Memorial Day - Let Us Pause to Remember

Pictured: the Bunker Hill American Legion participated in Taps Across America 2022 by playing Taps at the American flag in the middle of town at 3:00 on the afternoon of Mon., May 30 - the National Moment of Remembrance.* 

From Reflections: A History of the Bunker Hill-Woodburn Area

The Memorial Day Committee of the Union Veteran Union has arranged the following program for May 30th.  Soldiers meet at 1 'o clock p.m. at Huggins block and march to Huber's Opera House at 1:30 o' clock.  

The program at the hall is as follows: Music, Bunker Hill Cornet Band; Prayer, Rev. J.V. Hopper; Remarks, Pres. Geo. McPherson; Music, Woodburn Glee Club; Address, Hon. Benson Wood, Music, Woodburn Glee Club, Comrades and Band will then march to Cemetery for the decoration of the graves, after which they will return to Monument, where assemblage will sing "My Country 'Tis of Thee" after which Rev. C.B. Riggs will pronounce the benediction.

The business meeting will take place at the secretary's office.  The committee on decoration requests the assistance of Ida and Alice Hetzler, Daisy and Bertha Hayes, Mary and Virgie Hedley, Irene Williams, Minnie and Lillie Brandenberger, Cora and Jess Hill, Annie Wendt, Minnie and Lillie Lee, Amelia and Myra Larmer, Mary and Effie Neil, Minnie and Nellie McPherson, Cora James, Josie McPherson, Lucy and Belle Cross, Josie Hanson, Lulu Wiegand, Annie Kardell, Bertha Schmolinskie, Edna and Nannie Hayes, Mary Sutton, Minnie Dable, Lizzie Dowitt, Cleda Wood, Minnie Smith, and all other daughter and sons of the solders.

They are requested to meet at the basement of the Congregational Church on Thursday May 29, at 10 o' clock a.m. to make wreaths, etc.  They are also requested to join with the soldiers on May 30th and march to the cemetery and assist in decoration of the graves.  Badges will be furnished, to those not already supplied by the committee, E.W. Hill, Thomas Larmer and John Brandenburger.

--Cite this Story: Redford, Carol, and Betty Triplett. "Bunker Hill History." In Reflections: A History of the Bunker Hill-Woodburn Area, p. 64. Bunker Hill: Bunker Hill Publications, 1993. Provided by the Bunker Hill Historical Society.

*Photo credit: Bunker Hill Gazette-News, June 2, 2022.

Lawrence Gosch Sells Gazette-News to Carl Stanton, May 1964

Pictured: Bunker Hill Gazette-News 

April 30, 1964: The Bunker Hill Gazette-News has been sold to Carl L. Stanton of Roxana, IL effective May 1.  Announcement of the sale was made jointly by Stanton and Lawrence Gosch, present editor and publisher.  Stanton has been in Bunker Hill the past week going through the operation with Gosch.

    Gosch came to work at the Gazette-News in 1948 when Arthur Strang was publisher.  He was named editor in July, 1953 succeeding Jim Herda.  He purchased the newspaper and became editor and publisher in July 1954.

    Arthur Strang came to Bunker Hill in 1939, purchasing the Gazette-News from Harold Gerlach.

From Relections: A History of the Bunker Hill-Woodburn Area

    The Union Gazette first rolled off the presses on January 10, 1866, with A.W. Edwards as publisher.  Some 300 issues were printed, and circulation climbed to 1,000 by the end of the year.

    Edwards sold the publication in 1867 to Dr. A.R. Sawyer and F.Y. Hedley.  Sawyer died the following year.  Hedley changed the name to The Bunker Hill Gazette in 1871.

    W.S. Silence became the publisher, with Hedley remaining as editor, in 1879, at which time the paper was leased for a short time before returning to Hedley's editorship.

    The paper became the Gazette-News in 1905 under the association of Phil C. Hansen and W.B. Powell.  At this time two competing newspapers were combined, The Bunker Hill News and the Gazette.

    Other names of leadership throughout the years included Harold Gerlach, Arthur and Frieda Strang, and Lawrence Gosch.

    In 1964, the paper was purchased by Carl Stanton, who remained publisher/editor until 1987, at which time it was sold to John Galer, a Hillsboro, Illinois publisher.

    The Gazette-News is one of five news and advertising media now being published under the name of Bunker Hill Publications.  The other publications are The Advertiser, the Southwestern Journal News, and the Southwestern Shopper at Brighton, and the Madison County Chronicle at Worden.  --Submitted by the Gazette-News.

Also see our previous other blog postings about the Bunker Hill Gazette-News at the following links:

https://bunkerhillhistory.blogspot.com/2022/05/gazette-has-roots-in-staunton-and.html 

https://bunkerhillhistory.blogspot.com/2022/05/wb-powell-tells-of-coming-to-bunker.html 

https://bunkerhillhistory.blogspot.com/2022/03/history-of-bunker-hill-gazette.html

...Read 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, May 26, 2022.

Redford, Carol, and Betty Triplett. "Bunker Hill History." In Reflections: A History of the Bunker Hill-Woodburn Area, p. 131. Bunker Hill: Bunker Hill Publications, 1993. Provided by the Bunker Hill Historical Society.

W.B. Powell Tells of Coming to Bunker Hill, Buying Paper

Pictured: Bunker Hill Gazette-News on NW corner of E. Warren and N. Pine St.

Was the former Chas. Folkerts Grocery Store  

    In the September 13, 1940 issue of the Gazette news, the 75th anniversary issue, a letter from W.B. Powell tells about the beginning of the Gazette news.  Mr. Powell, former editor of the paper, then the Bunker Hill News, is the man responsible for merging that paper with the rival Gazette.

    "One bright Sunday, sometime in 1903 or 1904," Mr. Powell began, "I went to Bunker Hill on an excursion that ran out of St. Louis.  I bought some of Louie Bartels' peanut candy.  If it hadn't been for that candy, Bunker Hill would never have had the distinction of my presence."

    "I resigned from the managership of Nugents' mail order department, a St. Louis concern doing a two million dollar a year business, and with a few manipulations with a newspaper broker, with offices in Litchfield, I found myself owner of the Bunker Hill News, located in a two-story brick building back of Sessel's Store, and over Barth's Harness Shop."

    From the building, Mr. Powell could smell Louis Bartels' candy cooking, but there was little else to recommend the plant he had purchased sight unseen.

    "The presses and make up stones were in the rear of the loft and the type cases in front and between the two there was space for a basketball court."

    The paper also had 125 subscribers and a broken job press.  Full page ads were sold for $5 an issue.  Mr. Powell bought new equipment, rented another building, hired a staff, and two weeks later published an issue of the Bunker Hill News.

    Within a few weeks, Mr. Powell bought out his competitor, the Gazette for $1,000.  This was the beginning of the Bunker Hill Gazette-News.

    From 100 subscribers, the number rose to 1,600.  Mr. Powell bought the Dorchester Hustler and merged it with the Gazette-News.

    It wasn't all quite that smooth going.  Once, as a result of a religious war in Bunker Hill, women cancelled their subscriptions and made the husbands cancel their advertising.  However, Powell's faithful friends, the German dairymaen of the area, ordered two subscriptions for every one that was cancelled and forced out of business, a man who cancelled his advertisement, the whole thing blew over and the Gazette-news came out on top.

...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, May 19, 2022.  

Gazette has Roots in Staunton and Gillespie

Pictured: Bunker Hill Gazette-News on SW corner of N. Washington and W. Fayette St.

    The Staunton Banner first appeared March 8, 1858, owned and edited by Parsons Percy, who bought the office from Monroe County.  He continued publication until 1860 when it was purchased and removed to Gillespie by A.W. Edwards, and in November of 1860 the first issued appeared in Gillespie as the Union and Gazette.  This paper continued under Edwards until 1863 when Edwards enlisted in the Union Army.  The publication continued for sometime afterwards by Alonzo James, but when he enlisted, the publication was suspended.

    The first Newspaper printed in Bunker Hill was the Bunker Hill Journal, five column paper with E.J. Bronson as editor and publisher.  The first issue was December 8, 1859 and the last in May 1860.

    When Edwards returned from the war in 1865, he moved the printing office from Gillespie to Bunker Hill, and resumed the publication as the Union-Gazette, with the first issue being published January 19, 1866.

Edwards continued publication until January 31, 1867 when he sold to Dr. A.R. Sawyer and F.Y. Hedley.  Dr. Sawyer died in May 1867.  In 1871, the name of the paper was changed with the word Union dropping out.

    Hedley continued as editor and proprietor until January 1, 1878, when W.S. Silence became editor.  This arrangement continued until January 24, 1879 when it was leased to Mr. Said and Mr. Poorran of Charleston, who published until July 1879.  At that time, Hedley, then the postmaster, resumed the editorship.

...Read 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, May 12, 2022.

The "Not So Warm" Welcome of President Andrew Johnson

Pictured: Big Four Depot

 

A reprint of our blog from Oct., 9, 2014... https://bunkerhillhistory.blogspot.com/2014/10/president-andrew-johnson-hooted-during.html

From the Bunker Hill Union Gazette September 14, 1866

President Andrew Johnson Hooted During Train Stop in Bunker Hill

    Quite a large collection of people were at the depot on the arrival of the special train at 9:40 on Monday morning.  Bunker Hill, true to her instincts and past record, offered no insult to President Johnson and only showing their abhorrence of him by their prolonged cheers for General Grant and Admiral Farragut (with Lincoln's assassination, Vice President Andrew Johnson became President).

    The President of the United States, Andrew Johnson, was introduced by John Hogan; three cheers were given which he acknowledge [Sic] by taking off his hat and was about to leave with us the Constitution and the Stars and Stripes, when a gentleman proposed three cheers for General Grant, three cheers for Admiral Farragut, and three cheers for the Congress.  President Johnson again attempted to speak, but the cries for Grant compelled him to forgo.

Mr. Hogan proposed three cheers for the Thirty-Six States, which were given and then someone fired a pistol in the crowd, which disturbed the nerves of the party.  The train moved off and, as far as the eye could reach, the humble individual with hat in hand was bowing to the right and left, poor President Johnson.  We sympathize with Grant and Farragut in their forced company.

Pictured: The Big Four Depot (circa 1939)

...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, May 5, 2022.  

Redford, Carol, and Betty Triplett. "Bunker Hill History." In Reflections: A History of the Bunker Hill-Woodburn Area, p. 35. Bunker Hill: Bunker Hill Publications, 1993. Provided by the Bunker Hill Historical Society.