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People AB CD EF GH IJ KL MN OP QR ST UVWXZ
Paul Carlstedt
Evie Carlstedt
Dan Congreve
Arthur and Nancy Dallia
(oral history)
August Deeke
Selma Meier Deeke
Stanton Deming (Oral
History)
Salvatore DiMucci
Anton Duylis
Name: Evelyn (Oscarson) Carlstedt
Does MPHS have photographs: Yes
Address in MP: 202 N. Maple
Birth Date: November 21, 1927
Death Date: November 28, 2001
Marriage
Date: December 1, 1951
Spouse: Paul Carlstedt
Children: Alan, David
Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
Evie Carlstedt was a long time resident of Mount Prospect who dedicated herself
to helping community groups. She was a founding member of Grace Lutheran Church
and volunteered with the Mount Prospect Historical Society for decades. She was
originally the child of Swedish immigrants who lived in
Chicago.
Keeping in touch with her roots, she took a cruise to
Sweden
and on the boat met her future husband. They both lived in Chicago, so when they
got back they were married. In 1959 they moved to Mount Prospect.
Name: Paul Carlstedt
Does MPHS have photographs: Yes
Address in MP: 202 N. Maple
Birth Date: May 3, 1928
Death Date: May 3, 1996
Marriage
Date: December 1, 1951
Spouse: Evelyn Oscarson
Children: Alan, David
Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
Paul Carlstedt was involved in many aspects of community and social life in
Mount Prospect. He grew up in Chicago and later served in the Korean War. In
1958 he moved to Mount Prospect and soon became involved with a number of
different organizations. He was a founding member of the
Grace
Lutheran Church and an active member of the Kiwanis, United Way, Mount Prospect
Post Office Advisory Committee, Mount Prospect Police Pension Fund, and
Northwest Community Services. He was also the Treasurer and a Board Member of
the Mount Prospect Historical Society for many years.
Name: Daniel Congreve
Does MPHS have photographs: Yes
Address in MP:
Birth Date:
Death Date:
Marriage
Date:
Spouse:
Children:
Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
Daniel Congreve was Mayor of Mount Prospect from 1965 to 1969. He was a “Back to
Basics” kind of Mayor. He ran on a platform of returning to the traditional
values of the community and campaigned by riding around town in a horse drawn
wagon. He is the only Mayor who left office with the boundaries of Mount
Prospect unchanged, as the community did not expand at all during his
administration. Part of the reason for this was that he spent much of his time
in office involved in legal battles with Salvatore DiMucci, a regional
developer. While he was in office, both his administration and the country as a
whole were caught up in turbulence and social unrest.
Name: Arthur and Nancy Dallia
Does MPHS have photographs: No
Date of Interview: 11/23/1991
Interviewer: Leo Floros
Text of Oral History Interview:
LEO FLOROS: This is Leo Floros. I'm in the home of Arthur Dallia
at 7 North School Street in Mount Prospect. Art has consented to be interviewed
as part of the Mount Prospect oral history project. This is Saturday, November
23, and Art, we're delighted that you've consented to go back into your memory
and tell us what it was to be in Mount Prospect as long as you have. So let's
take it from the beginning. You were telling me a few minutes ago that you
started visiting here back in the mid-'20s --1922, 1923.
ARTHUR DALLIA: Yes, somewhere along there --1923, '24. A friend of mine opened
up a drugstore in town here down at 22 West Busse and we came out to visit him.
FLOROS: That's the place that now houses a chiropractor.
DALLIA: That's right. That's the building right there. We would come out to
visit every so often, and the population, I believe, at that time was about 400
or 500. There weren't any streets paved back at that particular time.
FLOROS: So that was how you got familiar with Mount Prospect?
DALLIA: That's right.
FLOROS: Tell us a little bit about that area then, back in 1922, 1923 or
whatever it was. How many stores were in town?
DALLIA: Well, there weren't very many stores. There were a few stores on Main
Street on the east side of the street, and then, of course, there was Kruse's
Tavern over there that was there. Then south on Emerson there was a farm supply
--an equipment supply --company that was there. I don't recall much of anything
on the north side at all. Well, there were a few houses along Main Street going
north, and I don't just recall when Busse built the garage there for the
automobile place. That I don't quite remember.
FLOROS: But at that time you were living in Chicago.
DALLIA: I was living in Edison Park at that particular time.
FLOROS: So when, then, did you ultimately move your family, and what did your
family consist of then? You moved to Mount Prospect when?
DALLIA: I moved to Mount Prospect in 1945. I bought the property in March. ..no,
I got in in March, by golly.
FLOROS: And that was located where?
DALLIA: That was at 15 South Albert Street, which is one block west of Mount
Prospect Road. At that particular time, there were farms right in back of my lot
for several blocks down, and there was complete farming on the other side of
Mount Prospect Road. Actually, there was farmland all around here.
FLOROS: Your family then consisted of ...?
DALLIA: Well, my family consisted of --I had a son that was fifteen years of
age, and my daughter was about twelve at that time. They went to what they at
that time called the Mount Prospect School, which later became the Central
School.
FLOROS: Which later became the library.
DALLIA: That's right. My brother-in-law lived here, and he was the postmaster
back in about 1928 and lived through there up to about 1934. The post office was
in a store just south of Busse on the east side of the street. There was a dry
goods store there, and Meeske had the corner where he had a small store there as
well. When I first moved out here, too, I used to go and get eggs from the
farmers throughout Central Road just beyond the railroad track --and pick up
eggs. And the Zenith tower over there. ..
FLORaS: And that was where?
DALLIA: That was on the corner of Mount Prospect Road and Central. That was a
broadcasting station owned by Zenith. Their equipment and everything was on the
first floor, and upstairs was an apartment. They actually broadcast from there.
FLORaS: Now, this was 1945?
DALLIA: 1945.
FLORaS: Were you working in Chicago?
DALLIA: Yes.
FLORaS: How did you get to and from Chicago?
DALLIA: Well, I rode the train. In those days a monthly pass was probably six or
seven dollars.
FLORaS: It's about seventy-nine now.
DALLIA: Whatever it is now, I don't know.
FLORaS: I'll tell you; it's seventy-nine dollars.
DALLIA: I'm retired since 1969, so I don't know.
FLORaS: But you were one of the early commuters to Chicago.
DALLIA: Yes.
FLORaS: How long of a train ride was it to Chicago? Do you remember?
DALLIA: I don't quite remember, but, of course, they were steam engines and they
were all open cars. In the summertime the windows were open and you would get
the smoke and what have you coming back in there. A great place to eat in those
days was Kruse's, who served plate lunches and so on, like that. Now I've got to
do a little more thinking. The first village hall was a small building there one
block south of Busse where the water tower is at now. There was a building there
which was the village office, and next door was a garage for the fire
department. Loris Lemmer, I know, was the village clerk at one time at that
location there. But that's all that the village consisted of --they had one
office there. That was it.
FLORaS: And the police chief. ..?
DALLIA: Oh, yes, there was one policeman, and that was George Whittenberg. He
also rode a motorcycle. He was a very good man and kept good order all the way
through.
FLORaS: What did they do for fire protection?
DALLIA: Well, I was just thinking about that. They had the volunteers. That's
where the one fire deparment was, in that particular building. It just was a
pumper. And then they had a tanker that they would store someplace else, and
they were all volunteers. If there was a fire they would blow the siren and the
volunteers would rush down. Maybe some of them got on the truck and the others
would drive and follow.
FLORaS: Now, your children went to Central School?
DALLIA: Yes.
FLORaS: And when they got to high school they went where?
DALLIA: They went to Arlington Heights [High] School.
FLOROS: That's the one that's closed now.
DALLIA: Yes. The enrollment was around 800 or 900.
FLOROS: At the high school.
DALLIA: The entire 214 district was in that area. Of course, everybody knows
what happened after that --we had an increase in population and. ..well, I don't
want to go into the church part.
FLOROS: Well, I happen to know that Art was one of the founding members of St.
Mark Lutheran Church. Tell us a little bit about the history of St. Mark Church
that you've been involved with right from the start, Art.
DALLIA: Yes, well I tell you, I moved in in March here, and along in October I
got a call from Dan Borgen on a Monday after I got home from work about whether
I would come over to his home in regards to starting a church. So, there were
about five couples there at that particular time. There were two pastors there;
the one from Edison Park --I can't remember his name at the moment --and another
one. They said that the University of Chicago had issued information that the
population would go northwest, and that was why they wanted to get a church
started there. After we met there in October, we started then to hold church
services for
FLOROS: On Evergreen Street.
DALLIA: Yes, that's right.
FLOROS: Back there in the forties, where did you shop? Did you have any shops in town, or did you have to go back to Chicago? What did you do when you needed a new suit?
DALLIA: Well, as far as clothing was concerned, we shopped in Chicago. As far as food was concerned, the National opened up a store on the southwest side of Prospect Avenue where that little shopping center is, and that was the first main store as far as food was concerned.
FLORaS: There was a National on that side of the street?
DALLIA: The National was there --that was the first one. And then eventually the Jewel opened up down where that electronics store is now.
FLORaS: On Northwest Highway. And then there was an A&P?
DALLIA: There was an A&P over here on Main Street, just on the northwest corner in that building there.
FLORaS: Back up a minute. The main store in town was. ..?
DALLIA: Meeske's, that's right. That's where we did the shopping until the others opened up. That was the food store. Edwin Busse opened up a place after he built his building.
FLORaS: And Meeske's was located where?
DALLIA: Meeske's was located in a store in between Busse and Northwest Highway on the east side of the street, and it was just a single store. Where the bakery is now, he built a new building there. There was an empty lot, and he built a fifty-foot building there and started it in a bigger way. But first of all, he had the little bit of a twenty-five-foot store in the middle of the block. That was it. And there was a dry goods store there, too. And then, of course, the post office was there. I think that's about what it was --Meeske's, the post office and the dry goods store.
FLOROS: How about the bank? Was there a bank in town?
DALLIA: Oh, that I must tell you about --the bank. The original bank building was a twenty-five-foot square building on the northeast corner of Busse and Main Street. That's where the bank started. And then, of course, they moved. I can't remember the year, but they moved over in that building that's on the northwest corner. On the first floor there, they had fifty feet back there. Then eventually they moved to where the village hall is today, and then they went into where they're located today. But the very first building was a twenty-five-foot square building --a little bit of a thing. I can't remember the year --I didn't make notes --but that's what it was. I'm glad you brought up about the bank. That's where it started. William Busse, Sr., was the one that started the bank.
FLOROS: He probably knew everybody in town.
DALLIA: He did and you know, when the [Depression] was on which started in 1929, that bank stayed open all the time because of Busse's contacts and so on like that.
FLOROS: Art, did you have a car in those days and, if so, how was driving in these areas? You didn't have traffic jams like we do today, did you?
DALLIA: Oh, no. There were no traffic jams then. And you know, as far as Rand Road, I remember when there were no stop-and-go lights at all. It was clear all the way through. I had a car, a Studebaker Champion. I got that in 1941. That's the last year they built them. After I was out here, I traded that in and got a Ford. That was in 1949, I believe that was, or so. First, Central was only a two-lane street or road --whatever you want to call it.
FLOROS: Was it paved?
DALLIA: Yes, it was; that is, after I moved here. But I've got to also remember another thing. Northwest Highway did not go through because of the railroad crossings down there. Eventually--I don't know what year it was --but the Soo Line and the Northwest crossed right at that point down there, and we used to drive out to get on to Mount Prospect to come out into the downtown section you would take Rand Road out to just beyond River Road and then there was a street that went right down into Cumberland, and that's where Northwest Highway started. Now, I can't tell you the year that they put that viaduct in, but when I first moved here that viaduct was not there. We came out the other way.
FLOROS: I'll be darned. So over the years you've seen Mount Prospect grow from a town of ...
DALLIA: Well, from way back --1923, 24; 400 or 500. It's grown up to I believe 57,000 now.
FLOROS: Over 50,000; that's right. Let's go a little back into your background. What did you do for a living in Chicago, Art?
DALLIA: I started with my company in 1918 and started as sort of an office boy, and I got into inventory control and eventually I became purchasing agent in 1928. We were a manufacturing company, and manufactured safety cans and oily waste cans for fire prevention, carbine mining lamps for mining coal and metals and what have you, and eventually we went into electric hand lanterns and so on like that.
FLOROS: And you retired when?
DALLIA: I retired in November of 1969, but my last six years I was president of the company. I don't know whether I should have said that.
FLOROS: That's fine. As I recall, though --since I've known you a long time --didn't they call you back after you retired?
DALLIA: Oh, yes. They called me back several times. Three times I was called back because of some problems. One of them was, the purchasing agent quit very suddenly and I got a call from the owner on Saturday. Would I come in Monday and take over purchasing for possibly another month or so? I also got a call to come back to get bids on punch presses and so on, because they had sold them all because of labor problems.
FLOROS: Getting back to Mount Prospect in the forties, what were the boundaries of Mount Prospect? How far north did it go, do you know? Do you recall? When you got up to Foundry Road, was that about the end of it?
DALLIA: No, there was nothing. It was all farmland north of Central when I moved here in '45.
FLOROS: How about to the south --to Golf Road or something?
DALLIA: Well, over in the area there where that golf course was built, it was a real estate project, is what it was. When you bought property around there, you became a sort of a member. I don't remember --he was in the real estate business, and he was in business with a man by the name of Florence. They had an office in Arlington, and they sold that property all around the golf course. That part of town there was the golf course --is developed those homes all around there. There was nothing south of Golf Road at all, and over in this area here along Emerson, there was all farmland over there. As a matter of fact, there was a barn over there that Evenson started in their business --the Evensons in the business that they are in. They were in an old cow barn.
FLOROS: Is that right?
DALLIA: Yes. That's where they were at. But southeast of that--right in back of where Kruse's is in there --that was all vacant. That was farmland back then.
FLOROS: What did you do if you had to go to a hospital back then in the forties?
DALLIA: Oh, that's a good point. Well, you either went to St. Francis. ..
FLOROS: In Evanston.
DALLIA: ...in Evanston, or you went to Elgin.
FLOROS: Is that Sherman?
DALLIA: Yes. Those were the two hospitals. Then there was one down in Elmhurst. That's what you had to travel in order to go to a hospital.
FLOROS: You didn't have any 911 ambulance service, huh?
DALLIA: No, there wasn't anything like that. We had a doctor here by the name of Dr. Woolfarth. He was one of the real old-timers of doctors here. Over there on Prospect Avenue he had a two-story brick, and he lived upstairs. On the first floor was where his office was. For about a year or so he ran it as a hospital and had a couple of beds in there. But that didn't last too long. He was one of the first doctors here, and he always traveled with the fire department when they went on fires. He went along on that, too.
FLOROS: As the town grew in the fifties, as one of the pioneers yourself, did you welcome this kind of growth? How did you feel about it? Did you have any concerns that now you had to build schools and all those other things that cost money?
DALLIA: Well I'll tell you, I probably didn't think too much along those lines because I was a very busy man as far as my work was concerned. I ran inventory control and what have you, and when I came home I wanted to more or less rest and I didn't do too much thinking, and I got involved with the St. Mark Church. So, I didn't give a whole lot of thought one way or another, to be frank with you. I wasn't concerned about it.
FLOROS: All right. You had a lot of positions in your company. Did you have to fly at all --go out of town --and if so, you didn't have O'Hare Field.
DALLIA: I did do some flying. I was a member of the Chicago Purchasing Agents Association, and I became president of that organization. Eventually I got to be what was called a national director. Twice a year we had meetings in different parts of our district and you would fly. That's how much flying I did. Otherwise, in my business, my work, I was not involved with flying, but I was flying for the Purchasing Agents Association.
FLOROS: You didn't have to worry about where the airfield was.
DALLIA: No. We went to Midway. That was the only one. That was a long trip to go out there, between Cicero and --5200 West and from 55th Street to 63rd. That was the airport. That was a long way out there.
FLORaS: You said the high school was at Arlington, of course, which meant that everybody had to go by bus.
DALLIA: They had a bus that picked the students up, but that was it. They had around 850, or in that category.
FLORaS: Art, when you moved here in 1945, you only had one car, right?
DALLIA: Yes.
FLORaS: The car stayed home when you went to [work]. Did your wife drive around?
DALLIA: No, my wife did not drive. She never did drive an automobile.
FLORaS: So how did she get to the store? I mean, Albert Street.
DALLIA: I would take her to stores on Saturday or in the evening --one of the two. She did not drive a car. I've got to tell you a little bit about over here on Cumberland where that circle is over there. I'm thinking about the year that was. That was about 1937 or so, the insurance companies that had foreclosed --wait a minute. Yes, the Depression came in '29. A lot of people lost their homes because they were unemployed, and the insurance companies decided to sell the homes that they had in 1937. Where that circle is over there in Cumberland, that's Golf Road. Just beyond that on the south side of the street, I bought a building over there, or put a deposit on a building for $6,000. It was a two-story house with a garage in the back, and there were two homes there. After I had done that I decided, why, my wife doesn't drive, so I got my deposit back, and that's when I found a home in Edison Park and I went into Edison Park in 1937.
FLOROS: I see.
DALLIA: But that was all vacant over there in that area, too.
FLOROS: Now, when you bought your home on Albert Street, how old a house was that?
DALLIA: Well, that house was built in 1930. It was a very well-constructed house. The wood trim in that house was all oak.
FLOROS: Is that house still there?
DALLIA: Yes.
FLOROS: Would you mind telling us what you paid for that house?
DALLIA: I paid $10,750 for a two-story with a fifty-foot lot and 165 feet deep. I paid $10,750 for it.
FLOROS: And you lived there how long?
DALLIA: I lived there twenty-two years.
FLOROS: And then you moved to ...?
DALLIA: Then I moved here. I think I sold it at that time for about $26,000.
FLOROS: And this one you built new?
DALLIA: No, no. This house was built in 1954, that I'm in now --7 North School Street was built in 1954 by Serafin. He built all
the houses on the north side of Central for several blocks. And Blewitt built the houses north; those houses up there beyond the second street north.
FLOROS: Gregory.
DALLIA: No, no --between Thayer and Gregory. He built them. Those houses were small, and the village could not authorize taking that property in because his houses were too small. He built his own streets, and if you'll notice, the sidewalks are much narrower in that section than they are in Mount Prospect.
FLOROS: Oh, they weren't incorporated? That wasn't in Mount Prospect then?
DALLIA: No, it was not in Mount Prospect.
FLOROS: It came in later?
DALLIA: It came in later, after it got all built up by --Blewitt built those.
FLOROS: And shopping? We talked a little bit about Meeske's. What other stores were in town? Wille's? What did Wille operate in those days, or Busse Hardware?
DALLIA: Well, Wille had lumber and hardware and what have you. When I first moved here on Robert Street I used to buy coal from them, and the two twin boys used to deliver it.
FLOROS: You burned coal, I take it.
DALLIA: I burned coal. As soon as I could, I got transferred to gas when it was permitted. Then I changed over to gas. But
Busse-Biermann's Hardware Store --Frank Biermann and Fred Busse, which was his brother-in-law, started that particular store, which was set up by William Busse, Sr. And of course, he had the first automobile shop there which was --I can't think of the name of that Busse. His oldest son was William, Jr., and he eventually was involved with the bank. He was in the real estate business, and that's who I bought my house from at that time. He was the real estate agent.
FLORaS: Oh, is that right?
DALLIA: Yes. William Busse, Jr.
FLORaS: How about things like drugstores?
DALLIA: Well, let's see, I told you of Bilhorst, and then there was a woman who had a drugstore on Northwest Highway just between Main Street and. ..
[Tape 1: Side 2]
DALLIA: ...over on the other side. But that's where he started --about the middle of the block.
FLORaS: Who, Jack Keefer?
DALLIA: Jack Keefer. That's where he started. That was in the next block from where Van Dreil is at.
FLOROS: Gas stations? Were there a lot of gas stations town? Where did you have to fill up?
DALLIA: There were only a few gas stations. One was right on the corner of Northwest Highway and Main Street. Winkelmann 'had one down at Central and Northwest Highway [Winkelmann's Service and Greasing Palace]. They had been in that
business.
FLOROS: How about Huecker?
DALLIA: Well, Huecker, I can't just recall when he started that one there. I don't recall that. Well, yes, I'll take that back. He was there for a long time.
FLOROS: Huecker, yes.
DALLIA: And then the Shell gas station --that's one I know pretty well --at Central and Rand, that started about 1955 because I lived close to there. Before that, the farmland went right up to there. That was one of the first pieces of property that was bought. It was all farmland going west of that Shell station.
FLORaS: Well now, the farming --were there big farms here? Who was farming this land? Were there big farmhouses there?
DALLIA: Yes, there were. There were quite a few farms around here.
FLORaS: What were they growing?
DALLIA: Well, they were growing corn. At one period of time they were growing sugar beets, and they used to bring them in the fall. Where the parking lot is there at Emerson and the railroad track, the farmers used to bring in [the sugar beets] and they had cars--like coal cars; or gondolas, I guess you would call them --and they dumped them right in there. They had a sort of conveyor and they would bring them in and dump them right in there. Now that went on for quite a few years there. I don't remember when that shut off, but there were a lot of sugar beets that were grown in this area. And corn, because I know I had corn right in back of me. Another thing that was grown --there were a lot of peonies that were grown by ...
FLORaS: Busse Flowers?
DALLIA: No, no. The fellow that was up there on the corner of --he's well known --Klehm's. I don't recall just where that location was of Klehm's, but it's over there in the southwest section of town. He had peony farms.
FLORaS: Oh, yes?
DALLIA: Yes. And the young kids used to go in there and they'd clip the suckers off and they'd get paid so much for doing that, because I know my daughter did it at some time or another, too.
FLORaS: Well, now. People talk about onions. Did they grow onions there, too?
DALLIA: Oh, yes. They grew a lot of onions here. Those buildings down there, they had two onion houses.
FLORaS: Where was that?
DALLIA: On Pine Street, just south of Central Road there were two big buildings where the onions were dried. And in the fall, or sometime, they used to have dances in those onion houses when they were cleared out. Maybe that was in the spring when they would have a dance in one of those onion houses. But there were two large buildings where the onions were kept for a period of time, anyhow; over the fall or whatever it was. There were two of them there.
FLORaS: Going back to your first house on Albert Street, did you have your own well? What did you do for water? Was it city water or what?
DALLIA: It was city water, and [we] also [had] sewers, as far as that was concerned. I came in there in '45.
FLORaS: Okay, so you didn't have your own well or anything?
DALLIA: No.
FLORaS: You said you commuted.
DALLIA: Yes.
FLORaS: Did you drive to the station?
DALLIA: I used to drive down to the station. Over in back of Evenson's there was a parking area there which is still there, and
that's where I used to park. And there was some parking along the railroad track.
FLORaS: Free?
DALLIA: Free. They were free, except that down there in back of Evenson's you paid a very nominal amount --maybe it was twenty-five cents a day or something. Along the railroad track that was free, but there was only so much space. So, somebody
opened up that place back there and there was a minimum charging--I would say something like twenty-five cents a day. There was a fellow there as you pulled in, and he collected it.
FLOROS: I see.
DALLIA: But that goes way back. And then eventually the village took over more land there and put in meters and what have you. But in the beginning there was just parking there along the railroad track. It wasn't even paved at all. FLOROS: You were talking about the old insurance company --Kirchoff. Tell us a little bit --who was it, Walter Kirchoff?
DALLIA: Yes. His father had a farm out there west on Central. I'm pretty sure that's where it was located. Whether it was his farm or not, I used to go out and get eggs that way. Walter eventually started an insurance business and built a building right across from. ..
FLOROS: From the old movie house, wasn't it?
DALLIA: Yes, right across from there is where he built the building and started the insurance business. And of course, you've got a road out there called Kirchoff Road, too.
FLORaS: When was that movie house built? Do you remember? Was that here when you moved into town?
DALLIA: No, that was not there when I moved into town. I can't recollect just when that was built.
FLORaS: What did the kids do for excitement when they first came out here?
DALLIA: Well, I know when I lived in Edison Park I used to take them down to Milwaukee Avenue and Lawrence Avenue --I forget the name of that theater that was down there.
FLORaS: How about here in Mount Prospect? No movie houses?
DALLIA: I don't think --oh, Nancy!
FLORaS: At this point I'm going to ask Nancy Dallia, Art's daughter who moved here in 1946 with Art, to talk a little bit about what it was like to be a kid in those days, and what they did for excitement. Nancy, if you wanted to go to a movie back in 1946, what did you do?
NANCY DALLIA: Well, we got our parents either to drive us to Arlington Heights, because the Arlington Theater was there. I think that's where that big condominium complex is now, on Northwest Highway and --I don't remember the name of the street. And then we went to the Youth Center which was down in the basement of Recreation Park in Arlington. And then we would just gather in Mount Prospect then --just stand around and talk and have a good time. We very seldom ever got into trouble. There were two schools. There was St. Paul and then there was Central School. We knew the kids from both schools because there weren't that many. I think we had 28 in our graduating class in 1947 from Central School. And then we all went to Arlington. Arlington High School took in Mount Prospect, Elk Grove and Wheeling. I'd get on the bus with a couple of friends --we lived on Albert and George Street --and it took us 45 minutes to get to Arlington. One semester we would go way out into Elk Grove and pick up the farm kids, and then another semester we'd go all the way out to Wheeling and pick up the farm kids because there weren't too many kids that lived right in town.
ART DALLIA: Van Driel's had an ice cream counter, too. Tell something about that.
NANCY DALLIA: Van Driel's had an ice cream counter. We used to go over to Van Driel's and have lunch once in a while, from school--from Central School. They had a lunch counter and they'd serve sandwiches and Cokes and so on. Van Driel's is still there, but it's not the same.
FLORaS: What was the McDonald's of the day? Where did you go for a hot dog or a hamburger?
NANCY DALLIA: At Arlington we went to Rapp's. It was called "The Big Freeze" at that time. Of course, you could walk over from the high school for lunch.
FLORaS: There was nothing here in Mount Prospect?
NANCY DALLIA: No, not that we knew of. Sometimes we would go down to Des Plaines. We would ride the train on Saturdays.
FLORaS: Free?
NANCY DALLIA: No. We had to pay. I don't remember, though, how much we paid, but it was probably a nickel or a dime or something like that.
ART DALLIA: Well, that movie [theater] in Des Plaines was built quite a few years back.
NANCY DALLIA: Yes, the in Des Plaines, but we very seldom went into Des Plaines. We always went to Arlington. Why, I don't know.
FLORaS: Well, Nancy, you moved out here in 1945 from Chicago. What were your feelings? Was this like the end of the world or what?
NANCY DALLIA: No. I used to kid my mother that I was sure that there had to Indians around here somplace. There were cows that were grazing across Mount Prospect Road from where we lived, and they used to come in and eat her grapes on the grapevine. I remember that very well. She used to get very angry and take two garbage can lids and bang them together.
ART DALLIA: I don't remember that.
NANCY DALLIA: I can see her doing that, because her grapevine was her --she used to can grapes. But it was so far out, especially when you were only two houses on a block and there were trees all around, [compared to] where we came from --a very residential area in Edison Park. But everybody knew everybody, and it was fun.
ART DALLIA: Well, it's a good place.
NANCY DALLIA: It was nice to live here. It still is nice to live here, but it's not the same. You always knew somebody and you could go right up to their door.
FLORaS: Did you lock your house?
ART DALLIA: I was going to say you didn't lock your homes at all in those days.
FLORaS: Or your car?
ART DALLIA: No, not the car either.
NANCY DALLIA: And of course, kids didn't drive until they were like seniors in high school because we didn't get a driver's license until you were eighteen.
ART DALLIA: That's a good point.
NANCY DALLIA: And you had to get your parents to help teach you how to drive because they didn't have driver's education in school at that time. So, my father had the pleasure of teaching me how to drive.
ART DALLIA: And then, of course, that was with a manual transmission, you know, where you had a clutch pedal.
NANCY DALLIA: So when somebody turned eighteen in the senior class that was "the big time" because then they could drive. Otherwise our parents always drove us. We always went every Friday night to a basketball game or a football game. The school was the center of the social [life]. And the church was, too, I would say --St. Mark --because we had a very active Luther League.
FLOROS: Art, we're just about wrapping this up. Just for the official record here, give us your full name.
ART DALLIA: My full name is Arthur Frederick Dallia. I originally lived in Chicago. I was born in Chicago.
FLOROS: Where?
DALLIA: Down at Racine and Belmont Avenue which was the Swedish part of Chicago at that particular time. My parents were both born in Sweden. FLOROS: And in what year were you born?
DALLIA: I was born in 1899 --May 20, 1899.
FLOROS: Ninety-two years young. And your parents' names were?
DALLIA: My father's name was Oscar and my mother was Ida Anderson--maiden name.
FLOROS: Both born in Sweden?
DALLIA: Yes. My mother came here when she was about fourteen, and my father came here at seventeen years of age. Those things [today] are almost unbelievable.
FLOROS: Came to Chicago.
DALLIA: Yes.
FLOROS: And when did you move to Mount Prospect?
DALLIA: I moved to Mount Prospect in 1945 --March of 1945 --to 15 South Albert Street.
FLOROS: And you have lived here continuously since?
DALLIA: Yes. I lived twenty-two years at that address, and I moved here to 7 North School Street in 1967.
FLOROS: So you have occupied two homes in Mount Prospect since 1945.
DALLIA: That's right.
FLOROS: And you intend to live here for at least another twenty-five or thirty years?
DALLIA: Well, I hope so.
FLOROS: Okay, Art. Well, thank you very much for consenting to this interview. We appreciate it, and may you live many more years of happiness here in Mount Prospect. Thanks again, Art.
Name: August Deeke
Does MPHS have photographs:
Address in MP:
Birth Date: 5/30/1884
Death Date: 9/01/1971
Marriage
Date:
Spouse: Mathilda “Tillie” Engel 3/04/189-11/15/1974
Children:
Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
August Deeke was the grandson of Christian
Henjes and Johanna Busse Henjes. Christian Henjes had immigrated to America,
from Hanover, with Henry Busse, the first of the Busse’s to come to America. The
two of them had set off in 1849 to make their fortunes as prospectors in
California. Henry Busse may have been a bit more successful, returning after
only seven months with enough money to purchase a 150 acre farm, however
Christian Henjes did make it back with enough money to establish a farm. It took
him five years in the harsh conditions of the California gold rush, but he came
back and purchased an established farm with a barn, a chicken house, a pig
house, a smoke house and an outhouse. In 1857, a few years after returning, he
marries his co-prospector’s sister, Johanna. Their daughter Louise married
William Deeke and they were the parents of August Deeke, also buried in lot 36.
Following in his grandfather’s footsteps, August had an eventful life for the
time period. As a young man he and his brother William moved to Amarillo, Texas
to make their fortune in cattle ranching. Unfortunately, they were accused of
being cattle rustlers and had to spend some time clearing their names. Luckily,
it all worked out and the sheriff stated that the entire situation was “a tiny
misunderstanding.” August and William returned to Illinois shortly thereafter.
The good part of August’s trip to Texas was that he met his wife, Tillie Engel,
there. She was originally from Farina, IL, so the move back to Elk Grove wasn’t
too much of a shock.
After returning to the area, August worked as a farmer, raising crops for the
Campbell’s Soup Company and selling produce at farmers markets. His brother
William, had a bit of a harder time. He moved to Grayslake to operate his own
farm and while he was out plowing the fields he was struck by lighting. He was
knocked off his tractor, which then rolled over him with the spring tooth harrow
attached. Miraculously, he lived although covered in burns and scars. He kept
the red hat he had been wearing, that had been shredded by the tractor, as a
souvenir. August had an easier time and eventually sold his farm to Shell Oil
Company and then moved their house to a new lot on Linneman road.
Name: Selma Meier Deeke
Does MPHS have photographs: yes
Address in MP:
Birth Date: 6/19/1903
Death Date: 12/22/1991
Marriage
Date:
Spouse: Edwin Deeke (b. 7/25/1898 d. 10/03/1986)
Children:
Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
The Deeke family moved to
Elk Grove in 1865 when Henry Deeke bought their farm from Bernhard Recker and
his wife. The Recker’s had purchased the land from the U.S. Government following
the opening of the north eastern Illinois for white settlement after the
conclusion of Black Hawks War. The Deeke’s, like many of the German immigrants,
bought a farm that had already been cleared, rather than clearing virgin land.
Henry Deeke paid $740 for 70 acres of farm land. Adjusted for inflation that
would be $9,200 today, so even adjusted for inflation that was a good deal.
Perhaps the Recker’s had not had a good time farming or had encountered some
other trouble. Henry owned this land until 1896 when he sold roughly 40 acres of
it to his son Herman Deeke for $1,000 (or $23,300 today).
The Meier Family lived in Cook County at least back into the
1890s, although they probably go back to the 1860s. The first member of the
Meier family that we have records on is George Meier. He was born April 23, 1869
and married Sophie Busse, sister of William and George, in around 1889 or 1890.
They had six children, who had an unusual affinity for marring siblings. Their
oldest son, William Louis married Hermina Rohlwing and at the wedding his
brother, Louis, met Hermina’s sister Anna and the two were married three years
later. Similarly, Edwin Meier married Edna Oltendorf, while his youngest
brother, Raymond, married her sister Elta Oltendorf. The female children broke
off on their own, with Christine marring Adolph Busse and Selma marring Edwin
Deeke.
Selma grew up on the family farm and attended Saint John
Lutheran School. She had Paul Meeske as her teacher and eventually married Edwin
Deeke. Edwin was the son of Herman and would have grown up on the farm discussed
above. He most likely also went to Saint John School and was taught by Paul
Meeske. Selma and Edwin farmed, mostly raising food for themselves but also some
milk and potatoes and onions for sale. They had four children Vernon, Wallace,
Delila, and Diane.
Name: Stanton Deming
Does MPHS have photographs: No
Date of Interview: Unknown
Interviewer: Unknown
Text of Oral History Interview
Q: Now we're talking to Mr.
--your name is Mr. Stanton. ..
DEMING: Stan Deming, that's what they call. ..
Q: Stan Deming.
DEMING: W. Stanton Deming.
Q: Okay, and we're talking from his home on Candota, 605 Candota, and the date
is November 15, 1994. I want to thank you for consenting to be interviewed.
Appreciated that part of the oral history of Mount Prospect. I think what I'll
do is ask you some of your old bibliography here. Your full name is W. Stanton,
S-T-A-N-T-O-N, and where were you born and when?
DEMING: In Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa.
Q: And you want to give the date?
DEMING: March 14, 1909.
Q: Who were your parents?
DEMING: Jessie and Frank Deming.
Q: Do you remember your mother's full name?
DEMING: Jessie Mae Stanton, S-T-A-N-T-O-N.
Q: Do you remember her maiden name?
DEMING: Well, that. ..
Q: Also her maiden name.
DEMING: Well, that is her maiden name. That's what I'm giving you.
Q: Oh, excuse me. Jessie Mae Stanton, okay.
DEMING: You asked for her full name.
Q: Yes, Jessie Mae Stanton. I was asking also was there a maiden name, her
maiden name.
DEMING: Well, that is her maiden name.
Q: Was Stanton.
DEMING: Jessie Mae Stanton.
Q: For your mother.
DEMING: That's my mother.
Q: Oh, excuse me. I beg your pardon. I'm sorry. Do you know where she was born,
sir?
DEMING: On a farm near Collins, Iowa. C-O-L-L-I-N-S, Iowa.
Q: Our son went to the University of Iowa.
DEMING: I have a daughter and a son-in-law, and they have a granddaughter now
going to the University of Iowa.
Q: We love that school.
DEMING: Well, I'm not from the University of Iowa.
Q: You're not. Are you an Iowa. ..
DEMING: I'm from Iowa State at Ames. That's my alma mater.
Q: Do you remember someone by the name of Boyne Platt?
DEMING: No.
Q: He was the comptroller of Iowa State. He's my husband's uncle.
DEMING: No, I don't remember that name.
Q: Your father's full name then was...
DEMING: William Frank Deming.
Q: And where was he born?
DEMING: It was North Dakota, probably Dickinson.
Q: Can I ask about your wife's name?
DEMING: Her name is --do you want the full name, is that it? Genevieve Julia
--G-E, that's G-E-N, Genevieve. Julia Deming. You'd want her name now, you mean,
not maiden name.
Q: No, okay. And we'll just list the children and their age.
DEMING: Our children?
Q: Yes.
DEMING: All right. There's Philip S. Deming and Nancy Lee Deming. You want the
name now or. ..
Q: No, no, just their children's names before they were married. Philip S. and
Nancy Lee.
DEMING: And then Joyce Edwina, E-D-W-I-N-A.
Q: Okay, may I ask what was or is your occupation?
DEMING: What was my occupation?
Q: Yes.
DEMING: I was a peddlar. I was a manufacturer's rep all my life, representing
several companies.
Q: What is or was your spouse's occupation?
DEMING: Well, she's a housewife.
Q: Homemaker.
DEMING: Yes.
Q: When did you move to Mount Prospect?
DEMING: 1948.
Q: Have you ever lived in any other place in the village?
DEMING: Other than this address.
Q: Yes.
DEMING: Yes, we lived for six years 218 South I-Oka.
Q: Okay, how has Mount Prospect changed since you've lived here?
DEMING: Well, it changed from population of 2,200 --that's one thing-- to
whatever it is now, about 60-...
Q: Fifty-six thousand.
DEMING: Fifty-six thousand. Of course, we've -our life and you don't have enough
room on that paper for me to tell you how much all the things have been changed.
Q: I have the whole back. No, I know there's an awful lot of changes in a place
this size over the years. What did you know about Mount Prospect before you came
here?
DEMING: Well, I knew quite a bit about it because I used to drive a Kraft Cheese
truck from Park Ridge to Lake Geneva, not all on the same day but before the
week was out, and I used to peddle cheese. The first stop was Eddy Possey's
grocery on Northwest Highway near Van Driel's drug store. The next stop was the
National Tea on Main Street right next door to Meschke's drug store, and around
the comer on Busse was Bill Meine's grocery.
Q: What are some of the events that you remember happening in the village over
the years?
DEMING: At Ed Busse's grocery, and deliver cheese and mayonnaise and
what-have-you. I'd go across the tracks to Heine Crosey’s tavern and restaurant,
and I would get a beef stew luncheon with coffee and dessert for thirty-five
cents. Now, that's something that's changed.
Q: Yes. And I understand they were mighty good lunches.
DEMING: Oh, they were. The main thing in the changes has been the building
that's taken place. When we were at 218 South Ioka, which was about three or
four blocks from the railroad tracks, there was no house between us and the
railroad tracks and every night for the first few weeks it sounded like the big
steam train was coming right through the bedroom, and we finally got used to
that. But then pretty soon, why, it was building, and now you know you can count
all the houses between there, and now you don't have steam trains anymore.
They've got the locomotives. Another thing that has changed is that in our back
yard we used to sit there and eat breakfast and dinner, look out our window and
see pheasants in our back yard and a com field back over on Wapella. That's no
longer there, of course. You'll have to go past Barrington to find that anymore.
Q: Yes, that's true, and not too many out there either now. There are too many
horse farms and things that you --had com fields and pheasants. What do you
remember most about shopping downtown in Mount Prospect?
DEMING: Well, we had Van Driel's there, and of course we had Keefer's that was
on the Northwest Highway at the time, and that was a good drugstore. It still is
a good drugstore, over on the other side of the tracks. And right next to that
was, I think where the beauty shop is, we had a Ben Franklin store, and, anyway,
I sort of recall it was well-known in this town and a very popular place to go
shopping.
Q: How about groceries? Where did your family shop for groceries?
DEMING: Well, groceries was Meschke's, which was an excellent store and good
meat market, and Freddy Haas ran the meat market. Len Busse-what was his name?
--ran the grocery department, but that was a very fine store. Other stores we
...
Q: Yes, for clothes and shoes for instance and your hardware?
DEMING: Shoes and clothes, no, I don't recall a --there was a dry goods store
next to Meschke's on Main Street, but I don't remember the name of it.
Q: How about hardware?
DEMING: Hardware was Busse-Biermann Hardware, which was a very fine store and
still is, although Fred Busse died years ago and then Frank Bierman died two or
three years ago, and it's now in the hands of Ron Helpers, but he still runs a
good store. It's not the big stores like the True Value and Ace Hardware. ..
Q: Right, Busse Hardware is right over here at 83 and Golf.
DEMING: No. Busse Hardware?
Q: Where is Busse Hardware?
DEMING: Busse Hardware's on Busse, right...
Q: Oh, right on Busse.
DEMING: ...on Busse just west of 83.
Q: Okay, so that's called something else over there.
DEMING: This over here is Best Hardware, which is a True Value cutter.
Q: Okay, company. So that is part of a national chain, isn't it?
DEMING: Yes, yes.
Q: It's not your local, but Busse-Bierman is right here in town. Did you have
any cars, for instance? Where would you have purchased your cars?
DEMING: I purchased a couple cars, Buicks, from the Buick agency. That went
Busse. That's another Busse. You know, this is Busseville here.
Q: Yes.
DEMING: The Busses and Bell and a lot of people, but that was the head of an
agency on ________.
Q: Okay, now we're going to ask you where you shopped for medicine in town.
DEMING: That's always been Keefer Pharmacy.
Q: And the stores were located right downtown.
DEMING: Yes.
Q: Is Keefer Pharmacy, is that the Keefer family that ran that? Do you remember
who owned the store?
DEMING: well, Jack Keefer, and I don't know. I'm sure he had a wife –I know he
had a wife, but...
Q: How about the people that worked there. Did you remember who they were?
DEMING: What's her name?
THIRD SPEAKER: Evelyn.
DEMING: Evelyn was. ..
Q: The lady who's been there. ..
DEMING: She's been there. ..
THIRD SPEAKER: For years.
DEMING: ...Since ought one.
DEMING: Okay, and I'm going to ask you some of the other things that the early
stores carried, other than, I guess, they're asking these things. The dime store
carried everything from soup to nuts almost. Didn't they get almost everything
at the dime store?
DEMING: Remember the Ben Franklin Store.
Q: Practically anything that you needed you could get at Ben Franklin's. Your
grocery stores --the drug store carried, well, they still to this day, do they
not, they carried canes. ..
DEMING: I'll tell you one thing, they used to have a soda fountain there that
they don't have anymore.
Q: Is it Van Driel's or Keefer?
DEMING: That was at Keefer. Van Driel's never stayed a real drugstore too long.
They became --what do you call it when they sell like wheel- ...
Q: Medical supplies.
DEMING: ...chairs and medical supplies.
Q: And Keefer is with two E's, isn't it?
DEMING: K-E-E-F-E-R.
Q: Soda fountain. Okay, now carry, well, canes and walkers and so on, don't
they?
DEMING: Yes.
Q: Plus what else did I get in there? I guess cards, gifts.
THIRD SPEAKER: Oh, yes, they have cards.
Q: They sell cards. Okay. And what is your fondest memory of early downtown
Mount Prospect?
DEMING: Well, that's when I was out here on a Kraft Cheese truck, big Diamond T
truck that didn't even have a heater in it, and that's when I was...
Q: Kraft Products.
DEMING: ...selling it to the grocery stores. I remember the old bank building,
the little bit of a bank there on the northeast corner of 83, which is Elmhurst
Road, and Busse Avenue. Then it moved across the street, and now they've moved
four different locations since I've been here.
Q: Is there anything else that you'd like to add about living out here back in
the old days?
DEMING: Well, everybody knew everyone.
THIRD SPEAKER: And you didn't lock --nobody had keys.
DEMING: We didn't lock the doors.
Q: If there was one thing that you'd want your children to remember about the
history of their hometown, what would it be?
DEMING: About the history of their hometown? Those steam trains going in and
out. Maybe that's not the answer you're. ..
Q: Well, that sounds mighty good to me. That's a good answer because that's
certainly part of the past that not many of us know of anymore.
DEMING: Yes, they would start up and spin the wheels, and they'd be jt, dt,
dt, dt. Then they'd back off and then they'd start over again. It was
interesting. These locomotives, they don't do that now.
Q: No, no, no, no. In what respect is Mount Prospect the same now as it was in
the past?
DEMING: I think it's a peaceful town compared to a lot of other communities, but
with so many people here, you don't have the same friendliness that we used to
have. It's still a friendly town, but it's not the same when you've got a
smaller group of people like we used to have.
Q: What do you think the future holds for this community?
DEMING: I would say that it's good. You take a look at this neighborhood here,
and I think this neighborhood is going to be good...
Q: Good, solid neighborhood.
DEMING: ...for fifteen, twenty years or so. Whereas, I see a lot of other
neighborhoods where it's changing fast, you're having government subsidized
housing and you've got things move in there, and it's not the same as it --it
changes things because you've got a different class of people moving in that are
on government assistance and they're not the quality people. They're just not
the quality people that there used to be. Maybe you don't want to hear that on
that.
Q: What grade school did you attend?
DEMING: You're not talking about me. You're talking about my kids, aren't you? I
went to school at Des Moines, Iowa. Grammar school was Oak Park School, I guess
they called it.
Q: In Des Moines.
DEMING: In Des Moines.
Q: And how many years did you attend?
DEMING: I attended that probably six or eight years, I guess. I don't know. It
would be from fifth grade to ninth grade, when I went to high school.
Q: Okay, we'll get to the high school later here. We're just talking about first
through sixth or seventh grade, whatever. It will be six or eight years. That
would be right. What were your favorite subjects or classes?
DEMING: My favorite subjects there in grammar school? Well, I was always
--arithmetic was good, but geometry and physics, I don't know how much they
offered at that time in the grammar school. I don't even remember, but when I
got to high school I...
Q: You tended to physics particularly.
DEMING: Yes.
Q: How far away did you live from the school?
DEMING: I lived across the street for a lot of it. For part of it I lived a mile
away and walked to school every day.
Q: Do you remember what time school started?
DEMING: No, I have no --I don't know.
Q: What time in the morning you had to get up in order to be at school on time,
do you remember that?
DEMING: No, I don't.
Q: Did you have any chores to do before you left for school?
DEMING: Well, I think the usual chores of taking out the garbage and emptying
the water under the refrigerator.
Q: Under the icebox.
DEMING: Under the icebox is what we had at the time. We didn't have a
refrigerator.
Q: Did you live in the city of Des Moines or in the country or around. ..
DEMING: It was at the edge of town two blocks from the city limits.
Q: Did you eat breakfast before you went to school?
DEMING: Yes, we ate breakfast.
Q: Could you describe a breakfast meal back then?
DEMING: No, I don't remember.
Q: Did you bring a lunch to school or go home for lunch?
DEMING: No, I didn't bring lunch so ...
Q: You went home. How many students did you have in your classes. Do you
remember that?
DEMING: Probably twenty or twenty-five.
Q: Do you remember the typical order of the day? Did you start with a song or
prayers or the Pledge of Allegiance?
DEMING: I think we did. I don't think we had prayer, but we had...
Q: Probably had the Pledge.
DEMING: Salute to the flag and so forth.
Q: And then a typical day from there, after the salute, would have been reading,
writing, arithmetic, I guess.
DEMING: I'm sure.
Q: Okay. Do you remember what clothing you wore to school?
DEMING: It was pretty shabby, pretty shabby clothing I'm sure. It was clean and
all that but. ..
Q: Well-used clothing.
DEMING: Yes. We didn't...
Q: Trousers.
DEMING: We didn't have much, I'll tell you that.
Q: I know. Back then things were scarce. Clothing was scarce and ...
DEMING: It was all right.
Q: It was part of the Depression time, was it not?
DEMING: Well, no, that was long before the Depression when I was in school.
Q: Oh, when you were in school, excuse me. Beg your pardon. Yes, that was only
in the ...
DEMING: I was in school.
Q: ...twenties and thirties. You're talking about 19- ...
DEMING: I was in school, what would it be, born in '09, so I went to school
about 1915 until I went to high school in 1924. That's when I went to high
school.
Q: Okay, you graduated in '28.
DEMING: Yes, '28. Overalls if you really wanted to work, you'd have overalls.
Q: Did you wear overalls to school?
DEMING: No, I did not. You didn't wear overalls to school.
Q: Now, knickers would have been in the winter.
DEMING: Yes. Short pants --what do you call them?
Q: Sort of Little Lord Fauntleroy type of short suits and so on.
DEMING: There was no dress code for boys in school at that time. I mean, you
came in whatever you. ..
DEMING: I don't think so.
Q: Was there anything your parents refused to let you wear to school?
DEMING: I don't recall.
Q: Do you remember some of the things you did during your play or recess time?
DEMING: We played soccer, played that all the time.
Q: Any other games that you remember?
DEMING: Played marbles and stuff like that.
Q: Baseball?
DEMING: I think we must have played baseball, but I don't remember much about
it. We played catch a lot, and I don't know if it was. .
Q: Exactly baseball.
DEMING: Baseball.
Q: How about things in the winter like snow forts and so on?
DEMING: Oh, yes, we had all that in the wintertime. Close to the edge of town
we'd be out hunting and shooting, shooting snakes and shooting rabbits and...
Q: Hunting too. Okay. Do you remember any specific songs that were taught or
sung at school?
DEMING: I don't know.
Q: Any kind of craft or art projects or school plays?
DEMING: Not in grammar school, no.
Q: Did you have a favorite teacher?
DEMING: Yes, I did.
Q: Why did you like him or her, it says here.
DEMING: I don't really know. She was a very compassionate person, and I learned
more and I worked more under this woman, Mrs. Green –I remember her. I'm talking
about grammar school now.
Q: Was there a special day at school that you never forget, for whatever reason?
I'll never forget the day at Oak Park School when. ..
DEMING: Well, we had fire drills.
Q: Did you go out of one of those tubes for fire drill?
DEMING: No, I don't think we had tubes, no.
Q: I think fire drills were kind of a frightening experience, weren't they, for
grammar school kids.
DEMING: Those were two-story buildings, you know.
Q: Yes. What did you do after school with chores or work or play?
DEMING: Usually we'd go out in the woods, out in the country or --I had other
things to do, like mow the lawn and things like that, you know. Gardening, I'd
always put in a garden in the spring and spade the garden and have a horse come
in and plow the garden, plow behind, and I'd cultivate the soil and plant the
seed.
Q: It says, "Where did children hang out in their free times?" You probably went
into the woods.
DEMING: Oh, yes.
Q: Or hunting.
DEMING: For hunting and just go out and we'd go camping in a pup tent. We camped
a lot in a pup tent. We would go over the river and go swimming.
Q: What was the river?
DEMING: Des Moines River. Go swimming, buddy, Des Moines river. We'd go
canoeing.
Q: That's one of the rivers that ran over last year, wasn't it?
DEMING: Yes.
Q: SO was the Raccoon.
DEMING: Yes, the Raccoon was the main one. They join together downtown Des
Moines.
Q: Now we're going to talk about your junior high school and your high school.
DEMING: Well, we didn't have a junior high school.
Q: Just a high school.
DEMING: High school.
Q: Do you recall the name of that?
DEMING: Yes, North High School.
Q: Do you have any special memories that you hold about high school?
DEMING: Well, I tried out for the swimming team. I didn't make it.
Q: That's a memory all right.
DEMING: Those were great days, though. Great days. I wasn't the best student in
the world, but I worked all the time, and I've been working since I was eleven
years. Sometimes I held two jobs, get up at five o'clock in the morning and
peddle papers for two dollars and a half a week, morning and evening, and
collect the money. So I didn't get to participate in a lot of activities like a
lot of others did because I just didn't have the time.
Q: But you did work your way up in your grade so you were able to enter the Iowa
State University without a problem.
DEMING: Yes. I entered there.
Q: Which was certainly a wonderful experience, I'm sure.
DEMING: Yes, I could get into Iowa State.
Q: You went on to Iowa State. I'm going to put that in here. Are there any other
comments that you might have about Mount Prospect in the old days or Mount
Prospect as you remember it through all the years?
DEMING: Any comments, you say.
Q: You have comments about the town or ...
DEMING: Well, at one point I asked one of the trustees, "Why are we letting all
these people move in here?" I said to him, "I thought we had a nice town when we
kept the population down." I said, "Now we're up to 6,000 people. Let's stop
it." His comment to me was, "How are you going to stop it?" He says, "Tell me
how you can stop it. We don't like it either, but you can't stop it." So ...
Q: He was right.
DEMING: Yes, he was right.
Q: I would put a five in front of that six --about 56,000 is your population out
here.
DEMING: No, I mean 56,000 --I'm talking about. ..
Q: Six thousand.
DEMING: Oh, yes, 6,000. Yes. Already gone from 2,200. ..
Q: Twenty-two hundred to six- ...
DEMING: Or 2,200 to 6,000. When I first came out here peddling cheese, the town
was 1,2000. And I remember the --what was the name of the coal company?
Q: Right here in town?
DEMING: Yes. I can't think of their names now. They had the big department store
up there in town.
Q: Was it one of the Willes?
DEMING: Wille, Wille Lumber and Coal Company. I knew all the Willes, and I
remember stopping in their office, and they had a potbellied stove right there
to keep warm. They were a big part of this town at that time.
Q: They were --some of the original settlers, the Wille family.
DEMING: Yes, it's too bad that things happened there. One of the boys kind of
went out on a limb and got them into trouble financially and opened a store in
Schaumburg, which they should never have done. Another thing I remember when I
first came out here, they used to raise sugar beets, and I remember the gondola
cars on the railroad sidings being loaded for these five or six cars full of
sugar beets. I don't know where they took them. They took them to some
processing plant, but...
Q: Campbell's, maybe.
DEMING: I don't know where would they ever take them. I don't know that I ever
did know. The mainstay of the town, and that soon changed when...
Q: Yes, it did, all that land was. ..
DEMING: The people started moving in. There wasn't any more land available
anymore.
Q: Yes, it was an agricultural area.
DEMING: You've got the history book of Mount Prospect, haven't you? There's a
lot about those. ..
Q: Okay. Tell the machine that.
DEMING: Right here where we are now, there was a carrot field that we had built
this house forty years, and I would guess that it probably --fifty or fifty-five
years ago or up to sixty years ago, they raised carrots right here where we're
sitting right now.
Q: Right on Candota.
DEMING: On Candota. There's another thing that I wonder if anybody has commented
on. On the Northwest Highway --what would that be? About two blocks west of 83,
Main Street, there was a pickle factory there.
Q: Oh, which one was it?
DEMING: I don't know. There was a pickle factory there, but it hadn't been
operating --it ceased operating before I moved out here, but the pickle factory
was still there and. ..
Q: Was it Heinz, do you think?
DEMING: I don't know what it was, but it was a pickle factory there. ..
Q: I'll be darned.
DEMING: ...and it was in shambles, but it was there.
Q: It was still there. I'll be darned.
DEMING: I don't remember who operated it.
Q: Okay, well, that's an interesting fact. I want to thank you very much, Mr.
Deming, for taking the time. ..
DEMING: You're welcome.
Q: ...to be interviewed. Really it's. ..
DEMING: But I can't remember this stuff, you know.
Q: Yes, I know it is ...
DEMING: But I just thought of this pickle factory just now. That is something
that, if somebody ran that --there's some history behind. I don't know what the
history is, but there's some history behind that pickle factory .
Q: Well, maybe someone will come up with exactly. ..
DEMING: Yes, because they used to raise pickles and. ..
Q: Process them.
DEMING: ...and process them right there. I don't know if they canned them there,
or I don't know what they did with them.
Q: Maybe the brine was there or something.
DEMING: It was an open thing --windows were knocked out, and I saw...
Q: Big wooden tanks, were there around it?
DEMING: Probably. I don't know.
Q: Okay.
Name: Salvatore DiMucci Jr.
Does MPHS have photographs: No
Address in MP: 900 S. Wapella Ave
Birth Date: 1934
Death Date: 1997
Marriage No information
Date:
Spouse:
Children:
Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
Salvatore DiMucci Jr. was the son of Salvatore DIMucci Sr. who was a large
developer in Mount Prospect. Salvatore DiMucci Jr. took this business and
extended it to be a national development company. He built many of the buildings
in Mount Prospect and at one time his company controlled over 1,000 units in
town. He was known as a very straight forward person who did not worry about
other people’s opinions. He spent quite some time involved in laws suits with
the Village of Mount Prospect, at different times as the plaintiff and
defendant. While he made a number of enemies through his work, he also built a
major national development company and built large amounts of Mount Prospect.
Name: Anton Dvylis
Does MPHS have photographs: No
Address in MP: 5 N. Wavery
Birth Date:
Death Date: 1987
Marriage Unknown
Date:
Spouse:
Children:
Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
Anton Dvylis was a local writer and community activist. As a senior citizen,
this eastern European immigrant became a well known character around town
through his column in local newspapers, his creative writing projects, and his
work with local organizations, particularly those catering to senior citizens.
One of his most interesting creative writing projects was a description of what
he believed Mount Prospect will be like in the year 2076, which was written for
a competition in 1976. The text of his essay is posted below, the original is on file at the Mount Prospect Historical Society.
WHAT WILL MY COMMUNITY BE LIKE IN THE YEAR 2076
By Anton J. Dvylis
This is 1976, the Bicentennial Year.
It commemorates Uncle Sam's 200th birthday. I am delighted to see that my
community, Mount Prospect, is seriously involved in planning the most rousing
celebration. As for myself, I feel fortunate for being at least a tiny part of
these in honor of the greatest nation on earth.
Likewise, I consider it a blessing of being a resident of a
community bearing a motto "Where friendliness is away of life”. I earnestly hope
that by the year 2076 this motto will be deeply rooted in the hearts of sons and
daughters of this community that it will develop into a full-blown “Brotherhood
of Man," with all prejudices, discriminations and inequities of whatever nature
buried for ever into Vanishing past.
One of the outstanding characteristics of this Bicentennial
Year has been an often heard question "What will my community be like in the
year 2076?" Indeed, what will Mount Prospect be like in one hundred years from
now?
According to one popular song, “What it will be, will be, the
future is not for us to see." However, you and I may brush aside this basic
truth and do some speculating. We may cut our fancy loose and speculate without
fear of being ridicules if our prediction came out wrong. For there and then
neither you nor I will be around; nobody for that matter to call us crackpots.
Let me inject a little logic in this business of foretelling
the future. Let’s hand our premise upon the basic facts that "The present, the
today, is the product of the past, of yesterday; then the future will be, or
must be, the product of the present, of today." I think this puts us on the
right track --more or less. Let's start from the very beginning.
A century or so ago, Mount Prospect started as a tiny, sprout
in the tangled wilderness, maybe as the Indian's tepee or as a trapper's hut.
Through the decades that followed that tiny sprout grew in size, shedding off
its primeval characteristics acquiring a progressive individuality, and in the
end it emerged as a beautiful community of 1976.
What all this tells us? It testifies that the pioneers of
Mount Prospect were hard working, ambitious and farsighted people. As a result
of their toils and perseverance, today we are enjoying the products of their
labors, of their accomplishments. What 1s there left us to do to make Mount
Prospect a better community in 2076.
Let's look around. Let's walk down the streets of Mount
Prospect. What do we find? What do we see?
The downtown area presents a variety of signs and sights. The
village being nearly one hundred years old shows its senility in many places
--many shabby structures, deteriorating under the weight of age. On the other
hand, the imposing new bank building, the attractive Village Hall, the elegant
new library and Post Office buildings still under construction are breathing
with youth. They are the indicators of our communities’ leadership to keep Mount
Prospect vibrant and growing. And we have the downtown renovation commission's a
promise that dramatic modernization is in its blueprints.
Further south we find the Weller Creek which, with its,
primeval characteristics is still marring the neighborhood. This, too, needs
attention of our leadership, and it will get it when our politicians come to a
meeting or minds.
I have a feeling that Mt. Prospect in the year 2076 will be
exotically different from what it is today. I am hopeful that out schools will,
in coming decades, turn out a few geniuses who will revolutionize the life in
all areas in this community.
Judging by its past, Mt. Prospect will continue to grow in
population, in culture and otherwise. With its boundaries fixed as of now, the
expansion by annexation is no longer possible. The commun1ty will have to grow
from within. This means that era of single family homes is nearing the end, and
the apartment complexes are underway. The high rises and skyscrapers will be
common sights long before the year 2076 rings in.
Transportation and pollution are the t'i1ne that affect our
environment at its very roots. Increased population will call for increased
transportation, and more autos on our streets will produce more pollut1on. And
our nearness to O'Hare Airfield will continue to confound our community’s
problem. It is said that "Necessity is the mother of invention.” So we may
hopefully look forward to the era of electr1cally drawn vehicles and perhaps to
an entirely new type of transportation.
With the increase of population, a demand for more serv1ces
from the community administration will also increase. This will lead to higher
taxes. The inflation will remain with us forever to come. Consequently, the
value of dollar will continue to slide down and the prices of goods and services
to go up and up. More people will be dropping under poverty line. To alleviate
this unpleasant situation, the federal government will interfere more and more
in our daily lives.
As a consequence, I foresee that by the year 2076 about
two-thirds of our community’s population would be receiving government subsidies
of one kind or another. Unless a super-genius would come around and reverse the
trend.
As for myself I shall leave complex troubles and problems to
the leaders of the future generations to wrestle with. I shall continue to live
the rest of my lifetime to the best of my ability to contribute whatever I can,
or be able to, to the betterment of this community, my Mount Prospect. After me
--after all of us –there will come around men and women with brighter minds to
solve the arising problems.
The End