Trying to confirm the date of the opening of the oldest part of the Wenonah School, either 1894 or 1904 or some other year. Larry Smith has had a look at deeds and other documents and noted that the school on North Marion Ave. was sold to Noblit in 1894, so the new school on North Clinton Ave. must have opened in 1894.

I set out to learn more about an early Wenonah school board president and Mayor, Charles M. Wilkins. He was known as a book collector and was president of the Wenonah Library Association also. He must have had friends and connections in the publishing industry and through them was able to get L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and W.W. Denslow, illustrator of the book to inscribe a first edition of the book to his daughter, Edna and include a drawing of Edna. This extremely rare first edition with inscriptions was offered for sale for 150,000 pounds sterling or about $195,000. Imagine that book sitting on your personal library shelf.

Wenonah resident Rick Mitchell made a presentation about Charles Wilkins, you can view it via the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=autsBnPTBKI

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/126381986/charles-m-wilkins

The inscriptions were made in 1900.

The book was offered for sale in Jonkers Rare Books Catalogue, Number 65. Jonkers is a British Book Dealer in Henley on Thames. It has been sold -- but I don't know the amount that was finally paid for it.

I will add the catalog to the files on this site. The listing is on pages 4, 5, and 6. There are at least two typos -- they list Charles M. Wilkins as living in Wenonah, IL and the list the illustrator as B. B. Denslow. It is the second item in the Jonkers Catalogue.

The text below mentions the bookplates made by W.W. Denslow for Charles M. Wilkins and his daughters. His wife was named Harriet, not Julia. Strange that the group asking 150,000 pounds would get the state wrong and confuse the names of the daughter with that of his wife.