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News
Yesteryear : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisCompiled from articles published in the Ledger-Sentinel, 1980 to present; Oswego Ledger, 1949 to 1980; Fox Valley Sentinel, 1974 to 1980; Kendall County Record, 1864 to present, and historical information provided by the Village of Montgomery.
10 years ago this month...
The Oswego Village Board voted to hire a contractor to extend municipal water lines along Mill and Orchard Roads on the village's west side. To pay for the project, village officials said they would use a portion of the proceeds from a $6.5 million alternate bond sale the board approved last October to finance planned upgrades to the municipal water system. By extending the water lines along Orchard Road, village officials said they were hopeful of attracting tax generating commercial and retail developments to the undeveloped properties along the road.
The Village of Oswego lost a local landmark when St. Anne's Roman Catholic Church on Boulder Hill Pass was destroyed by fire. The church, with its steeply, sloping black roof and soaring spire, had stood along Boulder Hill Pass since 1969.
Like the rest of the country-and the world for that matter-the Y2K computer bug proved no big deal for local governmental agencies when the clock struck midnight on New Year's Day. Officials in both Oswego and Montgomery reported no problems with their computer-operated equipment due to the arrival of the year 2000 as many computer experts had feared.
The Montgomery Plan Commission endorsed a plan to construct an Applebee's restaurant in front of the new Blain's Farm & Fleet store on U.S. Route 30 in the village.
Village of Montgomery officials were proceeding with their search for a new village administrator following the departure of long-time administrator John DuRocher.
15 years ago this month...
Were Oswego School District officials being Grinches about Christmas? A parent complained to the school board when she could not find the word "Christmas" on school district publications dating back to at least 1989. The parent also charged that the word had been omitted from student programs. A school board member, Leland Hoffer, agreed with the parent and confirmed the district had indeed left the word for the Christian holiday off its calendar and it was not mentioned during a recent student program at Traughber Junior High School. Other board members, however, disagreed, maintaining the district was taking a "balanced view" of the holiday along with winter holidays of other faiths.
Members of the Montgomery Village Board's public works committee voiced support for a plan to replace all water meters in the village and the unincorporated Boulder Hill Subdivision. Committee members agreed the program is necessary to offset the costly loss of municipal water. In August 1994, an accounting firm estimated the village was losing approximately $100,000 worth of water annually due to a combination of malfunctioning meters, leaking mains, and theft.
The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) announced that work would begin by late spring or early summer on the widening of U.S. Route 34 in Oswego between North Adams Street and Ill. Route 71. IDOT officials had determined in the late 1980s that the two lane highway needed to be widened to four lanes to accommodate increasing traffic volumes.
20 years ago this month...
A Village of Oswego plan to construct a village police station in the heavily wooded Hastert Park on U.S. Route 34 across from the Fox Bend Golf Course was a concern to some village residents. The State of Illinois had previously deeded ownership of the park site to the village. At that time the parcel was being maintained as a park by the Osewgoland Park District. One letter writer to the Ledger-Sentinel advised village officials: "Some day Hastert Park will be in the center of town. Wouldn't it be nice to have a park there and not a parking lot?"
Oswego was poised to annex its first properties west of the Fox River. Village President Jim Detzler announced that the owners of more than 500 acres of unincorporated farmland west of Ill. Route 31 had agreed to voluntarily annex their properties to the village.
Traffic safety on Douglas Road near the newly opened Townes Crossing shopping center was a concern for Oswego officials. Of particular concern to village board member Mary McKittrick were the many motorists who were using a service drive opposite Fernwood Road to access the center.
25 years ago this month...
The Oswego School Board voted to place a referendum on the April ballot seeking local voter approval to increase the school district's Education Fund tax levy rate. But just weeks after the board acted, members of a citizens' advisory committee told the board that they had determined they did not have all the facts prior to publicly endorsing the referendum effort.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency was pressuring Oswego, Montgomery and several other communities in northeastern Illinois to reduce the level of naturally occurring radium in their water supplies to conform with federal standards.
A chemical spill occurred on U.S. Route 34 just east of Douglas Road near Oswego when a semi-trailer truck driver lost control of his vehicle and slid off the two lane road. Police had to divert traffic from the highway.
30 years ago this month...
The Village of Montgomery was in the midst of a dispute with the Aurora Sanitary District over the sanitary district's alleged overloading of an interceptor sewer line along Sherman Avenue in the village, according to the Fox Valley Sentinel.
The Boulder Hill Civic Association was in crisis after the organization's entire executive board resigned. The resignations came just months after a controversial BHCA-backed drive to establish a taxing district for mosquito abatement was rejected by Boulder Hill residents. Some of those who resigned told the Fox Valley Sentinel they were tired of the "rampant bickering" among the organization's members.
Oswego Village Board members learned that the planned installation of traffic signals at U.S. Route 34 and Ill. Route 71 had been indefinitely delayed due to a strike by workers at the firm manufacturing the mast arms for the signals.
The Oswego Village Board voted to approve preliminary plat plans for the Stonehill Industrial Park, located due east of Oswego High School.
35 years ago this month...
The safety of Oswego School District buses was a matter of concern to parents of some students. Complaints that some of the buses were mechanically unsafe prompted an inspection by state officials. The inspection turned up only minor problems on two of the buses, the Ledger reported.
The nationwide energy crisis resulted in long lines for gas and gas rationing at service stations across the country, including in the Oswego-Montgomery area. The crisis also prompted at least one letter writer to the Ledger to warn of the coming of a "one world government" under the control of the United Nations. Other letter writers were warning against efforts to impose stricter gun laws.
40 years ago this month...
An era in Oswego downtown business district ended when John and Grace Carr announced the sale of their Main Street department store to Don Hall of Plano. The store was opened by John Carr's parents, Andy and Agnes Carr, in 1938. John Carr told the Oswego Ledger that the village's change from a rural to a suburban community was a factor in what was a difficult decision to sell the business.
50 years ago this month...
The Oswego Village Board approved hiring James Vinson as the village's only police officer. Vinson succeeded Paul Dwyre who had retired.
The Fox Valley Chapter of the American Institute of Plant Engineers sponsored a talk on "Ground Water Conservation" as applied to the fast-growing industrialized Fox River Valley area. The speaker will be Harman F. Smith, head of the engineering section of the Illinois State Water Survey. "If our supply of available water is not conserved," Smith states, "The time will soon come when severe measures will need to be taken to prevent the wasteful use of water. The supply, contrary to popular belief, is not unlimited and some water resources require expensive treatment before they can be made fit for human use."
Members of the Boulder Hill Church of the Brethren approved plans to construct a church on Boulder Hill Pass in the unincorporated subdivision. Groundbreaking was scheduled for Easter Sunday, April 17.
On sale at Ruck's Appliance store on Main Street in Oswego were Magnavox Cavalcade black and white console television sets with 21 inch screens for $249.90, according to an advertisement in the Ledger.
55 years ago this month...
Bohn's Food Store on Main Street in Oswego was touting a pending promotional appearance by Aunt Jemima in its weekly advertisements in the Ledger.
The Ledger reported that Oswego High School wrestling coach Ken Pickerill expected several of his wrestlers to qualify for the upcoming state tournament.
Ledger editor Ford Lippold included this observation in an article Jan. 20: "If you don't think there is a big population increase and turnover in the Oswego community, just make it a point to see how many folks you recognize the next time you attend a PTA meeting or some other school-wide function that draws most of the parents together. You'll be surprised...."
60 years ago this month...
A joint Congressional committee reported in Washington that Kendall County has a total of 33 persons on the federal payroll. The majority of them are made up of postal employees. This is said to be the first breakdown ever compiled of the government's civilian payroll on a national basis, according to the Record.
65 years ago this month...
The Kendall County Record reported the Selective Service System had announced it would review the draft status of all men between the ages of 18 and 25 who had previously obtain deferments to continue working on their farms. Those with agricultural deferments were also ordered to complete pre-induction physical examinations.
Sales of war bonds pledged through the Minutemen of Oswego and NaAuSay townships totaled $52,873, the Record reported.
70 years ago this month...
"Lewis Chrisse is building a cement block salesroom for the Oliver line of farm equipment at the junction of Route 97 and Washington street, or the Oswego-Plainfield road," the Record reported on Jan. 3, 1940. The building, now the home of Oswego Industries, still stands at Washington Street and Ill. Route 71.
85 years ago this month...
Record publisher H.R. Marshall noted in his weekly column that the divorce case of a Michigan congressman had uncovered some "unsavory facts about Washington life, including gambling by some congressman and drinking by some alleged "dry" lawmakers. Marshall asked, "How can the country ever be cleansed when the makers of the laws are the loosest in observance."
115 years ago this month...
"The most unique and likely most costly Christmas present received by anyone in the community was that of an armchair by L.N. Hall from his brother, Asher, in Texas, the frame of which is constructed entirely of horns from Texas cattle, which are nicely polished," the Record's Oswego correspondent wrote in the Jan. 1, 1890 issue.
120 years ago this month...
"The departure of 1899 and the appearance of 1890 was not only observed by staying up and watching b y some of our citizens, but was accompanied by the firing of a number of guns of some sort and by the whooping of it up by the boys.
Fishing on New Year's Day and the balance of the week has been engaged in by a number of our men and boys," the Record's Oswego correspondent reported.
135 years ago this month...
"The transferment of Oswego from 1869 to 1870 took place at the usual time and without any unusual manifestation," Record Oswego correspondent Lorenzo Rank wrote on Jan. 6. "With the exception of those who attended the Watch-meeting of the Methodists, most of its inhabitants were asleep, and therefore unconscious of the great event when it took place; at the Watch-meeting Elder Davison very forcibly reminded his hearers of their short comings in '69 and earnestly exhorted them to do better in '70."
In a Jan. 20, 1870 letter to the editor of the Record, Oswego residents Frederick Coffin, Charles Sutherland, Marcus J. Richards, J.A. Kenney, Alonzo B. Smith, and William Hoze wrote of the new Fox River Railroad (today's Illinois RailNet line): "The road is now graded through here, and it is no great stretch of the imagination to see the bed have on its surface the ties and rails and bear the scream of the engine's whistle and the roar of the passing trains.
"Our village and every village on the line of the route will receive an impetus in growth and prosperity in consequence of the road, the years will be but few before the many water powers along the Fox River will be made of value and the noise of scores of manufacturing enterprises will enliven every village, attracting population and capital both of which benefit the agriculturist and tradesmen, making business lively and prosperous."
Strange weather was the talk of the town 130 years ago. On Jan. 20, the Record reported that: "We have had every degree of weather from summer to winter in the past week. On Sunday afternoon there was a warm rain-at nine o'clock in the evening it was warm enough out of doors for a linen coat-at 10:30 or eleven at night it thundered and lightened. At eight o'clock Monday morning the thermometer was within eight degrees of zero; a change of about forth degrees in ten hours. And such a day as Monday was-a high cold wind blowing all day and penetrating everywhere and everything."
Religion in public schools was also a topic for local conversation. From Oswego it was reported on Jan. 27, 1870 that "The Literary Association last evening discussed the question, Resolved, that the Bible should be excluded from the common schools in the United States." Cliggitt, Rank, and Hall on the affirmative; Haight, Vorhees, and Parkhurst negative...Mrs. Jolly acted as umpire and decided the question, much against her inclination, in favor of the affirmative. After the decision was rendered, a few remarks were made by a clergyman present, favoring the negative side."
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