Odds 'n Ends
The legendary 50,000 watt Chicago blowtorch!
Photos
Giant painted fiberglass corn forms!
The mansion of Judge David Davis is in Bloomington IL. He was behind Abraham Lincoln's rise to national power.
Frederick MD Community Bridge Mural
These photos were taken at the "Community Bridge" mural in downtown Frederick, MD (which was founded in 1743!)
"The Queen City of the Cornbelt"
as declared in the old Fairbury Blade newspaper.
Replacing a 200,000 gallon fire prevention system reservoir.
Nature center on the Vermilion River near Pontiac, Illinois
Located along the Illinois River between Ottawa and Utica.
More Stuff
Homeshield History
If you are or were an employee of Homeshield, aka Nichols-Homeshield, aka American Screen Company, in Chatsworth, IL, or a current or former resident of Chatsworth, you will enjoy browsing through these old Homeshield newsletters from the early '60s.
WLS Radio 890 History!
If you live in or are from the Midwest, try some radio nostalgia! This link is a history of WLS, with lots of content. You can also get CD's of Vol. 1 - 4 of Animal Stories, (with Uncle Larr and Little Tommy), here! Some of the funniest stuff ever heard on radio!
Are you a non-profit organization or small business in need of a Web site or a re-design? I can help.
Presidential Proclamations
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S 1795 PROCLAMATION:
When we review the calamities which afflict so many other nations, the present condition of the United States affords much matter of consolation and satisfaction. Our exemption hitherto from foreign war, an increasing prospect of the continuance of that exemption, the great degree of internal tranquility we have enjoyed, the recent confirmation of that tranquility by the suppression of an insurrection (The Whiskey Insurrection in Western Pennsylvania) which so wantonly threatened it, the happy course of our public affairs in general, the unexampled prosperity of all classes of our citizens, are circumstances which peculiarly mark our situation with indications of the divine beneficence toward us. In such a state of things it is in an especial manner our duty as a people, with devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God, and to implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experienced.Deeply penetrated with this sentiment, I, George Washington, President of the United States, do recommend to all religious societies and denominations, and to all persons whomsoever, within the United States, to set apart and observe Thursday, the 19th day of February next, as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, and on that day to meet together and render sincere and hearty thanks to the great Ruler of nations for the manifold and signal mercies which distinguish our lot as a nation; particularly for the possession of constitutions of government which unite and, by their union, establish liberty with order; for the preservation of our peace, foreign and domestic;
for the reasonable control which has been given to a spirit of disorder in the suppression of the late insurrection, and generally for the prosperous condition of our affairs, public and private, and at the same time humbly and fervently beseech the kind Author of these blessings graciously to prolong them to us; to imprint on our hearts a deep and solemn sense of our obligations to Him for them; to teach us rightly to estimate their immense value; to preserve us from the arrogance of prosperity, and from hazarding the advantages we enjoy by delusive pursuits, to dispose us to merit the continuance of His favors by not abusing them, by our gratitude for them, and by a corresponding conduct as citizens and as men to render this country more and more a safe and propitious asylum for the unfortunate of other countries; to extend among us true and useful knowledge; to diffuse and establish habits of sobriety, order, morality and piety, and finally to impart all the blessings we possess or ask for ourselves to the whole family of mankind. In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand. Done at the city of Philadelphia the first day of January, 1795.
(signed)
George Washington
ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S
1863 THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION:
"It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence
upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions
in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance
will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth,
announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that
those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.
We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected
to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly
fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates
the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous
sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole
people?
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we
have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity;
we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation
has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved
us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have
vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings
were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of own. Intoxicated
with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the
necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to
the God that made us.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and
gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American
people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the
United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in
foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November
as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father
who dwelleth in the heavens."
(signed) A. Lincoln
October 3, 1863