A dedication ceremony was held Friday, Oct. 14, for a new memorial in honor of Illinois Gov. Frank O. Lowden on the lawn of the historic Ogle County Courthouse in Oregon.

Lowden was governor of Illinois from 1917-1921 and a resident of Oregon at Sinnissippi Farm.

In 1899, Lowden purchased a 576-acre farm in Oregon on the Rock River. Over the years, Lowden bought thousands more acres, reaching about 4,400. Reforestation was started by Lowden around 1902 and continued until the country’s entry into World War I.

Lowden served in the United States Congress from 1906-1910. After being elected governor, he worked to make sure that the government was run honestly and fairly, and he wanted a new constitution that would centralize tax structure and permit an income tax. He gained wide notice as governor by his reorganization of state government and his handling of the Chicago race riots in 1919.

After his work in politics, Lowden retired to Sinnissippi Farm. In 1938, he entered into an agreement with the University of Illinois Department of Forestry to supervise the management of his woodlands in return for permission to carry out research studies on the forest. In October 1955, Sinnissippi Forest became the first Illinois Tree Farm.

Lowden died in 1943. On Oct. 7, 1993, Phillip Lowden Miller and his wife, Bonnie, sold 1,039 acres of the Lowden-Miller estate, Sinnissippi Forest, to the State of Illinois. Sinnissippi Forest was formally dedicated as a state site in 1993.

Lowden State Park in Oregon is also named in the late governor’s honor and is home to The Eternal Indian, a statue by Lorado Taft. Lowden stepped in to ensure the completion of Black Hawk was financially possible.

The new memorial was made possible by the Governor Lowden Memorial Committee, made up of President Stacy Flanagan, Dan Janes, Tom Suits, Ashley Simms, Bonnie O’Connell, Dale Flanagan, Linda Janes, the late Dave Stenger, Marty Typer and Paul White.

In remarks on Oct. 24, Stacy Flanagan thanked major sponsors of the project, including the late Helen Spencer, Drake and Wendy Mertes, Dan and Linda Janes, Tom Suits, Brent and Nelda Johnson, and Bonnie O’Connell. She also thanked Ogle County Sheriff Brian VanVickle, who manages county properties, and her family members for donating material and labor for the memorial’s concrete base.

“It’s been a long road, but we finally got it done,” Flanagan said. “What’s on this memorial is only a drop in the bucket compared to everything Gov. Lowden did for the state, Ogle County and the City of Oregon. When the Oregon Depot burned down for the second time, the Burlington and Quincy Railroad didn’t want to build the Depot again. Gov. Lowden and his father-in-law, George Pullman, influenced them to rebuild the Depot. They rebuilt it, and Oregon wouldn’t be what it is today without Lowden and Pullman doing that.”

89th District state Rep. Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, spoke at the dedication as well and praised Lowden for his work on consolidating 125 departments into nine during his time as state governor.

“That’s pretty amazing, considering all of the effort to make the government bigger today,” McCombie said. “What he did became a national model for others to use. He worked during a pretty amazing time to live and lead. He was always known for being a very principled, service-driven leader and that’s certainly something to aspire to. Thanks to everyone that made this happen.”

Stacy Flanagan detailed other accomplishments of Lowden’s, including being the first state governor to establish a fiscal budget and advocating for the state highway system, such as Illinois Route 64 and Illinois Route 2 that run through Oregon.

“There were a lot of things he did for the state, Ogle County and Oregon,” Flanagan said.