Nokomis, a wide spot in the road between Hillsboro and Pana in the northeast corner of Montgomery County, has three lawyers.

It also has a baseball memorabilia museum that was established 24 years ago to perpetuate the memory of three local boys whose stellar major league careers earned them entrance into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The Bottomley Ruffing Schalk Baseball Museum got its start in 1981 as a diner window display, according to a Nov. 13 article in the Chicago Tribune. It is now located precariously in a teetering building that once housed a church.

Fire destroyed an adjacent building in August, costing the two-story museum part of its roof and one wall. The remaining structure needs to undergo a costly restoration, or to be razed and rebuilt.

One of the museum's three officials also is one of the community's trio of lawyers. He's Myron Kelly Schaefer, a retired bank examiner who was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1971.

Schaefer holds the dubious office of museum treasurer and is faced with finding the funds to save the collection of some 3,000 artifacts.

He hopes to receive $58,000 from an insurance policy but realizes that another $30,000 probably would be needed to rebuild the structure, or build a new museum, and to clean up the contents for appropriate display.

The three consecrated Hall of Famers are “Sunny Jim” Bottomley, Charles “Red” Ruffing and Ray “Cracker” Schalk. Only a couple of people visit their combined shrine on Route 16 each month, but the diverse array of collectibles has proliferated.

Perhaps the recent World Series victory by the Chicago White Sox can generate more interest in Schalk, who was born a few miles west of Nokomis in Harvel.

He was the team's catcher when it won its last previous World Series in 1917. An ethical “untouchable,” he was not involved in the infamous Black Sox scandal of 1919.

The Sox backstop from 1912 to 1928 and manager in his last year, Schalk held the stolen base record for catchers at 30 from 1916 to 1982, and he was first in putouts and fielding percentage during nine seasons.

The museum collection includes the July 25, 1955, issue of the Litchfield News-Herald that announced Schalk's election to the Hall of Fame by its veterans committee.

Ruffing ended his career on the White Sox mound in 1947 after pitching and hitting the New York Yankees to a mitt full of World Series titles between 1930 and 1946.

Although born in Granville, he worked in a coal mine near Nokomis. An accident deprived him of four of the toes on his left foot and resulted in a few painful years before his pitching career blossomed with the Boston Red Sox.

Bottomley, a standout with the St. Louis Cardinals from 1922 to 1932, played in four World Series and was the National League's most valuable player in 1928. Among his records were most runs batted in during one game (12) and most unassisted double plays by a first baseman (8).

Myron Schaefer and his cohorts have a vision that a bigger and better museum could give Nokomis a much-needed boost in business and population, now a few souls short of 2,400.

“I think it's pride (and) tradition,” he told Tribune reporter Ted Gregory. “We're going to lose the whole town if we don't keep this going.”

Next time you're on that boring stretch of Interstate 55 between Collinsville and Springfield, take a detour at Litchfield and head 25 miles east on Route 16 to the Bottomley Ruffing Schalk Baseball Museum.

Call ahead to Schaefer at (217) 563-8514, and he'll be glad to show you around – and to accept a generous contribution to the future of Nokomis.

Donations also may be mailed to the museum at 121 W. State St., Nokomis 62075.