Transcripts For CSPAN2 BOOK TV 20161015

It has very rich history. Illinois on booktv with the help of our comcast part nosers next 90 minutes well travel the city and talk with local authors about the history of the area. We start with a look at organized crime in peoria during first half of the 20th century. As we explore the life and times of the shelton brothers gang. A gang war, famous car war erupted for three or four months in 1926 and it was tweeng the shelton brothers and the burger gang. About 40 or 50 men were killed but the shelton this was a vicious gig where fought out and it included the first aerial bombing first and only one of american soil when the sheltons comen deered a biplane and flew other charlie burgers hideout which was a little state lodge called shady rust in illinois and dropped them down. One created only fatality in American Bombing history because this was the only airplane ride we have in american history. I wrote the book because first of all ive had a lifetime interest and ive been around a lot of years in the tsh started gangster history of down state illinois. I was in illinois and grew up in illinois which was next to east of st. Louis and across the Mississippi River you have got st. Louis, and east st. Louis figured heavily in down state, illinois. The sheltons basically shelton gang was run by three brothers. Charles she will only who was a leader. Big earl his right hand man and youngest brother in the father bernard known as bernie now they were three of the seven children who grew to adulthooded in a Family Associated with old ma and pennsylvania shelton and deep southern specifically in wayne county which was in deep part of the state. They grew up very poor. They often had a tough time even having foods on the table. They lived in a very ram shack physical little house about four 3450eu8s east of fairfield, illinois. One thing, though, they did learn as kids and teenagers were to shoot guns. And to learn real well and eventually prohibition set in, they bought a tavern in east st. Louis f st. Louis and soon pen gaming, obviously, because prohibition they were engaging in bootlegs and started serving other taverns being bootlegs and illegal liquor for all of the others in st. Louis and prohibition. And the shelton establish themselves as the major bootleggers of Southern Illinois that was their first real identity and they were tough, mean, and violent and therm smart, and they asserted themselves very quickly and they rapsdly emerging world of organized crime that was that really was spawned prohibition. Thats one thing prohibition did and now as for she will tons three she will tons that led the gang. Three of the seven kids there were five boys and two girls and three of the five boys were leadser the leader was Charles Shelton who was very handsome, very smooth. Very soft spoken, he was handsome, he was a ladys man, and he was very much a very charismatic actually. His brother big earl was very good with mathematic and figure and business figures even though none of the boys got out of grade school but big earl was liewpt to his brother karl, and then the Third Brother at the head of the gang was bernie. Bernard known as Bernie Shelton and he was the most violent of the three. Bernie liked to shoot first and talk later. Bernie was the enforcer as you know, every criminal organization has one or more enforcers. Bernie was the enforcer. The years they gained prominence in it shall id say 1922, 1923 early in the arab prohibition, and they quickly establish themselves in bootlegs business and all of Southern Illinois. They have a lot of lieutenants and if some of whom had their own little empire within bigger empire and thats not tun usual and they have everything going their way until there were a lot of people, obviously, prohibition because work people enforced right and if i wasnt being enforced in down state, illinois. City officials looked the other way. Police chiefs looked the other way. Sheriffs looked the other way so that gave rise to a resurgence of the ku klux klan in Southern Illinois. Now, that clan was basically sos it was like a Vigilante Organization and wasnt like the come pick book story clan of later years of 50s, 60s, and so on year on which fbi agents but the clan was very serious for two or threeyear period and leading socialsocialcitizens ing because they wanted prohibition force and when regular Law Enforcement authorities were not fen forcing prohibition, they took it upon themselves in a vigilante sort of way to do it. And the result was incredible violence and murders and disastrous situations. And it led to an allout war in Southern Illinois between the clan and between the bootleg percent, the bootleggers led by karls shelton like a bootlegging army, and incredible encounters occurred that i detail of course in great detail in my book rather than tourist, but things that occurred as the clan and bootleggers pointed out made front page headline across the united states. From the New York Times to the los angeles times. Eventually the clan, bootleg percent defeated the clan. The clan went back in the wood work okay, but then erupted in rank of the shelton empire, and one gangster in particular charlieburg we are a empire in Southeastern Illinois within bigger shelton empire, a if gang war a famous gang war erupted for about three or four months in 1926 again it made headlines across the country. And it was between the shelton brothers and the burger gang. About 40 or 50 men were killed. The she will tongs reached their peak in 1930 and had their world by the tail in 1930 and everything had work that point finally came out to their benefit. Their territory started south of peoria a little bit south of peoria, and went all the way down to the tip of the state at carol, illinois down to the mississippi meets the ohio. Their influence operations went a little bit into Southern Indiana and eighty into southern missouri also as well as a little bit of western kentucky. They their headquarters basically were in east st. Louis which was saint clark county in illinois, and Madison County area theyre always linked together across the river from st. Louis. That was the foundation for many years of the shelton criminal enterprises bootlegs and then labor racketeers and control of of the illegal gamble ppg peoria comes into play in the shelton story it is the last big who are are who hurrah and it was interesting that peeoria had a wide open city. And amazingly the underworld activity in peoria had continued to be dominated and lead by local gangsters now this wasnt the case anywhere else in illinois. North it was all dominated by ailing al capone and chicago and started south to the tip of the state he was shelton gang territory, and peoria remained in neutral buffer zone between two major criminal entities. And peoria who was a haven of shady activities back then, but controlled those activities had remain in the hands of local gangsters. Well, as world war ii is getting underway, the shelton excuse me capone crowd out of chicago made a long anticipated move to come into peoria and take over peoria because it was booming in terms of things that gangsters wanted to do to make dough. And the local gangsters in peoria made a calculated situation they knew they could nots resist them. But what they did under the element they decided sheltons were preferable. So the shelton brothers, boys invited to come to peep your ya expand and go into peoria and provide protection for the criminal network in peoria from the component they provide protection. Now it didnt take very long it was predictable. They not only provided, for example, for the rackets in peoria but they took over. And during world war ii the sheltons were very powerful in peoria now two of the three brothers moved. Cal and bernie. Big earl although he was involved it in peoria big earl never moved to peoria he remained down in their strong holds down in Southern Illinois. But during world war ii, the statewide she will to be criminal network was run out of peoria are. And it was in peoria that karl, karl considered himself a businessman. Not a gangster. He consider it is himself supplyings needs and wants of the public. The public wanted to drink. He supplied the liquor and the beer. You know, the public wanted to gamble was it illegal in illinois but they wanted to gamble provided casino and small gambling parlor and so on. He considered himself a businessman. He considered himself a full manner of economic activity. Check prosperity they werent gangsters in charles eyes. But either way in peoria they quickly established themselves as the bosses and karl is literally along with legendary mirror at the time. They were running peoria during world war ii and theyve got along very well, very well. Tolerated as long as it provided revenues for the city coffers and for a number of citizens and as long as violence was under control. And the sheltons were very adept at meeting those requirements they certainly paid a share of all pflt illegal stuff to the to the city. And they kept violences under control. Urkd control. Very little of it until near the end when sheltons were sort of, you know, getting a little the fat and looking to maybe at least karl later looking to sort of retire and go back to Southern Illinois to live like a Country Squire with all of the land and hold physician and big in the oil industry. But shelton, peoria with politicians he would say that peoria was the last hurrah for the shelton. Et death across shelton one of the three big stories of the year in 1947 in illinois. The other two big stories were the early mine disaster. Which took over 100 lives. And jackie robinson. Jackie rob opinion son breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball the 1947 when brooklyn dodgers brought that up. That was a very big deal, and that was one of the three big stories of the year in down state illinois. Jackie robinson coming into major leagues. The mine disaster and murder of Kearl Shelton he was in Southern Illinois riding in a open aired jeep on a country lane near the farm lands he owned and had bought with his facility gotten gangs and he was assassinated four or five gunman waiting in brush near a a bridge. And he was machine gunned to death. There were two body guards in a truck following him. But they were they didnt function and karl was murdered on the spot hit by 14, 15, 16 bullets. Machine gunning and that, of course, was, that was the beginning because karl was the brains only one who knew all of the pieces of the puzzle. He was the only one who knew who was getting pads paid off where. And that after that it was difficult to keep the shelton gang together. Bernie tried bernie was up here and had a tavern right a little bit down the hill from the edge of peoria just outside of the ferris city is line. And a year with later, though, bernie himself it was assassinated. Shots on the parking lot of the tavern and dieded half hour later at a hospital in peoria. Big earl survived three or four assassination attempts. He was hit. But he survived. He eventually got mnldz and empire diswent grated and went to florida and lived last half of his life and engagedded in Business Enterprise and become a wealthy man in florida. In et jacksonville, florida area involved in a lot of developments. The thing they said about big earl was if big earl slipped half dollar in the air it floated down as a 5 billion. And bigg earl lived to be lived until 1986 when he died of natural causes, at the age of 96. And illinois had a terrific era whether many people liked it or not of lawlessness and it captured the front page headline in the imagination eve read percent and people throughout the country. And i think if youre going to study the history of this state, and you want to be serious about it, you cannot ignore the role of gangs like the sheltons and so on. And what they represented welcome to peoria at the top of the Illinois River valley and cspan will be . Right peoria. Up next we speak wort to hear about the story was people and events that help save the city in the region. When i realized i was going to write stories it was for a magazine here in town, and i realized that i didnt. The to do just a peoria history book im not from here. Im transplant here and there are a lot of very good peoria historians here who have written good books. I want to find a different angle to it so i was searching out a story just to kind of Research Just to have fun with, and i was reading a book about the eastland disaster which was a ship wreck in chicago on the chicago river. And swufns from this area says there was a boat wreck on the Illinois River it was a wooden steamboat 1918 and wasnt sure how many people died so that was the story that i started researching. The boat was called the columbia it was 87 people were killed as worse boat wreck on the Illinois River. And so i wrote the book the wreck of the columbia which came out in 2012. And again, i just started doing the research and once i felt like i had more than what i have read before, i felt like i might have had a book. The the peoria stories book was basically because i started writing these short stories and get the idea that i wanted to do a story about famous figure and tie to peoria so when i first wrote a story for the online magazine, i wrote about the story of Teddy Roosevelt. And his story tieing to peoria is that he went up this hilly and curvey road and called it the world most beautiful drive, and that statement kind of iconic now in town. Its a lasting tribute to the city Everybody Knows Teddy Roosevelted said that about that road, and so i thought well theres an interesting angle. Heres a historical figure age his tie to the area and soy started doing more research and started coming up with more historical figures and note necessarily celebrities although a lot of towns have stories about celebrity and sports figures but i wanted to go into expets real famous figures and if i found, you know, not Pont Roosevelt story and deep into that and lincoln you can go with lincoln in illinois every city in the state has a lincoln story. Peoria is interesting because lincoln didnt visit that much in peoria especially when he was a lawyer before he came president. He this was not in his eighth judicial circuit so he didnt come to peoria that often. But he is known for the one speech he did hear and 1854 called the peoria speech and bairvegly said that slavery was wrong on every level and that speech he has become, you know, a synonymous with lincoln and peoria they have that connection so there was another connection and then further on into Charles Lindbergh who months before he became most famous pilot in the world he was flying airmail on a rout from st. Louis all the way to chicago. Springfield and peoria were smfl his stops, and he had some heroing flights over peoria he and gets into that in the book and one story about Alexander Hamiltons son. William hamilton who was here as a surveyor and served as Peoria Countys first lawyer interesting story. So theres a lot of these connections to history which i love. And i tell people that this book is not a book about mystery of peoria. Its a book about history in general with peoria in it. Now, of course, peoria is the focus but stories we start is here and go elsewhere, and in some stories we start elsewhere and comb here or go back. So we cover a lot of grouped here. But the core of it is peoria and story with caring nation who was the antisin crusader starting to get notarity for antics she was the hatchet wielding grandmother from kansas who thought that alcohol was the evil and she would bust him to saloon with the hatchet in her hand and start busting up mirrors and glasses and and she was just starting to get some press you know, because she was in kansas she was starting to go and do all of these things and they were arresting her for it. And in this time she came to peoria now she came to peoria because she was in jail and tesh had decided that being in jail was making as much a statement as going out smashing saloons so even though they told her she was being a public nuisance that she could she could go she decided to stay . Is jail. She got a letter an editor from peoria newspaper who asked her to come to peoria for a day and at the newspaper and speak and he was a teetotaler as well and supported what she was doing and peoria was a whiskey capital of the world and interesting they think her story is something physical exist here from her trip because when she got here, it was as wild and as, you know, flashy as she is. You know, her time here. But she also had asked to see a painting. A painting that someone toldz her was hanging in a bar in town called a gold plans saloon own per peter weisz and she knew that painting had several image of women undressed. [laughter] which was also part of her, you know, a whole antimoral thing for her. So she had asked to go to the bar and meet with the owner. And they told her that would probably be a bad idea. [laughter] but she went and the story is in the book the owner tried to be as nice as he could be to her. She said this was a murder house, and you should take down this fainting rights away. Among other things that she said. That painting is still hanging pup in a bar in Downtown Peoria it had lasted a lot of these years now copy of an original that has been in museums in new york but that painting itself is still here in peoria. Well, this is grand view drive and this is what Teddy Roosevelt called the worlds most beautiful drive and it was 1910 when teddy visited peoria, and he came as an invitation from a friend archbishop John Spaulding who was the leader of the Catholic Community here in peoria. They were good friends. And teddy was invited here, it wasnt on his schedule. Now, he was the expresident at the time. And he was going around speaking in larger cities like indianapolis and st. Louis. And telling everyone how bad his predecessor William Howard taft and disappointed with the way taft was running things and his his whole idea to convince everyone that taft should not be reelected so going around to making speeches saying take down the jackpotters political people who were basically becoming wealthy with power. [laughter] at the exfence of the people. So he had he had a speech in st. Louis which was an interesting day for him in st. Louis because it was the first time he took a flight in one of the right inspired flyers he took an air flight which he called most exciting days of his life interesting for a guy hunting elephants. But so the archbishop asked him in between his trip between st. Louis and indianapolis if he would stop here in peoria that happened to be on columbus day in october of 1910, and so teddy said absolutely because they were great friends. And so roosevelt came here and once city found out he was coming, of course, theyre going to throw him a big expwraition. Celebration they did by having a prosession by north adams street all the way down to grand view drive up the rivers edge and there were School Children lined up on the street. And people just cheering teddy as he went by. He has a grin and flags are waving and the plan was to come up to the country club which is still here on grand view drive and hes going to have lunch here and then speak at the hall in the evening. So as a procession went down adams street and people cheered, they were going to come up grand view drive up to the country club for lunch. Now, the grand view drive had just been built seven years earlier. This city had gotten money from the state basically saying build more parks. And they decided to since there was just a path going down from the top of the bluff here to the river to the river en, that they would build a road. Now, at that time they didnt figure use for vehicle as they would for people and therm building it for people to walk but they built it wide and they really clear it out and took about a year or so to build, and when they open it, they actually had a contest of what they should name it. And they decided that the only thing they could name it is what it represented which was the grand view that you sue p see so they called it grand view drive. Now when teddy came to town they figureed best way to get up to country club and easy way at this point was taking grand view drive so those who were in motor keyed knew what ted dives in for because they knew how beautiful this was. So pup to grand view drive and pup grand view drive teddy told the driver to stop. And he got up he didnt get out of the vehicle but stood up because it was a glide automobile cars that were made here in peoria and he stood up in the vehicle and he said these words. He said great, thats fine. Now he said those words first. And those are the words recorded in newspapers because i checked andty kept looking for those five famous words that we know now today, worlds most beautiful drive, and the newspapers never said that he actually said those words. But he did say great, thats fine. He compared it to his home on segmother hill on oyster bay to his home there. It was in october. So leaves were change and colors are spectacular like a right of fall here for people to quack this drive just to see the if beautiful color and fall so he was here at the perfect time. You know, whether he said the words exactly or not doesnt matter. Worlds most beautiful drive. Et the connection to Alexander Hamilton which was interesting because Alexander Hamilton hot these days because the broadway musical. Alexander hamiltons son, william, was i think it was 7 years old when hiss father died, of course, we know the famous dual with aaron burr. But he was the young boy when his father passed away. By that time Alexander Hamilton had a legacy and william was different than his other brothers. That he wasnt so it shall he didnt really want to go into law and go to school. He tried west point and left. She wanted to go exploring. He was an explorer. And so he came down towards the Mississippi River, and he had enough law and education that he became a surveyor along the Mississippi River, missouri in that area. Pnt. So William Hamilton became the lawyer for the accused india and in the first trial case in Peoria County and it ended up being the first conviction, ended up being the first indictment in the first first conviction and ended up being the first appeal. We also, when i read the story about the andean and the whole case no one followed the story of William Hamilton after that. It was like he was here, he did this and he went on so i tell a lot of the story of William Hamilton. He not only had an influence here as far as a lawyer goes but as a surveyor he plotted the land and the streets better name downtown are named for the founding fathers. Theres a hamilton boulevard here in pr yet and quite an coincidently its on the north side of Peoria County courthouse. Towns could influence people and people could influence towns and these historical figures came to peoria and made their mark. Peoria embraces that. I mean when you take a famous figure like especially Charles Limburg who became the most famous face in the world was just a boy, just flying airmail. People knew him here only because he would stop and because of the weather he couldnt go up so they live near the airport in town they would feed him lunch. A year later they were reading about how he landed in paris and he was a theory of hero Charles Limburg. People can come and make their mark and have an influence in the city so i wondered people to read those stories. And there were more than i thought. A town like this which has a great history, its the largest city on the illinois reverend 110 the secondlargest city in the state. With the resource of the river especially at that time and the whiskey that was being made here and of course now caterpillar is a big industry here. It has a very rich history so i that there were stories built in their and there are more. The expresidency came to visit here but these are the stories that struck me the most. Opd is visiting peoria illinois. Up next we speak with jackie hogan about the selling of the 16th president with her book lincoln, inc. I found that overall we represent lincoln in our own image. We create lincoln in our own image so he reflects the concerns of the age in which those representations are created. He reflects the desires of the creators, the fearsome preoccupations of the creator whether these are creators of childrens books, biographies, films, we see that lincoln is reflecting what is going on in society at that moment. So how did they look at lincoln are why did the sociologists look at lincoln . I am a teller of National Identity so im interested in the stories that tell themselves about who they think they are and who they wish they could be. My book is lincoln, inc. Selling the sixteenth president in contemporary america. We can talk about Abraham Lincoln as a brand. He has become a brand that is every bit as recognizable as mickey mouse or ronald mcdonald. He symbolizes i think what Many Americans think is best about the nation, our youthfulness, our determination, our courage, our moral compass. These are all things that he has really come to embody and they are these qualities that we believe we have as a nation and we want to have as a nation. One of the points i make in my work is that Abraham Lincoln today has become a rorschach test. We project onto lincoln as a nation, we project onto lincoln all of our finest qualities, all of our fears and fascinations and desires and hopes and dreams we put those onto Abraham Lincoln. He comes to symbolize what we want ourselves to be. And whats interesting about this is that different groups do this in very different ways. So we can see for instance that lincoln is used by very different social groups, very different social movements in different ways. Conservatives for instance tend to imagine and represent lincoln as kind of a warthog, as a proponent of neoliberal capitalism where progressives tend to picture him as dovish, as a champion of social justice and civil rights. So very very different visions of lincoln. We can see this dramatically for instance in the way it was used by the American Civil Rights movement and the kkk. The American Civil Rights movement has sort have been joined to lincolns memory in many significant ways. If you go to the Lincoln Memorial in look at the educational galleries here you will see that there is often a direct line on linking lincoln with dr. King. Lincoln was the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement so we see the Civil Rights Movement capitalizing on reagans image in that way is a proponent of social justice and racial equality. At the same time or earlier in his career in some ways later in his career. Lincoln was a proponent of colonization schemes. These are basically assisted migration schemes to return people of africa and this sent to africa, even people who were born in america, returning them to africa. He was a proponent of colonization. He was not a strong proponent of social and political equality between whites and blacks and. Explicitly says i am not proposing social equality for whites and blacks. So the kkk has also been used as a poster child to say hey looked lincoln was a segregationist. We dont belong together. These races should be separate. We can see for instance in biographies of lincoln, those that came out right after his death in 1866, 67, those biographers were very concerned with defending lincolns reputation. They were very careful to say lincoln was not an appalacian list. Lincoln was not for social equality between blacks and whites. They were interested in doing this because at that point in time abolitionism was really seen as quite radical and they wanted to protect him and his reputation and legacy from the tainted radicalism. So they were very careful to kind of divorce him from abolitionism or calls for equality between the races. Fastforward to the year 2000, 20th century, 21st century. Biographers believe instead that lincoln was always he said im naturally antislavery and he was always antislavery, that he really wasnt abolitionist at heart even though he couldnt say that. And he was very much for the quality of whites and blacks. So as our politics and racial views have changed our representation has changed quite radically. We are definitely using him for all kinds of purposes. We can see politicians calling lincoln to their side using lincolns quotes. Barack obama did this effectively during his 2008 president ial campaign. In the book i argue he was an unofficial running mate. He was invisibly beside obama the whole time. But also republican politicians, george w. Bush was taking some heat in a the war on terror for curtailing Civil Liberties but many of bushs defenders jumped in and said hey Abraham Lincoln did the same thing. He suspended the writ of habeas corpus during the civil war. He authorized the use of military tribunals to try civilians so in other words of lincoln did it, it must be okay. Must be just. It must accord with american values. Let me give an example of the clinical uses of Abraham Lincoln and ideological uses as well. For instance in the battle over abortion, lincoln is often used by those who oppose abortion to argue basically that fetuses just as lincoln fought against slavery, against the definition of any humans as being less than full human beings, so people of african descent being less than fully human so his opponents say we should say that fetuses are fully human and we need to defend their human rights as lincoln defended the rights of slaves. So lincoln comes into those power powerful ideological basis but also in terms of being used for financial purposes, being used in advertisements for everything from sleeping pills and soft drinks to waffles and burritos and car insurance. Stephen colbert used lincoln in a tagline to show that lincoln would have watched so we see him being used in all these different ways for all of these different kinds of gains. But does this constitute in a sense that in the eyes of the holder. Think what we can say is that as we bear lincolns reputation and image to our own purposes we do run the risk of losing sight of what he really did, what he really said and what he may still really have to teach us. So i think there is a danger there of a kind of warping his image beyond recognition. So in peoria i think our greatest connection to lincoln is the 1854 speech in lincoln. We have a wonderful statue here of lincoln delivering that speech. We have some wonderful newspaper , archival newspaper pieces that describe his dynamics. At first i halting speech and later becoming so dynamic that he was captivating that audience. So he really portrayed in peoria as a hero, as someone who stood his ground against the spread of slavery. One of the things i found very interesting, both them biographies and museum exhibits and elsewhere is that we are very likely to see in those exhibits, in those biographies the events that make lincoln look fabulous, make him look like a saint. But we are very unlikely to see some of his more objectionable statements. A good example of this is actually in the Lincoln Memorial itself where in the educational gallery in the statue they are prominent displays of lincoln quote all around the wall. And in one of these panels, a very large panel, theres a quote from his 1854 peoria speech. Says Something Like allow all of the governed to vote and that and only that is true democracy. So it gives us the sense that even long before lincoln was elected to the white house that he was proposing that all people , whites and blacks, men and women, should be allowed to vote. That is the only kind of governance by the people. But what the panel left out is the very next line about the speech which was do not think that i am proposing equality between blacks and whites. I have are ready said to the contrary. So that panel gives us the impression of lincoln as the champion of civil rights and very conveniently leaves out the next statement which is said hey im not saying equality here. Abraham lincoln is a constructionist. We cant know who he really was. We can only know our 21st Century Construction of who he was. By and large, this is the case with all of our heroes. We need to be aware, not to take away from their memory or take away from the great things that these people did but i would want people to her roach representation that Abraham Lincoln and our other National Heroes were critically could ask how have these represented representations unstructured . Who has a vested interest in representing this hero this way . What do these representations tell us about ourselves, about our hopes and dreams for the nation, about who we think we are and who we wish we could he. The title of the book officer down officer down officer down is one officer says when hes injured or he cant of course if he is killed, the next officer that is called is immediately saying officer down, officer down. It could be an ambulance, chief, captains, whoever is coming will come when they say officer down. Its not a biography but it is a slight profile and i do mention of course their names and where it happened and go into the actual shooting or the death of this officer and then of course the coroners inquiry. That was very important and then to his family and then finding out where he was buried and the ceremonies when a Police Officer died in peoria. It was black crepe paper. It was hung on the city hall and the Police Department and they made a big deal and of course if they were buried here, even if they werent buried here we had the contingency of Police Officers and they went to the owners for everyone of these Police Officers, all of them. After the book was out and we had 18 and their eye began than in 1828 in peoria, i began reading the entire history of peoria. It took me years and years and years and out of that i decided i was going to be a true crime writer. An officer named joe skyler was killed in 1894. They call him officer joe and he had badge number nine. We had rounders in your area. See how brilliant that is . They patrolled a lot of times just their neighborhoods and sometimes joe would sit on the swing at 2 00 or three at walk in the morning at home and just watch and listen and walk. Thats pretty much what officers did up until they got mobile. They never had forces. They basically walked and finally then they were given cars and so forth but mainly they were neighborhoods officers in generally the mayor picked them so you know how political it was. But that all ended. Joe was a wonderful person and went over to bartonville to serve a simple warrant because an 18yearold stole a bike. Guns were pulled out and joe was hit four times in the chest. When we tried this killer in peoria illinois he was found not guilty. We were not a city into 1845 and we were one mile square. That said and the rest is just prairie and river and rough guys and tough guys. Believe me you had a weapon and let me tell you something about the early Police Officer. He knew every bad guy in town and when you came to town you didnt ask you anything except what are you doing here, what are you doing in town and you better say i am this, im back and of course he had no way of checking. He watched behavior. Generally talk to the our tenders. The bartenders working with the guy over there, thats exactly it. These were the Police Officers killed in a lot of times a lot of our taverns which we eventually had two of them, can you imagine . This was a wideopen town. We were the absolute capital of alcohol. The alcohol capital of the world which we loved and of course during the civil war we and when i say we are talking about peoria. Abraham lincoln knew where we were, believe you me. They claim in the history books about 87 of the financing of that war came from good old loose. We were in rivertown and proud of it. The steamboats coming and later the trains. We had every conceivable kind of thing you could imagine in a way of entertaining. This is a family show that you are catching on. Certainly gambling very early on. This brought certain types of Police Officers. They had to be really the as decayed enough to know what was really going on and he handled it and he did a wonderful job. He truly did. We actually have 15 of our 21 Police Officers that died in a line of duty. 15 of those were killed by gunfire and i early about them but i put all of them in here. The last person in our Police Department killed was a wonderful lady. She died in 2004. She was a trainer and died in a squad car or an accident. But falconer, a Police Officer, they call them jim faulkner, he was brutally shot. Not only did the person that shot him kill him but he came back and shot him twice. In my lectures i get a little more graphic and in the book i tell you exact way but the medical examiner says. I never use my own words because i know there is family. My lectures i always hope they were never there. I never did ask anyone, did you have an officer because i didnt want to talk to them, you know. Its sad enough and then to do it in public, i felt like i was violating them some way. It meant a lot to me and i couldnt run it again. I will give it to somebody. I will give all the rights to somebody. This isnt my history. I put it in there but i would love to see it done and have the city sponsor it. We dont come to these memorials , we come 36, 42, 54. Ive spoken to all of them and i got them all on the monument. We got the monument and we had a nice dedication. And he has not had a memorial. What reason could he possibly not want to honor these people who were ill . We elected constables in peoria and five of them so they are political, arent they . You have a ask yourself what kind of a cop gets elected . Think about that. Arthur smith was a wonderful Police Officer and the main thing i found out about them is they are more courageous than the guy next door, really they are. They are welltrained today. There was a time because the mayors, their friends on one their friends on one of the job their friends son wanted a job in that one on for a long time even during the time that mayor woodruff who was our mayor for 24 years. Thats how you got support and then after he got in he said thank you johnny. And you say mayor or my son is a nicelooking boy, very nice boy. I wonder if he you would be interested in hiring him . This would be from 62 to 95. That would be my officers. Of course they are all retired. They are nowhere near my age but i would say they were very very aware of who they are, the job that they had and i can tell anyone, whoevers approached by a Police Officer all you have to do is be simply courteous. That is all and you demand out of him all the trouble you are seeing today. Im not talking about the element who wakes up in the morning and has a full plan to kill an officer. I have no answer for that one. We know who they are and we listen to them and we are worried in scared of terrorists. Its a whole brandnew world but for you in peoria, thats my hometown, and giving you the only thing i know. I dont care what he says, what he did, shut up. Just keep your hands on the wheel and when he says to you would you hand me your drivers license you are going to have to turn. Thats a time when theres an element made. I have them inside of my door. They dont know who you are. Of course it scares them. And people in our town will absolutely tell you those. I think we have had a pretty Good Relationship for all these years that i now love. I think what they will learn about these officers is that when the time came to give their life, they did. I want them to look at these Police Officers as a man and a woman who quickly would give their life to protect you and your family and i think about the way the Police Officers are being attacked today and it really is sad as a nation and the people are doing this are really going to have to pay. They are not going to get away with it. There are too many real americans around to realize that that thin blue line that we saw in the movie, they are the and if he is growth with you and somehow you dont like him again i believe him for that. He is in control and if he sees that you are upset and thats how the confrontation started. I want the people who. This book to know that there are people willing to do that for him and the least you can do is give them the respect that they deserve. We go him to peoria illinois on booktv. Next we speak with author greg wahl with his book it didnt play in peoria. It didnt play in peoria came from the vaudeville days were peoria was basically the kingmaker of the lie of variety acts that would come through town and if you can make it there and if you can appeal to peoria and then your chances of success nationally were in the hands. It didnt play in peoria is in the middle american town missed chances of a middle american town. But way back in history and found peorias first occurred over 10,000 years ago when the future town of peoria was on the western shore of the Mississippi River. However, the glaciers came through and pushed the ancient mississippi, the original Mississippi Riverbed over to 100 miles west in its present day location. One just has to think that with the major cities that are on the mississippi like the twin cities in minnesota, st. Louis, memphis , new orleans that peoria might have been there too and they have the mississippi continued in its original position. We all know a river eventually filled in the riverbed of the mississippi and thats where peoria is today. Our first source is a historian from memphis tennessee first and he had talked about all the possibilities of the Automotive Industry here, the Airline Industry and yet heard where lindbergh had first come to peoria for a sponsorship for his famous flight across the atlantic. P. Aurea is a very good town for him to try a trial balloon, so he would have gone to of course peoria is smaller in the yet to be strong in the 20s, a very Strong Community so we would not waste a lot of time. With all his marbles in st. Louis, all his contacts were there so if he didnt plan out his pitch to st. Louis, he could have dashed all hopes and his best hopes were in st. Louis. So that engineering mind that he had, he wanted to do a trial run peoria would have been a great city to try but we cant blame peoria. In six weeks before when he was out for sponsorship. Theyll buy this plane twice on his way between peoria and chicago. Anyone knowing that would think if he can make it 150 miles between peoria and chicago how are you going to make it over the atlantic so could have been a matter of a great idea but the wrong guy. Plus lindbergh had a nickname from his barnstormed days, and daredevil lindy. Obviously he did go to st. Louis and did flight successfully over the atlantic but given that st. Louis certainly profited with the Airline Industry and the Airline Airplane manufacturing with the lindbergh connection. Its not inconceivable that had peoria said yes to a sponsorship that peoria would have been in a good situation to follow lindbergh and his superstardom. Back in the late 1800s, cities were facing a pollution scourge known as the horse, droppings of the horse and there were dire predictions that there would be ponied pools piling as high as third floor windows in manhattan by the 1930s. So thats when the peoria land brothers charles and jay frank came into the picture and in 1893 developed the first gas powered car in america. They first started their experiment in peoria however their neighbors and other peorias object did to the sounds of the car because its startled their horses and they also object into the odor of gasoline. To which years later when Charles Perrier wrote a letter to chanute the father of aviation and complained about that they had to change their location of their experiments on the car through Springfield Massachusetts because of that peoria and the objection to the odor of gasoline to which she knew wrote back that he couldnt believe that they actually preferred the thing behind the horse. But the experiment started in peoria and certainly contributed to the final product which was the first car. To get a little background who were the brothers . Who were they . They were two brothers who were born and raised just outside of peoria and they both had an engineering mind. Especially charles. Charles started in the bicycle business and have several patents for bicycles in the late 1800s and j. Frank his younger brother was more of could take the engineering aspect and creativity of his brother and translated into a mechanical entity. They first started out with bicycles. Peoria was big into bikes in the 1860s and 1870s and so was a natural progression to gas powered automobiles. Henry ford knew that the jury a car was an engineering marvel however the brothers when it comes to car production builds very few cars. So had they been more like him to your you would have been in the driver seat of the industry. Another opportunity in the educational round for peoria was in the late 1800s where washington coined it a wealthy p. Aurea farmer who himself was illiterate for most of his life but todd himself how to read and write and became a fanatic for education. In the late 1800s he changed his will to endow a university that he wanted Call University as long as there would be no football team. When he died in 1903 his children discovered the contents of the will. They protested his will saying that their father was out of lens when he made the willen part of it, the idea that auction ship was gone. The courts decided with the children and so peoria lost another chance at the university however part of that will still exist today and there is no College Football in peoria. With that the story tell us about peoria . Well and appreciation that the town of peoria is not some kind of a bland backwater community and that the term, the phrase will it play in peoria just means that you are dull. The town is vibrant and has plenty of entertainment, entertaining folks, plenty of innovations and just because they do not aspire to be a metropolitan area like chicago or st. Louis doesnt mean that they cant be proud of themselves. I think the book shows amply that some of the missed chances just were not if theyre doing. It happened and the main thing is just to be proud of what you have and happy with what you have. I think this town as that. They are not interested in being a new york but the perception nationally is that the phrase, meaning the average person as if the average person isnt worth listening to. I think he is. Booktv is at the Bradley University to learn about Abraham Lincoln and the books he read. With that we are taping from the Turner Library room at the Hayden Clark Alumni Center on the Bradley University campus in pr yet, illinois. We have the collection of Bradley University archives so of course we have collections of the university yearbooks, the school newspapers, College Catalogs and some other personal items from our founder such as lydia moss bradley. She founded a Polytechnic Institute in 1897. The collections came to us for from many different donors. We are going to be concentrating mainly on her lincoln collection today. The house or collection came to us from a local goler, Martin Luther hauser and he started out life as a schoolteacher in a Rural Community but his family ancestry actually had ties to Abraham Lincoln which spurred a lifelong interest. In 1950 he donated his lincoln collection to the library here on campus which was just built, the First Addition to our library building. It was housed in a special lincoln room on the upper floor of the library. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the materials that he used to educate himself because he was primarily a selfeducated man. Of course having the print image that was used in 1860 campaign for the presidency available, i thought that was a good visual to share with the public. I brought some of the books that link and read better part of the martin house or collection, a special collection here at Bradley University to share with you. Martin howser was an expert on researching the education of Abraham Lincoln. As i mentioned before he was primarily a selfeducated man. He collected the same edition of copies of works that lincoln would have had access to in his education i brought some examples to share with you today. The revised laws in indiana, 1824, he was able to borrow this book and it was probably the first law but that lincoln was exposed to. As we all know he was a practicing attorney later in his adult life. The nicholas pike, pikes arithmetic. I will go ahead and open this up for you so you can see the actual book. This one is pretty fragile and has lost its cover but what was important to howser is he had the same edition of the book that he read so this is the new and complete system of arithmetic. As you can see its from 1809 so this is a 19th century item. Lincolns father, thomas, always told lincoln to learn to cipher so this was probably one of the works he consulted to educate himself and mathematics. Lincoln was also a surveyor and one of the early works that he came into contact with which help them learn that trade was today and i brought a copy of the same edition that lincoln would have had access to. The practice of surveying by robert gibson, 1811. This is a fairly complicated book as far as mathematics goes. It contains a lot of mathematical tables and he worked as a surveyor for a time in illinois. This book is part of his education would have been very critical. These particular books are important because they are representative of the same editions that lincoln would have had. At one time mr. Howser did actually own a copy of one of the books that lincoln actually. But those are quite rare and quite difficult to obtain, so he settled for other copies of the same edition because he was very interested in how lincoln went from basic we pioneer life to becoming president of the united states. He was a very eloquent speaker later in his life and how did this come about. He lived in a log cabin and didnt have access to a formal education. There are some other examples are also. This is a copy of dilworths new guide to the english tongue. It is likely the very first spelling book that lincoln was exposed to. This one i do believe dates back even a little bit further. You can find a copy right here, 1791. Its an earlier work. Later on he would have had a copy of the websters dictionary , back here. Lincoln also served as a soldier in the blackhawk war in 1882 in illinois and he was known to have read the biography, the life of blackhawk during his Early Education and there are other oaks also on display. The collection includes actually a musical book thats quite interesting. This is the missouri harmony of 1836 and it said that lincoln would gather with the other people at the rutledge tavern. They didnt always have Musical Instruments and its kind of an example of shape note music where the different notes were depicted in different shapes come either squares or triangles or circles and it helped the people to read music without having access to Musical Instruments. It was an a cappella form of singing there was known as sacred heart music. You would see examples of sacred harp singing. Lincoln would gather at the rutledge tavern with other people in new salem and they would use the harmony book to sing a cappella and lincoln was not a very good singer. Many researchers who had special collections were adjusted in seeing items and lincolns own hands so id brought a few examples to share with you today. A person from Central Illinois at the time period of lincoln was dr. Robert old. The objects that i brought with me today all relate to lincolns relationship with dr. Bowl. He lived in peoria later in life but at the time that he knew lincoln he lived in Marshall County near lake illinois. He served in the state house of representatives in the 1840s and as is a state senator in the 18 50s. He met Abraham Lincoln in 1842. Some of the documents relate to correspondence that lincoln wrote back to dr. Bowl in response to letter sent to lincoln. We will look at a brief example here. This is the letter of september 14, 1856 from lincoln to bowl. He had been invited to speak at a rally at lakeland illinois and this was his response. He would be there if he can in fact he did come and represent the Political Party at the rally and pastor. On his way there. The second letter found an example of his longer in length. Its dated christmas day, 1856 dr. Bowl. A speaker of the house of representatives and lincoln encouraged who was also contemplating a run for speaker and to persuade arnold that he could do much better for himself and get more credit on the floor of the house than in the speakers fee. Ultimately neither dr. Boal or arnold won the seat because it went to a candidate. Another one came to rest to us through dr. Boal and this is no book that lincoln during the run for senate in 1855. It contains and lincolns handwriting the names of all the legislatures. In 1861 Abraham Lincoln became the Republican Party nominee for the presidency it became necessary to clean up lincolns image as a frontiersman. In 1857 shows chicago photographer Alexander Hessler had to in a portrait which you are probably familiar with of Abraham Lincoln in a rumpled suit. Now it became necessary for a new image of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was a busy man so hessler came to springfield from chicago to make new photographic images of Abraham Lincoln and several images were shot in springfield june 3, 1860. The hessler prints which were reproduced here are one of those images. The glass plate negatives were made by hessler of the images made at springfield. Unfortunately the two that still survive and are in the Smithsonian Institution were shattered in 1933. Prior to that time hasler thinking ahead had made it a positive place of the original images to which eventually came into the hands of elan noise state Historical Society which places them on the positive radley university. As you can see the portrait here lincoln has a fair comment and has to suit preston looks very distinguished that although with a little bit of roughness around the edges. He did make a good image for political ribbons and Campaign Posters of the time to be distributed during the 1860 campaign and this became a very famous image of mr. Lincoln. The image of lincoln proved very successful in use for the campaign memorabilia from 1860 and he didnt grow his beard until after he reached the white house. So its a very impressive image. Bradley university is proud to have these items in our collection to preserve them for posterity and make them available to you both locally and on a Wider Perspective for those researchers and students interested in the legacy of Abraham Lincoln and the civil war and how are relates to peorian history. Up next are cspan city tour feature on peorias history and literary scene continues as we learn about the life of writer feminist activists in. Native Betty Friedan. The magazines that i wrote for one after the other either turned down or rewrote it and i knew i would have to write the book. Betty friedan was probably the leader or the Guiding Force to start dissecting Great Movement of feminism in this country. She wrote the feminism speech in 1963 and in it she struck a chord with women all over. In fact we say she left peoria and went out and change the world with her book, the feminine mystique. Right now we are in big view park in prai, illinois in front of the trivia we call a monolith for Betty Friedan a hometown tribute to her because she was a hometown girl. She was born here and raised here. Its he was in a class appear a high school 1938 which is a very famous class, very distinguished people. I talked with her brother. He contends that daddy was definitely a genius and in that case she was a little bit lonely and she had causes that other didnt but he said that was part of her genius, that she was able to take care of herself and be kind of a loner but very brilliant. Thats in high school she created a literary magazine and wrote pieces along with others and i have got to read one of them in the archives called i am paper. It was all about paper and how it transfers ideas from one person to another and i thought how prophetic richie was a woman who worked with words and was a writer but when she was in high school she must have known that already. I think it did factor in betty for advanced maturation was her mother. Her mother had a career. She was a writer for the society page for the local paper and upon marriage to a very successful man, her father was a jeweler. He had it Jewelry Store so they were fairly welltodo in that day and age back in the 30s and 40s. He had his own store and he insisted that his wife give career. I think her mother was a little disgruntled about that and children pick up everything. As brilliant as betty was and the oldest of the three children that they had, i think that had an influence on her. She had some brilliant teachers there that helped her mold her town and like i said she did that literary magazine. I wish i had a copy here. There are two copies i think that survived and its fascinating for highs old kid to speak in the terms that she did and to put the words together. I think their different opinions about what the feminine mystique really is. Actually what i took away from the book is that women had been traditionally put in roles and they were to stick with them and the idea that they should be fulfilled by just being mom or help make and what her thesis was, and after talking with her, it all came out of the survey she did from her classmates at smith when they went back to a class reunion. She found there was a discontent or something missing and thought that was the mystique, that the woman should be happy with just being told this is what you get to do. They needed more in their life. Just like any of us they wanted to aspire like any of us. I think she was a writer of magazines but there is much more written about her in magazines than she ever wrote. She is fascinating. She was considered one of the 100 most important and influential women in the world and she left peoria to go out and change the world. You know, i think here in peoria shes becoming more revered frankly i believe its because of the work of sinclair