1Photo by: Natalie Shinn

Freighthouse starts carrying new type of cargo

The resting place of the Spoon River anthology

The day ‘The Greatest’ came to Macomb

Spring 2014

2

Editor: Natalie Shinn

Managing Editor: Carlos Williamson

Art Director: Aaron Viner

Staff Writers/Photographers: Beth Clothier Nicholas Stewart Mary Friday Lauren Blough Alexa Zoellner

Adviser: Richard Moreno

STAFF

Western Illinois MagazineVol. 1 No. 10 The only magazine in the world that gives a damn about Western Illinois

Letter from the EditorThe Western Illinois Magazine has

made it to its 10th issue — that’s five years of this little publication giving a damn about Western Illinois. The cul-ture, history, notable people and plac-es of this region are the entire reason we exist.

Though this is not the most exciting place to hear about in the world right now, it still deserves a voice.

Some people may find this region in-nately boring, but if you look closely there are some real gems to be seen and heard about and we’ve made it our mission to bring this fact to your attention.

In this issue, as always, we have a

eclectic variety of stories that range from an anecdote about Muhammad Ali to the featuring of a unique restau-rant in the area. As always, we here at Western Illinois Magazine are bringing you the weird, forgotten and most in-teresting parts of this underrated por-tion of the world.

In five years, this magazine has seen quite a few changes, but hopefully you have noticed that we have only gotten better with each issue. I, for one, will be excited to see what the future of the magazine holds.

“We can only go up from here.”Our magazine has made it five years

— here’s to five more.

Contact Info:A Western Illinois Publication1 University CircleMacomb, IL 61455309-298-1876 ext. 7Westernillinoismagazine@yahoo.com

Thank you to Rich Moreno for five years of advising the Western Illinois Magazine. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

3

Building new taste

Story by Lauren BloughPhotos by Aaron Viner

Greetings from Camp Ellis

By Beth Clothier

Breezing through Western Illinois

Photo spread by Nicholas Stewart

Where the dead do tell talesStory by Beth Clothier

Photos by Natalie Shinn

Covered bridge stands test of time

Story by Alexa Zoellner

The haunting at Simpkins HallStory by Carlos Williamson

Photos by Mary Friday

Western’s holly jolly visitor

Story by Carlos Williamson

The Greatest strikes in Macomb

By Aaron Viner

4

7

10

12

21

19

16

Table of Contents

15

4

Photos by Aaron Viner

Building new tasteBy Lauren Blough

5

Just off the Mississippi River in Burl-ington, Iowa stands a historical piece of the mighty river’s past.

After 25 years in business and sur-viving two record-breaking floods, Big Muddy’s has proven to be a per-manent part of the Mississippi’s riv-erscape. Today, Big Muddy’s is a go-

to destination for river goers in the Burlington area. Serving as a bar and restaurant, Big Muddy’s aims to please everyone. How-ever, it hasn’t always been a restaurant. The building that Big Muddy’s is lo-cated in was originally built as a freight house in 1898 by the Burlington, Cedar

Rapids and Northern Railroad. It’s a huge Victorian style building, which is a rare sight for the riverfront. This spot was once one of the most sub-stantial cargo transfer points in North America. In addition to the restaurant’s historical relevance, many people may not know about its otherworldly

encounters. “Before the floods, we have had sev-eral ghostly experiences at Big Muddy’s with unexplained sightings of a man in a blue hat,” Jackie Brockert, the manag-er at Big Muddy’s, said. After some re-search, she found that train conductors used to sleep in the building when it was

a freight house. The building was even-tually abandoned for many years before Big Muddy’s opened its doors. Now open 7 days a week, Big Mud-dy’s offers a variety of menu options, which feature staple items such as the Hog Heaven Tenderloin sandwich, the Iowa Burger and a catfish fillet; how-

ever, as an alternative to tradition-al sandwiches, sushi is available as a lighter option on the “Just Lunch” menu as well. Not only does its menu draw in crowds of customers, its location does too. Just under the Highway 34 Bridge connecting Illinois and Iowa, Big Muddy’s is hard to

Big Muddy’s Bar and Grill resides on the Mississippi River, just off US highway 34 (left). Patrons enjoy a meal at Big Muddy’s (above).

6

miss. The restaurant has drawn in visitors from places as far away as Amsterdam, France and even India. Besides visitors just driving to the res-taurant and parking in the lot or walking from one of the many Burlington attrac-tions nearby, Big Muddy’s also encour-ages boaters to tie up to its boat dock, when the season permits, and come in for a bite. Located right off the Mississippi River, diners get a view they won’t soon forget. Whether they sit inside the dining room or out on the patio, a view of the river is never far from sight. “One nice thing that you can experi-ence is the ever changing scenery of the river. Eagles soaring in the winter, com-mercial traffic in the summer,” Brockert said. “I never get tired of the view of a full moon across the river from a seat in the dining room.” No matter the season, din-ers will not be disappointed with their view wherever they may be seated. Although the Mighty Mississippi has tested the strength of Big Muddy’s more than once, the restaurant has remained resilient, standing firm in its place off the water. After suffering two major floods, Big Muddy’s cleaned up what the river left behind and opened the doors for business. Even when the restaurant was flood-ed to the point where the front door was not able to be used, Big Muddy’s solution was to keep the back door open instead. Today, any customer can see where the flood levels from 1993 and 2008 topped-out inside the his-toric building by the markings on an interior wall. Brockert also admitted that after the second remodel in 2008, the ghost-ly sightings of the man in the blue hat stopped. “Ghosts must have not liked the re-model,” she said. Big Muddy’s restaurant is located at 710 N. Front Street, Burlington, Iowa. ·

Big Muddy’s was formerly a freighthouse before it was turned into a restaurant.

7

It’s not hard to imagine why many of us look around upon our arrival in Macomb and the surrounding west central Illinois area and consider it a desolate waste-land compared to our hometowns. After all, there are

no theme parks, no major concert venues; nothing that any of us would within reason would call a “club.” There’s not even a mall, something many of us would hallow as a kind of church, baptized as we are in the

holy font of capitalism.However, there are acres upon acres of prime Midwestern farmland here in America’s breadbasket. The landscape is dotted with farmhouses and barns in various states of re-

pair, the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye, and soybeans are willed into life in an area that once housed thousands of

military personnel, including German prisoners of war.

By Beth Clothier

8

What most newcomers to the area don’t realize is that 15 miles from our sleepy little part-time home, there was once a bustling military base that sprawled out over 17,555 acres. Camp Ellis, named for Sgt. Michael B. Ellis of East St. Louis, recipient of the Con-gressional Medal of Honor for his bravery and valor in service in WWI, was located between the tiny towns of Table Grove, Bernadotte and Ipava, just across the county line. The camp was made up of 2,200 buildings, including libraries, gym-nasiums, and several different chapels. The camp also had an out-door amphitheater and a baseball diamond to provide entertainment for the troops housed there, which at its peak reached 25,000. Construction on the facility began in the au-tumn of 1942 and the base was opened in January of 1943. Accord-ing to an article in the Peoria Journal, Camp Ellis was dedicated on July 4 of that same year, drawing a crowd of 70,000 people, including then-governor Dwight Green, who told the people gathered there that “American boys trained here at Camp Ellis will play a heroic part in the defense of liberty and the offense against tyranny.” Echoing the words of Governor Green, preparation for overseas combat was an inte-gral part of life at Camp Ellis. The troops sta-tioned there were trained in the use of fire-arms as well as learning how to fight in close combat in the camp’s model German village.

Troops also learned the trade of bricklaying by building a castle on the camp’s grounds, and created bridges across the Spoon River. These training methods were enacted in order to provide them with the ability to overcome a variety of obstacles, as accord-ing to a pamphlet provided to troops upon

their arrival, “Units leaving Camp Ellis must be prepared to take the field in theaters of operation. They must be ready to efficiently perform their duties in supplying and servic-ing the combat troops. Not only is hard work necessary for us to succeed in this war, but also the fully trained soldier is more likely to be the live soldier.” Aside from their military training, the sol-

diers at Camp Ellis also pitched in with the war effort at home. America was a nation that had long been pulling itself up by its bootstraps during the Depression, and was now carry-ing that self-reliant work ethic into the war at home. And while the concept sounds foreign and ridiculous today, the troops as well as citi-

zens across the coun-try were hard at work recycling for war. The troops par-ticipated in various recycling programs, including salvaging tin cans, waste paper and scrap metal and one that involved the rendering of fat. They also worked toward making the base partially self-sustain-ing by planting and maintaining a “vic-tory garden,” which spread over 200 acres. These gardens were so named be-cause they helped to provide sustenance for soldiers without straining the local public food supplies. Of course, a base of that size could not operate without

the assistance of a civilian workforce, and Camp Ellis provided jobs for dozens of area citi-

zens. These people worked in such positions as grocers, bakers, meat packers and laundr cleaners. Aside from a service standpoint, the base also needed people to provide mainte-nance to its buildings, roads and machinery, and employed tradesmen such as carpenters, plumbers and mechanics to assist its troops. Camp Ellis was a home to soldiers who re-turned from the front as well, its 140-acre sta-

Courtesy of Western Illinois University Archives and Special CollectionsMechanics work on airplane at Camp Ellis, which boasted its own railroad, landing strip and some 2,200 buildings.

9

Western Illinois Magazine staff photoThe concrete ledges at Camp Ellis are covered with graffiti — a tradition started by soldiers during World War II, who wrote their names and addresses on the walls.

tion hospital one of the largest army hospitals at the time. It featured state-of-the-art medi-cal equipment and technology, and offered rehabilitation programs to prepare former soldiers for their re-introduction to life after their service. They would involve the men in games and repair work, common everyday activities, as a means of teaching them how to be “normal” again, and diverting their minds from the horrors they had endured. Whether or not these treatments worked was likely be-yond the reach of the program. Most interesting to note about the base is that lodged near the troops in an internment camp were up to 5,000 German and Austrian prisoners of war. The first group arrived in Au-gust of 1943, not long after Camp Ellis was opened. The POWs were allowed to work to earn money for purchases and entertainment, and were given the same rations as all others on the base. As with most military correspon-dence during the war, any letters they wrote were censored in order to conceal their loca-tion and any other items the censors might find too revealing, such as names and dates. The POWs were allowed no visitors. Following victory in the European and Japa-

nese theaters, Camp Ellis was closed as quickly as it opened. It closed officially in 1945, leaving in effect a ghost town larger than many of the nearby centers of population. Part of the base was refurbished in 1946 as a training ground for the Illinois National Guard and again in 1953 for the Air Force, but soon after, the gov-ernment began selling the land off. Almost nothing remains of Camp Ellis to-day except for photographs, memorabilia and the memories of those who lived and worked there. Those looking for landmarks can find a crumbling chimney, a heavily-graffitied water tower and a large concrete wall near Berna-dotte known as the Camp Ellis Firing Range. The buildings have been demolished, the property, both land and material has all been sold off, and the site nothing more than a blip in the path of history. Ipava holds “Camp Ellis Days,” a celebra-tion in remembrance of the base each fall. There is a “home-coming” parade, a festival and a picnic that allows those remaining who lived and worked at the base to share their memories of the base, and remember when there was once a busy city in the middle of nowhere. ·

10

Wind turbines are starting to tower over the landscape across Illinois. The first wind turbines went up in 2003, and since then

19 wind farms have been constructed across the state. These turbines generated 3,568 megawatts of electricity in

2013 according to the U.S. Department of Energy. This ranks Illinois fourth in the U.S. behind Texas, California and Iowa.

The energy generated is powering 750,000 homes with clean and affordable energy.

In the state of Illinois there are 30 manufacturing facilities that are building wind turbine components and which employ 6,000 people. This makes Illinois a major hub for wind energy

according to windonthewires.org.The Rail Splitter Wind Farm (67 turbines) north of Lincoln, Ill.

along US 136, the Bishop Hill Wind Farm (100+ turbines) north-east of Galesburg, Ill. along US 34 and the Camp Grove Wind

Farm (100 turbines) north of Peoria, Ill. along Illinois 17 are the largest in western Illinois.

Breezing through Photos and information by Nicholas Stewart

11

Western Illinois

12

Where the dead do tell talesBy Beth Clothier

Photo by Natalie Shinn

13

Looking back through Illinois’ rich his-tory, it is hardly surprising that the state has produced a number of tal-

ented artists and musicians, as well as a long list of well-known writers. While Chicago can lay claim to the likes of Ernest Heming-way, Gwendolyn Brooks and Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan, west central Illinois has its own claim to literary fame in Edgar Lee Masters, author of “Spoon River Anthology.”

Masters, though born in Kansas, grew up in the small towns of Petersburg, Ill., where his grandparents had a farm, and Lewistown, where he completed high school and after-ward worked as a newspaper printer. It was his experience during these years that later led him to create his “Anthology,” which first appeared as a serial in “Reedy’s Mirror,” a weekly literary and critical magazine based in St. Louis, Mo. In “The Genesis of Spoon River Anthology,” Masters stated he was inspired by “…combinations of my imagina-tion drawn from the lives of the faithful and tender-hearted souls whom I had known in my youth about Concord, and wherever on Spoon River they existed.”

Through his gift of poetics, which caused some to compare him favorably to the likes of Walt Whitman, Masters told the story of a fictional small town much like those he had grown up in. His poems were written as epi-taphs, describing the lives of the town’s var-ied inhabitants, and because they were por-traits of these people upon death, they were forthright and earnest accounts, as there were no reasons for them to lie.

In his essay “Spoon River Revisited,” Er-nest Earnest said, “Like Chaucer’s pilgrims, the 244 characters who speak their epitaphs represent almost every walk of life--from Dai-sy Frazer, the town prostitute, to Hortense Robbins, who had travelled everywhere, rented a house in Paris and entertained nobil-ity; or from Chase Henry, the town drunkard, to Perry Zoll, the prominent scientist, or Wil-liam R Herndon, the law partner of Abraham Lincoln. The variety is far too great for even a partial list. There are scoundrels, lechers, idealists, scientists, politicians, village doc-

tors, atheists and believers, frustrated wom-en and fulfilled women.” By attempting to rec-reate a kind of past for himself, Masters was able to create a faithful portrait of small town America unlike any that had previously been published.

Though Masters was initially a lawyer by trade, and was once in a partnership with famed trial lawyer Clarence Darrow, he spent much of his spare time writing. In fact, so

great was his dedication to his craft in the face of his busy career that in “The Gene-sis of Spoon River Anthology,” Masters ex-plained that his job “…made it necessary for me to write the Anthology at odd times, such as Saturday afternoons and Sundays. Sub-jects, characters, dramas came into my mind faster than I could write them. Hence I was accustomed to jot down the ideas, or even the poems on backs of envelopes, mar-

Courtesy Photo: Western Illinois University Archives and Special CollectionsPoet Edgar Lee Masters, author of “Spoon River Anthology,” based the characters in his most famous work on the residents of Lewistown, Illinois, where he grew up.

14

gins of newspapers, when I was on the street car, or in court, or at luncheon, or at night after I had gone to bed.”

The “Anthology” was an im-mediate and unparalleled suc-cess for Masters, earning him both recognition as a master of the poetic form and a literary height that he would never again reach. Though he continued to write about Illinois, and in fact wrote a companion volume to the original, entitled “The New Spoon River,” Masters would never out-shine his “masterpiece,” though he continued to write for several decades afterward.

What is perhaps most interest-ing to note about the “Anthol-ogy” is that several of the poems were based on real people who lived in the Spoon River area. As he wrote in “The Genesis of Spoon River Anthology,” “There are fifty-three poems with names drawn from the Petersburg-New Salem-Concord-Sandridge coun-try; and sixty-six from the Spoon River Country.”

Though Masters changed many of the names of his “An-thology” subjects, either by cre-ating altogether new identities, composites of two or more peo-ple, or replacing the first name of some with another, he did write epitaphs for some people using their real names. These include Lewistown residents Hannah Armstrong and Chase Henry, his great-grandparents Rebecca and John Wasson, William Hearndon, a man who had been partners in law with both Abraham Lincoln and Masters’ own father, and Ann Rutledge, a woman rumored in local legend to have been Lin-coln’s first love.

Several of those named in

the “Anthology” are actually bur-ied in Lewistown’s Oak Hill Cem-etery amid the crumbling head-stones and decades-old trees on what was known as “The Hill.” They have been identified through various sources, including infor-mation found in the Knox College archives, former Western Illinois University Professor John Hall-was, who created an annotated edition of the work, and informa-tion from Masters himself.

At the South Entrance of the cem-etery stands a memorial to Edgar Lee Masters, the man who made Spoon River famous, and nearby is a stack of guide brochures to

help visitors easily find their way around the cemetery. Each grave that has been identified as belong-ing to the “Anthology” is marked by a black metal stake in the shape of Masters’ profile, and all are num-bered accordingly.

It is recommended that visi-tors enter the cemetery through the South Entrance, as when re-setting the numbers, those from previous identifications repre-sented in older brochures from the Lewistown Chamber of Com-merce have been left behind as well, which could cause some confusion. It is asked that visi-tors use caution when walking

through the cemetery, as some markers are not as visible as oth-ers, and areas of the ground can be uneven.

Oak Hill Cemetery is no Grace-land, so one should not expect over-landscaped areas and plaques offering a brief biogra-phy and the significance of each person buried there. However, it has been very well kept and of-fers literary buffs and amateur historians alike something in the way of a window to the past. Most importantly, these monu-ments and their tales stand as proof of existences not so unlike our own. ·

Photo by Natalie ShinnHeadstone in Oakhill cemetary signifying one of the characters Masters wrote about.

15

When ‘The Greatest’ strikes, it can certainly make a mark. Heck, just ask Sonny Liston.

However, while all of Muhammad Ali’s strikes can leave an impact, for the city of Macomb, Ill. it created a day filled with excitement.

“It was like nothing I’ve ever seen on the Square,” Paul Astrouski said, owner of Journey Comics for 30 years in Macomb. “The line just went on and on down the block and almost around the corner.”

The former three-time WBC heavyweight boxing champion stuck an appearance in Macomb while visiting his twin daughters, Rasheda and Jamillah Ali, who were attending Western Illinois University for the 1989-1990 school year.

“He just took a walk around the square,” Astrouski said. “His daughters worked at the cake shop on the corner of Carrol and Lafayette, which is no longer here, but he was in there and took a stroll around the square and kids started seeing him and the word spread. He was out there almost all afternoon.”

The small town (Macomb had a population of 20,158 at the time) was in a buzz about the visit from the sports legend, and Astrouski said this was some-thing no one could have seen coming, calling it “eas-ily” the most excited he’s ever seen this town.

“It wasn’t so much what they were saying, but that they were so excited,” Astrouski, who has been in Macomb since 1965 said. “They were so excited to see Muhammad Ali. It was something they never expected to see in Macomb, and they loved it.

“It was a big event that no one knew was going to happen,” Astrouski said. “(I haven’t seen the town this excited) except maybe when the Rams training camp opened up in town.”

The Rams held their preseason training camp at Western from 1996-2004.

From an account on CollegeStories.com, an un-named student painted a vivid picture of Ali strolling down the street.

“As we are walking down the street (talking) we

look up and come to a dead stop, jaws dropped in amazement. In front of us is Muhammad Ali, with his entourage. He said hi, well, kinda. He was more debil-itated by Parkinson’s than we had known. That didn’t keep him from chatting with us for another five min-utes. He actually did that fake shadow-boxing thing he does when we told him he as the greatest fighter ever.”

In an article from the Mar. 21, 1990 issue of the Chicago Tribune, the daughters explain their deci-sion to come to Western was actually a “mistake.” They had procrastinated during their senior year in high school; the two ended up in Macomb where they studied mass communications with an empha-sis on creative advertising before eventually transfer-ring to the University of Illinois. ·

Courtesy Photo: Western Illinois Archives and Special CollectionsMuhammad Ali sits in the office of the Western Courier at Western Illinois University

Greatest strikes in MacombBy Aaron Viner

16

Covered bridge stands test of time Photos and story by Alexa Zoellner

17

About 2.5 miles south of Oquawka in a rest area along Route 164, sits the Henderson County Covered Bridge, one of only five covered bridges re-maining in Illinois. From a distance, the well-maintained exterior hides the worn interior. Inside is an old, but deceivingly sturdy, wooden floor that could, at first glance, easily cause visitors to become wary of crossing the bridge. There is graffiti scattered across the walls and exposed support beams — drawings, spray-painted names and ini-tials carved into the wood. A sign above the entrance reads “Five dollar fine for lead-ing or driving any beast faster than a walk or driving more than thirty head of cattle, mules or horses at a time on or across this bridge.” At the other end there is a concrete slab for visitors to stand on but no road. The bridge is 104 feet long, 13 feet wide and 12 feet high. First built in the fall of 1866, the bridge sits over Hender-son Creek, between Gladstone and Oquawka. It replaced the Eames Bridge, which had been wrecked in a storm. Because covered bridges last longer due to the fact that the joints and wood are protected from the rain, the Henderson County Board chose to replace Eames Bridge with a covered bridge. The bridge was originally named the Allaman Covered Bridge after its builder, Jacob Allaman. It has also been re-ferred to as the Oquawka Wag-on Bridge. Allaman had moved to

Oquawka from Thompsontown, Pa., in 1857. While in Pennsylva-nia, Allaman had built at least three covered bridges. Hand hewn native white pine wood was used to build the structure. A burr arch design was used to for the truss, and the bridge’s main beams were pine logs from Minnesota; the logs were cut in a saw-mill in Oquawka under Allaman’s su-pervision. The logs, cut during the win-ter, were floated down streams to the Mississippi River in spring after the snow had melted. The logs were then tied to a raft and two steam boats guided the raft down the river.

In late summer, after the logs were cut, they were transported to the construction site via wag-on. Allaman waited until the fall, when Henderson Creek’s water level was low, and then a crew of six men assembled the bridge. The total cost of carpenter work on the bridge in 1866 was $2,125. Accounting for inflation between 1866 and 2013, the cost of building the bridge today would be roughly $33,326.55. The original bridge carried traffic until 1934 when a new highway was built. The state acquired the bridge from Hen-derson County in 1935 and later

developed a rest area on the surrounding land. On February 24, 1975, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In July of 1982 the bridge was washed from its stone braces by a flood and floated downstream before coming to a stop against the Illinois Route 164 Bridge. It was salvaged by the Henderson County Historical Society and Il-linois Department of Transpor-tation (IDOT). Allaman had died in 1868, but the forms he had used to build the original bridge were stored on his family’s property. The state used the forms in or-der to rebuild the bridge.

The inside of the Henderson County Covered Bridge.

18

During the reconstruction process, led by Ray Shafer of Biggsville, Ill., what remained of the bridge was taken apart, and the cracked or rotted beams were replaced with new white pine beams that were custom sawed by a mill in Wyoming based on Allaman’s original templates. The repaired bridge was reassembled using most of the original timbers between July and September of 1984 and was placed in its original location across Henderson Creek. However, it was raised 3.5 feet. On September 29, 1984, a dedication ceremony was held as part of the Henderson County Heritage Trail Festival. For their work on the reconstruction, IDOT was awarded the U.S. Department of Transportation Biennial Award for Historic Preservation and Cultural Enhancement in 1986. In fall of 2002, the roof and siding on the east end of the bridge were damaged when arsonists twice at-tempted to burn the bridge. As a result, a sprinkler and alarm system were installed. The surrounding area has been used for festivals, wed-dings and other gatherings. The site is currently closed to through-traffic. ·

The bridge is one of five covered bridges remaining in Illinois.

19

It was expeditious. Just a few seconds was all the doctor needed to pronounce his death. The boy was no more than 10. He had his entire life to spend swimming in lakes, let alone drown in one. But Simpkins Hall was where the doctor made the call with incon-testable finality.“Every year (at Western Illinois University) they would have some kind of big to-do where families of both the little kids and the college students that were from the area all came and brought blankets and picnic baskets,” Penny Rigg, an English instructor at Western, said.Although Rigg wasn’t present at the event, she recounted the tale with methodical accuracy.“There was a scream that went up because there was a child that

didn’t come back when the bell rang, and they eventually found the child drowned in Lake Ruth,” she said. “There had been a group of kids who were playing. He’d fallen in, and nobody could get him out. The boy was brought to Simpkins and died here.”Decayed ceilings, rusted faucet knobs and whistling winds that seep through this poorly insulated building nearly legitimize its rumors.“To this day, we have incidences of being haunted by some-one with a childlike demeanor,” she said. “A lot of peo-ple say it’s a little girl. Of course, there’s also the story of the janitor, which I don’t know anything about a janitor in this building.”Rigg admitted to experiencing encounters with the departed as well.

A brew kettle is used to boil the wort with the hops. The wort is a sugar rich liquid created by steeping the barley so enzymes can convert starch to sugar.

The haunting of Simpkins Hall

Story by Carlos WilliamsonPhotos by Mary Friday

20

“My personal interaction was when I was a grad student, and this is the story that I’ve told before,” she said. “When I was a grad stu-dent, we all were upstairs in what used to be the writing center. There were four of us girls that were here typing papers late into the night, and we all had a key to get up into where the writing center area was. “And because we knew that the building was creepy and we knew that we had a lot of guys who were grad students that liked to scare us, we were very careful. If one of us had to potty or needed a soda, we all came down. And we locked the door, and one stood guard, one went to the soda machine and one went potty, and we rotated positions.“They were working in the little computer room that was set up there. I was working at a computer stand that was on the outside

of the computer room, and when we did unlock the doors – so in other words no one was up there – we went back up from our trip to the pop machine. I sat down at the computer, where I had been working had a paper on the screen and everything. “My screen was completely blank except for the middle of the screen. There were two lines. The first one was, ‘AAAAA…ZZZZZ,’ and then centered below that was, ‘Hi.’ And they all saw. I’m fine with ghosts. I completely and fully believe in ghosts.”Additionally, Mason Rueger, a sophomore pre-business economics major, has his own opinions regarding the rumors about Simpkins.“I just think it’s an old building, personally,” he said. “I’d camp there overnight if it were allowed. I’m not afraid of it.”Despite Ruegers’ apathy toward Simpkins, he said however, that he does believe in ghosts. ·

21

Western’s Holly Jolly visitorBy Carlos Williamson

Tradition has been lost among cur-rent folk singers. However, musi-cian Burl Ives, learned to sing in a

way that would be considered unortho-dox nowadays. “Modern folk song singers are often people, in fact, universally people who have a regular education,” John E. Hall-was, retired Western Illinois University ar-chivist, said. “They don’t learn folk songs from their grandma or somebody else. They grow up, go to school take an in-terest in folk songs, and then they learn about folk songs. “They study them and so forth. In other words, what Burl Ives was also was someone who actually learned to be a folk singer, a singer of folk songs the way that people learned to be singers of folk songs for centuries and centuries before him. They learned it from the mouths of older people.” In addition to Ives learning how to sing from his grandmother, he had an extremely deep commitment to the arts, Hallwas said. “(Ives) went around the country, trying to get people interested in teaching the

22

arts to youngsters and getting youngsters to open up to the arts for their own self growth, not just to discover the next tal-ented singer,” he said. According to Hallwas, who has met the singer and Academy Award winning actor, Ives believed that everyone could grow from the arts, not only singing but also writing and acting in plays. “(Ives) was impressed with people be-cause of their talent, their commitment not because they were famous or not fa-mous,” Hallwas said. “He dealt with a vari-ety of famous people who he got to know over the years, playwright Tennessee Wil-liams, for example. He didn’t just assume that everybody who was famous was a great talent or that everybody who wasn’t famous was not a great talent. “He was open to everyone, willing to chat with people about very deep or im-portant matters and was just open to a wide variety of people, and that made him a very interesting person to talk with. You felt like you were having a very personal conversation with someone, rather than just sort of being addressed in a formal way by somebody who was already very very famous.” Ives’ humility comes from the rural town in which he was born on June 14, 1909, Jasper County, Ill. “I remember him talking to graduates (at Western) about the importance of pull-ing their lives together,” Hallwas said. “I still think that’s an important message. He was someone who maintained a very fine set of values throughout his life because he maintained a perspective on the larger picture in life, and he wanted other peo-ple to do the same. “He wanted other people to be focused on how they can grow, how they can ex-press themselves, relate deeply into the culture that surrounds them, not just take it for granted, not just see the culture around them as a chance to make some money, which is a very shallow function really.”

Additionally, Ives’ principles factored in what roles he chose as an actor, Hallwas admitted. “Even in his acting as he told me, he sometimes criticized the scripts that were put in front of him because he thought the

roles were fairly shallow,” he said. “He felt that there was much more to people. They are more complex. There’s much more that makes them tick than just whatever some scripts were saying.” Other than being amiable to strangers,

Courtesy photo: Western Illinois Archives and Special CollectionsFolk singer Burl Ives.

23

acting in films and singing, Ives also dedicated most of his time to his family, as he got older. His brother, Clarence Ives, lived in Colchester, Ill., a neigh-boring town of Macomb. He was influential in getting Ives to do-nate to Western even though the celebrity singer never resided in either town. “(Ives) spent quite a bit of time with his brother in Colchester,” Jeffrey Hancks, Western associate professor said. “This was mostly during the 1970s and 1980s was when he was really back here the most. He Just became really in-terested in the cultural life and happenings of this community.”Ives used his talents to benefit Western as much as he could, Hancks said. “He hosted quite a few fun-draisers back in the ‘70s and ‘80s for Western,” Hancks said. “He would have little concerts on campus, and then the proceeds from those concerts were de-signed to be used toward a per-forming arts center. Of course, it never happened the building still hasn’t been built, but he was on campus a lot and was really interested that project. “And I think as he got older and wondered about his lega-cy, (he) thought what am I go-ing to do with all of my things, so he gave to us some scripts from some of his shows that he did. We have some original mas-ter recordings; we have some costumes from various stage shows, and we have some of his instruments.” Along with his generosity, Ives was one of the last of his kind when it came to folk singers, ac-cording to Hallwas. He was a cru-sader for the arts. ·

Coutesy photo: Western Illinois Archives and Special CollectionsFolk singer Burl Ives, who has roots in western Illinois and eastern Iowa, signs an autograph during a visit to the Western Illinois University campus in the early 1970s.

24

Photo by Aaron Viner