Does anyone remember the old Inter-Urban train. I rode it as a child from Decatur to Maroa, IL and loved it. The tracks were still in Maroa for many years. When my dad was in the service my mother Ella Mae (MARSH) HIMES, my sister Patricia Rose HIMES(we lost her to a car accident in Michigan in 1975 a drunk teenage driver hit her car) and I would got to Maroa on it then go to the little brick Telephone operator building and have her call my grandparents Herb & Janie Mae(STOGSDILL) MARSH to come into Maroa and get us. I loved grandma's old oak wall telephone & party line. What I wouldn't give for that old oak wall phone now. I spent all my holidays and summer vacations with my grandparents on the old farm. I was the oldest grandchild by 6 years. My mother married at 16 so my grandparents were still young when I was a child. I was almost 50 when I lost the last grandparent. I remember and cherish those memories of my grandparents. The scent of Roses and Lilacs remind me of grandmother's yard and gardens. She had wonderful strawberries from one of her two big gardens everyyear. How I loved those juicy strawberry biscuit shortcakes. Strawberries from the store have no juice anymore. I had an uncles and aunts on both sides not much older than I. There were 7 children in my mother's family and 10 in my dads. I only had one sibling Patrica Rose HIMES. I miss her to this day. Its been nearly 29 years since we lost her. I have loved family history since very young child entertaining myself in grandpa MARSH's old storeroom upstairs with all the photos and old books. Being 6 years older than my sister or any other grandchildren I played alone and entertained myself with history. I remember tiptoeing past storeroom hallway wall with the large old framed hand drawn charcoal picture of my 2nd great grandfather John MARSH,(son of Jesse MARSH I & Ann (SLOAN) MARSH), as an old man with those starring eyes and his little starry eyed dog. I loved the old tin-type color picture of my great-grandfather,son of John MARSH & Henrietta Jane (SHERMAN) MARSH), Jesse MARSH II with his blue eyes when he was young. Jesse MARSH I 's grandmother Ann SLOAN was born in Ireland. Beverly (HIMES) BARGER in TX P. S. Searching- HIMES, MARSH, SHERMAN, FRAZEE, SLOAN, STOGSDILL, LEATHERS, MCCORMACK, MCCORMICK, MCCOMMACK, MELTON, MONTGALL, MASSY, BESS, BEST, ELMORE, ELAM, ELMORE, WALKERand many related & allied surnames. My ancestors were in central & south central Illinois early. Some by 1820. They came to PIATT, MACON, DEWITT, MCLEAN, CHAMPAIGN, SHELBY, CHRISTIAN, BOND, FAYETTE, MONTGOMERY, WAYNE, CLAY and other counties in Illinois.