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Wilmington's Whiskey Wars and Women's rights

Published by admin on Mon, 06/15/2026 - 11:59am

We left our story of saloons and sample houses with a new dram shop law enacted. Local ordinances set closing hours at midnight, and no Sunday hours, while State law made bartenders and owners libel if a patron was over-served.
It took awhile before owners got used to the new hours. We read in August of 1872 in the Wilmington Advocate, “City Marshal Lyon has been “going for” saloon keepers lively this week. Four have been fined for selling at unlawful hours. Some of the cases have been appealed, we learn. Laws are sometimes overdone.”

Reading photos, draw your own conclusions

Published by admin on Mon, 06/15/2026 - 11:26am

I can hear the music in my head, from PBS's TV show - The History Detectives. It happens to me every time I feel like I have a puzzle to figure out. I'm putting on my Sherlock Holmes hat, come Watson the game is afoot.
I recently reviewed the photos I have of people and organizations in Braidwood history. Two photos caught my interest, and I realized that they represented the very violent history of Braidwood. We know little about who these people were, but we do know they were “packing.”

Pritzker’s attendance record does him no favors

Published by admin on Sun, 06/14/2026 - 1:34pm

Gov. JB Pritzker last week squarely placed the responsibility for passing a Chicago Bears stadium bill on the team itself, and had some unsolicited lobbying advice for the Bears as he attempted to brush off his own session attendance issues.
The governor continued to downplay his own role in passing a stadium or stadium-related bill, saying it was Bears management which “decided to glom on to the mega projects bill that I proposed.”

Falling into the abyss, scandal rears its head

Published by admin on Mon, 06/08/2026 - 12:18pm

The fall of 1883 was a time of scandal in Braidwood, or so it seems if you read the Joliet Weekly Press from that time. The Weekly Press was the scandal sheet of its day. They did not let the lack of hard facts get in the way of a good story. And, unfortunately there are no local papers still existing of that time period to give us those facts.

Whiskey and Wilmington, an old story

Published by admin on Mon, 06/08/2026 - 11:42am

We live in an era where there are many choices, some good, some bad. I was astonished the other day when I went into a large liquor store and found the incredible choices I had to make in the whiskey department.
There was fruity ones like apple, there were spicy ones like jalapeno, there was sour mash, Canadian bourbon, French bourbon, and on and on. Well I can tell you that back in the day, there was no such thing. Today, whiskey is my choice topic. The pros and cons of drinking aside, let's look at what saloon life was like in the 19th century.

Bears stadium saga not done yet

Published by admin on Sun, 06/07/2026 - 1:29pm

Six days before the last day of the spring state legislative session, Sen. Bill Cunningham (D-Chicago) gave me two big reasons why it was so difficult to push a Bears stadium bill across the finish line.
Cunningham, as you know, is the chief sponsor of the Senate’s Bears bill.
Every stadium-related legislation passed in Illinois included the Chicago mayor and the Illinois governor pulling in the same direction. This time, that didn’t happen;

Sommerville, the right man for changing times

Published by admin on Mon, 06/01/2026 - 12:30pm

Editor’s note: With Sandy taking a much-deserved vacation we are publishing one from her archives.
In our stroll down history's lane, we have been talking about the turn of the century. Labor unrest was certainly prevalent, but that era was known for much more. Technology was advancing by leaps and bounds. New inventions such as moving pictures, automobiles, and “aeroplanes” were zooming into the headlines. One local man embraced these changes, William E. Sommerville of Coal City.

Not in Wilmington you don’t

Published by admin on Mon, 06/01/2026 - 12:29pm

Editor’s note: With Sandy taking a much-deserved vacation we are publishing one from her archives.
In recent weeks the big story in Wilmington was a demonstration staged by people from out of town, who assumed that when they came to Wilmington to forward their cause, they would find friends. They are obviously not students of Wilmington history.
As Wilmington Mayor Tony McGann recently stated, Wilmington has a history of standing up to outsiders and doing what was right. Perhaps it’s time to tell those stories again.

Bears ‘study’ makes me cringe

Published by admin on Sat, 05/30/2026 - 9:07am

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas released a “study” last week about the state megaprojects proposal including a new Bears stadium complex that was mostly uncritically received by local news media. But it’s not her best work, to say the least.
OK, before we go any further I should say I find corporate tax breaks distasteful and even sometimes counterproductive. I have no official or personal position on a deal to move the Chicago Bears to Arlington Heights (except for my personal hatred of Indiana). It’s just that “studies” like this make me cringe.

Legislators oppose Gov. Pritzker’s budget cuts

Published by admin on Sat, 05/23/2026 - 10:41am

In response to a question last week from my associate Isabel Miller, Gov. JB Pritzker said he didn’t think a group of progressive legislators could pass their progressive revenue bills through both chambers by the end of the spring session.
“They've been working very hard on getting something done,” Pritzker said of the bicameral progressive effort to at least raise enough money to prevent the governor’s proposed budget cuts to a host of state programs.