Voices

Coming Full Circle

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"Where is the city 'neath the sun
Whose liquid vowels melt into one,
And like a strain of music run,
As thine, Peoria?
"And where the land whose name is told
In syllables of flaming gold
Like Illinois – so to enfold
And shrine Peoria!"
             ~ By Edna Dean Proctor ~

The above poem appeared in several issues of a magazine produced by the Peoria Association of Commerce, which would later become the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce.

That magazine was called The Peorian. The first issue was published in June 1911 and it focused on all the industry in Peoria at that time, including a new company called Holt Caterpillar. The magazine would be produced under that name for five years.

It was actually one of several publications produced early in the 20th century that celebrated life in Peoria, but it was the only one called "The Official Organ" of the Peoria Association of Commerce. And it was indicative of how powerful the written word was in the decades before television, computers, smart phones and iPads, said local historian Dr. Peter Couri.

"Magazines and newspapers and other written items were really the only means of communicating to people, except for the barber shop or church, maybe," said Couri, who let AdCo Advertising Agency borrow some of his copies of the original The Peorian to share with the readers of the new The Peorian, available in published form every two months – or about the same frequency as the original.

The difference, of course, is that readers can now see The Peorian in its digital form on their computers, smart phones or about any other electronic device that likely weren't even in the dreams of 99 percent of Peorians in 1911.

"Life in 1911 was a struggle. People had to work just to feed their family and put a decent roof, or so they hoped, over their heads. Compared with today, people then were pretty well isolated from the rest of the world. A good part about that was that they absorbed their education, which is evident when you read the writing from then compared with now. It was just different, more eloquent," Couri said.

"This injunction is for Peorians. Get acquainted with the industrial life of your city and put yourself in position to give the inquirer some idea of Peoria and her manufacturing advantages. Elsewhere this sort of thing is made a feature of public school work, teaching the boys and girls not only the history of their home city, but, as a valuable help to civic usefulness when they shall have become men and women, the industrial life of their city, the extent of same, the peculiar advantages of their city. It's almost as good information for the boy and girl as to know somewhat of the influence of caste on life in Bombay.

"Besides there is a wealth of optimism in the realization that you are a sojourner in no mean city. The dead cities of America are filled with people who know nothing of them. It is born of the apathy that killed those cities. Go to any live city and nearly every man can give you facts that have made the place a thriving, growing community.

"For one lesson from this number learn this, that your factories are crowded with orders, many talking of enlarging, and that not a concern in Peoria manufacturing agricultural implements but is thoroughly prosperous. There is room for more."

That was a brief editorial in that first edition, imploring people to read the magazine so as to learn more about the city and region and on what its economy was based. That magazine went on to give descriptions of all the different industry in the city at the time; while it wrote of the agriculture implement manufacturing in particular because Peoria was about to host the National Implement and Vehicle Show at what is now Peoria Stadium, it also told of other industry, such as the many breweries and distilleries that existed here at one time.

Peoria at the time was, in a word, wealthy, Couri said.

"The Peorian magazine was made so that Peorians could be proud of their city. Peoria was a very wealthy city at the time. It was growing, it had a growing number of brick and paved streets. That wealth helped to interest the organizers of the farm implement show and people came from all over the world for it. It really put Peoria on the map," he said.

From the 1870s to about 1920, it was an "era of prosperity" for Peoria, Couri said. It was the Vaudeville era, which Couri said was so successful in Peoria because the residents could afford to buy tickets.
"Not only was the liquor industry big, there were also the industries that supplied it, such as barrel makers, the staves that went around the barrels and other things. At one time Peoria was home to 14 major distilleries and produced close to one million barrels of liquor a day," he said.

Then came the 1920s, the crime element and the sullied reputation of Peoria. "It seemed crime and vice were the only things happening here," Couri said.

But we got ahead of ourselves. The original The Peorian ceased publication in 1916. But until then it was a chief marketing tool for the area and each magazine had a different theme.

There was the Peoria Beautiful edition – or number, as it was called then. It was in that July 1913 edition the opening poem by Edna Dean Proctor first appeared. There was other poetry, as well, and stories that told of pageantry, the buildings, the views from the bluff and the art and sculptures. It told of giving people, talented people and "The Spirit of Peoria," as written by Julia Cockle Dox. She told of a woman who visited Peoria from Connecticut and gushed about the beauty of our city as well as its charm and how Peorians can be proud.

Wrote Mrs. Dox, "Yes, we surely can be, and we are proud of all these things, with reason – but back of them all is something to be more proud of, more glad of, and more thankful for, and that is the spirit of Peoria that has found expression in our homes, our schools, and our parks."

She then wrote about the sacrifices of those who came before to build the city and persevere through struggles to make it what it was.

"Their spirit has given life to all our material increase; theirs is the spirit that makes all things possible. We cannot reverence it too highly; we can do no better thing for the city we love and live in, to renew the same spirit in ourselves, and to pass it on unstained to those who shall come after us."

Another issue, in July 1915, focused on the parks in the Peoria area. The editorial said Peoria "was a pioneer in park work" and had some of the most beautiful parks in America.

Many of the natural park amenities have changed in the past century but some remain, especially those manmade buildings and sculptures, such as the Robert Ingersoll statue at Glen Oak Park. Peoria was even referred to as "a summer resort."

That issue includes several photos, including a couple panoramic views, that display the beauty of the river valley and other nature.

Wrote Archbishop Spalding, "If Peoria and the Diocese of Peoria are dear to us – and God, and we all know they are – it is so not chiefly for the beautiful site, the healthful climate, the fertile soil from which the corn bursts like song from happy hearts; it is so, above all, for the spirit of freedom, of goodwill, of helpfulness which breathes here as unhindered as the gentle wind that kisses the prairie into life and bloom; they are dear for the opportunity which is given here to all alike to upbuild character, to confirm will, to cultivate the mind, to follow after the better things of which faith and hope are the heralds."

Finally, one of the final issues of the original The Peorian was published in May 1916, but it did have one important announcement to share. A manufacturing company had decided to spend $2 million to build a new factory in Bartonville. The company was Keystone Steel & Wire Co. and that factory, the steel mill, remains in service today.

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