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HR0543 |
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LRB094 12632 CSA 47464 r |
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, The Village of Gays is celebrating its 150th |
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| anniversary in 2005; and
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| WHEREAS, The Village was once known as Summit; railroad |
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| officials named it that because it was the highest point on the |
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| Indianapolis and St. Louis railroad between Terre Haute, |
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| Indiana, and St. Louis, Missouri; the railroad was responsible |
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| for much of the community growth; in 1881, the name was changed |
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| due to postal service confusion in mail delivery; there were |
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| two towns in Illinois named Summit, so the name of Gays was |
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| selected; and
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| WHEREAS, The first residence in the area and a store with a |
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| small stock of goods was built by L. Waters in 1855; other |
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| people built homes and, by 1869, two more stores with general |
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| merchandise were located in Gays; in 1867, a school was under |
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| construction and a Methodist and Christian church were added; |
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| and
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| WHEREAS, The Gays Mutual Telephone Company was |
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| incorporated in 1904; in 1905, the Village was officially |
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| organized and an election was held with 26 votes cast for town |
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| officials; a bank was started, but was liquidated as a result |
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| of the bank moratorium in 1934; a fire in 1912 razed six |
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| buildings and dwellings near the business district; because |
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| there was no fire department, a bucket brigade was formed to |
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| control the flames; and
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| WHEREAS, Since its beginning, the Village of Gays has had |
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| restaurants, grocery stores, shoe repair shops, tile and brick |
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| yards, meat markets, blacksmithing and wagon making, hardware |
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| stores, feed mills, a cream station, garages, a filling |
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| station, beauty shops, radio repairs shops, a bulk plant, and |
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| bottle gas retail; in its early days, there was a succession of |