Our Past: The Telegraph headlines for June 11 over past 100 years

The Two Rivers Family Fishing Fair, held at Pere Marquette State Park near Grafton, drew 2,000 children. The fishing fair coincided with Illinois Free Fishing Days, which were held during National Fishing Week. Including parents and other family members, about 4,000 people attended the event, which featured exhibits of fish, frogs, turtles, snakes, and other wildlife displayed in aquariums on flatbed trucks.

The annual Lovejoy Memorial Service on June 10, 2001, included a proclamation naming the day “Charlene Cannon Day†in the city of Alton. Cannon, who had been an active member of the Lovejoy Memorial organization since 1952, was retiring in 2001. Alderman Fred Young read the proclamation, which noted that Cannon had helped keep the memory of abolitionist newspaper publisher Elijah P. Lovejoy alive, had raised funds to help young Alton residents go to college each year, and had taught at Douglas and Lovejoy elementary schools, along with East Junior and Central Junior high schools, for more than 25 years.

A committee of the Alton City Council voted unanimously to resurface two blocks of Gillis Street with asphalt to correct work from the previous year that aldermen called a “mistake.†In 1990, a contractor used a machine to pulverize the existing asphalt twice, but residents of the 2200 and 2300 blocks of Gillis complained about the results, including ruts in the road. The 1991 resurfacing project was expected to cost about $70,000.

The chairman of the Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees said the board wasn’t ready to approve a plan announced by the SIU-Edwardsville administration to move the university’s dental school from Alton to Edwardsville. Board Chairman Ivan A. Elliott said he and other trustees wanted to know why the board wasn’t included in discussions about a possible move. Trustee Harris Rowe noted that the board had earlier approved extensive planning for the Alton campus.

The Alton Police Department launched an “educational campaign†to enforce city auto license regulations. The city’s Treasurer’s Office said payments on city auto tags had picked up in the preceding days, and it planned to retain two extra clerks to issue the licenses. Cars without 1951 stickers were to be ticketed, but the ticket charges would be dropped if vehicle owners came in “soon afterward†to purchase stickers.

Heavy thunderstorms on June 10, 1926, caused damage around Alton. Rains and high winds damaged numerous trees in the eastern part of the city. The walls of the old Boals planing mill, which was being used as an auto storeroom, were blown down, causing an estimated $4,000 in damages. Six automobiles inside the building were heavily damaged by falling bricks and heavy timbers, also causing an estimated $4,000 worth of damage to the vehicles. Sections of East Broadway were flooded so heavily that traffic came to a stop.