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Writing of this history began
years ago when reporters of The Review wrote
down the words of men and women whose lives went
back to the beginning of the county. Thus
we have the history of Decatur as seen and made
by people who were here when the century was
new.
Among those whose eyes saw and
whose ears heard happenings herein described as
they saw and heard were Jerome R. Gorin, Willis
Johnson, Sr., Richard J. Oglesby, Jane M. Johns,
and scores of others.
The first two told this writer
themselves of meetings they attended in the log
court house when it was on Lincoln Square.
They looked back to the early thirties of the
nineteenth century and described the little
village of a score of log cabins as they lived
and worked and played in it when both were in
their early teens. It is from such
original sources that much of this history
comes.
Among some of the Review
writers who did most toward transcribing the
history as given by word of mouth by men here at
or near the beginning were Jerry Donahue and E.
T. Coleman. Assembling it was a connected
history began in 19223 when E. B. Hitchcock,
then a member of The Review staff, started in
the paper a series of articles under the
heading, "The Story of Decatur." With
imagination and taste he gave new color and
picturesqueness to the beginnings of Macon
county history.
Then E. T. Coleman took up a
series and wrote for several months. He
delved into Macon county records. He
traveled over the county. He recreated as
nearly as might be now and scenes in which Macon
county people lived in early days. With
fine judgment and rare style he improved and
filled in with vividly worded chapters the work
of other writers. He also found much not
before recorded in the two worth while histories
published in book form before that time.
First of those two histories was John W.
Smith's. It has always been the source of
much pertaining to the early history of the
county. To it the authors of this history
owe much.
When Mr. Coleman's work was
abruptly ended by his death in 1929, others kept
up the series in The Review. Eventually,
Mabel E. Richmond took hold.
As the series in the paper
neared ending, suggestion was made that the
history of the city and county set out therein
was too valuable to leave buried in the files of
a daily newspaper. There was often
expressed the desire that the history should be
preserved and made readily accessible in book
form.
At that time Macon county was
celebrating its hundredth anniversary. The
Centennial Association, including some hundreds
of citizens, fittingly marked the event by a
pageant that was an artistic and, more unusual,
a financial success.
Something more permanent that
a pageant was desired to mark the anniversary.
It was decided that publication of this history
would be fitting.
The Centennial Association's
history committee included Frank E. Sawyer.
William Harris and Mrs. Cora B. Ryman.
They joined with The Review in planning for a
revision of the history for permanent
publication as the Centennial Association's
memorial. It was soon decided that
rewriting the entire history was the only was to
prepare it for book form.
Mabel E. Richmond, a member of
The Review staff, has performed that work,
giving her time wholly and exclusively to the
task for almost a year.
Taking the articles in "The
Story of Decatur" series, going through all
previously published local histories, digging
into files and documents, interviewing and
writing to scores who might have facts of value
or interest, searching for pictures, she has
compiled. rewritten, and not least important,
condensed, until there is here complete in
outstanding events a history that The Review
believes is not only a fitting and worthy
memorial, but a history in which it can rightly
take pride as showing vividly, accurately, and
instructively the first hundred years of the
city and country.
The most appalling thing to
anyone who undertakes compiling a history of
this kind is the many discrepancies in names of
people, dates and facts in previously printed
stories or histories. Direct
contradictions are found in important stories.
Wherever possible original records have been
consulted.
Not the least difficult
feature of revising the history has been that of
selecting, condensing and omitting. A
great wealth of anecdote, detail, and incident,
much of it important and worth while, had
histories written by different ones. These
have been published in The Review.
Assurance
Review. Assurance
was given that they would appear in the book.
That has been found impossible. Space
limits first set have been twice enlarged to get
in chapters bearing on events essential to the
history.
Pictures are an important
feature of this history. Many here have
not been previously published. No county
history has as many illustrations of such
interest and value.
In securing pictures, as well
as in collecting other details, Mr. Sawyer,
chairman of the Association's history committee,
has been indefatigable. With an unusual
knowledge of persons and sources of local
historical interest, he has given time and work
without stint. His suggestions have been
important and valuable.
A part of the Centennial
Association's cooperation has been arranging to
place a copy of the history in each school and
library in the county, and in state and other
public libraries.
It is the hope of the
executive committee, of which Judge James S.
Baldwin is chairman, and who has contributed
valuable support to the history, that the work
may be used as a text in our schools. With
this use in mind, some details have been
included that might otherwise have been left
out.
H. C. S.
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