USA > Illinois > Whiteside County > History of Whiteside County, Illinois, from its earliest settlement to 1908, Vol. I > Part 45
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During the year several new features were instituted, among them the students' annual banquet, held during the mid-winter season, and the alumni banquet, held in Chicago in the spring of each year. The students' annual banquet is given by the present students of the school to their friends and relatives. The evening's entertainment consists of a literary progranime given at the Armory or Academy. After the literary programme the guests retire to one of the banquet halls of the city, where a five-course dinner is served, after which after-dinner talks are given. In the two years the stu- dents' banquet has become one of the mid-winter social functions of Sterling. This entertainment and banquet brings the parents and friends of the school in closer touch with the work of the student. The alumni banquet, held in
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Chicago each year, reminds the ex-students of the school that they have some interest in their Alma Mater at Sterling.
During the first ycar of the ownership. by the Brown's Business College Co. the attendance was increased nearly one hundred per cent. One hundred and thirty-two calls for office help were received direct by the school and in the second year another marked increase in attendance and a greater demand for help was made, the school at this time having an annual enrollment of more than three hundred.
THE STERLING CLUB.
Sport, that wrinkled care derides, And laughter, holding both his sides. Come, and trip it as you go, On the light fantastic toe .- Milton.
Club life finds congenial soil in Sterling. Almost every name is repre- sented now, and a few more will make the list complete. A Hamilton club will make the city equal to Chicago, and an Army and Navy club put us into formidable rivalry with London. The Sterling Club is not specific in its application, as it stands for rest, retirement, good fellowship, conviviality, recreation in a quiet way. Every appliance for bodily and mental relief. For indoor atheletics, billiard tables, and for mental enjoyment a reading room, whose table is supplied with the dailies and best current magazines. A blazing fire on the hearth gives a touch of home to the stranger. Open day and night, so that members and friends may drop in at any hour to crijoy its comforts. Regular social functions are given every year with ban- quet and dancing. The rooms are handsomely furnished and occupy the second floor of the Masonic building on Third street. George Clark keeps the establishment in perfect order. The lately elected officers are :
President-L. L. Wheeler. Vice President-J. R. Bell, Secretary-J. J. Ludens. Treasurer -- F. W. Murphy.
The club was incorporated Jan. 12, 1893, and the first officers were: A. A. Wolfersperger, president; F. M. Tracy, vice president; B. C. Cook, secretary ; John Sanborn, treasurer. The directors included the above officers and John S. Miller, D. L. Miller, and A. H. Hershey. By the by-laws a candidate for membership had to file a written application, endorsed by two members, and if no more than four black balls were cast against him, he was declared elected. The membership fee is ten dollars. All entertainments are to be held on Friday nights. The resident membership is limited to 110. The rooms are open daily from 8 a. m. to 11 p. m. No games on Sunday, or games for money. No ales, wines, or other liquors permitted in the rooms. The first roll of 1893 showed a list of 103 members.
THE SEARCHLIGHT CLUB. The light that never was, on sea or land, The consecration, and the poet's dream .-- Wordsworth.
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While most of our societies are either social or beneficiary, this is purely intellectual. It has for its object the discussion of the profound and practical problems of civic and national life. Men at home or abroad who have made a study of favorite questions are invited to present their views to the club. The meetings are held at the Y. M. C. A. building, and the address is given after a Platonic banquet. Among the speakers have been Walter Stager, H. C. Ward, W. W. Davis, Prof. James, Bardwell, of Dixon, on Public Opinion.
It was voted to make the Searchlight Club a permanent organization, with annual dues. J. J. Ludens was elected president and P. A. Kidder secretary and treasurer.
THE BOAT CLUB.
A life on the ocean wave, A home on the rolling deep .- Epes Sargent.
In October, 1907, owners of launches in Sterling and Rock Falls held an enthusiastic meeting at Bressler's bicycle shop and formed a permanent organization with J. W. McDonald as president; vice president, Capt. Ben Eick; secretary, Roy Baer; and treasurer, Col. Lawrie. A board of seven directors. There are about fifty members and steady accessions. A pennant has been adopted in the form of a triangle, 18 by 30, with blue ground and white letters, which will float in the breeze during the season.
TWIN CITY FISHING CLUB. Three fishers went sailing away to the west, Away to the west as the sun went down .- Kingsley.
At the close of 1907 this was organized in W. F. Mangan's harness shop, with S. S. Pauley, president; John Stager, vice president; and Gus Breiding, secretary and treasurer. The object is the stocking of our noble river with fish and their protection afterwards. Requests have been made for young fish of the best varieties and favorable replies received. The state promises wall- eyed pike and the United States black bass when the season permits the ship- ping of young fry. There are 400 nominal members, about 30 who have paid dues, and are active. Ladies are eligible, and ten of the gentler sex are enrolled.
THE WOMAN'S CLUB.
But the brethren only scemed to speak, Modest the sisters walked, and meek, And if ever one of them chanced to say What troubles she met with on the way, A voice arose from the brethren then, Let no one speak but the holy men, For have you not heard the words of Paul, Oh, let the women keep silence all!
Time has worked wonders. Since the days of Paul, when women were forced to keep quiet, and of our grandfathers, when they were bunched on one side of the church, they have stepped boldly to the front. Woman has a
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mind, why not improve it? a tongue, why not use it? an influence, why not cxert it? When Elizabeth Fry spoke to the wretched women in Newgate, or Lucretia Mott took her stand with Garrison in denouncing slavery, or Frances Willard raised her voice in behalf of purity and temperance, they were not stepping outside their sphere. Mrs. Livermore was the Daniel Webster of the platform, but she was also a good mother, and so was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Women have always been in politics in England. Wicked men, political trimmers, are always ready to ridicule woman's appearance in public, for they dread her crusade against their villainy. Woman always stands for the true, the good, the beautiful.
So in these later days, we have woman's clubs. Men have a hundred, why not let the wives and daughters have at least one?
The Woman's Club of Sterling and Rock Falls was organized in 1898. Mrs. Lizzie E. Kehr, here on a visit from Denver, was active in the movement. The first president was Mrs. Caroline E. Foster; Mrs. Anna Mentzer, first vice president ; Miss Permelia Anthony, second vice president; Mrs. Kate Emmons, recording secretary; Mrs. Grace Hamm, corresponding secretary; and Miss Emily C. Galt, treasurer. A constitution and by-laws, which have since un- dergone some modifications. Roberts' Rules of Order were adopted as au- thority.
As is not generally known, the scheme of activity is very comprehensive. The club is not a debating school or a social function, but a factor of personal instruction, an agent of civic improvement. To facilitate the work there are various committees : reception, program, educational, music, printing, philan- thropic, house, refreshment, nominating, press. Music is a prominent feature. The club chorus at present has eleven members with Hattie M. Ebersole, leader, and Sophie C. Cruse, accompanist. The departed members are not forgotten in the year books as they are regularly issued. In that for 1907-8 a whole page appears as follows:
In Memoriam.
To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die. Sadie E. Johnson, July 23, 1900. Anna Whipple Dillon, April 23, 1903. Frances L. Roberts, Aug. 9, 1905. Verne Irwin Wilson, Nov. 13, 1907. Frances M. Haney, July 10, 1907.
The topics for every meeting of the year are printed in the booklets, with the leaders to prepare papers, so that ample time is given for prepara- tion. The topics embrace the whole field of art, literature, the home, the city, health, biography, science, history, travel. It is encyclopedic. January ;
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6 had "Phases of American Life Illustrated in Fiction," with Mary E. Wil- kins, presented by Sadie Murphy ; Joel Chandler Harris, by Marie Coe; Ham- lin Garland, by Emma Lawrence; George R. Cable, by Kathryn Leitch. Again, St. Patrick's day, on March 17, had naturally a symposium of Irish melodies by Ross Hull on the violin, an address by Fannie Worthington, a whistling solo by Robert Clark.
Home talent does not furnish all the enjoyment. Mrs. Bayliss has talked on the Cliff Dwellers, John Quincy Adams on Art and the Day's Work, John Whitman on Prison Life, Mrs. Pelham on The Stage Behind the Footlights, The Educational Value of Play by Miss Nina Lamkin, Judge Richard S. Tuthill on The Work of Saving Children from Becoming Crim- inals, Mrs. Marsh on Life in China.
The travel class is a fascinating field. For October, 1907, Holland, with its quaint towns and customs, and for 1908, such historic American cities as St. Augustine, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Wash- ington.
The regular meetings are held on the first and third Saturdays of the month. There are now about 175 members. A candidate for membership must be proposed by one member and endorsed by two other members, all of whom are personally acquainted with her. The annual dues are two dol- lars. Luella Hill Mack is president; recording secretary, Belle Woodworth; treasurer, Edna H. Loux. The club was represented at the General Feder- ation, St. Louis, 1904, by Anna May Bowman; at the State Federation, Rockford, 1900, by Lizzie E. Kehr and Sadie Murphy; and at the District Federation, Savanna, by Anna May Bowman.
THE W. C. T. U.
Ask God for temperance; that's the appliance only Which your disease requires .- Shakespeare.
This is one of the best of our organizations, quiet in its movements, and yet so far-reaching in its influence. The regular meetings occur on the second Thursday of the month in the Congregational church, the parlor meetings on the fourth Thursday. A small booklet is issued, giving the topics and order for every meeting during the year, with the speaker who is to lead the discussion. All are practical, many are beautiful and inspiring. For exam- ple, for June 27, 1907, was the "Mission of Flowers"; for July 25, "Peace and Arbitration"; for Dec. 26, "Temperance and Labor." About fifty of the prominent ladies of town and country meet in these delightful deliberations. To systematize their scheme of activity, there are several departments: Mrs. . Vaughn in 1907 had Sunday School Work; Mrs. Daley, Scientific Instruc- tion; Mrs. Edmunds, Social Purity; Miss Stevens, Flower Mission; Miss Bush, Fair Work; Mrs. Taylor, Temperance Literature; Mrs. Foster, Fran- chise; Miss Clara McCune, Music.
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STERLING INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION.
This was organized in 1907, is composed of most of our prominent busi- ness men, and has already been tlie means of securing some substantial
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industries to the city. At the last meeting John B. Lewis was re-elected president, John M. Stager re-elected secretary, John H. Lawrence treasurer, and O. E. Maxson, of Rock Falls, vice president. There are nine directors, serving for one, two, and three years. L. K. Wynn is chairman of the com- mittee on home and foreign industries, D. L. Martin of finance, E. F. Law- rence of railroads, Henry Bencus of advertising, H. M. Henderson of mem- bership.
An important branch of the work of the association is advertising. Nine thousand circulars and 3,000 booklets with the Inter-Ocean write-up and the special canal edition of the Gazette have given Sterling and Rock Falls pub- licity and attention which they never enjoyed before.
The most important thing accomplished during 1907 was the locating of the Borden Condensed Milk factory. This is of such proportions as to be capable of caring for the milk from 5,000 cows.
Through the combined efforts of the Sterling and Rock Falls Industrial Association, the Reed Manufacturing Co. was induced to move here from Oregon.
Through the association the Sterling, Dixon & Rock Falls Packet Co. was organized to give the Tri-Cities the benefit of the new waterway. The company has already increased its capacity for operation and the possibilities in this new project are limitless.
The celebration held Oct. 24, at the time of the completion and formal opening of the Hennepin canal was the proudest day in our history. The committee of which Mr. E. LeRoy Galt was chairman, spared no pains, and by bringing the great number of celebrated and influential men that it did took the first step towards securing a lock in the government dam. The asso- ciation has now about 150 members, and the number is gradually increasing.
THE PACKET COMPANY.
Who would have dreamed ten years ago that Sterling would be a center of water transportation? But when we read of the Sterling, Dixon, and Rock Falls Packet Company, with a capital of $50,000, organized for active oper- ations in the carrying of coal, lumber, and grain, we must accept the reality of the situation. The freight will be carried on barges, grain taken down, and coal brought up. The company built a barge at Rock Falls, launched in the spring of 1908, 100 feet long by 24 feet wide, with a capacity of 200 tons of grain. Others were added during the season. Small steamboats form part of the equipment.
All of these new barges have been planned to carry a deck load of coal from the mines along the Illinois river, thus assuring the boats profitable cargos both ways on the trip. The coal carried up the canal during the summer will be held in the yards of the company at the various elevators and what is needed will be brought to Sterling, where it is expected much will be handled by the local dealers. Sites have been selected for twenty-two elevators along the canal, feeder and the river.
A late purchase is the steamboat Beder and a barge. The Beder is a good strong canal craft, measuring 14 by 76 feet. The barge is 14 by 60 feet and
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is good for carrying eighty tons of coal. Floating elevators are to be con- structed for the disposal of grain, so that when the crops are ready in the fall, all produce offered can be promptly managed. The board of directors are N. E. Shontz, John N. Harpham, John M. Stager, B. Frank Downing, O. E. Maxson.
On April 19, 1908, for the first time in the history of Rock River, a steam- boat built strictly for commercial transportation and capable of handling a large barge carrying five hundred tons or more, made the trip from Sterling to Dixon. It was undertaken for the purpose of determining what the con- ditions are in the stream from the view point of the commercial transportation. The Beder never touched bottom at the shallowest places in the river between this city and a point a block below the wagon bridge at Dixon. Captain Shontz who was aboard of the Beder is well pleased with the results of the trip and . says that there will be little difficulty experienced by the engineers in estab- lishing a channel suitable for use by boats that will ply on the canal.
COMPANY E OF STERLING.
Before the Rebellion New York had her pet Seventh Regiment for dress occasions; since that struggle Sterling has fostered her Company E for every- day application. It was organized March 24, 1888 by Capt. John W. Niles, with 38 excellent young men. Dr. Frank Anthony was finally made com- mander with L. F. Eisele as first lieutenant, and W. F. Lawrie as second lieutenant. The present commander, Capt. John Cushman, was elected Feb. 10, 1902, and has served since that time. The rolls show that 590 men have been members of the company. Three original members are still in the ranks, Col. W. F. Lawrie, Capt. Cushman, and private William Angel.
Company E saw its first active service in 1894 when it was ordered to Chicago on the Pullman strike. Captain Lawrie commanded and the com- pany saw several weeks of hard service. The second call for service came dur- ing the Spanish-American war, when, under command of Capt. Lawrie, Com- pany E served under General Nelson A. Miles in the Porto Rican campaign. The record set by Company E at that time was the best in the regiment. The worst privations were suffered, but the company came through in excellent condition.
In military circles Sterling ranks at the head of all citics in northern Illinois. Lieutenant Colonel William F. Lawric resides in this city and sooner or later will bring to Sterling the headquarters of the Sixth regiment. Com- pany E, with fifty members and three commissioned officers, is located here. Here also is located the Sixth regiment band, the inspector of rifle practice for the regiment, the regimental ordnance sergeant, and the regimental color sergeant.
The roster of Company E is as follows :
Captain-John Cushman.
First Lieutenant-D. B. Doyoe.
Second Lieutenant-Harold E. Ward.
Sergeants-Arthur H. Cullin, first sergeant ; William H. Heathcote, quar- termaster sergeant; Arthur Jackson, Ernest McDaniels, Colon Eatinger.
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Corporals-Henry Six, Harry Bailey, Elmer Barley, H. Ferrington, C. Portner.
Trumpeter-Roy Kyger.
Company E possesses an excellent range, an indoor range and one of the largest armories in the state outside of Chicago. The band is also well equipped in respect to armory and equipment. Both organizations are fully up to the requirements of the new Dick military law and the state require- ments. At present there are in the company 34 privates.
By recent supplies from headquarters, Company E is now prepared for operations in the field. They are now ready to enter a campaign in two hours' notice with 65 men armed and equipped to the smallest detail. The equip- ment includes shelter tent halves, ponchoes, blankets, pick mattocks, entrench- ing tools, aluminum knives and forks, etc., which with the haversacks, can- teens, meat pans, cups, etc., makes the equipment practically complete. With the next shipment will come the new olive drab overcoats and the new Spring- field rifles which are to supersede the present Krags.
With the equipment are first aid to the wounded packets. These packets are in air tight boxes and consist of antiseptic bandages, plasters, etc., for use until the arrival of a surgeon. A four hundred pound folding steel range with boilers, meat pans, etc., enough to do the cooking for 128 men, is also added to the list. A noticeable feature of the shelter tents is the fact that they are now large enough to actually furnish shelter for two men. The equip- ment is complete in every detail.
SIXTH REGIMENT BAND.
Several years ago the Sixth Regiment band, at that time the Keystone band, was appointed regimental band by Colonel D. Jack Foster. Three years .ago Bandmaster Prestin and his musicians withdrew from the regiment and took the name of the Sterling Military band. Late this spring Colonel Edward Kittelsen again appointed the band the official organization of the regiment and as such it remains under Colonel Channon, commanding the regiment at the present time.
The roster of the band is as follows:
Chief Musician-John Prestin.
Drum Major-Thomas Flynn.
Principal Musician-Jacob Hitzelberger.
Sergeants-Andrew Huber, August Karl, Fred Buck, Harry Haug ..
Corporals-John Decker, Fred Fraser, John Hutton, William Halverson, Joseph Karl, Ludolp Holz, Alex Lyle, J. J. McKee.
Privates-Maurice Almy. Charles Buck, John Elsasser, Fred Hubbard, Frank Howe, Frank O'Connell, William Palmer, John Wink, James Williams, B. P. Werntz, William Oppold, Milton Cruse.
FROM THIE FIRING LINE.
Come one, come all. this rock shall fly From its firm base as soon as I .- Scott.
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Few of our veterans passed through such a continued and exhausting siege of suffering as Isaac Bressler, who enlisted in the 88th Illinois at Chi- cago, Col. Sherman, 1862, fought at Murfreesboro and Chickamauga, where he was captured with 3,000 men, and taken to Richmond. This was the begin- ning of a series of imprisonments and rebel torture. They were kept in Pem- berton prison, opposite Libby, for two months. Part of the time he was in the hospital, receiving no care. When forbidden to spit on the floor, and ask- ing for a cuspidor, he was advised to spit in his hat. Then they were forwarded to Danville, where there were five prisons, mostly tobacco warehouses. The poor fellows were not only starved but almost frozen for want of clothing and blankets. It was in November, windows knocked out, and no fire. Here Ed Mills did much for his relief, being a former friend in Sterling. Bressler be- came so desperate that he offered a fellow who had a blanket his claim on 160 acres of land in Whiteside if he would share that woolen luxury and keep him from shivering all night. This princely offer was refused, but the fel- low relented enough to take a secesh dollar which Bressler had in his pocket.
Andersonville, that synonym for captive horror, was the next stage for Isaac. It was an open pen with stockade around, a small tent at night. The water was good, because not yet polluted by thousands of prisoners, who fol- lowed. But the food was vile, not fit for respectable hogs. Either raw corn meal was furnished, which they were left to cook as they could, or pails of mush and beans delivered in wagons. Finally, after six months of this sur- vival of the fittest, according to Darwin, a detachment of prisoners was sent to another point, and while at Macon, Georgia, Bressler and a few others man- aged to escape, and after wandering through the woods, succeeded in reach- ing Atlanta, after it was taken by Sherman, and there rejoined the regiment.
G. Waldron Smith, American Express agent at Sterling, enlisted at Romu- lus, Seneca Co., N. Y., 1862, in 126th infantry, was wounded at Gettysburg, and mustered out for gunshot wounds, after a service of two years and seven months. Mr. Smith was thrice a prisoner, and wounded seven times.
George D. John enlisted in 47th Pennsylvania, Gen. Emery, and was wounded in the side at Cedar Creek, 1864, and has positive proof of the bodily damage in the ball which he preserves as a reward of merit, or medal of honor. George is a retired farmer in Sterling.
Phil Kereven, Sixth Vermont, saw much fearful fighting as he was all through the battles of the Wilderness, and after wounds at Cold Harbor was in the hospital at Alexandria, Phila., and Montpelier. Phil also faced rebel fire at Antietam and Gettysburg, where a spent bullet lodged on top of his cranium, the scar being still visible. He was with Sheridan at Winchester.
He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray, With Sheridan only five miles away.
In at the death of the Confederacy, being at the surrender at Petersburg. Mr. Kereven is now in charge of Central Park, whose tall soldiers' monument crowned by a soldier with rifle is a perpetual reminder of sterner scenes.
John W. Sheaffer, 75th Illinois, was at the slaughter at Perryville, and took part in all the battles of the Army of the Cumberland, Stone River,
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Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Atlanta and Nashville, 1864. Hc is a ready writer, and sent the first letter to Sterling from Sherman's army when he flanked Hood's army from Atlanta.
Dr. Crandall, 13th Vermont, enlisted at Burlington, and was in charge of the Field Hospital at Gettysburg. Phil Kereven says the doctor's record is all right and speaks highly of his skill and care as a surgeon. He continues his professional activity in Sterling.
Of all our county veterans, John Mehaffey is the chief, bearing the double distinction of serving in both the Mexican war and the Rebellion. Both times, singular to say, he enlisted at Chambersburg, Pa. In the Mexican war he was in the Eleventh Pennsylvania infantry, following Winfield Scott in his tri- umphal march from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico, 1847. A narrow escape in the land of Montezuma. He had yellow fever and was about to be buried alive, when he summoned strength to say with Webster, "I still live." In the civil war Mehaffey was in the 21st Pennsylvania cavalry, riding with Custer and Sheridan. His last engagement was at Petersburg.
Doubtless the best known of all the Grand Army men in Sterling is Capt. J. W. Niles, of the Ninth Iowa Infantry. He has resided in the city many years, and being a bachelor, has given the community the benefit of his sym- pathies. He was long secretary of the school board, is chief factotum in the Masonic order, alive to the interests of the veterans or their families, ready for every good word or work. In short, he is the city philanthropist at large.
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