Henry S. Beebe

“ It can hardly be said that a town of a population of three thousand six hundred and fifty-two souls, dating back but about twenty years to its first rude tenement and solitary family, can have any history. The events of any public interest are so few, and their importance so small, that no reasonable hope can be entertained that their recital will be any thing but a matter of indifference to others than the present or former residents, or those connected with them by ties of consanguinity, or having an interest in its advancement and prosperity. ”

“ The triumphant party, excited by victory and bad whisky, defying the civil authorities, destroying property, and abusing and maltreating every luckless county Longfort man who came in their way, continued down the line below Ottawa, to the job of Edward Sweeney, who was a Corkonian. Here they were reinforced by his entire force—about two hundred men—and marched, under his leadership, to the extreme western end of the line, at Peru, whence they countermarched, having swept the line from end to end, of all obnoxious fellow laborers, and destroyed many of their shanties. ”

“ One word as to the advantages for manufacturing. One of the most considerable of these is the cheapness, excellency and unlimited supply of fuel. To this must be added the acknowledged healthiness of the locality and salubrity of climate; and the facilities for drawing supplies and distributing manufactures, by river, canal and [Pg 78] rail road, which diverge in every direction, and penetrate a country which, for hundreds of miles, has a greater capacity for production, and consequently for sustaining population, than any other country of the same extent on the surface of the Globe. ”

“ If, from the number set down in the census tables as "born in the United States," be subtracted the number "born of foreign parents and counted as Americans," there will be left only nine hundred and seventy-two [Pg 82] who are Americans by birth and ancestry. But the amalgamation of interest and feeling is so complete, that society moves harmoniously, and the subject of nationality is but little thought of.
It is believed that the mortality, as exhibited by the census table, is unparalleled. It is about one and one third per cent. of the population. ”

“ No running brooks, no trees, no shade, no merry children frolicking to school, no music of Church bells, no decorous and well dressed people, wending their way to the edifice, where the organ's diapason and the solemn chant, in memory, rose with their stately swell, no cheerful faces of neighbors and friends, no kind voices to congratulate in good fortune and console in bad, surrounded and cheered the saddened pilgrims. ”

“ The disconsolate and almost broken hearted mother who, during long and weary days and nights, in solitude and loneliness, watched and nursed her puny and sickly brood, is now the happy, comely and dignified matron, whose children and grand-children are clustered around her. The friends and kindred with whom she parted so sorrowfully twenty years ago—those of them who are yet spared to earth—are again her neighbors. ”

“ It was seriously proposed to enact a law making every man's note a tender for debts—always excepting the notes of the creditor himself. This condition of things produced a state of society never witnessed by the writer, before or since. The prevailing influence was so universal and complete as to reduce all to a common level. A sympathy and community of feeling pervaded all Illinois humanity. Thanks to a prolific soil and sparse population, nobody was in danger of starvation. ”

“ Whose was the intelligent self interest that enquired whether a small amount of aid, in money or credit, would not sustain and foster an enterprise which, in its turn, would invigorate every interest in the community?—Whose was the practical sagacity that perceived, that fifty male operatives, with their families and dependants, were of more value in advancing the growth and prosperity of the town than the rows of stately and costly stores, which have for years stood idle and tenantless? ”

“ Lumber from Michigan, transported by canal or rail road, is cheaper for fencing than rails, though the timber were at hand. Wire is also used to considerable extent. The abundance, cheapness, contiguity, and excellent quality of the bituminous coal, underlying portions of all three of these counties, obviate all necessity of wood for fuel.
Society is already established and settled, as in older communities. The present race of farmers is as intelligent and enterprising, as a class, as those of the eastern States. The tone of morals and integrity is as high as elsewhere. ”

“ A boon is craved, and the heart leaps in exultation as it is granted, or sinks in despair as it is denied, almost as soon as the lips have closed upon its utterance! Stupendous achievement! Is there no limit to the conquests of man over the forces of nature, tangible or invisible? ”

“ He liked whisky, as all frontier men do, but he seldom lost his bodily or mental equilibrium.—He was never in a condition when all his native coolness and resources would not have been at command in an instant, had he been assailed by any of his old familiar foes, whether man or beast. He was never quarrelsome, even in his cups, but the wronged or weaker party in any conflict, was sure to find in him a champion as chivalrous as ever raised a shield or poised a lance. ”

“ No portion of the United States is more favorable to health than the counties of La Salle, Bureau and Putnam. No means are at hand to enable a positive statement concerning the mortality of these counties to be made, but observation from almost their earliest settlement, and a residence in many other different localities, justify the assertion that it will fall short of most portions of New York, Pennsylvania or New England. ”

“ During the Summer, the Cholera again made its appearance, and with increased violence.—From the first settlement of the town to 1849, with the exception of the years 1838 and 1839, when bilious fevers prevailed to some extent, the inhabitants had enjoyed immunity from disease, seldom experienced in new western settlements, or indeed in any other. For the space of one year, no death occurred except from casualty. Even the ague found few, if any subjects. Throughout the summers of 1850 and 1851, cholera continued its ravages in the surrounding towns and country, and visited Peru but slightly. ”

“ An intelligent farmer in La Salle County—an old resident—has been experimenting upon a piece of land of a few acres, by planting and harvesting a succession of corn crops, without fertilizers, for a series of years.—As yet he has found no diminution of yield. All the cereals, fruits and esculent roots, adapted to the climate, produce in perfection and abundance.—Winter blight and rust are incident to wheat culture every where, here as well as in other sections; but insects—the grasshopper, army worm, midge and weavel—have never yet made their appearance. The corn crop never fails. ”

“ Oh, you benighted Vegetarians! Have you no music in your souls? Do no involuntary drops ooze from the caverns of your mouths, as you contemplate the gastronomic treasure, and inhale the rich fragrance which rises like a halo? ”

“ About 13,000 tons are annually packed for the southern market, giving employment to about three hundred men, during the Winter and Spring in packing and shipping, and sixty men in Summer and Fall, in building boats and other preparations for the next winter's business. Two steamboats are owned and employed exclusively in the trade.
[Pg 75] For some years, attention has been attracted to the Great Central Coal Field of Illinois, the north eastern rim of which underlies the cities of Peru and La Salle. From the earliest settlement of the country the outcrops have been resorted to for fuel. ”

“ On reviewing the census and other statistics, connected with the growth and present and prospective condition of the city, there will be found no cause for despondency and discouragement, but much for congratulation and hope. It is true that no such rapid increase of population has taken place as was anticipated, or as has been the case in some other western towns. ”

“ During this year the subject of Railroads began to attract the attention of the people of Illinois. The inhabitants of the town were a good deal excited about the location of one from Aurora, in Kane county, to Peru, via. Ottawa. Subscriptions were raised, and one hundred dollars were appropriated from the treasury to defray the expenses of the survey. This road was never constructed, but the interests of the town were afterwards satisfied by the construction of the Aurora Extension, and Chicago and Burlington, crossing the Illinois Central at Mendota. ”

“ Leading to these are roads whereon the low places have been turnpiked, and the sloughs and streams bridged, and which, if not so solid and smooth, in wet weather, as those over the flinty or gravelly soil of some portions of the eastern States, are infinitely superior to those corduroy affairs, running through the timbered regions of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. In dry weather, no McAdam, no pavement, no Imperial causeway is so smooth, so even, so easy, so noiseless as the slightly elastic prairie road bed. ”

“ Shall he go on, step by step, into the shadowy realms of the Impossible, until he shall claim affinity with Supreme Intelligence? Shall he advance, in the order of progressive creation, until he shall be developed in a being more nearly allied to Ultimate Destiny? ”

“ The mind is bewildered and baffled when it undertakes to contemplate either the consequences which are to flow from it, or the simple extent of the cable, and the mysterious regions which it traverses. ”

“ Unlike some other landscapes, fair and pleasing to the eye, no deadly or unwholesome exhalations arise from the dank and luxuriant vegetation. The breezes which fan this scene come laden with health and exhilaration, pure as the icy breath of the Arctic Sea. ”

“ The people of Peru may be a little curious to know why a person, whose pursuits in life have been hitherto very far removed from those of a writer for the public eye, should have undertaken a task for which previous practice and experience have so little qualified him. ”

“ A natural prairie road is the paradise of Jehus.
Horses, cattle, hogs—those whales of the prairies—sheep and fowls thrive and are profitable. The high price and great average yield of grain have, of late years, induced farmers, to a great degree, to neglect the dairy. ”

“ That this is a mistake, the mortality of Peru, as exhibited by the census table, for one year, 1857,—which is a fair average of every year except those when the cholera prevailed—abundantly shows. That these towns, while they have in no instance wholly stopped the increase of those on the river, but only [Pg 81] divided their natural accessions, will shortly react upon their older sisters, and, in their turn, contributed to their advancement and prosperity, is inevitable. ”

“ The reputation, thus acquired, clung to it; and while no place has had a larger [Pg 88] proportion of quiet, orderly, intelligent and refined citizens, no place has had a more unenviable reputation, unless it be the sister town of La Salle. So true is it that the fame of bad deeds travels further and faster than good ones, the writer, when abroad, on informing a stranger that he was from Peru, has observed that stranger involuntarily button up his pockets and move out of the neighborhood. ”

“ His cabin was transformed into a sort of garrison, and was filled with more than an hundred men, women and children, who rested almost their only hope of safety on the prowess of the Panther, and his influence over the savages.
At this time a party of about nine hundred of the Iroquois were on the banks of the Illinois, about a mile from the garrison of Myers, and nearly opposite the present town of La Salle.—One day news was brought to the camp of Myers, that his brother-in-law and wife, and their three children, had been cruelly murdered by some of the Indians. ”

“ Palaces, cottages, temples, pavilions, pagodas and mosques adorn valley and hill top. Domes, steeples, spires, turrets and minarets, gleam in the sun light, peer out of clumps of foliage, and struggle upwards at every unexpected point. ”

“ Who will now complain of the hardships incident to a removal from the most favored regions to a country, already so far advanced in all that contributes to the comfort, enjoyment and embellishment of life? ”