Brookport High School - Egyptian Yearbook (Brookport, IL)

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Our Town The name of Our Town is Brookport, Illinois in Massac County, just across the Kentucky line on the banks of the Ohio Riverg longitude 89 degrees, latitude 37 degrees. Our Town is located in the extreme southern lowland section of Illinois known as Little Egyptng some say because in the early days it was the corn- growing region, and the northern settlers went down into Egyptl' for the corn which was so important to man and beast. It was a night in February, 1779, when General George Rogers Clark and his men captured Illinois and made it free of British rule, even though the Declaration of Independence had been signed before then. General Hamilton paid Indians for scalps of white colonists here in the middle west. In 1819, Illinois became the 21st state and was named for the Illinois Indians. A lone negro family lived in Our Town then. It was 1855 when Our Town was incorporated as Brooklyn and the name was not changed to Brook- port until 1901. But I must forget this history and show you Our Town as it is today- the day is March 1, 1947. The time is about dawn and the sky is beginning to show some streaks of light over in the East there, behind our foot-hills. The morning star always gets wonderful bright the minute before it has to go. This Saturday is a crisp cold morning with a good covering of snow on the ground and the only lights on in town are at Ham Smith's where Bacon is getting ready to deliver the morning paper and in a cottage there on the corner at Holifields. They're all a-flutter as H. VValton rushes Verna down to a Metropolis Hospital, where Mary Elizabeth, a nine pound girl is born. just across from the Holifields is the big red brick Baptist Church with Bro. Moore as the new pastor. The Baptist's first church was organized in 1819 and was a frame building where Kroger's store now stands. And there's a grocery store on the other corner-belongs to Butch Brinker now but used to be George Hertters, a Board member. Across there is the Irvin Cobb Bridge-a beautiful bridge it is-which spans the Ohio River on route 45. The bridge was completed in 1929 but was not toll-free until Thanksgiving 1945. Of course, everybody knows about our floodwall-built after the flood of '37 which almost washed away Our Town. Way back there in the railway station-first tracks were laid here in 1877. Our train pulls in here in the afternoon, shuts off steam, spends the night, then turns around and starts on a new day's journey. Beyond the tracks is The Sawmill where we get our tomato stakes and bean poles. This side of the tracks is our friend, Mr. NN'hitworth-busy with his Poultry and Second Hand Store where you may buy anything from a beautiful antique rocker to a modern garden plow. It's time for breakfast, folks, so let's go to the Stateline' Cafe, .Ora and Jack Whalen really fix up that country sausage and eggs. Business IS poppin' at