GOV. JOHN WOOD

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HSQAC on Break

          The Historical Society is on annual break in January.
          Office hours— 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday— will be resumed  February 1.  The History shop store, observing the same hours, also will be open on Saturdays.
          Tours of the John Wood Mansion, History Museum and Lincoln Gallery  will resume March 1.
          Phone calls to the HSQAC at 217-222-1835 are welcome during the month of January and will be returned within 24 hours.

Thad Ward’s Quincy

Click Image

     Historical Vignettes from
    Thad W. Ward’s
Quincy
and Adams County, Illinois
——
Old Time Happenings
and Events
of Pioneer Days

Available Now

In the History Shop

          The remarkable story of Fr.
Gus Tolton, spirited from slavery,
now a candidate for sainthood.

Visit our Online Book Store

How to become a member:
     Benefits of membership
     How to join
    Quincy’s Second Founder

               Archives

News Stories
“Once Upon a Time” Columns”
Historical Society Newsletters

       Also Inside

          The Lincoln Gallery
            Speakers Bureau
              Image Gallery
          Tours and Programs

Click to hear interview.

Calendar
of Adams County Historical Events

On this day in history:

1888
National Geographic Society founded

January 27, 1862

Lincoln writes an endorsement on a letter from Henry A. Wise, of the U.S. Navy's Ordnance & Hydrography Bureau. Wise forwarded a request from Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote, who is stationed at Cairo, Illinois.

Foote explained, "As the mortar Boats have no accommodations for cooking, keeping or carrying provisions, the men must have a steamer for their accommodation. Shall I purchase or hire a steamer for them?"

Lincoln replies, "If Flag-officer Foote, can find a suitable Boat which he can purchase at a fair price, let him purchase it at once." Henry A. Wise to Abraham Lincoln, 26 January 1862, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Abraham Lincoln to Henry A. Wise, 27 January 1862, IHi; CW, 5:112.

Source: The Lincoln Log.

The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning

Monday  Jany 27.
[Washington]
              Senate in session engaged in consideration of Bright’s case.   Latham made a speech in vindication of him   At night I went to the President’s with enrolled bills

Source: The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, 528.

Come Visit
The Society
425 South 12th Street
Quincy, Illinois 62301
217-222-1835
Find Us on Mapquest

History Shop and Office Hours: 
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Tuesday - Saturday
February - December
(Closed in January)

Tours:
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
March 1 - November 30
 

The Quincy Herald-Whig’s “Once upon a Time in Quincy”—

Kin of Quincy Family Prosecuted President

               One would expect Jean McCarl Kay to have a natural curiosity about history. She is the historical society’s reference librarian and archivist. Her curiosity was aroused a few months ago when she came across a name in the Orville Hickman Browning diary that editor Theodore Calvin Pease did not identify. It was Pease’s habit to give the reader a primer on the names Browning introduced. In the case of “Jno. C. Cox,” a Browning friend for years, however, Pease apparently had no information.
               That sort of omission is just the kind of challenge that is sport  for our Jean Kay, considered one of the area’s “pitbulls” of genealogy. When she researches a name, she does not let go until she has exhausted every resource to learn everything she can about a person. Kay’s genealogical research services are available free of charge to members of the historical society.
               What Kay learned in her hunt for the Cox family’s story revealed a Quincy connection to one of the most important events in the nation’s history. You can read Jean McCarl Kay’s quest for the Coxes by clicking here.

The John C. Cox Addition to Quincy

Historical Society Wins Arts Organization Award

               The Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County on Friday was named the winner of the 2011 City of Quincy Arts Award in the Arts Organization category.
               Mayor John Spring made the annoncement at an Arts Quincy luncheon at the Quincy Exchange Club.
               The awards program is sponsored by the Quincy Society of Fine Arts through  grants from the Quincy Herald-Whig, QNI, Inc., and the Oakley-Lindsay Foundation.
              The prize for the honor is shown at left, a work of art created by Quincy Junior High School student artist Bryslin Powell.
               The mayor said the Society “for more than 115 years had provided stewardship for some of our community’s most important historical treasures.”
               One of those, he said, was the 177-year-old John Wood Mansion, which the society’s members saved from destruction in 1906. Nearly 1,000 people toured the Greek Revival home during the HSQAC’s annual Christmas Candlelight tour in December. Five years ago , Spring told guests, the Association of Independent Architects named the home one of the 150 most important architectural structures in Illinois.
               “The mansion is a gallery of artworks and pieces that reflect the culture of Quincy in the 19th century,” Spring said.
               The society also was honored for its recently opened Lincoln Gallery, where rare artifacts that connect Quincy to President Lincoln are now on display. The mayor also pointed to the society’s website at which visitors can take virtual tours of the mansion and the two-story log cabin on the society’s campus at 12th and State.
               The mayor pointed to several partnershps recently created, including one with the Quincy Herald-Whig to renew a popular history column,  with several other museums for observances related to Quincy’s entry into the Civil War, its work with the Abraham Lincoln Association and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum to bring the “Lincoln in Illinois” exhibit to Quincy and hosting the Quincy Public Library’s annual Big Read program.
               In February, “Generations Project,“ a program of Brigham Young University’s PBS station, which was produced in part at the HSQAC campus, will be broadcast. It will be available locally by satellite.

Mississippi Thespians To Host 9th Civil War Ball

               The young people of the Mississippi Thespians will host their 9th annual Civil War Ball at Lippincott Hall, Illinois Veterans Home, from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, February 18.
               Made up of students, the Thespians perform historical reenactments focusing on antebellum and Civil War America. HSQAC Facilities Manager Roger Leach, a retired school teacher, leads the group.
               The Civil War Ball will feature authentic period music provided by the Ralugerri Band of Holden, Missouri, and square dancing called by Ms. Deborah Hyland of St. Louis. 19th century dress is encouraged but not required. Persons may rent period dress by contacting Leach at 217-223-9879.
               Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students 18 and under. They are available from Thespian members, Great Debate Books in Quincy, Picture Perfect Gallery in Hannibal or by calling Leach. They will be sold at the door that evening. Proceeds support Mississippi Thespian activities.
 

Young Civil War Re-enactors of the Mississippi Thespians

Intern Develops Database of Early County Schools

Early Adams County Schools:  Amen 125, Center 103 and Pea Green 127

Click here to access the Adams County Early Schools database.

               When Western Illinois University Senior Joel Koch of Quincy learned he needed 130 intern hours to complete his degree in history, he offered his services to the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County. Any of the staffers will credit Koch with excellence in his services to the society.              
               Koch (pronounced Cook) has completed a variety of tasks, none more important—and none more needed, however, than his recent compilation of data on early schools of Adams County. His database provides information about 190 schools

City Museums, Sites Feature Quincy in Civil War

               The importance of Quincy and Adams County before and during the Civil War is featured in a variety of exhibits by historic museums and venues in the city. Click on the images at left for visiting hours and contact information.

              As a young man, John Wood joined Edward Coles, the state’s second governor, in a successful fight to prevent Illinois from becoming a slave state in 1824, only five years after it entered the Union as a free state. Wood himself would become governor in 1860. He governed from his home at 12th and State, which allowed his fellow Republican Abraham Lincoln to use the governor’s office for his campaign for the presidency.

               From their home at 415 Jersey, Dr. Richard and Jane Eells helped spirit fugitive slaves to freedom. They were caught trying to help a fleeing Monticello, Missouri slave. An ensuing legal battle was pursued all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to become the most celebrated litigation involving the Underground Railroad.

               Other Civil War exhibitions are at the Quincy Museum, 1601 Maine Street, which has a large collection of wartime weapons; the All-Wars Museum at the Illinois Veterans Home, 12th & Locust, also the home of numerous Civil War artifacts; the Gardner Museum of Architecture and Design, 4th & Maine, with exhibits of homes of the antebellum and civil war era; the Lincoln-Douglas Interpretive Center, 128 N. 5th Street, which interprets the story of antebellum and Civil War Quincy; and the Debate Memorial in Washington Park, downtown, by famed sculptor Laredo Taft, celebrating the Sixth Lincoln-Douglas debate, which was in Quincy on October 13, 1858.