Source: Portrait & Biographical Album of Whiteside County
Originally published 1885
Chapman Bros. Chicago, IL

Transcribed by: Denise McLoughlin
Tampico Historical Society
www.tampicohistoricalsociety.citymax.com

INTRODUCTORY

But little more than a half century has passed away since the white men made their first settlement in what is now one of the most thriving counties in the great State of Illinois - the county of Whiteside. But within that time a wilderness has been transformed into a cultivated region of thrift and prosperity by the untiring zeal and energy of an enterprising people. The trails of hunters and the wily red men have given place to railroads and thoroughfares for vehicles of every description; the cabins and garden patches of the pioneers have been succeeded by comfortable houses and broad fields of waving grain, with churches, school-houses, mills, postoffices, manufactories, and every convenience that could be asked for by civilized man.

The record of this marvelous change is history, and the most important that can be written. For one-half century the people of Whiteside County have been making a history that for thrilling interest, grand practical results, and lessons that my be perused with profit by citizens of other regions, will compare favorably with the history of any county in the great Northwest. Take, for instance, the record of the county in the great War of the Rebellion. Where were braver men than those forming the quota of Whiteside? There were few only of the battle-fields of the South but what were moistened by the life-blood of her sons.

The question is often asked why men leave the comforts and pleasures of civilized lands and strike out into a new and almost unknown country, bearing the toils and privations which are unavoidable. Not more from choice than from necessity, did the old pioneers bid farewell to the play-grounds of their childhood and the graves of their fathers. One generation after another had worn themselves out in the service of avaricious landlords, or had to eke out a miserable existence upon barren or worn-out land which they called their own. From the first flashes of the morning light until the last glimmer of the setting sun, they had toiled uncearingly on from father to son, carrying home each day upon their aching shoulders the precious proceeds of their daily labor. Money, pride and power were handed down in the line of succession from the rich father to his won, while unceasing work, continuous poverty and everlasting obscurity were the heritage of the workingman and his children. For the sons and daughters of the poor man to remain there, was to follow and never to lead - to be poor forever.

Without money, prestige or friends, the old pioneer drifted along seeking the garden spot the place where he might establish a home, where he might educate his sons and daughters, giving them privileges never enjoyed by himself. The broad prairies and beautiful groves of Whiteside County in that early day were indeed inviting to those seeking a home in a more favored land, and here they planted their stakes. To secure and adorn the homes desired by the pioneers, more than ordinary ambition was required, greater than ordinary endurance demanded. How well they have succeeded let the broad cultivated fields and fruit-bearing orchards, the flocks and the herds, the palatial residences, the places of business, the spacious halls, the clattering car-wheels and ponderous engines all testify.

There was a time when pioneers waded through deep snows, across bridgeless rivers and through bottomless sloughs, more than a score of miles, to mill or market, and when more time was required to reach and return from market than is now required to cross the continent or the Atlantic Ocean. These were the times when their palaces were constructed of logs and covered with clapboards riven from the forest trees. These were the times when children were stowed away in the night in the low, dark, attics, amongst the horns of the elk and the deer, and where through the chinks in the clapboards they could count the twinkling stars. These were the times when chairs and bedsteads were hewn from the forest trees, and tables and bureaus constructed from the boxes in which goods were brought. These were the times when all were required to work six days in the week and all the hours in the day from sunrise to sunset. Now all is changed. In viewing the blessings which now surround us, we should reverence those that made them possible, and ever fondly cherish in memory the sturdy old pioneer and his log cabin.