A visiting correspondent for the Chicago Tribune describes Sandwich only a few years after the town appeared on the prairie.
In March of 1860, a correspondent for the Chicago Tribune spent several days in Sandwich and the surrounding countryside. His observations, published on March 21 of that year, provide a remarkable glimpse of the young community just as it was beginning to take shape on the Illinois prairie.
At the time, Sandwich was still considered a very new town. The writer noted that only five years earlier the site had been little more than open prairie. The arrival of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad quickly changed that. Residents of nearby Newark successfully petitioned the railroad company for a station, and a growing settlement soon developed along the line.
By 1860 the town had already grown to nearly fifteen hundred residents. The correspondent reported that Sandwich contained about twenty stores, two hotels, and four churches. Most of the citizens, he observed, had come from the eastern states.
One detail that especially impressed the visitor was the character of the town itself. He wrote that the settlers had constructed homes of better quality than were often found in new western communities, and the streets were equipped with broad plank sidewalks. The residents had also begun planting shade trees throughout the town.
“They show much taste and a love for the beautiful in planting shade trees, which in a few years will give Sandwich the appearance of a New England village.”
The surrounding countryside appeared equally prosperous. Farmers were busy putting in their spring wheat and were optimistic about the coming season.
The writer concluded that Sandwich was an unusually attractive community for such a young town. If he were choosing a place to settle in Illinois, he remarked, it would be difficult to find a more appealing location.
The article also hints at the political mood of the community in early 1860. Many local residents, the correspondent noted, were strong Republicans preparing for the upcoming national convention in Chicago. Their hope was that their own Illinois candidate—Abraham Lincoln—might secure a place on the national ticket.
Today the article stands as one of the earliest outside descriptions of Sandwich: a small but confident prairie town, newly connected by railroad, proud of its homes and streets, and already looking toward a promising future.
Source
Chicago Tribune, March 21, 1860.