Looking Back for Sept. 21, 2022

1922 – 100 YEARS AGO

St. Alban’s school opened on Tuesday, Sept. 19, with a large enrollment, covering a larger number of states than ever before. Many of the boys with their parents motored to school on Sunday and spent Monday getting settled.

Troop No. 1 of the Boy Scouts met at the Armory Tuesday night for their regular business meeting. Plans and activities of the organization were discussed, after which the troop visited the Marvel Tire Company and observed the many different processes the rubber goes through before it comes out the finished tire. The boys were taken through the entire plant and shown the methods used to produce the desired effects, shapes and treads of the various tries.

Work of wrecking the old building just east of the Arlington hotel, recently occupied by Pete Sherman, is being done rapidly by John Larson. The property will be used by Mable Brothers who expect to erect a garage there as soon as it is possible to start the work. Will Duffey today made arrangements to hook up his popcorn wagon on the property he, with his brother, recently purchased of George Bristow, now occupied by the Chinese laundry.

The teacher, Miss Frances Lattin, and pupils are enjoying the splendid new Lovell school house. This is one of the finest school buildings in the vicinity of Ohio Grove.

James Katapodis, who has been shining shoes at the Second Street stand for many weeks, has this week purchased the interest of his partner, and is now sole owner of the business. “Jim” as he is known to a number of fellows around town says he is able to do anything along the line of dyeing and cleaning shoes, and with his courteous manner should be able to do a good business.

The post office at Shabbona Grove has been discontinued and most of the people served by the office will now receive their mail from Earlville Route 6. Shabbona Grove had a post office when DeKalb County’s oldest people were children and though the action caused a pang of regret to see the old office go, such action is compelled by the trend of necessity. Some weeks ago a petition was circulated among the patrons of the Shabbona Grove route, asking that it be started from Earlville. The reason for this was the change in time of the Chicago and Northwestern mail train. For years that train has gone north in the morning, leaving the mail at Shabbona Grove so that it could be delivered in the forenoon when the roads were so that the carrier could use his automobile.

1947 – 75 YEARS AGO

Agricultural greatness of Illinois will again receive nationwide recognition on Saturday, Sept. 27, when a farming family of three, of DeKalb County, are presented with the W.G. Skelly award for superior achievement. They are C.B. Watson, his wife, Ethel, and C.B. Watson Jr., who have done an outstanding job on the 800-acre family farm and are typical of the finest farming families in the country.

William Peterson of Kingston entered the Sycamore Hospital yesterday where he is recovering from illness which is thought to be caused by a black widow spider bite. He was working around some rocks when something bit him on the hand. When he later began to get severely ill he was taken to the hospital here his condition was diagnosed as resulting from the poisonous spider bite.

Mrs. Chester Freeman and Mrs. Budd McMillian, in northwest Malta, have been visiting friends in Dixon.

There are extensive repairs being made at the Malta city hall and council rooms. A large door is being installed and painting is being completed. A large automatic clock will be installed in a few days which will automatically sound the fire whistle at noon each day in a test program.

At least two storekeepers of the Malta vicinity have lost articles during the past few days. One store reports that an electric clock, an electric wall lamp and a fountain pen were taken and another store reports the loss of several fountain pens. Merchants are keeping a careful watch of their stores at the present time in the hopes of putting a stop to the stealing which takes place during business hours.

The Federal Public Housing Authority on the Teachers College campus, has direct mail delivery this fall for the first time since the housing project was opened for residency. Heretofore all veterans received their daily mail through the Veterans office in the administration building on the campus. Application for the service was made through the DeKalb Post Office, which conducted a survey and a count of the mail, in order to convince postal authorities in Washington of the need and the volume of mail.

1972 – 50 YEARS AGO

The DeKalb County American Red Cross chapter this year asked Opportunity House students to help fill the ditty bags for soldiers overseas. Last year the Red Cross had Girl Scouts fill 150 bags, but this year the number of bags was cut by more than one half resulting from troop reductions.

The Rev. Harold A. Schlink, area Baptist minister of Princeton, was special guest speaker at the service of dedication, held at the First Baptist Church of Shabbona Sunday afternoon, the occasion climaxing the recent completion of an extensive remodeling project.

The Don Lundeens of Victor have three youths in college this year. Dean will be a freshman at Kishwaukee College, Malta, Margaret will be starting her sophomore year at Illinois State University, Normal, and Jerry will be starting his junior year at Illinois State. Another daughter, Donna, completed her requirements and received her degree at summer graduation in August and will be teaching in the business department of Wheaton Central High this year.

Four bids were opened Tuesday for the demolition of four stores to make way for a new city parking lot. Four buildings will be torn down if the bids are approved by the council. These include the buildings which once housed the old Red Shield store, the old Hole-In-One store, Luigi’s Pizza and the Steward-Silverman Building. All of these stores are located on North Second Street.

1997 – 25 YEARS AGO

A unique process is at work in the DeKalb housing market. Despite stagnant enrollment figures at Northern Illinois University, developers continue to build hundreds of new apartments near the campus region of DeKalb. Students, willing to pay an extra $50 a month for a new stove and carpeting that hasn’t been through eight keg parties, jump aboard, and the new apartments have been an overall success.

“A Thousand Acres” is a film about an Iowa family whose members’ lives play out against a backdrop of cornfields, combines and amber sunsets. Tuesday night’s pre-screening of “A Thousand Acres” at Rochelle’s Hub Theatre was also about family, a family linked not by blood, but by a collective experience. For a few fleeting weeks last summer, more than 500 ordinary northern Illinois folks got the chance to work on a real Hollywood movie with a first-rate cast, and they owe it all to no one more than themselves.

– Compiled by Sue Breese