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As some of you know, my sisters and I are members of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. Last week, my sister’s chapter, Little Fort Chapter of Waukegan, IL received NSDAR’s National Winner of the Heritage Preservation Project Award. I want you to read this article so that you can see just what a small group of people can accomplish working together with a small community. To date they have received $60,000 because they had to add a handicap access ramp. I remember Esther’s Well as just a place where my cousins and I could play during family Labor Day picnics at the park. There was no fountain, it was just a cement area that was close enough to be seen by our parents and yet far enough away to be fun.
On June 25, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) awarded Waukegan-based Little Fort Chapter for their involvement in the community-wide project to bring Esther’s Well in Zion’s Shiloh Park back to a bit of it former glory.
Built in 1902, the well was named as a memorial to Esther Dowie, who died in a fire in Chicago. The well sits across the street from Christ Community Church, which Rev. John Alexander Dowie founded, along with the City of Zion. After meeting with the Zion Park District and Susan Deedon of “I Love Zion”, members of NSDAR Little Fort Chapter cleaned up the well and planted a shrub and flowers in the dirt above the capped well. The Zion Park District power washed the cement.
One week later, there was a tragedy that made national headlines, the July 4th Highland Park shootings, which affected some members of the Zion community. The well became a focal point of prayer and healing for the city.
Community members included the Zion Garden Club, The Zion Historical Society, the Scout Troup 663 and many individual contributors. Eventually, the community raised more than $46,000 to completely restore the well. Groundbreaking occurred June 21, 2023. The steps were removed, the concrete repaired, a new handicapped accessible walkaway installed and a fountain replaced the center plantings. Little Fort Chapter Regent Karen Stiehr, who collected the award in Washington, D.C. emphasized, “This is personal to me and my family.” Stiehr’s great-grandmother Ida May Galloway Evans was Esther’s nurse. She was also badly burned when she tried to help Esther. “This is kind of a family redemption, if you like.” Evans would leave husband and children behind to join other relatives in Missouri. “She suffered the trauma of this experience for the rest of her life.”
For more information, see “Groundbreaking for Easther’s” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB7nFvJtIHM
Pastor Bev Williams
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