The Terrors of Cholera

December 16, 2015January 4, 2016Candace W Leave a comment

Cholera was an ever-present danger in the middle of the 19th century and the disease could strike swiftly and cruelly, as this newspaper article from 1854 shows. Aaron Daniels lived just across the Fox river from Dayton and was related to members of the Green family.

Cholera—Fearful Mortality

While there has not, during the present season, been a single case of cholera in Ottawa, originating here, and our city has been unusually healthy, the disease has on several occasions broken out in some isolated families in our vicinity, like a fire in the night, consuming every thing before it. The last family that has suffered from its terrible visitation is that of Mr. AARON DANIELS, a respectable farmer, residing about three miles north of Ottawa, east of Fox River. The disease first made its appearance in his family on Friday of last week, and up to last Thursday morning six of its members has fallen victims to the ruthless scourge, as follows:

On Saturday evening, Minerva Daniels, daughter of A. Daniels, aged about 17.
On Monday night, Jonathan Daniels, son, aged about 20 years.
Ruth Ann Daniels, daughter, aged about 14 years.
Judith Daniels, daughter, aged about 11.
Aaron Daniels, son, aged about 4 years.
And on Thursday morning Mrs. Aaron Daniels, aged about 40.

The family of Mr. Daniels being largely connected in the neighborhood, a number of persons—friends and relatives—visited and remained at the house during their affliction, nearly all of whom have since been taken with the disease, and in many instances, with fatal results, as the following melancholy list of the dead will show.

On Monday evening Geo. Head, son of Thomas Head, aged about 18 years.
Same day Louisa Parker, child of Mrs. Parker, daughter of Aaron Daniels—aged about 4 years.
On Tuesday morning, Mrs. B. Fleming, sister of Mrs. A. Daniels.
On Wednesday, Alvah Channel, living with A. Daniels—aged about 20.
On Sunday, Miss Kingsley, school teacher, lately from Mt. Palatine. She had been boarding in the family of Mr. Daniels until the cholera made its appearance, when she started for home, but was taken at Ottawa, where she died.
On Thursday, Mr. Garrett Galvin, who had assisted in burying the deceased members of the family of Mr. Daniels.

We hear of several others in the neighborhood who have taken the disease, but up to yesterday morning of no more deaths. All the persons taken thus far, we believe were at the house of Mr. Daniels, either calling or assisting there, during their affliction; and it is remarkable that the disease has spread in no families where there have been cases except that of Mr. Daniels. The only cause we have heard assigned for this fearful visitation is the fact that a few days before the disease made its appearance, Mrs. D. had used fresh pork in his family. This alone, although doubtless very unhealthy food at this season, is not believed to be of itself sufficient to account for the fatality ascribed to its use, except on the hypothesis that the pork had become tainted. Considering the extreme heat of the weather, this is not unlikely to have been the case, and although it may not have been perceptible, we are assured that the slightest taint will render such meat otherwise not unwholesome, as poisonous as strychnine.

The reports circulated in town that the family had suffered for want of attention, and that great difficulty had been found in obtaining assistance to bury the dead, &c., we know to be wholly untrue. The truth is, that during most of the time, too many persons were at the house. The family has many friends and relatives in the whole neighborhood, and frequently they gathered in so numerously that they were advised to keep away. Sufficient help was constantly at hand, and complaint on that score is neither made by Mr. D. nor, if made, would be just to his neighbors.¹

The Ottawa [Illinois] Free Trader, August 19, 1854, p. 3, col. 1

Winter in the Cemetery

December 2, 2015November 27, 2015Candace W Leave a comment

Photos courtesy of Chris Sims

All Kinds of Woolen Goods

November 25, 2015November 27, 2015Candace W Leave a comment

The woolen factory at Dayton produced many different products. Cassimere was a closely woven twilled fabric. It had a smooth surface and was used for suits. Jean was not the same fabric as denim in the 19th century. Topcoats, vests and jackets could be made of jean in different colors – black, blue, or white. Denim was used for work clothes worn by manual laborers, while other workers would be dressed in tailored trousers made of jean. Although the two fabrics were similar, denim was made with one colored thread and one white thread; jean was woven of two threads of the same color.

Sock yarn could be had in a light mixture or in a blue grey. Carpet yarn also came in assorted colors. Blankets (white, grey, or multicolored) and buggy rugs were available to keep out winter’s cold and wind. Carpet was made in a number of styles and flannel could be purchased in white, scarlet, grey striped, or black and white check.

Other varieties of cloth included satinett (half wool and half cotton, but finished the same as wool); doeskin (a twilled fabric that came in different weights); linsey (a strong, coarse fabric with a linen or cotton warp and a woolen weft); and tweed.

Maud Green remembered that “Grandma [Barbara Grove Green] spent her time knitting socks and long stockings for all of us, out of factory yarn, and we had woolen underwear, skirts and dresses made of factory flannel.”

Elizabeth Lair

November 18, 2015November 11, 2015Candace W Leave a comment

Elizabeth Lair was born September 3, 1785 in Rockingham county, Virginia, the daughter of Joseph and Persis Lair. She married Samuel Dunavan December 22, 1807 in Rockingham county, Virginia. They had three sons, William Lair, Joseph Albert, and George Milton. Samuel died June 22, 1816 in Licking county, Ohio and she was left with 3 small boys, aged 8, 4, and 1. The following year she married David Letts, February 27, 1817 in Licking county, Ohio. In 1830 David removed his family to the new country in Illinois, joining another group of Licking county people in La Salle county.

Her son Noah Harris Letts gave this description of his mother when, in 1900, he wrote an account of his family’s history:

“My mother at the period of time I am writing about [about 1829] was a very robust woman weighing about 150 pounds, dark hair, blue eyes and fair complexion, and I can safely say a very handsome woman and was of a very kind disposition, beloved by all that personally knew her, and was a loving mother, and idolized her children, and in return they dearly loved her. She could govern us children by kindness and never used the rod, but it was somewhat different with our father. He would use the beech limb on us, if we displeased him, but I presume not without a cause, as we were rather wild”¹

“This fall [1835] on the third day of September our mother died after a short spell of sickness with the bilious fever. We were left a lonely set of children, who had lost a kind and loving mother and we felt the loss, for our mother was beloved by her children and all who knew her. She was a woman in the prime of life and had always been a very healthy, robust woman until this last spell of sickness. On the day she died she was just fifty years old. She was buried in a new graveyard on the bank of Fox River about three-fourths of a mile north of Dayton, opposite the mill dam, and I think was the first person that was buried there, and since it has been the burying ground of Dayton and quite a distance around. The graveyard is kept up very nicely but I have not had the satisfaction of visiting my mother’s grave for a number of years. But she is not lost to my memory or ever will be while I am alive.”²

Paul M. Angle, editor, “PIONEERS / Narratives of Noah Harris Letts and Thomas Allen Banning / 1825-1865” (Chicago: The Lakeside Press,1972), 22-23.
Ibid., 59-60.

Quite a Fish Story

November 11, 2015November 9, 2015Candace W Leave a comment

Dayton has always been a good fishing site, but nothing has been caught there in recent years that can hold a candle to this 1849 monster.

“A ROUSER! – We are sorry for our friend DELANO, of the Fox River House – his reputation’s gone! Hitherto he has stood unrivalled in this region as a fisherman – taking not only vastly more than any body else, but larger ones. But he must ‘come down’ now on size. The largest muskelunge he has caught we believe weighed but 28 or 29 pounds – Mr. Sherwood caught one at Dayton on Monday with a hook and line, that weighed over 32 lbs.! It was over four feet long, and 9 inches across the body. We got the head! It looks like that of some monster of the ‘briny deep.’¹

Ottawa [Illinois] Free Trader, March 30, 1849, page 2, col. 3

Bridge Collapses

November 4, 2015November 4, 2015Candace W Leave a comment

From the Chicago Tribune, May 20, 1940, p. 8

Bridge Collapses

Ottawa, Ill., May 19 (Special). – An automobile and a truck were thrown into the Fox river at Dayton, northeast of Ottawa, late this afternoon when the bridge which spans the river collapsed. Two occupant of each vehicle were rescued unhurt.

According to information given to Sheriff Edmund J. Welter, an Ottawa newspaperman, D. M. Davis and his wife were in their sedan, near the center of the bridge, when a truck driven by Robert Shelton of Marseilles, who was accompanied by his wife, drove upon the bridge. Then the span broke and both cars plunged downward. Timbers kept the cars from falling into the water, which is 10 feet deep.

The bridge at Dayton is on what is known as the Old Chicago road. Sheriff Welter blocked the gravel road at intersections on both sides and posted detour signs.

Sorghum molasses

October 21, 2015October 8, 2015Candace W Leave a comment

¹ ²

Sorghum comes from the sorghum plant and is not a true molasses, which is produced from sugar cane. Sorghum is a type of grass, the juice of which produces a naturally sweet syrup. Special milling equipment extracts the juice from the crushed stalks, and evaporating pans with heating units steam off the excess water, leaving the syrup. Cook’s evaporator was the primary rival of Gates & Co. and they would have looked much the same.

The Greens’ sorghum venture in 1861 was apparently of recent origin, as the 1860 agricultural census of Dayton showed no one producing sorghum or molasses. Sorghum syrup could be used to flavor baked beans or barbeque sauce, or used straight from the jug on pancakes. It could be used in any recipe calling for molasses; it has a milder taste than the true, sugar cane, molasses. There are a number of modern recipes using sorghum. If you’d like to try one of these, check out http://blueridgecountry.com/newsstand/flavors/mother-nature-in-a-jug/

The Ottawa [Illinois] Free Trader, October 12, 1861, p.3, col. 2
Prairie Farmer, (Old Series) Vol. 22, No. 9, (New Series) Vol. 6, No. 9, August 30, 1860, p. 175

Remember the old school desks?

October 7, 2015October 2, 2015Candace W Leave a comment

Embed from Getty Images

When I started at the Dayton school in 1945, we had desks that looked like this, although not quite so heavily defaced. In first grade there was no ink bottle in the ink well provided for it, and I don’t recall having one even in the higher grades. By then we had ball point pens, but the hole for the ink well remained. What I do remember about this desk is how we learned to write our names in first grade. Miss Fraine, who taught grades one through four, would write our names in chalk, in her beautiful flowing handwriting, on the top of our desks. We each had a jar of corn kernels and would outline the name with the corn, to learn the shape of our names.

The desks were fastened in rows, with the back of one seat supporting the desk for the person behind. Seven or eight rows of these seats held the four grades in each room. Miss Fraine moved from row to row as each grade was called on for their lessons. By the time you reached fourth grade, you had heard those lessons several times over.

A Handmade Gravestone

September 30, 2015February 11, 2017Candace W Leave a comment

This tiny gravestone, only 12 inches high, stands out in the Dayton Cemetery not only for its size but for its material. It is made of brick and appears to be handmade. John Champaign, the father of little Albert John, was a day laborer in the brick yards in Dayton. Whether he made the gravestone himself or had a friend at work do it for him, it almost certainly was made in Dayton.

John Champaign was born in January, 1858, in Michigan, of French-Canadian stock. In 1870 he was living with his parents and siblings in South Bend, Indiana. On September 21, 1880 he married Louise Haverley in South Bend. Sometime before 1883, John and family came to Dayton, where they were living in 1900. By 1910, they were back in South Bend, where they lived out their lives, John dying in 1938 and Louise in 1947.

One of their daughters, Grace, married James C. McGrogan of Dayton on April 30, 1900, and remained in Dayton when her parents moved back to South Bend.

A Most Distressing Accident

September 23, 2015September 14, 2015Candace W 1 Comment

Fred Green, who survived the accident

A most distressing accident occurred at the Williams paper mill at Dayton, on yesterday morning. The unfortunate victim was Fred Green, oldest son of Mr. Basil Green, aged 14 or 15 years. He was one of the employees of the mill, and while talking with some young men, was thoughtlessly handling a rope working a spindle. Suddenly his hand was caught in the machinery, his body was caught up and he was hurled through the air until two revolutions of the spindle had been made, when the hand was torn from the arm and he fell to the floor. His left hand was torn off; the same arm broken above the elbow so that it had to be amputated; two fingers on the other hand had to be amputated at the first joint, and both his legs were broken. Dr. Hard, happening to be in the village treating diphtheria patients, was called at once. He immediately telegraphed for Drs. Dyer and McArthur, who went to his assistance, and after several hours’ work left the unfortunate lad as comfortable as could be expected. His life is in great danger.¹

The [Ottawa, Illinois] Free Trader, May 29, 1880, p. 1, col. 3.

Gracie Green’s school days

September 16, 2015September 14, 2015Candace W Leave a comment

In 1881 little Gracie Green was an eight-year-old student in the Dayton school. She was a well-behaved student, since her teacher certified that she “during the winter term of five months has not whispered once neither has she been guilty of any act of misconduct.” Grace was the daughter of Isaac and Mary Jane (Trumbo) Green. She was born in Dayton in 1873. She did not marry, and died in Dayton in 1894. She is buried in the Dayton Cemetery.

Her teacher was Miss Desdemona (Dessie) Root. Miss Root taught in the Wedron school in the summer of 1881 and then moved to the Dayton school for one year, where she was responsible for the success of many of the entertainments held at the school house. She received many compliments on how well she had prepared her students for their performances. Surely little Gracie did her well-behaved best in her part, whatever it was.

Ice Jam on the Fox River

September 9, 2015August 30, 2015Candace W Leave a comment

The Fox River at Dayton has been the site of a number of washed-out dams and swept-away bridges over the years. In 1943, a large ice jam in the river between Dayton and Ottawa caused the slush ice to pile up on both sides of the bridge. The pressure of the ice moved the bridge a few inches, but it went back into place as the ice melted. The houses and cottages along the east side of the river, above the bridge, were flooded as well.