Ward

History of Monee Township, Illinois

1909 Plat Map for Monee Illinois

This township had not a white inhabitant until after the trouble with the Indians was over. There were settlements to the east over in Crete, and to the northwest up in Frankfort, but the township of Carey, as Monee and Will were then called, could not boast of a single white man until the year 1833. During that year John S. Dilly, John M. Chase, S. W. Cooper, S. W. Gaines, Nicholas Young and Aaron Bonnell came into the township from Ohio, and they constituted the pioneer settlers of the township. There was but one grove of timber in the … Read more

Joliet Helped Tame West

The History of Joliet – Chapter 23 By John Whiteside of The Herald News (used with permission) Submitted by Nancy Vargo “He was forseeing enough to understand that there would be an immense industry built on barbwire fencing.” By John WHITESIDE of The Herald News Barbed wire helped to settle the American frontier. And much of the barbed wire that stretched across the nation was produced by Hiram SCUTT in Joliet. Early settlers used thorns and sticky shrubs along with rail and rock fences to keep in their livestock. But that all changed in 1873 when Joseph GLIDDEN invented barbed … Read more