Kendall County, Illinois Genealogy

Profile of Kendall County in 1847

Kendall County in 1847

Reprinted from "Illinois Annual Register and Western Business Directory, No. 1. Norris & Gardiner Editors and Proprietors." Printed by Geer & Wilson at the office of the Evening Journal, Chicago, in 1847.

Kendall County, situated in the northeast part of the state, was settled in 1831, mostly by emigrants from Ohio, and was organized in April 1841. The Fox River runs centrally through the county in a southwesterly direction. The prairies are large, undulating, fertile and well settled, especially along the river.

The products of the county during 1845 are estimated at 500,000 bushels of wheat, 600,000 bushels of corn, 400,000 bushes of oats, besides pork and wool.

The county seat is Oswego, pleasantly situated on a rolling prairie on the east bank of Fox River.

The proposed feeder for the Illinois and Michigan canal from Aurora follows the river down to Oswego, and there leaves it.

Post Offices and Postmasters: Oswego, W. D. Parke; Bristol, James Noble; Penfield, Josiah Lehman; Little Rock, L. D. Brady; Newark, Walter Stowell; Lisbon, Thomas J. Cody; and Aux Sable, Alansing Milks.

County Officers: Alonzo B. Smith, Clerk of the Circuit Court and Master in Chancery; James S. Cornell, Sheriff; William Moon, Coroner; L. D. Brady, Samuel Jackson, John W. Chapman, County Commissioners; Marcus A. Fenton, County Commissioner's Clerk; Titus Howe, Probate Justice; Wright Murphy, Samuel B. Hopkins, Justices at county seat; Rulief S. Duryea, Assessor and Treasurer; Norman Dodge, Recorder; Rulief S. Duryea, Notary Public; Joshua N. Austin, Surveyor; and Alonzo B. Smith, Public Administrator.

Attorneys: Oswego, Crothers & Pitzer, A. R. Dodge, Hugh Fullerton, L. Haskell; Bristol: Joseph W. Helme, Reuben Hunt; Newark, William P. Boyd.

Academy: Lisbon and Long Grove, 100 students.