February Happenings 2021
The response to the blog from readers who love, or at least, are interested in local history has been remarkable. (Either that or you are really, really, REALLY bored …) You might want to check out https://historyinyourownbackyard.com and watch the videos about two Lawrence County Bridges. One is the Indian Creek Phantom Bridge just south of Lawrenceville on St Rt 1 and the other is The Haunted Wabash Cannonball bridge, St. Francisville. Please note that the Historical Society had no input into either of these videos.
Thanks to those of you who ordered books, and sent in your membership dues in the last month. A big thank you for the extra donations that you sent as well. (Even though the library and history center are still closed, and the heat turned down, we still receive those pesky utility bills.) The importance of these donations cannot be understated. With your help, we can preserve the history of Lawrence County for generations to come.
After a reader inquired about the ice plant in Lawrenceville, A. Dale responded that James Randolph Childress, grandfather of Art’s wife, Deanna Harris Dale, was manager there in 1938. Art also sent an interesting personal recollection after reading that the sewing machine had been invented in 1846. “In 1956 my mother, Evelyn Dewhirst Dale, got a new Singer Slantomatic sewing machine from Singer in Vincennes. I was at home when a young man from Singer delivered the machine to our home on Washington Street in Bridgeport. Deanna and I moved to Danville in 1963. In the mid '60s we became friends with Charles and Beverly Long. He had worked at Singer in Danville but was then self- employed. When I told Charles I grew up in Bridgeport, he said he had been there. He had been on a temporary assignment at Singer in Vincennes and had delivered a sewing machine to a woman in Bridgeport in 1956, and the woman had several Siamese cats. Since he only delivered one machine to Bridgeport, it had to have been my mother’s. It truly is a small world.”
During a call from R. Moore, a Lawrence County history lover who now lives across the state (but really want to move back here), he shared that his mother Romona G. Bishop Moore had died January 17, 2021. Her husband Frank, had died in 2000. Romona was a 1942 BTHS graduate, and had met her husband at George Field Army Air Field. Romona’s parents had owned the Bishop General Merchandise store in Klondike from 1918-1953.
In talking about the number of infants and small children who failed to survive in the 1800s, everyone involved with the Bethel cemetery restoration has commented on what an inspiration the women were who had to bury so many of their young. Not that fathers don’t also feel the heartache at the loss of a child, but a mother who carries a child for nine months, and then endures what many consider the worst possible grief, has to be a very strong woman.
Speaking of strong women, K Russell suggested we include her grandmother Mary Jane Zipprodt (Leach) who with her family owned and operated the Zipprodt Funeral home in Lawrenceville from 1923-1950. She was one of the first female embalmers in the early 1940s and assisted her parents at the funeral home while her brother, who usually assisted her father, was away during WW2.
Genealogists: We are looking for ladies to include in our Ladies of Lawrence archives. In your family tree do you have a woman with an unusual number of kids, . . . or husbands? Was she a teacher or a life- long church member or a renowned cook in her neighborhood? Did she have a career or go to college when girls usually didn’t? Was there anything unique about her life? We would like to hear about her if she lived in Lawrence County. Send your articles to lawrencelore@gmail.com.
J Randall has been interviewing and writing Ladies of Lawrence bios for us. In doing so, a list of women who were county clerks was compiled. Ada Harrole 1934; Patricia Groves 1952-58 and 1975-86; Peggy L Bradley 1958-1962; Oma Margurete Lynch 1975; and Nancy Hoke 1994. We are missing the ones after this. Can someone help us fill in these blanks?
J Dzialo responded to the posts about the Brian and Schrader families. “I love history, it gets even better when it's yours! Jacob Brian was my Great -Great- Grandfather through my mother, Rose Brian Zell, who grew up in St. Francisville. His brothers settled in the area too. Brians’ spilled out all over the region. Jacob Brian’s son, my Great- Grandfather Martin Brian, married Harriet Melissa Schrader, daughter of Samuel and Margaret Corrie Schrader.”
Incidentally we posted a mistake about the Schrader babies who were buried next to their grandparents, Samuel and Margaret Schrader at Bethel. The seven were the children of Samuel Wesley and Sally Thompson Schrader, not Samuel and Margaret’s children. (Whew! Those Schraders are hard to keep straight. Samuel Schrader born 1805 in Knoxville, TN, and Margaret Corrie born 1807 in Scotland, who are the grandparents listed above, and are buried at Bethel, had 11 children in all.)

J Dzialo also enjoyed the stories of the men and women who served our country. Here is a photo of E Schrader standing by the sign on the Courthouse lawn. Dzialo said she remembered a similar sign in St Francisville, but we don’t have a photo of it. Does anyone out there have a picture?
D Rinesmith learned from the blog that we had the book “Heritage of Jasper County Illinois” in our collection and asked that we scan a couple of pages and send to him for a Mayflower Society application. Our research library has so much more than just Lawrence County History!
J Hart is searching for information on the John Hart family. Both John and his wife Anna Maria died in Russell Township; he in 1879 and she in 1881. He plans on visiting here this summer to do more research.

J Longo, curator from the El Paso County Historical Society in Texas has a copy of “The Ladies Aid Book of the First Christian Church Lawrenceville, Illinois.” He is doing research on this cookbook but couldn’t find a year of publication. J Hamilton checked our inventory and found that we had one also, but in worse condition that the one they had (see their photo). There was no publication, but there was a three- digit phone number on the cover (for a bank). John thinks that our system changed to a seven-digit number either in 1964 or’65 because the ’63 telephone book still had the three -digit numbers and the ’65 book had seven- digit numbers. (The ’64 book couldn’t be located.) So, if any of you have any information about this cookbook please let us know and we will pass it on to Texas.
A Dale responded to our list of recipients of PhD’s from the county by adding: Stanley Brunn, son of former Bridgeport Presbyterian minister, Rev. Philip Brunn and graduate of BTHS in 1957, received a BS or BA from Eastern Illinois University in 1961. He then went on to receive a PhD in geography from Ohio State University. He is a professor emeritus at University of Kentucky. If you or someone you know graduated from our local schools, should be added to this list of advanced degrees, let us know.
B Smith very gently corrected the blog about the play starring Ayrol Ann Gibson: “You had one error in this one. Your text says Ruby Wittrock. But if you zoom into the program it was Rudi ... a male ... Wittrock who had a part in the play. I recognized the name immediately because I trained with Rudi at WAKO in 1971 or 72. I came home for holiday and summer breaks while a Radio-TV student at SIU in Carbondale. And one of those years I worked with Rudi at night at the station.”
L Selig was researching surnames, Faith, Lancaster, Seitzinger, and Benson and found that our Pink Letter book had a short letter dated January 16, 1918, from Mrs. L H. Strain in Portland, Oregon, who said her maiden name was Rachel C. Carmony; she was married to J. W. Jones and her twin sister was Mrs. John H. Lancaster. Rachel is in Ms. Selig’s family tree.
After the blog post about Lukin school A Dale wrote: “When I was on the basketball team at Tracy School in Bridgeport from 1949-1952, I used to go to the country school basketball games at the high school gym. The teams even had cheerleaders. I remember one of the cheers that went like this: Chew tobacco, chew tobacco, spit on the floor....... I wish I could remember the rest. I remember going to the games one time on the evening before Thanksgiving. I thought the country kids would have great Thanksgiving dinners since I thought the farm women must be wonderful cooks. I am always amazed that some thoughts remain with you for a lifetime. You probably think that I like to see my words in print. That's not it. I just like to reminisce. That's why I like the Lawrence Lore blogs so much.” And why we like getting your emails, Art….
E S Knollenberg in Birmingham got word to her cousin here in the county that she read the blog every day, and went to school with Art Dale’s brother Lynn in Champaign. They were in the same Spanish Club 3. The power of the blog to reach out and connect!
After the blog about the young man who was “relationship -challenged” by saying he was his own grandfather, several comments were received about a song called “I’m My Own Grandpa”, a big hit in the late 40s and remains today a country western favorite. (…and now that song is stuck in my head, and keeps repeating and repeating…. I won’t make that mistake again.)
J Howie said she enjoyed the articles on the historic schools and asked if we took requests. She had attended Glade and East Pinkstaff before going to Pinkstaff for 7th and 8th grades. When she attended Glade, some of the students' last names were Benson, Tedford, Elder, and Brown.. Ernest Stevenson was her first grade teacher and Glen Fiscus was the superintendent. Ernestine Stevenson went to Waters School and Ernest was her father. He graduated from U of I. and became Howie's first grade teacher at Glade and her eighth grade teacher at Pinkstaff. Do you have a school you would like to see featured? Just send us a name to lawrencelore@gmail.com
The Richland County Genealogical Society contacted us about early birth certificates in Lawrence County. J King responded that there were no civil records of birth in the mid-1800s. The only hope to document an 1859 birth would be family bible records and baptism records. This is why it is so important to please copy the information written inside a family bible as well as the inside cover sheet giving the publication date of the bible. Then send a copy to us to file in the archives at the research library for future researchers.
S Culberson found a box of old photos of Bridgeport and genealogy notes for the Gale, Allison and Gaynor families in a closet of an old house in Georgia and reached out to us to see if we were interested and of course we said YES. Look for these on future blogs.
We have received a collection of genealogy material on the Brian and Milligan families from a lady in Virginia. This collection also includes two vintage quilts. One of the quilts was made by Almira (Milligan) Brian 1850-1899, here in Lawrence County. The collection also includes several old tintype photos of the Milligan and Brian families along with various other family photos and stories. Look for more about this on future blog posts as well.
Researchers proved that the father of Nancy Bowen was George Pickett who died in 1851 and is buried at the Bluff Cemetery in Petty Township. This finding was made possible by researching deed records found on family search.org. This information was requested by two of our members, one living in California and one in Texas.
A Lawrence County resident requested information about the Lawrenceville Merchants Girls Softball Team of 1940. Newspaper articles were collected by using the online site for local newspapers and provided to her.
Additionally, the group working on the Eagle on His Button project, a documentary about the Black Civil War Soldiers of this county, has been video taping segments this month.
As you can tell JUST from this month’s activities, the Historical Society volunteers continue to “serve and preserve” despite our buildings being closed because of the pandemic. Like the Marines say…we could use a few good men ..and women… to help us.
If you have comments about the blog or the Historical Society or want to help with our projects, just send us an email at lawrencelore@gmail.com.... and as always, thanks for supporting us and reading the blog. Donna