Not after his son had such a fine time in Dwight, Illinois as Baron Renfrew in 1860 Jay! The warm reception that his son received in America, the first visit of a Prince of Wales to the country, helped convince the royal family to have warmer feelings for the US. Hence Dwight helped the Union triumph in the Late Unpleasantness, in addition to the several hundred boys in blue we sent off to fight.

“In 1860 an event occurred winch gave Dwight
national prominence. James C. Spencer owned a
hunting lodge and other cabins on his farm near
the north side of Dwight. He had acquired this
land around 1853. He would come out here from
Chicago to hunt. In 1860 Mr. P. E. Miller lived
on the farm. When prominent Chicago people
heard that the Prince of Wales, traveling incog-
nito under the name Lord Renfrew, was coming
to this country and wanted places to hunt, these
people asked Mr. Spencer to provide the same at
his hunting lodge here. He did so very reluctant-
ly for there was feeling, especially among the
Irish, against English royalty. Finally Mr. Spen-
cer agreed and sent his sister out here to his
hunting lodge to get things ready for the Prince
and his entourage. All furniture was removed
from the hunting lodge, and new furniture put in
its place which had been shipped ahead. On Sat-
urday, September 22, 1860, around 6:00 p. m. the
Prince’s group arrived on the train. There was
no large crowd on hand to give him a royal wel-
come. But there was a man from Pontiac on
hand who made a short uncalled for speech which
told the Prince to go to a place much hotter than
Dwight. The group soon went out to the Spencer
lodge. Here the Prince asked for his gun with
some vehemence, and went out to shoot some-
thing. He came back with a screech owl.

His entourage could not all be quartered at the
lodge so some had to stay at one of the cabins.
In one of these lived a school teacher and his
wife, who had not heard too much about the
Prince’s arrival. When Spencer took the servants
over to this cabin from the lodge, the Prince of-
fered to go along to hold the lantern. The teacher
and his wife began to discuss the Prince’s ar-
rival, but they did not know that the Prince was
even then there among them. The Prince soon
went otside and got a big laugh out of this. On
Sunday the group attended church services at the
local Presbyterian Church, and he later made a
donation of 50 pounds to this church. That week
he was taken hunting, and as a precautionary
measure, several of the group would walk about
100 yards ahead and some about 100 yards be-
hind. Spencer was constantly afraid that some-

one might get shot, but he later remarked that
the Prince was a remarkably good shot. He later
presented Mr. Spencer with a tine manton gun.
Hunting that week in Round Grove along a creek,
they came upon a flock of mallard ducks. They
shot into the group. It turned out that the ducks
were tame ones belonging to a Mrs. Eunice Pratt.
She came down to the creek and gave them a
tongue lashing as they had never had before.

That week the group was also entertained at
the home of Col. Morgan which was located where
the home of Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Wolf now stands.
He gave the Colonel a gift of gold shirt buttons,
sleeve buttons, and vest buttons. Also a pair of
crystal candelabra which are now on permanent
exhibit at the museum of the Chicago Historical
Society. The Prince loved to be called Baron
Renfrew and the Spencer lodge was later called
Renfrew Lodge and the Prince of Wales farm.
This farm was bought by David McWilliams in
1891. The Prince later became Edward VII, King
of England.”