Elliott's Amusement Park was on the corner of Lincoln Highway and Olympian Way. Four hundred acres were purchased by James Elliott. He was in the lumber business and this was public timber. Loads were taken by horses to the Illinois Central Railroad for shipping. The primary trees were not cut down, only the secondary ones. He planted a row of evergreens along the highway (Route 30). These are all gone, but the Arbor Vitae trees are still there and are over 150 years old.
From 1890 to 1913, Moses and Freeman Elliott operated an amusement park, which included a merry-go-round with wooden horses, dance pavilion with a wooden floor (also used for roller skating), a polka band, miniature golf course, restaurant, ice cream tent, beer garden, horseshoes, a 30 count deer farm and a very large picnic grove. There were wagon races in the open areas. To attract children, Elliott’s Park had an animal enclosure with goats, chickens, etc..
Crowds of up to 30,000 people rode special Illinois Central trains from Chicago on the weekends to attend gatherings for various union organizations, including the Swedish-American union and the Chicago Scottish union. Kids got a free banana from the IC. There were four special picnic trains a day on the Illinois Central for special events and an open area for group meetings and forums.
There was a gateway entrance to the park with a bridge over the ravine to gain admission. There were little paths that were used by the railroad leading to the park. The park employed about 20 people, for Matteson that was a lot. Farmers came in to trade and barter. Grain was among the items traded.
Beer was bought in kegs. People would come over and buy a whole barrel of beer. The park served beer in violet glass mugs, which was evidently expensive for the area, so people would leave the park to go to the local tavern, Dettmering's, to get their tin containers (1 pt., with a handle) filled with beer and go back to Elliott’s Park. The violet beer mugs used at the park were molded with a raised bottom. The beer sold for 5¢ from 1890-1913. This was at a time when a man earned 10¢ an hour for a 10-hour workday.
A log cabin was built for ice fishing and ice skating in the winters.
Taxi service was operated from the park taking the park visitors by wagons into the Matteson business district patronizing local stores, adding to Matteson’s prosperity. The park was a major source of employment for the local residents on Matteson at the time.
The Elliott’s raised horses. There was a considerable fire which destroyed the stables and killed many horses.
James Elliott had the Illinois State Legislature designate part of the Elliott property as a cemetery. The Lutheran Cemetery was also a part of the Elliott property. Six generations of Elliotts are buried in the cemetery. According to family member Dana Elliott, the only non-family person buried in the cemetery was a Negro Union soldier. He happened upon the Elliott farm as he walked northward from the war looking for work. The Elliott’s hired him and he worked there for many years. He was treated as part of the family. When he died, Mrs. Elliott wanted him to be buried in the family cemetery, but all the other family members objected. He is buried there but does not have a headstone. A peony bush was planted to mark his gravesite.
Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.
*A special thanks to the Matteson Historical Society.
The area began as a settlement. Sycamore, Illinois, was incorporated as a village in 1858. Electric Park Corners (aka Electric Park) was developed at 1325 South Old Route 23 (1325 South Dekalb Avenue, today) at South Peace Road.
The name comes from the first electric amusement center that this area had. Henry Groves was the proprietor, and his son, George Groves, recalls some memories.
If you turn off the highway, the old settlement corner can still be seen. Take the first road to the right, Old Route 23, until it suddenly turns south. You've found the Electric Park Corner Settlement.
The old electric trolley line, Electric Traction Company, connecting Sycamore and DeKalb encouraged the venture to stimulate business, even though the Park survived the trolley. At one time, the company advertised that you could leave DeKalb on the eight o'clock car in the evening and arrive at Electric Park to attend a vaudeville and motion picture show at the theatre at 8:15 PM and the total cost, including a reserved theater seat cost 25¢. The Park had a huge dance pavilion, a baseball diamond, a theater, and other attractions.
The ball diamond was said to be one of the best in the area. In the first decade of the century, even the Chicago White Sox came to play an exhibition game here. The famous Ed Walsh pitched. The baseball teams which used the diamond there had various names. The first was Grove's Colts. Another was called the Bug Six, named after a cereal factory that sponsored the team.
Some residents may still remember one of the interesting advertisements painted on the east end of one of the barns at the Park. It was painted by a man name Cheetham. Two men were on the scene. One of the men said, "Have a cigar, my dear Alphonso." The other replied, "Certainly, if it's Bell of Sycamore." The latter referred to a cigar manufactured in Sycamore long ago.
Groves says he was around six or seven when the Park started. The American Legion used to sponsor huge picnics on Independence Day, attracting 10,000 to 15,000 people. Labor Day was another important weekend.
Organizations used to hold big parties and picnics at the Park. C.H. Palmer had his own orchestra (he also played the trumpet and violin), which provided music for dances at the pavilion at Electric Park Corner. Organizations like the "Odd Fellows" would hold picnics at Electric Park Corners as a fundraiser.
Groves remembers one Labor Day in 1910 or 1912 when a man was killed when jumping from a balloon. His parachute failed to open. His falling body missed some stacks of oat bundles, which might have saved his life. That was the last of numerous balloon releases. Those were in the days before helium and hydrogen had been discovered. They used to get the balloons in the air with fire and gas. Groves said that a tunnel was dug from the balloon to a fire, on which gas was poured. The hot air and gas flowed through the tunnel and into the balloons as a hundred men held on to the ropes until the jumper was in his basket and ready to go. The balloons would soar as high as 1,000 feet before the jumpers parachuted.
The original dance pavilion, 100 by 300-foot, at the Park burned down in the 1920s. It was rebuilt with a cement floor and then rebuilt by a man named Murphy, but when the last one built finally burned down in the early 1930s, that was the end of the amusement center.
Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
Dreamland Amusement Park was established in 1905 by the Decatur Amusement Company with Fred Given appointed as manager. $40,000 was raised by a group of citizens. Ten acres were bought from E. S. Baker which were located on the Streetcar and Interurban lines, adjacent to Decatur, a city of 30,000.
The park included an artificial lake and a pumping station, a roller rink, a roller coaster, vaudeville theater, dance hall, merry-go-round, boating, a bathhouse and refreshment stand. For seven years the park was open, it never made a profit.
Dreamland Amusement Park was auctioned off on Tuesday, February 20, 1912, at the courthouse in Decatur, Illinois, and all items, which included an Edison picture machine, an organ, roller skates, lawn swings, park benches, chairs, and pool tables, sold in an auction. The city bought the property in 1919 for $15,000 ($221,000 today) and added it to Fairview Park.
Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.
