Como Quite A Town Until Railroad Came

The following article was written by Mrs. James Hopkins and was printed in the Sterling Gazette's Diamond Jubilee edition in 1929. It is a lengthy article so I'm only sharing parts that pertain to Como's history. The article holds a special interest for me because my third great grandfather, Harley Thurber, purchased the inn-tavern from Col. Henry Sampson and ran the establishment until his death in 1859. Prior to his arrival in Como, Harley lived near Grand Detour, Illinois, where a ferry business had been established. He is noted in the book, "The Inside Story of John Deere's Grand Detour: As Found in the Brick Store Journal 1844-1845," as having received wages for running the ferry. I've always wondered if the ferry business was what brought Harley to Como but now I know it was a thriving community with lots of opportunities.

Como Quite A Town Until Railroad Came

Hopkins township is named for Jason Hopkins, who with Isaac H. Brittell were the first settlers. Mr. Hopkins was a veteran of the Black Hawk war, in which he served as a cavalry officer. He was a native of Nashville, Tenn., but came to Belleville, Ill. when he was middle-aged. Later he went to Peoria, but after the Black Hawk war came to what is now Como, in 1835. These two men settled at Como, so named because of the river at the point bearing a resemblance to Lake Como, in Italy.

Mr. Hopkins had noted the spot in 1832 when he was a soldier. He with a party of comrades coasted down the river to Como, and made a "jack knife" claim by marking his initials on the bark of trees, thus claiming a large body of land. Mr. Hopkins used to speak of his tract as the "garden of Eden." In 1835 he returned with his family and Mr. Brittell, surveyed the land and established boundaries by plowing furrows around his acreage with oxen and plow. The claim amounted to 3,600 acres, which he later bought from the government and paid for.

First School In Township

The first school taught in the township was at Round Grove, in 1840, with Miss Higley as teacher. The first school house, however, was built at Como, in 1842. William Tell Hopkins, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jason Hopkins, was the first birth of a white child in the township, February 22, 1837. It is claimed that he was the first white child born in the county. He died in 1862. Isaac H. Brittell and Miss Jane Scott were the first couple married in Como. The earliest traveled road was the "Dixon and Rock Island stage route."

Como Platted In 1838

The village of Como was laid out and platted in 1838 by a committee of surveyors from Peoria. There were nine blocks, 142 lots. The first street was Front. It ran parallel with Rock river. Second and Third streets were next. Streets running at right angles to these were Grove, State, Court and Walnut. The ferry landing was at the foot of State street. Como post office was established in 1840. Dr. L. Harding was the first postmaster. Smith and Weber erected a grist mill in 1845-46 at a cost of $42,000. It was the first mill in the township or county.

Original proprietors of the village of Como comprised six civil engineers and surveyors, three ship captains, one preacher, an editor, a printer and editor, a physician, a miller, a merchant, three shoe and leather dealers and two farmers.

A bridge was built across the Elkhorn, near the Como cemetery, serving a state road which had been surveyed from Peoria to Savanna. The road was never opened, so the bridge was moved to its present site on the Lyndon road. A ferry also was established there in 1840, being at the time the only one from Dixon to Prophetstown.

The first tavern was conducted by Col. Henry Sampson, in 1839. Simon P. Breed established one of the first nurseries in the state at Como in 1841. Como was at its height of prosperity in 1845. Charles Homes and Lorenzo Hapgood opened an extensive store in 1844, and Smith and Weber also had a large mill store. Como's trade extended over half the county, including customers from Sterling. In 1856, after the railroad now known as the Chicago Northwestern was built, Como began to fade.


1.) "Illinois Digital Archives." Digital images. "Como Ferry, Sterling, Illinois." http://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/stpl/id/1470/rec/8 : 2016.

2.) Mrs. James Hopkins, "Como Quite A Town Until Railroad Came," Sterling Daily Gazette Diamond Jubilee Edition, 9 December 1929.

3.) Shiaras, Dan. The Inside Story of John Deere's Grand Detour: As Found in the Brick Store Journal 1844-1845. Grand Detour, Illinois: Dan Shiaras, [Box 66, 61021], 1993.

Indian Waifs of Albany

This is the first in a series of newspaper articles that I found about Whiteside County, Illinois history. They were published in the Sterling Daily Gazette Diamond Jubilee edition printed December 9, 1929. I was given a copy of the newspaper which is very fragile and disintegrating. To preserve this resource I plan to share some of the stories and articles that I think would be of interest. 

Today's article comes from Albany, Illinois. Albany is located in western part of Whiteside County bordering the Mississippi River. Settlement in Albany began in the early 1830's. But before the white men came Native Americans called this area home going back thousands of years. Albany Mounds a Native American burial ground is located in Albany and is an Illinois State Historic Site. In the following an Albany native recalls stories of his childhood.

NELLIE BLY AND GEO. TAINTOR, 2 INDIAN WAIFS OF ALBANY

Albany was an Indian village before the white men came. Today under the administration of her competent village board, the pretty town is a picture of peace and contentment.

Charles Hoover is chairman of the board, G. W. Coleman, Frank Hugunin, Lester Sherer, Charles Beacon and M. H. Gale being the members. E. A. Fassett has been clerk of the village board since 1909.

A still older citizen who has been prominent in county affairs for many years is Charles A. Olds, banker and for a number of terms supervisor from Albany. "I remember when the hill there was covered with Indians," said Mr. Olds as he stood in the door of his bank conversing with a Gazette reporter and his old friend, Mrs. J. H. Crowell of Lyndon, who took a half day off to accompany The Gazette reporter to Albany, her girlhood home.

"The Indians," said Mr. Olds, "came down from Wisconsin to visit George Tainter and Nellie Bly, two Indian orphans who were brought to Albany on a raft by Capt. Gilbert, who took pity on their plight and raised them in his own home. A large party of Winnebago Indians on their way to hunt in the Merodocia swamps stopped off here to visit the orphans of their tribe and express their gratitude to Capt. Gilbert for his fine treatment of them, "Nellie Bly became converted to Christianity and it seemed as if she had a bright future before her, when she contracted tuberculosis and eventually died of it. George Taintor was all Indian. We children used to shiver in spite of ourselves when he would climb a tree and from the very top of it give a real Indian war whoop. He was then about 16 years old, and shortly afterward he got into an altercation with Capt. H. Short, and he got a revolver and shot Capt. Short in the hand. He was arrested and for punishment was sent back to the Indian reservation in Wisconsin.

"As soon as the ice would go out of the Mississippi in the spring we children used to watch for the Indian canoes from the north, on their way to the hunting grounds. A dozen or more of them would go by in a group at times. In the days before the white men settled in Albany, the northern Winnebagoes used to meet in conference here with the Prophet, Chief White Cloud, from Prophetstown, and there is a tradition that one of the conferences ended in war whoops and a battle royal, during which many scalps were taken on the river bank where Albany now stands."

Source: Originally printed in the Sterling Diamond Jubilee Edition of the Sterling Daily Gazette, Sterling, Illinois, 9 Dec 1929. Reprinted with permission.

http://albanymounds.com/index.html