|
 Vintage 1800s displays
at the Mount Pulaski Grade School were presented by Fred Lipp, with rifles, muskets and smooth bores; Larry Wilham,
with carvings; and Phyliss Beccue, with frontier kitchen and
household items.
Lonn Pressnall, an Abraham Lincoln
impersonator, met and talked with the students.
For the second part
of their day, the students were bused uptown to the Mount Pulaski
Courthouse and Mount Pulaski Township Historical Museum.
The museum volunteers presented talks on some
Abraham Lincoln connections to Mount Pulaski as well as many
interesting items and stories about the town.
 A display case of two Mount Pulaski pocket watches was shown. It was explained that the
jeweler, Mr. Lushbaugh, and his family had lived across the street
from Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln in Springfield but moved to Mount Pulaski in the 1840s.
It was related that on Mr. Lincoln's trips to
Mount
Pulaski as a traveling horseback lawyer, he stayed frequently
with the Lushbaugh family, as the food was better, the beds more
comfortable with no bedbugs, and the surroundings cleaner.
The students were asked if they knew why Mount
Pulaski had its name. Many could answer that their town was named
after Count Casimir Pulaski, a Polish general who fought in the
American Revolutionary War. Mount Pulaski was named after this
Revolutionary War hero in 1836.
The presenter told them that Pulaski
was recruited by Benjamin Franklin to travel to the American
colonies and assist Gen. Washington and the colonists in their
fight for independence from the British.
The students were shown a life ring from the
USS Casimir Pulaski that now hangs proudly on the museum wall. It
was explained that the U.S. Navy commissioned a submarine named
after Gen. Pulaski in 1964.
Students were told that three men founded Mount
Pulaski and all three were from England. A large photo of one of the
town's founders, Jabez Capps, who lived to be 101 years old, was
shown. It was pointed out that Lincoln often stayed with the
Capps family.
A display of many items from old Mount Pulaski
drugstores was shown. The Biedler Drug Store existed in 1857, and a
large photo of that store was on display. The Connolley Drug Store,
which existed on the south side of the square for over 40 years, had
items on display as well. The kids were told that one of their
teachers, Mrs. Olson, is a granddaughter of the Connolleys.
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A sign was held up: "Which is faster -- airplane or train?"
All the students answered "airplane." But, "what about in 1910?" the presenter
asked. It was related that the Chicago-to-Springfield race between a
Wright brothers' biplane and an Illinois Central Railroad train was
held in 1910, and the winner was awarded $10,000 -- a mighty sum in
those days. A photo showed the plane with many onlookers around it
as it had landed in a field just down Washington Street from the
present American Legion Hall. As the plane took on water,
oil and gasoline, the train sped by with Wilbur Wright as a
passenger. Nevertheless, the plane took off and eventually passed
the train and claimed the award. The famous Wilbur Wright was in the
town of Mount Pulaski for about 20 seconds.
In the other side of the museum, the students
were treated to a display of old military uniforms: Civil War, World
War I,
World War II, Korea and Vietnam. They saw an old bank vault that used to
belong to the Mount Pulaski First National Bank. They also saw many
Abraham Lincoln photos and paintings, as well as the Harry Hahn
display. Harry was Mount Pulaski's famous Abraham Lincoln
impersonator who died just a few years ago.
The students also were treated to a tour of the
Mount Pulaski Courthouse, which was the Logan County seat from
1848 to 1855. The students walked up the steps to the second-floor
courtroom. There, the wooden floor is the very same floor that
Abraham Lincoln walked on when he was a traveling 8th
Judicial Circuit lawyer. The United States flag of 30 stars adorns
one of the courtroom walls -- there were only 30 states in 1848. The
students were told that the courthouse became a schoolhouse for
20 years and then served as city offices, a community center,
an American Legion Hall and a post office for many years. Dances
used to be held in the old courtroom.
The presenters of this historical tour of Mount
Pulaski were, at the courthouse, Wally Kautz, Tom Romer and Chuck McCue.
In
the museum, students were educated by Darrell Knauer, Dolly Buckles,
Maxine Downing and Phil Bertoni.
[Text from file
received from Phil Bertoni]
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