The One That Got Away

I've spent a lot of time this week cleaning the Devil Queen. Since we had to move the full contents of our rented storage room into the Devil Queen, it's been hard finding the house. It's hard to refinish a floor when you can't see it. As part of the on going effort to find those old pine floors, I've been desperately trying to get all of our books out of our 1001 boxes and onto the shelves. While doing so, I came across a box of photo albums. I'm a sucker for easy distractions, so I just had to look through them. That is where I found the picture above.

This is my paternal grandmother's family home in Kewanee, Illinois. My grandmother gave me this picture when I was 8 or 9. It is either on Tremont or Chestnut Street, but I can't remember which; they run parallel to one another one block apart so I'm not too far off in either case. I'm not sure who is standing in front of the house. It is probably my great-great grandmother. My Dad, the keeper of our family lore, is on vacation so I'll have to wait to ask him.

I'm probably getting it all wrong, but something like five generations of my family lived in this house. As a child, my grandmother spent several years living here with her extended family. She was married here in 1941. My dad remembers visiting the house. It was probably in the late 1940's or very early 1950's, but he remembers the milk being delivered door-to-door by a man in a horse pulled wagon.

I was looking for some town history online (click here for a history of Kewanee) when I found this excerpt from "Portrait and Biographical Album of Henry County Illinois," written in 1885 and published by The Biographical Publishing Company of Chicago:

"The Kewanee Wagon Company is another of the valuable and thriving institutions of the town. It manufactures all sorts of road wagons, carriages, buggies, etc., and is a successor to the O'Brien Manufacturing Company, which was organized in January, 1882, with a capital stock of $10,000. The incorporators, John Chisnall, Thomas F. Chisnall, Willaim Howland, C.G. Taylor and August Grief, were all the old employees of the O'Brien Manufacturing Company, and each one of them fills his place under the new organization, not only as stockholder and officer, but as a mechanic, and in charge of some particular department of the works.
John Chisnall, the President of the company, is business manager, book-keeper and head of the wood-working department; William Howland, Vice-President, conducts the iron work; C. G. Taylor, Secretary, wood-worker and in charge of the fine buggy and carriage department, while Thomas F. Chisnall, Treasurer, is superintendent of machinery. Each man has his wages paid him weekly, and the residue or net earning goes to the credit of the company. New machinery is being added from time to time, the capacity of the concern is being increased and the undertaking as a whole is an assured success. (See biographical sketches of John Chisnall, William Howland and C. G. Taylor, this volume.) "

Again, if I have my family history right, Thomas Chisnall is my great-great-great grandfather and John Chisnall is his father by adoption. John Chisnall is the one who bought or built the house pictured.

Here is John Chisnall's biography from the same book:

"JOHN CHISNALL
Since November, 1867, this gentleman has been an honored resident of Kewanee, and is to-day serving as special tax collector for the city. He was born in Lancastershire, England, January 27, 1833, and is a son of William and Alice Chisnall, who were lifelong residents of that country. The father died when a young man, but the mother long survived him, passing away in 1876, at the age of sixty-four years.
John Chisnall, the only child of this worthy couple, was educated in the common schools of England, and when a lad of eleven years was apprenticed to the wheelright's trade, which he learned thoroughly. He came to this country as a Mormon emigrant in 1831, prior to the insurrection of Brigham Young against the government and first located in Utah, where he remained until 1858, during the uprising. The following two years were spent in Omaha, Nebraska, which city at that time had no telegraph or railroad lines and gave little promise of its present thriving condition. During all this time Mr. Chisnall worked at his trade. In I860 he went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he made his home until coming to Kewanee in I867. During the winter of 1866-67 he spent four months in visiting his native land. Upon his return he located in Kewanee, where he worked at wagonmaking principally until I888. Being economical and industrious he managed to save something from his wages, and this capital he invested in a lot in the heart of the city, upon which he erected a pressed brick double store building, which on account of its location is very valuable property. This he now rents to a good advantage.
In I857 Mr. Chisnall was united in marriage with Miss Ellen Sandiford, who was also a native of Lancastershire, England, and came to the United States on the same vessel with our subject in June. I831. Both are active members of the Latter Day Saints' Church, and during his residence in Kewanee Mr. Chisnall has served as pastor of the church of that denomination at this place. The congregation now numbers about one hundred families, and they have erected a good modern church edifice. Fraternally Mr. Chisnall is a member of the Knights of Honor, No. 1173, of Kewanee, and the blue lodge of the Masonic order at this place and the chapter and commandery at Princeton. He affiliates with the Republican party but has never taken an active part in politics. From 1892 with 1898 he was with the Kewanee Coal Company, and the following year was appointed by the mayor as collector of special taxes, water rents, etc., which position he is now most creditably filling. He has also served as health officer and justice of the peace since I893. He has led an upright, honorable and useful life, and is highly respected and esteemed by all who know him. "

SOURCE: THE Biographical Record of Henry Co, Illinois. p 30

John and Thomas did pretty well for themselves. According to my grandmother, her mom was born "with a silver spoon in her mouth," and the family did not have to work for a living. The commercial building mentioned in John's bio was still in the family during my grandmother's early life. I'm not sure if this was the only property the family owned in the "heart of the city." Either he acquire more property or this was a very large commercial building because my grandmother said that her family owned a whole city block in downtown Kewanee.

And, of course, we lost it all. On the night of my grandma's wedding, just after she left with my grandfather on their honeymoon, downtown Kewanee burned to the ground. The property was all owned by my great-great grandmother at that time. According to my grandmother, my great-great grandmother's attorney had failed to renew the insurance on the family's property in town and it was a total loss. I think my great-great grandmother sold the remaining vacant lots. I've always thought that there was more of a story to this episode in my family's history, but I've never heard what it might be. Conspiracy? Incompetence? I don't know. In any case, all that we had left was the house.

My great-grandmother inherited the house upon her mother's death. When her husband, my great-grandfather died, she couldn't afford to keep it. I don't know when, but at some point in the late 1950's (?) she sold the house and moved in with my grandparent's in Chicago.

My grandmother took my sister and I by the house in 1985. It didn't seem to be in too bad of shape at the time. There were two big changes however. First, the carriage house is gone. Second, the entire front porch is gone. Some fugly stoop (concrete steps?) had replaced it. I haven't seen the house since, but I hope the last 22 years haven't been too unkind to it.

My great-uncle Chuck (my grandmother's brother) drew me the house's floor plan. So, if anyone out there buys the house and wants to restore it, I can tell you were everything was circa 1950. And, I don't think my family did too much to the house in their time there so it should be accurate back to a much earlier date.

I can't say that I've ever had any urge to move to Kewanee, Illinois. No disrespect to the home of my ancestors, but there was probably a reason why my grandmother and all of her siblings left and never moved back. Besides, after 20-some-odd years of living in the rolling hills of Arkansas, places this flat creep me out. However, I sometimes daydream of buying the house and restoring it just out of principle. You know, make a family museum at the very least or something like that. Utterly impractical, I know. And, I frankly don't have the fire in me or means to do it. Still, a nice thought I guess. Maybe after I get that whole book and movie deal worked out, I'll hire someone to do it for me.

In anycase, if there are any aspiring housebloggers out there that happened to have bought the ol' family homestead, let me know. My dad and I are probably the only ones left who know anything about the house's history. We'd be willing to share.