Mastodons in Lake County

The earliest known discovery of mastodon bones in Lake County occurred in January 1876, as reported by the Waukegan Weekly Gazette: "One morning Mr. M.B. Stone, while digging sand in the pit south of the town branch on Lamar [?] Street, struck with a pick what he supposed to be a stone, but on prying it out found it to be a portion of some mammoth." 

Image of Mastodons courtesy of
American Museum of Natural History

The use of the term "mammoth" by the Gazette may have been simply to signify something quite large, but it should be noted that although similar in appearance, mastodons and mammoths are two distinct species. The most important difference was how they ate. Both were herbivores, but mastodons had cone-shaped cusps on their molars to crush leaves, twigs, and branches. Mammoths had ridged molars that allowed them to cut through vegetation and graze.

Mastodons began to disappear from Lake County at the end of the last Ice Age from 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Some scientists believe the herds of American mastodon were possibly greater than the bison herds that later roamed the Great Plains. The mastodon’s extinction was probably caused by several factors, including over-hunting by humans, climate change and habitat loss at the end of the Ice Age, and possibly disease.

The most exciting discovery of a mastodon occurred in the summer of 1925. While dredging a canal on his property in Ingleside, Herman Kaping (1870-1932) brought up the ribs and bones of a mastodon. The skull was also found and hoisted several times, but each time slipped off the dredge's bucket back into the water. 

Herman Kaping's resort, Ingleside, circa 1912, near the site of 
mastodon bones discovery. Dunn Museum M-86.1.361

The discovery caught the interest of scientists when Kaping sent the 56" rib bone and 10" long vertebra to the Field Museum of Chicago for identification. He later gifted the bones to the Field Museum. Soon the Field Museum's associate curator of paleontology, Professor Elmer S. Riggs (1869-1963), and associate curator of geology, Dr. H.W. Nichols, arrived to search for more bones.

Herman Kaping (left) and Prof. Riggs of the Field Museum of Chicago
at the site of the Mastodon find in Ingleside. Chicago Tribune, July 29, 1925.

Professor Riggs was a specialist in fossil mammals but had been working for the Field Museum in part to secure dinosaurs for exhibition. Riggs is credited with discovering and naming the Brachiosaurus in 1903. 

Riggs and Nichols were unable to recover more bones, but Riggs gave an impromptu talk on the size and habits of the mastodon to a crowd of onlookers.

On March 11, 1962, another attempt was made to recover the mastodon skull at Kaping's. The site had come to be known as "Mastodon Isle" for the 1925 find.

Examining a mastodon bone: Ken Bundy (diver),
William Palmer, Harry Kaping, and Charles Dussman.
News-Sun, March 13, 1962.
 

This time, the hunt was led by Robert Vogel of the Lake County Museum of History (predecessor to the Bess Bower Dunn Museum) and Herman Kaping's son, Harry Kaping (1894-1975). Harry had ridden the dredging machine when the original find was made.

Robert Vogel (center with paper) discusses the plan
for finding more mastodon bones at Mastodon Isle.
Property owner, Harry Kaping (right wearing fedora)
March 11, 1962. Dunn Museum photo. 

Members of the Lake County Scuba Divers cut two four-foot holes in the ice, 200 feet apart. Harry Kaping directed the divers in their search, but they were unable to locate the mastodon's skull.

Mastodon leg bone recovered in 1925 from Kaping's (above)
was donated to Vogel's museum. It is on permanent exhibit
at the Bess Bower Dunn Museum in Libertyville, IL. BBDM 91.0.597.

In July 1992, mastodon bones were discovered in Wadsworth. While digging a lake on their property, Van Zelst, Inc. Landscapers excavated mastodon bones, eastern elk bones, and remnants of an ancient spruce forest. The find was identified by scientists from the Illinois State Museum, where the majority of the find was donated. A spruce log (BBDM 93.13) was donated to the Bess Bower Dunn Museum.

Dr. Russell Graham of the Illinois State Museum
and David Van Zelst, landscape architect and owner of the 
property examine mastodon bones found while
Van Zelst was digging in Wadsworth in 1992.
Courtesy of David Van Zelst. 

Mastodon statue and prairie flowers representing
Lake County's historic flora and fauna. 
Lake County Discovery Museum at Lakewood Forest Preserve, Wauconda. (2014)

- Diana Dretske, Curator ddretske@LCFPD.org

Freedom in Lake County

The wrongs of slavery were in the hearts and minds of many prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. 

"The Underground Railroad" by Charles T. Webber, 1893
Cincinnati Art Museum

Many citizens of Lake County were antislavery and some even abolitionists. In 1846, the Lake County Anti-Slavery Society was formed in Antioch. 

Abolitionists throughout the North organized to aid enslaved people and worked in small, independent groups to maintain secrecy in what was called the Underground Railroad. This informal network of secret routes and safe houses was like an “underground” resistance and used “railroad” terminology. 

There are a handful of stories of escaped enslaved people passing through Lake County, and also of freed people settling here after the Civil War (1861-1865). 

One of the few detailed stories of a fugitive enslaved man coming to Lake County was told in the History of Deerfield Illinois by Marie Ward Reichelt (1928). In the winter of 1858, a 28-year old Andrew Jackson arrived from Mississippi at the Deerfield "safe house" of Lyman Wilmot. Because it was winter and travel was difficult, Wilmot found a more permanent residence for Jackson at the Lorenz Ott home. Here, Jackson assisted with chores and built the family a fence around their log cabin home.

The Caspar Ott cabin (above), where runaway enslaved person Andrew Jackson
wintered in 1858-1859, is preserved by the Deerfield Area Historical Society 

When the roads became passable in the spring of 1859, Lorenz Ott, a tailor by trade, made the young man a suit of clothes as he was about to start a new life in Canada. Wilmot took Jackson to Chicago to board a ship to the north and paid his fare. 

Lorenz Ott's tailor sheers believed to have been used

to make a new set of clothes for Andrew Jackson, circa 1859.

Dunn Museum 64.24.1

It is estimated that at least 30,000 enslaved people escaped to Canada via Underground Railroad networks throughout the North.

During the Civil War—and before the Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863—the arrival of Union troops in the South opened a path for enslaved people to find refuge and liberation.

This was the case for James Joice (1822-1872), who settled in Ivanhoe and was featured in a previous post; Henry McIntosh (1843-1915) of Kentucky, who enlisted with the 1st Michigan Colored Infantry 102nd U.S. Colored Troops and settled in Lake Forest in 1871, and worked as a coachman and gardener; and Samuel Dent (ca. 1835 - 1890), who became a surgeon's assistant with the 19th Illinois Infantry, and later settled in Lake Forest. 

Zouaves cadets in their distinct uniforms.

In April 1862, Samuel Dent, attached himself to the ranks of the 19th Illinois Infantry. This Zouave regiment had several officers and sergeants who had belonged to the original company of Ellsworth Zouaves. (See my post on Ellsworth's Zouaves Cadets).

The regiment had advanced on and captured Decatur and Tuscumbia, Alabama, April 11-14, 1862. Dent, who was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, would have approached the 19th Illinois at this time, seeking freedom and to be of service.

It was also at Tuscumbia that James Davis of Barrington was killed by a sniper. (See my post on the Ghost of the 19th Illinois).

According to a February 1890 article in the Lake Forest College newspaper, The Stentor, Samuel Dent assisted the 19th Illinois' surgeon, Dr. Roswell G. Bogue (1832 - 1893).

Samuel Dent and his livery at the

Chicago and North Western Railroad Depot, Lake Forest.

Courtesy of Lake Forest - Lake Bluff Historical Society.

In the 1870s, Samuel Dent settled in Lake Forest. His decision to come to Lake Forest may have been informed by his experiences with soldiers who were from northern Illinois. Also, Dent may have been aware of Lake Forest's strong abolitionist sentiment, and its growing African-American community, begun in the 1850s. 

Chicago and North Western Depot, Lake Forest, 

circa 1914. Dunn Museum M-86.1.525

Dent started his own livery business, picking up passengers at the Chicago and North Western Railroad depot and taking them to area hotels and homes. He also became a tour guide, pointing out historic sites and the homes of Lake Forest notables. His contemporaries found him to be a charming and generous man.

According to census records, Samuel Dent and his wife Eliza (ca. 1847-19??) had three children—Eliza's daughter, Emma McElroy (1858 - unknown); Charles (ca. September 1879 - May 1880), who died from "cerebral congestion;" and Eliza Jane (1884 - unknown).

When Dent passed away on June 8, 1890, the citizens of Lake Forest subscribed to and erected a monument at his grave to show their "esteem for a lovable Christian, devoted citizen and faithful friend."

Detail of Samuel Dent monument at the

Lake Forest Cemetery.

Special thanks to Laurie Stein, Curator, History Center of Lake Forest - Lake Bluff . 

Sources:

Hahn, Steven, Steven F. Miller, Susan E. O'Donovan, John C. Rodrigue, and Leslie S. Rowland, eds. Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867: Series 3, Volume 1: Land and Labor, 1865. University of North Carolina Press, 2008.

Reichelt, Marie Ward. History of Deerfield, Illinois. Glenview, Illinois: Glenview Press, 1928.

Teters, Kristopher A. Practical Liberators: Union Officers in the Western Theater during the Civil War. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2018. 

Illinois National Guard, Camp Logan

Camp Logan in Zion was an Illinois National Guard rifle range. This Guard training facility operated from 1892 to 1974 in what is now the Illinois Beach State Park.

John Alexander Logan (1826-1886), namesake of Camp Logan, Zion, Illinois. 

Congressional Portrait Collection, Library of Congress

The camp was named for General John Alexander Logan, a politician who raised and commanded the 31st Illinois Volunteer Regiment from southern Illinois in 1861. 

The camp was located east of Sheridan Road and adjacent to the Chicago & North Western Railroad. The property was purchased by the State legislature in 1892 to facilitate National Guard training in the region.

Camp Logan, circa 1900. Private collection.

By 1900, the camp was well established and included a headquarters office, four regimental barracks, range office, mess hall, kitchen and arsenal. From an early date, regular Army marksmen from the U.S. Army post at Fort Sheridan preferred the rifle range at Camp Logan over their own facilities. Naval Militia from the Naval Training Center Great Lakes also utilized this facility. 

Firing line, Camp Logan. Date unknown. 

The camp's arsenal is visible in the background at right. 

Private collection. 

U.S. Naval rifle range, Camp Logan. Date unknown. Private collection. 

Before World War I, the Illinois National Guard put great emphasis on rifle marksmanship. It was one of the few Guard activities that was judged by strict Army regulations.

Training at the camp included handling of small weapons, tactical maneuvers, and rifle marksmanship. Soldiers performed a variety of marksmanship scenarios on targets located from 100 to 1,000 yards oriented toward Lake Michigan. In 1902, over 6,000 soldiers attended the camp and expended over 640,000 rounds of ammunition.

Two key innovations were incorporated into the Camp Logan range, the echelon target system and Aiken targets. For more on the inventor of the Aiken targets, see my post on Illinois National Guardsman, Robert Aiken. 

Corp. Rex Coniglio, Lieut. D.E. Zealand, and Private M. Cherion 

using 3-inch trench mortar at Camp Logan. 

Circa 1937. Dunn Museum 2013.18.28

From 1933 to 1937, Colonel George Marshall was assigned as the senior instructor at the camp. Marshall would become U.S. Secretary of State in 1947 and thereafter develop the Marshall Plan for the economic recovery of Europe after World War II. 

Following World War II, training became more restrictive due to the development of more powerful weapons and the increasing civilian population near the camp. The camp’s use dwindled until it was closed in 1974.

View of some of the buildings, and more construction underway at Camp Logan. 

Circa 1918. Dunn Museum 99.7.6

In 2000, the 243-acre Camp Logan National Guard Rifle Range Historic District, including the remaining 1890s - 1950s buildings and landscape structures were listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Camp Logan was placed on the list because of its status as the best remaining example of a pre-World War II National Guard training facility in Illinois and the role it played in the evolution of the Illinois National Guard. 

One of the remaining structures at the Camp Logan National Guard Rifle Range Historic District. 

Photo courtesy of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. 

- Diana Dretske, Curator ddretske@lcfpd.org

Special thanks to Dunn Museum volunteer researcher, Al Westerman. 

Passenger Pigeons in Lake County

Passenger pigeon, 1920. 
The Orthogenetic Evolution
in the Pigeons. Hayashi and Toda (artists)

2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the extinction of the passenger pigeon. This bird once numbered in the billions in North America, but in a matter of decades market and recreational hunting drove the bird to extinction.

The first non-native settlers to Lake County in the mid-1830s found an abundance of wild game, including quail and passenger pigeons. Thousands of pigeons roosted in the county’s oak trees, eating acorns.

Remembrances of those early days were documented by students across Lake County, who in 1918 asked their elders for their memories of the passenger pigeons: In Newport Township, "Wild pigeons... flew in flocks of hundreds and helped furnish the pantry with delicious meat."

Woodblock engraving of passenger pigeons

in flight in Louisiana. "The Illustrated Shooting 

and Dramatic News,"  July 3, 1875.

In Ela Township, "There used to be a great many wild pigeons, but they were all shot. They flew in flocks that darkened the sun." 

Excerpt from students regarding passenger pigeons. 

Dunn Museum, Wauconda School History, 2003.0.46

In Wauconda Township, "There were flocks of quail, partridges and wild pigeons which were hunted for food, taking the place of chicken and turkey.  Great flocks of wild pigeons were common and they were considered a pest by the farmers.  They would pick up to small grain almost as fast as the farmers could sow it, for grain at that time was sown by hand.  Sometimes men and women were obliged to stay in the field to drive these flocks away."

From 1860 to 1880 there was a catastrophic decline in the passenger pigeons' numbers. 

Telegraph lines and railroads made it possible to share the location of passenger pigeon roosts with a nation-wide audience, including professional hunters. The market hunters, as they were called, brought their shot birds (by the tens of thousands) to major cities in order to sell their feathers and breast meat. 

There were also venues that specialized in pigeon shoots. The best known was Dexter Park, on the south side of Chicago. One match in 1877 involved the shooting of 5,000 passenger pigeons. Another match was visited by General Philip Sheridan (Fort Sheridan's namesake). 

Henry Kelso Coale, circa 1920.

Library of Congress. 

In 1879, Henry Kelso Coale (1858 - 1926) of Highland Park, an amateur ornithologist and bird collector, "took specimens" of the pigeons. At the time, the bird's demise was already being talked about by conservationists, but Coale had found them breeding in the woods along the Des Plaines River, west of Lake Forest, and shot several for his collection. (In 1936, the Field Museum in Chicago acquired a great portion of Coale's collection). 

In northern Illinois, the species was deemed to be abundant up to 1882. The last passenger pigeon in Lake County was recorded by John Farwell Ferry on August 7, 1895 in Lake Forest.

In 1912, Coale wrote that Lake County was "one of the most favored spots in Illinois for the study of birds," because of the variety. He also noted that the passenger pigeons were "formerly an abundant summer resident but now practically extinct." In fact, they would be extinct two years later.

The last passenger pigeon in the world, named Martha, was born in Hyde Park, Chicago about 1885 and was conveyed to the Cincinnati Zoo in 1902. She died on September 1, 1914.

Martha (c. 1885-1914), the last passenger pigeon, 

as photographed at the Cincinnati Zoo, ca. 1914. Source online.

To learn more: 

"The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction" exhibition explores connections between the human world and looks at some of the work being done to help prevent similar extinctions from occurring. Lake County Discovery Museum through February 2, 2014. 

Greenberg, Joel. Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction. Bloomsbury, USA. 2014.

Silas Nichols: Last Civil War Veteran

Silas S. Nichols (1848 - 1945) was Lake County's last surviving Civil War veteran.

Civil War veterans Silas S. Nichols, 145th Ohio (left) and Frederick Worth, 96th Illinois (right), photographed by teacher Lee Riley in May 1918 at Townline School grounds on the northwest corner of Yorkhouse and Delany Road. 

Dunn Museum 2011.0.226

Silas Nichols was born in Sandusky, Ohio, to Joshaway and Shirley Nichols. He enlisted in the 145th Ohio Infantry, Company I at its organization on May 12, 1864. This Ohio National Guard unit enlisted for 100 days service.

Under Colonel Henry C. Ashwell, the 145th Ohio immediately proceeded to Washington, D.C. where it performed garrison duty. In July 1864, when Confederate General Early threatened Washington, the Regiment was constantly under arms. It mustered out on August 23, 1864.

While in D.C. with the regiment, Nichols saw President Lincoln three times. On one occasion, Nichols and several fellow soldiers called on the President at the White House. Lincoln came to his office door to welcome them and shook Nichols' hand.

In 1873, Nichols married Elizabeth C. Helrick (1857 - 1945) in Milan, Ohio. The couple moved to Lake Villa in 1889. In 1892, they moved to Waukegan where Nichols worked for the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railroad as a railroad detective. He remained "special police" for the EJ & E until his retirement in 1920.

Silas and Elizabeth Nichols lived at 506 Poplar Street 

in Waukegan from circa 1905 to 1945. The house was built in 1901. Google Maps.

On each Memorial Day from 1925 to 1942, Nichols recited the Gettysburg Address at the service in the Waukegan courthouse square. He continued to attend the memorial service, placing a wreath at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument until 1944. Nichols also participated in the procession of "boys in blue" each year in Chicago on Michigan Avenue.

Mrs. Lucile McGaughey pinning an American Legion poppy on the lapel of Silas Nichols while George Groat (left) of the Homer Dahringer Post observes. Waukegan News Sun, 1939.

On Memorial Day 1944, Silas Nichols (right) placed a wreath

at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in the courthouse square, 

Waukegan. Dunn Museum 94.34.278

Silas and Elizabeth Nichols were married for 71 years. They were feted as the longest married couple in Lake County. They credited their happy marriage to "independence for both husband and wife and plenty of give and take."

Silas and Elizabeth Nichols on their 70th wedding anniversary. 

Chicago Tribune, March 7, 1943. 

While Silas was active in the Grand Army of the Republic as commander of the Waukegan post and judge advocate of the Illinois GAR, Elizabeth devoted herself to the GAR's Women's Relief Corps.

Each time a Civil War veteran passed away it made the papers. The Chicago Tribune was one of many area newspapers that covered Nichols' death on January 10, 1945.

In 1953, the last verified combat veteran of the Civil War, James A. Hard (1843 - 1953) died; and drummer boy Albert Woolson (1847 - 1956) was the last veteran of the Civil War. After Woolson's death the Grand Army of the Republic was dissolved, since he was its last member. At least three men died after Woolson claiming to be Confederate veterans, but their status was debunked.

In 1945, the Women's Relief Corps applied for a military headstone for Nichols. 

The application (above) was approved by the Adjutant General of Illinois. Ancestry.com

Silas Nichols' tombstone at Hickory Union Cemetery, 

Edwards Road, Antioch Township, Lake County, IL.

Findagrave.com

Carved at the bottom of Silas and Elizabeth Nichols' shared tombstone are the words: "He shook the hand of Lincoln."

- Diana Dretske, Curator ddretske@lcfpd.org