Rotary is an organization of business and professional persons united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and help build good will and peace in the world.

"Doing good in the World is more than a motto.  It is our goal, our mission, and our reminder.  It expresses in the clearest terms why we have a Foundation, and it challenges us to reach as far as we can to do the most good possible with everything we have.  Our Foundation exisits to support the good that we can do through Rotary.  It expands our reach, increases our strength, and makes our service more powerful and more effective.  Because of our Foundation we can, very simple, do more of our Rotary work."

2004-2005

President Glenn Estess Sr. 

President, Maura Donnelly, opened the meeting leading the Pledge of Allegiance and followed in prayer by Don Johannes.

 ANNOUNCEMENTS

Please bring guests to our meeting. We need two new members to meet Maura's membership goal before her term as president is over.

Guests: Tom Jacobson (Guest of Peggy Sebastian), Susan Hereford (Guest of Ray Hereford), Beth Poe (Guest of Maura Donnelly)

Make-ups: No Make-Ups

Birthdays: Mike Gould (5/16);  Jim Rankin, Jr. (5/18)

Anniversaries: Mark Frey; Lisa Hunsche

Club Anniversaries: None

Please let these people know that they were missed: Terry Bell, David Butler, David Daiber, Len Daiber, Kevin Dewaele, Dan Fieker, Mark Frey, Mike Gould, Bret Gruender, Robert Hagerman, Roland Harris, Katrina Hodous, Lisa Hunsche, Jack Klaus, Terry Leitschuh, Holli Martin, Glenn Meffert, Henry Metzger, Greg Miranda, Bob Nagel, Jim Rankin, Jr., Mark Reaka, Brad Rench, Bill Schaefer, Eric Schmidt, Steve Schmitt, Ron Schneider, Randy Schorfheide, Art Schutz, Gordon Smith, Michael Sutton, and Jennifer Whitten.

Reminder that 2011-2012 we will be tracking service hours again to see Rotarian's collective IMPACT.  This year's goal is 7500 hours, to date there are 2131 hours recorded. 

Sign-up sheet was left out for people to sign up for the "Respect the Law" banquet.

Members can go to the website and log your hours or email them to him directly: swconstruct@agtelco.com

There was $430 in the 50/50 with 41 cards left in the deck. The ten of spades was pulled.

Happy Bucks:

Peggy Sebastian was happy that the Emergency Disaster Plan at the hospital worked very well during the bus accident that happened yesterday. The hospital only treated four kids, but were expecting 26 and could have handled 50. The employees did a great job!

 Tom Wehrle was happy that his grandson just graduated from Duke Graduate School and is heading to Atlanta to find a job.

Phil fined anyone who has not sold a car raffle ticket yet.

PROGRAM: Dr. Tim Thomlinson

Dr. Thomlinson gavea  presentation on the historic communities of Elsah and Chautauqua, located about 40 minutes from Highland and north on the River Road from Alton.

There are four historic districts located between Elsah and Grafton on the River Road. Dr. Thomlinson talked about two of them. Elsah was a town built in the 1850s by James Semple and Chautauqua was built in 1885 as part of a movement that started in New York.

Elsah was built in and around the bluffs on the River Road. There was a railroad stop built that helped bring in people and businesses to the area. The upper class was drawn to the area and large houses and mansions were built on the bluffs. Elsah claimed that people who lived there lived longer than anywhere else in the region.

Lucy Ames, the daughter of James Semple, was one resident of Elsah. She lived in Notch Cliff Mansion on top of the bluffs. She married a real estate developer who died at a young age. Lucy took over the business and went on to develop Ames Place, a neighborhood that still exists in St. Louis.

Chautauqua started as an idea in New York in 1874 when a group of Methodist ministers were looking for a summer place to train Sunday school teachers. Many Chautauqua areas popped up from this idea. Two key players to the local Chautauqua area were Dr. Benjamin St. James Frey, a Methodist minister and editor at a St. Louis newspaper, and Rev. Frances Van Treese, a reverend who was involved with Chautauqua until the 1920s.

Chautauqua started in tents and developed into a middle class resort that offered social, cultural and religious activities. Summer school was offered, as well as many different leisure activities. The Chautauqua Inn was built in 1904 and had 90 rooms, a ballroom, formal dining room and drawing rooms. It was financed by the community as an investment property. It caught fire in 1919 and burned down.

Not to be outdone by Elsah's claim that people lived longer there, Chautauqua claimed that they had spring water that was highly medicinal. They had the water sent to a lab in Chicago to "verify" their claim.  

Today Elsah and Chautauqua still exist. Elsah still has the Methodist church, original town hall that is now a museum, and the original village school that serves as the town hall. Chautauqua is now a private, gated community. This summer it will offer a pool, community events and religious program for its residents.

UPCOMING PROGRAMS -  Jennifer Whitten