Princeville Holiday Tournament - 1930

This year is the 85th year for Princeville High School Holiday Tournament.  We believe it is the oldest annual holiday tournament in the State of Illinois.  The tournament has been the week following Christmas.  In the past few years, the PHS girls basketball team has also hosted a tournament on the same days as the boys tournament.  This year, the tournament started yesterday and runs through December 28. 

To coincide with the Holiday Tournament, we thought it would be fun to share a program from the 1930 - 1931 Holiday Tournament.  The tournament ran from December 31, 1930 to January 3, 1931.  This would have been the 3rd year the tournament was in existence.   In 1931, Princeville placed second in the tournament, losing to East Peoria.  Teams in the tournament included East Peoria, Chillicothe, Elmwood, Toulon, Glasford, Princeville, Dunlap and Brimfield.
Do you remember any of the businesses at the bottom of the program?  Miller's Cafe which also advertises it sells candy and cigars.  German's Billiards Parlor also had a full-service fountain.  The Telephone was the weekly newspaper that brought all the important local news.  Murphy's Cafe was located on the north side of the 100 block of East Main Street.

The program is from the collection of Dorothy Harrison Westefer. It was donated to the museum by her daughter, Nancy Westefer. 

Princeville Girl Scouts Mid 1920s

A recent genealogy request led us to dig up this photo.  This is a photo of the Princeville Girls Scouts circa 1920s.  What a great group of girls!  As with many of our old photos, you will recognize many of the well known family surnames of former and current Princeville families.  Handwritten on the  back of the photo the girls are identified as follows:

Front Row: Ruth Henry, Vivian Vogel, Thelma Fredell, Eleanor Matthews, Virginia Henson, Gladys Muller, Elizabeth Gray.

Second Row:  Eleanor Streitmatter, Glyda Swisher, Mary Auten, Margaret Friedman, Berna Best, Jane Auten, Helen Weaver, Grace (last name illegible), Earlene Weaver.  Please note that there are more girls in this row than names.

Third Row:  Helen Callery, Ina Kelly, Zoe Best, Clara Campbell, Elva Hines, Mrs. Haley, Virginia Rice, Eloise Bliss, Franchon Hammer, Eileen Aten, Miss Driscoll, Fern Arnold, Helen Walliker, Doris McWhorter.

Fourth Row:  Helen Potter, Shirley Stumpf, Vivian Stowell, Ethelyn Walliker, Gwendolyn Henson, Frances Simmons, Mary Campbell, Josephine Slane, Veneta Gruner, Nola Arnold.

The photo is from the Eleanor Matthews collection.

Princeville High School Class of 1935

We recently had a genealogy inquiry which involved digging up this photo.  Since I had the photo out, I thought I would share it with the blog world.  This is the Princeville Community High School Class of 1935.  There were 19 graduates that year under W.R. Cordis, Superintendent.  Many of these individuals continued to work and live in the Princeville area after graduation.  The graduates included James Potter, Edwin Schaad, Eleanor Matthews, Ruth Ricketts, Earl Oertley, Glenn Giffin, Lucille Roach, Robert DeBord, Edith Streitmatter, Leona Zaverl, George Black, Josephine Slane, Ferdie Williams, Russell Stumpf, Robert Ward, Helen Bouton, Donald Carter, Helen Turner and Edwin Burns. 

We have volunteers who assist with genealogy inquiries. The museum does have a lot of old photos, yearbooks, newspapers, obituaries and scrapbooks which have invaluable amount of information about local people, places and businesses.

Princeville Ladies Bowling League Luncheon

This photo was recently donated to the museum.  Our volunteers have been working on identifying the ladies in the photo.  We assume it was a bowling banquet because there are small bowling lanes with pins on the table.  One of our volunteers thought some of the ladies are from Chillicothe so we have sent a request to the Chillicothe Historical Society to see if they could help.

Please look at the photo and let us know if you recognize any of the ladies.  The ladies that have been identified are listed below by their corresponding number.  We are also hoping someone can identify the restaurant by the mural in the background.  Some people have suggested it is the interior of Maple Shade restaurant on Route 88 (Route 40) that was across the highway from Lake of the Woods.  Please call (309)385-1916 or email us (phmarchives@frontier.com) or comment below if you can help with the identity of the ladies or restaurant.

 1. 
 2.  Lenora Delbridge
 3.  Margaret Bassett
 4.  Jo McNeeley
 5.
 6.
 7.
 8.
 9.
10.
11. Carolyn Stahl Grebner
12.
13. Sue Gilbert
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19. Ida Stoecker
20.  ?  Darling
21.
22.  Darlene Mathison
23.
24. Marilyn Dell
25.  Betty Beall
26.  Mary Vera Slane
27.  Clara Watts
28.  Virginia Hampton
29.  Elaine ?
30.  Josephine Bouton
31.  Kay Ward Phillips
32.  Charlene Ault
33. 
34. 
35. Mary Taft Major
36. 

1961 Princeville High School Homecoming Parade

Last week was homecoming week at Princeville High School.  Recently, here at the museum, we received some slides of homecoming parades from 1958 to 1961.  With the help of museum volunteer Rosemary Cooper, the museum was able to convert the slides to digital photos. 

I wanted to share with you the homecoming parade from fall of 1961.  The pictures were taken at the corner of Walnut and Evans streets. The floats from back then were amazing!  It must have taken weeks of preparation to make them.  According to the yearbook, the 1961 homecoming football game was played on October 19 against Elmwood High School Trojans.  This was the 13th annual homecoming for the high school.  Festivities began on Thursday with a snake dance, bonfire, pep rally and class skits.  Homecoming Queen was Sue Rock and Mr. Football was Wylan Parker.  Homecoming Attendants were Sharon Kuhn, Bob Swanson, Beverly Fuller, Bill Kraft, Val Peck and Steve Sutherland. 

The PHS marching band led the parade through the streets of Princeville.  William Pellant was the band director .  Head Majorette was Janet Rickey and Majorettes were Carolyn Jones, Connie Holmes and Helen Caldwell.

 

 

 

 

 

Your Home Town

We recently posted information about the Princeville Academy which was a private high school in Princeville in the late 1800s until the early 1900s. That post was from a school catalog that described the school and listed students. The Princeville Academy published a quarterly school newspaper titled "Princeville Academy Sol". Each quarter, the newspaper would include essays written by the students as well as other articles submitted to the paper. One essay of interest, published in 1900, is entitled "Your Home Town". Below is the article in its entirety.

"Your Home Town"

"The only way to build a town is for all to go hand-in-hand, every man to the wheel.  Banish all feelings of discord, if any; let harmony prevail, and you are sure to prosper.  Talk about your town, write about it, speak well of it, encourage your people at the head of municipal affairs, choke the croakers, beautify the streets in every way, patronize the merchants, refrain from sending outside for goods, advertise in its newspapers, favor home enterprise in every way, and if you can not think of some good word to say, just keep quiet.  There is nothing to gain and everything to lose in slandering the home of your adoption.  There are those who delight to oppose every enterprise advocated but upon investigation, these men will be found to be the most despised of all."


The words that were written over 110 years ago are still true today. Princeville is rich in history and we should all be proud to call Princeville home!

Night at the Museum V

Night at the Museum V will be on Saturday, September 22 at the Princeville Heritage Museum.  The entertainment will be the Bradley Jazz Combo.  Tickets are by advanced sale only so get your tickets now.  This is a great way to support a local organization and get a great meal and entertainment without having to leave Princeville!!  For questions or to purchase tickets, please call the museum at (309)385-1916.