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Benjamin Franklin Sanborn’s story was told last week. His nephew, Byron L. Orvis, wrote Benjamin’s obituary and a poem about his uncle.
Byron Levi (also known as Barney) was the fourth of seven children of Sam and Levina Orvis, born in 1872. On December 7, 1878, his family went to town in a bob sled for a spelling bee at school. Afterwards, they were sliding along the snow-covered road heading home, when they crested the hill on Winn Road, and his father “suddenly jumped to his feet, let out a wild whoop to the horses and lashed at their fat rumps with the end of the lines.” The team plunged forward, and Byron nearly rammed a whole stick of candy he got from town down his throat. “My God, the house is on fire!”, his father yelled. Smoke and flames were already spurting out one side of the house.
A chaotic scene ensued with neighbors rushing in on horseback with buckets splashing water, and his father pulling one last piece of furniture out just before the roof collapsed in flames. From that moment on, six-year-old Barney knew he wanted to become a fireman one day and fire prevention became very important to him.
In April 1910 he was a bachelor and working as a fireman at the Waukegan Water Works station. He was living at a boarding house in Waukegan that was run by Minnie Butler, a widow who had two teenaged daughters, Mabel and Illena. By August of that year, he and Minnie were married. In February 1915, a pretty home wedding was held for Mabel. Minnie was unable to attend, enduring a lengthy illness in the hospital for almost one year. She died two months later on April 28.
Byron moved back to Spring Grove and in 1921 married his old classmate, widow Kate Patterson Shotliff Sanborn. This was Kate’s third marriage. She was the second wife of Byron’s Uncle John Winthrop Sanborn, so he, in essence, married his aunt. Along with his two stepdaughters, he became stepfather to his seven cousins and six other children of Kates – 15 in all! They were all present when they tied the knot at the Chicago City Hall.
Byron was determined that Spring Grove should have its own fire department and was instrumental in forming the first all-volunteer department in 1925. The first fire truck was an old used old truck that was called into service to help at the 1926 Richmond mill fire. The mill couldn't be saved, but they were able keep adjacent buildings from catching fire. In 1928, Barney helped raise over $3,000 to purchase a new Pirsch chemical fire truck. And in 1940, after a 1939 fire burned down the Methodist Church on Blivin Street (later rebuilt), the department was reorganized and became part of the State Fire District.
Byron was the Burton Township assessor, school trustee for twenty years, thistle commissioner, and for many years he would pick up the canvas mail bag that was kicked out of the passing train each day and deliver it to the post office. In 2001, Owen Richardson remembered Byron as the assessor, saying he always had a short pencil that needed sharpening and had crude writing, but was always accurate with his numbers! It was also said he was a peculiar but brilliant man who could quote the bible from front to back.
Kate had married three widowers but the last one outlived her. She died in 1946 at age 79 and is buried in Cole Cemetery with her first husband, William Shotliff and his first wife. Byron died in 1953 at age 81 is buried down the road in the Sanborn-Orvis Cemetery.
I want to thank Sanborn descendants Rosemarie Sanborn Delph & David Schultz for their interest in researching and passing on Sanborn history. They lived in Chicago but spent a lot of happy times on the prairie when they were growing up.
Story by Laura Frumet
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