Lost Towns of Illinois - Bybee, Illinois.

Bybee is a former settlement in Fulton County, Illinois. The small settlement was about 2.7 miles south-southwest of Fairview and 7 miles west-northwest of Canton.

The community was named for David Bybee, who donated land to construct a station on the Fulton County Narrow Gauge Railway in 1880. It operated into the 1920s. There was a school, store, and train station on the narrow gauge rail. The Postoffice was established on September 29, 1881, and William Bybee was the Postmaster for the first two years.

Fulton County Narrow Gauge Railway was turned into a standard gauge around 1910. In 1905, two trains per day passed through Bybee, but by 1913, only one train ran per day. The track was torn out of this area when the narrow gauge company discontinued service between Galesburg and Fairview, Illinois.

There is a small cemetery named Bybee Cemetery (aka: Hipple Cemetery), near where this community used to exist. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Lost Towns of Illinois - Coltonville, Illinois.

Coltonville was a community in DeKalb County, Illinois. In June 1839, DeKalb County was considering building a courthouse and, as such, placement of a county seat. Rufus Colton, Clerk of the Court in the county, was leading a push for Coltonville, where he lived.

Colton nearly led Coltonville into a new era as the county seat through political wrangling and underhanded techniques. He had arranged for the court to convene at his log cabin only after he had set up an election as a clerk for the county seat. The election was unique in that only the residents of Colton's choice for the county seat, Coltonville, were informed of it. When the DeKalb County Court convened in Colton's Coltonville home, the sheriff served a court order which stated a courthouse was to be built in Sycamore, the city which would become the county seat.

Even without the court order, Colton's actions would have never been deemed legal; they were eventually canceled by an act of the Illinois General Assembly. Along with Brush Point, the other community considered for the county seat, both communities disappeared after losing out to Sycamore.

Today, the town name lives on as Coltonville Road in southwestern Sycamore. The town site lies in DeKalb Township, near the cities of DeKalb and Sycamore.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Rudimentary Road Construction History in Early Chicago and Eastern United States.

prelude

To the pioneers moving west from the east coast towards the Mississippi River, a road was any kind of a worn track or path leading to a designated point. Some paths were well defined by animal migration.  

Don't miss my in-depth study of pre-paved Chicago: Plank Road History in the Chicago Area.

A TRAIL THROUGH THE PRAIRIE

The Romans claimed to be the first to construct a cobblestone road which appeared on Rome's unparalleled network of about 75,000 miles worth of roads beginning in the Third Century (201-300AD).

Note: The curbs double as a pedestrian walkway. Spain.

The Roman roads were notable for their straightness, solid foundations, cambered surfaces (slightly arched to facilitate drainage), and the use of a form of concrete made from pozzolana (volcanic ash) and lime to set the stones.

The term "Cobblestone" (River Rock in North America) was derived from the ancient English word "cob," which had a wide range of meanings, one of which was "rounded lump" with overtones of a larger size. "Cobble," which appeared in the 15th Century, simply added the diminutive suffix "le" to "cob" and meant a small stone (usually ten inches or less) rounded by the natural flow of river water. 

We know Cobbles as River Rocks in North America.

Cobbles were set in sand or mortar, a method of paving streets common from the 15th into the 18th Century, when hamlets and villages wanted to improve dirt road travel. These routes made travel more reliable and less weather dependent, and they also do not get muddy or rutted by rain like dirt roads do.

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In 1846, the City of London in the United Kingdom decided to replace its wood paving blocks with granite. Upon removing the old wooden blocks people were allowed to take the wood, most using it for heating by fireplace.  In the 1850s practically all of the carriageways had been paved with granite setts from Scotland. However, the streets were often muddy in wet weather and full of dust in the summer. ‘Scavengers’ were employed to clean the streets and cart away the mud and manure.

How the City of Chicago dealt with 1,660 tons of daily horse manure.

Flat stones have a narrow edge on pitched road surfaces. A thousand years passed before setts bricks were produced and used to construct roads. Setts consist of granite mined locally from [Illinois] quarries and shaped into rectangular or square bricks called Belgian Blocks, aka Chicago Street Paver Bricks.

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People often confuse Belgian block with cobblestone or call both by the same name. Nobody seems to confuse them with antique brick streets that were popular at the same time. Cobbles are very different from Belgian Blocks, and the difference is plain to see if you know what to look for. Belgian Blocks are rectangular or square, whereas cobbles are roundish and typically have smooth edges.

In contrast, Belgian blocks were quarried (limestone) and carry the shape and tool markings that come with the stone cutting process. The rougher texture may have given them a rough and noisy ride on carriages and today’s automobiles. Still, that rough texture and angular shape were imperative to creating a good solid foundation for the horse-drawn carts of those days.

There is also "Belgian Woodblock" (aka Nicolson pavement), which Chicago started using by 1853. The Belgian woodblock paving method was preferred because it was so cheap, but was unsuitable unless pitched and sanded over.

In the alley behind the Archbishop of Chicago's Mansion (built 1885) at 1555 North State Parkway before the replacement pictured below. Estimated at over 100 years old. Note how tree trunks were cut at 3 foot in length, laid out and burried 2¾ feet deep before pouring the fill and packing it down.

You can find this recently replaced Belgian Wood Block alley behind the Archbishop of Chicago's Mansion. The alley runs east-west.

Public cobblestone roads are maintained in many historic towns and districts in the country's eastern half. They are also used for new public and private decorative construction purposes, such as Koi ponds and water features.

Wisconsin River Rock Veneer.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Keepataw, Illinois was a paper town in Cook, DuPage, and Will Counties.

Lemont, Illinois' boundaries are within Cook, DuPage, and Will Counties, 24 miles southwest of the Loop. Lemont lies in the Des Plaines River Valley, on the south bank of the Illinois & Michigan Canal. 

The Des Plaines River at Lemont was deeply etched into the glacial uplands. The village was established mainly in response to the impending canal development and was nestled between valley bluffs to the southeast and the river to the north. The I&M Canal, constructed along the south side of the river in 1848, left areas between the two waterways to be developed for industrial purposes. Lemont's downtown and residential districts grew between the canal and the valley bluffs.

The first attempt at settlement after the displacement of the Indians was a "paper town" called Keepataw which was platted in 1836. 

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A Paper Town or Phantom Settlement is a community that appears on maps but does not legally exist.

Next, the name was changed to Athens (for the locally mined limestone called 'Athens stone') but was quickly abandoned because another Illinois town had already claimed that name. 

A post office was established in 1840 as Keepatau (note spelling). 

The name La Mont (French: 'The Mount' [ain]) was chosen in 1850 at the suggestion of Lemuel Brown (1815-1894). Brown settled in Keepataw in 1840 and became the postmaster and the justice of the peace. The name 'La Mont' was quickly corrupted (Americanized) into Lemont.

Lemont was incorporated as a village in 1873. 

Potawatomi Chief Keepataw was friendly to trappers and hunters, even warning villages when unfriendly tribes were on the move or preparing to attack.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Contributor, Encyclopedia of Chicago

What Did President Lincoln Believe About Slavery, the Civil War, and Democracy?

When Abraham Lincoln became president in 1861, the United States faced the severe challenges of slavery and a possible civil war. Many doubted that American democracy would survive. What did Lincoln believe about these complex, thought-provoking challenges?

Abraham Lincoln, 1860.

Abraham Lincoln barely had a year of formal schooling (A,B,C School), but he educated himself by reading books. He read histories, biographies, the Bible, Shakespeare, English legal classics, and literally any book he got his hand on. He primarily studied collections of speeches by masterful orators like Henry Clay.

Like Thomas Jefferson and the other founding fathers, Lincoln believed in the power of human reason to advance society. Although he attended some religious services and referenced the Bible in his speeches, Lincoln never joined a church.

Lincoln left behind many of his frontier roots and embraced science, technology, and progress. He was enthusiastic about Charles Darwin's new theory of human evolution. So far, Abraham Lincoln is the only U.S. President to hold a patent on an invention (a device to lift boats off sandbars). Nevertheless, he accepted the prevailing theory that inherent differences separated the races.

Lincoln's political hero was Henry Clay. Clay was a Kentucky enslaver and member of Congress who ran for president three times but never won. As the leader of the Whig Party, Clay, was most famous as "The Great Compromiser," referring to Clay's role in forging the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850. These compromises produced an uneasy balance between the Northern and Southern states that put off the war between these sections over slavery.

Even before he entered politics, Lincoln wholeheartedly supported Clay's "American System," which included building a national transportation system and placing high tariffs on imports to protect young industries. Lincoln also agreed with Clay that slavery, if confined to the Southern states, would eventually disappear as the national economy changed.

Lincoln's Early Views on Slavery

Lincoln believed that American democracy meant equal rights and equality of opportunity. However, he drew a line between fundamental natural rights such as freedom from slavery and political and civil rights like voting. He believed it was up to the states to decide who should exercise these rights. Before the Civil War, Northern and Southern states commonly barred women and free black persons from voting, serving on juries, and enjoying other such rights.

Lincoln strongly believed slavery was "a great evil." He did not join with the small minority of Northern abolitionists who wanted to outlaw slavery immediately. Lincoln preferred to emancipate the slaves gradually by compensating their owners with federal funds.

Lincoln also supported the idea of providing government aid to the freed slaves, enabling them to establish colonies abroad. Lincoln thought they would finally enjoy equal political and civil rights in their black nations.

In 1832, when Lincoln began his political career in Illinois, he joined Henry Clay's Whig Party. Although Illinois voters elected Lincoln to the state legislature and a term in the U.S. House of Representatives, he made little impression.

Lincoln decided not to run for re-election to Congress after his term ended in 1848. He then started a prosperous law firm in Springfield, Illinois. In 1854, however, the explosive issue of expanding slavery into the Western territories drew him back into politics and ultimately to the presidency.

Lincoln's "House Divided" Speech

Henry Clay's Missouri Compromise of 1820 prohibited slavery in any future territories carved out of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase. In 1854, U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas, an Illinois Democrat, led Congress in passing a law that would open the possibility of expanding slavery into this area.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act left it up to the Kansas and Nebraska territories' voters to decide the legal status of slavery. Douglas called this "popular sovereignty." This law enraged many Northerners because it repealed a vital provision of the Missouri Compromise and opened the way for organizing future slave states in the West. The Kansas-Nebraska Act also led to the formation of the Republican Party.

Those who joined the new political party included abolitionists and a much larger number of "Free-Soilers" who wanted to prevent the expansion of slavery into the Western territories. Many Whigs, including Abraham Lincoln, switched to the Republican Party.

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Sometime between the late 1860s and 1936, the Democratic party of small government became the party of big government, and the Republican party of big government became rhetorically committed to curbing federal power.  [read more]

In 1855, Illinois Republicans nominated Lincoln for a seat in the U.S. Senate. State legislatures elected senators, and Lincoln lost the contest in the Illinois state legislature. Nevertheless, he was back in 1858 to challenge one of the most influential political leaders in the nation, Stephen A. Douglas.

On June 16, 1858, Lincoln spoke before the Illinois Republican Party Convention to accept the nomination for U.S. senator. Lincoln focused his speech on the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the recent Dred Scott Supreme Court decision. In that case, most justices had further undermined the Missouri Compromise by ruling that a slave taken by his master into a free territory or state remained enslaved.

In his acceptance speech, Lincoln summarized his position on the expansion of slavery by quoting the words of Jesus: "A house divided against itself cannot stand" (Matthew 12:25). "I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free," Lincoln declared.

Lincoln argued that slavery in the United States would eventually have to end everywhere or become legal everywhere in order for the nation to survive:

Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new—North as well as South.

Lincoln then attacked his opponent, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, the chief author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Lincoln charged, "he cares not whether slavery is voted down or voted up" in Kansas and Nebraska. Douglas' "care not" policy, Lincoln asserted, merely invited slave owners to "fill up the territories with slaves."

Lincoln's First Inaugural Address

Lincoln went on to debate Douglas on the "popular sovereignty" controversy. Although Lincoln lost his second attempt to win a Senate seat, his "House Divided" speech and debates with Douglas made Lincoln a national political figure.

In February 1860, Lincoln stunned a gathering of Eastern Republicans considering several presidential candidates. The strange-looking "rail splitter" from the West delivered a carefully researched speech that demolished the arguments of the Southerners who claimed the expansion of slavery was constitutional. A few months later, the Republicans made Lincoln their presidential nominee.

Lincoln won the bitter presidential election of 1860 against three opponents, including Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln swept the electoral votes of the Northern states but only won 39 percent of the popular vote. Even before his inauguration, some Southern states seceded from the Union.

Lincoln had two purposes in his First Inaugural Address on March 4, 1861. First, in a final attempt to avoid war, he tried to reassure Southerners that he had no desire to interfere with slavery where it already existed. He even quoted a provision of the Constitution requiring that anyone who committed a crime and fled to another state "shall be delivered up." He pointed out that this provision applied to slaves who ran away to free states.

Lincoln's second purpose was to contend that no state had a constitutional right to secede. He warned that the Constitution required him to ensure "the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States."

Lincoln cautioned Southerners to think carefully about secession, which he said would only lead to anarchy or dictatorship. "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not mine, is the momentous issue of civil war," he declared. A little over a month later, Confederate cannons fired on Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. Furthermore, the Civil War began.

The Emancipation Proclamation

Some Union commanders and Congress tried a few times to free slaves in the early years of the Civil War, but Lincoln overrode these efforts. He still held out for gradual compensated emancipation followed by the creation of colonies of the formerly enslaved in Africa or other areas outside the United States.

Lincoln met with black leaders for the first time in August 1862 and lectured them about his colonization plan. They were not enthusiastic. It never occurred to Lincoln (or to most other white Americans at the time) that black people had much stronger ties of history, language, and religion with the United States than with Africa.

In the end, military necessity drove Lincoln's emancipation of the slaves. A few days after the Union victory at Antietam on September 17, 1862, Lincoln issued an ultimatum to the Confederacy. He threatened that he would declare all slaves in the areas of rebellion "forever free" unless the Confederacy surrendered within 100 days.

When Lincoln's deadline passed, he remarked, "The promise must now be kept." On January 1, 1863, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation "as a fit and necessary war measure" for suppressing the rebellion. Using his powers as commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy, Lincoln proclaimed that all slaves within the rebellious states and areas "are, and henceforward shall be free."

In his proclamation, Lincoln also called on the freed slaves to "abstain from violence" and "labor faithfully for reasonable wages." Finally, he shocked the South by welcoming ex-slaves "into the armed service of the United States" (free African Americans were already serving). Lincoln said to those present, "I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, that I do in signing this paper."

Lincoln realized that slavery could not return after the war and agreed that his "war measure" would have to be made permanent for the entire country by a constitutional amendment. Therefore, he quickly supported action in Congress that led to the 13th Amendment.

Thus, Lincoln changed both the goals of the war and his mind about slavery in the United States. The 13th Amendment called for the abolition of slavery immediately in all states and territories without compensation to slave owners.

The question about the future of the freed slaves still bothered Lincoln. In August 1863, he met for the first time with Frederick Douglass, the famous black abolitionist. Douglass pressed Lincoln to end the Union policy of paying black soldiers only half the rate of white soldiers. Douglass insisted on equal rights for all Americans, white and black, men and women.

The Gettysburg Address

Following the horrific battle at Gettysburg in July 1863, the committee in charge of organizing the dedication of the battlefield cemetery invited Lincoln to make "a few appropriate remarks." Lincoln put considerable thought into writing his speech before he arrived at Gettysburg for the ceremonies on November 19, 1863.

Edward Everett, a former president of Harvard, U.S. senator, and governor of Massachusetts, delivered the main oration that took two hours. Lincoln spoke for two minutes. "Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Lincoln began by dating the origin of American democracy, something unique to the world, with the Declaration of Independence.

He observed that "a great civil war" tested whether the United States or any democracy "can long endure." After honoring those who fought and died at Gettysburg, Lincoln said it was for the living to finish "the great task before us." This was nothing less than making sure democracy itself would survive on American soil:

". . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address

In 1864, Lincoln faced re-election. Some proposed that Lincoln suspend the presidential election while the war still raged. Lincoln dismissed this idea:

We cannot have free governments without elections. If the rebellion could force us to forego or postpone a national election, it might reasonably claim to have already conquered and ruined us.

In the Election of 1864, the Democrats pushed for an armistice with the Confederacy to stop the unrelenting bloodshed. Lincoln, however, stood firm for ending the war only on his terms: the reunification of the nation without slavery. The voters agreed with Lincoln.

As the Union military victory neared in the spring of 1865, many called for vengeance against the South. There was great anticipation about what Lincoln would say about this at his Second Inaugural Address on March 4, 1865. Among the 30,000 people who gathered before the steps of the Capitol to hear Lincoln speak were many black Union soldiers.

It may have been Lincoln's most religious speech. "Woe unto the world because of offenses" that God "wills to remove," he said. Lincoln believed that 250 years of slavery was one of these offenses for which both the North and South were responsible. He declared that this "terrible war" was the cost of removing it. God may require the war to continue, and Lincoln warned, "until every drop of blood drawn by the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword."

Lincoln ended with a plea to heal the nation: "With malice toward none; with charity for all." He called for all Americans to "bind up the nation's wounds" and "do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

About a month later, on April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered. A few days later, John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln. When Lincoln died the next day, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton remarked, "Now he belongs to the ages."

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Constitutional Rights Foundation, Contributor.

The April 16, 1865 Indignation Meeting in Bloomington, Illinois, after President Lincoln's Assassination.

News of the assassination hit Bloomington, Illinois, particularly hard since residents viewed Lincoln as one of their own. Religious leaders.

On April 16, the Sunday after the assassination, religious leaders called for an "Indignation (righteous anger) Meeting" on Courthouse Square. A crowd estimated at 8,000 gathered to mourn Lincoln's death. 

The only known photograph of the indignation meeting in Bloomington, Illinois, was likely taken by Bloomington photographers Joe Scibird or brother John Scibird. Local religious leaders organized the meeting on Sunday, April 16, 1865.

Jesse Fell, Bloomington's first lawyer, presided over the meeting, and Asahel Gridley and Leonard Swett each delivered several speeches. The Pantagraph's news columns were edged in black (traditional mourning stationery).

On May 3, 1865, Lincoln's funeral train came into Bloomington on its long deliberate passage from Washington, D.C. to Springfield, Illinois. Scheduled to arrive at 3 am, it was two hours late. Over 8,000 people showed up to see the train. Neighbors near and far came to pay their last respects to their revered, now martyred friend.

NOTE: With Abraham Lincoln as counsel, Asahel Gridley won an important Illinois Supreme Court case, giving him control of the local gas company, one of the state's first.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Lincoln's "Progress in Spelling."

Poor spellers may find comfort in the following anecdote that Mr. R. B. Stanton tells in the reminiscences of Lincoln that he gives in the February 1921 issue of Scribner's Magazine.

Mr. Stanton tells the story his Father told him.

On one occasion, said the senior Mr. Stanton, the President gave me what he was pleased to call an account of his "progress in spelling." The incident reveals Mr. Lincoln's remarkable simplicity and open-heartedness, showing the ease and friendliness he could talk to a private citizen.

Having some business at the War Department and knowing my success depended on the President's favor, I called on the President to ask for his aid. At the interview, no other visitor was present. After stating my case, I asked him if he would speak to the Secretary on my behalf. 

"Certainly I will," he said. Pausing a moment, he added, "Or what's better, I will write him a note. Sit down, and I will write it now." He went to his desk and began writing, but in a few moments turned to me and, looking up over his spectacles, he said:

"Obh-sta-cle: is that the way you spell obstacle? I was so disconcerted at the sudden, unexpected question that, for the moment, I was silent. Noticing my confusion, he laid down his pen and turned his revolving chair to face me.

When I had recovered myself, I said, "I believe that is right, Mr. President."

He said, "When I write an official letter, I want to be sure it is correct, and I am sometimes puzzled to know how to spell the most common word."

When I remarked that that was not an unusual experience with many persons, he said, "I found about twenty years ago that I had been spelling one word wrong all my life up to that time."

"What word is that, Mr. President?" I inquired.

"It is very," he said. "I always used to spell it with two r's—v-e-r-r-y. And then there was another word I found I had been spelling wrong until I came here to the White House. It is an opportunity, and I had always spelled it op-per-tunity."

In relating those instances of his "progress in spelling," as he called it, the President laughed heartily and added some words on the importance of giving attention to orthography (the conventional spelling system of a language). Then he finished his letter to the Secretary of War and handed it to me with a warm expression that my mission might be successful. 

"We Knew the Crack of Revolver Was Not Part of Play," Says Charles L. Willis, Who Beheld John Wilkes Booth Leap From Box.

The curtain rose for the third and last act of the comedy, "Our American Cousin," at Ford's Theatre, on Tenth street, 64 years ago, "and hardly one word had been spoken," Charles L. Willis, of the Willard Court Apartments, "said yesterday, "when the sharp crack of a revolver was heard."

Charles L. Willis

Mr. Willis is one of the two or three persons alive today [1929] who was in the historic old Theatre on the memorable night of April 14, 1865. 

"We all knew it was not a part of the play," the octogenarian pointed out, speaking of the "crack "of a revolver," and ''for a few seconds, everything was still. A cry, 'The President, is shot,' and the audience stood and looked toward the point from whence the sound came."

At the time of the assassination of President Lincoln, Mr. Willis was a stripling of 18 summers, born in Baltimore but a resident of Washington for four years.

"I thought the world of that man," Mr. Willis said, reminiscing. "He had the kindest eye I1 ever saw in a man's head. I remember that I would try to see him whenever he appeared in public. And I am proud to say. that I once shook hands with him."

Mr. Willis' story is a first-hand graphic, eyewitness account of the scene at the Theatre the night Lincoln was shot. In his own words, let him tell it:

"On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, the Washington newspapers stated that President Lincoln and his party would attend the performance at Ford's Theatre that evening.

"Miss Laura Keene, a favorite actress, was to appear in the comedy, 'Our American Cousin.' I was then a young man, 18 years of age, and very fond of the Theatre. I suggested to my chum that we go to the theatre that night. He readily acceded, and we were a part of a large audience present on that occasion. The Theatre was well filled, and the audience was appreciative and happy. The first two acts passed off pleasantly, and when the curtain dropped at the close of the second act, I suggested to my friend that we go out during the intermission." 

As the two young men were on their way out of the Theatre, it might be well to interrupt the continuity to explain that the boyhood chum to whom Mr. Willis refers was John A. Downs, who has been dead for at least twenty years. His survivor estimated. Going on after the interruption. Mr. Willis said:

"While standing on the pavement in front of the Theatre, we saw John Wilkes Booth come out and enter a small restaurant adjoining the Theatre. Booth was a great favorite of all Theatregoers, most especially the young. He was a handsome man with very white skin, piercing eyes, and jet black, curly hair. Only a short time before, I had seen him perform in the same Theatre, with Miss Alice Grey, his last public performance.

"My friend and I reentered the Theatre and resumed our seats in the orchestra pit, our chairs not more than seven rows from the stage and nearly beneath the box occupied by the President and party. As we entered the Theatre, I saw Booth talking to John Buckingham, with whom I was personally acquainted."

Buckingham, Mr. Willis paused again to explain, puffing one of the three cigars he permits himself each day, was the doorman at the Theatre and "an employee of my father, Cornelius L. Willis." 

"The curtain rose io: the third and last act," the old man took up his narrative, "and hardly one word had been spoken when the sharp crack of a revolver was heard. We all knew it was not a part of the play, and everything was very still for a few seconds. A cry, 'The President, is shot,' and the audience stood and looked toward the point from whence the sound came. I saw a man climbing over the rail in front of the box he leaped to the stage a few feet to his right. As he landed on the stage, he staggered; raising his right arm, he muttered a few words and quickly disappeared into the scenery on the left of the stage. 

"A man sprang from the audience, climbed to the stage and made pursuit. The audience was now all standing and with little or no shouting or disorder. I suggested to my friend that we go out, and we did so.

"As it appeared that very few were coming out, we reentered the Theatre. In my excited condition, I went directly onto the stage where actors and part of the audience mingled, gazing up at the box where the wounded President lay. Amid all this excitement, to the best of my recollection, there was not much noise: all were shocked, talking in subdued tones.

"The audience began to leave the Theatre. On the outside, the crowd was great, and I made for a place to avoid the gathering. I took refuge on the porch in front of a house across the street, and in a few moments, four men carrying the wounded President went up into this same house with him [The Petersen Boarding House].

The President died the following morning, April 15, in this house, between 7 and 8 o'clock. 

The crowd by this time was great. Shouts of "Lynch him," "Hang him," "They've got him," were heard all around, and the crowd surged from side to side.

I started toward Pennsylvania Avenue to take a car for my home on Capitol Hill. A man said to me, "What's the matter?" My teeth chattered; I could not speak. I reached the car, and all were talking about the assassination. They said Seward was killed, Grant was killed. The excitement among all was intense; there was more loud talking in that car than in the Theatre. 

When I reached home near midnight, my mother, hearing some tumult, asked me what the matter was. I said, "Nothing." I feared if I told her what had been done, she and my father would sleep no more that night. The next morning I went to the Government department where I was employed and asked to be excused after telling my experience. I walked directly up P street northwest to the corner of Tenth Street and looked toward the house where the President lay, and what seems strange to me now, there were no crowds around the place. Later in the day, all the Government departments closed until after the funeral, which occurred on the following Thursday.

When the body of the President was lying in state in the rotunda of the Capitol, thousands passed through to review the remains, entering on the west front, passing in double file and leaving on the east side.

I forced myself through the crowd, and for the last time, I saw President Lincoln.

Mr. Willis has read more than once, he said, of the death of someone of whom the statement was made, "He was the last person who was present at the Theatre on the night of the assassination of President Lincoln." Mr. Willis characterizes such announcements as absurd: "I was a little more than 18 years of age, and among the audience of more than 1,000 there was, no doubt, many of my age or under. There may be some others living who were present." 

The 18-year-old boy present at Ford's Theatre to see the comedy, "Our American Cousin," one of the very last, at least, of "the audience of more than 1,000, was born in Baltimore on October 17, 1846. A bookbinder by trade, he worked in the Government Printing Office here for 46 years, retiring when the retirement law went into effect in August 1920. Since then, he has been taking things easy, living for his wife of more than 50 years, their sons and their daughters, thinking of the past and the present, and who will win the baseball game today.

                                                                                  —The Washington Post, March 14, 1929

ADDITIONAL JOURNAL READING:

A Comprehensive Account of President Lincoln's Doctors' Beginning from the Assassin's Gunshot on April 14, 1865, through Abe's Death on April 15th.

Did John Wilkes Booth Really Break a Leg Jumping from Lincoln's Box at Ford's Theatre?

The Rage of John Wilkes Booth 

Lost Towns of Illinois - Etherly, Illinois.

Etherly was a village located in Knox County, just south of Victoria, Illinois.

Etherly was platted on August 10, 1894, by Samuel L. Charles. This plat filing notifies the State of Illinois and certain government agencies that there is a village named Etherly in Illinois and exactly where it is.

The village was a miners' town, home to the families of the men who worked in the twelve surrounding coal mines in Etherly. 

The mining companies in the area went out of business around the turn of the 20th century. The Village of Etherly was sold. 

Shortly thereafter, the Sherwood Mining Company bought the area mines and the village of Etherly. The houses and buildings in the town were sold, dismantled, and moved. Many went to nearby communities such as Galesburg and Victoria.

The village site was strip-mined. 

A Smith Cemetery sign is displayed in the Smith Family sections.

The Etherly Cemetery (aka Smith Cemetery) is all that remains of the village's name today. Thirteen documented people are buried at Etherly Cemetery, nine of whom are from the Smith family. The cemetery is located at 1950 North Knox Road, Victoria, Illinois.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The Fabulous Story of Bunny Bread in Anna, Illinois.

The Lewis Brothers Bakery (Lewis Bros.) was established on February 1, 1925, in Anna, Illinois. Brothers Amos, Arnold and Jack Lewis mortgaged their mother's house and used that $300 to open a bakery in a rented log cabin at the rear of the property on West Chestnut Street in Anna, Illinois.

At that time, all the kneading and molding of bread was done by hand. The only machinery consisted of a dough mixer and dough brake. The wood-burning oven was made of 'homemade' bricks with the work done by the Lewis family. The business grew, and in 1926, they moved to 111 North Main Street in Anna.

The bakery operated four trucks, three driven by the Lewis Brothers, A.C, A.S. and Jack. New equipment was installed in the bake shop, bringing production up to 400 loaves per hour. They put loaves in and out of the new coke-fired oven with a long peel.

A Long Pizza Peel.

At that time, the bread was named "Milk Maid" and was baked in twin loaves, unsliced and wrapped by hand. Buns were baked in sheet pans, five dozen to the pan. Besides the Lewis Brothers, there were five other employees.

In June 1929, Lewis Brothers moved to 200 North Main Street and renamed it "Sunlit Bakery." The bread was named "Butternut."

Minnie Pearl presented the live radio show sponsored by "Bunny Bread" at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.

More new equipment was installed in this plant. It consisted of two peel ovens, one new mixer, new flour equipment and an automatic bread wrapper for unsliced bread.

In 1930, sliced bread came into the picture. The loaves were sliced on an old-style meat slicer, packed in trays, and wrapped in wax paper. In 1933 they bought their first bread slicer with an automatic wrapper.

A new loaf of bread was added to the production line, called "Big Boy" in 1937. They bought more delivery trucks, and the number of new employees increased again.

In 1941, Lewis Bros. purchased the building from A.A. Crowell, which needed considerable remodeling.

On May 8, 1944, A.C. Lewis, general manager, died after a long illness. The business was reorganized, with Jewel and Charles Lewis owning the building and brother Jack Lewis becoming owner and operator of the bakery. 

In 1947, the company was incorporated with R. Jack Lewis, President Charles Lewis, Vice President; Josephine Lewis, Secretary and Treasurer. More new equipment was added as were new employees, now up to fifty. The weekly bread production reached 75,000 loaves. 

The picture of the rabbit going on bread wrappers was purchased.

The Modern Bunny

They decided they were ready to enter new territory with their latest equipment. In 1950 purchased a site and built a building in Harrisburg, Illinois, opening five new delivery routes, making a total of 17 Southern Illinois routes.

Four Classic Bunny Bread TV Commercials from the 1950s.

"Bunny" became so popular and well known throughout the entire territory that consumers began calling for "Bunny Bread." Bunny Bread was trademarked, and they decided to use it on all Lewis Brothers Bakery products.

Outgrowing the product capacity of their current location, Lewis Brothers purchased a site for a new plant at Illinois 146 (Vienna Street) & U.S. 51 at Anna's eastern city limits. Work began on the new building in April 1951 and opened in February 1952.

The Lewis Bros. threw a Gala for the Grand Opening of the new Bunny Bread Bakery. Over 35,000 people from Southern Illinois and southeastern Missouri attended three days of festivities.

Several new delivery routes opened in 1952, and production reached an all-time high.

The Lewis Bros. purchased the distribution rights to Kirchhoff Bakery (est.1873), Paducah, Kentucky, on January 1, 1953. The purchase opened the Kentucky Territory with routes changing to area-based, using multiple trucks per one of twelve delivery regions. (speedier delivery)

In the early 1970s, after more than 45 years in Illinois, Lewis Bakeries headquarters migrated to 500 North Fulton Avenue, Evansville, Indiana. 

By this time, Bunny Bread was being sold throughout the Midwest, and the Indiana facility was a central location. In 1986, a second Indiana facility focused on producing sweet goods opened in Vincennes.

R.J., Jr. continued to grow and expand the company's Midwestern sales throughout the 1970s and 1980s and developed new lines of modern baked goods. In 1987, the bakery became the first in the country to remove trans fats from its products. In 1991, they began selling the first fat-free, reduced-calorie bread on the market, then introduced a line of low-carb products in 2000. Lewis Bakeries was also innovative in developing half-package sizes of their best-selling products.

While their beloved Bunny Bread brand remains a customer favorite, the company's product line includes the Hartford Farms and Gateway brands. They have a hand in several well-known national products, acting as a wholesale distributor of the Sunbeam, Sun-Maid, and Roman Meal brands.

Lewis Bakeries is one of few independent bakeries left in the Midwest. It's also the largest wholesale bakery in Indiana, with annual sales exceeding $265 million. Lewis Bakeries remains a family-operated business in its fourth generation and continues to run operations from its Evansville headquarters.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Contributor, Mary Giorgio, Orangebean

The 1893 World's Fair Electrical Subway.

1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition Electrical Subway.

When plans were first formulated for the lighting of the grounds of the World's Columbian Exposition, it was decided that all electric wires and conductors, not only for arc and incandescent lighting but for power transmission, police signals, fire alarm, telephones and telegraph lines should be placed underground out of danger to the public and yet be accessible. For this purpose, the electric subway was designed and constructed. The original plan was to build such a subway of solid brick, but as this was found unnecessary for temporary service and expensive, the plans were changed to a wooden framework lined with cement, plaster and concrete floors. The approved and executed projects called for a subway connecting the electrical plant in Machinery Hall with Mines and Mining, Electricity, manufacturing, Government and Fisheries buildings.

The main subway starting from Machinery Hall was 15 ft. 8 in. wide by 8 ft. 4 in. high and was divided in the center by a fireproof partition, making two divisions 6 ft. 6 in. square on the insides. This subway was run to within 50 feet of the Electricity building where, from the west division, extended two branches 8 ft. 4 in. high by 6 ft. 1 in. broad—one to Mines and Mining and the other to the Electricity building. These were so arranged that all the wires on the west wall turned west to Mines and Mining, and those on the east wall were run directly into the Electricity building without crossing. The east division at the 50-foot point turned east to the bridge at the southwest corner of the Manufactures building, where it widened out into a fan shape the width of the bridge, and the wires were carried across on supports placed between the bridge girders. From the bridge, the subway extended 100 feet east to the western loggia of the Manufactures building, where it turned north, going the entire building length. Still, since all the wires on the east wall turned into the building at branches near the southwest corner and center, the size of the subway changed just north of the west center to a section the same size as the branch to the Mines and Mining building. At the northwest corner of the Manufactures building, the subway turned east to the north center, where it changed to a section 5 ft. 9 in. wide by 6 ft. high, reducing the capacity by one-third. From this point, it turned north, running under the Government building and across the north inlet bridge to the Fisheries building, where the subway ended. In Machinery Hall, there was a large double subway opposite the Thomson-Houston switchboard of the power plant and running 825 feet east under the south aisle, where it connected at the east entrance with the main subway and the west end with a duct trunk line. The general construction of all the subways consisted of a framework of 3 inches by 8-inches material placed 1-foot centers and covered on top, bottom and sides with 2-inch matched planking.

1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition Electrical Subway.

The inside was lined with standard metal lath and Acme cement mortar on top and sides, and the bottom was covered with 4 inches of sand and 6 inches of concrete. The cross-section of the main subway at Machinery Hall showed two bodies of wires in each of the two divisions, supported by arms projecting from the wall. These cross-arms, twelve in number, two feet two inches long, were held in position by cast iron uprights, lagged to the framework of the subway. Each cross arm supported five pins and insulators, making a total capacity of 240 insulators in a cross-section. These uprights were placed at about 30 feet apart through the entire subway and consisted of six different types, known as types 4, 6, S, 8 a, 12 and 12 a; the number indicating the number of cross arms each supported. Types 8 and 8 a, 12 and 12 a, were used around the corners. The cross arms projected into the subway 2 ft. 2 in. from either side, giving a clear passageway of 2 feet in the center. About 6,000 cross arms and 30,000 pins were used throughout the subway. For access to the subway and for convenience in pulling in wires, manholes were placed at distances of about 150 feet apart. These consisted of a round cast-iron box 20 in. in diameter and 20 in. high, resting on the framework of the subway and supplied with a cast-iron cover.

The first contract, which called for the construction of the central part of the subway, was awarded on January 23rd, 1892, to T. C. Brooks & Co., of Jackson, Michigan, for the sum of $35,094.49. Work began the first day of February 1892 and was to have been completed by April 15th, 1892. It was considerably delayed due to frozen ground and rainy weather. The bottom of the subway was only a little above datum, so considerable difficulty was experienced in putting in the concrete and flooring on account of water, but this was overcome by using a portable electrical pump. This contract did not include the subway running east and west under Machinery Hall, the portion under the Government building, the branches under Manufactures, nor the bridge approaches. This work was done by the Exposition Company, except for the plastering on the subway under the Government building, which was done by Wm. Pickland & Co., for the sum of $1,010.00. The east and west subway under Machinery Hall was difficult, chiefly because of the necessity to follow the building aisles and steam and water pipes. The total length of the subway, including the east and west subway under Machinery Hall, all the branches and approaches to the bridges, was 6,195 feet. The subway's wiring began in February 1893 and continued for about six weeks. It was found that there were so many arc wires for Manufactures building that had to be placed on the east wall of the east subway that it was necessary to run two wires on one insulator. For that purpose, a special two-wire insulator was designed and laid the glass insulation between the two wires. Wires were also arranged so that no two wires of different potential would come on the same insulator. The wiring of the subway required 4,000 of the special two-wire insulators and 20,000 of the regular single glass insulators. The subway contained 25 2-10 miles of power, 28 7-10 miles of incandescent and 51 miles of arc wires, making a total of 104 5-10 miles of wire for lighting and power transmission. Besides these were telephone and telegraph cables, fire alarms and police signal wires.

1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition Electrical Subway.

For the convenience of drainage, the profile of the floor of the subway was arranged so that all water that might collect would flow to four points, namely, north of Machinery Hall, south of the Electricity building, and west end of the north railroad bridge and north center of Manufactures building. At the bridge, an opening was made into the lagoon so the water would flow out, but marine pumps were installed at the other three places, and the water was pumped to the nearest catch basin. In this way, the subway was kept comparatively dry except on one or two occasions when a water pipe burst, completely flooding everything.

The subway was lighted with 225 110-volt 16-c.p. Edison incandescent lamps placed at distances of about 30 feet apart throughout the entire length. The lamps were placed five in series and supplied with current from the 500-volt power circuit. The lights of different circuits alternated in location so that in case one lamp burned out, it did not leave the subway in total darkness. For the convenience of keeping a meticulous record of every wire's position throughout the entire subway course, they used a card cataloging system. The cards were printed showing the exact position of all the cross arms and insulators supported by one set of uprights. Each insulator on a cross arm was numbered, and each cross arm was also numbered. On each card was marked the position of the wire on the insulator, and the circuit number of every wire, at any given point of uprights. The uprights were also numbered; a card was made for every set of cross arms and arranged consecutively in a file. By this means, it was always possible to tell the exact position of any wire at any point in the subway. Wires that ran north from the Fisheries building were carried from the subway into a duct trunk line that ran east to the Intramural railroad and thence north, following the road line around the Montana State building. This trunk line was 2,250 feet long and contained 15,270 feet of pump logs. 

A clause in the contract of the Intramural railroad reserved the right for the Exposition Company to carry light and power lines along the structure underneath the roadbed on extension insulators, and lines were run this way wherever they were desired along the route of the road.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.