(bright music) - Will you consider this?

This area is so rich in history and many of us know it, but sometimes we just forget where we came from.

And Maureen Naughtin is with the Peoria Historical Society, and thank you for being here.

So, you know a lot more than all of us in the studio and back behind the cam, or in the cameras, in the control room, but you're gonna share some things with us.

We have a wonderful display first at the main branch of the Peoria Public Library.

- Yes.

- And it is with quilts.

- Absolutely, yes.

- And your top kinda looks like a quilt.

- A little bit, right?

- Yeah, it does.

So, tell me about some of these quilts.

Where did they come from?

Where did we unearth them?

- So the show that is right now at the Peoria Public Library Main Branch, as you said, Christine, is titled "Historic Quilts: The Stories Behind the Squares."

We decided to do this show this year for three reasons.

Number one, we have lots of quilts in our collection.

Right now, we're looking at a total, somewhere around 40-ish quilts.

Maybe a little bit more, depending if you count, you know, doll quilts and baby quilts, that type of thing.

- Are they mostly donated, or where are you getting them?

- Yes, they are.

And I can definitely talk about that.

- [Christine] Okay.

- Secondly, we decided to do that show on quilts this year because we have this wonderful intern.

She interned with us during the summer and is still interning this fall.

But she is a fabric expert, textile expert.

And so she was able to do a lot of preliminary work beginning in June, just inventorying the quilts.

Where are all of them?

Are they where they're supposed to be?

- Right.

And what kinda shape are they in?

- And what kinda shape they're in.

She can also do conservation work.

So she did some of that on some of the very fragile quilts.

Just rephotographing them, documenting them, doing research to make sure the information we had in our database was correct.

Is this the right time period?

Is this the right fabric?

Is this the right pattern?

So she did so much research, and then, of course, we worked together to put up the show.

The third reason why we chose the quilts for this exhibit at the library is because we wanted to celebrate women's art, if you will.

When you think about quilt making, you think about women.

Not that some men have not, of course.

- Right, right.

- But you do.

You think about how quilts were used for everyday purposes, but they were also beautiful works of art.

- They really were.

- Yes.

- And, you know, machines now with the big arms and everything, they're lovely.

- Right.

- But the quilts that you have that you're referring to, they're hand stitched and hand, you know... - Created.

- Created, yes.

- And you asked, where does this collection come from?

Not a single one of these quilts was, in any way, acquired through a purchase from the Peoria Historical Society.

Absolutely all of them donated over the past many years.

We have quilts in this show that date pre-Civil War.

- I was wondering of that.

- Yeah.

Some are as early as 1830.

We've got '40s and '50s, like I said, pre-Civil War, and then they go right up until within the last decade or two.

So quite the range.

- So, of those, what would we know that came out of, like, the Pettengill-Morron House or something like that?

- Yeah, absolutely.

So, Jean Warren's collection of quilts is actually rather small, surprisingly, but we do have two quilts that came from her collection.

Not they were made by her.

We have no evidence and there's not any kind of documentation that we've read that she was a quilter.

So we're just assuming these are beautiful quilts that she collected and, of course, left for us.

Most of the quilts have been stored at Flanagan our other historic house museum or stored at the office.

And that's one other thing, to flash forward a little bit, that we're looking forward to doing after the show comes down.

As I said, Julie did a lot of work inventorying, and now we're gonna be able to rebox them.

We feel that some of those quilts just need to be separate because they're so fragile.

We need to make sure that we have the right type of tissue, whether it's buffered or unbuffered, depending on the material.

So the quilt collection, by the time we get to the end of this year, I think will be in really good shape as far as it's condition.

- Right.

And who knew that you need to have the exactly right kind of tissue and pack?

I would imagine that humidity and that kind of thing would also play a part in it.

So she knows, and what a blessing.

She just happened to come to you to do this internship?

- Yes, yes.

A couple years ago, she approached us, and then had some family things going on and wasn't able to.

So we delayed the quilt show.

It was originally slated for last summer at the library, but I did a theater exhibit instead, and then we waited until she was able to join us and to do this wonderful job.

- So you sent me a photo of one beautiful hand-stitched something, and it said, it was "Balance."

Was that from Balance Herschel or?

- Correct, yes.

So the other thing, in addition to looking at the different patterns, the provenance, the history, we were able to identify five that are directly connected to important Peoria families.

The first one I would love to talk about is just this tiny little square, just a remnant of a quilt that was done by Augusta Fulton, the wife of Josiah Fulton, who was one of the first Peoria settlers.

So Josiah Fulton and six other men came up from the St.

Louis area, and I don't wanna say discovered Peoria, but settled here.

The part we like to celebrate about Josiah is that he stayed.

A lot of the other men on.

He stayed and had a long productive life in Peoria, dying at age 94 and 1894.

- Whoa.

- He married Augusta, who was originally from Savannah, Georgia in, I think it was 1832.

And like I said, they lived the rest of their life in Peoria.

Had 10 children, and they were actually buried at Springdale Cemetery.

- And we have Fulton Street.

- [Maureen] Yeah, exactly.

- After him.

- Yes, yes, yes, yes.

And the wonderful thing about that little remnant is, that we do know for certain because of the donor.

So we have many donors who have contributed Josiah Fulton artifacts to us.

And we know for certain that that was made by her.

We also have a quilt that was done by Galusha Smith, who was a wonderful proponent of the arts in Peoria.

- I love the name, Galusha.

- I know, beautiful name.

Yes, yes.

- Yeah, it's really pretty.

- And what's actually embroided on the side of that quilt is, "Made by Grandma, Galusha Smith, in her 90th year," which is cool.

- Oh really?

- Now that one, I have to tell you, it's beautiful, but it's quite fragile.

So it might be its last hurrah to be on display.

- On display.

- Yes.

- Okay.

- A third one I'll talk about, Christine, is from the Dunlap family.

So we know that- - Dunlap, Illinois.

- Correct, yes.

And so Alba's daughter, Francis, made this particular quilt.

It's a broken dishes pattern, and we do have documentation that she made that in the late 1800s.

I believe that eight is 1890s that one was done by her.

You already mentioned Jean Morin, and we have a quilt that belonged- - From that collection.

- Yes.

- Correct.

- And then the last one that you mentioned is the Balance family that was also part of that family heritage.

Again, no documentation that it was made specifically by a member of that family, but it was of part of- - Their collection.

- Correct, exactly, yes.

- Maybe they warmed their feet with it.

I love that.

Yes.

(Christine laughing) Well, and that's the thing too, as we said when we started, you know, so many of these quilts you can see were used for every day.

Julie would talk about the, I think the term she was the beard quilt.

So you could see it was actually used by a man, right?

- A man.

- And so it had- - [Christine] And it had little pills on it and things like that.

- There you go, exactly, yes.

- Very interesting.

- Yes.

- I'm gonna have to start paying attention.

- I know.

- See (indistinct) things around my house.

So that display, the quilt display is at the main library in Peoria- - That is correct, yes.

- Until the end of October.

- [Maureen] That is correct.

- And you have something else going on there too?

- Yes.

If you don't mind, I'll jump back to quilts in just a second.

- Please do.

Okay, yeah.

- When we organized the show, we wanted to organize as best we could by the different patterns and by history.

So we have it divided into four sections.

In the first section, we have what we call the traditional patchwork.

And those are some of those earlier ones that I mentioned.

There are two absolutely delightful Irish chain pieces I'm a little partial to.

Anything that's have Irish.

- Maureen, at that, yeah.

- Yes.

- You got it 100%.

- You got it, yes.

- Okay.

- So beautiful large one, and then a smaller child's one.

There's also another patchwork that, like we said, a Civil War era and some applique, just beautiful, very early quilts.

We also then grouped all the log cabins together.

- [Christine] Okay.

- So those log cabin quilts you see in the center, of course, either a little red patch or a little yellow patch to indicate that's the heart of the home.

- [Christine] All right.

- So we grouped all of those together.

And then we have the crazy quilts.

The crazy quilts are interesting, Christine- - But they're different than patchwork?

- 100%.

Just asymmetrical, random.

You might have, as you would find in that Balance family quilt that we talked about.

You might see particular ribbons from the old settlers as an example.

So they're distinctively, distinctively different from the others that I mentioned.

And then the last category are signature quilts or memory quilts that a lot of times were made, you know, just to commemorate a wedding, a birth of a child, whatever it might be.

And those tended to be more group projects, and then the women would perhaps sign, or, in some way, mark the section that they had worked on.

So we tried to cover as much as we could.

I do like the fact that Julie, who is our expert, was really impressed by what- - [Christine] What you had in your collection.

- What we have, right.

She said it's a wonderful sampling, and we're very happy to hear that that's the case.

- And where did she come from?

Is she from here?

- She's a local, yes.

- All right.

- [Maureen] Other side of the river, Morton area.

- Okay, well, you know, that counts.

- Absolutely.

- It's the area.

- Absolutely, yes.

- So the oldest quilt you have is... - About 1830-ish.

- And then the newest?

- Right around the late '90s bordering 2000-ish.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- [Christine] All right.

- Yeah.

So I hope everybody has a chance to see it.

Again, it's at the Peoria Public Library main branch, as you said, and they're open from 9:00 to 6:00 Monday through Saturday, not Sunday.

- Yeah, yeah.

Very interesting.

And just, you know, the group projects, that does make a difference.

- Oh, absolutely.

- I think my mom did one of those.

She had a little square and everybody signed which little square that they did with Holly Hobbie or something like that.

- [Maureen] Right, right, yes.

- All right, so then we get back to the library, and you have another display there as well?

- Well, the other display that I was going to mention is out at Wheels of Time.

So we are blessed that Wheels of Time- - [Christine] Oh, I'm sorry, I'm not at the library.

- No, you're fine.

- Wheels of Time.

- Right.

- I got it.

- And we are blessed that Wheels of Time offers a space in their generations building that was built about four years ago, I believe.

And so this year, we previously had a display on distilling and brewing.

I also did a small display in Peoria pottery.

Those are all very, very standard Peoria stories.

But this year, we decided to celebrate the 200th birthday of Peoria County.

So in trying to craft that, that's a lot of time.

- Right.

- And we're talking about an entire county.

- 200 years, yeah, yeah.

- Exactly.

So how to go about that was the question when we started last year thinking through it.

And so I decided I wanted to look at why Peoria County.

What about Peoria County brought early settlers?

What attracted them to this area?

- And what was it?

What did you find?

Sure.

- So, for a lot, it was the river.

So the river was of course an industry of itself with transportation, with ice harvesting, logically fishing.

- Food, yeah.

- Exactly, yep.

Farming the rich fertile land.

Obviously, mining in this area was huge.

- Coal mining?

- Coal mining, correct.

The railroads, working on the railroads, helping to build railroads.

Distilling and brewing, huge.

- It was really big... Really big for a while.

- Right.

Whiskey capital of the world.

And because of the river and the transportation bringing product in, taking product out, the limestone water in this area, the expertise of a lot of German and Irish immigrants to the area who knew brewing and new distilling, that's part of the reason why the whiskey industry and the beer industry was so prolific.

- [Christine] I never considered that.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Okay, very interesting.

- And then, of course, the other thing we like to talk about is that at the height of that industry in Peoria, we donated so much money to the federal coffers because the tax on that whiskey just went straight to DC, and about 45% of the national budget came out of the at from Peoria.

- From Peoria County.

- You got it.

Exactly, yep.

- And then we had prohibition.

- And then there was prohibition.

And that shuttered all of that, of course, yeah.

And then we talk also in our display about the medical profession and the starts of those early, you know, St.

Francis, as well as what is now Coral Health was UnityPoint Methodist and goes back quite a ways.

So, yeah, we tried to look at what brought people to this area, and then the groups of people that came at the very beginning, besides the indigenous population, we had the French, and the French were here for a good 200 years.

- Couple hundred years.

- Yes, exactly.

- Because didn't we have, Peoria is tricentennial was in the '90s.

- Yes, correct.

So that was 300 years.

- Of the establishment of the French village, correct?

- Right, exactly.

- Yes.

- Okay.

- And then we had the influx of the British who came from the East Coast, a farm, the Irish I've mentioned a couple of times.

Huge, huge population of German immigrants, of course, to this area.

So we try to focus on them and take a look at specific people.

Josiah Fulton is one, Judge Flanagan is another, Henry Detweiler, and focusing on some of those early settlers to the area so that we are covering, again, what are the primary reasons.

And I think I felt that it was important to celebrate the fact that we're all of immigrant stock.

And look at what these early settlers, these early immigrants were able to achieve and build and contribute to this area.

- What was the most surprising, the thing that you found out in putting that whole display together?

- Oh, that's a very good question.

I think going in, I knew more about European settlers, right?

So I had to back up and know more.

We didn't do a lot about the indigenous population because we didn't feel comfortable displaying the artifacts.

- [Christine] Right.

- But just learning more about the French village and persons of color who were, against their will, brought, of course, to this area.

Illinois was not a slave state, of course, but many brought under the disguise, if you will, of indentured servitude.

- [Christine] Correct.

- And simply looking at that particular pattern and that particular influx as well.

- And then the underground.

- Oh, right, right, yes.

So, Moses Pettengill, of course, a huge part of this side of the river and the Underground Railroad.

If I can cross the river for 10 seconds, Tazewell County has done a wonderful job of celebrating a lot of the conductors, underground railroad conductors and marking their gravestones, as we did with Moses and Lucy out at Springdale a few years ago.

So, yeah, a huge story there too.

So, like I said before, huge story, 200 years, lots to talk about, and we tried to focus as best we could, yeah.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

- And go through all of the artifacts that you had and tried to tell the stories.

- Correct, yes.

And that's also always a question when we start.

There are lots of stories that we would love to tell, but perhaps we don't have- - [Christine] Something to back it up.

- Correct, yes, yes.

So we have some gaps in our collection that we're in the process of working on.

- Well, you just never know who will come up.

If they find out where there's a gap, they go, "Oh, I've got something in my attic that might..." - "And I'll bring that over."

- Yeah, exactly.

Okay.

Have you always been interested in history?

I mean, is that one of your big subjects when you were growing up?

- Actually, I am a retired high school English teacher.

- [Christine] Okay.

Well, that has a lot to do with history.

- Yeah, it does.

And I have a history minor.

And when you teach literature, you teach history, right?

So, yeah, when I retired from teaching, I wasn't going to sit on the couch and twiddle my thumbs.

- I don't blame you.

- I knew I wanted to do more.

So I went back and got a second Master's in Museum studies and then landed at the Peoria Historical Society.

- Wow.

And we are very blessed to have you.

- [Maureen] Oh, I love it, I love it.

It's really enjoyable, and I'm learning so much about Peoria history.

- You're digging.

- I'm digging.

- Yes, you're digging.

- I'm digging, yes.

- All right, so what else is going on with the Peoria Historical Society?

- I'm gonna reach for my cheat sheet here.

- Cheat sheet, okay.

Say that 15 times.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Cheat sheet.

- Exactly.

So we do have a number of events going on just to finish up the year.

So at both of our historic house museums, we have a variety of programs.

So the first one that's actually coming up this weekend is Haunted... What are we calling it?

Haunting... "Haunting Evening at Pettengill-Morron House."

But that's gonna be repeated.

It's gonna be this weekend, but it's also going to be repeated on Saturday, October 18th.

- [Christine] Right.

- Now, if you like, the whole haunted experience, we are also having "A Poe Party," Edgar Allan Poe party at Flanagan.

That's Thursday, October 30th.

And, you know, there's a fee for each of these.

But by looking at our website, people can discover that.

- [Christine] Are the houses haunted?

I mean, have people felt spirits or... Let me know.

- Mary Ham, who is our Pettengill-Morron docent says yes on that, and I think those are the stories she's going to be telling.

- [Christine] Okay, yeah.

- I don't know all the specifics of those, but that is the story.

- Well, that's a great idea then.

And I wonder if you kind of feel it.

Get a little nudge while you're at one of the houses.

- There you go.

I was there one time when a group of students, homeschooled students were there taking a tour of PM.

And Mary was telling those stories, and you could see they were... They were feeling it.

Yes, exactly.

- All right, well, that's fun.

- Yes.

And, of course, we still have our tours.

We have bus tours, and that's the one that is wrapping up now in October, is "The Haunted Bus Tour."

- "The Haunted Bus Tour."

- And it's always very popular.

- All of the bus tours are really very interesting.

- They are.

- There's the Whiskey.

- [Maureen] Yes.

- Is it the Whiskey Barons, or what... - The "Roll Out the Barrel."

- "Roll Out the Barrel," yes.

And then you have- - Oh, Warehouse District, which is a newer one.

We always do Grandview Drive.

We do some walking tours of different neighborhoods, Springdale Cemetery.

So there are a number of stories that are shared.

- Exactly.

Well, and there's nooks and crannies and there's... You know, I have found out on a couple of those that, you know, "Oh, well I didn't realize that the chandelier from 'Gone With The Wind' is in the Castle Home on Grandview Drive."

- On Grandview Drive, yeah.

- That was one of the things that I remember.

And just the Lindy Light on the top of what used to be the First National Bank of Peoria.

- [Maureen] Right, right, yeah.

- I don't remember what it is now.

- [Maureen] Peoria has a rich history.ú - It really does.

- A wonderful history.

- It really does.

Okay, so what else?

- So those are the things going on at the houses.

Also at Flanagan, we do have some book study groups.

So we have some Jane Austen.

The first one is on Tuesday, October 14th.

That's an a.m., 10:30 a.m.

We also have another Jane Austen that's in November, November 15th at Flanagan.

Also coming up is the opening of the historic time capsule that was discovered at City Hall when they were doing some work at City Hall.

that is scheduled for Sunday, November 2nd.

It's gonna be at the Gateway Building at two o'clock.

And the public, of course, is welcome to come to see that.

- Do they have any idea what might be in it?

- I think people are speculating, you know, what could be in there.

And then there's talk about creating a new one.

- And what year was that time capsule?

Do you remember?

- 1897.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- It should be interesting.

- It really should be interesting, yeah.

See what they felt was valuable.

(Christine laughs) - Correct.

Exactly, yes.

What else can I tell you?

Oh, Holiday Home Tour that you mentioned before, that is coming up always that first weekend in December.

Not all the houses have been listed yet, but they will be.

And, of course, always are two historic house museums are on the list.

- How do you go about having people open up their homes for the Holiday Home Tour?

It's, generally, old houses.

Generally, really old houses.

- Correct, yes.

- That have some kind of a story.

- Correct, yes.

- So how do you approach them and say, "Hey, mind if I have a couple hundred people come through this weekend?"

- Right, that's a challenging question, right?

I think a lot of it is just building those relationships ahead of time with individuals, and then a little bit of begging, maybe?

"Could we please walk through your house?"

(Christine laughing) And I know you've had our, now our past president, Susie Papenhause, on, and she does a beautiful job of asking.

Very politely asking.

- She has a way about her.

- She's wonderful.

Absolutely.

- She does.

All right, so what do you enjoy most about being involved with all of these projects with the Peoria Historical Society and where do you see yourself fitting in in the future?

- Sure.

I think my favorite part is doing the exhibits.

So as a former educator... Well, not former.

I'm still an educator.

I'm just not grading essays, right?

- [Christine] And praise the Lord, you don't have to.

(both laughing) - You got that right, yes.

So I really enjoy the exhibits because I can look at all the research and, again, like you said, the artifacts that we have, and then how do I tell that story?

Just like, how did I do a lesson plan?

How did I teach Chapter 7 of "The Great Gatsby"?

So how am I gonna tell the story of Josiah Fulton as an early settler?

They're very similar.

So I really enjoy that part, and I think that's so ingrained in who I am and what I've done most of my life.

The collection management component is also a super important part, and I enjoy that as well.

Just seeing what comes in, you know?

Every day when I come to the office, maybe not every day, but frequently, you know, there's a new package there or somebody has dropped off something.

And it's just fun to see what comes in and to do some research on those items, and then, of course, get everything entered into our database.

We have fabulous volunteers who do help with that because there's an awful lot of cataloging, of course, to do.

- So much, exactly.

Back to your Jane Eyre series at Flanagan House.

So being a former English teacher, are you involved with that?

In reading and conducting those sessions where... I mean, it's a book study group.

- Right, yeah.

Personally, I am not.

Our Flanagan House manager, Leann Johnson, is, of course, the former director of the Peoria Public Library.

Retired around the time I started at the Historical Society.

So she's coordinating those.

- [Christine] Okay.

- All the Jane Austen book studies, yeah.

- What fun.

- It is.

- And just coming up with new ideas for old things.

- Correct, correct.

And a lot of things going forward into 2026.

I don't know how much of it I can share at this point, but a lot of pieces in the works to celebrate America250.

So we're really excited to be able to be a part of that and look at what's the story from Peoria that is nationwide, that is global?

I mean, many people, we can talk about Betty Friedan as an excellent example.

Dr.

George Zeller.

So many individuals from Peoria who impacted not just this area, but, obviously, far more than that.

- Right, and does it play in Peoria?

- Correct, correct, yes, yes.

- All right.

Well, thank you so much for sharing all this information.

I mean, overloaded.

So when people wanna find out more about what's going on, if they're visual people, they go to the website.

- They should go to our website, right.

And that will list all these events that I talked about.

It will list our exhibits, history tours.

- So peoriahistoricalsociety.org?

- Correct, yes.

- Okay, all right.

- And then on Facebook too.

- Oh, on Facebook.

- There's a lot on Facebook.

- Don't forget, all this technology.

- I know, I know.

(both laughing) - All right, thanks so much for being here, Maureen.

- Absolutely.

- Wonderful.

And thank you for joining us.

Until next time.

Be well.

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