DuPage Historical Museum unveils Civil War exhibit

By Susan Dibble

sdibble@dailyherald.com

For citizens of DuPage County in 1861, the Civil War hit close to home.

More than 10 percent of the population, or about 1,500, served in the Union Army, saying goodbye to family and sweethearts and going to battle.

Women rolled bandages, sewed uniforms and held down the homefront.

Artifacts, photos, journals and letters from that time are featured in DuPage County Historical Museum’s newest exhibit, “DuPage County and the Civil War: A Local Perspective.”

Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, the exhibit opened in April and will remain up through September 2012.

“It’s the first large-scale exhibit we’ve done in a decade,” said museum educator Sara Buttita, who noted that the museum’s future was in limbo for several years before it was taken over by the Wheaton Park District and new staff was brought on board two years ago.

A few items were borrowed, but most were taken from the museum’s own collection, curator Sara Arnas said.

“A lot of it had never been displayed together,” she said.

The exhibit takes visitors from before the Civil War to the call to arms, homefront activities, the life of soldiers, death and mourning customs, to the Grand Army of the Republic long after the war ended.

DuPage County had been the site of many rumored Underground Railroad stops for escaped slaves before the war and was a strong supporter of the Union, as was Illinois as a whole.

“More soldiers from Illinois volunteered than were originally needed,” Arnas said.

Among those who served in the war effort are names still recognizable by local residents.

Ÿ Marcellus Jones, whose home now serves as a Wheaton law office, reportedly fired the first shot in the Battle of Gettysburg. He returned from the war to become a homebuilder, prominent citizen, Wheaton postmaster and DuPage County sheriff.

Years later, as a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, he would shake hands with a Confederate as depicted in a photo in the exhibit.

Like many men from DuPage County, Jones served with the Illinois 8th Calvary. The museum is raising funds to restore the flag, or guidon, the regiment carried into battle. When the restoration is complete, the Illinois State Military Museum will loan it to the DuPage museum to display.

Ÿ Col. William Plum, who later brought lilacs to Lombard, served as a telegrapher during the war. Colonel was an honorary title, Arnas explained.

“He wasn’t a military man,” she said.

Ÿ Luther Hiatt, a Wheaton College graduate and the son of a Wheaton pharmacist, used his skills to treat wounds and inoculate soldiers during the war. He came back to marry his sweetheart, Statira Elizabeth Jewett, and run the family pharmacy.

Among other artifacts, the exhibit contains Hiatt’s lap desk, shaving mirror, guitar, pocket photo of his sweetheart and a letter written to him by his father.

Ÿ Rosell Hough of Roselle already was a successful meatpacker and 41 years old when he joined the Union Army. He resigned to work on the Union Defense Committee, rejoined the Army, but disagreed when Lincoln issued a call for more soldiers. The president met with him.

“Whatever Lincoln said to him convinced him to recruit 6,000 more soldiers from Illinois,” Arnas said.

After the president was assassinated, Hough served as grand marshal of Lincoln’s funeral parade in Chicago and became the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Chicago.

In an interactive portion of the exhibit, kids can check out what a soldier would carry in his knapsack and weigh their own backpack.

“They (soldiers) carried between 30 and 50 pounds on their back,” Arnas said. “They walked between 12 to 15 miles a day.”

During their free time, soldiers wrote letters home, played music and baseball. Like soldiers today, they longed to see their families, Arnas said.

“It’s so similar. Nothing has really changed,” she said.

But the war did transform society and relationships within families. Many young men went off to battle before they had served apprenticeships or married. Having experienced the life of a soldier, they were less willing to take direction from their fathers.

“They traveled. They really expanded their horizons,” Arnas said.

Women ran farms and businesses, worked as nurses and even dressed as men to serve with the Army.

“It also created an opportunity for women to become more independent,” Arnas said.

Some of topics raised by the Civil War are being explored in a free lecture series at the museum, 102 E. Wesley St., Wheaton.

Ÿ Cynthia Ogorek presents “First Lady of the Midwest, Mary Todd Lincoln” at 7 p.m. today.

Ÿ Bruce Allardice discusses “Baseball and the Civil War” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 25.

Ÿ Museum staff members give a presentation on the effect of the Civil War on women and children at 1 p.m. Thursday, May 26.

Lectures are free. Register by calling (630) 510-4956.

Regular museum hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.