Silhouette Tour

and his affableness and accommodating manners, make passengers, while on board, feel that they are in comfortable quarters.” An attentive and accommodating boat captain could make an uncomfortable passage more tolerable for harried passengers. On one of his last trips on the I&M, Connett’s boat the Prairie Queen struck ice and sank in the canal.  After the railroads took away the canal’s passenger trade in 1853, Connett quickly found work as an agent for the Michigan Central Railroad.

Locktender – John Means Port of LaSalle, LaSalle

American canals developed a distinctive canal culture, including boat captains and crew, mule drivers, and locktenders. Relatively little is known about the working class men who labored to keep the boats moving through the locks.  Locktenders were paid $300 per year and were on call 24 hours a day from April until December. Their slumber was often interrupted by the bleating of the boatman’s horn, announcing a boat that needed to be locked through.John Means was one of thousands who helped dig the I&M Canal, and in 1848 he was rewarded for his service by being appointed one of the original group of 13 locktenders on the I&M Canal.  He manned locks 14 and 15 here in LaSalle.  During peak periods Means was constantly employed in opening and closing the massive lock gates. The lock gates were operated manually, and often the tender’s entire family was involved in the process of locking boats through.  Passengers often disembarked during the tedious process of letting the water enter the lock, so a tender’s wife and children sold fresh fruit or other edibles to passengers.

Mule Driver–Wild Bill Hickok (1837-1876) 

Port of LaSalle, LaSalle

The most famous mule driver on the I&M Canal was James Butler (Wild Bill) Hickok.  In the first recorded fight of his long career, Bill tangled with a fellow canal driver who had been abusing his mules.  Incensed at this cruel treatment of animals, Bill tangled with Charles Hudson and both men tumbled into the canal.  Bill eventually headed west, where he gained fame as a lawman and gunslinger. He scouted for Custer and met personalities like Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill Cody.  At the age of 39 he was bushwacked and killed in Deadwood, South Dakota.

Drivers were responsible for leading the mules or horses that pulled the boats along the canal towpath.  They often walked 10-15 miles per day and also helped care for the mules. Canal drivers had to coax stubborn mules and occasionally attempt to rescue horses or mules that fell into the canal.  Drivers were also responsible for noting breaches in the towpath, and they coordinated the sometimes-tricky maneuver when boats passed each other.  A number of drivers drowned in the canal attempting to save mules or horses that had fallen in.  The majority of drivers were boys or young men, although some were as old as thirty.

Canal Passengers-Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) and Family

Port of LaSalle, LaSalle

In the mid 1830s Abraham Lincoln, then a member of the Illinois State Legislature, voted in favor of construction of the I&M Canal.  A staunch advocate of public works projects, Lincoln knew that the young state of Illinois desperately needed to improve its transportation system. As a member of the U. S. House of Representatives, Lincoln trumpeted the positive effects of the I&M Canal in the nation’s capitol.

While acknowledging that the I&M Canal was entirely within the confines of one state, he noted that its benefits extended far beyond those borders, reducing the cost of transporting goods, thus benefiting both buyers and sellers.  “Nothing is so local as not to be of some general benefit,” wrote the future President. “The benefits of an improvement are by no means confined to the particular locality of the improvement itself.” During the canal’s opening year of 1848 Lincoln, his wife Mary and their two children Robert and Edward (ages 5 and 2, respectively) took a ride from Chicago to LaSalle on a canal packet.  From here they transferred to a steamboat bound for Peoria, where they disembarked and boarded a stagecoach for the final leg of their trip to Springfield.

Canal Passenger-Shabbona (1775?-1859)

Port of LaSalle, LaSalle

A muscular bear of a man, Shabbona was born a member of the Ottawa tribe, but became a Potawatomi chief when he married a woman from that tribe. During the War of 1812 Shabbona fought with the British against the Americans, but he later became friends with early Illinois settlers. In 1832 Shabbona opposed Black Hawk’s War and warned white settlers in advance of attacks.  After the war most Indians in Illinois were forced to settle west of the Mississippi River.  Shabbona, however, was given a large tract of land in DeKalb County.  Returning home after a long absence from a visit to his tribe, he found that his land had been stolen. Fortunately, sympathetic friends bought him a plot of land near Seneca.  He died at the age of 84 in 1859, and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Morris.

Imagine Chief Shabbona’s astonishment on a visit to Chicago in the summer of 1852.   Visiting with his old friend John H. Kinzie, the collector of I&M Canal tolls at Bridgeport, Shabbona stood in “wonder and admiration” at the remarkable changes that had taken place in sixteen years.  In a few years Chicago had risen from a tiny military outpost to a thriving city of nearly 40,000.

Canal Passengers-Clara & Olivia Matteson 

Port of LaSalle, LaSalle

Women seemed to dislike packet travel more than men.  Sarah Norris took a 22-hour trip from LaSalle to Chicago, after which she said “I can’t tell you how pleased I was to leave the canal boat, a little, low, crowded place, moving along at a snail’s pace in comparison with steamboats.” Emily Chandler took a packet from LaSalle to Chicago in September 1851, writing her sister that the trip was “a thing which I can not describe, though not very pleasant at night when crowded.” Traveling with her older sister Olivia, Clara Matteson, the nine year old daughter of Illinois Governor Joel Matteson, exclaimed that the voyage was ” so crude that I cannot understand how people submitted to it.”

While canal packets moved slowly compared to river steamboats, many enjoyed traveling via the canal. As one commentator on an eastern canal wrote, “To the lover of nature, the canal is an ideal method of travel.  Rocks and trees, birds and flowers on the shore can be studied leisurely in detail, and every landscape is indelibly photographed on the memory as it slowly vanishes in the distance.”  Some preferred the canal over the railroads, as, “there was no danger of collision, of misplaced switch, of scalding steam, of crushing timbers, or any other dreadful disaster.”

Canal Passenger-Gurdon S. Hubbard (1802-1886) 

Port of LaSalle, LaSalle

Over the course of his long and eventful life Gurdon Hubbard helped transform Chicago from an uninhabited swamp into the fastest growing city in the US.  He first came to Illinois as a fur trader in 1818, and Native Americans dubbed him Swift Walker. “He wore a buckskin shirt and carried a knife and tomahawk. . . and let his hair grow long.” With the close of the fur trade Hubbard made Chicago his permanent home in 1834.  He served as one of the original I&M Canal Commissioners speaking at the groundbreaking in July 1836.

Hubbard became a business tycoon, dabbling in meatpacking, real estate, and insurance.  With financial interests in various places along the canal, including nearby Utica, Hubbard was among the first to see the entire canal corridor as a cohesive business unit. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 bankrupted him, but his life spanned an epoch in Chicago’s history, from the fur trade to the rise of a major city of the American heartland.

Canal Passenger-Father John O’Reilly (1802-1862)

Port of LaSalle, LaSalle

Catholicism came to LaSalle in 1838 when missionaries were sent here to serve the spiritual needs of hundreds of young Irish canal diggers.  Within weeks the two priests had to face a devastating epidemic and labor violence on the canal.  Despondent, one of them wrote his superiors that he would rather be sent west with the Indians than stay in LaSalle.Father John O’Reilly arrived in LaSalle in October 1848 and quickly became a beloved figure among the large Irish population.  Talented and energetic, O’Reilly was a compelling speaker who ministered wisely to his flock and encouraged further Irish immigration to America.

O’Reilly had his hands full in wide open LaSalle, known for its many saloons.  A friend described O’Reilly as a “champion of the oppressed, a disciplinarian, a sworn enemy to rowdyism, which he fought with forcible and scathing invectives, irrespective of creed, and did his best to cleanse the town of such questionable element.” During his nearly ten years in LaSalle, O’Reilly broke up countless barroom fights but he also helped to raise the morals and manners of its citizens.

Canal Passenger-Grenville M. Dodge (1831-1916)

Port of LaSalle, LaSalle

Grenville M. Dodge is perhaps the most famous person to record his I&M Canal packet boat experience.  He later gained fame as a Union General in the Civil War and as chief engineer of the transcontinental railroad.  His account gives some idea of the rough and tumble nature of many canal towns in the 1850s. “There was a curious crowd aboard this packet and, as we passed through Joliet, nearly all the passengers were up on deck shooting at the bull snakes that lay on the shelving rocks through which the canal had been cut.  The shooting was very bad; it was very seldom they hit a snake.  Being a pretty good shot myself, I thought I would try my hand and went down into the cabin and got my pistol.  At the first shot I laid out a snake and that fixed my reputation on that boat from there to LaSalle.”

Dodge soon experienced the rough and tumble nature of canal towns.  “When I got off the boat I found that Peru, the place I was destined for, was a mile away.  I stepped up to Captain Wheeler to ask him how I could get there.  He was talking excitedly to a man when another man stepped up and shot the man who was talking to Capt. Wheeler.  It did not seem to create much excitement.”

Utica’s Foremost Citizen Clark’s influence and contributions to the development of Utica are legendary. He was Utica’s first postmaster, first assessor, supervisor, mayor, village president, and State Representative.  Also a businessman, he owned a sand business, was a grain purchaser and supplier, and owned Utica’s first hotel.

On August 16, 1864, at the Battle of Deep Run in Virginia, Sanborn was among 97 men and 7 officers of the 39th who lost their lives. His comrades were unable to recover his body. To this day he rests on that field among the “unknown.” Sanborn was one of over 250,000 Illinois men who served in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Her sons soon helped build it. Three became founders of Morris¾Armstrong Street bears their name. Elsie is buried nearby in Evergreen Cemetery.

“…How sweet the recollection, when my children were about me, then I felt I had protection, and no one dared to flout me.” – Elsie Armstrong wrote an epic poem that records the tragic deaths of four children. It expresses her pride in the sons who founded Morris and became community leaders. The poem is a rare record of a pioneer woman’s hardships, her feelings, and a poignant reminder of the importance of families.

Elsie Armstrong’s sons

Canalport Plaza, Liberty and Illinois Sts., Morris

William and George Armstrong were canal contractors who hired immigrant workers to hand-dig sections of the I&M Canal. William built Morris’ first courthouse and became sheriff. Canal construction was financially risky. Many contractors, including William, went bankrupt. Tragically, he committed suicide in 1850. George served in the Illinois legislature and funded Morris’ first bridge over the Illinois River.

The promise of frontier life – Elsie Armstrong’s sons illustrate the difficulties and possibilities of life on the frontier. Joel founded a bank. Jeremiah and Isaiah sought their fortunes in the California Gold Rush of 1849. Perry Armstrong ran a general store and later became a lawyer. He represented Morris in the Illinois legislature. Armstrong descendents still live in the canal corridor and have preserved the stories of Elsie Armstrong and her family.

Patrick Smith, Irish Railroad Worker

Marion and Raynor Sts., Joliet

Irish immigrants first came here to dig the I&M Canal. By the 1870s, when Joliet was a railroad hub, many, like Patrick Smith, did the backbreaking work of laying tracks.
Workers used picks, shovels and sledgehammers to clear the ground and drive in spikes. They worked long hours in the warmer months but often had to find other jobs in the winter.

City of Churches – As immigrants came to Joliet, they created their own ethnic communities, and churches were at the heart of them. In 1884, people worshipped in 21 different churches. St. Patrick’s and St. Mary’s served Irish families. Serbs went to St. George’s, Slovenians to St. Joseph’s, Germans to St. Peter’s and St. John’s, and Croatians to St. Mary’s Nativity.

Natividad Guiterrez, Railroad worker, 1900-1978

Bluff and Marion Sts., Joliet

In 1919, Natividad Guiterrez arrived in Joliet with his wife and grandmother. Like other Mexicans, he came here for work and found a job driving spikes on the EJE Railroad. Guiterrez worked as a railroad laborer for 55 years. The family and three uncles lived in a boxcar provided by the company until 1928, when Guiterrez bought a home.

Joliet’s people power – The bridge you see is a reminder of Joliet’s importance as a railroad hub. Railroads shipped coal, limestone and steel, and attracted manufacturers to Joliet. But it took people¾Mexican, Irish, African-American, Polish, Slovenian, Serbian, Italian, Croatian, Scandinavian, German, and others¾to quarry the stone, lay the rails, and make the steel.

Harpo and Groucho Marx, Entertainers

Clinton and Chicago Sts., Joliet

Bad Farmers, great entertainers – The Marx Brothers, one the most famous comedy teams of the 20th century, once owned a chicken farm near the I&M Canal. But, according to Groucho, they failed as farmers because they spent too much time watching baseball at Wrigley Field and not enough minding the chickens. In the 1930s, the Marx Brothers performed at the Rialto Theatre.

A people palace – In the 1920s, the six Rubens brothers began plans for the Rialto Theatre. It was to be a “Palace for the people.” Joliet was at the peak of its industrial might when the theater opened in 1926. A few years later, during the Great Depression, entertainers here brought smiles to those seeking to escape their economic worries.

Mary Setina, Candy Store Owner, 1873-1937

Clay and Joliet Sts, Joliet

Mary Setina, a Slovenian immigrant, came to Joliet in 1903. She lived in the St. Joseph’s neighborhood, known as “Slovenian Row, and owned a store there. Children on their way home from St. Joseph’s school stopped in the store, pennies in hand, to buy candy, ice cream, or school supplies from her. Men going home from the mills bought tobacco at the store.

Work at home – Joliet’s immigrant women often needed jobs to make ends meet. They were maids, seamstresses, washerwomen, cooks and shopkeepers. In addition to caring for their own families, many women took in boarders¾workers from local steel mills and quarries¾and had to cook, clean, wash, mend and iron for as many as a dozen men at a time.

George Kiser, Iron Works Laborer

Columbia and Scott Sts., Joliet

George Kiser, an African-American, moved to Joliet from Missouri in the early 1900s. A laborer at the Joliet Iron Works, he usually worked 12 hours a day in noisy, hot and dangerous conditions. The mill employed workers from all over the world¾migrants from the south, like Kiser, were joined by Poles, Swedes, Germans, Bohemians and others.

Of steel and men – Steel was one of Joliet’s major industries. The workers who flocked here for jobs found harsh conditions. Early mills were loud, dark, and poorly ventilated. Men lost their hearing and got lung disease from ore and steel dust. Blast furnace workers endured temperatures of 100-150 degrees and suffered heat stroke and exhaustion. Accidents were common.

James Bruce, 1823-1898

Bluff and Jefferson Sts., Joliet

Born in Scotland, James Bruce learned of the local dolomite stone as an I&M Canal construction foreman. Canal workers had to blast through the stone, and used it to build the canal’s locks and walls. Bruce later used the stone to make his fortune, opening quarries in Joliet and Lockport that employed hundreds of workers.

City of Stone – In the 1880s, Joliet area quarries employed thousands of men, mostly immigrants from Sweden, Poland, Italy, Germany and Czechoslovakia. Quarrying was hard work. Workers were paid only about $1.25 per day to pry and dig out the stone in pieces. Quarry owners separated workers from different countries to keep them from unionizing.

Francis Hoffman, Mason

Billy Limacher Bicentennial Park, Joliet

In 1860 Hoffmann worked as one of Joliet’s many stone masons. Born in Holland, the forty-year-old, Hoffmann first came to Wisconsin before moving to Joliet. His wife Agnes was also born in Holland, but their four children were born in the U. S. Stone masons took the quarried limestone and transformed it into magnificent buildings, many of which are still part of Joliet’s landscape.

Several churches constructed from Joliet stone still dominate the local skyline. St. Mary’s Carmelite Church and the Christ Episcopal Church are especially noteworthy. The latter is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Joliet stone was also used in the Rock Island Arsenal, the old Chicago Water Tower, and the Joliet Public Library. Polished stone from Joliet was used for the interiors of the State Archives building in Springfield in 1938 and the Natural Resources Building in Urbana in 1940.

Lester Ward, Renaissance Man

Billy Limacher Bicentennial Park, Joliet

The American Aristotle – The last of ten children, Lester Frank Ward (1841-1913) was born in Joliet, at Joliet and Benton streets. His father owned a quarry at what is now the site of the Illinois State Penitentiary, but Ward lived in Joliet only a short time. A true Renaissance Man, Ward was wounded in the Civil War and took degrees in law and medicine, but gained lasting fame as a paleontologist and sociologist.

Rare Finds – Very few animals or plants become fossils, as it takes just the right conditions for fossils to form. We are fortunate to have any evidence of ancient life, especially life that existed in the unimaginably distant past. Despite their tremendous age, these fossils are often remarkably well preserved. Molds of snails are found side by side with hundreds of brachiopod shells. However, fossils are rarely found completely intact, so look for partial specimens.

Sophia Demmond, Philanthropist, The Grand Old Lady of Joliet.

Billy Limacher Bicentennial Park, Joliet

Sophia Demmond(1804-1895) Sophia Murray married merchant Martin Demmond in New York in 1831, and they were among Juliet’s earliest residents when they arrived in 1834. The Demmond’s built Joliet’s first stone building from limestone quarried from these bluffs. They lived on the 3rd floor, and operated a general store on the first floor. Less than fifty people lived in Joliet during the winter of 1834-1835.

A Long, Useful Life – The Demmond’s were liberal supporters of educational efforts, and they helped fund the construction of the first school building in Joliet. Martin Demmond died in the cholera epidemic of 1854, and Sophia closed the store and became a generous donor to a variety of philanthropic causes. She also raised her niece Catherine, who married Frederick Bartleson, who died a hero in the Civil War. Sophia outlived her husband by 41 years, dying at the age of 91 in March 1895.

“The big canal is still progressing and now, ’tis known, is worth possessing.”
William Gooding lived and worked in Lockport, the headquarters of the I&M Canal. He designed a widewater and hydraulic basin that gave Lockport the waterpower to fuel its flour and paper mills and allowed it to become an important grain center. In his free time, Gooding was fond of writing poetry that described his thoughts and feelings.

Edward Retz , Mule Driver, 1826-1900

On I&M Towpath in line with 11th St., Lockport

Edward Retz came to the United States from Europe with $4.50 in his pocket. His first job was as a mule driver on the I&M Canal. For ten or more hours each day, he drove a team of mules along the towpath as they pulled the 150-ton canal boats. The most famous mule driver on the canal later became known as “Wild Bill” Hickok, the well-known lawman.

Tough lot with a tough job  – Many mule drivers were teenage boys, 14 to 19 years old, who had a reputation for swearing, drinking, and fighting. Many had dogs to keep them company as they worked long, grueling shifts. Some lived in dormitories, such as the one that once occupied the top floor of the Norton building.

“Le Mole” was said to be involved in illegal trading, aided by the expansionist French Governor. Moreau left the Illinois country and later moved to Quebec. He had 13 children and died at the age of 88 in 1727. He was the last known survivor of Jolliet and Marquette’s 1673 expedition.

Robert Betz – As a child in Chicago, Betz imagined that vacant lots were prairies. At Santa Fe Prairie he learned what constituted a true prairie. Amazed by the variety of plants found here, Betz dedicated his work to the study of native prairies.

Floyd Swink – A dedicated educator, Swink also co-authored Plants of the Chicago Region, which catalogs native prairie plants in the area. His work has formed the basis for preserving Northeastern Illinois’ natural ecosystems.