Prairie Homestead

John Foulk's Legacy

It's not a little house, but where it sits used to be prairie.

It was build in 1861 by John Foulk.  He intended it to be a statement, placed at the top of a hill (such as they are in Illinois) on a main rural thoroughfare.  He'd arrived.

Built as it was - huge, at the top of a hill, in the open wind of the prairie, it wasn't viewed in the same way by successive generations until my grandparents moved in.  They lived here first on agreement that their maintenance of the home would serve as rent, and later bought it outright.  My grandmother lived here until she moved on to the nursing home, Alzheimer's taking her away from her home.

John Foulk was my Great-Great-Great Grandfather.  He left this legacy behind for us.

-EJW 2/1/2015