• Editor’s Note: This article is part of a weekly series on Kane County’s amazing history. Today’s article was contributed by Elizabeth Marston of the Elgin History Museum.
  

Everyone and everything has a story to tell. You, your family, your house, your farm, your business, your school, your neighbors. Together they form the 184-year-old story that is Elgin.

These remarkable stories are all around us.

Listen carefully … You can almost hear the voices from our past.

At the Elgin History Museum, we believe in preserving artifacts that tell stories. We believe in hosting programs featuring experts who interpret stories for us. We believe in sharing Elgin’s stories with our youngest generation.

We believe in producing documentaries and oral histories that preserve and present Elgin’s story.

Each year at this time, the Museum Board of Directors reaches out to members and friends to ask for their continued support during the museum’s annual Board Fundraising Drive. Your financial gift assists in helping the community discover Elgin’s stories through education, preservation, interpretation, research and collections.

Please consider a donation today. But then, do more than donate: Stop by the museum and tell us your story. We’re listening!

To donate online, click on this link to Paypal.

Or you can send a check to Elgin History Museum, 360 Park St., Elgin, IL 60120. Gifts to the Elgin Area Historical Society, a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization, are tax deductible.

Sincerely,

The Board of Directors

• Al Walters, President
• George Rowe, Vice President
• Laura Stroud, Secretery
• Ricky Harris, Correspondence Secretery
• Bill Briska, Treasurer
• Jim Anderson
• Betsy Armistead
• Jerri Barnhart
• Harry Blizzard
• Alisa Corsi
• Barry Danielson
• Terry Gabel
• Tricia Grosser
• Paul Larson
• Sandi McClure
• David Nelson
• Don Pielin
• Mark Preradovic
• Jerry Roller
• Dennis Roxworthy
• Christen Sundquist
• Jerry Turnquist
• Tina Viglucci

About The Elgin History Museum

Visit the Elgin History Museum at 360 Park St. in Elgin. Step back into history as you enter Old Main, the stately Greek Revival school building opened in 1856.

Two floors of interactive exhibits help you time travel back to Elgin’s beginnings in 1835. Hear the tick of an Elgin Watch or the roar of the crowd at the Elgin Road Races.

Be sure to see the new exhibit, Education For All: Elgin High School 150 Years, and hear the school’s fight song! Open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Admission is free for members, $3 for guests, $1 for students and free to children.

Read The Kane County History Series!

• 1850-1925 Geneva — When Penmanship Was Mightier Than The Sword
• St. Charles Museum Site — From Serving Gas To Preserving History
• Elgin Puts 3,500 Priceless Photos Online
• Batavia-Inspired Miniatures Thrilled a Nation
• Aurora’s Maud Powell, World Famous Violinist
• Waxing Nostalgic on Geneva’s WGSB, WFXW
• American Doughboys of WWI — in St. Charles, IL
• Experience High-Tech History at April 21 ‘Open Elgin’ Event
• Batavia, IL — ‘Windmill Capital of The World’
• Meet Andy Aurora, Man About Town
• Celebrating The 50th Anniversary of 9-1-1 in Geneva
• Blue Goose And Evergreen Pub — ‘Shop Local’ 90 Years In The Making
• Elgin Is The Apple of Illinois Bicentennial’s Eye
• Nordens Soner And Batavia’s Swedish Society
• Aurora’s Melting Pot ‘Yearning To Breathe Free’
• Candles, Timing Devices, Phonographs And The ‘Life Cup’ — All Things Made in Geneva
• Hotel Baker, The ‘Masterpiece’ of The Fox Valley
• Elgin Celebrates Our Once-Burgeoning Dairy Business
• Reflections of Batavia’s Quarry Beach Pool
• Aurora’s Mabel O’Donnell, Author of “Alice And Jerry’ Books
• As Alice (Davis) Says, ‘Schools Out For Summer!’
• Elgin Watches, ‘The World’s Standard’
• Aurora Silverplate a Symbol of Good Taste
• Women Leaders Played Huge Roles in Geneva
• Nationally Renowned Summer Camp in St. Charles
• The Harrowing Story of William Lynch, Elgin’s Civil War Brigadier General
• Batavia Powered The Aurora, Elgin & Chicago Railway
• Corsets Doing Big Business in Aurora? Scandalous!
• One Block of Geneva Tells 1,001 Fantastic Stories
• St. Charles’ Evergreen Pub — The ‘Before’ Photos
• 1917-18 — When Elgin Artists Went to War
• Thomas Cleveland — Batavia’s Presidential Connection
• Do Your Wurst — Aurora Meat Markets Are ‘In’ Again
• Geneva Is The Place For Graveyards And Ghosts
• Visit Amelia Anderson At St. Charles’ North Side Cemetery
• Calling All Artists! … For a Cobblestone Reflection in Elgin
• Batavia’s 108-Year-Old Gazebo Still Lights The Way
• The Compelling, Tragic Story of Aurora’s Black WWI Hero Frank Boger
• Geneva History Museum Invites Artists To Celebrate Cultural Heritage
• Elgin’s Anson Clark Soared in The Great War … And Life
• What It Meant To Be a Patrol Boy and Louise White School
• ‘Men’s Night’ Christmas Shopping Was a 1950’s Aurora Phenomenon
• St. Charles Remembers Colson’s Christmas-Day Fire of ’33
• The Art of Elgin’s Cobblestone Reflections
• When Suffrage Met Prohibition in Batavia
• Geneva Presents The Art of The Fox River
• Blansford Astronomical Clock Is Aurora’s Treasure
• St. Charles Returns Family Heirlooms From WWII
• Museum Lands Painting By Elgin Artist Albert Kenney
• Cars Still Fixed at Historic Location in Downtown Batavia
• A Bird’s-Eye View of 19th Century Geneva
• Sheldon Peck: Kane County’s Connection To The Underground Railroad
• Elgin High School Celebrates 150 Years of ‘Education For All’
• Batavia’s Incredible Roller Skating History
• The Fabled History of Jewelry Stores in Geneva
• Astonishing Buried Treasure Discovered in Aurora Outhouse
• Lincoln Elementary School in St. Charles Celebrates 90 Years of Education
• Remembering Elgin High Grad, Renowned Composer Daniel Brewbaker, 1951 – 2017
• Meet Batavia’s Sharron Moran, LPGA Star, ‘Most Beautiful Golfer’ of 1966
• The Many Iterations of Geneva’s National Food Store
• The Burlington Zephyr — A ‘Silver Streak’ Through Aurora
• What IS That Thing in Downtown St. Charles?
• 18 Events, Limited-Edition Poster For Preservation Month in Elgin!
• Julius Amandus Anderson’s WWI Memorial Trapunto Banner
• Geneva’s Swedish Days Celebrates Its 70th Anniversary
• The Historic Drive To Save Aurora’s GAR Hall
• The Story of St. Charles’ Paddlewheel Riverboats
• Meet Elgin’s Legendary Marshal — Andrew Barclay Spurling
• Jackie DeShannon ‘Put A Little Love’ In Batavia
• Aurora’s William S. Hart, Cowboy Movie Star
• Kane County History: St. Charles’ First Settlers, One Lost, Found Again