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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY,
highly regarded. To meet the demands of his growing business in 1890 he completed the Strauss Block, one of the principal business buildings of Elgin. He maintained a high standing in the Masonic fraternity. On March 29, 1882, he married Bertha Adler, who was a daughter of Leopold and Rose Adler, and to them were born two children: Edgar Leon and Louis Saran. Mr. Strauss died Sept. 16, 1902.
GEORGE STRICKLAND (deceased), pioneer settler, Aurora, Kane County, Ill., born in Widmore, near Bristol, England, in 1816; came to the United States when a boy fourteen years of age, and was apprenticed to the wagon-makers' trade at Skeneateles, N. Y.; in 1835 came west, locating first in Chicago, and, in 1838, removed to Aurora, where, for a time, he was engaged in the wagon-making business as a junior member of the firm of Hall & Strickland. Later he became connected with George McCoIlum, the pioneer wagon-maker of Aurora, remaining in his employ for many years. In 1857 Mr. Strickland removed to Iowa and settled on a farm in Chickasaw County, where he died in 1860. His wife, whose maiden name was Olive Sheldon, died at their Iowa home in 1883.
SUGAR GROVE MANUAL AND TRAINING SCHOOL, an educational institution founded by Prof. F. H. Hall, Thomas Judah, L. H. Gillett, Mrs. Ruth Snow, and others, in 1875, for the purpose of training students in the elements of agriculture, teaching, practical work in the various departments of the school, and to fit them for similar work in other schools. Prof. Hall, an educator of note and author of several valuable text-books, was its principal for eleven years, leaving it well established in 1887. Miss M. E. Petty, now Mrs. Frank Snow, of Sugar Grove, conducted it for several years, and, in 1899, Prof. E. M. Harris, of Aurora, became its head. Under his management it has gained in every way, especially as a fitting school for college and university life, its students being freely admitted to the higher institutions upon his recommendation. Prof. Harris has introduced a business school, which is receiving much patronage. The school has a library of 500 volumes.
DAVID W. SUTFIN, farmer, Dundee Township, Kane County, Ill.; born at Tully, Onondaga County, N. Y., Aug. 29, 1836; came with his parents to Dundee in 1837, where he grew up and obtained his education in the public schools; served from September, 1861, to April, 1862, in the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War, being discharged on the latter date on account of disability. Mr. Sutfin was married in 1863 to Isabella Grant.
WILLIAM SUTFIN, pioneer settler, Batavia, Ill., born at Northumberland, Saratoga County, N. Y.; obtained a limited common-school education, and came to Dundee, Ill., in 1837, removing with his family to Batavia in 1838. He was a millwright by trade, and was one of the pioneer mill-builders of the Fox River Valley. Mr. Sutfin was twice married, his first union being with Lucy Ann Wilson in 1829, and after her death, Abigail D. Wescott, of Naperville, Ill., became his wife. He died at Dundee in 1896.
EDGAR D. SWAIN, dentist, Batavia, Ill., born in Westford, Vt., Aug. 14, 1836, son of Dr. Marcus and Charlotte (Woodbury) Swain, descends on his father's side from Richard Swain, who came from England in 1635, and settled at Hampton, N. H., and on the maternal side from the family which gave to the United States Levi Woodbury, the distinguished jurist and statesman. Edgar D. Swain received a public school and academic education in Vermont, and studied dentistry at Saratoga Springs, N. Y. In 1857 he went to Oshkosh, Wis., where he practiced dentistry for about a year, when he removed to Aurora, Ill., spending there a short time before opening his office in Batavia. Soon after the breaking out of the Civil War he raised a company for service, which became Company I, Forty-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, being mustered in Sept. 17, 1861, with him as Captain. On September 21 the regiment went to Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Mo., and participated during that fall in the campaigns under Generals Fremont and Hunter, and during the winter of 1861-2 was transferred to the Army of the Mississippi, and the following summer to the Army of the Cumberland. Captain Swain was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel Oct. 10, 1863, and April 13, 1864, was commissioned Colonel, though he was never mustered in as such. He was in command of the regiment from November, 1863,
