Tuesday, July 10, 2012

GROSVENORS' GLENN   
 
June 16, 2012
 
THE BLUFF ROAD
"The hard road" was paved, I believe, in 1933. It was originally Route 150 and later designated Route 3. Prior to the coming of the pavement it was "The Bluff Road" and it was merely a single-lane dirt road that wound along "under the bluff" from the Wye near Kinkaid Creek to Kaskaskia. Prior to that it was part of the Kaskaskia trail which the early settlers followed from Kentucky to Kaskaskia. The bluff road clung tightly to the higher ground near the bluff because most of the land from the bluff to the river was swamps. It, therefore, was very crooked. It was also extremely dusty in the summer and extremely muddy when it rained and absolutely miserable in the winter because the mud got churned up during the day and froze solid in large grooves and lumps at night. I walked the bluff road to school at Logan (1/4 mile north of Glenn Cemetery) in 1930, 1931, & 1932. It was a brutal experience. I was very young (5th birthday in late June, started to school in early September) I was clumsy. I was sickly. I was poorly dressed. I was sent to school mostly to get me out from under foot. My mother was dying of cancer. There was a younger sibling, Edna Mae, in the family. It was the time of the Great Depression and misery was upon us all. There was a hail storm that destroyed our crops and damaged our buildings. The price of corn dropped to 12 cents a bushel. On most cold days, I would stumble on the frozen mud or skid on the patches of ice and fall, throwing my lunch bucket into the ditch. I would get up crying and my brother Herb would let me go back home. On nice afternoons, when we got home, I would rush into the house and get Mom's permission to walk as far as the old walnut tree with Ruby Nell Grosvenor and the Claussen children. That was glorious!
Melissa Grosvenor checked in with me this week with offers of info on the "Southern Grosvenors". I can hardly wait.
Also, this week I received a real treasure trove of information from a person in St Louis using the name "Momstore" who is related to the Shields & Gannons and therefore indirectly to the Korandos. Momstore gave me corrections and additional information on 17 Korandos which I have applied to their memorials.
I have had a telephone conversation with Darrell and he says the restoration project at the cemetery is moving along nicely. All the stones between the main cemetery road and Route 3 are finished and this Monday the group will start on the other side of the road (where the Grosvenor graves are located).
 
Cecil
 

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