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1923 – 100 YEARS AGO
Now that spring will soon be here, Sawyer & Sons are preparing for the time with an attractive show room for their cars. The DeKalb men have taken the store recently vacated by the Co-Operative people and also the place formerly occupied by Ben Peck. It is the intention to remodel both rooms so they may be able to use them for sales rooms and keep a stock of cars on display. In this manner the men will have ample room for their cars and be able to give customers an idea of each model.
Merchants along the street are now complaining of children on skates who seem to make much noise when they enter a store or are about to leave it. This causes the merchants and helpers much confusion and in some cases it is very irritable. There are a few merchants who have now placed signs on their doors, that they will not allow children on skates to enter their place and that they must remove their skates or else enter quietly. In most cases they come in with a push which sends them down the aisles at a mad pace, often times disturbing large piles of merchandise.
Two salesmen, who evidently had a better idea of themselves than anyone else, gave a DeKalb merchant a little trouble last evening. It seems when the men arrived in town they had imbibed too freely of moonshine and from their first entrance began to make trouble. Going to a dance last night, they made themselves very obnoxious. When they were asked to leave by the owner of the place, they were highly insulted and threatened to do him bodily injury. An officer was called who took the men under collar and put them in a cell for the night. When they appeared this morning two meeker individuals could not be found and they were sorry they had let their thirst get the best of them.
Since taking over the business of the City Cleaners, Gus Youngstead has been busy making alterations to suit his convenience and arranging the place into two large rooms. The front will be used for patrons while the rear will be turned into a tailor shop. It will be here that all altering and pressing will be done.
1948 – 75 YEARS AGO
The Boardman Memorial Chapel, an auxiliary worship room at the First Methodist Church in DeKalb, was dedicated in strikingly simple ceremonies before an overflow crowd Sunday morning by Bishop J. Ralph Magee of Chicago. The beautiful new chapel, designed for small weddings, prayer services, and other smaller occasions when the large sanctuary would be considered too large, was named for the late Sherman W. Boardman, who was a worker in the church for many years. Mr. Boardman left some property to the church and this was sold and the money used to finance the remodeling.
On Saturday afternoon shortly before 4 o’clock an auto driven by R.J. McAllister of South Third Street in DeKalb was struck by a North Western engine at the Sixth Street crossing. The auto was going south over the tracks at the time of the accident. Although the auto was damaged some, Mr. McAllister escaped injury. The car was hit by train 51. This is the second vehicle to be hit by a train within two days as on Thursday morning of last week the city of Denver nicked a truck at the Third Street crossing.
But few notations were made on the police blotter from yesterday noon through late this morning with calls for the city ambulance being the principal items of note. One accident was reported yesterday afternoon. James Crews driving a Vets cab, was going south on South Third Street, and John Snyder of Kirkland was driving east on Franklin Street, the vehicles colliding at the intersection.
The interior of the court house has had a bath with most of the walls in the halls and rooms being washed. The painters are now touching up the bad places. Even the wooden box under the statue of Queen Isabella, which is located on the landing to the third floor, received a coat of white paint after seven years.
It is quite a sight to watch Superintendent of Public Works, Fred Foster, manipulate the tractor with a scoop attachment while removing the snow from the curbs. He receives a lot of kidding about it. While it entails a thankless job that it is taken for granted, many of the citizens, especially the motorists, are deeply appreciative of the work being done by Fred and his crew.
Mr. and Mrs. Chester Freeman and Danny of northwest Malta were Sunday-supper guests at the Lennox Elliott home.
1973 – 50 YEARS AGO
Edward Diedrich today said he had asked DeKalb Mayor Jesse Chamberlain to refuse to allow William Brown to sit as an alderman. Diedrich, who was knocked off the April 17 ballot as a mayoral candidate by the electoral board for failing to file his ethics statement by Feb. 12, also told the Mayor he felt it would be a misuse of taxpayers money to try and defend Brown’s claim to the seat in court.
Proper budgeting of finances and the stock market are being taught to sixth graders in Southeast School in Sycamore. Teaching economic education are sixth grade teachers Jim Klink and Terry Desmond, who combine mathematics with social studies lessons. Other areas being explored include credit power and interest rates, fundamentals of banking and the tax structure.
Harrison Sawyer of Sawyer Auto Imports, announced this week that Automotive Midwest Ltd. of DeKalb has purchased the American Motors dealership from Sawyer.
The county highway this morning decided to present four alternate routes for the proposed tollway access road to the March 1 meeting of the County Board. If two of the four routes suggested by the committee are chosen, it would necessitate building a new airport or building new airport hangers. The city of DeKalb has said it would not close the airport unless another were built.
1998 – 25 YEARS AGO
Northern Illinois University has seen an increase in the number of drug-related arrests this year. However, University Police officials believe the increase is due to more reports of crime from students and the community, not to an increase in drug use.
Linda Chesser has become the 13th director of the DeKalb Public Library. The first director was Mrs. Ernest Carter, who was offered the position of reading room attendant in 1896 at $3 per week to keep the room open every weekday afternoon and evening, plus Sunday afternoons. Over the next 102 years, 11 women held the title.
Because of the discovery of water on the moon, Americans could be living in a permanent lunar base, the first outpost beyond the Earth, in as little as a decade, a NASA scientists says.
– Compiled by Sue Breese