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Burlington Historian
September
2010
| Renovated Museum To Re-Open
Saturday, October 9 The renovation of the Society's
Museum is nearly completed. After being closed for three years, the
Museum will be re-opened on Saturday, October 9, 2010, at 1:00 p.m.
The board of directors is planning a short program at 1:30 to mark
the occasion. Refreshments will be served.
The Museum was closed on October 8, 2007, to allow for interior
renovation and the installation of a second floor. The shelving and
artifacts in the basement were rearranged; the displays on the main
floor were dismantled; the computer and office material was moved to
the kitchen; and many of the larger artifacts, most of the display
cases, and some paper records were stored off-site to allow the
workmen to have the access needed to complete the job.
Stelling & Associates Architects Ltd. drew the plans and
specifications for the renovations. The general contractor was
Cramer Construction. Keith Zwiebel assisted Craig and Jeff Cramer on
the general and carpentry work.
Hard Rock Sawing and Ehlen Masonry did the concrete work that was
needed in the basement to provide the proper footings for the
supporting posts.
Bonanza Heating re-positioned ductwork and installed a
second-floor heating and air conditioning unit. Gauger Plumbing and
Heating installed first-floor restroom facilities and a utility
sink. Plastering of the ceiling, walls, and support posts was done
by Mitchell Plastering. The interior painting was done by the T.
LaRue Painting Co.
Kuchenbecker Electric did the necessary electrical work,
including the rewiring of the lights in the display cases. Ketter's
Flooring laid the new floor on the main floor and carpeted the
second floor and stairways.
The board of directors decided that some outside work also needed
to be done on the Museum building. It hired the Burlington Roofing
Co. to replace and upgrade the roof, which had deteriorated badly
over the years. After the roofing was completed, the wooden and trim
portions of the exterior were painted by JAMCO Painting.
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| President’s Message
Need a barber? Not many in Burlington any more. Years ago, barber shops
were all over town. Now, we have "salons" on almost every block in town.
Being a conservative type of person most of my life, I think about the
routine ways we lived our lives four or five decades back. Enter the barber
shop and you would sometimes see three or more barbers on duty, plus a young
boy willing to shine your shoes.
Need gas? Pull in the driveway of the gas station and run over a hose
that rang a bell and out popped an attendant or two. Fill’er Up? "Yes, and
please check the oil."
For the people that grew up in Burlington, you would get quite a memory
trip going to our society website and running a search in the "Burlington
Events" section of our searchable databases. In the "Keywords" area type:
Barber Shop or Gasoline. Many names out of the past will pop up – some that
you may recognize. Times do change, sometimes for the better. It sure is fun
though to look back and remember "the way things used to be."
Dennis Tully
Storage Building to be Constructed Near Whitman School
With the Museum's storage area rapidly filling up with artifacts,
photographs and negatives, historical and genealogical records, supplies,
and other material; with some of our furniture items and display cases still
in storage at the hospital warehouse; and with several people wanting to
donate large items that we have been unable to accept because of the lack of
storage space, the board of directors has decided that the time is right for
constructing a storage building.
We approached the city with a request to construct an approximately 30 by
40 foot, one-story storage building on land in Schmaling Park near the
Whitman School building on Beloit Street. We also approached NEL Frequency
Control to request permission to access the storage building by using its
parking lot next to the park if needed. Both granted the permission needed
to proceed with the project.
The one-story wooden building, with a peaked roof, will sit on a concrete
slab and have a large overhead-type entry door and one service door. There
will be no windows. An electrical line will extend from the Whitman School
building to the storage building to provide electricity for lighting and for
operating the overhead door. We don’t yet have a firm cost estimate, but
believe the project will run in the neighborhood of $15,000 to $20,000.
Two New Members on Board of Directors
Peter Hintz, second district alderman and aldermanic representative on
the city's Historic Preservation Commission, and Stephanie Rummler, social
studies teacher at Karcher Middle School, have joined the Society's board of
directors.
We look forward to their getting involved in carrying out the mission of
the Society. Welcome aboard!
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Church Picture Recalls Early Painting Job
 | Fred Henningfield wrote the following letter to the Standard Democrat
in December 1951. It was printed in the paper's January 4, 1952, issue. |
In looking through the Standard Democrat this week, I saw a picture of
the old Plymouth church that brings back memories of sixty years ago.
(The Plymouth church, as shown in the accompanying photo, was a wooden
building in 1891 when Henningfield helped paint the steeple. The wooden
building was razed in 1902 to make way for the brick church building.)
It was back in 1891 that I worked for the late Richard Weygand, learning
the painting trade. I worked for him three years, the wages I received were
fifty cents a day the first year, seventy-five cents a day the second year,
and a dollar a day the third year. That was for a ten hour day.
It was in the second year of my apprenticeship that Mr. Weygand took the
contract for painting the Plymouth church. Working with us was Sherman
Gillespie. We started the job at the top of the steeple. To get up there we
built a scaffold on the roof, up to the belfry. From the platform we raised
a three piece extension ladder, which reached almost to the top of the
steeple.
I, being the lightest, went to the top and tied a rope
around the steeple, to which a pulley was fastened. Hanging from the pulley
was a swinging seat in which I sat and painted the street side of the
steeple. Sherman Gillespie painted the other side from the ladder.
We had to go through this performance twice, as the
church received two coats of paint. We had a lot of sidewalk superintendents
watching us and advising us.
In those days Mr. Weygand’s shop was located on the site where the Nash
Burlington Co. is now. We used to grind all our own colors with a hand
grinder. This work was always a rainy day job. Mr. Weygand mixed nearly all
of his paints. White lead sold at $5.00 per hundred, linseed oil sold at 35
cents a gallon and top wages were $1.50 a day for 10 hours work, but they
were happy days.
Fred Henningfield, Lyons
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Bells and Whistles
While today’s electronic time-marking and event-alerting systems do
away with the need for human involvement (except when the battery dies,
the electricity is interrupted, or the computer "acts up"), there was a
time in the not-too-distant past when Burlington relied on the bells and
whistles that depended primarily on humans being at the controls at the
right times. The following article, from the Standard Democrat of February
4, 1954, recalls the important role that bells and whistles played in the
community at that time. It also mentions the electrically controlled
chimes that were just beginning to make their appearance.
| Bells and Whistles Play an Important Part In Life and are a Burlington
Tradition |
Little do people realize the important part a whistle or bell plays in
their lives. Stop to think now . . . do they or do they not automatically
start and end the working day or the school day for you; inform you of
deaths, marriages, or the commencing of church services? They do, but you no
doubt have not realized the fact.
Let’s pause for awhile to analyze the whistle and bell system in
Burlington.
Whistles
Let’s take the fire department’s whistle for example. This blast can be
heard throughout the city. It is blown at approximately 6 p.m. not as a 6
o’clock whistle, as most people believe, but as a test of its working
condition. This is very important because of its use for fire and rescue
calls.
The whistle is blown every evening except Saturday and Sunday, by the man
working the night shift at the department. Either Charles Stang or Harry
Hathorn has this chore.
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Harry Hathorn remembers the day when a steam whistle was used. That
was during the days when the fire house was the old pumping station,
with boilers galore. After this was changed, the city found that it was
costing them $30 a day to keep 90 pounds of steam up at all times for
the whistle, so the air horn was installed.
Fireman Charles Stang says this horn was used officially for the
first time on the morning of the Orpheum theatre fire, Thursday, January
23, 1930. Both systems were used on that morning, when the mercury
dipped to 15 below.
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There is also a whistle at the Burlington Mills. Their whistle blows at 7
a.m., 12 noon, 1 p.m., and 4 p.m. Many Burlingtonians go through their
entire working day following this whistle.
The correct reason, however, for this manually blown steam whistle is to
tell the workman in Plants 1 and 2 when to begin and end their work day.
The whistle at the Mills has been blown approximately 40 years. The
boilerroom fireman on duty at whistle time has the responsibility of blowing
it. The whistle is timed fairly close to being correct, although there is
nothing automatic about it and the human element of error is always present.
A whistleman’s job is not difficult so far as whistle blowing is
concerned – it is the accuracy as to time that is so important. If he is a
few seconds off, tho, the whole community is bound to realize it, for it can
give uncertainty to the setting of watches, clocks, and the appearance of
workers in offices, shops, and factories.
These are the only two whistles that blow in Burlington, although many
residents living near the railroads try to keep time through train schedules
and the familiar train whistle.
Bells
Next we analyze the bell system. This dates back to the beginning of
churches in Burlington.
Bells were rung for every occasion and the people scheduled their lives
with them. Strange as it may seem, announcements were made by the church
bells. Births, marriages, deaths, funeral services, town meetings, etc. were
relayed to the people by the ringing of the bells.
St. Mary’s church has the most active bell system in Burlington. The
clock in the steeple is wound every morning and evening, so that each
quarter hour it can automatically toll, with the sound being heard
throughout the city.
The bell is manually tolled at 6 a.m., 12 noon, and 6 p.m. by Ollie Leber
of Burlington. Leber has been ringing the bells for 27 years. (When World
War II ended, Leber was a busy man, ringing the bells for hours.)
Assisting him now is Bernard Brehm, who has been active as bell ringer for
one year.
Beside the tolling of time, St. Mary’s bells call people to church by
ringing before each service. Deaths are still tolled, and the bells ring out
merrily for weddings.
If you listen closely every Saturday at 6 p.m., you will hear the bells
of St. John’s Lutheran church ring. This denotes the ending of a working
man’s week. The bell is also tolled for services, deaths, marriages,
funerals, etc. The manually powered bell is rung by John Bauman, janitor.
Cross Lutheran church has a tradition of ringing its bell every Saturday
evening at 6 o’clock. Fred Olson, of Burlington, has had charge of the bells
for about 10 years.
Another of the nightly rung bells is at the Methodist church. Every
evening at 6 o’clock, you can enjoy their ring. Also on Sunday mornings
preceding church services, organ music is played for the city’s enjoyment.
The bells and music are heard from an electrical device in the church.
At St. Charles, the chimes ring at 6 a.m., 12 noon, and 6 p.m. These
chimes, newly installed, are electrically controlled. Services are always
preceded by these chimes as are weddings and funerals.
Now that we have analyzed the whistle and bell system, don’t you honestly
agree that they do play an important part in your life? For workers,
throughout the city, the whistles call their attention to time. As for the
bells – many things in this world are based on tradition and the old
historic tradition of bell ringing is as beautiful as the church under the
bell tower and as the symbol within.
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| "A Snapshot in Time"
Contributed by Priscilla Crowley
I have a real hang-up when it comes to throwing away things like
pictures, old cards, letters, Christmas ornaments that have seen better
days, even items of clothing that were my very "favorites." Sometimes just
the sight of an old cup and saucer or a post card from a long ago friend can
evoke the greatest memories.
Pictures are an especially good source for bringing back the good old
days. There is one picture in particular that sticks with me. It’s really
nothing special – it’s a picture of my Dad, my brother and sister and me. It
was taken outside on the lawn when we lived in Lyons. Dad is crouched down
and he has one of the twins on his right side, one sitting on the ground in
front of him and I am standing on his left side. It wasn’t a posed picture
with all of us in our "Sunday Best," just an ordinary kind of day picture.
Dad was in his work clothes and we all looked sort of like what we were,
kids who had been playing hard all day and hadn’t worried ourselves about
whether we had dirt smudges on our clothes and sand in our shoes. We
certainly wouldn’t have been deemed respectable looking enough to take out
in public.
When I see that picture it brings back that time and place as if it had
happened yesterday instead of 50+ years ago. I can feel the green grass
tickling the bottom of my feet, smell the sweet perfume of roses and freshly
cut grass, feel the soft breeze blowing my hair and feel the warmth of the
sun on my skin. I remember what it was like to be near my Dad who made you
feel safe just by being there – nothing could go wrong as long as he was
around. I remember what it was like when my brother and sister were young
and active and into everything and always in constant motion – never a dull
moment but so much fun!
Our family was not unique – we had our ups and downs just like everyone
else. I like to think that all those ups and downs made us what we are
today. I know that for a while times were very lean and money was scarce.
When you are going through hard times, you always think that no one else is
going through the same thing. Looking back, I realize now that many of our
neighbors and friends from school were going through the same kinds of
things we were. I know that Mom and Dad worried about money constantly but
to us – it was just the way things were. We had parents who loved us, food
to eat, clothes to wear, plenty of space to run and have adventures in –
what more could a kid want?
One of the reasons I love that picture so much is because we all look so
happy and in that picture we are forever young without the trials and
tribulations of adulthood. You can tell that we all have on clothes that
don’t quite fit, the dress I am wearing is too big and I can see that the
shirt my sister is wearing is also a little big and the jeans my brother had
on needed to be rolled up on the bottom so he wouldn’t trip on the pants
legs. But all of that didn’t matter, that picture is a snapshot of who we
really were – happy well-adjusted kids who loved and were loved and whose
kid world was just about perfect.
I had many different kinds of friends – ones from large families, ones
from small families, even a few who were only children. We always envied the
kids who had no brothers or sisters to contend with until you actually went
to their house to play and saw how quiet it was with no other children to
liven things up. My brother and sister might have been pains, but life was
never dull, you could always count on one of them to do something to keep
life interesting. That picture will always represent the bond between my
brother, my sister, and me. It’s how we started out on the road to
adulthood. Even though we are all grown up now and have moved in different
directions from each other that picture is proof positive of that bond and I
like to think that something of those children is still with all of us
today. When my brother teases me about something or my sister asks me
"remember when?" questions, I can see traits of those children from long
ago. We may all have gotten taller and older but those long ago children
still exist.
Pictures are so much fun – they are a snapshot in time and can transport
you back to "remember when land." Take out some of those pictures and do
some time traveling from your armchair. Look for that long ago child in
yourself and others. Remember the shared laughter, the sun on your face, the
feel of the grass, the smells of the season, the shared memories, the way
the sky looked when the stars started to twinkle in the early twilight or
what sunrise was like on a beautiful summer morning. That long ago child
still exists for all of us – we just have to take the time to let him or her
out to play once in a while.
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