The Old Aurora Branch

A Christmas Party in 1957

2011-12-20T21:05:00.011-06:00

On the evening of December 21, 1957, the Primary children presented a play at the Aurora Branch Christmas party.Back row: Erek Erekson, Cathy Sullivan, [unidentified], [unidentified], John Ottinger, [unidentified], Julia Woolcott, Rose Marie Resch (behind curtain). Front row: [unidenified, possibly Tommy Spahr, [unidentified], Bucky Spahr (Earl Spahr Jr.), Billy Spahr, John Swords, Sandy Hill. Front right: Cris Erekson.

As recorded in the Primary History scrapbook, the skit depicted "sharing with those less fortunate" and was followed by the younger classes who "sang songs and said poems."
New in this photo are: Paul Doty, [unidentified], Cris Erekson, [unidentified, possibly Margie Reynolds], Margaret Sullivan. David Swords in standing in the center. The backdrop had been painted on the basement wall by Mary Jane Greer.

To the delight of all the children, Santa Claus visited the party later and distributed gifts and stockings. Jim Greer may have been the one to play Santa that evening because playing Santa was one of his favorite holiday activities. (For more about this go to the posts for December 2009.) But by this time most people expected him to be the one in costume, so as a joke he sometimes asked other men play the part. One of the funniest Santas was the very tall, very thin Bill Kettley.

The M.I.A. served refreshments that evening and the adults exchanged grab bag gifts. (That means they brought small gifts in decorated paper bags, put the bags in a pile and grabbed.)

Two other Christmas parties are also recorded in the Aurora Branch Primary History scrapbook. They seem to follow a pattern:

December 17, 1955:
"The Primary, along with other groups of the Church held a Christmas party on this date. Games were played which everyone enjoyed. Christmas tree ornaments made by the group that attended were hung on the tree. Santa Claus made his appearance with gifts for all the children and parents. Refreshments were served later in the evening."

December 4, 1956:
"The Primary held a Bake Sale on this day. The money was used to buy Christmas gifts and candy for the Christmas party. The Christmas party was held at the Greer home. All groups of the Church held a combined party."

The Ghost of Sundays Past: The Odd Fellows Hall Revisited

2011-10-05T22:47:00.021-05:00

When I was in Aurora to attend my high school reunion last July, Ed and Sharon Kettley took me to see the Odd Fellows Hall. It’s still for sale, and the price is now only $449,000 (Price reduced by $126,000—aren’t you glad you didn’t buy it two years ago?). Ed, who is the owner of the successful Kettley Realty in Aurora, arranged with the listing agent to let us walk through the old building. What a trip down memory lane!

So, is anything the same after fifty-one years?

The stairs are still there! Now nicely carpeted, they still lead forever upward. I counted fourteen stairs to the landing and then another twelve to arrive at the second floor where the branch met during most of the 1950s. (There are so many steps because of the high ceilings of the commercial spaces on the ground floor.)

This picture of Louise Erekson, standing in front of the open door of the Odd Fellows Hall, ca. 1955, reveals the wooden—uncarpeted—steps and the dimly lit stairway. (Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for the 'artsy' angle of this photo.)

The long, steep steps provided a weekly trial for older folks who sometimes had to use the handrail to pull themselves up hand-over-hand. The original handrails are still in place, as are some of the paneled oak doors and hardware.

Throughout the 1950s the branch held Sunday school, sacrament meeting, and potluck dinners in the large second-floor hall on the north side of the building. We measured the room and found it to be 75 feet long and 20 to 23 feet wide. The photo below, taken during a 1959 Primary program, looks toward the windows on the west side of the room.Taken on the same occasion in 1959, the photo below clearly shows the length of the room.
Still as long as ever, here's what the room looks like today (2011). The desks are left from a tutoring service that recently rented this second floor space.
Going up to the third floor means climbing another twenty-three steps. The branch met on this level before moving down to the second floor. In the late 1950s, however, the children of the Junior Sunday School climbed the second set of stairs to meet in the third-floor room at the front of the building. We were told that in recent years the rooms on the third floor were rented by a “Swingles Club.” (Don’t ask what that is!)

The large ceremonial room at the back of the building was off limits to children when the branch met at the Odd Fellows Hall. The doors still have the peep holes and covers used by lodge members to gain entrance to restricted meetings.

For twenty-five years (from about 1935 to 1960) members of the Aurora Branch crossed this threshold into the Odd Fellows Hall. The original tiles are still in place. “I.O.O.F” stands for “Independent Order of Odd Fellows.”

It was exciting to enter this amazing place after so many years. Again I express my appreciation to Ed and Sharon Kettley for arranging the visit to the Odd Fellows Hall.Ed and Sharon Kettley at the main office of Kettley Realty, Aurora, Illinois

The Odd Fellows Hall will celebrate its 100th birthday in 2012. The past fifty-one years have not been especially kind to the building, but it deserves to be memorialized for its role as home to the Aurora Branch.

For the next post, I will try to recreate a floor plan.

The First Seminary in Aurora Branch

2011-08-16T14:20:00.005-05:00

By the fall of 1963 Aurora Branch had enough high school students to establish an early-morning seminary class. Deanna Lyman Greer, who held a teaching degree, was called to be the first seminary teacher. She converted a small bedroom in her home on Elmwood Drive into a classroom, and students gathered there at 6:00 a.m. each morning.

For the next school year, seminary moved to the home of Fred and Jean Smith. This photo was taken on their porch in the fall of 1964.
Front: Deanna Greer (teacher), Bethine Mindar, Rose Marie Resch, Linda Hill, Julia Woolcott. Back: Erek Erekson, Ren Smith, Jerry Rod, Earl Spahr Jr., Tom Erekson.

Recalling seminary, Deanna Greer said, “I really enjoyed teaching seminary. The first year it was Old Testament and I learned so much. I was impressed at how faithful the kids were.

“When we were meeting at my house, my son Tom would crawl in and sit under the roll-around blackboard we had placed in the room. My first daughter, Janeen, was born in May 1964, on the day of seminary graduation. They called her the seminary baby.”

The second year course of study was the New Testament. Deanna continued to teach until March of 1965 when she was released due to complications of pregnancy. Bob Erekson, recently released as branch president, was called to finish out the year as seminary teacher.

Seminary was established in September 1963 because the Chicago South Stake was moving forward on a stake level to set up seminary classes in all wards and branches. Deanna Greer worked under a stake CES (Church Education System) director, with Bob Erekson as branch president.

1933 Was a Very Good Year

2011-04-04T04:25:00.012-05:00

Myrtle Greer kept a diary for part of 1933. Although the entries are fragmentary, they provide a clear snapshot of her life three and a half years after the family settled in Aurora. By this time they were living in the house at 710 North Harrison where they would stay for almost eighteen years. Her husband, Jim Greer, was starting to fix it up. Her diary records that on June 24 he “raised home to put basement in.” No one knows where he found the time to hand-dig the basement, but he did—and poured his own concrete blocks for the walls too. He was working full time at Lyon Metal, and sometimes half-days on Saturday, as well as gardening and milking the cow, and taking care of the branch.

The Greers' lives already revolved around their work in the branch. More than half of the 101 diary entries mention missionaries and Church activities. Adding in the entries that mention members’ names without a specific reference to a Church activity increases the percentage. Jim had been ordained an elder in 1932 and was set apart as the Sunday School superintendent. Much of the time Jim and Myrtle were feeding missionaries, driving them to meetings, and keeping them overnight.

In her autobiography, Myrtle recalls: “If the missionaries were hungry, they could always come here and get a meal. Just like that Elder said, it was a depression. Everybody was out of food, but when he came to the Greers’, they always had something on the table to eat, and the missionaries was always invited. We used to keep the missionaries so much” (The Story of Jim and Myrtle Greer: Family and Church, 45).

How did they do it? Myrtle goes on to say: “We generally had some canned stuff that I’d canned the summer before, and we’d open some of that. We bought day-old bread and brought it home and shared it with the missionaries and the neighbors. If it was summertime, we just took out of the garden. Later on, we had a strawberry patch. We had lettuce, radishes, onions, all that stuff in the garden. We also had an apple tree and a cherry tree” (The Story of Jim and Myrtle Greer: Family and Church, 45-46). She was also raising chickens.

One of the elders who visited several times in early 1933 was President S. Laurance Moss. Like more than 160 other missionaries, he left his photograph printed on a postcard. The Greers kept all of the portrait cards, as well as the Articles of Faith calling cards, and these now form part of the Aurora Branch History Project collection. In the 1930s the missionaries usually took the time to write a note of gratitude and friendship on the back.

In an interview in July 2009, Jimmie Greer recalled this story: “Elder Moss was the district president. He would come and visit the branch from time to time. My dad always had a cow and one time it was about to calve. Dad would say, ‘I wish Elder Moss could come by and sing to my old cow so she’ll have her calf.’

“They tell me when Elder Moss came and he was sitting up in front, that right during the meeting, I went up to him, sat on his lap, and put my hands on his cheeks and said, ‘Elder Moss, will you come out to our house and sing to our cow so she’ll have her calf.’"

In her story, Myrtle says, “We got Jimmie back as quick as we could, got him on his chair, and sit him down. So Elder Moss come out, but the old cow had already had her calf. He didn’t have to sing” (55).

Myrtle's diary records the birth of a calf. It might be the one in question: “Tuesday, May 30, 1933: Little Jimmie Birthday [6 years old] / had picnic at park / Old Rose had a calf / name it Esther Mae / we make ice cream.”

Elder Moss was from Woods Cross, Utah. The family visited him and had dinner with his family in 1941 when they were in Utah. He was later the livestock and grain commodities announcer on KSL in Salt Lake City.

The blog is going to continue our look at the contributions of missionaries who served in Aurora.

Bob Erekson's Beginnings in Aurora Branch

2011-03-28T21:36:00.006-05:00

When cleaning my father's office after his passing, I found among his papers a typescript of his life story from 1935 to June 22, 1942. The excerpt included below contains references to the Aurora Branch after meeting the Greer family in May 1941. These stories show how different the Aurora Branch was from his church-related experiences in what he calls "the valley of the mountains."

The photo on the right shows a young, green Bob Erekson in June 1940 on the day he left Utah to enlist in the Army Air Corps at Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois. About a year later, he decided to look up the Church. On the weekend of May 17, 1941, he hitched a ride to Chicago and found out to his surprise that quarterly stake conference was being held. He was introduced to the Greer family and promised to visit them the next weekend. He paid some friends fifty cents to take him to Aurora. Here is Bob's story:

"Sunday morning I got up and went to Sunday School with the Greers. It was very nice to be back in Church once again, helping with the Sacrament and all the rest of the work I could do. Mr. Greer was having some trouble with his back, and Louise had to work that afternoon, so we took her to work but found that she didn’t have to go to work until 3:00 p.m. So Mr. Greer went to the doctor and I took Louise for a drive in Mr. Greer’s ’36 Buick...After that I went back to the doctor’s office.

"That night I went to Sacrament Meeting. It was a very wonderful meeting and after it was over I helped a Mr. [John E.] Whowell from Chicago and Mr. [John] Wendt of Aurora administer to Mr. Greer so his back would bet well. It was the first time I ever did anything like that since I had been made an Elder nearly a year ago, just before I joined the Air Corps.
"After the meeting was over I went back to the Greers, changed back to my uniform, after which Mr. Greer drove me out of Aurora about seven miles and I began hitch-hiking...

As you see, the new experiences began immediately: administering to the sick, bearing his testimony, giving talks, sightseeing in Nauvoo, and attending General Conference. He was needed in Aurora. Best of all, he found that he loved his new-found Church activity.Knowing that Louise was there kept his enthusiasm high. This photo was taken on his first weekend in Aurora.

"[Four days later] Thursday afternoon at three p.m. I took off for Aurora on my thumb. I got there at seven p.m. Central Daylight Time.
"I took my coveralls and as soon as I got there I changed to them and helped Jimmy mow the lawn…Sunday I went to Sunday School and Testimony meeting. One thing about testimony meetings in Aurora different from those back home, is that every person in Aurora got up and bore his or her testimony. So I bore my first testimony. That evening was conjoint or mutual night, and so the young people took care of the program. I gave a talk and all of the others did something...

"[The next week] Louise had to take care of some children so she brought them to Sunday School and in the afternoon while Mr. and Mrs. Greer went to Chicago, Louise, Jimmy, Mary Jane, the Kids, and I went on a picnic in Philips Park, Aurora…At 6:00 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Greer came for us and later we went to church. The speaker from Chicago didn’t show up, so they asked me to talk. After that I drove the Greers home and then Mr. and Mrs. Schleifer took me out to the junction from where I hitched back to the field....

"During the month of June I bought myself a 1936 Buick four door sedan. On the fourth of July the Greer family went to Nauvoo and Carthage. They took me along and it was a trip that I will never forget.
"Sunday July 6, 1941 I had to talk in church and because of the lack of speakers Louise and I sang “Truth Reflects Upon Our Senses.”...

"[September] Among other things was Quarterly Conference for the Chicago stake at Milwaukee. From the General Board there was Harold B. Lee of the Twelve. I never really enjoyed a conference until I heard him talk. It seemed to me that he was talking just to me, almost as if he knew my every question and thought...

[A trip to General Conference] "So I left the Field at about noon Tuesday September 30, 1941 and drove to Aurora where I picked [up] the entire Greer family and we started into the setting sun which was one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen since I came East...
"Later I drove to McCraney’s where the Greers were to stay during their visit in the valley of the mountains. After going to a session of General Conference I went home to Payson, Utah, a drive of about sixty-five miles. …The next day I took Mother to S.L. where we attended the afternoon session of the General Conference for that day. This was the first time I had ever been in the Tabernacle. It is really a thrill to be on the inside of such a beautiful building...
"The next day Saturday October 3, 1941 I picked up the Greer Family and took them to Spanish Fork a small town about six miles from Payson. There I left the Greers with one of the Missionaries, who had visited them when he was on a mission in the Northern States Mission..."

In Memorium, Robert L. Erekson 1921-2010

2011-01-23T17:19:00.011-06:00

Bob Erekson, Aurora Branch president from 1961 to 1965, passed away at his home in Billings, Montana, on the morning of December 27, 2010. He was 89 years old. He is survived by his wife, Louise G. Erekson; and their ten children, Ginger (Bill) Hamer, Tom (Terry), Erek (Lenore), Cris, Douglas, Randall, Jay (Susana), Matt, Jon (Jennifer), and Jared; 36 grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren.

In August 1961 Bob Erekson was called by Chicago Stake President John K. Edmunds to replace his father-in-law James T. Greer, who had served as branch president for some twenty-eight years. His new counselors were Robert H. Ross and Donald A. Mindar with William E. Kettley as branch clerk, as shown below in this clipping from the Aurora Beacon-News. After a year and a half Bob Ross moved back to Pennsylvania, Bill Kettley became a counselor, and Dean Meyer was called as the branch clerk. Later, Dale Fisher replaced Donald Mindar as a counselor.

The branch had been meeting in the Seventh Day Adventist church on Plum Street for about a year and a half, but on the day of his call, Erekson was informed that the branch had to find a new place to meet. "After much prayer," he later wrote, "I received that answer that we were to rent the old Christian Science chapel. We had complete use of the building for more than a year until it was sold." The branch next met for a brief time at Lincoln Elementary School on South River Street in Aurora and later moved to Allen School on the east side.

Erekson relished one of the blessings of being branch president—the opportunity to attend General Conference twice a year, with travel expenses paid for by the Church. Here he is shown in 1962 on the BYU campus where he was visiting his daughter on his semi-annual trip to Utah.

Under Erekson's leadership the branch continued to grow. By November 1962 there were 242 members. In February 1963 the branch became part of the Chicago South Stake, with Lysle R. Cahoon as president, and John Sonnenberg and Dallin H. Oaks as counselors. The members kept working feverishly to raise money for the building fund, but the dream of having a chapel in Aurora was postponed when President Cahoon invited the Aurora Branch to be one of the units to occupy the new stake center that was to be built in Naperville. At that time, local wards and branches has to raise forty percent of the funds for construction, and so members of the Aurora Branch were assessed large sums of money. They built additional building fund houses and completed many other fund-raising projects.

Unfortunately, the three and a half years that Bob Erekson served as branch president were marked by contention and division among the members. A strong faction remained loyal to President Greer, and he did nothing to discourage their dissension. President Cahoon, shown above on the left, was supportive of Erekson and was understanding of the difficulties involved.

Upon his release on February 21, 1965, Bob Erekson wrote: "I am very happy with life and am well satisfied with the knowledge and blessing Father in Heaven has given me. I have had several spiritual experiences that have helped me to know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true."

In 1968 the Ereksons moved to Billings, Montana, where Bob changed from building homes to building custom-designed slip-in campers and toppers for pickup trucks. When he retired in 1989, he devoted much of his time to genealogy and published several family histories, the largest being a record of the Choate family in southern Illinois. In order to do this he became expert at using genealogy programs on the computer. He was also active in the Yellowstone Genealogy Forum and taught numerous classes in how to use the computer for genealogy.

Bob Erekson served actively in the Church for the rest of his life. From 1973 to 1985 he was a counselor in the Billings Montana Mission. He worked in the Billings Temple for eight years and for the past twelve or more years served as the membership clerk for his ward, updating the records one last time a few days before his death. He will be missed by friends and family.

Please add your memories of Bob Erekson as comments to this post or email me, his daughter, and I will post them for you.

Developing Local Leadership

2010-11-21T08:43:00.009-06:00

Based on a paper presented at the John Whitmer History Association conference, Rockford, Illinois, September 24, 2010: “LDS Outpost in the Mission Field: The Old Aurora Branch (1932-1965)”

Around the turn of the twentieth century Church leaders began encouraging members to stay where they were and not “gather” to Utah. Members were to begin building up the Church in their own hometowns, far away from the intermountain West. In some larger cities, like Chicago, the new approach worked reasonably well and a core of strong leaders emerged, who were largely transplants from Utah. But for some forty years, members in the small, outlying branches struggled with sparse numbers, long distances, and lack of experience.

The Aurora Branch provides an excellent case study of how the local leadership was gradually developed. When the Greers arrived in Aurora, missionaries presided over all of the meetings. Elders who grew up in Utah simply had more experience in the Church than the new converts in Illinois. They even presided over the Relief Society.

Batavia Branch Relief Society, late 1930s

Minutes of the Relief Society meeting held October 2, 1928, record the testimony of Elder Bertrand Beck, a new missionary. “I did not know nor do not yet know much about Relief Society work but I do know it is the work of the Lord. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God and that Jesus is the true Son of God. Ask all the favors and blessings in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen” (LDS Church History Library, microfilm LR2975, Box 1:12, 14, RS minutes 1928-31). Missionaries also collected and recorded tithing donations and performed baptisms.

It is interesting to note that James T. Greer did not baptize his daughter Louise in September 1932. Elder Elsworth P. Romney took care of that. (Photo left.) Yet by 1939, there are many stories of his exercising his priesthood and gift of healing. What happened in those brief seven years to cause such a change?

First of all, Jim Greer showed up and kept showing up. Thus he was present to be tutored by missionaries, mission presidents, stake presidents, and General Authorities. Visitors from Salt Lake City attended mission and quarterly stake conferences, and Jim and Myrtle Greer were always there. For example, in 1933 both George Albert Smith and David O. McKay, counselors in the First Presidency and later presidents of the Church, presided and spoke at a mission conference. In 1936 President Heber J. Grant organized the Chicago Stake.

(Right) The Greer family after stake conference held at University Ward in Chicago, ca. 1941

According to his son-in-law Bob Erekson, Jim Greer remembered everything he heard. So in spite of being barely literate at first—having only a few months of education in a country school in southern Illinois—Jim Greer was able to learn quickly. He apparently applied himself to study. With the help of Myrtle, who had an eighth grade education and a teaching certificate, he gradually improved his reading skills. In 1934 she gave him a copy of Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage, a formidable volume (now in possession of Ginger Hamer). Whether he read the book himself or she read it to him is not known, but Jim learned to read well enough to read Church instruction manuals and everything else that was needed.

He also learned by doing. He was called by the missionaries to conduct the Aurora Branch Sunday School in April 1932. He also conducted the evening meeting for the first time on May 22, 1932.

(Left) James T. Greer, flanked by two young women in the branch and two elders, ca. 1936. Note the sign: "No collections" being the main attraction to the meetings.

James T. Greer gradually gained confidence and grew in his calling, yet even into the late 1950s, his style of conducting meetings was casual, “down-home,” and entirely his own.

During the 1930s the Aurora Branch remained painfully small, and when Robert L. Erekson arrived in 1941, the membership still consisted of fewer than fifteen people. The Lord took time to build a leader first, and when the branch began to flourish, he was ready.

Back Again

2010-11-21T08:24:00.003-06:00

From May 10 to November 21 is a long time to be silent. I apologize for the long hiatus. I'm back again now and hope to continue this research and reporting more regularly.

At the end of May we took the first steps to move from the house where we had lived for thirty years. We were blessed with a quick sale and with a new home that suits us perfectly for now, and hopefully for a long time. We still have boxes to unpack, but we are mostly settled, and I can turn my attention back to this project that is so dear to my heart.

I am still convinced of the importance of gathering the history of the Aurora Branch. I encourage you to send photos and stories to my email address: gingerhamer@yahoo.com.

Thanks!

Attendance Record 1945

2010-05-10T01:15:00.002-05:00

The Aurora Branch set an attendance record in 1945, as recorded by Myrtle Greer in the Branch History.

A Special Meeting

A Branch Conference was held June 31, 1945, in the I.O.O.F Hall. All the Odd Fellows were invited and 200 people were in attendance. 180 were non-members. President Wm. A. Matheson, John K. Edmunds 1st counselor, James N. Astin 2nd counselor. 4 servicemen sang. Also Corbett, a serviceman, was one of the speakers.
John K. Edmunds was the main speaker. Others attending were Henry A. Matis, Ariel Williams, John Whowell. John K. Edmunds was in charge. [page 59]

Louise Erekson saved a copy of the printed program from that meeting.Notice the discrepancy in the dates. We might guess that the meeting, originally scheduled for April 29, was postponed until June 31.

You have to give the branch credit for creative missionary efforts and for trying to put their best foot forward. They invited all the members of the Odd Fellows lodge as well as friends and neighbors. We assume that the meeting was held in the lodge room on the third floor of the Odd Fellows Hall because 200 people would not have fit in the long, narrow room on the second floor where meetings were usually held.

To give an idea of how unusual it was to have so many people in attendance, Bob Erekson says that when he arrived in Aurora in 1941, there were only 16 active members. The next attendance record was set in 1957 or 1958 on an Easter Sunday when attendance topped 100. I remember the occasion because I was serving as Sunday School secretary and I was responsible for counting everyone.

In 1938, twenty years earlier, sacrament meeting attendance averaged 9.6 people, and Sunday School a little better with 15.4, as recorded in the first entry of the History of the Aurora Branch, beginning January 1, 1938:
We have 23 members and are holding our meeting in the I.O.O.F. Hall 62 South LaSalle St., pay fifteen dollars a month rent.
In the month of January we held 5 sacrament meetings, 48 total attendance
5 Sunday School, 77 total present
2 Genealogy, 11 total present
Mutual [no numbers listed]
Visitors from Chicago during the month High councilman Ronald Molan [sp?], Henry Matis, Golden Driggs, also Conrad Sorensen

Today we know these early members were laying a strong foundation. Yet it is amazing to think of the faith that kept them coming week after week. Their dedication and willingness to make things happen can be seen in the following list of officers sustained at a branch conference on September 18, 1938. Ten people were filling 19 callings.
James T. Greer, pres of Branch
John Wendt, 1st counselor
Myrtle Greer, branch clerk

Kathryn Arbuckle, chorister
Louise Greer, pianist

James T. Greer, supt. of Sunday School
John Wendt, asst. supt.
Myrtle Greer, sec & Treas

John Wendt, pres of MIA
James Greer, 1st counselor
Kathryn Arbuckle, 2nd counselor
Mable Wendt, sec and treasurer

Mable E. Wendt, pres of Relief Society
Alice Minnehan, 1st counselor
Myrtle Greer, 2nd counselor
Alodia Howard, sec and treas

Alodia Howard, chairman of genealogy
Evelyn Kettley, sec
Lyle Kettley, teacher

[The historical records cited here were found at the Church History Library, microfilm call# LR2975 14, Reel #1-11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. Program in possession of Ginger Hamer.]

Announcing the Aurora Branch History Project

2010-04-22T18:48:00.004-05:00

This blog is almost one year old—it began on May 13, 2009—and with its first anniversary comes new focus.

The project that started as a personal journey has taken on a more formal purpose and an official name—Aurora Branch History Project. Soon it will also have a logo that will most likely include this photo of branch members posing in front of the entrance to the Odd Fellows Hall in 1948, near the mid-point of branch history.
Front, l to r: Ardis McCarty, Nancy McCarty, Louise Williams (visitor from Chicago), James T. Greer holding grandson Tom Erekson, Myrtle Greer, Cora Hall, Grace Erekson (visiting from Utah), and Ilda Fuller. Back row: Louise Erekson, Jimmie Greer, Mary Jane Greer, and Patty Ward.

Although I have not posted to the blog in more than six weeks, I assure you that during this time I have spent more hours than ever on research and the organization of research files. I thank all of you for your patience with the unexplained hiatus.

This new emphasis began with a research trip to the Church History Library in Salt Lake City where I spent four days in early March reviewing microfilms about the Aurora Branch and transcribing minutes of meetings held during the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. While there, I met one afternoon with a senior staff member of the Joseph Smith Papers Project, who is an acquaintance of my son John Hamer. He encouraged me to continue this project, pointing out the need for research on the Church in the mid-20th century. Very little has been done on this time period, and even less has been compiled about the history of the Church in the branches of the Midwest. (Perhaps the experience we share and the information being gathered will be more far-reaching than we had imagined.)

Also in the past few weeks I have designed a standard form for cataloging the information that I am compiling on each member. I’m sure the form will be modified going forward, but for now it contains time and place of residence in Aurora, occupation, some genealogical information and names of family members, activity in the branch, photos, commentary, current contact information (for the member or descendant), and a list of resources consulted. This standardization has already been a great help in organizing my somewhat haphazard files.

I renew my request for you to share photos, anecdotes, and genealogical information about the Aurora Branch, and I emphasize that the branch members and their descendants may request copies of my files at any time.

Preserving and sharing information always has been ultimate goal for compiling this history. There will undoubtedly be many ways to share the information over time. For instance, this coming September I will be presenting a paper relating to the Aurora Branch at a conference of the Community of Christ Church (Reorganized LDS) in Rockford, Illinois.

Eventually all the research materials and the Aurora Branch artifacts that I inherited from my grandparents will be donated to the Church History Archives in Salt Lake City.

I look forward to continuing this journey through history and I invite you to accompany me as we get to know the fine people who were dedicated members of the Aurora Branch.

Primary Remembered

2010-03-04T16:13:00.007-06:00

“The Primary’s the main organization in the Church,” Myrtle Greer explains in her oral biography. “You teach children when they’re little, and they’ll stay with it and make good members. I did love Primary. About all I knew was missionary work and Primary.”

For many years after she invited neighborhood children to her home for Primary, those same children would greet her on the street as adults. She and Jim would be coming out of a store downtown and someone would come up to them and say, “Oh, we used to come to your house for Primary.”

Myrtle continues: “They met here at my house until they got to where they had to have a class in the bathroom. When they did that, I told Jim, ‘This is it. I cannot keep them any longer.’ We had to get another place.”

Here are two photos of the children and teachers in 1956-57, about the time the Greer home was reaching its limit. Notice the smaller children are on benches that someone in the branch made so that as many children as possible could crowd together.

Above, Primary children and teachers, 1956-57: front, Margaret Sullivan, Ginger Erekson holding Craig Boswell, [boy with head turned], Margie Reynolds(?), Steven Doty, Cris Erekson, Vera Resch. Second row: [girl behind Ginger’s head, probably a Boswell], Cathy Sullivan, Kathleen McGuire holding Ann McGuire, Paul Doty, Rose Marie Resch holding Dottie Sullivan(?). Third row: Myrtle Greer, Erek Erekson, Tommy Spahr, [boy], [girl]. Fourth row: Bucky Spahr (with back turned), Billy Spahr (hidden), [boy], Tom Erekson, John Resch.

In the picture below, most people are seated in the same location, and because the pictures were taken from different angles, we are able to identify more of the children. In addition, Gladys Sullivan is now seated to the left of Myrtle Greer.

When special Primary activities were held at the Greer home, Jim and Myrtle became “guests.” Here are photos of two consecutive Daddy-Daughter dinners, 1958 and 1959.

Seated around the dining room table in 1958, clockwise from the front left corner: Cheryl Swords, Chuck Swords, Earl Spahr, Rose Marie Resch, Fred Woolcott, Julia Woolcott, William and Anita Aymar.
February 28, 1959: [Mr.] and Joan Wilbershied; Earl Spahr and Rose Marie Resch; Charles and Cheryl Swords; Bill and Anita Aymar; Fred and Julia Woolcott.

From the Primary History: “The Seagull and the Lark classes held their “Daddie Date” on this evening. Sr. Rosalee Spahr and Sr. Lee Fisher, teachers, along with the girls planned the evening. Games were played and music sung throughout the evening. Br. James T. Greer, president of the Aurora Branch, and Sister Myrtle Greer were guests. Delicious refreshments were served from a beautifully decorated table. Colors of red and white were used. Br. Fred Woolcott opened the refreshment period with a toast to the girls and Julia Woolcott responded with a toast to the fathers.”

Myrtle loved Primary and served as president for some 25 years, and as she said, “That’s a long time.”

Primary Presidents

2010-02-19T19:26:00.010-06:00

As far as we know, in 33 years of Aurora Branch history, only four women served as Primary president: Myrtle Greer, Iris Dombrow, Louise Erekson, and Lenoir Deans.

Myrtle Greer served the longest by far, starting a small Primary class in her home on May 12, 1932, although she was not originally designated as president. At that time members by and large worked under the direction of the full-time missionaries, and so it was that Elder Jesse Walker conducted that first Primary meeting with Elder Elsworth D. Romney assisting. Elder Elsworth D. Romney and Elder Jesse Walker, 1932

On October 21, 1932, a second class was started at the home of Myrtle McCraney, who lived on the east side of Aurora at 940 Liberty Street. By 1936 classes had been combined and were meeting at McCraney’s with eight children, three of whom were members. Louise Greer, Helen Marie McCraney, and Jimmie Greer, the first three children in the Aurora Branch Primary, 1932

Unfortunately, there is a gap in the record from 1937 until 1949. Then Iris Dombrow was called to be the Primary president. By this time 16 children were enrolled and they were meeting at the Erekson home at 1515 Hoyt. Being president didn’t mean that was all Iris did; she also taught the older boys and girls in a combined Home and Trail Builders class. The Primary grew quickly and soon had an enrollment of 23 children with a four classes and a fully organized presidency, all of whom taught classes.

About 1953 Iris Dombrow was called as stake Primary president. Each year members of the Primary General Board would travel from Salt Lake City to hold conferences with all of the Primary officers and teacher in the various stakes. When Salt Lake visitors came to Chicago, they sometimes went out for dinner, as shown above, ca. 1956: (l to r), Earl and Naomi W. Randall (She wrote “I Am a Child of God”); Iris and Ray Dombrow; Bob and Louise Erekson; Arta Hale and her husband (She was 1st counselor in the General Primary presidency).

Louise Erekson (shown here ca. 1959) had been serving as a counselor to Iris in the Aurora Branch Primary and was called as president in 1953. On October 29, she combined the opening of the Primary year with a birthday party for her son Tommy, age 6, and “only children interested in Primary were invited.” That year the Primary children collected $19.27 in birthday pennies to send to the Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. Louise was soon called to be stake Primary secretary (and later a counselor) to Iris Dombrow, and Aurora again needed a Primary president.

On September 26, 1954, Lenoir Deans was set apart with Myrtle Greer and Evelyn Kettley as her counselors.

Lenoir Hatfield Deans was born in Chicago and grew up as a member of the Logan Square Ward. She and her husband Ronnie started attending the branch when they moved to a house built for them by Bob Erekson on Route 59, about seven miles east of Aurora. Under her direction the Primary presented a Sunday evening program in April, held a picnic in June, and marched in a round-the-block parade to celebrate Pioneer Day in July. In August they presented another Sunday evening program and held an end-of-the-year picnic.

On August 5, 1956, Myrtle Greer was set apart as Primary president again and she held that position for the next nine years, until the Aurora Branch became the Fox Valley Ward in June 1965.

These were years of phenomenal growth and transition in Aurora. It was exciting to have so many children in Primary, but it also meant calling an army of teachers and training them in monthly in-service lessons taught by Mary Jane Greer [Dalley] around the dining room table in the Greer home.

Also in the 1950s the Primary organization, as directed from Salt Lake, changed dramatically with new names for the classes, new lesson books, and visual aid kits. The Aurora Branch kept pace as best it could.

By 1961 the roster of officers and teachers looked like this: Myrtle Greer, president with Gladys Sullivan and Lucy Doty as counselors and Phyllis Mindar secretary. Mary Jane Greer was the chorister and in-service trainer. Teenage girls taught the three youngest classes: Moonbeams (age 3), Bethine Mindar; Sunbeams (4), Julia Woolcott; Stars (age 5) Rose Marie Resch. Marlene Kettley taught the Rainbows (age 6); Pat Phillips, the Co-Pilots (age 7); and Rosalee Spahr, the Top-Pilots (age 8). There were still not quite enough older boys and girls to fill three classes each—boys and girls ages 9, 10, and 11 being separated. Still the boys had Blazers (age 9-10) taught by Ed Kettley and Viola Cook, and Guide Patrol (age 11), taught by Irma Swords. The girls’ classes were Gaynotes with Janie Arnes and Merrihands with Beverly Reynolds.

The printed program for a Primary presentation on April 29, 1962, lists the names of 52 children. The Primary had come a long way—many thanks to the devoted presidents and teachers.

Primary Graduations

2010-01-23T22:46:00.014-06:00

Although many children had attended classes since Primary began in 1932, the first official Primary graduations held in the Aurora Branch occurred on September 25, 1955, during a Sunday evening Primary program. The regularity of graduations over the next five years indicates the growth of the Primary in terms of numbers and organization that occurred in the late 1950s.
Vera Ruth Resch, the first graduate, 1955, passed away in January 2008. (The buildings in the background are on LaSalle Street across from the Odd Fellows Hall.)

Ginger Erekson [Hamer]

Although Vera was exactly one year older than I was, we were always in the same Primary and Sunday School classes. She and I were baptized on the same day in 1951 (along with Phyllis Earle), and Vera graduated from Primary with me in 1955. She was not in a hurry to start attending the Beehive class like 12-year-old girls are today because the Mutual Improvement Association (MIA) was not yet organized in the branch and there was no Beehive class for her to attend. To remedy the situation, my parents took a carload of Aurora youth to the West Suburban Ward (about 35 minutes away)—every Tuesday night for the next two years.

Earl "Bucky" Spahr Jr., who graduated on his twelfth birthday, and Billy Aymare
The next graduation recorded in the Primary history took place in Sacrament meeting on September 14, 1958. Bucky Spahr was presented with a pin by Primary president Myrtle Greer and she turned him over to Richard Kettley, who represented the newly organized MIA, and to Jack Sullivan, the Scout leader. Bucky was ordained a deacon by James H. Greer and John Wendt in the same meeting. A few months later, on March 1, 1959, Billy Aymare graduated in a similar ceremony. His teacher Gladys Sullivan told about the things he had accomplished, and he too became a member of the MIA.

Later that year, on August 29, 1959, three girls graduated. (At that time all girls graduated from Primary as a class at the end of the Primary year, while the boys graduated on their birthdays, a policy that caused no end of irritation for girls who were anxious to move on.)
Julia Woolcott [Sandall], Cheryl Swords, and Rose Marie Resch [Morris]
That Fast Sunday morning “The Seagull teacher, Sister Rosalee Spahr, told of the accomplishments that each girl has completed. The girls then sang a song. Bro. James T. Greer, President of the Aurora Branch, present each girl with her certificate. The girls were then present to the MIA girls’ director, Sister Muriel Nunyan. The girls will go into Beehive work in the MIA. Pres. and Sister Edmunds of the Chicago Stake were in attendance that morning.”

Thomas L. Erekson, age 12

A few months later, on November 1, 1959, Tom Erekson graduated. Following the same pattern, his teacher Gladys Sullivan told of his accomplishments in Primary. Sister Myrtle Greer presented him to the branch president who gave him his certificate and presented him to John Earle who was then the Young Men’s MIA president. Tom was ordained a deacon the following week.

Bethine Mindar

One final graduation in noted in the Primary history, that of Bethine Louise Mindar in September 1960. Bethine attended Primary only a few months because she joined the Church on May of that year, along with her parents, Donald and Phyllis Mindar, and the rest of her family.

History of the Primary

2010-01-18T20:34:00.009-06:00

In 1961 the Aurora Branch Primary presented “our beloved Branch President, Bro. James T. Greer” with a large scrapbook containing the history of the Primary in Aurora since 1932. It contains a wealth of history, names, stories, and photos, meticulously compiled by Marlene Kettley who was then serving as the Primary historian.
The Aurora Branch Primary children in 1951 with first counselor, Elinor Woolcott

This is the earliest photo in the scrapbook. I would like help identifying the children. Here are my best guesses: First row front, Ginger Erekson [Hamer], Julia Woolcott,[ boy looking down], Tom Erekson (blurred);
Second row: Elinor Woolcott, Ed Kettley (hidden), Jim Resch, John Resch, Mike Woolcott, Barry Woolcott.
Back row: [boy in baseball cap], Bill Kettley, Bob Kettley, [boy with something in mouth], Dick Kettley, Vera Resch.

Perhaps some clues to their identities can be found in the historical summary taken from the scrapbook. (I was surprised to see that I have at least three additional pertinent photos.):
“During the year 1951-52 the Aurora Branch Primary met at the home of Louise Erekson, 1515 Hoyt, Aurora, Illinois. The membership roll showed 23 children in attendance. Sr. Iris Dombrow served as President, Sr. Elinor Woolcott, 1st Counselor, and Sr. Louise Erekson as 2nd Counselor.

In this photo Iris Dombrow is standing in front of the Erekson home on Hoyt Street

“The classes consisted of Nursery, Beginners Group I & II, Zion’s Boys and Girls, Guides and the Larks which had a home study. Two women missionaries were assisting at this time. They were namely Sr. Ramona Ranzenberger and Sr. Norma J. Murri. Rosalee Resch served as acting Secretary until December 16, 1951, then Sr. Betty Jane Tatton served as Secretary.

Missionary photo of Sister Norma Jeane Murri, 902 N. Arthur, Pocatello, Idaho

“It was during this year that Sr. Iris Dombrow became the mother of a baby boy, “David Raymond Dombrow.” Little David was born in April 1951. Sr. Betty Tatton also became the mother of a baby girl, “Marta Lee Tatton,” born November 6, 1951. Betty Tatton and Marta Lee on Easter Sunday, 1952

“Sr. Nadia Grimmett, Sr. Page, and Sr. Woodbury later joined the group as missionaries. Sr. Rosalee Resch, Mable Stemple, Gladys Sullivan, Evelyn Kettlely and Betty Tatton were all helpers during this year. The program consisted of lessons, games, and the usual parties & programs. The Aurora Branch Primary won a certificate during this year from Chicago Stake for the Children’s Friend subscriptions.”

The Aurora Branch Primary history book remained with the Greer family until 1982 when Myrtle passed away. Her daughter, Louise Erekson, then kept it until 2009 when she gave it to me. At the appropriate time, I will donate it to the Church History Library and Archives.

James T. Greer, A Year-round Santa

2009-12-27T19:56:00.007-06:00

“Jim started playing Santa Claus when we first got to Aurora, just for the neighbors. He kept on doing it more and more all his life. He played Santie Claus almost every year that I can remember.” —Myrtle GreerJames T. Greer as Santa holding his granddaughter Carrie. This photo was taken in 1971, six years after the Aurora Branch became Fox Valley Ward.

Myrtle continues: “I made him a suit and a cap and he bought a beard. He loved any chance to be with people and do things with people, or to please people. Every year he went from door to door around here in his Santa Claus suit, to every child on this whole street and give them something for Christmas. Jim saw that everybody in the branch had something for Christmas too. There wasn’t very many of us then.

“He had his presents in his car and his Santa Claus suit on going over to take a present to the Wendts. On the way he stopped at a stop sign and somebody run into him. Two or three cops come, and they were marching up and down, and the man was cussing and said Jim stopped and caused him to have a wreck and all. It was really a mess. Of course, Santie Claus was out there a dancing around with his suit on too.

"The policeman said, 'What’s the matter, Santa Claus? What did happen?' Jim said, 'Well, I just stopped for that stop sign and they run into me.' They said, 'Well, he shouldn’t have done that.' They was for Jim because he was Santa Claus. People from all over town come to see that. They didn’t fine Jim or anything. They just said, 'Well, Santa Claus, good luck to you! Come by and see me next year!'" (From The Story of Jim and Myrtle Greer: Family and Church, an oral history by Myrtle Greer, pages 115-117)

In later years Jim was hired by the Weiss Department store at Northgate Shopping Center. They bought him the luxurious beard pictured above. His Christmas adventures were also written up in the Beacon-News in 1965. Here is the article by Charles S. Ward:
"A Year-round Santa Claus"
If you live in the neighborhood of Foran Lane, you may hear a knock on your door.
When you answer it, it won’t be a door-to-door salesman for a commercial product. It may be a door-to-door salesman of kindness and the Christmas spirit.
It my not be December; it may be June or January.
There’s a 70-year-old gentleman who symbolizes for many Aurorans the spirit of giving and peace on earth all year round.
Children love James T. Greer, a year-round Santa Claus, even if he’s dressed in around-home casual clothes.
They call him grandpa. Adults are proud to call him friend.
Each year at harvest time, his front yard is like a farmer’s market; the children are in his corn cart, pulled by Greer’s tractor.
Prior to last Christmas he turned 70. That doesn’t mean leisure. It means more time to devote to “the one thing that interests me most—the welfare of people.”
His hobby is making lamps. He makes them out of anything at hand.
During the holiday season, he dons a Santa Claus suit.
He goes around the neighborhood, knocking on doors, and residents are given an unsolicited gift.

Merry Christmas from the Aurora Branch

2009-12-25T22:04:00.005-06:00

The December 1950 newsletter was a rare, full-color edition. Or perhaps we should say “hand-colored” edition because each page was individually painted by Louise Erekson, who was the newsletter editor, reporter and staff artist rolled into one. Both pages sport her signature holly leaves and berries. A Christmas candle and Santa appear on page two.

The news of the moment was the pending visit of stake president John K. Edmunds who was expected to call a new second counselor in the branch presidency replacing H. Ward McCarty who had moved with his family back to Salt Lake.

Brother McCarty was one in a long line of second counselors. Although John Wendt served as first counselor for the entire time that Jim Greer was branch president, it seemed that everyone who was called as second counselor soon moved from the branch.

Perhaps thinking he would have someone permanently in place, he called James H. Greer as second counselor. Ten months later, Jimmie left to serve in the Texas-Louisiana Mission.

Meanwhile, however, Jimmie did double duty, as he was never released from his calling as branch clerk. In fact, he was not released even when he left for the mission field. His mother filled in for him as clerk while he was gone, and he picked up the reins again when he returned.

Louise’s design of Santa next to greetings from the branch presidency was appropriate because Jim Greer loved to play Santa Claus. (More adventures of Santa Claus in the next post.)

A Christmas Parade

2009-12-20T22:08:00.004-06:00

Lenore Deans shared this photo with me last summer, and I’ve been saving it for the right season. In 1955 the Aurora Branch participated in a downtown parade organized by Aurora churches to “Put Christ Back into Christmas.”Riding on the Aurora Branch entry, “Away in a Manger,” the angels holding the banner are Ed Kettley and Ginger Erekson [Hamer]. The other angels are John Resch, Erek Erekson, and Earl “Bucky” Spahr Jr.).

Many churches were invited to enter floats and the Aurora Branch felt they had arrived as a congregation when they were asked to participate.

Branch members spent many hours working on the float because they were eager to make a good impression. This photo shows that it was built at the home of Jim and Myrtle Greer (724 Foran Lane). Grandpa Greer’s hay wagon formed the base. The men added a high wooden platform with steps and the whole thing was covered with the obligatory chicken wire stuffed with Kleenexes. Cardboard letters on both sides spelled out “The cattle were lowing.” The name of the Church was displayed in similar letters on the back of the high platform. No one I’ve asked can remember how the float was pulled—Grandpa Greer’s tractor, a car, or pick-up truck.

Lenore Deans made the cow, donkey and sheep from paper mache over wooden frameworks. When the float was dismantled, she kept the animals and displayed them in her living room at Christmastime for several years.

We believe a photographer from the Aurora Beacon-News took this photo and it probably appeared in the paper, but more research is needed to find the exact date of the parade. We believe, of course, that it took place in December, even though the weather in the photo seems to be quite mild.

If anyone has something to add about the float and the parade and/or corrections to the memories we’ve cobbled together here, please add a comment or email me.

Merry Christmas!

The Autograph Quilt: Two more friends, Mary Kramer and Ruth Larsen

2009-11-15T21:50:00.006-06:00

One last entry about two more of the 24 women whose names are embroidered on the autograph quilt that was presented to Myrtle Greer. Those not mentioned here or in previous posts will be introduced in the general history of the branch in which they played prominent roles.

Mary Kramer
Mary Kramer and her husband August founded the Kramer and Earle families who figured prominently in the growth of the Aurora and Ottawa branches. They joined the Church in September 1917 after August heard missionaries preaching on a street corner in La Salle, Illinois. He believed what they said was true, and reading the Book of Mormon settled the matter. But then, it appears that August was a person who made up his mind quickly and stuck with his decisions. The first day he saw Mary he knew she was the girl he was going to marry. Married in 1905 when he was 25 and she was 18, they were together 44 years. They brought eight children into the world, four boys and four girls, including the first and the last babies who died in infancy.

In 1930 they were living near Decatur, about 160 miles south of Aurora, where he was a coal miner. They later moved Somonauk, Illinois, a farming community about 15 miles west of Aurora. It was there in her later years that Mary was plagued with health problems related to diabetes. Her daughter Leona Earle would go over to clean the house and care for her. Mary was 62 when she passed away on September 23, 1949. (The date of her death is one of the factors in dating the age of the quilt.)

Both of Mary and August were both immigrants from East Prussia. She came with her parents at age 3; he arrived as a young man. His accent was stronger than hers and difficult for a young child (me!) to understand, but there was no mistaking the fervor of his testimony.

Ruth Larsen
Melvin and Ruth Larsen visiting Myrtle and Jim Greer. Jimmie and Louise (and the front of the car) are cut off in this torn photo, taken about 1933.

Ruth Larsen and her husband Melvin frequently attended the Aurora Branch in the 1930s and 1940s, but they were not permanent members because Melvin worked for the railroad and they moved from place to place as his work demanded. To make these constant moves easier, the Larsens lived in a converted passenger train car. No one now alive can remember now whether they also loaded their automobile on the train or whether they drove separately while their “apartment” was moved to its new location, usually between Galesburg and Chicago, Illinois.

Railroads were central to commerce and transportation at that time, and almost everyone then would have known exactly what Melvin did if they heard he welded frogs on the tracks. Today this essential work needs some explanation. Frogs are small metal pieces that bridge the small gaps where long rails intersect, providing a continuous surface for the train wheels at intersections and switches. Even the strongest frogs wear out in less than a year because they bear so much weight under the heavy traffic of passing trains. Depending on the application, there are many kinds of frogs, such as spring frogs that are used where moveable curved rails switch trains from the main track to a siding, so Melvin’s job was highly skilled and quite valuable.

The Larsens were both from large Mormon families in Idaho and they returned to live in Montpelier after Melvin retired. Born in 1897 and 1899, they were almost exactly the same age as Jim and Myrtle Greer and were married the same year, 1916. While Jim and Myrtle waited nine years before their first child came along, Melvin and Ruth waited eleven. Then to their lasting sorrow, their little girl, Melva, was born and died on the same day, July 7, 1927. They had no other children. Their daughter was sealed to them in 1949 when they visited the Salt Lake Temple for the first time. Melvin passed away in 1964 and Ruth in 1969.

Postscript: Reconsidering the date of the quilt

Two of the quilt squares are different from all the others because little red flowers are embroidered next to the names, which are printed in block letters. (That is, these names are not signatures like the others.) It also happens that these squares are for the two women who passed away close to the time period of the quilt—Mary Kramer in 1949 and Cora Hall in 1951. Here's Cora's quilt block again:

Previously I had thought that the quilt must have been done before their passing, but now I’m thinking that these sisters’ names were included in memoriam with the flowers to indicate that they had died. If this is true, the quilt dates from late 1951 to 1952. Because we understand that the quilt was a gift to Myrtle Greer for her service as Relief Society president, finding out her dates of service in that calling will help us reach a final conclusion.

The Autograph Quilt: Alodia Schleifer & a Miraculous Healing

2009-10-26T23:39:00.007-05:00

We’ve already met Alodia Howard Schleifer, one of the women who signed the quilt, in connection with her husband Fred’s purchase of a Hudson Terraplane from a car dealership on South LaSalle Street, next door to the Odd Fellows Hall. (See the posting for July 16, 2009.) Since July I have found this photo of the happy couple standing in front of the car in question.
FYI: The crease on the front left fender is a flaw in the photo, not the car.

But the car did not figure in my childhood memories of Alodia Schleifer. Actually, I don’t remember knowing her because she moved to Utah when I was only three or four years old. My memory consists of the oft-repeated story of how she was healed from terrible burns when my grandfather Greer administered to her in the late 1930s.

You see, Grandpa James T. Greer was blessed with the gift of healing. In her book The Story of Jim and Myrtle Greer: Family and Church, Grandma Myrtle Greer says this about it: “Jim had to get up many times in the middle of the night and go and administer to somebody, but he never hesitated, and he never complained. He’d come back and sleep what time he could, and then he’d get up at the regular time. He never missed work on account of it. Sometimes they’d ask him to go all the way to Rochelle, Elgin, or even as far as Iowa. There wasn’t much priesthood then, and a lot of times he had to go alone because he couldn’t get nobody to go with him. He administered to a lot of people. He didn’t have much education and wasn’t up like some of them are now, but he sure used what he did have.” (p. 120)

Recounting that terrible night when Alodia Schleifer needed a blessing, Jim said: “Fred Schleifer worked at Lyon Metal in the same department with me, and I introduced him to his [second] wife. She was making jelly, and she had a big stew pan full of jelly. It was just about ready to jell and she poured a little bit out into a glass of cold water to see if it was hard enough to ball up. She spilled some on the floor and she didn’t take the time to wipe it off the floor. When she stepped in this jelly, she hit the stew pan and it turned on her in the face and on her left shoulder. [It burned her so badly that her] head didn’t look like a woman’s head at all. It was almost half as big as a nail keg. Big water blisters with great big bags of water were all over her. She didn’t look human.

“I had a big, old Roadmaster Buick. Myrtle and me started for Kaneville, and a big storm and wind set that big old Buick back and forth. Myrtle said, ‘Let’s don’t go. Let’s turn back.’ I says, ‘No, something’s telling me to go.’ When we got there, I went to the door and old Fred come to the door and he says, ‘How did you ever get here?’ I said, ‘I don’t know but something kept telling me to.’

“I administered to her, and I don’t know how, but I found myself asking for her face not to be scarred. She told me later that she thought of what I said in the prayer. She always wondered why I didn’t mention about her arm and shoulder. I says, ‘Sister Schleifer, ain’t you satisfied?’ I says, ‘There’s not a scar on your face, and your clothes cover the scar on your shoulder.’ She says, ‘Yes, I’m satisfied.’

“I couldn’t doubt in my mind but what there is power in administering to the sick. I’ve never seen anything like it.” (pp. 121-122)

Alodia’s children were still living at Mooseheart and learned about the accident the next time they saw their mother. Georgia agrees with the Greers’ version of the incident.

The Quilt Connection

Alodia and her daughter Georgia H. Lang both signed the quilt, although they must have sent their signatures back from Utah to be included. I have spoken with Georgia and she does not remember ever seeing the quilt. Since her signature shows her married name, it dates the quilt after June 1948.

More about the Howard/ Schleifer/ Lang Family

Georgia was named for her father, George Howard. He worked in the coalmines in Carbon County, Utah, and was a superintendent when he passed away on March 16, 1936. He did not die in a mine explosion as we had erroneously thought, but caught a “cold,” that turned out to be spinal meningitis.

Within a year Alodia moved with her children to Moose-heart, a children’s home for orphans of members of the Moose lodge, located north of Aurora, and it wasn’t long until Jim Greer introduced his co-worker Fred to a 49-year-old widow. The family stayed in Illinois until Georgia graduated from high school in 1947 and then Alodia, her son Wallie, and Georgia moved back to Utah. (Her older son, Lynn Howard, married a girl from Kaneville and stayed in Illinois.)

Fred Schleifer went west with them but Utah didn’t exactly suit him. Before long he moved back home where he married “the lady who ran the grocery store.” Meanwhile, Georgia met Ray Lang at the LDS Business College in Salt Lake City and they were married on her nineteenth birthday, June 8, 1948. Alodia passed away on September 13, 1956.

The Signature Quilt: Cora Hall, "More Than a Friend"

2009-10-21T14:41:00.006-05:00

Cora Hall’s long-time friendship with Myrtle Greer is attested in this note she wrote in Myrtle’s autograph book in 1933.
Although it would be interesting to know more about the “cottage meeting”/birthday party, we can see at least that being a member of the Aurora Branch brought Cora friendship and good times.

She appears in many early photos of the branch, and she is the center of this happy scene in 1932. L to r: Myrtle Greer, Mable Stemple, Cora Hall, Elder S. Lawrence Moss, Elder Walker, [2 unidentified children], Louise Greer, Jimmie Greer.

Cora Hall had lived near Jim and Myrtle Greer in the small farming community of Tadpole, near Cypress, Illinois, in the mid-1920s. Jim often recounted working at the sawmill owned by Cora’s first husband, George Benard, because that was where he worked side-by-side with Oscar Johnson, who was a member of the Mormon Church. Jim watched to see if Johnson lived his religion and was impressed to see that he did.

Cora herself had joined the Mormon Church about seven years earlier, in 1919, possibly because of the influence of the Johnson family or maybe as a result of contact with the missionaries who came through the area each summer doing what was called “country tracting.”

In 1927 George Benard was tragically killed in an explosion at his sawmill, leaving Cora with four small children and no insurance on his life or the mill. Within a year or so, Cora married Charlie Hall who lived in the area, but the marriage did not last. By 1930 she had moved to Anna, Illinois, as a personal companion and housekeeper to an elderly woman. Her children stayed in Cypress with their grandparents, Logan and Marietta Benard, who raised them.

By October 1931 Cora was in Aurora. Eventually she found work as a cook and housekeeper for the Hollister family who lived at 564 Garfield Avenue. When first hired, she earned a dollar a day plus room and board. The Hollisters had a summer home in Wisconsin and, when they went there for two weeks every summer, Cora went along to take care of them.

An active member of the Aurora Branch, Cora Hall attended regularly, paid her tithing, and, although much of the work was done by missionaries in those days, she fulfilled callings in the Sunday School and Mutual. Of course Cora Hall was among those friends who signed Myrtle’s quilt in 1948-49.

A couple of years later, the Aurora Branch newsletter noted that Cora Hall was ill and would love to receive cards and letters. Her son, who lived in Aurora, cared for her for a time, and then she went to live with a daughter in Batavia. She died of cancer in November 1951.

The Signature Quilt: Friends and Neighbors

2009-10-12T22:45:00.008-05:00

Myrtle Greer, shown here in the late 1940s about the time she received the signature quilt, was involved with neighbors as well as church members. Mary Donnell and Ada Dolittle were two neighbors who signed the quilt in addition to Patsy Ward (already mentioned) who lived across the street. We know little about Mary and Ada, but hope to learn more as resources become available.

We know more about Mae Lenox who lived in a tiny house next door to the Greer’s little house on North Harrison Avenue. She was almost 20 years older than Myrtle, making her 71 in 1949. Her husband Fred had been a streetcar operator, and they lived a simple life. They moved to Harrison in the 1930s. At one time, when they lived on Woodlawn Avenue, Mae had taken in boarders to make ends meet. She had been married before and had one son, Edward, born about 1898, but he was grown and moved away.

Two of the 24 women who signed the quilt were Louise Greer’s art teachers, Bessie M. Erway and Nina Head.

In 1937 when Louise was about 13, Jim and Myrtle Greer arranged for her to take oil painting lessons from Mrs. Erway, a talented artist from Red Cloud, Nebraska. From Fitly Framed Together, Louise reminisces about this experience: “I would go to her house on Montgomery road every Saturday afternoon. Most of my old pictures are ones that I did when she was teaching me.

“Because of the Depression, Mrs. Erway could not make a living selling her paintings, and she worked for years for a company in Chicago making fur coats, sewing the pelts together by hand. It was such hard work that it ruined her hands and caused them to shake most of the time. When she wanted to show me a painting technique, she had to steady one hand with the other.

“I enjoyed Mrs. Erway. She would take me into Chicago to deliver the fur coats. We would ride on the “L” [elevated train] to places like Chinatown. Then we would eat somewhere and buy a treat. It was usually coconut cream pie. One time I didn’t go with her, and she brought me home a coconut cream pie!"

Louise, who is known for her watercolor roses, tells how she learned to paint them: “I don’t remember when I started taking art lessons from Miss Nina Head. She taught art at Aurora College and supplemented her income by giving art lessons. She had turned her dining room into a studio. She would set easels up in there and, when the lessons were over, the students helped put the easels back in a closet. There would be four or five people in a class.

“I paid for the art lessons by helping clean her house. One of her legs was stiff from having had polio as a child, and she had a hard time walking. She would make a little lunch while I mopped the kitchen floor and vacuumed and did other things to help her….

“She used to paint roses on stationery to earn money on the side, and she taught me how to paint them. All these years I have painted roses." (This rose was painted by Nina Head.)

The Signature Quilt: Lizzie Sutton

2009-10-09T09:18:00.006-05:00

Continuing the mini-biographies of the women who signed the quilt, here are some things we know about Lizzie Sutton, sister of Mae McHugh, who grew up in Tunnel Hill, living just over the hill from the Lowery family. Myrtle recalled: “There was just one house east of us and then the next house was in another district. Three girls lived in this house, Gracie, Mae, and Lizzie Alexander and they went to school when we did.” (Myrtle and Grace were the same age.)

To get to the schoolhouse, they had to cross the creek that ran through the Lowery farm. As Myrtle remembered it: “At the bottom of the hill was a big crick. When it rained a lot, the crick would get up and we’d have to walk across on a foot log. You see, they put a tree across the crick and then they put a thing along to hold to, and you would walk across on that, and the water just a rolling down below, just roaring. It’s a wonder we hadn’t fallen down in it. Sometimes my dad would bring a horse down for us to ride across.” Shared memories like that foster life-long friendships.

Lizzie Alexander grew up and married Rex Sutton, a Tunnel Hill boy, in 1923. He had been raised by his grandparents William and Rhoda Webb Sutton. Sometime during the Depression, like many other people from southern Illinois, they moved north to get work. It was logical that they would move to Aurora where they had several friends, including Jim and Myrtle Greer. Rex found work on the assembly line at Barber-Greene, a company that manufactured heavy machinery. In their later years Rex and Lizzie lived in a small house on Walnut Avenue. They did not have children.
In this photo, Lizzie and Rex Sutton are standing by Myrtle’s weeping willow tree in the front yard. The occasion is Jim and Myrtle’s 50th wedding anniversary, July 1966.

Although she was always known by her nickname, Lizzie signed "Lizabeth Sutton" on the quilt. This leaves us to wonder if her name was really "Elizabeth A." as shown on the census and other records, or this shortened, friendlier form.

P.S. To set the record straight, I don’t use the quilt on my bed as pictured in the previous post. I store this treasure as carefully as a person can store a quilt in a home. My mother gave it to me in August 2006.

The Blue and White Signature Quilt

2009-09-30T23:09:00.005-05:00

According to Louise Erekson, this quilt was given to her mother, Myrtle Greer, by the Relief Society in appreciation for her having served as Relief Society president. Embroidered on the squares are the names of 24 women who were members or former members of the Aurora Branch and/or friends and neighbors of Myrtle Greer.

When was it made? The current best guess is between June 1948 and December 1951. June 1948 because that’s when Georgia Howard married Raymond Lang, and her married name is included. And 1951 because Cora Hall passed away that year, and we believe would not have been included after she died. Living in Aurora was not, however, a requirement. Several women named on the quilt had moved away. We assume that someone wrote and asked them to send their signatures.

Who are these women? Mini-biographies to come! As a preview, here are their names, beginning in the top left corner:
Row 1: Nancy McCarty, Shirley Phillips, Patsy Ward, Mae McHugh
Row 2: Cora Hall, Anne Cannon, Irma Wienecke, Mable Wendt
Row 3: Bessie Erway, Lizbeth Sutton, Mary Kramer, Alodia H. Schleifer
Row 4: Evelyn Kettley, Clara McElone, Georgia H. Lang, Mary Donnell
Row 5: Nina Head, Mable C. Stemple, Gladys Sullivan, Ruth Larsen
Row 6: Ada Dolittle, Ardis McCarty, Louise Erekson, Mae Lenox

Row One
1. Nancy McCarty, daughter of Ward and Ardis Young McCarty who moved to Aurora from Utah in the 1940s. Her father was the manager of the Montgomery Ward store on Broadway and served as second counselor in the branch.
2. Shirley Phillips and her husband Walt moved to Aurora from Shelley, Idaho, in the spring of 1946 to have an eye specialist in Chicago operate on their 4-year-old daughter, Mauna. She had been born with glaucoma and was already blind in one eye. They parked their large 35-foot travel trailer near Bob and Louise’s trailer on their lots on Hoyt Avenue. Walt and Shirley returned to Idaho in October 1947. (She probably sent her signature for the quilt.)
3. Patsy Ward was the daughter of Ilda Fuller who lived across the street from the Greers on Harrison Avenue. Pat later married and had three sons. Her husband passed away after 50 years of marriage. Remarried now, Pat and her husband divide their time between her home in Indiana and his in Georgia. Pat Ward Smith is the sister of Jack and Gladys Sullivan.
4. Mae McHugh was the sister of Lizzie Sutton, who was Myrtle Greer’s childhood friend. They went to school together in Tunnel Hill, Illinois. Mae was not a member of the branch.

If you know when the quilt was made or can share any information about it, please let us know.

Thanks for your patience

2009-09-30T21:22:00.002-05:00

The past two months have been quite overwhelming for me with family, travel, and work. I appreciate those of you who have kept faithfully checking for new postings. Since gathering the history of the Aurora Branch really is my number one project right now, I hope to get back to regular updates on this blog. Keep checking!

Also, please send me scans of photos which I can share on the blog. I'd appreciate receiving the names and addresses of former members of the Aurora Branch so I can ask them to share their memories with all of us.

Thanks again.

Two-and-a-half-minute Talks

2009-08-29T23:50:00.008-05:00

Once upon a time Sunday School was a stand-alone meeting with its own opening exercises. Actually, the truth is that Sunday School was the meeting of choice for many members, and lest they should miss partaking of the sacrament (because they did not attend the sacrament meeting that was held on Sunday evenings), the sacrament was administered and passed both morning and evening.

Of course many members today won’t remember any of this because the consolidated meeting schedule (the three-hour-block of meetings instituted in 1980) spelled the demise of the Sunday School opening exercises. Too bad, because with opening exercises went a unique Mormon icon—the two-and-a-half minute talk.

You read that right. Not three minutes, not five minutes, but two-and-a-half minutes. Why this prescribed length? Well, remember that Sunday School talks were the Lord’s own training ground for public speaking, and all members of the branch were given their turn, child, new convert, and life-long member alike. Who could be intimidated by speaking such a short time, and to such a small audience?

And, on the rare occasions when the two speakers actually managed to speak for 2½ minutes each, the talks neatly added up to five minutes, just the right amount of time for a few brief thoughts before the practice hymn and dismissal to class. (The practice hymn is another casualty of the consolidated schedule.) The exact time was rarely achieved, however. The speakers either sat down after thirty seconds or rambled on for fifteen minutes, and it didn’t matter anyway.

Beginning in September 1949, the assignments for 2½ minute talks were published in the Aurora Branch newsletter. It would be interesting to know if the people were asked ahead of time, or if they learned about the assignment when they read the newsletter—echoes of mission calls issued from the pulpit at General Conference.

Here are some of the assignments as published. It appears that a male and a female member were assigned each time, but otherwise there were no age and experience requirements.
The McCarty family had moved from Utah to Aurora where H. Ward McCarty was the manager of the Montgomery Ward store in downtown Aurora and second counselor in the branch. Nancy was his teenage daughter. Jackie Owens was a non-member friend and neighbor of the Greer family. Ginger (that’s me) was not quite six years old. Cora Hall was a woman who had joined the Church in Southern Illinois, and of course, James T. Greer was branch president. (September 4 was stake conference in Chicago.)

In the above list from December 1950, Craig Tatton, Vera Ruth and Jimmy Resch were children under 10. Mary Jane Greer was almost 14, and the others were adults.
In the next extant copy of the newsletter, July 1951, we already see familiar names. At least seven are repeats. Oh, the blessings and bothers of a tiny branch. (Sister Murri was a missionary working in the Branch at that time.)

Since I was thinking about Sunday School, I asked my father to help me remember how the program went each week. Here’s what he came up with, and I’ll take his word for it as he was the Sunday School superintendent for more years than anyone can imagine.

Greeting and announcements
Opening Hymn
Opening Prayer
(No official Branch business was conducted in Sunday School)
Sacrament Hymn
Sacrament Gem
Administration of the Sacrament
Two 2½ minute talks
Practice Hymn
Separation for Classes
Reassembly and reminder of announcements
Closing Hymn
Closing Prayer

Did you catch that “Sacrament Gem”? Yet another tradition lost to the consolidated schedule, but more about that another time.

Soybeans and Missions

2009-08-07T12:13:00.004-05:00

The Lord blessed the Aurora Branch soybean fields for welfare and building fund assessments. He was also generous when money was needed to send Jimmie Greer on a mission.

James T. Greer prided himself on having “clean” fields, not a weed in sight. His grandchildren, Tom, Erek, and Ginger Erekson, caught up with him one day in 1952 while he was cultivating his soybeans.

Here’s the story of that very field, as Jim Greer recalled it: “When Jimmie went on his mission, I’d just got out of that hospital. [He had a heart attack in 1951.] I didn’t have no money, no nothing, and an $800 hospital bill.

“I had a little Avery tractor and a one-bottom plow. I rented 11 acres [in the spring of 1952]. I was 11 days putting that out, cultivating it, and raising beans. While I first started cultivating, the mail carrier, who lived across the street, come over and says, ‘Partner, I don’t know you from anybody else, but you might just as well be out fishing or hunting.’ He says, ‘This ground’s wore out. You’ll not make your salt to put on your bread.' I says, ‘I’ve got a son on a mission, and I expect this to help keep him out.’

That fall I got over there, and the bean crop was harvested and gone. I went up to the place where I had it registered, and they said, ‘Well, a fellow come in with a big red truck, and combined your beans.’ I didn’t know about it, but I figured it was old Bill Vaughn. I goes to Bill’s place, and his wife says, ‘He’s gone to Oswego with your beans. If you go down there, you can catch him.’

“I went down and walked in. Old Bill turned around and says, ‘Here’s the fellow.’ He said, ‘We just put down 11 acres of beans.’ I said, ‘How much did I make?’ It was $958 and some off cents—that for 11 days of work.

“I took that check (which was after the combining cost was out) over to that mail carrier and handed it to him. He called his wife out and said, ‘I want you to look at this check.’ He says, ‘We’ve said many a time that you planned on those beans helping to pay for your son’s mission. We’ve never seen such beans in our lives as there were in that field.’ I didn’t either. They was just as thick with beans all the way up and down.

“When Jimmie was released, I rented that field again. We didn’t break even. It didn’t make nothing. Now the good Lord was just in it for one year, and turned me down on another year.” (From The Story of Jim and Myrtle Greer: Family and Church, pp. 74-75)

Jimmie (James H.) Greer sent this photo to his sister, Louise Erekson, from the Texas-Louisiana Mission in 1952.

Saints and Soybeans

2009-08-02T22:22:00.008-05:00

The Aurora Branch was renown among the other units of the Chicago Stake for paying its stake building fund and stake welfare assessments in full and on time. How did a handful of members do what wealthier, more populous wards could not manage? They knew how to raise soybeans!
Men out standing in their field (of soybeans), in the early 1950s: John Earle, Rueben Earle, James T. Greer, August Kramer, Edmund Kramer holding Auggie, Robert L. Erekson.

The Kramers and the Earles had their own farms south and west of Aurora. Bob was raised on a farm. They all knew what they were doing. Beyond that, James T. Greer was a farmer at heart, and he was determined to make it happen.

Myrtle recalled: “Jim was branch president, and if the members wouldn’t pay it, we felt we had to. All the members was like us. They didn’t have no money. That’s why Jim got two tractors and a cultivator. He raised all these crops, and sold them to pay these assessments.”

And the amounts of the annual assessments were staggering. In July 1951 the branch newsletter reported that the Chicago Stake set a goal of raising $100,000 to build the stake center in Wilmette.

We don’t know how much Aurora Branch had to raise, but it was, thankfully, less than $50,000. And everyone pitched in with pie socials, watermelon busts, and long days hoeing soybeans.

The members cleaned out the weeds that grew too close to the beans for Jim Greer’s cultivator to take out. Here, hoes in hand, are Bob Erekson, Ginger Erekson, Rosalie Resch, Vera Resch, Rose Marie Resch, Erek Erekson (front), Myrtle Greer, Jim Greer.

The entire branch felt ownership in these soybeans that grew so tall. Gathered at the field (early 1950s) are Myrtle Greer, Iris Dombrow holding Mark, Louise Erekson (in back), Grace W. Erekson holding Erek Erekson, James T. Greer holding Tom Erekson, Mary Jane Greer, Dorothy Kramer (in back), Reuben Earle, Ginger Erekson and Donny Earle (in front), August Kramer, Phyllis Earle, John Earle, Edmund Kramer holding Auggie Kramer.

Donny Earle, Tommy and Erek Erekson, measuring themselves by the height of the soybeans, ca. 1952-1953.

In her book The Story of Jim and Myrtle Greer: Family and Church, Myrtle Greer continues: “Jim would come into Chicago Stake meetings, and President Edmunds would ask who all’s got your assessment paid. Of all those people, none of them had their assessment, but when it come to Jim Greer, Jim just handed him a check, paid in full. Jim done it all from farming” (63-64).

The soybean success story was repeated throughout the 1950s. In 1957, Myrtle noted that the soybean profit that year was $444.43.

Simply put: “We worked hard. Soybeans is what we raised and sold for the church” (64).

Odd Fellows Hall, Part 5: Auto Row

2009-07-27T23:03:00.009-05:00

Car stories keep popping up in anecdotes people tell about the early days when the Aurora Branch met in the Odd Fellows Hall. And with good reason! That block of South LaSalle Street was “an early automobile commercial center in Aurora” and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

When you take a close look at the buildings that flank the Odd Fellows Hall, you see that they were originally designed as automobile dealerships.
Coats Garage, Odd Fellows Hall, Berthold-Hanson Cadillac Dealership, Theiss’ Central Garage, Finch and McCullouch block (printing and book binding)

Also amazing to note—this block of LaSalle Street, between Benton and Fox, was once on the original Lincoln Highway route through Aurora. No wonder they were selling cars there. This map is from a reprint of A Complete Official Road Guide of the Lincoln Highway, Fifth Edition, 1924, page 319.

Nowadays car dealerships consist of a showroom, offices, and service garage, surrounded by a massive parking lot with rows and rows of new and used cars. Not so in the early 1900s. Quoting the brochure “Aurora, An Architectural Portrait,” p. 43: “Automobile sales and service buildings developed as a distinctive building type in the early 1900s. They were designed to blend in with other commercial buildings and were generally located on the fringes of the central business districts.”

Immediately north (left) of the Odd Fellows Hall is the Coats Garage. Coats Garage “was the first automobile sales and service building built in the LaSalle Street Auto Row Historic District specifically for this use. Constructed in 1907, it still features the original elevator that transports cars to the second and third floors for storage and servicing. Coat’s line of cars in 1912 [the year the Odd Fellows Hall was built] included Chalmers, E.M.F., Hudson, and Flanders. It was constructed with large “I” beams that span the width of the building, providing a large open space without columns for the display of automobiles. The current owner indicated that 30 modern cars can be stored on each floor.” This is probably the dealership where Fred Schleifer bought his Hudson Terraplane.

On the south side (right) of the Odd Fellows Hall, a Cadillac dealer occupied a one-story building. Recalling her experiences as a child in the early 1940s, my aunt Jane wrote in 1993: “Once in a while Jim and I would go out of the door at the back of the large kitchen and crawl over the metal fire escape and climb onto the roof of the building next to the Odd Fellows Hall. This building had skylight windows where we could look down onto the floor below. It was a Cadillac sales building—beautiful cars to see.” (The skylights are still there.)

Berthold-Hanson Cadillac was an enduring business. Here is their advertisement from the 1964 Aurora City Directory.
Continuing south we come to the Theiss’ Central Garage Building. This off-center photo does not do justice to the pleasing symmetry of the matching, two-story bay windows. Again quoting the architectural tour brochure: “Another automobile sales and service building, the Theiss building was constructed around 1912 in the Commercial Style. It also has the original elevator; however, unlike the Coats Garaged, this building utilized the new technique of fire-proof reinforced concrete slabs for the floors. A 1912 advertisement indicated that the Buick Maxwell, Apperson and Baker Electric cars were sold at the Central Garage.”

Completing the block was the Finch & McCullouch building, erected in 1907. At the time it was one of the most complete printers and binderies in Illinois, and the company remained at that location for more than 70 years. The other side of the block is also interesting for its fine examples of Victorian era commercial buildings. That side of the street was used as the set for the movie, The Express: The Ernie Davis Story. Davis was the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy. LaSalle Street was used to represent his hometown in Pennsylvania. (We rented the movie hoping to catch a glimpse of the Odd Fellows Hall, but only the opposite side of the street was shown. All was not lost, however, because it’s a really good movie.)

Odd Fellows Hall, Part 4: Car Buying on S. LaSalle

2009-07-16T21:01:00.007-05:00

A phone call from my uncle Jim Greer started me on a surprising journey through Odd Fellows Hall history.

He told me a story about Fred Schleifer who used to bring his wife Alodia to church in the late 1930s. Since Fred was not a member of the Aurora Branch, he was more interested in the car dealers on South LaSalle Street than in church meetings. Jimmy recalls that one Sunday Fred bought a Hudson Terraplane.

We don’t know when Fred Schleifer bought his new car, but we can guess. The Aurora Branch moved to the Odd Fellows Hall sometime in 1935, and Terraplanes were manufactured only from 1934 to 1936. As for which model he bought, Uncle Jim recalls the car’s “suicide doors,” that is, doors that open from the front, like those shown on the above Terraplane advertisement. This model is a 1935 Terraplane Deluxe coach that sold for $645 and weighed 2665 pounds. According to ads, “all Terraplanes used a 212-cid straight six that put out 88 bhp and could accelerate from 0 to 50 mph in 14.05 seconds.”

Possibly a better candidate for Fred’s car is this 1936 Terraplane Custom touring sedan This car weighed 2,875 pounds and cost $740.

Fred needed a good car because he had to drive to work from his home in Kaneville to Montgomery, Illinois, a roundtrip of 30 miles. He worked at Lyon Metal with James T. Greer, and it was because of that connection that he met his second wife, Alodia Howard, which took him to LaSalle Street and the car dealerships.

Jim Greer’s first job at Lyon Metal was making shipping crates. A look at the 1930 census shows Fred Schleifer doing exactly the same thing. Obviously they struck up a friendship because Jim Greer never met a stranger. Fred was 48 years old, to Jim’s 34. He was born in Pennsylvania and he had a wife and three children living at home. Sometime in the next five years his wife passed away.

Meanwhile, Alodia Howard moved to Illinois from southeastern Idaho after her husband was killed in a mine explosion. He had belonged to the Moose Fraternity, and so his widow and three children (Lynn, Wallace, and Georgia) were eligible to live at Mooseheart, the “Child City,” a few miles north of Aurora along Route 25. From the Mooseheart website, we learn that it is “a home for children and teens in need, from infancy through high school. Dedicated in July 1913 by the Moose fraternal organization, MOOSEHEART cares for youth whose families are unable, for a wide variety of reasons, to care for them. Some have lost one or both parents; others are living in environments that are simply not conducive to healthy growth and development.” Alodia Howard found employment at Mooseheart and the children lived in the cottages.

It wasn’t long before James T. Greer decided to introduce Fred and Alodia to each other, and the rest is history.

As I said at the beginning, the story of the Terraplane started me on a journey that uncovered some unusual facts about South LaSalle Street and the automobile businesses that grew up next to the Odd Fellows Hall. Keep checking back. There’s more to this story.

Who Are the Odd Fellows Anyway?

2009-07-09T01:55:00.003-05:00

A couple of people recently told me they’d never heard of the “Odd Fellows.” They wanted to know who or what they were. Here's what I found out:

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F) is a fraternal organization, similar to the Elks or Moose. It was organized in England in the late 1700s and began in America in 1819. They got their name because at that time “it was deemed odd to find people organized for the purpose of giving aid to those in need without recognition and pursuing projects for the benefits of all mankind.” (from I.O.O.F. webpage)

Lodges also provided lodge members with a social community that would help in times of need. This support was especially important because, in those days, there were no governmental safety nets and very little insurance of any kind.

The worldwide emblem of the Odd Fellows is a three-link chain with the letters that stand for friendship, love, and truth and symbolizes the fraternity of the members.
I am familiar with this chain because it was emblazoned on a banner that hung in the large room on the second floor where the Aurora Branch met. I don't remember much else about this gold-fringed banner, except that the all-seeing eye of God was embroidered above the chain and seemed to be watching all our proceedings.

The group that built the Odd Fellows Hall on South LaSalle Street in 1912 was organized on January 3, 1849, “by virtue of a dispensation granted by the grand master of the grand lodge of Illinois.” One of the officers who conducted the ceremony to institute the Wabonsie Lodge 45 was E.L. Howard of the St. Charles lodge “who walked from St. Charles to Aurora thru 14 inches of snow to attend, there being no trains running between the two towns because of the heavy snow.”

The Wabonsie Lodge 45 united with the Ben Hur Lodge 870, the Aurora Encampment, and the Minnehahah Rebekah Lodge 77 and Tirzah Rebekah lodge 488 (“Rebekahs” are the affiliated women’s organizations) to build the hall. These names are familiar to me because they were listed on a wooden plaque in the club room on the south side of the second floor, the one that held the pool table, poker table, leather sofa and chairs, and in the 1950s, a television set.

As also reported in the centennial edition of the Aurora Beacon News, September 5, 1937, the Odd Fellows were true to their fraternal duties: “the Odd Fellow fraternity maintains two homes in Illinois, the I.O.O.F. Old Folks home at Mattoon where there are about 200 aged Odd Fellows and Rebekahs, also the I.O.O. F. orphans home at Lincoln, with about the same number of orphans of members of the order. Each of these places is a small community in itself with its own school, hospital, chapel, gymnasium, laundry, power plant and farm produce.”

Although I’ve known about the Odd Fellows all my life, I was surprised to learn that the organization is still alive and well. Check out their webpage.

Here’s an excerpt:
“We are the family of Oddfellowship, composed of Men, Women, and Youth, believing in a supreme being, the creator and preserver of the universe, who have come together in our local communities having the same beliefs and values as others, that; Friendship, Love and Truth are the basic guidelines that we need to follow in our daily lives. Through working in our local Communities, States, Provinces, or Nationally we understand that we can make a difference in the lives of people in our World….

“Our deep history began in North America, with the United States and Canada in 1819, and is continually expanding throughout the World where we are a worldwide fraternity in 26 countries. The Odd Fellows and Rebekahs are striving to make the world a better place in which to live, seeking To Improve and Elevate the Character of Mankind.

“The members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows are sometimes referred to "Odd Fellows" or "Rebekahs." Odd Fellows have also become known in many areas as "The Three Link Fraternity" which is evidenced by our world wide "Three Link Emblem" which stands for Friendship, Love and Truth. These three links symbolize the chain that binds our members together and illustrates that our Communities, States, Provinces and Nations are strongest when joined together.”

As it turns out, small branches of the LDS church often met in Odd Fellows Halls in the early to mid 20th century. Perhaps odd fellows and peculiar people just naturally go together.

Odd Fellows Hall, Part 3: For Sale

2009-07-01T18:43:00.013-05:00

You can own a piece of history. The Odd Fellows Hall is for sale—yes, right now! Buy it today for a cool $575,000, and that’s a bargain because it has been appraised at $1 million (in better economic times). Here’s the link. (Click on “Commercial Property” search. Type in the number of the MLS listing “07120675” and set the pull-down menu to “Mixed Use.”)

The real estate blurb states: “An Exceptional Historic Building In The Downtown Of Aurora. Building Is Awaiting The Discerning Investor Interested In Turning The Building Into Multiple Income Generating Opportunities. Owner Financing And City Grant Money Available.”
We took this photo when we were in Aurora a couple of weeks ago. Although we didn’t connect with a realtor and therefore did not tour the inside, we learned that the building has 17,000 square feet in all (plus a full basement), with 5,000 square feet on each of the first two floors and 7,000 square feet on the third floor. The storefront on the lower right still has the original tin ceiling. The building has new windows and, presumably, an HVAC system. In the “olden days” the windows were double-hung and both the lower and upper sashes could be opened. The air conditioning consisted of a couple of ceiling fans. (For a photo of the building in 1937, see blog post “The Odd Fellows Hall, Part 1” from May 19, 2009.)

The cornerstone plaque on the front shows that the Odd Fellows Hall was built in 1912. An article published on September 5, 1937, in the centennial edition of the Aurora Beacon News gives more information:

“Members of the various branches of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows have played an important part in the development of Aurora. It is one of the oldest fraternal societies in the city, the first lodge being organized by pioneers 88 years ago [January 1849]… The lodge now has a fine home in the Odd Fellows Hall temple. A fine three story building, the first floor of which is occupied by one of the city’s pioneer hardware merchants, the second floor comprises a well equipped club room and the third floor is given over to a large, well furnished meeting hall, a banquet room and a well equipped kitchen.”

The newspaper wasn’t exactly right (hence its well-earned nickname “The Be-Confused”), because the kitchen was on the second floor. The “large, well furnished meeting hall” on the third floor was designed for lodge ceremonies and meetings. As children, we were not supposed to go in there—so of course, we did. Because it was forbidden, it seemed dark and mysterious (and we didn’t dare turn on the lights). It had a raised platform around three sides of the room (about six inches high and 4 feet deep), with three (or so) impressive chairs in the center along each wall.

When my aunt Jane was a child, she refused to go there and in 1993 she explained her reasons: “[My big brother] Jim would tell me about what was on the third floor of the Odd Fellows Hall, and it was enough to keep me from ever wanting to go up there. He said there were black cloths draped over large black boxes and that was where the Odd Fellows stayed whenever there was church on Sunday. Well, being five or six years old at the time, I believed him and never went up to the third floor.…

“Before [the branch began meeting in the Seventh Day Adventist Church] I finally did have courage enough to go and see what was on the third floor. Jim was right, at least for two out of three things–there were big black boxes and they were covered with black cloths, but I never saw any Odd Fellows.”

(A mystery solved is quite mundane. It was the practice in those days to cover the grand piano and other pieces of furniture with heavy cloths to keep the dust off.)

Because we couldn’t contact the realtor for a tour when we were recently in Aurora, we did the next best thing. We climbed up a fire escape to the third floor and looked in the window. (Only the landing and a few stairs show in this photo. The rest is hidden behind a trash container.)

The building is built into a hill, so the back stairway to the third floor is only one flight. Of course, we had to cross the parking lot of the adjoining property to reach the fire escape, and it was exceedingly rusty and wobbly (1912 vintage?). Undaunted, I put my camera up to the window and snapped this photo.

Hmmm, the room doesn’t seem mysterious at all. The hardwood floors, woodwork, and lighting fixtures are all original, as is the riser along the wall on the right. I believe what looks like blue wainscoting is a protective covering to protect the wood from paint overspray while the building is prepared for sale.

So, are you that discerning investor the listing agent has in mind?

My husband thinks the LDS Church should buy it and turn it into a visitor center, honoring the early Church in the Midwest where small branches often met in rented halls. What do you think?

Beginnings of the Branch, Part 3: Finding Missing Members Update

2009-06-26T23:29:00.005-05:00

Here’s some insight on that first encounter between Myrtle Greer and Mable Stemple. Although the Greers arrived in Aurora in June 1929, it was early winter before they found Sister Stemple, as attested in this note written by her daughter Evelyn Kiesel in Myrtle Greer’s autograph book in 1933.“We are indeed grateful to you for coming to our home on a snowy afternoon to find another ‘Mormon’ family,” she said.

It’s no wonder that it took Myrtle a few months to find them—for all the obvious reasons, of course, but also because of a major financial reversal that the Greers suffered that summer. Remember, they had experienced three crop failures in a row, and they were already destitute. This is the house and barn that they owned near Cypress, Illinois. This photo was taken about 1910 and we see James T. Greer’s parents and siblings here. Jim is the boy standing on the far right. Jim and Myrtle bought the house and 40 acres from his father, Albert Jackson Greer, for $1,000 in about 1925. They had been so full of hopes and dreams. “We felt sure we were going to get rich there,” Myrtle recalled. As we’ve already seen, it didn’t work out that way.

But Jim had managed to get a job at Lyon Metal in Aurora and had rented a small house on Howard Avenue, and Myrtle had joined him there. It was when she went back to the home place get their furniture that they realized disaster had struck. This is how she told the story:

“Jim decided we’d have to go home and get the furniture. We got another payday, and I went down there, taking the kids too. I went down to the house and opened the door, and everything was gone. Not one solitary thing was there. Jim’s harness, his saddle, all of our bedding, all of our books, and everything we had was gone. (We had some nice furniture, we really did.) I never cried so hard in my whole life. That about killed me. And there it was—nothing!

“I didn’t know what I was going to do. What could I do, with two children and these people that used to be such good friends to us that wouldn’t even look at us now? I decided to ask a few people if they knew where our furniture was. Jim Boss didn’t know a thing about it. Nobody knew nothing about it, so I said, ‘Take me to the train.’ We got to the train and come back to Chicago. Jim met us and took us home. I tell you, we were grieved. Not a thing in the world. We lost everything completely. I said to Jim, ‘What are you going to do?’ He says, ‘Well, I don’t know, but we’ll have to do something.’

“We thought about it and prayed about it and decided to stay in Aurora and buy some furniture. We expected we could easily. We picked out the biggest bank in Aurora and we went to the head man, the president of it. We told him we needed $300, and we’d pay him back $10 a month. He thought that was the funniest thing he had ever heard. He says, ‘What have you got for security?’ Oh, we didn’t have anything for security, but Jim had a job. ‘Well, that isn’t enough,’ he said. No, that couldn’t do at all.

“‘But,’ he said, ‘there’s a man upstairs that might listen to you. Go up and see him.’ He told us who he was, Mr. Elder. So we went up and told him the same story. He says, ‘You know, I’ve got a warehouse down there that’s full of furniture that belonged to people who have moved from Aurora. They left and haven’t even paid the rent on it. I don’t want it,’ he says. ‘I’ll get a truck and I’ll move it out to your house, and you keep what you want and what you don’t want, you sell it and use the money.’ But, he says, ‘You pay me $10 a month till you pay me $300.’ So he give us the furniture and loaned us $300 on it. I have some of that furniture yet [1970s], and we sold quite a bit of it. Then we really could have cottage meetings.”
This rocking chair, given to Ginger Hamer by her grandparents in 1972, is believed to be the only piece left in the family from the furniture that was so miraculously obtained in 1929. It has been tentatively identified as a “Northwind” style, a kind of furniture made in the late 19th century and distinguished by carvings of mythological faces. A carved curlicue on the upper left side of the back was broken off, perhaps even before the Greers received the rocking chair. In 1976 Ginger hired a furniture restorer in Mendham, New Jersey, to carve and install a replacement part. He also reglued the rocker to strengthen it and prevent further damage.A close-up of the unusual carving

In her life story, Louise Greer Erekson recalled living on Howard Avenue. “I can remember eating hominy out of glasses. We would just reach in and pick up a piece. Apparently we didn’t have any bowls and very little silverware, because they had all been stolen. (I have always loved hominy.)”

She also remembers how quickly the friendship developed between Sister Stemple and her parents: “The first Christmas in Aurora must have been very bleak. But with help, it was all right. Sister Mable Stemple and her daughter, Evelyn Kiesel, brought us a little artificial tree with ornaments on it. I can remember that spindly tree, probably 3 or 4 feet tall, with just a few ornaments. We had those ornaments for several years. I’d like to have some of them now.”

The Greers later sold their farm in southern Illinois by placing an ad in the Aurora Beacon News. By coincidence, a neighbor, Mr. Fuller, who lived two doors north of them on Harrison answered the ad and bought the farm. “That let us out of the contract, and we took what money we got and put it on our house [710 North Harrison], and that was during the Depression,” Myrtle said.

I believe that with her comment—“Then we really could have cottage meetings”—she acknowledges the hand of the Lord in their lives and affirms their determination to serve the best they knew how.

Building Fund, Part 1: Building Houses

2009-06-23T13:47:00.012-05:00

For years the terms “Aurora Branch” and “building fund” were synonymous. The members of the branch devised every possible scheme to add to the fund that would someday enable them to build a chapel. Meanwhile, they met in rented halls and schools for 30 years.

One of the more successful money-raising projects was building and selling houses on speculation. Bob Erekson was a carpenter and building contractor, so he was able to lay out the foundation and direct the work. Most of the men in the branch were handy with tools.
Here some members of the branch building crew pose in front of the house they were building in 1958: Jimmy Greer, Bob Erekson, Louise Erekson holding Jay, Kenneth Ottinger with Marion and John Ottinger in front, Tillie Ottinger, James T. Greer, Myrtle Greer, Barry Woolcott, James Ottinger, Fred Woolcott, Ronald Deans, Mike Woolcott.

This house is located on the northwest corner of the intersection of New Haven Avenue and Elmwood Drive. Here’s what it looks like now (2009).
A tree has been growing in the front yard for many years, but the stonework and dark-stained wood around the windows and door are the same.

Bob Erekson recalls that the branch built at least three houses: this one, one on Prairie Avenue, and one on Solfisburg Avenue. When we wondered how he had time to run his own construction business and be the general contractor on the church project houses, he replied, “Well, if you read that book, Louise says we were broke all the time.”

In a brief hand-written history Myrtle Greer notes that the house was started on October 18, 1957. It sold for $15,800 with a profit of $4,250. She also notes that shortly thereafter the branch built a garage for Dr. Hanson [the Greers’ family doctor] with a profit of $425. While today these may seem like small amounts, they’re impressive when put in perspective. A successful pie supper in 1951 raised $22 and a bake sale in 1962 raised $42.50 (as reported in extant copies of Aurora Branch bulletins).

Men, women, and children worked on the houses, evenings and Saturdays. While the men and teenage boys did most of the heavy work, there was always some sweeping up or painting that women could handle. Meanwhile, the women were responsible for other fund-raising projects, as you can see in this clipping from the Aurora Branch Bulletin, October 6, 1963:

Indeed, it does take "a lot of nail driving to build a house……a lot of brick laying too,” but Jimmy Greer remembers this as “a wonderful project.”

Paper Treasures: Records of the Past

2009-06-15T23:01:00.008-05:00

This week I have spent quite a bit of time delving through a treasure trove of Aurora Branch memorabilia—a provocative and random assortment of handwritten minutes, old Church record forms, and branch newsletters. (My mother sent me the papers several years ago, and I believe she obtained them in 1982 when the family cleaned my grandparents’ house after my grandmother died.) Now that the documents are organized, I plan to mine them for insights into the workings of the branch and share the findings with all of you.

The assortment includes six receipts for rental of the Odd Fellows Hall in 1937 (April, May, July, October, November, and December), all carefully held together with a straight pin.

The collection includes several copies of newsletters and branch bulletins. This “Aurora News” might be the first issue because it asks readers to suggest a name. No suggestions were forthcoming, however, even with the promise of a prize. It remained the “Aurora News” through at least 1952. In 1957 it became the “Aurora Branch News” and was printed on blue paper. All this time Louise Erekson was the editor, reporter, and typist. She duplicated the newsletters on a mimeograph machine my parents owned.

Aurora enjoyed its share of awards as this Official Citation attests.
If you have branch directories or other historical documents relating to the Aurora Branch, please let me know. I would like to obtain photocopies or scans. I would use them to flesh out the history of the branch, and with your permission, I would like to share them online. I’m especially interested in obtaining a copy of Yours and Mine, the Aurora Branch Cookbook published in 1952. You can contact me by email at gingerhamer@yahoo.com.

By the way, I officially subscribe to my grandmother’s motto: Don’t throw anything away!

Beginnings of the Branch, Part 2: Finding Missing Members

2009-06-07T20:02:00.008-05:00

By June1929 James T. Greer had moved to Aurora and found a job at Lyon Metal. He started in the shipping department making wooden crates for the lockers and metal office furniture the factory produced. Later he worked as a paint mixer.

We pick up our story with this excerpt from The Story of Jim and Myrtle Greer: Family and Church, an oral history edited by Doug Erekson in 1982. Myrtle is speaking:"Jim wrote me a letter. (You didn’t call in those days like you do now.) He wrote and told me he got this job and found a house. He told me to pack up what I could, have the Johnsons take me to the railroad station, and come to Chicago. He would meet me there.

"I had a big long box or chest, and I put all the clothes I could in there and a few other things. I even took some strawberries. (I had so many strawberries that year. I hated to leave them.) I locked the door, and [Oscar] Johnson picked us up in his wagon and taken Jimmy and me and Louise to the depot. We got on the train at Cypress and got off in Chicago. Jim was there to meet me, and we got on that little third-rail and came out to Aurora. On the way out, we’s all sitting on the seat and, of course, I was telling Jim all about the things that happened, and all of a sudden Jimmy [age 2] reached up and put his arms around Jim’s neck and says, “My daddy!” He was telling us he recognized him, you know. It was so funny. “That’s my dad!” and he laughed."
(Chicago Aurora and Elgin interurban cars in operation at the Illinois Railway Museum in 2003. Photo by Frank Hicks)

Myrtle continues: "Jim had rented this house on Howard Avenue [northwestern outskirts of Aurora] for $15 a month. It had a living room, two bedrooms, a kitchen, and two porches. Jim had a bed and a mattress on the floor, a kerosene stove, and one chair in the house. That’s all we had because I couldn’t bring the furniture up with me.

"That night the missionaries came. The two of them had all this area to take care of, and they told Jim that he was to be in charge of cottage meetings in his home. [Cottage meetings were gospel discussions held on week nights in homes of members during 1930s and 40s and probably earlier. By the mid-to-late-1950s the term “cottage meetings” fell out of use.] President Pond [the mission president] didn’t come out and confirm him, but the missionaries turned it over to him. We didn’t have but one chair in the house and a mattress, but we started having cottage meetings that very week and have had them ever since."
The names of the missionaries who were stationed in Aurora that summer have not survived in oral or written history, but we do have this photo of Elder M. Eugene Williams given to Jim and Myrtle Greer in December 1929. If not one of the missionaries who welcomed the Greers to Aurora, he was certainly one of the first who worked with them. Little did he know what would come of it. Elder Williams lists his home address as 1460 Roosevelt Avenue, Salt Lake City, Utah. (We have this photo because it was customary at that time--and up through the 1950s--for missionaries to give postcard-sized photos to members and write a brief note of appreciation and encouragement on the back.)

"As far as the missionaries knew, we were the only ones in the whole town that was members. The missionaries gave us little cards we’d take around. It would tell that there was a Mormon Church in Aurora, and asked if you were a member, or do you know any members, and did you ever hear about the Mormon Church? We took those cards around from house to house—now Jim taken them, I taken them, and the missionaries taken them—and we hunted people to see if anybody was a member of the Church or to see if we could get people interested.

"Somebody told me that Sister Stemple was a member, and I went over there and knocked on the door, and I said to her, “Are you a member of the Mormon Church?” She said, “Yes, come in.” She said there wasn’t nobody else here that was members and I said, “Well, we’re here and we’re going to start a branch, and we want you to come.” She said all right, she’d be glad to. So she started coming.

"Then we found Sister Minnehan. She thought she’d lost the Church, it’d been so long you know. Then we found the Wendts. Nobody knew they was members and they didn’t tell nobody. They had kept it a secret about being members. Brother Ottinger and his wife and two children, they was from Batavia, and we found them."

This is a story I have known all my life, but I remain dumbfounded at the matter-of-fact faith in the words: “Well, we’re here and we’re going to start a branch.” That's exactly what they did. And the invitation "And we want you to come" encapsulates the work of the rest of their lives.

Beginnings of the Branch, Part 1: The Greers Move to Aurora

2009-06-02T17:11:00.009-05:00

Although Mable Stemple was the first member in Aurora, no branch of the Church was organized until Jim and Myrtle Greer moved to town in May or June 1929.

In this early picture of the family in Aurora, Myrtle and Jim Greer appear to be ready for church. Judging by the ages of Jimmy and Louise, this photo was probably taken in the early spring of 1930 (maybe Easter Sunday?).

They joined the Church June 20, 1926, in southern Illinois. (Read about their conversion as told by my son John Hamer in a commentary on the blog By Common Consent. After their baptism, the neighbors turned against them, and eventually they decided it would be impossible to raise their children in the Church in southern Illinois. In addition, their small farm was caught in the backwaters of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 that actually started in 1926. Their corn crop was wiped out three years in a row.

Myrtle said that they read something in a mission publication about Mormons in Aurora, and they thought it meant there was a branch of the church there. Because of this mistake—she later realized it simply referred missionaries being stationed there—they chose Aurora. They also knew some people from “down home” who had moved there and with whom Jim and his friend Jim Boss could stay until they found work.

Here’s the way Jim told of his arrival:
“Jim Boss and myself started out from home one morning in my car, and we was about two days on the road. Every time we’d pass a gas station or a garage, we had to stop and get the old [1924] Chevrolet worked on. It was raining and cold and Jim Boss would cuss and cry and say he was going back home. One night we was stopped along the highway and a big truck come by and asked if we was in trouble. We told him yes, and he hooked onto us. That little Chevrolet swung back and forth sometimes too. He took us to a garage about ten miles away and called the garage man out. He got in under the car and looked at the gas line. It was almost disconnected, and the old vacuum tank was sucking air instead of gasoline. He fixed it, tightened it up, and we come on into Aurora.”

Myrtle takes up the story:
“They got to Aurora on a Friday, and he went to see Ora Whelan. Ora’a wife, Iva, was sick and she told Jim if he’d do the cooking and help her with the housework, she would board him free so that he could get a job. They read in the paper that Lyon Metal needed help, and to apply Monday morning. Jim went down to Lyon Metal, and he said there was a group of men there waiting, you know, all standing out there. This one man come up and pointed to him to come in, so Jim went up to him and said, ‘Did you want me?’ The man said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Where’re you from?’ Jim says, ‘I’m from Cypress.’ He says, ‘What kind of work can you do?’ ‘I’m from the farm. I’ve learned about farming.’ ‘Well,’ the man says, ‘is that what you want to do?’ ‘I’ll take the first thing I can get.’ He said, ‘Well, we can use you.’ Jim says, ‘Well, there’s a man come with me, and I told him I’d stay with him, so I can’t take the job unless you hire him too.’ So then Mr. Larry Rice says, ‘Well, show me who he is.’ So Jim told him, and he called him in too. Jim Boss come in, and both went to work. Jim worked there for 32 years, but Boss worked there about six weeks and then he went back home.”

The job taken care of, Jim’s next order of business was to look up the missionaries. He recalled: “I went three times, Jim Boss and myself, to see the missionaries and we never caught them home. The next time we went, the elder come to the door and he says, ‘Come on in, Brother Greer.’ He says, ‘I’ve been looking for you.’ Myrtle had wrote and told him that we was in town.”

To be continued

Pioneer Day Parades, 1957, 1958

2009-05-29T16:49:00.016-05:00

The Aurora Branch Primary celebrated the 24th of July, or Pioneer Day, every year. In 1957 and 1958 the children dressed up as pioneers and Indians and paraded around the picnic ground on Mastodon Lake Island at Phillips Park.

“For some must push, and some must pull…” Reality matched the lyrics in 1958 when Doug Fisher and Doug Erekson pulled their handcart and Dean Fisher pushed his wheelbarrow.

Also in July 1958 Randy Erekson and Dottie Sullivan were ready to pull a covered wagon across the plains.

1957: Wearing a crepe paper bonnet and apron, Kathy Sullivan looks a little weary from the long march holding an 1847 sign. With her are Stephen Doty (Indian chief), Karen Doty (probably), Paul Doty (riding a tricycle), and Bucky Spahr.

The Aurora Branch Primary in 1957. Can you help me identify the ones I don’t know? Standing: --girl in bonnet?--, John Resch, Cris Erekson, Tom Erekson, --?--, Billy Spahr, Erek Erekson, Bucky Spahr (arms raised), Tommy Spahr?, --boy in hat?--.
Front: --tricycle/possibly a Boswell?--, Debbie Doty, Margaret Sullivan, -- Boswell?, --hidden--, Stephen Doty, -- girl in front?--, --back to camera?--, --boy?--, Paul Doty on tricycle.

In the early 1950s Primary was held in various homes; the Ereksons, Greers, and Spahrs are the ones that I remember. In 1956 Grandma [Myrtle] Greer became Primary president, and we began to hold Primary at the Odd Fellows Hall on Tuesday afternoons from 4:30 to 5:30. In the summer, however, she moved Primary to Phillips Park, where she would reserve the Bird House, a large enclosed pavilion with picnic tables. This had the advantage of being rent-free and the disadvantage of being rather distracting for children who were expected to be reverent in a park.

Thanks to a history of the Aurora Branch Primary, 1932-1961, that I found at my parents' house, we know that the Primary presidency for September 1956 through August 1957 consisted of Myrtle Greer, president; Pat Boswell and Mary Jane Greer, counselors; Gladys Sullivan, secretary; Kathleen McGuire, historian; chorister, Mary Jane Greer.

The Primary Presidency changed in 1957-58: Myrtle Greer, president; Mary Jane Greer and Gladys Sullivan counselors; Lucy Doty, secretary; Elinor Woolcott, historian.

Odd Fellows Hall, Part 2: Potluck Dinners

2009-05-24T00:49:00.007-05:00

A potluck dinner on Fast Sunday and a rare look at the inside of the Odd Fellows Hall, ca. 1950-51. This is the back of the second floor meeting room, looking away from the windows and toward short, angled hallway that led to the kitchen. The closed door at the back led to a storeroom where tables and extra chairs were kept. The wooden chairs you see here were used for meetings and moved to the table for the meal. I had forgotten the coat hooks along the high wainscoting. Note the ceiling fans with metal blades. One time a missionary greeted the 4-year-old Robert Johnson (who came with John and Mable Wendt, perhaps a nephew) by picking him up and tossing him into the air. Unfortunately, he tossed the boy right into a fan. Robert was rushed to the hospital with severe cuts, but no permanent damage. Jimmy Greer recalls, “We almost didn’t have church that day.”

Seated around the table, clockwise from the front corner of the table: Myrtle Greer, Jimmy Greer, James T. Greer (branch president), Mary Jane Greer, unidentified adult, unidentified child, John Resch, Rosalee Resch.
Continuing on the other side of the table: Fred Woolcott, Mike Woolcott, Eleanore Woolcott, Don Tatton, [son] Tatton, Betty Tatton, [son] Tatton, Iris Dombrow, Ray Dombrow, Louise Greer Erekson, Tommy Erekson, boy with back to camera (probably Jimmy Resch). Bob Erekson took the picture.

In the excerpt below, I recall an Aurora Branch potluck dinner:

Sunday School at 10:00 and Sacrament meeting at 6:30 meant that friends could come over to play all afternoon. Later when the popular television show Disneyland began airing at 6 p.m., it was a weekly trial of our faith to leave it and head back to church.

On the first Sunday of each month the schedule varied because of Fast Sunday. On this day people were supposed to abstain from food and drink for 24 hours, but most people just skipped breakfast. Sunday School was shortened and fast and testimony meeting began immediately afterwards. After the song and prayer and the partaking of the sacrament, the time was turned over to the congregation for anyone and everyone to “bear their testimony” or stand and express thanks for blessings that month and witness that they knew the Church was true. Young and old stood up one after another. This kind of sharing built community more than anything else, unless it was the dinner that followed each month. Throughout old Brother August Kramer’s lengthy testimony in broken English, the smells of a church dinner wafted in from the kitchen in the back. Casseroles and pies warmed in the ovens during the meeting so that as soon as the last amen sounded, the brethren could set up the tables and move the chairs over for the Fast Day feast. Grandma Greer had baked mountains of rolls; Aunt Rosalie had brought her famous noodle-beef hot dish. Summers meant big platters of Grandpa Greer’s steaming sweet corn and plates of garden-fresh sliced tomatoes, green peppers, and cucumbers.

Fast Sundays also meant no evening meeting. We could stay home and watch Disneyland at our leisure, and be like the rest of the world for one hour.
(from a paper I wrote in 1995 for a creative nonfiction class at the University of Minnesota.)

New "Magic" Format

2009-05-21T06:29:00.000-05:00

Thanks to help from my daughter Carol, the blog now has a new formatting feature--expandable posts. This was a feature used on other blogs that I had dearly coveted, but of course had no idea how to acquire.
Because my posts tend to be rather long, I wanted readers to be able to scan the headlines and intros like in a table of contents, then read more if they wanted to. Carol worked her programming magic, sticking with me even when I gave her the wrong password at first--how was I to know capital letters count?

Now if you click on "Read More" the post is expanded in place. If you'd like to see the comments or add your own comment, click on the date or on the "Comments" link at the bottom of the post.

And now I'm ready to actively spread the word about the Old Aurora Branch blog. If you know any former members, please tell them about it. aurorabranch.blogspot.com (It's hard to find on Google because there's lots of rivers and banks, etc., named Aurora Branch, but we'll manage.) And thanks again, Carol.

The Odd Fellows Hall, Part 1

2009-05-19T22:14:00.000-05:00

For almost twenty years, the Aurora Branch was practically synonymous with the Odd Fellows Hall. You couldn’t think of one without the other. The following excerpt about meeting in the Odd Fellows Hall is taken from a paper I wrote for a creative non-fiction class at the University of Minnesota in 1995:

“Our small congregation met in the same Odd Fellows Hall from the late 1930s through 1959, or almost the entire 28 years my grandfather served as branch president. For many of those early years when my mother was growing up, the Aurora Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had more words in its official name than members in the congregation, but when my memories begin we had about 40 regulars.
“The lodge hall occupied the second and third floors of a commercial building at 62 South LaSalle Street, one block east of Broadway in Aurora, Illinois. Wedged between the Schorr Glass Company and the Lindsay Water Softeners store, its double-door entrance was flanked by pretentious square pillars, whose indentations regularly enticed boys—but never girls—to climb up them when they should have known better than to rough house on Sundays. The second story meeting rooms were reached by a staircase that looked tall enough to lead all the way to heaven right then and there, but it lacked the glory of Jacob’s ladder. Poorly lit and dingy, the steep stairs proved to be a weekly trial for older folks who needed to rest on the landing halfway up and sometimes resorted to pulling themselves hand over hand along the railing before they reached the top.
“As people gathered at 10 a.m. for Sunday School and again at 6:30 p.m. for sacrament meeting, the high ceilings and bare wooden floors in the long, narrow room on the left of the stairs echoed with friendly greetings and the sound of children’s feet. Directly across from the door hung a large American flag, and next to it a banner for the I.O.O.F embroidered with a linked chain and other symbols, including appropriately enough, an enormous peering eye of God.
“Every Sunday morning Brother John Wendt, a counselor in the branch presidency who happened to be the janitor for the Odd Fellows, came early and cleaned away the remains of Saturday night’s lodge revelry and neatly arranged wooden chairs in careful rows facing the windows to the west. In the late afternoon meetings, the sun glared in our eyes. Summers, it roasted us. If we opened the windows for ventilation, the sounds of the street and the tavern across the street drifted into the meeting. And every Sunday, exactly on schedule, the California Zephyr, that famous passenger train from Chicago to Denver and parts west, roared by, rattling the windows and drowning out the speaker.”
More to come. (Photo courtesy of the Aurora Historical Society)

The First Member in Aurora

2009-05-16T08:52:00.000-05:00

Mable Stemple (left), the first member of the Church in Aurora is shown here in 1932 or 1933 with her daughter Evelyn Kiesel, Elder Walker, and Cora Hall with Louise Greer in front. (Does anyone know Elder Walker’s first name or whose house is shown?)

Now turn the clock back to 1913. Two Mormon missionaries were tracting a modest neighborhood on the outskirts of Aurora. They were a little discouraged because, as far as they knew, they were the only Latter-day Saints in the city, and even if they were to find a family to teach, they couldn’t invite them to church—there was no branch in Aurora.

Then, to their surprise, a young mother with two small children invited them in. “I’m a member,” she told them as she hurried into the kitchen to bring back a jar of coins and small bills. “It’s my tithing,” she said and placed the jar in their hands.

Delighted to find a member of the Church, the elders began to get acquainted. All too quickly, they realized her error—she belonged to the Reorganized Church, not the “Salt Lake Mormons.” Undaunted, they told her she would need to be baptized again, and eventually she agreed. Mable Clair Kiesel [Stemple] was baptized in the Fox River on June 13, 1915, the first member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Aurora.

But the Church did not go continue in Aurora at that time. Fourteen years later, Mable Kiesel Stemple was found again, this time by Jim and Myrtle Greer. But that’s another story.

This picture of Sister Stemple (right) with her niece, Gladys Lancaster, is the way I remember her. Very tiny, white hair in a knot on top of her head, and a big smile.

After the branch was organized, Mable Stemple was a stalwart member. For much of her life she lived in a small house next door to her daughter, Evelyn Kettley, on Morton Avenue, a couple of blocks from the Greers who took her back and forth to church. As they dropped her off, she would always say, “Thanks for the buggy ride.”

Mable was born and grew up in Loupe City, Nebraska. After a brief unhappy marriage that ended in divorce, she and her parents moved to Aurora near where her mother’s family had lived for at least three generations. She was still only 18 when in 1906 she met and happily married William John (Wilhelm Johan) Kiesel, age 29. A year later their first daughter was born and died on the same day. Two more children, a boy and a girl, came into the family, but in all Mable and Mr. Kiesel enjoyed only 8 years together before he passed away. Mable’s third husband, Charles Carl Stemple, was gone before 1930 (as per the 1930 US Census). Nevertheless she was a happy person. It’s been said about her, “She wanted to have fun.”

Maybe Sister Stemple’s family can fill in some more details.

Calling All Former Members of the Aurora Branch

2009-05-13T20:23:00.000-05:00

What do you remember about those days? Climbing the stairs to the second floor of the Odd Fellows Hall where the branch met for about 20 years? Attending meetings in the Seventh Day Adventist church on Plum Street? Holding missionary farewells at Lincoln Elementary School or Allen School?

Maybe something you read here will spark a memory. If so, please share it. Maybe you know of former members who haven’t discovered the blog yet. If so, please send them a link.

I’m hoping we can examine the Aurora Branch experience from many angles, both fun and serious. On one level we can remember the remarkable people and all they did to hold the branch together. On another level we can see what the Church was like in the 1950s, for example, when we were trying to change the world’s perceptions of Mormonism as a backwater religion. Of course, in those days the tiny branch in Aurora, Illinois, was second-class even among other Mormons, especially those who came out from Chicago to speak and those who moved there briefly from Utah. After all, Aurora was the mission field and not the heart of Zion.

But the Aurora Branch was never second-class in the character and caliber of its members, nor in the eyes of the Lord who looks, we’re told, with special favor on small things, foreseeing their promised greatness.

Let’s pool our memories. For a start, here’s a photo from the early 1930s. The irrepressible branch president, James T. Greer–-soon to be one of the central characters of this blog–-steals the scene by reaching behind the missionary next to him and tugging on his ear. So much for a formal portrait of the early branch.

The members are (back row) Arch McCraney, Elder Gittins, James T. Greer; (middle row) Cora Hall, Mable Stemple, Myrtle Greer, Myrtle McCraney, Catherine Minnehan; (front) two neighborhood children Myrtle Greer brought to church—possibly surnamed Merideth, Louise Greer, Helen Marie McCraney, Jimmy Greer. They’re standing on the front porch of a big old house on Main Street, one of several places where the branch met before settling into the Odd Fellows Hall. This is probably 1932 or 1933.

Not quite ten years later Brother Greer, who loved people, was still mixing things up, probably teasing Nancy McCarty about a boyfriend. This snapshot was taken after church in front of the Odd Fellows Hall (door on left). Left to right: Ardis McCarty, Louise Greer, James T. Greer, Nancy McCarty, Jimmy Greer (hidden), Kent McCarty holding baby.

So who are all these people and what are their stories? Stay tuned.