Additions made to award-winning Web resource on the history of Lincoln         

Dear Ms. Youngquist:

I am pleased to announce a new chapter/page recently added to my community history site -- Mr. Lincoln, Route 66, and Other Highlights of Lincoln, Illinois -- which received the Best Web Site of the Year award from the Illinois State Historical Society last spring. The new page features the writing and photos of former Lincolnite Stan Stringer, who would have graduated from LCHS in 1952 if his family had not moved. I write to ask you to consider announcing this new chapter of Lincoln's history in LincolnDailyNews.com because it should interest many of your readers. The URL is http://www.geocities.com/
findinglincolnillinois/stanstringer.html.

This new page includes previously published and new material from Stan. The new material helps to explain the circumstances that led to the construction of the present-day (Greisheim and Marcucci buildings on the Logan County Courthouse square. Specifically, Stan tells the stories of the fires that destroyed these original buildings early in 1932: the Oglesby Building in February and the Marcucci Building in March. Stan has researched these fires, using published sources, and also has used the oral history passed down from his father, Charles Stringer, and recent communication with his cousin Loren Stringer, who witnessed these fires. Stan's father was a professional photographer, and he took a dramatic photo of the smoldering Oglesby Building from the Marcucci Building, where he had his studio. I have included a full-screen version of that photo on Stan's page. His story of the fire that destroyed the Marcucci Building describes the role that his cousin Loren played in assisting the firemen who fought that conflagration.

The page I created for Stan's material also features his story of how his father became a professional photographer: Charles's apprenticeship to C.L. Venard, a distinguished photographer from Lincoln; Charles' photography experience in World War I; the establishment of Charles' studio in Lincoln; and Charles' employment by Henry Ford to photograph the disassembly of the original Postville Courthouse when Henry Ford brought it and moved it to Greenfield, Mich., in 1929. Additionally, Stan tells the story of how his young assistant, Lincolnite Mark Holland, took an aerial photograph of the Lincoln Lakes beach in 1939, how Mark buzzed Lincoln, Ill., with a Douglas Skytrain C-47 in 1943, and how Mark and Charles collaborated to photograph this historic event. I have credited LincolnDailyNews.com as the source of original publication where appropriate for some of this material. Also included on Stan's page is an amusing photo taken by Mark Holland of Charles in an authentic fascist uniform parodying Mussolini in the Hotel Lincoln Tap Room some time after World War II.

The Stringer Web page also includes Stan's previously unpublished account of his Stringer grandparents, Henry and Jane Stringer, who immigrated from England, first to Chicago and then to Lincoln. Henry Stringer was a brush maker who worked at the Lincoln State School training patients in this craft. The Stringer page presents photos of Henry and Jane Stringer, Henry with his apprentices, and examples of his brushes.

Yours truly,

Leigh Henson, Ph.D., associate professor of English, Southwest Missouri State University
([e-mail])

Note: The site's home page is at http://www.geocities.com/findinglincolnillinois/.

(Posted Aug. 26, 2005)