Columnist

When looking at the history of the Braidwood area, one immediately finds that people were moving in and out of town on a regular basis. Names that pop up in the 1870’s disappear ten years later. This makes it difficult for historians to find out who were the movers and shakers of the early coalfields. Some family names do keep reappearing though, so today we will have a look at the Goodrich family, or at least their history through 1886, one that’s filled with mystery.

A state law essentially designed to prevent Republicans from appointing legislative candidates to the ballot after the March primary was ruled unconstitutional by a Sangamon County judge last week, but her ruling only applied to the 14 Republican plaintiffs in the case who are running for the Illinois House and Senate.
The law prohibited local party slating of legislative candidates when no candidate had run in the primary. But, as Circuit Judge Gail Noll noted, the bill was passed and signed into law after the 75-day post-primary candidate slating process had already begun.

Everyone who has been awake while going through the Braidwood vicinity knows that coal mining was the major industry in the area in the past. Black diamonds were our life blood. However, as with every other industry, there were those who made their money servicing or providing needed materials or products. Today we look at two of them, both beginning with the letter “B”, Horace Winfield Blood and Irving Barker.