Glad You Asked: The cemetery at 'Caledonia Center'; funding the Civil War; lack of progress on Highway 32; cigar bars in greater Racine; where to donate collectibles; YMCA update

Tuesday, April 24, 2007 2:24 AM CDT

While doing genealogy a death certificate listed the burial place as Caledonia Center. Does anyone know where this is located?

The location of Caledonia Center is most likely to be the Caledonia Memorial Cemetery located on Nicholson Road four miles south of Highway 38. It is the only cemetery in Caledonia that is not a church cemetery. Cemetery records can be found at the Racine County Historical Museum.

This answer was sent in by GYA Writers Matt and Sue Sisak, who got in touch with GYA over a recent question about Catholic German cemeteries in Racine County. They said the two Catholic German cemeteries are Holy Family and St. Louis cemeteries. They added there are 40 active cemeteries in the county.

Thanks to the Sisaks for their help with this answer!

How did the North and the South pay for the Civil War?

GYA Writer Steve Saxton researched this question. Most of his information came from Encarta, the online encyclopedia.

The South paid for the way by issuing lots of paper money. It couldn't tax residents because the government didn't have any way to collect it and residents were unable or unwilling to pay. Instead, the government printed dollars and drove inflation up about 9,000 percent, meaning something that cost $1 at the start of the war cost $92 at the end of the war.

The North controlled inflation - it's rate was 80 percent - by taking out loans and implementing an income tax. But it still printed "greenbacks" and dealt with inflation as it funded its Army and fought the war.

Thanks to Steve for his work on this question; it's his first answer for GYA.

Jim writes: There hasn't been any road building activity on Highway 32, south of Durand Avenue, for months. There's a few pieces of construction equipment along the highway, but they haven't been moved in months. Yet the barricades continue to require one lane of traffic, which eventually will result in accidents. What is the status of that project?

We're not sure. We made some calls to project manager and communications director, who both work for the Department of Transportation, and got no response. Then we tried Mount Pleasant and learned they haven't heard anything, either. One suggestion is that work won't start until companies start producing asphalt next month. We'll update this project as soon as we hear more.

I have a some high rollers coming to town and they love to smoke cigars. They want me to bring them to a "cigar bar." They will be here on business and like to drop a lot of cash so it's got to be upscale. Does Racine have a dedicated cigar bar, not just a bar you can smoke cigars?

Not that we've heard of. We posted this question on the GYA blog and only got back a handful of answers, none of them for a true "cigar bar." The two "cigar-friendly" places we heard a few times were Ivanhoe, 231 Main St., and Shillings, 611 Wisconsin Ave. If there are others, let us know and we'll run a list in a future column.

I have a couple of boxes of very nice household items that I no longer need. They consist mostly of home decor and collectibles. I would not consider it run of the mill rummage. Are there some worthy organizations out there that would have use for these items? They would probably sell great in a fund-raiser type sale.

Our first thought was second-hand stores like St. Vincent's de Paul or Salvation Army, but it seems like the writer may want to go in a different direction. Any takers out there? If so, send us a note and we'll pass it along to the person who asked the question. Thanks!

YMCA Update

Last week we updated plans for a new YMCA in Mount Pleasant by recapping an article that appeared in February's Journal Times. Monday, we got a call from Jeffrey Collem, executive director of the Y. His update was there is no update at the moment. Collem said he's gathering information from the community and working with the YMCA's Board of Directors on future plans.

What is Glad You Asked?

GYA is a regular column in The Journal Times that seeks answers to readers' questions on everything from local news to Guy Lombardo. Have a question? Contact us at (262) 631-1758 or at ask@journaltimes.com.

What more can I contribute?

Lots! We're looking for artists to design logos to run on the top of GYA columns. If you have an idea, sketch it on paper or computer and send it to us at the above e-mail address or by snail mail to: The Journal Times, c/o Glad You Asked, 212 Fourth St., Racine, WI 53403.

We're also looking for GYA Writers. Think you could research and write GYA questions? We could use the help. Contact us and we'll send you some more information. Thanks!

Special Offer: Get 5 Weeks of the Journal Times for $7!