(Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to give the correct date of the opening program.)

This semester Booth Library will dive into the history of Coles County with the Parker family, who were some of the first white settlers of Coles County in 1824.

Allen Lanham, the dean of library services, said the library will have a series focused around Quanah and Cynthia Ann Parker.

The opening program will be at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 20 in the Buzzard Hall Auditorium. The exhibit will run from Feb. 7 through April 9.  The programs on campus will take place on Feb. 20, 21 and 23.

“Booth Library always likes it when there is a local connection to the topic,” he said.

“This particular one was brought to our attention by a community researcher who heard of a film that has been hidden or lost for many years and now has come to light again.”

This film was becoming modernized through the different techniques possible, and the researcher asked the library if they would like to purchase the film, Lanham said.

The story is on Cynthia Ann Parker and her son Quanah Parker and how Quanah was the last Comanche chief, who are a plains Indians tribe.

Lanham said the local connection was that his mother was from Coles County and lived near Lake Charleston before she and her family left to Texas in 1833.

“We thought many people are not aware of that fact,” he said. “As we began exploring, people kept turning up who knew a bit more about the story or knew a different portion of the story.”

Those people were put into a symposium for this series, Lanham said.

The people involved are outside scholars along with professors and speakers from Eastern who have done research on Native American and local Illinois topics.

Those who have studied this story’s presence in film in the last century will also be talked about in this series, he said.

About three films will be shown for the series. Lanham said they will relate to Native American topics.

Eastern professors will lead discussions afterward based on the films shown.

“Who knew that this was all related to just outside of Charleston,” he said.

This is not just a cute little story on how somebody got in a covered wagon and drove to Texas, Lanham said.

“I think part of some of the activities for youngsters is to impress how far you can go in one day on a good day back then,” he said.  “And it is not just children who need to learn this.”

Stephanie White can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].