LaSalle County Genealogy Guild * Ottawa

Saturday, July 15th, The LaSalle County Genealogy Guild will meet at the Guild Library at 115 W. Glover Street in Ottawa.  The speaker will be Stan Seevers.  His presentation will be Antiques of the Civil War.  This is a story about a collector or vintage and antique hand tools.  Stan Seevers is a retired tool and dye maker from Cisco, Illinois.  He was also the fire chief for Cisco, a village of about 260 residents.  His talk will be enriched by an assortment from his collection of unusual small tools, household and agricultural workshop pieces and medical and dental tools.  A brass laryngoscope from 1855-1860 is the most unusual tool in Seever’s collection at present.  A medical instrument, it was created to help inspect the larynx (voice box)in the human throat.  This instrument is a means of obtaining a view of the vocal folds and glottis and facilitate tracheal incubation during various medical procedures on the larynx and tracheobronchial.  Other hand tools in his collection include Civil War pliers shaped tooth extractor and a cow tail holder.  A member of the Midwest Tool Collectors Association, Seevers donates payment from his tool collection presentations to building ramps for the handicapped in Piatt County, Illinois.