While studying a
1916 Sanborn Map trying to understand the scope of the Illinois Zinc Co. and to find freight houses, I found some breweries and coal mines. It was a little difficult finding where they would have been now because many more streets went through to Water Street in 1916. And a good number of the north/south streets have been renamed.
I found two coal mines down by the railroad tracks.
- The Illinois Zinc Co., Coal Mine #3 was south of the Rock Island tracks and just a little to the West of Peru Beer. (Sheet 9, but access is now restricted :-()
- Carbon Coal Co.'s Union Shaft was just east of the Westclox buildings. (Sheet 12, but access is now restricted :-()
The red rectangle delineates the buildings of the Peru Beer Co. The yellow rectangle delineates the buildings of the Illinois Zinc Co., Coal Mine #3.
The red rectangle delineates the buildings of the Union Shaft of the Carbon Coal Co.
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Bruce Liebe posted
Here is a bottle of "Rocket Beer" brewed by the Peru Product Company of Peru, IL. The brewery was also known locally as Hebel's Brewery. The label depicts a CRI&P passenger train which appears to consist of a TA diesel and a four car articulated trainset. This brewery sat to the north of the Rock Island tracks and was served by the RI back in the day. The brewery closed in 1943. The Rock served another brewery on the west side of Peru, the Star Union Products Company. The Peru Products/Hebel's brewery still stands. Star Union closed in 1966 and with the exception of the bottling building, has been torn down.
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Frank Smitty Schmidt posted
1868 CRI&P (?) taking on a load of beer from a brewery in Peru IL.
Look at that primitive roadbed and hand hewn untreated ties on a mud bed. Seems that the line was recently constructed.
I used to live in Peru. There were two breweries at the time, Union Beer (Later changed to Star Union) and the Peru Beer company. The old water tower for Peru Beer is still standing. |
Three of the five photos posted by John Joseph Walsh III.
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While deleting spam comments, I somehow deleted one for these notes that was very informative. (And some of the spam comments did not get removed.) Fortunately, I still had the comment's content in an email. It will be a while before I get a chance to address this comment. The comment read:
ReplyDeleteVery nice photos. Nice sleuthing with the 1939 air photo. I have a few minor corrections: 1) as near as I can tell by using Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, the "old water tower" was for use by Illinois Zinc at the bottom of the hill beyond the brewery.
2) Star Union was at the bottom of Brewery Hill, so the bridge you point out in that photo cannot be the bridge in photo C because photo C shows the old Maze Lumberyard office (far right side of the photo) on the NW corner of Water Street and Plain Street. That bridge is now completely filled in and the drainage that ran under it is now several big concrete culverts going into the Illinois River.
3) And now a question: What mine do you think is in the last 3 photos? There were at least 2 right in town along the bluff, one for Illinois Zinc and the other right at the east edge of Westclox on the west edge of the ravine. Another was on the east edge of La Salle. Train visible down low visible above the bridge is what train?
Thank you for posting the photos.
My next post answers my question about which mine is shown in your last 3 photos above: Jonesville.
DeleteTake a look at this website https://guitarjourney.tripod.com/rayslasallecountyonlinemuseum/id6.html
ReplyDeleteand find the labelled photo that looks just like your last 3 photos. That is the Carbon Coal Company #1 mine north of Jonesville. The mine dump is still clearly visible on Google Maps!
I'm busy processing information on the SS Keetawin, so I currently don't have time to pursue this. But I can point you to my standard references for coal mines in Illinois.
DeleteThe links to pdfs in https://isgs.illinois.edu/research/coal/maps/county/lasalle for a directory and a map.
The topo quads: https://wikiimage.isgs.illinois.edu/ilmines/webfiles/topo-mines/lasalle.pdf and https://wikiimage.isgs.illinois.edu/ilmines/webfiles/topo-mines/spring-valley.pdf
Also, I see I have written some notes on the coal mines in La Salle including a duplicate (bummer).
https://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/2022/08/oglesby-il-oglesby-coal-co-mine.html
https://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/2023/01/la-salle-c-jonesville-il-lasalle-county.html
https://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/2022/07/la-salle-c-la-salle-il-lasalle-county.html
my email is bruler@xnet.com. Send me an email so that I know that emailing works, then I'll delete this comment. I do appreciate the info. But I know I get confused whenever I dive into the topic of coal mines and railroads in this area, so I want to wait until I have some time. And now I know I have a duplicate post that needs fixing.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRemoved because it was written before the response from Dennis came through! So here is a modified reply to the one from Dennis.
DeleteA quick response from Dennis. Thank you. I understand you are busy. I just don't want you or folks who read this blog on Peru IL Breweries and Coal Mines to get the wrong idea about where things are located! I am not complaining. Just trying to point you in the right direction for your posts on Peru when you get the time!