NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

“There’s No Valley So Sweet”Market Development in the Lower Fox Valley River Region,

1833-1852

A Thesis Submitted to the

University Honors Program

In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements of the Baccalaureate Degree

With Upper Division Honors

Department Of

History

By

Wayne Duerkes

DeKalb, Illinois

May, 2013

Capstone Approval Page

Capstone Title “There’s No Valley So Sweet”Market Development in the Lower Fox Valley River Region,

1833-1852

Student Name Wayne Duerkes

Faculty Supervisor Dr. Jim Schmidt

Faculty Approval Signature___________________________________

Department of History

Date of Approval 10 May 2013

University Honors Program

Capstone Approval Page

University Honors Program

Capstone Title (print or type)

Student Name (print or type)_________________________

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HONORS THESIS ABSTRACT THESIS SUBMISSION FORM

AUTHOR: Wayne Duerkes

THESIS TITLE: “There’s No Valley So Sweet”Market Development in the Lower Fox Valley River Region, 1833- 1852

ADVISOR: Dr. Jim Schmidt

ADVISOR’S DEPARTMENT: History

DISCIPLINE: History YEAR: 2013

PAGE LENGTH: 36 pages

BIBLIOGRAPHY: yes

ILLUSTRATED: no

PUBLISHED (YES OR NO): no

LIST PUBLICATION: N/A

COPIES AVAILABLE (HARD COPY, MICROFILM, DISKETTE): HC

ABSTRACT (100-200 WORDS): The research examines the development of the market economy in the region which encompasses southern DeKalb and northern LaSalle County from 1833 to 1852. The region’s history has been the domain of local history buffs' tales, or it has been relegated to a sideshow of Chicago, or a mere footnote in the state history. In large part, the complexity of the region begins with its geographic location at the confluence of the Fox and Illinois rivers. The location’s market, originally thought to

have preferential economic ties to St. Louis during the pre-railroad era, was actually an economic battleground for commercial trade between Chicago and St. Louis. The rivalry between these two markets was crucial to the growth and development of the communities located in north central Illinois. The study will also demonstrate how the region was not an amalgamation of new and various economic processes but rather more of a re-introduction of the economic situation many immigrants had left in their eastern origins. The lower Fox Valley River communities and the market developed there becomes an integral story in understanding the economic growth of the Midwest.

w

w

w"There's No Valley So Sweet”

Market Development in the Lower Fox Valley River Region, 1833 -1852

Wayne Duerkes

1

Acknowledgements

The paper before you is my undergraduate Senior Capstone Honors Thesis for the

History Department at Northern Illinois University (NIU) for the Spring of 2013. In the process

o f developing this paper, I have received an extraordinary amount of academic and financial

assistance from the NIU community. The caliber o f the research made available for this paper is

based on this generous assistance.

For academic assistance, I would like to thank Dr. Jim Schmidt, my thesis advisor, Dr.

Bradley Bond, my Research Rookies mentor, and Dr. Eric Mogren and Dr. Andrea Smalley, who

both allowed me to work on components of my project in classes I took with them. I’d also like

to thank the rest o f the NIU History Department for their continued support. For financial

assistance, I would like to thank Dr. Julia Spears and the Office of Student Engagement and

Experiential Learning (OSEEL) for their continued support with the Research Rookies program

and with an Undergraduate Special Opportunities in Artistry & Research (USOAR) grant that

allowed me to go to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts to access the Dun

Collection. An additional thank you to, Dr. Christopher Jones and the Honors department for

selecting me for the University Honors Summer Scholar Program which provided substantial

research funding as well as providing an Enhance Your Education (EYE) grant for further

research at The Newberry Library in Chicago.

I’d like to thank all my classmates in HIST 495 and at NIU for their patience and

feedback during the process. Finally, I need to present a very special thank you to my friends,

Natalie Cincotta, Jacob Lawrence, Jessie Shattuck, and Ron Leonhardt who also provided

W assistance during the whole process from reviews, discussions, and endless support.

In 1834, Joseph Ebersol purchased land on Covel Creek in LaSalle County, Illinois.

Ebersol, his wife Elizabeth, and their six children, including twelve year old son Amos, moved

from Pennsylvania in hopes o f making a living as farmers on the Illinois prairie.1 Ebersol

selected acreage a few miles southeast of the growing hamlet o f Ottawa located at the confluence

o f the Fox and the Illinois rivers.2 The surrounding countryside, dotted with plentiful timber and

crisscrossed with streams and creeks, was an ideal setting for agricultural pursuits. With fertile

soils, a navigable river system, and overland trade routes established by French trappers and

Native Americans, the lower Fox Valley River region, encompassing present-day southern

DeKalb and northern LaSalle counties, appeared to be providentially made for settlement.

Young Amos Ebersol declared of his new home that “in all the wide world there’s no valley so

sweet.”3

The Ebersols were just one o f thousands o f families drawn west to the region after the

Black Hawk War led to the removal o f the Native American population. Prior to the conclusion

of hostilities in 1832, most o f the land in northern Illinois was uninhabited by white settlers. But

once the region opened, possibilities of prosperity and a new life described by various travel

guides and personal accounts enticed families to migrate west.4 Stories from early travelers as

1 Amos M. Ebersol, 5 November 1839, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical Society Museum, Utica, Illinois.2 There are some questions in regards to the amount of acreage. In the Ebersol diary, the author contends that the family purchased two sections o f land (1280 acres) for $500 in 1834 and in1836, they purchased an additional 165 acres o f land for an unknown amount. The Land Patent Records in the Illinois Regional Archives Depository shows Amos Ebersol’s land purchases in 1841 but do not indicate any record of Joseph Ebersol’s earlier claimed purchases.3 Amos M. Ebersol, 13 November. 1839, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical Society Museum, Utica, Illinois.4 The proliferation o f westward expansion travel guides in the time frame o f the 1820s to the 1850s is considerable and found a ready and enthusiastic readership on the east coast o f the United States and Europe. Examples specific to travels in Illinois include W. Faux’s Memorable days in America: being a journal o f a tour to the United States, principally undertaken to

well as men who had traversed the region had influenced East Coast residents to consider the

lower Fox Valley a land of opportunity.5 Back east, the competition for land caused real estate

prices to exceed the capabilities of most young families to pay, and the prospect o f a fresh start

in the west was appealing. “The immigrant was attracted by the cheap lands o f the frontier,”

penned Frederick Jackson Turner, “ [and] their growing families demanded more lands.”6 As a

result, during the Market Revolution period, the eastern states witnessed a migration from rural

districts to urban ones; conversely, the rural population in places like the northern Illinois prairie

expanded.7 As Alexis de Tocqueville described in his examination o f emigration within

America, “they have been told that fortune is to be found somewhere toward the west, and they

hasten to seek it.”8

The research examines the development o f the market economy from 1833 to 1852 in the

lower Fox Valley River region. The location’s market, originally thought to have preferential

economic ties to St. Louis during the pre-railroad era, was actually an economic battleground for

commercial trade between Chicago and St. Louis. Market development in the lower Fox Valley

River owed to the region’s geographic location, the diversity o f the people inhabiting the area,

and the relationship with other Midwestern markets. The driving forces, singularly and

ascertain, by positive evidence, the condition and probable prospects o f British emigrants; including accounts o f Mr. Birkbeck's settlement in the Illinois and intended to shew men and things as they are in America written in 1823, J. M. Peck’s A Guide for Emigrants, Containing Sketches o f Illinois, Missouri, and the Adjacent Parts written in 1831, and William Oliver’s Eight Months in Illinois: With Information to Immigrants written in 1843.5 Milo M. Quaife, Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835 (1913; repr., Urbana: University o f Illinois, 2001), 339.6 Frederick J. Turner, The Significance o f the Frontier in American History (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, Inc, 1966), 215.7 For the discussion on shift from rural to urban areas in the east, read Christopher Clark’s The Roots o f Rural Capitalism: Western Massachusetts, 1780-1860 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990).8 Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (New York: HarperCollins, 2000), 281.

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collectively, provide the region with opportunities unlike those available to other regions in the

state.

The study will also demonstrate how the region was not the start o f new economic

processes but rather more o f a re-introduction of the economic situation many immigrants had

left in their eastern origins. The debate on the transition to capitalism is, o f course, relative to

time and place. Prior to the 1833, the northern Illinois prairies had a sparse subsistence culture

consisting o f individuals that provided or produced enough food to feed themselves and most had

migrated west to settle on land that they did not have to purchase. By the mid-1830s, any

remnant of this solitary culture within Illinois had, by in large, disappeared. But the

transformation to a full engagement with capitalism in the region would not be complete until the

1870s and after. The early settlers attempted to break free from the economic constraints they

v y had come to know on the east coast only to find themselves engaged in the same commercial

ventures they had left behind but with themselves vying for the position as the power player.

Evidence of product exchange, work exchange, credit, as well as cash transactions are all present

in the region during the period. In Ebersol’s diary, he mentions several occasions o f a variety o f

commercial exchange methods in one day. Ebersol’s desire to be in control of his own economic

destiny is recounted throughout his diary when he remarks, “I wish I had as some folks do—

plenty o f money and nothing to do.”9

The geographic location within the state was the first key contributing factor in the

development of the market in the region. Water’s vitality for the general condition o f life as well

as its ability to sustain commercial trade and industry in the form of grist mills and such, has

9 Amos M. Ebersol, 9 October 1840, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical Society Museum, Utica, Illinois.

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long been identified by historians as the essential draw for early settlers.10 The patch-work o f

streams and creeks for these purposes did not make the region unparalleled within the state, but

the Illinois River provided the region with a central means over which to transport large

quantities o f goods. More profound was the potential link between the Mississippi River and

Lake Michigan that had been identified years earlier. With skills honed by the completion o f the

Erie Canal in 1825, the state and federal government began planning by the early 1830s for the

development of the Illinois and Michigan Canal in earnest.11 12 13 As the canal came closer to

fruition, the corridor that the planned canal would take became a hotbed of interest for settlers

and speculators alike.12 13 In a report made by the Canal Commissioners concerning the value of

land along the proposed path o f the canal near Ottawa, in 1830 they “sold nine lots at an average

price o f twenty dollars each.” By 1836, “they sold seventy-eight at an average price of

S273.85.” '3W

Another driving force to the development of the market in the region was the relationship

between the farmers and the other occupations within the region. The settlers that migrated to

the Illinois plains employed a vast majority of skills and occupations that rapidly fed the market

development. Previous scholars have focused primarily on the growth o f the state’s agrarian

population and in doing so have sidelined the other components of the workforce; artisans,

10 William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York: W. W. Norton & Company), 101. Paul W. Gates, The Economic History o f the United States. Vol. 1, The Farmer’s Age Agriculture 1815-1860 (Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 1960), 162.11 James William Putnam, The Illinois and Michigan Canal: A Study in Economic History (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1918) 93.12 James William Putnam, The Illinois and Michigan Canal: A Study in Economic History (Chicago: The University o f Chicago Press, 1918) 94.13 James William Putnam, The Illinois and Michigan Canal: A Study in Economic History (Chicago: The University o f Chicago Press, 1918) 95.

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merchants and other occupations.14 As the influx of agricultural settlers grew, so did the need for

products and services that the farmers had grown accustomed to back home and could not

produce themselves. Census data for 1850 lists 198 separate occupations within the state of

Illinois, of which 89 occupations are found in LaSalle County and only 37 in the more slowly

developed DeKalb.15 Also, the Illinois River is the center point of diversification o f these

occupations. The farther from the river, the more agrarian the community becomes with only 53

percent o f the population engaged in farming in LaSalle County and DeKalb County at almost 82

percent.16 Most o f the farmers in LaSalle County are located in townships outside the river

corridor. Therefore, in combination with the location of the region around a major waterway, the

diversity of occupations and skills within the region allowed for a more complex market.

The final factor in the development of the market in the region was that the settlers in the

lower Fox Valley River region also had a rare opportunity to grow their market from connections

with the well-established market down the Illinois-Mississippi River system to St. Louis and

beyond or with the young but growing village on the shores of Lake Michigan called Chicago, a

spot that would shortly become synonymous with westward capitalism. Prior to the mid-1830s,

the North American terminus for goods produced in the central United States was predominately

14 The prominence o f the agricultural development within Illinois is unmistakable and is recognized as an important element within this paper. Frederick Jackson Turner’s presentation of mid-American’s expansion in the nineteenth century as a process by which agricultural is the lead element has placed non-agrarian occupations as an ancillary component to the market development.15 1850 Federal Census, LaSalle County, Illinois, Seventh Census of the United States (Washington DC: The National Archives, National Archives and Records Service, GeneralServices Administration, 1850). Here after cited as 1850 LaSalle County Census. 1850 Federal Census, DeKalb County, Illinois, Seventh Census o f the United States (Washington DC: The National Archives, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1850). Here after cited as 1850 DeKalb County Census. The census schedule for agriculture will be referred to as the appropriate county with the agriculture designation added to it.16 1850 DeKalb and LaSalle County Census

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New Orleans with most upper Midwest products filtered through St. Louis on account of the vast

Mississippi watershed.17 The lower Fox Valley River region was intimately connected to the

river system leading south. But as Chicago grew in economic prominence along with a growing

number of western settlers immigrating to Illinois via the Great Lakes passage, the connections

with the small city began to develop in stature. So in reality, the region was in the enviable

position to develop commercial relationships with both markets. But by 1852, the region became

directly linked by the railroad network to Chicago, which forced a more unified economic

system with the eastern markets thereby solidifying Chicago’s dominance over the continued

market development in all o f northern Illinois.18

Prior to the railroads or well established land routes connecting the east coast with the

central United States, settlers headed west followed the most economical path to their future and

i , this gave Chicago a massive advantage over any other community. The route via the Great

Lakes provided a natural corridor to funnel people to the west. A plurality o f the settlers

originated from a combination of the New England and the Mid-Atlantic states by the 1850s.

DeKalb County and LaSalle County had over 53 percent and 33 percent, respectively, from these

eastern regions of the United States.19 The wave of settlers originating from the eastern region

17 John G. Clark, The Grain Trade in the Old Northwest (Urbana: University o f Illinois Press, 1966), 32.18 William Cronon’s Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1991) examines the study o f the relationship o f the emerging Chicago’sinfluence on the surrounding area. With the exhaustive efforts and political persuasion put forth by Chicago’s boosters, the city became the railroad hub of the region thereby firmly establishing its prominence as the economic center o f the Midwest. This paper, in part, examines the relationship of the region with Chicago prior to the city’s dominance written by Cronon.19 From the 1850 DeKalb and LaSalle County Census:

8

established connections with the Chicago markets on their journey to the west. The route via the

Great Lakes system was faster and therefore more economical than traveling by ship from the

Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico and then up the Mississippi River. On the journey west, the

Chicago market was the first encountered in Illinois and therefore would have been a more

familiar venue for commercial trade than the distant St. Louis market for individuals with the

means of making the overland journey.20 In 1836, young Harriet Newton moved from New

York with her family to LaSalle County and years later recalled that Chicago was “a town o f

supplies.”21 She indicated that the trips were “made thither to get the boxes containing much that

was sorely needed in the large family.”22 Since the rivers were utilized as the major means to

transport goods to market downstream the trips made before the spring thaw indicate a need to

obtain supplies from a year-round source like Chicago. The overland transportation, though

costly in time and money, proved more efficient than the laborious trip upriver for hundreds o f

miles.

DeKalb LaSalle1 Native born 1708 22.66% 4615 25.91%2 Midwest 840 11.15% 1643 9.23%3 Mid-Atlantic 3118 41.37% 4345 24.40%4 New England 911 12.09% 1656 9.30%5 South 102 1.35% 369 2.07%6 Other 19 0.25% 104 0.58%7 Foreign 809 10.74% 4834 27.14%8 Not categorized 29 0.38% 243 1.36%

7536 1780920 In Charles W. Marsh’s Recollections 1837-1910 (Chicago: Farm Implement News Company, 1910), the author relays the story of coming west via the Great Lakes to Chicago and then through Naperville and Aurora on his way to their settlement on a farm in rural DeKalb County. From this point forward, almost all the families commercial exchanges fed back along the route they had made from Chicago.21 Harriet Newton Terhune to unknown, 27 March 1918, Manuscript Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, Illinois.22 Harriet Newton Terhune to unknown, 27 March 1918, Manuscript Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, Illinois.

Ebersol also made journeys to Chicago once he was established on the prairies. In the

late summer of 1841, Amos Ebersol related in his diary that: “I started for Chicago last Monday

morning in company with B. Coe.”23 Every year, farmers pooled their resources and hauled

grain and other products, such as hides, to Chicago. Ebersol had decided to bypass the river

system, which was less than five miles north o f his farm, and he actually incurred the expense o f

crossing the river by ferry, as well as the expense of six days travel, to bring his product to the

Chicago market. Ebersol never explicitly stated why he chose to engage in such an arduous

journey every year but his diary entries give two major clues as to his motivation. First, he

continually compared prices per bushel received at various markets. The Chicago and Ottawa

markets occupied his attention, though he occasionally reviewed smaller, local buyers like

Seeley’s Mill at Lowell or Green’s Mill at Dayton, both in LaSalle County, to keep up with the

trends. Chicago prices per bushel were consistently higher. During his 1841 trip, Ebersol was

able to sell his wheat for 830 per bushel as compared to the 500 in Ottawa. Additionally, com

was 37/20 per bushel in Chicago and only at 200 in Ottawa.24 Local grist mills typically paid

just under 500 per bushel as well as charging up to 1/6 o f the volume for processing of the

grain.25 Despite lower buying prices and fees, many local farmers worked exclusively with the

local mills during the period which made this “one of the key market relationships in the

emerging agricultural economy.”26 But Ebersol’s keen observations o f the markets available to

him allowed him to capitalize on the return on his investment in production and travel. Cronon

23 Amos M. Ebersol, 19 August 1841, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical Society Museum, Utica, Illinois.24 Amos M. Ebersol, 19 Aug. 1841, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical Society Museum, Utica, Illinois.25 John G. Clark, The Grain Trade in the Old Northwest (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1966), 26.26 William Cronon, Nature ’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1991), 104.

mentions that with the opening of the Illinois and Michigan canal that “farmers . . . suddenly

discovered an alternative to St. Louis.”27 28 29 * But businessmen like Ebersol had demonstrated that

overland transportation from the hinterlands was a viable option several years prior to the canal.

Ebersol made the most of his trip to Chicago and found ways to make the most of the

opportunity the trip offered him. He also charged one of his neighbors a fee of $4 for hauling

grain and another a $5 flat fee for hauling and selling 522 pounds o f hides for 100 a pound.28 29 30

Individual merchants in Chicago could indeed negotiate the value o f their products based on

supply and demand which in turn sets the market price, but traveling buyers such as Ebersol

were forced to deal exclusively in cash because credit, reciprocity, or negotiating the value of

grain with a merchant in Chicago was not an available option.

The second issue that may have motivated his desire to go to Chicago was his purchases

while there. During the same 1841 trip, he purchased salt, knives, nails, a handkerchief, a hat for

his father, wolf traps, sugar, coffee, muslin jaconet, and two sets of spoons, German silver and

iron. Such sundry purchases were not evident in his local shopping habits which were much

more mundane or utilitarian in purpose. Local purchases consisted of flour, nails, shovels,

pencils and paper to which he added simple notes in his diary, “All cash, no trust. The

27 William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1991), 64.28 Amos M. Ebersol, 19 August 1841, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical Society Museum, Utica, Illinois.29 Alan Kulikoff, The Agrarian Origins o f American Capitalism (Charlottesville: UniversityPress of Virginia, 1992), 20-1.30 Amos M. Ebersol, 19 August 1841, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical SocietyMuseum, Utica, Illinois.

merchants all have signs— ‘No Trust’”31 32 Most of the merchants were still reeling from the Panic

o f 1837 and the currency crisis which had grew with the economic collapse in 1839.

Such limitations on credit in early 1840 were not surprising. The entire western region,

including Illinois, had produced a tremendous yield in crops the previous year. The flood of

grains into the market drove down prices.31 32 33 Couple overabundant crop yields with the general

scarcity of specie on the prairie and the cycle o f buyers unable to pay their debt began. A vast

majority of farmers survived on credit for periods that could last for years. If local markets could

not sustain the adequate levels o f credit, industrious farmers were driven elsewhere.

But many farmers did not transport their product far from their homes as the shift to drive

products over land for better prices was not universal. “Numerous farmers were unwilling or

unable,” John Clark notes “to engage in the marketing o f their crops at any distance from

home.”34 Accounting for expense, time, or other local obligations, other methods o f payment

would have to be engaged. The system of exchange was a predominate methodology utilized

within the region. The exchange could involve portions o f crops, garden produce, homemade

goods, or work services traded directly with neighbors or a growing number o f merchants and

dry goods dealers.

During the 1840s, many individuals in the lower Fox Valley River region still produced

for both personal consumption and neighborly exchange which indicates a level o f reciprocity.

31 Amos M. Ebersol, 7 January 1840, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical Society Museum, Utica, Illinois.32 Reginald Charles McGrane, The Panic o f1837: Some Financial Problems o f the Jacksonian Era (New York: Russell & Russell Inc, 1965), 123.33 Reginald Charles McGrane, The Panic o f1837: Some Financial Problems o f the Jacksonian Era (New York: Russell & Russell Inc, 1965), 126.34 John G. Clark, The Grain Trade in the Old Northwest (Urbana: University o f Illinois Press, 1966), 41.

But the region was witnessing a change to a more active participation in seeking economic

success. According to Allan Kulikoff, capitalism “refers to a system of exchange “in which

goods are bought and sold,” where individuals produce “for the market,” purchasing goods from

the market in return.”35 The exchange of products or services between individuals for personal

consumption would not fall under Kulikoff s definition but the dealings with the merchants is

indicative of the steady transition to capitalism. Men like Ebersol were representative of this

transition.

The commercial exchange relationships forming and transforming in the region during

the period indicate the complexity of the market. In the examination o f Ebersol’s farming

operations as well as his exchanges, the complexity becomes evident. By 1850, Joseph and

Amos had a combined 95 improved and 100 unimproved acres valued at $2,320 which was

slightly above average for the area.36 They had separate homes by this time as Amos was

married but the two ran the family operations together. Joseph’s other sons, Samuel and Albert,

also contributed as farmers living under their father’s roof, as did Samuel Guss, a hired man who

resided with the Ebersols. The remainder of the family group consisted o f seven boys and girls

under the age o f eighteen. Like the rest o f Grand Rapids Township, the Ebersol males were

listed as farmers in the U.S. census.37

The Ebersol investment in livestock was indicative of the depth in which a majority of

farmers from the region diversified their overall farming operation. The livestock they owned

consisted of seventeen milk cows and forty-eight other cattle and by the fall of 1841, the

35 Allan Kulikoff, The Agrarian Origins o f American Capitalism (Charlottesville: University Press o f Virginia, 1992), 5.36 1850 LaSalle County Agricultural Census.37 1850 LaSalle County Census.

Ebersols were engaged in cattle breeding to grow their operation. The rest of the livestock

consisted of twenty-three hogs and fifty sheep from which they produced 125 pounds of wool,

and a couple of draft horses they named Nigger and Charley all valued at $1,195 which was

much better than average.38 38 39 During the winter months, the largest aspect of the Ebersol

operation revolved around the processing of hogs. Amos meticulously detailed the quantity of

pork processed, as well as the pounds of sausage and blood pudding produced with each

slaughter. The value of the livestock slaughtered in 1850 was $80 which was, again, slightly

above average for the region, but Ebersol also slaughtered for sale and trade. John Shuler, a

merchant in Ottawa, was Ebersol’s primary outlet for selling butchered hogs.40 But just as

Ebersol monitored the price o f grain at various markets, he also monitored local merchant’s pork

buying prices to determine the best time to sell.41 Interesting entries in Ebersol’s diary indicate

that he gave meat and pudding away at times. The recipients o f the gift were Henry Hurlbut and

Philo Lindley, County Sheriff and Clerk of the Circuit Court, respectively 42 The details of the

circumstances of the transaction are purely speculative, but it does indicate a level of business

networking.

In addition to an extensive and thriving business in livestock, the Ebersol operation had

plenty o f acres under cultivation. By 1850, the north central region o f Illinois was associated

with grain. LaSalle County had outpaced other counties in the well-established American

38 Amos M. Ebersol, 26 October 1841, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical Society Museum, Utica, Illinois.39 1850 LaSalle County Agricultural Census.40 Amos M. Ebersol, 12 January 1841, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical Society Museum, Utica, Illinois.41 Amos M. Ebersol, 11 January 1842, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical SocietyMuseum, Utica, Illinois.42 Amos M. Ebersol, 11 January 1842, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical SocietyMuseum, Utica, Illinois.

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Bottom region by becoming ranked in the top ten counties in the state for wheat production.43

The Ebersols contribution to the total was 150 bushels of wheat and he also added 400 bushels o f

com, and over 700 bushels o f oats as well as hay, some flax seed, potatoes, and cabbage.44 The

Ebersols, besides retention o f seed for next year’s harvest, feed for livestock, and family

consumption, sold excess o f all these products. The grains, besides that processed at local mills

for local consumption, were transported over land to whichever market was paying the best rate,

except Ebersol declared “I won’t sell grain to Distillers” regardless o f what they were paying 45

He regularly attended church meetings where the subject o f temperance was prevalent.46

The Ebersols also were representative o f the region by diversifying the operations beyond

their specialization of cattle and grains. The diversification was utilized as a means to add to

their family table as well as provided the ability to supplement the income o f their main

v_; operations. The production o f what Michael Smuksta refers to as “petty commodities” allowed

women and children to become active players in the household economy as the men intensified

agricultural specialization 47 The farm had a small orchard on it consisting o f apple, peach,

plum, and cherry trees.48 They also had a sizable amount o f poultry including various chicken,

ducks, and turkeys, though a raid in August of 1840 by wolves, put the Ebersols out o f the turkey

43 1850 Federal Census, State o f Illinois, Seventh Census o f the United States (Washington DC: The National Archives, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1850). Here after cited as 1850 Illinois Census.44 1850 LaSalle County Agricultural Census.45 Amos M. Ebersol, 22 October 1841, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical Society Museum, Utica, Illinois.46 Amos M. Ebersol, 22 February 1841, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical Society Museum, Utica, Illinois.47 Michael J. Smuksta, “Work and Family: Farm Women in Illinois, 1820-1915” (PhD diss.,Northern Illinois University, 1991), 4.48 Amos M. Ebersol, 4 April 1841, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical Society Museum,Utica, Illinois.

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business.49 Eggs, butter, fruits, and vegetables were used in various quantities to settle accounts

in the town of Ottawa at the small variety of stores. Therefore as small farmers, such as Ebersol,

produced quantities of excess products they in turn would sell them to local merchants in

exchange for other items or to settle debts. Then “when sufficient farm goods had accumulated

to warrant shipment,” according to scholar Paul W. Gates, “the country storekeeper was able to

replenish his stock in trade and his own credit” therefore small farmers were the initial step in

distributing these goods to the rest o f the world and the beginning of the market chain.50 51 52 * Also

the farmer would occasionally sell for cash to neighbors or travelers passing by the farm or

likewise trade as needed. Additionally, farmers in DeKalb County produced gallons of cider as

well as created a well-established market for maple sugar to supplement their operations.51 52 53 The

exchange of farmer’s goods for merchant’s goods was “the key market relationship in the

emerging agricultural economy” in northern Illinois, according to Cronon.W

Ebersol’s diary contains many examples of small commercial exchange that are

indicative of his personal transition to capitalism. In the winter of 1839, two travelers spent the

night with the Ebersols and were charged 871/20 by Mrs. Ebersol, a rate Amos believed was too

little. On many occasions, the Ebersols charged room and board for travelers and their horses

for which, cash payment was required. When Amos traveled and spent the night at someone’s

49 Amos M. Ebersol, 15 August 1840, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical Society Museum, Utica, Illinois.50 Paul W. Gates, The Economic History o f the United States. Vol 1, The Farmer ’s Age Agriculture 1815-1860 (Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 1960), 404.51 Charles W. Marsh, Recollections 1837-1910 (Chicago: Farm Implement News Company, 1910), 14. In 1850, DeKalb County had produced 4,950 pounds of maple syrup whereas LaSalle had produced none.52 William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York: W. W.Norton & Company, 1991), 104.53 Amos M. Ebersol, 17 December 1839, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical SocietyMuseum, Utica, Illinois.

16

home rent free, he mentioned his financial good fortune.54 While charging rent was acceptably

opportunistic, it was not altruistic and surely lacked any sense o f reciprocity. It seemed rather as

an example o f the Ebersol family’s financial consciousness.

Ebersol also mentioned multiple occasions when traveling peddlers from the east stopped

by the family farm and small exchanges were conducted that involve purely cash transactions.

Most o f these dealt with shoes, clothing, and in one case “a Dutchman peddling . . . a pair o f gum

elastic suspenders for 5O0.”55 Historian David Jaffee describes how these itinerant salesman

where an integral addition to establishing a rural market for new consumer goods. With the

selling of new products, peddlers helped with introduce a broader sense o f commercialization to

the rural population as well as served to act as another link between small rural communities and

the larger markets aboard.56 The peddlers supplied some items that would have been produce by

home manufacturing efforts which in turn allowed farming families more time to focus on

intensive agrarian production or crop specialization. The need to specialize was fed by market

consumption.57 The development o f specialization, a significant step from any sense o f self-

sufficiency, was another indicator in actively influencing the market. Historian Christopher

Clark identified two major trends that were occurring; intensive versus extensive farming and

54 Amos M. Ebersol, 23 February 1840, and 28 March 1840, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical Society Museum, Utica, Illinois.55 Amos M. Ebersol, 29 May 1841, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical Society Museum, Utica, Illinois.56 David Jaffee, “Peddlers o f Progress and the Transformation o f the Rural North, 1760-1860,” The Journal o f American History 78, no. 2 (1991): 514-6.57 Christopher Clark, “The Agrarian Context of American Capitalist Development,” in Capitalism Takes Command: The Social Transformation o f Nineteenth-Century America, ed. Michael Zakim and Gary J. Komblith (Chicago: The University o f Chicago Press, 2012), 15.

17

crop specialization. Clark notes that output in agricultural production increased but the outputW

r owas not equal amongst the crops.

One example of this specialization was evident on the farm o f Joseph Platt. By 1850,

Platt, from New Hampshire, became the largest land owner in Freedom Township in LaSalle

County with 235 improved acres. His land holdings far exceeded the township average o f 65

improved acres. A vast majority o f the acreage was devoted to wheat production which had a

yield o f 762 bushels annually. The township average was only 198 bushels. But Platt’s farming

operation only produced 100 bushels of com during the same period while the rest of the

township averaged 343 bushels.58 58 59 Platt’s decision to specialize in wheat also kept him out o f the

oats business which was another local favorite. While no evidence exists to support Platt’s

decision to specialize, the trend to focus on specific crops was growing amongst a portion of the

farmers.

The combination of family consumption and production for sale as well as the small

capitalistic gains that the Ebersols incorporated was what Richard Bushman would classify as a

composite farm.60 In composite farming both the male and female roles on the farm were first

directed to the daily needs of the family and then excess was directed toward sale on the market.

Every member o f the family old enough to contribute had a role in production. Allan Kulikoff

refers to this as “Marx’s distinction between production for use and production for exchange,”

but he continues to add that “the value o f the goods is not determined by the market prices but by

58 Christopher Clark, The Roots o f Rural Capitalism, Western Massachusetts, 1780-1860 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990), 286-7.59 1850 LaSalle County Agricultural Census.

v , 60 Richard L. Bushman, “Markets and Composite Farms in Early America,” William and Mary Quarterly 55, no. 3 (1998): 364.

their utility to those who make or use them.”61 62 63 The consumer price was thereby set by the

individual who provided the item to the public market. All accumulated overhead; product cost,

transportation, or interest fees as well as any potential profit would be passed on to the end user.

Merchants, who acquired stock beyond the realm of local exchange, could manipulate prices in

an effort to settle debts with wholesalers or other businesses.

The products or services maintained exchange-value based on the individuals’ need for

the items rather than as Michael Merrill points out, a calculation based on hours of labor. The

maintenance o f exchange-value was the critical component to the noncommercial market, as

Merrill identifies it, was a more correctly categorized as a social relation based on need rather

than price.61 62 63 64 The need to provide for the necessities for a family or the need to clear debt with

creditors up the chain was the motivating factor in the establishment of exchange rates.

Therefore the ability to pay a debt could be translated in to work or product exchange based on

the supply and demand of both parties at the time specific to their individual needs and the

exchange would not necessarily be carried over onto the next transaction. Any uniformity in

exchange rates during the period was non-existent. The inconsistency in the rate o f exchange

caused consternation to build amongst the people who provided the labor or the products which

translated into a deeper economic consciousness. As the number of individuals who controlled

debt decreased with the mounting financial hardships the nation faced, these successful

61 Allan Kulikoff, The Agrarian Origins o f American Capitalism (Charlottesville: University Press o f Virginia, 1992), 15.62 Christopher Clark, The Roots o f Rural Capitalism, Western Massachusetts, 1780-1860 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990), 200.63 Michael Merrill, “Cash is Good to Eat: Self-Sufficiency and Exchange in the Rural Economyof the United States,” Radical History Review 13, no. 4 (1977): 51.64 Michael Merrill, “Cash is Good to Eat: Self-Sufficiency and Exchange in the Rural Economyof the United States,” Radical History Review 13, no. 4 (1977): 53.

19

entrepreneurs increased their landholdings and business operations which steadily drew a line

between the ‘have's and the have not's.’

Family farming operations were not the only economic component of the region that

developed the local market. Local businesses such as dry goods dealers, grocers, and general

stores formed the crucial connection between sections o f local farmers to more distant markets.

Small businesses such as these were also spurred on to expand and grow by the influx of non­

farming families settling in the region. The producer-merchant-consumer relations coupled with

a broader network o f markets was, of course, not unique to the lower Fox Valley River region

but was much more involved and complex than has been previously suggested. The diverse

array o f business operations ranged in cash value from a few thousand to over $100,000

providing the region with an access to capital unlike much o f the surrounding area.65 65 66 * Some local

entrepreneurs sought outside investors to help grow and sustain their endeavors which provide

evidence of the beginning of the full swing towards capitalistic intent. But the number of

65 The significance of grain production and hog farming has dominated the historiography o f the region. Scholars such as Milo M. Quaife, John G. Clark, and William Cronon have examined the northern Illinois region through a macro lens to describe how the region filtered key crops to the broader world through the growing economic center o f Chicago. By focusing within the region, pockets of extreme diversity become much clearer. In the research for this paper, the comparison of northern LaSalle County with southern DeKalb County by itself is indicative of this diversification. DeKalb County data does strongly supports previous scholars classification of the region as agrarian with focuses on grains and hogs, but the closer to the Illinois River the research becomes, the complexity o f the market is much more than the simple “hub and spoke” view of commercial transactions in the region prior to the railroads.66 Illinois, Vols. 63 & 114, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School. The R. G. Dun Company was a credit firm that reported to potentialinvestors on the individual manner in which the owner-operator ran their local businesses. East coast businessmen could decide whether or not to invest in the upstart companies based on these reports without personally visiting them. Then, the reports were updated periodically which offered a mechanism by which the investors could monitor their investments. The reporters would provide details as to business practices, personal reputations, payment methodology, personal and business value, and any other pertinent information that could be used to assess the potential (or lack thereof) of the person and their business.

businesses that sought financial assistance was relatively small. In LaSalle County, 125

merchants and grocers were in business in the early 1850s with less than 10 percent o f which

required or sought investors’ help, whereas in DeKalb County, none o f the nineteen merchants

and grocers sought or received financial assistance.67

The Ebersols conducted business with both privately and investor-funded merchants.

David Sanger, in his late fifties from Massachusetts, was one example of a privately funded

merchant in Ottawa. Sanger, his wife Mary and there two grown children, all worked in the

family business. The Sangers also boarded a young man, Charles Miller, who was also a

merchant and together they ran a general store with a value estimated at $8,000.68 Sanger was

representative of the majority o f the small merchants of the area who had built up a small stock

of goods and traded with locals for items like eggs, butter, fruits, potatoes, honey, and other

small products from the farm. Also like most merchants and grocers o f the time, no records exist

of the details o f Sanger’s business operations other than notes from patrons like Ebersol. Ebersol

notes that depending on the patrons, the times and the circumstances, Sanger and others dealt in

exchange, cash, or limited credit.

Another merchant whom Ebersol had recorded continual business transactions with was

John Shuler and Brother. The Shuler family consisted of several brothers and sons involved in

the business for generations. In 1836, the family left Pennsylvania and settled in LaSalle

County, started a general store and supplemented their income with John’s given trade as a

68 1850 LaSalle County Census.

67 Illinois, Vols. 63 & 114, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections,Harvard Business School. 1850 DeKalb and LaSalle County Census.

21

tailor.69 By the 1880s, the family had developed into one o f the leading names in the community

having expanded into grain dealing, the elevator business, as well as a prominent lumber dealing

operation.70 Ebersol made various entries of exchange with the Shuler business to included

credit, product exchange and work exchange.71

Businessmen, like Sanger and Shuler, also supported a sizable portion of the workforce in

the region. Merchants, grocers, dry goods dealers, and their clerks provided 242 jobs in LaSalle

County alone or 4.6 percent of all the employed in the county.72 The smaller 1.5 percent, or 26

jobs, in DeKalb County is consistent with the greater distance from the river. To successfully

support this many positions, the merchants were relatively successful in serving a base o f

customers. By focusing locally, the average merchant in LaSalle County could have transactions

with 23 separate farmers in the county while servicing a customer base of 142 people, whereas in

69 U. J. Hoffman, History o f LaSalle County, Illinois (Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1906), 155.70 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 42, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School.71 Amos M. Ebersol, 30 January 1840, 28 October 1842, and 19 April 1843, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical Society Museum, Utica, Illinois.72 1850 DeKalb & LaSalle County Census: Farmers and laborers made the bulk of the occupations from the region followed by craftsmen like carpenters, mason, plasterers, black and white smiths, and coopers. Cordwainers or shoemakers rounded out the top occupations in the region as the art o f Shoe production was beyond the ability o f most home manufacturing skills.

DeKalb LaSalleFarmers 1397 81.5% 2825 53.2%Laborers 71 4.1% 1000 18.8%Carpenters 63 3.7% 262 4.9%Merchants & Grocers 19 1.1% 125 2.4%Clerks 7 0.4% 117 2.2%Black & White Smiths 23 1.3% 87 1.6%Masons & Plasterers 10 0.6% 70 1.3%Cordwainers 19 1.1% 67 1.3%Coopers 21 1.2% 34 0.6%All others 84 5.0% 728 13.7%

1714 100.0% 5315 100.0%

22

DeKalb County the average merchant would connect with over 73 farmers and service a

customer base o f over 396 people.73 * 75 The data supports a conclusion that because of the distance

from the river that more people engaged in exchange with neighbors or fellow community

members rather than with commercial exchange.

But luckily for the region, the merchants were more diversified than merely local

transactions. The commercial relationships between both Chicago and St. Louis helped to grow

the businesses by the competition the distant markets initiated. Some merchants dealt heavily

with one market or the other, whereas some worked both ends of the river system equally. Isaac

D. Harmon and Company was a grocer on the river with business ties in both distant markets.

Harmon, originally from Vermont, had worked his way west to Peru in LaSalle County having

previous experience in wholesale and retail with firms in Chicago and DuPage County.74 75 In

addition to his merchant business, Harmon was a speculator who bought grain and pork and sent

this product to his partner in Chicago, Jas. Coates, a business connection he made while he

n c

worked in Chicago. Later, despite some fluctuations in his credit rating because of speculation,

Harmon was able to add a branch store on Water Street in Chicago, and he turned over

operations of the branch to his brother-in-law, Charles Hunton.76 In addition to Harmon’s

Chicago connections, by 1847, he was also the agent for the steamer, Dial, which ran weekly

73 Based off 1850 Census data o f DeKalb County’s total population of 7,536 and LaSalle County’s total population of 17,809.14 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 24, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School.75 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 24, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections,Harvard Business School.76 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 24, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections,Harvard Business School.

23

between St. Louis and the Peru-Utica-Ottawa docks.77 78 Individuals or businesses that needed to

transport freight via the steamer would be required to negotiate fares and space with Harmon

directly after his business needs were met. With these direct connections with two competing

markets, Harmon was able to multiply the value of his business assets by five in only thirteen

78years.

Henry F. Eames of New York, in his early thirties by the mid-1840s, was working for the

John G. Nattinger and Company, a general store located in Ottawa.79 80 By 1851, Eames had taken

over daily operations of the general store completely as Nattinger, a native of Wittenberg,

Germany, had diversified his business into a store dealing in iron works. The iron store quickly

grew and drew the attention o f St. Louis firms that were “interested in the concern.”81 82 In January

1852, business was thriving so well that he had built a new three story building for his

operations, though bad crops in the region caused him to fall behind on collecting from

customers which temporarily slowed payment on his own debts.

Other businessmen had access to the dual markets but were not as successful in the long

run. Samuel G. Smith, a druggist in Peru, Illinois was recorded in 1844 as “careful and

attentive” in his business habits and was “doing a good business for cash and said to be making 77 78 79 80 81 *

77 Amanda Bell Spitzer, LaSalle County: The Rivers and The Prairies (Decorah, Iowa: The Anundsen Publishing Company, 2003), 271.78 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 24, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School.79 1850 LaSalle County Census. Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 25, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School.80 1850 LaSalle County Census. Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 25, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School.81 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 25, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections,Harvard Business School.82 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 25, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections,Harvard Business School.

money.” By 1846, Smith was buying products from both St. Louis and Chicago to meet the

demands of his growing business. The business continued to flourish until 1852 when the

railroad was firmly established, and Smith began land speculation utilizing his business as

24

collateral for cash. Unfortunately, he ended up “hopelessly bankrupt.”

S. W. Morse and B. Connelly, both from New York, were also diverse business owners

with ties to distant markets. The team were saloon keepers, billiard room owners and part-time

grocers who had a penchant for their own product as they were considered “generally half drunk

in the afternoon” and it was determined that the business “will prob[ably] decline and fail as the

temperance cause is flourishing.”83 84 85 Regardless of any hopes o f local sobriety, the team managed

to stay in business for ten years until Morse swindled his suppliers in St. Louis and credit became

an impossibility, which caused the business to dissolve.

The young, bustling market at Chicago also established significant connections with the

lower Fox Valley River region prior to the completion o f the canal or introduction of the

railroads. Lucien P. Langer was a pork and grain speculator from Ottawa who had some

questionable business connections in the Chicago market. “There are 4 or 5 bro[thers] ‘Langers’

who have been connected,” credit reports indicate in 1848. “ [They] have changed the style of

their firms frequently & I believe have compromised with eastern creditors more than once.”83 84 85 86

But despite the negative reports, Lucien Langer held vast quantities o f Chicago real estate and

83 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 24, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School.84 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 39, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School.85 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 39, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections,Harvard Business School.86 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 38, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections,Harvard Business School.

25

was buying large amounts of hogs for cash: therefore, he was deemed “good for all

engagements.”87 88 89 But the speculation game caught up with him, and by 1852 he was reported asW

“playing a bold game to cheat his New York creditors clean out.” A few years later, Langer was

o oforced to liquidate all his property to settle his accounts.

In 1845, Jeremiah Crotty, an Irish immigrant and farmer, started a dry goods business

with stock he purchased in New York and Chicago. He was recorded as having traded “mostly

with his countrymen” as the region supported a large Irish population that was employed in some

fashion with the construction of the Illinois and Michigan canal.87 88 89 90 In 1847, Crotty saw greater

87 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 38, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School.88 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 38, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School.89 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 23, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School.90 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 23, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School. According to the 1850 LaSalle County census, the total population for the county was 17,809. O f this, 4,834 were foreign bom or 27.1 percent o f the entire county making immigrants the largest demographic group followed by native Illinois bom at 25.9 percent and Mid-Atlantic bom at 24.4 percent. O f the foreign bom, 2,121 or 43.9 percent were Irish who were more than likely escaping the great potato famine of the period. A look at the breakdown o f foreign bom indicates the overwhelming presence of the Irish with strong pockets of Germans and Norwegians throughout the county.

26

opportunity in the canal business and left the dry goods business to become a contractor on the

canal while he maintained his farming operation with the help o f seven hired hands, all o f whom

were Irish, too.91 92 93 By 1859, Crotty had established a net worth of $40,000 through the growth

and diversification of his business operations.

The Irish were not the only foreign businessmen to establish thriving and successful

commercial operations in the area. In 1838, John Hossack, a Scottish immigrant, came to the

region by way o f Chicago and started a lumber business in Ottawa in 1849. By 1851, Hossack

had expanded into dealing in com and other grains in such large quantities, that even the

disastrous crop season o f 1852 did not affect his ability to pay all debts in full.91 92 93 94 By 1856,

Hossack’s business was valued at $40,000 and this did not include his farming operations worth

DeKalb LaSalleCanada 306 37.82% 237 4.90%England 162 20.02% 438 9.06%Ireland 173 21.38% 2121 43.88%

Germany 43 5.32% 880 18.20%Poland 1 0.12% 6 0.12%

Belgium 4 0.49% 1 0.02%Scotland 66 8.16% 111 2.30%Denmark 0 0.00% 1 0.02%France 36 4.45% 333 6.89%Norway 1 0.12% 655 13.55%Sweden 0 0.00% 4 0.08%

Switzerland 6 0.74% 15 0.31%Wales 11 1.36% 32 0.66%

809 4834

91 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 23, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School. 1850 LaSalle County Census.92 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 23, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School.93 U. J. Hoffman, History o f LaSalle County, Illinois (Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,1906), 701.94 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 26, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections,Harvard Business School.

an additional $10,000.95 As Hossack’s wealth and prominence in the community grew, he also

became an outspoken abolitionist who was involved in the Underground Railroad.96 97 98

While both Crotty and Hossack provide evidence o f businessmen who established

commercial connections with Chicago on their way to their settlement in LaSalle County, there

was another link between the two regions: lawyers. Some businessmen were unable to produce

a profit, pay their bills, or make sound financial decisions which in turn caused investors to seek

legal assistance. Most attorneys employed to handle financial issues were hired from the

Chicago area and these attorneys became a conduit for further commercial connections

beginning in Chicago. Alexander McGill, whose family came from Connecticut, was a grain

dealer in Ottawa who also claimed to own real estate in Chicago.97 98 By 1849, McGill became

involved with a series o f serious business setbacks that proved fatal to the business; he was sued

several times on unpaid notes, invested $1,200 on a boat that was only worth $700, and started a

coal digging operation that failed. The creditors that had loaned to McGill hired attorney

Henry W. Bigelow from Chicago to handle the collections on the notes. Bigelow built a

lucrative business dealing in real estate sales, bankruptcies, and foreclosures during the 1850s to

1870s. He was tasked with liquidating the stock to clear as much of the debt as possible, and in

the fall o f 1849, he was able to sell McGill’s $1000 worth o f stock for $500.99 Bigelow usually

advertised sales o f real estate and goods in local Chicago papers, drawing Chicago buyers to the

95 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 26, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School. 1850 LaSalle County Census.95 U. J. Hoffman, History o f LaSalle County, Illinois (Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1906), 701.97 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 39, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School.98 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 39, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections,Harvard Business School.99 Illinois, Vol. 114, pg. 39, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections,Harvard Business School.

28

location o f the sale. Harvey B. Hurd, who became a legal luminary in Illinois and served asvw /

president o f the Illinois State Bar Association from 1898 to 1899 first started his legal profession

as assigned to represent wholesale houses of Chicago and go on “collecting tours” o f merchants

in the DeKalb County area.100 Every business that fell short on payments or went insolvent in

the DeKalb-LaSalle area would bring more Chicago buyers to the region where they would

develop stronger business connections with the locals.

The census records reveal other business ventures in the lower Fox Valley River region

that were indicative of a diverse market and that also relate to connections with the other major

markets. By 1850, Earl Township, in the rural northwest comer of LaSalle County, produced

15,500 pounds of cheese.101 102 103 This volume accounted for almost 45 percent o f all cheese

production in the county and helped place LaSalle as one o f the top ten cheese producing

v / counties in the state.102 103 This extraordinary production was focused on only five farming families

which shared adjoining property in Sections 6, 7, 18, and 17 forming a large “L” shape tract of

land in the township. The location o f the group o f farmers has them approximately equidistant

from Ottawa, DeKalb, and Dixon on the Rock River but no records exist that indicate

commercial exchange patterns from the group. The men, Austin (Francis) Burlingham, George

Richardson, Allan Brown, David Smith, and Daniel Smith, all with their respective families,

made up the majority of Massachusetts immigrants in the township.104 Brown was the first in the

100 Harvey B. Hurd, Address of Hon. Harvey B. Hurd Delivered Before The Old Settlers’ Association o f DeKalb County, Wednesday, Sept. 4,1901, Manuscripts Division, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum, Springfield, Illinois.101 1850 LaSalle County Agricultural Census.102 1850 LaSalle County Agricultural Census. 1850 Illinois Agricultural Census.103 Gregory A. Boyd J.D., Family Maps o f LaSalle County, Illinois with Homesteads, Roads, Waterways, Towns, Cemeteries, Railroads, and More (Norman, Oklahoma: Arphax Publishing

w Co., 2008), 130.104 1850 LaSalle County Census.

29

region in 1839 followed by Daniel Smith in 1840, Burlingham in 1842, and Richardson in 1845

and as time passed, each family continued to purchase land and expand their operations until

they combined owned almost 1,500 acres o f land.105 106 On this land they ran a vast number o f

sheep and swine, a couple of horses per family and a fairly large cattle operation that dwarfed

their neighbors considerably. In 1850, they ran 115 head of cattle o f which 94 were classified as

| A /

milk cows. In addition to the enormous amount o f cheese produced by the group, the cows

would have supplied the milk needed produce roughly 780 pounds o f butter annually.105 106 107 The

conversion o f milk to cheese or butter would make for a product that would keep longer for

further distances for trade or sale thereby allowing these farmers to expand their connections

with markets like Chicago potentially using Burlinham’s team of oxen to transport the product

overland.

Like Ebersol and his neighbors did for their 1841 trip to Chicago, the cheese

manufacturers pooled their resources to maximize their output and potential income. Most

examples of cooperative work were based family ties or a familiarity with neighbors from origins

back on the east coast or Europe. Many o f Ebersol’s business relations came from the Mid-

Atlantic region primarily Pennsylvania, Crotty and Hossack conducted a vast portion of their

business with their fellow countrymen, and the Massachusetts cheese makers lived and worked

so closely, they appeared locally as a larger clan. Family groups with similar ethnic backgrounds

or hailing from the same origins within the United States formed communities across the region

as members of families or original communities would migrate west, establish a settlement and

105 Gregory A. Boyd J.D., Family Maps o f LaSalle County, Illinois with Homesteads, Roads, Waterways, Towns, Cemeteries, Railroads, and More (Norman, Oklahoma: Arphax Publishing Co., 2008), 130.106 1850 LaSalle County Agricultural Census.107 1850 LaSalle County Agricultural Census.

• » i n *write home to persuade friends and families to join them in the new frontier. Once the local

community had established a foothold and grew an outlet for economic production, the network

of like-minded occupations and skill sets increased within the community.

In the fall o f 1829, on the Fox River at Dayton, a few miles north o f the Illinois River,

John Green purchased a claim from William Clark.108 108 109 Green had come from Ohio by way o f the

Great Lakes through Ft. Dearborn to the region “on a tour o f exploration o f the Northwest.”110 111 *

In 1830, Green opened a saw mill at the location and expanded to a grist mill by 1832 which was

frequented by numerous patrons over the years including the Ebersols.111 112 In 1840, with the help

of his brother Jesse, Green built the first woolen factory run by water in the state. A decade

after it was built, it had attracted a full third of the state’s sixteen wool manufacturers to its

location despite the fact that Dayton township held no sheep or local wool production. All o f the

wool manufacturers that worked in Dayton made up the entire contingent o f immigrants from

England, and they all lived in close proximity to one another.

108 Wilbur Waterman Sauer, An Account ofAndrew Sauer o f LaSalle County, Illinois and Some o f His Descendants (Paxton, Illinois: By Author, 1974), the author relates the story on page one how “a band o f fourteen German emigrants, all related, started on the first stage o f a journey that was to take them to LaSalle County, Illinois.” He continues that for migration to Illinois “it was not hard to find interested people because most o f the rural and working classes realized that there was no hope o f bettering their lot in Europe.” And to supplement Christopher Clark’s discussion, Sauer adds that “land [in Europe] had been divided until those who owned small plots found that they could not make a living.”109 Gregory A. Boyd J.D., Family Maps o f LaSalle County, Illinois with Homesteads, Roads, Waterways, Towns, Cemeteries, Railroads, and More (Norman, Oklahoma: Arphax Publishing Co., 2008), 248.110 Elmer Baldwin, History o f LaSalle County Illinois (Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co., 1877), 267.111 Elmer Baldwin, History o f LaSalle County Illinois (Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co., 1877), 271. Amos M. Ebersol, 13 May 1842, 16 November 1842,11 January 1843,29 May 1843,21 August 1843,13 February 1844, Ebersol Diary, LaSalle County Historical Society Museum,Utica, Illinois.112 Elmer Baldwin, History o f LaSalle County Illinois (Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co., 1877),271.

The entire DeKalb-LaSalle county area accounted for less than 2 percent o f Illinois’s

entire sheep population in 1850 and those sheep produced only 2.2 percent of all the state’s

wool.113 The small quantity of wool could hardly support such a thriving business with such a

base of workers, so Green’s Mill had to import a great amount of wool from around the region.

Because four pounds of wool are needed to make one pound o f cloth, at best, the industrial

complex on the Fox could only produce a little over 8,000 pounds o f wool cloth if fed

exclusively from LaSalle County.114 The quantity would be hardly enough to support five

workers and a wool spinner all year long therefore imports beyond the region seem inevitable.

Despite the low volume of raw product coming into the facility without importation, the amount

of finished product going out would still go beyond the needs o f the local community. “The

women made their own [dresses] and the children’s clothes,” as Charles Marsh, from DeKalb

County recollected, “also the men’s shirts and every-day pants.”115 The need to obtain woolen

fabric by the yard or as a bolt at a general store was becoming a more preferred method of

clothes manufacturing in the period instead of the time-consuming, homespun method, though

store purchases were not universal at the time. Therefore a woolen operation would have plenty

of opportunities to export the product throughout the region and beyond. Import and export of

manufactured goods that were produced outside the home from the region in the 1850s helps

display the complexity o f the market beyond grain and hogs.

113 1850 LaSalle County Agricultural Census. 1850 Illinois Agricultural Census.114 1850 Illinois Agricultural Census data records LaSalle County produced 33,063 pounds of wool. This was 1.54 percent o f the 2,150,113 pounds produced in the entire state for this census. Frank William Taussig, “The Woolen Manufacture. The Compensating System; Woolens and Worsteds,” Some Aspects o f the Tariff Question, http://www.econlib.org/librarv/Taussig/tsgSTQ20.html.115 Charles W. Marsh, Recollections 1837-1910 (Chicago: Farm Implement News Company, 1910), 15.

32

The complexity of the market in the lower Fox Valley River region prior to the railroadsW

crossing the prairies was beyond what past scholars have seen. Because o f the region’s unique

geographic location with the Illinois River, the diversity o f the population and skill sets that had

migrated to the region and the rare opportunity to develop market relationships with two major

import/export centers, the region was able to attract, support, and sustain a highly diverse and

complex market. By the beginning o f the 1850s and beyond, the introduction o f the rail system

would transform the region into a major, agricultural, global force that would help feed the world

and would attract more settlers to grow the region and bring about the final steps o f the transition

to capitalism. Regardless of the economic diversity and the waves o f settlers draw to the region,

when families did settle in the lower Fox Valley River region, many were enticed to stay and

grow their community because o f the immediate love of the land. In a letter from his new home

in South Grove, DeKalb County to family in New Hampshire, E. Currier called the region “a

pleasant and beautiful country and no one can fail to like . . . it here.” 116

116 E. Currier, letter to Nathan, 25 July 1853, Manuscript Division, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum, Springfield, Illinois.

33

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