NEWS IN 2016
The April Meeting of the Macoupin County Historical Society featured local businessman, Ralph Scheldt. Scheldt who owns and operates the Carlinville Dairy Queen took MCHS members and guests through the innovation of soft serve ice cream and 75 years of Dairy Queen history.
In 1938, Sherb Noble of Kankakee, Illinois, ran three traditional ice cream palors serving hard packed ice cream. Noble was approach by the father and son team of J.F. and Alex Mccullough who were working on a soft serve prototype of ice cream, to be served at a higher temperature which would enhance the flavor.
They were confident of the of its potential success but did not know how to market their product. Sherb provided his store as a site for a 10 cents sale . Customers packed the store and the area and the new soft serve was an instant hit. Now the innovators needed a freezer to support the sort serve in a continuous manner.
The original model of this freezer was developed by a gentleman named, Harry Oltz and custom built by Stoelting using commercial refrigeration. Securing a loan for this and additional freezers was no small feat during this post depression time, but money was finally secured for four machines.
In 1940, Sherb opened the first Dairy Queen in Joliet, Illinois and eventually expanded into Aurora, Illinois. Food franchising was almost non existent at the time of the development of Dairy Queen but the product's potential made it a successful endeavour. After World War II the business really took and DQ is not the largest seller of soft serve in the country. Since its development in northern Illinois, it was natural for its expansion to the central parts of the state following an easy pattern along Illinois Rt. 4.Sheldt described his DQ as a family operation with members of his and his assistants' families working at various times in the Carlinville store. Sheldt shared his collection of DQ memorabilia, vintage uniforms, equipment, books, and pictures as well as soft serve sundae samples.
Dan St. Onge of Carlinville, provided musical entertainment for the Macoupin County Historical Soceity's spring membership banquet. St. Onge covered four main genres of music during his performance, keeping up a narrative on these various forms of music and their writers.
2017 CALENDAR
March 20, Monday - Spring membership Banquet, Gillespie Civic Center - doors open at 6 - dinner at 6:30 - Program at 7:15 - Living history Presentation, Molly Brown by Barbara Kay
April 3, Monday - 7 pm at Ruyle Building - Jack & Anne Heinz - "Women, Work, and Worship in Lincoln's Country" - the Dumville Family Letters
May 1, Monday - 6:15 at Modesto Illinois - Tour of the Moffet Museum
May 27, Saturday - Spring Strawberry Festival - featuring Cactus Ranch Band
May 28, Sunday - Spring Strawberry Festival, featuring The Harmons
June 11, Sunday - Noon - setup for Pot Luck Lunch - meal @ 12:30 - Program @ 1:15 featuring Michele Thomas - War Brides
June 16-18 - Macoupin County Fair grounds - 2017 Tractor Show, Land of Lincoln Expo
July 10, Monday - 7 pm @ Ruyle Building - D.L. Dennis, The Witwer Files
August 7, Monday - 7 pm @ Ruyle Building - "Everything You Wanted to Know About Conducting a Genealogy Search" - Libby Klocke and Marti Lane
September 16-17 - Fall Festival
October 2, Monday - Hot Dog Roast - "The Women of Illinois Route 66" - Cheryl Eichar Jett
November 4, Saturday - Hammer In, Blacksmith Shop
Novermber 6, Monday - 7 pm @ Ruyle Building - Macoupin County Carnegie Hero Fund Recipients, Dave Jokisch
December 1-3 - Christmas Show
SPRING OF 2017
Spring has begun an exciting series of programs at the Macoupin County Historical Society. March found the members and their guests entertained and informed by retired educator and Living History Presenter, Barbara Kay. Ms. Kay appeared in the persona of Margaret Tobin Brown, aka Molly Brown. Brown was born of Irish immigrants parents in Hannibal, Missouri, and relocated to Leadville, Colorado during her later teen years following her siblings. She married J.J. Brown, an enterprising investor who made his fortune in the mining industry of the time. Brown is best known as a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic and a passenger of Lifeboat #6. Kay made note that Brown was not as well known for her endeavours after the accident in helping those survivors less fortunate than herself in securing compensation. Kay also brought out Brown’s efforts throughout her adult life to help improve the rights of workers and women.
April’s program for the Macoupin Country Historical Society featured Anne and Jack Heinz, retired professors, husband and wife scholars, and co authors of previously published books. Jack grew up in Carlinville, thus he had the familial and geographical connections to the letters he and Anne edited for the book, Women, Work, and Worship in Lincoln’s Country, The Dumville Family Letters. A portion of the letters of Ann Dumville and her daughters Jemima, Hephzibah, and Elizabeth were found in Jack’s great grandfather’s house. The letters were housed for a while at MacMurray College and later moved to the Abraham Lincoln Public Library and Museum.
The Dumville family immigrated from England to the Macoupin County Illinois area, where Thomas, the patriarch of the family wanted to start a Utopian farm near Sulfur Springs. He died before this endeavour could come to fruition and the women were forced to separate to find sources of income. Their letters formed a source of comfort and a means of discussing the turbulent times. The women were interested in the politics of the day and the subject of slavery is much mentioned in their letters. The Methodist Church played an important part in their lives and they exchange views on the sermons and their preachers.
This collection of letters is important because of the times in which they were written and the fact that the Dumville women were just ordinary folk, not famous nor socially prominent.