Newsletter/Mailing List - Tampico Area Historical Society, Tampico, Illinois

Newsletters > TAHS Newsletter & Website Updates Jan. 2014

TAHS Newsletter & Website Updates Jan. 2014

Feb 5, 2014

Hello Friends & Members of the Tampico Historical Society,

I hope this newsletter finds you all toasty warm somewhere!
It's been a while since I have had a chance to update everyone. As much as I would like to do a 'year-in-review', time constrictions do not allow me to do that. We've had some really informative and often fun programs throughout 2013. Here are just a few of them:

PROGRAM - August
Our guest speaker for the TAHS annual Potluck Picnic held August 27, 2013 was Pat Gorman, President of the Lee Co. Historical Society and VP of Lee Co. Genealogical Society. Pat has undertaken a wonderful project of finding, repairing, replacing military markers in the Dixon Oakwood Cemetery. It started as relatively 'little' project of finding and repairing broken military markers in the local cemetery & repairing and painting them in his workshop/garage. It began with a handful of markers. He quickly discovered that it was a major undertaking and just painting them would not withstand the elements. Raynor Garage Doors in Dixon offered their services of powder coating each marker at no charge. The 'handful' of markers turned into a total of 317 markers - one for each Veteran in the cemetery, most of them Civil War vets. Photos of the program can be seen in our Picasa photo album, photos 5 through 9: https://picasaweb.google.com/105896818813466091326/TAHSProgramsHappenings2013?authuser=0&feat=directlink

PROGRAM - October - Joe McDonald, County Coroner was our guest speaker. Believe it or not, there were many laughs shared by all!

PROGRAM - November
TAHS member, Roger Taylor did a slide presentation a historic mail ride:
The mail ride was recreated to honor some of the early villages that no longer exist. The villages would receive their mail by horseback or stagecoach from Dixon. A commemorative envelope and cancellation stamp was created for the event as well as a brief postal history. People were able to purchase the envelopes to be carried on the mail ride. The mail ride started at 4 points: Dixon, Daysville at the 1890’s building, Melugin’s Grove and Rocky Ford. It concluded at Chaplin Creek, a recreated 1840’s village, in Franklin Grove where a gunfight was re-enacted by the Banditti of the Prairie, a notorious outlaw gang that scoured Northern Illinois and Iowa. At the conclusion of the gunfight the mail was delivered to the Franklin Grove post office where it was sent out by regular mail.

DEDICATION OF THE RONALD REAGAN STATUE, November 3, 2013.
I am still uploading photos of this event. I will send link to photo album as soon as I complete it.

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS
Welcome to Roger & Patty Taylor of Rock Falls - Surnames of interest are THOMPSON, QUINN, McLEAN, SANDERS & WHITE.

Mary Anne Nuelle Batten - Mary Anne has lived here all of her life and knows much of Tampico's history.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS: http://www.tampicohistoricalsociety.citymax.com/page/page/22558.htm
The Tampico Area Historical Society and Ronald Reagan Birthplace Museum will be celebrating the Birth date of Ronald Reagan on Thursday, Feb. 6. An open house will be held between the hours of 10 AM and 4 PM with refreshments (including Birthday Cake) being served in the Historical Society Museum. Both Museums will be open for tours throughout the day. Ronald Reagan was born Feb. 6, 1911 and is the Only President born in Illinois. Reagan Forever Stamps are still available at the Reagan Museum if anyone is looking for a piece of memorabilia. For more information, contact Joan Johnson @ 815-622-8705 or reaganbirthplace@thewisp.net
Submitted by Joan Johnson - 815-622-8705 garyjoan@thewisp.net

The annual Tampico High School Alumni dinner meeting will be held on Friday evening, June 27, 2014 at Deer Valley Country Club, Deer Grove, IL. Current addresses are being sought in order for invitations to be sent out. The 60 year class (1954); 50 year class (1964) and 25 year class (1989) will be honored. Please contact Joan Johnson @ garyjoan@thewisp.net or call 815-622-8705 for information. Thank you.
Item sent by Joan Johnson - 1720 Matznick Rd; Tampico 815-622-8705 garyjoan@thewisp.net

LEE COUNTY
J W Scott? Pat Gorman, President of the Lee County Genealogical Society asked the following in their newsletter. Can anyone help?
Who is J. W. Scott?? As many of you know for the last 2½ years I have been restoring GAR grave markers at Oakwood Cemetery. Of the 317 possible 196 have been restored or replaced, while the rest are gone or buried. While collecting markers off the Oakwood graves I came across one, Star #69 that was on the wrong grave. Sadly MANY are found that way but are returned to the correct grave by the use of our LCGS records. When the restoration was complete I found that the soldier it belonged to had no gravestone of any kind.. I checked the walked records and found nothing! I then checked the Sexton records and only found a listing with his name, no date of birth, no date of death, no internment date no nothing! The veteran's burial book listed the lot# as 422, but had NO military info. Oakwood records listed the plot as having the graves of Arthur & Emily Deming, Mrs. Phebe King & Mrs. M.C. Weyburn graves along with JW. City directories, county histories and newspaper indexes have no mention of him. Going back I'll be checking all records concerning Phebe King and Mrs. M.C. Weyburn and still hunting for anything on J W. We will keep you informed with what is found. The eventual conclusion will be getting a Civil War grave marker for Mr. Scott. In the meantime if anyone out there has anything that can help, let us know. Happy New Year, Patrick Gorman, Pres. LCGS

MORE FROM LEE COUNTY
Lyndon Resident Receives Great Uncle's WWI ID from Pat Gorman, President of Lee Co. Historical Society. Pat's dedication, especially to our veterans, never ceases to amaze me. A while ago, a friend of Pat's brought him a WWI ID bracelet that belonged to THOMAS FLEMING. He had found it in his grandfather's belongings after he passed away. He wanted Pat to find a descendant & return it to the family. Pat asked if his grandfather was from this area, and he said no. There was no guarantee that there was any family in the vicinity. It went in to the proverbial 'to do' pile until he had time to research the family. While he and his wife were out at the Oakwood Cemetery, his wife noticed a military grave marker was laying on ground and told Pat about it. When Pat went over to upright the marker, he read the name on the gravestone - Yep! It was THOMAS FLEMING! Quite a serendipitous moment, for sure! Pat engaged his genealogical research skills and traced the nearest living relative in Lyndon, IL. However, the phone numbers were no longer correct in the telephone directory. He wanted to talk to the descendant first, rather than just sending a snail-mail letter to him. He called me on a Saturday to see if I knew the family by any chance. I didn't, but said I would ask around. I tried some of my resources for finding a current listing for the family, (probably the same that Pat had used) to no avail. Next best thing was to contact the Lyndon Historical Society. I called their secretary, Kris Burke-Bielema, and asked if she new the family. She didn't, but said she would ask her board members and also check at Village Hall. This was the MLK weekend, so the Village Hall would not be open until Tuesday. As far as I knew, their board would not meet until Wednesday. It was SATURDAY! A holiday weekend, and there was a lot of snow on the ground. I tried to be patient, but decided to look up the proximity of the relative's address to my house. It was about 3 minutes from my house. Since 'patience' has never been one of my virtues, I decided to take a chance and drive to their address. I found it very easily and was so very grateful that they had plowed their very long drive way. I was thrilled when his wife, Cindy, answered the door. However, she had opened the front door as opposed to the only door I could access by the garage. Not wanting her to think I was some kind of sales person or just plain strange, I hurriedly tried to explain who I was, whom I was looking for and why. The front door was quite a distance from where I stood, so I was kind of yelling out this info and apologizing for stopping by unannounced. I knew she had to be freezing just hanging out the front door like that. She came around and invited me. When I told her of the ID bracelet and who it had belonged to, she knew exactly who I was talking about. Her husband was not home at the time, but she gave me their cell numbers to pass along to Pat. In the mean time, Pat had discovered that the grave in front of Thomas's was Thomas's sister, who was also Pat's babysitter when he was a young boy. Talk about a 'small world.' After I called Pat with the contact info, I then emailed Kris from the Lyndon Historical Society, so she didn't waste her time following up on this project. However, they are very efficient over there at the Lyndon Historical Society. Kris had already mailed off a letter to the family, explaining that Lee Co. Historical Society was looking for him to return a bracelet as told to her by the Tampico Historical Society. I love how all of these historical societies came together for a common cause. These volunteers are a terrific group of people and this is a perfect example. When I talked with Pat again, he said he had spoken with the family and they had scheduled a time to pick up the bracelet. Such a great ending to this story.
PHOTO OF ID BRACELET: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2BY7meZr6uANTh6X0hoNVJXUU4yMDFIQ1phLVhEX29xZ3Jv/edit?usp=sharing
PAT'S STORY ON THOMAS P FLEMING: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2BY7meZr6uAdmpIbnZyMHdaT3BrUmhzMWZnNGFJeG1XUzZN/edit?usp=sharing
If you have difficulty opening any of the links in this newsletter, email me at tampicohistoricalsociety@gmail.com and I will print in email to you.

DONATIONS
The TAHS was given a microfilm reader/printer from our dear friend, Les Niemi. Les has 'ancestral roots' in Tampico and vicinity. He has been an enormous help to us with his transcriptions of the Tampico Tornado, our local newspaper published from 1876 through 1966. He has contributed many family files in our FAMILY HISTORY section of the website. In 2008-2009, he also did a weekly "This Week in Tampico History" series in our MESSAGE BOARD section of the website. You only need to use the search box on our HOME page of site for Les Niemi and you will see many pages of all of his contributions. Here is a link to his last article in that series: http://www.tampicohistoricalsociety.citymax.com/board/board_topic/23882/456676.htm

TAHS members Roy & Mary Lou Haney have donated several Bureau County Plat maps/directories. These are especially helpful when doing genealogical research, and we are very appreciative of them.
The TAHS is now displaying the names of those contributing monetary donations to the TAHS on a wall plaque! Thank you for helping to support the TAHS & preserving our rich history.

WHAT'S NEW? http://www.tampicohistoricalsociety.citymax.com/Whats_New.html
Please visit our "What's New" page of website to see all new additions each month. This page will also link to the individual pages.

If you are receiving this newsletter update from "listserver" please note that you cannot 'reply' to it. If you need to contact anyone regarding the Birthplace or the Historical Society, please email us directly. Joan Johnson, President of TAHS & Curator for Ronald Reagan Birthplace: garyjoan@thewisp.net, 815-622-8705, or Denise McLoughlin, Family History Coordinator for Tampico Historical Society, tampicohistoricalsociety@gmail.com, 815-590-2143.

Pass this along to anyone who may enjoy Tampico news. Sign up to receive these updates directly to your email: http://www.tampicohistoricalsociety.com/Mailing_List.html After you register, you will receive a confirmation email. You must reply to that email to activate your account and receive the newsletters.

Tampico Area Historical Society (119 Main Street, Tampico) is open by appointment or chance only: Contact Joan Johnson, 815-622-8705, garyjoan@thewisp.net or Denise McLoughlin , 815-590-2143, tampicohistoricalsociety@gmail.com Mailing Address: P.O. Box 154
Tampico, IL 61283

Tampico Family History Library/Research Center - located @ 119 Main Street, 2nd floor of Tampico Area Historical Society. Open by appointment. Research assistance, contact: Denise McLoughlin, 815-590-2143 Visit us on FACEBOOK, too.

TAMPICO AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY - MUSEUM - FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY/RESEARCH CENTER 119 Main St., P. O. Box 154, Tampico, IL 61283 www.tampicohistoricalsociety.com tampicoareahistory@gmail.com We are an all-volunteer organization so your donations are always appreciated! Sign up to receive our e-newsletter. Thank you! Visit us on FACEBOOK.