While some may joke that history in the northwest suburbs began about the time Woodfield Mall opened its doors, the truth is the region boasts more than its share of locales and legends offering residents dozens of links to their past.
Some of the names, like Paul Newman, Theodore Roosevelt and Barney Oldfield are familiar ones. Others, like Fred Hatch, Samuel Cowley and Lucinda Thompson, are answers to very tough trivia questions.
But they are all forever linked as history makers in the northwest suburbs.
The area`s solid network of historical societies and museums, historic districts as well as refurbished homes and other structures is lasting proof of the interest residents have in their heritage.
For instance, the 16-sided round barn in Elgin, which was built by Hugh Teeple in 1885, recently survived plans by its current owner, Matsushita Electric Co. of America, to develop the farmland on which it stands.
”Interest in preserving historical resources of all kinds runs very high in Kane County, and the efforts of so many people to save the Teeple Barn are evidence of that,” said Chris Poll, preservation planner for Kane County.
”People were concerned about the barn`s future, and they worked together to save it.”
Poll said the Kane County Forest Preserve, the Kane County Farm Bureau, the City of Elgin and the property`s owner are working on an agreement to turn the barn into an agricultural education center. The 107-year-old Teeple Barn is already listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Such grassroots and governmental efforts to preserve history are in evidence throughout the area, from historic homes in Cook County on through the farm structures in McHenry County.
Until the 1920s, the northwest suburbs, with the exception of Elgin, Des Plaines and a few other railroad towns, were a collection of rural crossroads that catered to local farmers. The sound of crowing roosters was a familiar morning wakeup. Beginning in the early 1930s, though, the area`s links with Chicago were strengthened, so that after World War II the area really blossomed.
Of course, many area residents don`t have to read about the history of the northwest suburbs. They lived through it. Lester J. Ebel, 85, was born in 1906 and raised in Algonquin. He`s lived in Crystal Lake since 1927.
”When we were young, kids made their own fun,” Ebel said. ”We didn`t have a lot of diversions, so we played baseball in the cow pasture. A swimming pool? We`d dam up one of the creeks leading into the Fox River and take a dip. Hunting was a source of food around here until the late 1930s. There were plenty of rabbits and ducks and we`d roast them all together. People had vegetable gardens so they could put food on the table. It really was a different way of life, very quiet and very simple.
”People talk about traffic today. I remember seeing my first automobile in 1914. The mailman got a Model-T Ford. Everything was done by horse,” he added. ”I rode my bicycle seven miles to Dundee High School, unless it was raining or snowing. Then we rode the horse and buggy. At recess, I ate lunch then went and fed my horse. There were no Jiffy Lubes back then. There were blacksmith shops. I try to tell my grandkids these stories, and they think I`m making them up.”
Rest assured Ebel is not making it all up. There are many historical sites and structures throughout the northwest suburbs, some that have found their way onto historical maps and into guidebooks, some that exist in legend. Here are a few that should help put the northwest suburbs in historical perspective:
Woodstock Opera House: Although actor Bill Murray has been a fixture in Woodstock lately while filming ”Groundhog Day,” the city is used to rubbing shoulders with Hollywood`s biggest stars. Orson Welles was a young man in his early 20s when he made ”Citizen Kane” in 1941. Paul Newman has played such legendary movie characters as Butch Cassidy, Cool Hand Luke and Fast Eddie Felson.
Yet long before these two gained fame and fortune in Hollywood, both cut their acting teeth on the stage of the Woodstock Opera House.
Built in 1890, the Woodstock Opera House is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and still holds a year-round schedule of entertainment.
So how did Welles and Newman make their way to the county seat of McHenry County?
”Paul Newman was one of many young actors who came to Woodstock to work in local businesses during the day, rehearse at night and perform plays on the weekend,” said John Scharres, Woodstock Opera House managing director. ”As for Welles, he went to the now-defunct Todd School for Boys in Woodstock and spent much of his time on the Woodstock Opera House stage.” In fact, Charles Collins, a Chicago Tribune theater critic of the day, observed that Welles was a youth ”with a strong promise of a brilliant future.”
Newman appeared in 16 different productions in 1949, including ”Cyrano de Bergarac,” ”Three Men on a Horse” and ”Dark of the Moon.” And Welles was a featured performer in ”Hamlet” and ”Trilby,” among other
productions, during a summertime festival in 1934.
The interior of the Opera House, done in tones of peach and green, is intimate and cozy, with seating for 429 people. About 200 of those seats are located in the horseshoe shaped balcony. ”The seat farthest from the stage is only about 50 feet away from the center of the stage,” said Scharres.
According to Scharres, the auditorium`s most prominent feature is the Victorian stencil work on the ornately painted ceiling. The 1890s motif is evident in the lighting fixtures and stained glass windows.
North Barrington`s and the ”Rough Rider”: Teddy Roosevelt loved to hunt. And when he`d go on one of his many hunting trips in the Midwest, the
”Rough Rider” often stayed at the North Barrington home of one of his cousins.
The home was built in 1857 by Dr. Edmond Kimberly, whose son Agustus married Roosevelt`s cousin, Maria Ellis. It is set in a grove of oak trees and has the look of a Southern-style plantation, a white Colonial with tall columns in front and black shutters.
According to local legend, though it hasn`t been proven, Roosevelt even spent time recuperating at his cousin`s North Barrington home in 1912, following a failed assassination attempt in Milwaukee by a saloonkeeper named John N. Schrank.
”That`s the legend, anyway,” said Laurie Johnson, who with her husband Dave and four children have lived in the home for 13 years. ”We know President Roosevelt stayed here often for his hunting trips, but we`re not so sure that he stayed here after he was shot.” According to Johnson, the legend has been passed down over the years by the people who have lived there, from homeowner to homeowner.
”Another local legend is that the house is haunted,” Johnson said of the 15-room home with its winding staircase and quirky collection of nooks and crannies, ”at least according to the Barrington Area Historical Society. But we haven`t found that to be true, which is probably good.”
St. Peter`s Lutheran Church: Back in the early 1830s, German farmers with family names like Greve, Meyer, Ottman and Sunderlage were settling the Schaumburg area. Land was selling for the bargain price of $1.25 per acre.
By 1861, the year Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, more than 50 families decided to build a place of worship. They used horse-drawn wagons to cart thousands of stone bricks from Dundee, located seven or eight miles west. The first services were held at St. Peter`s Lutheran Church in 1863, thanks to $10,000 in materials and a lot of volunteer sweat. St. Peter`s served as a meeting place for German farmers from all over the area, according to Wilma Hill of Schaumburg, the church`s public relations chairwoman. Visitors traveled to St. Peter`s from towns like Arlington Heights and Addison.
Today the church at 208 E. Schaumburg Road, with its 127-foot-high steeple, stands as tall as ever, with 2,100 parishioners attending six church services each weekend.
”Am I surprised that the church is still standing? No, not at all,”
Hill said. ”This church was beautifully built, and it has obviously stood the test of time. Today, 129 years later, we still hold weekly services at St. Peter`s. And many people come from all over for weddings and baptisms. St. Peter`s means a lot to many people.”
Spring Grove`s famous silo: In a region where towering silos are common sites, many people are surprised to discover that the first-ever above-ground silo was constructed in Spring Grove in eastern McHenry County.
The first storage silos were actually pits dug into the ground and covered with boards. But in 1873, local farmer Fred L. Hatch came up with an idea that would revolutionize agriculture around the globe.
Hatch`s square, upright silo eliminated the spoilage of grain from rain and ground seepage. His invention was perfected in 1882 when an agricultural scientist from Wisconsin turned the square silo into a round one.
A plaque in Lyle Thomas Memorial Park near Nippersink Creek on Blivin Road commemorates Hatch`s farming foresight. ”A ceremony was held in 1984 when the plaque was dedicated,” said Spring Grove village President John Toler. ”Agriculture experts from around the world came for the ceremony. I don`t know that too many have been back since then. We think it`s kind of neat, though. It gives Spring Grove some historical perspective.
”The plaque reads, in part: ”The first tower silo in America was erected near this site on the Hatch farm one-half mile east of Spring Grove, Ill. Fred L. Hatch and his father, Lewis Hatch, erected this silo in October 1873.
”The tower silo was built inside of the barn. Fred and his father dug a 10-foot by 16-foot hole eight feet deep and lined it with rocks and mortar. They extended the walls 16 feet above ground with two thicknesses of flooring board, with a layer of tar paper sandwiched between them. The silo was used continuously for 46 years, until 1919. The original rock and mortar foundation is still visible.”
James Dunton`s Home: Whether Mrs. O`Leary`s cow was the cause of the Chicago Fire isn`t known, but the result was more than 300 dead, 100,000 homeless and 1,687 acres of the city destroyed.
And thanks to James Dunton, Arlington Heights residents had a grandstand view of the fire. Dunton, a cheese factory owner and one of town founder Asa Dunton`s two sons, had moved into his three-story Italianate and French Mansard home at 619 N. Arlington Heights Road earlier that year.
”News of the fire spread quickly throughout the area,” said Mary Ann Crosby-Anderson, executive director of the Historical Society of Arlington Heights. ”Many local residents hurried to the stately home of James Dunton, which had a flat roof. They climbed up to the top of the Dunton home, and Arlington Heights residents watched history being made 20 miles away.”
A financial setback forced James Dunton to move his family to Nebraska in 1885, and the ”Chicago Fire home” has had a variety of owners since. It`s now owned by Dorcas and John Thompson, who moved in in 1968.
McHenry County`s first settlers: Apollos and Lucinda Dexter Thompson and four of their six children headed west from Ohio in search of a new life in the spring of 1842. They settled on farmland in an area three miles west of McHenry on what`s now Route 120. In December 1842 one of their daughters, Lucinda, became sick and died. She was buried nearby on the Thompson`s property at what would become known as the Thompson Burying Grounds and eventually Ostend Cemetery.
”The area became known as Ostend, and it was a stagecoach stop for people traveling between Waukegan and Rockford,” said Everett Thomas of Woodstock, president of the Ostend Cemetery board of directors. ”There was also a U.S. Post Office in Ostend between 1842 and 1850, and an Ostend Country School. Ostend may be long gone, but the cemetery`s still there.”
There are about 75 gravesites at Ostend Cemetery, including Thomas`
great-grandfather, Andrew Thomas, who arrived in McHenry County in November 1840 from Volney, N.Y. The last burial at Ostend Cemetery was Charles Jecks, who was buried in 1955.
Billy Sunday pitches to Dundee: William Ashley ”Billy” Sunday had a decent big league baseball career. In eight seasons with the Chicago White Stockings (which became the Cubs) and Pittsburgh Alleghenys (which became the Pirates), the speedy outfielder hit .248, with 12 homers, 137 RBIs and 236 stolen bases.
Sunday had a religious conversion in 1886, when he saw a gospel music troupe at the corner of Chicago`s State and Madison Streets. He stopped gambling and drinking and refused to play baseball on Sundays. So when his career ended in 1890, it seemed only natural that Sunday would go on to become a world-famous evangelist.
For 14 years, from 1899 to 1913, Sunday and his wife, Helen Binnie Thompson, lived on a farm near Dundee. A historical marker was erected in 1970 south of Route 72 on Sleepy Hollow Road near the Sundays` farm property.
”Helen Thompson was born and raised in Dundee,” said Martha Sutfin of West Dundee, a longtime member of the Dundee Township Historical Society who did the original research for the historical marker. ”Her father had a dairy business in Chicago. Dundee was noted for its dairy products that were shipped to Chicago by railroad. Thompson`s grandfather owned the farm that they later inherited. They traveled a lot, of course, but the Sundays spent their summers at their Dundee home.”
Sunday, who was known for his animated style of preaching, also held revival meetings at what is now Tower Park in downtown West Dundee, ”saving” Dundee-area residents by the hundreds. ”He really was something else,”
Sutfin said. ”He used to tell people to `throw a fastball at the devil.”`
Elgin National Road Race: Many of the best auto racers in the country used to congregate in Elgin each summer for the Elgin National Road Race. Among the famous racers who took on the roads of Elgin were three-time winner Ralph DePalma, the legendary Barney Oldfield, 1911 Indianapolis 500 winner Ray Harroun and Eddie Rickenbacker, who was also America`s leading air ace in World War I.
The inaugural 305-mile Elgin National was held Aug. 27, 1910. The winner was Ralph Mulford, who zipped over the 8 1/2-mile course at an average speed of 62.5 mph. The gravel country roads were covered with oil to keep the dust down. Races were also held annually, from 1911 to 1915, 1919 and 1920, then revived one more time in 1933.
”The Elgin National attracted nationwide attention,” said local historian Mike Alft of Elgin. ”The races would attract more than 50,000 spectators, who lined the course to cheer on the drivers. Automakers wanted to test their cars for speed, and the Elgin course was good because there were very few hills and no railroad crossings, so drivers could build up plenty of speed.
”It really was a grueling race. Five lives were lost over the years, and just one of the many hazards drivers had to contend with were the stones being thrown up by the cars ahead of them,” Alft continued. ”Then, after World War I road racing became old hat, and oval racing, such as the Indianapolis 500, became the rage. And that was the end of the Elgin National.”
If you`re interested in retracing the path, the route through Elgin generally followed today`s Larkin Avenue, McLean Boulevard, Highland Avenue and Coombs Road. Of course, you`re bound to meet up with a little more traffic.
