Let's Talk Kankakee County History

Vice-presidential candidate Sen. Richard M. Nixon addressed a crowd from the rear platform of his campaign train at the Kankakee IC station on October 17, 1952. He would make another ‘whistlestop’ visit to Kankakee four years later, when he and President Dwight D. Eisenhower were seeking reelection. (Kankakee County Museum Photo Archive) By Jack Klasey November 8, 2025 Until the 1900 election, campaigning by presidential and vice-presidential candidates was conducted primaril

The Kankakee Rowing Club’s boathouse was located at the mouth of Squaw Creek, lshown at lower left on this map. Most of the creek is covered over—only the short stretch between Eagle Street and the Kankakee River is visible. By Jack Klasey November 1, 2025 Throughout local history—beginning with the canoes of explorers and Indians, through the excursion steamers of the late 1800s, to the roaring racers on the Labor Day regattas, and the summer fleet of motorboats, pontoons, k

At his Bird Lodge home in Kankakee, Dodson examines one of the dozens of bird houses hung on trees and mounted on poles around the Harrison Avenue house. (Kankakee County Museum Photo Archive)  By Jack Klasey October 25, 2025 To say that Joseph H. Dodson loved birds was like observing that a politician is interested in getting elected. Dodson, for more than a quarter-century was the “birdman of Kankakee,” operating a bird sanctuary on the large grounds of his home at 701 S. H

When the Illinois Central Railroad reached Kankakee in 1853, there were a number of small settlements, such as Bloom’s Grove and Rockville, that had been established on the edge of the prairie. By Jack Klasey October 18, 2025 “In the early days, the silence of the prairies was awful, especially in the autumn,” wrote H. S. Bloom, a pioneer settler who arrived in what is now Kankakee County in the spring of 1837. His detailed reminiscence of pioneer life was published in the 18

In this 1951 photo, Kennel Foreman Francis Kroha and Research Assistant Carl Steinke Jr.treat a beagle’s paw injury in the Gaines...

Kankakee County’s first courthouse, erected in 1855, only two years after the town was established. Built at a cost of approximately...

The memorial boulder honoring Chief Shawanassee (note the variant spelling, “Shau-wa-na-see”) is located near Rock Creek in Kankakee...

Kankakee artist Joseph Campbell created detailed drawings of a number of historic subjects to serve as section openers for the Centennial...

More than 1600 members of the Chicago Wholesale Grocers’ Association picnicked on the grounds of the Hotel Riverview on August 20,1887....

Kankakee insurance man Albert Schneider and his family enjoy a drive in the country, probably about 1915. They are riding on an...

Debris from the tender and the engineer's cab is piled in the foreground of this wreck photo, probably taken on the afternoon of November...

The studios of WKAN and its sister station WKIL (which began broadcasting later in the year) were housed in this building on N. Schuyler...

By Jack Klasey August 16, 2025 At 3:15 a.m. on January 29, 1938, a car “driving aimlessly through the business district” attracted the...

By Jack Klasey August 9, 2025   Before being allowed to come indoors in the 1970s, "Indian Chief No. 53" survived more than a century of...

By Jack Klasey August 2, 2025 On Friday evening, October 12, 1945, fire raged through five buildings on the grounds of the Lowe Hybrid...

By Jack Klasey July 26, 2025 On the evening of April 1, 1955, a traffic jam spread along Washington Avenue north and south of the...

By Jack Klasey July 19, 2025   In late January 1938, fame (of a sort) was “in the cards” for the tiny Kankakee County village of...

By Jack Klasey July 12, 2025 When you mount your penny-farthing and set off on your century, be careful not to take a header…it could end...

By Jack Klasey July 5, 2025   “Drunkenness is a disease, and I can cure it,” was the motto of the man who made the small Livingston...

By Jack Klasey June 28, 2025 _____________________________________________________________________________ NOTE:  I recently discovered...