The Mystery at Sag Bridge

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Hello, it's me- Cora!" she called from the bottom of the stairway, so as not to spook the women upstairs in the creepy old building.

"We're here, come on up!" a cheerful female voice replied.

The Lemont Area Historical Society, or LAHS, was located in an old stone church, appropriately named "The Old Stone Church." Cora climbed the dim, narrow, groaning stairway to the choir loft where the archives were housed. A large library table dominated the area, and seven-foot tall shelves lined the walls, along with an assortment of mismatched file cabinets and desks. A computer, scanner, copier, and bulky microfilm reader stood ready for use. Extension cords created obstacles across the floor and added to the cramped appearance, connected to table lamps that augmented whatever light penetrated the stained glass windows.

Cora and a few other dedicated women met one morning a week to keep order and answer research and genealogy requests from the public. Cora's mind was focused on Angel this morning, but keeping to her schedule provided an opportunity to leave the house and distract her from that problem.

She greeted Ania, a compact seventyish woman with twinkling blue eyes and a pleasant smile, who was already busy at the microfilm reader. Cora set down her belongings and started sorting through new acquisitions on her desk.

"You've made an early start, I see," she said, untying the string that held together a large atlas from 1875 so she could prepare a description of the item.

"True. Requests stacked up all of a sudden. A number of people want to come in to do research too. I'll have to make appointments," Ania said with a frown. Despite her complaint, Cora knew Ania enjoyed meeting with researchers. She worked with death records and genealogy requests and had been a volunteer for over twenty years. Knowledgeable and undemanding, she was a pleasure to work with.

Since joining the LAHS, Cora learned the interesting history of Lemont's churches. "The Old Stone Church," built in 1861 with stone from a local quarry, was believed to be the oldest church in the "Village of Churches." It was located across from notorious Smokey Row, a collection of shady establishments that sprang up as early as the 1860s. Reverend Tully, then the pastor of the Methodist congregation, waged war against Smokey Row. He took credit for clearing the town of corruption and sin, when in fact the businesses simply closed on their own, having little business after the canal was finished and the transient workers moved out.

However, another nearby church also claimed the oldest-church distinction. Perhaps both were right, since Saint James, located in the forest about four miles east, was in an unincorporated area of Lemont, an area once called Sag Bridge. The cornerstone for Saint James was laid in 1853, and the church sat on a hill between the Des Plaines River Valley and Sag Valley. It took six years for the Irish parishioners to lug enough stone to the hilltop to complete the building.

Cora was fascinated by Lemont's past and found the reading, recording, and preservation of documents entertaining. She grew fond of the other volunteers, who chatted while they worked, sharing interesting facts as they came across them. She felt fortunate, at this stage of life, to have found a new and meaningful passion to ignite her imagination.