DIARIES OF EARLY 20th CENTURY FARM GIRL, STATE POLLUTION CONTROL EFFORTS, SANGAMON COUNTY SOCIALIST COMMUNITY ARE FEATURED IN LATEST JOURNAL OF ILLINOIS HISTORY

SPRINGFIELD, IL - The diaries of an early 20^th century farm girl, the state's efforts to control industrial pollution, and an 1840s Utopian Socialist community in Sangamon County are featured in the latest issue of the Journal of Illinois History, a scholarly publication about the state's history.

 

            The cover article features an intimate look into the daily life of Zay Wright, an east central Illinois farm girl who kept diaries from 1911 to 1928.  Wright began keeping a diary when she was 14 years old, and her diaries were found, along with 31 glass-plate negatives, in the family farmhouse near Staley (just west of Champaign) in the 1970s.  The diaries provide a snapshot of the ordinary life of a rural Illinois girl growing up in the early 1900s.  They provide an important insight into the changing opportunities and constraints of white, middle-class women during that period.  Through her diaries we see Wright struggle to reconcile the desire to have a husband and children, a sense of obligation to reform and improve society, and a yearning to pursue an independent career.  The photos accompanying the article include the magazine's cover shot of a 14-year-old Wright in an Annie Oakley pose, complete with horse and rifle.  The article was written by Trevor Jones, Curator of History at the Neville Public Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

 

            The Sanitary Water Board, precursor to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, is the subject of another article.  For more than a century, Illinois carefully controlled the treatment and flow of bacteria-laden municipal sewage in order to safeguard drinking water supplies.  However, not much attention was paid to industrial pollution until 1929, when the Illinois legislature created the Illinois Sanitary Water Board and charged it with determining the most practical way to eliminate pollution from the state's streams and lakes.  For 35 years, beginning in 1934, Clarence W. Klassen was chief sanitary engineer for the Board and helped chart the course for the cleanup and regulation of industrial pollution in the state.  One of the first of his many battles was with Globe Oil Co. in Will County, which dumped effluent into the nearby Illinois and Michigan Canal in full compliance with existing laws.  The experience and success of state-level sanitary engineers such as Klassen served as the basis for the Clean Water Act of 1972.  The article was written by Hugh S. Gorman, associate professor of environmental history and policy at Michigan Technological University.

 

            Another article deals with a utopian socialist community that operated in rural Sangamon County during the 1840s.  The Sangamon Association, later called the Integral Phalanx, was representative of the reforming spirit of the antebellum era.  It was part of a larger national movement based on the theories of French socialist Charles Fourier (1772-1837) and was established in 1844 near the present-day village of Loami.  However, internal disagreements and pressure to merge with other utopian socialist communities caused the dissolution of the Integral Phalanx in 1847.  The court documents filed to dissolve the group, combined with other period records, reveal what kinds of people were attracted to utopian socialism, why they chose to participate in a socialist experiment, and how they dealt with the experiment's failure.  The article was written by Kelley A. Boston, research associate with the Papers of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois.     

               

            The Journal of Illinois History is the foremost publication for readers who value documented research on the state's history, and features articles, book reviews, essays and bibliographies that have been reviewed by some of the country's leading historians.  The Journal is published by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (www.Illinois-History.gov).  Subscriptions are $18 per year for four issues.  To obtain a sample copy, contact:  Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Publications Section, 1 Old State Capitol Plaza, Springfield, IL  62701, or call (217) 524-6045.