The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Compiled and Edited by Virginia Ross
Registrar for Daniel McMillan Chapter, N.S.D.A.R.1916
Stronghurst Graphic, July 20, 1916
I.O.O.F.PICNIC: Preparations for Stronghurst's 13th annual I.O.O.F.Picnic at the Santa Fe Park which opens tomorrow, July 21st and continues for two days are about completed and with favorable weather a large crowd is anticipated.(This was a very big affair; Nancy Isaacson recalled to me how families looked forward to this event the entire year. Local and state politicians used it as a platform to campaign for office, the Stronghurst band was featured throughout the two days as well as quarettes, Dare Devil Dale, a high aerial trapeze act, and hired entertainment advertised as "bizarre and sensational ". The Christian Church ladies advertised a roast beef dinner available at the church and the Boy Scouts had a food stand. The village board hired three to five extra policemen for crowd control.)
LOCAL AND AREA NEWS: During the severe electrical storm on Thursday afternoon a small barn on the W. J. McKeown place in the north part of the village was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. The fire department made a run for the fire through the heavy downpour of rain, but arrived too late to save the structure. The barn stood about 30 feet from the large barn on the place and Mr. McKeown says that this building would also undoubtedly have burned had it not been for the deluge.
Postmaster C. E. Fort has received permission from the department in Washington to close the office at 7 pm. or one hour earlier than has been the custom. Word from Joe Baxter who is in camp at Des Moines, Iowa, with the Iowa militia, is to the effect that during a recent severe electrical storm lightning struck one of the tents only a few feet from his own, killing two soldiers outright and seriously injuring another. The Willing Workers of the Stronghurst U.P. Church will hold their next tea at the home of Mrs. C.H.Curry with Mrs. T.D.Steffey, Mrs. M.E.Beardsley, Mrs. F.G.Reynolds, Mrs. J.W.Rankin and Misses Florence and Lois Shaw assisting. All the ladies of the community re invited to attend. A committee of the village board consisting of H.H.Rankin, A.S.McElhinney, C.H.Davis and J.W.Stine were at Roseville investigating the oil and water sprinkler which that village recently purchased. (The town board voted to buy a similar apparatus which would be used to lay the dust on the dirt streets of the village.) Walt Spiker was in Ames where he has been taking a course in stock judging to better prepare himself for his profession of auctioneering. In the eight days contest in horse judging , Walt ranked first in average out of a class of twenty.
W. B. Kaiser and son Louis and Drs. Ash and Vedder from La Harpe engaged in a tennis tournament with a number of local players on the new court recently laid out on the Dr.Frans lots, north of the Regan residence (where Mary Lillard lives today).
Six sets in all were played with the score being 3 sets for each team. The most interesting set requiring 23 games was played between W. B. Kaiser and Vedder of LaHarpe and Dr. Bond and Earl Mahnesmith of Stronghurst; the score at the finish was 12 to 20 in favor of the LaHarpe players. Other participating were Douglas Prescott, Carroll Wax and Dewey Mudd. The Raritan moving picture enterprise has come to temporary grief as it was attached for debt recently. The Board of Trustees of the Western Illinois Normal School at Macomb have let the contract for the erection of a new arts building to cost $89,000 exclusive of plumbing and heating. The Samuel Mathers family gathered at the Wever Academy in Media for a reunion. Twenty-five of the children and grandchildren attended. Corporal Calvin Lant of Olena has been sent to San Antonio, Texas with a company of regulars.
Mrs. Annie J.Smith, who is in the St.Mary's Hospital at Galesburg, will have to remain in the institution for two to six months while the fracture of her hip, which was revealed by means of the X ray, heals. Foster Lazear, the enterprising druggist and up-to-date business man, has just invested in the latest and best pop corn machine on the market. It is a marvel of mechanical ingenuity as well as an exceedingly handsome affair and pops, sorts and butters the corn without making it necessary for it to be touched by human hands. It is operated by a small electric motor. Mr. Ed Johnson, wife and three children passed through Stronghurst en route to their home in Fort Dodge, Iowa; he is a former Stronghurst boy, the son of the late John M. Johnson who operated a blacksmith shop in the earlier history of the village.
CARMAN CONCERNS: Mrs. Fred Newman and son Paul of Quincy have been visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robt. Gillis and left for West Branch, Iowa, to visit her sister, Mrs. Ed Kemp. Mrs. John Pendry is spending a few days with her brother William Wyatt near Lomax. Mrs. A.C.Babcook entertained the embroidery club at her home; the club expects the next meeting to be at Crapo Park. Mr. Si Bigger returned from Chicago where he took a shipment of stock.
Floyd, the only son of Mr. William Vaughan and wife, was seriously hurt Sunday night about 11:00 p.m. when he jumped from an automobile in which he was riding on his way home and was thrown quite a distance. He was found on the road side by Marvin Dixon who was in a car and the light threw a reflection on him. He was subconscious when found so do not know how long he had lain there. Mr. Dixon took him in his car to the Fritz Dannenburg home and Dr. Emerson was called; it is not known how badly he is hurt. (There has to be more to this story!) Marvin Dixon returned to his home in northern Iowa the next day.