Professor emeritus publishes book about the namesake heritage of
Lincoln
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[April 13, 2011]
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- D. Leigh Henson,
Ph.D., announces the publication of his new book, "The Town Abraham
Lincoln Warned: The Living Namesake Heritage of Lincoln,
Illinois." According to legend, in 1853 when the town's founders
asked their attorney, Abraham Lincoln, if they could name the town
for him, he quipped: "You'd better not do that, for I never knew
anything named Lincoln that amounted to much."
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Henson, professor emeritus of English at Missouri State
University, was born and raised in Lincoln, Ill., the first town
named for Mr. Lincoln before he became famous. There, Lincoln
christened the town in his name with watermelon juice in 1853,
practiced law, owned property and engaged in politics. The town of
Lincoln has been the seat of Logan County since 1854. Henson's
book explains how the community has searched for, commemorated,
exploited and sometimes neglected its Abraham Lincoln-related
history. Accordingly, Henson tells the stories of how the town has
developed its historic sites, celebrations, festivals,
re-enactments, historical markers and such related art as statues,
busts and paintings. Overall, these are "success stories" involving
the interaction of people in government, business, education
(especially people from Lincoln College), tourism and other
nonprofits. Yet, these stories sometimes show controversy, irony and
missed opportunity.
The book is a case study of how academics can engage in public
service based on scholarship. Using the Internet for research and
communication with civic leaders in Lincoln, Henson for several
years has contributed to his hometown's Lincoln heritage.
In 2007 he publicly debated the question of whether Mr. Lincoln
had practiced law in the first Lincoln Christian Church in 1857. For
the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial celebration beginning in 2008,
Henson proposed a re-enactment of Mr. Lincoln's two-hour political
rally and speech on the lawn of the Logan County Courthouse during
the Lincoln-Douglas Senate race of 1858. Henson researched the event
and discovered newspaper articles not previously identified in The
Lincoln Log, the official record of Lincoln's day-by-day activities.
Henson then composed the play script used for that re-enactment. He
also proposed a historical marker and statue of Lincoln to
commemorate the original event. In 2010 Henson became involved in
the public debate over whether the fallen Civil War Union soldier
statue on the Logan County Courthouse lawn should be replaced with
one of marble, a twin of the original, or one of bronze. Included in
the book are explanations of all of these activities.
The book's final section recommends strategies to expand,
preserve and promote this Lincoln heritage.
This book is a fresh approach to writing social-cultural history:
It offers a model of explaining how a heritage develops from history
at the grass-roots level and how that heritage forms "a usable
past." The significance of this work has been recognized by leading
Illinois historians and others, who have described it as "a fine
book," "a splendid story," "a true labor of love" and "a gold mine
for civic leaders" (in Lincoln and elsewhere).
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Henson has sent complimentary copies to more than a dozen Lincoln
civic leaders, including Mayor Keith Snyder, Dave Armbrust of the
Lincoln City Council, Jan Schumacher of the Logan County Board,
Wanda Lee Rohlfs of Main Street Lincoln, and the presidents and
trustees of Lincoln College and Lincoln Christian University. These
individuals are in key positions for considering the book's
proposals.
Copies have been donated to the Lincoln Public Library, the
Missouri State University Library, the Illinois State University
Library, and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
The book features 73 black-and-white images, including original
photos, picture postcards, and pages from newspapers and history
books. On the outside and inside of the cover are four original
color photos. Henson and his wife, Pat Hartman, did all of the
pre-press work for the book, including graphics editing.
The author has created a Web page providing more details and
ordering information:
http://findinglincolnillinois.com/townabewarned.html.
A companion resource for Henson's book is his extensive,
award-winning community history website of Lincoln:
http://findinglincolnillinois.com/. At the top of its home page is
a link to his curriculum vitae (PDF).
Henson attended Lincoln College his freshman year and earned
undergraduate and graduate degrees at Illinois State University. He
taught English at Pekin Community High School in Pekin, Ill., for 30
years before going to Missouri State University, where he taught
technical communication for 14 years. Missouri State University, the
second-largest public university in that state, is Missouri's only
university with a dedicated public affairs mission.
[Text from file received from D.
Leigh Henson]
Contact information:
D. Leigh Henson
PO Box 3127 GSS
Springfield, MO 65808
DLHenson@missouristate.edu
DLH105f@sbcglobal.net
http://english.missouristate.edu/faculty/henson.html
http://www.facebook.com/leigh.henson
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