Believe it or not, Chillicothe, Illinois has its share of past or current citizens who have distinguished themselves with outstanding achievements and are locally famous for that. The longevity of their fame is often fleeting, lasting maybe a couple generations while others endure forever. These people are promoted by community leaders to further financial success for the community through tourism of any sort. If one should achieve national fame or notoriety, the community generally identifies with that famous person and promotes itself for business reasons 

In the early 2000s, Don White, while reading an old Chillicothe Bulletin, discovered Johnston McCulley had lived in Chillicothe. He told the Bulletin Editor, Marianne Gillespie. Marianne told Dianne Colwell, a freelance photographer for the Bulletin and member of the Historical Society. Ever a fan of Chillicothe, Dianne began beating the drum to recognize McCulley as a significant “local boy who made good.” After several years of her campaign, as President of the Society, I presented the proposal to develop the history of McCulley’s accomplishments to the membership to possibly provide a source of badly needed revenue (tourism) for the society and city.

With the approval of the membership, the project was begun and led to the amazing story of Johnston W. McCulley, who the Society has labeled Chillicothe’s Storyteller. If you are over forty years old and an American, you probably have seen movies or TV shows of the famous masked super-hero created by McCulley. If you grew up in the US over the last thirty years you will have learned of many secret, masked crime-fighters such as Bat Man & Robin, Wonder Woman, Superman, Spider Man, and Wonder Dog. Well, maybe not Wonder Dog.

What you may not know is that many of those and other super-heroes are descendants of the Character Zorro, created by our “Local Boy Makes Good.” It was McCulley who developed the conditions that comprise the story line followed by virtually every modern-day super-hero. Zorro does not have a band of merry men to back him up. Those who work alone, are based upon the McCulley model. 

    But why is Johnston W. McCulley a “Local Boy who Made Good” for Chillicothe when he was born in Ottawa, Illinois on February 3, 1883? His mother died in 1884 when McCulley was sixteen months old and his father, Rolla, brought him to Chillicothe to be raised by Johnston’s grand-parents John and Emily Thompson McCulley. Rolla McCulley was a successful general contractor who suffered ultimately fatal injuries when a scaffold at the Lacon Courthouse collapsed with Rolla and two other workers on it. Rolla died in Peoria in 1894 when Johnston was just eleven years old. McCulley, nick-named Willie by Emily because of his small stature, grew up and was educated in Chillicothe.

NOTE: The Chillicothe Historical Society is honoring McCulley on Feb 2, 2023 at the Chillicothe Library at 6pm by holding their membership meeting there. The public is welcome.