This township, located on the western boundary of the county, is six miles square, embracing the east half of Township 28, with an aggregate area of 22,800 acres, 19,574 of which are under cultivation. The western portion of the township is as fine prairie as can be seen anywhere, while the part occupied by Waddams Grove, is covered with a superior quality of timber. In the eastern portion of the township, there is more or less scattering timber, or, as they are usually called, openings. A number of excellent limekilns and stone- quarries have been opened in the township ; there is no lack of excellent water ; fruit is cultivated with profit to the producer, and a steady market is afforded the farmers — combinations which have aided in building up and rendering prosperous what is claimed by the inhabitants of West Point, as the banner township in the county.

In the early part of the year 1832, William Waddams, accompanied by his sons Hiram and Nelson, arrived in Illinois, and, staking out his claim on the north side of the grove which has inherited his name, became the pioneer settler, not only of West Point Township, but also of Stephenson County. He was, barring the presence of his two children, solitary and alone in the primeval forests of the undeveloped West, with neighbors on the east no nearer than Rock River, Galena on the west, and Grant County, Wis., at the north, where there lived Andrew Clino, a man who is represented at that date to have been a patriarch in years, adventures and experience. Here he resided for two years and upward, when George S. Payne ventured into the vicinity, and settled himself on the farm subsequently owned by Thomas S. French. During this year, John Garner, with his sons, A. J. and Alphonso Garner, entered a claim within half a mile of the present limits of the village of Lena. This trinity comprehended the number of emigrants who yielded to Western attractions, and established an abiding-place in West Point Township. The precedent thus established was emulated a year later by Rodney and Luman Montague and William Tucker. These gentlemen settled near William Waddams, and for years supplied the absence of neighbors

In 1836, Jabez Smith, Alfred and Sanford Giddings, looked in upon the settlement established near Waddams Grove, but passed on and became identified with the building up of Kent Township. John B. Kaufman came in 1835, and remained only a year, when he moved to Erin Township, but Washington Parker, who settled in West Point during 1836, remained without indulging his wandering proclivities. The tide of emigration which followed westwardly in 1837, was not checked, did not ebb, before West Point Township was overrun with newcomers, many of whom remained, while others drifted into the waves of circumstances or inclination and went elsewhere. Among those who added materially to the population of the promising township was the family of Samuel F. Dodds, David T. Perry, Robert and William Lashell, James and Oliver Thompson, Mr. Graham, Benjamin, John and Jesse Tucker, Jacob Burbridge, Martin Howard, John Harmon, Samuel and Marshall Bailey, George Place and others. Jacob Burbridge, at the time of the Black Hawk war, resided on Apple River, and served as a volunteer in the campaigns which were concluded only when the savages, led by their wily chief, evaded extermination by surrender and humiliation.

In 1838, Thomas E. Way, Samuel F. Dodds and J. D. Fowler, and la 1839, M. L. Howard, joined their individual fortunes with the pioneer settlement, and remained to participate in the profits that accrued with time and the advance of civilization, and in 1839 and 1840, the population was measurably increased, until in the latter year an informal census returned an enumeration of sixty residents. Ten years later a similar experiment established the population at 250, all told.

In September, 1853, the Galena & Chicago Union road was completed to Freeport, its success due, in no inconsiderable degree, to the aid extended by the inhabitants of Stephenson County. The result was that, notwithstanding the increase in the value of lands of at least 25 per cent, the township began to fill up with settlers of a sterling character, who lent an additional force to that already employed in the cultivation of West Point, and appreciated the value of all her material interests. Lands were held at a stiff price, which was gradually increased each year, until 1865, when they were quoted as commanding a steady demand, at a rate per acre not differing from that paid during the year last mentioned. This was continued until the panic of 1873, when "nominal" were substituted for substantial prices, and remained under that head until the paralysis in business was succeeded by a healthy re-action, and that supplemented by complete restoration

In January, 1854, the road was completed to Warren, and, in the spring of that year, Samuel F. Dodds, in conjunction with the Illinois Central Company, laid out 160 acres of land, in the southeast corner of the township, for a village site, and named it Lena, by which it is still known, a prosperous municipality and the shipping point for farmers residing at points within the radius of twelve or fifteen miles. From 1850 to 1860, the increase in population, both of the village and township, was rapid, the population of the latter in 1860 being 1,798. This was slightly increased a year later, when the war broke out, which had the effect, not only of diminishing the number then enumerated, but also of preventing any increase during its continuance. Immediately upon the conclusion of hostilities, the number of inhabitants once more attained large dimensions, as the census taken during the current year (1880) indicated.

During the war, the quota under every call made by the Federal Government for troops was promptly filled, and the township was well represented in the Eleventh, Fifteenth, Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth and Ninety-second Regiments of Volunteer Infantry, and Fourteenth Regiment of Volunteer Cavalry. All of those who went into the service, discharged the trust committed to their care with fidelity; many of them were left the occupants of " trenches" or unknown graves by the sea, many of them returned to participate in the benefits sought to be attained by victory.

In November, 1835, the Rev. James McKean, a Methodist minister, preached in the cabin of Luman Montague, and, in the following year, a Methodist class-meeting was organized. In about 1840, the Rev. Aratus Kent, who was identified with the cause of religion in Galena and Dubuque years previous, came to Waddams Grove and organized a Presbyterian class; about the same period, a Sabbath school was held in J. D. Fowler's cabin, and a school for the education of the young in a log house erected near the residence of Luman Montague. From these insignificant beginnings, the causes of morality and education in West Point Township have attained an importance and value that can only be measured by the beneficial influence they have exerted, not alone in the building-up of the township, but in formulating and maintaining of a quality of public opinion which finds expression in the character of the people, and their observance of those obligations which civilization and humanizing influences impose. In the latter part of 1850, the west half of Township 28 was taken from Waddams, and added to West Point, making the latter six miles square, its present boundaries.

In 1836, Amanda Waddams was born at her father's cabin, which still stands on the Waddams farm, about four miles west of Lena, on the road from Nora to McConnell's Grove, being occupied by Mrs. George Place, who, as Eunice Waddams, was married to George Place, July 4, 1837, by Squire Levi Robey, the first marriage in the township, and the first of record in the county. About 1839, Minerva Rathburn, residing with Robert Burbridge, near Pin Hook, while engaged in scuffling with Abija Watson in Mr. Burbridge's house, was accidentally thrown against a peg driven into the logs as a shelf support, and received injuries which caused her death soon after. This was the first death in the township, and the first burial in what was known as Waddams' cemetery long since vacated, and now inclosed in the farm owned by J. P.Fair.