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Herbert Van Driel
George Whittenberg
Adolph Wille (Oral History)
William Wille
Dr. Alfred Wolfarth
Name: Herbert A. Van Driel
Does MPHS have photographs: Yes
Address in MP: 215 S. Emerson
Birth Date: 1900
Death Date: November 30, 1970
Marriage
Date:
Spouse: Helen
Children: Marryanne and Herbert J.
Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
Herb Van Driel started working in a drug store in 1913. He bought his own store
in Chicago in 1927 and claimed that in this store he sold cigarettes and gum to
John Dillinger. Herb Van Driel moved to Mount Prospect in the early 1940s. He
bought an existing drug store at the corner of Emerson and Northwest Highway.
When Van Driel came to Mount Prospect, the two doctors in town already had an
agreement with another pharmacist. So Van Driel branched out and added a lunch
counter, serving ham sandwiches and home made pies. He said that in the first
few years most of his business was in food. While there was rationing during
World War Two, Van Driel was a distributor for different foods and cigarettes
and was able to establish himself as one of the important businesses in town. He
later went on to be one of the founding members of the second incarnation of the
Mount Prospect Chamber of Commerce (originally founded in 1926, dissolved in
1932 then founded again in 1947). He was also a member of the Chicago Retail
Druggist Association, National Association of Retail Druggists, The Mount
Prospect Lions Club, and the Des Plaines Elks Lodge. In 1968 he sold the
business, although it still maintains his name. He died in 1970.
Name: George Whittenberg
Does MPHS have photographs: Yes
Address in MP: 4 S. Edward Street
Birth Date: August 1, 1900
Death Date: November 10, 1969
Marriage
Date:
Spouse: Irma (Thill) Whittenberg
Children: Arlene
Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
George Whittenberg was the second police officer in Mount Prospect and the
second Chief of Police. He was hired by William Mulso, Mount Prospect’s first
Police Chief, who was also the entire police force from 1924 until he hired
Whittenberg in 1932. Five years later Whittenberg became the chief of police, a
position he held until he retired. Whittenberg was originally hired, in part,
because he could ride a motorcycle and the police department had one motorcycle
and one 1929 Pontiac. George Whittenberg served on the Mount Prospect Police
Department for 33 years, and was the Chief of Police for most of that time. He
resigned his post in 1965, having seen the community change dramatically during
his tenure. When he took the job, there were no paved roads and the population
was about 1200. By the time he retired, the population was over 25,000, Mount
Prospect was twice as large, and the police force had grown from two officers to
close to thirty. Four years after he retired, he died. His funeral procession
included fifty cars that passed by the Police Station one last time. Whittenberg
was a long time member of the Mount Prospect Lions Club, and following his
death, the Lions donated $6000 to the village to erect a memorial. In 1975 the
village built a waterfall and fountain at the base of the water tower, as a
memorial to his years of service. The memorial stood very close to the police
station in which Whittenberg had spent so much time, but was later demolished.
Name: Adolph Wille
Does MPHS have photographs: Yes
Address in MP:
Birth Date: March 24, 1893
Death Date: December 1986
Marriage
Date: January 26, 1917
Spouse: Velda (Knigge) Wille
Children: June, Marvella, R’Dell, Ruth, and Beverly Ann
Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
Adolph Wille was the son of William Wille, one of
Mount Prospect’s founding fathers. He is best known for running
Wille’s Tavern for many years. He took over the business that was started by his
father. During prohibition, he made it into a lunch counter, called Wille’s
Buffet, and made supplemental income by working as Mount Prospect’s first
licensed barber and also helping his brothers Edwin and Chris in the Wille
Construction Company. Below is a selection from an oral history interview with
Adolph Wille from the 1970s.
Adolph
Willie; Interviewed by Helen Becker; December 6, 1977 Complete transcript
available at the Mount Prospect Public Library.
AW: "I was born here in Mount Prospect, March 24, 1893. There were no streets,
only roads: Central Road north of town and Elmhurst Road west of town, and two
short roads in town -- one road from the depot to Elmhurst Road and the other
road from the railroad to Central Road. We lived on the road from the depot to
Elmhurst Road in an old [creamery] which my dad owned. The farmers sold him the
milk and he would make butter and cheese and take it into Chicago with a team
and wagon. In the spring when the roads were muddy he would often get stuck in
a mud hole. Then he would have to unload enough butter and cheese until the
team would be able to pull the wagon out of the hole, and then he would reload
the load again. He got tired of doing it so often so he closed the creamery and
quit the business. My dad also did carpenter work, so he went into the building
business. For years we built a lot of homes in Mount Prospect. The early
residents that I remember were Moehling, Meyn, Busse and John Bauer, the first
tavern in town, and the farmers in town were the Pohlman farm on the east side
of town, the Schaeffer farm on the south side of town, the Hertl farm on the
west side of town, and the Katz farm on the north side of town. Our children
are all living in Mount Prospect: Mrs. June Schaeffer at 217 North Maple
Street, Mrs. Marvella Moore at 211 North Maple Street, Mr. Ardell A. Wille at
101 North Pine Street, and Mrs. Ruth Cullen at 105 North Pine Street."
Name: William Wille
Does MPHS have photographs: Yes
Address in MP:
Birth Date:
Death Date:
Marriage
Date:
Spouse: Ella Wille
Children: Elmer, Luella, Adolph, Edwin, Fred, Albert, Clara, Sophie, and Chris
Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
William Wille was one of the most influential people in the development of Mount
Prospect. He had a number of different jobs over the years, but he was always
involved in community matters. In 1880 he started Wille’s Cheese Factory at the
intersection of Northwest Highway, Busse Ave and Wille Street. He would buy milk
from local farmers, turn it into cheese and butter and then take it into Chicago
for sale. After about twenty years of doing this he got tired of all the trips
in and out of the city, particularly in bad weather, and closed the business in
1902. In 1895 he and William Busse were the primary forces behind getting School
District 57 founded. After it was founded, W. Wille and W. Busse both donated
land to create a small campus for the first school. William Wille was hired to
build the first school, the Central School. This one room school house is still
standing today, demonstrating his workmanship. In 1905 Wille and Busse teamed up
again and re-subdivided the original Eggleston triangle, making the plots more
attractive and bringing in new residents. In the early 1900 William Wille also
built and started Wille’s Tavern, which he ran up until prohibition, when he
gave it to his son who made it into Wille’s Buffet. William Wille also built
Wille hall, which was basically the first community building in Mount Prospect.
It was used by clubs for meetings and also for local dances and gatherings.
Name: Dr. Alfred Wolfarth
Does MPHS have photographs: Misc. Images
Address in MP: 113 W. Prospect
Birth Date: Circa 1899
Death Date:
Marriage
Date:
Spouse: Caroline
Children: Robert (maybe others)
Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
Dr. Wolfarth was the second doctor in Mount Prospect. His first office was in
the Busse Building in Busse Ave, directly above Busse-Biermann Hardware. Working
with Dr. Louise Koester, the only other doctor in Mount Prospect, a small
hospital was set up for car accidents and emergencies. Dr. Wolfarth supplemented
his local business by also being the physician on call for the Mount Prospect
Fire Department and the Chicago Northwestern Railroad. During World War II, Dr.
Wolfarth left Mount Prospect and served as a doctor at an evacuation hospital
for troops of General George Patton. In 1957, he and his wife, son and family
friend decided to sail across the Atlantic on a 43 foot boat. They sailed from
Germany to New York and then up the Hudson and the Erie Canal to the great lakes
and Chicago. This traced the path that many settlers in Mount Prospect would
have taken. None of the four people on the boat had extensive experience
sailing, so this was a pretty brave trip. It took them four months and 8,000
miles.