Sommer Farm

Sommer Farm Sommer Farm is a use-by-reservation/rental/special events/wedding facility with a focus on Living Hi

05/31/2026

1868: First Memorial Day parade held in Ironton, Ohio.

1879: Madison Square Garden opens in New York, named after 4th President James Madison.

1885: Dr. John Harvey Kellogg of Battle Creek, Michigan, files a patent for "flaked cereal, and process of making same"; controversially excluding his younger brother, Will Keith Kellogg.

1893: Remains of Jefferson Davis moved from New Orleans and re-interred at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, per his widow's request.

1909: National Conference on the Negro holds its first meeting in United Charities Building, New York; earlier form of the NAACP.

1921: A large-scale race riot breaks out in Tulsa, Oklahoma, later described as the worst incident of racial violence in American history; around 150-300 African Americans killed.

05/30/2026

1806: Future US President Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel after Dickinson accused Jackson's wife of bigamy.

1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo between the United States and Mexico comes into force, giving California, Nevada, Utah, and most of Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona to the US in return for $15 million.

1848: William G. Young of Baltimore, Maryland, receives a patent for “An Improvement in Ice-Cream Freezers”.

1854: Kansas-Nebraska Act repeals Missouri Compromise creating the territories of Kansas and Nebraska.

1906: Hershey Park, a family leisure playground founded by Milton S. Hershey for the exclusive use of his employees, opens in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

1922: Completed Lincoln Memorial dedicated by US Chief Justice William Howard Taft in front of 50,000.

1935: Philadelphia pitcher Jim Bivin retires Babe Ruth on an infield grounder in "the Babe's" final MLB at-bat; Ruth plays just 1 inning in Boston Braves, 11-6 loss to Phillies at the Baker Bow.

05/29/2026

1787: "Virginia Plan" by James Madison and Edmund Randolph proposed to the Constitutional Convention advocating for a national government with three branches - legislative, executive, and judicial.

1790: Rhode Island becomes the last of the original 13 colonies to ratify the US Constitution.

1851: Sojourner Truth addresses the first Black Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.

1861: Dorothea Dix offers help in setting up hospitals for the Union Army.

1886: American pharmacist John Pemberton begins advertising his patented medicine, Coca-Cola, in Atlanta, Georgia.

1919: Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity, that when light passes a large body, gravity will bend the rays confirmed by Arthur Eddington's expedition to photograph a solar eclipse on the island of Principe, West Africa.

1919: Charles Strite files patent for the automatic pop-up toaster.

05/28/2026

1830: US President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act, a key law leading to the forced removal of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes out of Georgia and surrounding states, setting the stage for the Cherokee Trail of Tears.

1863: First Black regiment, the 54th Massachusetts, leaves Boston to fight in the US Civil War.

1917: Racial strife in East St. Louis, Illinois, when White workers march through Black neighborhoods beating people and burning buildings; state governor calls in National Guard to restore order.

1928: American automobile makers Dodge Brothers Inc. and Chrysler Corporation merge.

John Birket: Peoria. In the years preceding and during the Black Hawk war, Mr. Birket had numerous encounters with the Indians. Once, when deputized as a guard to care for the first murderer of this region, his home was ransacked by Indians. Two where still there when he returned. He succeeded in driving them from the house, but shortly thereafter he discovered they had stolen two hundred dollars.
There was another occasion when he was aroused at night to find an Indian reaching for his throat. He grappled with the intruder, and saved his life. The Indian was seeking fire-water.
On August 17, 1831, he married Marjorie Thomas. She was from Chillicothe, Ohio. Her father was Colonel John Thomas, who had met his death at the hands of the Indians.
In 1832, during the Black Hawk war, when other inhabitants took refuge at Fort Clark, Mr. Birket remained in his own home.

05/27/2026

1813: Americans capture Fort George, Canada.

1850: Mormon Temple in Nauvoo, Illinois, destroyed by tornado.

1863: US Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson in Louisiana by Union forces begins; lasts 48 days, longest American military siege.

1916: President Woodrow Wilson addresses the League to Enforce Peace, founded in 1915, and gives public support to the idea of a league of nations.

1930: The 1,046-foot (319-meter) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public.

John Birket: Peoria. Upon arriving in Peoria John immediately bought a claim on 154 acres in the northeastern part of Section Three; the property began at the brow of the east bluff near and including a considerable portion of what would be Glen Oak Park, Originally known as Birket's Hollow. It extended diagonally to the river, including much of the North End, from Spring Street to the Narrows.

After building his first Peoria home, a small house at the foot of Caroline Street, in 1825, he began his carpenter trade. That spring he planted the first tree nursery, from seeds he had brought with him from Vermont. The first apples to be grown in Peoria were grown in the Birket orchard.

05/26/2026

1805: Lewis and Clark first sight the Rocky Mountains.

1857: US slave Dred Scott and family freed by owner Henry Taylor Blow, only 3 months after US courts ruled against them in Dred Scott v. Sandford.

1865: US Civil War Battle of Galveston. Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith negotiates a surrender.

1896: James Dunham murders six people in Campbell, California.

1924: US President Calvin Coolidge signs Immigration law restricting immigration.

1927: Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company produce the last Model T Ford, "Tin Lizzie". 15,007,033 were made before ending production.

John Birket, Former land owner in Peoria.
John Birket was born in Lancashire, England on March 8th, 1798. As a young man he learned to be a carpenter and in 1819, at the age of 21, he came to America, landing in Philadelphia. From there he went by sloop to Albany, New York. A little latter he went to Ferrysburg, Vermont, where he remained some five years before traveling west in 1824. In 1825 he left for Peoria by wagon stopping in Plainsville, Ohio. Enroute he peddled tea, coffee and calicos. He reach Peoria on January 6th, 1826. At that time there were many Indians in the region, but only six families of European decent. They were the families of Abner Eades, Josiah and Seth Fulton, Captain Jude Warner and one other.

05/26/2026

May 25 and 26, 1776

Washington is in Philadelphia, attending the Continental Congress for a second consecutive day. He confers with the delegates as a whole about how to meet the growing British military threat, particularly in Canada and New York.

By the end of the day, Congress shifts course and appoints a committee—including John Adams and Benjamin Harrison—to work directly with Washington, Horatio Gates, and Thomas Mifflin to “concert a plan of military operations for the ensuing campaign.”

Washington remains in Philadelphia, where he has been meeting with the Continental Congress. Being Sunday, Congress does not convene today. Major General Philip Schuyler writes from Fort George with more bad news from Canada—shortages of men, boats, and provisions.

On top of mounting military concerns, Washington must contend with rumors of betrayal within the ranks. Mark Hopkins, a Massachusetts lawyer and militia colonel, reports that earlier suspicions about Schuyler’s loyalty are unfounded.

05/24/2026

1775: John Hancock is unanimously elected President of the Continental Congress.

1818: General Andrew Jackson captures Pensacola, Florida.

1844: Samuel Morse taps out "What hath God wrought" in the world's first telegraph message.

1856: Pottawatomie Massacre: John Brown and abolitionist settlers kill five pro-slavery settlers in Franklin County, Kansas.

1861: Union Major General Benjamin Butler declares escaped slaves "contraband of war", after three slaves escaped to Fort Monroe - will become Union policy and change the course of the war.

1883: Brooklyn Bridge is opened by President Chester A. Arthur and NY Governor Grover Cleveland.

1894: Lowell Observatory, Arizona, first begins observations of Mars with an eighteen-inch telescope, leads its builder Percival Lowell to conclude there are canals on Mars.

05/22/2026

1803: The first US public library opens in Connecticut.

1807: Former US Vice President Aaron Burr is tried for treason in Richmond, Virginia.

1843: First wagon train departs Independence, Missouri, for Oregon with 700 to 1,000 migrants.

1849: Abraham Lincoln receives a patent (only US President to do so) for a device to lift a boat over shoals and obstructions.

1856: Violence in the US Senate, South Carolina rep Brooks uses a cane on Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner.

1868: Train robbery at Marshfield, Indiana by the Reno Brothers Gang, who make off with $98,000.

1892: Dr. Washington Sheffield invents the collapsible toothpaste tube.

1931: George End introduces “Genuine Diamondback Rattlesnake with Supreme Sauce” in a can, by his Florida Products Corporation. The popular item ceases production in 1944 after when the owner dies, a victim of one snake's revenge.

May 22, 1776Washington breakfasts at Woodbridge, New Jersey, on his way to Philadelphia. He reads fresh dispatches from ...
05/22/2026

May 22, 1776
Washington breakfasts at Woodbridge, New Jersey, on his way to Philadelphia. He reads fresh dispatches from the north and immediately writes to Major General Israel Putnam in New York, urging swift support for the army in Canada—tools, powder, lead, and provisions must be sent without delay, but not at the expense of New York’s defenses.

After breakfast, he visits Staten Island. He surveys the ground firsthand, studying its harbors and approaches for possible fortifications.

Address

6329 N Koerner Road
Edwards, IL
61528

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 4:30pm
Tuesday 8am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 8am - 4:30pm
Thursday 8am - 4:30pm
Friday 8am - 4:30pm

Telephone

+13096916295

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