CHAPTER XLIII.

THE FIRST DAM.—THE WATER-POWER.—HIGH WATER OF 1844.

HE attempt to utilize the water-power was the first step in the transition of Rockford from a hamlet to a manufacturing city. February 28, 1843, an act of the legislature was approved, to improve the navigation of the rapids in Rock river at Rockford, and to incorporate the Rockford Hydraulic and Manufacturing Company. The corporation was given power to construct a dam across the river, which should raise the water not more than seven feet. The company was also required to erect and maintain such locks as might be necessary for the passage of steamboats drawing three feet of water. At that time the navigation of Rock river was an open question, and the government might assert its control of the river as a navigable stream. A dam would obstruct navigation; hence the company was required to construct locks for the passage of boats, whenever they should become necessary. The law specified the rates of toll which the company should be entitled to collect for the passage of boats through the locks; and it was given power to detain such craft until the toll should be paid. Daniel S. Haight, Germanicus Kent, Samuel D. Preston, Laomi Peake, Charles I. Horsman, George Haskell and J. C. Goodhue were appointed commissioners to receive subscriptions to the stock. The capital stock was placed at fifty thousand dollars, divided into five hundred shares of one hundred dollars each. The corporation was given power to increase its capital stock to any sum not exceeding two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The law expressly provided that the state might, at any time after the construction of the dam and locks, assume the ownership of the same; the state, however, was to keep them in good repair. All the hydraulic power was to remain absolutely the property of the company. July 22, 1843, books were opened for subscriptions to the capital stock. By an act

THE HYDRAULIC COMPANY.

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of the legislature, approved February 11, 1845, the law of 1843 was amended.

In the spring of 1844 the Rockford Hydraulic Company was fully organized. The dam was located a few rods above the present water-works. Directly above, the main channel of the stream shifted abruptly from the east to the west shore. On the east side, at the site of the dam, the water for two-thirds the width of the stream, was about three feet deep in summer, with eight or nine feet in the channel. This site for the dam was chosen because it was generally believed that if the dam were located at the head of the rapids, the town would be built there. Had the dam been built at the ford, on the rock bottom, it would have required a larger outlay of cash. This article was scarce, while timber, brush, stone and earth were abundant.

Edward S. Hanchett, of Freeport, had charge of the construction of the dam when it was commenced. He abandoned the work, and he was succeeded by C. C. Coburn. Eighty acres of the best timber land were stripped of material to build the dam and repair the breaks. This brush dam was built to a level with the banks. A frame-work was then raised on the brush, to which plank was spiked. The work of graveling then began. The rock and gravel were obtained along the bank of the river from sixty to eighty rods above the dam. There were headgates at either end, built high above the comb of the dam, with gates which opened like the gates of a lock on a canal, wide enough for the passage of steamboats. At each side of these gates were openings to admit the water to the races, which carried it to the mills below. As the water raised on the brush, the fish, coming down the river, would lodge on the dam during the night; and in the morning the people would get sturgeon, pickerel, black bass and catfish. The dam was completed in the autumn of 1845. In its issue of September 24th the Forum said: "As we hear the roaring sound of the falling waters (which can now on a still morning be heard for several miles around) daily increasing in strength and power, as the sheet of water becomes thicker and heavier, as the dam is made closer and tighter, we cannot but realize more forcibly the immense influence which these hydraulic works are to exert upon our town and country if the dam remains firm and permanent."

The mill-race on the East side extended to Walnut street, and was twenty feet in width. At the head of the race Gregory, Phelps & Daniels had a sawmill. At the south side of State

street was Nettleton's grist-mill, the first in Rockford, which was started in 1846. Just below, James B. Howell operated carding and fulling machinery. Wheeler & Lyon's sawmill was at Walnut street. The race on the West side was about fifteen rods in length. At the head Thomas D, Robertson and Charles I. Horsman built a sawmill. Just below, Orlando Clark had an iron foundry in a stone building. It is significant that three of these six plants were sawmills. Pine lumber had not come into general use, and the only available material for frame dwellings were the trees of the adjacent forests.

April 28, 1846, the west end of the dam went out. About two hundred feet, including the bulkhead, were swept away, and more than an acre of ground was washed out. The Hydraulic Company immediately decided to repair the dam, and the work was completed during the year.

March 20, 1847, the dam gave away at the east end, and carried away the sawmill of Gregory, Phelps & Daniels. About one hundred and fifty feet of the dam were washed out at this time. This break was repaired by Mr. Nettleton. Phelps and Daniels sold their interest in the wrecked sawmill to Lewis B. Gregory and A. C. Spafford, who rebuilt it. The mills then had good water-power until June 1, 1851, when the entire dam went out, breaking away at the west bulkhead. Several changes on the East side then followed. Mr. Howell removed his carding machine to New Milford, where he remained until the next year, when he returned to Rockford, to the West side, just below the Bartlett flouring mills. Wheeler & Lyon's mill was removed across the race near Joseph Rodd's mill, and became a part of his plant.

In February, 1849, the legislature provided for the improvement of the navigation of Rock river, and for the production of hydraulic power, under a general law. It appears by an entry on the county records, that under this law the company filed a certificate of incorporation April 13, 1849, before the abandonment of the enterprise. The organization of the present water-power company, two years later, will be considered in a later chapter.

The high water in 1844 throughout the northwest has a local interest, although this immediate vicinity was not flooded as was the central portion of the state. At and below St. Louis the Mississippi river was twenty miles wide, and flooded the American bottom from three to twenty feet deep. At St. Louis

steamboats were loaded from the windows of the second story of the stores on the level. At Kaskaskia a steamboat ran out two miles from the main stream, laid the gang-plank from the deck to the window of a nunnery, and took the inmates aboard. About three hundred miles above Galena a steamer was grounded three miles from the channel of the Mississippi. The machinery was taken out, and preparations were made to burn the hull for the purpose of securing the iron, when the water arose and floated the boat into the channel. In the vicinity of Rockford the roads for most of the summer were impassable for anything but oxen. There has been no such season of continued high water in this locality since that time.

CHAPTER XLIV.

POSTMASTERS OF ROCKFORD.—ITS ONLY POSTMISTRESS.

THE

HE early official records of the postoffice department at Washington are very meagre. There are no local records, as these are supposed to be kept at Washington. In 1890 Hon. Robert R. Hitt addressed a letter to Hon. John Wanamaker, who was then postmaster-general, asking for information upon this subject. That official replied that the records were incomplete during the early history of the service, and he could only give the time of appointment and resignation of the first postmaster. The later information has been obtained from the files of the Rockford newspapers in the public library. This is the only source from which the facts given in this chapter could be secured. The research involved considerable time and labor, and it is impossible to give the exact date upon which the commissions were issued.

Daniel S. Haight was the first postmaster. His commission was dated August 31, 1837, and he served until May, 1841.

Mr. Haight was succeeded by Edward Warren, a brother of Mrs. Charles H. Spafford. Mr. Warren served until August, 1841.

Selden M. Church was the third postmaster, and served two years, when he was removed. The announcement of this change was made in three lines by the Rockford Forum. In the entire history of Rockford there is nothing more marked than the evolution of its newspapers from the most primitive sort to the present daily of metropolitan proportions.

In August, 1843, Charles H. Spafford was appointed postmaster. There is a tradition that Mr. Church was quite active in obtaining the office; and, to balance the account, Mr. Warren, who was not lacking in influence, used it in securing the appointment for his brother-in-law. Mrs. Spafford recalls interesting reminiscences of those days. She says: "The postoffice business was not large at that time; there were no clerks. The mail came at night, and required the postmaster to get out at midnight or very early morning to change the mail. What seems more strange, the postoffice money was kept at the house