People of Mount Prospect

Does MPHS have photographs: Miscellaneous images

Address in MP: Unknown

Birth Date: Unknown

Death Date: Unknown

Marriage
Date:  Unknown

Spouse: Billie Esmond

Children: Unknown

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:

Newell Esmond was a long time member of the Mount Prospect Police Department. He worked for MPPD for 22 years, as a patrol man, lieutenant, and finally for six years as the Chief of Police. He worked extensively to upgrade the department, increasing patrolmen’s Salaries, improving the forces equipment, and beginning out reach programs such as stationing a full time police counselor at Prospect High.

Does MPHS have photographs: Miscellaneous images

Address in MP: 

Birth Date:  

Death Date: 

Marriage: No information

Children: Had three sons and a daughter

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:

Robert Eppley was the first professional Village Manager in Mount Prospect. A World War II veteran, he was educated in Political Science at Ohio State University, where he was very active in the school newspaper, the glee club, and the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. Prior to coming to Mount Prospect he was the City Manager of Wheaton, Illinois. He was selected by a unanimous vote of the Village Board in 1971 and when he came to Mount Prospect his salary of $28,000 made him the highest paid municipal administrator in the Northwest Suburbs. He later became the President of the Illinois City Managers Association.

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in MP: 801 E. Central

Birth Date: May 12, 1883

Death Date: June, 1968

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:

Bertha Ehard was a dynamo in Mount Prospect. In 1926 she started the Mount Prospect Campfire Girls, a girls club similar to the Girls Scouts. She worked in Chicago and would come home at night and rush over the one room Central School house and hurry to build a fire in the pot bellied stove to try to warm up the building before the girls got there. The group chose the name “Potawatomi” and received a charter from the national Camp Fire Girls in 1927. The organization fostered understanding and appreciation of nature, an interest in Native American History and responsibility to the community. The group was lobbied for and picked some of the unusual names of the streets in the southern half of Mount Prospect, such as Hi Lusi or Wapella. These were meant to be Native American words, although some of them have since turned out to be made up. Bertha Ehard was also a Charter member of the Mount Prospect Woman’s Club and a founder of the Mount Prospect Public Library. In 1945 she was elected a Library Director and Finance Chairman. She continued to serve as treasurer until 1963. She was a life member of the Chicago Art Institute and helped to organize the United Youth Fund Drive. Later in life a club for young women was named for her and the E-Hart Girls were born.

 

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in MP: Never Lived in Mount Prospect

Birth Date: November 29, 1837

Death Date: September 21,1916

Marriage: Married at least twice

Date: 1887 (Carlein), 1883 (Agnes)

Spouses: First Wife: Carlein Anna (Frey) Second Wife: Agnes (Milne)

Children: Grace, Hezekiah, Lydia, Ezra, Agnes, Evangeline, Ester, Paul, Minerva, Rena, Athena, Orpheus, Eliza

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:

Ezra Eggleston was the first developer in Mount Prospect; he was responsible for the name of the town. He purchased the land that is today downtown Mount Prospect in 1874 and on August 24th 1874 filed a plat map with the Name Mount Prospect. The name was to signify first that Mount Prospect sits on a glacier ridge and is therefore one of the highest points in Cook County and secondly that there were great prospects in the town. He built the first train station in Mount Prospect, although he did this without consulting the Chicago Northwestern Railroad, as he believed that if there was a train station the trains would stop. They did stop, however for the first few years Mount Prospect was simply a flag stop. Ezra believed that people would flock to the community since it was higher than much of Cook County, most of which was very low lying and periodically had problems with flooding and unhealthy stagnant water. He also thought that the access to the rail line would be a big draw. Unfortunately his calculations were off and he had very poor timing. At this time almost all of Illinois was within ten mile of a railroad, so this was not as much of a draw as he had hoped. He also put his development on the market three years after the Great Chicago Fire, when many people in the area were still recovering and rebuilding in the city, and a year after the start of the Panic of 1873, a recession know as the Great Depression until 1930. By 1882 Ezra was bankrupt and much of his holdings were sold off for past due tax payments. He made little or no money from the endeavor but he did name Mount Prospect and platted out the main triangle in downtown (although many of the streets were renamed in the Busse/Wille Re-subdivision of 1905). Little is know of Ezra Eggleston personally. He had been a merchant in Chicago and had lost quite a bit of money is the fire when his grain silos burnt. He was clearly an educated man and it has been claimed that he had a medical degree and that he personally delivered all of his thirteen children. After he left Mount Prospect, it is believed that he became a minister but his later whereabouts are unknown.

Does MPHS have photographs: No

Address in MP: 5 N. Wavery

Birth Date:                                       

Death Date: 1987

Marriage   Unknown

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:

Anton Dvylis was a local writer and community activist. As a senior citizen, this eastern European immigrant became a well known character around town through his column in local newspapers, his creative writing projects, and his work with local organizations, particularly those catering to senior citizens. One of his most interesting creative writing projects was a description of what he believed Mount Prospect will be like in the year 2076, which was written for a competition in 1976. The text of his essay is posted below, the original is on file at the Mount Prospect Historical Society.

 

WHAT WILL MY COMMUNITY BE LIKE IN THE YEAR 2076

By Anton J. Dvylis

This is 1976, the Bicentennial Year. It commemorates Uncle Sam’s 200th birthday. I am delighted to see that my community, Mount Prospect, is seriously involved in planning the most rousing celebration. As for myself, I feel fortunate for being at least a tiny part of these in honor of the greatest nation on earth.
Likewise, I consider it a blessing of being a resident of a community bearing a motto “Where friendliness is away of life”. I earnestly hope that by the year 2076 this motto will be deeply rooted in the hearts of sons and daughters of this community that it will develop into a full-blown “Brotherhood of Man,” with all prejudices, discriminations and inequities of whatever nature buried for ever into Vanishing past.
One of the outstanding characteristics of this Bicentennial Year has been an often heard question “What will my community be like in the year 2076?” Indeed, what will Mount Prospect be like in one hundred years from now?
According to one popular song, “What it will be, will be, the future is not for us to see.” However, you and I may brush aside this basic truth and do some speculating. We may cut our fancy loose and speculate without fear of being ridicules if our prediction came out wrong. For there and then neither you nor I will be around; nobody for that matter to call us crackpots.
Let me inject a little logic in this business of foretelling the future. Let’s hand our premise upon the basic facts that “The present, the today, is the product of the past, of yesterday; then the future will be, or must be, the product of the present, of today.” I think this puts us on the right track –more or less. Let’s start from the very beginning.
A century or so ago, Mount Prospect started as a tiny, sprout in the tangled wilderness, maybe as the Indian’s tepee or as a trapper’s hut. Through the decades that followed that tiny sprout grew in size, shedding off its primeval characteristics acquiring a progressive individuality, and in the end it emerged as a beautiful community of 1976.
What all this tells us? It testifies that the pioneers of Mount Prospect were hard working, ambitious and farsighted people. As a result of their toils and perseverance, today we are enjoying the products of their labors, of their accomplishments. What 1s there left us to do to make Mount Prospect a better community in 2076.
Let’s look around. Let’s walk down the streets of Mount Prospect. What do we find? What do we see?
The downtown area presents a variety of signs and sights. The village being nearly one hundred years old shows its senility in many places –many shabby structures, deteriorating under the weight of age. On the other hand, the imposing new bank building, the attractive Village Hall, the elegant new library and Post Office buildings still under construction are breathing with youth. They are the indicators of our communities’ leadership to keep Mount Prospect vibrant and growing. And we have the downtown renovation commission’s a promise that dramatic modernization is in its blueprints.
Further south we find the Weller Creek which, with its, primeval characteristics is still marring the neighborhood. This, too, needs attention of our leadership, and it will get it when our politicians come to a meeting or minds.
I have a feeling that Mt. Prospect in the year 2076 will be exotically different from what it is today. I am hopeful that out schools will, in coming decades, turn out a few geniuses who will revolutionize the life in all areas in this community.
Judging by its past, Mt. Prospect will continue to grow in population, in culture and otherwise. With its boundaries fixed as of now, the expansion by annexation is no longer possible. The community will have to grow from within. This means that era of single family homes is nearing the end, and the apartment complexes are underway. The high rises and skyscrapers will be common sights long before the year 2076 rings in.
Transportation and pollution are the t’i1ne that affect our environment at its very roots. Increased population will call for increased transportation, and more autos on our streets will produce more pollution. And our nearness to O’Hare Airfield will continue to confound our community’s problem. It is said that “Necessity is the mother of invention.” So we may hopefully look forward to the era of electrically drawn vehicles and perhaps to an entirely new type of transportation.
With the increase of population, a demand for more services from the community administration will also increase. This will lead to higher taxes. The inflation will remain with us forever to come. Consequently, the value of dollar will continue to slide down and the prices of goods and services to go up and up. More people will be dropping under poverty line. To alleviate this unpleasant situation, the federal government will interfere more and more in our daily lives.
As a consequence, I foresee that by the year 2076 about two-thirds of our community’s population would be receiving government subsidies of one kind or another. Unless a super-genius would come around and reverse the trend.
As for myself I shall leave complex troubles and problems to the leaders of the future generations to wrestle with. I shall continue to live the rest of my lifetime to the best of my ability to contribute whatever I can, or be able to, to the betterment of this community, my Mount Prospect. After me –after all of us –there will come around men and women with brighter minds to solve the arising problems.

The End