History book: Family finds ledger dating back 150 years in Glen Ellyn house

Almost 150 years after a writer inscribed his last entry in a ledger, it has been rediscovered and is now in the hands of Glen Ellyn historians and archivists, where it may serve to enlighten -- and possibly rewrite -- some of Glen Ellyn's history.

The journal, along with letters belonging to an early settler and Glen Ellyn area farmer Gilbert Way, was first discovered in 1953 under the floorboards of a house, which has a unique history of its own.

"I'm pretty excited about it," said Dan Anderson, member of the Glen Ellyn Historical Society Development Committee and chairman of the Capital Campaign.

"The ledger is a treasure trove of information that will underscore what we already know -- or perhaps shed new light on what we think we know."

The owner of the ledger, Judy Cuff, remembered the house where she and her family lived from 1953 to 1961, and has heard the tale of how the ledger was uncovered when she was just a baby.

"My grandmother was looking for a place which could accommodate catering," she said. "It was actually two houses joined together. My parents had to make some renovations on the other side of the house to make it habitable. As they were tearing up floorboards, they came across the ledger."

The site of the ledger was a property in the Glen Ellyn Countryside area, north of North Avenue on Glen Ellyn Road. The journal has remained in the family's possession since that time.

"I always knew that it had historical significance," Cuff said.

When she was younger, Cuff recalls taking the ledger to school to show her classmates. As time went on, the family would even loan the ledger out to others when asked. After her mother passed away in 1992, Cuff, who still lives in Glen Ellyn, took possession of the journal. Recently, she ran into people from the Glen Ellyn History Center and mentioned what she had. Their reaction was telling.

"They were so excited about it, I knew it was in the right hands," she said.

Anderson added, "It was kind of a 'Eureka' moment. The handwriting is somewhat faded, but we realized it was Gilbert Way's ledger book. This is what we call original source material."

Gilbert Way settled in this area in 1837, and his 1840 wedding to Harriet Fish was one of the first weddings in town. In the ledger are entries that detail the farmer's accounts as he methodically recorded his business transactions.

Throughout the pages are scrawled names like Newton, Churchill, Stacy, McChesney, Ackerman and other well-known area first families, with whom he did business.

"It's not a diary, but has some elements of a diary in it," Anderson said. "A lot of the entries make for really interesting reading. It's like being transported back 150 years in time."

Bob Chambers, who co-authored the book "Glen Ellyn, A Village Remembered," looks at the ledger as the beginning of a larger research project, as there is much more that can be learned from it, including the history of the property where it was found.

"It's in the works," he said. "We'll be digging up the history of that house now."

Chambers already has begun the painstaking task of researching the county records for its sequence of owners. Having the ledger in their possession for now is a job that those at the Glen Ellyn Historical Society take very seriously. They are treating it with care, and will diligently use it as a research tool while it is on loan.

"I always knew the ledger was important," Cuff said. "It's always just been this book that has been in the family for 55 years. Who would have thought it would have this far-reaching effect?"