Pickings from Pike’s Past

By Editor | July 6, 2026 |

75 YEARS AGO: TORNADO SWEEPS ACROSS NORTH PIKE COUNTY

150 Years Ago
June 30, 1876
The grand Centennial in Pittsfield on July Fourth will begin with an artillery salute of 100 guns (including Capt. Shibley’s battery of siege guns) at sunrise, followed by the ringing of all the church bells. The day will include the grand parade at 10 o’clock, the reading of the Declaration of Independence, Wm. Grimshaw’s history of Pike County, free ice water, games, dancing, balloons, and a glittering display of fireworks in the evening.
The members of the Pittsfield Christian Church gave a raspberry and ice cream festival at Bush’s Hall last Tuesday night. Raspberries and ice cream were served in abundance.
By order of the Board of School Directors the Pittsfield town clock is to be regulated so as to run by railroad time, which is fifteen minutes faster than its present time.
Bay Creek was on the rampage last week and the creek bottoms on the road to Nebo were generally overflowed.
Spring Creek Township has a very neat and substantial new school house where “Old Hackberry School” used to stand, and where many of that neighborhood first learned their abc’s.

125 Years Ago
July 3, 1901
Heat records are being broken all over the country. The highest temperatures since 1872 are being registered in many cities, including New York and Chicago. Some of our farmers have been cutting wheat by moonlight, as we have two full moons this month.
Milton, Hull, Pearl, Baylis and Nebo citizens are preparing glorious celebrations for the Fourth of July. The Pittsfield City Council has issued an order to the effect that anyone shooting firecrackers or other explosives within the corporate limits of the city, except July 4 and up to 1 a.m. on July 5, will be prosecuted.
The board of education met yesterday and let the contract for reflooring the East school building and the repainting of both the East and West school buildings.
A trip through the country shows that the hedge fence is rapidly disappearing. Farmers have discovered that this weed has roots extending 25 to 30 feet into the ground.
Several from Nebo went to Belleview to attend the dedication of the new Catholic Church. The Latter Day Saints in Howell Hollow, south of Nebo, also have a good house ready for worship.

100 Years Ago
June 30, 1926
Hail did tremendous damage in the Griggsville-Valley City area June 25. It is doubtful if those sections ever saw a storm of such magnitude. In some places the hail was piled against buildings and fences to a depth of 10 to 14 inches. The hail belt was about 2 ½ miles wide. There was serious damage to standing corn and fruit crops.
F. M. Lewis & Son, Pittsfield Ford dealer, offered a prize of $5 for the oldest running Ford driven into Pittsfield on Dollar Day. He paid it to J. O. Allen of Milton, who came in with a 1913 model with over 100,000 miles on it, and it was still “going good.”
The work of laying the slab on Route 36 from the Adams County line to Barry is progressing very rapidly. The contractor works from 5 a.m. until 8 p.m. daily, and over 1100 feet of concrete slab are being laid daily. There still remains a gap between Barry and the end of the pavement west of Pittsfield.
The Jerseyville paper reports that there remain only two gaps in the concrete road between White Hall and Alton.

75 Years Ago
June 26, 1951
A tornado swept across Pike County Saturday night from the west border to the east, hitting Hull, New Canton, Barry, Baylis, Griggsville, Perry, New Salem and Valley City communities and leaving tremendous destruction in its wake. The big, two-story Joseph M. Ackles packing plant in Valley City caught fire shortly after midnight and burned to the ground, due to a short from a downed power line.
Many tents, erected for the fair, which starts next Monday in Griggsville were torn to shreds by the windstorm.

June 28, 1951
The student population committee of the Citizens Survey for Community Unit District No. 10 has made its final report, including populations trends in Pike County. It shows a gain from 18,819 in 1850 to a peak of 33,751 in 1880. Then 31,000 in 1890 and an increase to 31,595 in 1900. Followed by a steady decline to 24,357 in 1930, with an increase to 25,340 in 1940. The population in 1950 is estimated at 22,080.
The Independence Christian Church had a homecoming service and a basket dinner Sunday. Miss Gladys Harpole, the Sunday school superintendent, presided. Miss Clementine Thatcher and Miss Rosalie Weaver rendered musical numbers.

50 Years Ago
June 30, 1976
“Let Freedom Ring” is the theme of the community worship service to be held as a special Bicentennial observance in Pittsfield, Sunday, July 4, on the courthouse lawn, beginning at 11 a.m. Seven local churches are participating in the service which will also include a combined choir of 50 to 75 voices singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “God of Our Fathers.” Chuck Barber will serve as song leader and choir director. Mrs. Jill Roodhouse will be at the piano and Mrs. Bettie Harrison at the organ. The musical accompaniment will also include a trumpet trio composed of Angie McEuen, David Durall and Jeff Stauffer. The Bicentennial message will be presented by Congressman Paul Findley.
James R. Thompson, Republican candidate for governor, will kick off a series of appearances at 52 county fairs this summer, with a visit to the Griggsville Fair Friday, July 2.
Nichole Leigh Deeder, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Monte Deeder of Griggsville, celebrated her second birthday June 28 with a party at her home.

25 Years Ago
June 27, 2001
U. S. Congressman Ray LaHood, R-Peoria, was in Pittsfield Saturday morning for a get-acquainted
breakfast sponsored by the Pike/Scott Farm Bureau. LaHood acquired most of Pike County in his district in the recent redistricting. The meal was held at Carl’s Kitchen in Pittsfield and LaHood was introduced by Farm Bureau president Roger Akers.
The Big Band era is revisited this Friday night at the Main Street concert on the courthouse lawn. The Kevin Turner Trio, featuring Bob Havens formerly of the Lawrence Welk Show, will play for the concert, sponsored jointly by the Main Street organization and the Pike County Dance Club. Hamer and Jenny Tate, long-time members of the dance club, are pictured dancing in front of the courthouse.
Four staff members at Pikeland Community School went to see an Oprah Winfrey show, live, in Chicago recently. They had talked about it for years and were glad they finally made the trip. The teachers are Cara McNulty, Betty Hayden, Beryl Richards and Yvonne Stauffer.

10 Years Ago
June 29, 2016
Austin Johnson took first place in the Western Illinois Fair school bus demolition derby Saturday evening in Griggsville.
Karla Bainter is retiring after 41 years at the First National Bank in Barry. She says the biggest change in the banking industry since her start date in July, 1975 has been the technology.
Pittsfield seniors Cody Hayden and Wade Thiele were two of the players that participated in the “I-72 Do Or Die Bowl” in Quincy last week, giving seniors one last chance to take the field as high school football players.

■ Compiled by Michael Boren

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