Reflections of Early Life  and the Culture of Hancock County presented by Illinois Historian John Hallwas 

                                    

This program, by well-known Illinois historian John Hallwas, will provide

insights about, and appreciation for, life in early Hancock County--and it

will focus on some local poets who reflected the issues and struggles of

nineteenth-century residents. Three authors who produced some poems that

are still interesting for us today will be emphasized: Thomas Gregg, the

early newspaperman and historian who resided in Carthage, Warsaw, Plymouth,

and Hamilton; Eliza Snow, a noted Mormon woman who lived at Nauvoo during

the turbulent years of local conflict and then participated in the exodus

to Utah; and John Hay, the famous Secretary of State and Lincoln biographer

who had been raised in Warsaw, and whose ballads about rural folks became

nationally famous.

 

Hallwas has written thirty books, several plays, and hundreds of articles

about Illinois history and literature--including a biography of Thomas

Gregg and articles about Eliza Snow and John Hay. Retired from Western

Illinois University, he lives in Macomb and has interacted with a variety

of western Illinois historians over the past fifty years, including several

from Hancock County.

 

*Reflections on Early Life and Culture in Hancock County by Some Local

Poets***

 

*July 19, 2025*

 

*Carthage Community Center*

 

*301 E. Main*

 

*7:00 P.M.*

This program is a grant sponsored by the Two Rivers Arts Council