The Little Yellow Hanly Mill

We were asked by the McHenry Landmark Commission to make a case for the designation of the little Hanly Mill as a designated landmark based on their criteria.  Below is the presentation.

Photo courtesy of Elaine Graf

 

The Little Hanly Mill
By Pamela Kellogg

Introduction

History is a giant rabbit hole, an infrastructure that runs through time and space. Like the roads
spanning our beautiful country, the intersections connect people with events and those people
connect with others who left their footprints on the pages of our nation’s history.
Many names and events inevitably come to the foreground while searching through documents
regarding our ancestors and early pioneers.

These names represent just a few of the brave souls who made their way mostly on foot or by
horse and wagon through the wilderness of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana to
Chicago and from there, north on the old Illinois Indian trails to the prairies of what is now
McHenry County.

Names like Barnum, Owen, Bishop, Gage, Boone, McCollom, McOmber, Sherman and Hanly.
They were just some of the people, who during their lifetime, helped to make McHenry Illinois
what we experience today.

These are the old settlers that once walked our dusty, dirt roads, farmed what are now our
subdivisions, set up our business districts, built our landmarks and laid the foundation for our
city.

They are not, however, the only names that come to the foreground of our history. The
ancestors of our early settlers were in many cases, those that fought for the independence of
our nation, signed our most important documents and battled to keep our union together.

My Mission

My mission in this presentation is to make a case for how important the little Hanly Mill is to
McHenry and our history. How it represents the lifetime of a humble farmer named Alexander
Hamilton Hanly and his contributions to our city, many of which are long gone or forgotten.

We will journey back in time to when McHenry was nothing but prairie land and timber. We will
meet other pioneers along the way, learn what they contributed to McHenry and we will see
how a simple little brick mill connects McHenry and her past with some of our nation’s founding
fathers.

McHenry Had Three Mills

At one time, McHenry had three mills. In the Fall of 1837, A. S. Barnum, an early surveyor of
McHenry County, was settled just south of Boone Creek on what we now know as Green Street.
Shortly thereafter, John McOmber settled near the Barnum home.

John McOmber is best known for building McHenry’s first framed structure. Once called,
“Buch’s Place” today we know it as The Old Bridge Tavern. Among other structures in McHenry,
he built the Universalist Church, still standing today on Court Street and now the home of the
McHenry Masonic Lodge. The Universalist Church sits on the location of what was once
McHenry’s very first schoolhouse.

Prior to those events, Barnum and McOmber entered into a contract to build a sawmill. It was
completed and then the claim was purchased by Herman Owen and James Salisbury who
added the dam and then ran the mill.

It was located on Green Street just south of Boone Creek and it was the first sawmill in McHenry
County.

The Village Of McHenry started to grow once the sawmill was completed. Sadly an accident at
the sawmill in 1838 caused the death of James Salisbury. It was one of the first deaths in the
new village.

In 1851, Herman Owen and his brothers built the first gristmill in McHenry. The Owen Brother’s
mill, a wood structure, was located north of Boone Creek where the Green Street Cafe sits
today. They also ran a general store at that location.

In 1872, after the death of Herman Owen the property was sold to Richard Bishop. Mr. Bishop
ran the mill under the name Fox River Valley Mills. Along with operating the mills and the
general store, he added a wagon shop and pickle factory.

Richard Bishop passed away in June of 1895. Stephen Reynolds then ran the mill until 1908.
By that time, McHenry’s first gristmill was in a state of disrepair. The property, which included
the Mill Pond, was purchased by the Borden Company.

In 1911, John W. Bonslett owned the property and the grist mill was razed in June of that year.
The mill pond was drained in 1929.

McHenry’s Last Standing Mill

The third and only standing mill in McHenry today is located at Crystal Lake Road and Mill
Street. Started in 1869 and completed in 1870 by Alexander Hamilton Hanly and his sons, it
was then known as the McHenry Brick Mill and Champion Brick Yard.

The yellow bricks for the mill, as well as for his home, were made by Alexander himself from a
clay pit on his farm once located near the intersection of Crystal Lake Road and Lillian Street.
Considered Colonial in style, the little mill is three stories high with a basement. The original
brickyard was near the family farm but was moved to the back of the mill building where the
parking lot off of Mill Street is located today.

It is probably safe to assume that some of McHenry’s brick structures were made of yellow
bricks from the Champion Brick Yard.

And according to the McHenry Plaindealer, farmers came from all over McHenry and Lake
Counties to have their harvests processed at the Hanly grist mill.

West McHenry

As more pioneers came to McHenry, they settled along the banks of the Fox River near Elm and
Water Street, now called Riverside Drive. It was referred to as “Old Town”.
With the mills and general store operating on Green Street, that area grew and became known
as “Centerville”.

Born in 1813 in New York, George Gage came to Illinois in 1835 and settled on the southern
bank of what we know now as Gage’s Lake in Lake County.

In 1847, George came to McHenry and purchased the property on the northwest corner of
Crystal Lake Road and Bull Valley Road. This property was once known as the Chester
Clemens farm. Eventually, George Gage's daughter, Georgianna married Homer Clemens,
Chester’s son and they took over the farm. The Clemens Schoolhouse once stood on this
property and later, it became the Amos Whiting farm.

Eventually, George Gage bought up the property in the Main Street area so for a time, it was
referred to as Gagetown. Later it became known as West McHenry.

George Gage represented McHenry County as a state senator from 1845 - 1858. He was very
instrumental in bringing the railroad to McHenry in the year 1854.

The Railroad

Once the railroad arrived, doors of opportunity were opened for McHenry. It wasn't long before
the lots on Main Street and the surrounding neighborhood were purchased and homes were
being built. In 1855, George Gage built his home on Main Street which still stands today.

In 1858 he built a hotel called the Gage House, later known as the Parker House which burned
down in 1890. In 1859, a new Methodist Church was built on Main Street replacing the original
Methodist Church which once sat at the northwest corner of Elm and Green streets. Around
1860 what we refer to as the Counts House was built.

Main Street's business district grew to meet the needs of the neighborhood. Merchants included
a lumber yard, a blacksmith, a general store, a furniture store, a shoemaker, a harness
manufacturer, a milliner, saloons, a butter & cheese factory and of course, a grist mill and brick
yard. McHenry also had stock yards in that area due to the location of the depot.

West McHenry continued to grow and later, after Alexander Hanly passed away, which occurred
in January of 1891, the Hanly brothers built a canning factory located on the northeast corner of
Crystal Lake Road and Main Street.

While the foundation was being formed, a terrible explosion occurred due to the use of dynamite
which killed three men and injured seven others. The year was 1906, not long after the Hanly
boys sold the mill to John Spencer.

The canning factory was eventually completed and ran until 1918 when it became the property
of the lumber yard.

Ancestry of Alexander Hanly and Susan Sherman

Alexander Hamilton Hanly was born in Olean, New York in the year 1816 to Ebenezer Hanly
and Hannah Reynolds, the daughter of a preacher.

In the early 1800’s, the village of Olean was referred to as the town of Hamilton due to a
friendship between the town's surveyor and the signer of our nation’s Constitution. Alexander
Hamilton was a frequent visitor to the town so it is safe to assume that our pioneer was named
after him.

Ebenezer Hanly, a farmer living with his wife and child in Ohio by this time, died when Alexander
was only a year old. Alexander was then raised in the home of his paternal grandfather Samual
Hanly, his grandmother Catherine Mead and their twelve children in Hector, New York. This is
most likely where Alexander learned his farming and brick making skills.

Samuel Hanly was the son of Captain Samuel Hanly who served in the Revolutionary War. For
his services in the army, he received 500 acres of government land. After the war he farmed his
property and grew fruit trees.

In 1837, at the age of 20, and without any capital, Mr. Hanly came west to Illinois and made his
way to McHenry where he first settled on the banks of the Fox River.

His early life in McHenry was spent breaking land in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. It
is said he used as many as seven yoke of oxen to plow through the prairie. What he was doing
was getting the land ready for other farmers to build their homes and plant their fields.

According to records at the Illinois State Archives, Mr. Hanly, starting in 1840 and at the
price of $1.25 per acre, purchased his farmland a few acres at a time until he owned one of the
largest farms in northern Illinois.

Alexander Hanly married Susan Sherman, in 1841. Her parents, Benson and Wealthy Sherman
came to McHenry from New York in 1838 and purchased the land on Route 120 just west of
Ringwood Road. These are the Sherman’s of what some of us still call, “Sherman Hill”.

Benson Sherman served in the War of 1812. His father, Samual Sherman served in the
Revolutionary War as one of George Washington’s Life Guards.

Samuel, his son Benson and of course, Benson’s daughter Susan, Alexander's wife, were
descendants of the Shermans of Yaxley, the first five Sherman brothers and cousins that came
to America in the 1630’s.

Other descendants of this Sherman line include Connecticut Senator Roger Sherman, one of
our nation’s founding fathers and the only person to sign all four great state papers of the United
States: The Continental Association, The Declaration Of Independence, The Articles Of
Confederation and The Constitution.

General William Tecumsah Sherman is another descendant of the Shermans of Yaxley and a
cousin, several times removed from Senator Roger Sherman.

General Sherman was a cousin to our Shermans of McHenry. Because of this fact, a street off
of Curren Road was named Tecumsah. That street is located on what was once the old
Sherman Farm.

Born and raised in New York where she was professionally educated, Susan Sherman worked
as a teacher, educating the local McHenry children in the Sherman Schoolhouse on her father’s
farm.

One of her students was Samantha McCollom, daughter of William McCollom who came with
his wife, children and other family members and settled on the property west of the lake that
eventually became the Sherman Farm. When the McColloms first settled, there was still a small
Indian village in that area.

From the marriage of Alexander and Susan came five children, the first, a girl named Emma,
who died in infancy and is buried in the Ostend Cemetery near the old Sherman farm. Then
came the four boys, Samual, George, John and Daniel. The Hanly brothers were all well
educated, one being a graduate of the Todd School in Woodstock.

The Hanly boys worked the farm with their father helping to run the many family businesses,
including the large and very successful dairy business which shipped milk to Chicago on the
train. Also on the farm, the Hanly’s raised and sold livestock including Morgan Horses, cattle
and sheep. They also ran an ice business.

In 1874 a Pickle and Vinegar Factory was built on the east side of the railroad tracks north of
the Wilber Lumber Company and south of the Owen brother’s millpond. Mr. Hanly was an
officer with the McHenry Pickle Works Company.

For many years, Mr. Hanly was a school director here in McHenry, having a strong interest in
public education probably due to his wife being a teacher. He was on the Executive Committee
of the McHenry County Agricultural Society as well as a member of the Old Settler’s Club. He
was a founding member of the Universalist Church here in McHenry of which he and his wife
were very active.

Judging by my many years of research, Alexander Hanly seemed to be an active man of a
tolerant nature. Not one to toot his own horn, he spent his time contributing to the community
rather than talking about it.

Unlike some of our other early settlers, history has not given Mr. Hanly the credit he deserves
for the contributions he made to our city. His death was barely mentioned in the local
newspaper and his accomplishments are minimally noted in history books.

The Hanly Mill Today

Today, the landscape around the little mill has changed quite a bit. What was once the 800
acre Hanly farm, a prosperous dairy and livestock business is gone, given way to a high school,
a post office and several subdivisions.

The beautiful Colonial style yellow brick home built by Alexander Hanly was lost to fire in 1975.
The canning factory no longer exists and the last of the Hanly descendants passed away in
1993.

The Hanly Millpond is thankfully still here, attracting ducks, geese and other wildlife for those of
us who are fortunate to live nearby. Sadly, most residents living near the pond are probably
clueless as to what it once was.

The little mill however, despite all the additions and the other structures around it, remains
almost untouched by time. It has stood as a cornerstone in West McHenry since 1870, built by
the hands of one of our very first pioneers.

Renovated but kept as original as possible and updated to meet current building codes by Jim
Althoff it is McHenry’s only surviving mill and the last standing monument representing the
legacy of Alexander Hanly, his wife Susan Sherman, his four sons and many of our city’s early
residents who undoubtedly walked the floors of that mill many times.

Conclusion

In closing this presentation, I hope I've shown the many contributions made to our city by
Alexander Hamilton Hanly. We, the people of McHenry today, are still connected to the people
of our city’s early history. And through their ancestors, we are connected to some of the people
who fought for our country and founded our nation.

My former husband, a Ford Certified technician, used to tell me that with cars, there are no
independent systems. Everything is connected and each component works simultaneously with
the others.

That is true of history as well. We are all connected and work together whether we are aware of
it or not. Past, present and future, held together by the presence of a 152 year old, little yellow
brick mill.

Sources:

 
The 1885 McHenry County History Book
The McHenry County 1832 - 1968 History Book
McHenry 1836 - 1986 Sesquicentennial Book
Historical Encyclopedia Of Illinois Volume 2 McHenry County
1872 McHenry County Atlas
The McHenry Plaindealer
The Woodstock Sentinel
The Crystal Lake Herald
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for McHenry, Illinois
Illinois State Archives
Ancestry.com
Find A Grave
Wikipedia