Tuscola by the numbers

61953 – Zip code

4,583 – Population in 2005 (estimated)

1 – Former Speaker of the U.S. House Joe Cannon was the first state's attorney in Douglas County. Cannon served as Speaker from 1903-11. He lived in Tuscola from 1858 to 1878.

3 – Number of presidents who've been in Tuscola: Theodore Roosevelt in 1912; Richard Nixon in 1960; and George W. Bush, campaigning for his father, in 1980.

1871 – Year Mark Twain lectured in town.

2 – Number of days it took to get clothes back from the Hop Long Laundry in 1893.

$1 – cost of a bottle of "King of the Nerves," a medicine sold by the S.A. Richmond Patent Medicine Co. in the 1890s.

1948 – Year the Piggly Wiggly Store opened

1921 – The year Tuscola radio station WDZ, predated only by stations in Cleveland and St. Louis, began broadcasting market quotations

1930 – The year Lester (later Smiley) Burnette began performing and announcing on WDZ.

1870 – That year's census listed 2,835 whites, 28 people of color and 749 voters.

76 – Members in the Tuscola Women's Club in 2006. The TWC was started in 1894 with original objectives of "mutual entertainment and improvement."

1999 – Beth's Place opened, helping people in domestic violence situations.

33 – Number of community businesses that sponsor Little League for boys and girls.

587 – Number of pages in "Tuscola, Strolling Through the Past, 1857-2007"

15,000 – Number of babies estimated to have been delivered in Jarman hospital from 1919 until it closed June 1, 1990.

6 – Months the comprehensive "History of Tuscola" exhibit will be on display in the Douglas County Museum. It opens today and ends Dec. 31.

35-20 – Score in the IHSA state football playoffs in November 2006 at Memorial Stadium, when the Tuscola Warriors beat top-ranked Aledo.

rebecca mabry, N-G regional editor