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The Wellman Homestead

built 1837

and originally purchased by Dr Richard Adams

What was seen through this window?

This question has come to me many times in my life. In order to appreciate the significance of my thoughts, let me first tell you some history about the man that originally bought this home and looked out it's windows . This home was built in 1837, owned by Dr Richard F Adams, a forgotten statesman of Illinois. He was born in Cavendish, Vermont , and first came west to Illinois in 1837. One of the organizers of Lee County, Charles F Ingals, knew the Adams family in Vermont and is thought to have induced young Richard , upon his graduation from an Eastern Medical college who came to visit him his Lee County home near Inlet. 
 

Ingals was a leading citizen of the area and was joined by his neighbors in celebrating the arrival of a new doctor. A letter that still exists, dated in 1837, notes: "One can imagine how gladly a regularly -licensed physician would be welcomed in a community where sickness and death had made inroads, and, when Dr Adams arrived to stay, the people breathed more freely."

Two years after his arrival, Dr. Adams married Deborah Ingals. His marriage was happy, his practice successful and his climb to favor with neighbors swift and sure.

At the time Inlet was a place of importance because of its location on the Galena -Dixon-Chicago stage coach route and its nearness to the north-south Ottawa road. Homes were being built, society was being formulated and, generally the future looked bright for the village.

"Doc" Adams as he was known, enjoyed his life at Inlet but remained only a short period of time. He first moved to Lee Center (in 1840), then to Ottawa and to Dixon for short lengths of time. By 1847, he was working and living in Lee Center. Deborah Adams died in 1842 after only 3 years marriage. after her death, doc turned all his thoughts to medicine and his growing practice. Lee Center , at this time, had a new academy, a new school , and several well-built buildings. It was well on the way to becoming the focal point of central Lee County life.

I ask myself his thoughts as he looked out this window. Instead of losing himself in grief during the time he lost his wife, what was it about this man that moved him forward to the remarkable future he had?

Adams was a doctor of skill and a surgeon of ability.Very popular, his gruff way hid a high sense of humor and a great sensitivity to people. His ability as a public speaker gave him many invitations to practice this talent and he became a political power with which to reckon.

By 1854 Adams had become what we call today a "political activist." He had become one of the political organizers of the New Republican Party in 1856 and had helped form a strong party in Lee county. Two years after this,during the Linclon Douglas debates, he surfaced as a strong anti-slavery Lincoln follower. History tells of Dr. Adams helping free slaves during the Underground Railroad and also treating the Black Hawk Indians during early years of his settlement there. This was a time of unrest amongst the settlers and Indians . It was a time when the Banditti of the prairie roamed the area . ( Inlet Creek, now known as Green River, was a gathering place for thieves, counterfeiters, fence men and even murderers.) One of the particular thief's house was used as a hiding place for all stolen goods. These banditti were not only located in Illinois or Lee Center but also extended from ohio and Kentucky to Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin - but their favorite and main meeting place was Inlet. This part of the country was hilly and rugged with ravines and dense forests which made it possible for giving better protection and hiding places. I own the book Banditti of the Prairie, which gives an interesting account of this era. A group of settlers in Inlet Grove, namely, Sherman Shaw, Charles Ingalls, Rev. Hitchcock, Dr. R.F. Adams, Moses Crombies, Louis Clapp, Benjamin Whittaker, and a Mr. Starks and his sons, resolved to rid Inlet Grove of these "banditti." Through their heroic efforts, these men freed Inlet of the banditti

What was he thinking as he looked out this window, in preparing for late night buggy rides ? Did he participate in the Underground Railroad to free the slaves? When dad remodeled the front rooms of this historic old home, he found two trap doors. We originally thought they were to escape from Indians, but later discovered Doc Adams had another agenda...freeing the slaves. This made a good hiding place for a doctor that made night time buggy rides to mysterious destinations ...after all , who would question a doctor making night calls as he helped slaves reach their next drop off ? I wonder who he saw going by in buggies on the Old Chicago road that passed our home, and who all walked up the old flagstone sidewalk that led to the front door?

He was nominated to run for election to the llinois Senate and was elected senator from the tenth Senatorial District of Illinois as its first Republican. He served one term in the senate, then returned to Lee Center to practice medicine. He continued to be active in village life and on the county level as well. He was married twice more, and following the death of his third wife, entered the mining business in Denver, Colorado. He died there at the age of 83 in 1895.

He is buried in Woodside Cemetery near Lee center Illinois.

My great grand parents bought Doc Adams home and the generations of Wellmans have lived in this house since, except a few years renters had moved in. After serving in the Navy in WW1, dad married mom in Princeton Illinois in 1926, and later would bring his new bride to Lee Center to reside in this home their entire lifetime.

My father used this room ,where you see a pictured old window , as Postmaster for the Lee Center Post Office , beginning 1934 until his retirement. as a child I remember listening to postal patrons coming, sitting on that window sill and discussing things small towns talk about, including the weather. When ever a bad storm would come, it was from this window we would watch for threatening skies. Dad always said, it was a safe well built room, with stone walls 2 foot thickness. It was from this window my sisters and I would excitedly watch the Brasel house , who would be the first to put up their tree each year. This was all we needed to remind mom,"Tillie has her tree up now mom ..can we? "

So many people have looked out this window. I used to sit as a child on it's window sill and learned to tie my shoes here, watched my sisters return home from school, saw my brother return home from the navy, watched each season come and go, as you can see from this picture...was a gorgeous thing to watch. .Dr Adams and his wife , my grandparents and parents,my sisters, my nieces and nephew, and my children all had a view from this window and many thoughts passed in what the window offered that day. . How sad it is to know this lovely old home had to sold to care for mom, but fitting that the home she and dad lived , be sold to provide the best of care for her in a nursing home her final two years. She died when 99 years of age...this had been the home she dearly loved. This said, I felt it my duty to give this old home and its inhabitants my tribute and utmost respect. We no longer reside in this wonderful little town, and the house has aged so after nearly two centuries, but it's history will never be forgotten by those of us that lived within it's stone walls. Cindy
History of Lee Center Township, Il.


From: Encyclopedia of Illinois

and the History of Lee County


LEE CENTER TOWNSHIP.  Helen Fowler 

Adolphus Bliss and wife were the first settlers within the territory later known as Lee Center, having located there in May, 1834. Mrs. Bliss was the first white woman to reside in the township, and the second in the county. It was a year before she had a neighbor nearer than Dixon. Mr. Bliss entered a claim on west half of southwest quarter of Section 4, and the north half of the northeast quarter of Section 9. The first to follow him was Corydon R. Dewey, who came in the following spring and entered a claim on the east half of the northwest quarter of Section 9, and later, but during the year, Cyrenus and Cyreno Sawyer joined them, and together took up a claim on the northeast quarter of Section 1. In the spring of 1836, Lewis Clapp settled on the northwest quarter of Section 8. In this year Charles F. Ingalls and his brother, George A., entered their claims in the southern part of Lee Center Township, on which a Pottawatomie Indian village then stood.



In 1837 Mr. David Tripp and family, with his brother-in-law Orange Webster, settled at Inlet. My. Birdsell was an arrival of the following year. During that year Dr. R. F. Adams arrived and was the first physician in the neighborhood. Roswell Streator filed a claim in 1833, on the land on which Lee Center is situated, and the following year built a log house in the edge of Inlet Grove, which was near his claim. He gave a portion of the land towards the erection and maintenance of an academy, which will be hereafter referred to. George E. Haskell early settled at the Grove. Two of the Ingails brothers, Henry and Addison, first settled on the Illinois River near where Chandlerville now stands, and Abraham Lincoln surveyed the farm for one of them. Mr. Ralph Ford was also one of the early arrivals.



In the spring of 1836 the first sermon in the neighborhood was preached by Peter Cartwright in Mr. Dewey's house. In that year the first Methodist class was organized, with John Fosdick as leader. Mr. David Tripp was a Baptist, and services were now and then held in his house until he built a new barn, which was dedicated with protracted meeting. A Baptist society was organized with Mr. Webster as deacon and Mr. Tripp as clerk. Here meetings were held regularly until a school-house was built near the Dewey Mill. In 1835 Rev. Luke Hitchcock and Oscar F. Ayres came, and the former preached the first funeral sermon in the town. It was over the body of a young "circuit rider" by the name of Smith, who died at Tripp's homestead.



The first school-house was built in the edge of the timber on the Bliss land. George E. Haskell was teacher. It was a typical log structure. Moses Crombie settled in the village of Lee Center in 1840. Prior to the erection of this school house, Mrs. Crombie conducted a neighborhood school in her own house.



The first building occupied as a store stood on the ground where David Tripp's grout house stood. It was sold to George E. Haskell, who moved it nearer to Inlet Creek, where it stood a few years, when it was moved to the town of Lee Center and was occupied for some years by Joseph Cary.



The pioneer teacher was Ann Chamberlain, who in the summer occupied a room in Adolphus Bliss's house for her school. In the log school-house already referred to, Otis Timothy taught, and later settled at Franklin Grove where he died. His teaching was for three months in the winter of 1837-8. He had twenty to twenty-five pupils under his charge, and was paid at the rate of $15 per month. A log tavern kept by Benjamin Whittaker stood where Mr. Cephas Clapp lived in recent years. This was as early as 1839. The first wedding in the town was that of Albert Static and Elmira Carpenter, in 1836, Daniel M. Dewey, Justice of the Peace, performing use ceremony. Mr. James Brewer reached Inlet in 1843, having ridden on horseback from Montgomery, Ala., and later became principal of the academy.



There were other schools than those already mentioned. Mrs. Sallie P. Starks taught a class of five boys and five girls, ranging from one year old to near twenty-one; her teaching was for 12 hours a day all the year round.



Lee Center Academy.- The main part of the Academy building was constructed of brick and built in 1847, at a cost of $2,000. Mr. Moses Crombie was the contractor, and the school opened the same year and soon advanced to a leading rank among the educational institutions in that section. A certificate is found recorded in the Recorder's Office of the county, stating that Lewis Clapp, Luke Hitchcock, N. P. Swartwout, Martin Wright, Daniel Frost. Moses Combie and R. F. Adams were elected Trustees of the Academy, March 3, 1847. The first Principal was Hiram McChesney. a graduate of Rensselaer Institute, of Troy, N. Y. He served one year, when he was succeeded by H. E. Lenard, of Naperville. After two years Rev. James Brewer, a graduate of Jamestown College, Mass., took charge remaining one year. After him came Simeon Wright, during whose three years of service the Academy reached a degree of prosperity never exceeded either before or after. The average attendance of the school in this year was 150 pupils. Prof. Nash came after Mr. Wright and remained until 1859, in which year he died. By this time other schools of importance had sprung up at Paw Paw, Dixon, Amboy and elsewhere, and the Academy, remote from railroads, begaa to decline, so that, in the year 1859, it became a graded district school. In 1853 a stone addition to the schoolhouse was erected to acommodate the increasing needs of the institution.



In these days Lee Center was indeed a flourishing village, with an academy as its center of interest and activity. Lyceums, lectures and traveling entertainments were frequent in the chapel.



A Congregational Church was organized in 1843, at the home of Amos Crombie, near Binghamton in Amboy Township, with eleven members. The first pastor was Rev. Joseph Gardner. It was called the Congregational Church of Palestine Grove. Worship was conducted until 1849 in the Wasson school house, in Amboy Township, after which it was changed to Lee Center, when a building was erected in 1856 at a cost of $1,500. In another account of this society (see Amboy) John Worrell is mentioned as first pastor and Joseph Gardner as third. We are unable to determine which statement is correct.



A Methodist Church was organized in 1837, at the residence of Corydon R, Dewey. at Inlet Grove. Their first church building was erected in 1342, in which services were held until 1858, when a larger and more commodious one was built. For many years Luke Hitchcock was pastor. Philo Judson. afterwards an eminent toreign missionary, preached here, and "Father Penfield" often filled the pulpit. The building was badly racked by the tornado of June 3, 1860. and was finally demolished by a storm on October 30, 1882. Its place was supplied by a fine new structure erected in 1883-4.



It appears by a certificate, recorded in the Recorder's Office, that I. G. Dimick. C. R. Dewey. Daniel Frost, D. H. Birdsall and G. R. Lynn were elected Trustees of the "Methodist Episcopal Church at Inlet," December 12, 1840. On June 4. 1848, Daniel Frost. Solomon Matteson, A. W. Crombie, C. S. Frost, M. S. Curtis and Hezekiah McCune, were elected trustees of the "Methodist Episcopal Church of Lee Center." In 1849, trustees of a parsonage were elected, but we have been unable to learn when the building was constructed.



An Episcopal Church was organized in 1855, and a building erected in 1857, costing $2,500. The windows of the cnurch were presented to the congregation by Bishop Whitehouse. The title was vested in the Bishop by instrument dated May 4, 1857. Dr. Charles Gardner and Garrett M. La Forge were the principal supporters, and after they left the town the services here declined until the building was abandoned and sold for other uses a very few years ago.



The country was greatly disturbed in the period from 1843 to 1850, by a succession of crimes indicating a thorough organization among the lawless class. The principals in the nefarious business are known in the annals of this and adjoining counties as the "Banditti of the Prairies." The vicinity of Inlet furnished one of their bases of operation. Counterfeiting, robbery and murder were included among their offenses. Two leading citizens of Inlet Grove one of them a magistrate were implicated in a robbery, and sent to the penitentiary where both died. Other citizens were found to be involved in like transactions. One turned state's evidence, which resulted in more arrests and the recovery of considerable stolen property. As a means of better contending with the law-breaking element, an "Association for Furthering the cause of Justice" was formed. The preamble of the constitution recited that, "appearances have plainly shown that Inlet Grove has been a resting place and depot for the numerous rogues that infest the country." A vigilance committee was appointed to hunt out and run down the rascals, by which effective work was done for the protection of the people and punishment of criminals.



The lands on which the pioneers settled were not open to purchase until 1844, when the first land sale occurred at Dixon. Hence the early settlers were known as "squatters," having no assurance that the lands they occupied would ever become their own. To protect themselves against the cupidity of interlopers who might seek to enter the lands of the first corners secretly, and also as a means of adjusting any differences which might arise between them touching their respective claims, the settlers of this neighborhood formed a "Squatters' Association," with a formal constitution containing rigia provisions for the mutual protection, of its members. Similar movements were resorted to in other sections, and became known as "Grove Associations." The constitution of the one in the vicinity of Amboy was preserved by Ira Brewer, and bore date, "Inlet, Ogle County, Illinois, July 10th, 1837," and was subscribed by sixty-six members. The field of the association extended from Inlet half way to Knox, Dixon, Malugin, Palestine and Franklin Grove. George E. Haskell was the first president and Martin Wright the first clerk. The scheme called for a bond to be signed by each member, obligating him to convey to the adjoining claimant any land occupied by the latter which might, inadvertently or otherwise, be purchased by the formen Difficulties were apt to arise owing to the fact that the Government survey had not then been made. In a committee report of choice diction and marked seriousness, having much of the tone of a plea addressed to the membership, it is said: "The claims of all have been respected and a just regard had to the growth and prosperity of the neighborhood, in the accommodations afforded to all that wished to unite themselves to this community in nearness of settlement. But a change in our circumstances is about to take place. The rightful owner of the soil upon which we are located is to call upon us for his dues, and that too at a period not far distant. Some, and it is hoped all the members of this association, will be able to answer the call and obtain a title to the land which they now claim. In paying for land, whether at general land sales or under the preemption law, the individual so paying receives his title to the same, which no right of the claimant can ever reach."



The situation was manifestly one of grave peril to these frontiersmen who were in danger of losing the property, the home, which they had braved so much and forsaken so much to secure. As a rule, however, the community, by the intimidating force of a law of its own making, was able to protect the bona-fide settler against the barbarous greed of the "claim jumper." The early settlers brought with them much of the spirit of colonial days, and vigorously used all that was needed to meet the emergency.



Shaw Station was platted as "Shaw" on land of Sherman Shaw October 24, 1878. The place has an elevator operated by Chas. Guffin, a Congregatlonal church, which was built five or six years ago. and a public school.



The population of the township in 1890 was 789. while in 1900 it was 876.