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 For
the glass half empty people, there was an underlying threat of rain
throughout the afternoon that would have hindered if not halted the
final day of 1860s era competitions.
And for the glass half empty folks, it was windy, cloudy, and on the
verge of being chilly.
For those glass half full people, Sunday afternoon, on the first
official day of fall, spoke to the change of the season. It was cool
enough for those cable knit sweaters or favorite fall sweatshirts.
In the backyard of the Postville Courthouse acorns bigger than
walnuts plopped on the ground from time to time with a pleasant ker-thud
and a few golden oak leaves floated to the ground.
Those who were competing in events such as the water boil, the
junior split and professional rail split may have been thankful for
the cooler temperatures as they performed their physically exerting
tasks.
For the organizers, it was a day with several
challenges, especially in the pro split, but they took on those
challenges with a glass half full attitude, as did the competitors.
The afternoon began with the corn shelling contest which was lots of
fun to watch, then moved on to the kids corn shelling, again another
great event.
Next came the water boil, which is always fun to
watch and for those participating quite the challenge. The water
boil is the one contest where that families can participate pairing
very young with their older and wiser siblings and parents.
But at the same time, the competitors can be all
adults, which was the case of the winning team this year that
included Jon Norin, Cody Friedlein, and Heidi Mueller. This team had
a great strategy, set the whole darn thing on fire!
The rule of the competition is that the team gets a stack of wood, a
box of matches, and a cooking grate. The can of water they will
bring to a boil is located several yards away at the back of the
courthouse. The water carrier has to take the box of matches with
him or her to retrieve the water, while the other two team members
can begin splitting kindling for the fire. When the water and
matches return to the site, the team may proceed in whatever manner
they see fit to be the first one to have the water boil over in the
can.
For the winning team, the strategy was to build a
teepee like structure all around the can once the kindling was lit
and flaming nicely. Then it is do whatever is necessary to fan the
flames and create the hottest fire possible.
Some of the teams made this look much easier than it actually was,
while others struggled just a bit. For example the team of Teri
Ballinger, Ryan Ballenger and Jazmyne Payne got off to a great
start, building a small but healthy fire, then something happened,
and the fire went out. It was a constant struggle from then on to
get the fire going and the water boiling.
All together four teams competed with certificates
going to the first-place winners.
Following the water boil was the Junior Railsplitter which had
several contestants this year. The junior abides by the same rules
as the pro split but with the addition of an adult coach for each
youth, and the kids only half to split a half-log instead of a fully
round one.
The kids all got off to a strong start with plenty of coaching from
their adult leaders. There was one mishap that resulted in a banged
thumb and one competitor deciding it just wasn’t worth it to stay in
the contest.
The winners of this year’s contest was first place
Peyton Norin, second place Oliver Friedlein, and third place Eliza
Reinhart.
After the Junior Railsplitter, there was a break in the action so
that everyone could move from the backyard to the front yard at the
courthouse to commemorate the christening of the city of Lincoln by
Abraham Lincoln.
This year, there was no reenactment, but it was still
very special event. The observance began with the singing of the
National Anthem with Nancy Vannoy “singing along” in American Sign
Language.
After this, Lincoln Mayor Tracy Welch read aloud the
account of the christening event from when Abraham Lincoln joined
friends from Logan County and with the juice of a watermelon
christened the town Lincoln Illinois. All this was done before
Abraham Lincoln was elected president, thus making the city of
Lincoln the only city in the nation to be named for and by Abraham
Lincoln before he was president.
When Mayor Welch finished, folk musician Chris Vallillo performed a
song that he said was Lincoln campaign song when he ran for
president, entitled “Lincoln and Liberty.”
Again, Nancy Vannoy offered translation for Welch as well as
Vallillo.
When this was all finished, Mayor Welch was joined up front by Bob
Rankin and Jeremy Wells. This year as a fundraiser, the railsplitter
association sold raffle tickets for a Henry rifle. Wells held the
rifle while Welch drew the name of the winner and handed it over to
Rankin. Rankin then announced that the winner of the drawing was
Jake Mueller of Trenton.
When the drawing was finished, visitors were encouraged to return to
the backyard of the courthouse to witness the professional
railsplitting contest.
This year there were nine contestants in the pro split including
(alphabetically) Casey Ballinger, Evant Coombs, Zach Darnell,
Lawrence Dubbelde, Cody Friedlein, Bryce Muir, John Norin, Jason
Nunn and Tony Swanson.
The logs were laid out and numbered one through nine. Then the
contestants were to draw numbers for the log they would split. The
first hiccup in the day came when not all the numbers in the drawing
for the logs matched the numbers on the logs. Therefore, the drawing
had to be done a second time.
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Once the split began the rules are that each log had
to be split into eight pieces. The qualify as a rail there had to be
saw marks on each end of the rail. The eight rails had to be fully
separated with now slivers of wood attaching one to another. All the
tools used for the split must be removed from the split area and
placed together at one end or the other of the separated log. Once
all that is done, the contestant can call time. Each contestant had
a judge/timer with a stop watch to record the time and check the
logs.
The split got off to a good start with one competitor
finishing far faster than the rest. The others continued working and
as time went on all were finished. There were challenges with the
logs, as some of them were very crooked on the inside. With the
grain of the wood being so erratic there were some who struggled to
get the proper split with both ends showing saw marks, and some of
the logs were quite stubborn, not wanting to split at all.
Eventually, all nine competitors finished and it was time to
determine winners. There had been a couple of odd circumstances. One
competitor called done, had the time recorded, then noticed that he
had a couple of rails that were not fully separated. He returned to
the split area, separated the sliver of wood that was holding the
two pieces together, then called time again. Bob Rankin who is in
charge of the split said this was something that had never happened
before. It took a while to decide, but the final conclusion was that
splitter was disqualified because he had called time the first time
with the logs not fully split.
Then two of the competitors left wedges in the split
site. This equated to a 30 second penalty for each. After a while of
looking at times and calculations the top five were announced.
They were Lawrence Dubbelde in first, Tony Swanson
second, Casey Ballinger third, Jason Nunn fourth, and Zach Darnall
placed fifth. After the awards were given for the top five, some of
the men left the announcer area to go gather tools. It was then that
another hiccup occurred.
Zach Darnall came back to the table and said that he had left a
wedge in the split zone. He had not caught it and neither had his
official. Adding a 30 second penalty to Darnall’s score took him out
of the fifth place position and brought Cody Friedlein into it.
However, Freidlein said no, he didn’t want to take Darnell’s award
away from him. It was Darnall’s honesty that cost him the place, and
Friedlein thought that had to be worth something.
In the end, Darnall kept the award and the check but insisted that
he and Freidlein share the fifth place finish for the record. That
had to be a glass half full moment.
Another glass half full moment was the first place award. The check
for Lawrence Dubblede’s first place finish was provided by the
children of Darius and Emma Knauer. Darius has been the foundation
of the railsplitter since its inception, as he was among the two or
three people who hatched the idea and made it a reality. He has not
been able to attend the last two or three years, but prior to that,
you never saw a railsplitter festival with Darius not involved.
The check was presented to Dubblede by the Knauer
children, Pam Fuiten and Jeff Knauer.
Another good moment was the entry from Kentucky. Jason Nunn had come
up to the festival from Upton. Rankin when introducing Nunn
mentioned that Nunn’s community also has a railsplitting event. He
said that Nunn was in Lincoln, serving as an ambassador and hoping
that he would be able to draw Illinois competitors to the event in
his home state. Nunn finished fourth in the contest, a testament
perhaps to how seriously they take rail splitting in Abraham
Lincoln’s birth state.
The last business to be conducted at the 2024 Railplitting was the
announcement of the “All Around Railsplitter.” Throughout the two
day event, points are given for each contest a person participates
in. Obviously, those who participate the most earn the most points.
This year the All Around Railsplitter was Jon Norin
with 32 points tying for first with Cody Friedlein who also had 32
points. Atlanta native and teenage competitor Ryan Ballinger was the
third-place competitor with 25 points, and Heidi Mueller rounded out
the top four with 24 points.
As the day came to an end, Rankin thanked everyone for coming to
watch and those who had competed. He also mentioned that the rails
that were split throughout the two-day period were available for
sale.
Anyone who is interested in rails can contact Rankin, who works at
Farm and Home in Lincoln.
[Nila Smith]
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