"Way Back When" Contributed by John Sharp Most of those who responded to the editor’s call for letters describing reader’s recollections of early Shannon
Mrs. Nancy Babock Aurand
Received card so will return answer. It has been a good many years since I lived in old Carroll County – 52 years ago. I was married there and went to live at Shannon, Illinois. I am the daughter of Frank Dyslin. My father came west in 1861 from New York when I was a little girl of 5 years , but I remember the time we had – nothing like that now days. We lived in a log cabin for 4 years and we had oxen instead of horses. Our nearest neighbors were ten miles away. We went through all the hardships of the Civil War and everyone knew what those were in those days, no flour, corn bread - no butter wheat for coffee and so on. Freeport was the nearest town. It took some time with oxen, poor old fellows did the best they could. I can see the big old harnesses yet. Well enough of that. Oh yes I was a girl of ten years, before I had any schooling and then only for three months as a scholar for three months in a year, for two years. Well I married and left the old Dyslin Valley and have not been back in over thirty years. We moved west to Rockford I am reminiscing but where I get to thinking and talking I can’t see to stop that is the way with old women I am – 74. Good Luck to you in your work and in getting this out. I would like a paper.
Wiley C. Cemill
Your Invitation to write a letter concerning “Way Back When” carries the writer to more then half a century ago, in fact to make it short and snappy about sixty years as focal point of interest in and about Shannon. In those days we farm boys were bashful and our sweethearts put their hair in curling tins every other night. At the time we didn’t known it but have since discerned we had a sane and happy social life with one of its culminating blessing found in our kissing parties where “Ring Around the Rosie “and “Drop the Handkerchief “was the signal for the chase and people always wanted to be caught and our spelling schools to which our good horses with bells and bobsleds carried us with great commotion with incidental racings. Whatever the present status financially , socially, educationally, or religiously of the old Shannon community, we question if it can show a higher rating then in those old days when good old Doctor Ely was the inspirational genius not only of Shannon High School but of the many surrounding districts as well. There was a man whose enthusiasm for education and high ideals in life so impressed it on the minds of scores of boys and girls that went out in life determined to realize the best that was in them. As the writer passed through other schools after leaving Shannon High School but never found another teacher who gave his pupils such uplift as did “Old Brick top” as Doctor Ely called himself. A few characters stand out prominently in memory identified in one way or another with life of that formative period. Almost first in memory of the writer was Captain Wagner of Shannon. He was a builder in every sense and then the fine black bearded Doctor Mastin the most aristocratic in bearing in all relations. Rufus Cook the banker one of the intellectuals who helped the younger ones thinking. Frank M. Hicks the farmer who would leave his plow stand for hours to talk philosophy, science, history, religion who vied with Doctor Ely in his enthusiasm for education and culture. Elijah Northey, the jeweler and other aristocrat and Democrat. There was T.P. Newcomer the immaculately clean, the shrewdly wise man of business. These are those who led in enterprise and color and tone to the moral and spiritual life of Shannon and the surrounding territory. Among the farmers north of Shannon, where the writer knew them, were the best men, who were more then farmers. They too gave out their impulses toward a bigger and broader life and gave their community its specific tone and quality. There was Andrew Dodd’s Senior, Scotch, tall and straight as an arrow severely Presbyterian of the old school. As rigid in his morality as his body, Grandpa and Grandma Brenner shouting Evangelicals their influence was felt far and wide. Ira Giddings, the master money maker, William Gemill, Scotch again but of Pennsylvania origin the must versatile in farm production stern in conception of right and wrong aspirations for a broader culture for his children and John Mohl, fleeing from dishonesty as from the wrath of God. Horace Pierce the prospering aristocratic farmer-sportsman who filled the envious eyes of all us boys. Looking backward we see our community was filled with men and women whose influence was to hold us youngster to the better things of life. We can see in fact how each generation is being supported by the one that went before. The men mentioned above are in their graves but their ideals were transmitted to the men of today who are scattered far and wide from Shannon and who must be contributing in their various ways to the mental and moral uplift of their communities.
J. A. Giles
I lived in Shannon from 1867 to 1879 and got what little education I could by going to school strictly in the winter. In the summertime I had something else on my mind. All my experiences opened in the seventies when: Jethro W. Waster and William Shannon upheld the dignity of the town by the wearing of stovepipe hats and Doctor Smith maintained the health of the sick and the needy in more ways then one, when Frank Fox was the Czar of the railroad and Rube Connelly gave us the mail if he felt like it , when Sam Butterbaugh reigned supreme over the counter of the main drug store and which was the official loafing place of the town and when Sizer House was in flower and Will Mastery used to strut his stuff when we had the Shannon Dramatic Association and the Young Men’s Literary Society and the Shannon Ball Club was which I was a member . I am now 75 years old and still a baseball fans. The only playmates left are B.T. M. Lutz, of California and W. K. Shannon of Monroe, Louisiana Members of the old (Shannon) Dramatic Association that I remember are: Mat Moran, Will Fauke , Laura Buckley, Kitte Moran , Will Shannon, Fannie Shelley and Leo and Will Mastin. Before I close I would like to pay tribute to the teaching ability of Doctor Ely although my school days were limited I don’t believe I could have learned near so much from any other teacher. I have lived in Dallas Texas since 1883 which would make it forty –eight years . I have raised four children , one boy and three girls and thank goodness they don’t go through the experience of being almost in want of food and raiment as I did.
Clayton N. Good
Your card relative to writing a letter for Carroll County “ Way Back When “ edition was received. Words cannot express the pleasure it gives me to bring back memories of my associates and contacts I had in my younger life, they were the happiest and best part of my life. There were two groups of young men which I had the pleasure of Associating with about thirty- five ( 35) years or more ago in Shannon and Carroll County which I have thought about and spoke of many times. I wonder who and how many are alive at this time when Shannon had the best ban in the northern part of the State. Clyde M. Healy being the leader. This band at almost every important day in Carroll County and then went with Mount Carroll Hose Team wherever they went in the state and the United States and won in Omaha Nebraska I believe in 1895. Shannon was always proud of its band and had good reason to be. Our good old friend W. Scott Cowan was the” father” of the band. Shannon was also proud of its baseball team about thirty-five years ago called the “Shannon Blues” because they were the best team in the northern section of the state at the time. The final game deciding the championship was played at Chadwick between Shannon and York there were several thousand people present at the game and Shannon won by a score of 8 to 6. Dude Risely of Lanark pitched for Shannon and Carpenter who was pitching at the University of Illinois pitched for York it was a very interesting and exciting game. I am going to give you the name of the players and manager of the Old Shannon Blues to see if you remember any of them: George Kolp, pitcher; Frank Shoeffer, catcher; Herbert Cook, 1st Base; George Schoeffler, 2nd base; Charles Dillie, Short Stop; John Mack, 3rd Base; Frank Spangler, centerfield; Will Good, Right Field; Clayton Good, Left Field and Dr. M.A. Thometz as Manager. The old Mount Carroll Headlights were a tough team to beat with the Palmer brothers as battery and our friend Cal Feerer playing 2nd Base as a regular Johnny Evers I would like to write a great deal more which would be of great interest to old timers but will not impose upon you for space. Mr. Editor, I want to thank you for having this privilege of writing about the old baseball team and the band of Shannon. It would give me great pleasure to be able shake the hand of all my old friends in Carroll County.
Mr. Elmer S. Kaufman
In reply to your request, for my “Way Back When”. My father Levi Kaufman left PA in 1865and settled 6 miles south of Shannon. When I was born (sometime) later, my father purchased a farm one mile south of Shannon where my father died and my sister and my mother have lived a number of years. In 1888 , I was married to Abbie Yordy of one of the well known families of Shannon. Amos Yordy her only surviving brother and the last of their families live in Shannon. In 1915 Abbie , my wife , died . In 1918, I married Maude Shelly , also one of the daughters of the first settlers on the prairie . She was also born in Shannon at what was known as “Badger Springs” now Feiksan Farm. Her father Samuel Shelly was the first of three brothers to settle on the prairie before there was a Shannon was there when the railroad was built William Shannon gave the ground where the depot and the tracks were as farm extended just beyond the stationhouse. Mr. Shelly home was the only home near at the time and was often a refuge for persons on the snow bound trains. In 1919, we moved to California where we still live and reside and wife’s relatives now live. The firs man I worked for in Shannon was Jacob Khem in the lumber and coal business working from 1888 to 1893 at the magnificent sum of $ 20 per month and paide $ 6. per month for house rent. Later we bought our little home and lived there unitl 1919. In 1895 Dr. Mastin, offered me $ 5. more per month, to work for him in the lumber yard and I was also a janitor a the Methodist Church for 25 years and worked as a lineman for the telegraph company and only gave it up when we I left Illinois. One amusing incident while I was a lineman. One day Mr. Henderson (my boss) and I were on the line repairing the wire. Mr. Henderson was looking at me and for a second glanced away and looked up again I was not there my spurs had slipped and I had gone down in 5 feet of snow. Mr, Henderson said “Where are you” and I replied “Down here” Here we are very nicely situated in a very small chicken ranch in a little town called La Mesa 12 miles east of San Diego considered very healthy and fine climate on the east coast and the deep blue sea on the west coast among the hills between La Mesa The Jewel of the Hills.
D. M. Mom
Just to say in reply to your request, yes I lived in Shannon till 1896 when I moved to Warren Illinois. My being in Warren, my heart is still in Shannon, all the meanness I learned I got in Shannon and all the good. I never forgot it was not as it was not very much, but no time since leaving Shannon but my heart longed for my boyhood home. As I near my journey’s end it seems dearer to me. I have a good town to live in (I am knocking Warren) but puffing up Shannon which was the jumping off place when I lived there but after my departure Shannon turned religious. My mind goes back to the time Frank Shelton planned the Shannon Examiner, I believed we all laughed at the idea of a paper being published in Shannon but he did it. I believe a paper has been published there ever since. I rode my first goat and almost broke my back but I am still living. I still forward, to chat with my old time friends and will some day.
Mrs. Kate Walsh
I left Shannon around 1890. At that time it was a bustling little community the trade center of the surrounding territory, especially on Saturday. The old grey mare played an important part then. Shannon boasted of a hotel, opera house, drug store candy store, dry goods store, bakery, general store, bank, post office, etc. The old school house served the needs of that day. Wholesome amusements were a part of life and the Shannon Band concerts brought out the village crowd. The Shannon Reporter, the weekly newspaper recorded the events of those times.
Such names as the following went to make up the Shannon Twp census:
Adkins, Barnes, Burns , Booth, Baron, Billie, Bohan, Bart , Cooks ,, Carleys, Cowleys. Correy, Cowan, Daniels, Dugand, Drummys, Dodges, Goods, Grossman, Gallagher, Hines, Humbert, Kramer, Kleim, Hagey, LaShalle, Ludwig, Leonard, Mastens, Martins, Northy, Newcomer, O’Rourke, Perry, Pearce, Rummels, Ruby, Reddington, Shiley’s Sprinstead, Stevens, Sherwood, Studebaker, Thometz, Vaughs, Weigles, Wicks and the Whitmore’s.
The Chicago , Milwaukee and Saint Paul Rail Road chugged through Shannon then as now except minus the present “ Gasoline Coach” Electric Lights have replaced the old fashion dim street lamps and the new hard road was probably then not a dream. There is something about Shannon that seems to mingle its yesterdays with today and its still a cherished spot to all those who called it home.
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