Madison County Clerk Mark Von Nida shows off a pine cone ornament, one similar donated to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, as requested of the state's county clerks.
The official request.
It may not have been obvious at first.
But a few days after receiving a request from the Abraham Lincoln Museum in Springfield for a Christmas ornament representative of Madison County, the choice was clear for County Clerk Mark Von Nida.
As one of 102 state county clerks, Von Nida fulfilled his obligation to adorn the museum's Christmas tree by donating an ornament that came from the homestead of a favorite Madison County son--the late U.S. Senator Paul Simon.
Von Nida shipped a pine cone ornament he received as guest of a recent event at the Paul Simon Museum in Troy. He also kept one. The cones were harvested from the lawn of Simon's former Troy home.
"The linkage of a Democratic icon who had an affinity for Lincoln...it was nice, a good thing and representative of Madison County," Von Nida said. "It's a good thing to have Paul Simon's heritage at the Lincoln Museum."