People of Mount Prospect

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in MP:                                 

Birth Date:                                       

Death Date:                                               

Marriage
Date:                                                
Spouse:                                
Children:         

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:

Daniel Congreve was Mayor of Mount Prospect from 1965 to 1969. He was a “Back to Basics” kind of Mayor. He ran on a platform of returning to the traditional values of the community and campaigned by riding around town in a horse drawn wagon. He is the only Mayor who left office with the boundaries of Mount Prospect unchanged, as the community did not expand at all during his administration. Part of the reason for this was that he spent much of his time in office involved in legal battles with Salvatore DiMucci, a regional developer. While he was in office, both his administration and the country as a whole were caught up in turbulence and social unrest.

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in MP:  202 N. Maple

Birth Date: May 3, 1928

Death Date: May 3, 1996

Marriage
Date: December 1, 1951
Spouse: Evelyn Oscarson

 Children: Alan, David

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:

Paul Carlstedt was involved in many aspects of community and social life in Mount Prospect. He grew up in Chicago and later served in the Korean War. In 1958 he moved to Mount Prospect and soon became involved with a number of different organizations. He was a founding member of the Grace Lutheran Church and an active member of the Kiwanis, United Way, Mount Prospect Post Office Advisory Committee, Mount Prospect Police Pension Fund, and Northwest Community Services. He was also the Treasurer and a Board Member of the Mount Prospect Historical Society for many years.

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in MP: 202 N. Maple

Birth Date: November 21, 1927

Death Date: November 28, 2001

Marriage
Date: December 1, 1951
Spouse: Paul Carlstedt

Children: Alan, David

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:

Evie Carlstedt was a long time resident of Mount Prospect who dedicated herself to helping community groups. She was a founding member of Grace Lutheran Church and volunteered with the Mount Prospect Historical Society for decades. She was originally the child of Swedish immigrants who lived in Chicago. Keeping in touch with her roots, she took a cruise to Sweden and on the boat met her future husband. They both lived in Chicago, so when they got back they were married. In 1959 they moved to Mount Prospect.

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in MP: Currently stands at 808 and 804 E. Central, but was originally on Busse and Main

Birth Date:  January 27, 1864

Death Date: July 16, 1955

Marriage
Date: 1885 to Sophia Bartels (b 3/28/1866 d 2/20/1894)
8/09/1894 to Dina Busse (b 1/29/1873 d 10/14/1941)

Spouse: See above

Children: William Busse Jr, Martha, Mathilde, Albert, Sophie (with Sophia) Helen, Fredrick (with Dina)

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:

William Busse was probably the most influential person in Mount Prospect’s development. He was responsible for the construction of the Central School, Mount Prospect’s first public school; the founding of the Mount Prospect State Bank, Busse Buick, Busse Biermann Hardware, and the laying of Northwest Highway, the road that put Mount Prospect on the map. William Busse was the first Mayor of Mount Prospect; he was also a Cook County Commissioner and he used his political connections and his business sense to bring a lot of development into Mount Prospect. He was the founder and president of the Mount Prospect State Bank, which was the bank that made most of the loans to the home buyers who built Mount Prospect.

William started out in life working on his family farm. He then began working in a local creamery until 1890, when, at the age of 26, he was offered a position as a Deputy Sheriff. From here he became increasingly involved in political and business circles.

In 1911, William Busse founded the Mount Prospect State Bank and used it as the financial backbone for his developments. The Mount Prospect State Bank started out in a tiny corner building and continued to serve the community from this modest location through WWI. Then, in 1928 at the height of the boom of the 1920s, the bank moved to a larger building a block north at 2 W. Busse. This building was originally the home of Busse Buick. In this location the bank weathered the Great Depression of the 1930s and was one of very few financial institutions to go through the depression with uninterrupted service. During this time many banks went out of business. In 1933, shortly after his inauguration, President F. D. Roosevelt ordered all banks in America to close and work out their books. The Mount Prospect State Bank closed its doors for the first time. However, it was one of the first Banks in Illinois to reopen in a time when only about ten percent of the areas banks ever reopened. The bank then worked through the second World War. Following W.W.II, Mount Prospect went into its largest building boom ever and the State bank was here to finance it. Between 1950 and 1960 Mount Prospect’ s population grew almost 500%. In 1967 the Mount Prospect State Bank moved again. They built the building that is now the Mount Prospect Village Hall. They continued to lend money and act as the community’s largest saving bank through the suburbanization of the 1960s. In 1975 they moved again to the building that is today known as the Bank One Building. There, they eventually merged with the First Chicago Bank and then later BankOne.

The influence of William Busse can still be seen all around downtown Mount Prospect. In the center of town, near the intersection of Busse and Main there are two very similar buildings, one of which has Busse written in the chimney. William Busse built these two building at the same time. The buildings were constructed between 1926 and 1927 and by the time they were completed, were a dominant part of downtown Mount Prospect. The building on the corner of Busse Avenue and Main Street, which is Baby Lou’s Pizza today, was built in 1912 and was the home of William Busse’ hardware store. The building was also the home of Busse Buick, the first car dealership in Mount Prospect. The story of the birth of Busse Buick starts in 1908. In that year William Busse was walking along Michigan Ave in Chicago with a business associate when they passes a Buick dealership and were both fascinated by the car they saw in the window. They were a little cautious but agreed to go into it together and bought a car. William Busse enjoyed the car and two years later upgraded to a larger engine car and was so impressed that he contacted the manufacturer and offered to become a local agent. He was told that dealers in Chicago had an agreement covering all of Cook County, so it was not possible. Two years later when he was finishing the roof of this building, a stranger climbed up the ladder and asked to speak to William Busse. He explained that he was a Buick representative and had come to offer Busse a charter for a local agency. Busse jumped at the chance and signed the papers while still on the roof and Busse Buick was born.

The influence of William Busse can also be seen out side of downtown. You just have to go down Central Ave and look for his houses. Both of his houses were originally located on Busse Ave between Main and Emerson. However, his first home in Mount Prospect was moved twice. The building originally stood at the corner of Main street and Busse Ave but it was moved in the late 1940s to Emerson Street to make room for the construction of Meeske’s Market. Then in October of 1958, both of William Busse’s houses were moved out of downtown to Central Ave, where they still stand.William Busse’s first house was a beautiful white frame building with decorative wroght iron work along the roof line. With a sunken garden behind the house and a formal parlor, this house was certainly the most impressive space in Mount Prospect. It was used for weddings in the community, as it was the most formal space. As Commissioner Busse was the founder of a bank and an elected official it was important for him to have an appropriate space for entertaining. As Busse grew older and his children moved out, he felt he didn’t need such an elaborate building anymore, so he built his second home and gave the first to his oldest son, William Busse Jr. Eventually, the development that William Busse had championed caught up with his houses, as downtown expanded and there was a need for the space. Both houses were moved and the third home of the Mount Prospect State Bank, which later became Village Hall, was built in their space.

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in MP: 

Birth Date:  November 4, 1837

Death Date: December 19, 1903

Marriage
Date: April 16, 1863
Spouse:  Christine Kirchoff

Children: William, Johanna, Sophia, Edward, George, Louis, August, Christine, Ernst

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:

Louis Busse was born in Hanover, a Germanic State, and immigrated with his family to America at the age of eleven. Arriving at the young and impressionable age of 11, he took on the ways of America and ended leaving a lasting mark on the community. Louis was the first of the Busse family to leave the farms and look for other work. He started a creamery and general store and later went on to sell farm implements. While he remained involved in the small community formed around Saint John Lutheran Church, in fact serving as a trustee of the church for quite some time, he also was the first Busse to get involved in the larger political arena. He was a director of Public School District 56 and a Highway Commissioner in Elk Grove for many years. Because of his civic involvement, Busse Road was named for him.

In 1863, at the age of 26 he married the 16 year old Christine Kirchhoff, a member of one of the other prominent German families in the fledgling community. Christine Kirchhoff was the daughter of August Wilhelm Kirchhoff, who was born in Hanover and had immigrated to America with his parents; Johan Heirich Jurgen Christoph Kirchhoff (b. 2/7/1795 d. 4/3/1870) and Christine Marie Pfingsten Kirchhoff (b.2/20/1801 d. 8/14/1880). Christine Kirchhoff’s father purchased a farm in Mount Prospect and was an early member of Saint John Lutheran Church. He was unfortunately “killed by the cars” in Chicago, meaning he was run over by a train. His son William took over the family farm.

One of the greatest marks left by Louis and Christine were in their children, they were the parents of such notable people as County Commissioner William Busse, first Mayor of Mount Prospect and important businessman; George Busse, founder of the Busse Realty and major developer; and Louis Busse, founder of Busse Flowers.