Notable Naperville Women - Genevieve Towsley

If you’ve ever walked or driven by the Barnes & Noble Bookstore on the corner of Washington Street and Chicago Avenue, no doubt you’ve seen the bronze statue of Genevieve Towsley sitting near the door. 

Part of the Century Walk public art initiative, the statue shows Genevieve much as she was when she passed away in 1996 at the age of 88. Commemorating her nearly 50 years of writing for Naperville newspapers, she’s holding the familiar notepad and pencil.

Naperville became Genevieve’s “home town” in a round-about way. She was born in Oak Park, but spent many years on an Idaho farm when her family moved there when she was eight.  They returned to Illinois in 1924 so she could attend her chosen college, North Central, at that time still known as Northwestern. 

Genevieve stayed on at North Central College as a teacher until 1932 when she left to raise her family. By 1948 she was writing for The Clarion, a local newspaper. 

One of her former NCC students, Harold White, Jr., bought the Naperville Sun and convinced Genevieve to write for him starting in 1954. She wrote two columns for the Sun over the years:  The Grapevine and Sky-Lines. The Grapevine dealt with local news and issues in the Naperville community. Her column was influential in the desegregation of Centennial Beach and when the Naperville Heritage Society was formed in 1969, she was a charter member. Her writing helped generate interest moving Century Memorial Chapel to the grounds of the Martin Mitchell Mansion, becoming the first addition to Naper Settlement.

Sky-Lines had more of a historical tone. Genevieve re-told local legends, interviewed long-time residents and waded through old books as research. Because of her work, the Sky-Lines articles are a major resource of local history. A selection of columns was gathered up in 1975 under the title A View of Historic Naperville and has been through several printings.

Daughter Dr. Caryl Towsley Moy, a professor, a clinical therapist and many other distinguished things, wrote a book of her own to honor her mother, Genevieve.

When the statue was first installed, Genevieve was wearing her customary glasses, but unfortunately those have disappeared. Still, it’s a pretty faithful depiction of a lovely and smart writer who probably loves sitting outside a bookstore and is happy to share her bench with you.

Notable Naperville Women -- Named "Naper"

Gravestone of Almeda Naper, wife of Joseph

Traditionally May is Heritage Month in Naperville, including Civil War Days which is May 20 and 21. So let’s take a look at the women who were here at the beginning. 

It’s Joseph Naper’s bigger-than-life statue in the park on Mill Street and Jefferson Avenue, but he certainly didn’t found this town without some help.The first settlers included his brother John Naper, his brother-in-law John Murray and their pretty remarkable wives.

When these three families arrived 1831, this land was the western frontier with a just a couple of families, such as the Hobsons, in the area.

Joseph and John Naper were in their early 30s, experienced and in the prime of their lives. Joseph’s wife Almeda was a thirty-one-year-old mother with three young children. John’s wife Betsy was even younger, just twenty-three, with a couple of preschoolers in tow. Both women would more than double the size of their families in Naperville. 

Gravestone of Amy Naper Murray,
wife of John Murray
and sister of Joseph and John Naper

The Murray family was of a slightly older generation. Amy Naper was probably a half sister of Joseph and John from a previous marriage of their father. She was keeping house for another brother, Benjamin, in the earliest days of Ashtabula, Ohio when Joey and Johnny were just tykes. That’s where she met John Murray who was a school teacher in the newly-settled town. Naperville wasn’t the Murray’s first pioneering gig.

The Murrays already had a married daughter whose husband, child and in-laws were also among the earliest Naperville inhabitants.

Robert Naper, the father of Joseph, John and Amy died in Ohio before the family relocated to Illinois, but his wife Sarah is buried in the Naperville Cemetery. She would have been in her mid-sixties when she helped hack a settlement out of the prairie. 

With only each other to rely on, it’s remarkable that these women fed and clothed their families, gave birth and tended illnesses and injuries in this isolated wilderness. 

1874 map of Naperville showing
Betsy Naper's land

Almeda and Betsy both outlived their spouses by decades, although Amy predeceased her husband. The Naper bloodline apparently burned bright rather than long.

Notable Naperville Women -- The Librarians

Naperville boasts three state-of-the-art libraries today. The very first one opened in 1898 thanks to a bequest from James Lawrence Nichols, fundraising by the Women’s Club and donations from other community members.

The first — and many, many subsequent — librarians were local women with a passion for sharing knowledge.

Edna Goss got the library started, cataloguing the books according to the still-newish Dewey Decimal System. But Edna was a only temporary librarian, assisted by Hannah Ditzler who soon took over.

Hannah left the post when she married John Alspaugh in 1905 and Jennie Niederhauser assumed the duties. Jennie’s husband, who had been teaching at North Central College, took a position at Penn State in 1907 so she also resigned to follow him to Pennsylvania.

Jennie was succeeded by Rose Barnard who enjoyed the job as well as the salary of $35 a month. Unfortunately, Rose’s sister got married and she was needed to manage the household of her aging parents. Her father offered to match the library salary, so Rose left the job in 1909.

During her tenure, however, she had been ably assisted by Mary Barbara Egermann who was trained to take over.

Mary, known as Matie, was the daughter of two local brewing families: Her mother was Barbara Stenger of Stenger Brewery and her father Joseph kept a saloon on Jefferson Avenue where Naper Nuts and Sweets currently operates.

Being Naperville’s librarian was Matie’s life’s work and she served the community until 1950. In addition to managing the books, Matie started a little museum in the building that included local history and dolls from around the world. Many of the dolls were brought back by young military friends returning from overseas. You can see a depiction of a uniformed man offering a doll to Matie on the Chicago Street mural near Sullivan’s.

After Matie’s 41 years of service, Miriam Fry and Katherine Finkbeiner took the helm. They also logged an impressive number of years at Nichols, serving until the 1980s.

Today, we are lucky to have teams of dedicated librarians that serve in all three locations. If you haven’t checked into the business resources at the library, give them a call and learn about the cool stuff they offer to help run your business.

Notable Naperville Women - The Martins

Naperville will forever be grateful to Caroline Martin Mitchell. When she died in 1936, she gave 212 acres of downtown property to the city, including her family home, Pine Craig.

Now referred to as the Martin Mitchell Mansion in her honor, the house is the centerpiece of the Naper Settlement. In addition, Central High School, Sportsman’s Park, and Edward Hospital are also all situated on Martin family property.

Caroline’s father, George Martin, came to Naperville as a child in 1833, just a couple years after the Napers arrived. Their original property was basically Rotary Hill. When you’re walking around there this summer, look for the sign that marks the house where George and his wife Sibelia raised their family of one son and three daughters.

George’s business enterprises were a brick and tile manufacturing company which really took off during the rebuilding of Chicago following the Great Fire. He built Pine Craig across the street and moved his now-grown family into it.

Unfortunately, George died just a few years later. But his business enterprises did not. Son George was practicing law in Maywood and Miami and fighting ill health, so the bulk of the work was carried on by his widow Sibelia and his daughters Lizzie, Kittie and Carrie.

In 1908, Lizzie’s obituary in The Naperville Clarion read:

Miss Martin was a woman of unusual business ability. She kept the books of the firm of Martin & von Oven for thirty-six years, sixteen years of which she was one of the firm's managing partners. She was highly respected by her business associates, and to her tact in dealing with employees, and general business integrity and enterprise, the success of the firm is, in a measure, due.

Contrary to norms of time, Kitty, who was born a dwarf, worked and socialized alongside her sisters. Her obituary reads:

The deceased was well known and highly respected among her associates and  friends.

Caroline was the only child to marry, but she moved her husband into Pine Craig rather than move away from the family and the family business.

She never had children of her own and was the last of her family to pass. Caroline’s pride in her family and in her city prompted her generous legacy, making a huge and lasting impact on the vibrancy of Naperville’s downtown.

Notable Naperville Women - The Fredenhagens

Fredenhagen and her daughters Rita and Jeanne shared a deep love for Naperville. So with a nod to both Valentines’ Day and the recent movie “The Founder,” here’s a bit of their story:

Grace’s husband, Walter, owned an ice cream plant in Rushville, Illinois called Frozen Gold. School friend Earl Prince served Frozen Gold at his Downers Grove parlor, Prince Castle.

At the onset of the Depression, Walter sold the Frozen Gold plant and with Earl, opened more Prince Castle shops. The Naperville one opened in 1931 with a dairy behind it to make fresh ice cream.

Prince’s signature offering was the One-in-a-Million malt. For only ten cents, you could get a shake with four scoops of ice cream. It was so thick, that that the motors of the Hamilton-Beach blenders kept burning out.

So Hal and Walter developed the multi-mixer with a three-horsepower motor to mix four malts at one time. In addition to using multi-mixers in Prince Castle stores, they also sold them to other restaurants.

One of their salesmen was a guy from Oak Park named Ray Kroc who traveled the country. He sold a couple of mixers to brothers Dick and Mac McDonald, owners of a burger place in San Bernardino, California. Hamilton-Beach came out with their own multi-mixer which decimated Prince’s sales, so Kroc started another business. For more on that story, watch the new Michael Keaton movie!

Prince Castle continued to thrive throughout the 1940’s, but by 1955, Hal and Walter parted ways. The Fredenhagens continued in the ice cream business joined by family members like son Ted and daughter Rita here in Naperville and daughter Jeanne who shipped strawberries for shakes from her farm in Seattle. The shop’s new name became Cock Robin.

Cock Robin is a huge part of Naperville’s collective memory, from the square scoops to the One-in-a-Million Malts to the English toffee during holidays.

Both Grace a Rita have passed on now. In addition to supporting Cock Robin, Grace Fredenhagen served as president of the Naperville Woman’s Club and director of the Chorus.

Rita was also active, serving with the Rotary, on the Fire and Police Board of Commissioners and on the Edward Hospital Institutional Review Board.

The Cock Robin on Washington Street closed in 2000. Today, it is Fredenhagen Park. The park was dedicated in 2004 by Rita and Ted in honor of their parents Grace and Walter.