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April 24, 2004: Awarded "Best Web Site of the Year" by the Illinois State Historical
Society
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Marquee Lights of the Lincoln Theater, est. 1923, Lincoln, Illinois |
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16. The Foley House: A
Monument to Civic Leadership |
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Stephan Foley hired distinguished Chicago Architect W.A. Otis to design his house, which was constructed in 1898. Foley must have been pleased with the work of Mr. Otis. As a key player in the founding and construction of the Lincoln Public Library in 1903, Stephan Foley arranged for W.A. Otis to be the architect (also, both the Foley house and the Library were constructed with yellow brick). Otis was also involved in the design of the great Newberry Library in Chicago. See Sources Cited below for Web site address giving detailed information about the Foley house provided by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. A biographical sketch of Judge Foley is found in Stringer's 1911 History of Logan County. Stephan Foley was a second-generation citizen of Logan County, and both of his parents were born in Ohio. He was raised on a farm and attended country schools until 17. The following are
important dates and events in his life: |
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· 1857-1861: employed at the Atlanta, Illinois, post office · 1865: made abstracts of titles in Logan Co. before attending law school in Albany, NY · 1867: marriage to Hannah Hahn of Pennsylvania; children: William H., Edna, and William [sic] · 1877: elected judge of Logan County, also elected president of Lincoln Savings, Loan & Trust Bank · 1878-1884: owner of the Lincoln gas plant ·
1880: major stock owner in the Citizens' Coal Shaft,
also death of Mrs. Foley |
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·
1884: president of
Lincoln Gas & Electric Co. Stringer also cites Foley's leadership in the Trinity [Episcopalian] Church and further comments on the significance of Judge Foley to the community: "He possesses a character that makes him strong, forceful and aggressive, and his valuable property is the visible evidence of what he has accomplished in the business world. |
16.4: Undated Picture
Postcard of Tremont Street, Looking West from Kankakee Street |
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A broad-minded man, his influence has been far-reaching and his efforts effective in all those things which uplift and benefit the community intellectually morally and spiritually" (Stringer, Vol. II, p. 399). "In September 1871, Judge Stephan A. Foley gave four lots, 100 by 160 ft. at the corner of Pekin and Kankakee Streets" (Beaver, History of Logan County 1982, p. 66). This benevolence provided the site for the Episcopal Church in Lincoln. Stephan Foley was instrumental in developing the Lincoln Public Library and served it for 29 years in various leadership roles. Foley and Colonel R. B. Latham were the founders of Lincoln's library association in 1874 (Lincoln Evening Courier, Section 7, p. 4). Early in the 1900s, Miss Isabell Nash donated the property of her home to the city in order for the purpose of building a public library. |
16.5: Stephan A. Foley Home, Tremont Street |
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Mr. Harts' donation was a key step toward preserving the Foley house. It stands as a symbol of the business success of Mr. Foley and Mr. Harts, of the comfortable lifestyle afforded by their success, and of the philanthropic spirit of three distinguished Lincoln citizens: Judge Foley, David H. Harts, Jr., and his father, David Harts H. Harts, Sr. Fortunately, some of the story of D.H. Harts, Jr., is known to us through "David H. Harts: the Great
Donor" in Lindstrom's Lincoln: The Namesake College, pp.
135-141. |
16.7: David H. Harts, Jr.
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D.H. Harts, Jr., was a native Lincolnite who attended Lincoln College for two years before graduating from the University of Illinois in 1900. He then spent a year at Heidelberg University and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1905. D.H. Harts, Jr., began to practice law in Chicago, but returned to Lincoln in 1905, after his older brother, John, was killed in a railroad accident. Mr. Harts was successful in his law practice, business, and public service. He was president of the Illinois China Company, which he brought to Lincoln. He also brought the garment factory to Lincoln. His public service included two terms as president of the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, 51 years in the Logan County Bar Association, and 29 years with the Lincoln Savings and Loan. Beginning in 1925 and extending for nearly 30 years, he served on the board of trustees of Lincoln College. In this role, he was following in the footsteps of his father, David H. Harts, Sr., who had also been on the College's board. Lincoln College was a passionate cause for D.H. Harts, Jr. He helped to manage the farms in the College's endowment. He was instrumental in helping Lincoln College gain independence from Millikin University in 1953, and for years he corresponded with alumni. His honors included Lincoln Evening Courier's
Man of the Month in February, 1953, the naming of Harts Science Hall and
honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, posthumously awarded and accepted by his
widow, who had taught music at Lincoln College and who "supported her
husband in his enthusiasms and philanthropy" (Lindstrom, p. 149). |
This photo shows the evergreen tree in front of the side porch. Photo 16.5 shows this tree many years later in full growth. Also 16.8 shows two mature trees on the front lawn that are missing from 16.5. These trees were probably among the wonderful elm trees that Lincoln, Illinois, was famous for in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries as seen in photos 16.1, 2, 3, and 4. Many of these trees perished in the mid-20th Century elm blight. Lincoln today has an aggressive tree-growing program and has been nationally recognized for it (see homepage). An account of the "Dutch elm disease" in Lincoln, Illinois, is "Pity Our Beautiful Trees" in Our Times, vol. 7, issue 1, spring 2002, p. 8. More information about the Dutch elm disease and Lincoln's efforts to continue its reputation as a city with magnificent shade tress appears at 24. Government. |
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Artist David Alan Badger describes the architecture of the Foley house: "features. . . side-gabled roof with cross gambrel. . . massive gambrel dormer. . . two-story polygonal bay window. . . round bay window. . . Palladian style windows. rusticated quoin. classic column porch supports" (The Badger Collection Featuring Lincoln of Illinois, no page numbers). Lincoln College subsequently sold the Foley house in an effort to remain financially solvent. The Stephan
A. Foley House Historic Site is a monument to the philanthropy of
the Harts family as well as that of the Foleys. An additional chapter
in the story of these families' philanthropy needs to be told. It is a
story that further connects the Hartses and Foleys. |
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Lincolnite Author William Maxwell describes an
example of the kind of benevolence that the D.H. Harts, Jr., must have seen
in his father. The source is Maxwell's "Billie Dyer"
(1992), in which the title character is the brother
of the Mrs. Harriet Dyer Brummell ("Hattie" in "The Front and Back Parts of
the House"), the black housekeeper of Maxwell's childhood home on 9th Street
in Lincoln, Illinois. Billie Dyer apparently had become one of the
first black physicians in this country. During the centennial
celebration of
Lincoln, Illinois, in 1953, William "Billie" Holmes Dyer, M.D., was named
to "The Hall of Fame," a group of 21 of Lincoln's most distinguished
citizens. In the centennial pageant enacted in the evenings for a week at
the Logan County Fairgrounds, Dr. Dyer was portrayed by William Perkins. In
the early 1950s, Dr. Dyer was a
prominent black physician, "the head surgeon for all the Negro employees of
the Santa Fe [railroad] line" (p. 5). |
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Maxwell describes Dr. Dyer's connection to Lincoln, Illinois. John Harts, older brother of D.H. Harts, Jr., was a classmate and friend of Billie Dyer, who sometimes went to John's home on Eighth Street as it was between school [Central School at Eighth and Union Streets] and Billie's home [on Elm Street]. Maxwell reports the existence of regular correspondence by letter between Billie Dyer and John Harts after John went away to college (p. 15). Maxwell says that after John Harts was killed in a train accident [1905] "from time to time, Billie Dyer would put on his best clothes and pay a call on Captain Harts and his wife. When he graduated from high school, Captain Harts said to him, 'And what have you decided to do with your life?' At that time, in Lincoln, it was not a question often asked of a Negro. Billie Dyer said, 'I would like to become a doctor. But of course it is impossible.' Captain Harts spoke to my grandfather [Judge Blinn] and to several other men in Lincoln. |
16.9: John Harts, spring of 1901 This portrait is selected -- cropped -- from a photo of the locally celebrated French Military Band taken by "Nicholson." The date is four years before John was killed in a railroad accident. He appears in the clarinet section. His mother undoubtedly introduced John to music as she had taught that subject at Lincoln College. He is buried in Old Union Cemetery (photo in Dooley, The Namesake Town, p. 76). |
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How much they contributed toward Billie Dyer's education I have no way of knowing, but it does not appear to have been enough to pay all his expenses. It was thirteen years from the time he finished high school until he completed his internship at the Kansas City General Hospital. This could mean, I think, that he had to drop out of school again and again to earn the money he needed to go on with his studies" ("Billie Dyer," p. 16). Captain Harts as a member
of the Board of Trustees at Lincoln College for many years may have helped
with William Dyer's education by making it possible for Dyer to begin his
higher education at that institution. Dyer's 1958 obituary in the Lincoln
Courier says he graduated from Lincoln College. |
16.10:
Captain David H. Harts, Sr. |
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If, indeed, D.H. Harts, Sr., turned to his acquaintances for support in helping Billie Dyer, evidence suggests that most likely one of them would have been Stephan A. Foley. David Harts, Sr., and Judge Foley were closely associated in several ways. First, they were both lawyers and members of the Logan County Bar Association from the 1860s to the early 1900s (Stringer, pp. 330, 335, and 343). Second, they were also business partners in the Lincoln Gas & Electric Light Company in 1884 (Stringer, p. 548), in the Lincoln Cork-Faced Collar Company in 1890 (Stringer, p. 545), and in the Harts Medicine Company in 1900 (Stringer, p. 546). Third, their common interest in public affairs led them both to serve on the board of the Lincoln Public Library. In 1910, S.A. Foley was the president, D.H. Harts, Sr., the treasurer. Both were financially successful and interested in philanthropy. Thus, it follows that Mr. Harts would have asked Judge Foley to help with Billie Dyer's education, and that Judge Foley would have agreed to do so.
The obituary of Billie Dyer published in the Lincoln Courier in 1958
(below) says that he graduated from Lincoln College [before entering the
University of Illinois Medical College]. Lincoln College was/is a private,
two-year institution. Coming
from a poor family, Billie Dyer would have required patronage to support his
attendance at Lincoln College. David H.
Harts, Sr., was on the Board of Directors of Lincoln College for many years (Lindstrom, p. 135)
and could have used that position to help arrange for Billie Dyer to attend
that school.
16.11: William "Billie" Holmes Dyer, M.D. Senior year photo of Billie Dyer at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, 1916, adapted from "That Democracy Might Reign: The Story of Billie Dyer" by Clif Cleaveland, M.D., MACP. Photo courtesy of Douglas Becknese, Curator, Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois at Chicago. For more information about Dr. Dyer's family in Lincoln, access "Social Consciousness in William Maxwell's Writings Based on Lincoln, Illinois" and "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." Dr. William "Billie" Dyer was a pioneering African-American physician whose career was postponed because of WW I. William Maxwell writes that when Billie Dyer graduated from medical school, he returned to Lincoln and intended to practice medicine there, "but America had declared war on Germany, the country was flooded with recruiting posters ('Uncle Sam Wants You!'), and they got to him [Dr. Dyer]. He was the first Negro from Lincoln to be taken into the Army" ("Billie Dyer," p. 16). Maxwell continues, "three hundred friends and neighbors were at the railroad station to see him off, on a Sunday afternoon, and he was kept busy shaking hands with those who promised to remember him in their prayers. . . . From the diary [Billie Dyer's]: 'Mother and Father standing there with tears in their eyes. . . when I kissed them and bade them farewell . . . . My eyes too filled with tears, my throat became full, and for miles as the train sped on I was unable to speak or to fix my mind upon a single thought'" (p. 18). Maxwell's and Cleaveland's accounts of Dr. Dyer's life refer to the challenges he faced because of racism, including difficulties he experienced while serving in the Army Medical Corps during WW I. Despite these challenges, Dr. Dyer pursued the humanitarian calling of his chosen medical profession and aspired to serve as a role model for other blacks: Based on correspondence between Dr. Dyer and one of Maxwell's cousins whose family Dyer had known in Lincoln, Maxwell suggests that Dr. Dyer even worked himself to death in this pursuit: "In each letter there is some mention of his [Dyer's] professional activity--never more than a sentence, as a rule, taken together they give a very good picture of a man working himself to death" (p. 31). Maxwell's story includes the following quotation from a letter written by Dr. Dyer in 1956: "I am now working harder and with longer hours than ever before. Silly, you say, well I quite agree but the occasion is this. In the last four months I have been put on the staffs of three of the major hospitals in our city [Kansas City]. I thought at first it was an honor but with the increase in activities which such appointments entail, my work has increased twofold. Since it is the first time that one of my race has had such appointments, I have been working diligently to make good, thereby keeping those doors open." Maxwell adds, "He was still acting as a surgeon for the Santa Fe Railroad, and also for the Kansas City, Kansas, police department" ("Billie Dyer," p. 31). Two years later Dr. Dyer was dead. The following is the obituary of Dr. Dyer that appeared in the Lincoln Courier on January 22, 1958: "Dr. Dyer Funeral Service Will Be Conducted Here." "Dr. William Dyer, 71, a native of Lincoln, was found dead in his car after an automobile accident at Kansas City, Kansas, Tuesday morning. He apparently suffered a heart attack while driving." "Dr. Dyer, a graduate of Lincoln College, two years ago was honored at the alumni banquet as one of the school's outstanding graduates. He was a surgeon for the Santa Fe Railroad for many years and at the time of his death was surgeon for the Kansas City Police Department." "He was born August 29, 1886, a son of Alfred and Laura Ward Dyer. He married Bessie Bradley March [6?], 1918, at Alton. Surviving are his wife; a brother Clarence, Columbus, Ohio; two sisters, Sadie Tyler, Chicago; Mrs. Hattie Brummell, Lincoln." "He was a veteran of WW I and served his internship at a Kansas City hospital." In "Billie Dyer," Maxwell observes that the whites shared doctors, the drinking fountain, and the cemetery with blacks (p. 9), and indeed Billie Dyer's grave is in a black section of Old Union Cemetery surrounded by the graves of countless whites, including some from the upper middle class. For example, a local white lawyer, businessman, and land owner named Bates is buried in a mausoleum only about 75 feet to the right of the photo. Yet, even someone like me who is familiar with Lincoln's history cannot tell whether there is a boundary between graves of blacks and whites, and the poetic justice of that is profoundly felt.
16.12: Old Union Cemetery, Block 35, Section D (photos of Old Union Cemetery by Leigh Henson, 3-22-06) This section of Old Union Cemetery has a concentration of graves of black Lincolnites. Dr. Dyer and his wife are buried near the gap in the yew trees. Close by is the marked grave of Dr. Dyer's sister, Harriett "Hattie" Dyer Brummell, the subject of William Maxwell's story titled "The Front and Back Parts of the House." I could not find markers for the graves of the parents of Dr. Dyer and Mrs. Brummell, but I suspect they are buried in this section. The next time I'm in Lincoln I will ask at the cemetery office.
16.13: Headstone of Bessie
(1889--1969) and William Dyer (1886--1958) in
16.14: Footstone of William Holmes Dyer, M.D.
16.15: Headstone of Hattie Dyer Brummell
16.16: Typical Terrain of Old Union Cemetery's Southern Edge
This view looks east from the section where many black Lincolnites are
buried. On top of the snow-covered slopes are many marked and unmarked
graves. A few headstones are barely visible in the photo. To the right, just
beyond the ravines and sloping ridges, is the sweeping flood plain of Salt
Creek. |
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Sources Cited David Alan Badger. The Badger Collection Featuring Lincoln of Illinois. Privately published, 1987. Mr. Badger's material is copyrighted with all rights reserved and is used in this Web site with his permission. Please visit his Web site: www.davidalanbadger.com. Beaver, Paul J. History of Logan County Illinois, 1982. The Logan County Heritage Foundation. Dallas, TX: Taylor Publishing Company, 1982. Cleaveland, Clif, M.D., M.A.C.P. "That Democracy Might Reign: The Story of Billier Dyer" in Healers & Heroes: Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times (Philadelphia, PA: American College of Physicians, May, 2004). Dooley, Raymond, ed. The Namesake Town: A Centennial History of Lincoln, Illinois. Lincoln, IL: Feldman's Print Shop, 1953. Gehlbach, Nancy Lawrence. "Pity Our Beautiful Trees." Our Times, vol. 7, issue 1, spring 2002. Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA). You can find detailed information, including photos, of the Foley house in a database of this agency. Go to http://www.state.il.us/hpa/PS/nrill.htm. On that page, follow the directions to search the HARGISS database for the Foley house. "Lincoln Public Library Keeps its History Alive" at www.lincolndailynews.com archives for May 25, 2000. "Lincoln Public Library Plays Important Role in Community." Lincoln Evening Courier, Centennial Edition, Section 7, 1953, p. 4. Lindstrom, Andrew, and Olive Carruthers. Lincoln: The Namesake College. No publisher's name or place of publication given, 1965. Maxwell, William. "Billie Dyer." Billie Dyer and Other Stories. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. William Maxwell's readers discover and enjoy complex and believable characters, moving scenes, and perceptive insights into human nature and American life. William Maxwell's works are available at www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com. Stringer, Lawrence B. History of Logan County Illinois (1911). Reprinted by UNIGRAPHIC, INC., Evansville, IN: 1978.
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"The Past Is But the Prelude" |
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