Champaign County History Museum Stories

TELLING OUR STORY

The museum's primary educational mission is to tell the stories of Champaign County. We strive to tell those stories in various ways, including monthly articles curated by our volunteers and staff, our monthly recorded "History Talks," and our oral history collection that allows residents to tell their own stories. These resources are available to the public below.

The Grentz Saga: A Golden Age for Women's Basketball at UIUC

By Isabella Cook At the end of the 1994-1995 season, the Fighting Illini Women’s Basketball Team was close to a crisis. In twenty years of the program, they had achieved a 264-298 losing overall record and were used to sitting at the bottom of the Big 10 conference rankings(1). In a time when collegiate women’s basketball dynasties were emerging at schools like Tennessee, Stanford, and Connecticut, the Fighting Illini couldn’t even buy a tournament bid. And with the WNBA st

Isabella Cook

May 112 min read

More than Temperance: The CU Woman's Christian Temperance Union

By Sara Linne The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was not only a temperance organization. Members were actively involved in politics, suffrage movements, and, as the name suggests, Christianity and temperance. The national WCTU was established in 1874 and by the late 19th century had the largest membership numbers of any women’s organization (1). Its most famous and influential leader, Frances Willard, became president in 1879 and supported the idea of “Do Everythi

Sara Linne

Apr 110 min read

Prairie Prisons

FIG 1: 1858 Bowman Map of Urbana by Hannah Hedrick In the early days of Champaign County, when the prairie stretched on and on for miles with few people in between, there wasn’t much formally established in terms of law enforcement. According to local tradition, the first documented murder in the region, before the county was even a county, was of an unknown horse thief. Having stolen the horse in Indiana, the outlaw fled westward with a band of regulators chasing close b

Hannah Hedrick

Mar 111 min read

Flatville: Where they've come from and where they're going

By Julia Schultz Flatville is potentially the most unassuming name for a town. Whether it’s a faux location used on improv night, the sunshine street used in a children’s cartoon, or the first name that comes to mind when giving an overeager tourist the name of your hometown – Flatville may appear to be the John Doe of villages. While calling Flatville home is not something that many people can say, those who can are residents in a town that is rich in German and Luthera

Julia Schultz

Jan 18 min read

Giving Tuesday: Support CCHM & CCNDI

The Champaign County Newspaper Digitization Initiative at the Champaign County History Museum is within $2,500 of the goal to scan the St. Joseph Record from 1940 to 1962 and convert it to a researchable digital format. Once it is converted, it will be available free of charge on the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection through the University of Illinois Library. https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/ Starting in December 1941, just after Pearl Harbor, Charles W. Dale, the edito

Will Best

Dec 2, 20252 min read

The Grentz Saga: A Golden Age for Women's Basketball at UIUC

May 112 min read

More than Temperance: The CU Woman's Christian Temperance Union

Apr 110 min read

Prairie Prisons

Mar 111 min read

Flatville: Where they've come from and where they're going

Jan 18 min read

Giving Tuesday: Support CCHM & CCNDI

Dec 2, 20252 min read

An Introduction to the EI League

Nov 23, 20256 min read

A New Digital Exhibition!

Sep 22, 20251 min read

Voices from the Past - Cliff Delong

Aug 1, 20254 min read

A Tale of Two Cities-of-the-Dead

Jun 1, 202512 min read

Oral Histories

Our local history is best told by those who lived through it. To that end, the museum has in its collections a series of recorded oral histories told by residents. These recordings were made by museum staff and volunteers and have been digitized from audio cassette recordings. The opinions expressed by the interviewee are those of the subject and are intended for personal or educational purposes. All oral histories include full transcriptions that can be accessed by clicking the music note on the right of each recording.

These recordings are presented in an unedited format and are the copyright of the Champaign County History Museum. Duplication and use without the museum's expressed written permission are prohibited.

History Talks

Each month, we welcome a topical expert to speak on various topics of Champaign County History. These talks are recorded and viewable here.

History of Bicycling in Illinois: 160 Years of Booms and Busts