Kewanee History from the Star Courier Archives

Compiled by Dave Clarke
·5 min read

15 years agoFriday, Aug. 31, 2007

  • Chad VanDeVelde of Lafayette, a current 10th trimester student in the Doctor of Chiropractic program at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Ia., has been named to the President’s List for the ninth trimester. To be eligible for the Lisi, a student must have achieved the Dean’s List the previous three trimesters. (Chad graduated from Palmer in 2007 and now practices at the VanDeVelde Wellness Center, 615 Hollis St. — D.C.)

  • Galva realtor Nancy Ingels claimed the top prize by vote of the audience at the Black Hawk East Foundation’s annual Celebrity Showmanship Contest held Wednesday night at the BHE Agri-Business Club’s Hog Capital Barrow Show in the Ag Arena. The event kicks off Hog Days weekend which begins Friday.

25 years agoSaturday, Aug. 30, 1997

  • The Black Hawk Community Players will hold auditions for the Agatha Christie classic “Ten Little Indians,” on Sunday, Sept. 7, at 2 pm. In the Black Hawk East auditorium. The play will be presented Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, and Nov. 7, 8 and 9 at the East Campus. Clyde Walter of Geneseo is the director and Margot Wicklander and Veronique Ahearn are co-producers.

  • The Hog City 4 X 4 Truck Club will present mud-throwing, tire spinning, full speed 4 X 4 mud drags Sunday, Aug. 31 behind Appeal Equipment on U.S. Route 34 on the east edge of Galva. Spectators are welcome. Races start at 1 p.m.

50 years agoTuesday, Aug. 31, 1972

  • Television personalities Vincent Hedges, Beauregard the Wolfman, and Scooterman will be the featured attraction at the Jaycee’s Haunted House Saturday night above Zarvell’s Bake Shop on West Second Street. The trio, stars of WQAD TV’s Acri Creature Feature, will also ride in the Hog Days parade Saturday afternoon. (Vincent Hedges, played by Ken Gibson, appeared as the fang-bearing Dracula look-like host of a show that played old horror movies late on Saturday nights in the early 70’s. Gibson, who lived in Kewanee at the time, and his “Creature Feature Creeps” were in big demand for benefit basketball games and other fundraising events in the Quad Cities area.— D.C.)

  • Miss Debbie Nuding, of Kewanee, won first place in the nine-year-old advanced division of baton twirling competition at the Iowa State Fair. Earlier this summer she auditioned and was chosen to appear on Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour where she was interviewed by Mr. Mack. She is a member of the Merri-K-Ettes and instructed in twirling by Mrs. Don (Mary Kay) Fulton. (The Original Amateur Hour, a long-running radio and TV show. was a progenitor of later programs such as Star Search, American Idol and America’s Got Talent. Nuding graduated from Kewanee High School and became the featured twirler with the University of Illinois Marching Illini which was invited to participate in the 1983 Rose Bowl Parade. — D.C)

75 years agoSaturday, Aug. 30, 1947

  • The Kewanee Eagles Lodge has purchased the Joe Kazubowski Garage at 314 N. Main St., and will take possession as soon as the new armory at East and First streets is built. It is understood that the lodge paid $38,000 for the property. Architects have estimated that it will cost approximately $10,000 to remodel the building to meet the needs of the lodge. Erected as an automobile garage and salesroom, the building has been used as the armory for Co. C, Illinois National Guard. (Kewanee’s first armory was built in 1906 on the southwest corner of East Central and Burr boulevards where evangelist Billy Sunday preached and John Philip Sousa played. It was deemed unsafe and condemned in 1941, them demolished with the building on North Main leased for drills while efforts were underway to build a new armory at First and East streets which was completed in 1951. When Kewanee National Guardsmen were called up for duty in the Korean Conflict they marched from the armory on North Main, down Loomis Place, to the railroad depot to depart for service. When they came home, they were greeted by a brand new armory. — D.C.)

  • Planning for the annual Labor Day fish fry at Lake Calhoun to be held Monday are now completed. Seven hundred pounds of fish will be served starting at noon and will continue until all are served. Many members are expected to be present for the event. A dance in the evening will close the Labor Day activities at the club.

100 years agoThursday, Aug. 31. 1922

  • Charles Freed, the Galva lad who is a patient at St. Francis Hospital as a result of severe burns sustained a short time ago when he came in contact with a high voltage wire in front of his home, underwent a serious operation this morning. His right hand and right forearm were amputated as a result of his injuries. Charles stood the operation well and is doing nicely.

  • The section of hard road from Princeton to Wyanet has been completed for about a month and a week ago Sunday night was thrown open to traffic. This road is 18 feet wide, seven inches thick and heavily reinforced with steel. It cost about $27,999 a mile, according to state highway officials. Motorists who have driven on it pronounce it without doubt one of the finest pieces of concrete road construction in Illinois. It is smooth, uniform and with scarcely a crack. (The advent of the automobile in the early 1900s lead to the national Better Roads movement. Citizens campaigned to bring roads out of the dust and mud of the horse and buggy days and pave them with concrete. What is now seven miles of U.S. Routes 34/6 between Princeton and Wyanet was one of those roads. — D.C.)

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