People of Mount Prospect

Samuel “Sammy” Skobel was an American roller derby skating star who opened a hot dog restaurant in Mount Prospect after his retirement from his sport.

Legally blind, Skobel was a derby star who was voted most valuable player in the league three times and inducted to the Roller Derby Hall of Fame in 1953. Skobel also held the world record for the fastest mile skated on a banked track – accomplished in 1958.

Sammy was born to Russian immigrants on April 26, 1926. His parents owned a grocery and meat market on Chicago’s Maxwell Street. 

An infection with scarlet fever at the age of four left him legally blind, with less than ten percent of his vision remaining. 

A track star at Crane Technical High School, he ran a 4:22 mile and was offered full scholarships to three universities, but those offers were rescinded when the schools learned he was legally blind. He had a hard time finding and maintaining a job after graduating from high school. In fact, he was denied a job in an electronics factory and got fired from a job repairing innertubes after just a few hours.

In 1945, Skobel tried out for the roller derby at the Chicago Coliseum but was rejected after the general manager of the Roller Derby watched him struggle to fill out the application with a magnifying glass. Instead, Skobel joined the roller derby working as a locker attendant, earning 50 cents per day.^[ He worked in the center of the banked-track ring, memorizing the styles and outlines of the skaters. When he heard that the derby was holding tryouts in Chattanooga in January 1946, he traveled there by bus and was able to keep his low vision a secret during trials. He signed with the Brooklyn Red Devils in 1946, keeping his disability a secret for the first five years he played. Skobel would listen for the sound of an opponent’s skates coming up behind him, and if a skater was close he could see whether they were wearing stripes or certain colors.

In 1949, Skobel became the youngest team captain in the history of the sport. Skobel was traded to the Chicago Westerners in 1953, where he skated for twelve seasons. He skated for the IRDL Midwest Pioneers from 1964 to 1966. He had several nicknames throughout his career, including “Slammin'” Sammy Skobel and “Gunner” Skobel. 

Skobel was voted the league’s Most Valuable Player of the year three times during his skating career and was on 18 all-star teams. He was one of the first seven people inducted to the original Roller Derby Hall of Fame in 1953 and in 1958 set a world record fastest mile on a banked track, skating the mile in 2 minutes and 36 seconds.

By the end of his career, he was paid $80,000 each season. He skated his last game in May 1966, but would later serve as a consulting coach for the San Francisco Bay Bombers.

Skobel married his wife Acrivie (“Vee”) in 1952. They had two sons together, Sam Jr. and Stephen. 

After retiring from the roller derby, he opened Sammy Skobel’s Hot Dogs Plus in downtown Mount Prospect. He ran the restaurant from 1965 to 1989, when he sold it to a former employee. He also traveled as a motivational speaker, giving talks on “Creating a Positive Attitude for Life,” and advocated for other blind athletes. For instance, in 1971 he helped found the American Blind Skiing Foundation. 

In 1982, Skobel collaborated with a freelance writer to write his autobiography, titled Semka. The jacket described the book as the “story of a determined young blind man from his boyhood in Chicago’s Maxwell Street to a professional athletic career, setting a world speed skating record.”

Skobel died on June 9, 2018 at age of 92 in his home in Mount Prospect. 

Does MPHS have photographs: Misc. Images

Address in Mount Prospect: 113 W. Prospect

Birth Date: Circa 1899

Death Date:

Marriage
Date:

Spouse: Caroline

Children: Robert (maybe others)

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments

Dr. Wolfarth was the second doctor in Mount Prospect. His first office was in the Busse Building in Busse Ave, directly above Busse-Biermann Hardware. Working with Dr. Louise Koester, the only other doctor in Mount Prospect, a small hospital was set up for car accidents and emergencies. Dr. Wolfarth supplemented his local business by also being the physician on call for the Mount Prospect Fire Department and the Chicago Northwestern Railroad. During World War II, Dr. Wolfarth left Mount Prospect and served as a doctor at an evacuation hospital for troops of General George Patton. In 1957, he and his wife, son and family friend decided to sail across the Atlantic on a 43 foot boat. They sailed from Germany to New York and then up the Hudson and the Erie Canal to the great lakes and Chicago. This traced the path that many settlers in Mount Prospect would have taken. None of the four people on the boat had extensive experience sailing, so this was a pretty brave trip. It took them four months and 8,000 miles.

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in Mount Prospect:

Birth Date: November 26, 1846, Germany

Death Date: September 21, 1927, Elk Grove, Cook, IL

Marriage
Date: October 28, 1881, Elk Grove, Cook, IL

Spouse: Engel “Ella” Wille (nee Seegers)

Children: Albert, Clara, Sophie, Christ, Adolph, Edwin, Elmer, Luella and Fred (birth order)

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments

William Wille was one of the most influential people in the development of Mount Prospect. He had a number of different jobs over the years, but he was always involved in community matters. In 1880 he started Wille’s Cheese Factory at the intersection of Northwest Highway, Busse Ave and Wille Street. He would buy milk from local farmers, turn it into cheese and butter and then take it into Chicago for sale. After about twenty years of doing this he got tired of all the trips in and out of the city, particularly in bad weather, and closed the business in 1902. In 1895 he and William Busse were the primary forces behind getting School District 57 founded. After it was founded, W. Wille and W. Busse both donated land to create a small campus for the first school. William Wille was hired to build the first school, the Central School. This one room school house is still standing today, demonstrating his workmanship. In 1905 Wille and Busse teamed up again and re-subdivided the original Eggleston triangle, making the plots more attractive and bringing in new residents. In the early 1900 William Wille also built and started Wille’s Tavern, which he ran up until prohibition, when he gave it to his son who made it into Wille’s Buffet. William Wille also built Wille hall, which was basically the first community building in Mount Prospect. It was used by clubs for meetings and also for local dances and gatherings.

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in Mount Prospect:

Birth Date: March 24, 1893

Death Date: December 1986

Marriage
Date: January 26, 1917

Spouse: Velda (Knigge) Wille

Children: June, Marvella, R’Dell, Ruth, and Beverly Ann

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments

Adolph Wille was the son of William Wille, one of Mount Prospect’s founding fathers. He is best known for running Wille’s Tavern for many years. He took over the business that was started by his father. During prohibition, he made it into a lunch counter, called Wille’s Buffet, and made supplemental income by working as Mount Prospect’s first licensed barber and also helping his brothers Edwin and Chris in the Wille Construction Company. Below is a selection from an oral history interview with Adolph Wille from the 1970s.

Adolph Willie; Interviewed by Helen Becker; December 6, 1977

Complete transcript available at the Mount Prospect Public Library.

AW: “I was born here in Mount Prospect, March 24, 1893. There were no streets, only roads: Central Road north of town and Elmhurst Road west of town, and two short roads in town — one road from the depot to Elmhurst Road and the other road from the railroad to Central Road. We lived on the road from the depot to Elmhurst Road in an old [creamery] which my dad owned. The farmers sold him the milk and he would make butter and cheese and take it into Chicago with a team and wagon. In the spring when the roads were muddy he would often get stuck in a mud hole. Then he would have to unload enough butter and cheese until the team would be able to pull the wagon out of the hole, and then he would reload the load again. He got tired of doing it so often so he closed the creamery and quit the business. My dad also did carpenter work, so he went into the building business. For years we built a lot of homes in Mount Prospect. The early residents that I remember were Moehling, Meyn, Busse and John Bauer, the first tavern in town, and the farmers in town were the Pohlman farm on the east side of town, the Schaeffer farm on the south side of town, the Hertl farm on the west side of town, and the Katz farm on the north side of town. Our children are all living in Mount Prospect: Mrs. June Schaeffer at 217 North Maple Street, Mrs. Marvella Moore at 211 North Maple Street, Mr. Ardell A. Wille at 101 North Pine Street, and Mrs. Ruth Cullen at 105 North Pine Street.”

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in Mount Prospect: 4 S. Edward Street

Birth Date: August 1, 1900

Death Date: November 10, 1969

Marriage
Date:

Spouse: Irma (Thill) Whittenberg

Children: Arlene

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments

George Whittenberg was the second police officer in Mount Prospect and the second Chief of Police. He was hired by William Mulso, Mount Prospect’s first Police Chief, who was also the entire police force from 1924 until he hired Whittenberg in 1932. Five years later Whittenberg became the chief of police, a position he held until he retired. Whittenberg was originally hired, in part, because he could ride a motorcycle and the police department had one motorcycle and one 1929 Pontiac. George Whittenberg served on the Mount Prospect Police Department for 33 years, and was the Chief of Police for most of that time. He resigned his post in 1965, having seen the community change dramatically during his tenure. When he took the job, there were no paved roads and the population was about 1200. By the time he retired, the population was over 25,000, Mount Prospect was twice as large, and the police force had grown from two officers to close to thirty. Four years after he retired, he died. His funeral procession included fifty cars that passed by the Police Station one last time. Whittenberg was a long time member of the Mount Prospect Lions Club, and following his death, the Lions donated $6000 to the village to erect a memorial. In 1975 the village built a waterfall and fountain at the base of the water tower, as a memorial to his years of service. The memorial stood very close to the police station in which Whittenberg had spent so much time, but was later demolished.

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in Mount Prospect: 215 S. Emerson

Birth Date: 1900

Death Date: November 30, 1970

Marriage
Date:

Spouse: Helen

Children: Marryanne and Herbert J.

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments

Herb Van Driel started working in a drug store in 1913. He bought his own store in Chicago in 1927 and claimed that in this store he sold cigarettes and gum to John Dillinger. Herb Van Driel moved to Mount Prospect in the early 1940s. He bought an existing drug store at the corner of Emerson and Northwest Highway. When Van Driel came to Mount Prospect, the two doctors in town already had an agreement with another pharmacist. So Van Driel branched out and added a lunch counter, serving ham sandwiches and home made pies. He said that in the first few years most of his business was in food. While there was rationing during World War Two, Van Driel was a distributor for different foods and cigarettes and was able to establish himself as one of the important businesses in town. He later went on to be one of the founding members of the second incarnation of the Mount Prospect Chamber of Commerce (originally founded in 1926, dissolved in 1932 then founded again in 1947). He was also a member of the Chicago Retail Druggist Association, National Association of Retail Druggists, The Mount Prospect Lions Club, and the Des Plaines Elks Lodge. In 1968 he sold the business, although it still maintains his name. He died in 1970.

Does MPHS have photographs: Newspaper photos

Address in Mount Prospect: River Road in Des Plaines

Birth Date: 1898

Death Date: December 16, 1959

Marriage
Date: 1922

Spouse: Clara Touhy

Children: Roger Jr., Thomas

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments

Roger Touhy was reputed to be boss of the organized crime syndicate in the Chicago area during prohibition. Although most of the information on him is sensationalistic and it is hard to tell how much is real and what is myth. Supposedly, Al Capone ran the underworld in most of Chicago and much of the southern suburbs while the northwestern suburbs were reportedly under the control of Touhy the Terrible. Toughy was the youngest son of a family with eight children. His father was a police officer and his mother died when Touhy was ten years old when there was an explosion in the family’s kitchen. He operated a car dealership in Chicago for a number of years, but decided to go into bootlegging to make more money. He reportedly bought into a distribution business with a man named Matt Kolb, who was later gunned down in a Morton Grove speakeasy. Touhy started out selling beer to road houses and saloons in the small towns north and northwest of Chicago. Supposedly, he brought in over $1million in beer sales in the 1920s. He was said to have gained public support, or at least a blind eye, by donating generously to different organizations, schools and social clubs. He lived in Oak Park, but after his first child was born he moved onto a farm in Des Plaines near the Maryville Academy. According to legend, he later extended his bootlegging to this farm but could not conceal the waste products or the smell of his operations. To take care of this problem, he invited his neighbors to go on a three week trip to Europe. While they were away, he had an engineering company come in and construct an underground drainage system that would carry all the waste from his land, under their property and empty it into a creek that led into the Des Plaines River. He was eventually arrested and out into prison. He was convicted of kidnapping a man named John (Jake the Barber) Factor, who was a friend of Al Capone and was wanted in England on fraud charges. Touhy denied the charges and claimed that he was framed by Al Capone’s gang. In 1942, after being in prison for nine years, he broke out, although he was recaptured shortly. He was eventually released on parole after serving almost 26 years in the Stateville Penitentiary. Twenty two days after he was released he was gunned down while standing on his sister’s front porch. While much of the story about Touhy may be mostly sensationalism, there are reasons to believe that there was sale of alcohol in the northwest suburbs. Many of the towns had strong immigrant populations and much of prohibition was a thinly veiled anti-immigrant policy, which was strongly resented by older, established immigrant communities who had little or no interest in abiding by it. Areas like Mount Prospect were also still largely agricultural with little law enforcement and what there was, was usually local.

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in Mount Prospect: 1205 W. Robin Lane

Birth Date: Circa 1924

Death Date:

Marriage
Date: August 17, 1946

Spouse: Alice Jones Teichert

Children: Nancy, Robie, and William

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments

Robert Teichert was a progressive community leader and politician in Mount Prospect. He was a major supporter of the library, purchased the village hall, established paramedic service and a central dispatch system for Mount Prospect, lobbied for adopting the Village Manager system of government, and campaigned on a platform of open government and full disclosure. He was elected a Trustee in 1965 and served for four years until he became Mayor in 1969. He served for eight years as Mayor of Mount Prospect, in a time when the community was going through a difficult adjustment. The post war boom was over, the population of the community was aging, school enrollment was far down, and the municipal budget was over extended. Teichert and the Trustees struggled with these problems over the years, bringing the community back to a stable position.

Teichert was responsible for the single largest annexation in Mount Prospect history. The area of New Town added almost 2 square miles and close to 10,000 people to Mount Prospect. Although there was an animated discussion about the annexation, in the end the Village Board voted unanimously to absorb the unincorporated area.