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1922 – 100 YEARS AGO
Curiosity on the part of one of the city employees on the Haish Avenue sewer job caused considerable damage as well as injury to the man concerned, about 11 o’clock this morning. A manhole containing gas was opened by the two city inspectors on the job with Contractor Hughes. Contrary to orders, the man lit a match to see what caused the ill smell. Three explosions followed and for a few moments the huge digging machine was in danger of damage by fire. The main drain of the city was blown up for a number of feet while the gas main was also damaged, necessitating the shutting off of the gas for the block for a short period. The only injury sustained was the singeing of the hair of the man lighting the match.
Waterman is soon to have a new industry known as The Fox River Oil Company. The building, which is now under construction, is located on the Wakefield lots south of the railroad track and west of the water tank. The foundation is now being laid and the company expects to be operating in the courses of about three weeks.
More light has been shed on the two cars that were found at the high school in a wrecked condition. The license of the larger car, which is an Olympian, was taken out by E S. Sims, 512 California St., Sycamore, while the wrecker is said to be from a Chicago garage. It is said that the car was brought from the Chicago garage but arrangements had not been completed. The garage owners decided to come after their property and in leaving Sycamore, were given the wrong road, starting west instead of east.
Fire destroyed the C. M. & St. P. railway coal chutes at Steward Monday evening. The origin of the blaze is not known. Approximately 100 tons of coal are still burning in the ruins.
Mr. and Mrs. William Schule returned to their home in DeKalb after spending a week with their son in Chase.
Thousands of dollars of damage has been done to roads in the vicinity of DeKalb and farmers with strong horses and tractors are earning hundreds of dollars extracting automobiles from the mud. The gravel roads of the community seem to have lost bottoms, and road men say it will be several weeks before the roads will be passable. From all reports available today, the only safe travel is over cement pavements.
1947 – 75 YEARS AGO
The ”little red school house” of song and story is rapidly fading from the scene in DeKalb County. Thirty years ago, all of the 124 one-room schoolhouses in the county were operating. During the first World War, a few were closed, and through the years down to 1941 others gradually were added to the inoperative list.
Pedestrians living west of the Kishwaukee River no longer have to dodge vehicular traffic threading their way across the new temporary bridge across the river on West Lincoln Highway. The walkway for their use was completed yesterday. It is on the south side of the bridge on the same level, and is lighted by two lamps hung on a pole at the eastern end of the bridge.
The annual get-together of farmers operating Babson Farms was held in the social room at DeKalb Township High School today with approximately 200 present. Burt Oderkirk, manager, acted as master of ceremonies and the program started this morning with movie and a talk on the corn borer. At noon, the group was entertained at dinner in the cafeteria after which the program was separated. The men, chiefly the 60 tenants of Babson Farms, listened to a talk on weed eradication and discussed other topics of interest to farmers. The women were taken to the library and divided into groups under the guidance of Mrs. Oderkirk and instructed to talk about any problems they might have in mind.
DeKalb police enjoyed a quiet day yesterday with only several minor notations being included on the police blotter for the 24-hour period. Four calls were received for the city ambulance during the day, these calls being the principal item of business. A notation was also received concerning the accident near Waterman in which two were killed when their car was hit by a train. Shortly before 11 o’clock last evening, Harry Tweed reported that someone had ransacked his auto and that a blue blanket had been stolen.
From Scotland comes a registered Shorthorn bull that is now in the Mayo and Conners herd at Clare. According to a report from the American Shorthorn Breeders Association of Chicago, the bull was purchased at the recent Illinois Shorthorn Breeders show and sale at the Normal University Farm Pavilion at Normal.
1972 – 50 YEARS AGO
Workmen are tearing out the old bridge over the culvert and will be putting in a new bridge over the culvert. Bill Williams, county superintendent of highways, said that Glidden Road will be closed for about six weeks depending on weather for this part of the construction. Stahl Construction is the prime contractor for the work on Glidden Road from Dresser Road to Lincoln Highway. Williams said that the new road will be four lanes with curbing and expects it to be completed by fall. Sections of it will be closed off and on until then for construction purposes.
What effect did student voting have to play in Tuesday’s primary election? In two recent registration drives by the League of Women Voters and a student coalition, about 4,332 students were added to the voter registration list. The effect of those additional students could best be seen in three heavily student-dominated districts in DeKalb. Unfortunately, since the county was redistricted, there are no figures available to compare the voting behavior of residents in the district in the last primary election to this year’s primary.
“The joys of being the wife of a farmer are many and rewarding,” says Mrs. Roger (Marcia) Hueber of rural Malta, who is currently featured in a Time magazine article.
1997 – 25 YEARS AGO
Teamwork can be the solution to almost any problem. And there is no team like the Armed Forces team, which Jonathan Liby is part of. He is serving as a Sailor in the unique environment of a joint task force composed of elements of the entire Armed Forces. Liby, son of Dennis and Barbara Liby on Sandwich, is one of 6,000 men and women on board the aircraft carrier USS John F Kennedy, which recently participated in Joint Task Force Exercise 97-2.
The local chapter of the American Red Cross has decided it will limit the assistance it will provide to the residents of the Evergreen Village Mobile Home Park in the future because of the long history of flooding problems there and the likelihood they will continue.
A group of local landlords, continuing a roundtable originally begun in late 1995, gathered yesterday to hear what they can do to fight crime and drugs in their buildings. Calling for cooperation from the landlords and managers, a group dubbed the DeKalb Property Managers Association, law-enforcement officials again underlined that those involved with gangs and drug sales usually live in apartments. The screening of tenants, searching their criminal histories, was preached to the landlords again. Criminal records are pubic information, available at the circuit clerk’s office for crimes in DeKalb County.
– Compiled by Sue Breese