Kewanee History from the Star Courier Archives

15 years agoFriday, Sept.7, 2007

• Kewanee’s First Baptist Church held an outside service last Sunday which included the dedication of a new sign north of the building. The sign is a memorial to Greg Despain by his family. Greg was born in 1954 and died earlier this summer. A time capsule holding various items pertaining to the church will be buried at the foot of the sign. The large billboard reads “Walking, Worshiping, Working with Jesus Christ” and includes the times of worship service and Sunday school.

• The horticulture students at Black Hawk College East Campus are raising over 300 poinsettias in six different colors in the greenhouse on campus for a fall production project. The instructor is Dr. Jeffrey Hawes, assistant professor of horticulture at the East Campus. The poinsettias will be raised to a size that can be sold to the public by Nov. 20 and will be featured at an open house scheduled in November.

25 years agoSaturday, Sept. 6, 1997

• Several area retail stores say they will join other retailers around the nation in not carrying any tabloid newspapers or magazines that include tasteless photographs or articles about the death on Aug. 31 of Princess Diana. Retailers say the move is a “common courtesy” toward mourners and is a stand against the paparazzi that reportedly hounded the Princess and may have been responsible for the automobile crash that killed her. Local participants include Eagles Country Market, Shop & Go North and South, Kroger, and the Wal-Mart Super Center.

• The Rotary Club of Kewanee welcomed student guests for the month of September at their weekly meeting Tuesday. They are Ryan Buck of Wethersfield High School and Emily Kord of Kewanee High School. The students will attend the noon meetings for four weeks to learn about the local Rotary Club and Rotary International.

50 years agoThursday, Sept. 7, 1972

• Plans have been completed for the first annual Crow Festival to be held Sunday in Lyndon which has named itself “Crow Capital of the World.” Festivities will include a firemen’s pancake breakfast, community church service, parade, street dance and coronation of the first “Miss Crow Festival.” (Lyndon is a village along the Rock River in Whiteside County. According to the village’s website, the “Crow Capital” designation originated when the local government started a movement for the removal or improvement of unsightly properties. Citizens began to think about Lyndon as “having something to crow about” and wanted to call attention to the Village. — D.C.)

• Kewanee residents called in over $2,300 in pledges last weekend for the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon. Local headquarters were located in the Kewanee Cablevision studios with phones staffed by volunteers.

75 years agoSaturday, Sept. 6, 1947

• Wanted: Women for light factory work. Day or night shift. Steady work, good pay, profit-sharing, free insurance, paid holidays and vacation. Apply at Continental Cushion Division, 410 W. Second St. (According to the Star Courier archives, the Continental Cushion Spring Company opened in 1944 and made coil springs for upholstered furniture, along with other products. — D,C.)

• Workmen for the Illinois Commercial Telephone Company are installing new police call boxes in the downtown business district. The old wooden boxes are being replaced with metal ones. The change will permit officers to make direct contact with the police station without going through the central switch board.

100 years agoThursday, Sept. 7, 1922

• Galva, the “City of Go,” is all agog over the big baseball exhibition next Monday afternoon at Swanson’s Field when Charles Cominsky’s Chicago White Sox meet the class of the Three Eye League, the Decatur Commies. The attraction bids fair to be the greatest of its kind in this part of the state this season. (“Commies” was short for Commodores. The benefit was for Charles Freed, a young lad who had his right hand and forearm amputated after he came in contact with a high voltage line in front of his home. — D.C.)

• At a picnic held here Sept. 4, one of the features was the first appearance of the Kewanee Colored Girls Baseball Club, which defeated the boys club 7 to 3. Lou Reynolds, who was considered one of the best colored baseball players in the country in his day, is coaching the ladies and from all indications, the traveling team will be able to hold its own with all comers. (Reynolds’ roster listed 12 women, both married and single. An article on the storied career of Kewanee’s “Mister Baseball,” can be found under the “Dusty Roads” link on the Kewanee Historical Society’s website, www.kewanee-history.com/dusty-roads/.— D.C.)

This article originally appeared on Star Courier: Kewanee History from the Star Courier Archives