125 YEARS AGO
December 7, 1887
Everyone rejoices in the bounteous rains of last week. It is thought more rain fell on last Saturday than during any one day since the previous March.
Mr. Stanford Mitchell, who was to have sung this week at the Universalist church, has just suffered a terrible affliction in the loss by scarlet fever of two of his children, a girl 9 years old and a boy 7, and his third child lies dangerously ill with the same disease. In consequence the church meetings have been postponed until February.
Dr. R.J. Gatling, the inventor of the Gatling gun, has invented another instrument of destruction he calls the “police gun.” It is a brass gun weighing 78 pounds and mounted on a tripod. It is capable of firing 1,000 shots a minute.
There has been considerable excitement in Sycamore this week over what is said to be a ghost. It has appeared regularly for several weeks every evening between 8 and 11 p.m., usually in the vicinity of Lattin’s warehouse. It assumes the form of a female. No matter how cold the night, the apparition, a shawl held tightly over its head, has taken up its lonely watch.
Since we once more have a Democratic president, the traitor rebels make more noise and cry “states’ rights” with more vim than ever before. Anarchists we hang, while traitors vaunt their rebel flags proclaiming treason and making Jeff Davis out to be a better man than George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. Shame!
100 YEARS AGO
December 4, 1912
There is a constant demand for old rags at Sycamore Memorial Hospital. Any contributions of this kind will be thankfully received.
The Colonial Motion Picture House will open for business in Maple Park on Dec. 6 at 8:00, with a two-hour program of motion and still pictures and illustrated songs.
The wrestling matches at the roller rink last Friday made one of the best exhibitions ever seen in Sycamore. One bout continued for 45 minutes before the first fall.
Miss Fannie Holland has been obliged to give up her work as a teacher in Kirkland to take treatment for her eyes.
McHenry County has organized a soil improvement association similar to that in DeKalb County, which was the first in the United States. Most of the counties adjoining DeKalb now have organizations with the same objective.
Page H. Crain, a Belvidere boy, has become an aviator, flying a Beriot monoplane.
Dr. Mary Walker, who came from Washington, D.C. to Chicago to see Jane Addams, has been officially snubbed by the organized women’s suffrage associations of Chicago. Dr. Walker is 80 years old and known the country over on account of her long-time habit of wearing male attire.
75 YEARS AGO
December 8, 1937
A cow gave the Great Western train dispatcher several hectic moments Saturday, the animal being an involuntary hitchhiker in a cattle car bound for St. Paul.
New Lebanon, once a thriving hamlet on the Milwaukee railroad east of Genoa, is for sale. The following advertisement appeared in the Genoa Republican: FOR SALE – The entire village of New Lebanon, consisting of four houses and a store building with living rooms on the second floor.
The county board of supervisors is considering a motion to connect Sycamore and Somonauk with a black top road.
The True Republican feels constrained to apologize to its readers this week, due to the fact that advertising is so heavy that we have been forced to eliminate a large quantity of news.
J.E. Entwistle of Genoa is all right, but his car is a wreck. He escaped death on the tracks in Genoa on Wednesday afternoon, when his car stalled in front of an approaching westbound passenger train.
Deputy William A. Runnels brought in chicken enemy No. 1 and collected a $3 bounty from County Clerk Joiner Thursday morning, having struck and killed the fox with his car.
50 YEARS AGO
December 5, 1962
Sheriff Field Utter had no more than taken a deep breath after being sworn in as sheriff Monday than he found himself bound for California to arrest, extradite and bring back the Cornwall brothers.
The Goodwill Industries truck will be in Sycamore Dec. 14 to collect repairable clothing and household discards.
Circuit Judge Cassius Poust has for many years enjoyed horseback riding, but Sunday morning brought a sharp and painful end to his safe riding. His horse stepped into a soft spot and the jurist was “overruled” and suffered a cracked collarbone.
No arrests have been made, but the .22-caliber rifle in the hands of irresponsible people menaced the lives of several rural citizens and caused a livestock loss Saturday and Sunday. Bullets entered two homes and a steer was killed.
The Sycamore Tribune has received a schedule of college courses which anyone can take via television. They will be presented over TV station WTTW Chicago, Channel 11, from Jan. 2 to April 20.
– Sycamore True Republican
25 YEARS AGO
December 9, 1987
After a three-day hiatus, negotiations in the three-week-old Hiawatha teachers strike were to resume Monday night.
Many parents are facing a new “kid”-related headache this tax season, as the Tax Reform Act of 1986 has created a new “Kiddie Tax” on the unearned income of children younger than 14.
With more than 300 guests expected, many volunteers are needed to help at the sixth annual community dinner on Christmas Day at McCabe’s, 323 E. Lincoln Highway in DeKalb. “It’s becoming larger and larger each year. We really need assistance,” McCabe’s owner Glen Goering stressed.
– The MidWeek
