Legendary Locals Of Wheaton Illinois

A city is not merely its structures but also its citizens, the men and women working hard and raising families, aspiring to ideals or lofty dreams. Since its founding as a farm community by tough New England sodbusters, Wheaton has provided residency for an amazing array of personalities, from ex-slave William Osborne to astronaut Shannon Lucid, from sculptors to preachers, from intensely focused athletes to "ordinary" citizens performing extraordinary, selfless acts. As Carl Sandburg, poet laureate of Illinois, mused, "These are the people, with flaws and failings, with patience, sacrifice, devotion, the people." Portraying glimpses of their humor, insight, dedication, and ability, this book seeks to celebrate only a fraction of these fascinating individuals, the true heart and soul of the city--and the nation.

Born from opportunity and a promotional scheme hatched by founding father Charles B. Eddy, Carlsbad started life as a tent city on a desolate landscape. As the investment money started to flow, the Pecos River was harnessed through the creation of irrigation, which turned the region into a rich, fertile valley. As tuberculosis swept the nation, hundreds of new settlers arrived in Carlsbad for the arid climate. Legendary Locals of Carlsbad celebrates their descendants who forged the community of today. Learn about socialite Cesarine Graves, daredevil and "Mr. Welcome" Frank Kindel, actors Dan Blocker and Bruce Cabot, drag racer Dick Harrell, newscaster Linda Wertheimer, astronaut F. Drew Gaffney, and baseball star Cody Ross, to name but a few. Included also are the tales of the trials and heroism shown and faced by all the veterans of wars that Carlsbad provided, especially the World War II veterans of the Bataan Death March, the Vietnam War, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Peoria harkens back to the 1670s glory days of the French voyageurs and became the now-familiar face of Americana—its townsfolk have touched every aspect of national and international life, often significantly. In comedy, Fibber McGee and Molly, Charles Correll, Richard Pryor, Sam Kinison, and even Bishop Sheen with his witty homilies have made Peoria the “Habitat of Humor.” Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique jump-started the 1960s feminist movement, while Philip José Farmer’s The Lovers rocked the 1950s sci-fi universe. Dr. C.T. Vivian, Dr. Romeo Garrett, and John Gwynn Jr. held the frontline against racism. Representing the best of society’s core values, Barb and Dick Hammond founded Friends of the Children of Haiti, a medical organization tending to the year-round needs of the earth’s poorest. And unheralded Bill Noel has shouldered the sorrows and burdens of others who have leaned on him for decades. When it comes to all the legendary locals, they play in Peoria . . . and the world.

Since the 1850s, Lake Forest, located 30 miles north of Chicago on Lake Michigan, has been a distinctive suburb. It has been a retreat from the diseases, public accessibility, rougher elements, soot, stockyard smells, and general density of bustling city life. For at least five generations, it has been the retreat for Chicago’s leading New England–descended families, such as the Farwells, Swifts, and Armours. And for over 150 years, Lake Forest has been the home for a community of educators, merchants, artisans, designers, and a wide variety of estate specialists, the latter from pre–Civil War escaped slaves and Scots and Irish immigrants to today’s notable garden and interior artists. Legendary Locals of Lake Forest draws on rare archival images from local and Chicago public and private sources.

Who says you have to travel far from home to go on a great hike? In Best Hikes Near Chicago author Adam Morgan details the best hikes within an hour's drive of the greater Chicago area perfect for the urban and suburbanite hard-pressed to find great outdoor activities close to home. Each featured hike includes detailed hike specs, a brief hike description, trailhead location, directional cues, and a detailed map.

Reflecting on four-decade-long a career marked by wild social turbulence and remarkably creative and innovative ministry--including game-changing initiatives such as Youth Specialties and the Wittenburg Door--Wayne Rice turns his eye toward those who are to come. What does the future of youth require of the future of youth ministry? For three-dimensional people at the greatest cusp of change in their lives, set against a backdrop of a constantly changing world, it requires youth, parents, congregations and youth workers alike to undergird the activities of their ministry with a commitment to reality--to remember that the gospel is always, ultimately, a matter of a flesh-and-blood God pouring his life into his flesh-and-blood children.

In the years following World War II, American Protestantism experienced tremendous growth, but conventional wisdom holds that midcentury Protestants practiced an optimistic, progressive, complacent, and materialist faith. In Original Sin and Everyday Protestants, historian Andrew Finstuen argues against this prevailing view, showing that theological issues in general--and the ancient Christian doctrine of original sin in particular--became newly important to both the culture at large and to a generation of American Protestants during a postwar "age of anxiety" as the Cold War took root. Finstuen focuses on three giants of Protestant thought--Billy Graham, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Paul Tillich--men who were among the era's best known public figures. He argues that each thinker's strong commitment to the doctrine of original sin was a powerful element of the broad public influence that they enjoyed. Drawing on extensive correspondence from everyday Protestants, the book captures the voices of the people in the pews, revealing that the ordinary, rank-and-file Protestants were indeed thinking about Christian doctrine and especially about "good" and "evil" in human nature. Finstuen concludes that the theological concerns of ordinary American Christians were generally more complicated and serious than is commonly assumed, correcting the view that postwar American culture was becoming more and more secular from the late 1940s through the 1950s.