Editing Braidwood, Illinois (section)

==Early history==
In 1864, a farmer digging for water at the site of the present city found coal instead.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofwillcou01maue|title=History of Will County, Illinois|last=Maue|first=August|date=1928|publisher=Topeka : Historical Pub. Co.|others=University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofwillcou01maue/page/345 345]}}</ref> Deposits were substantial and the demand for coal in nearby [[Chicago]] was high, so companies rushed to acquire land and set up operations. A mining [[boomtown]] sprang up, a post office was established in 1867,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/braidwoodstory00donn|title=The Braidwood story|last=Donna|first=Modesto Joseph|date=1957|publisher=Braidwood, Ill. : Braidwood History Bureau|others=University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign|page=[https://archive.org/details/braidwoodstory00donn/page/20 20]}}</ref> and the community was called Keeversville.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/braidwoodstory00donn|title=The Braidwood story|last=Donna|first=Modesto Joseph|date=1957|publisher=Braidwood, Ill. : Braidwood History Bureau|others=University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign|page=[https://archive.org/details/braidwoodstory00donn/page/18 18]}}</ref> [[James Braidwood (engineer)|James Braidwood]] was an early member of the community, and in 1872 he was hired by one company to superintend the sinking of the first deep mine shaft.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofwillcou01maue|title=History of Will County, Illinois|last=Maue|first=August|date=1928|publisher=Topeka : Historical Pub. Co.|others=University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofwillcou01maue/page/347 347]}}</ref> The addition of more deep-shaft mines followed, and on March 4, 1873, the city was incorporated<ref>
{{Citation
 | last =Adams
 | first =James N. (compiler)
 | year =1989
 | publication-date =1989
 | editor-last =Keller
 | editor-first =William E.
 | title =Illinois Place Names
 | location =Springfield
 | publisher =Illinois State Historical Society
 | pages =[https://archive.org/details/illinoisplacenam00adam/page/301 301]
 | isbn =0-912226-24-2
 | url-access =registration
 | url =https://archive.org/details/illinoisplacenam00adam/page/301
 }}</ref>
and named in Braidwood's honor.

Concerning the city's early population, Donna reports, {{blockquote| According to the U. S. Bureau of Census for 1880 the population of Braidwood was 5,524, the highest of record in the census reports. In that year the population of the entire Township of Reed was 5,981. Since coal production reached its peak in 1877-1878, it is quite possible that the population may have been near 7,500 in those years, but hardly higher. Hundreds of people left Braidwood following the area's worst strike in 1877, when strike-breakers were imported by the coal companies, reducing the actual recorded census of 1880 to near the 6,000 number.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/braidwoodstory00donn|title=The Braidwood story|last=Donna|first=Modesto Joseph|date=1957|publisher=Braidwood, Ill. : Braidwood History Bureau|others=University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign|page=[https://archive.org/details/braidwoodstory00donn/page/21 21]}}</ref>}}

Businesses and the lives of residents were centered on the coal mines, with economic prosperity and depression occurring in their turn. Mines cut back operations during summer months, when warm weather reduced the demand for coal, leaving many miners unemployed. The disputes between coal companies and miners over wages and working conditions were always rancorous and often violent, typical for the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofwillcou01maue|title=History of Will County, Illinois|last=Maue|first=August|date=1928|publisher=Topeka : Historical Pub. Co.|others=University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofwillcou01maue/page/347 347]–349}}</ref>

On February 16, 1883, the Diamond Mine in Braidwood was suddenly flooded, resulting in the deaths of 73 miners.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Donna
| first = Modesto Joseph
| title = The Braidwood Story
| pages = 75–79 
| url =  https://archive.org/details/braidwoodstory00donn
| access-date = 2018-12-31
}}</ref> See [[1883 Diamond Mine Disaster]].

There was a combination of ethnicities, providing religious and cultural diversity. At first most miners were Americans or immigrants from northern [[Europe]]. [[African American]]s arrived from [[West Virginia]], and many later residents would arrive as immigrants from eastern and southern Europe.<ref>{{Citation
  | last = Joyce
  | first = Richard
  | title = Early Days of Coal Mining in Northern Illinois
  | publisher = The Illinois Labor History Society
  | url = http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/earlyday.htm
  | access-date = 2008-02-12
  | url-status = dead
  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080514110855/http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/earlyday.htm
  | archive-date = 2008-05-14
  }}</ref><ref>{{Citation
 |last=Vasco 
 |first=Sandy 
 |title=Tales From Brawling Braidwood 
 |work=Time Was Column, Free Press Advocate, [[Wilmington, Will County, Illinois|Wilmington, Illinois]] 
 |publisher=Quarterly Publication, Will County Historical Society (Fall 2001) 
 |url=http://www.coalcity.lib.il.us/coalmining/pages/braidwood/brawling.html 
 |access-date=2008-02-12 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070818233226/http://coalcity.lib.il.us/coalmining/pages/braidwood/brawling.html 
 |archive-date=2007-08-18 
 |url-status=dead 
}}</ref><ref>{{Citation
  | last = Woods
  | first = Robin F.
  | title = A Story of James "Jimmie" Braidwood 1832-1879
  | publisher = ElectricScotland.com
  | url = http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/minibios/b/braidwood_james.htm
  | access-date = 2009-05-29
 }}</ref>