SPEAKER_02 0:10

Welcome to VC History, a program where we celebrate 200 years of fascinating people and stories that have led to Vermilion County, Illinois being the success that it is. I'm Lara Conklin. I'm with the Vermilion County 200th Anniversary Celebration Committee. And with me today is Bill Pickett, a very famous voice in Vermilion County, maybe not so famous for his face, but uh radio personality for over 50 years and also Westville resident for a long time. And we're gonna talk today about some of the history of Westville and some events that uh if you listen to this, if you listen to this broadcast later on, maybe you've missed them, but they are still really important uh history information that will be provided. And uh you can always look it up again later. So, Bill, tell me um tell me about your history in Westville.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Well, um I was born and raised in Danville here in Danville. Um and then in 1970, uh I met a girl, well, but it was before 1970, but I met a girl uh uh named Cheryl Dalgott from Westville, ended up marrying her, and uh um that's when I moved to Westville. Um I got real active in the community down there. You know, I was uh an EMT on the fire department. In fact, I went through the second class in Vermillion County uh on the fire department for over 20 years. Um I was active in uh you know, like the music parents organization. Got two boys that went through the Westville school system, and uh so a lot of things. Um I was on the Westville Susqueentennial Committee, Gary Delhay down there. He knows I live in Danville now, but he calls me up and says, hey, we need your help. And right now I'm on the Westville Freedom Celebration Committee. So still active in Westville. It's it's a nice little community.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

So with the and also you for year for a few years you volunteered at the Vermilion County Museum. Now you're a paid employee of the Vermilion County Museum. Um, how does that work?

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Well, the way that started out was unfortunately, right as the pandemic started, I lost my wife. And uh if she would have lived until June 6th of that year, we would have celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Oh my goodness. But that's an accomplishment.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

But she died in February. And um then after she died, um, I just kind of sat around home open for a little while for a couple of months or more, and and then about three months of doing that, uh I decided that hey, I needed to get out of the house and go do something. I went over to the Vermilion County Museum, started out as a volunteer over there, uh, volunteering on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And and then one day, about oh, it's probably been two and a half years ago or so, uh, Sue Richter, the director of the museum, she came downstairs one day and said, Hey Bill, how would you like to be paid for what you're doing?

SPEAKER_02 3:26

Absolutely, sure, sign me up.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

So I says, Well, what do you mean? She said, Well, we're wanting to hire somebody and we'd like for you to take the position. I so then I said, Well, what hours and days are you talking about? She started laughing and said, Well, funny you should ask because it's the very same days and hours that you're currently volunteering. Works perfect. You would just be paid for it. Uh since then, they've added a day. I actually work uh three days one week at the Vermillion County Museum and four days the next. Uh and uh it's something I really enjoy doing. It's I like history. And uh, you know, you meet so many different people, and and it's a very short shift. It's only from 10 o'clock in the morning until four in the afternoon. So, you know.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Well, and you are sort of a piece of Vermont County history yourself. I mean, you have to do it. You have to say, I'm I'm Bill Pickett. I mean, everybody knows that. 50 years plus on the radio.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Well, you know, um people kept pestering me after I so-called retired from the radio station. Uh it was kind of funny that day because uh I thought I was walking out the door of the radio station for the last time at WDANDL and K-Rock, and uh I was literally pushing the front door open. And Mike Hovey, the general manager, grabbed me by my elbow and he says, Hey, you got a minute? And so I pointed to him outside the front door was you know a bunch of family members, little kids holding signs and everything. They were out there. There was like about 20, 25 people standing outside the door waiting for me to come out. So I said, Uh, Mike? And so he said, Ah, they can wait. Come on back to my office. Well, we went back to Mike's office, and then he asked me if I would uh continue to do some features for Vermillion County First.com. And he core and uh Steve Brandi said could use them obviously on the radio as well for the news. And so I've uh he shot a figure at me, and and what I've tried to do since then is enough to where I feel I'm making the money that they're paying me, but I don't want to do too much and go hog wild crazy. You know, I'm supposed to be retired.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

Right, exactly. And as a retired person and also a Vermilion County museum employee, you've kind of gotten pulled and and a Westville person, uh, you've kind of gotten pulled into our celebration of the Vermilion County 200, then your information about Westville, which there will be a bus tour. The bus tour is sold out, um, but it's the uh 13th. June 13th.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

June 13th.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

But where is that tour going and what is the what is the idea behind it?

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Well, the museum decided to take uh bus tours around uh several parts of the county. I think there's seven different areas. Okay, maybe nine. Uh but anyway, several of those bus tours are sold out, like you said, including the one in Westville, which sold out quickly. Um the one uh Toddley and I are going to be the hosts on the bus. And we're leaving from the Westfield Depot at uh 10 o'clock that that morning on the 13th.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

And that's a the depot is also a museum, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 6:39

It's a museum, yes, the Westfield Depot Museum.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

And what is the focus of their museum?

SPEAKER_01 6:44

They've got all kinds of Westphal area-related stuff in there, particularly coal mining, and uh it's uh it's an incredible museum. If you've never been in it, they've got so much stuff in there, you know, but uh and they are open on certain hours. I'm not exactly sure what their hours are. Of course, they'll open by appointment too, or whatever. But uh they've got uh on the outside of the museum, they've got several displays, uh and including a new mural that they just painted on the end of the building, that was just painted on the end of the building. And uh so we're gonna have our the people meeting there at 9 30 that morning, and then the bus doesn't get there till 10.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Next door to the museum, the Westfield Depot Museum, is the the public library. And one thing that's really pretty cool out in in the library, um, they've got several things that they've done in honoring the 200th, and one of them is they've had kids uh paint rocks, and they've got Rocky the Snake and Rock and Rockette. Each snake is 200 rocks long.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

And there's even a rock that's painted for me as a radio broadcaster that they did a beautiful job on. And um anyway, so you can see the Rocky and Roquette, the snakes. Also at the library, they've got several displays inside for the 200th. Uh outside, there's a sidewalk right directly in front of the front doors of the Westville Library. Now, right outside the front library doors, there's bricks that's got people's names on them and stuff where they purchase bricks to help support the library.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

But further down, there's a segment of that sidewalk that lists over 500 names of Vermillion County coal miners who lost their lives in the mines.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

So we're gonna point that out. Uh our bus trip at least from there. Uh it's for the Westville, Belgium, uh, Hegler, um, Grape Creek areas. And so when we leave the uh the depot area, we're gonna go down uh we're gonna go to Westville High School and and point out that later that day there's an open house from noon until two.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Because Westville's having a celebration that same right, the very same day.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

There's that's one of the big days on our freedom celebration.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

And so anyway, that day we're gonna pull the bus like up on the student parking area, point out the new football field and baseball fields and all that stuff that they've got down there, and and then tell the people, hey, if you want to come back later on, you can go inside the high school during the open house from noon to two and and see the you know, like for example, the the football that was painted white that was used in the very first night high school football game under the lights that was at Westfield High School that had the first night high school football game in the name in the country. Wow. Yeah. And uh so we're gonna, you know, show them that. Uh I mean let them be able to see that. There's a big tiger in there or statue, and there's all kinds of stuff in there. But anyway, they're gonna have an open house, like I said. From there, we're gonna leave and go down to Belgium. Uh Gary Delhay's brother is gonna jump on our bus for a little bit and talk about Belgium and the jail that was there.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

And I I Belgium is so named because there were a lot of Belgian immigrants, correct?

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Right. The Westville area was known as the melting pot of nations, it still is, okay because of all the immigrants that came over here uh to work in the coal mines.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Oh right. And so Because I think of Belgium as being very Italian. Or not Belgium, Westville, being very Italian. There's a lot of Italian names. And then Belgium, what was Belgium?

SPEAKER_01 10:33

There's there's all kinds of names in Westville.

unknown 10:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

There's and there were different parts of the community uh where they lived originally. People kind of lived with their own little group originally when they came over here, the immigrants. And uh so anyway, the uh the trip itself, like I said, we go to Belgium, we leave there, we're gonna go west on Lions Road, point out the Harrier Hotel. Word was, I don't know, and I never was able to confirm this, but somebody told me that that uh Dillinger would come down, the gangster Dillinger would come down to that hotel once in a while. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

So where's the Harrier Hotel? What was that?

SPEAKER_01 11:07

It's on it's on West Lions Road, off of Route 1, and uh Is it still there? It's still there. The building's it's it's abandoned, but the building's still there.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

From there we go down to uh, you know, past McMillan School on Route 1.3 out, which is now it's no now no longer a school. Then from there we go down uh Ross Lane, East Ross Lane, uh to uh Murray Clark Road down around the corner. There's a there's a building down there that it's now an apartment building, but um Todd Lee, who's gonna be the co-host on the bus with me, uh, he told me that that building back in the day that the railroaders lived there, and they also turned that building into a hospital for uh I mean the coal miners lived there, not railroaders. Coal miners live there.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

And they also turned the building into a hospital for coal miners who got hurt.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

And from there we're gonna go down over the hill to Rosie's Tavern.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

And we're just gonna talk about we're we're not gett letting people off the bus there. We've never got them back on. So we're then we're gonna go to uh we're gonna talk about it though, because it's a little historical building. It supposedly had the first liquor license in Vermillion County.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

Okay, and then we go a long time.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

And then we go to Grape Creek, uh point out the beautiful ball field that the church has built in Grape Creek. Uh, we talk about Grape Creek a little bit. Uh one of the things I did for the museum was they had me write up stories about all the towns in Vermilion County. And that took a wow, like a year.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

And one of the things I discovered about Grape Creek was that one time that the population was bigger than Westville.

SPEAKER_02 12:49

Really?

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Westville or Grape Creek had uh uh three grocery stores, two gas stations, oh my goodness, and the CEI railroad trains stopped there twice a day, dropping off people to work in the mines, and then going back. And there were also three different Indian tribes in that area: the Kickapoo, the Pottawatomie, and the Piancashaw. So I imagine if you would go down along the riverbanks or somewhere down in that area, you might find a lot of arrowheads or something. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

But so I I I grew up on the state line on the Indiana side of the state line, and sometimes coming from Danville or you know, going to Danville, we would take a shortcut through Grape Creek. Um I can't imagine that being very populated because the road does this, you know, it's just twisty turny. Um and it there just it doesn't seem like there's enough room down there for very many people. And where was the where was the train?

SPEAKER_01 13:53

The train tracks, if you uh you can see the berm down through there as you as you follow the road, there's places where you can tell by the berm of the the the soil that's stacked up along there. You can kind of tell where it went through that area.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Um but the uh uh from from Grape Creek, then our bus trip goes uh south uh uh toward Moray Chapel. But on the road down there, there's actually uh right around one of the curves, there's an entrance you can see to a coal mine. Now is that is that Haubuck? That's the Hallbuck area, yes.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

Okay, so I currently live um outside of Oakwood above some of the strip mine ponds. But what you what they what they were the mining they were doing in Westville was tunnel mines, right? Underground underground coal mines.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Right, right. It was not strip mining.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Okay. And so there's still at Hobuk, there's still a entrance.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Right around one of the curves, as you go down, go around the road going toward Maury Chapel. You can see on the side of the road, there's a it's got like bricks around the edge of a doorway, and then it goes in just a little ways.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

And uh, but it's right on the curve. And then, like I say, we go down to Maury Chapel where somebody's gonna jump on the bus and talk about the chapel a little bit. From there we go to uh Zamberletti Park and point out the Japanese cannons that are in front of Westville's Zamberletti Park that were captured from the Japanese during World War II. Want to point out some of the uh beautiful uh improvements that have been made to the park itself. And that's another thing that you know I I was just a part of it, but but a lot of people deserve credit for that. And I I was just a very small part of it. I was I was but I was on the Westfield Samberletti Park Improvement Committee. Um the uh the ball diamonds and everything, you know, the restrooms all redone. I mean it's been it's just a beautiful deal. And from there, um, depending on how our time's running on the bus trip, right? Um we'll but we'll we'll probably uh uh Bunsenville, uh out southwest of Westville, Bunville, is an area where they mine coal.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

And it's a neat looking little town uh that's still there. There's like about five houses, one single-story houses on this one road on one side of the street. And then you go around the corner to go down one block and turn to the left, and there's two-story houses. And then and where the two-story houses are, the road is made out of bricks, they've got curbs and gutters and everything right down, and it's just like a one-block long area. There's only about six houses there, too.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

But then right in the middle where the turn is to go down to that area, that was the entrance to go down to the Bunsenville coal mine. So you can go down, and what the deal is with the different size houses, Todd Lee told me that the smaller houses was where the workers lived, the bigger houses were where the management lived.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

Okay. Kind of typical.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

So, and then after that, if we have time to go out there, but we're our trip ends at uh back at the Westville Public Library uh for refreshments and stuff back there. And that's just one of the trips.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

So I'm gonna I'm gonna test you now. When did coal mining get started in West in the Westville area? Why what and how did so many immigrants know to come there?

SPEAKER_01 17:28

I'm not sure how they knew to come there, but it started way back around the 1850s, and maybe even before that uh that they started coming over. And so it's it's been going a long time. And of course, now there are no active coal mines in Vermillion County. But uh the uh the mining uh at the Vermilion County Museum, there's a nice display area about coal mining and uh it talks about uh both underground mining and strip mining. There's some pictures of the big buckets that the cranes use. When I was a kid growing up, you know, south of Douglas Park in Danville, one of the big uh cranes that was digging for the coal was on the south side of the Vermilion River, would be basically in the area kind of south and maybe a little bit east of the Bowman Avenue Interstate 74 interchange.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

But on the south side of the river, there was one of these big house things up there. They were digging 24 hours a day, and I could hear that thing running 24 hours a day. Huh. The scoops on them were actually manufactured in Danville, the buckets, and uh they say those buckets were big enough to drive three or four cars in.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

So when they each time they dug up a shovel load of coal, they was digging up quite a bit of a strip mining.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

That would have been not the right that um I can't even imagine something that big.

SPEAKER_03 18:55

Right.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

I've seen at like rock quarries the the big trucks that have tires on them that are bigger than a house.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

Uh so I'm assuming that that's something very similar.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

But yeah, dad used to take us out to Kickapoo and we'd watch him dig out there, you know, when we were kids.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

So I I guess I didn't realize that the strip mining I mean, I knew that they had reopened some of the mines, the tunnel mines, the underground mines, um in the 90s, 80s, 90s.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Um I did not realize that the strip mining was still continuing into like it was in the 1950s, um maybe into the sixties. I'm not sure how long it went, but I remember dad used to take us. We'd go out on a Sunday afternoon drive and we'd just go out and watch them dig the family dig for a while. I mean, that was just one of the places.

SPEAKER_02 19:57

Well, and it's I mean, if you've got a scoop that big, it would be fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

So um we have some other things going on this this year with the 200th. Um the first bus trip, we had Tim Lee on here last time, and he was talking about the first bus trip at around Oakwood. And that that but it's also that's a really busy weekend because we've got the first bus trip. There's the balloons over vermilion is going to be at Kinnecuck, which gosh, that event started in the 80s. Uh took a little as as balloon classic and then took a bit of a hiatus, and it's been 10 years now as balloons over vermilion.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Right. Um Yeah, the the weekend, uh well, our Westville Freedom celebration, uh, it runs the Monday the 8th through the 14th, which is on a Sunday in June. Um it was kind of funny because our committee, we started meeting and it was originally going to be two days.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

That's what I heard, yes. It was it was gonna be short and then it's gonna be two days.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

And then people started finding out what we were up to, and they kind of jumped on the bandwagon like the Westfield American Legion wanted to do stuff. Lato's Hardware is having their 80th you know, 80 year and they're having an open house down on Lato's Hardware during part of that.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

Um there's a uh isn't there like a high school class reunion?

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Yes, that's what happened. Uh we didn't know it. Our committee didn't know it, but we've we learned that the Westville Alumni Association, that's the weekend that the everybody was coming from all over the country for that to come back home for their big celebration. And so they joined our celebration. Uh, we've got one of the gals from that on our committee, and uh they decided instead of going out of town to have a you know a big banquet somewhere or something, they're coming to our spaghetti dinner on on that Saturday evening, which runs from four to seven. And uh Uh we've got a polka band at that one uh that's gonna be playing outside there. And uh so there's bands a couple of different nights at this different celebration there in Westville. Um at the Spaghetti Supper, um people on the committee asked me if I would do a book signing because uh after I so-called retired from the radio station, people were pestering me a lot. Pickett, you've you worked for over 50 years covering news in Vermilion County. You need to write a book. You need to write a book, and I kept hearing that everywhere I went. And so finally I decided, you know, to to write a book. And and so it's called Behind the Mike for Over 50 Years. And during the Spaghetti Supper, uh I'm gonna be doing a book signing. And where is the spaghetti supper? It's gonna be at the uh St. Mary's Okay, you know, at St. Mary's Church. Right. Okay. Not at the church, at the community building. At the community okay, at the community building there. It's at the church, yes. But uh they want me to do a book signing during that, and I told them I said, hey, you know, if you need help doing other stuff, passing out spaghetti or whatever. So, you know, right. Then they said, nope, you're gonna do a book signing. So anyway, I uh I decided to go ahead and do that. And then um, but there's stuff all week long, you know, they're having a a decorating contest for houses down there. Uh people can decorate up their houses and they're gonna judge them. Uh do they have a theme? No, it's just you know, it's it's gotta be something patriotic. Okay. It's for the 250th birthday for the country.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

And so they went, um, you know, they um it's the American Pie Band that's gonna be at St. Mary's on that Friday night.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

And then uh, like I said, they're gonna have that polka band the next night. Um and they're gonna have a vendor fair with flea markets and stuff all weekend long.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Uh that's free for the vendors. Um it's a patriotic home and yard decorating contest. Um, there's an open house at the Westfield Depot that Saturday.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

Uh we're having before the bus trip takes off, we're gonna have a reenactor uh being one of the coal miners, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Right.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Kind of given a a story of of what it would was like to be a coal miner.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Yes, he's gonna visit us from Spring Hill Cemetery.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

So did did um did the mines, you know, we talked about Bunsenville and how they had the houses for the uh the houses for the workers and then nicer houses for the management. Um you you hear all these things I mean, I think of mining as like an Appalachian thing. So I realize that we have a mining history here, but I think of the the stories from the Appalachians and like they had company stores that people owed and they you know had their own hospital. And and was that a tradition also in Westville? Did they have that kind of were there different mines or was there one mining company?

SPEAKER_01 25:00

There were several mining companies. Uh and uh the uh you know the workers worked in the you know, there were at least a half a dozen mines right around the Westville area. And of course there were mines all over the county. And uh I remember covering the news in the 19 what 70s, 80s, they were gonna try to open up uh a coal mine out around the Catelyn area, and that kind of got beat back. The citizens uh didn't want it, a lot of citizens didn't want it. I covered a lot of different meetings on that, but but uh the mining just kind of faded out over the years.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

And now I know we did a the the museum worked with a group from the University of Illinois last fall to kind of do a mining history, um, which they've got a report out about. But um one of the things that came out in their report is that one of the one of the mines that opened later and was recently closed, when they closed it, they discovered that there is a petrified forest.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

That's down around Ridge Farm.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

In that mine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

So um and I find that fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Yeah, and they've talked about maybe trying to do some kind of a historical at the at that site. You know, make it so people can stop by and maybe see pictures. Obviously, you can't go down the room.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Right, you can't go would be unsafe, yes.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

But maybe have the displays of the pictures of what the what the roof, the ceiling looks like inside that mine. It's incredible. Yeah. The fossils. It is incredible.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

And here we're going to do a safety note. We we talk about the fact that there's still a there's a doorway to a mine in Habuck and some of these other things. Don't go in those. Not even the most curious person should ever go in those. They are they've been closed for a reason. Um just study the history, don't don't get a firsthand look at it. Five hundred miners have died in those mines.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

And I don't think you could go very far in that one. It looks like I I haven't got up close to look in there, but it looks to me like you can maybe see in there like two or three feet. And then it's a solid wall after that.

SPEAKER_02 27:22

So there's you're not gonna go where you're tried really hard to like close those down so that nobody could get into them. But um So tell me a little bit more about the Westville celebration. It starts on a Monday. Yes, the the weekend is the high school reunion and and and all of that stuff. But we have you have some other things.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

Well, it's it starts on the 8th. Uh Brunswick Bar wanted to do some stuff, and they're doing some stuff there at the bar on the 9th. There's an interesting thing on the 9th. That's Tuesday, the 9th. Um, it's a tribute to coal miners. It's gonna be at Rosie's Tavern.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

And uh State Representative uh Brandon Sweitzer is gonna be part of that. That's at 5 30 on that Tuesday, but it's a tribute to coal miners. One of the speakers there is a coal miner's daughter who's gonna be talking.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

But Aunt Loretta Lynn Yeah.

unknown 28:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

And then uh Wednesday and Thursday, the American Legion's doing stuff. One of the nights, uh Thursday, I believe it is, they're having a patriotic costume contest at the Legion.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

That should be colorful.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

On Friday the 12th, uh there's the open house at the library from 9:30 to 6. And like I said, you can see those bricks out in front that's got the names of the over 500 miners who died in the mines. Wow. Um there's an open house at the Depot Museum that day on Friday from 3 to 6. Uh, American Pie Band is going to be at St. Mary's playing outside from about 7 to 10. There's going to be a cruise in at Coal Miners, which is uh a liquor store there on the north end of Westville. Uh, from 4 to 7 p.m., there's going to be a cruise in that night. Uh, like I said, the vendor fair flea market stuff is going on all weekend long on the St. Mary's grounds. It starts at 4 p.m. on that Friday. The Patriotic Home and Yard decorating contest is going all weekend long. Saturday, the 13th, is the open house again at the Westfield Depot, 9 to 1.30. The 80th anniversary open house at Leto's Hardware is uh from 9 to 3 that day.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

That is a really cool store. I will say it's been years since I've been there, but it is a it it it reminds me of an old five and dime, even though it's a hardware store.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

If you need it, they've probably got it. Yes, it's amazing the stuff that they've got in that store, and it's it's just you know, it's a family-run operation, has been for decades, and and they do a great job. Uh there's also on that uh Saturday, like I said, the open house tours of Westfield High School from noon until two. That's Saturday the 13th. Uh, and again, you can see the the football that was used in the very first night high school football game anywhere in the country. That's so cool. Um some people dispute that and say, no, they had the first night high school football game in their area. But Westville had the first night high school football game in America that was actually part of a high school schedule. It was a scheduled, it was a scheduled game. So the the Some of the other there's a couple other places somewhere in the country they're saying, no, we played the first, but they played exhibition games.

SPEAKER_03 30:35

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

They didn't play Westfell, Westfell played Milford in that game, by the way, and Westville won the game. Um anyway, um there's a spaghetti dinner that evening from four to seven on the 13th. Uh and for that spaghetti dinner, uh you just pay whatever you want to pay. You know, there's no set price. Uh the polka band's gonna be out there. Uh like I said, I'm gonna be there signing my book for over 50 years, uh, behind the mic for over 50 years. Um the um flip my page here. The alumni association that night at that thing, they will be honoring at the spaghetti dinner. They're gonna be honoring uh the years 1976, which 50 years ago. Wow. Also 2011, and they're also gonna be honoring 2026. So the new grads. And then, like I said earlier that day, I went on my bus tour with Todd Lee. Um Sunday, the stuff continues as part of the freedom celebration. There's the vendor fair that continues until four o'clock that afternoon on the 14th. Uh, Patriotic Golf Cart Parade leaves the high school at one o'clock. Uh the Vermillion Vols, the old-time baseball team. Oh, sure. They're going to be playing a game at Zamberletie Park. And uh so that's gonna be part of the celebration. And so that basically wraps up uh our celebration there in Westville. Uh one of the things I wanted to make sure that I got in as a as part of the museum stuff we've got going on is on August the 8th and the 9th, you'll want to mark your calendars, 8th and the 9th. Joe Tanner, the astronaut, yes, is coming back home to Danville.

SPEAKER_02 32:19

Member of the Astronauts Hall of Fame now.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

Yes. Yes. Yes, recently inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame. Uh he's gonna have a program at Danville High School on August the 8th, and then on August the 9th, uh he's gonna have a meet and greet at the Vermayan County Museum from 1:30 until 4.

SPEAKER_02 32:38

And I've heard there's all kinds of fun stuff, um backdrops that have been put have been purchased so that you can look like you're in space with Joe Tanner and um a bunch of fun stuff. There will be things going on for the 200th through the museum all summer. Well, yeah, all year long, but all summer. We've got um we've got a gospel sing at Man's Chapel in June. Um, you know, we're gonna be at the balloons over vermilion handing out information. Um there's a the great-granddaughter of um famous Civil War general. Um he and his brother were the first brothers in the history of our country uh to be awarded the Medal of Honor both of them.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

Sunday, June the 7th, there's a meet and greet for the great-granddaughter of General John C. Black. That's gonna be at the at the Dr. William Fithian home. That's gonna be from one until three. And he was a black Medal of Honor recipient, and that's free. That's uh at the museum.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

Yeah, and he but he and his brother were the first the first brothers in all of American history to both receive a medal of honor, and that was during the Civil War. And I think that medal of honor had been misplaced, or we didn't know that we had it, or it had I know there's a connection there with the war museum as well. So um we may talk more, we may have a program in the future uh where we talk about some of the famous guys who came out of Vermilion County. Um, and I'm not talking about the actors, I'm talking about the the politicians and the military folks. Um and General Black is one of them.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

Yeah, the interesting thing working at the museum uh to me that's a lot of fun is when I take people on tours through the Fithian House, of course they talk about how during the Lincoln Douglas debates uh Abraham Lincoln was ready to go to bed and he was staying at the Fithian house with his friend, Dr. Fithian, and a crowd gathered on the lawn down below and started yelling for him, and so he opened the window, went out on the balcony, and addressed the crowd down below. And but my dad, who was born in 1910, was a mail carrier here in Danville for I think 34 years, and during most of those years, his route was right in that neighborhood.

SPEAKER_02 35:17

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

And dad told me one time he had a guy on his mail route by the name of Mr. Chelsea, and he said he asked him one time how old he was. And this Mr. Chelsea told him that he was so old that he could remember seeing Abraham Lincoln step out on the balcony. He said he was a kid on his dad's shoulders. Oh my goodness. And he told my dad that Lincoln not only went out on the balcony that day, that that night, but he also came outside and was shaking hands with people outside. And he said he could remember shaking hands with Abraham Lincoln.

SPEAKER_02 35:46

Oh my goodness, can you even imagine?

SPEAKER_01 35:48

So when he told my dad that, my dad told him, Hey, I want to shake hands with a man who shook hands with Abraham Lincoln. And he shook his hand. When dad told me the story, I said, Hey dad, I want to shake hands with a man that shook hands with Abraham Lincoln. So I shook my dad's hand. Well, sometimes I tell the people when I'm taking them on a tour up there through the through the Fithian house, I tell them that little story. And I've had a lot of people say, Hey, I want to shake your Well, funny story.

SPEAKER_02 36:11

Um, my husband's family, my husband is a descendant of the Lincoln family, but not Abe's family. Um his uncle, so his father's brother, was a great, great-something grandfather of my husband's family. So we have great interest in all things Lincoln. And that that's a fascinating story. Yeah, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 36:36

Well, people always talk about how he stepped out on the balcony, but but dad learned that he didn't just step out on the balcony that night. He also went outside and was shaking hands with people on the lawn.

SPEAKER_02 36:45

That's amazing. I can't even imagine. Also, you think about I mean, technology is such that we think about Abraham Lincoln as being way, way back. But we're talking about a couple of generations. I mean, it really wasn't that long ago.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

Right.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

So I find this, I find this fascinating. Um, Bill, I really have appreciated our time and our conversation today. Um, I'm sure people love talking to you when you take them on tours of the Fithian House at the Vermilion County Museum. Please remember we have all sorts of activities going on all summer, all year long, as Vermilion County celebrates its 200th anniversary during the same year that the country is celebrating its 250th. So there is just so much for you to do and see um in our area this summer and this year. We appreciate very much that you spent some time with us today, and I hope we'll talk to you again. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 37:48

Well, thanks for having me, and hopefully people will get out and enjoy the county. You know, the beautiful parks and everything that we have in this county. We're very, very fortunate. So we are.

SPEAKER_02 37:57

We're very fortunate. So enjoy Vermilion County this year and every year. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

Thank you.