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McHenry County News DISPLAY ADVERTISING & CLASSIFIEDS: 815-654-4850 • CIRCULATION: 815-654-4854 • E-MAIL: McHenryNews@RVPublishing.com
VOLUME 8 • ISSUE 12
11512 N. 2nd ST. • MACHESNEY PARK, IL 61115
THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2018
McHenry County Historical Society presents lecture series Constructed between 1836 and 1848, the Illinois & Michigan Canal, allowed boat transportation from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The canal enabled navigation across the Chicago Portage and helped establish Chicago as a major interior transportation hub, opening before railroads were laid in the area. The wider and shorter Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal largely replaced its function in 1900 and it ceased transportation operations in 1933. As Illinois marks its bicentennial this year with predictable programs about Carl Sandburg and Abraham Lincoln, Norm Moline gravitated toward another subject: transportation. “I’ve loved transportation from the very beginning,” said Moline, a retired Augustana College geography professor. “The first geography class I took was the geography of transportation. That’s when I found out there is a field called geography of transportation. And my Ph.D. [at the University of Chicago] was about mobility in a small town and the arrival of the automobile – the first 30 years. I’ve been interested in it my whole life.” Toward that Moline presented “Binding Our State Together: 200 Years of Canals, Railroads, Postal Services and Roads” at the McHenry County Historical Society Museum, 6422 Main St. in Union. It was the first of four programs presented as part of the society’s 32nd annual Sampler Lecture Series. Illinois, like most places, sought to connect with others through nodes of transportation and communication for cultural, economic and political reasons, Moline said. After the state was created in 1818, private companies worked to bind different regions together through infrastructure. “They turned our state from merely a designated area on a map into a more unified functional territory and contributed to our character and identity, he said. “A lot of our history has been about the building of connections,” Moline said. “If you want to go anywhere west or northwest, you have to somehow slide around the Great Lakes.” Moline pointed out that it was that easy portage – from the Chicago River to the Des Plaines River, and westward to the Illinois and eventually the Mississippi rivers – that made Chicago a commercial hub. Later, railroads
SUBMITTED PHOTO McHenry County News
Constructed between 1836 and 1848, the Illinois & Michigan Canal, allowed boat to sail from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The canal enabled navigation across the Chicago Portage and helped establish Chicago as a major interior transportation hub, opening before railroads were laid in the area.
added to it – a legacy that continues to this day, despite the demise of passenger service. “At one point there were more stations in McHenry County than all of the Amtrak stops in the state of Illinois,” Moline said. “There are a lot of fun things to find out.” Beginning in the 1840s, the arrival and rapid expansion of railroad, including the nationally significant Illinois Central and numerous regional lines gave us one of the densest networks in any state in the nation. The evolution of postal connections also was important, Moline said, as was the Good Roads movement. “I hope people develop an appreciation for the connections that we had – and still have – that are amazingly complete,” Moline said. “We’ve had a dense network of rail and hard-
surface rods for much of our history.” Other upcoming Sampler lectures are as follows: • 7 p.m., Monday, March 19 – The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Presented by Rochelle Pennington, a historical researcher from Kewaskum, Wis. and author of 10 books including “The Historic Christmas Tree Ship: The Story of Captain San-
ta.” No other Great Lakes shipwreck is better known than the Edmund Fitzgerald, which remains the largest shipwreck on the Great Lakes and among its most enticing mysteries. She disappeared into a stormy Lake Superior on Nov. 10, 1975, when wind gusts peaked at nearly 100 miles an hour and waves reached the height of three-story buildings. Pennington
delves into the various theories and opposing views of dive detectives, who still are trying to determine what circumstances led to the deaths of 29 crewmen. • 3 p.m. Monday, April 2 – From Our Own Back Yard: A Woman Empowered. Presented by Craig Pfannkuche, at retired history teacher and genealogical researcher from Wonder Lake. McHenry County was the home of a goodly number of women who made a difference in American history. One of them was Lillian Donovan, a Harvard resident who befriended Franklin Delano Roosevelt and later was appointed as a federal revenue collector in Chicago when Roosevelt became president in 1933. Learn about this interesting woman and her connection to one of the world’s most influential leaders. • 7 p.m. Monday, April 16 – How Corn Changed itself and Then Changed Everything Else. Presented by Cynthia Clampitt, an author and food historian from Palatine. About 10,000 years ago, a weedy grass growing in Mexico that possessed a strange trait known as a “jumping gene” transformed itself into a larger and more useful plant: the cereal grass that we would come to know as maize and then as corn. Illinois is second only to Iowa, as an American corn-growing state. And McHenry County outpaces all other Collar Counties in corn production. Illinois and corn are inexorably linked, yet few realize its historic impact and why it remains so vital today. All programs are at the Society museum, 6422 Main St. in Union. Series tickets are $35, $30 for society members. A $10 donation is requested for individual programs. The Moline and Clampitt programs are made possible through a grant from Illinois Humanities. For information or to buy tickets, call 815-923-2267 or visit www. gothistory.org.
Juvenile arrested for Aggravated Battery to a Teacher, Disorderly Conduct During the afternoon of March 1, 2018, Woodstock Police Department Patrol Officers responded to the School of Expressive Arts and Learning (SEAL), located at 1200 Claussen Dr., in reference to a 13-year-old male student engaged in a physical altercation with another student. During the altercation, the 13-yearold suspect made threats to the school officials and subsequently struck a teacher in the face with his elbow. The threats entailed obtaining a firearm and causing harm, targeting people at the school. The juvenile was immediately taken into custody by responding WPD Officers and transported to the Woodstock Police Department. The guardian of the 13-year-old was contacted and informed of this incident. Throughout the process, the guardian continued to cooperate with WPD detectives. A comprehensive threat assessment was conducted which included a search of the juve-
nile’s home, located in Rockford, Ill. It was determined that the student was not in possession of any weapons. After conferring with the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office, the juvenile was charged with Disorderly Conduct (Class A Misdemeanor), Aggravated Disorderly Conduct / Threat to School Building or Person (Class 4 Felony) and Aggravated Battery to a Teacher (Class 3 Felony). The juvenile was subsequently transported to the Kane County Juvenile Detention Center, located in St. Charles, Ill, where he remained in custody until a detention hearing on Friday, March 2. The Woodstock Police Department will continue to investigate these unfortunate incidents aggressively and thoroughly on the individual facts of each incident. The public is reminded that an arrest is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Shamrock Shave
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Officers from the Algonquin Police Department will be participating in the 10th Annual Shamrock Shave. The event will take place on Saturday, March 17 at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Algonquin. Police officers and other participants will have their heads shaved, raising money for St. Vincent DePaul Society and Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation. Visit saintmargaretmary.org/our-shavees/ if you wish to donate and sponsor an APD officer. Contact Ofc Skrodzki at 847-658-4531 if you are interested in joining the Algonquin Police Department Team and becoming a “Shavee.” We look forward to seeing you there!