FRED VOLKENING’S MEMORIES OF SCHAUMBURG CENTRE–PART 2

Continued here from May 5 are the contents of a Daily Herald article that ran on April 25, 1974 and reported some of the memories of Fred Volkening who lived in Schaumburg Township from 1903 until his death in 1993.

“Next to the general store, Fred and Herman Nerge ran a blacksmith shop and wagon shop. [When Mr. Volkening says "next to," he is saying that the blacksmith shop was to the south of the Fenz Store along Roselle Road. Fred and Herman were sons of Heinrich and Marie Nerge.]

In back of the Schaumrose Inn building was an ice-storage shed, where pond ice was stacked and stored in sawdust and hay for summer use. There once was a pond by what is now the Bethel Baptist Church, north of the intersection. Residents went out in freezing weather to cut large chunks of ice and load them onto sleighs. [We have now ventured to the east side of Roselle Road. When Mr. Volkening mentions the Schaumrose Inn, he is referring to what is now Lou Malnati's.   The pond that is mentioned was on property that was once owned by John Fenz according to the 1898 William Mitchell map of Schaumburg Township.  From a January 21, 1916 issue of the Daily Herald, it is mentioned that "Fenz and Krueger filled their ice houses Thursday and Friday." It is possible that the building Mr. Volkening is referring to was owned by either Fenz or Krueger.  Mr. Krueger was the original owner of what is now the Easy Street Pub. He would have needed a certain amount of ice. Mr. Fenz owned John Fenz & Son across the street. Therefore, the proximity is perfect for both men.]

Between the barn and another building was the firehouse where the hand pumper was stored. The building housed a tavern, which was later to become Lengl’s. [The firehouse is pictured here with a bell tower.   It is between the barn and the brick building which is the aforementioned tavern owned by Mr. Krueger. It was purchased by Frank Lengl sometime around 1924.  The pumper is shown below.  Photo is compliments of Bud Napier.]

There was a special hall in the tavern where all the township meetings were conducted.  [This was on the second floor of Lengl's/Easy Street Pub.]

Automobiles did not make their way into the area until about 1910.  Volkening’s family was one of the first three in the area to have a horseless carriage.  Use of the horse did not start to die until the 1930′s.  [According to Genesis of a Township, 'the first automobile drove through town' in 1901.  Another article from 1905 mentions a local gentleman owning an automobile.  The Volkenings would have had to purchase theirs sometime between their arrival in Schaumburg Township in 1903 and the aforementioned date.]

Schaumburg Centre had a small railroad line to Roselle, where the main lines were.  Materials to pave Roselle Road were transported on the tiny rail line.  [This was done in 1917. A small, narrow gauge railroad track was laid to carry supplies as the workers moved their way from the village of Roselle into Schaumburg Township.]

Volkening worked on the construction, supplying a team of horses to grade the roadway for about $5 a day.  The pavement, when completed extended from just north of the village of Roselle to Higgins Road.

Volkening said cars could not be used in winter because of road conditions.  The horse remained the surest way of transportation for a while.

A person could tell who was driving down the street by the certain sound made by their team of horses and wagon.

The 74-year-old Volkening, a member of the village police and fire commission shrugged his shoulders in reaction to the massive growth of the area.

“I’ve seen it all,” he said.”

Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian

 

SCHAUMBURG CENTER SCHOOL OPEN HOUSE

The Schaumburg Township Historical Society will sponsor its annual open house of the Schaumburg Center School after the Memorial Day celebration at St. Peter Lutheran Church on Monday, May 27.  The open house will be held from 12:30 to 2 p.m.

Constructed in 1872–and first called Sarah’s Grove School, it is believed to have been the first of five public schools in Schaumburg Township. It was later renamed Schween’s Grove School and called Schaumburg Centre Public School until 1954. For 82 years, the building served as a one-room schoolhouse, and was the last active one room schoolhouse in District 54.

With the widening of Schaumburg Road, the building was saved from demolition and temporarily placed on the grounds of the Town Square Shopping Center in 1979. It was permanently relocated to the St. Peter Lutheran Church property in September, 1981. It has been fully restored as a museum and is under the auspices of the Schaumburg Township Historical Society.

FRED VOLKENING’S MEMORIES OF SCHAUMBURG CENTRE–PART 1

Fred Volkening spent much of his long life in Schaumburg Township.  He was born on September 24, 1899, came to the area in 1903 at the age of 3 and died on March 21, 1993 at the age of 94.  Almost 20 years before he died he was interviewed by Stirling Morita, a reporter for the Daily Herald.   The article ran on April 25, 1974 and was titled, “Memories of Schaumburg Centre.”

The article gave interesting insight into the early days of the 1900s in Schaumburg Township.  With permission from the Daily Herald, I am reprinting it here along with some explanations and clarifications:

“Fred Volkening has lived in Schaumburg 71 years, and the mention of Schaumburg Centre brought back memories.  Schaumburg Centre, split by Roselle and Schaumburg Roads, once was the social and business hub for the farming community of Schaumburg Township.

Volkening recalled the days of helping to build the first paved road in the township–Roselle Road–and cutting ice on a pond in 20-degree-below-zero weather.   He came to the area in 1903 at the age of three.

Some of the buildings still stand, although many have been torn down.  Volkening remembered the way they once were.

The building housing the Schaumrose Inn on the southeast corner of the intersection was once a hardware store, a soft-drink place, a store with pool table and other machines and later a tavern.  [This is currently Lou Malnati's.  In the ca. 1913 series of postcards that can be found on the Local History Digital Archive, there is a photo of the building in its incarnation as a Hardware Store.  In the 1940s, it was owned by Herman Schnute and known as both Schnute's Tavern and Schnute's Hall. George and Julia Niemann were the next owners and they renamed it Niemann's Tavern. They later sold it to Hugo Gerschefske. His sons in law, Victor Binneboese and Wayne Nebel, operated the business and renamed it the Schaumrose Inn.  Lou Malnati's bought it in 1985 and its popularity is obvious in its continued longevity.]

Across the street on the northeast corner, a bank was constructed in the late 1920′s.  The building now houses the Hoffman Estates Realty Co.  [Mr. Volkening was a bit off on the construction of the bank.  The Farmers State Bank of Schaumburg opened on the northeast corner of Schaumburg and Roselle Roads in 1910.  Herman Fenz was its first president. 

When Schaumburg State Bank (no relation to its modern-day namesake) went out of business, Herman Hattendorf moved his grocery store from down the street to the corner site.  [At some point the bank changed its name to Schaumburg State Bank.  It closed in 1933 as a result of the Great Depression and it wasn't until March 1, 1940 that Herman and Clara Hattendorf moved their store into the bank building.  It is unknown if the bank sat vacant the entire time.]

On the southwest corner was a combination general store, saloon and dance hall owned by John Fenze [sic.]  “The store had everything–women’s clothing, food, everything.”  The store also served as a post office.  The area had been in various postal rural routes over the years–Elgin, Palatine and Roselle.  [The store began as Schaumburg House and opened in 1858 with Heinrich Rohlwing as the owner.  After his untimely death, his wife Mina maintained the store until it burned down in 1881.  Sometime later, Caroline, the daughter of Heinrich and Mina, rebuilt the store with her husband John Fenz.  They continued to use the name Schaumburg House and eventually changed that to J. Fenz & Son as mentioned in an ad from a 1907 issue of the Daily Herald.  This store lasted until September 17, 1924 when it burned down once again.] 

Mrs. Volkening fondly recalled the box social dances held on the second floor of the store.  Volkening said the second floor was used for almost everything, adding that he registered for the Army there in 1918.  Once a week a dentist stopped at the store to pull teeth.   [It was, indeed, a multi-use store, with voting and paying taxes also taking place on the second floor.]

Fenze [sic] owned a warehouse on the northwest corner, where farm machinery was sold.  [There are a number of ads in early editions of the Daily Herald where John Fenz & Son advertise various farm implements such as plows, rakes and potato planters.] 

The general store burned down, and Volkening was one of the men who attempted to extinguish the blaze.  The warehouse was leveled later, and both lots remained empty.  Then an Ace Hardware store sprouted where the general store had been.  [The Ace Hardware was built around 1954 by Schaumburg's first mayor, Louis Redeker.  It was there until 1996 when the village bought the property to create the second version of Town Square."]

Look for Part 2 on May 19…

Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian
Schaumburg Township District Library

THE AUTOGRAPH BOOK OF BEN MEYER

Our guest contributor this week is Pat Barch, the Hoffman Estates Historian.  This column originally appeared in the April 2013 issue of the Hoffman Estates Citizen, the village’s newsletter.  The column appears here, courtesy of the Village of Hoffman Estates.

Jane Rozek, who is the Schaumburg Township District Library’s local history librarian, posted a wonderful blog on the library’s history website detailing the entries in young Marie Quindel’s autograph book that dated back to 1899.  It only seems fitting that I should share our Hoffman Estates Museum’s autograph book with you also.  After reading Jane’s blog, I knew I wanted to tell you about young Bennie Meyer’s book.  You see Bennie Meyer grew up to become Marie Quindel’s husband and their farm was on Higgins Rd. just west of Gannon Dr.  His little book was dated 1901. Bennie Meyer’s autograph book was filled with school chums, neighbors, relatives and friend’s greetings and best wishes.

Page after page reads like a who’s who of the young children who grew up to become the well know farmers of the area.   Greve, Volkening, Gieseke, Fasse, Fenz, Nerge, Springinsguth, Hattendorf, Lichthardt, Hartman and Kastening are some of the more than 41 autographs in Ben Meyer’s elaborately imposed ivory covered book that’s still protected by the original box stamped “Made in Germany”.  The children dated their sometimes humorous or serious saying, ranging from 1901 through 1912 beginning with Ben signing “Bennie Meyer, 1901” on the first page.  His sisters, Martha and Matilda were the first to sign his book. The last autographs were written on February 3, 1912 by his nephew and nieces, Bennie, Emma and Amelia Volkening.

The penmanship was absolutely beautiful.  The little book was filled with added decorative stickers of flowers and one cute little black and white dog that Willie Volkening added to his page.  He wrote “Remember me dear Bennie, when on this line you look, remember it was Willie who wrote this in your book, Your friend and schoolmate, Willie Volkening.”

Hermine Fenz wrote “Dear Bennie, May your virtues ever spread like butter on hot ginger bread.  I’ve looked these pages o’er and o’er to see what others wrote before and in this little lonely spot, I’ll here inscribe forget me not.  Remember your friend, Hermine Fenz.”  It was dated Jan. 27, 1902.

The 112 year old autograph book came to our museum from Marie and Bennie Meyer’s son Roger.  It’s an irreplaceable treasure of sentiments from the children who grew up on our local farms.  They became local leaders in the Schaumburg Township community. As you drive through the area, you’ll see many of their names on our road signs. 

Roger Meyer moved away to a new farm.  He lets others do the farming and now enjoys the peace and quiet of the countryside. His donations to our museum include the beautiful spinning wheel used by his grandma Greve and a photo of her sitting at the spinning wheel.  But what I love the most is his dad’s (Bennie’s) autograph book.  It gives a look into these happy childrens’ lives more than 100 years ago.

Pat Barch
Hoffman Estates Village Historian
eagle2064@comcast.net

WHERE EXACTLY WAS THE HOME OF THE FIRST LIBRARY?

Last year, in 2012, the Schaumburg Township District Library celebrated its 50th birthday.  And a few weeks ago we got a belated birthday present.  This is the story…

The voters of Schaumburg Township participated in a special election on September 8, 1962 that would determine whether a public library should be established and maintained.  They also voted for six potential library trustees.  The measure passed and the library opened for business on January 3, 1963 as the Schaumburg Township Public Library.  The location?  A small, white frame ranch house just north of Schaumburg Road on Roselle Road.

For years we’ve known what the house looked like on the outside thanks to this somewhat grainy photo with unknown origins.

How close it was to the intersection of Schaumburg and Roselle Road remained a mystery.  We’ve had long-time staff members who worked there once upon a time who couldn’t quite nail down the exact location.  We were also unsure because of  somewhat obscure descriptions from The Record.  It was mentioned in the November 29, 1962 edition that “The trustees approved the rental of a house on Roselle Road–and the first house north of the Marathon service station.”  In the December 27 issue, the story states, “The library is located 2 doors north of Schaumburg Road…on the west side of Roselle Road next to the Marathon Gas Station.”

Then, one day, in walks local resident Bud Napier with a handful of pictures.  In the midst of showing me an interesting photo of the intersection, buried in the blizzard of 1967, I started looking at the background of the photo.  And there it was.  I looked past the Marathon Station and then past the strip mall that had just been built (and was very recently torn down) and noticed a small ranch house that looked very familiar.  It was the library.  You can see it here in the shadows.  Not exactly next door to the Marathon Station is it?

By this time the library had moved into its newly built, permanent home on Library Lane.  But the ranch remained.

Now, if we could just figure out how the ranch got there in the first place.  Mr. Napier says that the house was moved down Roselle Road from Nerge Road by Paul Rosenwinkel, a local farmer.  One of our longtime staff members says she remembers that the house once sat on the Golden Acres Country Club aka the Schaumburg Golf Club.  According to her the house served as the caretaker’s home and sat behind one of the homes on Batavia Lane in Parcel B of Hoffman Estates.  Maybe one of these days, we’ll solve that mystery too.

Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian

WHERE DID THE HEADS AND FISTS GO?

For a four-year period these two sculptures were outside of the Chicago Athenaeum branch in Schaumburg.  If you can’t quite place the Athenaeum or are new to the area, this is the current Trickster Gallery in Town Square.

The sculptures were large and unusual and a tantalizing place to climb for the kids who visited.  They were  passed on to the group by Nina Levy, the New York artist who designed them, and erected on the Athenaeum grounds in May of 2000.

The formal name of the Heads is Merchandise Mart Heads.  They were completed in 1993 and were cast in resin and steel.  They “are a playful commentary of the 1940′s sculpture at The Merchandise Mart in Chicago.”  (This is the famous row of heads of renowned Chicago merchandisers such as Montgomery Ward, Marshall Field and Edward A. Filene that sit on the Chicago River side of the Mart.)  Each of the heads shown above is 40 x 38 x 53 and was originally installed at Art Chicago.

Holds is the formal name of the clenched Fists.  It is made from bronze powder, resin and steel.  Each fist is a separate part of the sculpture and together they are 60 x 44 x 40 in size.  It was originally installed at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.

When the Chicago Athenaeum vacated the premises in 2004, the sculptures went with them.  Larry Rowan of Town Square’s Coldwell Banker passed on the photos to me and asked, “What happened to the heads and fists?”

The answer is that they are currently ensconced at the Chicago Athenaeum’s Galena museum.  The Heads can be found on the outside of the museum and the Fists can be found inside.  You may visit their website at www.chi-athenaeum.org to see other views.   Mystery solved!

Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian
Schaumburg Township District Library

MARTYL LANGSDORF, 1918-2013

On Tuesday, March 26, 2013, Martyl Langsdorf, a long-time resident of Schaumburg passed away.  Martyl, however, wasn’t just a resident.  She was also an internationally acclaimed landscape artist whose works appeared in many exhibits, galleries and museums.  She was the wife of Alexander Langsdorf who worked on the Manhattan Project that was headed by Enrico Fermi.  She was the designer of the Doomsday Clock.  And, most importantly for Schaumburg, she was the enthusiastic owner and caretaker of the Schweikher House that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Martyl was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1917 to Martin and Aimee Schweig.  Martin was a well known local photographer and Aimee was very much involved in the St. Louis art world.   The early summers of Martyl’s life were spent in Provincetown, MA studying and working in an artist’s colony run by Charles Hawthorne.  Martyl eventually graduated from Washington University in St. Louis and studied with Arnold Blanch at an artist’s colony called the Colorado Springs Arts Center.

From 1932 to 1941, Martyl’s mother, Aimee, was the central figure in the Ste. Genevieve Art Colony in a town by the same name that is down river from St. Louis.  Martyl was very much engaged in this colony’s work and inspired by their desire to paint the real effects of the Great Depression.  One of her contributions can be viewed today in a mural called “La Guignolee” that still hangs in the local post office.

In 1941 her life took a different turn when she married Alexander Langsdorf, Jr., a nuclear physicist.  They moved to Chicago in 1943 when Alexander was asked to work at the Argonne National Laboratory.  Shortly after, their daughters Suzanne and Alexandra were born in 1945 and 1948.

It was during this time that Hyman Goldsmith of the Universty of Chicago and the founder of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, asked Martyl to design a cover for the Bulletin.  Martyl responded with the familiar representation of the Doomsday Clock that has been on the cover of every Bulletin since its inception in June 1947.  Though she is known in the art world as a landscape artist, this is her most famous work of art.

In the early 1950s the Langsdorfs began looking for a more permanent home.  They discovered a gem of a house that was built by Paul Schweikher, a noted Chicago architect who headed the firm Schweikher and Elting.  Mr. Schweikher had recently been asked to join Yale University as chairman of the School of Architecture and it had become necessary to move his family.  The sale was made in 1953 and the Langsdorfs moved to Schaumburg Township.

Not only was the house a gem, but it was a hidden gem as well.  Mr. Schweikher acquired the property around 1936 when he remodeled a barn into a house for a landowner in rural Schaumburg Township.  On a lovely, remote piece of land that abuts Salt Creek off of Meacham Road, Schweikher proceeded to design and build a house from 1937 to 1938 with the Japanese influences that he loved.  The Langsdorfs continued the love affair after they purchased the home and worked zealously to maintain its originality and condition.  Their respect for the house and its architect is to be noted in the way that the house is known as The Schweikher House.

For the next 60 years Martyl continued to pursue her art and, as the Chicago Art Institute says, “embraced painting, printmaking, drawing, mural and stained-glass design.” Her world travels influenced her work and it was reflected in a steady stream of solo exhibits in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and her hometown of St. Louis to name a few.  Her works are part of the collections of the “Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum, Illinois State Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C. and Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.” Locally, you can see a collection of her paintings near the Rasmussen Meeting Room at the Schaumburg Township District Library.

In the late 1980s she and her husband faced their biggest challenge when the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago threatened to condemn their property and their unique home.  Fighting for its life, the Langsdorfs were able to obtain National Register in 1987 before the house was purchased by the District in 1989.  As part of the negotiated contract with the District, the Langsdorfs were granted life tenancy in the house.  With foresight and appreciation for this local landmark, the village of Schaumburg purchased the home in 1996–the same year that Alexander died–and allowed Martyl to maintain the house as her residence in between her travels.

Her love for her home was strong, tenacious and palpable.  She enjoyed giving tours and insisted on shoeless feet moving across the floors.   The Japanese garden on the side and the unique peonies in the backyard were an easy enticement to leave the house.  She knew every intricacy and detail of the home and was insistent about the care and upkeep.  Her amazing memory and recall allowed her to regale visitors with stories of others who had come before to tour her home.  It is fitting that she passed away still attached to the house that she enthusiastically embraced for so many of her 96 years of life.  As so often happens with the ebb and flow of life, Schaumburg lost a gem and gained a gem all in the same day.

Jane Rozek
Local History Librarian

From a personal point of view, I’d like to add—

“I met Martyl in 2007 when the library sponsored a program to honor the oral historians of SchaumburgTownship.  Not only did she participate in the program but she also invited me to her home for a personal tour.  For an architectural neophyte like myself, she was very patient and answered every naive question I threw her way. 

One day I spent the morning with her in my favorite room of the Schweikher House. We had tea in the sunny kitchen with its open shelves stocked with so many unique bowls, platters, pitchers, dishes and crockware that I wanted to examine.  We talked about our enjoyment of St. Louis and how my husband and I had recently taken our daughters to Ste. Genevieve for spring break.  We talked about how we both loved to shop for clothes when we travelled and that it was a great excuse to indulge when we did.  And, of course, we also discussed Schaumburg–the old and the new.  She talked about Alma Panzer who served as a housekeeper for the family and what it was like to live in such a remote, quiet area for so many years.  We also spoke of the goings on in Schaumburg as well as the restaurants she liked to take her visitors to. 

I loved her no nonsense attitude, her sly sense of humor and the way her artistic side found its subtle way into the clothes she wore.  She seemed to effortlessly envelop people into her circle.  And what a circle it was!  Her confidence and easy laugh were a delight and it was just a pleasure to know her.

I will miss her.”

This blog posting was written with the assistance of the following websites:
http://www.martyl.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_Clock

http://www.greatriverroad.com/stegen/sgattract/stgart1.htm

Jeff Whyte, ALA

For Martyl’s online tour of the house, please go to the library’s Local History Digital Archive at http://archives.stdl.org/digitalarchive/digitalarchive.asp
>Browse Videos
>Oral Histories
>Schaumburg Township Landowners 1935-1959
>Langsdorf Family

TAKE A TOUR OF GREVE CEMETERY

On Saturday, April 20, 2012 and Sunday, April 21, 2012 , the Hoffman Estates Historical Sites Commission will conduct small group-guided tours of the Greve Cemetery on Abbey Wood Drive.

Groups will be shown the  the interrelated Greve, Meyer, Ottman and Sunderlage pioneer families buried at the cemetery which is also known as Wildcat Grove Cemetery or Evangelical and Reformed Cemetery.

Tours will start at 1:00, weather permitting.  Call 847-781-2606  for reservations after March 26.  Event is free of charge.

BUILDING NEW HOMES IN HOFFMAN ESTATES

Our guest contributor this week is Pat Barch, the Hoffman Estates Historian.  This column originally appeared in the March 2013 issue of the Hoffman Estates Citizen, the village’s newsletter.  The column appears here, courtesy of the Village of Hoffman Estates.

In my December, 2012 article, I talked about the early pioneers that moved into parcel A in 1955-56.  I asked for stories from some other early pioneers that might still be in the area and I thank all of you for sending me your families’ stories.

Dave Olson’s parents moved into their home on Apricot St. in March of 1956.  He quotes from his mother’s (Adeline) autobiography “The house looked fine on the outside, but we immediately noticed that the house had settled on the north side and there was a definite slant to the floor.”  After F & S Construction made repairs, they finally moved into their home in June of 56.

David remembers being 6 yr. old and having the freedom to run in circles through the house because of the layout of the rooms.  The mailboxes were lined up out on Golf Rd. They went grocery shopping in Palatine and to the Pizza Cottage in Roselle for a real treat.  He fondling remembers the rock and mudslinging fights that took place on their street. Even after the paving trucks paved the streets, he remembers still having enough ammunition for a good afternoon fight.

David remembered other families such as the Daveys, Bartoshes, Hauperts, Yochers, Espersens, Mullendores and the Ewans who lived on their street.

David wasn’t the only one who remembered the rocks and mud, Elizabeth also remembered the huge pile of dirt that offered hours of fun playing army.  Her home was at the end of Alcoa Ln. and her dad would cut the grass for a baseball field in the summer, build tree houses in the old trees and in winter they’d skate on the small frozen lakes behind their house.  She rode past her old home last year and couldn’t believe how things had changed, including the house number.

Dan Farinosi shared his story of the springtime move in for his family on Bluebonnet in 1956.  He was in the first 6^th grade class at Twinbrook School.  He remembers the large group of kids his own age and the fun they had playing baseball at the school and endless board games on rainy days.  High School was 7 miles away in Palatine and a good pizza was at the Pizza Cottage in Roselle.

He’s remained in Hoffman Estates for 56 years and spent his entire career in District 54 as a teacher and principal of Frost Middle School until he retired in 2001.

I mentioned the Gluck family in my December article and their son Jon sent a story about his parents and their move to Hoffman Estates in 1955.  His dad, was Police Commissioner, he believes it was a volunteer position, in 1970.  They moved away in 1978.

Naomi wasn’t an early pioneer but she remembers reading about how the early moms got together to form a babysitter club.  If you used someone as a sitter, you owed them one night in return.

With little to do in the early days our pioneer families relied on themselves and the kids had more friends to have fun with than they had in the city. With open fields for baseball, frozen ponds for skating, piles of dirt for afternoon wars, what could be better than that?  Probably a ride to Roselle for pizza.

Pat Barch
Hoffman Estates Village Historian
eagle2064@comcast.net

Photo is of an early development in Hoffman Estates and is compliments of the Hoffman Estates Museum.

SCHAUMBURG OF MY ANCESTORS

It doesn’t happen very often that new books are written about the history of Schaumburg Township.   When it does, it is necessary to relay the good news.

Local resident, LaVonne Thies Presley has written a detailed account called Schaumburg Of My Ancestors in which she explores the history of the farm where her father grew up and lived during the early part of the twentieth century.  As a descendant of this German family who homesteaded and farmed our rural township, LaVonne’s devotion to our history is constant and passionate–a gift she received from her parents.

The 281-page book begins with the arrival of her paternal great grandparents, Friedrich and Maria (Pollworth) Thies, to Schaumburg Township around 1870.  The land they purchased and farmed was along Meacham Road, directly to the west of today’s Route 53 where the WGN tower now stands.  Heinrich, one of their five children, married Sophie Fedderke and they eventually purchased half of the family farm and began their own family.  It is this family and their farm upon which this book is based.

With the births of their five children–Henry, Clara, William, Emma and Alvina–the young parents worked hard to not only sustain themselves but to create additional income as well.  Unfortunately, tragedy struck when Heinrich died of heart failure after nearly 10 years of marriage at the age of 45.   Until her sons were old enough, the farm was worked by others while Sophie and her children lived nearby.  Around 1908, the family moved back and went about the business of making the farm a success.   Thus begins a fascinating account of the myriad details that were involved in running a farm and household and what it was to live in rural Schaumburg Township during the first half of the twentieth century.

We are introduced to the crops and foods that were grown, the animals that were raised, and the styles of farming used.  Water, wells, wood, shopping, banking, fire protection, roads, mail, newspapers, magazines and radio are just some of the topics that are covered.  In addition, we are treated to very complete chapters on attending St. Peter Lutheran Church as well as a history of the five original public schools of Schaumburg Township.  These details are enhanced by a wonderful array of photos and papers saved  by the family over the years.  It is truly a wonderfully complete look at life in our township long before suburban life moved in.

In 2002 LaVonne wrote her first book, A Schaumburg Farm, 1935-1964, which was an account of the Wiese (Wise) Road farm her parents owned for nearly three decades.  It is where LaVonne grew up and where every memory remains acute.  As the only child of her parents, William and Clara Thies (she also had an older, half-brother named Ray), she was the focus of a devoted couple who were sustained by the land they farmed and loved.   According to LaVonne, her father was a true conversationalist whose stories and memories provide many of the details for Schaumburg of My Ancestors.   His life on the Meacham Road farm and then on Wiese Road gave him and his daughter a lifelong zeal for farming, family and the land that was the constant in their lives.   This book is dedicated in his honor.

Copies of the book are available in the Schaumburg Township District Library’s Local History Collection.  You may either reserve it online through our catalog or call the Reference Desk at 847-923-3322.  Copies are also available for purchase at the Schaumburg Village Hall, Prairie Center for the Arts and the Volkening Heritage Farm Visitor’s Center.  The price is $20.