MONMOUTH, Ill. — When the current reconstruction of the sanctuary of First United Methodist Church is completed, it will be the fourth house of worship for the oldest congregation in Monmouth, organized in 1834.

The current church, constructed of 350,000 red bricks manufactured at the Radmacher brickyard in Monmouth, has stood on the southwest corner of Broadway and Second Street for 13 decades. When it was dedicated in January 1890, its price tag was $28,000 — more than $750,000 in today’s dollars.

The neo-Gothic church was designed by the noted architectural team of Weary & Kramer of Akron, Ohio, whose portfolio included more than a dozen churches now on the National Register of Historic Places in cities from Brooklyn, New York, to Birmingham, Alabama, to Dubuque, Iowa. David Myers, a contractor originally from Akron who had worked with Weary & Kramer, had since relocated to Burlington, Iowa, and was hired by the Monmouth Methodists to oversee construction. …

MONMOUTH, Ill. — The news that the former Maple City Dairy building is slated for demolition brought back a flood of memories from current and former Monmouth residents who as children were treated to ice cream there after a ball game or other special events. Many of them later brought their own children and grandchildren to the distinctive art deco building, which has stood at 110 South A St. since 1941.

The business dated back to Jan. 1, 1933, when J. T. DeCoste of Galesburg opened Maple City Dairy at 216 East Broadway with brand new equipment for pasteurizing milk, manufacturing butter and retailing ice cream. Perhaps because of the worsening Depression, the business and equipment was put on the auction block just eight months later, but a buyer didn’t come forward until October, in the person of a Danish immigrant. …

MONMOUTH, Ill. — The impressive refurbishing of Monmouth’s Public Square nativity set this year by Eagle Scout Briar Shinn calls to mind an earlier downtown nativity scene that also had an impressive story.

First erected in 1953, that manger scene came about through a remarkable community effort that was a joint undertaking between the Chamber of Commerce and the Monmouth Council of Churches. The centerpiece of a “Put Christ Back in Christmas” campaign, the nativity featured elegant figures that were pure white and larger than life-size.

With additional figures purchased in 1954, the total investment was $5,000, which, given inflation, would today cost nearly $50,000. …

MONMOUTH, Ill. — Prior to the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, New York was on the edge of America’s western frontier. Completion of the canal project suddenly opened up the Northwest Territory for settlement, and a stream of New Yorkers began to flow into Illinois, which represented the new western frontier.

James Clark Morgan, a farmer and justice of the peace in Hamburg, N.Y., was one of those settlers, who in 1843 set out for Monmouth, Ill., with his wife, Penelope, and six children. One of those children, 13-year-old John T. …

MONMOUTH, Ill. — Prior to the 1830s, Americans buried their dead in churchyards and utilitarian “burying grounds.” There was little romance in the idea of death and the afterlife.

Then a Massachusetts physician and botanist named Jacob Bigelow, interested in sanitation and public parks, proposed building the country’s first landscaped cemetery — Mount Auburn — just west of Boston. It was the beginning of the American public parks and gardens movement.

Although the city of Monmouth was founded at about the same time as Mount Auburn, its frontier residents had little time and few resources to devote to the creation of picturesque gardens. When Daniel McNeil donated Block 1 of the Old Town Plat to be used as a burial ground, there was little foresight. In fact, the editors of the 1886 Warren County history commented: “It would seem that when the people of Monmouth first laid out grounds for the interment of their dead, they did not expect their town to grow very much, for they only set aside an acre for this purpose.” …

MONMOUTH, Ill. — During the Golden Age of Railroading (roughly 1870–1910), train stations evolved from utilitarian wooden structures to increasingly elegant architectural gems of brick and stone. Since they were the first edifice that visitors were likely to encounter, they created an important first impression of a growing town and were among its greatest points of pride, along with the courthouse, post office and town square.

Monmouth’s depots were a good illustration of that progression. The city’s first passenger depot, a simple structure built in 1855 near South Third Street for the Peoria & Oquawka (later CB&Q) Railroad, was replaced in 1868 by a larger but no-less barnlike building, located across the tracks to the south. …

MONMOUTH, Ill. — “This is a pleasant location and bids fair to be a thriving town.”

That was the observation of Levi H. Brown, when he visited the recently incorporated town of Monmouth in 1837. A 23-year-old Quaker from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Brown made the rigorous journey to the wilds of Illinois with six companions in the days before railroads or paved roads.

Near the conclusion of the trip, Brown met up with his cousin, Dr. Samuel K. Webster. Webster and his family (also Quakers from Lancaster) were en route to Monmouth, where he would set up shop as Monmouth’s first physician. Fifty years later, in a letter published in the Oxford (Pa.) Press, Levi Brown chronicled his trip. …

Before the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the universal date on which everyone alive at the time remembered exactly what they were doing was 11/22/1963 — the assassination of President Kennedy. As the passing of another November causes that once-vivid memory to fade a little farther into the mists of time, I thought it would be worthwhile to record the recollections of a few witnesses who happened to be on or near the Monmouth College campus that fateful day.

Only 11 known faculty and staff members from 1963 are still living, and the youngest former students are now 75 years old. The student newspaper had been put to bed earlier that day, prior to news of the assassination, and the following week was Thanksgiving, so there was little written about the events on campus surrounding the assassination. …