2015 News and Events


The Spirit of Community is Alive and Well

by Gil Belles

from the Tri-States Public Radio website 

http://tspr.org/post/spirit-community-alive-and-well#stream/0

Several recent lectures, newspaper columns, and radio interviews have proposed a hypothesis that we in Macomb are suffering from a decline in the spirit of community. Really?

I gave that some thought and offer a differing view based on the following observations using the definition that the spirit of community can be measured by our residents contributing time, talent, and treasure. Individually or in clubs, organizations, and groups advocating improving the quality of life in our community.

When I moved to Macomb in 1968, the local YMCA operated out of a second floor office space and served several hundred people. Today, the Y in our community serves over 3000 people from pre-school through senior citizens operating out of three buildings in Macomb and several programs in Bushnell. Five days a week the Macomb Y delivers over 100 lunch meals throughout the county.

In just the last several months, three major fundraisers brought together our residents to support community projects. In five years VIBE, an all-volunteer organization, has raised and returned back over $550,000 to local organizations. The Performing Arts Society raised money for its Youth Performing Arts Series, which provides free bus transportation and concert performances for over 8000 school kids every year. The Purple and Gold auction raised money to support the WIU athletic teams, which entertain the sports fans in our community.

Each year our community turns out in vast numbers to watch the WIU Homecoming parade, the Macomb High Homecoming parade, and the Heritage Days parade. Heritage Days is an opportunity for hundreds of former residents to return to their home roots and bind with their former classmates and community friends. Parades in Macomb embody the spirit of community.

Every Thanksgiving hundreds of volunteers purchase food and prepare it for free dinners for local folks. The Eagles and Salvation Army invite anyone to attend. Soup and More does this once a month all year long. The Salvation Army depends on scores of volunteers to ring the holiday bells and collect donations for community programs.

A statue honoring the social service of Macomb women was recently dedicated. The project succeeded because of the dedicated effort of volunteers soliciting donations throughout our community.

Every year the Quality of Life Committee pays tribute to community members who have contributed to an improved quality of life in Macomb.

Every semester, a corps of volunteers offers a wide variety of  “classes” in the Learning is ForEver (LIFE) programs spanning a vast spectrum of interests open to all in our community.

The Friends of the Macomb Public Library, another group of community volunteers, has been holding popular book sales to add resources for the library. Each book sale requires an army of volunteers to sort, setup, sell, and clean up. Travelers using the train station can find a free book to read, from the Friends of the Macomb Public Library.

Another group of community members raised the money to purchase the former Woolworth building on the Square and turn it into the West Central Illinois Arts Center where one can see exhibitions, plays, or visit special events like the Festival of Trees.

The Western Illinois Museum mounts three or four major exhibits each year featuring artifacts that reflect the history and community of our region. Volunteers from the community do almost all of that exhibition work.

In that same building one can find the McDonough County Genealogical Research Center. Community volunteers answer family history questions that come from all over the world as well as walk-in inquiries.

The McDonough County Historical Society often meets in the same building where volunteers promote the history of our community.

The Macomb CVB facilitates and promotes many special events in Macomb, like the Balloon Rally every fall. The balloonists return annually for a sense of community they find in Macomb.

The Western Illinois Regional Council depends on scores of community volunteers who donate time and money to make Project Santa a success.

The City of Macomb has six boards and commissions that utilize the volunteer service of 40 citizens.

Let me add the 800 flags of honor that are set up and taken down in Chandler Park by a community of patriotic volunteers every Federal holiday. And the July 4th Fireworks display celebrates Independence Day as a community gathering.

And in the spirit of community, the Y, the Macomb Park District, the Macomb School District, and McDonough District Hospital are investigating ways to provide even more community-based activities and programs in a new central location.

Let me close with a rapid thank you to a vast array of other volunteer groups which help glue us together as a community: Macomb Beautiful, Loaves and Fishes, Habitat for Humanity, Prairie Land Conservancy, Environmental Concerned Citizens, MDH Auxiliary, Friends of Argyle, Friends of Vishnu, Project HOPE, four Boy Scout Troops, Girl Scouts, Macomb Community Theater, Rotary clubs, Kiwanis, Lions, Altrusa, Elks, Emmet Chalmers volunteer fire department, McDonough Choral Society, State University Annuitants Association, WTND Macomb radio, free Go West bus and on demand transportation, supporters of WIUM our NPR radio station, several veterans groups, and an endless list of school activities supported by our community facilitated by volunteers.

I am sure that I have missed some other examples of what I consider community spirit that seems to me to be alive and well in Macomb. I suggest that the glass of community spirit is not half empty but is overflowing.

Gil Belles is a retired professor from Western Illinois University.



Happy Historic Holidays


from


the McDonough County


Historical Society!


Four members of the McDonough County Historical Society decorated a tree for the Festival of Trees held as part of the "Dickens on the Square" festival held Dec.4-5 in Macomb IL. 
The theme of the xmas tree was "Macomb Schools, 1834-present".


Two More Trees Dedicated

 

Mary and George Hermann celebrated the installation of donor recognition plaques under the two trees they sponsored at the Rezab Family Prairie Meadow on West Adams Street south of the old Macomb Cemetery at Wigwam Hollow Road.

 

One of the trees and plaques is in Memory of Judy Hermann, George’s first wife. The second is in Memory of William Lakie, Mary’s first husband.  Both trees are White Oak (Quercus alba).

 

The Rezab Prairie Meadow is an evolving tribute to the plants, grasses and foliage native to this area in the mid-1800s when the Old Macomb Cemetery was active. The McDonough County Historical Society cooperates with the City of Macomb in developing this meditative and contemplative entry to the Old Macomb Cemetery.


Local author John E. Hallwas will be at

New Copperfield's Book Service,

120 North Side Square, Macomb

on Saturday, November 14 to introduce his new book,

On Community

from 10:00 A.M. to 12:00 and from 1:00 to 3:00 P.M.


Help wanted!  

Locate missing grave marker.

 

            The cemetery project committee of the McDonough County Historical Society seeks the help of county residents in an attempt to locate a missing grave marker.

            The marker is very large and was last seen in 1968 or ’69. It marked the grave of the Civil War horse Chickamauga, who was buried in 1878 in the center of the racetrack on the old county fairgrounds south of Macomb.

            When the fairgrounds was abandoned, the large stone monument was neglected and seemingly lost.

            In 1968 and ’69, the land was being prepared for the Armory, MacArthur School, and a new, fourth, Macomb High School building.

            A local contractor, John Brown, uncovered the buried monument. He offered to restore the engraving and set up the two large parts for permanent preservation and display.

            But before he could move the huge pieces, someone else removed the grave marker.

            The Historical Society calls on our county residents to help solve the mystery of where the monument to Chickamauga might be.

            The horse was brought to Macomb in 1868, where the stories and legends of his Civil War service were spun. Chickamauga sired several winning trotters and reached celebrity status. When he died in 1878, he was buried at the fairgrounds.

            If you have any clues to the location of the grave marker, please give a call to Gil Belles, 837-9441, or email: AG-Belles@wiu.edu 


Historical Society Honors Tree Donors                 

                   The McDonough County Historical Society began permanent and public recognition of the people who sponsored trees planted in the Rezab Family Prairie Meadow at the corner of W. Adams and Wigwam Hollow Road.

                   Bronze plaques with the donors’ names have been attached to concrete pavers near the base of the sponsors’ tree. The popular and biological tree names are also attach Bill and Doris Burton were the first couple toed. offer sponsorship of a tree, which was the first one planted in 2013. It is a Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor).

                   The Rezab Family Prairie Meadow honors the community contributions of Don and Gordana Rezab, both deceased. The pioneer prairie will evolve into a reflective and contemplative area south of the Old Macomb Cemetery.

                   Margaret Ovitt, landscape architect, Tim Howe, Macomb Forester, and members of the historical society, work together to create a savannah prairiescape representing the native trees, bushes, and grasses growing in this area in the mid nineteenth century. It is a long-term process.

                   When the project was approved by the city, the historical society solicited sponsors for the 14 trees planned for the design.  Thirteen other donors quickly followed the Burtons. Each will be honored with a similar plaque.


A Striking New Book by John Hallwas

A New Book with a Distinctive Look at a Fundamental Social Issue and Macomb’s History

 

Author, lecturer, and long-time Historical Society member John Hallwas has a new local history book that will be available at the upcoming November meeting. His ninth book related to our town or county, it’s titled On Community: A Crucial Issue, a Small Town, and a Writer’s Experience.

Propelled by a deepening social problem, the decline of community in America, it examines the ramifications of that and then demonstrates the kind of positive impact that local history can have, by contributing to remembrance, appreciation, belonging, commitment, and meaningful inner life. Like several other Hallwas books, it has an original literary form.

Section one, “Culture and Community in a Problematic Era,” deals with such interrelated matters as the  loss of sense of belonging, the decline in face-to-face interaction, and the weakening of commitment to others.  Hallwas says in an insightful essay called “The Decline of Neighborliness,” that “a rich complex of human associations, thoroughly absorbed, and interacting with our genetic make-up, fosters our individuality . . . . Neighborliness is nothing less than acknowledging our social interdependence, our need for others. A town full of people who do that will have a pervasive sense of community, promoting both sympathetic understanding and actions that express our humanity.”

Hallwas is a great champion of small-town life, and sees the importance of community for both a town like Macomb and the individuals who reside in it. As he says in an essay on “Small-Town Culture in America Today,” “In a certain sense, remaining in a smaller town is becoming an act of rebellion, against a fast-paced, impersonal, city-dominated culture that, however fascinating in some respects, is commonly spiritually shallow  and socially fragmented. In my view, smaller towns like Macomb need to be explicit about their flourishing ‘spirit of community,’ and small-town residents, for their own meaningful life experience, need to embody it.”

In a section titled “The Way It Once Was in This Corner of America,” Hallwas delves into the history of Macomb, to show “the significance of local life for earlier residents,” who lived in a culturally problematic but socially connected world. Among my favorite writings in that part of the book are “Early Bias against Blacks: Macomb’s ‘Mockingbird’ Case,” “The Emergence of Female Social Activism in Macomb,” and “Families Coping with Diphtheria Generations Ago.”

In that piece on the horrific impact of diphtheria in nineteenth century America, Hallwas recounts a story originally told by Macomb Journal editor W.H. Hainline. Like Hallwas, Hainline was a champion of community and concern for others. At the close of a simple but powerful account of the struggle of a local couple faced the agonizing death of two of its young children and isolated by grief and quarantine, Hainline says to his readers, “Oh, you who fret and worry over the small ills of life, who pine and fume and rebel if everything does not go your way and to your liking, stop your murmurs long enough to think of the terrible ordeal through which poor Bob Bingham and his brave wife are passing, while feeling that they are deserted by man. And you could hardly blame them for almost doubting the justice of God himself.” Hallwas reiterates Hainline’s call for a spiritual sharing of the Bingham’s sorrow and adding, “If there is a more powerful example of how a newspaper report can foster our humanity and support our sense of community, I have not seen it.”

And Hallwas insists on the value of such vivid accounts, for the problem of fading community in our time—or as he puts it, “the meaning of our own lives can be impacted by our awareness of the complex social story in which we are taking part.” So, he is, in a sense, driven to have an impact on the inner lives of his readers.

The book’s third section, “People of the Local Past Who Should be Remembered,” provides brief life stories from Macomb’s history—again, with an eye to enlarging our sense of relationship to local tradition. Or as Hallwas says in his introduction to that section, “. . . one important realization for us, surely, is that people of the past can be both interesting and significant for us, if we can comprehend them well enough—more deeply than local histories normally allow. They can help us understand and appreciate our place—the human tradition in a given community—as well as ourselves, for they coped with a variety of universal problems, especially the struggle to belong and the effort to have a meaningful life.”

  Among the most fascinating figures in that part of the book are several that Hallwas re-discovered, in the forgotten annals of the past, and who have never been written about before. A few of them are James Brattle, who publicly contributed to the establishment of communities by means of his early surveying work and who exemplified devotion in his private life; Hannah Hemlock, the first female newspaper columnist in Macomb, and probably in Illinois, who through her writing pointed up the lack of respect for females in a male dominated culture; early school administrator Daniel Branch, who not only called for upkeep of schools but for teaching that fostered character development and social responsibility; and nationally known circus performer Frank Gardner, whose story reminds us all that we hold within us the capacity to make much of our lives in the face of adversity.

Hallwas, who provided the inspiration for the recently erected  Women’s Social Service Memorial in Chandler Park, through his writing and speaking on social activist figures like Rose Jolly, Josie Westfall, and Dr. Elizabeth Miner, continues his crusade for appreciation of women in the past through compelling stories about ordinary figures like Olive Stewart, Ellen Westfall, Mahala Avery, and Mary Short. He also tells the remarkable story of the three Tunnicliff sisters, pictured above, who were perhaps the most socially committed sisters in Illinois history. The youngest one, Ruth, is also a figure honored on the new Women’s Memorial. I doubt that another county in Illinois has so many well-researched, insightful stories about females of the past, thanks to the efforts of John Hallwas. 

The same might be said of black figures from the past, who are often notoriously hard to write about due to lack of historical records. But Hallwas provides engaging, thought-provoking accounts of a nationally known black minister and lecturer from Macomb, James B. Fields; a local African-American leader, who headed the first local black rights group, Milo Newsome, and John Hannah, a poor mulatto who struggled against race prejudice by becoming a noted figure in circus freak shows. The author’s superb accounts of those struggling blacks alone are worth the price of the book.

 

 The thirty stories by Hallwas about “People of the Local Past” include some recent figures many of us knew, such as historian Victor Hicken, nature writer and advocate Alice Krauser, archivist Gordana Rezab, pianist and social activist Rosa Julstrom, and elementary teacher Margaret Harn. His personal acquaintance with them allows for sensitive portrayals that allow us all to realize how distinctive and precious the human lives are that come our way in a community like Macomb.

The section called “Other Voices for Community” probes the insights of famous writers who explored or advocated community in a variety of ways, such as the vision of national connection and appreciation championed by Walt Whitman, the plea for self-realization within community by Edgar Lee Masters, the need for broad empathy in our social experience in Carl Sandburg’s poetry, the spiritual importance of small-town culture in Baker Brownell’s Earth Is Enough, the importance of memory and belonging in Richard Llewellyn’s How Green Was My Valley, and even our place in the complex community of nature through writings by Donald Culross Peattie, Aldo Leopold, and Virginia S. Eifert.

These insightful essays about books and authors attest to the unusually broad reading, and remarkable inner growth, of Hallwas himself, so we are likely to conclude, “No wonder he sees so deeply into a multi-dimensional aspect of human life, like community experience.”

But the item in this section that is most original and compelling, surely, is “Our Place, My Quest, and the Novel Raintree County,” which combines commentary and memoir in a remarkable way, to probe the meaning of a famous bestseller about a Midwestern locale that is stunningly similar to McDonough County. Hallwas conveys the personal impact that a book can have on a certain reader, and evokes some important dimensions of his inner life.

If you don’t realize from the Raintree County essay that On Community is partly a spiritual memoir, you absolutely will in the final section of the book, “A Small-Town Writer’s Experience—and Vision.”  One article after another takes readers into the life of John Hallwas and helps to explain his intense focus on social relationships in a small-town setting. His own loss of place, for example, is effectively set forth in “My Experience of Change; Our Need for Continuity.” The personal background to his intense focus on remembering the dead and relating to a community is set forth in “Mortality and a Meaningful Life: Reflections at Seventy,” and it closes with a fine brief statement of what is at stake for us all in the twenty-first century:

“By enlarging our sense of connection to others, both the living, who reside in our town and elsewhere, and the dead, who faced similar challenges before us, we can avoid the creeping sense of meaninglessness that so many commentators regard as a major psychological problem. . . . If we maintain historical awareness and foster concern for others, we build community, and in personal terms, we expand the spiritual boundaries of the self.”

The two longest essays in On Community, which close the book, dramatize that outlook, that vision of what’s deeply true about the human experience.  In the first, “Midwestern Writer: A Memoir,” Hallwas depicts his relationship to a talented but struggling older man, a writer and local historian, much like himself, who lived in nearby Hancock County decades ago. Combining aspects of biography and memoir, it is a very engaging narrative account of a personal relationship, loaded with insights into the impact of death, the often life-shaping role of memory, the fate of small communities, and the all-too-common conflict between self-realization and social connection. In the final essay, “The Mysterious Bard of Sangamo,” Hallwas depicts the personal impact of a completely forgotten Illinois figure, a talented poet from Britain who struggled for belonging in a frontier village (Springfield) as well as self-realization as an author during the 1830s and 1840s. That blend of history, commentary, and memoir is a testament to the various communities that a human being must strive to appreciate—towns, cultural traditions, social groups, the ever-increasing dead, and the complex natural world. And the sense of connection Hallwas experiences with that man from another era vividly reveals aspects of his own spiritual life.

As this brief overview reveals, On Community is not just another local history book. In fact, I have never run across a historical volume like it, in which the author’s own experience, of looking into other lives, verifies the probing psychological assertion that community orientation and inner growth are deeply interrelated.

Monday, November 9, at 7:00 p.m. at the Spoon River Community College Outreach Center on East Jackson Street, we will be treated to a special meeting at which John Hallwas will speak about his new book. On Community is, in fact, dedicated to Robert Anstine, our current president, which in my view is particularly appropriate in view of his many outstanding contributions to Macomb and to communities in general in Illinois. After his talk, Hallwas will be recognized for his decades of crusading effort on behalf of our community by Mayor Mike Inman.

 

Kathy Nichols



All McDonough County Historical Society members and ANYONE interested are invited to attend the October meeting of the

McDonough County Genealogical Society meeting.

The McDonough County Genealogical Society meeting will be on

Oct. 19 at 7:00 pm.

The speaker will be William Daniel Wilson,

Speaking on “Old Forts and Block Houses of the Early Illinois".

The location is the Western Illinois Museum, 201 S. Lafayette St.,

Macomb, IL 61455.
William Daniel Wilson of Albers, Illinois, received

the Illinois State Historical Society's 
"Lifetime Achievement" award at the 2015 Annual Awards Ceremony,

held April 25 at the Old State Capitol in Springfield.


By Patrick Stout
Voice Correspondent

September 24. 2015 12:16PM

Commission looks at historic homes

Commissioners heard from Vice-Chairman Allen Nemec about the eight oldest homes in Macomb. He said they were all built prior to 1871 in a

42-block city laid out by pioneer James Campbell.
Nemec said the home of Macomb's first mayor, John O'Conner Wilson, was built at 329 South Lafayette St. in 1854 and now houses four

apartments. A nearby home at 341 South Lafayette was built in 1852 for Wilson's daughter Elizabeth and her husband, Otto Clark.
A home built on South Randolph Street in 1856 was moved to 338 South Campbell St. by George Smith, editor of the Macomb Independent

newspaper. The home was purchased by Carter Van Vlek, who was later killed in the Civil War.
Nemec showed commissioners photos of all the historic properties along with documentation on family histories and listings of pre-1870

property tax payments.
He displayed a photo of undertaker John McElrath's home, built in 1850 at 219 South Campbell with a front addition added in 1893.
A home built in 1866 on South Randolph was moved to 330 South Campbell in 1917 by George Gumbart, who served as mayor from 1879

to 1880. Willis Holmes built the property at 314 South Campbell in 1865.
Nemec said that Louis Stocker, a jeweler and the county's leading musician, built a home at 317 East Jefferson Street in 1855. Nathan Tinsley,

a mill owner, built a home at 231 South Randolph in 1870.
Nemec's presentation ended on a somber note. He showed photos of the George Wells home, built in 1859 at 380 East Washington Street,

which became an apartment house, was allowed to decay, and was eventually demolished in 2012.
"To do nothing is to let them drift into memory," Nemec said of the need for preservation of Macomb's first homes. He said the commission

has already gotten historic recognition for the Glenwood Park Shelter House and could try for recognition of other buildings.
"We're not necessarily going to contact present homeowners," said Danowski, "but we do want to examine the historical records."
Danowski called Nemec's presentation "a good first step." Nemec later told commissioners that he is especially interested in getting historic

designation of the home of Macomb's first mayor, John O'Conner Wilson, at 329 South Lafayette St.

Reach Patrick Stout via email at pstout@McDonoughVoice.com.

By Jacqueline Covey 
Staff Reporter

June 14. 2015 8:00AM

Time capsule found while demolishing church

MACOMB — On Sept. 4, 1926, The Macomb Daily Journal reported the replacement of Cumberland Presbyterian Church with a different denomination, new to the area — the Church of the United Brethren in Christ.

The McDonough County Health Department recently stumbled upon remnants of the congregation, which was later collaborated with methodists, calling themselves the United Methodists. The department's administrator, Lynette Cale, said that while demolishing the old church, a heavy copper box — a time capsule — was revealed.

The health department purchased the building at 509 E. Jackson St. last year after its former owner, David Linnenburger, passed away.

Near the entrance of what was Shoot Stars Photography Studio and hidden behind overgrown brush sat the United Brethren's cornerstone, organized: Feb. 22, 1926.

"When the demo team, Shawn Stoneking (Corporation), and they kind of suspected that there was something in there with the corner stone," Cale said. "So they were really careful when they took the cornerstone out. That was purposeful."

The granite cornerstone had carved out a copper box-sized hole, where the time capsule slid in and sat for the last 89 years.

The capsule holds records of the $5,555 exchange the Illinois Annual Conference made for the building. A committee branched off from the Conference, consisting of a Edward H. Shuey, to purchase the church for the brethren.

The statement was documented in a brief of the start-up of the church, from Sept. 5, 1926: "The good people of Macomb and the ministers especially gave the finest support and much food was accomplished in the first meeting."

A bell from the original church had also been rescued. Cale said that the contractors were careful to manage a hole behind the bell and pull it out with a crane.

Other contents in the capsule include multiple magazine and newspaper articles from the year, list of the first school senior department, with Will W. Haggerty as superintendent, Daniel Cousins as assistant superintendent, and other similar memorabilia.

For those who have more information, please contact Jacqueline Covey.

Reach Jacqueline Covey via email at jcovey@McDonoughVoice.com, or follow her on Twitter @jacquelinecovey.


By Jacqueline Covey 
Staff Reporter

June 11. 2015 10:00AM

The right roofing

COLCHESTER — Moses King Brick and Tile National Historic District made its goal to rework support and structural impairments after a 90-day fundraiser.

Dev, and her husband Tim Schroll, hit the $10,000 mark by midnight on May 31 to reverse dipping in — among other infrastructural remedies to — the factory roof.

By May 29, two days before the fundraising cutoff, the Brickyard had received 76 percent of funds needed, according to Schroll.

It was then a couple reached out to Schroll and Dev, saying they'd put up whatever was left on midnight on the end date.

"In fact, we got the check today," Schroll said on Monday.

Nearly 60 individual donations, varying in size: $10, $50, $100 and "a few" $1,000, came in to help repair the 1924 factory building. The monies came from locals, tri-county residents, regionals, and a few crossing state boarders.

Schroll said that recently he had the structure work estimated, which came out to be $28,000.

Realizing that amount of money wouldn't be realistic to raise, Schroll said he figured if he could get the materials covered, he could depend on volunteers.

"We've always had good volunteer people," he said. "People come out here and get dirty and help and do."

What the project needs exceeded the capabilities of the maintenance fund, Schroll said, as the Brickyard already struggles with that funding.

However, because the King family sold the property to Schroll and Dev, he said they do not need to jump through state and federal historically-correct hoops to rehabilitate the roof.

"Now, what were trying to do is we're trying to get it (right)," Schroll said on the contrary. "We're going to go back to the metal roofing, which we believe it originally had on it, so it looks historically correct instead of shingles."

The shingles that currently cover the structure have expired their 20-year shelf life. Schroll said that volunteers helped with that effort back then, but he added "that's one thing."

He hopes to "round up" experienced contractors, as well as ready hands, to bring the roof back to its original shape. He stressed finding someone who knows repairing structures to ensure the factory remains sound.

Schroll and other historical sitings in the area have had conversations about a tourism trail that would take people to places like the Carthage jail or Nauvoo.

"But we can't do that until its safe," Schroll said.

Moses King purchased the land in 1876 hoping to use the land to mine coal. King's $150 parcel produced a considerable amount of excess coal, and he used what he could not sell to fire clay into brick.

And so began the family business.

In 1884, King put in his first two kilns. These massive bee-hive structures were able to reach upwards of 2,000 degrees to dry the clay bricks.

However, on St. Patricks Day, about 15 years ago, according to Schroll, one of the eventual seven kilns that King would build "exploded." While in the house, Dev and Schroll heard a loud snap, followed by what sounded like bricks collapsing.

"It was worn, the last band broke, and it turned into a pile quarter of a million bricks," Schroll said.

"Just like that, two seconds," he added.

The original kilns are still holding, but not strong.

"This is a whole separate world when it comes to fundraising," Schroll said.

Schroll and Dev have devoted themselves to the Brickyard, and Schroll said he has no idea why. Though, he said, it's Dev's passion, and to her it's worth it.

"She saw beauty in it," Schroll said.

The Brickyard has become a sort of sanctuary for those looking for one. People would take tours, work on art in the workshops, visit in the short-stay rooms, and contribute to the district’s lawn.

Upon entering the brick-firing area, a "spiral" filed with burned, destroyed old bricks, glass bits from the furnace, and other small treasures lead the walker to "Mother Bear" – a concrete bear statue.

Schroll wishes to restore the Brickyard, and help it further its own peculiar history.

"The liability is just scary," Schroll said.

On Monday, at the time of the interview, decent-seized patch of ground between the 1884 kilns stood concaved.

Despite the work that still needs to be done, the factory is well on its way to being refurbished. Fixing up the 139-year-old historical district is a long strenuous take-on.

Schroll, though, said that the place had its hold on him, and he and his wife will continue their work on it.

Reach Jacqueline Covey via email at jcovey@McDonoughVoice.com, or follow her on Twitter @jacquelinecovey.


By Jacqueline Covey 

Staff Reporter

May 31. 2015 7:00AM

A homey history

MACOMB — In the spring of 1830, McDonough County settlers had the numbers to separate from Schuyler County and pioneer the area.

Allen Nemec, president of the McDonough County Genealogical Society, gave his organization and the Historical Society a brief history of ensuing period entitled, "Pre-1870 Homes in Original Town Macomb," during a recent joint meeting.

A filled room at the Spoon River College Community Outreach Center on May 18 allotted Nemec the space for his slideshow, which the The Carpenters’ song "Yesterday Once More" played over.

In addition, the crowd listened intently to stories of the well-known, antebellum homes scattered around town.

Built circa 1854, the home of the first mayor of Macomb at 329 S. Lafayette St. still stands.

The folk home belonged to John O'Conner Wilson. It is a two-story folk home, which has since been stuccoed and stone-veneered, covering the original wooden frame. In the recent decades of the "eye-shaped" house, according to Nemec, it's been reconstructed into a four-apartment complex.

Nemec said one could easily identity the home, whilst driving down Lafayette Street, by its single window on the northern side.

After Mayor Wilson's failed farming attempt, he, his wife, Adeline, and their five children moved into the American Elm-lined Block 39 on the south side.

"My husband was a good hatter, and thought he would make an equally good farmer – I thought so too," a 97-year-old Adeline wrote to the local newspaper.

But 18 months had proved them mistaken. During this time, Wilson's endeavor to live off the land often times left his wife home alone.

In her early 20s, Adeline and her husband lived some four miles southwest of Macomb in the "wilderness of woods and prairies" that overcame the area then. She wrote that she lived in "continuous dread" every time Wilson would left home. She was afraid, living in isolation where only smoke from far-off chimneys and rooster coos were signs of life, that stray bands of Native Americans would threaten her.

"So we moved to Macomb, which even then didn't have over 50 houses in it, and this has been my home ever since," Adeline wrote.

To give his crowd more of a historical setting, Nemec drew its attention to the lot's property tax value.

"I only wish our taxes on our block remained at this level," he joked.

For the 39 block in Original Town Macomb from 1862 to 1869, John Wilson paid between $800 and $1,500 for the entirety of the southern half of his block, and in 1870 the taxes dropped to $480.

Nemec showed, as his presentation continued, that property taxes of that time were in constant flux.

Just as 329 S. Lafayette St. was marked with a red star, which Nemec indicated as "Today's pre-1870 Homes," so was 341 S. Lafayette St., a home that was built for Elizatbeth Clark, the Wilson's daughter.

Born in Macomb in 1834, Nemec called Lizzie a true early pioneer. In 1852, Mayor Wilson had the home built for his daughter and her husband Otto Frederick Clark. "Her husband is a mystery to me, " Nemec said, "because 'Otto Frederick' I could not find anywhere in my research where he was born, and all I can find is that he died prior to her in 1900."

Strangely enough, Lizzie was listed as head of household at the age of 25 in 1860. Nemec also showed a census from 1870 showing Lizzie still in the home on the corner of South Lafayette and Piper Street.

"Keep in mind they married in '52, so there is only an eight-year span when he is gone and out of the picture," he added.

Reach Jacqueline Covey via email at jcovey@McDonoughVoice.com, or follow her on Twitter @jacquelinecovey.


By Jacqueline Covey 

Staff Reporter

May 20. 2015 7:00AM

Macomb, college communities brace to support Amtrak rail service

MACOMB/SPRINGFIELD – A former Macomb mayor and current member of the Amtrak board of directors detailed the constraints that'd be placed on college communities like Macomb to a joint club meeting this week if proposed passenger rail funding cuts were to come into fruition.

Under new leadership, niche services within the state of Illinois continue to be threatened until Gov. Bruce Rauner stamps his John Hancock on a proposed budget. Amtrak, which features a stop in Macomb on its Quincy-Chicago route, is currently anticipating its $42 million dollar budget to be slashed nearly in half.

Tom Carper, a well-known Macomb official who also once served as Amtrak board chairman, said what this poses for Macomb, and other rural college communities such as Southern Illinois University and Eastern Illinois University, is a probable elimination of a second route to and from Chicago. When the state doubled its service in 2006, it'd reportedly opened a threshold of opportunities for Macomb and the Western Illinois University students.

"We can't run the same service for $26 million," Carper told members of the McDonough County Genealogical and Historical societies on Monday. "There is no guarantee we'd get back on the freight railroad."

Carper said that this is a game of winners and losers, which he has no intention of quitting – at least just yet.

On Tuesday, he and Go West Director Jude Kiah, and WIU Admissions Director Andy Borst, as well as other regional leaders, addressed the Illinois Senate committee for higher education on the importance of passenger rail service.

The railroad defenders attempted to answer any questions presented, according to Carper, and to ease any budget whiplash Amtrak may face. Cuts to the service, however, are still expected.

"Passenger rail does not make any money," Carper said Monday. "It relies on federal subsidy, not only for the operations but also, for the infrastructures on the northeast quarter."

Carper said on Tuesday the conversation in Springfield went well, and that he believes the committee has more clarification on the repercussions rail faces.

"They were listening more than anything else," he said. "They have tough decisions to make, and I think they are better equipped now."

The dialogue with the state and Amtrak communities will continue until it cannot – until the budget is authorized.

Reach Jacqueline Covey via email at jcovey@McDonoughVoice.com, or follow her on Twitter @jacquelinecovey.


May 17. 2015 7:00AM

From the McDonough County Voice newspaper

Attractive homes and residential upkeep: A meaningful tradition

by John Hallwas

A year ago, I mentioned that our town once had a reputation for attractive residential areas, and there was significant public concern about stylish, well-kept homes. As all long-time Macomb townspeople know, we have suffered some residential decline in recent decades.

So, I was especially pleased to see the spring issue of the “McDonough County Historical Society Newsletter,” edited by Kathy Nichols. Focused on homes and neighborhood pride during the 1940s, it reprints various newspaper articles and home images from that era. As one item points out, the “Macomb Journal” even had an annual “Better Homes Edition” back then, and generally, there was “intense interest in building, modernizing, and repairing houses.”

Along with articles on various local homes during that era, Nichols also reprints items on matters like “Macomb gardens and lawns,” “good sidewalks,” “elimination of [run-down] buildings,” and even a community-wide “Clean-up Week,” held in mid-April. That event featured not only volunteer efforts but a “Clean-up, Paint-up, Fix-up Parade,” filled with floats created by local organizations. As that newsletter issue demonstrates, community leaders were deeply committed to promoting home beautification efforts.

Under the leadership of former mayor Bob Anstine, the McDonough County Historical Society is now starting to focus on appreciating older buildings and encouraging preservation—in both our downtown, which needs renovation, and our residential areas, too. Anstine has a long record of leadership in local improvement—not to mention experience as a state official in community development. (By the way, annual membership in the Historical Society is just $10 per household, and of course, that includes the quarterly newsletter as well as the chance to learn about our town and county while interacting with committed people.)

The May meeting of the Historical Society is next Monday evening at 7:00, and it will be held at the Spoon River College Community Outreach Center on East Jackson Street. There is also a potluck dinner for all who come early, at 6:00. The meeting will be a joint gathering with the McDonough County Genealogical Society, and the latter’s president, historic home expert Allan Nemec, will speak about “Original Town of Macomb, Pre-1870 Homes”—illustrating his comments with photographs of those houses. Former mayor and AMTRAK official Tom Carper will also speak briefly on the current issue of Macomb’s railroad service. The public is invited to attend, and information about membership in both organizations will be available.

I should mention, too, that another group which continually presses for home awareness and upkeep is the Macomb Beautiful Association, currently headed by Penny Yunker. Their annual effort to recognize attractive homes, and businesses, through the Macomb Beautiful Awards program, is set to begin for 2015 this month. Signs at this year’s selected homes will go up in midsummer, and a fall banquet will be centered on those award winners.

Also, the MBA will have its first annual Macomb Garden Walk this year. That is set for Saturday, June 13, and will feature self-guided tours of ten outstanding lawn-and-garden areas. Advance tickets for that fundraiser are just $10, and various MBA members are selling them, including Penny Yunker and my wife, Garnette. The Yunker home, a modern brick building, set on several acres, at 1901 Riverview Drive, and our home, a 90-year-old Georgian Revival house, located at 404 South Edwards Street, both have yards on the Garden Walk, but there will be lovely lawns to tour in many areas of town. The starting location for that event will be the historic Macomb Railroad Station. For those interested, MBA membership information will be available there, too.

That Garden Walk will be a good opportunity for local people with an interest in home styles, lawn and garden areas, and neighborhood upkeep to interact with others who care about those matters—and about the long community tradition of residential beautification.

Of course, there is much more to our experience with homes than historical and aesthetic aspects. Various books deal with the significance that homes can have for individuals. In one of my favorites, titled “House as a Mirror of Self: Exploring the Deeper Meanings of Home (1995), author Clare Cooper Marcus asserts that the right kind of home “can protect, heal, and restore us, express who we are now, and over time help us become who we are meant to be.” Her insightful view reflects our desire for personal space, individual self-realization, and spiritual wholeness. But homes within a community can also foster social interaction and deep commitments. As health care worker and social activist Schylar Meadows says in another book, called “Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives” (2006), edited by John Edwards,

“Living in this house [for many years] has shaped my sense of community, responsibility, and character. Our home is not just the place we live. . . . I developed understanding, tolerance, and compassion for the human experience from being a neighbor—but more important, from taking stock in being part of a community.”

I believe that most people who cherish older homes, and who work to have attractive homes (whether historic or modern), feel that way. Too often, owners who don’t maintain their homes are also people who don’t care what happens to their neighborhood or their town. In short, our homes often speak volumes about our way of life, and our values.

And that’s why home and neighborhood upkeep efforts, by city leaders, Historical Society members, Macomb Beautiful members, and others, are not just economically beneficial for local homeowners but crucial to satisfying personal experience for all residents and to the long-term success of community in Macomb. It is indeed time to re-emphasize our tradition of home preservation, appreciation, and beautification.

Author and local historian John Hallwas is a columnist for the McDonough County Voice.


 The McDonough County Historical Society is now on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/McDonoughCountyHistoricalSociety


Monday, May 18, 2015 

The McDonough County Genealogical Society

and

the McDonough County Historical Society

will hold their first joint meeting.


At 6pm both groups are invited to attend a potluck in Conference Room B

of the Spoon River Community Outreach Center on East Jackson Street.  

Please bring table service and a dish to share.


At 7:00 p.m.,

Historical Society member and Genealogical Society president Allen Nemec

will present a program entitled

“Original Town of Macomb Pre-1870 Homes,

illustrated with a PowerPoint presentation.

An authority on local historic homes and author of Macomb Homes with Names: A Look into Macomb, Illinois’ Historic Homes, Their Past Inhabitants and a View of them Today, Allen will talk about the early residents of each of these homes and their contributions to early Macomb.


In addition, former Mayor Tom Carper will provide timely updates on Macomb’s train service situation in a talk entitled

“Amtrak in Illinois 1971-Present: What About Tomorrow?”

and will welcome questions afterward. 

After the program, the two societies will hold individual business meetings.


From Tri-States Radio www.tspr.org

Lamoine Hotel Building Rehab Advances

The building in downtown Macomb will be converted into an assisted living facility. Newly drawn construction plans show it will feature 47 rentable studio and one bedroom apartments as well as a memory care unit.

Developer Chris Trotter is working to raise private investments to pay for the $4.5 million project. Mayor Mike Inman said Trotter is close to obtaining his goal.

Inman said he would like the city to chip in by allocating about $750,000 worth of TIF money. That’s a loan Trotter would need to pay back.

“The vast majority of this development is on his shoulders and his private funding sources. The city does have a risk here without a doubt,” Inman said. “But we feel that as we have with the initial development agreement, and as we will before taking anything to the council for any type of action or approval, (this) will be something that the city is prepared to say that is a reasonable risk for what we get at the end of the day.”

As part of the incentive package, a portion of an adjacent city parking lot would be given to the facility. The city council will need to sign off on the TIF money and the parking lot proposal.

The city has already given Trotter about $200,000 worth of TIF money. That was awarded after Trotter purchased the building for $150,000 and replaced the roof for an additional $100,000.

The building’s façade will mostly be kept the same to maintain its historic integrity. The only change will be the addition of a wheelchair ramp to the back door of the building.

The interior has already been gutted and will be completely rebuilt to accommodate the newly drawn floor plans, which include adding a stairwell and enlarging the elevator.

The building is in Macomb’s historic downtown district so it's also eligible for a 20% income tax credit. But to maximize that credit, the interior of the building would have needed to be rehabbed instead of rebuilt.

Construction will take about a year and could begin this fall or next spring. Trotter plans to hire a third-party health provider to manage the facility.

Inman said the city is excited about the project even though it isn’t the exact project he hoped for.

“Ideally the city had looked for a developer there that would have been a residential component on the upper floors, (and) commercial, business, retail on the first floor. At the end of the day that was our true hope for that building. But the fact of the matter is we couldn’t find someone to partner with on that idea,” Inman said.

But Inman said he is looking forward to the extra foot traffic the facility will bring to the downtown. He said Trotter has completed two market analyses in the last two years that sustained his business model.

“He (Trotter) believes that there is a demand for this type of health care and residential living development for the elderly and he believes it works for him as a business model," the mayor said.



From the McDonough County Voice

By Jackie Smith

Editor

January 16. 2015 1:22PM


Recapping Revitalization


Mayor, community development coordinator discuss downtown square project with local historical society


A few members of the McDonough County Historical Society groaned in jest Monday night when they'd concluded what the actual speed limit is for motorists on Courthouse Square in downtown Macomb. "Anybody know?" Macomb Mayor Mike Inman asked the group, which met at the YMCA Senior Center. "Well, by law, since it's not posted any other way, it's 30 miles an hour."

It was just one of several points touched on as Inman, along with Community Development Coordinator Shannon Duncan, recapped a year-long planning and vetting effort to revitalize the square while also simultaneously fulfilling, as the mayor put it, an obligation to update its safety and infrastructure standards.

The city's foreseeable plans for the approximate $3 million project are up in the air for now — or at least, aren't moving forward until later this year when Inman said the city hopes to glean a better idea of its chances to receive a state grant that'd pay for a third of the project's cost.

Pedestrian safety, choice of lighting, choice of pavement, and placement of trees were also subjects of questions historical society members posed on Monday.

To clarify the details, the mayor and Duncan passed out a streetscape rendering dated Nov. 27, 2013 — one based on a concept developed with engineers, city officials and multiple other consulted entities.

"What you see here is not a huge, nor a dramatic change from what's historically been up on the square," Inman said. "We did look at the historical aspects of the square, some of the things that had existed before from when, you know, there were horse and buggy movements around the square to different iterations of parking on the square.

In recent years, Macomb officials have taken a number of strides to garner an assembly of perspectives and examples to consider as a frame of reference for the city's own town square aspirations. These efforts included joint stakeholders meetings with downtown business owners and several committee- and council-level discussions amongst elected officials.

In November 2012, the city council and staff took trips to downtown Rushville, Jacksonville and Quincy, the first two of which Inman said on Monday had shown "monumental work we could maybe plagiarize a little bit."

The city has worked with Hutchinson Engineering as the primary firm on the project and Springfield-based Massie Massie & Associates as landscape architects.

Duncan also said the city has met with both state and national departments of transportation for consultation over the project.

"There was a person there specifically interested in non-vehicular patterns and safety," she said. "These are all plans that are in the process of going through the vetting process."

Downtown details

The grant funding city officials are hoping for is through an Illinois Department of Transportation enhancement program. One of its components, Inman said, is the historical perspective of the project.

Inman said the Illinois Historic Preservation Commission has visited the city's square, walked the project with engineers and offered input, which was added to the final design.

"We believe that we stand a really good chance of (earning the grant) with incorporation of the streets cape and landscaping features … into that plan," Inman said, "and we believe we'll make that a very attractive plan for financing this project."

Kathy Nichols, senior library specialist at Western Illinois University and vice president of the historical society, asked what the timeline for revitalizing downtown would be.

Duncan and Inman said it depends on how finances pan out for the city.

Anticipating final review of their IDOT grant proposal this spring, the mayor said final plans and construction bidding would be finalized late in the 2015 calendar year if all goes according to plan. Construction itself, he said, would then start when the weather breaks in 2016 with at least a year of work downtown.

The project would also be financed with the last portion of a recent bond issue acquired from a voter-approved additional half-cent sales tax. If the IDOT grant doesn't pan out, Inman said the project could be adjusted, and other city projects may have to wait while the bond issue is utilized for the project in full.

The most notable changes to the proposed revitalized square have included extension of the business-adjacent sidewalks up to 16 feet, and aesthetic improvements with plantings and trees specifically identified to appear in various areas around the square and the county courthouse to soften its perimeter.

The median that presently separates the outer square from the inner, county-owned area would also be eliminated, as part of the project. This, Inman said, is because the added sidewalk, which is needed for ADA compliance if a business features outdoor components in the city's right-of-way, would change the dynamic of traffic.

"For me personally as mayor, if we get into a budgetary problem, I think that is likely to be the first thing that would have to be considered as the No. 1 most costly improvement here, that is not absolutely necessary to the satisfactory completion of this project," Inman said. "If we had to cut somewhere, that would be the first place to start."

Reach Jackie Smith via email at jsmith@McDonoughVoice.com, or follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.


JANUARY 2015 MEETING

of the McDonough County Historical Society 

 

Monday, January 12, 2015, at 7:00 p.m., members of the McDonough County Historical Society will meet at the Senior Citizens Room at the YMCA on Calhoun Street.

 

After a brief business meeting, former Mayor Anstine will introduce Shannon Duncan, our Community Development Coordinator.

Ms. Duncan will define the term

“Certified Local Government”

and explain what it means for Macomb, in regard to establishing partnerships with state and federal agencies to support and further local historic preservation activities.

Mayor Michael Inman will follow Ms. Duncan with a talk entitled

“The Plans for the Macomb Downtown Revitalization Project.”

The meeting should be an especially exciting and informative one.


from Tri-States Public Radio:

http://tspr.org/post/western-illinois-men-pardoned-work-underground-railroad

Action By Governor
5:13 PM
WED DECEMBER 31, 2014

Western Illinois Men Pardoned for Work on Underground Railroad

Illinois' Governor has posthumously pardoned three men for their work with the Underground Railroad.

The men all lived in west central Illinois and were convicted more than 170 years ago based on laws that prohibited helping runaway slaves.  Those laws remained in place even after Illinois abolished slavery in 1824.  

The Dr. Richard Eells House in Quincy
The Dr. Richard Eells House in Quincy
Credit The Friends of Dr. Richard Eells House

Dr. Richard Eells was from Quincy.  He agreed to help a fugitive slave get to an Underground Railroad site but the slave was caught and Eells arrested. He was convicted and fined, but remained a leader in the abolitionist movement and helped hundreds of other enslaved African Americans escape to freedom.  

Governor Pat Quinn also pardoned Julius Willard and his son Samuel.  They helped a woman reach the Underground Railroad from their Jacksonville home.  The Willard's were also convicted and fined.

Illinois Lieutenant Governor Sheila Simon and her staff worked with historians and legal interns to prepare clemency petitions in the cases. 

Read the news release from the Lt. Governor's office:

Lt. Governor Sheila Simon applauded Governor Quinn’s action today to grant clemency to abolitionists who were convicted for their anti-slavery efforts. Simon filed petitions last year seeking clemency for three abolitionists convicted during the 1800's.

The Old Knox County Jail - site of Underground Railroad Freedom Center at Knox College
The Old Knox County Jail - site of Underground Railroad Freedom Center at Knox College
Credit Knox College

“The men and women who defied the law to support the Underground Railroad risked their safety and well-being because they believed that all individuals deserve freedom,” said Simon. “I would like to thank Governor Quinn for honoring their memories and sacrifices with pardons for their selflessness and courage. Abolitionists were on the right side of history, and today we honor their foresight and heroism.”

“These early warriors for freedom put everything on the line to help their fellow man, and their civil disobedience paved the way for civil rights,” Governor Quinn said. “Clearing their criminal records 171 years later shows how far we have come, but reminds us all that we should fight injustice wherever we find it.”     

Simon’s work to clear the names of abolitionists began after being contacted by Quincy historians. Simon’s first petition of clemency was filed for Dr. Richard Eells, who in 1843 was convicted of harboring a runaway slave. Eells, an Underground Railroad conductor, was found guilty of harboring and secreting a runaway slave, and unlawfully preventing the lawful owner from recovering the slave. His case was later heard by the United States Supreme Court, which upheld the original conviction.

Through his involvement in the Underground Railroad, Dr. Eells helped numerous slaves traveling through Quincy toward Chicago, and ultimately, to freedom in Canada. The National Parks Service has declared Dr. Eells’ home as one of the country’s 42 most important Underground Railroad sites, and the home is currently operated by the Friends of Dr. Richard Eells House.

“The Friends of the Dr. Richard Eels House Organization is very excited to hear this wonderful news,” said John Cornell, the group’s president. “It has been a long time coming, but we’re glad the recognition of Dr. Eels work is finally here.”

The Chicago-based Abolition Institute, which is committed to fighting modern day slavery worldwide, honored Lt. Governor Simon on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday for her work fighting for clemency for Illinois abolitionists.

“The Abolition Institute strongly commends the innovative leadership of Lt. Governor Sheila Simon in fighting to honor the legacy of Illinois heroes who risked their own lives to fight against slavery,” said Sean Tenner, co-founder of the Abolition Institute.  “Honoring these abolitionists is the right thing to do for their families and is helping to energize a new generation of Illinoisans to honor their legacy by fighting against human trafficking and modern-day slavery.”

Simon also filed petitions of clemency for Julius and Samuel Willard who in 1843 were convicted of secreting and harboring a fugitive slave. Julius, who was close friends with anti-slavery activist Elijah Lovejoy, moved his family from Alton to Jacksonville while their son Samuel attended Illinois College.

Dr. Samuel Willard later served in the 97th Illinois Regiment, participating in the Battle of Vicksburg. An illness contracted during his military service caused partial paralysis, and Dr. Willard was never again able to practice medicine. Instead, he became a lifelong education advocate, working to establish the Springfield Public Library and libraries across Illinois, as well as becoming the superintendent of the Springfield Public School District.

Despite Illinois residents voting to abolish slavery in 1824, both Illinois and federal law prohibited the harboring or assisting of runaway slaves in free states. Simon’s office worked with historians and experts around the state to identify Illinoisans who were convicted of violating slavery laws.