Roald Tweet
Writer and Narrator of 'Rock Island Lines'Beginning 1995, historian and folklorist Dr. Roald Tweet spun his stories of the Mississippi Valley to a devoted audience on WVIK. Dr. Tweet published three books as well as numerous literary articles and recorded segments of "Rock Island Lines." His inspiration was that "kidney-shaped limestone island plunked down in the middle of the Mississippi River," a logical site for a storyteller like Dr. Tweet.
It was from Rock Island’s rich heritage that Dr. Tweet spun his histories, biographies and "stretchers." Among his favorite topics were railroads and riverboats, which he combined on a CD in celebration of the Grand Excursion in 2004. "Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet" received awards from the Illinois Historical Society as well as the Towner Award from the Illinois Humanities Council.
Dr. Tweet was professor emeritus, retired from the Augustana College English department, where he was professor and Conrad Bergendoff Chair in the Humanities. A writer and radio personality, Dr. Tweet was also an accomplished woodcarver and whittler.
Dr. Tweet left us in November of 2020, but his legacy lives on. You can hear many of his Rock Island Lines in podcast form here and also in a forthcoming book from WVIK and East Hall Press.
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.In the fall of 1849, some 900 Swedish immigrants gathered in a Swedish church in Chicago to begin the trek across the…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.On May 5th 1868, General John A. Logan, Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued General Orders no.…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Those of you who doubt that a straw can actually break a camel's back, or that a kingdom can be lost for want of a nail…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.To C. M. Junkins and his wife from Fairfield, Iowa, keeping a log of the maiden voyage of the steamboat “Morning Star”…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.The devout band of pioneers who founded the town of Galesburg out on the Illinois prairie in 1837 were strict in their…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.When Mary Jane Wiley McCaw arrived in Rock Island in 1843 and settled her eight children in an abandoned schoolhouse on…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.In 1960, when Japanese Emperor Akihito visited Chicago, Mayor Richard J. Daley presented him with a bluegill from the…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.As the 1960s drew to a close, the escalating war in Vietnam drew Americans into a seemingly hopeless moral dilemma, but…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.To my knowledge, there is not a single statue of Charles Dickens in any of the fine parks of Minneapolis, Minnesota.…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Generous hearts often find it difficult to draw a line between being a gracious giver and being a pushover. That was…