While Gray’s Mill on the Fox River in Aurora certainly didn’t exist in 1849 it indicates that the river did provide waterpower. A little farther south of the mill is the bridge crossing which leads to the Galena Road. Immediately the rolling hills have become the Somonauk Prairie, forty miles long and twelve miles wide according to Alonzo’s journal. I have not verified the accuracy of his description.
The ho-hum photo of my car on the side of the road gives an indication of just how flat the land becomes. After crossing the DeKalb county line the Galena Road changes its name back to the Chicago Road and about half way across the prairie they camped near the DeKalb House and a group of about fifty Indians belonging to a tribe headed by a chief named Shabbona (only one of many spellings). Alonzo spelled the name phonetically as Shameny. At this point the land has become rolling prairie and the Chicago Road, by name, ends at the village of Paw Paw. In 1849 it was described as having “a nice little clump of timber.” Not in 2009.
After Paw Paw I came upon a sight that would have surprised Alonzo; these aren’t the windmills he was used to seeing on farms in Ohio. I couldn’t resist stopping to take a couple of artsy-fartsy shots as I passed by.
Here the road turns south with pieces of it following section line roads and other parts seeming to follow the old trail that led eventually to Princeton. But I get ahead of myself. Next in the line of many villages passed through on the way to Galesburg was La Moille. The Allen Junior High School, built in 1887, is listed on the National Historic Register, and a small carnival was taking place on the school grounds when I passed by.
Just beyond La Moille the road joins Hwy 34 and passes through Dover on the way to Princeton. As early as 1825 a road that followed Indian trails was established from Peoria to the lead mines at Galena on the Mississippi River, and it ran through Princeton.
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