Sandburg's Hometown

November 2, 2015

Galesburg's Dirty Dozen - Willis E. Calkins, Back row, 4th from left

The "Dirty Dozen" with Carl Sandburg (Row 2, far right)
Seated from the left: 
Charles Bloomgren, Robert G. Samuelson, Lyle Tapp, George W. Erickson. Standing: Charles Juneau, Fred Cook, Martin Sandburg, Willis Calkins, Oscar F. Larson, Lawrence Futhey, Victor Thurine, Carl Sandburg. 

[The boys are identified on p. 31 of George Swank's CARL SANDBURG: GALESBURG AND BEYOND, c1983.]


Willis E. Calkins

by Barbara Schock

Among the members of the Dirty Dozen was Willis Calkins. He was called “Bohunk.” Around the turn of the twentieth century the word was used in a derogatory manner to describe immigrants from Bohemia and eastern European countries. Who knows why it was attached to Willis and why it stuck.

 

Willis was a descendant of Hugh Calkins who was born in Monmouthshire, England, and came to Massachusetts in 1640. His grandfather, Albert C. Calkins, came to Knox County in 1836 from New York. He purchased a quarter section of prairie land in Section 2, Sparta Township. When he first came, the county was sparsely settled and “the hand of civilization was hardly visible.” Most of the other settlers purchased land in the timber for protection from the weather and the food stuffs it provided.

 

The parents of Willis Calkins were Leroy and Fannie Reed Calkins. His father was a motorman on the street railway in Galesburg. Mrs. Calkins was a dressmaker. Willis was their only child. They lived in a house at 382 South Pearl Street. Fannie died of tuberculosis in 1899 and was buried in Wataga Cemetery. His father later remarried and moved to Moline.

 

Young Calkins gave Carl Sandburg much of his musical instruction in the 1890s. During the evenings and on Sunday afternoons, when the Schultz cigar shop was closed, the boys would gather in front of it. John Hultgren and John Kerrigan sang the tenor parts while Calkins and Sandburg sang baritone and bass. They sang tunes from minstrel shows, old ballads, songs which were popular during the Civil War and folk songs. Calkins taught Sandburg to play the banjo and the chords to accompany singing.

 

One summer Calkins and Sandburg walked many times to the pond on the Booth farm, about three miles outside the Galesburg city limits. The water was up to the shoulders of the boys, which made for good swimming. There was another pond which they frequented. It was not nearly so deep as the Booth pond. In one respect it was more dangerous, as the police picked up seven of the Dirty Dozen boys, including Calkins, for skinny dipping within the city limits on a Sunday afternoon. They were taken to the police station and put into cells for several hours.

 

On the way home from the Booth farm, they would stop at Farnham Street and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad tracks to decide on the best way to go toward home. One path led to the Lombard College campus and a drink of cool water from the tin cup chained to the pump. The other was longer but it went past the apple orchard of Jon W. Grubb, of the Lombard faculty. There they could pick apples to eat and to carry home.

 

Along with Sandburg and a number of other young men from Galesburg, Calkins enlisted in Company C, 6th Infantry Regiment, Illinois Militia, in 1898 and participated in the Spanish American War. Later, at the age of 21, he enlisted in the United States Army on May 2, 1900. He was stationed in China and the Philippines.

 

Forty years later, Carl and Bohunk met in the lobby of a hotel in Minneapolis. Calkins' first words were: “What'll it be, Cully, a short cut and a drink or a long walk and apples?” Time had not dimmed their memories.

 

Sandburg's Hometown
Date Title
November 2, 2015 Willis E. Calkins
October 26, 2015 Galesburg Pottery
October 19, 2015 Private Lewis H. Kay
October 12, 2015 The Klondike Gold Rush
September 28, 2015 Charles L. Bloomgren
September 21, 2015 The Gilded Age
September 14, 2015 Oliver Optic
August 31, 2015 The "Spanish" Cannon
August 24, 2015 The Company C Men
August 17, 2015 Jacob A. Riis
August 10, 2015 Mason Jars
August 3, 2015  October 7, 1896
July 27, 2015 The Soldier's Monument
July 20, 2015 Ice
July 13, 2015 Moses O. Williamson
July 6, 2015 Sweet Little Alix
June 29, 2015 Sharlie's Shickens
June 22, 2015 Anna Held & John Drew
June 15, 2015 Hartel & Secker Meat Market
June 8, 2015 Girls
June 1, 2015 Old First Church - Part II
May 25, 2015 Old First Church - Part I
May 18, 2015 Marbles
May 11, 2015 Pawnee County, Kansas
May 4, 2015 Detective Stories and the Real Thing
April 27, 2015 Professor Isaac A. Parker
April 20, 2015 Celluloid Collars
April 13, 2015 Asparagus
April 6, 2015  Mayor John C. Stewart 
March 30, 2015 Basket Ball
March 23, 2015 The Courthouse of Knox County, IL
March 16, 2015

“Trifles make perfection...”

March 9, 2015 Uncle Tom's Cabin
March 2, 2015 Martha Sandburg Goldstone
February 23, 2015 Devotion
February 16, 2015  Gumbiner's Pawn Shop 
February 9, 2015 White Bread
February 2, 2015 The Monarch Club
January 26, 2015 The Silver Dollar
January 19, 2015 The Fulton County Narrow Gauge Railway
January 12, 2015 The Four Corners
December 22, 2014 Swedish Christmas
December 8, 2014 Christmas 1878
December 1, 2014 Bunker Boots & Shoes
November 24, 2014 Galesburg, Illinois
November 17, 2014 It was Buffalo Bill's Day
November 10, 2014 The Election of 1896 (A follow-up story)
November 3, 2014 The Election of 1896 (continued)
October 27, 2014 The Election of 1896
October  24, 2014 The Rissywarn
October 20, 2014 The Parlor Stove
October 13, 2014 Ashes to Ashes
October 6, 2014 Jesse James
Sept. 29, 2014 Lester T. Stone, Public Servant
Sept. 22, 2014 It's Who You Know
Sept 15, 2014 Mother of the Illinois Flag
Sept 8, 2014 The Scissors Grinder
Sept 1, 2014 Baseball
August 25, 2014 Howard K. Knowles, Capitalist
August 18, 2014  Alcoholic Beverages
August 11, 2014 Soda Water
August 4, 2014 Sweet Corn
July 28, 2014 Marching Through Georgia
July 21, 2014 The Knox County Fair
July 14, 2014 The Panic of 1893
July 7, 2014 The Rev. T. N. Hasselquist
June 30, 2014 The Knox County Courthouse
June 23, 2014 The Family Photograph Album
June 16, 2014 Parades
June 9, 2014 Lingonberries
June 2, 2014 Where We Live
May 26, 2014 Old Main
May 19, 2014 Rhythms of the Railroad
May 12, 2014 Spring Tonic
May 5, 2014 The Milkmen
April 28, 2014 Gray's "Elegy..."
April 21, 2014 Off to War
April 14, 2014 Swedish Easter
April 7, 2014 A Father's Face
March 31, 2014 Secret Societies
March 24, 2014 George A. Murdock, Merchant
March 10, 2014 Trade Cards
March 3, 2014 The Demorest Medal
February 24, 2014 Rip Van Winkle
February 17, 2014 Cabbage Soup
February 10, 2014 Lincoln's Birthday
February 3, 2014 4  The Colonel
January 27, 2014 The Lincoln Penny - A Little History
January 20, 2014 Walking to Work
January 13, 2014  A Small Abode
January 6, 2014 Birth of a Poet
December 30, 2013 Christmas 1880
December 23, 2013 Swedish Christmas
December 16, 2013 The Reporter Sees Santa
December 9, 2013 The Coming of Christmas
December 2, 2013 The Fire Boys Talk
November 25, 2013 Galesburg Will Feast on Turkeys and Cranberries - Thanksgiving 1893
November 18, 2013 Mary Sandburg Johnson
November 11, 2013 Carl Sandburg's Bicycle
November 4, 2013 Lace Curtains
October 28, 2013 The Front Room
October 21, 2013 A Warm Breakfast
October 14, 2013 Marion D. Shutter
October 7, 2013 Cigars and Consumption
September 30, 2013 Forrest F. Cooke & August Sandburg
September 16, 2013 Forrest F. Cooke, Mayor
September 9, 2013 Dusty Streets
September 2, 2013 Typhoid Fever
August 26, 2013 Coffee and Water
August 19, 2013 A Horse! A Horse!
August 12, 2013 Gaddial Scott
August 5, 2013 The Racetrack
July 29, 2013 John Peter Algeld - Part II
July 22, 2013 John Peter Altgeld - Part I
July 15, 2013 Tramps, Tramps, Tramps
July 8, 2013 Lady Liberty
July 1, 2013 Galesburg's Fourth
June 24, 2013 John H. Finley
June 17, 2013 The World's Columbian Exhibition
June 10, 2013 Fruit Short-Cake
June 3, 2013 Horatio Alger, Author
May 27, 2013 Memorial Day, 1887
May 20, 2013 Professor Jon W. Grubb
May 13, 2013 Beginnings of Lombard University
May 6, 2013 Young Sandburg’s View of Lombard College
April 29, 2013 Thinking
April 22, 2013 Robert Colville, Master Mechanic
April 15, 2013 The Galesburg Opera House
April 8, 2013 Grocery Stores and Sample Rooms
April 1, 2013  A Hearty  Breakfast 
March 25, 2013  The Lost Wallpaper Legend 
March 18, 2013 Martin G. Sandburg
March 4, 2013 The Edison Talking Machine
February 25, 2013 Joe Elser, Civil War Veteran
February 18, 2013 Remember the Maine...
February 11, 2013 Lincoln's Birthday
February 4, 2013 Curiosity
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