Louis
Joliet visit in 1673 is seed for birth of a city
By John Whiteside
HERALD NEWS COLUMNIST
Louis Joliet had no idea what the next three centuries would
develop when he stopped to camp on a mound of land right here in 1673.
Joliet and his Jesuit priest side-kick, Father Jacques Marquette,
camped on a mound in the Des-Plaines River during their return trip after
exploring the Mississippi River. They were probably the first white men
to see the land that would eventually become the city of Joliet.
While camped on the mound, the priest wrote in his journal
that this was a beautiful hunting ground with plentiful game. In his personal
journal, Joliet wrote that it was the most beautiful of all the new land
he had seen during the exploration.
"It seemed to me the most beautiful and the most suitable
for settlement," he wrote, describing that oxen (buffalo), stags, deer
and turkeys were found here in greater numbers than elsewhere. He envisioned
great farms and a good life on this spot of country.
For years afterward, the mound where they camped was known
as Joliet Mound. The mound was a camping ground for those passing through
the area. But more than 150 years would pass before white men attempted
to settle here.
In 1833, Charles Reed arrived carrying a millstone in his
wagon. He settled on the west side of the DesPlaines River and built a cabin.
He was a squatter without any legal right to the land.
The following year, James McKee arrived with a dream of
building a town. He carried with him a legal ownership to any 80 acres he
wanted in the new state. McKee had bought that 80-acre land right from Silva
Hall, who as a child had been kidnapped by Indians. When rescued, Hall and
her sister had been given 80 acres of land by the state Legislature because
of the torture they had endured.
Hall sold her right to that 80 acres to McKee, who wanted
to build a town. He claimed 80 acres on the west side of the river and paid
off Reed for the improvements the squatter had made. For a while, this area
was known as McKee Town.
But a few months after McKee arrived, James B. Campbell
arrived and bought 80 acres of land on the east side of the DesPlaines.
He quickly plotted the spot into blocks and lots, which were sold at public
auction on June 18-19, 1834. Campbell named his new town Juliet.
Some local historians believe the city was named after Campbell's
daughter, Juliet. Others have said the community was already called Juliet
before Campbell arrived. They believe the name was given by a postmaster,
who was an avid reader of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
During the winter of 1834-35, the population of Juliet was
45 adults and a few children. On July 4, 1835, the little community celebrated
the birth of the nation.
Major Robert Cook, a veteran of the War of 1812, led a parade
through the little city during the celebration. His father, John Cook, who
was a Revolutionary War veteran, was carried on the shoulders of men in
the parade. The main speaker that day was George Woodruff, who later became
the town historian.
"Juliet in July 1834 was not known," Woodruff
said on that day. "In July, 1835, it's a city in embryo."
By the end of 1835, Juliet's population had nearly doubled
to 86 adults. During the next five years, Will County's population grew
to more than 10,000.
Juliet was officially incorporated in 1837 and a village
board was elected. One of the board's first actions was to construct a bridge
over the river connecting the settlements on the east and west sides. But
the wooden bridge was washed away by high water that following spring. Much
of the community's wealth had been tied up in that bridge.
In 1841, the state Legislature repealed the act of Juliet's
incorporation.
Meanwhile, President Martin VanBuren had visited Juliet.
In a meeting with local politicians, the eighth president, who served the
nation 1837-41, casually mentioned that he had heard of Joliet Mound. The
president suggested that the city be named after Louis Joliet, the explorer.
And so this city became Joliet, by an act of the state Legislature
in 1845. The city was formally incorporated in 1852. By this time, the city's
population had grown to nearly 2,700 people.
The city had grown to include a variety of merchants and
stores, shops and churches, mills, a quarry and a stop on a stagecoach line.
The processing of agriculture products developed a group of industries.
Joel Matteson, one of the earliest settlers here and later
a state governor, built a textile mill in 1845. The mill manufactured 300
yards of cloth in one day and employed 50 workers. A second mill was opened
a few years later.
But steel was the beginning of the real industrial age here.
In 1869, the steel plant on Collins Street opened as one of the first plants
in the Midwest. This plant eventually became part of the United States Steel
Corp.
As the new city grew, so did the state.
In 1859, the state needed a new maximum security prison
and decided to build it at Joliet. Using limestone from local quarries,
the big prison walls on Collins Street took shape to hide the convicts from
society.
Pre-Civil War days
The nation became divided over the issue of slavery. The
majority of people in Joliet opposed slavery, and the city became a main
stop on the underground railroad for escaped slaves.
This issue is best illustrated by the story of Henry Belt,
a free black man who came to Joliet and opened a barber shop. He had many
friends in the city.
One day a couple of slave hunters from St. Louis stopped
here and spotted Belt in his shop. They took one look at him and knew he
was worth money. While one man watched, the other returned to St. Louis
to get legal papers showing that the barber was an escaped slave.
Belt was arrested and taken before a judge, who made a decision
that the papers were legal. Realizing what was happening, the courtroom
filled with Belt's friends. They were determined to stop these man stealers.
While the judge justified his decision, the room became packed with people.
They crowded closer to hear the judge talk. Sheriff H.D. Risley quietly
sneaked Belt out of the courtroom as a narrow pathway was made through the
crowd.
The slave hunters ranted and raved about the escape. They
searched through Joliet homes. But Belt was hidden well and the slave hunters
left the city a few days later. Henry Belt was put on the underground railroad,
which took him safely away to freedom.
In 1856, Abraham Lincoln spoke in Joliet about the slavery
issue. Then still a fairly unknown country lawyer, Lincoln spoke that day
at a political gathering in Demmond's Grove, which was a 9-acre field located
at Western Avenue and Center Street.
The main speaker that day was Owen Lovejoy, a well-known
abolitionist and a congressional candidate. Lincoln was here to promote
a candidate who was running against Joel Matteson, a Joliet banker and merchant.
Lincoln returned to Joliet again in the summer of 1858 to
speak. At the time he was running for the U.S. Senate against Stephan A.
Douglas, who was called "the Little Giant." Their debates that
summer about slavery would help Lincoln become president.
In Joliet, Lincoln said that "a house divided against
itself cannot stand."
Meanwhile Joliet's Matteson, who owned banks, mills and
a railroad, served one term (1853-57) as the Illinois governor. He managed
to cut the state debt by $7 million, reduced taxes and helped develop the
concept of public education in Illinois.
But Matteson left the governor's office in disgrace. He
was accused of defrauding the state of more than $330,000 in a scam involving
Illinois and Michigan Canal script.
The Civil War
On April 12, 1861, Confederate troops fired upon Fort Sumter
and signaled the beginning of the Civil War. President Lincoln called for
75,000 volunteers to save the Union.
It was a Wednesday night in Joliet when several hundred
men gathered at night in front of the Will County Courthouse. With the light
of lanterns and torches, politicians delivered fiery speeches about this
war.
But the most eloquent speech came from Frederick Bartleson,
a 26-year-old lawyer who had just completed a term as county prosecutor.
He concluded by saying, "I will not urge you to do what I am unwilling
to do myself. I propose to head the list."
Bartleson was the first volunteer from Joliet. He became
the captain of a company of soldiers in the newly formed 20th Illinois Regiment,
which left for the war in June, 1861. The regiment fought at Fort Donelson,
Frederickstown and Shiloh.
Bartleson lost his left arm at Bloody Shiloh. He returned
to Joliet to recover from the wound. Local politicians attempted to get
him to retire from the Army. But he replied, "No, I still have an arm
left for my country and she shall have that one, too, if need be."
At the time, the 100th Regiment, completely composed of
1,000 men from Joliet and nearby Will County communities, was being formed.
Bartleson was promoted to colonel and took command of the new regiment.
The 100th Regiment left for the war in the summer of 1862.
It fought in several battles including Stone River, Lookout Mountain and
Chickamauga. Bartleson was captured at Chickamauga and made a prisoner of
war at the Confederate prison called Libby in Richmond, Va.
He spent six months as a POW and then was part of a prisoner
exchange. Pale and weak, Bartleson returned to Joliet to heal again. But
he was anxious to return to the regiment, which then was fighting in Georgia.
In May, 1864, he took command of his regiment. In June,
he wrote a last letter to his wife in Joliet: "Let me hope the great
God of battles, who has been with me heretofore in the hour of peril, will
guard me still. If it should be my fate, however, to fall, it will be what
has been the fate of many better than I. If my death contributes, in however
small a degree, to the welfare of my country, which is dear to my heart,
it will not be in vain."
The 30-year-old colonel was killed a few days later on June
23, 1864, while leading his men in a skirmish line at the battle of Kennesaw
Mountain. He died instantly from a rebel shot that struck his right side,
smashing through his brave heart.
His body was carried from the battlefield and the regiment's
soldiers passed by one by one. Many of them openly cried. The regimental
surgeon wrote home to Joliet: "I have seen many officers and men killed
on the field, but never saw one whose death seemed to strike such a blow
to everyone as this one did."
Bartleson was brought home for burial in Joliet's Oakwood
Cemetery. The city closed down to tell him farewell.
Meanwhile, the city grieved as each new military casualty
list was released. The deaths of local men were on each list. Of more than
5,000 Will County men who fought in the Civil War, more than 500 were killed.
Many more suffered serious wounds.
As tragic as these death lists were, the people of Joliet
had compassion for the enemy. At one point, a train stopped in Joliet hauling
hundreds of rebel prisoners of war to a prison camp in Chicago. The Confederate
prisoners hadn't eaten in two days. As word spread through the city, hundreds
of residents showed up with food for the POWs. And as the train pulled out
of the city, the prisoners cheered the people of Joliet.
Each time there was a Union battle victory, boys would crawl
up the belfry stairs in an old factory building and loudly ring the news
to the city. One hot summer night in 1863, the bell was ringing and the
city was wild with joy. In the midst of those victory rings, the old bell
was cracked. But residents then liked to believe that the bell had "burst
with joy" about the victory at Gettysburg.
When Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army
to Gen. Ulysses Grant in April, 1865, Joliet celebrated. People cheered
in the streets and all church bells rang. But the celebration was cut short
with the assassination of President Lincoln, whose body was sent home to
Springfield on a special funeral train. The train stopped in Joliet late
on the night of May 2, 1865.
Just as the train slowed down to stop, a shooting star shot
across the sky, lighting up the downtown area of Joliet. The whole city
was draped in black and purple as a crowd of more than 5,000 people waited
to tell their president farewell.
Just a few months earlier, the city was shocked with the
news of the murder of Warden Joseph Clark at the prison. George Chase, a
convicted horse thief, had hit the warden with a club during an escape attempt.
Chase was convicted of murder and sentenced to death on a gallows. That
sentence was carried out on a Friday in the summer of 1866.
A gallows had been built in the hallway of the jail. Two
posts with a beam over them held the hangman's noose with the other end
of the rope tied to three large sandbags in the basement. Chase sat in a
chair below the noose as the death sentence was read to him. He said he
was innocent.
"Gentlemen, I am to be slaughtered," he said as
the hood was dropped over his head. The sheriff gave a signal and the rope
snapped over the beam. Chase shot straight up.
"He was launched into eternity," the Joliet Signal
newspaper reported.
Turn of the century
Joliet continued to grow after the Civil War as more and
more industry came to the city. From horseshoes to nails, thousands of people
worked in the large plants, breweries and factories.
Wealthy merchants, steel tycoons and railroad kings joined
the population and built their great homes on South Eastern Avenue in the
city. This became Joliet's silk stocking district.
Among the millionaires were Col. John Lambert, the steel
man, who built the Joliet Public Library. Another was Sir William Cornelius
VanHorne, who had been knighted by the queen of England.
VanHorne, a Joliet native, had made a name for himself as
the man who built the Canadian Pacific Railroad through the Rocky Mountains
in Canada. His railroad line had linked eastern and western Canada and opened
a wasteland to civilization.
In the 1870s, streetcars rolled down the city streets and
railroad rails rolled out of the plants. The city's population had grown
to 7,263 in 1870. The population would more than triple in the next two
decades.
As labor unions formed to protect the working men from the
robber barons, there was trouble in the city and the county. Into this period
of time stepped Col. Fred Bennitt, a prominent Joliet attorney who was married
to the daughter of a railroad king.
From 1876 to 1898, he served with the Illinois National
Guard, which was used several times to stop mobs of striking workers in
this area. His regiment was known as "Bennitt's Boys." With the
start of the Spanish-American War, the regiment was activated into federal
service. Bennitt led the regiment into battles against Spanish troops in
Puerto Rico in 1898.
One of the heroes of that war was Theodore Roosevelt, who
had led the Rough Riders to victory up San Juan Hill. On Oct. 8, 1900, Roosevelt
came to Joliet.
He was running for vice president on the Republican ballot
as the teammate of William McKinley, who was seeking a second term as president.
More than 5,000 turned out to hear Teddy Roosevelt that morning.
He talked about giant trusts and monopolies, about black
men not being able to vote in the South and problems in the Philippines.
He promised to root out the evils and deal with them with a big stick. His
speech was broken up many times by cheers and applause.
The next day in Joliet, William Jennings Bryan spoke to
the same crowd in Joliet. Bryan was the Democratic candidate for president.
Although he was the greatest known speaker in America, his speech here wasn't
cheered.
Joliet Mayor John Mount, the city's leading Democrat, had
established a list of mandatory contributions from each city employee to
pay for Bryan's $1,000 speaking fee. Word of the assessments had spread
through the crowd.
"Some of these men are pretty sore," a local newspaper
reported.
Bryan lost that presidential race to McKinley, who was assassinated
and Teddy Roosevelt became the 26th president to lead the nation into the
new century.
The 20th century
In 1901, Richard J. Barr, a young attorney, became the city's
mayor. He went on to become a state senator who served in the Senate longer
than anyone else. The Joliet Junior College was born in 1902, the very first
junior college in the nation. In 1903, the Joliet Public library was built.
A few years later the Gerlach Barlow Calendar Co. was formed
and it sold its products worldwide. In 1907, the state Legislature approved
building a new prison to be called Stateville. The old prison on Collins
Street had become overcrowded.
In 1908, Merrit Griffin put Joliet on the world map when
he won the silver medal in the discus throw at the Olympic games in London.
The 6-foot, 178-pound, 19-year-old athlete missed the gold medal by only
7.5 inches. It was at this time that Joliet started earning a reputation
as "the city of champions."
By 1910, the city's population was listed at 34,670. In
1914, the first paved stretch of road was built here. It was a 2.5-mile
one-lane highway between Joliet and New Lenox. Some 996 motor vehicles then
were registered in the county.
A car industry was being born. Several of those car companies
were in Joliet. They included the Economy, the New Era and the Commonwealth,
which manufactured a variety of models.
At about this time, a shocking murder took place in Joliet.
On a Sunday morning in June, 1915, the battered body of Odette Maizee Bordeaux
Allen was found in her bedroom at the warden's quarters of the Joliet Correctional
Center.
Her husband, Warden Edmund "Ned" Allen, was in
Chicago at a meeting about the new Stateville prison. Odette, a former New
Orleans singer, was known as the "angel of Joliet" because of
her beautiful singing voice, and "the little mother at the big stir."
Prison staff had to knock down her bedroom door to fight
a fire there. When the flames were out, they found her charred body on the
burned bed with a crushed skull. The investigation quickly centered on a
houseboy, "Chicken Joe" Campbell. Campbell was convicted and sentenced
to death. But the death sentence later was commuted to life by the governor.
During that same year of 1915, Joliet adopted the commission
form of government with a mayor and four commissioners. Each city commissioner
was responsible for heading a city department.
World War I had started in Europe, and a patriotic spirit
swept through Joliet in 1917 when America entered the war. At the time,
three companies of the Illinois First Infantry werecamped in Dellwood Park.
The Dandy First, as it was known, was flooded with volunteers
from the Joliet area. These recruits put on a doughboy uniform and marched
away to the war as part of the 131st Illinois Regiment. The regiment fought
in several battles, but on Sept. 26, 1918, at Verdun an English war correspondent
watched them fight.
He wrote: "They had to pass through 100 yards of barbed
wire and then cross the marshlands... in the face of enemy machine guns
and artillery... They surprised the Germans at every step... These Chicago,
Joliet and Lockport boys maintained an already fine reputation, and gained
even further distinction at an important point of the line."
And they died there on those battlefields in France.
After the war, the returning veterans formed an American
Legion Post in Joliet and named it after Capt. W.E. Harwood. He was a 59-year-old
Joliet doctor when he joined the Army and went to France. He died in the
trenches there while treating wounded soldiers.
In the summer of 1919, construction was completed on the
first of the big circular cellhouses at the new prison called Stateville.
It was determined to be escapeproof, and Warden Everett Murphy moved in
219 of the toughest convicts from the old prison. The warden called them
his list of "bad men."
One of the men on that list was Frank Platt, who was serving
a life sentence for armed robbery. He took one look at the new prison and
decided he would be the first to escape. On Nov. 5, 1919, just four months
after arriving, Platt escaped. He had cut through a double set of window
bars and disappeared into the darkness. He was never caught.
The post World War I period brought prohibition and gangsters
to the city. In Joliet, the best-known bootlegger of the era was Lawrence
"Butch" Crowley.
He amassed a fortune with his illegal breweries during the
1920s. His home on North Raynor Avenue supposedly was equipped with golden
doorknobs. In 1922, he built a $12,000 marble mausoleum for his parents
in Mount Olivet Cemetery.
But the bootlegger sparked the interest of the IRS, who
said he owed some $300,000 in back taxes. Crowley served six months in prison
and returned to Joliet. With the end of prohibition in 1933, the gangster
boss brought slot machines to Joliet. Police estimated then he was making
about $1 million a year from the slots.
But Crowley's criminal career ended on Oct. 6, 1936. He
was shot by gunmen as he pulled his car into the driveway of his home. He
died a few days later without telling police the names of the killers. His
funeral was attended by many important politicians from all over the state.
And he was buried in the marble mausoleum with his parents.
By this time, Chicago gangsters had invaded Joliet. They
specialized in gambling, which created a gangster war with local hoodlums.
Joliet became a hoodlum headquarters for distributing to bookies the wire
race results from horse races all over the country.
In 1927, gangster chief Al Capone was arrested in Joliet.
This would be the only arrest on the Chicago mob boss' record until he was
convicted on income tax evasion. He was arrested here by city police when
he got off a train in order to avoid cops in Chicago.
Capone was carrying a gun just like the other five hoodlums
who met his train in Joliet. The crooks posted bond but had to come back
to Joliet court, where a judge fined them $2,600. Capone paid the fine in
cash and gave the court clerk a tip to give to the Santa Claus who was ringing
a Salvation Army bell on the corner across the street.
The founding father of organized crime left town with these
parting words, "This certainly will be a lesson not to carry guns in
Joliet, I'll say that."
In 1927 and 1928, four men were hanged in Joliet, which
were the last executions on a gallows in the state. A gang of seven convicts
had escaped from the Collins Street prison in 1926 and had murdered Assistant
Warden Peter Klein.
Twice the killers had escaped from the county jail after
being convicted and sentenced to hang. One convict got away and was never
found, another was captured in New York and sentenced there to prison for
another crime and one was killed in a shoot-out with police.
At sunrise on July 15, 1927, three of the killers dropped
through trap doors at a gallows in the jail yard. Thousands of spectators
watched the triple hanging. The fourth killer was hanged on that same gallows
the following year.
During the 1920s, Joliet started earning its reputation
for outstanding bands. A.R. McAllister had organized the first student band
here in 1912. In 1924, the band won its first state championship at Champaign.
Two years later, the band won a national championship. The
national victory was repeated in 1927 and 1928. John Philip Sousa judged
the 1928 national contest, which was held in Joliet.
In 1929, the Joliet band was barred from the national contest
to give other school bands a chance at the title. But Joliet won again in
1931, it was barred in 1932 and then won again in 1933.
These musicians would become the members of the great Joliet
American Legion Band at the end of World War II. They helped to make Joliet
a city of champions.
In 1926, 16-year-old Lois Delander of Joliet added another
title to the city of champions when she was crowned Miss America.
In the late 1930s, the winds of war were blowing once again
in Europe. Adolph Hitler's Nazi machine had rolled through Poland. The Japanese
Empire was expanding with its war machine, too.
In 1940, the U.S. War Department took over 57 square miles
of farm land just south of Joliet. A $51 million plant was built at the
Joliet Arsenal, which became one of the largest munition plants in the world.
When it began production on Sept. 26, 1941, more than 3,100 employees had
been hired.
This created a housing shortage in the city. More homes
were built in special projects assisted by the federal government.
Meanwhile, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7,
1941. Joliet lost a half dozen of its men, who were serving on naval ships
there. World War II started and Joliet men, as always, enlisted.
At the end of the war, this city and county had lost 276
of its sons and husbands in battles scattered from Normandy to Iwo Jima.
Another 42 men were listed as missing in action with 560 being wounded.
Many of these soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen had
become national heroes. Among them were Sgt. Sator "Sandy" Sanchez
and Lt. Carl Luksic.
Luksic made worldwide headlines in May, 1944, when he shot
down five Nazi fighter planes in one day. He was the first flier in the
European theater of war to destroy a quintet of enemy planes during one
mission. The Joliet ace went on to destroy 16 German planes before he was
shot down and became a POW. Sanchez, who was machine gunner on a bomber,
flew more bombing missions that any other flyer in the American 8th Air
Force flying out of bases in England. A bomber was named after him, "the
Smiling Sandy Sanchez."
Although he came home to Joliet from those missions, Sanchez
returned to the war flying bombing missions out of Italy. His bomber was
shot down near the end of the war. Sanchez remained at his gun, covering
the parachute escape of the rest of the crew. Efforts still continue to
find his body in what eventually became the Communist country of East Germany.
After the war was over, returning veterans organized the
Joliet American Legion Band, under the direction of Archie McAllister Jr.
The band was so good that it was invited to compete in the 1946 national
championship at San Francisco. They didn't even have uniforms to wear.
So the former soldiers, sailors and airmen wore their military
uniforms. With military snap still in them, the young band played three
numbers and the audience stood on benches and cheered. The band was allowed
an extra encore and then brought home its first national championship. Since
then, this great band has won dozens of state and national championships.
The post-war period in Joliet saw rapid growth in chemical
manufacturing industries. In 1950, Caterpillar came to Joliet and started
building a plant on a 320-acre site along U.S. 6. The first shipment of
earth-moving equipment from the new plant that then employed 3,500 was on
March 7, 1951.
By this time, the Korean War had started. Once again, men
from this city responded to the need for fighting men. Of all their stories,
the struggle of Pvt. Ed Reeves stands out.
Reeves was just 17 when he enlisted in the Army. Two years
later, he was with the 31st Infantry Regiment during the fierce fighting
at the Changjin Reservoir in North Korea. The Americans were surrounded
by Chinese Communist troops, who attacked in wave after wave.
The young Joliet soldier was wounded in both legs by a mortar
shell. The weather was extremely cold with a deep snow. After a retreat
was ordered, the trucks carrying the wounded were stopped by the snow. Reeves
was among the wounded soldiers who were left behind in the trucks.
Chinese soldiers moved in and started killing the helpless
wounded men. But the enemy bullet fired at Reeves only creased his head.
He lay among his dead friends for three days. Then he started crawling slowly
through the snow.
He eventually was found by a low-flying Marine Corps plane,
which sent him help. Reeves survived the ordeal but he lost all his fingers
and both legs from frostbite.
Reeves received a hero's welcome home with a parade through
Joliet. He went on to become a missionary working in Columbia, El Salvador,
Honduras and other countries.
Like in the other wars, many Joliet men came home dead.
On Valentine's Day, 1951, three native sons lost their lives on the same
Korean battlefield.
In 1955, Joliet won an All-American city citation from the
National Municipal League. During that same year, the city's form of government
became the council-manager system, which had been approved by a public referendum
in 1954.
In 1957, a Joliet mystery made national headlines in newspapers.
Amelia "Molly" Zelko, who ran a weekly newspaper in the city,
disappeared. She had been battling the mob and corrupt politicians on the
pages of her newspaper, The Spectator.
Over the years, friends had told her repeatedly that someday
the gangsters would get her. Zelko would laugh and reply that if they tried,
"I'll kick off my shoes and run."
On the early morning of Sept. 25, 1957, Zelko's shoes were
found near her car, which was parked in front of her home on Buell Avenue.
A massive investigation followed for more than a year by local police with
the FBI declining to get officially involved. Zelko was never found and
her disappearance still remains as an unsolved Joliet mystery.
John F. Kennedy campaigned for president in Joliet in the
fall of 1960. More than 25,000 people crowded into the downtown to hear
the youthful Democratic candidate speak. Kennedy was overwhelmed with the
enthusiastic reception he received here.
During the late 1960s, a new county courthouse and a new
city hall were constructed. But the downtown already was struggling as more
and more stores made plans to move westward. The Jefferson Street business
district quickly grew in popularity. The city built two big downtown parking
decks in the 1970s. But this still didn't stop businesses from leaving the
downtown area.
In 1976 during the nation's 200th birthday, the community
built a special park and theater complex. Bicentennial Park, located on
the west side of the DesPlaines River, was built where the original stores
of the city once had stood.
The summer of 1983 was full of terror for Joliet and its
neighboring communities. A serial killer was on the loose and 17 people,
including two county auxiliary sheriff's officers, were murdered. Among
these murders, five were shot to death in an ambush in Homer Township on
July 16; four women were slaughtered in an East Cass Street ceramics shop
on Aug. 20.
While the Guardian Angels from New York City walked patrols
on dark Joliet streets, a massive police investigation was taking place.
Prayer rallies were held in the city appealing to God for help. On a spring
night in 1984, investigators finally caught the killer, a former convict
who had been out of prison for only one year.
Street gangs started forming in Joliet during the late 1970s
and early 1980s. Initially considered just kids playing with spraypaint
cans, the gangs gained strength and increased their force throughout the
1980s when they became violent.
There were lots of shootings in the city while the gangs
fought over territory to sell drugs. Like a ping-pong ball in motion, they
shot each other in a series of drive-by shootings that often resulted in
death. Innocent bystanders, including children, sometimes got caught in
the crossfire.
The gang-related shootings peaked in 1993 with 124 drive-by
shooting incidents, 85 people wounded and 11 gang-related murders; the previous
year wasn't much better with 114 shootings that added up to 88 wounded and
11 deaths. Since then, however, the gang-related drive-by shootings have
continued in the city but at a slower rate. In 1997, there were 55 gang-related
shooting incidents.
Joliet today
As the city prepares to enter into the new century, Joliet
is still growing. Growing in population, geography, businesses and housing.
The 1998 community profile, as prepared by the city staff,
shows a population of 92,000 with an expected population of 120,000 during
the next two decades. Of them, more than 35,000 are part of this city's
labor force.
The city has two large hospitals, lots of parks, theaters,
schools, colleges, a great library and golf courses. In recent years, Empress
and Harrah's riverboat casinos with gambling operations have become two
of the largest employers in Joliet. A new race track business opened in
1998.
"Rapid residential and commercial growth have combined
with a revitalized city center to make Joliet a point of destination within
its own right..." states the community profile. "Joliet is the
third- fastest growing city in the state of Illinois."
If Louis Joliet could see the city today that carries his
name, perhaps he would be proud of this spot of earth. Proud of its history,
its accomplishments and its people.
But the mound that once carried the famous explorer's name
is gone. That big drift of rocks and clay laid down in the last of the glacial
age was used to help build this area. Its gravel was used in road beds,
its potters clay was used to make millions of bricks and tile.
Mound Joliet is gone. But the city of Joliet is here to
stay.
Writer's note: the information in this story comes
from old Joliet newspaper microfilm and from several local history books
available in the Joliet Public Library.
If you would like to read more about the history of this
community, books recommended for reading include: From Whence Came a
City by Lester F. Filson; A Look at Joliet and Will County, Illinois
by Jean Stout; Juliet and Joliet by William Grinton; Past
and Present of Will County, Volumes I and II by W.W. Stevens; History
of Will County, Volumes I and II by August C. Maue; History of Will
County, 1878 and Fifteen years Ago by George H. Woodruff.
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