The Coles County Courthouse is in Charleston IL at the east end of the county from Mattoon. Above is a monument honoring Civil War soldiers. Oddly, Southern sympathizers were involved in the Copperhead Riot in1864 which left bullet holes on this courthouse.
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| A peaceful lunch |
Of course no visit back home is complete without looking up a few family grave sites. These were my paternal grandparents Amelia Emily (Mamie) Johnston and Andrew Johnston. I thought I had never met either of them but a recent discovery shows me at Grandma Amelia's knee when I was two or three, circa December 1946. She died in 1947.
Nearby is buried everyone's favorite uncle, Uncle Archie, Herbert Archibald Johnston, USMC, veteran of the Bataan Death March and two years as a POW in Osaka, Japan. His indomitable rascally sense of humor must have contributed greatly to his chances of survival.
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| True life size. |
Upon leaving Mattoon we swung over to Springfield IL and visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. If you're ever in the neighborhood don't miss this place. Open since 2005. Amazing.
Warning: do not linger too long gazing on this life size tableau of a slave auction in progress. The palpable anguish of the woman, the child and the man can evoke tears. Most folk don't know that Abe traveled down the Mississippi at nineteen years of age to New Orleans, where he reportedly witnessed such scenes as this. His life, and American history, were changed forever.
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| This was Abe's Springfield home |
And a recreation of the facilities out back.
Sorry about that. I think Uncle Archie might have exerted some rascally influence on me. Or maybe irreverence is simply genetic.
On to St Louis--------
Here is Marcella Petzchen in front of the Georgian Condominiums where she lives. These are the remnants of the once mighty St Louis City Hospital, where I started my bootstrap education as a freshman student nurse sixty years ago. Marcella was a 1968 graduate who went on to become a Nurse Practitioner. This interesting story includes one photo with my ex-wife Marla Lipscomb, among other classmates of Marcella's.
Great vignettes of City life in there. I was four years ahead of Marcella's class and off in anesthesia training in the US Army when they graduated. We had a good visit and admired her condo and also her god-daughter's, Sarah Lohmeyer. In addition Shannon and I had a delightful afternoon visit with Pat Freeman Brush, a 1964 City Hospital classmate of mine, at her home on stylish Longfellow Boulevard in the Compton Heights neighborhood. Shannon and I stayed in a nearby B&B.
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| City in its heyday |
Then it was off to see some sights, the Missouri Botanical Gardens, formerly Shaw's Gardens, Forest Park, the Art Museum, and this guy:
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| St Louis in person atop Art Hill |
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| Botanical |
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| Outside the Climatron |
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| Inside |
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| The extensive Japanese gardens |
The free admission St Louis Art Museum (along with the free zoo) were valuable entertainment for penniless students 60 years ago.
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| Jolly Flatboatmen (1857) by George Caleb Bingham |
All in all, a glorious three week visit with family and old and new friends Back East.
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