Looking Back: 2-4-26

130 Years Ago

February 1, 1896

The fire at the south school house Monday morning did considerable damage and resulted in the tragic death of W. H. Karnes. When the fire broke out, Mr. Karnes, who had been janitor there for a number of years, but who had resigned two years ago, ran into the building and when the fire department arrived was spraying water on the fire with a hand hose. He shortly complained of feeling ill and passed away after being taken from the building.

Rev. W. L. Riley has been assisting at the Baptist protracted meetings in Chenoa this week.

The cake walk and dance at the Odd Fellows Hall Wednesday night was a great success. William Walker, of this city, and a young lady from Pontiac, got the cake.

Cropsey — Quite a disturbance was caused last week when one of our local stockmen shipped a consignment of cholera hogs to Chicago.

120 Years Ago

February 2, 1906

The coal miners have decided to quit work on April 1^st and remain out until the operators accede to their demands, 300,000 men will be called out and this means every union coal miner in the United States. From now until April 1 all union miners will be assessed $1 per day as a strike fund.

G. Y. McDowell & Co. received their new safe Thursday and it was placed in their building by Robt. Harris. It is a five ton safe of the Herring-Hall-Marvin make and looks like it would keep burglars guessing to get into it.

This is Ground Hog Day and it is just the kind of a day that makes the ice man and coal man smile, and when two such fellows smile together they cast a shadow that will make the rest of humanity do like the ground hog, hunt their hole.

110 Years Ago

February 4, 1916

The new pipe organ for St. John's Church arrived the latter part of last week and has been placed in position. It is a two manual organ of the latest type of construction and operation. The air supply is furnished by an electric blower. The display pipes are finished in French gold, and are arranged in such a manner as not to obstruct the view of the large rose window in front of which the organ is placed. It is indeed a beautiful and sweet toned instrument, and adds not only to the interior decoration of the church but will add immeasurably to the solemnity of the ritualistic service.

C. J. Claudon has sold nine of the famous Super Six Hudson touring cars in the past two weeks without a demonstrator. These are the cars with the famous 76 H. P. patented motor which the Hudson factory has recently developed.

Wednesday was Ground Hog Day and if Mr. Groundhog didn't see his shadow he must have been blind, as the sun was out a greater part of the day. According to tradition the groundhog went back in his hole and will not come out again for six weeks. Accordingly, we will have a late spring.

100 Years Ago

February 5, 1926

The mild weather of the past week has caused the bottom to drop completely out of the country roads and they are almost impassable. The rural mail carriers are having a hard time of it to make the rounds even with a horse and buggy. The present condition of the roads constitutes a mute but eloquent argument for hard roads.

Sam Meyer, residing some six miles northeast of town, had both bones of his right leg broken Tuesday afternoon when the horse he was riding fell, and Mr. Meyer's leg was caught under the animal. The accident happened about 2 o'clock, and Mr. Meyer did not get aid until about an hour later. The accident happened near the Peter Bradley home, northeast of town. Mrs. Bradley saw Mr. Meyer ride by, and later noticed the horse go back riderless. She heard Mr. Meyer's outcries, but thought he was trying to call attention to someone to stop his horse. It was about 45 minutes later when her attention was again attracted by his call, and it was then that she realized something was wrong and telephoned to near neighbors.

The announcement has been made by President William R. Davidson, of Wesleyan University at Bloomington, that Dr. and Mrs. G. C. Lewis, of this city, have made an annuity gift of $100,000 to that institution. Dr. and Mrs. Lewis have long been known as generous givers to things pertaining to educational and spiritual progress. The gift of Dr. and Mrs. Lewis to Wesleyan University is to be used to endow a professorship and scholarship fund for worthy students of the institution.

90 Years Ago

January 31, 1936

On next Tuesday evening, February 4, the members of the Fairbury Woman's Club are expected to bring a guest, husband, father, brother or sweetheart. It is men's night at the general meeting of the club. It is a program given by men, for men, but no doubt the women present will enjoy it quite as much.

Carl Bender, who raises bees on an extensive scale, states that he had examined a number of his hives recently, and while there was plenty of honey in the cells for the bees to feed on, many of them were dead, having frozen during the extreme cold.

Conrad Munz Tuesday completed the gathering of his ice crop and now has all of his ice houses full. The ice harvested Tuesday was 12 inches thick and of fine quality. It was taken from the gravel pit pond, from which he filled the greater part of his houses the first of the month. It has been several years since he was able to get any ice, but to get two crops off the same pond in one season is something.

80 Years Ago

February 1, 1946

Approximately 6,600 pounds of clothing was collected in the one-day drive Tuesday to send to the destitute people of Europe. While the drive was for "old clothing," much of it was in excellent shape and some showed little, if any, wear. The drive got started on Tuesday morning, with trucks from the Bach and Alexander Lumber Yards, manned by Boy Scouts, going to every part of the city. They completed their work by evening. The clothing was packed in boxes as it was gathered and then taken to the A. J. Porter building at Locust and Second Streets, where it was repacked and made available for shipping. It will be trucked out of here.

A force of carpenters have been busy at the city hall this week doing some remodeling to the ladies' rest room. The room, which has been rather too large for its purpose, is being divided by a partition and the front part will be used as an office for the chief of police. One of the windows on the west side is being made into a door to the ladies' rest room, which will be fitted up with settees and chairs. Both rooms will be redecorated.

In spite of the fact that Fairbury is located on a railroad tied up with labor troubles, it still ranks tops as a great grain center. Up until yesterday there had been handled by the two local elevators during the month just closed, a total of something over 126,000 bushels of grain, including corn, oats and beans. So while the local railroad men are on strike our local elevators are going along doing business as usual and keeping Fairbury on the map as the best grain center ever.

70 Years Ago

February 2, 1956

What goes up must come down, Eli Leman learned again Saturday. The lesson cost him a broken toe and at least a week lost from gainful employment. Eli was covering a stack of cement blocks at the site of his new home on North First Street Saturday when it all came about. Reaching up to put a board on top of some building paper covering the stack of blocks, he accidentally knocked one of the blocks loose. It came straight down on Eli's big toe, breaking it in two places. He is confined to his home, until he is again able to get both shoes on.

Don't let anyone steer you away from Fairbury Saturday. The Fairbury Chamber of Commerce, Livingston County Farm Bureau and farmers of the area are sponsoring a meat festival here that day, with a big open pit barbecue as the main attraction. Everybody has been invited to make a hog of themselves, and for free too. The barbecue, which begins at 11:00 a.m., is only part of the program which will unfold in Central Park throughout the afternoon. There will be entertainers from radio station WLS, two meat cutting demonstrations, an FFA exhibit of meat and non-meat type hogs, award presentations to the four school students writing the winning essays in the meat essay contest, and musical entertainment by the high school band.

Walton's Dept. Store has received word that their appliance department have won the Hawaiian Holiday trip, for outstanding sales in General Electric products. The trip is by plane for ten days at Waikiki Beach in Hawaii. Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Butcher will make the trip in March.

60 Years Ago

February 3, 1966

National Bank of Fairbury yesterday opened its new auto bank facility, some four and a half months after construction got under way in mid-September. Located on Third Street at the intersection of the alley, a half-block north of Locust, the structure is connected to the bank by an underground tunnel. Two drive-up windows are provided, one on the north with the entrance from the alley heading west; and one on the south with entrance east off Third Street. One of the many features of the facility are the heated driveways which are designed to remove snow and ice automatically.

It was about 18 degrees below zero, unofficially at least, when Boy Scouts from Troops 70 and 72 in Fairbury held their Polar Bear Camp Out Friday night. The camping out part was accomplished, but there was little or no sleep, because of nearly frost-bitten fingers, noses and toeses. The three accompanying adults, William Kelleher, the assistant scoutmaster in Troop 72, Leroy Fagot and Dr. George Fischer, trained the scouts in winter survival and camping techniques. No casualties from the cold were reported, but there were some "near misses."

Mr. and Mrs. John Roth have returned from a several weeks' vacation trip to California and some of the southern states. On their way to the west coast, the Roths visited with Mr. and Mrs. Harry Roth and family in Phoenix, Ariz. In Glendale, Calif., they stayed with the Ben Roths and their daughter, Jane and family, Mr. and Mrs. Ron Clyde. In San Diego, they saw their son, Sam, who is stationed there at the Marine Base. Returning home, they toured the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. In El Paso, Texas, they stopped to see Mr. and Mrs. Tom Wicker and family (Dixie Roth). At Tucson, Ariz., they called on Bill Nickolas, a friend from John's school days. Arriving in Nashville, Tenn., the Roths stopped to see the Ronald (Stub) Thomas family, and in Cairo, visited with the Norm Rawsons.

50 Years Ago

February 5, 1976

Livingston County Sheriff's deputies are investigating a break-in and theft at the Fairbury Stone Company. According to authorities, the break-in took place between 4 p.m. Sunday and 7 a.m. Monday. A front door to the building was pried open and a soda machine inside had been broken open. Police said about $5 in change was taken along with an AM-FM radio, a fire extinguisher and a scanner.

Sweetheart Ball "76" will be held from 8 to 11 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14, in the big gym at Fairbury-Cropsey High School. Music will be provided by Addison Grace. The queen candidates are Pat Runyon, Janis McCulloh, Rinette Gatel, Brenda Surber and DiAnn Traub. They are all senior members of FHA. Those attending the Valentine ball will vote for their favorite candidate at the dance.

Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Zimmerman of rural Forrest announce the engagement of their daughter, Jill Denise, to Thomas Eugene Rock. He is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Rock of Roberts. Jill and Tom are both 1975 graduates of Parkland College in Champaign. Jill is a medical secretary for Dr. G. D. Costillo, Champaign. Tom is engaged in farming and works for Lyman Township at Roberts. The couple is planning a May 29 wedding.

40 Years Ago

January 30, 1986

Former Fairburian Jerry Miller was in a state of shock when he called his mother, Mrs. Nila Johansen in Fairbury just minutes after the Space Shuttle Challenger, carrying the crew he had trained, exploded. Miller has been working on his own goal, furthering his education in hopes of being chosen as part of the crew of the first Space Station scheduled for the 1990s. He is presently the EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) trainer at the NASA Space Center in Houston. Miller is featured on CBS' Feb. 7 broadcast of PM Magazine, for which he has provided training tapes made at the Space Center.

A Fairbury area farm family this week donated 100 bushels of soybeans to the fund campaign of South East Livingston County Ambulance Service, according to the campaign co-chairmen, Everett Sutter and Si Moser. The beans were sold Tuesday for $5.30, adding $530 to the growing treasury to purchase a replacement vehicle. When the two men announced the campaign a week ago, they revealed they already had checks and pledges for about $13,000. Since then, including the soybeans, they've banked another $5,550. Moser and Sutter hope to reach their goal of $45,000 in about 60 days without benefit of a door-to-door solicitation.

Prairie Central High School senior Janice Meister will tour Europe this summer with the Youth of America 1986 European Concert Tour, to begin July 4 and end 26 days later. Janice and others on the tour will leave from Boston, Mass., following rehearsals to be at Anna Maria College, near Worchester, Mass. They will be off to Rome to perform in a concert there. Janice was invited to take the tour because of her outstanding performance in her school music program.

30 Years Ago

January 31, 1996

The Fairbury City Council voted to go forward on the building design of the new city hall on the corner of the lot on the former Honegger site. The council met last night in a special meeting with Art Sweeney of Mills/Sweeney Architects, Bloomington. Costs of the structure, which Mayor Lynn Dameron said could be paid with existing funds, is speculated at $483,000. He said they had been "allocating money for this project for some time." Ground breaking could be in early spring, said Sweeney.

Korey Kestner, Fairbury Fair's 1995 junior division first place talent contest winner, won first place in the junior division at the state level with a vocal solo. The contest was held at the 86^th annual convention of the Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs, held recently at the Holiday Inn East in Springfield. Kestner, a freshman at Pontiac Township High School and vocal student of Jerry Keck's, competed against 98 competitors making up 40 different acts. He was accompanied by Keck, who used his music talents to compose a medley especially for Kestner, a medley of "On My Way," New York, New York," Chicago" and San Francisco." Kestner also performed on Sunday in the Miss Illinois County Queen Pageant. He is the son of George and Becky Kestner of rural Pontiac.

Fairbury resident Jerry Kaisner became service manager of Gardner Sales and Service, Pontiac, on Jan. 11. Kaisner, 41, an employee of the dealership since July 2, 1984, formerly served as a shop technician. Kaisner replaces Marvin Wunderlin, who recently retired after more than 31 years of working at the dealership.

20 Years Ago

February 1, 2006

Although they are too young to donate blood, students at Westview Elementary School in Fairbury stepped up big time this week, recruiting 173 friends and family members to give blood at the American Red Cross "Pint Size Heroes" program blood drive on Monday, Jan. 29. Twenty-one first-time donors, including the superintendent of Prairie Central schools, Dr. John Capasso, showed up for the blood drive on Monday. The "Pint Size Heroes" program is designed to increase student and family involvement in the blood donation process. Students are able to learn the importance of donating blood and begin to prepare themselves to become donors once they are eligible.

The PC Wrestling Club hosted the first annual Lil' Hawk Wrestling Challenge on Sunday, Jan. 29 at the high school. Over 150 kids participated in the all-day event that drew wrestling clubs from around the state. Age makes no difference in the match. They wrestled to win and were cheered on from a balcony of fans. Concessions were available and another great hospitality room by Roger and Denise Brown was filled with unlimited goodies for the event officials, coaches, etc.

Duane and Marlene Flessner of Cullom will celebrate their 50^th wedding anniversary with an open house on Sunday, Feb. 12 at St. John's Lutheran Church in Cullom. Flessner and the former Marlene Attig were married on Feb. 11, 1956 at the Charlotte Evangelical United Brethren Church. Rev. Curtis Price officiated. Dorothy Mae Coash and Delmar Flessner were their attendants. They are the parents of two children, Gerald (Lori) of Cullom and Brenda Riccolo of Dwight. There are five grandchildren and one great-grandchild. The couple is semi-retired from farming.

10 Years Ago

February 3, 2016

One barn was lost after a structure fire on the Mueller farm northeast of Cropsey. Crews were seen cleaning up debris in recent days following the Jan. 16 blaze. There is no official word on the cause and no injuries were reported. Responding agencies came from Cropsey, Strawn, Anchor, Colfax, Cooksville, Fairbury, Sibley, Lexington, Forrest and Pontiac, according to the Anchor Fire Department.The 2015-16 5^th grade boys basketball team has certainly left its mark in several gyms in central Illinois. While winning almost all the regular season games, the boys have stepped it up in a few of the local tournaments this year. In the recent Saunemin tournament (which featured 20 area teams, many of them 6^th grade) the 5^th grade Hawks came away with the consolation championship. They also captured third place in the Eureka tournament and in the Heller Classic in El Paso, the young Hawks won the 16-team tournament, bringing home the championship trophy. Team members include Clayton Bahler, Carson Friedman, Adam Steinsultz, Connor Gibson, Tyler Farrell, Caleb Decker, Brayden Hornickel, Grant Fogarty, Jack Sheridan, Colton Stork Landen Hoffman, Drew Haberkorn, Thomas Hammond, Teegan Quinn, Camden Palmore, Noah Nagel, Dylan Bazzell and Drew Fehr. Darin Bazzell is head coach and Mike Fogarty is assistant coach.

The back stretch restrooms came down about two weeks ago and the $250,000 renovation of Fairbury American Legion Speedway began. New front and back stretch restrooms, plus new bleachers on the front stretch will be part of the renovation of the popular dirt track that begins its 70^th season of racing this year. Also, the 140^th edition of the Fairbury Fair will take place in August. The front stretch restrooms will house 24 stalls for men and women and will include four new showers and an infant diaper-changing station. Work on the facility is expected to be completed before the May 7 FALS Frenzy $10,000-to-win late model special.

(Looking Back from Kari Kamrath is sponsored by Duffy-Pils Memorial Homes)