My Genealogy Hound

CHITTENDEN, COL. JOHN B. (deceased), the founder of the village of Mendon, and one of the early settlers of Adams county, was born at Guilford, Conn., Jan. 16, 1790, and was the fourth of seven children of Deacon Abraham Chittenden, of that place, His early life was spent chiefly in agricultural pursuits in his native place.

At an early age he became an active member of the Congregational church of Guilford, and in his twenty-first year was chosen deacon, which office he continually held until he removed to the valley of the Mississippi, in the fall of 1831. He intermarried with Eliza Robinson, daughter of Col. Samuel Robinson, of Guilford, on the 12th day of January, 1814, by whom was born to him seven children, three of whom are now living. In September, 1831, with his wife and their four boys in a two-horse covered wagon, he started for Illinois, Quincy being his objective point, and was joined by Mr. Samuel Bradley and family, and others, at East Haven, Conn., making, in all, an emigrant train of five wagons and thirty-six persons, all bound for the same destination. In this undertaking he had two distinct objects in view; first, to establish, strengthen, and extend, the Christian religion, by the organization of churches, Sunday-schools, Bible classes, etc.; second, to better provide for his family of boys in a new country.

After some three months of trials and hardships incident to such travel at that time, he found himself and family frozen in on the Mississippi river at “Scipeo,” near Hannibal, Mo., from whence, after waiting three weeks, a team was secured from Quincy; and finally the family arrived at Quincy in safety, by way of the river, on the ice, in December, 1831, where they were entertained the first night most hospitably by Governor John Wood, in his then log cabin residence under the bluff below town. Passing the residue of the winter of 1831-32 at Quincy, the subject of this sketch visited several portions of Adams county, with a view to location; and finally, March 2, 1832, purchased of Jacob Gorshong (an old French settler) the southwest of eleven, one north, eight west, near the present site of Mendon, which was then a trackless prairie. There was a field of about ten acres, and a log house, on the place bought of Gorshong, to which place he removed with his family immediately after purchase.

It was here that his daughter Sarah was born, April 19, 1832; and it was in this same log house that the Congregational church of Mendon was formed, the same being the first Congregational church organized in the State of Illinois.

In February, 1833, he purchased the northeast quarter of the same section eleven, and soon after laid out and platted the village of Mendon, building himself a house on lot thirteen, which he occupied three years. Subsequently he sold out all his interest in the village, and retired to his farm, ten miles north of Mendon, where he continued to live in comfort and ease, with pleasant surroundings, until the death of his excellent wife, on the 30th day of October, 1862. A passing notice of this most estimable woman is necessary here to this sketch. Mrs. Eliza Chittenden was a most exemplary lady, whose entire life was even and tranquil like a May morning. Her law was the law of kindness. She never allowed herself to speak an unkind word of anyone; was an earnest, sympathizing Christian, and was honored and beloved by all.

None knew her but to love her,
None named her but to praise.

The loss of such a wife in his declining years overwhelmed him with grief; and this bereavement was the chief cause of his rapid decline and death from nervous exhaustion in less than three months after the death of his wife. He had a clear and logical mind, was an able reasoner, and was a fluent and interesting public speaker; an earnest worker in all causes of reform, unselfish in everything, seeking always to promote the happiness of others. His faith in, and love for, the church was unbounded. He was an honest, upright man, and a sincere, consistent Christian. His last effort at articulation was to try to catch part of the air of Pleyels Hymn, a favorite piece of devotional music; and in a few moments he passed to his reward, Jan. 23, 1863, aged 73 years, there to receive the eulogistic commendation, “Well done, good and faithful servant: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”