Neponset Historical Society to dedicate historical marker to Carl Sandburg

The Neponset Historical Society will dedicate a historical marker from the Illinois State Historical Society regarding Pulitzer Prize winning author and poet Carl Sandburg’s time there in 1900.

The event will take place at 10 a.m. on National Poetry Day, Thursday, Oct. 3, at the Historical Society’s museum, 113 W. Commercial St., Neponset.

Light refreshments and tours of the museum will follow the dedication. In his autobiography “Ever the Winds of Chance,” Sandburg devotes a chapter to his time in Bureau County selling stereoscopic views for the Underwood and Underwood Company. He describes riding his bicycle 47 miles from Galesburg to Neponset in June of 1900. He stayed in a hotel on commercial street and canvassed the area for several days. Some years later, while riding the train through Neponset at night, he wrote a poem about the town, describing the lights of the village’s homes “Clinging to the Burlington Main Line, like pea pods cling to stems.” He called the poem “Pods,” and published it in a volume of his poems titled “Smoke and Steel” in 1920.

According to its website, “The Illinois State Historical Society’s Historical Marker Program is designed to recognize sites of state or national significance, thereby increasing public awareness and appreciation of our state’s rich historical legacy.” RWE Clean Energy LLC funded the project for the Neponset Historical Society.