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    McHenry County: Illinois
    McHenry County: Illinois
    McHenry County: Illinois
    Ebook193 pages1 hour

    McHenry County: Illinois

    By Maryan Pelland and Dan Pelland

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    McHenry County, Illinois, is a picture-perfect farming community in the Heartland of Midwestern America. For nearly two centuries, a portion of the nation's food supply has come from this fertile land near the Fox River, and it has played a key role in the history of Chicago and the United States. Through the medium of historic photographs, this book captures the evolution of the people of McHenry County, from the mid-1800s to the second half of the twentieth century.These pages bring to life the people, events, communities, and industries that helped shape and transform McHenry County. With more than 200 vintage images, culled from three collections-the McHenry County Historical Society, the Crystal Lake Historical Society, the James Keefe Collection, and the personal collection of Don Peasley-McHenry County, Illinois, portrays life against a backdrop of international wars, national social struggles, and technological advances in an expanding world.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439629970
    McHenry County: Illinois
    Author

    Maryan Pelland

    Authors Dan and Maryan Pelland are a writer/photographer team and are members of the McHenry County Historical Society. They are the authors of regularly bylined articles (and some photographs) in various newspapers, magazines, and web sites, including the Chicago Tribune and Paddock Publications' Sunburst Magazine. Join the Pellands on a fascinating visual journey into the history of McHenry County.

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      Book preview

      McHenry County - Maryan Pelland

      public.

      INTRODUCTION

      McHenry County, Illinois, is a picture perfect farming community in the Heartland of Midwestern America. For nearly two centuries, a portion of the nation’s food supply has come from this fertile land near the Fox River. The area played a key role in the history of Chicago and the United States from earliest days to the 21st century. But if you live here or visit here, the interesting thing is, you get no sense of aggrandizement, pomp, or inflated egos. People go about their business, raise their families, do their work, and make their contributions to society because that’s what they want to do.

      It’s been said that all of the world’s events and each of her people are only removed from each other by a tiny degree of separation. The history of our county is a clear demonstration of that theory. The American version of the silo was invented here, an indispensable contribution to farming. Stephen A. Douglas thought this county so pivotal that he made a special trip to woo voters here during his political battles. Jane Addams implored audiences at our opera houses to help her establish Hull House. Count Leo Tolstoy came here.

      World-renowned hymns were penned here. Lincoln’s Secretary of State William Seward had family here, as did President Gerald Ford, whose mother was a resident. Paul V. Galvin, founder of Motorola, spent his formative years here—earning his first income by selling refreshments to travelers at the Harvard train station. Frank Howard, who perfected a metal casting technique that helped win World War II, lived here. Dozens of Hollywood greats, including Paul Newman and Orson Wells, came from our opera houses. The list is long and fascinating. Beneath the placid scenery and quiet family communities, there have always been people boiling with a spirit of endeavor, a desire to succeed and the support network to make it happen.

      The images you’ll see here represent the period from the mid-1800s to the second half of the 20th century. It is unlikely that any other century in the history of the world brought as many changes to people’s lives as this period did. We tried to put McHenry County’s story in context with the rest of the country and the world during that time. It was our goal to show life here against a backdrop of international wars, national social struggles, and technological advances in an expanding world. We encourage you to imagine how your parents, grandparents, or even great grandparents must have felt as stagecoaches gave rise to trains, then automobiles, airplanes, jets, space travel, and finally, cyberspace. It is not unlikely that many people’s lives have encompassed most or all of that kaleidoscope of innovation.

      In the early days of this community, life was centralized. It was a good day’s work to take care of yourself, your family, and perhaps some land. By the time the last photograph was made, our lives would encompass local, national, international, and universal issues. Perhaps the only way to encourage healthy growth in the present is to keep an eye on your roots. The past has a lot to teach us. We agree with Arcadia Publishing that we all have an obligation to preserve and share the story of how we got here.

      We decided to compile this book because we raised our family here and are very pleased with how that project turned out. At least in part, we credit our community for the quality of life we enjoy here and wanted to share a panorama of that lifestyle. We are not historians, Dan and I. This book is not intended to be a diligent chronology or a perfectly organized complete history of the area. That’s all been done before, and thoroughly. It was never our intent to parade the political icons of the past or present across our pages, though we acknowledge their relevance to the past and present. We simply set out to paint a picture of what life looked and felt like from the early days to the new millennium. From log cabins to concrete and steel, it’s a fascinating story.

      It’s been a wonderful adventure, putting this book together. It reinforced, for us, the notion that the film camera was truly one of the most significant inventions of the last 200 years, and cemented our own love affair with the magic of image making. McHenry County photographers captured for you the record of how our neighbors, past and present, lived—you’ll witness bright successes and perhaps some sad but edifying failures along the way. A widely divergent group of everyday people took up their view cameras, Brownies, Instamatics, or 35mms, and preserved, on ordinary paper coated with silver and gelatin, the way things were. Perhaps you can do the same for the next generation.

      One

      THE 19TH CENTURY

      The sky’s deep blue could make your heart ache. Virgin forests and prairies full of wild flowers, herbs, and medicines claimed the Illinois land. The Fox River tumbled, releasing the pungent smell of clean water, fish, and wetland plants into unpolluted air. That’s what the earliest settlers of European descent found when they came to McHenry County in the 1830s when all of America was growing west. Ethnic settlements grew up: Dutch, Swedish, German, Irish, Scottish, Hispanic, and others. Our street and town names reflect this heritage. They came in wagons, by stagecoach, on horseback, and even on foot—adventurous individuals, families looking for a new way of life, entrepreneurs. They dug in, cleared and turned the land, built their homes and started their businesses. Back then, you really could be anything you wanted, if you were willing to struggle, think, and accomplish. Creature comforts were scarce for some. Family fortunes made life easier for others; and hard work was the great equalizer. Some of those families are still here, joined by others to farm, build industries, open stores, and raise families away from crowded cities. Once you get to know how it was for these folks, you won’t wonder why they stayed.

      WOODSTOCK FIRE DEPARTMENT, C.1890S. These men contended with frequent fires, arson, and accidents. They

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