1.0The Sourcehttps://the-source.netrich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="SxRyBgeTiT"><a href="https://the-source.net/hidden-history-revealed-by-local-women/">HIDDEN HISTORY REVEALED BY LOCAL WOMEN</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://the-source.net/hidden-history-revealed-by-local-women/embed/#?secret=SxRyBgeTiT" width="600" height="338" title="“HIDDEN HISTORY REVEALED BY LOCAL WOMEN” — The Source" data-secret="SxRyBgeTiT" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script type="text/javascript"> /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(c,l){"use strict";var e=!1,o=!1;if(l.querySelector)if(c.addEventListener)e=!0;if(c.wp=c.wp||{},c.wp.receiveEmbedMessage);else if(c.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if(!t);else if(!(t.secret||t.message||t.value));else if(/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret));else{for(var r,s,a,i=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),n=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=0;o<n.length;o++)n[o].style.display="none";for(o=0;o<i.length;o++)if(r=i[o],e.source!==r.contentWindow);else{if(r.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message){if(1e3<(s=parseInt(t.value,10)))s=1e3;else if(~~s<200)s=200;r.height=s}if("link"===t.message)if(s=l.createElement("a"),a=l.createElement("a"),s.href=r.getAttribute("src"),a.href=t.value,a.host===s.host)if(l.activeElement===r)c.top.location.href=t.value}}},e)c.addEventListener("message",c.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",t,!1),c.addEventListener("load",t,!1);function t(){if(o);else{o=!0;for(var e,t,r,s=-1!==navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE 10"),a=!!navigator.userAgent.match(/Trident.*rv:11\./),i=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),n=0;n<i.length;n++){if(!(r=(t=i[n]).getAttribute("data-secret")))r=Math.random().toString(36).substr(2,10),t.src+="#?secret="+r,t.setAttribute("data-secret",r);if(s||a)(e=t.cloneNode(!0)).removeAttribute("security"),t.parentNode.replaceChild(e,t);t.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:r},"*")}}}}(window,document); </script> https://the-source.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/1927-SCAN-S02-1-40th-Anniv-w-info-on-back.jpg598377By Lynn Colburn Thanks to the curiosity and dedication of three local women, new pieces of Jacksonville history are being uncovered or rediscovered through the records left by local women long ago. This led to a new book, “Literary Ladies: The First 130 Years of The Wednesday Class,” which can be pre-ordered at Our Town Books, 64 Central Park Plaza for $25.  Cathy Green, Linda Ryan and Suzanne Verticchio began their voyage of discovery several years ago. “The impetus for the whole book project came in 2012 when we realized we let the 125th anniversary of our women’s literary group, the Wednesday Class, go by,” says Verticchio.  Ryan adds, “I think there was a feeling that we had an archive of wonderful historic information from the last 125, now 133, years of materials and it is behind closed doors. No one will know what we know about these women or see their photos if we don’t tell their stories.” “This is a hidden world of our local history,” Ryan continues. “I don’t think there are any other publications that tell how a literary society in Jacksonville like this works, the history of the class and especially about the lives of the members. To me, that is extremely exciting.” In the 1990s, Iver Yeager held a meeting of representatives of all the local literary societies to encourage them to preserve their minutes by copying them on archival paper and donating them to the Illinois Historical Society. Member Joy French Becker, the Wednesday Class archivist since 1976, has carefully stored the complete collection of Wednesday Class minute books in a bank vault at The Farmers State Bank and Trust Company. Inside the minute books, the authors discovered another art form that is slowly fading. When Green and Verticchio began working through the Wednesday Class minutes, they discovered that the older minutes were deteriorating. Some of the inks used were heavily oil-based and bled, making them more difficult to read. Also, the one-hundred-plus-years-old elaborate handwriting was difficult to decipher. “The style of handwriting that the women used was almost totally illegible for Suzanne to transcribe, a challenge that took a lot of persistence,” says Ryan.  “The Illinois College archivist is interested in any way she can to preserve our history,” says Verticchio. “We talked about having her students transcribe the entries that I couldn’t read. But we realized, if we couldn’t read the cursive, twenty-somethings aren’t going to be able to either!” But as Verticchio transcribed the archived minutes, the authors were able to pull back curtains and peek into the homes and lives of families in historical Jacksonville. And much like Charles Dickens had three spirits take Ebenezer Scrooge through different eras of his life to see himself through the eyes of others, the Wednesday Class women of the past 130 years took the authors on a trip through time, giving a rarely-heard perspective of history. In the late 19th century, the voices of these women were rarely documented.    “The biggest mystery was finding out about the women themselves,” explains Ryan, “because they were hidden behind the husbands! We could only find pictures of some of our members by going on Ancestry.com. Suzanne, Cathy and I did a lot of research to see if these women were part of family trees. Unfortunately, some were single and had no descendants to put them in family trees. That was the challenge.” The authors recognize that these women represent a particular slice of Jacksonville life. They were women of means, many of whom had household help. Their husbands were ministers, doctors, lawyers and owned businesses like a carriage factory. Most of the early members lived near each other; the farthest away lived in Winchester in the 1920s. The Wednesday Class began with nine members at the first meeting on March 23, 1887.  “The very first semester of the class, they talked about the 16th century,” says Ryan. “The art, music, history, political leaders. Then they moved on to North American and early American history. In the first three years of Wednesday Class, they examined the history of America and the United States closely.” And they did all this without internet or a public library. When Green’s mother, Carolyn Crawford, joined in 1934, there were still two charter members of Wednesday Class in the group and she said her mother was in awe of those ladies.  “They left us with a legacy of learning because that was their whole purpose. In fact, their original purpose was ‘the mental, oral and physical improvement of the members.’ I don’t think we’ve done a lot toward the physical improvement lately,” laughs Green. One recent exception was when Deborah Rothfuss incorporated some of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s favorite exercises for members to do at intervals during her presentation on the justice’s life.  “The early members were women who were very well-educated for that time,” continues Ryan. “And yet, after their education, most married, and then what? They didn’t have the opportunities that we have today to create careers. What were they going to do with themselves? They latched onto this idea of continuing to learn. As individuals, they were also involved in local organizations like the Art Association of Jacksonville, DAR, the Ladies Education Society, Passavant Hospital Auxiliary, and, of course, the churches.” But finding information on women of the time was difficult. “The historical atlases and encyclopedias that we used for our research, says Ryan “had pictures of the early men in Jacksonville and those men’s wives were often in literary societies, but their pictures aren’t easy to find. Unless we could find their participation in clubs or civic organizations in the newspaper, there wasn’t much documented about a lot of these women. We wanted to open the door on who these women were as much as we could. Many of the pictures were loaned to us from family members or came from yearbooks.” Green, the proclaimed membership specialist, says “There have been a total 155 members since 1887, not including visiting members. But, of course, it wasn’t for everyone. One woman came to one meeting and quit. Then we also had Madge Barnes who was an active member for more than 59 years, still giving papers and hosting. Louise Bone was the second-longest active member at 56 years.”   In the early years, the class had many guest days and open meetings. “They had to limit the number of guests after a while because there were occasionally meetings with more guests than members,’ says Verticchio. “Eventually guests were limited to visitors from out of town or caretakers.” All this was written into the Wednesday Class bylaws. The Wednesday Class had close connections with the other local literary associations,” explains Green. “They had a very strong connection with Sorosis and often met together.” The authors were not quite sure why joint meetings started falling off in the 1960s. In the 1890s, Marshall Ayers hosted two...