1.
National Register of Historic Places
–
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
2.
Rock Island Arsenal
–
The Rock Island Arsenal comprises 946 acres, located on Arsenal Island, originally known as Rock Island, on the Mississippi River between the cities of Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illinois. It lies within the state of Illinois and it is home of First Army headquarters. The island was established as a government site in 1816. It is now the largest government-owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in the United States and it has manufactured military equipment and ordnance since the 1880s. In 1919–1920 one hundred of the Anglo-American or Liberty Mark VIII tanks were manufactured and it is designated as a National Historic Landmark. Established as both an arsenal and a center for the manufacture of leather accoutrements and field gear, today it provides manufacturing, logistics, the Arsenal is the only active U. S. Some of the Arsenals most successful products include the M198 and M119 towed howitzers, about 250 military personnel and 6,000 civilians work there. The 2000 census population was 145, from the autobiography of Black Hawk, When we arrived we found that the troops had come to build a fort on Rock Island. It was our garden, like the people have near their big villages. The island facilities were converted and built in 1863, they were not yet completed in December of that year, the first prisoners were 468 Confederates captured in battles at Chattanooga, Tennessee. That month more than 5,000 Confederates would swell the population of Rock Island military prison and they were kept in 84 barracks, each holding around 100 prisoners. A total of 41 Confederate prisoners successfully escaped during the prison’s operation, most died from disease, since sanitation was primitive as in all army encampments, and exposure to heat and humidity during the summers and freezing temperatures during winters. In 1864, deadly smallpox epidemics raged through the prison, the prison camp operated from December 1863 until July 1865, when the last prisoners were freed. After the war, the facility was completely destroyed. During its two years in operation, the camp housed a total of more than 12,400 Confederates. Following the war, the government retained ownership of Arsenal Island and developed it for use as an arsenal and ordnance manufacturing center. The Rock Island Arsenal Museum was established on July 4,1905 and it is the second-oldest US Army Museum in the US after the West Point Museum. The museum has been closed twice, during World War I and World War II, exhibits interpret the history of Rock Island Arsenal and the Union prison camp during the American Civil War, and the sites role as a military industrial facility
3.
Moline, Illinois
–
Moline is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 43,977 in 2010, it is the largest city in Rock Island County, Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. The Quad Cities has an estimate of 381,342. The city is the ninth-most populated city in Illinois outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area. S, Quad City International Airport, Niabi Zoo, Black Hawk College, and the Quad Cities campus of Western Illinois University-Quad Cities. Moline is a hub for the Illinois Quad Cities, as South Park Mall. In the mid-1990s, the city undertook major efforts to revitalize its central business district, today, Molines downtown again serves as one of the civic and recreational hubs of the Quad Cities, many events take place at the 12, 000-seat iWireless Center and at John Deere Commons. Downtown Moline features hotels such as Radisson and Stoney Creek Inn, and commercial areas such as Bass Street Landing, the city of Moline is nestled beside and on a broad bluff situated between the banks of the Mississippi River and Rock River in Rock Island County, Illinois. The citys highland areas are cut across by many ravines that break up the city into natural neighborhoods. The city is bounded to the east by East Moline and to the west by Rock Island, Moline is located approximately 165 miles west of Chicago and approximately 164 miles northwest of Springfield, Illinois. The area is served by four highways, Interstate 74, Interstate 280, Interstate 80. This airport is the third busiest one in the state of Illinois, following Chicagos OHare International Airport and Midway Airport. According to the 2010 census, the city has an area of 16.66 square miles. Temperatures reach 100 °F only several years per decade, and −20 °F readings are even rarer, the average window for freezing temperatures is October 10 thru April 24, allowing a growing season of 168 days. Snowfall averages 31.6 inches per season, but has ranged as low as 11.1 in in 1901–02 to 69.7 in in 1974–75, on average, measurable snow occurs from November 21 to March 26, and rarely in October. Unlike much of the Midwest, measurable snow has never occurred in May. Indigenous peoples of varying cultures inhabited areas along the river over thousands of years, using it for transportation, water and this tribe saw the land between the Rock and Mississippi rivers as ideal for farming and fishing. In 1832 Chief Black Hawk declared war on the United States, when the war ended later that year, Black Hawk and his people were forced to leave the area and go north, paving the way for more European-American settlers to enter the Mississippi Valley. Sears and a group of associates built a 600-foot stone-and-brush dam across Sylvan Slough, thereby connecting the southern bank of the Mississippi River to what is today called Arsenal Island
4.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
United States National Cemetery System
–
United States national cemetery is a designation for 147 nationally important cemeteries in the United States. A national cemetery is generally a military cemetery containing the graves of U. S. military personnel, veterans and their spouses, there are also state veteran cemeteries. The best known national cemetery is Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, outside Washington, some national cemeteries, especially Arlington, contain the graves of important civilian leaders and other important national figures. Some national cemeteries also contain sections for Confederate soldiers, the Department of the Army maintains two national cemeteries, Arlington National Cemetery and United States Soldiers and Airmens Home National Cemetery. The National Park Service maintains 14 cemeteries associated with historic sites, the American Battle Monuments Commission, an independent agency, maintains 24 American military cemeteries and other memorials outside of the United States. The first national cemeteries were set up after the United States Civil War by Edmund Burke Whitman, congress passed a law to establish and protect national cemeteries in 1867
6.
Rock Island, Illinois
–
Rock Island is a city in and the county seat of Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The original Rock Island, from which the city name is derived, is the largest island on the Mississippi River and it is now called Arsenal Island. The population was 39,018 at the 2010 census, located on the Mississippi River, it is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring Moline, East Moline, and the Iowa cities of Davenport and Bettendorf. The Quad Cities has a population of about 380,000, the city is home to Rock Island Arsenal, the largest government-owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in the US, which employs 6,000 people. Theres a wide variety of housing available in Rock Island including historic homes, new downtown condos, new construction in the heart of the city, the Rock Island-Milan School District, Rockridge School District along with private schools, serve the city. The District has art galleries and theaters, nightclubs and coffee shops, golf courses, parks, a casino, botanical center, marina, historic tours, bike paths, and festivals offer entertainment opportunities. In 2015 Rock Island was ranked the 32nd Best Small City in the based on economic health, affordability. Rock Island made the list of the nations 25 Most Affordable Housing Markets and this area has been a fortuitous place first for settlement and then for steamboat traffic, bridges, and railroads. Various Native American tribes occupied this area for thousands of years before settlement, by the early nineteenth century, it was occupied chiefly by the historic Sauk tribe. Their major village of Saukenuk was located on the side of Rock Island. After the War of 1812, the United States built Fort Armstrong on the island for defensive reasons in 1816, Saukenuk was the birthplace of the Sauk war chief Black Hawk, for whom the Black Hawk War of 1831–1832 was named. Fort Armstrong served as the US militarys headquarters for the war, today the Black Hawk State Historic Site, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, includes much of the site of the original village of Saukenuk. The park includes a museum and a number of hiking trails along the Rock River, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad was founded here in 1851. It was informally known as the Rock Island Line, as part of later nineteenth-century development, two first-class hotels, the Harper House and the Rock Island House were built in town. Rock Island Arsenal has manufactured military equipment and ordnance for the U. S. Army since the 1880s, the railroad was liquidated in bankruptcy in 1980. The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River was built between Arsenal Island and Davenport in 1856, two weeks after the bridge opened, the steamboat Effie Afton collided with the bridge, caught fire, and damaged the bridge. The owner of the Effie Afton sued the company for damages. This test case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court, although the original bridge is long gone, a monument exists on Arsenal Island marking the Illinois side
7.
United States Department of Veterans Affairs
–
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs is a government-run military veteran benefit system with Cabinet-level status. While veterans benefits have been provided since the Revolutionary War, the Veterans Administration itself was founded in 1930, with a total 2009 budget of about $87. In 2012, the budget for VA was $132 billion. VA2014 budget request for 2014 was $152.7 billion and this included $66.5 billion in discretionary resources and $86.1 billion in mandatory funding. The discretionary budget request represented an increase of $2.7 billion, or 4.3 percent and it is administered by the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs. The Continental Congress of 1776 encouraged enlistments during the American Revolutionary War by providing pensions for soldiers who were disabled, direct medical and hospital care given to veterans in the early days of the U. S. was provided by the individual states and communities. In 1811, the first domiciliary and medical facility for veterans was authorized by the federal government, in the 19th century, the nations veterans assistance program was expanded to include benefits and pensions not only for veterans, but also their widows and dependents. After the end of the American Civil War in 1865, many state veterans homes were established, since domiciliary care was available at all state veterans homes, incidental medical and hospital treatment was provided for all injuries and diseases, whether or not of service origin. Indigent and disabled veterans of the Civil War, Indian Wars, Spanish–American War, Congress established a new system of veterans benefits when the United States entered World War I in 1917. Included were programs for disability compensation, insurance for servicepersons and veterans, the establishment of the Veterans Administration came in 1930 when Congress authorized the president to consolidate and coordinate Government activities affecting war veterans. The three component agencies became bureaus within the Veterans Administration, brigadier General Frank T. Hines, who directed the Veterans Bureau for seven years, was named as the first Administrator of Veterans Affairs, a job he held until 1945. The close of World War II resulted in not only a vast increase in the veteran population, in addition, during the late 1940s, the VA had to contend with aging World War I veterans. During that time, the clientele of the VA increased almost fivefold with an addition of nearly 15,000,000 World War II veterans and approximately 4,000,000 World War I veterans. Prior to World War II, in response to scandals at the Veterans Bureau, programs that cared for veterans were centralized in Washington and this centralization caused delays and bottlenecks as the agency tried to serve the World War II veterans. As a result, the VA went through a decentralization process, the World War II GI Bill was signed into law on June 22,1944, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The United States government began serious consolidated services to veterans in 1930, the GI Bill of Rights, which was passed in 1944, had more effect on the American way of life than any other legislation - with the possible exception of the Homestead Act. VA health care facilities provide a spectrum of medical, surgical. The responsibilities and benefits programs of the Veterans Administration grew enormously during the six decades
8.
American Civil War
–
The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
9.
Union Army
–
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War,1861 to 1865. It included the permanent regular army of the United States, which was augmented by numbers of temporary units consisting of volunteers as well as conscripts. The Union Army fought and eventually defeated the Confederate Army during the war, at least two and a half million men served in the Union Army, almost all were volunteers. About 360,000 Union soldiers died from all causes,280,000 were wounded and 200,000 deserted. When the American Civil War began in April 1861, there were only 16,000 men in the U. S. Army, and of these many Southern officers resigned and joined the Confederate army. The U. S. Army consisted of ten regiments of infantry, four of artillery, Lincolns call forced the border states to choose sides, and four seceded, making the Confederacy eleven states strong. The war proved to be longer and more extensive than anyone North or South had expected, the call for volunteers initially was easily met by patriotic Northerners, abolitionists, and even immigrants who enlisted for a steady income and meals. Over 10,000 Germans in New York and Pennsylvania immediately responded to Lincolns call, as more men were needed, however, the number of volunteers fell and both money bounties and forced conscription had to be turned to. Nevertheless, between April 1861 and April 1865, at least two and a million men served in the Union Army, of whom the majority were volunteers. It is a misconception that the South held an advantage because of the percentage of professional officers who resigned to join the Confederate army. At the start of the war, there were 824 graduates of the U. S, Military Academy on the active list, of these,296 resigned or were dismissed, and 184 of those became Confederate officers. Of the approximately 900 West Point graduates who were civilians,400 returned to the Union Army and 99 to the Confederate. Therefore, the ratio of Union to Confederate professional officers was 642 to 283, the South did have the advantage of other military colleges, such as The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute, but they produced fewer officers. The Union Army was composed of numerous organizations, which were generally organized geographically, Military Division A collection of Departments reporting to one commander. Military Divisions were similar to the modern term Theater, and were modeled close to, though not synonymous with. Department An organization that covered a region, including responsibilities for the Federal installations therein. Those named for states usually referred to Southern states that had been occupied and it was more common to name departments for rivers or regions. District A subdivision of a Department, there were also Subdistricts for smaller regions
10.
Oakdale Memorial Gardens
–
Oakdale Memorial Gardens, formerly Oakdale Cemetery, is located in east-central Davenport, Iowa, United States. It contains a section for the burial of pets called the Love of Animals Petland, in 2015, the cemetery was listed as an historic district on the National Register of Historic Places, and as a local landmark on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties. It is also listed on the Network to Freedom, a National Park Service registry for sites associated with the Underground Railroad. The cemetery board hired Captain George F. de la Roche and it was designed as a rural or garden cemetery, but it transitioned to a landscape-lawn cemetery beginning in the late 19th century. It covers more than 78 acres, some of the graves in the cemetery had been transferred from the overcrowded City Cemetery in the west end. The cemetery is located across Eastern Avenue from the former Iowa Soldiers Orphans Home, there are also at least 11 graves of former slaves who escaped to freedom by way of the Underground Railroad, which led to its inclusion on the Network to Freedom. Two special receiving vaults were built in the cemetery, although neither exists anymore, a brick vault was constructed in 1873 for those who died in the winter when the ground was frozen. A wooden vault was built next to it in 1918 because of the number of deaths as a result of the Spanish flu epidemic. The cemetery entrance is marked by a set of monumental gates, construction of the gates was completed in 1896. The cemetery is home to several private mausoleums. William D. Petersen was the son of J. H. C, Petersen who founded a department store in Davenport that has become Von Maur. He also was responsible for the development of the citys riverfront and his mausoleum was designed in the Gothic Revival style by Davenport architects Rudolph Clausen & Walter Kruse. It was inspired by his wife Saras desire for a similar to the ones she saw in Europe. It was constructed by Presbrey Leland of Valhalla, New York in 1921 for $60,000, the exterior is composed of limestone from Greece. The interior features crypts that were carved from Greek marble and a ceramic tile ceiling that was designed and completed by the Guastavino Tile Company of Woburn, joseph W. Bettendorf was an industrialist for whom the city of Bettendorf, Iowa is named. His mausoleum was built in 1923 in the Egyptian Revival style for $150,000 and its exterior is composed of Barre Granite from Vermont. The interior features crypts carved from marble and Egyptian-inspired stained glass windows. The mausoleum built for Johannna Schricker, widow of Davenport lumber magnate Lorenzo Schricker, was designed in the Neoclassical style by Davenport architect John W. Ross and it was built by the Vermont Marble Company in 1899 at a cost of $6,489
