Time Was

A new life for Empire Hall

Published by admin on Wed, 10/10/2018 - 9:00am

    Time was when Empire Hall could have been called Wilmington's first community center. Situated on the east side of Water Street between Jackson and Van Buren, it was only part of a larger group of buildings known as the Empire Block. The Empire Block could have been called the heart of downtown Wilmington.
    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.

Good fish, bad fish, just don't carp about it

Published by admin on Wed, 10/03/2018 - 9:00am

    In recent years the big-head carp has become a problem in Illinois waterways. Electric fish nets and poison have been used in the canal to prevent them from getting into Lake Michigan.
    It's clear that the word carp has become a four-letter word for trouble, and has inspired many other four-letter words. Let's look at what history has shown us.

The journey begins, California or bust

Published by admin on Wed, 10/03/2018 - 9:00am

    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.  

Racial discrimination, good enough to dig, not to vote

Published by admin on Wed, 09/26/2018 - 9:00am

    I think that there are few other topics these days that are more contentious than that of immigration. And like most other problems of our day, it is not new.
    In 1836 it was the I&M Canal that was the cause of a wave of poor immigrants to flood our County. And like today, they were the victims of discrimination. Those damn dirty Irishmen!
    The I&M Canal was started in 1836 with the goal of linking Lake Michigan to the Illinois river. It ran through thick muddy prairie soil, and hard unyielding limestone.

Judging your fellow man, judges of Braidwood

Published by admin on Wed, 09/26/2018 - 9:00am

    All my gentle readers know that Braidwood was a wild and wooly place. Fueled by alcohol, altercations were the mainstay of the court system. Today we look at those who dealt out justice from behind the bench.
    During the earliest decades of Braidwood's history, a position of Police Magistrate had the authority to not only arrest people, but also to fine them immediately. For most small infractions of the law, the system worked well. I suspect if it was just a case of drunk and disorderly the “perps” slept it out in the calaboose and were sent on their way.

The war effort at home, September 1918

Published by admin on Wed, 09/19/2018 - 9:00am

    The last time we talked about World War I we looked at the letters home. Today we look at the home front at the same time. There was rationing, registration for the draft and actually being called to serve. Patriotic fervor was at an all time high. Set the way-back machine for September 1918.
    If you were a young male wanting to evade military service, there was no place to hide. The Wilmington Advocate printed the names of all the men who were eligible.

Speaking in tongues, at least 19 of them

Published by admin on Wed, 09/19/2018 - 9:00am

        In the 1890's the United States experienced the beginning of the great immigration wave from Eastern Europe. Previous waves of immigrants had come mainly from the British Isles, people who could at least speak and understand the King's English.
    And what was happening in the nation as a whole could be found happening in Braidwood.  Let's look at the ingredients in Braidwood's melting pot.

Women criminals, what to do with them?

Published by admin on Wed, 09/12/2018 - 9:00am

    Women are the flowers of society, being pure of heart, chaste of mind and incapable of intentionally doing wrong. This was, in essence, the prevailing notion of the weaker sex during the 19th century. Of course, it has no basis in fact. Women were fully as capable of committing crimes as men, but with perhaps less opportunity.

Establishing a rule of law, early Will County courthouses

Published by admin on Wed, 09/12/2018 - 9:00am

    Will County will soon have a new courthouse, it is rising as we speak. It will be the sixth building used for that purpose since Will County came into being. And it has probably been as controversial as all the others which preceded it. But in that building will be a place where the history of the earlier seats of justice will be proudly shown to all who enter.

Diamond's toughness is tested

Published by admin on Wed, 09/05/2018 - 9:00am

    Almost all of my gentle readers know of the Diamond Mine disaster. And, that is all most people know about Diamond and its citizens.
    We start our look at that village about a year before that tragic event.    In July of 1882 Ed Conley, editor of the Wilmington Advocate, visited Diamond.
    “We made a two-hours visit to the Diamond the other day, to find that village quite lively and enterprising. Dr. DeNormandie chaperoned us about town. First, we visited the Mayor, John Graef, Esq., who keeps a well-appointed boarding house and billiard parlor.