The old city area of Moni is only a few blocks wide, but you can’t see from one end to the other, thanks to “The Cut”.
Cut, a man-made pits 25-feet deep and 83-foot wide, which extends throughout the city, marked its 100th anniversary last year. This is a major feature in the village. But there was no celebration.
After the establishment of a station in the 1850s by Illinois Central, the place was born as a railway city, which was an area deedd by the treaty for descendants of Indiana Fur Train Joseph Bailey, and his wife, Mary, a member of the Ottawa tribe, who was recognized in several contemporary documents.
It was high ground, a glacial peacock was formed above a hill, formed in the final stages of the age of the previous snow, and a large city around the depot grew up, which provided direct access to Chicago. The creamy was established to process dairy products and send them answers. The grain lift raised the tracks and until the 1920s, in 1874, four banks were established in the village included as Mone.
Christina Holston, president of the Moni Historical Society, said, “We were the most populous, most established and one of the most driving cities in the 1850s and 60s.”
“We were victims of our success.”
A line of buildings along Oak Road in Mone, while dating some in the early 20th century when the region was the central trade district of the village, behind a line of trees exiting “The cut,”, a ravine dug in the middle of the city in 1923. (Paul Eisenburg/Daily Southartown).
When Illinois Central established its depot, which would become Moni, it was not due to Vista offered by the high area. Instead, after installing the locomotives long, peacock climbing and water towers at both ends of the city, the housing will be almost out of the steam along with the housing for the crew.
The demand for water defeated the supply provided by a series of small ponds, and by 1916, the thirst of the steam engine was extinguished by a very large reservoir rail route to the west of the city, which is now one of the forest of fishing properties at the forefront of Will County.
There were a lot of trains to supply with “the main line of mid-America”, connecting a rail line Chicago to the Gulf Coast. Decades later, in the disappearance days of Mass Rail Yatra, this will inspire Steve Goodman hit song, “City of New Orleans”.
“By the 20s, 1,100 freight trains were coming through a month,” Holston said, “and 23 passenger trains one day. It’s incredible.”
Mone had many sides, but only two main tracks were running. And the steam engines running upwards could only be taken. Moni’s stir and hilly conditions were stopping the system.
“It was a hurdle,” said Holston.
In the early 1920s, Illinois Central was good on the moving Earth. A series of agreements with leaders in Chicago gradually upgraded the railway line from its origin, which was a trasts surrounded by Parkland as a trastl bridge in Lake Michigan.
IC officials agreed in 1919 to increase their tracks and implement the infrastructure to electrify their entire fleet, to start the infrastructure to start most of the grade crossings in the city by constructing the infrastructure to start with their commuter train line in the south suburb.
In this undivided photo provided by a steam shovel Mone Mone Historical Society, it excavates a part of “The Cut” in Moni. The village was dug by the village to reduce grade trains by Illinois Central Railroad in 1922 and 1923.
Rail companies were rich and powerful in the early decades of the 20th century. They could afford huge engineering projects and the government was helping on the way. But stunning obs
One way to increase efficiency was to take out the route, lubricate all bumps that slow down the steam engine and require them to shed tonnes so that they can make grades. Another profit was ending the recession on crossings and stoppage due to collision with people, animals and rapid common motors.
And IC knew how to do it. In many places, the tracks were raised. As the areas gradually increased from the bed of the ancient lake Chicago in homewood, the track remained at the ground level, while the Viaducts were dug down for cross traffic. The end of the line for modern commuter service, before getting up at the university park, was immersed on the ground in Mations and Richton Park.
In early 1891, the railroad bought Ekrej by planning to excavate the soil, loaded it on trains and sent it to Chicago, where it was laying a spur lines to serve the adjacent Colombian exhibition at Jackson Park.
However, flosal dirt was very rich in soil, was not sufficiently enough for the objectives of the IC and instead it was used to lift the railway bed. The Flosium Road Viadct was established in 1912 and the rest of the land was divided into a lot. Railroad with sterling drives built model houses and attracted potential buyers with trains traveling from Chicago, with a free lunch.
An uncontrolled photo provides a view to the east from the main street in the Illinois Central Railroads track before “The Cut”, which reduced the railway line 25 feet below the grade. (Moni Historical Society)
Illinois Central had separate plans for bottlenecks in Mone. Instead of building buildings, it must displace almost the entire trade district.
After digging the cuts, trains can move through the city, which range from flat Illinois plains to the flat line.
“They did not need to slow down or stop,” said Holston. “It created a big difference for them for good, but it is where the entire trade district was district. There is chestnut on one side of the tracks, the other side is oak, and all businesses were above and below those two roads. When they placed that big gush through the city, they had to move them. ,
The old depot was demolished and a new one was built in the cut 25 feet below. The grain lift was to move. Creamri closed.
“It was actually impressed, killing the city’s development,” said Holston. “It became stable for the rest of the 20th century.
“It was not many years later that passenger trains were no longer stopped in Moni.”
The new depot was demolished in the cut, and the tracks that run through Mone finally were reduced to the same line.
“The trees have become too big now that you can’t even see from the other side of the tracks,” he said. “So the city is actually two cities.”
The west side is the Illinois route 50, where some restaurants and bars have operated over the last few years, but they do not produce lots of legs. Interstate 57 came together at the midscentory and eventually attracted the exhaust ramp development.
On the east of the cut, “During my living memory, there was not much,” Holston said. “When the train went down, most of the business business died with it. People could meet their cars and go elsewhere. No Kwid Pro Quo, no tight-for-tat. It died and nothing happened. ,
Moni Historical Society President Christina Holston stands with two historic buildings of the village in the background on the Main Street Bridge in Money on 27 February. One has been converted into a private residence and the other is being converted into a coffee house. (Paul Esenberg/Daily Southartown)
Living structures were mostly converted into homes and many are still present with oak, chestnuts and main roads. Mone largely adopted his bedroom community status.
“We like it how we like it, and we like to be a small city,” said Holston. “This is the thinking of the father of the city through a large part of the 20th century.”
In 2011, an attempt to prevent the demolition of a structure that was a limestone barn with court street before the cut, which was one of Moni’s creamies long ago – resulting in the formation of Moni Historical Society. Now, the name of Moni Heritage Center, located in Creemiry, Holston and fellow volunteers tried to regain Moni’s lost history.
“There are four or five houses that we know history. We want to do more research and find out the least dates, to get awareness about our history, ”he said. “Moni had never had a historical society till 2011, no organized attempt was made to collect data and artifacts. Whatever we are doing is in the last 12 years. ,
So they are collecting stories before the cut, and later the snapshot of life. Dance halls around the rakekoon grove and party locations are revelation and vice stories, which is quite popular for making a stop on the Interbaran Trolley Line from the 63rd Street in Chicago.
The Town Cemetery established a potter area section because “every time you wandered around, someone was falling from the train or running in front of the train. They were difficult times – no security measures,” Holston said.
A wooden bridge detected the fresh dug “cut” in Mone in this uncontrolled photo. Work on the railway project wrapped in 1923. (Moni Historical Society)
And there are stories of how the cuts were done in 1922 and ’23. Holston said how the farmers were hired to bring the farmers into teams and wagons, and how the excavated content was taken into the line “Richon Park and directly for the matens,” the farmers were collected. “This is Moni Dirt.”
Some people recall how a model can fit on an old pedestrian bridge beyond the T Ford Cut, which has been demolished, and weeps from Hue and Populus when that bridge, especially a popular gathering place among teenagers, was removed in 1989.
But as far as she could tell, the IC did not face any opposition when it brought ideas for the cut in the city a century ago.
“It was Golith and David,” said Holston. “Moni is just Moni. This was not a chance against the wheels of progress. I think some palms had increased, but I suspect that most people saw what the long -term effects were really going to happen. ,
If they fought a fight, things could have gone differently.
“If it could have been held in another 10 years, it would probably not be an issue because after that, diesel engines started coming,” he said.
Landmark is a weekly column by Paul Eisenberg, searching for people, places and things that have left an indelible impression on Southland. Can be reached on it [email protected],