People of Mount Prospect

Does MPHS have photographs: No

Address in Mount Prospect: 15 S. George Street

Birth Date: Circa 1815

Death Date: Circa 1875

Marriage
Date: Unknown

Spouse: Ann

Children: Peter, William, James, Joseph, Michael, Edward, and Mary Ann

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments

The oldest house in Mount Prospect originally belonged to Owen Rooney. It has been suggested that his son, William may have been the original builder but that is not born out by Federal Census data. William may have also owned farm land in Mount Prospect but it is not clear. It is it also not clear exactly when the house was built. Some people have made statements that it was built as far back as 1832, although that is not consistent with the historical context. There was no real settlement in the area before the conclusion of Black Hawk’s War and the treaty of 1833. As well, Owen Rooney was born in Ireland and would have been about 16 or 17 in 1832, a little young to have immigrated across the Atlantic and have bought a farm and built a house. This would have preceded the large scale Irish immigration to the United States by about 14 years. There are records of Owen Rooney being in Wisconsin in 1846. In 1847 there is a record of him buying 160 acres of land in Elk Grove Township, but the first record we have of him living in Elk Grove Township is not until the 1860 Census. He most likely built his house in the early 1850s. By then there would have been a railroad going through the area, although there was no station in Mount Prospect, and there would have been a lumber mill that could have provided the wood needed to build a frame house. What is known is that most of the area subdivided by Ezra Eggleston in 1874 had been the Rooney farm, so most of downtown was originally his farm. It is also not clear when Owen Rooney died, although he is listed in the 1870 Census in Elk Grove and is not listed in the 1880, although his wife and most of his family is, although no longer in Elk Grove.

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in Mount Prospect: 1 S. Owen

Birth Date: 1889

Death Date:

Marriage
Date: 1915

Spouse: Anna Meyer

Children: Three children

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments

John Pohlman was born in Mount Prospect in 1889. He had fifteen siblings and his family therefore made up a large percentage of Mount Prospect’s population, which was still fewer than 100. At the age of 6, John Pohlman became one of the first 5 students to attend the Central School, Mount Prospect’s first school. At 20 he became the Station Master for the Chicago Northwestern Railroad in Mount Prospect. He worked in the Mount Prospect train station for the next 45 years. He was one of the organizers of the Mount Prospect Improvement Association and then was later one of the first Board of Trustees. He was also a charter member of Saint Paul Lutheran Church and the Mount Prospect Volunteer Fire Department. Below is a selection of an oral history of John Pohlman.

 

John W. Pohlman; Interviewed by Delores Hough; November 24, 1969

Complete transcript available at the Mount Prospect Public Library.

JP: …we had one comical conductor on the Northwestern years and years back, and right in back of Kruse’s there was a farmer there who worked that land, and he had crashed at a big straw stack out there, and he was a comedian, you might call him, and called it “Monstrawstack,” and that name carried on for years. I remember it when I started, way back, people would say, “Oh, you’re working down at Monstrawstack.” “Where do you get that?” I knew it was called that, but out-of-town people would call it “Monstrawstack.” “That’s where you work.” At the time of my beginning at the railroad there was not much of Mount Prospect.

DH: What year did you start on the railroad?

JP: I started in ninth month, the tenth, 1910. Is there anybody old enough to remember?

DH: How many trains did you have a day, going each way?

JP: Well, now, I think we had three in the forenoon and one around three-thirty, and then again about six-thirty. That was last. If you got hung up on the other end, you’d do like this. Of course, in those days you would never get home.

JP: Yes, well, he’s the man who put me to work. He was superintendent for this division at the time when I started. When I walked in there looking for a job, he said, “Well, what can you do? Can you push a pencil?” I said, “Well, I think I can.” “What education did you have?” Well, I had four months of business college outside of fourth grade. Well, we had no grade — we had fourth reader. What did they call them? Fourth readers.

DH: That probably was beyond fourth grade, though.

JP: Oh, yes. That was beyond that, of course. In those days it was reading, arithmetic, geography and history. That’s all we…

DH: How much of that did you study in German _________ high school?

JP: In German?

DH: Yes.

JP: One September to the other September, and from September to Easter when I was confirmed — a year and a half.

DH: And everything was German?

JP: Everything was German — no, they had an English reader then.

DH: Do you remember the time…the big snowstorm?

JP: That was in the year of 1917 and 1918. Do I remember it? Yes. I’ll tell you a little story about that, how people lived together in Mount Prospect, the few we had. The freight handlers — now, Charlie Mackleburg, who lives on Nolan Street near me there, he was one of the boys who was working freight, as was his father and so forth, and a couple of other fellows, and no train came. No train coming. Old Fred Mackleburg said to me, “John, the least you could do is furnish us with a deck of cards and a case of beer.” I’ll never forget it. So what did the guys do, like Herman Haas who lives on Mount Prospect yet — he was one, well, he was a linotype man _________ printing _________, so he got the idea, and he said, “Well, let’s all chip in a quarter.” There was Charlie Mackleburg and Louie Mackleburg, who has passed away, and I don’t know who the other one was, but three of them. They went across to Kruse’s and told them the story of what they wanted in there, and old Clarence opened up and gave them a deck of cards and a case of beer, and then he threw in a bottle of whiskey on top of it. About two o’clock in the afternoon, no train around yet. The beer was gone and whiskey was gone, so old Fred Mackleburg said, “Well, boys, I don’t think we have to wait for the train now anymore, and he was feeling his — and he said, “I’m going home.” And there was no train. I had mail hanging on the post. And there was no telephone.

Does MPHS have photographs: No

Address in Mount Prospect: 716 S. Emerson

Birth Date: Circa 1892

Death Date: December 25, 1959

Marriage
Date: Unknown

Spouse: Stanley Pierce was a Widower

Children: No

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments

Stanley Pierce was described by his neighbors as a nice man, who kept to himself and did not seem to have many close friends. He drove a sports car but tended to wear old clothes and did not seem to have a lot of money. Pierce died on Christmas Day in 1959 and from then on all of his neighbor’s assumptions were turned on their heads. Pierce died with $1200 in his pocket, which in 1959 would have bought a car. Later, a representative from Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust was going through his belongings and found the combination to a safe. Inside the safe was a treasure map that gave the location of over 6,000 $20 double eagle gold pieces in three separate stashes under small fruit trees in his back yard. The gold that was recovered had a face value of $120,000 but may have been worth over $250,000. The collection was said to have weighed over 400 pounds. It was also learned that Pierce had worked as an investment banker and had left his Alma Mata, the University of Chicago, one million dollars in his will.

 

Does MPHS have photographs: Yes

Address in Mount Prospect: 411 S. I-Oka

Birth Date: Unknown

Death Date: Unknown

Marriage
Date: Unknown

Spouse: Hester Pendelton

Children: David and Thomas

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments

Maurice Pendelton was the Mayor of Mount Prospect through the start of the huge post war boom in suburban construction. When he came into office World War II was just coming to an end. From there he watched as development in the area went from a slow trickle to tidal wave. Professionally, Pendelton worked as a publisher. He owned his own publishing business in Chicago, which specialized in printing lumber and wood working trade journals. He took this experience and used it to print the Prospector, Mount Prospect’s first newspaper.

Does MPHS have photographs: Assorted Images

Address in Mount Prospect:

Birth Date: October 25, 1901

Death Date: May 1963

Marriage: No

Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments

Rev. Thomas O’Brien was the founding priest for Saint Raymond’s Church. He was ordained in 1932 at Saint Mary of the Lake Seminary. He spent seven years as an assistant at Saint Thomas the Apostle parish in Chicago and then ten years as the Chaplain at Saint Theresa Hospital in Waukegan. In 1949 he was assigned to Saint Raymond’s and sent to organize the congregation and build the church facilities. This was the first Catholic Church in Mount Prospect, and once it had a priest, it grew very rapidly. It was first started in the late 1940s when the Catholic Women’s Club began working to bring a Catholic parish to the community. After years of work, in 1949 Father O’Brien arrived and gave the first mass in the basement of the Central School. The parish grew quickly and opened the doors to its eight room school in 1954. The school was so popular by the end of the decade that they had to have two schedules for the students, one that came in the morning and one that came in the afternoon. The school has been significantly enlarged and continues to be popular in the community.