Kewanee history from the Star Courier files

Compiled by Dave Clarke
·5 min read

15 years ago
Friday, July 20, 2007

  • At the request of Henry-Stark relay for Life, some 50 volunteers took to the Wethersfield High School football field Wednesday evening to spell the word “cure” in large, capital letters mid-field. Wethersfield band director Jay Hagaman lined everyone up to form each letter and Janel Smith shot a photo from a plane flying overhead. This year’s Relay for Life will be Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 4 and Aug. 5, at Windmont Park.

  • This week the Kewanee YMCA conducted a three-day football camp for kids ages 6 to 10. Twenty-nine children were taught the fundamentals of football by Coach Andy Bullock. Starting Sept. 16 the “Y” will sponsor flag football instruction and a league for children in kindergarten through fourth grade.

25 years ago
Saturday, July 19, 1997

  • Nehlsen Communications, a Moline-based advertising and marketing firm, has sold the broadcast rights for its video, “Table Manners for Kids — Tots to Teens,” to Pace Group International for broadcast on Japan’s new Global Learning Channel. The video, in English and Japanese, features Kewanee children learning proper dining etiquette through lessons taught by Marjabelle Stewart, of Kewanee, a recognized etiquette expert in the U.S. and abroad. (Is it time? Some have suggested recently that Marjabelle Stewart would be a good subject for one of Kewanee’s murals. As manners became a popular topic in the national media in the 1980s, whether she was being interviewed by the New York Times or “60-Minutes,” Marjabelle never failed to mention Kewanee, Illinois. Just sayin’. Marjabelle, who put Kewanee on the map as the “Maven of Manners,” died March 3, 2007, at the age of 82. — D.C.)

  • Kewanee’s new AutoZone store at 244 Tenney St., is nearing completion. The discount auto parts supermarket caters to the do-it-yourselfers who like to work on their own cars and trucks.

50 years ago
Thursday, July 20, 1972

  • A petition from Frank Marselle and Louis T. Little to rezone the east half of Hollis Street between College and South streets, was denied by a Planning Commission vote of 4-2 Wednesday night. Marselle had hoped to build a new and used car sales and service center, an auto body shop, and an automatic car wash on the property which is owned by Mr. Little. A number of residents from the area objected mainly to the body shop and car wash citing bright lights at night, damaged cars parked on the property, increased traffic creating a hazard for children walking in the street to Wethersfield School, noise from the body shop, and lowered property values. It was also pointed out that a number new homes are scheduled to be built in the vicinity in the near future. Commission members rejected the entire project in an attempt to create a buffer between the new Midland Shopping Center across South Street, and the residential area on College and South Beach streets to the north and west.

  • Dr. C. K. Cheng, a general practitioner and specialist in internal medicine, is announcing the opening of an office in Suite 2 of the Medical Center at 716 Elliott St., across from Kewanee Public Hospital. (Dr. Cheng later moved his office to a house at 619 Elliott St. Dr. Chieh Kong Cheng, a native of Taiwan, was one of two doctors recruited in May of 1972 after an intensive effort by the hospital medical staff to bring physicians to Kewanee. The other was Dr. David Stearn, who came from Nevada, Iowa. — D.C.)

75 years ago
Saturday, July 19, 1947

  • Judge Vera Binks presided at a session of Kewanee City Court this morning in the absence of Judge J. P. Wilamoski and heard several chancery cases. This was the first time in the history of the city court that a woman has sat on the bench. (A detailed story on the life and glass-ceiling-breaking career of Judge Vera Binks by Kewanee historian and author Dean Karau was published in March in the Star Courier and can be found on Karau’s “Dusty Roads” Facebook page or on the Kewanee Historical Society website at kewanee-history.com. — D.C.)

  • The Kewanee Boilers softball team will tangle with the Buda Merchants Sunday night at the Old Playground, announces John Gruszeczka today. Tommy Naughton, one of the rapidly rising twirling stars in the City Softball League, will hurl for the Boilers.

100 years ago
Thursday, July 20, 1922

  • Dedication of Chautauqua Park next Sunday afternoon will be at 3:30 o’clock, according to an announcement by the committee today. Chautauqua Park, which is now one of the most beautiful of the city’s breathtaking spots, is situated southwest of the city, once being a part of the old Blish Woods. Among those who will speak are Mayor James H. Andrews and E. E. Baker, representing the park commission.

  • Two girls of the new woman variety settled an argument in masculine style on West First Street, midway between Chestnut Street and Lexington Avenue about 5 o’clock Monday afternoon. After a verbal battle, which lasted for some time, the girls adopted more strenuous methods of warfare, landing numerous blows from the shoulder, fixed with swings and upper-cuts. Between rounds of fisticuffs, the combatants pulled hair in true feminine fashion. When the spectators became too numerous, the girls departed westward on Commercial Street, followed by a crowd of kids who were anxious to see the remaining rounds of the battle. (Nothing was said in the story about what caused the argument, or who won. Naturally, 100 years ago no one had heard of Vince McMahon and the WWF. If they had, these two might have had a career on TV in the ring. — D.C.)

This article originally appeared on Star Courier: Kewanee history from the Star Courier files