Looking Back: 3-12-26

130 Years Ago

March 7, 1896

The framework of the new residence being built by J. K. Shook for C. W. Neitz on Ash Street is raised.

The lady clerks of W. J. Bethard's east end emporium are taking their turns in enjoying their vacations nowadays. Grace Zehr was absent from her place last week, while this week Mattie Henry is absent.

Miss Mayme Phillips closed a very successful term of school in district No. 6 last week.

Belle Prairie — The Freeman land tenants are putting up "no hunting" signs. The reason for this is some of the Fairbury hunters do not stop at shooting prairie chickens and quail after the season is over, but in the fall of the year, they load their buggies full of corn before they go back.

Beers & Camp have sold a number of lots at Fairview Heights to some of our citizens.

120 Years Ago

March 9, 1906

William and Samuel DeMoure, of Piper City, were in Fairbury Monday evening. Both gentlemen live near the big drainage ditch, which ends at the Wabash bridge near Wing and both of them are interested in the work of the ditch. They say it is already proving of great value in draining the territory in their neighborhood and undoubtedly well worth all it cost the farmers of that locality. The water has a good fall they say and runs faster than a man can walk. In regard to the volume of water passing thru the ditch, they say it is immense and in their opinion will flood the low lands around Wing and along the Vermilion unless some arrangements are made to care for it.

Mr. and Mrs. Roger Bently celebrated their 20^th anniversary Monday evening. About fifty of their friends were there and the evening was spent in playing some jolly good games. Many nice presents were received and the guests spent a very pleasant evening.

M. N. Jones, of Belle Prairie came to town Monday in a sled. It may be he had been reading up on Hicks, Bradbury, et al, and anticipated a snow storm or perhaps his heart yearned so for a sleigh ride that he just couldn't stand it any longer. Anyway, Mel had a sleigh ride, snow or no snow – mostly mud, however.

110 Years Ago

March 10, 1916

Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Walton Sr., who went to California recently to visit, sailed from San Francisco, Tuesday for Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, where they will visit a few weeks. Honolulu is about 2,000 miles from San Francisco and it takes about two weeks to make the ocean trip.

Tuesday evening at nine o'clock, at Way's Restaurant occurred a pleasant social event. It was a "stag" party given in honor of Jesse Worrick, whose marriage to Miss Madge Crum, occurred Thursday afternoon at Bloomington. The young men, eight in number, gathered at the restaurant at the above mentioned time and proceeded to enjoy a banquet which had been prepared. This was followed by a smoker and a general good time.

While in Chicago last month, N. E. Fulton called upon F. C. Cooper, general agent for Coop & Lents new united shows, three ring circus, museum and menagerie, and had a talk with him in regard to bringing the shows to Fairbury. This week Mr. Fulton received a letter from Mr. Cooper in which he says the shows will appear in Fairbury on May 11. While the Coop Bros. and Lent Bros. have been in the circus business all their lives the show they are out with this season is entirely new and it will be one of the best on the road. The shows will exhibit on the fairgrounds where there is ample room for the tents as well as being convenient to the city.

100 Years Ago

March 12, 1926

Edward O'Malley, who spent his boyhood days in Fairbury and learned the printing trade in The Blade office, was found dead in his room at a hotel in Chicago, Sunday. It developed at the coroner's inquest that the last time he was seen alive was last Thursday. The coroner's jury returned a verdict of death from hemorrhage of the brain. He was employed on the night shift of the American Type Setting Company and as most of his acquaintances were on the day shift, his disappearance was not noted until Sunday. Just why the hotel authorities did not discover his body is not known.

Last Friday evening while Elmer Henning, Reed Hanley and Walter Jacobs, of this city, were en route to Pontiac to attend the basketball tournament in the former's car, they hit the rear end of another car driven by a gentleman representing an ice cream company in Peoria. The latter gentleman says he was traveling at a very low rate of speed, while the young men from this city are of the opinion that his car was parked on the pavement when they hit him. Both cars were quite badly damaged.

The groundhog, the original weather prophet, has about lost all his prestige in this section. After failing to see his shadow on February 2, and thereby assuring the natives that it would soon be spring, we have been having anything but spring-like weather. Sunday was a fine example of a January blizzard in March. It started to rain Saturday night, with a cold wave arriving Sunday accompanied by snow, driven by a biting wind from the west. At six o'clock on Monday morning the thermometers around here registered only eight or nine degrees above zero.

90 Years Ago

March 6, 1936

The Phi Chi Psi Corporation is going to have to find a way of putting the brakes on H. B. Bedell. In the last three of a series of pinochle tournaments held during the past few months he has captured first prize each time. Monday evening in six games of four hands each he topped all other contestants with a score of 2,225. E. P. Compton was second and the consolation prize went to Harlow King. Dan Schlipf won the guest's prize. The other members of the Phi Chi Psi are talking of holding a pinochle tournament some evening and not telling Harley anything about it.

Harold Barnes suffered an injury to one of his eyes about a week ago. While putting the chains on his car an end of the chain flipped, striking his glasses and breaking them. Pieces of the glass got into one of his eyes and while the particles have been removed, he is still having some trouble with the optic.

Mr. and Mrs. Ide Harris were pleasantly surprised Sunday evening by a company of thirty-three, relatives and friends, who came to stay for supper and brought the supper with them. The party was a celebration of the birthdays of Mr. and Mrs. Harris which are only a few days apart, Mr. Harris having March 1^st as his anniversary and Mrs. Harris the third.

80 Years Ago

March 8, 1946

Many cities and towns throughout Illinois are going on daylight saving time in April. Among the latest to adopt it are La Salle and Quincy. Probably most of the cities of any size will have it and Fairbury should do the same.

Last Friday night when John Schuler went to bed in his room at Hotel Fairbury he laid his trousers with $95 in them nearby. When he got up the next morning the pants and the $95 had disappeared. A pair of pants and $95 are not so easy to get these days (especially the pants) and Mr. Schuler put in a call to the sheriff's office at Pontiac. Deputy Sheriff Don Morrison came over and made a few inquiries. When Mr. Schuler went back to his room some time later (fortunately he had an extra pair of pants) lo and behold there were the pants and the $95. A feat of magic if there ever was one.

Mrs. W. D. Stephens tripped on a chair Sunday and sustained a cut back of her knee that required six stitches to close. Mr. and Mrs. Stephens and Carol were visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. R. L. Tipton, over the weekend. Mrs. Stephens was unable to return home with Mr. Stephens Sunday.

70 Years Ago

March 8, 1956

Fairbury residents knew it all along, but now they have scientific proof, and the whole country knows it. The following item appeared recently in a leading national magazine: "One of the heaviest cloudbursts ever thoroughly studied occurred on July 8, 1951, over north central Illinois. Within six hours, as much as 13 inches of rain fell. In the 576-square-mile center of the storm, 335,000,000 tons of water – 80,000,000,000 gallons – came down. This was an energy release equal to 9,100 atomic bombs." The rainfall recorded at the waterworks here that night totaled "only" 7.3 inches in six hours,  but there were a good many Fairburians who would have sworn at least one of those A bombs went off when they looked out the next morning.

On Wednesday, March 7, the seniors of FSW will take over the teaching jobs. The purpose of this day is to give the students wishing to major in teaching a chance to see what it is like and to try to interest others in the field of teaching. This also teaches a student how to organize a day's work and also how to accept responsibilities and to carry through their plans. Every student has his choice of subjects and may teach in either high or grade school. The president of the student council, Sue McLoughlin, will be the superintendent for the day, while the class president, Donald Metz, is the assistant superintendent.

Mr. and Mrs. Warren T. Stevens were married in St. Louis, Missouri, March 3, 1906, and lived there until coming to Fairbury in the fall of 1909. With the exception of one year at Cropsey and about two years at Weston, they have lived in Fairbury since that time. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens have two sons, two daughters and 13 grandchildren. They entertained the family and friends at a 6 o'clock dinner at the E. & E. Cafe Saturday evening to celebrate. Mr. Stevens is a retired contractor.

60 Years Ago

March 10, 1966

Carl Rapp of K & S Sales, Inc., Fairbury, has earned the coveted "Master Salesman" award as one of the outstanding automobile salesmen in the United States. Rapp's sales record has placed him among the top 15 percent of all Lincoln-Mercury salesmen and earned him special recognition from the Lincoln-Mercury Sales Council.

The Machle property on North Fourth Street at the intersection of Wanda Lane was sold at public auction Saturday for $12,575. Col. Carl Ronnow of Pontiac, crying the sale in the Fairbury city hall, declared the property sold to the high bid of Alden Nussbaum, some 23 minutes after opening the auction at 2 p.m. The bid, in essence, was for the three acres of real estate, since the buildings are in a dilapidated and run-down condition, the residence having been abandoned for several years. Nussbaum told The Blade that he was bidding in behalf of Melvin Zimmerman, Fairbury general contractor. Principal contender was Northview Builders, represented by J. C. Ebach, Harvey Traub and Carl Borngasser. Also bidding in the early stages was Bill Weber.

A full-time kindergarten program in Fairbury-Cropsey Community Unit schools was authorized Monday night when the school board met in their Lincoln school offices in Fairbury. The program will have an abbreviated schedule this spring, and Supt. Lester Miller is aiming for an April 10 opening. The board voted to rent the former Apostolic Church building, now owned by J. C. Ebach, subject to certain building renovations recommended by Roy R. Richardson from the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ray Page. A monthly rental of $125 was agreed upon with Ebach to pay for the state-recommended changes.

50 Years Ago

March 11, 1976

Mark Erdman and Dennis Bressner were the major award winners at the annual Fairbury-Cropsey FFA banquet. Erdman, this year's chapter president, won the prestigious DeKalb Award as the most outstanding senior as well as the Star Chapter Farmer Award and the Chapter Leadership Award. Bressner was the recipient of the Dan Ifft Memorial Award, given annually to the outstanding student in the cooperative ag program. John Traub and Tom Rathbun were other major winners as Traub won the Chapter Scholarship Award and Rathbun garnered the Star Greenhand Award. In addition, The Fairbury Blade was designated an honorary chapter farmer in recognition of the paper's promotional efforts on behalf of the FFA chapter.

The Chatsworth Board of Education met with the Forrest-Strawn-Wing Board of Education at the Monday, March 1 meeting at the request of the FSW Board to discuss if there was an interest in consolidation talks between the two. Both boards seemed to agree that a better educational program could be offered to the students with a larger enrollment, with a possible goal of from 600-700 enrollment in the high school. The boards agreed that neighboring towns of both districts should be invited to attend some discussion sessions and arrive at the interest of other districts with their voicing opinions if they so desired.

Stan Hoffman's carpentry crew on Monday began the demolition of the former site of Fosdick Produce at the southeast corner of Second and Locust in the Fairbury business district. The building has been owned by Sam Koehl for the past few years, and he reportedly will erect a new building on the site. The old Fosdick building was one of the oldest structures in the business district.

40 Years Ago

March 6, 1986

Dr. Rebecca C. Salvani, whose specialty is obstetrics and gynecology, will join the medical staff of Fairbury Hospital on Oct. 1 of this year. Her office will be located in the new Medical Arts Building adjacent to the hospital. Dr. Salvani is currently a major in the Medical Corps of the U. S. Army, and is serving at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital at Fort Campbell, Ky. Prior to that assignment, she served at the Second General Hospital of the U. S. Army in Landstuhl, Germany.

Over 1,800 people attended the annual FFA/FFA Alumni farm and home show held last Saturday at the PC junior high school building in Forrest. Prizes were awarded continually throughout the day by the 86 exhibitors in attendance and over 500 pork chop dinners were served in the evening. Adults and children alike joined in the fun as the sun shone outside to encourage them to "think spring."

Dean Voorhees, whose 90^th birthday is Wednesday, March 5^th, was guest of honor at an "Open House" at his home on N. Second St. on Sunday afternoon. One hundred guests helped Dean, a WWI Veteran, celebrate his 90 years. He was Manager of the Board of Trade for many years and was also a Parole Officer in Pontiac. He served as County Chairman of the Republican Central Committee for a number of years. and many of his former colleagues came from Pontiac and Livingston County to greet him. Also, he was a member of the Fraternal Organization, and the Phi Chi Si, a very active Civic group of men in the community many decades ago. Dean is the only living member.

30 Years Ago

March 6, 1996

Ginger Brown, 33, of Chatsworth, lost control of the 1986 2-door Chevrolet car she was driving, and struck the corner of a house in Fairbury. She was treated and released from St. James Hospital, Pontiac, following the 3:50 p.m. Thursday accident. Brown, southbound on First Street, lost control, crossed over the southbound lane and the curb, striking the northwest corner of the house at 305 N. First Street. No estimate was available on the damage to the front porch corner. the car was estimated with over $500 damage.

The 1995-96 Prairie Central Hawks ended their season last Tuesday as PBL used a strong second half to post a 97-78 win in Sectional play. Senior Chad Hammond finished his brilliant career at PC with 27 points and junior Mike Wenger added 16. Hammond ended up with over 1,200 points as a three-year varsity starter and helped lead his team to a combined 56-28 over-all record, 3 regional titles and 2 Hawk Classic championships.

Keith and Lois Coleman of Fairbury will mark their 40^th wedding March 11. A trip to Florida, hosted by their children, was taken in January. Coleman and Lois Perkins were married March 11, 1956 at the Methodist Church, McDowell. Their attendants were Darlene Tavener Helmers and James Coleman. They are the parents of three daughters, Becky Webster and Angela Wenger, both of Fairbury, and Connie Gentes of Sibley. There are also six grandchildren.

20 Years Ago

March 8, 2006

Officials continue to investigate the cause of a fire in Cropsey Friday morning that destroyed a building near the corner of Yates and Main Streets, just approximately two feet from the fire house. The building was used for storage and also as a machine shop for semi-trailer trucks. Eight fire departments battled the blaze, preventing the fire from spreading to other attached buildings from east to west of the structure. The fire began between 10 and 10:30 a.m.

The Fairbury Echoes Museum has re-opened with a new face to greet visitors. After the previous museum coordinator obtained full-time employment elsewhere, the museum was closed for about a month while the search for a replacement was undertaken. The museum is pleased to announce that Marilyn Kauffman has accepted the position.

Three Prairie Central Jr. High wrestlers will be competing at the IESA State Finals Tournament on the campus of Northern Illinois University at DeKalb on Friday and Saturday, March 10 and 11 as a result of their qualifying performance at the Braidwood Sectional tournament last Saturday, March 4. Winning sectional championships were eighth grader Josh Smith at 95 lbs. and Matt Hewitt at 215 lbs. Qualifying for the state tournament by finishing as the runner-up in the 90 lb. weight class was seventh grader Johnny Rudin.

10 Years Ago

March 9, 2016

Saturday's decent weather brought a nice crowd to the 36^th annual Prairie Central Farm and Home Show at the Upper Elementary School in Forrest. Members of the Prairie Central FFA chapter were among those strolling up and down the exhibit area. Chapter president Kylie Miller, who is also Section  Secretary, was busy promoting the schools' restored tractor. “The Ag 4 class restored the tractor and painted it to be raffled off at our auction, March 17,” she explained. In addition to the show, a pork chop and pork burger lunch was served from 11-2.

Rachael Oprondek of Fairbury and Philip Johnson of Chenoa are announcing their engagement and approaching marriage. The bride-to-be is the daughter of Joseph and Marcia Oprondek of Fairbury. She is a graduate of Illinois State University, Normal, and is currently a graduate student at Western Illinois University where she will graduate in August. The future bridegroom is the son of Brett and Sara Johnson of Chenoa. He is a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, and currently teaches math at Jacksonville High School in Jacksonville, Ill. The couple is planning an Aug. 6, 2016 wedding at St. Andrew's Catholic Church in Fairbury.

The Prairie Central Penguins team – comprised of 39 individuals from Student Senate representatives, high school students, teachers and community members, were a part of the 2016 Law Enforcement Torch Run Polar Plunge. They braved a chilly air temperature of 34 degrees at Miller Park Lake on Saturday, Feb. 27. The event raised over $100,000 to benefit Special Olympics Illinois Heartland Area 6, which serves athletes with disabilities across seven counties in Central Illinois. The Penguins raised over $6,400. Plans are already in the works for ways to increase the number of plungers, and raise more money next year.

"Looking Back" is sponsored each week by Duffy-Pils Memorial Home.