Looking Back… News items from the past pages of the Calhoun News-Herald

By Editor | June 9, 2026 |

100 years ago
June 10, 1926
“Calhoun County May yet have a railroad,” old story sounds good to the folks in the Kingdom. The story of a new electric railroad from Quincy, through Pike County and on to Calhoun, will have a familiar ring to old times, says the Pike County Republican. As the story goes, plans for the new road, which would give Quincy a new and fast route to East St. Louis, has been announced by C.T. Petsch, head of the Quincy and Northwestern Railroad Co. This new line, the Alton, Quincy and Northern, will run through Adams, Pike and Calhoun counties to Alton, thence to East St. Louis. Incorporation papers have been issued to C.H. Petsch, of New York City, Attorney C. H. Wood, J.R. Williams, E. B. Potter and C.H. Hunter of Quincy. The Pike County Republican quotes Mr. Petsch as follows: “This means business. The next step will be to go down into Calhoun County and see what they will do there. We intend to go through with the road if they do down in Calhoun County what we ask, and that will be nothing unreasonable. The railroad that we propose to build will be operated for both passenger and freight service. Electric power will be used, generated by a new type Diesel engine on the cars. We propose to operate a modern electric railroad that will connect with the Quincy Northern railroad at Quincy. This road runs to Lomas, and the directory of the two roads will be interlocking. Our next step will be to go before the Illinois Commerce Commission for a certificate of convenience and necessity. It will operate through Calhoun County, which has no railroads. It will go thru Pike County, which has only one railroad running north and south. If we encounter no unforeseen difficulties we expect to start building operations by fall. However, no certain time can be fixed, because we found it required a year to push through the battle for the certificate for the Quincy and Northwestern, or upper railroad. With the good, logical reason we have, there should be no such delay in securing the certificates of convenience and necessity for the Alton Quincy and Northern. We intend to go right ahead with our survey of the road. There will be changes before the exact route is mapped out. We propose to operate railroad lines altogether within the state of Illinois, with a southern terminal at East St. Louis. While the new organization is independent of the Quincy and Northern Railroad Co., the interest will agree and be interlocking. We are using the new Diesel engine car because we believe the steam locomotive is out of date and will be cut out of general use in ten years. Cars can be operated 50 percent cheaper with the Diesel engine electric power than with steam.”

75 years ago
June 7, 1951
At a meeting of the newly formed 4-H Club County Council, plans were made for a 4-H Club Fair to be held in Hardin on July 31. Boys and girls of both Agriculture and Home Economics Clubs will exhibit their projects for this year. Friday night’s meeting was for organization and for planning of the county 4-H work. There are now eight home ec. Clubs in the county and fourteen ag. Clubs. Leaders have been found for all these clubs, with the exception of one or two. Members of the council, Mrs. Art Kamp, Mrs. Elba Sibley, Mrs. Otto Retzer, Jr. Mrs. Celeste Pluester, Mrs. Walter Schudel, Henry Hagen, Lester Bland and Lynville McBride are working with Rev. Estell Bettis, Youth Advisor and Stanley Sims, Farm Bureau Advisor, to make this first 4-H Club Fair a success. Details of the day’s events will be published at a later date. The public is invited so keep this date in mind.

50 years ago
June 10, 1976
Heavy, white smoke billowed from the Joe Siever home about one mile west of Kampsville last Thursday as firemen fought desperately to save the house. Siever was working in a field next to the house about 10 a.m. when he noticed smoke coming from the basement. The Hardin Fire Department was called and the Pleasant Hill Department responded later. No one else was home at the time the fire started. The two fire departments used the water in their trucks and tried to use water from the creek across the highway from the Siever home but could not get enough to save the house. One fire truck returned to Kampsville to refill with water but finally firemen had to abandon their efforts after fighting the fire for more than an hour and the house was completely destroyed. Only a few pieces of lawn furniture were saved in the blaze, which was of undetermined origin. No one was injured in the fire This is the second home on Rt. 96 to be destroyed in the past few months. Glenn S. Nevius lost his home, which is located a few miles from Siever home, in a fire last spring.

25 years ago
June 13, 2001
The Kampsville Board of Trustees dealt with the issue of hiring an attorney to handle the village’s business for the next fiscal year at its June meeting. At the last meeting, Mayor Ted Schumann had appointed attorney Richard Ringhausen to serve. The trustee’s vote ended in a tie, 2-2. One trustee had abstained and another was absent. According to the current village attorney Ed Fanning, the mayor would not break the tie since it was his nomination. The decision had to be tabled until the June meeting when hopefully a full board would be present. Schumann said that he later checked with the village ordinance which said he would have been able to vote and break the tie. Schumann said that he later checked with the village ordinance which said he would have been able to vote and break the tie. “That’s one of the very few times he gets to vote on anything,” Schumann said. The appointment of Ringhausen as attorney for the village still stood. Another vote was taken, with all six members present. It resulted in a 4-2 vote in favor of Ringhausen. Trustees Peggy Suhling and Larry Becker had voted “no.”

Posted in News