1935 Elgin, Illinois, Centennial Celebration

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by leeg, Nov 20, 2019.

  1. leeg

    leeg I Enjoy Toned Coins

    chi-hist-elgin-parade-20130131 chicago tribune.png
    June 18, 1935: About 25,000 people watch the Elgin centennial parade. — Tribune archive photo, Chicago Tribune, Sept. 18, 2014.

    “Frank B. Perkins, one of Elgin’s few surviving veterans of the Civil war, is the man who launched the enterprise that has become the Elgin Centennial Association, under whose auspices the city begins tomorrow to celebrate its hundredth birthday.

    Mr. Perkins, who came to Elgin in 1856 from Barrington Center to attend the Elgin Academy, and has made it his home ever since, first broached the idea in a letter to Joseph C. Spiess, then president of the Elgin Association of Commerce, in 1931. Mr. Spiess called a meeting at the Union League club on Nov. 10, 1931, and the first discussion was had.

    Present at this meeting were A. J. Durand, named by Mr. Spiess as chairman of the committee to get the project underway, Mrs. W. P. Topping, Franck H. McDonald, Will D. Kimball, Harry D. Hemmens, Mr. Perkins and Mr. Spiess.

    The committee decided to begin the collection of historical data, and to interest other citizens, with a view to forming a permanent organization when the time should be deemed opportune.

    The next formal session was at the Association of Commerce offices on Nov. 4, 1932. Present were Mr. Durand, Mrs. Flossie McBride Parkin, Miss Wilderdean Gillilan, Mrs. Topping, Mrs. E. R. Davery, Earl R. Shopen, Lawrence M. McNerney, Samuel Rahn, R. Eaton Fedou, William H. Brady, Frank H. McDonald, Will D. Kimball, Trygve Rovelstad and H. G. Lawrence, secretary of the Association of Commerce.

    At this meeting Attorneys McNerney and Shopen were appointed to draft incorporation papers, and Mr. McNerney was named vice-chairman, in view of Mr. Durand’s impending absence from Elgin, Mr. Rovelstad’s plan to erect a memorial statue honoring Elgin’s pioneers was promised moral support, but the meeting expressly disclaimed any financial responsibility for it. It was decided to build the cabin at Villa and Fulton sts.

    On Jan. 30, 1933, the Elgin 1935 Centennial Assn. was formally chartered as a corporation not for profit. Several meetings were held I February and March, at which a constitution and by-laws were drafted and adopted, and further organization steps taken. Incorporation costs were borne by the Association of Commerce.

    On March 27, 1933, directors were elected as follows: Lawrence M. McNerney, Earl R. Shopen, W. D. Kimball, Mrs. W. P. Topping, A. J. Durand, R. Eaton Fedou and Alfred H. Kirland. Mr. McNerney was elected president, Mr. Shopen first vice-president, Mr. Durand second vice-president, Mrs. Topping secretary, and Mr. Kimball treasurer. These officers and directors are still in office. An advisory committee of 100 citizens of Elgin was named and has been of great assistance in carrying the project through.

    After the question of a suitable program for the Centennial celebration had been discussed at several meetings a pageant of some of the outstanding events in Elgin’s history was decided upon. On Feb. 15, 1935, the Centennial Association entered into a contract with the John B. Rogers company of Fostoria, O., which has been producing pageants for more than a quarter of a Century, and the detailed work of arranging the celebration has been under way for about three months.”1

    1 The Elgin Courier-News, Perkins Fostered Idea That Led to Elgin Celebration, Saturday, June 15, 1935.



    Much more to follow.
     
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  3. Treashunt

    Treashunt The Other Frank

    good write up
     
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  4. Penna_Boy

    Penna_Boy Just a nobody from the past

    Pretty neat. Love those old pictures. Thanks.
     
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  5. leeg

    leeg I Enjoy Toned Coins

    Elgin in 1935:

    Elgin's centennial year was an occasion for the city to recall its heritage and reaffirm in the depths of a Depression its confidence in the future. A replica of James T. Gifford's cabin was erected in the little park at Fulton and Villa Streets within a block of the original site. Walter H. Kimball, son of Samuel J. Kimball and the oldest native born resident, cut the first piece of a 700-pound birthday cake. Marguerite Gifford, grandniece of the founder, was elected Centennial Queen. Souvenir wooden money in denominations of five, ten and twenty-five cents was issued to help finance the celebration, which included a concert, three parades, a costume ball and four performances of a huge pageant, "On Wings of 'nine," portraying the city's one hundred years of progress. The Courier-News published a 148-page special centennial edition.

    Hard at work in the abandoned Fire Station No. 5 was Elgin sculptor Trygve Rovelstad. He was modeling a four-figure group twelve feet tall called the Pioneer Memorial. The monument would consist of a scout or huntsman, dressed in coonskin cap and fringed buckskin, carrying a long rifle and breaking the trail; his pioneer father looking eagerly ahead to new horizons; his mother with a baby at her breast; and a youth bearing a staff in one hand and a scroll in the other, symbolic of strength and knowledge. Its foundation had already been poured in Davidson Park, but funds to complete the project were scarce.

    Looking ahead, a round-up dinner meeting after the Centennial celebration heard proposals for the betterment of Elgin. Suggestions included a community building, a new bridge over the Fox, a bypass route for U. S. 20, highway widening, and the construction of an armory. All of these would eventually become realities.

    The economic gloom was brightened somewhat with four quarterly dividends of the Elgin National Watch Company, totaling one dollar per share, the first since February 1931. It was announced that The Watch Word would resume publication. Teachers' salaries were restored to 90 percent of their pre-Depression level. Nevertheless, there were many reminders that the New Deal had not revived the economy. Population was stationary except at the Elgin State Hospital, where the number of patients had risen about eleven hundred since 1930. It was becoming a poor farm, and many recovered patients could not be discharged because of the hard times. Only sixteen dwelling units were erected in 1935, in contrast to the 388 built ten years earlier. The year's only commercial construction was a building for a small dairy operation. The number of telephones in the Elgin district had declined from 9,591 on January 1, 1930, to 7,435 on January 1, 1935.

    The scarcity of jobs attracted four mayoral candidates and thirty-five hopefuls for the four commissionerships in the municipal primary. A record number of 13,500 went to the polls to narrow the list. Myron M. Lehman, the incumbent mayor, won a return match with Earle R. Kelley in the final election. The turnout of 15,496 has never been surpassed.

    The Elgin office of the Illinois Emergency Relief Commission, which included Dundee Township, reported a record caseload of 1,429 families in February. This was reduced about forty percent during the year, as many of the employables, found jobs on WPA and PWA projects. One of these was the transformation of a useless patch of mud and scrub brush in the Fox River into Walton Island.

    With the financial assistance of a $28,000 WPA grant, about eleven thousand cubic yards of gravel had been dredged from the river bed to expand the surface area and build it well above the normal river level. Work was done with hand shovels and wheel barrows to give more men jobs. In the spring of 1935, the area was seeded and landscaped with trees and shrubbery.

    Violence flared when striking dairy farmers stopped milk wagons in various parts of the city, unhitched horses, dumped and smashed milk bottles in the street, intimidating and attacking drivers.

    The strike that caused the most comment, however, occurred at Elgin High School. Student restlessness with the approach of vacation is a perennial event, but it took an unusual turn in 1935. The spring that year was unseasonably warm, and it came earlier than usual. Headlines and radio broadcasts brought news of labor unrest and the congressional debates over the Wagner Act. This climatic and social setting was stirred by a surprising action of the Board of Education at a special session on May 2. It was decided that Principal W. L. Goble would be retired at the end of the term and replaced by the principal of Abbott School. Without explanation, T. A. Larsen, the assistant principal, was to be offered a contract as a teacher and department head.

    These personnel changes ignored the intense loyalty of Elgin High School students for ‘T. A.’ Most of the student body regarded his shift as an insult after twenty-seven years of service to the school. Larsen became the unwilling and embarrassed center of the storm to come. By the time the board met in its next regular session on May 7, the students were sufficiently aroused to gather by the hundreds around the high school building while their representatives presented petitions. They were informed that Larsen did not want the principalship and preferred the position of assistant, an answer which raised the question of why he was removed from that post.

    The board agreed to reconsider its decision, but the students were not satisfied with the delay in action. Student strikers assembled around eight the next morning in front of the high school. An estimated twelve hundred of the fourteen hundred students joined the walkout, despite pleas by Goble and Larsen for a return to orderly school routine. Placards bearing such inscriptions as ‘WE WANT LARSEN!’ and ‘T. A. OR STRIKE’ were hoisted aloft as the students overflowed streets, sidewalks, and stores.

    The marchers crossed the river and proceeded to Abbott School, and further demonstrations took place in front of the watch factory, in Fountain Square and in Gifford Park. That night, about two thousand attended a fire-light demonstration in a parking lot near Maroon Field. A loud speaker system was used to bring messages of support from parents and alumni, many of whom shared their sons' and daughters' affection for Larsen.

    The strike continued the next day, and in the evening another crowd milled about the building and park while a citizens group met with a student committee and the board. The board agreed to retain Larsen, and students returned to class the next day. The wire service publicity given to these events inspired students in other Illinois cities, and walkouts occurred at East Peoria, Champaign and Madison.

    Several fraternal lodges and clubs succumbed during the depression years because of the attractions on radio and the inability of members to pay dues, but one new organization quickly gained members. A local Townsend Club was formed in November 1935 to further a pension plan which proposed two hundred dollars a month grants to those older than sixty.”2

    2 ElginHistory.com - Elgin: An American History by E. C. Alft. Chapter VIII – Depression and War.


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    April 4, 1935: Descendants of early pioneers pose for a photo during a "Founder's Day" celebration in Elgin. — Tribune archive photo, Chicago Tribune.
     
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  6. Rassi

    Rassi #GoCubs #FlyTheW #WeAreGood

    Very nice - I grew up just down the Fox River from there....
     
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  7. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    I've got two of these, somewhere. Let's see if I can remember to post some pics tomorrow.
     
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  8. leeg

    leeg I Enjoy Toned Coins

    My Grandparents on my Dad's side lived right across the street from the Fox River in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. Lived there my first five years then moved to Northern Indiana. Loved to visit for Fish Fries on Fridays. Lake Perch, nothing better!!!

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  9. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

  10. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    To add.....notoriously weakly struck........that's a '65 with a green bean.
     
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  11. leeg

    leeg I Enjoy Toned Coins

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    Enjoy!
     
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  12. Worn Out

    Worn Out Well-Known Member

    Great write-up Lee. Thanks for taking the time!

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    Sent from Mrs. Theo Rovelstad
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    Last edited: Nov 23, 2019
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  13. leeg

    leeg I Enjoy Toned Coins

    Worn Out - Very nice!
     
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