USA > Illinois > Moultrie County > Bethany > A history of Bethany > Part 3
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Eventually, he married a natural beauty, Pauline DeBruler, also a musician, and they have had a happy life in Webster Grove, Mo.
Probably no other small town ever had so many good- looking girls as did Bethany as the Twenties turned into the Thirties.
Nothing else so mixed the community and the sexes as did concert night, and there was a great sadness when it all ended in 1935.
C. O. Tohill, who had made the band, was in failing health, and he died in 1937.
C. O. Tohill, instrumental in keeping concert nights in Bethany until shortly before his death in 1937.
However, the spectacular event may yet be revived. Many young bandsmen are around today, and such young community leaders as Ruth Suddarth, Sam Scott, Glenn Austin and Gary Himstedt were endeavoring in 1975 to re- establish family nights such as the Ice Cream Social com- plete with local musicians performing.
So many other special efforts enlivened the early days of Bethany.
The Presbyterian church started its Harvest Home in 1881, and it ran on into the 1920s.
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The gastronomic treat came each autumn when huge kettles of chicken crackled over a fire in a pit below, filling the quiet night air with its fragrance. And, from the church windows in the basement, the flavor of pumpkin and berry pies sweetened the atmosphere.
Through most of the early part of the century, there was a tennis court behind the Presbyterian Church.
At one Harvest Home, a stray ball landed in the gravy bowl, so later some diner might think he was being served a meat ball.
In 1975, there were only two tennis courts in town, both at the high school. In the early days, there were four. Besides the Presbyterian court, there was one back of A. R. Scott's house and another at Dr. E. A. Grabb's livery stable. And a fourth back of the present palatial home of Lloyd (Junior) Younger. Since the ground is largely clay, it was the one of the Midwest's few clay courts.
Still another summer delight that ran from 1920 to 1930 was the Knights of Pythias picnic, always held on some country field. It always drew a huge crowd because a new Ford was given away in a raffle.
Junior Younger recalled his father telling him of a hired hand at his place who had no money when he was hired. He bought one ticket at the K. P. picnic and won the Ford. He sold it for $600 and then felt quite affluent.
The K. P. picnic offered something for everyone, and the merriment never ended. Huge tanks were filled with ice and soft drinks. At stands, hamburgers and hot dogs were available. Contests of all sorts were staged, including foot races, sack races, tug-of-wars.
One picnic featured a wrestling match between two strong men of Marrowbone, Fred (Slicker) Orris and Lafe Eskridge. A shooting match, devoid of histronics, it was won by Orris after an hour's struggle.
The picnic always was well advertised. Once, Ed Geotz dressed up like a gorilla in red underwear and paraded around Decatur in an open car.
Bethany youth also competed in any sporting event that presented itself.
In 1889, Bethany had a friendly, enthusiastic youth named Billy McGinnis, who was always eager to help other persons.
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A driving spring rain that year flooded Marrowbone Creek. So many of the youngsters decided they would have a horse race across the raging waters. The angry stream frightened Billy's horse and he balked. His leg became stuck in the stirrup and as horse and rider went under, Billy was kicked in the head by the horse and killed.
It was a shock to the Bethany community, for it never had a better-liked kid.
In 1893. Bethany had its first baseball team, made up of George Goodpasture, pitcher, Ed Conklin, George Hall, W. S. Human. Jim Flory, W. H. Logan, Jim McGuire and U. G. Kennedy. The diamond was located where the Presbyterian Church now stands.
Around 1910, Bethany had a better baseball team, in- cluding Ernest Roberts, pitcher; Amos Lansden, Perry Goetz, Homer Freeland, Walter Bankson, Charles Foster, Oscar Thompson, and Will McIntyre. The games were played at Fortner's Park.
Bethany also had a roaring Fourth of July celebration in the early part of the century. The day started when D. G. (Uncle Dave) Sanner fired his cannon. Fireworks started at 6 p.m.
A big tent was erected near the bandstand, where the adults spent the day listening to speeches, and the kids took part in races and other contests.
The well-heeled citizens who liked to travel rode the Illinois Central Clover Leaf and Nickel Plate Railroad from Bethany to Niagara Falls. The round trip cost only $8.50.
Bethany played its first high school football game Oct. 9, 1915 on Mathias Field, losing to Moweaqua, 39-0. But the boys seemed to get the hang of it quickly, for in the next game they routed Argenta, 75-0.
The first basketball game played in Bethany came in 1905. The town team, whose members were Lute Hutson, Troy Scott. Roe Hogg, Cy Young and Foxie Logan, challenged the high school team, whose classes then were in the grade school building.
The school team had Raymond Scheer, Herschel Hale, Fred Lytle, Ancil Livesey and Walter Roney. Playing on the outdoor court, the school five easily won.
In 1916, when Maureen (Peachy) Brock, Lois Mathias, Gladys Crowder and Allane Weidner, were in the sixth grade at Bethany Grade School, they formed the Starlight
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quartet that sang at public gatherings all through high school.
In 1969, they had a reunion at the home of Mrs. George (Brock) Plum's home in Los Angeles. There Mrs. Everett (Weidner) Hogan, Mrs. Gwen (Crowder) Coffin and Mrs. Earl (Mathias) Lippold sang together once more.
Allane is another Bethany girl who seems to have cheated Father Time. She still has a schoolgirl's figure, the same dark hair, the same sparkling eyes.
But, oh how she frightened us kids of the neighborhood with her ghost stories in the 1920s, told on her front porch.
My sister, Julia, and I were about too scared to walk home for Allane said that the hedge that we must pass was frequented by ghosts.
When Jim Ashmore was a youth in Bethany, he had an ice house and delivered ice in the summer to Bethany householders, according to Mrs. Scheer. In the winter he cut the ice from a pond on the Lansden farm, a mile east of Bethany.
Later, Ashmore became a famous coach who served at North Carolina University and several other Eastern colleges, and he was the first coach at Millikin in 1912.
While coaching in the East, he would return to Bethany in the summer to play golf with Troy Scott.
One afternoon Jim decided his golf shoes needed clean- ing so he washed them with gasoline. Then he went out to the Sullivan Country Club to play. And, shortly, his feet felt as if they were on fire as the sun hit the gasoline.
Ah, these were elegant times. I remember how Ashmore would let me drive his long, red Stutz around Sullivan while he was golfing with my father.
All the kids seemed filled with energy in those days for there was no television to hold them to their hearthside.
And some of the girls were just as hopped-up, especially Margaret Armstrong. One Halloween, Margaret and I pushed over an outdoor toilet - and there was a man in it.
Raffles were common in the early days. Once Walt Stables, who for 30 years operated a big grocery store, trad- ed his lottery ticket for one held by Jack Knight - who then won an expensive diamond ring.
The late J. W. (Jack) Armstrong, who with his brother, Sylvester and Alva, for 40 years operated a hardware store in Bethany, probably met more famous persons than
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anyone else in town.
Among them was Annie Oakley, acclaimed as the world's most accurate shot with pistol, rifle and shotgun.
She came to Bethany by train one morning in 1902 and called at the Armstrong Hardware to solicit orders for Peter's cartridges.
Then Jack had her put on a demonstration on Main Street. Annie had Jack throw glass balls, about the size of golf balls, into the air, and she shot them down with her Winchester rifle. A crowd soon gathered and the Bethany policeman arrested Annie and fined her $3.
Armstrong also saw her performance at the Buffalo Bill Show in Decatur. Jack further saw Carry Nation, Sam Jones, William Jennings Bryan and Billy Sunday.
When there wasn't anything going on in Bethany in the early days, the boys created their own amusement.
One of the stunts was putting a wagon on top of the old grade school building. It had to be taken up piece by piece, to be reassembled.
But one unknown kid was even more original. He at- tached a thin wire to the school house bell one summer day. And he extended it to his perch in a tree across the street in the yard of the Methodist Church.
Then he began to pull the wire and ring the bell. The village policeman rushed up to see what was going on. When the boy saw him coming, he stopped the ringing. The officer found no one in the building and returned to town.
Then the ringing started again. Back came the policeman, thoroughly mystified. After four fruitless mis- sions he gave up, never knowing what rang the bell.
Bethany's best current celebration is the Fall Festival, started in 1968. It runs for two days, Friday and Saturday. On one day, there's a fish fry; the next a chicken fry.
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Chapter 5 The Movers and the Shakers
Dr. James H. Vadakin provided culture for Bethany; A. R. Scott offered finance and Will Bone did so much for agriculture.
In 1975, Jennie Collier, long a neighbor of the late Will Bone, still had a vivid memory of him.
"He used to pick up a handful of soil and let it fall through his fingers. As he did so he would say, 'This is pure gold ... pure gold.' "
Bone believed in lots of walking for good health.
"Often I would see him walking into town from his farm," recalled Jennie. "I would offer him a ride in my car. But he always refused. 'I'd rather walk,' Will would say. 'It's the perfect exercise.' "
Will Bone was the first farmer to plant soybeans, now rivaling corn as the Midwest's leading crop. He gave his seeds to other farmers, and he added some of his soil - to make the beans grow better.
Will Bone was a descendant of many families of Bones going back to John Bone, born in Ulster, Ireland, in 1649, according to Jim Bushert, a San Diego historian, who for years operated a garage in Bethany.
Will was a grandson of Andrew M. Bone, who arrived in Marrowbone township in 1843.
Andrew, as did other pioneers, built his cabin by felling trees. Huge fireplaces were constructed at one end of a cabin, used for cooking and heating. Many cabins were covered with pelts of raccoons, oppossums and wolves to hold in the heat in winter months. And they were lighted by means of greased paper for windows.
The floors were built on hard clay or soil. They had no fresh vegetables for the children. However, there was plen- ty of fresh meat, as squirrel, rabbit, quail, prairie chicken, wild turkey and deer were plentiful. They could substitute honey for sugar. In the summer, berries grew wild, and they also had walnuts and hickory nuts in the fall.
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Isabella Kennedy knew the uses of herbs, and she gathered them in the timber and prepared them for use as medicine. She also spun and wove fabric for their cloth- ing. This was done from wool shorn from sheep.
Corn meal was made from the corn they raised, and ground by using one stone with a hollow place on one side for the grain, a stone about four inches long and two inches in diameter with a rounded end to crush and grind the kernels. It was the run over a screen to take out parts not useable for food. This same method was also used to make flour from the wheat kernels.
Isabella also made soap for the family use, by using the fat from animals they killed for food and wood ash from their fireplace.
From corn, they made their hominy by using lye to remove the hull, then drying and cracking for use.
Isabella made dye from the liquid of walnut hulls, berries and other fruits to give color to the fabric she spun.
Yes, the early settlers had to be artists at improvising as there were no stores to buy their necessities.
Among the first weddings in Marrowbone was that of Thomas Ashley Bone and Martha Jane Mitchell, per- formed in 1832.
The first Sunday School was organized in the home of Lucinda and Andrew McCreary Bone in April, 1832.
The hardship of homesteading hardly compared to the trip to Marrowbone for Isabella and Elias Kennedy and the Andrew Bones. They had loaded their meager possessions in a wagon for the 1,000 mile trip from Tennessee to Marrowbone.
It was slow traveling, requiring 50 days, and food was often scarce.
When the two families arrived, they found many Kickapoo Indians, who were very friendly, and who even invited them to set by their campfires.
A. R. Scott will be examined in another chapter on the Scott State Bank.
Dr. Vadakin always plumped for Bethany, and nothing ever daunted him.
A businessman, as well as a doctor, he invested in a number of stores in Bethany.
Then, on Feb. 15, 1901, a fire demolished the entire
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Vadakin block, destroying seven buildings, six of which were owned by Dr. Vadakin.
Resourceful, Doc announced the next week he would build a fireproof, two-story brick building, featuring Vadakin's Opera House.
Dr. James H. Vadakin
It was completed in November, 1901, and the first event to be held in the structure was a Thanksgiving dinner served by the women of the Methodist Church.
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The Vadakin Opera House soon became the entertain- ment center for Central Illinois.
It had two shows a week, offering music, operetta, stage plays and even magic.
Dr. Vadakin was able to book traveling shows using the Illinois Central Railroad between Decatur and In- dianapolis.
Often they would have a spare day for the Opera House.
Virgil Hampton, better known as V-Roy, the Magician, claims that Francis X. Bushman, Lillian Russell, Maude Adams and Sarah Barnhart performed in the Vadakin Opera House.
V-Roy said that Vadakin showed him his book that con- tained all the entertainers who had appeared there. He told Virgil that, after he died, he could have the book.
But, though Mrs. Vadakin and Virgil searched his desk and other belongings after his death at the age of 64 on April 27, 1925, they could never find it.
At least one show was too big for the Opera House. It was "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which arrived in two trains, replete with blood hounds and many props. So a tent was put up that seated 3,000.
Still, the Opera House was used for many events. It was verified that Eddie Foy and the Seven Foy boys did appear at the Opera House. In 1906, the Cumberland Church used it for services while the congregation's new church was be- ing built.
After vaudeville faded, the Opera House was used for movies through the 1920s.
Serials were the rage in those days, involving such cow- boy stars as Buck Jones, William Desmond, and Fred Thompson, et al. The hero was always left in a perilous position at the end of each two-reeler so the kids would return the next week to see how he extricated himself. The serials usually ran from 15 to 20 weeks.
Virgil Ward, Bethany's park commissioner in 1975, reported that he and Hyllis Kennedy Watkins provided music for the Opera House in that period.
Jennie Collier, who reached the age of 84 in 1975, has complete recall. She remembered seeing a movie at the Opera House in 1900 when a reader by the screen told what the stars were saying.
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"What was the movie?" I asked.
"Hiawatha," she replied.
Born in Sullivan, March 30, 1861, Dr. Vadakin was the son of Henry F. and Asinth Vadakin, his family hailing from Vermont.
Philip Vadakin, grandfather of Dr. Vadakin, was among the first settlers in Moutrie County. He laid out a town in East Nelson Township, originally planned as the county seat. Henry died in 1888.
His wife was a second cousin of Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain.
Dr. Vadakin took his early education in Sullivan schools, then he headed for Rockford, where he attended high school and Becker's Business College. He next entered the School of Pharmacy in Carbondale in 1882.
He clerked in a drug store in Sullivan for a while, then established a drug business in Bethany, where he remained the rest of his life. Shortly after, he added more merchan- dise and had a general store, as well.
Dr. Vadakin invented such things as "Casterole" and "Vadakin's Instant Relief." He also created such com- modities as "Sticking Fly Paper." His medicines soon became known all over the Midwest for he advertised them widely.
Throughout his business career, he constantly read the latest books on medicine. In 1890, he entered the Kentucky School of Medicine and was graduated in microscopy, sur- gery and chemistry. In 1891, he completed his full medical course, receiving his M.D. degree with highest honors. He also won a degree in bacteriology. And he demonstrated his skill in surgery and pathology.
In January, 1882, Dr. Vadakin was married to Nora May Meacham of Weaverly. To them, three girls were born. Ruby and Pearl died in childhood, but Diamond became an outstanding musician. The marriage ended in divorce.
Dr. Vadakin was married to Maud Howell of Lovington in April, 1915. She died in 1962.
In 1894, Dr. Vadakin built a home in Bethany, and in 1898 and 1899 he operated his drug and store and ice cream parlor in the building next to his home. (This house was still used in 1975 by Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Scheer, who, though in their 80s, remained among the best historians of Bethany's early days.)
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After the fire, Dr. Vadakin put up a brick building to house his drug store.
When Dr. Vadakin moved his drug store, he also transferred the back bar from his old store. The same bar brightened the Bethany Pharmacy until 1975.
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The antique back bar that accompanied the soda fountain which was purchased by Dr. Vadikin before the turn of the century.
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Charles Harned, a longtime Vadakin employee, joined Doc in the new building.
In later years, Dr. Vadakin became a pudgy man who liked to relax over a drink at the end of a busy day.
Meantime, Diamond Vadakin was gaining fame as a music teacher, and in 1905 she presented her students in a recital at the Opera House.
The building featured a Fourth of July celebration in 1902, and Dr. Vadakin played his large, disc Graphophone in the parade. Vadakin also provided free concerts for the town.
He purchased Bethany's third auto in 1902, a Buick. Mrs. Raymond Scheer remembers how the children would gather when they heard his car coming so they could push him up the hill.
Apparently, there was nothing Dr. Vadakin couldn't do.
At Bethany High School's first graduation class in 1890, he sang a solo, "I Am King Over Land and Sea."
The class numbered five graduates, Nellie Jones, Rachel McGuire, J. H. Molholland, Hugh Scott and Lee Tittle. Mulholland gave the valedictory address, and all of the graduates had a role in the program.
In May, 1910, Dr. Vadakin traded his drug store for an 11-room house and 10 lots, following 25 years in the drug business. Shortly after, he repurchased the drug store.
After Dr. Vadakin's death, Charles Harned continued to operate the drug store until 1930, when it was sold to C. B. Smith, who had been operating a drug store in the Scott State Bank building.
Both the drug stores had large.wall fans, which revolved like a windmill in summer.
Each fountain had a large green ball on the counter, filled with Green River and another orange ball filled with Orange Crush.
Coca Cola was coming in strong then and would soon become America's most popular drink.
Ice cream sodas were made in a paper cup inserted in a metal holder with a handle on it. Straws were popular, too.
Youngsters coming into the two soda fountains in those days often asked for "A chocolate soda you can suck through a straw."
Between 1910 and 1920, medicine shows appeared oc- casionally in Bethany. The spieler usually had some
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medicine that would cure all your ailments. Then he would say, "I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to put a real bargain before you Bethany folks." This meant he would give you two bottles for the price of one and throw in a kewpie doll.
But Bethany citizens were well read, and the medicine man did very little business in the town.
Vernon Craig worked for several years for C. B. Smith in the Vadakin building, and, if you complimented him on his basketball ability, he would fill your milkshake to the top of the shaker. The cost: 10 cents.
Dr. Vadakin left several buildings, including the drug store, to his wife and, on her death, his holdings were to go to the Decatur and Macon County Hospital.
Mr. and Mrs. Art Rawlings purchased the drug store from Smith and later sold it to Willard Brown. When pay- ment was not received, they took it over again. Mr. and Mrs. Leo Poole were the next owners, and they sold it in 1959 to Hulbert Mitchell, who took his given name from Dr. Vadakin's middle name. Hulbert considerably en- larged the drug store.
Mitchell purchased the building from the hospital in 1964, and, after his death, the drug store was sold to Bill Lancaster of Sullivan.
In June, 1969, a group of Bethany businessmen pur- chased the Vadakin Opera House building and, since it had been condemned as a fire trap, it was demolished in August, 1969.
It was replaced by Scott State Bank's motor building, where deposits can be left at off-hours and it also has an underground parking lot.
Music became the complete life of Diamond Vadakin Brand.
Diamond, who was well into her 80s in 1975, has been on the faculty of the Springfield College of Music since 1920. While still on the college staff, she has not taught music at the school since 1969.
But she still was teaching several pupils at her home at 5391/2 South Grande Avenue, West.
Diamond was destined to be a musician. Her mother sang, and Dr. Vadakin played the piano.
Diamond started piano lessons when she was only 5, and she always liked to sing. While still a girl, she played the
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piano and organ for movies at the Opera House in Bethany, as well as for productions in other towns.
After graduation from high school, Diamond received training in piano, voice and other subjects at Illinois Woman's College (now MacMurray) in Jacksonville.
Her coming to Springfield was prompted by the fact that Genevieve Clark Wilson, a famed voice teacher, was on the staff at Springfield College of Music.
After only a year as a student, Diamond proved so skilled, she was asked to join the faculty as an assistant to Mrs. Wilson.
Diamond also studied with Oscar Saenger of New York while he was at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago for summer sessions, and she later worked under Frantz Proschowski at the Chicago Musical College.
Diamond had many opportunities to perform in opera in the East, but, as an only child, she wanted to remain close to Bethany.
Diamond did participate in "Elijah," staged in the State Armory in Springfield. She also sang "The Messiah." Her performance as the widow of Zerepath in Elijah elicited fine reviews.
Mrs. Brand also sang the lead soprano role in "Madam Butterfly" and such other productions as "Faust."
Looking back over more than a half-century, Mrs. Brand remembers best the magificent voice of Ernestine Schumann-Heink, as well as her "funny shoes;" and she cannot forget the time Lawrence Tibbet forgot the words of "On the Road to Mandalay," though he had sung the song for more than 10 years.
Although Bethany was more populous in 1975 (1,200) than it was in the early century, it has fewer business houses.
In 1975, for the first time in nearly 80 years, Bethany was without a soda fountain.
For years, dating back to 1898, citizens could enjoy a Coke, an ice cream soda or a milkshake while waiting for a prescription or while on a coffee break.
All that remains of the fountain era is the help-yourself coffee motif at the old Smith Drug store.
Bill Lancaster, the new owner, dispensed with the food bar and soda fountain.
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Gary Himstedt, the handsome, young pharmacist and operator of the Bethany store, said in 1975 he plans to con- tinue the gift and sundry lines and may expand the stock of colognes and Hallmark items.
Sadly, the beautiful old bar, first used by Dr. Vadakin in 1899, has disappeared.
It was owned in 1975 by Mrs. Maurine Mitchell, widow of Hulbert Mitchell.
Yes, the Bethany business district has really shrunk. Why, at one time, there were five barber shops operating in Bethany for the big need then was for shaves. And only the barber had a straight-edge blade.
In 1915, Bethany could count up five barber shops, viz: Marshall Ray, Charles Younger, Bob Watson, Jess Boyer and George Spenser.
For shaving, each customer had his mug on the rack on the wall with his name on it. The shops also included baths, where the weary salesman could refresh himself after driving a buggy all day over the hot countryside.
At the time, there also were two movie houses and six grocery stores, operated by A. L. Redman, Hal Logan, J. K. Starr, John Robert Crowder, Walter Stables and Gurly Graham.
In 1975, Bethany had no grocery store on Main Street, no movie theater and only one barber shop.
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