Coal mining in Dayton

August 24, 2016August 22, 2016Candace W Leave a comment

Did you know they used to mine coal in Dayton? All quotes from the Ottawa Free Trader.

February 2, 1867
Coal at Dayton, – Messrs. Grove, Stadden & Co. have opened a 2½ foot vein of splendid coal directly under the village of Dayton. The coal is obtained by drifting*, and lying many feet below the surface, is, like all deep coal found in this vicinity, much superior to coal obtained by stripping. Their drift is located a few rods below Green’s Mill, where they are prepared to sell to all customers that may apply, at prices as low as at any other bed in this region.

Dayton, May 8, 1879.
Messrs. Zearing & Row, and Basil Green will finish at the culvert this week or next. Two large coal beds have been opened on Mr. Green’s land, enough coal to supply the town for some time.

December 10, 1887
Considerable coal is being mined here this winter.

* A drift mine is an underground mine in which the entry is horizontal into the ore seam, usually on the slope of a hill.

Warner, Wolfe, Tanner, and Luce

August 17, 2016February 11, 2017Candace W Leave a comment

With no surnames in common, it might be hard to realize that the Warner, Wolfe, Tanner, and Luce families in the Dayton cemetery are related, but they represent a couple and their three married daughters.

Joel Foster “Faut” Warner was born June 14, 1831, in Syracuse, New York. On July 3, 1856, he married Mary Ann Inman in New Buffalo, Michigan. She was born January 15, 1839, in Butler County, Pennsylvania. Joel served in the Civil War from Michigan in Company F, 25th Michigan Infantry. He was wounded at the battle of Pumpkin Vine Creek. After his discharge in 1865, he returned home and moved to Kendall County, Illinois, where he farmed. In 1877, he fell under a train and his left leg had to be amputated four inches below the knee. Following this accident, he gave up farming and supported himself with various jobs. In 1882 he moved to Dayton, where he was able to work as a fisherman. He died September 26, 1911 and was buried in the Dayton cemetery. Mary lived with her daughter Ada in Ottawa until her death on January 20, 1918. She too was buried at Dayton.

Ida and Ada, twin daughters, were born October 1, 1857, in Michigan. Ida married Alvin Tanner December 23, 1880, in Kane County, Illinois. They also moved to Dayton before 1900 and lived there for the rest of their lives. Alvin died on December 29, 1927 and Ida on June 18, 1930. Both are buried in the Dayton cemetery.

Twin sister Ada married George Wolfe June 19, 1883 in Kendall County, Illinois. They also moved to the Dayton area, settling across the river in Rutland township. George died January 5, 1909 in Ottawa and was buried at Dayton. No record has been found of Ada’s death but presumably she is buried with her husband.

Daughter Edith Warner was born May 22, 1860 in Three Oaks, Michigan. She married Edgar H. Luce, a farmer, on September 24, 1881 in Kendall County, Illinois. Edgar died November 23, 1899 and was buried at Dayton. After his death Edith moved to Ottawa, where she died on April 14, 1937 and was also buried in the Dayton cemetery.

Get the Latest Plough Here

August 10, 2016August 8, 2016Candace W Leave a comment

PLOUGH FACTORY

Jacobs & Co. would inform the Farming Public that they are manufacturing at Dayton several kinds of Ploughs, which have been heretofore approved, to which they invite the attention of those wishing to buy. These ploughshares – made of the best material, and warranted to be perfect in every respect – They are also manufacturing the improved revolving Colter, which is acknowledged to be far superior to the common straight ones. Call and examine for yourselves. Old ploughs will be repaired to order on reasonable terms.¹

The Ottawa [IL] Republican, April 29, 1854, p. 4, col. 4

Elizabeth Trumbo’s Will

August 3, 2016August 2, 2016Candace W Leave a comment

Elizabeth Trumbo house

Will of Elizabeth Trumbo, Deceased

I, Elizabeth Trumbo of the Town of Dayton in the County of La Salle and State of Illinois, being of sound and disposing mind memory and understanding, do make publish and declare this to be my last will and Testament hereby revoking and making Void, all former Wills and testaments by me heretofore made. It is my will, First that my funeral charges and debts shall be paid by my Executor Oliver W. Trumbo, my son whom I do nominate and appoint to be the sole Executor of this my Last Will and testament. In the Second place, what property remains after the payments of my just debts, and funeral charges and the Expenses attending the Execution of this my last Will, and the Administration of my Estate, I wish to dispose of in the following named manner, to wit; Third I give devise and bequeath to my daughter Mary Jane, wife of Isaac Green of La Salle County in the State of Illinois the sum of Two Thousand dollars, Also all that tract or parcel of land designated as Block one in Green’s Addition to the Village of Dayton, in La Salle County Illinois together with the house, and other improvements, and the household furniture, Beds bedding, and all the hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto belonging, or in anywise appertaining, to have and to hold the premises above described to the said Mary Jane Green of La Salle County Illinois, and to her heirs and assigns forever, Fourth, I give and bequeath unto my Grand son Walter Trumbo, Son of John Trumbo dec^d the sum of Eight Hundred dollars, when he shall arrive at the age of Twenty-one years But if he shall not live to become twenty-one years of age, then at his death, the said sum of Eight Hundred dollars Shall come back to my children, Fifth I give to my daughter-in-law Delia wife of Ahab Christopher Trumbo dec^dthe sum of one dollar.

Sixth I give and bequeath unto my daughter-in-law Rebecca G. Trumbo, wife of Oliver W. Trumbo, of Dayton La Salle County Illinois the sum of Eight hundred dollars, also one Horse, One Spring Wagon together with any surplus in money or personal property that may be left after satisfying the above and foregoing Will. Seventh, All of my other heirs not mentioned in this will have heretofore been provided for.

In witness whereof I the said Elizabeth Trumbo have hereunto Subscribed my name and affixed my seal this Eighth day of April A. D. one thousand eight hundred and Seventy three¹

The house shown above , the one referenced in the third clause in the will, is also the place where Mary Jane Trumbo and Isaac Green were married. It is located at the top of the hill, on the south side of the road which leads down to the new bridge across the Fox river. The house is still relatively unchanged.

Elizabeth Trumbo probate file, 1873, file T48, La Salle County Genealogy Guild, 115 W. Glover, Ottawa, IL.

Miss Fraine Retires

July 20, 2016July 8, 2016Candace W 2 Comments

Retiring After 50 Years, Teacher Will Be Honored

Miss Emma C. Fraine of Dayton, a teacher for 50 continuous years in the rural schools of La Salle County, will terminate her teaching career at the end of the current school year.

To commemorate the occasion, residents of Dayton and the surrounding communities, her numerous friends and former students will honor her at a tea to be held Sunday from 2 to 5 in the Dayton Clubhouse. Miss Fraine is now a teacher at the Dayton school.

This well known teacher has spent her entire lifetime in the Dayton community and was born in the house in which she is residing. Her parents were early settlers, coming here from the village of Alsace, France, about the year 1875. She attended the elementary schools and the high school which was then taught in Dayton.

In 1902 Miss Fraine embarked on her teaching career which was to carry her over the span of a half century and many changes in the educational field. She first taught in a rural school north of Earlville, later going to Waltham Township to teach. She then taught in the Kleiber School northeast of Ottawa and in Grand Ridge. During the years she was busy furthering her own education and taking summer courses at DeKalb.

In the year 1907 she was assigned to teach the primary grades in the two-room Dayton school and has continued in that capacity ever since – a total of 45 years.

During those 45 years there have been nine teachers in the other room of the school. Miss Fraine’s co-workers included Ethel Wright, her sister, Jennie Fraine (now deceased), Francis Stangeland, Clark Raber, Verne Thompson, Mildred Masters Summins, Mrs. Geneva Beard, Delores Gretencord and the present teacher, Mrs. Naomi Trent.

Sunday’s tea is being planned by a large committee headed by Mrs. R. P. Schmidt and including all persons of the community which Miss Fraine has served so long. Her hundreds of friends, acquaintances, former pupils and their families will attend.

The chief entertainment of the afternoon for the one-time pupils of the Dayton School will be trying to identify themselves in the scores of pictures Miss Fraine has taken through the years and which will be on display in the clubhouse. The school house, too, will be open for those who wish to show their children or grandchildren where they were taught to read and learned the Golden Rule.¹

from an unidentified newspaper clipping, probably the Ottawa Republican-Times, in the spring of 1952

The Meat Cleaver Bandits

July 13, 2016June 23, 2016Candace W 2 Comments

The Dayton store/post office/gas station

from the January 26, 1922 Free-Trader Journal

DAYTON P. O. ROBBED BY MEAT CLEAVER BANDITS; GET $7.25

Thieves Use Butcher’s “Weapon” to Break Open Strong Box Containing
Funds Belonging to Uncle Sam and Store Keeper

Running a risk of facing a term in the federal prison to secure a few dollars of government money, thieves last night robbed the Dayton postoffice, making way with $5.25 in postal funds and $2 in pennies from the W. B. Fleming grocery store. The robbery is believed to have been pulled by the rankest kind of amateurs, so kiddish did the traces left behind by the robbers seem.

The postoffice which is located in one corner of the Fleming grocery store, was closed shortly before 9 o’clock last night. This morning at 7 o’clock Mr. Fleming opened his place of business and built a fire before he discovered that the place had been burglarized.

A small safe, which is more in the nature of a strong box, twelve by twenty-four inches in dimensions, which held the postoffice funds, had been smashed open by a meat cleaver, which was taken from the butcher shop. The supply of stamps was passed over, the robbers evidently searching only for cash. The money from the store was taken from a cash drawer and from a dish in the candy counter.

The meat cleaver was found where it had been hidden by the robbers, after the theft in the coal pile, in the basement.

Entrance to the building was gained by breaking out a basement window. The robbers then went upstairs by an inside stairway. They worked with the door, until they succeeded in getting the wooden bar lock that fastened it from the arm that held it.

A trail of burnt matches which were strewn on the floor around the room, showed that the burglars had taken their time in making the search. The robbers were evidently of a hungry frame of mind, for they stopped long enough to have a lunch, opening a can of peaches, and scattering crackers all around the cracker box, Some bars of candy are also believed to have been devoured by the hungry boys or men.

The candy and cigarette case was evidently overlooked for it is not believed to have been touched.

The thieves left the building by a side door which they unlocked from the inside of the building. The door was carefully closed after the robbers and it was not until a careful investigation was made that it was learned that the exit had been made that way.

Deputy Sheriff Fred E. Stedman went to Dayton this morning to make an investigation.¹

Ottawa Free Trader-Journal, January 26, 1922, p 1, col 2

Bridging the Fox

July 6, 2016June 20, 2016Candace W Leave a comment

In 1837, John Green and William Stadden, who owned the land on either side of the Fox river at Dayton, were granted permission from the state to build a toll bridge. They had to complete the bridge within 5 years and could place a toll gate at either end to collect a toll, the amount of which was set by the county commissioners’ court.

By 1854, the bridge needed replacement and a subscription was taken up to build a free bridge. The toll was dropped to encourage those living on the east side of the river to patronize the businesses in Dayton.

In 1857, there was a severe ice jam in the Fox River between Dayton and Ottawa and the free bridge at Dayton was carried away. Jesse and David Green took on the job of rebuilding and in December of that year, the following announcement appeared in the Ottawa paper:

Free Bridge

The free bridge across Fox River at Dayton is now completed, and persons living on the east side will again have the privilege of patronizing our new Grist and Flouring Mill, which is capable of grinding from 50 to 60 bushels per hour. As the undersigned have expended their means very liberally in erecting such a Mill and Bridge as the growing wants of the country require, they hope to receive a liberal share of public patronage. Persons coming from a distance will find good warm stabling in connection with the above Mill, free of charge, and their public house has passed into other hands, and bids fair to do justice to the inner man at reasonable rates. Please give us a call. J. & D. Green¹

In 1875, the bridge washed out again and for the next ten years, there was only a precarious ford to cross the river. The county agreed to pay one-half of the cost of a new bridge, leaving Dayton and Rutland to pay one-fourth each. In 1885, although Dayton was ready to pay their share, Rutland opposed the bridge, because they had recently been taxed for a bridge at Marseilles. Dayton offered to pay part of Rutland’s share, but it was some time before the bridge proposal was passed by the Rutland voters. The bridge was not finished until April 1887, and lasted until it collapsed in 1940.

The Ottawa [Illinois] Free Trader, December 12, 1857, p. 3, col. 6

The Bran Duster

June 29, 2016June 20, 2016Candace W Leave a comment

Drawing of Bran Duster from patent application

No one could accuse David Green of not being up-to-date. Left in charge of the Green businesses in Dayton while his father and brother went to California to seek gold, he refurbished the grist mill and installed a newly invented piece of machinery. In February of 1849, Frost & Monroe, a Michigan company, got a patent for a machine called a Bran Duster. By November of that year, one of these newfangled machines was installed in the mill at Dayton, as reported to the Prairie Farmer by one of its correspondents:

At Ottawa, on my return, I saw a machine, called a Bran Duster, patented by Messrs. Frost & Monroe, for the purpose of taking the flour out of bran after the latter has passed through the mill. It is said to gather five barrels of flour from the bran of a hundred. One is put up at Dayton, La Salle county. The cost I did not learn.¹

Prairie Farmer, November 1, 1849, p 22

A Summer Crime Wave

June 22, 2016June 19, 2016Candace W Leave a comment

1885 was not a good year for the Dayton Horse Collar Factory. As you will see, there were no less than THREE attempts to rob the safe that summer.

The first try:

A. F. Dunavan, of the Dayton Collar Factory, was in the Free Trader office last Thursday morning and stated that an attempt had been made the night previous to blow open his safe. Powder was placed in the keyhole and fuse was found on the floor, but the burglar or burglars left, finding the attempt unsuccessful. Krouse, the gunsmith, went up and opened the lock of the safe, which had been so damaged that it could not be opened.¹

Later in the summer, two more attempts were made:

Wednesday night of last week burglars broke into the safe of A. F. Dunavan & Son, of Dayton, the celebrated horse collar men. The safe was blown open with powder, but the thieves found nothing to reward them for their trouble, the safe being only used for the protection of books and papers in case of fire. This was the second attempt made by burglars, within the last two weeks, to break open this safe. Safe cracking is getting almost too numerous in this vicinity of late. There is work for a good detective in this county.²

However, it doesn’t appear that the thieves made any profit from their labors, reinforcing the notion that crime doesn’t pay.

Ottawa Free Trader, May 30, 1885, p. 1, col. 5
Ottawa Free Trader, August 15, 1885, p. 1, col. 5

Cooking in the Schools

June 15, 2016June 5, 2016Candace W Leave a comment

School lunch and home ec classes are nothing new. In 1913, the Farmer’s Voice, a farm magazine, reported on the forward thinking of La Salle County schools.

LaSalle county is forging ahead in things educational. This is shown by the splendid county institutes that are being held there. An item in the LaSalle County School bulletin tells of the work being done in the rural and village schools. Cooking in the schools is the newest thing up there. In some cases the teacher had a little oil stove on which soups and various dishes were prepared. In one district during cold weather a warm drink at noon is always provided, and sometimes roasted apples. The families are interested in this new departure and furnish materials. Baked potatoes were prepared at one school, using the ashes and ash pan as an oven. Vegetable soup and oysters have also been prepared and various hot drinks. Some of the girls spend scraps of time at home looking up dishes that might be prepared at school.¹

Farmer’s Voice, May 15, 1913, p 15

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night . . .

June 8, 2016June 4, 2016Candace W Leave a comment

. . .stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
(The unofficial motto of the United States Postal Service)

Dayton had a post office from 1837 to 1954. In that 117 years, there were 17 postmasters, George Makinson and Edward McClary having each held the post at two different times. An example of the appointment procedure in the 1840s is shown above in Jesse Green’s appointment, which lists the steps he must follow in order for his appointment to be approved. He had to post a bond and swear an oath, all of which had to be documented and sent to Washington.

The Dayton postmasters were
William Stadden 1837
Charles Miller 1839
Aaron Ford Jr. 1845
Jesse Green 1847
Christian Stickley 1849
George W. Makinson 1854
Oliver W. Trumbo 1857
George W. Makinson 1866
Maud V. Green 1895
Edward McClary 1897
Charles Hippard 1907
Frank Brown 1914
Mary Fleming 1919
Obert Howe 1923
Grace MacGrogan 1924
Edward McClary 1925
Catherine Corso 1940
Donald Ainsley 1945
Dominic DeBernardi 1946

In 1954 the Postal Service discontinued the Dayton post office, all Dayton addresses changing to RFD Ottawa. The final day of the Dayton post office was April 15, 1954.

Medicine on the Frontier

June 1, 2016February 11, 2017Candace W 5 Comments

The following is an excerpt from a memoir written by Jesse Green, recounting tales of life in early Dayton and promoting a truly terrifying prescription for cholera:

“The next day after reaching home, I was taken down with the scarlet fever, which we supposed was contracted on a trip to St. Louis a short time previous. This came very near to ending my earthly career, being the first and only time I ever fainted. We had a German doctor who bled me with a high fever on. I keeled over and was unconscious for quite a spell. This was my first severe attack of sickness, but afterwards I had five others equally as severe, scarlet fever, lung-fever or pneumonia, inflamation of the bowels, cholera on route to California in 1849, and a fall on my head and shoulders, that came near to proving fatal. I was saved in my attack of cholera by a prescription found in a medicine chest we bought in St. Louis put up by Dr. Westbrook. It proved successful in every case where I knew it to be used.

“I will herewith give the formula from Dr. Westbrook:

Camphor                     6 grains
Capsicum                    6 grains            One dose in severe cases,
Blue-Mass                   6 grains            to be repeated often if
Pow’d Opium             3 grains            necessary. 1/2 dose
Prepared Chalk         20 grains            sufficient in mild cases.

“Some doctors claim that this is too large a dose, but I took three or four full doses myself. It should be repeated every ten or fifteen minutes, but in mild cases of cholera morbus I found that a half dose was sufficient, and soon effected a cure.”

On Memorial Day We Honor Our Veterans

May 27, 2016June 1, 2016Candace W Leave a comment

On this Memorial Day weekend, the veterans buried in the Dayton Cemetery take the spotlight. One of them is John Heath Breese, who was born October 12, 1830 in New Jersey. He was married to Elizabeth Lewis in Peoria, Illinois, on November 16, 1859.

They had seven children:
Nellie Virginia, born September 2, 1861
Ellis E., born April 14, 1867
Emmor E., born 29 June 1869
Cora, born September 19, 1871
Nora B., born March 11, 1874
William L., born October 25, 1876
Walter, born December 24, 1878.

John enrolled as a private in Company C (Houghtailing’s), 1st Regiment, Illinois Light Artillery Volunteers on August 22, 1862. At the time of enlistment he was a farmer, 5 feet 8 inches tall, with light hair and blue eyes. He joined the unit just before the march to Nashville, Tenn., September 3-12. He saw action at Murfreesboro; the Battle of Stone’s River; the Tullahoma Campaign; the Battle of Chickamauga; Mission Ridge; Rocky Faced Ridge; Buzzard’s Roost Gap; Pumpkin Vine Creek; Kenesaw Mountain; Pine Hill; Lost Mountain; the siege of Atlanta; the battle of Jonesboro; Lovejoy Station; the march to the sea; the siege of Savannah; the campaign of the Carolinas; surrender of Johnston and his army; the march to Washington, D.C., via Richmond, Va.; and the Grand Review. He was mustered out at Springfield, Illinois, June 12, 1865. He suffered from rheumatism and heart trouble as a result of a fever he contracted at Nashville in the winter of 1862-3. He spent some weeks in the hospital and suffered from rheumatism from then on. This severely limited his ability to do farm work and made him eligible for a pension.

On his return from the war, he spent 8 years in Kansas, returning to Dayton in 1874. In the summer of 1880 he was working in the paper mill in Dayton when he injured himself jumping up out of a pit without waiting for the ladder to be brought.

He died in Dayton, September 30, 1914. Both he and Elizabeth are buried in the cemetery, along with children Nellie Virginia, Ellis, Emmor, and Nora (wife of Lowell Hoxie).

The Black Hawk War – An Eyewitness Account from 1832

May 18, 2016May 16, 2016Candace W Leave a comment

Barbara Grove Green Maud V. Green

The following account was dictated to Maud V. Green by her grandmother, Barbara Grove Green, December, 1884. It was transcribed from the handwritten original by Candace Wilmot, gr-gr-granddaughter of Barbara Grove Green.

On the 16th of May 1832, about ten o’clock in the morning, myself and the girls were washing at the spring near where the feeder bridge now is when Eliza came down on horseback and told us that the Indians were coming & that we would have to go to Ottawa right away. Then we went to a place a couple of miles below Ottawa (to Penbrook) and stayed there all night the next day come up to Ottawa and next day 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 it did, so they hung up feather beds all around. There were about sixty people here at the time, we were so crowded that they had to sleep on tables, under the beds and all over the house.

The same night George Walker came and told us that we must go to Ottawa again, so we left right away and went down to the river to get in the pirougue, but when we got there we found that Daniels’ had taken the boat and gone before we got there, so we had to walk. As I had forgot some of Rachel’s clothes and, coming back to the house, I found Jesse and David yet in bed. They had been waked before we started so I supposed they were with us. We followed the river bank all the way down and I had to carry Becky all the way because she would cry when anyone else took her.

Aunt Becky Trumbo was sick so that she could not walk and she rode on the horse behind old Mr. Letts. Eliza Trumbo was left standing on the river bank and we went off and forgot her. Wm Dunavan came back and got her. 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. We women didn’t know what the trouble was til we reached Ottawa and then they told us about the “Indian Creek Massacre” where there were sixteen people killed. Two boys who ran away and two girls who were taken prisoners, were the only ones that escaped.

The next day (?) a company of soldiers from the southern part of the state passed through Ottawa on the way up the river and two men Hazleton and Schemerhorn who lived at Mission Settlement intended to go with them to their farms but failed to get ready in time and so were an hour or two behind the soldiers.

A School Christmas Program

May 4, 2016May 1, 2016Candace W 1 Comment

This picture of a Dayton school Christmas program dates from about 1955. It was held in the Dayton clubhouse and as you can tell by the picture, told the traditional Christmas story, complete with shepherds and angels. The six angels are (l to r) unknown, Sandra Leonard, Jimmie Mathias, Sally Clifford, Ronnie Thompson, and Betty Jo Hughes If you can identify any of the others, please leave your information in a comment.

Following the pageant, Mrs. Trent (teacher of grades 5 through 8) welcomed a rather pop-eyed Santa who distributed gifts from the tree. Again, if you can identify anyone in the pictures below, please leave a comment. Click on the picture to see a larger version.

Happy Birthday, Nancy!

April 26, 2016March 20, 2016Candace W Leave a comment

Nancy Green was born 200 years ago today, April 26, 1816, in Licking County, Ohio, the second daughter of John and Barbara (Grove) Green. She was 13 years old when her family moved to what later became La Salle county, Illinois. In 1831, her older sister, Eliza, married William L. Dunavan. Three years later, on January 26, 1834, Nancy married William’s brother, Joseph Albert, and three years after that, Nancy’s sister Katherine married Albert’s brother George. Joseph and Nancy lived on a farm in Rutland township, across the Fox river from Dayton. They had twelve children:

Katherine (1835-1915) married Benjamin Frank Brandon March 21, 1857
Samuel (1837-1914) married Amanda Miranda Munson March 22, 1859
Isaac (1838/9-1914) married Mary Ann Lafferty March 9, 1880
David (1840-1910)
Amanda (1843-1846)
Joseph (1845- )
George (1847-1922) married Kate Rogers March 4, 1877
John (1849-1854)
Jane (1852-1927) married Aaron Howe December 25, 1872
Alice C. (1854-1904)
Lewis (1856- ) married Jennie McMichael in 1879
Anna L. (1859-1884) married William Miller February 22, 1883

Nancy’s husband went to California in the gold rush. There was no word of him for some time and the rumor spread that they had started home through Mexico (as indeed they had) and had been killed there (as they had not). The night he got home, Nancy had a headache as a result of a toothache cure she had applied. She had run a hot darning or knitting needle into the cavity of her tooth to stop the pain. When he got home she entirely forgot the tooth and headache and they sat up about all night talking and visiting.

John Green had given Nancy and Albert a quarter section of land when they married, and they had turned it into a prosperous farm, where they raised their large family. However, in 1883 disaster struck. Albert and his brother, George, had been buying and selling cattle and were in debt. They borrowed from Matilda Hogue, a wealthy widow, and her son Joshua. In order to pay this debt they speculated on the Chicago Board of Trade and lost. Albert and Nancy sold their farm to their son Lewis for $10,400. After the debt was paid they had only a thousand dollars to begin a new life in the West. They moved to Sterling, Colorado, in 1889, where Albert farmed with his sons. They later returned from Colorado to Hamilton, Missouri, where Albert died in 1892. Nancy continued to live in Hamilton with her son, David, until her death on February 27, 1905.

Here Comes the Railroad

April 20, 2016April 10, 2016Candace W Leave a comment

The railroad track heading south on its way to Ottawa.

CB&Q passenger car and caboose

The railroad depot in Dayton, between the store on the left and the elevator on the right.

In 1869 the Ottawa, Oswego and Fox River Valley Railroad began purchasing the right of way through Dayton for their planned route from Aurora to Streator. The portion of the route that went through Dayton was not completed until about 1876.

The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy schedule in the Free Trader shown above lists a stop in Dayton. A passenger could board the train at 7:42 in the morning and be in Chicago at 10:35. After a day’s business or shopping, the 4:30 pm train would get one back to Dayton at 7:37. It made spending the day in Chicago an easy trip as nowhere in Dayton was far from the depot.

The CB&Q leased their route from Aurora to Streator, which passed though Dayton, from the O. O. & F.R.V. RR and in 1899 the O. O. & F.R.V. RR was bought by the CB&Q. The CB&Q assets were sold in 1999 to Illinois RailNet, which became Illinois Railway (IR) on May 1, 2005.

B is for Bottle

April 13, 2016April 7, 2016Candace W Leave a comment

Milk bottle, that is.

Farmers throughout the Dayton area sold their milk to the Dayton Dairy. In the early days of the twentieth century, the Green farm had one of the oldest Jersey herds in the state of Illinois. Lyle A. Green, who took over the farm on the death of his father, Isaac, upgraded the herd until many of the cows made their way into the Jersey Registry of Merit. He traveled, often into neighboring states, to purchase pedigreed stock to improve the herd. He became a breeder, building a good reputation for Greenacres Farm of Dayton, Illinois.

The names of the cows give some hint of the status of these ladies: Poppy Golden Oxford, Royal Mary’s Design, and Belle’s Golden Finance were surely belle dames of the dairy world. Raleigh’s Meg, Raleigh’s Ota and Raleigh’s Lady Brookhill all gave evidence in their names of their descent from Raleigh’s Lord Brookhill, who sired many prolific daughters for Lyle Green’s breeding program.

Despite the use of milking machines, the milking was still finished by hand, and the barn cats were adept at catching their daily ration of fresh milk. The cows were pastured in fields on the east side of the river and twice a day the herd made its slow way across the bridge. After Lyle Green’s death, his brother, Ralph, took over the farm and soon took his son-in-law, Charles Clifford, into partnership.

As you can see, the Green herd was sold in 1944 and, although the Dayton Dairy continued for some years, it, too, is no longer. The milk bottles are now only found at flea markets or on eBay, but they serve as a reminder of one of the major enterprises in Dayton in the first half of the twentieth century.

Dayton and the Greens

John Green and the history of Dayton, La Salle County, Illinois