BOOK EXPLORES HISTORY OF ILLINOIS

George Washington, The Battle of Little Big Horn, the Alamo, McCarthyism, the atomic bomb.

Almost everyone who has studied U.S. history will remember those wide array of historical names and events.

But do names like John A. "Black Jack" Logan, the Great Floating Hindoo Pagoda, Fort Massac and Va Bache ring any bells?

These names are indeed historical but on a different plane from those found in a basic history book. They can be found in a book called "A History of Southernmost Illinois."

John Asa Beadles, an instructor at St. Louis Community College at Meramec, is the author of the book, for which he started research in 1975.

"I'm so relieved to get this done," said Beadles, who grew up in Cairo, Ill. "I'm glad it's edited, that it's published, and that it is listed with the Library of Congress."

Beadles based his book on five counties in Southern Illinois: Alexander, Pulaski, Massac, Johnson and Union. The time period he set up for his study of the region was 800 A.D.- 1873 (after the Civil War).

Of course, you might wonder why do a study on Southern Illinois. Beadles was given a grant through the Comprehensive Employment Training Act (CETA), sponsored by the Shawnee Development Council. Shawnee College also sponsored the study so that Beadles could develop a course on the history of southernmost Illinois.

"At the time," he said, "a lot of people were out of work and I was one of them. CETA would hire trained people to do projects just like government agencies did back in the 1930s during The Great Depression.

"It's really surprising how much talent you can find during a recession. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me. I don't think anything like CETA will ever exist again because of the national debt.

Beadles said he spent about three years (1975-77) doing research in the area with his assistants Mickey Jackson and Kathy Jo Travis. He said the three-year period was enough time to find all that he needed.

"The time period we studied," he said, "had been studied so much before that we really just wanted to do more of a synthesis on the information. We had to limit the length severely because of that.

"You could spend a lifetime doing research, and by the time you finished you would have a `Magna Opus.'

"You have to look at a project and see what you can do with it. You really can't get too picky or esoteric with your information. Your main goal should be to get it out on paper."

Beadles said the people of Southern Illinois were helpful in his quest to seek knowledge.

"For the most part, everybody we encountered was very supportive of our work," he said. "They welcomed us with open arms everywhere we went. There were times where we would be working in open fields, and I still had New York plates on my car, and nobody even shot at us."

He said the most interesting time period he enjoyed studying was the Civil War.

"Generally speaking," he said, "the military and naval forces during the war were so modern for their time. Everything was so strategic and done in a modern frame of mind despite not having the best weapons to fight with. They weren't any different from us, actually."

There have been 500 copies of the book made so far. Even though it is intended for course work, Beadles said he has had offers from bookstores in Carbondale, Ill.

"They are interested in this," said Beadles, "because there hasn't been much done on the area."

With the book taking a good 15 years, Beadles, who is nearing 50, said he probably could not do another project like it.

"I was young and vigorous back then when I was researching," he said. "It takes a certain amount of energy to go at research, and younger people go about research with an energetic attitude. I do think that with writing, though, the more mature a person gets, the better writer that person becomes because usually they are more patient by then."

Beadles resides in Kirkwood, Mo., and still teaches social studies at Meramec, where he has been since 1983. He has a bachelor's degree in social science from Millikin University in Decatur, Ill., a master's of social science from the University of Illinois and a doctorate in social science from Syracuse University in New York.