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Early Settlers

A Community in Conflict

1 item

1822
The area’s earliest settlers found themselves geographically marginalized, which made it difficult to vote.

Digital Exhibit

Articles

7 items

Before railroads, stage lines crisscrossed the prairies
One of the more striking modern day conveniences we take for granted is the ease of long distan...

Article

portrait of a white man in a three piece suit with very messy dark hair and massive sideburns

Fearsome ‘Sudden Change’ threatened pioneer life and limb
A cataclysmic meteorological event swept across much of Central Illinois the afternoon of Dec. ...

Article

a dirt trail meets water, surrounded by trees and bushes

For pioneers, river crossings sometimes matter of life and death
Of all the hardships faced by pioneers, the danger of crossing swollen rivers and creeks is one...

Article

lithograph of bee hive

Honeybees sweetened 19th century life in Central Illinois
In November 1887, a poor local honey harvest led The Pantagraph to predict scarce inventories a...

Article

Oxen the original ‘work horses’ of the prairie
Before the introduction of draft horses and then steam and gasoline-powered tractors, oxen prov...

Article

Picture postcard speaks to power of donations
As a not-for-profit institution, the McLean County Museum of History relies to a considerable e...

Article

Pawnee Bill Lillie and his wife Mary Emma celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on August 31, 1936 in Taos, NM. The celebration included the governors of Oklahoma and New Mexico, and Pueblo, Navajo and Sioux, as well as the requisite contingent of Pawnee. Two weeks later the Lillies suffered a wreck in their gold-colored anniversary automobile. Mary died on September 27 as a result of her injuries.

Wild West legend ‘Pawnee Bill’ got start in Bloomington
The life and times of Bloomington-born Gordon William “Pawnee Bill” Lillie show us that when it...

Article

Blog

1 item

McHistory: Early Settlers Battled Prairie Fire to Tame the Land
Listen to the audio on WGLT's website hereMcHistory goes back in time to explore big momen...

Blog Post

Farming in the Great Corn Belt

6 items

1822 to 1852
Frontier farmers were faced with the challenge of producing enough livestock and crops to suppo...

Digital Exhibit

A Scientific Revolution: Eugene Funk and Hybrid Corn
In 1883 McLean County farmer and entrepreneur Eugene D. Funk began to develop a modern system o...

Digital Exhibit

Draining the Prairie
With most savannah land claimed by 1836, some farmers chose to take a chance by trying to produ...

Digital Exhibit

Farm Improvements
Farm improvements, such as fences, barns, sheds, and grain storage were expensive additions. Bu...

Digital Exhibit

Frontier Resources
The rich prairie soil was not the frontier farmer's first choice — the dense root systems ...

Digital Exhibit

Marketing Crops and Livestock
The methods used to transport McLean County farmers’ crops and livestock, as well as the distan...

Digital Exhibit

Finding Aids

7 items

Funk Family
Brothers Isaac and Absalom Funk came to Illinois via Ohio in 1824. Working together the brother...

Finding Aid

Funk, George Washington
George W. Funk was the firstborn son of the Hon. Isaac Funk, Sr. and Cassandra Sharp, founders ...

Finding Aid

Orendorff
The collection focuses upon William Orendorff (March 26, 1792 – May 12, 1869), one of the first...

Finding Aid

Orendorff, Ella
The Ella Orendorff Collection consists primarily of newspaper clippings about the Orendorff fam...

Finding Aid

Sebastian-Bishop
The starting point for this collection is Donna Sebastian, who donated the materials and who co...

Finding Aid

Stubblefield – Funk Reunion Minutes
Robert Stubblefield and Isaac Funk were very early settlers of McLean County in what is today F...

Finding Aid

Trimmer Family
John David Trimmer (1781-1826) and Elizabeth Lanterman Trimmer (1779-1847) and their children m...

Finding Aid

Speakers Bureau

4 items

Buckle of the Corn Belt: An Illustrated Tour of McLean County and Everyone’s Favorite Grain

Speakers Bureau

Pioneer Cattle and Hog Droving

Speakers Bureau

The Night the Stars Fell

Speakers Bureau

The Unconquerable: Kickapoo of Central Illinois

Speakers Bureau