Champaign Baptist Church

Champaign Baptist Church

by Justin Durand ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

My great grandmother Essie (Wilson) Luce was raised in the Baptist church. She married Wilford Luce in 1898 in Champaign, Illinois, then moved west to Wyoming to take up life on his ranch.

I was curious about the church where they got married. I was fairly certain it would have been a Baptist church, but Essie later became an Episcopalian and her mother Elizabeth (Mallory) Wilson later became a Methodist, so maybe not.

Tp find out, I checked Essie’s marriage record. I have a copy, but if I didn’t already have one I could have looked for a copy at FamilySearch.org. It’s there, already linked to her profile. The certificate is signed by W. H. Stedman, a minister. A quick Google search tells me he was minister at the 1st Baptist Church in Urbana. With some additional searching, I find the church was organized in 1838 and Rev. Stedman was called in 1875.

Now I see a problem. The Wilsons lived in Champaign. This church was in Urbana. The two cities are close neighbors but it doesn’t seem likely someone would travel from one to the other to go to church, particularly not a common denomination like Baptist. Okay, maybe if the person and the church were both close to the boundary.

I seem to have a problem but it’s easily resolved. A bit more searching and I find Rev. Stedman resigned at Urbana in 1882. He served several other churches, then was called to the 1st Baptist Church at Champaign in 1894. So, yes. Exactly right to have officiated at Essie’s wedding in 1898.

Finally, can I find a picture of the church? Yes, but sadly it was demolished in 1980. If I had asked this question in my early 20s I would have had a chance to travel there, and see it in person.

According to the The Biographical Record of Champaign County Ill. (1900), the new church was Pastor Stedman’s project (p. 196). It took three years; two years of persuading the congregation and a year in building, at a cost of $22,000. That would mean the church was completed about 1897. It would have been relatively new when Essie was married there in 1898.

You can see a picture of the church here, from the digital collection of the University of Illinois. The Gothic Revival style is no surprise. The style was a peripheral effect of the Oxford Movement in England and America; an Anglo-Catholic renewal movement that idealized traditional liturgies, architectures, and theologies in a way that often equated embracing tradition with social standing.

It’s no coincidence that Essie’s mother moved from Baptist to Methodist, and Essie moved from Baptist to Episcopalian. In two words: upward mobility.

Tartan Scarf

Tartan Scarf

by Justin Durand ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I was thinking what I could do to treat myself right now. I’ve been a good and obedient citizen during the pandemic.

I knew immediately–all winter, every morning when I put on a coat and scarf to go out, I think it’s odd that I don’t have a tartan scarf. At my age. Imagine.

My new scarf has been completed and it’s in the mail. I’m looking forward. Late March, winter in Colorado is nearly over but now I’ll be set for next year.

Swanstrom Tartan Scarf

The Swanstrom tartan has been registered with the Scottish Tartan Authority, STA Ref. 7222.

Ivinson Memorial Hospital

Ivinson Memorial Hospital

by Justin Durand ♥ 0 Leave a Comment
Ivinson Memorial Hospital, about 1960 (Credit: Laramie Plains Museum)

I was born at Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie, Wyoming (According to my birth certificate–Mom teases that I was born in a log cabin at Tie Siding, but that’s a different story. She means I was born when we lived on the ranch at Tie Siding.)

I was looking for the CPS coordinates not long ago. (Trying to resolve a question about my natal horoscope, as people do.) I came across an article about the old hospital. The history is about what you’d expect from a small town.

The old hospital was built in 1917 between 10th and 11th Streets on what is today Ivinson Ave. Until 1949, it was managed by nurses “who were not generally trained in administration” That’s when a local businessman took over. (Really? A hospital managed just by nurses? Was that a thing?) A new hospital opened in 1973. The old hospital was purchased by University of Wyoming. They used as offices for the Police Department and for computer facilities. The building was demolished in 2011 and replaced with a parking lot. 

I didn’t grow up in Laramie. The first time I was there was in 1974, when we moved from Ft. Collins to Orem. After that I was there many times, just short visits. I drove by the old hospital in (probably) 1975. I’m glad I got to see it before they tore it down.

Native Lands

Native Lands

by Justin Durand

I’ve been enjoying the increasing popularity of territorial acknowledgments.

Here’s an artcle from CNN:

And here’s the app it recommends. A bit confusing in the way it presents information, but workable:

As expected, it says I live on Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute lands, as in the Denver City Council’s territorial acknowledgment. It also adds Dakota (Očhéthi Šakówiŋ), and because of my father, that pleases me.

Denver’s Territorial Acknowledgment

Denver’s Territorial Acknowledgment

by Justin Durand ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I wrote about Canadian territorial acknowledgments a few weeks ago. I wondered about doing them in the U.S. Turns out Denver City Council already does one. Embarrassingly, it also turns out I was at the meeting (via Zoom) when they adopted it (October 26, 2020). I made a mental note to come back later and get the text, then forgot all about it.

So, here it is.

The Denver City Council honors and acknowledges that the land on which we reside is the traditional territory of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Peoples. We also recognize the 48 contemporary tribal nations that are historically tied to the lands that make up the state of Colorado.

We honor Elders past, present, and future, and those who have stewarded this land throughout generations. We also recognize that government, academic and cultural institutions were founded upon and continue to enact exclusions and erasures of Indigenous Peoples.

May this acknowledgement demonstrate a commitment to working to dismantle ongoing legacies of oppression and inequities and recognize the current and future contributions of Indigenous communities in Denver.

Good job, Denver.