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Ayers’ Heirs Stop at Passavant on History Tour

10/22/2018

Virginia Johnson of West Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, examines a portrait of Eliza Freytag Ayers, Johnson’s great-great-great grandmother, during a tour of Passavant Area Hospital on Friday. Johnson and her husband, Vern, are touring Central Illinois and its many sites connected to Ayers family history. In 1875, Eliza Ayers donated the land on East State Street in Jacksonville upon which Passavant was originally built. In addition to viewing the portrait, the Johnsons viewed a large stained glass window in the hospital’s Beilschmidt Chapel. The window was given to Passavant in 1898 by the children of Eliza Ayers, in memory of their mother.