HS Board

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in MP: 101 S. Maples Street

Birth Date: October 8, 1911

Death Date: February 26, 1999

Marriage
Date: 1937 to Fred Linnenkohl
1961 to Charles A. Barnes

Children:

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
Bessie was the only child of Dietrich and Lena Friedrichs, the first owners of 101 S. Maple Street, the home that now houses the Mount Prospect Historical Society. She lived most of her life in this building and was very involved with the restoration and preservation of the building.

Date of Interview: August 7, 1991

Interviewer: Dolores Haugh

Text of Oral History Interview:
DOLORES HAUGH: [remarks joined in progress] …August 7, 1991 and the person speaking is Dolores Haugh, and I’m talking today to Bessie Friedricks Barnes. This is at her lovely home at 616 North Lewis in Mt. Prospect. Bessie I thank you so much for being with me today. [tape interrupted] Bessie, before we start, I want to correct the address. It’s 16 North Lewis, and the time is 1:30 in the afternoon. And so with that, we’ll start our interview. I wanted to ask you a few of the questions that we have here. First of all, your full name is …?
BESSIE BARNES: Bessie Friedricks Barnes.
HAUGH: Right, and where were you born, Bessie?
BARNES: At 101 South Maple in Mt. Prospect.
HAUGH: And your parents were?
BARNES: Dietrick and Lena Friedricks. And Sophie and Edward Cremreide …
HAUGH: Were your grandparents?
BARNES: And my grandparents-I’m sorry, the Cremreide family was my grandparents.
HAUGH: Yes. That’s all right.
BARNES: The first family was my parents. And then my grandparents was Detrick Friedricks, Sr., and as I already stated the Cremreides.
HAUGH: Okay, good. We just really want to relax. When the people record this, you know, they’re going to go over this and they’ll take a lot of this out, so don’t worry about it. Okay. You mentioned you were born at 101 South Maple, so that’s the other address that you lived at. So basically you’ve only lived in two homes in Mt. Prospect, right?
BARNES: That’s right.
HAUGH: That’s good. Okay.
BARNES: In my life, as far as that’s concerned.
HAUGH: Right. Tell me a little bit about your home at 101 South Maple.
BARNES: My mother and dad built that in 1906. It was then the thirteenth house in town. The population was a little over a hundred.
HAUGH: Your father was a …?
BARNES: A painter and a decorator.
HAUGH: I can remember you telling a delightful story about going to get the paint for the house. Would you like to tell that? I think it’s a great story.
BARNES: Well, there was a hardware store in Mt. Prospect, which was at that time called the Biermann Hardware Store. Frank Biermann, who just recently died, owned it. He carried many products because there were so few stores in town, but one of them was paint. My dad would buy some paint there, although they were of the good brands that were manufactured in Chicago, I believe. But this day, one of his men took me along up on a high-seated wagon pulled by two horses. He did that every day, but this day he left the reins in my reach. I guess I was about three years old. I pulled the reins while he was gone, and the horses headed for home very, very speedily. Everybody down the street was chasing because they thought I was so small I would falloff, and I was having the best time of my life [laughter].
HAUGH: I love it. That’s great! And tell about how your dad took you into Milwaukee Avenue for the Pratt and Lambert paint. BARNES: Yes. He would also take me on his wagon and horse, and I would ride with him down into Chicago. He would buy paint-as you said, Pratt and Lambert. Then he would also go to Ramine and Cunard. Sometimes Mom would go along and he would drop us off at the Wieboldt’s store that was available then and we would do our, well, shopping for clothes there because there was no store here for clothes and. ..
HAUGH: That was when you were around three years old or a little older?
BARNES: Or even a little older, too.
HAUGH: I might mention also that because of this nice story, we were able to get Pratt and Lambert to donate all the 24 gallons of paint for the restoration of your house by the Historical Society.
BARNES: I thought that was very great.
HAUGH: Oh, I did too. Well, we’ve had some wonderful people working on the house. What was downtown when you were a little girl?
BARNES: There was a grocery story and. ..
HAUGH: Who had that. That wasn’t Meeske then, was it?
BARNES: No, Mr. Busse owned it. Mr. William Busse, Jr., had it at that time. Mr. Fred Meeske worked for him, and then eventually he bought Mr. Busse out.
HAUGH: Was that in the same place as the Meeske’s was before Continental Bakery moved in?
BARNES: No, that was the house of William Busse, Jr. And then next door. ..
HAUGH: That was before it was moved.
BARNES: Then a dry goods store took part of that building, and then the other was grocery and meats.
HAUGH: What did they have in the dry goods store?
BARNES: Oh, they just had everything. General merchandise, I guess you would call it. A little of shoes, clothes-mostly material and sewing supplies. And, oh, school supplies. I don’t remember other than that. Sometimes rubbers, boots-just a little of everything
HAUGH: A lot of working things, I suppose, because so many farms were around, right?
BARNES: Right.
HAUGH: Now, the grocery stores, because the farmers were there, did they carry produce like they do now or did they just have certain things that were not available, you know, by growing them yourself?
BARNES: I don’t remember too much about produce that they had other than that which was not grown around here like fruits, bananas, oranges and that type. But they did have all kinds of meats. But the store was very different because there were clerks, and you told them the item you wanted and they would run and get it and then gather all the items you were purchasing and then write it down, each item written with the costs. So it took a while to do some shopping. Now we go much faster, of course, going through a checking and waiting on ourselves.
HAUGH: Did they have those old-fashioned ways of running tabs for people for the farmers so that they could pay it off, like when the crops came in or anything?
BARNES: I’m not sure. I would believe that because I know people would say “charge it.” When I went shopping, when I started to do the shopping for my mother, she always made out the grocery list. But I was four or five years old with my little red wagon and did all the shopping. Mom never went shopping except when we went out of town for clothes or special items.
HAUGH: So then she’d give you the shopping list. But then would she give you the money, too?
BARNES: Yes.
HAUGH: So, I mean, you just kind of went cash-and-carry. But there were charges, I’m sure.
BARNES: Oh, yes. Because I can remember hearing people say “charge it,” but Mother and Dad believed in paying as they went.
HAUGH: Sure. Wasn’t there a farm equipment store in Mt. Prospect, too, over near Busse Biermann? Wasn’t that a farm store there or was that Buick place?
BARNES: There was a Buick garage. That, too, was run by Mr. Ernest Busse and Mr. Albert Busse. They were brothers. I just do not remember any implement except the coal company, which was Wille’s, and I don’t remember if they had implements or not. But then there was also a post office in the Busse store for a time. We had a box-I can still remember. It was Box 34. Then on the corner was the Mahling Real Estate. I think it was insurance before that.
HAUGH: Was it Mahling?
BARNES: Yes.
HAUGH: I don’t. ..
BARNES: Gertrude’s.
HAUGH: Yes, Gertrude’s father. But when did he get the general Store that he had on the corner there?
BARNES: I don’t remember it as a general store at all.
HAUGH: Because I thought she always said the post office was in that store.
BARNES: It could have been earlier.
HAUGH: Earlier on maybe. That might be it, too, yes. Because I know then, of course, Gert Francic went into the real estate business, too, you know, later. Now tell me a little bit about the development of the automobile. Now, you talked about going on the horse and buggies, and I know you’ve got a good story about one of your cars, so you tell us about your automobile, how you had to fix your garage.
BARNES: Oh, yes.
HAUGH: What was the first car you had, though?
BARNES: I think it was a Ford. I don’t quite remember what year it was, but I was very small. You had to roll up the top or down. I remember that and our mothers wore hats with the veil on top and around in order to they wouldn’t blow off. But, of course, our barn was for horses and a cow, so a car did not fit in there. So, as my dad said, he had to build an apron on it in order to have a car fit in there when he had no longer the horses and cow and chickens and so on. Narrators: And that’s all going to be brought back again in our restoration. That’s one reason I love that old carriage house because it has so many good stories about it. You know what I was referring to-when you built the garage when you got the Buick.
BARNES: Oh, yes. That, too. The first car fit in the barn with that little apron in the first section of the carriage house. But the other one had to build an apron, as my dad called it. In other words, it was just so the car bumper or the front part of the car would fit in it, otherwise you couldn’t close the door. And that’s the garage they just now took down.
HAUGH: Oh, I know what I was going to say. When he did that, the first garage in the carriage house, is that why there’s like a little bump in it in the back part of it, so that the front of the car would fit all the way in? I love this.
BARNES: Yes.
HAUGH: It’s going to be part of our talk when we take people through.
BARNES: Yes, that’s right.
HAUGH: Were there any other stores downtown that you can remember when you were little? Now, we talked about the food and we talked about the farm implements and Busse Hardware. Oh, the lumber and coal, that was down there.
BARNES: The garage and the barber shop.
HAUGH: Who ran the barber shop? Do you remember?
BARNES: Yes. Mr. Baldwin was his name.
HAUGH: Baldwin or Baldini?
BARNES: B-A-L-D-W-I-N.
HAUGH: Baldwin. Okay.
BARNES: And then he later moved to the garage of his home on Central Road. The house still stands.
HAUGH: That’s Baldini though, isn’t it? Because I met his daughter. I think it was Baldini because the only thing I remember was that he planted all the pines on that street, and that’s why it was called Pine Street.
BARNES: Oh!
HAUGH: When I interviewed him-not him but his daughter. I think it was Baldini. But you were close.
BARNES: I sure was.
HAUGH: Right. What else can we think of that was down there?
BARNES: I did say a barber. That’s the barber shop. I don’t remember any other stores, but I do remember when the first drugstore there came in.
HAUGH: Oh, okay. Now where was that?
BARNES: The building still stands. Later it was Wille’s Insurance Company. No, I think first it was a liquor store, and then they moved next door to that smaller building. HAUGH: Oh, okay. This is all on Busse Avenue. Now you’re between Northwest Highway and 83. That block in there.
BARNES: That’s right.
HAUGH: Okay. All right. So there was a lot of space on that street then because they didn’t build what houses now the Olde Town Inn. That used to be a bowling alley. I think that was built like in ’27. Wasn’t it around in there?
BARNES: That was built later. Of course, Mr. Mein’s house was there.
HAUGH: Now where was that?
BARNES: He was across the street. He faces, well, really Northwest Highway. I think he had it to Busse, but they did build some buildings, and now there’s a restaurant in that area, right in there.
HAUGH: Okay. Right on that corner there.
BARNES: He had a blacksmith shop there and he was the first blacksmith there and then his son followed, Herman. He was our neighbor at 101 South Maple. There was a creamery.
HAUGH: Oh, okay. That was on down Northwest Highway, right?
BARNES: Yes.
HAUGH: Because that’s the one they tore down. Now, that was there real early on.
BARNES: Yes, very early.
HAUGH: And then, let’s see, was there anything on the other side of the tracks at all?
BARNES: I don’t remember anything except that Wille’s had a dance pavilion up the hill on Prospect Avenue, as we always called it. And that’s where all the town affairs were held.
HAUGH: But that was still on this side of the tracks.
BARNES: No. No.
HAUGH: That was on the other side of the tracks?
BARNES: South side.
HAUGH: Oh, okay.
BARNES: On Prospect Avenue.
HAUGH: And where did you cross the tracks then? At 83?
BARNES: No on Maple-I mean Emerson.
HAUGH: Emerson. There was no 83 then at that point to cross over?
BARNES: I don’t remember that, either. But the trains were so infrequent, we could cross the track anywhere [laughter].
HAUGH: I love it. That’s cute. How did these folks advertise? Did they have a newspaper or fliers or did you just kind of look for the posters in the windows?

BARNES: I remember that Paddock Publications was-I don’t know how old it was then already, but everyone took that paper and there were ads in there. But as far as other advertisements, if there were any special ones, they were handmade by the people who owned it.
HAUGH: Fliers. Yes, because Paddock was out here a long time. In fact, somebody told me one time that the elder Mr. Paddock used to come in his horse and buggy to pick up different things from people.
BARNES: Yes, he did.
HAUGH: And he was crippled, I think, somebody told me, right?
BARNES: Right.
HAUGH: He had a high shoe or something was added.
BARNES: Right. And he was so used to using his horse and buggy that when he did get a car, he would still read his newspaper and do things with his hands instead of watching. When everybody saw Mr. Paddock come, why they all got out of his way.
HAUGH: I love it! That’s great!
BARNES: He was so interested in his work and he forgot that he had to control the car because the horse always controlled him otherwise.
HAUGH: Oh, that’s cute, that’s cute. Were there any factories in town at all?
BARNES: There was at a later date, Crowfoot’s.
HAUGH: Crowfoot’s, yes. Did they make batteries? Was that what that was? I don’t remember what they made.
BARNES: I don’t know either. But I thought it was nuts and bolts, but I’m not sure.
HAUGH: Oh, it could be. It could be. Now, they were over on Evergreen, right?
BARNES: Where the creamery was at one time. Of course, …
HAUGH: Oh, near Evergreen, but on Northwest Highway then.
BARNES: My aunt was secretary there.
HAUGH: Oh, what was her name?
BARNES: Gertrude Friedricks Milikin.
HAUGH: Oh, okay. And that was your aunt. Good. How long did she work there? Do you know?
BARNES: Well, she worked when they had their shop in Arlington Heights, and then she worked here for quite a few years. I suppose about five. I don’t know.
HAUGH: Well, that’s good enough. That was nice, sure. Do you know how many people they had there as far as employment?
BARNES: No, I don’t.
HAUGH: I always thought it was kind of a large place, but sometimes office staff wasn’t very big, you know, so it’s hard to know. I think that we’ve got something on that anyway. Do you remember anything about when the electricity came in? Do you remember anything about that?
BARNES: Well, yes. I was well in school by the time electricity came. But I do remember the gas lights we had, the lamps, of course. But we also had. ..
HAUGH: Kerosene?
BARNES: No, the gas. There’s still one in the hall upstairs.
HAUGH: The jets? Where the jets come out you mean?
BARNES: Yes.
HAUGH: Yes, yes, gas jets. BARNES: We had the jets in the halls.
HAUGH: Now before that then you had kerosene, is that right? Kerosene lamps and things like that.
BARNES: Right.
HAUGH: I think they had kerosene lamps on the streets, too,
didn’t they before the gas?
BARNES: Yes. They didn’t have sidewalks when I was small. We just had dirt roads, of course.
HAUGH: Where did you go to school, Besse?
BARNES: In that one-room school that was located on Central and now 83. That building has now been moved to St. John Episcopal Church, and it is being used there. But it was just one room and one teacher.
HAUGH: Who was your teacher?
BARNES: Well, it changed every year, but I remember my first teacher, Miss Reichert. She still stands out in my mind. She really loved the children when I was in first grade. I have a picture of that. I guess maybe that’s why I remember, too. But Mrs. Butler was the teacher when we graduated from eighth grade. There were seven of us.
HAUGH: What were some of the subjects you took when you were in school?
BARNES: All the. ..
HAUGH: Reading, writing and arithmetic.
BARNES: Geography, history, spelling, English. Nothing, no extra curriculum, like they have now.
HAUGH: Like art or music or anything like that.
BARNES: No.
HAUGH: What were some of the things you did for fun? I know there were lots of things going on.
BARNES: Because our town was so small, it was in 1917 when they were waiting for a baby to be born in town so then the population would be 301. So, …
HAUGH: You don’t remember who that was, do you? The baby that they were waiting for?
BARNES: No, I don’t. I imagine. ..
HAUGH: We’re trying to find that out.
BARNES: That was in 1917. I was only six then, so I don’t know. But anyway, then it became Mt. Prospect. They had to have over 300 population. But, …
HAUGH: Oh, I was talking about some of the fun things you did.
BARNES: Oh. We would all gather together after-we all had chores to do. We didn’t get away with like. ..
HAUGH: Tell us what you had to do. That’s neat, too-all the things you did.
BARNES: My job was we had to beat the rugs. We had beaters. Hang them on the line or put them on the ground if they were big ones. Had to wash and scrub the screens because they were not attached. I didn’t do a lot of climbing. We had a privy like everybody else. I had to take care of that, which I hated. [laughter] But then after we, of course, had to do our lessons first, then we could get out and all of us kids at that time gathered where now is a playground on School Street and Maple Street and we would play all sorts of games-Run, Sheep, Run and…
HAUGH: Roll Me Over.
BARNES: …Hide and Seek, and Annie Annie Over and, oh, just fun games like that. We made up our games because we didn’t have games. But at our house it was different. We had to do our chores and then we would have a choice of which game. For instance, if we were shelling peas or stringing beans, whoever did the most could chose the game they were going to play, and then we would have refreshments. We had fun.
HAUGH: And you always had a lot of people around. You were an only child, but all these other people were cousins and neighbor kids and everything, right?
BARNES: You bet.
HAUGH: So that’s how you had a whole bunch of them around all the time. That’s good. Oh, tell them about the croquet, too. I like that.
BARNES: Oh, yes. I had a croquet set. Years before that part was all garden because Mother and Dad raised most of our food. Mother canned all of it. There was no freezer at that time. But then later, they cut down and we made a croquet yard. Everybody seemed to like that. We would not be through with our dinner at night because Daddy never got home regularly because he would have to finish just what he started in his job of painting and decorating. But there was always a big game going on there. If the game wasn’t finished before dark, they would turn lights on from the car, headlights, and my dad had fixed up a trouble light, so there was always much noise around that yard. But it was fun.
HAUGH: Other things now. Do you remember the library? Do you remember when the library started in town? Someone said that the Women’s Club started in that little school where you went to school. That was supposed to be the beginning. They used to wheel out the little carts with the books on it. Do you remember anything about that?
BARNES: No, I don’t. The first librarian I remember is Mrs. Schlemmer. But I do not remember details of it. HAUGH: This was even before that because when Mrs. Schlemmer came in was when they first started, I think, the official library, you know. They had it over at what used to be the bank building there on the corner, you know.
BARNES: The little red bank.
HAUGH: Yes. She was in there for a while, I guess. She was down by the paint store. When did the bakery come in? That’s what I was wondering. Do you remember when the bakery started up? Wasn’t it Schmidt’s Bakery?
BARNES: Yes.
HAUGH: Was it always Schmidt’s or was somebody in there before?
BARNES: As I remember, it was always Schmidt’s. Then when it became time for them to retire, the building was renovated and then…
HAUGH: Then there was another bakery, but that was. ..
BARNES: That was across the tracks.
HAUGH: Yes. All that stuff across the tracks didn’t start until around the ’40s, I think, wasn’t it, when they first started going across the tracks?
BARNES: It must have been because I always remember. ..
HAUGH: Where was the National?
BARNES: It was across in that area where they have the arch.
HAUGH: Yes. Yes. That’s right. And there was an A & P before it was over on …
BARNES: That was over on this side of town. Let’s see. That little fruit store is in that area now. The produce. ..
HAUGH: Wasn’t there one down near the bakery on 83 there, too? There was a little paint store in there, too, when we first moved out here in the ’40s, ’50s. It was right near Schmidt’s Bakery-a little tiny store in there. No?
BARNES: Well, it could be. I’m sorry. I just don’t remember.
HAUGH: It was a paint store. But anyway, well, that doesn’t make that much difference. I just kind of wondered, you know. Some of the things that you did at the Wille’s Hall. You mentioned Wille’s Hall. You had dances there and so on.
BARNES: Yes.
HAUGH: What was the best one you remember?
BARNES: I don’t remember the affair, but I do remember the music because I always loved that German-type music. We children would finally give up and lay down on the benches and nap while our parents would still be dancing. But it was always a town affair. If there was something to celebrate, the whole town was invited at that time. Now, I’ve often wonder, though, if Mrs. Wille is still living.
HAUGH: Yes. As far as I know she is.
BARNES: She must be very well up in her 90’s.
HAUGH: Oh, sure. Well, Mr. Wille was, I think, around 99 when he was killed by an automobile. Remember? I’m talking about Adolph.
BARNES: Well, yes, that’s. ..
HAUGH: Or are you talking about a different Wille?
BARNES: Oh, yes.
HAUGH: Which one are you talking about?
BARNES: This was Mrs. Elvina Wille. I don’t know what her husband’s name was, but her daughter was Mrs. Ethel Busse, Mrs. Richard Busse. When Mr. Richard Busse died, their house was on the corner where the parking lot is for the bank now. They bought that whole area. And they went up to Minoqua to live and I’ve lost track of them. But I never heard. But they were so accommodating and so lovely. It was. ..
HAUGH: Have you got any recollections of the police department?
BARNES: Yes. There was just one policeman. Mr. Mulso and Mr. Wittenburg ran the police and village. Mr. Mulso was the public works, I believe.
HAUGH: Police magistrate.
BARNES: Everything.
HAUGH: And they did everything, right?
BARNES: They sure did.
HAUGH: How about the fire department?
BARNES: That was all volunteer. I know Mr. Frank Biermann was very much involved with that and Mr. Herman Mein, along with the other people. My husband, Chuck, moved to Mt. Prospect in ’45 in a house right next to the post office at that time. They had an arrangement where they got a fire call, it would ring in his home. [tape interrupted]
HAUGH: Okay.
BARNES: I know Mr. Biermann and Mr. Herman Mein were the leaders. What their titles were, I do not know. But I can remember how some of those fellows, amongst others who were volunteers, would back their cars in their driveway at night and so if there was a fire call, they were able to just pullout in a hurry.
HAUGH: Do you remember any big fires in Mt. Prospect? Were there any that you can remember when you were little?
BARNES: The one I can most remember was the parsonage of St. Paul’s Church. They rebuilt it or fixed it up because it’s still standing. It’s a two apartment house now. I remember that my dad went over and helped. Even though we didn’t belong to the congregation, they accepted us very well. Everybody else did belong to the congregation. We were very good friends of the pastor. I can still remember my dad went over and used some of his expertise and helped there.
HAUGH: Is that Pastor Mueller?
BARNES: Yes.
HAUGH: What was his first name? Do you know?
BARNES: John, I think. We always called him J-E-A. He always used just his initials. He had his birthday the same day I did.
HAUGH: Oh, how about that?
BARNES: Not the same year.
HAUGH: Nice October birthdays, right?
BARNES: Right.
HAUGH: Did they have anything like Fourth of July parades where you would have any kind of a town parade or anything like. .. [end of side 1] [Side 2]
BARNES: [remarks joined in progress] …over. And we were just. ..
HAUGH: Now this is World War I?
BARNES: Yes. I remember how we were marching down the street and the church bell was ringing and it was exciting, but I don’t think we really realized what it was. We were too small.
HAUGH: Did they have a VFW or a Legion at that time or not? Or did that start after? That started after the war, didn’t it?
BARNES: I believe it started after that. My mother belonged to the Ladies Auxiliary.
HAUGH: Of what?
BARNES: Of the VFW.
HAUGH: Of the VFW. Oh, that’s neat. The train depot-have a lot of stories about that, that we were just kind of a nothing place for a long time. Do you remember anything that was sent out by train or did you have any experience with the trains at all?
BARNES: Well, we didn’t get to ride the train very often because there were very few-in the morning taking the workers and in the evening bringing them back out. The mail went out in bags, and they would catch it as the train went by.
HAUGH: They wouldn’t even stop, huh?
BARNES: No. Years later, Mr. Lonnquist moved out here. I don’t know his title of the Northwestern Railroad. And then we got more trains fitted to his coming and going, and so that’s why we got more trains late afternoon and later in the morning.
HAUGH: You didn’t have enough from your little garden that you’d send anything in, did you?
BARNES: No, but the farmers used to bring in big loads of beets in their truck and empty them into freight cars. There was a switch here where all the freight cars would come and go with produce or coal even because, you see, we were heating our homes with coal.
HAUGH: I often wondered, remember that little railroad spur that ran in with-did that go in for Wille’s Lumber? Remember that, you know? They could switch the things off.
BARNES: I think that went in for coal. They probably used it for lumber, too, but mainly coal at that time.
HAUGH: I mean, when we moved out here, I can remember that spur. They still used it sometimes, you know. It was so non-descript. Anyway.
BARNES: We had other events. You asked about a parade. I don’t remember that. But when we would have school programs or big events, why Busse’s Garage was used and also Wille’s. Wille’s was much smaller. It depended upon the affair as to which was used. Those were our auditoriums.
HAUGH: The other things is your school’s plays. You had a lot of that, too, didn’t you?
BARNES: Yes, we did, and they were held in either one of those places.
HAUGH: Oh, not at the church?
BARNES: No. There was no auditorium at the church at that time.
HAUGH: I see. Now, you’re talking about St. Paul?
BARNES: Yes. That was the only church until 1935 when South Church came.
HAUGH: Well, let’s see, if you really had to chose, what would you say was really your fondest memory of Mt. Prospect?
BARNES: I thinking knowing everyone and the togetherness.
HAUGH: Don’t you feel it’s still here? Don’t you feel that it still exists in some ways here?
BARNES: No, because I don’t even know where all the streets are that I read in the paper, let alone the people.
HAUGH: Join the club. When things expand and there’s progress and you have more and more and more people, why, you don’t have that closeness. But you do because you’ve got a lot of close friends that you’ve had for years. Tell me about some of them, like the Grothiers and Burnette.
BARNES: Yes. Right. Burnette, of course, married my cousin and so we were very close. But she lived in Mt. Prospect, and she was a very close friend of a neighbor girl of Chuck’s and so that’s how I got to know Burnette. And then, of course, she met Don and they were married.
HAUGH: What was his last name, Don’s last name?
BARNES: Scamehorn.
HAUGH: Okay. It’s not Scama, it’s Scam.
BARNES: Well, they call it Scamehorn, now because there is an E. S-C-A-M-E-H-O-R-N. And Elvira, who is married to Pastor Grothier, we grew up together. She. ..
HAUGH: Now what was her maiden name?
BARNES: Her maiden name was Mein.
HAUGH: Oh, that’s right.
BARNES: Her folks built their home in about 1912. So we grew up together, and then, of course, when she married Kurt as a young pastor, they were sent to a church in Alabama. Then they were not at home, however, I was always with their mother and dad. Now they’ve come back to the home and they’ve restored it some. It was just lovely. It was on Christmas walk last year, and we are still very close friends. Then Elvira has a sister Vanetta, and I get to see her about once a year when she comes up here from Florida. She lives there. So that was fun. When we were little children, our parents were very close. We didn’t have movies to go to or places like that, so they loved to play cards and so on Saturday nights, we’d be at each other’s house, and we children would play.
HAUGH: Some of the things you played with, too, I think are interesting. Did you tell me you liked dolls or you didn’t like dolls?
BARNES: Oh, yes.
HAUGH: I thought you did.
BARNES: Oh, yes. We all had dolls and buggies. We really played. Our mothers would pack some sandwiches, and we’d have a picnic under the mulberry tree.
HAUGH: Come in all blue, all colored from the berries.
BARNES: You’re right.
HAUGH: How do you think the downtown has changed over the years?
BARNES: Well, it has changed some. What I figure downtown is the corner of Northwest Highway, Emerson Street and Main Street, Busse Avenue. That seems to be …
HAUGH: And it’s still there.
BARNES: …downtown.
HAUGH: It’s still downtown.
BARNES: Of course, there’s a lot of addition on Prospect Avenue.
HAUGH: Do you remember when McMann’s carne in? Remember McMann’s store on Prospect? I don’t know when they carne in. Do you remember them? They were down on Pine Street where. ..?
BARNES: What kind of a store was that?
HAUGH: It had children’s clothing, more or less of a dry goods store, but mostly clothing. And then what was that one, the men’s store on Main Street, too? Alison’s was there. Was there an Alison’s?
BARNES: I remember the name.
HAUGH: They just sold men’s clothes. They were right next to Meeske’s in a little shop there. That was when we first carne out in the ’40s. If there’s one thing that you could really want the children really to remember about the history of their hometown, what would it be? Probably your house, right?
BARNES: I’m afraid it would be. [laughter]
HAUGH: Not that we’re prejudiced or anything. But I’d like you to tell just a little bit more about how you feel about the restoration of your home as a museum. I think that’s important for people to know how you personally feel about that.
BARNES: Well, I think it is very great. In the first place, it’s quite a surprise, but a wonderful surprise to know that it is being restored. And secondly, I think that my mother and dad would really be proud because they lived for that home and they had it in such perfect condition at all times and it was still in good condition. However, tastes change. But when we sold it, it was still in good condition. But it has deteriorated and it’s really quite a job to restore it-more than I think we ever thought. But I’m looking forward to that day, and I will be so proud and my family is proud of it, too. They’re all looking forward to dedication day like I am.
HAUGH: Sure. Right on. I think it ought to be said, too, that some of the things that you’ve given us will make the house so authentic-all the lovely gifts that you’ve given to the museum and to the society that will make it a real part of your family home. Some of those things are your personal little cup, you know, and your chairs and tables you had when you were a little girl and all those wonderful nostalgic things that we, you know, I think, feel so important to us as a society and as a restoration program because they’re not just for the kids nowadays, but they’re going to be there for lots of other children coming down the line. BARNES: I think it will be very exciting and certainly will have mixed emotions when I get to see all those things back in the house where they were originally.
HAUGH: Sure. I hear you just finished a project with Adele Werkowski on the interior design. Tell me about that a little. I think that’s a big project.
BARNES: Well, she gave me a 1905 Sears catalogue and asked me to go through it. It only had 1,101 pages in it, and to chose items in that catalogue that I recognized that we had in our home. It was surprising how many there were. Many of them were even identical, but a lot of them you could get the idea from the picture. Then she did such a wonderful job. She took pictures of those items. We spent a couple hours going through it after I had gone through it. I had it marked, and she took pictures of those and made a page of each one and little stories I had told about each item. That must have taken a lot of her time. It’s a gorgeous piece of work.
HAUGH: And, you know, this kind of research is so important to the museum itself, making it a high quality museum where people, when they enter, will have the feeling and know that those are really the things that were in that house. It’s going to be a great day.
BARNES: My only regret is that I didn’t know this was going to happen and I would not have given or sold so many things. I would have kept them back.
HAUGH: You can’t keep everything.
BARNES: I didn’t know this was going to happen. We moved in 1966 to this address.
HAUGH: There was a lot of changes in ’66. I remember that’s when I started with my newspaper and Prospect Day came to the downtown area. Remember that?
BARNES: I remember their office.
HAUGH: That’s where I was. A lot of good things are happening, and, Bessie, when we do have that dedication, it’s going to be a real gratifying thing for you, I’m sure, to know how much you’ve helped us and how much we appreciate it, too. So anything else you’d like to say for posterity? Still gardening, right? You’ve still got your own little garden.
BARNES: Well, just flowers.
HAUGH: That’s all right. That’s all right.
BARNES: Gave up the gardening. I used to can and freeze a lot, but I don’t any more.
HAUGH: Well, our lives change, as you said when we started. So I guess we’ve made our circle completely. I always have so much fun talking to you because you have such a good recollection of so many things that I think are unknown to other people and so as a Historical Society person, we’re real happy that you’re around.
BARNES: Well thank you. It certainly has proven to me-I’ve heard it, but I never experienced it that when God closes one door, he opens another. And I’ve been very busy and very happy and it was really educational because I didn’t realize many of the things and working with and listening to all those professionals, it is indeed education.
HAUGH: It sure is. I think, too, the opportunity to work with other people that are interested in what we’re trying to do, new friends that you’ve made. And, Bessie, you have to tell them how you go out and talk to people now. The Lions Club and Fairview School kids. I think that’s wonderful. It’s jut wonderful.
BARNES: Thank you very much. I don’t know what kind of a job I do, but I try to tell them. It’s amazing the children do not realize how we lived years ago. Even their parents don’t.
HAUGH: That’s right. That’s right. They don’t know that there wasn’t any indoor plumbing and there was no TV or radios or anything. They wondered what in the world you did. So this is a real education for them.
BARNES: But I’d never give up our youth. I enjoyed that. It was so much fun. I think we had lots of close friendships through that. Now we can all go our own way and still be entertained.
HAUGH: That’s right. That’s right.
BARNES: Or even stay home and watch TV.
HAUGH: By yourself. Yes, sure. I wanted to also mention that you’re serving on the Historical Society Restoration Building Committee, Garden Restoration and Interior Design and as a board of director.
BARNES: Yes.
HAUGH: And she was also our Elderhonor person last year. So these are wonderful things that are happening. Bessie, thanks so much.
BARNES: No, thanks to you.
HAUGH: Oh, no, no, don’t. ..
BARNES: If you didn’t push me, I don’t think I would. ..
HAUGH: Well, good. Us widows have to stick together. And, again, I thank you. ..
BARNES: Oh, you’re welcome.
HAUGH: …and we’ll put this on, and we’ll have a lot of people listening and reading about all the wonderful things that you’ve shared with us today.
BARNES: Thank you very much. This was a pleasure.

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in MP: 105 S. Elm

Birth Date: 1896

Death Date: June 1990

Marriage
Date: June 1919

Spouse: Helen Busse Biermann

Children:

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
Frank Biermann came to Mount Prospect in 1911 when his father, a teamster, was hired by William Busse to grade and maintain the streets in Mount Prospect. Fred Biermann later married William Busse’s Daughter, Helen. Frank work for William Busse in his tore on the corner of Busse and Main. In 1927, William Busse split up his store, forming Busse Buick and William Busse Jr. Dry Goods. He sold his farm implement Business to Herman Meyn and his Hardware store to Frank Biermann, creating Busse-Biermann Hardware. Frank Biermann was also very involved in local organizations. He joined the Mount Prospect Volunteer Fire Department in 1915 and served for 41 years. From 1928 to his retirement in 1956 he was Chief of the volunteer department. Frank Biermann was also a member of the Lions Club for 50 years and very involved with the Mount Prospect Historical Society.  Below is a selection from an oral history interview done with Frank Biermann.

Date of Interview:                                   October 27, 1969
Interviewer:                                               Unknown

Text of Oral History:
MODERATOR: Then, Mrs. Howe, will you please present the program?
MRS. HOWE: All right. Tonight we’re very, very happy to have Mr. Biermann with us. He’s been with us all the time because he started this motley crew, shall we say. The nicest thing about Frank is that whenever you go and you say, “Frank, I need your help,” he says, “What can I do for you?” He never says, “Well, I’m kind of busy,” or, “I don’t know if I’m going to find the time,” like so many of us do. He always is there. Just as a shining example, we were out — where were we, Frank, when I asked you for the –at the board of directors meeting. I’ve got to clarify that, his wife is sitting here. At the board of directors meeting I said, “Say, Frank, I thought we had that picture of you in your fire chief uniform in our file. It’s not in there. Have you got a picture?” He said, “Yes, I think so,” and I said, “Gee, I’d like to have it.” The next morning I walked into work and the girl at the Frieden machine said, “Say, there was a man in here looking for you this morning,” and I said, “Oh, so early?” And she said, “He left this present.” I said, “Oh, good,” and here was the picture from Frank at nine o’clock the next morning, and that’s just indicative of him. If you want something done, ask a busy man. I’m not going to tell you what he’s going to tell you –I’ll let him tell you about our great fire department and all the years that he’s put in, and maybe he’ll mix in a few side remarks. Frank, come on up.
FRANK BIERMANN: This is sort of an unusual thing for me. I haven’t done this for a good many years, to talk to a public audience like this. Of course, at lot of you, I think, are good friends of mine and I’ll just try to feel more or less at home. Now, you talked about if you want something done and you want it done in a hurry, then ask me –I don’t know about that. That was orders, “I’d like to have it the first thing in the morning.” What do you do when a lady tells you she wants something right away, you get busy. Well, anyhow, I hope you folks will bear with me. I’ll try to reminisce a little bit and give you a little story of my history and the history of the fire department. When I talk about the fire department I want you to keep this in mind –I’m not taking credit for it. The boys that worked with me, they’ve got it coming as well as I have. All [of us] worked hard to make a nice department out of it, and that’s the start of my story. Now, I came here in the horse-and-buggy days. We moved to this town on March 8, 1911, and we came here with wagons. We were moved in wagons. Like you are when you have neighbors and another, everybody helps one another like you did when we first came to town here. Everybody was more like neighbors. You helped one another real close. It’s changed a little bit since then, but we won’t go into that. Neighbors would come along and they’d come along with their wagons and we’d load up and we came to Mt. Prospect. That was March the eighth. It was a fairly decent day. It wasn’t too cold. I remember it very distinctly. It was nice. We came in, and crossing over Elmhurst Road at that time we went over the railroad like you did when the Mt. Prospect Road went over the top and had to go up and then down again, and then alongside of it where the Jewel is now the road came in then past Fulle’g and then so on. Well, the reason we came here, this town was going to start to develop. The Busse brothers really went into it and started organizing real good. That’s George’s father, my father-in-law and Louie and Al and a few others. Those were the Busse brothers. They were getting ready to get this town in shape. I just want to give you just a little history of the town first, if you don’t mind and if you can bear with me. They needed a man with a team of horses who could put all his time in to help build sidewalks at that time. Now, everything was mud, prairie, corn fields and what have you, and they were building up and laid out the streets. A survey was made, so then they were getting ready to build sidewalks and they needed somebody to do the teaming. They didn’t have trucks, in those days. There were no gasoline buggies flying around like they are today. It was all done with horses. So my father-in-law –before that he wasn’t my father-in-law; he was Helen’s dad –got in touch with Dad and convinced him to sell there and come to Mt. Prospect. They got together and Dad finally said yes, so here’s how we got here. Well, that’s the start there. Now, getting back to the year 1911 when we were here, things were going along and everything was going along, so then the Improvement Association started and was organized. They were starting to take care of this — they had a lot of little things to take care of, like it was a pretty dark town. If I remember, they bought twenty-five kerosene lamps –lanterns, stands; no, they were lamps, really, on a pole –and then they had to have an individual clean them every day and oil them up and take care of it. George, you remember some of this, too. If I reminisce a little bit too much you correct me a little bit, will you?
GEORGE: I had one of those lights in front of my house.
BIERMANN: I know you did, and I’ve got a picture of that, too. So that was our lighting system in town. Now, the roads and everything was all mud. Everything was mud. They graded them. Dad did a lot of that after the survey was made. He did a lot of grading up and down, and there wasn’t much to it because it started –where the village warehouses are today is where the pickle factory was. Now, the pickle factory had great, big wooden vats. It was quite a pickle territory around here, and the farmers used to bring the pickles in and they’d put them in there. Woolrich Ta~lor, I think it was, at the time in Chicago were the ones that ran it. That’s when they’d put them in brine –the salt brine in here –and stored them. Then they’d load them on the cars and haul them into Chicago by railroad. So that was the extreme west end of town, believe it or not. The north end, of course, was Central Road. The south end was the railroad, and the east end was where the creamery was, which is Elm Street. Now, that was the size of the town when I came to town here, and you could almost shoot a rifle through and not hit anybody because there weren’t too many houses. Well, anyhow, the population at the time, as I remember it, was 149 in 1911. That isn’t very many, but they were very progressive. They wanted to make a nice town out of it, and everybody got busy. The Improvement Association came along and got things rolling, and then, of course, now in 1913 — September 29 of 1913 –was when the fire department started getting organized. They got together and wanted to organize a fire department, so they met in the old schoolhouse –the white schoolhouse that used to stand on Main and Central. They organized a meeting there, and when they did –I made a few notes. If you’ll pardon me, I’ll try to read off some of them. The first meeting at the public school was held for the purpose of organizing a fire department. Now, Joey Hart was elected chairman pro tern. That was the brother of Berth~ Hart. John Pullman –I tried to get him to come here tonight –he was the first secretary. In fact, he served on the village board later, too. But he called me today, and he said, “Frank, I can’t make it.” I said, “Well, I’m sorry that you can’t, John. I probably needed you to back me up on some of these dates.” I can’t fib too much anyhow because two of my former bosses are here. There are two ex-mayors here. See them? I’ve got to be careful what I say or I’m liable to get in trouble. All right, then a committee was appointed to draw up sets of rules and regulations, and the meeting was to be held on November 8th. They started to progress pretty fast. Now, here are the few members that I’m going to mention who were at the first meeting who were elected November the eighth. C. D. Busse was elected chief. A lot of people remember Chris. Joey Hart was assistant chief –that’s Bertha’s brother. John Pohlman was secretary. L. W. Haberkamp was treasurer. Now, that’s Ed’s brother. Somebody said it was his father, but that’s his brother. A. E. Busse was engineer –Emma’s husband. He was elected the first engineer. Charles Sieloff was captain. See, they already had ideas. They were electing their boys for respected positions. They didn’t have anything to work with, but they were getting organized and I give them a lot of credit for that. Herman Mein was another mayor here. He was a fire chief, too, at one time. He was first nozzleman, the first nozzleman. Ernest Busse was a member, Albert Wille was a member. Conrad Englekink, Henry J. Hart –now, that’s another brother of Bertha. Christ Wille –another Wille boy; Albert and Christ were both in there –and William Busse, Jr. Now, that’s the list I took out of the original minutes book, which I had and it’s still at the fire station. There was the organization of the fire department when they started out. The first meeting after that –that was November 8, and on November 21 — now, they were getting busy, right away, bing, bing, bing. They were going to get organized. Well, here they are. They Improvement Association was asked to buy six lanterns for them. There’s something about that lantern business –that’s coming in later. I’ll tell you that after a while. In 1914 –see, we’re in 1914 now, January 7 –a committee of three was appointed to investigate an engine; some kind of an engine that was for sale at Glenview. I don’t know what it was. I don’t remember because I wasn’t in at that time and there is no report in the minutes of what happened to that. But they did in 1914 –the exact date I don’t know, but they did purchase the old hand pumper. You’ve seen it. You’ve seen pictures of it –it’s in the fire station today –with the side pump on it and one thing and another. They bought that from Niles Center, which is now Skokie, for sixty bucks. Think of it! It was a good buy in those days. They were progressing right along. They got a fire engine, and now they need a bell to notify the members that there is a fire. They purchased a bell, and here is where it comes in, from Arlington Heights. Paul Holstein was authorized to buy the bell from Arlington Heights for the sum of eight dollars so evidently there was a little finagling going on there. So they bought the old first fire bell for eight bucks. They were going along pretty good, and in January of 1915 here they come along and they bought two axes, two , a ladder, and so forth, and they started building it up. It was building up very nicely. Well, then, of course, like every ambition is, a boy either wants to be a policeman, a fireman, or something like that. I got into that. So then I became old enough so I was able to do it, so I turned in my application and, by golly, they took me on. So in 1915 on February 4 I became a member, and I was a member on that until I retired in 1956, January 31, which is quite a while. All right, now they were getting organized again –and I remember this, now. I’m-starting to get organized in it, and I like it –I still love it –and that was my ambition to protect life and property, and I still enjoy it. It gets in your blood. You just can’t shake it, that’s all. It’s part of you. You live with it. You sleep with it. If it wouldn’t be for my wife here to make [it to] a good many fires. How many times she didn’t hold my pants out so I could jump in it, believe me. I had to go. When that whistle goes you go, and there is no reason why you shouldn’t because you should. If you want to be a good citizen, that’s your duty. All right. Christ Wille. Good old Christ. He was appointed to install the bell. Now, look at that. That bell must have been lying around and they didn’t know where to put it. They got permission to put it in the first village hall which was Wille’s hall. Do you remember? Where Wille’s are now they had a building there and they had a tower, and they put that bell up in there. So every time there was fire somebody had to go over to Wille’s hall and start ringing that bell. Of course, if the wind was blowing pretty hard it was pretty hard to hear that bell with all the windows closed. But anyhow, it worked out. Now, for quite a while there, like all minutes in all organizations, you get a lull. There isn’t too much activity. You kind of go along, just kind of dormant-like. Well, we were dormant for a certain while until all of a sudden we started getting some fires. Every time they have a fire it peps you up. It really does. It gets you. You get stagnant if there is no activity, no fires, no business, see. That was our business to fight fires. Well, anyhow, that happens once in a while, and in this case here started to get prairie fires, and one thing and another. This was in 1918. At that time I wasn’t  out here all the time. I had a little job in the city. I worked for a bank downtown, the Continental Commercial Bank, for about seven years. I was in there and I wasn’t much good out here, but I did help out nights when they did have something. Well, I came out one Saturday afternoon, I think it was an early train about three o’clock or something, and 10 and behold, driving down, coming into town, I happened to look out there and here was a straw stack on fire –Herman Earlyking’s. That’s at the 800 block of East Prospect, in that neck of the woods. That’s where Herman Earlyking’s farm was. It was pretty close to the barn. I got out, and, of course, you tear right over there and you try to help. Here they were over there with that little hand pump. Fellows were running with pails, pulling that thing, and we had a little ten-gallon priming tank, is what I’d call it. It was just enough to prime the thing and get it going, and then you were supposed to drop it in a cistern. That was another thing that I’ve got to go into a little later, too. Well, anyhow, that was our first fire. That pepped us up again, when you did something like that, so then you start getting some more committees together and you go out and you want to buy something better. You’ve got to improve this. This is too much money business. You stand there and you don’t get to first base with the thing. You pump, and everybody’s got to run with pails and fill the thing up. You know how it is. There is just a little bit of water. It’s an awful feeling when you just run out of water and you want to put something out and you get it about half out and then your water is kaput and then you’re done and you feel like a heel. You don’t want to be around then. Well, anyhow, we made it all right anyway. So then we come along to after Herman Earlyking’s –and he was very satisfied because we saved his barn. The barn didn’t burn. We were able to cut it off enough to keep that up and stay around and knock that out for him. I want to tell you another thing, now. With this little side pumper that we had, if you notice there used to be a rope on it. I don’t know whether they have it on there or not. They told me they were going to put it on but they never did. I think it’s in the way. When you pull it — when the call was for the fire of the thing, you had to pull it by hand, naturally. We had no gasoline trucks or buggies to pull it then. It was just horse-and-wagon days. So most of the time in a small village like ours you’d pull it out. Well, Herman was a little far down there, so I got to a point where I said, “By golly, if that happens again we’re in trouble.” Did you ever try to run all you can and pull on the thing in back of you? It’s a small wagon, say, for instance, a mile. Doggone it, you’re tuckered out. By the time you get there you ain’t got no ambition to fight a fire.” All right. So then in November then they go going to get people out to get subscriptions and see if we couldn’t buy something better. Well, we got a committee appointed and one thing and another, and they got busy. The committee worked, the committee on subscriptions, and we told them what we wanted. Well, we bought a Buick chassis from the Busse Motor Sales –William Busse & Son at that time. We bought a 1915 Buick chassis, a truck. On that we mounted two forty-gallon soda acid chemical tanks with 200 feet of one-inch chemical hose and a two-inch section hose –a hard section hose. No, that two-inch section hose was on that little hand pumper. But we had pails. That’s right, we had pails on that. There is where you would have soda acid. Are you familiar with that, where you put soda in one and then an acid, and when you dump the acid bottle in it mixes with the soda water and it builds up pressure? When it does that it builds up, oh, quite a bit of pressure, and you’d better have that nozzle when that happens or you won’t have a tank left neither. I found that out, because it gets pretty dangerous. You can get about 200 pounds of pressure there in no time. Well, anyhow, we fought with that in several places. The Rev. Miller’s fire one time, his parsonage over there at St. Paul’s got going, and we got in there. You do more damage I with soda acid than you do with putting the fire out, believe it or not. We put the fire out but by the time we got through all the upholstery and carpets were ruined because that sulfuric acid really eats everything to pieces. Now, if anybody had any doings with soda acid you know what I’m talking about. It’s a good extinguisher but it does a lot of damage, too, believe me. It’s effective because you create your own pressure and you put out the fire and that’s it. But as I say, you do as much damage with acid as the fire does sometimes. So we kind of got away from that, too. We went along pretty nice –excuse me for referring to notes, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself neither. Oh, yes, then we got into ’19 or so, there we had another lull there. There wasn’t too much from 1918 till 1920. Then electricity came into the picture, too, there a little bit. In 1921 we purchased our first electric siren. That was another thing we needed. We had a lot of trouble with notifying the boys there was a fire. About two or three would make it and there wasn’t enough help, and we got into trouble in that respect so we had to turn around and get some other equipment. So we bought an electric siren, and we had this siren mounted in back of the old bank building. Do you remember the old bank building that stood on Main and Busse, that little bitty building? And on the telephone pole right next to the sidewalk we had this siren mounted, with a switch high enough so the kids couldn’t get at it. It took a good-sized man to reach up there, about seven or eight feet up. Still the kids would try to climb up there and hit it. Well, anyhow we got along all right, and that went along for some time. And then we had signals. Three blasts was a~, and that was all  right. One long and one short was the west side, I think it was, where the big tower was. Was that west side, east side? We didn’t have it on the north side or south side, that was I the only thing. It was just east and west. One long and one short was the west side. Now, that meant from Main Street, of course. One long and two short was east of main street, and one long was out of town. There you are. Those were our signals. Believe it or not, we were progressing right along. We had to do the best we could. So we went along, and we had forest preserve fires and everything under the sun. We went along all the way up till 1922, and that’s when one of our mayors, Herman Mein, was elected chief, in 1922. The 1921 fires –I’ll go back one more year there, I see in the note here –the Burke property, Rev. Miller’s parsonage, which I mentioned. That was in 1921. Northwestern Light & Power, oh, that’s a good one. That was on September 21, 1921. Up to that time Mt. Prospect –maybe you don’t want to hear about that, do you? MODERATOR: Sure!
BIERMANN: On September 21, 1921, we had a fire at the Northwestern Light & Power Company. Now, that was located right where the present water tower is, right there. It was owned by the Improvement Association, more or less. The members of the Improvement Association had stock in that. Everybody had a chance to buy a share of stock in that. It was a stock company. So, we had our own electric light plant in this town up to that time. Lo and behold, we had that fire and that was kaput. They absolutely burn out. Well, then the public service company at that time came in and they negotiated and took the franchise, and, by golly, we had electricity then that stayed with us quite a bit, and we’ve got it yet. So that’s when the public service company which is now Commonwealth Edison came into the picture after that time. So we had that to contend with, too. We couldn’t stop that because that was done by the time we got there. Oh, we had a lot of fires. We had a Chicago & Northwestern caboose fire, and they reimbursed us twenty-five dollars for that, too, believe me. That was in 1922. We had another occasion, too, with the Northwestern one time. An engine was working down here and [it] ran out of water. They stopped in town here and, by golly, they were stuck. They didn’t have any water. They either had to pull the [engine] or do something, so they came running over and they wanted the fire department to get any water. Well, fortunately, we had our water works in then, so right at Kruse’s corner there, the engine was there, and we got over to the fire department and filled up that engine with water so they could proceed on. So in an emergency we were there, too, once in a while, even in those days. We were some good. Now we get along in 1922, and, oh, boy, here is where the village started appropriating money for us. That was something. Seven hundred bucks we got appropriated,. How do you like that deal? Isn’t that something? We’re going along now. And then they got rich and we started having banquets and one thing or another, drills. Then we purchased another siren, a good one, which we put on the water tower. That was $308.75. We spent money then, believe me. That was a lot of dough in those days. That siren lasted for a good many years; in fact, the siren yet is over on the water works over here on Pine Street right now, that same old siren. I think they use that just for CD purposes now –Civilian Defense. I’m pretty sure. So we were starting to get paid for making fires now. I don’t remember just what the beginning was. I think it was two or three dollars a run or something like that. I think the chief got three, the captains and lieutenants got two, and the men got one dollar or something like that. I don’t know. It was something along that line. Anyhow, we had a payroll in 1928 of $124.50. That’s what it cost the village for our fire department for personnel. That was all right, wasn’t it? We went along fine. Now, in 1928 that’s where we got a little bit perturbed with the old soda acid stuff, and one thing or another, and we wanted to get something better. So the fire department went to the village board and the village board agreed to have a meeting. We called a special meeting for the citizens for the idea of discussing the idea of a new piece of fire apparatus. That was fine, so we got out and got signatures for a referendum and, by golly, the bond issue went through and we were lucky. We were very happy about that because we immediately got busy then and started negotiating for bids on trucks. Of course, we bid on the American of France at that time. That’s the old 9usse-wa~. We used to call it “Betsy.” But the American of France was the first one we had, and it was between American of France and Peter Pirsch. We had our ifs and ands, and even in the fire department we were split a little bit there because one wanted this and one wanted that. Finally, when the recommendation went into the village board Pirsch went in and was favored. I think yours truly had an awful lot of gumption. and I fought for that American of France like tooth, nail, and everything I could because I could see that that was the best deal all the way through — my opinion was. In fact, I was appointed engineer to investigate it, and on the committee and everything else, so I just got in and I worked hard and I sold the village board on it. The village board listened to me and they bought American of France. Boy, was I in the dog house. They were going to throw me out, and everything under the sun. Well, anyhow, I made it and we got it patched up. As I say, anything I did was for the good of the department, and I won’t take credit for nothing myself. The department, too. I had some boys that after a while realized this and said, “Well, I think you’re all right. You made it all right.” I’m thankful for it because I’m very happy it happened the way it did because we still have American of France equipment, and I’m very much sold on it today. As far as I’m concerned, it’s good stuff. It’s good equipment. So then we started having carnivals. We needed hose, and what have you. We helped buy this, too. At that time we were running dances and stuff. So we ran a carnival. At our first carnival our receipts were $615.00. Boy, that was dough. We bought a lot of hose. In those days we could buy, I think, a foot of two-and-a-half inch, double-jacketed hose, which was the best –double-jacketed could stand a lot of pressure –for, I think, a dollar a foot. We could buy it for a dollar a foot then. I don’t know what it is today. I bet it’s six or seven bucks, if not more. We got that, and Will Haberkamp’s greenhouse had a fire, too. That was December 29, and we worked hard on that. Arlington Heights came down and helped us. They did~. Wheeling came down and helped us, and poor Wheeling got froze up. Their truck froze up solid as the dickens. The couldn’t even pump. Anyhow, they were real nice. Then around 1931 we disposed of our chemical truck. Am I taking too long?
MODERATOR: No!
BIERMANN: Really?
MODERATOR: Keep going.
BIERMANN: If I do I’ll cut it short.
MODERATOR: 1969.
BIERMANN: I wasn’t in that long, Doc.
MODERATOR: We have the other side of the tape to go. You haven’t finished one side.
BIERMANN: All right. Now, in 1931 our carnival receipts went up a little bit. We had $704.00 bucks. See, we’re
getting a little bigger. A little more. People are starting to come out and really spend money with us. Oh, yes, here’s  good one. In September –you know, we usually have an annual banquet, the firemen. We got so that we had a little money, we were working hard, and we put together and we used to have banquets. We’d get a pretty good meal for a buck and a quarter apiece in those days and get a nice turkey or duck dinner, or something like that. We used to have it, and at this particular time we went to Neumeier’s place. Now, Neumeier is where –what’s the name of that place across from. ..?
MODERATOR: El Rando.
BIERMANN: No, the little one. Is that El Rando?
MODERATOR: Yes.
BIERMANN: EI Rando, okay. We were at EI Rando, but that was 1933, November the twenty-third. I’ve got the date and everything here. We got a call over there, “A fire in town!” You know what happened, everybody out. The poor women sat there, those men were all gone and they had all the duck. We busted down there, and here it was a fire at Wolf’s residence. That’s the corner of Lincoln and Ioca, I think it was, if I remember. Lincoln and Ioca, the Wolf residence. A bad fire. It started in the basement and ran up the front steps and the upstairs, and it was going like the dickens. Nobody was home. The neighbors saw it and called, so we got over there and got in there. Well, the first thing we did, which we were supposed to do, which my command always was, is to be sure and have your line charged all up –your water; your line filled with water –before you start opening up a building, because the minute you open a building with a fire and it gets oxygen, away it goes. Now, you need three things for fires: You need fuel, heat and oxygen. Take one of them away and you haven’t got a fire. You’ve got to have every one of the three. So, always have your hose ready the minute you open a house. All right. Doug Budlong, you know. ..
BIERMANN: …and then we split our department into two companies. What are you going to do, run this thing forever? We split our department in two companies because we had two motors –two apparatuses, so we had two companies. We had so many men on this and on that. I think it was ten or fifteen on each one, or something like that, because I had about thirty members when I was one. Well, that’s so much of the early fire league. I’m holding too long. It’s after nine here. In 1937 now we start getting out in the country and we start having a lot of trouble –you know, boys getting hurt and cut –so we more or less drafted a doctor into the organization. We got Dr. Wolfarth to come and become a member, and he was very loyal to us and helped us an awful lot. He gave us a lot of first aid setup. We bought an inhalator and went out and did some inhalator work. It went along real good. He’s done an awful lot. We have an awful lot of inhalator work, too, when people got heart attacks and asthma attacks. And too much liquor once in a while, they would call up and get sick, you know, and then the mother wouldn’t know what was wrong with the young guy I and they found out that he was liquored up a little bit too much. We had that to contend with, too, not only –the ladies once in a while. We had a lady once –I probably shouldn’t mention this; this is kind of rude –but out here on Higgins Road we got a call one time, an inhalator call down there. Somebody was desperately sick. We didn’t know what it was, so all right, the inhalator went out there with the emergency unit, and Doc Wolfarth went along, you know. He didn’t make the truck. He was right in back of us with his car. We got out there, and there was a woman in a bathtub and she wouldn’t get out. She wanted to commit suicide and drown. She had had too much liquor. She just got fed up with somebody, I suppose, and she got out of her mind. So we had her to contend with. We had to get her in a blanket and get her into bed and take care of her. Can you imagine trying to lift a woman, nude, out of a bathtub? So we had all kinds of things to contend with, believe me. Talk about being a doctor, they can have it. I’ll go along being a fireman, and that’s it. I just rang that in. Maybe you’d  enjoy it and maybe you wouldn’t. We run into funny things. I’m not kidding you. On the south side here –I happened to think of that just now, too. Now, Esmond (2.50) at that time was lieutenant, and we had two brothers who had gotten in a , scrap. They were home, visiting with their mother, and I ! don’t know what happened. Two brothers got in there and they started scrapping, and they started slugging one another and the mother fainted. She went out like a light, and we were called. We got over there, and Doc was in the back. I think Doc Ba~nola was with us that time. By the way, we had two doctors, too. Bagnola came in for a while, too, and I think Doc Ba~nola was with us that time. We went into this place, and the mother was in there and we started giving her oxygen and some tried to revive her. She was fighting it off like the dickens, and Doc has his stethoscope on her and was checking her all over. He started shaking his head all the time, and I was thinking, Whatls the matter here? He said, “I don’t know, there is something funny here.” It turned out then we found out. It disturbed her so that her two boys were fighting, it just worked her up to a point where she just went out. I guess it’s possible to do that. So then we found out what it was, so then the two boys –one was outside and the other one came in, and we asked them, “What’s the idea of disturbing your mother like that, to put her into a trance like this?” He said, “Well, we’ll do it again.” I said, “Oh, you will, will you?” I said, “Esmond, take care , of these two boys. II You know how Esmond is a great big fellow yet. He got over there, and he said, “You fellows, if I catch you once more doing a thing like this, you’re both going in the hoosegow. Believe me or not, I’ll take care of you both.” So I guess he got that one straightened out. But that shows you what happens. What we don’t get called for once in a while when you’re on the fire department! Everything under the sun. Emergencies. A cat in the tree? Oh, God. We’ve had those, too. When they get hungry they come down, don’t worry. Oh, yes. In 1945 the department had to become a corporation. We started getting in the real estate business. We were looking for a better site. We were in that little pump house, one thing or another. We had to get something going here that was more modern, and we needed room. We had two trucks, and we didn’t know what to do with them. So, we had some property we had bought on Main Street where the theater is now. We owned a couple of lots in there. Do you remember that, George? I’ve got a real estate man here. We’ve got to keep me straight here, see. I’ve got to be careful what I say here. I’ll get in Dutch. We bought that property, and after viewing it and figuring it out, one, two or three, or it wasn’t the right spot anyhow. We didn’t know. So my father-in-law, I discussed it with him a little bit and he said, “Oh, boy. Don’t put it there. It’s right on Main Street. It’s too crowded,” and what have you. He said, “I’ve got some property over here. I’ll figure out what I want for it and I’ll give you fellows a good proposition on it.” And he did, and that’s the present site, where the village hall is today. The fire department bought that property and donated it to the village, and it cost us fifteen thousand bucks, believe it or not. In that day it was a lot of money, too, but it was a good buy if you figure it out. Even at that time he practically gave us a good buy on it, wouldn’t you think so, George? And you know, I have something here that I treasure.
GEORGE: I would have paid him more money than that for it.
BIERMANN: I know you would have. A contract for real estate. I have it in my possession yet. Now, I happened to be appointed one of the trustees, and Herman Mein was the other one, that handled the real estate, and one thing or another, of the Mt. Prospect Volunteer Fire Department, and I have the original sales contract on that particular property, and there is a clause in there I am going to read to you. It refers to lots 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 in block 12 of Busse-Wille’s subdivision, section 12, town 41, range east …and so on going. Fifteen thousand bucks. “It is expressly agreed and understood that the deed conveying the above-described property will contain a clause restricting the use of the property to the erection of a municipal building or buildings by the Village of Mt. Prospect,” but it can’t be used for nothing else. Don’t you think that’s a good idea? After we gave it to them that’s what we wanted it for, and they did it. All right. It was real nice of them. We got going –let’s see, who was mayor then? That was Penn. Penn was mayor. By golly, thank you. You helped me out there again, too. See, isn’t it nice to have fellows here that can prop you up a little bit, see, and hold you? Then we start planning a new fire station, and then by that time the village got interested. Fine, they’re going to build a building. We were going to go ahead and build our own building. We’d have done it, too –believe me, we would. We were ready to go. So they came along and they got interested. They got her interested to the point that they turned around and had a referendum on it, and they floated a bond issue on it for $145,000. Does that sound right?
GEORGE: That’s right.
BIERMANN: All right. They completed the building January 11, 1949, and had the first meeting in there. We were the happiest guys on earth. We had a new fire station, a new city hall, and we had that occasion. Boy, I’ll tell you, our chests were out farther than it ever was in all our lives. Then the 1960s came along and we put an addition into it, and that cost $195,000. So then things went along, went along and went along, and in 1965 they got the new fire station. Now I’m going to head out and quit because I think you’ve heard enough. From now on it got more or less modern. Oh, goodness gracious, it’s nine-thirty, folks, and I need a rink of water or something here. I’m getting dry.
MODERATOR: Tell us about the lanterns.
BIERMANN: Oh, the lanterns? All right. Well, anyhow, this was before we bought our first piece of equipment. Is that what you mean?
MODERATOR: Yes.
ERMANN: The bylaws and rules and regulations went something like this: The chief was supposed to route the way I to the fire. Now, he’s supposed to know everything. I don’t I know how he does, but he’s supposed to. That’s according to them, yes. Carry the lantern and run –oh, thank you very, very much. I hope I don’t make the rest of you dry. Oh, that was good. We put out fires with that, too, you know. Well, anyhow, run ahead, and the fellow is supposed to come along in back of it with the equipment then, and the first man is supposed to be the nozzle end there, and the other ones start pumping, then they had ten gallons in the restaurant for the cistern. You see, where the closest cistern –oh, yes. Years ago everybody had a cistern, either one in the ground outside or one inside the house. I remember ours. We had an old galvanized one in our house at 117 South Maple where we moved to. You went in from the town and we used to live at that house that used to stand right where the parking lot of the post office is now, right across from the city hall. And, by the way, I don’t think there were any houses east of us then, George, except the creamery was over there then.
GEORGE: No, Fredricks on the corner.
BIERMANN: Oh, yes, north, but I mean east.
GEORGE: No, that came a little later.
BIERMANN: That came later, is right. No, Scharinghausen was there on the corner. Scharinghausen was on the corner of Evergreen, and that was there. Herman, he was cheesemaker there, remember?
GEORGE: Was he there then?
BIERMANN: Yes, he was there. That was on the corner. I remember that very distinctly. Herman Scharinghausen was on the corner. What was I talking about?
MODERATOR: The lanterns.
BIERMANN: Oh, the lanterns. Okay. A cistern. You had to have a cistern to pump water. You can look at it sometime when you’re at the station. It had a little priming tank in there, about ten gallons you’d pour in there with pails. You always had pails setting on there, too, years ago, and you’d run and get [water] so you’d get the thing primed, and then you’d throw the two-and-a-half inch line down into the cistern and then you’d pump. How long will a cistern last on a big fire? Well, anyhow, we had, I think, an inch-and-a-half discharge on there with a small tip on it, which was fair. So that was it, that’s about the nozzle end of it. Friends, it’s been a pleasure tonight to talk to you, and it’s been my ambition all my life to help build up this village. I always say this: Fire prevention, we worked on that very hard. I even had a little sign put on that old pumper that I was talking about, “If we do our part, fires won’t start.” There is a lot of truth in that, and I mean it. If you just watch out, because it’s negligence and if people are too complacent about things they happen. I’m going to close with that, and I’m going to thank you. You’ve been a nice audience. I hope I did something tonight. I don’t know. I tried to help.
MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Mr. Biermann.
BIERMANN: You’re very welcome.
MODERATOR: Thank you, too, Mr. Biermann. Will there be any more business to come before the meeting? If not, then we stand adjourned.