McLean County, Illinois
McLean County is the largest county by land area in the U. S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 169,572, its county seat is Bloomington. McLean County is included in the Bloomington -- IL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Locally, the second syllable of McLean is pronounced with a'long a' sound, not with a'long e' sound. McLean County was formed late in 1830 out of Tazewell County, it was named for John McLean, United States Senator for Illinois, who died in 1830. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,186 square miles, of which 1,183 square miles is land and 2.9 square miles is water. It third-largest by total area. McLean County is larger than the land area of Rhode Island. In recent years, average temperatures in the county seat of Bloomington have ranged from a low of 14 °F in January to a high of 86 °F in July, although a record low of −23 °F was recorded in January 1985 and a record high of 103 °F was recorded in June 1988. Average monthly precipitation ranged from 1.71 inches in February to 4.52 inches in May.
As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 169,572 people, 65,104 households, 40,124 families residing in the county. The population density was 143.3 inhabitants per square mile. There were 69,656 housing units at an average density of 58.9 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 84.3% white, 7.3% black or African American, 4.3% Asian, 0.2% American Indian, 1.5% from other races, 2.3% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 4.4% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 31.2% were German, 15.4% were Irish, 11.4% were American, 11.0% were English. Of the 65,104 households, 31.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.5% were married couples living together, 9.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 38.4% were non-families, 28.1% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.02. The median age was 32.1 years. The median income for a household in the county was $57,642 and the median income for a family was $77,093.
Males had a median income of $52,271 versus $39,685 for females. The per capita income for the county was $28,167. About 6.2% of families and 12.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.4% of those under age 18 and 5.5% of those age 65 or over. Bloomington Chenoa El Paso Le Roy Lexington Normal Twin Grove McLean County is divided into these townships: Allin Benjaminville Kumler McLean County has a twenty-member board representing ten districts within the county. District 1, District 2, District 3 encompass all of the county outside of Bloomington and Normal. Districts 4, 5, 6 are within the town limits of Normal, districts 7, 8, 9, 10 are within Bloomington city limits. McLean is a Republican-leaning county; the only Democrats to gain an absolute majority of the county’s vote since the Civil War have been Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 and 1936 and Lyndon Johnson by a mere 420 votes out of over 38,000 total in 1964. Illinois-bred Barack Obama in 2008 and Woodrow Wilson in 1912 both carried the county by narrow margins with pluralities of the vote.
McLean has trended Democratic, sufficiently so that Hillary Clinton in 2016 lost the county by just 1.3 percent despite failing to win the Presidency. Pokey LaFarge, American roots musician and songwriter Bonnie Lou, recording artist and television celebrity National Register of Historic Places listings in McLean County, Illinois McLean County Government Web Site McLean County Divorce Map of McLean Co. showing political subdivisions
John George Nicolay
John George Nicolay was a German-born American who served as private secretary to US President Abraham Lincoln and co-authored a biography of the 16th President. He was a member of the German branch of the Nicolay family, he was born Johann Georg Nicolai in Rhenish Bavaria. In 1838, he attended school in Cincinnati, he moved to Illinois, where he edited the Pike County Free Press at Pittsfield, became a political power in the state. He became assistant to the secretary of state of Illinois. While in this position, he became his devoted adherent. In 1861, Lincoln appointed Nicolay as his private secretary, the first official act of his new administration. Nicolay served in this capacity until Lincoln's death in 1865. Shortly before his assassination, Lincoln appointed Nicolay to a diplomatic post in France. After the death of the President, Nicolay became United States Consul at France. For some time after his return to the United States, he edited the Chicago Republican, he was Marshal of the United States Supreme Court.
In 1881, Nicolay wrote The Outbreak of the Rebellion. Nicolay and John Hay, who had worked alongside Nicolay as assistant secretary to Lincoln, collaborated on the official biography of the 16th President, it appeared in The Century Magazine serially from 1886 to 1890 and was issued in book form as ten volumes, together with the two-volume Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln. The resulting biography is a definitive resource on his times. Nicolay and Hay edited Lincoln's Works in twelve volumes. Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln was published by Helen Nicolay in 1912. Historian Joshua M. Zeitz argues, "Above all and Hay created a master narrative whose influence would have and flow over the years but that continues to command serious scrutiny and engagement." Nicolay assured Robert Todd Lincoln: we hold that your father was something more than a mere make-weight in the cabinet.... We want to show that he formed a cabinet of strong and great men—rarely equaled in any historical era—and that he held, controlled and dismissed not only them but other high officers civilian and military, at will, with perfect knowledge of men.
Nicolay was a founding member of the Literary Society of Washington in 1874, according to a book about the society written by his daughter, Helen Nicolay. Both Nicolay and Hay were members of long standing in the society. Poor health had forced Nicolay to resign as Marshal of the Supreme Court, he suffered from a wide range of ailments in his final years, he lived with his spinster daughter, Helen Nicolay, at her home at 212 B Street SE in Washington, D. C, he died at home of unspecified causes on September 26, 1901. He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in the city. In the 1992 documentary Lincoln, the German-born Nicolay is voiced by the Austrian-born actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the 1988 NBC mini-series Lincoln based on Gore Vidal's book, Nicolay is portrayed by actor Richard Travis. In the 2012 film Lincoln, Nicolay is portrayed by Jeremy Strong. In the 2017 documentary film The Gettysburg Address, Nicolay is portrayed by actor William Fichtner. Nicolay, John Geeorge. Abraham Lincoln: a history, Vol I.
New York: The Century Co.——. Abraham Lincoln: a history, Vol II. New York: The Century Co.——. Abraham Lincoln: a history, Vol III. New York: The Century Co.——. Abraham Lincoln: a history, Vol IV. New York: The Century Co.——. Abraham Lincoln: a history, Vol V. New York: The Century Co.——. Abraham Lincoln: a history, Vol VI. New York: The Century Co.——. Abraham Lincoln: a history, Vol VII. New York: The Century Co.——. Abraham Lincoln: a history, Vol VIII. New York: The Century Co.——. Abraham Lincoln: a history, Vol IX. New York: The Century Co.——. Abraham Lincoln: a history, Vol X. New York: The Century Co. Campaigns of the Civil War, Volume 1: The Outbreak of Rebellion Joshua Zeitz. Lincoln's Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, the War for Lincoln's Image. Penguin. Zeitz, Joshua. "Lincoln's Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay and the War For Lincoln's Image". Smithsonian. 44. Keller, Marisa. "Oak Hill Cemetery Marks 150th Anniversary". Washington History: 75–76. Allen Carden and Thomas J. Ebert. John George Nicolay: the Man in Lincoln's shadow.
University of Tennessee. Helen Nicolay. Lincoln's Secretary: a biography of John George Nicolay. Longman's Green. Works by Helen Nicolay at Project Gutenberg Works by John George Nicolay at Project Gutenberg Works by or about John George Nicolay at Internet Archive Works by or about Helen Nicolay at Internet Archive Works by John George Nicolay at LibriVox Mr. Lincoln's White House: John G. Nicholay Truman Praises "Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln" by John G. Nicolay and John Hay Shapell Manuscript Foundation Mr. Lincoln and Friends: John G. Nicholay John George Nicolay at Find a Grave
Robert Todd Lincoln
Robert Todd Lincoln was an American politician and businessman. Lincoln was the first son of Mary Todd Lincoln, he was born in Springfield and graduated from Harvard College before serving on the staff of Ulysses S. Grant as a captain in the Union Army in the closing days of the American Civil War. After the war Lincoln married Mary Eunice Harlan, they had three children together. Following completion of law school in Chicago, he built a successful law practice, became wealthy representing corporate clients. Active in Republican politics, a tangible symbol of his father's legacy, Robert Lincoln was spoken of as a possible candidate for office, including the presidency, but never took steps to mount a campaign; the one office to which he was elected was town supervisor of South Chicago, which he held from 1876 to 1877. Lincoln accepted appointments as secretary of war in the administration of James A. Garfield, continuing under Chester A. Arthur, as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom in the Benjamin Harrison administration.
Lincoln served as general counsel of the Pullman Palace Car Company, after founder George Pullman died in 1897, Lincoln became the company's president. After retiring from this position in 1911, Lincoln served as chairman of the board until 1922. In Lincoln's years he resided at homes in Washington, D. C. and Manchester, Vermont. In 1922, he took part in the dedication ceremonies for the Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln died at Hildene on July 26, 1926, six days before his 83rd birthday, was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Robert Lincoln was born in Springfield, Illinois, on August 1, 1843, to Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln, he had three younger brothers, Edward Baker Lincoln, William Wallace Lincoln, Thomas "Tad" Lincoln. By the time Lincoln was born, his father had become a well-known member of the Whig political party and had served as a member of the state legislature for four terms. Robert Lincoln was named after his maternal grandfather. By the time his father became president of the United States, Lincoln was the only one of the president's three children to be on his own.
He took the Harvard College entrance examination in 1859, but failed fifteen out of the sixteen subjects. He was enrolled at Phillips Exeter Academy to further prepare for attending college, he graduated in 1860. Admitted to Harvard College, he graduated in 1864, was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club and the Delta Kappa Epsilon. Morris states after gaining admission to Harvard, Robert Lincoln emerged from college an "unsympathetic bore."After graduating from Harvard, Lincoln enrolled at Harvard Law School. When he expressed interest in the law school to his father, President Lincoln made reference to his own pleasant, but informal legal training by stating "If you do, you should learn more than I did, but you will never have so good a time." Robert Lincoln attended Harvard Law School from September 1864 to January 1865, left in order to join the Union Army. In 1893, Harvard awarded Lincoln the honorary degree of LL. D. Much to the embarrassment of the president, Mary Todd Lincoln prevented Robert Lincoln from joining the Army until shortly before the war's conclusion.
"We have lost one son, his loss is as much as I can bear, without being called upon to make another sacrifice," Mary Todd Lincoln insisted to President Lincoln. President Lincoln argued "our son is not more dear to us than the sons of other people are to their mothers." However, Mary Todd Lincoln persisted by stating that she could not "bear to have Robert exposed to danger." In January 1865, the First Lady yielded and President Lincoln wrote Ulysses S. Grant, asking if Robert could be placed on his staff. On February 11, 1865, he was commissioned as an assistant adjutant with the rank of captain and served in the last weeks of the American Civil War as part of General Ulysses S. Grant's immediate staff, a position which reduced the likelihood that he would be involved in actual combat, he was present at Appomattox. He resigned his commission on June 12, 1865, returned to civilian life. Lincoln had a distant relationship with his father, in part because, during his formative years, Abraham Lincoln spent months on the judicial circuit.
Their relationship was similar to the one Abraham Lincoln had with his own father. Lincoln recalled, "During my childhood and early youth he was constantly away from home, attending court or making political speeches." Robert would say his most vivid image of his father was of packing saddlebags to prepare for his travels through Illinois. Abraham Lincoln was proud of Robert and thought him bright, but something of a competitor. An acquaintance purportedly said, "he guessed Bob would not do better than he had." The two lacked the strong bond Lincoln had with his other sons Willie and Tad, but Robert admired his father and wept at his deathbed. On the night of his father's death, Robert had turned down an invitation to accompany his parents to Ford's Theatre, citing fatigue after spending much of his recent time in a covered wagon at the battlefront. On April 25, 1865, Robert Lincoln wrote President Andrew Johnson requesting that he and his family be allowed to stay for two and a half weeks because his mother had told him that "she can not be ready to leave here."
Lincoln acknowledged that he was aware of the "great inconvenience" that Johnson had since becoming president of the United States only a short time earlier. Foll
Joseph Medill
Joseph Medill was a Canadian-American newspaper editor and Republican party politician. He was co-owner and managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, was Mayor of Chicago after the great fire of 1871. Joseph Medill was born April 6, 1823, in Saint John, New Brunswick, British North America to a Scots-Irish family, he read law in Ohio and was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1846. Medill married Katherine "Kitty" Patrick on September 2, 1852, they had three daughters, Katherine and Josephine. In 1853, Medill and Edwin Cowles started a newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1854, the Tribune's part-owner, Captain J. D. Webster, asked Medill to become the paper's managing editor. Medill was further encouraged to come to Chicago by Dr. Charles H. Ray of Galena and editor Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune. In 1855, Medill sold his interest in the Leader to Cowles, bought the Tribune in partnership with Dr. Ray and Cowles' brother Alfred. Under Medill's management, the Tribune flourished, becoming one of the largest newspapers in Chicago.
Medill served as its managing editor until 1864. At that time Medill left day-to-day operations of the Tribune for political activities, but White clashed with Medill over the presidential election of 1872. So, in 1873 Medill bought additional equity from Cowles and from White, becoming majority owner. In 1874, he replaced White as editor-in-chief. Medill served as editor-in-chief until his death. Under Medill, the Tribune became the leading Republican newspaper in Chicago. Medill was anti-slavery, supporting both the Free-Soil cause and Abolitionism. Medill was a major supporter of Abraham Lincoln in the 1850s. Medill and the Tribune were instrumental in Lincoln's presidential nomination, were supportive of the Union cause during the American Civil War; the Tribune's chief adversary through this period was the Chicago Times, which supported the Democrats. In 1864, Medill left the Tribune editorship for political activity, which occupied him for the next ten years, he was appointed by President Grant to the first Civil Service Commission.
In 1870, he was elected as a delegate to the Illinois Constitutional convention. In 1871, after the Great Chicago Fire, Medill was elected mayor of Chicago as candidate of the temporary "Fireproof" party, serving for two years; as mayor, Medill gained more power for the mayor's office, created Chicago's first public library, enforced blue laws, reformed the police and fire departments. But the stress of the job impaired his health. In August 1873, he appointed Lester L. Bond as Acting Mayor for the remaining 3½ months of his term, went to Europe on a convalescent tour. Medill was a strong Republican loyalist who supported President Grant for re-election in 1872; the breach with White came because White supported the breakaway Liberal Republicans, reformists who nominated Horace Greeley for president. It was at this time that Medill broke with Greeley. During World War II, the Liberty ship SS Joseph M. Medill was built in Panama City and named in his honor; the Medill School of Journalism and Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University is named in his honor.
The tree omits Medill's third daughter, who died in 1892. McKinney, M; the Magnificent Medills Anderson, Jeffrey Justin. "Joseph Medill:. Roosevelt University, 2011. Tebbel, John William. An American dynasty: the story of the McCormicks and Pattersons (Greenwood Pub Group, 1968 "Medill, Joseph". New International Encyclopedia. 1905. "Medill, Joseph". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900
Perpetual Union
The Perpetual Union is a feature of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, which established the United States of America as a national entity. Under modern American constitutional law, this concept means that U. S. states are not permitted to overthrow the U. S. Constitution and withdraw from the Union; the concept of a Union of the American States originated during the 1770s as the struggle for independence unfolded. In his first inaugural address on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln stated: The Union is much older than the Constitution, it was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776, it was further matured, the faith of all the thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was to form a more perfect Union. A significant step was taken on June 12, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress approved the drafting of the Articles of Confederation, following a similar approval to draft the Declaration of Independence on June 11.
The purpose of the former document was not only to define the relationship among the new states but to stipulate the permanent nature of the new union. Accordingly, Article XIII states that the Union "shall be perpetual". While the process to ratify the Articles began in 1777, the Union only became a legal entity in 1781 when all states had ratified the agreement; the Second Continental Congress approved the Articles for ratification by the sovereign States on November 15, 1777, which occurred during the period from July 1778 to March 1781. The 13th ratification by Maryland was delayed for several years due to conflict of interest with some other states, including the western land claims of Virginia. After Virginia passed a law on January 2, 1781 relinquishing the claims, the path forward was cleared. On February 2, 1781, the Maryland state legislature in Annapolis passed the Act to ratify and on March 1, 1781 the Maryland delegates to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia formally signed the agreement.
Maryland's final ratification of the Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union established the requisite unanimous consent for the legal creation of the United States of America. The concept of a perpetual union appeared earlier in European political thought. In 1532, Francis I of France signed the Treaty of Perpetual Union, which pledged the freedom and privileges of the Duchy of Brittany within the Kingdom of France. In 1713, Charles de Saint-Pierre presented a plan "A project for settling an everlasting peace in Europe," where in it is stated in Article 1: There shall be from this day following a Society, a permanent and perpetual Union, between the Sovereigns subscribed." By itself the word perpetual appears much earlier in the history of political thought. In January 44 B. C. Denarii coins were struck with the image of Julius Caesar and the Latin inscription "Caesar Dic Perpetuo". From the start the Union has carried with it importance in the national affairs. There was a sense of urgency in completing the legal Union during the American Revolutionary War.
Maryland's ratification act stated, "t hath been said that the common enemy is encouraged by this State not acceding to the Confederation, to hope that the union of the sister states may be dissolved" The nature of the Union was hotly debated during a period lasting from the 1830s through the American Civil War. During the American Civil War, the U. S. was called "the Union". When the United States Constitution replaced the Articles, nothing in it expressly stated that the Union is perpetual. After the Civil War, fought by the U. S. to prevent eleven of the southern slave states from leaving the Union, some still questioned whether any such inviolability survived after the U. S. Constitution replaced the Articles; this uncertainty stems from the fact that the Constitution, technically an amendment of the perpetual Articles, was not ratified unanimously before going into effect, as required by the Articles. The United States Supreme Court ruled on the issue in the 1869 White case. In that case, the court ruled that the drafters intended the perpetuity of the Union to survive: By, the Union was solemnly declared to "be perpetual."
And when these Articles were found to be inadequate to the exigencies of the country, the Constitution was ordained "to form a more perfect Union." It is difficult to convey the idea of indissoluble unity more than by these words. What can be indissoluble if a perpetual Union, made more perfect, is not? During the ratification of the Constitution, ratifications by New York and Rhode Island included language that reserved the right of those states to exit the U. S. federal system if they felt "harmed" by the arrangement. In Virginia's ratification the reservation is stated thus. However, in a 1788 letter to Alexander Hamilton, James Madison disapproved of the language, stated in regards to it that: My opinion is that a reservation of a right to withdraw... is a conditional ratification... Compacts must be reciprocal... The Constitution requires an adoption in toto, for ever, it has been so adopted by the other States. Hamilton and John Jay agreed with Madiso
McClure's
McClure's or McClure's Magazine was an American illustrated monthly periodical popular at the turn of the 20th century. The magazine is credited with having started the tradition of muckraking journalism, helped direct the moral compass of the day; the publishing company got into the film business with McClure Pictures. Founded by S. S. McClure and John Sanborn Phillips, classmates at Knox College, in June 1893. Phillips put up the $7,300 needed to launch the magazine; the magazine featured both political and literary content, publishing serialized novels-in-progress, a chapter at a time. In this way, McClure's published such writers as Willa Cather, Arthur Conan Doyle, Herminie T. Kavanagh, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Lincoln Steffens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain. At the beginning of the 20th century, its major competitors included Collier's and the Saturday Evening Post. Examples of its work include Ida Tarbell's series in 1902 exposing the monopoly abuses of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company, Ray Stannard Baker's earlier look at the United States Steel Corporation, which focused the public eye on the conduct of corporations.
From January 1907 to June 1908, McClure's published the first detailed history of Christian Science and the story of its founder, Mary Baker Eddy in 14 installments. The articles were published in book form as The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science. In 1906, the writing staff formed The American Magazine. McClure's went into debt. S. S. McClure was forced to sell the magazine to creditors in 1911, it was re-styled as a women's magazine and ran inconsistently in this format, with publication from October 1921 to February 1922, September 1924 and April 1925, February to May 1926. The issues, from July 1928 until March 1929, were published under the name New McClure's Magazine; the last issue was in March 1929. In 1916 the magazine published an Automobile Year Book with the specifications and pictures of over 100 different major producers of passenger and commercial vehicles; the Seven Deadly Sins, a series The Fighting Roosevelts, renamed Our Teddy after the death Teddy Roosevelt Mother Ray Stannard Baker Willa Cather Lincoln Steffens Ida Tarbell William Allen White J. M. Barrie Stephen Crane Arthur Conan Doyle Burton J. Hendrick Herminie T. Kavanagh Rudyard Kipling Bruno Lessing Jack London Frank Norris Emmeline Pankhurst Marjorie Pickthall During the 1900s and 1910s the Anglo-Canadian poet, story writer and essayist was a regular contributor.
Robert Louis Stevenson Mark Twain "The Staff Breakup of McClure's Magazine" Advertisements in McClure's Magazine 1920s McClure's Magazine at Project Gutenberg, filed under Various McClure's Magazine at Internet Archive, misc. Volumes McClure's Magazine at misc. Volumes McClure's Magazine at misc. Volumes McClure’s Magazine editions up to 1913 McClure's Magazine at The Modernist Journals Project: 117 cover-to-cover, searchable issues from February 1900 through December 1910 that include original wrappers, contents pages, advertising. PDFs of these issues may be downloaded for free from the MJP website
