Harmon Township, Lee County, Illinois
Like other towns far removed from the
old highways or stage lines, Harmon was one of the newer towns
in point of settlement.
John D. Rosbrook is said to have been
the first settler in this township. He bought a tract of land in
the eastern part of the township, subdued it and very soon other
settlers followed. But Mr. Rosbrook had few neighbors for a very
long time.
In 1853, with three sons, he came from
Niagara County, New York, and settled at the ''Lake,'' a clear
body of water covering something like forty acres of land. The
following spring the two other sons came out. George Rosbrook
held the plow that broke the first sod in Harmon Township.
Pretty soon Mrs. Robert Tuttle brought her family from Knox
County and settled in Harmon. Mr. Tuttle, who had come from New
Hampshire, settled in Knox County. He had been a lumberman, and
desiring to obtain employ-ment in the forests of the North, he
started to walk northward. At Dixon he was taken very sick. A
man named Henry Stores drove down to Knox County and brought
Mrs. Tuttle back to Dixon just in time to see her husband before
he died. She was a sister of Mitchell Rosbrook and very soon she
with her five children located in Harmon and built a good house.
This was in 1854. Very soon she opened a private school in her
house; Miss Vienna Tuttle taught, and many a good old-fashioned
dance was given in the early days by that same estimable lady,
Mrs. Tuttle.
Ox teams were used to break the sod.
Fortunately sod crops prospered with the new settlers so that no
especial hardships were encountered.
In the early days of the country snakes
were very plentiful and to some of Harmon's early settlers it
seemed as though there were many more in that township than in
any other town in the county. Rattlesnakes especially were a
source of great annoyance. Blue racers would crawl over on the
sod to bask in the sun and remain until the ox team came along
to frighten them away. The blue racer many times grew
excessively familiar. So much so that he would wind himself
around the ankles of the plowboys and frighten them half to
death.
In 1854 Thomas Sutton and his large
family came to Harmon and settled a mile south of the lake. It
is said of Sutton that there were nineteen children in his
family and often he lamented because there were not an even
twenty.
In 1854 Mitchell Rosbrook came to Lee
County from New Hampshire with his family of wife and six
children and two years later settled in Harmon. This devout
gentleman founded the first Sunday school in Harmon Township. It
was held in the granary of John D. Rosbrook. This same Mitchell
Rosbrook built the first house erected on Mount Washington in
the White Mountains.
Lewis Hullinger, John L. Porter and
James Porter, Jr., came along soon after. The first two
elections were held at the house of Mitchell Rosbrook.
In 1856-57 Austin Balch with his wife
and two children moved into the township. So did Joseph Julien,
C. H. Seifkin, Israel Perkins, George Stillings, Henry and Louis
Isles.
At this first election just mentioned,
James McManus was elected supervisor; Mitchell Rosbrook, town
clerk and George Stillings, constable.
Bogs, swamps and impassable sloughs
bothered the Harmon people fearfully in the early day ; more
perhaps than almost any other people, and the stories of miring
down and the difficulties encountered in dropping into the mud,
taking off the load and then taking the wagon apart to get it
ashore, would baffle the autoist of today.
Game abounded in the township during its
infancy to such an extent that to repeat some of the stories
related of hunters would set down the person telling the story
today, as an extravagant liar; yet those stories were true.
Mr. C. J. Rosbrook is the reliable
authority for the statement that Charles K. Shellhamer shot one
hundred geese down there in one day, a wagon box full. A hunter
from Dixon, named Kipp who will be remembered by some of us
older people, shot and killed thirty-six mallard ducks with one
shot. Five deer out of a gang of thirteen were killed by a party
of hunters. Cattle herding in Harmon was done on a scale as
large as in Hamilton. Harmon too seemed to be in the line of
cattle drives and Mr. Rosbrook has told us of one band of five
thousand Texas cattle passing through Harmon on the way to the
Chicago market.
He also has told of us once seeing a
colony of sandhill cranes not far away which covered nearly one
thousand acres. Game was that plentiful.
When Alonzo Kinyon projected his road
from Rock Falls through Lee County, it was graded through
Harmon.
Lewis Hullinger, who came to the
township in 1855, was supervisor at about the time the railroad
demanded the issuance of bonds in consideration of the building
through the township. Amboy, Brooklyn and Wyoming had voted the
bonds and issued them. They litigated their legality, but
ultimately the bonds had to be paid. Not so with Lewis Hullinger.
He opposed the bond scheme and the issuance of any bonds and
Harmon was spared the liability which nearly bankrupted Amboy,
Wyoming and Brooklyn, largely through the pertinacious fight put
up by Lewis Hullinger.
But the Harmon of today is a splendid
body of land. Large sums of money have been spent to drain the
land, and while some portions of the Harmon lands are sandy, the
great majority is black loam, rich, and great crops are raised.
As a grain market Harmon keeps pretty well in the lead. I doubt
if there is more than one other town in the county which ships
more grain than Harmon, something like six hundred thousand
bushels last year, by the Neola and the other elevators.
D. D. Considine does an enormous
business in general merchandising. Thomas P. Long also does an
enormous business in agricultural implements. W. H. Kugler and
Frank Kugler each enjoy a fine general trade. Harmon has a bank,
of which Mr. W. H. Kugler owns controlling interest.
The Harmon schools long have been noted
for their efficiency. The building is a beautiful brick. H. J.
Durr also runs a nice hardware business.
Harmon has one of the best plants for
fire protection and domestic use in Lee County. A very modem
standpipe produces a force sufficient to throw four streams over
the tallest building. It is also forced into various homes and
business blocks in the village.
At present, Harmon has a population of
350. It is located on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.
It was through Harmon that the big
tornado crossed before devastating so many homes further east.
But in Harmon not a bit of damage was done. Of course not many
people dwelt in this township then; but those who remember; say
the storm had lost control of its force while crossing Harmon.
Recently, the Northwestern Railroad in
reaching Peoria, entered Harmon Township, but no station has
been established in this township along the line of the road.
Harmon early learned the benefits of
hard roads and now, year by year, her people are spending
considerable sums for macadam for her muddy roads. The rural
schools of Harmon township number six, I believe, and I am told
that they rank just as high as the splendid village schools.
County superintendents tell me that Harmon for years has had the
best of schools and that the children rank high in all their
examinations. Only a few months ago, St Flannen's Catholic
Church burned down. Nothing was saved. Yet with commendable
perseverance, the congregation went to work and in less than
three months arrangements had been perfected and the funds had
been provided to build the present beautiful new church and
parsonage. Church work in Harmon and Marion takes front rank
among the towns of Lee County. The new church and parsonage were
dedicated last fall.
Lee County
Townships
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