The Charles Wayne Home in Elgin, Illinois-- Part 3

Charles and Mary Wayne continued to live at  433 Division Street in Elgin after his mother, Ellen, died in 1900.  Charles unexpectedly passed away in 1909 after slipping on the ice during a business trip to Chicago in 1909.  Mary continued to live in the home until her death in 1940.

Prior to Charles' death, Charles and Mary invited his cousin,  Esther Bishop, to live with them.  Esther became a nurse and married  Claude Britton.  They moved to Freeport, Illinois, shortly after their marriage.  

Esther eventually came back to Elgin and took care of Mary until her death in 1940.  Esther became executor of Mary's and inherited the house.  She and her husband Claude converted the house into a two flat and later shared the house with their daughter Mary and two grandchildren, while their daughter's husband, Mike Ferroh, fought in the war (WW II).

Eventually Marty and Mike Ferroh built their own house in Elgin. Esther died in 1949 and Claude continued to live in the house until his death in 1967.  At that time, the house was sold.  

This is how come Claude Britton had all of the Harley Wayne items.

--Old Secesh

The Charles Wayne House in Elgin, Illinois-- Part 2

Continued from October 3, 2021.

Charles Wayne was the son of Harley Wayne of Union, Illinois, who was a captain and killed at the Battle of Shiloh.  I have written a lot about Harley and Charles earlier this year.

After Charles and his mother Ellen moved to Elgin, he  entered into a partnership with Attorney  John A. Russell.  Later, that partnership was dissolved and Mr. Wayne entered a partnership with Botsford, Wayne and Botsford..  According to newspaper articles gathered by Charles' wife Mary into scrapbooks, he became a prominent Northern Illinois trial lawyer.

He then entered local politics and soon became mayor of Elgin from 1895-1896.  After that, he declined to run for mayor again and went back to his law practice.

Mary Smith, his wife, was the daughter of Leonidas and Sarah J. Steward Smith and was born in Nashville, Tennessee.  She moved to Elgin with her sister Sarah when their brother Steward received  a position as  a priest at the Episcopal Church in Elgin.

Charles married Mary Carmichael Smith on January 18, 1888.

--Old Secesh

The Charles Wayne Home in Elgin, Illinois-- Part 1

From the Historic Elgin site.

433 Division Street

This is the home that Harley Wayne's son built in Elgin.

SIGNIFICANCE

Harley Wayne (born April 30, 1823) married Ellen Dietz (born February 24, 1823) in Marengo, Illinois, on April 30, 1848.  They had two children, a daughter named Ida who died just before her third birthday and a son, Charles, who was born in Union, Illinois.

When Charles was six years old, his father was killed at the Battle of Shiloh at Pittsburg Landing in Tennessee, on April 6, 1862.  Harley Wayne was captain of Company D. of the 15th Illinois Volunteer Infantry.

After her husband's death, Ellen continued living in Union, Illinois, until her son Charles completed his education at the University of Chicago in 1880, where he was president of his class.  Charles entered the  law office of A.B. Coon, a prominent   Illinois attorney practicing in Marengo. and by 1882, Charles had passed  the state bar  examination.

By 1883, Charles, along with his mother, Ellen, moved to Elgin where he bought a house at 433 Division Street from William H. Bullard, a builder in Elgin.

Continued on December 1, 2021.

--Old Secesh

Researching Capt. Harley Wayne-- Part 6

"There is a funny story about that stepping stone.  Our paper boy asked us one time if we had our dog buried under it.  He thought it was a grave marker for a pet.  It looks like one as it's made of marble and even has the name 'Wayne' chiseled into it.

"After Harley's death, the widow took the stone to Elgin with her.  She lived with her son, Charles, until her death.  Charles had married by this time and this is where the story gets a little confusing."

Charles and his wife were childless.  But Charles had a cousin who was a preacher in California.  This cousin had 10 kids to feed and didn't get paid much for his labors.  Charles volunteered to take one of the kids out of this cousin's kitchen.

The kid turned out to be Esther Bishop.  She not only lived with Charles until his death in 1905, but then lived with Mary (Charles' wife) until her death in 1941.  Mary apparently willed the house to Esther, who, by this time, was married to Claude Britton.

Britton continued to live in the house after Esther died and was still there in 1956 with the stepping stone somewhere on the premises, the letters, photos, tunic buttons and other war materials in the attic.

Enter the Parentis.

"The chances were enormous of us not finding out what we did," said Parenti, "but we did it anyhow,"

Thank you Leo and Connie Parenti foor all this information that otherwise would have been lost.

--Old Secesh

Researching Capt. Harley Wayne-- Part 4: Finally, a Lead on the Wayne History

Through a series of telephone calls, Claude Britton eventually got in touch with the parentis.

His was a tenuous connection to the Waynes.  His wife was Esther Bishop.  Esther's mother was a cousin of Charles Wayne (Harley's son)

Even so, Britton apparently was all that was left of the Wayne family in Illinois.  Distant cousins in South Dakota and California have yet to be traced.

Britton was all too happy to share family reminiscences and memorabilia with the Parentis.

"He called and said he would tell all about the Waynes if he could come and visit the house in Union.  He had never been in it. Of course we said yes," said Mrs. Parenti.

"He came over with his daughter, a picture of Mrs. Wayne and a shoebox of letters from the attic of his house."

The letters were the ones Mrs. Wayne had saved from her husband since the Civil War days.  There were also some from back to 1843 which vividly showed his abolitionist sympathies.

These letters must be the ones that are being transcribed now by the McHenry County Historical Society.

--Old Secesh

 

Researching Capt. Harley Wayne-- Part 3: Tracking Down the Waynes

"We found the cemetery in Marengo where he was buried," Parenti said.  That gave the Parentis some vital statistics.  They could also determine from four nearby grave markers the make up of Wayne's family.  Wayne's wife Ellen died in 1900, a daughter lived from 1851 to 1854, and the son, Charles, from 1855 to 1905.  (This would be the Marengo City Cemetery.)

"I kept asking around Marengo if anyone knew about the house in Union," said Mrs. Parenti.  "I kept asking though and I came across a club made up of village descendants of the first Marengo area pioneers.  It's called the Ladies Home Circle today.

"The club had an annual event where all the members attended an all-day meeting.  The whole family would come in the early days.  (Was this the predecessor of the annual Marengo Settlers Days festival to be held this year from October 7-10?)

"At any rate I got in touch with the club members.  One of them told me about a woman in Elgin and this woman in Elgin had a neighbor who was a relation of the Waynes.

"This relative was named Claude Britton."

--Old Secesh

Researching Capt. Harley Wayne-- Part 2: Not Many Folks in Union Knew About the Waynes

Of course, the chalk marks in the basement drew some wonder.  They asked Dr. Melvin Adams about those chalk marks.  Adams, 76, was still alive and living in Union as such, he knew some information about the house.  In addition, he  had even lived in the house when he was a teenager from 1904-1911.

He told the Parentis that the scribbling had been done by the son of a man who had fought in the Civil War and that the man's name was Harley Wayne and his son was Charles Wayne.

The Dr. got Harley Wayne's war record from Springfield.

Nobody else in Union, however, knew very much about the Waynes  Some didn't even know that he had ever lived here.  According to Mrs.Parenti, "Even the people who sold us the house knew only that he had fought in the war but they didn't know he had died in it."

With just these few sketchy facts, te Parentis searched further afield.

--Old Secesh

Writes His Dad-- Part 6: All He Wanted Was a Pony

Around the turn of the century, a developer bought the eight acres surrounding  the Parenti homestead (Harley Wayne home) and made a subdivision of it called Evergreen Park.  That is why you see houses around the Wayne residence today.

It is surprising that littler Charlie's chalk marks on the basement wall would have survived to this day.  According to the Parentis, it is a dry basement and that helps.

"All I know is that after we bought the house in 1956 we talked to Dr. Melvin Adams, who was then 76 and had been around Union all his life.  He lived in the house when he was a teenager, from 1904-1911.  He told us that his father instructed the children not to erase any writing or drawing on the walls.  Not to deface them in any way.

"So even back then the owners of the house seemed to have an awareness of the importance of the scribblings if a small boy during the Civil War."

A small boy who wanted a pony.  And probably would have settled for a father.

This is another side of war that you don't often get the opportunity to hear.

--Old Secesh

Writes His Dad-- Part 5: Move to Elgin

The Parentis do not know whether Charles Wayne ever got the pony he so wanted.

Charles and his mother later moved to Elgin, Illinois.  Mrs. Wayne took along a rectangular steppingstone from the Union home which had the name Wayne chiseled into it.

The Parentis located Harley Wayne's descendants in Elgin back in 1962 and found that that stepping stone was still at the house where his widow had lived with her son Charles.  They said they could have the stone so it is now back at the Union home.

Charles Wayne became a prominent Elgin attorney and served a term as its mayor from 1896-1897.  He married a woman named Mary Smith who was an ardent advocate of the "Southern Cause."  They did not have children, but did have many nieces and nephews.

In 1905, Charles fell after slipping on a patch of ice and had a cerebral hemorrhage and died from it.  His body was returned to Marengo for burial next to his father, mother and sister he had never known.  His mother had already died in 1900.

Mary Smith Wayne died in 1941.  Shortly before her death she grudgingly admitted that Lincoln was a great man.

--Old Secesh

Writes to His Dad-- Part 3: His Dad Missed Him as Well

If Charles missed his father and the promised pony, the father, Harley Wayne, missed his son just as much.

In a letter home dated December 29, 1861, Captain Wayne wrote in a letter to his wife:  

"I am very glad to get your letter and Charley's picture.... The letter and picture were at once sources of pleasure and pain.  I could see the pretty features and the loving beaming eyes of my noble darling boy but I could not hear his voice nor could I grasp him in fond embrace s my whole soul yearned to do.

"And I was sad....  Do write me often and send me your picture.  Tell Charley I was pleased, very, with his picture and letter.  I will write to him again soon."

Less than two months later Captain Wayne joined Gen. U.S. Grant's command at Fort Donelson.  Captain Wayne missed the first major battle on February 15 and 16, 1862, that would catapult Grant into the forefront of Union war leaders.

--Old Secesh

Writes to His Dad on Basement Wall-- Part 2: Capt. Wayne and His Son

The barn held at least one carriage and a team of horses, but no pony.  And that little boy, Charley Wayne, really longed for one.

His father, Harley Wayne, had promised him one when he joined the 15th Illinois Volunteer Infantry in the spring of 1861.

With his father gone and no siblings to play with, young Charley would ramble about the large house which also included a full basement.  On two of the walls down there, 7-year-old Charley wrote his name and drew pictures with chalk.  One of those pictures was a boogeyman.  Above it are the words, "Hurrah, hurrah boys."

On the opposite wall are variations of the boy's name and what appears to be the spelling of his father's given and surname.  They surround what passes for a Betsy Ross flag with stars and stripes.

In addition, there is the outline of a pony.  The pony his father had promised him.

--Old Secesh

Writes to Dad on Basement Wall-- Part 1: The Harley Wayne Home in Union

From the May 30, 1987, Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, Illinois) by Jerry Kuyper.  This was in honor of McHenry County's Sesquicentennial.

I have been writing about his father, Harley Wayne in this blog.

Charles Harley Wayne was seven years old when his father, Harley Wayne went off to war.

The boy stayed home with his mother, Ellen, in the brick two story house with its 15 spacious rooms that the father had built for the family in 1858.  But the family was small.  Charles was an only child, having been born in 1855.  A sister, born in 1851, had died in 1854.

"The Wayne house had eight acres to go with it," said Leo Parenti, who with wife Constance (Connie), have lived in the house (in Union, Illinois) since they bought it in 1956.

"Wayne had a general store in Union too along with a 640 acre farm nearby.  The eight acres and the house were separate from that farm," added Mrs. Parenti.

According to Parenti, besides the house there was a barn and a fairly ornate outhouse on the eight acres.  "The barn and outhouse are gone now," said Parenti.

--Old Secesh