Reynolds holding court at the house of Dr. George Cadwell, with many settlers present. The county was set off by an act of Legislature, January 31, 1823.

THE PAGEANT PROPER

The Pageant proper begins after Morgan County is set up by the Legislature with the laying out of the new county seat. Scene I. "The Survey" shows Colonel Kellogg, with Dial and Arnett, who had entered the land, instructing Shelton, the surveyor, about the location of the Court House. Cox is a squatter who claims the land and calls in Murray McConnel and others to substantiate his claims. Andrew Jackson, a colored boy taking seed corn to his master, is made to show his permit. This episode gave rise to the tradition that the town was named after a negro boy instead of General Andrew Jackson. A settler with a surveyor's rod, men and settlers make up the group. One hundred years ago the plat of Jacksonville was surveyed and the new town named after "Old Hickory."

Scene II. Illinois College.

Rev. John M. Ellis, the educational pioneer and Mrs. Ellis, who opened a school for girls in their home, and Mrs. Julian Sturtevant are with Thomas Lippincott, Judge Samuel D. Lockwood, Julian M. Sturtevant, Theron Baldwin, James Hall, James D. Edwards and other trustees and students of Illinois College when they declare this school to be a college, the first college in Illinois. Through the efforts of members of the Yale Band, in co-operation with John M. Ellis and many citizens of Jacksonville, Illinois College was founded in 1829.

Scott County was originally a part of Morgan County and was invited to put on a scene in the Pageant. They choose the arrival of Stephen A. Douglas at Winchester as their scene, which was represented by an auctioneer, an administrator, a young man, E. G. Miner, Ira Owen, a tavern keeper, Mr. Coultas, and several men and women present as purchasers at the sale. The scene follows local tradition and Douglas' Autobiography. It took place in 1833.

Scene III.-Abolition Movement.

This scene represented the great legal and social difficulties growing out of the demand for the abolition of slavery. Good men wanted to be law-abiding and yet were determined that slaves should not be brought into the new state. The characters were: Edward Beecher, Jonathan B. Turner, Elihu Wolcott, Logan, the fugitive slave, Emily Logan, a slave tracker, another tracker, Ebenezer Carter, John J. Hardin, Stephen A. Douglas, Elijah P. Lovejoy, William G. Greene, William H. Herndon, Richard Yates, and Abraham Lincoln, First Student, Second Student, a Deputy Marshal, Students, Citizens, and other fugitive slaves. The scene represents events of the fall of 1837. The

intense interest and diversion of opinion regarding slavery at this time was keen. The actual episodes represented are chosen as characteristic rather than literal.

Scene IV. Coming of the Railroad.

This was staged in realistic fashion and a replica of the first engine, the "Rogers", made for the Illinois State Centennial by employees of the C., P. & St. L. R. R. in Jacksonville, steamed in on the upper stage. Speeches were made by Joseph Duncan, Murray McConnel and Stephen A. Douglas in the presence of the Chief Engineer, Engine Driver, Track Layers and Settlers. The Northern Cross Railroad from Meredosia reached Jacksonville in 1839.

Scene V.-The Founding of the State Institutions.

This was presented as the form of a garden party at the home of Judge and Mrs. William Thomas to meet Dorothy Dix. A special committee from the "Jacksonville Society for the Education of Females" was present. Mrs. Tillson, Miss Crocker, Mrs. Baldwin, Mrs. Batcheldor, Dr. Mead, Dorothy Dix, John J. Hardin, J. B. Turner, Thomas Officer, superintendent of the "Deaf and Dumb Asylum", Dr. Edward Beecher, President of Illinois College and Students from the School for the Deaf were the others present. The actual scene chosen takes place in 1846. The location of the State Institutions at Jacksonville was the result of a persistent interest in the State care of its unfortunates on the part of the Jacksonville group in the Legislature, and on the platform.

Scene VI. Before the Storm.

The scene showed the highly nervous state of society in the county and especially surrounding Illinois College on account of the slavery question and was illustrated by an anti-slavery speech made on the campus by young Herndon for which his father took him out of College. He sought the advice of Lincoln and accepted his invitation to come to Springfield. The characters were Newton Bateman, Richard Yates, William H. Herndon, Abraham Lincoln, and Paul Selby. The scene takes place shortly after the Bloomington Convention in 1856.

Cass County was formerly a part of Morgan County and was invited to put on a scene in the Pageant. They selected the Trial in which Lincoln defended "Duff" Armstrong at Beardstown in 1858. The presentation contained several new points, notably Lincoln demanding proof of the identity of the sling shot by cutting it open. The characters were Abraham Lincoln, Hannah Armstrong, Duff Armstrong, the Judge, the State's Attorney, Assistant State's Attorney, Charles Allen, Nelson Watkins, Kay Watkins, Tom Steele, the Foreman of the Jury, Clerk of the Court, Assistant Attorney for the Defense, the Sheriff, and Dr. Avery McGill, a medical expert, with Jury and spectators.

Scene VII.-1861.

The scene represents events in the Spring and Summer of 1861. The Hardin Light Guard enlists Grierson recruits in Jacksonville; and Grant marches his first command of the war, the 21st Illinois, through the city. The following characters were used: Col. U. S. Grant, Capt. King, a Young Lady presenting the Flag, Governor Yates, General Benjamin Grierson, the Old Croaker, the Country Lad, a Lieutenant, a Captain, a second Captain, a Speculator, and Soldiers, Citizens, Women and Children.

The Masque was an allegorical picture presenting the Prairie Spirit, the Cavalier, the Puritan, the Spirit of Jacksonville, the spirit of Agriculture, the Spirit of Industry, the Spirit of Illinois, the Spirit of Service, Liberty, Law, and large dance groups. A Jacksonville audience has never witnessed anything so beautiful and at the same time so full of suggestion as to civic development. The music was furnished by the Jacksonville Community Band.

The prologue brought rapidly before the eye those scenes of pre-historic inhabitants, the Indians and their claim to a great country which had always been theirs. Then came the explorers and Missionaries who took the country in the name of their sovereign and fought over it, from sovereign to sovereign until it finally became a part of Virginia, and later a territory of the United States. The great characters of several hundred years moved across the stage of history in living form, and yet all was presented in the short space of twenty minutes.

Finally the sovereign state of Illinois appears and erects the county of Morgan. The Indian has sold his lands and gone across the great river and civilization comes to claim its own. No true American could fail to be thrilled by the procession of events through which we acquired this vast and fertile region.

The scenes recount the steps by which the settler moulded the new country into a great state, county, and city. The people who brought about our wonderful development, lived again. We saw them in action, casting into fact the dreams they had dreamed. The hardships of pioneer days were forced upon us and the triumphs of the great actors in this drama of life stood before us.

The Pageant closed with a masque, which in a highly spectacular way fulfills for the audience their dreams of the past, hopes for the present, and ideals for the future of their city, their state, and their country.

THE THEATRE

One of the first questions which confronts a community in staging a pageant is the selection of a place. Jacksonville was peculiarly fortunate in this matter. As soon as Thomas Wood Stevens, the pageant writer, had his attention called to our abandon