PIONEER HUNTERS OF rHE KANKAKEE 

 build the mill and to put up a house for the mill 

 boss and his men to live in. The house was 

 built of white oak throughout except the floor 

 and that was of white ash. The building is six- 

 teen by thirty-four feet, one story, and is box 

 sided with one by twelve inch white oak siding. 

 The house has never been painted and is in 

 good condition and in use at this writing. 1920. 

 Several years ago there was a lean-to built on 

 the east side of the house and in this building is 

 where 1 spent ten years of rny boyhood days. 

 The mill business was good. In the winter 

 when the swamps were frozen up thousands of 

 logs were brought to the mill and sawed into 

 lumber. But getting the lumber off the island 

 was somewhat of a task as there were only cer- 

 tain times of the year that it could be hauled 

 out to the dry land. In 1868 John Bissell and 

 Ira Cornell, two of the heaviest stockholders in 

 th« 1. 1. 5. A. Company, built and put on the 

 river a steamer, The White Star, for the purpose 

 of transporting lumber and Gord wood do\A'n lo 



135 



