Thank you Barbie Brutlag Dicks

Warnke, Repp, Tornowski

Standing: Ophelia Warnke, Minnie Repp, Martha Warnke

Sitting: Lillie Repp, Emilie Tornowski Warnke Repp

Repp Children: Johnny, August, Minnie, Lillie

Children of John and Emilie Repp

Tornowski Sisters

Emilie Repp, Marie Ritter, Emma Ortlepp

Repp. Four Generations.

Emilia Tornowski Warnke Repp, Martha Warnke Kietzman, Millie Kietzman Roberts, Ruby Roberts Huizenga

John (Johann) and Wilhemine (Kuehn) Tornowski

Married 4 February 1849 in Germany

With their nieces Gustie & Emma Ritter

Louis and Ernestine Kietzman Family

John, Louis, Minnie, Emma, Theodore

Tornowski

Emma and Martha

Repp

John Christ Repp and Emilia Augusta Tornowski

--All Photos from Barbie Brutlag Dicks.

Tornowski

Back row left to right:  Edna Johanna, William, Henry Otto, August John, Gottlieb.
Front row left to right:  Ernest Tornowski Sr., Emma, Ernest Jr., Herman Rudolph, Emma Shultz Tornowski

--Photo and identification from Donald Tornowski.  Roberts Illinois History Group Facebook Page.  May 2020.

More Homes

--Posted to the Roberts Illinois History Group Facebook Page by Tim Theesfeld.  April 2020.

The next photo includes at least three houses.  These homes also are on the east side of North Main Street, just a little further to the north end of the street.

The first house in the above photo and below, I remember as Jerry and Viola Shambrook's home.  Jerry Shambrook notes that he bought the home from Earl Day in 1959.

The next home would be the Pettit/Riddle/Estep home (below.)

 

The third home in the photo is what I remember as the home of Ida Tornowski (below.)

Burlyn G. Brown

--Newspaper Clipping. 

TRAIN-AUTO ACCIDENT TAKES TWO LIVES
The lives of two men were almost instantaneously taken by an accidental collision of a train and auto at the McLaughlin crossing Sunday evening. These men were Verne Hunt, of Melvin, and Burlyn G. Brown, of Roberts.
The wives of these two men are sisters. Mr. and Mrs. Brown make their home with Mrs. Brown's father, Ernest Tornowski in Roberts and Mr. and Mrs. Hunt and daughter Caroline, had spent the day at this home. As evening came they prepared to go home and the other family decided to accompany them. Mr. Hunt and Mr. Brown went in Mr. Hunt's car and Mr. Tornowski with Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Hunt and Miss Caroline went in Mr. Tornowski's car a short distance behind the other car.
Evidently when the first car came to the McLaughlin crossing where they left the concrete and crossed the R. R. track they did not realize that the train was so near them. However they had crossed the track and were almost clear from it when the train struck the rear of the automobile and swung it around so that it landed beside the fence on the south side of the road headed east. The car was so close to the fence that a board torn from the fence penetrated the top of the car. The car still stood upright with the lights burning and the engine running.
Mr. Brown, who was driving the car was thrown out and landed in the road. He was badly crushed and hurt inwardly but did not show many outward marks. He was alive when picked up and lived for several minutes after he was taken to Dr. Boshell's office. Mr. Hunt, who was riding in the back seat, was thrown out of the car and over the fence on the south side of the road. His skull was crushed in two places and one leg was broken and otherwise badly crushed. He was dead when picked up.
The first persons to arrive on the scene after the accident were Mr. Tornowski and Mrs. Hunt and Mrs. Brown and Caroline. The train stopped and came back to the place. A large number of citizens arrived within a short time and Dr. Boshell was among them. The bodies were gathered up and taken on the train to the depot and then to Dr. Boshell's office. The body of Mr. Hunt was then taken to his home. Mr. Brown died within a very few minutes.
Coroner S. A. Hanson of Elliott was called and empanelled the following jury: W. C. Holmes, D. B. Thompson, H. H. Hackett, G. F. Howk, George D. Ensign and Seward Arnold. The bodies were taken and the jury adjourned until Tuesday afternoon at four o'clock when the train crew gave their evidence.
The train which struck them was due in Roberts at 5:53 and passed through here at about that time though it may have been a little late. It was due in Melvin at 5:58 and it was probably near that time when the accident happened. The train was held in Melvin nearly an hour on account of the accident and pulled into Gibson City at about 6:55.
Verne Hunt was the son of Clyde and Clara (Yackee) Hunt. He was born at Melvin, Illinois, November 9, 1900, and would have been thirty-one years old Monday of this week. He was a first class auto mechanic. He had lived in Melvin all his life except for two years when he worked in the Yackee Garage in Roberts. His funeral was held at the home in Melvin, Tuesday afternoon at 1:30 o'clock.
Mr. Brown came to Roberts about two years ago from Wayne City, Illinois. He was 26 years, two months and seven days of age at the time of his death. His funeral was held at the Lutheran Church in Roberts, today, Wednesday, November 11, at two o'clock, Rev. Henry Foelsch, officiating.
The obituaries of both will be published next week.

--Roberts Herald. 11 November 1931.

Edna Brown lived right beside the RR tracks on Green Street kind of behind the lumber yard. She was only married to Burlyn Brown for just over a year when he was killed in 1931. His obituary states that he had no children, but Edna was pregnant when he was killed. Glen Vernon Brown her only son was also killed in an auto accident in 1952 when he was 20 years of age. 
Edna never remarried and had no other children. 
Where is the McLaughlin crossing? 

Early Days in Lyman #7

EARLY DAYS IN THE TOWN OF LYMAN
by Bela Foster

Continuing . . .
1869 was a very wet year. It was so wet that scarcely anything except grass and weeds grew. Hardly a farmer raised more than one or two hundred bushels of corn. I remember that J. N. Barker worked the Deacon Woodward farm. He was to have half he raised and his board. He raised one load of corn. The boys sat pretty that year. They could go swimming every day if there was no work to do. The flies and mosquitos flourished as did the chinch bugs here last year. The horse fly is very voracious and is not particular about what animal supplies his meals. They hatch in the low lands and have eyes that are large and full of sight. They alight on an animal and when they are filled and they leave the blood flows for a few seconds. If the animal is not well blanketed it is covered red with blood spots before night. They did not bother by entering houses much. Mosquitos were the worst pests as they worked nights and cloudy days. In the evening we would build smudges something like your neighbor does with dry and green grass, on the windward side of the house, as we had no screens in those days. The flies were chased about with green branches and home made extirpators.
These pests multiplied almost any place that year. This year was followed by several years of malaria, starting that year. Some had chills every day, others every other day. The druggist could not supply the demand for quinine, which was used as a febrifuge. It is no wonder that people were sick and many died. The water they drank, the food they ate, the flies and mosquitoes preying on their system, was enough to bring these results. My sister, Martha and I were spared the suffering and therefore came in handy to help those who were sick.
A. M. Haling and others had made an agreement with the G. C. & S. Railway to give them the right of way if they would put a town on his land, the Beset half section. After some litigation the company put in a side track one half mile east of the present Fred Woodruff home. 

My Note:  I have to get a plat for 1935ish, when Mr. Foster is writing these article.

 

--1876 Lyman Township Plat 

Mr. Haling put up an office and a large corn crib and bought corn and sold coal and flour. The company had also promised Alonzo Roberts, Van Stlenbert, Taylor John of Thawville and the people of Melvin, the same thing. When it looked as though the town would be at Beset, George H. Thompson and Doolittle erected a store building just north of Otto Bleich's house.

My Notes:  Otto Bleich is the father of Edwin Bleich per FAG.  And Edwin Bleich is on the 1977 plat. And the side track would possibly be located on what was Ray and Leonard Rock's property in 1977.  Currently owned by John Zick Jr. per the 2016 plat.  And in 2016 Chester Bleich would be the owner of the Edwin Bleich property.  Chester died not too long ago; I posted the obit on the Roberts Illinois Facebook Group page.) So was the Thompson and Doolittle store building where the Bleich home is now standing, just over the tracks off of 54?  And this was the store I believe that was moved from the Beset location, to Roberts, then to Thawville.

 

--1977 Lyman Township Plat

So on the map below Otto has property on the other side of 54.  Ida is Otto Bleich's spouse.  I don't see a home in Section 15, but one is on Ida's property on Section 10 appear.

--1948 Lyman Township Plat

They also put up a temporary building on the east side of the road on the Haling property for a flax seed store house. They carried on the business for about one year, until the chances of a town at Beset was nil.
1871, Dr. Cassingham, then a young man saw the possibilities of a town in Lyman came here and had his office at Conger's who lived on the Tornowski farm on the hill a mile north of the Thompson store.

--1916 Lyman Township Plat.

My Notes:  The Tornowski farm on Section 3 is where we believe the old cemetery is located. Right between Section 2 & 3. The Forbes farm would be Section 2. The old article from 1922 states the Forbe farm is the location of the burial site.  How convenient for the MD to be located near a cemetery???  With the Thompson store being located only a mile south.  Across the highway???  Dr. Cassingham had his office at Conger's who lived on the Tornowski farm on the hill.  Maybe where Daniel Flessner lives???? Kay Schmidt who is part owner of this corner of Section 3 told me she spoke with Wayne Tornowski, and he told her there was a cemetery at this site.

He boarded at Conger's until his family came when he moved into the only residence in the new town which we named Bungtown. When the G. S. & C. began the erection of a depot on the Roberts land the hopes of a town at Beset waned. Bungtown was moved to the site of Roberts. Thompson's store was moved to Roberts and anchored a little north of where the hotel is now.

My notes:  The hotel was located where the Roberts Feed Mill currently sits.  Next to the Congregation Church.  So it would have been very close to the church or in the same spot.  Moved to erect the church???

Dr. Cassingham occupied it for a year or two and later it was put on skids and moved to Thawville. It stands on the south side of Thawville's main street yet but has been remodeled and changed in appearance.

My notes:  Sandra Grohler Kay gave me info on this building.  I need to find that.  On the Thawville History FB page I think.

James R Smith, of Kansas City , Missouri, writes Mr. Foster as follows: "I have been interested in the articles you have written in the Roberts Herald recently, giving a very interesting story of the early days, settlers and settlements of Lyman township and of Ford County."
"It is certainly splendid of you and the editor to give the readers of the Herald, such a plain and accurate account of those old times and conditions, which those first settlers passed through in helping to make Ford County what it is today."
"Many of the names and places mentioned by you were brought back very vividly to my memory, although it has been more than fifty years since I left Ford County, and many of those good old settlers have gone on again to another home. But those old sweet memories will always remain until time with us, also shall be not more. So far as I know, I believe my brother, David B. Smith and myself are the oldest living natives born of Lyman township. Both of us were born near the site of the old school on the Smith farm. Personally I thank you and the editor of the Robert Herald for the articles you have written."

--Roberts Herald. 17 April 1935.