Jun 12, 2026 | Crossroads Discovery Center, Highlights in History, New & Exciting
As part of my blog posts about Juneteenth, I’ve mentioned the African American soldiers listed on the monument at Crownland Cemetery. It raised the question “Is this the oldest Civil War monument in the United States that includes African American soldiers?” We don’t...
May 19, 2026 | Crossroads Discovery Center, Highlights in History, New & Exciting
This is another part of Hamilton County’s history with steamboats. Many people probably remember the various excursion boats on Morse Reservoir – the “Morse Queen” in 1965, and the “Waterfront Queen” / ”Star of Cicero” which ran in the 1990’s and 2000’s. Hamilton...
Apr 20, 2026 | Crossroads Discovery Center, Highlights in History, New & Exciting
By David Heighway, Hamilton County Historian Emeritus When you look at the history of inventors in Hamilton County, occasionally a long-forgotten figure will emerge. One such person was R. Walter Wilson, known as Walter or just R.W. He was born in 1873 to a Quaker...
Mar 20, 2026 | Crossroads Discovery Center, Highlights in History
By David Heighway, Hamilton County Historian Emeritus America has a long tradition of citizen soldiers who would organize to protect the community. This goes back to the Pilgrims at Plymouth and the Revolutionary War Minutemen at Lexington and Concord. It became...
Feb 20, 2026 | Crossroads Discovery Center, Highlights in History
By David Heighway, Hamilton County Historian Emeritus We think of driverless cars as some of today’s cutting-edge technology, but people have been experimenting with the concept for a long time. One such experiment on a Hamilton County farm in the 1930s attracted...
Jan 20, 2026 | Crossroads Discovery Center, Highlights in History
By David Heighway, Hamilton County Historian Emeritus Stephen “Steve” Roberts was born in Roberts Settlement to Stephen and Mary Roberts. His grandfather Willis had been one of the first emigrants to the Settlement in the 1830s. Sources differ on the younger Stephen’s...
