Aviston celebrated its centennial in 1964 and they published a souvenir book. This 60 page book contains 30 pages of advertisements and 30 pages of photographs and other historical content. There are group pictures with the names of people you will surely recognize and what appear to be pictures of all the students in Aviston schools, probably in 1964. The booklet also contains "The Chronicle of Aviston" including information about St. Francis Church, "Aviston Business Chronicle", pictures of Historic Aviston Homes, Sacred Heart Hospital, Aviston Milling Co, the Old Public School, village hall, etc.
The booklet was put together by a Historical committee and the "Book Director" is listed as Paul P. Santucci. It appears Robert (Bob) Reiss and Joseph G. Kohrman assisted in selling advertisements. The book was printed by Breese Journal, Breese, Illinois with photographs by Palmer Studio, Germantown, Illinois. The booklet was not copyrighted.
This booklet was provided to us by Phyllis (Kues) Stroud. Her grandparents, Bernard and Catherine [Dall] Venhaus, lived in Aviston until the day they died. Phyllis discovered this booklet while going through some of her mother's, (Esther [Venhaus] Kues) pictures. Thank you for sharing, Phyllis!
Over the next few months, we hope to be bringing you the entire contents of this booklet.
