Photo of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad #2
Photography -- Negatives
Glass Negatives
Rural Conditions
Sidney (Ill.)
Tents and cabins for the workers on the C&EI.
Everett C. Block Collection, 1902-2000, bulk 1902-1910, Champaign County Historical Archives at The Urbana Free Library
Everett C. Block
Undated
All images are provided for personal and educational use. Users planning to reproduce/publish images in books, articles, exhibits, videos, electronic transmission or other media must request permission by emailing archives@urbanafree.org.
Photograph
Photo of Prior House
Glass Negatives
Photography -- Negatives
Sidney (Ill.)
Country Life
In the History of Sidney, 1827-1976 the
house in this image is identified ‘as a cottage in Sidney now the home of Mrs. Eva Prior (1976).’ Eva Prior
(1892-1988), wife of Frederick Hilbert Prior (1892-1958), was born in Carlisle, Indiana. She lived in Sidney
for 56 years. In the early 1900s, when the picture was taken, this cottage belonged to P.N. Fightmaster
(1879-1954) and Frances née Wilson Fightmaster (1883-1960). He was a telegraph operator. They had
no children. The house is still standing (2016) at 215 East Byron Street, Sidney, Illinois.
Everett C. Block Collection, 1902-2000, bulk 1902-1910, Champaign County Historical Archives at The Urbana Free Library
Everett C. Block
Undated
All images are provided for personal and educational use. Users planning to reproduce/publish images in books, articles, exhibits, videos, electronic transmission or other media must request permission by emailing archives@urbanafree.org.
Photograph
Photo of Kammin Family
Glass Negatives
Photography -- Negatives
Country Life
Farm Life
Sidney (Ill.)
The Kammin family lived in the farmhouse where the glass plate negatives were found from the 1920s-1930s. William Kammin (1902-1988) had removed thirteen glass plate
negatives from the attic and taken them with him when he moved. He loaned these negatives to Everett Block to make prints. Those negatives were donated to the archives from the Kammin estate
and have been incorporated into the Block collection. The name J. J. Fisher is scratched into the back of
two of these negatives. Pictured in front of the house. Back row left to right: William, Frances, Elmer and Arthur Kammin. Front row left to right: John, Sr., Anna and John Kammin.
Everett C. Block Collection, 1902-2000, bulk 1902-1910, Champaign County Historical Archives at The Urbana Free Library
Everett C. Block
Undated
All images are provided for personal and educational use. Users planning to reproduce/publish images in books, articles, exhibits, videos, electronic transmission or other media must request permission by emailing archives@urbanafree.org.
Photograph
Photo of Everett C. Block, 1966
Sidney (Ill.)
Block Family
Photography -- Negatives
Glass Negatives
Everett C. Block (1921-2000) was born in Champaign County to Hilbert and Ella Lehmkuler
Block. He was the great-grandson of August Block for whom Block Station was named. Besides collecting
and curating an extensive collection of glass plate negatives from Sidney, Illinois and the surrounding
area, he served in the Navy and worked at the University of Illinois as an animal caretaker.
Everett C. Block Collection, 1902-2000, bulk 1902-1910, Champaign County Historical Archives at The Urbana Free Library
Everett C. Block
1966
All images are provided for personal and educational use. Users planning to reproduce/publish images in books, articles, exhibits, videos, electronic transmission or other media must request permission by emailing archives@urbanafree.org.
Photograph
Photo of Wrisk/Everhart/Olds House
Photography -- Negatives
Glass Negatives
Country Life
Sidney (Ill.)
John Wrisk (1857-1926) was
born in Madison, Indiana, but lived in the vicinity of Sidney nearly all his life. He owned a farm near the
corporate limits of Sidney. In 1897, he married Lettie Burnes (1870-1915) of Sidney and they had five
children, Nellie, Bessie, Joseph, Wilbur, and Jay Willard. Pictured, left to right, are Archie Thompson,
Vern Wrisk, John Wrisk, Pauline Wrisk, and Kate Wrisk. The house is still standing (2016) at 947 CR 2050 East, Sidney, Illinois.
Everett C. Block Collection, 1902-2000, bulk 1902-1910, Champaign County Historical Archives at The Urbana Free Library
Everett C. Block
Undated
All images are provided for personal and educational use. Users planning to reproduce/publish images in books, articles, exhibits, videos, electronic transmission or other media must request permission by emailing archives@urbanafree.org.
Photograph
Photo of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad #1
Sidney (Ill.)
Glass Negatives
Photography -- Negatives
Country Life
Rural Conditions
Cut for the C&EI railroad. What is special
about this photograph is the photographer has etched his name in the emulsion on the back of the
plate. If you look in the upper right corner you can see the mirror image of ‘J.J. Fisher [space] Sidney.’
Everett C. Block Collection, 1902-2000, bulk 1902-1910, Champaign County Historical Archives at The Urbana Free Library
Everett C. Block
Undated
All images are provided for personal and educational use. Users planning to reproduce/publish images in books, articles, exhibits, videos, electronic transmission or other media must request permission by emailing archives@urbanafree.org.
Photograph
Photo of Cottrel/Eaton/Gerald House
Glass Negatives
Sidney (Ill.)
Photography -- Negatives
Country Life
Rural Conditions
This is the only picture in the original 210 negatives developed by Block that features snow. Lighting and exposure times became trickier in snowy conditions. The house is still standing (2016) at 101 West Prairie Street, Sidney, Illinois but has been remodeled.
Everett C. Block Collection, 1902-2000, bulk 1902-1910, Champaign County Historical Archives at The Urbana Free Library
Everett C. Block
Undated
All images are provided for personal and educational use. Users planning to reproduce/publish images in books, articles, exhibits, videos, electronic transmission or other media must request permission by emailing archives@urbanafree.org.
Photograph
Photo of the Thompson Farmhouse
Farms
Farm Life
Country Life
Glass Negatives
Photography -- Negatives
Sidney (Ill.)
The glass negative for this picture as well as 200+ others were found in the house’s attic in 1946, by Everett Block. Archibald Thompson and his family lived in the house in the early 1900s. The Kammin family lived in the
house from the 1920s-1930s, and Everett Block and his family resided there from 1946-1963. The house
was torn down in 1993. Pictured here are Archibald Thompson (1838-1915) and his daughter Eva. Eva would later move to Lander, Wyoming. The house was at the West edge of the NE ¼ of Section 21, in Sidney Township, south of Sidney, Illinois.
Everett C. Block Collection, 1902-2000, bulk 1902-1910, Champaign County Historical Archives at The Urbana Free Library
Everett C. Block
Undated
ll images are provided for personal and educational use. Users planning to reproduce/publish images in books, articles, exhibits, videos, electronic transmission or other media must request permission by emailing archives@urbanafree.org.
Photograph
Photo of Hess/Smock House
Photography -- Negatives
Glass Negatives
Country Life
Rural Conditions
Sidney (Ill.)
Built by Merriam Hess, contractor and
insurance agent, in 1894. Pictured in the photo, left to right, are Oral Vera Hess (1892-1970), Clara
Wilson Hess (1866-1940), and Merriam Hess (1862-1931). Vera Hess was superintendent of home
economics at Ishpeming, Michigan high school for 17 years. In 1942, she married Reverend Guy Edward
Smock, and returned to live in her family home until her death in 1970. The house is still standing
(2016) at 311 S. David Street, Sidney, Illinois.
Everett C. Block Collection, 1902-2000, bulk 1902-1910, Champaign County Historical Archives at The Urbana Free Library
Everett C. Block
Undated
All images are provided for personal and educational use. Users planning to reproduce/publish images in books, articles, exhibits, videos, electronic transmission or other media must request permission by emailing archives@urbanafree.org.
Photograph
Photo of Cotton/Leuty House, 1902
Glass negatives
Photography -- Negatives
Country Life
Farm Life
Rural Conditions
Sidney (Ill.)
Homer (Ill.)
Charles Cotton (1860-1949) resided in this home in 1902
when this picture was taken. He married Alice Coddington (1864-1946) and they had three sons Robert, Frank, and Carl (died at birth). The boys Robert and Frank are pictured. Robert is holding the cow.
Cotton was considered one of the top enterprising and progressive agriculturists of Sidney Township.
This house is no longer standing.
Everett C. Block Collection, 1902-2000, bulk 1902-1910, Champaign County Historical Archives at The Urbana Free Library
Everett C. Block
1902
All images are provided for personal and educational use. Users planning to reproduce/publish images in books, articles, exhibits, videos, electronic transmission or other media must request permission by emailing archives@urbanafree.org.
Photograph