http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2005/06/01/local/columns/iq_3524917.txt
A unique funeral will feature the re-enactment of a debate between Martin
Secor, a politically independent, religious free thinker who was outspoken
about what was occurring in society. Secor's epitaph: "The world is my
home. To do good is my religion. Why did a good God create a bad devil?"
Racine Journal Times
By Phyllis Sides
If you happen to pass Mound Cemetery at about 11 a.m. on June 6 and wonder
who those women are, women who look as if they've stepped from the pages
of Godey's Lady's Book, a popular 19th century woman's magazine, don't
hesitate to stop and ask.
They're Kim Fairbanks and her sister, Candy, the great-granddaughters of
Martin Mathias Secor, one of Racine's 19th-century mayors and one of its
more eccentric citizens. And the two have come to Racine to bury their
mother, Jean Fairbanks Vones, in the family plot at the cemetery.
And they won't mind if you'd like to stick around.
"We're inviting anyone who might be interested in the history," said
Candy, who is just Candy. It's her legal name.
It was Vones' wish to be buried with her parents, grandparents and other
relatives. To mark the occasion, the sisters plan for the Rev. Randy Bush
to recreate a sermonic debate he performed in October of 1994 with Doug
Instenes of the Racine Theatre Guild as Secor.
Bush, who is pastor of First Presbyterian Church, also will perform a
memorial service for Vones.
The debate between Secor and the church was about his views on religion,
Bush said. The idea came from Secor's epitaph. "The world is my home. To
do good is my religion. Why did a good God create a bad devil?"
The idea developed as he thought how would he answer that question, Bush
said.
"I was intrigued by the quote on his tombstone."
The sisters had heard about Bush's sermon and thought it would give their
mother's burial character and meaning, Candy said. "My mother was a little
eccentric, and I think she would have enjoyed it. I grew up fascinated by
him (Secor), and my mother was into family history."
Secor was born in Bohemia in 1841 and he came to Caledonia with his family
when he was 10. He was one of the city's first industrialists and one of
its most colorful characters.
He is the only Racine mayor to survive an assassination attempt, and once
sued the Chicago Tribune for insinuating that he and his friends were
drunks.
As a young man Secor learned the harness-maker's trade. He married Fanny
Hayek and ran a harness-making business from the kitchen of their home at
89 Main St.
The business grew into a major trunk manufacturing company, the M.M. Secor
Trunk Co. In 1879, Secor changed the name of the company to the
Northwestern Trunk and Traveling Bag Manufactory Co. Ltd.
Secor was mayor from 1884-85 and 1888-89.
The Secors eventually made their home on Milwaukee Avenue, which is now
Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, in a mansion that is now Homeward Bound, a
shelter for women and children.
The house and grounds were a cross between an elegant botanical garden and
the city's first zoo. The grounds consisted of flower-lined walkways, two
conservatories, a five-basin water fountain with goldfish and a large
vegetable garden.
Over the years his menagerie included a monkey, two bears, six deer, seven
peacocks, several parrots, mockingbirds, a coyote, rabbits and a goat.
He once threatened to slaughter any loose dog he saw because the "vicious
canines" had found their way into his back yard, where they killed a few
of his peacocks and harassed his pet deer.
Secor was politically independent, a religious free thinker and outspoken
about what was occurring in society. During his first mayoral term he
proposed creating a blacklist of drunkards, to be posted in saloons.
Penalties would be invoked for those found guilty of selling spirits to
anyone on the list.
He once wrote that America was a land "where we make bologna out of dogs,
canned beef out of horses and sick cows, and corpses out of the people who
eat it ... where good whiskey makes bad men and bad men make good whiskey
...."
Phyllis Sides is a reporter for The Journal Times. This column, about the
good stories of good people in Racine County, appears each Thursday. She
can be reached at (262) 631-1714 or by e-mail at:
psides@journaltimes.com
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