June 2 Illinois History Minute

It’s June Second, and on this day in 1863, a military detachment from Camp Douglas in Chicago seized the offices of the Chicago Times, a Democratic newspaper bitterly opposed to President Lincoln and his handling of the Civil War. General Ambrose Burnside gave the order. He argued that criticism of the government that might be proper in peace-time could become “rank treason” in times of war. Burnsides’ seizure of the Chicago Times sparked widespread protests, and President Lincoln overruled the action once he learned of it.

The village of Bartonville was incorporated on this day in 1903. The river town south of Peoria is home to Liberty Steel and Wire, formerly Keystone Steel and Wire, the company founded by Peter Sommer and sons to manufacture his patented woven wire fencing.