Who Knew?

Welcome, New Friends - Kay, Rhonda & Shanda!

We enjoyed dinner after church this morning with the Gideon speaker and his wife, Greg and Julie.  When we told them we would be traveling west on  Route 24 this afternoon, they told us about a historic marker in a town whose name they couldn't remember.

They gave us enough information that when we came to Crescent City, IL we were on the lookout.  When we saw this fire bell, we stopped.
 Inside a shelter, my husband read the account of a major explosion when a train derailed here in 1970.
Greg is a Captain in the Fort Wayne Fire Department.  He is interested in railroads and (of course) fires! We forgot to ask him how he knew about this particular marker, but we're glad he alerted us to it.  We've driven right past it MANY times on our way to visit relatives in Illinois!
(This last picture shows hunks of metal melted together by the heat.)
It was good to get out and walk about a bit.
Who knew?
What bit of history in YOUR town or community would others be interested to know?

8 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing a little bit of history from your town. So glad you had a great day.
    Hugs,
    andrea

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  2. Well, not OUR town, Andrea...but a town we've driven through many, many times...without awareness.

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  3. Glad you mentioned the history of our little towns....I spent most of the day on Friday sorting through old obituaries and news clippings from our old hometown. My new job at the library--I'm the person assigned to the history room--allows me this wonderful privilege. I noticed that reading very old obituaries was actually edifying since they were very beautifully written and many contained lovely testimonies of marital devotion and Christian living. That's why I began posting the family history pics on my blog recently--thanks for the comment, Rebecca--and I hope to do more. I also learned some wonderful historical facts about the town while searching the files. You can live in a place all your life and still discover something new! Amazing!

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  4. We live in an area where the Karawanka Indians lived. They were cannibals.

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  5. Well, this reminded me of an accident in our home town that my dad talked about all his life. He was 16 when a commuter train crashed into a freight train head on. He and his friends were playing baseball in a field and ran to see when they heard what happened. Over 40 people lost their lives, and thousands came out to see the disaster. My dad kept a scrapbook about it, and today there is a memorial park at the site, which I drive past several times a week. When I checked the internet after reading your post, I found an entry in a record of personal accounts (written in the '60's) that was written by my uncle John, my dad's younger brother, and he mentions my dad's name (Sam). This is the website I found:
    http://cuyahogafallshistory.com/doodlebug.htm

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  6. I know Greg and Julie! I had their children in nursery school and we have been friends ever since. They are always full of interesting and fun information. When their children were students at the nearby elementary school, Julie was in charge of the sign in front of the school. The whole neighborhood was sad when the last child moved on to middle school and Julie was no longer the "sign lady" because we all loved her pithy and funny signs. Dear people!

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  7. I forgot to mention the train accident I referred to happened in 1940 in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

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  8. It's always fun to discover historical landmarks like that. I'm sure there's something relevant in my town or at least the area but I can't think of anything. I'll have to research it.

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Writing a Song a Week #3

Writing a Song a Week #3
♪ I wait for the Lord; my soul waits and in his word I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning ♪ (Psalm 130:5-6)