100 years ago: The first and only train of its kind passed through O’Fallon
Looking back at stories that appeared in the O’Fallon Progress 100, 75, and 50 years ago:
100 years ago, April 30, 1925
“The National Limited,” the first and only train of its kind, running between St. Louis and Washington, D.C., over the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, passed through this city at 12:51 Sunday on its initial trip.
Quite a number of citizens turned out to see the train pass through at a mile-a-minute clip.
This new all-Pullman train, spick and span in the minutest detail, makes the trip from St. Louis to Washington, D.C. on a 24-hour schedule, passing through O’Fallon at 12:51 daily. Going west the train arrives here at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. No stops for passengers are made in Illinois, the train rumbling through from St. Louis to Vincennes, Ind., where the first stop is made.
Schedules are arranged so that passengers can connect with another limited at Washington for New York City without leaving the train.
All the features of modern passenger service are included in these new trains in both directions, embracing barber, maid, manicure, train secretary, club car, shower bath and observation car. It is also provided with current newspapers, periodicals, stock reports and bulletins.
75 years ago, April 27, 1950
Voters in the Bethel Non-High School District, northwest of this city as well as the voters in O’Fallon Township High School District No. 203 will cast their ballot Saturday, between the hours of 12 o’clock noon and 7 p.m. on the proposition of having the Bethel area annexed to O’Fallon Township High District.
The proposition must receive a favorable vote in the Bethel as well as the O’Fallon districts before the merger can be achieved.
This election was called by County Superintendent of Schools Clarence D. Blair on a petition from the Bethel district. Previously school men of Bethel had conferred with the local Board for consent to be annexed to O’Fallon. According to law, the proposal must receive a majority vote in both the affected districts.
Polling places will be at the Bethel school house for the voters in that district, and at O’Fallon Township High school building for all the voters in O’Fallon High District No. 203. Locally residents are being reminded that only those legal voters in District No. 203 are entitled to cast their ballot, while in Bethel it concerns all the legal voters in that school district.
Dan Hertenstein, president of Township High board stated that the board favored the annexation, inasmuch as the Bethel district will have an average of seven pupils who will enter high school after eighth grade graduation from the Bethel grades. He said the present Bethel non-high district has an assessed valuation of some $900,000 and should the annexation be favored, it would have practically no effect on the local school tax rate. He urges that voters go to the polls Saturday and cast their ballot.
Bethel proponents for the merger selected O’Fallon, being impressed with Township High’s superior rating and adequate classroom facilities for all the conventional subjects, extensive library, science laboratory, home economics department, industrial arts training, spacious gymnasium with regulation basketball court, physical education and band music departments.
O’Fallon is also an accredited high school, its graduates being accepted without question at universities which maintain the most stringent entrance requirements.
(The proposal was approved by the voters. In the Bethel district, the vote was 66 yes, 8 no. In the high school district, it was unanimous, with all 40 voters casting ballots saying yes. Bethel School was located at the corner of Bethel Road and Bethel Meadows Road. It continued to operate as a grade school until 1963 when it was annexed into O’Fallon District 90.)
50 years ago, May 1, 1975
The new Dial-A-Ride program, sponsored by the O’Fallon Chamber of Commerce, Our World Inc. and local merchants, is getting good response, according to Mrs. Joan Weinel, president of the chamber.
The Dial-A-Ride program replaces the Ride ‘Round O’Fallon bus program which had formerly operated in the city. Anyone living in the city can call to order the van for transportation.
The van operates between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Riders are asked to donate 25 cents for the ride. Dial-A-Ride utilizes a new 12-passenger bus that has been leased by the program’s sponsors.
The local business that pays for the month’s leasing fee has the business advertisement displayed on the sides of the van. The Ride ‘Round O’Fallon program used a bus donated by the Calvary Lutheran Church in Belleville.