Ernest Von Oven in Holland’s Directory

The 1886 Holland’s Directory features three full-page ads promoting Ernest Von Oven’s various businesses. All have the same office “at the forks of Aurora and Oswego roads,” where St. John’s Episcopal Church currently sits. In fact, the rectory behind the church was once the Von Oven home. 

Von Oven arrived in 1855, and by 1866, he had established himself as a businessman in town and married Emma Reifnerath, with whom he raised a family of five children: Helene, Johanna, Hedwig, Frederick, and Emma. 

Von Oven also started the Naperville Nursery with his brother, Adelbert, the favorite of all his operations, which ran until the mid-1900s, long past Ernest’s own passing in 1906. It was one of several nurseries in the area and was well-known for fruit trees in particular. Emma and her children carried on the business for a number of years. This 1926 ad from the American Institute of Park Executives shows the only son, Fred, as the president and “H. Von Oven” as the secretary. As Hedwig, unfortunately, died while still a toddler, this no doubt refers to Helene. 

Von Oven’s other operations included a tile- and brickworks with George Martin, the builder of the mansion now featured at Naper Settlement. Martin had started the brickworks in the mid-1850s, but it really took off following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 when the city was desperate to rebuild. One of Martin’s former associates was Martin King and Von Oven became a partner in 1878. In addition to bricks, the company also produced tile, which was becoming more and more necessary for draining agricultural fields.

Yet a third business Von Oven was involved in was a quarry and stone operation with Bernard B. Boecker, starting in 1884. Boecker survived the infamous Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago in 1903 but tragically lost his son to a wagon accident in one of the quarries. Naperville had several quarries along the DuPage River that eventually were abandoned, including the Von Oven and Boecker property. 

In 1831, a group of citizens purchased that land from the Von Oven heirs with the idea of getting the city to take it on as 100th anniversary Permanent Memorial and turn it into a park and swimming hole. Centennial Beach was dedicated in June, technically some months before it actually became property of the city. Bernard’s son, Theodore, was one of the members of the Permanent Memorial Committee. 

It's interesting to look at the old Sanborn Maps of Naperville and see the industrial rail spur running down Jackson and up Ewing to join the main line going to Chicago. In addition to the stone and brick businesses, this spur was probably also used by John Suess’s church furniture shop and maybe the German cheese factory. The Stenger Brewery doesn’t seem to be along the rail route, but Stenger did store beer close to the DuPage River, so perhaps they used wagons for transportation to storage and later used the spur to connect with the main line?

Ernest and Emma’s children seem to have been smart and talented. In addition to helping with the family’s businesses, Fred was a trained engineer and also instrumental in developing Illinois state parks. He worked with Jens Jensen on a pamphlet called “A Park and Forest Policy for Illinois.” 

Before Johanna died suddenly in 1909, she was an accomplished artist and teacher of art, training and working at the Chicago Art Institute and Chicago University. Helene and Emma, named for her mother, both continued in the nursery business. None of the Von Oven children had children of their own and Emma was the last of the line. She presented a portion of her land to the city for the Von Oven Scout Reservation before her death in 1960.

In addition to the Scout Reservation and the St. John’s rectory, the Von Ovens also left behind a stately monument in the Naperville Cemetery where all of the family is buried. 

Naperville Parks - Kroehler Park

Kroehler Park is tucked away between Wright and Sleight Streets on 5th Avenue. The park butts up against some of the properties that are part of the 5th Avenue Development currently under consideration. Also, appropriately enough, it’s just a stone’s throw away from 5th Avenue Station which was once known as the Kroehler Manufacturing Company.

The Kroehler Company was once one of the largest manufacturers of upholstered furniture in the world, employing a large percentage of Naperville’s citizens. 

Peter E. Kroehler was born in 1872 and grew up in Minnesota. His immigrant parents encouraged education and hard work and Peter made the most of that advice. 

He attended North Central College here in town when it was still known as North-Western and was a student of professor James Nichols, the library’s namesake. Nichols was also a founding partner of the Naperville Lounge Factory and they hired young Kroehler as a clerk. 

By 1896, Kroehler was one of the partners and by 1903, he was president of the company, buying out the two remaining partners. (Nichols died in 1895.) Within the next few years, Kroehler also started his own furniture manufacturing firm in Kankakee. 

By1915, he had merged the companies, along with several others he acquired, under the Kroehler Manufacturing name. While the company was dissolved in 1981, you can still purchase new furniture today with the Kroehler name. 

Not only was Kroehler a successful business man and the main employer in town, he also served two terms as Naperville’s mayor. 

The 5th Avenue Station building is actually the second furniture factory. The first was destroyed by a tornado in 1913 so Kroehler built a new one. 

In 1946, a devastating train crash occurred on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad close to the Kroehler building, killing 45 people and injuring another 125. Kroehler employees were first on the scene and their warehouse was used as an emergency medical station. 

Kroehler park is a charming neighborhood park with play equipment for youngsters in the area. While small, Kroehler Park can claim an impressive amount of Naperville history behind its name. 

Naperville Parks - The Burlingtons

Our community is blessed with a number of parks, forest preserves and other green spaces. The names of these parks reflect their attributes or their developers or our local history. Since the significance of a park’s name can be lost as our population grows and ages, over the coming months we’ll highlight a few parks as a reminder. 

There are two parks named for the Burlington Northern Railway Company. As you might imagine, both will be found along the tracks. 

Burlington Square is a small park right in front of the 5th Avenue station. It features a statue of an American “doughboy” from World War I. Through the years since the War to End All Wars, the doughboy got a little beat up and had his rifle stolen, but the Century Walk art group restored him 2003 and placed him in Burlington Square. 

There’s also a Burlington Park between the railway and the DuPage River. Currently, Burlington Park in under the care of the DuPage Forest District — again.

A referendum was passed in 1966 to create the Naperville Park District and in 1969, the Park District took over several Forest Preserve properties, including Burlington. The lease just lapsed in 2016, giving the park back to the Forest Preserve. 

Originally, Burlington Park was a holiday destination created by the railway late in the 19th century. Chicago city folk could take the train out into the country during hot summers to picnic and party. The DuPage River was dammed to make a lake for boating and dancing, concerts and ball games were also offered. Revelers often brought kegs of beer with them or visited the town saloons. By 1899, Naperville’s citizens had had enough of those shenanigans and the park was closed. 

In 1920, Naperville’s Association of Commerce, the forerunner of our current Chamber, worked with the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad to purchase the property for Naperville’s citizens as part of the DuPage Forest Preserve District.

Abraham Lincoln's Funeral 145 Years Ago Today

John Wilkes Booth shot the President on the evening of April 14 and on April 15 Lincoln died. That was just six days after General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate army to General Grant. Preparations began for an elaborate funeral demanded by a grieving country, a sort of national expression of all the personal griefs caused by the Civil War.

The President's body was embalmed, a procedure that had advanced considerably in technique during the War Between the States when so many bodies of soldiers were being sent home. Still, an embalmer traveled with the body all the way to Springfield, Illinois and frequently applied chalk dust and rouge to Lincoln's face and hands in an effort to mask the signs of decay.

25,000 people walked through the East Room where President Lincoln lay in state, standing in line for six hours to do so. The actual funeral service was held on Wednesday, April 19 and was attended by approximately 600 guests.

Platforms had been built in the East Room: one, a heavily draped bier supported and protected the coffin, and another large, stepped stage filled most of the rest of the room for the standing mourners. The mirrors were all shrouded, as was the custom, and white flowers sent by groups and individuals surrounded the bier, which was a somewhat new custom.

The darkened room was lit only by candlelight and "at the head and foot and on each side of the casket of their dead chief stood the motionless figures of his armed warriors," according to Noah Brooks, a contemporary journalist.

Following the funeral, the casket was taken to the the Capitol Building in a hearse pulled by six white horses and followed by thousands and thousands of dignitaries, Union soldiers and freed blacks. The procession was led by a platoon of black soldiers who had arrived a little too late to join the end of the line and simply turned around to become its head.

Another 25,000 or so filed into the Capitol to pay their respects 145 years ago today, April 20. Then on April 21, the bodies of the President and his beloved son Willie began the long train journey back to Springfield.

Who's Been Working on the Railroad?

"Trunks Through Time" sounds like a fascinating way for students from kindergarten through eighth grade to explore the railway history of our country. While currently on display at the Buchanan Center for the Arts in Monmouth, Illinois, these four trunks will be made available for teachers to bring into their classrooms in the near future.

The premise is that students are workers at the Lost and Found department of a large railway station. The station manager hopes to return the trunks to their owners and asks the students to go through the trunks' contents to learn more about the rightful owners.

Inside each trunk are photos, replicated artifacts and actual antiques that represent specific groups of people who make up America's railway history: the Chinese immigrants who built the rail lines, "Harvey Girls" who worked in railroad restaurants, African-American Pullman Porters, and Latino "boxcar children" who lived in surplus rail cars with their families.

Sponsored by a grant from the Galesburg Community Foundation and designed by BRC Imagination Arts, Knox College students and faculty worked together to put assemble the trunk contents and write the accompanying lesson plans.

Galesburg is a big railroad town with a Railroad Museum and a two-day festival called Railroad Days in June, so it's no surprise that Knox College would embrace a project like this. Kate well remembers the wails of train horns at all hours of the day and night when she was studying for her creative writing degree there!
"Trunks Through Time" should provide a wonderful hands-on and rich experience for children to learn history. Lucky kids!