973.7L63 New Salem Lincoln H3N475f League. 1952 'Forever this Land! ' [theatre program, 2nd season, 1952J LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY presented by Judge Harlington Wood, Jr, SECOND BIG SEASON w ¥ \>OWERFl/L DRAMA of ABRAHAM ilftfCOlM in PfONtER ILUHOIS UNE 28 through AUGUST 24,19 TUtvSa&m Sfatz PaMb • PemUutq, JMttoiL PRICE 50 CENTS Honorable Adlai E. Stevenson GOVERNOR of ILLINOIS Honorary Chairman of the Production Committee, "FOREVER THIS LAND!" Tta4ithn .... WE people of Illinois, especially the ones of us in the heart of the Lincoln country, have always cherished the memories and tra- ditions left us by those pioneers who knew Abe Lincoln. To us he is a man and not just a name on history's pages. He was a neighbor and a friend who worked and fought, loved and suffered and grew to greatness. Now, each year, we have the opportunity of telling the story of the lean, awkward Abe Lincoln of New Salem, and his neighbors, the men, women and children who walked by his side on the banks of the Sangamon in those years between 1831 and 1837. Here is the in- spiring drama of the people who shaped the giant of men, Abraham Lincoln, into a leader with the power and ability to mold a country and lead it to greatness. E. S. MITCHELL President, New Salem Lincoln League; Chairman, Production Committee Souvenir Program 1831 1952 FOREVER THIS LAND! One Hundred Twenty-first Anniversary Celebration of the Historic Beginning of Abraham Lincoln s Larger Life With His Advent at New Salem Village Published by The %u talent ifoccln league Petersburg, Illinois The J$irectw FOR THE second season, the production of Forever This Land! has been under the capable direction of William Macllwinen. A rare combination of actor, composer, administrator, and director, he brings to the script and the musical score an unusual sensitivity and a warm understanding. WILLIAM MacILWINEN Mr. Macllwinen taught English, Drama, and Music at Riverside Military Academy for three years before the last war. He joined the Navy in 1942, going to Midshipman School at Northwestern University. He received his commission in 1943, and was trained as a Beachmaster, landing with the U. S. Marines at Tarawa, the Marshall Islands, and Guam. He received the Bronze Star Medal for bravery at Tarawa, and the Navy Commendation Ribbon for his work at Guam. He also received a personal commendation from Ad- miral Nimitz for beach-landing work in the Marshall Islands. A native of North Carolina, he received his A.B. degree from Davidson College and M.A. and Certificate in drama from the University of North Carolina. He has served as guest lecturer and director in the De- partment of Dramatic Art, Univ. of North Carolina, See MacILWINEN— Page 22 Autkw and CwpcAet BORN in West Virginia, a few hours' drive from the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, Kermit Hunter began this new study of Lincoln with a sincerity and a warmth which do great credit to the name of America's martyr president, not only in stirring dialogue and clear-cut character interpreta- tion, but in the moving background of choir and organ music which are such a vital part of FOREVER THIS LAND! KERMIT HUNTER Educated at Ohio State University and the Univer- sity of California, he is now completing a Ph.D. de- gree at the University of North Carolina, where he is an instructor in English and received a Master's Degree in dramatic art. At Ohio State he won the Vandewater Poetry Prize, and at North Carolina the Joseph Feldman Award in playwriting. His great outdoor drama at Cherokee, N. C. UNTO THESE HILLS, last summer drew 153,000 spectators to the Great Smoky Mountains, and is now in its third sea- son. Now running at Boone, N. C, near the famous Blue Ridge Parkway, is his third outdoor drama HORN IN THE WEST, a study of the early settle- See HUNTER— Page 27 American hrama... A %u> Trend by SAMUEL SELDEN DRAMA presented under the open sky is the oldest kind in the world. It is just about as old as man himself. In primitive times hunters and warriors re-enaeted their adventures with ceremonial cries and dances around the campfire; priests and medicine men chanted through pantomimic patterns the rites of spring- time, planting and harvest, the casting out of devils and prayers for the help of the gods. Rituals evolved into myths and myths and rituals together made plays. More than 4,000 years ago in Egypt the celebrants of Osiris, the Sun God, performed in a huge outdoor drama A veteran of many years in the theater, Samuel Selden has been the guiding force behind the production of FOREVER THIS LAND! He has been the director of The Lost Colony, America's first summer-long outdoor drama, since its begin- ning in 1937, and for more than ten years the director of the Department of Dramatic Art at the University of North Carolina. He also is Production Director and Advisor for Kermit Hun- ter's new play, Horn In The West which is play- ing its first season at Boone, N. C. Born in Canton, China, of Christian missionary parents, Sam possesses a quality of tact and under- standing which is decidedly rare. His quiet and forceful handling in preparation for the New Salem production, his insight and skill, and his long experience have been mainly responsible for the Lincoln drama since its beginning. He was stage manager of the Provincetown Playhouse, N. Y., which produced Paul Green's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, In Abraham s Bosom. After a season with the Intimate Opera Company and work with several stock companies in New England, he went to the University of North Carolina staff in 1927. In addition to teaching courses in acting, directing, playwriting, and tech- nical methods, he has directed or supervised hun- dreds of productions. He is the author of eight books on the theater which are widely used as textbooks in educational theater. Mr. Selden is also associated with many national and interna- tional drama organizations, and has traveled in Europe on a Guggenheim Fellowship to write and study production techniques of theater abroad. A drama graduate from Yale University, he was awarded in June, 1952, an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois, in recognition of his scholarship, ability, and contribution to the American educational and regional theater. The author of Forever This Land! has stated repeatedly that the many warm touches and in- timate details of the play have been due in large part to the splendid advice, criticism, and en- couragement which Sam has given in the writing of the original script and the revisions made for its second season of production. Sam is a crafts- man of unusual skill and a theater man of rare ability. Production Supervisor his violent death, the recovery of his body, the mourn- ful trip to his tomb and his triumphant resurrection. Five hundred years before Christ, the Grecian poets, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, were producing their dramas about Oedipus, Agamemnon, Electra, An- tigone and other legendary heroes in the big amphi- theater at Athens. The whole city used to turn out for the annual performances, and the spectators at- tended them in a gay festival spirit. Before the plays there was much wine drinking, dancing, and singing, and a great procession in which leading citizens carried baskets filled with the first fruits of the season. At the performances the audiences gave free expression to their likes and dislikes. Works which they favored received applause; those that failed to meet with their approval were quickly booed out of the area. Roman theater was open-air and most of the drama of Europe after the fall of the Empire was likewise presented under the sky. The works of Shakespeare were done in the roofless Globe. Thus play-going at that time was a daytime affair. It was not until the 17th century, when people in general began to give thought to the fashionableness of congregating by candlelight that drama really began to go indoors. In the 18th and 19th centuries, spectators put on their best suits and dresses and sat politely in the stiff chairs of enclosed buildings. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, there were signs of a reawakened restlessness. Little by little, drama began to move outside again. In England and in Germany, and particularly in the United States, writers, actors, and directors started to make plays for open-air audiences. What they com- posed first were spectacles, "pageants," representing in a rough narrative way mass episodes from national or local history. They had as their purpose not only the depiction of actual events but also the interpreta- tion and celebration of the spirit of the community in whose honor the work was prepared. Now has come a change. Paul Green in The Lost Colony, The Common Glory and Faith of Our Fathers and Kermit Hunter in Unto These Hills, Forever This Land! and Horn in the West, his new play, have turned See SELDEN— Page 28 '% £ihct/h"t Citizen of New Salem by Author of: Lincoln, 1809-1839 DR. HARRY E. PRATT Linco i n [ 184 0-1846 Illinois State Historian The Person < l1 Finances of Lincoln Concerning Mr. Lincoln Lincoln returned from New Orleans to St. Louis by steamboat, then walked to New Salem, arriving in time to vote in the local election on August 1, 1831. Abraham had shown initiative and ability in getting out the logs, constructing the flatboat, saving three men stranded on a tree in the river, and particularly in get- ting the flatboat free from lodgment on the New Salem milldam. LINCOLN first came to New Salem from Springfield as a flatboatman on his way to New Orleans in April, 1831. He returned to the village in three months to clerk in a store and work in the grist mill. Here he cast his first vote. Here he manifested his prowess as an athlete, and was chosen as referee and judge in tests of strength and masculine skill. From this place, Lincoln went as Captain of the local militia company in the Black Hawk War. Upon his return, he was defeated for the legislature, his only defeat by direct vote of the people. In a few months he tried and failed in a store partnership; involving him in a debt which took years to liquidate. In New Salem, the village of his adoption, he held his first office under the federal government as post- master. Here, in spare time study, he mastered gram- mar, attended debating societies and became acquainted with the works of Shakespeare and Burns. In a few weeks of intensive study of Flint and Gibson, Lincoln mastered the technique of surveying, and by it made part of his livelihood. Here he read such law books as he could buy and borrow and was admitted to the bar. Most important of all in his six years' growth in wisdom and stature in New Salem, were his election and service in the Illinois legislature. During the winter of 1830-31, Lincoln, his step- brother, John D. Johnston, and his cousin, John Hanks, hired themselves to Denton Offutt, to pilot a flatboat load of produce to New Orleans. Upon meeting Offutt at Springfield and learning he had failed to get a boat, they hired themselves to him at $10 a month each, to cut timber and build a boat at Sangarno Town, on the Sangamon River seven miles northwest of Springfield. "During the boat enterprise," Lincoln wrote in his Autobiography (prepared for John L. Scriffs in June, 1860) his new friend, Offutt "conceived a liking for Abraham and believing he could turn him to account, contracted with him to act as clerk for him, on his return from New Orleans, in charge of a store and mill at New Salem." Erastus Wright, assessor of Sangamon County, watched the flatboat under construction and saw Lin- coln with his "boots off, hat, coat and vest off. Pants rolled up to his knees and shirt wet with sweat and combing his fuzzie hair with his fingers as he pounded away on the boat." Lincoln, now in his twenty-third year, was free from dependence upon his relatives. He was his own mas- ter, and after five colorful and exciting months, he turned to running Offutt's store and tending the mill. In the spring, the store was failing when news arrived of the coming of the steamboat Talisman from Cin- cinnati with goods for Springfield. Lincoln went with axe in hand to help rid the channel of overhanging branches. Arriving at Beardstown he was employed, with J. Rowan Herndon, his fellow townsman, to pilot the 138-foot cabin steamer to Portland Landing, near- est point to Springfield. On the return trip, part of the New Salem dam was torn down to let the Talisman pass. The $40 received for his service probably was the largest sum of money Lincoln had possessed at one time. Soon after his return to New Salem, war news filled the village. Governor John Reynolds called for troops to drive Black Hawk and his band of nearly 400 Sac and Fox warriors out of northern Illinois. Lincoln volunteered with others of the neighborhood, and at the rendezvous on Richland Creek, nine miles south- west of New Salem, he was elected captain of the com- pany. In his Autobiography Lincoln wrote, "He has not since had any success in life which gave him so much satisfaction." At the conclusion of his thirty-day service he re- enlisted as a private in Captain Elijah lies' company of Independent Rangers. The company contained sev- eral captains, colonels and a general. With no fight- ing at the end of twenty days, he re-enlisted for thirty days in the Independent Spy Corps under Captain Jacob M. Early, a Methodist preacher and physician from Springfield. The last two weeks of this enlist- ment were spent in a futile search for Black Hawk in the swamps surrounding Lake Koshkonong in southern Wisconsin. See CITIZEN— Page 29 Moving Force Behind the Play The New Salem Lincoln League by THOMAS P. REEP IT IS almost impossible to evaluate the importance of the Old Salem Lincoln League ( now the New Salem Lincoln League) in connection with the Lincoln Story in Central Illinois. The League was or- ganized in January, 1917, by a group of Menard Coun- ty people who had no thought but to bend every ef- fort to the collection and dissemination of authentic information about Lincoln's years in New Salem and to perpetuate the village as a memorial to Lincoln and the hardy pioneers who were his friends during his six years in this backwoods community. Frank O. Lowden. then Governor of Illinois, was a member of the League, and the men who have fol- lowed him in office have all been active in their ef- forts to help the League achieve its purpose. Early in 1918, the Old Salem Lincoln League was chartered as a non-profit corporation. In the mean- time. \^ illiam Randolph Hearst, who had purchased the site of the old village of New Salem in 1906 and conveyed it in trust to the Old Salem Chautauqua Association, agreed to having the land deeded to the State of Illinois, under an agreement that the State should afterward maintain it as a State Park and a Lincoln shrine. A committee of the Lincoln League searched countless old records, and authenticated the locations of the various buildings that made up the village. These locations were marked, a few log cab- ins were elected, and in September, 1918, a pageant was staged on the site of the village, many of the mem- bers of the cast being descendants of the pioneers who lived here when the village was Lincoln's home. Yi hen the State of Illinois started rebuilding the village, the Lincoln League was given the important task of furnishing the cabins; and it is interesting to note that every item found in the cabins today is of the period when the village lived. Many of them are pieces that were actually in the cabins during that period. The story of how these bits of furniture, the ru»s, the utensils and the countless other things that furnish the cabins, were collected, is an absorbing tale in itself, but cannot be told here because of lack of space. The New Salem Lincoln League ( nothing is changed except the corporate name ) continues to carry on the work started more than 35 years ago. Most of the people who organized the League are gone, but others have taken their places, and now, in addition to the original self-imposed task, the League has taken on the responsibility of producing "FOREVER THIS LAND! ". now in its second year. ABOUT THOMAS P. REEP— Thomas P. Reep is a Charter Member of the New Salem Lincoln League (originally the Old Salem Lincoln League) formed in 1917 to col- lect and disseminate authentic information about Lincoln's years in New Salem. Mr. Reep has been active for many years in League work and is the author of Lincoln At Neiv Salrm, a book recognized by historians as one of the finest Lincoln books ever written. II T i - B R i ITflER f The Stores That Quality Built . . . SPRINGFIELD . . . . . . JACKSONVILLE . . . . . . LINCOLN . . . . . . HAVANA . . . . . . MATTOON . . . New Salem: Genesis of Lincoln's Larger Life by BENJAMIN P. THOMAS Author of: Lincoln 1847-1853 Lincoln s New Salem Theodore Weld Portrait for Posterity Abraham Lincoln (Due off the press next October; Alfred Knopf) (•(•O ALEM, indeed, is desolate," observed a traveler ^ along the road to Petersburg, in 1847. "Once it was a busy, thriving place. It is (or was) situated upon a high bluff, overlooking the Sangamon river and the country for some distance around. What rollicking times were there some ten years ago! It is said that a horse race came off regularly every Sat- urday afternoon — a drinking spree followed, perhaps a fight or so, and at night those disposed took a turn at old sledge, or poker. But the glories of New Salem have departed. Most of those engaged in the 'joust and tournament' there have left the diggings." By 1866, nothing but one solitary hut remained. A few years later, even that was gone. New Salem became a ghost town. But the memory of the village never died, and never will; for it was the scene of one of the great character building dramas in the history of mankind, the place where Abraham Lincoln underwent an awak- ening of mind and spirit which would lead him on eventually to the pinnacle of leadership among the democratic forces of the world. From the time of its founding by James Rutledge and John M. Camron, in 1829, New Salem faced a struggle for survival. Life was stern. The establish- ment of a farm or business required courage and hard work. Nature sometimes foiled the best-laid plans. Disease struck when least expected. For a time, how- ever, the village seemed destined to thrive, especially when a small steamboat, the Talisman, managed to ascend the Sangamon River as far as Portland Land- ing, near Springfield, in 1832. But hope of steamboat transportation waned. The site of the village made it almost inaccessible when dirt roads became bogs in wet weather. And the creation of Menard County, February 15, 1839, with Petersburg, only two miles distant from New Salem, as the county seat, brought doom to the village on the bluff. It is significant that Lincoln was among the last to move away; for the population of the settlement underwent constant change, as men who drifted into town or settled in the nearby countryside to seek their fortunes, soon became discouraged, pulled up stakes, and moved away. Businesses frequently changed hands. The history of the village typifies an everlasting inner human conflict — the willingness of too many persons to blame their environment for failure, and the con- viction on the part of others that success lies within ourselves, wherever we may be. Lincoln was of this latter, sterner sort. Coming to New Salem in the spring of 1831, "a piece of float- ing driftwood," as he described himself, he had fallen upon hard times. The Denton Offutt store, where he clerked, failed, leaving him without a job. A venture as a merchant saddled him with debt. He was de- feated as a candidate for the state legislature. But he did not blame the village for his failures, and dogged persistence brought him success at last. He was ap- pointed postmaster and got a job as deputy surveyor. In subsequent campaigns for the legislature he not only won election, but by the time he left New Salem, he had become a leader in state politics. These successes were made possible by a rigorous program of self-schooling to make up for the educa- tional opportunities that had been denied to him. With the help of the schoolmaster, Mentor Graham, he learned grammar and mathematics. Jack Kelso, the village philosopher and fisherman, introduced him to the writings of Shakespeare and Burns. He became a good stump speaker. And lastly, through study of law books, he not only qualified himself to make a living with his brain instead of his hands, but won entrance to a profession which also opened wider vistas of political advancement. A letter from Lincoln to a young law student in 1855, explains his own methods of study and reveals his state of mind during his New Salem years. "If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already," he wrote. "It is a small matter whether you read with anybody or not. I did not read with anyone. Get the books and read and study them till you under- stand them in their principal features; and that is the main thing. It is of no consequence to be in a large town while you are reading. I read at New Salem, which never had three hundred people living in it. The books, and your capacity for understanding them, are just the same in all places. . . . Always bear in See THOMAS— Page 28 The Tleu talent iincctn £eafue of Petersburg, Illinois To Perpetuate the History and Traditions of Lincoln's l\eiv Salem Present* FOREVER THIS LAND! a Drama of Lincoln s New Salem by KERMIT HUNTER WILLIAM MacILWINEN Production Under the Supervision of SAMUEL SELDEN Associate Director Lawrence Tucker Costumes Fairfax P. Walkup Designer and Technical Director Richard Wack Properties Robert Price Music Kermit Hunter Lighting Director Franklin Gill Choreographer Charles Conklin Musical Director Laddy Barron Stage Manager John McMullen Organist Mildred Overman James W. Wilday.. Business Manager Walter E. Richardson Public Relations Director Richard Hopkins Assistant Business Manager The Kelso Hollow Theater New Salem State Park Petersburg, Illinois Performances at 8:10 (Standard Time) Nightly Except Mondays (Special Performance, June 30) JUNE 28 through AUGUST 24, 1952 SECOND SUMMER SEASON The CaJt c\ IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE NARRATOR— JACK KELSO Gordon Oasheim PIERRE CHOUTEAU, A FRENCH TRADER — - Everett Smith FIRST PIONEER John A. Cervenka SECOND PIONEER Gene Holmes AIDE TO GOV. HARRISON Robert Kunkel WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, GOVERNOR OF THE INDIANA TERRITORY .... William Wyler QUASHQUAME, A SAC CHIEF.. Phillip Angeloff PASHEPAHO Robert Riback FIRST STATE SENATOR.. Thomas Koutsoukos SECOND STATE SENATOR Reuben Silver N1NIAN K. EDWARDS, GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS Thomas Graves SECRETARY TO GOVERNOR EDWARDS Richard Stauffer JAMES RUTLEDGE Robert Buzecky JOHN CAMRON, HIS NEPHEW Raymond Lonergan INDIAN MEDICINE MAN Darrell Notara ANDREW JACKSON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES Paul Mueller COLONEL GEORGE DAVENPORT, A TRADER _ Jack Hirst ABRAHAM LINCOLN Harlington Wood, Jr. MENTOR GRAHAM, THE NEW SALEM SCHOOLMASTER Richard Stauffer ANN RUTLEDGE ... .Billie Lou Brummell HANNAH JONES, HER FRIEND Dorothy Silver JOHN McNEIL, ANN'S FIANCE Gene Holmes PETER CARTWRIGHT, A METHODIST CIRCUIT RIDER David Samples JOSHUA MILLER, BLACKSMITH Everett Smith DR. JOHN ALLEN, NEW SALEM PHYSICIAN William Wyler MRS. MILLER Audrey Rayfield OLD MAN Robert Kunkel Character* JOHN ARMSTRONG, A CLARY'S GROVE FARMER Harry La Tier A GUEST AT THE TAVERN Richard Stevens MRS. RUTLEDGE Marianne Ringe DAVID RUTLEDGE George Dickinson PETER LUKINS, A COBBLER Thomas Koutsoukos BLACK HAWK Mike Westenfeldt KEOKUK Phillip Angeloff NEOPOPE, THE PROPHET Charles Conklin MRS. KELSO, SISTER OF MRS. MILLER Bebe Kay Lusher MAN WITH WAR NEWS Robert Kunkel FIRST VOLUNTEER Jack Hirst SECOND VOLUNTEER Robert Kunkel THIRD VOLUNTEER Jerry Friend SENTRY Richard Stevens GENERAL HENRY ATKINSON Reuben Silver COLONEL ZACHARY TAYLOR Paul Mueller MESSENGER Richard Stauffer CAPTAIN ROBERT ANDERSON Thomas Graves NELSON ALLEY, A RESIDENT OF NEW SALEM John A. Cervenka FIRST MAN John A. Cervenka SECOND MAN Paul Mueller INDIAN BRAVES: Darrell Notara, Gene McDonald, Jerry Jarman, Carroll Westbrook, Robert Glasford, Robert Riback, Robert Miller, Dallas Wertzberger INDIAN WOMEN: Joan Goodberlet, Helen Sellers, Jo- anne Endres, Joan Hassell CHOIR AND VILLAGERS: Laddy Barron, Carl Carter, Herbert Gibson, Jerry Friend, George Dickinson, Louis Xigogianas, James Smith, Sandra Anderson, Mary Lee Parker, Ann Murphy, Phyllis Murphy, Barbara Hill, Barbara Nicely, Joan Ross, Mary Schmidt, William Dyer, Gene Holmes, Robert Kunkel. CHILDREN: Wayne Feese, Tom Ball, Johnny Overman, Mickey Higgerson, Johnny Vice, Betty Pantier £ceheJ ACT I 1. (a) A trading post, St. Louis, 1804 (b) Black Hawk's Village 2. (a) The Governor's Office, Vandalia, 1828 (b) Black Hawk's Village 3. The White House, Washington, 1829 4. New Salem Village, Spring, 1832 5. Interior of the Rutledge Tavern, 1832 ACT II 1. Keokuk's Village in Iowa, 1832 2. Interior of the Rutledge Tavern, April, 1832 3. Gen. Atkinson's Headquarters, Dixon's Ferry, Summer, 1832 4. New Salem Village, Summer, 1832 5. New Salem Village, Summer, 1833 6. The Rutledge farmhouse near New Salem, August 25, 1835 7. New Salem Village, 1840 NOTE: Characters and events in this play are based on actual historical records. Certain modifications have been made in the interest of dramatic unitv. (jtate^ul AckhmledqwKtA - - John P. Liggett, Petersburg Superintendent of Schools Paul Young, Music Deportment, University of Illinois Leonard Schwartz, Director, Illinois Department of Conservation Ray Hubbs, Superintendent, Division of Parks & Memorials Carl Davis, Superintendent, Springfield Transpor- tation Co. Mrs. Ernest L. Ives Illinois Bell Telephone Co. Central Illinois Public Service Co. Miss Margaret Schirding Mrs. Ruth Seiling Don's Studio, Special Photography Radio Station WTAX, Springfield 10 Merle Kirkpatrick and Harold Schaeffer, Park Supervisors, State of Illinois Fred E. Clark, Custodian, New Salem State Park B. E. Willis, Chief Guide. New Salem State Park Petersburg Kiwanis Club Petersburg Rotary Club Postmaster Paul Smoot, Petersburg Postmaster John Gellerman, Lincoln s Neiv Salem Prodigies of achievement ivent into the physical creation of FOREVER THIS LAND! and the New Salem Lincoln League deeply appreciates the co- operation it received from the individuals, agencies and private enterprises listed above. The League is grateful for the suggestions and cheerful ingenu- ity of all who lent a hand to assure the success of this great project. rfjjt'Jtaht hirectw AS DIRECTOR of the School of Dramatics at Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois, Law- rence E. Tucker teaches acting, directing, play- writing and history of the theater. Among the plays done under his direction at IWU were Of Thee I Sing, Lady in the Dark, Winterset, Elizabeth the Queen, The Beautiful People, The Summoning of Everyman, I Re- member Mama and Noah. Under the title, Constant Star, the late Elmo Scott Watson's The Illinois Wesleyan Story was written and produced as a musical play under Mr. Tucker's direction to celebrate the University's LAWRENCE E. TUCKER 1950 Centennial. He also has, for the last five years, directed the American Passion Play, noted religious drama with a cast of 265 townspeople, in Bloomington. Attendance averages about 14,000 persons annually. A native of Grafton, West Virginia, Mr. Tucker attended college in that State, later going to Chicago for professional theater training. He worked out of Chicago with professional acting companies touring the Midwest, New England and Canada. Mr. Tucker received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Culver- Stockton College in Missouri. His graduate work in theater and speech was done at Stanford University and at Iowa State University where he received the Ph. D. degree in 1951. His thesis was a history of the American Passion Play which he plans to publish soon. Mr. Tucker has devoted a number of years to educa- tional theater, teaching and directing at Marshall Col- lege, Huntington, West Virginia, Pennsylvania State College and Iowa State University before going to IWU. CcMumeA TO THIS charming personality and splendid crafts- man goes credit for the brilliant and authentic costuming of FOREVER THIS LAND! A trouper and a theater veteran of many years, she has combined research, skill and taste to bring a wealth of color to the production. Mrs. Walkup is a graduate of Vassar College, and after working at U.C.L.A., she took her doctor's de- gree at the University of Utah. Having been dean of the Pasadena Playhouse School of the Theater for twenty years, she was recently appointed Dean Emer- itus. At the present, she is a professor in the Dramatics Department of the University of Arizona, and her summer seasons have been devoted to guest lecturing at the University of Iowa, Stanford, and the Univer- sity of Utah. In addition to designing and executing costumes at these institutions, she has been costumer and staff consultant for the Utah Centennial Parade and other famous pageants. FAIRFAX P. WALKUP She is the author of Dressing the 'Part and has written an appendix on Costume and Make-Up for Modern Theater Practice, both being famous books on the theater. She wrote the costume section of the Utah Centennial Source Book and a thesis now in the Hunt- ington Library on Mormon Pioneer Costumes. In ad- dition, she is the author of several plays, including Jade Bracelet, Li Wu, The Empress, and Dark Star. She is a member of the Dramatists' Guild, of ANTA, of AETA, of AAUP, AAUW, and many other national and international theater organizations. The production at New Salem is fortunate indeed in again having for the second season the genius of Mrs. Walkup to lend to the show so much vividness and interest. 11 PRODUCTION COMMITTEE the tleu £alem /iitcc/h Xeayue . . . v » Ernest L. Ives Mary Whitaker Ira E. Owen Jefferson Lewis Ralph P. Dorson S. L. Sha w Ross A. Nance Emery Irwin 12 Kekind the £ceheJ . . . Richard Wack Designer and Technical Director One of the most talented and hardest workers in the com- pany this season is Dick Wack of Norway, Iowa, whose crafts- manship is not only responsible for the colorful and authentic designs of the settings seen on the three stages of the Kelso Hollow Theater, but for their construction as well. Dick's genius in the fields of scenic design and execution makes him one of the most outstanding students in dramatic art at the University of Iowa where he soon will complete his graduate work. We feel most fortunate to have him with us this season. Not to let his artistic ability overshadow his acting, he has played major roles in many shows at the University, such as, Green Grow the Lilacs, The Heiress, Mary Stuart, among many others. Dick and his assistant, Bob Price, now face the unceasing summer long tasks of scenery upkeep, repair, and storage. An endless job is that of being Technical Director. Charles Conklin Choreographer A native of Normal, Illinois, Charles has studied dance under Anthony Tudor, Myra Kinch, Ted Shawn and also was a stu- dent at the Stone-Camryn School of Ballet in Chicago. He has taught and danced in Chicago for the last two years, being well known for his association with the Story Book Theater, doing children's fables and fairy tales in dance over television. He is a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloom- ington, where he participated in numerous theater productions. He has injected beauty and excitement into the three totally different types of dancing seen in the show. He also appears as the lead dancer, performing the difficult role of the Indian prophet, Neopope. Frank Gill Lighting Director For two years the Technical Supervisor for the Northwest- ern University Workshop Theater, Frank Gill is the man who is responsible for the brilliant and expert lighting seen in FOREVER THIS LAND! He has effectively designed and set the massive banks of lights used in the production. A native of Petersburg, Virginia, Frank has called Evans- ton, 111., his home for the last few years. In addition to carry- ing out his duties at Northwestern, he is also president of the Northwestern Theater Associates, a theatrical supply and rental service company in Evanston. His wife, Carolyn, is also on the staff at Northwestern, teaching lighting, of course. Mp^^ ^^^. 13 John McMullen Stage Manager One of the most difficult and demanding tasks in the en- tire production is that of Stage Manager. This is the person who coordinates all the many elements of the show, actors and technicians alike, to keep the play moving. In his second season in this capacity with FOREVER THIS LAND!, John's seriousness, thorough training, and experience in the theater guarantee his efficiency. A native of Ossian, Indiana, he did his undergraduate work at Indiana University and received a master's degree in speech and drama from the University of Illinois. He has spent a season with the Black Hill Playhouse and for two years stage-managed and acted in a touring company of the National Theater Conference. Robert Price Master of Properties and Assistant Technical Director Two difficult jobs in the FOREVER THIS LAND! produc- tion are being capably handled by another theater veteran, Bob Price. A native of Greenfield, 111., Bob received his B.F.A. degree from Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, and will soon be awarded his master's degree of fine arts from the Uni- versity of Iowa. In addition to having played three years in The American Passion Play, Bloomington, 111., he has acted and directed for the Bloomington Community Players, and has been seen in numerous productions at the University of Iowa. At one time, he formed his own summer stock company. Constance Ann Ross Assistant Costumer Having completed a year of graduate study in costume de- sign at Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh, Pa., Miss Ross returns to the FOREVER THIS LAND! production for the second season. With the execution of most of the elaborate costumes completed, she vigorously tackled the great task of making new ones, repairing and cleaning the old ones. A native of Tucson, Arizona, she has had two seasons of costuming and technical work in summer stock with the Town Hall Players, Brewster, Mass., a year with the Maiden Bridge Playhouse in New England, a year of production work at North- western, and five years at the University of Arizona, one year of which was graduate work toward a degree in costume design. While at the University of Arizona, Miss Ross assisted our cos- tume designer, Mrs. Fairfax P. Walkup. One of the most popular members of the company last sum- mer, we feel very fortunate in having Miss Ross return this season. 14 Richard Hopkins Box Office Manager — Assistant Business Manager Dick takes over these trying jobs this season after having served as Business Manager for the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra for the last year. The two preceding years were spent at the University of North Carolina where he did graduate work in drama and served as assistant in the business office of the Carolina Playmakers. He has acted or directed approximately fifteen productions at the University of Colorado and University of Washington at Seattle. He has done summer stock at Greeley, Colorado, and the Colorado State College of Education. The last two summers he has played leading roles in Mr. Hunter's outdoor drama, Unto These Hills, in Cherokee, North Carolina. His thorough theater training and keen business sense are responsible for the smooth operation of the box office. Laddy Barron Choir Director The masterful directing of the sixteen-voice choir in the show is credited to Laddy Barron, a native of nearby Spring- field. He received his training at Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, where he was soloist with the Collegiate Choir and the University Chorus, and the University of Illinois, where he also appeared with the Men's Glee Club. He has also been featured as soloist with the Springfield Municipal Opera. Having spent the last year as Choral Director of the United Township High School in East Moline, 111., this marks his second season with FOREVER THIS LAND! as Choir Director. With the splendid help of Paul Young, professor of music at the University of Illinois, Laddy had the difficult job of select- ing the proper voices for this outdoor production. Mrs. Mildred Overman Organist Another well-known Springfield person on the production staff of FOREVER THIS LAND! is Mrs. Mildred Overman, Organist for the show. Born, reared, and educated in Spring- field, she has been actively engaged in music work for the past eighteen years, her experience ranging from church organist to a variety of outdoor entertainments. She has had her own radio program, eminating from her home studio. Mrs. Overman's skill in playing is shown by the smoothness and dignity in which she coordinates the organ, choir, and nar- ration; a most difficult musical task. She is also a charter mem- ber of the FOREVER THIS LAND! staff. 15 /ZuJ/heJJ Ijiahage? . . . Public gelation* fc/rectcr . . . The responsibilities and difficulties of managing the myriad of business affairs for FOREVER THIS LAND! are being capably fulfilled by James W. Wilday. It has been through Jim's organizational ability and his quiet initiative that the many varying tasks of the business office, though extremely complex, have been made to seem effortless. Jim is a native of Peoria, Illinois, where as a stu- dent, he was a member of the Peoria Players. He at- tended the University of Illinois, from which he was graduated as a Rachelor of Science in Accountancy. After serving in World War II three years as an officer in the Field Artillery, Jim and his wife made their home in Springfield. Since going to Springfield, he has been associated with the Myers Brothers department store in various executive capacities, where he now is As- sistant General Manager. A newspaperman of considerable experience, Walter E. Richardson, of Normal, Illinois, took on the varied duties of handling public relations, following the un- timely death of Tom Rice last May. Following his ex- perience in the 1951 season, Tom was well-grounded in the techniques of publicizing FOREVER THIS LAND! and had made many advance preparations for publiciz- ing the current season. Beginning as a newspaperman on The Illinois State Journal in Springfield, Walt later served with the United Press there and next on The Illinois State Register news staff. Subsequently, he was with Hearst's Universal Service, in Chicago, The Camden (N. J.) Courier & Post, The Philadephia Record, The St. Louis Post- Dispatch, The Bloomington ( 111. I Pantograph and The St. Louis Star-Times before handling publicity and public relations for the Illinois Department of Public Welfare for four years. Walt served four years in the Army in World War II and was released as a captain. MRS. Mildred Allen of Petersburg, who managed to keep busy enough as a housewife, consented to lend a clerical and stenographic hand during the preliminary phase of getting FOREVER THIS LAND! underway last April. But Mildred's cheerful efficiency and unflagging habit of getting things done led the production committee to ignore that "tem- porary" idea and she was "drafted" for the duration of the season. Before her marrage to John W. "Jack" Allen in 1947, Mildred had acquired an excellent background of office experience. She was employed variously by the Hurden Construction Co., Springfield, the Correc- tion Division of the State Department of Public Welfare and the State Department of Public Health. For a time, after her marriage, she worked in the office of the Hunter-Allen Lumber Co., of Petersburg. Mildred is a member of the Junior Woman's Club in Petersburg. JAMES W. WILDAY Business Manager WALTER E. RICHARDSON Public Relations Director ^^^ < i ■ L ~~Ur WBf\ , *vT " * II.'"*'- m 1 ■ n ^90^ f jrj V W ■ ^ MILDRED ALLEN Secretary JOAN HASSELL Assistant Public Relations Director JOAN Hassell comes to FOREVER THIS LAND! from Memphis, Tennessee, where she was promo- tions director for the Tuberculosis Association dur- ing the 1951 Christmas Seal Sale, and Director of the Studio Players. Prior to that, she was assistant pro- duction director in New York for the American Na- tional Theater and Academy television show, Showtime . . . U.S.A. and previously, promotions continuity writer for the Washington, D. C. Mutual station, WEAM. A graduate of Central High School in Memphis, she attended the University of Missouri and Memphis State College. At Memphis State, she was on the staff of the Tiger Rag, feature editor for the 1949 college annual, and author of the 1949 Varsity show. Joan has done production work for summer stock with Col- lingwood Theater, Alexandria, Va.; Crossroads Theater, Arlington, Va.; Nutmeg Playhouse, Brookfield Center, Conn.; off-Broadway with Greenwich Mews Playhouse, Cherry Lane Theater, Originals Only, and On-Stage Productions. For the Washington Sesquicentennial, Joan assisted on props and costumes for the opening production of Paul Green's outdoor pageant, Faith Of Our Fathers, and was an assistant stage traffic manager for the 1951 ANTA Album at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York. 16 The CaAt... Harlington Wood. Jr. Abraham Lincoln A native of Petersburg and Springfield, Harlington Wood, Jr.. returns to FOREVER THIS LAND! for the seeond season. Because of his manner, voice, and stature, he is perfectly cast in the role of Lincoln. After receiving his A.B. degree in 1942 from the University of Illinois, he served for four years in the Army Transporta- tion Corps from which he emerged as a Major. He then re- turned to the University, receiving his Doctor of Law degree in 1948. He is now a member of the Springfield-Petersburg Law Firm of Wood, Chapman, & Wood, taking the summers off to portray his favorite historical figure, "01' Abe." In addition to being a Lincoln scholar, he and his Boy Scout troop received the honor of being the first group to walk the four Lincoln trails — (two in 111., one in Ky., 1 in Ind.). Although he was not trained in the theater, his sincere por- traval in the production continues to be an inspiration to the entire cast. Billie Lou Brummell Ann Rutledge Given leave this summer by the American Airlines to bring to life the much discussed character of Ann Rutledge is this native of Wood River, Illinois. She is a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois, where she was a member of the honorary dramatics fraternity, Theta Alpha Phi, and where she played leading roles in numerous plays, operas, and musical comedies. She spent the summer of 1950 singing with the St. Louis Municipal Opera. A stewardess with the American Airlines, Billie Lou is based in Chicago, flying to New York, Washington, D. C, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Her engaging manner and graceful movements seem to speak the very spirit of the girl who once lived in New Salem. Robert Buzecky James Rutledge Robert Buzecky is from Gary, Ind., where he attended the Lew Wallace High School, specializing in printing. Later he spent three years at the Goodman Memorial Theater in Chi- cago, majoring in dramatics. He has appeared in a number of plavs — fifteen, to be exact, in addition to his current James Rutledge role in FOREVER THIS LAND! David Samples Peter Cartwright A veteran of every phase of the theater is this native of Joliet, Illinois. He is an alumnus of Lake Forest College, hav- ing been graduated with honors, and the University of North Carolina where he completed his work for a master's degree in drama. In addition to having been a member of the out- door drama, The Lost Colony, he has directed more than a dozen productions with the Carolina Playmakers who produced his first original play, later published by the American Edu- cational Theater Association. He is the author of many one- act, as well as full-length plays, his latest having been premiered in May, 1952 at Morehead State College, Morehead, Ky., Holy Fruit is the title of his collection of poetry. His articles on the theater have appeared in many well-known literary journals. His acting-directing-technical experiences have included Be- loit College Theater, Belfry Theater, the McHenry Company Theater Guild, the Joliet Little Theater, the Woodstock Players, and the Rockford Little Theater Group. 17 ■M Gordon Oasheim Narrator and Jack Kelso Setting the tone and mood of FOREVER THIS LAND! as Narrator and portraying the unforgettable character of Jack Kelso is this newcomer to the production. Calling Lancaster, Minn., his home, his wide theater experience include a winter season in LaGrange, Ga., a summer season in Plymouth, Mass., and a semi-professional touring company of Good News, in which he sang the lead. He also has been employed as a radio announcer and been featured as soloist with several orchestras. At Goodman Theater, where he is now studying, he has won top honors in acting, having played leads in dozens of produc- tions. His latest was the reporter in Born Yesterday. Reuben Silver 1st Senator and Gen. Atkinson A very busy actor is Reuben Silver, playing two important roles in the show. A native of Detroit and a graduate of Wayne University and the University of Connecticut, he is continuing his education at Florida State University where he is working toward his Ph.D. in English and Speech. He has been an active member of the These Twenty People, Actors Company, and Contemporary Theater groups in De- troit. Along with his wife, Dorothy, he has done radio and television work and has spent several seasons in summer stock in New York, acting and directing. Throughout his college ca- reer he has distinguished himself by winning many honors in debating and swimming. Harry LaTier John Armstrong Returning to the cast for the second season is this popular Illinois College alumnus. A real veteran of the theater, he was born and reared in show business. Until World War II, he and his parents toured the south and middle west with their own company doing nearly every known play. After the war, Harry formed a company himself, touring Central Illinois. While in college, he portrayed such roles as George in Mice and Men, Uncle Chris in I Remember Mama, and the gentle- man caller in Glass Menagerie, among many others. He has been applauded many times for his colorful and authentic portrayal of Jack Armstrong. Marianne Ringe Mrs. Rutledge Marianne Ringe is from Elmwood Park, Illinois, where she was graduated from Leyden Community High School, later going to Bradley University where she has finished her sopho- more year. Her major field of study is music education. Having taken part in her senior high school class play, she proceeded in the dramatic field in college, having roles in a number of plays and otherwise appearing in vocal recitals. In addition, she has taken part in several productions of the Peoria Players and presented monologues and readings for community ac- tivities. 18 Gene Holmes John McNeil Pontiac, Illinois, is the home of Gene Holmes who this year is not only in his second season with FOREVER THIS LAND!, hut in the role he handled so capably last year. After gradua- tion from Pontiac High School, Gene went on to Bradley Uni- versity where he is majoring in speech and music; now in his junior year. Having taken roles in high school plays and given dramatic readings, he continued in this vein at the Uni- versity where he also has been cast in several plays. He be- longs to Lamda Chi Alpha, Theta Alpha Phi, Phi Mu Alpha, Theater Thirteen Group and Mask & Gavel. He has partici- pated in entertainment programs at Veterans Hospitals for the last several years and has directed and produced several musical varieties at Bradley. Paul H. Mueller Andrew Jackson and Col. Zachary Taylor Paul H. Mueller of Chicago has demonstrated a deep and abiding interest in theatrical matters for a number of years. He has had a year of radio acting, seven years in community theater work and directed television presentations of A Street- car Named Desire and All About Eve. Paul attended Nicholas Senn High School, attended the University of Illinois for two and a half years and has been studying, acting, directing, ad- vertising and teaching at the Goodman Memorial Theater in Chicago. Mike Westenfeldt Black Hawk Mike Westenfeldt hails from Wheaton, Illinois. He attend- ed Marmion Military Academy and is in his second year of directorship study at the Goodman Memorial Theater in Chi- cago. He has worked in farces and comedies as well as handling dramatic roles. Mike is deeply interested also in playwriting. William Wyler Gov. William Henry Harrison and Dr. John Allen William Wyler of Chicago is a graduate of Sullivan High School who has been attending the Goodman Memorial Theater of Chicago for the last three years, pursuing the study of drama. He has had roles in seven Goodman Memorial The- ater plays and has had extensive radio experience, including the post of staff announcer for Evanston station WEAW. He appeared in the cast of Frontiers of. Freedom at the Chicago Fair of 1950. Phillip Nicolas Angeloff Keokuk Phillip Nicolas Angeloff is from Granite City, Illinois, where he was graduated from the Community High School before go- ing on to Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, where he is in his third year, majoring in speech and dramatics in line with his successes in these fields while in high school. He was leading man and technical director for the Perry-Mansfield Players at Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Phillip was the American Le- gion state oratorical champion in 1948, also placing second in comedy in that event. He has served as Student Council Vice President at Knox where he also found time to become all- conference in football and track, to say nothing about base- ball and basketball participation. 10 Everett Smith Pierre Chouteau — Joshua Miller Two role9 has Everett Smith, veteran performer as the ebul- lient Pierre and the droll Joshua in last year's presentation of FOREVER THIS LAND! Everett is from Urbana, Illinois, where he is a junior at the University of Illinois majoring in the study of the theater. While attending Urbana High School, he went in for the theater, too, joining the Thespians and hav- ing roles in various plays. In college, he is active in the Illini Theater Guild and has had roles in a number of plays produced by that group. In addition to his dual roles last year, he was a technician with our play, just as he is this season. Audrey Rayfield Mrs. Miller Audrey Ann Rayfield of Princeton, Illinois, brings the cor- rect warmly human touch to her portrayal of Mrs. Miller, wife of the blacksmith. After attending Faulkner School for Girls in Chicago, she went to Knox College at Galesburg, Illinois, majoring in speech with emphasis on dramatics. She is a member of Curtain Call, honorary dramatic group, Phi Beta, national honorary drama and music fraternity, Orchesis (hon- orary modern dance group), Delta Sigma Rho (national hon- orary forensics fraternity ) and Delta Zeta Sorority. Her theatrical activities have included directing and acting, makeup, set construction and costuming. Dorothy Silver Hannah Jones From Wayne University and the University of Connecticut where she acted and directed numerous productions, comes this versatile young actress who portrays the engaging character of Hannah Jones. In her home town, Detroit, Dorothy has ap- peared in many radio and television shows. She has also acted and directed more than 15 productions for the South Coventry Community Theater in Connecticut, the Lake Shore Playhouse in New York, and the Highland Park Summer Theater in Mich. During the last year, she has been producing and directing weekly half-hour radio shows over the campus station at Florida State University where her talented young husband is con- tinuing his graduate work. Bebe Kay Lusher Mrs. Kelso Bebe Kay Lusher is no newcomer to FOREVER THIS LAND!, having portrayed Mrs. Rutledge last season. Bebe was graduated from University High School, Normal, Illinois, next majoring in speech and drama education as a student at MacMurray College for Women, Jacksonville, Illinois. Her theatrical experience in college included work in all phases of the drama, including acting roles, of course. She was a member of the National Collegiate Players and took part in a three-month tour of eight European countries in a theater study in 1950. Bebe is a speech teacher and dramatic instruc- tor at Hall Township & Vocational High School at Spring Valley, Illinois. Thomas Koutsoukos First State Senator — Peter Luteins, Cobbler Tom Koutsoukos is from Chicago where he is a junior at Wright Junior College majoring in dramatics, a pursuit netting him roles in several plays and variety shows. He is a member of the Drama Club and representative to the Teachers Con- ference. He also was active in theatrical work while attending Waller High School. Tom has spent four years in dramatic work with the Com- munity Theater of the Chicago Park District. 20 Tom Graves Gov. IMnion K. Edwards — Capt. Robert Anderson Tom Graves is a St. Louisan who found his introduction to the theater while attending Christian Brothers College, St. Louis, where he went in for the activities of the Speech, Dra- matic and Variety Clubs, taking parts in one and three-act plavs. He received a St. Louis University Summer Institute for Drama Scholarship for his outstanding acting in a one-act plav contest. He attended two of the St. Louis U. drama school sessions and is a member of the Student Drama Guild, the 'Y' Players, St. Joseph's Drama Guild and the Community Players. Robert Kunkel Old Man: Man With War Netvs; Second Volunteer Collinsville, Illinois, is the home of Robert Kunkel who took not alone to drama, but to music as well. After graduation from Collinsville Township High School, he attended Illinois College, Jacksonville, from which he was graduated this year. His majoring was in speech and dramatics, so that he took ac- tive roles in a number of productions in addition to three years of chorus and three years of band — aside from three years' activity in Phi Alpha. As though that were not enough, he worked three years as a scenery technician in the speech de- partment — and found time to give dramatic and poetry read- ings to outside groups. Raymond Lonergan John Camron Raymond Lonergan, hailing from St. Louis, is another veteran of FOREVER THIS LAND! having played the part of an Indian brave in last year's production. After graduation from St. Louis University High School, he went on to the University itself where he will be a senior this September, majoring in theater speech. Raymond had roles in several high school plays and a musical and kept up the good work after entering the University, re- ceiving the special acting award for the 1951-52 year. He also found time for musicals over KBIL the campus radio station, became president of Alpha Psi Omega (national dramatic fra- ternity I , and became a member of the French Club and the Sodality Union. In addition, he has found time for roles in productions of the St. Louis Community Playhouse and the Webster College summer institute. Richard Stevens A Guest at the Tavern — First Sentry Richard F. Stevens is from Hammond, Indiana, where he was graduated from Hammond High School where he took an active part with the Speech Team and the Drama Club. After attending Indiana University, he went to the Goodman Memorial Theater and the Radio Institute of Chicago, studying acting and directing. He has spent one summer in Little Theater work and played in Light Up the Sky. Richard Stauffer Mentor Graham Richard Stauffer, whose home is in Chicago, is a sophomore at Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, where he is majoring in dramatics and speech. He has had roles in three major pro- ductions at Knox in his freshman year, including two second leads. He also is a tap dancer. Richard attended Onarga Military School where he was a participant in speech contests. *****%_ \ «-■ » Jack Hirst 21 Notara Cervenka See . . . ROBERT SHERWOOD'S "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" Presented by The Abe Lincoln Players Kelso Hollow Theatre New Salem State Park Labor Day Weekend Jack Hirst Col. George Davenport — First Volunteer Jack Hirst, with his dual roles in FOREVER THIS LAND! is from St. Louis where he attended Normandy High School. He is now in his third year at the Good- man Memorial Theater in Chicago, majoring in acting and dancing. He is a member of the "Actors' Company"' of the Goodman Theater and has danced and acted in Children's Theater performances. In World War II, he was a member of the "Thumb Uppers" show entertaining at training camps, later serving in a like capacity with Special Services while in the Army. He has taken part in War Bond Drive entertainment events and has studied tap, ballet, adagio, and baton twirling for five years. Darrell Paul Notara Indian Medicine Man Darrell Paul Notara has been dancing professionally since the tender age of eight. He is from Chicago where he spent two years at the Goodman Memorial Theater studying drama following graduation from Proviso Township High School, Maywood, Illinois, where he was in the junior and senior class plays and active in public speaking and radio speaking. At the Goodman Theater, he has had roles in a number of plays and has studied drama coaching. Re- cently he appeared on Broadway as an actor, singer and dancer in the musical comedy, Seventeen. Music also is well within Darrell's ken. He plays the violin, and clarinet — and knows boogie, jazz and all forms of ballroom dancing. As though all this were not enough, he has found time to take roles in numerous stock companies, with theater groups in the Chicago area and over television in New York. John A. Cervenka First Pioneer John A. Cervenka of Chicago has completed his second year of theater directing study at the Goodman Memorial Theater, Chicago, following graduation from Chicago Latin High School. Having delved into mu- sical review and pageant work while still in high school, he has gone on into a comprehensive study of acting and directing and has had roles in a number of Good- man plays, aside from writing and pageant work for the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. John also has had makeup experience and has writ- ten comic sequences for musical reviews. MacILWTNEN— from Page 2 and has directed such productions as Twelfth Night, Of Thee I Sing, and Born Yesterday for the Carolina Playmakers. A few years ago he composed the musical score for Apple Tree Farm, a musical comedy written by Ida Lupino of Hollywood fame. This last year he taught in the English Department of the University of North Carolina, while working with the Carolina Play- makers. Bill and his charming wife are continuing their many friendships in Petersburg, Mrs. Macllwinen help- ing out in the production by many long hours in the costume shop. The first and second productions of FOREVER THIS LAND! are a monument to the hard work, ingenuity and professional skill of Director Macllwinen. 22 Indian Braves . . . Anions the Indian braves in FOREVER THIS LAND! is Jerr\ Jarman of Denver, Colo., veteran of the Goodman Memorial Theater, Chicago, where he played numerous roles in the course of hi- three years of study. He was a member of the Imperial Players at Cripple Creek, Colo., last summer. He studied dance under Bary Lynn al Salt Lake City. Utah, and also found the energv to study piano for four years. Carroll Westbrook of Chicago, another Indian brave, is a Steinmetz High School graduate. He has completed a year of pre-legal study at Wright Junior College- where he took part in a number of theatrical productions. Carroll started early, belonging to the Children's Civic Theater for six years and later learning dancing, acting and singing in the Civic Theater. Also an Indian brave is Gene McDonald of Fairbury, Neb., graduate from High School there where he look part in a number of plays. Later, he spent a year with the Goodman Theater in Chicago and also played in Children's Theater productions. He studied dancing with Frances Allis in Chicago. Among the Indian braves appearing in FOREVER THIS LAND! is Robert J. Miller of Martinsville, Ind., a graduate of Kendallville find.) High School, who majored in theater at Knox College where he received the annual Curtain Call Award, the English Award and the Dramatics "Letter." Aside from his busy acting and directing career in College, he was the nar- rator for the Indiana State Pageant, Pioneer City, in which he also had an acting role, in 1949. Dallas Wertzberger. another of the Indians, is from Tulsa, Oklahoma where he is a sophomore at the University of Tulsa, majoring in speech, theater emphasis. He participated in stage productions in high school and continued this activity in college. Aside from being a cheerleader, his accomplishments include singing, dancing and continuity writing. He has toured with two shows. Bob Glasford, also in the Indian action, is from Peoria, Illi- nois, where he is a senior at Peoria High School. He has been outstanding in dramatic, dancing and play-acting activities and was president of the Freshman-Sophomore Dramatic Club, in addition to being a member of the talent board for three years. Robert Riback comes to Illinois from Brooklyn, N. Y. He is a junior at the University of Illinois where he is majoring in theater direction. While a student at Bronx High School of Science, he was active in the Theater Workshop and Radio Workshop. At the U. of I., Bob has been active in the Illini Theater Guild, serving not only as assistant director but as a supporting actor in a number of plays. He is a member of the I niversity Chorus. JERRY JARMAN CARROLL WESTBROOK GENE Mcdonald ROBERT MILLER DALLAS WERTZBERGER BOB GLASFORD ROBERT RIBACK 23 Indian Women . . . From nearby Springfield comes Helen Sellers. After gradua- tion from Springfield High School, where she won the Gold Medal Award for private dramatic instruction at Sacred Heart Academy, she went to Illinois College, Jacksonville, majoring in speech. In college, where she is a junior, she had roles in a number of plays staged by the Hilltoppers. She is a member of Gamma Delia literary society and the Illinois College Assoc- iation of Women. Joan Marie Goodberlet is from St. Louis where she was grad- uated from Ursuline Academy and now is a sophomore at St. Louis University. Her major study field is drama and she took part in high school plays, the St. Louis Community Playhouse and over Station KXLW. She continued these activities in col- lege and in addition went into drama over Station WEW and with the St. Louis Community Playhouse. She has taught dra- matics at Kingdom House, a settlement house, at a Girl Scout camp and has directed several one-act plays. Joanne Endres is from Peoria, Illinois. Graduated from Wood- ruff High School, she has finished her sophomore year at Bradley University, majoring in speech and dramatics. In high school, she took part in stunt shows, operettas, Teen Theater and was a Gargoyle Club member. She followed up in college in Theater Thirteen and directed four plays, aside from joining the A Cappella Choir, the Bradley Radio Singers, Nalidi El Wahda and Mask & Gavel. She also has worked with the Peoria Little Theater. Other Indian woman is Joan Hassell, who found time for this business in addition to serving as Assistant Public Relations Director. Joan Goodberlet Helen Sellers Upper Right Joanne Endres Right FOR MOOD AND TONE— This is the choir of FOREVER THIS LAND! whose voices contribute so much to the impact of the drama. Front row, left to right: Barbara Hill, Phyllis Murphy, Joan Ross, Barbara Nicely, Ann Murphy, Sandra Anderson, Lee Parker and Mary Schmidt. Second row: Director Laddy Barron, George Dickinson, Herbert Gibson, Jim Smith, Louis Xigogianis, Carl Carter, Gene Holmes, Bob Kunkel and Jerry Friend. 24 The Chcir . . . James H. Smith is a native of Roodhouse, Illinois, who went on to study speech at the University of Illinois after graduation from Roodhouse Community High School. In high school, he had four years' experience in play-acting. He is a member of the U. of I. Men's Glee Club and the Church Choir. Barbara Hill is from Urbana, Illinois, where she is a senior at the University of Illinois majoring in French, but active in Illini Theater Guild production crews. Barbara, who was in the FOREVER THIS LAND! choir last year, belongs to the Oratorio Society and the Seabury Foundation and has rated Alpha Lambda Delta and Phi Beta Kappa. William C. Dyer comes from nearby Springfield where he was graduated last June from Lanphier High School. He plans to attend college, majoring in music this autumn. He was winner of the state soloist competition for three years while in high school, singing as a member of the Troubadours. Jerry R. Friend is from Decatur where he went on to James Millikin University after graduation from Decatur High School. Majoring in voice and piano, he also had roles in musical pro- ductions in high school and college. In addition to his ex- perience in concert, choir and chorus, he was lead dance man for the Springfield Municipal Opera's Lady Be Good. Jerry was with FOREVER THIS LAND! last season as an Indian dancer. This year, he also has the role of the Third Volunteer. Barbara Nicely is from River Forest, Illinois. A graduate of Oak Park & River Forest Township High School, she now is a University of Illinois senior majoring in teacher training in speech. At the U. of I., she continued theatrical work begun in high school, taking part in the Opera Workshop and Theater Guild plays. She is a member of the University Choir and the McKinley Church Choir and served as assistant editor of the U. of I.'s Illio publication. Louis P. Xigogianis is from Joliet, Illinois where he majored in speech teaching training at Joliet Junior College and the University of Illinois. He took part in theatrical work both in high school and college and sang in the Junior College Choir and in the University Choir and Men's Glee Club at the U. of I. Carl R. Carter is from Champaign where he is a senior at the University of Illinois majoring in vocal musical education. He was graduated from Ogden Community High School. At the university, Carl is in the Men's Glee Club, the Choir, the Church Choir and the Band. In high school, he was in the junior and senior plays. Ann Murphy of Champaign, Illinois, is a sophomore at the University of Illinois majoring in vocal music and music ed- ucation. She was in four plays while attending University High School and has been active in the Oratorio Society and the Women's Glee Club at the U. of I., where she also is a member of the professional music sorority, Mu Phi Epsilon. Ann also is a dancer. Joan E. Ross of Glenview, Illinois, went to Northwestern University, the University of Illinois and the University of Paris, France to study music education. She participated in high school operettas and in college sang in the A Cappella Choir and in church choirs. She also took part in Student Round Table discussions. Phillis Murphy, who sang with FOREVER THIS LAND! last year, is from Bement, Illinois. Graduated from High School there, she is a junior now at the University of Illinois majoring in vocal music. She was active in choir work while at the U. of I. and also sang in the Opera Workshop in Philadelphia. Mary Lee Parker of Rock Mount, North Carolina, is another choir-veteran of the previous season of FOREVER THIS LAND! In majoring in music and library science, she attended Eastern Carolina Teachers College, the University of North Carolina and the University of Illinois from which she was graduated. She was active in choral and instrumental groups and sports. Sandra M. Anderson majored in philosophy at the University of Illinois, but she found time for participation in one act plays and crew work in the Theater Guild. Otherwise, she teamed up with the Oratorio Society, University Choir, McKinley Founda- tion and the Illini Union and made Alpha Kappa Delta. Sandra is from Peoria where she was graduated from Peoria Woodruff High School. Herbert N. Gibson comes to FOREVER THIS LAND! from Danville, Illinois. After graduation from High School there, he went to the University of Illinois and now is a senior major- ing in vocal music. He took part in high school musicals and at the U. of I. he has been active in the Opera Workshop, the Illini Theater Guild, Collegium Musicum, University Choir and Men's Glee Club. Mary Schmidt, from Chatham, 111., also sang in the choir of FOREVER THIS LAND! last year. After graduation from Chatham High School, she majored in elementary education from 1946 to 1950 at Western Illinois State Teachers College at Macomb, where she also was a member of the chorus. GEORGE DICKINSON came all the way back from California where he was studying voice and dramatics to be in "FOREVER THIS LAND!" this year. George graduated from Lanphier High in Springfield where he was tenor soloist with the A Cappella choir, a member of the Lanphier Debate club. He studied dance with Miss Mildred Caskey in Springfield and attended Illinois Wesleyan Junior College of Music where he sang with the Wesleyanaires. Professionally, George has done night club work in Springfield and Chicago in addition to radio and toast- master work. 25 The Children Four of the six youngsters who do so much to .1 < I • i to the realism of FOREVER THIS LAND! are "veterans," too— along with quite a few of the older members of the cast. All four are from Petersburg Betty Fantier, daughter of Mrs. Ruth Pantier; Thomas Scott Ball, son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Ball; Wayne Feese, son of Mrs. Mabel Feese; and John Edward Vice, son of Mr. and Mrs. Xelpho Tune. The other two children in the play are John Franklin Over- man, son of Mr. and Mrs. Vaughn Overman, of Springfield — his mother is the organist for the production — and Mickey Hig- gerson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Norman G. Higgerson, of Petersburg. The Spring field Theatre (juit4 Broadway Comedy Success — "CHICKEN EVERY SUNDAY" c*J> • Season Tickets • Students $5.00 $3.50 BETTY PANTIER f**' MICKEY HIGGERSON KS> Presenting Five Stage Hits . . . THOMAS S. BALL 1952-1953 Season Opens October 11-18, inclusive with the K9 JOHN E. VICE Phones: 7713 8-1 131 3-0368 3-3298 WAYNE FEESE JOHNNY OVERMAN 26 HUNTER— from Page 2 ment of the Appalachian mountain region during the American Revolution. Hi;* musical education consisted of many years pri- vate instruction and a period at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. He was a teacher of piano for five years, a winner of the West Virginia Young Artists" Contest in piano, and for many years an or- ganist and choir director. In World War II, he at- tained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of Infantry and received the Legion of Merit during his 45 months' over- seas service. Not content with a show that during its first sea- son in 1951 was termed eminently successful, Mr. Hunter has made extensive revisions and improvements in the script of FOREVER THIS LAND! to add more dramatic power and force to the portrayal of Lincoln and his New Salem friends. In the interest of historical ac- curacv. he persuaded Dr. Harry E. Pratt and Benjamin P. Thomas to study the new script, after which Mr. Hunter carefully incorporated the advice and sugges- tions of these eminent Lincoln authorities into the 1952 plav. One of the gratifying things about the out- door drama. Mr. Hunter points out, is that the play can be changed and improved continually. Regarding this play and the outdoor drama in gen- eral. Mr. Hunter said: "I believe that the theater should be closely allied to the life of the people, and when it drifts off into meaningless pseudo-art, when it fails to establish as its premise a sincere faith in the essen- tial dignity of man, no amount of dramatic fireworks can afford it any real sustaining power. The outdoor drama, as we know it, is in every case the outgrowth of an urge for expression on the part of communities themselves, where a group of farmers, housewives, bank- ers, merchants and small business men combine their efforts to produce a play and in which they take an immense pride. This was the spirit which produced the Greek theater, which sustained the theater in England during the 14th and 15th centuries, and which could very well be one of the great new forces in the American theater. "It is also the spirit which founded the American democracy. The men and women who built New Salem a hundred and twenty years ago, and whose lives made such a vivid impression on young Lincoln, were peo- ple of independence and vigorous determination, who took in their stride the ravages of weather, distance, and hostile Indians, and who endured every conceivable hardship to establish a civilization in the Illinois prairie. Their very lives offer a noble theme, and when the massive figure of Lincoln is added, the potentialities for drama are staggering. I find it extremely difficult to portray Lincoln, because the breadth, the power, the magnificence — and above all, the mystery — of this ti- tanic figure almost defy portrayal. In New Salem, how- ever, even though he stood out, he was not yet a fa- mous man and it is my sincere hope that something of the forces which shaped him have been brought into focus in this play. They are the same forces which are vitally important to us today — a love of the land, a love of freedom, a firm belief in human equality, and an undying faith in the reality of God." PIONEER WISDOM K hntsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no device, no wisdom in the grave where thou goest. — This inscription is on the monument marking the grave of >uruh Graham, wife of Mentor Graham who taught Abraham Lincoln le»^on- in grammar. It stands in the New Salem cemetery. The text i- from Ecclesiastes. The ^priHyfield ftluniciftal Opera tfjJcciatich C*J> OPEN AIR THEATRE Lake Springfield THIRD ASON Presenting: 'THE ONLY GIRL" July 16- 17- 18- 19-20 THE DESERT SONG" July 30-31; August 1-2-3 Tickets: $1.00 $1.50 $2.00 CSK9 Mail Orders to: 230 1/3 South Sixth Street Springfield, III. 27 SELDEN— from Page 3 THOMAS— from Page 6 the loosely-knit pageant into an integral play. Hunter's Unto These Hills likewise tells a story, the heroic struggle of the Cherokee Indians in the North Carolina mountains to achieve the right to American citizenship. There is a display of bright costumes and scenery, and the whole production is accompanied by the music of a great organ. Last summer, in its second season, the play ran through 65 performances and drew 151,000 spectators from all over the United States. In Forever This Land!, his second play, Mr. Hunter has followed generally the same dramatic pattern as that he had in his mountain play. It employs mass and spectacle effects, dancing, singing and organ music, and uses these to tell a story. Here, however, he has narrowed the center of his action to cover a brief span of time, just six years. These years mark the life of a small pioneer town — the growth, development and death of New Salem. New Salem outwardly is not very different from the many other little Illinois towns of its period; but the author shows through his narra- tive methods and through the color of his speech, pantomime and music how inwardly it is different, in the effect it is exerting on the course of national history. This effect of New Salem is its influence on the thinking of a young man later to be President. The pageant elements of Forever This Land! are used to intensify the character and meaning of the individual, Abe Lincoln. Though Abe is the focal point of the play, his is not the only developed personality. New Salem is filled with his warmly interesting, lifelike companions. They are not types, but people: the resolute builder and dreamer, James Rutledge; his fine daughter, Ann; the dour preacher, Peter Cartwright; the kindly teacher, Mentor Graham; rough and jolly Jack Armstrong and his happy wife, Hannah; big Josh Miller; and the humorous fisherman and philosopher, Jack Kelso. All of these are personages who have a part in shaping the sensitive nature of Lincoln. A well-plotted story with well-drawn characters, these are the fresh elements in the American historical outdoor drama. The new form has been popular. Last summer, 400,000 saw the five plays which were running then. The reasons are many. One of them is the fundamental urge each of us has to escape the confines of our cramped way of living in a modern world. So, every once in a while we rebel. We step into a wall-less ampitheater; above us is the sky, around us are trees or hill tops. Slowly, as the night settles around us and the music begins to speak, we are ready to see fine courageous men and women walk before us. The lights go up and the play begins. There is no com- parable experience. A second even more powerful reason for the appeal of the outdoor play lies in the insatiable interest each of us has in the history of our country. We are proud of our political and social ancestry, and now that we are being separated farther and farther from the Old World traditions, we want to be reminded of those people whose thoughts and actions built the United States. This appeal is especially evident when the characters and story elements are so arranged in an orderly design as to point the attention of the spectator where it counts most. This is what the new outdoor dramas attempt mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing." A characteristic of Lincoln's which became evident at New Salem would mark his entire life — the ability to get along with people of all sorts. When he came to the village at the age of twenty-two, the product of a crude backwoods Indiana background, it was natural that his first friendship should be formed with New Salem's rougher element. This group consisted chiefly of the boys from Clary's Grove, whose hangout was William Clary's "Grocery" or saloon, located near Offutt's store, where Lincoln worked. They were good- hearted but rough-mannered young roisterers, whose favorite sports were wrestling, cock-fighting, and gander- pulling, a pastime in which a tough old gander, its neck thoroughly greased, was hung by the legs from the limb of a tree, and a rider, dashing by at full speed, tried to snap off the head of the fowl. Lincoln won the acceptance of this rough and ready clan by defeating their leader, Jack Armstrong, in a wrestling match. Thereafter they were his staunch supporters in anything he undertook. When the young men of New Salem went off to the Black Hawk War, the votes and "persuasion" of the Clary's Grove boys elected Lincoln captain of the company, an honor which, even after his nomination to the presidency, gave him more satisfaction, according to his own statement, than any other triumph of his life. While Lincoln made his first friendships among the "rougher element," actually there were no class distinctions at New Salem, and he soon became ac- quainted with everyone in the village. He learned the thought processes of Joshua Miller, the blacksmith, and Henry Onstot, the cooper, and came to know how Samuel Hill, the storekeeper, and Bill Clary, the saloon- keeper, viewed men and events. The problems, hopes and aspirations of Peter Lukins, the cobbler, Alexander Trent, the ferryman, and of the farmers of the country- side were infused into his thinking. At the height of its prosperity, in 1833 and 1834, New Salem had a population of about twenty-five fam- ilies, with the cooper, the cobbler, a wheelwright and cabinet maker, a hatter, the blacksmith, two physicians, two stores, the mill, a carding machine for wool, and two saloons. A postoffice handled mail, and the ferry operated across the river. The place, with its sur- rounding countryside, was largely self-sufficient. The hard life of the frontier dictated that most pastimes be of the sort that could be combined with useful labor — house raisings, quilting bees, hog killings, wolf Concluded on Next Page to do. They avoid stilted oratory; they make people, even the members of the crowd scenes, individuals; they do not lean on the reading of documents. An author like Kermit Hunter does an immense amount of careful research before he sits down to write a play like Forever This Land! But in the actual composing, he must bypass certain of the smaller facts, adapt some, and above all, telescope the time of many of them, not for the purpose of distorting history, but rather to show forth in the strongest possible way the true spirit of history. The historical drama presents the essence of history. Outdoor space gives the playwright and the director an opportunity to achieve effects of epic proportion not possible in an enclosed playhouse. 28 THOMAS— Concluded CITIZEN— from Page 4 hunts, with an occasional barbeque or dance in seasons when work slacked off. These social occasions gave lonely men and women a chance to talk to one another and conversation ranged through all the topics of the day. Political campaigns also brought people together for discussion. James Hall, editor of The Western Monthly Magazine, noted that "Everything is done in this country in popular assemblies, all questions are debated in pop- ular speeches and decided by popular vote. These facts speak for themselves. Not only must a vast deal of information be disseminated throughout a society thus organized, but the taste for popular assemblies and public harangues, which forms so striking a trait in the western character, is, in itself, a conclusive proof of a high degree of intelligence." Notwithstanding the necessary preoccupation with earning a livelihood, the western pioneer's striving was not limited to material success. Many persons also yearned for moral and intellectual betterment. That this was so at New Salem is attested by the Debating Society, organized by James Rutledge. by Doctor John Allen's Temperance Society, and by the fact that Ann Rutledge's brother David, John M. Berry, Lincoln's partner in his store venture, William G. Greene and his brother, L. M. Greene, and Harvey Ross, who carried the mail to and from New Salem, all attended Illinois College at Jacksonville. Lincoln first won the respect of the "better element" at New Salem with a speech before the Debating Society. In its meetings, and in the political discussions at election time, he observed grass-roots democracy successfully at work. Most settlers in the New Salem vicinity made their living from the soil and even the village craftsmen had their gardens or small farms. Cattle, sheep and goats grazed on the hillsides. Hogs rooted in the woods and wallowed in the mud or dust of the road. Wheat, oats and corn were staple crops. In the fields about the village one might also see cotton and tobacco plants, for the majority of the settlers had migrated from the South. Thus here, as well as in his former home in Indiana, Lincoln lived in what was predominantly a Southern atmosphere and became well acquainted with the Southern point of view. But there were also Yan- kees in the neighborhood whom he also came to know. They were usually individuals who had separated from their families to come west for fortune or health, whereas the Southerners had trekked northward in family groups. With many communities entirely dependent upon such home remedies as whiskey, brimstone, sulphur, cayenne pepper, scrapings from pewter spoons, and a concoction made from sheep dung known as "nanny tea," or with their main reliance upon the prescriptions of local "yarb and root" doctors, New Salem was for- tunate in commanding the services of Dr. Allen, a graduate of Dartmouth, and Dr. Francis Regnier, son of a French physician. But like most frontier doctors, they worked under handicaps, since the self-reliant frontiersman called upon them only in extremities. There may have been reason for this reluctance, too, for even educated doctors like Allen and Regnier used treatments of appalling severity. New Salem had no church, but services were held in Doctor Allen's parlor, and in the schoolhouse across Fifteen years later, in ridiculing the military pre- tensions of Lewis Cass as a candidate for President, he compared his own career in these words: "By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know I am a military hero? Yes, sir; in the days of the Black Hawk War, I fought, bled, and came away. ... I was not at Stillman's de- feat, but I was about as near it as Cass was to Hull's surrender; and, like him, I saw the place very soon afterward. It is quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had none to break, but I bent a musket pretty badly on one occasion. If Cass broke his sword, the idea is he broke it in desperation; I bent the musket by accident. If General Cass went in advance of me in picking huckleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges upon the wild onions. If he saw any live, fighting Indians, it was more than I did; but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes, and although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry." In the war, Lincoln learned something of soldier- ing, the value of discipline and morale, the value and difficulties of leadership. He became acquainted with men with whom he would later be associated at the bar and in politics — John Todd Stuart, Joseph Gillespie, Continued, Page 30 Greene's Rocky Branch, south of the village. Strong- est of the religious sects, which despised each other almost as much as they hated sin, were the "Hardshell" Baptists, the Cumberland Presbyterians, and the Meth- odists. Strange new sects also appeared from time to time as the self-assured frontiersman — usually with un- trained mind and questionable logic — exercised the cherished prerogative of interpreting the Scriptures for himself. Campmeetings were held every season at Concord and Rock Creek, with Peter Cartwright, the celebrated Methodist circuit rider from Pleasant Plains, frequently holding forth. The emotionalism which characterized these meetings often brought on the "jerks." "Usually persons taken with the jerks," a witness wrote, "to get relief would rise up and dance, some would try to run away, but could not, some would resist, and on such the jerks were very severe." Women succumbed easily to this phenomenon, and after the first jerk had loosened bonnets, caps and combs, "so sudden would be the jerking of the head that their long, loose hair would crack almost as loud as a waggoner's whip." Repelled by the emotionalism and bitter sectar- ianism of religion of this sort, some men in New Salem of whom Lincoln is reputed to have been one, earned Cartwright's condemnation and gave New Salem the reputation of a wicked place by reading such heretical books at Thomas Paine's Age of Reason and Constantine de Volney's Ruins of Empire, and by indulging in un- orthodox thinking on religious topics. By the spring of 1837, New Salem was clearly in decline; the postoffice had been moved to Petersburg the year before. So on April 15, Lincoln, with all his personal possessions in his saddle bags, bade farewell to the few people who remained, and took the road to Springfield, which he now planned to make his home, never suspecting that the dying village of New Salem, because of the six years he had spent there, would one day live again. 29 CITIZEN— from Page 29 John J. Hardin and Edward D. Baker. Anecdotes of the war tell of his moral courage and independence, his good fellowship and his skill in wrestling and run- ning. Home again, Lincoln noted that The Sangamo Jour- nal, of Springfield, had omitted hi9 name from the list of the nine Sangamon County candidates for of- fice who had gone off to war. At his request, The Journal on July 19, carried an apology for omitting the name of Captain Lincoln from those "who were on the frontier periling their lives in the service of their country." He had announced his candidacy for the Illinois General Assembly, by issuing a long handbill an- nouncing his platform. In it he advocated the improve- ment of the Sangamon River, abolition of high inter- est rates, and the spread of education "as the most important subject which we as a people can be en- gaged in." Stephen T. Logan, leading Springfield attorney, and Lincoln's law partner 1841-1844, saw him in this cam- paign. It was Logan's first sight of him, and this is what he wrote: "I saw Lincoln before he went up into the stand to make his speech. He was very tall and gawky and rough looking fellow then — his pantaloons didn't meet his shoes by six inches. But after he began speaking, I became very much interested in him. He made a very sensible speech ... he had then the same novelty and the same peculiarity in presenting his ideas. He had the same individuality that he kept up all his life." Four representatives were elected from Sangamon County. Lincoln ran eighth among thirteen candidates. Although he received less than one-third of the county vote, he received 277 of 300 votes cast in his own New Salem precinct. Though defeated, the campaign had been worth while; new friends and acquaintances had been made, his interest in politics had been aroused, and he had demonstrated his popularity where he was known. After the election, Lincoln described his situation in these words: "He was not without means and out of business, but was anxious to remain with his friends who had treated him with so much generosity, espe- cially as he had nothing elsewhere to go to. He studied what he should do. Thought of learning the black- smith trade. Thought of trying to study law — rather thought he would not succeed at that without a better education. Before long, strangely enough, a man of- fered to sell and did sell, to Abraham and another as poor as himself, an old stock of goods, upon credit. They opened as merchants; and he says that was the store. Of course they did nothing but get deeper and deeper in debt. . . . The store winked out." The firm of Berry & Lincoln not only purchased the Herndon Brothers' store, but also on credit, Reuben Radford's store. The latter had angered the Clary Grove gang who resided a few miles to the southwest, Continued on Next Page ILLINOIS MAINTAINS 62 Parks and Memorials, 20 public hunting and fishing areas, 8 wild-life refuges and 6 large state forests for its citizens and visitors. W R E NOW FOR N O R M O N Starved Rock State Park Lodge THE ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION State Capitol Building — — — — — — Springfield, 111. 30 CITIZEN— from Page 30 and they had scattered his poods in a night invasion. Bad business methods, plus Berry's purchase of a license to sell liquor, probably hastened dissolution of the firm. On May 7, 1833, Lincoln was appointed postmaster of New Salem, a position he held until the office was discontinued on May 30, 1836. Income for the year ending March 31, 1835 was only $55.70. By virtue of his office, Lincoln was free of militia and jury service and could send and receive personal letters free, and receive one newspapr daily without charge. The ap- pointment, unsought by Lincoln, was a tribute to his popularity, which he enhanced by delivering mail to homes along the route of his surveying trips. As post- master, he could read all the newspapers that came to New Salem, and in December, 1834, he succeeded Dr. John Allen as local agent for The Sangamo Journal. John Calhoun, Sangamon County surveyor, ap- pointed Lincoln his deputy to handle requests for sur- vevs in the northwest portion of the county. Though records are incomplete, he is known to have surveyed the towns of Petersburg, Bath, New Boston, Albany and Huron; the last two became ghost towns. Surveys are available of four roads, three school sections and fourteen farms. Knowledge derived by Lincoln from his study and practice of surveying was of great value later in his many chancery cases in the courts. The law allowed the surveyor $2.50 for surveying eighty acres, plus $2 a day traveling expenses. Assured by Bowling Green, justice of peace and local leader, that the local Democrats would vote for him, Lincoln, a Whig, announced his candidacy for the legislature on April 19, 1834. He issued no plat- form as he had in 1832, but rode over the county with the other candidates stopping at grist and saw mills and groves wherever a few voters could be gathered. On election day, August 4, he ran second among the thirteen candidates. Three years after his arrival, as he wrote, "a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flat boat at ten dollars per month," he was elected to the legislature. Coleman Snioot, a Democratic farm- er, lent him $200, and adorned in his first suit of store clothes, he took his seat in the House of Representa- tives at Vandalia, December 1, 1834. Major John Todd Stuart, Springfield lawyer and friend from Black Hawk War days, and leader with great talent as a legislator became his mentor. Lincoln's career at New Salem had qualified him to handle the local problems of roads and the improve- ment of the Sangamon River, but his experience had not taken him deeply into the major problems of slavery and abolitionism, state banks, temperance, pub- lic education, tariff, public lands, the creation of courts, building of railroads and canals, and the cause and cure of a panic that would leave the state treasury bank- rupt. To listen, and to participate in the discussion and solution of these questions on the floor of the House and in the "Lobby," was to give him a training for his subsequent career as a politician and statesman which no college could have supplied. He was now about to enter his freshman course in politics, gov- ernment and statesmanship. He was to make new ac- quaintances and friendships and to learn and prac- tice the subtleties of the politician under the example and tutelage of old and experienced practitioners. Lincoln introduced bills limiting the jurisdiction of the justice of the peace, and authorizing Samuel Musick to erect a toll bridge across Salt Creek on the Springfield-Peoria road. Service on thirteen select committees, attendance at sessions of the Supreme Court and participation in the evening meetings of the "Lobby," the third house, were all part of the edu- cative process of a House member. Fortunate in hav- ing Stuart for a roommate who could provide the an- swers to many questions, young Lincoln soon learned that by compromise, laws are enacted. So well did he learn that he succeeded Stuart as Whig leader in the Tenth General Assembly and was his party's can- didate for speaker in the following two Assemblies. Two pieces of legislation which filled Vandalia with lobbyists and consumed half of the time of the House were the chartering of a State Bank, and the "Act for the Construction of the Illinois & Michigan Canal." Though Lincoln did not take an active part on the floor of the House in the passage of either act, he voted for them and became the champion of both bank and canal throughout his later legislative service. Returning to New Salem, he took up his law books and pursued his study of the law, which he had begun at the urging of Stuart and Bowling Green. In June, 1836, Lincoln opened his campaign for re-election to the legislature, announcing in The Sangamo Journal, that as other candidates had shown their hands, "Agreed, Here's mine. I go for all sharing the privi- leges of the government who assist in bearing its bur- dens. Consequently, I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms (by no means excluding females). "If elected, I shall consider the whole people of Sangamon my constituents, as well those that oppose as those that support me. "While acting as their representative, I shall be governed by their will on all subjects upon which I have the means of knowing what their will is; and upon all others, I shall do what my own judgment teaches me will best advance their interest. "Whether elected or not, I go for distributing the proceeds of the sales of the public lands to the sev- eral States, to enable our State, in common with others, to dig canals and construct railroads without borrow- ing money and paying the interest on it." The Tenth General Assembly in the winter of 1836- 1837 was the most notable session ever held in the State, both because of legislation enacted and because of the notable men among its membership. Sangamon County's delegation, the "Long Nine," was the largest in number, and the tallest. Lincoln's six feet and four inches helped raise their average to six feet. They worked as a unit under Lincoln's leader- ship in successfully trading their votes on the Internal Improvement Act for support of their bill removing the State Capital from Vandalia to Springfield. A member of the House gave this character sketch of Lincoln as he observed him during this session. He wrote that Lincoln's "continuously moral and self- reliant conduct formed a striking contrast with the general manners of nearly all by whom he was sur- rounded, and with whom he mingled all the time for Strong Language and Strong Drink, were almost universally prevalent, in that early age of Legislation — but I never heard Mr. Lincoln use a profane ex- pression, in his own conversation, nor did I ever know Concluded on Next Page 31 CITIZEN— Concluded him to make use of any stimulating liquid of any kind — but he was always as cheerful as any man who most constantly made use of the strongest beverage so very fashionable in that age." The Lincoln of this description is the same young man who had gone to the Stuart & Dummer office in Springfield to borrow law books. Henry E. Dummer, a graduate of Bowdoin College and student at the Har- vard Law School, noted this important characteristic of the New Salem legislator — his capacity for growth. Dummer related: "Lincoln used to come to our office — Stuart's and mine — in Springfield from New Salem and borrow law books. . . . He was the most uncouth looking young man I ever saw. He seemed to have but little to say; seemed to feel timid, with a tinge of sadness visible in the countenance, but when he did talk, all this disappeared for the time and he demon- strated that he was both strong and acute. He surprised us more and more at every visit." Lincoln boarded for a time in 1832 at the Rutledge Tavern and became acquainted with Ann, the pro- prietor's daughter then engaged to John McNeil, part- ner in the store of Hill & McNeil. In the late sum- mer, McNeil returned to his former home in New York. Time passed, months lengthened into years, and Mc- Neil did not return. Lincoln courted Ann and accord- ing to tradition, they became engaged, but any plans for the future were cut short by Ann's death, August 25, 1835. In the fall of 1836, Mary S. Owens came from Ken- tucky to New Salem to visit her sister, Mrs. Bennett Abel. Lincoln courted her and had some thought of proposing to her when he went to Vandalia in December, 1836. He wrote to Miss Owens saying he had been ill and depressed, and was disappointed in not hearing from her. After he moved to Springfield in 1837, he wrote twice to her revealing his depression, loneliness, con- sciousness of poverty, and suggesting that if she still had any idea of marrying him, his opinion was "that you had better not do it." Abraham Lincoln was twenty-eight years old on April 15, 1837, when he rode away from New Salem to Springfield to become a partner in "Stuart & Lin- coln, Attorneys and Counsellors at Law." He did not know it, but he had lived just half of his life. He did not know it, and few suspected that in him were the qualities that were to constitute the ingredients of his leadership of the nation in time of a great Civil War. Your Illinois Department of Agriculture ** y^ OUR Illinois Department of Agriculture welcomes you to New J- Salem State Park and the 1952 season of FOREVER THIS LAND! \\/ E feel that the Illinois Department of Agriculture is a part of W FOREVER THIS LAND!, because it was established as a State agency giving service to Illinois agriculture as early as the year 1819, just two months after Illinois was admitted to the Union. It was not until the year 1917, however, that it was established as a Department of Ag- riculture. In 1951 it was reorganized, and now has nine Divisions, each of which exerts a great deal of influence on the day-to-day welfare of the Illinois citizenry. W/ HETHER by insuring farmers of seeds free of noxious weeds, as- ▼ » suring the consumer of correct weight and measurement in their purchases, assisting in the control of livestock diseases, or by enforcing the laws relating to food sanitation and food standards, your Depart- ment stands guard over the interests of each and every person in the community. Your Department of Agriculture welcomes your inquiry on the services it performs." Director 32 We Believe In Fostering the American Way of Life Through Preservation of the Traditions That Made Our Country Great FOREVER THIS LAND! is Great and Traditional Americanism AACHTE'S GROCERY Meats and Groceries PAUL ARMSTRONG Your A&P Manager BERGEN INSURANCE AGENCY General Insurance RAY L. CARPENTER COCA COLA BOTTLING CO Petersburg, Illinois DERRY HARDWARE COM^ANY^ Hardware-A ppliances-Sk FINNEY'S DRU Kodak *?• E FIRST NATIONAL B^K^^PETER^gB&RG Member F.D./.C.^^stima/ Reserve System ^^ GAMBLF^STORE General Merchandise RAYMOND HORN — GENERAL TRl Local and Long Distance HUDSPETH IMPLEMENTS Massey Harris & Norge HURLEY FUNERAL HO Ambulance Service WILLIAM F. JUERGENS Local Trucking Service KELLOGG'S STANDARD SERVICE For All Your Motoring Needs CLYDE A. KNOUS, GARAGE McGARY TRANSFER Regular Freight Service WILBUR L. McNEIL Elevator MENARD COUNTY LIME COMPANY Ready Mix C oncer te MENARD COUNTY FARM BUREAU E. S. MITCHELL SHELL SERVICE Since 1930 HOWARD MITCHELL International and Pontiac NATIONAL BANK of PETERSBURG BERT NELSON OIL COMPANY Shell Products Observer n & HEATING CO. INS COMPANY Clothing, and Shoes IMPLEMENT COMPANY John Deere Equipment OSEVIEW GREENHOUSES Flowers For All Occasions SATORIUS FUNERAL HOME Furniture Dealer SEILING MOTOR COMPANY Chevrolet and Oldsmobile SHORT'S SELF-SERVICE FOOD MARKET Groceries and Fresh Meats WATKINS CAFE & PINE ROOM Just Good Food WILDE MOTOR SALES Kaiser-Frazer-GMC Trucks-Willys SAM S. BLANE, Attorney-at-Law DIRKS and CANTERBURY LEE'S WELDING & MACHINE SHOP MENARD COUNTY ABSTRACT COMPANY PELHAM & SON, Jewelers WESTERN AUTO ASSOCIATE STORE L-MSSte; --. ■«■*&>■ jL*[ #ei»> £a/em £cc(fe Entrance New Salem State Park Rustic-style exterior and lounge; ultra-modern guest rooms Thermostatically controlled vented heat; shower baths Rates include continental breakfast to room guests Dormitory rooms accommodating twelve persons each. Conference rooms available by advance reservation Gift shop, fountain service, and light lunches. Within walking distance of nationally known Wagon Wheel Inn for luncheon or dinner. Adjacent to picnic area. Two miles from Petersburg, Illinois, shopping district Owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs. Ira E. Owen, operators of the Wagon Wheel since 1936. For reservations and information write or phone: Ira E. Owen, New Salem Lodge, PO. Box 94, Petersburg, Illinois. Phone: Petersburg 242. You are extended a cordial invitation to personally inspect our facilities and accommodations at any time- "The REST Is Up To YOU" uNivERsrrr of illinois-urbana 3 0112 072578963