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pleted a second brick block on the same site, and finished a hall on the third floor, at a total expense of about eight thousand dollars. Peake's hall was the first public hall in Rockford. This block was destroyed by fire in November, 1857, and the side and rear walls were left standing. The corner store was occupied at the time by C. A. Huntington and Robert Barnes, as a book-store, at a rental of four hundred and fifty dollars per year. Elisha A. Kirk and Anthony Haines purchased the property in the autumn of 1858, for four thousand dollars, and rebuilt the block the following year. In 1841 Mr. Peake built the small brick house directly west of Mrs. Anthony Haines' residence, on the same lot, where seven of his twelve children. were born. In 1856 he built the substantial stone house which is now the residence of Mrs. Haines. Mr. Peake died November 8, 1891, at the age of eighty-four years. He was the father of L. Peake, the harness-dealer on West State street. Mrs. Peake resides in East Rockford, and is eighty-three years of age.

William Hulin was a native of Salem, Massachusetts. He settled in Rockton township in 1837 or '38. August 5, 1839, he was chosen a justice of the peace, and from that time he was continually in the public service. He resigned from the office of clerk of the county court a few days before his death, which occurred December 10, 1869. Mr. Hulin was about sixty-one years of age. In the early forties he removed to Rockford. His home in this city was the residence of Dr. C. H. Richings, on North Main street. In 1855 he married the widow of Merrill E. Mack. Mr. Hulin was a high-minded gentleman, in whom those who knew him best placed perfect confidence. Mr. Hulin preserved files of early Rockford papers, which are now in the public library. He edited a work on school law, with forms, which was of value to teachers.

Daniel Barnum was a native of New York, born in 1778. In 1838 Mr. Barnum, with his wife and six children, came to Winnebago county, and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Cherry Valley township. Mr. Barnum removed to Rockford and spent his last days in retirement. He died November 8, 1870, at the age of ninety-two years.

Harris Barnum, son of Daniel Barnum, was born in Danbury, Connecticut, September 8, 1819. He came with his father to Rockford in 1838. His early manhood was spent on his father's farm. In 1866 he engaged in the shoe business in Rockford with the late Daniel Miller, but soon sold his interest. From

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1870 to 1874 he was associated with Duncan Ferguson, now of Denver, in the real estate and loan business. In 1874 Mr. Barnum was one of the organizers of the Forest City Insurance Company, of which he served as treasurer until incapacitated by illness. Mr. Barnum held the offices of alderman and supervisor. Mr. and Mrs. Barnum have had five children, three of whom are living: Mrs. Alta Williams, and Misses Blanche and Emily. Mr. Barnum was a man of excellent business ability and strict integrity. With these qualities he acquired a large estate. Mr. Barnum died February 26, 1899, in his eightieth year.

Hon. Horace Miller was a native of Berkshire county, Massachusetts, and was born in 1798. He came to this county in 1839, and settled on a large tract of land near the mouth of the Kishwaukee river, which in an early day was known as the Terrace farm. At one time he owned twelve hundred and fifty acres. From 1850 to 1852 Mr. Miller represented this county in the state legislature. He resided on his farm until about

1861, when he came to Rockford and lived a retired life until his death August 5, 1864. Mr. Miller was father of William H. Miller, a well known citizen. Mrs. Brown, widow of the late Judge Brown, is a daughter.

Mr. and Mrs. John Benjamin came from Canada in 1839, and settled in Guilford township. Mr. Benjamin's step-daughter, Mrs. Sarah A. Cook, who still resides in East Rockford, has the distinction of being the first matron of Rockford seminary. She served in this capacity from 1849 to 1852. The students were served with meals in a frame structure directly opposite the first seminary building, on the east side of North First street.

Among the other pioneers of 1838 were: Alfred P. Mather, William Hamilton, Levi Monroe, and Richard Marsh. In 1839 there came Courtland Mandeville, Frederick Charlie, Thaddeus Davis, Sr., Stephen Crilley, D. Bierer, Chester Hitchcock, John Bull, H. Hudson. Others who came previous to 1840 were : Sylvester Scott, James Gilbert, Artemas Hitchcock, John W. Dyer, Samuel C. Fuller, Newton Crawford, Jonathan Hitchcock, Dr. D. Goodrich, Hollis H. Holmes, Stephen Gilbert, and Bela Shaw. Judge Shaw died suddenly May 31, 1865. Five brothers, Thomas, William, John, Robert and Benjamin Garrett, with their parents, settled in Guilford township. Thomas died January 20, 1900. He was a Manxman, born on the Isle of Man, February 11, 1827.

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CHAPTER XXV.

TRIALS OF THE PIONEERS.—SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS.

NE of the greatest privations of the early settlers was the scarcity of provisions, which at that time were obtained from the older settlements in the southern portion of the state. The pioneers possessed limited means, and few were individually able to bear the expense of a journey of such distance. Several neighbors would unite their small sums, and send one of their number for supplies. The difficulties of travel were great; there were rivers to cross, eitherforded or swam; streams and sloughs to be waded; muddy roads and ponderous wagons. Under these circumstances, the time of the messenger's return was uncertain. Later, when a trade in provisions had been established, the same obstacles kept them at almost fabulous prices, and the settlers were sometimes reduced to the verge of absolute destitution. Flour sold from sixteen to twenty dollars per barrel, and on one occasion Thomas Lake purchased three barrels at twenty-two dollars each. Pork was thirty dollars per barrel; wheat sold from three to four dollars per bushel; New Orleans sugar twenty-five cents per pound; and other provisions in proportion. This condition rendered it impossible for the great majority of the settlers, with their scanty means, to scarcely procure the necessities for their support. For six weeks in the winter of 1837-38 there was a tobacco famine, which was a terrible privation to the slaves of the filthy weed. "Judge" E. S. Blackstone said the people in the early forties were too poor to cast a shadow. Mr. Thurston ventures the assertion that in 1841-42 there were not twenty farmers in the county who possessed a suit of clothes suitable to wear at church or at court, which they had purchased with the fruits of their labor on their farms. Some who had passed the prime of life became discouraged and returned to their homes in the east to die. Barter was practiced even in payment for performing the marriage ceremony. Abraham I. Enoch, a justice of the peace, once took a bushel of beans as his fee. Joel B. Potter, a clergyman, was compensated for two ceremonies in wheat, and one day's breaking. Ephraim Sumner swam Pecatonica river twice one cold night, to perform the rite, and received fifty cents.

Had it not been for a beneficent Providence, who stocked the woods and prairies with game and the rivers with fish, many would have suffered for the necessities of the barest subsistence. As late as 1841 the scarcity of fruit was a great trial. There was little, and often none, not even canned fruit. There were dried apples, and the housewives made "mince-pies" of them. Sometimes, in case of sickness, the ways and means looked rather dark, and the mother and her whole family might be involved. In such cases none filled a more important place than Miss Betsy Weldon, whom a few will remember. Strong and well herself, she could fill the place of nurse, housekeeper, dressmaker, milliner, and general repairer of clothing. She was ever ready to respond to cases of need.

The late Judge Church once told this story: "I have in my mind one who is now among the most prosperous farmers, who found himself without the means of procuring for his family a single meal, and he, with one of his neighbors similarly situated, determined to try their luck at fishing. They proceeded to Rock river, and met with success entirely beyond their expectations. When returning, each with as many fish as he could well carry, said one farmer: 'Well, we have got our fish, but what have we to fry them in?' 'Fry them in!' replied his hopeful and satisfied companion. 'Why, fry them in water!' And could you in those days have visited the log cabins scattered over these prairies, that are now groaning under the load of a bountiful harvest, and covered with all the evidences of comfort that wealth can purchase, you would have found many a man going to his hard day's toil from as scanty a breakfast as of suckers fried in water."

It is well that Winnebago county was settled by such a class of sturdy pioneers; men of will and purpose, who knew no such word as fail; who pushed out in advance of civilization, with the determination of the old Norse baron, who engraved upon his shield, as heraldic device, a pickax, surmounted by the motto, "Where there's no hole for me to pass, I'll make one."

It must be evident to the casual observer that only a small portion of the human family possess the qualifications for pioneers. It is not the business of the pioneer to seek good society; but to make it. Contrary to Mr. Carlyle's dictum, the society of that day was not founded upon cloth. The social status was based upon respectability. In the rural districts a family would sometimes drive twenty or twenty-five miles in a lumber

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wagon, to visit a "neighbor." In the village amusements were extemporized to dispel the lonesomeness of the long winter evenings. Among the most popular was the "mock court." The sessions of the court were held in Mr. Miller's store, where "pent-up Uticas" of spread-eagle eloquence were allowed full expression. Each member of the court had his sobriquet; some of these were not suggested by the muses. Another popular summer amusement with a certain class was the "awkward squad," which performed frequent evolutions around Sam Little's saloon. They always produced a "smile."

The noble band of women displayed the fortitude of true heroines. They shared the toils, endured the privations, counseled in difficulties, encouraged in despondency, and nursed in sickness. At the first reunion of the Society of Early Settlers, held at the Holland House, February 2, 1871, Charles I. Horsman responded to the toast, "The Mothers and Daughters of the West, in which he paid them this tribute:

"I don't know whyI have been selected to respond to this toast, only that the ladies and I have always been good friends, and I find them my best friends in prosperity and in adversity.

"Man works from sun to sun,

Woman's work is never done.'

"Mr. President, the truth of this old adage was literally verified in the early settlement of this county. It was the women that carried the laboring oar, and it was to their untiring industry by day and night that we, the men, mainly owe the measure of success we have achieved. It was her words of encouragement, and smiles of approbation that cheered us on in the darkest hour of trial. They were not the effeminate angels that Willis writes of, 'with lips like rose-leaves torn,' but sterling women that met the stern realities of life, and were equal to the occasion; and, Mr. President, what would we poor fellows have done when burning up with fever, or chilled to death with the ague! But for the kind offices of wife and mother and sister to smooth our pillow, bathe our fevered brows, and moisten our parched lips, many of use here tonight in robust health would be lying under the clods of the valley. All honor, say I, Mr. President, to the mothers and daughters of the west, those who, with their enterprising fathers and husbands, left their own pleasant hills and valleys to tread upon the receding footsteps of the red man."