History History News Local History
Molly Crusen Bishop: The West Bluff Water Tower Disaster
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- Published on Tuesday, 18 July 2017 15:59
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
The West Bluff Water Tower Disaster
By Charles Needham and Molly Crusen Bishop
Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of stories from Molly Crusen Bishop that will be based on the essays about the West Bluff by her grandfather, Charles Needham.
Charles Needham was born to Patrick...
Molly Crusen Bishop: My grandpa witnessed history
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- Published on Saturday, 03 June 2017 17:56
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
There were two guys named Charles living on Barker Avenue on Peoria’s West Bluff in the 1890s. One was Charles Duryea, the father of the American automotive industry, and the other m was my grandfather, Charles Needham.
Molly Crusen Bishop: The importance of Ward Chapel A.M.E. to Peoria history
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- Published on Monday, 01 August 2016 17:09
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
There is a church called Ward Chapel A.M.E. at 511 Richard Allen Drive in Peoria, Illinois. It is there African Americans in Peoria first began to get an education.
Read more...
Molly Crusen Bishop: From County Kilkenny, Ireland to Peoria
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- Published on Friday, 10 February 2017 16:59
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
Below is the Peoria Star Monday May 7th, 1923 obituary for my Great Aunt Maggie
Mrs. Margaret Nolan Caffyn
Molly Crusen Bishop: Whiskey Baron event to benefit local history
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- Published on Monday, 18 July 2016 17:38
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
One thing we all have in common in Peoria is being its citizens and sharing the rich history that comes with it. No matter where someone lives in Peoria, we all have a hand in taking care of our city and passing on a legacy of pride and preservation...
Molly Crusen Bishop: Griffith Dickison, true pioneer
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- Published on Friday, 13 January 2017 15:19
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
Griffith Dickison was one of Peoria area’s earliest settlers. He was born to farmers in Indiana on Nov. 27, 1811. His education was the real world and real life, and whatever minimal schooling was available...
Molly Crusen Bishop: Flanagan House is oldest standing home in Peoria
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- Published on Thursday, 30 June 2016 16:20
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
The Flanagan house located at 942 N. E. Glen Oak Avenue is the oldest standing home in the city of Peoria. It was given this honor on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. It is an American Federal style home.
In 1837, the Flanagan house...
Who was R. G. LeTourneau?
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- Published on Monday, 09 January 2017 17:20
- Written by Norm Kelly
All of us remember our first jobs and the thrill of earning our own money. I bet you also hold in your fond memory your first ‘real job.’ Mine was 1950 when I went to work for the R.G. LeTourneau Company right here in Peoria, Illinois.
Molly Crusen Bishop: The Heneberys were important in local history
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- Published on Friday, 10 June 2016 16:28
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
Mathew and Mary Daniels Henebery were extraordinary citizens in Peoria’s history.
Mathew and Mary Daniels were both born in Ireland in 1834 and they helped make up the wealth and whiskey...
Molly Crusen Bishop: Pioneers and Log Cabins
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- Published on Thursday, 22 December 2016 14:41
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
The census of 1810 said the Illinois territory had a population of around 12,000 people. At the time Illinois was an undeveloped land with the indigenous people and a few French and other immigrant settlers.
Illinois had a very harsh climate with limited resources and supplies for folks relocating...
Molly Crusen Bishop: Barker had a Midas touch
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- Published on Thursday, 26 May 2016 16:03
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
I grew up on Barker Avenue on Peoria’s West Bluff. I often wondered as a young girl if my street had been named after the television game show host Bob Barker, and found this quite odd. There wasn’t anything taught or known about his namesake street in my world growing up.
Molly Crusen Bishop: Holidays with the Greenhuts
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- Published on Friday, 02 December 2016 15:34
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
“It can be said of Mr. Greenhut, more than any other one man that he has made Peoria commercially, for he has been connected with practically every business movement and enterprise of importance here.”
The above is a direct quote from the book History of...
Molly Crusen Bishop: The Shelton Gang history, as told by a Shelton
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- Published on Friday, 29 April 2016 12:11
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
I first met Ruthie Shelton last fall at the North Branch of the Peoria Public Library, where she was speaking to a room filled to the brim with people. She was speaking about a book she’d written about her father Carl Shelton, of the infamous Shelton Gang....
Molly Crusen Bishop: Trefzger's legacy lives on
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- Published on Monday, 14 November 2016 17:48
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
One sunny October morning in 2016, in Peoria Heights, I was walking along Prospect Road delivering newsletters for Central Illinois Landmarks Foundation to all of the unique shops and establishments. I decided to stop by the newly renovated Trefzger’s Bakery, the work done by the incredibly talented Farnsworth Group, to take a...
Molly Crusen Bishop: The GAR Hall is a downtown historical gem
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- Published on Tuesday, 29 March 2016 16:49
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
The Greenhut Memorial GAR Hall is located at 416 Hamilton Boulevard in Peoria. I attended Spalding High School in downtown...
Molly Crusen Bishop: From where her hopes spring eternal
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- Published on Wednesday, 26 October 2016 14:00
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
My memories of neighbors on the West Bluff are vast and still can bring forth sweet emotions from the days of yesteryear. The first distinct one takes place early in the mornings on weekends with Mr. Van Norman playing his bagpipes and pacing from one end of his large front porch to the other. His handlebar...
Molly Crusen Bishop: Elizabeth Lindsay Davis an overlooked treasure
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- Published on Thursday, 11 February 2016 16:44
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
Elizabeth Lindsay Davis is one of Peoria’s overlooked treasures. Elizabeth was an African American woman born before the Civil War who used her brilliant mind to educate, write and fight for rights for other African Americans as well as for the women’s suffrage cause.
Pre-civil...
Molly Crusen Bishop: Thomas Harris Lindsay was a Peoria pioneer
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- Published on Thursday, 06 October 2016 15:39
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
Thomas Harris Lindsay was born in McConnelsburg, Pennsylvania, in August of 1830, and later became one of Peoria’s first black citizens. His obituary says he came to Peoria when he was only a boy of 7 years old.
Peoria had a population around 1,400...
Molly Crusen Bishop: Annie Turnbo Malone, early entrepreneur
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- Published on Thursday, 04 February 2016 17:36
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
One of the most brilliant minds to ever come out of Peoria, Illinois was Annie Turnbo Malone. Separated from slavery by a single generation and a graduate of Peoria High School, she was one of the first African American women to attain the official status as millionaire.
Annie...
Molly Crusen Bishop: East Bluff folks work to help others
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- Published on Friday, 26 August 2016 17:27
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
There are many people in Peoria who never travel through the older neighborhoods and could literally live here for decades and never see what large sections of Peoria have going on.
We hear things on the news and then we complain about crime or poverty,...
Molly Crusen Bishop: When Ingersoll spoke, people listened
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- Published on Wednesday, 13 January 2016 15:14
- Written by Molly Crusen Bishop
