Newspaper Clippings for
December, 1939
from the pages of the Waukegan Daily Sun 7 December 1939
SHE'S 80, BUT DRIVES TO CITY
Mrs. Clark of Wadsworth Thinks Nothing of Autos
After Handling Horses.
By Gladys Priddy
When Mrs. A. Clark out in Wadsworth decides she wants to shop in
Waukegan, she simply hops into her car and drives to town.
Nothing remarkable about that? Perhaps not-except that Mrs. Clark
was 80 years old the twenty-second of last month. Says she,
"Driving a car is nothing. Goodness, I used to drive horses, so
why can't I drive a car? The horses used to run away with folks,
and cars won't do that, if the drivers have any sense."
As to speed, Mrs. Clark insists her aim to keep about 40 miles an
hour. You can't go any slower out on Skokie or Green Bay rd.
without getting into somebody's way. My son-in-law swears he
chased me at 50 though and then lost track of me. I think he is
stretching the truth a little."
Mrs. Clark has been in Lake county since she came to Millburn from
Scotland when she was 13. We went out to talk about those old
Millburn days, but Mrs. Clark, tall and active, didn't care for an
afternoon chat. "Go across the street to the Dietmeyers," she
told us at the door of her house in Wadsworth, They can give you
a story."
It was a bit chilly out on the porch where we were standing, but
we stayed on. We shifted weight to the offside foot and kept
talking.
It developed that living on a farm in Millburn back in the good
old days was "just a lot of hard work, and that's all there was to
it." Mrs. Clark's father, Mr. Sutherland, ran the mill up on Mill
creek. Mrs. Clark lived on a farm that is now part of the James
Simpson estate. She sold the property to her son, Frank, and he
"sold to Simpson and did all right in the deal, too".
Apartments Needed
Mrs. Clark has lived in Wadsworth for 20 years, and "there isn't
so much news out this way." Of course, thinks do happen. Take
the new tower man for the railroad, for instance. He went past as
we talked. "He's looking for a place to live," Mrs. Clark pointed
out. " He wants to bring his wife out here, and he just can't
find rooms." Evidently Wadsworth housekeepers have not gone into
the business of turning the east wings into "light housekeeping"
apartments.
Another thing. The News-Sun never publishes letters from folks in
Wadsworth. Do Wadsworth folks write letters, we wanted to know.
"Well, no, guess they don't," Mrs. Clark decided. "Have to give
everyone his due. You can't publish letters we don't write, can
you?"
The front door conversation was interrupted by a knock at the back
door. Mrs. Clark excused herself to hurry down the hall and to
bid a young man come on in out of the cold."
We left then. Mrs. Clark walked to the edge of the porch and
suggested that we "drop in any time you're out this way. There
might be some news. You can't tell".
