History Book Delayed
It was hoped that the Macoupin County History and Families Book would be ready by the Spring Festival at the Macoupin County Historical Society this coming weekend, May 28th & May 29th but because of design problems it will not be ready until later. An unbound copy of the book will be available for people to look at in the Ruyle Building at the Festival, also copies of other county books done by Acclaim Press will be available to see what the finished product will look like. The preorder for books has been turned in to the publisher but during the Spring Festival people can order a book for the special price of $60. The regular price for the book will be $65 once the book is printed and for sale at the Historical Society.
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.