New York account raises questions about naming of Batavia

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Batavia mayor Jeff Schielke points to a slide that displays the historic Judge Isaac Wilson House as he talks about the history of Batavia and reviews books he has read on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012, at the Batavia Public Library. | Jeff Cagle~For Sun-Times Media

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Updated: March 22, 2012 10:36PM

BATAVIA — Along with their brown bag lunches, Mayor Jeff Schielke gave his audience food for thought about Judge Isaac Wilson – a prominent historical figure responsible for the naming of the city of Batavia.

Schielke revealed during his annual Books between Bites presentation hosted at the Batavia Public Library that there was always a suspicion among historians why Wilson uprooted his family in Western New York and came to Illinois.

“We always said he came from Batavia, N.Y., but in truth he came from some distance away. It seems to be lost why he came to Batavia and why he gave it its name,” Schielke said.

“John Gustafson’s Historic Batavia,” a history book on Batavia, Ill., says Wilson was believed to have come from Batavia, N.Y., in 1835. But Schielke said suspicions have been confirmed through a Batavia, N.Y., historian that Wilson actually came from a community a few miles from Batavia, N.Y. – West Middlebury.

“It is not so much a revelation, as a historical correction — we are going to have to rewrite the history book,” Schielke said.

Schielke said the intrigue over the life of Wilson actually began 30 years ago with Monsignor William J. Donovan’s interest in the connections between Batavia’s early settlers and Batavia, N.Y., and the tenacity of local historian William “Bill” Wood’s willingness to travel in 2000 to Batavia, N.Y., to research the judge’s life.

Wilson lived where?

Schielke said Wood returned from his trip to Batavia, N.Y., with a puzzling bit of information: “The town historian in Batavia, N.Y., couldn’t find any record of Judge Isaac Wilson.”

Batavia’s history books tell the story of how Wilson purchased land from Christopher Payne in 1835 and renamed the area from “Head of the Big Woods” to Batavia when he became postmaster. Wilson named Batavia’s main thoroughfare after himself and named many of Batavia’s streets based on his interests for the country’s presidents and fascination for the river.

Schielke said the inquisitiveness of Donovan and Wood all those years ago sparked the interest of Batavia, N.Y., city historian Larry Barnes. Barnes, a retired college professor, began to research Wilson’s life, corresponded with Schielke and came to Batavia — visiting Wilson’s homestead and his grave in the East Batavia Cemetery.

Schielke said Wilson’s 1841 house, believed to be the oldest house in the city, still stands at Prairie and Wilson streets.

Barnes subsequently wrote a two-part series titled, “A Tale of Two Cities” that was published in the The Daily News in July 2011.

Barnes wrote that Wilson actually spent most of his adult life as a resident of West Middlebury, N.Y., which is a few miles from Batavia, N.Y.

Wilson was a prominent public figure when he “abruptly” decided to leave Western New York for “The Head of the Big Woods,” and six years later, used his authority as postmaster to rename it Batavia, Barnes wrote.

“Was Wilson feeling homesick? Did he think his new home resembled the village back in Western New York after which it was named? The answer has been lost, if it was ever known,” Barnes wrote.

Why come to Batavia?

Barnes said “speculations about Wilson’s motivation for moving to the Midwest have assumed that something extraordinary must have been involved.”

Barnes wrote that Wilson’s service in Congress was “short-lived due to a successful legal challenge to his election by the man who had been his opponent and was eventually declared the winner by one vote.”

One theory is that Wilson had a role as a sitting judge in the “Land Office War” that involved an upheaval between tenants and landowners, in which an attempt to burn the Holland Land Office in Batavia, N.Y., was thwarted.

“This was a high profile incident, and the history would indicate to me this was the catalyst why we continue to question Wilson’s move. We think the heat got heavy and that was the reason he uprooted his family and came here,” Schielke said.

Schielke said Wilson came with “quite a pile of money in his hand” and purchased phenomenal amounts of land on the east and west sides of Batavia.

“He owned most of the east side of Batavia at one time,” Schielke said.

“It confirms the suspicions of both Monsignor Donovan and Bill Wood that there was more to Wilson’s story than meets the eye,” Schielke said.