The Ethic of Selflessness

I’m a business person dedicated to the need and desire to make a profit to sustain my family and my business.  But those self interests – even responsibilities – take a back seat when I meet people who seem to be focused on things larger than themselves.  My post about Trillium Dell and the Timber Framer’s Guild below speaks to that. But last night I met Jenny – a Big Sister for Nicole a 17 year old girl. The pair has been together through the Big Brothers-Big Sisters of Jackson-Perry Counties for a decade!  Jenny has given of herself – week after week -  to “be there” for Nichole.  Nichole speaks of their relationship as one that defined her life. She talks about life without Jenny’s influence and says she’d probably be a drop out and who knows what else. Jenny says she doesn’t try to lecture Nichole, but they both say their relationship resembles that of a mother-daughter.  Standing there interviewing the two, I was a little overwhelmed with the concept of how we can be a positive force in other people’s lives. Of course, I am a father and a husband and know this directly. But I’m talking about the good things we can do for each other beyond our immediate family.  This concept is not new to me. But my awareness of it has recently come into sharper focus. Nichole is now preparing to become a Big Sister herself.  She and Jenny will serve as Big Sisters to Nichole’s “little” for a short while before Nichole assumes the task on her own.  I offer this short message not for you the reader, but for me the writer.  I need to remember this when I am reminded in the coming days that not everyone shares this view.

Thank You Southern Illinoisan

I want to thank the Southern Illinoisan newspaper for publishing my news release.  You can find it on page 1E – Sunday’s Business section.  I’m especially thankful to Gary Metro for answering my email with a thumbs up.  I’m not one to toot my own horn, but nowadays you got to do what you can to get the word out.

I won two Bronze Telly Awards for direct marketing and history-biography.  Special thanks to Bob Henderson at Vestibular Technologies for granting permission to announce the award. Thanks also to the Mound City National Cemetery Preservation Commission, Inc. for hiring me to produce their museum video about the cemetery.

Geneseo Trip Report

Spent all day Friday capturing interviews and video for a promo I’m producing for Trillium Dell Timberworks.  The company specializes in heavy timber construction and historic restoration. I’ve produced several other small projects for TDTW.  In fact, last summer Trillium Dell took part in a barn raising project in Collinsville, Illinois.  Altogether I shot and edited 43 videos and they’re all posted on You Tube.

Trillium is providing oversight of the frame assembly for the Antique Tractor Association’s new home near Geneseo, Illinois.  Most of the labor came from the Timber Framer’s Guild.  Joel McCarty is the Guild’s co executive director (left).

Guild members gather in one or two places each year and build a structure of lasting benefit to a community or organization. Members travel to the site at their own expense and do not get paid, although each project does have a budget to cover materials and logistics.  Trillium Dell provided the operational oversight and coordination for the Geneseo barn project.

As we said last year in Collinsville, the work to reconstruct an old barn wasn’t really about the barn – it was about people working together to benefit individuals other than themselves.

That’s one reason why I’m a big fan of the Timber Framer’s Guild and Trillium Dell Timberworks.  This is also an ethic I try to practice in my own work for Southern Illinois Regional Social Services, Hannah House Child Development Center, Mound City National Cemetery Preservation Commission and soon for the Illinois Heritage Association – there are so many things larger than all of us and to engage in something to benefit the group or greater good makes us strong.  I hope you agree.

PERRIN’S HISTORY

I’m now the proud owner of William Henry Perrin’s History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties.  The book weighs about 10 pounds. I love the biographical sketches. The writing can be a little quaint, but so what. It’s an essential addition to any southern Illinois history library.  Another essential, in my mind, is Mrs. P.T. Chapman’s History of Johnson County, Illinois. It’s not a very heavy volume – but pound for pound, it was more expensive than Perrin.

SUMMER READING

The Immortalists: Chrles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel, and
their Daring Quest to Live Forever.
by David M. Friedman
Comment: Fascinating. This book provides an excellent analysis of why Lindbergh was supportive of the Nazis before World War II. Carrel is stranger than fiction. Hard to believe society agreed with his ideas about selective reproduction of “Superior Races” . This book provides the reasoning behind such outlandish ideas.

HarryTruman’s Excellent Adventure:
The True Story of  a Great American Road Trip
by Matthew Algeo
Comment: I love quirky histories like this. Algeo writes about a road trip Harry and Bess Truman took after he left office. Imagine a former president loading up the van and heading off to see relatives in another state. It cannot happen today – but in the 50s Truman did exactly that and along the way encountered some amazing reactions that Alego captures well.

Go Down Together: The true, untold story of Bonnie and Clyde
by Jeff Guinn
Comment: Must read for the better understanding it provides of how criminals like Bonnie and Clyde came into existence. Certain things needed to happen in order for criminals like Bonnie and Clyde and all the others to be able to do what they did. This book tears off the facade of the story and exposes the reality of life on the run.

MORE DETAIL ABOUT CEMETERY IMAGES FROM 1900

 As mentioned in the previous post, the three images date from March 1900 and now reside within the restored Caretaker’s Lodge where the Mound City National Cemetery Preservation Commission maintains its headquarters and a history display. Click here to visit the MCNPC website.

These are two images of the cemetery taken in the spring 1900. Please refer to previous post for more information.

I took the picture on the right without any consideration of the 1900 image.

The lodge as it appeared in March 1900. The Mound City National Cemetery Preservation Commission maintains a history display in the restored lodge.

 Once the image was scanned, I was able to zoom into the background and pull out this detail. The sign next to the door says “Superintendent’s Office.”  Today the room is used as the above mentioned history display for the MCNC Preservation Commission.  This makes perfect sense given the layout of the building. The room extends at a right angle from what was the living quarters. The staircase is not accessible from the “office”.

This close up was taken from the caretaker’s lodge front porch, just to the right of the front door.

We already know the images date from 1900. But there’s another detail helps us pinpoint the date. The Office of the Quartermaster General adopted the first stone markers in 1873.  They were only 12 inches tall and 10 inches wide. These images feature those first stone designs. 

Only three years later, in 1903, the government authorized to increase the headstone  in size to 39 inches and 12 inches wide. This design is known as the “Civil War” type.

Two examples of the "Civil War" type headstones at the Mound City National Cemetery.

After World War I, a marble design 42 inches long and 13 inches wide was adopted. This design is referred to as the “general” type.

 

If you’re interested to know more, please click on this link to the National Cemetery Administration and its page about the history of military headstones.

CEMETERY SUPERINTENDENT IDENTIFIED WITH FAMILY IN 109 YEAR OLD IMAGES

The images caught my eye two years ago while I was doing research into the establishment of the Mound City National Cemetery. The photographs depict the cemetery in March 1900 according to a date stamped in ink on the boarder of one of the images.  They’re historic pictures – without a doubt – and they could be among the oldest in existence that feature the national cemetery near Mound City. They contain several historic elements, which I’ll write about later. But first I’d like to talk about the people in those pictures and how the 1900 census can help us identify them.

All three of the images are on display at the Caretaker’s Lodge where the Mound City National Cemetery Preservation Commission  maintains a history display.

One of three images of the Mound City National Cemetery that date from March 1900

My particular interest was to learn if the man dressed in black (see below) was the cemetery superintendent.  As I wrote and directed in a documentary created for the commission: Quiet Acres: The Story of the Mound City National Cemetery, the superintendent was responsible for the grounds and general upkeep of the burial site.  He also had to be a veteran of the Civil War.

Throughout my work on the Mound City project, I never found a picture of a superintendent. That’s why these photographs offered an interesting opportunity to see if I could identify the “man in black.” I suspected he was a superintendent.

I located the 1900 Census on ancestry.com and started leafing through the pages for Mound City, one page at a time, looking for someone with the job title of Superintendent of the National Cemetery. After scanning through 57 pages, I found it:

The “Man in Black” may be William Dillon, 55. The woman standing next to him in the image could be Emma, 35. At the time of the 1900 Census they had been married 17 years and had four children.

caretaker's household in 1900

I am unable to provide specific evidence William Dillon was a superintendent at the cemetery beyond this circumstantial evidence. However, I do recall seeing his name on documents within the cemetery files at the National Archives. The ages seem to match with the images. He looks 55; she 35. Furthermore, the image shows two children, which I’ll talk more about below.

Here’s an image of the cemetery’s caretaker’s lodge featuring four girls, including three with bicycles. If you look at the census excerpts, you’ll see that William and Emma Dillon had four children, including three girls aged 7, 10 and 14.  

A close up of the image suggests the three girls on the right belong to the Dillon family.  The taller girl on the left looks to be 14. The girl to the far right looks to be 10. The small girl in front matches the physical appearance of a seven year old. Plus, the youngest girl can also be found in the first image with her parents. According to the census, this little girl’s name is Emma Dillon, the same as her mother.

Her style of hair and distinctive forehead, I believe, help confirm Emma’s identification in these images. There is one more identifying feature – the bicycles.  The two girls on the right in the Caretaker image have similar bicycles with a unique design feature on the rear wheels. To me this is a classic giveaway the two bicyclists may be related. One can imagine the father buying the two bicycles at the same time from the same outlet.

 Based on what I’ve learned through the census of 1900 and all the circumstantial evidence (and a healthy dose of pure conjecture), I would suggest the family identified in the images made at the Mound City National Cemetery in March 1900  is that of William Dillion, 55, and his wife Emma 35, and their three girls: Gertrude, 14; Clara, 10 and Emma, 7. 

There is another little girl in the caretaker image. I cannot identify her at this time, but I’ll continue to research the question. I did check the census to see if a neighbor might be found with a pre-teen or teenage girl, but I couldn’t find any.

The cemetery image shows a man standing on the far right. William Dillon did have several sons, including one that was about the same age as Emma, who would be his step-mother. Based on the census and these images, I cannot say if the man is one of William’s sons. I will continue to look into this and report back if I learn anything new

If these images had been made a year or more later, I doubt I could have identified the family. I got lucky. These images were made only four months before census enumerator Frank B. Allen stopped by to collect the names of those who lived at the national cemetery.

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When the images were taken in the earliest days of spring 1900, William had been on the job for less than one year. In June 1899, Thomas A. Fitzpatrick, the superintendent that preceded him, was shot to death by a disgruntled cemetery worker. That worker’s body was found in November 1899 less than mile from the scene of the shooting. He apparently killed Fitzpatrick and then escaped to a remote location and shot himself.

~ r.k.