Medusa-Challenger; the Chicago River Bridge Killer.

On June 1, 1969, what was perhaps the most ill-fated ship ever to navigate the Chicago River struck one more time as the Medusa-Challenger tied up traffic between Wabash and Wells Streets for over three hours. The Wells Street bridge refused to open as the 562-foot steamship approached, leaving the powdered cement carrier’s stern beneath the LaSalle Street bridge. Minutes before the Wabash Street bridge had been put out of operation by a power failure after it was raised to allow the ship through. City electricians took close to three hours to get the bridges back in operation again.

The Medusa-Challenger headed west on the Chicago River.

At that point, the Medusa-Challenger had been carrying freight for 63 years after being launched on February 7, 1906, by the Great Lakes Engineering Works in Ecorse, Michigan. She was named the "William P. Snyder" back then, bound for work carrying iron ore from Minnesota to the steel mills that lined the Great Lakes.

William P. Snyder at Ecorse, Michigan in 1906.

The William P. Snyder was renamed "Elton Hoyt II" following her acquisition by Stewart Furnace Co., Cleveland, on June 26, 1926. Retaining her new name, the vessel was acquired by Youngstown Steamship Co., Cleveland, in 1929. Ownership passed to Interlake Steamship Co., Cleveland,  in 1930. The vessel was repowered in 1950. The Elton Hoyt II was involved in a head-on collision with the Enders M. Voorhees during a snowstorm in the Straits of Mackinac in the fall of 1950 causing major bow damage to both vessels. The vessel was renamed "Alex D. Chisholm" in 1952 following the launch into the Interlake fleet of a new hull christened Elton Hoyt II. Alex D. Chisholm continued sailing for the Interlake fleet into the 1960s before being laid up in Erie, Pa. as surplus tonnage. In 1966, she was purchased by Medusa Portland Cement for conversion to a cement carrier. 

She gained her reputation in Chicago as the "Medusa-Challenger" because, through no fault of her own, bridges ceased to function regularly whenever she entered or left the Chicago River. 

On May 31, 1968 traffic was halted on Clark, Dearborn and State streets as the Clark Street bridge refused to open and the other two bridges could not be closed because the ship was beneath them. The Chicago Tribune reported that one gentleman, exasperated by the wait of over an hour, shouted, “You know what they should do with this river?  They should have it paved.” 

Traffic on Lake Shore Drive backs up while freighter Medusa Challenger passes through the S-Turn bridge. Motorists sat for 40 minutes because the bridge jammed. 1969

On April 2, 1969, the big ship kept Chicagoans waiting for another hour as the LaSalle Street bridge tender was able to raise only one leaf of the bridge. That kept the Clark Street bridge open, too, since the ship’s stern was beneath it. “Electricians were summoned and went feverishly to work, while the ship’s crew and onlookers stared at one another and a traffic jam began to form on both sides of the bridge,” The Tribune reported.

The Medusa headed east toward Lake Michigan.

It happened again less than a week later when the ship, outbound, was halted at the mouth of the river when the massive Lake Shore Drive span refused to budge. After 45 minutes the bridge was raised, and the Medusa steamed into the lake. Then the fun began. A fuse blew, electricians worked frantically, and traffic was rerouted before the bridge was finally placed back in operation an hour after it had been raised.  The Tribune observed, “The ship’s crew members, who are getting used to staring at the Chicago River, took it all stoically. The city’s bridge tenders, however, are becoming convinced that the Medusa is a jinx.”

There was a relative period of calm until September 22, 1970, when the Lake Shore Drive bridge jammed six feet away from the closed position after the Medusa passed beneath it. Disgusted motorists made U-turns and drove against approaching traffic as police worked to bring some sense of order to the scene, rerouting traffic onto Ohio and Randolph Streets. Many impatient pedestrians walked to the middle of the bridge and jumped the gap between the two spans as the bridge tender shouted, “Get off my bridge!  It’s not safe!  Get off!”

The freighter Medusa Challenger travels the Chicago River. The ship waited over six hours because the Michigan Avenue bridge wouldn't open. 1972

On October 19, 1972, a new bridge became rattled at the Medusa’s approach. A blown electrical fuse kept the Michigan Avenue bridge in the upraised position while workers struggled to discover the source of the problem. The Tribune reported that some motorists saw the Medusa and went out of their way to avoid the bridge even before it was raised. One taxi driver said, “There’s going to be trouble. The Medusa’s back.”

The LaSalle Street bridge jammed on December 3, 1972, after being raised for the ship and beyond that, the Lake Street bridge was closed to traffic for 40 minutes because the gates barring auto traffic from entering the bridge would not open. It took work crews five hours, working in near zero-degree weather, to free the Michigan Avenue bridge a little more than two weeks later as the Medusa waited. “The workers didn’t use any magic words as they went about their business,” wrote the Tribune. “just your common, every-day, four-letter variety.”

The Medusa steams past 330 North Wabash, heading upriver.

The ship’s ill-fated encounters with city bridges were so frequent that the Tribune actually ran a story on July 14, 1973, when the Medusa moved from the lake to Goose Island and nothing happened. The steamer had tempted fate the day before by entering the river on Friday the Thirteenth, but except for a brief problem with the traffic gates at Lake Shore Drive, the slow procession up the river was uneventful.

The good ship couldn’t catch a break. On August 11, 1976 the Medusa’s owners, “perhaps hoping to erase the... animosities harbored by many Chicago motorists”  had the vessel tied up at Twenty-Second Street in front of McCormick Place for a University of Chicago Foundation fundraiser. The event was poorly publicized, the night was unseasonably cold and gusty, and out of a thousand guests that were expected to attend, a generous estimate placed the actual headcount at about 250. One volunteer at the event said, “We’re going to have to drink a lot of martinis to keep warm tonight.”

The freighter Medusa Challenger travels the Chicago River. The 562-foot cement carrier sat dead in the ice water while trying to head downstream. At least three times, the longship hove because bridges wouldn't go up. One delay was four hours as the ship sat under the raised Well Street bridge while tenders tried to open the Franklin Street span. The problems were attributed in part to the weather. 1979

By the end of the 1970s, the Medusa-Challenger’s visits to Chicago were over, but before the reign of bad luck came to an end the ship became a movie star, giving its name to the first film in which Joe Mantegna appeared, a 25-minute short film that is in the permanent collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art.

In 1998, Medusa Portland Cement was acquired by Southdown Inc., resulting in the vessel being renamed Southdown Challenger. On April 28, 2005, the name and registration of the Southdown Challenger was changed to "St. Marys Challenger."

Renamed the St. Mary's Challenger, toward the end of her life.

The classic steamer completed a full season of sailing, laying up on December 11, 2006, at South Chicago, Illinois, after having spent most of her centennial year plying her trade on Lake Michigan.

The St. Marys Challenger’s final season saw her employed just as she had been the past few years, carrying cargo from the St. Marys Cement Co.’s elevator at Charlevoix, Mich., to ports such as South Chicago, Milwaukee, Manitowoc, and Grand Haven, all on Lake Michigan. Much to the delight of boat watchers, she also made two trips to Owen Sound, Ontario in 2013 and one to Detroit.

The vessel arrived at Bay Shipbuilding Co. in the afternoon of November 11, 2013, blowing salutes on her steam whistle and flying a white flag, indicating surrender – however reluctantly – to her fate. Crowds of boat watchers with cameras documented the event as she negotiated the gauntlet of bridges on the Calumet River after her last delivery to Chicago, on her way out to the lake she was laid up for more than two hours. A railroad bridge over the Calumet River refused to lift. She arrived in Sturgeon Bay for the last time.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Ravinia Amusement Park, Highland Park, Illinois (1904-1910)

Ravinia was originally created as an Amusement Park on land purchased by Albert C. Frost, it was conceived as a year-round amusement park with swings, a skating rink, a slide, pavilion, casino, spectator stadium, and a small hotel. 

A 1907 Postcard of the Entrance to Ravinia Park.

Railroad President Frost's goal was to stimulate business for his railroad, the Chicago and Milwaukee Electric Railroad, but unfortunately, it was unsuccessful and by 1910 the railroad failed and the property went into receivership.

When it opened in August of 1904, the 40-acre park included a stadium for baseball and football games and a few carnival-type rides. During the winter, the playing field was transformed into a hockey and ice-skating rink by flooding the field.

Described by one 1904 reviewer as a ‘majestic grandstand’ and dubbed ‘The Stadium’ by Ravinia Park owner Chicago &  Milwaukee Electric Railroad, the Ravinia Park Stadium sat 2,500 visitors and could be viewed from passing trains.

Park buildings were designed by architect Peter J. Weber and included a 24 room hotel (located west of the railroad tracks), a theater building, a casino containing a restaurant and ballroom, a dance pavilion, and a baseball stadium.

Old Sanborn Fire map of Ravinia Amusement Park, Highland Park, IL. c.1905

The theater offered “refined and high-class vaudeville” every day except Sunday. In 1907, the park was forced into receivership. Fearing that it would be purchased by a cheap amusement company, a group of prominent Chicago and North Shore residents organized to raise the $15,000 needed to save it.

In 1911, Ravinia Park once again faced financial difficulty. A group of North Shore residents, led by Frank R. McMullin of Highland Park saw the potential in Ravinia Park and started the Ravinia Company raised $75,000 to purchase the park. The park reopened on June 21, 1911, as a summer venue for classical music under the leadership of Louis Eckstein. Opera was added to the venue in 1912. Ravinia gained a reputation as "America's summer opera capital."

 

The prairie-style Martin Theatre (then named Ravinia Theatre) is the only building on the grounds that dates back to the original construction.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

How did land from Niles, Illinois become a small subdivision of Chicago on Touhy Avenue? Thank George Wittbold.

Northwest Side, where winding cul de sacs hit the strip malls of Touhy Avenue and the subdivisions bear the name of the natural features they tore down to make the subdivisions, there’s a little blip of Chicago carved out of Niles, Illinois.

There are no markers that say the blip is still Chicago. On the south side of the street and down a touch there’s a small sign that welcomes people to the North Edgebrook neighborhood of Chicago’s Forest Glen community, but on the north side of Touhy the blip is nondescriptive from the suburbs.

There’s charming older homes there. It’s a single subdivision, about 600 feet east-to-west and 1,300 north-to-south. It’s Niles to the north, east and west, but it’s legally Chicago. There’s no reason it should be Chicago, or at least not a reason that doesn’t trace to a 1920s land boom and an empire of flowers.

Heading north on Meade Avenue past the storage locker business on Touhy brings you to a subdivision that’s what subdivisions were meant to be. No megamansions that scream of status, just rows of small, single-family houses. It’s relaxing there, as Meade curves into Sherwin and then McVicker. It’s comfortable. The neighborhood feels friendly and welcoming.

The blip entered into Chicago on July 7, 1928 along with the neighborhoods of North Edgebrook and Wildwood, according to the map below.

1930 Chicago Annexation Map.

In 1928, florist Louis Wittbold wanted to turn his family’s massive properties of nurseries, orchards and greenhouses into real estate, assembling a tract of 165 acres from landowners including himself, his brother Otto Wittbold and a man named Herman Wagner.

In “what is called a record for simultaneous approval of a subdivision by county, city and regional planning authorities,” according to the Chicago Tribune, the prominent landowner pushed the deal through in March 1928. In May of that year, the land was annexed to Chicago. The homes are post-war, according to the Cook County Assessor’s Office. That’s a gap of more than two decades between homes and the land deal. 

The Wittbold family story is fascinating in its own right. Louis and Otto’s father George Wittbold, former gardener to the King of Hanover's estate, came to Chicago in 1857. He set up shop in Lakeview, soon owning huge greenhouses at School, and Halsted streets in modern-day Boystown neighborhood.

American Florest Advertisement, August 15, 1889.

As the area developed, George got in on the game, turning his Lakeview land into apartments and moving his nurseries and greenhouse operations to the north of Chicago’s Edgebrook neighborhood, which had been part of the city since 1889.

Greenhouses of the George Wittbold Company in Edgebrook, Chicago, Illinois. 

Nursery and Greenhouses of the George Wittbold Company.

Packing House and Employees of the George Wittbold Company.

Interior of a George Wittbold Company Greenhouse.

The George Wittbold Company did the original landscaping for Wrigley Field in 1914 when it was called Weeghman Park, and bragged about it in advertisements. (No, they didn’t plant the ivy, which was added in 1937.)

And in the 1920s, his son Louis pushed a massive land deal through local appoval.

The Wittbold Reality Company at 134 North LaSalle Street, Chicago, purchased the last bit of land before the deal was completed was 17 acres from Herman Wagner — “the Kellen tract.” The blip isn’t quite 17 acres and it’s a little west of the Touhy and Austin address the Tribune gave for the sale.

The tract of land was known as Wittbold's New Indian Boundary Park subdivision № 2. The entire tract of 173 acres was annexed to the City of Chicago. The property was surounded by three golf courses and the Edgebrook forest preserves.

The whole tract of land is said to have cost Wittbold approximately $750,000. The property extends from the right-of-way of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific, westward along Touhy avenue for a mile.

The land itself is of historical interest, being a part of an old grant made by the United States Government to Billy Caldwell, son of a British army officer. Billy's mother was a member of the Sauganash Indian tribe.

So why is there a blip of Chicago carved out of Niles? Because that’s the land Louis Wittbold owned. Why did he own a little blip just north of his family’s massive growing yards and acres of greenhouse? We may never know. Maybe it was offices, an extra greenhouse or just part of the 17 acres he picked up when Herman Wagner wanted in on the subdivision game. Whatever the reason, the long-dead florist lives on in the boundaries of Chicago.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Institute of Slavery in Illinois.

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In historical writing and analysis, PRESENTISM introduces present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Presentism is a form of cultural bias that creates a distorted understanding of the subject matter. Reading modern notions of morality into the past is committing the error of presentism. Historical accounts are written by people and can be slanted, so I try my hardest to present fact-based and well-researched articles.

Facts don't require one's approval or acceptance.

I present [PG-13] articles without regard to race, color, political party, or religious beliefs, including Atheism, national origin, citizenship status, gender, LGBTQ+ status, disability, military status, or educational level. What I present are facts — NOT Alternative Facts — about the subject. You won't find articles or readers' comments that spread rumors, lies, hateful statements, and people instigating arguments or fights.

FOR HISTORICAL CLARITY

When I write about the INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, I follow this historical terminology:

• The use of old commonly used terms, disrespectful today, i.e., REDMAN or REDMEN, SAVAGES, and HALF-BREED are explained in this article.

Writing about AFRICAN-AMERICAN history, I follow these race terms:

• "NEGRO" was the term used until the mid-1960s.
• "BLACK" started being used in the mid-1960s.
• "AFRICAN-AMERICAN" [Afro-American] began usage in the late 1980s.

— PLEASE PRACTICE HISTORICISM —

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST IN ITS OWN CONTEXT.

 

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Illinois, at least in five southern counties (St. Clair, Gallatin, Randolph, Edwards and Pope), did indeed embrace slavery as an institution. The supporting documents to this long-known but little-acknowledged chapter in Prairie State history have been brought to light by the Illinois State Archives through its Illinois Servitude and Emancipation Records Index from 1722-1863.

There is no mistaking what these handwritten records are: grants of emancipation; actual bills of Sale; lists of slaves being auctioned; even lists of slaves given as gifts through wills, deeds, or estate settlements. Over 2,000 names of Indians and Negroes are included in the Servitude and Emancipation Index. The records provide a fascinating and disturbing glimpse into early Illinois history.

THE FRENCH COLONIAL PERIOD

Many records date from the early French colonial period (1722-1790) and the American Period (1790-1863). The French-owned slaves, both Indian and Negro (the language used in the original documents and, for consistency, used in the listings). The French prized their slaves considered them bien-foncier (valuable property) and registered them as such.

A problem arose in 1787 when the French wanted to keep their slaves. At the time, Illinois became part of the Northwest Territory, which forbade slavery. The French influence led to the extension of slavery beyond the 1790s.

Illinoisans knew but overlooked slavery -- even until the 1860s. After statehood in 1818, the General Assembly instituted "Black Codes," which allowed indentured servitude (service to another for one to ninety-nine years). The black codes also denied legal protection to Negroes and required them to register with local governments. Blacks in Illinois were required to file a certificate of emancipation within their home county to prove the status of "free Negroes." Black laws limited the rights of blacks and, in essence, established pseudo-slavery in Illinois.

The earliest records in the state's Servitude and Emancipation Index date from 1722. Some servants' names are blank; some only have a first name listed, indicating either an unknown last name or no last name; some have full names listed, often that of their owner. Physical descriptions often accompany the mention of an Indian or Negro: "crooked left middle finger," "scar on the left temple," "5' 3," "scar on left foot from an axe wound." The French treated their slaves as items that could be bartered, traded, and sold. In 1773, Jacque LaCourse sold a "parcel of land in the prairie of Kaskaskia for a Negro boy, age 12 or 13" (no name given). Another Frenchman, Jean Huberdeau, sold a house and two lots in Kaskaskia to Antoine Bienvenu for a "mulatto girl 17-18 years old." In 1725, Onesime Fortunay sold a four-year-old male Negro child for "600, 10 x 1 walnut planks 10 feet long."

The French occasionally mortgaged slaves, leased their services at public auctions, gave slaves as gifts, or used slaves as settlements in estates. One slave was listed as "collateral for a loan" in 1793. Another notes that a "7-year-old Negro girl valued at 300 livres" (pounds) was given as a wedding gift to Paul Reame and Marie Louise Lasonde on January 30, 1743." An estate settlement in 1739 records this transaction: "To Catherine is given a Negro boy named Ignace."

From reading these documents, French settlers in Illinois were very matter-of-fact about the Sale and disbursement of their human property.

"Sold for 1500 livres in 'flour, hams or money, Chocolas, a male Negro ─ 1740."

"Female Indian slave sold for 800 livres in 'notes or flour' ─ 1740"

"Gift of 2 Indian slaves to my minor children, Marie and Pierre ─ from Marie Rose Terier in St. Clair County on December 20, 1830." A Christmas present, perhaps?

These sales were not limited to the local area. In one instance, money for an Illinois slave sale ended up halfway around the world: "Sale of male Negro slave named Mouca, a negress named Marie and their children, a boy, Joseph, and 2 girls, Marie and Ursulc... for 4500 livres, of which Vivareine (Jean Batiste Vivareine) has been paid 2900 livres. The remainder is owed to the Royal Indies Company."

The Index includes 56 Indian slaveowners, and not only do the notations provide information about the Indian leaders but also insight into the relationship between several Indian tribes and the French. A dated June 28, 1745, trade agreement between Alarie J. Baptiste and Guillaume La Doucier clarifies that "traders agree to abide by various rules, including they will buy no Nakitoches or Chonis (Shawnee) slaves."

One record provides information about The Fox Nation and its chief. A court document from the future St. Clair County dated June 8, 1765, states: "Marie, a free Fox Indian woman, formerly serving Chauvin. She was taken prisoner by the French during their war with the Fox. Due to ill-treatment, she left Chauvin, who illegally traded her to Trudeau for 2 young Indian slaves. Court has seen the written testimony of May 16, 1765, by the great chief of the Fox nation, that his niece is a free woman, and also the testimony of the great chief Mequac. The court wishes to avoid a war with the Fox nation and finds for the plaintiff, who is declared free... Chauvin is ordered to return the 2 slaves he took in exchange for her."

Other listings offer insight into another tribe, the Chickasaws (sometimes spelled "Chicacha"). The deposition of Pierre Chabot, dated November 11,1740, concerns a "female Chicacha slave who formerly belonged to the late Charles Neau... [Said] slave was returned to the Chicachas who came to find her... with a promise of reimbursement to Neau." In a July 2, 1770 petition regarding a fugitive slave, we learn of the Chickasaws. "Fagot La Garciniere has learned from some recently arrived Chickasaws that a mulatto he sent 2 years ago to Blouin to be sold had escaped to the Chickasaw village with an Indian of Blouin's last December and is now in the hands of English traders there. They will repay the traders, collect the slaves for Fagot, and distribute gifts to the Indians."

These records are crucial to understanding people, places, occupations, and terminology. A bill of Sale from April 25, 1748, identifies the parties and their "sale of a female Indian slave, about 30 years old, by Marie Fafard, wife of Louis Netivier of Fort de Chartres, to Pierre Messager, a trader in Illinois, for 400 livres in 100 livres of powder and 50 ecus (coins) of cloth, at port prices."

THE AMERICAN PERIOD
The archives slave registry also contains 649 items documenting emancipations. On February 7, 1827, Martha Praten of Gallatin County freed twenty-two slaves, ages one to twenty-eight, some bearing no last name, others with Praten's surname. Her handwritten statement reads: "I, Martha Praten of Gallatin, to carry into effect the will of my late husband.. .and to affect my own will... do freely and voluntarily emancipate, set at large, and restore to their natural liberty the following named Negro slaves of mine which I have raised myself and brought out to this state for the purpose aforesaid." Included are Hercules, Ailsy, Lucy, Anna, and Elsy-Anne.

A year later, on July 21, 1828, John McCallister emancipated 61 slaves, ages 1 to 80. Ponso, a forty-five-year-old slave; his wife, Jenny; and their nine children were all freed, and Ponso was given all of McCallister's carpenter tools upon the latter's death.

Although emancipations were occurring, Illinoisans continued to indenture their "servants." Throughout both the French and American periods, Indians and Negroes willingly indentured themselves. On December 17, 1810, George, a twenty-year-old Negro, became an indentured servant to David Black in Pope County for 60 years-- until December 17, 1870. The record, however, doesn't indicate an indenture or willingness on the part of George to serve. The history shows the parties knew they were entering a business transaction, as David Black "purchased George from Thomas Dunlanson of Christian County in Kentucky for $400." One can only wonder what happened to George after his servitude was outlawed in Illinois before his "service" expired.

In some indenturing, the servant was paid for agreeing to be indentured. In 1794, George, a free Negro, agreed to serve William Musick for seven years for $200. An 1808 record notes that a woman named Phebe "obligates herself to serve William Morrison for 4 years in return for 10 cents." Obviously, some cases included participants who were already free but compelled by the need for money to sign indentures.

Some slaves paid to obtain their freedom. An emancipation document executed on June 19, 1828, between William Davis and his slave, David Davis, states: "For the payment of $100 paid every June 19 until 1831, William Davis will set free and emancipate David as soon as the payments are made, $300 total."

While some were eager to emancipate, others, including influential leaders of the state, chose to continue as slave owners. Four Illinois governors owned slaves: Shadrach Bond, the first Illinois governor (1818-1822), had two women indentured to him in 1807, Hannah and Prudence Hansberry, aged 16. According to the 1820 census, Bond owned 14 slaves. When he died in 1832, he bequeathed 9 slaves to his wife and daughters.

Illinois' second governor, Edward Coles (1822-1826), inherited 20 slaves from his father before living in Illinois. To the shock of his family, Coles freed his slaves, came West, and eventually bought 6,000 acres near Edwardsville, hiring some of his freed slaves to work his farm. In Coles' inaugural address, he asked for abolishing the indenture system and Black Codes, called for the kidnapping of freed blacks to stop, and supported emancipation for descendants of slaves brought to Illinois during the French period. His speech openly accused Illinoisans of practicing a system of slavery that many refused to admit. Two years later, the Illinois legislature had an anti-slavery majority, but little changed.

Illinois' third governor, Ninian Edwards (1826-1830), Mary Todd Lincoln's brother-in-law, bought and sold indentured servants, rented them out for forced labor, and did not free his slaves, who worked on his Kentucky plantation. In an 1832 register of Blacks, Edwards lists his slave, Charles, as "my property."

Illinois' fourth governor, John Reynolds (1830-1834), owned seven slaves and emancipated them over 20 years.

The last emancipation documented in the Archives' Illinois Servitude Index did not occur until 1863, when Marva Reed was legally freed from Aaron Shook in St. Clair County. That same year the Illinois legislature proposed a resolution objecting to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, but then-Governor Richard Yates dismissed the General Assembly before such resolutions could be enacted. It wasn't until 1865 that Illinois and the rest of the country ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlawed slavery in the nation.

The Servitude and Emancipation Index also opens a window on early Illinois social mores. Slave Marie Jeanne was accused of murdering her child on July 15, 1748. The court record reports:

"denunciation... by Jerome Matis, of a Negro slave leased to him by Madame Lasource, acting as guardian of Marie Vincennes. The slave was pregnant when she was leased to him; on July 3, he noticed she seemed near to delivery, but she denied being pregnant. On July 4, she gave birth to a soft mass of flesh, but not to a child, in the presence of Madame Beauvais, at the house of Joseph Braseau, where .Matis lives. On the following Sunday, July 7, Monsieur and Madame Braseau found the arm and parts of the skull of a child at their doorstep, and upon searching the premises, found a grave and several other pieces of the body in the pig sty and the barn. Matis accuses the slave of murdering her child. Jeanne 'denies having murdered her infant and also denies any knowledge of having born a living child."

Jeanne was imprisoned in Kaskaskia until the next convoy shipped her to New Orleans to stand before the "Superior Council." Another slave, Catherine, witnessed the attempted suicide of her owner, Jacque Felix Theodore Carton, on August 2, 1786. Neighbors, upon hearing a shot in Carton's house, "opened a window there and observed him on the floor near his bed in a cloud of gun smoke, two pistols by his side, one was recently fired. Carton's left side showed a powder burn and a bullet hole. Catherine, his Negro slave, was in the corner of the room then and went to the parish priest... who found Carton still breathing."

Poor treatment of slaves occurred in both the French and American periods. Judge Delaoere Flaucour passed judgment against a slaveowner on May 7, 1743, for "Interrogation and flogging of several Negro and Indian slaves accused of plotting to desert and stealing a pirogue (a long narrow canoe made from a single tree trunk)." Judge Flaucour convicted the slaves of desertion but suspended their sentence on the pleas of the master, who promised to watch his slaves more carefully. The judge also ordered that "the Slave Code be read aloud for 3 Sundays, to prevent the plea of ignorance in such cases."

Another slave, John Baxe, who assaulted his owner, Francois Bastien, received the following sentence: "To make public apology upon his knees to Bastien, whom he assaulted... the death penalty is not invoked, but [Baxe] shall be beaten on three different days,..." While one court entry shows the granting of emancipation, another on the same date records the auction of a slave family.

The truth about Illinois' slave past has taken nearly three centuries to surface. And while the stories behind the documents might be lost forever, the old court records are fascinating and pose many unanswerable questions. What happened to these marginalized people? How did their lives in post Civil-War Illinois play out? Are their descendants still among us today, or did they move West seeking illusive freedom on the frontier? The answers may never be known.

Further reading: 

The History of Negro Servitude in Illinois and of Slavery Agitation in that State; 1719-1864

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Lincoln, the Illinois county that never was.

The Illinois General Assembly created most of the state's counties in the 1820s and 1830s and added several additional ones in the 1840s and 1850s for a total number of 102 counties. During the antebellum period[1], the legislature considered and created many other counties, which never materialized because the electorate voted against their formation in a referendum, failing to complete the enabling act requirements. One example of this was the 1867 effort to create the state's 103rd county — Lincoln County — named for Illinois' greatest citizen and recently assassinated president, Abraham Lincoln. 

The proposed Lincoln County was
sandwiched between Champaign
and Vermilion counties, but never
found a home on any Illinois map.

As a means for the state to honor Lincoln, Champaign County Representative Clark R. Griggs introduced a bill to create Lincoln County on January 17, 1867.

The House unanimously passed the bill by a vote of seventy-nine to zero, and the bill moved to the Senate, which also unanimously passed it twenty-four to zero. 

The bill became law on March 9, 1867. The proposed county would consist of lands from western Vermilion and eastern Champaign counties. It would be a small, thin county, thirty-six miles long and from eleven to seventeen miles wide. The act called for a referendum for voters from both counties to approve the measure four months later.

On July 9, 1867, voters went to the polls to cast their ballots for or against the formation of the new county. While no county seat had yet been selected, citizens of Homer felt that their town had the best chance to become the county seat and strongly supported the new county.

However, residents of Danville, Champaign, Urbana, and Rantoul strongly opposed the new county because it would "haggle off a strip" of both counties, lessening the size of each. South Homer township voted 301 to 8 for the county, but the rest of the townships in Champaign and Vermilion counties overwhelmingly defeated it. 

Several townships failed to tally one vote to support it, and West Urbana township defeated it 503 to 2. The final tally showed nearly a 4,000 vote majority against the new county. Lincoln County, which would have been the state's 103rd county, was never established. This was the General Assembly's last effort to create a new county in Illinois. Clark Griggs served only a single term in the Illinois legislature. While Griggs' effort to create a county honoring Abraham Lincoln failed, another of his bills in the General Assembly was quite successful. Griggs introduced the bill and campaigned hard for the creation and location of the Illinois Industrial University at Champaign. The land-grant university later became the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Illinois Periodicals

Edited by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

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[1] The antebellum period refers to the years after the War of 1812 (1812-15) and before the Civil War (1861-65). The development of separate northern and southern economies, the nation's westward expansion, and a spirit of reform marked the era. These issues created an unstable and explosive political environment that eventually led to the Civil War.