Lee County Historical and Genealogical Society

Lee County Historical and Genealogical Society The Stella Grobe Research Center and Rita Welsh Memorial Library together have the area's best collection of local historical and genealogical references.

Our open hours:

Call 815-284-1134 to check status of opening or to make a request to come into the center. You may also email us which might have a faster response than a phone call. Our email address is [email protected]. We actively doing research and inquiries.

From the Pictorial History of Lee County Schools - Red Brick School, completed in 1869, was located on Seventh Street ne...
09/12/2026

From the Pictorial History of Lee County Schools - Red Brick School, completed in 1869, was located on Seventh Street near Highland Avenue in Dixon for a cost of $32,000. Later the name was changed to E.C. Smith in honor of is former superintendent. The school operated until 1938 when Lincoln School opened. In the summer of 1939, the school was torn down to make way for tennis courts and a playground.

Couldn't pick just one - a few views of the Dixon Collegiate Institute from our collection. Corner stone was laid on Ju...
09/12/2026

Couldn't pick just one - a few views of the Dixon Collegiate Institute from our collection. Corner stone was laid on July 4, 1855 in Bluff Park. The school was endowed to the extent of $25,000, with generous donations by the citizens of Dixon of grounds, property, apparatus, etc. to the extent of $12,000. Incorporated in 1857, it later became the home of different private schools, and finally gave way to residences.

Meet W. W. Harsha and family - wife, Catherine Smith, William, Ida and Albert.William Willett Harsha was born in West He...
09/12/2026

Meet W. W. Harsha and family - wife, Catherine Smith, William, Ida and Albert.
William Willett Harsha was born in West Hebron, Washington
County, New York in 1821. He graduated from Union College,
Schenectady, New York in 1843 where he studied law but shortly after entering upon the practice, changed his profession and entered the ministry, in connection with the Associate Presbyterian Church. He commenced his ministry in Galena in 1846. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1872 from Fulton College, Missouri.
On going to Dixon in 1855 he founded the Presbyterian Institution, known as Dixon Collegiate Institute and acted for some years as its president. He was also the first formal pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Dixon. The family left Dixon in 1862 and relocated to Chicago for several years and then Jacksonville. In 1876, his wife, Catherine died and he remarried two years later to Alice Dickey, a teacher at the Illinois Institute for the Blind, located in Jacksonville. In 1884, they moved to Omaha, Nebraska , where he had accepted the presidency of Bellevue College, Nebraska. William died at age 79 as a result of railroad accident in Missouri. His body was returned to Dixon and he is buried in the family lot in Oakwood Cemetery.
*William was a brother-in-law of well known Dixon resident, Prof. E.C. Smith.

Meet Simeon T. Josselyn Simeon Truman Josselyn was born in Buffalo, New York on January 14, 1842, the son of Samuel J. J...
08/29/2026

Meet Simeon T. Josselyn
Simeon Truman Josselyn was born in Buffalo, New York on January 14, 1842, the son of Samuel J. Josselyn and Rebecca (Teachout) Josselyn. Simeon lived in Amboy for ten years, along with an uncle, Sydney Josselyn. Simeon enlisted in the Union Army on April 21, 1861. He rose to the rank of sergeant before receiving his second lieutenant's commission in November 1862. He was promoted to first lieutenant in November 1863 and discharged in June 1864.
He was awarded the medal "for extraordinary heroism on 25 November 1863, while serving with Company C, 13th Illinois Infantry, in action at Missionary Ridge, Tennessee. While commanding his company, deployed as skirmishers, First Lieutenant Josselyn came upon a large body of the enemy, taking a number of them prisoner. Lieutenant Josselyn himself shot their Color Bearer, seized the colors and brought them back to his regiment." The flag that Josselyn took was from the 18th Alabama infantry, and was held by General Daniel Butterfield and then the US War Department before it was given to Alabama in 1905.
In this action against the 18th Alabama Infantry, Josselyn single-handedly captured the nine men of the regimental color guard, who were returned to the Union lines as prisoners.
After the war, Josselyn worked for the Illinois Central Railroad. He later moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where he worked as an accountant and paymaster for the Union Pacific Railroad and was the corporate secretary for the Omaha Fire Insurance Company. He subsequently started his own insurance brokerage, S. T. Josselyn & Company. Josselyn was a Mason and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.
Josselyn later moved to Skagway, Alaska, where he was an auditor for the White Pass and Yukon Route, dividing his time between Skagway and Seattle, Washington, where his wife and daughter lived. He died in Skagway on April 4, 1905. Josselyn was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Omaha. The unincorporated community of Josselyn, Nebraska in Dawson County was named for him.
In 1869, Josselyn married to Henrietta E. "Ettie" Cutler (1849–1928). They were the parents of two daughters, Blanche and May.
Information from the Iron Brigader website, Newspapers.com and Ancestry

Crest Foods in Ashton celebrates 80 years !From "The Ashton Story" by Robert Dean."In the late 1930s A.C. Nankivil came ...
08/29/2026

Crest Foods in Ashton celebrates 80 years !
From "The Ashton Story" by Robert Dean.
"In the late 1930s A.C. Nankivil came to Ashton and erected a $5,000 building on South Douglas Ave. just south of the railroad to house a cheese plant. The processing had been going on in a building at the southwest corner of Cartwright Ave. and the highway operated by Jacob Leuzinger and sons. In 1946 M & S Dairy Specialities announced plans to incorporate here for the production of ice cream stabilizers and dairy products. The company was formed by George W. McDonald and E.C. Scott who were joined shortly by Tom Gaskins. They began operations by leasing part of the Ashton Cheese Co. building and in March 1948 leased the formed Hamel building at the northeast corner of Main At. and Evans Ave. The name was changed to Crest Foods in 1949. Scott left the firm in 1954 and McDonald in 1958. In January 1968, Jay Meiners, Richard Moeller, Bert Kemp and Ray Sailer (manager of the Forreston plant) bought the firm from Gaskins. The plant underwent many expansions and additions, including additional buildings south of the railroad on Brown Ave., plus a complex of buildings outside of town."

08/26/2026

We have the following Amboy High School Yearbooks for sale at $10.00 a book.
1926, 1928, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1963, 1978, 1980, 1991, 1992, 1993, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010
These can be purchased at 113 S. Hennepin Ave., Dixon, IL. I can mail one to you also. Media mail is close to $6.00.

08/26/2026

The Dixon High School yearbooks having been flying off our shelves. We had multiple copies of each, so I just checked. We still have the following available for $10 a book.
1917, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1938, 1929, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1945,1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1978, 1979, 1980 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2003

Address

113 S Hennepin Avenue
Dixon, IL
61021

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm
Saturday 9am - 12pm

Telephone

(815) 284-1134

Website

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