Looking back upon Mokena’s history, prominent names are sprinkled throughout the pages, such as that of Allen Denny, the founder of our village, or Ozias McGovney, the first mayor. Well over a century after their deaths, we still benefit from their ardor and dedication, their deeds having made their memory immortal. Where would our appreciation of the past be, if not for those who labored equally as hard to note it? Their roles are just as important in our narrative; without them we’d know nothing of our heritage. One young lady stands above other writers in her time, and the role of Julia Atkins as the editor of the Mokena Star, our then-newly born community’s first journalistic endeavor, is one that has left us with an irreplaceable view into her world.
To understand Julia, one must know her roots. She was born July 28th, 1834, the same year her father and grandfather settled the wild, untamed prairie where Mokena would later stand. Both Vermonters named John Atkins, the new Illinoisans could count their neighbors using only one hand. The historic record indicates that John Atkins Jr officially purchased 80 acres of raw prairie along Hickory Creek from the federal government in the summer of 1842, where he likely set up a homestead for himself and his young family.
Living in what at the time was loosely referred to as the Hickory Creek Settlement, Julia’s upbringing contained a level of ruggedness totally unfamiliar to us in the 21st century. Before her teenage years were out, Julia had lost her mother Anna to the hardships of pioneer life, as well as three siblings, who found eternal rest in Denny Cemetery, or what is today known as Pioneer Memorial Cemetery.
As Julia Atkins came of age, she was known as a young woman of intense intellectual drive; she not only worked as a teacher, but also read from the New Testament in Greek. Frontier journalism would have played a role in her life, as her father and grandfather were subscribers to The Western Citizen, a fiercely anti-slavery newspaper published in Chicago. Thus with the written word, Julia Atkins sealed herself into Mokena’s history.
With the construction of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad between the former city and Joliet in 1852, Mokena was born. Spikes were freshly driven between the new rails, while a depot was constructed along a newly platted Front Street; and that November, 18 year-old Julia set pen to paper in the first, and as far as anyone living knows, only issue of the Mokena Star. Lacking a press, her flowery script covered two huge broadsheets which bore chatty items such as the fact that the few villagers could expect an evening train out of Joliet at 7:30, as well as that tradesmen of all kinds were “vying with each other to see which will become the first established in business” in the new community. At the time, Julia’s Mokena, a “flourishing village in the western country” contained two finished buildings, along with a third under construction, with more expected in the near future.
As much at the Star carried newsy items, it was also a kind of literary journal, carrying poetry and various op-ed pieces. Among others, the young journalist penned a cautionary anti-tobacco and liquor treatise titled “Habit” in which the horrors of addiction were laid out, as well as a philosophical piece called “The Mind”, in which she pondered its meaning, proudly stating that it “distinguishes man from the brute creation.”
A Portrait of Julia Atkins, seen here around 1870, after she had moved from Mokena.
Less than two years after Julia Atkins’ journalistic accomplishment, she and her family moved away from Mokena and to Livingston County. Befitting of her scholarly standing, she eventually attended a girls’ college in Evanston that eventually would be integrated into what is today Northwestern University. After her marriage to Dr. John L. Miller in 1862, she moved east, and ultimately passed away at age 72 in 1906 in Massachusetts.
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