USA > Illinois > Shelby County > Stewardson > Stewardson, the first 100 years : history of the village of Stewardson, Prairie Township and vicinity > Part 12
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Mrs. Lucille (Webb) Keller was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. . . . Webb and has lived here all of her life.
Creek Church, about three miles south- west of Stewardson. On June 6, 1877 Adam Kessler deeded to Henry Barns, Charles Heideman and Adam Kessler Trustees of the Emmanuel Church of the Evangical Association, better known as the Wolf Creek Church, two acres of ground. The east half was to be used as a place of divine worship, and the west half to be used as a burial ground for the church membership. For many years interested families maintained the cemetery. It is used very infrequently for burials now.
The Rockford Cemetery is located northwest of Stewardson, about one mile west of the old Rockford School
building, then about one-half mile south down a lane, in a very secluded spot, on land owned by Tom Fox. It was originally called the Welton Cemetery and contains the graves of many mem- bers of the Welton Family. At one time there was a little church adjoining the west edge of the cemetery, called the Rockford Church, and the cemetery gradually took the name of Rockford. The church was used mainly for funeral services. Records show burials as early as 1842.
The Mound Cemetery is located two miles south and one-half mile east of Stewardson, and encompasses a plot 437 ft., with many familiar names on the stones. An additional 48 ft. was later added to the south end. The ground was given by John Beals, a great- great-grandfather of relatives in and around Stewardson. Some stones are dated as far back as 1820. Names on others can no longer be read, while many stones have fallen over and are
covered with grass, all giving the ap- pearance of a very old cemetery. In early days Sunday School, as well as some burial services, were held in the Mound School adjoining the cemetery. For many years interested people tried to take care of the cemetery, mowing and cleaning it at least once a year, and maintaining a good fence around it.
The Rincker Cemetery is located about two miles north on Route 32 and one fourth mile east. It was acquired by the Trinity Lutheran Church of Stew- ardson in 1871. Mrs. Theophilus Rinck- er, the grandmother of many relatives in and around Stewardson, deeded one acre of ground to the church for use as a cemetery, with the stipulation that a fence be maintained around it. Ap- proximately one-fourth of the plot was to be reserved for use by the Rincker family. For many years it was cared for by the congregation of the church, later it was decided by the trustees of the church to no longer retain it.
Businesses from the Recent Past
Banner Township Mutual Fire Insurance Company
One of the oldest Fire Insurance Com- panies formed by area residents for the mutual protection of its members and
still active at this time is The Banner Township Mutual Fire Insurance Com- pany. It was originally founded in the year of 1878 as The German Banner Township Mutual Fire Insurance Com- pany.
Minutes of The Company meetings were sketchy and indistinct until 1911 and were handwritten in German until 1914, thus making an accurate transla- tion into English of its proceedings prior to 1911 rather difficult. It was
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indicated however, that August Bugen- hagen and Michael Weber took an ac- tive part in the early history of the com- pany.
Persons formerly affliated with The Company from this area from the year 1911 to the present and the dates of their service are as follows:
C. F. Friese, Agent & Director from 1911 to 1928.
L. C. Friese, Director from 1912 to 1930, Agent in 1928.
Wm. Krumreich, Director in 1928, Agent and Director from 1929 to 1938. Herman Appelt, Director in 1930.
Chris Kruger, Director from 1931 to 1936, Vice President and Director from 1936 to 1954.
Heman Noffke, Agent and Director from 1938 till his death in 1971.
Local persons now serving the Com- pany at this time are as follows: Edwin Manhart, Vice President and Director from 1954 to 1959, President and Direc- tor from 1959 to present time.
Rufus G. Kull, Agent and Director from 1969 to 1971, Director from 1971 to present time.
Kenneth E. Noffke, Agent and Direc- tor from 1971 to present time.
Stewardson Supply Company
This firm was started in 1929 by Ben and Ira Gawthrop with their office in the back of the Opera Hall building. Mrs Ira (Wanda Mautz) Gawthrop oper- ated the office and she says that some weeks she would mail as many as one thousand cards, quoting the current pay prices to prospective sellers.
They did a big business, Wanda re- calls filling out shipping invoices for 21 cars of hay in one day. Some of these were shipped from other nearby towns, she thinks that this was in 1933, a very dry year.
They owned the haybarn that stood at the intersection of North First and North Chestnut. They would fill the barn with hay at harvest time and then ship it out during the winter. They shipped their hay to customers in the southern states.
Ira had worked for Voris' before he went into business with his father, Ben. They had a hay office in Mattoon, Ill. before they started here.
Insurance Company in Stewardson
The State Protective Mutual Benefit Association had its headquarters in Stewardson in the 1920's. It was owned
and operated by Ben Gawthrop and Mr. and Mrs. Ira Gawthrop from their office in the Opera Hall building. They had agents in surrounding towns and got most of their policyholders from these out of town agents.
When a policyholder died each of the living policyholders paid $1.00 and the deceased's claim was paid from these payments.
The Gawthrop's operated this com- pany for five or six years and then sold the agency to another company that reinsured all of their policyhold- ers.
There were several of these Burial Societies in towns nearby. One in Neoga was one of the last ones to go out of business. To keep a company like this financially sound it was neces- sary to have an equal number of young policyholders and older ones. It was easier to sell to the older people and this made the payments come too close to- gether and the healthy policyholders started dropping out.
Odirone Reynolds
Odirone Reynolds, Ed's son operated the restaurant in the Block Building. In 1940 he purchased the Drug Store from Burgess, operator of a Drug Store in Shelbyville, Il. Along with operating this Drug Store he operated a Whole- sale Candy and Novelty business.
About 1945 he sold the Drug Store to Russell Turner and moved to Effing- ham,
Restaurant
Wilford Timperley ran a Restaurant in a building south of Mautz's 5 & 10 cent store. A broom factory was in this building for a short time.
A Mr. Daper operated a restaurant in the building by Wilson's Garage.
Jacob Yakey
Jacob Yakey had the Surge dealership for many years. H. D. Yakey worked for Jacob Yakey for several years and in 1953 bought the dealership from the elder Mr. Yakey.
Wayne Moomaw
In 1938 Wayne Moomaw built an ice house where he stocked ice for ice boxes etc. One fourth of July Wayne sold 15 tons of ice. He also kept watermelons during season.
Friese Cafe
In 1951 Lucille Huffmaster and John and Melba Middlesworth leased the Friese Cafe and operated it during the summer months.
Guy Schuyler-Barber
Guy Schuyler was a barber in Stew- ardson at different times in the early 1900's. At one time he was in a shop with Orpheus Robey and another time with Leroy Correll.
Ile barbered and farmed and after quitting a shop in Stewardson about 1918 he moved to a farm near Beecher City. He operated a barber shop in his home for several years.
Clete Nosbisch
Clete Nosbisch operated a junk yard on North Pine St. for several years, before his death in 1973.
Falk's Dry Goods
About 21 years ago Grace Falk Cecil and her son, John bought the building at 134 S. Pine St. from Fred Milchman, who had built it. They sold dry goods, dresses and shoes and operated a grocery and meat market in the Fred Milchman building at 124. S. Pine.
After they sold the grocery and meat market Grace operated the Dry Goods Store by herself for several years and then sold the business to Earl and No- berta Renshaw. They sold their stock to Bob King, who moved it to the origi- nal Milchman Meat Market building.
Grace still owns the building and rents it to Rail and Truck Salvage.
Burl Hobson
Burl Hobson, who has just purchased the Engel Building, operated an auto repair shop in the garage building on South Cedar and a blacksmith shop in the private garage at 322 West Main Street.
M. O. Finks
In the last of 1921, and early 1922, M. O. Finks installed large overhead bulk gasoline tanks along the railroad in the Northwest part of town. (Planter's Ele- vator stands there now.)
His brother, James F. Finks was in charge of the construction and the very early operation of the bulk plant.
Gasoline pumps were installed about
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the same time on the curb on the north side of Main Street.
Mr. Finks sold his business to Stanley Steagall, who operated it and after his death Mrs. Steagall continued the busi- ness for several years.
Max Hoyer managed the business for her at one time.
In 1926, Victor Keller was the agent for Texaco gasoline and motor oil.
K. L. Moran Appliance Co.
This trade name was adopted in 1942 to service Skelgas accounts. Kenneth, from his youth had been interested in radios, telephones, and electricty, and has been active in operating and repair- ing these and doing electrical work. He had done a lot of electrical wiring in this area including work for R.E.A. projects.
He operated an appliance store in Beecher City for a short time.
After the war he went to an independ- ent distributorship with the name Moran's Bottle Gas.
At one time he operated the Liberty Theatre in Stewardson for Mr. and Mrs. Omer Macy.
He has done Evangelistic work for many years, pastored two churches, held revivals, and has been broadcast- ing the Gospel over the radio for ten years.
Ruth Baumgarten Restaurant
Mrs. Elmer Baumgarten operated the restaurant in what is now the storage room at the west part of the Strohl Grocery Building. She purchased the business from Eugene Rothrock. He had obtained it from Harold Gillespey.
After operating it from 1950 to 1952, she sold out to Viola Smith. Junior Kel- ler operated it after Mrs. Smith; and when Walter Strohl needed the room for his grocery business, Keller bought out Anna Friese in the Yakey building and moved there.
Harrison Fouste
Harrison Fouste was a prominent businessman in Stewardson for several years starting back in the 1920's. He worked for Voris Bros. in their hay and grain business. He went into the hay business, a partner part of the time with Earl Wilson. He bought hay from local farmers and shipped to markets in the cities and the southern part of the U.S.
He operated an insurance agency for many years, along with being the town- ship supervisor, secretary of the Build- ing and Loan, village clerk and Justice of the Peace.
His daughter, Marie Tate says that she remembered him performing a marriage ceremony.
He was Justice of the Peace when this office was used to settle small lawsuits. I, Glen Giesler, was subpoened by Casey Barnett, a constable, one time to serve on a jury in a trial in Mr. Fouste's court. At that time he had his office upstairs in the Bank Building. Later he moved his office to the former Wa- bash Depot building.
Mr. Fouste was also a cashier in the bank for awhile.
Ashenbremer Grocery
Mr. and Mrs. Jack Ashenbremer operated a grocery store in the building on the southeast corner of the inter- section of Cedar and Main St. during 1937 and 38. They bought the business from Walter Donaldson.
John Manhart
For many years, John Manhart oper- ated a plumbing and tin shop in a frame building just south of the bank building.
Elmer Falk
Elmer Falk had a general merchan- dise store in Herborn. He bought cream, eggs, poultry, and sold groceries of all kinds, clothes, and dry goods. His store in Herborn burned in October 1931. He rebuilt the store; and when he quit the business there, the building was moved to Stewardson and was con- verted into a residence at 113 South Cedar, where his daughter, Mrs. Gil- bert Brummerstedt, and her husband live now.
In Stewardson he operated a grocery store at 106 East Main Street, and Falk's Produce at 113 North Pine Street. He sold the grocery store to Orville Cohea, and Mr. Falk's son-in-law is still operating Falk Produce.
Mr. Falk operated huckster wagons from his Herborn and Stewardson stores. These were trucks loaded with the items most needed by rural people, and the driver went from house to house on regular routes. They bought chickens, as many people would sell enough chickens to pay for the items that they bought.
John Tanner
John Tanner operated the Tanner Grain and Feed Company and erected the building, bins and elevator north of the Wente Locker Service.
Lugar Dairy
Starting in 1929 Jerry Lugar, Cobert's father, bottled fresh milk at his farm at the east end of Main Street, the Rose Fouste farm now, and delivered it in Stewardson. Cobert and Leona bought the Holmes Building, 117 W. Main St., and operated a dairy there.
They bought raw milk from some local farmers, bottled it and delivered it to the residences and businesses in town.
They collected the milk two times a day and delivered two times a day be- cause many people didn't have a way of keeping the milk cool to keep it from spoiling. This was in the good old days before everyone had electric refrig- erators.
In 1943 the Lugars sold their business to Ruhins at Shelbyville and worked for them.
George and Stanley Steagall
George Steagall bought the Poultry House that stood at the corner of South Second and Pine Street. Later his son, Stanley bought the business and then later moved it to Main Street in the building that is now occupied by Spring- er's Chevrolet.
Stanley bought the M. O. Finks Bulk Oil Business and operated a service sta- tion in the garage building in the 100 block on South Cedar Street. Later he bought the Frank Williams Hardware Building and remodeled it for a service station. After his death, Mrs. Steagall operated the business.
Ed Reynolds
Ed Reynolds was a business man back in the early 1900's. He worked for Art Roley in the implement business in 1902, helping set up windmills.
He was a partner with Charles Ragle in a harness shop for some time.
In 1918 he built the flour mill on North Pine Street and operated it for a short time. He then operated a restaurant in the Block Building about 1920, then moved to the new Milchman Building (Strohl's Grocery now) for a short time and then moved back to the Block Building.
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More Tripe
CHOLERA AND CHINCH BUGS
Cholera was probably the most dead- ly peril that the settler in Prairie Township faced during the 1850's and 1860's and before. This disease killed whole wagon trains and communities. People were literally terrified by this disease and often buried the victims at night to avoid creating additional panic. The sick and dying were ostracized because people were afraid to go near them, and the clothes and belongings of the dead were burned in an attempt to control the disease. The records document epidemics oc- curring in 1855 and 1863. Thirty-six members of a wagon train were buried in a common grave just inside the gates at Coon Cemetery. No one knew their names or where they came from.
The biggest threats to early agricul- ture were droughts, chinch bugs, and army worms. During the late 1800's, droughts were more frequent and ap- parently more severe than in more re- cent times. It seems drought and chinch bugs went hand in hand. In order to control the chinch bug, the farmer would plow several furrows around his field and then worked the plowed soil into fine dust by dragging a log around and around the field. The chinch bug could not crawl up the walls of dust. They would then dig post holes in the fine dust, about 100 feet apart. The bugs would fall into the holes collecting in a pile from one to two feet deep. Oil was poured in the holes and set afire. This was the only means of control.
Army worms were deadly to the huge hay crops. There was no known way to control the army worm. The farmer had to stand by and watch the mighty army eat a wide swath out of his hay field as it marched on in a straight line to his neighbor's field.
BIG SNOWS
Our snow of 1973 may have set the all-time record for the amount of snow to fall in a twenty-four hour peri- od, but it was a pip-squeak when com- pared to the snows between 1900 and 1920 in terms of drifted depth and hardships.
There was also another snow of comparable size in the early 1900's. Snow was drifted over the tops of the young hedge fences. Those drifts at their maximum were eight feet
Snow bookd Twins op Clover Leaf Wan Stewardson ILL
A picture taken west of Stewardson after men had shoveled the track clean of snow so that the trains could get through.
A picture of a train engine on the Cloverleaf Railroad. The engine had apparently come through some very deep snow drifts to get to Steward- son.
No date or names were on the picture, but we are told that it was before 1920.
deep. People traveled over the tops of fences in sleds. The snow lasted for three weeks, and trains were stalled for four days. The young men of Stewardson, during the early snow, helped carry the baggage and children of the freezing passengers from the
stalled train in the cut east of town. The village men worked day and night scooping the train out of its barricade. Mr. R. A. Peters was in Shelbyville and took a train to Mode in order to catch the "Plug" on to Stewardson; but "Plug" could not make it. Mr.
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This is Pine Street looking north after the
December 19, 1973 snowstorm. This snowstorm, about seventeen inches deep, was one of the biggest ones that most people could remember.
Peters walked home that night by the south road and waded snow chest deep.
Of course, the granddaddy of them all was supposed to have been the snow of 1831 - 1832. If we can believe the old historians, snow began falling the first day of December and did not let up all winter, leaving an accumulation of five to six feet. None of our "old yarn spinners" were able to top this one.
ITEMS FROM OLD NEWSPAPERS
Frank Hoese says he was trying to break Mr. Duddlesten's colt last Mon- day to ride, but the colt wouldn't stand it. Consequently Frank got his face and nose scratched up consider-
ably. He says he believes he will quit the business. 11-4-1887
John Bridge, the champion middle weight, and Ned Fisk, the champion heavy weight of Stewardson, had a "set to" in Joe Baker's restaurant on last Sunday evening. 12-18-1887
Several of our boys went to the Okaw timber Sunday to hunt per- simmons.
There were a couple of our temper- ance brethren got "done up" on their way home from Strasburg Saturday night. They imbibed too freely of Strasburg's "best" and got into the wrong pew.
There was a catfish caught out of the Okaw River near Thompson's Mill one day last week which weighed 125 pounds. 1888.
For diarrhea: used boiled milk and castor oil; also brandy and raw eggs.
For a good 50ยข corset, go to Mautz and Diddea.
There seemed to be a misunderstand- ing between John Bridges and Henry Long one day last week about a pair of trousers. John says Henry borrow- ed his Sunday pants and returned them with the basement out.
Wm. Gren, our popular drayman, police magistrate, and mailcarrier, was given a birthday dinner last Fri- day by his many friends. He came downtown late in the afternoon feeling so good that he kicked the football through the window pane in the front
of T. N. Robison's drugstore. It only cost him $1.50 to replace the glass. He wasn't so full of kick.
The ice cream festival at the Baptist Church last Wednesday night was a financial success. The proceeds, which amounted to six dollars, were placed in the Sunday School treasury.
RACE TRACK
The men of early Prairie Township used to amuse themselves with horse racing, and a bit of wagering, at a racetrack northeast of the future site of Stewardson. This track was prob- ably just north of the Mode road near present Route 32.
One day a band of Gypsies stopped and wanted to race against the fast- est horse in Prairie Township. The owner of the horse did not want to race because he felt the Gypsies would "rig" the race. The Gypsies' leader brought out a streamlined horse, and the man, secretly, was sure his horse was better, but still refused to race. Finally, the Gypsy leader started teas- ing the man and said he would un- hitch one of the horses from his wagon and still beat the champion of Prairie Township. This was more than the man could take and accepted the challenge. Of course, the horse hitched to the wagon was the one they wanted to race all along. Guess who won the race !!!
Latch Grocery and Service Station
The Latch Grocery and Service Sta- tion is located on the northeast corner of Cedar and West Main Street in Stew- ardson. It is owned and operated by Joe Latch and his wife Dorothy.
The business was purchased by Mr. Latch from Witmer Grove in November 1960. At that time Mr. Grove was oper- ating it as a service station for the Ash-
Businesses, 1974
land Oil Co. and, he carried a few Sundry items, also.
Before Mr. Grove operated the busi- ness, the service station was owned by the late Stanley Steagall and after his death in 1936, it was leased to different parties, including Zane Mayberry.
In April of 1962, Latchs added a groc- cry business to their service station. Early one morning in November 1962, the building and contents were totally destroyed by fire. In 1963, Mr. and Mrs. Latch purchased the land where the business is located from Leo Ben- nett of Windsor, Illinois and rebuilt. They opened their new store for busi- ness in November 1963. Along with their line of groceries they handled Standard Oil gasoline and products. In October 1968, they changed their oil and gas business to DX gas and oil. Their business prospered and in January,
1972, a new and much larger addition to the building was built.
Glen Giesler Insurance Agency
Glen started as a part time Insurance Agency with State Farm in 1940, oper- ating it along with his school teaching. In 1943 he and his family moved to 217 N. Vine St. and had his office in his house.
In 1962 he moved to 409 W. Main St. where he still lives. In 1966 he quit teaching school to devote full time to the insurance business. He still has his office in his home.
He has also been Mayor of Steward- son for nine years and his wife, Lela, has served thirteen years as Prairie Township Clerk.
At one time Glen served as a Justice of the Peace.
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Aubry Jones and Sons Trucking Service
Aubry Jones started trucking in 1944, hauling coal from the mine at Nokomis and delivering in any size orders that people wanted. In 1945 he started spreading limestone that was shipped by the carloads on the railroad and was scooped onto the trucks and then scoop- ed into a spreader that was pulled be- hind the truck. In 1946, erected the lime bin at the Nickle Plate Railroad. With this the limestone was unloaded from hopper and then into a spreader bed on the truck by gravity. This speeded up the work considerably. He is still in the business of spreading limestone and phosphate.
In 1954 he bought a tractor and trail- er unit to haul grain. He now has ten truck tractors and fifteen trailers and hauls oil, steel, fertilizer, etc. as well as grain. He has a payroll of over $60,000 a year. Aubrey invented a de- vice to improve the spreading of lime- stone.
Steve Baumgarten Construction
T-
Steve started doing carpenter work part time in 1957 and then he and Larry Painter started the construction busi- ness full time in 1960. They operated the Baumgarten and Painter Construc- tion Co., for a short time.
In 1962, he purchased the block build- ing at 116 S. Pine St. and stored his equipment there. In 1964 he started a cabinet shop at this location until he built the cabinet shop and storage building on North 2nd St. Then he started a hardware and appliance store in the building on Pine St.
In 1971 he purchased the building at 102 E. Main St. from R. A. Peters.
After remodeling it, including the base- ment, he opened a hardware and appli- ance building.
He builds about seven new homes, a lot of them in this area, each year.
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