Untitled Document To duel or not to duel — that was the question Illinois congressman and Mexican War veteran William H. Bissell faced in 1850. He was challenged by Jeffers]]> Untitled Document Add President George Walker Bush to the list of top-tier U.S. politicians whose ancestors include slaveholders. U.S. Census records for 1790 to 1830 testify t]]> We may be the land of Lincoln and prairies, but at one time we were the land of pottery, too. Greene County is celebrating that fact during its Greene County Days next weekend.Illinois was a major pla]]> “Too late now,” said Henry Darger, an 80-something retired janitor and former central Illinois resident, as he waited for death at a Chicago charitable institution i]]> Many of us have heard about New Philadelphia, the racially integrated town in west central Illinois established by former slave “Free Frank” McWorter in 1836. Free Frank was an]]> Untitled Document Some of our earliest settlers’ stories are so fantastic, they’re hard to believe. Take Mary Neely Spears, also known as Granny Spears. At 19 she was]]> On May 27, 1942, the Hunn sisters of Springfield were innocence and beauty incarnate as they modeled their new spring outfits at Aunt Hannah's Baby Shop, which was then located at 126 N. Fifth St. in ]]> “All the day long, Whether rain or shine, She’s a part of the assembly line. She’s making history, Working for victory, Rosie the Riveter…”%uFFFD%uFFFD%uFFFD%uFFFD -from]]> “Frankly, it’s not the end of the world for me,” asserts Tony Kerasotes when queried about the January 2010 sale of all but three of his family’s 96-theater empire — incl]]> It is, at first, a vexing and somewhat daunting undertaking to write about a nearly 100-year-old high-school athletic-team yearbook picture, especially when it requires more than a little sleut]]> Walking down the main business street in Cairo, Ill., it’s tempting to think that this spring’s floodwaters of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers were sent to put the languishing town out of ]]> Everyone has his contradictions. Bob Waldmire, for example, is an unreconstructed hippie, as green as Ralph Nader. "Small is beautiful. Slow is beautiful. Old is beautiful," the itinerant artist inton]]> The 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ first visit to America will be commemorated in February 2014. The Liverpool lads, shortly after their single “I Want to Hold Your Hand” reached t]]> More than 60 years ago, a landmark ruling established a precedent that would permanently alter the relationship between religion and public education in America. And it happened right here in central ]]> One of the grandest homes that Springfield has ever seen is only a memory. Not even a full photograph of it is known to exist. The home was built by Illinois Gov. Joel Matteson in ]]> You can’t help but wonder what Abraham Lincoln would have thought if he’d witnessed the public auction here of two slave girls in July, 1827. Even though the event occurred 10 years before]]> Tax Day is just days away. Nationally, April 15 is significant because that’s the traditional day when tax returns are due. This year we get a two-day extension, to April 17. Perhaps more locall]]> At the corner of 12th and Reynolds, hard by what was once the site of the John Hay Homes, stands the former residence and business of August Rechner Sr., a native of Baden, Germany, who emigrated fro]]> At the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Edwards Street is a two-story building with a "For Lease" sign in the front window of the vacant first story. Until recently, the location served as a ]]>