Looking Back for August 24, 2022

A Ford Trimotor Plane at the DeKalb County Airport opening nearWaterman on May 30, 1929.

1922 – 100 Years Ago

Today is an anniversary for Michael Malone, not a wedding, not birthday, but a continuous service in one business that of selling dry goods. Twenty-six years ago “Mike” as he is known by his friends and business associates started to work for H. H. Wagner, one of the most popular business men DeKalb ever boasted. Malone worked steadily while he was a boy and soon adapted himself to a better position which came to him unsolicited. He continued in his higher position, until even more honors were accorded him. At the time H. H. Wagner passed out of DeKalb’s business life, Mr. Malone was one of his most faithful and efficient employees. He continued his employment with the store even in later years until the opportunity came to buy the Wagner stock and good will. With others this was accomplished and the firm has been known as M. F. Malone & Company. Today, Michael is “the boss,” as it were, of one of the most flourishing business enterprises in the city.

To have a painter around is just like having the measles, it’s contagious when one place is being painted is seems as though an epidemic starts. That is the case here. Painters have just finished working on the Alida Young Temple, giving the front a very pleasing appearance. This week workmen have been giving the Tom Ronin building a new coat of paint. With the two buildings on the street receiving attention the appearance of State Street will be greatly benefited.

Work begun on the foundation for the new bungalow that Lloyd Eychaner of Esmond will erect this fall. Mr. Sampson and men of Creston are doing the work.

Twelve years and five months lacking one day was the time necessary, according to reports today, for a postcard mailed from Sycamore to reach DeKalb. Mrs. Clemens Kirchner yesterday received a postcard from a friend in Sycamore, addressed to Miss Lucile Cusson, and post marked Sycamore, 7:30 p.m. March 24, 1910. The card was badly soiled and was of the old-fashioned Easter variety, and it is believed it may have been delayed in the Sycamore post office by having fallen down behind the racks or in some other manner. The post mark on the card was very plain, although the card itself looked as though it had been to the end of the world and back.

1947 – 75 Years Ago

Wilbur Strawn of Malta and Harold Koltz of DeKalb were injured yesterday about noon when the plane piloted by Strawn crashed into telephone wires at the end of the field during a takeoff at an airport at Tuscola. The plane burned following the accident but the two men had been thrown clear of the wreckage by the impact. Both men are employed by the DeKalb AgriculturalAssociation.

Yesterday afternoon a helicopter being used in a crop-dusting experiment being conducted by the California Packing Corporation and the Illinois State Natural History Survey made a forced landing in a corn field on a farm located a mile south ofRochelle. After remedying the difficulty, Jones took off again and continued dusting corn fields at an altitude not exceeding ten feet.

Circuit Clerk Ben Davy heaved a sigh of relief yesterday and said that he guessed his best customers were about all satisfied. Ben was referring to the tremendous number of personal military and naval records that his office has recorded for the former service men and women on the county’s Photostat machine. The Photostat machine was installed in October 1945.

Forty years ago Saturday morning rural mail carrier service was started in the Clare community. The young man who carried the route the first day is still serving in the same capacity. The little enclosed mail buggy and horse yielded to modern auto delivery and the mud roads, impassable in wet weather are now paved or covered with crushed stone. The public servant is Joe T. Masterson who has been on the same route and has seen changes of a lifetime. He remembers birth of babies, has carried their wedding announcements and now brings mail to their children. He remembers young men leaving for two years and of most of them returning.

Excavating work began this morning for the new DeKalb-Ogle telephone building inSycamore. The new structure will be located on the south side of Elm Street between Main and Maple streets. The building will cost approximately $150,000 when completed. It will be of the most modern type with the latest equipment available to be installed. It is expected that it will take several months before the 50 by 50 foot structure will be completed.

Sycamore’s Fire Department answered a call this morning at the State Street Café at 8 o’clock. Grease on the cooking range had blazed up but was quickly put out with a hand extinguisher. The new rural truck also made the call along with the Stutz fire engine.

1972 – 50 Years Ago

A field trip to the DeKalb Toy Company highlighted the meeting of the DeKalb Rotary Club on Monday evening.

TheSixth Street railroad crossing in DeKalb will probably be closed the rest of this week, and maybe some of next week, as work crews continue to work on the crossing, tearing out old lines and repairing others.

They’ve been cleaning from attic to cellar for several years at Ellwood House, ever since the restoration of the mansion began. And now the public is going to be given the opportunity to buy discarded items from the mansion at public auction.

The Genoa American Legion Baseball Team which had a highly successful season, climaxed by taking second place in the Connie Mack State Tournament in Springfield, was honored Tuesday night at a Recognition Dinner held at theGenoa Veteran’s Home.

The East-West Tollway Extension is two to three months behind schedule because of the weather. The frequency, not the total rainfall, has caused the delay and held up construction.

1997 - 25 Years Ago

The city underwent its annual transformation this weekend as thousands of Northern Illinois University students came back to school. For longtime residents, the start of school means more people, more business for local merchants and more activity in general. There is a slight difference, this year, however. Recent efforts to boost enrollment at NIU appear to have paid off. University officials say preliminary figures show there are about 1,000 more students this year.

Commonwealth Edison officials made a series of concessions Thursday night to try and calm a group of citizen’s concerned about the company’s controversial tree trimming methods. The residents are upset with the company’s plans to trim and eliminate some trees along a 138,000-volt line which stretches through the DeKalb Nature Trail, between North First Street and Sycamore Road in northern DeKalb.

When Jim Edgar launched his first campaign for governor, he contended Illinois needed a chief executive who had the “guts to govern.” But as he made Wednesday’s announcement to retire at the end of his second term, Edgar is still defining what that statement means. So far, the hallmark of the Edgar administration is a record of caution and fiscal integrity instead of the flamboyance and flashy projects of his predecessor, James R. Thompson.

Compiled by Sue Breese