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Q: I'll be darned h tap in^ stopped to attend customer, then resumed) Q: Was there any question in your mind that you were going to be able to purchase that land during the auction? A: Oh I can't recall. 1 don't remember much. They said it in front of me, it would be a bargain, and I did get a bargain. I sold it at a hell of a profit a few years later. Q: Well how soon did you learn that there might be some problems in farming it? A: Oh I learned that pretty quick. I couldn't get nobody to rent it, nobody would rent it. They wouIdn't even go on it. And then for years they'd thought the>-'d stolen everything, when you did rent out, off of it too. A lady they called Grandma down there, different people would just go out and - see, this had been in negotiation for so long and Carl had died and his widow had never wanted anything to do with him. People would just go down and farm a few acres here, twenty-five, thirty acres here, and nobody got anything out of it. Q: Oh is that right? A: I always recall sitting down at a little restaurant one day - kind of a high backboard to it. And heard some fellows talking about it. See, some of this ground was \vet and I had to drain it. And John Stelleck bought it and - guess he put it in his secretary's name - lie didn't want no one to know who owned it. I couldn't get no service on it to - get permission to go through it so I just went on and dug a ditch on through it without asking anybody. So my auditors advised me to take a chance on it because that would give me a chance to charge the whole thing off. And I didn't think we were doing anything wrong, we was helping the whole area, drained the whole community. These fcllo\vs said. "I ~lon't know who in the hell them guys are, they must t~e a hunch of gangsters." he says. .Ant1 1 thought, well my God, 1.1-e heen going overboard trying to treat everyhotly right you know. I want to get along in the community and what they threw in my n.;i?. :\rill I happened to think that u-hen I made that ditch in there I had to make a pretty good-sizcd ditch. They couldn't go over and steal the timber oat of it any inore and that's what thry were mad about. Q: I see. (chuckles) 4 Couldn't get through the ditch Q: I'll he darned. I understand that part of it was purl.ha.;rd hj- somconc vlir ant1 they u-ere shot at when they mere trying to . . . A: Oh yes they shot - I had a man \\-orking for nie who was sli~~r ;I\ nhrn hi. \\-as 11rivi11~ the tractor. Come up here and he wouldn't go t1:lck down to \\-ark. .\nil I thought he nilr implicated with some women or something. But the\- just didn't want yon to farm it, tho! weren't about to let you farm it at all. Q: Did you get it farmed? A: Yes I tinally got it under operation. Q: How did yuu gu ahout doing it? .I: Oh I just had to finally - I'd better not tell tuo much of this because Blackir's still living and he might get ahold uf some of this, so I'd better keep quiet. You're ne\-er afraid of Carl Wittmond Memoir -- Archives/Special Collections, University of Illinois at Springfield
him. Down there - see. Blackie uras one ~11o supposedly had it in for the Sheltons and he could get in trouble down there. He got in trouhle too. He had to go to the penitentiary, he's out now some way. I don't know. Supposed to he in Kansas. He's not supposed to come over this way. He always was a friend of mine really until he got it in for rveryhody now, which I guess you would being in the penitentiary a while. He was a lot lnure . . . had deal even though he was wrong. Q: And you finall> sold out. Did you have any trouble selling it? A: Yes for a long time. I're still got some of it yet Q: 011 you have A: Some - yes, some land down Q: Well let's see, horn long did the arbitrator job that you had last? A: Four years. Q: For four gears. Then you decided to try for the A: Legislature. Q. Xhat made you decide to proceed again with it? :\: Oh let's see, how did I - who was running then'! Oh, Rill Gihhs got in trouhle, that's the way it was. src. And Donahur. And so then I ran and I gut a hreak there hecausr Gihhs was from Quincy and I got tu he pretty popular in Quincy. See this priest rvas don-n here and moved to Quincy. I went to Quincy t:ollege and I got an in in there and I was doing alright in Quincy. t\nd then in the meantime xhile I was arbitrator I made a lot of friends in Quincy. And heing with all the attorneys I got to meet all of them and that ga\-e me :I pretty good hasv that way. IJ: Well M'hat did the district cover at that time? JVhat A: The first tirnt, I run rve had Adarns County. It was 110 mile or a 115-mile long, along in that area, the distance from north to south. liail .&dams County, 11-e had Pike County, n.c had Scott Count)- an11 ('alhoun County. And then I :ilrvays ran a big majority see. I was \vay ahead of anybody ser. And then that made the party mad. They thought I was keeping them from gctting tno rrpresentatives. 1 was the only one representative fur :I long tinre in my district. I was the only elected Democrat of any of thv statr officials. Kepuhlican bras 1,illian Schlagenhauf, she was frum (Juincy. She was a Republican, hll the other people rvcre Rrpublicans, and I was the only I)ernocrat, see, in the distrirt. And ronsrquently Democrat party figured I \\--as a detriment t(l then1 hecause I had my orvn independent party brcause I acquired that when I \\-as nut. Thr first time I didn't contact committeemen se?. Then when I was arhitrator I hat1 time nruun~i town to gu and visit xith husinessmen sil I had a lot of the husinrssmen for me. Just like the other da)- I was over at Jacksonrille sitting there and thr Kepuhlicans h;id a party and had a - to do some birds and - I was at this tahlr and hell people started strolling in to this littlr meeting they had and some guy, "Hey, "he saxs," you're not runnin~ are you? IIell, more Repohlicans talk to you than to the rest of 4-ou." Well I knen them all from way h;rrk, some friends of mine, anrl . . . Q: So you \\-ere kind of running as an independent then? Carl Wittmond Memoir -- Archives/Special Collections, University of Illinois at Springfield
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University of Illinois at Springfie
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CARL WIITMOND ILLINOIS HOUSE OF REP
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orrrniilnity in central Illinois. A
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Carl Wittmond SESSION I, TAPE 1, SI
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A: Yes. Q: Okay. And then your fath
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County that had a spur on this side
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A: It's peculiar how you always rem
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Q: I see. (chuckles) A: Out of the
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A: . . . and he took care of you. A
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A: Oh yes. You'd have a showboat he
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A: Yes it really happened. This thi
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my motber had to scrape around here
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that's how narrow people are you kn
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you know. It wasn't too prosperous.
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A: Well, I guess it was. I guess 1
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to stay all night to go to a show a
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A: I guess that just becamea a knac
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Carl Wittmond Memoir -- Archives/Sp
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Page 83 and 84: Q. (chuckles) We11 this kind of gav
Page 85 and 86: Q: You sa) you were going to school
Page 87 and 88: A: Sunir. yes, oh yes. I've got sev
Page 89 and 90: Q: LVell hou did he po about gettin
Page 91 and 92: A: Oh yes sure, they used to dl, a
Page 93 and 94: ha\.? to come hc,ll:r to t'3t or so
Page 95 and 96: Anii the Eagles anif the Elks, I ha
Page 97 and 98: half of the peul,lr never elen knrw
Page 99 and 100: A: Well, in the first place, they'd
Page 101 and 102: Monday morning from Brussels. And m
Page 103 and 104: an argunirnt Iatrr UII a1111 the12
Page 105 and 106: Q: I I a n e llad you known Paul Po
Page 107: .4: Yes, somehody got hurt and Q: .
Page 111 and 112: Nuniber two, the secretary of state
Page 113 and 114: kind of a mystery place anyway, no
Page 115 and 116: anything you'd want if you'd want i
Page 117 and 118: Q: Kind of cleaned it up then. A: B
Page 119 and 120: Q: Yes that \+-as later A: I can't
Page 121 and 122: A: Probably was I think, yes. I did
Page 123 and 124: Maybe a lot of them was in. Like Bi
Page 125 and 126: other people would go see until the
Page 127 and 128: - "Oh." he said, "he makes eighty f
Page 129 and 130: .A: Oh, in his ofice, many a time.
Page 131 and 132: district. Powell said, "YIIu'~ h~tt
Page 133 and 134: .A: Oh atlout - yes, hr shall have
Page 135 and 136: thrsrr. ant1 Iru) them. And I don't
Page 137 and 138: ;mil the key Dcrnocrats. the) xverc
Page 139 and 140: you ran't beat." I said, "Some day
Page 141 and 142: :I: Yes I ren~ernher that. :I: I pr
Page 143 and 144: .A: Yes. they was \.otiny and vice
Page 145 and 146: Q: What was your position on that?
Page 147 and 148: Q Did she usually do it at your des
Page 149 and 150: a lot of the cunstituents don't un~
Page 151 and 152: A: Yes I remember him Q: \Ye11 let'
Page 153 and 154: 11: 011 I never did get excited ove
Page 155 and 156: '1: Oh 1 probahl) thought there wer
Page 157 and 158: to hlock it if he wanted to. So man
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it would he alright or whatever the
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Q: Yes. A somrthing. fle might have
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Q: Well let's see, he lived in Edwa
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Q: Oh, I see. A: Ht. thought that 1
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in the Granite City area - he was t
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:I: Oh yes, oh yes Q: What other ro
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So I put the bill in anyway to get
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A: . . . get credit for it, see, if
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A: I ctin't rrcall anymore \\.hat i
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A: hutuhahn, over in . . . Q: Germa
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Q: Well. Do you recall any particul
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I'd voted for the bill. That would
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Q: Let's see, the Zion [Illinois Be
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:\: Ile nrust not have run ;my more
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A: Wide open sparrs, that's right.
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Q: I'd like to ask first today abwt
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.A: Yes 1 can rt,call something of
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Q: Oh. He wanted the department you
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kno~r-. (;- I could have got on but
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who knrn. sonrething ahuut agrirult
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.A: \Vr ~ntrrtainzd several - one t
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town. And a lot of people was compl
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:I: Oh, n-c went a few other places
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.A: Not at that timc but they promo
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some of then1 - hut their unions ar
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sonielhing happened. I think I had
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Index .Ahl.nhani Lincoln Hl~tcal. 1
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Hinan, Martin, 79 IIitler, Adolph,
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