Rowena Bastin Bennett
Portait of Rowena Bastin Bennett painted by Mildred Lyon Hetherington, a prolific Chicago portrait painter. This portrait hangs in the lower floor hallway of the Galena Public Library.
There have been many wonderfully eccentric creatives in Galena through the years, one of them being the children’s author, poet, and lecturer Rowena Bastin Bennett. Galenians today probably know more about her home, the Osprey’s Nest on Prospect Street, than the woman who gave it the name which still endures today.
Born in Merchantville, New Jersey in 1896, Rowena spent her childhood in Highland Park being encouraged creatively by her mother, Abbie Beardsley Bastin, a primary school teacher for over thirty years. Abbie fostered a love of books in her daughters and her students. The Bastin Library at the historic, now demolished, Lincoln School had been named for her.
Later in life Rowena fondly reminisced of hours spent in play with her sister Dorothy.
“For the two of us loved nothing better than to compile books for the mother we adored, the mother who encouraged our creative efforts, no matter how fumbling. When we were not doing a book for Mother, we were out in the ravines and woodlands dancing in fairy rings or stalking the shy dryads that we half believed still haunted the old oaks of our idyllic home-site."
The girls unfortunately did not get to know their father who passed away in 1857, however, his influence remained. Edson Sunderland Bastin’s texts and drawings were used by botany and pharmacy students for many years. Rowena’s stepbrother, also Edson Bastin, would go on to follow in his father’s footsteps becoming a professor of geology at the University of Chicago.
Rowena and her family learned, created, and traveled during the years of her adolescence. Though she loved debate and discourse, her whimsical nature led her to pursue an English degree at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. While there, according to the headlines, she made quite a stir by encouraging a crowd of two hundred of her fellow co-eds to refuse to marry men who enlisted or planned to enlist in the military. “Let women unite,” she declared. “Refuse to marry and we shall have universal peace.” Headlines appeared again when she decided to make an exception and marry a National Guardsmen, Kenneth Bennett, to whom she remained married until his death in 1959. Together they had three children.
In January of 1930, Rowena’s first book of verse for children, Songs From Around a Toadstool Table, was published by Follett Publishing Company Chicago. Over the next decades she published a variety of poetry and prose for all ages including adults. In 1954 she achieved considerable acclaim from her theatrical adaptation of Puss in Boots, which enjoyed an extended run in Chicago’s Goodman Theatre.
She lectured throughout the Chicago area and beyond conducting writing workshops and lecturing to groups such as the American Library Association, the Chicago Women’s Club, The Greater English Club of Chicago, Northwestern University’s Writer’s Guild, Allied Arts Chicago, and the Apple River Writer’s Conference. It was while lecturing at the latter that she and Kenneth visited Galena and admired the little house clinging to the hillside on Quality Hill. After Kenneth retired in 1956, the home went up for sale. They could not resist the purchase.
Rowena quoted Kenneth in a 1970 article in the Galena Gazette as having said, “We bought the view and the house came with it.” She went on to explain, “There are large birds . . . ospreys . . .found in Yellowstone Park among other places, who build their nests high in the treetops. Like the ospreys, we live in a high place.”
Although Kenneth was retired, Rowena continued to write and publish works while she lived in the Osprey’s Nest. In addition to books such as Creative Plays and Programs for the Holidays (1966, 1967, 1987), The Day is Dancing (1969) and a plethora of magazines and literary journals published her work as well. She particularly loved penning a poem for the holidays such as "Thanksgiving Magic," "The Leprechaun," "The Witch of Willowy Wood," and "Mrs. Santa's Sendoff."
Her time in Galena was toward the end of her fruitful career and her productivity did wane. According to her private secretary, Galena local Alice Eggleston, Rowena was often “absentminded” and “flighty.” She would call Alice to attend to something only to forget what the something was when Alice arrived. So they would have tea and a chat instead.
The Galena Public Library hosted her for children’s story hours at which she animatedly entertained her young charges. She had a passion for bright colors particularly pinks and lavenders and was known for her large flowered hats of which she remarked in the Gazette, “When you are lecturing, your appearance is important. There must be something outstanding, something pleasant to see, and I think fetching hats take care of this nicely.”
She lived in the Osprey’s Nest until 1971 when she relocated to the east coast until her death in 1981.
The Galena Public Library holds archival copies of Rowena’s books and poetry. Visit the Alfred Mueller Historical Collections Room on the lower level to inquire about viewing them. A selection of items are available to view online here: https://library.biblioboard.com/curation/galena_2026
Written by: Larissa Distler, Adult Services Librarian, Galena Public Library
Researched by: Larissa Distler and Mike Fertig, Historical Librarian, Galena Public Library