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"What can you tell me about twins Mildred and Madge Reak from Illinois in the early 1900s?"

Identical twins, Mildred and Madge Reak, were born in West Frankfurt, Illinois, in 1920.

Madge became a fourth-grade teacher at Franklin Elementary Grade School in Belleville, teaching for 20 years (1966-1986).

Mildred, Madge's twin, married and took the last name Applegate.

There were six sets of twins in total attending Gridley IL Grade School in 1954.

In June 1943, two women, Evelyn “Jackie” Bross and Catherine Barscz, were arrested in Chicago for cross-dressing.

The Tri-State Tornado of 1925, the deadliest disaster in Illinois history, took place while Mildred and Madge were young, leaving a 219-mile-long path of destruction.

The sisters were part of five sets of twins in their community according to an old photograph from the 1920s.

Madge taught at Franklin Elementary Grade School, a school that has since been converted into a senior living community.

A significant event during Mildred and Madge's childhood, the Tri-State Tornado, brought widespread devastation to several regions.

Identical twins like Mildred and Madge share the same genome, though Madge's genome was not specifically sequenced during her lifetime.

The prevalence of twins in a single community like Gridley, IL, may be influenced by factors such as genetics and the mother's age.

In the early 20th century, life in Illinois differed from today's norms, evident in the rise of white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

Twins in general, like Mildred and Madge, can experience unusual phenomena, such as mirrored behavior or sensing their twin's emotions across distances.

Twins can sometimes be a valuable scientific resource, allowing researchers to study the role of genetics versus environment in development.

Mildred and Madge's childhood in Illinois was impacted by historical events such as the rise of the Klan and the devastating 1925 Tri-State Tornado.

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