Ladies and
Gentlemen, GRAB YOUR CAMERAS, THE RAZING IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!
by William A. Franckey
Unknown by most of Galesburg,
there is the race of races taking place, sometimes overtly shocking but most of
the time subtle. There's no name for it, it proceeds indifferent to the city's
potential, ignorant of our towns heritage, oblivious to a useable resource and
most unbelievable, it continues virtually unchecked. The race is to end up with
a Galesburg that is no longer ours. Last night at work, I entered into a
conversation with a coworker over this very subject. We will call him
Ralph....... "Galesburg is no longer my Galesburg," Ralph said, and
in the same breath added, "and I bet its no longer your Galesburg
either." Now I had felt this for quite a while as something sort of
undefinable. I like the idea of having a Walmart and Lowes plus I find myself
getting personally exited about a Menards..... and I hesitate to say this out
loud, a Red Lobster! Yet, something is really at odds with the 'burg. Its not the
buildup on Henderson Street, nor the new mall, its the continual indifference
to Galesburg's core. The old neighborhoods, fine homes, and historic locations
have reached a point of critical mass. Over the years, our town has been left
unchecked to someone else's ideas of a reinvented Galesburg. Soon we will soon
lose it all and become a little homogenous community, indistinguishable from
the next. "Look, said Ralph, we're not Chicago, or Peoria or Davenport, we
are our own identity, so why reinvent ourselves?" Oh, the answer is simple
and its one we don't have to think twice about. The reason that we're losing
Galesburg, our Galesburg is economics. We're so poor, we must raze than
asphalt.... or, we're improving so we must raze then asphalt. Give me a break.
The trick here is to suggest a third alternative, to find a fourth solution.
Shocking thought isn't it, for our local businesses and planners to act
responsible for 1. financial well being, and at the very same time, 2. the well
being of Galesburg.... historic Galesburg, not to put too fine a point on it.
Has anyone done any homework on Galesburg's hidden nuggets of history? Are we
going to allow everything to be torn down and paved? Will Scab Alley also
succumb to the wrecking ball? Before the little houses on Scab Alley (Cottage
Avenue) are razed, a solution must be found to keep our historic areas intact
AND find workable solutions to any reason that would enable their demise.
Now here is the part I keep
playing over and over in my mind, there are others who expressed amazement at
the history, legend and lore of FIVE POINTS, recently featured in this very
newspaper, The Zephyr. To a person, they are all Galesburg natives, one being
powerfully connected to our local government. I explained that I myself,
Galesburg born and having grown up within the railroad community, never
realized the pivotal role Galesburg and the Points played in the struggle of
railroad labor and management. Galesburg early on thought they would get a
railroad but within a short time, Galesburg understood, that the railroad got a
town. One hundred and fifty years later, why is there little to nothing to be
found in historical print of our original depot and the POINTS? Well, it was a
rough, ugly side of our neat and pious town. The 1888 railroad strike was so
vicious that we are still living in its unspoken aftermath. If Galesburg
natives, like myself, who grew up by Berrien Street and rode our bicycles to
Dave's Book Store in the 50's have no knowledge of the violent and dynamic nature
of the points, is it any wonder that a modern day city planner, however well
intentioned, just doesn't get it?
Many people still talk about
President Reagan and the struggle with the airline Flight Controllers but no
one realizes the year long power struggle that took place at the end of our own
South Prairie Street. Galesburg's railroad Superintendent, armed with the
Pinkertons and their hired thugs literally walked the mayor of Galesburg down
Lincoln Street to, get this, accidentally discover a hidden supply of dynamite
thought to be used in blowing up steam locomotives in the freight yard at Five
Points. Known as the Dynamite Conspiracy, the Great Q Strike of 1888 not only
rocked the CB&Q Railroad but Galesburg as well. Every railroad watched the
turmoil in Galesburg including the Sante Fe Railroad, which was also then
located in town.
The labor agreements that railroad
workers still abide by today stem directly from our little town of Galesburg.
The strike caused much tension in the CB&Q Railroad communities as the loss
of paychecks and future livelihood of many railroad families were severely
threatened. If there ever was a hub of the Burlington Railroad, it was
Galesburg. Tempers ran out of control on Galesburg Streets as Galesburg reeled
from beatings, stabbing and murder. The local taverns were ordered closed and
the railroad itself ordered its employees not to attend any public meetings of
the strikers. Adding to the inflamed tensions, different railroad crafts
stepped across into jobs left vacant by fellow striking railroad workers.
Political rallies in Galesburg labeled certain opportunity taking employees as
"scabs." They were said to be devoid of every principal of fair play,
of decency and of honor, as men who strike at that sacred institution, the
American home. It was proclaimed on Galesburg Streets that this new order of
railroad worker should be called "The Order of Sneaking, Sniveling
Railroad Scabs. Secret employee surveillance was enacted by the railroad with
typed conversations between off duty employees arriving on the railroad
superintendents desk each morning. Anyplace employees met, they were carefully
watched and recorded. During one heated rally, attending police officers
removed their badges and put them in their pockets, so intense was the
situation. A local Galesburg boy once wrote "A row of houses on a new
street was built off Mulberry Street east of Chambers, most of the houses
occupied by firemen who had taken the place of of strikers. It was named
Cottage Avenue but for years the strike sympathizers called it "Scab
Alley." That local boy was Carl Sandburg and the
excerpt was from "Always The Young Strangers." I bet you never
thought you would be reading Sandburg today.
Now picture this, within a couple
of years, Galesburg could see a tourist trade that would make sounding cities
drool. I bet they are panting already. The ramifications will cut across the
board and the little gems of lost Galesburg, long ignored and forgotten will
become marketable......... valuable. Thousands will pour in to our city for the
Railroad Hall of Fame, dinner and a little sightseeing. This isn't rocket
science here. We will need something to use as historic Galesburg. Something to
show what our town was and is. Maybe we should ask the city planners: What
steps have you taken....... sorry, forget that one. Let us ask, what steps are
you now taking to identify and to secure our Galesburg? If the answers don't
make the grade or contain the word "asphalt," then Ladies and
Gentlemen, Grab your Cameras.... The RAZING IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!