Jonesboro plans bicentennial celebration
A celebration 200 years in the making is planned this weekend in Union County.
The City of Jonesboro will be celebrating its bicentennial with a wide range of special activities.
Union County and the State of Illinois also are observing their 200th anniversaries in 2018.
Dedication of Military Markers
The Long Knives Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Daniel Chapman Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution will participate in the official dedication of the military markers of two Revolutionary War veterans on Saturday, Oct. 13, at 10 a.m. in Jonesboro Cemetery.
The graves of veterans, Jacob Frick and George Brown, were previously unmarked.
The Jonesboro Bicentennial Committee secured the granite military markers from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Local historian and author Darrel Dexter shared information about Frick and Brown.
Jacob Frick was born in Bucks Co., Pa., and was about 25 when the Revolutionary War began.
Frick appeared in court in 1832 at Jonesboro to recount his war service in his application for a pension. He stated he was 81 or 82 years old, but had no record of his birth, except his own memory.
“At the commencement of the Revolutionary War, I volunteered under one Capt. Wendell Miller and was marched immediately to join what was then called the Southern Army at a place named Ninety Six (S.C.). I was marched in pursuit of a large body of Tories who were going to join the Cherokee Indians. About daylight of the morning we rushed upon the Tories, surrounded them and made 221 or 222 of them prisoners. We took from them several wagons into which we put the guns taken from them as well as seven or eight barrels or kegs of powder.”
After three months, Frick returned home, but again volunteered under Capt. George Henry Barrier to march against the Cherokee in July 1776.
“We went against the towns of the Cherokee and destroyed and burned 12 or 13 of them. During this tour we waded many rivers and met and encountered all the difficulties and hardships incident to such campaigns.”
Frick volunteered a third time in 1777 and marched to Fayetteville under Capt. Barrier and Gen. Griffith Rutherford to fight the Scottish Tories.
Frick volunteered for his fourth three-month tour of duty to subdue the Tories in Chatham Co., N.C. They captured 10 or 12 leaders of the Tories and brought them back to Rowan County and put them in the Salisbury jail. The prisoners escaped and burned the house of Lieut. Benjamin Scriviner and with it the company muster roll.
“By this accident we obtained no pay for our services,” Frick recalled.
He served his final tour of duty under Capt. John Bullin and Gen. William Lee Davidson against the British, who had possession of Mecklenburg, but he stated they fled when they heard the Americans were coming. Based on his service in the Revolution, Frick received a pension of $50 a year.
Frick resided in North Carolina until Christmas Day in 1823, when he arrived in Union County with his family and settled three miles south of Jonesboro.
Jacob Frick died Jan. 27, 1839, and was buried in Jonesboro Cemetery.
George Brown was born about 1755 and was also from Rowan Co., N.C. He was 77 when he made his declaration to acquire a pension in Washington Co., Tenn., where he had moved in 1798. He stated that in the fall of 1776 in Rowan County, he was drafted and served two months in a mounted infantry against the Tories.
In 1779 Brown was again drafted and was stationed in Salisbury, N.C., as a mechanic under Gen. Nathaniel Green, making cartridge boxes. Here he contracted small pox and recalled he was sick when the British marched through.
Brown received a pension of $25 a year for his service.
George Brown moved to Union County, Ill., before 1818. About 1823 he moved to Washington Co., Tenn., but returned to Union Co., Ill., in 1838.
Brown died Dec. 10, 1846, in Alexander County, Ill., near Thebes, where he was living with his son, David Brown.
He was buried in Jonesboro Cemetery, which was once the location of Clear Creek Baptist Church, where he and his sons, John, David, Jeremiah, and James, were members at different times and where his son, Jeremiah Brown, was once pastor.
Parking, Weather Conditions
There will be no parking in the cemetery for the dedication ceremony. Those who plan to attend the ceremony are asked to park at First Baptist Church of Jonesboro and walk, ride a shuttle, or take a horse-drawn carriage ride to the cemetery. Shuttle service will begin at 9 a.m.
In the event of rain, the event will be held in the gymnasium at Jonesboro Elementary School.
Voices from the Grave
Immediately following the dedication ceremony, “Voices from the Grave” will be presented in Jonesboro Cemetery beginning at about 10:30 a.m.
Twenty-four actors in period costumes will be beside the graves of prominent citizens and interesting characters from Jonesboro’s 200-year past to tell their unique stories.
Each presentation is about five minutes in length and those attending can choose which presentations they wish to hear. Each presentation will be given several times throughout the morning.
George Buss, who portrays Abraham Lincoln, will also be at the cemetery and participate in “Voices from the Grave.”
Past Jonesboro citizens who will be portrayed and the actors portraying them include:
Abram Hunsaker, said to be the first white settler in Union County in 1803, portrayed by Steve Haldeman.
Mary Miller McIntosh, who came to Jonesboro in 1817 in a wagon with an infant in her arms, portrayed by Pam Rich Turner.
Ella Jane Pickles Sanders, a Jonesboro and Anna teacher who appeared on the TV show, “I’ve Got a Secret,” portrayed by Barbara Bauer.
Winstead and Anna Willard Davie, the founder of Anna and the woman for whom the town was named, portrayed by Marland and Barbara Throgmorton.
Lucinda H. Brooks, the wife of Jonesboro’s first doctor who settled there in 1820, portrayed by Carol Palmer.
Elijah Willard, who accumulated an immense fortune as a Jonesboro merchant, portrayed by Mark Kirk.
John Dougherty, who served as lieutenant governor of Illinois from 1869 to 1873, and his wife, Catharine James Dougherty, who settled near Jonesboro in 1811 at the age of 3, portrayed by Pete Housman and Lillian Milam.
Ellen D. Ashley, whose husband surveyed the route of the Illinois Central, portrayed by Pam Van Alstine.
Betsy Milliken Hacker, who taught her husband, John S. Hacker, to read after their marriage at their tavern home in Jonesboro, portrayed by Terri Bryant.
Christian G. Flaugh, who operated a water mill and distillery at Flaughtown, portrayed by Bill Litterell with Emily Boyd-Meyer as his daughter.
James Provo, a Jonesboro merchant murdered by a soldier on Main Street in Anna during the Civil War, portrayed by Lance Meisenheimer.
John P. Law, a deputy provost marshal who was killed near Jonesboro trying to arrest army deserters during the Civil War, portrayed by Scott Harris.
Henry L. and Mary Ann Edmonds Webb, a veteran of four wars and his wife, who raised 10 children, portrayed by Jim Brown and Irma Kelley Brown.
Ben Smith and Belle Miller Smith, the nationally prominent poet from Berryville and his wife, portrayed by Brad Stamp and Kristin Nance.
Dr. Sidney Condon, a dedicated physician who settled in Jonesboro in 1836 and died while caring for a patient, portrayed by the Brent Gordon.
Eva Katharine Pheifer Ditter and daughter Augusta Ditter, a German immigrant to America in 1867 and her daughter, who came to Jonesboro and were active members of Kornthal Lutheran Church, portrayed by Tricia Gardner Moehring and Diana Gardner Robertson,
Kitty Mae Sams Keyser Hoss Tanner, who was jilted by her fiancé whom she killed with a Colts revolver and entered one of the earliest insanity pleas at her trial, portrayed by Diana Scherer.
Silas C. Toler, who rose in ranks during the Civil War to his appointment as a brigadier general, portrayed by Bobby Toler.
There will be no parking in the cemetery for “Voices from the Grave.”
Those in attendance are asked to park at First Baptist Church of Jonesboro and walk, ride a shuttle, or take a horse-drawn carriage ride to the cemetery. Shuttle service will begin at 9 a.m.
In the event of rain, the events will be held in the gymnasium at Jonesboro Elementary School.
Church Tours
Eight churches in the Jonesboro area are scheduled to be open for history tours from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 13, as part of the Jonesboro Bicentennial Celebration.
Jonesboro churches participating are First Baptist Church, 210 W. Walnut St., organized in 1818; Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church, 101 W. Market St., organized in 1897 and built in 1911; First United Methodist Church, 300 W. Market St., organized in 1857 and the current building was built in 1926.
Churches in rural Jonesboro that will be open include Lockard Chapel Baptist Church, on Berryville Road off Route 146, organized in 1910; Kornthal Evangelical Lutheran Church, on Kornthal Church Road off of Highway127 south of Jonesboro, organized by Austrian immigrants in 1852.
St. John’s Lutheran Church, on St. John’s Road off of Highway 127 south of Jonesboro, the oldest Lutheran Church in Illinois organized in 1816; Ebenezer United Methodist Church, on Ebenezer Church Road off of Highway 127 south of Jonesboro, built in 1876 by former members of Kornthal Church; and Mill Creek Baptist Church, on Highway127 at Mill Creek, organized in 1956.
Railroad Display
A display of historic railroad artifacts from Jonesboro will be open for viewing at the Jonesboro Public Library, the former railroad depot from 1 to 4 p.m.
Driving Tour of Historic Jonesboro Homes
A self-guided driving tour of historic homes in Jonesboro is scheduled for Saturday. An illustrated brochure with location and a brief history of 24 historic structures in Jonesboro will be available at the Jonesboro Bicentennial Committee table west of the square Friday evening or at the PAST House at 102 S. Main, Jonesboro.
Dinner with Abe
George Buss, of Freeport, Ill., is set to portray Abraham Lincoln for the “Dinner with Abe” event on Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Main Street Center, 400 S. Main St., Anna.
The meal will be catered by The Kitchen on Lafayette and will feature Abraham and Mary Lincoln’s “favorite dishes.”
A local musical group, Back Porch Company will perform at the dinner.
The reservation deadline was Oct. 5, but anyone who did not make a dinner reservation can still attend the Lincoln presentation beginning at 7 p.m.