During the early part of the nineteenth century my great-grandparents
decided to come to La Salle county, Illinois, to try their luck as pioneers.
They settled in what is now Dayton and Rutland townships.
On the second
of November, 1829, five families left Licking county, Ohio, to come and settle
in Illinois. The people undertaking this very difficult trip were the three
Green brothers, Basford, Reason DeBolt, and their families. They were also
accompanied by a few young men.
Their outfit was composed of one
four-voke ox team, three two-horse wagons and one carriage. My
great-grandfather, Reason DeBolt, had only one horse of his own. The roads were
pretty good; that is, they were at least passable, until they reached Indiana,
where they were compelled to stop for three days on account of bad weather,
which caused the streams and rivers to rise very high. Although they came upon
other teams, who were weather-bound and told them discouraging tales, they
proceeded westward, cutting their way through heavy timber and averaging about
ten miles a day. During the journey one of the party with a child in his arms
was thrown from the carriage, breaking three of his ribs, and the wheel passing
over the child. As neither were dangerously hurt they proceeded on their way
with no complaining.
Upon arriving at Parish's grove, in Iroquois
county, Illinois, they followed an Indian trail to Hubbard's trading post, on
the Iroquois river, where they purchased all the corn they could get, (about
eight bushels).
They also purchased a canoe, which they loaded with
goods. Three of the men took the canoe, paddled down the Iroquois to the
Kankakee, then to the Illinois, where they were to meet the teams. This
lightened the load some for the teams, which were worn out and poor from
scarcity of food.
The prairies which they had to cross appeared to have
no bottom and some of the streams were so deep that trees were felled to form
temporary bridges to cross on, while others were crossed by making the horses
swim. One woman became so nervous that she could not walk across the bridge, so
John Green took her on his back and went across on his hands and knees.
Once during a heavy rain they camped in a small grove. As it was very cold they
cut up boxes to make a fire, and most of them sat up all night. One woman,
however, laid down in the wagon and tried to sleep, but in the morning she was
frozen fast and could not rise.
It took them over three days to reach
the mouth of the Kankakee, a distance of 30 miles. There they met the men with
the canoe and ferried most of their goods over the Illinois, until a friendly
Indian showed them a ford, where they could cross without difficulty.
On
December 5th, 1829, they came in sight of a grove (now Holderman's grove), where
Mr. Green obtained some beef and corn from a Mr. Baresford. The company of
people, who were nearly starved, had a great feast when Mr. Green returned.
On December 6th they finally reached their destination. Having not even a
match with them they were forced to make sparks by scraping their jack-knives
against a stone. They had nothing but axes with which to make their shelters,
which were log cabins. To grind their wheat and corn they put the grains between
two stones and rubbed them together.
By July 4th they had 240 acres of
land fenced and broken, and had built a sawmill, a dam and race, and had a run
of boulder mill stones in one corner of the sawmill grinding wheat, which was
the first that was ground on the Fox river. The boulders were found by
Christopher Payne, a brother of the Dunkard preacher, who was killed by the
Indians three years later.
The Greens settled in what is now Dayton, the
Basfords on what is now the Trumbo farm, and the DeBolts near what is now
Sulphur Lick Springs, or St. Joseph's Health Resort.
They secured a
pretty fair living and lived peacefully until 1832, when the Black Hawk war
broke out.
One night Shabbona, a great Indian chief, came to warn these
settlers that the Sauks were on the warpath. The settlers hurried to the fort,
which stood where the Lester Strawn residence now stands in Ottawa. They
remained there for some time and only ventured out once in a while.
Finally peace was declared and the settlers went back to their homes. Reason
DeBolt used to tell my grandfather how he had joined the Indians in their
wrestling matches, races, hunts and other games.
Extracted 08 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from Stories of Pioneer Days in La Salle County, Illinois, by Grammar Grade Pupils, published in 1932, page 37.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
 |
Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
