History of Aurora, Illinois, USA

Aurora, a thriving post-village of Kane county, Illinois, on Fox river, and on the Chicago and Aurora railroad, 43 miles W. by S. from Chicago, is rapidly increasing in business and population. The river affords a fine water-power, which is extensively employed.

CITY OF AURORA.

Within the bounds of the above described Congressional Township there has arisen, within forty three years, a city which, while it exceeds in size all the others along the banks of Fox River, is surpassed by none of them in the beauty of its location.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.
On the 25th of November, 1833, Joseph McCarty, a millwright, living in Chemung County, near Elmira, N. Y., left his home, in company with a single companion, one Jeffry tBeardslee, to seek his fortune in the West. Unlike so many others who have left Eastern homes with a similar object in view, he had mapped out a definite course before starting, and decided upon the exact spot where he designed to locate. Proceeding across the country to the head waters of the Alleghany, where a sufficient stop was made to construct a "dug out" of suitable dimensions to convey two passengers and a small chest of tools down the river, the young men launched their rude craft, and floated leisurely toward the mouth...

Aurora, a city of Kane co., Ill., in Aurora township, on Fox River, and on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Rail road at its junction with the Chicago & Iowa Railroad, 39 miles W.S.W. of Chicago, 160 miles E.S.E. of Dubuque, and 44 miles N.E. of Ottawa. It is the N.E. terminus of a railroad called the Fox River Line, and a branch railroad extends to this place from Turner. It has increased rapidly in the last decade. It contains 2 high and 9 public schools, Jennings Seminary (for both sexes), a fine city hall, 20 churches, 5 national banks, and printing-offices which issue 5 daily, 1 semi-weekly and 3 weekly newspapers, stove works, iron-works, a cotton-factory, a road-cart factory, a foundry, smelting and refining works, several machine shops, 4 flouring-mills, a woollen-mill, a manufactory of silverware, 4 manufactories of carriages, and 3 of sash and blinds. Here are workshops of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, which employ over 1200 men making cars, &c. It has a...

Aurora, Ill., Aug. 16. - A passenger train on the Northwestern road ran through an open switch here this evening, crashing into a car loaded with carboys of acid. The fluid scattered in every direction adding to the deadly work done by the collision.

The killed are:
THOMAS ROSH, Aurora.

The injured were:
Fred Robinson, Aurora, badly burned by acid
Arthur Robinson, Aurora, frightfully burned
Mrs. Nancy Smith, Chicago, nose broken
Conductor Charlson, Aurora, back injured
Brakeman William Farrell, Aurora, back injured and cut about the head
J. Munch, Aurora, burned about the body.

The accident occurred in the Aurora yards, one mile from the depot. Seven boys were playing on a car when the train, running at full speed, swung onto the siding. There was no chance to escape. Two met death, while the others were more or less burned.

In an address at the chautauqua at Aurora, Ill., Senator DuBois, of Idaho, urged his hearers to use their influence with the Illinois representatives in congress to secure and amendment of the constitution under which the federal government will have power to deal with unlawful cohabitation and polygamy and thus check the spreading of political power of the Mormon church.

Aurora, a city of Kane co., Ill., on the Fox River and on tho Chicago, Burlington and Quincy and other railroads, 39 miles WSW. of Chicago. It is an important commercial and manufacturing centre, and contains several stove- and iron-works, cotton-factories, smelting and refining works, machine-shops, flour- and woollen-mills, and manufactories of carriages, silverware, sash and blinds. Here are extensive railway car-shops, etc. Aurora claims to have been the earliest city of the United States to light its streets by electricity (1881). Pop. in 1890, 19,688; in 1900, 24,147.