Time Was

Arson, a time honored political tool

Published by admin on Wed, 06/06/2018 - 9:00am

    It was 1870. The war had been over for five years. The thing that pulled the people together no longer existed. Now it was every man for himself.
    Money was scarce, and the “good old boy system” ruled with an iron grip and a torch. Step aboard the way back machine for the dark side of Wilmington politics as it was in 1870.

Decoration Day, Braidwood's sons took up the cause

Published by admin on Wed, 05/30/2018 - 9:00am

    The history of Decoration Day, now known as Memorial Day is a bit hazy. Some say it started when the commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, a Civil War veterans' organization, declared May 30, 1868 a holiday.
    It was to be commemorated by decorating the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers and flags. Others say that the tradition started in the South, when Confederate widows decorated the graves of their fallen soldiers as early as 1867.

June 1918, the meaning of loyalty to country

Published by admin on Wed, 05/30/2018 - 9:00am

    As summer comes to its full potential in June, we can't help but look around at the beauty of nature as we know it here in Wilmington.
    One hundred years ago folks were also looking around, not at nature, but at their friends and neighbors. What were they looking for? Signs of loyalty, or perhaps, disloyalty.
    On the last day of May 1918, Wilmington gathered to honor the dead from previous wars.

Building a landmark, the Joliet Penitentiary

Published by admin on Wed, 05/23/2018 - 9:00am

 

Some important buildings are small, but tell a story about our past, such as the Braidwood Depot. Others are so massive and have such a huge story to tell, that it may be impossible to tell it all.

Profitable plans for the penitentiary, now and then

Published by admin on Wed, 05/23/2018 - 9:00am

 

One of the most ambitious preservation projects that Will County his ever seen is the present plan to clean up and restore at least parts of the old Joliet Penitentiary on Collins Street in Joliet. Many people all around the world are familiar with it, in part because of the Blues Brothers movie. 

Household hints from the 1860's

Published by admin on Wed, 05/16/2018 - 9:00am

    One of the most surprising things about households in the 19th century is that most of them had hired help, even when the family was not all that rich. The reason is that there was just so much physical labor involved in keeping a clean house that extra hands were needed.
    Today we look at household hints published in the newspaper that give us a window into what those housekeepers had to go through.
    Let's start with a column from the June 13, 1865 Joliet Signal.

Mrs. Lincoln's culinary advice, 1890's style

Published by admin on Wed, 05/16/2018 - 9:00am

I recently went through my collection of recipe books. Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book, published in 1896 caught my eye. Boston Cook Book was a series of cookbooks that was printed on into the 1930's. 

Let's transport ourselves into the kitchen of an 1896 household to see “what's cooking.”

The abolitionist of Reed Township

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

        We rarely talk about Reed Township during the years before the Civil War. There were few people, widely scattered in the Township, and most of those were farmers who quietly went about their own business. But still waters run deep.
    Slavery was the main issue in the 1850's. There was no were you could go, no newspaper you could read, no discussion around the fire that did not involve slavery, abolitionists and the right of states to allow one man to own another.

Hard times meant creative minds

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

    Economic depressions have been with us forever. Hard times in our area especially are nothing new. Today we are taking the way-back machine to 1886 to see how Wilmington survived one of those times.
    Wilmington had done better than most area towns. The coal towns of Braidwood and Coal City had started feeling the pinch in early 1885, but it wasn't until January of 1886 that the first rumors of hard times in Wilmington started to surface.

Braidwood takes the flag while one man dug trenches

Published by admin on Wed, 05/02/2018 - 9:00am

    May of 1918 found young men from every town leaving, perhaps never to return, to a war that many of the immigrants in the Braidwood coal fields hoped they had left behind. Perhaps that is why Braidwood took the flag.
    The draft was taking its share of Braidwood young men. That month John McHugh, Peter Falletti and Ralph Culley left Braidwood for Camp Dodge in Iowa early in the month, and later we read about a group of local boys who were on their way as well.