Pioneer Herscher businessman Azariah Buck, in his 1905 will, set aside a substantial sum of money “for the erection of the home for old people, who are worthy and needful ... but are deserving...in the declining years of life.”

It would take 63 years for his wishes to be carried out: on April 1, 1970, the first residents moved into Heritage House, the Kankakee retirement facility built with funds from the Azariah Buck Old People’s Home Trust.

Buck and his wife Catherine were among the earliest settlers of western Kankakee County. They arrived here in 1854, opening a 460-acre farm at Pilot Centre, a mile northeast of where the village of Herscher would later be established. At that time, there were only about four other families living in Pilot Township. In addition to farming, Buck and his brother John operated a blacksmith shop, ran a general store, and were dealers in grain, coal, livestock and farm implements.

In 1878, the village of Herscher was founded along the tracks of the Illinois Central Railroad’s new branch connecting Kankakee and Bloomington. Anticipating that Herscher would grow, the Buck brothers soon relocated there. “They moved their store from Pilot Centre, stock and all, to Herscher,” noted an 1893 biography. “Buck Bros. had the first store, and were the pioneer merchants of the town. Their stock is large and well selected, and they are doing a successful business.”

Azariah Buck became one of the town’s most prominent and prosperous citizens. He served several terms as president of two financial institutions: the State Bank of Herscher and the First National Bank of Kankakee. He was also active in politics, serving in the Illinois state legislature for one term, and for 22 years, represented Pilot Township on the Kankakee County Board of Supervisors.

He was also a prudent man: his will was drawn a decade before he died in 1915 at the age of 87 and was buried in the Pilot Centre Cemetery. The sum of money he set aside for building and operating the “Old People’s Home” was $48,000 (almost $1,500,000 in today’s dollars).

Through most of its history, the trust was managed by five local trustees, who served without pay. One provision of the will allowed the trustees to accept bequests from other individuals. Two such bequests — from the estates of Martha Leutloff and Jennie Groenwald — added considerably to the trust’s funds.

Through the years, the fund also increased through its investments. By the late 1950s, its value was more than a quarter-million dollars. In mid-1959, a court ruling replaced the local trustees with the Stewards Foundation, a non-profit corporation that planned to build and operate a facility that would serve 100 residents. The Stewards, however, failed to carry out their plan. In October, 1963, a Kankakee County judge appointed five local trustees to again control the Buck trust.

By 1968, the value of the trust reached approximately $800,000 and the trustees decided it was time to build the home that Buck had provided for in his will. A site was selected for the facility — a 13-acre tract of land on the west side of Entrance Avenue in Kankakee, south of the Meadowview Shopping Center. Construction of the retirement home, which would initially accommodate 66 residents, was estimated at $1.1 million (although Buck’s will had set a limit of $25,000 to build the “Old People’s Home,” a judge ruled that the amount was no longer realistic).

After the trustees received permission to borrow an additional $400,000, work on the building began in March 1969. The single-story facility, designed by the Kankakee architectural firm of Turner-Witt and Associates, would offer apartments, as well as single and double rooms. Facilities available to residents would include reading and television rooms, a craft room, dining room, chapel, beauty and barber shops, and a solarium.

A provision of Buck’s will that might have limited the home’s ability to accept some future residents was wording that required it to serve people “who are not paupers nor charges of the state or municipality.” The will, of course, had been drawn in a time before Social Security and pensions were available to retirees. A court ruling in the 1960s established that applicants receiving Social Security or pensions could be accepted as residents.

“An important aspect of the project,” stated a news release issued in late 1968,” will be the opportunity for development of mutual interests and friendly relationships among the residents. The purpose [is to provide] a healthy, friendly environment for the occupants, and to give their later years greater meaning...thus providing the ‘senior citizen’ with a productive life.”

Even though it took more than six decades for his “Old People’s Home” to become reality, Azariah Buck would probably have been pleased with how it turned out.

Located at 501 N. Entrance Ave., Heritage House was built in 1969 on the site of a Kankakee County institution that had been closed some ten years earlier. What was the that institution?

Answer: The Kankakee County Poor Farm, which had housed both impoverished and mentally ill county residents since 1891. These were the "paupers" and "charges of the state or municipality" that Azariah Buck was referring to in his will. The growth of government-operated social welfare programs, beginning in the 1930s, eventually eliminated the need for residential "poor farm" institutions.