USA > Illinois > The centennial of the state of Illinois. Report of the Centennial Commission > Part 2
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On December 3, Illinois will enter upon the hundredth year of her statehood. The General Assembly of Illinois has created a Com- mission, to provide for the celebration of our Centennial. It already has plans well under way to make this event worthy of the greatness
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and the history of Illinois. But its work will not be complete unless the counties of the State shall also organize for this purpose. There is not a county in Illinois which has not been the scene of stirring and important events, which should find a place in the permanent history of the State.
Now is the time to single out and record these events. It is com- mou knowledge that a young and expanding community, absorbed in making history, is only too careless about recording the history it makes.
Many points in Illinois scenes of momentous happenings -- which could have been sought and marked half a century ago, and have become fixed landmarks, are now only vague traditions. And, so while it is yet time, let our hundredth year be marked by fixing permanently the events of our first hundred years, so far as they may be fed at this time.
It is thought by some that the time is not fitting for this celebra- tion, because of the world-wide war in which we find ourselves. I do not share this view. I realize the greatness of the burdens this war imposes on us. We, of Illinois, will bear those burdens more lightly it we shall reeall the first hundred years of Hlmois' achievements. Our fathers before us, too, bore heavy burdens. They, too, knew what it meant to offer all for a great cause. They too, faced danger and difficulty. But they triumphed over all, and this great commonwealth -the home of twice the number of free men the United States con- tained at the close of the Revolutionary War-is the result.
We have a hundred years of noble history as a background. Whether we shall have another hundred years equally juspiring, de- pends upon the issue of this world-wide war. It will help Illinois to play a great part in this war, if her people will refresh their courage and strengthen their will by a study of our first hundred year's.
When the Fiftieth General Assembly convened in January, 1011, America was fast approaching entrance into the great inter- national war. Notwithstanding this fact, the members of the Legislature felt that the centenial celebration should be hold during the year 1918, and that provision should be made therefor. The appropriation to the Centennial Coanni-sion was made after the United States had entered the war.
The officers of the Commission tool up the question of a State-wide celebration with Governor Lowden, who after due con- sideration expressed the opinion that there was even more reason for holding the celebration during the war than under normal
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wien. He gave as his reason for this conclusion, that the sory of Illinois is so rich in deeds of patriotism and heroic en- davor, that an appreciation of this history such as would be brought out by the centennial celebration, wouldl tend to inspire the people of Illinois to do their full patriotic duty, and bear the burdens of the war more generously and heroically.
The three branches of the State Government, Legislative, Executive and Judicial took official part in the observance of the centennial. The Governor. by the following special message to the General Assembly called attention to this important part of the celebration :
STATE OF ILLINOIS, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. June 16, 1917.
Gentlemen of the Fiftieth General Assembly:
Next year Illinof; will celebrate the Centennial Anniversary of its entrance into the Union. The hundred years of our Statehood history will be commemorated then. These hundred years are big with achievement. Our population in 1818 was forty thousand of scattered pioneers. ow it is more than six million. The fifth largest city in the world 1's within our borders. Our resources have in- creased with our pop lation. Many of Illinois' sons have written their names lirge in the history of th world. Illinois played a conspicuous, if not a decisive part in the war for the Union. The history of that war could not be written with Illinois left out.
We are now engaged in another great war in which the liberties of all mankind are challenged. We would be recreant to our past if We did not at this time recall to ourselves the achievements of a hundred years of free institutions in Illinois.
Your honorable body has made fitting provisions for this celebra- tion, which should be marked with simplicity and solemnity but with great patriotic earnestness. The Commission having this work in charge is proceeding ably to this end. They desire that your honorable body appoint a committee to unite with the Executive and Judicial Departments of the State in extending invitations to the President of the United States, the governors of the different states, and to other distinguished guests, and to advise with the Commission upon matters pertaining to the celebration.
I therefore recommend the appointment of such a joint committee Respectfully submitted,
FRANK O LOWDEN, Governor.
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As suggested by Governor Lowden, a committee consisting of Lieutenant Governor John G. Oglesby and ten members of the State Senate and Speaker David E. Shanahan and ten members of the House of Representatives was appointed as an advisory committee to act with the other branches of the State Government and the Centennial Commission.
The members were :
JOHN G. OGLESBY, Lieutenant Governor and President of the Senate.
RICHARD J. BALR
ADAM C. CLIFFE.
WILLETT H. CORNWELL.
EDWARD C. CURTIS.
JOHN DAILES. AL. F. GORMAN.
EDWARD J. HUGHES.
MORTON D. HULL.
SIMON E. LANZ.
FREDERICK B. Roos.
COMMITTEE FROM THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
DAVID E. SHANAHAN,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
RANDOLPHI BOYD.
THOMAS 1. BOYER.
FREDERICK A. BREWER.
JOHN S. BURNS.
FREDERICK R. DE YOUNG.
JACOB FRISCH.
THOMAS N. GORMAN.
JOHN KASSERMAN.
CARL MUELLER.
ERNTST J. ODCO !.
This Legislative Committee with the Governor and other executive officers of the State, the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court and the Centennial Commission made up the general Invitation Committer and formal invitations
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10 the various eentennial observances bore the names of the fifty- ( ne members of this committee.
It was decided as suggested by Governor Lowilen in a special message to the General Assembly, to invite the President of the United States to honor the Illinois Centennial observance by com- ing to Springfield, Saturday, October 5, 1918, and making the principal address at the laying of the corner stone of the Centennial Memorial Building.
Accordingly an invitation was handsomely engrossed and illu- minated by hand, bound in red morocco, signed by the aforesaid committee of fifty-one, the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor of Public Accounts, State Treasurer, State Superintendent of Pablie Instruction, the Attorney General, the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the State Supreme Court and the members of the Centennial Commission.
Chief Justice Orrin N. Carter, Dr. O. L. Schmidt, chairman of the Centennial Commission, and the Honorable David E. Shana- han, Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, went to Washington City, and on March 22, 1918, accompanied by United States Senator L. Y. Sherman and Congressmen Joseph G. Cannon, Ilenry T. Rainey & id M. D. Foster. of Illinois, called on the President of the Ur ted States at the White House and presented the invitation to him in person. The President expressed his interest in the Illinois Centennial observance, his appreciation of the invitation and his desire to accept it, but could not at that time give the committee a definite answer. He asked that his at- tention be called to the matter later in the season.
Late in August, Dr. Schmidt, accompanied by former Gor- ernor Edward F. Dunne, called on the President and again urged his acceptance of the invitation, and he still had hopes of being able to accept it, but to the disappointment and the regret of the Commission, the condition of public affairs was such that he was unable to come to Springfield and take part in the Centennial celebration.
At the invitation of Governor Lowden, the State officers. the Justices of the Supreme Court, the Legislative Committee and the Centennial Commission met at the Executive Mansion at 11 o'clock
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A. M., December 3, 1917, to discuss plans for the official Centen- nial observances.
Governor Lowden was elected chairman of this joint com- mittee and Jessie Palmer Weber, secretary. The plans for the observance as formulated by the Centennial Commission were sub- mitted and were approved. A special committee on invitations to invite speakers for the various observances and to plan the form of the cards of invitations and other like matters was appointed by Governor Lowden. This committee consisted of one member from each division of the State represented at the meeting. These members were Chief Justice Orrin N. Carter of the Supreme Court, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Franeis G. Blair. State Senator Adam C. Cliffe, Representative John S. Burns, Mr. George Pasfield, Jr., of the Centennial Commission.
IMPORTANT ANNIVERSARIES OF THE CENTENNIAL YEAR
An historical writer has said that individuals have birthdays, states have birthyears and this is particularly true in the case of Illinois for the successive steps in the progress of the territory of Illinois in seeking admission as a State of the Union extended throughout the year 1818, from the 16th of January, the date upon which the Territorial Delegate in Congress, Nathaniel Pope, introduced the bill asking admission, until the 3d of December, when the President approved the Act of Congress which declared Illinois a sovereign State. There were several necessary and in- portant official steps taken between these two dates. It was decided that the most significant of these anniversaries are:
The passage of the Enabling Aet, April 18, 1818.
The promulgation of the Constitution, August 26, 1818.
The organization of the State Government by the meeting of the First General Assembly, October 5, 1818, and the inauguration of the First Governor, Shadrach Bond, on October 6, 1818. The formal Admission of the St-te, December 3, 1818.
Accordingly, these ann ersaries and December 3, 1912, the 20th anniversary of the adn ssion of the State. the real beginning of the centennial year; the birthday anniversary of Abraham Lincoln, February 12, 1918: and our Independence Day, July 4, which in 1918, was the 140th anniversary of George Rogers Clark's capture of Kaskaskia and the Illinois country were observed by official celebrations under the auspices of the Commission.
It was also decided that there should be official celebrations held at the three towns which have been the capital cities of Illi- nois, Kaskaskia. Vandalia and Springfield.
The Fourth of July was appropriately chosen as the date for the Kaskaskia observanee."
* As historic Kaskaskia is no longer in existence, the Kaskaskin obser- vance was held at Chester, the county seat of Randolph County and at the Pioneer Cemetery overlooking the remains of historic Kaskaskia.
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The citizens of Vandalia and Fayette County selected Septem- ber 26 as the day for the Vandalia observance, and the other official celebrations were held in Springfield.
LOCAL AND COUNTY CENTENNIAL ASSOCIATIONS
The Commission believed that the best way to reach the people of the State was through some form of county organization and accordingly a letter was sent to certain officials in each county asking them to call a meeting of the people at the county seat for the purpose of forming county centennial associations. These officials were the County Judge, State's Attorney, County Clerk, chairman of the Board of Supervisors or County Commissioners as the case might be, and the County Superintendent of Schools. This was done not with the idea that these officials would neces- sarily be the officers of the association but for the purpose of beginning the work through official channels.
A pan phlet containing suggestions for county and local cele- brations was immediately sent out.
The matter of local celebrations was the work of the Com- mittee on State-wide Celebration, and after the appointment of the Director in August, 1917, organizing these associations and assist- ing them hy correspondence, visits and addresses was largely the work of the Director.
On August 1 1917, Mr. Hugh S. Magill, Jr., was appointed by the Commission, Director of the Centennial Celebration. Mr. Magill was a member of the State Senate when the Centennial Commission was organized in 1913, and was one of the members of that body appointed on the Commission. He was very active in the work of formulating its plans and on the death of the Chair- man, Senator Campbell S. Hearn, he was appointed chairman of the Commission, which position he occupied until his retirement from the Senate. In 1916, Mr. Magill was again appointed a member of the Commission and he gave much thought to its pre- liminary work. Mr. Magill resigned from the Commission to take the position of Director of the Centennial Celebration and an office room for him was at once fitted up in the State House, and the necessary assistants were employed.
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IMPORTANT ANNIVERSARIES
Too much cannot be said in praise of the loyal support of the Centennial celebration by the press of the State. As no public enterprise can be successfully carried on without publicity it would have been impossible for the Centennial Commission to have aroused as it did the interest of the people throughout the length and breadth of the State without the generous and cordial support of the Illinois newspapers.
Mr. S. Leigh Call was appointed manager of publicity on the organization of the Commission and served most efficiently for two years.
Mr. J. M. Page the veteran editor of Jerseyville, Illinois, next served for a year and his wide acquaintance and enthusiasmi did much to interest and enlist the cooperation of the press.
During the actual observance of the Centennial, Mr. Halbert O. Crews was publicity manager and by his experience of news- paper methods and his untiring energy, the people were made acquainted with the historical significance of the centenary and the plans of the Commissic :.
Mr. Crews was the editor of the Centennial Bulletins and he sent weekly news letters to thousands of associations and citizens of the State.
It is estimated that Illinois newspapers published more than fifty thousand items relating to he Centennial.
Mr. Il. II. Bancroft of Jasonville, was assistant director of the Centennial celebration and ( evoted his time largely to assisting in the organization of local Centennial Associations. In his work he was very successful and through his efforts Centennial Associa- tions were formed in more than half the counties of the State.
Throughout the Centennial year it was the purpose of the Commission to show the importance and greatness of Illinois in relation to the nation, and through the nation to the world. No one question ; the fact that America was essential to the winning of the great war for human freedom. History justifies the statement that Illinois contributed daring the past century men whose leader- ship was essential to the preservation of the American Union. May we not then, as citizens of Illinois, feel a solemn pride in the historie fact that Illinois has contributed, through the inspiration
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and leadership of Abraham Lincoln and her other great souls, to the highest welfare of all mankind?
Thus Illinois closes the first century of her history as a State. Those upon whom was placed the responsibility of conducting a suitable observance of her Centennial lay down their work with the hope that an appreciation of the past century may inspire the people of Illinois to enter the new century with a high resolve that the future of our State shall be worthy of those whose noble lives have illumined her past.
At the close of the Centennial year as the Commission looks back over the five years of its organization, years that have been so momentous in the history of Illinois aud of the world, so filled with great events that were unforeseen by any one, its members feel some satisfaction that in spite of very great obstacles it has suc- ceeded in accomplishing the greater part of what it had planned in the beginning.
In the various official observances of its eentenary, Illinois has been honored by the presence of her United States Senators, L. Y. Sherman and J. Hamilton Lewis and of several of her mem- bers of Congress. A member of the Cabinet of the President of the United States has been her guest. Orators have come to take part in paying tribute to Illinois and her contributions to the world, fom England, fron France, from Ireland and from Canada, Vir- ginia, New York, onnecticut, Ohio and Indiana have sent repre- sentatives and all f these statesmen, orators and historians have told in glowing terms of what Illinois has achieved, what her ma- terial contributions have been in coal and wheat and corn, in beef and pork and in manufactured products, and above all her gifts of men and women, men and women who toiled. sacrificed and achieved for humanity, from pioneers who laid broad and deep the foundations of our commonwealth, and perhaps builded better than they knew.
The annals of Illinois are resplendent with the names of men who toiled and sacrificed to establish human liberty.
Coles and Birkbeck, and the others who drove out the dark specter of slave holling from the Prairie State, the founders of the schools, the priests. the pioneer preachers, the circuit riders and
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il. exhorters, the Indian fighters and the builders of roads and the diggers of canals, the soldiers of our wars, from the humblest drummer boy to the great generals and to the chief magistrate, Abraham Lincoln, the greatest and noblest of them all who sacri- ficod even life itself, that "government of the people, by the people, for the people should not perish from the carth," Abraham Lin- coln, the greatest exponent of world democracy that the world has ever known, all of these has our State contributed, and so Illinois of to-day is offering men.
Every gallant young man of Illinois who in the present crisis went out and offered his life for democracy as did the heroes of the Revolutionary War, and our fathers of the war for the Union, cach one of these is an immortal, and an un- dying gift. and breathes the spirit of Illinois, the spirit of the 260,000 men that Illinois gave to preserve the Union and is piled up in the imperishable multitude of nearly 300,000 sons of Illi- nois who fought for a world wide democracy as our second century begins.
THE CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL HISTORY
.An important work of the Centennial Commission was the pre- paration and publicatio of a Centennial Memorial History of the State under the supery sion of the Committee on Publications of the Commission of which Prof. E. B. Greene is chairman. The work of compiling and writing this history was done by a corps of trained, scientific historians under the general editorial super- vision of Prof. C. W. Alvord. The history is on a scale never before attempted by a state of the Union. It has taken six years of labor and research. It is published in six volumes and will be Nacel free of charge in the public libraries of the State and sold to individuals at a low cost. The first or preliminary volume en- titled. "Illinois in 1818," is by Prof. Solon J. Buck. The series is called "The Centennial Memorial History of Illinois," and it is a valuable and enduring feature of the Centennial observance.
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The titles of the volumes of the series are:
I. Province and Territory, 1673-1818, edited by C. W. Alvord. II. The Frontier State, 1818-1848, edited by Theodore C. Pease. III. The Era of the Civil War, 1848-1870, edited by Arthur C.Cole. IV. The Industrial State, 1870-1893, edited by Ernest L. Bogart and Charles M. Thompson.
V. The Modern Commonwealth, 1893-1218, edited by Ernest L. Bogart, and John M. Mathews.
THE CENTENNIAL HALF DOLLAR
At the request of the Illinois Centennial Commission, Con- gressman Loren L. Wheeler of the Twenty-first Illinois Congres- sional District introduced a bill in Congress providing for the coinage of a special coin in commemoration of the Centennial of the admission of Illinois into the Union. After the passage of the bill by Congress authorizing the coinage of one hundred thousand half dollars, every effort was made to expedite the distribution of the coins among the people of the State as souvenirs of the Cen- tennial year.
One hundred thousand fifty cents pieces with a special design commemorative of the Illinois Centennial were issued. The design was determined upon by the Director of the Mint and the Secretary of the Treasury, but was suggested by the Centennial Commission. As a result of a conference with the Superintendent and Chief En- graver of the United States Mint, it was agreed that the coin should have the head of Lincoln on the obverse side and the seal of Illinois on the reverse side, with the inseription "Centennial of the State of Illinois, 1818-1918." The Chief Engraver of the Mint prepared the models from which the dies were made.
The coins were distributed during the Centennial year to county or centennial associations at par value. These associations disposed of the fifty cent pieces for one dollar cach, the proceeds of the sale being used for local Centennial celebrations or some phase of war relief work.
The coin has been much admired by numismatists and it has been purchased by them and distributed throughout the entire United States.
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IMPORTANT ANNIVERSARIES
TIIE CENTENNIAL MEMORIAL BUILDING
The Centennial Commission was organized in 1913, before the organization of the State Departments of the Administrative Code, but before this time efforts were being made to secure a new Ilis- torical or Educational Building in order to relieve the crowded condition of the State House.
It was hoped that such a building might be erected as a memorial of the centenary of Abraham Lincoln in 1909.
Celebrations and demonstrations are an important and essen- tial part of the Centennial observance, but the Commission felt that the Centennial Memorial Building would be after all the per- manent, the enduring evidence that the people of Illinois had observed the rounding out of their first century of Statehood, if they erect a stately and beautiful temple in which to preserve the history and memorials of those who have built the fabric of the State.
The Centennial Commission was very glad to use such in- fluence as it might have in advancing the plans for this inspiring and permanent memorial. A brief account of the successive steps in the progress towards the building of the Centennial Memorial Building may be of interest.
An Educational Building Commission was created by the Forty-seventh General Assembly, 1911. Members of this Commis- sion were named in the act, to be the Governor, Secretary of State, Superintendent of Public Instruction, President of the Board of Trustees of the State Historical Library, President of the State Historical Society, Auditor of Public Accounts, and Department Commander of the State G. A. R.
The duty of this Commission was to consider plans for an Educational Building and to recommend a proper site for it. The act carried an appropriation of $5,000, for the purposes mentioned.
This Commission secured the service of Mr. W. S. Leland a noted archivist. Mr. Leland visited Springfield and studied the needs of the various departments and made a report to the Com- mission which it submitted to the Forty-eighth General Assembly, with some recommendations and tentative plans by Mr. W. Corbys Zimmerman, then State Architect.
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The next General Assembly (the Forty-eighth ) continued this Commission aud appropriated $10,000, for its use.
The outgrowth of the work of this Commission was the crea- tion of the Centennial Building Commission by the Forty-ninth General Assembly. The Governor, Secretary of State, Superin- tendent of Public Instruction, Chairman of the State Art Commis- sion, President of the State Historical Society and President of the Board of Trustees of the Slate Historical Library and two persons appointed by the Governor constituted the Commission.
The act creating this Commission designated the ground to be used for the site, and stipulated that the citizens of Springfield or someone in their behalf contribute $100,000 toward the pur- chase of the designated tract of ground. This the citizens of Springfield did. The act carried an appropriation of 8125,000.
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