McHenry County IL Archives History .....Hartland Township History - 1877 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 20, 2008, 8:18 pm

HARTLAND, TOWNSHIP 45, NORTH RANGE 6.

   It was settled in 1836 by George Stratton, P. W. Tower and a man named Smith,
who, among the first and later settlers, was known by the soubriquet of "Whisky"
Smith.

   Hartland was settled almost exclusively by Irish Catholics. The first church
was built in 1840, on the site now occupied by a large brick building, one of
the largest in the county. The first Catholic priest was Father St. Paule, who
came in 1840, now Bishop of Vincennes, Indiana. The officiating priest is Father
Egan.

   In 1841-2, these Catholic Irish evinced their interest in education by
building a log school house on the spot now occupied by the residence of S.
McGhee, Section 36, and opened a school.

   The township being well-timbered, a saw-mill seemed necessary, and the want
was supplied by Wesley Diggins, on Section 20, the power being furnished by the
Kishwaukee Creek, which crosses this township in a direction nearly north and
south, entering on Section 3 and passing out on Section 32. The mill was at the
forks of the road, and, a store being opened there in 1845, the place received
the name of Brookdale, but the mill has rotted down, the store was discontinued
in 1848; in fact, the name alone remains of what once gave promise of a city.
Somewhere here, between 1842 and 1844, one Cosgrove opened a store at "Oliver's
Corners," but it was closed after about a year and a half. At present, the town
contains no store or saloon, its nearest trading points being Woodstock and
Harvard.

   The township is traversed in a northwesterly and southeasterly direction by
the Chicago & North-Western Railway. No depot was built in Hartland till this
season, near Deep Cut, the depot being named Kishwaukee, and it is probable that
the merchant and mechanic will not long overlook so fine an opportunity of
building a village in Hartland.

   As in some other townships of the county, a few of the first settlers made
their claims before the land was surveyed. These claims gave rise to many
disputes, to settle which, meetings were held, attended by men with arms in
their hands, ready, if necessary, to maintain rights by force. All disagreements
were finally adjusted without spilling blood or creating feud. 

   Hartland is about equally adapted to grain or stock.

   It contains neither post office nor tavern.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY OF THE TAX-PAYERS AND VOTERS
OF
McHENRY COUNTY;

CONTAINING ALSO

A Map of the County; a Condensed History of the State of Illinois; an Historical
Sketch of the County, its Towns and Villages; an Abstract of Every-day Laws of
the State; a Business Directory; Officers of Societies, Lodges and Public
Officers; a Department of General Information for Farmers, Dairymen, Etc., Etc.

CHICAGO: C. WALKER & CO.
1877.


Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by
C. WALKER & CO.,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

CULVER, PAGE, HOYNE & CO.,
PRINTERS, CHICAGO.


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