Naperville 1920 Flashback: Cornerstone Day

Naperville’s North Central College has not always been called North Central nor has it always been in Naperville. The Evangelical Association of America founded Plainfield College in 1861 with the idea of “uniting a liberal arts education with religious teaching”* and offered a coeducational program from the very beginning. By 1864, the school’s name was changed from Plainfield to North-Western College in the hopes of attracting a more regional student body.

After weathering the Civil War, the college’s administration considered further plans for growth. The college was located right downtown, near modern-day Route 59, but Plainfield was not then reachable by railroad and the administrators concluded they would do better in a railroad town.

After much research into various nearby towns and several deal-making discussions, North-Western College decided on Naperville which offered both land and money towards a new building. The cornerstone for Old Main was laid on May 17, 1870, and with extensive work, was completed in time for dedication by October 4 and the fall semester.

Cornerstone Day was especially celebratory in May of 1920 when the school celebrated the 50th anniversary of its move to Naperville. A few years later in 1926, the college’s name was changed once more, this time to “North Central” in order to avoid confusion with some college located in Evanston.

NCC continues to flourish, adding new buildings to the campus and new educational opportunities to the curriculum. For years, the college welcomed the entire community to a Cornerstone Day picnic in May, but the event was replaced with an awards reception in 2019 and then retired entirely. Even though no celebration was planned for 2020 and COVID-19 would have cancelled it anyhow, this year is a particularly special anniversary, so Happy 150th Cornerstone Day Anniversary, North Central College!

*A Time for Remembrance: History of 125 years of First Evangelical United Brethren Church, Naperville, Illinois

Naperville 1920 Flashback: The Kroehler Co. Baseball Team

In May of 1920, Kroehler Manufacturing put together a baseball team for the Fox Valley Industrial League. The team reads like a “Who’s Who” of Naperville history including:

F.J. Wehrli – lived in the Pre-Emption house and raised 13 children there
Robert Shimp – his family had a local farm and some served in the fire department
Clarence and Albert Stenger – of the brewery family
Louis Germann – his family started with a harness business in the 1890s
Fred Yanke – Naperville firefighter
Henry Stoner – family started blacksmith shop in 1870s
James and Clarence Kroehler – nephews of Peter
Joe Haas – his brother Bert became a pro ball player
Ernest and William Voss – brother Julian ran for Police Magistrate
Elmer Otterpohl – the family had a butcher shop and sausage business
Leo Koppa – served in the fire department
Clarence and Frank Barley – Clarence was involved in building the YMCA
Fred Shupp, Ray Ballman and Jeff Burke are also listed. They were all Kroehler employees, but kept lower profiles, apparently, since there wasn't much to be found about them. Many of these men also served in World War I.

Peter Kroehler was wildly successful, but the company also weathered quite a few storms. Some storms were literal – like the 1913 tornado that destroyed the first 5th Avenue factory – and some were more figurative such as the Great Depression. Kroehler himself spent two months in the early 1900s quarantined with smallpox. But he continued developing new ways to run his business and build employee morale which resulted in enviable success and loyalty.

100 years later, our own businesses in these opening months of 2020 are facing both figurative storms and quarantine. Now it’s our turn to develop new ways to run our businesses and build employee morale so we can also be wildly successful.

By the way, the newly-formed Kroehler team faced the previous year's pennant winners for their very first game. You'll be happy to know that the Kroehler team won!

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.

Naperville 1920 Flashback: Horses to Cars

In just a few short years, the automobile displaced the horse and wagon, even in still-rural Naperville. These two images from Sanborn Maps tell the story. In 1909, the fire brigade’s pumper wagon was stored on Jefferson Avenue with a livery stable across the street for the horses to pull the wagon.

By 1920, the livery stable is a garage for motor vehicles. In fact, a number of buildings labeled “auto” are sprinkled all over the map. Two livery stables listed earlier and the horse net manufacturer on Jackson are gone. Instead, downtown boasts three different auto sales and repair shops. Our love affair with the automobile has begun!

The Sanborn Map Company published very detailed maps of urban areas to help fire insurance companies better assess their liabilities. For us today, they offer a fascinating look at our city’s past.

Naperville 1920 / 2020 - Setting the Stage

According to contemporary reports, a wild winter storm greeted the new year as 1920 dawned in Illinois. The President was Woodrow Wilson. The Governor was Frank Lowden. With World War I wrapping up, the nation was intending to go back to normal, but normal was anything but in the 1920s.

WWI ended in November of 1928, but the Treaty of Versailles didn't actually take effect until January 10, 1920. The last soldiers were coming home from overseas, having experienced more of the world than their parents or grandparents ever had. Many of the women who had filled in for their menfolk were reluctant to take off their trousers, put their dresses back on and return to the kitchen. Patriotism was high across the nation.

But patriotism was morphing into a nationalism that sowed suspicion. The rise of communism, socialism and fascism in Europe raised fears in the U.S. The first "Red Scare" raids in November 1919 and January 1920 were to oust leftist leaders and political and labor radicals. Immigrants were looked at differently and there were calls to close the borders to immigration. The Ku Klux Klan, once a Confederate social club, adopted an "Americanism" creed that embraced intolerance not only for immigrants, but also for blacks, Catholics, Jews and various practices they deemed "immoral."

So what was it like during this time in little Naperville?
Naperville was incorporated as a city in 1890 and by 1912 was a commission form of government with a mayor and several commissioners instead of aldermen and wards. Mayor Charles B. Bowman was a professor at North-Western College (later renamed North Central College). His commissioners were Alexander Grush (who owned a meat market), Robert Enck (who was in coal supply), Charles Rohr (who was a florist), and C.C. Coleman (who was a druggist.)

The men met at the "new" city hall after moving from their location above the jail and firehouse which was located about where the Apple Store is on Jefferson. The local Masons had just built a new building in 1916 (the Naperville Running Company building) and had moved out of their rooms above the First National Bank. That building, now La Sorella di Francesca, became the new city hall.

Naperville's quarries were no longer being worked, so the main employer in town was the Kroehler Manufacturing Company, renamed in 1915 as the Naperville Lounge Company started incorporating other factories.

While Edward Hospital doesn't look anything like it did in 1920, it did exist as a popular Sanitarium. The YMCA, which does still boast its original building, had been completed in 1911 and even allowed women to use the facilities at certain times of the week. Another landmark from the 1920s that still exists in some form today is Nichols Library, which was built in 1898.

George Santayana said "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" while Mark Twain is supposed to have replied "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Comparing 1920 to 2020 is certainly an interesting exercise that may be useful as well!