Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Grundy County
    Grundy County
    Grundy County
    Ebook190 pages1 hour

    Grundy County

    By David A. Belden

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In 1673, Louis Jolliet and Fr. Jacques Marquette were the first Europeans to explore the Mississippi River and the Illinois River valleys. With their canoes loaded with furs, pelts, and other goods on their return trip to Montreal, their explorations through much of the interior of Illinois included encounters with Native American tribes and took them through what is now Grundy County. Over 150 years later, the first permanent residents, including William Marquis, began settling and farming in the area. While the chief occupation of the residents is agriculture, the county also has the Illinois River and the Illinois and Michigan Canal that pass through its northern sections, as well as the Rock Island and the Chicago and Alton Railways. With communities rich in history and small-town charm, Grundy County continues to draw visitors and residents to its towns, parks, museums, rivers, and lakes. Grundy County attempts to reveal this unique county and its sense of community and pride.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateOct 3, 2007
    ISBN9781439618806
    Grundy County
    Author

    David A. Belden

    David A. Belden is a doctoral candidate in the School of Education at DePaul University. His primary interests include local history and the early road history of Route 66 and the Lincoln Highway. He is actively involved in the collaborative digitization project between the Minooka Public Library and Minooka Community High School. Belden currently teaches various local history classes at Minooka Community High School and is an adjunct instructor at the University of St. Francis and Joliet Junior College.

    Read more from David A. Belden

    Related to Grundy County

    Related ebooks

    Photography For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Cast in Iron?

      Apr 2, 2020

      Cast in Iron?
      7 min read

    • Article

      Posted In The Past

      Mar 8, 2022

      Posted In The Past
      5 min read

    • Article

      Postcards From The Past

      Jul 6, 2021

      Postcards From The Past
      3 min read

    • Article

      Refracting History | Writing in the Dark

      Dec 15, 2022

      I’m writing this during a power outage, an experience befitting the winter issue of British Columbia History magazine. I’ve spent most of my life in rural areas where power outages are often measured in days, and we predict when electricity will be r

      9 min read

    • Article

      Accessing BC History in 2020

      Dec 4, 2020

      Accessing BC History in 2020
      11 min read

    • Article

      Contemplating Commemoration

      Jun 4, 2021

      Contemplating Commemoration
      5 min read

    • Article

      West Words

      Sep 29, 2020

      ‘The greater portion of the laborers employed by us are Chinese, who constitute a large element in the population of California. Without them it would be impossible to complete the western portion of this great national enterprise within the time req

      3 min read

    • Article

      Rocking the Suburbs

      Mar 1, 2020

      RADICAL SUBURBS: EXPERIMENTAL LIVING ON THE FRINGES OF THE AMERICAN CITY By Amanda Kolson Hurley BELT PUBLISHING $16.95; 174 PAGES LONE STAR SUBURBS: LIFE ON THE TEXAS METROPOLITAN FRONTIER Edited by Paul J. P. Sandul and M. Scott Sosebee UNIVERSITY

      4 min read

    • Article

      Letters from Readers

      Mar 4, 2021

      Letters from Readers
      2 min read

    • Article

      Mapping Our Ancestors' Lives

      Sep 10, 2021

      Mapping Our Ancestors' Lives
      8 min read

    • Article

      Collective Futures

      Jun 15, 2023

      From utopian communities of the past to rethinking how history should be shared in the future, this issue is, at different times, provocative and entertaining, encouraging conversations about both BC’s history and our collective future. Over the cour

      2 min read

    • Article

      A House Of Cards

      Nov 24, 2021

      A House Of Cards
      4 min read

    • Article

      Refracting History | Stories In Digital And Print

      Mar 4, 2021

      British Columbia’s history is told through multiple lenses. We must seek out diverse perspectives, continually reframe the ways in which we understand the past, and carefully choose formats for sharing stories. Should a particular story be told in pr

      6 min read

    • Article

      Seeing Me, Seeing You

      Dec 4, 2021

      Seeing Me, Seeing You
      3 min read

    • Article

      Making Historical Connections

      Jun 15, 2022

      Making Historical Connections
      5 min read

    • Article

      Our Transatlantic Hobby

      May 14, 2021

      Our Transatlantic Hobby
      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Grundy County

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Grundy County - David A. Belden

      ago.

      INTRODUCTION

      The Local History Digitization Project is a collaboration between the Three Rivers Public Library and Minooka Community High School. The project is designed to increase awareness of the community’s local history and access to its historical collections by digitizing photographs from the library’s collections and making them accessible in the library and through the Internet (www.localhistoryproject.org). The scope of the digitization includes postcards, photographs, genealogical information, area maps, plat books, newspapers and clippings, church records, phone books, and school yearbooks, among others.

      Many different aspects of Grundy County local history and life can be found in the picture postcards collection of the library, including school groups, businesses, sports teams, social gatherings, family photographs, public parks, homes, street scenes, and buildings. Because the history of Grundy County is so intertwined with the history of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, pictures of locks and canal boats are also part of the collection. It is these picture postcards that form the basis for this vintage postcard book. It is our intent to showcase an important component of the digitization project and, at the same time, celebrate the local history of Grundy County through postcards.

      Of particular interest to us as we digitized this postcard project was the written messages found on both sides of the card. While the postcard could not serve as a medium for substantial messages, it did open a window to how people thought and communicated in the past. Longer, more intimate messages still had to be sent by ordinary, closed letters, but by the early part of the 20th century, the picture postcard became the perfect medium for short communications. When appropriate, we will attempt to include the correspondences found on the postcards in our collection. The Grundy County postcards presented in the book are generally organized according to the widely accepted chronology timeline of United States postcards. To understand our approach and how we attempted to organize the collection for publication, a brief history of the picture postcard in America will help in the understanding of how picture postcards transformed American society in the early-20th century.

      Deltiology, the term used for the collection and study of postcards, is thought by many to be one of the largest collectible hobbies in the world. In fact, no hobby compares with collecting postcards in the way that it caters to everyone’s unique interests. The origins of this hobby are linked with the most interesting consumption phenomena at the beginning of the 20th century—the craze for the picture postcard. Beginning between 1895 and 1900 and fading out between 1915 and 1920, these two decades, often called the golden age of the picture postcard, changed the way people communicated. The desire for postcards seized both young and old, males and females, in the United States and in Europe, and on other continents as well. Except for the postage stamp mania, up to that time, there has never been a more ubiquitous fad for a material item.

      It was not only the imagery, or the card as a picture carrier, that mattered to the public. The postcard as a physical object had two sides. The exchange and gift economy of the postcard also included the inscriptions of the sender to the addressee. Although the cards carried messages more or less void of information, they did serve as a sign of life and a reminder of the social relationships that existed in a certain place in time. Whether the postcard contains a short inscription, a delicate message, a signature, a set of initials, or an interesting address, each is a snapshot of the past—a moment, a part of social history, frozen in time. These postcards are exchanged between people who knew each other and for whom the context is known. No card is totally void of useful information; the picture, stamp, postmark, message, and address are all part of the life of two people in the past.

      In order to best understand the inscriptions on the postcards, a brief background account of the United States formal postal rules and design of the card is necessary. The first private postal card was developed by John P. Charlton of Philadelphia in 1861. He obtained a copyright for the cards and later transferred it to H. L. Lipman. These early cards, decorated with a slight border pattern and labeled Lipman’s Postal Card, Patent Applied For, were for sale on the market until 1873 when the first government postcards appeared. The United States Postal Service issued prestamped postal cards in 1873. The postal service was the only one allowed to print such cards until 1898, when Congress passed the Private Mailing Card Act that allowed private companies to produce and sell cards. Postcards printed and sold before 1898 are generally considered to be part of the pioneer era. The term private mailing card was required to be printed on all cards not issued by the United States Postal Service. At this point, only the government was allowed to print the term postcard on the back of the cards. All private printing firms used various terms, such as souvenir cards, mailing cards, or correspondence cards. Postcards produced from 1898 to 1901 are considered part of the private mailing card period.

      Most pre-1901 postcards are characterized by an undivided back, meaning that the cards do not have a line down the center. By law, writing was not permitted on the address side of the postcard, which is why messages were written across the front over the photographs or artwork on the card. Some private postcard firms even provided a small space on the front for messages. These private mailing cards were to be posted with 1¢ stamps (the same rate as government postcards) instead of the 2¢ letter rate. The beginning of the 20th century also saw the beginning of real-photo postcards. These were postcards that had real photographs and were usually printed on a special stock paper.

      In December 1901, the United States Postal Service issued Post Office Order No. 1447, which allowed, for the first time, the words post card instead of the longer private mailing card printed on the undivided back of privately printed cards. The period from 1901 to 1907, sometimes called the postcard period or the undivided era, saw the production and consumption of printed postcards rise. While writing was still only allowed on the front of the picture side of the card, new changes were on the horizon. Part of the attraction to postcard collecting in this era can be traced to advancements in photographic equipment, such as Eastman Kodak’s folding pocket camera, which allowed the public the ability to take black-and-white photographs and print them onto postcard backs. A metal scribe attached to the camera allowed the photographer to write a caption or comment directly onto the negative. A number of postcards used in this book have such markings.

      Beginning in March 1907, postcards with a divided back were permitted.

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1