McLEANSBORO - At 90 years old, Arthur Capps has a lot of memories. He also has family memorabilia of some historic significance, such as his grandfather's Civil War discharge papers. Capps, who grew up in Hamilton County, began writing down some of his memories about a year ago. Recently, he met with Hamilton County Historical Society President Rick Moore to share those memories. "Once I started, I enjoyed doing it," Capps said. "I'm just kind of amazed that I remember as much as I do at this age." At age 90, Capps still gets around on his own. He lives in a Mt. Vernon health-care facility with his wife, Faye, who has Alzheimer's disease. Two ladies in charge of activities at that facility suggested he write up his memories - so he did. He started the project about a year ago and currently has a notebook filled with dozens of pages of memories. Born in 1921 in Herrin, Capps said one of the first things he wrote about was the 1925 tornado which hit between McLeansboro and Dale in Hamilton County. His own family didn't live here at the time, but his father had family who did live here and were injured, he said. He recalls his dad driving the family to McLeansboro, and recalls the building which currently houses McCoy Memorial Library being used as "a place to treat the wounded," he said. Capps' family wound up moving to Hamilton County in 1927; they lived just west of Dale, he said. He's written about moving to Dale and about attending the two-room school there, he said. About his school days, he recalls a teacher who would have her pupils find cities on a map of Illinois. "I firmly believe that is the reason I got to like maps," he said. >From the Times-Leader Paper Moore said memories like Capps' are important from a local history standpoint. Pointing to bookshelves at McCoy Library filled with binders containing family histories, Moore said important local history would be lost without such efforts by individuals to record them. Capps' grandfather Andrew - the Civil War veteran - died in 1937, when Arthur was 16, he said. The papers which show Andrew's discharge from military service in 1865 are significant, Moore said. "This would be valuable to collectors," he