The Rock Island hauled cement in this period from the two sets of limestone
mines at Utica. East of Utica the sandstone is in the upper layers of the bluff
and west of Utica the upper layers are limestone. It is a great place to take
geography/geology students so that they can see an obvious fault line. The
Black Ball Mine operated until 1908 and then was reopened in 1912/1923. The
Black Ball provided "hydraulic cement" for the mass of skyscraper building in
Chicago during the early twentieth century. My notes on LaSalle county economic
development are only fragmentary at the moment due to a flood in the mid 1980s
that destroy much of my research. I am sure someone on the list knows when the
cement plants at Oglesby opened. The one at the lower level near the river was
the one serviced by the Q.
My father always told a story about nearly getting killed when someone answer
the dispatchers phone and told him to return up the grade because the engine
was waiting at the depot. It wasn't and he and his MOW crew had to jump off
the speeder and trailers moments before being stuck by the engine coming down
the grade. It turned out it was a Q salesmen who answered the phone because the
dispatcher was indisposed. The matter went up the line and the cost for the
accident was tagged to advertising and the responsibility was put on the
salesman and not the dispatcher or my dad who was the foreman of the MOW crew.
Ed
________________________________________
From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com [CBQ@yahoogroups.com] on behalf of qutlx1@aol.com
[qutlx1@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 8:22 PM
To: cbq@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [CBQ] Sheridan,Ladd,La Salle,IL etc
I was at an estate auction in Sheridan,Illinois this past Saturday.
Besides the Q items(Calendars,ETTs,switch keys,etc) what was really interesting
were the old postcards.
There hundreds of them,the auction crew had placed them in the ever
present "flats" with about 10-15 in each. In a few of the "flats" there were
postcards of Sheridan,Ladd and LaSalle depots,main streets,industries,etc. Each
"flat" went for hundreds of $s !!!!!!!!!!!!
Why,what do the buyers do with these?
I have made trips to Ladd to explore as I've always been interested in
this little crossroads that drew so many RRs. The postcards showed a
town,bank,stores,mines,etc where today there is nothing.
But the real highlight for me were the postcards of the Q gravel pit at
Sheridan. I knew Yagan Pit had been a Q owned quarry but not Sheridan. The
postcards showed steam shovels loading wood gons. The postcards as well as
the steam shovels and cars were all Q marked.
Does anyone know which of the 2 pits started as a Q operation? The east
pit or the west one? I believe the operators in the 60s and 70s were Conco
and Western. Right now w/o my files I don't remember which was which.
The 1892 La Salle county plat book I picked up shows coal mines right in
the towns of Ottawa,La Salle and Streator and the track work in detail !
Suprisingly there weren't any cement operations around Oglesby and La Salle in
1892.
Leo Phillipp
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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