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Robert Bike

Robert
Bike

Licensed Massage Therapy #5473
Eugene, Oregon

EFT-CC, EFT-ADV

Teaching Reiki Master

Life Coach

541-465-9486

Gift Certificates

Reiki
Private classes.
Biblical Aromatherapy
Therapeutic Essential
Oil Massages
Member
OMTA & ABMP
President of the Oregon Massage Therapists Association
2008-2010
& 2012-2013

I graduated from Freeport (Illinois) High School.
I'm a Pretzel!

FHS Reunions

Copyright 2002 - present

Latest Copyright
January 2, 2023

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Buy one of my books, on sale below.
All sales go to help support this website.

Remarkable Stories,
Volume 1


by Robert Bike

Remarkable events have happened in Freeport and Stephenson County, Illinois, and remarkable people have lived there. These are stories gathered about people and events from 1835 through World War II.

By no means complete, these are overviews of lives and events which shaped our country and our world. From events in the lives of
Tutty Baker,
Abraham Lincoln,
Charles Guiteau,
Leonard Colby,
Jane Addams and
Bob Wienand
come stories that will amaze you. Welcome to Volume 1 of our living history.

The author lives in Eugene, Oregon, and works as a Licensed Massage Therapist and Life Coach. An amateur historian, parts of these stories and many more appear on this website.

Buy now! Only 99 cents to download in .pdf format!

Want a paperback? List price $14.99, now only $11.99!

Biblical Aromatherapy

by Robert Bike

The Bible mentions about 232 plants by name, or closely enough to figure out what plant is meant. Of these, 24 are aromatic plants; that is, parts of the plants can be pressed or distilled to get an essential oil. Essential oils are the lifeblood of plants and have tremendous healing capabilities.

The healing power of plants is the basis for modern medicines.

Biblical Aromatherapy
discusses how the plants were used in biblical days and how you can use the essential oils from biblical plants.

Originally published in manuscript form in 1999, I completely revised the book and added illustrations.

To order Biblical Aromatherapy in paperback,
Click here.

List price $24.99; introductory offer $19.99


To order the pdf version and download to your computer or phone,

Click here.

The electronic version is only $2.99!

 

Publicity!

Olga Carlile, columnist for the Freeport (Illinois) Journal Standard, featured this website in her column on January 19, 2007.
Here is a jpg scan.

Harriet Gustason, another columnist for the Freeport Journal Standard, has featured this website twice. Click to see pdf of articles:
June 29, 2012
November 3, 2012

 

"My Life Purpose is to inspire my friends
and clients to achieve
success, health,
wealth and happiness
by empowering them
to reach their potential,
while living in harmony
with each other, animals
and our planet."
Robert Bike

Robert Bike, LMT, LLC

The Polaris is the high school annual from Freeport High School, Freeport, Illinois.

All text and photos Copyright 2002 - present Robert L. Bike, except for photos and direct quotes from the Polaris, which is uncopyrighted material in the public domain.

The Class of 1920

The 1920 Polaris

Harry Apel, Edna Althof, Esther Althof, Russell Askey, Vernon Ascher, Lilas Atchison,

Verdie Barker, George Barnds, Edna Balles, Ruby Beck, Donald Bennett, Georgia Bennethum, Philos Beuscher, Florence Bennett, John Beyers, Clifford Bixler, Ethel Bolender, Marjorie Borgmeier, Bruce Bowen, Arthur Brenizer, Donald Brubaker, Elmer Buss,

Paul Cramer,

Clara Dampman, Ralph Danielson, Florence Denton, Walker Dollmeyer,

Bernice Edler, Frances Eels, Gladys Ermold,

Sarah Firestone, Frances Fisher, Marion Fisher, Gertrude Folbridge, Dorothy Franks, Leona Franz, William Freidag, Ruth Funston,

Thelma Graham, Catherine Green, Ruth Greier, Jack Gugger,

Gladys Haase, Dorothy Haithcox, Ralph Haman, Harold Hamlyn, Mabel Haraldson, Leola Haren, Lillian Haren, Glenn Harrison, Chrystal Heeren, Paul Hermsmeier, Hal Hiatt, Lucius Hiatt, Oscar Hodel, Helen Hopper, Edward Hughes,

Bertha Ifert, Gladys Ilgen,

Dorothy Jastram, Paul Jones, Jeannette Jordan,

Isabelle Kaiser, Paul Kaiser, Doris Keck, Phil Keene, Alfred Keister, Irene Keister, Clyde Kennedy, Margaret Kiefer, William Knapp, Robert Knipschild, Katherine Kruger, Harry Kruse,

Beryl Laible, Bertha LaMar,

George Madden, Faith Martin, Ruth Martin, Alive Maves, Lucile McRae, Persis Meier, Edith Meyers, Helen Miller, Elizabeth Moore, Edwin Morris, Arthur Mullen,

Thera Neidigh,

Gertrude Phillips, Gertrude Price,

Katherine Redican, Dorothy Resh, Edward Rideout, Doris Risley, Neva Roberts, Margaret Roche, Ray Rockow, Willard Rubendall, Lillian Ruthe,

Viola Schlegel, Joseph Schudt, Ferral Shons, Alden Showalter, Levon Shunk, Edward Siegmeier, Lillian Spratler, Albert Staas, Louise Stephenson, Cloetta Stewart, Zella Stockwell,

Cyrus Taft, Tiffany Ellsworth Thayer, Dorothy Toelle, Sydney Torey,

Hannah VanDeest, John VanDeest, Cheryle Voght,

Iva Wachlin, Thelma Waldecker, Alice Wall, David Wallem, Gladys Walter, Elizabeth Welch, George Wheat, Nicholas Wilkey, Leon Wilson, Zelma Wubbena,

Madeline Younger.

Juniors in the 1919 Polaris

Oddly, neither the Class of 1920 nor any of the classes besides the seniors were listed by name in the 1919 Polaris.


The girls of Freeport High School Class of 1920, as Juniors.

The boys of Freeport High School Class of 1920, as Juniors.

The Junior Class Officers were Walker Dollmeyer, President; George Wheat, Vice President; Ruth Funston, Secretary and Treasurer; and Vernon Ascher, Historian. The Board of Control (maybe now called Student Council?) was Persis Meier, Vernon Ascher, Francis Eels and Alden Showalter.

In the Junior class play, "Contrary Mary," the actors were Vernon Ascher, Levon Shunk, Albert Staas, Georgia Bennethum, Arthur Brenizer, Elmer Buss, Doris Keck, Edna Balles, Marjorie Borgmeier, Alden Showalter, Robert Knipschild and Myron Wisdom.

There was a memoriam to Charles Haggerty, but no mention of how he died. The Spanish Influenza killed many in Freeport in the previous year.


Tiffany Thayer dropped out at age 15 before graduating, but went through the Freeport schools with the Class of 1920. Born in Freeport March 1, 1902 to an actor father, Elmer Thayer, Tiffany worked as an actor, reporter, and used-book clerk in Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland. He is shown in this photo in the 1936 film, The Devil On Horseback.

At age 16, he toured as the teen hero in the Civil War drama The Coward. In 1926, Thayer moved to New York City to act, but soon spent more time writing.

In 1931 Thayer co-founded the Fortean Society in New York to promote the ideas of author Charles Fort. The Society was headed by Theodore Dreiser. Early members of the original Society in New York City included Booth Tarkington, Ben Hecht, Alexander Woollcott and H. L. Mencken.

Thayer wrote several novels, including the bestseller Thirteen Women (1930) which was made into a movie starring Myrna Loy in 1932. Other movies include Clara Bow starring in Call Her Savage (1932), ZaSu Pitts starring in Strangers of the Evening (1932), Alan Ladd starring in Chicago Deadline (1949), and Fame is the Name of the Game (1966), adapted from Thayer's One Woman, starring Anthony Franciosa, Jill St. John, Jack Klugman, Robert Duvall and Nanette Fabray. Strangers of the Evening was also known as The Hidden Corpse.

Thayer wrote mysteries such as Murder Spree: Thirteen Men (1930). Thayer also wrote a number of novels which contain elements of science fiction or fantasy, including Dr. Arnoldi (1934) about a world where no-one can die. He also wrote America Needs Indians and Raped Again!, the latter described as a blueprint for enslaving entire populations. Thayer also wrote an edition of François Rabelais for children, Rabelais for Boys and Girls (1939).

Thayer co-wrote LO! with Charles Fort. Other novels include Three Musketeers, One Woman, Little Dog Lost, Five Million in Cash, Three-Sheet, The Illustrious Corpse, The Cluck Abroad, Kings and Numbers, and The Greek.

Reviews of Thayer's works are quite amusing. Dorothy Parker wrote, "He is beyond question a writer of power; and his power lies in his ability to make sex so thoroughly, graphically, and aggressively unattractive that one is fairly shaken to ponder how little one has been missing." F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, "curious children nosed at the slime of Mr. Tiffany Thayer in the drug-store libraries." William Tenn, recalling Dr. Arnoldi more than sixty years after he had read it, characterized it as "absolutely fascinating---and disgusting. . . . If you ever find a copy, give it to some sf fan you dislike. Your reward will be the baffled misery in his eyes after he's read it."

A reviewer recently wrote in his blog, Pretty Sinister Books, "I really don't know what to make of Thirteen Women (1932) by the eccentric stylist Tiffany Thayer. Is it a thriller? Is it a character study? Is it some kind of allegory on Fate? What I do know is it's tawdry, vulgar, lyrical, pulpy, poignant, disgusting, frustrating, infuriating, and utterly addictive. It's sort of the equivalent of driving by an utterly gruesome car wreck on the highway. You don't want to look, you know better. You, of course, are not a gawker or a rubbernecker. But when you get close enough you do slow down and you stare in horror and then look away, but you look back and you gape again. Then you move on. That's what it's like to read Thirteen Women."

Thayer was once an immensely popular author. His first novel, Thirteen Men, was reprinted 40 times in 20 years. After the success of his last novel, the Three Musketteers in 1939, he devoted the rest of his life to an enormous historical work, Mona Lisa. Projected to appear in seven installments, only the first, the three-volume, 1200 page, The Prince of Taranto (1956) was ever published.

Tiffany Thayer died in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on August 23, 1959.


 

W. T. Rawleigh Medical Company in 1920

Card showing the W. T. Rawleigh Medical Company in 1920.

Freeport Public Library

The Freeport Public Library in 1920.

Stephenson Street

Stephenson Street in 1920.


Adolph W. Blumenstiel (1850-1921) and his wife Christine (1850-1930) in front of their home in about 1920, then 88 Addison Street, and now 538 W. Addison.


Polaris Home

Freeport High School

Click on any year in the chart below to see the class and other info,
such as postcards, people and events from that year.

1920
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

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