My father was very glad to relate to me the following experiences of the
early days of the Sullivan family, spent in La Salle county. A great many
changes have taken place since those early days. A great number of the people
living in this community were Irish. Their main food was potatoes, usually
cooked with the jackets on. The Irish people believed the potatoes tasted better
and were easily digested when cooked that way, and used to say, "We are from
Ireland, county Donnigal, where they eat the potatoes, skins and all!"
Times were hard in those days, much work and little play, with very low wages.
My father remembers the old homemade tallow candles used by the family.
Usually a lamp was burned Sunday evening or when company came.
It was in
1895 that my father cut poles out of a grove on a farm about three miles from
Wenona. They were taken to the old Sullivan farm, seven and one-half miles west
of Streator, with wagons and teams. The work of building a new barn began March
12, 1895. Four men were employed on this building. It took three months to do
the work. On June 25, 1895, it was completed. It was thirty feet wide and forty
feet long. The driveway was eight feet wide. After the barn was finished the
neighbors had two old-time barn dances. The first barn dance was given on July
7, 1895. The Hoarty four-piece orchestra, consisting of Tom Hoarty, Sam Hopper,
Jeff. Eward and John McDonald, furnished the music. Callers were in abundance in
those days for the old-time square dances. Young and old people attended these
dances, and all enjoyed themselves. No one was a wall-flower nor no one was
slighted; everyone had a chance to dance.
No rain had fallen from March
until June. The men building the barn lost no time on account of wet weather.
The fields were very dry, the roads were dusty. Rain fell on the first night of
the barn dance. There was great rejoicing. No one cared if his new hat or
clothes were spoiled. Everyone was glad to see the welcome rain.
This
barn had been in service for thirty-four years. On July 15, 1929, it burned to
the ground. While the men were threshing oats on the farm, a cylinder tooth
threw a spark through the blower and the straw caught fire. The barn and several
other buildings were destroyed by fire. I was living with my parents on the farm
at the time and I remember well the day the fire occurred. People were running
here and there to extinguish the fire and save the out-buildings. The wind was
busily blowing from the southeast, so all the work was in vain. Horses hitched
to hay racks loaded with bundles of straw, became frightened and were rushing
around the yard and down the road. People had to get out of the way to avoid
accidents. Luckily no one was injured.
There now stands a modern barn,
built by William Ahearn, where the old structure had burned. It is forty-five
feet wide and fifty feet long. It has a driveway seven feet wide. It is one of
the latest models, containing electric lights, cow stanchions and portable feed
boxes.
The young men and boys of those days thought they were kings and
princes if they owned a horse and top-buggy. My father owned a fine, beautiful
driving horse and a top-buggy. He drove at a fast speed when he first started,
but as the horse got tired the speed slackened. They thought eighteen or twenty
miles per hour exceedingly fast. Later on automobiles came into use. My father
bought one called in those days the E., M. and F., now known as the Studebaker.
It was quite hard to get acquainted with an auto after so many experiences with
the horse and buggy.
Fishing was a sport enjoyed by the boys. After
school closed for the summer vacation, nearly every boy got his hook and line
and went to the creek.
I have tried to relate some of the early
experiences of the early days in La Salle county. Many hardships and dangers
were endured by the early settlers, but they had the strength, courage and good
will to carry on the great work they had begun. We, like they, need courage and
endurance to carry on the great problems which are facing America today.
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 89.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
 |
Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
