Home

The 7 Wonders


 History Resources
        People
        Businesses
        Churches
        Houses
        Organizations
        Schools

Structural Memorials

Lost and Found

Tours of
Mount Prospect

Essays on
Mount Prospect

Other Sources
        MPHS
        MPPL
        Municipal
        Regional
        On People
        On Buildings
        On Businesses

The Central School 


Activities

Mount Prospect: La Historia De Tu Comunidad

Award

Feedback
 

People AB CD EF GH IJ KL MN OP QR ST UVWXZ

People M N

Earl Meeske (Oral History)
Fred Meeske Sr.
Paul Meeske
Edna Meier (Oral History)
Louis Meier
Edna Mensching (Oral History)
Henry G. Meyer
Herman Meyn
John Meyn
John C. Moehling
John P. Moehling
Emil Moellenkamp (Oral History)
Meta Moellenkamp (Oral History)
Rev. James Birr Muckle
J.E.A. Mueller
Lena Mueller
William Mulso
Idyl Nippper

Name:                                                        Earl Meeske

Text of Oral History Interview:
GLORIA NATOLI: It is October 20, 1991. This is Gloria Natoli interviewing Earl Meeske at 918 S. Elm, Mount Prospect, Illinois. You are consenting to a recorded interview, is that correct, Mr. Meeske?
EARL MEESKE: Yes, I am.
NATOLI: The time is 11 a.m., and Mr. Meeske, thank you for agreeing to be interviewed and for signing the release form. Would you state your full name.
MEESKE: Earl Louis Meeske.
NATOLI: When were you born, and where?
MEESKE: I was born February 21, 1932, at 20 South Lewis Street, Mount Prospect.
NATOLI: Who were your parents?
MEESKE: My parents were Hilda Busse-that's my mother-and my father was Fred Meeske.
NATOLI: And your grandparents? Do you remember your grandparents?
MEESKE: Louis Busse and Paul Meeske.
NATOLI: Did your grandparents live in Mount Prospect?
MEESKE: Paul Meeske lived over here on 58th, which was unincorporated, but the mailing address was Mount Prospect. Louis Busse originally was in Mount Prospect-had the general store here-and then he moved out to a farm in the country.
NATOLI: How long have you lived in Mount Prospect? 
MEESKE: Fifty-nine years.
NATOLI: That's all of your life, is that correct?
MEESKE: All of my life.
NATOLI: Have you lived at any other address in the village of Mount Prospect, other than 918 South Elm?
MEESKE: I got married and moved in here the year later. Prior to that I lived on a farm for a year, here in Mount Prospect, and prior to that I lived with my parents.
NATOLI: The farm that you lived at in Mount Prospect, can you tell us where that was?
MEESKE: Right by Golf and Mount Prospect Road. The home is still standing there. My wife was born there, my father-in-law was born there, and that was the old homestead. That house is still standing.
NATOLI: And when you lived with your parents, what address was that?
MEESKE: Well, 20 S. Lewis Street, where I was born --at home.
NATOLI: How long did you live there?
MEESKE: I stayed there until-let's see. I went in the service when I was 21 years old. At that time they were building a home on Edward Street. So, when I came back out of the service I resided at 117 South Edward Street.
NATOLI: Is that home, then, at 20 South Lewis still standing?
MEESKE: Yes, it is.
NATOLI: When you were born, what was considered the downtown area of Mount Prospect?
MEESKE: What you see now. There wasn't much on the south side of the tracks-maybe a real estate office, Kruse's Restaurant Tavern. Most of the part was on the corner of where Van Dreil's drugstore-that building was standing there at the time, the Texaco station on the corner where Fanny May's is now, then residential behind that.
NATOLI: Now we're talking about the location of [Route] 83 and Main Street?
MEESKE: [Route] 83 and Main Street was the most. There is a building on the corner there. That's one of the oldest buildings in Mount Prospect. That used to be a barber shop in there and a tavern.
NATOLI: Which building is that, now?
MEESKE: It's right on the corner of [Route] 83 and Main Street, the northeast corner. The next building over there is a newer building, but then the other part from there to the corner of Busse and Main Street, our old store was on that corner when that was built after World War II, so that actually was a residential  home on that point.
NATOLI: Let me stop you there. When you say "our old store was built on that corner," are you talking about your father's store? MEESKE: Yes.
NATOLI: During what year was that built?
MEESKE: It was built after World War II was over. Prior to that it there was one of the Busse homes in town.
NATOLI: Okay. What kind of a store was that that your father had?
MEESKE: A supermarket.
NATOLI: Can you describe to us, at this point, the supermarket at that time. Is it the same as a supermarket today?
MEESKE: Oh, well, the idea, yes, but for size, no. We originally were down the street which is part of that Japanese restaurant. NATOLI: Where Sekura's is?
MEESKE: Well, yes-one store over. That area right there was a general store years ago that my grandfather was partners with. Louis Busse was partners with William Busse, Sr., and that's where my mother was born. My grandfather didn't care for this- hat was a general store; he sold everything-so he moved out and went to farming. Anyhow, William Busse, Sr., started Mount Prospect State Bank, which is now First Chicago, and that was on the northwest corner of Busse Avenue and [Route] 83.
NATOLI: And William Busse is ...?
MEESKE: My grandfather's brother. Well, anyhow, his son William Busse, Jr., took over the store and later on my father went to work for him and bought into the business. William Busse, Sr., became Commissioner Busse, so William Busse, Jr., became president of the bank.
NATOLI: Okay, now when you say William Busse, Sr., became commissioner, at that time what were the commissioner's duties?
MEESKE: Cook County commissioner. 
NATOLI: Oh, okay.
MEESKE: Then my dad bought out and went into business for himself, married my mother, moved back upstairs where she lived and was born, and my sister was born up there.
NATOLI: Where again was that?
MEESKE: That's approximately 115 South Main Street. The building is still standing, but it's built over it. It was just a single building at the time, and that was built over and the rest of them were added on.
NATOLI: That's interesting. Okay, so your dad married your mother and started this store.
MEESKE: Took over the store, yes. And then he just had a general grocery store.
NATOLI: Did it have a butcher shop?
MEESKE: Oh, yes. We had a full store-butcher shop, produce, groceries, the whole bit. The farmers would bring their eggs in and we'd give them credit on their bill and all that sort of thing. We even had a lot of chickens in the back. If you wanted a fresh chicken, we'd just go back and kill one for you and dress it for you. Everything was done the hard way.
NATOLI: And how did you get the beef in, then?
MEESKE: Oh, originally we brought from the beef peddler.
NATOLI: They had a beef peddler? They would deliver it to the store?
MEESKE: Oh, yes.
NATOLI: And the farmers would bring the chickens.
MEESKE: Some chickens, yes. A lot of eggs, mostly. They all shopped in the store and then we would just-you know, everybody charged years ago. You just credited their bill that way.
NATOLI: So when we come to the question, "Where did your family shop for groceries?" we know where they shopped for groceries.
MEESKE: Right.
NATOLI: But what about as far as clothes and shoes?
MEESKE: Well, we didn't have a shoe store in town when I was a kid. We went to Des Plaines. Clothing, there wasn't that much. Mount Prospect didn't have a lot of stores like that. Des Plaines was the big shopping center for that sort of thing, their downtown. We'd go to Spieglers, which is now sold out, too. But we had Busse-Biermann Hardware Store, Wille's Lumber and Fuel, barber shops, the general store where women could go in and buy material for sewing and all those kinds of needs.
NATOLI: And where were these stores located? In the area where they are now?
MEESKE: Well, mostly on Main Street and also on Busse Avenue, which is between [Route] 83 and Northwest Highway.
NATOLI: What about cars and buggies?
MEESKE: Buggies I don't quite remember-just for joyrides.
NATOLI: You're not quite old enough.
MEESKE: Right.
NATOLI: Were there automobile dealers at that time?
MEESKE: Yes, there was Busse's automobile place, and that started, actually, on the corner where the bank went in years ago which is now. Well, there was an ice cream place there lately. I don't even know what's in there now. Then he moved over where the Mount Prospect Electric Company is. That used to be Busse Motor Sales. They moved out of there to where Vufich is now.
NATOLI: Was that owned by a relative of yours?
MEESKE: The Busses. That was one of the brothers. There was William, Albert, George, Owen and Louis-the Busse brothers.
NATOLI: And these were. ..?
MEESKE: They all had farms, and some went into real estate-insurance business, some went into the grocery business. They went into the banking business. Some of them had the Busse-Biermann hardware. Biermann married one of the Busse daughters and they had the hardware store. And then, of course, Albert had the Busse Buick which sold trucks, and such, to the farmers. George Busse was in real estate, or George L. Busse, his father. They had insurance and real estate.
NATOLI: Let me interrupt you a minute. These Busses, are they brothers of your wife's grandfather or your wife's father's brothers or your wife's brothers?
MEESKE: They're brothers of my wife's father. Excuse me, not my wife's-my mother's father.
NATOLI: Your mother's. I'm sorry. So, your mother's father's brother's were all in business in Mount Prospect.
MEESKE: Yes, in one way or the other.
NATOLI: All right. It sounds like, in fact, no one had any businesses except the Busses in Mount Prospect at that time. Do  you remember any other names?
MEESKE: Well, Van Dreil's has been in town for a long time. There was one druggist Van Dreil bought it from, but I can't remember his name. I remember it there. Then Keefer's carne in, and Keefer's was on Northwest Highway between [Route] 83 and Emerson Street. He had bought out, actually, this sort of a drug  store-candy store, whatever you want to call it. It was set way back and then he moved it up front, which is now that Mary's Hallmark store, or whatever it is-that Hallmark store that's next to Fanny May.
NATOLI: How did all these stores advertise?
MEESKE: Well, in the Paddock publications.
NATOLI: Do you remember any favorite advertisements?
MEESKE: What do you mean, favorite?
NATOLI: Oh, like a horse and a buggy-that kind of an advertisement. Something that stands out in your mind.
MEESKE: Well, they had the downtown shopper in Mount Prospect that was hand-delivered allover Mount Prospect, and all the local merchants would advertise in that. That was very successful. That was more my time, after my dad sort of passed out of the  picture and we took over the store.
NATOLI: Do you by any chance have any of the advertisements that your dad had during the time he had the store?
MEESKE: I think I have some around here, yes.
NATOLI: Would you be willing to let the Mount Prospect Library photocopy those advertisements?
MEESKE: Sure. I'd have to dig them out. I believe, though, we were going through something and we found some old ads. It's unbelievable, the prices years ago.
NATOLI: That would be very helpful to us.
MEESKE: Fine.
NATOLI: Now, do you remember some of the earliest factories in Mount Prospect?
MEESKE: Well, there was the-what the heck did they call it?-the creamery that's by the water tower, which is not there anymore. That was torn down.
NATOLI: And where was that? Could you tell us the location?
MEESKE: It's on Evergreen and Northwest Highway, where the water town is standing. It was a creamery right beneath it. The old fire station was there. It was a two-door fire station.
NATOLI: Oh, yes? Now, this creamery, had it been in business when you were growing up?
MEESKE: Yes. I was going out of business after that.
NATOLI: Do you know when it actually opened?
MEESKE: No, I wasn't around for that, either.
NATOLI: Okay. But during the time, say, your early teen years, was it still around then?
MEESKE: Yes, when I was, I'd say, ten years old or in that area.
NATOLI: What did it do? Is that where you got the milk, etc.?
MEESKE: No, we didn't get our milk from there. We got it from a regular wholesale delivery person.
NATOLI: Oh, that's the milk for the store. What did the creamery do?
MEESKE: Well, I'm not too sure exactly what they even did-if people brought the milk to them. See, the farmers around here got out of dairy farming and they went to truck farming, and that creamery didn't have any supply so it just closed up. So, they would actually go through and process it and then sell it to a wholesale place, I suppose.
NATOLI: Did they do the canned milk and the evaporated milk sort of thing?
MEESKE: I'm not sure, now. I don't remember.
NATOLI: Do you remember any other manufacturers in Mount Prospect?
MEESKE: Well, on Pine Street, right now where the police and fire department is standing, was the old public works building. In that block they had pickle factories, they called them. They were warehouses that had large vats, and the farmers would bring their pickle crops in and they'd dump them in these vats and cure them.
NATOLI: They would bring the cucumbers, you mean?
MEESKE: Pickles.
NATOLI: Pickled cucumbers, right. And then they'd dump them in the vats and then somehow they'd end up in bottles to be sold to the. ..?
MEESKE: Oh, sure. They'd take them out of there and they'd put them in bottles or crocks and then ship them off to someone else.
NATOLI: Do you remember who owned that?
MEESKE: No, I don't. I played in it, actually. When we were kids we'd go in and sneak in there and run around and play in there.
NATOLI: What would you do? Run around and grab a pickle?
MEESKE: Oh, of course.
NATOLI: That's fun. So you didn't have any problem. They didn't object to the children going in.
MEESKE: No. The town was so small, everybody knew everybody. If you stepped out of line, your father knew it before you even got home.
NATOLI: How old was the town, say, when you were 10 years old? I mean, how many people were in this town at that time?
MEESKE: Well, how many people when I was 10 years old? Probably a couple of thousand or 1500.
NATOLI: Oh, so it was really small.
MEESKE: Oh, yes. I mean, our big highlight was, when television carne out we'd go over to Wille's and he had a television set in the window and we'd sit outside and watch the television show.
NATOLI: So, did Wille's have a television? Did he do anything else? Any events that the townspeople were involved in?
MEESKE: Any events?
NATOLI: Yes. There is a reference here to a Wille's Hall.
MEESKE: I don't remember a Wille's Hall.
NATOLI: So by the time you came along, there was no Wille's Hall. There was just the Wille's television.
MEESKE: Well, no, it was Wille's Lumber and Fuel, and they delivered mostly coal. They had just a little, little store out there. And then, of course, as the family and the kids got more involved in the business and progress became more out here-the coal was going out and they began going into more hardware and lumber, and they were getting into everything. They had a TV store there, and they even got into sporting goods and the whole bit.
NATOLI: Now, talking about your father's store, how many people did he employ in his store?
MEESKE: Well, when we sold it out in 1973 there were 25 of us working there.
NATOLI: Oh, that's a big operation.
MEESKE: Well, yes it is. It took a lot of people because we did a lot of service-oriented work. We delivered groceries and took phone orders, put your groceries up for you and that sort of thing, so it took a lot more help to do that.
NATOLI: You mean, you went to a person's house and actually put the groceries away?
MEESKE: I did that when I was a kid to the farmers. They would be out in the field. I was about 13 years old when I was delivering groceries, and I'd go out to the house and I would just walk right in-nobody locked the door around here-and I'd take all the perishables and put them in the refrigerator and place everything else on the table. We had folding boxes that we would take back with us, and we kept reusing them all the time. They were stackers. But in town, no. If the lady were home, she would unpack it herself. We would just put it out.
NATOLI: Now, when you talk about the farmers, where were these farms?
MEESKE: Oh, everything around here was farms. Where I am sitting was a farm. Anything south of-even where Lions Park was, from there on all the way to south of the railroad tracks to Mount Prospect Road, that was all farms. All the way from there to the tollway, which was not a tollway, but down there. Everything was farms.
NATOLI: When did the character of the town start to change from farming to residential?
MEESKE: Well, that was back during the Depression, I think. Somebody else came in as a developer and started developing the town. Bought so much land from the farmers, and started developing these houses and designed the streets, and they went bottom up. They had different names on them; then the Busses sort of took it over in the real estate and developed it more so.
NATOLI: How old were you, about, at that time, when you first noticed that all of a sudden it's not all farms anymore and all of a sudden there's more houses coming up?
MEESKE: Well, the whole town was gradually expanding. The lots you couldn't give away. Today they're priceless. I think the biggest movement was when we started coming over to this side of the creek. Things started developing in this area and just kept spreading. That's about 35 years ago. My father said, "When I bought out here, I was crazy moving this far out in the country."
NATOLI: Oh, for heaven's sake. Now, in the creamery, do you have any idea how many people they employed, or the pickle factory?
MEESKE: No, I don't.
NATOLI: Do you remember any particularly interesting stories about the early factories? Like there is a reference here, do you remember the night the power plant burned down?
MEESKE: No, I don't.
NATOLI: That must have been way before your time.
MEESKE: Of course.
NATOLI: Where did the children hang out? For example, where did you hang out when you were growing up?
MEESKE: I didn't hang out. I had to work. Hangouts we didn't really have. I suppose you could say Van Dreil's drugstore. They  had a soda fountain in there. That would be like a hangout where the kids might eat at night, or something like that. Most of the kids were occupied because they had chores to do around the house.
NATOLI: Well, like on a Friday night or a Saturday night.
MEESKE: That would be down there. When we were kids, you're talking about.
NATOLI: Right.
MEESKE: Yes, then I said the highlight would be to go sit in front of the window. Television came in and they were very expensive. You couldn't afford them, and we'd sit there in front of his windows and watch the TV shows. Or, the church over here at St. Paul's would have on Wednesday nights in the summer, you'd have outdoor movies. They'd set up a screen against a garage and watch Mickey Mouse and stuff like that.
NATOLI: How old were you at that time?
MEESKE: Grade school.
NATOLI: Now, when you got to be a teenager, did you have a place to hang out? Was there a lovers' lane, more or less?
MEESKE: What's that, a lovers' lane?
NATOLI: Well, I think you still remember that, Earl.
MEESKE: Well, they're all built up now.
NATOLI: But where was that?
MEESKE: I think the most popular spot was on Lincoln, just west of Busse Road. There was a slough in there which is now Hanolin Heights. Some guys-you could get back in there, and they had a lot of trees built in there, so NATOLI: What's a slough?
MEESKE: Oh, you know, water in there and, in fact, they have peat in there. They had problems in there when they were building homes. But it was like a water basin. It's not really a pond, but it's a ...
NATOLI: Did your dad ever talk to you about when he was young, if there was a lover's lane, or where. ..
MEESKE: No, he didn't say anything about that. He just told me some of the mischievous things that he got into. Years ago the kids didn't have time for those things. My dad's father was a parochial school teacher over here at St. John's on Linneman Road. You came back from school, you put your clothes on and went out in the field and worked.
NATOLI: But there had to be some way that the men met their girlfriends. From time immemorial there is some time in your life
MEESKE: Years ago, your parents didn't discuss that with you. It was personal. It was "in-the-closet" stuff. You didn't talk about that-at least my parents didn't.
NATOLI: Was there somewhere special that the businessmen got together to talk?
MEESKE: Yes, they had the Lion's Den. Then that was on 83, Main Street, under the stores. They had it fixed up. They called it the Lions Den. That was very active in town, and the Lions Club did a lot for the town. You had the fire department. That was very active. It was all volunteer. My dad was on that, my brother was on it, I was on it. I guess everybody was-if your father was on it, as soon you became age enough, you became on it. You always chased the fires. We never had too much big fires in town. The biggest fire that I can remember, besides our store, but prior to that was-in fact, it was on my 18th birthday. We had a bowling alley in town here. The name of it was Gonelle's Bowling Alley. That burned out. That was a big fire. The floors dropped all down in the basement and everything else.
NATOLI: What did they use to fight fires at that time? Did they have the hoses and the fire trucks?
MEESKE: Sort of the same thing we have today. They were not as modern, but, you know, we had regular pumpers and that.
NATOLI: How many people were on the volunteer fire department?
MEESKE: Thirty.
NATOLI: Thirty at one time?
MEESKE: Yes.
NATOLI: And what were the approximate ages?
MEESKE: Well, you had to be 21 to get on. I was 21 when I got on officially.
NATOLI: And your father? He was a volunteer, too?
MEESKE: Yes, you had a chief. Frank Biermann was chief. My dad was first assistant chief, and Eddie Haberkamp was second. Well, he was second assistant chief, but that was chief of the rural area. We had a rural truck and the farmers supplied us with a truck. We fought the fires for them, but they supplied us the equipment. In exchange, we used it if we needed it in town. Then we always had two trucks.
NATOLI: Now, when there was a fire, was it generally contained easily?
MEESKE: Yes. That's why I say there that one there we had. That, at that time, to me was the biggest fire we had.
NATOLI: Did that burn down to the ground?
MEESKE: No, it just gutted out the building. We saved the rest of the buildings. Next door to it was Busse Biermann's Hardware Store. We saved that. I mean, it didn't get that far.
NATOLI: Go back to your general store, your father's general store. Was there a cracker barrel in that store?
MEESKE: Not a cracker barrel, but they used to have-well, as a novelty one time, we had a barrel of olives. You could go in there with a dip and fill up your old Mason jar and bought olives that way. That was sent in from Spain. That was just a novelty. But we had cookies and like crackers-that was all bulk. It would be sitting in a stand with a little door on it, a viewing glass door you had to snap open and take out what you want, fill up your own bag and weigh it that way. We didn't have the old stove and cracker barrel.
NATOLI: Okay. I guess that was before your time. Some of these questions are for, obviously, people a little bit older than you. Do you remember any of the parades downtown?
MEESKE: Do I remember parades?
NATOLI: Yes, parades, Fourth of July.
MEESKE: I got involved in parades. I don't know if you know that.
NATOLI: No.
MEESKE: I did some work on some of the parades, and then I got in charge of the Fourth of July parades and some we had for Mount Prospect's fiftieth anniversary. I was in charge of fiftieth anniversary parade. That was a biggie. We had thirty bands.
NATOLI: Oh, my gosh. And where did you get them from, these bands?
MEESKE: Well, we had the Air Force, the Navy, the Army, the Marines, and then we had high schools and then we had the drum and bugle corps. We had them doing a competition during the time of the parade, so they would be graded and compete for it. We had the Shriners Black Horse Troops, all their Indian troops and clowns and stuff like that.
NATOLI: That sounds wonderful!
MEESKE: It was something, yes. We even got a little shot on TV on that.
NATOLI: Well, now it's going to be the hundredth anniversary, I understand.
MEESKE: Seventy-fifth.
NATOLI: Seventy-fifth? Are you still involved in parades and all that?
MEESKE: No. That was my last parade. That's it.
NATOLI: Well, maybe they can come and ask you for your expertise.
MEESKE: I'll be glad to help that way. We worked on that almost two full years.
NATOLI: Two years?
MEESKE: And we had floats. It was something else. We closed off 83 from 58 to Rand Road. We started at Lions Park, came out of there, took Lincoln over to 83 and went right up 83 all the way and then over to Highland and from there to the high school where it dispersed.
[Side 2]
NATOLI: Mr. Meeske, you have just given us a gift of 16mm film of the parade.
MEESKE: The fiftieth.
NATOLI: The fiftieth anniversary parade, and on behalf of the Mount Prospect Library, I want to thank you very much for that gift.
MEESKE: [inaudible]
NATOLI: Now we're going to continue with the interview, and we won't be too much longer. Now, you more or less answered the next question, which says, "Did the town decorate for holidays?"
MEESKE: Oh, yes. Every Fourth of July they had flags up allover town. Of course, for the fiftieth anniversary, we really decorated up the town. We even painted the water tower gold.
NATOLI: Okay, and what about for Christmas?
MEESKE: Christmas decorations, sure. Stores always did that stuff. And then the Chamber of Commerce would put out stuff. It got better as the years grew, but. ..
NATOLI: Well, what about the early decorations, even though maybe they weren't as gaudy, if I might use that word. But they were more meaningful at that time, weren't they.
MEESKE: The merchants did the inside of their stores and the store windows. You know, had maybe music piped outside. Those were days that you couldn't replace.
NATOLI: Was it more of a religious significance, the decorations at Christmas than they are today?
MEESKE: Yes, yes. [tape interrupted]
NATOLI: Mr. Meeske, when you were a child and growing up, how did people come downtown?
MEESKE: Downtown to Mount Prospect?
NATOLI: Right.
MEESKE: Well, they had their cars. They drove downtown. Came in with trucks, whatever.
NATOLI: Okay. What kind of cars? Were they like the Fords?
MEESKE: Well, it was mostly Buicks. [laughter]
NATOLI: Okay.
MEESKE: Well, they had Fords and Chevrolets.
NATOLI: If people wanted to get out of town, say to downtown Chicago, what did they use?
MEESKE: The train, mostly the train.
NATOLI: The Mount Prospect trains?
MEESKE: Yes, the same. You know, we had train lines going through. They were steam-driven.
NATOLI: Was it at the same location it's at now?
MEESKE: Yes.
NATOLI: Were there events at the train station in addition to the usual train traffic?
MEESKE: No, not really.
NATOLI: Like maybe during the war. Did they have. ..
MEESKE: Oh, when you send the soldiers off?
NATOLI: Right, right.
MEESKE: They did that out of Arlington Heights.
NATOLI: Okay.
MEESKE: We didn't have a VFW at that time.
NATOLI: Do you remember riding on the train?
MEESKE: Oh, yes.
NATOLI: Where did you go?
MEESKE: Downtown Chicago.
NATOLI: What sorts of things were shipped to and from the Mount Prospect depot, if you know?
MEESKE: Well, at one time, it used to be the farmers would be their sugar beets down here. They grew sugar beets around here. And which is now a parking lot for the commuters, which just had a side rail where the freight train would drop off the cars, and then they would bring their sugar beets and they'd load up these cars and haul them away. But. ..
NATOLI: So, as you said earlier, ...
MEESKE: The mail train. They delivered mail by train. They had an arm that stuck out-not a human arm, a regular arm. As the train would go by, they had a bag attached to the side of the train, and it hit the spot and it would grab the bag and that's how you'd get your mail sent out.
NATOLI: Oh, that's interesting. Do you have any idea of what years that was that the mail train was as you described?
MEESKE: Yes, I would say up into the '40s they were still doing that.
NATOLI: You were saying earlier that Mount Prospect evolved into a truck-farming industry. There was not too much dairy around here. Was it ever a dairy community?
MEESKE: Years back. That's when the creamery was, you know, active from here, and it was dairy and truck farming. But then the farms got more or less away from the dairy. That's a sevenday job, twice a day, and they went into truck farming very heavily. They grew all the vegetables and everything, you know-everything from corn to onions, tomatoes, whatever. They were
NATOLI: Were those vegetables shipped by train?
MEESKE: No, no, no. They trucked that down to Chicago to South Water Market. And. .
NATOLI: So the biggest thing, the trains were more or less used for just this beets.
MEESKE: Commuters, and they'd drop off freight.
NATOLI: And mail.
MEESKE: And mail, yes.
NATOLI: Now we're going to do a follow-up. What is your fondest memory of early downtown Mount Prospect?
MEESKE: Oh, I don't know. I still remember walking up Busse Avenue from where I lived, going uptown in the winter and snow on the ground. I know that winter seemed much more-we had more snow when I was a kid. Walking uptown and seeing this snow coming down and neon lights in the background. I always remember that. That was, you know, real small and real fond memories. A great time.
NATOLI: Okay. How has downtown Mount Prospect changed over the years? Do you like the changes or was it better the way it was?
MEESKE: Well, I liked it at one time better than the way it is today because Mount Prospect downtown, as you know, it's just hanging on. You know, the shopping centers. People go out to the shopping centers. You've got a lot of stores closed up that we had at one time. I don't know how many barber shops and a couple of shoe stores. We had two dime stores, we had men's stores, boy's stores, women's dress, apparel-there was a couple of those. And for little children, we had a variety. I mean, a lot of different things. You could shop downtown, just walk around from  store to store.
NATOLI: Was it more or less at that time more of a community-type thing that everyone knew everyone and it was a social occasion?
MEESKE: Everybody-the old saying, "One hand washes the other." Everyone would shop with each other, you know. And even when we had carnivals in town, I mean, that money that was raised was I going back right into the town. We bought fire trucks with it. The fire department had a carnival once a year-every other year, actually. They split it with the VFW. And then the Lions Club every year. Those were events that people participated in. You might be working a booth and take a break, and the person on the other side of the counter would come in and work your booth and you're out on the other side of the counter spending money. All of it went right back into the town. And as the hands washed each other, I mean it was great. Now, the town's populated. The people aren't interested in this. It's a nice bedroom community, but, you know, from where I came from, the area has changed a lot.
NATOLI: Are you saying that there was a closeness early on that is lacking today?
MEESKE: Oh, sure.
NATOLI: Because it's becoming more of a metropolitan-type area.
MEESKE: Right.
NATOLI: From a farming community, the evolution.
MEESKE: Right.
NATOLI: And, for example, when Randhurst came into the community, was that a development that the townspeople were very interested in?
MEESKE: Oh, sure.
NATOLI: And did it work out? Can you just comment on it briefly?
MEESKE: Well, Randhurst was a big boost to Mount Prospect, you know, like O'Hare was a boost to the suburbs. But it did affect a lot of the people downtown. It didn't affect our store, because  we had a grocery store. They didn't try the grocery store there. Nobody wanted to go grocery store shopping in a shopping center like that. It did affect some of the other businesses. Some of them were ready to retire anyhow, so who's to say?
NATOLI: So instead of maybe passing it down or selling their store, they just closed down. Is that what happened?
MEESKE: Yes, right.
NATOLI: So it did contribute, really.
MEESKE: The dime stores, you know. That was a fine business anyhow. At one time we had two. Now we have nothing downtown like that. You can go to any store and get that stuff today. At that time, that was built out in the country also. We had a slogan at the time. Our town motto was at one time, "Where friendliness is a way of life." And then even prior to that, "Where town and country meet." Well, there is no town and country meets anymore. Okay? Now the slogan is, "Where friendliness is a way of life." There's a degree to that. This is a friendly town. Of course, I'm partial to it, and I know a lot of people, obviously, because I've been around for a few years. But. ..
NATOLI: But I would agree with you, too. I've only been here three or four years, and people in Mount Prospect are very friendly.
MEESKE: Yes. We've got a good municipality, very well managed, very well run. I've got a warm feeling towards the fire department. I put fifteen years in there. And I was fifteen years on the police pension fund, plus many other kind of things- arades and that sort of stuff and all the other jazz.
NATOLI: Would you say, then, that Mount Prospect has kept a little bit of the hometown atmosphere, even though it has evolved from 1,500 people to how many thousand today?
MEESKE: Yes. I think you can see that even with the building that's downtown. We're not going high-rises, so we, you know, want to keep this as a bedroom community. It's a good, best school system. You don't have, like some of these towns have, thirteen-story high-rises downtown and that sort of stuff, so we are staying on a smaller scale.
NATOLI: Is there anything additional that you'd like to add? Anything special that you'd like to add about living in Mount Prospect years ago other than what you've already stated?
MEESKE: You know, I never lived in the city. Compared to what the city kids grew up with, I couldn't say. We had a lot of room to roam. I could walk down the street with my shotgun, go across the railroad tracks, I'm right out in the farmland and go pheasant hunting or rabbit hunting. And we could build forts in the fields next to us. We kids played together, you know. Had our own baseball games in any old lot we could get our stuff, I guess. So we had a lot of activities. We didn't have gangs and all that stuff. 
NATOLI: Did not?
MEESKE: No.
NATOLI: So that's one of the changes. It leads into my next question. How had Mount Prospect changed over the years, and, obviously, the gangs is the change not for the better. Do you like the changes or was it better the way it was?
MEESKE: Yes, I think we're getting-well, the whole area. There's just too many people. There's so much traffic. We're getting around with two-lane highways. Now it's busy, busy, busy-rush hour around here all the time. I don't like it. I like the small community. 
NATOLI: What changes do you like, if any? Or do you think this is a community that should not have grown to the population that it has or it should have attempted to stay small?
MEESKE: Well, you can't. It's inevitable that you're-like I said, before you couldn't give a lot away, and now you can't find one to build on. Just from my personal view, from being small and growing up with small, I liked it. But progress grows along and you grow with the progress. If you don't grow with it, well, then you just step on aside. 
NATOLI: Exactly.
MEESKE: I still consider Mount Prospect a small little town.  We  don't have a lot of the factories and high-rises. I still like it  the way it is, but, man, oh, man, the traffic from allover. 
NATOLI:  I'd like to ask a question as far as Randhurst. From my  personal point of view, it appears that-well, I'll just ask you.  Do you think that the shopping center of Randhurst has really  helped Mount Prospect or has hindered it? Do you think we should  have more shopping centers in this area or not?
MEESKE: Okay. The shopping center, Randhurst, when that was built, that was the cat's meow, the big thing. Okay, that was way before Woodfield. We were neglecting the downtown. So were the village presidents. They had only eyes for Randhurst. I told them, "Someday you'll be shooting a shotgun or a cannon down there and you're not going to hit anybody because you're going to get competition." It turned out to be truth. The downtown did get neglected. Parking was a big thing. I was on the ad hoc committee, prior to getting into real estate, so I got out. I didn't have conflicts of interest there. They are now going to try and do something with that triangle there, and if they do it properly, they may spark up some enthusiasm for it. You can't have big stores, only the small stores-you know, the ma-and-pa store sort of thing. I believe that they should be building something for the senior citizens, either condos or rentals, and then putting some stores on the bottom. We got all the transportation we need downtown-buses, trains. We're close to everything. Now, if they just give them some stuff where they can go in and shop in and then fill some stores up. And I'm not saying thirteen stories-five stories, six stores, something like that. Maybe high as the bank, maybe not as high. But do something there. Parking's always killed us. When we used to have two lanes going through town on 83, we parked right on 83. Randhurst came in-no more. They made it four lanes. You know, that did take a toll on a lot of the business people.
NATOLI: So based on-you know, there's a general philosophical view that history goes in a circle. So, based on that, with these big shopping centers, is it more or less your philosophy that if we went backwards, kept the big shopping centers but also built up the small town with little ma-and-pa stores, that they could make a come-back and that would be good for the Mount Prospect downtown area?
MEESKE: Downtown area, yes.
NATOLI: That's what you're saying.
MEESKE: Not everybody wants to go to a shopping center, you know, and they like the personal service you get from a ma-and-pa place. If you look at downtown Arlington Heights, they've got a lot of stores still like that.
NATOLI: Okay, I have one final question. If there was one thing you would want the children to remember about the history of their hometown, Mount Prospect, what would it be?
MEESKE: Their growing-up time.
NATOLI: Their growing-up time? Okay. Well, thank you very much for allowing us to conduct this interview, and especially thank you for the 16mm film. I'm sure everyone's going to enjoy watching that parade.

Back to Top of Page

Name:                                                           Fred Meeske Sr.

Does MPHS have photographs:            Yes

Address in MP:                                            115 S. Edward

Birth Date:                                                    February 21, 1903

Death Date:                                                February 10, 1970

Marriage

            Date:                                                  Circa 1924

            Spouse:                                              Hilda (Busse) Meeske

            Children:                                            Fred Jr., Earl, and Norma

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
Fred Meeske began working in William Busse Jr.’s grocery at the age of 14. As a clerk he made $10 a week. He worked hard and saved his money. He later married William Busse Jr.’s cousin and in 1925 he bought the store from Busse. He changed the name to Meeske’s Market and a local institution was born.  Meeske’s was a fixture in downtown Mount Prospect for 59 years. When Meeske first started, the market was located in the Busse Building on Main Street. In 1950 a larger building on the corner of Busse and Main was built to house what was then the main grocery store in Mount Prospect. The store was famous for its exceptional butcher shop and the family’s celebration of the community’s German roots. In 1973 the Meeske family sold the business, although the store maintained the name. The shop was closed in 1984 after going through a series of owners. The small locally-owned grocery store in downtown was not able to compete against massive chain stores in shopping plazas at the outskirts of town.

 Back to Top of Page

Name:                                                           Paul Meeske

Does MPHS have photographs:            yes (digital scans from publications)

Address in MP:                                           

Birth Date:                                                    1886

Death Date:                                                           

Marriage     

            Date:                                                

            Spouse:                                             Doora Joost Meeske

            Children:                                           Ernest, Fred, and Helen

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
    Paul Meeske came to Mount Prospect in 1906 to be the teacher, organist and band leader for Saint John Lutheran Church. He taught in the 1901 brick school house that is still standing across the parking lot from Saint John Lutheran Church. Originally, the interior was one large space, and was taught as a regular one-room schoolhouse. Paul Meeske served as the only teacher in the school from 1906 to 1925 when his daughter Helen was hired to help him with the 90 pupils. In 1926 an addition was put onto the front of the school, the bell tower was taken down and a divider was placed in the middle of the room, splitting it into two classrooms.  
    Paul Meeske was originally from Niles and had first taught in a Lutheran school in Niles. He was very dedicated both as a teacher and as a musician.  One story that shows this dedication goes that he had gone back to Niles to visit family on Christmas Eve, but that night there was a major blizzard, which made the roads impassable. Paul Meeske woke up early and walked from Niles, rather than letting the people in Mount Prospect go without an organist at their Christmas service.
    Paul Meeske taught at Saint John Lutheran for fifty years, retiring at the age of 70 in 1956. Over the years that he taught, the students changed in many ways. He remembers that his early students typically spoke in German more comfortably than English. One time he was sitting in the school and he heard the students outside playing Baseball. The students were yelling and cheering in German and this struck Meeske as wrong. He went outside and gave an impromptu speech on how Baseball was an American game and if they were going to play the American game they should do it in English.
    Over the years the students also became much bolder. He talked about how, when he started teaching, the students were very bashful for the first years, but by the time he retired “children are unabashed by school, are more questioning and many register surprise when they learn a rule is a rule.” Luckily for Paul Meeske, he kept a whip and strap in his desk.

Back to Top of Page

Name:                                                         Edna Meier

Does MPHS have photographs:          no

Date of Interview:                                   October 8, 1993

Interviewer:                                               Walter Hoffman

WALTER HOFFMAN: I am with Edna Meier, and I am interviewing her for the Mt. Prospect Historical Society oral history project. My name is Walter Hoffman. Today is October 8, 1993. It is 6:30 p.m., and we are at Mrs. Meier's home at 1702 Myrtle in Mt. Prospect. Mrs. Meier, I'd first like to thank you for agreeing to this interview and for signing the consent form. Now I have some questions for you. We are in the house that you have lived in for how long? When did you move into this house here?
EDNA MEIER: January 6, 1926.
HOFFMAN: At that time how old were you?
MEIER: Eighteen.
HOFFMAN: I understand you told me that you were just married at the time you moved into this house. Is that correct?
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: Where did you move from, prior to that?
MEIER: Bartlett.
HOFFMAN: Did you live there with your parents?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: And you moved in here when you married your husband, Edwin, is that correct?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: And you have lived here ever since, in this house.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: Are there any events that stand out in your mind that took place in Mt. Prospect? Is there anyone or two things that stand out in your mind as having taken place in the town?
MEIER: Well, the most I can remember is when they started building houses right around here.
HOFFMAN: In the development.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: Now, the house we're in, it's a farm style house, I take it.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: But we are surrounded by what appears to me to be development. Is that true?
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: When you moved into this house, if you looked out your windows what would you see?
MEIER: Well, nothing but cornfields and orchard.
HOFFMAN: Your husband was a farmer.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: So he farmed the area around the house.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Who was your closest neighbor?
MEIER: My sister and brother-in-law. They lived across the street.
HOFFMAN: Were the streets in at that time?
MEIER: Oh, no. Busse Road was the only road there.
HOFFMAN: So the closest paved road was --was Busse Road paved?
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: So it was dirt or gravel?
MEIER: Well, gravel.
HOFFMAN: And that was the closest road to you.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: So you probably had a mud track sort of going from your house to Busse.
MEIER: Yes, it was gravel.
HOFFMAN: So you have gravel going out there. And as time went on, I take it, you saw development coming closer and closer.
MEIER: Oh, yes.
HOFFMAN: When did the streets around you get put in?
MEIER: Well, when we sold our farm.
HOFFMAN: When was that?
MEIER: I'd have to think about that.
HOFFMAN: About.
MEIER: Let's see, my son was in first [grade] in 1952 -- maybe 1956 or 1957 or something like that.
HOFFMAN: So until 1956 or 1957 there were no side streets in here?
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: How big was the farm surrounding your house?
MEIER: We had only sixty acres.
HOFFMAN: What did you grow?
MEIER: When we were first married we had dairy, and when my son had to go into service we sold the cows and we started raising tomatoes for Campbell's Soup, and that was our main crop.
HOFFMAN: Now, when you dairy-farmed, I take it you milked the cows and sent the milk to market, correct?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: How did you get that milk to market?
MEIER: First we had to put it in cans and load it on a truck and take it to town.
HOFFMAN: To downtown Mt. Prospect.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: And then what happened?
MEIER: Then it went to Chicago on the train.
HOFFMAN: So the train pulled in and the cans were loaded onto the train.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Do you know where those cans went when they got into Chicago?
MEIER: No, I don't.
HOFFMAN: And then you ceased dairy farming and you started tomato farming for Campbell's Soup.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: How did you get the tomatoes to market?
MEIER: With a truck.
HOFFMAN: Was it you who drove them?
MEIER: Well, my husband and my son.
HOFFMAN: Into Chicago?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: And you first moved in here in 1926, was that it?
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: Describe what we now call downtown Mt. Prospect in 1926.
MEIER: Well, there wasn't much there at all.
HOFFMAN: Can you remember anything that was there? The train station.
MEIER: Yes, the train station and Busse's Grocery Store.
HOFFMAN: Okay, anything else?
MEIER: Gee, there wasn't too much there. It's so long ago I've forgotten a lot of stuff.
HOFFMAN: Okay, Busse's Grocery Store. When you went in the front door, what did you see?
MEIER: Onion field.
HOFFMAN: I'm not asking you about that. What was it, a small store or a big store?
MEIER: It was pretty big.
HOFFMAN: Was it self-service, or did you have to ask for it?
MEIER: No, they had a counter and you asked for it.
HOFFMAN: Where did you buy clothes, other than Sears mail order.
MEIER: Chicago, mostly.
HOFFMAN: So you would go into Chicago.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: The same for shoes?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: The same for hardware?
MEIER: Well, they had a hardware store in Mt. Prospect.
HOFFMAN: In Mt. Prospect.
MEIER: Yes. It was Busse-Bierman.
HOFFMAN: Oh, that was the Busse-Bierman Hardware Store.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: What about farm equipment and supplies?
MEIER: They bought from --let's see, what was it -- tractors --whether they bought them, I'm not sure.
HOFFMAN: Right. You probably weren't concerned. Was there a doctor in town?
MEIER: Yes, in Arlington Heights.
HOFFMAN: That was the closest doctor?
MEIER: Yes --well, there was a doctor in Mt. Prospect, too, but I went to the one in Arlington Heights.
HOFFMAN: When you came here you were eighteen, so you were obviously out of school at that point. You came from Bartlett, correct?
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: When you went to, let's say, grade school --did you go to grade school in Bartlett?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: And you recall grade school?
MEIER: Oh, yes.
HOFFMAN: Was that a one-room school?
MEIER: Yes, with a pot belly in the middle.
HOFFMAN: Coal or wood?
MEIER: Well, they had to start it with wood, and then they put...
HOFFMAN: Then it was a coal stove.
MEIER: The teacher had to start it in the morning, and when we got to school it was not very warm, either.
HOFFMAN: I was going to say, in the winter how cold was it? It was very cold?
MEIER: Plenty cold.
HOFFMAN: What time did school start for you?
MEIER: Oh, it was nine o'clock.
HOFFMAN: How far did you live from the school?
MEIER: About a mile.
HOFFMAN: So you walked.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: Did you have any chores to do in the morning before you left for school?
MEIER: Not much, no.
HOFFMAN: Were you living on a farm then?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: So your father was a farmer.
MEIER: That's right. He also had a dairy farm.
HOFFMAN: Did you eat breakfast before you went to school?
MEIER: Oh, yes.
HOFFMAN: Describe for me a typical breakfast. A farm breakfast --is it any different than today?
MEIER: Mostly eggs.
HOFFMAN: Did you bring a lunch with you to school, or how did you do lunch?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Was that a sack lunch?
MEIER: We had a lunchbox.
HOFFMAN: What would you take for lunch to school?
MEIER: Mostly sandwiches and an apple.
HOFFMAN: Was that store-bought bread or home-baked bread?
MEIER: Oh, mostly homemade.
HOFFMAN: Did you go home for lunch, or you ate it at school?
MEIER: No, you couldn't go home for lunch. We had to eat it at school.
HOFFMAN: Did the school ever provide food? Was there a lunch you could buy at the schools?
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: You were on your own.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: You went to a one-room school. How many grades were in that school?
MEIER: Eight.
HOFFMAN: In that one room, give or take, how many students were there, approximately?
MEIER: About thirty.
HOFFMAN: One teacher.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: I take it that teacher had to teach different subjects at different levels to the different grades.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: How could that teacher do that?
MEIER: I don't know. She did it.
HOFFMAN: If you were, let's say, in fourth grade, during many parts of the day the first graders were being taught something different, and the second graders and fifth graders, and it was all going on in the same room.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: Would they give you an assignment to do and then go on with the other students?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Wasn't it kind of hard to learn in that environment.
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: You were used to it, right? How far did you do in school?
MEIER: I graduated from eighth grade.
HOFFMAN: Which, I take it, at the time was probably very typical, especially in the farming communities.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: When you went to school was there any special song or prayers or Pledge of Allegiance at that time that you can remember?
MEIER: Yes, we had the Pledge of Allegiance, and a lot of the songs were patriotic songs.
HOFFMAN: What did you wear to school?
MEIER: Mostly dresses.
HOFFMAN: Dresses --not like today.
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: Now, when we're talking about you in grade school, we're talking 1916, approximately, I would take it --1918 to 1920. Is that about right?
MEIER: Yes, about.
HOFFMAN: Was there a dress code in that school?
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: You could wear anything you wanted but it was just the custom for the girls to wear dresses --and boys to wear what?
MEIER: Pants.
HOFFMAN: Pants and a shirt.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: At that time was there anything that parents would not let you wear to school, or was that never an issue?
MEIER: No, it never came up.
HOFFMAN: Everybody conformed and followed the norm. Do you remember any of the things you did during play or recess?
MEIER: Mostly Ante Ante Over --ball over the school.
HOFFMAN: Okay, we should get an explanation. What is that?
MEIER: Two sides, one was on one side of the school, and then they'd throw the ball over and if we'd catch it we could run around and tag somebody on the other side.
HOFFMAN: That was a big game then.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: And that was called...
MEIER: Ante Ante Over.
HOFFMAN: Do you remember any specific or special songs that you were taught or you frequently sang? Does anything stick out in your mind?
MEIER: No, mostly like patriotic songs --"America."
HOFFMAN: Did they have any arts and crafts projects at that school? Do you remember anything like that?
MEIER: We had to draw, and we had what they called penmanship. We had to go like this...
HOFFMAN: Yes, cursive writing practice.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: I think we all remember that. Do you remember any of the teachers you had? Was there a favorite teacher you had?
MEIER: Yes, one. Her name was Miss Player.
HOFFMAN: Do you remember what grade she taught?
MEIER: It must have been sixth and seventh.
HOFFMAN: Why was she special?
MEIER: I don't know --she was just loving, like a mother.
HOFFMAN: It was her personality, then.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: Did you use McGuffey's readers then?
MEIER: No, I don't think so.
HOFFMAN: You know the term McGuffey reader at all?
MEIER: I don't remember what. ..
HOFFMAN: Do you remember any of the books that you used? Was there any certain type of ...?
MEIER: No. I just know we had a speller. I was not good at that.
HOFFMAN: You're not alone. When you came here to Mt. Prospect --when were your children born?
MEIER: My son was born in 1927.
HOFFMAN: That means, say, about in the mid-thirties he was going to grade school.
MEIER: Yes, I imagine so.
HOFFMAN: What grade school did he attend?
MEIER: He attended St. John's.
HOFFMAN: And then after that he went to high school?
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: What high school did he go to?
MEIER: Arlington Heights.
HOFFMAN: That's a ways away --well, it's not too far.
MEIER: He got the bus at the corner of Route 58 and Busse Road. He had to walk to the corner.
HOFFMAN: When he went to grade school at St. John's, did he take his lunch to school?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: The same thing.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Were there meals available at that time?
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: Still you were on your own as a kid. When you were going to school, what did you do after school?
MEIER: Studied.
HOFFMAN: If you played, who did you play with?
MEIER: I had two sisters.
HOFFMAN: Now, your son in the mid-thirties, when he came home from school, what did he do?
MEIER: He had to help his dad with the chores.
HOFFMAN: Who did he play with around here?
MEIER: He had cousins across the street.
HOFFMAN: In the mid-thirties, what did kids do to play after school or during the summer?
MEIER: Well, they had to work. They didn't have much chance to play.
HOFFMAN: So there was actually not that much play time.
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: If you were on a farm, you did your schoolwork and then you did the chores.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: Now, let me turn back to downtown Mt. Prospect. In 1926 there are maybe two stores and a train station in Mt. Prospect. How did you get your mail at that time?
MEIER: We had rural mail delivery down by Busse Road.
HOFFMAN: There was just a mailbox on Busse?
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: So that was only two blocks, about, from here, I suppose.
MEIER: Yes, about.
HOFFMAN: Was that daily mail delivery?
MEIER: Oh, yes.
HOFFMAN: Did they ever change that where you went into town to pick up your mail?
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: Was it always rural delivery here?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: In the 1920s, how often would you get into downtown Mt. Prospect?
MEIER: Oh, once a week.
HOFFMAN: Any special purpose?
MEIER: Mostly to get groceries.
HOFFMAN: To go grocery shopping. How often would you get into other towns around here?
MEIER: Not very often.
HOFFMAN: In the 1920s, was Des Plaines a much bigger town than Mt. Prospect?
MEIER: Oh, yes. They had a few more stores and things in Des Plaines.
HOFFMAN: Was that bigger than Arlington Heights?
MEIER: I think so.
HOFFMAN: So if you needed something that the few stores in Mt. Prospect didn't have and you didn't want to go into Chicago, where would you go?
MEIER: Then we went to Des Plaines.
HOFFMAN: Into Des Plaines. Would you buy clothes in Des Plaines?
MEIER: No, not too much.
HOFFMAN: It was downtown Chicago.
MEIER: We mostly went there --they had a Prince Castle. That was ice cream.
HOFFMAN: Prince Castle. And what did Prince Castle sell?
MEIER: They had malteds.
HOFFMAN: Was that a hang-out for kids?
MEIER: Well, maybe. It could have been for people that lived in Des Plaines, but we went mostly --it was a treat for us.
HOFFMAN: How often would you go to Prince Castle?
MEIER: Oh, every other week or so.
HOFFMAN: Oh, really! That would be your social evening out or afternoon out?
MEIER: Yes. We took the family and that was a treat for us.
HOFFMAN: In the twenties and thirties, if you wanted to go out, what were your options? Were there movie houses?
MEIER: Yes, there was a movie in Des Plaines. I don't remember if there was one in Mt. Prospect or not. I don't remember that.
HOFFMAN: How often did you go to the movies?
MEIER: Not very often because we run into the Depression.
HOFFMAN: I'm coming to that. That's probably my next question. I take it you were affected by the Depression.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: When did you first see the effects of the Depression? Officially, it is taking place in 1929, three years after you've moved here.
MEIER: Yes. We could fix up things to take to the market, and it wouldn't sell and we brought it home again and we had to dump it.
HOFFMAN: To which market, Chicago?
MEIER: Chicago, yes.
HOFFMAN: So you'd take that by truck into the city...
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: ...and they would return with some or all of it unsold.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: When did you first start seeing that happen, right when the Depression took place in 1929?
MEIER: Yes, right away.
HOFFMAN: Was 1929 the worst year of the Depression?
MEIER: I imagine so. We never went hungry. We always had plenty to eat because we had chickens and we had milk and hogs. But we had no money.
HOFFMAN: But no money.
MEIER: No money.
HOFFMAN: How did you get clothes?
MEIER: Well, we didn't get much, either. We had to make do with what we had.
HOFFMAN: How long did that last, until World War II?
MEIER: A couple of years.
HOFFMAN: Did you see throughout the 1930s, then, a change in the Depression? It got better for you?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Because you were selling more of your goods, is that why?
MEIER: Well, and things started going up.
HOFFMAN: Prices started going up.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Was that the big problem for you, as a farmer in the Depression, that the prices were depressed?
MEIER: Yes, they were down and you couldn't sell things. We had one milk check that was sixty dollars, and that had to last us a full month.
HOFFMAN: Okay, a milk check. Let's say we're talking 1930, a milk check would be for the milk you sold that month.
MEIER: For the whole month.
HOFFMAN: You'd get sixty dollars.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: Now, what did that sixty dollars have to go for?
MEIER: We had to see that we got the children to school and paid for our groceries.
HOFFMAN: Okay. What other expenses did you have?
MEIER: Not really too much.
HOFFMAN: Fuel for the house?
MEIER: Oh, yes, coal.
HOFFMAN: You had a coal furnace at that time?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: And the coal was delivered to your house.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: And sixty dollars didn't always make it?
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: How far short would you be some months?
MEIER: Well, we always had to see that we got along.
HOFFMAN: You always made it somehow.
MEIER: Somehow we made it, yes.
HOFFMAN: And then as the 1930s went on, the prices that you got for your milk started increasing.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: And that made the difference. Were you aware of any problems that the Depression caused other people in Mt. Prospect who may not have been farmers?
MEIER: No, not really.
HOFFMAN: In 1930-1931 how many people lived in Mt. Prospect?
MEIER: That's a good question.
HOFFMAN: Not many --a hundred, or is that off?
MEIER: Oh, maybe it was more than that.
HOFFMAN: Two hundred?
MEIER: I really couldn't say.
HOFFMAN: Were you able to see the effects of the Depression on other people?
MEIER: No, we were all in the same boat.
HOFFMAN: That was significant, though, wasn't it?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Did the Depression in Mt. Prospect --this may sound corny --bring people closer together?
MEIER: I think so.
HOFFMAN: Could you feel that change?
MEIER: Yes. You visited more with your neighbors.
HOFFMAN: Was it a social stigma to be real poor at that time? Were people embarrassed by being out of work and poor?
MEIER: No, because we were all in the same boat.
HOFFMAN: Now, there was relief created by the federal government in the early 1930s. Did you ever receive any relief?
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: Is that because you were a farmer? Would that have been the difference?
MEIER: Well, like I say, we always had plenty to eat, so that was one thing we didn't have to worry about.
HOFFMAN: Were you ever aware of any government efforts in the town with respect to other people? Were there ever any efforts to distribute food to poor people, or any government intervention in Mt. Prospect because of the Depression?
MEIER: Not that I know of.
HOFFMAN: Did the town itself take any action to help people?
MEIER: I don't think so.
HOFFMAN: You were pretty much on your own, then.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: Then comes World War II. Now, your son was born in 1927 so he was too young. He was only thirteen or fourteen years old at the time of World War II. Did the war have any effect on you here?
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: Did it do anything for your prices? At that time were you growing tomatoes or did you have a milk farm?
MEIER: We must have been still milking then because we sold the cows when my son had to go, and that was the Korean War where he went. That was in 1952.
HOFFMAN: So at the time of the outbreak of World War II you were still. ..
MEIER: Milking.
HOFFMAN: ...selling milk. Did the outbreak of the war have any effect on your business here, the farm?
MEIER: No, just that my son had to go into service and we were sort of short-handed.
HOFFMAN: Oh, yes, I suppose. And then came the 1950s and Korea and the threat of nuclear war and all that went with that --the whole McCarthy era. Did you ever have a sense of fear during the 1950s of the Cold War, of nuclear war? Was that a topic?
MEIER: Well, it was just always a worry that my son would have to go in service.
HOFFMAN: Into the Army.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: And he did.
MEIER: Oh, yes.
HOFFMAN: Where did he serve?
MEIER: In Korea.
HOFFMAN: Did he see combat?
MEIER: No, he was a quartermaster.
HOFFMAN: So he moved the supplies to everybody. During the 1950s was there any fear locally, expressed by people, of the whole Cold War and the threat of nuclear war?
MEIER: No, I don't think so.
HOFFMAN: Did the town of Mt. Prospect do anything during the fifties or the 1960s regarding civil defense that you're aware of?
MEIER: Well, they might have but I was not too interested because I had to help at home.
HOFFMAN: Because, actually, you were more isolated out on the farm, I take it.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: Really, you were not a downtown resident.
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: By the 1960s you saw development around you.
MEIER: Oh, yes. That's when Mt. Prospect started to develop. They built where the bakery is now, that corner.
HOFFMAN: Oh, the Continental Bakery?
MEIER: Yes. That was all built in those years, I think -- if I'm not mistaken. They might have been built a little sooner.
HOFFMAN: The houses around your house, when were they built?
MEIER: Well, when we sold the farm, and I can't remember just --when my son came home he farmed with his dad for four years, and that must have been --he went in in 1952 and he came home in 1954 --1958 --it must have been around 1959 or 1960 or something like that. Then they started building around here.
HOFFMAN: Was there one certain developer that put a lot of these houses in?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Who was that?
MEIER: Well, first we sold to a fellow by the name of Hatlett, but he went broke.
HOFFMAN: Oh, like Hatlett Road here.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: He went broke? Did you get your money, though?
MEIER: We had only sixty acres here, and we bought 200 in Crystal Lake so were were plenty worried we'd never make it.
HOFFMAN: When did you buy the 200 acres in Crystal Lake?
MEIER: When we sold here.
HOFFMAN: Oh, when you sold the sixty acres here.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: Were you going to farm in Crystal Lake?
MEIER: Yes, my son wanted to farm, so he moved to Crystal Lake.
HOFFMAN: Did Hatlett pay you for the land?
MEIER: Well, some of it.
HOFFMAN: But not all of it.
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: So what happened then?
MEIER: We got a different buyer.
HOFFMAN: Do you remember who that was?
MEIER: Oh, I know his name but I can't think of it right now.
HOFFMAN: And how much did he develop it? Did he put in many of these houses around here?
MEIER: Yes, all of these houses.
HOFFMAN: All of these around here.
MEIER: Hatlett just built a few along Busse Road.
HOFFMAN: And the rest were the next developer in.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: This must have been quite a construction site at one time. Were they putting up one house at a time or many house at a time?
MEIER: Oh, they were working on two or three at one time.
HOFFMAN: So there was all this building and noise and activity around here.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: Let me take you back to when you first moved in here. Was this house the same size it is now?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: So there were no additions. We're sitting in your kitchen, and it's obviously a modern kitchen.
MEIER: But it wasn't modern when I got here.
HOFFMAN: It wasn't! How was it different?
MEIER: Well, like I said, we had no running water, we had no electric. We had to pay for the electric, to bring the line in from Busse Road. We had to pay for that.
HOFFMAN: Oh, you had to pay for that.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: What year did that come in, about?
MEIER: I think it was about two or three years after we were married.
HOFFMAN: In the late twenties?
MEIER: It must have been after the Depression.
HOFFMAN: Who put that line in?
MEIER: The public service.
HOFFMAN: Public service was whom? It wasn't Commonwealth Edison as we know it now, was it?
MEIER: It must have been.
HOFFMAN: Was that electricity generated here in Mt. Prospect or did that come from a transmission line? You don't know.
MEIER: No, I don't know.
HOFFMAN: It was a wire that came in.
MEIER: I was only glad we had electricity.
HOFFMAN: Exactly. Okay, prior to electricity --we're sitting at your kitchen table now and there is a nice electric light over us --prior to electricity --and it's after seven o'clock --how would we have lit this room prior to electricity?
MEIER: A kerosene light.
HOFFMAN: Kerosene lamps where you're trimming the wick, and everything.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: We have probably three light bulbs lighting this room. How many kerosene lamps would you have in a room? One per room, or what?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Would you have kerosene lamps burning in unoccupied rooms?
MEIER: Well, in the living room we had what they called at that time a Coleman, and that was with a wick, and that was also gasoline.
HOFFMAN: Gasoline.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: And you didn't blow yourself up.
MEIER: I'm surprised myself.
HOFFMAN: Did that stay lit all evening until you went to bed?
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: What about a light in the kitchen?
HOFFMAN: At dark would you maintain a kerosene lamp in the living room and a kerosene lamp in the kitchen --just two lamps?
MEIER: Well, we mostly sat in the living room.
HOFFMAN: Would you keep the one in the kitchen on in case you needed to go into the kitchen?
MEIER: Oh, yes.
HOFFMAN: Would there be any other lights burning in the house in unoccupied rooms?
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: Now, when you decided to go to bed, would you carry those lamps with you?
MEIER: No, we just went to bed in the dark.
HOFFMAN: The bedrooms are upstairs, I take it.
MEIER: Well, we have a bedroom downstairs, too.
HOFFMAN: Okay, but the kids were upstairs.
MEIER: The kids had to go upstairs.
HOFFMAN: And everybody went in the dark.
MEIER: Well, they had flashlights.
HOFFMAN: Flashlights. But, now, when they went into their room they didn't turn a light on, did they?
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: They just went under the covers to bed.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: And pretty much the same for you.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: You weren't going to light a lamp for just a minute to see your way.
MEIER: No, that's right.
HOFFMAN: At that time, how were you heating the house? With coal?
MEIER: Coal.
HOFFMAN: And then electricity comes. At that time there was also no running water.
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: How did you get your water?
MEIER: We had to haul it in from our milk house.
HOFFMAN: Where was the milk house located?
MEIER: It was right at the corner of Myrtle and Hatlett.
HOFFMAN: Right at the corner there.
MEIER: Right in the corner there.
HOFFMAN: Now, what's a milk house?
MEIER: That was where we kept our milk, and that's where we got our drinking water.
HOFFMAN: Now, this house is set back from the corner of Hatlett and Myrtle. You had a milk house right at the corner. What other buildings were on the farm?
MEIER: Well, we had sheds over here for our machinery, and a barn.
HOFFMAN: Near where Myrtle is now, the street?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: You had sheds. I take it you had a barn for the cows. Where was the barn?
MEIER: I've got a picture I can show you, but that won't help you on the tape.
HOFFMAN: No, but I will look at that picture.
MEIER: About where the house across the street is.
HOFFMAN: Across Hatlett is about where you're --and how many cows did you have?
MEIER: We started out with around twenty-five.
HOFFMAN: And by the end how many did you have?
MEIER: We kept about the same.
HOFFMAN: To get water, then, you had to walk thirty feet, thirty-five feet, to the shed --to the milk house.
MEIER: To the milk house, yes.
HOFFMAN: And how did you draw the water up from the ground?
MEIER: We pumped.
HOFFMAN: A hand pump.
MEIER: Yes, or they had a gasoline engine to pump water for the cows, but if I just wanted a bucket....
HOFFMAN: But not for you.
MEIER: No --just a bucket, I had to pump it.
HOFFMAN: And you did that yourself.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: The one who wanted the water pumped the pump.
MEIER: Yes. We had a sink over there, and there we had a bucket of water. We had a pump for rain water. That's for washing hands.
HOFFMAN: Oh, you had a bucket of rain water there just to wash your hands.
MEIER: Yes, well, we had to pump it.
HOFFMAN: Where did that pump water from, rain barrels?
MEIER: A cistern.
HOFFMAN: Okay, from the cistern. Now, we're doing this interview in October, and it's not too cold out, but I imagine in January and February when it was very cold out, if you needed to do the dishes, or whatever, with the water, you'd put on your coat and you walked thirty-five feet to the milk house and you pumped the water?
MEIER: No. That's what I used the pump for, for the rain water.
HOFFMAN: Oh, so you used that for about everything here.
MEIER: And we had a cookstove here, and there we had a reservoir, and that's where I got the hot water from.
HOFFMAN: Oh, you heated the water in the reservoir on the stove. Was that a wood stove or a coal stove?
MEIER: Well, mostly I burned coal because that kept the heat overnight better.
HOFFMAN: You had to keep that burning all night, didn't you.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: And if it went out, you had a problem.
MEIER: Yes. You had to light it again in the morning.
HOFFMAN: Was that a pain in the neck to light it?
MEIER: Oh, yes.
HOFFMAN: To get coal burning?
MEIER: Yes. We started with paper and kindling.
HOFFMAN: And keep the temperature getting higher and higher and higher. And all of a sudden you get electricity. When you got the electricity, what appliances did you first get? What was the first thing you bought?
MEIER: A light.
HOFFMAN: A light that stood on a shelf or on the wall or in the ceiling or what?
MEIER: No, like this.
HOFFMAN: Oh, like the chandelier hanging down. Do you remember where you got that light --where you bought it?
MEIER: No, I don't.
HOFFMAN: When you first got electricity, where did it come into the house? Were there outlets in the walls all of a sudden, or just one wire or what?
MEIER: We didn't put any more outlets than we absolutely needed, because every outlet would cost us so much.
HOFFMAN: Per month?
MEIER: No, to put in.
HOFFMAN: Oh, I see, so you minimized your...
MEIER: An electrician, you know, to wire the house.
HOFFMAN: So when you finally got that wire run from the electric company to your house, you hired an electrician.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Were electricians hard to come by?
MEIER: I don't think so. I think he came from Park Ridge.
HOFFMAN: And you told him where you wanted the outlets, and he ran the wires to the outlets and also put in some fixtures.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: How much of an impact did electricity make in your life?
MEIER: Oh, a whole lot.
HOFFMAN: Easier? What did it change?
MEIER: Well, first of all, washing.
HOFFMAN: Okay, what did it do about washing?
MEIER: Well, I'd have to get water from the milk house, haul it down in the basement and use it for rinsing water because our cistern was not very big. When I got an electric washing machine I could just throw the clothes in and press a button and that was it.
HOFFMAN: That must have been astounding.
MEIER: I know it.
HOFFMAN: Just in a matter of time, how much time did that save you?
MEIER: Well, I didn't consider my time.
HOFFMAN: But the effort, if nothing else, it saves. What else did electricity do for you?
MEIER: Ironing. I used to heat the iron on the cookstove, then I got an electric iron and it was wonderful.
HOFFMAN: Does anything else right off the bat strike you as a big difference?
MEIER: Well, then, in a couple of years we put in inside toilets.
HOFFMAN: Another landmark event. Again, I suppose that made a major difference in the operation of the house.
MEIER: Oh, yes.
HOFFMAN: Now, at some point you stopped heating the house with a coal furnace and went to, what, oil?
MEIER: Then we had an oil.
HOFFMAN: And then oil was delivered. Do you know about when that you made that change from coal to oil?
MEIER: No, I don't know that. I just know we had two oil tanks in the basement, and whenever we could notice it was getting low we had to call the oil man to fill it. And then finally we converted to gas.
HOFFMAN: When did that take place?
MEIER: I think that must have taken place when we sold the farm.
HOFFMAN: Oh, in the fifties? And, again, that was probably another improvement on everything. When was Busse Road paved?
MEIER: I couldn't tell you.
HOFFMAN: Was it before the war or after the war?
MEIER: Oh, it must have been before the war, I think.
HOFFMAN: Prior to the war in the thirties, at that time was
Mt. Prospect growing?
MEIER: Oh, yes, little by little.
HOFFMAN: Who was moving out here then?
MEIER: No, there was nothing here, not until we sold our farm.
HOFFMAN: In the fifties.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: When you sold the farm and people started moving in, what kind of people bought here? People who worked downtown and took the train, or who was it who was buying these houses?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Now, until the mid-fifties and late fifties, I suppose, the Chicago & Northwestern was operated by steam engines and all that. I imagine you have a pretty good recollection of that. How often did the commuter trains, the passenger trains, run out of Mt. Prospect? Do you have any idea?
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: That was all non-farm stuff.
MEIER: That's right. It didn't bother me then.
HOFFMAN: Exactly. Let me see if there is anything else.
Now, prior to electricity how did you keep food?
MEIER: We put it in the basement, on the cement floor, to keep it cool.
HOFFMAN: In the winter I imagine you had no problem.
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: What about the summer? How would you keep perishables --milk, dairy products, meat --how would you keep that?
MEIER: Usually I canned a lot of meat. When we'd butcher hogs in the winter I'd can it.
HOFFMAN: So that's where your meat came from, is your own farm.
MEIER: That's right. We butchered a hog.
HOFFMAN: Did you ever, say, prior to 1940, did you ever go into town for meat? Did you shop for meat in Mt. Prospect?
MEIER: Not too much.
HOFFMAN: You were on the farm.
MEIER: Mostly we ate a lot of chicken.
HOFFMAN: Did you raise chickens?
MEIER: Oh, yes.
HOFFMAN: So you raised chickens, hogs and cows.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: What other things would you buy at Busse's Grocery Store? Cereals and grains and things?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Was that all in bulk? What was packaged and what was in bulk?
MEIER: That's a good question. I know a bakery from Arlington Heights would come around once a week, and we could get cookies and rolls from there.
HOFFMAN: Came around to your house?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Almost like a peddler.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: So a fellow would pull up and ask you if you wanted any baked goods.
MEIER: I think it was a woman at that time.
HOFFMAN: And you would buy off the truck.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Isn't that interesting! Where did you get material? Did you sew?
MEIER: Quite a bit --mostly from the Sears catalog.
HOFFMAN: Material to sew with or ready-made clothes?
MEIER: No, material to sew with.
HOFFMAN: The Sears catalog must have had a real impact on your life.
MEIER: Oh, yes --like for the men, overalls. That was all bought from Sears.
HOFFMAN: What else did you buy from Sears?
MEIER: Well, that was about it.
HOFFMAN: Overalls and rough clothes like that.
MEIER: Stockings.
HOFFMAN: And cloth that you would then sew into various things.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: So, certainly the 1920s and into the 1930s you had little need for Mt. Prospect.
MEIER: No, that's right.
HOFFMAN: You were pretty much self-sufficient on this farm.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: And probably all that much hasn't changed, I suppose. I think that's probably all the questions I have for you, unless there is anything you would like to add that you can recollect. Are there any events, as long as you've lived here, that stand out in your mind? Any monumental events that took place here --fires or floods or hurricanes or tornadoes?
MEIER: The flood when that reservoir. ...
HOFFMAN: Oh, the reservoir over here.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: When did that flood?
MEIER: Now, that I don't know, but I know that it ran over and it came almost all the way up to the corner here of ...
HOFFMAN: Close. Was that a number of years ago?
MEIER: Well, let's see, how long ago was that --I really don't know when it was, but it's not that long ago.
HOFFMAN: Was that reservoir here required of the developer?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: So that was some foresight somebody had, but even that did flood and spillover.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Okay, I think that's probably all the questions I have. Again, I want to thank you very much for granting me this interview and for signing the consent form. I have one more question though, or an opportunity I'd like to give -- I'm an optimist and I'd like to think that fifty or a hundred or a hundred and fifty years from now school children or historians may be listening to this tape or reading the transcript of this tape. Is there anything you would have to say to them?
MEIER: Well, the only thing I can think, I've seen so many changes in my lifetime that I don't know if the next generation could --I saw horse-and-buggy days with putting somebody on the moon.
HOFFMAN: That's right. You went from the horse to the microwave to the space travel and the space shuttle.
MEIER: That's right, because my father had horses. Well, we had horses when we were first married, too, but we didn't use them for transportation. But my father did, because I knew we'd take a sleigh and visit my grandfather and grandmother.
HOFFMAN: Where did they live?
MEIER: They lived in Schaumburg.
HOFFMAN: They were farming in Schaumburg.
MEIER: No, he was retired.
HOFFMAN: And you went by sleigh.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: And comparing that...
MEIER: I can still see myself. They'd put the blanket way over my head to keep warm.
HOFFMAN: How old were you then?
MEIER: I must have been about six or seven.
HOFFMAN: And then just packed you real tight in the sled.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: How far did they go?
MEIER: Oh, let's see, from Bartlett to Schaumburg....
HOFFMAN: That's a good, long distance. Was that on a road?
MEIER: Oh, yes. There were roads there.
HOFFMAN: But they were unpaved roads, and the snow would just...
MEIER: Yes, mostly gravel.
HOFFMAN: It's hard to imagine that anyone in their lifetime could see any more changes than you've seen.
MEIER: That's what my son told me, too.
HOFFMAN: And how have you adapted to that change? Has it been hard at all? Have you had difficulty?
MEIER: No, it's come so gradually that. ...
HOFFMAN: Does anything bother you about that change? Has it ever bothered you?
MEIER: No, but when they say "the good old days," I always say, "My good old days are right now."
HOFFMAN: I was going to ask, was it better then or is it better now?
MEIER: For me it's better right now.
HOFFMAN: Why is it better?
MEIER: Because I have nothing to worry about anymore.
HOFFMAN: Well, your house is paid off and you're --in a financial sense.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: Is life harder on people now, or was it harder then?
MEIER: Well, for me it was harder then.
HOFFMAN: Because of the physical labors.
MEIER: Yes, much harder.
HOFFMAN: Has modernization, though, made it, do you think, more difficult for people to cope psychologically or mentally? Have you seen that in your life?
MEIER: No, I think it's much better now.
HOFFMAN: You do!
MEIER: Yes, so much easier. Even with the farm machinery, it's much more advanced than when we started in.
HOFFMAN: So your point is, really, that physical labor was the worst.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: On everybody.
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Now, the pace is quicker today, is it not?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: Is that better or worse than it was then?
MEIER: Well, no. I think it was much friendlier then. We could take the car and go visiting. We didn't have to call up first or make a date. If they were home, okay; if not, we'd try somewhere else. We didn't call up first.
HOFFMAN: And clear the way.
MEIER: Now you don't go nowhere unless you're invited.
HOFFMAN: That is a difference --that really is a difference.
MEIER: I think that was much better years ago. It seemed to be much more friendly.
HOFFMAN: It was just an accepted way of doing things.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: Does the crime rate now bother you, looking back on maybe the way it wasn't?
MEIER: Oh, yes. It's getting too awful.
HOFFMAN: But in the 1920s there was crime, wasn't there?
MEIER: But not so much.
HOFFMAN: Was there ever local crime?
MEIER: No, we were always pretty well protected.
HOFFMAN: Did you lock your door in the twenties and thirties?
MEIER: Oh, yes. We did that.
HOFFMAN: Was there ever any theft on your property?
MEIER: No, I can't say that we ever had any trouble here.
HOFFMAN: When you sent your son to school --I take it he walked to grade school.
MEIER: Well, sometimes. We had car pools. We took the neighbors. We'd go one week and they'd drive another week.
HOFFMAN: Did you drive all the time, or were there times when he walked?
MEIER: They mostly were taken in the car.
HOFFMAN: Was that because of the distance or was that because of fear?
MEIER: No, I think it was the distance.
HOFFMAN: Did you have any fear at that time that your kid might be harmed?
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: It never entered your mind.
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: It never entered, really, anybody's mind at that time.
MEIER: No.
HOFFMAN: But today that's different.
MEIER: You could never walk today.
HOFFMAN: I guess that is one of the big differences. Is that a fair trade-off for the conveniences of today?
MEIER: I don't know either.
HOFFMAN: Is that a hard question to answer?
MEIER: Yes.
HOFFMAN: I mean, today it's physically much easier, but mentally it can be much tougher.
MEIER: Yes, much more danger, I think.
HOFFMAN: If you had to pick one of those two ways --if I gave you a choice, one way or the other, 1928 attitude or 1993 attitude, which...?
MEIER: Well, there was not so much danger then as there is now.
HOFFMAN: And you think that's important?
MEIER: I think so.
HOFFMAN: Yes, although you didn't have microwave popcorn then.
MEIER: That's right.
HOFFMAN: Okay, listen, I really appreciate your time. I thank you very much.
MEIER: Now, can I have a tape of that, too?

Back to Top of Page
 

Name:                                                           Louis Meier

Does MPHS have photographs:           

Address in MP:                                            705 S. Busse Road

Birth Date:                                                    1892

Death Date:                                                Unknown

Marriage

            Date:                                                   June 22, 1916

            Spouse:                                               Anna (Rohlwing) Meier (b. 1899)

            Children:                                            George and Leslie

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
The Meier family were early settlers in Mount Prospect. They, like most of their neighbors, were German Lutherans and Louis Meier was a member of this community. He went to Saint John Lutheran School and was a life long member of the church. He grew up in a community that was still mostly made up of farmers and was somewhat isolated. In such a small community, it was often difficult to find suitable mates. Louis Meier met his wife at his older brother’s wedding and ended up marring the sister of the bride.

Back to Top of Page

Name:                                                             Edna Mensching

Does MPHS have Photographs:               No

Interviewer:

Date of Interview:                                        February 17, 1994

Oral History Text:

Q: ...and I am interviewing Edna Mensching. Today is February 17, 1994, and I am interviewing her in her home at 225 S. Emerson at eleven o'clock in the morning. Thank you very much, Edna, for agreeing to be interviewed and also for signing the consent form. Edna lived and was born on the area that is Route 83, or Elmhurst Road, west of the current St. Raymond's, north of Weller Creek and east of the country club. There are 115 acres, and it was a dairy farm where she lived with her parents and her two brothers. Her one brother died of diptheria when he was six years old, and the other died when he was a freshman, 15 years old, of leukemia. They raised grain, corn, they had cows, pigs and chickens. In 1925 they sold the property to Lonnquist who then subdivided it, and they moved to 225 Emerson and she has resided here ever since. They bought two lots. There is one lot that is still empty, and they had a small garden on the extra lot.

Her father retired from farming at this time. She went to school at St. Paul's all her eight years. She started in 1920, and she graduated in 1928. She always walked to school, too. She walked from the house, when she lived on the farm, and also when she moved to Emerson. There was a one-room school at the time, and this was at St. Paul's connected with St. Paul's church. She had one teacher –his name was Martin Haas --for the first two years that she was there. Then Miss Tagge came, and also a Mr. Jockish came, and they built on to three rooms so there were three teachers in this school. This school was located at Busse and Elm. The day always started, she said, with a religion class. They had Bible history, they had to memorize catechism and they had to learn hymns. The religious class was every day. They also had English lessons, arithmetic, geography, history. Penmanship was really stressed by Mr. Haas. They never had an art class. She liked most of her subjects, and most of her teachers, she said, were excellent. [They] had their own history books, spelling books and Bible history, also. She walked on a road with her father, or he often would take her with the milk wagon when he brought the milk to the creamery. Even though she lived on a farm she did not have to help with the chores. There was a hired man to do that, also her brothers. School started at nine o'clock. The teacher rang the bell. Breakfast at home, she always had cooked cereal. It was either oatmeal or farina, and homemade bread and a piece of coffee cake. No juice. She brought her lunch, always, to school, and most of all the children ate at school. They brought a sandwich, which was usually homemade white bread, a piece of cake or cookies, and sometimes an apple. When she first started there was a bucket with water that all the children drank from. Later when the school was added on, the three rooms --the third building was added -- there was running water there. There was also an outhouse outside for most of her years, she said. Permission was asked by raising her hand. There were fifteen students in her class. Most of the students were the same from grade to grade. There were two to a desk at first, then later when they added on they had single desks. There was an inkwell on each, and also a place to put the books underneath. There was no library in the school; there also was no basement. There was a piano. All three teachers played the piano, and they sang mostly religious songs and some patriotic. She learned German. The teachers talked in English, and they learned German from a book called a fible. Recess was morning and afternoon. They played ball or jump rope. They played in the classroom on the blackboard sometimes, too, when they couldn't play outside. They went outside always, with weather permitting. There was no gym and there was no basement. She always wore a dress to school, and all of her clothing was homemade. She wore long stockings and the high button shoes first. The teachers were always dressed in suits, and the female teacher always wore a dress, also. The boys wore kneesox and knickers. There was no harsh punishment that she ever remembers --the only punishment she remembers was staying in at recess time. The big high point was the picnic that was held after school was let out, around June, and there was popcorn and they were able to purchase pop and ice cream, and there was a meal in the church basement. They also had a flag drill where they would practice with the flags in each hand, and they would perform this in front of their parents. The Christmas program also was a highlight of the year, and it was on Christmas eve. The children all memorized something and they sang songs, and afterwards bags of candy, nuts, fruit, orange and apples were passed out to them. Her entertainment was friends coming over to the house and just visiting with them. The friends played in the basement. There was really no place to hang out in town, she said. She lived just a couple of doors, really, away from Kruse's Tavern but, of course, that was a place where she would not go. But she would walk up, once in a while, to Edwin Busse's, which was next to the village hall, or William Busse's --this was a grocery and dry goods store --to help her mother with some shopping. After graduation she went to Arlington Heights High School for two years, and she quit because her mother needed surgery and she needed help. She would get the bus at the corner of Main and Busse. Confirmation was another time of her grade school years that was a highlight for the children. They were confirmed on Palm Sunday. They also went to the Des Plaines photographer for their picture, which was a formal picture taken. The girls all wore pretty white dresses. The boys wore suits. There were no gowns at the time. They would take their confirmation lessons from Pastor Mueller from a building that was the village hall at the time, and they would go for an hour in the morning. They would walk over there and walk back again. They would have a party at her house --at the house afterwards. They invited their sponsors. She remembers getting a birthstone ring, a hymn book with her name engraved, and a Bible.

Back to Top of Page

Name:                                                           Henry G. Meyer

Does MPHS have photographs:            No

Address in MP:                                            11 S. State Road, Arlington Heights

Birth Date:                                                    Unknown

Death Date:                                                Unknown

Marriage

            Date:                                                 Unknown

Spouse:                                             Unknown

            Children:                                           Frank, Henry C.W., George Albert (possibly others)

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
Henry Meyer was involved in a number of different activities in the Mount Prospect area. In 1883 Christian Geils (the first owner of the Mount Prospect general store), J.A. Kennicott, and Henry Meyer purchased property with the purpose of producing a pond. They built a dam and flooded an area that became Arlington Heights Pond or Meyer’s Pond. The point of the pond was to produce ice in the winter, so that they could from an ice-delivery service, which was quite profitable in years before refrigeration. Meyer later bought out his partners and built a grand house on the property.

Henry Meyer had construction experience as he had built Saint John Evangelical Reformed Church (Saint John United Church of Christ), worked with John Boeger to build Saint Peter Lutheran Church, and was in business with his sons building houses. He also ran a beer distributor business that covered all the space from Des Plaines to Barrington.

Back to Top of Page

Name:                                                           Herman Meyn

Does MPHS have photographs:            Yes

Address in MP:                                            21 S. Maple

Birth Date:                                                    November 28, 1889

Death Date:                                                1965

Marriage

            Date:                                                 December 30, 1911

            Spouse:                                              Ida Deeke

            Children:                                            2 Daughters, Mrs. Preston Winkelman and Mrs. Kurt Grotheer 

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
Herman Meyn, was Mount Prospect’s second mayor. He was the son of Mount Prospect’s first Blacksmith, John Meyn. Herman Meyn was also trained as a blacksmith and began working as a blacksmith in 1914. He bought his own business in 1924 and still had an active foundry business when he became mayor. Changing with the times, he later expanded his business to include farm implements and eventually lawn movers. 

Herman Meyn was one of the first people born in Mount Prospect