During the COVID-19 epidemic, the hospitality industry took quite a hit, and that included the hotel industry.
These days, my hometown of Oswego has two hotels, an AmericInn and the Best Western Oswego, formerly the Holiday Inn Express.
Oddly enough, the village had three hotels in 1850, which was mostly a tribute to the fact that Oswego then was the Kendall County seat.
And in that regard, Oswego’s experience with settlement-era hotels mirrors that of many other small towns up and down the Fox River Valley.
When the Illinois General Assembly created Kendall County in February 1841, they delegated a three-member commission, John H. Harris of Tazewell County, Eli A. Rider of Cook County and William E. Armstrong of La Salle County, to determine the county seat’s location. The group picked Yorkville, then a tiny hamlet that was smaller than either its neighbor across the Fox River, Bristol, or Oswego up in the new county’s northeast corner.
The three-man county board of commissioners – elected April 5, 1841 – J. J. Cole, Levi Hills and Reuben Hunt, rented a house to serve as a temporary courthouse and started doing county business. But in 1845, Oswego residents decided it would be profitable to move the county seat up to their bustling village. Yorkville, they noted, wasn’t on any major roads, such as the western branch of the busy Chicago to Ottawa Trail bypassed Yorkville by about a mile. Meanwhile three major roads converged at Oswego, the Fox River Trail from Ottawa to Geneva, the western branch of the Chicago to Ottawa Trail, and the Joliet to Dixon leg of one of the southern road to Galena.
So a vote took place in summer 1845, and Oswego won, probably because at the time it was, by far, the largest town in the largest township in the county. Angry Yorkvillians claimed Oswegoans went up to Aurora and used whiskey to bribe Irishmen to come down and vote to move the county seat. It’s not unlikely they did.
However the result was obtained, the county seat indeed was moved to Oswego, and the first term of the circuit court was that same autumn in the stately National Hotel, right in the middle of Oswego’s busy downtown business district.
While there had been at least one other inn in town during the 1830s run by the wonderfully named Decolia Towle, the National was Oswego’s first and largest true hotel.
New York immigrant brothers Samuel and Thomas Hopkins built the National Hotel in 1842 on the east side of Main Street, right in the center of Oswego’s business district. The National, an elegant two-story Greek Revival building with imposing columns on the portico facing Main Street, was the first true hotel in Oswego although smaller taverns and inns like Towle’s had been built earlier. In August 1843, attorney Wright Murphy leased the National Hotel. William Briggs succeeded Murphy as manager of the National. According to the 1850 Census, 22 guests were staying at the hotel when Oswego residents were counted.
In 1853, Briggs completely remodeled the hotel adding several guest rooms and a 30-by 40-foot, two-story addition. Next door, the hotel owned a large limestone stable where guests’ horses could be fed and cared for.
In January 1856, French-Canadian immigrant Mathias Beaupre, former manager of another Oswego hotel, the Kendall House, replaced Briggs as manager of the National. Beaupre remained the landlord until June 1, 1862, when Moses J. Richards became the proprietor, and managed it until the National and all the other buildings on that side of Main Street were destroyed by fire Feb. 9, 1867. The only building saved was the National’s limestone stable.
Wright Murphy, the former National manager, built the Kendall House on Lots 1 and 4, Block 7, the southwest corner of Madison and Jackson streets. Murphy sold the hotel to Erasmus D. Bradley, who then leased it to Curtis M. Butler on Jan. 14, 1850. According to the 1850 census, 12 guests were staying at the hotel. Butler continued to operate Kendall House until March 1, 1853.
Mathias Beaupre was elected sheriff of Kendall County in 1852. Beginning March 1, 1853, in addition to his duties as sheriff, he assumed the management of Kendall House, and he and his wife moved into the hotel. Although Oswego was the county seat, it had no jail as yet, so when prisoners needed to be held on a short-term basis for minor offenses or for court appearances, Beaupre housed them in a second floor room. In July 1854, John C. Chapman became the proprietor of the Kendall House when the Beaupre family moved to DeKalb to run a hotel there.
In July 1880, the old hotel by then no longer housing guests, was bought by Henry Farley, who basically cut it in two and moved it apart to create two houses. Those two houses still stand at the southeast corner of Madison (Route 34) and Jackson streets, kitty-corner from the Oswego Post Office, making it the only hotel from the pioneer era still standing.
Oswego’s third hotel was the Smith House on South Main Street on the site of the now-defunct Dairy Barn. It’s possible the Smith House was operated by James Scott Jr. in 1850. The 1850 census reports Scott running a hotel on South Main with 11 paying guests. Eventually, Ezra Smith and his wife bought and moved to the building. Smith operated the hotel in addition to his primary occupation as a shoemaker and a drum maker. After Ezra Smith died, his wife, Mary “Caroline” (Stebbins) Smith, continued to operate the hotel and also became a major property owner in the downtown district. The old Smith House was demolished a few years ago as part of the project clearing property for new construction of the old Dairy Hut and Oswego Village Hall.
County residents voted to move the county seat back to Yorkville in 1859, but the move was delayed by the Civil War and didn’t take place until 1864. And with no courthouse business to rely on, that eliminated Oswego’s hotel businesses until the village’s modern growth spurts justified the return of hotels to the village.
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