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OHS Newsletter Volume 2, Issue 1, January 1998
In this issue: Officers and Directors, 1997-1998
Newsletter Editorial Staff
President's Message The lease for the Museum was signed and we are thankful that the City is working with us to preserve our heritage. We need more volunteers to work at the Museum. We hope that you will try to attend the meetings and remember to ask your friends to come too. The Rock Spring Cemetery has been cleaned up and we encourage you to stop in to see what has been accomplished there. A special thanks to everyone who has donated artifacts and to those who have worked at the Museum. We have a good start and it is because so many of you have helped to make it a Museum to be proud of.
Bill Peach Regular meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month at 7 P.M. in the Historical Society Building. The Museum is open to the public each Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 1 P.M. to 4 P.M. by volunteers from the membership. A Special Thanks The Society would like to extend a special thank you to Ronald E. Meyer and his sister, Karen, for their generous donation of developing and providing a logo for the museum. Ron is the owner of Sign Effects, Inc. His firm supplied the labor and material for providing interior and exterior signage for the museum. This project has enhanced the attractiveness of the museum. Society Honored by McKendree College On Dec. 8th, McKendree College held "O'Fallon Night" at its scheduled basketball game with Lindenwood College. At halftime ceremonies the Vice-President of the college presented to past president Maurice Hesse a copy of a book entitled "The History of McKendree College." The Society has this book in its collection at the Museum. Did you know that O'Fallon High School and McKendree College competed in basketball? O'Fallon High had its season opener with McKendree College Reserves in 1911. Games were also played in 1916, 1917, 1918 and 1919. O'Fallon High School won three games and the McKendree Reserves won two games. Report from the Exhibit Committee 1997 was an exciting year for our museum. The highlight, of course, was the grant by the city of a five year lease on the old First National Bank building to the Society. The outside of the building was beautifully enhanced with new window signs designed and donated by Ron Meyer. We also installed new exhibit platforms donated by Thomas Hardware which have been useful in displaying some of our larger artifacts. Remodeling and cleaning of the first floor exhibit areas and side rooms was started in 1997 and will continue into 1998. Also, we now boast of our own phone and answering machine. Work has begun on preparing the second floor office space for use as a storage and work space and perhaps as an alternate exhibit area. The second floor offers seven rooms plus a working restroom. It is accessible only from an outside entrance on the east side of the building. A sampling of some of the new artifacts to make their appearance in 1997 include a collection of shaving mugs from Beckman's barbershop displayed by Arline Magee and Cara Magee Edwards, the original 1905 certificate of incorporation of the City of O'Fallon donated by the city, coal mining artifacts donated by Alvin Taylor, an autographed football jersey donated by Bob Cryder and the shovel used to turn the ground for the new City Hall donated by the city. There were also many other donations, equally treasured as those just mentioned, which we were very glad to have received. We ended the year with a delightful stuffed animal and doll display provided by William Brennan. For Christmas, the windows were decorated with lights and electric candles donated by our members. The city provided edging lights for the roof of the building. A Christmas tree was the centerpiece which was circled by a train set. There was also a nativity display. We hope that 1998 will bring many more interesting items for display and that we will make significant progress in further improving the look and usefulness of the museum.
Brian Keller O'Fallon Business History by Doris Johnson I'm still working on O'Fallon Business Book II and hope to finish it this winter. It will contain information about businesses on Lincoln, Vine, E. Highway 50, Southview Plaza and a small part of W. Highway 50. Book III will contain information about W. Highway 50, Hartman Lane, the Frontage Road, the east side of Old Collinsville Road and all of the new development in that area. I hope that you will come to the Museum to see our displays and look through the notebooks. You will find a lot of interesting material. Items of Interest On Oct. 28, 1997 Boy Scouts from the St. Clare School visited the museum. On Oct. 31, 1997 Girl Scout Troop 841 and their leaders visited the museum and the O'Fallon Cemetery. Ralph Keller gave some of the girls a tour of the cemetery. We had a Christmas party after our December meeting. We have been enjoying Bill Brennan's bears and dolls. I hope that you got to see them. Brian found a copy of the first issue of the O'Fallon Progress. We have to find a way to display it. Several young people from college stopped in recently to see if we could tell them where to find information for their projects. A young lady was looking for information about the Bethel Church. We had to send her to the Library but you can now find that information in our Church Notebook. The young man was doing research on our Museum building. We were happy to share the information in our Business Book I. Brian has since found more information about the building in an old desk downstairs. Brian Keller is always interested in giving visitors a tour of the building from the basement to the second floor. Have you taken the tour? He has a lot of interesting things to "show and tell." Memorials Memorials have been made in memory of BILL MAGEE, VERNON CANTERBURY, PRESTON GROSS, FLORENCE WATERS, LaDORIS GLENN, LOUISE WIECHERT and HENRY (HANK) CORBIER. Looking Back The First National Bank was organized on Sept. 1, 1903. In August E. H. Smiley bought the lots across the street that housed the Post Office and the J. S. Schalter Barber Shop from Ann Beaumont. The old buildings were torn down and a new modern bank was constructed. In Dec. 1921 the bank purchased the building and the rest of the ground to the Lorenz Scheibel building from the estate of S. C. Smiley and the building was added on to and remodeled. The bank was remodeled again in 1948. In 1960 it moved to its new building on S. Lincoln. In 1961 the First National Bank leased its former building to the O'Fallon Library. The city gave its approval for remodeling the building and passed an ordinance for a levy to pay for the improvements. The Library moved into its new quarters in 1962. In April 1972 the bank presented the deed to the building to the city. In 1981 the City Council approved a resolution to use up to $37,500 to purchase the building next door for a Children's Library. The Library closed in 1995 and moved to its new location behind the Post Office. In April of 1996 the O'Fallon Historical Society (which had stored its artifacts in the basement vault of the building) started a museum in the building and a ribbon cutting ceremony was held on May 18, 1996. In Sept. 1997 the City Council approved an agreement with the Historical Society to lease the building for $1.00 a year for 5 years. We are thankful that the city is willing to work with us in preserving our past. We hope that you will take the time to visit our museum. We aso encourage you to donate items of interest to the museum. Cemetery Project - Dennis Lawler and Mary Dodd: The students from the University of Missouri at Rolla came with their ground penetrating radar. We are waiting for their report. Thanks to Tom and Rose Brennan for donating the angel statue and the surrounding landscaping. The stones have all been restored and the graves were decorated for Christmas. The committee submitted an application to the Midwest Living Magazine for their Hometown Pride Awards in the historic preservation category. Catalog Committee: The Catalog Committee has nearly finished an inventory of the Museum. The upstairs has been done and we are working on the vault downstairs. We will be able to give a report on our inventory in the next newsletter. Membership Committee: At the end of 1997 we had 111 members. The following members died this year: Bertha Distler, Vernon Canterbury and Preston Gross. Mrs. Edith Hock was left off Life Membership in the last newsletter. Our Honorary member is Mrs. Josephine Lillie who was 100 this year. Our membership is as follows:
REMEMBER: DUES ARE DUE BY JAN. 31, 1998. WE WELCOME NEW MEMBERS! Remember to come to our O'Fallon Historical Society meeting held on the third Tuesday of each month at 7 P.M. We invite you to visit the Museum on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 1 to 4. As you look around you will probably find something that you haven't seen before. Look in some of the books about Church History, Organizations, Schools, Homecomings - it is always good to learn something new about O'Fallon! That is what the Museum is all about.
If you have a few spare hours, we usually have openings on our workers sheet. A big "thank you" to Ralph Keller who spends many hours at the Museum!
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