Kevin and I had put the finishing touches on the video for the program on the Waterbury family and I loved the sailing ship, which represented the trip from England to the United States in 1630.

John Waterbury and his parents William and Alice were headed for a new country looking for religious freedom. I was getting ready to tell the story and Kevin would have a video to go with it.

We had finished when Linda joined us and we talked more about our Wednesday night program. We needed to get all the chairs set up to accommodate all the people. We had hardly finished when Linda’s new neighbors arrived to check out our museum.

They were part of the Folk family and interested in the history of Frank Folk, who had been a tailor in Polo for many years. I remembered him well since they had lived in our neighborhood when I grew up. I had also visited him in his shop when I was in high school. Blondie, his daughter, was in my class and we walked to school together. After school we would stop by his shop, which was uptown over one of the businesses. We are now trying to figure out which store Mr. Folk had his tailoring shop in the upstairs of the building.

This new couple to Polo also wanted to see his tailor suitcase that was donated many years ago by Larry Weubben, a grandson of Frank Folk. It took me a while to find it since it had been moved to another spot when we moved out a storage unit to make way for the antique reading table from the Burns House. Eventually we found it and Kevin then showed the family what was in the suitcase.

Meanwhile Wade had stopped by to show me what he was putting together in the way of old business receipts he was saving. He has them neatly put in a binder notebook that can be displayed nicely when he is finished. One quickly forgets all the businesses we had in Polo and where they all were located.

Then Beth stopped by and we talked about the Schryver Collection of Native American artifacts. We are working with Brook in Springfield about our collection. She has sent us a notebook of many Native American artifacts that have been found in northwestern Illinois. It dates to the 1920s.

Some of the Schryver collection is in the notebook. We have not had time to really sit down and read all the information in Brook’s notebook. We thank Brook for sending us this material about other Native American collections and the tribes they represent.

We are very appreciative of all the donations and artifacts people give. It keeps us going and helps us with the upkeep of all our historic buildings. Thank you to all for your help.

• Betty Obendorf is a historian for the Polo Historical Society.