Homepage of "Mr. Lincoln, Route 66, & Other
Highlights of Lincoln, IL"
Site Map
Testimonials
A Long-Range Plan to Brand the First Lincoln
Namesake City as the Second City of Abraham Lincoln Statues
The Abraham
Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration in Lincoln, Illinois
1.
Abraham Lincoln and the Historic Postville
Courthouse,
including a William Maxwell connection to the Postville Courthouse
2.
About Henry Ford and the Postville Courthouse,
the Story of the Postville Courthouse Replica,
Tantivy, & the Postville Park
Neighborhood in the
Route 66 Era
3.
The Rise of Abraham Lincoln and His History and
Heritage in His First Namesake Town,
also the founding of Lincoln College, the plot to steal Lincoln's
body, and memories of Lincoln College and the Rustic Tavern-Inn
4.
Introduction to the Social & Economic History of
Lincoln, Illinois,
including poetry by William Childress & commentary by Federal Judge
Bob Goebel & Illinois Appellate Court Judge Jim Knecht
5.
"Social Consciousness in William Maxwell's
Writings Based on Lincoln, Illinois" (an article published in the
Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, winter 2005-06)
5.a.
Peeking Behind the Wizard's Screen: William
Maxwell's Literary Art as Revealed by a Study of the Black Characters in
Billie Dyer and Other Stories
6.
Introduction to the Railroad & Route 66 Heritage
of Lincoln, Illinois
7.
The Living Railroad Heritage of Lincoln, Illinois:
on Track as a Symbol of the "Usable Past"
8.
Route 66 Overview Map of Lincoln with 42 Sites,
Descriptions, & Photos
9.
The Hensons of Business Route 66
10.
The Wilsons of Business
Route 66, including the Wilson Grocery & Shell
Station
11.
Route 66 Map & Photos Showing Lincoln Memorial
Park
(former Chautauqua site),
the Historic Cemeteries, & Nearby Sites
12.
Route 66 Map & Photos Showing Salt Creek &
Cemetery Hill,
including
the highway bridges, GM&O bridge, Madigan State Park, the old dam (with
photos & Leigh's memoir of "shooting the rapids" over the old dam), &
the Ernie Edwards' Pig-Hip Restaurant Museum in Broadwell
13.
The Historic Logan County Courthouse, Past &
Present
14.
Route 66 Map with 51 Sites in the Business &
Courthouse Square Historic District,
including locations of historical markers
(on the National Register of Historic Places)
15.
Vintage Scenes of the Business & Courthouse Square
Historic District
16.
The Foley House: A
Monument to Civic Leadership
(on the National Register of
Historic Places)
17.
Agriculture in
the Route 66 Era
18.
Arts & Entertainment Heritage,
including
the Lincoln Theatre Roy Rogers' Riders Club of the
1950s
19.
Business Heritage
20.
Cars, Trucks & Gas Stations of the Route 66 Era
21.
Churches, including the hometown
churches of Author William Maxwell & Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr
22.
Factories, Past and Present
23.
Food Stores of
the Route 66 Era
24.
Government
25.
Hospitals, Past and Present
26.
Hotels & Restaurants of the Railroad & Route 66
Eras
27.
Lincoln Developmental Center
(Lincoln State School & Colony in
the Route 66 era), plus
debunking the myth of
Lincoln, Illinois, choosing the Asylum over the University of Illinois
28.
Mining Coal, Limestone, & Sand & Gravel; Lincoln Lakes; & Utilities
29.
Museums & Parks, including the Lincoln College
Museum and its Abraham Lincoln Collection, plus the Heritage-in-Flight
Museum
30.
Neighborhoods
with Distinction
31.
News Media in the Route 66 Era
32.
The Odd Fellows' Children's Home
33.
Schools
34.
Memories of the 1900 Lincoln Community High School,
including Fred Blanford's dramatic account of the lost marble
fountain of youth
35.
A Tribute to the Historians and Advocates of
Lincoln, Illinois
36.
Watering Holes of the Route 66 Era
37.
The Historic 1953 Centennial Celebration of
Lincoln, Illinois
38.
The Festive 2003 Sesqui-centennial Celebration of
Lincoln, Illinois, including photos of LCHS Class of 1960
dignitaries & the Blanfords
39.
Why Did the State Police Raid Lincoln, Illinois,
on October 11, 1950?
40.
The Gambling Raids in Lincoln and Logan County,
Illinois,
During the Late Route 66 Era (1950-1960)
_______
Pages
in this section tell about Leigh Henson's Lincoln years, moving away,
revisits, and career:
About Lincoln, Illinois;
This Web Site; & Me
A Tribute to Lincolnite Edward Darold
Henson: World War II U.S. Army Veteran of the Battles for Normandy and
the Hedgerows; Brittany and Brest; and the Ardennes (Battle of the
Bulge)
For Remembrance, Understanding, & Fun: Lincoln
Community High School Mid-20th-Century Alums' Internet Community
(a Web site and
email exchange devoted to collaborative memoir and the sharing of photos
related to Lincoln, Illinois)
Leigh Henson's Pilgrimage to Lincoln, Illinois, on
July 12, 2001
Leigh Henson's
Review of Dr. Burkhardt's William Maxwell Biography
Leigh Henson's Review of Ernie Edwards' biography,
Pig-Hips on Route 66, by William Kaszynski
Leigh Henson's Review of Jan Schumacher's
Glimpses of Lincoln, Illinois
Teach Local Authors: Considering the Literature of
Lincoln, Illinois
Web Site About
Leigh Henson's Professional Life
__________
Pages
in this section are about the writing, memorabilia, and Web sites of
other Lincolnites:
A Tribute to Bill and Phyllis Stigall:
Exemplary Faculty of Lincoln College at Mid-Twentieth Century
A Tribute to the Krotzes of Lincoln, Illinois
A Tribute to Robert Wilson (LCHS '46): Author of
Young in Illinois, Movies Editor of December Magazine,
Friend and Colleague of December Press Publisher Curt Johnson, and
Correspondent with William Maxwell
Brad Dye (LCHS '60): His Lincoln, Illinois, Web
Site,
including photos of many churches
Dave Armbrust's Memorabilia of Lincoln, Illinois
J. Richard
(JR) Fikuart
(LCHS '65):
The
Fikuarts of Lincoln, Illinois, including their
connections to the William Maxwell family and three generations of
family fun at Lincoln Lakes
Jerry Gibson (LCHS '60): Lincoln, Illinois,
Memoirs & Other Stories
Dave Johnson (LCHS '56): His Web Site for the
Lincoln Community High School Class of 1956
Sportswriter David Kindred: Memoir of His
Grandmother Lena & Her West Side Tavern on Sangamon Street in the Route
66 Era
Judge Jim Knecht
(LCHS '62): Memoir and Short Story, "Other People's Money," Set in
Hickey's Billiards on Chicago Street in the Route 66 Era
William A. "Bill" Krueger (LCHS '52): Information
for His Books About Murders in Lincoln
Norm Schroeder (LCHS '60): Short Stories
Stan Stringer Writes About His Family, Mark
Holland, and Lincoln, Illinois
Thomas Walsh: Anecdotes Relating to This Legendary
Attorney from Lincoln by Attorney Fred Blanford & Judge Jim Knecht
Leon Zeter (LCHS '53): His Web Site for the
Lincoln Community High School Class of 1953,
including announcements of LCHS class reunions
(Post yours there.)
__________
|
Highway Sign of
the Times:
1926-1960
The Route 66
Association of Illinois
The Illinois
State Historical Society
Illinois
Tourism Site:
Enjoy Illinois
|
| |
Internet Explorer is the only browser that shows this page the way it was designed.
Your computer's settings may alter the display.
April 24, 2004: Awarded "Best Web Site of the Year" by the Illinois State Historical
Society
"superior
achievement: serves as a model for the profession and reaches a greater
public"
|
Marquee
Lights of the Lincoln Theater, est. 1923, Lincoln, Illinois |
"The cemetery in Lincoln is situated in a grove of oak trees on a
bluff looking out over the rich farmland -- a serene and timeless frame for
lives concluded and beyond grieving over."
William Maxwell, Ancestors (1971),
p. 208. ____________________
Beyond grieving over
perhaps, but surely not
beyond remembering and celebrating.
The locations identified on the map below are some of the most historically
significant in all of Lincoln and central Illinois. Lincoln Memorial Park, Old Union
Cemetery, and Holy Cross Cemetery are truly majestic sites that overlook the sweeping flood
plains of Salt Creek. As the land rises above the rich fields, mighty oaks
shade the playgrounds and final
resting places of generations of Lincolnites. Many of the people on
whom William Maxwell based his Lincoln, Illinois-related characters,
including his own relatives, rest in the cemeteries here. Below on this page
you will find photos of the gravestones of some of the relatives of William
Maxwell, whom he wrote about, including his mother (in Old Union Cemetery)
and father (in New Union Cemetery). Photos of the gravestones of Dr. Billier
Dyer and his sister, Hattie Dyer Brummell, are located at
http://findinglincolnillinois.com/foleyhouse.html#dyers.
On the homepage of this Web site, I write that Lincoln can be viewed from
various angles -- seen from different points of view. Realistic and
romantic views are conflicting, but I experience both, depending on what
part of Lincoln's history and my experience growing up there I am thinking
about. Consequently, various parts of this Web site reflect this dual
perspective. This page reflects a part of Lincoln that evokes a
romantic view and mood.
What do I mean by referring to a part of Lincoln as romantic? To me, a place is
romantic that evokes strong emotions, mostly of a positive nature, including
patriotism and delight in natural and man-made beauty. A place is
romantic that has personal associations and invites reflection. A
place is romantic that enables us to understand the ways in which the past
creates the
present and promises hope for the future. A place is especially
romantic when it teaches us how life is ultimately mysterious and even
sometimes magical.
Poet Vachael
Lindsay was painfully aware that in his hometown of Springfield, Illinois,
most people were preoccupied with the routines and materialism of daily life
and neglected the appreciation of art and nature. Yet he maintained that
romance could be found there. With this Web site, I make the same
claim for my hometown of Lincoln, Illinois.
To discover the romance of Lincoln, visit the
places depicted in this Web site, in particular the historic sites. Walk
in Lincoln Memorial Park. Roam the cemeteries and observe the markers and
note the names of the founding fathers, other prominent citizens, as well as
the majority who are lost in obscurity. Walk Cemetery Hill on original pavement of Routes 4 and 66
and enjoy the serenity of nature and the vivid reminders of the past.
The two-hundred-year-old oaks here
are living monuments to the past generations who traveled the railroads and
highways in this area, who vacationed at the Chautauqua grounds, who played
in Lincoln Memorial Park and on the Elks' golf course, and who rest here forever.
Listen closely to the wind above in the tall branches, and you can hear
the voices of the past calling you softly to remember --
remember the
freedom they enjoyed and their sacrifices that made ours possible.
11.1: Diagrammatic Map of Lincoln
Memorial Park,
Cemeteries, & and Nearby Sites |
|
The numbers of the items below correspond to the numbers on the above map.
The following numbers and descriptions pertain only to Lincoln Memorial
Park, the historic cemeteries, and selected nearby sites. Numbered
items on the map that are not included below appear on
12.
Route 66 Map & Photos Showing Salt Creek & Cemetery Hill,
Including
the Highway Bridges, GM&O Bridge, Madigan State Park, the Old Dam, & the
Pig-Hip Restaurant in Broadwell.
1. Lincoln Memorial Park
(Site of former Lincoln Chautauqua Grounds). Site of
a major Kickapoo Indian
village. For detailed information about the Kickapoo Indians at this site
and throughout Logan County, access a PDF of
The
Kickapoo Indians in Logan County, Illinois by Lawrence
Stringer. (This article includes the story of a pioneer mother and children
who were held captive by the Kickapoos at their Salt Creek village.)
11.2: Picture Postcard Image
of a Kickapoo Indian Scene in a Diorama at the
Illinois State Museum of Natural History in Springfield
11.3: Arrowheads Allegedly
Found Near Kickapoo Creek in
Kickapoo Park in Lincoln, Illinois
Lincoln
Memorial Park is also the former site of the largest Chautauqua village in Illinois (a.k.a Brainerd, or the misspelling Brainard, Park), near Elks' Club Golf Course. This park is adjacent to and west of the Old Union Cemetery.
11.4: Lincoln
Chautauqua Postcard Letterhead, 1906
During each summer from 1901 to 1937, citizens from
the community and entire region enjoyed various kinds of entertainment here,
often spending their vacations at Chautauqua. According to Wikipedia
(take it FWIW),
"The Chautauqua, (pronounced shə-tô'kwə) was a popular
educational movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the
United States. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout
rural America until the mid 1920s. When the Chautauqua came to town, it
brought entertainment for the whole community, with speakers, teachers,
musicians, entertainers and specialists of the day."
In the first decade of the Lincoln, IL, Chautauqua,
lectures were presented by such famous speakers as William Jennings Bryan
(three-time Democratic Presidential candidate), Evangelists Billy Sunday and
Sam P. Jones, Carrie Nation, and Wisconsin Governor Robert M. La Follette.
Local orators such as Judge Stringer were also favorites. In later years,
pageants and plays were performed. Baseball was always a very popular
sport for participants and spectators (Gehlbach, "Chautauqua
Summers," p. 3).
In some places of the United States in the early part
of the 21st century, the Chautauqua movement has somewhat revived, and one
of these location is Jacksonville, Illinois. In the best of all
possible worlds, a New Lincoln Chautauqua would be formed in Lincoln/Logan
County, Illinois. It could be held under a big tent in Lincoln Memorial
Park, the original venue and site of the Lincoln Chautauqua. A New Lincoln
Chautauqua could provide a great complement to some other local festival
such as the National Railsplitter Contest held annually in September,
augmenting the coveted heritage tourism in the first namesake town.
Judge Lawrence Stringer describes the Chautauqua grounds at Lincoln,
purchased from Mrs. Ella Brainerd:
"The Lincoln Chautauqua, with its spacious and beautiful grounds of 120
acres, not leased or rented but owned in fee simple, with its magnificent
steel auditorium, its scores of handsome cottages, its specialty buildings,
its system of water works and sewage, and its extensive equipment of various
kinds -- with an investment representing some $50,000 in all -- is
differentiated from the ephemeral summer gatherings that oftimes bear the
'Chautauqua' name" (p. 436). He further describes the Chautauqua
grounds as "diversified by hills and valley, creek-side and rugged ravine.
The platted lots occupy but a fraction of the grounds, leaving ample space
for woodland rambles and outdoor sports. The lot portion is arranged
in circles, octagons and other geometrical figures, leaving public areas in
the camp" (p. 469).
[Note: access Judge
Lawrence Stringer's 9-page account of
the rise of the
Lincoln Chautauqua Association (PDF, 9
pp).]
The Chautauqua was embraced as a lifestyle by those
who could afford it. Summer cottages and tents
allowed some to live at the Chautauqua grounds during summer months. (Today, no buildings remain.) "For many Logan County people, their vacation was
the ten days to two weeks spent at the Chautauqua in August. For farm
families, an extra treat was the electricity and indoor plumbing they didn't
have at home. In addition to a full-time police force and post office,
the grounds boasted a water and a sewage system." Chautauqua provided
a close-to-nature retreat enhanced by city advantages, including telephone
service in the administration building" (Nancy Lawrence Gehlbach,
"Chautauqua Summers," Our Times, p. 2).
"The Elks Crippled
Children's Trust purchased the Chautauqua grounds in 1942 and maintained
Brainerd Park until it was sold to the city in February 11, 1960 and renamed
[Lincoln] Memorial Park" (Gleason,
Lincoln: A Pictorial History, p. 147).
The Big
Chautauqua Tent
Note: I am indebted to Pat and Gary Freese
for the inspiration to add the following information about the big
Chautauqua tent. In the earliest days of the Chautauqua (1900s), the Lincoln
trolley transported people westward from the town past the Lincoln State
School to a depot, located on the north-central border of Old Union Cemetery
(where two sets of my great-grandparents sleep). At the depot, folks could
disembark, place flowers at the graves of loved ones, and contemplate
eternity. (The trolley station is described and depicted later on this
page.)
According to my father, Darold Henson, people
disembarking on the trolley could also walk down a gulley in the cemetery,
just north of the chapel, to reach the large tent where Chautauqua programs
were presented in the earliest years before the steel auditorium was
constructed. I took the photos below in December, 2007:
11.5: Cemetery Office Seen
from Head of Gulley Path Leading to Chautauqua Tent Site
11.6: Beautiful, Inviting
Path Down Gulley Toward Chautauqua Tent Site
The tent and a parking area for carriages were
located just below the hillside on the southeast corner of the Chautauqua
grounds (at the edge of the flood plain of Salt Creek). A small lake was
constructed in this area, north of the tent. Information about this lake is
presented later on this page.
11.7: Chautauqua Tent
(photo from the 1903 Lincoln Women's Club, Views of Lincoln, Illinois)
Another approach to the
Chautauqua tent, parking area, and Brainerd Lake was a road down a gulley
located just beyond the west edge of Old Union Cemetery, as depicted below.
|
11.8:
Picture Postcard of Road in
Brainerd Park, 1908, Leading to the Big Tent
|
11.9: In
2002 Same Roadway but
Seldom-Used and Ending in Corn Field
|
The above photo at right shows the remnant of the road seen in the above
photo at left. I took photo above, right, in June of 2002, jogging down then
up the old road back to the car where my wife, Pat Hartman, was waiting
patiently. This road was the main entrance in the earliest Chautauqua years.
The road is located just west of Old Union Cemetery at the eastern edge of
present-day Lincoln Memorial Park, just between the park and Old Union
Cemetery. The road winds downhill toward the tent site and the site of
Brainerd Lake, gone except for a depression, occasionally soggy, buried in
the Salt Creek bottoms at the edge of a cornfield.
|
The Entrance to the
Chautauqua Grounds
Darold Henson says that as the Chautauqua
developed, the trolley line was extended beyond the depot, so that the the
main entrance to the Chautauqua grounds was near the northwest edge of the Old Union Cemetery.
The streetcar dead-ended there, near a wading pool.
|
11.10:
Trolley at Lincoln Chautauqua in 1912
(undated Lincoln Courier photo)
Conductor Ralph Matthews standing on trolley car steps with Motorman Truman
Kelson. Note the tent at left.
|
11.11:
Trolley Ticket Booth
(photo courtesy of Willie Aughton)
Mr. Aughton worked for the Lincoln Park District in the 1960s when it was
creating Lincoln Memorial Park from the former Chautauqua grounds.
|
11.12: Walls
of Wading Pool Near the Original Chautauqua Entrance
(1960s photo courtesy of Willie Aughton)
|
The footbridge picture below was used by passengers
after they arrived at the main entrance on the streetcar or from the road
parallel to its tracks. William Maxwell describes the arrival of
Chautauqua patrons using the streetcar: "Rocking and swaying, the open
street-car that all the rest of the year went only as far as the cemeteries
now went on to the end of the line. The passengers got off, passed
over a narrow footbridge [emphasis mine], and presented their
season tickets at the gates of the Draperville [Lincoln] Chautauqua" (William
Maxwell, Time
Will Darken It, pp. 149-50).
11.13: Picture Postcard of Pedestrian Bridge Crossed by Passengers of the Streetcars
|
11.14:
Chautauqua Entrance Footbridge with Women's Building in Background
(1960s photo courtesy of Willie Aughton)
|
Later Entrance to the
Chautauqua Grounds and Lincoln Memorial Park
|
11.15: Historical Marker at
Contemporary
Entrance to Lincoln Memorial Park
(Leigh Henson photo, 6-02)
|
11.16: Horseshoe from Lincoln
Chautauqua Site (photo by Judy Henson, 1-03)
Darold said there was a horse barn located behind and to the
right of the sign at the left. From the horse barn site, Darold and Judy Henson
unearthed the horseshoe seen above. The rusty condition of the
horseshoe suggests indeed it has been in the ground for a century.
|
Darold explained that when he was a child, one of his
neighbors near Fifth Street was "Oat" Williamson, who kept horses in the Chautauqua
grounds horse
barn. Williamson's work was excavation and hauling, so he needed the
large white work horses for his livelihood. In the mid 1920s, Darold
was six to nine years old, and in those years "Oat" sometimes took Darold to the Chautauqua grounds when Oat tended to his horses. Darold
remembers riding to the Chautauqua grounds in Oat's Model T.
|
11.17: Undated Picture
Postcard of Chautauqua's Main Street
|
Lincoln Chautauqua Public
Buildings
11.18:
Lincoln Chautauqua Administration Building
(Photo from Gleason and Beaver, Logan County Pictorial
History, p. 189)
Note the cabin-style tents at the left of the building.
|
11.19:
Undated Photo of Women's Building
(Photo provided by Fred Blanford)
Click on the above image for an even larger picture of just the people
(girls, women of various ages, and one or maybe two mama's boys). Once the
image opens after you have accessed it by clicking on the above image, you
may have to click on the opened image to access the larger version.
|
The above photo is undated but appears to be pre-WW I, the time of the setting for
Maxwell's novel titled Time Will Darken It, which includes
description of the Chautauqua, as summarized later on this page. |
11.20:
Ghostly Women's Building in Its Final Years
(1960s photo courtesy of Willie Aughton)
|
11.21: 1908 Picture Postcard
Showing the Auditorium at Lincoln Chautauqua in
the Glorious Oaks of Brainerd Park (Now Lincoln Memorial Park)
Stringer describes the construction of the great
steel auditorium: "On March 30, 1904, a contract was entered into with
the Decatur Bridge Company of Decatur, Ill., to erect the steel work and
concrete foundation of an auditorium building and soon after a contract was
let for the lumber construction of the structure and the gravel roofing for
the same. The work of construction began at once and the auditorium
was ready for occupancy for the sessions of the third assembly, which were
held Aug. 11 to 21, 1904. . . . It is a steel framed structure,
circular in form 160 feet in diameter, the posts set in solid concrete,
seats about 4,5000 people, has a commodious platform and contains but a
single interior post. It is located on a hillside and the view is
clear and unobstructed. The sides are open to the free circulation of
air. It is lighted by electrical lights as are also the entire
grounds. The seats are arranged in circular tiers, amphitheatre style,
the floor rising from the pits to the sides and rear. The entire cost
of the structured complete was in the neighborhood of $10,000" (Stringer, p.
468).
11.22: 1908 Auditorium
Gathering
In the early years, lectures were
presented by such famous speakers as William Jennings Bryan (three-time
Democratic Presidential candidate) and Evangelist Billy Sunday. Local
orators such as Judge Stringer were also favorites. In later years, pageants and plays were
performed. Baseball was always a very popular sport for participants
and spectators (Gehlbach, "Chautauqua
Summers," p. 3).
|
11.23 Interior of
Lincoln Chautauqua Auditorium Looking Downstage
(Fish Illustrated Lincoln, 1916)
A black and white photo of the Chautauqua
auditorium in Dooley's The Namesake Town (p. 43) shows many flags
decorating the back of the stage and hanging from the steel rafters.
In the above photo, taken by A.B. Bliss, I have "painted" one of the ceiling
streamers to suggest the powerful effect of the patriotic colors that adorned this
impressive facility.
11.24: Photos from Raymond
Dooley's The Namesake Town (p. 43)
In William
Maxwell's Time Will Darken It (1948), Chapter 11 is a literary
portrait of the Chautauqua in 1912. Maxwell mentions the "ice cream tent,
the women's building, the administration and post-office building, the
dining hall, and the big cone-roofed auditorium, built of the brow of a hill
and open on the sides to all kinds of weather" (p. 150).
He also
describes a group of circles on which the various cottages were located and
suggests why some Lincolnites used them during the summer: "The
cottages were occupied by the same families year after year. They did
not come for the simple life -- life being, if anything, too simple in town.
They came for self-improvement, and because it was a change, with new
neighbors and unfamiliar china and kerosene stoves to worry over and a
partial escape from the heat" (p. 150).
In this novel, the main
character, Attorney Austin King, comes home from work and drives his guests from Mississippi, the Potters, to the Chautauqua grounds, where they were entertained by "the
White Huzzars," a group of "twenty handsome young men" playing lively music:
"perhaps they were the instruments of Change, pointing towards the fast
automobiles, the golf courses, and the Sunday-night movies of the future. .
. . The grey-haired members of the audience, guardians of a gentle
Calvinistic [Puritanical] era and with fixed ideas of what entertainment was
appropriate to a day of worship sat shocked and disapproving. The rest
applauded wildly, reminded of something they had almost forgotten or known
only in snatches -- of how wonderful it is to be young" (p. 150).
In the evening on the
return drive to town, Austin King makes the attractive, young Nora Potter,
who is holding Austin and Martha's daughter in her lap, promise him that
before she marries, she will introduce her fiancé to Austin. At this
point it is unclear whether Austin knows that she has feelings for him.
In just a few pages preceding this scene, "she [Nora] was conscious of no
other presence in the house but his [Austin's]. And when his grey eyes came to rest
on her for a moment, they left her so drained and weak that it was all she
could do to stand" (p. 145).
You really should read
Time Will Darken It to find out whether Nora takes Austin away from
his wife and daughter.
|
In Ancestors, Maxwell writes that his parents built a cabin at the
Chautauqua grounds, shaded by four large oak trees, when he was about three
years old (1911-1912). Maxwell says his parents selected a location
"on the extreme outer edge of the Chautauqua grounds, far away from the big
cone-shaped open auditorium, and William Jennings Bryan, and the string
quartets, and the Anvil Chorus; away from the cooking classes, and the
wading pool [at the entrance near the footbridge], and the afternoon
baseball game; away from the log-cabin museum [emphasis mine] crammed with objects very much
like the things that were auctioned off when my Great-great-grandfather
Turley died, except that the metal they were made of was now green and
mysterious with age; away from the tent stakes that were so easy to trip
over, and the invitations you could not say no to -- away from people
is what my father and mother had in mind, but Jimmy Hoblit and his wife came
and settled down right beside them" (p. 260).
11.25: Picture Postcard
of Old Settlers Museum, 1911
How many antiques can you identify on the porch? A tent appears in the
background at right. Maxwell describes the leisure of evenings marked by solitude in which the
initial pleasure of relaxed conversation can eventually be displaced by the
discomforts of boredom and nettlesome insects: "sitting on the
porch in the evening, we burned punk to keep the mosquitoes and gnats away
and passed the citronella around. The katydids were deafening" (Ancestors, p.
260).
|
11.26:
Public Homecoming Picnic at the Chautauqua Grounds, 1919
(Photo from Gleason, Lincoln: A Pictorial History,
p. 100)
This scene is near the entrance of the Lincoln Memorial Park. A close-up
view of the photo (with magnifying glass) reveals the present-day house at
the back left and several cars parked on the road between the house and the
Chautauqua Grounds. The building most noticeable at the back right is the
Old Settlers Museum. To its right is the Administration Building. Several WW
I veterans attended as indicated by the men in uniforms. The photo caption
in Mr. Gleason's book reads, "A meal was served at Brainerd Park following
the 1919 'Welcome Home' parade. More than 20,000 people attended the parade
and the events at the park. Food committees worked through the school
districts to provide potato salad, fried chicken, veal loaf, slaw, baked
beans, pie, cake, and sandwiches."
|
11.27:
Concession Stand Before Renovation |
11.28:
Concession Stand After Renovation |
Photos circa 1960s courtesy of Willie Aughton. The photo above at right
shows the present-day Lincoln Memorial Park entrance sign at the left (and
the residence across the street from it). The concession stand has been
demolished due to the advancement of civilization, or is it the disuse and
the timeless vulnerability to barbaric vandalism?.
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Chautauqua Cabins
The Lincoln Chautauqua had approximately 100 cabins. None remain there today. Many were removed to Lincoln
Lakes. Other cottages were scattered throughout Lincoln. Some
were "moved to the Melrose addition near the fairgrounds by George White" (Gehlbach,
"Chautauqua Summers," p. 3).
11.29:
Photo of Chautauqua Cottage on the Business Card of Architect John A.
Simpson
This item was for sale on
eBay, and the seller describes the card as follows: "This is a 4 5/8"
by 3 1/2" business card, probably from 1920 or earlier, featuring a
beautiful little summer cottage with a rustic gazebo to the left. The
caption reads 'John A. Simpson's Cottage At Lincoln Chautauqua Grounds.' On
the back is printed the following: John A. Simpson, Architect, General
Contractor -- Estimates Furnished on Short Notice - Telephone 67, Lincoln,
Illinois. He was apparently so pleased with his little cottage that he
incorporated the picture of it with his business card as a clever
advertisement of his abilities. The cottage is wonderful, with gingerbread
trim and turned-up eaves, and a nice front porch (a dressed-up bungalow!).
The gazebo is made in the Adirondack style, of natural twigs and branches."
The John. A Simpson company was a
long-time provider of professional design and building services in Lincoln.
While glancing at Paul Beaver's Logan County History 1982, I noticed
a photo of the first Lincoln Christian Church, built on Pekin Street; and a
notation on the photo said that the church was built in 1856 with John A.
Simpson as the architect and that the church was "wrecked" in
1903 (p. 134). While looking at Paul Gleason's
Lincoln: A Pictorial History, I saw a photo of the construction of
the building that housed Avery and Comstock's Furniture Store, Boss Drug,
and the Vogue Theater; and there was a large sign across the front of the
unfinished building that said, "John A. Simpson, Arch't & Builder Lincoln,
Ill., Plans Furnished on Short Notice" (p. 76). The first image below
presents another view of Simpson's cottage.
Note: the caption
for this image says that Chautauqua Grounds were later renamed Brainerd
Park. I question this statement: as indicated above on this page, the
Brainerds had owned this property, and Mrs. Brainerd sold it to the
Chautauqua Association. This property may have thus first been known as
Brainerd Park.
11.30: Chautauqua Cottages
(Gleason, p. 146)
11.31: Early 1900s
Colorized Picture Postcard Showing the Bungalow of the Lincoln National Bank
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Brainerd
Lake
"In 1907, a bayou of Salt Creek was deepened and widened and converted into
an attractive lagoon, surrounding a wooded island" (Stringer, p. 469).
This "lagoon" became known as Brainerd Lake. On the
shore of Brainerd Lake, William Maxwell's main character, Mildred Gerrett, in "The Trojan Women" rented a cottage
to escape her unhappy marriage.
The photo at left below shows the 1907 construction of Brainerd Lake by dredging the backwater of Salt Creek at the foot of
the ridge forming Cemetery Hill.
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11.32: Dredge Boat
Forms Brainerd Lake, 1907
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11.33: Brainerd Lake
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The photo
above at right is from Gleason, A Pictorial History of Lincoln, p. 147.
The caption reads "Oldham Paisley and Leland
Miller spend time at the lake at Brainard [sic] Park. In 1907, the lake was
dredged from Salt Creek so that Chautauqua participants could fish and
canoe." Note the clear-water reflections
in the photo above at right.
Lincoln-area lakes formed with muddy water from Salt Creek become clear as
sediments settle.
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Picture Postcard Images of
the Chautauqua Lake in Brainerd Park
11.34: 1908 Colorized
The intricate shading of this picture suggests the work of a French
impressionist. In an email communication with me in the fall of 2007,
Priscilla Florence says that while she was viewing this community history
Web site of Lincoln, Illinois, she recognized this picture postcard image of
the lake in Brainerd Park (Chautauqua site) as a scene also painted by
Bessie Dyer, wife of William Dyer, M.D., the central figure of Maxwell's
narrative titled "Billie Dyer." Ms. Florence mentioned that boys from
Lincoln, including William Dyer, used to swim in this lake and that Ms.
Dyer's painting shows two black youths, one presumably being William Dyer.
Click the images below for larger versions of other
Chautauqua Lake picture postcards:
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11.35:
Colorized, 1910s |
11.36:
Sepia Tone, 1910s
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Contemporary Images of
Lincoln Memorial Park (Former Chautauqua Grounds)
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11.37:
Shade from
Sprawling Black Oaks
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11.38: Shade from Towering White Oaks,
This One Known as the Kissing Tree According to Darold Henson |
11.39:
Drinking Fountain from Chautauqua Days (early 1900s to the late 1930s)
(Photos above by Leigh Henson, 6-02)
Each side had several spigots with pipes coming from the central
block and the trough catching the overflow.
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11.40: Corn Crib
Endures from Early 20th Century
in
Lincoln Memorial Park on the Rise Above the Brainerd Lake Site (Leigh Henson photo,
6-02) Few
traces remain in Lincoln Memorial Park of the Chautauqua period. The corn
crib rests on a thick concrete slab on the rise above the former Brainerd
Lake, and the boards appear to be made of
oak. It stands as a rustic
monument to the prosperity of the farm life that has always made
civilization possible in Lincoln, Illinois, including the Chautauqua and
Lincoln Memorial Park.
The corn crib brings to mind the famous eulogy to corn composed by
three-time Illinois Governor and friend of Abraham Lincoln, Richard J.
Oglesby. Judge Stringer writes that Oglesby first recited his
exuberant
testimonial to the glory of corn at the "banquet of the Fellowship Club of
Chicago, Sept. 9, 1894, on the occasion of a Harvest Home Festival" (p.
627). Stringer quotes only part of the corn passage, and I quote even
less, since flowery rhetoric is now justifiably insufferable:
"See the glorious corn! Look on its ripening, waving field! See how it
wears a crown, prouder than monarch ever wore, sometimes jauntily and
sometimes after the storm the dignified survivors of the tempest seem to
view a field of slaughter and to pity a fallen foe. . . . Aye, the
corn, the royal corn, within whose yellow heart there is of health and
strength for all the nations. Corn triumphant, that with the aid of
man hath made victorious procession across the tufted plain and laid
foundation for the social excellence that is and is to be" (p. 627).
Is this the origin of the expression, "That's 'corny'?"
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2. Graves of
Union Civil War Veterans and Canon
Memorial in Old Union Cemetery
This Civil War Monument is described by Judge Stringer: "In Union
Cemetery at Lincoln, there has also been mounted on a carved stone carriage,
a large field piece, contributed by the government, with a pyramid of 100
shells, the whole resting on a stone slab, upon the lot owned by Leo W.
Myers, Post, G.A.R. The cost of transporting and mounting the cannon
was borne by the local Post. This memorial was dedicated September 16,
1900" (Stringer, History of Logan County, Vol. I, p. 209).
The cannon balls and the cannon are now gone, while the concrete cannon wheels, star-shaped flag holders,
and gravestones remain. This
site is near the old streetcar depot. A main cemetery road runs
nearby, allowing easy access to this area.
11.41: Civil War
Grave
Flag Holders
Seen in 11.29 (Leigh Henson photo, 7-02)
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11.42:
1900 Civil
War Monument and Veterans' Graves at Old Union Cemetery
(Paul Beaver, History of Logan
County, 1982, p. 136.)
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Lone Confederate Soldier Buried in Old
Union Cemetery
BEAN, Jacob, Pvt., Co. C, 14th (Gillespi’s Regt.) LA
Infantry, CSA, b. 6 Aug 1848 (LA), d. 6 Mar 1909, L 42, B 4, Sec B
Source:
http://www.illinoishistory.com/csa-veterans-illinoisburials.htm. This
source identifies other cemeteries in Logan County, IL, where Confederate
soldiers are buried. |
3. Historic Streetcar Depot. Located at the
north central edge of Old Union Cemetery near the Civil War veterans' graves
and memorial.
This is a landmark where in 1912
William Maxwell's character, Adah Belle, the servant, would have passed
while riding the streetcar, boarded on Broadway Street in Lincoln, on her
way to deliver packages to her sometime employer, Mildred Gellert. Mrs.
Gellert had left her husband and their home on Eighth Street that September, taken her two young children,
and rented a cottage after the summer inhabitants had left:
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"The streetcar line started at the New Latham Hotel and ran past the
baseball park and the county jail, past the state insane asylum, and on out
to the cemetery and the lake. . . . The people [riders] who had
flowers. . .rode as far as the cemetery where, among acres of monuments and
gravestones (Protestant on the right [Old Union Cemetery], Catholic on the
left [Holy Cross Cemetery]), faded American flags marked the final resting
place of those who had fallen in the Civil or Spanish-American wars.
It was a mile farther to the end of the line. . . .
A winding path
through the oak trees led her eventually to a cottage resting on
concrete blocks, with a peaked roof and a porch across the front, facing the
lake" (William Maxwell, "The Trojan Women," pp. 42-3).
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11.43:
Streetcar Depot at North Edge of
Old Union Cemetery (Leigh
Henson
photo, 6-02) |
Life at the cottage has
its challenges for Mildred: she contends with a flying squirrel that
invades the cottage at night and is afraid of the water moccasin that
slithers under the front porch. The townspeople gossip about whether
she will return to her husband. This is at least the third time she
has left him. How is this separation affecting her children and her
husband? What is she really like, and why does she leave him? Is
she vain and insufferable, or is she abused? Or both? By reading
"The Trojan Women," you'll be able to formulate some logical answers.
In the above photo, the streetcar approached from the left background. The
tracks were parallel to the south fence of the Lincoln State School &
Colony, extending west from south State Street. In the above photo, the
streetcar would have run between the cornfield (left background) and the
cemetery. After a stop at the depot, the streetcar would have
continued (left in the photo) about a quarter mile to the Chautauqua grounds
before making the return trip to town. The streetcar ran either
forwards or backwards and required no special track alignment to turn
around. When the streetcar ran so many years ago, the depot was
open -- no walls: it consisted only of a red tile roof (original roof
shown in the photo) supported by stone columns. The sides were bricked
in later when the cemetery association began using this building for
storage. The depot is located on the northern edge of the cemetery and
its giant oaks, whose shade covers some of the graves and tombstones
in the foreground.
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5. Postville Park.
Shown and described in
1.
Abraham Lincoln and the Postville Courthouse.
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6. Route 66 Bypass/Beltline. Completed before WW II;
see
8.
Route 66 Overview Map of Lincoln with 42 Sites, Descriptions, & Photos
for the entire route.
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7. The Mill Restaurant and Home of the Schnitzel.
Shown and described on
8.
Route 66 Overview Map of Lincoln with 42 Sites, Descriptions, & Photos.
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8. Postville Courthouse. Shown and described on
1.
Abraham Lincoln and the Postville Courthouse.
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9. Lincoln
Development Center. Formerly the Lincoln State School &
Colony and prior to that the Illinois Asylum for Feeble Minded
Children. Closed September 1, 2002, after 125 years. See
27.
Lincoln Developmental Center
(Lincoln State School & Colony in
the Route 66 era), Plus
Debunking the Myth of
Lincoln, Illinois, Choosing the Asylum over the University of Illinois.
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10. New Union Cemetery.
11.44: Peonies
Bloom in
Time for Memorial Day (Leigh Henson photo, 6-02)
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13. Old Union Cemetery. Located on
west side of original Routes 4 & 66 pavement. Entrance near the
barricade at Cemetery Hill. Access
an article that describes the origin of Old Union Cemetery (Lincoln
Evening Courier, Aug. 26, 1953, section 1, p. 9). Once this article
opens in a new widow as a JPEG, you may have to click it again to re-size it
for readability. This article was found and generously provided by Gary and
Pat Freese of Lincoln, Illinois, in October, 2007.
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11.45: Entrance to
Old Union Cemetery in 1911
(Photo from Stringer, Vol. I, opposite p. 578). |
11.46:
Old Union
Cemetery Entrance in 2002
(Leigh Henson photo, 6-02)
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The photo above at right looks north at original Routes 4 and 66 pavement at the top of
Cemetery Hill. A 1922 Route 4 right-of-way marker is in the
foreground. The center background shows the entrance to Old Union
Cemetery, at left, with two of the same pillars as seen in the above left
photo.
The road center right connects to the entrance to Holy Cross Cemetery; then
shortly after, this road crosses the 1940s Route 66 beltline. In the
background is the section of red brick pavement (original Route 4) known as
Cobblestone Avenue.
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11.47: Old Union Cemetery with 200-Year-Old Oaks Shading
the Final Resting Places of Countless Lincolnites from Many Generations
(Leigh Henson photo, 7-02)
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11.48: Union Cemetery Office
(Leigh Henson photo, 7-02)
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11.49: Stephan A. Foley Family Stones
(Leigh Henson photo, 7-02)
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This building was originally the chapel, where many funerals were held.
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11.50: Front of
Stone for WW I Red Cross Nurse Margaret Dunlop (1886-1927)
(Leigh Henson photos, 7-02)
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11.51: Back of
Nurse Dunlop's Stone Listing Sites of Evacuation Hospitals Served and
Tribute: "Greater Love Hath No Man Than This."
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11.52:
Headstone of First Lieutenant William H. Dyer, M.D.,
the First Black from Lincoln, Illinois, to Serve in WW I
(Leigh Henson placed the flag during his visit to Lincoln
in August, 2007.)
11.53:
Footstone of Dr. Dyer
11.54: Lt.
Dyer
(Photo from William Dyer's self-published diary of WW I experiences. Dr.
Dyer's father and mother worked for the Blinn family, whose stones are
depicted two photos below on this page. Access more
information about
Dr. Dyer and his education in Lincoln.)
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Relatives of William Maxwell Resting in Old Union Cemetery
Scenes in two of William
Maxwell's books are set in Old Union Cemetery, and these scenes are
occasions for him to describe family members who shaped his personality,
values, and beliefs. In
The Folded Leaf (1945), he describes visiting the cemetery with his
father. In his nonfiction book titled Ancestors
(1971), Maxwell describes visiting this cemetery with his mother.
In The Folded Leaf,
the main character, Lymie Peters, is based on the author as an undergraduate
at the University of Illinois. Chapter 19 is devoted to an account of
Lymie's annual return to his hometown to visit the grave of his mother,
accompanying his father, on
the anniversary of her death on March 10. Lymie remembers the gift of his mother's love. Regrettably, though, he cannot
recall her face.
The father eulogizes his wife: "your mother was
a wonderful woman. . . . I didn't know what I was getting when I
married her. She was just young and pretty and always laughing and
tying ribbons in her hair and I knew I had to have her. But that
wasn't what she was really like at all, and it was quite a while before I
found out" (Folded Leaf, p. 90). William Maxwell's father
told his son that while sitting in church he looked around at others and
"was so proud of your mother -- of the way she looked and all that she
was -- and I broke out in a sweat at the thought of how close I'd come to
marrying another woman" (Ancestors, p. 193).
In Ancestors,
Maxwell describes going to Old Union Cemetery with his mother when he was a
child. Recalling this experience, Maxwell reflects on his maternal
grandfather, Attorney Edward Dunallen Blinn.
"From the winding cinder
drive I read the names on the tombstones. The cemetery was a replica
in a few wooded acres of the town, for the names that constantly occurred in
the conversation of my elders were all here. . . . The graves were not
neglected, and the dead were not forgotten but only a little removed from
the heart of things."
"She [Maxwell's mother]
let me fill the vases with fresh water from the nearest faucet, and as she
arranged the flowers she had brought from the garden at home she would talk
to me in a voice pitched a little lower than ordinary, making me feel the
presence of the people all around us in their graves. . . ."
"Throughout the cemetery
there were flags, some bright, some faded, in star-shaped metal standards,
marking the graves of those who had fought in the Spanish-American or the
Civil Wart. I loved all flags" (Ancestors, p. 208).
. . . "Do you remember your
[maternal] Grandfather [Judge Edward Blinn]?"
"The sadness I hear in my mother's voice makes me search around in the back
of my mind for something that turns out not to be there. I feel that
she will be distressed if I say I don't remember him, and so I manage to
conjure up a shadowing figure (as in six or seven years' time I would be
calling on recollection for what she looked like). "I remember him
coming up the street," I say. I am aware that the image is perhaps
invented, and I expect she was too."
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"When I study his picture -- the fine forehead, the
line of the jaw, the mouth half concealed under a drooping mustache, and the
eyes, particularly the eyes, which I know so well because I have know them
all my life, they are just like Annette's [his aunt Annette Blinn] and they
have looked past me so often with just that expression, as of someone
staring at life itself -- I regret deeply that I cannot remember him. It
is the picture of a man of intelligence and feeling, with a vein of sadness
running through his nature, and a commitment to various abstractions,
including honor" (p. 209).
Many of the Blinn family are buried in Old Union
Cemetery, as are members of the Maxwell family, including William Maxwell's
Grandfather Robert Creighton Maxwell, who died before William was born (Ancestors,
p. 1).
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11.55: William Maxwell's Maternal Grandfather, Judge Edward Blinn
(Photo from Dooley, The Namesake Town, p. 67) |
11.56: The Blinn Family Plots in Old Union Cemetery
(Leigh Henson photo, 3-24-04)
The tall
stone in the background identifies the Blinn family plots. The stone sits on
a ridge above a steep slope that drops to the original channel of Salt
Creek, which still holds water.
The tall
stone's inscription near its base reads simply "Blinn." The stone in the
left foreground marks the grave of William Maxwell's mother, Blossom Blinn
Maxwell (1881-1919). The other stones from left to right mark the graves of
Edna Skinner Blinn (1895-1966); her husband, William Maxwell's Uncle Edward
"Ted" Blinn (1888-1952); and William Maxwell's grandparents, Annette Youtsey
Blinn and Edward Dunallen Blinn. The plastic flowers are somewhat faded but
clearly indicate the tribute of descendants.
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William Maxwell's Grandfather Robert
Creighton Maxwell
was also a successful, respected lawyer in Lincoln, Illinois. Maxwell says that
his Grandfather Maxwell "was a very competent office lawyer -- that is, he
examined abstracts, wrote wills, and was engaged in the probate practice" (Ancestors,
p.142). The Robert Maxwells sold the farm Mrs. Maxwell had inherited
from her mother,
and they used to money to move from a small house on Pekin Street behind the
county jail to a larger house on north Kickapoo Street. William
Maxwell's description of the Maxwell house on Kickapoo Street is given at
30. Neighborhoods with Distinction.
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The Robert Maxwells were devout members of the Christian
Church. "The controversies that the Disciples of Christ were expending
so much heat and energy on during this period were all thrashed out at the
family dinner table, especially when some visiting preacher was bedded down
on the couch in the parlor. . . My grandmother never stopped talking
about immersion, or thinking about it. She kept track of who was and
who wasn't. She had the makings of an evangelist" (p. 144).
William Maxwell implies
that the strictness and religious intensity his father knew as a child
alienated him
from organized religion. As indicated at
21. Churches,
the son, Author William Maxwell, also developed strong independence of
religious thought.
As lawyers, both of William Maxwell's
grandfathers' paths crossed at least once, as they were on opposite sides of
a famous case. It was concerned with an inheritance dispute over the estate of John D. Gillett,
one of Lincoln and Logan County's most prominent and wealthy citizens.
William Maxwell estimates the estate was worth the equivalent of five to six
million dollars in the early 1970s, when Ancestors was published (p.
161).
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The several Gillett children divided into two
factions associated with two of the children: Emma Oglesby (wife of
the governor) and Miss Jessie Gillett. Maxwell says the details of the
case were so complicated as to defy comprehension.
Grandfather Maxwell represented Jessie Gillett,
and Grandfather Blinn represented Mrs. Oglesby. "My grandfather Blinn
won the case, who didn't need to win it. . . ." Even so, "it was the
first case my Grandfather Maxwell ever had where the fee was substantial,
that the part he took in the trial considerably enhanced his reputation, and
that if he had continued to be Miss Jessie Gillett's legal advisor he would
no longer have worried about the bill from Boyd's Dry Goods Store.
Instead his health broke down" (Ancestors, p. 161).
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11.57: William Maxwell's Paternal Grandfather, Attorney Robert
Creighton Maxwell
(Photo from Dooley, The Namesake Town, p. 31)
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11.58: Stones of Robert C.
Maxwell (front) and his Son, Charles C. Maxwell (back)
(Leigh Henson photo, 7-02) |
Both Robert C. Maxwell and his older son, Charles
C. Maxwell, died early, tragically: the son at just 26 of typhoid,
preceding the father. The father passed away in 1904 at the age of 54.
Charles C. Maxwell had become first a law partner with his father and then
an insurance underwriter. Author William Maxwell's father, William Keepers Maxwell,
Sr., took over his older brother's insurance activity, which led to a successful career in the insurance business.
William Maxwell quotes the published obituary of
his Uncle Charles C. Maxwell: "The death of Charles C. Maxwell removes
from Lincoln one of its most promising young men, one widely admired by all
who knew him. Full of energy, pluck, and stick-to-it-iveness, he had
begun a foundation that was, even in early life, an marvel in itself" (Ancestors,
p. 157).
Maxwell writes of his Grandfather
Robert C. Maxwell: "Every human life is a story, and my grandfather's
story as his wife and children understood it, was that he was taken ill just
as he was about to make a killing. They didn't use this vulgar modern
expression, but nevertheless it was what they meant. He hadn't been as
successful as he deserved to be. And to the end of their lives, whenever
they spoke of him, their voices were tinged with an unfading regret" (Ancestors,
p. 166). By reading
Ancestors, you will enjoy portraits of other interesting members from
both sides of Maxwell's family.
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A Mystery of Old Union Cemetery
Solved
When I first developed
and published this Web page in 2002, certain structures on the eastern edge
of Old Union Cemetery, just above the roadbed, puzzled me. Then in May of
2007, Pat Freese from Lincoln emailed information that solved the mystery,
as indicated later, but first the mystery is described beneath the photos:
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11.59: The Mystery
Stone Columns and Iron Posts of Old Union Cemetery
(Leigh Henson photo, 6-02)
Seen from the roadbed of Routes 4 & 66, this is a stone column at the
eastern edge of old Union Cemetery. Another stone column like it and
iron posts stand a few feet to the left and are hidden by the bushes.
These columns and posts are approximately 75 feet south of the cemetery
entrance.
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11.60: The
Mystery Columns and
Iron Posts Seen from Eye Level
(Leigh Henson photo, 12-01)
Iron posts can be seen
just inside the stone columns. Behind these columns is the cut in
Cemetery Hill with the roadbed of Routes 4 and 66 at the bottom. Holy
Cross Cemetery is in the background. Were these structures part of a
bridge between the cemeteries, and if so what kind of bridge: vehicle
or pedestrian?
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Mystery Solved, Thanks to Pat
Freese and Her Correspondent, Willard Warrick
Leigh:
Was just reading on your site about the 2 cemeteries
and possible "bridge" connecting them.
I had asked Willard Warrick (96 years old and very
accurate!) about this last year as I was doing the cemetery walk for LCGHS [Logan County Genealogical & Historical Society]. He told me
BEFORE Route 4, as in the days of the covered bridge, that road near the
cemeteries was "even," so no bridge existed, just a gate type entrance
to each cemetery. I cannot imagine how steep that road would have been,
but he insists that the road was "cut down" when that became route 4
before 66.
Just thought I would pass that information along and
perhaps someone else can verify it or totally discount it.
Pat Freese
This
information makes good sense because just opposite the columns and posts in
Old Union Cemetery, there is an indentation in the hill leading up to Holy
Cross Cemetery, and I recall as a kid seeing some structures there, which I
had mistaken as bridge remnants. |
|
11.61: Iron Fence and Sidewalk on Cemetery Hill,
West Side of Holy Cross Cemetery
(Leigh Henson photo, 6-02)
Immediately to the right of the fence and sidewalk and parallel
with them is the cut in Cemetery Hill created for Routes 4 and 66. The far
end of the sidewalk is the point directly across from the structures
pictured previously at the eastern edge of Old Union Cemetery, which is to
the right of the above photo.
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Is Cemetery Hill
Haunted?
In every cemetery sleep
the distinguished and the obscure, the virtuous and the villainous, the
fortunate and the unfortunate. Sometimes they even sleep side by side,
whether as relatives or strangers.
The living have always
wondered how well the dead sleep. Some believe that spirits of the
unhappy and unfulfilled sometimes leave their graves, whether to roam
restlessly or torment their oppressors.
As in any cemetery,
buried in Old Union Cemetery, Holy Cross Cemetery, and New Union Cemetery
are those who would have reason to feel wronged: the victims of
every possible misfortune from death caused by stillbirth and disease to
death by accident (including
those on "Bloody 66" nearby), and the most heinous crime of murder.
William Maxwell's So Long, See You Tomorrow
(1980) tells the true story of a murder in the early 1920s that occurred in
the Lincoln area. Clarence Smith's neighbor and best friend, Lloyd
Wilson, has an affair with his wife. As a result, Clarence suffers
financial ruin and heartbreak from this double betrayal by wife and best friend. In a mixture of
revenge and desperation, Smith kills Lloyd Wilson, then commits suicide.
Clarence's older son, Cletus, and William Maxwell were playmates. After the
murder, Cletus moved away, but several years later the two boys had a chance
encounter in a Chicago high school, and Maxwell was haunted by his failure
to speak to Cletus as they passed in the hall. The novel tells
the harsh story with uncomplicated directness, yet subtly explores the
themes of coming of age and the ways we view experience with the passing of
time.
Many of William Maxwell's
relatives and friends rest in the three cemeteries of this immediate area.
Some of these relatives and other acquaintances are the prototypes of
characters in his writing. Do some of the
real-life counterparts of So Long, See You Tomorrow also sleep here,
and if so do they sleep peacefully?
The Frank Frorer Tragedy
11.62: Frank Frorer Tomb,
south side of Old Union Cemetery
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Frank Frorer was a
murder victim who was entombed in Old Union Cemetery. Mr. Frorer was a
prominent Lincoln businessman. Judge Stringer tells his tragic story:
"Probably one of the
boldest crimes ever committed in Logan County was the assault and robbery,
in broad daylight, on the streets of Lincoln, on March 25, 1908, of one of
Lincoln's best known and wealthiest citizens, Frank Frorer.
Mr. Frorer was born in
Germany in 1832 and came to Lincoln, at its inception as a town, in 1853.
He began as a clerk in a hardware store, later establishing a similar store
of his own.
By economy and
perseverance, as well as judicious investments, he gradually accumulated
considerable property.
At the time of the
robbery, he was President of the First National Bank and a part owner of
what was known as the South Coal Shaft.
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11.63: Frank Frorer (1832-1908)
(Photo from Lincoln Evening Courier Centennial
Edition, Section Seven, Wednesday, August 26, 1953, p. 3)
|
For a great number of years, Mr. Frorer had looked after the payment of the
miners at the coal shaft and it was his custom to ascertain the amount
needed to pay the men on pay day, driving to the First National Bank, with
an open wagon, loading in the amount of currency needed, in a chest used for
that purpose, and carting the money, in this manner to the office at the
coal shaft for distribution to the men. He rarely ever was accompanied by
anyone and did not even take the precaution of arming himself"
(Stringer, pp. 358-359).
History is often not easy to determine. The preceding states that Mr. Frorer was in the habit of delivering the payroll alone. Yet, other
information suggests that Mr. Frorer did not typically deliver the payroll,
whether alone or accompanied by another. According to an article in
the Lincoln Evening Courier, Logan County centennial edition of 1939,
"for 22 years [black] Wilson Russell was employed by the late Frank Frorer
and for years carried the company pay-roll to the South mine prior to the
day when Mr. Frorer himself was driving the pay-roll and was robbed and
fatally injured" (p. 1).
Stringer's narration continues: "On March 25, 1908, he [Frorer] drove
up his open wagon to the bank, as usual, the hour being about two o'clock in
the afternoon. He had counted out and placed in the chest, about
$5,000, in gold and silver currency. This he loaded into the wagon and
drove toward the south shaft.
At the corner of Third and Maple Streets, a man ran out into the road and
jumped into the wagon and before Mr. Frorer could realize what was taking
place, drew a loaded "billy" from his pocket and struck Mr. Frorer a blow on
the head. Mr. Frorer collapsed in the bed of the wagon, another
man came running up and the two men gathered the money chest and started
north with it, in the direction of St. Patrick's church, Mr. Frorer being
unconscious all the while.
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11.64: Wilson Russell (1856-1938)
Mr. Russell for 22 years was the coachman for the Frank Frorer
family. He is at the right in this photo. Unfortunately this
photo was of poor quality, and the paper has a crease. The other
occupants of the carriage are unnamed but presumed to be members of the Frorer family. Do they all rest in Old Union Cemetery as does Frank
Frorer? William Maxwell says that the whites were willing to share
doctors, the drinking water, and
the cemetery ("Billie Dyer," p. 9).
"The late Wilson Russell. . .used
to recall a raid by Yankee soldiers on the Logan County, Kentucky,
plantation where he was born in slavery in 1856. His mother hid him in a manger in the barn until the Union soldiers had departed. Mr. Russell
also recalled when his father Wilson Russell, Sr., took his family overland
to Kansas and how a sister died enroute and was buried behind a log on the
roadside."
(Photo and information from the Lincoln Evening Courier and Lincoln
Herald, Logan County Centennial Edition, vol. 83, no. 291, section two,
Wednesday, October 18, 1939, p.1)
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Here a third man was located with a livery rig. The chest was loaded
into this rig and the thee men drove northward through the city, and out
upon the Atlanta road.
On recovering consciousness, Mr. Frorer came back to town and gave the
alarm. The sheriff and police started in immediate pursuit of the
robbers. At the Nicholson farm, just north of town, they found where
the men had abandoned the rig, taking to the fields, believing the chances
of escape much better than in the beaten highway.
The authorities returned to town and secured an automobile, with which they
started in a northeasterly direction. When five or six miles out from
town, they met two men, whose conduct was suspicious, and these they
arrested, brought to town and lodged in the county jail.
These suspects were Elmer Highfield and Fred Ramelow. They were
subsequently identified by the Springfield police as known in that locality.
Two or three days later one John Kennedy was also apprehended, as being
connected with the assault. All three were indicted for robbery and on
May 26, 1908, pleaded guilty and were sentenced to the penitentiary.
Mr. Frorer was never the same man after this assault. His health gave
way and on June 8, 1908, a little over two months after the assault, he
died. Later,
Highfield was paroled from the penitentiary and turned state's evidence,
implicating, with Kennedy, Ramelow and himself, one William Webber.
Webber was a Lincoln man, who had previously pleaded guilty to burglarizing
a business house in the city and who is also serving sentence in the
penitentiary. All
have been indicted for the murder of Mr. Frorer and their hearing on this
charge is awaiting their discharge from the penitentiary, after the
expiration of their present terms" (p. 359). |
11.65: Picture Postcard of the
South Mine (1867-1917)
Frank Frorer was one of the founders. In 1888 the principal
stockholders were Frorer and D.H. Harts, Sr.; in 1905 D.H. Harts, Sr., was
joined by his son, D.H. Harts, Jr., and Walter Puterbaugh as directors
(Stringer, p. 542). The mine was located near the present intersection
of Second and Maple Streets (Gleason, p. 33), behind the former Armour's
facility. The South Mine was destroyed by fire that began October 21,
1917 (Gehlbach, When Coal Was King, fall, 1997, p. 1).
11.66: The Frank Frorer Family Home
Photo from Dooley, ed., p. 39. The
same photo also appears in Paul Gleason's Lincoln: A Pictorial
History, p. 119, where its location is identified as Tremont Street, and
the house is described as a dormitory used by Lincoln College in 1903.
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11.67: Mausoleum of Frank Frorer
(Leigh Henson photo, 6-02)
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11.68: Wilson Russell Family Stone
(Leigh Henson photo, 7-02)
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I have no "hard" evidence that the Wilson Russell Family stone marks the
grave of Mr. Frorer's black employee mentioned above, but presume this to be
the case ("You cannot go to the cemetery and ask to be enlightened on
matters of this kind [questions of human relationships]" Ancestors,
p. 207). The stone has no other information and sits alone in an area
of several hundred square feet. This is one of the largest areas in
this cemetery without other markers. Obviously, numerous other members
of the family are buried here, and descendants wanted to commemorate their
forebears' final resting places. The distinctive red granite marker
serves that purpose well.
11.69: Ghostly
Bust of Frank Frorer
Haunting Old Union Cemetery Since His Murder in 1908;
Owner of the South Coal Mine, Banker, and Civic Leader
(Bust image adapted with Photoshop from photo by Fred Blanford)
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14. Holy Cross Cemetery
Holy Cross Cemetery is situated between Old Union and New Union Cemeteries.
The original Route 66 alignment ran between Old Union Cemetery and Holy
Cross Cemetery. The 1940 Route 66 alignment, still in use, runs between Holy Cross and New Union Cemeteries.
11.70: Monument Just
Inside the Entrance to Holy Cross Cemetery:
Final Resting Place of Countless Roman Catholics of Irish Descent
German Catholics rest in St. Mary's Cemetery, a couple of miles
west of this location on Fifth St. Road.
Holy Cross Cemetery has the only statue in Lincoln, Illinois, that honors a
veteran of World War I. Lincoln has a statue of a Union Civil War soldier on
the northwest corner of the Logan County Courthouse lawn. Lincoln has no
statues commemorating the veterans any other of this nation's wars.
11.71--73: Henry J. Griffin
Statue
(Photos courtesy of Leigh Henson)
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Below are the
gravestones of William Maxwell's father and stepmother, Grace McGrath
Maxwell, as well as Coonhound Johnny, the most infamous bootlegger of Logan
County, Illinois. William Maxwell writes that his father bought Coonhound's
product (So Long, See You Tomorrow, p. 18). |
11.74: Main
Gravestone of William Keepers Maxwell, Sr., and Grace McGrath Maxwell
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11.75:
Headstone of Coonhound Johnny
For the story and photos of Coonhound Johnny's roadhouse, see
http://findinglincolnillinois.com/wateringholes.html#coonhound.
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15. South Kickapoo Street. Connecting
Lincoln Lakes area to the Logan County Courthouse
Historic District.
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17. Historic
Switch House
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20. Lincoln Sportsmen's
Club. Warning:
Private property consisting of pond and shooting range.
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21. Site of former
power plant
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22 & 25. Site of former Lincoln Lakes
& Beach. Private
property. For more information, including photos, see
28. Mining Coal, Limestone, & Sand & Gravel; Lincoln Lakes; &
Utilities.
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23. Routes 4 & 66 original alignments and surviving
pavement. More information at 12.
Route 66 Map & Photos Showing Salt Creek & Cemetery Hill,
Including
the Highway Bridges, GM&O Bridge, Madigan State Park, the Old Dam, & the
Pig-Hip Restaurant in Broadwell.
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24. Edward R. Madigan State Park (formerly
Railsplitter State Park). More information at
12.
Route 66 Map & Photos Showing Salt Creek & Cemetery Hill,
Including
the Highway Bridges, GM&O Bridge, Madigan State Park, the Old Dam, & the
Pig-Hip Restaurant in Broadwell.
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26. Rocky
Ford Road. For information about Rocky Ford, see
1.
Abraham Lincoln and the Postville Courthouse.
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27. Route 66 alignment to Broadwell
(Site of World-Famous Pig Hip Restaurant)
and Elkhart
For information about the Pig Hip Restaurant and its
legendary founder, Ernie Edwards, see
12.
Route 66 Map & Photos Showing Salt Creek & Cemetery Hill,
Including
the Highway Bridges, GM&O Bridge, Madigan State Park, the Old Dam, & the
Pig-Hip Restaurant in Broadwell.
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28. Salt Creek.
More information at 12. Map
& Photos of Route 66 at Salt Creek & Cemetery Hill,
Including
the Highway Bridges, GM&O Bridge, Madigan State Park, & the Old Dam.
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Sources
Cited Dooley, ed. The Namesake Town:
A Centennial History of Lincoln, Illinois. Lincoln, Illinois: Feldman Print Shop, 1953.
Fish, Henry R., assisted by T.E. Perry. Photos by A.B. Bliss.
Illustrated Lincoln. Lincoln, IL: The Star Publishing Company, 1916. Gehlbach, Nancy Lawrence.
"Chautauqua Summer." Our Times,
vol. 3, no. 2, summer, 1998. Sam Redding, Publisher. Prairie Years Press. 121
N. Kickapoo Street. Lincoln, IL 65656. ___________.
"Water Works." Our Times, vol. 4, no. 2. summer, 1999. ___________ . "When Coal Was King." Our
Times, vol. 2, no. 3, fall, 1997. Gleason, Paul E. Lincoln,
Illinois: A Pictorial History.
St. Louis, MO: G. Bradley Publishing, 1998. Material from Mr. Gleason's books is copyrighted with all rights
reserved. Mr.
Gleason's material used in this Web site is with permission from the G. Bradley Publishing Company, 461 Des
Peres Road, St. Louis, MO 63131. Call 1-800-966-5120 to inquire about purchasing Lincoln,
Illinois: A Pictorial History (1998) (200 pages of rare photos and text) or Logan County Pictorial History
(2000) (also 200 pages of rare photos and text). Visit
http://gbradleypublishing.com/.
Maxwell, William. Ancestors: A Family History. NY:
Vintage Books, 1971.
___________ . Billie Dyer and Other Stories. NY: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1992.
___________ . The Folded Leaf. NY: Vintage Books, 1945.
___________. "The Trojan Women." All the Days and Nights:
The Collected Stories. NY: Vintage Books-Random House Inc., 1995.
___________ . Time Will Darken It. NY:
Vintage Books-Random House, Inc., 1948.
William Maxwell's works are available at
www.amazon.com and
www.barnesandnoble.com.
Political Graveyard of Logan County, Illinois:
http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/IL/LO.html#CEM.
This Web site has biographical information about
Richard J. Oglesby, John Gillett Oglesby, Judge Lawrence B. Stringer, and Edward R. Madigan.
Judge Stringer is buried in Old Union Cemetery. US Secretary of Agriculture Madigan is buried
in Holy Cross Cemetery. Shroyer,
Larry.
"Natural Disasters and Otherwise," in Paul Beaver, History of Logan
County, 1982. The Logan County Heritage Foundation. Dallas, TX: Taylor Publishing Company, 1982.
Stringer, Lawrence B. History of Logan County, Illinois, 1911.
Evansville, IN: UNIGRAPHIC, Inc., 1978.
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Email comments, corrections, questions, or suggestions.
Also please email me if this Web site helps you decide to visit Lincoln,
Illinois:
DLHenson@missouristate.edu .
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"The Past Is But the
Prelude" |
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