Time Was

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.

May 1918, the sweet smell of spring, and gas

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

    May 1918 brought warm breezes and the sweet smell of spring. It also brought notices in the mail that more young men would be needed “over there.”
    Those who had enlisted months earlier came home to experience just a few days in those warm breezes. Meanwhile those who were already over there found a little time to stop and smell the roses.

The cardboard box and Wilmington's economy

Published by admin on Wed, 04/25/2018 - 9:00am

    One look at a shelf in any grocery will tell you that packaging of products has become a science. In the cereal aisle the brightly colored cardboard boxes catch our children's attention and makes them beg for a product because of the picture on the front.
    This was not always so. Let's look at the beginning of the cardboard box and how it affected Wilmington.
    Cardboard was invented in the early 19th century. It was used for bookmaking and to stiffen gentlemen's hats. Almost every commodity at that time was sold in bulk, glass jars or steel cans.

Historic hygiene, a delicate subject

Published by admin on Wed, 04/25/2018 - 9:00am

    While looking at a photo of coal miners, I could not help but notice that they were as black as the rock they were mining. If one of them were my husband I would demand he hose off before he came into the house.
    But then, I realized that people of that time did not have hoses or water pressure or bathtubs. Set the way-back machine for the late 1870's and bring a towel. We are going to try to clean up.

If you don’t like the weather, well neither do I

Published by admin on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 9:00am

    Will winter never end? I for one, am sick of it. There should be a law against snow in April.
    And so, partially to make myself feel better, today's topic is the worst winter in historic history in Will County, that of 1830-31. The Black Hawk War had yet to be fought, and there were a very few courageous settlers who braved the unknown on the Great Prairie during those years. This is their story.

Diverting disaster, the start of the ditch

Published by admin on Wed, 04/18/2018 - 9:00am

    The problem, of course, was water, too much of it and nowhere to put it. The Wilmington Coal Field lay under poor prairie soils that were pock marked with bogs and swamps.
    With only one small river, the Mazon, to drain it, Braidwood before the white man was a flat landscape full of mosquitoes, malaria and quick sand. Along came the coal companies to dig deep holes in this landscape with the inevitable result of flooding and loss of life. What to do?

Finding the right place, one family’s story

Published by admin on Wed, 04/11/2018 - 9:00am

    Just like a dog turning around and around to find just the right place to settle down, many early pioneers did not settle in the first place they happened to land. These people already had the spirit of wanderlust, and they had come along way to find their own idea of paradise. Sometimes moving around was the only way to find it. Set the way-back machine to 1832 just after the Black Hawk War.