Last night's storms split and went to the north and south of us. Hardly a drop of rain here, just a quick splatter, and no high winds, though Gary and Rob did drive back here with the storm front on their tail and dust-raising winds for the first half of the trip.

Today was beautiful, except for gusty winds. Blue skies all day, temperatures just slightly warmer than normal indoor air, and humidity greatly reduced.

As planned, we went to the "Day at Petersen Farm" over near Ringwood. I joined with the spinning guild demonstrating spinning techniques while Gary and Rob performed 19th century music beside the horse barn.

The crowd was larger by several hundred visitors over last year's event, but we received far fewer of the really "off-base" questions than last year. Most people seemed to have at least some idea of what we were doing and what the purpose was. Many are badly confused about the distinctions between spinning, weaving, sewing, knitting, etc. but at least they have some vague notion that it all has to do with making clothing and that the raw fiber comes from animal hairs or plants.

I did have one older man who expressed shock that I was sitting there with the women "knitting" as he put it. Actually, I was doing Tunisian crochet at the time, something none of the women in the group know how to do, but that's a fine point. He was immediately corrected by the women in the group and then apologized to me. I told him I wasn't offended and was used to hearing it, but in fact I have been the county fair judge for knitting and crochet for several years now and am a knitting instructor. He didn't seem to know what to make of that, especially after I said that I've been doing this stuff for nearly half a century.

Since this year is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, of course, there were many things focused on that. They had a Lincoln impersonator walking around, and I must admit he really did have a striking facial resemblance to the 16th President, though he wasn't quite tall enough. He gave several presentations on the farmhouse porch in which he told anecdotes and stories in Lincoln's voice, and though I didn't get to hear him, I imagine he was pretty good.

We were all amused when there was an announcement that anyone interested could come to the farmhouse kitchen to "see a woman bake a cherry pie using lard." I don't think the lard itself was the novelty, but just the idea of making pastry from flour and shortening would be. Once we discussed it, we agreed that the vast majority of people in this country today would have no idea how to do that, simple as it might be. Sad, really.

Tags: history, weather
Current Location: Home in the oak grove
Mood: accomplished

Just got back from the library where we went to hear a lecture by local historian Craig Pfannkuche about what was going on in Harvard, Illinois in the year 1909. As it happens, May 7, 1909 was the day on which the original library building was dedicated. That building still stands but is now serving as a parish hall for the Roman Catholic church in town, after having served for 92 years as Harvard's public library. Craig's lecture was scheduled as a centennial commemoration of that event.

Not only is Craig one of the local experts on history, he is also a specialist in the history of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, which I did not know. Harvard was built where it is because a couple of wealthy men back in the pre-Civil War era had inside information about the route that the C&NW would take to reach Janesville, and even in 1909 the railroad was still a really big player in town. Two steam locomotives were assigned to the Harvard yard full time, 24 hours a day, just to handle the traffic from the Hunt, Helms & Ferris farm equipment factory. Borden and Bowman dairies both had plants in town, and daily milk trains went in both directions from Harvard.

Craig squeezed a lot of interesting gossip and information into just an hour. He read from articles in the two (count them, TWO) newspapers published in Harvard a hundred years ago. He showed us slides of old postcard photos, maps, and documents. He really brought the 1909 era back to life for us, with lots of laughs and a little nostalgia (though, of course, not even the oldest people present in the room could remember 1909.) Some things that surprised most of us, I think: in 1909, Harvard still had no sewers, and every home had an outhouse; none of the streets in town, not even the one where the electric interurban tracks ran, were paved in any way; there was direct rail passenger service from Harvard to Madison, Wisconsin, Kenosha, Wisconsin, Chicago and intermediate points. There were plans to link the Harvard to Lake Geneva interurban line down to Marengo, which had an electric line south through Sycamore and to Dekalb, but the actual line was never built. Harvard got sewers not long after 1909, but most of the roads remained unpaved until the administration of Illinois governor Lennington "Hard Roads" Small in the 1920s. (In keeping with Illinois tradition, "Hard Roads" Small was indicted for graft and corruption while serving in the office of governor.)

Most amusing though was the account, based on newspaper reports, of the great blizzard of February, 1909. The snow and ice had completely closed many of the railroad cuts, stopping train service in and out of Harvard. After the regular crews worked a 24 hour shift trying to clear the lines, the C&NW decided to hire transient labor from Chicago and a trainload of workers was sent in. The newspaper writer described these laborers as "hobos" but went on to say that some of them appeared to be educated men who had lost their jobs and were willing to work at shoveling snow for the railroad. The pay rate? Would you believe fifteen cents a DAY?

As for the library, though benefactor Delos F. Diggins of Cadillac, Michigan (who lived in Harvard as a boy) had left $40,000 for the construction of a library building, none of his money was earmarked to buy books. The library board and the new librarian, Miss Wilson, spent the first year begging and pleading with the citizens and local businessmen for the donation of books, or cash to purchase books. Evidently this was fairly successful, as the library had about 1700 books by the end of the year and received a donation of another 300 titles in January of 1910. A handful of the original books are still in the collection, though much worn and brittled. They have been moved to a special room with the rare and old editions. Today's library has holdings of more than 60,000 volumes in a new building that was dedicated just eight years ago, built in part by pennies collected by local children and, believe it or not, by money that had continued to be held in trust ever since Diggins' original bequest a hundred years ago.

Tags: books, history, libraries
Current Location: Home in the oak grove
Mood: amused