Bureau County Genealogical Society “Saloons in the Coal Towns” presentation

The Bureau County Genealogical Society invites the public to a
virtual presentation via Zoom entitled “Saloons in the Coal
Towns.” This program will be given by Richard Joyce who is a
descendant of immigrant miners on both sides of his family and whose paternal grandmother was born in Spring Valley in 1893.
The program will be viewed Thursday evening March 25.
Joyce grew up on a family farm near South Wilmington in
Grundy County and earned degrees from Lewis University and
Illinois State University. He taught for 34 years at Wilmington
High School as well as several semesters at the University of St. Francis in Joliet. He has a long history of public service as well.
He and his wife Cathy reside in Coal City.
For about 50 years Joyce has researched the coal towns of
northern Illinois and has shared his knowledge before a variety of groups. He has found that in the late 19th century and the first decades of the twentieth century the battle over liquor raged between reformers such as the Anti-
Saloon League and other groups, often affiliated with churches, and brewers, saloonkeepers and their patrons. What did saloons have to offer? What did reformers find objectionable about the liquor traffic? The struggle between reformers and the immigrant workforce in the mining towns around here was a conflict of cultures and is the subject of Joyce’s presentation.
This program should expand our understanding of life in Bureau County at that time period as well as other counties in our area.
The program will begin at 7:00 p.m. and is available to the
general public. Membership is not needed. Those wishing to
view the program should contact BCGS by email
bureaucounty@gmail.com in order to receive a link for the program. Please request a link by March
23 to assure that your request can be filled.