Our History Beyond Our Borders
Celebrating Naperville’s History Outside of DuPage County
Lockport Pioneer Settlement
Among those who came west with Joseph Naper on the Telegraph were the Sisson, Lanfear, and Stevens families. They chose not to settle on the banks of the DuPage River, but moved on to a section of the Des Plaines River in Will County.
Hailing from Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut and other northeastern states, their corner of the county became known as Yankee Settlement. Within five years of the journey with Joe Naper, work to build the Illinois and Michigan Canal was begun. Although economic depression dragged the project out for twelve years, once the I & M Canal opened, it revolutionized commercial and passenger travel, much as the Erie Canal did for the East twenty years earlier.
The town of Lockport, named for its function on the canal, not only grew, but flourished as the canal progressed. Their downtown was grander than Naperville’s during the 1800’s, enriched by both the canal and the railroad. Many of those edifices still stand, as well as humbler buildings moved to and preserved in Lockport’s Pioneer Settlement Open Air Museum.
Among the buildings at the Settlement are a school house, jail, log house and train depot. Adjacent to the Settlement is the Canal Museum with the Canal Commissioners Office built in 1837. Holder Sisson, Selah Lanfear, and Orrin Stevens were no doubt quite familiar with the building, and the Napers probably visited as well. Since they were founded about the same time, it’s interesting to compare Lockport’s development to Naperville’s. Hitch up your horse and drive out to see for yourself.
Will County Historical Society
Pioneer Settlement
Illinois & Michigan Canal Museum
Hours: Noon to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday
$3 Adults; $2 Seniors, Students, Military; $1 Children ages 6-17
803 S. State Street, Lockport, Illinois
Our History Beyond Our Borders:
Celebrating Naperville and the Rest of DuPage County
by Kate Gingold
Our History Beyond Our Borders
Celebrating Naperville’s 175th in the rest of DuPage County
Boone County History
When Amy Naper and husband John Murray emigrated to Illinois, they were nearly a generation older than the rest of the pioneers. The Naper brothers, the Butterfields and many others were in their early thirties or younger, while John was 46. His daughter Sarah Ann staked out her own land with husband Henry Babbitt and baby Eunice.
John and Amy raised their younger children here. Son Robert Nelson lived most of his life in town, but daughter Ruth married a local boy whose family also had property in Boone County, Illinois where they relocated and flourished. If you drive west on I-90, you’ll pass under Shattuck Road, one of many places you’ll find their name.
John and Amy also raised grandson Byron in Naperville when his parents died. After Amy’s death, Harlyn and Ruth Murray Shattuck took Byron into their home. John also lived with them for a time, although he spent most of his last days with Robert Nelson.
Ruth Murray Shattuck is buried in Shattuck’s Grove Cemetery in Boone County, along with several of her children, her husband, and her husband’s second wife. It’s a small cemetery and won’t take long to look at, so include a trip into Belvidere to see the Boone County Historical Museum.
In addition to wonderful displays of toys, farm equipment and military memorabilia, they have a “street” of Victorian shops and an entire 160 year old log cabin indoors. Ruth and Harlyn may have lived in such a cabin, and certainly their parents’ generation did. You can just picture Amy and John companionably pulling up chairs to the fireplace.
Boone County Historical Museum
311 Whitney Blvd.
Belvidere, Illinois 61008
Phone: (815) 544-8391
Open Monday - Friday 9 to 4, Saturday 10 to 4
Admission charged
Shattuck’s Grove Cemetery
9060 Reed's Crossing Road
Spring Twp, Boone Co., IL
Charles Drewes, Sexton (815) 544-0564
Our History Beyond Our Borders
Celebrating Naperville’s 175th in the rest of DuPage:
County Sheldon Peck Portraits
Everyone knows the portrait of Joseph Naper, but what did the other original settlers look like? Photographs or paintings may exist, but they may be in private hands, unidentified or unconfirmed.
Joseph Naper’s sister, Amy, married John Murray in 1809, and together they helped settle Naperville. Her family hailed from Vermont, his from New York, but most likely they met in Ashtabula, Ohio, where John worked as a school teacher and Amy kept house for her brother Benjamin. Census records indicate, however, that after marrying, they may have also lived in New York before returning to Ashtabula.
A few years after the Murrays moved to Naper’s Settlement, Sheldon Peck brought his family to the area, homesteading in Babcock’s Grove, now known as Lombard. While a farmer, Peck was also an artist and during the winter, he traveled the countryside painting portraits. Photography wouldn’t become widely available until closer to the Civil War, so if a family could afford it, portrait paintings were the only way to preserve a person’s likeness.
Peck grew up in Vermont, spent his early married years there, and also lived in New York, painting all the while. Two of his portraits, thought to have been painted in New York around 1820, are titled “Mr. Murry” and “Mrs. Murry.” Art historians have not yet definitively identified the “Murrys,” but arguments for John and Amy certainly are suggestive!
Sheldon Peck’s home is the oldest house in Lombard and now a museum which includes some reproductions of his work. Reproductions only, as his paintings now fetch over $800,000 each in art auctions! While there, you can view “Mr. Murry” and “Mrs. Murry” and decide for yourself if you are looking into the eyes of two of Naperville’s pioneers.
Sheldon Peck Homestead
355 E. Parkside Avenue
Lombard, IL 60148
Open one day each week
Also by special appointment and for group tours
For more information, contact
Lombard Historical Society at (630) 629-1885
Our History Beyond Our Borders
Celebrating Naperville’s 175th in the rest of DuPage County:
Sacred Harp Singings
If Naperville’s anniversary celebrations whetted your interest in our local history, consider a jaunt to Geneva to attend a Sacred Harp Singing.
John Murray, the wife of Amy Naper and brother-in-law to Joseph and John, was also an original founder of our town, drawing up the subscription of the town’s first school in 1831. Murray was probably chosen for the task because he served as schoolmaster in Ashtabula, Ohio in 1809, teaching academics and music.
What sort of music Murray taught is not recorded, but history tells us that Shape Note Singing had been hugely popular in New England from the Revolution onward. Needing no instruments other than the voice and using a simple musical notation that identified each note with a different shape, Shape Note Singing perfectly suited frontier schools and churches where resources and literacy lagged.
One doesn’t “attend” a Singing, one sings! Seats are arranged facing each other in a hollow square. On one side sit basses, followed by altos, tenors and trebles. There is no audience, but a conductor leads from the center of the square.
As European influences spread across New England, Shape Note Singing settled in the southern states, where it is more prevalent today. Many groups, however, have revived this tradition across the country, and one such group gathers to sing twice a month in Geneva. They welcome new singers to share this unique, historic art form. While you’re singing, imagine John Murray leading the young Naper’s Settlement in song!
Singings Schedule:
First and Third Tuesdays of each month
From 7 – 9 pm
Unitarian Universalist Society
102 South Second Street
Geneva, Illinois
For more information on Sacred Harp Singing:
