917.76 
 CcSGs 
 
 Spoon Rtuer Countru 
 
 j 
 
 Chandler
 
 XI B RAR.Y 
 
 OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 or ILLINOIS 
 
 2)17-73 
 CSGs
 
 THE SPOON RIVER COUNTRY 
 
 BY 
 
 JOSEPHINE GRAVEN CHANDLER 
 
 Reprinted from 
 
 Journal of Illinois State Historical Society. 
 Volume 14, Nos. 3-4.
 
 To 
 
 My Mother and the Memory of 
 My Father
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. The Valley of the Sangamon ...... 255 
 
 H. The Valley of the Spoon .......... 271 
 
 en 
 
 III. Old Lewistown.. . 284 
 
 rH 
 C3 
 
 IV. Old Lewistown Continued.. . 298 
 
 V. The McNeely Mansion 312 
 
 VI. The Church of St. James 316 
 
 VII. School Days of the Poet 320 
 
 VIII. Here and There.. , 326
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 "Whatever is implied by that vague term the genius of 
 places is comprehended in all justness of conception by the 
 new collateral field of literary endeavor now coming into 
 such general recognition and appreciation the literature 
 of locality. How much it has enriched the field of letters 
 may be fully known only to the bookman who, denied the 
 opportunity for travel, for personal adventure and discovery 
 in regions made familiar during long evenings under the read- 
 ing lamp, is yet obsessed by that strange nostalgia the 
 "nostalgia of unknown lands." 
 
 Through the labors of the literary geographer he now 
 may come to know the London of Dickens almost as Dickens 
 knew it; he may traverse the Cevennes with Robert Louis, 
 the "well beloved," and his little ass, Modesta, or the long 
 lovely reaches of the Thames with Meredith; the Eliot coun- 
 try is as an open book, and who does not know his Wessex 
 is, of a certainty, innocent of Hardy. In America already 
 the "Thoreau Country," ' ' Whittier-Land, " and many other 
 localities have come to have a significance proportionate to 
 the deep interest which they hold for the literary pilgrim, 
 and sufficiently recognized even by the most illiterate driver 
 of the sight-seeing automobile; Indiana as the habitat of a 
 large and flourishing school of writers poets, novelists and 
 journalists is in the making; Bret Harte and Mark Twain 
 have bequeathed us fertile fields beyond the Mississippi ; but 
 Spoon Eiver, that small and tortuous stream lying like a bit 
 of negligible twist upon the map of Central Illinois Spoon 
 Eiver has arrived. 
 
 As comprehended by Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River is 
 both a river and a town. It is, in reality, a collective expres- 
 sion made to cover the several community groups which go 
 
 [252]
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 34 The Spoon River Country 253 
 
 to make up the social entity of his book. His material is 
 drawn from six or seven counties and includes the area 
 watered by two small rivers. A glance at the map of this 
 region will show how the various towns to which allusion is 
 made are grouped. To the valley of the Sangamon belong 
 Chandlerville, Winchester, Atterbury, Clary's Grove and 
 Mason City; while Ipava, Summum, Bernadotte and London 
 Mills are in the more or less immediate vicinity of the Spoon. 
 Between these two is the majestic and slowly flowing Illinois 
 receiving upon her placid bosom the turbulent outpourings 
 of the lesser streams. Strangely enough, the two chief focal 
 points round which the drama of "Anthology" ranges, 
 do not come by name into this remarkable collection 
 of epitaphs. They are Petersburg and Lewis town. They are 
 confessed to by Mr. Masters in the following words: 
 
 "I have lived in Illinois all my life save the first year 
 of my existence, which was spent in Kansas. I grew up to 
 twelve years of age in Petersburg, when we moved to Lewis- 
 town. 
 
 "Both Petersburg and Lewistown are full of quaint and 
 picturesque types of character, but of a dissimilar sort. Peters- 
 burg and its environs are noted for their high-bred Virginians, 
 their buoyant, zestful, rollicking Kentuckians, given to story- 
 telling, to fiddling, dancing and horse-racing. Every prank 
 and every burst of humor on the part of Lincoln had its 
 counterpart among the dozens of the oldtimers of this local- 
 ity. There are some of this class of people around Lewis- 
 town, but they lived on a less joyous level, while the town 
 itself took a more serious tone and even an intellectual one 
 from the New Englanders who divided the control of af- 
 fairs with the Liberals and threw each other into a clear re- 
 lief unknown to Petersburg. ^ 
 
 "People ask me how I came to write 'The Spoon River 
 Anthology,' Well, they must look back to the days I have 
 just briefly sketched to get its origin."
 
 254 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 It will be seen, by the foregoing, that Mr. Masters has 
 concerned himself not only with individuals but with com- 
 munities, and this is significant for it is only by relating the 
 individual to the community that one may come to an intelli- 
 gent comprehension of his relation to the country in which 
 he dwells, the soil from which he springs and to which he is, 
 in ways that are both alien and integral, related. 
 
 This volume is designed for the assistance of those whose 
 enthusiasm for the poetry of Edgar Lee Masters may inspire 
 them to visit the country which his genius has immortalized. 
 
 Although it concerns itself with those places compre- 
 hended by the "Spoon Kiver Anthology," its territory in- 
 cludes, incidentally, the locales of a number of poems of a 
 later issue by the same author. Of these "Christmas at In- 
 dian Point" and "Old Piery" belong to the Sangamon Val- 
 ley, "Steam Shovel Cut" to the Valley of the Spoon, and 
 "At Havana" to a point on the eastern bank of the Illinois, 
 and nearly opposite to the mouth of the Spoon the "house 
 and fish boats" of its allusion being the first sight 
 to greet the eye from the long bridge that spans the for- 
 mer river at that place. 
 
 My whole life having been lived, with the exception of 
 certain school years, in what I have chosen to call the Spoon 
 River Country, my knowledge of this region may, I think, 
 claim to be authoritative. In my youth, which was spent in 
 what I have broadly classified as the Sangamon Valley, I 
 had at my command the same resources of anecdote and 
 common allusion which gave to Mr. Masters his finest charac- 
 terizations; and with "Doug" Armstrong and Aaron Hatfield 
 I have sat at meat. In my later life my residence changed to 
 the northern portion of the region under consideration and 
 Lewistown, Bernadotte and other Spoon Kiver towns came 
 within my ken. 
 
 Such personal knowledge as I have of the people and 
 places coming within the compass of this work has been aug- 
 mented from manv outside sources. I have had recourse to
 
 Vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 255 
 
 the Illinois State Historical Society Journals; the various 
 histories of Menard, Mason and Fulton Counties ; to Mr. T. J. 
 Onstot's " Lincoln & Salem;" to Mr. Harvey Ross' "The 
 Early Pioneers ;" to the files of the Fulton Democrat; to notes 
 which Mr. Francis Love made of an interview with Major 
 Walker in collecting certain data to be used in the Tarbell 
 "Life of Lincoln;" to various Lincolniana, and to infinite 
 correspondence and interviews with friends and family con- 
 nections of the characters coming under discussion. For all 
 such valuable assistance I wish to acknowledge my obligation 
 and to express my thanks. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE SANGAMON. 
 
 Although this little river has found its way into litera- 
 ture through William Cullen Bryant and his "Painted Cup," 
 and into history through its association with the young man- 
 hood of Abraham Lincoln; and although its neighborhood 
 has furnished the inspiration for no less than eight characters 
 of Mr. Masters' "Anthology,' yet its identity, for the uses 
 of that book, is lost under the collective title "Spoon River." 
 
 Physiographically speaking the Valley of the Sanga- 
 mon, though claiming one hundred and twenty miles in length, 
 scarcely exceeds two miles at its point of greatest width; so 
 that it may be regarded as a slight vicarious atonement for 
 the un-recognition of the "Anthology" that for the purposes 
 of this book which, of course, are merely those of com- 
 mentation the Valley of the Sangamon is allowed to stand 
 for all the Spoon River country lying south and southeast 
 of the Illinois River. 
 
 So considered, Petersburg must be regarded as the nu- 
 cleus. It was here that Masters spent most of those early 
 years before he moved to Lewistown; here he came to know 
 personally, and through the infinite resources of anecdote and 
 familiar allusion, that group of characters which are among
 
 256 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 the most benign and ennobling of the collection; and here 
 he came beneath the spell of those two men who were to prove, 
 immediate family influences aside, the most constant sources 
 of inspiration in his life and art his grandfather, Mr. Squire 
 D. Masters, and Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 It was to the home of Mr. Squire D. Masters that Mr. 
 Hardin Masters the father of Edgar Lee brought his 
 wife and infant son on his return from the brief sojourn in 
 Kansas that gave to that state the honor of the poet's birth. 
 Here the boy lived with his parents during his tenderest 
 years, and here after his father abandoned the farm for the 
 profession of the law, many happy weeks were spent each 
 year. Even after the removal of the Hardin Masters family 
 to Lewistown the boy returned each summer to dream away 
 the happy days at the old place, to delve amongst the books of 
 his grandfather's library, to prowl his grandmother's attic 
 for treasure quaint old costumes, discarded furniture, faded 
 photographs and other joy-invoking "rulics," as he called 
 them (the usage of that word is still sacred to the memory of 
 that time). Care-free days lived under the apple trees with 
 Burns, in the great hay-barns, or on those joyous journeys 
 through woods and fields with the beloved grandmother which 
 are among the treasured memories of every grand-child of the 
 Masters clan. 
 
 The old Masters home still stands. It is now in posses- 
 sion of the poet's uncle, Mr. Wilbur Masters, though it has 
 been remodeled in recent years and its aspect is somewhat 
 changed. "The Squire" and his wife are both dead but their 
 deeds live after them and there are none in all the neighbor- 
 hood but do them honor. Their gifted grandson himself has 
 paid them tribute in the epitaphs of "Davis Matlock" and 
 "Lucinda Matlock." In these two characterizations he has 
 used the Christian name of his respective grandparents, al- 
 though the grandfather was invariably known by the first of 
 his two names, Squire being in this case both a cognomen and 
 a sign of office, so that his full signature would read Squire
 
 SQUIRE DAVIS MASTERS. 
 (Grandfather of the poet.)
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 257 
 
 Davis Masters, Esquire. The surname is also a matter of fam- 
 ily history, Elizabeth Matlock being the name of Mr. Squire 
 Masters' mother. 
 
 Although a farmer, Squire Masters was a man of excel- 
 lent education; an intelligent, well-rounded man and one 
 given to the acquisition of "material things as well as culture 
 and wisdom," having a fine presence and dominating per- 
 sonality. A neighbor of his said to me: "No matter what 
 day of the week it was. Squire Masters always impressed me 
 as being just ready to start to church. ' ' Indeed the allusion 
 was a typical one, for his deeply spiritual nature seems to 
 have found its fullest expression in religious exercise. Not 
 only was he a leader in all church activities in his neighbor- 
 hood, but his private devotions were so earnest and so full 
 of dignity that one of the family who knew stenography was 
 induced to take down one of the "blessings" invariably in- 
 voked before meat. It was a perilous undertaking, for dis- 
 covery would have involved the almost certain displeasure of 
 the dignified old man, but the task was accomplished success- 
 fully and the various copies which were made from it are re- 
 garded by those possessing them as among the most treasured 
 mementoes of the beloved grandparent. 
 
 The devotion of the poet's grandfather to the cause of tem- 
 perance once suggested to the youthful Edgar Lee who was 
 granted many pranks being the favorite grandson a joke 
 that nearly brought him to confusion. He had found in the 
 wood shed a can of bright red paint. He solidly covered a 
 board with it and when it was dry made with white the pic- 
 ture of a foaming glass over the legend "Beer 5c a glass," 
 and the further embellishment of a hand with a pointing 
 index finger. He placed the sign at the near by cross road, 
 with the hand pointing toward the Masters house. 
 
 That evening the "Squire" was busying himself about 
 the chores and had started to the barnyard with a pail of 
 swill when the first "customer" arrived. He was bleary eyed 
 and somewhat unstable as he approached. "I see you've
 
 258 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 something to sell," he essayed. ''Where 'bouts do you keep 
 it, Squire?" Mr. Masters had a cider mill on his farm and 
 supposed the remark to constitute an insinuation that he 
 kept "hard" cider on the place. His wrath was superb. 
 He set down his pail of swill and stood back from it with 
 elaborate dignity. "Now, sir," he said, "that's all I have 
 to offer you about this place. If that suits your taste, just 
 help yourself and no charge." 
 
 How the visitor contrived Ms exit is not known, but a cer- 
 tain small boy made a cautious escape from the scene and re- 
 covered the sign board without loss of time. It is still num- 
 bered among the "properties" of the woodshed, but the true 
 history of its brief usefulness was never explained by him to 
 the master of the house. 
 
 "Lucinda Matlock" so essentially characterizes the life 
 and philosophy of Lucinda Masters that the analogy is un- 
 mistakable : 
 
 I went to the dances at Chandlerville, 
 And played snap-out at Winchester. 
 One time we changed partners, 
 Driving home in the moonlight of middle 
 
 June, 
 And then I found Davis. 
 
 We married and lived together for seventy 
 years, 
 
 Enjoying, working, raising the twelve chil- 
 dren, 
 
 Eight of whom we lost 
 
 Ere I had reached the age of sixty. 
 
 I spun, I wove, I kept the house, I nursed 
 
 the sick, 
 
 I made the garden, and for holiday 
 Eambled over the fields where sang the larks, 
 And by Spoon River gathered many a shell, 
 And manv a flower and medicinal weed
 
 LUCINDA MASTERS 
 Grandmother of Poet.
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 259 
 
 Shouting to the wooded hills, singing to the 
 
 green valleys. 
 
 At ninety-six I had lived enough, that is all, 
 And passed to a sweet repose. 
 What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness, 
 Anger, discontent, and drooping hopes'? 
 Degenerate sons and daughters, 
 Life is too strong for you 
 It takes life to love life. 
 
 The incident of the dance at Winchester, except that it oc- 
 curred not in "middle June" but sleighing time, is one that 
 Mrs. Masters delighted to relate to her children and grand- 
 children. The story always finished in the same way, refer- 
 ring to the change of partners: "And after that we stayed 
 
 ged " ; or if by any chance it ended differently this 
 romance of Grandfathers and Grandmothers there was al- 
 ways a demand for the old version. "And Grandmother, did 
 you stay changed after that?" And she would answer, "Yes, 
 after that we just stayed changed". 
 
 It is true that the twain were married and lived together 
 for seventy years ; that she bore twelve children, though three 
 died in infancy ; that she wove, and spun, and kept the house, 
 and nursed the sick, and made the garden -jthis splendid vital 
 woman and most notably it is true that for holiday she 
 "rambled over the hills where sang the larks." Her intense 
 L^pve of nature was the attribute which above all others en- 
 deared her to her family. 
 
 Across a portion of the farm runs a littlk-ereek, a tribu- 
 tary of the Sangamon, and this was theCobjective of many de- 
 lightful journeys^jOn these occasions it is said that her 
 joyousness and elation _ transcended every difficulty and that 
 she freed herself to the great gladness of the universal mood, 
 her knowledge of plants and animals was amazing and added 
 to this was a fund of folk lore that made these trips an in- 
 finite delight. She lived, in truth, to the age of ninety-six 
 and from "Anger, discontent and drooping hopes" she was
 
 260 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 delivered/ through lo, those many years, by her superb love 
 
 of Hfg^J 
 
 Edgar Lee has attested his respect and love for his 
 grandparents by the further tribute of the dedicatory inscrip- 
 tion which appears on the fly-leaf of the volume of his poems 
 called * ' The Great Valley ' ' which reads : 
 
 To the Memory of 
 SQUIRE DAVIS AND LUCINDA MASTERS 
 
 who, close to nature, one in deep religious faith, the other in 
 (^pantheistic rapture and heroism, lived nearly a 
 Hundred years in the land of Illinois 
 
 I inscribe 
 THE GREAT VALLEY 
 
 in admiration of their great-strength, mastery of. life, hope- 
 fulness, clear and beautiful jjemocracy^ 
 
 EDGAR LEE MASTERS. 
 
 In that collection of poems the one "I Shall Never See 
 You Again" voices a grief and passionate regret that cannot 
 fail of appreciation among those who have known through 
 close association or intimate report the character of Lucinda 
 Masters, and of the close tie that united her to her grandson. 
 
 The farm of "Sevigne Houghton" adjoins the Masters 
 farm, and this is the neighborhood of the Kincaids. 
 
 Where are Uncle Isaac and Aunt Emily, 
 
 And old Towney Kincaid and Sevigne Houghton 
 
 All, all are sleeping on the hill. 
 
 Goodpasture, Hoheimer, Trenary and Pantier are names 
 familiar to this region but no incident in their lives appears 
 to have connected them with the "Anthology". Apparently 
 their names alone have been made to serve ; but the character 
 of ''Aaron Hatfield" is authentic.
 
 SEVIGNE HOUGHTON.
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 261 
 
 The Hatfield farm is twice referred to. That character 
 designated as ' ' The Unknown ' ' recalls how 
 As a boy, reckless and wanton, 
 Wandering with gun in hand thro' the field 
 Near the mansion of Aaron Hatfield 
 I shot a hawk perched on the top of a dead 
 tree; 
 
 and * ' Hare Drummer ' ' wonders : 
 
 Do the boys and girls still go to Siever's 
 For cider after school in summer? 
 Or gather hazelnuts among the thickets 
 On Aaron Hatfield 's farm when the frosts 
 begin? 
 
 The Hatfield mansion was, in its day, the most preten- 
 tious in the neighborhood. It has since burned, but the old 
 Menard County atlas has preserved it for us with all the 
 quaint dignity of the wood cut. To this period of his life 
 belongs the " memory-picture" of the pioneer: 
 Better than granite, Spoon Kiver, 
 Is the memory picture you keep of me 
 Standing before the pioneer men and women 
 There at Concord Church on communion day. 
 Speaking in broken voice of the peasant youth 
 Of Galilee who went to the city 
 And was killed by bankers and lawyers ; 
 My voice mingling with the June wind 
 That blew over the wheat fields from Atter- 
 
 bury; 
 
 While the white stones in the burying ground 
 Around the church shimmered in the summer 
 
 sun. 
 
 And there, though my own memories 
 Were too great to bear, were you, pioneers, 
 With bowed heads breathing forth your sor- 
 rows
 
 262 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 For sons killed in battle and the daughters 
 And little children who vanished in life's 
 
 morning, 
 
 Or at the intolerable hour of noon. 
 But in those moments of tragic silence, 
 When the wine and bread were passed, 
 Came the reconciliation for us 
 Us the ploughmen and hewers of wood, 
 Us the peasants of Galilee 
 To us came the Comforter 
 And the consolation of the tongues of flame ! 
 
 Concord church is three miles north of Petersburg. It 
 was established in 1830 and was the first church of the de- 
 nomination known as the Cumberland Presbyterian to be 
 established in the county. The building in which Aaron Hat- 
 field worshiped is now replaced by a modern structure but 
 the " white stones in the burying ground around the church" 
 still shimmer in the summer sun, and the June wind still 
 blows across the wheat fields from Atterbury three miles 
 away. 
 
 One wishes that he might have remained on his com- 
 fortable farm and might, eventually, have come to rest in 
 that old graveyard that is sweet with clover and odorous with 
 arbor vitae but history relates that in his latter years he sold 
 the farm and moved to Petersburg, investing his substance in 
 a home, a store, a lumber yard, a flouring mill and various en- 
 terprises. The guileless temperament of the kindly old man 
 made him unfit for commercial life, and partly through bad 
 management and partly through the contrivance of the un- 
 scrupulous he lost one after another of his various possessions 
 and came, in the end, almost to penury. His misfortunes so 
 preyed upon him that before his death his mind began to show 
 affection. He died at the age of eighty. One hopes that 
 sometimes in those later years to him also 
 
 came the comforter, 
 And the consolation of the tongues of flame !
 
 HANNAH ARMSTRONG.
 
 Vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 263 
 
 Miller 's Ferry, but a few miles north and east of Concord 
 Church, is the " Miller's Ford" of the " Anthology ". The 
 "deep woods" of " William Good's" allusion still cover the 
 hills on the right bank of the Sangamon at this point, and 
 
 doubtless you still can see .,. , , 
 
 at twilight 
 
 The soft winged bats fly zig zag here and there. 
 Here " Thomas Ross" saw a cliff swallow make "her nest 
 in a hole in the high clay bank ' ' and drew from it an analogy 
 of his own life. 
 
 To "James Garber" the place had a symbolic meaning. 
 He bids the passer-by, after life shall have brought him "un- 
 derstandings, ' ' take thought of him and of his path 
 
 who walked therein and knew 
 That neither man or woman, neither toil, 
 No duty, gold nor power 
 Can ease the longing of the soul, 
 The loneliness of the soul! 
 
 All the associations of this place are sad, and saddest of 
 all perhaps are the musings of "Russell Kincaid" in those 
 last days of his life when he sat in the 
 
 forsaken orchard 
 
 Where beyond the fields of greenery shimmered 
 The hills of Miller's Ford; 
 
 voicing an atavistic longing that he might have been a tree, 
 Then I had fallen in the cyclone 
 Which swept me out of the soul's suspense 
 Where it's neither earth nor heaven. 
 One character, at least, of this group may be identified. 
 "James Garber" is the same who "wrote beautifully," and 
 whose letter, written for "Hannah Armstrong" was, maybe, 
 "lost in the mails". His real name was Jacob Garber and 
 the letter incident is authentic. He was, at one time, a 
 neighbor of Hannah Armstrong, though she belonged, at an 
 earlier period, in the Clary's Grove group. 
 
 Mr. T. J. Onstot says in his "Lincoln & Salem": "Mil- 
 ler's Ferry was * * * once surveyed for a town and was called
 
 264 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 Huron. My brother K. J. Onstot has a plat of it in Lincoln's 
 own handwriting and prizes it very highly. The town looks 
 very fine on paper, though there was only one house in it in 
 its earlier days". 
 
 Walter Pater, writing of Leonardo da Vinci, says that 
 "two ideas were especially confirmed in him as reflexes of 
 things that had touched his life in childhood beyond the 
 depths of other impressions the smiling of women and the 
 motion of great waters." 
 
 It is so that all true biography should be written. In this 
 sense all art is autobiographic, since in creative work alone 
 man records the " adventure of his soul". It is in the study 
 of those impressions "especially confirmed in him" as a re- 
 flex that we come to the life of Abraham Lincoln and its in- 
 fluence upon the life and art of Masters through its immediate 
 association with the Spoon River country. 
 
 Three characters of the "Anthology" are concerned with 
 Lincoln: "Anne Rutledge", "Hannah Armstrong" and 
 "William H. Herndon"; four poems of the collection, 
 "The Great Valley", "The Lincoln and Douglas Debates", 
 "Autochthon", "Gobineau to Tree" and "Old Peiry", and 
 not less than four poems from the volume called * ' The Open 
 Sea" are written around him. 
 
 New Salem, the home of Lincoln from 1831 to 1837 is two 
 miles south of Petersburg, and just southwest of Salem is 
 Clary's Grove. Clary's Grove is, in fact, exactly what the 
 name implies, a grove. It is not found on any map but Lin- 
 colniana has comprehended it too completely to require fur- 
 ther proof of authenticity. There is no history treating of 
 these early years of Lincoln that does not speak of the 
 Clary's Grove boys and their staunch adherence to him from 
 his initiation among them in the famous wrestling match with 
 Jack Armstrong till their final dramatic appearance in 1859 
 at the hall of the convention which gave him the nomination 
 that ultimately placed him in the Executive Chair. 
 
 Clary's Grove was one of the first neighborhoods to be
 
 FIDDLER JONES.
 
 vol. xiv. NOB. 3-4 y^ e Spoon River Country 265 
 
 inhabited by the whites. Most of the settlers came from Ken- 
 tucky and Tennessee. Among the prominent families were 
 the Clarys, Armstrongs, Watkinses, Potters, Jones and 
 Greens ; all fine staunch people, but whose boys were typical 
 sons of the frontier; fond of drinking, hard riding, horse- 
 racing, dancing, fiddling and all rude sports, particularly 
 those which constituted tests of strength. Among the Wat- 
 kinses and Armstrongs, especially, there persists to this day a 
 tradition of horse-racing and fiddling. There is, as there has 
 always been, a "Fiddler Watkins" and a "Fiddler Arm- 
 strong", and a race track is a common adjunct of their ample 
 farms. 
 
 Where is old Fiddler Jones 
 Who played with life all his ninety years, 
 Braving the sleet with bared breast, 
 Drinking, rioting, thinking neither of wife 
 
 nor kin, 
 
 Nor gold nor love nor heaven? 
 Lo ! He babbles of the fish-fries of long ago, 
 Of the horse-races long ago at Clary's Grove, 
 Of what Abe Lincoln said 
 One time at Springfield. 
 
 "Fiddler Jones" was the brother of "Hannah Arm- 
 strong". All of that family were "first class fighting men", 
 tall and fine looking. The family came from Green County, 
 Kentucky, and John, who was never addressed or spoken of 
 by any other name than "Fid" or "Fiddler", had, while in 
 that state, received considerable education. He played "by 
 note", composed, and even wrote music for his violin. He 
 was a dancing master as well and was distinguished by a 
 manner and bearing quite at variance with the crude behavior 
 of his period. Many of his pupils still recall him clearly and 
 his name is associated with nearly all of the festivities of his 
 day. His fiddle, which was really a viola, is still the cher- 
 ished possession of the family. He died a few years ago in 
 Fairbury, Nebraska, leaving behind him a comfortable estate. 
 His mantle has, happily, fallen upon the shoulders of his
 
 266 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 nephew, Mr. John Armstrong of Oakford, Illinois, son of 
 Hannah Armstrong. His music is still in requisition and his 
 clear memory makes him one of the few living men connecting 
 the present generation with the Great Emancipator. 
 
 The friendship between Lincoln and the Armstrongs 
 began just as history relates, with a wrestling match between 
 Jack Armstrong and Lincoln an affair in which the latter 
 came out victor. Thereafter Lincoln lived with the Arm- 
 strongs for a time and always, one is told, regarded their 
 house as his home ; indeed the motherly Hannah treated him 
 as one of her own sons. The opportunity for requital of her 
 great kindness came to Lincoln when he undertook the de- 
 fense of William Armstrong (better known as "Duff"), the 
 youngest son of the family, in the famous "almanac trial" 
 which ended in his acquittal. 
 
 It is the same son who, in the epitaph, "Hannah 
 Armstrong," is called "Doug." Mr. John Armstrong has 
 told me the letter incident referred to in the "Anthology." 
 Duff, he said, had asked for his discharge from the army, 
 having become painfully affected by sciatic rheumatism. The 
 discharge had been granted but the papers, for some reason, 
 withheld for a time and the boy kept on guard duty though 
 his suffering was considerable. He wrote his mother asking 
 her to appeal personally to "Abe" to urge matters, so Mrs. 
 Armstrong got "Uncle Jakey" Garber to write the letter. 
 Soon a telegram came from the President saying that Duff 
 would be home immediately and so, presently, he was, anol 
 one is glad to know that "Aunt Hannah" did not have to 
 travel all the way to Washington as demanded by the ex- 
 igencies of art. She was one of the fine old women of her 
 generation, living into the nineties and dying in Winterset, 
 Iowa. As for Duff, he became, after the war, a veterinarian 
 and has eaten many a meal in my father's house as he went 
 from one point to another about the countryside. 
 
 The town of New Salem, which declined with the build- 
 ing up of Petersburg, has been rebuilt within the last sev- 
 eral summers. The Old Salem League was formed for this
 
 . 
 
 DOUG. ARMSTRONG 
 Better known as "Duff.'
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 267 
 
 express purpose, and the plan is to make the village a per- 
 manent memorial to him who for a season lingered there. 
 William Randolph Hearst had previously bought the site and 
 donated it for the purpose. Several log houses have been 
 constructed, some of them exactly, and all of them approxi- 
 mately upon the sites of the buildings that formerly com- 
 prised the village.* 
 
 The splendid pageant written and directed by Florence 
 McGill Wallace and staged on the New Salem common on the 
 2nd and 3rd of September, 1918, as a part of the Centennial 
 observance of the State of Illinois, brought those who saw it 
 strangely close to that period of Lincoln's life. All those 
 taking part in the performance were, wherever possible, 
 members of the families of those involved in the history so 
 revivified. Some of the cabins were occupied by descendants 
 of the very people who built the originals, and this personal 
 element in the participation of the Menard County folk gave 
 to the enterprise a spirit unique in pageantry. 
 
 Four episodes from the life of Lincoln while at New 
 Salem constituted the dramatic theme. 1. The coming of the 
 Big Brother (the arrival of Lincoln at Salem on a flat-boat). 
 
 2. Arrival of Clary's Grove boys (the initiation of Lincoln 
 among them by way of a wrestling match). 3. " Captain Lin- 
 coln" (the incident of the Clary's Grove boys choosing a cap- 
 tain for the New Salem contingent for the Black Hawk war) . 
 4. Sunday afternoon in Salem. The village belle, Anne Rut- 
 ledge. 
 
 The last mentioned episode comprehends Lincoln's woo- 
 ing as well as his great grief after the death of her who was 
 his first sweetheart. It was, as it might well have been, the 
 most stirring and significant of them all, for there can be no 
 doubt that his love for Anne Rutledge was the greatest of 
 the shaping forces that touched that soul already starred 
 by destiny. 
 
 *Since made a State Park by Act of the Legislature, approved April 
 
 3, 1919. Contains museum where Lincoln memorials and relics will be 
 preserved.
 
 268 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 Out of me unworthy and unknown 
 
 The vibrations of deathless music: 
 
 "With malice toward none, with charity 
 for all." 
 
 Out of me the forgiveness of millions toward 
 millions, 
 
 And the beneficent face of a nation 
 
 Shining with justice and truth. 
 
 I am Anne Rutledge who sleeps beneath 
 these weeds, 
 
 Beloved in life of Abraham Lincoln, 
 
 Wedded to him, not through union, 
 
 But through separation. 
 
 Bloom forever, Republic, 
 
 From the dust of my bosom ! 
 
 Anne Rutledge! A fragrance hangs about the name 
 the "Fragrance of things destined for immortality." Al- 
 ready the hand of the iconoclast has been at work, but he has 
 anticipated his hour, and the affirmation of history, based 
 upon the authentic testimony of those yet living, has made 
 her place secure. No myth, no "legend", may obscure her 
 claim who has inspired to great purpose the heart of a great 
 man. 
 
 Her body was laid to rest in the old Concord cemetery. 
 Not the one adjacent to the church in which Aaron Hatfield 
 worshipped, but one about a mile away, lost, not only to the 
 view, but almost to the memory, and which no longer has 
 even a road by way of approach. Her ashes have since been 
 removed to Oakland cemetery which is on a beautiful wooded 
 hill near Petersburg. Within the year a great granite boul- 
 der has been erected to her memory, having the Masters' 
 epitaphic poem, taken from the "Anthology," graved upon 
 its face, but prior to the placing of this monument a rough 
 stone taken from the dam of the old Rutledge mill at New 
 Salem most appropriately marked the grave of this sweet 
 girl whose unostentatious nature sought no exaltation but
 
 Vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 269 
 
 the exaltation of the spirit. Even to approach that spot is 
 to feel the recrudescence of old pain. One is tense with the 
 agony that searched the heart of Lincoln on that storm-torn 
 night when he cried out to his friend: "Oh, I cannot sleep 
 while the rain is falling on her grave ! ' ' One is sad with the 
 denials of her youth and of her tender passion. But to visit 
 the little town where she has lived, and where, near-by, her 
 kinsfolk go about their daily rounds, where the drama of her 
 brief life was enacted, is to feel the dignity of life and the 
 great peace of soul-quietness. 
 
 In "William H. Herndon" Masters has crystalized the 
 long retrospect of the man who, better than any other, knew 
 the character of Lincoln after its nature had reached its full 
 maturity and during the period of his professional life. The 
 law-partnership of the two men began in 1843. Lincoln was 
 then thirty-four and Herndon was nine years his junior. 
 Their partnership was dissolved only by the death of the 
 senior member in Ford's Theater in 1865. 
 
 Horace White in his introduction to the second edition 
 of the Herndon "Life of Abraham Lincoln" says of the 
 author: "What Mr. Lincoln was after he became President 
 can best be understood by knowing what he was before. The 
 world owes more to Wm. H. Herndon for this particular 
 knowledge than to all other persons taken together. It is no 
 exaggeration to say that his death .... removed from the 
 earth the person who of all others had most thoroughly 
 searched the sources of Mr. Lincoln's biography and had 
 most attentively, intelligently and also lovingly studied his 
 character." 
 
 Mr. Herndon spent his declining years on his farm. The 
 old house, which is, as described, "perched on a bluff," over- 
 looks the Sangamon. It is on what is known thereabout as 
 the Menard County Eoad. He was seventy-three at the time 
 of his death. He had lived in great times and had seen much 
 history in the making ; moreover his last great task had been 
 the preparation, with the assistance of Mr. Jesse W. Weik, 
 of the three volume biography of the man who had engaged
 
 270 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 first his admiration, then his love, and afterwards his sense 
 of the patriotic responsibility which his knowledge dictated 
 towards the coming generation. 
 
 No line of "Herndon" may be omitted from this work; 
 not the poet's vision of the old man gazing into the shining 
 glass of his memory; nor his vision of the old man's vision; 
 nor the strangely Japanese comprehension of the whole in 
 the association of natural phenomenon : 
 
 There by the window in the old house 
 Perched on the bluff, overlooking miles of 
 
 valley, 
 My days of labor closed, sitting out life's 
 
 decline, 
 
 Day by day did I look in my memory, 
 As one who gazes in an enchantress' crystal 
 
 globe, 
 
 And I saw the figures of the past, 
 As if in a pageant glassed in a shining 
 
 dream, 
 
 Move through the incredible sphere of time. 
 And I saw a man rise from the soil like a 
 
 fabled giant 
 
 And throw himself over a deathless destiny, 
 Master of great armies, head of the republic, 
 Bringing together in a dithyramb of recreat- 
 ive song 
 
 The epic hopes of a people ; 
 At the same time vulcan of sovereign fires, 
 Where imperishable shields and swords are 
 
 beaten out 
 
 From spirits tempered in heaven. 
 Look in the Crystal ! See how he hastens on 
 To the place where his path comes up to 
 
 the path 
 
 Of a child of Plutarch and Shakespeare. 
 Lincoln, actor indeed, playing well your 
 part,
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 271 
 
 And Booth, who strode in a mimic play 
 
 within a play, 
 Often and often I saw you, 
 As the cawing crows winged their way to 
 
 the woods 
 
 Over my house-top at solemn sunsets, 
 There by my window, 
 Alone. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE SPOON. 
 
 It is interesting to conjecture in considering the geo- 
 graphic nomenclature of the country from which Mr. Mas- 
 ters drew the material for his "Anthology" just why he 
 should have chosen " Spoon River" for the title of his book. 
 There was, for alternative, that lovely Indian name of 
 Sangamon; and Lewistown is a town so closely associated, 
 serving as prototype in fact, that to all intents and purposes 
 Lewistown is "Spoon River." It is true that the characters 
 drawn from this section enormously preponderate numer- 
 ically; that the name holds in an exceptional degree, by the 
 very fact of its strangeness, what Amy Lowell calls the 
 "pungency of place;" and there is the matter of phonetic 
 syzygy ! Is there not a story concerned with Margaret Fuller 
 and her awakened appreciation of the beauties of her own 
 tongue through the admiration of an Italian friend, for that 
 word so homely of association and so beautiful for the dis- 
 posal of its consonants and vowels cellar door? And cer- 
 tainly the name Spoon River, once one has come to love it, 
 whether from the felicity which it confers upon the ear or 
 through the divining vision of its great interpreter Spoon 
 River is exquisite to say. 
 
 Although four or five generations suffice to tell the tale 
 of the Englishman's association with this river, already there 
 has grown up about it, as about those brilliant figures that 
 have passed from the realm of history to high romance, that 
 mass of incident which unconsciously has been shaped by the
 
 272 Josephine "Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 synthetic tendencies of the imagination to what the French 
 biographer delights to call a legend. Something of evil is 
 implicit, a "power of sinister presence," but withal a loveli- 
 ness so intimate and compelling that it must lie forever like 
 a mistress upon the heart-memory of those who love her. Cer- 
 tain adjectives inhere: the "classic" Spoon, the "turbid" 
 Spoon, the "treacherous," the "lovely;" but more significant 
 than these, and harking back to an ancienter tradition the 
 "raging" Spoon. The women have a saying, those old women 
 who sit at windows, that every year the river takes one hu- 
 man life as toll. 
 
 It lies in the heart of that rich region embraced by the 
 Mississippi and the Illinois rivers and flowing south and 
 southeast enters, after many sinuations, the latter 
 stream. It has measured, perhaps, in its turnings one hun- 
 dred and fifty miles, and there is evidence that, with the per- 
 verse selection of inanimate things, it has not disdained 
 sometimes to change its course. Three lovely loops of water, 
 reached from the southern end of Thompson's Lake, known 
 as The Horseshoes from the physiographic term applied to 
 such formation, attest that years ago the river approached 
 its point of confluence with the Illinois through closely con- 
 voluted turns, reminding one, somehow, of the aesthetic phe- 
 nomenon involved by certain musical endings w T here the stress 
 of the impetus is eased by the crashing of conventional 
 chords. 
 
 Whatever dramatic moment laid its imperative command 
 upon the genius of the Spoon in that time long past may not 
 definitely be ascertained, but less than a score of years ago 
 the sudden movement of a gigantic ice-pack, opposing exi- 
 gence to indirection made a third channel outward enter- 
 ing the Illinois farther to the north by half a mile and ap- 
 proximating to what must have been an earlier estuary. So 
 does the old order forever change and the will of nature, like 
 the will of man, reverse the decision of yesterday. 
 
 Although the occupation of the Sangamon and the Spoon 
 River valleys by people from the east and south was contem-
 
 Vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 273 
 
 poraneous, the latter region would seem to have offered su- 
 perior inducements, for it lies in the heart of what is known 
 as the " Military Tract." This tract constitutes all the land 
 embraced by the Mississippi and Illinois Eivers as far 
 as the northern line of Bureau and Henry counties and in- 
 cludes a region of great fertility. By an act of Congress 
 each soldier who had participated in the War of 1812 was 
 entitled to a quarter section and as soon as the provision was 
 made the hardier souls ventured thither to claim their new 
 possessions. Revolutionary soldiers, some of them. Men like 
 "John Wasson": 
 
 Oh! the dew-wet grass of the meadow in 
 North Carolina 
 
 Through which Rebecca followed me wail- 
 ing, wailing, 
 
 Lengthening out the farewell to me off to 
 the war with the British, 
 
 And then the long, hard years down to the 
 day at Yorktown. 
 
 And then my search for Rebecca, 
 
 Finding her at last in Virginia, 
 
 Two children dead in the meanwhile. 
 
 We went by oxen to Tennessee, 
 
 Thence after years to Illinois, 
 
 At last to Spoon River. 
 
 We cut the buffalo grass, 
 
 We felled the forests, 
 
 We built the school-houses, built the bridges, 
 
 Leveled the roads and tilled the fields 
 
 Alone with poverty, scourges, death. . . . 
 But if they found hardship here they found a land offer- 
 ing a hospitality that had not failed of the appreciation of 
 their predecessors, for the Indians from the earliest time 
 seem to have shown a predilection for this locality. Al- 
 though they have not been awarded their just dues at the 
 hands of the state or by its men of science, and much that 
 might constitute a source of intelligence and information
 
 274 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 regarding the prehistoric inhabitants of this region has been 
 wasted through agrarian thrift and the wanton plunder of 
 relic hunters, yet there are still visible a number of Indian 
 mounds throughout the valley which the investigation of 
 archeologlsts has shown to be important. Chapman's "His- 
 tory of Fulton County ' ' says : 
 
 There is not a township in the county which 
 does not contain more or less of these traces, and 
 in some of them are works which in extent and char- 
 acter will compare with any in the West. 
 On a farm in Kerton township, which lies to the right 
 of the mouth of Spoon Eiver, is a field known as Mound 
 Field, containing about twenty-five acres. It is located on 
 the summit of a high bluff. To quote again from Chapman: 
 
 In this field is a level space of five or six acres 
 inclosed by two rows of circular, cup-shaped depres- 
 sions, inside of which are large mounds which must 
 originally have been thirty or forty feet high. To the 
 south of this level the bluff line with its indentations 
 forms the border of the field, and here are the re- 
 mains of not less than one hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand human beings buried literally by the cord! 
 Where the bluff begins to descend it appears as 
 though a step had been cut with the bluff face not 
 less than ten feet high, and here were corded skele- 
 tons, laid as one would cord wood, but with the bodies 
 arranged just as one would preserve the level of 
 the file best without regard to direction. This burial 
 place follows the bluff line for some distance where 
 skeletons appear to have been covered by some light- 
 colored clay which must have been brought from 
 considerable distance, as it is not found in the local- 
 ity. There are also two pits near the brow of the 
 bluff on the side hill, which appear to have been 
 originally about forty feet in diameter and of 
 great depth and which have been walled up by plac- 
 ing skeletons around the outside as one would wall
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 275 
 
 a well, covering the work with the same clay as the 
 other burial place. These skeletons are excellently 
 preserved, in many places the smallest processes of 
 bone being in as good condition as though buried 
 a year ago. Over the entire surface of the field 
 which is in cultivation the human hand cannot be 
 placed without putting it on broken pottery, bones 
 and shells. 
 
 Passing up the river one finds a great mound near Sepo, 
 observable from the train; the Bernadotte country furnishes 
 interesting terraces of artificial character; and in the region 
 of London Mills are several extensive earth works undoubt- 
 edly pre-historic that have received little or no attention. 
 Hereabouts, too, is a burying ground of the modern tribe of 
 Pottawatomi, and several Indian skeletons have been found 
 in trees. 
 
 Sac, Fox, Chippewa, Kickapoo and Pottawatomi, often 
 mere off-shoots of these nations and lacking tribal cohe- 
 rence, were found here when the pioneers arrived. The rich 
 bottom between California Bend on Spoon Eiver and Liver- 
 pool on the Illinois " constituted, " says Dr. Strode, of whom 
 I shall speak later, "almost one continuous camp site of an- 
 cient as well as modern Indians." The reason for the great 
 popularity of this location he thinks apparent, for as he 
 points out, "the river furnished fish, turtle, water fowl and 
 fur-bearing animals; great forests gave them game, nuts, 
 honey and so forth; and in every ravine were fine springs 
 of water." One township further up the river came to be 
 known as Deerfield because it was literally "the field of the 
 deer" the habitat of thousands. 
 
 The advent of the Frenchman, though unfruitful ot 
 much that has made for permanence in America, is still elo- 
 quently reminiscent in its nomenclature. In the valley of 
 the Spoon, however, it is nearly lost. Maquon, deriving from 
 a term meaning "big," which is the name they gave to this 
 little river, and "Petite," one of the tributaries, are no more 
 heard; only the lovely "prairie," the "meadow" of our Eng-
 
 276 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 lish tongue, persists. "Reeves Prairie," one hears, and 
 "Toten's Prairie," and the names have a pleasant native 
 sound; but "Maquon" first passed into "Mequeen" before 
 an accident fastened its present name upon it, and "Petite" 
 has suffered a like degeneration and is known upon the maps 
 as "Potato Creek." 
 
 The legend that concerned itself with the changing of the 
 river 's name is to the effect that on a day when a great party 
 of men were rafting on the river a dinner had been prepared 
 beforehand in a great iron pot which should serve to hold the 
 heat until the noon hour. Utensils were limited, and one can 
 imagine the consternation of those hungry men when the 
 spoon the one spoon which was to serve them all was some- 
 how dropped overboard. From that small perversity of fate 
 the river's name was changed and it is not the least of the 
 amusing incidents that have changed the face of history. 
 One feels instinctively that there never would have been a 
 "Maquon Anthology". How much, one comes to wonder, 
 how much of destiny is hazard? 
 
 The migrations of the pioneers, like those of the Indians, 
 tended always to follow watercourses and progress was 
 marked by the erection of mills. Sawmills and mills for the 
 grinding of grist were established all along the Spoon in the 
 decade denoted by the twenties, the last to be erected repre- 
 senting always the farthest outpost of civilization. At Water- 
 ford, Duncan Mills, Bernadotte, Ellisville, Seville and London 
 Mills the turning of the great wheels performed enormous 
 labors and served as social nuclei around which towns in- 
 variably were built. Some of those mills still stand, though 
 fallen into decay, and always the riffles in the stream establish 
 hypothetically their location. Not only was the operation of 
 a mill a thriving business in that early day but the capital re- 
 quired for its establishment argued a man of substance. The 
 miller was usually the wealthy man of his community ; one of 
 considerable influence, and if, indeed, success came late for 
 the gratification of his own ambitions, he might still hope for 
 their fulfillment through the greater opportunities which his
 
 vol. xiv. NOB. 3-4 ^he Spoon River Country 277 
 
 wealth would give to his boys and girls ; nor, in the case of 
 ' ' Oak Tutts ', ' ' father does one feel these aspirations to have 
 been touched with the ignoble : 
 
 My mother was for women's rights 
 
 And my father was the rich miller of Lon- 
 don Mills. 
 
 I dreamed of the wrongs of the world and 
 wanted to right them. 
 
 When my father died I set out to see peoples 
 and countries 
 
 In order to learn how to reform the world. 
 
 I traveled through many lands. 
 
 I saw the ruins of Eome, 
 
 And the ruins of Athens, 
 
 And the ruins of Thebes. 
 
 And I sat by moonlight amid the necropolis 
 of Memphis. 
 
 There I was caught up by wings of flame, 
 
 And a voice from heaven said to me: 
 
 " Injustice, Untruth destroyed them. Go 
 forth! 
 
 Preach justice! Preach truth!" 
 
 And I hastened back to Spoon River 
 
 To say farewell to my mother before be- 
 ginning my work. 
 
 But see how the Nemesis of fanaticism finds out this vil- 
 lage Hamlet, for: 
 
 They all saw a strange light in my eye. 
 
 And by and by, when I talked, they dis- 
 covered 
 
 What had come into my mind. 
 
 Then Jonathan Swift Somers challenged me 
 to debate 
 
 The subject (I taking the negative) ; 
 
 "Pontius Pilot, the Greatest Philosopher 
 of the World". 
 
 And he won the debate by saying at last,
 
 278 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 "Before you reform the world, Mr. Tutt, 
 Please answer the question of Pontius Pilate ; 
 'What is truth?' " 
 
 London Mills is the northermost town of what we have 
 chosen to designate as the Spoon River Country. It lies in a 
 bend of the river whose bank is so thickly wooded that it 
 seems a great green arm about the thriving little town. The 
 trees of London Mills, like all those in this bottom, make a 
 marvelously luxuriant growth, and stand about the lawns and 
 streets with all the dignity that a forest heritage bestows. 
 Across the river from the town I particularly recall one giant 
 elm, conveying by its prodigious height, the great reach of its 
 extended arms and the enormous thickness of its trunk such 
 a look of power and significance that it seemed the number 
 of its centuries alone could not account for its "eternal look", 
 the sense of history it conferred upon the landscape ; one felt 
 it to be "part of and related to a mighty past", linked with 
 great destinies and high emprise. It is in the nature of elms 
 to seem to wait but this great patriarch, bearing within it stir- 
 ring memories of the past, must find it long, with only the 
 vagrancies of fishermen, the whispering of lovers and the 
 small business of the nesting birds, patiently to bide its hour. 
 
 Following down the stream from London Mills, passing 
 Ellisville, Babylon and Seville, slipping between the terraced 
 hills that rim the river on the right and the mani-patterned 
 grain-fields on the left, one comes to Bernadotte. 
 
 At Bernadotte one lingers with delight, for here one 
 savors in the little drowsing town, so obviously fallen upon 
 the period of its decline, remote in time and place from the 
 bustling life around her, "an aroma, as from wine that has 
 been many years in bottle." Perhaps because her tragedy 
 is the tragedy of arrested growth one senses here more keenly 
 than at any other place along the river the spirit of the pio- 
 neers whose ambrotypes "Eutherford McDowell" used to 
 
 enlarge. Men who were . , . 
 
 m being 
 
 When giant hands from the womb of the world 
 Tore the republic.
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 279 
 
 William Walters, who was the first settler of Bernadotte 
 township, arrived in 1826. Within five years three mills were 
 built along the Spoon in close proximity, suggesting the feas- 
 ability of platting off a town. It is said that Mr. Walters 
 bought the present town-site of Bernadotte for fifty deer 
 skins, but this was, by no means, his most important trans- 
 action with the Indians for, though they were fairly treated 
 by the whites, their pilfering, their restlessness, and the lurk- 
 ing spirit of treachery they betrayed made them dangerous 
 neighbors in the end, and their expulsion became a matter of 
 necessity. It was in the curve of the river just above Berna- 
 dotte known as Great Bend that they were finally rounded 
 up by the whites under the informal but efficient captaincy of 
 Mr. Walters, driven across the state, across the Mississippi 
 at the point then known as Yellow Banks, the present site of 
 Oquawka and bidden never to return. 
 
 For many years Bernadotte throve mightily, for not only 
 was she situated in the heart of a rich farming district but 
 the timber on her surrounding hills, the limestone under them, 
 her fishing industry, her two packing houses and many other 
 small, thriving enterprises gave her a commercial life that 
 promised well. Furthermore the natural beauty of her situ- 
 ation upon the river, surrounded by her seven verdant hills 
 made her a pleasure place for all the neighboring towns, and 
 visitors came to her by hundreds on holidays and Sundays 
 through the summer. 
 
 It was the coming of the railroad through the country 
 that worked her ruin. For her situation, which had been to 
 her advantage when the river was the chief means of trans- 
 portation, now proved to be her undoing and her prosperity 
 passed to the towns that were more fortunate. 
 
 These were the thorough-going days when the life of 
 trade was sustained by its own resources and the last monu- 
 ment to this period, perhaps, passed with the tearing down of 
 the old covered bridge a few years ago. This bridge, which 
 spanned the Spoon, was put up entirely without the use of 
 steel or iron. The stone for the abutments was quarried
 
 280 Josephine Craven Chandler J. I. s. H. s. 
 
 from the vicinity ; the selected timber that went to the making 
 of the superstructure was brought from the woods near by 
 having been hewed into shape where it fell; wooden pins 
 bound together the remarkable trusses. A thorough-going 
 bridge, I say, that stood for seventy years and might have 
 stood for seventy more had not the spirit of the times that 
 strange haunter of men searched out even this quiet place 
 and demanded fresh tribute, this time of concrete and steel 
 and iron. 
 
 The old mill which still stands has lately been put into 
 repair and is now in operation. Above it looms the hill, 
 Mount Pleasant, which commands the town and between them 
 is the ancient hostelry that has served the village for so many 
 years. Together they form the background for that figure 
 touched with pathos and with dignity, "Isaiah Beethoven": 
 
 They told me I had three months to live, 
 
 So I crept to Bernadotte, 
 
 And sat by the mill for hours and hours 
 
 Where the gathered waters deeply moving 
 
 Seem not to move : 
 
 world, that 's you ! 
 
 "Y ou are but a widened place in the river 
 
 Where life looks down and we rejoice for her 
 
 Mirrored in us, and so we dream 
 
 And turn away, but when again 
 
 We look for the face, behold the low-lands 
 
 And blasted cotton-wood trees where we 
 
 empty 
 
 Into the larger stream! 
 But here by the mill the castled clouds 
 Mocked themselves in the dizzy water ; 
 And over its agate floor at night 
 The flame of the moon ran under my eyes 
 Amid a forest stillness broken 
 By a flute in a hut on the hill. 
 At last when I came to lie in bed 
 Weak and in pain, with dreams about me,
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 281 
 
 The soul of the river entered my soul, 
 And the gathered power of my soul was 
 
 moving 
 
 So swiftly it seemed to be at rest 
 Under cities of cloud and under 
 Spheres of silver and changing worlds 
 Until I saw a flash of trumpets 
 Above the battlements of Time ! . 
 
 Mrs. Maude McCaughey, a fine intelligent women who 
 has kept the hotel for many years, who is familiar with the 
 "Anthology" and many of its characters, assures me that she 
 never had a guest of that strange name. No one in the vil- 
 lage had heard of Isaiah Beethoven; but I who have sat for 
 hours by the mill where the "gathered waters, deeply mov- 
 ing seem not to move," and have lain in that chaste room 
 whose hand-woven carpet and woolen quilt evoke the memory 
 of another day and heard the water falling over the dam all 
 through the quiet night I protest that verisimilitude begets 
 a strange conviction! 
 
 Bernadotte was until recent years the home of Dr. Wil- 
 liam Strode, who is the "William Jones" of the "Anthol- 
 ogy." Here, in the old square house upon the river bank, 
 he got together those amazing collections and compiled the 
 data deduced from his tireless researches in the fields of 
 ornithology, conchology and zoology in general. How it was 
 possible despite the demands of his profession and to add 
 to this, the demands of a large and growing family to satisfy 
 his scientific instincts and enthusiasms; to attend to his 
 large correspondence, that "converse afar with the great;" 
 for those many contributions to scientific journals; for lec- 
 tures ; for every public enterprise that claimed his sympathy 
 and co-operation all this is well nigh inconceivable. A 
 glance at the list of his collections fills one with astonish- 
 ment : Mounted birds, 225 ; scientific bird skins, 500 ; fresh 
 water clams or niads, 550 species; fresh water univalves, 
 400; and these are but the outstanding classifications.
 
 282 Josephine Craven Chandler J - l - s - H - s - 
 
 Dr. Strode 's work in classifying the mussels of Spoon 
 Eiver is of considerable service, for here are found the larg- 
 est and finest fresh-water clams in the world, the unionidoae, 
 or niads, having sometimes been found to measure nine and 
 a half inches in length and to weigh nearly three pounds. In 
 recognition of his work in this particular field the United 
 States National Museum has done him the honor to name a 
 species of fresh-water mussel for him the Pleurobema Stro- 
 diana. The Strodiana is about the size of half of an English 
 walnut and has a beautiful amber colored shell with some 
 striated lines running through it. 
 
 Some years ago Dr. Strode sent a consignment of shells 
 to France. By comparison with the depauperate species 
 found in European countries these mussels must have caused 
 considerable astonishment, for the curator of one museum 
 wrote him with delightful hyperbole that his native city of 
 Bonn "was but a small walled town" and that he feared he 
 would not be able to get them into it. 
 
 An hour with this wizard of the Spoon spent among his 
 mussel shells is something to remember. There is a story I 
 have heard of a visit which the poet-naturalist Ernest Mc- 
 Gaffy once made with him to one of these great clam beds; 
 of Dr. Strode, his sleeves pushed up to his arm-pits, his legs 
 incased in rubber waders, standing for an hour or more in 
 the stream, tossing out one shell after another, fitting each 
 with its scientific name and discoursing familiarly on the 
 subject all the time. It was probably under the impulse of 
 the astonished admiration evoked by this and similar ex- 
 periences that the poet was moved to write on the fly-leaf of 
 the copy of his "Poems of Gun and Bod" which he presented 
 to his friend : " To Dr. Strode, whose knowledge of nature is 
 so comprehensive and various that the little I have learned 
 seems nothing in comparison." 
 
 The correspondence of this modest, almost retiring citi- 
 zen of Bernadotte, and later of Lewistown, brought the world 
 strangely close to this remote community, establishing with 
 points far and wide invisible lines of communication and
 
 MARGARET GEORGE.
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 283 
 
 many a foreign postmark came to mingle its almost inde- 
 cipherable legend with * ' the stamp of Spoon River. ' ' In this 
 house was entertained, betimes, the "County Scientific As- 
 sociation" to which " Perry Qoll" so ardently desired admis- 
 sion before his 
 
 little brochure 
 
 On the intelligence of plants 
 
 Began to attract attention. 
 
 and an atmosphere more native to its interests scarcely 
 could have been found. I could find no history of Perry 
 Qoll, but a certain highly intelligent farmer in that commu- 
 nity by the name of Henry Qoll is well remembered. Whether 
 or not he ever applied for membership in that organization, 
 it is remembered that he was its occasional host. He used, 
 also, to operate a little steamer on the river an excursion 
 boat designed to serve the pleasure seekers who came to Ber- 
 nadotte in the summer time. His character doubtless offered 
 a suggestion to the creative mind of Masters. 
 
 But other interests than those of science were served 
 in the hospitable home of the Strodes. The mistress of the 
 house, by her deep and intelligent interest in letters and 
 ideas, and by the charm and magnetism of her personality, 
 drew about her a group of writers and thinkers who already 
 were beginning to find their way into the literature of 
 the day. Edgar Lee Masters and his sister Madeline; 
 Margaret George, whose verse was appearing in such maga- 
 zines as The Century, Lippincott's, The Atlantic Monthly; 
 W. T. Davidson, editor of the "Fulton Democrat," published 
 at Lewistown, a lecturer and writer known all over the state ; 
 that "Reverend Abner Peet" whose trunk containing "the 
 manuscript of a lifetime of sermons" suffered such ruth- 
 less destruction at the hands of "Burchard the grog-keeper," 
 the Reverend Stephen Peet, in fact, a man of much distinc- 
 tion, editor of "The American Antiquarian and Oriental 
 Magazine"; Ernest McGaffy and his wife, and many others. 
 Mrs. Strode, herself a writer, was even during those busy 
 years contributing to such magazines as "The Youth's Com-
 
 284 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 panion" and "The Boston Educator," and a more ambitious 
 enterprise was under way. One glimpses a social and intel- 
 lectual preoccupation that must have been surprisingly in- 
 spiring. 
 
 But lest the associations of Bernadotte leave us heavy 
 it is well to recall that from the country hereabouts that 
 "rugged nurse" the soil has produced many characters un- 
 trammeled by a too great rennement. There was, for in- 
 stance, that great bully of "The Spooniad" 
 
 hog-eyed Allen, terror of the hills, 
 
 That looked on Bernadotte 
 
 No man of this degenerate day could lift 
 The boulder which he threw, and when he 
 
 spoke 
 
 The windows rattled, and beneath his brows, 
 Thatched like a shed with bristling hairs of 
 
 black, 
 
 His small eyes glistened like a maddened 
 boar. 
 
 As he walked the boards creaked, as 
 he talked 
 
 A song of menace rumbled. 
 Yes, there were lusty spirits in the Valley of the Spoon! 
 
 III. 
 
 OLD LEWISTOWN. 
 
 Lewistown, the first town to be established in Fulton 
 County, was just turning its half century when there came 
 to bide within its gates that small uneasy guest a child who 
 wondered. What his welcome would have been had the citi- 
 zens of this place had intimation of his brooding genius is 
 an interesting point of speculation, for although the distinc- 
 tion which the author of the "Anthology" conferred upon the 
 town is indubitable, yet by its publication it cannot be de- 
 nied that, like "Percival Sharp," he "stirred certain vibra- 
 tions in Spoon Eiver." The plaint of "Zarathustra," "The
 
 Vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 285 
 
 poets lie too much," has found its echo here in sad reversal. 
 
 Mr. Masters has told us that he was twelve years of age 
 when he came to Lewistown, and ten years of his life were 
 lived here, but whether the two hundred and fourteen char- 
 acters that went to the creation of the book which was to 
 herald him to fame some twenty-three years after his de- 
 parture from the town, were the result of conscious memory 
 or merely of "that inward shaping force" which psycho- 
 logists tell us is the tenure of the formative period, one 
 feels that these were years of tremendous significance; that 
 the moment that compassed the awakening of his intel- 
 lectual and of his sense life, in a community somewhat alien 
 to him, was precisely that which the virginal curiosity of the 
 child and the dream power of the poet should convert to 
 the ends of art. These years that were filled with wonder 
 and speculation; with Burns and Poe and Keats and Shelly; 
 with the infinite pains and experimentation that produced 
 four hundred poems these years gave him, if nothing else 
 as net result, that most delicate of all the materials of 
 genius, the very corner stone of his abounding fame, the 
 idiom of a people. 
 
 Though the spectacle that inspired the "Anthology" 
 grew out of the small trade and petty enterprise of those lean 
 years following the Civil War, the poet has paid tribute to 
 the pioneers and to that stalwart generation following them 
 as the epitaphs of "Judge Somers," "Washington Mc- 
 Neely," "Herndon" and many others show; and no poet 
 that America has produced, not even excepting Whitman, 
 has voiced so constantly a sense of the pageantry which an 
 intimate knowledge of her history inspires. 
 
 The period of Masters was contemporaneous with the 
 third generation in the life of Lewistown the shirt-sleeve 
 period if you will. It was his good fortune to arrive upon 
 a time rich in anecdote and through this medium he came to 
 an amazingly intimate comprehension of its historic back- 
 ground. His association with the people of the town and 
 country in his school and social life, his knowledge of the
 
 286 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 petty political intrigues the scandals of the court-house 
 circle which his father's position as one of the leading 
 lawyers of the town opened to him, gave him the immediate 
 present; and the many intervening years between the inci- 
 dents that concern the lives of his characters and the "mo- 
 ment of invention" proved, no doubt, that very important 
 period of transition involving the phenomenon familiar in 
 all creative work the translation of the concrete into terms' 
 of the abstract, and back again, through the medium of art 
 to the concrete. A process implying a little loss compen- 
 sated by an enormous gain; a rediscovery of incident 
 touched only with significance; a fealty that concerns itself 
 with life, rather than with fact. 
 
 In all essential ways the characters of the "Anthology" 
 are re-created. It is true that nearly all of those two hun- 
 dred and fourteen names in the table of contents the in- 
 vention of which has elicited the astonished admiration of 
 his critics may be found on the tombstones, in the tele- 
 phone books, and on topographical maps of the Spoon Biver 
 country, but with the exception of perhaps a scant dozen, 
 they are names re-assembled, re-created in composite like 
 the characters they represent. The psychology involving 
 the relation of a name to the personality denoted by it is 
 not yet fully comprehended, but almost everyone has felt 
 the matter to have, significance. George Moore once pointed 
 out that all lyric poets have beautiful names names abound- 
 ing in vowels and liquids Alfred Tennyson, Charles Alger- 
 non Swinburne, Dante, Gabriel Eosetti; but Thackery! 
 Thackery is of course a novelist inspired by the acrid spirit 
 of the ironic a satirist by the very force of his name. A 
 whimsey of course, but an idea opening a field of specula- 
 tion that is not without its importance. It was his theory that 
 a man's work proceeds from his name. 
 
 Apparently to Mr. Masters names have stood, first of 
 all, for locality, but no fixed method of characterization is 
 discernable. Sometime by the substitution of a single let- 
 ter or by the transposition of one, a character true both to
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 287 
 
 fact and life seems clearly indicated; sometimes by the com- 
 bination of a distinctive Christian name and a surname two 
 characters will appear to be suggested and again, by an allu- 
 sion to some apparently unimportant incident a cage of 
 canaries or a cedar tree on the lawn the identity of the char- 
 acter involved will, to those long familiar with the town, 
 seem to be implied. 
 
 All such "identifications" are confusing and, for the 
 most part, misleading. Excepting a very limited number of 
 characters, only suggestions have been furnished by the peo- 
 ple of Spoon Eiver suggestions from which the creative 
 mind of the poet has evolved a community so genuine and 
 so significant that "Spoon Eiver" has been said to trans- 
 cend locality and to belong to the very "Comedie Humaine" 
 of life itself. 
 
 It is, perhaps, because the "Anthology" is so intensely 
 local that it may claim to be so largely universal, reminding 
 one of that paradox of Masters' applied to Lincoln in his 
 "Autochthon" 
 
 great patrician, therefore fit to be 
 Great democrat as well! 
 
 The people of Spoon River have, by inadvertence, paid 
 tribute to Mr. Masters' authenticity of vision by their 
 prompt and sometimes resentful recognition of the personnel 
 of his book. One is reminded of the situation in which 
 Charles Dickens found himself after having projected his 
 Yorkshire schoolmaster Mr. Squeers upon the pages of his 
 "Nicholas Nickelby." Mr. Squeers was, in fact, a creature 
 made from scraps of memory; from impressions received 
 when and here the analogy continues he was a "not very 
 robust child, sitting in by-places, ' ' and synthesized into a type 
 but a type so telling that more than one Yorkshire school- 
 master laid claim to being the original. One even consulted a 
 solicitor as to the grounds on which he might obtain redress, 
 as if he coveted the honor of establishing in that way the 
 association with his name of the ignorance and brutal cu- 
 pidity for which that character is synonym.
 
 288 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 Such a predicament, though embarrassing, is, in a sense, 
 the highest praise. Mr. Masters' small town is the average 
 small town. His studies include ten or twelve social groups, 
 two doctors, half a dozen lawyers, ten or twelve politicians, 
 two editors, two bankers, several poets, artists and fiddlers, 
 four preachers, seven prostitutes, two nymphomaniacs and 
 a scattering of hypermorons beside the great number of 
 characters not lending themselves readily to classification. 
 An average grouping perhaps for a town of twenty-five 
 hundred. 
 
 It is unfortunate for the fair name of Lewistown that 
 the untutored mind is prone to oversensitiveness in the con- 
 templation of morbid psychology. There is no doubt that 
 such a character as "Henry Wilmans" infinitely outweighs 
 in its impressiveness a half dozen such characters as 
 "Thomas Trevelyan," "William and Emily," and "Aaron 
 Hatfield." Even so unprovincial a critic as Miss Lowell has 
 been impelled to wonder "if life in our little Western cities 
 is as bad as this why everyone does not commit suicide." 
 "Spoon River," she declares, "is one long chronicle of rapes, 
 seductions, liasons and perversions," and gravely adds that 
 "it is a great blot upon Mr. Masters' work. It is an obliquity 
 of vision, a morbidness of mind which distorts an otherwise 
 remarkable picture. ' ' 
 
 That Miss Lowell believed herself to be discussing 
 "Hanover, Illinois," absolves her from imputation of 
 personal malice, but a careful scrutiny of the matter 
 reveals not more than sixty-five out of the two hundred 
 and fourteen characters in the book to be, according to 
 Shavian classification, "unpleasant." Mr. Masters is, with- 
 out doubt, in the "Anthology" as in his later books, pre- 
 occupied with pathology, but sixty-five out of two hundred 
 and fourteen does not, perhaps, represent a ratio dispropor- 
 tionate to the conditions of life itself and more than with 
 pathology, Mr. Masters is preoccupied with Life. 
 
 Lewistown by no means predisposes to suicide. Its 
 streets are tree-embowered and "wonderful for grass." Its
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 289 
 
 business houses are ranged about the square, in the center 
 of which stands the courthouse. A fountain splashes in a 
 park near by, and here and there about the town stand the 
 dignified old mansions of that steadfast second generation 
 that had its share and that no mean one in shaping the des- 
 tiny of the nation in the moment of her greatest peril. Beach- 
 ing out from it toward the east and south and west are 
 stretches of lovely hill country declining gently towards the 
 valleys of the Spoon and the Illinois ; while to the north are 
 great expanses of prairie, those fertile farmlands, ''fair as 
 the garden of the Lord." Decidedly, Lewistown does not 
 predispose to suicide. 
 
 If a town, like an institution, is "the lengthened shadow 
 of a man ' ' then Lewistown may be said to measure the moral 
 stature of Ossian M. Boss. He was the first soldier of the 
 War of 1812 to claim his quarter section in the Military Tract, 
 but he was not the first adventurer into this promised land. He 
 found there before him a certain John Eveland located upon 
 the banks of Spoon Biver and he, in turn, had been preceded 
 by a figure so vague in outline as to be almost legendary: a 
 Dr. Davison, a recluse and misanthrope whose one desire was 
 to be alone; a man of considerable culture as his speech and 
 the refinements of his cabin showed. He lingered only a little 
 while after the influx of people from the East began, moving 
 to the Starved Bock country, where, eventually, he died. So 
 romantic and mysterious a figure he seemed, so strangely 
 touched with tragedy that Mr. W. T. Davidson wrote a novel 
 founded on his character, called "The Hermit". He pub- 
 lished the story in his paper the Fulton Democrat, and within 
 the present year, his daughters who have continued the paper 
 since his death, at the instance of a number of the "faithful 
 readers ' ' have run it again in its columns. Strangely enough 
 an accident has discovered to them, within the last few 
 months, that the purely conjectural hypothesis upon which 
 Mr. Davidson based the hegira of his hero to the land of 
 wilderness a tragedy of his love life was correct.
 
 290 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 The tale is chiefly valuable as a commentary upon the life 
 and manners of that early day. A description of Dr. Davi- 
 son's ascent of the Spoon may be of interest here and taken 
 as a fairly faithful picture of that wilding stream. It must 
 be remembered that Editor Davidson was writing in the 
 splendid adjectiverous nineties. 
 
 ' * The sun was going down on a delicious summer 
 day going down beneath an enchanted western forest of 
 giant oaks, elms, sycamores and walnuts. The eastern 
 shore of the river was hills and sand ; a little way above 
 an emerald isle (the little detached strip of land that is 
 called Cuba) on the west, and beneath the arches of great 
 trees a smaller clear shining river. 
 
 " 'It is the River Mequeen', and the doctor stood up 
 hat in hand ; and bowing low he gently said, ' My queen ! ' 
 "But four oars swept the boat forward swiftly, con- 
 stantly, round the bends of beautiful clear water; the 
 pebbles many feet below were plainly seen; the water 
 seemed full of fish; at every turn there was something 
 new to admire. The glistening white sandbanks; the great 
 trees drooping over the silvery stream as though to pro- 
 tect and bless it; through forest aisles an occasional 
 glimpse of the gorgeous prairies to the east or the bold 
 and glorious hills to the south and west the almost 
 deafening chorus of the birds ! There were no vandals 
 to shoot or stone them in those days. Every tree was 
 a song-bird's home. They passed many herds of red 
 deer and turkey." 
 
 This description, barring the deer and turkey, and possi- 
 bly the clearness of the water for the Spoon takes toll of 
 many farm lands is quite as true now as then, though no 
 mention is made of the luxuriant growth of vines that give 
 the river an almost tropical aspect. The place is still a para- 
 dise for birds : cardinals, orioles and prothonotory warblers 
 flash their gold and crimson back and forth across the stream ; 
 the red-winged blackbird flaunts his brilliant shoulders from 
 the topmost branch; the tanager, that velvet miracle, flits 
 from spray to spray of overhanging bough, holding you fast
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 291 
 
 with the tantalizing seduction of his black and scarlet. Many 
 curves of the river hold in a close embrace timbered thickets 
 so dense with vine and implicated undergrowth the haunt 
 of bats and owls and creeping things that they seem to offer 
 the challenge of the " Woods of Westermain", 
 Enter these enchanted woods 
 You who dare ! 
 
 Ossian M. Ross came to Illinois from Seneca, New York, 
 in 1820. He brought with him, besides his family a wife 
 and three children a blacksmith, a carpenter, a shoemaker 
 and several other workmen and their families. His first pause 
 was at Alton on the Mississippi but after a year spent at that 
 place he decided to push on toward the ultimate objective, 
 followed the Mississippi northward to the Illinois, ascended 
 that river as far as the mouth of the Spoon, and penetrated 
 inland on the waters of that stream to a point adjacent to the 
 section to which he was entitled in the " bounty lands'*. 
 
 Mr. Harvey Ross, a son of Ossian Ross, who published in 
 his declining years a book called "The Early Pioneers and 
 Pioneer Events of the State of Illinois" has written with de- 
 lightful attention to the importance of minutiae: 
 
 "My father on examining his map found that his land 
 was about six miles north of Mr. Eveland 's place. He 
 took some of his men, and with his compass, chain and 
 field notes had no trouble in locating his land. Father 
 selected the quarter section north of Lewistown for our 
 home, and built a log house on the north side of a little 
 creek that ran through the land, and near a fine clear 
 spring of water. The location was sixty rods northeast 
 from Major Walker's present residence." 
 Writing of Mr. Eveland, who was the first to welcome 
 them to the country, and incidentally glimpsing the crudity 
 and hardship of these early days, he says : 
 
 "Mr. Eveland had a large family of ten or twelve 
 children, part of them grown. They had some twenty 
 acres in cultivation, and were engaged in raising stock. 
 They had come into this country from Calhoun county,
 
 292 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 making the trip up the Illinois and Spoon Eiver partly 
 by land and partly by water. Before leaving Calhoun 
 county they constructed a pirogue (a large canoe). It 
 was hewed out of a cottonwood tree. The length of the 
 boat was forty feet, and was about four feet wide. It 
 was run by sail and also by oars. On this craft they 
 shipped their hogs and also their goods. 
 
 "This pirogue is entitled to more particular atten- 
 tion, because it was put to many uses of convenience and 
 utility among the early settlers. It was the first craft 
 used to carry people across the Illinois Eiver at the 
 mouth of Spoon Eiver, and it was the first craft that 
 the Phelpses used" (we shall come to the Phelpses later 
 on) "in shipping their first stock of goods from St. Louis 
 to Lewistown, and this was the first stock of goods ever 
 brought to Fulton County. This pirogue was also used 
 by the early settlers to run down Spoon Eiver to the Illi- 
 nois Eiver, and thence down the Illinois Eiver to the 
 mouth of the Sangamon Eiver, and then up the Sanga- 
 mon to Sangamon town, where there was a watermill to 
 which our people took their grain to be ground into 
 breadstuff. A great deal of skill had been used in dig- 
 ging out and constructing this pirogue. For years it 
 took the place of the magnificient steamboat and railway 
 trains that later generations employed." 
 When Mr. Eoss came to the present site of Lewistown, all 
 that country lying between the Mississippi and the Illinois 
 rivers and extending to the northern boundary of the state 
 was included in the county of Pike. Mr. Eoss immediately 
 took steps to effect the organization of Fulton County, and 
 by 1823 he had accomplished not only this but the town of 
 Lewistown had been platted from the quarter section which 
 came to him from the government, and had been established 
 as the county seat. In 1825 Peoria county also was carved 
 out of this great territory, but until that time the whole north- 
 ern portion of the state, including people from Ft. Dearborn 
 (now Chicago) had had to come to Lewistown for marriage, 
 tavern, and ferry licenses ; to pay their taxes, and do all the
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 293 
 
 county business. The old court record book for 1823 gives 
 
 under the date of June 6th: 
 
 "On motion it was ordered that Ossian M. Eoss have 
 license to keep an inn or tavern in the house where he 
 now resides in said county by paying the sum of ten dol- 
 lars in state paper. 
 
 ' ' On motion it was ordered that the following be the 
 list of tavern rates, to-wit: victuals 25c, horsekeeping 
 per night 37 1 /oc, lodging per night 12%c, whiskey per half 
 pint. 12^0, rum and gin per half pint 25c ; French brandy 
 per half pint 50c, wine per half pint 37Mjc, and all other 
 liquors in like proportion." 
 
 On the record book for January 27th, 1823, we find three 
 county commissioners "having been appointed agreeable to 
 the act of Congress ' ' reporting among other matters, the dona- 
 tion by Ossian M. Ross to "said County of Fulton a good war- 
 rantee deed in fee simple for the following town lots for pub- 
 lic buildings. ' ' These lots are for the site of a court house 
 and jail, for a "burying yard", for a meeting house, a school 
 house, a Masonic Hall and not less than six lots for a "public 
 Squear." 
 
 Having thus generously dowered the town which he had 
 named for his little son Lewis, and helped to put in motion 
 the machinery of civilization in this new country, Mr. Eoss, 
 at the end of the decade, moved to new pastures across the 
 Illinois, and there, at a point just opposite to the mouth of 
 Spoon Eiver, gave himself afresh to the labors of organiza- 
 tion and established the town of Havana, at which place he 
 lived until his death. 
 
 The first merchant to open a store in the newly platted 
 town was Judge Stephen Phelps. He came with his five sons 
 from Sangamon County in 1824, to which place they had ar- 
 rived from Palmyra, New York, four years earlier. A few 
 months later he was joined by his son-in-law John W. Proctor 
 and his wife. The Phelps and Proctor families have been 
 closely associated ever since, through marriage and business 
 affiliations. When Judge Phelps was established he took his
 
 294 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 son Myron into partnership with him and the store came to 
 be known under the name of "Phelps and Son". In time the 
 daughter of Myron Phelps married Charles Proctor, a relative 
 of John W. Proctor, and he became a member of the firm; 
 Henry, the son of Myron Phelps, ultimately succeeded to his 
 father's place and the firm name became "Phelps and Proc- 
 tor"; and finally, on the retirement of Mr. Phelps, Mr. Proc- 
 tor took his son Charles, Jr., now grown to manhood, into 
 partnership and he is now in active management of the store 
 which is approaching its centennial. 
 
 The sons of Judge Phelps were, like their father, natur- 
 ally adapted to the mercantile business. Charles and Myron 
 remained with him in the store at Lewistown; Sumner and 
 Alexis went to Yellow Banks now Oquawka on the Mississ- 
 ippi where they established a Trading Post, but William, in 
 whom the spirit of adventure predominated, found abundant 
 opportunity for its exercise in the operation of the Indian 
 trade about Lewistown. Much of the Phelps' business, both 
 at Lewistown and at Yellow Banks was Indian trade and the 
 preeminence of their success in dealing with the red-skins was 
 due to their honesty and their unfailing kindness to them. 
 Although the valleys of both the Spoon and the Illinois Eivers 
 were thickly populated with the Indians, yet many came from 
 great distances, and Judge Phelps kept a house for the ex- 
 clusive accommodation of such. Mrs. Phelps, too, had a 
 motherly eye upon them and no squaw or papoose ever lacked 
 for care or food while within her province. 
 
 But especially beloved among these people was the 
 young son of the Judge and Mrs. Phelps, William. Al- 
 though he was but sixteen when he first arrived in Lewis- 
 town, he had attained the height and proportion of a full- 
 sized man; his great strength, together with his athletic 
 taste and skill, won the admiration of the young braves and 
 he entered with them into their games, wrestling, running 
 and target practice and sometimes joined them on hunting 
 and fishing trips. They gave him the name of Che-che-pin- 
 e-quah, meaning powerful shoulders, arms and neck. His
 
 CAPTAIN WILLIAM PHELPS. 
 
 "Che-che-pin-e-quah."
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 295 
 
 hands, they said, were like a woman's but having the grip of 
 a bear. 
 
 Che-che-pin-e-quah 's popularity with the Indians stood 
 him in good stead when his father allotted him their trade for 
 his portion of the business. So impatient he was to prove him~ 
 self that instead of waiting for the furs and other peltry to 
 be brought to him he went out among the Indian villages and 
 collected it from them and soon had a great shipment, and 
 was off without delay to St. Louis to market it. 
 
 At first a canoe was used for transportation; then a 
 raft was requisitioned and poles and sails were employed; 
 but afterwards as the trade became more extensive and the 
 values of the furs increased, better transportation facilities 
 became necessary, so this intrepid youth, now arrived at the 
 age of nineteen, purchased a first class river boat which he 
 christened "The Pavilion," and which he anchored at Ha- 
 vana. 
 
 His cargoes by this time were considerable. Mr. Harvey 
 Boss tells of seeing the boat loaded at one time. He says: 
 1 ' The cargo consisted of barrels of pork and honey, packages 
 of deer-skins and furs, barrels of dried venison, hams, bees- 
 wax and tallow, sacks of pecans, hickory nuts, ginseng, 
 feathers and dry hides." Ordinarily four days were re- 
 quired to make the trip to St. Louis, but adverse conditions 
 of weather and high water so increased the difficulties of 
 transportation that several weeks were occupied with the trip. 
 The brothers at Oquawka patronized the boat and the return 
 trip brought supplies to the Lewistown store. In his twenty- 
 fourth year Mr. Phelps who was now and always afterward 
 known as Captain Phelps married Miss Caroline Kelsey of 
 Lewistown, and went with her into the wilds of Iowa, where 
 he established a trading point near the present site of Des 
 Moines a post which he maintained for sixteen years. It 
 was from this period of his life that Mr. "W. T. Davidson and 
 Miss Margaret George drew the material for their novel called 
 "The Yellow Rose," taking their title from the name which 
 the Indians gave to the lovely blond woman who was the Cap- 
 tain's wife.
 
 296 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 These years on the frontier were filled with adventure 
 and enterprise. No fur trader of his time was more favor- 
 ably nor better known than Captain Phelps. The volume of 
 his business was enormous, his customers among the Indians 
 extending as far as the Rocky Mountains. He was univer- 
 sally trusted by the people among whom he dealt and the con- 
 fidence which he gained at this time made him of signal serv- 
 ice to the Government at the time of the Black Hawk war. He 
 was a warm personal friend not only of Black Hawk but of the 
 chief who was to succeed him, Keokuk, and although he joined 
 Captain Gains' company of Illinois Volunteers at the begin- 
 ning of the Indian trouble, his sympathy for the red men and 
 their desire to recover the territory lost through the ignor- 
 ance and cupidity of their chiefs, never failed him. At the 
 close of the war, and after he was released from his confine- 
 ment at Fort Monroe, Black Hawk returned to his people and 
 eventually built himself a house, after the manner of the 
 white man, near the home of Captain Phelps. But the old 
 chief was disheartened. His power was gone ; his old home in 
 the Bock River country lost to him forever, and in few months 
 he died. It is probable that in his passing Black Hawk left 
 no friend who grieved his loss more sincerely, nor who after- 
 wards did his memory greater honor than Che-che-pin-e- 
 quah. 
 
 During the time of the Indian troubles Captain Phelps' 
 boat was requisitioned to help in the removal of captive In- 
 dians and of their squaws and papooses up the Mississippi 
 and across to the western side where their new territory 
 was located. On one of these trips an incident occurred that 
 evermore endeared him to the Indian people. There had 
 been a great bustle and confusion in getting the Indians on 
 board, and by some chance two squaws had left their babies 
 behind asleep in their wigwams. The boat was well under 
 way when they discovered their loss and in great excitement 
 and distress, their black hair disheveled, tears running down 
 their cheeks and milk streaming from their breasts, they 
 rushed to the captain their one sure friend and implored 
 him to return. He immediately reassured the frantic women,
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 297 
 
 rang the bell, ordered the boat back to shore, and the 
 papooses were restored to their mothers, to their great joy 
 and immeasurable relief. Later on, when the Indian troubles 
 were at an end, the two squaws brought their little rescued 
 boys to the trading post for the Captain to see, and to repeat 
 again and again expressions of gratitude; nor .did they fail 
 to find many services of kindness to render him, his wife and 
 his children in after years. 
 
 In 1846 Captain Phelps sold his trading post and boat 
 and returned to Lewistown where, as also at Havana and 
 Ipava, he entered the mercantile business, built an elevator 
 on Spoon River, operated the ferry across the Illinois at Ha- 
 vana and, after the Civil War during which period he served 
 as Provost Marshal for his Congressional district bought 
 many acres of the hill country about the Spoon, and there, 
 where in his boyhood he had visited the wigwams of his In- 
 dian friends, put his herds to graze. In his later life, ten 
 years after the death of the "Yellow Eose," he married Miss 
 Tillie M. Guernsey, a woman of much cultivation, whose af- 
 fection still keeps green the memory of this remarkable man. 
 The Indian friends of Che-che-pin-e-quah never forgot him, 
 nor failed to avail themselves of every opportunity to send 
 him messages of greeting. His old friend Keokuk had 
 died soon after the Captain's departure from the trading 
 post, but Chief Joe of a later generation, with his two wives 
 and several children, once planned to visit him. They had 
 reached Peoria when the illness of one of the children neces- 
 sitated their turning back and the trip, much to the regret of 
 both the Captain and his Indian friends, was never consum- 
 mated. 
 
 The long adventurous life of this man would furnish a 
 volume of fascinating tales. He was, himself, a famous story 
 teller and one who never hesitated to turn a point against 
 himself. There is one which he used to tell as illustrating 
 his belief in the efficacy of prayer. 
 
 As a boy he had visited the lead mines of Galena where 
 his brother Myron had certain interests. Once, when walk- 
 ing over the rough country thereabouts, his attention was
 
 298 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 attracted by an eagle circling high above him. Thinking to 
 discover its eyrie, he kept his eye upon the bird and inad- 
 vertently wandered out of the beaten path and stumbled 
 into one of the open pits. The moment was a perilous one; 
 the rough stone ledge on which he had been able to fasten 
 his hold was crumbling beneath his weight; below him, for 
 all he knew, yawned a bottomless abyss, and in that frantic 
 moment he searched his memory for prayer. The Lord's 
 Prayer escaped him, but his childhood's supplication was too 
 firmly rooted in subconsciousness to desert him now, and there, 
 hanging by his hands, this great strapping youth prayed, 
 "Now I lay me down to sleep." At that point his hold gave 
 way and he fell, helpless but unscathed, to the bottom of the 
 pit a distance of perhaps f dur feet ! 
 
 IV. 
 
 OLD LEWISTOWN CONTINUED. 
 
 Perhaps the next man of importance to take up his abode 
 in Lewistown, one who was to keep for many years a shaping 
 hand upon her destinies, was he who is referred to in the 
 introductory poem of the "Anthology," "The Hill," as 
 Major "Walker who had talked 
 With venerable men of the revolution. 
 
 His death occurred as late as 1897 and his memory, which 
 remained undimmed to the last, covered with wonderful clear- 
 ness and precision nine decades of a century. 
 
 Major Walker was a native of Virginia, and a man who 
 already had arrived at considerable distinction when he came 
 to Illinois for, while yet but twenty-one, as Major in the state 
 militia, he had been appointed to the command of the escort 
 of Lafayette when that great man paid his fourth visit to 
 this country in 1824, accompanying him during almost all of 
 that triumphal trip through Virginia. 
 
 In 1835 the Major, then a man of thirty- two, came with 
 his bride of a year to Illinois and to Lewistown. He subse- 
 quently built a commodious house on the very place that 
 Ossian Ross had left five years earlier, and there he lived 
 out, in dignity and unfailing usefulness, his remaining years.
 
 MAJOR WALKER 
 "Who Talked With the Men of the Revolution.'
 
 vol. xiv. Nos. 3-4 xhe Spoon River Country 299 
 
 In politics the Major was a Whig of most uncompromis- 
 ing conviction, schooled in the school of great statesmen and 
 great men. In Virginia he had listened to such men as 
 Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Eandolph and 
 Henry Clay ; and in the new land to which he had adventured 
 he was to meet and to hold in the close intimacy of an abid- 
 ing friendship one whose destiny was to carry him to in- 
 finitely greater heights Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Major Walker's acquaintance with Lincoln began in 1838 
 when both were serving in the Legislature in the old State 
 Capitol at Vandalia. Adlai E. Stevenson, in an address on 
 Stephen A. Douglas which he delivered before the Illinois 
 State Historical Society, said of that body: 
 
 1 ' The Tenth General Assembly was the most notable 
 in Illinois history. Upon the roll of members of the 
 House, in the old capitol at Vandalia, were names in- 
 separably associated with the history of the State and 
 the Nation. From its list were yet to be chosen two Gov- 
 ernors of the Commonwealth, one member of the Cabinet, 
 three Justices of the Supreme Court of the State, eight 
 Representatives in Congress, six Senators, and one Presi- 
 dent of the United States. That would indeed be a not- 
 able assemblage of law makers in any country or time, 
 that included in its membership: McClernand, Edwards, 
 Ewing, Semple, Logan, Hardin, Browning, Shields, 
 Baker, Stuart, Douglas and Lincoln." 
 The chief measure before the Legislature at this time 
 concerned the building of the Illinois Central Railroad, a bill 
 having been introduced to obtain from Congress grants of 
 land to aid in its construction. This measure, which Major 
 Walker felt to be disastrous to the fortunes of the state, was 
 warmly approved by Lincoln, showing even in that early day 
 his certain vision and statesmanship, for it was the very suc- 
 cess of this measure that contributed more, perhaps, than any 
 other issue of that day, to the great prosperity of Illinois. 
 Those familiar with this period in the state 's history will re- 
 member how the completion of the road marked the beginning 
 of an era of marvelous development in Illinois and gave a
 
 300 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 new impetus to all lines of industrial progress. The five 
 years following the passage of that bill saw an increase in 
 the population of the state from nine hundred thousand to 
 near one and a half million, and the prosperity of the state 
 was assured. The final passage of the bill was due chiefly to 
 the labors of Stephen A. Douglas, though Justice Breese had 
 advocated the measure in a former session. 
 
 The friendship established between Major Walker and 
 Lincoln at Vandalia was augmented during the following as- 
 sembly to which they were both re-chosen from their respec- 
 tive counties: The Capital, in the meantime, had been re- 
 moved to Springfield and it was while the two were attending 
 Legislature there that the intimacy grew and became for the 
 Major a fruitful source of reminiscence in the years that 
 followed. 
 
 In an interview which Mr. Francis M. Love of Lewistown 
 had with him in 1895, he spoke of the evenings when Lincoln 
 would come to his room and how, when tired of telling stories 
 he would ask for a little music and he, the Major, would play 
 for him. Also when he went to see Lincoln the beloved fiddle 
 would go along. It was not all stories and fiddling though. 
 Many grave matters were discussed and among them the one 
 that always transcended all others the question of human 
 slavery. 
 
 On one of these visits Lincoln bantered the Major for a 
 wrestling match. The Major was a fine figure of a man, 
 almost as tall as Lincoln and well proportioned, but he was 
 no wrestler. He referred him, however, to his friend and 
 colleague Jonas Rawalt. Rawalt, who shared with Walker the 
 leadership of the Whig party in Fulton County, was a man of 
 smaller build and for that reason Lincoln demurred. The 
 Major, however, assured him that he need not stand back on 
 that account; Rawalt accepted the challenge and the match 
 was on. Lincoln, given his choice of the holds, chose the back 
 hold which was just what Rawalt wanted. 
 
 "Did Lincoln throw him?" asked Mr. Love. 
 
 "Well, I guess not" laughed the Major, enjoying the 
 affair afresh in reminiscence.

 
 Vol. xiv. NOB. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 301 
 
 ''Throw Rawalt? I guess not! There was not a man 
 in that Legislature could do that. Rawalt threw Lincoln be- 
 fore you could count ten to save you. You see Rawalt came 
 from the logging country in Illinois where he had a great 
 reputation as a wrestler. Lincoln laughed as heartily as any 
 of us over the incident. ' ' 
 
 An amusing affair which the Major liked to laugh over 
 was in reference to a temperance lecture that was held in the 
 old Free Mason Hall in Lewistown. Lincoln had been asked 
 to address the meeting, but he was trying a case that evening 
 before Judge Douglas. "So," said the Major, "Lincoln asked 
 Cal Winchel, another visiting attorney, to go over and make 
 the speech for him. He knew that Winchel was a drinking 
 man but thought he would make a very fine temperance 
 speech. When he had finished speaking they passed the 
 pledge around for Cal Winchel to sign. 
 
 'What?' says Cal, 'me sign that? Well, I guess not. You 
 don't find me doing anything so foolish as to sign a temper- 
 ance pledge. Why, ' he said, ' I 'd rather be shot than sign it ! ' 
 
 "Lincoln," continued the Major, "used to tell the story 
 often on Cal Winchel who afterward became a judge and a 
 good one, but never, so far as I know, quit drinking." 
 
 Lewistown has boasted four court houses in its time, but 
 the one that is always referred to as the "old Court House," 
 the one round which the pleasantest memories cluster, the one 
 which "Silas Dement" burned on that moonlight night (De- 
 cember 14th, 1895), was designed and built under the direc- 
 tion of Major Walker in 1838; one John Tomkins, being the 
 master-builder. It was burned on the Major's ninetieth 
 birthday. 
 
 The court house burning is one of the several dramatic 
 foci which give to the "Anthology" almost the suggestion of 
 a plot. It directly involved the fortunes of at least three 
 characters of the book : ' ' Silas Dement, ' ' who performed the 
 incendiary deed, "W. Lloyd Garrison Standard" who de- 
 fended the "patriot scamps" who planned the affair, and 
 "A. E. Culbertson" who voiced his disaffection from the 
 grave that "Editor Wheadon" and "Thomas Rhodes"
 
 302 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 should be given a tablet of bronze while his own contributions 
 of labor and money toward the building of the new temple 
 
 are but memories among the people 
 Gradually fading away, and soon to descend 
 With them to this oblivion where I lie. 
 None of these names in any way suggests the principals 
 involved in the court house scandal, nor did the " Silas De- 
 ment" of the actual occurrence suffer incarceration in the 
 penitentiary at Joliet, though a certain " presumptive de- 
 linquent" laid in jail for a season pending trial; but there is 
 no one in Lewistown or Fulton county not familiar with one 
 version or another of the alleged plot arising out of one of 
 the town's epic struggles to retain the county seat. In 1878 
 her claim had been contested by Canton, a thriving manufac- 
 turing town in the county; in 1888 Cuba, another avid neigh- 
 bor, sought to win the prize ; and pending the rounding of an- 
 other ten years, Canton was supposed again to be casting 
 covetous eyes in her direction. It seemed obvious that some 
 drastic measure must be resorted to. If the old court house 
 should be destroyed and a new one built before the time ar- 
 rived for the next contest it was fairly certain that the County 
 would not consent to a fresh draft upon her funds for many 
 years to come. However that may have been the court house 
 burned, and there was a great scandal. Certain prominent 
 men were tried for conspiracy, but nothing came of that. The 
 county refused to shoulder the expense of a new building and 
 the new court house was built by private subscriptions from 
 citizens of Lewistown and the immediate vicinity. 
 
 The event of that night in December of 1895 as described 
 by " Silas Dement" is a dramatic one: 
 
 It was moon-light, and the earth sparkled 
 
 With new-fallen frost. 
 
 It was midnight and not a soul was abroad. 
 
 Out of the chimney of the court house 
 
 A grey-hound of smoke leapt and chased 
 
 The northwest wind. 
 
 I carried a ladder to the landing of the stairs
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 303 
 
 And leaned it against the frame of the trap- 
 door 
 
 In the ceiling of the portico 
 And 1^ crawled under the roof amid the rafters 
 And flung among the seasoned timbers 
 A lighted handful of oil-soaked waste. 
 Then I came down and slunk away. 
 In a little while the fire-bell rang 
 Clang! Clang! Clang! 
 And the Spoon Eiver ladder company 
 Came with a dozen buckets and began to pour 
 
 water 
 
 In the glorious bon-fire, growing hotter, 
 Higher and brighter, till the walls fell in, 
 And the limestone columns where Lincoln 
 
 stood 
 Crashed like trees when the woodman fells 
 
 them. 
 
 When I came back from Joliet 
 There was a new court house with a dome. 
 For I was punished like all who destroy 
 The past for the sake of the future. 
 The building which Major Walker had designed upon the 
 lines which the Virginians had adapted from the old Greek 
 ideals the rectangular structure relieved by four great pil- 
 lars in front was a thing to please the eye, being both simple 
 and dignified. Its upper story was originally reached by means 
 of a circular stairway on the inside, but the danger and in- 
 convenience of that arrangement soon urged the advisability 
 of having the stairway placed on the outside from under the 
 deep portico. The total cost of the building was only eight 
 thousand dollars, and it is amusing to discover that those 
 great columns which were quarried from the Spoon Eiver 
 bottom, cost but one and a half dollars a section. It is not 
 true, as " Silas Dement" would have us believe, that in the 
 fire they ' ' Crashed like trees when the woodman fells them ' '. 
 They were in fact left standing and the two central ones the 
 pillars between which Lincoln stood to make his great speech
 
 304 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 in 1858 were afterwards removed to the cemetery and there 
 erected as a memorial inscribed "To Our Patriot Dead". 
 The others may be found in sections, placed here and there 
 about the town, used chiefly as mounting-blocks before the 
 houses of the citizens who hold the old building in beloved 
 memory. 
 
 The old court house, from its very earliest history cher- 
 ished the tradition of great men. As early as the forties 
 Judge Stephen A. Douglas was presiding at the Fulton 
 County court and Edward Dickinson Baker (the beloved 
 "Ned Baker," "the silver tongued") frequently plead be- 
 fore its bar. Mr. W. T. Davidson, in his "Famous Men I 
 Have Known in the Military Tract" says of him: 
 
 "From my sixth or seventh year I vividly recall 
 that splendid specimen of young manhood as he appeared 
 in the old court-house, always crowded by people of the 
 county who came to meet their favorite party leaders 
 and to feast upon their oratory. 
 
 "But Ned Baker was in a class by himself. If he 
 only spoke for five minutes to court on some point of 
 law, the crowded court room was all attention. But if in 
 a murder case he spoke for hours his audience was 
 thrilled to the verge of collapse. Two-thirds of a cen- 
 tury has passed, but I can see that straight, lithe, blond, 
 graceful youth as he swayed his audience, jurors, the 
 bar and even the judge upon the bench with the music 
 of his voice and his word-pictures, his irresistible logic, 
 his illustrations, and the unconscious, spontaneous, per- 
 fervid oratory that come as fresh to me as when a child 
 like the musk of an ancient queen that fills her apart- 
 ment an age since she is dead. 
 
 "Glorious Ned Baker, who led our Illinois troops 
 from victory to victory in Mexico, and while a United 
 States Senator from Oregon, was shot dead at Ball's 
 Bluff in 1861 while leading a brigade in that heroic battle 
 for the Union." 
 
 General James Shields was a familiar figure here. He 
 was not only a great orator and a great soldier, but was
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 305 
 
 afterwards distinguished as the only American to be chosen 
 as United States Senator from three states. When Ste- 
 phen A. Douglas resigned from the bench of the Supreme 
 Court of the State of Illinois he was appointed by the Gov- 
 ernor to fill his unexpired term. Francis 'Shaughnessy, in 
 an address delivered at the dedication of the monument to 
 General Shields at Carrollton, Missouri, November 12th, 1914, 
 said: 
 
 " Shields' fame might have been locked up in the 
 sheepskins of law libraries had not President Polk called 
 him from the Supreme Bench to the office of Commis- 
 sioner General of the Land Office of the United States. 
 He had just set to work in a broad, intelligent way to 
 administer the affairs of this big office when the annexa- 
 tion of Texas, followed by a chain of rapid events, cul- 
 minated in a war with Mexico." 
 
 Judge William Kellogg came to Canton, Illinois, in the 
 early forties and Fulton County claimed him until 1863 when 
 he went to Peoria. No man of his period had a surer grasp 
 of the politics of the time, nor a more prophetic vision. He 
 was Lincoln's closest friend and advisor from the birth of 
 the Republican party until his ( Kellogg 's) retirement from 
 his third term of Congress in 1857. Lincoln was himself, of 
 course, in attendance on almost every term of court through 
 these years. 
 
 But not only could the bar of Fulton County boast vis- 
 itors of distinction; these splendid forties saw also the de- 
 velopment of a number of Lewistown's citizens who later 
 were to come into prominence in her own and broader fields. 
 W. C. Goudy, who had come here from the east to study law 
 under Judge Wead, and incidentally to lay the foundation of 
 that career that was to gain him, for many years in later 
 life, the undisputed title of Chicago's leading lawyer; S. P. 
 Shope, afterwards Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of 
 Illinois; Leonard F. Ross, hero of Vera Cruz and Cerro 
 Gordo, educated to the law but making his claim to recogni- 
 tion in the Civil War when, after the capture of Fort Donel-
 
 306 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 son, he was commissioned Brigadier General ; and Col. L. W. 
 Boss, for whom the town had been named, and who was des- 
 tined to become its greatest and most constructive citizen 
 and who was just beginning his long and brilliant career in 
 law and politics. 
 
 The next decade was to see the names of Robert Inger- 
 soll, William Pitt Kellogg and S. Corning Judd added to the 
 already glorious roll of the old courthouse. Ingersoll the 
 audacious, the brilliant, the great-hearted in those days a 
 radical Democrat engaging here at Proctor's Grove and at 
 other points all over the district, in those joint debates with 
 Fulton's "Old Man Eloquent," Judge Kellogg, which left a 
 trail of brilliance that lingers still in the memories of those 
 who heard them debates that were destined to end in defeat 
 for Ingersoll in the race for that coveted seat in Congress 
 which he had hoped to win from Kellogg; William Pitt Kel- 
 logg (a distant relative and law partner of the Judge), hand- 
 some, young, elegant in those days, avoiding the drudgery of 
 the office, but lounging about the court-house and the offices 
 of his Lewistown friends on court days, delighting them with 
 his wit and brilliant anecdote and who was to become in turn 
 Lincoln Elector, Governor of the Territory of Nebraska, re- 
 construction Governor of Louisiana, and finally Senator from 
 the same state; and S. Corning Judd, who in the seventies 
 as Chancellor of the Episcopal Diocese of Illinois came into 
 prominence through his prosecution for the Episcopal 
 Church of the case against the Eev. Dr. Cheney, which com- 
 menced in 1869 and is considered one of the most important 
 cases of this kind ever conducted in this country, and who 
 was appointed Postmaster of Chicago under Cleveland 
 in 1885. 
 
 But the Golden Age of Lewistown was probably denoted 
 by the fifties, a period of great importance in the history of 
 the whole of Illinois. Its development was coincidental with, 
 if indeed, not attributable to, the sudden rise of the press to 
 a position of enormous power and influence and its wilful 
 shaking off of the old trammels and restraints that hitherto
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 307 
 
 had made it an organ of subservience rather than of leader- 
 ship. It was the great hour of the " country editor" in Illi- 
 nois, and the press found in this state, which was virtually 
 the arena of the great slavery struggle that was to terminate 
 in the Civil War, an instrument made to its hand. 
 
 It was an anti-slavery editor, Paul Selby, who called to- 
 gether the Illinois editors united on this sentiment and or- 
 ganized a party which should take unqualified grounds in 
 opposition to slavery, and out of this meeting grew the or- 
 ganization of the Republican party, born and nourished in 
 this State, and giving to the nation one of its greatest Presi- 
 dents and to the world one of its greatest Liberators. 
 
 Back of the leaders on either side of this issue were 
 ranged a stalwart group, and the battle might be said to have 
 been fought to its ultimate conclusion in the columns of these 
 newspapers. Among those on the Democratic side in un- 
 flinching support of Douglas was W. T. Davidson of Lewis- 
 town; a "country editor," to be sure, but wielding one of 
 the powerful pens in the Military Tract, having at his 
 disposal all the gifts of invective, sarcasm, pathos and illumi- 
 nating humor. "It is not too much to say" wrote a con- 
 temporary, at his death, ' ' that Davidson belongs in that small 
 class of really great editors; that he was to Illinois provin- 
 cial journalism what Bennett, Greeley, Dana, Storey, Medill 
 and other master journalists were to national newspaperdom. 
 He had filled and dominated his restricted sphere as thor- 
 oughly and well as they did their larger fields." 
 
 In Mr. Davidson's later life he held for the character of 
 Lincoln the most intense veneration and reverence. He 
 came to be regarded as an important authority on Lincolniana 
 and his lectures on Lincoln and Douglas were delivered all 
 over the United States. He was one of Lewistown's most 
 picturesque characters. 
 
 The two greatest days in the history of the town, those 
 on which it bases its surest claim to historical recognition, are 
 known upon its calendar as "Douglas Day," and "Lincoln 
 Day."
 
 308 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 Lincoln and Douglas had become, as will have been seen, 
 familiar figures about the streets of Lewistown in the forties, 
 and the passing years had brought to both but particularly 
 to Douglas increasing fame. Douglas was at this time the 
 most noted man in America, and the Democratic Party was 
 looking forward to the next Presidential election to place him 
 in the Executive Chair. The country was prescient with 
 some great danger to the Union growing out of the increasing 
 agitation over the question of slavery and state's rights and 
 Lincoln, though lacking the fame of Douglas was believed to 
 be no mean opponent. The challenge which Lincoln had given 
 Douglas for that series of debates throughout the state, which 
 has come to be referred to as the "hundred days' contest," 
 had been accepted and the Lewistown speeches preceded the 
 first of those engagements the Ottawa debate by a few 
 days only. 
 
 Masters, in "The Lincoln and Douglas Debates," which 
 is included in the collection of his poems called "The Great 
 Valley," has put into the mouth of his uncouth philosopher 
 a description of that day. 
 
 them were great days. 
 
 One time the Little Giant came here with Linkern 
 
 And talked from the steps of the court-house ; 
 
 And you never saw such a crowd of people; 
 
 Democrats, Whigs, Locofocos, 
 
 Know-nothings and Anti-masonics, 
 
 Blue lights, Spiritualists, Eepublicans 
 
 Free-soilers, Socialists, American such a crowd. 
 
 Linkern 's voice squeaked up high, 
 
 And didn't carry. 
 
 But Douglas ! 
 
 People out yonder in Procter 's Grove, 
 
 A mile from the Court house steps, 
 
 Could hear him roar and hear him say : 
 
 " I 'm going to trot him down to Egypt 
 
 And see if he '11 say the things he says 
 
 To the black republicans, in northern Illinois."
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 309 
 
 It made you shiver all down your spine 
 To see that face and hear that voice 
 And that was The Little Giant ! 
 
 And then on the other hand there was 
 
 Abe Linkern standing six foot four, 
 
 As thin as a rail, with high-keyed voice, 
 
 And sometimes solemn, and sometimes comic 
 
 As any clown you ever saw, 
 
 And runnin' Col. Lankfor's little steamer, 
 
 As it were you know, which would bobble the skiff, 
 
 Which was the law ; 
 
 And The Little Giant 's other foot 
 
 Would slip on the bank, which was the constitution 
 
 And you could almost hear him holler ' * ouch. ' ' 
 
 And Linkern would say: This argument 
 
 Of the Senator's is thin as soup 
 
 Made from the shadow of a starved pigeon ! 
 
 And then the crowd would yell, and the cornet band 
 
 Would play, and men would walk away and say : 
 
 Linkern floored him. And others would say : 
 
 He ain't no match for the Little Giant. 
 
 But I'll declare if I could decide 
 
 Which whipped the other. 
 
 Proctor's Grove, where Douglas delivered his address 
 on this occasion (you remember how "Hod Putt" beholding 
 How Old Bill Piersol and others grew in wealth 
 Robbed a traveler once in Proctor's Grove) 
 is still referred to by its original name, although it is now 
 platted into town lots under the name of Davidson's Sec- 
 ond Addition. It formerly comprised thirteen acres shaded 
 by magnificent forest trees. It lies to the south and 
 west of the town, within walking distance, and used to be 
 the forum for all open air speaking in the early days in 
 the history of Lewistown. It was the place where po- 
 litical rallies were held, and Fourth of July celebrations, and 
 especially was it noted as the theatre of those stirring
 
 310 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 debates that used to engage the wit and eloquence and logic 
 of the public men of that day. It was at Proctor's Grove 
 that William Pitt Kellogg once crossed swords with S. Corn- 
 ing Judd; here Ingersoll and Judge William Kellogg began 
 their series in their senatorial race of 1860; and here the 
 voice of almost every distinguished man possessed of the 
 gift of oratory in central Illinois was heard at one time or 
 another. 
 
 But the red letter day for Proctor's Grove is forever 
 fixed in its history as August 16, 1858 "Douglas Day." 
 
 The importance of the occasion can be imagined. On 
 the Friday preceding the Monday which was the 16th the 
 "Little Giant" had spoken at Havana, and on Saturday morn- 
 ing a committee of Lewistown's citizens from the Democratic 
 ranks I note among them the names of W. C. Goudy and 
 Col. L. W. Ross went to that place to escort Douglas to 
 their city. Several miles out of town they were met by a great 
 concourse of people come out to do him honor ; a brass band 
 played, and much cheering went to the general effect of a 
 triumphal entry into the town. Mr. Douglas was entertained 
 at the house of Mr. Goudy, and during that three days' stay, 
 for he remained till Tuesday morning, hundreds of citizens 
 called upon him ; the string band, that ubiquitous small town 
 adjunct, serenaded him, a display of fireworks added its 
 glare and glory, and all went splendidly. 
 
 On Monday morning, however, an effigy of "Douglas 
 the Traitor " was found conspicuously displayed in the square; 
 also the ropes of the Democratic pole had been cut and a 
 small civil war threatened. Excitement ran high but the mat- 
 ter was finally passed over in the press of the great occasion. 
 
 Immense delegations came to Lewistown from every town- 
 ship in the county. It was estimated that half the county 
 was there, for it must be remembered that not only was this 
 section of the state intensely Democratic but Douglas had 
 been for twenty years its political hero. Therefore when 
 he began his speech that day in Proctor's Grove he literally 
 looked down upon acres of faces, probably 5,000. For the
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 311 
 
 first and only time in his experience, it is said, his voice was 
 unequal to the occasion and after he had spoken for an hour 
 Col. Eoss was called upon to address the people in his stead. 
 
 On the following day, which was August the 17th, Lincoln 
 came to Lewistown. He, also, came from Havana where he 
 had gone to address the people. He was escorted from that 
 place to Lewistown by a committee consisting of Major 
 Walker, his old friend, John W. Proctor and others. He 
 also was met by a delegation, though a much smaller one 
 (seventy-six horsemen, seventeen wagons and buggies are 
 mentioned). No doubt the brass band came again into play; 
 he too, was serenaded duly and there was much greeting and 
 hand-shaking to be gone through. At two o 'clock that after- 
 noon, he spoke from the portico of the old court house. How 
 singularly at home be must have looked! That tall, gaunt, 
 dramatic figure, full of grave dignity, standing between those 
 great columns of unpolished, native stone. 
 
 It is recorded that he began simply and directly, as was 
 his usual way, addressing his remarks, apparently, to an old 
 man on the right flank of the crowd. He spoke earnestly 
 for several minutes ; then some men on the other side called 
 out: " Abe, you've talked to them fellers long enough. Now 
 talk to this side awhile." Whereupon Lincoln quietly apolo- 
 gized for his preoccupied manner and made the rest of his 
 speech to the other side ! 
 
 Lincoln's audience was by no means so large as Douglas' 
 had been, but it gave him close, even rapt, attention. Major 
 Walker heard him with awe and wonder. Twenty-five years 
 had passed since he had heard his voice in debate, and al- 
 though he had been told that his friend had made great pro- 
 gress in the matter of public speaking he was not prepared for 
 the power and eloquence, the tremendously moving quality 
 of his simple speech. 
 
 It was on this occasion that Lincoln delivered the glow- 
 ing eulogy on the Declaration of Independence which the 
 London Times commented on as worthy to be preserved among 
 the Nation's classics.
 
 312 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 Lincoln was entertained at dinner that night by Major 
 Walker, spent the night with Mr. John "W. Proctor, and the 
 next morning was driven by the Major to the point thirty- 
 two miles away where he was to take his train. The Major 
 bade good-bye to Lincoln there, and neither he nor Lewistown 
 was to see his face again. 
 
 V. 
 
 THE MCNEELY MANSION. 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting monument to the fifties 
 still extant in Lewistown is the stately old house which Col. 
 L. W. Ross, son of Ossian Boss, built in the middle of the 
 decade. Although it has passed from possession of the 
 family, and has sustained some injury from fire, it is still in 
 an excellent state of preservation, having been restored by 
 Mr. A. J. Bay, with a fine sense of fitness and an appreciation 
 of its historic value. Mr. John Kennedy is the present owner 
 of the house. It is, by common consent, identified with the 
 McNeely mansion of the " Anthology." So descriptive of 
 the Boss fortunes are the first lines of the Washington Mc- 
 Neely epitaph except that the girls were sent to Notre Dame 
 and Vassar that it reads like true biography : 
 
 Bich, honored by my fellow citizens, 
 
 The father of many children, born of a noble mother, 
 
 All raised there 
 
 In the great mansion-house, at the edge of the town. 
 
 Note the cedar tree on the lawn ! 
 
 I sent all the boys to Ann Arbor, all the girls to Bockf ord, 
 
 The while my life went on, getting more riches and honors 
 
 Besting under my cedar tree at evening. 
 
 The years went on. 
 
 I sent the girls to Europe; 
 
 I dowered them when married. 
 
 I gave the boys money to start in business. 
 
 They were strong children as apples 
 
 Before the bitten places show.
 

 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 xhe Spoon River Country 313 
 
 Also three names of the McNeely children are Boss 
 names; but Mary died in infancy; John, who "fled the coun- 
 try in disgrace," was the bright particular star of the fam- 
 ily, and Jennie who, peradventure, "died in child-birth," is 
 Mrs. G. K. Barrere of Los Angeles, California, and has just 
 written me in response to my inquiry if I might without of- 
 fense to her so identify her old home: "I have not the least 
 objection to your speaking of the McNeely mansion as the 
 
 Ross home Adverse criticism has such a different 
 
 meaning to me from what it once had. It is only the reflec- 
 tion of one's own viewpoint. There are two sides to every- 
 thing in life, including people, and it is up to us which side 
 we see." It is an amusing incongruity, considering the fate 
 of "Jennie," that Mrs. Barrere 's letter ends: "I wish you 
 might see our three grandsons. They are the joy of our 
 lives." 
 
 Colonel Boss was forty-three when he began the erec- 
 tion of the "mansion-house at the edge of the town." Al- 
 ready honors had begun to find him out. He had been twice 
 chosen to a seat in the Legislature ; his service in the Mexican 
 war had brought him the title of Colonel ; he had been Presi- 
 dential Elector in 1848 ; and he was the acknowledged leader 
 of the Democratic party in Central Illinois. 
 
 In early life he had married Miss Frances Simms, the 
 daughter of a fine old Virginia family, a sister to the wife of 
 Major Walker, and a thriving group of boys and girls was 
 growing up about him, crowding the modest limits of the 
 parental quarters. Moreover, to build a house is an instinc- 
 tive act in man a reaching out, perhaps, after some portion 
 of that material permanence that is the undoubted tenure of 
 things that are made with hands. 
 
 Somewhere along the Hudson Colonel Boss had once 
 seen a house that exactly pleased him. He had obtained the 
 plans, and now that a permanent home was in contempla- 
 tion, he carried them out to the last architectural minutia. 
 The house stands today exactly as when completed. The 
 main body of the building is the old square form with the 
 wide hall running through the center, but it extends
 
 314 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 in the rear on three different levels, after the New 
 England fashion, adapting itself to the gentle decline of the 
 land at that point, beginning with the kitchen and servants' 
 quarters and terminating in the wood and carriage houses. 
 Indeed the most interesting view of it is obtained from the 
 rear, but trees and shrubbery obscure its fine proportions 
 from the camera. 
 
 The house, which contains seventeen rooms, was built 
 of brick burned in its own door-yard, the stone for its foun- 
 dations came from the valley of the Spoon, where, also, the 
 lime for the plaster was kilned a fine old house, as native to 
 its surroundings as the forest trees on its lawn. H. V. V. 
 Clute, a young master carpenter and wood-worker, came from 
 the East and spent a year on its interior finish, and the win- 
 dow and door lintels, the paneled infolding shutters of the 
 long French windows of the East Parlor, and the banisters 
 of the fine old double staircase attest his skill. 
 
 The house is set in spacious grounds. There was for- 
 merly a small deer-park of twenty acres in the rear, and 
 There is a garden of acacia, 
 Catalpa trees, and arbors sweet with vine. 
 
 Although the building was completed in 1857, and be- 
 came a place of hospitality from its inception, yet owing to 
 that troublous period preceding the breaking out of the Civil 
 War, the hard years of its duration, and those immediate to 
 its conclusion, no social event of importance took place there 
 until in 1869, when the eldest daughter of the house gave her 
 hand in marriage to Mr. B. M. Hinde. 
 
 Mr. Hinde, who is always affectionately referred to as 
 u Judge" Hinde, lived, until his death two years since, in 
 Lewistown and the lovely oval face of Ellen, long since de- 
 ceased, looks out from a canvas above his mantlepiece 
 "judge" by courtesy only, a tribute, he used to declare, to 
 his connoisseurship in good whiskies and fine horses. Indul- 
 gence in both these tastes had long since been relinquished, 
 but the title persisted, perhaps on other grounds, for he was 
 to the end past master of that subtler, finer sport the almost
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 xhe Spoon River Country 315 
 
 perished flower of his generation a raconteur of delightful 
 tales. 
 
 Whatever traditions have come to the enrichment of the 
 history of this place, none are more dramatic than those as- 
 sociated with it through the events of the Civil War. Those 
 were stirring times in a section of the state that was essen- 
 tially Democratic. At a meeting held in the old court-house 
 on April 3rd, 1861, Leonard F. Eoss withdrew from the old 
 party, but his brother, Colonel Ross, remained in the Demo- 
 cratic ranks. In 1863 he was chosen a member of the House 
 of Eepresentatives, and being twice re-elected, served till 
 1869. But those early years of the war were tense years for 
 Lewistown and there was a time when, owing to trouble en- 
 countered in making enrollments for the draft, and in arrest- 
 ing deserters, the Provost Marshal of the Congressional Dis- 
 trict sent a company of German cavalry always referred to 
 as the Dutch cavalry to Fulton county. A little later these 
 were reenforced by fifty additional cavalry and a company of 
 eighty infantry. Arrests in the south end of the county had 
 aroused the people in that section to a point of insurrection. 
 "There are no words," says an old newspaper account, "to 
 tell the horror and excitement of that day." A mob of six 
 or seven hundred armed men came up from the south of 
 the county and sent in an ultimatum that unless the prisoners 
 were given up, they would be rescued at whatever cost. Colo- 
 nel Ross as leader of the Democratic party naturally came 
 under the suspicion of being in sympathy with them, and as 
 one of the counter-moves on the part of the military, a cannon 
 was trained directly upon the fine new house. 
 
 Matters were, of course, adjusted. The prisoners were 
 not surrendered, but they were granted an immediate trial 
 under Judge David Davis of Springfield, and were acquitted. 
 The old offensive enrolling officers were removed and men in 
 whose fairness the county had confidence, named in their 
 places. Both sides profited by the experience and thereafter 
 the enrolling went on without resistance; such deserters as 
 were arrested surrendered quietly; and after a time the mili- 
 tary marched away.
 
 316 Josephine Graven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 Many memories stand about this place; memories of 
 famous people entertained at its hospitable board; memories 
 of love and passion evinced by a package of old letters, tied 
 with a faded ribbon, slipped down between the inner and 
 outer walls and discovered by workmen after the recent fire ; 
 memories of the pains of birth and death; of towering ambi- 
 tions and of spiritual disasters; and memories of that long 
 procession of the dead who came to lie, one by one in the 
 library with windows looking towards the west and, presently, 
 in the ' ' burying-yard " which their sturdy progenitor, Ossian 
 Ross, had bequeathed to the city in its infancy, and where so 
 many friends and kindred already were "sleeping, sleeping, 
 sleeping, on the hill". 
 
 It may be interesting to know that the tradition of the old 
 Boss line has been carried on by the Colonel's eldest son. John 
 Boss, like his father, entered the profession of the law. He 
 began his career in politics by serving one term in the Legisla- 
 ture of his native state but soon afterwards he went to Wash- 
 ington, D. C. He was made postmaster of the capital city un- 
 der Cleveland and during the Harrison administration re- 
 ceived the appointment making him one of three commis- 
 sioners of the District of Columbia, a position which he held 
 until his death. His two sons, throughout the late great war 
 served their country in France, Tenny Ross as Lieutenant 
 Colonel in the regular army and Lee with the engineering 
 forces; and the latter 's son has but lately graduated from 
 West Point. 
 
 Not all the memories are sad that stand about the old 
 "McNeely mansion". 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ST. JAMES. 
 
 It is strange that during the uneasy period of the Civil 
 War there should have been added to the town of Lewistown 
 the structure that has proved, perhaps, the most constant 
 aesthetic influence throughout the whole of the Spoon River 
 country The Episcopal Church of St. James.
 
 'j^'--''\-"'''i'~y& : ?% '/ '' ' - ' - 
 
 "" ,4-? M' ' x ''"' r
 
 vol. xiv. NOB. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 317 
 
 As early as 1859, we learn from the files of The Fulton 
 Democrat, an organization of that denomination was formed 
 and a plan was made to build a "beautiful Gothic church". 
 On the old vestry book the name of S. Corning Judd appears 
 as Senior Warden and it was doubtless chiefly due to him that 
 the ideals in church architectures, just beginning to obtain in 
 the East, found expression in this little western town. 
 
 Mr. Judd, who has been referred to in the chapter on Old 
 Lewistown, was born in New York state, and had, before com- 
 ing to Illinois in 1854, a various experience. He studied law 
 in the eastern part of the state, passing his examination in 
 Albany; took up the practice of his profession in Syracuse; 
 presently became editor of the Syracuse Daily Star an old- 
 line Whig paper, devoted to the interests of that party as 
 represented by Webster, Fillmore and other famous political 
 men. He relinquished that post to accept a position with the 
 Department of the Interior at Washington. After eighteen 
 months spent in that city he returned to Syracuse becoming, on 
 this occasion, both proprietor and editor of the Daily Star. 
 Upon the general disruption of the Whig party he sold his 
 paper and ventured west, coming to Lewistown and entering 
 into a law partnership with the Honorable W. C. Goudy as 
 previously stated. 
 
 He was twenty-seven when he came to Lewistown but he 
 had, from earliest manhood, been an ardent churchman; was 
 familiar with the best in church architecture of his day; and 
 it is probable that he was acquainted with, and interested in, 
 the work and ideals of that organization known as the ' * New 
 York Ecclesiological Society" which was formed in 1848 for 
 the avowed purpose of working certain radical changes in 
 ecclesiology, the chief principles of which were the adoption 
 of the Pointed Gothic of the Augustan Age of Architecture, 
 deep chancels, proper furniture for chancels, altars, and the 
 like. 
 
 The value of this pioneer movement in America scarcely 
 can be over estimated when it is remembered that prior to this 
 time church building throughout the country had consisted 
 almost altogether in the erection of unpleasing rectangular
 
 318 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 structures, crudely reminiscent of Grecian temples, and 
 uniting in mongrel assortment, the elements of domestic and 
 of commercial architecture. "I suppose", said Ralph Adams 
 Cramm, in his " Quest of the Gothic", "there is no more 
 awful evidence of rampant barbarism than that which exists 
 in the architecture of the United States between the years of 
 1820 and 1840." It seems strange indeed that up to the build- 
 ing of Trinity (New York City) by Upjohn in 1847, not a single 
 church, constructed along the lines of the fourteenth century 
 Gothic, was to be found on this continent ; and so undeveloped 
 was the whole body of liturgical science that it was not till 
 1860 that the rector of even that leading church had the cour- 
 age to vest its choir. 
 
 The labors of the Ecclesiological Society covered a period 
 of five years, ending its career in 1853, and already, in '59 
 so fast the flame of beauty runs in this remote western 
 town of at that time less than a thousand inhabitants, a 
 "beautiful Gothic church" was in contemplation! The suc- 
 cess of this ambition, culminating in 1865, was due to the en- 
 terprise of Mr. Judd who secured, through influence, the 
 plans for the building, from a New York church architect of 
 considerable fame, Edwin Tuckerman Potter. He consented 
 to furnish them only on the consideration that no expense 
 should be spared in the erection of the building that would 
 make for the complete development of the design. In ac- 
 cordance with this stipulation Mr. Judd obtained the bulk of 
 the funds for the enterprise from the East. He furnished 
 from this source, about $6,000, and the people of Lewistown 
 contributed the remaining $2,000 required. 
 
 This architect, the son of Bishop Alonzo Potter, was one 
 of the first exponents of the Gothic in America. He has to his 
 credit a number of fine churches in this country, notably the 
 Church of the Heavenly Eest, N. Y., Colt Memorial Church at 
 Hartford, Conn., and the Church of the Good Shepherd, as 
 well as the Memorial Hall at Schenectady, N. Y., but it is 
 doubtful if he has left to do him honor any building, either 
 large or small, more perfectly conceived in the faith of the 
 Seven Lamps than the little church at Lewistown.
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 319 
 
 As originally built for a wing has been added since 
 the building was 66 x 26, but the satisfying proportion of the 
 angle of its pointed roof to the architectural demands of the 
 mass, the propriety of its moderate buttresses, the grace and 
 fitness of its slender tower, all conspire toward the expres- 
 sion of that consummate art "without which", says Rodin, 
 "the greatest cathedral is less than the smallest church that 
 has it". 
 
 It is built of brick, now time and weather-worn to a lovely 
 monochrome, and relies alone for ornament, upon a design of 
 brick-work that is thrown out in mild relief and which extends 
 around the building some four feet, perhaps, below the eaves ; 
 and upon the effect of the long hand-wrought hinges across 
 the door of the portico. 
 
 The master carpenter employed in the construction of the 
 church was that H. V. V. Clute who had come West at the 
 behest of Col. Ross several years earlier. The stone and brick 
 work was awarded to local workmen but a masonry-artist 
 from Peoria,. Robert Turner, was employed for the ornate 
 portion and a man was brought from Chicago for the interior 
 painting and gilding. 
 
 St. James has a very beautiful marble baptismal font, the 
 gift of the Rev. Dr. Clarkson who was the rector of that St. 
 James Episcopal Church of Chicago for which this one was 
 named. 
 
 It is unfortunate for Lewistown that St. James is falling 
 into disrepair, Many of its more able parishioners have 
 moved away or died, and this lovely monument to the spiritual 
 and aesthetic aspiration of an earlier day, which has won the 
 praise of every lover of good architecture who has come with- 
 in its neighborhood, is suffering decline. Mr. Frederick 
 Fultz, whose name is associated with some of the best early 
 civic and domestic architecture in Chicago, made at one time, 
 elaborate drawings of the building, and pronounced it, in his 
 opinion, one of the most beautiful and perfect examples of 
 Gothic architecture in America, but unfortunately for the pur- 
 poses of this book, these drawings have disappeared since 
 his death, and no trace of them can be found.
 
 320 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 Time and the tenderness of vines is over it, but already 
 there is about this little church, but slightly more than half a 
 century old, the pathos of an unregarded beauty; the fleeting 
 loveliness of things that are conceived in the high faith of love 
 and aspiration, but are fore-doomed, after the brief flowering 
 of an hour, ' ' to pass and to be as dust that is blown now this 
 way and now that, -and in the end is gathered to the wilderness 
 of lifeless things. ' ' 
 
 VII. 
 SCHOOL DAYS OF THE POET. 
 
 For the purposes of poetry the education of Shakespeare 
 according to Ben Johnson was, perhaps, ideal ' ' a little Latin 
 and less Greek. ' ' An academic training is necessarily an em- 
 barrassment to an ego seeking "a gesture of mine own." The 
 contemplations of ''Theodore the Poet" are more directly 
 to the purpose; and just as Mr. Masters has conceived his 
 characters as drawing their philosophy from their occupa- 
 tions "Griffy the Cooper" from his tubs and "Dow Kritt" 
 from digging "all the ditches about Spoon River" so we 
 may suppose as autobiographic his conception of the boy who 
 
 sat for long hours 
 On the shore of the turbid Spoon 
 With deep-set eye, staring at the door of 
 
 the crawfish's burrow, 
 Waiting for him to appear; 
 Who wondered in a trace of thought. 
 What he knew, what he desired, and why he 
 lived at all; 
 
 and, as a significant intimation of that "orientation of the 
 soul to the conditions in life" which is Masters' own defini- 
 tion of poetry, the introspection which completes the poem: 
 
 But later your vision watched for men and 
 women 
 
 Hiding in burrows of fate amid great cities, 
 
 Looking for the souls of them to come out, 
 
 So that vou could see
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 321 
 
 How they lived, and for what, 
 
 And why they kept crawling so busily 
 
 Along the sandy way where the water fails 
 
 As the summer wanes. 
 
 The ten years which the poet spent in Lewistown seem 
 to have been variously employed ; in school both the grades 
 and high; in newspaper work in a local office; in sundry ad- 
 ventures in long-distance journalism; and in reading law in 
 his father's office which undertaking was one of not un- 
 mixed enthusiasm and suffered the interruption of a winter 's 
 study at Knox College at Galesburg, Illinois. Also there was 
 a continual preoccupation with literature, especially poetry, 
 and endless experiments in verse. Four hundred poems 
 before he was twenty-three! It was as a little boy in the 
 grades that he came under the tutelage of that benign char- 
 acter Esther Sparks, who is the "Emily Sparks" of the 
 "Anthology." 
 
 The extreme tenderness which Masters has brought to 
 the conception of the women of his characterization is in- 
 finitely divining; those forsaken women, "Louise Smith" 
 and "Mary McNeely," regarding, each, her soul's disas- 
 ter; "Flossie Cabanis" transcending the sordid failure of 
 her life by that prayer which was the voice of her histrionic 
 aspiration; "Caroline Branson," and the tragedy of the 
 "room with lamps;" "Edith Conant," the pity of her 
 unremembered beauty; "Elizabeth Childers," who cries to 
 the child who died with her death voicing the suffering of 
 women too fine for the harsh conditions of life; even the 
 prostitute "Georgine Sand Miner," who cries out against 
 her ultimate degradation. 
 
 If Daniel had only shot me dead! 
 
 Instead of stripping me naked of lies, 
 
 A harlot in body and soul ! 
 
 "Emily Sparks" is one of the most subtly rendered, 
 as she is one of the most universal, of all the Spoon River 
 folk. She is long since dead, but the "eternal silence" of 
 her that spoke to the soul of "Reuben Pantier" is eloquent 
 to a larger audience:
 
 322 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 My boy, wherever you are, 
 
 Work for your soul's sake, 
 
 That all the clay of you, and all the dross 
 of you, 
 
 May yield to the fire of you 
 
 Till the fire is nothing but light ! . . . . 
 
 Nothing but light! 
 
 It was during his first year in the high school that Mas- 
 ters came under the influences of the teacher who proved 
 to be his greatest inspiration, and who awakened in him an 
 abiding interest in literature Miss Mary Fisher. 
 
 Miss Fisher was a young woman of twenty-seven when 
 she came to Lewistown in 1885, and her preparation had been 
 exceptional. She had studied in Chicago, Edinburg and 
 Boston. At Boston she had touched elbows with the Con- 
 cord School, had caught the flame of its enthusiasm for let- 
 ters and ideas and here in Lewistown in the one year of her 
 sojourn, she held aloft the torch. Ten years later she began 
 the publication of a series of books that established her 
 claim to a place of distinction in the field of letters and 
 gave proof of her exceptional breadth and vision as an edu- 
 cator. Between the years of 1895 and 1902 she published 
 successively " Twenty-five Letters on English Authors," 
 "A Group of French Critics," "A General Survey of Amer- 
 ican Literature," and a novel, " Gertrude Dorrence." 
 
 The inspiration and value of the work of such a teacher 
 is always incalculable. In Miss Fisher's group at Lewistown 
 were two others beside the now illustrious Edgar Lee, who 
 were destined to feel the stirring of ambitions and of un- 
 doubted gifts Julia Brown, who afterwards became the wife 
 of Dr. William Strode, and of whom I have already spoken, 
 and Margaret Gilman George. 
 
 Margaret George, though coming under the influence of 
 Miss Fisher, was not of the high school. A faulty heart 
 valve, which caused her too early death, rendered her health 
 inadequate to the rigor of the public school so that it was 
 necessary for her father to instruct her at home. As a re- 
 sult the scholarship of this frail young girl was exceptional.
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 xhe Spoon River Country 323 
 
 Not only was she a mistress of English, but she had a work- 
 ing knowledge of French and was a fine Greek scholar. Her 
 penchant was for the classics, and she had a remarkable 
 knowledge of the Bible. Among the mementoes which her 
 mother now treasures is a little Oxford Bible given her by 
 the Poet when they were both very young. "For Margaret 
 from Lee" is inscribed on the fly-leaf. 
 
 This period was one full of dreams and plans and small 
 exciting adventures for the ambitious youngsters. There is 
 a delightful story of a compact entered into by Edgar Lee 
 and Margaret, to write the very worst ballad conceivable 
 and to undertake to get it published. Nothing came of Mas- 
 ters' venture perhaps he succeeded too completely but 
 Margaret wrote a long sentimental tale in rhyme which she 
 called "The Ballad of the Dishcloth" and sent it to Eugene 
 Field who was then conducting the "column" called "Flats 
 and Sharps" in the Chicago Record. Its immediate accept- 
 ance filled her with unholy glee, but on its publication it was 
 found that Field had taken liberties with the concluding 
 stanzas, and her triumph was changed to chagrin. 
 
 "The Ballad of the Dishcloth" concerned itself with 
 the love affair of a housemaid, her lover the butcher boy, 
 and a shadowy third, a rejected suitor the milkman. The 
 dishcloth was the signal to the lover that the mistress was 
 away and he might venture upon a call. After a time it was 
 decided that he should go away to seek his fortune, but 
 should return within a year to make her his bride. True to 
 his pledge the lover returns, and his emotion on finding the 
 dish cloth out and the tragic denouement, as described by 
 Margaret, is as follows: 
 
 ' ' Oh, trust sublime ! " he fondly cried, 
 
 And ran to kiss the signal white, 
 But as he reached the casement's side 
 
 What tableaux met his frenzied sight. 
 
 There stood false Susan with a man 
 Her head reclining on his breast: 
 
 He loudly praised the dish-cloth plan 
 The while her coral lips he pressed.
 
 324 Josephine Craven Chandler J - l - s - H - s - 
 
 One leap the frantic lover made 
 
 And with the rival wiped the floor ! 
 
 In her own dishcloth choked the maid 
 And left the scene forever more. 
 
 But Gene Field had omitted the last two stanzas and 
 substituted in their stead: 
 
 There sat false Susan in a chair 
 
 Resplendent still in buxom charms, 
 
 Holding, Oh, horror and despair ! 
 A puling infant in her arms. 
 
 "What means this spectacle?" said he, 
 
 Brushing a scalding tear aside ; 
 "I thought you would not come," said she, 
 
 "And so became the milkman's bride." 
 
 ' ' What means the dishcloth then, ' ' he cried, 
 ' ' That from your upper casement swings ? ' ' 
 
 "That's not a dishcloth," she replied, 
 
 ' ' That 's where we dry the baby 's things ! ' ' 
 
 The home of Margaret constituted the nucleus of what 
 might be called the literary group in Lewistown. Mr. B. Y 
 George, who was the Presbyterian minister of the place, was 
 a scholarly, broadminded man. He occasionally contrib- 
 uted to the periodicals, especially church journals; lectured 
 at intervals on literature and the Bible; took a deep and in- 
 telligent interest in the questions of the day, and never 
 wearied of the society of the young folks growing up about 
 him. Mrs. George will be remembered chiefly as a person- 
 ality a woman who found a delightful humor in the spec- 
 tacle of life. She used to give entertaining talks on George 
 Eliot, Shakespeare and the Brownings before Women's 
 Clubs and in the homes of "literary" people, but it was only 
 among the intimates of the inner circle of her friends that she 
 abandoned herself to those moods wherein impersonation, 
 augmented by a natural gift of mimicry, made the relation 
 of the merest incident, having the elements of social comedy, 
 a thing to be remembered.
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 325 
 
 The Georges had two daughters. The younger, Anne, *is 
 now regarded as one of the foremost educators in the United 
 States. She is the American representative of the Montes- 
 sori system ; is the head of that school in Washington, D. C., 
 and to her contributions on the subject to various popular 
 magazines is chiefly due the prompt and intelligent accept- 
 ance, in this country, of the methods of that school. 
 
 Margaret, the elder daughter, would seem to have in- 
 herited, in fortunate conjunction, the intellectuality of the 
 father and the taste and personality of the mother. "The 
 good stars met in her horoscope," and only the briefness 
 of her life, perhaps, defeated her dreams of a place of per- 
 manence among the Lyra Americana. In the seven years 
 between her graduation from Lewistown High and her mar- 
 riage her poems found their way into the best magazines 
 of the day; The Century, Atlantic, Harper's, Scribner's and 
 many others. Her poem "Shrived," which appeared in 
 Lippincott 's, elicited from the editor of that magazine praise 
 that did much to establish her place among the younger 
 poets, and already she had begun to be spoken of as the 
 "coming poet of the West." In 1890 she collaborated with 
 Mr. Davidson in the production of a novel, but this was 
 merely an experiment and proved less interesting to her 
 than her verse. A photograph of her in her young girlhood 
 shows an exquisitely delicate profile, and in the delineation 
 of the high fine brow and the full curved mouth, that supreme 
 combination found in women who achieve in love and art 
 passion and intellect. 
 
 She married in 1895 Mr. W. T. Davidson, and left at 
 her death a little son, Gilman, who was in the late war with 
 the flying corps in France. 
 
 Several years after her death her husband began to 
 collect her poems from various sources, and to print them 
 in the columns of his paper under the caption "Her 
 Songs." "I have found," he says by way of explanation 
 of the previously unpublished verses, "a trunkful of manu- 
 
 *Miss Anne George, now Mrs. Robert Miller, Evanston, Illinois.
 
 326 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 scripts, written many of them, on scraps of paper, some in 
 dim penciling, some mere fragments with pages missing; a 
 holy jumble of precious gems." 
 
 As if some prescience of her early doom had been vouch- 
 safed her she died of heart failure there was found among 
 the many exquisite songs of gladness and love, and hope and 
 heart-break those "things that perish never" "Mora- 
 tura. ' ' 
 
 I am the mown grass, dying at your feet 
 The pale grass gasping faintly in the sun : 
 I shall be dead long, long 'ere day is done. 
 That you may say, ' ' The air today was sweet. ' ' 
 I am the mown grass dying at your feet. 
 
 I am the white syringa, falling now 
 When some one shakes the bough ; 
 What matter if I lose my life's brief noon? 
 You laugh, "A snow in June?" 
 I am the white syringa, falling now. 
 
 I am the waning lamp that flickers on, 
 Striving to give my old unclouded light 
 Among the rest that makes your garden bright : 
 Let me burn still till all my oil is gone. 
 I am the waning lamp that flickers on. 
 
 I am your singer, singing my last note 
 Death's fingers clutch my throat! 
 New grass will grow, new flowers bloom and fall, 
 New lamps play out against your garden wall. 
 I am your singer, singing my last note. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 HERE AND THERE. 
 
 That all the people of the " Anthology" are not "sleep- 
 ing on the hill" is evidenced by the occasional presence upon 
 the streets of Lewistown of an uncouth individual, ragged 
 and unshorn, whom inquiry discovers to be that digger of 
 ditches about Spoon River, "Dow Kritt". His occupation is 
 in harmony with his appearance, and whatever his philosophy
 
 .-*
 
 vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 xhe Spoon River Country 327 
 
 might prove to be on close acquaintance it is obvious that he 
 does not "need to die to learn about roots". A certain 
 Charley Metcalf is pointed out as "Willie Metcalf". His oc- 
 cupation, and his place of residence as well, is a local livery 
 stable. His talent for handling horses is well known; indeed 
 his sense-oneness with all forms of nature suggest a certain 
 atavism. A simple, harmless soul! "William Jones", who 
 has been identified as Dr. Strode, late of Bernadotte, is daily 
 seen about the round of his professional calls or occupied with 
 civic business. A room of his office suite is occupied by his 
 collections and one great cabinet and several tiers of moth- 
 proof boxes containing bird-skins (each wrapped in its tiny 
 shroud) have obtruded themselves within the confines of the 
 office proper. 
 
 But every passage about the town evokes, for the lovers 
 of the ' ' Anthology ' ', the drama of the past. The courthouse 
 which "Silas Dement", on his return from Joliet, found built 
 on the site of the one which he had burned; the bank whose 
 failure involved not less than ten characters of the "An- 
 thology"; and Beadle's Opera House (the "hall of Nicolas 
 Bindle") all stand as monuments to the past, and keep in the 
 steadfastness of brick and stone, "the glory of their fallen 
 day." 
 
 Beadle's Opera House, which belongs to the estate of the 
 late Mr. R. M. Hind, has passed into disuse as a place of en- 
 tertainment since the advent of the cinematograph. Its fres- 
 coes are dim with time and the spider has made his lair in the 
 long deep recesses of the windows ; the walls of the dressing 
 rooms are scrawled with the names of many mummers; and 
 
 on the deep stage . 
 
 that overlooks the chairs 
 
 and where a pop-eyed daub 
 
 Of Shakespeare, very like the hired man 
 Of Christian Dahlmann, brow and pointed 
 
 beard, 
 Upon a drab proscenium outward stared, 
 
 odd bits of "property" stand about with a pathetic patience. 
 Here walk the ghosts of "Flossie Cabanis" and of "Ralph
 
 328 Josephine Craven Chandler J - L s - H - s - 
 
 Barrett, the coining romantic actor" who enthralled her soul; 
 here "Harry Wilmans" heard the Sunday-school superin- 
 tendent make that flamboyant speech which sent him to the 
 rice field near Manila and through 
 
 days of loathing and nights of fear 
 
 To the hour of the charge through the steam- 
 ing swamp 
 
 Following the flag : 
 
 and here was staged one of the episodes of "The Spooniad" 
 which "Jonathan Swift Somers" conceived in epic mood but 
 never carried to completion. Of those two conflicting forces 
 in Spoon River it was the liberals who 
 
 in the hall of Nicolas Bindle held 
 
 Wise converse and inspiriting debate. 
 
 Lewistown has two cemeteries. The one 
 
 Where holy ground is and the cross 
 Marks every grave 
 
 lies to the east of the town. It covers three slopes of a hill on 
 the summit of which is a great gray Christ upon a cross. 
 Gallighers, Maloneys, 'Daniels and many other names be- 
 speaking a Celtic origin are found upon those gravestones 
 but one looks in vain for the name of "Father Malloy". 
 There never has been a Father Malloy in the town, it ap- 
 pears, but a certain Father Thebes answers to that descrip- 
 tion. Every one was fond of Father Thebes, especially the 
 boys. But one insists on a Father Malloy. The name car- 
 ries conviction and "Spoon River" is a large territory. 
 
 The Protestant cemetery, which also is on a hill which 
 covers several gentle knolls in fact is north of Lewistown 
 and is separated from the town by a ravine. No pleasanter 
 place could be found for long, long sleeping. A winding road 
 leads through it, flanked on either side, in the summer, by 
 purple phlox; great elms and small sweet cedars fill the place 
 with restful shadows and with pleasant scents and sounds; 
 and on the central eminence stand those limestone pillars 
 already hallowed by the memory of Lincoln and inscribed to 
 "Our Patriot Dead". All about one are names, that to the 
 literary pilgrim, are essentially "Spoon River" names; aE
 
 'OVER ME A FOND FATHER ERECTED THIS MARBLE SHAFT ON 
 WHICH STANDS THE FIGURE OF A WOMAN."
 
 Vol. xiv. NOS. 3-4 The Spoon River Country 329 
 
 about one on the quaint moss-grown slabs are willow trees 
 and gates ajar, harps and lambs and upward pointing hands. 
 Suddenly through the trees one is startled to descry the figure 
 of a woman upon a marble shaft. Even the long grasses can- 
 not stay the impatience of the feet! " 'Percy Bysshe Shel- 
 ley* ", one says softly with amazement. "Can there really be 
 a 'Percy Bysshe Shelley' in this place?" But astonishment is 
 scarcely less on finding upon the pediment that supports the 
 
 classic figure 
 
 William Cullen Bryant 
 
 Died March 24, 1875 
 Age 24 years. 
 
 Investigation proves that the young man was a relative 
 and namesake of the poet. His father was that Honorable 
 H. L. Bryant who introduced Douglas to his audience in Proc- 
 tor's Grove on the occasion of his great speech. William 
 Cullen like "Percy Bysshe Shelly" of the "Anthology" was 
 the victim of an accident, having been killed by the discharge 
 of a gun while duck hunting on Thompson's Lake. The 
 marble statue is a dramatic figure against the massed back- 
 ground of the cedars, and the coincidence of the two names 
 i& a sufficiently illuminating commentary upon the literary 
 method of Masters. 
 
 In all this silent place one may hear no sound save the 
 wind in the branches of the trees, the insect voices in the long 
 grass and the importunate incessant crying of a flock of tit- 
 mice that have their haunt in the neighboring ravine. Only 
 the "memories" are here, their 
 
 eyes closed with the weariness of tears 
 An immeasurable weariness! 
 
 And yet the loiterer for an hour will find in these grassy paths 
 now bright with sun, now soft with shadows, these low 
 mounds and unostentatious gravestones, how all things con- 
 spire for peace, and those who are a little weary may find 
 themselves reflecting, as Shelley in the Protestant cemetery 
 without the walls of Rome where his body came ultimately 
 to rest: "It would almost make one fall in love with Death 
 itself to think one should be buried in so sweet a place."
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 917.73C36S C001 
 
 THE SPOON RIVER COUNTRY SPRINGFIELD 
 
 30112025337541