A Small record of Richmond, Illinois

Richmond, Illinois, is a pretty small and quaint town on the border of Illinois and Wisconsin. Its populace is now about 1,500 but new housing developments will quadrouple the variety of houses within the subsequent 10 yrs. It is named “The Village of Yesteryear” since it features several Victorian design houses and an attention-grabbing array of antique outlets.

William A. McConnell is credited with the founding of the village of Richmond.

Also acknowledged as “The Squire,” McConnell was a 27 year aged carpenter and farmer who lived in Pennsylvania. He dreamed of independence and trekked to the Richmond space on horseback in 1837. In his biography, McConnell mentioned that there were but two neighbors in the location. He staked out a claim for 480 acres of land and purchased it when it arrived to market in 1840 below the Blackhawk Treaty. Family members lore states that McConnell spent his 1st evening under an oak sapling across the avenue from what is now Richmond Grade University. That pretty experienced tree nonetheless stands. Bo McConnell, a fantastic grandson, phone calls it “the very little oak.” At that time the Richmond place was mostly prairie with patches of oak trees and nonetheless section of Lake County, Illinois.

In 1838 McConnell and his new wife, Elizabeth, crafted a 16′ x 18′ log cabin in which his family members lived for 15 yrs. It was positioned just west of what is now Grace Lutheran Church and it was the to start with residence crafted in Richmond Township.
A mill was developed on the Nippersink circa 1840 and that place is now occupied by Doyle’s restaurant.

In 1852 McConnell developed a property in the Greek Revival design and style across the street from the log cabin. He and his relatives lived in this property for 20 years boosting 3 sons. In 1872 he deeded the home to his son, John.

Around time, McConnell ordered around 1,400 acres from the federal government. The town boundaries ended up laid out in 1844 and Richmond was provided its identify in a contest to the person who climbed the highest when the new mill was elevated. That person was Isaac Reed who selected the title from a village he remembered from his childhood in Vermont.

McConnell experienced his hands in several neighborhood routines. He was on the railroad commission, a legislator in Springfield, elected a commissioner of McHenry County, Richmond’s 1st Justice of the Peace, its to start with Postmaster and an Affiliate Judge for 16 several years. He belonged to the initially temperance team in McHenry County.
McConnell opened the initially cheese manufacturing unit about one particular-50 % mile west of the town. The Previous Lender constructing on Broadway was owned by McConnell’s son, George. “Which is Uncle George’s bank. That’s what we would contact it,” remembered Bo McConnell, a great-fantastic-grandson of William A. McConnell.

How Richmond was named

Theodore Purdy ordered the log property of Charles A. Noyes in 1937. Purdy platted the village in 1844 with Charles Cotting who settled in Richmond in 1844. Collectively they built a grist mill at Principal & Mill Streets.

A contest was arranged that the man or woman who climbed the greatest on the new mill could title the village. Isaac Reed gained the contest and named the village soon after Richmond, Vermont, the place he lived as a boy or girl.

Richmond grows up

By the middle 1840’s Richmond resembled a little town with a lodge, a sawmill, a wagon maker, a medical professional and a lawyer. McConnell created a cheese manufacturing unit (potentially the initially in McHenry County) west of the city.
Formally included on September 2, 1872, Dr. Fillmore Bennett was elected the first president of the village. The initially principal of the grad university, Fillmore wrote poems and religious hymns. “In the Sweet Bye and Bye” was the most popular.
Railroads built their visual appearance in the 1850’s. McConnell was a a person of the railroad directors. The to start with train crossed the Nippersink in 1855.
Memorial Hall

Charles DeWitt McConnell donated $10,000 to the village “to be utilized for the objective of erecting a village or metropolis corridor, the identical to be referred to as Memorial Corridor, to be made use of when expected by church societies and school functions totally free of demand, and not to be used for immoral exhibitions or immoral shows…” Village President, E.C. Covell, acquired the land wherever Memorial Corridor now stands from Charles Kruse who owned the hardware retail store on the corner in the center of city at Broadway and Rt. 12. The hardware tale afterwards turned the Emporium antique retail outlet and the “Kruse” identify can be found etched at the best of the front wall right now.

Memorial Corridor was built in the early 1900’s. It contained an auditorium with a balcony and a phase wherever the J.B. Rotnour Gamers performed for numerous decades.

The Richmond Police Office occupied part of the basement alongside with two jail cells.

Village board conferences have been held in Memorial Hall right until the new village hall was built in 1993. This building is now shared with the law enforcement office. This still left the corridor vacant till Chris Gallagher secured a grant from the Illinois Arts Councle in 1992 to produce the Nippersink Innovative Arts Centre. Founding member contain Christina Gallagher, Yvonne Cryns, Carolyn Janus, Donna Karolus and Nancy Richardson. Numerous nearby groups donated dollars to the group. The Resourceful Arts Heart pushed to make Memorial Hall the historical landmarked building it is now.

The general public library used the hall starting up in the 1930’s. In the 1940’s the library moved to a portion of the drug shop making on Broadway and Principal. But on July 7, 1972 the library moved back into Memorial Corridor prior to transferring to its own constructing in 1990.
In addition to village govt do the job, the Memorial Hall hosted school performs and graduations. Basketball game titles were played there commencing in 1908.

Other basement things to do involved conferences held by Boy and Female Scouts, American Legion, and a senior citizen team known as the Pioneers. This is the place the local polling put resided.

Richmond Fire Section

Launched in 1926, the Richmond Volunteer Fire Department’s very first assembly was held at Memorial Corridor and it was headed by Mayor J.G. “Curly” Stevens.

Richmond Post Office environment

The post place of work has been in company for around 150 several years. Appointed in 1940, William A. McConnell served as the first postmaster for 6 many years. In the early years, settlers in the spot identified good ease and comfort from the publish business which introduced news of activities from their unique home cities. As late as the 1960’s the Chicago Tribune was sent by the submit place of work. Farmers desired honey bees which had been also delivered by the write-up office environment and they mailed out eggs to the large city.

Until finally 1946 trains brought mail to Richmond. Because 1946 mail is delivered by trucks. The current postmaster is William L. Schaeppi considering the fact that 1988.

The new mayor of Richmond, Illinois, is Laurie Olson. Olson’s loved ones has a prolonged record in Richmond. Olson was a homemaker and volunteer member of the fireplace division in advance of she was elected mayor in 2004.