Burlington Historian

The renovation of the Museum has been essentially completed. Except for carpeting the stairways and a few other odds and ends, the work is done. It has taken longer, cost more, and entailed more repair and remodeling than the Board of Directors had originally envisioned, but we are pleased with the results. At the time this is being written, we are starting the process of reinstalling some of our previous displays and creating some new ones. So there is still a lot of work to be done before the Museum re-opens in its entirety.

The Society is again planning to hold its annual Ice Cream Social in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce's Maxwell Street Days event. The Maxwell Street Days event is scheduled for Friday, July 24, and Saturday, July 25. Our Ice Cream Social will be held on Saturday, the 25th, starting at about 10:00 a.m. and lasting until about 3:00 p.m.

Volunteers are needed to help serve the ice cream. Spending even an hour or two helping out would be welcome and appreciated.

It's a great time of the year with all the fresh scents of new growth around town.

Growth is what keeps this world ticking. One of the goals of local historians is to retain memories and artifacts of the past and promote interest in the history of our great community to all newer generations. Parents and grandparents are reminded to share their memories of times past with their children and grandchildren. History is not only preservation of our past but planning for the future.

With our Museum in the final stages of renovation, we are looking forward to the day we can open our doors again and have many additional items on display that we previously never had the space for. Enjoy this great summer season.

Dennis Tully

Ned Farley, Assistant Professor in Anthropology at Wisconsin Lutheran College in Milwaukee, and his students spent several days in April cleaning up and mapping the pioneer Mt. Hope Cemetery northwest of Burlington on Spring Prairie Road. Mt. Hope contains the remains of over 20 pioneer men, women, and children. Included are Palmer Gardner, the first settler in Walworth County, together with his first wife, Margaret Williams Gardner, and their only daughter, Lucretia May; and Charles and Mary Galusha Dyer, the parents of Dr. Edward G. Dyer, Burlington's first physician and ardent abolitionist.

Plans are being made to search for additional graves using a ground radar device.

Pioneer Log Cabin opened for the 2009 season on Saturday, May 2. Jackie Heiligenthal and her group of dedicated docents are again hosting visitors to one of Burlington's treasures. The Cabin, located in Wehmhoff Square just a block north of the Museum, is open Saturday afternoons from 1 to 4 until about mid-October. It is also open most Thursday evenings in conjunction with Burlington's Farmers' Market.

Abraham Lincoln, whose coming birthday will be celebrated by his countrymen as a national holiday, was in Wisconsin twice during his eventful life. He took part in the memorable campaign against the marauding chieftain Black Hawk in 1832, when he and his company of militia moved up the Rock River valley as far as Lake Koshkonong. He never caught sight of the Indians at that time, and later in his life, jocularly described the entire affair as a farce.

In 1859, when Lincoln was already a national figure by reason of his debates with Douglas, he was invited to speak at the Wisconsin state fair in Milwaukee. On this occasion he rightly avoided the subject of slavery, but in an informal talk which he delivered in the evening in the old Newhall house he spoke upon the subject nearest his heart, "The Irrepressible Conflict." Unfortunately no record of this talk, in which he deeply stirred his hearers, was made.

From Milwaukee Lincoln moved to Beloit and Janesville, speaking to eager and enthusiastic audiences at both places. He then returned to his home in Illinois, never again to set foot in Wisconsin.

Most of the time Lyons looked like a sleepy little village without much of anything going on -- but looks can sometimes be deceiving. I always found it interesting that Lyons had three churches, a Methodist, a Lutheran and a Catholic. It also had three taverns -- they were non-denominational as far as I know and admitted persons of all religious beliefs. I know it was an active little town on Friday and Saturday nights and everyone seemed to have a very good time. You could usually tell who had the best time by how loud they snored in church on Sunday morning. These were grown-up parties but I'm thinking more about the parties that they threw for the kids.

On Halloween the Fire Department always held a bonfire for all the kids in town and the surrounding area. A couple of weeks before the big event they would start to pile up brush and logs and anything else that would burn and we would watch in wide-eyed wonder as the pile grew taller and taller. Kids would come from all over on Halloween night dressed in their costumes. It's a good thing they held this party outdoors because you never would have been able to stand the chatter and noise all the kids made as they excitedly marched around and around the bonfire. Prizes were awarded for the best costumes and everyone hoped they would be one of the lucky ones. We all got to fill out slips of paper with our names and phone numbers. After we had eaten all the treats in sight and had consumed all the soda we could handle, we were told to go straight home because they were going to draw names from the slips of paper we filled out and the only way you could get a prize was if you were at home to answer the phone. The next day at school everyone would compare notes to see who had received one of those special calls.

They also gave parties at Christmas time for the kids. These parties involved movies, visits and pictures with Santa, candy and more noise than anyone could handle. They stuffed all of us into the first floor of the town hall -- it was literally one person piled on top of another -- wall to wall kids and adults. The noise level was enough to make the windows rattle and the floor shake. We were sent to the party with the directive -- stick together -- don't get separated -- remember to say please and thank you and behave yourselves. Of course that was no problem for us -- it goes without saying that we would never, ever do anything wrong and of course we'd stick together. That stick together stuff lasted about 2 minutes. The twins saw some of their friends -- one took off to the right and one took off to the left which left me standing there trying to decide who to follow. In the end I decided it was no use -- we only lived across the street and I decided they should be able to figure out how to cross the street and go home after the party was over. Things quieted down a little once the movies started but you could see popcorn flying through the air, occasionally someone's hat or coat went flying, you could hear scuffling in the dark, cries of, "I have to go to the bathroom!", giggling and general mayhem. It was organized bedlam. I can still see the harried adults trying to keep order and quiet everyone down. It was an exercise in futility. Then it was time to line-up to see Santa and have your picture taken. I have never seen so many kids crying and excited at the same time. The poor guy who got stuck playing Santa had a sort of wild-eyed look at the end of the night. I don't remember attending too many of those parties and I think the reason for that was because they would have one, decide they were never going to do that again, and a couple of years later after the memories had faded, they would decide to have another one. I am happy to report that all children were reunited with their parents, the Hammes children found their way home -- almost everyone left there with the hats, mittens and coats and the parents that they come with. A few wound up with objects they had never seen before and for some reason they had a few leftover boots, not all the same size or color. All of the adults still had most of their minds still intact and the children were liberally stuffed with sweets and happy memories. It was a great success!

They used to have Square Dancing in the church hall once in a while. If you have never Do Si Do'ed or honored your partner or swung your partner to "Skip to My Lou," you have not lived. Have you ever noticed that the best times you have are very often the ones that contain the most noise and confusion? There is nothing more confusing than trying to follow all the directions given during a square dance. The foot stomping, laughter and good natured teasing that these dances generated was absolutely priceless. No one cared if you went left when you should have gone right; they just turned you around and sent you in the right direction. Some of the more experienced dancers wore beautiful skirts and fancy blouses and shirts. It was a pleasure to watch them as they swung through the dance with a grace and precision sadly lacking in some of the rest of us. How much fun it all was! This really wasn't a dance for just kids, there were all ages present which created a real kaleidoscope of people from the very old to the very young - just another example of small town life.

One town gathering sticks out in my mind. Someone dug up all kinds of old home movies of people who lived in Lyons. They posted flyers and invited everyone to come to movie night. It was a beautiful summer evening and they set the movie screen up on the grass near the railroad tracks in down town Lyons. Everyone was to bring their own lawn chair or blanket and come dark the show would begin. I remember staring in wide-eyed wonder at the grainy images that appeared on the screen. There were shouts of laughter from the audience as they recognized some of their neighbors and friends in the movies. Comments flew all around: "Look at John, look how young he looks and that must be little Bobby he's pushing in the carriage." "Remember that Memorial Day; who would believe that Richard can still wear those same sailor pants." "I remember them, they used to live across the street from us; I wonder what ever happened to them?" I tried to match up some of the older faces in the crowd with the much younger faces appearing on the screen. With some I could very clearly see the resemblance and with others I didn't see a resemblance to anyone. Of course, right in the mid-dle of the movie, a train came thundering through -- I wonder what they thought when they saw all of us sitting around on the main street of town watching home movies? It was a fun evening -- people sat around and talked for quite a while even after the movies were over. I've never forgotten that -- it was an unforgettable experience -- I can't tell you the names of the people who were in the movies -- it's not like the images were burned into my brain forever but what does stick with me was the friendly, open feelings that this get-together generated. It was almost a feeling of family. Some of these people had known each other all of their lives and had seen each other through good times and bad. So in a way it was family, just an extended version.