The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Compiled and Edited by Virginia Ross
Stronghurst Graphic Aug. 23, 1923
CHAUTAUQUA WAS A SUCCESS: When last week’s Graphic went to press the Stronghurst Chautauqua was in full swing and our write-up of the assembly in that issue covered the entertainments and lectures given up until Thursday. The standard of excellence which was established during the first three days was not only maintained, but, in the opinion of many of the patrons raised to even a higher lever by the talent which appeared on the two remaining days.
Thursday’s programs had to be given in the Lyric Theatre on account of the rainstorm which came up in the afternoon. The capacity of the theatre proved to be adequate for the afternoon crowd, but in the evening when the Sprague Players presented their great comedy-drama, “Bubbles,” standing room was at a premium and a number were turned away. In the afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Sprague opened the program with a sketch entitled “Rough Diamonds.” The lecture following their presentation on “China of Today” by Paul Fung was a decidedly interesting and educational feature of the five day program.
While there were many expressions of appreciation heard concerning what had come before, the “Marine Maids” who appeared on Friday brought the best wine of the feast. In the afternoon the five young ladies composing this charming group of entertainers put on a program of instrumental and vocal selections and readings which created a delightful impression and served to whet the appetite of the audience for more…Tickets pledges to the amount of $750 for a Chautauqua in 1924 were secured during the day Friday and during the intermission in the evening program. After payment of expenses for this years’ program, there remains a balance of about $10 which will be turned over to the local high school.
WEDDING BELLS-HORRELL & WOLFE: Mr. Ben Horrell and Miss Opal Wolfe, both of Media, were united in marriage at the M. E. parsonage in Biggsville on August 18th with the Rev. E. B. Morton, pastor of the Media M. E. church officiating. The happy couple was attended by Andrew Barry of Media and Mrs. Walter C. Goodman of Clinton, Iowa.
JOHN STINE OFFERED JOB: Mr. John Stine of this place who has been employed by the Redpath Chautauqua Bureau during the past summer, received a telegram from the Cadmean Chautauqua management offering him the position of superintendent of the Chautauqua in the five day circuit in which Stronghurst was included this year for the remainder of the 1923 season. Mr. H.G.Root, who has been the superintendent on this circuit was obliged to give up the work in order to give his attention to school duties and on his recommendation, Mr. Stine was offered the position which we understand he has accepted.
CRASH IN THE NIGHT: Miss Idelle Hollingsworth of Stronghurst received some bad cuts and bruises about the head last Friday evening when the auto in which she and Hazel Stine and Richard Howell were driving on the hard road near Gladstone was over turned when it came in collision with a car coming from the opposite direction and occupied by some young people whose names not known. Miss Hollingsworth was the only one receiving any injuries in the wreck although the car in which she and her companions were riding, a new Ford was badly wrecked.
ANNUAL FARM BUREAU PICNIC: The Henderson County farmers had an ideal day for their annual Farm Bureau Picnic at Oak Grove Farm and the attendance was probably around 1,000. Eight large quarters of beef, forty gallons of ice cream and huge quantities of coffee furnished free by the picnic management was consumed by the crowd to say nothing about the contents of the picnic baskets which the guests brought with them.
Howard B. Leonard of Eureka, Ill. delivered an address in the afternoon touching upon the questions of transportation, legislation and taxation. Following the address, Chairman Bane introduced Mr. L.T. Mann of Chicago who spoke about the advantages of the cooperative plan for marketing livestock. The county horse shoe pitching contest in the forenoon and the baseball game in the afternoon between the “Northern Lights” and Southern Stars” attracted a great deal of interest. The baseball game was won by the northenders and the winner of the horse shoe pitching contest was Fred Burrus of Biggsville. One of the features which contributed much to the success of the picnic and the pleasure of the crowd was the excellent music furnished by throughout the day by the Stronghurst Band.
NEW MAIL CARRIER: Mr. Orville Boyd has been appointed as rural mail carrier for Route No. 3 out of Stronghurst to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Glenn Marshall several months ago. He was one of 16 applicants who recently took the exam and ranked second in the grading. The firm of Boyd & Wheeling, of which he is a member and which has conducted the NuVon Hotel and Café during the past year, will retire from the business at the expiration of their lease about Sept. 1st.
SIXTEEN FOOT CORN STALK: C. E. Peasley received a request from a grain commission firm in Chicago for a specimen corn stalk from this locality to be placed on exhibition in the office of the company. Mr. Peasley has some pretty sizable corn growing in his own fields, but believing that E. G. Lewis, the well known corn expert and seedman of Media Township might have taller corn, he went through one of that gentleman’s fields and found a stalk which measured exactly 16 feet in height with the base of the ear growing thereon 11 feet from the ground. He cut the stalk down and after carefully wrapping it, sent it by express to the Chicago firm.
LOCAL AND AREA NEWS: “Over in McDonough County a printing office has been traded for a farm. This seems to give some basis for suspicion that the agricultural industry may really be worse off than anybody outside Minnesota has imagined.”-Canton Register The Lutheran congregation will hold its annual Sunday School picnic on August 29th at Lake Fort. At noon a fried chicken picnic dinner will be served cafeteria style for 50 cents per tray; everyone is welcome.
LOCAL AND AREA NEWS: Parson College Concert will be at the U. P. Church Aug. 29th. The Cooperative Shipping Association sent a car of hogs last Friday and on Monday a mixed load of hogs and sheep to the Chicago market. Mr. and Mrs. G. C. Rehling are receiving the congratulations of friends over the arrival of a fine 9 lb. girl at their home on Aug. 21st. Don't forget the Henderson County Sabbath School Association picnic at Weir's Oak Grove Farm next Saturday. Load up your auto and to enjoy a good day with a bunch of the finest people in the county. Mrs. Greta Stryker, who has made her home in California and recently completed a visit with one of her sons in Denver, Colo., has been the guest of Mr. and Mrs. W. J. McElhinney and family. Mrs. John Gilliland, who has been seriously ill for some time, was taken to the Galesburg Hospital where she underwent an operation for gall stone; she is resting easy. A blazing cross located on the railroad right of way at the Broadway Street crossing in the village attracted considerable attention last Saturday night. There was no demonstration accompanying the spectacle and the interest of the public was of a transitory nature (The KKK was in Henderson County.) Mrs. W. H. Cross is having a rather serious time with her teeth, but is somewhat better now being able to be up and about the house. Sterling Simpson from Centerville, Ia. arrived for a short visit with old friends. From here he goes to Macomb where Mrs. Simpson is visiting relatives.
A group of Santa Fe officials were out on a tour of inspection and stopped in Stronghurst. Div. Supt. Allison and Road Engineer Bell who were in the party called on their old friend, E. R. Grandy. Bert Putney has been in Leeds, Ill., for the past two or three weeks acting as cook for the foreman and assistant foremen of a gang of track layers who are working there. Mrs. Putney left to spend a vacation of a week or two at that camp. Donald Johnstone, son of Mr. and Mrs. M. M. Johnstone formerly of this place and now residing in Kansas City, was the guest of Stronghurst relatives. Mrs. George Towle and son William stopped here enroute to California from their home in Cleveland, Ohio and visited Rev. J. A. Mahaffey and family. Mrs. Towle was formerly Miss Myrtle McLaughlin of this place and was married here to Mr. George Towle of Cleveland. The couple were leaders in the work of organizing the church in Cleveland of which Rev. Mahaffey was pastor a number of years ago.
There have been 39 violent deaths in the city of Galesburg thus far this year, three murders and eight suicides being included in the list. Miss Ruth McMillan who graduated for the University of Illinois this year with an A. B. degree has been employed as instructor in Latin and French in the Canton, Ill. high school for the coming year. Blandisville voters will be called upon to decide the question of the issue of bonds to amount of $20,000 to provide for the building of an addition to their school house. The last union service will be held at the M. E. Church with Miss Ethel Brokaw, who has lately been engaged in home missionary and will deliver the sermon. Miss Sara McElhinney left for Alpha, Ill to visit the Amerman family and then the Fred Simpson home in Minneapolis before going to Sioux Falls, N.Dak. where she will be employed as teacher in the Art Department of the city schools. The Illinois Power and Light Company secured an option on the Monmouth plant and intend to build an electric transmission line from Keokuk to Galesburg along the Santa Fe right away and that this line will be tapped four miles south of the Monmouth for current brought to the city. Roy Park and Mr. Perry of Galesburg loaded out a car load of horses they had bought in this neighborhood. Frank Johnson shipped one load of hogs and one of cattle for the Shipping Association to the Chicago market. The painters, plasterers and paper hangers are busy redecorating the Ed Stine house recently purchased of the Apt family. The signal service gang who has been working at Streator and Joliet most of the summer is here and will have work here for some time. Miss Inez Nordstrom of Rushville and Miss Irene Huff went to Galesburg to consult Dr. Mathena in regard to Miss Nordstrom's eyes. Men are busy here loading the walnut logs which have been hauled from the surrounding country. About two car loads a day are shipped to Chicago with ten car loads ready to go.
SCAM IN AVON: "Mr. and Mrs. Sheriff of Prairie City have been the victim of a rather smooth artist of the bunko line. A man giving his name as Henderson came to their home about four weeks ago and procured rooms and board while he canvassed the town for the sale of curtain hangers. He worked two days then informed the Sheriffs that he had become very much attached to them and would take them Sept. 1 to his fruit ranch in California giving them each good pay, their railroad transportation and a home with him as long as they lived. The couple made arrangement to go, sold their fruit and many small household articles and was to hold a public sale soon for the disposition of the remainder of their personal effects. Wednesday, they visited Avon to bid friends adieu and on returning found their boarder and his effects missing. He had secured a good home for four weeks at no cost and had flown to greener fields.
Henderson told the old couple that he had come from California to Peoria to visit old friends and was taken sick and submitted to a serious operation while there and was selling the curtain hangers to keep his mind off his troubles and that his doctors had advised him to stay in Illinois until September. His acts caused Mr. and Mrs. Sheriff considerable financial loss as they had given up their home, disposed of garden and made all arrangements for the journey West."-Avon Sentinel
WILLIAMSFIELD HIGH SCHOOL BURNS: The fine new high school building at Williamsfield, Ill. was destroyed by fire at an early hour last Tuesday morning, involving a loss of about $85,000 with but $30,000 insurance. Scarcity of water prevented the saving of the building or any of the equipment after the fire was discovered. As it is usually the case in disasters of this kind, the origin of the fire is a mystery. The school was built in 1920.
OLENA HOMECOMING: The annual Home-Coming picnic was held in the village on Aug. 18th and was a great success. The forenoon was taken over by the United Presbyterian congregation who formerly owned this property and worshipped here many years and was a very strong, useful and helpful congregation. Rev. Mahaffey of Stronghurst gave quite an interesting talk and cracked a few jokes on some of the old timers of the congregation which caused some merriment. Psalm singing by the audience was a pleasurable feature of this service. This was immediately followed by a fine chicken dinner which the ladies of Olena know so well how to prepare and judging from the amount of the food consumed, was greatly enjoyed and the tired, over worked “Martha’s” seemed amply rewarded by the fine compliments they received on the menu and service. After dinner the renewal of old acquaintances, the hearty hand claps and the getting together was such a happy event that it will linger in memory for many days to come. There were many field sports and stunt pulled off that caused much merriment. The kiddies enjoyed a summer Xmas tree, only it did not last long enough. The young people had a booth with a variety of articles for sale. Three rugs donated by the Penney Company of Burlington were disposed of by numbers. The stand committee composed of Joel Marsden, Arthur Dowell, Ed Carlson and Harvey Lant was truly doing a land office business throughout the day and one of these gentlemen was so enthused and waxed so eloquent that his mother asked him where he was keeping his “jug.” Two angel food cakes donated by Mrs. Wm Brown and Mrs. Dixson were auctioned off. The roads and weather were ideal which helped to swell the crowd. All enjoyed it so much that they will be looking forward for are renewal of this Home-Coming in 1924.
MEDIA COUPLE WED: Miss Opal Wolfe and Mr. Ben Horrell, two of the popular young people, stole a march on their many friends and hied themselves to Biggsville M.E. Parsonage Saturday and were united in marriage at high noon by the pastor, Rev. E. B.Morton. They returned immediately to the home of the bride’s mother, Mrs. Lind Wolfe, where a wedding dinner was awaiting them. The bride is the youngest daughter of Mrs. Wolfe and has grown to womanhood in this community. She is a graduate of the Wever Academy and has been a successful teacher of the county and is employed to teach near Burlington in Henderson County this year. She has musical talent for both vocal and instrumental music and for a number of years was postmistress of the village. The groom has been a resident of the town for a couple of years and has made many friends since coming among us. He is a member of the high school senior class and has won many laurels for himself and school among which was first place in the county track meet the past two years in the 220 hurdle race, breaking his own record this year. He also won first place in hurdles at the meet in LaHarpe a year ago. He was a member and one of the best players of the basketball team. Ben is worthy of much praise for his perseverance along educational lines as he was left an orphan at an early age and has had his own way to make through school. He is a young man of good moral habits and worthy of the young lady he has won for his wife. The happy couple left Saturday evening for Burlington where they remained until Sabbath when they, in company with her mother and Mr. and Mrs. Olin Palmer and family, departed for a week’s visit with relatives at Bynumville, Mo.
MEDIA MEANDERINGS: Mr. and Mrs. Victor Worrell are rejoicing over the arrival of a nine pound son Monday night who has been given the name of Ralph George. Mrs. Worrell was formerly Miss Olive Admire. Quite a number of our people are in attendance at the Farm Bureau Picnic at Weir’s Grove today. Among those going were Ralph McIntire, Joe McVey, David Gilliland, LaVern, Dan and Chas. Stanberry, T.B. Palmer, Scott White, Mesdames George Hickman, H.L. Meyers and Chas. Gibson. Dr. Rankin and family of Kirkwood are residents of the town and are nicely domiciled in the James A. Callow residence. The Dr. will have a drug store and his office in the building owned by N.J.Gram. Mr. and Mrs. Jno. Pogue are the possessor of a fine new Buick. They returned just recently from a trip to Colorado, Yellowstone Park, Montana and Canada and stopped enroute to visit with friends in Kansas. They made the trip in their car and were accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Foote of near Colchester, Ill. Rev. R.J Kyle is loading his car of household goods and he and Mrs. Kyle leave in their Ford tonight for their future home in Cedarville, Ohio.
BIGGSVILLE BRIEFS: Miss Jessie Claybaugh of this place and Mrs. John Crozett of Kirkwood left for a visit with her sister, Mrs. Chas. Buttgen and family at Crandon, Wis. John Roy, eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Cochran, is confined to his bed with a nervous condition. Mrs. George Kelly entertained with a picnic in the park in honor of her niece, Miss Nell Wilkins of Omaha who is a traveling service observing inspector for the Bell Telephone Co. Plans are being completed for the annual Harvest Home Picnic to be held on Aug. 30th and 31st. Congressman W.J. Graham of Aledo will speak the first day and congressman Rathbone of Chicago will be the second day speaker. The Orchard City Band will be on hand and furnish the music. The Stevenson families held their annual picnic at Crapo Park with more that 50 attending.
AUTO ACCIDENT ON KIRKWOOD ROAD: Mrs. Edgar Bergren and baby and Mrs. Blanch Henderson were badly shaken and bruised up last Thursday when they figured in an automobile accident while on the road to Kirkwood to spend the afternoon with relatives. Mrs. Bergren who was driving and reached for a lap robe to put over the little one with one hand on the wheel and did not notice her car which had left the road and had mounted a bank. It turned over before she could right it. Help was soon at hand and they were taken out of the car and into the Wm. Wiegand home near where the accident happened. Mrs. Henderson was severely cut under the eye and down over the cheek by the glass in the door. This required several stitches to be taken. Mrs. Bergren had a cut on her forehead but was not so bad and the little one was unhurt.