Women Artists and the Civil War

Sculptors Edith Freeman Sherman and Lily Tolpo made significant contributions to the county's two  public Civil War monuments in Waukegan. 

Edith Freeman Sherman, circa 1960. News-Sun photo. 

Though no battles were fought here, Lake County gave significant support to the war effort, sending nearly 2,000 men to fight to preserve the Union and ultimately to abolish slavery. Communities rallied around the soldiers, and women coordinated donations of quilts and bandages, and advocated for better care of the sick and wounded.

After the war ended in 1865, a Soldiers Monument Association was formed to commemorate the war dead. It would take 34 years to raise enough money to build a monument. Edith Freeman Sherman (1876-1970) was selected to create four bronze panels for the base of the monument; panels depicted the county’s troops in the infantry, artillery, cavalry, and navy. 

Sherman was a talented sculptor and graduate of the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. Her instructor in the Sculpture Department was American sculptor, writer and educator, Lorado Taft. Years later, her fellow alum considered her an "important sculptress" in Chicago. 

One of her most prominent commissions was to create four bronze panels for the sides of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, which was erected on Waukegan's courthouse square in August 1899. In addition to her talent as a sculptor, her family's connection to the Civil War made her the perfect choice for the commission. 

Edith Sherman's grandfather 1st Lt. Addison B. Partridge (1807-1888), and uncle Sgt. Major Charles A. Partridge (1843-1910) both served in Company C of the 96th Illinois Regiment. Her father, Isaac A. Freeman (1840-1923), served with the 1st Vermont Cavalry. Additionally, uncle Charles was the 96th Illinois' historian and chairman of the monument association. (For more info, read my post on Addison Partridge).

Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Waukegan courthouse square. 
Dedicated August 29, 1899. Dunn Museum 61.8.88.

Soldiers and Sailors Monument with one of Edith Freeman's bronze friezes. Photo D. Dretske, Dunn Museum. 

The panels Sherman created represented dynamic images of the four aspects of military service during the Civil War. She gave up a summer trip to Europe to do the work, but the commission meant more to her than the vacation. In 1907, she married Edwin T. Sherman and set aside her art career to raise her family. After her husband's death in 1945, Edith returned to a full-time career as an artist. 

Ninety-six years later, Lily Tolpo was commissioned for another Civil War monument.

Lily Tolpo, circa 1960. Online.

Lily Tolpo (1917 - 2015) was the eldest of five children in a Chinese-Polish American family. She learned to play violin and performed as a Vaudeville musician from 1935-39, before becoming a professional artist and sculptor.

Tolpo was commissioned to do a pair of bronze bas relief plaques to complete a project started by her late husband, Carl Tolpo (1901 - 1976).

Lincoln Monument west side of county courthouse, Waukegan. Photo D. Dretske, Dunn Museum.

Lincoln monument by Carl Tolpo (1968), bronze plaques by Lily Tolpo (1996).
Lake County courthouse, Waukegan. 

In 1968, Lake County commissioned Carl Tolpo to make one of his famous Lincoln monuments. There were to be two plaques on the sides of the pedestal, but funds were not available to complete the project. The monument remained unfinished for nearly three decades.

Lily Tolpo with one of her clay models for the plaques. The image illustrates Abraham Lincoln's visit to
Waukegan on April 2, 1860. Northwestern Illinois Farmer photo.

In 1995, the county revived the Lincoln monument project and reached out to Lily Tolpo to complete her late husband’s work. Lily Mark Tolpo was an accomplished Lincoln sculptor and artist in her own right, and had previously created a hanging sculpture for the county’s courthouse. Lily was a graduate of the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts where she was a student of American sculptor, Lorado Taft.

According to Tolpo, she used her husband's concepts but rendered them "in another style more in keeping with the head [of the monument]." Her relief style captured "life-like reality and action."

Detail from Lily Tolpo's clay model for plaque. Featured on the plaque are some of Waukegan's
most prominent men: (left to right) Mayor Elisha Ferry, Samuel Greenleaf and Henry Blodgett. 

The scene represented on the plaque above depicts the evening of April 2, 1860 when Abraham Lincoln gave a speech in Waukegan. The speech was interrupted by a fire at the Case Warehouse at the North Pier. Tradition has it that Lincoln helped the citizens of Waukegan put out the fire. Lincoln spent the night at the home of Mayor Elisha Ferry. The Ferry home still stands at the northwest corner of Julian and County Streets.

In 2014, the Bess Bower Dunn Museum (formerly Lake County Discovery Museum) received a donation from ArtbyTolpoartist.com of the molds for Lily Tolpo's bronze plaques, and the model for Carl Tolpo's Lincoln monument. 

Nearly 100 years separated the work of Edith Freeman Sherman and Lily Tolpo on the monuments. Both women were talented sculptors and uniquely qualified to lend their artistry in commemorating Lake County’s role in the Civil War. 

On your next visit to Waukegan, take a stroll around the courthouse to view the impressive monuments and the work of these artists in person.

Joice Family of Ivanhoe - African-American Settlers

In 1862, James Joice (1822 - 1872), an enslaved African American from Kentucky, became the cook and valet for First Lieutenant Addison Partridge (1807 - 1888) of the 96th Illinois Regiment. 

Joice's service with the Union Army would lead him and his family to freedom in Lake County, Illinois.

Addison Partridge of Ivanhoe from the "History of the Ninety-Sixth Regiment Illinois Volunteers" 1887.

During the Civil War, it was common for enslaved men to approach Union troops "desiring to accompany the command." However, it was tricky business for the troops to accept these men into their camps since the Fugitive Slave Laws made it illegal.

The 96th Illinois's officers "nearly all were radically opposed to slavery, and the negro who sought refuge in the camp was protected, but in such a manner as not to involve any one in a legal way." They accomplished this in part by not allowing citizens into camp whenever it was suspected they were hunting for runaway slaves.

In late October 1862, in Crittenden, Kentucky, James Joice approached the men of the 96th Illinois to "be of service" to their command. 

Crittenden, Kentucky, the area believed to be where James Joice first encountered the 96th Illinois, located to the left and below Cincinnati, Ohio, at the top of the map. The map shows the lines of march of the 96th Illinois Regiment through Kentucky. "History of the Ninety-Sixth Regiment Illinois Volunteers," 1887.

On November 2, Joice assisted Lieutenant Montgomery and a dozen soldiers of Company D on a foraging expedition as its "pilot" or guide. He directed them to a plantation, where Lt. Montgomery knocked on the door and spoke to a man explaining that they were a "detachment from the command encamped on Eagle Creek, and that, being short of rations, they had come for a few bushels of potatoes... if he was a loyal citizen a receipt would be given so that he could collect pay."

The man pretended there were no potatoes on the plantation, but Joice had assured the Lieutenant that there were potatoes in the fields. The Lieutenant kept the man occupied by making him repeat a long oath, while the soldiers went in search of the potatoes, which they found.

After this incident, Joice remained with the 96th Illinois "until Nashville was reached" as First Lieutenant Addison Partridge's cook and valet. Partridge was a known abolitionist, and his influence on Company C was "excellent as he helped in making both its moral and military standing high."

In February 1863, Partridge resigned his commission when he was unable to sufficiently recover after contracting “camp disease.” Joice accompanied Partridge to his home in Ivanhoe, Lake County, Illinois, (then known as Dean's Corners), where Partridge owned 80 acres.

View of Ivanhoe, previously known as Dean's Corners, circa 1913. Courtesy of private collector. 

After the war's end in spring 1865, Joice returned to Kentucky to bring his wife, Jenna "Jemima" Scruggs (1834 - 1920) and their young children Asa (1860 - 1924) and Sarah (1863 - 1941), back with him to Lake County, Illinois.

James Joice's wife and daughter, Jenna and Sarah, pictured at a picnic in Ivanhoe, 1897. Dunn Museum 76.30

Census records list Jenna and Sarah's occupations as "servant" and "housekeeper." 

In 1897, the Lake County Independent noted that Miss Sarah Joice "is taking orders for carpet stretchers." 

James Joice worked as a farm laborer, and over the years his family lived in rented homes along Route 176 near Lincoln School in Mundelein and further west near Ivanhoe. They eventually settled on a 10-acre farm on Route 60, one-quarter mile south of Hawley Street.

Fremont Township plat map (1907) with Asa Joice's property highlighted in green. 

Asa and Sarah attended Mechanics Grove School where they took piano and singing lessons. They were small children when they came to Lake County, and by all rights, this was the only home they knew. According to census records, the entire Joice family could read and write. 

On Joice's death in 1872, the Waukegan Gazette ran a short column: "Death to Colored Citizen - On Tuesday last occurred the death of James Joyce of Fremont in this County. 'Darky Jim' as he was familiarly known was with the Ninety Sixth Ill. Regt. during a part of their term of service and has most of the time since the war lived in the vicinity of Diamond Lake. He leaves a wife in rather destitute circumstances."

The Joices were members of the Ivanhoe Congregational Church, and attended prayer meetings. Asa served as church clerk and Sunday school treasurer.

Ivanhoe Congregational Church, circa 1913. Before and during the Civil War, this congregation was outspoken against slavery. Image courtesy of private collector. 

Jenna, Asa, and Sarah Joice were members of the Christian Endeavor Society, which was founded in 1881  in Maine. The CE became a national organization and took up many causes, including the temperance movement. In June 1897, Asa was elected as the local CE Society's president.

Christian Endeavor Society picnic on the grounds of the Ivanhoe Congregational Church, 1897. Asa Joice is seated in the middle to the right of center, and his mother and sister are standing to the far right. Dunn Museum 76.30

In addition to being a farm laborer, the civic-minded Asa became the first African-American elected to public office in Lake County. In 1889, he was elected as town constable and re-elected to the post for nine years.

Asa Joice photographed at a church picnic in 1897. Dunn Museum 76.30

On June 24, 1898, the Lake County Independent reported, "Constable Asa Joice of Ivanhoe arrested Charles Ray, a character who some years ago was employed in the Gilmer creamery..." In Lake Mills, Wisconsin, Ray had allegedly stolen a horse and a rig from a doctor and was traced to Diamond Lake (where the Ray clan lived).

Constable Joice took Ray before Justice Berghorn of Rockefeller (Mundelein) for a hearing, where Ray pleaded guilty. Joice then took him to the Waukegan jail "where he was lodged in default of bail to await the action of [the Grand Jury]." Shockingly, the next morning, Ray was found dead, supposedly of apoplexy.

Sarah and Jenna Joice were photographed on their farm in 1917. 

Photo courtesy of the Mundelein Heritage Museum.

In 1920, Jenna Scruggs Joice died after becoming ill while tending to influenza patients. She likely contracted the flu from being close to the sick. The flu pandemic lasted from June 1918 to December 1920, mainly striking healthy young adults and killing at least 3% of the world's population.

Asa Joice passed away in 1924 in Elgin, and Sarah Joice lived on her own near Ivanhoe until her death in 1941.

Ivanhoe Cemetery, circa 1918. Dunn Museum 2003.0.26

All members of the Joice family are buried at the Ivanhoe Church Cemetery on Route 176. 

For more on the 96th Illinois Infantry and their role as an "Abolition Regiment," read The Bonds of War: A Story of Immigrants and Esprit de Corps in Company C, 96th Illinois Volunteer Infantry by Diana Dretske. Available from SIUPress.com. 

- Diana Dretske, Curator ddretske@lcfpd.org