August 21 Slave revolt led by Nat Turner begins in Southampton County, Va.. Turner’s rebellion was the largest slave revolt in U.S. history and led to a new wave of oppressive legislation prohibiting the movement, assembly, and education of slaves. – 1831. U.S. senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Abraham
By Ricky Rieckert Dear readers, This article on Aurora’s history is about the Stolp Island Historic District. Stolp Island is in the Fox River, at a site where the River drops steeply. This drop is what gave the McCarty brothers, Joseph Stolp, and Zaphna Lake, the water power source they
The 33rd Heirloom Garden Show will take place Sunday, Aug. 24, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the 33rd Heirloom Garden Show will be held at Garfield Farm & Tavern Museum, 3N016 Garfield Road, Campton Hills. The show features the gardens and prairie of the museum and growers of historic
August 14 President Franklin Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, to provide for the first time, guaranteed income for retirees and to create a system of unemployment benefits. – 1935. A major outage knocks out power across the eastern United States and parts of Canada. Fifty-million people were affected. Despite
By Ricky Rieckert Dear readers, This week we’re taking a cruise in the Tour Bus to E. Downer Place (aka Fox Street), to the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Memorial Hall in Aurora. As an historic octagonal limestone building that served as a tribute to Union soldiers after the
August 7 In Newburgh, N. Y., General George Washington, the commander-in-chief of the U.S. Continental Army, creates the “Badge for Military Merit,” a decoration consisting of a purple, heart-shaped piece of silk, edged with a narrow binding of silver, with the word Merit stitched across the face in silver. The
By Ricky Rieckert Dear readers, Most individuals agree about the importance of the bridges that cross over the Fox River that divide the east and west side of Aurora. I often thought they would have taken Sullivan Road east of Mitchell Road to Farnsworth Avenue, to reduce the traffic from
By Woodrow Carroll For former Major League Baseball manager Charlie Dressen, his finest hour may have also been his worst moment when looking back. A native of Decatur, Ill., Dressen was born in 1894. (And, be careful when bringing up Dressen’s birth year. Like so many pro athletes, Dressen apparently
July 31 Former Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa disappears. Presumed to be dead, his body never has been found. – 1975. A hurricane strikes the East Coast of Florida and sinks 10 Spanish treasure ships and kills almost 1,000 persons. The ships left Havana, Cuba, on their way to Europe and
By Ricky Rieckert Dear readers, This week, we’ll finish the history of Aurora’s bridges. The bridges over the Fox River in Aurora, have significantly impacted the City’s development and character. Bridges were initially built to overcome the Fox River, connecting the east and west sides of Aurora, to enable easier
July 24 American archeologist Hiram Bingham gets his first look at Machu Picchu, an ancient Inca settlement in Peru that is now one of the world’s top tourist destinations with more than 300,000 tourists visiting every year.- 1911. The steamer Eastland overturns in the Chicago River; between 800 and 850
By Ricky Rieckert Welcome readers, As we start this week, I was pleased to see the last edition, with my birthday, July 10, on it. I received several phone calls, texts and cards from several people. To them: Thank-you. This week, as promised, we’ll be looking at the history of
July 17 U.S. president Harry S Truman, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and British prime minister Winston Churchill, meet in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam to discuss issues relating to postwar Europe and plans to deal with the ongoing conflict with Japan. The meeting was marked by growing suspicion and tension
By Ricky Rieckert Dear readers, I hope everyone enjoyed the Fourth of July weekend, which is traditionally a time spent with family and friends, often including cookouts, parades, and fireworks. As we start the final part of North Avenue in Aurora’s history, I hope you have enjoyed the memories so
Between the early 1950s and the early 1980s, the Oswego area underwent a profound change. What had once been primarily a community catering to surrounding farms rapidly changed into a fast-growing Chicago exurb. Children who grew up during that era saw the entire character of northern Kendall County change, literally
July 10 A powerful explosion rips through the Rolling Mill coal mine in Johnstown, Pa. and kills 112 miners, 83 of whom were immigrants from Poland and Slovakia. – 1902. In Dayton, Tenn., the so-called Monkey Trial begins with John Thomas Scopes, a young high school science teacher, accused of
By Ricky Rieckert Dear readers, As we start a new week, I want to add some information from a subscriber friend, Tom, about Jackson Street at North Avenue and to the north. He texted me that on the southeast corner of Jackson Street and the jog for North Avenue, was
July 3 On the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s last attempt at breaking the Union line ends in disastrous failure which brings the most decisive battle of the American Civil War to an end. The Union had 23,000 killed, wounded, or missing in
By Ricky Rieckert Dear readers, this week we’ll start on the northwest corner of S. Broadway and North Avenue in Aurora. Today, the corner is a Citgo gas station and mini-mart. Before that, it was a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). KFC had two locations in Aurora, S. Broadway and N.
June 26 During World War I, the first 14,000 U.S. infantry troops land in France at the port of Saint Nazaire. The landing site had been kept secret because of the menace of German submarines, but by the time the Americans had lined up to take their first salute on
