Old Joliet fruitcake to be rehomed at historic home in Bloomington,

It didn’t take long for Sarah Randolph’s fruitcake to find its new home.

Randolph said in a Saturday Herald-News story that she was hoping a museum might want a historic fruitcake that her family has passed down several generations.

[ Joliet woman seeking new home for vintage fruitcake ]

In 1918, Randolph’s grandmother, Anna Fayette Kuhl Herron, and Randolph’s aunt, Sarah Kuhl Wallace, had baked the fruitcake to send to their brother John Carey Kuhl, who was stationed in Europe.

But the fruitcake didn’t immediately find him since John Carey Kuhl returned home to Windsor in Shelby County in 1919. So Wallace kept the fruitcake, which went to Randolph’s mother Anna Fay Herron Bush after Wallace died – and then to Randolph after Bush died.

By Saturday night, the fruitcake had a destination: Ewing Manor in Bloomington. The manor is part of the Ewing Cultural Center and is owned by Illinois State University.

The facilitator in rehoming the fruitcake is Cyndi Derobertis of Shorewood.

Derobertis said she plays clarinet in the JJC Community Band with Craig Randolph, Sarah Randolph’s husband, who also plays clarinet.

So when Derobertis saw that Sarah Randolph wanted to rehome a century-old family fruitcake, Derobertis wanted to help.

“I’m just one of those people that hate things being thrown out,” Derobertis said. “I love history. I love people to get things. She has kept it as a treasure for so many years. I just thought, ‘If I can somehow connect her to someone, I’m going to do it.’”

Derobertis contacted a friend who volunteers at Ewing Manor. The friend talked to the curator who was excited to receive the fruitcake, Derobertis said.

So Derobertis picked up the fruitcake from Randolph’s house on Tuesday morning.

Sarah Randolph said she’s familiar with Ewing Manor because her mother and Sarah Randolph both attended Illinois Wesleyan University.

“The connection is just weird,” Randolph said. “And they didn’t know it.”

Sarah Randolph said the story was “quite the talk of the church” on Sunday. Sarah Randolph attends First Presbyterian of Joliet, where Sarah Randolph was able to rehome and organ and now gives free lessons to the community on that organ.

[ Joliet woman on a mission to keep ‘king of the instruments’ alive ]

“They requested that I bring one of the fruitcake pieces to church next Sunday to let people see during Christmas breakfast,” Sarah Randolph wrote in an email on Sunday.

On Monday, Sarah Randolph said the fruitcake is actually cut in several pieces. The main piece, which was depicted in Saturday’s story, is the piece the Ewing Manor wants, Sarah Randolph said.

The other three smaller slices were deliberately cut away from the original to fit in the box when Herron and Wallace mailed it to their brother.

“That’s what they did in those days,” Sarah Randolph said.