Category Archives: Communities

Tuxhorn Mine

Posted on January 12, 2026 by editor

The Tuxhorn Coal Mine, which opened in 1903 in the Round Prairie/Rochester area, produced more than 3 million tons of coal before it closed two decades later. As many as 250 miners worked at the mine during its most productive … Continue reading →

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Glenwood Park and the Kalb family

Posted on November 16, 2025 by editor

Glenwood Park was a small resort that operated along the South Fork of the Sangamon River from the mid-1890s until the early 1900s. Facilities included a small dam, docks and rowboats, an excursion steamboat and a pavilion with a dance … Continue reading →

Posted in Buildings, Business, Communities, Parks, Sangamon River, Social life, Sports and recreation, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Rev. Billious Pond and the Farmington abolitionists

Posted on July 5, 2025 by editor

The Rev. Billious Pond (1781-1874) was the spiritual leader of a band of abolitionists who traveled from Vermont to western Sangamon County in 1833. Local historian Richard Hart compiled their history in his pamphlet Lincoln’s Springfield: the Underground Railroad, published … Continue reading →

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John W. Sturdy, Rochester’s Confederate veteran

Posted on May 31, 2025 by editor

This entry is an edited version of an article that originally appeared in the May 2025 edition of The Prairie Land Buzz Magazine. Copyright Raymond Bruzan. Published with permission. Contributor: Raymond Bruzan A Virginia-born soldier who fought for the Confederacy … Continue reading →

Posted in Communities, Military, Prominent figures | 3 Comments

‘The Sycamore Sentry’: Memories of Cantrall, 1950s

Posted on May 16, 2025 by editor

(This entry is excerpted from Old Cantrall: The History of a Small Village Carved Out of the Illinois Wilderness (2025), written by Cantrall native Andrew Wasilewski. It is available on Amazon.) “It was a special place during a special time … Continue reading →

Posted in Communities, Histories | 2 Comments

Tri-City boys basketball, 1952-53

Posted on January 17, 2024 by editor

The Tri-City Tornadoes were kings of Sangamon County basketball in the 1952-53 season. Tri-City Community High School, located in Buffalo, was the first consolidated high school district in Illinois. The merger of formerly separate high schools in Buffalo, Dawson and … Continue reading →

Posted in Communities, Education, Schools and school districts, Sports and recreation, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

First Rochester schools

Posted on November 3, 2023 by editor

The 1881 History of Sangamon County, Illinois, Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships includes two short accounts of the earliest schoolhouses and teachers near Rochester. As described, the schools were rough and improvised, and one burned down in … Continue reading →

Posted in Communities, Early residents, Education, Histories, Prominent figures, Schools and school districts, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Lemon Jelly Cake (Madeline Babcock Smith)

Posted on November 17, 2022 by editor

Madeline Babcock Smith earned her spot in the literary limelight. But she never got to enjoy it. Smith’s first novel, The Lemon Jelly Cake, published Aug. 4, 1952, “enjoyed an immediate and astounding success,” Dan Guillory wrote in his introduction … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts and letters, Children, Communities, Crime and vice, Family life, Media, Prominent figures | Leave a comment

Mazeppa (vanished town)

Posted on October 31, 2022 by editor

Long before there was any Ukrainian presence to speak of in Sangamon County, there was a town with a Ukrainian name. The town of Mazeppa stood for a few years after 1837 in what is now Ball Township, on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Communities, Early residents, Prominent figures | 1 Comment

Bando (a railroad story)

Posted on October 21, 2022 by editor

The only place in the United States named “Bando” is in Sangamon County. If you want to visit it from Springfield, you won’t have to go far. From Stuart Park on the city’s northwest edge, follow the trail that curves … Continue reading →

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