Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Q: Oh? Were you a pretty good corn shucker? A: I don't know whether I was good or not, he probably didn't think so but I got by. (laughter) He'd give me fifty cents I think, or something like that. Jersey County of course is not like in Edgar and Mclean and Champaign and those surrounding counties, but there was a good strand of land in Jersey County. But in Calhoun County - I don't think Calhoun County had too many crops. And while we're talking about that, you know you mentioned Wittmond. I looked up - he served six terms. See, I was out for four terms and I see he served four of his six terms when I was out. And I didn't know that. I know him. He has that Wittrnond Hotel. A lot of people go up there to eat in the fall and the summer and the spring. Of course that Illinois River, they'll shut those ferries down maybe the first of December until the first of March. Q: Oh they do? A: They have to go around. I mean that was a big pain in the neck when my daughter lived in Brussels. You'd have to go around, you'd have to go up on the Hardin side and cross the bridge and come down and then you'd have to come back. I think it was about a forty-mile round trip. And I guess my daughter and her husband - he must have done it a lot of times. Of course it was a good place to live. I wish they were there. I think they both wish they were right back up there. But that's not here nor there. But they had a nice little home, but that's a nice place. Some people, they either live in Hardin or Brussels and get anything you want. It might be a little higher but you can go to school and church. And they've got a hospital in Jerseyville, and you can make it up there. They've got a post office and they get papers. I think Calhoun County itself is an island, isn't it? Is it an island? Q: No it's a peninsula I believe. A: Peninsula? Q: Because up north of IIardin it's - widens into a . . . A: Yes I guess so. But there's no - there's no railroad in Calhoun County I don't think. Q: I believe there was years and years ago. There was a spur - a short one - that ran from, oh, someplace around the tip up to a brick factory of some sort that used to be there. A: That's right. Q: Do you remember the brick factory? A: That's right. You're right. Well we had a brick factory here too. The Alton Brick. Q: Oh you did? A: Talking about - there was the Alton Brick and it was family-owned and as you come down from Springfield or Chicago or go up on the Amtrak, why - I always called it the C & A - why, you'll see the remains of it. Sam Ode11 had a big sign out - always had a big sign - "Sam for reelection." He don't need any signs but - he'll win - but he's got a big sign out there. And it's the old furnaces - they had ovens you know, I guess, where they'd bake the bricks, that's the old - and it's a huge building, huge building, a huge shell of a building.
And of course, hell, I guess, when I was a kid, that the streets of Alton were paved with brick before they - yes, because, hell, they paved Washington Avenue and State Street - State Street where the old cathedral was, and they was paving that when I was in high school. Q: Well. A: Paved it with brick and we'd see the sand and we'd race up on the sand and take our shoes off, when we were in school at recess, or after school and race in the sand, and they'd lay brick. But you'll see a lot of brick streets in Alton yet I guess that were paved with Alton brick. Of course that was to keep the money in town you know, and of course in those days property owners paid for their paving. And I guess they still do. Because we're paying for this. If you want to - your subdivision - but probably like Washington Avenue is the main thoroughfare and College Avenue is a main thoroughfare. State Street was the main thoroughfare, Central Avenue, those name streets, and I'm sure that you were allowed to have ten years to go on your tax bill. But they paid for those, the paving of those streets. And I guess they still do, if they get any repairs. You put in your own sidewalks and the way the real estate taxes have gone now, I doubt whether you can afford much of that. Q: Yes sir. (chuckles) A: I guess that was an accepted custom in those days. There must have been hrick - I wonder where the Calhoun Brick Company would peddle its bricks. Jacksonville or any place I guess. Q: I don't know. A: Rut there was something in the paper about that in the Fifty-year Ago column recently, some guy took a wagon ride to Calhoun and he said, "It was fifty years ago 1 had hot bricks from the Calhoun Brick Company to keep my feet warm." Q: Oh is that right? I'll be doggoned. (chuckles) A: Yes. Just a little item you know, the Fifty-year Ago column. I believe the way it came up, we were - I had asked whether there were railroads, just as you had, in Calhoun County, and he indicated that one to the brickworks. Also it seems to me that the brickworks must have been there for a long long time because the hotel, the bricks in the hotel were made at that brickworks and the hotel was built in 1848 J think or someplace along there. Q: One thing - now you've mentioned several, quite a few, of these businesses as being family-owned. I guess that's changed through the years has it not? A: Oh sure, sure. Q: The large conglomerates? A: Alton was noted for that. As a kid, I had often hcard - I couldn't verify this - that Alton had more millionaires per thousand population than any city in that category in the nation. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. I guess you could find that at the library. It's not essential knowledge, but the truth is that some of these historians is sometimes inaccurate you know. It makes good reading so they just say it, that's all. Q: Yes sir.
Page 1: University of Illinois at Springfie
Page 4 and 5: ILLINOIS GENERAL ASSEMBLY ORAL HIST
Page 6 and 7: Preface This oral history of Leland
Page 8 and 9: Volume I Leland J. Kennedy SESSION
Page 10 and 11: next to us was a duplex house and a
Page 12 and 13: Q: Were these family meals that she
Page 14 and 15: I was awful fascinated by politics.
Page 16 and 17: Q: Yes sir. (chuckles) What part of
Page 18 and 19: that much about it, about the makeu
Page 20 and 21: out and there was the number of my
Page 22 and 23: A: Well. Yes, I always remember one
Page 24 and 25: Q: Was it a paddle wheeler or what
Page 26 and 27: een that far back, in that era, may
Page 28 and 29: that wanted to take roomers or boar
Page 30 and 31: A: As you go by, that's the Alton W
Page 34 and 35: A: Maybe it makes good talking to m
Page 36 and 37: A: The Fourth of July and Christmas
Page 38 and 39: A: I mean his wife is I think, and
Page 40 and 41: golden handshake. They'd give you m
Page 42 and 43: A: . . . and the twenty-five. But y
Page 44 and 45: day I would say that half of the fo
Page 46 and 47: Young Democrat convention, elected
Page 48 and 49: in Edwardsville, and you had to pay
Page 50 and 51: - and we were for Smith, and fighti
Page 52 and 53: work. I never was drafted for nothi
Page 54 and 55: more German than I was I guess. (la
Page 56 and 57: Of course there were war clouds han
Page 58 and 59: A: Twice a month. Q: Twice a month?
Page 60 and 61: There was neighbor against neighbor
Page 62 and 63: A: And they did, so that's . . . Q:
Page 64 and 65: SESSION 4, TAPE 7, SIDE 2 Q: That w
Page 66 and 67: ' I 59 you couldn't get across that
Page 68 and 69: A: Well they didn't have none of th
Page 70 and 71: A: Oh no, never saw any. I saw some
Page 72 and 73: VOTE FOR LELAND J. KENNEDY DEMOCRAT
Page 75 and 76: Q: Now when you first went in did y
Page 77 and 78: A: A port of embarkation or for sup
Page 79 and 80: A: Oh yes. I'm sorry about that now
Page 81 and 82: A: Alright. August. I'll tell you -
Page 83 and 84:
And he got out before I did, but he
Page 85 and 86:
A: No no, never said a word. Oh the
Page 87 and 88:
though. He was a good talker, and o
Page 89 and 90:
play cards or just talk. Women like
Page 91 and 92:
Q: Yes sir. A: We had a strike in s
Page 93 and 94:
Of course you'd have a lot of lawye
Page 95 and 96:
A: Well that was - that was the bes
Page 97 and 98:
polls in a particular city and he's
Page 99 and 100:
Q: Yes. A: Bond never did like bein
Page 101 and 102:
wife and family when you're out, or
Page 103 and 104:
of Illinois) library and muse aroun
Page 105 and 106:
A: Well legislative process, commit
Page 107 and 108:
A: Yes I think so, had a column. We
Page 109 and 110:
A: Well I recall - I guess they're
Page 111 and 112:
state central committeeman. Now sta
Page 113 and 114:
not an Italian name, but what those
Page 115 and 116:
Q: Oh? WOKZ in Alton, Illinois? A:
Page 117 and 118:
This is going back, and I don't hav
Page 119 and 120:
had twelve in the pool. I think it
Page 121 and 122:
Q: Oh is that right? A: Oh my first
Page 123 and 124:
a federal gasoline tax thirty years
Page 125 and 126:
Q: No sir, no sir. Well let's see,
Page 127 and 128:
they changed those desks after reap
Page 129 and 130:
Q: He started that in the 1951 sess
Page 131 and 132:
That wasn't a bone of contention a
Page 133 and 134:
Q: Oh I see. A: I think they'd do t
Page 135 and 136:
Talking about lodging, 1'11 always
Page 137 and 138:
his wife's sister. Of course they w
Page 139 and 140:
A: Oh did she? Q: Yes. A: Well some
Page 141 and 142:
And a lot of those people are all g
Page 143 and 144:
I believe there's a lot of that fam
show all

Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?