Local History Program Coordinator at the Pekin Public Library. I oversee the library’s local history room collection, write a weekly local history column/weblog for the library, and present local history programs at the library and in the community.

Author's Articles

Here’s a chance to read again one of our old Local History...

Jared L. Olar

May 21, 2016

Reading through the microfilms of the Pekin Daily Times on file in...

Jared L. Olar

May 13, 2016

This week we again examine some items that recently were donated to...

Jared L. Olar

May 6, 2016

Two weeks ago, we explored a remarkable aspect of the natural history...

Jared L. Olar

April 29, 2016

A few weeks ago, a Pekin Public Library patron asked two “pointed”...

Jared L. Olar

April 22, 2016

In this column we explore topics related to the history of Pekin...

Jared L. Olar

April 15, 2016

War

Question: What do Pekin’s pioneer historian William H. Bates, the Hanging Judge...

Jared L. Olar

April 8, 2016

Although it has been 13 years since CILCO – the Peoria-based Central...

Jared L. Olar

April 1, 2016

This week we’ll revisit a subject that we first covered a little...

Jared L. Olar

March 26, 2016

War

In Mackinaw Township Cemetery is a gravestone marked with the Christian cross,...

Jared L. Olar

March 18, 2016

Attention all local history or library history buffs: Currently on display in...

Jared L. Olar

March 15, 2016

Note: Archivists and historians in Missouri recently contacted the Pekin Public Library...

Jared L. Olar

March 12, 2016

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