Time Was

350 years after Columbus, the Italians discovered Braidwood

Published by admin on Tue, 03/10/2020 - 12:41pm

This week we heard news that Columbus Day would no longer be celebrated in Chicago. It now will be Immigrants Day. I have no objection to celebrating that fact that we are all immigrants if we go back far enough, but I also believe that each nationality should be able to celebrate their achievements and milestones.
There is no doubt that the sons and daughters of Italy have made a great contribution, but it wasn't easy. Today we look at the Italian immigrants that called Braidwood their home.

Ah spring, when hopes run high

Published by admin on Tue, 03/03/2020 - 2:02pm

Spring is when your hopes run high. The walleye run in the river, hoping to catch a big one, when the morels pop, hoping to harvest a giant, the start of the baseball season when we all hope for a pennant for our favorite team. Yes, the Cubs shall rise again! Oops, got carried away. Today we look at baseball in Braidwood.
One small note, you will notice that throughout this article base ball is two words. It did not become one word until the mid-20th century.

The first Great Depression and Wilmington business

Published by admin on Tue, 03/03/2020 - 2:01pm

No, I'm not talking about the one in the 1930s. That was the second one. The one I'm talking about started in 1873 and lasted at least seven to 10 years. It started in Europe but quickly spread to Great Britain and then to the U. S.
The cause is hard to pinpoint, but it was linked to the price of silver. Both the German Republic and the United States passed laws abolishing silver coins, in essence putting themselves on the gold standard. Soon money became scarce as people started to hoard it, banks began to fail and the economy took a dive.

A grand celebration gone astray

Published by admin on Tue, 02/25/2020 - 1:22pm

I am sure that we have all been to a party where things got a little out of hand due to alcohol. Today's story is about one such party put on by the I & M Canal Board and the City of Chicago, but all appears to have ended well.
Originally the I & M Canal had been built on the cheap because of lack of funds. Instead of digging it deep enough for Lake Michigan water to naturally run into it, it was cut shallow and required a steam engine on the shores of Lake Michigan to pump water into it, and a lock and dam to be sure the I & M did not run backwards into the lake.

A terrible affair at Braidwood

Published by admin on Tue, 02/25/2020 - 1:08pm

No, not a romantic affair, the affair I refer to today involves a saloon, a saloon keeper, miners and a mob. It took place in 1869 when Braidwood, only in existence for four years, was the Dodge City of the Midwest.
From the Morris newspaper we get “the facts, as we glean them from Sheriff Galloway.”

Braidwood discovers the joys of water

Published by admin on Tue, 02/18/2020 - 10:00am

There has always been a sort of a rivalry between Braidwood and Wilmington. And in most aspects the two towns were pretty much the same. But there is one thing that Wilmington has that Braidwood can never have — that big old river running through it. Braidwoodites grudgingly learned the joys that can be had with that much water.
The first reference I can find concerning Braidwood and the Kankakee was early in August 1871 in the People's Advocate paper from Wilmington.

What's hot and what's not, Osburn knew

Published by admin on Tue, 02/18/2020 - 9:59am

It's not easy being a retail merchant. The public is fickle, one minute they want one thing, and as quickly they drop it and go on to another. Even antique dealers will tell you that what's hot now is what sells. If there was one store in Wilmington that kept up with the times, it was Osburn's Mercantile store. Let's go shopping.
S. E. Osburn took over the Bennett Dry Goods Store in 1904. Located on Water Street, there was a grocery department, a kitchen ware department but little else. It did ok, but ok was not enough for Mr. Osburn.

Skinned by Skinner, paying to work

Published by admin on Tue, 02/11/2020 - 11:49am

They called it a depression, we would call it an economic downturn, most called it hard times.
Work was hard to find across the country. It was no different in Braidwood. Bad pay and hard-working conditions be damned, a job was a job no matter how you attained it. Set the way back machine for autumn 1883.

Piecing the mother road together, State Rt. 4

Published by admin on Tue, 02/11/2020 - 11:46am

As you may have realized by now, I have many files on many subjects in my archive. Today four subjects come together; roads, bridges, politics and the automobile. History wound the four things together to start the embryo of what is now the Mother Road.

Wife and servant, and sometimes victim

Published by admin on Tue, 01/28/2020 - 10:57am

If you look at the census from Wilmington from 1850 or 1860 almost every household had a servant girl. Sometimes it was a young girl from another Wilmington family, but most often it was a young Irish or English girl. These young women immigrated to this country because there was nothing for them back home, either because they were orphaned or their family was just poor. They were alone in the world, easy prey.