Our Rural Heritage
184 stories
Civil War: October 1862, Morgan’s Raiders meet Will County
By Sandy Vasko October 1862 saw the Will County boys heavily engaged in battle, especially the 64th and the 100th. …
Living and dying at the county jail
By Sandy Vasko Last time we met, we looked at the earliest county jail. Let’s go back there to see…
The Will County jail, no picnics here
By Sandy Vasko The State Penitentiary gets all the glory. It once housed bad guys from all over the state,…
Our Rural Heritage: Civil War: September 1862, settling in for the duration
By Sandy Vasko On September 5th, 1861, the 100th, temporarily bivouacked at Camp Erwin, made ready to depart. George Woodruff…
The one-legged sheriff of Will County
By Sandy Vasko Hardy is a word that is usually used to describe early settlers in any part of the…
Predicting the future? Not so easy
By Sandy Vasko Every time we turn around, there is someone telling us what will happen in the future. From…
August 1862, there’s a war to be won
By Sandy Vasko When we left the “War Between the States,” the 100th Illinois Voluntary Infantry was being assembled. In…
The Manhattan massacre, early Jackson Township
By Sandy Vasko Today we go back to a time when Native Americans still rode the prairies of what was…
Civil War: July 1862, patriotism takes a stand
By Sandy Vasko We return to the Civil War in July of 1862. July is a month to show our…
Man’s greatest friend … and worst enemy
By Sandy Vasko If there is one thing that everyone shares, urban or rural, today or 500 years ago, here…
Piscatorial dynamiters & fearless finny anarchists
By Sandy Vasko In the southwestern part of Will County spring means one thing – fishing. Most avid fishermen have…
The Civil War: Slow times and a different type of shot
By Sandy Vasko Summer on the battle fronts for Will County troops was uneventful. The boys had been through a…