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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
BATAVIA VILLAGE PLATTED.-The original site of the village on the east side was platted by Van Nortwick, Barker, House & Co. in 1837, and on the west side by John Van Nortwick in 1844. April 26, 1856, twenty-seven votes were cast in Batavia in favor of village incorporation, and eleven against. At the first election of village officers, held May 10, 1856, T. C. Moore, one of the most genial and gentlemanly lawyers of the county, served as Moderator and J. C. Pindar as clerk. John Van Nortwick, Orsamus Wilson, M. N. Lord, D. U. Griffin and George E. Corwin were elected as the first Board of Trustees.
These are a few of the beginnings of the unusually attractive and prosperous township and city of Batavia-the namesake of the equally beautiful city in New York, from which Gen. Isaac Wilson and others of its first settlers came to Illinois.
GENEVA TOWNSHIP.
This twin sister of Batavia embraces the north half of Township 39, and takes its name also, as has been stated, from one of the most beautiful cities of the Empire State. Its fertile farms also lie on both banks of the river, the prairie in pioneer days extending in places to the river on the west bank. They are absolutely unsurpassed in cultivation and fine improvements. There is little or no doubt that a distinct and well-worn Indian trail branched westward from the old army trail, and crossed the river at the head of Herrington's Island; and along this trail Daniel S. Haight prospected in 1833. and built his cabin beside the then noble spring on the west bank of the river. In summer the stream could be easily forded; in winter it was solidly ice-bridged, and, in time of freshet, one had to avoid the necessity of crossing it at all.
Like Payne, who at the same time settled a couple of miles below, Haight is said to have been a sober, intelligent, honest man; rough, kind and generous, but a born scout and pioneer. He soon sold out to James Herrington and disappeared, as has been already told. When Captain Dodson first came here in 1834, he found near Haight's place a man named Corey, another named Crow, and an Andrew Miles (or Mills), whose claim and wretched shanty, on the east side of the river, he bought. Dodson was then busy with his store and sawmill at Claibornevlle. Edward Trimble, who married Payne's daughter, also had a claim near the edge of the timber on the east side (the Samuel Sterling farm) and their daughter was the first white child born in this township. Miles died in 1836-the first death of an adult in the township-and Crow and Corey soon disappeared. One Frederick Bird's claim covered the Eben Danford farm, just north of the village on the west side. Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Sterling first settled on this place in
1834 or '35, and Mrs. Sterling taught the first school of the township here in the winter of 1835 or '36. They were superior people, each being very energetic, well-educated and refined, and they richly merit far more extended notice than is permitted by the limited scope of this work-but so, also, may be said of many others. Mr. Sterling built the first dam and bridge across the river, and the first saw-mill; and he and his wife opened the first regular public
tavern.
COMING OF THE HERRINGTONS.-In May, 1833, the man and wife who were to be among the leading builders of Geneva brought their family of six children to Chicago. These were James Clayton and Charity Herrington, who had come to Illinois from Meadville, Penn. Their children were Augustus M., Nathan, James, Fannie, Richard and Thad. Mary, another daughter, was born in Chicago and became the wife of J. Tuttle. The next daughter, Margaret, was born at Geneva, November 3, 1836, and is said to have been the first white girl baby born in the place. The year that his family lived in Chicago was beyond doubt spent by Mr. Herrington in carefully prospecting the surrounding country, and his selection of Haight's claim, in the fall or winter of 1834-35, is strong proof of its desirability. Herring-ton at once used Haight's "shack" as a store, and built the best double house of hewed logs to be found in the county for a number of years. L. M. Church served him as his first clerk, and then David Dunham, who was elected Recorder in 1836. Crawford Herrington came in 1835; also Arthur Aken, who built a cabin near 'McWayne's Spring." Here, again, "Father" Clark preached the first sermon in the place at James Herrington's, and, in 1836, Logan Ross opened the first blacksmith shop. Noah B. Spaulding took out the first marriage
