More on the Mormon Story

Local history books from DuPage and Will Counties and even Chicago are great resources to learn more about Pierce and Aaron Hawley, but much of Pierce Hawley's story is also recounted in the book Polygamy on the Pedernales; Lyman Wight's Mormon Villages in Antebellum Texas, 1845 to 1858 by Melvin C. Johnson.

Written around the time that the YFZ (Yearning for Zion) Ranch was in the news, the parallels are obvious. Lyman Wight was a charismatic yet not-mainstream-Mormon leader, much like Warren Jeffs. Wight's religious compound was in Texas, just like Jeffs'. Both men also advocated plural wives and marrying very young girls.

Wight's group collapsed from within due to unrest and disillusionment. About two thirds of Jeffs' group have returned to their Texas compound, although Jeffs himself is serving time in a Utah prison for arranging the marriage of a fourteen-year-old girl. He still faces trial in Texas and the announcement that the Utah Supreme Court will not block extradition hit the newspapers, strangely enough, last week on November 26, which is where this research started!

Where History Is Happening

Christmas at Klein Creek Farm
Saturday, December 4 1:30 pm
Sunday, December 5 3:30 pm
Join "Christmas on the Farm" for an old-fashioned celebration. Visit with Santa and climb into a sleigh to take a picture. Learn the origins of several holiday traditions, and experience Victorian Christmas activities. Stop by a warming fire for caroling and spice cookies. And explore the visitor center to see a re-creation of the farmstead in gingerbread and candy.
Activities are ongoing throughout the event, and registration is not required.

Victorian Valentine's Dinner Party
Sunday, February 13
Looking for something really special to give this holiday? How about tickets to a culinary fantasy, a Victorian Valentine's Dinner Party in an 1880s building in historic Aurora? Join the Aurora Historical Society and Chef Amaury Rosado for a 5-course feast with wine flights in the grand Victorian style, with music and florals of the period, at Chef Amaury's restaurant.

Tickets are $150 per person and include food, wine, tax and gratuity. $50 of each ticket is tax deductible as a gift to the Aurora Historical Society (which thanks you very much!).

Julmarknad Christmas Market at Bishop Hill
Saturday, December 4
Sunday, December 5
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
The holiday season will be opened the traditional
Swedish way during Julmarknad, or Christmas Market in Bishop Hill.
The free events' attractions include Swedish folk characters,
traditional Swedish holiday decorations and quality gifts for the
holidays to be purchased. A special holiday exhibit called "Going to Grandmas" will be on display in the Steeple Building including a holiday Lionel Train display on the first floor. Trains will be running Saturday 10 am to 3 pm and
Sunday; Noon to 3 pm.

October Lighthouse Collapse Lends New Meaning to “Fall”

In 1831, Chicago was still known as Fort Dearborn. Only three ships arrived that year – one of which was the Telegraph, bringing Joseph Naper and company – but the swampy little settlement was poised to be a boomtown.

Innkeeper Mark Beaubien built the first frame house that summer, an elegant improvement over the log cabins and wigwams that were its neighbors, but that was only the beginning. $5000 had been appropriated after a party of United States engineers recommended a lighthouse plan and building commenced in March of the same year.

The contractor for the project was Samuel Jackson or Johnson, depending on who’s memoirs you read. One of the stonemasons working on the construction was Stephen Downer, who was joined the following summer by his dad, Pierce. Pierce Downer later moved out to DuPage County and founded a little settlement that still bears his name – Downers Grove.

The walls of the lighthouse were three feet thick and by autumn the tower reached fifty feet high. Some of the citizens were concerned that the edifice seemed to lean a bit, but on October 30, Jackson took his detractors for a tour to the very top, a group that included “some ladies,” to show off how well-built the tower was.

But just a few hours later, Isaac Harmon wrote his brother, “about nine o`clock in the evening, down tumbled the whole work with a terrible crash and a noise like the rattling of fifty claps of thunder.” Mr. Jackson or Johnson said there must have been quicksand under the foundation, but Isaac and his neighbors were more inclined to believe “that it was all owing to the wretched manner in which it was built.”

Jackson started building again and the lighthouse was completed in 1832. It had a fourteen inch reflector that could be seen for up to seven miles away and had a bell as a fog warning signal. The illustration above shows this second lighthouse as it looked in 1857.

One of the light-house keepers, and in fact, the last keeper, was Mark Beaubien, who tried out many careers in young Chicago. He was in charge of the lighthouse in 1843 and again from 1855 until 1859. During some of those same years, he bought a house in DuPage County and operated a toll house along the Plank Road on the Naperville/Lisle Border, although his son seems to have been the actual toll collector.

Isaac Harmon lamented to his brother “we have had a flattener pass over the face of our prospects in Chicago. The light-house, that the day before yesterday stood in all its glory, the pride of this wondrous village, is now "doused." But Harmon needn’t have worried. This was only a minor setback in a town that has seen its share of rebuilding.

Chicago's Three Ships of 1831

When the Christmas carol "saw three ships come sailing in" they could have been singing about Chicago in 1831. While shipping was about to explode on the Great Lakes, in 1831 ships were still a rarity.

Chicago wasn't actually a city yet but a small village of log houses and wigwams squatting around Fort Dearborn. The fort, built originally in 1808, was burned to the ground during the War of 1812 by the native people in an attack known as the Fort Dearborn Massacre.

The fort was rebuilt in 1816 and used again by the military, but in the spring of 1831, the Napoleon arrived to remove the last of the troops. That was the first ship. In July, Joseph and John Naper's Telegraph brought settlers and supplies to the Chicago community. In November, Captain Stuart anchored the Marengo off shore in Lake Michigan for the last contact until winter was over.

The sailing season was ruled by ice on the Great Lakes, sometimes not breaking up until May. Captain Stuart was probably racing to get back to Detroit before the lakes froze. Meanwhile, Chicago started building their lighthouse again to be ready for spring's first schooner.

Where History Is Happening

Holiday Mansion Tours at Naper Settlement
December 4-5, 11-12 and 18-19
11:00 am - 3:00 pm

It's time to spice up the holidays with a tour of the splendidly decorated Victorian-era Martin Mitchell Mansion. Come learn about unique 19th century customs on three weekends in December. Tours include an informative walkthrough tour of the two-story 1893 Mansion and its Carriage House. Please come directly to the Mansion to purchase your tickets. Walk-ins are welcome for this holiday-focused tour with historic ambiance.
$8/person includes $2 off discount coupon for the Museum Store; no advance registration required.

Candlelight Tour and Homespun Holiday Market at Garfield Farm
Saturday
December 4 -5
3:00 - 7 pm
Take time away from that chaotic rush of the holiday season and join us at Garfield Farm Museum for our annual Candlelight Reception. Interpreters wearing period clothing will share with guests what life was like for people during the height of the horse and wagon era. There is no charge for the Candlelight event, but donations will be accepted.

Once Upon a Christmas at Lisle Station Park
Saturday, December 4
3:00 - 8:00 pm
Sunday, December 5
11:00 am - 4:00 pm
Join us at the Museums at Lisle Station Park for old fashioned holiday fun! Enjoy crafts and hayrides, Christmas trees decorated by the Heritage Society, Santa, brick oven baking and more! Don't forget to peruse some antique gift items in the Lisle Heritage Society gift shop.

Holiday House Tour with Norwood Historical Society
Saturday, December 4
3:00 - 8:00 pm
Visitors may check in and begin the tour at the Norwood Park Senior Center and obtain descriptive tour booklets, entrance passes, and route maps, as well as listen to a presentation about community architecture and history and a live musical ensemble. Tour includes five neighborhood homes decorated for the holidays, plus one local place of worship. Includes free admission to Chicago's oldest house, the 1833 Noble-Seymour-Crippen House.
Admission is $20 in advance and $25 at the door, with discounts for groups of 10.