October 4 Illinois History Minute

It’s October 4th. And St. John’s College of Nursing in Springfield was founded on this day in 1886. The school started as a training program for religious sisters at Springfield’s St. John’s Hospital, and later expanded into a degree program. St. John’s is the oldest Catholic, hospital-based, school of nursing in the country.

The Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery near Joliet was dedicated this week in 1999. The nearly thousand-acre veterans cemetery takes up part of the grounds of the old Joliet Arsenal. Veterans buried at the cemetery include Illinois Congressmen George Sangmeister and Gus Savage, doo-wop and R&B singer Johnny Carter and Civil War Medal of Honor recipient Theodore Hyatt, recognized for gallantry during the 1863 Siege of Vicksburg.