Corwith Hamill, 97, sits in his dining room in his home in the Village of Wayne in Kane County, sipping some soup as he talks about the nine-acre conservation easement he donated about 10 years ago to Te Conservation Foundation. Norris Creek, a small, winding tributary that flows into the Fox River, can be seen from his window on the sloping hill dotted with daffodils.


“When we bought the land, it was lined with oak trees,” he said. “Tere was only one house on this whole road at that time.”


Hamill said he bought a small lot that supposedly was four acres in 1941 for $500 an acre. But, he said, it turned out “it was only 3.96 acres. ” About 10 years later, he bought the property next to it which was a little more than five acres. Te Dunham family previously owned the property, which was part of a country estate of several hundred acres.


Hamill said in the mid-1800s there was a sawmill on Route 25, not far from his home, and this area was known as the “little woods” by the early settlers, with the big woods up around Aurora. With the heavily wooded area on the east bank of the Fox River, it would help stop the prairie fires. But development has transformed the surrounding areas, and the trillium that was abundant is now sparse, having been overgrazed by deer.


Like many others who choose to donate land, Hamill said, “I just love the place and I’d like to keep it the way it is.”


- 17 -


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52