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Compiled by Roger Matile and John Etheredge from articles published in the Ledger, Kendall County Record, Fox Valley Sentinel, Ledger-Sentinel and information provided by the village of Montgomery.
November 1997
By a decisive 4,051 vote margin, Kendall County voters approved a referendum that imposed a binding property tax cap on local governmental agencies. The cap limited those agencies–including local school districts–to annual tax levy increases tied to the rate of inflation up to 5%. Retired State Sen. Robert Mitchler, was among a group of county residents who lobbied the county board to put the tax cap on the ballot said he was pleased by the referendum’s passage. “I think it sends a message,” Mitchler said of the referendum. “I also think it’s an expression of what the people have been thinking about rising property taxes.”
November 1992
Work was finished on a 300,000 gallon water tower in Oswego’s new Fox Chase Subdivision west of Route 31. The tower was paid for by the subdivision’s developers. In addition to the water tower, the Ledger-Sentinel reported there were a total of 12 new homes in various stages of construction in the subdivision, including five model homes fronting Route 31.
November 1987
Voters in the Oswego School District approved a building bond referendum to finance $14 million in additions to district schools, including $9 million for the expansion of Oswego High School. School officials had earlier obtained the results of a study that projected the school district’s enrollment would increase from about 4,000 to between 6,100 and 8,400 by 2000.
The Oswego Village Board extended its boundaries up to the south side of Route 30 at Douglas Road by annexing the Douglas Square shopping center. The board’s vote came four years after the Montgomery Village Board had voted to extend its boundaries south along Douglas Road to Route 30.
November 1982
Kendall County Sheriff-elect Charles McDonald told the Boulder Hill Civic Association Board he supported the reinstatement of the sheriff’s department-sponsored Boulder Hill Citizens’ Radio Patrol. “We need more eyes and ears up here (in Boulder Hill),” McDonald said.
November 1972
Richard Nixon didn’t have to worry about Kendall County in his bid for re-election as president in 1972. The ticket of Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew received 9,371 votes in the county compared to 2,527 for the Democratic ticket of George McGovern and R. Sargent Shriver.
Concern for the safety of their children on Halloween prompted many Oswego-Montgomery area parents to send their children to an indoor trick or treat party in the basement of the Oswego Community Bank building. Organizers of the event reported that more than 600 children attended.
A gallon of Meadow Gold milk was just 69 cents with a coupon at Paramount Heights supermarket on Route 31 in Montgomery, according to an advertisement in the Ledger.
November 1967
The Waubonsee Community College Board of Trustees authorized its attorney to negotiate the purchase of an approximate 195 acre parcel along the east side of Route 47 just north of Sugar Grove to serve as the new college’s permanent campus.
November 1962
The Ledger reported Nov. 1: “The sanitary sewer situation in the Village of Oswego has not improved and the state sanitary water board is marking time, a little impatiently, to see what the village board and the residents of the community plan on doing to solve the present problem, which includes an overflow of raw sewage into the Fox River. The state does not take kindly to raw sewage being dumped into the streams, and a number of suits have been instituted against cities and villages in recent years that have cost residents a great deal of cash and concern.”
November 1957
“It was planned to have an open house at the new East View School building for the November 12 PTA meeting but contractors are still puttering around,” the Ledger reported on Nov. 7. “The floor tile is still not on in the gym and it will be ten days to two weeks before it is finished.”
Shuler’s Drug Store at 68 Main Street announced in a full page ad that their popular toy shop upstairs over the drug store would open Saturday, Nov. 9. Hours through the holiday season were 1-5 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. weekdays and Tuesdays 1-6 p.m.
November 1952
The Oswego High School Panthers ended their grid season with a 27-12 win over Mooseheart to finish 8-1, with the only loss for the season to Lake Zurich in their opener.
A total of 166 students were enrolled at Oswego High School as of Nov. 20, 1952.
Denney’s Supermart in downtown Oswego was offering free home delivery of groceries. “Open every Wednesday night ‘till 9 o’clock,” said the Denney’s ad in the Ledger.
In the presidential election balloting on Nov. 4, Oswego Township voters went 3-1 for Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower over Illinois Gov. Adali Stevenson. Total votes were 962 for Eisenhower to Stevenson’s 307.
November 1947
Montgomery Village Board members reviewed final plans for an addition to village hall on South River Street at Webster Street.
November 1937
The Montgomery Village Board approved a permit to Al Lebeau, owner of the Riverview Cafe at River and Webster streets, to install a curb in front of his cafe to “to act as a bumper for automobiles to keep them off the sidewalks,” according to the minutes of the board’s Nov. 1 meeting. During the same meeting, the board approved an emergency resolution to purchase a fire truck
November 1932
Public schools in Kendall County were feeling the financial pinch brought on by the Great Depression. The Record reported: “Having accepted a cut of 10 percent on salary contracts signed for the present year last spring, teachers of the Oswego public schools voluntarily slashed an additional 10 percent from their pay at a meeting held in the high school Monday evening. The action is said not to have been necessary because of the slow collection in the county since there is sufficient money on hand to pay all of the salaries as they were to. The reduction was opinions concerning salaries, it taking the form of an agreement to teach for one month for nothing. Bus drivers and janitors volunteered similar decreases in their pay.”
November 1927
In a unanimous ballot, the Montgomery Village Board voted to have the village clerk notify the General Outdoor Advertising Company of Chicago to remove a sign board the firm had installed near the corner of River and Mill streets in the village’s downtown within 30 days.
November 1922
The Record reported a serious accident on the interurban railroad between Oswego and Montgomery: “John Dejarld, one of the oldest employees of the AE&C (Aurora, Elgin and Chicago) Railroad, lies near death at an Aurora hospital, the result of injuries received in a car smash Monday morning. The eight o’clock car out of Yorkville and a special school car out of Aurora at 8:20 a.m. collided on the straight track between Fox River Park (in Montgomery) and Oswego near the John Wormley farm (off Route 31).
November 1897
The telephone was coming to Oswego. The Record’s correspondent reported Nov. 17: “The telephone pole-setters have reached here.”
November 1892
Crime in Oswego was in the news. The safe in the Oswego Post Office (64 Main Street) was burglarized, according to the Nov. 30, 1892 Record. “The booty consisted of $1,500 in registered government bonds which were not negotiable; a number of notes; and $47.40 in cash,” the Record reported. “There is no clue to the perpetrators of the deed but there are a good many who would not be astonished to find out that local talent assisted in the matter.”