The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Compiled and Edited by Virginia Ross
Registrar for Daniel McMillan Chapter, N.S.D.A.R.1917
Stronghurst Graphic, Nov. 29, 1917
BIG FIRE IN MONMOUTH: The factory building in Monmouth occupied by the Maple City Manufacturing Co., the Boss Manufacturing Co. and the Monmouth Acetylene and Electric Co. was destroyed by fire last Friday afternoon. About 225 people were employed by the three concerns mentioned and the disaster will materially affect the business interests of the city. While some insurance was carried by each of the firms burned out, the financial loss will be very heavy. The commercial club as well as individual citizens are stirring themselves to see what can be done toward helping the concerns reestablish themselves.
The management of the Boss Manufacturing Co., which turned out an enormous quantity of mittens each year, intimates that unless the city shows a disposition to assist in providing a suitable location for a new factory building, it will be taken to some other place.
SOLD LAND: Master in Chancery Gordon sold 160 acre farm in Terre Haute Township belonging to the Geo.J.Morgan estate at public auction for $19,500, the purchasers being G.R.Morgan and John Seigworth, Jr., who will divide the land. The premises on Broadway in Stronghurst occupied by the Morgan and Wilcox barber shop was sold to Tom Morgan for $2700. The latter also purchased the lot between the Graphic office and the Sutliff barn for $150 and the vacant lot on the southeast corner of block 8 in the village for $375. Tom says it is his intention to put up a one story 25 x 40 brick building on the lot by the Graphic which will take the place of two old dilapidated structures now occupying the site.
1892 GRAPHIC: A movement was on foot for the organization of a Knights of Pythias lodge in Stronghurst. Oscar Francen and Charles Lind had just left for a visit to their old homes in Sweden. Lafe Simpson sold his residence to J. W. Hicks. The A. R. Brooks residence northwest of the village came near being burned as the result of dry grass in the yard taking fire from a toy balloon which had been sent up by boys in town.
Everyone in the county was anxious as it was thought that Beilla's Comet would collide with the earth on Nov.27th, but the date passed without any natural cataclysm occurring. Si Parson escaped death Thanksgiving night when he was thrown from the top of a freight train in Chillicothe as he was stepping from one car to another; he was taking stock to Chicago.
WHERE ARE THE LIGHTS? Partial service was established by the local electric light management, the current being supplied by the generator which was received last week, the motive power for which is being furnished by Mr. Albert Negley's traction engine. Service began last Thursday evening, but it soon developed that the engine did not have sufficient power to pull the load required for proper lighting the village and sixteen or more flues in the engine were burned out in the attempt to get more power from it. The lights burned but dimly and in nearly all the businesses and residences other lighting was used.
Mr. Negley decided that it was useless to attempt to pull the generator load and gave up the job. On Sunday morning; however, Mr. Winholt of the Public Utilities Commission arrived from Springfield, and he induced Mr. Negley to make another trial with his engine on a lighter load. The lights were on again Sabbath evening and since that time partial service has been given the village.
A large portion of the residence district has been cut off, and current furnished the business part only. Even with this arrangement the lights do not burn with a very great degree of brilliancy, and it is the general opinion that the present equipment at the light plant will not furnish anything like satisfactory service.
AREA EVENTS: Fifty students of William and Vashti College of Aledo are now in the military service. Dr. B.F.Hamilton of Roseville is in a very feeble condition and is being cared for at a hospital in Burlington. Iowa farmers are keeping a close look out for strangers who are said to be passing through cornfields and distributing disease germs. The loss of many cattle, it is believed, can be traced to their work. The LaHarpe Oil Co has dissolved and paid stockholders $46.53 back on each share of stock bought.
The company was formed to prospect for oil in the vicinity but met with no success. A plot to wreck a new implement and garage building just constructed in Nauvoo was discovered. Only through good luck a stick of dynamite was found beside the foundation before it exploded. The fate of Bert Sapp, the Monmouth horseman sentenced last spring in at Aledo to 22 years for killing Emma Larkins at the Mercer County fair grounds during the fair of 1916, is before the Supreme Court. The Belmont School Building is to be dedicated on Dec.12; it is said to cost something like $11,000 and be the best country school building in the state.
Jerry Gillenwater is in jail in Galesburg charged with arson. Delong, which is a small village in Knox County, has two billiard halls with one of them being operated by Gillenwater and the other by Mr. Plummer. The latter seemed to be getting the larger patronage which provoked the anger of Gillenwater. Last Thursday evening someone set fire to Plummer's building, but prompt work saved it from destruction. Plummer's business rival was at once the object of suspicion and when he was arrested and put through the third degree, he made a confession. In default of $600 bail, Gillenwater is languishing in the county jail.
While on their way by auto from Fulton, Ill. to Nauvoo, Rev. W.G.Baird and wife had an accident by which the latter lost her life. While going up a hill between Fort Madison and Nauvoo, Mr. Baird lost control of the machine which shot down the hill backwards and was overturned in a gully, pinning the occupants beneath it. The accident occurred about 11 o'clock in the evening and the victims remained imprisoned under the wreck until about 8 o'clock the next morning. When discovered, Mrs.
Baird had passed away and Mr. Baird was in an unconscious condition. The latter had just accepted a call to the pastorate of the Nauvoo Presbyterian Church and was on his way to his new charge. His injuries were not serious.