The Clarion in Holland’s 1886 Directory

One of the advertisers in Holland’s Business Directory – and a major source of information about all the other advertisers – is the Naperville Clarion. While it is no longer in publication, the Clarion provided news to Naperville citizens for over 100 years. For many of those years, the Givler family served as publisher and editor.

A series of newspapers that were available to Naperville readers came and went until the 1860s. In the early days, folks read the Chicago Weekly Democrat and then the DuPage County Recorder. Other briefly published newspapers included the DuPage County Observer and the DuPage County Journal as well as the Naperville Newsletter and Naperville Sentinel.

During the Civil War, Robert Naper and Dr. Robert Potter founded the DuPage County Press, probably so locals could keep up with the national news. In 1867, after local boy David Givler had returned from the War and found his footing, he bought the Press and changed the name to the Naperville Clarion. Givler wore all the hats from reporter to editor to publisher and his motto for the paper was "Neutral in Nothing; Independent in Everything."

Givler was born in Ohio, but in the 1850s, his family relocated to the Copenhagen settlement which was around Route 59 and 83rd Street. He married Abbie Matter in 1864 while on leave from his war service and their early years were spent in Copenhagen while Givler taught school.

By 1867, they moved to Naperville and Givler became a pillar of the community. He was a well-respected speaker on history and current events and visited schools as well as clubs and organizations. He and Abbie raised three girls and three boys, with all of the boys serving at some point in the newspaper’s print shop.

Son Walter switched from printing to working for the First National Bank of Naperville. In his later years, he was instrumental in preserving early Naperville history, especially the Martin-Mitchell Mansion which had been given to the town by Caroline Martin Mitchell.

Son Oscar spent time in the print shop, too, as well as serving as town clerk, but he suffered from childhood with a “catarrhal affection” and underwent treatment at Edward Sanitorium. Unfortunately, he succumbed at age 47, leaving behind a wife and son.

David Givler published the Clarion until 1905 when he turned over the reins to his son, Rollo. David continued to write and speak during retirement, but he never rallied after his wife of 59 years passed away in the fall of 1922. He followed her on January 6, 1923.

Rollo ran operations at the Clarion and provided other printing services until 1951 when he sold everything to Mel Hodell and retired to California. The Clarion ceased to be published in the 1970s, but most issues are available for perusing through the Naperville Library’s website. They make for fascinating reading and with the search function, you can find great tidbits about Naperville families, businesses, and events.

Naperville 1920 Flashback: Staying in Touch by Phone

The city’s first telephone lines were installed in the 1880s by the Chicago Telephone Company, which in 1920 changed its name to Illinois Bell to represent its growing domain. When the City Council granted the telephone franchise to Chicago Telephone, they also received a number of telephones “free of charge” for the city’s use. 

Few homes or businesses had a telephone in those early years. Philip Beckman’s harness shop, which was on the corner of Washington Street where Jimmy’s Grill currently does business, was among the first, although the shop could only connect with his home. Pine Craig, or as it is known today, the Martin-Mitchell Mansion, also had a phone early on to assist with the brick and tile business the Martins ran out of their home office. The first public phone was installed in Thomas Saylor’s ice cream parlor.

Most phone service subscribers used party lines. The Chicago Telephone Company started pushing a two-party service by 1920 because “Troubles and annoyances, occasionally found on the four-party line, are eliminated,” but party-line services lingered for many years as it was cheaper. Saving money would soon became even more important, of course, due to the Great Depression which was followed by World War II.

Early wall phones required you to crank the magneto, which is a kind of generator, to power a bell that alerted the switchboard operator so you could ask them to connect you. Once your call was over, you cranked again to ring the bell to let them know they could disconnect you. The first candlestick phones also required the assistance of a switchboard operator, but instead of cranking a magneto, you clicked the receiver hook. Rotary phones were already available in 1920, but were not widely used for a few decades. 

To add new subscribers and explain this new-fangled device, telephone companies ran ads in local newspapers, like the one from The Naperville Clarion reminding people not to be “cross” when they get a busy signal. They also published helpful articles in the phone books on how to best use one’s phone. The first phone books were just a dozen or so pages and everyone had a three-digit phone number – except for a couple of special cases. For instance, Edwards Sanitorium’s phone number was “6.” 

Naperville 1920 Flashback: Big Fires Start the Year

Fire activity doubled in 1920 with three big fires occurring in the first three months. While the city normally faced maybe 10-12 fire events a year, there were 20 fires in this start to the new decade.  

At the time, fire department boasted one motorized chemical engine and the “Joe Naper” hand pumper in addition to the traditional bucket brigades. Naperville’s fire department was established in 1874 when there was no city-wide electricity or water and sewer system and not even a street numbering system for addresses.

These improvements, however, were in place by the early 1900s. The city also purchased a 1916 International Chemical Engine, the first that wasn’t powered by a team of horses. The chemicals in the Chemical Engine were a soda-acid combination that helped propel water onto a fire.

According to records, most of the fires that year were related to chimneys, perhaps due to an exceptionally cold winter, but of note were three major fires. The main infirmary at the Edward Tuberculosis Sanitarium burned in February, which was listed in the log as due to crossed wires. Personnel tried to save the recently-installed x-ray machine, but unfortunately they couldn’t drag it far enough away from the falling debris. In early March, there was a fire in a factory on the Hunt Estate and a second fire mid-month at the Judge Goodwin mansion known as Heatherton.

While these three fires caused a total of $1.75 million worth of damages, no lives were lost – at least not in the fires. Judge Goodwin died in Chicago on the same night that his home burned down and there has been plenty of speculation about that coincidence.  A Fire and Water Engineering book from that year says the fire is “believed to be incendiary.” One rumor suggests that the Judge’s servant was instructed to destroy Mrs. Goodwin’s inheritance once she was widowed. The Heatherton property was eventually purchased by North Central College with financial assistance from Peter Kroehler and is currently home to the fieldhouse.

Someone Who Should Haunt Naperville

Last year we wrote about Edward Sanitarium, the precursor to our current Edward Hospital complex. What we didn’t tell you is that Dr. Theodore Sachs, the tuberculosis expert who conceived and ran the Sanitarium, committed suicide on the grounds and was buried on the property.

Dr. Sachs was a Russian immigrant of Jewish descent who arrived in America in 1891. Already armed with a law degree earned in Oddessa, Ukraine, Sachs studied medicine at the University of Illinois, graduating in 1895. He specialized in diseases of the lungs, becoming extremely influential in the Chicago Tuberculosis Institute. With the financial backing of Eudora Hull Gaylord Spaulding, he opened the Edward Sanitarium for tubercular patients in 1907.

But in 1913, Sachs clashed with Chicago Mayor William Hale Thompson over political appointees
on the Chicago Sanitarium board. Thompson’s camp responded with accusations of financial mismanagement. Sachs resigned from the Chicago board in March, but became overwhelmingly despondent.

On April 1, he told the nurse on duty he would rest in his library where they found him the following morning, dead of a morphine overdose. He left two suicide notes protesting his innocence, one to his wife and one to the city of Chicago.

An enormous crowd attended Dr. Sachs’ funeral on that cold day and he was buried on Sanitarium property under a large bronze and stone monument. The grave was moved more than once due to Edward’s expansion, most recently in 1989.

Poor Dr. Sachs! If anyone has a reason to haunt Naperville, the good doctor does!