Untitled Document

ANNAWAN'S HISTORIAN.

Philip J. Wintz is his name, he is a carpenter, and he is eighty-two years old. He proudly exhibited specimens of his handicraft, in his well-appointed shop. Few "wood butchers" can excel this deft and dextrous octogenarian. I know of but one in all Henry county who can compare with Wintz, and that is John Fitzkee of Atkinson. Both these men are old; both are German, and both are topnotchers in their craft. Fitzkee served an apprenticeship of seven years. Wintz was never apprenticed.

"I have written up the township, and sent it to the secretary of our historical society, with instructions to allow you to use it as you see fit," said the smiling old man.

"Good! But I am after the history of the historian. You are part of the grand scheme of things," I said. Then I felt an oratorical spell coming on : "His tory is always in the making," I orated: "Too many historians think their duty done when they have unearthed all that's earthly about the first settlers. The fellows that came after them made history, also. We are making history today. I knew a historian who growled and roared because a trolley line cut away a lot of the hummocks of the moundbuilders. He suffered through a whole chapter of his book about the sacrilege to the ancients; but never wrote up the organi zation and building of the trolley line at all. One trolley line is worth a mil lion moundbuilders in present-day interest. Now will you be good. and tell me about yourself ?"

I suppose that the biography of the good old man will appear elsewhere. But he may be too modest to tell the biographer that the first farm he opened in Illinois was sold to him by a man who did not own it! This disaster oc curred south of Sheffield. Wintz lost the land, took a note for the improvements, and "I've got the note yet," grinned the genial pioneer. The man who made the note died. Wintz moved to Annawan, went at his trade of carpenter, and "I'm at it yet," grinned the pioneer. I wanted to know if any of the first buildings he erected were to be seen. "I built the first hotel on a lot about two blocks west of here, and it's there yet," smiled the • pioneer.

On the way to the hotel, Wintz told me that he had "built both mills that had flourished in Annawan."

"Flour-fished?" I murmured, with a sidelong glance; but it glanced off.

"Union Hotel" said Wintz as we approached a huge frame structure, located on the northwest corner of the cross streets, and making one of a row of pretty modern houses. It faces east, and has a queer boxed-in main entrance. This oddity in architecture resembles a piano-box set into the end of the house. Here the landlord of long ago stood to welcome the traveler, the while smiling and "washing his hands with invisible soap, in imperceptible water." Here, upon this soil where our dainty trilbies trod, the brogans and boots of the old settlers stamped and killed the grass. Here, too, the mocassined tread of the savage stole to and fro.

This oldest of Henry county hostelries was built by Wintz for Joseph L. Dow, in 1852. Dow sold it to Fountain H. Slater. Slater was the landlord for many years. J. B. Baldwin, a well-known old soldier, occupies spacious rooms in the L extension. The main building is occupied by two families. Baldwin courteously threw open the ancient kitchen and pantry, which are just as they were in the prairie days, even to the big old blue flour chest. The kitchen is spacious, and the pantry is really a shelved storehouse.

. While this is the first hotel in Annawan, it was antedated by the "Dingman Hotel," two miles south of Annawan, on the old stage road. "Batten Corners" is the present appellation of the old hotel site.

"This must have been a flat-looking landscape in the grass age," I observed, my vision roaming the vast reaches of level country to the north.

"Flatter then than now," rejoined Wintz. "In the low places the grass was so high that the surface appeared on a level with the high places. Rough lot in the long grass. I made all the coffins here up to the breaking out of the war. A man died over in Alba township. Had to take him to Fairview burying ground north of Annawan, that being the only consecrated burying ground. Four men came in together to order the coffin. They drank a good deal, and had a jug of whiskey with them when they left. When they came for the coffin next morning, they got another jug of whiskey. When the funeral procession , consisting of one wagon and the four men, arrived in Annawan on the way to Fairview, they had the jug replenished. When they finally got ready to start, they looked in the hind part of the wagon to see if they had the spades along to dig the grave with. They then discovered that they had lost the corpse. It had slid out when they were pulling up out of a ditch. If that hadn't been a good coffin, it would have busted," added my old friend, proudly.

History of Henry County

Illinois Ancestors