USA > Illinois > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson County, Illinois, 1810-1962 > Part 15
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In 1937 the association was changed from state chanter to federal and the name changed to King City Federal Savings and Loan Association. At this time the association moved from the Ham National Bank Building to the Stumpp Building, 1005 Broadway, which was occupied until the erection of the association's own new and modern building at 117 North 10th Street in 1955.
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The King City Federal has been progressive and its directors and personnel always have been active in any civic undertaking. It has helped thousands of people to own their own homes, making millions of dollars worth of loans. It now has investors from thirty states.
Guy A. Wood, the president, was elected secretary in 1923 and has served the association ever since. The association has shown a continuous growth, with assets now over thirteen million dollars.
Around-the-clock service is available for customers of the King City Federal Savings and Loan Association. Customers who find it inconvenient to go to the offices during regular hours are able to drop their pass book and payment into a convenient stainless steel letter- slot type opening. No key is required non is any change made for the night depository service.
King City Federal's new office building was thrown open to inspection by the general public on Sunday, May 15, 1955, after more than a year of planning and construction work. The three-story structure is built of stone, brick, aluminum, concrete and steel. Its handsome polished granite front faces one of southern Illinois' busiest highways and is a showplace and landmark for the King City, from which the firm which owns it took its name.
The building occupies a site linked to early history of lit. Vernon, and it has a lange lot extending through from Tenth Street to Eleventh Street. For more than a hundred years the homestead of the Herdman family was here. It was in this same block that Abraham Lincoln made a political speech in 1840. The modernistic building occupies the east end of the lot and the west end has been paved for parking. King City was the first Mt. Vernon office building to pro- vide off-street parking facilities for tenants of the building.
Guy A. Wood rose from a farm boy at Blufond to the presi- dency of the King City Federal Savings and Loan Association.
Mr. Wood was born and neared on a farm near Bluford and came to lift. Vernon in 1919 aften serving in the loton Transport Corps of the U. S. Army during World War One. He served four years as deputy county treasurer during the term of James Kell.
He joined the King City Federal Savings and Loan Association in 1922. In 1923 he was elected secretary, and on January 22, 1948
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was elected president and has served the association continuously to the present time.
Mr. Wood has always taken an active interest in the develop- ment of lik. Vernon and has been a worker in civic projects through the years. In 1952 -- in recognition of a job well done in the interests of' h is community -- he was named litt. Vernon's han of the Year. Win Wood has served as director of the Chamber of Commerce and for two years was its president. He has been active on the state Chamber of Commerce Aviation Committee and was active in establishing funds for lite Vernon's municipal airport. He was a majon in the Illinois Reserve Militia Ain Corps during World War Two and worked on wan Loan drives. He has been an active worken in the Boy Scouts and through the years has served on various drives held for the better- ment of the community.
He is a member of the Elks Lodge, a chanter member of the American Legion and the Lions Club and has served all of the organ- izations in official capacities. I. Wood helped to organize the First National Bank and has been a director since its organization. He is prominent in savings and loan work on the state level and has been on committees of the U. S. Savings and Loan League for years.
Despite his busy career, he has found time for hobbies of golfing, hunting and aviation. For five years he owned his own plane, and during World Jan Two he managed the filt. Vernon Airport for a year.
KONG CITY SCENE
(Taken from an article under date of October 2, 1962, written by Onian filetcalf and published in the Mt. Vernon Register-News. This is one of many delightful articles written by lin. Metcal, under this title. )
A report about the King (ity to its old friends living else- where.
We had. resort weather most of the summer and the first fall days are pleasant. Already people (young people, that is) are hunting hickory nuts and keeping an eye out for persimmons. Int. Vernon is beautifully clothed in foliage tinted by the hint of frost.
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Standing on the corner of Ninth and Main you can look south and see one o," the last two remaining structures of the old can shops. It is the bane framework and roof of the former steel plant at the south side of the can shop property at Laman Avenue. I'll the other can shop buildings have been wrecked.
Across the street south from the skeleton a public housing project is going up fast. It will provide living quarters for about a hundred families in one and two-story structures, Scores of old homes were bulldozed and bunned to make way for the new residence.
They tell me houses once stood on the north side of Laman and were replaced by the steel plant now being, torn down. *
what used to be Dr. Gee's cow pasture on South 13th Street is now the Khoury, League baseball park, operated by the Kiwanis Club on property owned by mode O'day dress factory.
Shawnee Street has been reopened. Added ane a couple of curves. lissing are the old brick sidewalk and the many bumpy railroad switch tracks which jolted the bolts out of automobiles. *
lit. Vernon high school has Let a contract for a block-Long classroom building, extending from Seventh to Eighth on Condan. The fine rambling, homes which once graced this block are gone -- razed in the name of progress. The new building will adjoin the site of the pioneer- days lit. Vernon Academy, in which the agnostic Robert G. Ingersoll once taught.
litt. Vernon high school's enrollment is over 1600. More than 300 are attending junion college on the same campus, a larger student body than the high school had 50 years ago. *
New homes keep going up. Every time I take a drive I see an attractive dwelling I hadn't noticed before. Largest extension of the town is to the west. The city limits extend beyond 34th Street now, but only the postman, police and fireman know where many of the new streets are located. When people ask me how to get ledgewood on Butternut, on streets whose names sound like that, I can't tell them. We're getting used to the new stoplights and it has been quite a while since anyone told the story about the man in the phone
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booth on the public square who called for a friend to come and get him at the corner of Walk and Don't Walk.
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The airport is a popular litt. Vernon attraction and lots of people drop by to watch the planes and to take rides. Wildned and I made our first trip on Ozark Air Lines Last week. we had difficulty getting two tickets and coming home through clouds so heavy that we couldn't land in Bloomington and Mattoon. I almost wished Cant Outland and Ozark friends had not gone to so much trouble to make sure we got reservations.
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The new post office is ready. It's a functional building at 13th and Broadway, not as distinctive in appearance as the sturdy old limestone at 11th and Plain. Its operation poses a real traffic problem because the one-way street runs into two-way travel at the corner of the post office parking area. * *
The city finally bought the water company. Now if we don't pay our sewer bill they can shut our water off. And if my October water bill is as high as the September one the lall Street people sent me as a final bill I will complain to the city council. Oh, those poon councilmen.
I had the deluxe town of the new Illinois Bell building the other day and they showed me a lot more about telephones than I needed to know. I took it all in while they were explaining the operation to my son-in-law who has a master's degree in physics and knew what they were talking about. Je traced a call from the point where the lines come in deep under lilain Street, through endless electronic devices en ing with the mysterious ticket in braille when a subscriber dials long distance direct from his home phone. (Did you know the telephone cables are kept filled with gas which is injected at the point where they come into the central office? They say it keeps moisture out of the lines and Leakage indicators help to locate breaks in the cables. ) *
litt. Vernon clubs have been hand hit by the state's crackdown on possessions of gambling stamps. The Eagles, Anerican Legion, Amvets
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and Elks have to close their bans for 30 days and the Veterans of Foreign lars have already served their suspension. Their slot machines at the same time no longer jingle.
For many jeans the club-owned "one-armed bandits" have been paying the freight for these fraternal and veteran organizations, building thein fine quarters and even furnishing much of the money they donated to civic causes and charity. That effect the shutdown will have on thein United Fund and Christmas goodfellow projects ne- mains to be seen.
The jagles ran an advertisement which brought back memories of prohibition days. They scheduled a dance and invited "come and bring your own bottle." *
The country club has its own special financial woes. It has been assessed to pay taxes for the first time and may be nicked a con- sidenable amount if the assessment stands. Then Tom Puckett finishes his new golf course on the Richview Road next year litt. Vernon will have three Links: Puckett's 18-holen, Hertenstein's 9-hole layout at Homestead, and Green Hills' beautiful 9-hole course. *
It's election time and as usual telephone and light poles throughout the county are nailed full of candidate placards. Two candidates, formen sheriff Roy Taylor and Alva hellott, solved the problem of steel posts by using mucilage and have their stickers on downtown light poles.
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LOGAN STREET MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH
The history of the Logan Street Missionary Baptist Church began on October 27, 1913, when a group of seven people met together in lilt Vernon in an old stone building on the corner of South 10th Street and Lamar Avenue for the purpose of constituting a Baptist church, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Lowny, livr. and Mrs. Joseph Boyle, In and lives. Asbury Runnels and Sadie Runnels held membership in Missionary Baptist churches but desined to begin another such congregation. They invited the ordained leadership of the Salen South Association to meet with them and assist them in organization. At this meeting they adopted the Articles of Faith Laid down in Pendleton's Manual and the Church Covenant used by Baptist churches. An opportunity was given for membership, and nineteen others who held membership in other Baptist churches expressed their desine to unite with this new group. The church was therefore organized with twenty-six charter members. The name for this new church was "The Fourth Baptist Church. " Soon Elden J. W. Allen was called as paston for preaching once a month with the church meeting on the other Sundays for Sunday School.
This new church continued to grow in number, and on the day that the church was two months old a committee was elected to look about for a suitable location on which an adequate meeting place could be erected. A lot was found on the corner of Logan and 21st Streets which was purchased for $140. The church then voted to change its name to "The Logan Street Missionary Baptist Church" and to have the deed for the new property recorded in that name. The church then applied for affiliation with the Salem South 'Association of Baptists and the Illinois Baptist State Association. The annual meeting of the State Association accepted messengers from Logan Street Church at its meeting that year in Marion, Illinois.
The church began in the spring of 1914 the task of building its first house of worship. The men of the church did most of the work in constructing the first building, which was thirty by sixty feet in dimensions and of frame construction. Even while meeting in the rented stone building, the church voted to hear some returned missionaries from Brazil and to give an offering to Missions. The new church was completed and occupied, and on August 30, 1916, Editor
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W. P. Throgmonton of the Illinois Baptist Newspaper was invited to preach the dedicatony sermon.
Two years later the church voted to go to half-time preaching under the leadership of Brother ]. W. Money, who had been called as paston on September 25, 1915. In 1918 a Baptist Young People's Union was organized for the young people. Brother liboney proved to be a fine leader and was called three times. On August 12, 1916, his salary was $10.00 per preaching engagement. By the summer of 1920 the church needed space for the growing Sunday School, and they voted to place a basement under the frame building.
In 1919, Brother O. J. Bell was called as pastor, at a salary of $17.50 per preaching engagement. He was recalled in 1920.
In the spring of 1921 the church raised $812,00 in pledges in anticipation of having full-time preaching. This was accomplished in August of that year when Brother F. L. Karn was called as the full time pastor. The annual Letter to the association shows that in 1923, when the church was ten years old, the membership had reached 165 persons. Brother F. L. Kann was given an indefinite call and served as pastor until July, 1925, when he resigned because of the fatal illness of his wife.
Brother W. J. Anderson was then called as paston on August 5, 1925, and served three years. A Woman's Missionary Society was organized during his ministry on September 19, 1927.
Brother J. Polk Richardson was called as pastor on September 26, 1928, and served until July 24, 1929.
Brother John Maulding was called on August 21, 1929, and served for four years. During his ministry a revival was held in which seventy-two persons professed faith in Christ, and all were baptized in the City Park Lake. Brother Moulding also led the church in sponsoring a radio ministry over Station WEBQ in Harrisburg, Illinois. The paston and choin journeyed to Harrisburg on the 23nd day of each month and broadcast from 7 to 8 a. m.
Brother J. R. McDuffy served for two years as paston, being called on August 30, 1933 and leaving the church in July, 1935.
Brother W. M. Carlton of Marion was then called and served as paston until August, 1936. In 1936 the frame building became
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inadequate for the growing church, and it was decided to sell the building and move it off the lot, making room for the construction of a brick veneer building sixty by sixty feet with full basement.
Brother Adolph Christman was called as paston September 16, 1936, and led in the construction of the new building. The building was completed and the church invited Brother ]. W. Maddox of Metropolis to preach the dedicatony sermon on January 2, 1938.
Brother J. L. Ford was called. as pastor on September 6, 1939, and under his Leadership a mission was started in a vacant church building in fileClellan Township with Sunday School and worship services held there each Sunday afternoon.
Brother John Daugherty of Vandalia was called as paston July 22, 1942, and served until March, 1946.
The church voted to buy property for a parsonage and the house adjacent to the church on the south was purchased and remodeled for Brother George Wnight who came as pastor June 19, 1946. He challenged the church to start a mission in the area adjoining the City Park, and a committee was appointed to make a survey. A house was rented, and services began under the Leadership of Brother F. L. Kann who served as mission paston for two years. On October 5, 1949, twenty-four members of Logan Street Church were lettered out to form the nucleus of the West Side Baptist Church.
In 1947 with Paston Kyle Wyait Leading, the church voted to begin construction of a two-story educational building across the west end of the sanctuary, at a cost of $75, 000; and on June 24, 1949, space for forty-six classrooms was dedicated. Dr. James Baldwin of Salem was invited to preach the dedicatory sermon. In August of that year the church began broadcasting the morning worship services every Sunday over Station WMX.
On August 9, 1950, Dr. W. A. Gray of Effingham was called as pastor, and he served until April, 1952.
In November, 1952, Brother S. Otho Williams of Carbondale began a six-year ministry as pastor, resigning in February, 1959, to become Superintendent of the Baptist Children's Home in Carmi, Illinois. During his ministry a full time office secretary was employed and the house south of the parsonage was purchased for Sunday School space and
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named "The Annex. " The parsonage was sold and removed, and a new parsonage was erected at #10 Hillcrest at a cost of $18, 000.
On July 24, 1954 a new mission was started in a stone-front building at 170L South Tenth Street. Self supporting from the first, it has now become the South Side Baptist Church, moving into its own brick sanctuary on Fishers Lane and 15th Streets in November of 1956.
A mission was also started at Waltonville, Illinois, and was constituted a church on Easter Sunday, in 1957, with forty-eight charter members.
In March, 1957, Brother Ralph Gill was called by the church to serve as minister of music and education and a home for him was purchased at 609 South 21 st Street.
Plans were made in June, 1957, for an addition to the edu- cational plant, and on Sunday September 25, 1958, a $125, 000 two- story, air-conditioned building was dedicated. Dr. Noel M. Taylor, Executive Secretary of Illinois Baptists, was invited to preach the dedicatony sermon. The house known as "The Annex" was sold and moved and the lot gravelled for parking space.
On May 6, 1959, the church called Brother James Franks of Galatia as paston, and on June 10 added Brother Louis Gabler to the staff. He is presently serving as minister of music and education. fins. Marionie Ellingsworth was employed as office secretary, and is presently serving. In the autumn of 1960 the church voted to adopt "The Forward Program of Church Finance" and approved an annual budget of $80, 000.
In lay of 1961 a house and two lots at 2016 Logan Street was purchased for off-street parking. The house was removed and both lots were graded and rock-chipped, providing space for sixty cars. Ten men have been ordained, and twelve others have been licensed to preach the gospel during the Life-time of the church; and one young woman, Betty Davis Martin, has gone out from the church to serve on the foreign mission field,
The church is approaching its Golden Jubilee Year of 1963, hoping to launch a building program which will climax fifty years of progress with a $200, 000 stone and brick auditorium to be dedicated on October 27, 1963, their fiftieth anniversary.
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MT. VERNON PUBLIC LIBRARY
On August 9, 1893, seventeen citizens met at the home of Col. George W. Evans for the purpose of organizing the Shakespeare Club, and thus began the first library movement in Mt. Vernon.
The object of the Shakespeare (Lub was "mutual improvement of members, and establishing a public circulating library" according to their by-Laws, constitution and minute book, now on file in the lit. Vernon Public Library. Mrs. George (). Evans was elected president, Julia Bunton vice president, lins. Eugene Pavey secretary, Bernadine Han treasurer, and Neone Chance librarian.
Women paid an initiation fee of 25¢ and a due at each meeting of 5%. Men were honorany members for $1.50 annually. These funds established and maintained their library. Overdues were 10¢ per week, and the Library was open from 2:00 to 3:00 p. m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Club rooms were over the Mammoth Stone.
Six years later, in 1899, their interests became more social than literary. They appointed delegates to attend the State leeting of Illinois Federation of Women's Clubs in Jacksonville, paid state dues, and revised thein constitution. They offered to donate their 650 books to the city, providing the council would pass an ordinance creating a free public library and set an appropriation for its con- tinued support. The first public library was downtown over the Mammoth. This indicated that the Shakespear Club split, thus becoming. the mother of the Women's Club as well as the lit. Vennon Public Library. Mayon W. T. Estes and Councilmen Spiese, Bogan, Broom, Hopper, Lynch, Louth and Smith accepted the generous offer and passed an ordinance on March 18, 1899. A board of nine directors was named in- cluding Albert Watson, T. J. Mathews, A. A. Spiese, Miss Inez Green, Dr. Florence Manion, Mrs. Jeannette Noyes Evans, Mrs. Rinnie Pace Waters, lins. Clara Green Webb, and Mrs. Octavia T. Casey.
Mrs. H. G. Jones was selected as librarian, and her salary was fixed at twenty-two cents per hour. The first appropriation was for $700 and was allowed on August 3, 1899. The first annual report was made by T. J. Mathews, as secretary of the board. He reported 815 books, a circulation of 5, 232, and registered memberships totaled 95.
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Carnegie Donation
Mr. W. C. Arthurs took an active interest in the library movement, and the offer of a %15, 000 Carnegie Donation resulted from his influence and correspondence. A special council meeting was called on April 8, 1903, by Mayon M. R. Heidler and Frank Suddoth, city clerk, to accept the donation, Mayon Heidler appointed W. C. Arthurs, Sam Casey, L. L. Emmerson, T. J. Mathews, W. H. Green, B. A. Marshall, A.C. Johnson, G. F. M. Ward and Mayon Heidlen to serve as a special Library Committee,
The committee obtained the site from the Green family. Their estate was where the Armory now stands. Bonds were issued to cover the cost, which was $7000.
The Carnegie Library Committee reported the building ready for occupancy and asked to be released from further services, when they made their final report to the council on August 3, 1905, approxi- mately two years later. The total cost of the library was $15, 562.77.
The contract for the building was given to the Lake View Building Company of Chicago for $12,000. Heat was contracted through the Citizens Gas Electric and Heating Company for $137 per season, and did not provide for the basement non the third floor. Lights were $976, sheet metal and tile noof $994, heating unit and wiring $980, architect's fees (5%) $762, plumbing $219, and decoration $275.
Dedication services of the new library were held in the auditorium. The librarian reported a book collection of 2,620, and 1, 156 registered patrons who had borrowed approximately 12 books per patron during the year.
Miss Emma Johnson was elected librarian on July 29, 1904, and she remained until Gertrude Moller became librarian on September 5, 1914.
In 1913 the library board decided to have the library classified, catalogued, based on the Dewey Decimal System, and put in first class condition in other respects, so that a higher standard of efficiency could be maintained. Miss Katherine Doyle was hired for a period not to exceed one year, and was paid $500 for this pur- pose. She remained until December of 1914. Miss Gertrude Moller
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became her understudy during this period and assumed the duties of Librarian on September 5, 1914. She remained until October, 1927, resigning to accept a position in the State Library.
In June, 1917, Mr. Walter Nehrling, Landscape gardener of Eastern Illinois State Normal, came from Charleston, Illinois, to superintend a contract to landscape the lawn of the Library for $250. Among the trees and shrubs which were planted are some which are nare in this county, such as norway maples, ash, magnolia, ginkgo biloba on maiden-hair tree of China and horse chestnut. In 1960 a mimosa and a golden raintree were planted. Student field trips from science classes from city schools to view these trees and shrubs are frequent. Mrs. Mildred filetcalf, who had been assistant librarian since July 5, 1924, became librarian in October, 1927, and remained until September, 1929.
Miss Ruth Metcalf, first assistant librarian, was appointed librarian in October, 1929, and served until December 1, 1929, when she married and moved to Chicago.
Miss Margaret Pittman assumed the responsibility of the library in February, 1930.
lins. Mildred Metcalf, who had returned to the staff as
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