Windyville

[Gypsy Heart]

Abandoned store

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

Had a buddy we called Windywille.

[savant365]

Windyville is a small community about three or four miles from Bennett Springs State Park. It is located at the corssroads of county roads MM and K. Marie Durrington and Edrie Harris gave us a description of this early community.



There are two main stores on the south side of the intersection. The store on the S.E. corner was the store built by Healey Bennett. It was owned after that by Martin Corkery for two years. Then Healey Bennett bought it back. In 1920 Herbert Scott bought it. Herbert was Edrie Scott Harris's uncle. They sold general merchandise in the store: cloth, shoes, children's clothing and of course, candy; they traded cream, eggs and produce from the farmers and sold them sugar, salt, and slabs of meat. The store bought chickens and turkeys. Edrie remembers, "At Thanksgiving and Christmas time it was really something. They used to hang those old turkeys up ther and strip them of their feathers and take them into Lebanon or Phillipsburg and ship them on out."



http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb..../wyv-story.htm



They had a canning Factory behind the store. They canned tomatoes. Edrie's dad, Arch Scott and Herbert Scott built it. They ran it together until Arch took his family to Colorado. Then Herbert ran it by himself for a while. Herbert ran it off and on for a few years.



On the S.W. corner, Henry Day had his store. To the west of it there was originally an old mill. the mill was there before Edrie's uncle Herbert bought the store. He may have been helping with the mill before he bought the store. The people of the community used to bring their corn and wheat and have their feed, chicken feed and flour and meal ground and take it home. They had their corn cracked for the horses.



The first mill was south of the intersection downin the field next to the Harrris's place. Calvin Scott ran the old mill for several years. By 1920 the mill was not doing the same business. They were cracking corn but it wasn't used as much by then. People would take their wheat by wagonload to Phillipsburg or Conway, wherever they could get the best price at the time. From there it was bought and shipped out. There were a lot of wheat fields close around Windyville.



The store that says, "Macks" was built by Henry Day. Ernie and Vivian Burtin ran it and had the post office with it for a while. Ernie Burtin now lives just south of Windyville on Highway K. His store was general merchandise. They sold it.