CITY BEAT: MEMORIES OF LOTS OF SNOW AND SOME HARSH WINTERS
Paul Osborne
Editor/Publisher
Hi everyone! I hope you have been staying warm and safe in the cold weather and snow we’ve had in Central Illinois the past several days.
This week’s “Scrapbook” article on pages 4 and 5 of this week’s print and online editions of the Decatur Tribune is about the worst snow in Macon County history.
As the “Scrapbook’ article points out, “Among the 1122 people living in Macon County during the winter of 1830-31 was Thomas Lincoln, who had moved his family to Illinois from Indiana to a homestead in March of 1830.
“His 21-year-old son, Abraham, was with the Lincoln family and they built a log cabin on the north bank of the Sangamon River, about 10 miles southwest of Decatur.
“Although the Lincolns had endured harsh winters before, they would endure the hardest of all before they would leave Macon County the next spring.”
I’ve often wondered if the harsh winter of 1830-31 changed the course of United States history.
If the winter of 1830-31 was a mild one, the Lincolns may have stayed in Macon County and a Lincoln presidency might not have happened.
• OBVIOUSLY, despite what some people might think, I wasn’t alive to endure the winter of 1830-31.
I’ve lived long enough to endure some really harsh winters, but nothing like the 1122 people living in Macon County endured in that horrible winter —the worst on record.
I remember the harsh winters when I was a kid and lived in a house trailer in Hiawatha, Iowa, for four years before moving back to the Decatur area.
What I remember most was my dad, who was a mechanical genius, redesigning the heat stove in the Elcar trailer and, despite the terrible Iowa winters, we always had plenty of heat inside that small trailer where I lived with my parents and older brother.
I also remember the old heat stove in the one-room country school I attended and how we would put our gloves and boots on, or near, the stove when we arrived at the school.
I can still smell the “scorch scent” from gloves almost being set on fire in the warming process.
• I’VE HAD a lot of snow and bitter cold experiences in trying to publish this newspaper during some of the harsh winter weather in Decatur.
I remember one particularly bad winter storm, about 25 years ago, that trapped me inside the newspaper office for a few days because I couldn’t get out of the downtown area.
I remember digging out and walking around in the downtown area and feeling like I was the only one left in the world. I didn’t see anybody!
• TODAY, we have a lot more ways to deal with winter weather and the cold than they did when Abraham Lincoln lived in Macon County.
Special thanks to all of the road crews that did an incredible job getting the roads cleared and traffic flowing again!
Whenever snow hits Decatur and Macon County, they are clearing it away and working long hours to accomplish it — night and day!!
• REMEMBER when Robert Oakes was the superintendent of Decatur schools from 1969 until his retirement in 1988? During that time, Decatur had four high schools, five middle schools and more than 20,000 students and there really had to be a record-breaking snowstorm before he would dismiss school and use a snow day!
Bob passed away in 2010 at the age of 81 and I always thought he did a great job — and I still miss him.
Bob was named superintendent the same year that I became editor of this newspaper and I had a lot of contact with him over the years.
I don’t know if Bob’s reluctance to close school because of snow was exaggerated but I’m sure he felt an obligation to have students in school when it was possible and safe.
• BEST WISHES to all of the officeholders who have been sworn in at all levels of government that impact our area.
Running for public office is not as popular as it once way, or so it seems to me, and I’ve been covering and participating in elections for a long time.
I think part of the reason that people are so turned off about being a candidate for office is the amount of nastiness that has been going on in the political world in recent years.
When candidates have no opposition when they run for office, not a whole lot is presented to the public about why we should vote for them — because they are going to win anyway.
Special thanks to all the candidates who are willing to step forward and run for public office.
Your commitment to serve the public is appreciated.
• REACTION — Hollis A. Dick of Bethany wrote me a letter in reaction to a recent City Beat column where I mentioned Roy Chapman of First National Bank believing in me and loaning me money when I was getting started in the publishing business.
Apparently, Hollis Dick had the same treatment from Chapman that I had and, even though he was broke, when he needed the loan, Chapman believed in him and loaned him the money.
All of these decades later, Hollis Dick is retired from the trucking business, but he still remembers Roy Chapman’s willingness to make sure he got a loan at First National Bank. (He also paid every penny back with interest.)
Hollis asked me to pass his letter along to Daunt Chapman Peecher of Athens, Georgia, the daughter of Roy Chapman, which I will do. She wrote to me last month asking if I knew her dad — resulting in my City Beat mention of how Roy Chapman believed in me when I was getting started.
• I JOIN Brian Byers on WSOY’s Byers & Co. every Thursday morning at 7:00. I always enjoy our conversations about what’s impacting Decatur.
* * * *
FOR MORE stories and more “City Beat” and editorial comments, SUBSCRIBE to the print or online editions of the Decatur Tribune by using the “Subscribe” prompt at the top of this page. You will find many stories and columns about Decatur and Central Illinois each week. The print edition is $50 for 52 issues (one year) and the online edition is $30 for one year. The combo rate (both print and online editions) is $65 per year. You can also subscribe to the print edition via USPS by sending $50 to: Decatur Tribune, P. O. Box 1490, Decatur, Illinois 62525-1490.
