The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Compiled and Edited by Virginia Ross
MEDIA MEANDERINGS: The Media High School upper classmen held an initiatory picnic in Gibb’s woods in honor of the freshmen. The sack race between sophomore and freshmen was the principal feature of entertainment. The outcome was very close but no doubt the sophomore took the credit. Later in the evening a delightful picnic supper was served. Mr. Cleve Hickman has recently purchased the farm north of town formerly owned by William McIntire. Mr. and Mrs. McIntire are staying in Kirkwood. Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Schroeder left on an auto trip to Jewel, Iowa to visit friends and relatives. The Lewis Seed Co. will begin picking corn the first of the week from which they will select seed for next spring’s planting. The senior class of the high school are selling tickets for a Lyceum course which they expect to bring to town this winter. Mr. Ralph McIntire had the misfortune to severely cut his hand while sharpening a scythe. He completely severed some of the ligaments of his fingers.
MAY ORGANIZE IMMEDIATE CREDIT CORPORATION: As the outcome of an adjourned meeting of bankers of Henderson County and members of the Farm Bureau, a movement to secure lower interest rates on farmers’ and stock feeders’ short time loans was launched by the appointment of a committee of five farmers to investigate the Agricultural Intermediate Credit Corporation plan for obtaining loans on personal or chattel mortgage security, and if deemed advisable after such investigation, to proceed with the work of organizing such a corporation in Henderson County. C. W. Cooper of Bald Bluff, E. G. Lewis of Media, Carl Painter of Terre Haute, J. U. Vaughn of Lomax and Ora Smith of Biggsville were selected to constitute the committee.
The above action was taken after representatives of seven of the nine banks in the county present at the meeting had declared that under present conditions it would be impossible for the institutions which they represented to lower interest rates. They would not oppose the formation of an Intermediate Credit Corporation and even showed a willingness to lend their assistance in putting the plan in operation…
HOG SANITATION TOUR: In spite of the unfavorable weather and bad roads a goodly number of farmers attended the Swine Sanitation Tour conducted by Farm Adviser Walker assisted by Mr. E. T .Robbins, Livestock Specialist of the University of Illinois, and Dr. Raffensperger of the U.S.D.A. Herds were visited on the Frank Lant, Ed Waddill and Joe Ross farms and in each case an excellent sample of results to be obtained from the sanitary system seen. The absence of runts was noticeable in all cases. Frank Lant has 60 head of fine, thrift shoats with good skin and hair in spite of the fact that they have been fed very little since farrowing time. Pigs two months older which have run in the old lots but have had all the skim milk they could drink are barely as large as the best ones in the sanitation lot. Ed Waddill turned out 225 head on clean pasture and has lost but three head since that time. He recently shipped two car loads, 151 head, averaging 182 lbs. at approximately six months of age. A beautiful bunch of Duroc shoats was seen on the Joe Ross farm which have been pastured on alfalfa. 146 were turned out and 145 are still alive and doing well. These pigs are the product of 16 sows making an average of over 9 to show. Dr. Raffensperger, who is the originator of the so-called McLean County System of Swine Sanitation, stressed the importance of carrying out the system in all its details including the cleaning of the farrowing pen with boiling water and Lewis’s lye, the thoroughly washing of the sow’s udder, and the hauling of the pigs from farrowing pen to the clean pasture where they are kept confined until four months of age…
BASEBALL TOURNAMENT: In the first games of a baseball tournament arranged for the Henderson County Farm Bureau team, Little York, Seaton and Gerlaw played at Little York, the Little York team defeated the Henderson County farmers by a score of 8 to 5 and Seaton defeated Gerlaw by a score of 8 to 3. The victory of the Little York team is claimed to have been due in a large measure to the fact that they had the assistance of a number of players belonging to Galesburg Independent team including Templeton, the crack pitcher of that organization. The two final games will be played today at Little York when the Farm Bureau boys will be pitted against Gerlaw and Little York will cross bats with Seaton.
FOOTBALL SEASON OPENS: The first football game of the season for Coach Nicholas’ squad of high school huskies will take place on Sanderson field south of town on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 26 at 2:30 p.m. which time they hope to take the Biggsville warriors into camp…Season tickets are $2.00 for five games. The line-up will be as follows: L.E., Kenneth Sanderson; L. G., Arthur Williams; C., Chester Brokaw; R. G., Walter Woodward; R. T., Ralph Johnson; R.E., Richard Howell; Q. B., Lavern Leinbach; L. H. Lowell Leinbach; R. H. Clarence Harvey and F. B., Edward Beardsley. Subs are the following: Joe Howell, Raus Gibb, Geo. Decker, Robt. Pence, Kenneth Veech, Wm. Lukens and Frank Reveles.
MARRIAGE BELLS**Foote-Idle: Miss Alice Foote, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Foote, was married Sept. 19th at 8 o’clock in Chicago to Mr. Kenneth Idle of Huntsville, Ohio. The young couple spent their honeymoon at the Edgewater Beach Hotel and in the north of Wisconsin. They will be home to their friends Oct. 1st in their new home 2337 Addison St., Chicago, Ill.
MERCHANDISE REGETTA: A Ten-Day Selling Event, brim full of the most astounding merchandise bargains ever presented to the people of the community will start Wednesday morning, Sept. 23 eclipsing the greatest achievement at this time. No trash—No shop-worn goods; but our very desirable Fall and Winter Merchandise from our own guaranteed stocks…all assembled for easy selection with Bigs Special Price Tags you can read twenty feet away…Grandey’s Store.
TERRIBLE ACCIDENT: The August Johnson home northwest of Olena was the scene of a distressing occurrence last Saturday morning when Miss Sophia Johnson, a daughter in the home, was so severely burned to make her recovery a matter of doubt. It seems that the clothing of the young woman became ignited while she was in an upstairs room and that she rushed down the stairs enveloped in flames. Before the flames could be extinguished by member of the family who came to her assistance, she had been terribly burned about the body. Medical aid was quickly summoned and everything possible done to relieve her sufferings. She is now under care of a trained nurse and the outcome of the accident is being awaited by her parents and friends.
MAN HUNT IN MARSHALL COUNTY: The people of the town of Toluca in Marshall County are wrought up to a high degree of feeling over the slaying of Sheriff Orville Litchfield and Chief of Police John Leonard last Monday night by Joseph Stimas, a drink crazed miner whom they attempted to arrest after he had driven his wife and son from his home at the point of a gun. Stimas managed to escape after the slaying and the whole countryside about Toluca is being scoured by a posse of 500 or more citizens armed with weapons of every description. Airplanes and blood hounds are also being used for the purpose of location the criminal, who is supposed to be hiding in one of the many corn fields which abound in that vicinity.
ENROUTE TO FLORIDA: Everett Keener, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Keener, and his cousin, Archie Eaton of Burlington left on an auto trip to Florida where they expect to visit for some time. A card written by Everett says: “We are going along fine and are about 25 miles west of Chattanooga. Real mountains, but roads are wide and smooth. Slept last night on Mt. Eagle, ½ mile high and drove down grade 4 ½ miles to reach the bottom. Write to us at Lakeland, Fla. as we will be there in 4 or 5 days, I guess. Scenery is sure pretty as the trees are all colors now due to dry weather. It is 8:30 am and we have covered 750 miles.”
LOCAL AND AREA NEWS: Two grocery stores, a restaurant and a doctor’s office in Good Hope were entered and ransacked by thieves last Wednesday night. Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Brokaw are the parents of a fine baby boy born Sept. 16th. Miss Evelyn Fort has gone to Chambersburg, Pa. to assume her duties as instructor in music at a select school. W. C. Ivins, who is secretary and a member of the executive committee of the Farmers’ National Life Insurance Co. addressed a gathering of Henderson and Hancock stockholders at Dallas City last Friday night. Mrs. Charles Dobbs and son, Orville, of Brown’s Valley, Minn. arrived here to visit relatives and friends. Mr. and Mrs. Hez Butler returned from a summer visit at the home of Mrs. Butler’s sister, Miss Mamie Durling at Anthony, Kansas. Grace Putney has gone to Wilbur, Nebr. to make her home with her brother Virgil and family and has entered high school there. Mrs. Bert Putney visited at the home of her son Ernest and family returning home to Dean Lake, Mo. where she and Bert are making their home at present.
There is no immediate prospect of a fuel famine in this country since a recent report of the Illinois State Geology Department says that there are about one and a half billion tons of coal ling close to the surface in 18 counties in the state. Warren County is credited with 56,000,000 tons of this immense aggregate. Twenty acres of farm land located just north of the city of Geneseo, Ill. sold recently at $750 per acre, which is said to be a record price for Henry County land. ($11,857.50 in today’s values)
Mrs. A.J. Steffey left for a visit with a sister living at Lamar, Colo. Miss Winifred Jones has gone to Peoria to take up study at the Bradley Polytechnic school. Fred Kershaw has accepted employment with the Illinois Bell Telephone Co. and left for Gillman, Ill. where he will be located for some time. John Fort, son of C. E.Fort, has resigned his position as bookkeeper for the Pioneer Lumber Co. of Dallas City. Mr. J. E. Wells, who recently moved here from Raritan, is fitting up the former Gould garage building on east Main Street with the intention of embarking in the farm implement business.
LOCAL AND AREA NEWS: Mr. and Mrs. J.C.Decker, former residents when he was employed as local Santa Fe agent and now located at McCook, Ill. stopped by to visit friends. The Kumjoynus Class of the M.E.Church held a reunion at the home of Mr. Robert Ingerson. The season for hunting ducks and geese in this section of the country opened Sept. 10th and judging from the application for licenses now being received by Village Clerk Bell, there is likely to be a lot of ammunition expended during the next few weeks by local sportsmen in quest of these water fowls. An organization for the establishment of a public library for Blandinsville and community has been affected and the sum of $1,650 which remained from a fund created during the war period for meeting demands for patriotic contributions made upon the community, has been turned over to the organization to form a nucleus for the library fund.
The Graphic force has been working overtime during the past week on account of an unusual rush of business in our job department including the printing of 3,500 bills 22 x 30 inches in size advertising the big Grandy special sale; public sale bills for D. Wasson and A. R. Preston and Son; football posters and tickets for the high school and Lyric Theatre bills. An increased demand for advertising space has also made it necessary for us to increase the size of the Graphic to 10 pages this week. (A newspaper was the internet of that day.) The number of automobile licenses issued annually has increased from 340,292 in 1917 to over 1,065,000 in 1925.
HURT IN A CRASH: Mrs. James Rankin was quite severely hurt on Saturday evening in an automobile collision. Mrs. Rankin and her two sons, Waldo and Pat, had left Biggsville on their way home and just a short distance west of town were run into by a car driven by some colored people. The Rankin boys escaped without serious injury. Both cars were damaged and it was reported that one colored man was taken to the hospital.
BIGGSVILLE BRIEFS: A very large number of people from this vicinity attended the Fall Festival in Monmouth last week and all speak highly of the exhibits, the entertainment and the treatment of visitors. Several rural schools in the neighborhood were dismissed on Friday that the pupils might attend. Mr. and Mrs. John Boyd received word of the birth of a son to their son and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Boyd of Monmouth. Bert Liby returned from a stay of several months in Washington and California. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur McIntyre of Carman visited her mother, Mrs. Huldah Millen and went on to Monmouth to see her sister, Miss Mary Millen. George Millen purchased a new piano last week. (Times were good when one could buy such a luxury item.)
MEDIA MEANDERINGS: Mr. John Suydam, one of the oldest citizens has been ill but is able to be about again. The demonstration of the Letz feed grinding machine held here Saturday was well attended by farmers from many neighboring communities. This affair was sponsored by the E. G.Lewis Seed Co. Those who attended the funeral of Mrs. Elizabeth Dalton Laird at Smithshire were Mrs. Electa Detwiler, Mrs. C. C. Sullivan, Mr. and Mrs. John Pogue, Mrs. C. R. Pendarvis, Mrs. Dave Campbell and Zelma Campbell. The county picnic of Federated Women’s Club will be held in Media Oct. 15 at the United Church.
CARMAN CONCERNS: The Ladies Aid Society will give a fried chicken dinner at 5 pm Sept. 30th. The menu will consist of fried chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, sliced tomatoes, sweet pickles, beet pickles, cranberry jelly, Waldorf salad, coffee, tea, pumpkin nut pie, whipped cream, Herkimer cheese, tea biscuits, and butter. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kirby have received employment at the county farm. The Thursday Club will be entertained at the Harry Wisbey home near Disco Friday. Mrs. Babe Trainer and daughter of Chicago spent Tuesday at the Alice Crane home. Mr. and Mrs. Golden Babcook of Winfield, Iowa visited his parents, Mr. and Mrs. A. C.Babcook. Duck season is now on as the hunters seem to be very busy from the reports we hear in the morning.
LOMAX LINGERINGS: Louis Brown and family of Kansas returned home after visiting relatives here. Harry Miller have moved to Knoxville, Ill. where he will do road work. Mrs. Dora Pence has returned from visiting her mother in Los Angeles after a six-week sojourn. Mrs. John King visited home folks in Canton, Mo. B.W. Shanks spent several days looking after business on his farm near Bowen, Ill. Wayne Hamilton of Indiana arrived in Lomax and will be employed at the broom factory. Clarence Ramsey and family have moved from the Henry Dougherty property to the George Roth property in the new part of town.
PISTOL DUEL IN NIOTA: In a pistol duel last Friday at Niota, Ill. across the river from Fort Madison, Robert Sack, a Negro, was shot dead and the other party to the affair, an unidentified Mexican, was wounded in the arm. The Mexican is said to have been spirited away from the scene after the shooting and has thus far eluded arrest. Oscar Gay, a Negro, and Ollie Daniels, a Mexican, are being held by the Hancock County authorities as accomplices of the man wanted. The work on the Santa Fe bridge at Fort Madison is said to be bringing a lot of undesirables to that locality and the killing of the Negro was the result of mix-up in which drinking and gambling and dissolute women played a part.