The History of Chicagoland Art Colonies.

There is a long tradition of artist colonies in Chicago and summer outposts some distance from the city. The most famous artist colony, at 57th Street and Stony Island Avenue in Hyde Park, was located in a pair of one-story frame buildings that had been constructed to house concessions for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Among the few buildings not demolished after the fair, the complex soon became a haven for artists, literary figures, including Sherwood Anderson, and related businesses such as used bookstores.

Old Town, Chicago, Art Fair, 1954.

The 57th Street Artist Colony had two nearby satellites. Cable Court, located a few blocks northwest, was a narrow, dark street surrounded by three- and four-story tenement buildings occupied by artists and fellow travelers. Further west, at Kenwood Avenue, a third cluster occupied several buildings centered on 1328 East 57th Street, where John Dewey founded the Laboratory School of the University of Chicago in 1896. In the 1940s, the first floor housed the Little Gallery owned by Mary Louise Womer, who, with others, founded the 57th Street Art Fair in 1948, the first of Chicago's community art fairs. Among the artists displaying their work was Gertrude Abercrombie, with her surreal paintings propped up against her ancient Rolls Royce automobile parked at the curb.

Old Town, Chicago, Art Fair on Menomonee Street, the 1950s.

In 1898, Lorado Taft and a small group established the Eagle's Nest artist colony overlooking the Rock River near Oregon, Illinois, 80 miles west of Chicago. The summer facility originally had tents and, later, cottages and studios. The Eagle's Nest activities included visual arts and historical pageants in elaborate costumes. Regular visitors included Harriet Monroe.

Ox-Bow, in Saugatuck, Michigan, was founded as a summer artist colony in 1910 under the auspices of the Art Institute of Chicago Alumni Association; it remains active as an outpost of the School of the Art Institute. Faculty members have included Ed Paschke, architect Thomas Tallmadge, and Alphonso Iannelli. Also located in Michigan, John Wilson's Lakeside Center for the Arts thrived in the 1970s and 1980s with artists such as Richard Hunt and Roger Brown. It had an outpost of the Landfall Press of Chicago, a well-known printmaker.

The Hyde Park artist colonies were among the casualties of urban renewal around 1960. In addition, the gentrification of Hyde Park pushed artists to the North Side, especially Old Town, which still has its own art fair each year. Artists also clustered elsewhere, including the Near North Side's Tree Studios, restored and commercialized in 2002, and Italian Court, formerly on Michigan Avenue. In the closing decades of the twentieth century, skyrocketing real-estate values in Old Town and Lincoln Park drove artists further west to neighborhoods such as Wicker Park and Bucktown.

Since the 1950s, juried art fairs, organized by community volunteers and nonprofit groups in neighborhoods in and around Chicago, have enabled local artists to exhibit, market, and sell their artwork directly to the public, free of the gallery system. Informal and family-oriented, these events allow artists to showcase their work to the public with complete control of how it is installed and represented. Art Chicago and SOFA, the annual art expositions held at Navy Pier, are examples of commercial enterprises that invite galleries and art dealers worldwide to market and sell the work of artists they represent. While these events are often called art fairs, they differ from neighborhood fairs because they do not directly relate to local communities or Chicago artists.

Two of the oldest juried art fairs in Chicago are the 57th Street Art Fair and the Old Town Art Fair. In 1948 Mary Louise Womer, a Hyde Park gallery owner, conceived the idea of the 57th Street Art Fair as an opportunity for local artists to meet one another and to sell their art directly to the community. With local sponsorship, the first fair consisted of 50 artists, many of them students from the School of the Art Institute and the Institute of Design. Since 1950, a volunteer committee has organized and sponsored the fair with a juried panel of professional artists to select the participants. Exhibitors have included Richard Hunt, Leon Golub, Claes Oldenburg, Margaret Burroughs, and Gertrude Abercrombie. In 1950 the first Old Town Art Fair was organized along a couple blocks in Lincoln Park West. Because the fair was open to public participation, the art ranged from amateur craft objects to masterfully executed paintings and sculptures. In 1958, a small committee was formed to establish regulations, and a jury of established artists was implemented to create a more balanced display of media and improve the art's quality. By the end of the twentieth century, each of these fairs annually showcased more than 300 artists.

Highland Park, Illinois, Festival of Fine Arts.

The art fair system has developed into an important Chicago tradition linking amateur and professional artists to Chicago communities. Based on the 57th Street and Old Town Art Fairs models, neighborhood art fairs have been established in Barrington, Evanston, Hinsdale, Homewood, Naperville, Oakbrook, Peoria, Park Forest, Rockford, Skokie, Wilmette, Buffalo Grove, Woodstock, and other outlying areas.

Buffalo Grove, Illinois,  Art Festival.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The Snow and Ice Railway on the Midway Plaisance at Chicago's 1893 World's Fair.

In historical accounts of the World's Columbian Exposition, the story of the Ferris wheel has eclipsed that of another unusual mechanical and quite successful Midway attraction: Thomas Rankin's Snow and Ice Railway.

Essentially a roller coaster running on an ice paved track, it was among the earliest coasters constructed in the United States. It was built on a tract of land 60 by 400 feet upon the southern portion of the Midway Plaisance near Lexington Avenue (later renamed South University Avenue) and consisted of a loop with one high point of elevation at twenty-five feet. The ice was manufactured by machinery on site. There were two trains, each of which was made up of four connected bobsleds with six seats apiece.

The trains would be drawn to the high point by a cable, then freed and allowed to slide down the inclines and around the loop. The track width was 44.5 inches and fitted on both sides with rubber wheels, insuring a smooth, steady ride. The entrance and exit platform also included a restaurant.

10¢ for two consecutive trips.

The concession was granted to J.C. De La Vergue and T. L. Rankin. The application was originally made to use it as a means of transportation from the south end of Horticultural building to the north end of the Liberal Arts building, the railway passing over the Wooded Island and the East Lagoon. Drawings were submitted showing beautiful wire rope suspension bridges located eighty feet apart, making each way a trip, loading and unloading at either end. There having been no bridge within one-quarter of a mile of this point on the East Lagoon, there is no doubt that the Fair Company and the projectors would have both done well financially had the concession been let-in that form, especially considering that in the location the concession actually had, nineteen thousand people rode on the railway in a single day, and yet the main structure of the concession was hidden from view by other buildings erected immediately in front of it. 

The Snow and Ice Railway can be seen in the Foreground.

The Ice Railway was built under patents belonging to Thomas L. Rankin, of Sacketts Harbor, New York, who received the same Bronze St. Gaudens Medal and the diploma awarded by the Exposition for all contest participants who reached an 80% score or higher in their category.

At the close of the Exposition, the Snow and Ice Railway was moved to Coney Island in Brooklyn but direct sunlight and insufficient refrigeration quickly closed the ride. As Robert Cartwell wrote in his book, The Incredible Scream Machine: A History of the Roller Coaster, "It was not the first idea to be duplicated from Chicago at Coney Island. It would seem that if certain entrepreneurs had their way, the complete Midway Plaisance would have been moved to Brooklyn." 

This is but one example of the influence the 1893 Columbian Exposition had on future expositions, amusement parks and American cultural life, generally. 

World's Columbian Exposition Illustrated, December 1893
Edited by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Fractional Penny Sales Tax Tokens In Illinois.

Sales tax tokens were fractional cent devices used to pay sales tax on very small purchases in many American states during the years of the Great Depression. Tax tokens were created as a means for consumers to avoid being "overcharged" by having to pay a full penny tax on purchases of 5¢ or 10¢. Issued by private firms, by municipalities, and by twelve state governments, sales tax tokens were generally issued in multiples of 1 mill (1/10¢).

Say you bought a dozen eggs for 10¢ and the sales tax was 3%. That would be three-tenths of a penny. So you paid a dime and three 1-mill tokens.

The twelve states that issued these sales tax tokens were Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Washington. Tax tokens were issued in a variety of materials, including cardboard, brass, bronze, aluminum, pressed cotton fiber, and plastic.

Sales tax tokens were generally regarded as a nuisance by consumers and were replaced in fairly short order by the bracket system of sales tax collection, which averaged out the tax on small sales.

By the end of the 1930s, token use was eliminated in most of the issuing states, with sales tax tokens lingering in Missouri until late in the 1940s.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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Sales Tax Tokens to Stay in Circulation. 
Article: Urbana Daily Courier, July 25, 1935

SPRINGFIELD... Sales tax tokens issued by the Illinois department of finance to enable merchants to make change in charging the tax will remain in circulation until the United States treasury issues substitutes, Director K. L. Ames of the state department, said here today. Ames said that he had been informed by Atty. Gen. Otto Kerner that the federal treasury is seeking congressional permission to mint coins of one-half cent and one mill denominations.

Action on the part of the federal treasury, Ames said, will be taken to meet the demands of Illinois and other states having a sales tax law. It will solve the Illinois problem, he said, involving the question of the legality of the aluminum tokens issued by the state department. Several hundred thousands of the state tokens are now in circulation throughout Illinois, according to Ames, and they will continue to circulate pending action by the government toward minting coins of the needed denomination.

Electric Park Amusements, Chicago, Illinois (1895-1901)

Mammoth Dedicatory Festival and 10-Day Carnival.

Electric Park Amusement Association on the corner of Elston, Belmont and California Avenues. The largest and best arranged amusement gardens in the world - fifty acres under 100 Arc Lights.

Electric Park, containing 50 acres of beautiful lawns and charming groves, will be dedicated to Concerts, Amusements, Athletics, etc., on Saturday August 3, 1895. Promptly at 2 o'clock Saturday afternoon the flags will be run to the peak. Company "D" Illinois National Guard will fire a military salute and the gates of Electric Park will be opened to the public for the first time.

Electric Park is only 30 minutes ride from State and Madison Streets. To reach Electric Park take any line of cars running north from center of city, transfer to Belmont Avenue electric and you will be landed at Electric Park...

• or take Milwaukee Avenue cable to Armitage Avenue, transfer at Armitage Avenue to Milwaukee Avenue electric and you will be carried to Electric Park...

• or take Elston Avenue and you will be taken to Electric Park - or take Clybourn Avenue cars and you will ride to within 2 blocks of Electric Park...

• or take C. & N. W. R. R. at Wells Street station to Avondale, leave train at Avondale station and you will be 2 blocks from Electric Park...

• or take Metropolitan 'L' alight at California Avenue station and take Milwaukee Avenue electric, close at hand, and you will reach Electric Park...

• or Belmont Avenue and Elston Avenue electric take you direct to Electric Park.

Single Admission 25¢, Season Tickets, transferable and good for ten admissions $2, for sale at the Grand Entrance on California Avenue.

A Royal Barbeque - An ox will be roasted bodily and served to visitors gratis.

Military Drill - There will be a Military Drill on Electric Park Court.

Bicycle Races - On Electric Park Bicycle Oval. The track measures three laps to the mile and is thirty feet wide. Management has donated $40 in prizes ($1,170 in 2017) and the Clarendon Wheelman will race the opening day. The events are: Quarter mile scratch, half mile scratch, one mile lap race, three mile handicap and five mile handicap races.

Baseball Games - On Electric Park Baseball Grounds.

Football Games - On Electric Park Football Common.

Artistic Dancing - On Electric Park dancing pavilion, the largest dancing pavilion, with one exception, in America.

A Dream of the Civil War - On the evening of the opening day there will be presented the realistic military drama, "A Dream of the Civil War," with nature for a stage.

During the progress of the Carnival there will be a series of Dramas and Tableaux given, included in the series are the following: Camp Lincoln in Repose; The Scottish Chieftain; Ireland As It Is; Doom of the Traitor (Military Execution); An English Pastoral Scene, etc.

Dance of all Nations - A typical dance of all nations will take place on the Electric Park pavilion during the festival.

Fireworks - There will be a magnificent display of fireworks every night during the carnival and good music all the time.

The most gigantic entertainment since the World's Fair. Rivaling the bygone Midway in mirth and jollity.

The Electric Park was foreclosed on December 22, 1901 and portions of the land were auctioned off.

The History of George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., inventor of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition Observation Wheel.

The only known photo of
George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.

George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., born February 14, 1859 and died on November 22, 1896, was a civil engineer and builder of the Ferris wheel, was born in Galesburg, Illinois, the son of George Washington Gale Ferris and Martha Edgerton Hyde Ferris, farmers. Ferris' grandfather Silvanus Ferris, along with Reverend George W. Gale, founded the village of Galesburg in central Illinois.

In 1864 the Ferris' moved to Carson City, Nevada, where they established a ranch. George's father planted the many trees around the state capitol grounds in Carson City, including American elms and spruces. In 1873 George entered the California Military Academy in Oakland, graduating in 1876. That fall he enrolled at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. There he studied civil engineering and engaged in extracurricular activities, including the football, baseball, and rifle teams and the Glee Club. Although required to be reexamined in some courses before passing, he received his engineering degree in February 1881, with a senior thesis titled, "Review of wrought Iron Deck Bridge on the Boston Hoosac Tunnel & western Railway at Schaghticoke, N.Y."

Ferris quickly became an accomplished and active engineer engaged in significant railroad and bridge projects. Following graduation, he worked for General J. H. Ledlie, a railroad contractor in New York City. During his first year, he was sent to Charlestown, West Virginia, as a transitman locating a proposed route of the Baltimore, Cincinnati & Western railway through the valley of the Elk River. He also planned the route of a narrow-gauge track in Putnam County, New York. In 1882 he became an engineer and then general manager for the Queen City Coal Mining Company in West Virginia, where he designed and built a coal trestle over the Kanawha River. He also built three 1,800-foot tunnels. In 1883, on the closing of the Queen City Company, he became assistant engineer of the Louisville Bridge & Iron Company in Louisville, Kentucky. He supervised the concrete work of the pneumatic caissons for the Henderson Bridge across the Ohio River. This work was so dangerous and taxing on his health that he was reassigned to supervise construction of the bridge's superstructure. By the mid-1880s he had become a recognized expert on the properties of structural steel use in bridges and large structures and was also establishing a reputation as an astute businessman. In 1885 he joined the Kentucky and Indiana Bridge Company of Louisville and was placed in charge of testing iron and steel from Pittsburgh steel mills.

In 1886 Ferris married Margaret Ann Beatty of Canton, Ohio, and they moved to Pittsburgh. In partnership with James C. Hallsted, he established the firm of "G.W.G. Ferris & Company, Inspecting Engineers." Soon they opened branch offices in New York and Chicago. The company conducted mill and factory work inspections and testing throughout the United States. While primarily occupied with the organization and administration of this company, he also turned his attention to the promotion and financing of large-scale engineering projects. In 1890, while retaining his ties to G.W.G. Ferris & Company, he founded a second firm, "Ferris, Kaufman and Company," which engineered major bridges across the Ohio River at Wheeling and Cincinnati.

Although engaged in many notable civil engineering projects early in his career, Ferris achieved national celebrity and enduring fame for his conception, design, and building of the Great Ferris wheel that became the signature attraction of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Daniel H. Burnham, director of works of the exposition, in early 1892 challenged U.S. civil engineers to design a "novel" and "daring" structure that would surpass the Eiffel Tower, built for the Exposition Universelle held in Paris, France in 1889 (a World's fair to celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution), to engage the public spirit, and symbolize the exposition's emphasis on new technology.

Ferris was immediately inspired and reportedly sketched the idea and plan for the Great wheel in a Chicago restaurant. He assigned design detail and construction responsibility to his partner, William F. Gronau, also a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Ferris himself used his genius as a businessman to secure the concession in late 1892 after a lengthy negotiation with the board of directors of the exposition, to raise the financing during a period of general national depression in 1893 (known as the Panic of 1893), and to organize the manufacture of parts by numerous companies in the East and Midwest.

Despite a brutally cold winter and a spring of ceaseless rain, the wheel was finished on 21 June 1893. Rising 264 feet above the Midway and 825 feet in circumference, it weighed more than 2.6 million pounds, had thirty-six cars, each with a capacity to hold sixty passengers, was powered by two 1,000-horsepower steam engines, and was illuminated by more than 3,000 electric lights. The wheel proved completely safe, as documented in Scientific American in 1893, withstanding gale-force winds and storms, absorbing lightning, and running flawlessly through the duration of the exposition. Ferris' magnificent wheel dominated the exposition by its size and popularity, carrying 1.4 million riders. It is the first example of technology being harnessed purely as a pleasure machine, and it captured the imagination of a nation.

Ferris soon faced patent infringement suits from creators of smaller pleasure wheels, from which he eventually emerged victorious but at great personal and financial cost. Ferris rejected offers from Coney Island, London, and elsewhere to purchase the wheel and instead relocated and reassembled it in a small park in Chicago. The "Ferris Wheel Park" venture was a miserable failure. Ferris' wheel would delight fairgoers once more at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904. It came to a most ignominious end when the Great wheel succumbed to a wrecking dynamite charge on May 11, 1906.

Despite such evident early promise, the disastrous financial aftermath of the wheel appears to have broken Ferris. His health may have been somewhat precarious since his early bridge-building projects, and his childless marriage apparently failed when his wife returned to her Canton, Ohio, hometown prior to 1896. In an attempt to meet his financial obligations, Ferris sold most of his interest in G.W.G. Ferris & Company to his partners. He died in Pittsburgh. Typhoid fever was identified on his death certificate as the cause of death, though kidney disease may also have contributed to his decline.

Ferris exemplified the daring entrepreneurship, optimism, and building acumen of the nineteenth-century engineer in the United States. In their published eulogy of Ferris, partners Gustave Kaufman and D.W. McNaugher praised his spirit: "He was always bright, hopeful and full of anticipation of good results from all the ventures he had on hand. These feelings he could always impart to whomever he addressed in a most wonderful degree, and therein lay the key note of his success. In most darkened and troubled times... he was ever looking for the sunshine soon to come... He died a martyr to his ambition for fame and prominence." Ferris contributed significantly to forging the future of steel in large-scale building construction. His leadership was not only technical in nature, through the development of testing and the application of steel in project design, but also cultural, erecting a steel structure in the American imagination. The Ferris wheel's merger of technology and entertainment led the way for social acceptance of powerful new technologies and for the dominance of technology-driven amusement in the century to follow. The feverish pace of his engineering projects and businesses mirrored the accomplishments of U.S. engineers who created a civilization for a new century. Writing in November 1893 about the amazing technology and skill evident in the Ferris wheel, civil engineer Wm. H. Searles found the young Ferris to represent "a good promise for America in the twentieth century."

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The Intersection of Loyola Avenue and Sheridan Road, Chicago, 1936.

The intersection of Loyola Avenue and Sheridan Road, Chicago, 1936. The Loyola station was on the Rapid Transit line; Jackson Park-Howard route (later known as the North-South line), today it's known as the Red Line.

Looking South East from Loyola Avenue towards Sheridan Road, Chicago, 1936.

1938 Chicago Rapid Transit route map.

1978 North-South route map.

Derailed Chicago streetcar accident, 1929.

Derailed Chicago streetcar accident, 1929. Vahle’s Pets was located at 215 West Madison Street, Chicago. 

Peoples Gas Light & Coke Company History.

Chicago's first gas company, the "Chicago Gas Light & Coke Company," was organized in 1849 and began to sell gas (used for lighting) in 1850. "Peoples Gas Light & Coke Company" was chartered in 1855 and started delivering gas to Chicago customers in 1862.

In 1897, after the Illinois legislature authorized gas company mergers, Peoples Gas merged with seven other firms. By this time, the company was a leading seller of gas stoves, selling over 20,000 stoves to Chicago customers in 1898 alone.

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The term "coke" in the name "Peoples Gas Light and Coke" refers to the fuel coke used to produce the gas the company supplied. Fuel coke is a type of coal that has been heated to a high temperature and then cooled, which removes impurities and makes it more combustible. It was used in gasification plants to produce coal gas, which was then piped to homes and businesses for lighting and cooking.

The use of fuel coke declined in the 20th century as natural gas became more widely available. However, the name "Peoples Gas Light and Coke" was retained, even after the company stopped using fuel coke. The name is now a historical reference to the company's early days.

Peoples Gas Light & Coke Company Building under construction from the steps of the Art Institute, Chicago (April 15, 1910).
[The building on the left is Pullman Company's headquarters.]

By 1907, Peoples Gas had a local monopoly and struggled with the city to establish fair rates.

Peoples Gas Building opened in 1911 at 122 South Michigan Avenue at Adams Street, Chicago. Lobby Interior. c.1914

In 1913, Illinois created a Public Utilities Commission (which became the Illinois Commerce Commission in 1921) to regulate gas companies. By the beginning of the 1920s, Peoples Gas was delivering about 22 billion cubic feet of gas a year to Chicago customers via 3,100 miles of street mains. At this time, the company still manufactured gas out of coal and oil; in 1921, it used over 700,000 tons of coal and coke and 77 million gallons of oil.

A critical shift in the company's operations occurred at the end of the 1920s when it invested in long pipelines that connected Chicago to natural gas fields in Texas. By 1950, People's Gas had over $80 million in annual sales and employed over 4,500 people. The company changed its name to Peoples Gas Co. in 1968; 12 years later, it became part of Peoples Energy Corp. This entity controlled Peoples Gas and the North Shore Gas Co., which operated in northeastern Illinois. By the early 2000s, Peoples Energy grossed more than $2 billion and had over 3,000 employees in the Chicago area. 

Peoples Gas has 1,497 employees in Illinois in 2023.

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Peoples Gas Light & Coke Company's "Kitchens on Wheels" Program.

Peoples Gas Light & Coke Company specially equipped vehicles (more than one) called "Kitchens on Wheels" provided free gas-cooking demonstrations throughout Chicagoland to introduce people to gas appliances. Advertisements trumpeted that these white-and-gold painted trucks, which visited parks, playgrounds, settlement houses, and other public places, were available to organized groups on request.

The Home Service Department routinely sent recipe cards in gas bills to increase women's interest in cooking, and within two years, published "Mrs. Peterson's Simplified Cooking," which 'basic or standard' recipes for a wide range of dishes were included in this book.

A typical neighborhood gas cooking demonstration.

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Mrs. Anna J. Peterson was the head of the Home Service Department for Peoples Gas Light & Coke Company of Chicago. She was a cooking teacher and the author of "Mrs. Peterson's Simplified Cooking." Peoples Gas published many editions.

From Dr. Neil Gale's Personal Collection.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Galva, Illinois' Founding History.

Galva was founded as a blend of New England and Swedish families, with an added mixture of the Manx and the eventual infusion of the myriad nationalities which moved here in the course of 150 years.

Front Street in Galva, Illinois

The building of a town was visualized first in 1853 by two men who had migrated to Illinois from Vermont — William Lorenzo Wiley and his cousin, James Martin Wiley. They had first stopped off in Brimfield.

Colonists in nearby Bishop Hill immediately offered a helping hand with the new town. In the eight years since their arrival from Sweden, the followers of Eric Jansson had learned much about the building of a community, a lesson fraught with hardship and sacrifice, yet distinguished by a great religious dedication. By 1854, their colony in the rolling land near Red Oak had become a highly successful enterprise.

Other families who had migrated to Illinois from the Isle of Man, that tiny kingdom in the Irish sea, also joined in helping put Galva on the map. And they did much to develop one of the richest agricultural areas of the nation.

Thus, Galva's beginning was an auspicious one, marked by the efforts of men and women in whom the pioneer spirit burned strongly and whose lives had been fashioned around an abiding faith in God.

In the intervening decades Galva became the Homeburg of George Fitch...the City of Go...the place so many folks living throughout the United States still refer to as “the old home town.”

It was during and overland journey from their homes in Brimfield, Peoria County, to Rock Island and Davenport that the Wiley cousins reached the decision to establish a town. Actually, they were on a land inspection trip that February day in 1853 and the founding of Galva was something of an afterthought.

A few weeks earlier, William L. Wiley had written to George R. Wiley in his native Saxton's River, Vermont, describing “1,000 acres for sale up north of Galesburg, 600 acres being heavy timber, which can be bought for $10,000.... I think this land will double within two years....”

On February 24, 1853, he wrote another letter to George R. Wiley: “J.M. and I start today for Rock Island and Davenport. We will look over that land we were talking about....”

Arriving on the future site of Galva, the Wiley's halted on a slight rise of land, which today is a park bearing their names. The words of William L. Wiley have been recorded in history: “What a beautiful spot! Let's buy the land and lay out a town.”

Besides being an astute business man, William L. was of poetic nature, and in later years he wrote in verse about this land where he envisioned a city. There were such phrases as “untouched by white man's plow,” “created by the hand divine,” and “a place, most enchanting for man to dwell....”

But the Wileys weren't the first to be fascinated by this land near the head waters of the Spoon River. James F. Bonham, a Maryland bachelor, had migrated to Illinois in the early 1830s and after a short stay in Chicago, pushed westward to within gunshot of the present site of Galva. This was at least 10 years before the Swedish Colonists reached Bishop Hill and about 20 years before Galva was founded.

Jimmy Bonham was well fixed financially and invested in a sizeable acreage in Section 28 of Galva Township. He built a cabin at the edge of a hickory grove northwest of here and his home often was a wayside haven for pioneers traveling between Peoria County and Rock Island. In the 1990s, the area where Bonham had his homestead was given the name Bonham Road. Bonham also was public spirited and several years later when Galva was considered as the site of Augustana College, the bachelor listed as his contribution 10 acres of land on which to erect buildings.

Even before Bonham arrived, Michael Fraker established a homestead in this area. the site he selected was a short distance west of LaFayette, later known as Fraker's Grove, and he is credited with being the first white settler in Lynn Township.

Bonham also lacked the distinction of being the first land owner in this area. the site of Galva originally was part of the military tract of Illinois where land grants were given to soldiers who served in the War of 1812. A corporal by the name of Jacob Joy received a quarter section in 1818 by order of President James Monroe, but the corporal deprived himself of the joy of viewing this fertile Illinois prairie, much less settling here. He owned the 160 acres exactly one month before it passed into the hand of a Massachusetts man.

Galva was founded at a time when the launching of new towns was a common business. The Midwest was being rapidly developed and the opening of the railroad through this section encouraged the settling of many towns along this new artery of commerce.

The difference of a mile or so would have placed the new town in Knox County, but the railroad was the deciding factor. The route across southeastern Henry County was uncertain as the survey started. Plans to lay the tracks near the outskirts of Bishop Hill were considered, but an agreement with the colony trustees wasn't reached. Nevertheless, the colonists aided the project by grading the right-of-way east of Galva.

Surveying was in progress at the the Wileys halted here on their historic trip to Rock Island and they immediately began negotiations with the railroad officials to induce them to locate a station here. Their success was obvious. Originally, the line was called the Military Tract, but within a few years it became the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. It was launched about 1850 as a link between Galesburg and Mendota, but the original promoters lacked the funds to finish it. For a time, it looked as if it might be another of the “paper railroads,” so common during that period.

North Exchange Street, facing northeast, in the early 1890's. More telegraph wires are being installed.

The railroad's success was assured when controlling interest passed into the hands of John Murray Forbes, a Bostonian with a plentiful supply of dollars and eastern friends with even more dollars. Forbes, destined to become known as “the man who built the Burlington,” visualized a rail link between Chicago and the Mississippi River. Already, through his efforts the 12-mile line between Turner Junction and Aurora had been extended westward to Mendota.

A building boom marked the early days of Galva that summer and autumn 150 years ago. There was feverish activity to erect homes and stores before winter set in. Buildings began to dot the land, where for years, Jimmy Bonham's cabin had been the only sign of civilization. The prairie echoed with a symphony of saws and hammers.

Exchange Street. (1912) - Created by Ben Anderson

The above 1912 photo of Exchange Street ghosted with a modern day picture.

“We plant a little pile of sawdust and next morning a house was sprung up.” Thus, George R. Burt, a carpenter, described Galva's mushrooming growth. At one time as many as 150 men were busy on construction projects.

When the Wiley cousins advertised an auction sale of land in November, 1856, they inserted this comment in the bill: “Galva, already known, is of only two years' growth, but the rapidity with which it has grown since its birth has outdistanced itself in the expectations of its parents and elder sisters....” The population was between 1,000 and 1,200.

For a time, Galva's population exceeded that of Kewanee, which was started the same year at the north edge of Wethersfield when the railroad was built.

While Swedish colonists joined the New England and Manx families in the building of Galva, folks of other nationalities also were attracted here to establish homes. The “western fever” gripped many more New England families who followed the example of the Wileys.

Early Galva residents included such families as the Wileys and the Wolevers, the Bigelows and the Babcocks, the Johnsons and the Olsons, the Fullers and the Farrs, the Seeleys and the Sopers, the Kellys and the Kelseys, the Burts and the Baileys, the Abys and the Albros.

At one time, as many as 35 Wileys lived here, although there is no record of the number of Johnsons in the early years. One hundred and fifty years later the names of the Andersons, Olsons, Nelsons and Johnsons still dominate the roster of families; but ironically, the name of Wiley, so prominent in the early history of the town, does not appear among the residents of Galva's sesquicentennial year.

On the site of Galva, the Bishop Hill colonists invested in 50 town lots. They built the first boarding house and the first warehouse, dug the first well, published the first newspaper and cooperated in scores of projects. They were good neighbors in every respect.

In recognition of their aid in the early building activities, the honor of naming the new town went to the Bishop Hill colonists. It was Olof Johnson who suggested the name. Johnson, a colony trustee, represented Bishop Hill in its Galva business enterprises, maintaining headquarters here and occupying a large home which he erected at the northwest corner of Wiley Park. This home is now owned by Ed Muncaster and is listed in the National Historic Record. Otherwise, he spent much time in eastern and southern cities where the Jansonists conducted business.

He was quoted as saying: “After due deliberation, it is my distinct privilege to propose the name of which we shall be justly proud. It is the name of one of the greatest seaports of Sweden, a city from which many of our people set sail on the voyage to the new world. It is my fervent hope that in the years to come it shall serve to cement even more firmly the bonds of friendship between the peoples of our adopted country — the United States of America — and our beloved homeland — the Kingdom of Sweden. With a feeling of great pride, I propose the name of Gefle....”

Because the name was pronounced “Yaveley,” within a short time in was Anglicized to the present spelling. A number of years ago, the spelling of the Swedish town was revised to “Galva.”

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Haunted History of Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery in Midlothian, Illinois.

The settlement at Bachelors Grove began as early as the late 1820s, with larger numbers of immigrants arriving in the 1830s and 1840s. The initial settlers were generally American "Yankees" of English, Irish, and Scottish descent, most of whom came here from New York, Vermont, and Connecticut. The second wave of settlers arriving from Europe, primarily of Germanic origin, began in the late 1840s and was predominately the nationality of immigrants settling in this area for the next fifty years or so. 

The cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in south Cook County. It is located in Bremen Township, Cook County, Illinois, on 143rd street three-tenths of a mile east of Ridgeland Avenue. It is down a trail that was the former alignment of the Midlothian Turnpike that has been closed to vehicular traffic since the 1960s. The cemetery is on the south side of the Rubio Woods Forest Preserve. The cemetery has been inactive since 1989. 

“Bachelor’s Grove” is the most historically appropriate name for the Cemetery and former nearby settlement according to publically published works by Brad L. Bettenhausen, President of the Tinley Park Historical Society. It is this variation that is used on the cemetery plat map in the collections of the Tinley Park Historical Society, and the original plat for the Village of Bremen from 1853. Numerous other variations of the name exist, such as “Bachelor’s,” “Bachelor’s,” and “Batchellor.”  The name is commonly understood to have come from corruptions of the family name of Batchelder, a locally prominent family when the area was first settled in the 1820s, 30s, and 40s. 

Legend has it that the cemetery got its name because only men were buried here, but it actually came from the name of a family who settled in the area. Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery was established no later than November 1844 with the burial of Mrs. Eliza Scott, though some sources allude to burials having taken place on the grounds as early as 1836. The cemetery was founded by Edward M. Everden, with some land possibly added in later years by Fredrick Schmidt, though hard evidence of the Schmidt addition has eluded most historical researchers. The last two burials to date were Ms. Laura M. McGhee in 1965, and the cremated remains of Robert E. Shields in 1989. The last independent cemetery trustee was Clarence Fulton of Tinley Park, whose family were early settlers of Bremen Township, and many of whom were buried in the cemetery. 

Prior to World War II, the cemetery was a typical small township cemetery. In the days when picnicking in cemeteries was fashionable, family members would picnic on the grounds. Some would also fish or swim in the former rock quarry located to the northwest of the cemetery. After World War II, however, things changed, and not for the better. Many family members of those buried in the cemetery moved out of the area and no longer visited. 

When the Midlothian Turnpike was realigned onto 143rd Street, the former routing became a “lover’s lane,” and a place frequented by teenagers drinking under-age, and otherwise misbehaving. The trustees of the cemetery tried to get a new entrance onto 143rd Street in the 1960s after the old alignment of the Midlothian Turnpike was closed to vehicular traffic. However, they were unable to gain the required easement from the Cook County Forest Preserve District.

It is also at this time that reports of paranormal activity surrounding the cemetery and nearby Midlothian Turnpike area began to truly spike, peaking in the 1970s and 1980s. This combination of an isolated rural location not routinely patrolled by the Sheriff’s Police and reputation as a “haunted” area drew in many people whose interests were demonstrably not in the interests of the cemetery.

The vandalism of graves became almost routine. Almost all of the headstones were vandalized and broken. Some headstones were partially or entirely thrown into the nearby flooded quarry. Others were removed from the property; some being recovered by police departments as far away as Maywood, Evergreen Park, and Chicago. Evidence of the performance of Satanic Rituals has been found in the cemetery, along with evidence of attempts to open and rob graves. This undesirable conduct was not performed by, caused directly by, or condoned by legitimate paranormal researchers. However, the same rumors and reports that attracted legitimate paranormal researchers also attracted those whose behavior was not up to any common standards of decency.

Just beyond the rear barrier of the cemetery is a small, stagnant pond. This pond, while outside of the graveyard, is still not untouched by the horror connected to the place. One night in the late 1970s, two Cook County Forest Preserve officers were on night patrol near here and claimed to see the apparition of a horse emerge from the waters of the pond. The animal appeared to be pulling a plow behind it that was steered by the ghost of an old man. The vision crossed the road in front of the ranger's vehicle, was framed for a moment in the glare of their headlights, and then vanished into the forest. The men simply stared in shock for a moment and then looked at one another to be sure that had both seen the same thing. They later reported the incident and since that time, have not been the last to see the old man and the horse.

Little did the rangers know, but this apparition was actually a part of an old legend connected to the pond. It seems that in the 1870s, a farmer was plowing a nearby field when something startled his horse. The farmer was caught by surprise and became tangled in the reins. He was dragged behind the horse and it plunged into the small pond. Unable to free himself, he was pulled down into the murky water by the weight of the horse and the plow and he drowned.

Clarence Fulton approached Bremen Township, as early as 1967, sought to take over the management and care of the cemetery, but he was turned down. While there was a cemetery association, it was never formally incorporated, and all its assets beyond the cemetery itself had been long since spent coping with the highly destructive vandalism the cemetery suffered. The cemetery was finally taken over by Cook County after being approached by Fulton in 1975. 

It was discovered at that time that the plot sales had not been correctly documented with the county and that the title to the land probably still rested in the hands of the descendants of Edward M. Everden. Cook County obtained clear title to the cemetery by condemnation. The cemetery is now under the supervision and responsibility of the Cemetery Trustees under the Real Estate Management Office of the Cook County Board. Through intergovernmental agreements, responsibility for the maintenance is shared with the Cook County Forest Preserve District, whose land entirely surrounds the cemetery.

Several groups have over the more recent years donated labor to maintaining Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery. However, beyond keeping the property somewhat less overgrown, they haven’t been able to accomplish much. Between the difficulty in navigating the bureaucracy of Cook County Government, and conflicts with each other as to what the cemetery should be used for and the degree of public access that should be allowed, no headstone maintenance or other work beyond brush and trash removal has been accomplished by anyone.

While owned by the Real Estate Management Office of the Cook County Board, access is governed by the same rules that govern most of the Cook County Forest Preserve District. People may only visit after sunrise and must leave prior to sunset. Parking is available nearby at the Rubio Woods Forest Preserve parking lots off of the north side of 143rd Street, roughly a 350 yard walk away from the cemetery. Attempting to park any closer is illegal and you will be ticketed or towed without warning or sympathy. The Cook County Sheriff’s Police patrol the area at night. If you are caught after dark, you will be arrested. 

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 
Contributor, Quibblo

Jo-Jo Kiddie Land Amusement Park, Chicago Heights, Illinois (1950-early 60s)

Jo-Jo Kiddie Land Amusement Park, on the northwest corner of Chicago Road and 30th Street, South Chicago Heights, Illinois, was opened in 1950 by Joseph N. Bartolini.

The park opened with a Merry-Go-Round, a Diesel-locomotive miniature railroad, a kiddie Ferris wheel, a buggy ride, boats, airplanes, hand pedal cars, ponies and a shooting gallery. In the 1st year, rides were a bargain at 9¢ each.

Andy Flodin writes, "There was no admission charge Jo-Jo's Kiddie Land. I frequented the park when I was around 10 or 11. I was a little old for the rides as they were for younger children, but the ponies fascinated me. The gentleman who ran the pony ride concession got used to seeing me around petting the ponies and offered me a job.

This was my first job. I honestly can't remember if he paid me, but it was my dream job. I got to feed and brush the ponies, put on and take off the saddles, and lead them when we had a child rider. Sometime in the early 60s, Jo-Jo's Kiddie Land closed, and a shopping center was built on the property it occupied."

Lost Towns of Illinois - Challacombe, Illinois

Challacombe, IL was established on June 3, 1887 and disbanded on January 19, 1909. It is now a part of Medora, IL. Challacombe was located in Section 20 of Chesterfield Township in Macoupin County. 

Nicholas Challacombe, who came here from Devonshire, England in 1840, settling on section 21 (the "Mound") homestead. He became a prominent farmer and stock-raiser. Nicholas Challacombe and his wife Nancy G. Carson, eldest daughter of Harvey Challacombe were newly married. The small area of the Mound was generally known as Challacombe.

Challacombe was established with the building of the St Louis, Chicago, and St Paul Railroad Line. All that is left is an intersection, Challacombe Road & South Alton Way Road, with a single house, two grain silos and farmland. There is no way to know you are in Challacombe, IL unless you had an old map.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Jackson Boulevard bridge over the Chicago River. (1915)

Two photos of the Jackson Boulevard bridge over the Chicago River in 1915.

View this rare ferrotype (tintype) photograph of President-elect Abraham Lincoln's first bearded profile photo.

CLICK PHOTO FOR A FULL SIZE IMAGE.

This is a rare Ferrotype (tintype) photograph of President-elect Abraham Lincoln taken in Springfield on February 9, 1861 by photographer Christopher S. German. It was the first profile photograph of the newly bearded Lincoln. No original exists, but a private collector provided this copy.