Judd Family
The Judd Family has a long and distinguished history in shaping the Sugar Grove Community.
IRA JUDD
The Ira Judd home is located at 10 Winthrop New Road, Sugar Grove, Illinois 60554, in the area of the current Prestbury Subdivision in Sugar Grove, Illinois.
(Click on the Film Strip Icon for the Video Tour of the Judd Home.)
Around 1836, this spot was settled on by Silas Reynolds, grandfather of Ira Judd. The brick in this house represents the house built in 1847 and remodeled into this house in 1893. A log house was the first house.
D.C. JUDD
The Residence of D.C. Judd was located in Section 16 of Sugar Grove Township and is depicted in a sketch that was part of the 1871 Atlas of Kane County.
THOMAS JUDD
Thomas Judd helped to found the Sugar Grove Normal and Industrial School and donated the land. A plaque is mounted on the boulder in front of the Sugar Grove Community Building that reads:
"In Memory of Thomas Judd for his civic mindedness and generosity in founding the Sugar Grove Normal and Industrial School and donating the land."
At one time, Sugar Grove Township was home to four villages, each with its own post office and assortment of needed services, business and one room schools. Thomas Judd was Postmaster of Sugar Grove in the 1850s.
Thomas Judd had for some years favored the idea of an industrial school which would teach agriculture as well as preparatory to going on to other vocations. He was also aware that Frank Hall, then Superintendent of West Aurora Schools, had similar ideas. Thus it was that Thomas Judd, Henry Chapman, Silas Reynolds, Leonard Benjamin, and Lewis Gillette went to Mr. Hall and asked him to take charge of the new school if it could be built.
An all day picnic was held in the maple grove on the Judd Farm on Tuesday May 28, 1875, with the announced purpose of discussing plans for the new school. History records that 1,000 people attended and all were seated at a table of 168 feet long, and enjoyed a find meal. The dinner was followed by a program and speakers. One of the speakers was Professor Hall, and at the close of his speech, he called for donations.
It took just 15 minutes to collect $1,400.00, plus subscriptions that brought that total to $2,200.00. Subsequent subscriptions and the district tax, swelled the fund to $4,500.00. Mr. Judd donated the land where the apartment house now stands across from the Methodist Church. The school and a horse shed to accommodate 80 horses was build and the Sugar Grove Normal and Industrial School opened for classes in the fall of 1875. The average attendance for the first year was 100, of which about 25 were local students.
The following year in 1876, Thomas Judd built a large boarding house on the site just north of the railroad, on the westerly side of Main Street, as the school attracted students from such distant communities as Waterman, Shabbona and Plainfield, to name a few. The boarding house became known as “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
The curriculum at that time included Latin, General History, natural Philosophy, Grammar, Elements of Agricultural Science, Geometry, Bookkeeping, Arithmetic, English Literature and Music. A teaching certificate was one requirement of being awarded a Certificate of Graduation.
The original industrial school burned to the ground in January 1905. A brick veneer building was constructed in its place in 1906.
The original “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” as the boarding house was known, also was destroyed by fire while still new in 1879. It was replaced in 1879 by the building later know as West Hotel which was built on the footprint of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Since there was no insurance on the original boarding house, the community came together with labor and materials, and rebuilt using the stacked lumber method for the outside walls.
SARSON JUDD
In 1892, Sarson Judd built the home that currently stands on 59 Maple Street, Sugar Grove, Illinois. It later became know as Susie’s Judd’s home.
Source: “Sin-Qua-Sip” Sugar Grove: A History of Sugar Grove Township, Kane County, Illinois” by Patsy Mighell Paxton.