On November 29, 1886, Brevet Brigadier General Charles Ellet Lippincott was appointed the Superintendent of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home at Quincy, a position which he held until his death less than one year later. After their deaths, Lippincott and his wife, Emily “Mother” Lippincott, would be memorialized by the erection of a concert and assembly hall, the successor of which still stands on the Home grounds. C.E. Lippincott was born in Edwardsville, Illinois, Jan. 26, 1825, the son of Rev. Thomas Lippincott, an organizer of the Presbyterian churches at Alton and Upper Alton, Illinois, and an ardent abolitionist. After attending Illinois College and St. Louis Medical College, Charles located at Chandlerville, Illinois. There, in 1851, he met and married Emily Webster Chandler, but soon tired of medicine as an occupation, leaving for the gold fields of California in 1852. Following his sojourn in California, which included a two-year term in the state senate, Lippincott returned to Illinois and resumed his medical practice. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was able to recruit nearly an entire company of men, Company K of the 33rd Illinois Volunteer Regiment, of which he became Captain. Captain Lippincott may have already demonstrated his strongest military skills when he recruited his Illinois regiment. Of his war service, General Isaac H. Elliott, Lippincott’s superior would later note, “notwithstanding his inability to execute the simplest maneuvers with the regiment, Col. Lippincott proved a valuable officer, brave and generous, and always alive to the welfare of his men. He was a man of fine ability, a rare conversationalist and story teller.” Following his war service, Lippincott aspired to political office in his home state. With strong support from his party and fellow veterans, Lippincott went on to be elected Secretary of the Illinois Senate, and later door-keeper of the U.S. House of Representatives. He also served as Auditor of Public Accounts for the State of Illinois. In 1886, in recognition of his Civil War service and continued concern for his fellow veterans, Lippincott became the first Superintendent of the soon to be opened Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home, in Quincy. Emily Webster Chandler Lippincott was born on March 13, 1833 in Chandlerville, Illinois, the daughter of Dr. Charles Chandler. Educated at Jacksonville Female Academy, she married Charles E. Lippincott on Dec 25, 1851. In 1886, she accompanied her husband to Quincy where she took on the social duties expected of her as wife of the Soldiers’ Home’s first Superintendent. When her husband died, Emily was left with no immediate family or means of support. For her, the Board of Directors of the Home created a special position as “Matron of the Home,” and for the rest of her life she remained in residence and continued to minister to the residents of whom she had become so fond. The role which Emily played at the home in subsequent years, as the beloved “Mother Lippincott,” is perhaps best summed up by Emily herself. In 1890, the editor of the Chandlerville local paper asked her to describe for his readers how she spent her days. She replied, in part, “I will ask you to see what I see, hear what I hear, yet you will not know what I know, for I have been in and out of these wards day after day, for two years, and have become acquainted with the sorrows, anxieties, and perplexities of many of these sufferers.” She went on to describe instances in which she was able to provide comfort simply by supplying friendship and a listening ear, or “fresh tea,” and in one instance “squirrel soup” which she personally prepared for a resident dying of consumption. When she reflected on how she was affected by these ministrations she mused, “I seem to be out of body looking on in wonder and amazement at the Emily Chandler of forty years ago.” None the less, she ended her letter by noting, “There is another side to this life. Some things happen which are very amusing and of which when not so tired and sad as now I will try to write you about.” Almost immediately after Mother Lippincott’s death in 1895 a plan was developed by the John Wood Post, No. 47, Woman’s Relief Corp of Quincy, to erect a “handsome stone cottage” on the grounds, dedicated to the memory of the woman who had ministered so selflessly to the home residents. Committees were appointed to mount a subscription drive, and the residents of the home were invited to contribute. The cottage was foreseen as a “temporary resting and stopping place … for visiting women,” a need that had been recognized since the opening of the men-only institution in 1887. Eventually, based on the perceived immediate needs of the home, it was decided that rather than a cottage, “Lippincott Memorial Assembly Hall” would be erected, with a seating capacity to accommodate all the members of the Home for religious services, lectures and entertainments. For many years, this building, located on the old parade grounds northwest of the Home headquarters, was a well-used concert and lecture hall, described in 1919 as “the center of the social and religious life of the Home.” On January 17, 1905, a fire broke out in the Hall while a motion picture was being shown. The fire, which was apparently started by the open flame used to illuminate the film, quickly jumped to the bunting which decorated the dress circle. Fortunately, in order to avoid a panic, building manager James Green quickly turned on the electric lights, and M.J. Landrum, a “home entertainer,” led the audience in singing “Marching Through Georgia” until the flame was extinguished. A second, more disastrous fire in 1938 so damaged the building that it was eventually torn down and replaced with the second Lippincott Hall, also dedicated to the memory of Charles and Emily Lippincott, whose later lives had been dedicated to the veteran residents for whom they cared so much. Sources Elliott, General Issac M. 1902. History of the Thirty-Third Regiment Illinois Veteran Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War, 22nd August, 1861, to 7th December 1864 Gibson City, IL: The [Regiment] Association. First and Second Biennial Reports of the Board of Trustees and Officers of the Illinois Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home at Quincy. 1886, 1888. Springfield, IL: Springfield Printing Co., State Printers. “A Handsome Stone Cottage.” Quincy Daily Journal, Aug 5, 1896. Lippincott, Emily. 1890. unpublished letter, dated “Jan 14, 1890 Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home, Quincy, Ill.” photocopy, in the collections of the McLean County Museum of History, Bloomington, Illinois. SC 3138 Lippincott Family. “Panic in Home Hall.” Quincy Daily Journal, Jan. 18, 1905. Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Illinois, Vol. II, 1861-1865. Register of Enlisted Men from 18th to 35th Regiments. 1900. Springfield, Ill: Phillips Bros., State Printers. Snyder, J.F. 1907. Dr. Charles Ellet Lippincott. In Historical Sketches, Virginia Ill. by J.N. Gridley. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ilmaga/cass/1907bios/lippincott.html Wilcox, David F. 1919. Quincy and Adams County, History and Representative Men. Chicago, New York: The Lewis Publishing Company.
Soon after World War II ended in 1945, Russia—which had fought alongside American allies—became a Communist state under the rule of Premier Joseph Stalin. Fears about Communism’s domination over the world, with its atheism and government socialism, escalated and a “Cold War” began with two opposing ideologies: United States’ democracy and capitalism and the Soviet Union’s Communism clashing and intimidating each other with threats of “Hot” nuclear war. In 1938, the U.S. government formed a House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to investigate possible Communist ties within the country. This committee convicted Alger Hiss of perjury and sentenced him to five years in prison and blacklisted hundreds in Hollywood and the media. As the Cold War intensified after WWII, HUAC expanded its investigations and became a permanent committee. Then it exploded. At a Lincoln Day speech in 1950 in Wheeling, West Virginia, Joseph McCarthy, the Republican junior senator from Wisconsin, told his audience that he had in his hands the names of 205 known Communists currently working in the State Department. This disclosure made newspaper headlines from coast-to-coast. The 1950s Communist scare began, and people now labeled it “Red”—an allusion to the Soviet flag’s background color. Senator McCarthy became chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations and HUAC’s most outspoken member. While most Quincyans remained silent on this volatile issue, fearful of reprisal or themselves being accused, a few publicly broached their opinions. The local Community Chest, begun in 1936 to raise funds for civic causes, hired John D. Barrow as its campaign adviser. Barrow stated in a speech that Communism within the U.S. posed a grave threat. Nathan Kissell responded in a letter to the Quincy Herald-Whig on November 2, 1952. “Mr. John D. Barrow warns that communism and socialism are widening the gap between employer and employee. Mr. Barrow seems to feel that labor should make up for the deficiencies of the present economic system, in addition to acting as a pack mule for the carrying of thousands of profit-takers who aren’t producing anything.” Other citizens expressed alarms about Communism. Oscar Grow in a letter to the Herald Whig on May 11, 1953, stated: “We have been made literal slaves one-third of our lives to support a collection of foreign derelicts, merely to indulge the fantasies of a gang of deranged internationalists...As for Senator McCarthy, his investigations have been fully vindicated by numerous exposures of disloyalty.” Illinois became a Cold War focal point when its Republican Senator, Everett Dirksen, staunchly defended McCarthy and derided Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson’s 1952 bid for the presidency against sitting President Dwight Eisenhower. Quincy entered this battle in October 1952 when Chicago-based national radio commentator, Paul Harvey, broadcast two shows from the Gem City and spoke to an audience of over 2,000 people, fervently supporting McCarthy’s efforts and calling Stevenson a “pinko”—a liberal leaning socialist. Senator McCarthy aimed his venom not only against Communists but also gay people, whom the American Psychiatric Association deemed mentally ill and a threat to the family’s sanctity. This became known as the “Lavender Campaign,” and several thousand government and private employees lost their jobs and reputations. The Herald Whig—which had taken the sobriquet “The Big Paper of the Big Valley—evenhandedly reported on McCarthy and the HUAC hearings and in a May 8, 1950, local editorial stated: “Senator McCarthy has turned up not a single disloyal person in the State Department. His total to date has been the discovery of a large number of perverts who were summary dismissed.” McCarthy’s hostile and grandstanding tactics, along with his lack of evidence, began casting doubts on his credibility when the Korean War erupted. In the wake of that war fought against the spread of Communism, Congress added the words “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. Long before that change, though, the Knights of Columbus, including Quincy’s local Council # 583, included “Under God” in its reciting of the Pledge at lodge meetings. After McCarthy accused the Army of harboring Communists within its ranks, major television networks began broadcasting the HUAC hearings. From April to June 1954, millions of Americans watched as the junior senator from Wisconsin badgered and harassed military personnel. Finally President Eisenhower and the public had had enough. On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted 67 to 22 to censure McCarthy for “conduct that tries to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrespect.” Senator Dirksen voted against this measure and stayed loyal to his fellow Republican senator. Quincy Mayor Leo Lenane applauded the Senate’s ruling and denounced Dirksen’s vote. The Cold War continued, though, with suspicions provoked by these hearings now popularized in the media. Quincy television Channel 10 broadcast “I Led Three Lives” about Communists in everyday American life and the Belasco and Orpheum Theaters showed the movie “The Woman on Pier 13,” originally titled “I Married A Communist” to standing-room only audiences. The Free Public Library banned some books, including “Johnny Got His Gun” by avowed Communist Dalton Trumbo and George Orwell’s novel 1984. The rabidly anti-Communist organization John Birch Society formed a local chapter and started an American Opinion Library at 911 Jersey Street. Robert Awerkamp, a Quincy native and Republican alderman, headed the group. The Quincy John Birch Society had about 100 active members and sponsored the program “Stand Up For Freedom” on WGEM TV. This Society led efforts to ban fluoridation in local water supplies as a possible Communist ploy to pacify citizens and make them more pliable to indoctrination. Awerkamp remained the sole member of the Quincy City Council to vote against mental health funding. Being a Communist, though, has never been illegal in U.S. history, and in 1972 the American Communist Party placed Gus Hall’s name on the presidential ballot. Adams County citizens could now vote Communistic. That same year James Bond movies played to sold-out audiences in Quincy and TV programs like “I Spy” and “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” topped local ratings and stoked suspicions of Communist infiltration in American life. Sources “Birch Society Blames War on Administration.” Quincy Herald-Whig, Nov. 10, 1973, 8. “Fast Getting Nowhere.” Quincy Herald-Whig, May 8, 1950, 6. Giblin, James Cross. The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy. New York: Clarion Books, 1st Ed., 2009. Griffin, G. Edward. “This is The John Birch Society.” Filmed Dec. 17, 1969. YouTube. 1:51:17. jbs.org. “John Birch Society.” Quincy Herald-Whig, May 29, 1966, 8. “Late News.” Quincy Herald-Whig, Oct. 28, 1952, 1. “Millions Hear Paul Harvey.” Quincy Herald-Whig, Oct. 27, 1952, 2. Nichols, David A. Ike and McCarthy: Dwight Eisenhower’s Secret Campaign Against Joseph McCarthy. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2017, 233-50. Remini, Robert V. A Short History of the United States. New York: Harper Collins, 2005, 254-55, 257. “The Soap Box on the Square.” Quincy Herald-Whig, Nov.2, 1952, 16. “The Soap Box on the Square.” Quincy Herald-Whig, March 11, 1953, 10. Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States. New York: Harper Collins, 2003, 428, 431. he body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.
Cora Agnes Benneson, a celebrated woman in her native Quincy and beyond, was born in 1851 to Robert and Electa Ann (Park) Benneson. She was educated and taught in the community until her early 20s. Benneson went on to navigate a "life without precedents." In 1888 after receiving several degrees and traveling the world she moved permanently to the Boston area, where she was one of the first female lawyers. Anticipating a visit by Benneson a 1909 Quincy Journal headline states, "The Gem City is Proud of Her Distinguished Daughter." Throughout her life Benneson received accolades as a scholar, lawyer, reformer, and lecturer. Benneson grew up with three older sisters, Alice, Annie, and Caroline, at 241 Jersey Street on the bluffs of the Mississippi River. Their landscaped residence allowed a view of fourteen miles of the river and bird's eye view of the passing steamers. The Benneson girls were schooled by their mother who had been a teacher in New England. Cora was an enthusiastic reader and at 12 read and wrote Latin. Benneson attended the Quincy Academy and graduated with a high school diploma when she was 15. She enrolled in the Quincy Female Seminary, established in the fall of 1867, and graduated on June 26, 1869. Benneson stayed on as an instructor of English from 1869 to 1872. She was an early member of Friends in Council, a women's study group, and a member of the Unitarian Church where she founded the original Unity Club, a forum on leading topics of the day. Benneson's parents were community leaders in politics and education. Robert Benneson served as an alderman for several years, mayor from 1859-60, and a member of the School Board for 16 years (1870-1886). Benneson was initially in the lumber business and later built what was known as the Benneson Block on the south side of Maine Street between Fifth and Sixth streets. The Bennesons helped to establish the Unitarian church in Illinois. Entertaining notable men who lectured in the Midwest, Benneson dinner guests included Ralph Waldo Emerson who it is said made the "greatest impact upon Benneson's developing mind." In 1875 Benneson enrolled at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor shortly after women were accepted. She completed the four-year course of study in three and was the first woman editor of the university newspaper, The Chronicle. She then applied to law school at Harvard but was denied because Harvard did not have "suitable provision for receiving women." She attended the law school at the University of Michigan and was one of two women in her law class of 175. With her law degree obtained in 1880 she stayed on to receive a master's degree in jurisprudence and German. Benneson was admitted to the Michigan bar in March 1880 and Illinois bar in June 1880. To broaden her knowledge Bennesen toured foreign cultures to see their legal systems. She also made of point of looking into the treatment of women and the opportunities available for them in foreign countries. On Oct. 2, 1883, the Philadelphia Chronicle-Herald noted that "Miss Cora Benneson, the Quincy, Illinois female lawyer, is making a tour around the world." Traveling with a Miss White of Boston, the two sailed to Hong Kong. With some risk they toured Canton, China with Cora reporting that war with France seemed "imminent." From there the journey took them to Japan and on to India, Burma, Abyssinia, Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, Norway, Russia, Italy, France and England. In the fall of 1885 they returned to the states sailing from Queenstown, Ireland. As she circumnavigated the globe, Benneson documented her exotic and notable experiences. Her father, Robert, made a practice of taking her letters to the children of the grammar division of Jefferson School. A Quincy Daily Journal story of March 14, 1884 indicates the students anxiously followed her travel experiences. Once back in Quincy those stories were relayed in lecture series throughout 1886 and 1887. In 1886, she was briefly the law editor of the Law Reporter of West Publishing. From the fall of 1887 to spring of 1888 Benneson was a fellow in history at Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia and studied administration under future President Woodrow Wilson. Fourteen years after leaving law school Benneson opened her law practice. The Boston Globe announced in December 1894 that Benneson was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts and established her law practice in her home at 4 Mason Street in Cambridge, now on the Harvard campus. The Quincy Morning Whig reported that a number of Quincy people were present to witness the proceedings. When Benneson moved to the Boston area, she attended Radcliffe College earning a second master’s degree in 1902. Benneson worked with suffrage leaders throughout her life. Benneson was a good friend of suffragist Lucy Stone, a prominent organizer for the rights of women. Benneson spoke about the new roles of women in both the private and public spheres. On a visit to Quincy in 1895 she spoke to the Women's Council as a proponent for full suffrage. The Boston Globe on Sunday, Feb. 17, 1895, reported that Benneson spoke at a symposium titled, "The Coming Woman." The New York Times of June 27, 1900, reported that Cora Benneson, Massachusetts attorney and special commissioner, presented a paper, "The Power of Our Courts to Interpret the Constitution," at the 49th general session of the American Association for the Advancement of Science to the Social Economic Group at Columbia University. Benneson studied questions concerning government and wrote on topics such as "Executive Discretion in the United States" and "Federal Guarantees for Maintaining Republican Government in the States." Recognized by the Association, she was made a fellow in 1899. Benneson frequently authored articles on law, education, politics and social science. At the age of 68, Benneson was prepared to undertake a new direction in life as a civics teacher under a program for the Americanization of immigrants. She had just received her Massachusetts certification when she died in her home in Cambridge on June 8, 1919. Her cremated remains arrived in Quincy on June 16 and her ashes are buried with the family in the Benneson lot at Woodland Cemetery. Sources "Admitted to the Boston Bar." Quincy Morning Whig, December 15, 1894. Bar none: 125 years of women lawyers in Illinois. Chicago: Chicago Bar Association Alliance for Women, 1998. "Brilliant Woman Dies: Miss Cora Benneson was Native of Quincy." Quincy Daily Herald, June 12, 1919. "December Institute." Quincy Daily Whig, December 13, 1885. "Miss Bennesons's Bension: She Gives Greeting and Farewell to Her Quincy Friends." Quincy Herald, June 15, 1895. "Miss Benneson's Conversation." Quincy Whig, February 16, 1886. "Miss Cora A. Benneson Admitted to Practice in Massachusetts." Quincy Herald, December 14, 1894. Nazzal, James A. "Verite sans peur: Cora Agnes Benneson, A First-Wave Feminist of Illinois." Journal of the State Historical Society, Vol. 93, No. 3 (Autumn 2000). "Personal." Quincy Herald, June 10, 1883. "Personal." Quincy Herald, October 2, 1883. "Quincy Female Seminary." Quincy Whig, June 19, 1869. "Scientists in Conference." New York Times, June 27, 1990. Trueblood, Mary Esther. "Cora Agnes Benneson." Representative Women of New England. Boston: George H. Ellis Co., 1904. "Urn Containing Ashes of Woman Has Arrived." Quincy Daily Journal, June 16, 1919.