Frank Sadorus (pictured at right; click on photo to enlarge), Henry's greatgrandson who worked on the family farm, spent four years of his life (from age 28 to 32) making a photographic record of life on the farm. When his father died in 1911, the farm was sold, and Frank's mental health deteriorated. Shortly thereafter, he was committed to a mental hospital in Kankakee where he remained until his death in 1934 at the age of 54. He never took another photograph. In the 1970s, one of Frank's nephews found his glass-plate negatives in the attic of his mother's house. A man named Raymond Bial published a book about Sadorus entitled Upon a Quiet Landscape. You can view samples of Sadorus's photography at the Web site of the Illinois State Museum Society.

The small town of Sadorus (population approximately 425) has a Board of Trustee form of government. The President of the Board (popularly called Mayor) is an elected official as are the trustees and the village clerk. The town publishes a newsletter on their Web site. Don't miss the village site's fascinating section on the town's history.

Sadorus, located south of Champaign off of Interstate 57, is home to the National Museum of Ship Models and Sea History—200 ship models housed in a 10,000-square-foot, 130-year-old building.