•December 27, 2017•

By Isaac Smith
Of the Southern Illinoisan

On July 4, 1778 the bell rang, and the battered people of Kaskaskia gathered. They found themselves under new rule. George Rogers Clark explained that the revolutionary government was not interested in changing their faith but wanted to give them liberty.

The once British-occupied territory had been liberated by Clark who was fighting for the Continental Army. About four decades later this small settlement flanked by the Mississippi River would be the home to Illinois’ first capital.

There is a lot to Kaskaskia’s story — a lot that wouldn’t be gleaned by a visit to the sparse island on what would seem to be the Missouri side of the Mississippi River. Emily Lyons, curator for the Randolph County Archives and Museum, said she has spent the last 20 years working to preserve the county’s history in an official capacity but has spent her life immersed in it.

Lyons said her family can be traced in a direct line back to settlers who came to what was then the Kaskaskia peninsula in the 1700s — Lyons explained that the peninsula became an island after years of deforestation along the banks of the Mississippi, as well as soil erosion, created a perfect storm in April 1818 when an ice pack at a bend in the river finally caused what was left of the remaining ties to the mainland to give way. Read More

•December 20, 2017•

It’s been 120 years since Virginia O’Hanlon sought the truth about Santa from the New York Sun.

In over a century, the lives of children — and their parents— have increased in complexity by a factor of ten.

Man landed on the moon, communism rose and fell, countries changed names and borders, Elvis begat Jagger, who in turn led to “gangsta rap”. The kidnap and murder of children, which made world headlines for the Lindbergh family, now touches the lives of hundreds of families annually. Children begin learning at ages two and three about “stranger danger,” AIDS and sexual abuse.

The age of innocence is gone.

But that doesn’t mean that Virginia O’Hanlon’s innocent question to an anonymous editor is irrelevant in today’s world. Far from it. Read More

•December 13, 2017•

By Mick Zawislak
Of the Daily Herald

Were it not for the action of an enterprising lawyer 200 years ago, the northern portion of Illinois would have the badger as the state animal and Green Bay Packers as the home football team.

Indeed, the shrewd move in 1818 by Nathaniel Pope, the Illinois territory’s delegate in Congress, to relocate the original proposed boundary from the southern tip of Lake Michigan is regarded as a decisive event in Illinois history.

The shift meant Chicago, then an unincorporated backwater, became part of the nascent state with a port on the Great Lakes.

How Illinois’ northern boundary was designated 42 degrees, 30 minutes latitude was a tactical maneuver that effectively set Wisconsin statehood back 30 years.

Pope’s move provided the groundwork for Chicago to become Illinois’ economic juggernaut and turned state politics upside down as the area grew. But it also had the national implication of ensuring Illinois would be a free state at a time of percolating political unrest over slavery. Read More

•November 29, 2017•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

A year ago, the circus came to my rural county. As a youngster I loved the circus, so I wanted to make sure every kid had a chance to go. Friends and I put a few bucks together, went to a couple of help-the-poor groups and asked for names of families who could use our bucks for tickets.

Fifteen mothers called back to say they would like the assistance. I remember dropping off the tickets—which cost only $6 bucks for children; we added a little for cotton candy—for several mothers.

At their doors, the young women seemed grateful for such little help. At one beat-up home, I could see a boyfriend lounging on the sofa, just as you hear told. Miserable conditions all, and I’m told we probably didn’t reach the most desperate situations.

I am still haunted by that little experience, given my wonderful, Norman Rockwell childhood. Of course, we had the poor back then, always will have, certainly in relative terms. Read More

•November 22, 2017•

By Mike Brothers

Thanksgiving was always special for Oh Brother. Being born on Thanksgiving Day in 1952 has carried with it burden and confusion.

The burden of being born on a floating holiday means no one ever remembers your birthday. Even though it occurs on Nov. 27 every year the movement of Thanksgiving Day from date to date makes the birthday elusive to say the least.

Last year the 27th was on Sunday, and Cindy Clore treated me to a concert of two of my favorite performers Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt. This involved a 2000 mile trip to Standing Rock North Dakota to see them, but it was a trip worth taking and worth the education on how corporations get anything they want in America.

When Oh Brother was younger, oh so much younger than today, he knew the meaning of Thanksgiving. As a matter of fact every year at McKinley Elementary School in Harrisburg one class put on the annual Thanksgiving Day play to remind us.

It was the class gathering of the earliest American settlers (immigrants) and the native Americans who helped them survive their first winter on foreign soils. We were very thankful to the natives when our lives depended on them. Read More