638
HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
seekers for mill-sites, both at the south and at the north end of the county, were in each instance brothers coming from adjacent counties in Western New York, and that each pair of brothers came on foot to their respective locations-in the one instance coming up the river, and, in the other, down the stream. These two instances are given somewhat in detail, and yet very briefly, as indicating the courage required and the hardships endured, by the resolute people who originated and, with indomitable will, pushed to success the establishment of the larger enterprises necessary for the development of the new settlements; because, in these two cases, the incidents are best authenticated, and because they pertain to the establishment of the two principal cities of the county. Equal toils and perils were met and overcome by the enterprising men who conducted similar enterprises in each of the fine cities adorning the rich valley of the Fox.
Joseph McCarty, the founder of Aurora, who was a mill-wright by trade, left his home at Elmira, in Chemung County, N. Y., in the fall of 1833, accompanied by a young apprentice named Beardslee (or Barsley) in quest of a desirable water-power and "mill privilege" in the West. They made their way westward over the hilly, thinly-settled country to the Allegheny River, where they fashioned a dug-out, in which they, with their chest of tools, floated down that rapid river to Pittsburg-the trip being both arduous and perilous. Thence they proceeded down the Ohio upon one of the primitive little steamboats of the time, and up the Mississippi to Cape Girardeau, Mo., where they worked at odd jobs for their living until early spring. Then, as best they could, they made their way up the Mississippi and Illinois to Ottawa, examining various locations of which they had been told, but not finding any place that gave satisfaction. McCarty was almost discouraged, but at Ottawa he met a man named Robert Faracre, who agreed to explore with them the Fox River. The three proceeded up the valley of the Fox and were charmed with the beauty of the country and evident fertility of the soil. On the first day of April, 1834, only seventy eventful years ago, they reached the Indian village of "Wah-bn-seh," and here McCarty found the full realizations he had so far, so long, and so diligently sought. The east bank of the stream was covered with the magnificent timber of the "Big Woods." On the west side he often caught glimpses, through the park-like openings, of the fertile prairie stretching away to the distant groves and horizon. In midstream of the river lay a lovely wooded island. A few yards below the island, the river swung gracefully westward and flowed, in shallow, rippling current, over a pebbly, rocky bed a very short distance, when it again curved southward upon its former course. No more charming scene could be imagined. Careful examination showed excellent banks on both sides of the stream, and upon the island, a solid bed of rock for the foundation of the dam with ample fall of water to insure power for the mill-wheels.
Here McCarty determined to locate, and he at once marked out a claim of about 360 acres on the east side of the river, and erected upon it a log cabin some ten by twelve feet in size. This was the beginning of the enterprising and handsome city of Aurora. In order to control both ends of the dam, Mr. McCarty also made a claim upon about 100 acres on the west side of the river and built a shanty upon it; and, during the summer, he purchased a claim to about 400 acres, lying south of his first claim on the east side of the river, paying a squatter sixty dollars for it. This was for his younger brother Samuel McCarty, who was also a mill-wright in Chemung County, and who arrived at his brother's on the 6th day of November, 1834. During that winter a Mr. and Mrs. Stephen A. Aldrich and their two children lived with the McCartys, Beardslee and Faracre; and these seven persons constituted the entire white population of the present wealthy and populous city of Aurora.
In March of the same year (1834) Mr. Hezekiah Gifford, of Oneida County, N. Y., determined to explore the beautiful country of Northern Illinois, where broad acres of fertile lands awaited the plowman; where living springs, running brooks and flowing rivers watered all the lands; where wood and timber were found in sufficient abundance to meet all the needs of the new settler. He sailed from Buffalo to Detroit, obtained a sort of stage conveyance to St. Joseph, and again, by schooner, sailed to Chicago, which he declared "was hardly a fit dwelling place for a colony of gophers." He said that, "around its dirty
