LOOKING BACK

1923 – 100 YEARS AGO

Friends of Henry W. Prentice, former city attorney of DeKalb, are glad to greet him once more, after his enforced stay in the Glidden hospital for several days, which also included an operation. Mr. Prentice does not yet possess the usual gait when walking about town, but says he will soon get back to the old pep.

Power, generated at the state teachers college power house, was expected to be turned on today after a shutdown of a week and four days due to the fact that the college coal bins have been empty. The power at the institution was discontinued one week ago last Saturday.

Balanced against a record made last year at this time when the DeKalb Ice Company Inc., shipped out an average of four carloads of ice a week to nearby towns is the report that this year, the company sends out at an average of one carload a week. Last year ice companies in nearby cities and as far west as Clinton, Iowa, were unable to make ice because of the coal shortage, while this year all of the companies are able to manufacture ice.

Road Patrolman Arthur Self has been busy for several days removing the ties imbedded in the gravel on East Lincoln Highway, east of the Spring Valley tracks, formerly the property of the Chicago, Aurora and DeKalb electric line. The line has been bought and sold on paper several times since Israel Joseph, junk dealer of Aurora, made the purchase at a receiver’s sale. Junking process was begun some time ago and about four miles of rails and trolley have been removed.

Several yards of the new concrete hard road have been laid in the Elmwood cemetery and the big cement mixer is now headed toward Elmwood Street. This street will be paved down to DeKalb Avenue on the north end and through the cemetery on the south end, while it will be joined by Charles Street on the east and west as far as Somonauk Street. The road before was about 12 feet wide, while the new one is said to be much wider so that two vehicles may pass without trouble.

Over 150 big threshers were manufactured during the spring and summer months by the Illinois Thresher people in

Sycamore. The machines were all sent to the northwest where they found a ready sale in the big wheat and grain fields of Canada and the Dakotas.

1948 – 75 YEARS AGO

V. Leppanen, Locust Street, DeKalb, became a citizen of the United States today in simple ceremonies held by Judge Harry W. McEwen in Circuit Court, Sycamore. Leppanen, a native of Kankaanpas, Finland, said that he was 59 year old and had been a resident of the United States since 1908. He operates a shoe repair shop on North Fourth Street.

A sleeping truck driver was surprised at 4 o’clock Sunday morning when he awoke to discover the vehicle had moved and had struck a water hydrant. Mr. Palmer of Springville, IA, driver of the semi-truck owned by Hawkeye Motor Express Inc., had parked at the Parkside station for a snooze. While sleeping the brakes released on the vehicle and it crossed to the north side of the highway crashing into a hydrant. It broke sufficiently to cause a gusher of water to spray into the air.

The intersection in Sycamore of South Main and Elm streets has been renamed due to the frequent auto accidents by one citizen. He calls it “Crash and Collide.” Either motorists are negligent, at this corner or else visibility is poor.

If a person hears some banging going on at the southwest corner of South Maple and West State streets in Sycamore, don’t be alarmed. The owner of the red popcorn stand opened up for business the other afternoon and discovered that the temperature was 112 degrees. If it gets much hotter the corn will probably pop by itself.

Members of Co. A., 129th Infantry in World War I, a DeKalb outfit, will hold a reunion Sunday in Annie’s Woods. The old soldiers will be around the park all day Sunday. Company A served overseas with the 33rd Division in 1918 and fought in several engagements during the last few months of the conflict.

1973 – 50 YEARS AGO

While the Rochelle plant of Swift and Company is closing its beef operation

Monday because of lack of beef cattle, employees at the Erickson Packing Company in Lee or the Kirkland Meats Inc., can’t work fast enough. Yesterday a Rochelle plant spokesman announced plans to close the beef operation until the cattle supply improves. About 170 employees at the 800-man Rochelle Swift plant will be affected by the closings. The Rochelle Swift plant will maintain its pork operation.

The County Highway Committee yesterday recommended that an airport feasibility study be prepared to help the County Board decide what to do about DeKalb Municipal Airport. The airport lies in the path of a proposed county access road designed to alleviate traffic in DeKalb and Sycamore which planners believe would be worsened upon completion of the East-West Tollway.

With the blessing of most of DeKalb’s tavern owners, the police chief and the city attorney, the City Council’s Legislative Committee voted Tuesday night to recommend lowering the age of all liquor sales from 21 to 19 in DeKalb.

Members of the Kishwaukee Country Club swim team are engaged in a swim marathon to raise money for muscular dystrophy research. The marathon started Monday noon and will continue until Thursday noon. The youths are staying in a trailer by the country club pool.

1998 – 25 YEARS AGO

New Director Alexander Todd is enthusiastic about the future of Sycamore’s Public Library. In a nearly new facility, library staff are implementing a series of improvements designed to take advantage of additional space and modernization of the municipal building. Completed in 1996, a major addition expanded the original 1905 Carnegie library to include an elevator, expanded children’s library, a community meeting room and opportunities for technological improvements.

For a goldfish, a flush down the toilet can be a ticket to a new life. If it can survive a trip through a 3-inch pipe and into the city’s sanitary sewers, the sewage treatment plant awaits. A waste water lagoon might not seem like a nice place to live, but for a goldfish, it’s not that bad.

– Compiled by Sue Breese