News Progress

•February 28, 2018•

When the Sullivan School Board met Feb 13, Supt. Ted Walk followed up on the Saturday, January 20 special board meeting and future planning session when classroom reorganizing was discussed.

As part of the space relief experienced at Sullivan Elementary School with the shifting of the fifth grade students to Sullivan Middle School, Supt. Walk is proposed bringing Project HELP students to SES with the Early Childhood program.

The preschool program which targets at risk students age three to five is managed by Eastern Illinois Area Special Education and currently leases space  at Sullivan Preschool.

Walk told board members that EIASE is currently paying $20,000 to lease a building for Project HELP. By housing both the district’s Early Childhood program and Project HELP at the elementary school that grant money could be used to purchase materials or pay for a classroom aide. Read More

•February 21, 2018•

By Eden Martin
NP Guest Columnist

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles dealing with the lynching on the Moultrie County courthouse lawn researched and written by Sullivan historian, native and retired attorney Robert Eden Martin.

On November 23, 1891, in Shelby County just south of Sullivan, Ulysses Grant Atteberry and his brother Ed killed their father David Atteberry, blowing off part of his head with a shotgun.

But that isn’t why five years later a lynch mob of Sullivan residents hanged Grant Atteberry from a tree in the Court House yard.

I. The Players

In 1891 David J. Atteberry was a 62 year-old farmer living in Shelby County. His wife Cynthia Jane had died one year earlier leaving him with nine grown children.

The second son — Ulysses Grant Atteberry, whom the family called “Grant” — was 32 in 1891. Grant was married to the former Annice Louisa Stoltz. They had three children: Myrtle, Emma Jane, and Clark Mackin. Read More

Photo furnished
Pictured is the Lovington Coal Mining Co.

•February 21, 2018•

By Ellen Ferrera
for the News Progress

When the settlers began arriving to the vast prairies of central Illinois in the early 1800’s, they found a land of bountiful opportunity for their entrepreneurial spirits.

By 1850 Sullivan was an incorporated village and already bustling with such tradesmen as millers, bakers, lawyers, carriage makers, blacksmiths, a dentist and Joel Earp’s saloon among others.

Added to these were other businesses in Moultrie County with a coal mine in Lovington, a sorghum mill in Bruce and a bottle making plant in Sullivan.

There was a very rich vein of coal running lengthwise through Illinois, and a number of small mines sprang up in central Illinois. Chief among those in what was called the Lovington Triangle, was the Lovington Coal Mining Co. which started operation June 24, 1901.

After three attempts, a 902 feet shaft was completed and the 8’ 10” vein of fine quality coal was hoisted above ground. Coal mining was Moultrie County’s leading industry it ceased operation in 1924.   Read More