Samuel Allerton was a wealthy Illinois resident. I have been told that he gained his fortune by selling pork to the Union Army at 69 cents per pound when the going rate was only 2 cent per pound. He owned approximately 80,000 acres of farmland in the midwest. One tract of land was set aside for the incorporation of Allerton, Illinois in the 1890s. His son, Robert Allerton built the Allerton Mansion in Monticello, Illinois. It is now owned and operated by the University of Illinois.

I grew up in a house on the north-central side of town. My father used to say that we lived on the corner of Poke and Plum. If you 'poked' your head out of town, you were 'plum' out of town. The house was built for the town banker about 1890; I was quite surprised to read the property abstract when my mother sold the house several years ago. The description of the location of our house described its location in the southwestern part of town. The town obviously drifted toward the railroad.

My first recollection of the house was strange. To the west of the house sat a small pig pen and to the east sat a hay field. My parents were watchful of me fearing my inquisitive nature would lure me into the pig pen or into the hay field never to be seen again. I was about two or three at the time; they scared me to death.

We 'became' modern in 1956 with the installation of the village water supply. I can remember being entranced while watching the backhoe operator dig the trench for the house hookup to the village water main.

Telephone service was always around, but rather antiquated by today's standards. Our phone number in the fifties and early sixties was 12F14; the railroad depot phone number was 12F12. We would sit and count the rings as the central operator in Broadlands (a small town 3 miles west of Allerton) would turn the crank to simulate 1 long and 4 shorts. My father thought it handy to have the depot on the same line so that he could answer it from home during his lunch hour. Dad was a freight agent/telegrapher for the C&EI. He traveled quite a bit; freight agent at Indianola and Jamaica, Illinois, and Allerton.

We really made 'the big-time' when dial phones were installed in 1966. However, we were still on a party-line, but that's progress in a small town. The phones were still on party lines in 1977 when my mother sold the house and moved to the city shortly after my father died.

During the 1960s the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad went from Chicago to Danville and split. One line went to Evansville, Indiana while another turned toward the southwest to Chester, Illinois.

The railroad was big then, moving the farmers' grain to market. I can recall my dad complaining that he always had trouble getting cars during the harvest.

The rails skimmed the southern most part of the village. Ninety percent of the town was north of the tracks while on the south side of the tracks was a single row of houses and two gas stations.

The town supported four gas stations; two of which had auto repair garages with them; two implement dealers, John Deere and International Harvester; a couple of restaurants, a tiny grocery store and a hardware store. There was also an agriculture supply business, a cob plant and of course the grain elevator. We had our own bank, The State Bank of Allerton and a U.S. Post Office. The town had three churches: Presbyterian, Church of Christ, and Methodist.

The winter of 1957 was a terrible winter. There was lots of snow on the ground and to make matters worse - mother nature gave me my first taste of an ice storm. Power lines were downed all over central Illinois and we moved temporarily to the Allerton train depot - we had heat and lots of oil lanterns.....and HOT soup! I slept very little for the noise of the trains coming and going always woke me. During the day I was an upset to my father as I inquisitively asked him what he was doing. I had two older brothers at home at the time. My older sister had already married and was living in Germany. She missed all the fun!

The winters were generally just snow covered; I can remember how quiet itwas with the snowfall. The sound of muffled cars and children laughing....it was a big thrill for most kids in town. Their parents would tie sleds to the back of their car bumpers and toe the kids through the snow covered streets.

Another winter treat was the Annual Allerton Sale held during the first weekof December. A winter carnival actually. Lots of money exchanged hands during the sale...and you could always count on getting lots of baked goods for the rapidly approaching Holiday Season.

The Lion's Club was very strong in the town; every Christmas they had a town Christmas party. Santa always arrived on time to bring candy, fruit, and toys to the village children and fruit and candy to the adults.

The spring brought the saddle club's annual father's day horse show. I can remember people coming from as far away as Wyoming and Montana to show their horses and rope calves and ride the bulls. It was one of the biggest things that happened in the spring. Well, as a matter of fact, it was the ONLY thing that happened in the spring of any consequence. At any rate, it was a large production. Zerma Witt, an OLD lady I thought, would have her electric organ loaded up from her farm in Broadlands and transported to the riding

club. The riding club was built in the hay field across the street from my house about 1959. Zerma was an excellent musician on the organ. The horse show would run for two days, Saturday and Sunday. My folks would sit on the front porch and watch the happenings. Me? I was in the midst of it, doing what I could to learn about horsemanship and walk total strangers' horses. Being a total pest. But it was fun. My father would become upset because the 'gate' to the horse show would be just in front of our driveway. They'd always ask for an entrance fee before we were allowed to go home. He'd also fuss and fume about folks parking in the yard on the west side of the house and cut in front of our porch to head for the riding club grounds.

Summers were always hot. But as a child I can remember the fun! The Allerton Park was just across the street and during the summer months I lived in the park. The park was about the size of a football field. At the north end there was a slight incline and at the top was a large pavilion. At the west side of the park, the Allerton Lion's Club built a huge swing set and merry-go-round. There were no girls for me to play with; so I played with the boys. Pretending to be jet pilots and we would jump out of the swings as we 'bailed out' of our 'crippled jets.'

Summers also brought the gardens. My mother and father always had a large garden. And in August I earned money by picking the excess tomatoes and selling them for ten cents a pound to the local grocer. Oh how simple life was then.

My father would also give us a treat. He would take an empty shoe box and cut holes in the sides and lid. My older brothers and I would glue tissue paper in the holes of the box. Dad would then fix a candle in the middle of the box, corresponding with the hole in the box lid. We'd tie a string onto the box, light the candles and pull the now, 'street cars' up and down the sidewalk that ran along the east side of the park. Gives new meaning to the movie title Streetcar Named Desire.

Fall would bring the Allerton Fall Festival. It was always a delightful time. There were local crafts and businesses would have exhibitions and of course, there would always be a parade.

Every fall the local men would come to the park and erect a giant tent (probably not giant, but it seemed that way). The three of us, John, Larry, and I would watch intently as they hurried to finish the job. We were all warned not to go into the tent. But as kids will do, we would wait until they were out of sight and run like heck to be the first one inside. One year, at dusk, we were running through the tent. John and I waited in the dark shadows at the west end of the tent for Larry. Suddenly all we heard was a big KA-Wumpf!! Larry had run smack dabbed into the middle of the center tent post. We thought he was dead! It just knocked the wind out of him.

One other Holiday made lots of Allerton children happy. It was Halloween. There was a couple who had a big house and every year had a large Halloween party for the kids of the town. In those days we went trick-or-treating on October 30 and 31st. Lulabelle loved the kids dressed up even more than we enjoyed trashing the basement of her house on both nights. On cold October evenings it was nice to be able to sit and visit with the other ghouls and goblins and town a cup of hot chocolate or snack on a bowl of chili. There were always games that we could play, and of course tons and tons of candy. In a way I think todays' kids really miss a lot of fun that I enjoyed as a child.

The town has changed drastically since I left in 1969. The depot was torn down to make room for bigger farm equipment stock. The railroad no longer goes through Allerton; there are no rails left. There is only one implement dealer in town. Only one gas station has survived. The hardware store is gone along with the grocery store. I guess that's what you call progress.