GOV. JOHN WOOD

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Coming Events(Click for details)

Tours          Campus Tours
                   Resume: The Gov.
                   John Wood Mansion,
                   History Museum,
                   Lincoln Gallery

                    Quincy’s “History
                    Shop,” your place for
                    unique gifts, is open.

Now Open    New Exhibit
                    “Shiloh—Horrible
                      Beyond Description”
                      A tribute to the 413
                      young Adams County
                      men at the April 6,
                      1862, Battle of Shiloh

May 19, 20  Preservation Month
                    Tour of John Wood
                    Mansion and Lewis
                    Family Log Cabin

May 20        “Annie Jonas Wells:
                    Jewish Daughter,
                    Episopal Wife,
                    Independent
                    Intellectual” Program
                    by Cynthia Gensheimer

June 8          “Buck Night at the
                    Museum: Adams Boys
                    at Shiloh”
                    The first of three
                    events for you to tour
                    the main venues on the
                    cheap.

June 24        Annual Meeting
                    Program: “The New
                    Madrid Fault: Should
                    You be Worried?”
                    Program by Dr. Leslie
                    Melim, Professor of
                    Geology, Western
                    Illinois University

July 13         “Buck Night at the
                    Museum: The Lincoln
                    Gallery”
                    The second of three
                    events for you to tour
                    the main  venues on the
                    cheap.

August 17     “Buck Night at the
                    Museum: The Gov.
                    John Wood Mansion”
                    The third of three
                    events for you to tour
                    the main  venues on the
                    cheap.

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.
April 1 - November 30
 

Thad Ward’s Quincy

Spring St. was believed to have received its name when a citizen building a cellar struck a spring on his lot.

Thad Ward, Quincy and Adams County, Illinois: Old Time Happenings and Events of the Pioneer Days. (Quincy: Thad Ward Publishing, 1936), 29.
 

Available Now

In The History Shop
417 S. 12th St., Quincy

Lies Told Under Oath
By Payson native Beth House-Lane
The story of the notorious 1912 Pfanschmidt murders.
Mention that you saw this ad
and receive  a 10% discount.

News Stories
    Quincy’s Second Founder
“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:

1954
Supreme Court decides Brown vs. Education

May 17, 1862

Reviews with Sec. Stanton military situation in regard to Gen. McClellan's request for reinforcements. Gen. McDowell is to move toward Richmond and at same time keep approaches to Washington covered.Committee on Conduct of War, Report (1863), 1:273.

Orders McDowell to retain separate command, obey orders of McClellan while co-operating with him, and use own judgment in placing troops for greatest protection of capital.Abraham Lincoln to Irvin McDowell, [17 May 1862], CW, 5:219-20.

Writes Mary Motley, daughter of John L. Motley: "A friend of yours (a young gentleman of course) tells me you do me the honor of requesting my autograph. I could scarcely refuse any young lady—certainly not the daughter of your distinguished father."Abraham Lincoln to Mary Motley, 17 May 1862, CW, 5:220-21.

Source: The Lincoln Log.

The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning

Friday,  May 17 1862
[Washington]
           At the Departments in forenoon, and out calling with Mrs Browning & P.M.  Called at Miss Caldwells, & then Mrs Sammons went with us to Genl. Franklin’s. We afterwards called at Sec’y Stantons.

Source: The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, 545.

Lecture This Sunday on Quincy’s Annie Jonas Wells

               While history accords Abraham Jonas, Quincy’s first Jewish settler and Lincoln promoter, an important place in Lincoln lore, some of the Jonas family’s nine children went on to achieve their own merit.  One was Annie, seventh of the nine children of the prominent Jonas family of Quincy. She was a member of the Quincy Needle Pickets, a local soldiers’ aid society during the Civil War; of Friends in Council, the women’s study society founded in Quincy; school teacher and volunteer in a night school. When wedded to an Episcopal priest, she converted from Judaism.

               Cynthia Gensheimer, an economist and author from Amherst, MA, has included Annie Jonas Wells in her study of American Jewish women’s benevolence during the Civil War. Gensheimer will lecture on Jonas-Wells in a program cosponsored by the Historical Society and the Quincy Public Library at 7 p.m. Sunday, May 20, at the Temple B’nai Sholom, 427 N 9^th St., Quincy. The program is open to the public and free of charge.

               Gensheimer’s story, “A Family Divided,” about the Jonas family during the Civil War appeared in the Winter 2012 issue of Heritage, a quarterly publication of the American Jewish Historical Society. Gensheimer holds a Ph.D. from UCLA.
 

5th Annual Open House of Historic Properties

Tour the Historic Governor John Wood Mansion this Weekend

We invite you to join us and 16 other historic Adams County properties in celebrating National  Preservation Month. Click here for a complete list of locations. Most of them are open free of charge this weekend.

Now Open

The centerpiece of the exhibit is the 1862 diary of Pvt. Edward H. Warden, whose entry after the battle resulting in 23,000 casualties, provided the title for this exhibit:     
                  

   Adams Men of the 50th Illinois      The Battle      The Battlefield      The Exhibit      Brochure
                    The complete 1862 Diary of Private Edward H. Warden
 

Read the Complete Diary of Private Edward H. Warden Here.

The Adams Men
of the 50th Illinois
Infantry Regiment

Here are the names of the men of the 50th Illinois Infantry Regiment by the towns and townships they called home.

And now you can click each name to see the related military records. Click here for the list of the 838 men of Adams County who were with the 50th Illinois Infantry Regiment during the U.S. Civil War.

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

Often-Seen Memorial Recalls WWI Hero from Quincy

               The military was life to Henry Root Hill of Quincy. This week’s Quincy Herald-Whig history columnist Dr. Patrick McGinley writes that Hill at 18 enlisted in the National Guard, the beginning of a life of military service that was ended only by death 24 years later in a small forest in France during World War I.  Hill had taken a demotion from brigadier general to major to stay in the Army.
               Hill’s exemplary conduct in the National Guard caught the attention of his superiors, and he advanced through the ranks to brigadier general by 1914. When Hill was pressed into active service in late 1917, President Woodrow Wilson commissioned him a brigadier general in the regular army. Army regular officers, however, drummed former National Guard officers out. Hill willingly took a demotion to remain an active soldier. He died in battle the next year.
               McGinley takes up the story of this Quincyan, who won the Distinguished Service Cross, was honored by his community and whose memorial Quincyans pass every day.
               Read McGinley’s story by clicking here.

Society’s Spring Newsletter Available Here

          Featured in the latest edition of the Historical Society’s newsletter is the beautifully inspiring crewel needlework (at right) that its maker Miss Emma Weisenburger called “Liberty.”  The piece was made before Miss Weisenburger of Quincy died at the age of 33 in 1922. It was a gift of her nephew Robert Weisenburger of Quincy.  Go to the newsletter by clicking here.

Why are we the ‘Gem City?’
          Why in the world is Quincy called the Gem City? Think you know? Tell the rest of us.
          We intend to get to the bottom of the mystery once and for all with a contest during National Preservation Month in May. The theme is “Discover America’s Hidden Gems.” Seems like the perfect time to discover why ours is called the Gem City. Click the Gem at left for details

Gardner Museum Committee Invites Public Input

                Members of an independent committee seeking to determine community support for sustaining the Gardner Museum of Architecture and Design, 4th and Maine in Quincy, is asking the public help.
               Jim Mentesti, who with Travis Brown is co-chairing the committee, said the committee seeks to continue the mission of the Gardner, which opened in 1977 to foster an “awareness and appreciation of the architectural design heritage of Quincy.”  Mentesti is president of the Great River Economic Development Foundation and Brown is executive director of the Historic Quincy Business District.
               “We are inviting residents and business people of Quincy to let us know what they are willing to do personally and for ideas about how the Gardner Museum might continue in its role,” Mentesti said.  “Few communities can boast the treasury of architecture one finds in Quincy, and the museum is our way to continue to tell the story.”
               Mentesti encouraged people to indicated how they would support the museum and to submit ideas on how the museum might be kept open.  Input can be emailed to gredf@gredf.org or sent to GMAD Committee, c/o GREDF, 300 Civic Center Plaza, Quincy, IL 62301.
               The Gardner Museum building anchors the southwest side of the city square.  The museum housed a unique architectural gallery and research center for architectural works and history in Quincy.  The building served as Quincy’s public library until 1974.
               Story continued here.  Read Quincy Herald-Whig reporter Rodney Hart’s story by clicking here.               
       

Map of County’s Existing One-Room Schools Available Here

               Our program, “One-Room Schools of Adams County,” presented by retired educators Paul and Jane Moody of rural Quincy, was a great success.

               Paul Moody reviewed the some 50 one-room school buildings whose structures till exist in Adams County. We offer a  map of those buildings here.

Intern Develops Database of Early County Schools

Early Adams County Schools:  Amen 125 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:

0  The Quincy Museum, 1601 Maine Street, which has
    a large collection of Civil War era weapons.
0  The All-Wars Museum at the Illinois Veterans
    Home, 12th & Locust, also the home of numerous
    Civil War artifacts
0  The Lincoln-Douglas Interpretive Center, 128 N. 5th
    Street, which interprets the story of antebellum
    and Civil War Quincy.
0  The Debate Memorial in Washington Park,
     downtown, by famed sculptor Laredo Taft,
     celebrating the Sixth Lincoln-Douglas debate,
     which occurred in Quincy on October 13, 1858.   
 

New ‘Passport’ opens 208 U.S. museums to members

Annual
Membership Campaign
Underway

Benefits of membership
Membership Enrollment Form
 

Help us keep history alive. Call me. I’ll explain why your membership is so important.  Better yet, become a member and I’ll give you a personal tour.

Reg Ankrom
Executive Director