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From History of Will County, 1878
Page 668
Abijah Cagwin, dealer in grain; Joliet; was born in Oneida Co. N. Y., May 19, 1807; in 1824 he removed with his parents to Brockport, Monroe Co. and there began business as a tanner and currier, owning an extensive tannery which burned down in 1834; he was also engaged in shoe manufacturing. He came to Will Co. in 1835, and settled about two miles from Joliet; then Juliet, where he built a saw mill, in which he sawed the lumber used in building the first grain warehouse in Will Co., which Mr. Cagwin erected a few years later. Here he was elected Justice of the Peace, serving eight years; in 1839, he was elected County Judge, and moved into the city; at the expiration of his four years' service as County Judge, he engaged in merchandising, afterward associating with him his brother, Francis L. Cagwin; in 1856, he with others, established the Will County Bank, the firm being Cagwin, Higinbotham & Co.; a few years afterward, he engaged in the grain and produce business, which he has continued to the present time. He has served three terms as City Treasurer; one term on the Board of Supervisors, and four years as Supt. fo the Will County Alms-house and Poor Farm. He was married in 1827, to Miss Hannah Scribner, of Brockport, N. Y., but formerly from Rutland Co., Vt., and has eight children - Merritt O., of Elwood, Il, Helen A. (Mrs. Elvis Harwood, of Joliet), Sarah A. (Mrs. Barritt, of Joliet), Thomas P., of Joliet, Hamden A., of Joliet, Nancy A., of Joliet, Rose L. (Mrs. A. R. Briggs, of Joliet), and Abijah S., of Joliet.
From History of Will County
Anonymous Author (Chicago: W. LeBaron, Jr. & Co., 1878)
Page 284
Abijah Cagwin, "Uncle Bige" -- we beg his pardon -- Judge Cagwin, became our County Judge from 1839 to 1842 -- four years. "Uncle Bige" still flourishes, like one of the sturdy oaks of fifty years ago, which the woodman has spared. "Uncle Bige," we mean Judge Cagwin, once built a saw-mill on Hickory Creek, below the Red mill. He built several dams successively which the high water carried away each Spring, until last he gave the creek a final damming (with an n in it) and left it to the Joliet Woolen Factory Company.
From Souvenir of settlement and progress of Will County, Ill.
Anonymous author (Chicago: Historical Directory Pub. Co., 1884)
Page 302
Abijah Cagwin, born in Oneida county, N. Y., May 19, 1807, came to Will county in 1835, located within two miles of Joliet settlement, built a saw-mill there, and made the place his home until 1839, when he moved into Joliet village. In 1839 he was elected County Judge. Four years later he, with his brother, Francis L., opened a general store; in 1856 he organized the banking house of Cagwin & Higginbotham, and subsequently established his grain-trade. His marriage with Miss Hannah Scribner, a native of Rutland county, Vermont, took place in 1827. Mr. Cagwin's official and commercial connection with Will county is noticed both in the general and township history.
From Cass Street Sketches
William Grinton (Joliet, Ill.: C. B. Hayward, 1897)
Page 30
ABIJAH CAGWIN
The night train on the Rock Island thunders over the bridge to the South, slacks up, rattles over the crossing, stops at the station, starts on over the river and canal, then its sound dies away in the darkness and distance.
"Now, o'er the one-half world nature seems dead."
But care keeps watch in an old man's eye,
And where care lodges sleep can never lie."
It is a cloudless night, "constellations come and climb the heavens and go."
High in the cold, Northern skies, in the region of perpetual apparition, shines the Pole star, and a fancied ramble may be taken eastward past the quarries and stone-yards, on by the three silent cities, where the wind sighs and mourns at night time in the dark cypress and pine trees, and over the bright granite and white marble, and where all nations, all denominations and creeds are at peace with each other, up the hill past the late home of Abijah Cagwin, a pioneer of 1835, and one of Joliet's merchants and grain dealers; at one time he owned over five hundred acres of land out and around East Cass street, a part of which he left to his children. He was always a large holder of Joliet real estate, and in this connection it may be stated that the name of Cagwin appears on the Plat Book in twenty-one subdivisions of real estate in Joliet Township. harry F. Cagwin will probably add a few more to this number.
The old weather-beaten frame house at Shaw's brick yards was built by Uncle Bijah in 183-, with hard lumber sawed at his saw mill on Hickory Creek, and the line of the old mill race can be seen jus south of the C., R. I. & P. R. R. He continued to reside in this house until 1840, when he was elected Probate Judge and removed to Joliet.
Mr. Cagwin was of a very social disposition and wherever men congregated he was usually the center of a group, for he was an interesting talker, and always had something to say which the boys wanted to hear, even if they did, sometimes, have to wait for him to take a whiff of his pipe before he finished a remark.
One summer day in '89, a horse and buggy came dashing down Chicago street, and men's hearts stood still when they saw that the frantic horse was beyond the control of Uncle Bijah, its driver. All were horror-stricken when, by the bounding of the buggy, he was thrown up in teh air and alighted on his head and shoulders on the hard pavement. It did not seem possible that a man of his age and weight could survive such a fall, and his friends were surprised and gratified to learn that, although badly shocked, he had sustained no serious injuries.
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