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Kenneth Price of Equality brought a CD of photos from the estate of L.O. Trigg to the Daily Register office this morning.
Price purchased his archival material from an estate sale of Trigg's family and wants to share his photos and information with those meeting 7 p.m. tonight at the Pauper House of the Saline Creek Pioneer Village and Museum to compile and preserve materials related to Trigg -- founder of the Eldorado Daily Journal and the Ozark Tours to promote the beauty of the southeastern Illinois hill country.
Among Price's items was a brochure that included this poem written by Don Carroll about the bell at Trigg's Resthaven retreat in Leamington. The bell apparently played an important roll in the Ozark Tours which typically consisted of three-day campouts across the region.
I Toll You So
By Don Carroll
What's to be done with the old Trigg bell,
Dredged from river muck,
To crown another pilot's cell
Atop the leading truck?
For years it signalled "All aboard"
To men upon the shore;
And braver men had touched its cord
Than ever pulled an oar.
And when the river gave it up,
To serve its newer role,
Authority to ride or sup
Lay once more in its toll.
How many men have cocked an ear
To its insistent peal ...
And climbed aboard from front or rear
Or dropped off for a meal!
How many men in city towers,
Who toil, or buy, or sell,
Have found respite in happy hours
By following this bell!
Let's place it high above a hill
Where we can hear its sound
Across the years that never kill
The beauty all around.
Resthaven is its resting place --
Resthaven for us all,
Resthaven for the welcome face
That waits for it to call.
(Houston, Texas, Nov. 11, 1943)
The artist's rendering of the Ozark Tours above is signed by Eldorado artist Vachel Davis, most famous for his painting "The Coal Miner."
Brian DeNeal grew up in the hills of southeastern Illinois and spends as much time as he can exploring the hollows, bluffs and creeks that draw tourists from throughout the Midwest. He is a staff writer for The Harrisburg Daily Register/The Eldorado Daily Journal and sits on the River to River Society board of directors. You may contact him via e-mail at the address bdeneal@ yourclearwave.com
