Photo 1950s. Dunn Museum Collections.
Friday, December 17, 2021
Mary Louise Spoor Brand - Children's Book Illustrator
Photo 1950s. Dunn Museum Collections.
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Private Henry McIntosh, 102nd U.S. Colored Troops
According to his family, McIntosh made his way via the secret network of abolitionists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. Many freedom seekers who headed north continued onto Canada, but McIntosh stopped in Detroit, Michigan where there was an established African American community.
Between August 1863 and February 1864, a total of 895 men from across Michigan signed the rolls for the new regiment. The unit received its commission into the service of the United States as the First Michigan Colored Infantry on February 17, 1864. Its' designation changed to the 102nd U.S. Colored Troops/Infantry (USCI) on May 23. Henry McIntosh served as a private in Company G.
Pressure from the governors prompted the War Department to muster-out the Black troops and send them home, essentially removing their presence from Southern states. The 102nd mustered-out September 30, 1865. They arrived in Detroit, Michigan on October 17 and received their final pay and discharge.
Shortly thereafter, Henry McIntosh made his way to Lake County, Illinois, seeking new opportunities, and settling in Lake Forest. One attraction to the area was the number of African Americans living there. This is likely where he met Sarah Martin, whom he married in 1869. According to the 1870 Census, there were eight African American households, totaling 30 people, in Shields Township/Lake Forest.
View of 1870 U.S. Census data for Henry McIntosh, misspelled "Mackintosh" and his wife Sarah. Ancestry.com.
Over one year later, on July 14, 1885, Henry married Fannie Davis Freleigh (1867-1960).
Son, Clarence Nathaniel McIntosh (1889-1963) served as Sergeant Major with the 351st Field Artillery during World War I; son, Wayman Hillis McIntosh (1900-1982), an athletic trainer at Lake Forest College, volunteered as air raid warden during World War II; grandson, Henry Nathaniel McIntosh (1923-1980) served as lieutenant in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War; and grandson Clarence Pearson McIntosh (1925-1999) served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy.
FindAGrave.com.
Bess Bower Dunn Museum. Lake County Soldiers and Sailors Association Collection, and G.A.R. Photo Collection. https://www.lcfpd.org/museum/collections/.
History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff www.lflbhistory.org.
Detroit Historical Society www.detroithistorical.org.
Michigan in the War web.archive.org.
https://web.archive.org/web/20030724204008/http://www.michiganinthewar.org/infantry/1colora.htm
"Lake Forester Deserts Confederacy, Marches With Sherman's Army to Sea." Uncited, July 27, 1961.
"African American History in Lake Forest: A Walking Tour," Lake Forest College, 1997.
"DAVIS." The Oshkosh Northwestern, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. July 2, 1931. Roy Davis obituary, brother of Fannie McIntosh.
"Revival of Democracy." Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Mississippi, June 14, 1942. Lists air raid wardens in Chicago's Division 8, including Wayman McIntosh of Lake Forest, Illinois.
Robertson, Jno. Michigan in the War. Lansing: W.S. George and Company, State Printers and Binders, 1882. Michigan's Adjutant General's Department reports. https://archive.org/details/michiganinwar00mich/page/n7/mode/2up. Accessed February 12, 2021.
Dobak, William A. Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862-1867. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History United States Army, 2011.
Arpee, Edward. Lake Forest Illinois: History and Reminiscences 1861-1961. Lake Forest, Illinois: Rotary Club of Lake Forest, 1963.
Halsey, John J. A History of Lake County, Illinois. Illinois: Roy S. Bates, 1912.
Lake County (IL) Genealogical Society. “Lake County, Illinois Marriages 1881 to 1901,” Volume III. Libertyville, Illinois.
Thursday, September 3, 2020
Flowers for Hull House
Guest post by Steve Ferrigan, Collections Digitizer for the Dunn Museum
When the Dunn Museum
staff were told to shelter in place back in March and work remotely,
one of the first things collections staff did was to take digital photos of diaries in the Minto
Family Collection in order to transcribe them from home.
It turns out you can learn a lot more than just about your own family by being cooped up at home for months. Sometimes you can learn about farm life in the early 1910s.
The diary I was tasked with transcribing was Susie Minto’s from 1912. Every once in a while, very rarely, something happens in a Minto Diary. Between the days listing who is working where and on what; between the small trips to nearby towns for supplies or new equipment; around the brief recounting of church services attended and occasional church events; the greater world and its events and characters reaches through and touches the lives of the Minto family.
In 1912, the family living at the Minto homestead included Susie and David J. Minto, daughter Una Jean, and son David Harold and his wife Mildred and their two daughters. (See Diana Dretske's Minto post for a history of the family).
One such diary entry occurred on Monday, August 12, 1912: "Una rec’d her mail today a letter from Jane Addams of the ‘Hull House.’”
Throughout her diary,
Susie Minto (1839-1914) of Antioch/Loon Lake, then in her early 70's, makes mention of
her daughter Una Jean (1876-1963) gathering
flowers from the family’s garden to send to Hull House. They sort and
tie bunches late into the night and box them up to be sent with the milkman on
the earliest Wisconsin Central line train to Chicago.
Jane Addams (1860-1935) was a pioneer in the settlement movement of the late 1800s. Hull-House, opened in 1889 by Addams and Ellen Gates Starr (1859-1940) soon emerged as a vital tool for immigrants, children, and the poor of Chicago. They provided childcare, an art gallery, a library, and classes in English, citizenship, job finding, art, music, and theater.
Susie’s diary entry continues: “[Jane Addams] kindly thanked Una for sending the lovely flowers & said ‘the size of bunches did not really matter although the small bunches such as came yesterday seemed to give particular pleasure to the small children in the Mary Crane Nursery which is housed in one of the Hull House Buildings. The flowers were in splendid condition with much appreciation of your kindly thought of us & the courteous letter, I am sincerely yours.’ The above is a partial copy of letter rec’d by Una [and signed] Jane Addams Aug 12, 1912."
After seeing this routine mentioned numerous times, and after seeing the thank you letter Susie describes, I decided to do a little investigating to find out what the flowers were used for.
I quickly
found some Chicago Tribune articles covering the Hull
House and mentioning flowers for the children. From the Chicago
Tribune on November 1, 1891:
“In the
dining-room is the ‘advanced’ class, absorbed in the mysteries of cutting and
putting together in a logical fashion muslin underclothes. On the sideboard is
a great shining tin dish-pan filled to the brim with marigolds, and geraniums,
and sweet old-fashioned mignonette—an explanation, perhaps, of the presence of
some of these light-hearted, carefree little daughters of Italy, to whom a
whole afternoon of serious application to anything but play must be irksome to
a degree. But all the children love flowers—none more than these.”
The small bouquets in this illustration are similar to the ones Una and Susie Minto had worked so tirelessly to gather and send.
The Tribune article continued:
“And after the sewing is all folded neatly away, the awkward thimble and troublesome needle safely hidden in the depths of the sewing-bag for another seven days; when all the hats and coats have been given to their rightful owners, then that dish-pan is moved out into the hall and every child receives from Miss Addams’ hands a bunch of flowers for her very own. It is worth traveling a long distance just to see this distribution, the joy in it is so evident. With a funny compromise between a bow and a curtsey, a 'thank you, teacher,' and a face wreathed in smiles, each child receives the bit of bloom and fragrance."
After reading Susie Minto’s diary and day after day of chore lists and weather reports, discovering this small glimpse of the larger world as seen through the Minto lens was a beacon of sunlight on an otherwise gray page. It made me start reading closer and looking for even more details connecting these early 20th century rural farmers to larger world events.
Reading old script can be difficult, but by transcribing these diaries the Dunn Museum can make them more accessible to researchers and the general public to enjoy and to make their own discoveries about the past.
~ ~ ~
The Bess Bower Dunn Museum's Minto Family Collection is available online through the host site Illinois Digital Archives.
Monday, June 1, 2020
Sinking into the Grave: the 19th Century's Tuberculosis Epidemic
A French illustration of a young consumptive from Le Journal Illustré, No. 34, October 2-9, 1864. Library of Congress. |
The infectious disease had plagued human kind for thousands of years. In the 1800s, tuberculosis reached epidemic proportions killing "one out of every seven people in the United States and Europe." (Centers for Disease Control)
The disease was thought to be hereditary, unavoidable, and possibly caused by "bad air." The slow process with which people suffered and died was often characterized as "sinking into the grave." Its' true cause, a contagious bacterium—Mycobacterium tuberculosis—was not discovered until 1882. Advancements in treatment followed with diagnostic skin tests, chest radiographs (x-rays), and in 1921, a vaccine for use in humans.
When Elizabeth became ill she returned to Chicago, perhaps to be near family. She took residence at the Sauganash Hotel where the town's finest accommodations were available. It is unknown how long she suffered from consumption, but generally it was a slow death taking many months.
Elizabeth Boyd McKay's death notice published in the Little Fort Porcupine, August 6, 1845. Newspaper Collection, Bess Bower Dunn Museum.
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The U.S. Federal Census of 1850 included a "mortality schedule" with a list of individuals who had died within the previous year. The 1850 mortality schedule for Waukegan included Olive and William H. Gipson (shown here). Ancestry.com
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Without a cure, people tried a variety of remedies including fresh air, vinegar massages, cod liver oil, and inhaling hemlock or turpentine. (Centers for Disease Control). Others found a way to make money off those who suffered by selling tonics that falsely claimed a "cure" for ailments including consumption.
An advertisement for one of the many tonic "cures" for consumption, circa 1890. Advertisement Collection (2013.0.97), Bess Bower Dunn Museum. |
Though Messer did not mention the cause of death, through genealogical research I found that Mary had died of consumption after being ill for three months. She was 18 years old.
1860 mortality schedule listing "Maria E. Abbott" dying of consumption in March 1860 in Waukegan. Ancestry.com
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Messer's letter indicates that he and William Minto (1837-1919) were acquainted with Mary. Since Messer did not live near Minto and Abbott in the Millburn/Loon Lake area, I wondered how the three became acquainted. From correspondence in the museum's Minto Family Collection I knew that Minto and Messer had attended the Waukegan Academy together. I suspected that Mary Abbott might also be connected to them through the Academy.
Waukegan Academy on Genesee Street. Printed in the Waukegan Daily Gazette, March 22, 1915. The Academy operated from 1846 to 1869. |
A review of Academy catalogues confirmed that Mary Abbott attended in 1857 along with Edwin P. Messer and his twin brother Erwin B.
Waukegan Academy Catalogue for 1857, listing students Mary E. Abbott (top right) and Edwin P. Messer (bottom right). School Collection, Bess Bower Dunn Museum. |
Historian Brian Matthew Jordan noted that Union soldiers returned to their homes "prematurely broken down." Their bodies were "atrophied by years spent exposed to the elements and disease in unsanitary army camps." This led to veterans succumbing to consumption, and heart and kidney diseases at much higher rates than the general population.
Union veterans at the dedication of the Civil War monument in Waukegan, August 1899. Civil War Collection (64.39.2), Bess Bower Dunn Museum. |
William was considered "an excellent soldier" and served with the 96th Illinois until the end of the war. The regimental history noted him as being 6 foot 4 inches tall and having "a powerful frame," which made it all the more difficult for his family to accept his death from consumption not long after the Civil War.
By the late 1800s, the best cure for TB was thought to be fresh air and good nutrition. The growing realization that TB was likely an infectious disease led to isolating patients in hospitals and sanitoriums. With improvements in socioeconomic conditions, nutrition and living standards, public health initiatives, and the use of sanitoriums, a path to controlling the disease was on the horizon.
Lake Breeze Sanitorium was established for TB sufferers in 1909 on a 16-acre parcel east of Green Bay Road on Grand Avenue in Waukegan. Tuberculosis Collection 77.20, Bess Bower Dunn Museum. |
Public health initiatives such as this poster educated people on disease prevention. Circa 1925. U.S. National Library of Medicine. |
Nurses's station at TB Sanitorium in Waukegan, circa 1940. Tuberculosis Collection 77.20, Bess Bower Dunn Museum. |
Telling the stories of Lake Countians who died from tuberculosis or worked to treat those with the disease is possible because official records and archival materials have been preserved and made available for research.
Ancestry.com - 1850 and 1860 U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules, Lake County, Illinois.
Bess Bower Dunn Museum of Lake County.
Centers for Disease Control https://www.cdc.gov/tb/ and https://www.cdc.gov/tb/worldtbday/history.htm.
Manoli-Skocay, Constance. "A Gentle Death: Tuberculosis in 19th Century Concord." ConcordLibrary.org. Accessed May 22, 2020.
https://concordlibrary.org/special-collections/essays-on-concord-history/a-gentle-death-tuberculosis-in-19th-century-concord.
"Died." Little Fort Porcupine and Democratic Banner, Little Fort, Lake County, Illinois, August 6, 1845. Newspaper Collection. Bess Bower Dunn Museum of Lake County.
Jordan, Brian Matthew. Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2014.
Partridge, Charles A. History of the Ninety-Sixth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Chicago: Historical Society of the Regiment, 1887.
Murray, John F. "A Century of Tuberculosis." Accessed May 28, 2020. ATSJournals.org.