Founders Day to spotlight history of KSB Hospital

DIXON – The annual Founders Day presentation will feature historic healthcare in rural communities and the founding of KSB Hospital.

Dixon Chamber of Commerce & Main Street, the Lee County Historical and Genealogical Society, and KSB Hospital will sponsor the free program April 15 at the Northwest Territory Historic Center, 205 W. Fifth St.

Doors open at 6 p.m. with the program beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The program will be presented by Erin Thompson, a writer and curator for the Dillon Home Museum in Sterling. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and two master’s degrees in creative writing.

Her 2013 book, “Relentless, Envious Death: The Biographies of Katherine Shaw Bethea and Solomon Hicks Bethea” will be sold.

Founders Day is April 11, but it falls within Easter weekend so the event was pushed.

Water, coffee and dessert will be available.

Past Founders Day topics include the history of the Dixon Memorial Arch, which turned 100 last year, former Illinois Lt. Gov. Sherwood Dixon, the Truesdell Bridge collapse of 1873, the murder that Bloody Gulch Road is named after, as well as prominent figures in the city’s history.