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Civil War PAWPAW PawPaw is the southwest corner town of De Kalb County. Most of its surface is occupied by rolling prairie,—some
portions of it rather flat, yet none so much so as to render it unfit for the plow. There is no waste land in the
township, and its deep, black soil, resting over a subsoil of clay, is extremely productive. The Big Indian Creek
and its tributaries, which run through the township in various directions, furnish a good supply of pure, running
water. Ross Grove, Coon Grove, and a portion of PawPaw Grove, lie in this town, and supply its inhabitants with
a considerable portion of their fencing and fuel. These, and other natural advantages, attracted those seeking
homes in the Wcst at a very early date.
The first settlers in this township arrived in the autumn of 1834. David A. Town came first, and was soon after
joined by Edward Butterfield and Benjamin Harris. In the family of Mr. Harris was his aged father, Benoni ilarris,
a Methodist clergyman, who immediately began to preach the doctrines of the Cross to the few scattered settlers,
who gathered together from great distances, coming on foot, on horseback, and with ox teams, to hear the word.
A plain marble slab, erected on the east side of PawPaw Grove, and bearing Masonic emblems, marks the last resting
place of this pioneer minister in De Kalb County. He died at the age of eighty-four. His wife, Thankful, whose
remains repose beside him, was the first white person buried in this town.
In the summer of 1835, several additional families moved into the township, among them David A. Town, Mr. Baldwin,
and Mr. Ross, who first settled and gave name to Ross Grove. PawPaw Grove took its name from the abundance of pawpaw
apples found there, and which grow there to this day—a fruit small, juicy, and luscious, found nowhere else in
this vicinity.
At this grove the celebrated Shabbona, chief of the Potawattamies, with his tribe, was accustomed to make long
stays. The old inhabitants say lie about divided his time between this and Shabbona’s Grove. Here was their burying
ground for common Indians, and the place where, between two half logs, dug out in the center, they stood up their
noted dead in the crotches. of trees. Here, too, lived the chief Wabonsie, concerning whom but few of the oldest
citizens knew anything, and they but little, as he soon disappeared.
For some services in the Indian war, the government gave a reservation at this grove to one Le Clair, a half-breed
Frenchman. Most of this is in Lee County.
Game was found quite plentiful at that early date. Deer, prairie wolves, wild cats, and an occasional bear, with
wild turkeys, geese, ducks, and prairie chickens, were the principal species.
The first white child born was Caroline, daughter of Russell and Roxana Town, in the spring of 1836, now the wife
of James Kern.
PawPaw Grove has the reputation of having been, during early times, one of the principal rendezvous of the horsethieving
and counterfeiting fraternity. Wyram, or “Bogus,” Gates, John Bryant, Bill Rogers, and one Webber, with others,
who resided at a small grove west of PawPaw, gained, by means of the suspicious circumstances which surrounded
them, the reputation of belonging, to that gang, and of procuring by these means those large amounts of money which
their neighbors saw them to possess, and knew no other way to account for their possessing.
A citizen relates that, coming on horseback from the north, he endeavored to relieve his lonely way by overtaking
two horsemen in advance. But the faster he rode,’ still faster rode they, till the pursuit became a chase, and
they hid in the woods. The horses were next day found in Gates’ barn, the men arrested, tried, and sent to the
penitentiary, from whence they soon escaped.
Bill Rogers was a marked charactor. He was bold as a lion, tail, and straight as an Indian. He sometimes acted
as detective of criminals, and sometimes, it is said, in the character of principal. An exciting story is told
of his arrest of a huge, powerful negro, who had hitherto defied all efforts to capture him. Rogers met him on
the prairie, when both were unarmed, and after a fight, lasting over an hour, succeeded in pinioning his arms,
handing him over to the officers, and securing the large reward offered for his capture.
Rogers was the contractor to remove the Indians from this country to their new homes west of the Mississippi. Five
or six years ago, an early citizen of this County, crossing the plains to California, was astonished to meet him
far beyond civilization, dressed in Indian costume, and mounted on a wild mustang with long hair and beard as white
as snow, still hale and hearty, and still a pioneer.
All of this class of population moved from the grove, farther to the west, upon the approach of the refining influences
of civilization.
Ten or twelve years after, two of the new settlers discovered on the prairie a buried deposit of some eight hundred
dollars in silver coin, which it was surmised had been hidden there by one who had been many years imprisoned in
the penitentiary.
In 1850 the township organization was adopted, and the first town meeting was held at the residence of Shadrac
Basicy. Sixty votes were cast, and Pierpont Edwards was elected Supervisor; George V. Miners, Town Clerk; Stanley
Ruggles, Assessor; W. J. Merritt, Collector; William Shepardson and Daniel Rexford, Justices of the Peace. The
Supervisors subsequently chosen were: Pierpont Edwards in 1851; William Shepardson in 1852; Pierpont Edwards in
1853; William Shepardson in 1854; Robert Hampton in 1855—56—57— 58—59; Alonzo Dole in 1860—61; Robert Hampton in
1862— 63—64—65—66—67; and N. H. Powers in 1868.
Hon. William Shepardson and lion. Robert Hampton have represented the district in the State Legislature.
As the population increased, and the poverty usually accompanying new settlements began to disappear, and after
the broad prairies had, to a considerable extent, been converted into farms, the people began to turn their attention
to their educational interests. Accordingly, in the summer of 1854, a building was erected at South PawPaw, standing
on the line, one-half in De Kalb and one-half in Lee County, for a seminary.
A kind of rivalry sprang up at East PawPaw, so that, during the same summer, a similar building was also erected
there. Soon after, the same spirit erected a third building at West PawPaw, in Lee County. So there were three
seminaries, occupying the three angles of a nearly equilateral triangle, the sides of which were about two miles.
Of course, they destroyed each other, by dividing the patronage that should have been received by one; and all
ultimately became common schools.
Later, in the summer of 1866, a second seminary was built at East PawPaw, which is now (1868) in operation as such.
The first church was built at Ross Grove, by the United Presbyterian church, in 1861. There are at present three
in the town,—a second one near Ross Grove, and the third at East PawPaw.
The population of PawPaw in 1855 was 944; in 1860, :1007; in 1865, 954.
Paw-Paw sent 136 men to crush out the slaveholders’ rebellion. Most of them went into Captain Terry’s Company,
of the One hundred and Fifth Infantry, into the Fourth and Seventeenth Cavalry, the Fifty-Second, Thirty-Fourth,
Seventy-Fifth, Eighty-Eighth, and the One Hundred and Second Infantry regiments. They were men who did the hard
fighting, and but a single pair of shoulder-straps was awarded to the soldiers of the town.
Of the fifteen citizens of PawPaw who went out in Company I, of the Fourth (Colonel Dickey’s) Cavalry, five, who
were of the best men of the place, gave their lives to their country. Three of these were of the highly respected
family of Ilydes, and each left a wife and two children.
Lycurgus Hyde was killed on a reconnoissance in Tennessee; Elliot L. Hyde was killed at Coffeeville, Mississippi,
December 5th, 1862; Edwin Thomas, brother-in-law of the two former, died at Pittsburg Landing, two weeks before
that great battle. Other members of that regiment, who died martyrs to the cause, were Henry Doty and Henry Jones.
John Densmore Dole, of the Thirty-Fourth Infantry, fell at the battle of Stone River, December 31, 1862, a rebel
bullet piercing his brain. He was a youth of fine promise, who left his preparation for college at the call to
arms, and after doing gallant service as a brave soldier, gave his life to his country. His body was recovered,
through the entreaties of his mother to General Rosecranz, and was buried by Spartan Lodge of Odd Fellows, at PawPaw,
February 10, 1863.
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