History of Old St. Paul's Catholic Church, Macomb, Ill.

       "The Catholic church on West Jackson street is no more.  Workmen have torn it asunder to make room for the new modern brick edifice.  It had served the congregation for 75 years and time has claimed its toll.  While the new structure will be a big advance in modern arrangement and equipment, and a pride to those that worship there, a few kindly reminiscences of old friends now passed to their reward, who were at one time the earnest worshipers in the old church will not be amiss.
       The church was organized in 1854 by Rev. Father O'Neill with these original members--Frank McSperritt and family, Joseph Riley and family, Terence and Patrick McGinnis, Peter Crawford, Patrick Laughlin, Francis Campbell and Michael McGann.  Services were held at the home of Frank McSperritt, where Peter Sullivan recalled later Rev. O'Neill lead them for four years when Father Browning came and was instrumental in purchasing the lots on West Jackson street that now belong to the church.  Rev. James F. Morgan succeeded him, staying here two years.  Then Rev. Logan came and was followed by Rev. James Tuohy and so forth up to the present time, one succeeding the other until Rev. Ryan who has been here { ?} years and we have the new church built under his charge  They remembered the above facts which are in the minds of the older residents in the area.  Father Ryan of advanced age has resided in the existing house on the corner some 40 years ago before the present parsonage or parish school were built. Members dear  and people who worshiped there and were all property owners in the west part of the city.  Kindly old mothers who humored and fed the children who gathered to watch their children play of evenings in what is now Charles street between Carroll and Calhoun, but was then called Merrigan's Green.  
       Most of them were mothers of large families and a most aware one was widowed long before they died. There was Grandma Hoing who helped the sick.  Mrs. Warren who pitied the puzzled child, Mrs. Dergan, Mrs. Brazzil, Mrs. Murphy, Mrs. Sullivan, Mrs. Donovan, Mrs. Royer, Mrs. Rouse, Mrs. Haggerty and over the creek the Krazzers,  Marx and Callahans.  
        These were among the childhood friends all gone.  The bell rang in the old church steeple last Sunday for the last time and the thought came of how many times it had called these and their children to worship and as one psyche were brought to the church for the burial service.  Tolled so sadly in the children's ears reminding all that time here is but fleeting."

Macomb Daily Journal, 7 JUL 1925

The Clintons

      The Clintons, being New York's sixth crime family, are part of a small group of people who have managed to become rich by talking about how much they hate rich people.  In that vein, Estase offers the lyrics to the techo hit "Peace & Love Inc." by Information Society.

Look at the world, it's a complicated place/And it's hard to keep the pace/You've got to wear a smiling face/But what we've got is a blue-light special on truth/It's the hottest thing with the youth/You've got nerves we need to soothe/If you've got to believe in something/Believe in us we make it easy/Peace & Love, Inc./Shop around/ See if you don't agree/We think it fits you to a "T"/And the best part is it's free/  I believe we got the market cornered this time/We can make you feel fine/It could impact your bottom line/If you've got to belong to something/Belong to us we'll make you PC/ Peace & Love, Inc./Peace & Love, it's the newest cause by far/ And we've got all the biggest stars/Get your politics up to par/Welcome. . . .to Peace & Love Inc.

The thing Estase loves about this song is the way it captures the commercialization of 60s values.  Kind of like the Clinton Foundation?

Alex Holmes on St. Paul's Catholic Church, Macomb Ill.

MAY USE DEADLY POISON GAS IN WAR ON BANDITS

Indianapolis--General use of deadly poison gas in the war on Indiana bank bandits appeared probable today as a result of the unsuccessful attempt of yeggs to rob the Elnora State Bank.  Bandits who broke open the bank vault were driven away by Lewisite gas released when the combination on the safe was smashed.  The gas was contained in small glass tubes concealed in the safe.  A number of banks in the state are already equipped with the anti-burglar gas device and officials of the Indiana Bankers' Association believe it will be generally adopted.  Lewisite was the most deadly gas invented during the World War.

       "I was living on West Carroll street, just north of the church, from October, 1853, until April, 1857.  James Riggins lived in the house on the corner, east of the church, in 1854.  William Harker lived there in 1855.  He was a partner of my father in the carpenter business.
        The Catholic people bought this property near that time.  The old house on the corner was a long, one-story frame house with an ell at the east end running off to the south.  The east and south part was used for parsonage and the west end for church purposes.  I did quite a lot of work on it when Father Ryan had charge of the church.  My dealings were with him and I found him a very genial gentleman in business and socially.  I have been with him in the parsonage and he has been in my home.  There was a hip on the northeast corner.  I did away with that and put a gable on the east end of the main building.  I reroofed it.  The valley on the southwest was copper and as good as new.  I do not know how long ago it was, but over 40 years ago, as I quit the trade when 40.
       I could tell the exact time and what I got for the work, as I have kept a diary for 58 years and could tell every day's work I have done, as I always stated what I was doing each day.
       Before I came to Macomb, which will be 78 years this fall, services were held at Frank McSperritt's, which afterward was the home of Peter Sullivan, his son Timothy living there now. I remember many of the members of 50 to 70 years ago.  In the country were Patrick McGinnis, Peter Crowford, Frank McSperritt, Michael Callahan, James Manning Sr., Patrick Laughlin, John Quinn, John Scott, John Feeney, Michael McGann, Peter Sullivan, Daniel Doran, and James Roark.
       Mr. Roark is well represented by boys and girls in Bushnell and Macomb--doctor, druggist, editor, clothing merchants and trained nurses.
       Here are some of the city:  Terrence McGinnis, Patrick Tiernan Sr., Richard Tobin, the Murphy family, Mrs. Westman, Mrs. Corrigan, Mrs. Rouse, Matthew and James Guiday, Michael Dougherty, Michael Dorgan, the Donovan family, John and Hugh McNamera, Brazzil family, Comer family, McGuire family, James McGunn, the Michael Warren family, and John Simmons.  In giving names of individuals the family is generally included.  No doubt there were members that I did not know.  I also fail to recall some that I knew.  
       A large per cent of the present membership is composed of the descendants of those I have named.  No doubt the church has a record of when the church was built and dedicated, but so many of the outsiders have been guessing, so I thought I would settle that query.
        Rev. J.C. Rybolt, pastor of the M.E. church of Macomb, Ill. united Miss Martha M. Sosman and I in matrimony June 20th, 1867.  She was a member of that church from childhood.  I attended church there with my wife until nine years later, when I united with the church.
       On Sunday, Aug. 11, 1867, Rev. Rybolt was sick and there was no services, morning or evening, so I went over to the consecration or dedication of the new Catholic church.  This is not memory, but a record.  Of the membership of the church at the time of its dedication there are only a very few now living.  I do not know who conducted the consecration ceremony, as I made no record:  it would be only a memory.  I knew many who had charge of this church:  Father Albright was among the earliest I now remember, I could not name those I remember in order and will not try.
       Loyalty is a virtue admired by all good men and women, loyalty to God, to your family, your church, your country, your friends, your school, and to any society to which you may belong.  I am sorry to see exhibitions of disloyalty to all these various positions in life.  I have lived long enough to see that there are good and bad in all churches, families, parties, and among our citizens generally.  I do admire the Catholic people for their reverence in the house of God and for their loyalty to their church."--Alex Holmes

Make Free Trade Great Again

       "It is only the coward's policy to kneel down in the dust, and wail, and confess inferiority, as regards the producers of other nations.  Take up the challenge bravely, from whatever quarter it comes;  improve method and process and machinery-- above all improve the relations between capital and labor;  on that, more perhaps than on anything else, industrial victory depends.  Be willing to learn from all, of any country, who have anything useful to teach.  Never be tempted to build Chinese walls for your protection, and to go indolently to sleep behind them.  Your system of free trade is another great world trust placed in your hands.  You stand before all nations holding a bright and shining light, that if you are true to the great destiny of our country you will never allow to be dimmed or extinguished.  Mr. Cobden spoke the truth when he said that you would convert the other nations to your own brave way of competition;  only he did not allow enough for all the reactionary influences, the narrow unenlightened so-called patriotism, the timidities of some traders and their desire to take their ease comfortably, and not to overexert themselves, so long as they could compel the public to buy at their own price, and to accept their own standard of good workmanship, the warlike emperors, the chauvinists of all countries, the extravagant spendings with the resulting difficulties of getting blood from a stone, and the temptation of scraping revenue together in any mischievous fashion that offered itself, the party intrigues, the effort to discover something that would serve as an attractive policy, the unavowed purpose of some politicians, living for party, and keen for power, to bind a large part of the people by the worst of bonds to their side by means of a huge and corrupt money interest.  But the consequences of protection are fighting their battle everywhere on the side of free trade--as the consequences of folly and blindness always fight on the side of the better things;  and if we remain faithful to our great trust will in their due time fulfill Mr. Cobden's words.  The high prices and dear living, the harassing interferences with trade, the rings and corners, the trickeries and corruption, that all tread so close on the heels of protection, the wild extravagance, the domineering insolent attitude of the state-made monopolists, the ever-growing power of the governments to go their own way, where they can gather vast sums of money so easily through their unseen tax collectors, the ever-spreading socialism, that is protection made universal--all these things are preaching their eloquent lesson, and slowly preparing the way in other countries for free trade."  Auberon Herbert , A Plea for Voluntaryism

Two Loser Guys

       The United States is currently like a woman being courted by two undesirable deadbeats.  These suitors are Saudi Arabia and Turkey, both of which wish to exclude the other from America's good graces.
       Turkey is a problem due to the fact that the putative secularism of Ataturk is being abandoned by Erdogan, the current strongman.  Trying to woo the United States, Turkey finally freed Pastor Brunson.  In reality, Turkey's secularism followed an anything-but-secular ethnic cleansing of Armenians and Greeks.  Turkey loathes Saudi Arabia for overtly being what it pretends not to be--an illiberal theocratic Muslim state.
       Saudi Arabia, even before the torturous killing and dismemberment of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has always pretended to be an American ally while harboring Wahabism and brutally interposing itself in Yemen's civil war.   Unfortunately, the Saudis have co-opted American politicians of both parties.
       Neither Saudi Arabia nor Turkey is likely to become a true democracy, but Saudi Arabia is far more despotic than Turkey.  As the world's only absolute monarchy, the Saudis are still as authoritarian as Egypt was under Mubarak.  For some reason, our politicians have given the Saudi monarchy a pass from the opproprium  they showed to Mubarak and his kind.
       The United States should be skeptical of Turkey's attempts at blackening Saudi Arabia, yet at the same time we should stop selling military hardware to Saudi Arabia.  The unbridled slaughter in Yemen should have caused this before the Khashoggi murder.

Deus ex Federal?

       Federalism means that the American people have instituted two tiers of government, each with separate functions.  The whole scheme was modeled on Swiss cantons.  In Switzerland, the Federal government is supreme in a few vital areas common to the entire country.  The cantons do most of the run of the mill government.  
        The whole idea of states rights has come into bad odor with many, but the flip side of states' rights is states' responsibilities.  Each state elects its own government representatives, who are responsible for lawmaking, including fiscal matters.  When states such as Estase's own Killinois end up with a huge financial mess, the first instinct of some is to want the Federal government to bail out the state, fixing the errors our elected officials created.   There are several reasons why this is unacceptable.
       1)  Federal bailouts of a state are a violation of the state's sovereignty.  A state that gets bailouts from the rest of the country loses its own character and dignity as a freestanding government.  It suggests that states do not have any right to their own existence, seeing as how they entirely rely on the Federal government.
       2)Federal bailouts of a state remove any incentive to be careful in electing state politicians.  Illinois is in the mess that it's in because too many of its politicians were elected for light and transient reasons.  The psychology of the mob was joined to the methods of the mafia in Illinois.  People were elected to the General Assembly who weren't responsible enough to be trusted with one's pet.  The mere suggestion that Federal money might make up for a state's bad electoral choices feeds this political Lindsay Lohan behavior.
        3) Other states shouldn't be punished for irresponsible states' choices.  Why should states like North Dakota or Tennessee pay higher taxes for goodies that they didn't enjoy?  Why should anyone elect sane politicians if the people who elect sane politicians pay for the states that elect lunatics?
        4)  Federal bailouts to irresponsible states are a terrible constitutional precedent.  Once this practice begins, it is likely to reoccur over and over again.  The end result will be anger and dissatisfaction, leading to calls for a unitary government, seeing as how the states have bungled the functions they were originally intended to perform.