Time Was

What's in a name, popular remedies in 1877

Published by admin on Mon, 04/07/2025 - 9:55am

Of all the businesses that came and went in Braidwood, we have never mentioned the druggists. It is an oversight that I am correcting. Surely the druggist was one of the most necessary businesses in an era where manual labor in dangerous environments, and wretched health conditions existed. However, the drugs that were sold were not exactly like the kind we get over the counter now. Set the way-back machine for 1877.

Encouraging new business was everybody's business

Published by admin on Mon, 04/07/2025 - 9:52am

There are times when I am reading old newspapers that I forget what year I'm looking at, is it 1880 or 2025? I certainly can't tell by what I am reading. The most striking similarity is the search for new businesses to come to town. Whether it's a new glucose factory in 1880 or a new intermodal in 2025, the talk is about creating jobs by luring new businesses to town.

No vaccine for this disease; base ball fever

Published by admin on Mon, 03/31/2025 - 11:59am

I know I have it, and I also know there is no cure. There is only one thing that will alleviate the symptoms, but not the disease. Yes, I am talking about base ball fever. I enjoy seeing a live game, in person or on a screen. Reruns of old games don't cut it. I always know how it's going to turn out, unlike a live game where anything can happen and usually does.
So, in the spirit of the moment, let's take a virtual tour of baseball in Wilmington through the ages. Also note that I spell the name of the game with two words, as was done up until the 1920's.

Cleaning up, but why in Spring?

Published by admin on Mon, 03/31/2025 - 11:52am

It’s officially Spring. That means that flowers, warm breezes and fun times outdoors are just around the corner. But to my mother, it meant spring house cleaning. I could never figure out why people wanted to ruin a wonderful season with housework. Today we clean up 19th century style.
For the larger part of the 1800’s, most homes were heated with small stoves, usually located in the parlor, or any other part of the house where people gathered. These were put up in the fall along with the stove pipes, and usually vented out a side wall not a chimney.

Searching for a hero – the case of M. Henry

Published by admin on Mon, 03/24/2025 - 12:31pm

Today’s story is only somewhat related to Braidwood, and, I can’t even prove that. But it is one of the many trails down which I have traveled searching its history. It starts with a sad story from October of 1909.

Wesley, it hasn't always looked this way

Published by admin on Mon, 03/24/2025 - 11:13am

Those of us who live near the “town” of Ritchie have grown accustomed to the way things look now. Very few question the location of flood water, the placement of roads or the location of the old Wabash railroad bed now known as the Wauponsee Glacial Trail. Today we learn how flood waters, a railroad and an opportunistic town board created what we see now.

The rise and fall of the Braidwood coal company

Published by admin on Mon, 03/17/2025 - 12:15pm

The founding father of Braidwood, James Braidwood, and his family, his short life and his coal company are the subject today.
George Woodruff in The History of Will County, 1878 describes him this way; “ Mr. James Braidwood claims that he built the first house in Braidwood, had the first house to burn, sunk the first coal shaft in Braidwood, his wife had the first child born and the first child to die in Braidwood.”

The trek to California and gold

Published by admin on Mon, 03/17/2025 - 11:09am

Last time, we left our intrepid Will County fortune seekers were near Fort Bridger and Salt Lake City. Set the way back machine to July, 1849 on the banks of the Bear River.

The journey begins, California or bust

Published by admin on Mon, 03/10/2025 - 10:29am

Today we are going back to 1850 and the intrepid men who ventured from Will County to El Dorado, commonly known as the gold fields of California to search for riches and a better future.
We know two men from Wilmington, William Goodwin and H. J. Northam left together in March of 1850. Goodwin was a married man with children, while Northam was a 29-year-old well-to-do bachelor merchant. We don't know if these two were friends, or only had the same goal.

Fishing by hook, crook or dynamite

Published by admin on Mon, 03/03/2025 - 12:24pm

As the industrial age started polluting land, sea and sky during the first decade of the 20th century people started to appreciate the unspoiled, unpolluted places. The Kankakee River, both up and down stream from Wilmington was one such place.
Fish in the Kankakee that decade were abundant. We read on June 24, 1904 in the Wilmington Advocate, “Fishermen complain that the river is swarming with minnows and small pickerel and the fish have so much food they will not bite at bait though they may be seen in large numbers.”