Let's go to the Market!

As we all eagerly anticipate the opening of farmers market season with tomorrow's Market at the Square here in Urbana, I thought I'd share this promotional map of downtown Urbana featuring the market from 1997. Note the changes in just 15 years!

The back features a nice history of the market and a list of the vendors. Recognize any names?

See you tomorrow at the market!

In Lincoln's Shadow: A Walking Tour of Historic Urbana

Abraham Lincoln spent nearly twenty years of his life practicing law here, making friends and gaining political allies. This is not a tour of sites that he visited, but rather a look at the connections between the Urbana of Lincoln’s era and the historic buildings of today’s downtown.

• Visit the exhibit at the Champaign County Courthouse and learn about Lincoln’s legal career in Urbana.
• Find out about the connection between Lincoln and the University of Illinois at the Griggs House.
• Compare the accommodations of the 1850s with the Tudor-style hotel named after the 16th president, built in 1924.

The Pastcast Tour

Pastcasting brings story and place together, using new technology to offer on-demand, self-guided video walking tours to visitors at historic sites. Now you can see images and hear sounds from the past on the actual spot where history was made. The pastcasts are available to download as audio or video to your personal device. MP3 video players are also available for loan. The walking tour map is available in hard copy at various sites in Urbana, including the Champaign County Historical Archives, The Urbana Free Library.

An odd way to celebrate a wedding...

From Early History and Pioneers of Champaign County, p. 26:

"When he came here, Charles Tiernan, father of Frank Tiernan, had the only store here.  He relates an incident of attending the wedding of David Cantner at the residence of  T. R. Webber.  He and others, during the night, tied a coon to a long pole and planted it in front of the house by way of celebrating the happy event, and T. R. Webber climbed the pole in the morning and cut it down." 

Michael Stern Hart, 1947-2011

We mourn the loss of visionary and long-time Urbana resident Michael Stern Hart, who died September 6. A self-described "cyber-hippie," his vision of the use of technology to create a literate society led him to establish the first eBook library, Project Gutenberg.

From its humble beginnings on July 4, 1971, when Mr. Hart keyed in a copy of the Declaration of Independence and distributed it across a small network, the Project Gutenberg site now hosts over 36000 eBooks in 60 different languages. As all of the texts are public domain, they are free to all users, furthering his goal of an "efficient and effective way of unlimited free distribution of literature."

Dr. Gregory S. Newby, Chief Executive of Project Gutenberg, quoted Mr. Hart summarizing his legacy thusly: "One thing about eBooks that most people haven't thought much is that eBooks are the very first thing that we're all able to have as much as we want other than air. Think about that for a moment and you realize we are in the right job."

A memorial service will be held on Monday, September 12 at 1:00 PM at Renner-Wikoff Chapel in Urbana.

See a complete obituary here.

The Project Gutenberg website and eBook collection is located here.

Stay Cool!

Crystal Lake Park Pool, Summer 1927...

Louie the Alligator

Many Urbana residents know that the unofficial mascot of the town is Louie the Alligator. What they might not know how our reptilian representative came into being.

For the answer to this, we must revisit the summer of 1898. Louis A. Wahl, an Urbana tavern owner, lived comfortably in his newly built (1890) home at 510 West Main Street. Apparently, he also had a penchant for keeping exotic pets.

And so, let us turn to the "Urbana Matters" column of the June 10, 1898 edition of the Champaign Daily Gazette:



As we read down the column, we find this entry:



After certainly grabbing the attention of the local populace, five days latter we find a happy resolution to the crisis:



A legend was born.

Urbana's Own Money?

As the Great Depression continued to spiral out of control in 1933, it's effects pressed harder and harder on Urbana. Already in January, 1932, all of the banks in town closed on a "bank holiday" and only reopened when the majority of depositors agreed to keep their money in the them. Only a year later, the banks were again under intense pressure, and after several banks in Chicago closed their doors, another run on the banks loomed.

Both the Federal and State governments ordered the banks to close during the first week of March. Businesses and private persons alike feared that Urbana banks were next, and city officials realized a run on the banks in Urbana was in the offing. Additionally, the various crises drastically reduced the amount of currency available locally, and businesses were unwilling or unable to extend credit to buyers, even for necessities like food.

And so, to keep the local economy going during the bank holiday, community leaders held an all-day meeting and decided on a novel approach: they would make their own money. Specifically, businesses and Urbana citizens would trade in their U.S. currency for Urbana certificates, which could then be used to make transactions.

The city appointed a Board of Trustees to oversee the money, and $10,000 of the Urbana currency was printed. This insured there was a sorely needed local reserve of Federal money, and allowed local economic transactions to keep moving while the banks were closed. Once the crisis passed and the banks reopened, certificate holders were able to redeem the Urbana funds for U.S. dollars.

So, yes: for about three weeks in March, 1933, Urbana printed its own money.

A Name Lost to History: John C. Moses

The plaque you see above was donated to the Champaign County Historical Archives a number of years ago. It was commissioned by Judge Joseph Cunningham, and displayed prominently in the courthouse until it came here.

David Davis, Supreme Court justice and associate of Abraham Lincoln, once stated, "Captain Moses ought to be mentioned in any history of Champaign County." So ... who was Captain Moses?

John C. Moses, born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1825, migrated to Brown County, Illinois, with his parents in his youth. He joined the volunteer infantry during the Mexican War in 1847 and rose to the rank of Captain (hence his honorary title).

Mustering out of the service at the end of the war, he returned to Brown County and studied law. He served as a state legislator and Brown County sheriff before removing to east central Illinois to practice law, first in Danville (1856), and then to Urbana (1858).

In Urbana, he associated himself with an up and coming group of talented lawyers, including prominent names such as Abraham Lincoln, David Davis, William Somers, and Thomson Webber.

Stricken with consumption, he died at home on May 16, 1860. Only 35 years old, he left behind his wife Eliza and two small children, John and Abby.

If not for his untimely death, his name may have become as familiar as Busey, Carle, and Cunningham. But, as such, it has faded into history.

Click here for the related index entries for Captain Moses from our own Local History Online.