March 29, 2024
Looking Back | Morris Herald-News


Looking Back

Looking Back for Nov. 25, 2020

1920 – 100 YEARS AGO

DeKalb County has the distinction of being among the first in the state to establish a tuberculosis sanitarium for the free use of its people without discrimination. The building is located about a half mile from the city of DeKalb on the road leading to Sycamore. A fine residence located on a plat of 21 acres mostly woodland was purchased at $16,000. The building has been re-adjusted by the installation of a new heating plant, water system, lighting system, the construction of fresh air rooms, refurnished and refitted, so as to make it as thoroughly up-to-date for the use as it is possible to make it.

Farmers living in the near vicinity of the city are reporting that the hunters are very careless about where they shoot and the result is that some have had cattle and livestock shot. Mr. Adams living east of this city is one of the complainants and says that already someone has shot two of his sheep and he is very much peeved over it.

The siren on the First National Bank is not for night holdups but is in case the bank is held up in the daytime. If the alarm is given in the daytime, any persons happening to be near it should take careful notice of any automobiles standing in front or to the side of the bank with the engine running and also try to get an accurate description of any men seen running out of the bank. In this way the police of the local force will be able to immediately send an accurate description of the men all over the state.

From now on motorists traveling on the Sycamore road will do so at their own risk and they are earnestly requested to keep off the road by Township Commissioner Fuller, who is building a gravel shoulder on the cement in DeKalb Township. Time and again barriers have been erected on the road but every time some smart driver crashes through them. Now it is really dangerous to go over the road and if a car happens to go in the ditch while on the road, the driver will not only have to pay damages on the car but also will be held for trespassing.

People living in the Ellwood addition have been wondering what the surveyors were doing yesterday when a careful going over was given the land in this section of the city by Harry B. Goodison and Walter Hay, of Sycamore. They were taking a survey for the proposed improvement of the addition. Just when this work is to be done is not known at the present time and will depend largely upon the report of the surveyors.

1945 – 75 YEARS AGO

Christmas in nearly 1,200 DeKalb homes is not going to slip up and surprise the occupants. In fact they have been preparing for the event since last year, putting money away on regular weekly payments in the Christmas Savings Clubs of both the First National and the DeKalb Trust banks.

Yesterday constituted one of those minor rush days at the office of Circuit Clerk Ben Davy, where service men were bringing their discharge papers for full registration. The discharges are recorded, photostats for the county records are made and then the papers returned to the ex-servicemen by mail. Yesterday up to 3 o’clock there were 29 servicemen in the office to have their discharges recorded. The rush was heaviest in the afternoon when 19 were reported during the two-hour period from 1 to 3 o’clock.

Those from Esmond working at the hemp mill are having a four-day vacation while the boiler is being repaired.

Finding a Packard convertible roadster parked on a road south of Cortland was only part of a story that Sheriff Deisz was trying to piece together on Wednesday. The car, which was left on a little traveled road a mile west and a half mile south of the Gormley School, near the William Lynch farm, was first reported on Wednesday morning. The car was first noticed late Tuesday morning along the road. Farmers figured that the occupant or occupants were hunting pheasants and paid no attention to the car until it remained there overnight.

Despite the end of the war, both hospitals of DeKalb are still running at crowded conditions and the drastic war-time shortage of nurses still exists. During the period of the conflict, the Nurses Aide program brought valuable relief to the understaffed hospital corps which were trying to accomplish almost the impossible in caring for the sick of the community.

Students of the Sawyer school have recently been given complete physical examinations, according to the requirements of the recent state ruling. The examinations were completed at the school on Friday.

1970 – 50 YEARS AGO

Approximately 25 NIU students and faculty members met last night at Montgomery Hall to begin a campaign to save the university’s three-acre arboretum from becoming the site for a new $4.3 million psychology building.

The Wurlitzer Company has been invited to exhibit its educational equipment at the White House Conference on Children and Youth in Washington, D.C., Dec. 13-18. On display will be the Wurlitzer Music Laboratory complete with student pianos and instructor’s console with a built-in communication center.

One of the modern features at the new North Elementary School in Sycamore are the double fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms which are separated by a room divider which may be opened upon occasion for combined classwork and sharing activities.

DeKalb High School’s swimmers will host their first meet ever in their new pool beginning tonight at 6:30. Dedication ceremonies, including the transfer of one gallon of water from the Clinton Rosette pool to the new pool, will be conducted in conjunction with tonight’s meet.

Women from the late teens to the mid-50s are now studying for a practical nursing career at Kishwaukee College. Twenty-one students are enrolled in the 42-month LPN program which began last May 25.

1995 – 25 YEARS AGO

The City of DeKalb has apparently secured a $6.9 million grant to fund a new runway for the DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport and could begin construction in the spring of next year.

Local law enforcement officials say when it comes to wearing seat belts, DeKalb County falls behind the state average. A recent survey conducted by the county sheriff’s department found only 60 percent of the motorists in the county wear seat belts while driving, more than 8 percent below the state average.

Every American should have a mailbox in cyberspace whether he or she owns a computer or not, a private study said. The widespread ability for people to send and receive electronic messages known as email holds important social, economic and political benefits.

Visitors going to the DeKalb County Nursing Home this weekend had a surprise waiting for them, they were encouraged to leave. County Home Administrator John Ross said this morning the home was off-limits to the public as a way to contain a viral infection that is sweeping through the home.

– Compiled by Sue Breese