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Illinois Amish Heritage Center hires permanent executive director

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•October 14, 2026•

Michael Gramm Coffman, of Juliette, Georgia, has been hired as the first permanent full-time Executive Director of the Illinois Amish Heritage Center in Arthur.  

Coffman is a 2021 graduate of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton GA with a BS in History and Political Science, and a 2024 graduate of Appalachian State University in Boone, NC with an MA of History in Museum Studies.  

Coffman’s vision is to expand the IAHC Living History Farm and Amish Museum where visitors from the region, nationally, and internationally can visit to learn about Amish and Mennonite history, faith, lifestyle, and heritage. As the Executive Director, he will be responsible for all day-to-day operations and providing support to the nine-member IAHC Board of Directors. 

His work experience includes Ride Operations Manager at Tweetsie Railroad in Blowing Rock, NC where he managed 40 staff members at a family-oriented Wild West theme park located between Boone and Blowing Rock, North Carolina, with 250,000 visitors each year.

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Sullivan Safe Trick or Treat brings families downtown

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•October 14, 2026•

by Jamie Crosier

Costumed children and their families will fill the sidewalks around the Sullivan square Friday, Oct. 30, as a longtime Halloween tradition returns to downtown Sullivan.

Sullivan Community Development will host Safe Trick or Treat from 4 to 6 p.m., with participating businesses and organizations handing out candy to children. At least 40 businesses and organizations typically take part, and more than 500 children from Sullivan and surrounding communities attend, according to Sullivan Community Development Executive Director Laurrie Minor.

“Safe Trick or Treat has been a Sullivan tradition since I was a child, so it has been part of our community for many years,” Minor said. The event has long been a familiar downtown Halloween tradition for local families.

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Sullivan native, devout Cowboys fan makes lifelong dream come true

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•October 14, 2026•

by E. Scott England

Loyalty to a sports team often comes with a price for some. Generations came and went without ever seeing the Cubs win a World Series until the win in 2016 ended the drought. For some, they are still waiting for their team to make it to the big game. 

The loyalty is often passed down through the family. But not for Curt Richardson. He came from a family that did not watch a lot of sports, nor did they have a dedication to one particular team. So for a young Richardson at around eight years old, the decision to support a team rested solely on him.

He chose the Cowboys, a team affectionately known as “America’s Team.” His selection of the Cowboys did not come from that moniker though, “I loved the Tom Landry poker face,” says Richardson. The year was 1971 when Richardson made his determination. Landry was in his eleventh season as head coach of what would become a twenty-nine year tenure at the top spot. That first year of Richardson’s new found dedication to the Cowboys, they won Super Bowl VI. Six years later, Landry led them to another win in Super Bowl XII. 

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Sullivan brothers turn academic strengths into tutoring business

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•October 14, 2026•

by Jamie Crosier

Brothers Gavin and Everett Finn were looking for a way to earn money that could work around their busy high school schedules when they landed on an idea that played to something they already knew well — school.

The Sullivan High School students started offering peer tutoring to students in grades 6 through 11, providing help in subjects including math, English and science, along with homework help, study skills and test preparation. Tutoring is available for $12 to $15 per hour and can be scheduled in person or remotely.

Everett, 14, is a freshman, while Gavin, 16, is a junior. Rather than taking on traditional jobs during the school year, the brothers began looking for what Everett described as “an entrepreneurial opportunity that would highlight our strengths in academics.”

The brothers do not remember which of them first suggested tutoring. Once the idea surfaced, they began working on it together.

For Gavin, the business began to feel real when they sat down to create their promotional flyer.

“When we sat down and mocked up the flyer, although still hesitant, I was excited to see where it led,” Gavin said.

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Remembering Who We Are……

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The “Worthless” Prairie

•October 14, 2026•

by Janet Roney

Many of Moultrie County’s first settlers in the mid-1820s and 1830s were born in Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, or Kentucky. They were used to farming small patches of sandy soil in the valleys between timber covered hills. When they arrived on the prairies of Illinois, they did not know what to do with this flat, swampy land covered with ten-foot-tall grass with roots so matted in thick deep sod that their crude wooden plows edged with a piece of iron were useless.  

They soon learned they needed a “breaking plow” hitched to three yokes of oxen or six teams of work horses to pull it through the virgin prairie sod. Even then, the rich sticky black soil would not scour well off of the thick iron blade, so the driver had to stop and clean the blade every few minutes. Some farmers who couldn’t afford to buy or hire a breaking plow and oxen, tried to break up the soil with an axe or heavy hoe. That was too labor intensive, and that ancient form of “minimum tillage” did not produce much corn.

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A Look Back…10-14-2026

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1966

First place for sports coverage in the annual Illinois Press Association newspaper contest was won by The Moultrie County News. In addition to the first place award for sports, the News also was cited for Best Classified Page, Best Photography, and Best Typography & Makeup.

A 1963 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan was $1,425 at Tom West, Inc. in Sullivan.

Getting their Bingo Bucks at the Moultrie County News office was Wilma Reedy, Darlene Standerfer, Darlene Burgess and Wilson Mummell. The four winners shared $100 in prize money. The winning cards came from Ken’s Food Stores and Hezzy’s Drive Inn.

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Dove to hold Candlelight Service in Sullivan

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•October 14, 2026•

by Jamie Crosier

For 26 years, Dove’s annual Candlelight Service in Moultrie County has provided a place to remember lives lost to domestic violence, recognize survivors and connect community members with resources available to those experiencing abuse.

This year’s service will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, at First Christian Church, 1357 County Road 1200 E., Sullivan. The event is free and open to the public, and no registration is required. 

The theme, “Moving From Awareness to Action,” will focus on ways community members can move beyond recognizing domestic violence as a problem and take practical steps to support those affected by it.

Becky Comstock, Dove’s domestic violence coordinator in Sullivan for Moultrie County, said awareness is an important starting point, but action is what can create tangible support for survivors.

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