In his poem “Chicago,” Carl Sandburg described that city as “Hog Butcher for the World,” “Stacker of Wheat,” “Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler” and “City of the Big Shoulders.”
In what is thought to be the only other poem he wrote about an Illinois town, Sandburg described Neponset: “The village clings to the Burlington Railroad Main Line” the way pea pods cling to stems.
Thanks to a memorial dedicated in the town Thursday, future generations will be able to learn about “Pods” and Sandburg’s history in Neponset.
The Neponset Historical Society worked with the Illinois State Historical Society and RWE Clean Energy to design and pay for installing the memorial in Bertelsen Park on Commercial Street.
The marker is just west of the Neponset Historical Society museum.
Ed Safiran of the Neponset Historical Society said during the dedication ceremony that in 1900, Sandburg stayed at the Neponset Hotel while selling stereoscopic views of the area. The hotel was on the lot that in recent years was developed as Bertelsen Park,
“Neponset definitely made an impression on Sandburg,” Safiran said, and he was later moved to wrote the poem “Pods” about the village.
Safiran said that as far as he knows, Neponset is the only Illinois community besides Chicago that inspired a poem by Sandburg.
And when he wrote his autobiography, Sandburg devoted a chapter to his time in Neponset,
Safiran said he hopes the marker will “help keep the memory of Sandburg’s time here alive for generations to come.”
The dedication ceremony drew a large crowd to Neponset. Mark Bowen, Neponset Historical Society president, was the master of ceremonies, introducing several other speakers,
William Furry, executive director of the Illinois State Historical Society, said the ceremony was “pretty amazing to me.”
Furry suggested that people in Neponset might want to organize an annual bike ride between Neponset and Galesburg, city where Sandburg was born and grew up, as a reminder of the poet’s connection to this part of Illinois,
“Amazing things happen in small towns that you never would have suspected,” Furry said. He told the Neponset historians that the ceremony showed “how organized you are and how much you value your own history.”
A group of pupils at Neponset Elementary School recited “Pods” during the ceremony, and the Neponset Junior High band played a selection.
