2012 Local History "In the News"

For Immediate Release

February 18, 2012

 

The Western Illinois Museum announces

schedule of programs to accompany current exhibit,Home Front: Life During the Civil War

 

The Western Illinois Museum has a full line up of programs to accompany the newest exhibit, Home Front: Life During the Civil War.  There is something for everyone: lectures, book discussions, and even genealogy.  The programs center around the themes in the exhibit which looks at the impact the Civil War had on our region. 

 

Programs are free and open to the public. Additional information can be found on the museum’s facebook page, web site at www.westernillinoismuseum.org or by phone at 309.837.2750.

 

Fifty Miles to Slave Country: Slavery in Missouri and Why It Matters

Saturday, February 25th at 1:00 p.m.

 

Katie Benson, WIU History Graduate Student and Intern at the Western Illinois Museum, will share her research on the uniqueness of slavery in Missouri, who these slaves were and what they were doing.  Missouri, being only fifty miles from Macomb, brings the issue close to home and the lecture will show its impact on the freed Missouri slaves who settled in Macomb.

 

Find your Civil War Relative

Saturday, March 17 at 1:00 – 4:00 p.m.

 

The West-Central Illinois Civil War Round Table and the McDonough County Genealogical Research Center in partnership with the Western Illinois Museum will hold a program to help participants explore their own Civil War heritage.  The program will be held on Saturday, March 17, from 1:00 – 4:00 at the museum. Participants will have a one-on-one session with a Round Table member to search for their Civil War relatives using various internet resources, an introduction to the Genealogical Society's Research Center and what it offers, and a tour of the current exhibit, Home Front: Life During the Civil War, with the museum’s curator.

 

Participants are encouraged to bring what information they have about the family member they are interested in researching.

 

Please RSVP for the program at 309.837.2750 or info@westernillinoismuseum.org.

 

 Let’s Talk About It, Making Sense of the Civil War

Thursday, March 1 and April 5 at 7:00 p.m.

 

Join us for a reading and discussion about the Civil War, led by WIU History Professor Tim Roberts. The program will be held at the Malpass Library on the WIU campus.  Copies of the books can be checked out from the museum.  Find more information on the museum’s web site: www.westernillinoismuseum.org.

 

Civil War Letter between Thomas and

Lovinia Woof with Peggy and Wilbur Meyer

Saturday, May 5th at 1:00 p.m.

 

Married on July 4, 1854, Thomas and Lovinia Woof settled in Concord, Illinois, and started a family.  With the onset of the Civil War, Thomas enlisted with the 101st Illinois Infantry and their lives changed dramatically.  Peggy and Wilbur Meyer found a collection of the couple’s letters in their attic and have done significant research into their relatives’ lives.  This program is full of history, a lesson in genealogy and a captivating love story.

 

The current exhibit is on view through May 26, 2012.  Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.  The museum is located at 201 South Lafayette Street, one block south of Macomb’s Courthouse Square.

 

The Western Illinois Museum is pleased to share the important stories of local war veterans in a

New Oral History Exhibition
Opening February 11, 2012

 

The Western Illinois Museum will open a new oral history exhibit that celebrates our local war veterans.  Beginning February 11, 2012, eleven interviews with both WWII and Vietnam War veterans will be available so visitors can hear about personal war experiences.  There will be an opening reception on Saturday, February 11, from 1:00 – 4:00 pm.  Refreshments will be served and the event is free and open to the public.

 

This past October the museum began working on an oral history project to record the stories of those who served our country. Oral histories are a rapidly growing part of the museum’s collection.  Museum Curator, Sue Scott, commented, “In addition to preserving artifacts, it is also important that the museum capture the personal stories. Having a record of the experiences of these men and women is a valuable part of our regional history.”  

 

The interviews were all conducted by museum volunteers who attended a training workshop on how to conduct an oral history interview.  Museum volunteers who participated in the project include Tim Howe and Max Nash-Howe, Mike Kirby, Tom Lonergan, Allyson Ray, and Will Seaton. “I saw each volunteer come away with a greater respect and knowledge about how our veterans served.  The veterans, I think, felt that respect and were pleased that their stories will be preserved for future generations,” observed Joe Glenn, the museum’s Education and Programming Coordinator, who managed this project.

 

Included in the exhibit are pictures and information about each veteran providing an overview of his or her life and time in service to our country. There will be listening stations with mp3 players with the complete interviews which range in length from 20 to 60 minutes.

 

Veterans who were included in the project include: Dorothy Anderson, Grace Baker, John Hopping, Danny Irwin, James Lantz, Rick Melvin, John Moon, Tweed Mummert, Paul Murphy, Joe Wayland, and Wayne White.

 

The Veterans Oral History Project is made possible by a generous grant from Serve Illinois.

 

The Western Illinois Museum is located at 201 South Lafayette Street, one block south of Macomb’s Courthouse Square.  For more information contact the museum at 309.837.2750 orinfo@westernillinoismuseum.org.

 

Home Front: Life During the Civil War

With an opening reception

Saturday, February 11th, 1:00-4:00

 

The Western Illinois Museum is pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibit, Home Front, Life during the Civil War on view from February 11 – May 26, 2012.  The museum will celebrate the opening with a reception Saturday, February 11th, from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.  There will be a tour of the exhibit at 2:00 pm with Dr. Robert Welch who assisted with the research of the exhibit along with Curator, Sue Scott.  John Lane and Chanel Miller, recent graduates from Knox College, will perform Civil War era music at 3:00 pm.  Refreshments will be served and the event is free and open to the public.

 

We are at the beginning of a five year commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Americans will celebrate epic battles, remember famous politicians, and watch cinematically glorified, romanticized tales of cultures lost. These ideas seem so distant to a Western Illinoisan.  Home Front: Life During the Civil War takes a different approach, bringing the issues closer to home as it considers the Civil War's impact on our region.

 

In 1860, Macomb was a growing city with a growing population. The railroad had recently come into town in 1855. Businesses were booming around what we now refer to as the Courthouse Square. There were two local newspapers, the Democratic Macomb Eagle and the RepublicanMacomb Journal. With Abraham Lincoln recently elected to the presidency, political debate was a lively as ever.  Only thirty years after it was established, Macomb was on the verge of becoming involved in one of the most significant events in American history.

 

The exhibit examines the impact the Civil War had on both the domestic and agricultural spheres.  Pieces from the museum’s extensive agricultural collection will be on display, including an 1855 George Brown corn planter, built in Knox County, Illinois. The war also brought new customs and traditions to the region and the exhibit uses music, letters, and artifacts from the newly formed veterans’ groups to illustrate these new practices. The region mirrored the divisions in our country, and the exhibit displays the few accounts of the Underground Railroad and the political tone that have been recorded.

 

Research for the exhibit has been provided by Dr. Carmen Keist, Dr. Robert Welch, and WIU History Graduate Student and intern, Kaitlin Benson.  Installation assistance has been provided by Lynne Brinker, John Cox, and Lowell Lueck.             

 

The Western Illinois Museum is located at 201 South Lafayette Street, one block south of Macomb’s Courthouse Square.  For more information contact the museum at 309.837.2750 orinfo@westernillinoismuseum.org.

 

New life for old cemetery

The Western Courier-Jan. 27, 2012

Posted: Friday, January 27, 2012 1:45 pm |Updated: 2:47 pm, Mon Jan 30, 2012.

Jennifer wilson Courier Staff |0 comments

The Old Macomb Cemetery is in a state of disarray, with broken tombstones scattered on the ground and propped up against trees.

In an effort to improve its appearance he City of Macomb recently passed a resolution of support to renovate the Old Macomb Cemetery located on Wigwam Hollow Road.

To fix this problem, the McDonough County Historical Society (MCHS) has applied for a grant from the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution for $10,000. In order to qualify for this grant, MCHS must match the amount in local donations.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Historical Preservation Commission surveyed the property in December and strongly recommended the renovation. The three-part project includes restoring and beautifying the Old Macomb Cemetery, as well as installing protective fencing around small rural cemeteries that are threatened. MCHS also plans to publish a brochure titled A Guide to Historic Cemeteries in McDonough County.

The Old Macomb Cemetery is the oldest existing cemetery in the area, with the earliest burial dating back to 1830 and the most recent in 1864. When the cemetery by Glen Wood Park opened in 1857, many of the buried were legally moved to the new cemetery. It is currently unknown exactly how many people are buried in the old cemetery.

"We don't know how many people were moved or gravestones stolen," said Gil Belles of MCHS and head of the cemetery project. A lot of the tombstones are buried under sod and grass. We will have a concentrated effort to try to locate them."

Broken stones are rehabilitated using a cement epoxy. Buried stones are located through a technique called "poking" that uses rods to find the stones, then carefully uncovering them and trying to locate where they originally belong. During the resetting process, volunteers will dig new troughs, put sand or gravel in the base, and stand the stone up as it originally was.

"One of the major goals of this project is to recover the buried and broken headstones before too much more of it gets completely obliterated," said Belles.

The stones have become fragile over the years, so volunteers must go through special training and use extreme caution. If it is unknown where a stone belongs, it will be reset in a special memorial section of the cemetery.

What makes the Old Macomb Cemetery so important is its historical value. Some stones were engraved in the 1830's and 40's by Macomb native John Long. Long's style includes embellishments and lengthy epitaphs. Four of the original 1830's stones are visible.

"These are the only hard artifacts from a Macomb person from that era," said Belles. He also says that a lot of valuable information can be found in the cemetery, such as ethnic migration and patterns of death and disease that shaped the Macomb area. WIU students have been known to use the cemetery for research, art and reflection.

Fifth Ward Alderman Dave Dorsett helped to pass the resolution of support for the renovation in hopes that it would help with receiving funding.

The property is owned by the City of Macomb, but has been overlooked throughout the years due to financial reasons. "It's been neglected," said Dorsett. "We should have done more, but there just weren't enough dollars to go around. We would prefer that all of the properties be as well-kept as possible."

He finds the immense support for the project to be impressive, with many volunteers taking the initiative to improve the cemetery on their own. "That's the kind of citizens we have that we are very proud of," he said.

Through this project, MCHS hopes to restore the cemetery to its former glory. If they receive funding, many volunteers will be needed to make the project a success. "We're trying to restore their dignity," Belles said. "They helped carve out the community we now live in. We need to respect the contributions they made."

 

News Release
Immediate - January 23, 2012

Macomb - At its January meeting, members of the McDonough County Historical Society (MCHS) endorsed an expansion of its successful cemetery project.
In the summer 2008, the Society launched an effort to locate and install signs at the estimated 110 cemeteries and grave sites in McDonough County. Most of these are inactive, abandoned, and neglected, on the verge of being lost forever (about ten have already been destroyed by neglect). 
After locating and signing these orphaned sites, the Society encouraged Scouts, church youth groups, school athletic teams, and other volunteers to cleanup and restore dignity and respect to these hallowed grounds.  
Thus far, 96 have new signs, identity, and perhaps long term preservation. Many of them still need restoration. And MCHS is still attempting to locate about ten elusive cemeteries.
As this “locate and sign” phase of the project concludes, the Society voted to enlarge its vision and initiate another phase. This next step requires more resources beyond buying and installing signs and calls on wider community support. 
An application for a National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) grant for historic preservation seems appropriate for the next step. To qualify for this grant of $10,000, MCHS must secure $10,000 from local donations and pledges to match this $10,000 DAR grant. 
This new cemetery project has three components: (1) publication of A Guide to Historic Cemeteries in McDonough County; (2) installation of protective fences around some threatened, isolated small cemeteries; and (3) restoration, beautification, preservation, and fencing of the Old Macomb Cemetery on Wigwam Hollow Road.  
Four of our rural cemeteries are the final resting places of Patriots of the American Revolution. Fortunately, these four cemeteries are not abandoned or neglected, but require regular maintenance. Many other cemeteries now abandoned and neglected have graves of over 45 veterans of the War of 1812.  A large number of our 96 located cemeteries, many small family or church burial grounds, have graves of scores of veterans of the Civil War. Our proposal includes installing protective fences around some of the most isolated and endangered rural grave sites that are threatened for extinction if not protected.
The largest component of our proposed preservation project is focused on the Old Macomb Cemetery on Wigwam Hollow Road. A team from both the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Historical Preservation Commission (Springfield, Illinois) conducted an onsite survey and evaluation in December 2011. Their recommendations constitute the basis of our plans to install a protective, attractive fence; locate, clean, lift, and reset scores of buried and decaying headstones; and create a safe and attractive new entrance into the cemetery. 
John Long, a famous local Macomb engraver in the 1830s, created headstones with artistic designs and inscriptions that invite people to meditate on life and death, thus enriching their spirituality. The Old Macomb Cemetery has at least four of his beautiful headstones visible and probably four more hidden from view. These and all of the other headstones deserve protection and preservation. At one time the Old Macomb Cemetery had approximately 350 graves, citizens buried predominantly in the early 1800s, before a new Macomb cemetery was established in 1857.  But this beautiful historic cemetery has suffered from neglect, roaming animals, falling trees, and weather.
The McDonough County Historical Society is calling on all residents who wish to improve, protect, and beautify this valuable community asset to help us raise the local matching funds. Donations may be sent to McDonough County Historical Society, PO Box 83, Macomb, IL 61455.  Please identify your donation for the “Cemetery  Project.” All donations to the Society, a 501.c.3 non-profit organization, are tax deductible. Any donation over $100 will entitle the donor to a one-year membership in the Society.
The MCHS will keep the community informed of the progress of its DAR grant application and of every major step forward in the project.