PELLA —

Opening Day Ceremony set for Sept. 15 (10 a.m., on north side of Tulip Toren)

• Flags will be presented by Co. ‘A’, 49th Regiment Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry
• Music by the Pella City Band
• Medley of Civil War tunes sung by the Central College Chamber Singers
• Orations by:  Pella Mayor, Jim Mueller; Central College President, Dr. Mark Putnam,  Lincoln Historian, Dr. Ron. Rietveld
• 200 small flags will be distributed by Pella’s Boy and Girl Scouts
• The Central College Chamber Singers will end the program with their rendition of the Battle Hymn of the Republic as a wreath is placed at the base of the Colonel Hobbs Civil War Statue, Central Park, Pella Flags presented by  Iowa Post 89, American Legion -  Pella
• In case of rain the ceremony will be held at Pella’s Community Center
• Contact Ellie Gosselink, Exhibit Coordinator  641-780-6398  or email egosselink@yahoo.com for additional information.

• Opening September 15, 2012 through November 15, 2012
• Scholte House Museum
• Hours: Monday – Friday 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. – Tours available from 9 until noon, weekdays by appointment by calling 641-628-3684
• Thursdays – 1-8 p.m., Saturdays – 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. and Closed Sundays
• Free Admission to all who visit our Civil War Exhibit filled with unique and informative displays, thanks to a grant from the Pella Community Foundation

Pella in the 1860s was a struggling young community; it had been fourteen years since the Dutch immigrants arrived in 1847.

The town's infancy did not deter the patriotic fever that consumed Pella as the boys and men of Pella, Central College and Marion County stepped forward to answer the Union’s call. George A. Jewett, in his article REMINISCENCES, describes Pella at the start of the Civil War. His family moved to Pella in 1857 so that George and his older brother Homer could attend Central College.

“…old Central campus was but a vacant prairie; …I soon formed acquaintances with my Holland friends.  The cordiality, the hospitality, the sincerity of these people has always remained with me as a delightful inspiration…

…What great times we had during the Lincoln-Hamlin campaign.  We organized a junior Wide Awake Club, wore capes and caps and carried a torch and halloed for Lincoln while the older boys were in the regular Wide Awake club.  I remember one time during that campaign when we went with wagons across to Knoxville and took part in a parade.  Then came the Civil War and the shot was fired on Fort Sumter and what exciting times we were having in school in those days.  In our literary society we were debating in reference to the Dred Scott decision, was slavery to be carried into the territories, was Mason and Dixon line to be extended west to the Pacific?  We were in earnest as if the fate of the union depended on these debates.  Then came the call to arms when every able-bodied young man in Central enlisted in the war.  I was but thirteen and one-half years old and deep was my regret at the time that I could not go…”

The Civil War Exhibit at the Scholte House Museum is filled with unique civil war displays focusing on 1860s Pella.

The display describes the war’s impact in Pella in 1861 and how the community responded to support a civil war that lasted five long years. The war left Marion County dealing with hardships, along with the loss of loved ones.

Dr. Ron Rietveld has spent the past year researching newly uncovered information on the role of prominent Dr. Benjamin Franklin Keables of Pella, a surgeon who was officially designated “a brave man," and served the 3rd Iowa Infantry until he was mustered out in 1864. New information will be also displayed on Pella’s Henry P. Scholte and his personal relationship with Lincoln from 1860 until Lincoln’s death on April 15, 1865.

Original signal messages transmitted by Pvt. Herman Bousquet when he served with the newly formed U.S. Signal Corp in 1864 at Vicksburg, Miss., is one of our special displays. Bousquet saved 61 handwritten messages, many written by two Union generals, Brigadier General McPherson and Brigadier General Hawkins. The messages tell of the Union officers and men trying to move equipment up and down the Mississippi River along with dealing with many problems after the siege of Vicksburg.

Watch the Civil War in 4 Minutes, a video provided by special permission from the Lincoln Library in Springfield, Illinois.

A special video has been assembled that show the troop movements of the ten Iowa regiments that Marion County men served in during the war. These Iowa regiments played important roles in the major battles of Shiloh and the taking of Vicksburg.