Petersburg in Menard County, Illinois — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)
Edgar Lee Masters
Boyhood Home and Memorial Museun
Photographed by Thomas Smith, September 22, 2025
1. Edgar Lee Masters Marker
Petersburg and other western Illinois towns provided Masters with the subjects for his 1915 book of free verse poems, SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY. The book became an international best seller, changed the course of American literature, and made him World famous.
Masters was a frequent visitor to Petersburg even after moving to Chicago to pursue careers in law and literature. In 1936, he was honored at Petersburg's centennial and returned mentally many times thereafter, as in this poem:
Petersburg is my heart's home.
There I knew at first earth's sun and air;
Still I can see the hills around it.
The people that walked its business square
The home is owned by the City of Peterburg and managed by the Edgar Lee Masters Memorial Museum Inc., a 501c3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving the childhood home of Edgar Lee Master while promoting Illinois history, poetry, and the arts for present and future generations.
Erected 2002
this page online
Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Arts, Letters, Music. A significant historical year for this entry is 1870.
Location. 40° 0.621′ N, 89° 51.05′ W. Marker is in Petersburg, Illinois, in Menard County. It is at the intersection of S. Eighth Street and W. Jackson Street, on the left when traveling north on S. Eighth Street. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Petersburg IL 62675, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Central Illinois, specifically in the Illinois River Valley, and in Greater Springfield. It is also in the American Midwest and in the Corn Belt. Globally, it is in North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture and also the Northwest Territory.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: R & D Frackelton General Store (within shouting distance of this marker); The Frackelton State Bank (about 300 feet away, measured
Photographed by Thomas Smith, September 22, 2025
2. Edgar Lee Masters Marker
Also see . . . Spoon River Anthology (Wikipedia). Overview:
Spoon River Anthology is a 1915 collection of short free verse poems by Edgar Lee Masters. The poems collectively narrate the epitaphs of the residents of Spoon River, a fictional small town named after the Spoon River, which ran near Masters's home town of Lewistown, Illinois. The aim of the poems is to demystify rural and small town American life. The collection includes 212 separate characters, in all providing 244 accounts of their lives, losses, and manners of death. Many of the poems contain cross-references that create a candid tapestry of the community. The poems originally were published in 1914 in the St. Louis, Missouri, literary journal Reedy's Mirror, under the pseudonym Webster Ford.(Submitted on October 2, 2025.)
Credits. This page was last revised on October 2, 2025. It was originally submitted on September 26, 2025, by Thomas Smith of Waterloo, Ill. This page has been viewed 119 times since then and 54 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on September 26, 2025, by Thomas Smith of Waterloo, Ill. • Andrew Ruppenstein was the editor who published this page.
