The Labor and Industry Museum in Belleville Illinois.

I visited the Belleville, Illinois, Labor & Industry Museum several times. It was an excellent little museum with many Belleville-made stoves, heaters, industrial machines and memorabilia. I was invited to sit with a couple of old guys as they slurped down their coffee and take part in a history lesson about how the Military men that came home from the Black Hawk War of 1832 banded together some years later and headed for California, to find a fortune in gold (Before the official gold rush in 1848). News articles were coming out of California and Oregon, and apparently, after panning for gold, some men returned to Belleville after a couple of years... Filthy Rich... but complaining was the most demanding work they ever did. I sat there, mesmerized. After looking at my watch, I saw that two hours had passed. Here is a little about the Museum and the Beautiful building it is in, the Conrad Bornman House, with my personal photographs.

THE LABOR AND INDUSTRY MUSEUM
The Labor & Industry Museum is the only public institution devoted to the history of the labor and industry of Belleville and southwestern Illinois. Belleville was one of the most important centers for the growth of the Illinois industry, which ranked third in the nation in the late 19th century. The Museum's mission is to chronicle and interpret the area's rich cultural heritage of labor and industry. Belleville contributed significantly to the industrial movement by establishing some of the earliest and largest manufacturing establishments in the burgeoning United States.

The Labor & Industry Museum is based in the Conrad Bornman House on historic Church Street in Belleville. This 1837 building, rescued from the wrecking ball by the Belleville Historic Preservation Commission, witnessed the enormous development of the 19th-century industry. The building, which has undergone extensive renovation, houses permanent and unique exhibition galleries, an educational center, and archives.

THE CONRAD BORNMAN HOUSE
The building which houses the Labor & Industry Museum has four building dates beginning in 1837. Conrad Bornman, believed to be the first German immigrant to Belleville, purchased the lot at the intersection of North Church and East B Streets in 1837.

The Conrad Bornman House.

The 1881 History of St. Clair County relates that Conrad Bornman, a blacksmith and strawberry farmer who became interested in brick making and the art of bricklaying, and a fellow blacksmith named Small, were the first German immigrants to Belleville. They were the vanguard of the largest German migration to the State of Illinois. Their fellow Germans contributed significantly to the 1830s building boom and the foundry/industrial "Gilded Age" of Belleville and the Belleville area.

By 1837, Conrad Bornman was 20 and had lived in the new world for 19 years. That year, he built a house at 123 North Church Street in Belleville - two blocks from the Public Square, and it is now the home of the Labor and Industry Museum.

When it was boarded up and slated for demolition in 1995, the Historic Preservation Commission noted that it was the last remaining German Street House in the original town of Belleville, as platted in 1814. 

Bornman built his 2½-room house in the classical severity of the "Klassizimus" Style popular in Germany in the 1830s and 1840s. The brick street house is 1-½ stories, with gabled side walls and a cornice of brickwork across the front. The original entry was a single door with sidelights and a transom overhead to catch the summer breezes. The windows are evenly spaced, and the wood lintels are original. The house's interior has log lintels with the bark still on them. There is a trap door to the cellar, worn pine thresholds and the original stairway and floors.

Bornman sold his street house to Charles Born in 1840. Born had emigrated from Germany in 1839 and was a shoemaker by trade -- the 1860 Street Directory lists Born Boot & Shoe Dealer in the first block of North High Street. He also served as a city alderman and city marshal.

Like Bornman, Born changed careers and opened a machine shop with two sons, John Charles and William F. They lived and worked at 123 North Church Street, and the original house was expanded twice before they built a new machine shop at 222 East B Street in 1885. John Charles was the patent holder of six inventions of steam pumps, polishing lathes, and grinders. Charles Born died in 1896, and in 1920 J.C. Born Machine Co. was sold to Columbia Manufacturing Co.

In 1913, the Born family sold the North Church Street building to Charles Beck, who expanded it to house his cigar and tobacco manufactory.

Charles Beck (1867-1933) learned cigar making from Louis Kaemper, a cigar maker at 228 East Main Street. By 1901, Beck had a shop at 208-210 West Main Street. According to his grandson, Beck fashioned all the equipment used in making cigars, chewing tobacco and pipe tobacco, including a stripping machine, humidor and oven. The giant zinc-lined oven remains in the basement of the museum. The last cigar was made in the building in 1957.

Beck was active in the Cigar Maker's Union's affairs and was its vice president. He was instrumental in forming the Belleville Trades and Labor Assembly in 1891 and served as that organization's first treasurer.

Beck's son, Sonny, closed the cigar business in 1957, and the building was sold to Everett E. Sakasko, who operated Ed's TV Repair Service. Sakasko's wife, Geraldine, was the proprietor of the "The Lady Orchid" Beauty Salon.

In 1995, the East-West Gateway Coordinating Council purchased the North Church Street building, and the property was to be demolished to provide parking for the St. Clair County Transit District. However, with the cooperation of the City and County Government and the Historic Preservation Commission, the City of Belleville Planning Department was given six months to find a use for the building.

Since Belleville did not have a visitors center then, the city determined that that would be a good use for the building. Funds were garnered from Downtown Development & Redevelopment, Belleville Tourism, and the Historic Preservation Commission to purchase the building from the Transit District. Additionally, funds would be raised from the public and private sectors to restore the building and house a Labor & Industry Museum. The museum would center on Belleville's Gilded Age, 1865 - 1929.

In 1998, an official board was formed to restore the building and develop the museum. The restored building was dedicated in December 2000. Almost 1,400 people attended the Grand Opening on August 10, 2002.

Ideal Stencil Machine Co., 102 Iowa Avenue, Belleville, Illinois (1911-2002). Two of the world's four stencil machine factories were in Belleville, and the others were in St. Louis. The Ideal Stencil Machine Company, perhaps the best equipped, receives its castings from the Excelsior Foundry located in the same block. Its annual production was about $150,000 (Today, $3,866,975.00), employing 24 people.

VIDEO

Ideal № 1 Stencil Cutting Machine (1911) Tutorial.

Auto Stove Works, New Athens:

Auto Stoves and Ranges for 1935-36; Catalog № 17. (pdf)

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Did a Cook County Illinois Sheriff Arrest, Resurrection Mary in Justice, Illinois?

The Legend of Resurrection Mary
A young man went out dancing at the Willowbrook Ballroom in Willow Springs, Illinois and meets a young, attractive polish girl with long flowing blond hair in a beautiful white dress. The man asked her to dance. She wasn't very talkative. He took her hand guiding her to the dance floor, thinking she felt quite cold to the touch but there is something about her that is both exciting and mysterious.

The Main Gate of Resurrection Catholic Cemetery & Mausoleums on Archer Avenue in Justice, Illinois.

Toward the end of the evening, he asks her how he can contact her. She takes a cocktail napkin off the table and writes her address on it. He puts the napkin in his jacket pocket without looking at it. A little while later he offers the young lady a ride home, she accepts. On the way to her house, the girl becomes very anxious and signals to the man to drop her off right as they reach Resurrection cemetery. The guy hesitates because it is late and there doesn't seem to be any residences nearby but because she is so persistent and agitated he reluctantly pulls over. The young lady jumps out of the car and runs toward the locked gates of the cemetery where she seemed to just pass-through the cemetery gates and promptly vanishes into the darkness.

The next day he remembers that he has her address in is pocket. He drives to her house to ensure that his date made it home safely. An older woman answeres the door. he asks for Mary. He is invited in and takes a seat on the sofa. The young man notices photographs on the credenza and immediately recognizes one picture as the woman that he had danced with the night before. The old lady told him that her daughter was killed by a hit-and-run driver coming home from a night of dancing some years ago.

Commentary
The above legend is a conglomerate of stories told about the "vanishing hitchhiker" along Archer Avenue known as "Resurrection Mary."  Some eyewitnesses have reported seeing a young blond girl in a white dress steps out in front of their car only to disappear. Some have seen "Mary" hitchhiking along Archer Avenue near Resurrection Cemetery only to have her disappear on second glance.  Others still have had very vivid recollections of actually dancing with her. Mary has been a rite of passage for youthful drivers on the southwest side of Chicago, especially on Halloween, for many years and one of the most beloved spirits of the Chicagoland area.

The Law Enforcement Officer's Story
A Cook County Sheriff was on patrol in the early 1980s and was across the street from Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, Illinois parked next to and chatting with a Justice police officer. The Justice policeman was keeping an eye on the cemetery entrance that night because it was so close to Halloween, to discourage vandals and curiosity seekers from entering the cemetery after dark, while it was closed.

As they were talking, a car pulled up to them at a high rate of speed and a female jumped from the vehicle. She looked terrified and was screaming that they had just seen "Resurrection Mary!" along Archer Avenue near the Fairmount Cemetery. 

Fairmount Cemetery is within eyeshot of The Willowbrook Ballroom which is one of the locations associated with the legend of "Mary."

Both officers looked at each other and rolled their eyes, but because the woman was so visibly upset and serious, they decided to check things out.

As they passed the Willowbrook Ballroom, they said they actually did see a glowing figure disappear into the woods near the Fairmount Cemetery. He was actually a little bit startled at seeing this and pulled off the road to investigate. 

The Willowbrook Ballroom, formerly the "Oh Henry," where Mary allegedly danced.

He started to walk into the woods with his gun drawn, chuckling, because he didn't know how his gun was going to protect him from a ghost!

He caught another glimpse of the figure in the woods and it was quickly gone again!  He walked in the direction of where he last saw the glowing figure and he couldn't believe that he could see a figure wearing a glowing white dress behind a group of trees!  His voice cracking, he identified himself as a police officer and ordered the figure to come out from behind the trees. The figure moved and started walking toward him. What he saw next was... well shocking! As the figure came closer he could see that it was actually a male figure wearing a white dress and blonde wig. The male subject had covered the dress in the liquid from numerous glow sticks causing it to glow in the dark.

This is the censored version of what the Justice policeman said to this individual. "What the heck do you think you are doing out here!" The individual explained that he had been dressing up like "Resurrection Mary" for the past 10 years in the 1970s-1980s and scaring people along Archer Ave as it got close to Halloween.

He asked him if there was anyone else in the woods and the guy yelled to a number of his friends to come out. They were hiding with video cameras and lights. Of course, now it was funny and other police officers were showing up to get a gander at "Mary" and it started taking on a kind of "circus atmosphere." Some officers had taken Polaroid pictures standing next to and putting their arms around "Mary."

They finished by deciding to extend "Mary" and her friends some grace and let them go with a stern warning to cease their ghostly activities or face prosecution for startling motorists and possibly causing an accident.

The next day it was apparent that "Mary" had not heeded their advice and it was also painfully apparent that the Cook County Sheriff's Police did not find his antics as amusing as the local authorities did. The glowing drag queen, in handcuffs and being "assisted" into a Cook County Cruiser, he thought that this would be a really cool booking photo!graph!

A Visual Aid

By Ray Johnson
Edited by Neil Gale, Ph.D.