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Today's Opinions

  • Early church services long and colorful

    Lately, the book that has sat on my bedside table for nightly reading has been the "1882 History of Bond and Montgomery County, Illinois." W. H. Perrin was the editor, and he gathered together an excellent array of writers for this book.

    Perrin’s writers traveled about both counties and interviewed old settlers, thereby preserving the earliest memories of when the white men first settled in this territory.

    Click here to read more...
  • Attend E911 hearing

    At the general election about a month from now, Fayette County residents will be asked for the third time to approve a telephone surcharge to fund emergency phone service. We’re hoping that the third time is a charm.

    We’ve given residents information prior to the first two votes on the issue, and we will be doing that again prior to the Nov. 4 election.

    But we’re hoping that residents also take the initiative to gather information on their own and ask questions.

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  • Samuel D. Davis had local connection

    “Father told us children that when he was about 16 years old he was living in York County, Pa. When the war came, his father, Joseph, was drafted, but did not want to enter the service of his country, and asked my father’s oldest brother if he would go in his stead. My uncle had a premonition that if he went to war, he would be killed.

    “Father, who was a few months past 16, said he would go to the front if they would accept him. Well, to make a long story short, father reported to the recruiting station and made inquiry if he would be accepted.

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  • Restore the funds

    The Illinois Senate on Tuesday passed a resolution that could restore funds to keep the doors open at 14 historic sites – including the Vandalia Statehouse – and 11 state parks in the state.

    The 40-15 Senate vote means that body joins the Illinois House in supporting restored funding for those sites. Tuesday's Senate bill would funnel more than $220 million toward parks, historic sites and social service programs.

    Now, it's Gov. Rod Blagojevich who stands in the way of keeping the sites open to the public.

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  • Corn Day offers many activities

    As area farmers prepare for harvest, our community is preparing for this Saturday’s annual Corn Day celebration.

    Sponsored by Vandalia Main Street, the event features a variety of activities – some to celebrate the prominent role that corn plays in our area’s economy and some just for fun.

    The activities get under way at 7 a.m. with a community-wide yard sale promotion. (See the ad elsewhere in this issue of The Leader-Union for the addresses of more than 50 yard sales included in the event. Many also have ads in the classified section of today's paper.)

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  • Amateur photographer preserved history

    Accompanying my column last week was a picture staged and photographed by Granville Blankenship in January 1920. That particular picture of pelts mounted on a barn won him a $4 cash prize.

    Granville described himself as an amateur photographer, according to his daughter, Mila Elam, of Bear Grove Township.

    Mila and her late husband, Loren Elam, were my "end of the road" neighbors when I was a newlywed in 1976. My husband, Dale, and I rented a house not far from the Elam homestead for a little over three years, and we became good friends.

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  • Congrats to new HOF members!

    Congratulations to the Vandalia Community High School wrestling teams from 1996-97 and 1997-98, which were inducted last Friday into the VCHS Sports Hall of Fame.

    Those two teams both compiled sterling records and went on to place fourth at the state team wrestling tournament.

    Also to be congratulated are VCHS homecoming royalty, Lexie Schukar and Wayne Stock, who were crowned queen and king at Saturday’s homecoming dance.

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  • Safety is priority as harvest begins

    In normal years, area farmers would be well into the job of harvesting their crops by now. They’d be in the fields from dawn to dusk, stretching themselves and their equipment to the limit, and generally pushing the envelope in a profession that is one of the most dangerous around.

    But this is not a normal year.

    Click here to read more...

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