A correct history of Dunleith can not be written without going back to the period when white people first disturbed the primitive condition of the towering bluffs and the narrow valley that nestles down between their base and the great Mississippi River. Although a French Indian trader named D’Bois is known to have maintained a trading post on the land now owned by Augustus Switzer, two and a half miles east of Dunleith, and almost directly opposite the Iowa bluffs where Julien Dubuque (after whom the City of Dubuque was named) was buried, no data can be found to fix the time when this trading post was established, or how long it was continued. The best sources of information indicate that Dubuque and D’Bois came at the same time, and that, while Dubuque stopped at the mouth of Cat Fish Creek, on the Iowa side, D’Bois (or Dubois) chose the Illinois side as his field of operations. When the first permanent settlers came, in 1832, the old cabins erected by D’Bois were still standing, and although they had fallen into partial decay, one of them was refitted and made to serve as a school house for the first school ever taught in the territory now embraced within Dunleith Township. The site of that old cabin is enclosed in the beautiful farm residence grounds of Augustus Switzer, and within a few feet of his summer house. That these cabins were allowed to remain so long after D’Bois abandoned them can only be attributed to the friendly disposition of the Menominee Indians, and the respect and friendship they entertained for their builder and first occupant.

Some authorities say that the island (now nearly gone) just below Dunleith, and almost directly between the Dubuque and D’Bois interests, was occupied by white men long before settlements were made at Galena — that rude (log) smelting works had been erected there by a Missouri miner named George E. Jackson as early as 1811. The island on which these smelting works were operated has been well-nigh washed away, and consequently the last remnant of Jackson’s cabin and his log furnaces has disappeared with the island on which they were built. There are no data to be found to show how long Mr. Jackson occupied this island or the extent of his operations, but it is known that he built a flat boat on which the product of his furnaces was carried to St. Louis, and that he experienced a good deal of trouble with the Indians in making his trips to St. Louis. Neither is it known when Jackson abandoned the island, or the causes that induced him to give up his undertaking, but in the Fall of 1823 he returned to the mining district and settled at or near Galena.

Some authorities say that D’Bois and Dubuque came to the country together, but separated on their arrival, as already shown — the former opening an Indian trading place on the Illinois side, and Dubuque on the Iowa side of the Mississippi. While there are no records to be found showing the time when D’Bois built his trading cabin at the site already described, it is known that Dubuque was here as early as 1788, hence it is reasonable to suppose that D’Bois commenced his operations simultaneously with Dubuque, and there is, but little reason to doubt that the first cabin built by a white man in the territory of Jo Daviess County was built by D’Bois, in what is now Dunleith Township, many years before white men began to work the lead mines at Galena. Add the further well authenticated statement that George E. Jackson occupied the island already indicated, and engaged in smelting lead ore as early as 1811, and the fact is pretty well established that the first white men to claim an abiding and business place within the present territory of Jo Daviess County were D’Bois and Jackson, and that within the territory now embraced in this township, the primitive stillness of a region now so full of life and business was first disturbed by the innovations of white men.

When D’Bois took his departure, either for other wilds, or the fancied happy hunting grounds of the Indians, among whom he traded, and Jackson and his associates (if he had any) abandoned the island, the country relapsed into its natural condition, and left the Menominee people “monarchs of all they surveyed,” until the early Winter of 1831— ’32, when Eleazer Frentress, a native of North Carolina, came into the township, and selected a claim of 320 acres at the site of the present Frentress homestead, and immediately set about the erection of a double log cabin. Mr. Frentress and his family, consisting of his wife and children, had emigrated from Wood River, in Madison County, near Alton, to the Galena district in the Spring of 1827. They took passage at Alton on board the steamboat “Indiana,” and on the 7th day of April, of that year, were landed at the present site of the City of Galena. At that time, says Mrs. Frentress, there were not more than a half dozen cabins in the place, and entertainment in any of them impossible to be secured. There was a keel-boat tied up at the landing, and that afforded all the shelter possible to be obtained, and that was placed at the service of the new comers. At that time there were glowing reports of the discovery of rich leads of galena in the vicinity of what is now Cassville, Wisconsin, and not finding things at Galena to his liking, and the keel-boat in which they had found shelter since their arrival on the 7th, being bound for Cassville, Mr. Frentress determined to go on there in pursuit of fortune. A man named Camp and his wife, who had also found shelter and a resting place on the keel-boat, accompanied the expedition, if it may be called such, and there is a very strong probability that Mrs. Frentress and Mrs. Camp were the first white women to venture into the untamed wilds of Wisconsin—especially in that part of it around Cassville. At this time Mrs. Frentress was the mother of two children—Thomas, aged four, and Lucy, aged two years—and it will require no very great stretch of imagination to recognize in Mrs. F. a courage amounting to heroism, when she assumed the risk of placing her babies and herself beyond the pales of civilization and at the mercy of hordes of Indians. The boat landed its passengers at a mining camp, very nearly where Cassville has been built, and there they were left to find shelter from the elements of the weather in the rude tents of the miners, and where they remained for a period of three weeks.

At the end of that time they found their way to Grant River, and settled down to mining life in the near vicinity of Beetown. Here a company was formed, and active operations commenced, and successfully prosecuted until the 4th of July, 1827, when there came an Indian scare, and the camp was hastily abandoned. On the morning of that day the men of the camp had gone to Cassville, and when they arrived there they found that a keel-boat descending the river had been attacked by the Winnebago Indians, one man killed and another one wounded. The cargo box had three hundred bullet holes within it, while the hull of the boat probably had as many more. At Cassville all was excitement and alarm. The Beetown miners hastily returned to their camp, and prepared to leave immediately for Galena. The women quickly packed what few bed-clothes, wearing apparel, etc., they had in boxes and trunks, which were secreted in a dense thicket near by; a few provisions—a little bread and a little meat—put into a basket or sack for the children, and hurried arrangements made for a forced march to Galena. The camp possessed two horses—two women, two children and one sick or disabled man out of the fifteen who composed the male part of Beetown. The two women and one of the children were mounted on one of the horses and the sick man on the other. The cooking dinners were left over the fire, and at four o’clock the flight to Galena was commenced, and kept up until far into the night, when they reached a windfall, where the fallen timber, thick undergrowth, etc., so impeded their progress that, in the darkness they found it impossible to proceed further until daylight, and they went into camp—or rather, they halted until morning. As soon as it became sufficiently light to enable them to find their way out of the fallen debris, the flight was resumed, and a little after twelve o’clock, July 5, 1827, the party arrived at Galena, and Mr. Frentress and his wife stopped at the house and home of her father. The distance traveled, said Mrs. Frentress to the writer, was from fifty to sixty miles, every step of which was full of dreadful apprehension and terrible suspense.

When the Indian scare had somewhat subsided, Mr. Frentress went down to Peoria, where he remained about one month, when he returned to Galena, and soon after went back to the mines at Beetown, where he remained undisturbed until he sold out his interests for $700 in the Winter of 1828—’9. The sum thus realized enabled him to fit himself out with a team of horses, a cow or two, and the necessary implements to engage in farming pursuits, and he leased or rented a farm on Fever River, about four miles above Galena, where he remained until he commenced the improvement of the claim already mentioned.

The Frentress Cabin was a double one, built out of round logs, and then “scutched” down. There was a hall, or entry, between the two parts, and, for many years it was regarded as the grandest farm house in all this region of country. Its doors were always open, and its beds and its table always free and welcome to every one who claimed its hospitality. Although Mrs. Frentress now occupies a very handsome brick residence, the "old log cabin” is still preserved as a memento of pioneer days.

The old cabin was finished in the Winter of 1831—’2, but was not occupied by the family until the 7th of September, 1832—after the close of the Black Hawk War.

In the Spring of 1832, as soon as the frost was out of the ground, Mr. Frentress commenced breaking the prairie sod with a view to making a crop. Potatoes, corn, etc., were planted, and the foundation of a home in the wilds of the Menorninee and Sinsinawa Valleys commenced in goodly earnest. While Stephen D’Bois built the first cabin in this region, to Mr. Frentress belongs the honor of turning over the first furrow of prairie sod.

While the making of this pioneer farm was under way, the Indians were concentrating their forces with a view to negotiating a new treaty, the Black Hawk War was precipitated, and for a time the industries of the mines and farms were interrnpted — in fact, almost entirely suspended. May 14, of that year (1832), while Frentress was busily at work on his claim, plowing and planting, his wife sent a runner to him with the information that the Indians were reported to be marching on Galena with the threatened purpose of destroying every man, woman and child in the settlement. He unhitched his team from the plow, left it standing in the middle of a furrow, and hastened to Galena to join the forces that were being mustered to resist the apprehended invasion, and, joining Captain Vosburgh’s Company, which was made to form a part of Colonel Strode’s regiment, he continued with that command until a peace was conquered by the subjugation of the Indians. September 6, 1832, he was mustered out of service, and on the 7th, the goods of the family were packed and loaded into wagons and the journey to the new home commenced. There were neither roads nor crossing places on the streams. Trackways for the wagons had to be cut out and the banks of the streams dug away to afford crossings, and two days were consumed in making the trjp of less than ten miles. On the afternoon of the 8th of November, 1832, the family moved in and took possession of their new home — a house built the Winter previous. Thus was commenced the settlement of that part of Jo Daviess County, which, in later years, came to be known as Dunleith.

About the same time that Frentress made his claim, Thomas Jordan made a claim on the banks of the Mississippi River, and to which he removed his family the same day that Frentress moved to his claim. For a number of years Jordan maintained a canoe ferry to the west shore of the Mississippi River to accommodate the little trade and the large number of mining explorers from Illinois and Wisconsin (then Michigan Territory), who looked forward to the time when they might have a legal right to occupy the lead mines which had been worked by Julien Dubuque from about 1788 to the time of his death in 1810. The occupancy of a claim at the present site of the City of Dunleith by the Jordan family, in September, 1832, establishes the fact that they were the pioneer settlers and the first white people to claim a permanent abiding place in a locality now so full of intelligence, business activity and manufacturing industries, and the site of a city that is known throughout the civilized world for its production of labor-saving machinery.

The Jordan cabin was built very nearly on the site now occupied by Sutter’s livery stable, and the well in the street in front of that stable was dug by the Jordans soon after they occupied their pioneer cabin.

In the Spring of 1833, the Mattox family came in and settled about half a mile east of the Frentress family, and one by one settlers continued to come in and make claims, and build cabins and settle in the neighborhood, until there was quite a community. In the Spring of 1832, two men named Boxley and Thompson made claims in the Callagan bottom, north of the Frentress place, broke some land and planted a few acres of corn. It seems that they paid no attention to the alarm that called Frentress from his claim on the 14th of May, and that they remained to cultivate their fields. While engaged in plowing their corn, they were fired upon and killed by the Indians. The exact date of these Indian murders, Mrs. Frentress does not remember, but thinks it must have been some time in the month of June, by reason of their bodies being found between two rows of corn where they were plowing.

This much by way of a history of the pioneer settlement of the Dunleith district, and we now take up some of the later events, although they are among the occurrences of half a century ago. Emsley H. Frentress was the first male child born in the settlement, his birth occuring on the 10th of February, 1833. [He died on the 21st day of November, 1876.]

The first female child, according to Mrs. Frentress’ best recollection, was Lydia Ann Mattox, now the wife of Duncan Cameron, of Oakland, California. The date of her birth is not remembered. The first marriage was in 1836, when the rites of matrimony were solemnized between Hayden Gilbert and a Miss Jordan.

The first school was taught in one of the D’Bois cabins, before mentioned. It was a subscription school and was taught by a man named Kennedy. The next school was taught in a small plank house, erected for the purpose on the Frentress place by the Frentress and Mattox families. These parties also employed the teacher and became responsible for his salary, although the children of the other families of the neighborhood were admitted. The first religious meetings were held in this school house, under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1838—’39. Revs. J. Crummer and James, who had been commissioned and sent to this part of Illinois, by the Conference district, of which it formed a part, as Circuit Riders. They held services alternately, and every body in the neighborhood were regular attendants. Services were not held regularly every Sabbath—sometimes once in two weeks, and sometimes not more than once a month.

The first deaths within the territory designated as Menominee Township, of which Dunleith formed a part until March, 1865, were the decease, by Indian murder, of Boxley and Thompson, in the Callagan bottom, in June, 1832. The first from natural causes, was the death of Zachariah Hoffman, who died of cholera, in 1833. The first orchard in the township was planted by Mr. Frentress, in 1837. The trees were bought at Montague’s nursery at Waddarn’s Grove, in what is now Stephenson County. To some readers it may seem a little strange that no orchard should be started until 1837, while the settlement of the township was commenced almost five years before, but this is explained by the fact that the Fever River Country was regarded by many people as only a mining coun­try, and entirely unsuited to agricultural or horticultural purposes, and that the early settlers were almost exclusively mining adventurers and specu­lators, who, when they first came, did not expect or intend to become permanent residents, nor to engage in any business not directly connected with mining.

The incidents so far related cover the early settlement of Menominee and Dunleith Townships. After the Indian troubles were permanently settled, in 1832, there was not much to disturb the conditions of pioneer life. For several years straggling Indians would come along, but the only annoyance they occasioned was in persistent begging and petty thefts. Claim hunters and settlers kept coming in, new cabins were built, new farms opened from year to year, until within ten years all the available land was claimed, and for the most part occupied. By-and-by the old cabins gave way to a better class of buildings, and thus, without the occurrence of any thing of historical interest, the country continued to improve and prosper, until the building of railroads came to be considered a measure of commercial necessity. Among the early railroad enterprises of Illinois, was the Galena and Chicago Union. January 7, 1846, a meeting of the representative men of the several counties along the line of the proposed road between the Mississippi River and Chicago, was held at Rockford, to consider the feasibility of buying out the interests of a New York company, who had obtained a charter under the name and style of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad Company. This company had also obtained a tract of 1000 acres of land on Dupage River, and, in 1838, had done sothe work on the prairie west of Chicago. This much being accomplished, the undertaking was left in abeyance. Some time in the latter part of 1845, Messrs. Ogden and Jones, of Chicago, negotiated with Messrs. Nevins and Matteson, for the purchase of the charter and franchises of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad Company, for $20,000. When the Rockford meeting of January 7, 1845, had assembled and organized, Mr. Jones, of Chicago, introduced the following resolution, which was adopted:

Resolved: If a satisfactory arrangement can be made with the present holders of the stock of tile Galena & Chicago Union Railroad Company, that the members of this convention will use all honorable measures to obtain subscriptions to the stock of said company.

This recitation covers the history of the beginning of that railroad, the completion of which, in later years, connected the Mississippi, at Dunleith, with Lake Michigan, at Chicago.

In 1850, Mr. Douglas, then a member of Congress, secured the passage of a law, making a large grant of government land to aid in the construction, of the Illinois Central Railroad, the managers of which had become possessed of that part of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad between Galena and Freeport. And while the building of the last named road was well under way between Freeport and Chicago this large grant of land to the Illinois Central Railroad Company gave a new impetus to every enterprise of the country adjacent to Dunleith. In June, 1855, this road was completed to the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, at the present site of Dunleith.

In 1849, there was but one house and one fishing shanty at Dunleith, but by the time the road was completed, June 1, 1855, as many as fifty substantial buildings, many of them graceful brick structures, had been erected and were in waiting for the business the road was expected to bring.

The land on which the city was laid out was entered from the government by Augustus Gregoire, at the land sales at Dixon, in the Spring of 1847. By the death of Augustus Gregoire, Charles Gregoire, a brother, succeeded to the ownership of the land, fifteen acres of which he sold to the Railroad Company for railroad purposes — freight house, depot buildings, etc. In 1853, a town company, composed of George W. Sanford, Jonathan Sturges, Morris Ketchum, George W. Jones, George Griswold and Charles Gregoire, was formed, who were known as the Proprietors of the Town of Dunleith, to which company Charles Gregoire conveyed the northwest quarter of section 29, the southwest quarter of section 20 and fractional sections of 19 and 30, all in town 29 north, range 2 west of the 4th principal meridian, which was laid off into lots, blocks, streets, avenues and alleys, and named upon the plat and records, as Dunleith, in honor of Dunleith, Scotland. The plat was filed in the office of the County Clerk (W. H. Bradley, clerk), duly acknowledged by Charles Gregoire, December 14, 1853. The plat was made by John C. Goodyear, County Surveyor, certified and approved March 16, 1854, and recorded March 18, 1854. The first public sale of lots was had in the Summer of 1855, although some lots had been sold and occupied soon after the town was laid out. Frederick Jessup and Charles Gregoire were general managers for the proprietors, and Jessup the ruling spirit. In making sales of lots, Jessup imposed the condition that all purchasers of lots in Sinsinawa Avenue should erect thereon nothing but three-story brick buildings, and that no spirituous liquors should ever be sold therein. Under these conditions, what is now the Commercial House and Post-Office building, at the corner of First Street and Sinsinawa Avenue, was built by Colonel James Robinson, for storage and commission purposes. A man named John Monti, of Galena, bought a lot on the corner of Second Street and Sinsinawa Avenue, and in 1855, erected thereon a three-story brick building for a general store. This building was destroyed by fire in the Fall of 1877.

The first building erected on the town plat, after the town was laid out, was built by Charles Gregoire, for hotel purposes, and occupied a position on Wisconsin Avenue, a short distance above Sinsinawa Avenue. It was a two­story brick, erected in 1853, and at one time was known as the Bates House. The first store, or trading place, was opened in 1854, by Charles Wheeler. Wheeler occupied a small frame shanty that stood on Wisconsin Avenue, almost opposite the hotel building erected by Gregoire and which was first called the Dunleith House, but afterwards the Bates House, as already stated. John Clise opened a store in the Monti building.. Holdorif was also a merchant during the same period, and in 1857 Augustus Switzer, who had engaged in farming in Menominee Township for several years (the earlier part of his life having been spent in mercantile persuits), purchased property in Dunleith, remained here and opened a store at the corner of Third Street and Sinsinawa Avenue, his present place of business. From that time forward until the bridging of the Mississippi between Dunleith and Dubuque, business was good. Dunleith’s star was in the ascendant. Lots ran up to almost fabulous prices. A number of grand enterprises were projected and some of them commenced, but the beginning and completion of the tunnel and bridge, in 1868, resulted in the derangement of many plans, threw many men out of employment and the means of making a living at Dunleith, and hence they were compelled to seek remunerative engagements elsewhere. The transfer of passengers and freight between Dunleith and Dubuque was of itself sufficient to employ fifty or more men and a number of teams. But their occupation vanished when the first train of cars passed through the tunnel, and crossed the bridge to the Dubuque side, and thence onward toward the setting sun, to the lands of the Nebraskas and Dakotas.

From the time the railroad was completed,in 1855, up to the opening of the bridge, in 1868, the transfer business was heavy, and it is said that the gentleman who managed the business for the transfer company (and the company was really composed of railroad officers who were prevented by statutory provisions from being known in its management), who was the ostensible president and owner of the stock, wagons and other appurtenances necessary to the business, realized, in clear cash, in the twelve or fifteen years the transfer traffic was continued, the handsome fortune of $182,000 ! Certain it is that from an employe in a Galena store, a few years before, he accumulated at least money enough to build one of the handsomest residences in Dunleith, and to venture on several undertakings that promised large returns, but all of which proved disastrous failures.

Among the other grand undertakings of the friends of Dunleith—of those who saw a bright future and a great city in the near advance of years—was the Argyle House, named after the Duke of Argyle, Scotland, a relative of the Jessup already mentioned as agent and manager for the proprietors of the town of Dunleith. The Argyle was built in 1855. It was a four-story brick, with stone basement, with a front of 145 feet on the railroad track, and 50 feet deep, covering an area of 7,250 feet. The object in building it was to accommodate the railroad and river passenger traffic, and there is a strong suspicion that transit affairs were so managed as to detain travelers here over night, and thus “make it pay.” But like the transfer business, when the bridge was completed the Argyle’s glory departed. It has gone into decay. Its walls are dingy and brown. A few of its lower rooms are occupied as shops; and some of the upper rooms are occupied as residences by families, but for the most part it is unoccupied and tenantless. When first opened, it was managed by a hotelier from Chicago, named Luce, and in its almiest days had no superior on the Upper Mississippi. For ten years or more it was the pride and glory of Dunleith, but now its walls are blackened and weak, and its unoccupied rooms cheerless and dark.

Pro Bono Publico.— A Market House, with City Hall, was built in 1865. A Fire Company was organized about the same time, of which Augustus Switzer was foreman for a long time. A Fire Engine, Hose Cart and Apparatus, Fire Bell, Fireman’s Silk Flag, etc., were purchased, without cost to the city, through a series of entertainments and balls, under the supervision and management of the Company’s foreman.

EDUCATIONAL.—The original part of the present graded school building was erected in 1858. In 1864 an addition was made of sufficient size to afford ample room for fine, well conducted departments. This building is a plain, unpretentious brick structure costing only about $5,ooo. School is maintained about nine months of the year, during which the best educational talent to be had in the country is employed. There are 400 scholars (between six and twenty-one years of age) in the district (No. 1) entitled to school benefits. Of these, 250 are enrolled. Out of this number there is an average daily attendance at this time (Jan., 1878), of 220. Robert A. Hayes is principal, assisted by H. P. Caverly, Grammar Department; Carmie Daggett, Intermediate; Kate Paul, Second Primary, and Julia Joy, First Primary. - School Board.—C. S. Burt, President; John Buckley, Secretary; John B. Chapman, Director.

CHURCHES.—The Presbyterians erected a small frame church in 1855, which was also used as a school house. This building gave way some years ago, and is now known only in name.

The Congregationalists commenced work here in 1861, and built a brick church edifice near the present school house. They occupied it until about 1870 or 1871, when they ceased, and sold their church building to the Methodists, who kept up regular services for about four years, when the society became too weak to maintain a pastor, and gave way before decreasing membership. The building is now occupied by the German Lutherans, who have regular preaching every Sabbath. They also maintain a well oiganized Sabbath-school The services and Sunday-school are conducted in the German tongue.

The Catholic Church edifice was erected under the management of Rev. Fathers Jarboe, Fortune and Bernard, in 1857, at a cost of $3,500. The contractor was William Melvin, a carpenter. He sublet the stone work to James Muldowney, and the brick work to a man named Morrison. The church is a plain, substantial one, in which services are conducted every alternate Sabbath by the Rev. Father McMahan. The society has a membership of about 70 families.

NEWSPAPERS.—Dunleith had a weekly newspaper from June, 1857, to May, 1861—four years. The first few numbers were printed in Dubuque, by the Flaven Bros., who named their paper the Dunleith Commercial Advertiser. In August following the first issue, Mr. E. R. Paul, then of Potosi, Wisconsin, became interested in the publication, and removed hither a press and material, so that the sixth number, dated August 12, 1857, was printed entirely in Dunleith. In a brief time the Flaven Bros. retired, Mr. J. R. Flynn taking their interest. Flynn allso withdrew in a few months, leaving M. Paul alone in its management. He continued to publish The Dunleith Advertiser until its discontinuance. At that time its patronage was transferred, as was also its proprietor, to the Galena Courier. No one has since ventured to establish a paper in Dunleith. The printing material was afterwards (in 1863 or ‘64), sold to parties in Lanark, Carroll County, this state.

Burt Machine Works.—The leading manufacturing industry is known and designated as above. They are not only the most extensive in Dunleith, but among the best known in the West, and are really the saving interests of the city in which they are maintained. This establishment was commenced in 1856, by D. R. Burt, father of C. S. Burt, as a manufactory of combined reapers and mowers, and were continued in that interest until destroyed by fire in 1863, which involved a loss of $50,000. Soon after the fire, the business was resumed in an old building near by, and during the early part of 1864 new buildings (the ones now occupied), were erected at a cost of $10,000 and supplied with the latest styles of machinery at an additional cost of $25,000. When operations were commenced in the new buildings, they added the manufacture of shingle-machines to that of reapers and mowers, and the combined industries were continued up to 1869, when the manufacture of reapers and mowers was abandoned, with the intention of making the manufacture of shingle machines a specialty, but there, came a demand from Dubuque parties for large numbers of the Julien Churn, and the Burts entered into a contract to supply the demand, and turned out about 10,000 of these domestic machines. This additional industry did not interfere with their other machine operations, or cripple their capacity for other work. When the demand for the Julien Churn was supplied, the shops were employed almost exclusively, up to 1876, in the shingle machine business. At that date they added facilities and machinery for the manufacture of the McDermott Riding and Walking Cultivator, which line of business is still continued. The shops, as now managed, can turn out 3,000 of these cultivators per year, a little less than ten per day of ten hours, or nearly one cultivator per hour.

Although so largely engaged in the manufacture of cultivators, there has been no falling off in the manufacture of shingle machines, but, on the contrary, there has been a steadily increasing demand for them, which demand has been promptly met by the addition of new machinery and enlarged capacity from time to time. These machines are made of different sizes and capacity, the Evarts Patent Rotary, Twelve Block Machine, being the largest and fastest, and is acknowledged to be the best large shingle machine in the world. It has two circular saws located on opposite sides of the machine, and a circular carriage way to deliver the blocks to the saws without interruption. Its capacity in ordinary cypress and pine timber, is about 150,000 shingles per day of ten hours, or 75,000 to each saw; 7,500 per hour, or 125 per minute, or two and 1/12 shingles per second. With such capacity, it is no wonder that there is a demand for these machines in all parts of the civilized globe—in Austria, Russia, Prussia, Sweden,Norway, New Zealand, South America, and, in fact, wherever else shingle timber grows and is used. It can be operated by one man.

Smaller machines are also made that will turn out from 25,000 to 30,000 per day. In addition, machines are made for bunching shingles that command admiration for simplicity and labor-saving facilities. The manufacture of these machines is a specia]ty, but they do not include all the work done at the Burt shops, but they have become so universally popular, and have received such high awards of praise, at home and abroad, that, in compliment to the county in which the shops in which they are made have been built up—a county, the history of which is being written—that a somewhat extended notice seemed deserved. Add to this the fact that, at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in 1876, they received a Medal Award, Diploma and Special Mention, and the people of Jo Daviess County have special cause to be proud that such machines are the result of the enterprise and handiwork of their fellow-citizens.

In the Centennial Report of Awards, the following entry appears of record:
PhILADELPHIA, Feb. 7, 1877.
The undersigned having examined the product herein described (to-wit: SHINGLE MACHINES), respectfully recommend the same to the United States Centennial Commission for Award for the following reasons, viz: GREAT SIMPLICITY OF DESIGN, SOLADITY OF CONSTRUCTION, GREAT POWER OF PR0DUCTION, and GREAT ORIGINALITY.

F. REIFER, Judge.
Approval of Group ofJudges:—John Anderson, Geo. H. Blelock, John A. Anderson, Augt. Gobert, fils, F. Perrier, W. F. Durfine, C. A. Augustrom.
A true copy of tite Record, FRANCIS A. WALKER, Chief of Bureau of Award.
Given by authority of Centennial Commission. [SEAL.] A. T. GOSHORN,
Director General.
J. L. CAMPBELL, J. R. HAWLEY,
Secretary. Director General.

In February, 1877, these works also commenced the manufacture of the Frentress Barbed Fence Wire, and during that year turned out 115 tons thereof. This year (1878), they will make 300 tons. They have ten machines for making this wire, all of which were made at their own works, and are of superior quality. Fence wire makers say these machines are far superior to anything of the kind yet introduced in any part of the country. The employment of these ten machines will give them a capacity of three tons per day, or 339 tons per year, of one hundred and thirteen uninterrupted working days.

The Burt Machine Works cover one entire block and are conveniently arranged in all their various departments. The machinery employed is all of the latest and most improved patterns, and selected with a view to capacity, adaptability and durability. The company is composed of C. S. and S. Burt, and R. E. Odell—all industrious, practical men, and thoroughly devoted to the interests of their business, and to the welfare and prosperity of the county and city of their home. These works now employ thirty men regularly, whose earnings go to the support of the grocers, merchants and other dealers of Dunleith. In 1876 the number of employes was not so large as during 1877, but large enough to involve a labor account of $6,000. The labor account of 1877 shows an outlay of $10,000 —a very handsome outlay, but which will be increased to about one-half more during 1878.

Nail Mill.—Nail works were commenced in 1873 or 1874, by L. & J. C. Holloway, of Lancaster, Wisconsin. This mill was supplied with six nail machines, two sets of rolls, and all the appliances peculiar to the business of nail making. The mill had a capacity of 100 kegs per day, but the enterprise was not continued many months until operations were suspended and the mill closed up. The mill and its machinery are now owned by G. T. Walker, of Lancaster, Wisconsin.

Cultivator Works.—E. Children’s cultivator works were commenced in 1867. He manufactures his own patent, and turns out both riding and walking machines, making about 300 per year. His machinery is now driven by steam power.

Novelty Grain Separator Works—These works are located in the Argyle building. The manufacture of these machines was commenced by Messrs. Redd & Sanford, in 1876. This is a machine that commends itself to all practical millers, and can be best described in the manufacturers’ own words:

“The machine consists of two suction fans, oat and cockle extractor. The grain enters the first suction spout in a thin sheet, through a peculiar feed box, where it is met by a strong upward current of air, which removes the dust, light screenings, chaff, etc. The wheat then passes upon a series of zinc screens that effectually remove all oats, straws, sticks, weeds, and any thing larger than a grain of wheat. The wheat next passes upon the large cockle screen, which takes out all cockle, small seeds, and sand. After the wheat leaves the cockle extractor, it enters, in a thin sheet, another suction spout, where it passes through a strong upward current of air, that removes all unsound grains of wheat, light oats, smut balls and every thing lighter than a grain of wheat. The suction blasts are regulated by a valve in the top of the machine. Prominent among the new features of this machine is the cockle extractor, which consists, first, of a large screen, with a peculiar arrangement for keeping it clean, which takes out all cockle and also some small grains of wheat. The cocke and small wheat are gathered on a smaller perforated sheet iron screen, with a stationary cover, the wheat and cockle passing under the cover, which holds the wheat down flat and prevents it from turning up and passing through the holes, but forces the cockle through, the wheat passing over the end and entering the suction spout with the wheat from the first screen. This makes it the best separator ever invented. It makes no dust or dirt and can be placed in any part of the mill. The arrangement of the fans and suction spouts is such that it gives the strongest and best blast for separating grain, with the least power, of any other machine. It occupies less room than any other separator and does better work than any two others. In fact, it is two machines combined—a separator and a cockle extractor.

The City of Dunleith was first incorporated under the general laws of the state in 1856. The first election for town officers was held on Wednesday, April 8, of the same year, when the following named citizens were chosen to the several offices:

Trustees.—Charles Bogy (brother of the late U. S. Senator Bogy, of Missouri), James A. Campbell, John Smith, William E. Boone, and James Currie. At the first meeting of the Board of Trustees, Mr. Bogy was chosen president; Charles Wheeler, clerk; James Garnick, treasurer and assessor, and William Pittam, marshal and collector.

Up to 1865, the City of Dunleith belonged to Menominee Township, which covered an area of forty-five sections of land. On the 2d day of March, of that year, a petition was presented to the Board of Supervisors, signed by numerous citizens of Menominee Township, praying for a division of the township, and the erection of the Township of Dunleith out of the western part of Menominee. The petition provided that the dividing line should commence at the state (Wisconsin) line at the corner of fractional sections 14 and 15, town 29 north, range 2 west, thence running due south on section lines to the Mississippi River, at the southeast corner of section 3, town 28 north, range 2 west, and that all that part of Menominee lying east of that line should continue to be called Menominee, and that all west of that line, to the Mississippi River should be known and designated as Dunleith Township.

The petition was accepted, when Mr. Marfield moved to lay the petition on the table until the afternoon session, but the motion was lost. Mr. Gear then moved that the prayer of the petitioners be granted. The ayes and nays being called, the vote stood as follows:

Ayes.—Messrs. Bennett, Duffy, Heinlen, Stratt, Lorrain, Brendel, Switzer, Furlong, Napper, Jewell, Woodworth, Mars, Gear, Tyrrell, Haws, Wier, Deeds, Campbell, Edgerton Ginn—20.

Nays Messrs Gray, Marfield, Luning, Laird, Morse, Townsend, Green, Wingart—8.

So the prayer of the petitioners was granted, and the Township of Dunleith established.

From the date of the completion of the railroad to Dunleith, June 1, 1855, to the completion of the tunnel and bridge in the Fall of 1868, there was a pretty steady increase of population, and the citizens—those interested in business—felt the need of a better system of local government than that provided by the general laws of the state for the incorporation of towns and villages. Public meetings were held, and the matter thoroughly discussed. Finally, in pursuance of a resolution of the Board of Trustees, A. Switzer, with the legal assistance of Attorney Weiglev, of Galena, drafted a charter which was submitted to the Legislature through Representative Platt, and in February, 1865, the charter was approved and granted, since when the city has been subject to its provisions, Mr. Switzer being chosen first mayor thereunder. He was re-elected in 1866, and again elected in 1868—serving, in all, three terms. He was also the first supervisor elected from Dunlcith Township after it was set off from Menominee in 1865. -

DUNLEITH LAND C0MPANY.—What was known as the Dunleith Land Company succeeded the Proprietors of Dunleith in 1863, their articles of incorporation being filed July 20, of that year. This company was composed of Jonathan Sturgis, E. Bement, John H. Thompson, George Griswold, Theodore A. Neal. Theodore A. Neal, president, and R. E. Odell, secretary. The old company, known as the Proprietors of Dunleith, had been dissolved, and the property (unsold) divided. Four members of the new company had been members of the original Town Company, and when the new company was organized the remaining property was divided into six equal shares, four shares of which were held by the four members of the old company. The other two shares were held by Dubuque parties—one of whom was Charles Gregoire, who transferred his interest to R. E. Odell and C. S. Burt. The other one sixth interest was held by Hon. George W. Jones, who has since sold off the larger share thereof, and now owns but a very small interest. In February, 1868, the Dunleith Land Company sold their entire interest to C. S. Burt, who retains the property and its management.

When the town was first laid off, the Proprietors of Dunleith failed to record that part of the town plat north of Sinsinawa avenue, but made sales of sundry lots along the base of the bluffs, as well as upon their sides and summits, a negligence that involved the proprietors in some litigation, in 1856, when the corporate authorities brought suit against them for a violation of the laws in such cases made and provided, resulting in a finding and heavy costs against the company.

FL0ODS.—Dunleith has been three times visited by disastrous floods. Wisconsin Avenue comes down a narrow ravine from the north, which, in times of heavy rains, quickly becomes a rapid, roaring current. About four o’clock on the afternoon of September 9, 1875, a tremendous rain storm passed over this section, falling in torrents, and quickly filling every little channel upon the hillsides, these little channels, or sluice-ways, carried the water into Wisconsin Avenue, which soon became a resistless sea. Gathering force from the steep bluffs, it dashed on, sweeping every thing before it, and plunging into Switzer’s store room, filled the interior above the counters, tearing down the shelves, overturning boxes, sweepingdown packages and piles of goods and threatening general destruction. Maguire’s store, on the opposite side of Sinsinawa Avenue, at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue, and the stores above, on the west side of the last named thoroughfare, shared in the same visitation of destruction. By this flood and a subsequent one in 1876 Switzer lost about five thousand dollars worth of goods, wares, etc., and Mayor Maguire lost very nearly the same amount.

March 10, 1876, another calamity of the same character was visited upon Dunleith, doing serious damage to everything within its reach. At Hazel Green, Wisconsin, a few miles north of east from Dunleith, this rain storm was accompanied by a terrific hurricane or tornado, that killed nine persons, besides doing incalculable damage to property. Houses were lifted from the ground, carried up into the air and then dashed to pieces against the earth. A wagon and a pair of horses were taken up and carried high into the air, almost out of sight, and hurled to the earth a mass of debris and lifeless carcasses.

The night of July 4, 1876, a third flood rolled down upon the city and startled the people from their slumber and rest. The same night, Rock Dale, on Catfish Creek, Iowa, only a few miles to the southwest of Dunleith, was overwhelmed by a rush of waters, forty-two lives destroyed and many houses washed away, and many others dashed to pieces. On the morning of the 5th, desolation and mourning filled the little valley village, which, on America’s Centennial Day, had been so full of life and bustling activity.

These three floods have seldom had their counterpart or equal in volume and destruction in any part of the country. and never in Northwestern Illinois. School Directors of Different School Districts in Dunleith Township, Town 29, Range 2 West of the fourth Principal Meridian, 1877—School Dist. No. 1, John Buckley, Charles S. Burt, John B. Chapman; Dist. No. 2, Sylvester Long, Harmon Brummer, Renier Schermann; Dist. No. 3, Francis Kruse, David Foltz, Sterns D. Platt; Dist. No. 4, Henry N. Frentress, Henry Lutters, John Shulting.

Teachers Employed in Township, 1877—Robert Hayes, Dist. No. 1; H. P. Caverly, Carmine Daggett, Katie Paul, Julia Joy, Philip Maguire, Dist. No., 2; James Maguire, Dist. No. 3; Maria E. Culton, Dist., No. 4. School Treasurer, 1877—Thomas Maguire.

Dunleith Township Officers, 1877—Supervisor, Charles S. Burt; Town Clerk, Charles Mayer; Assessor, Henry Smith; Collector, James Farnan; Commissioners of Highways, Merritt Platt. Henry N. Frentress, Herbert Rees; Constables, John Buckley, Anthony Dames; Justices of the Peace, John Staudenmayer, Henry Smith. Dunleith City Officers, 1877—Mayor, Thomas Maguire; Aldermen, George Most, William Quinlan, Joseph Whatmore, Anthony Thielen; Marshal, John D. Clise; City Treasurer, William P. Ennor; Street Commissioner, Theophilus Dames, Sr.

Transcribed from History of Jo Daviess County H.F. Kett 1878

It is a little difficult to ascertain who were the first settlers of the Township of Dunleith, as that township borders upon the Mississippi River and it is possible that many, while seeking locations near the lead mines, may have settled within its borders. It contains some lead mines but they are not very extensive. It is probable, however, that many miners have prospected there. The first permanent settler of which we have any record was Eleazer Frentress, who settled on a claim south of East Dubuque, and the land is still owned by his descendants. The city of East Dubuque, which is within the borders of the township, is a place of considerable importance. and bids fair to become more so in the not distant future. It owns its own light plant and waterworks and has the second best public school building in the county.

(Excerpt from the book "History of Jo Daviess County" 1904 and transcribed by Dori Leekley)