Editor’s note: The Tuxhorn Coal Mine operated under various names from 1903 until about 1924 in the Round Prairie/Rochester area of Sangamon County. A small community, known as Keys or Keys Station…

Willis Spaulding, Springfield utilities commissioner from 1911 to 1943, is rightly considered the father of Lake Springfield. But a less heralded public servant also deserves credit for helping dec…

“Lofty stacks of the mills arose in the distance like armored sentinels over the concourse of men and metal, while clouds of soft coal smoke mingled with that of the vicinity coal mines and settled…

Gov. Henry Horner personally laid the first trowel of mortar for the cornerstone of the Illinois State Armory on Nov. 27, 1936. The 90-year-old Armory, undergoing massive reconstruction following d…

The Women’s Professional Baseball League opens its 2026 season Saturday, Aug. 1, at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield. All 30 regular-season games are scheduled here. In a sense, the league’s lo…

Roselawn Memorial Park, “The Cemetery of Eternal Beauty,” was founded in 1927 by a seemingly mismatched consortium of Springfield entrepreneurs, politicians and religious leaders. The first burial …

Dale Britt of Springfield turned 24 on Oct. 29, 1940. His birthday present? His number (158) was picked first in the national military draft lottery, held the same day. Sangamon County was divided …

Thousands of spectators saw 27-year-old Luther “Pete” Jones die when the hot-air balloon he was riding flew into a tree at Mildred Park on Sunday, June 7, 1908. Jones (1881?-1908), an itinerant dar…

Thousands of people gathered at Ninth Street and Enos Avenue on Dec. 5, 1887, to see Springfield-born daredevil Joe Gomes parachute 3,000 feet from a trapeze attached to a hot-air balloon. Both the…

The Junior Home Economics Building and its counterpart, the Junior Livestock Pavilion, were big improvements for the Illinois State Fairgrounds in 1938, the Illinois State Register reported that Ju…

Entrepreneurial Germans made up the heart of the Bull Club and its offshoot, the Bull Calves – which came into existence because none of the Bulls wanted to let their sons join the older club. “A l…

In 1990 or 1991, three of Springfield’s best-known television and radio personalities discussed local broadcast history with two interviewers from the Springfield chapter of Women in Communications…

On Memorial Day 1986, a small group of camouflage-clad Vietnam veterans walked through Oak Ridge Cemetery, anticipating construction of a memorial for Illinoisans killed or missing in the war. “Peo…

The Illinois Foundry Co., which operated for 50 years on South 11th Street, was part of an industrial complex surrounding Springfield’s massive Allis-Chalmers/FiatAllis manufacturing plant. Mandelb…

Confusion, reluctance and a little apprehension were Springfieldians’ responses to the city’s first parking meters. The Illinois State Journal described their debut in its Oct. 24, 1941, edition. S…

Four Springfield men, including a former mayor, died gruesomely in a train collision outside Chicago in 1873. At least 19* people died in the crash, which occurred when a coal freight ran into – an…

Two massive rainstorms made Springfield a virtual island on Sept. 8, 1926, flooding streets and basements, stranding autos, trains and streetcars, and leading to the electrocution of an Illinois Wa…

A tiny sign above a self-service stamp machine is the only public indication that Springfield’s Cook Street post office is named after a World War II hero. John H. Wilson Jr. (1918-2008) earned a S…

Historic U.S. Route 66, which ran from Chicago to California beginning in the 1920s, went through Sangamon County. Traveling north to south, Route 66 entered the county near Williamsville an…

Some of the best women athletes in Springfield history drew throngs to the Iles Park softball diamond in the 1940s. Madison Furniture Co. sponsored men’s teams in multiple sports, but its women’s s…

R.F. Herndon & Co. sold dry goods, women’s clothing and hats for more than 130 years in Springfield. Herndon’s operated the first horseless delivery vehicle in Springfield, and its third locati…

Sundown Corner near Divernon was a landmark in the early days of Route 66. The “corner”, at the intersection of Divernon Road and U.S. 66, got its name because the bar/restaurant/service station wa…

This entry was updated in 2026 with information about one of the fire victims, Brunette Warfield Leland. SangamonLink is indebted to Duane D. Perry of Indianapolis, a relative of Leland, for giving…

Update: Bishop Thomas John Paprocki announced in March 2026 that St. Patrick School would close permanently. The closure was blamed partly on the expiration in 2023 of a state government tax credit…

In January 1931, Grace Dye of Williamsville became the first woman eligible for jury duty in Sangamon County. But it would take eight years for most other women to enjoy the same right. The hiatus …

The Curve Inn once sat on an actual curve. The nightspot, housed in a 94-year-old building at 3219 S. Sixth Street Road, was badly damaged by fire in February 2026. The inn originally was near a lo…

Wilford Kramer, chief editorial writer for the Illinois State Journal, saw problems with the post-World War II widening of Route 66 from two lanes to four. This is a reprint of “Upon Reflection,” K…

This is WSSR, Springfield, Illinois, with our inaugural broadcast. WSSR is operated by Sangamon State University and licensed to the Board of Regents of the state of Illinois. WSSR is heard at 91.9…

Editor’s note: This bulk of this entry comes from a talk, titled “The Spirit of Springfield’s Early African-Americans,” delivered by local historian Richard E. Hart on May 20, 2002, to the Sangamon…

The forerunner of today’s Lincoln Library, Springfield’s municipal library, was the Springfield Library Association, a private library supported by membership dues and donation. (Lincoln Libr…

Springfield city government entered the automobile age on July 30, 1913, when the police department’s first gasoline-powered vehicle went into service. The wagon collected its first prisoner and it…

When John Carroll Power was collecting material for his 1876 history of Sangamon County’s early settlers, he was frequently asked, “Has any person told you about the sudden change?” Sev…

The double-decker bandstand on the Auburn square evokes the early 1900s, when growing pains preoccupied Auburn residents. Today’s bandstand is a 21st-century replica of Auburn’s original two-story …

The Tuxhorn Coal Mine, which opened in 1903 in the Round Prairie/Rochester area, produced more than 3 million tons of coal before it closed two decades later. As many as 250 miners worked at the mi…

NOTE: This entry has been edited. See below. The Lake Club, 2840 Fox Road, brought top national performers – Mickey Rooney, the Mills Brothers, Guy Lombardo, Pearl Bailey, Lawrence Welk and many mo…

James L. Wickersham spent only six years, from about 1877 to 1883, in Sangamon County. He came to Springfield as assistant, office boy and general dogsbody to former Gov. John M. Palmer. He left th…

Unlikely though it seems, Rochester, Illinois, elevation 570 feet, has a legitimate claim to a mountain in Alaska. But you have to drive 3,800 miles to see it. Mount Deborah, 12,339 feet above sea …

Santa Claus, of all people, should have felt right at home when a four-inch snowfall greeted Springfield’s 1950 Christmas parade. But Santa couldn’t overcome a barrage of snowballs. The parade, whi…

Cream of oyster soup and Lobster Newburg joined Vermont turkey on the Oriental Café’s holiday menu for Thanksgiving Day 1925. The price? $1.25. The Lum family served Chinese and American dishes at …

Glenwood Park was a small resort that operated along the South Fork of the Sangamon River from the mid-1890s until the early 1900s. Facilities included a small dam, docks and rowboats, an excursion…

The “lady managers” of the 1911 Illinois State Fair’s domestic science school were appalled when they learned one of their instructors was giving young women advice on cosmetics well as hygiene. Th…

Beer was the lifeblood of Krous Park, which operated west of Amos Avenue in Springfield from about 1878 until the early 1910s. John G. Krous (1847-94), who owned a saloon on the northwest corner of…

The Donner Party left Springfield to emigrate to California in mid-April 1846 but became stranded in deep snow near present-day Truckee, Calif. The group’s experience is remembered primarily becaus…

The Springfield Survey of 1914 was a massive study of local schools, prisons, and other institutions, and it’s still well-known in the fields of sociology and social work. But, partly because it wa…

“The city yesterday (wore) a camp like appearance,” the Illinois State Journal reported April 18, 1861, three days after President Lincoln called for volunteers to defend the Union from southern re…

For several years in the middle of the 20th century, Sangamon County was a leader among Illinois counties in the production of bituminous coal. Coal was discovered in Illinois as early as 1673, whe…

Chief Gray Eagle, a Native American born in Oregon, sold what the label claimed was a miracle-working ointment for two decades in Springfield. According to the label on each 2-ounce, $1.25 jar, Gra…

On Aug. 31, 1876, William Herndon (1818-91), Abraham Lincoln’s last law partner and biographer, spoke to the ninth annual meeting of the Old Settlers of Sangamon County. Here is part of his speech,…