Rondout Train Robbery's Missing Loot

One of my recent posts was about the Rondout Train Robbery of 1924--the largest train robbery in U.S. history. The fact that $1 million was never recovered, out of the $3 million in cash, jewels and bonds that was stolen, has always intrigued me.

I've often wondered what would happen if someone found the loot which is believed to have been buried in glass mason jars somewhere in Lake County. Well, turns out that question may be answered in a somewhat similar case. An article published today by Matt Apuzzo and Alicia A. Caldwell of the Associated Press sheds some light.

Read Apuzzo's and Caldwell's story here: Buried Loot a Mystery for Authorities.

So, for any of you treasure hunters hoping to find the Rondout bounty... beware. Unearthed, decaying money will be regarded suspicously, if not downright sinisterly by authorities when trying to cash it in. Hmm, would they be opposed to it being donated to a museum for its historical value?

Fair time...

It's high summer and for a lot of communities that means the beginning of fair season. The Lake County Fair is going on this week, July 22-27, and is celebrating its 156th anniversary.

The county's fair was begun by local nurseryman, Robert Douglas, who held arbor and floral exhibits at the county courthouse in Waukegan during summers in the late 1840s. His project turned into the Lake County Agricultural Society which in turn became the Lake County Fair Association. The first county fair was held in Waukegan in 1852.

And what would a fair be without a fair queen? The first modern pageant was staged by P.T. Barnum in 1854. The first bathing beauty pageant took place as part of a summer festival to promote business in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, in 1880 with inventor, Thomas Edison, as a judge, and the prize a bridal trousseau.

The Chicago World’s Fair of 1933-34, chose Miss Lillian Anderson (see photo) of Racine, Wisconsin, and later of Libertyville, to be the fair’s queen. Anderson paraded with her court of fifty attendants into the fair on opening day. The attendants wore white and cream dresses with broad-brimmed hats of red. The Chicago Daily News described the scene: “Queen Lillian herself occupied a red throne under a feathery red canopy and smiled prettily at the reviewing stand with a perfectly executed "eyes right."

Pickard China

A gravy boat produced by Pickard China of Antioch was recently donated to the museum's permanent collections.

This particular food service item was made for the United States Quarter Master Corp (U.S.Q.M.C.) for the U.S. Navy in March 1942. The gravy boat contract kept the company afloat (so to speak), and also kept a lot of locals employed during the rough economic times of World War II.

The company's history relates that: "Austin Pickard successfully bid on a Navy contract for gravy boats. These heavy chunks of institutional ware were a far cry from the delicate, sculptured procelain with which the company had become identified... it was the fuel oil allotment [from the government] that fired the kilns and kept the company alive."

The company was established in Edgerton, Wisconsin in 1893 by Wilder Austin Pickard. In 1897, the company moved to Chicago where it was decorating company, specializing in hand painted art pieces, dessert and tea sets. In 1937, production moved to Antioch. Since 1977, Pickard has manufactured the official china service for U.S. embassies around the world. The U.S. Department of State selected the company for this honor, and also to create the china for Air Force One and Camp David.

Pickard is one of the oldest continuous manufacturers in Lake County, and is still in operation in Antioch.

Hemingway and Cats

In this weekend's paper, there was an article by Steve Dale titled, "The Truth About Cats." It explored that there are 10 million more cats in American homes than dogs, (82 million to 72 million), but they're not taken care of nearly as well as dogs.

The article went on to say that "Just 2% to 5% of lost cats at shelters are ever reclaimed" by their owners. This is a very sad state of affairs. Certainly there are many Americans who adore their cats, but why do some folks have pets if they don't care if they're lost?

What happened to the good ole days of Ernest Hemingway and his six-toed feline friends? Hemingway (1899 - 1961), the famous American novelist, was given a six-toed cat by a ship's captain and some of the original cat's descendants survive to this day among the aproximately 60 cats protected at the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West, Florida.

Searching for cats that were well-loved in historic Lake County, Illinois, I came across the attached photo of Bess Dunn (1877-1959), and her cat, taken circa 1900. Bess was a Waukegan resident and county historian, and the first woman in motion pictures. There are several photos in the Bess Dunn Collection in which this particular large gray cat is being cuddled.

Silos: An American Innovation

What structure on the American landscape best represents the nation's heritage? I would argue that it's the barn. Sure these days farming is a mysterious profession for most of us, but there was a time, and not so long ago that 80% of Americans labored on farms.

When you think of barns you also should think of silos. The towering, vertical silos we know today, especially here in the Midwest, are a truly American innovation, and go hand-in-hand with barns.

Influenced by grain storage pits of the "old world" and corn cellars of Native Americans, the first known upright wooden silo was constructed in 1873 by Fred Hatch of McHenry County, Illinois. However, Wisconsin bears the honor of having more silos than any other state.

The prime reason for Wisconsin’s numerous silos is its dairy industry. Until the 1870s, winter or year-round dairying was rarely an option, because it was difficult to provide sufficient succulent food for cows to maintain milk production. But by storing silage (green fodder) in an air-tight container (silo), it stopped fermentation, preserving the feed until it was needed, creating a boom in dairying.

The use of silos spread by word of mouth and through farming magazines. By 1924 there were more than 100,000. During World War I farmers were asked to raise more food for the war effort. Building a silo was equated with patriotism while building a large barn was a symbol of a farmer's prosperity.

Silos have been built of wood, fieldstone, tile, brick, concrete and steel, and have ranged in height from 35 to 60 feet. Beginning in the 1930s, barns and silos along state roads were sometimes used to advertise products, similar to today’s billboards. The attached photo of a silo (razed in 2003) was along “old” Route 41 (Greenbay Road) in Waukegan. Even with its paint faded with time, you can still see the advertisement for Miller High Life Beer.

A couple of notable silos that have been preserved in the county: Two concrete stave silos at Bonner Heritage Farm in Lindenhurst constructed by a commercial company in 1932 and 1950; and a masonry block silo (circa 1925) on the south side of Route 60, east of Butterfield Road in Vernon Hills--a remnant of a dairy farm and of the village's distant agricultural past.

The 2002 Census of Agriculture in Lake County shows that 337 active farms with 38,860acres of farmland remain in the county.

Rondout

With all the flooding in the Midwest in recent weeks, I recalled this photo of a flood in Rondout, circa 1938.

It's a striking image with the steam engine barreling through the floodwaters and an unidentified man in coveralls holding his dog.

The tiny, unincorporated Rondout is located between Knollwood and Libertyville along Route 176. It grew around the railroad lines that passed through it and was originally an agricultural area known as Sulphur Glen. It was supposedly renamed Rondout when a business from Rondout, New York considered moving there.

The site is famous for the largest train robbery in U.S. history which occurred there on the night of June 12, 1924. Chicago gangsters, including the Newton Boys out of Texas, stopped a U.S. postal train on the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad and stole an estimated $3 million in cash, bonds and jewelry. The crime was master-minded from the inside by U.S. postal inspector, William Fahy.

Gang members (minus Fahy) boarded the train wearing gas masks and carrying revolvers at the Buckley Road crossing near Rondout. During the hold-up one of the gang, J.H. Wayne, was shot by another gang member when he was mistaken for part of the train crew. The injured man was seen in Chicago and reported to authorities.

Headlines for June 15 from the Chicago Tribune read “Dying Man Gives Clew [sic] to Mail Robbers and Loot.” Within a few days most of the gang were arrested, and by August, Fahy was arrested, too. All were found guilty and sentenced from three to twenty-five years in prison.

To this day, more than $1 million has never been recovered.

Vanished Airfields

A researcher called the Archives looking for information on the defunct Chicagoland Airport, once located in the Half Day/Lincolnshire area. After checking the news clipping files and finding only a couple of references, I remembered a website I had stumbled across doing research on the Haley Army Airfield at Fort Sheridan.

The website Abandoned and Little Known Airfields is a fantastic source of information on airports that have vanished throughout the country. Indeed, the site had a good deal of information, maps, and aerial photos about the former Chicagoland airport located at Route 45 and Half Day Road. 

The airfield began as a U.S. Navy flight training airfield in 1945, known as Half Day Naval Outlying Landing Field.

The airfield was first known as Chicagoland Airport in 1948. It closed in about 1978.

Aerial view of Chicagoland Airport, circa 1960. Bess Bower Dunn Museum, 2006.16.

Post updated 10/8/2024