Prairieland Chautauqua - Annual Events - Jacksonville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau

14th Annual PraIrieland Chautauqua
"Women Who Made History"
Under the big tent in Community Park, Jacksonville, Illinois
Friday, August 31 to Monday, September 3, 2012
Director: Wolf D. Fuhrig

The Morgan County Historical Society produces an annual Chautauqua filled with historical re-enactments, storytelling, lectures, music, and dance. Each year, some 2,000 spectators enjoy the Chautauqua's education, entertainment, food, and fellowship. Each year, the number of vistors from beyond Morgan County has increased. The theme of this year's Prairieland Chautauqua will be "Women Who Made History." The four-day event will again be staged under the big tent in Jacksonville's Community Park from Friday, August 31 to Monday, September 3rd, 2012.

Friday, August 31:
4pm: Ben Bedford, "Women in Song"
5pm: Brian "Fox Ellis, "Grandma Turtle, Grandma Mole, and Grandma Spider"
6pm: Suppertime
7pm: Betty Carlson Kay: "Mary Rutledge, Mother of Ann Rutledge"
8pm: Debra Connor: "Dr. Mary Walker, Civil War Surgeon"

Saturday, September 1:
4pm: Chris Everett: "Mother Goose and Friends"
5pm: Kathryn Harris: "Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People"
6pm: Suppertime
7pm: Brian "Fox" Ellis: "Prairie Pioneers: Three Strong Women Who Broke the Prairie"
8pm: Karen Vuranch: "Belle Starr: Wild Woman of the Old West"

Sunday, September 2:
4pm: The Capital Chamber Singers
5pm: Debra Conner: "Margaret Mitchell: Author of 'Gone with the Wind'"
6pm: Suppertime
7pm: Sherri Mitchell: "A Medley of Music and Poetry"
8pm: Leslie Goddard: "Violet Jessop, Stewardess on the Titanic"

Monday, September 3:
4pm: Terri Benz: "Amy Marcy Cheney Beach, composer and pianist"
5pm: Loretta Widdows: "Ellen Hardin Walworth: Colonel Hardin's Daughter"
6pm: Suppertime
7pm: The Gospel Gals
8pm: Karen Vuranch: "Mother Jones: Fearless Labor Organizer"

Around the big tent at Community Park
Service Friday, August 31 to Monday, September 3 daily beginning at 6:10pm and ending at 6:50pm

Excellent deserts may be purchased nearby at the table of the Underground Railroad Committee.

Dinner reservations need to be made at least a day in advance at Hamilton's Catering. Phone 217-675-2720, fax 217-675-2711; or e-mail info@hamiltonscatering.com. For the answering service, please leave your full name, the date of the reservation, and the number of meals ordered. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evening, dinner reservations may also be made at the check in table. Price per dinner is $10.00.

Publicity: The Jacksonville Journal Courier
Lighting and Sound: George Westenberger
Catered Meals: Hamilton's Catering

To sustain the Chautauqua as a distinctive event of the Jacksonville area community into the future, the newly established Morgan County Chautauqua Society (a committee of the Morgan County Historical Society) solicits your participation with your ideas, your skills, and your material support. To become a patron of the Prairieland Chautauqua, please contact Dr. Wolf D. Fuhrig at WDFuhrig@aol.com.

Wolf D. Fuhrig, Director
Themes and Major Presentations (Reenactor names listed in parentheses)

July 5 to 10, 1999
Inside the Civil War
Abraham Lincoln (Harry Hahn)
William Tecumseh Sherman (Theodore Kachel)
Louisa May Alcott (Gayle Stahlhuth)
Angus August Burleigh (Hasan Davis)
Elisabeth Van Lew (Annette Baldwin)
Sojourner Truth (Alice McGill)

May 31 to June 4, 2000
Jacksonville 1825 - 2000
Harriet Tubman (Shirlee Pettit)
Dorothea Dix in "Not Above a Whisper" (Harvey & Patsy Mack)
William Jennings Bryan (Theodore Kachel)
Jonathan Baldwin Turner (Karl Bockemeier)
Vachel Lindsey (Bob Large)
Peter Cartwright (Joel Catlin)

June 30 to July 4, 2001
American Humor
Will Rogers (Doug Watson)
H. L. Mencken (Chuck Chalberg)
Mark Twain (Tom Gilding)
James Thurber (Carrol Peterson) Ken Bradbury: "When Coonridge Comes Alive"

June 10 to 15, 2002
The Jazz Age
Henry Ford (Doug Mishler)
Edna Ferber (Gayle Stahlhuth)
Harry Emerson Fosdick (Arnold Wettstein)
Bix Beiderbecke (Frank Trompeter)
Harry Truman (William Worley)
Coco Chanel (Annette Baldwin)

July 2 to 6, 2003
American Women
Lucy Parsons (Alma Washington)
Susan B. Anthony (Annette Baldwin)
Abigail Adams (Rebecca Bloomfield)
The Grimke Sisters (Tara McAndrew & Linda Schneider)
Ladybird Johnson (Rebecca Bloomfield)
Josephine Baker (Vernice Jackson)
Calamity Jane (Leah Schwartz)

September 2 to 6, 2004
Westward Bound: The Lewis and Clark Expedition
Captain Meriwether Lewis' Mother (Dianne Moran)
Shawnee Women (Glenna Wallace)
Sacagawea (Dianne Moran)
President Thomas Jefferson (Patrick Lee)
Captain William Clark (Patrick Lee)
General Andrew Jackson (Ted Jackson)

September 1 to 5, 2005
Pioneering Educators: Celebrating 175 Years of Education at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois
Julian Sturtevant (John McCord)
Catherine Beecher (Wendy McCarty)
Owen Lovejoy (Rev. William F. Moore)
Harriet Beecher Stowe (Ruth Pangrace)
Jonathan Turner (Karl Bockemeier)
Stephen Douglas (Fred Krebs)
William Jennings Bryant (Fred Krebs)
Abraham Lincoln (Fritz Klein)

September 1 to 5, 2006
Movers and Shakers in Illinois
John Wesley Powell (Bill Steinbacher-Kemp)
Jane Addams (Annette Baldwin)
Philip Bliss (John McCord)
Mother Jones (Betsy Means)
Abraham Lincoln (Chris Vallillo)
Ernest Hemingway (Redd Griffin)
Frank Lloyd Wright (Lyman Shepard)
Vachel Lindsey (Bob Large)
Carl Sandburg (Barry Cloyd)

August 31 to September 3, 2007
Voice for Freedom and Justice
Sojourner Truth (Annette Jefferson)
Henry Clay (George McGee)
John Ross (Michael Hughes)
Frederick Douglass (Charles Everett Pace)
Patrick Henry (John Chalberg)
Bert Williams (Ann Ommen)
William Lloyd Garrison (Michael Hughes)
Paul Robeson (Joel Tinsley)
William Wilberforce (John McCord)
Theodore Roosevelt (John Chalberg)

For more information or to become a patron of the Jacksonville Chautauqua, contact:
Director: Dr. Wolf D. Fuhrig
503 West College, Jacksonville, IL 62650
Phone: 217-243-2423, Fax 217-245-1226
E-mail: WDFuhrig@aol.com

Chief Sponsors:
The Morgan Country Historical Society
and the Illinois Humanities Council