David Belden: 6 books

In 1831, the settlement of Princeton, Illinois, began as families from New England, and later the Mid-Atlantic states, traveled West seeking good land. These early settlers built the Hampshire Colony Congregational Church. Rev. Owen Lovejoy, one of its earliest pastors, became a well-known abolitionist...

Things have changed. The Truth has not. The 1950's are gone forever. The days of the Sunday school attendance award and the much-loved Sunday school picnic have faded into oblivion. Yet some youth ministries still operate as if today's kids are living in a vacuum, unaffected by the changing morals...

Later that same year, workers broke ground for the nearly 100-mile-long Illinois and Michigan Canal between the Illinois and Chicago Rivers. The opening of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and the movement of industry away from Chicago caused manufacturers to turn their attention to Will. As the county�s...

In 1673, Louis Jolliet and Fr. Jacques Marquette were the first Europeans to explore the Mississippi and the Illinois River valleys. Their explorations took them through what is now Joliet. Founded in 1834 as Juliet, the settlement�s future was shaped by several important developments. The Des Plaines...

In 1673, Louis Jolliet and Fr. Jacques Marquette were the first Europeans to explore the Mississippi River and the Illinois River valleys. With their canoes loaded with furs, pelts, and other goods on their return trip to Montreal, their explorations through much of the interior of Illinois included...

From southern Cook County to the Mississippi River, the Lincoln Highway meanders through many of Chicago's suburbs before heading west through Illinois's fertile farmland. America's first transcontinental highway once stretched nearly 3,400 miles from New York City to San Francisco. The story of the...