Book on Buckley history took four years to compile

One hundred fifty years is a long time.

Just ask the authors of "Celebrating 150 Years: Buckley Illinois." Four Buckley residents and natives wanted to compile a complete history of the town's settlers, businesses, churches, schools, sports and landmarks.

Ruth Jones, Carol and Louie Krumwiede and Marilyn Niemann started meeting in February 2002 to begin the project.

"We would meet monthly, then do our individual research," Jones said. "We each worked on separate chapters. If we found something for someone else's chapter, we would pass it along."

This research involved hundreds of hours. Jones said one of the main sources was a book written by H.W. Beckwith titled "History of Iroquois County." It was written in the 1880s.

Jones said group members also used writings by a woman named Martha Bartell. She was a Buckley historian who worked for the Paxton Record about 50 years ago and devoted large sections of the paper to Buckley's history.

The authors also relied on other Iroquois county newspapers, including the now-defunct Buckley Chronicle.

"I went through it and looked at the advertisements for businesses," Jones said.

Jones and the other authors convinced owners of 100-year-old homes in Buckley to dig out abstracts that once served as house titles.

"They all had the same early sequence," Jones said about the town's early developers Ira Manley and John A. Koplin. "Now people are digging these out and looking to see if theirs match. It's generating interest."

Marilyn Niemann said she consulted several living sources for her chapters about the early settlers and the military.

"That part was truly fascinating," Niemann said.

The Krumwiedes were assigned to write the chapters about sports and baseball. They compiled the history of Buckley's town baseball team, which eventually evolved into the Buckley Dutchmasters. They pored over scrapbooks containing vast quantities of information about the team's history.

"It can take take hours and hours if you want to read everything," Carol Krumwiede said.

Many sources unearthed by the authors will be on display in a museum full of historical items during Buckley's sesquicentennial celebration. The museum will be located in Christ Lutheran High School's Crusader Room in Buckley.

Sales for "Celebrating 150 Years" were started in November 2005. The 170-page book sold 500 copies in eight months and costs $20 plus shipping. To order a book, e-mail Carol Krumwiede at krumuiillicom.net or visit www.buckley150.com.