In April of 1897, Michael Kenna—better known as “Hinky Dink” on account of his diminutive stature—was elected alderman for the 1st Ward, known today as the Near South Side but back then as the Levee District and the city’s vice capital, home to saloons, whorehouses, opium joints, and one establishment called Bucket of Blood. Kenna himself was the proprietor of the Workingman’s Exchange, a saloon that sold the cheapest beer in Chicago.
Kenna’s family did not, apparently, feel the same way about the gold star—they sold it at auction for $1,325. Within a few years, it ended up in a pawnshop in Peru, a small town halfway between Peoria and Joliet. The pawnshop owner appreciated the star and its history and decided it would be the centerpiece of the museum he was planning to establish someday. He showed it to one of his favorite customers, Ruth McCormick Tankersley, a newspaper publisher in nearby LaSalle and, yes, one of those McCormicks.
