Mount Rushmore - part II SD20
[continued from part I - marker SD19]

The job of raising money was the most difficult, and it fell largely on Borglum and a few South Dakota businessmen. They hoped to persuade a few tycoons to underwrite the whole project, and when their appeals fell on deaf ears, the project bogged down. However, in 1927 a monument drive was started in the South Dakota schools, and when the youngsters willingly gave their nickels and dimes, everyone took heart.

The big break came that same year, when, in a show of faith that held out the promise of federal assistance, Calvin Coolidge agreed to vacation in the Black Hills. The committee immediately announced that there would be a dedication ceremony when the President arrived, and Borglum began to plan the show.

By the time the presidential party reached the hills, everything was ready. Hanging Squaw Creek, renamed Grace Coolidge Creek, had been stocked with rainbow trout and blocked with hidden nets so the fish could not swim away. "This is either the best trout stream in the world," Silent Cal said as he pulled out his tenth trout on his tenth try, "or I'm the best fisherman that ever was."

The night before the dedication a huge barbecue was held in nearby Keystone. There was music and dancing. Huge sides of beef and buffalo were roasted over open fires, and there was enough mountain moonshine to please everyone.

In the morning, Borglum hired an open-cockpit airplane and flew over the summer White House, sprinkling rose pedals in honor of the First Lady. The pilot dipped his wings and Borglum waved to the group below, then hastily landed to get ready for the ceremony.

A huge crowd was slowly gathering in front of the mountain as the presidential limousine was pulled up the final grade by a team of horses from a local stable. The crowd cheered when the President stepped from his automobile wearing his usual New England vested suit - with a ten-gallon hat and fancy, hand-tooled cowboy boots. Without any fanfare, Coolidge walked to the speaker's platform and stood their, solemnly shaking hands with the children who had lined up early to receive that honor.

After the President's speech, Borglum was slowly lowered down the face of the mountain. The crowd grew silent as the sculptor carefully drilled four pilot holes for the head of George Washington; then they began to cheer wildly as he waved and walked back up the face of the mountain.

Borglum's crew of hard-rock miners carved for over fourteen years. The monument was plagued by financial problems as the country plunged into the depression of the 30's, but Borglum refused to give up. The same bickering that had destroyed Stone Mountain threatened Rushmore at times. The businessmen temperament of the committee sometimes clashed with the artist's ego, but fortunately everyone agreed that the carving was what counted and the bickering never got out of hand.

As the giant heads (proportioned to men 465 feet tall) took shape, Borglum ran into unexpected problems. Jefferson was started on Washington's right, but a poorly placed charge of dynamite sloped the forehead, beyond repair, and the design had to be changed. Borglum blew the nascent head off the mountain and stated again moving Jefferson to Washington's left side. This forced Roosevelt's head back into the rock. Then a hidden fault forced Roosevelt's head even further back, until the final carving ended within ten feet of the canyon that lies behind the mountain. Other problems were caused by traces of heavy deposits of brittle feldspar, while veins of silver run like worry lines across the face of Abraham Lincoln.

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Site of Abraham Lincoln Speech IL521
Site of
ABRAHAM LINCOLN SPEECH
Aug. 12, 1858.
"A HOUSE DIVIDED CANNOT STAND"

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Azel W. Dorsey IL518

TOMBSTONE:

AZEL W. DORSEY
DIED SEP. 13, 1858
MARKER:
In Honor of Service in the War of 1812.
Azel Waters Dorsey

Stone:
In Memory of Azel Dorsey school teacher of Abraham Lincoln, 1826. Stone from Lincoln's Tomb, 1932.

[Oral tradition has it Dorsey arrived by stage. Stopped at the small red building just SE of town (Huntsville). This building was recently (after 2000) torn down by the men in town, and the lumber was used for the pavilion in the town square. Dorsey, bought a small place, and used a store front off the square to cut hair. The barber's chair he used is still kept in the small general store in town (shown above). Dorsey taught school here, also, and was well accepted. Local Boy Scouts, who camp on the King farm, built the stone and mortar monument.]

The following article is taken in part from the Aug. 7, 1952 issue of The Augusta Eagle.
Teacher of Lincoln is Buried in Schuyler County -- "Tucked away in a corner of a quiet meadow in the northwest corner of Schuyler County is the grave of an almost unknown man who may have had a great influence on the life of Abraham Lincoln.
His name which will ring familiar in only a few ears - is Azel Dorsey.
Mr. Dorsey's fame arises in that he is one of few men who guided young Lincoln during the few months of the future president's skimpy formal education."
"Just what influence, if any, Mr. Dorsey had on the future of Lincoln is not known and it is doubtful if it will ever be known. It is not even known for how long a time Dorsey taught Lincoln.
About all that is certain is this: Dorsey was one of three itinerant teachers who taught Lincoln while he lived in Spencer County, Ind., in his boyhood." - "Dorsey, it is believed was the last teacher Lincoln had.
"What little information is available on Dorsey was provided by the late J. B. Oakleaf who in 1930 wrote an article on him in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society.
Dorsey, Mr. Oakleaf reported, had been a soldier in the War of 1812 before settling in Indiana. He later moved to the Military Tract in Schuyler County. (The Military Tract was land given to veterans of the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 as bonuses.)
In 1828, Dorsey became a patron of the Rushville Post Office and also taught school in Schuyler County. Records in the recorder's office in Rushville show Dorsey owned property in both Camden and Huntsville townships.
Mr. Oakleaf reports that when he found the grave on the Theodore King farm, about half mile south of the village of Huntsville, the grave had not been kept and the tombstone had been knocked over. Only inscription on the stone was: Azel W. Dorsey, Died Sept. 13, 1858. Aged 73 yrs., 10 mos., 8 days.
Apparently interest in Dorsey grew for in 1932, the late Logan Settles of Rushville, who claimed he was related to Lincoln, obtained a stone from Lincoln's tomb in Springfield and had it erected over the grave. The original stone was embedded in the newer one.
Inscription on the new stone is "Erected by Logan Settles in memory of Azel Dorsey, school teacher of Abram Lincoln 1826, Stone from Lincoln's Tomb. 1932."
An iron picket fence has been erected around the stone."

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Civil War in Rolla MO496

FORT WYMAN AND DEFENSE OF THE RAILHEAD

Fort Wyman was the first of two artillery field fortifications built by the Union Army at Rolla, signifying the importance of the railroad terminus to the northern was effort in Missouri

The South West Branch of the Pacific Railroad on Missouri (better known later as the "Frisco" line) reached Rolla by the beginning of 1861. As a railhead in the Ozarks on the direct line between St. Louis and Springfield, the young town became strategically important when war broke out in Missouri. Col. Franz Sigel's troops seized Rolla in a bloodless coup on June 14, 1861, as part of Gen. Nathaniel Lyon's plan to control Missouri's river and railroad network. Federal troops remained for the duration of the war.

The railhead was a critical supply depot and link in the federal army's line of communications. Beginning with Lyon's campaign in 1861 and continuing into 1865, Rolla was the primary forward supply point for Union armies in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. Quartermasters, soldiers and civilian employees transferred thousands of tons of war material, food and forage from railcars to warehouses and wagons. They supported soldiers as far away as Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove, Ark., in 1862, and during Gen. Sterling Price's Expedition in 1864. Just the routine supply of the post at Springfield was enormous.

Long trains of ponderous army wagons left Rolla almost daily. Each carried 4,500 pounds of freight at two and a half miles per hour. The effective range of supply by wagon from the railhead was about 200 miles. To accommodate the burgeoning freight operation, the army built warehouses, loading docks, forage sheds, blacksmith shops and wagon repair facilities. The investment was enough for the army to begin a second fortification in 1863. Fort Dette stood on ground north of town on what is now the campus of the University of Missouri-Rolla, and was named after John F.W. Dette, the officer who supervised construction.

No Confederate force ever seriously threatened Rolla. Gunners at Fort Wyman fired the fort's 32-pound cannons only in practice, on ceremonial occasions including the Fourth of July, and to announce federal victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, Tenn., and at Pea Ridge, Ark., in 1862, and the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee's army in Virginia in 1865. The guns tolled every half-hour in memory of Abraham Lincoln on April 19, 1865.

United States troops remained in Phelps County through the summer of 1865, dismantling the forts and shipping military surplus to St. Louis. The remaining government property required only a corporal's guard of three men when the post at Rolla was abolished in August of 1865.

The site of Fort Wyman was a local landmark for many years. Col. John B. Wyman and the fort named after him are remembered in modern times in the names of a street, subdivision, elementary school and a church. As late as the 1990s, the outline of the fort was plainly visible from the air, its rectangular shape and rounded gun positions looking much like a baseball field. In recent years, modern development has destroyed all visible traces of Fort Wyman.

Refugees at Rolla

Fort Wyman and the Union garrison at the railhead represented a safe haven for thousands of uprooted people who had fallen victim to a regional calamity that had engulfed a large portion of Missouri.

Refugees from southern Missouri and northern Arkansas converged on Rolla during the war. They had been forced from their homes due to unpopular opinions about the war or because of hostile neighbors. Many of these homeless families left farmsteads reduced to ruin after armies of either side had passed through. many had been preyed upon by armed bands of guerrillas and bandits of every character.

With their men away in the armies, increasing numbers of destitute and starving women, children and aged civilians made their way to Rolla. Rations issued to them by army quartermasters at the railhead were a matter of life and death for hundreds of refugees who would have otherwise starved.

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Lincoln - Douglas Debate, Alton IL497
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE, ALTON

The seventh and last debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in the 1858 U.S. Senatorial campaign was held at this site on October 15. Approximately five thousand people gathered in front of the old city hall to hear the two candidates. The debates received national attention, with Lincoln arguing against the extension of slavery into the western territories, and Douglas campaigning for States' Rights. The following November Douglas defeated Lincoln for the Senate seat, but two years later, Lincoln defeated Douglas in the race for the Presidency.

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Pike County Veterans Memorial IL496

A grateful community honors those men and women who have served this nation in the United State's Armed Forces. Although you may not have been known by all, you will never be forgotten by any.

IN GOD WE TRUST

PIKE COUNTY ILLINOIS EST: 1821

"With malice toward none, with Charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us Strive on to finish the work we are in: to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him....
...who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all humans."
Abraham Lincoln, March 4th, 1866.

[across the back bottom of the monument shows these heroic medals.

Army Distinguished Service Medal~Navy Cross~Air Force Cross~DOD Distinguished Service Medal~Silver Star~Legion of Merit
~Medal of Honor~
Distinguished Flying Cross~Bronze Star~Purple Heart~Defense Meritorious Service Medal~National Defense Service Medal.

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Cass County Courthouse IL494
CASS COUNTY COURTHOUSE

This is the site of the first building erected as the seat of Government of Cass County, Illinois, on land provided by Dr. H.H. Hall the founder of Virginia.

Circuit Court was held here for the first time in May, 1839 and the last session, October 8, 1844.

Abraham Lincoln attended a meeting of the Cass County Clay Club held here February 22, 1844 when Henry Clay was a Presidential Candidate.

Following the removal of the County Seat to Beardstown in 1845 the building was used for school until 1975. Faith Baptist Church Purchased the property May 13, 1981.

[Bottom photo is current courthouse, Virginia is again the County Seat, 2 blocks east of marker.]

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Abraham Lincoln's Teacher IL486
ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S TEACHER

Azel Waters Dorsey, 1784-1858. Teacher of Abraham Lincoln. Is buried on the King Farm one mile south of Huntsville. Dorsey taught a "Blab School" in Spencer County, Indiana which young Lincoln attended for six months in 1824. He moved to Schuyler County, Illinois in 1828 where he taught school.

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The Scripps Family IL485
THE SCRIPPS FAMILY

This site was the homestead of the Scripps family -- pioneer journalists and philanthropists. John Scripps (1785-1868), a Methodist circuit-rider, settled here in 1831. In 1849 he began publishing the Prairie Telegraph, now the Rushville Times. His nephew, John Locke Scripps (1818-1868), co-founded the Chicago Tribune and wrote the first biography of Abraham Lincoln. A great-nephew, Edward Wyllis Scripps (1854-1926), founded United Press and the first newspaper chain in the United States -- Scripps Howard. An older brother, James E. Scripps (1835-1906), founded the Detroit Evening News; and their sister, Ellen Browning Scripps (1836-1932), pioneered the concept of the feature article in journalism.

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Lincoln Addressed the People IL483
From This Spot
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
addressed the people of
RUSHVILLE
October 20th, 1858.
-------
He also practiced law
in the courthouse
which formerly stood
on this spot.

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