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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
used for storage purposes, and the servants' rooms are in the extreme end of the extension. Each cottage is heated by steam and ventilated by the most improved system that engineering skill has devised. The hoys will have breakfast and supper in the dining room of their own cottage, but the mid-day meal will be taken in one large dining room that will be connected with the central kitchen. The food will be placed on cars and pushed through the tunnel, which, in daytime, will he lighted from above by prisms set in concrete.
At the west end of the main street will be constructed the school building. This will be built entirely of stone and brick, and will be provided with ample lighting facilities. At the end of the street will be the power house. On the high knoll will eventually be constructed a gymnasium. No building at the home will be more than two stories high.
COUNTY BUILDING.
Geneva, the county-seat of Kane County, is located principally upon Section 3, Township 39, Range 8 East, and was largely covered by the original land claim of James Herrington, bought of the squatter, Daniel S. Haight. In 1836, at the first meeting of the County Commissioners, negotiations were opened between the Commissioners, of the one part, and James Herrington and three men-Hamilton, Madden and Daniels-who had acquired squatter's rights by location or by purchase from Herrington, of the other part, for the location of the county-seat. It was finally agreed, in substance, that the county-seat should be at Geneva; that the above named four men should furnish the money to pay for the tract of land, which should be entered and purchased at the land sale, by the county; that the county should retain one village block for county uses, and convey the remainder of the land to said four men in such portions as they should agree among themselves, and the said four men should pay to the county the sum of $3,000, with which to erect a court-house. Richard J. Hamilton, one of the men above named, contracted to build the court house for $3,000 and, in the spring of 1837, erected quite a pretentious looking wooden building upon the designated site, which appears upon the original plat of Geneva as the public square, instead of a number being designated by a star. It lies on the north side of State, between Third and Fourth Streets. The Commissioners, however, refused to accept the building at $3,000 and Isaac Wilson, Gen. George McClure and Harry Boardman were selected by mutual agreement to arbitrate the question. They placed the value of the building at $2,300, awarding the county several village lots as a consideration for the remaining $700.
Mr. James Herrington, who was one of the most enterprising of the early settlers, died in 1839, but the money to pay for the land, and also for the court-house, was furnished as agreed, and the land was duly purchased in the name of the county. Mark W. Fletcher was selected to convey to the representatives of said four persons, in such proportions as were agreed upon by them, the lands not contracted for being reserved for the county-all of which was satisfactorily accomplished.
This building was destroyed by fire-probably in 1843-and in 1844 the second courthouse, a substantial two-story stone structure, was erected on the southeast corner of Block 52. The lower floor of this building was used as the jail and jailer's residence. A small stone building, nearly fire-proof, was erected some twenty feet south of the court-house for the Clerk's office, and for the preservation of the county records. This court-house building is now used as the City Hall.
The third court-house was erected in 1856 on Block 57 of the Geneva plat, at a cost of about $125,000 and was a very handsome dressed stone structure, with buttressed chimneys, arched ornate windows and turret-like cupola. In style, arrangement, and construction it was considered a model building. Its first story also was fitted up for the jail and jailer's residence. It was destroyed by fire, March 13, 1890, and the present magnificent court-house and separate jail were built upon the same site. The corner-stone was laid April 9, 1891, and in it was deposited a list of the names of the county officers from 1835 to 1888; a copy of statistics of the building committee of the Board of Supervisors and of the Board of Equalization; abstracts of the assessment and of the taxes of 1890; copies of a $1,000 and a $500 court-house bond; a cut of the courthouse and of the electric car, Aurora; a bible-and a number of school-books now in use; the course of study in Illinois public schools, and samples of work done in the schools and kindergartens of the county; also various coins, with copies of The Aurora News, Post, Express,
