In the early morning of April 11, 1926, Mathias Laures was walking down Main Street in West McHenry when he noticed a fire in the back of the Justen Furniture & Undertaking business. He quickly spread the word, which included blowing the large whistle at the Borden Factory summoning help. Yet but by the time… Continue reading The 1926 West McHenry Fire
On the night of September 5, George Phister was just starting his security rounds at the Ravinia Park Casino when he was overtaken by a group of men in the dark. They took his keys, bound him and proceeded to rob the Casino. Also, in what was probably an accident in attempting to scare him,… Continue reading The Mysterious Case of Frederick Wennerstrom pt. 2
On a Sunday morning, September 3, 1911, a couple of fishermen who were out on the Fox River and made a gruesome find. Floating in the river was the body of a man. Authorities were called and after the body was removed from the water, they could see it was wrapped in a rain cover… Continue reading The Mysterious Case of Frederick Wennerstrom
In the early morning of Tuesday, Aug 16, 1911, the West McHenry Post Office was robbed. It probably wasn’t too surprising, as there were a string of post office & bank robberies in the area at that time. About four days before the McHenry Post Office was hit, the South Elgin Post Office was robbed… Continue reading West McHenry Post Office Robbery
On September 5, 1913, a man strolled into the McHenry Plaindealer’s office. His name was Joseph Hoffman and he was on a walking journey from Cincinnati, Ohio to Bismarck, North Dakota. The adventure started out as a dare at Hoffman’s athletic club because he wasn’t much of a walker. One thing led to another and… Continue reading The Journey of Joseph Hoffman
McHenry has had several things that make it stand out from its neighbors. Yet, one of the more distinctive things about it was that for many years it was the only city in America to have two Post Offices that worked independently of each other. From 1882 to 1950 McHenry had two post offices, one… Continue reading West McHenry’s Post Office – Part 1
In the 1950s, the US was in the tensest time of the Cold War. This new type of war brought a new variety of fears due to the weapons of mass destruction that were available. The most infamous being the atomic bomb. Civilian defense organizations were set up at the state and national level. Many… Continue reading Operation Alert
Going into the 1900s, McHenry had a lot going for itself. It was a summer tourist destination and had a great agricultural community. Businesses and factories were also starting to spring up throughout the village. One of those was the Gail Borden Condensing Plant. The Gail Borden Company had factories in many towns in the… Continue reading McHenry’s Borden Factory
On December 10, 1961, McHenry Held its first Christmas Parade. Sponsored by the city’s Chamber of Commerce, the idea was to celebrate the holiday season as well as drum up sales for local businesses. The McHenry COC also sponsored the Fiesta Day Parade, Play Day as well as the Dollar Day. Just like today, businesses… Continue reading McHenry’s 1st Christmas Parade
While doing research for another blog post, I ran across the above memorial in the McHenry Plaindealer from March 1946. I became curious was to how Pvt. Pearson passed. Was it fighting the Germans or over in the Pacific or fighting the Japanese? It turns out that is was something just as tragic, yet… Continue reading Cherished Memories Of Days When We Were All Together.
