Where History Is Happening

Granville Cemetery Walk
Sunday, September 12
1 pm - 3 pm
Learn about local characters of the past at the Putnam County Historical Society's annual cemetery walk 1-3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 12 at the Granville Cemetery.
Cemetery walks offer a glimpse into the past and a closer look at those who helped shape local history. During this free program, groups will be escorted through the cemetery to visit historic grave sites including those of Hawthorne, Whitaker, Ware, Hopkins, Kessler, Hartman and Naumann.

Boy Scout Exhibit in Aurora
Until September 11
12 pm - 4 pm
On My Honor: Celebrating 100 Years of Boy Scouting is now open until September 11! Come visit it at the David L. Pierce Art and History Center, 20 E. Downer Place, Wednesday - Friday 12-4pm. Open Saturday, September 4 and 11th as well. Admission is FREE!

Rockford's Tinker Swiss Cottage Recruitment Fair
Thursday, September 23
5:00 pm -7:00 pm
Come and visit Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum and Gardens and learn about the variety of volunteer opportunities that are available, from leading tours, to helping in the gift shop, to helping plan and create Tinker's Heirloom gardens.

Garfield Farm Museum's Archeology Program
September 22 -26
Registrations are now being taken for individuals who wish to help with the historic archaeology excavation. September's two week session will begin September 22 - 26 and 29 through October 4. Volunteers will be working alongside college and graduate school archaeology students. Volunteers 14 - 17 years of age may participate with parent permission. Younger students accompanied by a parent or guardian may also participate.

Who's That Tall Fellow in the Stovepipe Hat?

During the summer of 1941, the Ottawa Daily Republican-Times ran a grainy photograph showing a Civil War-era crowd standing in front of a house which they claimed was the only photograph known to exist of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas from their debate series.

Since then, every reference to this photo has included the newspaper clipping, but the photograph has never been authenticated since the original disappeared and the newspaper reproduction isn't clear enough for study.

This summer, three Civil War researchers reported that they found the original in Somonauk.

Bevin Wold, Chet Wold and Gerard Brouwer were looking for information on volunteer soldiers from Leland. Their search led them to the Marie Louise Olmstead Memorial Museum. There, displayed in a period frame on the wall, was the "lost" photograph, exactly where it had been for decades.

Attached to the frame was a small note indicating that the photo was of Lincoln on the day of the debate. The house has been identified as that of Henry F. Eames, a local banker, and the carriage is similar to one preserved bythe La Salle County Historical Museum in Utica. Tradition says that carriage transported Lincoln to the debate in Ottawa.

The photograph was removed from the Marie Louise Olmstead museum and taken to a photographer's to be reproduced and enlarged for further study. The three researchers are clearly thrilled to have found this important bit of history, hidden in plain sight, and they are busy trying to put names to the faces in the crowd.

New Marketing Piece for Kate's First Book

Illinois elementary schools often teach early American history between now and Thanksgiving, so now is the perfect time to remind teachers that Ruth by Lake and Prairie, the factual story of an 1831 girl who settled in Naperville, Illinois, is available to supplement their textbooks.

To help spread the word, a new book trailer has been created. Please feel free to take a look and pass it on to parents or teachers who may be looking for new material to catch the interest of their elementary students during westward expansion studies.

Where History Is Happening

Champaign County's Lincoln
Daily
Through December
1 pm - 5 pm
The Early American Museum gives a glimpse of what Champaign County was like when Lincoln spent time here. Includes a moving horse buggy to simulate travel on the prairie and a depiction of Alschuler's studio where the fourth known photograph of Lincoln was taken.

21st Annual Heirloom Garden Show
Sunday, August 29
11 pm - 4 pm
The Heirloom Garden at Garfield Farm Museum increases awareness in the loss of genetic diversity in the plants that provide us food, fiber, medicine and enjoyment. Exhibits with the gardeners are spread about the shaded farmyard with its rustic board fences and the sounds chickens, sheep and oxen punctuating the chorus of cicadas and crickets on a late summer sunny day. Also visible since the 2009 show, will be last fall's restored south wall of the 1842 barn and its newly restored roof just begun in mid-August.

A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum
Saturday, August 14
4:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Effective August 1, 2010, temporarily, they will not be open for walk-in visits until further notice. Pre-arranged, prepaid group tours of 20 or more and facility rental will still be available. Contact the museum via email, voice mail and traditional mail.The A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum's mission is to promote, honor and celebrate the legacy of A. Philip Randolph and contributions made by African-Americans to America's labor history. At our facility this celebration begins with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, as we educate the public about their legacy and contributions.

A Toast to Illinois' Early Settlers!

When Kate was writing Ruth by Lake and Prairie, she read all the accounts by the settlers she could get her hands on. Ruth's brother, Robert Nelson Murray, lived to be an old man, outlasting most of his contemporaries. About 50 years after the founding of Naperville, The Inter-Ocean, a Chicago newspaper, sent a reporter to interview Mr. Murray.

They found him sitting outside the general store on an old box, whittling. He was not yet 70 years old, and while some folks did live into their 80's, they were the exception rather than the rule. Illness, accidents, childbirth and hard work took their toll.

The reporter apparently was amused by Murray's "countrified" ways and his tales of the old days. It makes for a delightful interview and a very important resource for the researcher.

One of Murray's stories is about voting for Andrew Jackson in the 1832 Presidential election. Murray says he was eighteen at the time, and while the majority of the settlers voted for Henry Clay, "there were twelve other fellows who liked whiskey and black strap just as I did."

That's the kind of off-hand comment that authors love because it highlights a little domestic detail that can add realistic depth to a story.

Kate did a little extra research on the drinking habits of early Americans. Rum was actually the favored spirit in the original colonies, and was made in America from imported sugar cane, but after the American Revolution disrupted trade with the Caribbean, whiskey became more common. There were plenty of Scottish and Irish immigrants around who were distilling whiskey from excess grain.

Early Americans drank alcohol all day long. In many cases, it was healthier. Polluted water caused illnesses like cholera and even safe water often needed to stand to let the mud settle out. Milk could kill you, as it did Abraham Lincoln's mother, if your cow was eating poisonous plants.

Wine-making was not successful in the colonies and beer spoiled too quickly to transport it to far-flung settlements, so hard liquor was most common. Old recipes exist to make whiskey toddies and flips and other drinks -- like Mr. Murray's whiskey and black strap.

Black strap is a type of molasses that is created from the third boiling of sugar cane. After each boiling, more sugar crystals are formed, and the syrup that's left behind gains more of a "burnt" taste and color. That's why black strap is black compared to the earlier "golden" molasses.

In Ruth by Lake and Prairie, whiskey and black strap is passed around by the men during their Fourth of July celebrations on the schooner. In the pursuit of research, Kate admits that she did try a whiskey and black strap herself.

Let's just say it must be an acquired taste!