Water Tower at Paw Paw, IL - Water Towers on Waymarking.com

This water tower is prominently displayed on the small brochure, entitled Towering Above the Rest, for the town of Paw Paw. Paw Paw is near the divide between the Rock River water shed (to the north and west) and the Illinois River water shed (to the south and east).

The town grows by small surges as folks from the far western Chicago suburbs decide that they would like to leave the hub-bub and move to the country. But then they find that Paw Paw is over 22 miles from any shopping (Mendota, Rochelle, DeKalb or Sandwich), and they move on. In spite of that, many stay, and many houses have been added to Paw Paw since this poster moved to the area in 1990 (only to have to leave on a job change). (At any given time, at least half of the homes in the newer areas are up for sale!)

At one time there were three Paw Paws in this area: East Paw Paw in far southwestern DeKalb County; Paw Paw (now known as South Paw Paw), and Paw Paw Grove -- both in Lee County. When the railroad came through the latter in the 1870s, many folks moved to it, and they even brought some of the buildings. The word Grove was dropped from the name, necessitating a change to the original Paw Paw to be called South Paw Paw. It is hard to imagine that there used to be a seminary at East Paw Paw. Now all that is there is a cemetery and a few houses.

There is an irony here. Both DeKalb County and Lee County wanted to call the area Paw Paw Township, but they both agreed that that could cause confusion, being in two different counties. So they drew straws or flipped for it or something. DeKalb County won the toss and ended up with Paw Paw Township. At least it has the name. The folks from the Lee County side were stuck for a name. Many of them had come from the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania; so they decided to name the township Wyoming.

A lot of history of this area can be gleaned from historian Frank E. Stevens (edited by A. C. Bardwell) for Wyoming Township and Willow Creek Township just north of Wyoming Township. One might also learn a lot about day-to-day existence in this area during the 19th and early 20th century from bachelor farmer David Smith in his Recollections of David Smith, having come to this area with his family when he was 6 years old in 1837. His mother's brother, John Colville, emigrated with them, becoming a well-known businessman in Paw Paw (Grove). The aforementioned Frank E. Stevens has a nice biography of David Smith in 1914 -- nine years before Smith died.

Can you tell that this poster learned a bit of the local history in the 13 years that he lived here?

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Date Logged Log User Rating   07/03/2014 MountainWoods visited it