Thursday February 1, 2018 Vol. 5, No. 47 Hot news tip? Want to advertise? Call (309) 741-9790
The Weekly Post “We Cover The News of West-Central Illinois With A Passion” Serving the fine communities of Brimfield, Dahinda, Douglas, Duncan, Edwards, Elmore, Elmwood, Farmington, Kickapoo, Laura, Monica, Oak Hill, Princeville, Williamsfield and Yates City
Finding paper treasures at a lively auction
LAURA – The problem with seeing every advertisement printed in a newspaper is that so many of them are appealing. Aside from pickup trucks and boats, my weakness is auction ads. Everything sounds so enticing. Antique furniture. Old tools. Table saws. First-edition books. Signed paintings. The list of possible treasures is endless. Generally, though, a chronic lack of extra money in my wallet keeps me safely sidelined at home. But not last Sunday – not after seeing the Jim Folger’s Auction ad that featured bound volumes “full of original Williamsfield Jeff Times, Elmwood Gazette, LAMPE Farmington Bugle, Yates City Banner and Princeville Telephone” editions. Even a barren wallet couldn’t keep me from bidding on those treasures. By auction’s end on Sunday at the Millbrook Community Center, we were hauling home 86 bound volumes packed with stories, pictures and anecdotes that will grace the pages of this paper for as long as we stay in business. While poring through the dusty volumes Sunday afternoon, I kept smiling at the familiar names that popped up. The experience reminded me of one feature I really enjoyed in the TriCounty News – snippets of news from the past. That local history still appeals. How else to explain the group of us huddled around the stack of musty, even moldy, bound volumes. There was Dan Bybee of Elmwood, eager to buy up a few years worth of the Yates City Banner. Bybee went to school in Yates City, and his main goal seems to be finding embarassing old pictures of classmates and friends like John McKinty. Folks, if you had a bad picture of you printed in Yates City in the 1970s, it would be wise to be nice to Bybee for awhile. And there were Stephen and Drinda Schaffer of Princeville, buying up some volumes of the Continued on Page 8
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FARMINGTON’S NEW SWEET SPOT
Fronie’s satisfies the sweet tooth By BILL KNIGHT
FARMINGTON – Thirty-six steps east of Jen’s Place on East Fort Street, the latest local eatery opened almost three months ago, and in some ways they’re different. But they also share a lot – like owner Jen Ludolph. Shuttered for some 40 years, the retail site that used to house Petroni & Pozzi’s was resurrected with help from Dave Giagnoni from Farmington’s Planning Commission, says Ludolph, who’s quick to add how much time and effort Giagnoni put into the work. “Dave put his heart and soul into this,” she says. “He was down on the floor scrubbing and fixing tiles – doing all sorts of things.” For The Weekly Post
Jen Ludolph, left opened Fronie’s Candy Kitchen Nov. 1 with help from her daughter Shelby, at the fountain area. Photo by Bill Knight.
Continued on Page 2
North to freedom on Underground Railroad By JAKE GRIFFIN
Despite Illinois’ status as a free state, runaway slaves and free blacks did not find the state accommodating in its earliest days. Slave owners in southern Illinois were allowed to keep their slaves when Illinois joined the union in 1818. Then, they were permitted to commit newer generations of freed black residents to indentured servitude for decades. Illinois’ early years are also littered with laws subverting black residents’ freedoms, the welcoming of slave catchers and on at least one occasion an attempt to change the state Constitution Of the Daily Herald
to allow slavery statewide. Yet, throughout much of the early 1800s, Illinois served as a path to freedom for fugitive slaves traveling between safe houses as they sought asylum in Canada. “I think Illinois can be proud of its history on racial justice, not so much at how the government reacted and what the laws were, but many individuals in the central, northern and western parts of the state have a proven history of helping
slaves avoid capture,” said Owen Muelder, an author and director of the Underground Railroad Center at Knox College in Galesburg. “Illinois can be proud, for the most part at least, that there were many of its people who were on the right side of history.” Recognized stops on the Underground Railroad dot the landscape of the state, mainly starting at the convergence of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers at Grafton and continuing between the two waterways to Wisconsin. But just how many slaves found assistance and who was providing it is nearly impossible to know, according Continued on Page 10