The November 10 meeting of the McDonough County Historical Society will be held at the Spoon River Community College Outreach Center on East Jackson Street, at 7:00 p.m. As usual, the meeting is not just for Society members but is open to the general public.
The program, by retired WIU history professor Sterling Kernek, will focus on the remarkable origin of higher education in Macomb, which began with the establishment of McDonough College in 1836. Kernek has been researching this topic for some time and will focus on the fascinating higher education effort that helped to transform Macomb’s culture at the time of early settlement. That frontier college, a true institution of higher learning headed by a university-educated president, launched the tradition that eventually led to Western Illinois University and Spoon River College.
