Looking Back: 9-30-26

130 Years Ago

September 26, 1896

Fair notes: The fair closed last Friday night. The weather has been fine every day. Some of the races caused great excitement and when it was announced that Sherbert had broken the track record in the free-for-all trot the lovers of fast horseflesh cheered tremendously. The time was 2:22. Mrs. Martha Powell, while standing at the entrance of the Presbyterian booth had the misfortune to have her pocket picked. The thief got a snug sum, including about $40 of the proceeds of the booth. While Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Odell were attending the fair yesterday someone entered their house, three miles southwest of town, and took a watch and chain, a pair of pants and some old coins, also a note for $50.

120 Years Ago

September 28, 1906

Mrs. A. C. Bartlett gave an informal reception in honor of her son, Ro, and his bride, last Saturday evening at the Babcock residence, where the young couple now reside. About 75 guests were present and the event was a very pleasant one for both the bride and groom and the guests. Light refreshments were served during the evening and Burch's Orchestra discoursed sweet music. Later in the evening the bride, who is a gifted vocalist, favored the company with several selections, which were highly appreciated.

Another swindle is being worked over the country among the farmers. This smooth citizen sells barbed wire fencing, including a wire stretcher. He leaves the machine and forty rods of good fence for trial, requiring the farmer to sign a “good faith” contract on a postal card for a return of the stretcher. The farmer signs for $3.00 and the $3.00 turns out to to be $300 instead. A good way to prevent being swindled is to refuse positively to buy any goods of paddlers and never under any circumstances to sign your name to anything they present.

Policeman Cook, of Chicago, was here this week visiting the family of A. G. Phelps, returning to Chicago Wednesday. Mr. Cook was one of the early residents of Fairbury, leaving here in 1868, the year before the flood. There are still a few old timers left who knew him when he lived here. He has been on the police force in Chicago for 35 years and this is his first vacation in that time.

110 Years Ago

September 29, 1916

The local electric light plant of the Central Illinois Utilities Company was discovered to be on fire yesterday morning, a little after five o'clock, and before the fire was quenched the frame building was burned to the ground and the machinery therein ruined. The building of the Chatsworth Produce Co. was right against the end of the electric light building where the fire started and for a time it looked as though it too would be burned, but the good work of the firemen prevented this. While Fairbury has been getting most of her power from the main plant of the company, situated at Watseka, the local plant was kept in readiness in cases of emergency and for several days previous to the fire had been furnishing light and power to both Fairbury and Forrest.

Forty friends met at the home of Mr. and Mrs. N. T. Graves Monday evening to surprise their daughter, Miss Pearl, on her 18^th birthday. The yard was beautifully arranged with Japanese lanterns and a blazing camp fire in one corner over which marshmallows were roasted. The evening was spent in games, music and dancing, after which a dainty luncheon was served.

The work on the new city well has been at a standstill for more than a week now. This delay has been caused by a part of digging apparatus becoming fastened in the well. The well is now down to a depth of 1,400 feet.

100 Years Ago

October 1, 1926

The members of the Cheerful Givers society have been earning a dollar each, for the replenishment of its treasury. On Thursday, October 14, they will meet at the home of Mrs. Sylvia Hoffman and tell their experiences in earning their dollars. The program will be made up of numbers left over from past meetings. Any members unable to attend are requested to send their dollar to Mrs. Edna Goins.

A. Wombacher and William Hannie have embarked in the bakery business in Forrest, opening up shop in the J. N. Bach building there. Mr. Wombacher is an experienced baker. For the past year he has been with the Fairbury Bakery. Mr. Hannie learned the trade with the Schwartz Baking Company and afterwards held a position with the bakery at Roanoke. More recently he has been employed with the Pure Food Creameries. Both are good business men who are capable of conducting a first-class bakery.

John Henderson, who has been traveling through the southern states in the interests of the Canada Dry Ginger Ale Co., is home this week visiting his parents, Mr. and Mrs. L. S. Henderson. He leaves the first of next week for Tulsa, Okla. and will spend the winter in Oklahoma and other southern states.

90 Years Ago

September 25, 1936

Two farms in this vicinity have changed ownership just recently. Van O. Wharton has purchased 80 acres, three miles south of town, belonging to Will, Martin and Frank Barnes, the transfer being made on Monday. It is a good piece of land, but has no improvements on it. S. R. Ward, of Bloomington, has sold to Thomas Elliott, of south of Fairbury, 80 acres of land in Belle Prairie Township, the consideration being $120 an acre. The land joins Mr. Elliott's farm.

Elmer Friant, who resides 4½ miles north of this city on the Herbert Enderli farm, escaped serious injury, or possibly death, last Friday morning about 10:30 o'clock when the motorcycle he was riding skidded on the rough pavement two miles north of Chenoa. Mr. Friant lost control of the machine and was thrown off onto the pavement. His clothing was torn from his body as was one of his shoes. His left knee was burned to the bone from the pavement and his left wrist was badly sprained besides numerous other bruises.

At a meeting of the members of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, of this city, held recently, steps were taken to purchase the Christian Science Church, located at Fifth and Walnut Streets. More recently a report of the committee appointed especially for he purpose and consisting of Rev. F. M. Bunge, pastor; John T. Eilers and Miss Leora Gerdes, showed that sufficient funds had been pledged to purchase the property without going into debt. Accordingly the church was purchased, the price paid being $750.

80 Years Ago

September 27, 1946

L. P. Troehler is again on Locust Street, having leased the Sweney Oil Station at Fourth and Locust, of the Sweney Gas & Oil Co. He took over last Friday. L. H. Landsmann had been operating the station since last December.

Fairbury people, who during the past local band concert season, had the pleasure of hearing Miss Barbara Hereford, of Colfax, as a vocal soloist, will be more than interested and pleased to know that she has just recently been notified that she would be given an audition for the St. Louis Municipal Opera. Her audition is scheduled for April. Miss Hereford, who is just 19 years of age, graduated this spring from the Colfax High School. It was while a student there that she discovered her voice when she tried out for the girls' octet. For three consecutive years she won first place in the Tri-Valley Music contest and last year she placed first in the district and second in the sectional. She also placed first last spring on the Maurice B. Sacks amateur program.

A caravan of some 30 cars carrying members of the Pontiac Township High School band, have been touring the county this week advertising the Veterans Homecoming celebration to be held in Pontiac next Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The caravan was also accompanied by the Forty and Eight locomotive. The caravan arrived in Fairbury about noon Tuesday and the band paraded our streets. The members of the caravan were served dinner at the Presbyterian Church.

70 Years Ago

September 27, 1956

Fairbury police officer Charles Baker and three Forrest residents were injured about 10:30 Saturday morning, when the Fairbury police car, being driven at a high rate of speed by Officer Baker in pursuit of a reckless driver, went out of control and crashed into the Schrof Cities Service Station at the west edge of Forrest.  Injured in addition to officer Baker were Mr. and Mrs. Ervin Schrof and their nephew, Glenn Schrof, 18. None were hurt seriously, although Baker was taken to the Fairbury Hospital for treatment. He was released Monday. The others were treated at the office of a Forrest doctor. The reckless driver was arrested by sheriff's officers later in the day.

A Wabash freight train, returning through Fairbury from its Forrest-Streator run, crashed into a string of T. P. & W. cars which had been left on the Wabash track about 3:45 p.m. Friday, resulting in the derailment of one of the cars and the front trucks of the diesel engine. The mishap occurred just northeast of the Honegger mill. No one was injured, although the Wabash engine crew was shaken up.

Urban Steidinger bought 80 acres of land at $516.50 an acre Saturday, at the Mrs. Ora Shanks estate sale. There was a great deal of interest in the bidding on the improved land, located 7 miles south of Fairbury. The farm is presently tenanted by Hugh Vansickle. A. Frank Cox, of Cropsey, was the high bidder on the Shanks house, located on East Ash Street. A bid of $16,600 was necessary to complete the bidding. Also sold at the sale were several hundred dollars worth of dishes and miscellaneous household items. John Gerber is executor and Hanley and Phillips the attorneys. Auctioneers were Albert Eades and Reuben Bradley.

60 Years Ago

September 29, 1966

Mrs. Alden Nussbaum, of Fairbury, is famed over an ever-growing area for her architectural skill with cakes and frosting. She has turned out replicas of the Walton Department store, a high button shoe, a steam engine, pianos and various other oddities. For the opening of the Helen Lewis Smith Pavilion at Fairbury Hospital, board members set the date on Sunday, Sept. 25, which was board president Roy Taylor's birthday anniversary. So it was natural that a cake was ordered, that Tillie Nussbaum would bake it, and that it would be a replica of the hospital. So 18 cakes and untold other ingredients were turned out in the Nussbaum kitchen Saturday, and about midnight it was done, complete in every detail. Proportions were somewhat foreshortened, but it was a beauty, nearly five feet long, four feet wide and with every wing complete. All that remained was how to move it.

Miss Betty Peters, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gera Peters, of Fairbury, will graduate Sunday, Oct. 2, 1966, from the Bloomington School of Practical Nursing. Miss Peters is presently employed at St. Joseph's Hospital in Bloomington. She has an older sister, Mary Lou, who is a registered nurse at Mennonite Hospital, and a sister, Charlotte, attending Elkhart University, Indiana, studying dental technology.

Seven teams in the Monday night league at Oh Susannah Lanes in Fairbury are tied for second place, with identical records of four victories and five losses, after three weeks of play. Sole team able to gain more than a .500 standing is Bud's Citgo, which has won eight games and lost only one. No one has yet figured the mathematical rarity of the other seven teams' standing, but it would be pretty long.

50 Years Ago

September 30, 1976

The sale of the Piper City Journal to Cornbelt Press, Inc., of Fairbury, was announced by Mrs. Mitchell “Peg” Johnston, who with her late husband, had owned The Journal for the past decade. Mrs. Johnston will remain with the newspaper as editor, and will continue her popular column, “Peggin' Piper.” The Journal was founded by B. W. Kinsey in 1897, and he sold it to Charles E. Gilpin in 1900. When Gilpin died in 1937, his daughter, Mrs. George (Nelle) Perry became the editor and with her husband, who had been an employee of Walton Brothers Company in Fairbury, operated it until May 1, 1966 when they sold it to the Johnstons.

A new record price for farmland in Livingston or McLean County was established in Fairbury Saturday afternoon when the 160 acres in the Rita Hallam estate south of Forrest were sold at public auction in Central Park, adjacent to Fairbury City Hall. Sold as two 80-ace tracts, the first offering brought the new record of $3,955 per acre, or a total of $319,600. The previous high, set six weeks ago in Fairbury, was $3,800 per acre. The second tract of 80 acres brought a top bid of $3,300 for a total of $269,000. The buyers were Richard Steidinger of Chatsworth, and his sisters, who have a Forrest address.

Clarence and Elizabeth Culkin, owners and operators of funeral homes at Forrest and Chatsworth, will mark their 25^th anniversary in the funeral business October 1. In 1951 the Culkins purchased the J. W. Brown Funeral Service and moved to Forrest. The funeral parlor” at that time was on Main Street where the coil factory is now located. In October 1952 the present modern funeral home at Forrest was built and an open house held for the community. In 1965 they purchased the Hanson Funeral Service at Chatsworth and a new funeral home was built and opened for service there. Clarence is a native of Chatsworth, having been born in Charlotte Township, the son of the late Arthur and Blanche Trunk Culkin. He graduated from Worsham College of Mortuary Science of Chicago before entering the funeral profession.

40 Years Ago

September 25, 1986

More than four decades of “active, working service” on behalf of Fairbury Hospital came to an end Tuesday night as former Fairbury mayor and hospital board president Roy Taylor retired. “Roy emphasized this was a retirement and not a resignation,” board president Harvey Traub noted Wednesday morning. Taylor served on the hospital board for 47 years. “Roy is part of the fabric of Fairbury Hospital,” Traub said. “Not only did he make many, many decisions, and serve as board president, he also helped with the modernization of the hospital. Roy and several others actually helped build part of the hospital, hammering nails and handling paint brushes.”

They came; they performed; they took home a busload of trophies. That pretty well sums up the first competitive appearance of the fall for the Prairie Central High School marching band last Sunday afternoon at the Dwight Harvest Day parade and field show. The Marching Hawks placed second in parade competition to neighboring Pontiac, but swept the full line of individual parade awards for drum major, drum line, horn line and flags. In the field show, the Hawks placed first in their class, sweeping the awards, and were the second-highest scoring band of the day in field competition. The eventual grand champion band from Washington High school scored nine points higher than Prairie Central in parade judging, a factor that might have been critical when totaling the points for grand champion.

United in a double ring ceremony on August 9, 1986 at 2 p.m. were Connie Lynn Lawrence, daughter of Jack and Betty Lawrence, and John Elmer Haas Jr., son of John and Edna Haas Sr., all of Fairbury. Rev. Art Campbell performed the ceremony at the First Baptist Church, Fairbury. A reception was held immediately following the ceremony in the church fellowship hall. After a wedding trip to Tennessee and North Carolina, the couple resides in rural Fairbury. The new Mrs. Haas is employed at Dave's Supermarket, Fairbury. Her husband is employed at Knapp's Industrial Wood in Forrest.

30 Years Ago

September 25, 1996

A dedication ceremony is being planned on Saturday, Oct. 26 at 10:30 a.m. for the current Fairbury City Hall, for being listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Several dignitaries have been invited to the 104-year-old building dedication, including President Bill Clinton, Governor Jim Edgar, Senators Paul Simon and John Maitland, and Republicans Tom Ewing and Dan Rutherford. David Newton of the Illinois Historical Preservation, Ann Swallow of the Illinois Historical Agency and Fairbury Mayor Lynn Dameron will be among the guest speakers. The Fairbury VFW and Auxiliary will be invited to present the colors, and the Prairie Central High School band and chorus will provide some musical selections.

“An Ocean Apart,” an illustrative portrait of Ron Jankun Jr. and Susan Kavanagh of Boston, photographed at Wingaersheck Beach, Gloucester, MA, by Ron Jankun Sr. of Jankun Studio, Forrest, was selected by the Professional Photographers of America for the Permanent Loan Collection, traveling around the world on exhibit. Over 6,000 prints are entered in the yearly international competition of which only 400 are selected for the prestigious Loan Collection. In addition, being a major corporate sponsor of the 1996 Olympics, Eastman Kodak's Professional Imaging Executive, Mark Beuennagel, notified Jankun that since it was the desire of the Olympians in Atlanta this year to “Go For the Gold” which Jankun has achieved by receiving the Professional Loan Print Award on his entry, Kodak is pleased to present Jankun with the Kodak Olympic Gold Pin in recognition of his photographic excellence.

The Blade and Hammer True Value staffs were kept busy weighing and measuring the prime produce of area gardeners in the Biggest Veggie Contest. Chuck and Judy Woolever of Anchor had the largest tomato out of 10 entries with a 2 pound, 2 ounce juicer that was 16½ inches around. Ida Ziller of Fairbury submitted the only sweet corn entry with an 8-inch long, 12 row ear. Keith Winterland of Colfax had a 14 pound, ½ ounce cabbage. DeDe Traub of Fairbury had a 13 ounce green pepper. Thomas Bray of Fairbury had a 17 ounce potato. Nancy Ifft of Fairbury had a 15 ounce carrot.

20 Years Ago

September 27, 2006

Senior king and queen candidates for the 2006 Prairie Central High School homecoming are Alyssa Surber, Staci Maurer, Jalees Sipe, Molly Odum, Alyssa Knerr, Jerid Coleman, J. T. Zimmerman, Louis Groce, Zach Brucker and Ben Herr. The king and queen will be announced at the bonfire and pep rally Thursday after the volleyball match, and the coronation will be at 10 p.m. at the homecoming dance on Saturday. Freshman attendants are Carlyn Seeman and Chase Mowery; Sophomore attendants are Ashley Seeman and Mark Allonge; and Junior attendants are Chelsea Tollensdorf and Paul Freehill.

Lois Zimmerman, Fairbury, was a statewide winner in Treasurer Judy Barr Topinka's Bright Start Bright Dreams Scholarship grandparents contest. Zimmerman was one of five grandparents who won third place for $500 in the northern region 3. She was among 40 winners among five Illinois regions which included Cook County, Chicago Suburbs, Northern Illinois, Central Illinois and Southern Illinois. She sought the scholarship for her granddaughter, Lauren Marshall, 17, a senior at Prairie Central High School in Fairbury. Marshall will be enrolling at Illinois State University, Normal, in the fall of 2007. She is the daughter of John and Beth Marshall, Fairbury.

If the underdog University High football team hoped to feed off a festive homecoming crowd Friday night to give Prairie Central a run for its money, the plan never had a chance to get off the ground in this Cornbelt Conference matchup. After lightning delayed the start of the game by 45 minutes, the Hawks stormed out and scored a touchdown on the opening possession of the game and never looked back as they silenced the hometown crowd with an impressive 47-14 win over the Pioneers at Hancock Stadium in Normal. The Hawks (4-0 in the CBC and 5-0 overall), who entered the game ranked No. 3 in Class 4A, nearly doubled the Pioneers' offensive with 442 yards compared to 223 and outscored the hosts 21-0 on points-off-turnovers.

10 Years Ago

September 28, 2016

Lynette Headley Johnson isn't the kind of person who wants a lot of attention, but her Fairbury Rocks game is taking the community by storm. The rules are simple: a number of painted rocks have been hidden around the downtown Fairbury area. If a painted rock is found, a picture of the rock should be posted on the “Fairbury Rocks” Facebook page. The finder also has an opportunity to keep the found rock and replace it with one they have painted, or re-hide it again. Johnson heard about the idea while she and her husband were on vacation at Whidbey Island in Washington. They were visiting friends and former Fairbury residents Beverly and Bob Pearce.

The green corn stalks that filled fields around the area are once again beginning to disappear. Monday began the harvest season, which was somewhat stalled after the rainy Labor Day weekend kept most farmers out of the fields. The harvest season typically starts on Sept. 1 and most years, moves on through October. During the harvest season, grain elevators are open 12 hours per day, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., six days per week.

A family dinner is planned for Jerry and Donna Holland in honor of their 85^th and 80^th birthdays. They are the parents of Vickie (Keith) Bittner and Debbie (Mike) Oelschlager, of Fairbury, and Cindy (Joe) Nash of Webster Groves, Mo. They have been blessed with 11 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Looking Back is sponsored by Duffy-Pils Memorial Home.