As told by Sumner Maloney, son of James Smith Maloney and Frances Viola Bashaw shortly before his death at age 102 to his son J. Loy "Pat" Maloney, former managing editor of the Chicago Tribune.

"Peter Bashaw, Sr., died young as did his wife Mary Ashby Bashaw. They were probably in their forties. When they came to Illinois from Canada they were Catholics but they later disowned the Pope and died Protestants.

"Peter had two brothers who also came from Canada whether at the same time or at a different date. They were `Uncle Oliver' and `Uncle David.' These people all spoke French, their native tongue. The family name was shown as Bashan on Catholic church records in Quebec.

"Oliver had five children, Joseph, Franklin, Henry, Edson and Mary. Joe went west, a 49'er and was killed by the Indians according to Henry who went west in search of him. Oliver died in 1897. He lived in what was called the `Black Hills' north of Mount Carroll in the `Plum River country.' He was a lover of horses and did his share of racing and drinking as a young man. He died a `good Christian' however. I remember when seventeen driving to his home to bring him to Savanna where his nephew Peter Jr.'s son was on his death bed.

"I remember little of great uncle David.

"William, eldest son of Peter Sr. and Mary, was a `real farmer' and a great raiser of hogs and cattle. His farm was near Savanna. His wife `Aunt Euphrasia' (Thomas) Bashaw was a poor cook and he would often come to our farm where mother, his sister, would fill him up on good fried chicken. His wife generally fed him salt pork. She was close-fisted and not liked by her in-laws. Uncle William was well educated for his time, a man of good judgment whose advice was sought by his neighbors and scrupulously honest.

"There was a banker named Henry Ashway in Mount Carroll who made money loaning at a goodly rate of interest. He often bought cattle and `pastured them out' at fifty cents a head a month. Uncle took some; they broke down the fence and ate his corn. He was given $50 damages. However, when he discovered inasmuch as the cows had eater corn before it was `jointed' it came along OK. He offered to return the money to Ashway who, shocked at such honesty, refused to accept its return. Uncle William died about 1881.

"Peter Jr. was the second son, a fair farmer who accumulated six or seven forties (acres); William had eleven 40's. Both were fairly well fixed when they died (Peter in 1912). Uncle Peter raised sheep. There was less work to it. He was not as industrious as his brother, Toward the end of his life he made several trips to California. I remember sitting on his knee as a boy looking at gold nuggets and listening to stories of that far land.

"After grandpa and grandma Bashaw died, William and Peter lived in a log house "up in Plum River Hollow' northeast of Savanna. Their sisters, Frances Viola, my mother and Sarah, were very young then. Mother told me that her brother William was the only "father" she ever really knew.

"Uncle Peter told me that `One and snowy winter we kept the girls home from school fearing the wolves would get them. William and I were partners - one time we sold twelve cows with calves by their sides for $l00 - less than $9.00 for each cow and calf. That sounds pretty bad, doesn't it? It was not as bad as it sounds because we went out and bought eighty acres of land for the money at Sl.25 an acre.

"Uncle Peter had very little education. He could neither read nor write but his wife Lydia (Ripley) was fairly well educated. They had books and magazines in their home. Uncle Peter could figure very well. He told us of plowing land covered with hazel brush with a heavy plow and two yokes of oxen hitched tandem, sometimes with a team of horses ahead to lead them."

Popo as Sumner Maloney was affectionately known to his son and grandchildren remembers little of his aunt Sarah, except a visit to the Maloney farm between Mount Carroll and Savanna made with her husband, Modest Savage a raiser of sheep and horses from California.

"James Luther Maloney (name not certain) married a Miss Smith probably in Newcastle, Delaware. Reports have it that he or his father had left Ireland because of persecution or religious differences. "The couple started west to Savanna. Ill. but were robbed of what little money they had somewhere in Ohio. They then sold their horse and wagon and embarked on an Ohio river boat. At St. Louis in 1846 Luther was drowned. About to be separated from his wife and three male children, James Smith, Martin and Henry, as the Mississippi river boat started to pull away from the dock, he leaped to make the boat, missed his footing and sank to his death.

"James S. the oldest son was about thirteen. The widow Maloney proceeded to Savanna. Later she married again. Her second husband's name was Barker. They had two girls who after marriage left with their husbands for the far West."

"James Smith Maloney, my father, as a young man worked out as a hired man to help support his mother and younger brothers. He was strong and could swing a heavy `cradle' to harvest wheat or oats. He was paid SlO a month.

"When working for a man named Tomlinson when he was about seventeen he got his only schooling, probably a part of one winter, by walking two miles to the `Kinney Corners.' The school was free but he had to carry his own fuel to school with him."

Popo said. "The only thing I can remember my father told me of his youth is that once he stopped while walking to Savanna to pick wild flowers for his mother.

"After Grandma (Barker) lost her second husband, she would come to visit at our farm. She was very old, fairly tall and not too heavy.

"Father and mother (James Smith Maloney and Frances Viola Bashaw) met at a party in a log house up in the Plum river district somewhere. They were married in the old stone hotel by a Methodist minister named Gray September 22, 1853.

"The newly married couple went to live on eighty acres near the Hickory Grove station, moving to the Maloney farm in Section 28, Mt. Carroll township when I was three. They had seven children, William Peter, Luther Howard, Cora Etta, Florence Adelia (Bird) James Sumner (me), Bina Day and Eva Grace, and lost one child.

"My earliest memory of mother was receiving a thumping on the head with her thimble to correct my faults. She was very kind to all of us. Mother had black hair and wore glasses, was a heavy woman weighing about 180 pounds toward the end of her life. I remember a beauty-mark mole at the side of her mouth that we all felt interesting and attractive.

"She was quite a homebody, depending on her husband to shop for her personal needs. She was a good seamstress and father finally got her a Singer sewing machine. She was considered one of the best cooks in the countryside and made the best cornbread I have ever eaten.

"Once I sold my brother Howard a horse, then wanted it back. Mother came to the rescue. My horse was returned, but I had to give Howard a less desirable horse and haul eight cords of wood to his new home in Savanna.

"Mother had a good sense of humor and laughed a good deal. The children would harness the cats as horses, then call them so as to entangle these ropes causing much merriment for all.

"On one occasion father and mother went to the wedding of Alice Bashaw to Dan Stewart. The younger children were left at home. Annie Casselberry, who later married Howard, stayed all night as her parents were at the wedding. We decided to put on a mock wedding of our own. Annie was the bride and I the groom: Bird performed the ceremony while holding baby Grace in her arms. As Dan Stewart always sportcd cane, I would not consent to the ceremony without one, so an old bootjack was found for me.

"Mother gave me an autograph album in which she inscribed `My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.'

"Father was quite progressive for his time. He was more for spending money for schools and education than were others. Among magazines subscribed for his family was one called `The Little Corporal,' I believe. He gave each of his sons a colt when thirteen or fourteen and a silver watch at sixteen.

"Like other farmers, he was anxious for the railroads to bring prosperity and in lieu of payment gave the Racine and Mississippi Railroad a mortgage on forty acres to secure $400. When the corporation was bankrupt he had a difficult time to raise the money. That was the only time he got stuck for money loaned. He often signed notes for others, on one occasion to help a friend buy a threshing machine.

"All of us went to the Hickory Grove school after it was built in 1872. Father built his land holdings up to 180 acres before moving to Mount Carroll, selling the farm to me."

Their oldest son William Peter married Flora A. Horning of Mt. Carroll and lived on the farm for seven years. They moved to Dawson County, Nebr. where he farmed for thirty-six years retiring in 1920 to Eustis where he died in 1937 aged 81. They had nine childrerr

Luther Howard, the second son, received his preliminary education in our local district schools, took a literary course at Mt. Morris College; taught school to secure funds to pursue his studies, and in 1884 was graduated from Hahnemann Medical College, Chicago immediately starting practice in Savanna, later taking a post-graduate course at the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College.

He married Annie J. Casselberry of Savanna, daughter of John Casselberry and Emily P. Keech. They had two children. He died in 1927, aged 70.

Cora Etta, married Rev. Hugh M. Banen, a Lutheran-for many years pastor in Rockford. They had four children. She died in 1935 aged 75. It was this daughter who on the death of her mother became a second mother to the younger sistes Bina and Grace.

Florence Adelia, loved as "Bird," married Angus McCorkindale and removed to western Iowa. She died in 1931, aged 69. Seven children were born to them.

James Sumner purchased his father's farm, continuing farming and stock raising started by his father. An 1898 brief in the Mirror tells that Sumner Maloney is delivering milk to Argo where was located a creamery. He attended the academy at Carthage College, marryingg Bess Agnes Tressler. daughter of its presidcnt.

He became a grain broker at Polo retiring in 1918. His great pride was the fact he breathed for one year the same air as Lincoln; was a great reader of American history and the Bible; enjoyed his favorite game of checkers and walked one-half a mile or more daily until fracturing his hip in 1963, when his favorite means of travel was by jet. He died at 102 in 1966.

His son, J. Loy "Pat" to his friends was born in Carroll county, was active from 1917 to `52 in newspaper work, taking time off during World War I in 94th "Aero" Squadron of which Eddie Rickenbacker was commander, 1st Pursuit Group. He married Hilda Gladys Blackburn in England. They had two daughters. He became managing editor of the Chicago Tribune through the trying years of World War 11 and the twenty-three months of printers strike just before his retirement. He now lives in Flossmoor, a far south Chicago suburb.

From the Goodly Heritage

As remembered by Bina Day Deneen House born in the Governor's Mansion and told by her mother.

James and Frances Maloney's daughter, Bina Day. named for a dear friend of the mother, was born on Valentine's Day, 1868. and all through her life that day had a double significance for friends and relatives would travel for miles each year to spend at least a few hours with their special Valentine. The mother died in 1885.

Bina attended rural school near their farm on Big Cut Road and was graduated in 1890 from Frances Shimer Academy, where she learned among other studies to type. While still just a child (about 16) she spent one winter with her sister Bird in Iowa teaching school, and playfully would toss her lunch basket ahead into the snow, running to pick it up and repeat the same fun on her way to and from her classroom.

Soon she was on her way to Chicago and found a job as typist in offices of one of her father's friends rooming at one of the select boarding homes that were then the proper residences for young ladies of that era while away from hoome ( even more strictly regulated than Allerton Houses of more recent times.) A young lawyer, Charles S. Deneen, had started practice there. His sister came to visit him and as he was then living in a boarding home he arranged for her to board at the same place as Bina where they became friends, and it was this sister who introduced Charles and Bina who fell immediately in love marrying within a few months time. Their marriage ceremony was performed in the home of sister Cora in Princeton, Illinois by her minister husband. This same Rev. Bannen later performed the same for the two Deneen elder daughters, Dorothy, to Alimand Blow, 1916, and Frances to Carl Birdsall, 1919, both in Chicago.

The young Deneens made their home in Chicago. Life in the big city passes quickly and success comes early to those who have the opportuity and take advantage. Young Charles was elected state's attorney of Cook counts at the turn of the century. His active prosecutions started him well toward the governor's mansion. His only son. Charles Ashley (family name) was born during these Chicago years.

Elected governor of the great State of Illinois in 1904, on the eve of his inauguration he took a dilapidated station hack to the Leland hotel, and following the inaugural immediately took a special train back to Chicago to find a room at his home partially readied for an emergency operation for his daughter Dorothy.

The governor and his wife made a handsome couple both five feet eight inches tall. The years there went quickly, the most important to the happy couple being the advent of another little Bina Day in 1906 regarding which event a friend sent verses including the following which depicted the feelings of the whole State:

"The affairs of State, and the social whirl.
Are as nothing compared to this tiny girl.
She's the baby at the Mansion!

Governor Deneen was the first governor to own a car, a seven~passenger Studebaker. During his two terms there were many important guests entertained and much social activity. Among the most important was President Taft who stayed over night. The governor's wife had but three weeks notice of the visit, and to prepare a ramp to be used on the stairway because of his great height. His hand written bread and butter letter is cherished by her daughter. Bina Day II, who remembers being taught to curtsy on greeting him with the remark "Good evening. Mr. President." However the President gave her no chance, but promptly picked her up with a hug and kiss. Then she followed through with her greeting.

Among notables entertained were former President Theodore Roosevelt. French Ambassador Jules Jusserand. and Viscount Bryce, New Years Eve was always a lovely occasion and in 1910 the affair was more brilliant by the participation of the Illinois National Guard. On December 27, 1912, young Dorothy was introduced to society, said to be the first and only debut in the governor's mansion. The two terms ended.

On the last Christmas in Springfield, Bina Day Deneen was presented a beautiful diamond pendant set in platinum accompanied by a card containing names of more than 300 persons who had each donated $1.00 toward the gift. This pendant Mrs. Deneen cherished until her death in Chicago in 1950: then by her daughter Bina, married to Thomas William House of Houston, Texas, nephew of the Colonel House of Woodrow Wilson fame. thus bringing into the family as far as known a lone Democrat. Mrs. House presented the pendant to her daughter Bina Day III. Charles Ashley Deneen was married to Avis Dawson.

Success fol1owed success. In 1924, Charles S. Deneen became United States Senator from Il1inois overwhelmingly defeating Sen. Medill McCormick for the Republican nomination in the primary election and going on to win in the fall campaign. In 1930. even though he vigorously campaigned for re-election and his beloved Bina even took to the platform stumping for him, he ironically was defeated in the primary by Medill McCormick's widow, Ruth Hanna McCormick who later lost to Democrat J. Hamilton Lewis. Charles S. Deneen died in 1940.