National Defense Class in Electricity Wires Oldest House in Community

 

Pictured is the Joe Jarden Home

From the Bunker Hill Gazette News: February 20, 1941

     The first unit of the National Defense Training Program offered in Farm Mechanics Shop at the local high school completed an eight week course this week with the wiring of a barn and complete layout of out buildings for Frank Gerdes, and the wiring and installation of fixtures in the Al Goodwin farm house.

    According to Edward J. Barnes, instructor, the class gained some valuable experience through difficult wiring in the Al Goodwin Home;  the back part of which was a Drover Hotel on the trail between St. Louis and Springfield.  No one knows what year the hotel was built, however, Goodwin can trace it back to 1834, and it was not a new building at that time.  The part of the dwelling which was the old hotel is of log construction, with the walls packed with mud, bound together by chopped prairie grass and hickory sticks.

    As related to the class by Mr. Goodwin, there are many pioneer stories connected with the old hotel.  Mr. Goodwin has in his possession a tax receipt amounting to forty cents which was the annual property tax on the old hotel and accompanying 160 acre farm.  Taxes at that time were paid in Edwardsville.

    Members of the class wiring the historic building were Oscar Boettger, Melvin Buhs, Harold Brueggeman, Stanley Dana, Victor Dubbelde, Albert Fahrenkrog, Harvey Howerton, Ralph Huette, Alfred Jacobi, Daniel Mancini, Kenneth Mansholt, Arnold Oldenettle, Elmer Oldenettle, Chester Rull, and Leland Scroggins.

    This property was owned by Lillian Goodwin Jarden and is the home of her son, Joe.

...Read more about this and other Bunker Hill, IL historical stories at https://bunkerhillhistory.org/

--Cite this story: The Bunker Hill IL Historical Society. "A Look Back in Bunker Hill History." Bunker Hill Gazette-News, April 28, 2022.  

Redford, Carol, and Betty Triplett. "Bunker Hill History." In Reflections: A History of the Bunker Hill-Woodburn Area, 50. Bunker Hill: Bunker Hill Publications, 1993. Provided by the Bunker Hill Historical Society.

Stanton, Carl L. . "Bunker Hill News 1941." In Bunker Hill Revisited, Volume Seven, 1941-1948, p. 2. Bunker Hill: Bunker Hill Publications, 2007. Provided by the Bunker Hill Historical Society.