Abraham Lincoln Memorial Gardens Memoir

University of Illinois at Springfield

Norris L Brookens Library

Archives/Special Collections

L638. Abraham Lincoln Memorial Gardens Interviews and memoir 70 pp.

The narrators discuss the creation of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Gardens in Springfield: the role of Harriet Knudson in founding the Garden, finances, design by Jens Jensen, nature programs, personal interests and involvements and support from the Springfield community.

Interviews by Judith Groves, 1972 and Melinda Kwedar, 1975 OPEN For tapes see individual names See individual collateral files. See Cochran collateral file for brochures and articles on the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Gardens.

Archives/Special Collections LIB 144 University of Illinois at Springfield One University Plaza, MS BRK 140 Springfield IL 62703-5407

I ABRAHAM LINCOLN MEMORIAL GARDENS Founding members instrumental in its success I

Jens Jensen : Landscape Archit.ect I Harriet Quigley Knudson: Founder, Springfield Civic Garden Club Founder, Lincoln Memorial Garden

I Mayor : Buddy Capp

Willis J. Spaulding: Commissionor ofPublic Works I Promoted building Lake Springfield/ Spaulding Dam Nelson Hawarth : Commissionor/ Future Mayor I Vincent Dahlman : Editor of the Register John Hunter : Commissionor I AlBerg: Telephone poles/rails Jim Miller: Telephone Co. And Husband of current President Hazel Miller Frank Beere : Head of City Service I JohnAarup: Contractor/ Memoir I I I I I "' . I I I I I I I I a:: UJ ~ I :z: :::::> :::I:: :z:: I ce: ::::iii!: __J I :::I::ce: t::::l <.!:) I ::z: c::l __J ::::) ce: I a_ c..n :::I:: I ~ a:: < 3:: I < :::I:: I I I I I I I

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I· 1. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I :I I ------· ------This g(:lrden is not for roses

Valley ~ollection "It is not an arboretum, nor a collec· tion of plants, but a pure symphony of living beauty and eternal youth."

-Landscape architect Jens Jensen, designer of Lincoln Memorial Garden, 1935.

by Sandy Henderson

in the breeze, or sit on a bench "What does 'Lincoln Memorial to listen to the birds. Garden Garden' mean?" naturalist Will Reding describes -naturalist Will Reding to a it as "a place of beauty and group of schoolchildren contemplation." It's not the sort of place Americans are used to in the fast-lane life of the 1980s-maybe they never were. If you just hear the name, you Yes, Lincoln Memorial Gar• may think "Lincoln Memorial den is an odd sort of place. Garden" is a collection of What seems simple and natural flower beds or perhaps a fancy here-the woods, the meadows, cemetery ...but it's not. If you the flowers and weeds-was de• wander along its five miles of liberately constructed from a paths, you may think it's an bare field. "Everything you see Illinois woodland that just grew around you has been planted by this way ... but it didn't. It's not man," says Reding (with oc• a park, either: you can't swim casional help from birds and here, or golf, or play tennis, or squirrels, he adds). Like any swing on swings. What you can garden, it must be carefully do on these seventy-seven acres maintained-otherwise brush Ha"iet Knudson, landscape architect lens Jensen, and Dr. T. J. Knudson survey the site for Lin• way out on the east shore of and'trees would fill the open coln Memorial Garden. Lake Springfield is walk and · meadows, and tough invaders think, watch wildflowers rustle like multiflora rose or I dandelions would crowd out Fifty-five years ago, Lincoln aside forty acres for the garden· native plants. Memorial Garden was a slightly Oater increased to sixty-one, and I The Garden grew from the rolling farmer's field with a in 1967, to·seventy-seven). work and dreams of hundreds couple of small streams and less Jensen asked that Springfield of people. It began in the mind than a dozen trees. Then the not build a road around the I of Harriet Quigley Knudson, city of Springfield decided to lake, so that visitors to the wife of a Springfield doctor, build a lake for water supply. Garden could enjoy the quiet of and founder of the Springfield The city. bought up the land the out-of-doors. The city had I Civic Garden Club in 1929. An under and around the future other plans, however, and East admirer of Abraham Lincoln as lake, and Harriet Knudson knew and West Lake Shore Drive now well as an avid gardener, Mrs. what she wanted done with part encircle Lake Springfield. I Knudson felt that a garden of it-a garden in memory of Jensen worked for a year on would be an ideal way to honor Abraham Lincoln. In August his plan for the Garden. He Linccln. She used all her_talents 1932, she took her idea to wanted it to recall the country• I and energy to bring it about. Mayor John W. Kapp, Jr. and side where Lincoln would have For the garden's design, Mrs. Commissioner of Public Works walked and riddeJ1. It was to Knudson turned to Jens Willis J .. Spaulding. They both contain only plants native to I Jensen-a Danish immigrant thought it sounded good, but - states Lincoln had lived in. and landscape architect who had wanted someone else to sponsor Jensen walked over the land become famous for his it. Mrs. Knudson then went to many times, making notes and I naturalistic use of native the board of directors of the · sketches of planting_s. When he Midwestern trees and flowers: Garden Clubs of Illinois, who sent the completed plans to Mrs. These two created the idea of took on the Lincoln Memorial Knud$on in 1935, Jensen I- the Garden, but others carried it Garden as a major project in soothed her impatience with a through: the garden club women 1934. y , letter (one of many the two from all over" Illinois, Boy _With everyone cheering her exchanged over the years): "I I Scouts and Girl Scouts, on but no moriey in hand, Mrs. know this has takeri a long time, groundskeepers, naturalists, · - Knudson wrote to Jens Jensen, but good work is never done in lovers of woods and wild• whose fame had reached haste. I have given you the best I flowers, even city politicians. downstate Illinois. Jensen had I had to give." Because of them, Lincoln designed a number of Chicago Memorial Garden today-more parks and various Midwestern ."It is not an arboretum, nor I- than fifty years after its millionaires' estates (including a collection of plants, but a beginning-retains Jensen's several for the Ford family, pure symphony of living beauty vision better than any other of among them the Henry Ford and eternal youth. " I his remaining public works, and estate at Dearborn, Michigan). -Jens Jensen, letter sent with welcomes 50,000 visitors a year Jensen's response surprised ·plans for Lincoln Memorial with its natural serenity. but a and delighted Mrs. Knudson: "I ' Garden. I garden isp fragile thing, as have received many honors, anyone who has tried to grow a both here and abroad, but to be Jens Jensen was born in 1860, patch of petunias knows. asked to design a garden that on a farm just outside the I Hundreds more people will have will be a living memorial to Danish village of Dybbol. to believe that the Garden is Abraham Lincoln, I consider Although-or maybe because• important and be willing to the greatest honor of them all. I he did not come to America I work for it, or the next fifty will give my best and there will from Denmark until he was a years will mean the fading of a be no fee." young man of twenty-four, dream. Jensen walked with Mrs. Jensen had strong feelings about I Knudson over various parcels of the native plants of the "Determine the thing can and city land and eventually chose Midwest. He believed that a so• shall be done, then find the one-a worn-out field on which, ciety's strength came from its I way." as Jensen said, "We can paint soil-that the society weakened .-A. Lincoln and Harriet our own pictures." as it turned away from the soil Knudson Commissioner Spaulding set I continued on next page to-: Jensen often refened to his work as music: a folk. song, a symphony. And just as a composer can put down only a framework, and must turn the work over to the. director and musicians,tO bring it to life, so Jensen gave his plan for the Lincoln Memorial Garden to Mrs. Knudson and her host of garden club workers.

and the trees, shrubs, and Jensen often referred to his by men who know little more flowers that gre'w from it. work as music: a folk song, a than the boys themselves .... This "Native land is a people's symphony. And just as a com• work should not be hurried heritage,, Jensen wrote to Mrs. poser can put down only a along like all this CCC Knudson in 1941. "To become framework, and must turn the · work ... !' blind to the soil is to lose this work over to the director and Jensen had his troubles with heritage." . musicians to bring it to life, so garden club members who cared Like Frank Lloyd Wright and Jensen gave his plan for the· strongly about Lincoln Memor• I other architects of the "Prairie Lincoln Memorial Garden to ial Garden but didn't always School," Jensen's ideas had lit• Mrs. Knudson and her host of share Jensen's ideas of what tle in common with the more garden club workers. They had belonged there. He w.rote in stylized and formal fashions of three diagrams, marked with exasperation to Mrs. Knudson the East Coast. Nor was brief notes ("maple grove:" that he had received a letter Jensen's "prairie" the sweeping "sun-loving plants,,. etc.); ex• from a Mrs. Richardson. "She plains of the Dakotas; but a actly what and how to plant confused me somewhat, she more intimate landscape of open were up to them. wants to send plants other than spaces set off by trees and the ones specified. She must shrubs-like much of Illinois on "If you don't continue to go think she can plant her own a smaller scale. forward, you go backward. The garden in the Lincoln Memorial Jensen was a master of the garden will go forward . ., Garden. I wrote her that sweet I craft of landscaping, the mas· -Mrs. Knudson, 1952 briars are not native and cannot sing of trees and flowers, the be used .... " contrasting of light and shadow, Before planting could begin in the ability to envision what a 1936, the ground had io be pre• I (Jensen was not completely place would look like in twenty pared: hedgerows removed, swampy places tiled, bridges · strict on using only native years or fifty. species himself: he did not get But his love for the land went built. Mrs. Knudson supervised I rid of the Kentucky bluegrass, much deeper than that-to a that, and then kept track of the which he may not have been spiritual, almost mystical sense volunteers-garden club mem- aware is not a native IIIinois of the human relation to nature. bers from all over Illinois-who grass, but an import from ''Nature is not to be copied• planted the thousands of native Europe and Asia.) man cannot copy God's out-of• shrubs and flowers. Jensen had Meanwhile, work went on. doors. He can interpret its suggested that each club take Besides supervising other message in a composition of liv• ·charge of a portion of Lincoln• volunteers. Mrs. Knudson did a ing tones,'' wrote Jensen in his Memorial Garden. He preferred lot of planting herself-espec• book,. The Clearing. He thought this to using Conservation ially wildflowers. according to of landscaping as "a great Corps workers-the ''CCC her daughter Berta Cochran. adventure into the mysteries of to Mrs. boys,, he wrote Owners of woodlands sometimes an unknown world." Knudson, were "usually directed donated wildflowers; garden get confused among the trails, club women once rescued marsh In 1965 came perhaps the big· gest change-the educational and perhaps that was part of I marigolds from a soon-to-be Jensen's plan. He loved mys· flooded dam site. Jensen Nature Center Building (pro• posed and propelled into exis• tery-the allure of a path curv• personally chose rocks from a ing out of sight: "It makes you I Missouri quarry to place by the tence by Mrs. Knudson), which now houses exhibits, a craft want to go and see what's main entrance to the Garden. around the next bend," says . Jensen wanted groves of oak shop, and a naturalist. Until then the only structures with naturalist Reding. Around that I trees in the garden. These were bend might be a sunlit grassy hard to find: since oaks are roofs in the Garden had been a map shelter and a comfort spot, a view of the lake, or a hard to transplant and grow large stone circle around an old I slowly, few nurseries sell them. station. For more than thirty years campfire-one of the Garden's Mrs. Knudson thought of using "council rings." acorns-and of asking for them Harriet Quigley Knudson worked on the Lincoln Memor• These council rings, circular I from garden clubs across the stone seats thirty to fifty feet ial Garden. (She died in 1969 at country. Groups from twenty• across, are focal points ef the age eighty-six.) "At the end, she eight states sent acorns; some garden. They were its only bought a golf cart" to helo her I individuals sent acorns from Co~hran. structures before the Nature their favorite trees. Mrs. get around, says Berta "She took tanks of water in the Center. One comes to a council ri~g among the winding paths I Knudson had Springfield Boy cart and she'd go around and wtth a sense of having arrived and Girl Scouts plant the acorns wa.ter the new plantings. In the somewhere-a spot to pause and on Novemeber 14, 1936 .. The lit• spring she'd have a rake to lift rest and consider the pattern of I tle trees grew well, and many heavy leaves off the leaf and shade, of flowers of were later moved to permanent wildflowers." the lake in the background. Jen• sites around the Garden. Even away from home, Mrs. ~en used such rings often, even I · A garden is ne':'er finished, Knudson would take the Garden m small gardens. "I have although much of the planting with her. Her friends and co• tho~ght about a number, seven was complete in 1937, the date workers (Ruth Christiansen, Or• or eight Council Rings for seats inscribed on the boulders by the vetta Robinson, Jeanette Sayre, and intercourse of the small · I groups-you know gardens must main entran~e. In 1939 the city and Thelma Sibley) recalled her "trunk sales" in their history of never be a meeting place or formally "dedicated and set gathering place of large mobs," aside certain lake lands for the I Lincoln Memorial Garden. Jensen wrote to Mrs. Knudson. Abraham Lincoln Memorial "Wherever she went, the trunk The rings, he felt, were both Garden." of Mrs. Knuds

I Lincoln Memorial Garden's engaging naturalist, Will Reding. is. worried about a chronic lack of funds. But despite the lack of funds, ·of an ugly concrete tank." one pitching in, from Girl I there's! lot going on at the Despite changes of time and so• Scouts to chainnen of the . Garden: Maple Sugar Time in ciety and the constant pressure · board. We can't see them~ but March,. the Indian Summer Fes• of money, Lincoln Memorial . the hands of the people who I tival in October, nature hikes, Garden still lets us feel the have planted and cultivated are bird walks, school field trips. power and beauty of Jensen's as much a part of the soul of. "Programs pretty muc~ pay vision. But can it continue to do ·the Garden as the trees and I their own way-we get grants so? Will future generations · flowers. Such people are the from Springboard, too," Reding "enjoy and cherish this ones who will decide whether it says. This month the Garden co• garden," as Jensen_insisted they survives. o/ sponsored Billy B, ·an environ- would? I ~·~ .. mentalist entertainer, at the A lot of people are trying to "Whatever you do had better .-...... ::=- . ~· ' Illinois State Museum. This make· that possible .. fundraising be for the good of the garden summer there will be three ses• ideas fill the Garden newsletter: because I'm going to be looking I sions of "Eco-Camp" for dif• an auction in the fall, a grants• down on you." --Harriet Knudson ferent age groups. writing committee, money from . ~ -· . the fountains at White Oaks I .. Mall, a radio promotion. Right would like to "Among works of art none is If you now Reding is hard at work become a member, or more vulnerable to man's folly volunteer, planning a Garden party/wine more about Lincoln , than a fine piece of landscape just /earn I buffet fund-raiser for June 22~ ~ Memorial Garden. drive out architecture." "We've paid ·for 2,000 invita• Landscape East Lake _Shore Drive (off the -Leonard K. Eaton, tions so far," he told me. in America. lens end of Stevenson Drive}, or call Artist "Someone has a horse and car:• I Jensen ... 529-1111. riage; we have a grant to pay Lincoln Memorial Garden's . Few oJ Jensen's great works for the music-I'm looking for Gardeh Party, "Casual I 1 remain as he planned them. At a string quartet. We have a Elegance, " will ~e held June 22. Columbus Park ·for instance, piano player"":'but no piano Donations. $15-$50. .. ' writes Jensen biographer yet.'' I Leonard Eaton, "Jensen's orig• Reding is hopeful for the . · inal plantings have been re- Garden's future: "Everyone's .. 1 .. .. placed by less expensive mate• pitching in." That's been the ;. .. I rials, and his superb swimming story of Lincoln Memorial Gar• hole has been torn out in favor den· from the beginning-every- ' '\

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1HE ABRAHAM LINCOLN MEMORIAL·. GARDEN "This ljttle booklet brings to you the purpose· and tbe plans for the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Garden-a liv• ing tribute to our martyred President." This is the simple opening paragraph of the booklet telling a more pretentious undertaking, of the Garden Club of Illinois, which is na• tional or even international in reach. Mrs. T. J. Knudson, with the backing of The Garden Club of Illinois, has been formulating these plans for over a year and is now. ready to present them to all Garden Clubs in the United States, to Horticultural Societies in other countries, and to Lincoln ad• mirers the world over. "This garden must have loveliness and repose. Love Quoting from the booklet: alone must direct its course. Here all life indigenous to the "An extensive park of almost 9,000 acres, 4,000 of which region should find a sanctuary in which young and old can is a lake. has recently been completed at Springfield, Illi• learn what tolerance and love for mute life means, where nois, the Home and Final Resting Place of Abraham Lin• they may feel and understand the power and purpose of coln. In this picturesque setting of hills, rugged shore line, .;reation-mankind's greatest gift-one with creation-one and wide expanse of water, some forty acres have been set with God. Situated as the garden is, on the margin of a aside by the city for this memorial garden. lake, an opportunity for a variety in plants is great. This "From this site one looks across the water toward Lin• makes for a richer bird life. coln's Home, his Monument, and the many places in Spring• "I know of no idea more noble or more fitting as a mem• field sacred to his memory. ory for our Great American than a garden. Monuments "The idea of this Memorial Garden was first suggested by and statuary are but cold material. Growing things are a member of the Springfield Civic Garden Association, and life-eternal youth." after receiving the hearty approval of the City authorities The booklet is concluded with the following paragraphs: and the Chamber of Commerce, the project was presented "We of Illinois feel keenly the honor of claiming Lincoln to the Garden Club of Illinois, which is now sponsoring the as our fellow citizen yet we recognize the claims of other undertaking. states and nations as expressed by the Honorable David by the National Lloyd George in an address delivered in Springfield on Octo• by Lincoln students. ber 18, 1923. He said: various states, through " 'There have been many great men whose names have that of other countries been inscribed on the scroll of human history; there are and individuals, will be expressed in this living memorial. only a few whose names have become a legend amongst Some have indicated a wish to express themselves in a men. Amongst those is conspicuously stamped the name of grouping of shrubs and ttees, others by bronze tablets re• Abraham Lincoln ..... he was one of those rare men whom cording the utterances of Lincoln, while still others would you do not associate with any particular creed, party, and, like to place seats where visitors may rest in the quiet of -if you will forvive me for saying so-not even with any the great out-of-doors and meditate upon the life and ideals country, for he belongs to mank.ind in every race, in every of Abraham Lincoln. clime, and in every age.' "Suggestions will be carefully considered by the commit• "Therefore we invite the admirers of Abraham Lincoln tee. All plant material accepted will be cared for in the city throughout the world to share in this living memorial." such time as the site is ready for planting. nursery until Mrs. T. ]. Knudson, who is Director of Juniors, The material will be available as soon as plans Lists of planting Garden Club of Illinois, is chairman of the committee for are completed. the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Garden. Mrs. Euclid noted landscape architect, has been selected "Jens Jensen, Snow, President, The Garden Club of Illinois; Mrs. Ray• to draw the plans for this memorial." mond .Knotts, Publicity Chairman. The Garden Club of Jens Jensen writes, "Somewhere near the Sangamon Riv• Illinois; Mrs. Paul F. Taft, Member of Board, Springfield er, of which my departed friend, Vachel Lindsay, said, 'It Civic Garden Assn.; Honorable Henry Horner, Governor is as lovely as any place in the world,' where the spirit of of the State of Illinois; Mr. Logan Hay, President of Abra• Abraham Lincoln touches every tree and flower, a garden ham Lincoln Assn.; and Mr. James M. Graham, President is to be built in his memory. To be true to his name, this of Springfield Civic Garden Assn., are other members of the garden must sing the song of America. It must be true to committee. itself. true to its native land. The plan must be simple but great in conception and still within the scope of a garden as we understand it. "In centuries to come our descendants will enjoy and cherish this garden, therefore only plants, the most fitting and enduring as proven by nature through untold centuries of elimination, must be used-trees that will give dignity and nobility to the garden in ripe old age and scatter their seeds and produce their off-spring as far as man's vision goes, in the distant tomorrow. I Mrs, T. J. Knudson - Gladacres - 1944

I Mrs. Knudson's garden is a prairie garden of horizontal lines, wide paths and generous planting. In fact, "generous'' is the keynote of the whole

place, When Mrs. Knudson picks a bouquet1 it is an armful. Her cutting garden I ha.s quantities of everything. At the entrance to her garden, note the pair of •\merican holly and magnolia stellata. The bird bath was a gift of the Springfield Garden Club. Her peonies are all highly rated. Many are Ed. Auten, Jr. (Prince·· ville, Ill.), famed hybrids, The summer blooming plant material is chosen to sur• I vive without watering. She has an important Hemerocollis display - many are her otm hybrids. The Southeast room with the corner windows was built by Mrs. Knudson to proYide a sitting room from which to see the garden. Before you leave you must I see th0 colts. Mrs. Knudson and her son, Sam, raise fine horses. She will go with us to the Lincoln gardens. I We shall visit the Lanphier-Sarber place, 1039 Williams Blvd. and the Irene and Mildred Garvey residence, 1029 Williams Blvd, at the same time. There is only one house between. Since Irene's garden is small, I suggest most people begin with the Lahphier-Barber place first and gradually go over to the Garveys. Both houses I face South. The landscaping of the Lanphier place was started in 1945. At that time the drive and service occupied the entire east lawn and area north of the house • I The west side was a wild garden of which a small area was left. The drive and ser• vice were changed to the West side and the whole East side graded to provide a small elevated garden. Note the pole fence. A small green house was added. The exist• I ing house terrace was developed into a sun room, The yew hedge at the back, to shut ~hE!_§~~vice, as well. as most of the plant material came from Jacksonville Cru• zan Nursery ari:l·was··planted by .. them:.- ·ThGnl "is· an-im~4p display at dog• wood time and brilliant fall color. The Robert Lanphier family and colored man, I Wilson, worked as a unit laying brick and digging crab grass. They had lived 12 years in England and had a high standard of maintenance. They are gone to Washing• ton and have sold to the Henry Barbers who are very kind to let us wander around .I whUe they are in the throes of moving,

Irene Garvey's place is very individual. My part in this develop• I ment has been advice rather than plan. Irene likes small, intimate, woodsy areas. Her front grading and location on the Park make this possible. Tho house color has recently been changed from white to green. In the small front entrance she has lots of bloom and lovely fall color of azalea mollis, oak-leaf hydrangea, dogwood and I enonymus alata. Go to the garden by the West side of the house and return by the East. The large oak which dominates the rear is also lovely the year around from the Lanphier sun porch. It makes possible a deligltful sitting place constantly I used for eating out and parties. Note the high fence recently completed. Irene does a great deal of hybridizing and gardening in this small area. Note the tree peonies, A screened porch is planned adjoining the living room on the north side I of the house. This is a working-living garden which is never finished. In the Clarence 1\rmstrong property, ll30 Williams Blvd, which faces north, you see a new place in the process of construction and planting. Again the high front en• I trance yard on the Park makes possible an individual development. There will be no grase in the front only ground cover of zeyrtle, paehysand.ra and ivy. The ivy came years ago from Mt. Vernon. Hundreds of narcissi, tulipe, etc. 1 are planted I here. Note the pair o~ media yew at the entrance to the Regency· house, The gar• age area is planted in acid soil plants of rehododendron, azales. etc, I I I

Follow the brick around the west side to the rear. Here the land I originally sloped steeply from the east to the Southwest. The large tree is the focal .point from all the windows of the house. The young folks wanted a croquet lawn. Mrs. Armstrong wanted a flower garden and all wanted sitting and eating I terraces, Mr. Armstrong has superviseq and assisted in all the construction work. The west and south property lines are planted with redbud and dogwood and more :)incs •,.lill be added on the south to enclose the vic.:w. The edging of the perennial I t·;,q.r_(fm is Browne yew. You will enjoy seeing this place 4 or 5 yllars from now. l~ow to the Abraham Lincoln Gardens on Lake Springfield for lunch.

I Mrs. Knudson is solely responsible for this idea of a Lincoln garden. She raised the money through the Garden Clubs of Illinois and put in months and m.onths of supervising the planting of the plan made by Jens Jensen. To begin with, I ·~his was a treeless pasture, Now Mrs. Knudson is forming a memorial garden found• ation to insure its perpetuity. I Tho last two places adjoin on the North Shore of Lake Springfield. The MUes Gray place is new. Mrs. Gray had gardened here in long borders before they built the house. The plantirtg and terracing is not yet com- I _pletad, Go around the right side of the house to the rear terrace. Originally, as with ~t homes at the Lake, the land dropped sharply so that a terrace had to he built to provide a feeling of stability for the house as well as for a com• I fortable sitting place. We shall probably use a small evergreen edging around the curve of tre terrace. Molly Gray is a fine gardener and a tremendous worker.• She can sod and spade and do a man's job easily. She ~s alreaqy achieved nice I bloom that can be seen from house and porch, The Bryant Hadley place is almost my oldest landscape job on the .I take - 1942. The house was sited to a wonderful tree at the entrance door. This tree passed out a few years ago. Quantities of crabs, !lowering shrubs and per• ennials in a cutting border, with firethom an:l yew as house planting make up the front planting, Mr, Hadley is an architect. Note the beautiful brick work he I designed for his own home. The Had.leys had lived here two years before I was called in. He had built the barbacue fireplace on the Lake side and was trying to satisfy himself with a steeply sloping site. I! you look back from the Lake I side you will see the advantage of the terracing. Mr. Hadley took one of his rare vaoations and stood over the brick masons when the terracing was being built. Although perennials grow especially well here on the Lake, Mrs. Hadley is one of my few clients who can grow fall blooming Jap. Anemone. The pattern of the ever• I green Korean boxwood (Buxus microphylla) is pleasing from the porch and windows ot the house. I Hope you have enjoyed the trip. I Courtney Crouch Wright I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

]otlrnal and Register Photo See Page 190 I ABRAHAM LINCOLN MEMORIAL GARDEN I SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS SuMMER 1953 I I I I 190 LINCOLNIANA

An even rarer 1860 campaign newspaper is The Freeport Wide Awake. Its first issue appeared on August 6, 1860 and the thirteenth and final number on November 17. The Historical Library has the last seven numbers-the only complete file is owned by the State Hiscorical Society of Wisconsin. The Wide Awake was published weekly by R. W. Hulbert and 0. I Ingersoll. It carried speeches by Owen Lovejoy and John Cochrane, poems, "exposures" of Douglas' principles, and accounts of various Republican rallies in northern Illinois. Unlike most campaign papers it published an issue carrying the election results, and the last page of the November 17 number I is a banner of thanks to the states of Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York for their Lincoln majorities. ;r Another 1860 campaign paper was The Rail Splitter, published in Chi• I cago from June 23 to October 27. The Historical Library has only the July 21 issue of the eighteen published.

I A PETITION SIGNED BY LINCOLN Among the original Lincoln documents recently added to the Illinois State Historical Library collection is a three-page petition dated "February I -1836" and addressed to the County Commissioners Court of Sangamon County asking for a "suitable Bridge Over Rock Creek where the Lewiston and Springfield Road now crossed the same." I Among the eighty-four signatures on the petition are those of Abraham Lincoln and well known friends of his who resided in the New Salem neigh· borhood including: Bowling Green, John A. Kelso, Jack Armstrong, Alex• ander Trent, Dr. John Allen, Joshua Miller, Caleb Carman, Thomas J. Nance, I Travis Elmore, and Washington Hornbuckle. The petition was a gift of Captain William Eugene Boeker, Oakford, Illinois, World War II and Korean veteran and former guide at New Salem I State Park.

A LIVING MEMORIAL TO LINCOLN I The Abraham Lincoln Memorial Garden is a unique addition to the Lincoln memorials. This Garden (see front cover of this Journal) stretches sixty acres along the shoreline of Lake Springfield, seven miles southeast I of the city. It perpetuates, within its borders, the virgin prairie and wood• lands of the Illinois country. Its wide grasslands and wooded hills recapture in miniature the free expanse and solitary beauty of the wilderness. I The members of the Garden Club of Illinois, who planted the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Garden under the leadership of Mrs. T. J. Knudson, in• I defatigable worker and woman of vision, believed that the beauty of the I I I I LINCOLN IAN A 191 countryside which Lincoln knew as a youth, and for which he always had a feeling of profound affection, was a contributing factor in his growth. Many references to this natural beauty, particularly the beauty of trees, are tO be found in his speeches. And, of course, there is the widely quoted "I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower when I thought a flower would grow." The plan for the Lincoln Memorial Garden was drawn by Jens Jensen, master of naturalistic landscape design, in 1936. The garden was then sixty empty acres along the shore of the newly created Lake Springfield. Tramping across its seemingly limitless spaces, the eager enthusiasts of the garden clubs would unroll the map and say, "See, this will be here, and this here, and this there," rejoicing in their distant dream. But already in these few short years the things are here, and here, and here. The emptiness has been devoured by eager growth. The slopes and meadows are clothed in living glory. The vision that lived only in the eyes of the dreamer stands real for all to see. While it is still the most important project of that large organization, the Garden Club of Illinois, which comprises 190 community garden clubs all over the state, recently the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Garden Foundation has been formed, with memberships, so that everyone who cherishes Lin• coln's memory may be given an opportunity to help in the further develop• ment of this great projeCt. Plans are under way for a pilgrimage late in April or early in May of 1954, when the transcendent beauty of the crab• apples, the hawthornes, the Juneberry, the snowdrop tree, the dogwood and the redbud, and all the rest will be at its height. A short history of the Memorial Garden should be included here, for the benefit of those, unfamiliar with the project, who are interested in know• ing how this great undertaking was started. The Garden Club of Illinois is not an old organization. It was organized in 1927, and in those early years Mrs. T. ]. Knudson, of Springfield, was a member of the board of direCtors of the state organization. At that time the city of Springfield was building a lake near the city by damming up the waters of rwo small creeks, under the direction frl the Department of Public Works. This lake, when completed, was about ten square miles in extent, with a picturesquely indented shore• line. Mrs. Knudson, realizing how beautiful the lake would be, dreamed of a great garden there, planted with the native trees, shrubs and flowers of the region Lincoln knew as a child and a young man Willis J. Spaulding, then Springfield's Commissioner of Public Works, set aside this beautiful area, approximately three quarters of a mile long, and varying in width to a quarter of a mile back from the lake to the road. Here the Garden Club of Illinois planned the garden under the expert guidance of Jens Jensen. Into the draw• .- _.. _. ., ings which Mr. Jensen submitted, more than a year's study was incorporated. -;:_ ~ -- ~- ~ . -· •' ~~ r·· -=- -· ·. >: : -:- -' .. .!

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I 192 LINCOLNIANA ~-~->. ":-~.·. l I I I I I I

Herbert Gso<'g Studio I }ENS JENSEN PLANNED THE MEMORIAL GARDEN

He visited the site during the four seasons of the year, and when the plans I were finally completed he submitted them with this note: I know this has taken a long time, but good work is never done in haste. I have given you the best I had to give. I feel it is one of the greatest honors I that has been bestowed upon me,-to plan a garden in memory of Abraham Lincoln. It has been planned on a large scale, in keeping with the country of which it is a part. It will sing the song of America. This garden will, in fifty yeats, be the outstanding planting in the Middle West. In centuries to come, our descendants will enjoy and cherish this garden. Only the most fitting and I end · lants are to be used,-trees that will give dignity and nobility to the and scatter their seeds and produce their offspring as far as man's vision goes in the distant tomorrow. I The land is slighc!y rolling. The hills are covered with the trees of Illinois, the oak, maple, hickory, the Kenrucky coffee tree, the elm, tulip I trees, nut trees, sassafras, birch, and even a small clump of cypress. Bordering I I I I I

LINCOLNIANA 193

these forests and lining the paths that bisect them are the beautiful small trees, hawthorne, crabapple, halesia, shad, dogwood and redbud. The little trails are bordered with viburnum, witchhazel, ninebark, and the native philadelphus. Open spots are planted with prairie flowers, and the flowers of the meadows are in fields at the water's edge. The garden was planted and turned back to the city of Springfield for maintenance in 1941. Now the trees have grown sufficiently so that many of the native flowers of the woodlands can be planted, and a tremendous amount of work was done this spring. Growing things, as Jens Jensen said, are life. Life changes constantly. It will always be time, now and down through the generations, to replace plant materials lost to the vicissitudes of weather, to make new plantings where the shifting development of the forest offers situations of special advantage. Quoting Paul Angle, Lincoln historian: Since the death of Lincoln, hundreds of memorials to his life and work have been created. Their range is wide--from bronze and marble statues to the magnificent temple in Washington, from the rebuilt village of New Salem to the tomb at Springfield. But so far as I know, none even faintly resembles the Lincoln Memorial Garden. That will be unique. It will be as permanent as bronze or stone, and flexible beyond either. Endowed with life, it can be adapted tO changing standards of taste and beauty, and thus it will never become an artistic anachronism. In this respect, as in its con• ception, it will be almost without rivals. Berwy1l, Illinois MRS. RAYMOND KNorrs

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I I SPRING 1962 I JOURNAL I . ' I I ' .... "1, : I I I I I I I I I I l . '' LINCOLN GARDEN IN SPRING (See page 74) I I I I Lincolniana Notes

Memorial Garden Begins Second Quarter Century When Jens Jensen, the noted landscape architect, submitted his plans for the Abraham Lincoln :\!emorial Garden, he wrote: I "This garden will, in fifty years, be the outstanding planting in the Middle West. In centuries to come our descendants will enjoy this garden." I That was in I 936, and now the plantings in that ~ixty woodland ., acres on the northeast shore of Lake Springfield (nine miles .from the Old State Capitol) are beginning their second quarter of a I century of growth. In the twenty~five years since the first acorns were planted, many changes have taken place in an area that was then considered I "marginal" land. At the dedication ceremonies on November 14, 1936, a group of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts planted acorns from twenty-eight states. The ten varieties of oak trees that grew from I them formed the nuclei of the Garden, which now contains more than fifty other kinds of trees. Lining the five miles of woodland trails are more than thirty kinds of shrubs, and growing beneath I these are more than a dozen varieties of ferns; the meadows between the plantings are covered with more than eighty kinds of native flowers. I Back itt 1934 when Lake Springfield was being built, Mrs. T. J. Knudson of Springfield, a member of the board of directors of the Garden Club of Illinois, presented the idea of a living memorial I honoring Lincoln to that organization. The Springfield city council set aside the area and the support of other clubs was enlisted through the Garden Club of Illinois. Then, in 1952 the present Abraham Lincoln Memorial Garden I Foundation, Inc. was established to facilitate the operation of the project. The Foundation derives its support from several different sources. Nearly all of the 290 local garden clubs throughout the I state and a number in other states have club memberships at $I o a year. Individuals may become life members at $100, active I members at $2.00 yearly, contributing members at $5.00, or sus- 72 I I I I I I I

I I I I Council ring and drinking fountain overlooking Lake S pringficld tn the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Garden.

I tammg members at $25 - there are now more than fifty life members. Memberships, however, are not the Foundation's main source I of revenue. This is provided by proceeds from the annual tour of "Hazelwood," the estate of Mrs. Charles R. Walgreen just north of Dixon. The tenth annual tour will be held this year I on May 5-6. Over the years, attendance has increased until more than four thousand visitors can be expected, at $I .oo each. On the tour they see the gardens, the home, the guest house, and the I log caoin .that was built I 25 years ago for "Governor" Alexander Charters, the original title holder to the land. The cabin, which is the only log dwelling remaining in the area, has been restored I and converted into a museum of pioneer Americana. The barn, which was built in 18g8, is now a guest house. Mrs. Walgreen, an accomplished horticulturist, has developed the gardens into a I garden club dream. Thus the tour attracts two groups that are enthusiastic in their interests - gardeners and historians. Although the city of Springfield does the basic maintenance I 73 ;; __ I I 1,'' .,I.

LINCOLNIANA NOTES and Boy and Girl Scouts and other groups assist with plantings, I more than $6o,ooo has been spent on improvements to the Me• morial Garden. These include water fountains, foot bridges, coun• cil rings, benches, parking facilities, entry gates, and a shelter house. One of the four drinking fountains resembles the windlassed wells of Lincoln's day, with a circular stone base about three feet high and a shingled gable roof overhead. I There are eight council rings ranging in size from thirty to fifty feet in diameter. These rings are stone wall-seats about two feet high. In the center of each is a fire pit. I Along the trails are thirteen foot bridges, the largest of which is the eighty-foot-long Walgreen Bridge - given to the Garden . ~ . as a birthday present for Mrs. Walgreen by her late husband. The I approaches to the bridge (which is pictured on the front cover of this journal) were graded a century ago for a railroad that was never built. Originally the bridge was intended to cross a gully; I now it spans an inlet of Lake Springfield. The twenty-five benches located along the trails and at strategic points overlooking the lake are a unique feature of the Garden. I Made of chemically treated oak planks set in concrete, they are six feet long with seats three inches thick. Each has a Lincoln quotation carved in large letters on the back. The benches are I gifts of state garden clubs and other organizations: seventeen from garden clubs (Mrs. Knudson hopes eventually to have all fifty states represented), five from auxiliaries of the Sons of Union Veterans, two from Ladies of the G.A.R., and one from the Chi• I cago Out-Door Art League. The rustic shelter house (a large concrete slab with a roof over it) was a contribution of the Illinois Federation of Women's Clubs. I Looking to the near future the Foundation's directors are now planning to employ a full-time naturalist and to construct a build• ing that will serve as his home and will include a lecture room and I a library. These plans may seem ambitious, but in view of the Foundation's accomplishments, its sound organization, and the dedication of its governing board, almost anything seems possible. I :\!though plans for the building have not yet been accepted, the directors, for the past ten years, have been accumulating a reserve fi:md that by now exceeds $25,ooo, so their dual program cannot I be far from realization. In the meantime visitors to the Lincoln I 74 I I I I

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I~ LINCOLNIA0:A !'>OTES shrines in Springfield can have a guided tour of the Garden, the "only living memorial to Abraham Lincoln," during the spring and autumn seasons by making arrangements through Mrs. Knud• 1. son (address: "Gladacres," Springfield, Illinois).

I Newly Discovered Lincoln Papers on Exhibit Twenty-eight newly discovered Lincoln notes, letters, and papers plus an autographed carte-de-visite photograph have been I on exhibit in the Horner-Lincoln Room of the Illinois State His• torical Library since February 12. The collection was placed on deposit in the Library by the owners, Elsie 0. and Philip D. Sang I of River Forest. Mr. Sang is a director of the Illinois State His• torical Society. These Lincoln papers were discovered among the effects of I Oscar A. Kershner, a semi-recluse who died in Greenville, Illinois, on March 2 I, I g6 I. Kershner was born on December 26, I 8go, at Tamalco, a village in the southeast corner of Bond County. A I story of his life in the Greenville Advocate, on August 2I, xg6x, said, "Mr. Kershner . . . after reaching maturity had the mis• fortune to lose his leg in an accident. Recovering, he went to Washington, D.C., where he was employed in government offices I as a clerk and bookkeeper." During the fifty years or so that he was in Washington, Kershner compiled his collection of Lincolniana and other historical materials. About four years before his death I he retired from his government job and returned to Bond County, where he lived at the Thomas Hotel in Greenville. In addition to his Lincoln papers Kershner had letters by several I other historical figures; among them, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Buchanan, and Herbert Hoover. He also had a collection of approximately I ,soo photographs, I most of them of people of the Civil War period and many of them autographed. In this group were autographed photographs of all the members of Lincoln's Cabinet and a series of seven pictures I of Mrs. Lincoln, numbered and signed by Civil War photographer Mathew B. Brady. The autographed carte-de-visite photograph of Lincoln is one I of possibly twenty in existence and they are very highly prized by Lincoln collectors, according to James T. Hickey, curator of the

I 75 I I ------•SUPPLEMENT TO THE PROGRAM OF THE

DEDICATION OF THE

ABRAHAM LINCOLN MEMORIAL GARDEN CENTER

OCTOBER 18 - 19. 1965 SPRINGFIELD. ILLINOIS

JENSEN, DESIGNER OF THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN MEMORIAL GARDEN - _..r.. a.-L-.:o• "WWWI~ - Libc~',..i-tllllg bi~oJI!Ial a.t. Midnight - - - b>' CLAIR.E._ MARTINDALE. (lot 5prirt6lf•lfl· Jlfl,.,•) by VACHEL LINDSAY No longer through the Springfield street Need echoes of his restless feet, It is portentous, and a thing of state Cadenced by a troubled heart, That here at _midnight, in our little town Disturb the midnight silence. A mourning figure walks, and will not rest, Near the old court-house pacing up and down, For those who love this tender man of peace Have, with a courage and a patience like his own, Or by his homestead, or in shadowed yards Built him a Garden He lingers, where his children used to play, Where, over growing sod, Or through the market, on the well-worn stones Beneath the trees he knew so we// He stalks until the dawn-stars burn away. His spirit can exist as one with God.

A bronzed, lank man! His suit of ancient black, Feeling he would be close akin A famous high top-hat and plain worn shawl To every rain·was heel shrub Make him the quaint great figure that men love, And starry bloom, The prairie-lawyer, master of us all. Where oak and maple could shelter him As when, a barefoot boy, He cannot sleep upon his hillside now. His feet knew dust and dew. He is among us:- as in times before! Where redbud - dogwood - And we who toss and lie awoke for long Send a vibrance through the wood. Breathe deep, and start, to see him pass the door. There he could sense the height of reverence We hold for him. His head is bowed. He thinks on men and kings. Yeo, when the siclc world cries, how can he sleep? His kindness, charity and stubborn Too many peasants fight, they know not why, Will for right- Too many homesteads in black terror weep. H_is deepest understanding of the human soul Has built on altar in each mind and heart, The sins of all the war-fords burn his heart. Where we humbly bow He sees the dreadnoughts scouring every main. Acknowledging a debt so deep shawl~wrapped He carries on his shoulders now That he must feel it in his sleep. The bitterness, the folly and the pain. We think that he must surely know our tribute He cannot rest until a spirit-dawn Is a I iving thing to grow forever. Shall come;- the shining hope of Europe free: White blossoms for his purpose true; The league of sober folk, the Workers' Earth, Redbud for warmth of lave far man; Bringing long peace to Cornland, Alp and Sea. And oak and maple for strength to keep men free.

It breaks his heart that kings must murder still, We pay him homage there That all his hours of travail here for men With flower and tree. Seem yet in vain. And who will bring white peace This is his garden- That he may sleep upon his hill again? We ore those for whom he Kept our nation whole, In unity. COMMITTEE OF GARDEN CLUB OF ILLINOIS Res iJ en t Chai rnum MRS. WARREN W. SHOEMAKER THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN MEMORIAL GARDEN MRs. T. J. KNuosoN Winnetka, Illinois By BEULAH GoRDON G!adacres MRS. ALBERT 0. OLSON Spri ng6e! d, Il!inois Glencoe, Illinois Created as the first living memorial to the Great Emancipator, The Abraham Lincoln Memorial ;\IRS. 0. W. DYNES Mu. RAYMOND KNOTTS Garden perpetuates within its sixty rolling acres the virgin prairie of the Pioneers. Hinsdale, Illinois 3 U9 Kenilworth Ave. :\fRs. CHARLES R. WALGREEN Berwyn, II! i no is Its wide grasslands and wooded hills recapture in miniature the free expanse and solitary beauty Dixon, I!li no is Mas. L. WARREN of the wilderness. T. MRS. ROBERT Won. 2 07 Geneva Street Barring ton, Illinois Stretching back from a busy highway Elmhurst, Illinois to the quiet waters of Lake Springfield, the garden gives MRs. JosEPH M. CUDAHY MRS. GEORGE PLAMONDON visitors a glimpse of the frontier country that produced Abraham Lincoln, world citizen and President Lake Pores t, Illinois of the United States. Warrenville Road SPRINGFIELD CITY OFFIOALS Wheaton, Illinois MAYOR HARRY A. EIELSON Planned and executed by The Garden Club of Illinois, it follows a pattern of growth and renewal MRs. WM. L. KARCHER JoHN H. HuNTER Freeport, Illinois Com. of Public Property that develops each year to a more beautiful maturity. Mas. MARK W. CAESAP W. }. COWIE - Winnctk.,- Ulinois- --Lake SuperinlenJent------Springfield Civic Garden Club conceived the idea for this unique Memorial and presented it to the Garden Club of Illinois in 19 }2. After careful consideration the state club agree<{. to sponsor the garden as their 5fte major project. Mrs. T. J. Knudson, a member of the local dub, was sfi~ 'lnetna~iae 1 named chairman. Gfwafwnt &ru den }ens Jensen, internationally famous landscape architect, was secured 0p .."'-9 G«Jd, ..9flu. aM. to plan the garden and dramatize the trees, shrubs and flowers of the pioneer Illinois country that Lincoln knew and loved. The first planting was made in the Fall of 1936 when acorns from 28 states of the Union were planted by the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts in a colorful ceremony. Subsequent plantings were made representing more than 1 00 com• munity garden clubs of Illinois, several state garden federations, a number of Lincoln organizations and many interested individuals. In 1941, after completion of the planting, the Garden Club of Iilinois turned the Memorial back to the city. They retain an active interest in the project, and a city ordinance specifies no change may be made in the garden without the club's consent. The number of visitors to the garden is steadily increasing. In the Spring hundreds of wild plum, shad, crabapple, silverbell, red bud and dogwood bloom along its trails. In the Fall maple, oak, sassafras, sumac and wahoo add to the glory of its coloring. · Trees cover the higher levels. The lower levels along the lake have been dedicated to sun-lovin~ flowers. Thousands of Marsh Marigolds, phlox, shooting star and other blossoms, speak the beauty the pioneers beheld upon entering Illinois. Adding yearly to their abundance are plant• ings made during the annual wildflower day held by Springfield Civic Garden Club. The g_arden's trails and plant material are designated on a permanent map set in a rustic shelter near the main entrance. Along the quiet, pleasant trails are rustic benches. Rustic bridges span ravines and small watercourses. Drinking fountains arc conveniently located. Widely spaced about the grounds are eight council rings, built of native stone with a firepit in the center. These form friendly gathering places. Each is a point of vantage commanding a distinctive view. Timeless as earth itself, the garden is the most enduring of all Lincoln memorials. Jens Jensen, who considered the commission for it one of his greatest honors, once said: "The plantings here will tell the story of this garden when all statuary "I have always plucked a thistle and planted a flower and monuments have crumbled into dust-even Gutzon Borglum's great where I thought a. flower wmtld grow."-A. Lincoln. faces on the mountain side will have scattered their dust over the plains. This garden will last far into the ages, a true and fitting tribute to the great and lovable Lincoln." Planned and executed by THE GARDEN CLUB OF ILLINOIS Parking space is provided at each of the three entrances. ------