March 10, 2014

March 10, 2014

After running into Stephen Douglas’ tomb in Chicago, I was thinking that it has been too long since our last visit to Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield. So on our way back to Chicago we made a quick stop.

We first catch most of the park film. It is very good at laying the groundwork for Lincoln’s presidential run. In 1854, Stephen Douglas sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed new states to self-determine slavery. Fearing this would allow slavery to expand into the North, the new Republican Party was formed and Lincoln made a run at Douglas’ Senate seat. During the campaign Lincoln and Douglas held a series of seven famous debates, the last in my birth town of Alton. Interestingly, at that time, US Senators were not elected by the people, but by the state legislature. The Republican Party won the popular vote, but the Democrats won more seats. Douglas retained his seat but Lincoln gained nationwide attention.

The ranger tour was interesting even the second time. The house is filled with period furniture but only a few of Lincoln’s. Mary Lincoln lived in Chicago after his assassination and lost much of their furniture in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

March 6, 2014

March 6, 2014

Aimee and I are getting tired of the cold, so we pack the car up and head towards my parents’ home in Southern Illinois. We make a brief stop at the Limestone rest area where I read a blurb about the vast coal deposits in Illinois. That is prophetic, because just south of Springfield we make a detour to the little town of Virden. In the main square is a monument to the Battle of Virden. On a large granite wall is a beautifully detailed relief sculpture of the once-famous event. Somebody spent a lot of time creating it. Disappointingly there is almost no verbage explaining what happened. Fortunately I read up on the story before I came. In 1898, mine owners brought a group of southern blacks here to replace striking coal miners. When the Chicago & Alton train arrived, armed union miners surrounded the train and got in a gun battle with the security force. Seven were killed and many wounded. The train was driven off, the mine owner was forced to unionize, and the town of Virden became “sundown” (off-limits to blacks after sunset).

The dead miners were buried forty miles south in Mt. Olive’s Union Miner cemetery. Buried with them under a memorial is “Mother Jones”. Mary Harris Jones lost her entire family to yellow fever and her sewing business in the Great Chicago Fire. Somehow she resurrected herself as “the miner's angel” leading the unionization of mineworkers nationwide. When she died she requested to be buried here “with her boys”. Apparently she was enough of a liberal hell-raiser that a socialist magazine was named after her.

March 4, 2014

March 4, 2014

We are in the Chicago area and it is not snowing today. Yeah! With the winter they are having, that is cause for smiles. Throw in that it is also Chicago’s birthday (177th) and we have to celebrate. Instead of toasting next to the furnace, we go out to explore. I thought learning about Chicago’s left-leaning history would be enlightening.

Three of our stops today concern the May 1886 Haymarket Affair. Alternatively called a Riot or Massacre depending on your viewpoint, it started as a labor rally for the eight-hour working day. When police moved in to disperse the crowd, one of the protesters threw a dynamite bomb at the police line killing seven and wounding scores. Police fired in response. In subsequent trials eight radical protesters were convicted of conspiracy; four were hanged. Haymarket would be forever remembered every year on May Day, now International Worker’s Day.

We stop first at a snowy German cemetery where a memorial was built above the graves of the four hanged. Many other activists are buried nearby. Our second stop is a memorial to the police killed. It currently sits inside the grounds of the police academy. It was moved there because of repeated damage by labor radicals. Once it was run over by a streetcar operator who said he was sick of seeing that cop with his arm raised. The last memorial we visit is a 2004 creation designating the original Haymarket location.

What I found most troubling about American Labor history is the level of violence, on both sides. The number of shootings and bombings is more reminiscent of the Middle East than my own country. The labor movement during this time included a radical faction of socialists, communists and anarchists (mostly German immigrants) who believed the capitalist system should be dismantled because it exploited workers.

Much of this strife was caused by industrialization, amplified by massive immigration. Labor rapidly became low-priced, low skilled, and easily replaced. This produced unprecedented social unrest. Our next stop was a about a more peaceful response to the crisis.

Just west of the Chicago Loop is Hull House. Jane Addams, seeing the urban poverty and suffering, founded a settlement house here in 1889. The initial purpose was to teach middle class values to the poor, with art and literature classes. It evolved to providing social services, like child nurseries, that would help immigrants assimilate into US society. Hull House championed child labor laws and workplace safety. Jane Addams became a pacificist earning her both a Nobel Peace prize and the moniker “the most dangerous woman in America”. The Hull House complex was razed in the 1960’s to make room for the University of Illinois-Chicago. Two Hull buildings were preserved for a museum.

Our last stop was accidental but made me think about all the monuments that dot the city.  On the near south side just off Lake Shore Drive sits a huge monument, the Stephen Douglas State Historic Site.  Douglas was an Illinois senator and presidential candidate.  He is now known only for debating Abraham Lincoln.  When he died during the Civil War, his supporters built an impressive tomb on his Chicago property.  Unfortunately it now sits in a depressed neighborhood with few people aware of its existence.  This costly memorial makes me think of the innumerous monuments that have been built over time, the vast majority of which are forgotten to history or hidden away in cemeteries.  Does that mean we should stop building them or do we need to do a better job remembering our history?

February 28, 2014

February 28, 2014

I read about several Indian ruins in Phoenix so we thought we would explore them today. Our first stop was Mesa Grande Cultural Park. Here in the middle of a residential neighborhood sits a football-sized raised platform of the ancient Hohokam Indians.

We walked around the heavily eroded platform mound reading the many storyboards. Archeologists don’t know whether the platform was the site of a temple or the residence of the local chieftain. Although they lived here for a millennia, the Hohokam suddenly abandoned their homes around the year 1500.

From Mesa Grande we drove a few miles away to Park of the Canals. There we had a picnic lunch Aimee made. Afterwards we walked to see an old canal that the Hohokam used to irrigate the land. In their day, the Salt River used to flow year round and they built a thousand miles of canals to water this Valley of the Sun. And they were all hand dug with stone tools! After trying to dig a few holes in my very rocky Tucson yard, I am impressed. I am not the only one. The American Society of Civil Engineers awarded the Hohokam an award for excellence in prehistoric engineering (obviously posthumously).

The Hohokam thrived by turning the desert into an oasis. When settlers arrived after the Civil War, they cleaned the canals out and reused them to grow cotton. They knew they were building atop an old civilization so they named their town Phoenix, after the mythological bird that arose from ashes of its predecessor.

From Mesa we drove to Pueblo Grande near the Phoenix airport. It is similar to Mesa Grande except with a Movie, a nice museum and nicer walking path. Seeing all the pottery, basket, and loom artifacts on display, Aimee thinks she would have enjoyed living as a Hohokam squaw. She loves crafts. I have to remind her that she wouldn’t be able to buy supplies at the local Indian craft store, she would have to gather and make them.

Since it is still early we drive through the nearby Papago Park. In this large desert park sits the municipal zoo and botanical garden. Also is a geological oddity, a rock window atop a small rock hill. We climb up to the top of Hole-in-the-Rock that was used for astronomical observations by the Hohokam.

Having enjoyed the awesome weather one last time, we park at the airport, change into long pants, retrieve our parkas and walk to our flight back to the chilly Midwest. Aimee and I look at each other and wonder why we are leaving.