All sorts of great info! Beatrice Elena Eldridge born December 6th, 1896 and Mildred Eldridge was my grandmother! It looks like she was practicing her writing here.
One article includes information on who attended the funeral of Lindsey Corbley. I wonder if it was normal in a small town paper to list everyone that attended a funeral?
There is a letter from one sister to another. It was from my Aunt Margaret’s album, so must be a letter from one of her sisters to her.
An article on the Strom’s wedding was included. So far I haven’t ran across anything about who they are though. They aren’t in my family tree so not sure.
The funeral announcement for Mrs. Frank Illk is included as well as the funeral announcement for Julia Eldridge and Rilla Richter.
Finally included is another of the Lake Shore updates that include what everyone did for the week. I am always surprised that they viewed visiting town or relatives newsworthy. One I’ve seen even included that it had rained on Tuesday. I wonder if the Vermilion County History Museum or the Danville Library has a record of these papers?
Newspaper articles are full of interesting information. These clippings are from my Aunt Margaret (Dad’s Sister)’s photo album.
The top left clipping shows my cousin Jo Ellyn coming in second in a contest for Tomorrow’s Children, Tomorrow’s Leaders.
There is an article about Lindsey Corbly – son of William Corbly – son of Rev. John Corbly. It’s interesting to me that the article seems to concentrate more on the family history than on Lindsey himself.
The article mentions that Rev. Corbly emigrated to the US before the revolutionary war, founded several Baptist churches, and had several children masacred by the Indians. Rev. Corbly is actually well known in history so all of this can be verified in several other places. It goes on to tell the history of the family and how they worked their way to Vermilion County. Lindsey was one of 8 children.
An article on the death of my great grandmother is very interesting as it lists one of Julia’s kids as Mrs. Lester Richter. My Grandmother was actually Mrs. Wesley Richter. My grandfather Wesley was a twin with Lesley and I suspect the author got them confused. I also noticed that she passed away the year before my father was born.
The final clipping is one of the most interesting. Apparently the newspapers considered it big news when family visited. You just have to read it to see what I mean. What I find interesting is this particular issue included my family in about half of the articles. I really love the line that Mrs. Eldridge was shopping in Danville on Tuesday. (and Frank Illk went to Fithian on Business Friday?) There are also lines that include information about family members visiting, so this can also be a great place to find information about family members…..
My father is a Richter. One of 10 kids, Tom, Harold, Howard, Robert, Dorothy, Margaret, Ethel, Linda, Norma, Cleda Fern (the only one that didn’t live to be an adult). In that time period it was amazing to have ten kids with 9 living to be adults. (Five are still living) All of my Aunts that are still living have battled Cancer at one point or another and are all pretty amazing. My father and my Uncle Tom are the only brothers still around. As they get older (and I do to) I don’t get to see them as often. For me it usually involves a special trip up to visit.
My dad has lots of great stories from his time growing up. Everything from damming up the creek that is now beside my parents house to when my grandfather and his brothers put cows on top of the local store. All of these stores are great to get on paper (or digital), and I keep trying to remember them all. I am also lucky to have a cousin that is about the same age as my father that has written several books on local history.
If you get the chance sit down with your father (and if possible a digital recorder) and get some of the stories recorded. You may think oh I’ve heard that a million times, but when you go to remember it later it’s hard to remember the details. If you have ever played the game of telephone you know how easy stories go from one thing to a totally different subject in the process of retelling.
As you know I have also scanned all the old photos. I try to use family parties as a chance to get each photo identified. I’ve been lucky to have several of my aunts and uncles that are no longer with us go through and label everything. I’ve also given each a copy of their part of the family tree so that they can update it. I hope to get all the pictures printed in a book someday soon so that I can have better copies for them to identify. Most of my older family members aren’t computer savvy enough to identify pictures online, and don’t have the time it would take either. Going through a book with me identifying all the pictures is easier and can lead to some great stories to go with….
