Submitted by Jack Pritchard
Sterling Gazette, 14 Nov., 1946 - Page 4, Col. 5
WHEN HEARTS WERE YOUNG AND GAY
That a tremendous amount of interest has been stirred in the articles on old Como is demonstrated by the numerous letters received. The following from Mrs. Pet Foy of Tampico, ILL. illustrates the point, Mrs. Foy says:
"I have been much interested in reading the items relating to Como in several issues of The Gazette under 'When Hearts Were Young and Gay.'
"My father, William (Bill) Van Drew, his wife Lizzie, and children, Charlie, Minnie, Jennie and Will (twins) and I Pet, came to Como from Ohio in 1866. I went to school in the school house which still stands there and is still in good condition. My first teacher was Mr. Helm. I have lost track of his family.
The church is gone. How well I remember the hearse that stood in a shed back of the church; that one carried my uncle Will France to the Como cemetery. Uncle Will was the one who sent for my father to come to Como, he was my mother's brother. He operated the flour mill on the river bank.
My father ran a butcher shop, Clark Besse's father ran the hotel - it might then have been called a tavern. Dickery operated the ferry. I remember the cider mill on the river bank, also the stave factory where my brother Charlie went to dances. We kids went along to watch them dance. That is where he got his wife, Eliza Scott, daughter of John and Jane Scott. Eliza was a twin to Deal, who married a uk. Partridge. Ann, another sister, married Dave Donichy. Their daughter is living in California. My sister, Jennie, is living in Long Beach, Cal.
Jennie and I used to ride on the wagon with brother Charlie and we were supposed to be very quiet, but you know kids. I remember Zeke Olds; we at one time lived on the Holmes farm west of Como and walked three miles to school. had to pass his place and he would come out and ask us if we were tired and often gave us an apple or treat of some kind. I also remember Lizzie Whitman and Owen Pitney. His son Henry lives here in Tampico. I married Milt Foy, who has passed away. We had one child, Louis, who is married and lives in South Bend, Ind. I still have a warm feeling for Como."
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