USA > Illinois > Marshall County > Old Sandy remembers: Evans Township, Marshall County [history] > Part 4
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Wenona had its privately owned Electric Company, first owned and oper- ated by Charles Robinson, John Rader and Anderson Skinner, then operated by Faye Weston and Carl Fosbender until Columbus Kayes bought and operated it until the coming of the Public Service Company.
North of the side of Wenona Unit I, Henry Werling operated a slaughter house, and also had a grocery and meat store on Chestnut Street. Just south of Wenona Rest Haven was a stock yards for shipping on the C&A line, and, where the oil tanks are located now, there was another stock yard to handle the shipping on the I.C.
Because horse and buggy power was the means of local transportation, there were five businesses catering to this trade. R. T. Monk and Bert Hinman had buggy shops, William Huwald had a wagon shop, James McEachern, a blacksmith shop, and Tom Weston a wagon and blacksmith shop. Mr. Cliff Stateler in discussing these places of business said that he remembers how very busy they all were as there was much repair work as well as a large cale of new equipment.
To keep Wenona up-to-date fashion-wise Heflin and Bethard, A. H. Stateler and Sam Fuiks ran dry goods stores, George Grentzner had a Men's Tailor Shop in the south block, Doll Jone's Millinery was located on the second floor of the present Kurrle's Dry Goods and two shoe shops -- South- Well's Shoe Store, and The Riedt's Shoe Store furnished the foot wear for the area.
A dollar was a substantial piece of money in the 1890's. Plush parlor sets could be bought for $35, bedroom sets for $20 and men's socks cost about .95¢ a dozen pairs. Axel Helander, one of our senior citzens says, that in 1897 he was working for a farmer west of Wenona at $18 per month. When the knees went out of his overalls, he asked his boss for a dollar
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and walked two miles to Wenona. There he purchased a shirt for 25¢, over- alls for 35¢, two pairs of gloves for 104, 2 pairs of socks for 10¢, had a drink for 5¢, and walked back home with 15¢ in his pocket.
By 1913 there were some new merchants on Chestnut Street. The grocers were G. Beckman and Sons, George S. Monser & Company and Ellison Bros. The hardware stores were Kreider's and Barrett's, Braymen's had a jewelry store, A. Kernwein and Bremer Bros., were new men's clothing merchants and Mattson's was the new shoe store. Vaughn's Drugstore was still in operation and the W. H. Downey Drug Store had opened. Harry Van Horne located in Wenona in 1889 and engaged in the implement business. He remained here until 1918 when he moved to California. M. N. "Mack" Holmstrom had worked for Mr. Van Horne, so Mack continued on in the business. He later sold Chev- rolet cars, too. For several years he sponsored a tractor, machinery and radio show at his implement store, serving lunch to the many farmers and townspeople. In the evening motion pictures were enjoyed and the large ball room on the second floor was opened where Barker's Orchestra played square and round dances to several hundred dancers. Mack built the house where the Dale Russell's live on S. Oak and many a morning he got up early and went to Sparland Brick Yard for the bricks for his new home, coming back in time to open his business. He completed their home in 1924.
WENONA -- COCA-COLA TOWN OF MIDWEST
April 1st 1937 -- The December issue of Red Barrel, a coca-cola magazine, carried the following story pertaining to the amount of that beverage that is lapped up by Wenona People :
"In the north central part of Illinois is a small town of Approx- imately one thousand people. It is in the middle of the great corn belt, and, as you might expect, is a modern farm town, with but one main street and a few residential streets. But this hustling little town has five soda fountains almost within throwing distance of one another, yet each fountain is doing a thriving business -- in coca-cola. In fact, all the communities around Wenona call it the Coco-Cola Town of the Middle West, and Wenona prides its nickname. Over Wenona's five fountains approximately forty-five gallons of coca-cola syrup are dispensed each week, or an average of about seven hundred drinks per day for the ten hundred people."
These seven hundred drinks per day do not take into account the number of bottles of the beverage that are consumed also. So it looks like we are rather fond of our coke.
The magazine also carried a picture of Kane's Smoke Shop.
WENONA-TOLUCA GAME
February 15, 1930-The game was for the championship of Marshall County. How well local fans remember that battle. At the end of the fourth quarter the teams were dead-locked at 15 all. The first overtime period saw no change. They were knotted at 17 points at the end of the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh periods of play. It was 19-19 at the end of the eight, 21-21 when the ninth had come and gone, but in the tenth overtime period Wenona scored seven points to two to win 28-23.
This rome mode the Chinana ANS And WATde LA Added
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THE WINONA COAL COMPANY AND ITS MINERS
The Wenona Coal Company was incorporated in 1883 with William M. Hamilton, L. J. Hodge, and E. L. Monser as partners. A few years later Mr. Monser bought out his partners, and the mine was owned by Monsers until it closed down in 1925.
The first immigrants that worked in the mine were Irish and Cockney English who had come to build the railroad and then stayed in Wenona to work in the mine. The Eldons, and Dan Lacey, the Gorman, and Milan families were some of these early residents.
Many immigrants came from central and eastern Europe to work in the mine. The first large group to come to Wenona were from Poland, and by 1900 the families of Levindusky, Vinsec, Kupec, Goscinski, Myskowski, Zulz and many others were here. There were also Austrians and Yugosla- vians among whom were the Petrovitch, Brunski, Goropesek, Blazovitch, Pierman, Obermiller, Cherry and Crocker families.
Along with their fathers, the sons began working in the mine as soon as they were fifteen years old, so often there were several from one family employed. By the year 1910, the depth of the shaft was 576 feet, and the vein of coal three to four feet in thickness. When the mine was at its peak of employment, there were 450 men working, 380 of whom were actuall mining coal. The pay roll averaged $1000 per day, and top production averaged 900 to 1000 tons per eight hour day shift. The coal at first was all hand mined, as there was no machinery avail- able.
The houses of the miners were built by Wenona Contractor Blaine Work and his assistant L. D. Brown for the Monser Coal Company and rented to the employees. East of the Illinois Central tracks several blocks of cottages were built for the miners. Also the street now cal- led Birch in the west part of Wenona consisted of rows of miner's cot- tages and was nick-named "Chicago Street." Many successful miners be- gan building their own houses in Osage Township until Last Wenona was large enough to be incorporated into its own village. For many years George K. Braymen, Wenona Jeweler, was mayor of East Wenona.
These families who came to Wenona to mine coal brought with them their own cultures, traditions ard pastimes which lent color and vari- ety to the community, making it a better place for their having come. When the competition from non-union mines of Kentucky, West Virginia, and southern Illinois could not be met by the Monser Coal Company that employed nuion men, the mine closed in 1925. Many families moved to Chicago, Rockford, LaSalle, West, Frankfurt or other towns where work
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was available. Happily there are still desendants many of the origi- nal immigrant families still living in Wenona.
In a recent interview Mrs. Gertrude Kovatch, now eighty-five, re- lated some stories of her early life. A native of a little village, Perenje, Yugoslavia, then a part of Emperor Franz Josef's Austria Hun- gary, she recalls early experiences. At harvest time the women of the village cut with hand scythe the wheat and rye, did much of the garden- ing and gathered the plentiful fruits -- apples, pears, plums and a kind of cherry -- "the sweetest in the world." The farms were very small, and wood was sold for part of the family income. She remembers going up the lower slopes of the mountains with her brother to bring down the logs. She guided the oxen down the mountain as her brother kept the logs in tow. Later she began studying to be a dressmaker, but when her mother and father died she decided to come to live with a brother in Wenona, leaving a brother and his family in her native village.
Mrs. Kovatch, then Gertrude Petrich, left by steamship from Bremen, Germany and was on the water three weeks. The boat was crowded with immigrants and one got sick and died at sea. She commented that the lucky ones were those who had the top hammocks, for sleeping in the steerage was not always sanitary. Coming from New York to Chicago and then to Wenona by train she arrived at her brother's home in December, 1903. She lived there until she married in February, lived until they built their own house where Mrs. Kovatch now lives.
Like her brother, her husband worked in the mine averaging about two dollars a day for the years that he mined. After some years Mr. Kovatch contracted miner's asthma, and he was sick for sixteen years. Mrs. Kovatch says she did washings and ironings, sewed for several fam- ilies and still managed to care for her husband and family.
She remembers that there were lots of good times in Wenona. When the shaft closed for the holidays or when there were weddings or anni- versaries, the mining families met at a hall on the east side, brought their favorite dishes, had their keg of beer, sang their songs learned in childhood and danced their native dances. The young were soon learn- ing the songs and dances of Wenona and had their chances to show off.
Mrs. Kovatch still likes to make dishes which she learned back in Yugoslavia. Her favorite meat dish in a spicy goulash. She likes to make coffee cake, soups with homemade noodles, and a roll of yeast bread stuffed with specially seasoned scrambled eggs and dropped into boiling water to cook.
Mrs. Kovatch's memories show how much tradition has been lost by our failure to record the early experiences of the grandmothers and grandfathers.
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WENONA FIRE DEPARTMENT
The Wenona Fire Department had its beginnings as the Wenona Hook & Ladder Company in January, 1884. The original members were H. L. Taylor, M. N. Tisdale, J. P. Dicus, F. H. Bramt, D. C. Stateler, C. Erwin, C. F. Swift, E. E. Patch, D. M. Hunt, A. L. Patch, S. B. Patch, Charles Hoge, William Huwald, Justin Brown, Chas. Cahoon, F. C. Chambers, W. E. Upton, D. E. Work, Charles Robinson, George Wilson, George Hodge, J. C. Ramsey, George Hunt, D. F. Gill and G. Kendall. H. L. Taylor was the first Chief, with D. C. Stateler as his assistant. In April, 1895, the name was changed to the Wenona Fire Department.
In the early days, the firemen used what was known as Babcocks, which were tanks of water carried on the back of one fireman, and the water pum- ped out of them by means of a hand pump by another fireman. It was not until after the City had the mains installed that a pumper was purchased.
About 1915 the fire department was discussing need for a motor truck to haul the hose. The complaint was that the firemen wore themselves out dragging the heavy hose cart by hand to the fires.
In late years the Wenona Fire District was formed, and a modern, High- pressure truck with the latest equipment was purchased, making a total of four trucks. They still have the old hook and ladder. Kenneth Grimm is the present Fire Chief and is ably assissted by volunter firemen.
C. B. SCOTT LUMBIR COMPANY
Edward Becher, who was in charge of the Becher mill, added a lumber yard to the old mill property about 1890 and his foreman was Charles B. Scott, son of a local business man, Sam Scott. Mr. Scott became the husband of his employer's daughter, Miss Mercy Becher, in 1894 and purchased the business when Mr. Becher retired. Later he bought the down-town lumber yard of Mr. Cook, which is now the Alien Lumber Company. He was in business there from 1900 to 1938.
The site of the old Becher flouring mill and lumber yard was east of the Illinois Central tracks where the State Highway Department buildings are. The mill was used for lumber storage for a time and finally torn down.
After Mr. Scott's death in 1938, Mrs. Scott carried on the business with the assistance of Mr. Clifford Stateler, valued manager and salesman for years. Then he retired, the yard was sold in 1949 to the Allen Lumber Company.
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BURGESS! BROTHER'S -- IMPORTERS OF DRAFT HORSES
One of the most colorful pages in the history of Wenona tells the story of the Burgess stock farm and the two Burgess brothers, Robert and Charles, who began dealing in horses when they were twenty-four and twenty-two years of age. They became the leading American importers of registered draft horses of the Shire, Belgian, Percheron and French breeds. Their long record of successful operation from 1876 to the early 20's is a major suc- cess story.
Their sales stables were located east of the Illinois Central tracks. Whenever a new shipment of horses landed in New York from Europe the American flag was raised on the stable. When buyers came the big powerful animals were curied and brushed to perfection and paraded up and down, as their outstanding merits and lineage were discussed. Here were the horses who were the conquerors of the deepest mud and heaviest loads. Ingrained pride was in every line of their magnificent bodies and the gallant pose of their heads.
The stallions and mares of the herd were prize winners in every show they entered. The International Livestock show in Chicago champion stallion for four years was from the Burgess stables and one year at St. Louis three grand champions. These were only two of the many successful competitive showings.
When Robert Burgess landed in New York in 1870 he had fifteen dollars in his pocket. He came west to Ottawa, where he worked on a farm for two years. He joined there by his younger brother, Charles, about a year later. They were the sons of a Devonshire, England, farmer and had been raised to farm 'life.
When opportunity offered Robert purchased a half interest in a half- breed stallion for $400. This was the beginning of his long dealings in horses. In 1875 the young men began buying and selling horses and early in the 1880's began importing thoroughbred Shire horses. Soon they were dealing in horses on the national scale. The fact that in 1893 they won 27 prizes, at the World's Fair in Chicago, helped to spread the fame of their stables from one end of the country to the other.
The brothers were in partnership until about 1896 when they decided to retire and separate. Charles devoted his time to land interest. Robert could not make up his mind to give up the business and soon took his son, Charles, into business with him. In the ensuing years, as before, he spent several months each year in France, England and Belfium buying horses for shipment to America.
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TELEPHONE IN WENONA
History has been affected more or less by all the inventions of man but the telephone has been so intimatley connected with man's living that it can't be passed over lightly in Evan's Township's chronicles and the one person who has given forty-six years of splendid service to telephone and people is Miss Minnie Huwald.
In 1910 Minnie was just out of high school with a certificate which would permit her to teach school. But Miss Tracy Houston had just resig- ned as night operator at the Independent Telephone Company to move to Chicago, so Minnie decided to give the job a try. The Independent Tele- phone, which began in 1896 had its switchboard located upstairs to the rear in the building just vacated by the Marty Drug Store. Judge D. H. Gregg had his law office upstairs at the front of the building. Frank Ong was manager of the company; Dr. S. G. Peterson and Frank Ames of Rutland and Dr. George T. Love of Wenona were its directors. There was also in Wenona the Farmer's Telephone Company managed by Charles Hannam who lived in the house now owned by Donald Robinson, and he managed the business from his home. This company was later moved to quarters above Walter Wenzlaff's cabinet shop. Later the two telephone companies merged and were called Illinois Telephone Company. In 1928 the new brick building was completed and Sam Potter of Magnolia was the first general manager there. Later Adolph Schwanke became president serving for several years until he left Wenona and William Crumrine then took the office. Within the last few years the company has been completely reorganized and enlarged and is now part of the General Telephone Company.
In 1910 Minnie's night shift was from 9 P.M. to 7 A.M., and stayed that way until the forty-hour week law was passed when her shift began at 11 o'clock. A familiar sight at a few minutes before the hour was Minnie arriving with her Tribune, a magazine and an apple. After midnight when the board was quiet Minnie caught up on her reading.
Musing over the past experiences in telephoning brings home the fact that the human element in our living is missing today in the machine age. Minnie recounts her funniest experience as follows: It was the day of the Kentucky Derby. Minnie's answer was: Behave yourselves first. Minnie had to repeat the answer. Then Mary Stanton turned to her desk clerk, Julius Krueger with the remark, "That imprudent telephone operator said I have to behave myself first."
Minnie was always able to locate relatives in an emergency and many stories are told of her finding help when a new baby decided to arrive unexpectedly or when sovere illness came suddenly. Kate Burgess and Cora Monser said they felt safe when Minnie was at the switchboard. Once Minnie
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heard Mrs. Burgess call Lucy, her daughter, and drop the receiver so Minnie at once called Lucy who found her mother ill.
Nostalgic memories -- When Mr. Schwanke left the office for the evening, he always fixed the furnace. Previously he had made a long handle for the girls' pop corn popper. So Cecilia Hawes, the early evening operator and Minnie had their snack of pop corn with coke sent over from Kane's Smoke House across the street. Pat Sullivan, a small boy then, would sometimes bring the coke and ask questions as he watched the switch board. One time he was thrilled to be there when Minnie put a call through to Paris. Some- times Minnie would be a bit afraid. Julius and Paul Uebler, proprietors of a restaurant in the middle block, told her to call them if she heard anything strange as they kept a gun. One night someone seemed to be walk- ing back and forth in the outer office. Minnie called and whom did they find? Judge Dan Gregg's shepard was walking back and forth in the outer office. Minnie had another fear -- bad electric storms. Once she remembers several weeks of hot dry weather produced a tremendous storm one night with fire playing all around the switch board. The fire alarm had to be sounded -- then news of another fire came and Kenneth Grimm called from outside the window, "Minnie, blow the whistle again." Petrified, she followed orders and finally the storm subsided. Another night the drops came down all the time, so she called the night watchman Mark Peterson, and he found a fire burning in the roof of K. Axline's store. Quick action saved the building.
What was Minnie's most exciting experience? The blizzard of March, 1947. The snow began Monday noon March 24th and traffic was moving again Wednesday afternoon. There were 400 people marooned in Wenona. All beds were filled at the Stanton Hotel, all possible homes that had rooms were filled and late comers had to relax as much as possible in Stanton Hotel lobby. The switchboard was swamped with calls, regular operators couldn't get to work, so Minnie worked 18 hours without rest, and Hotel Stanton sent her her meals.
The late John Marks said, "Minnie you should write a book." Her answer: "If I did, I wouldn't dare let it be published until after my death." " I know too much."
Margaret Lawless who worked at the Wenona Produce during Minnie's years at the swirchboard wrote in the Index: "To me it was always inter- esting to watch Minnie, Cecil Hawes, Margaret and Alice Hogan on duty, seated at the swirchboard. With one hand they held the myriad lines coming from the poles of the company, while with the other they wove these wires into the fabric of the country, and as they wove the pattern grew -- farms, villages, cities, churches, schools, homes -- all woven into the communication system that tells the history of the nation."
The cheerful "number, plcase" is gone and now in its place the dial can get you Chicago, Los Angeles, or Honolulu with ease.
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WENONA GREENHOUSE
Just as Jacob worked seven years to win his beloved Rachel, so William Metzger worked for seven years for the father of the girl he wanted to marry before he had accumulated enough capital to go to farming. Mr. Metzger was luckier than Jacob however. He won the girl in seven years instead of fourteen.
He and his bride, the former Alvina Schwanke, daughter of John G. Schwanke, farmed the land of Mrs. Clara Fort of Lecon, for eight years before William decided he wanted to go into the greenhouse business to raise flowers. His father had been the overseer of a large hunting estate near Wittenberg, Germany, and he had enjoyed working with his father in the gardens and orchards of the estate.
William Metzger had come to the United States when he was twenty-one years old and he was well into his thirties before he was ready to launch out for himself. He had a family of five children.
He purchased the five acre plot of ground which was the nucleus of the greenhouse property when there was nothing on it except some Osage hedge. By the end of his first year he had two greenhouses 25 by 50 feet and was well started on his chosen career.
"Every start is hazardous," Mrs. Metzger said when she was asked about the difficulties of getting started. He and his wife were hard workers and the children helped when they were not in school.
Hard times came of course but nothing disastrous except the hail storm of 1913, when fully a third of the greenhouse was shattered. It was a bad blow for there was no insurance.
The children grew up and received good educations and the little greenhouses of 1907 with a total of 2,500 square feet of beds had be- come 28,000 square feet under glass.
Gerald "Gary" for short, chose to follow in his father's footsteps, run the plant, assisted by his wife Evadell and a competent staff. Gary expressed approval of the work being done in the experiment stations at Cornell and Ohio Universities and the University of Illinois. Improved varieties of flowers, disease controls and soil testing to find the cor- rect fertilizer for any given soil, all have contributed greatly to the production of plants which was double that of 50 years ago in the same space.
In 1949 Mr. and Mrs. William Metzger celebrated their 50th wedding atmigranty and Mr. Metzger diei the following year. Gary continued to operate the greenhouse mutil 1957 when he sold it to John Lohr.
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P/DIO ST. TION VLBI
It was ir December 1926 that Wenona really got on the map. Here we were, a little town at the crossroads of routes 17 and 51, and we were going to have a radio broadcasting station, the smallest town in the country to have one!
Al Yarc, who had maintained an amateur station at his home in East Wenona for several years, was granted a broadcasting license by the radio commission at Washington D. C. and assigned the call letters WLBI and a wave length of 296. Mr. Yarc's knowledge of radio was self acquired until he attended the Valparaiso Radio Institute where he graduated in the radio course. He had taken up radio when it first started to attract the world.
Rev. Robert L. Finney Rezner, of St. John's Methodist Church was the promotor of the project and through his activity and enterprise he and Mr. Yarc put Wenona indelibly on the map. Rev. Rezner was program director, announcer and arranger, and Mr. Yarc, owner and operator. Together they gave Wenona and the surrounding community a lot of entertainment, news, weather, and vital statistics.
WLBI was on the air for the first time Sunday, January 2, 1927 when the 11 A. M. worship service were broadcast from St. John's Methodist Church. That afternoon there was an organ concert by Mrs. Pezner, wife of the pastor.
The station's programs for some time were limited to the church service in the morning, with a variety program, mostly local talent -- and Wenona had plenty -- Sunday afternoons.
Early in February 1927 the station was moved from the Yarc home to the front room in the Stanton Hotel basement which had been fitted up as a studio through the cooperation of J. L. Becker, the hotel owner. The broadcast rlant proper was still at the Yarc home.
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