Paul Goddard's Memoirs

I was working in Champaign when I saw an ad in a trade paper that a Mr. Wright, who owned the Washington Post, desired to sell a half interest. I answered the ad and arranged for one Sunday to come and look over the proposition. I liked the looks of Washington, and although there was another weekly paper there, I made a deal to buy out half the Post and was to have entire charge of running the paper, as Mr. Wright was going to move away. 

I went to Champaign and gave Mr. Chapin a week’s notice. In the middle of that week, when the force was all at dinner, a fire broke out in the plant. The fire company was on hand and flooded the plant with water. When they had put out the fire, it was a sorry mess. The plaster had fallen on the type and forms. The force set to work at once. We soused the set type in buckets of water and generally cleaned up. Some cases of the type we did not use much were not flooded. We were able to go to press that evening with the paper, after a hectic time. 

I came to Washington on Sunday. Mr. Wright had left, and I had to get out a paper by the following Friday, and I did not know a soul in town. The Post was a Democratic paper. Monday morning, I called on Capt. D. S. Sheppard, an old Democratic wheelhorse. He took me around town and introduced me to all the businessmen and everyone else we ran across. The old Captain and his daughter, Mrs. Anna Lester, helped me a great deal in getting acquainted and in every way they could. I always had a warm spot in my heart for the old ‘Captain. He lived a good many years afterward and was always a friend. 

When I took over the Post in Washington, I had strong competition. There was another weekly paper here, the News. It was an old-established paper, published by A. H. Heiple, who was also the postmaster of the city. 

The only help I had in the office was a young man named George Cramer, who had worked for Mr. Wright for a few months. George stayed with me for three or four years and was the only help I had during that time. As I considered that I could not pay him more than $10 a week, I suggested he get a job in Peoria, and I helped him get a position that paid more. 

I had purchased only a half interest from Mr. Wright, and there was a chattel mortgage on our press for $300. When the payments came due, Mr. Wright would not make his half payments. I succeeded, however, in getting him to sell his half interest to me for $150. I then had clear sailing. I put in some twelve hours a day on the job and part of Sundays. A number of years afterward, when I purchased a home and moved out into Highland Park, I decided that if I could not make a living without working nights and Sundays, I would starve. But I did not miss a meal, and business went along as well as usual. 

In the first years on the post, I worked pretty hard. Had to do all the editorial and local writing, keep the books, and put in at least half my time in the mechanical end. But I gradually made headway and got ahead in a financial way. I first had my printing office in a little brick building behind the Denhart bank, which is now part of the bank building. I made enough money from a telephone deal to purchase the former Smith two-story brick building on the south side of the business square in 1904 and move the printing office to this location. 

In 1905, I commenced the publication of a page in the Post for East Peoria with Mrs. W. F. Thome as editor. On May 10, 1907, I had purchased a building on a 50-foot business lot in East Peoria. I remodeled the building, which cost me $2,000. I then purchased a second-hand printing plant, moved it to East Peoria, and started publishing the East Peoria Post as a separate paper. Prof. Chas. McTaggart and Henry Cassels were in charge. This arrangement continued until 1909. 

On December 21, 1909, I had a disastrous fire in my printing office in Washington. I had installed a furnace under a stairway in my building because I had no basement. The surrounding area around the furnace had been lined with asbestos for safety. The furnace never worked very well to heat the rooms. I put a stove at the back of the building, and with this additional heat, it ran pretty well. Finally, I rented the upstairs of my building to the newly organized Washington Commercial Club, and they had fitted up the room in fine style. This required extra firing of the furnace.

We had just gotten out a big 16-page edition of the Washington Post and had mailed it out. At 4 o’clock in the morning, I received a telephone call that my building was on fire. I was living out at the edge of town in Highland Park. I made a grand rush up town. Just as I came around the corner and could see my building, the flames swept through it, smashing the big glass windows in front of the building, making a spectacular sight. The doors of my printing office were not unlocked or opened. It was 10 below zero, and the fire department fought heroically. Nothing was salvaged from the printing plant, and only part of the building remained. I had some insurance on the property and plant, but not enough to cover the loss. I had an insurance policy in the safe for an additional $1,000 on the building, but it was not to take effect for three days. 

I at once commenced the erection of my new building, although it was winter time. In about three months, it was completed, much more modern and better, with a basement. In the meantime, I printed my Washington paper from my East Peoria printing office. 

About this time, a deal was made to purchase the Washington News, including its printing plant. It was a stock company owned by ten Washington businessmen and Ralph Kirby, who was running the business. I financed the whole deal and took Ralph Kirby in as a partner. We moved the News printing plant into my newly completed building. Also brought up the East Peoria plant and printed that paper from our Washington office. Also, we printed the News, a Republican paper, and the Post, a Democratic paper, from the same office, Kirby editing the News. 

Kirby had put no money into the newspaper deal, and he was not a competent partner, so I purchased his interest and paid him cash money. Then, on November 22, 1912, I consolidated the Post and News as one paper. 

I had sold an extra newspaper press to the Roanoke Call, taking a chattel mortgage for payment. The Call failed, and, to protect my interests, I purchased the plant at the sheriff's sale in association with T. P. Pettigrew of Roanoke. In the meantime, we had begun publishing the Roanoke Post to replace the Call. It was printed from our Washington office. 

We sold the old Call printing plant. We still print the Roanoke paper from the Washington plant. January I, 1916, I commenced the publication of the Tazewell County Republican for A. H. Heiple, a former publisher of the News and postmaster. I financed the deal for him. It was not very profitable, and it was renamed the Tazewell County Reporter on June 2, 1917. Mr. Heiple sold me his interest in the paper, and I consolidated it with the Washington Post and News. 

In 1916, with my brother-in-law, Theo. Roehm, we printed Picturesque Washington, a very fine booklet containing many pictures of Washington, with biographical sketches and early history. 

After I had organized the Bulldog Auto Insurance Association and the business took up most of my time, I had assistant editors on the Reporter, and finally, I sold my printing business to Sam Crabtree for a small down payment and retained most of the sale price in an escrow mortgage on the stock. 

In 1926, while I was doing well in the auto insurance business, I agreed with Sam Crabtree to put up $5,000 to help him start a weekly tabloid paper in Peoria. It was called the Illinois Valley Herald. I built an addition onto what was formerly the Noy two-story brick building, which I had purchased some time previously, and had used it in connection with my printing office, and the second story had also been added to the second story of my original building to make fine quarters for the Washington Commercial Club. The cost was some $3,500.  

Sam Crabtree went into debt by some $15,000 to install new presses, typesetting machines, and equipment. After running the Peoria paper for less than a year, he found he could not make it a success. As a result, I took over the entire printing plant and business and gave Mr. Crabtree some stock in the company in exchange for the cash he had actually invested. I could have let the printing company fail and bought the plant for much less than the indebtedness. But to uphold my name, which has been associated with the business, I took over the plant and business and assumed some $20,000 in indebtedness incurred under Mr. Crabtree’s operations. 

In 1936, wishing to retire from business responsibility, I turned over most of the stock in the printing business to my son-in-law, E. G. Kilby, on a business basis. I have since contributed in an editorial capacity to the paper and rendered other services in a consulting capacity. I considered that after I had reached 70 years of age and was financially able, I could relinquish most of my business responsibilities.

For two years, the Tazewell County Reporter was selected as the official paper of Illinois and published the state’s legal notices and assessments of corporations and railroads.  In three different years, the Reporter was awarded a distinguished rating for general merit in National newspaper contests. 

The Washington Telephone Exchange was owned by parties from Chatsworth and was on the verge of failure. E. Garber, George Myers, and I made a deal and purchased the plant and business, with Mr. Myers as general manager. We built up the plant and did good business the first year. Mr. Myers then made unreasonable demands, and I, with Mr. Garber, arranged and took over control of the company. We then offered to sell our interests to Mr. Myers, but he said the price was unreasonable. 

We left the matter to Mr. Denhart, the banker, who said our offer was fair, and Mr. Myers purchased our interests. I made about $2,000, enough to purchase my printing office building, which was bought at a big bargain. 

We were endeavoring to secure an Interurban railroad from Peoria through Washington to Bloomington. I advocated it in my paper and personally took part in such an undertaking. I was one of a committee from different points along the proposed line to go to Champaign and consult with W. B. McKinley, who 

was at the head of an Interurban system. He gave us some encouragement and, as a result, I had my friend George R. Johnson, who had experience in building a line out of Detroit, come to Washington. On the prospects of getting such a line built, G. R. Johnson, Theo. Roehm, E. Garber, and I made a deal to purchase the Portman farm of 120 acres adjoining Washington. We laid out an addition to the city and sold off the lots in blocks. There was a drawing in the deal, and one of the block owners was lucky enough to get the old Portman ten-room house and some two acres of ground. We sold off enough blocks and ground to pay for the land. We organized a real estate company with Garber & Johnson as managers, but it was dissolved, and we also divided the remaining lots. Our company had built a couple of nice residences in addition, and I purchased one of them, and we made our home there for a number of years. 

A party by the name of Hoyt of Deer Creek had come into the ownership of the Portman property in Highland Park. He offered it at public auction. I attended the sale, but with no intention of making a purchase. Just to start the sale, I made a bid of $3,500. There were no other bidders, and I got the property. I then sold our residence in Highland Park, and we moved over to the Portman place. We lived there for about a year. I had a chance to sell the property to Henry Holtzman for use as a dairy for $5,500, and I closed the deal. 

In the meantime, Theo. Roehm and I had purchased the Sonneman residence property in Washington. We also bought a piece of ground at the back of the lot from Miss Bessie Cornelison. We then moved the Sonneman house to the back of the lot and remodeled it into a modern residence. This left two building sites for Mr. Roehm and me. We sold the corner site to C. P. Cress, and I took over the Sonneman house and Mr. Roehm the other site. After we sold the Portman place, we moved to the Sonneman house and lived there for seventeen years. I purchased the Danforth cottage seven years ago, where we are now living, and spent about $5,000 improving the property. 

Mr. Roehm and I also made another purchase of city property. It consisted of a small house and three lots, two blocks east of the Reyburn residence. On the corner of the property, we built a new modern residence. We sold this house to Lester Wood and took another house in exchange on East Walnut Street. We sold this property, as well as the smaller house and part of the lot east of the Wood house. | 

Two years ago, I purchased the former Harms residence property on South Main Street from the receiver of the Denhart bank at the bargain price of $2950. 

In 1914, C. J. Alyea, a party who had worked with me in the News office at Champaign, wanted me to join him in organizing an automobile insurance company. The result was that we organized the Belt Auto Insurance Association, headquartered in El Paso. It was a reciprocal insurer. I was elected president of the organization, and Mr. Alyea was general manager. We started out and did good business. The next year, we organized the Belt Indemnity Association, and I was appointed attorney-in-fact, the ruling officer. A controversy arose within the Belt organization, and I sold my interest to Mr. Alyea and Dr. Nichols. 

I then planned to organize another insurance organization and took it on in partnership with me, Theo. Roehm. We called it the Bull Dog Auto Insurance Association, and the head office was in Washington. We built up a big business, operated at one time in eight states, and did business of three-quarters of a million dollars one year. We employed some thirty persons in our home office located over my printing office buildings. 

We afterward bought out a two-thirds interest in the Washington Insurance Exchange, a like insurer, with Washington as the home office. 

The Insurance Commissioner of Pennsylvania made a ruling suspending the Bull Dog Auto Insurance Association from operating in that state. I made two trips to Harrisburg, Pa., and we finally joined with some other companies that had been suspended in that state and brought suit. Three judges sitting in the case decided that the Insurance Commissioner had acted illegally and ordered that our license to operate be restored. In the meantime, the publicity we received materially injured our business, so we decided to liquidate the Bull Dog Association. During the liquidation process, we encountered a major lawsuit with the Insurance Department. This was finally settled: the Association was liquidated, every dollar of indebtedness was paid, and $20,000 was returned to us in the deal. 

We operated the Washington Insurance Exchange for about a year after this, and as we could not agree with the manager, Clayton Roehm, we sold the business to the Suburban.

After the Bull Dog Association quit business, I rented one of my upstairs rooms to the Commercial Club, and in 1935, moved the club room into the west upstairs room and built two apartments in the other room. 

In my early days in Washington, I was elected township clerk for two years. I have never since sought a political office. 

In 1906, I was selected as assistant secretary of the Tazewell County Farmers’ Institute when they held their meeting in Washington. 

I have served as president and secretary of the Washington Commercial Club for many years. 

In 1910, I was instrumental in getting a Building and Loan Association organized in Washington, and I served as secretary for two years without pay. 

I was prominently involved in organizing a number of Homecoming celebrations in Washington and served on the executive committee in charge, and as its secretary. published a daily paper for several years during the Homecoming celebrations, which lasted one week. 

When we were operating the Bull Dog Insurance Association, all the reciprocal auto insurers met and organized a National Association. I was selected as president of this association for two years. 

For many years, I took a prominent part in the Democratic Party politics of Washington and Tazewell Counties. For years, I was a member of the township and county central committee. In the latter organization, I served on the executive committee. I was delegated to the county convention on several occasions.

I also published the National Insurance Journal, the official organ of this association. I had the printing done at Mount Morris, Ill., but the magazine was edited out of our office. 

When I came to Washington in 1899 and took over the Washington Post, I boarded for a month at the Danforth hotel. There I met a number of young men, among them Paul W. Busse, now president of the Danforth bank. The second evening I was here, I was invited to a party which Mr. and Mrs. E. S. Waring were giving at the hotel. There was a large number of Washington’s prominent ladies and gentlemen present. Mr. Busse took me around and introduced me to all of them, and I made quite an advance in getting acquainted. 

Dr. E. A. Morrow came to Washington soon after I did and we were always great friends. The facts are that the Doctor, Paul W. Busse and I spent many Sundays together and were great chums. The Doctor’s mother came to keep house for him, and his mother and my mother were warm friends. 

After I had been here about a month, my mother joined me and kept house for me. We first had rooms with Mrs. Allen. Then we rented the Benford residence. This was followed by a new cottage built by J. W. Voorhees. From there, we moved to the Mrs. Anna Cooper residence, where I lived until we moved into our home in Highland Park. 

In my first years in Washington, I was active in attending church and all social functions. With my mother, I attended the Presbyterian church under Dr. Cornelison as pastor.

One day, I was in the bank, and Mr. Busse asked me if I wanted to attend the football game with some lady friends. I told him I did not know, as I had a young lady friend. He suggested that I take Miss Anna Andrews, and he would take Miss Viola ‘Cress. He offered to call up Miss Andrews and arrange the date. As I had met the young lady previously at a musicale at H. L. Zinser’s, I said it would be all right. The date was arranged. When the day of the football game arrived, it was cold and stormy, and we changed the date to see Madam Fisk, a prominent actress who was playing in Peoria. From this event, I commenced to keep company with Miss Andrews. The course of true love never runs smooth, so they say, and it did not in our case. Miss Andrews went on a visit to Texas, and I wrote her a long letter. She answered. I was invited to go on a special excursion with a group of editors to Mason City, Ia., given by the B. C. R. & N. railroad. We were gone several days, and when I got back, I was very busy getting out my paper and did not answer Miss Andrews’ letter very promptly. She got a little peeved and did not write to me, but we patched things up when she got home. At another time, I went to Peoria and did not keep a date with her, which caused more trouble. This was finally patched up, and on “corn night,” October 30, 1901, we became engaged. While teaching in the Washington schools, Miss Andrews set the date of our marriage for July 16, 1902. 

The time for our approaching marriage rolled around. The evening before, I was out at the Andrews home, where quite a number of relatives and friends had congregated. Anna had a grip packed with her go-away things, and to “be sure” some of the young folks did not make away with it, it was put in my mother's safekeeping. The Misses Susie Sherry and Lettie Burton were too foxy for mother, and while they had mother busy visiting, they swiped the grip and ran with it and put it in a buggy with Miss Gertrude Heiple and Harley Chaffer. We ran after them, but they got away. The next morning, our good friend, Mrs. Henry Denhart, told us the grip had been taken up to Dr. Morrow’s office. The next noon, I called Dr. Morrow and told him a party wanted to see him down at my office. While he was coming down there, I sneaked up to his office and recovered the grip. Then, on some pretext, they tried to send someone down to the house to get my grip, but my mother was too alert for them and gave them an extra grip packed with some rags. 

We were afraid they would try to hold up our trunk the night we were married, so at midnight, the night before, I drove a rig out to the Andrews home, and Mrs. Leva Bacon and Anna helped me load up the trunk, and I took it down to the depot and had it checked out to Chicago on the train which left at. 12:30. The afternoon of the wedding, it rained pitchforks, but about 4 oclock it cleared up and proved to be a fine evening for the event. Some 125 relatives and friends were at the wedding. It was rather a simple affair (even if I did tremble a little in my shoes).At 8 o'clock, the bride and I marched into the parlor from a side room, to the wedding march played by Miss Price. Misses Gertrude Heiple and Lettie Burton stood with us. Dr. W. H. Holmes, an uncle of mine from Chicago, performed the impressive ceremony. After due congratulations, refreshments were served, and Wrenn’s orchestra furnished music for the occasion. Later in the evening, the Washington band came out and serenaded us. As we were not leaving until the midnight train, we spent the evening socializing. Toward train time, the young folks wended their way down to the depot to give us a proper farewell. However, we had arranged to drive down to the depot in a buggy and it was not to reach the depot until the train was coming in. We also arranged that Arthur Holland was to go down to the switch, where the train stopped before it reached the depot, get on the train and tell the porter of the sleeping car to close and lock the doors on the side of the depot and open them on the opposite side. The plan worked like a charm: We got on the train and looked through the car windows, and all the crowd could do was throw their rice and old shoes at the window while we laughed at them. 

Mr. Busse and his confederates had prepared many placards that they expected to hang up in the car we were taking. As the door was locked, he could not get in, but hung some in the day coach and gave them to the brakeman with instructions to hang up. However, he disobeyed and simply brought them in and handed them to us, and we had great fun in reading them.