One of Fairbury's colorful early citizens was Parker W. Dresser, Jr.
The story of the Dresser family began with the birth of Parker W. Dresser Sr. in New York in 1799. Mr. Dresser married Lydia Cronkhite in 1818 in New York. Parker Dresser Sr. and Lydia had eight children.
One of these eight children was Parker Dresser Jr., born in 1825 in Pamelia, New York. By the 1840 U.S. Census, the family had moved to Hillsdale County, Michigan. The youngest child of Parker and Lydia Dresser was Solomon Robert Dresser. He was born in 1842 in Michigan. Solomon Dresser invented several oil field drilling tools and started the S. R. Dresser Manufacturing Company. Solomon also was elected to the U.S. Congress as a Representative in 1903 and 1905.
In the 1850 Census, Parker Dresser Sr. was still living in Michigan. Parker Dresser Jr. was 24 years old and lived in Lafayette, Indiana. It is not clear from the Census what the occupation of the younger Mr. Dresser was.
In 1850, Congress passed the Script Act. This law granted free farmland primarily to veterans of the War of 1812. Many of these veterans sold their land grants on the open market for about 30 cents an acre, well below the official government price of $2.50 per acre. An early settler who wanted to move to Central Illinois could buy land for only 30 cents an acre if he purchased a land grant from a military veteran.
This new law set off a boom in the number of farmers who settled in Central Illinois. Most of the land in Central Illinois was purchased between 1853 and 1859 when the free land grants ended. Many land speculators entered the land investment business in that era.
Although the primary residence of Parker Dresser Jr. was in Lafayette, he became a significant figure in Central Illinois land transactions. The land office for Central Illinois was in Danville. An Iroquois County history book noted that Parker Dresser Jr. was well known for his real estate business focused at the Danville land office. According to federal land purchase records, Parker Dresser Jr. was involved with over 100 Central Illinois real estate transactions.
In the 1860 Census, Parker Dresser Jr. was 35 years of age and officially lived in Lafayette, Indiana. Mr. Dresser listed his occupation as a farmer and owned $10,000 in real estate and $3,000 in his personal estate. His $13,000 net worth in 1860 would equal $406,000 in today's dollars. Mr. Dresser must have been a very successful farmland real estate businessman.
In 1861, at the age of 36, Parker Dresser Jr. married 21-year-old Columbia P. Noyes in Lafayette. She was the daughter of a preacher and taught school before her marriage. Newspapers recounted that she was an accomplished and refined woman. Parker and Columbia had five children.
In the 1850s, Parker Dresser Jr. purchased land in the Fairbury area. He built a large wooden grain warehouse in what is now SunkenPark on the east end of Locust Street. Unfortunately, in 1868, Fairbury experienced the first of many fires. This first fire destroyed the warehouse of Parker Dresser Jr. He later rebuilt the warehouse and conducted a Fairbury business until he died in 1901.
In the 1870 Census, the Parker Dresser Jr. family had moved from Layfayette to Chicago. Mr. Dresser listed his occupation as a real estate dealer. On the Census, he reported owning real estate worth $50,000 and personal holdings of $10,000. This wealth would be equivalent to $1.33 million in today's dollars. In an 1870 Chicago business directory, he gave the address of his firm as 100 Washington Street in Chicago.
In 1877, Mr. Dresser was 52 years of age, and his wife Columbia was 37 years of age. Mrs. Dresser filed for divorce and claimed that Mr. Dresser was cruel to her and suffered from drunkenness. She noted that he owned over $10,000 worth of land in Illinois and Iowa. She asked that part of the profits from these landholdings be used to pay her alimony. Mrs. Dresser also asked for custody of their five children.
In early 1888, a nasty four-day-long divorce case was conducted in a Chicago court. Court testimony revealed that Mr. Dresser had been unfaithful to his wife early in their marriage. For the children's good, Mrs. Dresser continued living with her husband. She then sought advice from her old friend Professor McChesney using a written letter. Her first letter turned into a series of letters to the Professor.
Mr. Dresser found a new partially written letter to the Professor. He confronted Mrs. Dresser with a revolver in one hand and choked her with the other hand until she admitted the Professor was the recipient of her letter. Mrs. Dresser agreed to stop the letters to the Professor.
Mr. Dresser forced his wife to recreate her previous letters to the Professor. To embarrass his wife, he read these letters in the presence of her and their children. When Mrs. Dresser tried to grab the letters, Mr. Dresser knocked her unconscious. Judge Moore granted the divorce to Mrs. Dresser.
After the divorce, Mrs. Dresser and her children lived in Chicago. She died at the age of 50 in 1890. She was buried with her parents in Lafayette.
Mr. Dresser lived in Fairbury after the divorce. In 1888, Mr. Dresser got into an altercation in Fairbury with a man over a $10 debt and beat the man. Constable Hanna could not arrest him because he barricaded himself in his building. Mr. Dresser finally surrendered the next day and was fined $10.
Parker Dresser Jr. died in 1901 at the age of 75. He was buried in Michigan with his parents. Mr. Dresser was one of Illinois's most active farmland dealers and one of Fairbury's first businessmen.
(Dale Maley's local history article is sponsored each Monday by Dr. Charlene Aaron)
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