Siblings’ fairy village attracts attention in Geneva neighborhood

Who says today’s kids are interested only in digital screens and devices, thus don’t partake of outdoor hobbies or activities? Not so for the Brayton kids in Batavia.

Because of that, this story should make us feel good about kids using their imagination — and sharing it with others — without computers.

Creating a fairy village in their grandparents’ yard in Geneva has been a fun warm-weather hobby for these kids the past few years, one they didn’t imagine would garner as much attention in the neighborhood as it has.

But people walking past the home of Tom and Linda Abendroth on North Fourth Street have taken notice of the work of 12-year-old Clara, 11-year-old Charlotte and 9-year-old Benjamin Brayton.

Another youngster, this one an enthusiastic observer of the village, also has had a key role.

When neighborhood youngster “Johnny” often found joy in looking at the village, it changed everything for the Brayton kids. They knew they were onto something special, something that made young and old alike feel good.

“You really have to mention Johnny because he kind of kick-started this whole thing,” Charlotte said of a process that initially was a small terrarium on the side of the home, before eventually becoming a much larger village along the sidewalk.

Between school work and activities at Rotolo Middle School in Batavia for the girls, and Grace McWayne elementary in Batavia for Ben, they found time to obtain new items and use their imaginations for the village — even beyond the summer months.

“We even put a rock in the village with Johnny’s name on it,” Charlotte said. “He would come by and he would always see the fairy in the tree and he would be very happy about it.

“In honor of him, we started making it bigger and building it more and more,” Charlotte said of Johnny, who fell in love with the village at age 3 and continues to visit. Charlotte estimates he might be about 6 now.

The fairy that caught Johnny’s eye is “Caelia,” perched on a fig leaf swing in a tree just above the village, a perch she stays in even during the winter when the rest of the village has been put away in boxes until spring.

The fairy overlooks a village divided into three sections, with each Brayton sibling taking care of a section. It has kept all three engaged and interested in the overall eye-catching appearance. That’s an important factor for the kids.

“It’s a hobby for us, but I would say it is for people’s enjoyment as well as our enjoyment of it, rather than (us looking for) popularity,” Clara said.

The names the kids picked for their sections reveal something about each of them.

Clara, who likes studying mythology, chose the Nordic realm of Alfheim for her section and a Viking theme in Geneva, while Charlotte’s love of nature shows in her Acorn Alley. For Benjamin, his area called Rizzler Toads doesn’t have a lot of toad figurines. It’s more of a play on Rizzler, a slang term for someone with charisma, and its contrast to a toad.

His fondness for football inadvertently came into play as well, though not as a positive for the village. When talking about how they like to keep the village looking nice, Charlotte mentioned her brother “threw a football in it once.”

Benjamin was quick to correct her, saying his father, Dr. John Brayton, was the culprit who dropped the ball into the village.

Though parents John and Beth Brayton were on hand when I was interviewing the kids, we did not pursue the topic of who was behind the football assault on the village.

Mostly, you can see this village has taken time, attention and loving care to set up.

“They have been doing it for a few years now,” grandmother Linda Abendroth said of the kids’ village creation. “As it grew, we put it right on the sidewalk, and you wouldn’t believe how many people walk by and look at it or comment about it.”

Some of those passersby will even knock on the Abendroths’ door to ask more about the village and its specific pieces.

The kids agreed the village is something they won’t lose interest in as they get older.

I suggested it could be a hobby somewhat similar to a young boy loving train sets and then having a huge train set and village in his home basement as an adult.

“Yes, and some of those kids could become train engineers someday,” Clara pointed out.

Scarecrow tradition continues

Some say it is not as good as it used to be, but our grandkids love it, so that’s all that matters as we prepare for this weekend’s 40th annual Scarecrow Festival, or Scarecrow Weekend as it is now called, in St. Charles.

We enjoyed our visits to the festival in its first years, before our son was born, and certainly made it a tradition after he came along. Now, the grandkids come each year to enjoy the scarecrows, craft show, activities and other fun on hand in Lincoln Park and other parts of downtown.

It may not carry the “wow” factor of past years when everything was centrally located in Lincoln Park and some of the scarecrows were huge. Constructive criticism that offers new ideas can often be helpful. But we have to remember that our community festivals are only as good as what the volunteers and participants put into it.

That seems to have been a substantial and satisfying effort for 40 years.

Kudos for history research

Eric Krupa, the archivist and curator at the St. Charles History Museum, has taken on an extra role as a representative for the Illinois Network to Freedom Collective.

All of the professional historians who make up that body are putting in the time to more fully research the “journey of freedom seekers” in Illinois. That means they are going to find out more about the networks that made up the Underground Railroad in our state, helping slaves in the south make their way to northern states.

The Freedom Collective came about as a way to reach goals set through the bipartisan Freedom Trails Commission Act signed by Gov. JB Pritzker in August.

Recent meetings and press releases have allowed Krupa to get the word out locally about what this entails, and the effort now is to get the rest of the state involved.

Those who know St. Charles history know the city’s residents were strong supporters of abolition, with many homes believed to have harbored runaway slaves as part of the Underground Railroad network. It was not uncommon in this area, as DeKalb, Wheaton and Glen Ellyn all have been cited as Underground Railroad stops.

We applaud Krupa’s efforts on this project. Last spring, he hosted a session at the museum about the Underground Railroad’s connection to the area. We suspect he’ll have a lot more to say on the topic in the future.

An expanding Aldi site

Some readers have wondered what all of the construction at the 60-acre Aldi headquarters in Batavia this year has been all about.

It’s all about renovation and expansion for Aldi, a project that construction company A M King announced late last year.

The construction of a fourth office building on the site was part of the overall plan that essentially looked to develop an open-campus design, some of it through work on the interiors of the current three office buildings.

Some additional parking has also been established at the grocery chain’s headquarters campus.

Did you know?

Longtime St. Charles residents have likely heard this story at some point. Historical societies in DeKalb and St. Charles have accounts of a deadly riot in St. Charles in 1849 triggered by some grave-robbing in Sycamore.

John Rood was an ambitious medical student attending what was then one of the only medical schools in Illinois — The Franklin Medical College in St. Charles.

In need of a body to do some autopsy work for his studies, Rood decided it might be best to find one himself at a Sycamore cemetery. He found a recent grave at that cemetery and took the body of Marilla Kinyon, a 16-year-old newlywed who had died.

Once the family of Kinyon figured out what might have happened, a bunch of Sycamore residents came to the home of Dr. George W. Richards, the head of the college.

After being convinced that Richards would try to figure out what happened and return the body, the group left. But they were convinced by others to take a tougher approach, so they came back and confronted Richards at his home at 511 E. Illinois St.

Reports of the incident indicate Richards was knocked out by a thrown rock, but the mob later found Rood, who was fatally shot.

And what came of Marilla Kinyon’s body? Historical records state the mob congregated at a tavern in St. Charles after the riot, and people at the bar convinced them they would find out where the body was.

After interviewing students at the medical college, the body was located and returned to the family in Sycamore.

• dheun@sbcglobal.net