American Revolutionary War "Minuteman" Memorial - Danville, IL
Posted by: 
adgorn
N 40° 07.718 W 087° 37.792
16T E 446335 N 4442224
A four foot tall bronze statue bearing a traditional Revolutionary War uniform and a tricorn hat, on a 8 1/2 foot tall granite base. In front is a granite fountain, three feet tall by five feet wide (no longer working.)
Waymark Code: WM92GP
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 06/18/2010
Views: 5
Acc'd to the Smithsonian database, the base was designed by Henry Bacon (1866-1924) and the sculpture by Daniel Chester French (1850-1931). Additional research from the article below indicates the statue was actually executed by Paul Manship.
"Shortly after Manship returned to the United States (from Rome)in the autumn of 1912, French recommended him for two commissions: ..., the other was for a bronze statue of a Revolutionary War soldier for Danville, Illinois (1913-14), for which French designed the memorial setting and oversaw contract and production details. His largesse is summarized in a December 1913 letter in which he told Manship, "Your success is a great satisfaction to me.""
Daniel Chester French, Paul Manship, and the "John Pierpont Morgan Memorial" for the Metropolitan Museum Author(s): Thayer Tolles Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 41 (2006), pp. 171-193, 16, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Cast at the Jno. Williams, Inc. foundry in New York.
The "Lincoln's Memorial" in Washington, DC was designed by the same men - Henry Bacon the stone work, Daniel Chester French the sculptures.
Inscription in the stone in the ground in front:
Statue Erected
by
Daughters of the American Revolution
in Memory of Soldiers of the War for Independence
who are buried in Vermilion County.
William Adams • David Baird • Jacob Gundy • Hugh King • Thomas Morton • Joseph Coughran • Thomas Makemson • John Frazier • James Hals • David Herrington • Zachariah Robertson • Kinzer Dickerson • Robert Brownfield • William Harris • George Fithian
And in a bronze plaque on the base: "Erected 1915 by Governor Bradford Chapter National Society Daughters of American Revolution."
Above the plaque is the year 1776 and laurel leaves, in bronze.
Marker is on North Vermilion Street north of East Harrison Street, on the right when traveling north, in front of the Federal Building and US Courthouse, 201 N. Vermilion St.
You can see that it takes its character from French's Minuteman in Concord, MA (see (
visit link) )however the design is different. Very fitting however!