Bureau County Genealogy to lead program on organist Virgil Fox

Esther Tracy, a Bureau County Genealogy Society volunteer, will present “Virgil Fox and the Community He Loved” at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 25.

Tracy was a teacher in Bureau County for 39 years and a former president of BCGS. For five years the speaker did local research on Fox to fulfill the requests from a New Jersey gentleman whose life had been greatly touched from the moment he first heard Fox in a concert that he attended when he was only a child. He later became an organist himself.

Fox, a musical prodigy, warmly announced Princeton as his hometown in organ concerts across the United States and abroad. This presentation will discuss his Bureau County roots, but most importantly it will walk the audience through the life that Fox experienced while growing up in the community. In that respect anyone who has historical interest in the early 1900s in this area would likely learn some details that would be of interest, especially if they also had ancestors living here at that time. Learn about the schools he attended, the musicians who taught him, his Boy Scout experiences, the homes his family lived in, and more.

Throughout the program the speaker will insert useful research tips.

The public is invited to attend this free presentation. The genealogical society is located at 629 S. Main St., Princeton. They are open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and the first Saturday of each month. For information, call 815-879-3133.