ROCHELLE — Flagg Township Museum Historian Tom McDemott recently published a book containing 52 stories of Rochelle-area history.

"STORIES: Glimpses into the history of the Rochelle area and its residents" is now available for purchase for $20 at the museum. It can be purchased online and shipped for $25 by visiting flaggtownshipmuseumrochelle.org/home and using the DONATE button on the home page. All proceeds from the book will go towards the museum.

In 2021, McDermott began writing history-based stories for the Rochelle News-Leader's opinion page. After his amount of stories completed and published began to number in the dozens, he began to consider publishing a collection of them in a book after the urging of Museum Director Jan Devore.

Stories in the book include military heroes with connections to Rochelle, the first settlers of Rochelle, the history of employers like Del Monte and Caron Spinning, the evolution of Rochelle’s school system, and various stories on historic buildings in the city.

“Research went into all of these, but they're formatted as stories,” McDermott said. “If you sat down with your grandpa and he remembered World War II, we tried to tell it the way he would. We took the basis from old newspaper stories. For the military stories, we researched the battles and the ships. Some people like reading about the military history, some like reading the family names, and some like to read about the businesses.”

McDermott said he originally only planned on writing five or six stories for the newspaper before finding a groove in the work. He’s now written around 80 stories and has plans for a second book once he finishes a second 52. He tried to include a diverse range of stories in the first book and said its publishing helps the stories to live on. 

“This was a way to get the stories out there,” McDermott said. “You die two times, the day you die and the day the last person says your name. We want to keep these stories alive. That's what the museum does. People can sit down and read these to their kids. It's not meant to be read all at once. These stories are quick. It's a fundraiser. We have a beautiful museum. We don't have a lot of money. Our budget is $40,000-50,000 a year. If we can sell this book and generate a few thousand dollars, that's a big chunk of our budget.”

Devore said Flagg Township provided the funding to have the book printed and was happy to support the fundraiser. She said the book has generated interest in the museum and has brought people in the door to purchase it. 200 copies were printed and more can be printed if necessary.

“We want to get Rochelle's history out there in any way we can,” Devore said. “It's interesting that people are interested in a book, with as much as you can do online. Getting that information into people's hands makes us excited.”

McDermott said he hopes the book and stories move people to come forward with their family’s own interesting stories and to record their family’s history. Maybe someone will read one of the stories and have a bit of information or a photo to add to them and the museum’s archive.

McDermott never saw himself publishing a book like “STORIES.” He previously wrote a book on the Rochelle Fire Department, which he is a former chief of, and got into research at the museum and scanning historical items in the electric file.

“Some of the stories come fairly easily,” McDermott said. “Some of them are pulling teeth. There are some stories I attempt that just go nowhere that I can't prove. Some have an abundance of information. Some are Rochelle people involved in an infamous national story. I haven't found someone from Rochelle that was on the Titanic, but there isn't much else that's happened where there wasn't somebody with a connection to Rochelle involved. Some of them I've put in 20-30 hours of work on. But it's fun. I get to pick what I research.”