The vicinity of Dayton must have presented a very different appearance when
John Green came here in 1829 than it does now. The Fox River valley was a
favorite feeding ground for the buffalo and hence attracted the Indians. The
river furnished an abundance of fish.
Mr. Green visited the man who had
homesteaded on the land where Dayton now stands. This man not only sold the land
to Mr. Green but he also agreed to plant winter wheat in order that the people
might have wheat early the next year.
Mr. Green then returned to Ohio
and formed a company of hardy pioneers. There were several married men each
having one child: David Grove, Henry Brumback, and Resin Debolt. Mr. Green
himself had seven children. The younger, unmarried men of the party were: Samuel
and Joseph Grove, Jacob Kite, Alexander McKee, and Harvey Shaver.
Their
equipment besides the household goods of each family consisted of a four-yoke ox
team, two wagons, and a carriage.
The roads were passable to the Indiana
border. Here at Whitewater they were forced to wait several days with other
bands of westward-bound people unless, it is said, they were able to travel on
top of the wagons already mired.
Pressing westward they were forced to
cut their own road and could advance only about ten miles a day. When streams,
which were too large to cross, blocked the way they "headed" them, that is, they
went upstream til it became small enough to cross.
They reached a
settlement on the Iroquois River where they purchased a canoe and eight bushels
of corn.
After sending the canoe down the river laden with part of the
household goods the rest of the party pushed westward.
The streams of
the vicinity through which they were now passing were swollen from the almost
constant rains of the autumn. At one of these streams trees were felled from
both sides to form a bridge. The household goods had barely been carried over
when the water swept the bridge away. A friendly Indian, however, showed them a
crossing. At another time a single log lay across the stream. One lady became so
nervous watching the others cross on the treacherous footing that she refused to
try to cross. John Green, on his hands and knees, carried her across on his
back.
The cold wet weather of late fall now began to hinder their
progress. Mrs. Green, when she sat down on the ground to rest a moment fell
asleep. She found in the morning that she could not rise because her clothing
was frozen fast to the earth.
At last, reaching a spot near what he
supposed to be the Baresford farm, Mr. Green rode ahead to find if it really was
for they were sadly in need of provisions. Mr. Green arrived to find Mr.
Baresford butchering a beef. He loaded a quarter of a beef and some corn on a
wagon and drove back to meet the party.
They were now near their
destination and soon they had settled on the Fox River where Dayton now stands.
They built a fort-house on the top of a high bluff overlooking the river.
This was superseded by one built on the face of the cliff.
Mr.
Green's next question was how to provide food for his family because to quote
him, "He had a large family and good appetites." He was able to buy twenty-four
hogs, thirty bushels of wheat and about eighty bushels of corn. Many times
before the crop was raised they subsisted on "pound cake" a composition of
ground corn soaked in water and baked.
But, despite hardships, the men
of the company who numbered only nine had fenced, with rail fence, and had
broken most of 240 acres of land. They also built a dam and race to supply power
for a sawmill. This mill had a pair of burrs in one end for grinding wheat.
In the spring of 1831 the high water took this mill out. It was replaced
with another built farther up the bank. Two more mills were constructed, the
last in 1855. This one known as the "Pioneer Mill" ground grain for people for
one hundred and fifty miles around.
Later, a frame building was built to
the north of the grist mill, and used as a woolen mill. This was partly torn
down and a building of Joliet stone replaced it. The remaining part of the old
building was used as a collar factory.
At that time Dayton was a
thriving village of about 500 people. Now it has less than one hundred!
To be sure the landmarks which the people erected are disappearing, but the
story of their deeds will live in the hearts of many.
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 74.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
 |
Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
