Great News: MCCWRT Will Have First In-Person Meeting at Woodstock Library Since Virus Hit, on Tuesday, Oct. 12

It's been a long time coming, but the McHenry County (Illinois) Civil War Round Table (MCCWRT) will be having its first in-person meeting at our home base, the Woodstock (Illinois) Library since our last one in March 2020.  The Woodstock Library has been closed to meetings since then until now.   (We did have one meeting at the McHenry County Historical Society Museum in Union, Illinois back in June.)

We have been doing the last several meetings on Zoom.  Our discussion groups are now back at meeting on the last Saturday of each month at Panera Bread in Crystal Lake.

Since I don't do Zoom I haven't seen any of the regular meetings except the one in Union.

The meeting is from 7 to 9 pm, Tuesday October 12.  Doors to the library, however, will be closed promptly at 7, so plan accordingly.

This month, Scott Larimer will be presenting Fort Sumter & Other Civil War Forts."

Come On Down!!  --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 5: Harley's Letters and Stepping Stone

"Some of the letters were quite colorful as they related to Harley's pre-marriage days in McHenry County.  There was correspondence with a friend of his named Sam Kelly, who used some pretty rough language (about men and women)."

Copies were made of those letters and most remain in the possession of the Parentis.  Another set of copies was presented to the county historical society museum in Union.  The originals, according to Mrs. Parenti, are now in the archives of the Illinois State Historical Society.

"Mr. Britton was about 76 years old when he came to visit us," said Mrs. Parenti.  His wife, Esther, had died around 1948 or so.  He lived another ten years and we kept somewhat in touch."

Britton's will left a carriage stepping stone, four of Captain Harley Wayne's tunic buttons from the Civil War and other mementos in the possession of the Parentis.

"He thought the stepping stone (which has Wayne inscribed on the side of it) went with the house and when and if we sell the house it will stay here," said Mrs. Parenti.  "As well as the other memorabilia we have concerning the Waynes.

--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

Research on Captain Harley Wayne-- Part 1: The Parentis

From the May 30, 1987, Northwest Herald (McHenry County, Illinois)  "Resurrection took 31 years" by Jerry Kuyper.

Leo and Constance (Connie) Parenti of Union, Illinois, are the ones whose extensive research on the Wayne family are responsible for it still being here.  (Until June of this year, I had never heard of him, even though Union is just 30 miles from where I live.)

The material covered in these last several posts all came from one newspaper page from back in 1987.

Much material that was lost has been found by the couple, who back in 1987, resided in the old Wayne mansion in Union.

According to the Parenti's, "We probably know more about the family than today's relatives do."  Accumulating all this Wayne legacy has taken 31 years.  And, as a coincidence, Harley Wayne was only 31 years old (and 11 months and 15 days) when he was killed at the Battle of Shiloh.

The interest in Wayne began in 1956, when the couple bought and moved into the handsome red brick house with the circular drive in Union.

The search for Wayne history began soon afterwards.

--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 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

Captain Harley Wayne's Obituary-- Part 1

From the April 16, 1862, Woodstock (Illinois) Sentinel

IN MEMORIUM

The death of Captain HARLEY WAYNE, of Union, who died bravely fighting the enemies of the Government, at the head of his Company, in the battle of Pittsburg, demands more than just a passing notice.

"Death loves a shining mark," and this was never more strikingly  proven than in the fact that the first death that we know of among our county volunteers, should be HARLEY WAYNE one of our first and most prominent citizens -- a man who, with an ample fortune, a beautiful residence, and a beloved and happy family -- left all to serve his country in this hour of danger on the battle's bloody field.

CAPT. WAYNE has been a resident of this county many years; coming when young, and by strict business habits amassed a competence.  He had been chosen to all of the various offices of his town, and was always a leading man.

--Old Secesh

The Marengo, Illinois, Grand Army of the Republic Post (Harley Wayne Post #169)

The McHenry County Historical Museum in Union, Illinois, has a display on the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) that existed in the county at one time.  One of them was Marengo's Harley Wayne Post #169.

It was organized on December 29, 1882 and was the second GAR post in the county and named after Captain Harley Wayne who was killed at the Battle of Shiloh.  Our McHenry County Round Table president had told me that this man's mansion was in Union.  

Almost a third of the post members had belonged to the 95th Illinois Infantry Regiment that was primarily from McHenry County.  They met every second and fourth Friday in large gatherings at the Marengo Opera House.

After 1905, the meetings attracted smaller numbers  of veterans and were much more infrequent.  The last recorded meeting took place on December 8, 1922 when seven of the remaining twelve members got together.

They officially disbanded in 1930.

The last Marengo veteran, Samuel Wise, died in 1936.

--Old Secesh

McHenry County CW Round Table June Meeting-- Part 1

It was so great getting together with the other members and friends of the McHenry County Civil War Round Table last month in Union, Illinois (I don't know about that name), but still the first time together since March 2020.  Little did we know what was in store for us when we met at the Woodstock, Illinois, Public Library that second Tuesday in March.

It would be 15 months before we met again.

However, we did have several monthly discussion group meetings outside at the Algonquin Panera Bread Co. and Stucky's in Johnsburg.

Right now, the MCCWRT is having the presentations via Zoom, but, I don't do Zoom, so this meeting was special to me.  Also special because of the dinner several of us had together at Checkers II beforehand.  I agree with Frank Crawford when he said after one of our pre-meeting dinners at 3 Brothers Restaurant in Woodstock that he actually enjoys those meals with friends even more.

Anyhow, it sure was good to have this opportunity to have our meeting (with social distancing and face masks) at the McHenry County Historical Society Museum in Union.

--Old Secesh

McHenry County CW Round Table Meeting, June-- Part 2: The Portabella Burger Incident

And, even better, eight of us met up at Checkers II restaurant in "downtown" Union (there isn't much of a downtown) before the meeting and enjoyed conversation and good food, including me being "trucked" by what they called the Portabella Burger. 

It was listed under handcrafted sandwiches (which also included burgers) and I figured it was a hamburger paddy topped by a huge mushroom and it also included three of my favorite things on any sandwich, but especially on a burger and that would be  sauteed onions, peppers and melted bleu cheese.  All served on a pretzel roll.

Wow, my mouth watered at this prospect.

But, when I got it. there was no hamburger.  A huge slice of portabella mushroom took the place of the burger paddy.  Disappointed, but I bit into it and boy, was that good.  I'd order it again, even without a burger.

We then adjourned over to the McHenry County Historical Society Museum for the meeting.

Everyone was required to wear face masks and social distancing was practiced.

--Old Secesh

Finally, an In-Person McHenry County Civil War Round Table Meeting in June-- Part 1: Back in the Saddle Again

Little did I know when I attended the McHenry County Civil War Round Table Meeting in March 2020, but that was going to be the last one until June 8, 2021.  And, you know why.  Our usual meeting place, the Woodstock Public Library (Illinois) was closed and still is until sometime in the fall for meetings.

Now, we had had several meetings with presentations via Zoom, but since I don't do Zoom, I was left out (by my own choice of course).  We did have several discussion group meeting in person starting in the summer and fall of 2020.

Because there were no meetings, it was decided that anyone who had paid dues for 2020, did not have to do so for 2021.

Sadly, in the interim, we lost several members who died and several who have moved away or in extremely poor health.

I tell you, this virus has been rough on all history groups.  Of course, a big part of  the problem is that history groups tend to be a bit long in the tooth if you know what I mean.

Anyway, out president is a member of the McHenry County Historical Society and he was able to arrange to have their museum in Union, Illinois, open for a Tuesday night meeting on June 8, 2021.  That is about a 30 mile drive for me, but, as they say, I was "chomping at the bit" to get back with history.

Welcome Back.  --Old Secesh

MCCWRT Meeting June 8 in Union, Illinois

The McHenry County (Illinois) Civil War Round Table will be having its first in person general meeting since March 2020 at the McHenry County Historical Society Museum in Union this Tuesday, June 8, at 7 pm.

We have already had several in person discussion group meetings, but this will be the first regular meeting like that.

Bruce Allardice will give his presentation "Poltroons, Patriots and Politicians:  Civil War Generals" at that time. 

Also, a group of us will be meeting at Checkers restaurant at 5:30 pm.

Everyone is welcome.  Come on by.

Looking Forward to Learning What a Poltroon Is.  --Old Secesh

MCCWRT Meets Tonight at McHenry County History Museum in Union

Tonight, the McHenry County Civil War Round Table (MCCWRT) takes its show on the road and instead of meeting at the Woodstock, Illinois, Public Library, will travel to the McHenry County Historical Society's museum in Union.

The museum will show several objects from its Civil War collection and members will also have a Show and Tell.

It starts at 7 p.m. at 6422 Main Street, Union.

I am considering going.

--Old Secesh

One Confederate Veteran Buried in McHenry County, Illinois-- Part 2

The two buried in Lake County, Illinois, and the one in McHenry County, Illinois, are of particular interest to me as this is where I lived for 18 years and 23 respectfully.

From the Northwest Herald "County home to intriguing historical oddities" by Hilary Gowins.

The body of James Johnson is buried at Union Cemetery on South Union Road by the town of Union.  In the north section of the cemetery is the military marker of one James Johnson, the only Confederate soldier buried in McHenry County.  The McHenry County Civil War Round Table (to which I belong) doesn't know much about him and didn't know he was a Confederate soldier until they investigated the cemetery records.

His birth date is unknown, but he died in May 1905.

They intend to give him a proper headstone with his name and dates.

--Old Secesh

Union, Illinois

From Wikipedia

Population 2010 at 580, an increase from 576.

it is the site of the world's first fully automated substation on the current site of the water tower by East Main Street.

It is also home of the Illinois Railway Museum and the McHenry County Historical Society and Museum located in an old school.

It was platted in 1851 as a station on the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, but failed to prosper.  Incorporated in 1897.

--Old Secesh