| The Castle survived 113 years and
more than a dozen owners. After selling his school desk factory in 1895, Mr. Loughlin
continued to live in Bonnyconnellan Castle for a number of years. The failure of Sidney's
German American Bank in 1904 created personal hardships for the Loughlin family and many
others. The Castle, which had been placed in trust by the creditors of the bank, was sold
in 1907 to Col. J. B. Tucker of Urbana.
Mr. Loughlin, who then moved from the area, died penniless in 1917. Col. Tucker, who
also took over the Loughlin factory site and converted it to the manufacture of wooden
bicycle rims, became very wealthy. The subsequent owners did not fare quite as well, and
the Castle was passed from family to family. Stanley Bryan, the proprietor of the Venice Chocolate Company, owned it in the 1920's. Local
physician Dr. Austin Edwards lived there eight years until his death in 1943. Army Major
Charles Price owned the Castle until 1949, and it was used as a nursing home by the
Morris family in the 1950's.
Bonnyconnellan survived 113 years of various owners, some perhaps indifferent to her
needs, but she could not survive the plan of her current owners to carve her up and sell
her part by part. Gone are the hand-tooled leather panels in the den. Only cold plaster
walls remain. The richly appointed wooden panels of oak and walnut have been cut away and
sold. The impressive wooden ceiling beams are gone.
Through its long history until this year, the Castle had helping hands along the way.
Rose Loewer had purchased the Castle as an investment in the late 1950s. She never stayed
there overnight during her nine year ownership because "I'd be terrified. I read too
many detective stories," she stated in a 1967 Sidney Daily News article. |

Above is the before -- below is the after.
A gaping hole in the ceiling only hints at the once stately wooden
staircase. The woodwork surrounding the fireplace, the doorways, and the doors themselves
have been stripped and carried off. |