A multi-faceted Sesquicentennial anniversary celebration was held Friday, July 24, through Sunday, July 26, 2015, honoring the 150th anniversary of the Village of Thomson, IL. After 19 months of planning for any age and interest, the 14 Core Committee Members were ready to celebrate. As were the ten sub-committees.
Co-chair Luanne Bruckner said she slept well the night before the festivities. “We started January 2014 and met every month; in July 2015 we met two times a month. We did something [an event] every month [in 2015.] In January, we had a Trivial Pursuit event with wine and introduced the logo. February was a charity auction. In March we had 1000 people at our Ag Day. We created a recipe book. There was an Alumni Prom. [We produced an original pageant on Friday, July 24.] We had really good help!”
She added there were 69 entries in Saturday’s parade, with on-air commentary from Brian Reusch, WCCI 100.3 FM, left, and her husband and co-chair, Lawrence, at right. The latter stated the small community raised $5000 for Sunday night fireworks, which sparkled over Thomson for 22 minutes.
Click here to see the Thomson Sesquicentennial Parade Gallery of photos.
Beginning at noon, the parade wove through the village and traveled south on Market Street. It took 35 minutes to pass, before ending at Curley Park. Following the Color Guard, riding atop a wagon pulled by a pair of glistening, black Percherons was Grand Marshall Bruce Groharing. He is 101! Lawrence Bruckner described floats or walking units featuring York Township Library; 1882 pioneer McGinnis watermelon grower family descendants in themed t-shirts celebrating–and eating–watermelons; businesses; sponsor Savanna-Thomson Bank; Boy and Girl Scouts; various committees; Tiny Miss softball team. Other wheeled entries included Federal Bureau of Prisons personnel; current military; tractors; vintage automobiles who were part of the Car Show; 14 fire engines from local and nearby departments. Swirling around the street was an entry of several recumbent bicycles, similar to the Shriners Wheel Horse Patrol. Democrats, Republicans, the Sesqui Committee, and Daughters of the American Revolution were represented in convertibles. Luanne is Past President of the Illinois DAR.
Around 1:15 Walt Whitman read poetry from his Leaves of Grass, addressing the crowd and two former Presidents in the audience: Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant. “O Captain! My Captain!” is his critically acclaimed elegy, or mourning poem, written after Lincoln’s assassination.
They followed with their own speeches. Whitman was portrayed by Brian “Fox” Ellis, award-winning storyteller and author from Bishop Hill, IL. President Lincoln was portrayed by Kevin Wood, of Oak Park, IL. Scott Whitney, from Winnebago, IL, spoke as Lt. General Grant.
I asked Wood how he responded to “Whitman’s” remarks about him. Did he respond in character as the President might have, or as a modern-day performer? He said he responded to Ellis “on both levels.” It is not surprising for interpreters to adopt the perspective and feelings of their well-researched and practiced characters, shifting between a kind of benign Dissociative Personality Disorder.
Capitalizing on that, I asked the “President” what he thought he would have accomplished, had he not attended Ford’s Theatre on Good Friday, April 14, 1865. He reminded me of the time frame.
- Nine days previously, Confederate General Robert E. Lee had surrendered to Lt. General Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, VA, after the fall of Richmond, VA.
- Lincoln stressed the Civil War was not officially ended. He wanted to see it finished and to delineate the unconditional terms of surrender.
- He needed to guide the discussion and negotiations to end slavery completely.
- Because he viewed the United States as one Country, with a portion of it in rebellion, he planned to offer a generous and liberal surrender policy for the South, with no punishments.
- Lincoln would have guided the Reconstruction/Reunification of our Nation and with other Nations that had interfered in the Civil War.
Asked about legislation he would have nurtured, he named the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which would abolish slavery forever. He worried how to bring the states into allegiance, after an 80-year struggle over slavery. Ineffective compromises had been made, which allowed slavery to persist in some states. He would have set up Committees and assistance for soldiers and sailors, widows, and orphans.
Clearly, President Abraham Lincoln had a vigorous agenda to complete.
Lt. General Grant agreed with the President, that most people thought the war would be brief, a matter of weeks. Grant knew the President was disappointed in his loss at Vicksburg; later the President wrote Grant saying his strategy had been correct. The battle of Shiloh, Grant thought, signaled the Civil War would end soon, due to the tremendous number of casualties. That did not arise.
Whitney shared amusing anecdotes, one about General Hooker’s mules that were brought to Chattanooga, TN, with soldiers. During a conflict the frightened mules broke free of their ties and charged the Confederates. The Rebels thought they were being pursued by cavalry. After Grant related this to the President, the latter said, “I want you to get me the names of those mules!”
Lt. General Grant related in detail meeting Robert E. Lee in Virginia; the horrors of war; huge numbers of casualties. His strategy was to “get it over with quickly and keep the army busy, which also reduced disease. Disease killed more men than the battles,” he told his audience.
