Old Rough and Rowdy

When Illinois State Archives intern Vance Martin stumbled across three court documents last fall regarding an indictment of one Major "Zachariah" Taylor of St. Louis, he knew he was on to something important. Zachariah was none other than Zachary Taylor, professional soldier and future U.S. President, and the indictment, previously undocumented, was for assault "with force and arms."

Martin and Mark Sorensen, Assistant Director of the Illinois State Archives and an ISHS board member, dug further into the court documents and wrote up their findings for the July-August issue

of Illinois Heritage. From there the story spread like wildfire, thanks to a press release sent out by the Illinois Secretary of State's Office. Several Illinois newspapers picked up the story, including the Chicago Tribune, State Journal-Register, and Quincy Herald. The Associated Press grabbed the story too, which led to coverage in U.S. Today, New York Newsday UK Guardian, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Miami Herald, and U.S. News and World Report. In addition, Sorensen was interviewed by WCIA-TV (Champaign), WUIS-FM (Springfield/Pittsfield), and Tampa Bay News Talk Badio. The Taylor indictment also was discussed on CNN-TV, proving that a little Heritage goes a long way.

Beantown bonanza

The Tazewell County Genealogical and Historical Society announced it has acquired 35 volumes of the Ortssippenbucher (OSB) heritage collection for the Ostfriesland area of Germany. OSBs are civil and church records that record names, birth dates, occupations, family relationships, baptisms, marriages, deaths, burials, and other vital community information. The records, bound and printed in Germany, date from the late 1840s until approximately 1900, when hundreds of German immigrants from Ostfriesland settled in Peoria, Tazewell, Logan, and Mason counties. Others ended up in German Valley (Freeport) in northern Illinois and further west. The frugal Ostfriesen immigrants who settled in Pekin lived in "Beantown," where they, unlike their lowland ancestors, planted beans in their yards instead of flowers. To find out more about Tazewell's OSB records, write or contact the Ehrlicher Besearch Center at 719 North Eleventh Street, in Pekin.

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PASsion for history

The Pioneer America Society (PAS), a national non-profit organization that encourages the study and preservation of buildings, sites, structures, and objects representing North American history and material culture, holds its annual conference in Springfield from October 17-19, 2002. The meeting is in conjunction with the Conference on Historic Archaeology in Illinois and will be held at the Springfield Hilton, 700 East Adams Street.

Registration includes paper presentations and lunch on Friday. Paper topics explore everything from the architectural significance of country grain elevators to quilting to retracing the routes of interurban railroads in central Illinois, and dozens of stops along the way. The conference banquet will be held on Friday evening. On Saturday the day-long tour (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) will leave from the front of the hotel in the morning and include stops at Lincoln's New Salem, Oak Ridge Cemetery, Frank Lloyd Wright's Dana-Thomas House, and the Lincoln Home Neighborhood. Conference fees are $55 ($40 for students) plus $25 for the banquet and $35 for the Saturday tours (fee includes lunch). For more information, contact Keith Sculle at 217-785-6916, or by email at keith sculle@ihpa.state.il.us.

Time warped

The future isn't what it used to be. That point is brought home in the traveling Smithsonian exhibit "Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future," now on tour across the country. Cosponsored in this state by the Illinois Humanities Council, the exhibit is in the immediate future for Marshall (September 14 to October 26), and Arlington Heights Historical Museum (November 2 to December 15).

History on tap

The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency hosts its annual Conference on Illinois History on October 4-5 at the Springfield Hilton. Papers on the anti-slavery movement, women's history, minority studies, and Lincoln's legal career will be presented. The banquet speaker is R. Stephen Sennott, editor of Buildings of Illinois. The conference is accredited by the State Board of Education for Continuing Professional Development Units (CPDUs). For more information call 217-785-7933 or visit IHPA's website at www.state.il.us./ hpa/confe rence.htm. The Illinois Association of Museums (IAM) hosts its annual conference October 16-18 at the Rend Lake Resort in Whittington. Highlights of the three-day conference include a paper conservation workshop, archaeology tours of southern Illinois sites, and sessions on educational programming, exhibition basics, and museum development. For more information visit the IAM website at www.state.il.us.hpa/iam.

Parlez-vous histoire?

St. Charles, Missouri hosts the 18th annual meeting of the Center for French Colonial Studies/Cewtre four I'etude du pays des Illinois from October 25-27. The conference program includes papers on "The St. Louis Fur Trade Network: The Climax of French Intercultural Commerce in North America," "The French Colonial Heritage in the Greater St. Louis Area: An Archaeological Perspective," and "Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and Upper Louisiana's French Creoles." The banquet speaker is folklorist/fiddler/ethnomusicologist Dennis Stroughmatt, who will discuss "French Culture, Language, and Music in North America." The conference will also feature tours of St. Charles and the Western Jesuit Missions of Hazelwood, Missouri. For more information and to register, visit the Center's web site at www.noctrl.edu/cfcs.

Centennial Awards October 11

More than thirty-five century-old Illinois businesses and not-for-profit organizations will receive Centennial Awards from the Illinois State Historical Society next month. The eighteenth annual Centennial Awards Program will be held Friday, October 11, 2002, at the Palmer House Hilton in downtown Chicago. Among the award recipients are CIPS, Greenville College, Yorkville National Bank, the YWCA of the Elgin Area, the Chicago Mailing Tube Company, Northwestern Business College, Mercy Hospital of Chicago, Valley Industrial Association, the Hillsboro Hotel Corporation, and the Macomb Public Library. Award winners receive a a free dinner, a commemorative plaque, a one-year complimentary membership in the Society, and use of the Centennial logo for as long as they remain members in good standing. For more information about the program call 217-525-2781, or visit the Society's website at wvvw.historyillinois.org.

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