Yesteryear: Looking back at stories that captured headlines in the Ledger

Compiled by Roger Matile and John Etheredge from the files of the Oswego Ledger, Ledger-Sentinel, Fox Valley Sentinel and Kendall County Record.

January 1998

Beanie Baby fever was gripping the Oswego-Montgomery area and the rest of the nation. Long lines of adults stood in sub-freezing temperatures in front of two downtown Oswego stores in a bid to purchase the latest in the line of small stuffed toys produced by Ty, Inc. of Oak Brook. (It may have been the first time lines had formed in the downtown area since 1969 when Dick Selma, a relief pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, signed autographs at another downtown store.)

January 1993

Kendall County Forest Preserve President Richard Young announced the agency would seek a grant through the Illinois Department of Transportation to finance the construction of an extension of the Fox River bike trail from Mill Street in Montgomery to Violet Patch Park in Oswego. Young added the agency was also interested in obtaining a grant to construct a pedestrian bridge that would span the Fox River north of Oswego.

Cable television customers in Oswego and Montgomery received notice their monthly bills for basic cable service would increase 10% March 1 from $22.45 to $24.70.

January 1983

Due partly to cuts in state funding and the re-assessment of the Caterpillar, Inc. plant property near Montgomery, the Oswego School District 308 was facing a deficit in its Education Fund budget totaling $161,337, according to David McQueen, school district business manager.

January 1973

The Montgomery Village Board received a letter from Aurora Mayor Al McCoy regarding Aurora’s recent annexation of property east of city limits for the proposed Fox Valley Mall and Fox Valley Villages residential development. The village board voted unanimously to have their attorney send a letter to the city detailing the drainage problems in the village’s Parkview Estates Subdivision and organized a committee to “take care of the interests of the village in regard to the water problems (or any others which might arise).”

January 1963

The Oswegoland Park District Board of Commissioners voted to name newly acquired park property along the north side of Jefferson Street at Main Street in downtown Oswego “Waubonsie Park,” in honor of the property’s historical connection with the Indian chief, the Ledger reported. (A portion of the property is now the site of the Oswego Public Library.)

Responding to an increasing number of complaints, the Oswego Village Board issued a reminder to all dog owners in the village that their pets must be secured either by a leash or in a fenced yard. Village officials noted there were six dog bite cases in the village in 1962.

The Montgomery Village Board voted unanimously to pass a resolution in support of property condemnation proceedings to provide right-of-way for the proposed Ashland Avenue bridge over the Fox River.

January 1958

An open house was held at the new East View Elementary School Route 71 in Oswego.

The Oswego Village Board approved an ordinance banning pinball machines in the village.

January 1953

“During the past three years Oswego has progressed in a fairly satisfactory manner,” Ledger editor Ford Lippold wrote in the newspaper’s Jan. 1, 1953 edition. Lippold cited the construction of a new high school on Franklin Street, the establishment of a recreation program for children, improved streets and “traffic flasher lights” as evidence of the village’s progress. Lippold added, “Oswego has a bright future. It’s going to cost some time and some money on the part of everyone to really make Oswego into the fine community it has the potential to become. There’ll be the usual slackers, bellyachers, and diehards, of course, but it can be done.”.

January 1893

Oswego crime was in the news in late January. The Record reported that “Stealing is very active in town; last Thursday night someone broke into the barn of Doc Hanna and stole most everything that was in it; Saturday night someone broke into Dave Hall’s barn and stole a nice wolf robe, blankets, overshoes, and a number of other things; and during the same night, H.B. Reid’s bob sleighs were appropriated.”

In social news, the Record reported that “The Waubonsie Farmer’s Club met with Mr. and Mrs. Myron Wormley last Saturday. The good sleighing brought out a good crowd with about 80 people being present.”

January 1883

“The Oswego Ice Company has twenty ice houses in all, located some 3/4 mile north from the depot and connected therewith by telephone,” the Record’s Oswego correspondent reported on Jan. 25, 1883. “They, and the men in their employ, compose nearly the entire population of Troy, a suburb of this village. Fourteen of their houses are in one block and built four years ago. Last fall, they erected six enormous houses 150 ft. by 180 ft. The company also owns a number of tenant houses. The equipment includes a 35 hp [steam] engine with endless chain. They can house 1,000 tons of ice daily. The ice is gathered from Parker’s Mill ponds and is of superior quality, 15 inches thick, and perfectly free of anything but solid crystal ice.”