Lost Towns of Illinois - Byrneville, Illinois.

A portion of what is now a part of the Chicago suburb of Burr Ridge (on the DuPage County side of Burr Ridge), was known for a time as Byrneville, Illinois.

In the early 1900s, the unincorporated area now known as Palisades was called Byrneville in deference to the Byrneville Railroad Station. The Byrneville Railroad Station was located at the south end of Madison Street. The station was an important commercial site for the area’s dairy farmers who relied on the train to transport their goods to markets in other suburbs and Chicago proper.

Burr Ridge Middle School traces its heritage to the one-room schoolhouse originally known as Byrneville School. Byrneville School was later named Palisades School. In 1910, the community known as Byrneville built a one-room schoolhouse to save their children from a three-mile walk to Cass School. Anne M. Jeans was the first teacher, and she remained the sole teacher until 1947. Ms. Jeans renamed the school "Palisades" to reflect the rolling hills.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Removal of the "African Dip" dunk tank game from Riverview Amusement Park in Chicago, Illinois.

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In historical writing and analysis, PRESENTISM introduces present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Presentism is a form of cultural bias that creates a distorted understanding of the subject matter. Reading modern notions of morality into the past is committing the error of presentism. Historical accounts are written by people and can be slanted, so I try my hardest to present fact-based and well-researched articles.

Facts don't require one's approval or acceptance.

I present [PG-13] articles without regard to race, color, political party, or religious beliefs, including Atheism, national origin, citizenship status, gender, LGBTQ+ status, disability, military status, or educational level. What I present are facts — NOT Alternative Facts — about the subject. You won't find articles or readers' comments that spread rumors, lies, hateful statements, and people instigating arguments or fights.

FOR HISTORICAL CLARITY

When I write about the INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, I follow this historical terminology:

• The use of old commonly used terms, disrespectful today, i.e., REDMAN or REDMEN, SAVAGES, and HALF-BREED are explained in this article.

Writing about AFRICAN-AMERICAN history, I follow these race terms:

• "NEGRO" was the term used until the mid-1960s.
• "BLACK" started being used in the mid-1960s.
• "AFRICAN-AMERICAN" [Afro-American] began usage in the late 1980s.

— PLEASE PRACTICE HISTORICISM —

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST IN ITS OWN CONTEXT.

 

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Nationally, in August of 1963, over 200,000 blacks and whites had marched on Washington, D.C., and heard Martin Luther King, Jr.'s stirring "I Have a Dream" speech. President John F. Kennedy promised sweeping new civil rights legislation but was assassinated in Dallas that November. The new president, Lyndon Johnson, however, made good on Kennedy's promise; the most comprehensive civil rights act in U.S. history was pushed through Congress in the first half of 1964.

Riverview Amusement Park, Chicago, Illinois.

Locally, 1963 had been the year the civil rights movement came home to Chicago. Independent black aldermanic candidates challenged the Daley machine in the February elections. The Mayor himself was booed off the stage at an NAACP rally in Grant Park. A "brush-fire" of sit-in demonstrations erupted at South Side classrooms in protest of school segregation, culminating in a one-day school boycott, when virtually every black student in the system stayed home and thousands of protesters marched on City Hall.

These events had particular resonance at Riverview. Six days after the start of the 1964 season, Chicago Daily News columnist Mike Royko reported that—after 55 years—"The Dip" game had been removed from the park. [Daily News, 5/21/64]

Forest Park Amusement Park, Forest Park, Illinois.

This sideshow dunk tank game was once reportedly called, “Dunk the N***er,” later “The African Dip,” and finally “The Dip.” The black men would tease, provoke and otherwise try to disrupt the pitcher’s aim. The Blacks were careful not to say anything too insulting, lest they stir up the racism (and provoke violence) that was at the heart of the game. But they would and could get away with belittling their adversaries’ athletic skill or throwing ability in a way that was amusing. If their comments (i.e. If you were heavy, they’d call you "meatball." If you were with a girl, they might have said something like, "Hey fella, that ain’t the same girl you were with yesterday!") distracted the player, got them to laugh, or the crowd to laugh at the player, or caused the hurler to lose concentration, chances were the player would pony-up more money for another go at the game.

Park publicist Dorothy Strong told Royko: "...the man who had that concession was elderly. He just wanted to give it up and retire. He said he had had it and was tired. I think he said something about going to Florida." But Royko found the concessionaire, George F. Starr, at home in suburban Algonquin, and Starr said that Riverview had asked him to take out the Dip. "They were afraid of a boycott—afraid we'd have trouble—They claim they were getting letters from people who objected to the game." (In later years, this would be exaggerated into one of the major 'old wives' tales' of Riverview lore; that there were actual picket lines—organized by the NAACP, no less—protesting at the park till the Dip was removed. Nothing of the sort ever happened.)

To the end, Starr—whose father-in-law, Adolph Doerr, had started the concession at Riverview in 1909—didn't see anything wrong with the game, even claiming it was 'integrated': "We had white men working the counter—and colored boys working in the traps." When asked by Royko why he didn't fully integrate the Dips, using black and white men in the three cages, Starr replied he would have, but had only one dressing room. "You can't have whites and Negroes using the same dressing room," he said.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Wilkening Creamery, Schaumburg, Illinois.

The Wilkening Creamery was on the corner of Schaumburg and Plum Grove Roads on the northwest side of Salt Creek where East Schaumburg Road crosses. There is still a bridge there today. The owners are listed as Ludwig Wilkening aka Louis H. Wilkening (Father) and his son, Conrad Friedrich Wilhelm Wilkening aka William Carl.

The earliest report of the Wilkening Creamery is listed in the Illinois State Dairymen’s Association Annual Report of 1898 and in the National Creamery Buttermaker’s Association Report of the Annual Meeting for the same year. A creamery owned by L. Wilkening in Roselle, DuPage County, is noted in both publications. In the Dairymen’s report there are other listings for Schaumburg so can we assume he started his business in Roselle. The fact that there is no Wilkening on the corner of Schaumburg and Plum Grove Roads on any of the maps prior to the 1901-1906 map seems to confirm this.

However, given the fact that there was much blurring of the lines between Roselle and Schaumburg at the time, and that the maps could be inconsistent in their timing did Roselle mean Schaumburg? At the turn of the century, Schaumburg was merely a crossroads and the citizens of the township frequently attached their names to Roselle, Palatine, Elk Grove, Ontarioville, etc. The assumption could be made that Mr. Wilkening’s creamery was in Schaumburg and he was calling it Roselle because that was the nearest town.

Another bit of evidence that seems to suggest his business was always located in Schaumburg is this cover of a farmer’s ledger that actually advertises the creamery in 1900 in Schaumburg.

In Marilyn Lind’s Genesis of A Township, she also makes mention of Louis Wilkening’s creamery bringing business to the area in 1901. And, it is the 1901-1906 map that confirms that L. Wilkening owned property on both sides of Schaumburg Road at Plum Grove.

Details of the creamery really get interesting, though, in the Schaumburg columns of two Cook County Herald articles from 1905. On September 15, 1905, there is this mention: “L. Wilkining’s artesian creamery has been nicely painted a rich yellow.” A week later, the same paper states in their September 22, 1905 issue, “Aug. Kelem has finished painting L. Wilkening’s Artesian Creamery which now looks handsome in artistic gray with white shutters.” So, was the yellow a primer paint or was the newspaper confused with another creamery?

Then, on November 24, “Helper in Creamery wanted. Apply to W.C. Wilkening at Artesian Creamery, Schaumburg, address R.F.D. No. 1, Palatine.” Why an artesian creamery? The Wilkening property was very close to what is now the Spring Valley Nature Sanctuary. Spring Valley is thus named because of the number of artesian springs that existed in the area for many years prior to development and the gravel pits that were dug to the south. (Spring Valley Nature Center and Volkening Heritage Farm: A Timeline on STDL Local History Digital Archive) The water table was always known to be quite high for this area and is, in fact, discussed in the oral history with Mary Lou (Link) Reynolds whose family lived on the nearby Redeker farm from the 1930s forward.

The water from the artesian springs was ideal for cooling the milk that the local farmers brought to the creamery. The milk had to be kept at a cool temperature in order for it to be processed into butter and/or shipped to a larger facility.

These articles are followed by a mention in the April 20, 1906 column, “Louis Wilkening says as soon as Henry Quindel gets the Elk Grove and Hanover Electric R.R. built through Schaumburg he will change his artesian creamery into a bottling factory as he can make more money selling pure mineral water from his unfailing artesian spring than any creamery. There will be less work and greater profit.”

Although this railway never came to fruition - and neither did the bottling factory - the creamery continued to operate because W.C. Wilkening of Schaumberg is mentioned in the 1908 Illinois State Dairymen’s Association Annual Report of 1908 and L. Wilkening is listed as the name of a creamery in Schaumberg, Cook County, in the Illinois Food Commissioner’s Report of 1911.

What happened to the building and the business after that is unknown. According to an account by Herman Redeker who lived across Schaumburg Road on the Spring Valley property, the building was destroyed by fire around 1919.

Although there was no mention of a fire in the Cook County Herald, it is interesting to note this. In the 1915 and 1917 Annual Report of the Illinois Public Utilities Commission, W.C. Wilkening is listed as the Secretary, Treasurer, Chief Engineer, and General Superintendent of the Cherry Valley, Illinois Light and Power Company that was organized on October 1, 1914.

My assumption is W.C. left the area following the burning of the creamery or he decided to move on and strike out on his own. In either case, the Wilkening Artesian Creamery seems to have come and gone in the space of twenty years. We are fortunate to be left with a partial photo—thanks to a new bridge and a local photographer who was there to note the occasion.

By Jane Rozek, Schaumburg Township District Library.

Edited by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.