Let's Talk Kankakee County History

<p>Timeline In 1869, the Illinois Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities advocated for another state hospital to care for the insane.&nbsp; In February 1877, the Illinois Legislature generally agreed that another hospital for the insane was needed in the state. In May 1877,&nbsp; Illinois Eastern Hospital for the Insane was being built. There needed &hellip; <a href="https://kankakeecountymuseum.wordpress.com/2024/03/28/illinois-east...

<p>First hospital in the area. Background information of how the hospital was built and created.&nbsp; The construction of the Emergency Hospital was finally being built. It was located on West Merchant Street and North Fifth Avenue in Kankakee County.&nbsp; Father Ambrose Granger, the pastor of St. Rose church was the person who came up with &hellip; <a href="https://kankakeecountymuseum.wordpress.com/2024/03/21/st-marys-hospital-emergency-ho...

<p>Early Life He was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, and In 1870, the family moved to Kankakee, IL. He was the son of Reverend Joseph Barnard. He spent his boyhood and grade school years in Kankakee. He started as a jewelry engraver. At the age of 17, he attended the Chicago Art Institute. He wanted two &hellip; <a href="https://kankakeecountymuseum.wordpress.com/2024/03/14/george-grey-barnard-1863-1938/" class="more-link">Continue reading <...

<p>Before&nbsp; In 1818, the Illinois Constitution outlawed slavery. The escaped slaves had to head up to Canada to be free because there were laws in Illinois where if a slave was captured they were returned to their owner. Kankakee County was a part of the underground railroad. The escaped slaves hid in Wilmington, Kankakee State &hellip; <a href="https://kankakeecountymuseum.wordpress.com/2024/03/07/civil-war/" class="more-link">Continue re...

<p>The museum focuses on the French involvement in the history of Kankakee, IL, and the surrounding areas. They have stories about the first explorers of Kankakee, coureur de bois, and fur traders. The pioneer settlers came from France, Quebec, Canada, and Belgium. They were mostly focused on getting wealthy in the fur trade. The museum &hellip; <a href="https://kankakeecountymuseum.wordpress.com/2024/02/29/french-heritage-museum-and-famous-fr...

<p>Hickox Warren R. Hickox Sr. was a pioneer of Kankakee. He was also a Civil War Veteran, later a banker, and an owner of the original abstract title records in the county.&nbsp; Anna Hickox was the daughter of Warren and Georgia Griffith Hickox. Her mother was a native of Vermont and her father was a &hellip; <a href="https://kankakeecountymuseum.wordpress.com/2024/02/22/hickox-and-bradley-family/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span cl...

<p>He was a controversial religious figure from Kamouraska, Quebec, and he founded St. Anne, Illinois in 1851. His early life and his family life Father Charles Chiniquy was born in Kamouraska, Quebec on July 30th, 1809. He died on January 16, 1899. He was the eldest of three sons to notary public figure Charles Chiniquy &hellip; <a href="https://kankakeecountymuseum.wordpress.com/2024/02/15/father-charles-chiniquy/" class="more-link">Continue...

<p>Stephen B. Small was a Kankakee businessman known as the Kankakee Media heir. He was the grandson of Illinois Governor Len Small and Nancy Pederson Small. Governor Len Small was a Republican governor for two terms from 1921 to 1929. In September 1987, Stephen B. Small was kidnapped and held for 1 million dollars in &hellip; <a href="https://kankakeecountymuseum.wordpress.com/2024/02/08/stephen-b-small-and-the-trials-of-edward-j-daniels-and-...

<p>Frank Lloyd Wright&#8217;s home in Kankakee, IL The original owners of the B. Harley Bradley home were Anna Hickox and B. Harley Bradley. They received the lot from Anna’s father, Warren Hickox Sr.. Warren Hickox Sr. purchased two lots, giving one to his daughter, Anna, and the other to his son. Anna and B. Harley &hellip; <a href="https://kankakeecountymuseum.wordpress.com/2024/02/01/b-harley-bradley-house/" class="more-link">Continue read...

<p>      Hello, my name is Rachel Carter and I’ve been blogging on this page for the past few months as an intern for the museum and I wanted to share a short summary of my experience and takeaways:       It’s been strange to have lived in the Kankakee County area for &hellip; <a href="https://kankakeecountymuseum.wordpress.com/2022/08/23/concluding-reflections/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Concluding Re...

<p>This piece was written in the perspective of a nine-year-old boy living in Kankakee in the middle of the Freedom Train&#8217;s arrival in the area. He&#8217;s not exactly thrilled but his mother tries to convince him of the train&#8217;s importance on that very early morning before the train opened at 10 a.m.</p>

<p>This piece is inspired by &#8220;The Soldier in State,&#8221; one of Barnard&#8217;s war memorial sculptures that was inspired by medieval art and burials. The scene takes place in 1925 when Barnard is handing the sculptures over to John D. Rockefeller which he will buy and present to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1937. This sculpture, however, like a few of his others wasn&#8217;t accepted and I wanted to write what was going through...

<p>This piece is written in the point of view of Martha Gray Barnard, George Gray Barnard&#8217;s mother. She has already passed away at this time and is watching her son sculpt for a tv program in the 1920s.</p>

<p>Ruth and her husband, Noel LaVasseur sit on their porch and watch their town of Bourbonnais Grove flourish. With just one year away from her death, Ruth reminisces her husband telling the story of his adventures and fur trading with the Potawatomi. </p>

<p>It feels like just yesterday and yet it was years ago when I opened the door and two nuns rose their heads, nodded them, and then rose them again. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; “Good afternoon to you, sir.&nbsp; We are sisters of St. Mary and we have come to humbly solicit our plans for a new &hellip; <a href="https://kankakeecountymuseum.wordpress.com/2022/08/12/the-first-graduate/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text...

<p>Is it selfish for a nun to want more for her church?&nbsp; Maybe if they barely have anything.&nbsp; St. Joseph Seminary, an up and coming school for girls of very humble beginnings, did end up prospering. But it was during these trying time in the late 1860s when the small clergy was so close to &hellip; <a href="https://kankakeecountymuseum.wordpress.com/2022/08/12/a-light-in-the-long-winter/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span clas...

<p>This entry takes place in 1956 in the perspective of a fictional female student, graduating with the class of 1956. She and her friends are based off of real interviewed students reminiscing on their time at the academy.</p>

<p>This particular short story is in the perspective of one of the sisters of the former Notre Dame Girls&#8217; Academy which began in 1860 and was discontinued in 1949 due to less of a need for Catholic public schools. This story takes place in 1956, a few years after the building was temporarily used for the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) Elementary School.</p>

<p>Susanne Small, 1921 This is the house of the Small Family where Susanne Small, the second oldest Small child lived in and came back to during the last of her days. Just like all the old paintings I used to do.&nbsp; Just like when I was growing up here in the Small house.&nbsp; Strokes over &hellip; <a href="https://kankakeecountymuseum.wordpress.com/2022/07/07/reminiscing-the-small-house/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="sc...

<p>This is the Riverview Hotel which opened in 1887 and burned down 10 years later in 1897. It was built by Emory Cobb and managed by Jewett Wilcox. June 8th, 1895  A ten-year-old’s opinion of the Hotel Riverview: It’s boring. There are too many grown-up things to do when the Electric Park is nearby. But &hellip; <a href="https://kankakeecountymuseum.wordpress.com/2022/06/28/a-hotel-by-the-river/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class...