HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
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from Chicago westward crossed the Fox at Gray's Ferry, now Montgomery. The McCartys cut and blazed the trees, staked the prairies and roughly corduroyed the worst sloughs, from Naperville through their prospective town to a crossing of the Big Rock Creek, and furnished the stage-drivers and their teams with board for a month in consideration of the change of the route to their place. And the Giffords at State Road (now Elgin), in the fall or winter of 1835, blazed and cleared a way through the timber eastward toward Meacham's Grove (Bloomingdale), and planned a novel celebration of the next Fourth of July, by arranging to have the people at each end of the route turn out en masse, hitching teams to plows and to trees as large as could be drawn with the limbs still on, and to every available wagon, and with these mark the way, crush down the bushes and the grass, and trample the pathway from each end to the meeting place, where the first patriotic celebration in the county was held with much enthusiasm, and social refreshments of corn-bread, salt-pork and coffee were heartily enjoyed. The Giffords also marked a roadway in a somewhat similar manner westward across Coon Creek, and, it is said, to the ford of the Kishwaukee near Belvidere. Soon after, both they and the McCartys, with profound satisfaction, saw Frink & Walker's four-horse stage-coaches, with passengers and mails, passing daily over these new roadways through their prospective villages. The early securing of these stage-lines gave prominence and permanence to the locations of Aurora and Elgin.
It is also interesting and suggestive to note the vague and broad authority conferred by the early Legislatures upon commissions appointed to locate highways. For instance, one legislative act, in force April 13, 1849, appoints nineteen separate commissions for such purpose. Paragraph 15 appoints "Elijah Wilcox, Augustus Adams and Luther Herrick, of Kane County, commissioners to view and locate a State road, commencing at a point on the State road between Elgin and Sycamore, thence to the village of Clinton (now South Elgin), thence across Fox River to the State road between Elgin and the Des Plaines River." The compensation authorized for the persons engaged in this work was: "To a commissioner $1 per day; to a surveyor, $2; to chainmen, axemen and other hands, 75 cents, for each day necessarily employed." The large latitude given as to terminals and the small pay allowed-especially to the commissioners, as compared with present-day methods and compensation-are significant of the changed conditions.
In dry weather, if not sufficiently travelled to become very dusty, the "dirt roads" of the olden time were most delightful; but when softened by rain, they were quickly changed to a thick, pasty mud, and readily cut into deep uneven ruts. As these hardened-either baked by the summer sun or frozen by the winter winds-the track became most terribly rough and exceedingly trying to driver, team and vehicle. The old-time stories of prying the wagons and stage-coaches out of the mud and ruts are not exaggerations, but the actual realities of many severe experiences.
The improvement of the highways by the county was commenced at the first meeting of the County Commissioners in 1836. At that time there was not one legally established highway in the county, and there was no individual ownership of land. The Commissioners divided the county into road districts, and appointed "pathmasters," or supervisors, and they passed an order requiring every able-bodied man, between the ages of twenty-one and fifty years, to work three days each year upon the public roads. Provision was made to accept substitutes, needful material, or cash, in lieu of individual work, and for off-setting the use of teams and tools.
Men held different views then as now. Mr. B. and Mr. R. were neighbors and friends, living in the same school and highway district, and both were usually school and highway officers. At the school meetings B. insisted seventy-five cents per week, and "board round," was sufficient compensation for the young women teachers, while R. contended they should receive at least $1 per week. B.'s scraper was used just one week upon the roads, and he brought in a bill of $6 for its use. R. declared it too much, and B. said that "scrapers cost money" and that the charge was reasonable, to which R. replied: "Well, B., you have very strange ideas; you think a woman capable of teaching your children and mine is worth less than one-sixth as much as your confounded old scraper."
The method of establishing and maintaining the highways has been changed by State and county legislation to the present system, which
