tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4157294396202652982024-03-13T15:05:06.335-07:00TidbitsJust some weird stuffJanice Arnold Dowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01830709558819984193noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415729439620265298.post-90616844557024819362013-11-16T14:45:00.002-08:002013-11-16T14:45:20.054-08:00Asylum ChildrenA company of children, mostly boys aged from seven to fifteen years, from the New York Juvenile Asylum, will arrive in Gilman, at the Redfield House, Wednesday, May 4th, at half past eleven o'clock a.m., and remain until evening. Homes are wanted for them with farmers where they will receive kind treatment and enjoy fair advantages. They may be taken on trail for several weeks, and afterwards, if all parties are suited, they will be indentured until of age. Persons desiring to take these children on trial are requested to meet them at the Redfield House Wednesday noon, May 4th. For further information inquire at your post office for a handbill giving full particulars. All expenses for transportation will be assumed by the Asylum, and the children will be placed on trail and indentured free of charge. <br />
E Wright, Agent.<br />
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<em>--Buckley Chronicle. 22 April 1898.</em>Janice Arnold Dowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01830709558819984193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415729439620265298.post-11891300561603813562013-08-25T05:11:00.001-07:002013-08-25T05:19:49.057-07:00Beekman Cemetery<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We recently visited the Beekman Cemetery near East Bend, Illinois. The small cemetery is very secluded in the corn fields of Champaign County. </div>
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I have seen many of the "tree stump" headstones, but this cemetery had a very unusual grouping of "tree stump" stones. </div>
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I assume the parents are on the large stump and directly behind the large stone are several smaller stumps marking the graves of their children. The most unusual of the site is that the entire block of graves are surrounded by very low stumps that probably at one time held a fencing of some type for the grave sites. </div>
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Janice Arnold Dowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01830709558819984193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415729439620265298.post-85103298277525799102013-08-25T05:06:00.000-07:002013-08-25T05:08:22.176-07:00A DEPLORABLE ACCIDENTA most deplorable accident occurred here Saturday at about three o'clock, when Donald Smithhurst, a nephew of Mr. H. F. Veatch and Miss Stella Davis, met an untimely death by drowning in what is known as the "old tile pit."<br />
During the intense heat of the afternoon Donald, who could not swim but had often been in the water before, went with several other boys for a plunge in the cool waters of the pit. Most of the older boys were not in the water, when the young man who had been sitting on a pole which floated in the water, in some unaccountable manner, lost his balance and fell off.<br />
As no one of the boys was paying any especial attention to the other, his signals of distress were not noticed in time to render him any assistance, and it was at least thirty minutes before the body could be located and rescued.<br />
Dr. DeFries had been hastily summoned and was later assisted by Drs. Rueck and Buckner who made every possible effort to restore life, but after an hour's work, the attempt had to be abandoned. The body was removed to the home of Mr. Al Smith, where he had been making his home for the summer, and the funeral services were held at the Methodist church Tuesday afternoon at 1:30 o'clock. Interment being made in the Thawville cemetery.<br />
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<i>--Thawville Weekly Record. 3 August 1917.</i>Janice Arnold Dowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01830709558819984193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415729439620265298.post-41286438500160388382013-08-25T04:50:00.001-07:002013-08-25T04:50:09.433-07:00SURVIVOR OF WRECK DIES AT IROQUOIS<b>Patrick Brady, Who Escaped Death in Famous Chatsworth Disaster</b><br />
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Watseka, Ill., Oct. 16. -- Patrick Brady, eccentric, and aged resident of Iroquois, died at his home Friday of old age. Mr. Brady was 97 years old and was one of the best known of the men of that locality. His burial took place Sunday at Gilman. <span style="color: red;">(I can't find his burial in my transcriptions of Gilman or Wenger Cemetery. Maybe he was Catholic.)</span><br />
Mr. Brady was one of the few survivors of the Chatsworth disaster, in which three hundred lives were lost when a bridge burned, causing a passenger train to be wrecked. "Pat," as he was familiarly known, narrowly escaped death, and received a fractured skull. His escape from death was due to the fact that he had just left the smoker when the accident occurred. Every person in the smoker was killed. Brady, not being addicted to tobacco, had gone outside to the platform and was sitting on the step when the crash came. He was pinned between the roof and the platform and received many bruises besides the fractured skull.<br />
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<i>--The Loda Times. 20 October 1916.</i>Janice Arnold Dowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01830709558819984193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415729439620265298.post-51791700727534687442013-03-24T08:50:00.000-07:002013-03-24T09:27:42.983-07:00A Rest for the Weary.<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>A New Cemetery on College Hill--</b></div>
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<b>A Beautiful Site and Pleasant Surroundings.</b></div>
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The other day we seized an opportunity to visit the new cemetery now being laid out on College Hill. For the benefit of our readers not already posted, we will state that the grounds are located on the southern slope of College Hill, being the place formerly owned by Mrs. S. Hornbeck, the entire site including 22 acres. To our taste, the location is a handsome one, and in time can be made to rival in beauty any other cemetery in the State. A fine view is to be had from the grounds to the south and the west.</div>
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Entering the gate from the north, we passed through a short lane, and from the presence of white stakes all around us, soon became aware that we were in the place being prepared for a city of the dead, where, weary with the toils and strifes of life, the tired body shall find a resting place indeed; where, weary and heartsore, our weak forms may at last find sweet repose, and where we may lay the bodies of our friends who shall be summoned to the "Sweet By and By." We noticed that a fine drive was being smoothed off, which is intended to run in a circle around the entire grounds, with smaller walks and drives leading to every section. A fine orchard covers the western portion of the grounds, which the association intend to preserve until necessity compels them to remove it.</div>
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This new location was much needed, as the old one was barely accessible during the wet season, and was never too dry, and our Cemetery Association deserve great praise for their efforts in securing the new location. Among the many advantages of the new one over the old, is the fact that there is a good road leading to it, and the grounds are always dry. We understand that a sale of lots will take place soon, and of course our citizens will not fail to take hold of the matter.<br />
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<i>--Ford County Blade. 1876.</i></div>
Janice Arnold Dowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01830709558819984193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415729439620265298.post-79239407861434775522013-03-24T08:32:00.002-07:002013-03-24T08:32:26.824-07:00MovingThe Ernest Wilcox house in undergoing several movements. It not only moved across the field but it is moving up in the air. Mr. Wilcox is raising it a story and putting a basement under it as well.. We do not know what condition the house is in since it was moved. Say say the movers were hard on the plaster, but Mr. Culver says it isn't so; he helped move it.<br />
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<i>--Thawville Weekly Record. 14 November 1913.</i>Janice Arnold Dowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01830709558819984193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415729439620265298.post-34702540213676235282013-03-23T04:30:00.002-07:002013-03-23T04:30:24.715-07:00Queen visits our TownshipRoberts have no claim to aristocrisy. <i>(sic) </i>We never expected to entertain nobility. But last Saturday our township received nobility quite unexpected.<br />
Queen Marie of Romania, traveling in her special train, was billed to pass through Roberts which she did on schedule time but the unexpected happened when the train was stopped at Beset, three mile northeast of Roberts, and members of the party got off the train and a number of photos were taken. Our reception committee taken unawares, was a little late in greeting the queen, but as they never shirk a duty, their greetings followed.<br />
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<i>--Roberts Herald. 18 November 1926</i>Janice Arnold Dowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01830709558819984193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415729439620265298.post-71923042831892159252013-03-23T04:21:00.003-07:002013-03-23T04:21:57.606-07:00A Relic of Long AgoLast Saturday Henry Kietzman was plowing for his brother John Kietzman on the Robert Hawthorne farm northwest of Roberts when his plow turned over a large tooth of some prehistoric animal, perhaps a mastodon,. The tooth is a most perfect specimen. There are seven well developed roots, each about four inches long and from two to three inches across at the base. There are nine crushing surfaces with wide spaces between. Two of these prongs are broken off. One was worn down somewhat from use in eating.<br />
The tooth has a depth from top of crown to end of roots of about seven or eight inches. From back to front it is about seven inches and in width about four inches. It weighs 4 lbs. 6 ounces. The enamel is in excellent state of preservation and the whole tooth has the appearance of not having been in the ground more than a few months whereas it probably has lain in the peat bog of that farm for thousands of years. The fact that it was in peat bog would indicate that it is of comparative recent origin as the peat is the latest land formation here.<br />
Later: O.C. Dilks took the tooth to Chicago yesterday and had it looked over at the Field Museum. They said it is a mastodon tooth and has been in the ground only one or two thousand years.<br />
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<i>--Roberts Herald. 5 May 1926</i>Janice Arnold Dowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01830709558819984193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415729439620265298.post-86648145788710375782013-03-09T08:45:00.005-08:002013-03-09T08:45:51.113-08:00Sad Tragedy at ChatsworthOn Saturday, the 6th instant, at about 5 p.m., two men, named Wm. W. Botsford and Isadore Dureaux, came into town and visited the saloon. They were armed with revolvers and bowie knives, and said they were in pursuit of one John C. Lister, for who they had a state warrant, and who was moving to Kansas with his wife and four children. The charge alleged against him was that he had seduced a young girl near Middleport, Illinois. They had followed him from Onarga during the afternoon, and passed him on the way, they coming to this place, and he, heavily laden with goods, with four horses, encamped for the night one and a half miles from town.<br />
At about 8 p.m. they took their horses from the hotel stable and started to the place where he was encamped, and found him, after a tiresome day's journey, already retired for the night in his wagon bed - surrounded by his family! They awoke him and said they had a warrant for him and that he must deliver himself up. He (Lister) immediately arose and was getting out of the wagon when Isadore Dureaux fired. The ball, passing through the canvass of the wagon, entered the right breast of Lister and proved fatal within fifteen minutes.<br />
I was called to see him, and on arriving at the place about an hour after the occurrence found him dead. An inquest was held on the body, and the men Botsford and Dureaux were taken in custody for the murder and sent to jail. It afterwards appeared that they did not have a warrant.<br />
It is a sad occurrence to find a woman with her children watching the dead body of her husband, who was not long since in the prime of health, buoyant with hope for their new home, on the prairie surrounded by the gloom of night, save the feeble light of the moon. No more touching scene can be - in the midst of strangers as they were - marching over the spot where the body lay. The justice due them should be meted out, and we trust that it will be done.<br />
This is the second man, we understand, that this Dureaux has shot, and should this community, who know his vile character, fail to punish him, it may not be his last. --<i>Cer. Chicago Post</i><br />
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<i>--Paxton Weekly Record. 18 May 1865.</i><br />
Janice Arnold Dowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01830709558819984193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415729439620265298.post-51074556183931090792013-03-09T08:27:00.003-08:002013-03-09T08:27:51.814-08:00Five in Family Killed by Poison in PancakesA meal of pancakes, into which arsenic had been accidentally mixed, caused the death yesterday morning of five members of the family of O.K. Meintz on a farm between Ashkum and Danforth. The arsenic was in a preparation used for preserving animal hides.<br />
The pancakes were made by Mrs. Meintz, mother of four of the victims and grandmother of the fifth.<br />
While mixing the batter for the cakes, she ran short of the prepared pancake flour and mixed in the contents of another sack containing the arsenical preparation, thinking it also to be the flour.<br />
O.K. Meintz, the father, was taken somewhat ill while at the breakfast table and so did not eat any of the pancakes. Mrs. Meintz tasted the cakes after her sons had finished their breakfast and noticing the peculiar flavor, she ate none. She is in a hysterical condition as a result of her mistake.<br />
The sons complained of feeling ill almost immediately after eating the poisoned cakes. They were taken with severe pains and physicians summoned from nearby villages were unable to save them. The first son died before noon and the last at dawn today.<br />
The dead are Fred, 28 years old; Theodore, 26; Irving 21; Mino 21, and Clarence Meintz, the grandson, 7 years old. The Meintz family are prominent in the section where they live.<br />
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--<i>Thawville Weekly Record. 2 February 1917.</i><br />
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ARSENIC CAUSED DEATH OF MEINTS BOYS<br />
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The poison which killed five members of the family of O.J. Meints near Danforth, was arsenic. Dr. A.J. Brown, who was one of the physicians in attendance at the time some of the victims of the poisoned pancakes died, received a report of the analysis made the state laboratory at Springfield, which definitely established this fact.<br />
The report showed that the quantity of batter which was sent to Springfield contained arsenic in large quantities. About an ounce of the batter was collected at the time of the tragedy and sent to the state laboratories. The exact percentage of the arsenic was not given in the report, but it was stated as being very large.<br />
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<i>--Paxton Record. 15 February 1917.</i>Janice Arnold Dowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01830709558819984193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415729439620265298.post-50640605106320497582013-02-03T07:50:00.007-08:002013-02-03T07:50:48.915-08:00Train Kills Five MotoristsFour Chicagoans were instantly killed and one died later at the Burnham hospital in Champaign, from the result of an accident which occurred at the high road crossing just south of Del Ray, Ill, when the Ford touring car in which they were riding, was struck by passenger train No. 7, known as the "Millionaire Train."<br />
<b>The Dead.</b><br />
William Hubner, 6613 Michigan Ave.<br />
Gertude Hubner, his sister.<br />
Miss Agnes Fitzmorris.<br />
Miss Edna Peat.<br />
Joseph Burns, 322 East Garfield Blvd.<br />
Eye witnesses told the story of the terrible tragedy to a Record reporter, and it was without doubt one of the most awful sights that could be described.<br />
<b>On Way to Paxton.</b><br />
Joseph Burns, son of Mr. and Mrs. James J. Burns of Paxton, and his friends had left Chicago during the morning for Paxton to visit with their relatives and to enjoy the 4th of July celebration. They were making the trip the new Ford touring car which Joe had just purchased. Witnesses to the accident saw them pass through Del Ray at a moderate rate of speed, saw them slow up as they approached the railroad crossing and saw the train when it crashed into the car. Mr. Burns, who was driving, did not see the train until it was right upon him, and he evidently figured that he did not have time to cross the tracks, for he turned the machine to the right and headed south down the rails with the view of getting to one side of the right-of-way before the train could reach him. He was unsuccessful in this, however, and the impact from the collision was so great that the pilot of the engine was completely torn away. The Ford touring car was driven ahead of the engine and thrown from the thirty foot embankment with such force that it rolled to the abutment of the railroad bridge which is nearly a hundred feet away. The car was struck so hard that it was a "wad" of twisted steel when it stopped rolling.<br />
<b>Victims Thrown Many Feet.</b><br />
When the engine struck the car one of the occupants was thrown to the east side of the track<b> </b>for a distance of about sixty feet; one of the other victims was carried in the debris to the railroad bridge and the body dropped through the ties, falling within a few feet of the water. Mr. Burns and the other two friends were carried with the mass of wreckage and were thrown to the west side of the track. The head of one of the women was nearly severed, one had an arm cut off and Mr. Hubner's body was terribly cut and bruised. The only severe injury to Mr. Burns was a deep cut across his forehead, but his body was badly bruised in many places.<br />
<b>Miss Hubner Dies at Hospital.</b><br />
The engineer of the train claims that he applied the air as soon as he saw that he was going to strike the car, and after the wreckage was cleared away and the broken parts of the pilot removed from the engine, Miss Hubner, who was still living, was placed aboard the train and she was taken to the Burnham Hospital at Champaign. A message at 7:30 o'clock stated that she had died without regaining consciousness.<br />
<b>A High Embankment.</b><br />
The accident occurred at the first crossing south of Del Ray, which only a short distance north of Spring Creek and here the embankment is about thirty feet high, owing the rolling country. Although the crossing is not obstructed from view for several hundred feet to the north, the grade is quite steep, and with the speedy passenger trains approaching from that direction, it is not hard to see how an accident of this nature could be possible. We were told by eye witnesses to the accident that had the driver proceeded across the tracks at the rate which he was traveling, he might have succeeded in getting to safety. The sudden impulse, after seeing that he was going to be struck, was to pull the car to one side, and with only a few seconds more he might have accomplished his purpose. <i>--Paxton Record.</i><br />
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<i>--Roberts Herald. 9 July 1919.</i>Janice Arnold Dowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01830709558819984193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415729439620265298.post-51736542887662800462013-02-02T17:42:00.000-08:002013-02-03T07:52:59.538-08:00Unearth Mastodon TusksMore Big Bones Found Near the Find of Thirty Years Ago.<br />
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Robert Stevenson of East Lynn, who was putting in tile ditches on the James W. Jarmin (?) farm seven miles northwest of town, unearthed two mastodon tusks and two teeth the other day at a depth of about three feet. The tusks were about six to seven feet in length, of solid ivory, and the teeth were seven inches in diameter. The condition of the ivory cannot be told by one without experience, but it cannot be of the first quality after lying in the ground for a thousand year, as these may have done. The location was probably a hundred rods east of the find on the Guingrich (?) farm more thirty years ago. A professor from the University of Illinois came to East Lynn and delivered a lecture on the relics, and the teeth and tusks were afterwards sold to a museum for $150. --Hoopeston Chronicle.<br />
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<i>-- Paxton Weekly Record. 22 April 1915.</i>Janice Arnold Dowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01830709558819984193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415729439620265298.post-89130665472824233822013-02-02T17:36:00.000-08:002013-02-02T17:36:12.409-08:00Where is this? I didn't know this existed. Did you?<br />
The first cemetery in Lyman Township was on the Forbes farm (Now the Charles Dietterle farm). Quite a number of the early settlers were buried there.<br />
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<i>--Roberts Herald. 31 October 1923.</i><br />
Janice Arnold Dowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01830709558819984193noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-415729439620265298.post-4942487634583459432013-02-02T15:43:00.000-08:002013-02-02T15:43:23.772-08:00Death by Ironing (nearly)Mrs. Fred H. Keup nearly suffered death last Thursday in Saunemin while doing her ironing. She was using a gasoline iron and the fumes from it caused her to become unconscious. Mrs. E.L. Chesebro happened in and called Dr. Ross who treated her, bringing her to. After he departed Mrs. Chesebro went home and Mrs. Keup again lapsed off into unconsciousness. Her moans were heard at the Lannon home across the street and Mrs. Lannon rushed to the home and called the doctor. Mrs. Keup quickly recovered and was soon better. She recovered her strength rapidly and suffered no permanent effects.<br />
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<i>--Roberts Herald. 22 August 1923.</i>Janice Arnold Dowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01830709558819984193noreply@blogger.com0