ILLINOIS neWs MayflowerSUMMER 2018 Save the Date September 5-9, 2018: General Society Board of Assistants Meeting at Sept 7-9 Governor’s Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, IL. All May- flower Society Members Message and guests are welcome. Dear Members: Hope to see you there. I hope you have made plans to attend September 21-23, 2018: the General Society Board of Assistants Illinois Heritage Weekend Meeting at Pheasant Run Resort in St. in East Peoria, IL. Charles, Illinois, September 5 - 9, 2018. (Story on page 11) The Illinois Society is hosting this event. It offers an opportunity to see the larger November 2, 2018: organization in action and meet some of the General Society officers. New York Mayflower Soci- ety Debutante Ball in New Take time to review the Nominating Committee’s report (page 12) York City. Current members which will be acted upon at the Annual Meeting and Fall Luncheon on of any state society may November 17, 2018. Invitations to this event at the Bloomington attend the ball and sponsor Country Club in Bloomington will be mailed in October. a female descendant. For Please investigate the Illinois Society’s Scholarship program. It is information: mayflower- awarded in the amount of $2,500 based upon an application and newyork.org/annual-ball/ recommendations. The entry deadline is April 1, 2019 for the next award. Turn to page 9 for our Scholarship Chair report and more November 17, 2018: information. Illinois Mayflower Society FALL LUNCHEON AND Also, please plan to join the group at Illinois Heritage Weekend on ANNUAL MEETING at September 21 - 23, 2018 in East Peoria, Illinois. More than eighteen Bloomington Country Club heritage societies will be represented. in Bloomington, IL. The I welcome your input. If you would like to serve on the Board of gathering will include a Assistants – or have ideas for events, projects or anything at all – welcome ceremony for please contact me or any other Board member. A list is on page 12. newly approved members and a tour of Judge Davis’ Sincerely – John Schellinger, Governor historic mansion. (Story on page 15) SPRING LUNCHEON and ART TOUR • UNION LEAGUE CLUB of CHICAGO • MAY 19, 2018 2018 Spring Luncheonand ART TOUR By Mary Morony, Recording Secretary At the May 19 spring gathering of the Illinois May- flower Society, members and their guests were treated to an after-lunch tour of the Union League Club’s exten- sive collection of works by American artists. Sponsoring member William Conger, former ISMD Education Committee Chair, who was named “Union League Distinguished Artist Member” in 2010, began the tour with an explanation of his abstract painting, “Ravenswood.” This is the only non-American painting in the collection, but it is Next, club member docents Elizabeth Peters, Jim a Monet so that makes it okay! The painting is often on loan for Aylesworth and Tinsley Preston, III, escorted the group Monet exhibits in museums around the world. to the 2nd Floor President’s Hall where they described the significance of several paintings. But these are only a small part of the 800 plus works the Club has collect- ed since shortly after its founding in Chicago in 1879. Many were acquired following completion of the cur- rent building in 1926 but before the Great Depression a few years later. The Society holds two gatherings a year, the Annual Mayflower descendant William Conger explains the story of his Meeting on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and the 70 x 74” painting, “Ravenswood,” a study in greens. The collec- tion features a range of art movements, styles, and subjects, mostly social Spring Luncheon the third Saturday in from traditional to contemporary art, and it includes paintings, May. This year Deputy Governor Les Lipschutz presided, sculptures, drawings, watercolors, prints, photographs, and Sally Gill, Cary Stone-Greenstein, Jessica Schleinzer and Susan and his daughter Arielle Dachman read the Mayflower decorative arts. Fredrickson before the luncheon at the Union League Club. Compact, followed by the reading of the names of the ancestors. Several of the attendees were new or pro- spective members from the downtown Chicago area. Les and Nancy Lipschutz surrounded by their family – daughter Arielle Dachman, son-in-law Jeff Dachman and granddaughters And, as is the custom of the Society, the recipient of the Macey (with bow) and Sylva. Scholarship Award was asked to attend. Emily Moore and Jeffrey Lapides had their wedding reception at the Union League Club 35 years ago. MORE PHOTOS ON Sue Erlick with 2018 Scholarship Anne Sears with Brian Sweeney taking a picture of his folloWIng pAges John J. Dombek III and his mother Priscilla Wright Dombeck Candice Knippenberg and Raymond Knippenberg winner Mark Sweeney son Mark accepting the scholarship (story on page 9). 2 ILLINOIS Mayflower newsletter • SUMMER 2018 Illinois Mayflower newsletter • SUMMER 2018 3 SPRING LUNCHEON and ART TOUR • UNION LEAGUE CLUB of CHICAGO • MAY 19, 2018 SPRING LUNCHEON and ART TOUR • UNION LEAGUE CLUB of CHICAGO • MAY 19, 2018 Judy Mayo and Katie Bedingfield Kari McHenna and mother Barbara Sullivan Sylvia Brewer and Sally Krigbaum Docent Jim Aylesworth explains how Charles Turner’s “John Alden’s Letter” relates to the story of the Mayflower Pilgrims. Nameplate of the painting is shown below. Barbara Sullivan, Linda Pawelski, John Kemp and Martha Kemp during the art tour. Craig Failor, Carolyn Krane and Karolyn Radulovich Arlen DeWall, artist Bill Conger and Kathleen Conger Mark Pawelski, Linda Pawelski and Dorothy Pawelski Dean Haas and Kathleen Haas Mary Gardner Walter Pribble, Carolyn Pribble, Cary Stone-Greenstein and Max Brown Docent Elizabeth Peters provided a colorful history of many paintings. The art collection is one of the oldest and most im- Mary Morony and Jan Harrington welcome a new portant private collections of American art in the Midwest, and Michelle Fowler and Bill Schroeder Laura Chase Degory Priest cousin, Martha Ellsworth (center). Dennis Moisio and Marilyn Moisio it has one of the best collections of Illinois art. 4 ILLINOIS Mayflower newsletter • SUMMER 2018 Illinois Mayflower newsletter • SUMMER 2018 5 ILLINOIS My personal Mayflower Voyage neWs By David J. Magdziarz Mary, of Collins, Erie, New York, with their fifth child listed as “Graton [sic.], mar. Esther B. Willett.” It was Membership My personal voyage to join the Mayflower Society bad enough that the book mistakenly made my great had its origin decades ago when I was a teenager, and grandfather, Groton P. Willett, the son of Lemuel and Welcome our neWest MeMBers my mother, Jeanne (Willett) Magdziarz, told me that Mary, and incorrectly gave Esther the maiden name Congratulations to the following who have been accepted into the Mayflower her family went back to Peregrine White and his father, of Willett, but what really got to me was the demean- Society in the State of Illinois (Dec. 2017 - July 2018). New members are invited to William White, of the Mayflower. My mother knew that ing and somewhat insulting title of that chapter. I was participate in our Welcoming Ceremony at the Fall Luncheon & Annual Meeting our Mayflower line went back through her paternal determined to change “claiming descent from William November 17 in Bloomington. (All live in Illinois, unless otherwise noted.) grandmother, Esther (White) White” to “descended from Willett, but, except for Pere- William White,” to correct what Descendants of JOHN ALDEN Descendants of eDWArD DOTY grine, she did not know the de- I saw as a dismissive slight pub- Kimberly Cohen - Evanston thomas Adelbert Brown - Lemont tails of the family history from lished about my great-grand- Norman Robert McFarland - Palatine Janice patricia pranger - Hinsdale Esther, back to William White. mother during her lifetime. Mary Frances Mucciante - Springfield Irene Edith Trovato - Murrieta, CA It was not until twenty years The final push for me to after my mother’s death that join the Mayflower Society Descendant of ISAAC ALLERTON Descendants of eDWArD fuller steven Wayne Harder - Shumway Craig Martin failor - Oak Park I took up genealogy in 2013, happened on April 19, 2017, Lisa Marie Fuller Santoro - Itasca and first traced my family when I found the Last Will and Descendant of MARY ALLERTON phyllis Anne Zink-schwenk - Urbana neW suppleMentAls back to William White, my 9th Testament of Holder White stewart skinner Hudnut - Winnetka These members have sub- great-grandfather. I contact- online. As I read through the Descendant of GILES HOPKINS ed the Mayflower Society in document I saw mention of all Descendant of JOHN BILLINGTON mitted paperwork and have Anthony Alan lantz - Oak Lawn October of that year, and at the of Holder White and Cynthia linda Carol Walker - Rock Island been approved for addition- al ancestors. end of the month I received in Milk’s children… except Lem- Descendants of WIllIAM BrADforD Descendants of STEPHEN HOPKINS my email a preliminary review uel. I was getting worried that David Thomas Carlson - Elgin frank James Cihlar - Antioch Deborah Ann Domain from Plymouth that the line the documentation I had been Beverly Justine Mason Dillaway nancy elaine Wagner - Crystal Lake Chicago (Peter Browne) from William White to Holder seeking for so long was going to Weston, MA White was well established, but disprove my Mayflower lineage, Janice patricia pranger Margaret edith Dillaway - Weston, MA Descendants of JoHn HoWlAnD I would have to document that instead of proving it. But finally, Hinsdale (Edward Doty) rebecca Justine Dillaway- Weston, MA Cynthia Lynn Houchin - Mazon Lemuel Milk White, my 2nd I encountered his name, and Craig Joseph Mclaughlin - Oak Brook thomas patrick Dow - Shorewood Linda Kay Keeler great-grandfather, was the son I set a goal to submit my final regan Jennings parks - Anchorage, AK Jane elizabeth Herring - Effingham Charleston (John Tilley) of Holder, as well as the line application before the end of Colleen elizabeth piersen - Oak Brook William White descendant David J.