Section 22, Sugar Grove Township, Kane County, Illinois
Part of a series of sketches drawn in 1871 of prominent homesteads in Sugar Grove Township.
1871 Sketch: Residence of William Price
Section 5, Sugar Grove Township, Kane County, Illinois
Part of a series of sketches drawn in 1871 of prominent homesteads in Sugar Grove Township. Quoted from 10-1-2022 News Article in "Kane County Connects": Historic Kane County Farm Given National Designation Kane County Connects Staff 10/1/2022 1:00PM The George Crego Farm is located on Finley Road in Blackberry Township, just south and west of IL Route 47. The farmstead consists of the main house, worker’s house, granary, smoke house, machine shed, banked barn, a ceramic structural tile silo, hog furrowing house and metal grain bin. It has historical significance from 1852 to 1920 for agriculture and is a significant example of a successful 19th century dairy and grain farm. The once prevalent farmsteads of the 19th century is an endangered resource that have been rapidly vanishing since the 1950s. As a result, few farmsteads, like the Crego Farm are associated with farm production today. In April, the Kane County Historic Preservation Commission approved the nomination of the Crego Farm for the National Register of Historic Places. The request for the designation was made by the current owner of the farm. Over the summer, the County was notified by the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office that the Crego Farm was entered in the National Register of Historic Places. Since the creation of the National Register of Historic Places in 1966, thousands of Illinois historic and prehistoric places have been designated as important resources worthy of preservation. According to the National Park Service, under federal Law, the listing of a property in the National Register places no restrictions on what a non-federal owner may do with their property up to and including destruction, unless the property is involved in a project that receives federal assistance, usually funding or licensing/permitting.
Section 6, Sugar Grove Township, Kane County, Illinois
1871 Sketches and Modern Streetscapes 2020
Click on the PDF Document to view the sketches of prominent Sugar Grove Homesteads from the 1871 Atlas of Kane County alongside the modern streetscape of 2020.
1871 Sketches of Homesteads in Sugar Grove Township
From 1871 Atlas: "New Combination Atlas, Kane County, Illinois by Thompson and Everts."
Sketches of Following Homesteads were drawn in 1871: Benjamin, L - Section 19 Bliss, PY - Section 10 Chapman, Henry - Section 8 Cole, F - Section 2 Densmore, HB - Section 14 Fikes, George - Section 25 George, B - Section 24 Gillett, LH - Section 21 Gordon & Brothers - Section 21 Ingham, SS - Section 14 Jones, WG - Section 22 Judd, DC Section 16 McDole, PS - Section 4 McDole, R - Section 11 Paull, CF - Section 34 Paull, SG - Section 16 Price, Wm - Section 5 Seavey, Mark - Section 6 Thompson, John - Section 6
1886 Class Song written by student Addie Coulson
1886 Class Song written by student Addie Coulson taken from the book, "Sugar Grove and the Class of 1886" available at the following link: https://www.wacots.org/sghistory/z/admin/items/show/29 The class song performed in 2009 can be found on this youtube link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSy32CcyjUY&feature=youtu.be Class of 1886 Video
1920-1921 Directory of Teachers and School Officers for Kane County Public Schools
Issued by Edwin M. Harris, Kane County Superintendent of Schools
1921 Freshman Class: Sugar Grove Township High School
FRESHMAN CLASS Clara Maier Morris Gordon Elizabeth Kouth Francis Huss Elva Miller, Class Secretary Ferdinand Harker Edwin Jihnson, Class Vice President Eugene Kinney Kenneth Johnson, Class President Cropped from "The Ember 1921", Yearbook of Sugar Grove Township High School. Available under the "School Yearbooks" Collection.
Photos cropped from The Ember 1921. Available in the "School Yearbooks" Collection and at the link below: https://www.wacots.org/sghistory/z/admin/items/show/3646
1930 Class and School Reunion at Dora York Kouth's
Anna Wittry, Elisa Judd Kouth, Ruth Seavey Littleford, Nellie Cleaver Berq, Maud Casselman Whildin, Mae Ziegler Gusler, Dolly Snow Warne, Minnie McCannon Nieswender, Ethel M. Booth, Dora York Kouth, Laura Michael Davis, Erma West White
1941 Star Flag, Handmade by Agnes and Esther Lind: each star representing Sugar Grove servicemen from WWII.
Star flag made by Agnes Lind and Esther Lind with each star representing Sugar Grove servicemen from World War II (WWII). The flag contains 84 Blue, 12 Gray and 4 Gold stars. The four gold stars are for those who died in the service: * Noel Winkle * Warren Dugan * Roy Fisher * Bill Hohmann
1956-1957 Cookbook, Sugar Grove Elementary School
Click on the first image to open a PDF containing the entire Cookbook.
"Personal Recipes sponsored by the Sugar Grove Parent Teachers Association 1956-1957
1958 Kaneland School Bus Crash: Law Suit and Plantiff's Exhibit Photos
Source: Molitor v. KANELAND UNIT DIST. NO. 302 24 Ill. 2d 467 (1962) Supreme Court of Illinois. Opinion filed March 23, 1962. On March 10, 1958, a school bus of the Kaneland School District struck a culvert, exploded and burned, causing injuries and burns to 14 of the children who were passengers in the bus. Suits were filed against the school district on behalf of the injured children, including the four Molitor children and the other four children who are all plaintiffs herein. Motions to dismiss the complaints which omitted the allegation of insurance were filed by the school district. … The circuit court of Kane County dismissed the common-law negligence counts of plaintiffs' complaints against defendant Kaneland Community Unit District No. 302. The Appellate Court affirmed the judgments of dismissal on the ground that they were based on an accident occurring prior to December 16, 1959… … [The case was then brought to the Supreme Court of Illinois who found the following:] Hence the counts omitting the allegation of insurance in plaintiffs' complaints should not have been dismissed, and the judgments are reversed and the causes remanded to the trial court, with directions to reinstate the counts. Reversed and remanded, with directions.
SOURCE: Molitor v. KANELAND UNIT DIST. NO. 302 24 Ill. 2d 467 (1962) 182 N.E.2d 145 NORMA MOLITOR et al., Appellants, v. KANELAND COMMUNITY UNIT DISTRICT NO. 302, Appellee. No. 36588. Supreme Court of Illinois. Opinion filed March 23, 1962. Rehearing denied May 23, 1962. REID, OCHSENSCHLAGER, MURPHY & HUPP, and GIVLER, MEILINGER & CASEY, both of Aurora, (DALE C. FLANDERS, of counsel,) for appellants. MATTHEWS, JORDAN, DEAN & SUHLER, of Aurora, BURRELL & HOLTAN, of Freeport, and CARBARY & CARBARY, of Elgin, (JOHN T. MATTHEWS, DAVID M. BURRELL, and ROGER W. EICHMEIER, of counsel,) for appellee. HAROLD W. NORMAN, of Chicago, for Illinois Association of School Boards, amicus curiae. FRANK R. SCHNEBERGER, DAVID S. KERWIN, and KIRKLAND, ELLIS, HODSON, CHAFFETZ & MASTERS, all of Chicago, *468 (THOMAS F. SCULLY, of counsel,) for the Board of Education of the City of Chicago, and the Chicago Park District, amici curiae. Reversed and remanded. Mr. JUSTICE KLINGBIEL delivered the opinion of the court: The circuit court of Kane County dismissed the common-law negligence counts of plaintiffs' complaints against defendant Kaneland Community Unit District No. 302. The Appellate Court affirmed the judgments of dismissal on the ground that they were based on an accident occurring prior to December 16, 1959 and were, therefore, barred by our decision in Molitor v. Kaneland Community Unit Dist. 18 Ill. 2d 11. A certificate of importance was then issued to this court. On March 10, 1958, a school bus of the Kaneland School District struck a culvert, exploded and burned, causing injuries and burns to 14 of the children who were passengers in the bus. Suits were filed against the school district on behalf of the injured children, including the four Molitor children and the other four children who are all plaintiffs herein. Motions to dismiss the complaints which omitted the allegation of insurance were filed by the school district. That there was uncertainty as to whether the dismissal would be upheld by this court is apparent. The claims of all the Molitor children had been set forth in one complaint. To expedite review and minimize expense, the trial court suggested "going up on a short record at an early date, on the sole question of whether the complaint states a good cause of action," and that this would provide "the basis for determining the future course of the parties to this case as well as other claimants." The count on behalf of Thomas Molitor, whose name was selected arbitrarily for the appeal, was dismissed. After Thomas Molitor had elected to stand by his complaint, amended complaints were *469 filed on behalf of the other children on September 2, 1958. As to each child the amended complaint reiterated the original complaint in one count, and in another alleged the existence of insurance. The record now before us shows that motions to dismiss those counts which repeated the allegations of the original complaint were filed, but were permitted to remain dormant until July of 1960. The cost of the Thomas Molitor appeal and the payment of counsel was borne by the Molitor children and the other plaintiffs through their parents. Thus, it is now clear that in the trial court the parties envisaged adjudication of the appeal by Thomas Molitor as determining the ruling to be made on the motions to dismiss the complaints of the plaintiffs. The initial opinion on that appeal, entered May 22, 1959, abrogated the doctrine of tort immunity of school districts, but contained no restriction on its retroactive application. We then granted the requests of the Chicago Park District, the Illinois Association of School Boards, the Board of Education of the City of Chicago, and the Forest Preserve District to intervene and to file briefs as amici curiae. These organizations not only reargued the retention of the immunity rule, but they asserted that the new rule should be applied prospectively to obviate undue hardship upon them. Upon rehearing, this court on December 16, 1959, issued its final opinion reported in 18 Ill. 2d 11 abolishing tort immunity of school districts and expressly provided that "except as to the plaintiff in the instant case, the rule herein established shall apply only to cases arising out of future occurrences." (18 Ill. 2d 11, 26-7.) Prospective application was invoked because school districts had justifiably relied upon prior decisions of this court and had failed to insure and to investigate past accidents, especially as to minors against whom the Statute of Limitations had not yet run. The new ruling was nevertheless applied there to obviate any implication that the ruling was dictum and to preserve the *470 incentive of litigants to challenge out-moded or erroneous rules of law. The immunity granted to school districts is not an absolute one and can be waived. (Thomas v. Broadlands Community Consolidated School Dist. 348 Ill. App. 567.) While there was no written stipulation that the rule applied in the Thomas Molitor appeal would be the basis for determining the cases then pending against defendant, the conduct of all parties and the trial court reveal that it was commonly understood and accepted that this court's ruling on the dismissal of Thomas Molitor's claim would be the basis for determining the other claims arising out of the same bus accident and then pending against defendant. The ruling on the Thomas Molitor claim was, of course, that the motion to dismiss based on governmental immunity should be denied. Because it now appears the Thomas Molitor appeal was treated by the parties as a test case for determining what ruling should ultimately be made, we hold that the counts in question should not have been dismissed. It should be evident that this holding in no way modifies or affects our holding in the Molitor case or the cut-off date relative to governmental tort immunity as previously established in that case, and therefore, does not interfere with the rights of any of the amici curiae in this case. Nor, does this holding affect the intervening decisions of Peters v. Bellinger, 19 Ill. 2d 367, or List v. O'Connor, 19 Ill. 2d 337. We are dealing here only with claims which, as clearly appears from the record now before us, the parties contemplated would be adjudicated in accordance with the disposition of the claim of Thomas Molitor. Hence the counts omitting the allegation of insurance in plaintiffs' complaints should not have been dismissed, and the judgments are reversed and the causes remanded to the trial court, with directions to reinstate the counts. Reversed and remanded, with directions. ***** SOURCE: Loyola University Chicago Law Journal, Volume 2, Issue 1, Winter 1971, Article 6, Illinois School Tort Immunity, 1959—Present” In Illinois, the court acted first. The final decision of Molitor v. Kaneland Community Unit District was rendered December 16, 1959. Until that time, pursuant to the decision in Kinnare, schools and school districts enjoyed complete immunity from tort liability in all cases except those where liability insurance had been purchased. The Molitor decision overruled Kinnare, and held that where a school district employee had been negligent in the operation of a school bus which resulted in injury to the plaintiff, the school district was liable in tort. The court declared, "We conclude that the rule of school district immunity is unjust, unsupported by any valid reason, and has no rightful place in modem-day society."' The rationale of the decision was based on a reappraisal, in light of "modem-day society," of the sovereign immunity defenses that the "king can do no wrong," and that the payment of tort claims was an improper diversion of public education funds. This persistent view of funds being "diverted" by the recovery of damages in tort was rejected because no determination had ever been made by a court as to what a proper school expenditure was. The relationship between the school's purpose and its financial responsibility for the negligent execution of that purpose had not been as clearly drawn as it had in business activities. "To predicate immunity upon the theory of a trust fund [for example] is merely to argue in a cricle, since it assumes an answer to the very question at issue, what is an educational purpose? ‘ In repudiation of the "king can do no wrong" theory, the court said: It is almost incredible that in this modem age . . . the mideaval absolutism implicit in the maxim, "the king can do no wrong" should exempt the various branches of government from liability for their torts, and that the entire burden of damage resulting from the wrongful acts of the government should be imposed upon the single individual who suffers the injury, rather, than distributed among the entire community... In rebuttal to the charge such liability would "bankrupt" schools and school districts and impede education, the court declared that: We do not believe, in this day and age, when public education constitutes one of the biggest businesses in the country, that school immunity can be justified on the protection-of-public-funds theory . . . Private concerns have rarely been greatly embarrassed, and in no instance, even where immunity is not recognized, has a municipality been seriously handicapped by tort liability. Citing Dean Green the court said: The public's willingness to . . . pay the cost of its enterprises . . . through municipal corporations is no less than its insistence that individuals and groups pay the cost of their enterprises. The court claimed the ability to make so sweeping a decision in the face of legislative inactivity because: The doctrine of school tort immunity was created by this court alone. Having found that doctrine to be unsound and unjust under present conditions, we consider that we have not only the power, but the duty to abolish that immunity. Although the final Molitor decision made a clean break with the past, and eliminated sovereign immunity from tort, the legislature acted to modify the effects of the decision. … III. THE 1959 SCHOOL TORT LIABILITY ACT Prior to Molitor, a proprietary-governmental distinction had been drawn with respect to the sovereign immunity of municipal corporations. When the court in Molitor abolished the sovereign immunity of any political subdivision of the state it rendered this distinction moot. In reaction to Molitor, the legislature enacted the 1959 School Tort Liability Act. It applied the proprietary--governmental distinction to schools and school districts, making them totally immune from tort liability for their governmental functions and limited their tort liability for proprietary functions to a maximum of $10,000.50
https://law.justia.com/cases/illinois/supreme-court/1962/36588-5.html https://lawecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2481&context=luclj
Click on the first image to open a PDF with a compilation of photos.
1993 Roadscapes of Cross Street, Route 47, Chelsea Meadows, Galena Blvd. Bridge over Route 56, and Mallard Point
Click on first image to open a PDF with a compilation of photos. Roadscapes of Cross Street, Route 47, Chelsea Meadows, Galena Blvd. Bridge over Route 56, Mallard Point
Photos courtesy of: Fred Neiser, Insurance Broker, PO Box 662, Sugar Grove, Illinois 60554
Margaret Harker Calkins Greyer, Frances Harker Burton, Frances Cook Schunrstein, Ada Knudson Lippold, Mona Mighell Knuth, Elizabeth Mighell Wilson
2/4 Sugar Grove History. Source: “History of Kane County, Ill.” By R. Waite Joslyn, L.L.M., and Frank W. Joslyn, 1908 [Part 2 of 4: Pages 302-601]
Source: “History of Kane County, Ill.” By R. Waite Joslyn, L.L.M., and Frank W. Joslyn, Ex-State’s Attorney of Kane County, Volume I, Illustrated with Portraits and Views, Chicago, The Pioneer Publishing Co., 1908.
Excerpts: At Sugar Grove the first log cabin was raised in 1836, with nails, sawed boards and shingle roof; a tavern was built in 1836; a post office established in 1840. The first "store" was opened in 1839 by P. Y. Bliss, who built a frame house in 1838. The store was long one of the largest in Kane county and drew the trade from many miles distant. ... Sugar Grove was settled by parties who came in May, 1834, and found an Indian encampment near the Grove. They were James, Isaac C. and Parmeno Isbell, James Carman, a Mr. Bishop and Asa ]McDole. All but McDole were from Wood county, Ohio. William O. Tanner arrived in 1835 and staked a claim on the northeast comer of the township. Rodney McDole and Theophilus Wilson came in 1836; John Harkinson about 1835; Joseph Ingham in the fall of that year. C. H. Snow was an early settler from New Hampshire. S. S. Ingham came from Oneida county, New York, in 1839. In 1836 came Silas Reynolds, from Sullivan county. New York; Silas Gardner, Samuel Cogswell, Joseph Bishop, Samuel Taylor, Silas Leonard, Isaac Gates, N. H. Palmer and Lorin Inman ; Jonathan Gardner, James Judd, H. B. Densmore, Ira H. Fitch came in 1837, as did Ezekiel Alighell, from Rutland county, Vermont, who afterward moved to Aurora ; also P. Y. Bliss, Reuben Johnson, J. H. Fitch, Captain Jones and the Austin family. The first death was a child of James Carman, in 1835. Asa McDole died in 1839. The first marriage was that of Dr. N. H. Palmer and ^Miranda Isbell in 1835. The first birth was that of Charlotte Isbell, August 19, 1835. Robert Atkinson opened a tavern on the old Chicago and Dixon road in 1836. A post ofiice was established in 1840 at the home of Thomas Slater, first postmaster. The first frame house was that of P. Y. Bliss, built by "Boss Read" in 1838. Religious service was held there by "Father" Clark before it was completed. Mr. Bliss opened a store in the building June 1, 1839, and for years drew trade from as far north as Dundee. The first public library was organized in 1843 by a number of farmers. The books were first kept in S. G. Paull's house, on section 16, and was known as the Farmers' Library. In 1851 it contained two hundred and sixty-four books and it is believed was the first of its kind in the county. The early trustees were Nathaniel Austin, E. D. Terrv, J. L. Adams. Luke Nichols and William Tanner. The first brick house in the township was built by Silas Reynolds, in 1846. ... Among the pioneer dairymen in this county were D. E. ^^'ood. of Elgin; ]\Iartin Switzer and L. C. Ward, of St. Charles; Rodney McDole and Joseph Ingham and J. B. Paull of Sugar Grove, and H, L. Ford, of Batavia, These were all in the business as early as 1865-66. Mr. McDole managing a private dairy, and others erecting factories for the manufacture of cheese. ... Among the noted stock breeders and dealers of the county were Dr. W. A. Pratt and the Manns, of Elgin; M. W. Dunham and N. S. Carlisle, of St. Charles (the latter's farms lying in Hampshire); Frank H. Hall, of Sugar Grove: George E. Brown & Co.. George Leigh & Co., Blair Bros. & Curry, and Hiram Norris, of Aurora; and Hon. John Stewart, of Campton. besides numerous others engaged in stock raising to a considerable extent in various parts of the county. … Alfred Churchill, school commissioner of Kane county in 1846, wrote as follows to the Prairie Messenger, published at St. Charles: "Generally, I would say that the schools are in a bad state, with some few exceptions, at the head of which is placed Sugar Grove precinct; one school in Pigeon Woods; one or two in the northeast corner of section 32, range 7. These exceptions I do not make on account of the high character of the schools, but on account of the determination of the inhabitants to do the best they can. The first physician in Sugar Grove has already been mentioned. Dr. Nelson H. Norris, a very successful practitioner, was graduated from Dartmouth Medical College, Hanover, New Hampshire, in October, 1867.
https://archive.org/stream/historyofkanecou01josl/historyofkanecou01josl_djvu.txt https://archive.org/details/historyofkanecou01josl/page/n7/mode/2up https://libsysdigi.library.uiuc.edu/oca/Books2008-06/historyofkanecou/historyofkanecou02josl/historyofkanecou02josl.pdf http://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/ref/collection/stc/id/7321
Click on the first image to open a PDF containing a compilation of photos.