Members of the Central Illinois Living Historians dressed in Civil War attire for the October 12 Peoria County 8166 Civil War Monument rededication ceremony at Springdale Cemetery on Prospect Road. Other members of the group also dressed in period clothing and mingled with guests before the ceremony. (Photo by Holly Eitenmiller / For Chronicle Media)

To a passerby, a piece of stone jutting from the soil of Detweiller Marina might’ve inspired little more than slight curiosity and a passing glance.

But for local historians Bruce Brown, Norm Kelly and Bob Hoffer, it was a treasured piece of Peoria history.

“It was just a block, buried there, but Norm knew it,” Brown said of the first piece they investigated in 2017. “He knew it was a piece of the Civil War monument.”It was the first of 55 sections of the Peoria County 1866 Civil War Monument, “The Shaft”, to be unearthed at Detweiller Marina, and on Oct. 12, the monument was rededicated at Springdale Cemetery on Prospect Road.

The monument was first dedicated on Oct. 11, 1866 at the former Peoria County Courthouse, and stood until1962, when the new courthouse was built. It was disassembled, then, and cast aside and mostly forgotten.

“Springdale Cemetery was actually the first choice for the monument in 1866, but, for some reason, they decided to place it at the courthouse,” Brown said. “Now it’s here, at the cemetery, where it was always meant to stand.”

The Shaft was crafted in memory of the 607 Peoria County soldiers who died in the Civil War. It had been little more than a year since the war’s end when it was put in place, and nearly 30,000 people came to view its dedication.

Then, Old Abe, the eagle mascot for the Wisconsin infantry division, topped the memorial. Unfortunately, Old Abe had disintegrated and the 12-foot upper column couldn’t be found at the marina.“We found out, though, that the same company in Indiana that made the monument was still in business,” Brown said. “Old Abe and the top of The Shaft was recreated by that company, from some of the same stone.”

The Memorial couldn’t come closer to its original form, he said, fighting back tears. Saturday was an emotional day for Brown, who worked tirelessly with Kelly and Hoffer to resurrect the memorial.It cost $75,000 to bring the 30-foot monument to stand at the cemetery, and some of the money came from public donations.

Some of it came from a $100,000 state improvement fund that was granted to Springdale Cemetery for improvements.State Sen. Dave Koehler (D-Peoria) also had a hand in the project with an appropriation in the the recent state capital bill that brought in a considerable source of funds.

On Saturday, the monument was shrouded in a tarp crafted by art students from Peoria Heights High School, who worked for more than a year to adorn it with a soldier’s boots, the American Flag, and an eagle.

A bagpiper played the hymn, “Amazing Grace”, there was a 21-gun salute, an invocation was made and numerous people spoke of their roles in bringing The Shaft to stand. It was 153 years from then, almost to the day, that the monument was first dedicated.

For Brown, the longest leg its journey, he believes, began in 2017, and it was difficult for him to find the best words to summarize his emotions at the monument’s re-dedication ceremony.“After 33 months, guess who’s going to sleep very, very well tonight,” Brown said with a relieved chuckle.