History

When Dr. Wilber Price Armstrong Sr. died on July 7, 1940, Springfield papers reported his death as the passing of “the Dean of City Physicians,” an accurate and well-deserved appellation for the man whose 54-year medical career was marked by several notable “firsts.” Dr. Armstrong, pictured here today celebrating Christmas with his family in high […]

Everyone has his contradictions. Bob Waldmire, for example, is an unreconstructed hippie, as green as Ralph Nader. “Small is beautiful. Slow is beautiful. Old is beautiful,” the itinerant artist intones. Let a hot Mustang drive by, though, and Waldmire’s eyes light up. It’s a reflex that goes back 40 years. Before he embraced and helped […]

Springfield’s West Side Christian Church, home to a large and thriving community of faithful worshipers, has been located on Cider Mill Lane since 1996. The capacious multi-wing facility stands like a lone sentinel at its new address, surrounded by greensward and asphalt, without a close neighbor to call its own. That is a stark contrast […]

You could say William Stone has coal in his veins. After more than three decades working for Mr. Peabody’s coal company and more than a decade in retirement, Stone opened a museum devoted to — what else? — Illinois solid black gold. Located off of the Taylorville town square, the Christian County Coal Mine Museum […]

Abraham Lincoln, as a strapping young man earning his keep, split many a rail near Decatur, working for Macon County landowners such as Sheriff William Warnick. One day, Lincoln fell through the ice while walking on the frozen Sangamon River, and he was forced to nurse his frostbitten feet at the sheriff’s home. As he […]

Herbert Georg, one of the finest photographers Springfield has ever known, began his career in his father’s studio, which had been established in Springfield around the turn of the last century. In 1923, Georg launched his own studio and began building a sterling reputation based on the diversity of his subjects, the high and uncompromising […]

In 1908, in his poem “On the Building of Springfield,” the celebrated poet Vachel Lindsay wrote: Let every street be made a reverent aisle, Where music grows and beauty is unchained. At the time of his death 23 years later, Lindsay’s star had faded — and his hope for a Springfield where “beauty is unchained” […]

Last October, I picked up Illinois Times and read Job Conger’s article, “Dying Colors,” about the disposition of the regimental flags that had been on display in the Hall of Flags in the Howlett Building since the 1930s. The subhead read: “Some grand old flags survived the battle, but are losing the war.” Due to […]

When Illinois Times offered me a column to write about local and regional history, I leapt at the opportunity without so much as a nanosecond of thoughtful consideration. Though I now consider myself to be solidly middle-aged, prudence, caution and foresight somehow escape me yet; too often do I leap and then look. Maybe someday […]