generally respected. A settler who had made what was considered a favorable selection of land, or one that was likely from the growth of the county to become valuable, occasionally found in the morning that a board shanty had been put up during the night on his claim. This cabin would generally be occupied by three or four men, friends of the "jumper," who had come with him to assist in maintaining his seizure. These intruders usually had their shanties ready to put together. The work was done at some convenient sawmill where lumber could be obtained. It was then loaded on a wagon at night; and by morning they would have the house put up, and be ready to maintain their position by force of arms in what they called their "castle." The decision of the settlers' court, in the matter of "jumping claims," was usually in favor of the man who had a family, and who intended to become an actual settler; and it was always carried out to the strict letter.

An instance occurred in Rockford in the winter of 1838-39, in which the "jumper" refused to submit his pretensions to the determination of this tribunal, but persisted in completing his building upon land which had been previously recognized as belonging to another. The neighbors turned out almost en masse, carefully raised the building and placed it upon ox sleds, and with their teams hauled it into town. On the top of the building sat Mark Beaubien, a young man, who tied together a number of red handkerchiefs into a flaming banner, which he waved in triumph over that portion of the "land of the free." On either side of the cabin, which was now playing the role of a circuit-rider, marched the citizens in procession, one hundred or more in number. Their destination was the residence of George W. Brinckerhoff, who, it was alleged, had counseled the jumping of the claim, and who would be interested therein should it be secured. They quietly deposited their freight in Mr. Brinckerhoff's front yard, and told him they had found his property astray on the prairie; and, fearing some injury might come to it, they had deemed it their duty as good neighbors, to return it to him. They also expressed the hope that he would exercise police regulations over his wayward property. The citizens then quietly dispersed; and it is said no further trouble arose from that source.

Another case occurred at Twelve-Mile Grove, in 1844, which resulted in the death of one of the claimants. Two men started at the same time to pre-empt forty acres of land in that neigh

MURDER AT TWELVE-MILE GROVE.

79

borhood. One of them, named Pierce, found on reaching the place that Andrus had forestalled him, and was putting up a cabin. Pierce immediately started for Dixon on horseback. By hard riding he reached his destination the same day, made his entry at the land office, received his certificate, and immediately returned. When he arrived on the tract in dispute, he found thereon the cabin which had just been completed. His opponent had labored all night and had finished his cabin, and was now away at breakfast. Pierce quickly summoned two or three of his friends; and, on the principle that possession is nine points in the law, they entered the shanty, locked the door and awaited developments. When Andrus returned he found that he had been locked out of the cabin, and he immediately rallied to his aid a number of neighbors. Terms of capitulation were offered and refused, and hostilities began. The inmates could not be dislodged; and as a last resort the assailants tried to overturn the cabin. They had raised one side several feet, when a shot was fired from within, and they dropped their load. As the cabin recovered its perpendicular with great force, the board which covered the window fell in, and one of the attacking party fired through. Pierce sprang though the window, ran a few steps and fell dead, shot through the heart. The participants in the disturbance were apprehended for riot. One of them was tried for murder; but it could not be proved who fired the fatal shot, and all were acquitted.

The treatment of a Mr. Brown, who came to Rockford in the winter of 1837, with a large family and a very small purse, has been told by other writers. Brown built a log cabin, and moved from his wagon into his new home. He was thereupon told that his castle must be pulled down, as the claim belonged to Mr. Spaulding, who was then at St. Louis. Mr. Brown was not easily intimidated, and defended his rights. One day a crowd, under the influence of liquor, besieged his cabin. Brown confronted them with a musket. Terms of settlement were proposed. "If you will leave this claim, we agree to get you a better one, build a house, and furnish you with provisions." The ruse was successful. The terms were accepted, and the barricade removed, when the goods were ejected from the cabin, which was torn down, and the logs rolled together and burned. Brown's effects were hauled into the woods, and his family exposed to the elements on a cold, stormy night, until compassionate friends gave them shelter. Upon Mr. Spaulding's return,

he denied all pretension to the ownership of the claim. Other instances occurred in the county; but as land titles became settled, these controversies ceased.

Jonathan Weldon, who settled at Westfield, was unpopular among the early residents. John H. Thurston says it was a common story in early days that Richard Montague emigrated from New Hampshire mainly that he might be at a comfortable distance from Weldon. Mr. Montague was somewhat dismayed upon his arrival in Rockford, to find that Mr. Weldon was to be a fellow citizen. Mr. Weldon was intellectual and shrewd, though seriously deformed. In one instance he successfully opposed the entire bar of the county when it was proposed to open a road through his land. Weldon did not live at peace with his neighbors; and one night he was taken from his house by a masked party and carried to the prairie, where they made preparations, as he then believed, to hang him. However, after a consultation, they took him to the school house, and left him in the fire-place, covered with tar and feathers. Mr. Weldon, however, must not be dismissed without reference to another phase of his character; and this has been presented by one who knew him well. In a letter to the late Hon. E. H. Baker, from Eureka, California, under date of November 24, 1886, C. A. Huntington, formerly of Rockford, writes: "Without exception he was the most remarkable man I ever knew. A man who never walked a step in his life, yet traveled more miles than any farmer of his time. He settled without a dollar in the grove near Rock river, and took up a large farm well chosen with both prairie and timber. His children, when young, two sons and two daughters (whose mother was also a cripple and never walked a step in her life), while yet in their childhood so plied their young hands to work, that in a few years under the prudent management of parents, both of whom had judgment and tact, that they had fields fenced and plowed, they had a good stock of horses, mules, swine, cattle, poultry, and money in abundance. Mr. Weldon was a man of education, and in spite of all the impediments of frontier life and all the disadvantages under which he labored, a cripple himself with a decrepid wife, he educated his children, all of whom took rank among the best settlers of the county, and one, his oldest son, became a clergyman."

CHAPTER XVII.

THE COUNTY DIVIDED.—"MILE-STRIP CONTEST."—MINOR NOTES.

An act of the legislature, approved March 4, 1837, provided for the reorganization of Winnebago county, and the creation of Stephenson and Boone. The latter was named in honor of Colonel Daniel Boone, the first white settler of Kentucky. By this act Winnebago county was reduced to one-half its original size. The reader will find it necessary, in tracing the boundary lines, to have before him maps of Winnebago and Boone counties; also some acquaintance with the township survey system. Confusion will arise if it is not remembered that the townships in Winnebago county, west of the third principal meridian, are numbered from a different base-line from those east of this meridian. It must also be borne in mind that the ranges west of the third principal meridian are numbered, not as ranges west of the third principal meridian, but as east of the fourth principal meridian.

The first section of this law creates Stephenson county from the eastern portion of Jo Daviess and the western two ranges of Winnebago, as the latter had been organized the preceding year. The next section defines the new boundary of Winnebago. The line begins at the northeast corner of Stephenson, as formed by the preceding section; thence running east on the state line to the section line between sections five and six, in township forty-six north, range three east of the third principal meridian; thence south on said section line to the south boundary of township forty-three north, range three east; thence west on said township line to the third principal meridian; thence north on said meridian to the southeast corner of township twentysix north, range eleven east of the fourth principal meridian; thence west on said line to the range line between ranges nine and ten east of the fourth principal meridian; thence north to the place of beginning.

The third section of this law contemplated the boundaries of Boone as they now exist, except the mile-strip on the west. This law was seriously defective in defining the boundary lines. The intention of the legislature, however, was obvious, and was

accepted until two years later, when the act of March 2, 1839, corrected the errors, which may have been either verbal or typographical. This act also proposed to extend Boone county on the east to include the western range of townships in McHenry county, provided the voters in those townships should so elect. As Boone never extended farther east than at present, it may be inferred that the settlers residing on the range in question voted against annexation to Boone. The writer was once told by the late Judge Lawrence, of Boone county, that about 1846 this question was again submitted to the voters of these western McHenry townships, and that an election was carried in favor of annexation to Boone, but that this expression of the popular will was defeated by a dishonest postmaster, who changed the election returns while they were in his office to suit his purpose.

By comparing the boundary lines of Winnebago and Boone, as defined by the act of 1837, with an atlas of the counties, it will be observed that the eastern boundary of Winnebago was exactly one mile east of its present line. Thus established, Boone was only eleven miles wide. The western tier of sections, which clearly belonged to Boone under the government survey, was denied her and given to Winnebago.

This manifest injustice to Boone county was a thorn in the flesh of her citizens, and finally precipitated what is known as the "mile-strip contest," the most bitter controversy of those early days. The statement is twice made in Kett's History of Boone county that the assignment of this mile-strip to Winnebago in 1837 was a compromise to conciliate conflicting interests in this county. These "conflicting interests" were probably the ambitions of East and West Rockford for the county buildings. The extra mile-strip may have been given to Winnebago, at the instance of clever manipulators, to increase the voting strength of that part of the county east of Rock river.

In 1843 the question of annexing this mile-strip to Boone county came before the legislature. An enabling act, approved February 28th, provided that sections six, seven, eighteen, nineteen, thirty and thirty-one, in townships forty-three, forty-four, forty-five and forty-six, range three east, should be annexed to Boone, if the voters on the mile-strip should so elect. The strip comprised what is now the western tier of sections in the townships of Manchester, Caledonia, Belvidere and Flora, in Boone county. An election was ordered to be held at the house of