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