Ladd’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 3 old photos of Ladd. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The settlement was originally named Osgood after the manager of the Whitebreast Fuel Company. The Whitebreast Fuel Company, based in Ottumwa, Iowa was the major coal supplier for the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad. They set up the town in 1888. Ladd was incorporated on June 7, 1890, and was founded by George D. Ladd, a resident of Peru, Illinois. Ladd was originally named Laddville. The Ladd mine went bankrupt in 1901 and was purchased by the Illinois Third Vein Coal Company, owned by Samuel Dalzell of Spring Valley. At its height, the mine employed over 700 men and took an average of 1200 tons of coal a day from the ground. As a coal mining town, it is ethnically diverse with immigrants from Italy, Ireland, and Poland taking jobs at the mine. The mine closed in 1924.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Ladd’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Ladd’s history is told.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewA WALL IN, 1973: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Ladd, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Ladd is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Ladd has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Westclox Manufacturing Plant Historic District in Peru, 6.6 miles away.
Ladd and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as A WALL IN (1973) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (5). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.