Columnist

Women of the coal field

Published by admin on Mon, 03/09/2026 - 10:52am

It has been said that the study of history is real the study of “his story.” It is true that most of the history we read was made by men. The reason is two-fold. The first is that for much of the time people have been on earth, women were not allowed to “make history” but they existed to support the men who did. The second reason is that almost all history books, until recently were written by men. Women were not taken seriously as scholars. March is Women’s History Month, so let’s look at “her story.”

Life in the big city, a trip to Joliet

Published by admin on Mon, 03/09/2026 - 10:29am

I have said little in these columns about big city life and the sprawling city to the north. By car, just a half hour away, and even in the 19th century it was only a short train trip. Today we will look at a few spots that might have drawn Braidwoodites into the big city.
As early as 1840 Juliet, now known as Joliet, was a booming town. There were factories, saloons, hotels, and shops with everything imaginable. One dry goods merchant advertised the following in 1840:

Campaigns are going beyond normal fibs

Published by admin on Sun, 03/08/2026 - 5:22pm

Unless you’ve been under a rock, you likely know that former U.S. President Bill Clinton seemed to say that he flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet with JB Pritzker and his spouse – after saying that it was likely that Epstein as well as his notorious co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell were passengers on every flight he took on that plane.

An early Will County pioneer, James Ritchey

Published by admin on Mon, 03/02/2026 - 12:07pm

Last time we left James Ritchey on the banks of the Kankakee on his way to his new claim in Homer Township. The local Pottawattamie had told him it was very deep, too deep to ford. Let's see how Ritchey surmounted this obstacle.
From the publication Reminiscence of an Early Pioneer:
“Going up the stream they drove the oxen in the river, McMahon standing on forward end of the wagon and driving the team with two canoes and two men in each canoe were to hold the wagon from going down with the current.”

Ascending to the skies, an old dream

Published by admin on Mon, 03/02/2026 - 12:02pm

There has been so much new technology to send things flying, with drones, etc. And yet each year we read about folks who gather together to hang from a simple balloon and let the wind take them where it may. It started me thinking about this very old sport, so today we will go up, up and away to look at ballooning.

Mendoza: Opponent shouldn’t have taken money from the governor

Published by admin on Sat, 02/28/2026 - 12:43pm

Illinois comptroller candidate state Rep. Margaret Croke (D-Chicago) reported receiving the maximum campaign contribution of $72,800 from Gov. JB Pritzker on Feb. 19. Since then, Pritzker has appeared in some Croke campaign ads.
The day before the Pritzker contribution was reported, I spoke with incumbent Comptroller Susana Mendoza about the governor’s support of Croke - who once worked in Pritzker’s administration and has been a legislative ally - and the near certainty at the time that Pritzker would be contributing to Croke’s campaign.

Schoolmaster Thomas Walsh and Grove School

Published by admin on Mon, 02/23/2026 - 11:17am

Last week our story was about a bunch of rough young men who tried to intimidate their school master in a one room school house in a rural setting. Since Braidwood sprang into being almost overnight, there were no one room school houses, but larger ones to accommodate the rising population of miners. Today, we look at one man and one school to see how it compares.

Pioneering on the prairie, one man's story

Published by admin on Mon, 02/23/2026 - 11:13am

Before there was a Braidwood, or a Wilmington, or a Joliet there was the prairie. In every direction were miles and miles of head high grasses, interrupted by low lying swamps and bogs with scarcely a tree to be seen. Today we go back to the earliest white settlement to see just what it meant to be a pioneer on the prairies of what would soon become Will County.

Teachers’ union says Illinois owes $6 billion more for education

Published by admin on Sat, 02/21/2026 - 3:27pm

As expected, we did not see a whole lot of spending increases in Gov. JB Pritzker’s state budget proposal last week.
Last year, Gov. JB Pritzker said his budget limited discretionary spending to less than a one percent increase. The plan unveiled last week limits discretionary spending to less than a half a point increase.

City ordinances aren't what they used to be

Published by admin on Mon, 02/16/2026 - 11:52am

The City Council of any city is the closest to the people, or it should be. That is where the laws that most directly affect citizens are conceived, argued and passed. Today we look at the Wilmington City Council in 1875 to see what we can learn of the lives of our citizens.
The first board meeting of the year on January 25th, was pretty normal. The Hook & Ladder Company (the fire department) requested a hall lamp for the truck house.
It was sent to committee. A report came in that the city had sold 2,320 pounds of scrap iron from the old school house.