Military

The case is full of items from WWI saved by Herb Clayton. Clayton served as Morris Mayor and also ran for Governor in the 1930s.

The dice and French money were brought back by Edith Smith who served as a YMCA volunteer

Two pilots for the WWII Flying Tigers, Frank McCarter and Richard Chouinard, lived in Morris. They were trained to defend China against Japanese forces. They flew Curtiss P-4o fighter planes, painted with a shark face and Chinese emblem.

Coolie hat and opium pipe brought back from Viet Nam by Ron Hibler. He made them into this lamp.

Plane hanging from the ceiling is a Ford Tri-model airplane built by Ralph Yedinak of Morris in 1934 when he was 19 years old. The fuselage is made from 4X4 white pine wood. It has a built-in cabin for passengers and a cabin for pilot and co-pilot. The motors are made from wood pegs glued to the motor frame.

In the flat case is a small block of wood with a musket ball in it. The last battle of the Civil War was fought at Fort Blakely on April 27, 1865, after Lee’s surrender. D.S. Renne, from Verona, was thee. He remembered a bullet from that battle lodging in a pine tree. Twenty-nine years later on April 9, 1894, he went make to the site. The tree had fallen down, so he cut this section out that had the bullet and eventually gave it to the Historical Society.

Also of interest I s the Confederate money. At the end of the Civil War the U.S. Army took possession of it and turned it over to the U.S. Department of Treasury in 1867. They donated it to the local Darveneau Post of the G.A.R. in 1912 to be kept as an historical relic.

The two soldiers in the frame are Glen Hollenbeck’s grandfather and great uncle, Thomas and Anthony Hughes. They enlisted in August 27, 1861 in the 55^th Illinois Infantry, Company I. Thomas was killed in the Battle of Shiloh and buried in Arlington Cemetery. Glen’s grandfather returned home to Verona with only his trigger finger missing. He had this painting done of him and his brother in 1911. Glen rescued it from the attic, had the painting restored and gave it to the Museum.

36^th Illinois Volunteers Map

The map was done by past volunteer, Brian Nolan, who has mapped out here the travels and battles fought by this Fox River Regiment. Company D included boys from Lisbon, Saratoga, and Nettle Creek. Company G included a lot of Morris Men.