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#SmallTownSaturday – Bement, IL

Bement Cottage, where Lincoln and Douglas met

*Originally posted on October 7, 2017*

This week we’re travelling to Bement, Illinois (population 1,696) in Piatt County for #SmallTownSaturday!

Founded in 1854 and incorporated as a town in 1860, Bement is currently the only town in the United States with this name! The town was named after a secretary of the Great Western Railroad who promised to donate a bell to the first church in the town.

In the winter of 1853, businessman Joseph Bodman traveled from Massachusetts with L. B. Wing and Henry P. Little to the prairies of Illinois, where they had heard the Great Western Railroad was to be constructed.… Read More

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“Any Honorable Position”: The Life of John J. Bird

John J. Bird

This blog post is part of a series on Black History Month. Please visit the Bicentennial Celebration – February page for an introduction to the topic and other blog posts in the series.

In 1884, former Republican governor Richard J. Oglesby carried the vote to again assume the state’s highest office. Applying for “any honorable position” in Oglesby’s administration was Southern Illinois politician John J. Bird. A longtime advocate for African American voices in Illinois government, Bird served in various public offices throughout his life and helped push for equality in the post-emancipation Midwest.

John Bird and his family spent some years in both Canada and Ohio before they settled in Cairo, IL.… Read More

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Fannie Barrier Williams: Chicago Activist

Fannie Barrier Williams, undated

This blog post is part of a series on Black History Month. Please visit the Bicentennial Celebration – February page for an introduction to the topic and other blog posts in the series.

Fannie Barrier Williams was born in Brockport, New York on February 12, 1855. Brockport was a non-segregated community outside of Rochester and her parents were of high social standing. Brockport was said to be “north of slavery,” and because of this Barrier Williams enjoyed a much more privileged upbringing than those living in the South.

Brockport had never seen slavery or segregation due to New York legislation that gradually led to the emancipation of slaves.… Read More

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#SmallTownSaturday – Chatsworth, IL

Sketch of "The Great Chatsworth Wreck"
*Originally posted on September 23, 2017*

This week we’re visiting Chatsworth, Illinois (population 1,140) for #SmallTownSaturday!

Originally an indigenous settlement dating to at least 1774 known as Kickapoo Grove, the site of present-day Chatsworth was uninhabited by white settlers until 1832, when a small number began moving into the area in the midst of the Black Hawk War. Aggression against Native Americans soon drove the Kickapoo across the Mississippi.

By the time the Kickapoo people had been removed from the village, all of the white families save one – the Olivers – had relocated to Indiana. Renaming his slice of the county Oliver Grove, Franklin Oliver and his family lived alone in the area until the mid-1850s, when new residents began building their homes nearby.

… Read More