pioneers

June 4 2011

Nancy Sutherland

david people, pioneers deer grove, ezekiel cady, mason sutherland, nancy boynton, nancy sutherland, teacher

Nancy Boynton was born in New Hampshire in 1820 and was educated to be a teacher there. In 1838 she came to Deer Grove with her parents to join her brother, David, who had already settled here. Her first teaching position here was at Bangs Lake (later Wauconda) in the cabin of Judge Bangs. When the settlers at Deer Grove were ready to start a school, she taught in a log cabin on Ezekiel Cady’s farm. She was paid $1.00 a week and boarded in the school children’s homes. In 1843 she married Mason Sutherland who had come here from Vermont and had a farm at Hicks and Dundee Roads. The Sutherlands had six children. Nancy died in 1904. — Connie Rawa

June 3 2011

William and Mary Meissner

david people, pioneers baldwin road, mary meissner, matilda meissner, quentin road, william meissner

William Meissner and Mary Frank were married in 1853. They settled here in Palatine Township. In 1861, they emigrated to Minnesota in an oxcart. Their daughter, Matilda, was born there. Unfortunately, there was trouble with the Indians there and settlers homes were being attacked and families killed. William himself was wounded twice and his property burned down. The Meissners returned to Palatine in 1862. They settled on a farm at Quentin and Baldwin Roads (Baldwin is now Northwest Hwy). William donated a piece of his land for a rural one-room school, originally called the Meissner School. The Meissners had seven children. Mary died in 1917 and William in 1921. — Connie Rawa

June 2 2011

Anson Baldwin

david people, pioneers anson baldwin, civil war, covered wagon, deer grove, farm, john baldwin, lydia root, maryette castle, palatine golf course, palatine memorial association graves, volunteer infantry

Anson Baldwin, born in New York in 1835 to Lydia Root and John Baldwin, traveled by covered wagon to Illinois with his family in 1844. They bought government land near Deer Grove and built a log cabin. Their farm was where the Palatine Golf Course on Northwest Hwy. is now. Anson enlisted in Co. E of the 113th Illinois Volunteer Infantry in 1862 and fought in the Civil War for three years. Shortly after he returned home he went to a party where he met Maryette Castle who had come here from Michigan to visit a cousin. They were married that August and spent the rest of their lives on the Baldwin farm. They had four children: Ernest, Edson, Edna, and Elode. Along with other church and village service, Anson helped form the Palatine Memorial Association. This group worked to beautify local cemeteries and organized Decoration Day (now Memorial Day) services. For many years Baldwin read the roll of the dead and then walked in the parade to the cemeteries to decorate the graves of those soldiers. He died in 1926, one of the last Civil War veterans in Palatine. — Connie Rawa

May 15 2011

Take a Chance

david pioneers deer grove, george ela, Native Americans, palatine township

With business in the doldrums in 1835, the three Lebanon, New Hampshire, brothers decided to strike out for the West. Their father gave them each a thousand dollars. Having heard that Indian lands east of the Mississippi River were opening up, the Ela brothers set out. The youngest, George, chose an area the Indians called Deer Grove, just southwest of present-day Quentin Road and Lake Cook Road. He farmed there for nine years. 156 years later an archaeologist discovered remnants of that first homestead in Palatine Township: a square nail, handforged door hinge, doorlock, harness rivets, trigger guard, bridle cheek piece, barrel hoop, cattle nosering, pocket knife and handforged chains.