It happened in April

April 1964

Please enjoy this encore TBT Post originally published in April 2015. 

Do you remember these events that made the news in Raymond during the month of April?

1974
Rev. Thomas Gorman, pastor of St. Church celebrated his Silver Jubilee of Priesthood.

The first ABC Fair benefiting the Lincolnwood Reading Center was held.

1975

Lighting was installed on the Raymond Park ball diamond.

1977  

The LHS Band, under the direction of Darrell Cannedy, was invited to compete in the first state-wide contest of "sweet 16" bands.

1985

George Weatherford, an employee of Myers Standard Station at I-55 and Rt. 48, was shot and killed during a robbery. 

The Veteran's Memorial was erected in April 1995.

1986

Panhandle School Board votes to move all district 6th, 7th, and 8th graders to Raymond at the end of the 1986 school year. At that time, the Waggoner Grade School, Farmersville gym and ag shop, and one building at Raymond Grade School were closed. 

1987

The Village Board agreed to accept Southern Meadows subdivision, developed by Merrill Wernsing. 

1988

A severe spring thunderstorm struck Raymond, blowing out windows at the laundromat and destroying the roof on the Jim and Colette Herrmann residence, as well as doing other damage. A hail storm one week later damaged numerous roofs in the area. 

A drought from late spring though summer and fall resulted in low crop yields. Local communities kept a close watch on water levels. 

1989

Village and township elections were held with the race for township road commissioner between James Mackay, Democrat, and William Vanzant, Independent, ending in a tie with each candidate receiving 233 votes. A coin toss conducted by the canvassing board gave Mackay the seat. Vanzant challenged and called for a recount which resulted in the same tie vote. 

Doyle Memorial Reading Center and others benefited from the generosity of Mae Sorrells who bequeathed $5,000 to the library, $5,000 to the Montgomery County 4-H Foundations, $2,000 to the Raymond Cemetery, and $10,000 to Hillsboro Hospital. 

1990

The Raymond Village Board voted to ban skateboarding on Main Street.

1994

Many area residents turned out to tour seven homes that were featured in the "Parade of Homes" held to benefit the Raymond-Harvel Community Fund. 

1995

The Veteran's Memorial at Veteran's Memorial Park was erected by members of the American Legion and Village Board and employees. 

Cottage Corner News

From The Raymond News, 9/24/70

 

"Citizens of Tomorrow"

Please enjoy this encore TBT Blog post from 2015 featuring Raymond's "Citizens of Tomorrow." The photos appeared in The Raymond News in 1974: 

Raymond Trivia

Following is some trivia courtesy of the Raymond's 125th Anniversary Book: 

• The village was first known as Lula, named this after the first postmaster's daughter. The railroad imposed the name of "Raymond" on the village. Prior to the mail being received in Lula, mail had been delivered at Herndon post Office in the home of John Todt, north of the village. Todt had received his commission in 1868 and mail was delivered from from Springfield via Pawnee, White Oak, and Shawspoint to Herndon once a week on Saturdays. Todt received a salary of $20 annually.

• In 1873 licenses were issued for three taverns in the town. Owners were Thomas Fahey, Samuel Harvel, and Frank Huber. Two of the taverns had pigeon hole tables and one had a billiard table.

• The Free Methodist Church, Raymond, was erected in 1884.

• In 1888, The Ravmond Leader was started by W.S. Parrott but was published only about two years.

• At one time there were six lodges active in the village: Masonic, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Grand Army of the Republic, Knights of Pythias, Mutual Protective League, and Modern Woodmen of America.

• The first burial in St. Raymond's Cemetery was that of Mrs. Bernard (Sophie- nee Wiefenstett) Beiermann who died October 9, 1874.

• James Lonergan owned and operated the brickyard in Raymond in 1901. His nephew Dan was a brick molder and coal digger.

• Some early 1900's businesses:
  Frank Luking, blacksmith/farm implements; Philip Mangers, shoemaker; Joseph Mangers, harness; John McMillan, furniture and undertaking; Stephan Schulte, bakery/confectionery; Theodore Stoevener, merchant/tailor; Henry Gees, pabst beer; J. Guller, dry goods; A. Engel, clothier/hatter; Geo. Back, lunch counter; Geo. Beeler, blacksmith; J. W. Strain, jeweler/optician; Pratt-Baxter Grain Co., elevator; E.R. Steele and Co., dry goods; A.B. Whittaker, grocery; Miller & Gragg, furniture and undertaking; Day & Shaffer, farm implements, buggies, wagons; E.P. Darlington and Co., lumber; L.J. Dickson, hardware; W. L. Seymour, paints/drugs; J. G. Alsbury, hardware; Oscar Potterj grocery; A. H. George, grocer; Hough's boots and shoes; C.F Scherer, grocery; Dr. W.H. Mercer; and Dr. J. R. Seymour; W.H. Scherer, DDS.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

The following information appears in a self-published book by former Raymond resident, David A. Sorrell, called “As I Remember.”  The book features Mr. Sorrell’s recollections about the early days of Raymond. The stories appeared in a weekly column in The Raymond News from 1963-1972. 

Let’s think of spring as we knew it and saw it happen there in our town so long ago. Let’s start, say, on Good Friday. In our town, almost everybody had a garden and I can hear Mother saying, “It is almost Good Friday and I would like to get our potatoes planted if the weather is fit. I must get your brother, Sam, to come in and plow our garden up if the weather stays nice as it is now.” So we will say that the weather did stay good and one morning, brother Sam came with his plow and big team of horses and did plow our potato patch there back of our house and harrow it down good to make the furrows in which to plant our potatoes while Mother and I were cutting up the bushel sack of early Ohios that grew into the fine white mealy tubers that would perhaps be our principal article of diet all through the year. Mother would caution me again and again not to cut but one eye to each piece of potato. Then we dropped the fine potato seed into the black earth of our garden, Sam covered the furrows with a one-horse plow, and the job was done. For dinner on potato planting day, Mother would fry a huge skillet full of these seed potatoes for dinner and to a hungry boy there is nothing better than a plate full of fresh fried potatoes, as Mother knew how to fry them. Homemade bread - fresh butter and perhaps a good piece of steak and for dessert a good big piece of Mother’s gooseberry pie. I wonder now if gooseberry pie is something that has been lost to the art of cooking. Years have gone by since I have tasted one.  

So the potatoes were always planted first and then when they attained a bit of growth it was my hated job to take a stick and an empty can and go along each row and knock off the red potato bugs that were always on the vine it seemed. We had the potato patch where Mother grew corn between potato rows and by the corn was planted pole beans that would vine up on the tall corn stalks. Too, over there by the row of Gooseberry bushes in the middle of the potato patch we would plant squash seed for the huge Mother Hubbard squashes that made those delicious pies. Have you ever tasted this squash boiled and seasoned just right? On one side of the patch was a row of peach trees that bore big yellow peaches about August. There was a cling peach tree there at the end and in the fall, a pocket full of those were mighty good tasting to a hungry boy.

We had a smaller garden there by the driveway where we raised our lettuce, radishes, and bunch beans, and Mother had a row of flowers across the front. In this garden were two apple trees and a pear tree. At the back was a row of cherry trees and there just back of the combined coalhouse, cob house, and chicken house, was a huge strawberry bed. Let’s see how Raymond was doing on a spring morning. Mr. Weber was busy planting corn and potatoes in the lot next to our place. Going up towards town there was Doctor Hicks busy in his garden next to Ira Blackwelder’s house. George Woods was making a garden just about where the water tower is now and oh, yes, I don’t want to forget George Beeler’s garden there on the corner. I think George could be safely called the “master gardener” of our town.

Yes, all over our town in the spring making a garden was the order of the day. Men, women, and children were out in the spring sunshine spading, raking, hoeing, and planning the seed that would give to our town the hundreds of filled jars there on the clean cellar shelves in the fall - the bins of potatoes, the big store jars filled with the good sauerkraut and all the other things that the fruit trees and the carefully tended gardens would be put way to be brought out in the winter for our tables.