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g n i t e Me As Albany’s village president and Morrison’s mayor prepare to make room for someone who will follow their lead, they look back on their time in office and look forward to life out of office STORY CODY CUTTER FOR SMALL TOWN LIVING WEST

ne of the highest local honors that can be bestowed on a person is a vote of confidence from the city’s citizens, who’ve judged that person trustworthy enough to lead the city as mayor or village president.

The role of a local leader can be ceremonial, somber and celebratory. The office calls for handshakes and handson hard work. Their days can be filled with complaints and congratBrian Rowland ulations from the people they serve.

It’s also a job that depends upon the will of the people – or whether hizzoner decides to run again. In Whiteside County, three mayors have decided to let someone else have a shot at sitting in the mayor’s chair.

Morrison Mayor Everett Pannier and Albany Village President Brian Rowland are not running for reelection in the April 6 Consolidated Election, stepping aside to let another person take a shot at being boss of the town. Everett Pannier Fulton Mayor Michael Ottens also is not running for reelection; voters there will choose between Kevin Wright and Wendy Ottens for his successor.

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In smaller towns and villages, the person in charge often also has other jobs. In addition to being Albany’s village president, Brian Rowland also works at Plunkett’s Pest Control just north of town.

“Sometimes there’s a balancing act,” he said.

MICHAEL

KRABBENHOEFT/

MKRABBENHOEFT@ SHAWMEDIA.COM

Continued from page 5

Small Town Living magazine talked with Pannier and Rowland about their time as mayor and village president, their accomplishments, and what they hope to see in the future away from a government role (attempts to reach Ottens by this magazine’s deadline were unsuccessful).

Pannier has been mayor of Morrison for 8 years, and has lived in the Morrison area for all but 3 of his 78 years. Rowland, 55, originally from Geneseo, served on the Albany Village Board for 1 1/2 years before his appointment as village president 8 1/2 years ago; he also works at Plunkett’s Pest Control in town.

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What made you decide to not run for reelection?

PANNIER: At 78 years old, I’m looking forward to not having to deal with day-to-day requirements of the job. In addition, I have had several health issues in the past 2 years, and I took those as a sign that it was time to take a rest.

ROWLAND: My wife [Julie] has been asking me not to run again, so I promised her that if somebody good ran, then I wouldn’t run. As soon as I found out Ed Welch was running, I came to him and told him that I wasn’t going to run.

Over your time as mayor and village president, what are some of the most noteworthy accomplishments you are most proud of?

PANNIER: Hiring an excellent City Administrator [Barry Dykhuizen]. Working with the City Council to get our new wastewater treatment plant built on the south edge of town. Refinancing some of our bonds to a lower interest rate so we could have funds to update some of our capital equipment. Getting the 1 percent local sales tax approved to assist with several major street improvements; and having the Council in late 2020 approve the 2021 project to completely rebuild the streets and sidewalks on four blocks of our Main Street. All of this while not increasing city taxes and having the city be in a much stronger financial position then we were when my term started.

ROWLAND: We’re finishing with a well project, and it’s coming in under budget and it looks like we’re going to get more of a loan forgiveness that we originally thought. We put the pavilion up in the park, and it helps the park look better. In 2014, we hired a new police chief [Wyatt Heyvaert]. I can’t take all the credit for everything that’s gone on, but through his guidance, my help, and some of the board’s help, we arguably got one of the best police departments in the county. When I came on, we were $1.1 million in the black with cash, and [in January] we were at $2.1 million in the black.

What does it take to be a successful leader?

PANNIER: To have good competent people to work with who love their community as much as you do. Be willing to listen to all sides, and to understand that the needs and goals of the community come before any personal goals.

Have a willingness to compromise.

ROWLAND: Shortly after I was appointed, there were a couple of residents that were upset with me. Nate Schroeder, who was our public works director, came to me one day and said, ‘You got to have broad shoulders, because if you do what’s right for the village, and do what’s right for the taxpayers, you’re going to [upset] some people.”

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Everett Pannier has been Morrison’s mayor for 8 years and has seen the city through good times and tough times, including this past year when the city – also the county seat for Whiteside – was forced to navigate the uncharted waters of operating during a pandemic.

Pannier is seen here Oct. 30, 2020, during a COVID-19 news conference in Sterling.

ALEX T. PASCHAL/ APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

Continued from page 6

What will you miss most about not being in charge of your community?

PANNIER: Being in the middle of the day-to-day operation of the city, and the interaction between administration and taxpayers.

ROWLAND: Seeing the people all of the time, employees and other mayors.

What makes your town special?

PANNIER: For the most part, Morrison has always been a forward thinking community and there are always citizens stepping forward to volunteer to take on tasks that will benefit the community. In addition, we have great parks, an excellent education system, library, state-of-the-art health care, and unique businesses.

ROWLAND: It’s a small community, and when you see a lot of the problems in the state and in the country, usually we’re fairly safe from that, being a small community. Like when the derecho came through [in August], we had people from out of town coming to help. It’s unbelievable how everyone can come together like that for other people.

What advice would you give to your successor to continue the prosperity of your community?

PANNIER: Keep good people around you and on committees that share your ideals as well as the goals of the community. Be honest, work with the staff and Council to keep things moving forward. Be willing to do the occasional tough things for the betterment of all.

ROWLAND: You’re not going to make everyone happy. That, and it’s so hard to find good help. It’s so much better for everybody to work with employees with what you have, and help them become better employees.

When people look back on your time as mayor, what do you want them to remember most?

PANNIER: That I worked hard to do the right things for Morrison. That I was part of a time and place that made many improvements for Morrison, and left them on a firm footing to continue on a path for growth for the future.

ROWLAND: That I had their best interest on my decisions. That’s part of the reason why we’re $2.1 million in the black. n

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Two Generations of Experience

Aaron Sweeney (left) and Nathan Bright are ministers at the Erie Christian Church. Both men say God’s calling helped lead them to the church. For Bright, “God brought me to start interacting with Erie Christian Church.

For Sweeney, “It was time, and God just led me to really dive in full-time.”

MICHAEL KRABBENHOEFT/MKRABBENHOEFT@SHAWMEDIA.COM

lonzo Matthews and Nathan Bright have something thing in common: They’re men on a mission – though their missions took place centuries apart.

Matthews, a Christian from Ohio, came to Erie in the mid-1800s with a mission in mind: Bring people closer to Jesus Christ. Bright, also from Ohio, came to Erie 2 1/2 years ago on the same mission.

Matthews completed his mission as the founder of Erie Christian Church. Bright’s work is still a mission in progress; he’s one of the current ministers at the church.

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Continued from page 9

Through all those years, all the changes, all the ups and downs, one thing has stayed the same: The church has kept the faith.

Today, as the church celebrates its 151st anniversary, Bright and co-minister Aaron Sweeney are leading the way in giving their congregation and their community hope and motivation through God’s word.

“It’s a group that is always continuing to learn and to grow together,” Bright said. “That’s important.”

Bright came to Erie from Columbus, Ohio, after he felt a powerful calling.

“God believed in me, and I prayed and searched out slowly, and in the spring of 2018, God brought me to start interacting with Erie Christian Church,” Bright said. “Just through some conversations, and saying, “Go love on these people. Let them know I love them and care about them. It’s been a ministry of that: just letting them know and speaking that. When God said, ‘Go preach,’ it was time.”

Sweeney, whose time with the church goes back more than a decade, spends much of his days working with the congregation’s youth. The two ministers work with elders Jason Folsom, Dave Schulze and Rick Wolf to make their collective mission of faith and fellowship a success. Like Bright, Sweeney’s journey to Erie was helped by a higher power.

MICHAEL KRABBENHOEFT/MKRABBENHOEFT@SHAWMEDIA.COM

Erie Christian Church has a rich history within the Erie community, dating back to 1870. Today, the church has a congregation of about 400 people and holds community events throughout the year, including a live nativity event and a trunk-or-treat event.

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Spring 2020

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“It was time, and God just led me to really dive in full-time,” Sweeney said. “This was just a place where I could grow in ministry. The nice part about being here is that we both can minister to people regardless of age.”

Erie Christian Church’s story didn’t begin with a sermon, but rather a heated debate over God’s existence.

Matthews came to Erie in 1856. Despite there being three other churches in town, he did not endorse the beliefs of any of them, instead believing in the Disciples Church he came to know in his native Ohio. Erie, in Matthews’ view – and paraphrased from records of the church’s history – otherwise was “a city of infidels.”

Matthews met John N. Smith, a preacher from Lanark, at a Christian Churches of Northern Illinois meeting in 1869 in Coleta, and the two took on the task of establishing a Christian Church in Erie.

However, establishing another church in Erie didn’t sit well with certain locals. James Pratt, who settled nearby in a tiny, now-extinct community east of town that once bore his name, was a well-known atheist in the area, and debated several nearby ministers about religion.

Continued on page 12

MICHAEL KRABBENHOEFT/MKRABBENHOEFT@SHAWMEDIA.COM

Erie Christian Church’s history dates back more than 150 years, when Alonzo Matthews founded the church in 1870. After Matthews moved to Erie in 1856, he met John N. Smith, a preacher from Lanark, at a Christian Churches of Northern Illinois meeting in 1869, and the two undertook the task of establishing a Christian Church in Erie. Some of the church’s early bibles are seen here.

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Cast in the early 1900s, this bell was given to a school in Whiteside County in July 1907. Bells such as this one once signaled the beginning and end of the school day. Which school had this bell, and where does it sit today? Answer on page 19.

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Continued from page 11

Light streams through the stained glass windows at Erie Christian Church, which celebrated its 150th anniversary last year.

Pratt and Smith’s disagreement came to a head in November of 1869 when they engaged in a 2-week public debate about Jesus Christ being the Son of God and savior of the world, and the veracity of the Bible.

Smith eventually prevailed in his mission, and the Christian Church found a home in Erie; it was organized in March of 1870, and the next month, on April 20, the first sermon was conducted at the town school. Smith was its first minister, and Matthews became an elder.

The church also is home to an important ministry first in Illinois: Clara Babcock of Sterling, a member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, spoke in Erie and eventually stayed there for 10 years, ordained as the state’s first female minister. Babcock baptized more than 1,500 people during her tenure, and led the church into a new building on Eighth Street where it stood for more than 60 years. The current building was MICHAEL KRABBENHOEFT/MKRABBENHOEFT@SHAWMEDIA.COM constructed in 1957 and remodeled in the 1980s.

Unlike most churches, Erie Christian Church is bucking the trend of dwindling congregations. About 200 members were recorded in a 1947 count, and 300 in 1957. Sweeney estimated that about 400 members, of all ages, are part of the congregation today.

“The elderly people in our church absolutely love our kids, and its vice-versa, too,” Sweeney said. “We’re able to do several ministries that connect those two groups.”

Continued on page 13

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The pandemic has forced some seniors to shy away from public gatherings, but when they have been present, they enjoy being with the children. Otherwise, the church records its sermons and posts them on its website – eriechristianchurch.com – for folks who wish to worship but don’t feel comfortable being in a public gathering due to the pandemic.

Another adjustment in recent times is the all-digital Vacation Bible School, done online rather than through the traditional vacation trips.

Legacy is a popular monthly event that the church puts on during the last Sunday of each month. It’s a day where the congregation can listen to special guests, see special arts and music performances, and even enjoy a magic MORE INFORMATION show from a local magician.

Erie Christian Church, 715 Sixth The church also does special outreaches to Ave., has services at 8 and 10 a.m. every Sunday. local middle schoolers and high schoolers on Find Erie Christian Church on Wednesdays.

Facebook, go to eriechristian“Those kids are coming together and they’re church.com or call 309-659-7705 for more information. just looking for hope, a place to be accepted, The church also is seeking money loved on, and they’re finding they connect to replace the roof above its sancin that way,” Bright said. “It’s been a positive tuary. The goal is to raise $35,000.

Contact the church to donate. since I’ve been here, and a really cool blessing.”

“We have kids that are connected and are church families, and they’re just turning into ministries,” Sweeney added.

Bright and Sweeney both look forward to continuing Erie Christian Church’s mission and traditions.

“It’s really a place of prayer, and where we see prayer answered,” Bright said. n

The following poem was written by former Erie Christian Church congregation member Jenni Florence in 1970

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ALEX T. PASCHAL/APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

This nearly 200-foot concrete tower near Tampico was originally built as part of a cross country radio relay system for telephone calls and coast-to-coast TV broadcasts. Today, it’s used for wireless internet.

Continued on page 16

onald Reagan isn’t the only president Tampico has ties to. Harry Truman made some waves there, too.

Microwaves, that is.

The sight and sounds of Truman giving the opening speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference on Sept. 4, 1951, was beamed across the U.S. – and through the airwaves around Tampico – in the nation’s first coast-to-coast television broadcast, using what was then state-of-the-art microwave technology. It was a feat made possible in part by a tower just outside the village.

Today, in a time when satellite signals bouncing across the globe is routine, a STORY coast-to-coast broadcast may not seem like that big of a deal, but it was a pretty tall CODY CUTTER order back then. For those interested in seeing how it was done, all they have to do FOR is head toward Tampico and look up.

SMALL TOWN For more than 70 years, a large concrete tower has stood tall above the flat fields LIVING between Tampico and Prophetstown, in clear view about 8 miles in any direction.

The tower sits on a man-made hill near the southeast corner of Blue Goose and Jersey roads, about 3 miles west and 1 mile south of downtown Tampico.

Those who see it for the first time often wonder what it is and why there’s a nearly 13-story tower reaching for the sky.

Continued from page 15

As it turns out, this 190-foot reinforced concrete tower has quite the story in bridging the communication gap between America’s coasts, and bridging the gap between the hightech worlds of yesterday and today.

Today, the 71-year-old tower is a relay point for high speed wireless internet from providers Citizen’s Telecommunications Company and Frontier Communications. The tower itself is owned by Tower Sites, Inc. of New Berlin, Wisconsin – which owns and constructs communication towers throughout the Midwest.

Much like how the internet is important to today’s communication, television played just as important role when the tower was first built.

The events of World War II helped feed Americans’ appetite for more news and entertainment than newspapers and radio could provide.

Continued on page 18

This article from the November-December 1951 issue of Transmitter magazine reports on the nation’s first coast-to-coast broadcast, which was made possible in part by a relay tower just outside of Tampico.

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A project undertaken by the American Telephone & Telegraph Co., when The article at right, covering the building of the completed, radio relay towers near Sublette and Tampico, will doubtless appeared in the The Dixon Telegraph on Oct. 15, provide coast to 1949. Thanks to the Tampico Historical Society coast television for posting it at tampicohistoricalsociety.com/ for millions, but articles/article/22587/85756.htm at the same time accommodate a completely new radio telephone service which will operate under all weather conditions. One of the many units of this cross-country system is located about one mile north and west of Sublette in Lee County, which can be seen for many miles. It is a concrete shaft 105 feet, ten inches in height which stands on a system of 48 concrete pilings which extend to a depth of 50 feet.

The shaft is 24 feet wide on the four sides and the walls are 12-inch thicknesses of reinforced concrete. The McDonald Engineering Co. of Chicago is the contractor for a series of the seven towers being erected in Indiana and Illinois which are located 40 miles apart.

A well organized crew of about 89 workmen labored continuously for eight and one-half days in pouring the concrete in the slip steel forms to complete the massive tower. None of the units has been completed, it was reported, and the system now extends west to Des Moines, Iowa, where construction of the towers ceases while engineering forces continue their surveys westward with the Pacific coast as their objective. One of the towers is located near the village of Lee in the east end of the county and another is near Tampico in Whiteside County. This latter structure will be 190 feet high when completed. From the top of the Sublette tower can be seen the tower near Lee. While operations at the Sublette tower are now at the standstill, it is expected that the unit will not be in use until probably late in the summer of next year.

When completed, it was stated that current for operation of the towers in this vicinity will be furnished by the Illinois Northern Utilities Co., of Dixon, but each tower will be equipped with a diesel motor which will serve as an auxiliary power unit in the event of an interruption of electrical service, and the system will never be out of operation.

ABOVE The towers will be governed by remote control from a central station in Chicago and will be entirely autoLEFT: The cover to matic. Much of the equipment which will go into the this 1951 Bell System publicaSublette tower is now is storage in Dixon awaiting tion shows a radio relay tower like instructions for delivery and installation.

Television fans of the central west are to the one near Tampico, part of the new receive no benefits from the coast-to-coast Telephone Skyway that carried telephone system of towers, it was explained, as they calls and TV signals. The full publication are intended to provide a nationwide relay system for television. At the same time can be viewed at www.long-lines.net/places-routes/1st_transcon_mw/Telephone_Skyway. it is rumored that the town system will carry a radio telephone system which will pdf. ABOVE: “Service to the nation in peace and eliminate interruption of cross-county telephone service during ice and sleet storms. war” ... The cover to Bell Telephone System’s A tower near Valparaiso, Ind., is report1952 Telephone Almanac celebrates the coasted to be nearest completion and it is not exto-coast audio and visual relay network. The pected that any further work will be done on the Sublette tower until next summer. Work tower on the right is like the one built on the Tampico tower is now being rushed to near Tampico. LEFT: A 1951 Bell Syscompletion before the arrival of freezing weather tem publication explains how which would halt the pouring of concrete. George Weyant of Dixon has been employed as time-keeper on the radio relay system the construction of the Sublette tower and was spending works. today at the contracting firm’s offices in Chicago.

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following year. McDonald Engineering Co., of Chicago built a string of seven concrete towers, spaced 40 miles apart, including the one near TV’s reach was expanding and people wanted to see the world Tampico. A similar tower also stands near Woodhaven Lakes in Sublette. through flickering pictures on the small screen. At the same time, The tower was a somewhat unique design, Michaels said. Of the advancements in TV technology sped up, and with that came the boom several thousand microwave towers that AT&T eventually built for the of more regionally based television stations. In the Quad Cities, stations route, only 49 were square concrete structures. The towers were installed from the “big three” networks – NBC’s WOC (now KWQC), CBS’s from east to west; those built between New York and Des Moines were WHBF, and ABC’s WQAD – were established, but in order to stay in touch with each channel’s headquarters, certain spots between the affilimade of concrete, and those west of Des Moines were made of steel. ate and each of the two coasts had to be constructed.

Inside the tower are seven floors of 25-by-18-foot equipment Not only that, those watching the small screen on either rooms, which are accessible by an elevator shaft and stairwell. coast could see footage of events happening on the other MORE INFO Until 1982, those rooms housed plenty of wires, bulbs coast, thanks to the spot-by-spot relay that the Tampico Wanna geek out on and amps upon amps of electricity to make its television tower was a part of. tower tech and more? Go task possible – by then nearly all in color – until the to http://www.long-lines.net/ “The original purpose of these towers was to carry relentless march of progress made the towers obsolete – where you can find vintage television signals from coast to coast,” Tower Sites Presfor a while. articles and publications. ident Terry Michaels said. “Before these towers were Tower Sites’ entry on the The phone antennas remained for another 10 years built there was no practical way to transmit television Tampico Tower: https:// after the TV signals powered down. Then it was abanpictures for long distances, the transcontinental microtower-sites.com/Tampidoned for a decade, taking the originally installed microco%20Profile.htm wave route that the Tampico tower was on made cross wave radios and storage batteries with it. country network television possible for the first time.”

Tower Sites gave the structure new life after buying it in But TV wasn’t the only task the tower took on. In fact, accord2002, when high-speed wireless internet was in its infancy, turning the ing to an early 1950s industry publication touting the “Telephone tower back into a part of a communications network, this time for wireSkyway,” the primary job of the relay network was to help handle the less internet. increasing volume of long distance telephone calls – a role that the pubNeedless to say, television has played an important cultural role in lication said was becoming increasingly important as the telephone was people’s lives, and people in Whiteside County who sat in their homes becoming more and more crucial to a nation mobilizing its resources for watching the news or their favorite shows, beamed from across the defense. nation more than 70 years ago, couldn’t have done so without the tall AT&T Long Lines took on the task making the communication marvel a reality, and construction began in 1950 and was completed the concrete tower west of Tampico. n Continued from page 16

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Garden Plain no longer has a school in town, but the bell that once beckoned students to classes, and announced the end of the school day, is still displayed in the small community in west central Whiteside County, a proud reminder of the community’s educational past. The original two-story schoolhouse on Sand Road, where the bell once hung, is now a private home, but it still retains its original name plate that reads “District No. 44, Built 1907.” The bell now sits in front of the Garden Plain Township Building, which itself is also a former school. Garden Plain once had a high school in the late 1800s, but by 1952, all of the schools in Garden Plain Township were consolidated into one school in town, which is where the bell now sits. Today, the former consolidated school building is the Garden Plain Township Building.

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“I’m at the intersection of Wolcott and Warner” ...

Few locals around Agnew and Round Grove can recall saying that, since these road names changed more than 40 years ago. Mathew Road was where Wolcott Road was, and this stretch of Coleta Road – formerly Warner Road – doesn’t take motorists anywhere near Coleta.

ALEX T. PASCHAL/

APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

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t’s hard for some people to believe, but there was a time when for another landowner from near Rock Falls. maps, not apps, showed us the way. Even harder to imagine for Up until Jan. 1, 1978, there were nearly 200 different road names in rural those raised in a smart phone world: people who traveled many Whiteside County. However, when the county decided to simplify the road a country mile relying on their memory to get them where they system, it renamed many of the roads to have the same name if they fell were going. Knowing the names of roads, whether within the same latitude or longitude. The change gave they were long and winding or short and straight, way to multiple stretches of roads with the same name.

STORY MAPPED OUT BY CODY CUTTER was a requirement for cruising through the country.

It also relegated many of the roads’ stories to FOR SMALL TOWN LIVING WEST Like other counties, roads in Whiteside County the back pages of people’s minds and erased family were named after local settlers, prominent families, local landmarks, or names from maps. In some cases, roads no longer even exist. simply where they went. Moline Road? Well, it got its name because it To help prevent these names from being lost to history, Small Town took people to Moline and the other Quad Cities.

Living magazine has put together a list of the former names of many of The 1-mile stretch of Gaulrapp Road in Albany Township isn’t named the county roads and what they’re known as today. We hope you enjoy for anyone around Albany, but instead for the family who farmed turthis look back at the high roads and the low roads, the roads less travkeys southwest of Rock Falls. Thome Road, which runs through Newton eled, and the country roads that took us home.

Corners – approximately halfway between Erie and Albany – is named So turn the page and let’s get this show on the road …

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The Luther Road before 1978 isn’t the same as the current Luther Road, shown here crossing Fulfs Road north of Sterling. How? When Whiteside County reorganized its road name system that year, the “old” Luther Road was where Tampico Road is now. The Luther name simply moved 1 mile east to its current location, which once was Perry Road.

As for the Tampico Road that crosses Fulfs Road north of Sterling, it won’t take you anywhere near Tampico. When the county road names changed in 1978, roads mapped along 2400 East shared the same name; in this case, Tampico Road. In fact, the original Tampico Road went east-west on present-day Hahnaman Road in southern Whiteside County. The Tampico Road name was switched to the north-south road through the village, and its name replaced that of Luther Road along the line of 2400 East.

Looking for a Tampico Road that’s actually near Tampico? The corner of Fargo and Tampico roads just north of Tampico used to be the corner of Arcade and Dettman roads up until 1978, when the county renamed several of its roads to line up according to latitude and longitude.

PHOTOS: ALEX T. PASCHAL/APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

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Fenton Road goes north of the community of Fenton to Garden Plain Road, and it makes a short jog before going north again. The portion of road north of Garden Plain Road once was Holly Road, which went in an “L” shape; the other end of it is south of Fulton.

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