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Molly Crusen Bishop: The West Bluff Water Tower Disaster

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The West Bluff Water Tower Disaster

By Charles Needham and Molly Crusen Bishop

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of stories from Molly Crusen Bishop that will be based on the essays about the West Bluff by her grandfather, Charles Needham.

mollylogoCharles Needham was born to Patrick...

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Molly Crusen Bishop: My grandpa witnessed history

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mollylogoThere were two guys named Charles living on Barker Avenue on Peoria’s West Bluff in the 1890s. One was Charles Duryea, the father of the American automotive industry, and the other m was my grandfather, Charles Needham. 

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A look back to Dec. 30 of the past

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census logoAs a year draws to a close, it is common to reflect on the passage of time. How history will judge...

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Molly Crusen Bishop: From County Kilkenny, Ireland to Peoria

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mollylogoBelow is the Peoria Star Monday May 7th, 1923 obituary for my Great Aunt Maggie

Mrs. Margaret Nolan Caffyn

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Molly Crusen Bishop: Pioneers and Log Cabins

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mollylogoThe census of 1810 said the Illinois territory had a population of around 12,000 people. At the time Illinois was an undeveloped land with the indigenous people and a few French and other immigrant settlers.

Illinois had a very harsh climate with limited resources and supplies for folks relocating...

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Molly Crusen Bishop: Griffith Dickison, true pioneer

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mollylogoGriffith Dickison was one of Peoria area’s earliest settlers. He was born to farmers in Indiana on Nov. 27, 1811. His education was the real world and real life, and whatever minimal schooling was available...

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Molly Crusen Bishop: Holidays with the Greenhuts

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“It can be said of Mr. Greenhut, more than any other one man that he has made Peoria commercially, for he has been connected with practically every business movement and enterprise of importance here.”

mollylogoThe above is a direct quote from the book History of...

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Who was R. G. LeTourneau?

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laternouAll of us remember our first jobs and the thrill of earning our own money. I bet you also hold in your fond memory your first ‘real job.’  Mine was 1950 when I went to work for the R.G. LeTourneau Company right here in Peoria, Illinois.

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John Wilkes Booth letter to be auctioned

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boothletter1A...

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