​Color film of portions of the 1947 and 1949 Eureka Pumpkin Festivals has recently been digitized and uploaded to YouTube. The film, shot by Glenn V. Sherwood, Sr. (1892 – 1956), was digitized by his son Glenn Jr. of Longmont, Colorado. Glenn Jr. contacted the Eureka Public Library about the film and granted permission to the library to share the YouTube link. 

YouTube link to Eureka Pumpkin Festival film:  
​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0smOAtaW0R0

​In 2015 and 2016, the library digitized over 300 Eureka Pumpkin Festival objects, booklets, and photographs and created an online archive of the festival (http://www.idaillinois.org/digital/collection/p16614coll19/search/). The project was funded by an Illinois State Library Digital Imaging grant. The Eureka Pumpkin Festival was a two-day community event held between 1939 and 1961. It drew tens of thousands of visitors to Eureka. A highpoint was 1947 when Eureka College alumnus and actor Ronald Reagan participated. Approximately 100,000 people attended that year’s festival. Until now, only black-and-white photographs of Reagan at the festival have been shared with the library. 

​The film is so interesting because it is in color and to my knowledge is the only existing film of Reagan’s 1947 visit to Eureka. The film actually contains portions of the 1947 and 1949 festivals, which were spliced together into a 12-minute film. Although the segments are not in chronological order, overall the color film brings the festivals to life more than the black-and-white images which make up most of our online Eureka Pumpkin Festival digital archive. 

​Actor and Eureka College alum Ronald Reagan participating in the 1947 Eureka Pumpkin Festival parade on horseback. This image is from Sherwood’s 1947 film.

The film shows a pumpkin field, the canning factory, the different banners and signs decorating the town, a high pole act by the Aerial Snyders, Illinois Governor Dwight Green and Ronald Reagan at the coronation of Queen Joan Snyder, and the parades featuring Reagan on horseback and many, many colorful floats. With regard to the parade and crowds, Reagan was quoted as saying “This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen! The Eureka I knew was never like this!”

​Glenn Sherwood Sr. and his family lived in Eureka until 1953. Sherwood was a representative for the American Sisalcraft Corporation for Illinois and was a correspondent for Illinois Building News. Sherwood and his wife, Evelyn, chaperoned Eureka College fraternity dances during their time in Eureka. Evelyn was a member of the Eureka Woman’s Club. The family moved to Bloomington in 1953.

​Glenn V. and Evelyn Sherwood at a Lambda Chi Alpha event in Eureka, ca. 1945 – 1953.

Eureka Pumpkin Festival signs from 1947 (left) and 1949 (right). Images from Sherwood's film.

​Pumpkins are the harbinger of fall in Illinois. Not only do the gloriously orange fruits decorate our homes and businesses, but we look forward to the aroma and taste of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving dinner. Pumpkin is also Illinois’ official state pie!

The history of canning pumpkins goes back over 100 years in central Illinois. It all began here in Eureka in 1902 when the Dickinson and Company canning factory made a small experimental pack of canned pumpkin. The company, which had been established in 1898, already packed corn, beans, and tomatoes. However, wishing to extend the canning season, they decided to try adding pumpkin to the roster. It was a success. Dickinson and Company continued to expand their business holdings, adding a plant in Washington in 1909 and Morton in 1925. ​

In the midst of our own pandemic experience, I was curious to look back and see how Eureka fared in 1918 when the Spanish Influenza struck our town. Using digitized issues of the Woodford County Journal [hereafter referred to as the Journal] and the Pantagraph, this blog pieces together what was reported for the Eureka community. You can access the historical archives of both newspapers for free through Newspapers.com on the library’s public computers when we are open. For a firsthand account, please see 1918 influenza survivor Anna McCloud’s story which was recently published in the Peoria Journal Star: https://www.pjstar.com/news/20200411/luciano-eureka-woman-already-survived-viral-pandemic---more-than-century-ago.

In 1918 we were in the midst of World War I. The Journal regularly featured overseas news, letters from soldiers, and reports on local war efforts such as gasless Sundays, reducing waste, and donating nut shells and fruit pits for the manufacture of carbon for gas mask respirators. There was regular mention of pneumonia as a cause of death throughout the winter of 1917 – 1918, but it does not seem to be connected to any widespread pandemic. There was a report in the February 7 edition of the Journal of the death of Eureka soldier Henry William Jennings at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station Hospital of pneumonia on February 6. The Pantagraph noted the increase of pneumonia in the national army on March 29, 1918, and in July word spread of the influenza impacting the German army.

The influenza gained widespread public attention in the fall of 1918 as it spread through the United States’ military camps. On August 17, 1918, the Pantagraph first used the term “Spanish Influenza” and reported that the New York City Department of Health warned against kissing “except thru a handkerchief.” The Journal, a weekly paper printed every Thursday as it is today, mentioned a relative of a Eureka family ill with pneumonia at Camp Custer, Michigan, on August 22. Throughout September, the Pantagraph continued to report daily on the number of cases quickly growing throughout the nation at both military camps and in cities. Of particular interest was the status of the Great Lakes Naval Training Station north of Chicago and Camp Grant in Rockford as many area soldiers were stationed there. On September 23 the paper reported that the influenza appeared at Great Lakes on September 9, peaked around September 19, and was now decreasing. September was also reportedly the coldest September on record.

By late September and early October, the influenza was spreading rapidly through central Illinois. On October 1, the Pantagraph reported an outbreak in the town of Forrest in McLean County. At that time Forrest had 250 cases, three dead, and their schools and public places were closed. On October 5, Peoria reportedly had 22 cases. On October 7, Bloomington had 47 cases and Normal had 4 cases. On October 8 the Pantagraph printed a directive from the United States Surgeon General recommending all schools, places of amusement, and public meetings discontinued “in all places where the malady becomes prevalent.”

​Turning to Eureka, the September 27 issue of the Journal makes no mention of the influenza. Unfortunately, there is a gap in our knowledge of what happened the next week as the October 3, 1918, edition has not been microfilmed or digitized. The next available edition is the following Thursday, October 10. By then, the pandemic was the leading headline as residents were beginning to succumb: “R. P. Brubaker and W. H. Rosborough Die of Pneumonia” and “Influenza Epidemic Causing Much Alarm.” ​