Memories of Momence Township, 1776-1976

977.363

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MORRISON

MEMORIES OF MOFENCE TOWN-
SHIP, 1776-1976

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1776 7976

Introduction

To write a history of a township is an awesome task; to put
together a collection of memories is almost as frightening. Without the
help of many people it could not have been done. For all those gracious
people who came to my aid with books, documents, newspapers,
pictures and generous amounts of time I am truly grateful. They are all
acknowledged at the end of the report, for they are as important as the
books and articles which I read. It is regrettable that there are many
whom, for lack of time I did not see; they, too, could have added much
of interest.

There are inaccuracies in this writing, for historians do not always
agree and people's memories differ. There are omissions caused by lack
of time, or by a judgement made on what to include and what to leave
out. I hope that the inaccuracies are not too great, and that the
omissions are forgivable.

Current problems are not discussed, for this is a collection of
memories. City and township residents are well aware of such problems
as river pollution and drainage, particularly at the extreme western
edge of the township. Their solutions will be the subject of a historian's
report in the year 2076.

Momence, Illinois- 1976 Elizabeth B. Morrison

LlbKMKY

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
« URBANA- CHAMPAIGN

Contents

Introduction i

I Indians Fur Traders Pioneers 1

II A Town A County A Township 8

III People and Places 13

IV Pleasures and Pastimes 24

V Disputes and Discussions 28

VI From the Model "T" to Apollo 17 33

VII From THE-A-KI-KI to Kankakee 41

Bibliography

KANKAKEE COUNTY

***|

This is the symbol for Kankakee County's Bicentennial celebration. The outline is of the
county itself inset over the outline of the State of Illinois. The three stars stand for county,
state, and nation; the double arch of the bridge spans the two rivers (Kankakee - Iroquois)
which figured so significantly in the development of the county. The 1850 locomotive
climbing a sharp grade indicates the forward and upward growth of the area, and the
influence of all of the county's railroads in that endeavor.

WAIVER

In putting together this history of Momence Township many things have been
encountered that do not agree. The writers have done their best to check on details, but it
has not always been possible to completely verify them. Any errors or mis-statements are
unintentional.

Spelling is generally as we have found it, and spellings vary from document to
newspaper items, to family usage as we find it today.

Census information is known in some cases to be in error, but that is the way it was
recorded by the census takers.

Stories that are handed down through the years grow or fade in the telling. We hope
you will enjoy the information, but always keep in mind that in reality it may have been a
little different.

Memories is a project of the Kankakee Bicentennial Commission.

! Indians Fur Traders Pioneers

1976 is a very special year. It not only marks the
beginning of the last quarter of the twentieth
century, it is the two hundredth birthday of the
United States of America. All across the nation there
is remembering as each community retells the story
of its beginnings and rediscovers its roots. For all
Americans, but especially for the citizens of
Momence township, it is hoped that this look
backwards will renew their pride in their heritage and
their faith in themselves and their future.

Yet, where or what, exactly, are the beginnings?
History is, in reality, a chain of events— each link built
upon a previous event, or link. Perhaps one might
start with the link called "The Illinois Country".
Long before there was a United States of America the
"Illinois Country" was well known and well defined.
It was peopled by numerous groups of Indians: the
Illinois on both sides of the Illinois river, the
Piankeshaws to the east, into present state of Indiana,
and the Miamis to the northeast.

French explorers were the first Europeans to
visit this "Country of the Illinois"; the first dwellings
were their forts, trading posts and missions. During
the year 1679 Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle, with
his companions Tonty and Father Hennepin,
followed the southern tip of Lake Michigan eastward
to the St. Joseph river. They ascended this river to a
point near present day South Bend, Indiana. There
they crossed the marshy swamp lands to the
headwaters of the Kankakee river, descending it to
the Illinois river. La Salle and his voyageurs were,
thus, the first Europeans to have traveled "our" river
and seen "our" township. The Illinois country was
French territory until 1763 when, by the Treaty of

Paris, it was ceded to the British. British occupation
ended with the American Revolution, almost one
hundred years after La Salle's trip down the
Kankakee river.

In 1779 the congress of a new nation, the
United States of America, requested that states
having claims on western lands, either by grant,
conquest, or cession by Indians, relinquish those
claims to the federal government. Thus the "Country
of the Illinois" became the Northwest Territory. On
May 7, 1800 the Northwest Territory was divided
into the Indiana Territory (western portion) and the
Ohio Territory; during the year 1809 the Indiana
Territory was divided, the western portion becoming
the Illinois Territory. In 1818 the state of Illinois
became the twenty-first state admitted to the union.

This was frontier land; the process of migration
and settlement followed the pattern that a century
had made familiar. First came the trappers and
traders, isolated men at home in the wilderness,
capable of dealing both with human and animal
habitants on equal terms. One such man was Noel
LeVasseur. When only seventeen, unhappy on the
family farm in the province of Quebec, he decided to
"seek his fortune" elsewhere. In May 1817, along
with some forty other youngsters and the fur trader
Roche Blave, he set out for the West to trade with the
Indians. At Mackinac the group found a post of
Astor's American Fur Company, and were put to
work. These young Frenchmen were the ones was
manned the "batteaux", with trade goods for the
Indians, who hauled the furs on their backs, who
traveled unknown trails, who often went hungry. It
was labor often dangerous, always difficult.

•A r

The river as it must have looked to de La Salle and later to
One summer LeVasseur met Gurdon Hubbard at
Mackinac. Hubbard was another "fortune seeker",
young in years but old in experience, already in a
position oi~ responsibility with the American Fur
Company and one of the "Illinois Brigade".
LeVasseur became one of Hubbard's voyageurs, later
his good friend and business partner. In 1821
Hubbard with his voyageurs, set out from Chicago
following the route that LaSalle had followed over a
century earlier. With the aid of Indians they made the
portage from the St. Joseph river across swampy
marsh lands to the river that today we call the
Kankakee. In 1699 St. Cosme called it the "River
The-a-li-ke"; in 1712 Father Marest called it
"Han-ki-ki"; Charlevoix wrote of it as "Ki-a-ki-ki"
which he said was corrupted from "The-a-ki-ki"; in
1812, in a report to the governor, it was called
"Quin-que-que" (undoubtedly a French spelling of an
Indian pronunciation). It is supposed that
"Kankakee" is an Americanized spelling of the
French name— a name to which historians have given
various meanings: wolf, swamp, wonderful land.
Hubbard, recalling his first impression of the
Kankakee valley said, "You are citizens of the most
beautiful portions of our grand state". The aborigines
so considered it; they designated it the "Wonderful

5fe

Gurdon Hubbard. (A painting by Marilyn Ostrow)

Land, Wonderful River, Wonderful Home". Indians
whose villages were on the banks of your river always,
in naming their residence, would say
"Ti-yar-ack-nauk"- "wonderful land home". I can
never forget my first impressions of river, woods and
lands so delightfully interspersed."

During the year 1822 Hubbard established a
track, or trace as it was often called, from his post at
Bunkum (present day Iroquois) south well beyond
Danville and north to Chicago. The Indians with
whom he traded were the Pottowatomi, described by
early French missionaries as hunters and fishers of
war-like bearing living north of Lake Huron, then
later along the coast of Lake Michigan. Early in the
eighteenth century they had migrated to northern
Indiana and northern Illinois. The men hunted and
Fished, the women raised the crops: corn, beans,
squash, melons. There were several of their villages in
the Kankakee valley; Chief Yellowhead's village near
Sherburnville,Wais-kuks near Waldron, She-mor-gar or
Soldier's village, and the largest, Shawanassee's village
at Rock Creek. These Pottowatomi were excellent
trappers, no longer war-like, but acustomed to the
white man and his trade goods: guns, blankets,
copper pots, clothing and whiskey. Although they
had lived in the Kankakee valley just a little over one

hundred years, it was indeed their wonderful land.
Beaver Lake and the marshes eastward were natural
fish hatcheries; water fowl and food animals were
plentiful and crops grew well. Yet they were
persuaded to give it up. President Jackson needed
more frontier land for the the pioneer families; he
wanted the nation to grow westward. Since the
Indians were in the way he requested Congress to pass
an Indian Removal Act authorizing treaties with the
Indians for their land, and resettling them on
reservations west of the Mississippi. At Tippecanoe,
Indiana, in 1832, the Pottowatomi sold their lands in
what is now Kankakee county to the United States
government. Certain choice land was reserved for
chiefs or their families, principally in the area that is
now Kankakee and Bourbonnais— reservations ranging
from 320 to 3200 acres in size. However, these
Indians chose to sell their reservation and go with
their people to Iowa. The upheaval took place
gradually, a few groups at a time. By 1838 almost all
the Pottowatomi had left their "wonderful land
home".

According to the pattern of settlement, after the
trails were defined the pioneer families
followed— hardy men and women who wrested aliving
from the land, and whose children grew tough in the
struggle to survive. In their wake moved the agents of
civilization— land speculators, lawyers, officials and
shopkeepers who established the links that drew the
frontier close to the rest of the world.

Thus it was in Momence township. The
Hubbard Trace from Danville to Chicago was well
defined and well traveled. The finest and most
practical ford of the river was a spot about a mile
above the present bridge at Momence. The river was
shallow, the bed of the river consisted of large flat
stones making a fairly smooth road. It became known
as the Upper Crossing because there were two other
fords some five hundred yards apart about a mile
downstream called the Lower Crossing. These fords
were the only practicable crossings for almost the
length of the river; all travel north and south
converged at these spots; this was the route for
emigration and tiade from western Indiana and

A painting by local artist Marilyn Ostrow, of the Pottowatomi departure from the Kankakee valley. Letourneau wrote that reliable
pioneers had described it as a heart rending experience. "The squaws wrung their hands and tore their hair; bitter tears fell in the
furrows of dark chieftain faces; little children felt the sob of premonitory desolation rising in their throats. They had bartered their
lands, their peace of mind, the heritage of the little ones for gold, and over their dull consciousness swept the gripping chill of a
regretted and unalterable fate. "

southern Illinois to Chicago.

Upper Crossing, directly on Hubbard's trail
attracted the first settlers. In 1833 William Lacy put
up a log cabin on the north side of the river at the
crossing; the next year Robert Hill put a cabin on the
south side of the river and opened a tavern. (At that
time tavern meant hotel.)

1 834 was also the year that the state put in a
mile-stone marked road from Vincennes to
Chicago-a road that followed Hubbard's trail from
Danville to Chicago. In a letter Hubbard wrote, "The
legislature of Illinois caused a state road to be laid out
in 1834, designated by mile-stones, from Vincennes
to Chicago. The commisioners who located it and
planted the stones tried hard, so they informed me,
to get a straight line, and better ground than the
Hubbard trail, but were forced with slight deviations
to use mv old track ..."

The William Nichols home, on the Hubbard Trail, is one of the
oldest homes still standing in the county.

The Graham farmhouse, another of the oldest in the county is
situated on a high wooded hill overlooking the 400 acres of
the Graham farm.

Milestone 179 as it looked in 1909. Today, showing the
ravages of vandalism and weather, it is set in concrete— a
project of the Worcester Women's Relief Corps. It is almost
directly across the road from the William Nichols home.

The Melcalf farmhouse, on the north bank of the Upper
Crossing. The great-grandchildren of Silas tell of finding
timbers from the old bridges when they playcd,as children, in
the river.

Three years later ( 1837) William Nichols settled
near the trail on the north side of the river. The only
mile-stone remaining of the state road, number 179
(number of miles from Vineennes) is still to be seen
across the road from the Nichols home, one of the
oldest houses still standing in Kankakee county. In
1838 James Graham settled near William Nichols and
Silas Metcalf settled on the land where Lacy had put
up a cabin just four years earlier. In 1839 Walter B.
Hess arrived from Canada and settled a few miles up
river from the Crossing. He acquired a farm of 40
acres which he gradually increased until he owned
some 560 acres. He is an example of the sturdy hard
working pioneer farmer of Momence township, for
the land, covered with tall prairie grasses had to be
cultivated by hand. It was a back breaking job that was
accomplished a few acres at a time. As W. W. Parish,
Sr. recorded in his diary, "Our tools were all hand
made and we made them. They consisted of a
wooden plow, a wooden drag and a hand sickle".

ejf

A monument to the Hess family, on Highway 1 14 several miles
east of Momence.

By 1845 there was a settlement of about a
dozen families at the Crossing, fairly evenly divided
between the north and the south sides of the river.
Robert Hill's tavern was so well known that the
crossing was often called Hill's Crossing. His business
outgrew the log cabin and, in 1840, he built a larger
house -a frame house whose finishing lumber was
hauled from Chicago by wagon. Two years later a
bridge was built at the crossing site. The eldest
daughter of James Graham remembered watching the
building of the bridge. All the settlers came to help;
meals and generous amounts of whiskey were served
at Hill's place. Unfortunately ice jams destroyed the
bridge some three or four years later. It was rebuilt
only to be destroyed again in 1849.

At the same time that a settlement was
developing at the Upper Crossing, another was
growing at the Lower Crossing. Asher Sargeant built a
log cabin— a large double cabin— on the north side of
the river some time in 1 834. He had a store in a part
of the cabin, and two years later, when A. S. Vail and
the Beebes came, a room of his cabin was used as a
school. Orson Beebe and A. S. Vail built a cabin on
the south side of the river. Orson's sister Lorraine, the
settlement's first teacher, recalled, "I taught school
during the winter of 1837 in Asher Sargeant's house.
The two children of the Sargeants were all the
scholars I had. I only taught three hours a day when I
could cross the river on the ice. My sister, who
married Mr. Vail, and myself kept house for my
brother Orson and Mr. Vail at their house on the
south side of the river." The next year she taught in
the empty Lacy cabin at the Metcalf place. She was
able to borrow a boat and rowed herself as well as the
south side children to the school each day.

Algernon Sidney Vail, at the age of ninety-six, a
tall, erect man whose firm handshake belied his years,
recalled those first years of the settlement. "In
1836", he said, "I came West with Mr. Hardin Beebe
and his family. They settled on a claim later known as
Beebe 's Grove, near what is now Crete, Illinois. In
October of that year I made a trip to Chicago. It was
then a crude looking place. It was not an unusual
thing to see a team stuck in the mud on Lake Street. I
could have purchased lots on this street for twenty or
twenty-five dollars each, while on State Street lots
could have been had for a song. Had I acted upon my
own judgement I should certainly have secured some
of the ground in the business section of the city
instead of the claim of 160 acres which I purchased
here for $2200.

In 1837, I married Miss Anna Beebe, and when
we settled on our claim there were just two shanties
where Momence now stands. The next year (1838) I
drew my wheat to Chicago with an ox team and sold
it for 37'/2 cents per bushel. It took three days to
make the trip. In those days neighbors were few, and
in our little colony reciprocity was a prominent plank
in our community platform. Each had a desire for the
common good of all.

When our little community consisted of six
families, the need of school advantages was keenly
felt, and I have always held in grateful remembrance
my humble effort to provide for this necessity by
erecting a little building which was the first frame
schoolhouse in Kankakee county. This same building
is now the kitchen part of our home, for, after being
used for five years for school purposes, it was
outgrown and gave place to a larger building."

He recalled that red and black raspberries, grapes
and wild turnip grew along the river, brought
undoubtedly by the French voyageurs and distributed
among the Indians. These Indians were converts and
buried their dead, marking the graves with rude
crosses. He also recalled finding the body of an Indian
buried above ground in a sitting position in a little log
hut on an island east of town, as Bloom had described
the burial of Chief Shawanassee.

Mr. Vail was the first postmaster of the
community. He had served as supervisor and grand
juror. At 96 he was, and had been for twenty years,
justice of the peace. Momence people, young,
middle-aged and old, for miles around came to Uncle
Algernon to be married, firmly believing that "a
nuptial knot could be more cleverly and permanently
tied by him". At 96 he was truly a patriarch of
Momence.

It was the year after "Sid" Vail came to the
settlement that Asher Sargeant built a dam on the
north fork of the river and set up a sawmill.A year
later (1838) he put in a dam on Trim creek one and
one-half miles east of the town (on the farm later
owned by J. H. Nichols) and built a grist mill. No
longer was it necessary for the settlers to go as far as
Wilmington or Lafayette to have their grain ground.

W. W. Parish, Sr. came to the Lower Crossing in
1840 when choice farm land was selling for $1.25 per
acre, wheat delivered in Chicago brought 35 cents a
bushel, corn and oats 10 cents a bushel, and dressed
pork $1.50 per hundred. Although most of the
Pottawatomi had left, Mr. Parish remembered that
when he came there were still Indians occupying
teepees along the river. The Grahams at Upper

Crossing recalled that each spring and summer there
were Indians who came to visit them and to sell bead
work or buck-skin apparel that they had made during
the winter. In particular, there was old Joe Barbee.
His place was known as Indian Garden (a little east of
the present Garden of Eden subdivision) where he
lived with his wife and two daughters. He was
remembered as a working Indian who grew vegetables
and fruit— an Indian with a white man's name.

Thus Momence, one of the oldest towns in
northeastern Illinois began as a river settlement that
existed for years without a name. It was, said Bert
Burroughs, a sort of rallying point. Here came the
coureurs de voyage from Canada, southern pioneers,
sturdy settlers from the Wabash and Yankees from
the East. Mr. Parish remembered that often there
were as many as one hundred wagons at a time
camped around the ford. "It was a wide open river
town", wrote a Momence editor, "with gambling,
profanity and dissipation in full sway" The marshes
to the east attracted not only hunters but criminals.
The islands were difficult to reach and afforded a safe
haven for all kinds of wrong-doers. The editor
continued, "At that time (1838) the old Indian chief
Bourbonnais was living in his double log cabin which
stood almost exactly where our court house now
stands; old Min-e-maung (Yellowhead) in his cabin on
the farm of J. P. Stratton about four and one-half
miles east of Momence, old Joe Barbee up the river at
what is known as Blue Grass. The dried corpse of an
Indian was in a rude birch bark hammock hanging in
a large tree on Miller's Island, and the Indian villages
near the present sites of Waldron and Altorf were the
fonly villages in the county. Along the river were the
cabins of frontiersmen engaged in hunting, trapping
i and cutting and rafting logs, and in the neighborhood
iof Beaver Lake counterfeiters, gamblers, horse thieves
_and all manner of outlaws were in hiding. Schools
were kept in log cabins devoid of what now we think
would be indispensable. Often one or two books
would have to suffice for the whole school, the
system of instruction being after the fashion of the
old Greeks, the teacher again and again rehearsing a
lesson until the pupil learned it."

A Town A County A Township

By 1841 the little community was large enough
for a postoffice, and was named Lorraine in honor of
the first teacher, Lorraine Beebe. The postoffice was
in the home of Postmaster A. S. Vail at Lower
Crossing. He was a Whig, however, and soon lost this
political job to a Democrat, David Lynds. Since Dr.
Lynds was the husband of Lorraine Beebe, the name
of the postoffice was not changed-just its
location-to Lynds' home at Upper Crossing.

The land on which the Lower Crossing
settlement grew was the reservation of the Indian
princess Ja-neir, her husband, and his two brothers
Wa-be-ga and Saw-grets. The three brothers were the
sons of a French trader Pierre Moran and his Indian
wife. Ja-neir's husband has been called, by various
historians, Mo-mentz, Momence, Mo-mess or Mo-ness.
Mr. Vail, who knew him well insisted that his name
was Mo-ness. In 1843 Dr. Hiram Todd acquired this
land bringing his holdings in Kankakee county to
8,000 acres. He had the land surveyed, a town platted
and recorded in the Will county court house in Joliet
in 1846. It was a town of about twelve blocks,
bound on the north by Fourth Street, on the east by
Maple Street, on the west by Range Street and on the

south by the river. There were six or eight houses
within the town limits and the flouring mills of Todd
and Chatfield. Mrs. Chatfield recalled that one
evening at Todds they were discussing a name for the
town. Dr. Todd proposed two names, Momence and
Sawgrets. Mrs. Chatfield suggested Toddsville. After
some discussion they chose the name Momence. Soon
afterward the townsite was bought by James Mix, W.
A. Chatfield and John Strunk as a real estate venture.

Isaac Olds wrote in a letter, "In 1845 I built the
first bridge over the north channel of the river from
the foot of Range Street to the island. The one over
the south branch was built by John Force and was
put in by subscription. I bought the first lot sold in
the town for which I paid the sum of $30."

Milan O. Clarke, who later published the
Momence Reporter, came to Momence in the spring
of 1846 to join his brother, Bela. He wrote to his
New York relatives, "We have the best country, the
best land, and right here before long will be a place of
importance. We have water privileges and the canal
will come within thirty miles of us. Even now, with
our market at Chicago fifty miles away we do as well
as Naples as we can get things very cheap there."

' .*»«* *r

Early settlers, from the 1883 Atlas

By 1851 there was quite a business center on
River Street: three general stores, a drug store, a tin
shop, a blacksmith shop and two hotels. The three
mills, a grist mill, a saw mill and a carding mill were
the life of the town since they brought in trade for
the stores. Chauncey and Albert Chipman had built a

First Brick Schoolhouse

hrst brick schcolhouse ever built in Momence. It was located
on Locust St. ulicre the Wilbur King residence is today.

From the Momence Press-Reporter, July 1939.

buck school on Locust between 3rd & 4th streets. The
ice jams of a particularly cold winter took out the
bridges in the late forties (no one remembered
exactly when) and Hill's bridge went down in the
spring of '49. During the summer, when the river was
fordable, one could cross at Momence or at Hill's; at
other times it was necessary to use the ferry at
Momence. Sometime in 1852 the business men of the
town formed the Momence Bridge Company and sold
stock to finance the building of new bridges. The
project was completed the next year and a house was
built on the west tip of the island, between the
bridges, for the toll collector. The toll for a team
crossing was 15 cents, 10 cents for a single horse, and
5 cents to walk across. One could get a reduced rate
by purchasing a quantity of tickets at a time.

Perhaps it was the new toll bridges, perhaps the
new flouring mill that John Strunk built on the
island, or perhaps the new church congregations-the
few Methodists who had met at Nichols farm formed
a congregation in 1844 and met at the new brick

school; the Baptist congregation, organized in 1851,
built a church the next year. Whatever the reason, the
little Momence settlement continued to grow while
the community at Upper Crossing began to disappear.
Hakestraw's dram shop, Glover's store, Green's
gunshop, the blacksmith, one by one they moved
down river to Momence. Only Hill's tavern was left.
In the spring of 1850 there was a Grand Ball at the
tavern in honor of Hill's son Sam. Philip Worchester
and a dozen other men who would soon be leaving
for the California gold fields. It was the tavern's last
celebration. Three years later, after the death of
Robert Hill, the building was moved to the corner of
River and Market Streets where it became a home.

New families moving to the community, new
businesses being formed as well as jury duty made the
day long trips to the county seats intolerable. There
were two of them, for the river was a dividing line.
Those living on the north side were in Will county,
formed from Cook in 1836, whose county seat was
Joliet; those living on the south side were in Iroquois
county, formed in 1833, whose county seat was
Middleport (near present day Watseka). The diary of
William Parish, Sr. says, "It was a day's journey to the
Middleport county seat. Lawyers from Joliet would
ride horseback to Middleport to try their cases, and
Iroquois county lawyers would ride horseback to
Joliet to try their cases." He as well as other
townspeople frequently served as jurors in the circuit
court, making the long trip to one county seat or the
other. By 1850 the Vails, Perrys, Worchesters and
Beebes with settlers from other communities along
the river, decided that they needed their own county
and county seat. Accordingly, petitions were sent to
the state legislature requesting a new county to be
taken from both Will and Iroquois. The legislature
ordered an election to be held in April, 1851,
requiring a majority vote from both counties. Will
county had no objections; Iroquois objected
vigorously; its vote was against the formation of a
new county. Thus the whole process of petitions and
elections had to be repeated. In the elections of 1 853
both counties had majority votes for the new county.
Although there was strong evidence of fraud in the
Iroquois county vote, it was finally allowed to stand,
and the county of Kankakee was organized. The first
election was held in Momence, the largest town in the
new county, in May, 1853, and county officers were
chosen. The vote for a county seat showed no clear
majority for any town. The first county court thus
met at Momence and ordered an election for a county
seat to be held June 21. The court laid out six

townships: Yellowhead, Bourbonnais, Aroma,
Rockville, Limestone and Momence. Momence
consisted of what is now Sumner, Ganeer, Momence,
Pembroke, and six sections of the east side of St.
Anne. Each township had at least one population
center.

A little before the county seat election, a town
of 43 blocks was platted and given the name
Kankakee Depot. It was on the new Illinois Central
railroad line and the railroad interests were
determined that it become the county seat. They
offered a block of land for the court house square
and $5000 toward the court house building.
Momence was equally determined to become the
county seat. The town's leading citizens worked to
get out the vote. The Indiana marshes and the Beaver
Lake region were searched for voters. The final vote
was about fifty percent greater than its registered
voters. The Illinois Central interests sent all their
construction crews and clerical workers to vote in
Aroma, Bourbonnais and Limestone. The vote was
double the population, but, as the newspapers
reported, "Momence was tarred too badly with the
same stick to demand a searching investigation".

Losing the election was a blow to Momence but
there was no time for bemoaning the decision.
Another matter of pressing importance was already
being debated. Momence was indeed the largest
settlement in the county— it was time to incorporate
as a town.

For years it had been called a "wide open" river
town with as many saloons as stores and a meeting
place for trappers, hunters, loggers, and from the
marshes to the east, gamblers and thieves. Bert
Burroughs wrote of these men, "they stood straight,
talked straight, shot straight and took their whiskey
straight. Their pastimes were poker, boxing,
wrestling, foot racing, horse racing and now and then
an honest-to-goodness fight". The early settlers and
the business men who followed them to this
community represented a new type of citizen. They
were people who formed church congregations and
built churches, who built schools, who formed
businesses and industries, who wanted a "decent"
town to live in. The Methodist group had been served
for many years by S. P. Burr, a well-loved circuit
rider. A parsonage had been built for him when,
because of a throat ailment, he had resigned as a
circuit preacher. Elder Burr led the fight for
incorporation— for fight it was! The backwoodsmen
were actively opposed; they wanted no restrictions.
Elder Burr's life was threatened; there were open

street fights; men who had long been friends became
enemies. Old Dan Parmelee, whose place was just east
of Joe Barbee's Indian Garden, lived alone in a little
cabin and spent his time hunting and trapping. He
was a crack shot— none but his good friends dared to
go near his place. One such good friend was William
Graham, but in a dispute over incorporation, (Bill was
for, Dan against) Bill hit Dan over the head with a
neck yoke. The story is told that for some time
thereafter Dan came into town without his gun, for
fear of what he would do if Bill continued the
argument. Other fights did not end so peaceably, but,
in due time the election was held and the proposition
won.

The citizens who had hoped for a peaceful,
law-abiding community soon discovered that winning
at the polls was not enough. When a corporate tax
was levied both sides objected vocally and actively.
Not only would men not pay the three dollar tax,
they would not work out the tax on the streets of the
town. There were arrests, trials and appeals, all of
which took years; "getting used to the idea" also
took years. Finally, some eight or nine years later
incorporation was a recognized fact; Momence
became a law-abiding town.

There were disputes and elections in the
township as well. Sumner township was formed in
1856, St. Anne (which included Pembroke) in 1857,
and Ganeer in 1859, reducing the township to its
present size. The split with Ganeer was down the
center of the main route which thus became the range
line of the two townships, and was named Range
Street. It was decided to name the new township for
Ja-neir, the wife of Momence; evidently a clerical
error in recording changed the J to G. Old records
spelled the name Ganeir; it is not certain when the
spelling changed again, or why. (Ganeer)

10

Dan Parmclcc's cabin, sketched by Marilyn Ostrow.

'TSffm
fill

Tte Slocum Wilbur home, just east ofMay-lan candles, looks much the same today.

- *fEBm-

Wml. B^wn's Yard and Cider Mill, riomence, Illinois

Looking West Irom the Bridge.

12

People and Places

The county seat and incorporation struggles did
not deter newcomers to the town or the township.
French Canadian farmers Peter Brassard, F. X.
Longpre and Peter Blanchette settled in the township.
The blacksmith, J. B. Paradis, started a wagon
factory. He also built a steam boat and made one trip
a day between Momence and Waldron. Slocum Wilbur
was a pioneer seed grower who, one year, raised and
shipped 15,000 pounds of cucumber seeds alone.
Most of today's residential area east of the Dixie
Highway was his seed farm, where he produced great
quantities of pepper, cucumber, water melon, squash,
peas, beans and other vegetable seeds. Many of the
town's businessmen got their start as boys working on
his farm.

William J. Brown emigrated to Momence from
England in 1850. He was an excellent machinist who
was always called upon to repair engines and all kinds
of machinery. He built a cider mill (where the present
city hall and fire department now stand). The
townspeople called him affectionately "Old English"
Brown and he was a favorite of the children. They
were always at his cider mill with their buckets or
cups when he drew off cider. No child was ever
turned down. The home that Brown built (1850) at
Second and Pine Streets still stands, owned, until
recently, by his granddaughter, Lucy Brown.

William Astle, who also emigrated from England,
came to Momence in 1855, worked and saved, and
opened his own hardware store on River Street in
1862. In 1863 the toll bridges went down, to be
replaced by free bridges. A toll collector was no
longer needed and the little house on the western tip
of the island was rented out by the Momence Bridge
Company. The brick schoolhouse became L. B.
Clark's carpenter shop. The Methodists built a new
stone church. It was also in 1863 that the thirty
Catholic families, under the guidance of Father P.
Paradis built a church. The members themselves cut
the timber, rafted it to the saw mill and built the
little chapel on the site of the present church.

All of these events were overshadowed by the
tragic war which began with the shelling for Fort
Sumpter April 13, 1861. The year 1860 had been an
exciting one, politically. Abraham Lincoln, an Illinois
man, was very popular in this area. In his diary
William Parish wrote that he had met Lincoln some
twenty years earlier when he tried a case at

Middleport. He remembered how the men gathered
round him to hear his stories. The next time he saw
Lincoln was at his home in Springfield after his
nomination for the presidency. Although Lincoln did
not campaign in Kankakee county, visitors from
Chicago, Springfield and other large cities retold his
stories to eager Momence listeners who, in turn,
amplified them and repeated them to anyone who
would listen. Lincoln had received seventy percent of
the Kankakee county vote, and when, through
Governor Yates, he asked for soldiers, the response
was equally great. There were meetings in all the
townships to urge men to enlist. Company D of the
42nd Infantry was made up almost entirely of
Momence men. A report of the Adjutant General
showed that Momence and Ganeer townships paid
$26,047.75, the highest amount paid by any county
township, for bounties, support of soldiers' families
and other expenditures in aid of supressing the
rebellion. There is no record of the additional
thousands of dollars paid out for care of families and
wounded men as well as for draft substitutes. The
cost of the war, the loss of so many men as well as
the economic difficulties that their going created,
caused untold suffering and hardship for those left
behind. Nothing surpassed, however, the misery of
the soldier himself. Although their reunions later
emphasized the glory of the campaigns, exerpts from
the diary of Lieutenant B. F. Gray, during the
Mission Ridge engagement, showed clearly that the
war was not glorious.

August 6, 1863

Cars arrived at noon today. I got just
no mail at all, as usual. I read
Shakespeare. Some of the officers got
on a high. All of us are just sweating
to death. The Gewalaker stood at 98
in the shade. All quiet on the
Tennessee.

September 17 QUIT SMOKING
Camped last night in Walker county.
The enemy is massing on our left. Our
Division lay in camp until noon when
we went out on the right about half a
mile and deployed as skirmishers.
Thomases corps moved up on the left
and Johnson and Davis came up.

13

Some cannonading on the left and
skirmishing all along the line. All quiet
at night and company maintains
picket.

September 19

Started toward the left. Marched some
12 miles. Our brigade was then
brought into fight. We were engaged
about one hour. Loss in the right, 14
wounded and 2 killed. Our company
sustained no loss. Lay on the battle
field all night and built breast works.
September 20

Early in the morning our lines fell
back to a new line of battle. Heavy
cannonading commenced at 9 a.m.,
also musketry. We were thrown in at
10 and were repulsed with heavy loss.
Our company lost 30 killed, wounded
and missing. We fell back 8 miles. Our
whole army was entirely routed. Loss
very heavy.
September 21

Cold last night and poor show for
sleep. We stayed all day where we
camped last night at the cross roads.
We built some breast works. The Rebs
felt at our lines on the left but did not
break them. Twelve more of our boys
came in today, making it up to 21.
Graham, T. O'Brien, Watson and
Dutcher are reported killed.
September 22

We fell back to Chattanooga last night
and are going to hold the place or die
trying. Commenced building rifle pits
and breast works. The Rebs came up
and felt us. Night cold.
October 26

General Wood's Division left last night
for the purpose of trying to open
communications by rail or river. We
got % lb. of bread for 1 lb. of flour.
Ate one loaf for dinner and one for
supper and have got two left for
tomorrow.
October 27

Got up this morning feeling rather
hungry. Our troops let into the Rebs
at daylight this morn. We have not
ascertained yet with what results. Rice

and gravy for supper. Are going to get
quarter rations in the morning.
October 31

Cleared off last night and I finished
the muster rolls. We were not
mustered today as the officers were so
slow. The boats are within 1 1 miles
and we expect to be on full rations in

3 days

December 31 Strawberry Plains, Ga.
Rains today, also last night. The men
are in a miserable condition, no tents
or covering of any kind. Their rations
are very small too, not nearly
adequate to the exposure or even to
sustain life. It seems as though we
were needlessly detained here in this
wilderness.

(After the war B. F. Gray lived and worked in
Washington D. C, studied law at Columbia Law
School and returned to Momence in 1872 to practice
law. For many years he was attorney for the city.)

After Lee's surrender, April 9, 1865, whole
regiments were mustered out as units, soldiers
returning home singly or in groups in any way they
could. Military records were thus incomplete or
inaccurate; compensation for the wounded and sick
was slow in payment or not paid at all; hardships
continued long after the war had ended.

After a three or four year absence, the returning
veterans saw changes in the community. There were
new free bridges, a new Catholic church, new stores,
and, of course, newcomers to the community. On the
farms, corn was replacing wheat as a money crop and
the new reaper was making grain harvesting easier.
William Brown had built a self-raking reaper, from the
patented plan of J. Atkin, for John Wright, the owner
of The Prairie Farmer. Cyrus McCormick had also
invented a reaper, and, by the end of the war, was
manufacturing it and selling it to midwest farmers.

The economic slump caused by the war was
alleviated somewhat by the news that a railroad
would come to Momence. The Chicago, Danville and
Vincennes railroad was chartered by the state
legislature to build a railroad from Chicago to the
southern part of the state. Work was begun in 1868
anil the road finished to Danville in 1871. The
townships through which it passed had issued bonds
to raise money for the railroad: Momence gave
S24,000. The road was almost parallel to the Illinois
Central and was very important to the continued

14

growth of the township. Some years later the railroad
added a "coal branch" from Brazil, Indiana to
Momence where it was connected by the main line
with Chicago. The railroad had relied on township
funds for a part of its financing; St. Anne never paid
the $30,000 promised and that, in part, was the cause
of its failure. The assets were sold and a new charter
granted in 1877 to the Chicago and Eastern Illinois
Railroad.

One of Ihe earliest engines of the C and E I.

A year before the railroad was completed, J. B.
A. Paradis established a weekly newspaper, The
Momence Reporter; four years later (1874) Dr. Milan
O. Clarke took over the editorship. The historian
Daniel Paddock said of it, "The Momence Reporter,
edited by Dr. M. O. Clarke of Momence is one of the
most rigorously edited and spicy sheets in the
county". An article in the Kankakee Times of
February 19, 1885, reporting that Steven Dennis had
purchased the Momence Reporter from Dr. Clarke
(disabled by paralysis) concluded, "Mr. Clarke is one
of the very best editorial writers of the country press
in Illinois".

The Church of the Good Shepherd was
organized as a parish during the year 1870, meeting in
the hall above what is today Stanley's Farm Store.
Six years later a small chapel was built near the north
end of the bridge on River Street. It was soon
outgrown, and in 1881 the present church, on the
corner of Second and Locust Streets was erected.

The C and E I Depot around 1900.

Central School with its iron fence and post gateway.

Although both Momence and Ganeer townships
had school districts, a special bill enacted by the
legislature in 1868 created the Momence Union
School District, two by three miles in size, partly in
Momence township, partly in Ganeer township, and
including the city of Momence. In 1871 the Central
School (where Range Elementary School now stands)
vas built at a cost of $20,000. William Sweeney
remembered that he was ten years old at the time of
the school construction. One September morning his

15

mother sent him to the school for a fresh pail of
water from the well. He had orders not to go into the
building, but the temptation to climb up to the
cupola was too great. He climbed up, uneventfully,
but on the way down he fell between the joists. At
the third floor his suspenders caught on a nail and he
hung there for a time. The suspenders finally broke
and he fell to the basement where Mr. Hubbard, the
contractor, rescued him, revived him and took him
home to face his mother's anger-with broken
suspenders and a few bruises.

The school, when completed, was enclosed by a
four foot iron fence with posts for a gateway -spaced
so that people could get in but cows could not.

The high school department was completed by
Professor G. H. White in 1875; the enrollment was
85, nearly half being tuition pupils. The first class of
seven young women and one young man was
graduated June 1, 1877.

Mr. Ernest Griffin of Grant Park, who graduated
in 1896, said, "It was the ambition of every boy in
school to climb the flagpole on top of the cupola and
write his name on the silver ball above the flagpole".
He added that only two boys were able to do it,
Mitch Cantway and Fred Clarke.

Class of 1892 M. H. S.

* is the first class graduated under Professor H P. Little.
ie Commencement Exercises were held in the old Murphy
pera House. The graduates are left to right: Florence (Riker)

rieins. Martha (Clark) Watson. Mary (Knighthart) Meinzer

Martha (Chipman) Henry. Nora (Culver) Paradis. Frances Mc

Daniels.

From the Momence Press-Reporter, July 1939.

In 1894, just twenty-three years after the
completion of the Central School, another was
needed and the Lorraine School was built on the
south side of the river.

This rapid population growth began before
1870 and was responsible for a great deal of building
in the early seventies. J. B. Durham organized a bank.
He and J. B. Wickes felt that Front Street (present
Washington Street) would soon replace River Street
as the business center. Each man had two brick
buildings erected on Front Street east of Range
Street. J. B. Worchester put up the next building and
the block began to be called the "J. B. Block". A few
years later W. G. Nichols built two more brick
buildings, completing the block. William Astle, who
had established his hardware store in '62, moved into
the new building (present location) in October 1871
by the light of the Chicago fire. While this sounds like
an exaggeration, those who know insist that it is
true-that great fire lighted the heavens for more than
fifty miles. There has been an Astle Hardware
business in Momence for 114 years-in the same
location for 105 years. It is the oldest continuous
business run by the same family in the township.
William Astle was a leader in the Episcopal church as
well as a civic leader and Astles ever since have
have followed in that tradition.

William Astle who founded the oldest business in Momence,
now run by his great-grandson, Charles Astle.

16

There was building, too, on Range Street north
of Front Street in spite of the creek that developed at
flood times. When the river was high, water used to
back up from a spot beyond the C and E I depot,
forming a creek that ran southwest, crossing Range
Street in front of the livery stable (Plaque Village),
then back of the bank building (Karlock Enterprises)
until it rejoined the river. In the spring people used
the foot bridges to cross it; wagons often mired in it.
In the winter the children skated on it; in the summer
it was a dirty ditch. Finally in the late 1890's the
ditch was cleaned out. Bustles, old shoes, tin cans and
other rubbish were removed, the ditch was filled in
and the street leveled off.

Home built by William Astle about 1861 on the corner of
Washington and Pine Streets. It was torn down in 1970 and
replaced by the new Momence Federal Savings and Loan
building.

The Astle Hardware Store in 1924. From left to right, Lance West, Charles B. Astle (grandson of the founder), William Birch, Milan
Astle (great-grandson of founder), John Cummings, Tom Newsam,

n

Range Street (looking north) showing the foot bridge over the creek. This picture shows a funeral procession starting from the Opera
House.

J. B. Paradis had built a steamboat to carry
produce and merchandise between Momence and
Waldron in 1854; by the 1880's river steamboats were
a common sight in the Momence area. The "Union
Club" made excursion trips from Momence east to
Olds Landing, Indian Town and the state line. There
were smaller craft also for hauling produce and
supplies between Momence and the farms east of the
city. Dr. Clarke, editor of the Momence Reporter
took the Union Club trip to the state line and back.
He reported that it was an excellent trip, the boat
itself a marvel, the ride most enjoyable. In the same
paper his editorial commented on the danger to the
bridges that cattle crossing caused. "The village
authorities should see to it that all cattlemen who
violate the ordinance relating to driving cattle across
the bridges should be prosecuted to the full extent of
the law", he wrote. Not long after, a front page
headline read, "A BIG SMASH AND A BAD
AFFAIR". The story related that as Levi Croman was

hurrying a drove of cattle over the bridge, one of the
spans gave way and the bridge, cattle and all, were
dumped into the river killing five or six head of
cattle. The article further said that it would take from
$2000 to $3000 to put the structure in shape and in
the meantime everyone who wished to cross would
have to ford or ferry the south branch. Evidently
cows, allowed to wander about as they chose, as well
as cattle driven carelessly across the bridges were real
civic problems for a long time and were finally solved
by a town ordinance in 1888. The following year
editor Stephen W. Dennis of the Momence Reporter
wrote, "When the board, by a narrow majority,
passed the ordinance prohibiting live stock from
running at large on the streets there was considerable
dissatisfaction. After a year's trial, however, very few,
if any, can be found who wish to return to the old
order of things. People have been encouraged to plant
shade trees and to better care lor the streets and
walks in front of their premises. It would now be

is

almost impossible to return to the old way

The completion of the new railroad with its
innumerable side tracks, all unenclosed, would render

the life of the village cow rather precarious

Thus it may be said that one of the vexing questions
has forever passed out of the area of village politics.
The cow question is a dead issue."

The Illinois, Indiana and Iowa Railroad came
into Momence in 1882. By 1900 there were four
railroads serving the city and the township.
Letourneau's history says that Momence was entering
a period of great business and commercial growth.
This growth had begun a little earlier than 1900,
however. By the late 1870's there was growing ice
business; one winter James Mix harvested 1 5 ,000 tons
of ice. In 1884 the Tiffany Brick Works was
incorporated. The natural clay was to be used for
sewer pipe and for tile; Goose Lake clay from the
northern part of the state would be shipped in by rail.
At first brick was made only for the construction of
the company's buildings and kilns. By 1886 there
were six kilns and a foundation for the drying room.
The next year red pressed brick (the press was L. J.
Tiffany's invention) was being manufactured; fifty
men were employed. By 1889 two more kilns were

completed as well as a central heating system with
tunnels supplying heat to each kiln and to the drying
room. One hundred men were employed, most of
whom lived in town and walked to work. The fine red
pressed brick was sold for buildings in Chicago and
other large cities and was acknowledged to be the
best in the world in quality and design. However the
Tiffany brothers had read articles in English journals,
by ceramist Isaac Hardy, of an enameling process for
brick. After much correspondence Isaac Hardy agreed
to come to Momence for a year to introduce the
process at the Tiffany Brick Company. He came in
1893 with three sons, Ernest, Ralph and James
Edward. With his special formula he started up the
process by means of which the face of the brick was
covered with a coating of procelain in any shade or
tint desired. The Tiffany Enameled Brick Company
became even more well known world wide, winning
prizes and recognition at expositions across the
country and in Europe. Isaac Hardy, who had
promised to stay one year, stayed six years and
returned to England without his sons. In spite of his
urging, they liked America, they liked Momence and
decided to stay. Ernest was made superintendent of
the company, although all three brothers were

19

employed there. Many of the store fronts on South
Roosevelt Road in Chicago and on State Street were
made of this enameled brick. As many as two
hundred men were often employed, depending on the
size and the number of orders.

Isaac and Mary Hardy in 1902 on their 50th wedding
anniversary.

The Tiffany Brick Company employees in front of the yards in the early 1920's. First full row, 5th from the left, Ernest Hardy, 6th
from the left, L. J. Tiffany, 7th from the left, E. O. Hermann, 9th from the left, Ralph Hardy, whose three daughters, Irene Hardy,
Mrs. H. Hungerford and Mrs. G. H. Hertz still live in Momence.
Directly behind Ralph Hardy is Ernie Usher who supplied this picture.

20

The Tiffany Brick Company

Even before the Brick Works was organized.
Frederick Knighthart built a big three story hotel 01
the southeast corner of Range and Front streets. He
had come to Momence in 1869. He kept a saloon and
ran a livery stable as well as managing his farm. His
hotel (built in 1882) was known as the Central
House; it was considered one of the finest in the
country. There were residents who made their homes
there. The two large dining rooms (one a family
room) served the finest foods, almost entirely
produced on his farm. Businessmen ate dinner there
at noon for 25 cents; at the large tables in the family
room entire families came every night for supper.
There was a sample room for salesmen to show their

wares: bin ers came from St. Anne. Watseka, Manteno
and other nearb> towns to place their orders.

Almost across the street, text to the Parish Bank
building, was W. .I.Dixon's bakery and restaurant.
Clara Dixon Mc!b\ remembers the children coming in
for penny candy, the businessmen for dinner or
supper, the families who always ate there. Whether in
the restaurant or at home, dinner was at noon, supper
in the evening. Mornings were spent baking pies,
cakes and preparing the noon meal. Dessert at noon
was always pie. For supper one had fried potatoes
(left over from dinner) and dessert was always cake
with fruit or pudding.

The Central House and the restaurants were
busy places, soon to be even busier. The C and E I
purchased land south of the depot and south of the
island in 1887. Two years later a round house, rip
track and repair shops were located on the land south
of the island (about where the Tuthill plant now
stands) hiring from forty to fifty men. That same
year the railroad purchased the eastern half of the
island and turned in into a resort area. Boat houses
were built, a dancing pavilion and bandstand erected,
rope swings and a merry-go-round set up for
children, picnic tables and a refreshment stand
prepared. Opening day was a huge success, reported
in the paper, "The picnic season at the new and
beautiful park owned, controlled and recently highly
improved by the C and E I road was opened last
Saturday. June 16, 1 887. The Momence band met the
visitors at the station and rendered very acceptable

music. They then repaired to the dance hall

The swings, teeters and shooting gallery also attracted
attention, but it was the river and boating facilities
that asserted the great superiority of these grounds
over all others. Twenty or thirty boats were kept
constantly on the water and the little steamer of
Captain Gibeault was in great demand." Island Park,
well advertised by the C and E I became famous;
excursion trains from Chicago were filled with
pleasure seekers during the summer: special holidays
often saw several thousand tourists arriving. Many of
them picnicked on the island, many more went to the
Central House or Dixon's for meals. Lou St. Aubin.
Knighthart's granddaughter remembered Central
House often serving 300 to 400 persons on a fourth
of July. She and her friends were pressed into service

as dishwashers, much to their displeasure. Other
children were more fortunate and sneaked onto the
island to ride the merry-go-round, enjoy the swings or
join in the games and contests. In 1889 the
newspaper reported, "On July 4th, 9000 people
visited the island, from Kankakee, Brazil, Morocco,
1 100 from Chicago and from as far south as Danville.
Speeches were made, there was dancing in the hall, 70
boats of the park were constantly in use. a

merry-go-round entertained the children

toward night the crowd gradually dispersed, though
dancing continued until morning, but at last the great
fourth of July celebration became a thing of the
past." What a contrast this was to the first fourth of
July celebration in 1837 on the south side of the
river-a gathering of some forty or fifty people who
feasted on venison, fish chowder and pie and listened
to the speeches of Philip Worchester, Newell Beebe
and A. S. Vail. The same newspaper that reported the
fourth of July celebration also noted that all the park
alligators except one had escaped and were cavorting
up and down the river. "Fond parents will, in future
years, have a powerful argument to use in preventing
their youngsters from bathing in the river",
concluded the article.

The telephone, which had come to Momence
about 1880 was no longer a novelty. In 1882 the
newspaper said, "We saw a woman in the telephone
office Tuesday morning talking to someone in
Herscher, and it was not much of a trick either". By
1889 the telephone office was supplied with a long
distance transmitter so that conversations could be
carried on with Chicago with as much ease as with
Grant Park.

W. J. Dixon in front of his bakery and restaurant.

::

/"*s*

1

Nichols Cemetery (above) Shronts Cemetery (below)

In the early days of the community, these two settlers allowed the use of a part of their land as cemeteries, one on the north side of

the river, the other on the south side. (It was not always possible to cross the river) In 1874 the Shronts family deeded this land to a

cemetery association governed by a board of trustees; at about the same time the Nichols land was also deeded as a permanent

cemetery.

* '.'■<•

23

IV Pleasures and Pastimes

In 1888, Knighthart enlarged his hotel and put
in steam heating, the Building and Loan Association

was organized, Front and Range Streets were
becoming as busy business centers as River Street, the
Tiffany Briek Company and the Anderson Brick
Company were flourishing industries that kept many
employed as did the C and E I round house and repair
shops. Momence was developing as a railroad
industrial center and people were moving in because
there were jobs for them. The earliest settlers "were
French Canadian and New Yorkers. German,
Swedish, English and Irish immigrants came soon
after, some settling in town, others on farms east of
town. There were several Negro families who had
lived in the community from its earliest days— all
together creating a mixture of cultures that grew and
modified side by side. However, many of the
newcomers of the seventies and the eighties were
Danish and Polish who, feeling more comfortable
with their own cultures, stayed together. The little
group of homes east of the C and E I tracks were
built by the Danish newcomers: gradually that section
of town became known as "Danetown" or
"Denmark". In 1897 the Danish Lutherans built a
little chapel on the south side of the river where
services were held in Danish. The homes immediately
west of the tracks (4th. 5th and 6th streets and west
to Ash Street) were built by the Polish immigrants.
Naturally everyone was soon calling that section
"Poland" or "Polish town". The children, whose
friends were not just neighbors but scattered
throughout the town and township, gradually broke
the pattern. By the second generation "Denmark"
and "Poland" were not so tightly knit: today there is
no specific ethnic section of an} kind.

This home, much chc

The section cast of the C and K I tracks known as "Denmark".

While Momence was indeed developing into .
business and industrial center, it was also known as a
city of beautiful homes. In the township were the
gracious farm homes of Chatfield, Hess, and
Schrontz, as well as the older Graham, Nichols and
Metcalf homes. In the city one pointed out with pride
the beautiful W. G. Nichols homes, the Chipman,
Tiffany, Durham and Hardy houses and, above all,
the Wikstrom home, "Villa Swea", a stately three
story twenty room home that was not only a city
mansion but a little bit of Sweden. Axel Wikstrom
came to Momence from Sweden in 1865, married
Cedelia Stratton of this city, then returned to Sweden
to introduce her to his family. When he returned to
Momence he bought a large farm, built a long
rambling farm house and sent to Sweden for
furnishings. In the early 1890's he decided to live in
town and so the magnificent Villa Swea was built.
The lovely Swedish furniture was moved in from the
farm home, from Sweden came tapestries, family
portraits and paintings. He and his wife loved people;
the\ were now able to entertain as much as the)
hi. cd. They kept open house for friends and lent their
home lor man tions. Mrs. Rowell. a

niece, said in an into J Christmas time the

house was at il room aglow with

Christmas candles am h flowers, the dining

room with its blue Swedisl china, its shining silver
anil glass, its little silk Hags, Swedish and American,
and the big log of banana ice cream that we always
hail at Christ

24

Cedelia Stratton Wikstrom

The Wikstroms were not the only gracious
hosts-Marguerite Durham Keil remembers the many
times a friend "dropped in" near meal time and was
always invited to stay for one of her mother's fine
dinners. She remembers, too, a singing group that met
often at her home. She and her brother, supposedly
in bed, used to sit at the top of the stairs to watch
and listen. The music was delightful. Her mother was
an accomplished musician who could play anything
the group wanted to sing and in any key requested.
There were parties out in the country— guests
returning by bobsled in winter or buggy in
summer— well fed and happy. In the winter there
were ice skating parties along the river; in the
summer there was a horse fair every month. Roller
skating became popular and a skating rink was built.
A dramatic club was formed, performing in Murphy
Hall (where Lang's garage is now). When Lou Allen, a
well known actor settled in Momence and took over
the club, he developed some fine talent. The plays
became such a success that the hall had to be "done
over" to accommodate the large audiences. The
renovated hall with its new stage and scenery was
renamed the Momence Opera House. The Y.W.C.A.
organized a library with a membership fee of $1.00
entitling the member to a book a week. Of the
literary societies the Historical Club was best known,
giving such programs as: People of Greece and Their
Origins by Mrs. B. F. Gray, or, An Account of the
Trojan War by D. S. McKinstry. Dances were popular,

A scene from one of the dramatic club's performances. From
left to right— John Lincoln, Belle Blake, Frank Riker.

formal elegant affairs sponsored by social or church
groups and held at the Opera House. For the men, the
Odd Fellows and the Masons were active
organizations; the Momence Woman's Club was
organized in the late nineties.

Social and business life were, at first,
inconvenienced by the bad roads of the community,
but each year the roads worsened until they became a
real problem. Mud holes grew so large that they could
not be bypassed and wagons and buggies too often
mired in the ditch. Newspaper editorials spoke
eloquently of the need for paved roads as a stimulus
to business. After endless debate the town purchased
a stone crusher and began paving the streets. By the
turn of the century the ditch was filled in and the
streets were paved. Wooden sidewalks and wooden
store awnings were eliminated, hitching rails were
removed, and streets were marked and houses
numbered.

In 1891 the village voted to change to city
government and J. J. Kirby was elected the first
mayor. The year before the village board had voted
unanimously to install an electric light plant with
eight or ten lights strategically placed to light the city
streets from early dusk to midnight. The plant was
installed in 1890 with L. W. Calkins as
superintendent. He was often called out at night to go
to the plant and throw on a few more com cobs when

2?

the lights suddenly went out. Ocassionally, when
there was a dance, the "boys" chipped in and paid
Mr. Calkins to leave the lights on after midnight.

Some of these same "boys"— a group of men
who always went together to put out fires— organized
a fire department and raised enough money to buy a
fire engine. Mitch Cantway said that at the call of
"fire" twenty or thirty men would grab the rope (the
engine came equipped with about thirty feet of rope
for pulling), but often the roads were so bad that
someone would have to go to the livery stable for a
team and wagon to come pull the fire engine out of
the mud.

When, during these same early nineties,
surveyors for the Big Four Railroad arrived in
Momence to consider locating a terminal there, the
editor of the Reporter wrote, "It's a cold day when
Momence hasn't got something new to worry poor
old Kankakee".

The Inter-state Hay Palace housing the fall
festival for the interstate district (eight Illinois
counties, seven Indiana counties) was another
something new to worry Kankakee. The palace, at
the west end of town, covered about an acre of
ground, its wooden frame completely covered by
bales of hay, giving it a look of masonry. The towers
were from 60 to 80 feet in height, the central dome
was 90 feet high. With its towers and halls spreading
out from the central building it resembled a medieval
castle. Inside were exhibits of farm products and
machinery, art exhibits and a flower show. Outside
were many kinds of races and a baseball tournament.
The festival lasted ten days, one of which was a
children's day with special games for the youngsters
and a baby show. It was a great popular and financial
success; the second year it was "bigger and better".
There was no third year. The Hay Palace and festival
did not continue, undoubtedly for a number of valid
reasons, although there were townspeople who would
have said that it was because everyone had gone crazy
over bicycles.

The new craze was sweeping the country,
invading even small communites. By 1890 there were
17 men's and boys' bicycles and 5 girls' bicycles in
Momence. Clara Deerson, Meta and Grace Scramlin
and Bertha Longpre were among the first
enthusiasts— riding occasionally to Grant Park and
back. Billy Brassard, R. L. Edwards and Steve
Wheeler often bicycled to Manteno and back-quite a
feat over the rough roads of the day. In 1891 Leon
Tiffany had a bicycle with a small chair and extra
wheel on the side, made especially so that he could

take his small daughter for rides. By 1895 there were
almost 50 bicycles in town. For the safety of
pedestrians an ordinance was passed prohibiting them
on the sidewalks. An editorial said, "Momence is
becoming desperately addicted to the craze and it
sometimes keeps a fellow guessing pretty lively which
way to dodge".

During the "bicycle craze " such a group scene was not unusual.

Mrs. Leon Tiffany

26

A horse auction, about 1890. The scene is looking west on River Street. William Brown's cider mill is in the background.

The famous Hay Palace which is still remembered by many county residents.

27

V Disputes and Decisions

During the years of Momence's development its
citizens had many disputes, settled by vote, by court
decisions, or a good street fight. None were more
heated than the "battle" over the city water works
project. The city council voted for an ordinance
providing for a city water works; Mayor Atherton
vetoed it; the city council passed it over his veto.
During this time bitter debates raged throughout the
town; W. W. Parish, Sr. received letters threatening to
burn his buildings and poison his stock if he didn't
stop his alderman son from working for the water
plant; C and E I officials received letters threatening
to burn the station and wreck trains if they didn't fire
Alderman (pro water works) Pittman; the editor of
the paper received letters telling him to warn pro
water plant aldermen to insure themselves against
fire. When, in spite of these threats, the ordinance
was passed, the opponents filed a suit and a hearing
was held before Judge Small in Kankakee. One
hundred sixty objectors lined up to testify. The jury
sustained the ordinance and the opponents took the
matter to a higher court, lawyer Gray saying that he
would fight the ordinance all the way to the Supreme
Court if necessary. The Supreme Court reached a
compromise agreeable to both sides and a contract
was let. It was almost election time; three of the
"pro" aldermen were finishing their terms; Mayor
Atherton refused to sign the bonds and the work
could not begin. The town went "election mad".
There were more threatening letters, there were
meetings night after night, there were letters and
editorials in the newspaper, there were debates or
arguments whenever a "pro" met an "anti"; the
"antis" had to elect only one alderman to replace a
retiring "pro". Although highly vocal, their number
was not great enough. Mayor Atherton was defeated
and the water works ticket won with a greater
majority than anyone had anticipated. A great
celebration was staged. The band was called out, the
fire wagon was hauled out. the newly elected officials
were put into carts and led the procession through
town amid bonfires and fireworks.

Just before the turn of the century the Durham
bank closed and a new bank, the First National Bank
was organized by W. P. Watson, rid Chipman, J. J.
Kirby and W. W. Parish. Jr. In 1907 their new
building on the northwest cornet- of Front and Range
Streets was built and the bank moved into its new
quarters. W. W. Parish sold his interest in the bank to
V. T. Brassard. In 1914 he organized the Parish Bank.

The C and E I, already employing forty to fifty
men with its round house and repair shops, began a
new industry in 1899— quarrying stone. Until it
halted operation in 1 904 it was an important part of
the growth of the city. The stone pit, 350 feet by lA
mile, dug out in shelves varied in depth from 30 to 60
feet. Stone was loaded into the cars by hand and
hauled by horse up to the crusher. At the bottom of
the pit were tracks and switching levers on which the
loaded cars went up to the crusher and the empty
cars returned to the pit. A system of pumps kept the
pit from filling with water which constantly seeped in
from underground springs and from the river at the
north end of the quarry. When operations ceased in
1904 the pumping stopped and the quarry soon filled
with water. It was a perfect swimming hole for
Momence children. The C and E I offered to sell the
property to the city, but the city council refused to
buy. Eventually the land was sold to a Mr. Barnhill
who fenced it off. Today it is Mirror Lake privately
owned by the Rex Petersons and the Donald Reisings.

In 1904 the closing of the quarry probably
caused less excitement than the appearance of the
first automobile on the streets of Momence. It was a
Jackson, owned by the Wennerholms. (Gus had come
to America in 1886 and settled in Momence with his
brother who had come three years earlier. In 1893
they bought Knighthart's livery stable and a farm in
Ganeer township.) Other automobiles appeared on
the streets a few years later. The building at Seventh
and Market Streets (present dog food plant) was, for
a few years, an assembly plant for Blackstone
automobiles. It was a short-lived venture; a company
making ladders had moved into the building by the
time the Condon family came to Momence.

In his book We Called It Music Eddie Condon
recalled his Momence childhood in the early 1900's.
He spoke of the river where the kids all learned to
swim and the quarry for those who had graduated
from the river. He remembered that the first ledge
was ten feet under water-no place for a beginner. To
be a member of the gang, one had to dive in, find the
track that ran to the bottom, follow it hand over
hand until he reached the switching lever at the
bottom and pull the switch. Those on the surface
could hear the click as the switch was pulled, proof
that the deed was accomplished. In the summer and
fall the boys hunted. They picked up little metal bits
lying around at the ladder factory to put in their sling
shots. Anything moving was fair game. He recalled.

28

From Stone Quarry to Swimming
Hole: That's Story of C&EI Pit

too, his "pals in crime"- Goats Bukowski, Rats
Bukowski, Kitty boo Chipman, Posy Gibeault and
Snake Kirby. Their only worry was getting caught
taking a shot at someone's cat, climbing someone's
tree or running someone down with a bike. He
remembered the iron bridges with their heavy curved
side rails which were a source of amusement for
Momence children. Lucy Brown, who crossed the
bridges several times a day going to the Lorraine
School, said that she and her friends always walked
on those curved rails. When asked about such
dangerous play, Effie Berglund said, "Oh, my, yes, all
the children did that". Evidently no one fell into the
river; their parents never knew. Eddie Condon wasn't
so fortunate, or perhaps his game was more
dangerous. In his book he told of the time that he
tied up a boy and hung him over the bridge, only to
be caught in the act and reported to his father.

C&EI Stone Quarry In About 1900

Mr. Condon ran a saloon, one of five in town.
One writer suggested that drinking must have been
quite a pastime in Momence. In the early 1900's
saloons were coming under increasing criticism. The
influence of Women's Temperance Societies coupled
with a strong religious revival was making itself felt
and the words "local option" invariably brought
forth debate. Every community could vote for or
against the sale of liquor. The Momence Municipal
League favored the licensed sale of liquor for better
moral and financial conditions, the anti-saloon forces
vehemently opposed such thinking. In 1906
Momence voted "wet"; in 1908 the headline read,
"MOMENCE DRY, GANEER WET". Eddie Condon,
whose lather was a saloon keeper recalled those local
option years. "The saloon", he wrote, "was on one
side of the street or the other, depending on how the
people voted. Range Street ran through the middle of

The north span with its curved iron rails that the children balanced on when crossing. (An original sketch by Marilyn Ostrow)

The bridge over the south channel with its high girders that the boys liked to climb.

30

Condon's Tavern where Stanley's Farm Store is now located. John Condon is third from the right.

One of the many "local option" parades staged during the years 1906 through 1916.

31

Momcncc and down the middle of Range Street went
l ho line dividing Momence township from Ganeer
township. Local option was a popular political
diversion and one or the other of the townships was
always voting the drys in and the wets out or the wets
in and the drys out. A girl named Laura Brady had a
hat shop across the street from the saloon and they
changed sides according to the vote.'"

During those local option years an accident on
the C and E I was used as an argument against
saloons. A group of children, some fifty or more, had
come from Chicago for a day at Island Park. On the
return trip there was a serious accident near Chicago
Heights and most of the children were killed. Some
said that the engineer had spent too much time in the
saloon across from the island. Whatever the reason,
after the accident the excursions to Island Park
became less popular. Finally the C and E I gave up
the park, turning the property over to the city of
Momence. It was used as a picnic area, the American
Legion keeping the grounds in order for many years.
The huge pavilion which housed the dance hall and
restaurant was bought by P. Brouillette and moved to
the south bank of the river just east of the bridge
where it became a skating rink. When its days as a
rink and dance hall were over W. W. Parish . Jr.
bought it and moved it to his south side farm for a
sheep barn.

Oscar Conrad had established a baker} at the
corner of Front and Range Streets when he came to
Momence from Germany around 1 900. By 1909 lie
had moved to a new location on the island. He
announced in the Press Reporter that his new bakery
was completed and in operation, the most sanitary
and up-to-date in the county. The "New Era" mixer
was driven. b\ electricity, d-,)d the ovens had a
capacity for 300 loaves. Bread was delivered fresh to
the stores each morning where it sold 6 loaves for 25
cents.

The Momence Reporter had consolidated with
the Island News in 1906 and was called the Momence
Press-Reporter. There was a second newspaper, the
Momence Progress. Both papers reported the
dedication of the new St. Patrick's Academy in 1 908.
the building of a new Catholic church and the
organization of the Parish Bank in 1914.

Eddie Condon (as a child in Momence he was
called Albert) went to St. Patrick's Academy. He
remembered his first job as a water boy for the
workmen building the new Catholic church. They
were slating the roof and although too young for such
work, he carried bucket after bucket of water up the

ladder to the men. At the end of the da> Father Brie
paid him by check-$1.00. "The next day I went to
the bank to cash it", he said. "The teller took it and
disappeared from his cage. Then Mr. Parish, the
president of the bank came out and asked me into his
office. I sat down in a big leather chair.

'I am glad that you came to us| with this
transaction, Albert', he said. "However, we do not
normally handle deals of such magnitude.'

I thought he meant it was too small, so I said,
'Haven't you got a little guy who can do it'.''

He shook his head. 'I think our biggest man
should expedite this,' he said. Then he went out and
brought back the tallest man in the place. The man
shook hands with me and we all had a nice talk.
Finally I got my dollar, a brand new one, and Mr.
Parish saw me to the door.

'If you have any business in the future. I hope
you will remember us', he said."

FOUR GENERATIONS OF THE PARISH FAMILY
On the right, W. W. Parish, Sr., one of the pioneer settlers of
Momence; on the left, his son, W. W. Parish, Jr., founder and
president of the Parish Bank. (It was he whom young Albert
(Eddie) Condon remembered.) In the center, William Jr.'s son
Varnum A. Sr. holding his infant son Varnum A. Jr. Varnum
Sr. was State's Attorney for Kankakee County during
Roosevelt's first term of office and attorney for the city of
Momence for twenty years. His brother, Anthony, and a son,
John, are still associated with the bank, and a daughter, Mary,
practices law in Momence and is attorney for Momence
township.

32

VI From the Model "T" to Apollo 17

Describing the Momence of those childhood
days Condon said that there were Irish, Polish and
French Canadians— and a lot of chickens. He might
also have said that there were a lot of cars, for the
automobile was no longer a curiosity. The
heavier-than-air machine that could fly was capturing
everyone's attention. There were fliers who went
about the country exhibiting their planes in
"death-defying" stunts. The Inter-state fair in
Kankakee had one such demonstration in 1911.

In Momence there were two young men, John L.
Brown (a grandson of the early settler, William) and
Pat O'Brien who became seriously interested in
flying. Pat learned to fly and joined the American
Flying Corps when, in 1916 there was the possibility
of war with Mexico. There was no actual fighting and
he soon grew impatient with inaction. He went to
Canada where he joined the Royal Flying Corps,
trained for service in France and left for England and
active duty in 1917. President Wilson was maintaining
American neutrality, but the next year this was
impossible; Congress declared war on Germany.
Although many Momence men volunteered or were
drafted and served heroically, no war story is quite so
dramatic as that of Pat O'Brien. Soon after his service
began he was shot down and taken prisoner. After his
hospitalization and recovery in Germany, he managed
to escape and find his way to Holland, and from there
to England. He had an audience with King George
and a hero's welcome on his return to Momence. The
war ended before he could return to active duty. He
wrote a book Outwitting the Hun, toured the country
telling his story, married a movie actress and appeared
in a movie. His suicide two years later was a shock to
the country and unbelievable to his family in
Momence. They insisted that he had been killed and
one day the truth would be revealed. No further facts
ever came to light, his death remained a mystery.

John Brown, who had also learned to fly, served
during the war as a flying instructor at Rantoul. After
the war he bought a World War I trainer and spent his
time "barnstorming" at fairs and exhibitions, and
giving airplane rides. He was one of the first to fly a
Curtiss Jenny, flying it in exhibition at the 1933
Chicago World's Fair. Later he donated the plane to
the Museum of Science and Industry.

When Oscar Conrad's son Henry returned from
the war he went into the bakery business. During his
school years and until Oscar retired he had worked in
his father's bakery, learning the business well under

that stem teacher. The building was empty when he
returned to Momence in 1918. He borrowed money
for equipment and supplies, went to all the stores
getting orders, and he and his wife did all the work.
Gradually the business grew and expanded giving
employment to Momence people— many of them
women. It was not uncommon to find women
working in the stores, factories and businesses. They
had taken men's places during the war and were
proving to be capable workers. Cora Nichols who,
before a serious illness had been a teacher in
Momence, was, during the war and for a number of
years after, a rural mail carrier. Lucy Brown
remembered her making her rounds with a horse and
buggy, then later by automobile.

By 1920 automobiles and airplanes were an
accepted way of life, the motion picture was no
longer a novelty and radio was the new curiosity. Mrs.
Houde in Of the People says that Governor Len Small
was one of the first county residents to take part in
radio broadcasting. He gave a speech on the subject of
good roads over the station WJAZ located at the
Edgewater Hotel. This was in 1923; in 1921 the Dixie
Highway was officially opened. There was a parade
from Danville to Chicago led by the governor. When
the parade reached Momence there were marshals on
horseback to lead the parade through town, the
streets were decorated, and between three and four
hundred autos joined the procession to Chicago. The
name of Range Street was changed to Dixie Highway
and Front Street became Washington Street.

A headline of the Press- Reporter in June, 1924
read, "SATURDAY AND SUNDAY TRAFFIC
HEAVIEST EVER". The article began, "Saturday
and Sunday were probably the largest days in the
history of Momence since the opening of the Dixie
Highway". While much of the traffic was headed for
the Indianapolis races, much was also headed for
Momence. The article continued, "All of the resorts
along the river entertained record breaking crowds.
At Bob's Resort, the Log Cabins and other places
every possible reservation was taken days in advance.
At Island Park the number of visitors was one of the
largest yet entertained. Many came for the two days
and camping outfits were scattered over the entire
park. Parking space along the river was at a premium
and the river banks were lined with cars for miles . . .
. . Some of the eating places report that Saturday was
the largest day in the history of the city."

The ditching of the Kankakee river in Indiana

33

(finished in 1917) had closed the Indiana resorts;
across the line in Momence township they were
flourishing. Sam Gibeault's son Bill had built the Log
Cabin Resort. The German Club was on the site of
old Joe Barbee's Indian Town. The German Club, a
private club, had been organized as a hunting lodge
for Chicago businessmen in the 1890's. In the early
20's they sold the site to a land developer (it became
the present Shadow Lawn) and moved to the north
side of the river where it is today. In 1924 a new
resort was opened, the Garden of Eden.

"There is no spot in all eastern Illinois more
redolent of memories of frontier days than that spot
known as the 'Metcalf Farm' situated one mile east of
the present city of Momence on the Kankakee river.
Here, in 1833, the first white settlement in eastern
Illinois was started", wrote Bert Burroughs. Neil
Metcalf, grandson of the pioneer settler, Silas, grew
up at this spot, immersed in its history and with a
great love for the river. He was particularly fond of
the tales of Dan Parmelee, and remembered that old
Dan had said of his spot on the river, "it's the most
wonderful place in the world-it's a Garden of Eden".
The old Parmelee farm was now owned by Vic
Brassard. Neil Metcalf bought some 100 acres, built a
golf course and laid out a resort subdivision. In
memory of old Dan he called it the Garden of Eden.
The year before he had laid out a subdivision just east
of his home (next to the Anchor Club) naming it the
Vincennes Trail subdivision; in 1932 he developed
another, across the river, calling it the Lorraine
subdivision. In his Tales of an Old Border Town
Burroughs had further written, "Upper Crossing
today is but a memory. It has faded completely from
the face of the earth". In the margin of his well read
copy Neil Metcalf had written, "Not so. In 1948
there are more homes at the Upper Crossing than
when the town of Momence was here. On both sides
of the river there is a home about every 50 feet-and I
put them there".

The subdivisions of permanent homes near the
Upper Crossing site remain today a part of the
township. The resorts, including the Garden of Eden,
no longer exist as they did in the 20's and 30's.
However their names live, and there are, today, some
permanent homes in those areas.

By the late 20's there were radios in many
homes. Friends and neighbors gathered together with
the fortunate radio owners to hear the election
returns for Hoover in 1928. Some even remembered
the McKinley election of 1896 when the office of the
long distance telephone stayed open all night, and Mr.

Lamport announced each bulletin as it came over the
wire-to be relayed through town by someone in the
waiting crowd. News of the 1929 Wall Street panic
was also heard over radio before the newspaper
headlines reported it. Hard times did not follow
immediately, but by late 1930 the numbers of poor
and jobless were mounting. By 1931 the depression
was a main topic of conversation and the future
looked bleak. Grain prices were very low; the farmer's
situation was almost desperate. When President
Roosevelt declared a "bank holiday" in 1933, the
First National Bank was not able to reopen.

In spite of the depression a new business came
to Momence in 1930. The Whole Grain Wheat
Company moved into the plant at Seventh and
Market, which had recently been a ladder factory,
then, briefly, a typewriter assembly plant. The Whole
Grain Wheat Company processed wheat in cans,
producing a health food product. It failed almost
immediately; the assets were sold and the company
reopened under new management at the corner of
Washington and Pine (the present Wille Implement
Company).

When the Whole Grain Wheat Company moved
to its new quarters, a garlic processing plant moved
into the Market Street building. Shortlived, it left a
residue of odor for several years. In 1933 word came
into town that a new company was going to occupy
the building. Harold Cromwell, just out of school and
desperate for a job, waited day after day near the
building for some officials to arrive. When they came
he was waiting and introduced himself, asking for a
job. His initiative was rewarded— he not only got a
job, he was soon placed in a position of
responsibility. That business was the Strongheart
Products Company.

The new plants helped a little, but there were
still many jobless. The Baptist Church started a "soup
kitchen" to feed those unable to help themselves. The
Kankakee county relief fund, under the direction of
Lucy Brown (for Momence) set up a sewing project
for those on relief. The women met daily in a building
equipped with machines and teachers and were given
material and patterns for whatever clothing they
needed. Next there was a canning project, followed
by an educational project teaching such skills as
sewing, knitting, and furniture repair. The
government, by 1935, was helping home owners and
farmers with the Home Owners Loan Corporation,
the Federal Emergency Relief Act and the Farm
Mortgage Refinancing Act. The W P A continued the
sewing project, paying the women for their work.

34

Another project was the building of a new school, the
present high school on Franklin Street. Money was
also appropriated for walling the north side of the
river opposite the island and for renovating Island
Park.

The Conrad bakery which had dominated the
west end of the island for 15 years was closed. Henry
Conrad and his wife were killed in an automobile
accident November 10, 1933 and without Henry's
able management the business went bankrupt. In
193^> the equipment was being auctioned. A retired
Chicago baker, Edward Litoborski came to look it
over, but was so pleased with the bakery and the
town that he bought the business and settled in
Momence. An able baker and manager, Edward, in
partnership with his son and four daughters soon had
a successful bakery although still operating under the
name of Conrad.

The Chicago World's Fair of 1933, in which
John Brown of Momence participated, was a bright
interlude during the dark depression days. Another
even brighter highlight was the Momence Centennial
celebration in 1934. The entire town was decorated, a
pageant was presented telling the story of the
beginnings and the development of the city. There

were parades, floats, a carnival atmosphere, and for a
time the citizens almost forgot the great depression.
A comparative newcomer to Momence, E. O.
Hermann was impressed by this pageant. He had
come to the city about ten years earlier as a
consultant for the Tiffany Brick Company. He had
grown up in Boston Harbor, spending much of his
time with his uncle, a tugboat captain. He was a
graduate engineer from M I T but was very
knowledgeable in several fields— metalurgy, ceramics,
soil, steam engines and as avocations, art, music and
literature. He had come to improve the quality of the
enameling process of the brick. When his consulting
work was finished he accepted the job of plant
superintendant, bought the lovely W. G. Nichols
house and he and his wife became active Momence
residents. The Brick company benefited, too, from
the Hermann's decision to stay. The White Castle
Hamburger Company gave the Tiffany Enameled
Brick Company the contract for the brick used in
building all its "white castles". When the Coca Cola
Company expanded and built bottling plants from
New England to Georgia, it was Tiffany brick that
was used.

Elvin Butterfield photographs.

}S

As economic conditions gradually improved, the
idea of a continuing pageant or festival persisted.
Together with the Chamber of Commerce and the
leading business men a plan gradually evolved for a
gladiolus festival to be held yearly. Not only would it
be beautiful and colorful, bringing tourists and
publicity to the area, it would honor the first Holland
farmers who grew gladioli in this region. The plan was
finalized and approved; the first Gladiolus Festival
was held in August 1938 with Bessie Harris of
Momence as festival queen. An economic and artistic
success, the Festival has continued every year. At first
floats were made entirely of flowers, today other
materials are also allowed. Businesses and industries
work for months on their exhibits, keeping their
plans secret. One of the most memorable floats was
that of the Gladiolus Growers Association in
celebration of their fiftieth anniversary-a huge
locomotive made entirely of flowers. The Conrad
Bakery float, always beautiful and unusual had
started a tradition winch lasted until the Litoborskis
sold the bakery. Hundreds of minature loaves of
bread were made and tossed into the crowds by those
on the float. A flower show, held at the high school
has always been a part of the festival. Since 1952 four

branches of the Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air
Force and Marines) have participated; since 1961
there has been an antique automobile show on the
island as part of the festival.

It was the Momence photographer Elvin
Butterfield who was instrumental in involving the
Armed Forces in the festival. In 1945 he had been
employed by the government as official photographer
at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Aberdeen
Maryland and had received a certificate of merit for
his work. In the early 1950's, as a member of the
Momence Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol, he was
made a captain assigned to the Chicago Wing with a
roving assignment in public relations. He served on
the Festival Board and was offical photographer of
every Festival from 1938 until his death in 1973. At
his studio, opened in 1939, he was known for his
portrait and commercial work, but he loved aerial
photography and was an expert. When he was only
sixteen he often rode with his good friend John L.
Brown in his World War I trainer, taking aerial photos
and developing an interest in this field of
photography.

There had been three festivals and three years of
good times in spite of distant rumblings of war in

Voted To Be

From the Momence Press-Reporter, July 6, 1939. The article said, "On June 10, 1939, at a special election the proposition to tear

down the old high school building was carried For 68 years the old building with its belfry has been a familiar outline against the

sky. It has known deep night and morning sun, rain and flying clouds. And now like so many other things that have been built, it has
served its time. "

36

Europe. 1940 had marked the registration for the
first peace time draft in the history of the country.
Sunday, December 7, 1941 was shattered by the news
of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and the
newspapers and radio announced on December 8 that
Congress had declared war on Japan, a move that
involved the United States in the European war as
well. A single newspaper was now reporting the news
in Momence. In 1940 the Press- Reporter and the
Progress consolidated. The newspaper, combining
names was called the Momence Progress-Reporter.

Momence men went to war; by early 1942 there
were 57 in the service. Momence citizens saved scrap
iron and cans, planted victory gardens, lined up for
rationed goods and waited for news from their
fighting men as did citizens everywhere. The shortage
of cans shut down the Whole Grain Wheat Company
in 1942. However, canning equipment was there, and
a government project created through the school,
with Harold Hungerford, the agriculture teacher as
supervisor, was set up at the plant. People could bring
in the produce from their gardens and, for a nominal
fee, have them canned. The project lasted for two
canning seasons, 1944 and 1945, and helped to
alleviate the food shortage in the community. In
1943 the Tiffany Brick Company, a Momence
industry for almost 60 years, ended its operation.
There was no coal for the furnaces, there were not
enough workers and the plant could not convert to
war materials.

The war touched the lives of everyone. Yet,
when it ended in 1945 there was not the wild
excitement that had greeted the 1918 armistice.
Undoubtedly dropping the atomic bombs on Japan
had a quieting, sobering effect on Americans.
Undoubtedly, too, the new news and entertainment
medium, television, was influencing people's lives.
Commercial broadcasting began in 1941 but the war
and shortages of materials limited the manufacture of
television sets. In 1946 both the broadcasting and the
manufacture of television boomed. As more families
acquired television sets and news and information
programs improved, national and world events
affected everyone. The Korean War (1950-1953) and
the long Viet Nam War (1965-1973) came into
people's living rooms; one did not just read of the
assassinations of President Kennedy (1963) and of
Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy (1968), one
saw them on television. Earthquakes, floods and
accidents as well as Sputnik I (the world's first
artificial satellite) through the last Apollo moon

landing in 1972 became a part of everyone's life.
Television programming brought a new way of life as
well as an awareness of style, customs and attitudes
around the world.

In spite of television, day by day living
continued and local happenings were as important as
ever. In 1940, before the days of supermarkets there
were 17 grocery stores in the city. Charles Spieth
bought Peter Brouillette's grocery store at 533 Ash
Street, a small two story building which he gradually
improved and expanded. Ten years later he added a
new section on the corner. After his son, Jim,
finished school and military service he joined the
business. His antique collection, gathered over a
period of about twenty years, is displayed in the store
for the enjoyment of the customers— a unique
innovation in the grocery business. For the last ten
years Charles has been designing and making the
leaded lamps that hang in the store. While other
grocery stores have come and gone Spieth's has
remained, changing from grocery to supermarket,
adding a parking facility when it was needed and
offering a part-time work program for Momence High
School students.

In 1953 the Carter-Wallace Company came to
Momence, employing, at its peak, 300 people.
Although inactive today as a factory, it is still a
distribution center with some 1 5 employees, and the
building with its beautiful grounds are well cared for.
Also in 1953 the Momence City Hall and Fire
Department were built. In 1961 the Agar Packing
Company located in Momence, improving its
economy but causing sewage disposal problems and a
new sewage treatment plant was constructed. The
Baker and Taylor Company, the oldest and largest
book wholesaler in the United States, chose Momence
for its midwest division and built a beautiful plant
which, at present, employs about 400 people.

In 1962 the Litoborskis decided to retire and
sold the bakery. The new owner, however, declared
bankruptcy within six months and the property was
bought by Merlin Karlock. He turned it into an
apartment and store complex, the Island Mall. 1964
saw the new postoffice completed; the Junior High
School was opened in 1965. The following year one
of the city's landmarks, the old Lorraine School, was
torn down. It had been considered unsafe for a
number of years, but was patched and repaired and
used for emergency service until the completion of
the new Junior High School. Many former pupils
watched the razing of the 72 year old school, some
taking bits of brick or slate as souvenirs.

37

Momence Landmark Comes Down

Lorraine School, built in 1894 in Momence,
was ordered razed this year by the Momence
School District and the job was expected to be
completed Saturday. The 70-year-old building,
located on an acre lot on Gladiola Street, was
the educational center for more than 8,000
Momence residents during its history. The

school was named for Lorraine Beebe, Mo-
mence's first teacher. The building was ordered
razed after state building inspectors condemned
the structure. Supt. T. H. Barthobnew reports
that plans for the lot are "indefinite." (Journal
photo)

From the Kankakee Daily Journal, July 30, 1966.

38

It was also in 1966 that F. O. Orr bought
Tabler's Lumber Company. B. F. Tabler had come to
Momence and bought the J. E. Paradis Grain, Coal
and Lumber business in 1890. The coal and lumber
business was continued by his son, Clyde. About
1946 Mr. Orr had come to Momence and bought the
Smith and Hobart Grain business. A former science
teacher and coach, his success refutes the old saying
that teachers make poor businessmen. Soon he
bought the Beaverville Grain and Lumber Company
and some years later, the Crete Lumber Yard. In
1966 he bought out Clyde Tabler, the second oldest
continuing business in the city. (At that time Astle's
Hardware business was 89 years old.)

In 1 970. when the new Baptist Church on South
Dixie Highway was completed, the old church
building, completely renovated, became the new
home of the Eastern Illinois Trust and Savings Bank.

The Momence Park District, a taxing body
governed by a board of directors, was organized in
1966 by an ordinance of the city. Its major park is
the Island Park whose buildings have been remodeled,
tennis courts added and playground equipment
improved. The park offers a complete recreational
summer program for children and adults. The district
also supervised the Walnut Street park and, in 1972
leased the Lorraine School lot for a park on the south
side of the river.

The island improvement was equaled or even
exceeded by the "facelifting" of the downtown
shopping district during the last seven or eight years.
Three Momence men-Les DuMontelle, Jr., store
owner; Donald Zeglis, attorney; and Orville Sharkey,
realtor-finding no downtown spot for a morning
coffee break, took a good look at the business
section. There were 40 business buildings downtown,
almost half of which were empty, including the big
three story comer hotel (former Central House) and
two restaurants. Store fronts were dilapidated,
sidewalks in bad repair, and, here and there, garish
flashing neon signs. They became a committee of
three, the Momence Downtown Development
Committee, to bring the business area back to life. All
businesses were assessed for sidewalk repair,
businessmen or landlords were encouraged— even
helped -to improve their store fronts. Mr. DuMontelle
prepared inexpensive plans for facelifting the stores.
The sidewalks were repaired. Those who couldn't
remodel were encouraged to paint and clean. Most of
the Washington Street stores availed themselves of the
DuMontelle plans; on the Dixie Highway, the
Hoosegow, with its several unique shops, is the work

of Hugh Butterfield who also designed the exterior of
Ray Schenk's corner, the Italian Village restaurant.
Plaque Village, and, across the street, the Ross
building and Elaine's restaurant. The flashing neon
signs were eliminated, four free city parking lots
established and landscape murals painted on the sides
of buildings by high school art classes. Today every
business building is being used, the result of
enthusiasm and hard work by all the city's
businessmen, but initiated by three men who saw the
downtown shopping district dying and decided that it
must revive and grow.

Across the street from the Hoosegow, between
two business buildings is the William Graham house.
A son of James Graham who came to Momence in
1838, he built the house in 1869. One hundred and
four years later, in 1973, the house was turned over
to the city to be used as a museum. It is controlled by
a board of trustees appointed by the mayor and
displays historical items related to the area.

In 1974 the Momence Guest Haven, a shelter
care home for 62 patients was dedicated.

At the time of the downtown renovation a
change was taking place in the township. St. Jude's
Seminary with its imposing buildings and beautiful
grounds had long been a landmark of which the
township was proud. Low enrollment necessitated its
closing at the time that the Little Brothers of the
Good Shepherd were looking for a new facility. This
is an American Order, founded in 1952 by Brother
Mathias to care for the mentally retarded, the
physically handicapped and the aged poor. In 1970
two brothers came to Momence to inspect the
Seminary as a possible home for the mentally
retarded and found it adequate. After completing the
necessary financial and legal arrangements, in March
1972 the shelter care home was opened— a permanent
residence for mentally retarded men 18 years old or
older, under the care of seven Brothers. By the end of
the year there were sixty residents, today it is filled
(its capacity is 120) and there is a waiting list. The
exterior of the buildings needed very little repair. The
interior has been, and continues to be remodeled and
redecorated. There are many small dormitories, each
different and each reflecting the tastes of the
occupants; there are class rooms and craft rooms;
there is a gymnasium and a swimming pool; there is a
beautiful chapel. The grounds are handsomely
landscaped and well cared for. Momence citizens, at
first uncomfortable with such a home, have come to
appreciate the work of the Brothers, and many
families have opened their homes to these

39

unfortunate but lovable boys and men. The Order
now maintains 27 homes in America, Canada,
I nglancl and Ireland. Next year they will celebrate
their silver jubilee. The celebration at the Good
Shepherd Manor willinclude many Momence people.
In Momence (city and township), in the year
1976, live fourth generation descendants of the
earliest settlers, second and third generation
descendants of later settlers, and first generation
residents who have chosen this small portion of the
Kankakee valley in which to live, work and raise their
families. In spite of wide differences in heritage, they
are friends and neighbors working together for the
benefit of their community.

—"2*.

Many arts and oralis activities make
each day a new experience, tilled with
interesting work and a sense of
accomplishment.

Each man makes his
own bed and helps in
other ways to keep his
home neat and attractive

A daily swim session in the
Manor's large indoor pool
provides lun and healthy
exercise. Some men have
learned to swim competitively.

The Manor's large, beautiful
chapel is open at all times lor
individual and group prayer, or
just quiet meditation.

Kankakee Daily Journal plwtu of Auausl 1. 1972, taken ul the Kankakee Conntr Fair on Senior Citizens Day.
Ed Chipman, 90 yearn old, the oldest citizen al the ran; with his wife 84, are shown with their son Kenneth
(at left), president of the Fair Association.

Ed Chipman was a successful farmer in Momence towhsip foi 50 years before retiring in 1945. He is the son
of Edward Chipman who came to Momence in 18-16 and bought 80 acres of land in Momence township, a
farm which in time, grew to 1500 acres and extended into Ganeer, Yellowhead and Sumner townships. In
1904 he became president of the First National Rank of Momence. in 1912 he mac the city its public library.
His son, Ed Chipman of the photo, is now 94, his wife 88, and still active and healthy.

40

Vil From THE-A-KI-KI to Kankakee

The Kankakee river winds its way across the
center of Momence township from its eastern
boundary to its western boundary; the story of the
river is thus an integral part of the story of the
township. John Klasey says, "It begins-small,
twisting and hardly big enough to be honestly called a
creek— in a marshy spot near South Bend, Indiana".
Father Hennepin, who traveled with de La Salle,
recorded that the headwaters of the Kankakee were
so marshy that, had there been no frost in the ground
when they made the portage from the St. Joseph to
this stream, they would have had much difficulty in
landing their canoes and finding camping sites. The
stream they descended was, for some 250 miles a
sluggish maze of meanders, ox-bow lakes and sloughs
winding among marshes and marshy islands with here
and there sandy dunes. It was the river of two
thousand bends until, just above Momence, it
encountered a limestone outcropping, a sort of
natural dam. After this the gradient increased, the
river flowed more swiftly through great expanses of
prairie grasses bordered on both sides by a belt of
timber.

The Pottowatomi Indians who lived along this
river accepted the land as they found it. The Indiana
portion, known as the Great Marsh, was a spawning
ground for fish and a nesting area for water fowl. It
was where the Indians made their winter camps, for
hunting and trapping. Summer camps were usually
away from the marsh, on higher ground, where crops
were grown, although sometimes they would travel in
families to the fur trading posts at Chicago and stay
along the lake front during the summer.

The earliest white men, hunters and trappers,
also spent their winters in the swamp. They built
shacks on the sandy knolls and trapped all winter,
catching beaver, otter, mink and muskrat. In the
spring they stored their traps in the shanty and
headed for the fur trading posts. Some of them
occasionally hired out to the pioneer farmer during
the summer months; the pioneer farmer who also
found the great marsh a source of food and income.
He too became a trapper during the winter months.
A. S. Vail recalled that during the winter of '51 he
gathered SI 3,000 worth of furs. In the fall the farmer

joined the professional hunters, for wagon loads of
wild duck and goose were shipped to the markets in
Chicago. Billy Brassard used to tell of the hunting
prowess of his father, Peter Brassard. Peter and his
good friend Frank Longpre (both excellent farmers)
worked together in the fall to bring in unbelievable
numbers of wild fowl. They were a real team, Frank
honking to call the birds, Peter shooting— sometimes
three or four at a single shot! For such a hunter the
marsh was a source of pleasure as well as profit.

The Pottowatomi had found in the marshes, this
maze of water and land forms, an excellent refuge
from the fierce Iroquois to the east. Later, these same
marshes hid the gambler, horse-thief and
counterfeiter. Every island, every water form had a
name, a revelation of its history: Goose Island, Skunk
Island, Shanty Island, Bogus Island, Flag Pond,
Wildcat Swamp, Frenchman's Slough, and, just west
of the state line, in Momence township, an oxbow
known as "The Skillet".

Indians, the earliest human occupants of the
land, followed by hunters, trappers, the first pioneer
farmers, even criminals— all had adapted their lives to
their environment, using it as they found it. Around
1880 all but the farmer had left; towns were
developing at the edges of the swamp , the great marsh
was beginning to change as its occupants began to
alter the land to suit their needs.

The development of the railroad made the marsh
accessible not only to settlers but to sports
enthusiasts. Its fame as a "hunter's paradise" spread;
by the middle 1880's sportsmen's clubs from Boston,
New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Chicago had
erected expensive hunting lodges; the wealthy
sportsmen returned time and again to this
wonderland. The pioneer farmer and river town
resident did not object; these recreational sites were
. profitable. The lodges and hotels (some built by
Indianans) needed workers, food and pushers who
served also as guides in the swamp. The "pusher" sat
in the rear of the boat, propelling it forward with a
long push paddle. He knew this maze, he would not
get lost. He was the farmer or river man who still
hunted in the fall and trapped in the winter.

41

A hunter taking his load of geese and ducks to market.
(An original sketch by Marilyn Ostrow)

Now a new profit could be made in the marsh;
the wild sedges and marsh grasses could be sold. By
late summer they were ready for cutting-the shorter,
more tender grasses for feed, the longer, coarser,
tougher varieties for bedding or packing hay. The hay
was baled with huge steam presses and exported,
principally to Chicago.

These marsh-hay pastures were also seen as
excellent cattle grazing lands. In the early 1 880's Nels
Morris, a Chicago packer, bought some 23,000 acres
of Indiana swamp and brought in thousands of head
of Texas cattle. He was followed by other "cattle
barons", all of whom soon wanted the land
"reclaimed" in order to be suitable all year for
grazing, and for raising grain as well as pasture grass.
The pioneer farmers had done some ditching, at first
by hand, then by horse or oxen. The invention of the
steam dredge in 1 884 made ditching and drainage a
real possibility. With this new land-moving machine,
deep, wide drainage ditches were dug, leading into the
river. They were only partly successful, however, in
draining the swamp; it was decided that the rock
outcropping above Momence, the natural dam, must
be removed. In 1893 the Indiana government
undertook this project. Starting just east of Island
Park the digging began, with the use of coffer dams, a
few feet at a time. When they had reached a spot a
little above the Metcalf farm they ran out of money.
The workmen left without removing the last coffer
dam; gradually it fell apart, the stones creating what
is still today called "the riffles". The rock ledge had

been lowered about two and a half feet but swamp
drainage was still not complete. The drainage ditches
into the river had been extended farther and farther
into the swamp with little success. There was nothing
left but to attack the river itself. The straightening
and ditching began near the headwaters (1906); by
1917 it went all the way to the state line-250 miles
of meander, slough and bayou had been deepened
and straightened to only 90 miles in length. For the
"land hungry" cattlemen the project was a success;
the swamps drained! For the naturalist it was a
disaster, a massacre! The project was finished in early
spring, during the nesting season. Millions of
newly-hatched ducklings and goslings died for lack of
water; heaps of dead fish covered the mud of dried-up
bayous and sloughs; beaver, otter and muskrat
perished; the odor of decaying flesh was
unbearable— even 40 miles away. Bert Burroughs
recorded the words of an old river man who had seen
and smelled the disaster. "They murdered the land
while they were at it, and made a good job of it", he
said.

In his study of the Kankakee marsh, Alfred
Meyer says that the straightened, deepened and
widened channel flanked by high spoil banks offered
nothing in the way of river sport or scenery. Klasey
describes the Indiana ditch, "For mile upon
monotonous mile it flows arrow-straight between the
walls of a ditch, a victim of land-hungry man's
decision that corn rather that fish and fowl and the

Kankakee Daily Journal photo. The Kankakee river in Indiana— known as the Kankakee ditch.

43

wild grape should grow in its valley". The hunters'
paradise was gone; the lodges and hotels stood empty.
Today only remnants remain of the expensive lodges
used by presidents Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt
and by European nobility.

Indiana was satisfied but Illinois soon discovered
that this tampering with nature was affectingitsshare
of the river. The meandering Kankakee with its
bayous, sloughs and holding basins was nature's way
of preserving the river's purity and its aquatic life.
The swiftly moving current of the ditch carried (and
still carries) great quantities of sand down river. As
early as the middle 1920's this sand was filling in the
bayous of the swamp edge in Illinois and was creating
sandbars west of Momence. Meyer's study of the river
in 1935 discusses the sand and its destructive
influence on fish and vegetation; its creation of an
unstable river bottom. Lee Snapp, a Momence
riverman remembers, as a boy, the spawning grounds
of bass at the rock outcropping just above Momence.
It is now sand covered; the bass no longer spawn
there. The river that once was the third cleanest water
in the state is now only the sixth cleanest.

The natural dam above Momence, while no
longer a spawning ground for bass, still exists to
protect the Illinois Kankakee. Without this "stopper"
the sand and silt from Indiana would come faster and
farther, destroying more rapidly the fish and
vegetation, causing even more serious flooding during
the spring high water season. A boon to Illinois, the
rock ledge is still a menace to Indiana, whose
government has made repeated attempts to have it
removed. In a 1935 article, Neil Metcalf, living at the
Upper Crossing site in the house that his grandfather
Silas had built, wrote of the 1917 ditching, "When
the dredge boats reached the state line the river men
said NO. The long guns were dug out, and NO it
was". Metcalf, a river expert and an active
conservationist, spearheaded the organization of the
Kankakee River Preservation Association, made up of
farmers and river men, with headquarters in
Momence. Indiana was again trying to gain the right
to dredge the river from the state line to Momence.
The people of the township were concerned; there
were meetings in the town hall, the high school, the
churches; there were meetings in Chicago and
Indiana. Finally, the verdict was no; the dredging was
not done. Leo Pachner, one of the co-"fighters", now
the successful publisher of Farm, Pond, Harvest
magazine, recalled that controversy. He said that the
Illinois victory was due to Neil Metcalf, a "real
fighter".

The Kankakee River Preservation Association
had no real power. In 1955 Metcalf and the
Association, with the aid of attorney Varnum Parish,
were instrumental in the formation of the Momence
Conservancy District, the first of its kind in Illinois. It
is a taxing body with power to do whatever is
necessary for the protection of the river, and is
governed by a board of trustees chosen by the
County Board of Supervisors. The first board-Neil
Metcalf, Van Snow, Frank Siwicki, Leonard Brooks
and Leo Pachner set their goals. With a sand sucker
they would clean out the back bayous and the main
channel, they would clear out obstructions in the
main channel making it safer for boats, they would
protect the rock ledge.

Lack of interest on the part of local and state
government as well as lack of funds have made it
impossible to achieve all those goals and the first.
clearing out the sand, was abandoned. The present
board-Gerald Mitchell, Richard Demack, Frank
Siwicki, Veryl Graves and Secretary Eugene Rudecki
are all men who have lived on the river for most of
their lives and are dedicated to river conservation.
Without pay they are always available for river
emergencies, they keep the channel free of
obstructions, they inspect all boats for safety
equipment. They aid the river patrol and they aid
those families stranded during flood times.

The Conservancy District has tried and is still
trying to have the state or the Conservation
Department limit the amount of water going into the
river from the ditches at flood times. It is, as always,
a protector of that 14 miles of river from the state
line to Momence.

The Illinois Kankakee is not a ditch. John
Klasey says, "Finally in Illinois the Kankakee river
comes into its own: a broad, lazy stream swinging in a
long loop southward, then, with added strength from
the Iroquois, sharply to the north. Miles later it
blends its flood with the Des Plaines and becomes the
river called Illinois".

Gordon Graves, river expert, aquatic biologist,
hydrographer, member of the governor's Wildlife
Commission, reports that there are, today, on our
Illinois Kankakee, nesting and resting areas for
waterfowl; that there is habitant for many fur-bearing
animals; that it is still clean enough to be the source
of water for the cities of Kankakee, Bradley and
Bourbonnais; that a beautiful flower of the mallow
family, called the Kankakee mallow grows on an
island in the lower reaches of the river. It is called the
Kankakee mallow because that island is the only

44

Leo Pachner supervising the excavation, in 1975, for his experimental ponds (upper left). The
ponds a year later (upper right/. A group of children showing off their catch (lower left).

Mr. Pachner's first pond was built in the 1940's and stocked with bass and bluegills for testing lures in connection with his fishing
tackle manufacturing business. After disposing of the business he worked with children taking them fishing at various ponds in the
area. Amazed by the lack of information or misinformation concerning pond development and management, in 1967 he started a
magazine to supply lacking information and to correct misinformation. Each year he still takes groups of children fishing. He is the
founder and director of Sport Fish Institute, a national organization, and is a member of the Fishing Hall of Fame in recognition for
his work with farm ponds.

45

place it has been found to grow. It is on "our" river
that the Midwest Speedboat races are held.
Attendance at the Kankakee River State Park is
higher than that of all other Illinois State Parks. It is
the only river in the United States that holds the
record for the three most sought after game fish:
walleye pike, northern pike and small mouth bass. It
is a recreationist's dream.

The Chicago Tribune in March 19, 1976 has a
headline, "The Kankakee is a good place to fish". The
article says that a twelve pound nine ounce walleye
was recently caught by Dee Millsap of Momence, and
that northerns exceeding fifteen pounds have been

caught on many occasions. The best small mouth bass
ever registered in the state came from the Kankakee.
Gordon Graves warns that Indiana has a new
study underway to ditch the river up to Momence. He
warns, too, that the sand, tons of which enter our
stream daily, is as deadly a pollutant as municipal and
industrial pollution. It is his hope that the technology
that has brought affluence and abundance to
Americans will be used to improve our river-a
God-given treasure to be enjoyed but not abused. The
"Wonderful river The-a-ki-ki" is also a symbol-so
long as it flows pure and undefiled, so long will its
communities prosper.

1907- A picnic or the bank of the river, just above Momence.

The Kankakee river of Illinois with farms, homes ana cottages along us oantis. (Journal photo)

46

££

47

An Elvin Butterfield aerial photograph ofMomence taken in 1970.

A comparison of the township map of 1883, page 50 with the map of 1973, page 51 shows the changes in the size of the city,
the added subdivisions along the river, changes in the course of the river as well as changes in farm size and ownership.

49

50

MOMENCE

T3IN.-R.I4-I5E.

29

Bibliography

Books and magazines

Burroughs, Bert E. Legends and Tales of Homeland on the
Kankakee Chicago, IL. Regan Printing House, 1923

Burroughs, Bert E. Tales of an Old Border Town and Along
the Kankakee Fowler. Indiana, The Benton Review Shop,
1925

Condon. Eddie Narration by Thomas Sugrue We Called II
Music New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1447

Graves, Gordon "An Endangered River" Wildlife Magazine
Vol. 12, No. 3, March 17, 1976

Handlin, Oscar The Americans Boston. Little. Brown and
Company. 1963

Houde, Mary Jane & Klasey, John Of the People Chicago, IL.
The General Printing Company, 1968

Kenaga, W. F. & Letourneau, G. R. Historical Encyclopedia
of Illinois and History of Kankakee County Vol. II,
Chicago, Middle West Publishing Company, 1906

Meyer. Alfred H. The Kankakee Marsh of Northern Indiana
and Illinois Reprinted from Papers of the Michigan
Academy of Science, Arts and Letters Vol. XXI. 1935,
Published 1936

Paddock, Daniel Atlas of Kankakee County Chicago. 1 883

Other sources

History of Momence to 1900 written by members of the Book-lovers Club of Momence in the early 1930's. Unpublished

Kankakee Daily and Sunday Journal

Metcalf. Neil. "The Kankakee, Wonderful Waters", Unpublished paper, 1935

Momence Progress- Reporter and its predecessors.

For documents, pictures, old newspapers and interviews, grateful thanks to: Charles Astle, Mrs. Jean Balber, Mrs. Nels Berglund, Mrs.
Armen Blankc Lucy Brown, Joe Burnett, Mrs. E. Butterfield, Mr.& Mrs. Hugh Butterfield, Mrs. Arthur Childs, Mr. & Mrs. Harold
Cromwell. Mrs. James Cromwell, Les DuMontelle, Jr., Mrs. Betty Metcalf Foale, Gordon Graves, Mrs. H. Hungerford, Mrs. A. Kelson.
Mrs. Marguerite Keil, Ed Kurtz, Brother Magella, Mrs. F. E. Melby, Mrs. Thorn. Nutting. Marilyn Ostrow, Mrs. Eleanor Ostrow. I 0
Orr, Leo Pacher, Anthony Parish. Mrs. Ted Peterson, Robert Pittman, Euguene Rudecki, Mrs. D. St.Aubin, Frank Siwicki. Lee Snapp.
Charles Spieth. Mrs. Robert Sprinkle. Mrs. F. Taylor, Ernest Usher, Martha Woollett. Russell Young.

52

Our thanks to Kankakee Community College
for their assistance in the production or tms
material.

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA
MEMOfflKW MOMENCE TOWNSHIP, 1776-1976

3 0112 025394955