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News
Yesteryear for February : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisYesteryear for February
| 2/4/2010
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Compiled from articles published in the Ledger-Sentinel, 1980-present; Fox Valley Sentinel, 1974-1980; Oswego Ledger, 1949 to 1980; Kendall County Record, 1864 to present; and historical information provided by the Village of Montgomery.
Five years ago this month...
The Oswego School District's Education Fund referendum passed by a margin of 805 votes, 4,753 to 3,948, according to tentative unofficial vote totals reported by the Kendall County Clerk, the Will County Clerk, and the Aurora Election Commission.
The referendum requested an increase in the district's Education Fund tax rate by 30 cents for each $100 of equalized assessed property valuations (EAV).
"It's a great day for the Oswego School District," Guinnane said. "Because of the support of our community, we can now continue to build on our successes of the past and to strive for even greater success in the future. The community should be proud of their commitment to quality education," he added.
10 years ago this month...
Oswego officials were moving ahead with planning for the installation of traffic signals at the intersection of Main and Washington (U.S. Route 34) streets in the village's downtown business district. Members of the village board's transportation committee reviewed a proposed resolution asking the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to grant the village a waiver from its intersection design standards which, if granted by the agency, would allow the signals to go up.
Efforts by Kendall County officials to extend Metra commuter rail service into the county gained the endorsement of the Kane County Council of Mayors. In a unanimous ballot, council members approved a resolution in support of the efforts of an ad hoc Kendall County committee to secure federal grant funds that would help pay for a study examining the potential need and feasibility of establishing commuter rail stations in the county.
15 years ago this month...
A consortium of five housing developers announced plans to seek the approval of the City of Aurora to develop more than 2,000 homes in the Oswego School District section of the city.
The Montgomery Village Board agreed to seek bids from potential buyers for a home the village had purchased at 1310 South Broadway Avenue next to village hall. Board members noted the successful bidder would be required to move the home to another location to make room for an expanded parking lot for village hall. Stu Johnson, the board's finance committee chairman, said the village would use the funds from the sale of the house to help pay for the parking lot expansion.
Developers of the Victoria Meadows Subdivision in Oswego completed work on a new section of Douglas Road between U.S. Route 34 and the Waubonsie Creek.
20 years ago this month...
The possibility that the Village of Montgomery might approve residential subdivisions along U.S. Route 30 within the boundaries of the Yorkville School District was a concern for Yorkville Mayor Robert Davidson. "Montgomery is hungry for growth and they make no bones about it," Davidson told the Ledger-Sentinel. "But we don't want to have to pay for their growth." Responding to Davidson, John DuRocher, Montgomery village administrator, said he and other village officials remained willing to meet with Yorkville officials to discuss their concerns.
Despite the objections of one Bristol Township homeowner who said she didn't want to be "subjected to golfers," the Kendall County Board approved plans for the proposed Blackberry Oaks golf course and residential subdivision west of Oswego.
25 years ago this month...
The purchase of a new squad car for Oswego's Police Department proved a highly contentious issue during the village board's monthly meeting. A motion to purchase the car failed when board members deadlocked in a 3-3 tie vote and village president Milton "Les" Penn opted not to cast a ballot. Some board members objected to the village buying the car from a state purchase program, others questioned the need for the car, while still others thought the village should purchase the car from a local dealer, Detzler Pontiac.
30 years ago this month...
Ground beef was on sale for $1.39 per pound at the Boulder Hill Food Center at the Boulder Hill Market, according to an advertisement in the Fox Valley Sentinel.
Oswego Public Library District officials announced the construction of an addition to the library building on Jefferson Street in downtown Oswego would soon begin. Local voters had approved funding for the project in a 1979 referendum.
35 years ago this month...
Kendall County officials announced the abandoned Wormley School, located on Ill. Route 31 just north of East Anchor Drive in unincorporated Oswego Township, had been slated for demolition. The building had served for years as a one room school house.
The Montgomery Village Board voted unanimously to organize a committee to study a possible referendum to establish a public library in the village. In other action, the board also voted to refer to committee a request from Don Dise, developer of the unincorporated Boulder Hill Subdivision, to extend village water lines to service a McDonald's restaurant proposed for construction at the southwest corner of U.S. Route 30 and Douglas Road.
40 years ago this month...
The Montgomery Village Board received a proposal for a large mobile home park planned at the intersection of U.S. Route 30 and Douglas Road.
45 years ago this month...
A shuttle bus was in service offering rides from the Boulder Hill Subdivision to downtown Aurora. The bus service was offered by Don L. Dise, Boulder Hill developer. Rides cost 25 cents each way.
Karl's Sinclair gas station at Rt. 25 and Rt. 34 in Oswego was offering regular "Dino" gas for 32.6 cents per gallon and "Dino Supreme" for 36.6 cents per gallon. Also available at the station was milk for 75 cents a gallon, 1965 fishing licenses and complete gun cleaning accessories, according to an advertisement in the Oswego Ledger.
Montgomery Village Board members discussed the possibility of having water and sewer lines installed to homes along Marsch Avenue.
A special meeting of the electors of Oswego Township was held on Feb. 23 for the purpose of enacting an ordinance transferring the new library on Jefferson Street in downtown Oswego from the village to the township. The property was originally transferred from the Oswegoland Park District to the Village of Oswego. The completion of the ownership 'triple play'--from park district to village to township--came as the result of a successful referendum to create a tax-supported public library for the township.
Members of the Boulder Hill Sports and Social Club announced a March 3 election for club officers. Voting was open to any Boulder Hill resident who stopped in the gymnasium at Boulder Hill School to vote. The election was scheduled in conjunction with the club's monthly men's athletic night at the school. Men wishing to participate in athletics were advised to bring their gym shoes.
50 years ago this month...
The Ledger reported, "We assume that most of our readers are aware that sometime within the next two years we will have dial free telephone service to Aurora and Plainfield, in addition to Yorkville, which we presently have. For most of the residents of the community this will be an asset both in convenience and money-wise. We understand that negotiations are underway for a piece of property on which to house a new telephone building (in Oswego) for the extra and new equipment that will be needed."
60 years ago this month...
"Come to the barn dance and box social in the OHS gym Saturday night of this week. There will be prizes, the boxes will be auctioned, lunch will be served, and there'll be fun for old and young," an advertisement in the Kendall County Record read.
The Record's Oswego correspondent reported, "'The White Sisters,' as they are affectionately called by the townspeople, the Misses Jane and Agnes White, have resigned from active service in the Oswego library. The library for many years a project of the Nineteenth Century Club, will continue with a twosome of the club's board members caring for the library each Wednesday. The misses White were Chicago businesswomen before they moved to Oswego. They took charge of the Oswego library and catalogued all the books arranging them for the convenience of the patrons."
Three fires in one week kept Oswego Volunteer Firefighters busy, the Record reported. Firefighters put out a roof fire at a residence on Madison Street, doused a second blaze in a feed barn located near the Pearce Cemetery, and then extinguished a fire in a machine shop behind Orr's garage at Routes 34 and 25.
Grade school students from Oswego and Yorkville played a benefit basketball game at the Red Brick School in Oswego to raise funds for an Oswego teenager who had been seriously injured in an auto accident.
65 years ago this month...
In separate ballots during their monthly meeting Feb. 7, the Montgomery Village Board agreed to have their attorney draft a resolution stating the village's opposition to joining the Metropolitan Water and Sanitary District and approved the purchase of a coat and hat rack and a sump pump for village hall.
80 years ago this month...
"There was much excitement Saturday east of Oswego when Frank Skeen shot and killed a wolf on the Arthur Hummel farm. Another wolf was seen several times but although many hunters patrolled the roads Saturday and Sunday they were unable to shoot the second one," the Record reported.
85 years ago this month...
The Record's Oswego correspondent reported that students at the Wormley School had enjoyed a sleigh ride. In addition, nine of the students, including Myron Wormley, had averages of over 90 for the month of January.
In his weekly column, Record publisher H.R. Marshall reported the groundhog had not seen his shadow, meaning spring would come early. However, Marshall suggested the "blinding lights from some of our automoatbilists" may have also frightened the furry rodent back into its burrow.
Marshall also took time to question the practice of allowing women to attend trials in criminal courts. He noted that in a Kane County murder trial in Geneva several apparently squeamish women had to leave the courtroom after hearing some gruesome testimony.
95 years ago this month...
"For several weeks the building owned by Mrs. Margaret Helle and known as the rink building [60 Main Street in downtown Oswego] has been vacant. A vacant building with windows is taken as a target and it is a regrettable fact that the windows of this building have been carelessly broken by hurling stones," according to a report in the Record.
100 years ago this month...
The Record reported Feb. 23, "Harry J. Jordan was arrested in Chicago Monday charged with bigamy, the charge being made by Mrs. Agnes Hanson Jordan of Plano, who was married to the prisoner Jan. 19 by Judge Mewhirter at the courthouse in Yorkville. 'When I married Miss Hanson,'" said Jordan, "'I was doped from taking headache powders and I didn't know what I was doing.'"
110 years ago this month...
"At the residence of Mr. and Mrs. George Woolley, Oswego Township, Wednesday, Feb. 14, at high noon, occurred the marriage of Miss Emma Jane Woolley and Mr. Leonard F. Shoger, two of Oswego's most popular young people," the Record reported.
115 years ago this month...
The Record contained this report taken from the Aurora Post: "Down at Oswego there is a man who is a fit subject for the whipping post. The man in question is a farmer near that village and the father of several children. While one of the children was lying on its deathbed, the other night, the brutish father entered the home in a state of intoxication, most unmercifully beat his wife, who was deeply grieved over the approaching death of the child. Finally, the inebriate brute was quieted, but not until he had afflicted bodily harm on the poor woman. During the same night the white-winged messenger entered the house and bore the spirit of the little child to him who gave it."
The Record's Oswego correspondent reported: "Voss's Barber Shop is undergoing repairing, repainting, and renovation otherwise, which is deplorable interference with the pastime of some of us loungers."
120 years ago this month...
The Record contained this report from Oswego: "It is said that negotiations are now pending for the purchase of about 600 acres of land adjoining this village for the locating of a locomotive works here. Let that be what it may, Oswego's boom will be reached in its own good time. It is known but little that secret experts have been over this section and by whose diagnosis an inexhaustible deposit of natural gas is located here. Just let us be patient a little longer; our gas will make us all opulent yet, and convert Oswego from a dull village into the smartest city on Fox River."
"Frank Vanderlip, an Oswego boy, has been promoted to financial editor of the Chicago Tribune," the Record's Oswego correspondent wrote Feb. 12, 1890.
On Feb. 19, the Record reported: "There was a prizefight in Oswego last week; a fight to the finish between "Reddy" Brennan, of LaSalle, and Jack Eckhart, of Streator, took place at the [roller skating] rink at midnight. There were about 100 spectators, mostly from Aurora and Chicago. Every hack [horse-drawn cab] from Aurora was pressed into service."
125 years ago this month...
Several new organizations were reported in Oswego in February 1885 to entertain the village's womenfolk, including an "Every Saturday Reading Club" of which Mrs. C.S. Kilbourne was president; a "Young Ladies' Temperance Union;" and a "Band of Hope" club, according to the Record.
On Feb. 18, the Record's Oswego correspondent reported that George A. Barnard had bought out the Bartlett blacksmith shop and "hereafter will carry on the business." The Bartlett shop was located on the west side of Main Street at Bartlett Creek. The Barnard shop was across Main Street on the east side.
130 years ago this month...
"D.M Haight came to this town when business was almost dried up, but soon had established a good business for himself; others getting encouraged by his success followed suit," the Record's Oswego correspondent wrote on Feb. 6, 1880. "Afterwards he branched out into side businesses, the manufacture of vinegar, windmills, and an inventor. He was most active in the Greenback movement, has been one of the mainstays of the Red Ribbon Club, and latterly has entered the domain of religion in which his energies are most potent in the Sunday Schools having been for some time a teacher of a class in the Congregational Church. The Methodist Sunday School was pretty well run down, but Haight went there, and became the superintendent and immediately it began to flourish. Haight is the 'great building up factor' of the community."
"A very nice specimen of the American Eagle may now be seen sitting quietly in the drug store, the property of Fred Smith, who recently shot it," the Record reported from Oswego on Feb. 12.
Also on Feb. 12, court cases heard in front of the justice of the peace in Oswego included George Troll, selling liquor to minors, fined $20 and costs; George Troll, selling liquor to habitual drunkards, $60 and costs; George Burkhart, selling liquor to habitual drunkards, $60 and costs; Joseph Hinchman, selling liquor to habitual drunkards, $60 and costs.
140 years ago this month...
On Feb. 10, 1870 the Record reported from Oswego: "A Mr. Olson was in town the other day; not being used to our whiskey, he became very noisy; in order to dry him up the police had to take charge of him for a little while."
On Feb. 24, the Record's Oswego correspondent wrote that: "A theatrical and musical entertainment under the auspices and for the benefit of the Ladies Association (which ought to be styled Hearse Association, as people would know for what object it exists), will be given next Friday evening. Let everybody attend and enjoy some fun in behalf, and for the benefit of their final departure, that is if they calculate to make Oswego their permanent home."
145 years ago this month...
On Feb. 9, 1865, Record correspondent Lorenzo Rank reported from Oswego that an oyster supper was given by the Oswego Ladies' Aid Society at the National Hotel on Main Street. Proceeds: $147.80, expenses: $89.75.
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