Getting to know you

When I travel I usually buy a newspaper in towns where I stop for meals or to stay overnight. To me, a sense of the community can be found in every part of a newspaper, from the news stories to the photos to the advertisements (disclaimer – I worked for newspapers as a writer and photographer for ten years). I have also been a news junkie ever since I picked up my first comic book at about age 5. I still cannot understand people who read only certain sections of the newspaper, and especially those who skip the comics (ok, another disclaimer – I am not particularly hooked on reading the sports sections, but sometimes I do just to get a feel for what interests other people).

Usually, I read newspapers from front to back (same with magazines and books). Even when stories “jump” to another page, I make myself wait until I get to page 3 or 5 before I am allowed to continue the story. That’s not to say I read each and every article, but given time on my hands, I will read the most mundane stories. “Legion installs officers” or “Harlan Hall planning a talent show” are just two from The Prairie Press, a free newspaper I picked up in Paris, Illinois. Having worked for two family-owned newspapers (and then seen them morphed into giant company-owned rags), I am always interested in just who publishes a newspaper. The Prairie Press is one of those rarest of newspaper breeds to be found today – a locally-owned newspaper! Here is the “about us” statement on the newspaper’s website:

“The Prairie Press is delivered, free of charge, to every mailbox in Edgar County, Ill., each Thursday. The Prairie Press was created in 2014 as the only locally owned media outlet — newspaper, radio or TV — in Edgar County. The newspaper’s name is a tribute to the county’s history, as Edgar is on the edge of the region known as the Grand Prairie.

As a modern newsroom, we are part of a never-ending conversation with this community. Our reporters and editors are ready to listen to our audience — and encourage readers to share their thoughts and dreams.”

I can only applaud the owners, for operating a small weekly in today’s competitive newspaper world is brave and not usually well-compensated. On the opinion page the editorial board is listed as Taylor M. Smith III, publisher and president, Nancy Roberts Zeman, editor and vice-president and Gary Henry, staff writer. In future blogs and in the book I am writing about my travels I’ll tell about the Weston County Gazette, established in Newcastle, Wyoming in 1912 and still publishing today in Upton, Wyoming. I may also touch on The Free Paper, which my husband and I established in Logan, Ohio in 1987. Still remembered today by many locals, The Free Paper published for nine whole months, then was trampled to earth by advertisers when an opinion column didn’t suit the fancy of some folks.

In the edition of The Prairie Press printed for the week of Thursday, July 16, 2015, the lead article is titled “Farm values changing.” In the article one can learn about widespread concern among local farmers because of a change to the Farmland Assessment Act of 1977. The story addressed a very complicated issue about valuing farmland based on a formula factoring in commodity prices, input costs, interest rates, productivity, land use and – of all things – soil types! In Illinois there are more than 900 soil types, according to the story.

Other local news covered a school district’s financial shortfall, the beginning of the county fair, the merger of the local hospital with a larger hospital organization, the retirement of Dr. Reid Sutton from 38 years of practice, a traffic accident, and the search for an arsonist who wandered through a home (according to security system photos) and allegedly started a fire in a pile of clothing on a child’s bed.

One of my favorite sections is always the police and fire reports –  in this newspaper, it is titled the “Siren Report.” Not surprisingly, this included reports of traffic arrests for speeding and failure to stop at an intersection; disorderly conduct; domestic battery; and drug possession. The county sheriff’s department reported the demise of deer in three separate encounters with cars. The fire department responded to several medical assistance calls; a car fire in which some poor soul lost a 1993 Volvo, which was totally incinerated; and a traffic accident where firefighters simply needed to check vehicles for hazards and stand by until wreckers cleared the scene.

The court news covered the details of those in custody, those who faced charges, and those who had entered guilty or not-guilty pleas, as well as 15 people who were being sought on arrest warrants.

The always-popular (to read, that is) Opinion Page offered an editorial about why the local hospital will benefit from joining a rural alliance; an editorial by publisher Taylor Smith about checking the facts in politics – he recommends politifact.com, where political claims are ranked as “True,” Mostly True,” “Half True,” “Mostly False,” “False,” and “Pants on Fire.” A project of the Tampa Bay Times, politifact.com was particularly interesting to me in this election year.

The biggest sports news was that the Paris, Illinois U15 Babe Ruth League Baseball team won its second straight Babe Ruth League Southern Illinois State Championship.

Of course there were ads galore (my husband and I discovered too late that’s the only way to keep a free paper going). Ads for hearing aids, mattresses, karate lessons, restaurants, auto sales, food markets, insurance agencies and so forth. These are the lifeblood of a newspaper and kudos to both those who buy and sell advertisements!

Disappointingly, The Prairie Press carried no classified ads or comics, but at least there were plenty of entries in my second favorite section, the OBITUARIES. And that is actually why I began this particular blog. By reading the newspaper, the portrait of a community can be painted as easily as applying colored oils to those long-ago, paint-by-number pictures. But the most important color to apply is the one about people who lived their lives in the community and now will be buried there. In The Prairie Press of July 16, 2015, there were five obituaries (and, I have to point out, two funeral home advertisements at the bottom of that page). Each obituary offered information about former community members.

One stood out for me: Doris Lorenzen Westfall, who died June 28, 2015 at age 96. Westfall was born in 1918 in Foosland, Illinois, a tiny village with a population today of about 100. Settled by William Foos in the 1840s, the town wasn’t incorporated until 1959. Today it has a post office, bank and fire station.

The oldest of six children, according to the obituary, Westfall had been heard commenting that she was her father’s first son because she often drove a team of horses to help with the daily farm work. At the age of 24 she graduated from what was in 1942 the St. Elizabeth School of Nursing in Danville, Illinois.

Westfall’s obituary said, “In addition to her caregiving skills as a nurse, she was profoundly committed to preserving the native environment she knew as a young child and lifelong resident of central Illinois. Mrs. Westfall committed hundreds of hours of her time and enlisted many friends – including the nuns at St. Elizabeth in their habits – to save special places.”

One project protected an area from development and restored native prairies, in particular the prairie at Forest Glen County Preserve, which was named the Doris L. Westfall Nature Preserve. According to the Vermilion County Conservation District website, (vccd.org) Forest Glen Preserve is an 1,800-acre nature preserve in McKendree Township in Vermilion County, Illinois.

Forest Glen Preserve has an extensive botanical listing and is rated third in the state for the number of different botanical species. The Doris L. Westfall Nature Preserve has 100 native prairie plants with Vermilion County seed origin. The 40-acre prairie is dominated by the tall grasses of Indian grass and Big bluestem, as well as Indian paintbrush, puccoon, purple gentian and Illinois bundleflower. A prairie garden plot is available to help visitors identify the many prairie plants.

Westfall received other recognitions, such as the 1990 Conservationist of the Year by the Illinois Wildlife Federation, and she was invited to Washington D.C. to accept the National Chevron Conservation Award.

Now having never met Doris, can’t you just picture her from this brief description of her life? Here’s my image:

As a child, the pigtailed Doris, standing (probably barefooted) on an upturned bucket to reach heavy harness onto the backs of draft horses, then following them down row after row of heavily-scented, plowed dirt. Noticing the spring flowers lining the fields and the birds overhead noisily competing for nesting rights. Bringing the sweaty horses back to the barn after a hard day of work and unharnessing and feeding them hay and grain. Then, because she was the oldest (I know of this from experience!) returning to the house to help with evening chores of cooking, mending and tending to the younger children.

As a teenager, loving school and studying hard to qualify for nursing school, making it through the Great Depression with her family on the farm. Then, studying for her nursing degree as the world turned upside down with a second world war and people all around her were being sent off to fight a war for which no one had asked. Beginning her nursing career when soldiers were returning home, some with injuries or scarred emotions that would last their lifetimes.

As a grown woman, marrying the love of her life (her husband, Robert E. “Bob” Westfall died in 2001), and birthing and raising two children. Since her funeral service was at the Trinity Lutheran Church, I can also visualize Doris and her family attending services there. Eventually Doris would be a grandmother too, to eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. The obituary said “she treasured” her three sisters, two brothers and many nieces, nephews and their families. This speaks to me of holiday gatherings, as well as extended visits with grandma or Aunt Doris, probably visits such as my large family constantly had while I was growing up. (How I loved visiting Aunt Phoebe’s farm – I still remember walking barefoot to the pond to see the bullfrogs and then picking ticks from our hair when we returned to the sweet-smelling kitchen.)

Since about one-third of her obituary was taken by her work as a conservationist, I can see Doris as a woman consumed by her love of the outdoors and dedicated to teaching her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and many others about the importance of preserving large swaths of the lands we have so abundantly used and too often abused. She even conscripted the nursing school nuns (working in their long, dark habits) to labor in the prairie restoration efforts. Can’t you just see them all out there – Doris, the children, the nuns – walking through the prairie of long grasses and bright flowers, bending to touch the earth and encourage yet more growth?

“A prairie is an investment in eternity,” is a quote from the spokesperson for the Vermilion County Audubon Society at the dedication of the Doris L. Westfall Nature Preserve. What a fitting epitaph for a woman who contributed so greatly during her 96 years of life in central Illinois.

And I know about Doris because someone took the time to tell us a little about her in her obituary.