One Township's Yesterdays Chapter XX  

DAYS OF '36

". . . a glimpse of the days that are over." ... Thomas Moore

THOSE DAYS OF '36? What were they like? Let us pause for a fleeting glimpse of events in general that transpired in the world outside at a time when the first permanent white settlers of Union Township were entering the backwoods to establish their homes.

That year, ANDREW JACKSON, "the people's man," and the first of the Presidents to rise from the ranks of the common folk, was finishing his term of office. And that year, also, MARTIN VAN BUREN was elected to succeed "Old Hickory." WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON; Whig of Ohio, in turn succeeded VAN BUREN, in 1841. The campaign that assisted Harrison into office is known to every school child, with its emblems of "Log Cabin and Hard Cider" and its shouts of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." HARRISON was the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe. His tenure of office as President was brief, for he died suddenly the year that he became the country's chief executive.

The Black Hawk War in the Northwest was past. BLACK HAWK, a former pupil of TECUMSEH, was now chief of the Sac and Fox tribes. War had been waged over land cessions. Closer was the Second Seminole War in the South, beginning in 1835. The Dade Massacre occurred that year. Other events of '35 included an attempt to assassinate President JACKSON, the death of Chief Justice JOHN MARSHALL, the mobilization of Texans to repel a Mexican invasion, the organization by Chicago of a five department, and the opening of her first bank, a great fire in New York City, and the President's announcement of the extinction of the national debt.

Mexican War.

In the days of '36, faint echoes came to the first permanent white settlers in Union Township, of such events as these in the world at large: War with Mexico. The declaration of independence by Texas. The bold fighting of the Texans. DAVY CROCKETT and the massacre of the Alamo. The establishment of the Republic of Texas, of which General SAM HOUSTON became President. Indian wars in the South; trouble with the Seminoles and the Creeks. Arkansas admitted into the Union. Wisconsin formed as a Territory. MARTIN VAN BUREN elected President. The anti-slavery question was assuming vast proportions. Philadelphia was now lighting her streets with gas. In Centreville, Michigan, machinery was cutting tobacco very fine for chewing purposes. In Pennsylvania, experiments showed anthracite to be more satisfactory than wood for locomotive fuel.

Astronomical research.
The following year, 1837, the Seminole War was renewed and continued; by the end of the year the rebellious Indians had been subdued. OSCEOLA was imprisoned and died. Michigan was admitted into the Union. SAMUEL F. B. MORSE had interested Congress in his telegraph, and it was on its way toward a great future. MORSE first conceived the idea in 1832, while en route from Europe to America aboard the packet-ship "Sully."

On March 4th, 1837, the town of Chicago was incorporated as a city. Fort Dearborn was abandoned and later demolished. Indians from Chicago were going west. JOHNSON BROWNLEE was connected with the land office at Winamac, and during the time of this affiliation he said he must have made as many as fifty trips to Chicago with money. Arriving in Chicago, he would deposit his money boxes with the bank, then drive to his hotel. "After the money was counted the next morning and he had procured a receipt for the same," says MC DONALD, "he started on the return trip. In all the numerous trips he made over that very sparsely settled country he never met with an accident and was never molested in any particular."

Tells of Chicago.
"Chicago became a village of whites in 1833," McDonaid {MC DONALD} relates. "In 1837 an unofficial census showed a population of about 4,000. The official census of 1840 showed a population of 4,853, so that about the period of Mr. BROWNLEE's visits there the population was not far from 10,000. Old Fort Dearborn was still standing at that time, and the Chicago of today (around 1908), the zenith city of the unsalted seas, a city of more than two million inhabitants, was a typical frontier town. It was reached by the lake by small sailing vessels, and overland by stage coaches, etc. There was not at that time a railroad pointing in that direction." Steamboat navigation was still an experiment; the telegraph was not in use; there were no reapers and mowers, no sewing machines and none of the numerous labor-saving machines that since have come into general use. The countless marvelous uses for electricity were then undreamed of.

These are just sketchy pictures of the times that witnessed the coming of the first settlers and their early efforts to prepare for themselves homes and a livelihood in the wilderness.