My time in Illinois was growing short. I had planned to spend the very last day in Chicago, which left me just this Friday to cut upward to the northwest corner of the state, and leave behind a number of interesting places in between. Two years later, I would arrive in Iowa right in this middle and begin regularly crossing through the Quad Cities on my way to and from the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. Now that I’ve revisited this trip, I realize I must plan a bit more time in future exploring western and central Illinois. On this particular day, however, my stop in Moline was a quick one to visit the John Deere Pavilion, which provides a history of the company and its tractor museum. I love corporate museums. If the company is still solvent enough to stand up a museum, then it is likely a well known one. At the museum, you usually get a look into its past and how it thrived over time. John Deere did not disappoint, and the only reason I came away from it without an iconic baseball cap or toy tractor was because Tamu was waiting for me in the car and the day was growing increasingly hot. And I rarely wear baseball hats. I have no idea what I would do with a toy tractor, but it was tempting.
My central destination for the day was Galena, in the northwest corner of Illinois near the Mississippi River. To get there as quickly as possible, I crossed the mighty river into Iowa and then circled back across further north. Galena is a resort town that was thriving long before Chicago began to bustle. It first came alive during a mining boom in 1820s. Later, when that slowed, it became a major steam ship port along the Mississippi. Presently, much of the town is on the National Register of Historic Places and is known for the tree lovers who come to see the leaves change in the fall. It is a picturesque place, full of craft shops and cafes. Tamu and I walked around taking in the scenery and I purchased some jewelry and goodies.
Its other claim to fame is that Ulyssess S. Grant grew up there. At some point in my visit, I learned that Grant was an Illinois president, which surprised me, as Ohio claims him too. Turns out he was born in my home state, but his family moved to Galena in his childhood, where they prospered. He left to pursue his Army career, which caused him to delay marriage to his local sweetheart, Julia Dent Grant. She is memorialized by a statue. He was welcomed back to town as a hero after the Civil War and, after a period of time in Galena, he moved on to New York City and the White House. If my memory of US history is good, his administration gained a reputation for corruption.
Interestingly, there seems to be some rival historic claims between Julia and Mary Todd Lincoln, as this site and the one in Springfield both claim that each woman was the first to be known as the First Lady. There also seems to be some claim that Harriet Lane, the niece of Lincoln’s bachelor predecessor James Buchanan, first used the title. This last story makes the most sense to me because, as the only bachelor president in US history, the official hostess would have needed some kind of title to make up for the missing Mrs. It’s not really my area of expertise, but the two different claims highlighted this rich Illinois element of prominent women during Civil War and Reconstruction.
I decided to skip the house tour because the day was much too hot to keep Tamu waiting in the car, so we went for an elevated walk together to take in the town. It was a charming town and I was delighted by what I found there, but as the day moved to evening, Tamu and I headed away from the Mississippi to Chicago and Lake Michigan for a very full last day of visiting Illinois. We arrived too late and tired there to take on the city, so we settled in for the night.