A FINE SCOTCH FAMILY 



"George Wilfrid and Vivian are keeping house across the 

 road." Mrs. Tullock, Margery, George Wilfrid, Vivien and 

 George F. — Mary Lou lives in Oklahoma. , . 



THE TULLOCK HOMESTEAD 

 Nearly 100 years old. "It was to have been used for a tavern.' 



The TuUocks of 

 Winnebago County 



OVfl — INNEBAGO county is rich 

 ^^y 1/ agriculturally and rich in the 

 J J traditions of the early Middle 

 West. Its history is replete with stories 

 of hardy pioneers who came from New 

 England, the Middle Atlantic states, and 

 from Europe to carve new homes out of 

 the fertile prairies of northern Illinois. 



The Erie Canal and Great Lakes to 

 Chicago was the favorite route of set- 

 tlers coming by sailboat from New York. 

 But from Chicago west a hundred years 

 ago, it was a stage coach or ox team trip. 

 Such was the route taken in 1839 by 

 George Tullock a young lad from Banff- 

 shire, Scotland, one of a band of thrifty, 

 courageous, Calvinist Scotch who settled 

 approximately 100 square miles of the 

 choicest land about Rockford. 



The diary and account of the eight 

 weeks trip from Scotland by sailboat to 

 New York, then up the Hudson, through 

 the Erie Canal to Buffalo, and on by way 

 of the Great lakes to Chicago, is a 

 . prized possession of the Tullock family. 



"We arrived in Chicago on the thir- 

 teenth day of September 1839," the 

 senior Tullock wrote of his trip. "Chi- 

 cago was then only a little village with 

 a few stores on the lower end of Lake 

 and Water Streets. Randolph Street was 

 only a swamp with a few tufts of slough- 

 grass growing up through the water with 



a wagon shop and two blacksmith shops. 

 In the spring and fall the streets were 

 literally impassable." 



After working about Chicago for sev- 

 eral years, young Tullock writes, "I made 

 up my mind to go out to the lead mines 

 at Galena where there was some money 

 to be had. I went to Chicago (from 

 Lockport) and found a teamster going 

 to Galena, agreed to pay him three dol- 

 lars when I got there." They travelled 

 only ten miles that day. The roads were 

 so bad and travel by wagon so slow that 

 he took his kit of cobblers tools and 

 started out on foot. "I got to Belvidere 

 the second night and to Rockford the 

 next day by noon. When I came to the 

 top of the hill above Rockford and 

 looked down on the neat little village 

 with the clear blue river running rapidly 

 past, I thought that if I got anything to 

 do here, why not stay here." 



So at Rockford young Tullock stayed. 

 First he cobbled shoes, a trade he had 

 learned in Scotland. Then came the 

 desire for a home and land. Going to 

 the land office at Dixon he "entered the 

 40 acres described and filed my intention 

 on 160 acres more and came home a 

 landed proprietor." 



It was silo filling time on the Tullock 

 farm when Farm adviser Chas. H. Kelt- 

 ner and I stopped early in October. Tall 



stately elm, oak and maple trees border 

 the road. They provided a beautiful and 

 dignified setting for a grand old Colonial 

 home placed well bade from the high- 

 way with a neat, well kept lawn between. 



The master of the house, George F. 

 Tullock son of the George Tullock who 

 came as a boy from Scotland greeted us 

 in his work clothes, hale, hearty and 

 vigorous beyond his years. Born on this 

 farm in 1864, the year after his father 

 acquired it, Mr. Tullock has given his 

 life toward its development. His native 

 thrift, industry, and Scotch canniness 

 coupled with the help of a loyal wife and 

 family, have increased the farm to 500 

 acres. Part of the land was cleared and 

 today more than a third of it is fine blue 

 grass pasture and timberland watered by 

 a spring-fed creek flowing along rugged 

 limestone bluffs. 



But to get back to the old early Amer- 

 ican house. It is one of the interesting 

 spots on the Tullock farm. Its thick 

 sturdy hand-hewn oak sills, now nearly 

 100 years old, give it something of the 

 character of its present owner. 



"This house was built about 95 years 

 ago," Mr. Tullock said. "The founda- 

 tion lumber was cut here out of the 

 woods and hewed by hand. The sawed 

 lumber was hauled by ox team from Chi- 

 cago. The original eves were walnut but 



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L A. A. RECORD 



