Just down the street, at 205 Shady Knolls, a house just over 50 years old holds a document of mystery. The Magnolia High School diploma of Lavisa Mae Freeman, Class of 1911, was recently found in the basement ceiling of that house by its current owner. 

“Over holiday break, I was putting in a new water heater and was looking down the piping and saw the end of the rolled document. It actually looked like an out-of-commission pipe. When I started to pull, I noticed it gave a little, so I kept pulling,” said Tony Feleccia, who has lived in the house on Shady Knolls for the last two years. 

What he unraveled was, what appears to be, an original signed diploma nearly 100 years old. The document sparked an interest for Feleccia, who started looking for the rightful owners of the document.

“It’s allowing me to do some sleuthing and detective work, which is fun,” said Feleccia. 

His sleuthing led him to look for the previous owners of the house. First, he contacted the owners who lived in the house before him; they insisted there was no family relation to the name on the diploma.

“There have only been two previous owners of the house, according to the realty company,” Feleccia said.

Feleccia learned the first habitants, the Doubs, passed away, sending his search elsewhere. 
Continuing his research, Feleccia focused his attention on Magnolia and the high school for more clues. An image on the diploma printed by the Bloomington Pantagraph, led him to believe that the school was in Magnolia. Yet, Magnolia High School in Illinois did not open until 1912, the year after Freeman is documented as graduating.

“My thinking is there were schools around at the time, and according to ancestry Web sites, there were several Freemans in the town of Magnolia at the turn of the century.”

All Feleccia’s detective work, in hopes of returning the document to the rightful owner, has led to a dead end.

“If anybody has any information on the previous owners of the house or the diploma, I’d like to get it back to the family,” said Feleccia, who encourages anyone with information to e-mail him at tfeleccia@gmail.com.