HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
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license and married Miss Angelina Atwater in the fall of this year.
THE BOSTON COLONY.-In 1837 came the first families of that colony of educated Bostonians who, for so many years, gave the society of Geneva an atmosphere of culture and refinement that was distinctly felt throughout the county. Among them were Scotto and Samuel Clark, Charles Patten, Peter Sears and C. A. Buckingham-the latter the first lawyer and a young man of very brilliant promise. The accomplished daughters of Mr. Scotto Clark became the wives of Charles Patten, Judge Isaac G. Wilson and Major Davis of Ausable. Charles Patten opened a store in 1837, and was a leading merchant of the place until his death in 1887. Then there were Marshall and "Aunt Maria" Clark, George Patten, Dr. Henry Madden, Julius Alexander, Abram Clark, Samue! Nye Clark and others, including Miss Susan Sophia Carr.
There was an elegant graciousness and quiet energy in the lives of these ladies of the early days at Geneva, that lingers like a halo of loving righteousness about their memories, exalting and ennobling all who came within its benign influence. Charity Herrington and Mrs. Julius Alexander were the very best types of helpful, brave pioneer women. When some ten years later the cholera broke out in the first Swede colony here, and many people fled in terror, "Aunt Polly" Clark ministered like a mother to the stricken ones; and it is reverently told of one poor woman dying, clasping her beloved bible In one hand and with the other clinging to the ministering hand of Mrs. Clark. The large number of Swedish people at Geneva still gratefully cherish in love her memory. In those early days came also Isaac Claypool, Mark Daniels, Hendrick Miller and, following close after, many other most excellent people like the Rev. Augustus Conant, Dr. William LeBaron, for some time State Entomologist, Luther Dearborn and a host of others whom we would gladly mention.
MANUFACTURES.-The first mowers and reapers, invented about 1850 by Eben Danford, surpassed in excellence the McCormick and other machines displayed at the fairs in this and other counties, and almost invariably bore the blue ribbon of superiority. Many people familiar with the development of the county believe that, if this excellent man of fine inventive genius had been given a little more financial encouragement, Geneva would have become one of the great manufacturing centers of the country.
BIG ROCK TOWNSHIP.
This is the southwest corner township of the county, in Range No. 6, Town 38, and its lands came into market June 6, 1842. It is one of the very best agricultural townships in the county, and along Big Rock Creek is found the most picturesque scenery in the county. The southwest and the northeast portions of the township consist of beautiful rolling prairie lands with deep fertile soil, doubtless of ancient alluvial formation, while traversing it diagonally from the northwest to the southeast corner, along the branches of the Big Rock Creek, are fine bodies of heavy timber. The two branches of Welch Creek flow from the Kaneville line, nearly south through the eastern half of the township to their intersection on Section 24, a mile or two north of its junction with the Big Rock. The old Chicago and Galena stage road passes through the center of the township from east to west. It will be readily observed that this natural distribution of prairie and timber lands, with an indispensable water supply and the accessibility of this region over the stage road, would strongly attract the early settlers. Undoubtedly the first family taking up a claim on land within the township, was that of Santy Cook, who was found living in a tent pitched about a mile south of the present Big Rock village in 1834 or '35. Cook was from Kentucky and doubtless brought his family down the Ohio or the Cumberland to the "Illinois Country." But little is known of his history. He must have staked out an immense claim, as it is recorded that he sold a thousand acres of it at one sale. Justice B. Ament located about a mile north of the village in the fall of 1835, and says that the Cooks and Matthew H. Perry's family were the only settlers then in the township. John Pierce, Joseph Summers, Robert Nash, James W. Swan, Percy Taylor, Robert Fisher, Alexis Hall and J. W. Whiddon came in 1836. A waif called "Indian Jim" was also there at that date. In 1837, among others, came James and Isaac Hatch, Edward Whiddon, Mr. Rex-ford, L. D. and Jesse Brady and a Mr. Matlock, who settled at a sharp bend in the creek still
