PETERSBURG, Ill. (Dec. 5, 2016) – It seems as though we either want out of small town America, or we want in…there just isn’t much middle ground in the matter. As it turns out, it just may depend on which side of the “circle” you’re on.
Like a lot of small towns, growing up in Petersburg, Illinois may not be all that attractive to a young kid with his or her eyes on the big world out there through their cell phones. They have hopes and dreams way beyond the city limits, and that’s understandable. But as the “circle of life” comes back around, small town America brings you back in…lures you back into its unique charm, character, and maybe even a really cool court house square, just like the one in Petersburg.
Meet Curt and Connie Sampson who came home to small town Petersburg. While Curt grew up in the area, Connie grew up in New York, a far cry from sleepy little Petersburg.
“It happened on my first trip through,” said Connie. “I told myself ‘I wanna live here.’ I don’t know if it was fate or what but I knew I wanted it. Something drew it to me.”
I can see why. The town, just 20 miles northwest of Springfield, rests up in the hills, above the Sangamon River. The town square and court house is the center piece, but the historic Victorian homes that surround it are off-the-charts cool. And, people actually wave at you when you drive by. It startled me the first time it happened before I got used to it…very used to it. I understand why someone would see and feel its charm…I wanna live there too. Of course it doesn’t hurt that the quaint little town is chock-full of history. In fact, Abraham Lincoln surveyed Petersburg in the winter of 1835-36. It’s also the boyhood home of Edgar Lee Masters, one of the great prairie poets.
OnConnie’s “first trip through” something else caught her eye. It was a circa 1830 two-story cottage that stands at 121 Jackson St. Maybe it’s because Lincoln probably wandered across the floor a time or two. We don’t know for sure but we do know the cottage once stood in the town square, frequented by Lincoln in the 1830s, 40s and 50s. The cottage was in danger of destruction so concerned citizens moved the building to its current location about 1860ish, where it still stands today.
And it’s there where Connie discovered the building’s charm and turned it into the Rose Cottage, one of the absolute coolest gift shops I’ve ever been in.
“I absolutely love it here,” Connie continued. “Petersburg is a little bedroom community of Springfield. They’ve been fixing up the downtown area. This is where I want to live. The schools are good. This place has so much charm. This has really become my home.” Find The Rose Cottage on Facebook.
While you’re at the Rose Cottage, by all means check out the beautifully-restored, cottage-style boyhood home of Edgar Lee Masters right across the street from the Rose Cottage. Masters is buried in Oakland Cemetery right up the Petersburg hill. Masters is the author of the world-renowned Spoon River Anthology, published in 1915. An author, poet, Chicago lawyer, Masters moved away from small town America to take a run at fame and riches inside the big cities. In the end, his ultimate wish was to come home to small town Petersburg, which he finally did when they laid him to rest in 1950.
Note: It’s ironic to me that Masters’ house is at the corner of Eighth and Jackson Streets in Petersburg. Lincoln’s home in Springfield is also located at Eighth and Jackson Streets. Masters did not like Lincoln and wrote the first scathing biograpy of the 16th President in 1931. While it’s become popular culture to chew Lincoln to pieces these days, the country was not ready for it then. The biography badly hurt Masters’ career, from which he never did fully recover.
Masters wrote about his beloved Petersburg….
Nestled near where the river creeps
Petersburg like an old man sleeps;
The pioneers are gone, but others
Walk the square where memory keeps.And why they came and why they went,
Why we were into their places sent
Brings wonder that daily overcomes us
For what we mean and what they meant.
Masters’ epitaph on his gravestone, in his own words, reads….
Good Friends…Let’s to the fields…After a little walk, and by your pardon, I think I’ll sleep. There is no sweeter thing, nor fate more blessed than to sleep. I am a dream out of a blessed sleep. Let’s walk and hear the lark.
Masters is an absolutely fascinating story and I’m looking forward to bringing it to you in an upcoming feature attraction at HistoryMysteryMan.com.
Petersburg or Georgetown?…How did the town get its name?
Petersburg was founded in 1832. The Petersburg name, as local legend has it, was settled in a card game between Peter Lukins and George Warburton, which Lukins is credited as winning. Warburton’s plan was to name it “Georgetown”.
Lincoln, as a young county surveyor, drafted his plans for the town layout at night in a local residence owned by Richard F. Bennett, and surveyed during the day. Lincoln used a drawing board, a T-square and triangles to lay out the future town. He carefully inked lines, labeled streets and used a wadded ball of stale bread as an ink blotter.
Many of the lush Victorian-era homes built by early wealthy inhabitants still stand on the bluffs of Petersburg.
By Don Radebaugh
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