All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, at least according to myth. But for a number of Glencoe entrepreneurs, play was their work and play made them successful businessmen.

At least three different toy company manufacturers lived in Glencoe and affected not only the Village and its children, but children around the world. Tinkertoys, alphabet blocks and various board and card games all were originated by men who lived in Glencoe but whose reputations and influence went worldwide.

Some people may think playing with toys ends with childhood. But toys actually are important into adulthood – they’re timeless and treasured. They often link to important memories in our lives. Toys help children discover the world around them. Blocks, for only one example, help babies learn fine motor skills, how to count and colors.

The first entrepreneur came to Glencoe late in his life, moving north from Evanston. Charles Pajeau was a stone mason, and in some histories he is given credit for proposing the idea for Tinker Toys. In other histories, he and his friend Chicago Board of Trade trader Robert Pettit, are both listed. The idea, however, was Mr. Pajeau’s; he created the first Tinkertoy set in his Evanston garage. In 1913, Messrs. Pajeau and Pettit formed The Toy Tinkers Company.  Joining them was Gordon Tinker, also of Evanston.

Tinkertoys, originally called Tinkertoy Construction Sets, were packaged in a unique, circular mail tube-like package, and consisted of basic wooden parts to be used in a variety of three dimensional abstract ways. There were spools with eight holes around the edge and one hole through the center to fit quarter-inch diameter rods of different lengths. Mr. Pajeau designed the toy after seeing children play with sticks and empty spools of thread.

The duo looked at the new toy as something that would allow and inspire children to use their imagination. While at first this did not go well, a year or two after its 1914 introduction over a million were sold. At least one source credits the marketing plan for the product. The company hired midgets, dressed them as elves and had the “elves” play with Tinkertoys in the window of a downtown Chicago department story. Sales took off after that.

The main manufacturing location was a 65,000 square foot four-story plant on Ridge Avenue in Evanston. But as of 1925, Mr. Pajeau moved to Glencoe. He and his family lived at 410 Greenleaf. Tinkertoys was entered into the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York, in 1998. Today, Hasbro owns the Tinkertoy brand.

Another pair of entrepreneurs have even deeper roots in Glencoe. Harold Ellis and Sam Goss, Jr., brothers-in-law, together created Halsam (Hal+Sam) Products Co. They were the creators of embossed ABC blocks for children.  The Goss family lived in Chicago but moved to Glencoe no later than 1910 and lived at 503 Longwood through at least 1940. Samuel George Goss (Sr.) together with his brother Frederick, founded the original Goss Printing Press Co., in Chicago in 1885. The two brothers had invented the rotary printing press. The company manufactured printing presses.

After World War I, when Samuel Goss, Jr. approached his father about entering the printing business, Senior persuaded his son to go into some other type of work. Junior decided on manufacturing wood toys.

Junior’s sister Hazel had married Harold Elliott and since the two got along well, the brothers-in-law went into business together. Sam and Hal bought a Michigan woodworking company that already was making wood blocks and the rest is history for Halsam Products Co., officially founded in 1917.

The two manufactured the toys at a factory on Ravenswood Ave. on the north side of Chicago. The duo made a special block embossing machine for both blocks and dominos. The machines utilized the same technology as the rotary printing press. The two quickly dominated the block and domino markets.

Halsam was inventive in their use of automation. Machines originally used for dominoes, for example, were repurposed for something called American Bricks – similar to John Lloyd Wright’s Lincoln Logs. Using the term American logs boosted Halsam’s sales, particularly in the American south.

Halsam was an industry leader, a founding member of the industry group, Toy Manufacturers of America. They were one of the first toy companies to license Disney characters in the late 1920s.In 1962, Halsam was purchased by Playskool. Very quickly thereafter, Playskool was purchased by the Milton Bradley Co., which in turn, was sold to Hasbro, Inc. – ironically the same company that today owns Tinkertoys.

Harold Hirsch Elliot and his wife Hazel lived at 670 Longwood, in Glencoe, from at least 1929 to about 1942, and also owned a home in Winter Park FL where they lived through the 1930s. Their son, Harold H. Elliott, Jr. (“Kip”), went into the family business.   

The third entrepreneur is Phil Siegel, owned of Non-Violent Toys, Inc. He and his family lived in Glencoe, in a home at the corner of Park Avenue and Bluff Street, in the early 20^th century.  The title of the company explains the rationale underpinning the games – which range from board to card games.

Siegel’s toy collection ranged from Spin Galaxy a game created in cooperation with NASA, using Hubble
Space images, to Journey for All Time, in cooperation with the American Museum of Natural History. It was a “build your own dinosaur to win” game. Storytelling, trading cards and puzzles rounded out the offerings.

Toys are timeless. Three stories of men who lived in Glencoe illustrate the impact toys can have. When did you get your Tinkertoy set? What did you build with it? Who, when you were a baby, gave you alphabet blocks, or American Logs? All of these toys played a role in most of our lives – and into those histories remember to sprinkle a bit of Glencoe.

Sources:

Glencoe Historical Society collections: “The Family of Samuel George Goss and Samuel George Goss, Jr.”; “The Family of Harold Hirsch Elliott”; photo collection of the Harold Elliott family

Walsh, Tim. “Timeless Toys: Classic Toys and the Playmakers Who Created Them,” Andrews McMeel Publishing, Kansa City, 2005

www.toyhistory.com/Halsam.html

www.oldwoodtoys.com/new_page_30.htm

www.apalachianhistory.net/2011/;08/how-tinkertoys-got-started.html

Why would a small town such as Glencoe receive a thank you greeting from the president of the United States? Was it because the village had a large number of young men who signed up to fight in the First World War? Not really, although the village did send 225 of its young men into service, some of them to the European battlefields. Was it because the village had a long list of those lost in battle during the so-called Great War? No again, although the village did unfortunately lose five of its young men to the inhuman trench warfare of that war.

No, the photo with signature was in recognition of the huge efforts of the village to contribute to the country’s war effort through the Red Cross and other agencies under the umbrella of the War Emergency Union. It was because the entire village pitched in, with sacrifices made by everyone, not just the men and women who wore a uniform.

The American Red Cross grew up during the First World War. When the war began, it was a small organization, still in the process of developing an identity. With advent of the war, it experienced extraordinary growth. By the time the war ended in November 1918, it had become a major national humanitarian organization.

President Wilson was the national Red Cross’ honorary chairman. At the outset of the war, with the public’s patriotic spirits soaring, Wilson urged his fellow citizens to help the Red Cross meet the needs of the thousands of American men going to war. While the Red Cross’ major actions were focused on Europe through its hospitals, ambulance fleets and emergency trauma centers, at home people supported the Red Cross through local chapters.

Glencoe was not alone in sponsoring a chapter. By the war’s end nearly one third of the United States population either was a donor or served as a volunteer for the Red Cross. The Red Cross and its aims permeated the community. .

Locally, the Glencoe War Emergency Union was formed in April 1917, under the auspices of the Glencoe Men’s Club. The Union’s aims were to cooperate with the federal government in the prosecution of the war, coordinate the Village’s war activities, including the Red Cross, and support the men who had gone to war. At the train station, a bulletin board was kept up to date with each man’s name, unit and location so the entire village could follow their progress.

The influence of the Red Cross is seen through another artifact from the historical society’s collection, an obvious wartime but undated document from the War Emergency Union. A typed document, whether it was ever published or real aloud in not known.

According to the two-page document, the purpose of the Union was “to make more effective by union of all the excellent agencies for war work already existing in Glencoe.…” In a series of questions for citizens of all ages, how war-time life should be lived is spelled out clearly. To an imaginary little girl who asks, “What can I do?” the Union responds “Mind mother quickly – like a Red Cross nurse.” To a high school girl who asks the same question, the Union responds: “Learn to knit while you talk. Have your good times, but put your nimble fingers to work with a Red Cross needle when times hang heavy….”

In addition to suggesting work for young children and teens, the document urges Glencoe adult residents to include other Red Cross-related activities – knitting socks for soldiers and funding the purchase and outfitting of ambulances for use in Europe – in their everyday life. A “Mrs. Hood” evidently was the head of local chapter – there is no first name — the person who could help anyone find something to do to help the war effort.

Another major contribution of the Glencoe community to raise funding for ambulances, to be placed in the war theater of France through the efforts of  the American Field Service, which had its name and the large red cross emblazoned on the sides. Two ambulances were donated that served at the front in Section 66, under the leadership of William G. Rice. Ambulance No. 974 bore the inscriptions: Glencoe, Illinois and No. 973 had the name plate of From the Citizens of Glencoe in Honour (sic) of Dougall A. Kittermaster.”

The story of Capt. Dougal Kittermaster illustrates the enthusiasm Glencoe had for the war effort. Registering for service before the American entry into the war, he was a captain in the Canadian Field Artillery. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Kittermaster of 816 Bluff St. According to a Glencoe News article of Nov. 15, 1918, Capt. Kittermaster saw the end of the war approaching in October, when he witnessed the furious onslaught of the allied armies on the western front which proved to the final and decisive drive of the war resulting in a plea from Germany for a cessation of hostilities and consideration of peace terms.” In a letter home, Capt. Kittermaster explained that though he was in France, he was not on the front lines, but worked in a supply depot. Nevertheless, his actions were sufficient to be honored through the naming of the ambulance.

No wonder President Wilson sent the community his photo and appreciation. Why he called it the “Red Cross work shop” is unclear, but it is very clear that the Village of Glencoe pitched into the war effort through the American Red Cross and its honorary chairman was saying “thank you.”

A local resident came to the Eklund History Museum recently seeking information about an ancestor – Whipple Jacobs, who lived on South Avenue during the time of the First World War. Whipple was 20 years old when America went to war in 1917, a 5-ft. 7-in. 130-pound man who listed his health as “OK.” We know that because we found his enlistment form in the archives the Glencoe Historical Society holds regarding World War I.

Looking for information about Whipple is another example of opening a box of archival documents that is the equivalent of opening up the gates to the history of a past era. Finding Whipple’s information revealed information about many Glencoe men who served either in the active Armed forces or reserve training corps run by the Glencoe War Emergency Union, a village-wide effort.

Interestingly, much of the information we found in the World War I files was collected and collated by Glencoe Public Library librarian Sara Hammond. The U.S. government ran some of its home front operations through public libraries across the country. It was the library that collected and displayed most of the posters printed for the war effort, reminding citizens to buy liberty bonds, to fight the enemy, or to eat specific foods in order to save agricultural products for servicemen. It was the librarian who kept the so-called Enrollment Blanks, or the forms that Glencoe men filled out for the Illinois Volunteer Training Corps. Men of all ages were included, along with Whipple, who later went onto active service in the Emergency Ambulance Corps #208. His mailing address was Camp Crane, Allentown, Pa., so it is unclear if or where he served in the European theater.

Whipple’s father William, aged 64, also signed up for the Illinois Volunteer Training Corps. He obviously never served in the European war and it is unlikely that he was called up. But he proudly filled in his military experience, noting that had served “nearly 10 years with First Illinois Cavalry Quartermaster Adjutant Lieutenant Colonel” from 1877 to 1887. From the volume of enrollment blanks that the library saved, it appears that almost every man in Glencoe signed up and few if any actually went to war. In fact, one Clarence T. MacNeill, of 828 Bluff St., made it clear he would not serve and handwrote on the back of his Enrollment Blank:  “It is my distinct understanding that the Governor of Illinois has given his word that the Glencoe Company of the Illinois Volunteer Training Corps will not be called for duty outside of Cook County, Ill. It is further my understanding that I reserve the absolute right to tender my resignation and receive an honorable discharge should I in my own judgement consider that such resignation was justified. And it is with this understanding that I sign this Enrollment Blank.”

However, at home, some of these men served in the Glencoe Rifles and some served in Company B, two organizations that held training for possible call-up.

The “home front” organization that ran the war effort in the village was the Glencoe War Emergency Union. In addition to organizing all military training, the War Emergency Union, a volunteer group, ran three important programs:

1. At Christmas 1918, the organization sent each Glencoe man in service a gift package. Included were a $5 check, a book and a card. Thank-you notes from the soldiers were saved and came back to Glencoe from all over Europe and the United States. Many were received well after the holiday, such as the one dated Feb. 20, 1919, from A. Ernest Muench. He reports:  “Your kind remembrance received by me two days ago. The latter had been forwarded to me from place to place, and I did not receive same until now. However, I am now out of the service and will be glad to get back to Glencoe at my old job. The check, book and card were also enclosed for which I thank you many times, nothing could have been more appreciated. Trusting all the boys will be back soon, I am respectfully yours,…”
2. A collection was made and “citizens of Glencoe, Illinois,” dedicated an ambulance for use in France in honor of Dougall A. Kittermaster (someone about whom we know little). A photo of the ambulance, #973 labeled American Field Service, is shown above.  The citizens of Glencoe separately donated another ambulance, also to the people of France. Both were donated through the American Field Service Fund, based in Boston. The organization was founded in September 18, 1915 and ran through September 1917. In the two years, the AFS provided 1,200 ambulances that supported the war in France and were all donated by citizens, such as the two Glencoe provided. Glencoe’s two ambulances cost a total of $1,600. While originally it was thought that a Glencoe man would drive the ambulances, it turned out that that could not be arranged.
3. An after-war effort was mounted to present medals to the men who had fought in the war. A special Glencoe medal was a bronze plaque with, on one side, an American eagle with wings outstretched perched on a tablet bearing a three-masted sailing ship proceeding on a stylized series of wave crests. To the left of the table is an upright palm branch and to the right of the tablet is an upright flambeaux. Around the upper arched edge it reads: The village of Glencoe, Cook County, Illinois, underlined by a series of 13 stars.The historical society owns the plaster casts for the medal and one bronze medal that was awarded to a soldier. We have no idea why it is in the files rather than with the honoree. Perhaps he didn’t receive it or didn’t keep it or someone returned it to the Emergency War Union.  On the reverse side is a full figure standing with his left foot forward at alert rest. The figure wears a belted tunic. In the background is a series of sharply tapered peaks. In the left foreground is a thistle plant and on the right foreground is a young oak plant. Along the lower edge of a tablet is: Awarded/to/the name of the recipient.

Many more artifacts and archives are in the collection at the Eklund Center. Much more work is likely to be done with the files as we come closer to the 100^th anniversary of the war in 2017. The simple question from Whipple Jacobs’ descendent has opened a whole new range of research to be completed over time.

If you have a relative who served in World War I and lived in Glencoe during the era 1917-1920, you are welcome to come and delve into the files to see if we have information on that man or woman. But even if you didn’t, if you are interested in the war effort, you are welcome to inquire about the war, Glencoe’s role in the war and how the village responded to the war effort

If you have any questions, contact the research team at research@glencoehistory.org or call 847-835-0040.

On April 25th, a new landmark plaque was unveiled at Harbor Street and the Green Bay Trail to mark a number of historic events. The Friends of the Green Bay Trail, together with the Glencoe Historical Society and the Village of Glencoe, have cooperated to create the marker to illustrate the impact of the Green Bay Trail over the years. It also highlights the progress being made on restoring the landscape along the trail.

The Friends have spent three to four years restoring the landscape and creating a healthy habitat, by removing invasive species such as buckthorn and replanting native flowering plants and shrubs. These new plants will support the Monarch butterflies, and include common oak and palm sedge, bottle brush, and sideoats grama, among other plants.

The Green Bay Trail began as the road between Chicago and Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Village of Glencoe began its existence, in fact, in the 1830s as an inn for stagecoaches owned by Anson Taylor that was located on the trail at what is now South Avenue. At the end of the 19^th century (1898), the North Shore Electric Railroad ran a line from downtown Chicago north to service commuters from the many developing suburbs.

For most of the early 20^th century, what is now the trail was used as the right-of-way for the North Shore Line. When the railroad abandoned the Shore Line route, the villages along the line cooperated in purchasing the right-of-way to be used as a walking and bike trail.

Today, the trail is utilized by thousands of runners and walkers. Unfortunately, however, in the past decades, trail vegetation was allowed to become overgrown. Invasive species crowded out the native plantings. Led by President Betsy Leibson, the Friends of the Green Bay Trail has been working diligently for the past 3-4 years, helping to bring the trail back to what it might have looked like when it was first developed.

The landmark plaque that will be placed at Harbor St. will highlight two historic trends: the North Shore Line and trail maker trees. The photo for the North Shore Line section of the plaque shows the North Shore Line train at the Maple Hill Road station, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It no longer stands. The other section of the landmark sign illustrates the making of trail marker trees, a Native American tradition of bending saplings to make them grow in a manner that mark specific items of interest.

Today, one of the exhibits at the Glencoe Historical Society Eklund History Center features the trees in Glencoe that were reformed by Native Americans and includes information on the Glencoe chapter of the Daughter of the American Revolution dedication of a tree in April 1928 at Vernon and South Avenue.  The History Center is open every Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. or on Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. or by appointment.

Do you text? Email? IM? Prior to the age of the computer, tablet and smart phone, people used to send telegrams and/or postcards. And while most of us think of postcards as something you send to say “Greetings” or “I’m on Vacation Here,” in the past, postcards were used for much, much more.

Postcards were sent not just by travelers but also by people seeking to get in touch with friends or relatives by mail, the quickest form of communication before the telephone. Mail was delivered more than once a day so many people sent post cards several times a day.  In the morning, someone from Evanston might send a card to a friend in Glencoe saying “I’ll meet you at the train at six this evening” and they would rendezvous precisely for dinner.

Although small pocket-sized engravings that could be mailed first appeared in the 1840s, the idea of a picture postcard surfaced big time with the 1893 World’s Fair (the Columbian Exposition) in Chicago.   Kodak used its clout to establish a heavy fee — $2 which today is close to $40 – for anyone who wanted to bring a camera onto the Fairgrounds.  Instead, they sold picture postcards of the event with one side filled with the photo and the other used for address and message. These cards today are the major source of information about the buildings and events at the Fair.

In the 20^th century, photographs because the popular method for creating cards. Some of the cards were hand tinted, rather than fully four-color.  Postcards with a divided back – address on the left side, message on the right – were permitted in the United Sates. Millions of cards were published in the era 1907-1914, often called the “golden age” of postcards. Up to this point, most cards were printed in Germany, which was ahead of the United State in the use of lithography. But with the advent of World War I, American suppliers switched from Germany to England and then to the United States.

No one perfected the art of postcard printing more than Curt Teich & Co. in Chicago, a city known for its printing industry.  Curt Teich & Co. made its mark with short runs of penny postcards.  The firm produced thousands of design highlighting hotels, motels, restaurants and tourist attractions all over America. Known for its “big letter” designs, the colorful postcards are much coveted today partly because of the combination of talent and technique used to produce them – almost impossible to duplicate today.

Curt Otto Teich (Tike) was born in Lobenstein Germany in 1877 and immigrated to America to age 19. Two years later he founded the Curt Teich Co. in Chicago.   In 1910, the company became a pioneer in the printing field by using offset presses, and nearly all subsequent work was done using that technique.  The Teich building in Chicago was on Irving Park Blvd. The building is now a loft conversion called Postcard Place.

By 1933, Teich had mastered the art of colorful printing and began producing his own line of large-letter designs. By 1956, the company had produced approximately 1,000 different designs, immortalizing even the most obscure f American cities. No town was too small.

Teich was unique in naming all of its printing processes, which gave them distinct branding in a coded marketplace. Most of the big-letter cards were done in Curt Teich Art Colortone, a five-color process begun in 1930 and based on black and white photos that were extensively retouched. According to an early Teich employee newsletter, the term “pretty as a picture postcard” originated because the final scenes in these hand methods looked better and more colorful than if you were there yourself.  By the mid-1940s, color transparencies were more extensively used as the image and pictures became more realistic.

Curt Teich Sr. lived to be 97, but before he died, he passed the business on to his son, Curt Teich Jr. who ran the business until it was sold in 1974.  By 1978, the new owners closed the business.  The Teich heirs wanted to preserve the extensive collection of artwork – the company saved a sample of every card produced, so they placed the collection at the Lake County Forest Preserve’s Discovery Museum in Wauconda, IL, where son Ralph Teich had a summer home. The collection is the largest public postcard collection in the world, numbering more than 350,000 cards.

In February 2007, Bea and Barney Berlin, lifelong post card collectors and longtime Glencoe residents, donated their Glencoe postcard collection the Glencoe Historical Society. This collection of 29 cards greatly expanded the collection of the society, which now numbers more than 126 cards, both photographic and only written.

The Glencoe Historical Society will hold its annual Dinner at the historic Curt Teich home, 535 Longwood Ave., on Saturday March 7. Following cocktails and buffet dinner (beginning at 6:30 p.m.), a special program will be presented by Katherine Hamilton-Smith from the Curt Teich Postcard Archives in Wauconda. Musical entertainment will be presented the Ravinia Jazz Scholars. Cost is $85/ per person. For more information see www.glencoehistory.org or send a check to GHS, 375 Park Ave., Glencoe IL 60022. Email rsvp@glencoehistory.org

It is a very large key, certainly larger that anyone would use on a house, but it must open something. That was the first thought about a 7-inch long key with only one large tooth. Was it for a very large structure? Did it open a barn? Well, the answer is “no” to both. It actually is a key for a lighthouse and it belongs in Glencoe.

As the curators prepared to put up the new exhibit “Early Glencoe”, the Research Center staff located artifacts for display. Artifacts are three-dimensional objects that help illustrate the information that comes from archives, which are paper documents used in research.

This key “unlocks” the history of something that no longer exists – and, in fact, was very short-lived – in Glencoe: The Taylorsport Lighthouse.

The first settler in Glencoe was Anson Hartshorn Taylor, an entrepreneur, who named the area after himself. He came with his wife and child from Chicago, built a two-story frame building with a post office and store that served as an inn for nearly 50 years. It was called the LaPier House and welcomed stagecoaches traveling between Chicago and Green Bay, Wisconsin.  There was a great deal of traffic along the trail but also much shipping in Lake Michigan that stopped at Taylor’s pier. He shipped charcoal and agricultural products from the area south to Chicago.

In 1853, discussions were being held about the need for a lighthouse at Taylorsport, a light that would indicate where the town pier was and to keep ships at sea aware of the coast. At the same time, the federal government was being asked for a lighthouse in Port Clinton, which was the name of the suburb north (today’s Highland Park).

Ultimately, the U.S. government agreed to establish two lighthouses, one on two acres of land donated by Anson Taylor at the northeastern corner of Harbor Street and Sheridan Road and another in Highland Park/Port Clinton. A contract to build the lighthouses was signed with a Detroit contractor at a cost of $3900 for both. The lighthouse at Taylorsport was to be completed by Oct. 10, 1856 and included a 6^th order Fresnel lens. The first keeper, Thomas McMahon was hired as of August 1856. But because of difficulties and needed repairs even before opening, the light actually went into operation a year late, in August 1857.

Almost as soon as it was up, the federal lighthouse district inspector recommended that the light be discontinued. There was less traffic on the lake and more products were being sent across the nation via railroads. In June, 1859, the Lighthouse Board, the agency supervising lighthouses, decided to close the lighthouse in August 1859.

The keeper, Mr. McMahon, was kept on as custodian of the property and began to pay rent. But he was not much of a caretaker and the building began to disintegrate. Although Mr. McMahon was asked to leave, he at first refused and the there was a fight about that until April 1862 when he finally left. In May 1862, a new custodian, Thomas Russell, took over. But the federal government wanted to sell the property.

Various people wanted to buy the former lighthouse. Anson Taylor’s family felt it should be returned to them. But, instead, there was an auction in August 1873, the same day as the one for Port Clinton, which also had been closed. The Taylorsport/Glencoe property was sold to Augustin D. Taylor, Anson’s brother, in September 1873. He paid $1700.

As the historian Thomas A. Tag notes in his “The Missing Lighthouses of Illinois, “strange but true, the lighthouses at Port Clinton and Taylorsport lasted only three years and were never of importance to the shipping traffic of the areas.” The railroad completely overran the need for lighthouses in the harbor.

More on the lighthouse, the key and other artifacts and information are on display in the new exhibit “Early Glencoe” that opened at the Glencoe Historical Society Sept. 13, 2014. Come and enjoy the trip through Glencoe’s earliest history, from the time of Native Americans through the settlement of first Taylorsport and later Glencoe. The exhibition in the 2375 Park Ave. building is openj Wednesdays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sundays 1-4 p.m.

Boy Scouting in Glencoe is almost as old as the movement itself.

U.S. Boy Scouting began in 1910. Troop 22 at the Glencoe Union church was started in 1912 – just two years later.

Because of a recent question that came into the Research Center, the volunteer staff looked into the history of Boy Scouting in the village. The question was sent from the Northeast Illinois Boy Scouts of America Council for this region, seeking to know when the first Boy Scout Troop was established in Glencoe. As the region prepares for an anniversary, staffers there wanted to get their facts straight.

Staffer Peggy Hamil, Glencoe’s former Public Library Executive Director and historical society volunteer, took the question and ran with it, researching through the minutes of the Glencoe Men’s Club in 1912 – did you even know there was such a group? The historical society holds a significant collection of minutes and attendance records from the group, which is, obviously, out of business now. She also went through the records on Boy Scouting, of which GHS has a lot as well: scrapbooks, minutes books and a large number of artifacts including Scout camping equipment and badges.

The following is a summation of what she found in a couple of mornings of looking through archives, artifacts and material, much of it collected when the GHS mounted  a Boy Scouting exhibit “Saluting Glencoe Boy Scouts,” in Fall 2009.

The first Boy Scout troop in Glencoe, Troop 22, was created under the leadership of Rev. Douglas H. Cornell pastor of the Glencoe Union Church. It enrolled 47 boys. (That’s quite a number for a small town.)  Scoutmaster Rev. Cornell’s program was so effective the Glencoe Men’s Club agreed to sponsor the unit and support a local area council, but evidently later withdrew their resolution because the men found their support was not needed. The initial Men Club’s resolution was passed in either early October or late September of 1912 and provided for a “standing committee to co-operate with Scout Master Cornell in lending encouragement to the Boy Scout movement.”

In 1923, the Boy Scout North Shore Council was formed. By 1927,m the North Shore Area Council organized to include the local councils of Glencoe, Highland Park and Wilmette.

Following the formation of the North Shore Council, Glencoe’s Scout program increased to include  three troops. Since then the number of troops has varied, ranging from two to four.

Since the 1930s, two other troops were added: Boy Scout Troop 23, sponsored by St. Elisabeth’s Episcopal Church, and Troop 24 by the North Shore United Methodist Church.

In the 1960s, the three troops – 22,23 and 24 – were active and Glencoe was home to the local council, in the building that today is single-family home immediately north of the alley behind the Glencoe Historical Society’s home. In its previous life, the building had first held the Glencoe telephone exchange, but when that moved it was sold to the Boy Scouts.

In 1984, Troop 22 folded into Troop 23 and in 2009, Troops 23 and 24 merged to form today’s Troop 28.

Other information from the files shows:

• The original Cub Scout Pack was sponsored by the Parent Teacher Association (PTA). It later divided into four packs, each sponsored by a local PTA, i.e. from each of the four schools at the time (South, West, Central and North schools).
• Glencoe’s Troop 28 has active Scouts ranging from 11 to 17 years of age, from Tenderfoot to Eagle ranks, with a wide variety of interests and talents.
• Troop 28 is proud of the large numbers of Eagle Scouts it has produced. To be an Eagle Scout, boys are required to complete 21 merit badges, 12 of which are required. Eagle Scout service projects have included: cleaning litter from the Skokie Lagoons and Forest Preserve bike paths; clearing property and painting for the Glencoe Historical Society; building a boardwalk in the boathouse area of the Lake Michigan beachfront; clearing brush from the wildflower sanctuary adjacent to9 South School; and creating the flagpole area used for Memorial Day ceremonies next to the Glencoe Union Church.

Scouting has added a great deal to the fabric and history of Glencoe. If want to know more, or have questions, don’t hesitate to call the Glencoe Historical Society research staff on Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at 847-835-0040.

The portrait of the man in the armchair peers down on everyone who enters the Glencoe Public Library’s spacious and comfortable Johnson Room. It’s a nice presence, making us feel as if we were royalty who own a comfortable library and have our ancestor smiling down upon us.

But who is this guy, anyway? Well, as the plaque under his picture says Otto Raymond Barnett, is one of the founders of the Glencoe Public Library. But he was more than that, much more. Not unlike many Glencoe residents past and present, Barnett was a lawyer, a civic leader and a politician. And this is his story, as developed from documents in the collection of the Glencoe Historical Society.

Otto Barnett was born Sept. 21, 1868, in Washington, D.C. He was a descendent of Robert Livingston, a signed of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Quite a background. Barnett’s family came to Glencoe in about 1873, when the village had few houses. But he remembered playing in Newhall’s Woods (an area north of Park Avenue along the lakefront.) and Starr’s pond (closer to Green Bay Road and South Blvd.). He also recalled pigeon shooting near Dr. John Nutt’s cherry orchard. Dr. Nutt was one of the 10 founding Glencoe Company.

Otto married Mable Rowley in 1869, with the ceremony held at Chicago’s Campbell Park Presbyterian Church, her local affiliation. As adults, Mr. and Mrs. Barnett lived at 684 Greenleaf. Sadly, their first home burned to the ground on Feb. 14, 1891. According to the local newspaper account, “The handsome new residence which Mr. Otto R. Barnett was erecting …burnt to the ground early Tuesday morning.” The alarm was turned in by Rev. Douglas Cornell who was the minister of the Glencoe Union Church and lived nearby. Again, according to the news account: “The fire department was unable to do more than protect the surrounding buildings. The house was nearing competition…the loss was covered by insurance.” But a new home rose from the ashes “phoenix-like.” The architect was the well-known Prairie style architect E.E. Roberts.

The couple lived in the Roberts-designed home for the rest of their marriage. The couple had two children, Lawrence Theodore Barnett and Sherman Rowley Barnett.

Intellectual property was Barnett’s law specialty and he belong to myriad organizations within his profession, including the Lawyers Club of Chicago, the American Bar Association, and the American Intellectual Property Law Association. He was president of the latter for the term 1925-26. He officed at 1515 Monadnock Block (on Jackson Boulevard and Dearborn Street), Chicago, and with James H. Raymond formed a partnership, Raymond and Barnett, that lasted seven years (1900-1907). Having graduated from Northwestern Law School in 1888, he returned to the university in 1902, accepting a position teaching patent law as an associate professor.

Barnett was a Renaissance man: Yes, he was a lawyer, but he also was a poetry lover, a bicycle enthusiast and member of American Wheelmen, and a Mason. He also belonged to the Glencoe’s Men Club and served his community well. He likely holds the Glencoe Civic Service Record, if there were such a thing. His service record is amazing: He was:

• Library Board Member, 27 years
• Police Magistrate, 4 years
• Glencoe School Board (original) Member, 17 years
• New Trier Township High School Board Member, 15 years.

With today’s Caucus system and unofficial term limits, no one will overtake Barnett’s record. But it is remarkable even for that time period when people served on boards for lengthy terms. In the village, which had a population of 1,020 in 1900 that grew to 3,381 in 1920, many people played multiple roles, but Barnett’s certainly stood out.

Following a number of referendums seeking permission to set up a village library, in 1910 the dream finally came to fruition. On Jan. 1, 1910, the library opened in the Glencoe School (there was only one school then, located at what is today’s Central School). The library moved to Village Hall (the old Village Hall that faced Vernon Avenue in the location where the parking lot is now), in September 1912. The original collection was comprised of donations from local residents. Barnett was the president of the board from the time the operation opened in the schools, heading up a board of six.

As a founder of the library and board member for over two decades, a portrait by Fay Harper was placed over the fireplace – “a place of honor” for Otto Barnett, “Father” of Glencoe’s favorite space to read, check out books or meet your neighbor. We certainly should be proud of him and he likely would be surprised and proud of what his early efforts have wrought

It’s an active time at the Glencoe Historical Society as the exhibition committee is readying the building for the upcoming exhibit,  “Early Glencoe.”

Old exhibits have come down and the next steps are painting the walls before putting up a new exhibit and continuing to do research. The new exhibit will deal with this area before it became known as Glencoe, first when it had no name and the Native American Potawatomi traveled through the area and later when it was called Taylorsport, named for Anson Taylor, the first non-Native American settler, who opened La Pier House, an inn on the Green Bay Road route to Wisconsin. It was located where the intersection of Green Bay Road and South Boulevard is today.

Preparing for an exhibition requires many steps, among them selecting artifacts – the three dimensional “things” as opposed to paper documents or pictures. These items will be displayed to help explain the exhibit’s story.

One of the first group of artifacts for “Glencoe Before 1880” is a small collection of three arrowheads, small ones, not more than 1.75 inches, but obviously scraped into triangular shapes and pointed. They were found in the backyard at 385 Hazel Ave., at the home of Evelyn Wienecke (now deceased), the former treasurer of the Glencoe Historical Society.

In most historical accounts, Native Americans are not listed as having lived in Glencoe – the terrain is not good for settlements, it is too forested, not flat enough and sits upon a bluff, overlooking Lake Michigan. Northbrook and Wilmette are most often cited as areas where the Native Americans had winter settlements. However, looking more closely into the historical accounts, the curators of this exhibit came up with the story of a local Chicagoan who trekked north on an early “sightseeing trip” to view the area and found at least one Native American family settled close to what today is the boundary between Glencoe and Highland Park.

In his account, “Journal of a Trip to the Far Off West,” Colbee Chamberlain Benton, writing in 1833, recounts an encounter with a Native American family. Benton commented on their dirty clothes, their scruffy wigwam — local Native Americans did not create tipis (or teepees as it is often spelled) – and the noxious smell of a campfire.

These Native Americans were likely Potawatomi, peoples who originally came to this area from today’s lands near Lakes Huron and Superior. In about 1500 A.D. the Neshnabek, which is the name they used for themselves, moved to today’s state of Michigan, near the area between Ludington in the north and St. Joseph in the south. They were hunters, fishermen and gatherers of natural plants. When they arrived in the warmer climate, they found new hunting and fishing grounds. Deer, their main game animal, were plentiful. There was also large herds of elk and in the nearby prairies buffalo. Their Native American neighbors helped them learn the skills of cultivation and they began to harvest corn, beans and squash.

Their name Potawatomi, came from the French. A French explorer misunderstood the answer when he asked “who are these people?” His guides, who were Huron Native Americans from Ontario Canada misunderstood and replied in their own language, “They are making a fire.” The Frenchman wrote down their reply in French as Pouutouatami. Over the years this word was spelled in more than 50 different ways and finally standardized as Potawatomi, which the French thought meant “the Firemakers.” But it was not a word that meant anything to Neshnabek in their own language.

It is likely that the arrowheads Evelyn Wienecke discovered buried in her backyard came from Potawatomie Native Americans who traveled through – or settled – in this region as they were hunters of deer, squirrel and rabbit, creatures who still live here today.

More information on early Glencoe will be revealed in the new exhibit at the historical society’s Eklund History Center, 375 Park Ave., when the exhibit opens on Sept. 13. We hope everyone will join us for that, and come see the arrowheads from the Nesnabek (Potawatomi) Native Americans.