Lena & Thomas Church, McHenry County

Lena and Thomas Church came to the small community called Terra Cotta in McHenry County in 1893, the year of the White City World's Fair. Lena was thirteen. This home held unimagined luxuries for Lena. The house was white, not covered with coal soot like all the houses or buildings in New York. It had eighteen rooms, which was actually an extraordinary number for that time. The Church children were taken to the 1893 World's Fair, a fairy land of unimaginable wonder called the White City. The owners of the home were John and Emma Gracey. The family living in the house included Royal and Merton Gracey, the sons of the house; Truman Soule, Emma's brother; and Warren Earl, a nephew. Lena and Thomas were listed as adopted children, but at age 19, Lena's occupation was listed as servant rather than "at school." Three other young men were listed as boarding farm laborers.

Lena had been born in England in 1881 and came to the States in 1882. Thomas was born in New York. When Lena married in 1903, the names of their parents were listed in her marriage certificate: John Church and Martha Cliffe. Lena married Thomas R. Anderson. Lena next appeared in the 1910 census with her two daughters, Glennis and Sylvia. Thomas was the station agent for Terra Cotta station. In 1920 the family had moved to Long Beach, California, where Thomas was still a station agent. Lena died in California in 1952 and Thomas died in 1967.

In 1910 Thomas Church was living with Merton Gracey and his young wife in McHenry County. He was working as Merton's farm laborer. Listed just below the Gracey farm in the census was the Terra Cotta Company, which housed a large work force of young Italian men -- over forty of them, all immigrated in the past ten years to Illinois. The owner of this company was William Day Gates, a son of the largest land owner in McHenry County. Gates was an attorney, but absolutely despised practicing law. He loved the country and the scenes of nature there. According to the author of the linked article, Gates found terra cotta clay in McHenry County and began

experimenting with it around 1883. He became a manufacturer of the terra cotta that was used to face many of the skyscrapers of Chicago and his products were in demand by architects all over the United States. He employed architects to design the architectural objects, but eventually expanded his work to objects of art. What was never mentioned in this article, were the many Italian terra cotta workers who were necessary for this work to take place. Designers drew the pieces, but skilled workers were needed -- workers trained in Italy -- to actually create the imagination of the designers. The products of this company were displayed at the World's Fair of 1893 and the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904. (Link to article)

In 1930 Thomas was still living with Merton Gracey. Merton however, was no longer farming, but was working as a lineman for the power company. Thomas was a mail carrier. One of Merton's sons was working as a kiln burner at the Terra Cotta Company. Thomas never married and died in 1951 in McHenry County.