KEWANEE
Gilbert Street looking north from east Division St.
Picture from Forrest Shade Jr.
This is a letter I recieved from Brian Alm whose wife Diana is a major contributor for my Rock Island site. Thank you so much Brian!!
Diana wanted me to send you something about Kewanee, where I was born and grew up. All I can really tell you is that Kewanee really started in what is now called Wethersfield , i.e., Wethersfield Township , in 1838, but when the railroad went through a mile or so north, in 1854, the center of town shifted there and Wethersfield was reduced to a sort of suburb, but then population filled in the gap over time and it became one city. However, Wethersfield remains fiercely independent, owing primarily to the fact that there are two school systems, two high schools, etc., which preserves the chauvinism of Wethersfield even though the schools do not compete in athletics, since KHS is at least three times the size of WHS and is in a different conference. The city didn't help matters any by renaming the former Grand Avenue " Division Street ," many years ago -- before I was born. My mother always bemoaned that renaming, saying it just reinforced the division between the factions instead of uniting them. As I am sure you know, there is a museum in Kewanee with lots of local history, and there used to be a guy there named Bob Richards, who, if he is still alive, knows plenty. Kewanee Historical Society, I believe. The museum, if it is still there, was in an old hardware store known in my youth as Butterwick's, a Kewanee institution now long gone. Kewanee once had far more than its share of industry for a town so small, and its motto was "Where Farm and Factory Meet." But the unions eventually killed industry, starting with the AFL-CIO and the Walworth valve company in the late 1950s and then the next biggest factory, the boiler company, which eventually failed after a string of ownerships. When I was growing up, the population was 16,800; now it's around 12,000. It wasn't just the union troubles and the management problems. Kewanee used to be the hub of a trade area with a population of 93,000; people came from all around and it was hard to find a parking place on a Saturday. Then the Interstates came through (I80 is 12 miles north) and the Kmarts, WalMarts, McDonald's, Hardees, etc., and all the other chains came along and locally owned businesses were doomed. Same as everywhere else. A combination of things put Kewanee on the has-been list along with all the other small towns. I happen to know about the population of the trade area because I worked for the Kewanee newspaper for four years and we always made a point about the reach of our newspaper. Everything else I know about Kewanee is from personal experience or passed on to me by my parents and relatives, re. the 1930s, 40s and 50s. I left there in 1962 to go to college and, except for summers, never spent any time there after that. I left finally in 1966 after college graduation, although my parents lived there the rest of my dad's life and up until 1988, when my mother moved to Friendship Manor in Rock Island.
Brian Alm
There are more of Brian's memories and more about Kewanne in memories, it's great reading!
Looking west at pavilion at Windmont Park in Kewanee
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Past Merchants Kewanee Library Kewanee Family Pictures
Windmont Park Bridge by Jordan Murray
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Illinois Ancestors