Reader Contributions Please Note: All pictures are the property of the submitters and may not be used without their permission.         This is George Major Hanson who helped to establish the first Post Office in Coles County.  He was also the first Postmaster in Coles, for the town of Paradise.  Many thanks to Bruce Henley for this picture!       Lapsley Campbell Henley Submitted by Src #113 Lapsley Campbell Henley was Bruce Henley's great-grandfather. The first picture on the left of Lapsley was taken on his wedding day to Mary Elizabeth Allison in 1864 while Lapsley was on leave from the Illinois 7th Infantry, Company B. Bruce tells us that this company was formed of volunteers from Coles County and had the distinction of being the only unit to fight with every man having a Henry rifle - which the men had to buy themselves for $50. Company B fought at Shiloh as well as other battles. Lapsley's older brother Thomas Duncan Henley also fought in the Civil War as a volunteer with the 123rd infantry - eventually becoming associated with the Headquarters unit of the 123rd. Lapsley Henley went on to become a lawyer in Coles after the Civil War and was elected to two terms as the County judge, starting in 1880. He died in 1924 and is buried in Dodge Grove Cemetery in Mattoon. His name is listed on the monument by the Masons in the middle of the cemetery. Many thanks to Bruce for sharing his photos and family history.

Src #2 contributes the following letter printed in the Oakland Messenger on 5 Mar 1897. The letter is to Postmaster Hunt from "an old friend", Baxter Adams. TO POSTMASTER HUNT Letter From An Old Friend Which We Publish Verbetim ______________________ HOSPITAL SOLDIERS HOME, LEAVENWORTH, KAN. Feb. 13, '97 I do wonder if the postmaster of dear old "Pin Hook" is my dear old friend and former pupil, Billie Hunt. If so, I am very glad to hear that you are alive for I always thought a great deal of Bill Hunt. I am undoubtedly the veritable Dick Adams that spent so many happy years in Coles and adjoining counties and guess I well remember Grannie Hunt and Alex, Sallie, Joe and Eva - your brothers and sisters and nearly everybody in old Coles and many in adjacent counties. Well, Billie, it has been over thirty years since I left your community and mine has been a wonderful pilgrimage since then. After leaving Coles I went to Wisconsin and in less than a year was sent to an insane asylum where I remained for over four years and was discharged perfectly cured. Dear friend Billie, I was mentally unsound for a long time before I left Oakland. I was never dangerous at the asylum and capable of taking care of myself. Soon after leaving the asylum I went to Australia where in a few years I accumulated $34,000 dollars. Returning to America, I settled down at New Orleans, went to speculating and in about five years I was worth exactly $200. So now I am a member of this beautiful Soldier's Home but I will have to quit, Will, for I have been sick in the hospital for six months and can sit up but a few minutes at a time. Am very low and have to write with a pencil. Billie, if there is a newspaper published in Oakland I want it very much. I would have sent some money in this letter but you did not tell me whether there was any published there or not, but I presume there is. Please give my love and regards to all that think enough of me to inquire about me. Am now just 60 years of age. Have not heard a word from Coles county since I left there, altho I wrote to several. My love to your folks, Will, and believe me to be your devoted old friend. BAXTER ADAMS Mr. Hunt advises us to say in answer that he is the very same chicken which Dick Adams refers to altho it is doubtful if he can eat as much chicken pie as Dick can.