The Antioch Baptist Church at 411 Short St. in Venice, Illinois is an Underground Railroad site. It was photographed June 21, 2023. Second Reading Book Shop at 16 E. Broadway in Alton, Illinois ...

ABOVE: An 1870 ad for the Illinois Central Railway touted a trip from Chicago to Cairo — ‘without change of Cars.’ BELOW: That railroad arose out of a pair of land-grant bills introduced two ...