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OHS Newsletter Volume 3, Issue 2, July 1999
In this issue: Officers and Directors, 1998-1999
Newsletter Editorial Staff
President's Message If you want to beat the heat of the summer, come and browse in our air-conditioned Museum. Keep up to date on the newest displays. If you have any ideas or articles, we would like to have them. We are working hard to improve the exhibits. I want to thank everyone who has helped in any way. I invite you to come to the meetings on the third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. Come and bring a friend. Help keep the O'Fallon Historical Society an active Society. Special Thanks A special thanks to Natural Wonders at St. Clair Square for another display table and to Maurice and Dolly Hesse for the hanging display panels. A special thanks to Betty Lehman, Joyce Koesterer, Carol Souza, Frances Zotz, and Dolly Hesse for cleaning the Museum on June 3rd in preparation for the hosting of Chamber of Commerce/Main Street "Business After Hours." Items of Interest February 27, 1999 - Eight 10 year old girls and their leaders from the Latter Day Saints Church visited. March 13, 1999 - Den 3 Pack 47 Cub Scouts and their leaders visited. April, 1999 - Ralph Keller gave a tour of the cemetery to some Girl Scouts. April 15, 1999 - 18 Girl Scouts and their leaders from St. Clare School visited. May 7, 1999 - Dedication of the new depot. May 31, 1999 - Rededication of the Woman's Club Flag Pole. June 6, 1999 - Dedication of the new second floor of the O'Fallon Public Library. June 8, 1999 - We co-hosted the Main Street/Chamber of Commerce "Business After Hours" meeting. July 10, 1999 - We sponsored our first "Downtown O'Fallon Walk" with the O'Fallon Library. Programs In January, William Jenner showed us a World War II tape. In February, John Long told us about Abraham Lincoln's law practice. In March, Jerry Worms told us about bottles from our area. In April, Jeanne Yates showed us her doll collection. In May, Dolly Hesse told us about the Woman's Club Flag Corner, and in June, Bob Cook talked to us about "Presidential Wit and Humor".
Exhibit Committee We received many interesting and often unique donations from 36 different people and organizations the first half of 1999! In the non-paper artifacts category, we received items as large as a 19th Century barn section and as small as an antique silver thimble. Items were as varied as old grade school athletic trophies, a 1950 Ironrite Automatic Ironer, O'Fallon Quality Dairy ice picks, and a section of the old B&O depot brick walkway. Paper items include 11 scrapbooks from Doris Johnson, E. H. Smiley's Poison Register, an 1888 Druggist Recipe Book, WWII bank notes, and numerous pictures, O.T.H.S. yearbooks, pamphlets, and miscellaneous. A special gift of hanging panels for displaying photographs has been donated by Maurice and Dolalene Hesse. They have been busy filling the panels with pictures from the O'Fallon area. Many thanks for this wonderful gift. We hope that you stop by to see it! Of particular note is a painting of the old City Hall by O'Fallon artist, Rita Cooper, which is on loan by the City of O'Fallon. It won the Mayor's Choice Award in the Woman's Club "1999 Visions Art Contest" in May. Special mention goes to Natural Wonders at St. Clair Square who donated a large and very useful mobile display unit now on the first floor of the Museum. The City of O'Fallon donated a digital picture of the new depot. 1999 marked the opening of the second floor for viewing. Five rooms now feature exhibits which include 1940s and 1960s vintage voting booths, and artifacts from the old B&O Depot and the Moonlight Hall. The original second floor home to the first public library is also open. If you haven't seen it lately, come up and take a look. Thanks to all who help keep our museum clean and staffed. You help make it one of the true treasures of O'Fallon. The following people or organizations donated items: Sam Aleman, Bob Bird, City of O'Fallon, Ken Diel, Joyce Ebert, Fulton Jr. High School, Kevin Gordon, Gary Graham, Shirley Greene, Doris Hertenstein, Dolalene and Maurice Hesse, Brad Holiday, Doris Johnson, Brian Keller, Norma Keller, Betty Klingelhoefer, John Lehman, Arline Magee, Frank Miles, Shirley Mullett, Natural Wonders, Marilyn Obal, William Peach, Dorothy Rasp, Berneice Reidelberger, Richard Riess, Bernadine Schau, Mary Smith, Carol Souza, Thomas Hardware, Ron and Jean Thouvenot, Fred and Mary Wiechert, Gerald Worms, and Adele Yare.
Membership Committee At the end of 6 months, we have 130 members. We now have 41 Life Memberships. Mr. & Mrs. Richard Ellerbrake, Kristi Vetri, and Mrs. Nancy Clark became Life Members. Other new members are Kevin Gordon of Mascoutah, Mr. & Mrs. John Reed and Marlene Lautz of O'Fallon, and Mr. & Mrs. Dave Wilson of St. Louis. Welcome to our new members! We lost two members through death. Gary Fantini died on December 9, 1998, and George Wood died on May 20, 1999. Our sympathy goes out to their families. Memorials Since the last newsletter, memorials were given in memory of GARY MACKEY, BETTY McGEEHON, and MARY BOLLER.
Library Committee I have done research for several persons who have written to the Historical Society for information. I gave a talk to the Rotary Club on June 7 about the Willard Stove Factory and Independent Engineering. I hope that when you are at the Museum, you will take a look at my scrapbooks. It is like taking a refresher course in the history of O'Fallon.
Wedding Dress Style Show The Historical Society is sponsoring a style show - "Weddings Thru The Years." Wedding gowns from 1900 to 1929 are needed. Wedding cake tops are also needed for table decorations. The style show will be on Sunday, October 24, 1999 at 2 p.m. at Katy Cavins Community Center. Dolly Hesse and Joyce Lurtz are the coordinators of the event. This endeavor will require the efforts of all members. A setup crew, decorators, table servers, model dressers, ticket takers, a cleanup crew, etc., etc. will be needed on Saturday, October 23rd or Sunday, October 24th. Tickets will be $10.00 each and will go on sale on Tuesday, July 20th at the Society's regular meeting. It is the hope of the Society that every member will buy a ticket and sell as many tickets as possible to relatives, friends, neighbors, fellow workers, etc. Tickets will not be mailed to the membership. If you are not in attendance at the meeting on Tuesday, July 20th, please call 632-6773 or 632-2952 for your ticket AND for tickets to sell. To make this event successful, both as an enjoyable, entertaining program for the community AND as a fund raiser, the Society needs YOU!
O'Fallon Historical Calendar The O'Fallon Historical Society is in the process of developing an O'Fallon Historical Society Calendar as a fund raiser. The calendar will feature reproductions of pictures of interest dating from early 1880-1900s. This calendar will be 11x17 inches in size, one picture for each month, and will be suitable for framing, or the calendar may be kept as a keepsake. They will make great Christmas gifts. The Calendar will sell for $10.00 Some examples of pictures to be ued are the old City Hall and City Park, Depot, Schuetz Bakery, O'Fallon Creamery, Taylor Opera House - just to name a few. If you have any old pictures or postcards of old O'Fallon, we would appreciate seeing them. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact Betty Klingelhoefer at 632-3089. Looking Back The Schildknecht Funeral Home was established 50 years ago in July 1949 by Phillip W. Schildknecht and his wife, Frances Schildknecht, nee Battoe, in the Bechtold "Mansion" on South Lincoln at Third Street. The house was originally built for Dr. Hermann Bechtold in 1904. There was a solarium on the first floor and a ballroom on the second floor. The third floor was a full size attic. The basement housed a big coal furnace that was still in use in 1974. It has two beautiful fireplaces. One has the original finish, rosewood with inlaid 24-kt. gold and mother-of-pearl with Italian mosaic tile hearth. There is also mahogany woodwork and crystal cut and lead-glass windows on both the first and second floors. It also has a gravity flow storage water system with a holding tank of 500 gallons - the first of its kind. An addition was built in 1959 bringing the total square footage to 14,000 square feet. Curt Schildknecht, son of Chris Schildknecht, is the present administrator. He is the grandson of Phillip and Frances Schildknecht. Some of this material was taken from an article "Bechtold Mansion's Still an Elegant Landmark" written by Chris Schildknecht for Our Town in 1989. O'Fallon Downtown Walk After a few days of very hot weather, Saturday, July 10, 1999 turned out to be a beautiful day for our "O'Fallon Walk" co-sponsored by the O'Fallon Public Library. About 20 or 25 of us walked from the Schwarz Furniture Company (where they fed us donuts and juice) to the east end of the first block of East First Street. We crossed the railroad tracks and heard about the Opera House. We then traveled from the Clark Station to the City Hall. A few blocks further on, we stopped in front of the Beedle Home, where William Holden was born in 1918. We ended at the Museum for cookies and punch. A big "Thank You" to all who took part in the walk. Our leaders: Carol Souza and Betty Lehman. Our guides who told us about each building along the way: Charles Bevirt, Lucille Gross, Ralph Keller, Betty Klingelhoefer, Kathy Danielsen, and Doris Johnson. Our hostesses at the Museum who baked and served cookies and punch: Sara Hinchcliffe, Frances Zotz, Leola Titter, and Joyce Koesterer. And a big "Thank You" to the Library for furnishing each walker with a bottle of cold water! Cemetery Committee Tom Brennan is under contract to take care of the Rock Springs Cemetery for this year. Thanks for undertaking this job again, Tom. Oral History Committee Charles and Mary Helen Bevirt interviewed Berneice Reidelberger. She also gave them a tape that her husband, Bob, had made before he passed away. Please stop in to visit the Museum. We have a lot of new articles on display. Invite your friends and relatives to come with you. We are open on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. Our meetings are held the third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Museum. We try to have a program each month. Please support our two money making projects this year. Dolly, Joyce, and Betty are giving a lot of time to these projects and it is up to US to help them in these money-making ventures!!! |
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