent’s room, there were around twenty students in the four grades. After listening to the other classes recite their lessons, by the time we reached eighth grade, we had heard them all several times over. Luckily Mrs. Trent realized this and the eighth graders, once their lessons were prepared, could work on a large jigsaw puzzle spread out on a table at the back of the room. We never did manage to complete it, as I recall.

1. From her obituary in The Daily Times [Ottawa, Illinois] Jan 16, 1974, p. 10