Freeport Journal-Standard from Freeport, Illinois • Page 3

FIREMAN PERCHED atop an extension ladder pours water over the roof of a three-story downtown building at 25 E. Main St. which was swept by fire early today. The building housed the Mid-City Grill and several Photo. FIREFIGHTERS DONNED protective breathing gear to enter the smoke filled Mid-City Grill on the ground floor of a three-story downtown building that was severely damaged by fire early this Photo.

Firemen Crouch At Front Of Burning Building Journal-Standard Photo Crowd Watches Downtown Fire Journal-Standard Photo Fire History Extensive Third Big Fire Of Year By PAT CUNNINGHAM Journal-Standard Reporter Today's fire which destroyed the Mid-City Grill and damaged adjacent businesses and apartments is the third major fire in Freeport this year. On March 23, ten nearly-completed units in the Win-Mar apartment complex on West Empire Street were destroyed by a blaze which caused an estimated $50,000 damage. Another $50,000 fire hit the Bowl Four Seasons in the early hours of Jan. 14. The fires is extensive and filled.

Two buildings were destroyed apparently started by a smold-j incidents of heroism and in the blaze. Freeport (III.) Journal-Standard Pg. 6 Nov. 11, 1968 State Magazine Publishes Story By JHS Student Deaf fis, Funerals ering cigarette after the establishment had closed, destroyed the recreation center's cocktail lounge. The last major downtown fire destroyed the Store Feb.

17, 1967. The supermarket blaze flared up during business hours and quickly swept the building after customers and employes had been evacuated. History Extensive The history of downtown Free- Area Superintendents To Meet At Highland Highland Community College President Kenneth E. Borland has invited 16 area school superintendents in the college district to a superintendents' coffee at 1 p.m. Thursday in the college center.

Borland said the purpose of the meeting is to bring all the superintendents together so "we can improve cooperation for mutual benefits." "We all have common problems personnel needs, the hiring of teachers and teacher aids, teachers' salaries, coordination and use of tax dollars," he said. He added another area of mutual concern is achieving the best education for all students from kindergarten through grade 14. "The college should know what the elementary and high schools are offering so there will be no overlapping when the students get to Highland and so Urban-Rural Day Set By Mayor Mayor Joe D. Shelly has proclaimed Wednesday as Urban- Rural Day in Freeport. In his proclamation, the mayor said urban-rural relations are beneficial to all concerned, both people dwelling within the city and those living in rural areas.

He gave approval to the annual urban-rural banquet sponsored by the Freeport Chamber of Commerce and Stephenson County Farm Bureau. This year's banquet will be. at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Masonic Temple Ballroom. we can challenge the college student," he said.

Discuss Problems In addition to the opportunity to discuss mutual problems, superintendents will tour the college facilities and talk with faculty and administration members of Highland. Two more superintendents' coffees are planned during the school year. Two Highland faculty members are attending a meeting of the Higher Education Executive Associates at St. Louis University today through Wednesday. Josef Spudich, chairman of the Humanities division, and Warren Burstrom, chairman of the Natural Science division, are attending the institute which deals with "The Role of Academic Department and Division Chairmen." Speech and drama instructors Donald J.

Hagerty and Michael Dobbins attended the Illinois Speech Association convention in Chicago Friday and Saturday. Attend Meeting Donald Capes' college counselor, attended a meeting of the Southern Illinois University State Junior-Community College Articulation Conference in Joilet Thursday. He also attended Blackhawk College Night on Wednesday. John McClellan, dean of student personnel services, spoke recently at the college night for Mount Carroll, Milledgeville and Chadwick high schools. Robert J.

Lewis, chairman of the division of Business Administration, discussed the Vocational Business program with a group of business students from Lena-Winslow High School Wednesday at the college. tragedy. Three elderly tenants' of the Licondo Hotel died in a fire May 6, 1962. The blaze was confined primarily to the second floor of the hotel where the victims succumbed to suffocation. Several firemen and policemen haVe sustained injuries in downtown fires, including smoke inhalation and broken limbs.

Fireman Al Lawver was incapacitated for further duty when he fell from the aerial ladder while fighting a fire at Graham's Women's Apparel Shop on East Stephenson Street in 1951. Fifteen-year-old Jim Loring was credited with saving the lives of his family and preventing further damage in a fire that swept through the 100 block of East Stephenson Street in the early hours of Jan. 4, 1961. Fires Listed Downtown fires of the past 20-years include: the Ford Sales and Service Co. on Oct.

15, 1949 (50 vehicles destroyed); the Second National Bank Building on April 9, 1955 (seven-story structure, drug store and restaurant Clothing, Stukenberg's Dapartment store and Leath Furniture on Jan. 8, 1957, the Ranch Restaurant on Jan. 3, 1957; and, the Stephenson County Jail on Aug. 21, 1962. Other major Freeport fires of recent memory include: St.

Mary's School on Dec. 15, 1956 (set by a 14-year-old "for the Freeport Country Club on Jan. 17, 1957; and, St. John United Church of Christ on Dec. 20,1957.

New structures were built for all three institutions. Thirty-three years ago today the Henry Dorman Building at Mrs. J. R. Taylor APPLE RIVER Mrs.

J. Richard (Pauline) Taylor of Moline, who was born in Apple River, died Satruday night in Young Loring awakened chok-, the corner of Exchange and Gaing on thick smoke, shouted was struck by fire. The evacuation directions to his family and alerted customers in an adjacent restaurant. building was occupied by Scheffner Co. and Brobst and Ride- i out.

Richard Wayne Dirksen, native of Freeport, by Patty McDermott, student at Freeport Junior High School, in the November number of Illinois History. This issue of the state's secondary school magazine is on Illinois musicians and composers. Dirksen, now director of the advanced program of the Washington Cathedral, is an organist, composer and director of choirs whose musical productions have had wide critical praise The article mentions Karl Kubitz as an early influence when Dirksen played with the Freeport High School Band. Dirksen's wife is the former Joan Shaw of Freeport. His parents now live in Ocala, Fla.

An article on the Community Concerts in Illinois mentions a brief illness. She was born Aug. 13, 1923, daughter of John R. and Jennie (Menzimer) Scott. In 1954, she was married to J.

Richard Taylor in Rock Island. Surviving are her husband; a son, Michael at home; her father of Apple River; a brother, Harold of Dallas, and two sisters, Mrs. Wil- liam Kehoe of San Francisco and Mrs. Joseph H. Kruger of Warren.

Her mother preceded her in death. Funeral service will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Wheelan Funeral Home, Rock Island. Burial will be in National Cemetery in Rock Island. Ex-Forreston Mayor Dies In Tucson FORRESTON Victor Paul Conkey, who served as mayor here for 11, years, died Saturday in a Tucson, hospital.

Mr. Conkey, a World War I veteran, had been superintendent of McGrath Sand and Gravel Co. here for 23 years. He was a 32 degree Mason, Valley of Freeport, that Springfield and Freeport and a member of Freeport Con- On Nov. 24, 25 Light Opera By Strauss To Be Given By Aquin "Die Fledermaus" by Johann jailer, David Castle; the butler, Strauss will will be presented Michael Feagan; peasant boys, by Aquin Central Catholic Gallagher and Stephen School on Nov.

24 and 25. Rehearsals have been in progress for four weeks. The entire Schirmer; and peasant girl, Madeline Bares. Harold Vincent is producer-di- cast, chorus and stage crew are rector of the operetta. Sister members of Aquin Glee Club.

The story of the light opera is set in the masquerade season in 19th-century Vienna, thing like Mardi Gras time when everyone dresses up for a fun carnival each evening. After one big party Mr. Stein, played by Dale Bell, as a trick leaves Mr. Falke (Thomas Lenz) in a forest dressed as a bat. Der Fledermaus (the bat) gets his revenge at a big ball when everyone masquerades as someone else and unmasking produces big surprises.

Other roles are Adele, with Teresa Hotek and Pamela Luecke alternating in the part; Rosaline, Debora Haight Janet Weigel; Prince Orlofsky, John Nye; Ida, Mary McCarthy Mary Robertia is in charge of the music. Kathleen McGinnis is the student director. Tickets are $1 for adults and students, and are now being sold by Aquin Glee Club members. were the first two cities to organize community concert associations in the Depression year jof 1931. Also in this month's issue are pictures of the student historians honored by former Gov.

Otto E. Kerner last May for best contributions to the magazine. Sue Hartog and Patty McDermott are among those pictured. Center School Dedication Set For Sunday Freeport's building will ceremonies scheduled for 2 p.m. YWCA News sistory.

He was born July 27, 1896, in Lima, Ohio. On Oct. 2, 1917, he married Gladys Smith in Mitchell, Ind. widow; newest school be dedicated in Sunday. Illinois Sen.

Everett Laughlin will be the main speaker at the dedication of Center School. A 60-member school chorus, directed by Mrs. Sheila Doden, also will participate in the program. An open house will be con- and Mary Ellen Giuffre; the I tend. Miss Susan Leininger, an airline stewardess, will speak at the all Y-Teen meeting Wednesday at 4 p.m.

in the YWCA. "Miss Leininger, a stewardess for Pan American has just returned from the Orient, which.included stops in Vietnam and Japan. All Y-Teens and any other interested girls are invited to at- ducted at the school from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Planning for the new Center School began two years ago based on a flexible program using team teaching and indi- It re- School vidualized places which the had instruction.

old Center been in operation since 1905. Center school now 'serves 540 students with 21 teachers and four teacher aides. Arnold Doering has been principal since 1956. Surviving are his three daughters, Mrs. (Georganna) Johnson of Law- renceyille, Mrs.

William (Patty) Loomis of Franklin, and Mrs. Phillip (Cynthia) Glavey of Rockford; three sons, Victor P. Jr. of Chillicothe, Kenneth jof Leaf River and Robert of Forreston; 14 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. Funeral service will be Tuesday in Tucson.

Burial will be in South Lawn Memorial Park there. Womans Relief Corps Plans Holiday Party Womans Relief Corps at their meeting Friday made plans to hold their Christmas party Dec. 13 following a business meeting. There will be a $1 gift exchange. Ice cream and cookies will be served by the hostesses, Mrs.

Ted Bunnell and Mrs. H. W. 'Clark. Election of officers will be held that day also.

At Friday's meeting, which 19 attended, Mrs. Alvin Vowles gave a reading and sang a solo in observance of Veterans Day. The program ended by group singing. Refreshments were served by Mrs. Joseph Shriner and Mrs.

Henry Bing. Mrs. Joy Sword LANARK Mrs. Joy (Roberta) Sword of Banning, formerly of Lanark, died Sunday morning in a Palm Springs, hospital following an extended illness. Surviving are her husband; a daughter, Mrs.

Orval (Gloria) Washburn of Banning; two grandchildren; and two brothers, Fern of Stockton and Snell of La Grange. Funeral service and burial will be in Banning. Mrs. Adelia Smith SAVANNA, Funeral service for Mrs. Adelia Smith of Savanna was held today in Law-Jones Funeral Home here.

Mrs. Smith, 92, died Saturday in the home of her daughter, Mrs. Grant Bundy, following an extended illness. Surviving besides her daughter are two other daughters, Mrs. Vernon Groharing of Dav- Freeport WWI Veterans Recall Armistice Day By DUNCAN BIRDSELL Journal-Standard Reporter Their steps have slowed and their faces are lined.

These are the leisurely retirement years. Many of their buddies of those hectic years have died. Today must touch the hearts of those Freeport men who were once part of the American armed might that fought the "war to end all wars." Fifty years ago on Nov. 11, 1918, the armistice was signed. World War I ended.

The dreaded "Hun" had been vanquished. Allied armies reigned supreme on the bloody battlefields of France and Belgium. To the Freeport sons of that past era time has not dimmed memory of the glorious day. Belgian Finish Walter Marsh, now 73, will take you back to a small Belgian town. First Sgt.

Marsh and his comrades of the 362nd Infantry Regiment had distinguished themselves in the battles of St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne since arriving in France during July 1918. "The night of November 10th we'd moved into the town," Marsh said, as he chatted with this reporter last week in his small probation investigator's office off the courthouse entrance. "The town was very similar to Freeport, lying on two sides of a small river. From the damaged hotel building where we were, we could look down to the river and figured the Germans were on the other side.

"The captain and I were sitting there that morning speculating on when the armistice would be signed when the damndest noise broke loose outside. We didn't know if it was the Germans or what." Wild Scene "When we looked out everyone was pouring out of the buildings civilians, our troops and some other Allied forces that were with us. "Everybody was kissing, bottles of wine and champagne were flowing and the troops were shooting their guns in the air. A messenger had evidently arrived and told the other troops. "I know the captain said 'Marsh, you better stay sober.

Someone has got to get the company together. "The celebration continued on through the day. We got word later that the Germans had pulled out from the other side of the river immediately after dark the night before." Siberian Interlude In a modest home on South Adams Street Fred Niemeier fingered some Russian coins and paper money of the Czarist era as he went back to World War I. To Niemeier and about 30 other Freeport area doughboys, the war ended thousands of miles away from the scarred trenches of France or the training camps in the United States. The armistice was learned in a dreary Siberian city of Kha- barovsk on the Amur River.

There the 27th Infantry Division had settled down to winter quarters as part of the Allied Siberian Expeditionary Forces. In a grand design about 8,000 American troops had been dispatched by sea to Vladivostok, Russia in 1918 to drive overland across the length of Siberia with Japanese soliers, defeat the Bolsheviks and re-establish the Eastern Front against Germany. Retreat Surprise "I remember we got word of the armistice at retreat," Nie- meier said. "The sergeant had given the command to fall out, when the company clerk came running out to 'hold "Then we learned. It must have been on November 12 or 13.

A wild celebration? You couldn't hold the bunch back." Niemeier was to remain in Siberia on occupational duties until December 1919 when he sailed for home from Vladivostok. Hospital Patient The welcome message of an armistice came to Ben Dunning in a hospital bed at Nevers, France. "There's not much of a celebration in a hospital," Dunning said. "Men lying around with legs and arms off or faces shot up take it pretty quiet." Dunning had fallen victim to a mustard gas attack the day after his division had gone on the lines in October 1918 and spent the remainder of the war in hospitals. He was released in the early part of 1919.

"I couldn't talk or see well for a while because of the gassing, but I'm lucky that the only permanent thing was a very tender throat," said Dun- ning, now a retired Freeport mail carrier. Navy Reaction Skepticism greeted the armistice news when it reached the USS Utah on convoy duty in the eastern Atlantic, according to Jack Lewis. A retired machinist, Lewis was a teen-aged seaman on the battleship back in 1918 after he signed his mother's name on an affidavit to get into the Navy. "We knew about the war's end immediately," Lewis said, "But there was no celebration cause no one believed it'." Airmen Learn News Earl Manning traces Armistice Day back to a bustling airfield in France where he and other soldiers in the fledgling Army Air Service had created the first U.S. flying base in Europe.

"We had just got going real good when the armistice was signed," said the retired ail- road conductor. "They sent over the old Liberty bombers and we assembled them at the airfield." Manning, 71, recalls the armistice message came after supper. First it was not believed, but was then followed by some noise making with pans and "parading around." Royal "Pete" Wheat, now 74, arrived in France just before the war ended. He was awaiting transfer at the American Expeditionary Force headquarters at LeMans when fighting ceased. French soldiers there were running around kissing the Americans," Wheat exclaimed.

Ranks Thinning An estimate of the total World War I veterans left around Freeport is 150. Some are active in veterans organization, others not. Little in visual reminders are left around the veterans' homes of those days maybe a discharge paper, a moth eaten uniform or a medal or two. The experiences of 1917 and 1918 may have been exciting, but are not something the men would want to repeat. "We lost an awful lot of young men and it didn't do any good," said Dunning.

"'After it was all over everyone thought there would be no more wars," Manning said. He paused. "The cycle seems to run- every 20 years that there has to be a big war. My son was in Korea and now my grandson in Vietnam." 'Wars Useless' The heavily decorated Marsh noted "Wars are always lost causes." "They never solve anything," said Marsh, a receiver of the Distinguished Service Medal, Purple Heart and two French Croix du Guerres. "Maybe for a while they help, but as soon as a country gets over being licked they start building.

Wars seem a way of nature." Deeds of the World War I Doughboys have disappeared into the limbo of faded newspaper clippings and forgotten songs. In Freeport a modest memorial to three soldiers killed in the battle to save France is almost unknown. The small stone tablet near the Taylor Park shelterhouse is inscribed to the memory of three comrades of Battery Field Artillery who died in the St. Mihiel and Meuse- Argonne offenses. The names of 2nd Lt.

William Euard, Cpl. Fred Yde and Pfc. Lloyd Elliot are inscribed. Nelson enport, Iowa, and Mrs. Martin Ehredt of Stockton; 11 grandchildren; 25 great-grandchildren; two sisters, Mrs.

Lilie Yennui of Savanna and Mrs. Ray Hatfield of Warrens, and two brothers, Gust of Savanna and Frank of Clinton, Iowa. Roy White WARREN Roy A. White of Warren, a retired farmer, died Sunday night in St. Clare Hospital, Monroe, where he had been a patient since Oct.

27. Mr. White, a 50-year member of Apple River Masonic Lodge, was born Dec. 6, 1884, in Apple River, son of John C. and Elizabeth (Irvine) White.

He married Nettie Woodward Aug. 6, 1913, in Freeport. Mr. White farmed most of his life in the Apple River area, retiring to Warren 20 years ago. Surviving are his widow; a brother, Sherman of Warren; and a sister, Mrs.

Leslie (Stella) Baldwin of San Francisco. Funeral service will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Bartelt Funeral Home here, with the Rev. Robert Watson, assistant pastor of Embury United Methodist Church in Freeport, officiating. Burial will be in West Ella Highland Cemetery.

Friends may call after 2 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home where Masonic services will be conducted at 8 p.m. that night. Jacob F. Randecker MOUNT CARROLL Jacob Frederick Randecker, formerly of Woodland Township, Carroll County, died this morning in a Downey Hospital following an extended illness.

Funeral arrangements are pending at Christian Funeral Chapel here. FUNERAL DIRECTORY BURKE-TUBBS FUNERAL HOME for. N. Walnut and W. Galena Phone 232-0613 SCHWARZ FUNERAL HOME 816 South Galena Avenue Phone 232-9017 G.

T. Schwarz, W. R. Cramer WALKER MORTUARY 321 West Main Street Phone 232-9514 SATURDAY BURDICK, William James; 1:30 p.m. at the Mortuary..