Time Was

Things started out peaceful enough. It was a time when nature produces offspring. In Custer we hear of one occasion. “Eight baby wolves (probably coyote) in captivation on a private farm is a rather unusual occurrence and is attracting many visitors to the home of Richard Culkins, who resides two miles east of Custer Park.
Mr. Culkins was passing through the woods on Ralster Hoffman's farm when he saw tracks that he believed were made by wolves. He investigated further and in a secluded nook overhung by wild grapevines found eight tiny wolves about six weeks old.

Last time we met, it was 1907 and the Opera House, formerly known as Empire Hall, located in the Empire block on Water Street, had been totally remodeled. It was now state of the art, and performers flocked to play there.
On October 4, 1907 we read, “The Musical Hoyles were the attraction at the New Opera House in this city Thursday evening.

Buildings can have many lives. They may start out as a livery stable and become a restaurant, or start out as hotel and become a shoe store and then a sporting goods store, and then a museum. Today we look at one particular building, whose glory days are over, and she's lost part of her old self, but she is still among us - the Empire Block.
Located on the east side of Water Street between Jackson and Van Buren, it was called “block” because it was a group of three buildings that were connected on the second floor where it opened up into two large rooms known as Empire Hall.

In June of 1852 the citizens of Wilmington met to vote on a town-wide resolution to bring the railroad into town.
It read in part, “Resolved, That it is expedient and imperative upon the citizens of Wilmington to lend their aid, and use their influence in the construction of a Railroad, which shall be an extension of the Railroad already charted, from Alton through Springfield to Bloomington, passing near Pontiac and through Wilmington to Joliet, there forming a junction with the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad.”