Please Don't Quote Me By Caralee Aschenbrenner During Quaker Joe Wilson's lifetime it was a period of "opps," not apps as today. For a man to move his family from Back East to the West of Illinois in the 1830's took a lot of daring but there were endless opportunities, "opps." Opps were different then than today, of course, or were they? Cheap land, little money to change hands to begin a business, but not a lot of competition. And one didn't necessarily have to follow tradition or convention but blaze a new path.

There were a few fundamentals, however, that remained in the settling up. In the case of Quaker Joe, it was to find a convenient stream on which to build a mill which he found in Jordan Township, Whiteside County, 1835. The mill was completed by the next autumn. It was a crude log affair but adequate until in 1842 he built a more "modern" one ... Four stories highoak and walnut framed; pegged, not nailed togetherall fashioned by Wilson, the millwright.

The wooden water wheel with which he'd begun was used there until 1856 when new wheels were shipped in from Pennsylvania.

Between 1842 and 1850 the siding on the mill began to warpWilson looked for economical replacement. Just at that time a raft of renegade logs floated down the Rock River, drifting ashore near Dixon and claimed by the landowner from whom Quaker Joe bought them. He had them sawed to siding and re-did the mill. It was just one example of how folks then took the opportunity to make-do with on-hand!

The water wheel was still in good condition in 1937 when the mill was razed because of the care given it since its installation in 1856. The wheel was sold to a C.H. Keiser in Pennsylvania, its five ton bulk in its fifteen foot diameter, six foot "face" was shipped Back East to within a few miles of its long time ago origins. It had initially been bought for nine to one thousand dollars. It sold in 1937 for $200, still reasonable even with the freight!

During the Civil War, the wheel had turned 24/6, closing down only from midnight Saturdays to midnight Sunday. Quakers didn't work on the Sabbath.

The mill loomed nearly roadside in the 'olden times,' luring trade for the grinding of their wheat and corn which also enticed a couple businesses to grow beside the trail ... A couple stores and eight-to-ten houses. They inspired Col. Bowman to plat a village which was called variously "Jordan Center, Jordan or Barclay," a name that persisted in a nearby schoolhouse. Barclay was the name of one of the founders of Quakerism, the Society of FriendsGeorge Barclay. The plat, however, was never recorded and the village faded with time.

Quakers. You might be a little surprised to learn that quite a settlement of them gathered together down there in Jordan Township to make their mark. The "Friends," as they were called, too, might have been into some sort of investment mode in the 1830s. Luther Bowen who platted Savanna, Illinois, Carroll County and then the county seat, petitioned that a courthouse be built in the town at "Murray Square," Murray being a Quaker investor at Philadelphia. Other similar incidents are found here and there throughout Northwest Illinois histories. Opps time!!!

Might there have been other reasons quietly in motion for the Quakers to have come Westward Ho? ... "Friends" seek inner development, search for quiet settlement of decisive issues, are against armed conflict and especially were anti-slavery, abolition. Was their settlement at the almost far reaches of "civilization" to set up a station or two for the Underground Railroad? They were devoted to that cause where ever they lived and some may have taken the "opps" to begin a remote trail for the escaping slave. Underground Railroad stops are scattered throughout the Eagle Point, Wilson's Mill, Penrose area ... Friends induced.

Their worship services are sometimes held in complete silence but if anyone wants to speak, they may rise, man OR woman. At the time the only religion to allow women that opportunity. In the list of Whiteside County's Quaker directors, committees, etc., there are also women board members, unusual for the times.

The Society of Friends were far ahead of issues pertaining to the sexes and race by more than a hundred years.

Joseph and Frances Wilson's commodious home stood on a rise to the northeast of the mill, twelve to fourteen rooms, a roofed brick walk to the summer kitchen, a porch surround and a walnut staircase from the first to third floora landmark until it burned in 1926.

Reference says that perhaps the rooms had been added periodically for the "entertainment of strangers." Wilson's was the regular house of worship for the Quakers in the neighborhood for many years ... A "center of influence."

Perhaps it is no coincidence that short few months before Quaker Joe died in 1874 a Society of Friends was "officially" organized or regularly established" at John's Corners on June 15, 1872, the Corners being about two miles directly south of Wilson's Mill. John's Corners was named for a family numerous in the neighborhood at the junction of a couple country roads where a general store was built along with a wagon/blacksmith shop and a carding mill located in a residence. It, however, drew so much custom that folks camped in the house yard waiting their turn with their wool ... A busy intersection.

To add to its prestige a Friends meeting house was built there, then across the road from the present cemetery. It was called the "East Jordan Preparative Meeting of Friends" and its "First Day Meeting" was held the day following its organization (above).

Monthly Meetings of Friends were established April 19, 1873. As you see, some opportunities take longer to culminate than others. Although "John's Corners" suited most as a name for their hometown, the federal government had to upstage that by renaming the place "Penrose" which it remains to this day. The post office gave it additional prestige, however, and was the name of a local family, too. The busy Polo-Freeport Road cuts the village in two (straight out from Sterling's east side or off Rt. 40, watch for signs). The store building still stands, recycled, as opportunity demanded. Uniquely, there beside the road is the "Penrose Friends Cemetery." Where in the rural Midwest have you had the uncommon experience of seeing a "Friends cemetery?"

It's been several years since we've been to West Branch, Iowa to see the birthplace/museum of the late president Herbert Hoover who belonged to the Society of Friends. If there was a gathering of Quakers in that community, I don't recall. Richard Nixon was also Quaker and president.

At their demise Joseph and Frances Wilson were buried "Quaker fashion" in graves anonymous and unmarked in the humble ways of their religion. A hillside in the valley cut by Buffalo Creek is said to have been the burial site with a couple evergreen trees planted at the graves. Later cut down and grazed over, we have only a few written summaries of their contribution to our histories; that and the crumbling stone wall foundation of the old mill. All in all, they took advantage of many opportunities to further the advancement of the place we live.

A more detailed resume of Wilson's Mill appears in PDQ MeThe Book, January 21 and 28; February 4, 1987. ($25 at The Prairie Advocate!!!)

The late Helen Lehman who lived at the millsite so appreciated the native American history of the place where many relics were found and preserved over the years. We remember her with fondness.

Things change besides opportunities. Over the years the Penrose Friends Cemetery was maintained by a neighborhood teen, Eleanor John Waterhouse, who through her adulthood mowed, weeded, pruned and snipped as her community contribution. That went on for years until physical disability did not allow her to continue. She gave the cemetery over to the township which mowed but had no time for the extra details; even the planting of the peonies such as Mrs. Waterhouse had done.

The little country cemetery is visited frequently, however, by family and friends, local and distant, and in about 2005 a former connection with the area, Dick Havener, then of Sarasota, Florida, came by and saw how badly the burial ground had deteriorated ... Stones tipped and illegible, weeds, untrimmed, forgotten. He determined to do something about it. He's made arrangements to replace all the old, soft limestone markers with granite ones but with the same information on each ... No changes. A picket fence went up with a flag pole. Stone benches and maintenance to again make it a pretty, quiet place for introspection. Retired, Mr. Havener has spent over $40,000 on the project his own funds. There's someone who has taken the opportunity to do something that needed doing a community contribution if ever there was one. Might we all do something, too. It needn't be such a big contribution but a thoughtful deed for someone, a kind word but especially gratefulness, thankfulness for the many advantages around us.

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