The RHS Facebook page is a rich archive of history-related posts by Carol Flynn, RHS Facebook admin and writer until mid-2025. Carol prolifically wrote a wide variety of meticulously researched local history articles for RHS. She continues to write for the Beverly Review and other media sources with articles particularly focused on local Ridge history.
2024
Lost or Found? – Building #1FOUND – Part 2 on the Iglehart House
This new Facebook series from the Ridge Historical Society, “Lost or Found?”, presents photos of buildings in Morgan Park from an 1889 publication, and invites the reader to comment if the building is still standing, and if so, where it is located.
The first building was correctly “found” and identified by several people as the Charles D. Iglehart House at 11118 S. Artesian Avenue. The previous post discussed the house itself. This post will share some information on the Iglehart family.
Charles Duvall Iglehart was born in 1818 to a farming family in Maryland. His father, Richard, was a slave-owner. The Slave Schedule for the 1850 U.S. Census lists eleven enslaved people living at Richard’s residence, ranging from a 7-year-old boy to a 70-year-old woman.
Charles was also listed as part of that residence, with his wife Marietta and an infant son, Jacob. Marietta died shortly after that census was taken, leaving Charles with a motherless Jacob.
In 1853, Iglehart married Elizabeth A. Haslup in the District of Columbia. They had their first child, son Charles, in 1854.
Andreas’ History of Cook County, published in 1884, reported that “C.D. Iglehart and family came in November 1856, and settled … on what is now known as the corner of One Hundred and Eleventh Street, on Morgan and Western avenues.”
Their second child was a daughter, Mary Ann. Andreas claims she was “the first birth in the immediate vicinity of Morgan Park … in 1857.”
However, Mary Ann is buried in Mt. Greenwood Cemetery, and her date of birth engraved on her gravestone is given as January 16, 1856. This is also mentioned on family trees on Ancestry, and one entry lists her birth occurring out east before they left for Chicago.
If Andreas’ date of November for the Igleharts’ arrival in Cook County is accurate, this means that the claim about being the first (white) child born here cannot be accurate – it is quite possibly just urban folklore. The source of the claim that Andreas makes is not mentioned.
Three more children were born to the Iglehart family on the Ridge. Third was Margaret Ellen, who went by Ellen or Nellie, born in 1858; then Thomas born in 1859; and Elizabeth, or Lizzie, born in 1865. Iglehart’s oldest son Jacob was listed living with the family on the 1870 census.
Charles Iglehart was described as an educated, cultured man who attracted the same type of people as guests in his home. The Iglehart family remained in the Morgan Park community for many years. They are credited with starting the second orchard on the Ridge, around 1857 (William Morgan, son of Thomas Morgan, established the first).
They were among the original subscribers to the Morgan Park Baptist Church, which held its dedication in April of 1874. They also were founders of the Church of the Mediator, sitting empty now at 109th Street and Hoyne Avenue.
Charles Iglehart died in 1886 at the age of 68. His family stayed in the house, and on the 1910 census, Elizabeth Haslup Iglehart was listed as the matron of the house. She died in 1917 and was buried with her husband in Mount Greenwood Cemetery.
The three Iglehart daughters lived in the house in 1920, but left within a few years, moving to other locations on the Ridge. The original farm property, which extended at one time from 111th to 115th Street, from Western to Rockwell, was sold for residential and commercial development. When Western Avenue was regraded, widened, and repaved in 1922, the house was moved a block west, and set on a new foundation. A street was later added, Artesian Avenue.
Mary and Ellen were both art teachers, and neither married. Ellen became famous for her work in ceramics, including hand-painted chinaware.
Youngest daughter Lizzie was a widow; her husband Edward James Carson, a salesman, died in 1916. In 1920, she was working as a piano teacher. She had three adult children also living at the house.
The Iglehart daughters were active in the Daughters of the American Revolution, and Lizzie was a contributor to early local history groups. She was a member of the Morgan Park Woman’s Club.
Charles Iglehart’s oldest son Jacob moved to Tennessee, where he practiced as an osteopath. In one directory he was listed as a “magnetic healer.” Magnets have been used for hundreds of years to treat pain and there is some slight research evidence that electromagnetic therapy may be helpful.
The younger sons, Charles and Thomas, went into business together as contractors. Both lived in Morgan Park with their families.
More on Aerial Photography
The current Ridge Historical Society (RHS) exhibit, “Louise Barwick’s Lost Ridge,” includes aerial photographs taken in 1899 by young men who attached a camera to a kite and sent it soaring over the community.
As covered in this article in the Beverly Review, in February, a college student from Morgan Park, Ben Johnson, took photos of those same views using drone technology:
https://www.beverlyreview.net/news/community_news/article_6454103a-0192-11ef-b6e6-53a4c44db920.html
Here we present the “then-and-now” photos of the area surrounding the corner of 103rd Street and Longwood Drive, as well as images of the photographers.
For more information on the topic, visit the RHS exhibit on Tuesday and Sunday afternoons from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. RHS is located at 10621 S. Seeley Avenue.
Historical Monterey Avenue
The research requests the Ridge Historical Society receives include questions from the media looking for background information for stories they are covering.
Last week, our fellow fact seekers at the The Beverly Review, the local newspaper, asked us about the history of the vacant land on the south side of Monterey Avenue between Homewood Avenue and the Metra tracks to the west because a new Dunkin coffee and donut shop is planned to be built on the site.
The researchers at RHS (RHS Historian Linda Lamberty, RHS Board member Tim Blackburn, and RHS Facebook Administrator Carol Flynn) were happy to investigate the question. It proved an interesting challenge to find the answers.
The McCormack Building (attached image from the RHS collection, and note the streetcar tracks in front of the building, running east/west on Morgan Avenue, today's 111th/Monterey) was on that site from 1890 to 1938. This was a three-story building with commercial spaces on the first floor and apartments on the second and third floors. The building had no central heat; each apartment and business had a coal stove.
The McCormack Building was the home for many businesses during its years of operation. Some of the tenants included an early telephone exchange with switchboards and operators, the Morgan Park State Bank, and a Piggly Wiggly store in the 1920s.
Neighborhood shops like the Morgan Park Cash and Carry Grocery, Kordewick’s Meat Market, a bakery, and a shoe shop were also there.
The McCormack Building was replaced by a building that started as a Jewel food store, and later housed the M&R Coffee Depot coffee shop and an electrical appliance contractor. In the 1970s, a group of parents of students at Morgan Park High School (MPHS) opened the Southwest Youth Foundation, a youth center, there.
East of the Jewel building were also an ice cream shop and a dry cleaners.
For many years, the Morgan Park Lumber Co.’s lumber yard extended south behind the buildings on the main street, where apartment buildings now exist. The office for the lumber company was across the alley, right next to the Rock Island tracks to the west.
In the 1960s, this was the location of a coffee shop financed by the Y.M.C.A., run by and very popular with students from MPHS. In fact, RHS’s Linda Lamberty managed the coffee shop kitchen while she was a student at MPHS.
By the 1970s-80s, the commercial area along 111th Street/Monterey Avenue was suffering from “urban blight.” This was a period of transition throughout Chicago. Businesses had moved out and new businesses were not moving in. Buildings were deteriorating. During this time, many of the old buildings along this street, and older frame houses in the area, were demolished.
The land has been vacant for at least 40 years. It is a good location for a Dunkin, right by the 111th Street Metra train station.
Mother’s Day One Hundred Years Ago
The modern Mother’s Day in the U.S. grew out of the peace movement following the U.S. Civil War. Peace activists Ann Reeves Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe called for a “Mother’s Day for Peace” when mothers collectively would advocate that their children not be sacrificed as soldiers in wars.
When Ann Reeves Jarvis died in 1905, her daughter Anna Jarvis wanted to honor her and all mothers, and started a liturgical service in West Virginia. She proposed a national Mother’s Day, and President Woodrow Wilson declared the first officially recognized Mother’s Day in the U.S. in 1914.
Anna Jarvis always wanted the day to be one of prayer, thanks, honor, and personal reflection, and was opposed to the commercialism that crept into the holiday. She protested at a candy makers convention in 1923 and against the sale of carnations for Mother’s Day in 1925, where she was arrested for disturbing the peace.
At this time on the Ridge and nearby areas, the church influence was still very strong, but the commercialism that would come to own Mother’s Day was in evidence.
The Protestant community spent most of their Sundays in church back in those days, and in 1924, the local churches led the way in recognizing Mother’s Day. Everyone was encouraged to attend services “for mother’s sake.”
Church started with Sunday School and one topic that year was “What We Owe Our Mothers.”
The first service of the day offered sermons on topics like “Mother’s Unfeigned Faith” and “A Mother’s Heart.” Printed copies of the sermon “A Godly Mother” were distributed to the congregants at one church.
Choir programs included “Songs Mother Used to Sing.” Duets and solos included “My Mother’s Bible” and “Wear a Flower for Mother.”
Special christening services for children were held.
After Sunday dinner at home, people returned to church for evening services.
Evening services contained entertainment/educational programs as well as liturgical services. At one church, a large men’s chorus sang Mother’s Day songs, followed by a testimony meeting honoring mothers. Another church gave every mother who attended evening service a rose or a tribute booklet. A third church showed a stereopticon on “A Child and His Mother.”
Other social events also went on, usually on weekdays, not on Sunday, because Sunday was for church. Sororities and other groups gave annual Mother’s Day parties, luncheons, and teas that included music and drama programs. At one event. the local paper reported that “Miss Sadie Minrath danced the ‘frisco’ with Miss Anne Green at the piano.” The “frisco” was a popular contemporary dance, the first one set to jazz music.
At the same time, commercial gifts and services were beginning to take hold in the community, and advertisements were appearing in the newspapers.
Greenhouses and florist shops promoted blooming plants and flowers as good gifts for Mother’s Day. Novelty shops promoted commercially made cards, started by the Hallmark Company, and items like stationery. Candy stores promoted special boxes for the day.
Photography studios promoted their services for portraits. Dance studios promoted dancing lessons.
Frank’s Department Store at 63rd Street and Ashland, a popular shopping spot, used the day to advertise women’s shoes, handbags, gloves, and “dotted voile and tissue gingham dresses, trimmed with lace and organdies,” on sale for $2.98, down from $3.50.
As one advertiser put it, the question wasn’t whether or not to recognize your mother on this day, the question was how to do it.
Image from a flower ad, May, 1924.
History and Art This Weekend
I’ve been remiss with sharing stories on this Ridge Historical Society (RHS) Facebook page lately because I’ve been very busy doing research on topics that will lead to interesting new stories.
Tomorrow, May 19th, is the Beverly Area Planning Association (BAPA) Home Tour, where five homes and one facility will be open for touring. I don't know all the houses (it's a surprise!) but I know the historic Hopkinson-Platt House at 108th and Drew Street will be open, and that is not to be missed!
This is one of the best home tours in the city. The tours were actually started many years ago by the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.), and then RHS ran them for a while, and now BAPA does a superb job with them.
The tour will start at Smith Village Senior Living facility at 113th Place and Western Avenue. This is where people will pick up their packets and have a chance to tour the first-floor common areas. One sight to see is the mural by the late Jack Simmerling called “Life on the Ridge” that covers a wall in one of the dining rooms.
I will be there from 12 to 3 p.m. to discuss the mural and help people identify locations, so please stop by! As one viewer said, “This was like taking a walk through the neighborhood of my youth.” There are current buildings and some that are now gone depicted in the mural.
The other place to visit is the historic Eugene S. Pike House at 91st and Longwood Drive, which the community has adopted for preservation. The Beverly Area Arts Alliance will be holding an outdoor event there, “Arts in the Yard@the Pike House”, with music and art activities, including Robin Power demonstrating ceramics.
One of the highlights will be a new painting of the Pike House by Beverly artist Judie Anderson. Judie has captured the Pike House in its whimsical, “fairy-tale” persona. The American Institute of Architects once commented about the house that you expect to see Hansel and Gretl come skipping down the path, and Judie’s watercolor brings that to mind. Judie is calling the painting “The Watchman’s Residence,” because that is what it was known and used as by the Forest Preserves of Cook County, which owns the house. Prints will be available for a donation, and Judie will be there to sign them.
Topics coming up next on the RHS Facebook page are many: the return of the 17-year cicadas known as Brood XIII; the next installment in the “Lost and Found” series; more posts on James H. Gately; the 100th anniversaries of Smith Village and St. Barnabas Parish; and stories about the many families who called the Pike House “home” are just a few. Stay tuned.
Lost or Found? – FOUND – Building #2 (Part 1)
A few months ago, the “Lost or Found?” series was started on this Ridge Historical Society (RHS) Facebook page as part of the current exhibit at RHS, “Louise Barwick’s Lost Ridge.”
Historical images of buildings in Morgan Park from an 1889 book of photographs are being shared. Some of these buildings still stand but some are gone. Viewers are invited to identify the buildings, and their locations if the buildings still exist.
Several commenters correctly identified the second building in the series as “found,” that is, still here, although it has been moved from its original location and substantially altered from its original look.
The building is known today as “Casa del Loma,” translated as the “House on the Hill.” It is located at 11057-59 S. Hoyne Avenue, just to the north of the Walker Branch of the Chicago Public Library at the northeast corner of 111th Street and Hoyne Avenue.
This building has one of the more interesting histories in the community, with two other “lives” before it was transformed into the Casa. In 1927, the Weekly Review, the local newspaper that eventually became the Beverly Review, published a special supplement on the building, giving its detailed history.
The building was originally built as the physics laboratory for the Baptist Union Theological Seminary. The Seminary was founded in 1865 as part of the “Old” University of Chicago, that is, the first attempt to form an institution of higher learning in the city, started by Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas.
Originally classes were taught in buildings near Douglas’ Oakenwald estate at 35th Street and Cottage Grove. In 1877, a generous offer of free land (five acres) from the Blue Island Land & Building Co. (BILBCo) caused the seminary to relocate to Morgan Park and build its facilities there.
This was part of the BILBCo’s plan to establish Morgan Park as a prestigious religious, education, and temperance community. It was anticipated that additional educational facilities would follow, creating a new University of Chicago. Morgan Park Academy, started as the Mount Vernon Military Academy, and the Chicago Female College, were already established in Morgan Park.
An imposing three-story office and classroom building, now long gone, was built on the site, and in the early 1880s, the “physical laboratory” was built on a corner of the land, on the west side of Hoyne Street across the street from its present location, facing 110th Place, which was called Arlington Avenue back then.
However, the plans for establishing the “new” University of Chicago in Morgan Park never became a reality. The land in Hyde Park was chosen instead, due to another generous gift, this time from the Rockefeller family.
In 1892, the Baptist Theological Seminary became part of the Divinity School of the new University and relocated from Morgan Park. Other institutions used the Morgan Park buildings for a while, but shortly after 1900, the main building was demolished.
The old laboratory was then purchased by the Church of the Mediator at 10961 S. Hoyne Avenue, and physically moved across the road to its present location.
Buildings were often moved back then, as this was easier than building a new building. The process was to raise the building on to cut logs used as rollers, and have horses pull the house to its new location, where a new foundation had already been dug. This process could take days depending on the distance the building had to be moved, but in this case, it was just across the road.
The Church of the Mediator was a thriving church one hundred years ago, and it still stands but has not been used since the congregation closed its doors in 2007.
The laboratory building became the parish center. It was not used for religious activities but became more of a community center. A dancing school, amateur theatricals, bazaars, and other functions were centered there. The building needed only slight alterations to be used for this new purpose.
Eventually, additions were made to the church itself, allowing the parish to hold events on site, and after about twenty years, the building was no longer needed as the parish center.
It was then sold to Charles Curtis and Blanche Dunlap Battles, who converted it into Casa del Loma, also known as the Battles Apartments.
In the next post, the building’s transition from a physics laboratory/parish house to modern, state-of-the-art apartments in 1927 will be shared.
The RHS exhibit is free and open for viewing on Tuesdays and Sundays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., or by appointment. RHS is located at 10621 S. Seeley Avenue in Chicago and may be contacted at 773-881-1675 or ridgehistory@hotmail.com.
The Ridge Historical Society will be closed on Sunday, May 26, 2024, for the Memorial Day week-end.
Let us take time to remember and honor those who have died in military service to the U.S.
Enjoy the Beverly/Morgan Park Memorial Day Parade on Monday, May 27.
Lost or Found? – FOUND – Building #2 (Part 2)
Building #2 in the “Lost or Found?” series was identified as the current Casa del Loma apartment building at 11057-59 S. Hoyne Avenue.
From the last post, the building was constructed as the physics laboratory for the Baptist Theological Seminary in the late 1800s. After that institution closed in 1892 to join with the University of Chicago Divinity School, the building was purchased by the Church of the Mediator, moved across the street to its present location, and used as a parish center.
Eventually the church was enlarged to include a parish center on site, and the old laboratory/parish center was sold to Charles Curtis and Blanche Dunlap Battles, who repurposed the building into modern apartments in 1927.
Charles Curtis Battles (born 9/12/1878) and Blanche Dunlap (born 10/20/1879) were both born in Iowa, and knew each other growing up in Perry, Iowa.
Charles was the son of a well-known and well-liked farmer who was a U.S. Civil War Union Army veteran, and Blanche the daughter of a dry goods merchant who was also the postmaster. Both families were members of the Methodist Episcopal (M.E.) Church. An 1896 newspaper article has Charles and Blanche both listed as guests at a surprise 18th birthday party for a friend. By 1903, Charles and Blanche were married.
Charles was employed as a messenger, or agent, of the United States Express Company, a shipping and delivery company. During World War I, the government urged the consolidation of the numerous express services into one company to aid the war effort. Charles became an employee of the new American Railway Express Co., where he worked his entire adult life. He would have traveled quite a bit in that job.
A newspaper article reported in 1906 that Charles was the first man to arrive in San Francisco with a relief train following the San Francisco earthquake. The day after the natural disaster, he left Chicago in charge of a train full of supplies, accompanied only by a newspaper reporter and a member of the Chicago relief committee.
The paper reported that Charles started with the company as an agent out of Des Moines and was later assigned to Chicago, likely a promotion.
Blanche was known for her drama and music talents, and volunteer work with churches. She had a notable career as a performer, pageant director, drama coach, lecturer, columnist, and critic in the field of religious drama and music.
In 1894, at the age of 15, Blanche won first place in a “declamation contest” in which contestants deliver speeches that have been written and delivered before, usually from a famous source. The subject of her presentation was not mentioned. The prize was a $50 scholarship to the Soper School of Oratory in Chicago. It was stated then that “she possesses genius of a high order, and if her talent is developed will make a bright record.”
Blanche went on to many other accomplishments.
One example of her work was the production at multiple venues of a concert, “The Challenge of the Cross,” in which she starred and directed, and which included singing disciples and angels descending from the balconies.
A review of one of the concerts stated, “Those who attended had nothing but the highest praise for the offering,” and that Mrs. Battles’ “work and personality stamp her as an artist of unusual accomplishment.” At another venue, the reviewer wrote, “So impressive was the visual presentation … that tears fell from the eyes of people. It will always be remembered as a great spiritual uplift to all present.”
Another undertaking she was known for were “ladies’ kitchen bands,” where pots and pans and utensils were adapted into musical instruments. The concerts she arranged got good reviews, not only for the ingenuity of the band members but because they produced good music.
Some of Blanche’s work was as a volunteer, often for church fund raisers, but there were professional endeavors, also. For example, she was a columnist of repute for the “Musicians’ Magazine” published out of Chicago. The assumption is made that at least some of these had to be paying jobs, but curiously, the U.S. Censuses always listed her as not being employed.
In 1910, Charles and Blanche lived at 9907 S. Prospect Avenue and by 1920, they lived at 11336 S. Lothair Avenue.
They bought the old parish house, and a special feature in the 1927 Weekly Review, the local newspaper that eventually became the Beverly Review, described its repurposing into the “Battles Apartments.” Those articles are shared here. [This is a quick electronic “cut-and-paste” job in Publisher from the scanned newspaper. Note that the old newspaper is very fragile and faded.]
Charles and Blanche Battles lived in one of the apartments, and Blanche opened her studio on the third floor. She used it for both professional and social purposes. It was full of antiques, which she had collected.
They operated a “tearoom” in the building, which was used by many groups for events and programs, from luncheons to artist exhibits. An event was often followed by a tour of Blanche’s studio to view the antiques. It was a very popular place in the early 1930s.
By 1940, the Battles moved to 1400 Lake Shore Drive, and by 1950, they retired to San Diego, California.
In 1941, it was announced that new residents of Casa del Loma were Dr. Noor R. Beshir and Dr. Nellie A. Beshir. They were chiropractors and used the space as a dwelling, office, and clinic. They lived there for several decades, and their son Alton was a graduate of the Morgan Park Military Academy.
Many other tenants called Casa del Loma home through the years. The building on the hill, with its Spanish facade shining in the sun, contributes to the interesting variety of architecture found in the Beverly/Morgan Park community. It's a good example of repurposing an old building, which possibly would have been demolished otherwise.
The History of Brood XIII Cicadas in the Chicago Area – Part 1
The Blue Island Ridge is experiencing a spectacular display from Mother Nature that will go on for the next six weeks or so: the emergence of insects known as Brood XIII or the Northern Illinois Brood of periodic cicadas.
The natural world is an integral and important part of the community’s history and development, and this is an extraordinary natural history event that has occurred every 17 years for a very, very long time.
As promised to the entomophiles (insect lovers) in the community, or to those who at least have accepted Brood XIII even if with qualms, here is some research on the history of cicadas in the Chicago area, starting with some basic information on cicadas.
Today there are over 3,000 species of cicadas worldwide. They all live the major part of their lives underground as nymphs, or juveniles, feeding off the sap of the root systems of deciduous trees, those trees that shed their leaves annually. Cicadas are important parts of eco-systems, aerating and enriching the soil, allowing the trees to grow and flourish.
At the end of their life span, cicadas emerge from the soil, molt into an adult form, mate, and die. The eggs laid by the females hatch and the nymphs burrow into the soil and begin a new lifecycle. While breeding, the males are known for their very loud “song.”
The earliest cicada fossils that have been identified date to the last period of the Paleozoic Era, some 260 million years ago, predating the dinosaurs. Modern cicadas have been around for 40 million years.
The earliest documentation of human use of cicadas dates to the Chinese about 3,500 years ago. Cicadas were considered a sign of rebirth and images of them were carved out of jade.
Cicadas were mentioned in Homer's “Iliad,” and were described by Aristotle in his “History of Animals.” They were eaten in Ancient Greece, and the shells were used in traditional Chinese medicines. They have been used for money and to forecast the weather.
In Ancient Greek mythology, the goddess of the dawn, Eos, asked Zeus to let her lover Tithonus live forever as an immortal, but she neglected to ask Zeus to make Tithonus ageless. As a result, her lover grew old but never died. He became so tiny and shriveled that he turned into the first cicada, and he became the emblem for music.
A genus of cicadas called the Magicicada exists only in North America. These are known as the “periodic cicadas,” and the species within this genus have some unique features that set them apart from other cicadas.
All species of cicadas live underground for the major part of their lives, with lifecycles from one to nine or more years. Nearly all of the species outside of the U.S. are “annual cicadas” with some members of each species reaching maturity every year and emerging from underground.
What makes the North American “magic cicadas,” a play on the genus name, unique is two things. First, some of the species have evolved 13- or 17-year lifecycles, making them the longest living insects on the planet. Second, these species have synchronized emergence – almost all of the members of the species emerge at the same time.
Insects are part of the diets of many countries and cultures. The role of insects in the diets of the Indigenous Peoples of North America, however, is for the most part poorly documented.
One paper published in 1910 in the Journal of the New York Entomological Society, “The Use of Insects and Other Invertebrates as Food by the North American Indians,” by Alanson Skinner, reported that insects did not form any substantial part of the diet of Native Americans east of the Mississippi River because other food sources, both plants and game, were so plentiful.
This would include the Blue Island Ridge, and surrounding territory, an area known for its natural bounty such as fruit and nut trees and shrubs and edible wild plants including rice in the wetlands; game including deer, many small mammals, prairie birds, and migratory waterfowl; and abundant fish from the Calumet River and Stony Creek.
The Potawatomi, the Indigenous People who lived in the area when the European settlers came, were also cultivators of crops, growing the “three sisters,” corn, beans, and squash. Although they did not rely on insects for their main diet, what is not known is if any insect species were considered delicacies for them, as some insects are considered in other cultures. They certainly would have been familiar with the periodic cicadas, which are described as having a sweet, nut-like flavor.
It was documented that the Cherokee in North Carolina enjoyed cicadas as a treat. They dug up the nymphs and fried them in hog fat, baked them into pies, and salted and pickled them to save for later.
The Onondaga Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy in New York calls cicadas Ogweñ•yó’da’ and considers them a great snack. When their crops, orchards, food supplies, and homes were burned and many of their people killed by the Continental Army during the American Revolution in retaliation for some of the Native American tribes siding with the British, they were faced with starvation as they tried to rebuild. Then thousands of cicadas emerged from the ground, providing a much-needed food source. They consider cicadas a gift from the Creator.
American Indians in the western and southern sections of North America, with more sparse resources, did include many different insects in their diets.
Cicadas do have a place in some Native American folklore. The mythology of the Hopi people of northern Arizona believes that two cicadas, known as maahu in the Hopi language, led the Hopi people into the fourth world. The fourth world is the world they live in now, believed to follow previous worlds that were underground. The maahu played flutes, creating the buzzing of the cicadas, which healed the humans when shot with arrows from the eagles that guarded the fourth world. Today Hopi artists create kachinas, or spirit figures, of the maahu.
The next post of this series will look at the reactions of the European colonists who encountered the periodic cicadas when they arrived in the “New World.”
A lot of events are going on in June that focus on history and community. Right now, I am promoting Bloomsday, Sunday, June 16, the annual holiday that celebrates the novel "Ulysses" by James Joyce because WE NEED READERS for the event.
Now, let's be honest. "Ulysses" is the most famous novel ever written that very few people have actually managed to read. More people have read about the novel than have actually read it. Reading this novel is mandatory to include on bucket lists along with swimming with sharks.
I was "afraid" to get involved in a Bloomsday event in the past because I've started the novel at least four times in earnest and I've only completed the first chapter so far. (I have managed to read some other Joyce-related stuff – "The Dubliners" short stories are a great place to start, the nuns had us reading those in high school English classes, plus there are many study guides on "Ulysses" and loads of info on James Joyce).
It's a really tough novel to get through, and Joyce did that on purpose. He said, “I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of insuring one’s immortality.”
Around the world, Bloomsday is celebrated. In Dublin, Ireland, where "Ulysses" takes place, people go around visiting all the sites of the action in the novel, and re-enactments are the big thing.
When I was in Dublin, I did visit some of the sites, like the Martello tower where the story begins (so I can picture chapter 1 – four times), but I was not there on Bloomsday. Bloomsday is named for one of the characters, Leopold Bloom, and all the action takes place on one day, June 16, 1904, thus the date.
Beverly/Morgan Park/Mt. Greenwood will have a Bloomsday event on Sunday, June 16, 2024, at Lanigan's Irish Pub at 3119 W. 111th Street, from 2 to 5 p.m. The highlights will be readings from the novel and Irish music from Pat Boarders and Pat Finnegan.
We're fortunate to have MaryAnn Ryan in our community. She has a Ph.D. in English and Irish literature and SHE HAS READ "ULYSSES" AND EVEN TAUGHT COLLEGE-LEVEL CLASSES ON THE BOOK!
Dr. Ryan is coordinating the readers for this event and has put out a call for people to contact her if interested. Believe me, you do not have to be any kind of expert to get involved in this! Mary Ann will help you pick a passage to read, and help you understand Joyce and this book.
It's loads of fun to do Bloomsday, whether you do a reading or not. The comradery is great, the music is great.
This year it falls on Father's Day, and this will be a nice alternative event for an entertaining afternoon.
Copies of "Ulysses" are available through Bookie's Chicago on 103rd and Western, and the store and Keith Lewis are co-sponsors of this event.
Also on the team is Tim Noonan, who is a champion not only of social causes in the 19th ward, but also of Irish culture. Tim ran the Bloomsday event two years ago, and brought together this year's event, also. Through him, another co-sponsor is the Ancient Order of Hibernians fraternal organization.
(By the way, Keith and Tim haven't gotten all the way through "Ulysses," either. That doesn't stop any of us from having fun at this event.)
So contact MaryAnn Ryan at ryan.maryann@gmail.com to do a reading, and plan to attend this event. There is no charge but voluntary donations to offset the costs will be very appreciated.
Bloomsday was a way of re-energizing "all things Joyce" and I know I will leave the event with new resolve to finish the novel – or at least to tackle chapter 2.
My article this week in the Beverly Review:
https://www.beverlyreview.net/news/community_news/article_2479546e-2291-11ef-91e0-73d8666dc901.html