People of Mount Prospect

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in MP: Currently stands at 808 and 804 E. Central, but was originally on Busse and Main

Birth Date:  January 27, 1864

Death Date: July 16, 1955

Marriage
Date: 1885 to Sophia Bartels (b 3/28/1866 d 2/20/1894)
8/09/1894 to Dina Busse (b 1/29/1873 d 10/14/1941)

Spouse: See above

Children: William Busse Jr, Martha, Mathilde, Albert, Sophie (with Sophia) Helen, Fredrick (with Dina)

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:

William Busse was probably the most influential person in Mount Prospect’s development. He was responsible for the construction of the Central School, Mount Prospect’s first public school; the founding of the Mount Prospect State Bank, Busse Buick, Busse Biermann Hardware, and the laying of Northwest Highway, the road that put Mount Prospect on the map. William Busse was the first Mayor of Mount Prospect; he was also a Cook County Commissioner and he used his political connections and his business sense to bring a lot of development into Mount Prospect. He was the founder and president of the Mount Prospect State Bank, which was the bank that made most of the loans to the home buyers who built Mount Prospect.

William started out in life working on his family farm. He then began working in a local creamery until 1890, when, at the age of 26, he was offered a position as a Deputy Sheriff. From here he became increasingly involved in political and business circles.

In 1911, William Busse founded the Mount Prospect State Bank and used it as the financial backbone for his developments. The Mount Prospect State Bank started out in a tiny corner building and continued to serve the community from this modest location through WWI. Then, in 1928 at the height of the boom of the 1920s, the bank moved to a larger building a block north at 2 W. Busse. This building was originally the home of Busse Buick. In this location the bank weathered the Great Depression of the 1930s and was one of very few financial institutions to go through the depression with uninterrupted service. During this time many banks went out of business. In 1933, shortly after his inauguration, President F. D. Roosevelt ordered all banks in America to close and work out their books. The Mount Prospect State Bank closed its doors for the first time. However, it was one of the first Banks in Illinois to reopen in a time when only about ten percent of the areas banks ever reopened. The bank then worked through the second World War. Following W.W.II, Mount Prospect went into its largest building boom ever and the State bank was here to finance it. Between 1950 and 1960 Mount Prospect’ s population grew almost 500%. In 1967 the Mount Prospect State Bank moved again. They built the building that is now the Mount Prospect Village Hall. They continued to lend money and act as the community’s largest saving bank through the suburbanization of the 1960s. In 1975 they moved again to the building that is today known as the Bank One Building. There, they eventually merged with the First Chicago Bank and then later BankOne.

The influence of William Busse can still be seen all around downtown Mount Prospect. In the center of town, near the intersection of Busse and Main there are two very similar buildings, one of which has Busse written in the chimney. William Busse built these two building at the same time. The buildings were constructed between 1926 and 1927 and by the time they were completed, were a dominant part of downtown Mount Prospect. The building on the corner of Busse Avenue and Main Street, which is Baby Lou’s Pizza today, was built in 1912 and was the home of William Busse’ hardware store. The building was also the home of Busse Buick, the first car dealership in Mount Prospect. The story of the birth of Busse Buick starts in 1908. In that year William Busse was walking along Michigan Ave in Chicago with a business associate when they passes a Buick dealership and were both fascinated by the car they saw in the window. They were a little cautious but agreed to go into it together and bought a car. William Busse enjoyed the car and two years later upgraded to a larger engine car and was so impressed that he contacted the manufacturer and offered to become a local agent. He was told that dealers in Chicago had an agreement covering all of Cook County, so it was not possible. Two years later when he was finishing the roof of this building, a stranger climbed up the ladder and asked to speak to William Busse. He explained that he was a Buick representative and had come to offer Busse a charter for a local agency. Busse jumped at the chance and signed the papers while still on the roof and Busse Buick was born.

The influence of William Busse can also be seen out side of downtown. You just have to go down Central Ave and look for his houses. Both of his houses were originally located on Busse Ave between Main and Emerson. However, his first home in Mount Prospect was moved twice. The building originally stood at the corner of Main street and Busse Ave but it was moved in the late 1940s to Emerson Street to make room for the construction of Meeske’s Market. Then in October of 1958, both of William Busse’s houses were moved out of downtown to Central Ave, where they still stand.William Busse’s first house was a beautiful white frame building with decorative wroght iron work along the roof line. With a sunken garden behind the house and a formal parlor, this house was certainly the most impressive space in Mount Prospect. It was used for weddings in the community, as it was the most formal space. As Commissioner Busse was the founder of a bank and an elected official it was important for him to have an appropriate space for entertaining. As Busse grew older and his children moved out, he felt he didn’t need such an elaborate building anymore, so he built his second home and gave the first to his oldest son, William Busse Jr. Eventually, the development that William Busse had championed caught up with his houses, as downtown expanded and there was a need for the space. Both houses were moved and the third home of the Mount Prospect State Bank, which later became Village Hall, was built in their space.

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in MP: 

Birth Date:  November 4, 1837

Death Date: December 19, 1903

Marriage
Date: April 16, 1863
Spouse:  Christine Kirchoff

Children: William, Johanna, Sophia, Edward, George, Louis, August, Christine, Ernst

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:

Louis Busse was born in Hanover, a Germanic State, and immigrated with his family to America at the age of eleven. Arriving at the young and impressionable age of 11, he took on the ways of America and ended leaving a lasting mark on the community. Louis was the first of the Busse family to leave the farms and look for other work. He started a creamery and general store and later went on to sell farm implements. While he remained involved in the small community formed around Saint John Lutheran Church, in fact serving as a trustee of the church for quite some time, he also was the first Busse to get involved in the larger political arena. He was a director of Public School District 56 and a Highway Commissioner in Elk Grove for many years. Because of his civic involvement, Busse Road was named for him.

In 1863, at the age of 26 he married the 16 year old Christine Kirchhoff, a member of one of the other prominent German families in the fledgling community. Christine Kirchhoff was the daughter of August Wilhelm Kirchhoff, who was born in Hanover and had immigrated to America with his parents; Johan Heirich Jurgen Christoph Kirchhoff (b. 2/7/1795 d. 4/3/1870) and Christine Marie Pfingsten Kirchhoff (b.2/20/1801 d. 8/14/1880). Christine Kirchhoff’s father purchased a farm in Mount Prospect and was an early member of Saint John Lutheran Church. He was unfortunately “killed by the cars” in Chicago, meaning he was run over by a train. His son William took over the family farm.

One of the greatest marks left by Louis and Christine were in their children, they were the parents of such notable people as County Commissioner William Busse, first Mayor of Mount Prospect and important businessman; George Busse, founder of the Busse Realty and major developer; and Louis Busse, founder of Busse Flowers.

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in MP: 

Birth Date: 1829

Death Date: 1917

Marriage
Date:                                                

Spouse: Marie Behrens 6/1/1841- 7/29/1912

Children:  Marie, Henry C., Louis, Fred, Martin, Alvina, Wilhelmine

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:

Henry Busse was the first member of the Busse Family to arrive in America. He was the third child of Friedrich and Johanna and therefore would have not inherited the family land in Hanover, (today part of Germany). He set out for America to make his fortune in 1847 and ended up working as a farm hand outside of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, an area with a large German speaking population. He sent letters back to Hanover telling of the land, freedom and other German speaking Lutherans and encouraging his family to emigrate. Friedrich and Johanna came on his advice.

In 1849, Henry decided to try his hand at prospecting for gold in California. He set off with long time friend Christian Henjes and associate Thomas Grupe. The three traveled by wagon across the country. It was a hard trip, with fears of attacks by Native Americans and other prospectors. At one point they were forced to float their wagon across a river by putting wooden rails on the side of the wagon. The wagon made it across, but floated three miles downstream while crossing because of the strong current.

Henry made a small fortune of $6,000 in the seven months he was in California. Adjusted for inflation, this would be about $135,000 today. He traveled home in style, taking a boat around South America rather than traveling over land by wagon. He purchased a 150 acre farm with the money he had made and settled down to a comfortable life as a farmer.

He married Marie Behrens in 1857 and gave her a fine white shawl he had purchased during his travels. This shawl still exists today, although it was died black long ago and was cut into four pieces, one piece was kept by Marie Behrens Busse with the other three were given to their three daughters.

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in MP: 111 S.Maple

Birth Date: September 7, 1900

Death Date: June 17, 1991

Marriage
Date:  June 4, 1922
Spouse: Hilda Rohlwing
Children: Louise, George R., Joanne

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:

George L. Busse, the son of George Busse and father of George R. Busse, followed his family line and was involved in Real Estate. The firm that eventually became George L. Busse Realty was originally founded as the Mount Prospect Development Association and was responsible for the first addition to Mount Prospect, known as Busse’s Eastern Addition. George L. Busse joined the firm in 1926 and extended the company’s reach. He ran the Mutual County Fire Insurance Company of Mount Prospect, subdivided a number of farms, built many houses and handled the sale of the land for both Randhurst and Woodfield Shopping Malls. He also worked with community groups, being involved with the Lions Club for many years, a founding member of the Mount Prospect Historical Society and school treasurer of Elk Grove Township for 27 years.

Presenter: George L. Busse and several unidentified speakers

Date: April 16, 1974

Program Length: 57 minutes

GEORGE BUSSE: Tonight we’re going to take you back to 1874, before Mount Prospect came into being. There was farmland owned by the Roone~s and the Birch families. Then Mr. Eggleston and George Rooney went into real estate partnership and subdivided part of the Rooney farm on August 24, 1874 and called it Mount Prospect. The reason they called it Mount Prospect is that it was one hundred feet above the level of Lake Michigan, and also the highest point in Cook County. They felt it had prospects for the future, so you had the name Mount Prospect.

Q: George Cooper, is it true that it is the highest point in Cook County?

BUSSE: Yes, that’s right.

Q: At what point in Mount Prospect is the highest point?

BUSSE: I think that’s Edward and Central. Between 1874 and 1896 the Mahlings and the Meyns and the Wille families bought some of this subdivision. In 1896 William Busse came to town and built his home on the southeast corner of Main and Busse where the Meeske Store is now. William Busse and his brother acquired most of the subdivision –I’m talking about Mount Prospect after they called it a subdivision then –and together with the Wille family, which owned some of the lots, we subdivided the lots they owned and called it Busse & Wille resub, a plat of which was recorded April 18, 1906. In 1906 there were ten houses and six business places. Of the original houses there are three remaining today: the Glaede house at 8 South Maple Street, the Fredericks house where the Webbs now live at 101 South Maple Street, and the house where Edwin L. Busse lives at 21 South Emerson Street. Of the four original businesses only the Willes are still here. I think I missed one house here –I think that’s Meyns house in that block where the donut shop is now. On January 15, 1912, Walter Mohrer Krause subdivided both sides of Emerson from Prospect Avenue to Lincoln Street. That was one of the first subdivisions. On September 10, 1950, fifteenth, Ernest Busse subdivided the parcel between Main Street, Elmhurst Avenue, Gregory, and Henry Street. In 1916 George Busse and his brothers bought the Rooney farm, and in 1921 they subdivided a small portion of it and later on up to Mount Prospect Road, in sections. Lots at that time sold for four hundred and fifty dollars, with ten percent down and the balance for whatever time it took to pay the balance –so much a month. Then when they had the lot paid for and they wanted to build a house, then we financed them and built them a house. ______ Busse ______. In 1922 George Meyer divided that part lying between Main Street, Pine Street, Prospect Avenue, and Lincoln Street. This was part of the Birch farm. On June 9, 1925, the Fred Schaeffer farm was divided by Axel Lonquist and called Prospect Park Subdivision. It included the property between Lincoln Street south to halfway between Shabonne and Council Trail, Elmurst Road east to the west side of Main Street –you know, where the curve is on. On March 30, 1926, H. Roy Berry Company divided the John Koch farm into H. Roy Berry Company’s Castle Heights Subdivision. It included land east of Main Street to Elmurst Avenue, and Highland Street to Hill Street. The John Koch house is still standing at 501 North Elmhurst Avenue and at one time was used as a clubhouse for the VFW club. I don’t know whether you knew that or not.

Q: George, there is another house standing there that one of the Bing families lived in.

BUSSE: Yes, we’ll get to that. We’ll cover that.

Q: George, I suppose you can bring in also the home that you lived in which, I think, is the oldest home, isn’t it?

BUSSE: Yes, but that wasn’t part of the original Mount Prospect, see.

Q: I see.

BUSSE: I should have put that in when they bought the farm there, but that carne later. All right, then April 26, 1926, another part of the Fred Schaeffer farm was divided into Prospect Highlands, covering both sides of Emerson Street to Lincoln Street to halfway between Shabonne and Council Trail. On May 18, 1926, H. Roy Berry Company divided the William Seegers farm into H. Roy Berry Maplewood Heights. This included land between Lincoln Street, Mount Prospect Road and Northwest Highway –that kind of a triangle there. On July 10, 1926, Axel Lonquist divided the Henry Muenching farm into Prospect Park Country Club. This included property from Elmhurst Road west to We-Go Trail, Lincoln Street to Lonquist Boulevard. The Muenching farm buildings were located in the block where the John Weber house is located.

Q: In the backyard and on __________.

BUSSE: Well, right in that block. I don’t know just whereabouts, but in that block. This subdivision, Prospect Park Country Club, it had four hundred and eighty lots, and everybody who bought a lot would get one-four-hundred-eightieth share in the golf course. That’s the way that was laid out originally.

Q: Is that when they built the golf course, at that same time?

BUSSE: Sure, at the same time. But everybody who bought a lot there had one-four-hundred-eigthtieth share in the golf course. Then later on Lonquist forgot to –he didn’t make the payments on the mortages for the country club, then they foreclosed it so then the lot owners lost their interest in the golf course. On July 15, 1926, Walter Krause, Jr., divided the Louie Kapps farm and called it Hillcrest Subdivision. This property is between Main Street, Elmhurst Avenue, Gregory Street, and Henry Street. The Louis Koch house was divided into two houses and remodeled, and they are located at 203 and 204 North Russell Street. If you ever drive out that way, it’s 203 and 204 North Russell. The original house was a big house, and it was divided into two houses.

Q: George, which Koch…

BUSSE: Louis Koch.

Q: …owned the house that I lived in and sold it to the Northwest Government? That was one of the Kochs.

BUSSE: That was Heindrich.

Q: Yes, that was one of the Kochs.

BUSSE: There were three brothers, Louie, Henry and John. And on October 26, 1926, Axel Lonquist divided the Bellendorf farm and the balance of Heindrich Koch farm into Prospect Manor Subdivision. This land is between Elmhurst Avenue, Forest Avenue, Highland Avenue and Northwest Highway. The Bellendorf house is still standing on its original location at 407 North Prospect Manor Avenue. If you ever drive by there, it’s 407. Mrs. Wilson, here. ______ looking for. Did you find it?

Q: The other half of the house?

BUSSE: No, the Bellendorf house.

Q: __________.

BUSSE: Yes, not all of it, no.

Q: __________.

BUSSE: I don’t know what became of the rest of it. There is only one part of it. On February 2, 1927, Bert Lautermill subdivided the Pullman farm into Mooneyside Gardens. This included land south of Evergreen, east of Owen Street, both sides of Williams Street to the Northwest Highway. The Pullman house is still on its original location at 221 South Owen Street and is now owned and occupied by Dr. Louise Koester. On June 15, 1927, Frederick Schaeffer divided the balance of his farm and called it Frederick Schaeffer Addition. It included land on the west side of Maple Street, from Lincoln to Mehlings Drive. That’s across from the park. August 2, 1927, Bert Lautermill divided the J. C. Mehlings farm and called it Lautermill Villa. That farm was your granddad’s, wasn’t it?

A: Yes, it extended over to the ________. But the house was built. It was burned down but it was rebuilt again. ___________ on the north, Emerson Street. I think they painted it red now. ________ one day and wanted me to come over and look at it.

B: Did you find beer bottles that were found in the walls?

A: Yes, she was telling me about beer bottles that were found inside.

B: It was when they were building it.

A: The Willes must have built this because it had something to do with Adolph Wille. He must have built that house.

B: He had a note in the bottle.

A: Yes.

B: She still has it.

A: Does she?

BUSSE: Included was land east of Main Street and west of Maple Street, from Central Road to Gregory. The Mehling house in its original location at 122 North Emerson Street.

A: That was burnt down. I remember my grandfather talking about it. He came off the train –he had gone into Chicago and saw the flames, and said, “That must be my house!” and sure enough, it was.

BUSSE: On April 2, 1928, Axel Lonquist laid out Lonquist’s Northwest Hills Subdivision, which was land on the west side of Can-Dota from Busse Avenue to Lincoln Street. On August 14, 1929, Albert Pick & Company divided part of the John Russell farm and called it Central Woods. It contained land between Central Road, Prospect Avenue, Lancaster and Kenilworth Avenues. On June 24, 1932, Henry Ehard divided the point bounded by Central Road, Elmhurst Road and Northwest Highway. That’s where the Winkelman’s gas station is. On June 24, 1932 H. Roy Berry Company divided the Burke farm into Colonial Manor, beginning on the west side of Pine Street to both sides of Wa-Pella, from Prospect Avenue to Lincoln Street. The Burke house stood on the west side of Hi-Lusi about a half block south of Central. On November 20, 1945, Axel Lonquist divided part of the Albert Froemming farm into Lonquist Gardens, containing land between Elmhurst Road, Wa-Pella Avenue, Lonquist Boulevard and Golf Road. The Froemming farm buildings were located where the Lutheran Church of Martha and Mary is now located. This brings us up to 1950. After that there could be an explosion. That takes a lot of time to set that all up. Here are some statistics: In 1906 there were ten houses and four business places. Population in 1910 was 35; in 1920 it was 349; in 1930, 1,225; in 1940 it was 1,720; in 1950, 4,009. The following improvements were put in: The first water system was installed in 1921; in 1926 sewers were put in, and then by that time the streets were tore up so bad we had to pave them; in 1927 we paved ten miles of streets.

Q: What did you say the population was in 1910, George?

BUSSE: In 1910, 35.

Q: And then, George, when the paving was put in the owner of the lot was assessed five hundred dollars.

BUSSE: A little over five hundred dollars.

Q: Yes, _________ five hundred dollars. _________ was not enough.

BUSSE: And the sewer, I guess, was two hundred fifty-seven.

Q: I _____________.

A: Mr. Busse, what was our –we’re in the 400 block of North Emerson –whose farm was that where the Presbyterian church –there was a barn that sat right on the sidewalk.

BUSSE: That’s the John Katz farm. They lived in that brick…

A: The parsonage?

BUSSE: Yes. First they lived on Emerson Street, 501, in that frame house, and then when they sold the property they built this house on Main Street. I guess they use it for a parsonage now for that church up there.

A: Gee, I would like to have a copy of that. Will you run some more off?

BUSSE: I made a couple of copies, yes.

A: You know, George, I think I have a book at home. You probably have that ______ book –you know, it’s a great, big book like this. When you turn the pages it tells the subdivisions.

BUSSE: Yes, I have one of the copies. I brought some pictures along.

B: You will give us one for our historical file, won’t you?

BUSSE: Yes, I’ll give you one. Here’s a picture of Mount Prospect. This must have been the original scheme. This plat was never recorded. You can pick them up and take a look at them.

A: Couldn’t they read it? Was that the trouble?

BUSSE: What?

A: They couldn’t record it?

BUSSE: No, they didn’t record. This is the way they shot it off, see, and then they changed it around. Then I have a blown-up section of Elk Grove Township here for you. It gives all the landowners of the old farms around here before all these subdivisions came. This is, I would say, about 1927 or 1928.

B: Whose farm is where I live now, 400 South Hi-Lusi? Can you find that on there?

BUSSE: That was already subdivided in the country club section.

A: Was it Muenching?

BUSSE: Yes, originally it was the Muenching farm. Henry Muenching.

A: The house was located ________. The foundation is still there.

BUSSE: Yes.

B: George, do you remember the name of the subdivision streets they originally were going to call –you know, we were talking about one day downtown. One of the _______, and I thought that was _________.

BUSSE: The only two streets that remained the same were Elm Street and Maple Street of the originals.

B: But didn’t they have…

BUSSE: Main Street was called Center Street. Emerson was Broadway, and then going east came Maple and Elm and then North Avenue.

A: Who put the curve in Route 83 at Lincoln?

BUSSE: Well, you know, years ago they used to, if you took Elmhurst Road straight out north you went across the railroad track like this, see, on a hump. You eliminate that hump. When automobiles got more plentiful, that’s when they curved it around there.

A: Oh. What year?

BUSSE: Oh, I forget what year ________ when they built that. But years ago when we used to come to town we used to drive across that hump. It was just a short –like that, you know.

B: It was similar to Mount Prospect Road, too, _______ over there. Mount Prospect Road had the same thing.

BUSSE: Yes, they had a hump there, too. How many of you people might remember Dick Friedrichs, a painter and decorator? When he came to town and built a house ______ town ________.

A: What year was that, George, do you remember? What year was that house built?

B: 1905.

BUSSE: It must have been because _________. This plat was recorded in 1906 and showed an easement for _______. If you want to come up and take a look at it ______ make a copy _______the original _______. That’s when they went up to Owen Street.

A: Is that _______ of today or ______?

BUSSE: No, that’s ______ the old names. _______ on Center and Central Road was Carpenter. Elm and Maple were the only ones that remained the same. We had an Ashland Avenue over there. That’s where Williams Street is now. ______ Pine,

that’s Elk Grove Avenue. I don’t know why they made these twenty-five. These are twenty-five and the rest of them are all fifty-foot lots.

B: They would have to be.

BUSSE: No, that’s the way ________.

B: Yes, with all that land.

BUSSE: Yes. I don’t know why they made them twenty-five. _______ Chicago for having twenty-five-foot lots, originally.

A: All along the curve on Route 83, that was all twenty-five-foot lots.

BUSSE: Right where the Catholic church has their parking lot, that was all twenty-five-foot lots. That was supposed to be business.

A: If that parking lot hadn’t been built they could have built houses on twenty-five-foot lots there.

BUSSE: They had an idea to build row houses there.

A: Yes, and there is nothing that could have stopped them.

B: Oh, good grief!

BUSSE: So, come up here after a while and take a look at these. We’ve got another little item here that Mrs. Bittner gave me. You know that triangle where the jewelry store is and donut shop? A: We’ll find it on the map here, if you’ll give me a minute. BUSSE: Yes. That’s the block right here. That was sold for taxes way back in –1882 they redeemed it, that block. It was four dollars and eighteen cents it took to redeem the back taxes on it.

B: I believe Ripon College owned the section, didn’t they?

BUSSE: I think that’s the block, probably, that they owned. I don’t know. I couldn’t find anything in my records that showed that Ripon College had, but I’ve heard it mentioned.

A: The island of Manhattan, wasn’t that purchased for a bunch of beads from the Indians –the whole island of Manhattan in New York?

B: Wasn’t the Koch house considered the edge of town?

BUSSE: Which one?

B: The one out on Main Street?

BUSSE: Oh, yes. For a long time there was nothing around there.

B: ______ thirty-one, on the south. That was Main Street.

BUSSE: There was nothing around there.

A: Civilization.

B: On Main Street. Was it near the Presbyterian –you know where the Presbyterian. .

C: Oh, the red brick.

B: It still stands, that brick house.

C: Red brick on the front.

Q: George, who put in all the water mains and hydrants in that area, east there, on part of the Koch’s farm? I guess it was all laid out and sidewalks even put in, years before anyone built. And then Brickman built, didn’t he?

BUSSE: No, Bluett built there on the John Koch farm.

Q: No, I mean at the end of what is now Elmhurst Avenue, up there. That was all, when I came here twenty-six years ago. They were just starting to build out there.

BUSSE: Yes, but everything was in there. Sewer and water was installed.

Q: Yes, it was all in there, and some of it had been put in years before.

BUSSE: Oh, yes, sure. In 1927 they built all the paved roads, about ten miles, and then the _______ improvements were in.

Q: Then those assessment bonds became worthless.

BUSSE: You could buy them for about ten or fifteen cents on a dollar. A lot of people didn’t pay their assessments, you know, where the vacant lots were in these subdivisions. There were a lot of unpaid taxes.

B: That was because of the Depression.

BUSSE: Yes.

A: When was the train station built?

BUSSE: This train station, this new one, when was that built?

B: Oh, I don’t know the year, but Ben Turperman, when he was the superintendent he’s the one that opened the station. It was brand new, the one that we have today. He was living in Mount Prospect so he didn’t like to get on the train with an ugly station, so he had a brand new one built.

A: The rest of you don’t know, but Ben Turperman was the general superintendent of the Northwestern Railroad.

B: Head of the Chicago & Northwestern.

A: Yes. He lived out here. That’s how we got the new station.

B: He lived right off of Elmhurst Road and, what was it, Shabonne?

B: Shabonne and Pine.

BUSSE: Does anybody have any questions? I’ll see if I can answer them for you.

B: Well, can you tell us a little bit more about the old homes. Now, what you were ________ probably _____.

A: Didn’t the Willes build most of the homes?

BUSSE: The Willes.

A: The Wille brothers, and they were carpenters.

BUSSE: They were carpenters.

A: People, if they wanted a house built, why, they could call them.

B: Which Wille brothers were they?

C: Christian was one, and Edwin…

A: Edward?

BUSSE: I _______ Chris ______. Yes, and then before them their father was in the building business, too.

A: Now, George, you were related to the first president of Mount Prospect.

BUSSE: Yes, that was my uncle.

A: Who owned the farm near the end of Hi-Lusi, near the railroad tracks?

B: You mentioned it in your talk __________-.

BUSSE: Originally, the Burkes.

A: When we first moved to Mount Prospect we lived at 14 Hi-Lusi, and our son was about three years old and it was all vacant property for a whole block. There was no other house on our side of the street. One day he was out playing with the little boy behind us. __________, and here they were jumping up and down on some boards and rocking on some stones. “Look, Mother,” he said, “you can’t hear it for a long time before it drops.” I was just about _________ station, so I said to him, “There must be an old, abandoned well or something here.” They had just thrown some old planks over it and some dirt, and it was all rotted. It just was about where 16 and 18 Hi-Lusi, about there, on the Burke farm.

BUSSE: Somewhere in there, where the Burke house was.

A: Right. So one of them went to the phone and called the mayor ________.

B: __________.

BUSSE: See, years ago they used to dig them by hand –a great, big round. …A lot of them were brick

A: Well, anyway, they came over, and it was dark by this time. They carne over with flashlights and, believe me, the next morning I can’t tell you how many loads of dirt went in that. But those two little boys were _______ because they were jumping up and down on those rotted planks, so they never would have found them. They never would have known what happened to them.

C: You never would have thought of that.

A: No, we never knew there was a well there. The neighborhood then was gettting filled up with lots of little ones.

Q: George, where was the dump found? Wasn’t that near the railroad, about Wille and Pine where they ran up the railroad tracks?

[Side 2]

A: Yes, I was ___________ as the pastor was then teaching school when I started here. We put our skates on at an exit to his basement. I got on that school there that was just east of School Street, then we skated to the railroad tracks. We walked across the track and we got on the remainder of the creek that ran down, the Willer Creek, and then we skated from there to Arlington Heights. Willer Creek wasn’t dug out at that time. It was the natural flow of the river, you know. It was a creek, it was just shallow.

B: Did any boats ever launch in Willer Creek?

A: No, there wasn’t that much water.

B: Talk about skating, Frank, I went by your hardware store today and I see you still have the sign on the front door, “Skates Sharpened.” Do you get much business these days in that?

FRANK: Is it still on there?

B: It’s still on the front door.

C: It’s not going to freeze tonight.

A: You folks _______. There is a skating rink in the immediate vicinity here. There is one at Randhurst and one at Woodfield and ________.  ________ sharpens skates because of that.

B: Oh, that’s right. I’m sorry, I’m corrected. I thought Frank was just prolonging the skating.

FRANK: We don’t do it there. We farm it out.

A: You’re talking to an old skater. I just skated last December.

B: Aren’t you going to appear in the…?

A: ________ asked me to, but I don’t know.

B: I understand the Cougars are looking for a new right winger.

A: Well, there used to be a little pond that we skated on ______.They used to also skate right there at the old water –the underground water tanks. They used to have a place there that used to flood every year.

C: By the old Jewel, on Northwest Highway.

BUSSE: The village flooded that and made a skating rink there.

A: __________ and they used to skate.

B: The fire department flooded that. We had more people from Arlington Heights there than we had our own people.

C: I remember that because I was in charge of the committee on the village hall as trustee before the park board took over the parks. These kids would just call me day and night, wanting to know when the skating rink starts. I don’t know who gave them my name, but anyway, I was plagued with skating. Then they built a backstop in the park, and then the neighbors would complain and I’d get that on my shoulders, too –“Are they going to let them play ball there?” That was before the park district took over the parks. It was the village that had to run that recreation. I was mighty glad when somebody else had that headache. I always told them it was better to play in the park than to be playing in the streets. Some of the parents didn’t think so.

Q: When was the park district formed?

C: I’m trying to think –it would be about twenty-two years ago.

Q: _________.

C: Yes. It started with a postcard survey. It set out to move –met up at the village hall, interested in starting a park district. They sent out cards and made kind of a referendum to see whether they wanted a park district. Ned, or do you remember, Roy?

ROY: Yes.

C: And then the park district.

A: Didn’t that have something to do with the manner in protection of the hoodlums running the golf course?

C: That was before. The park district was organized before that came. Then these people purchased it from Stokeleys and they couldn’t get a liquor license. I know I was sued for one hundred thousand dollars because I wouldn’t give them a liquor license. Judge Lapp threw it out of court. They never got their liquor license, and then the park district condemned it then, as they phrased it, and purchased it for the appraisal price. I think it was a little over a million, wasn’t it?

B: Something like that, yes.

C: Yes, a million. Here they’re talking about this Rob Roy they bought eight million dollars for. But we got this property. It became park district property. I think it was one million, two hundred thousand.

BUSSE: Of course, you’ve got to figure, too, you’re about twenty years’ difference.

C: Yes, I know.

BUSSE: The price has gone up.

C: So has the price of bread and everything else.

A: Oh, yes.

Q: Who had the original undertaking business in town? Was it Friedrichs?

BUSSE: He was the first one, yes.

C: He was the first.

A: Was it at that same spot where he is now?

BUSSE: Yes, otherwise it was Arlington Heights or Des Plaines.

C: No, it has been there a long time. Any other questions for George? If not, we’ll adjourn and have our coffee and cookies. We certainly appreciate, George, your coming here. I know that out of this, too, we’re going to get some very interesting documents for the historical society. I do want all of you to try to watch out for things that will be of great value someday, and if we lose them today we’ll never have them tomorrow. We hope that we can get a proper resting place where the public can see these, one of these days.

B: Maybe George can tell us the way property has gone up from the beginning of Mount Prospect __________.

BUSSE: Well, you can take these lots that I said were selling for four hundred fifty dollars. Today you can get thirteen, fifteen thousand for them.

A: For an average lot, huh.

B: Were those improved, too? Did they have sewer and water?

BUSSE: No, at that time they didn’t have sewer and water.

B: They were unimproved, huh?

BUSSE: Yes.

A: And your homes in town, are they going for a much higher price?

BUSSE: Oh, yes.

A: What are homes going for on the average?

BUSSE: Well, you can’t find much for less than thirty thousand. There were thirty thousand __________.

C: And that’s just a starter.

BUSSE: Those little houses that Bluett built in that section off of Rand Road…

C: Yes. We just annexed that a few years ago.

B: Yes, but what did they used to sell for, eleven thousand?

BUSSE: When they built them they sold them for eleven, five, and now they’re selling for around thirty thousand.

C: ______________.

B: Well, if there are no more questions, thank you, Mr. Busse, very, very much. It was a lot of work to this, all of this, and we’re all going to benefit from it. Thank you.

BUSSE: You’re welcome.

BITTNER: …whether it would be appropriate that someone to review that that has been written in connection with Mount Prospect _______. They have copies of my letter to prove the location _______, possibly, as a historical site, and older homes that have been in this area. There are a lot of people that ________ in connection with historical fact, and I think that this would be a valuable addition because the _________.

A: _________ and then make an application _______ get a grant from the state bicentennial commission to the historical society for establishing an historical. I don’t know the way the wheels of government go. It may be quite a struggle, but we’re hopeful that we get the money. We will work closely with the bicentennial commission established by the village board in 1976 because there are many things then we will have. We’ll probably have a gallery ______ and make a profit on that towards the _______. All of these things are in sort of a state of limbo right now, but they’re being worked on and we hope that something will come of it. Let’s have some of Doris’s good coffee and cookies. She baked cookies all day long. You know, George, hasn’t sold any houses all week because he has been working for a week, writing this speech.

A: I’m going to talk about Santa Claus, and at the present time no other holiday on the calendar is so universally celebrated and filled with so much meaning as Christmas. All over the world Christmas has always been the hope of peace and goodwill to men. Christmas Day was celebrated by the church for the first time three centuries after Christ’s birth, on various dates. It was not until the year 354 that Bishus Liberious, a grown, set December 25 to celebrate Christ’s birthday. However, there are still some countries who use the old style calendar which is thirteen days behind ours so that their Christmas falls on January 6. For many, many years Christmas was kept only as a church festival, and it was observed by religious services only. But as Christianity spread the people began celebrating with merry-making, as well as with religious observances. By the sixteen century and seventeenth century, great feasts were given during the Christmas season, with singing, dancing, and a great deal of gaiety. The celebrations in England became so wild that the spiritual meaning of the holiday was little observed, and this caused the English Parliament in 1654 to pass a law abolishing Christmas on the calendar. Consequently, the English in Massachusetts Bay Colony here in America in 1659 made the observance of Christmas a prison offense. This I never knew. From 1659 until the law was repealed in 1681, Christmas was not allowed to be observed in America. Not until about 1822 when Clement Moore of New York City wrote the poem, “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” that round, fat, jolly, old elf with a sleigh full of toys and drawn by eight tiny reindeer, did the celebration of Christmas return to its gaiety. They always celebrated Christmas in church as a church service, but not in a silly way. St. Nicholas was always pictured as a kindly saint, and it was through the Dutch settlers from the Netherlands in America that other Americans first heard of him. The Dutch pronounced his name San Nicola or Sinter Claus, and in time the children here in the United States pronounced his name Santa Claus. This St. Nicholas was a real person. He was born in Lisha, Asia Minor –that’s southwest Asia –in the third century in the time of the Emperor Dioclacian. He was a Roman emperor that lived –in the year 284 he was born, and he died in 305. Nicholas was persecuted for the faith and kept in prison until the more tolerant reign of Constantine. St. Nicholas later became the bishop of Merz, and many countries have honored him by naming and dedicating their churches to him. The custom of gift-giving carne about partly because of the many legends concerning his generosity. The most famous legend was that his secret, surreptitious bestowal of dowries upon the three daughters of an  impoverished citizen who, unable to procure fit marriages for them, was on the point of giving his daughters up to a life of shame. This story is said to have originated the old custom of giving presents in secret on the eve of St. Nicholas, subsequently transferred to Christmas Day, and then, also, because of the story of the wise men who carried gifts to the baby Jesus. Many stories about St. Nicholas spread throughout Europe, and these stories have become legends. During the Reformation the spirit of St. Nicholas was transferred to the jolly character. In France he is called Papa Noel; in Germany, Held Nichol; in Dutch, Sinter Claus, and in Sweden he has a mysterious julklaf who delivered unexpectedly and unannounced by flinging open a door, throwing in a gift done up in many wrappings, and it was always difficult to find the actual object. In England he was called Father Christmas and was known as an old –very old –gray, bearded gentleman who visited the rich and the poor. When Christmas was banned in England, Father Christmas was driven underground. Yes, he did continue to exist, but with the reign of Charles II, Father Christmas returned in triumph with stories of his being a night rider in a sleigh drawn by reindeer and descending the chimnies with gifts for children everywhere. He was once known as Oden who rode his eight-footed horse called Budner, bringing rewards and  punishment. In Germany St. Nicholas was portrayed as a boy chosen from a church choir to act as their bishop until the Holy Innocence Day, December 28. This was a serious duty, and he served the church as an ordained priest during this time. Also in Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and Austria, St. Nicholas was represented by a man in mystical robes who appears on Christmas Eve to preach a short sermon and have the children recite their catechism before he would distribute the presents. And he was supposed to arrive in Spain, riding a white horse with a black servant carrying gifts, and he always seemed to know the children’s recent misdemeanors. If a child had been bad there would be talk of the servant putting the child in his pack and carrying him off to Spain. Of course, somehow this never did happen, but after the conversation ended he would always distribute the presents without further alarm. In Bavaria St. Nicholas was attended by a boy dressed as a girl who was called Nicolo Weebol with twelve boutonmonmon. The boutonmonmon were young men dressed in straw with animal masks or skins over the heads and large cowbells tied about them to make terrifying noises. This group would visit homes with the bishop, making a short religious speech, and the Nicolo Weebol would distribute the gifts. When they would leave the boutonmonmon, the twelve men, would fall upon the young people with shouts and blows which are to bring good luck, and offer to let the idle workers and the ones who misbehaved to have them shape up and be good. Elsewhere in Europe St. Nicholas was accompanied by St. Peter or the archangel, Gabriel, or by the knight Ruprecht. Ruprecht’s origin is obscure as a gift-bringer, but he would often come alone and wear skins or straw with a fierce appearance, and in some districts was called Ruclaus, or rough Nicholas, and when the first Germans went to Pennsylvania he went with them and is still remembered as Bels Nichol, servant of St. Nicholas. In Spain it’s the three kings who bring the presents. Children put their shoes out on the window sills for the kings to fill them as they ride past. Straw is also left for the benefit of the horses. In Italy a female spirit, Sephana, is of important, uncertain lineage, and is the gift-bearer. Little is known about her. She is pre-Christian. Naughty children are warned that she will carry them away and eat them if they do not reform. It is celebrated with processions, bonfires, and much blowing of trumpets in the streets. In France it’s Father Christmas, and the infant Jesus is the one who fills the sabat overshoes left on the hearth on Christmas Eve. Letters are left on the window sills for him to read, and a table is set between the Christmas tree and the open window with soup plates, one for each child, and in the morning these plates are filled with fruit and sweets and presents that are piled on the table. Christkind has come and gone with no one seeing him, and the baby Jesus has a human representative in the rather unexpected form of a girl wearing a candle crown like the Lucia queen of Sweden and carrying a silver bell in the hand, a basket of gifts in the other hand. She is called Christkind. She bears little resemblance to the holy child, for not only is she the wrong sex and age but is accompanied by a figure from the demon past, the terrible demon Hanstrop who is dressed in a bear skin with blackened face and threatens all naughty children with his wildly brandished stick until Christkind intervenes and saves them. For many of these stories we can determine the origin of our Christmas customs and the symbols we see today at Christmas time. Thank you. I would also like you to notice, this Santa Claus here, this is made by Vic Bittner. Do you remember making him?

BITTNER: No.

A: Don’t you? You made two of them, one for Craig and one for Barbara when they were about two and four years old. My husband had him under a tree. He’s sort of thin. He always looks like _______. But Santa Claus would bring Holly.

B: That’s to remind you not to expect too much.

A: Well, thank you. Maybe some of you are reminded of some of these stories about Christmas and the names of Are there any questions?

B: I wanted to ask Maida if she would show us some of her…

A: Yes, would you, Maida?

MAIDA BITTNER: Okay.

A: Explain all of your pretty, little ornaments.

BITTNER: Well, this was brought from Germany _______, “Silent Night,” and this we brought from the Canary Islands because we found many banana trees there. This is our most recent addition. It comes from the in East Germany, from Wittenburg.

B: _________ Hamburg.

MAIDA BITTNER: To get up there nowadays, well, it appears to be steps, but it’s a very, very long and tedious walk uphill, quite steep, and in the early days they didn’t have this walk. You just walked along the path or the road. Since it was such a hard walk they had these donkeys that people rode up there, and they brought all their supplies up by donkey back. When we were there the donkeys were still there, and you could ride up on them if you wanted to.

VIC BITTNER: You might tell them what __________.

Q: What is it?

VIC BITTNER: The ________ was the place that Luther was confined after he had appeared before the group’s emissary in ______, and he was captured by one of the German princes and brought to the _______ for safekeeping because his life was ______. He was there as the knight, and during the time he was there Father _______ translated the New Testament in a matter of eleven weeks. That came from _______ which has been a fortress since 1057.

MAIDA BITTNER: And we were in one of the rooms where he had supposedly done his writing, and he was supposed to have been tempted by the devil and he took his ink bottle and threw it at the devil and it was supposed to have hit the wall and ink went allover. Well, you can see this spot, but actually, I don’t think they ever admit that. He fought the devil with his pen, is what was said in his writing against the devil. This we brought from Yugoslavia. There is a certain area in Yugoslavia that still wears these kinds of pantaloons and veils, and I thought it was representative of it. This is a very early German –actually, it’s a real Christmas ornament. It’s from Germany. This is a later ornament that
we got from Germany. One of the first ones we got –this was typical, too — ________ there’s the gal and there’s the man. And these are little elves we’ve had for many years, and a little sleigh and a little wagon with little people in
them. This is one of the ornaments that one of our granddaughters made when she must have been about five years old, I guess. This also is one that the second granddaughter made when she was a tiny, little girl. This fellow comes from Russia. We bought a number of these and brought them to the children on our street as a little memento _________. We always said to them, “Well, now you can ______ Russian.” These things we put on the tree, too. They were sent to Vic when he was in the hospital. Our granddaughters did them when they were real small, and they wrote little notes inside and did the work on the outside. And I tried to gather together many of the different kinds of green. There are quite a few in here, too. I probably should have put more _____. Some of these things I’ve had a long time. This came from Sweden, isn’t that right, Vic?

VIC BITTNER: Yes.

MAIDA BITTNER: It’s typical of a Swedish horse. They’ve got them in all sizes. We bought large ones for our grandchildren. This size we use on the Christmas tree, and then there is still a tinier size. This is the bell that my son made when he was in first grade over at the school, and the ornament had Bible verses on the inside. He also made one that had his picture in it, and ______, who has been dead a number of years now and was greatly beloved by most of the people belonging to our church and so much by the children in our school, I always think of her, too, when I ________ because, I guess, I’m a sentimentalist. I don’t know. These two little things are made of horsehair, and they come from Chile. I bought them when we went there, and I thought these ornaments would be different on the Christmas tree. I bought quite a few. I gave them…

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in MP: 

Birth Date: December 5, 1874

Death Date:  February 18, 1971

Marriage
Date: 1896 to Maria Oehlerking,
7/27/1877-11/3/1930
1930 to Martha Schaefer,
3/25/1888-3/31/1972

Children: Caroline, George L, Marie, Gilbert, Martha, Emma, Harvey (all with Maria Oehlerking)

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:

George Busse was a major developer in Mount Prospect. In 1923 he founded the Mount Prospect Development Association with his brothers, purchased the Owen Rooney Farm and subdivided it into Busse’s Eastern Addition. In this subdivision Mount Prospect gained Owen Park, the first public park in the village. He worked with the developers and the recently formed village government to enact strict zoning and building regulations in Mount Prospect, in the hope of keeping the developments on a sustainable scale. His business eventually developed into Busse Realty and stayed within his family for generations.

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in MP:  NW Corner of Busse and Algonquin

Birth Date: 1800 (Friedrich — 1803 (Johanna)

Death Date: 1878

Marriage
Date: 1822
 Spouse:  Johanna Katz and Friedrich Busse

Children: Christian, Friedrich, Henry, Louise, Louis, Johanna

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:

Friedrich and Johanna were the first members of the Busse family to arrive in Mount Prospect. They were born in Hanover, a Germanic state and immigrated to the United States in 1848. They were following their third son Henry, who had set out to make his fortune in the new world a year earlier. He had sent letters home extolling the land and freedom of America and Friedrich decided to follow. When they arrived, they began looking for land to farm. Like many German immigrants, the Busses did not clear the land. After investigating a number of locations, they purchased an existing farm, with a house, tools, and crops in the ground, from a man named Samuel Page. Through hard work and careful planning, the Busse homestead prospered and grew. The land and home remained in the Busse family for the next century. Their descendants went on to be some of the most prominent members of the Mount Prospect community for the next century.

Does MPHS have photographs:  Yes

Address in MP: 21 S. Emerson

Birth Date:  January 1, 1896

Death Date: August 24, 1971

Marriage
Date: 
Spouse:  Elsie Meyn
Children: Edward J, Wallace E.

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
If you look carefully at the building on the eastern corner of Northwest Highway and Emerson Street, you can still see Edwin Busse’s name carved into downtown Mount Prospect. Edwin Busse was both a business man and a local leader. For many years he ran Busse Market out of the building at the corner of Northwest Highway and Emerson. Later that building became the home of Annen and Busse Realty, which his sons helped run. He also served as the village Clerk from 1924 through 1941, he was a member of the Mount Prospect Volunteer Fire Department for 43 years and served on the School District 57 board.

Date of Interview: November 21, 1969

Interviewer: Meta Bitner, Edith Wilson, Doris Weber

Text of Oral History Interview:

Q: …Friday afternoon, November 21, Maida Bittner, Edith Wilson, Doris Weber from the Mount Prospect Historical Society interviewing Mr. Edwin Busse who lives at 21 South Emerson, Mount Prospect.

EDWIN BUSSE: …went to school in ________ …doctor, and he pronounced her dead before she got in the hospital. I had a housekeeper first, and now I’ve got a housekeeper. She was born in Germany.
Q: Were you born in Germany?
BUSSE: No.
Q: And your father was which Busse?
BUSSE: Edward Busse.
Q: He never lived in Mount Prospect.
BUSSE: Oh, yes, sure.
Q: Did he?
BUSSE: He lived across from –first we lived about the grocery store, and that was 1902, and then he built a house by where Beigle’s Restaurant was –that restaurant in there. He built a house there, and they moved that house over to –I think it’s the second or third house from the corner there. Then he built that house. He also built this house.
Q: Oh, that house right across the street.
BUSSE: Yes. Then when I got married this fellow living in here was getting sick and tired of Mount Prospect so my dad bought this house then I moved in here. Of course, I had to pay him out.
Q: Oh, sure. That always comes into it.
BUSSE: Then my dad built that one, and then he moved in there, and now my sister is living there.
Q: And his sister is quite ill, too, and it’s hard for him to go across the street to visit her.
BUSSE: And my sister can’t come over here.
Q: I saw you going across the street with your cane one day…
BUSSE: Yes, some days.
Q: …and I wondered whether you should.
BUSSE: Well, maybe I shouldn’t but I did anyhow.
Q: Now, you were born in 1896.
BUSSE: 1896, January 1.
Q: Where?
BUSSE: In Elk Grove, Algonquin Road.
Q: And his father was Mr. and Mrs. Edward Busse.
Q: Where did you go to school?
BUSSE: At St. John’s in Elk Grove.
Q: And he married the Meyn girl.
BUSSE: They lived across the street, so all I had to do was jump across the road there and I was…
Q: Do you mean right over here where Christian Busse –over in that area?
BUSSE: No.
Q: Right across the street here.
BUSSE: The house is still there where my wife was born.
Q: After school what was your first job?
BUSSE: My first job was –well, from school I went to Metropolitan Business College for fourteen months, and I graduated there with a ninety-five-and-two-thirds percent average.
Q: Oh, that’s great.
Q: …said they put siding on it.
BUSSE: Yes.
Q: Yes, well, now I think everything is working fine.
Q: You say there were how many children in your class in St. John’s?
BUSSE: Ninety-six.
Q: Ninety-six children. That’s a lot of children, isn’t it, for one teacher? And your teacher was Fred Meeske?
BUSSE: No, Paul Meeske.
Q: Who was Paul Meeske? Is that Fred Meeske’s father?
BUSSE: Fred Meeske’s father, yes.
Q: There were various grades in the one room?
BUSSE: Four classes.
Q: And he was able to teach all four classes at the same time.
BUSSE: Yes. He lined us up from one end of the school to the other.
Q: I don’t think we got the part about you pumping the organ.
BUSSE: Oh, in church Sunday mornings we had to pump the organ so we could get air to run it.
Q: Yes, and you did the pumping.
BUSSE: Well, we took our turns.
Q: Would you forget to pump once in a while?
BUSSE: I’ll say.
Q: That was a hard job to pump, wasn’t it?
BUSSE: Oh, no, it wasn’t hard. It was a tedious job, you know.
Q: You had to keep after it continuously. I suppose some of those long pieces lasted forever.
Q: After you left business college and you got your first job, when did you get the store?
BUSSE: Then I went to work for the Continental and Commercial National Bank.
Q: How long were you with them?
BUSSE: I worked there for about five years or something like that.
Q: You didn’t work there with Mr. Biermann, Frank Biermann?
BUSSE: I’ll come to that.
Q: Okay.
BUSSE: I worked there, and then the boss said to me, “Say, have you got any more guys like you out there?”
Q: A good worker.
BUSSE: You know, I always –he was a lot of times a funny guy.
Q: If you knew a friend, huh?
BUSSE: I said, “I’ll see once what I can do.” He said, “Yes, tell him to corne in,” and then I took Frank along.
Q: That’s Frank Biermann.
BUSSE: Yes. He started to work there, and then pretty soon William Busse said to me –I was about ready to get married. I was getting about seventy dollars a month over by the bank, and he said, “We need somebody to take care of the store. I don’t want my wife to work all her life. You can keep the books and take care of the store. We’ll find plenty to do for you.” So I worked over there for five years. Of course, they gave me a raise. I was getting seventy-five dollars a month…
Q: That was good money in those days.
BUSSE: …and I saved six dollars and forty cents, which was the carfare a month then. See, I saved that.
Q: How much were you able to put away in the bank?
Q: He’s not saying.
Q: It was a laugh in those days, too?
BUSSE: Getting married and putting away in the bank? A lot of that old stuff I threw out. We’d have electric bills, oh, a dollar or a little more than a dollar. We could live cheaper then.
Q: You probably could save, couldn’t you, on that. When did you go into business for yourself?
BUSSE: And then I went in with my dad. He said, “Come on. I can get you in the union now” –a big deal. “I can get you in the union now.” He was organizing the union, and he said, “You can work in the bottling plant.” So I went over there until 1925, then my dad started to –oh, and by the way, I was getting seventy –nineteen dollars a week with the union in the bottling plant.
Q: Where was the bottling plant?
BUSSE: Where Schimming’s is now. And then in 1925 my dad put the building up. That’s where Van Oriel is in now. And he said, “You know, I want one of my boys in business in the building here,” and then I became a butcher.
Q: And he had a nice store.
Q: Oh, yes. Your pot roasts were so delicious.
BUSSE: And then I became a butcher. I hired a union butcher, and I opened up in August, and the rest.
Q: August of what year?
BUSSE: 1925. Then my butcher goes and dies. I don’t know whether he died in the back room or whether he got home yet. Anyhow, he died, and there I was sitting. Now what are you going to do? Make an attempt at it yourself. So from then on I …
Q: You learned how to do the business.
BUSSE: I learned how to do the business with the help of salesman. They would tell me what to do and I would do it. But I didn’t make much money the first year.
Q: Where was your first home after you were married?
BUSSE: Right here.
Q: Right here at 21 South Emerson.
BUSSE: Then I plugged along. My sister worked for me, and we got along all right. Then I’d hire boys, you know. Some of the boys that I turned out over there that worked for me in the beginning were Sandy Falkinzer. I don’t know whether you know him.
Q: I know Sandy Falkinzer. I know them. I don’t think they live in town anymore, the Falkinzers.
BUSSE: No, they live in Palatine.
Q: Oh, I remember them, yes.
Q: He was a nice boy.
BUSSE: And he was a good boy. Richard Carlson, he married an Anderson girl –the real estate man. And Koesters.
Q: Lawrence Koester’s son.
BUSSE: Lawrence Koester’s son. He had two of them, didn’t he?
Q: Yes, and a girl.
BUSSE: I think the boys both worked for me. Some are doctors, some are dentists, and that’s the way I needed them. High school, and then when they graduated from there then they went.
Q: Sure.
Q: What was Christmas like in the Busse household?
BUSSE: Well, very lean in the beginning.
Q: Did the family come here?
BUSSE: We went around –one Christmas here, one Christmas by my brother, and one Christmas by my mother. That’s the way we treated New Year’s, too –well, New Year’s we most generally landed here, see, because I had my birthday and we always celebrated it.
Q: He was born January 1. He’s a New Year’s baby.
BUSSE: That’s the way we went around, with my mother, all holidays.
Q: Did you celebrate the two days together or separate?
BUSSE: No, together.
Q: What was the favorite food? Was turkey usually the Christmas meal or goose?
BUSSE: Turkey, goose. Ducks –they weren’t big enough.
Q: It helped to have a store in those days, to bring home all the goodies.
Q: How large a family would collect at a place on a holiday? Would there be a dozen or more together?
BUSSE: Oh, sometimes more. It all depends. When my wife’s relatives all come, why, then, that would be quite a collection.
Q: She was the daughter of Mr. Meyn.
Q: And a sister of the Meyn who lives on the corner down here, right? Mr. Meyn, you know –Mr. and Mrs. Meyn.
Q: No, I don’t.
Q: He was the blacksmith. Mr. Meyn had the blacksmith shop in town.
Q: And was it his son who was the village president years ago?
BUSSE: No, he was.
Q: The village blacksmith.
Q: Well, I shouldn’t say that. A blacksmith shop he had.
BUSSE: Blacksmith and machinery.
Q: Yes, he could do all sorts of things. First it was down- the street here –isn’t that right, Mr. Busse? –on Northwest Highway and Busse Avenue.
BUSSE: John Meyn, my wife’s father, he had a blacksmith shop over here on this corner where that house is standing now — where the gas station is. He had a shop there, and that’s where I met my wife, right across the street.
Q: Well, courting was easy then.
Q: Did you flirt?
Q: Sure, he flirted. What are you asking?
BUSSE: What did you do?
Q: She’s blushing.
BUSSE: I suppose we did the same thing you did.
Q: Look at her blush.
BUSSE: She didn’t expect that.
Q: No, we kidded her.
Q: Shall we go back to the grocery store?
Q: Yes, let’s go back to the grocery store.
Q: Well, then, Mr. Meyn, his father –he took over his father’s business then, is that it?
BUSSE: No. They were competitors for a while.
Q: Oh, is that so?
BUSSE: Why don’t you girls sit down?
Q: Okay, we will.
BUSSE: Pull up the chairs if they aren’t close enough.
Q: This is fine. I’ll just put my stuff on the floor.
BUSSE: But there was a blacksmith shop there, and it was for sale. Then the bought that man out, see. That’s how he got in the business. And he had another son home that could do blacksmith work that worked for his father, but he turned out to be a grocery man, too. That was on the south –who is in there now? J&B.
Q: J & B Market.
Q: Where was your market?
BUSSE: Where Annen & Busse is in.
Q: And, now, this house that was built across from the Mehling Store, wasn’t that a Meyn?
BUSSE: That way?
Q: Yes, Main Street. That was a blacksmith.
BUSSE: That was the only one that was there.
Q: That was the blacksmith shop.
BUSSE: And the blacksmith.
Q: You mean that is the original building that’s still standing?
Q: No, that’s gone.
Q: It isn’t there, I don’t think, anymore, that original.
BUSSE: No. that’s there ~et.
Q: Is this that original Meyn …?
BUSSE: Not the first one, but this one, all the kids were raised in there.
Q: The one on the corner of Route 83 and Main?
Q: No.
BUSSE: No, across from Route 83 and Main.
Q: Across the street from _________.
BUSSE: There is a bunch of stores in there.
Q: Yes, and then there’s the big house.
BUSSE: There is a big house. That’s the one that the Meyns raised.
Q: Oh, that is. I often wondered who lived in that house. That’s quite a beautiful house, isn’t it.
BUSSE: It must have been. They’ve got pictures of the house when it was built. Mrs. Herman Meyn has pictures of that. But then I started that meat market, and then I was elected village clerk about 1924. I became village clerk, and I was village clerk until 1945.
Q: What was one of the most important matters that came up while you were village clerk?
BUSSE: Everything.
Q: Everything was important.
Q: Anyone particular thing that impressed you _______ that you worked harder on?
BUSSE: Paving. Paving the streets.
Q: Widening the streets?
BUSSE: No.
Q: The streets were gravel before?
BUSSE: It was mud and gravel, yes.
Q: Wooden sidewalks?
BUSSE: We had wooden sidewalks when we first moved here. Street paving, all the underground work, sewers stubs, water –that was all put in while I was clerk. Then we’d have meetings until twelve, one o’clock –you know how the meetings go –and then they’d pass some bonds for Milburn Brothers. Milburn did all the paving here.
Q: Where did you meet?
BUSSE: Under the water tower, that little room, and that was I so full of smoke all the time. When I got home, three days later I’d smell of smoke yet.
Q: There was a little lean-to between the well and the water tower.
BUSSE: No, that was just a building.
Q: That building where you used to go to pay your water rent and things. It was the police station, too.
Q: It was just a little twelve-by-twelve …
Q: It’s still there.
Q: Yes, but it’s bricked-up now. It looks different, doesn’t it’?
Q: Isn’t it just as it was?
BUSSE: I think so.
Q: I think so, yes.
Q: It’s brick?
BUSSE: No. Wooden, I’m pretty sure.
Q: It looks like an old shed.
BUSSE: You know, imagine the guys sitting around there, and around on the outside yet there were some more smoking. Everybody was smoking, and I never smoked in my life.
Q: You never did.
BUSSE: Never did.
Q: And I’d inhale all that smoke, and that’s where I got my emphysema from now, I guess.
Q: They say that it’s worse to inhale someone else’s smoke than to smoke yourself. I heard that.
BUSSE: Well, that’s where I got mine from.
Q: And your clothes all smelled of smoke, and your wife didn’t like it.
Q: She probably thought you were smoking.
BUSSE: Two days later the house smelled of smoke yet.
Q: Who else was on the village board that helped to make decisions at the same time that you were clerk?
BUSSE: Well, William Busse.
Q: Shall I go and get the picture out there on the porch?
Q: I think it lists those names.
Q: Here there are a .lot of names. There is one Henjes.
BUSSE: Henjes?
Q: Who was he? Only in the history of Mount Prospect did I run across that.
BUSSE: He married into the Busse family.
Q: Where did he come from, Germany?
BUSSE: Well, they all came from Germany.
Q: These papers that you’re weeding through out on the back porch now, does this have to do just with your store? Any Busse family…?
Q: Here, Maida. Here’s the picture of the whole group that was on his village board.
Q: Isn’t this wonderful he saved all this.
BUSSE: At different times.
Q: Oh, save these papers, Mr. Busse, please. They have so much valuable information on them. It’s good your wife permitted you to keep all these, you know. A lot of wives throw out everything.
Q: We’d appreciate it if you didn’t throw any newspapers away because we’re saving and compiling some of these clippings in the old newspapers.
BUSSE: There is Bittner. Do you remember this quilt?
Q: That’s one that everybody did some embroidery on, isn’t it?
Q: Oh, look at that quilt. Isn’t that beautiful. Everyone’s name.
Q: Oh, Marie Moehling.
Q: Isn’t that beautiful. Red and white.
Q: Isn’t that pretty. Let’s see some of these names.
Q: How many signatures are on there? Is this sort of a family quilt?
BUSSE: No, anybody could get in there.
Q: That resided in Mount Prospect.
Q: Who made this, your wife?
Q: The Ladies’ Aid.
Q: When? What year? Do you remember about when?
BUSSE: __________________.
Q: Jessie Miller, Anna Olson.
Q: Olga Luckner, Ethel Wille, Elvina Albert.
BUSSE: Ethel Wille was my brother’s wife, or is my brother’s wife.
Q: Elizabeth Bussert.
Q: Elvina William Wilke.
BUSSE: Look here.
Q: Do you want to read some of those and tell us who they are?
Q: Emma Busse.
Q: There is Emma Busse, Edwin Busse –that’s you.
Q: Marjorie Earhart.
Q: Isn’t this marvelous.
Q: Yes, she’s married now.
Q: Christina Behren –Christina Busse.
BUSSE: My uncle, my aunt.
Q: Emma Busse. Elsie Meyn, Christine Meyn, John Meyn, here.
Q: Jeannie Busse.
Q: Tillie Ehard. She’s gone a long time.
BUSSE: Look here.
Q: Edwin, yes.
Q: Elsie Meyn. Was that before you were married that you got…?
BUSSE: That was before we were married.
Q: Christina Meyn.
Q: Before you were married. How about that.
BUSSE: We kind of figured it out. That would be about. ..
Q: You’ve had your fiftieth anniversary.
BUSSE: Yes, that was two years ago. That might be about, oh, a little less than fifty-five years.
Q: Henry Clousing.
Q: Scharinghausen?
Q: Remember, Henry Clousing, the house that we’re so interested in. Anna Clousing, Anna Muenching.
BUSSE: And that would be a good house for that.
Q: Yes, it would.
BUSSE: I’ve been thinking about that.
Q: Did you hear about that house?
BUSSE: I heard it was sold.
Q: For taxes, and nobody knew anything about it. That’s what the village said.
Q: Here we’ve been after it for so long.
BUSSE: Well, Wallace had it for sale. Wallace had it for sale when Mrs. Clousing finally died.
Q: Clara Koch.
Q: Mary _________.
BUSSE: And he had it sold. He sold it for twenty-eight thousand dollars. Then the deal couldn’t go through because –what did _________ say –the attorney said there was fifty-four errors to it and they couldn’t get the signatures.
Q: And that’s about six years ago, or something like that?
Q: Caroline Zingfel.
Q: We have her signature on the checks that we got from the library.
BUSSE: That’s since he’s been in that business there. He left me, oh, I don’t know what it was, about 1960 or 1959.
Q: Gertie Busse.
Q: Scharinghausen.
Q: Did he work for you?
BUSSE: Wallace? Oh, sure.
Q: Wallace Clousing?
BUSSE: No, Wallace Busse. He’s in real estate. He’s manager here now.
Q: Which Scharinghausen was this, I wonder, M?
BUSSE: That might be Walter.
Q: Walter’s wife or mother?
BUSSE: No, they’re much younger than I am.
Q: Mrs. Spoerlater’s sister.
BUSSE: Gertie Busse.
Q: Terkhoff.
Q: Wille.
Q: Schaeffer.
Q: Christian D. Busse. He was the first…
Q: He lived across the street.
Q: Yes.
Q: Bertha Ehart.
Q: Oh, no.
Q: Bertha Engel.
Q: Yes, Bertha Ehart, Bertha Engleking. That was her mother, wasn’t it?
BUSSE: That was her mother, yes.
Q: And Joseph.
Q: Joseph Ehart lived down here on Maple.
Q: Well, this certainly is a choice thing.
BUSSE: We had it at the fiftieth golden anniversary when the village was fifty years old.
Q: You must treasure this.
Q: I don’t remember seeing it there.
BUSSE: Oh, they say it was –everybody was looking at it. The only thing that they were looking at.
Q: You must treasure this.
Q: He should.
BUSSE: Well, yes. When my father-in-law…
Q: Rohlwings?
Q: You know who Rohlwings are. That was George L. Busse’s mother-in-law. Pfingsten, that’s his brother-in-law.
Q: You mean Jardell?
BUSSE: Jardell’s brother.
Q: Oldendorf?
BUSSE: That’s another relationship of the Willes, the Oldendorfs.
Q: Stella Woerfel.
Q: That’s a long time. When is it?
BUSSE: Yes. They used to live in the house across the street here. There was a house.
Q: Herman Noll.
BUSSE: Yes, you know who Herman Noll is.
Q: I know Herman.
BUSSE: He’s a preacher in Prospect Heights now.
Q: I know Herman Noll.
BUSSE: We had a fellow staying here for a while. He begged to be able to move in here. He wanted to get away from the old peoples’ home, so he came in here and Herman Noll was his pastor.
Q: Is that so.
BUSSE: Yes. He didn’t belong to any church at all, and so he Herman Noll got acquainted with him somehow, and Herman Noll confirmed him, mind you. He confirmed him, and then he came over here and Herman Noll visited him over at the house here. He came in, and he said, “Hello, Edwin,” and I said, “Hello, Pastor.” He said, “Ach, ‘Pastor.’ What’s the matter with you, Edwin? I was raised in your backyard.” “I know that, but I still call you ‘Pastor.’ You’re a pastor and you deserve that title, to have us call you pastor.” He said, “Don’t do that. Just call me Herman.”
Q: Who were your brothers and sisters?
BUSSE: Just Christina Busse and Richard Busse. He’s dead now.
Q: He lived in the house right across the street here, remember?
BUSSE: Yes, when they put a parking lot there.
Q: We’re repeating some of these things, I guess.
Q: We missed part of the tape in the beginning, and I don’t know what part.
Q: What else would you like to tell us?
BUSSE: Forty-two years a fireman.
Q: At the time of Mr. Biermann?
Q: You should have heard Mr. Biermann last Monday night.
BUSSE: I was a fireman before Mr. Biermann was a fireman. Mr. Biermann was twenty-one years old in October, and I was twenty-one years old in January. That much older I am than Frank Biermann.
Q: And you had the opportunity to use the old fire equipment –the one-and-only original piece?
BUSSE: I drove the old fire truck for years.
Q: How did it ride?
BUSSE: For years I drove the first American of France fire truck that we had.
Q: What was the first fire, do you remember?

Does MPHS have photographs: No

Date of Interview: November 28, 1993

Interviewer:  Unknown

Q: It is November 28, 1993, and the interview here is in Mt. Prospect at 415 E. Prospect. First of all, I just wanted to thank you for agreeing to be interviewed and signing the consent form. We just have to acknowledge that on tape, so I have to say that. I have a list of questions here, and I’m going to go off the top of my head and ask, as well. You said you were born in 1904, was it?
ALISE BOYLAND: 1905.
Q: In LaCrosse?
BOYLAND: That’s right.
Q: Why don’t you tell me again who your parents were.
BOYLAND: My parents were Louise Mitchell Platz and Max Frederick Platz. He was born in LaCrosse.
Q: When did you move to Mt. Prospect? Did you tell me 1936?
BOYLAND: 1936, yes. We moved over to Wa-Pella Street. It was a solid row of houses at that time. We felt very free to have our children play almost undersupervised because we didn’t have to worry about abusive people. Very often we would gather on Bill Welch’s front steps and visit and kind of keep an eye on the children. One of the women on the street had a pre-school, because there was no kindergarten, and later on Glad Ackley had a kindergarten in her home. I think maybe the Lutheran school had a kindergarten, but the early Central School did not. Back of the old houses on the west there was a Meyers farm, and during  the war we rented a little, small portion for little Victory Gardens.
Q: Was this World War II?
BOYLAND: Yes.
Q: I remember that one day, looking out my kitchen window, there were two big cows in the backyard. Fortunately, there were no children around. I quick called our one and only policeman, George Wittenburg, to corral them and get them back where they belonged. Downtown Mt. Prospect was basically Meeske’s, there was a National Tea Store, the bank and the Busse Hardware Store. There was a little dry goods store, a small one, and the post office. We had to go pick up our mail. And there was a drug store, so actually, we had all the basics that we needed. Of course, everybody –all the men –worked downtown, and there was very good train transportation. At that time the ladies did not work. We just were housewives. Well, you ask the questions.
Q: Have you always lived in the same place? Did you stay in that area long?
BOYLAND: No, we lived at 600 W. Lincoln for eighteen years, and then I moved over to a smaller house on Emerson Street — 207 N. Emerson Street. And then I sold that and made the mistake of going to a retirement home, the Tamarack in Palatine, didn’t like it and then moved back here to Mt. Prospect in this apartment.
Q: What made you decide to move back to Mt. Prospect?
BOYLAND: Because I’d lived here practically all my life, and I had friends here and a church. Really, when we first came out here, I think there was a Lutheran church, and I think soon after the South Church started. But, of course, they started in somebody’s home. And then the Episcopal church was started. I can’t tell you the year. It also started in somebody’s home. And then, of course, St. Raymond’s. By that time the town was blooming. See, when we moved out, only 1,200 people.
Q: What made you decide to move to Mt. Prospect in the first place?
BOYLAND: I guess my husband knew Mr. Piesander, who was in the real estate business, so we moved out and liked it very much. We rented the house for a year, and then decided to buy. At that time we had scrambled to get the down payment. Well, it paid for the house, because at that time you bought your house outright. You didn’t have a thirty-year mortgage, so our houses were paid for.
Q: What has changed about the town over the years? What strikes you?
BOYLAND: I think the growth, and many different types of people. Most of them, I think, are good middle-class people, but we begin to feel that there –I don’t know whether there are gangs coming, but we didn’t feel uneasy about –less safe than we did.
Q: You mentioned the train transportation. What do you remember about the building of the –were you here when the train station was being built?
BOYLAND: There was a station here, yes.
Q: Oh, there was a station already.
BOYLAND: Yes, there was a station here.
Q: What are some of the other landmarks or some of the other things you can remember that have sprouted up as you’ve been here?
BOYLAND: That have sprouted up? Well, I’m thinking of Kouzie’s. Of course, that’s now Mrs. Piamie (sic). That was here at the time that I moved out here. Of course, now we have so many stores, with Randhurst. Well, it’s an entirely different situation. Little stores can’t survive. Meeske’s couldn’t survive. I think the Continental Bakery is there now.
Q: What do you remember most about –did you do a lot of shopping downtown then?
BOYLAND: Not a great deal. It seemed we had everything out here. We would go –well, at that time, see, you could call Field’s and they would deliver for you. It was very nice. Very easy. And we’d go down occasionally. We had a bridge group, there were eight of us, and we would put in a certain amount of money every time, and then in due time we’d have enough money so we could go downtown for lunch. At that time we wore the hats and the white gloves and really dressed up.
Q: And make a day out of it.
BOYLAND: Made a day out of it, yes.
Q: Did you shop in Mt. Prospect, around the train station where all the stores are?
BOYLAND: Some in Des Plaines. There were a couple of nice stores there –Brown’s Department Store in Des Plaines. We shopped there. But as far as articles of clothing, there really wasn’t much at that time, no.
Q: Where did you go for that –for clothing?
BOYLAND: Well, as I said, Marshall Field’s. We’d go down periodically, in Chicago. But there were things we could get at Brown’s in Des Plaines, especially nice children’s things. But even then we could pick up the phone and see the catalog and call up.
Q: What did you do about groceries?
BOYLAND: Almost entirely Meeske’s, as far as I was concerned.
Q: What about other things, like hardware items?
BOYLAND: Busse’s Hardware, that filled our needs.
Q: I guess you were here when Mt. Prospect was becoming more suburban. You weren’t here for any farming, right?
BOYLAND: At that point [the population] was 1,200 when we moved out. Of course, there were farms all around us.
Q: Did you do any farming?
BOYLAND: No, I said we had a little Victory Garden.
Q: What about a car? Did you buy your car around here?
BOYLAND: I think everybody had their own car.
Q: Did you buy a car around here?
BOYLAND: I think we bought our car –it was a Lincoln. I think we bought that in, probably, Park Ridge. There was a Buick agency here. I think that was established here almost at the same time we moved out. I think there was a Busse Buick. I think that was still there.
Q: What about medicine? Were you able to get it in town?
BOYLAND: There was a drugstore in town.
Q: What kind of a place was that? Was that something where kids could gather?
BOYLAND: I don’t think they gathered there, particularly. It was basically a drugstore for us. I don’t recall the name of the store now. The children, they didn’t gather around like that. It seemed they were so independent, they played freely. At that time we didn’t really have to have –now there are so many recreational facilities for them. They didn’t seem to need that.
Q: What exactly did they do for their fun around here –for entertainment?
BOYLAND: I suppose so, yes, that little game. See, children were not organized, and they just developed their own little games.
Q: Just outside on the street.
BOYLAND: Mostly outside, yes. They were sort of creative, I think, in some of the things they came up with.
Q: What were some of the other stores that were in town? Any other recollections?
BOYLAND: Well, there was a Busse grocery store. I think that was about it. I’m thinking back when we moved out here in 1936. Now, of course, as time went on –well, naturally, you can see what’s happened.
Q: Yes. What grade school did your children attend? Did they go to school in Mt. Prospect?
BOYLAND: Oh, yes. They went to Central.
Q: Where was Central located when you were first living here?
BOYLAND: I think it’s where the bank is.
Q: Downtown?
BOYLAND: Yes, it was downtown.
Q: They all went to Central. Was that a grade school from one to eight?
BOYLAND: Yes, that’s right.
Q: Where did they go to high school?
BOYLAND: They went to Arlington Heights.
Q: Where was that located? Was that up north of…?
BOYLAND: In Arlington Heights, yes.
Q: Like north of Northwest Highway?
BOYLAND: Yes. That Arlington Heights school is gone now. I think there’s something else there now.
Q: If that’s the one I’m thinking of, I think there is a private Christian school there, I believe.
BOYLAND: Yes, I think so.
Q: The Central School, was that relatively near? Were you children able to walk to school?
BOYLAND: Oh, yes. I don’t say it was that near, but they just walked to the Central School, or took their bicycles. See, there again we didn’t have to fear of traffic. They’d come home for lunch.
Q: And for high school? That was a little bit farther.
BOYLAND: That was a bus, yes. They took a bus.
Q: I’m trying to figure out what life was like for them in the early years around here. What was their morning routine like? Did they have things to do in the morning before they went to school, maybe that children today would not have to do, like chores?
BOYLAND: Not really, because the bus came kind of early.
Q: And they went home for lunch?
BOYLAND: Not in high school.
Q: Are we talking in terms of their high school years, or are we talking the 1950s and the early 1960s, maybe?
BOYLAND: Yes. It was a very normal high school, I think much as they have today, except maybe fewer activities. But they had sports and they had a newspaper. As a matter of fact, my daughter Gloria was editor of the newspaper.
Q: At the high school?
BOYLAND: Yes.
Q: Any other recollections from their school years here?
BOYLAND: Well, the usual thing –proms and various activities –drama. ________ participated in all those things. A very nice group of people, because children from Arlington Heights also came and channeled in there, and so it was a nice group of children, or young people. I guess they weren’t exactly children at that age.
Q: The Central School, I guess, was mainly people from Mt. Prospect?
BOYLAND: Yes.
Q: What did they do at Central? What type of activities did they do there?
BOYLAND: They had the drama, too. They had nice programs periodically. They had band and they had music. It was a nice school. They had everything. They were nice children. The people that were out here in Mt. Prospect were so similar–young people, probably of medium incomes, and it made it nice.
Q: Were there a lot of after-school activities to do?
BOYLAND: I think there were some.
Q: What is your fondest memory of the early time when you were first here in Mt. Prospect?
BOYLAND: I enjoyed my home very much. I enjoyed the environment very much, and wonderful friends –some of those friends, when we lived on Wa-pella Street, who are still very close. Many of them moved away, but we still have that nice association. A very nice life.
Q: When you reminisce with your children, what do you like to pass on to them about Mt. Prospect?
BOYLAND: I guess the same thing. Of course, my one daughter is in California. It doesn’t mean that much to her. But I guess we talk about how pleasant it was. It was a small town. But we don’t dwell on that. After all, they have their own lives.
Q: What about the government? What was that like when you first came here?
BOYLAND: We had a mayor. I think Piesander was the mayor.
Q: Did you have a lot of interest in the politics of the town?
BOYLAND: Not particularly.
Q: Did your husband?
BOYLAND: Not particularly.
Q: What about your friends? Was there any interest in the politics?
BOYLAND: Oh, I think we all had a certain interest, because, after all, it was our home, but I don’t say we had a whole lot.
Q: Were there any particular political issues that the government was dealing with at any particular time that you can recall?
BOYLAND: I don’t recall. I think we were not into politics that much. See, we were such home bodies, in a way, our families, that we were not into that as much. Probably now we’re more into it.
Q: What are you concerned about now, as far as that area?
BOYLAND: I’m concerned about this new health program and how it’s going to affect the older people. I guess nobody knows exactly how it’s going to work out.
Q: Yes, that’s true. Is there anything locally that you’re concerned about right now?
BOYLAND: No.
Q: What do you see as far as similarities between the Mt. Prospect that you came to in 1936 and the Mt. Prospect that you know today?
BOYLAND: I guess it’s the same thing. I still feel very safe here, and everybody seems very pleasant. I haven’t dealt with anybody that causes trouble.
Q: Do you have any concerns for the future, or just generally, what do you think the future holds for Mt. Prospect?
BOYLAND: I can’t really say, because I’m so old now that I just have no idea what the future is, and I guess I’m not interested.
Q: Is there anything that you’d like to add about your being here years ago –your memories from years ago?
BOYLAND: I think I have covered it pretty well.
Q: Great. I’m trying to think if I have any other questions –I guess your general outlook about years ago was just that you felt very safe.
BOYLAND: Very safe, and very pleasant living.
Q: And just able to gather outside on the porch.
BOYLAND: Yes, it was very pleasant living; good neighbors, good friends.
Q: Thank you for the interview, and thank you for consenting. We appreciate that.
BOYLAND: I’m sure there’s a lot you’re going to edit.