Tag: DeKalb Co. IL

Floyd, the youngest Kaiser brother

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Floyd Kaiser, about 1917. This may be his high school photo. (Image Source: Kaiser Family Photos)

My great-great-grandparents, Andrew Kaiser and Jennie Holbrook, had a large, blended family. Between the two of them, they had 18 children. This is the story of my great-great uncle Floyd, who was their youngest child, who also died when he was very young.

Andrew Kaiser and Jennie Holbrook were married on 22 July 1885. Both of them had been married previously, and had had children with their previous spouses. Andrew had eleven children with his previous wife, Elizabeth Wentsel. Four of these children died young, before Elizabeth’s death in 1884. Jennie had previously married Thomas Burke, and they had three children. She was granted a divorce from him in June of 1885. Although it’s not clear how Jennie and Andrew met, they lived in the same small town of Prophetstown in Whiteside County, Illinois. Thomas Burke was a druggist in town, and Andrew Kaiser was a tinner. Both businessmen may have known each other, and may have been in the same social circles. After losing their first spouses, both Andrew and Jennie found themselves as single parents, with at least several small children at home. Joining their households was likely a beneficial situation for them both. Continue reading “Floyd, the youngest Kaiser brother” →

A New Minister at Kingston Methodist Church, 1906

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A postcard of the Kingston Methodist Church, mailed in 1906.

I recently came across this postcard on eBay from 1906, showing the Kingston Methodist Church. It is a wonderful piece of local history! The Real Photo Postcard (RPPC) shows the parsonage on the right, and the church on the left. The Methodist Church is in its present-day location on First Street in Kingston. The building was originally built in 1861 near Pleasant Hill Farm, along Baseline Road on the southern edge of Kingston Township. It was moved to this location in 1875. The parsonage was built in 1878. Notice the dirt road, hitching posts, and narrow sidewalk! Today, the church has a basement and a new entrance, and the trees and hitching post has been replaced by paved street parking! The parsonage has also lost part of its covered porch, but otherwise looks very similar!

Continue reading “A New Minister at Kingston Methodist Church, 1906” →

The History of Pleasant Hill School

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The small schoolhouse shown on the Ira Douglas / Pleasant Hill property in 1871. (Image Source: 1871 Plat Map, DeKalb Co., IL, HistoricMapWorks.com)

On Pleasant Hill Road, in Mayfield Township, DeKalb County, Illinois, there once was a small white schoolhouse, with a small farm cemetery next to it. It was diagonally across the road from Pleasant Hill Farm, first owned by Ira Douglass, and later owned by Gustaf Medine, and then by Charles W. Drake.

The little “crude log” one-room schoolhouse was built on land owned by Ira Douglass in the early 1840’s. Its first teachers in the 1840’s were Lucy Stuart, Fanny Clark and Harriet Russell.  The earliest religious services in Mayfield were also conducted in the schoolhouse. Coincidentally, Ira Douglass was also a leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church of Mayfield. It is unknown what happened to the original schoolhouse, and how long classes were conducted there. Services for the Mayfield church were held there through at least the 1860’s, and the old schoolhouse appears on an 1871 map. In 1870, the county superintendent of the schools deemed the schoolhouse to be “too small, and is so near the road that a person sitting in his carriage can almost take hold of the door handle. There is no black-board worthy of the name.” Twenty-five students attended Pleasant Hill School that year.  Continue reading “The History of Pleasant Hill School” →

In the census: Neighbors & Family

I rely on census records to tell me a lot about my ancestors, and to see a snapshot of their households in particular points in time. I also try to browse their neighbors to see who they lived near, who they could have known, and who they may have done business with. I’ve found some valuable information and a few remarkable coincidences this way!

Continue reading “In the census: Neighbors & Family” →

Snapshot of 1929 DeKalb County

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My map starts with a view of the whole county.

At the recent ALA library conference, I learned the basics of GIS from a Map and Geospatial information Librarian from the University of Minnesota. I was so excited to try it out for myself, using some historic maps related to my family’s history! I tested it out by making this composite map of DeKalb County. All of the maps that I used to create this map were from the 1929 Atlas and plat book of De Kalb County, Illinois : compiled from surveys and the public records of De Kalb County, Illinois, digitized by the Library of Congress. (See the whole atlas here!) Continue reading “Snapshot of 1929 DeKalb County” →