Kewanee History from the Star Courier archives

Compiled by Dave Clarke
·4 min read

15 years agoFriday, Sept. 14, 2007

  • State Rep. Don Moffitt, R-Gilson, wants young people to get involved in politics as voters and maybe even as candidates for office. With that goal in mind, Moffitt chose a Q & A session with Annawan High School students Thursday to announce that he will run for re-election as representative from the 74th District.

  • T-N-T Tattoo, Henry and Stark county’s only registered and licensed tattoo and body piercing shop at 411 W.Second St., in Kewanee, is offering 10 percent off with this ad from the Star Courier. “We do the best and repair the rest!”

25 years agoSaturday, Sept 13, 1997

  • Former prosecutor and decorated Vietnam veteran, Judge Clarke Barnes, has announced his candidacy for the Henry County resident circuit judgeship in the March 17, 1998 Republican primary. Judge Barnes, of Geneseo, has served as associate judge of the four counties, which includes Henry, which comprise the 14th Judicial Circuit, since January 1977. On Jan. 1 of this year he was appointed to the unexpired term of Judge Jay Hanson, also of Geneseo, who retired.

  • Galva will soon have a new funeral home. Stackhouse-Moore Funeral Homes announced Friday the purchase of the former Dollar General store at 117 E.Division St. The previous owner was Gil Achterhof who built the original grocery store in the 1970s. Partners Vernon Stackhouse, Cambridge, and Gene Moore, Geneseo, said plans call for a complete renovation of the building this fall and opening the new funeral chapel early next year. (According to the archives of the Galva News, Ray Achterhof, Gil’s father, who owned a Super Valu grocery store in Geneseo, built a similar store in Galva which opened on Oct. 23, 1963, not the 1970s. The new Galva Super Valu was managed by Gil, who had just graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in food handling and distribution. Gil later succeeded his father as owner. The store later became a Dollar General before being acquired by Stackhouse and Moore. — D.C.)

50 years agoThursday, Sept. 14, 1972

  • Bob Evans Farms, Inc., of Columbus, Ohio, announced Wednesday plans to build a 17,000 square foot sausage processing plant on Rt. 34 on the west edge of Galva. The entrance to the 72-acre tract will be across from Mascall’s Nursery. The local committee of Mayor James B. Young, Roy Holding, and Jim MacAfee, of the Galva Industrial Development Association, and Verlin Jackson, worked with Bob Evans on locating the plant in Galva, The firm has a reputation at all of its plant sites of non-offensive operation and maintaining attractive grounds and buildings on their property.

  • Miss Jan Hubbard and Miss Judy Dustin, seniors at Wethersfield High School, were selected to return to a cheerleading clinic in Plattville, Wis., next summer to serve as graduate instructors. They are members of the WHS varsity cheerleading squad which captured the Coca-Cola Award as top-ranking squad of the clinic this summer. Other members are Brenda Bond, Diane Mumford, and Jill Strand.

75 years agoSaturday, Sept. 13, 1947

  • Kewanee’s first draftee in World War II, Capt. Ewald Heideman, has returned home after nearly seven years in the United States Army. He will receive an honoable discharge in November, Capt. Heideman was the first Kewanee man called for service by the Henry County Selective Service Board No. 1 and four years of his service was spent in the European theatre, He was stationed in Panama before returning to the United States for discharge with a rank of major in the Army Officer’s Reserve.

  • The Kewanee Iron & Metal Company is offering a reward of $250 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the thieves who stole five Briggs & Stratton gas engines from the company’s yard. The engines were in government tanks which had been sold to the Kewanee company.

100 years agoThursday, Sept. 14, 1922

  • Finishing touches are being given to the swimming pool at Northeast Park and, when completed, Kewanee will have swimming pool equipment which will compare favorably with that of any city of this size in the state. (According to an article by Larry Lock, of the Kewanee Historical Society in the April 22, 2019 Star Courier, Northeast’s first swimming pool was developed from a clay pond used by the property’s previous owner, a brick-making operation. In 1930, the state required the pool to be closed and a new, more permanent pool was built the following year. That pool, remembered by many Kewaneeans, lasted until 1995 and was replaced in 1999 by the present aquatic center. — D.C.)

  • Probably the largest horse in Illinois, if not the entire United States, is owned by Sullivan Francis, local horse trader. The horse is a handsome bay gelding, 7 years old. Weighing 2,485 pounds and has attracted the attention of several prominent circus men. Mr. Francis highly prizes the animal which he has owned for several years and has refused a number of very tempting offers for its purchase. New York horse buyers say they do not know of a horse of as great a height anywhere. (Sullivan, or “Sully,” as he was known, was a brother of eccentric inventor Fred Francis, builder of the Woodland Palace in the park east of Kewanee which now bears his name. — D.C.)

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