Author Archives: editor

$50,000 faro fraud, 1931

Posted on December 2, 2018 by editor

A fraudulent card game in Springfield in 1931 cost one of Illinois’ most prominent Republican women $50,000 – and her career. Myrtle Tanner Blacklidge (1878-1958) had been U.S. revenue collector in Chicago for two years when she visited Springfield in … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime and vice, Hotels & taverns, Politics | Leave a comment

Daniel Pope Cook (Congressman, land owner)

Posted on November 29, 2018 by editor

The young lawyer for whom Cook County was named was a landowner in early Springfield and the man who prodded the Illinois territorial legislature to apply for statehood. Daniel Pope Cook was born in Kentucky in 1794 and moved to … Continue reading →

Posted in Prominent figures, Springfield, State government | 1 Comment

Armistice celebrations, Nov. 11, 1918

Posted on November 10, 2018 by editor

On Nov. 11, 1918, the parades started at 4 a.m. News that negotiators had agreed on an armistice to end World War I reached Springfield shortly after 2:30 a.m. that Monday. Middle of the night or not, celebrations – spontaneous, … Continue reading →

Posted in Celebrations, Media, Spectacles | Leave a comment

Lincoln Library and World War I

Posted on November 8, 2018 by editor

World War I doughboys wanted reading material – “good red-blooded fiction” and more – and they got it with the help of Springfield’s Lincoln Library. But a small box stored for almost a century in the Sangamon Valley Collection, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Local government, Military | Leave a comment

H.B. Hill insurance scandal & suicide, 1934

Posted on November 5, 2018 by editor

With the insurance company he founded linked to Chicago crooks and his own job gone, Springfield financier H.B. Hill tried make his suicide look like a gangland murder. Hill shot himself in the head sometime on the afternoon of Dec. … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Crime and vice, Law enforcement, Prominent figures | Leave a comment

Hotel Abraham Lincoln opens (1925)

Posted on October 29, 2018 by editor

The Hotel Abraham Lincoln opened in 1925 with 300 rooms, a five-piece house band, its own radio station, and lavish décor. And, it turned out, with lousy timing. “The Abe,” which was on the southwest corner of Fifth Street and … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Buildings, Business, Hotels & taverns, Prominent figures, Social life | 4 Comments

‘Army of God’ kidnappings (1982)

Posted on October 22, 2018 by editor

Three anti-abortion extremists, one of them a Springfield native, kidnapped an abortion clinic physician and his wife in 1982 and held the couple in an empty ammunition bunker near Illiopolis. The kidnappers – Don Benny Anderson, 41, a 1959 Lanphier … Continue reading →

Posted in Crime and vice, Law enforcement | Leave a comment

Springfield wins minor-league baseball game, 33-23 (1926)

Posted on October 16, 2018 by editor

Baseball-mad Springfieldians got more than their money’s worth on July 20, 1926, both on the field and in the next day’s newspaper story. The Springfield Senators, the local entry in the Class B Three-I League, outslugged the Peoria Tractors that … Continue reading →

Posted in Amusements, Social life, Sports and recreation | Leave a comment

Wimmer Cemetery, Auburn

Posted on October 10, 2018 by editor

Wimmer Cemetery, an inactive but by no means abandoned graveyard east of Auburn, is one of Sangamon County’s oldest burying places. No one has been buried at Wimmer since 1934, and by 1999, the site was overgrown, dilapidated and vandalized. … Continue reading →

Posted in Communities, Historic Sites | 2 Comments

Riverton Athletic Club

Posted on October 3, 2018 by editor

The mammoth home run Robin Roberts hit on Oct. 14, 1951, remains a highlight in the 80-year history of the Riverton Athletic Club. Roberts, a Springfield native who had just completed the second of his six 20-win seasons as a … Continue reading →

Posted in Amusements, Parks, Social life, Sports and recreation | 1 Comment