The flag of Canada has proudly flown this summer above the cupola at the top of the home of Ralph A. and Elsie DiStefano Higgins on Fourth street hill, Savanna near the pinnacle. At all times during the last years a different flag has flown, that of Italy, Iceland, Lebanon, the Philippines, or some other country. When asked the significance, Mr. Higgins said:

"The flags are selected for personal reasons; the flag of Italy was flown because my wife is of Italian descent. The Philippine flag was selected because I served in that country during the war; the Iceland flag because of our son's friendship with the son of Dr. Gunnarsson. Sometimes a flag is flown just because we like the country and its people. While here we entertained two foreign echange visitors brought to Savanna by the Rotary club, flying the flags of Lebanon and Kenya during their respective visits. When a flag is wortn, we get another to replace it sometimes as a Christmas gift from one of us to the other."

This year Savanna Rotary has greeted its 13th foreign exchange visitor. The published list of hosts does not include the Higgins family, so the public may not be treated to a a display of the flag of Yugoslavia.

Captain Stoughton Cooley built the beautiful home on the hill. It has a cupola where he could retire to watch the boats and the river, and so he could be alone with his thoughts. He came to Savanna in 1851 with his brother John. He had married Clara May and they had five sons. He engaged in steamboating on the Ohio and Mississippi both while in Ohio and here. He was captain on the "W.F. Curtis" and built the "Tensas." His sons followed his trade, W.W. Cooley first as captain on the "Tensas," R. Emmert its engineer and L.V. Cooley clerk; the younger sons Stoughton and Gilbert still in school.

John Cooley built a little lower on the hill just back of the Presbyterian Church on Cooley avenue.

In November 1904, Attorney Dan Berry purchased this house and started remodeling. He had been state representative for several terms and was then practicing in Savanna with offices above the Bothwell Pulford drug store in the Pulford opera house, completed in 1893. This building was never used as intended though more impressive than the Fulrath Opera House building used for such purposes and dances for many years. The Pulford building contained two stores; offices on the second floor and partments on the third.

On the morning of May 22, 1905, as Dan Berry was unlocking his office he was shot. A bullet hole can still be seen in the door. His assailant was never apprehended. He had assisted in the prosecution of the Marcus train robbers as well as other criminals and had made enemies whose friends could have taken revenge.

"Bot" pulford was waiting on customers when the shot was heard. Everyone in the building came running down or up the stairs. Excitement ran high. The Savanna Times-Journal got out an "extra." Newspaper reports came from surrounding towns and Chicago.

The Cooley home was never occupied by Dan's widow and daughters and its use until 1911 is not now fully known. However, the small son and daughter of Joseph Turnbaugh, Edward and Mildred, remember the big house on the hill where they climbed into its cupola to look over the river, where Grandpa and Grandma Edward Reese ran a rooming house for railroad employees during those years. They feel it just has to be that house.

In 1911 the widow of Dan Berry and daughter Ivy were living in Chicago while the other daughter, Ethyl Booth, loved in Morrison. They sold the Cooley house to W.J. Fulrath. Fulrath was a leading brick manufacturer and had lived in a brick home at the southeast corner of Diagonal and Van streets. For some time he had Hans Johnson as partner. Clay of the best consistency for burning brick of all colors was dug from the nearby hillside.

The Savanna Journal in December said. " In the last five years the value of the brick products in thee United States has almost doubled, in 1896 it being $63, 110,408 and 1901 $110,211, 587. Savanna should be supplying a greater portion of this demand. Isn't this enough to make us think about making more and better bricks here when we have the best of raw materials?"

William R. Fulrath was born in McKinville, Iowa, in 1865. His father Adam moved with his family to Carroll county in 1869 to a farm at Center Hill, and in 1874 purchased the Geyer mill, later operated for many years as the Fulrath mill, where young William assisted as well as on the farm.

William married Irene Smith of Mount Carroll in 1886. They moved to Savanna two years later where he started the brick-making business known as Fulrath's brick and coal yards which prospered. In 1914 he sold the business, bought some land in the ten outskirts of the city and platted Fulrath addition. He built thirteen houses on the plat which were readily sold.

One year later he went into the oil business and built the first up-to-date filling station in the city on the corner of Main and Chicago avenue. One of the most successful businessmen of his time, he grasped each opportunity as it came and was successful becaus of his word, honest and respected.

The Fulraths were gracious home-loving people living hand in hand with their five children welcoming their friends and interested in their church and community. Mr. Fulrath preceded his wife in dath, she passing in the early 1960's following which the home was sold to the Higgins', the present owners.