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Reflections: Oswego Township’s mood was electric 90 years ago · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Reflections Oswego Township's mood was electric ninety years ago. Written
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  Speaker 1: by Roger Mattil and Forshaw Local News Network. This article
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  Speaker 1: is being read by an automated voice brought to you
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  Speaker 1: by Everlett. As a member of ANCESTRYCLM, I get periodic
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  Speaker 1: hints about ancestors not long ago. The hint was that
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  Speaker 1: in the nineteen thirty US census of Wheatland Township, which
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  Speaker 1: borders Oswego Township to the east, my grandfather reported he
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  Speaker 1: owned a radio. Why the US Census Bureau asked whether
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  Speaker 1: residents owned radios piqued my interest. Radios not only provided
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  Speaker 1: entertainment in that pre Internet era, but also were literally
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  Speaker 1: instant windows to the world's news. Farmers relied on morning, noon,
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  Speaker 1: and evening crop and weather reports, businesses relied on economic
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  Speaker 1: and weather reports, and other citizens depended on radio to
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  Speaker 1: supplement newspaper reports on everything from local school news to local, state,
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  Speaker 1: and national politics. That helped enhance maintaining the informed citizenry
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  Speaker 1: envisioned by the founding fathers. Democracy simply can't function with
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  Speaker 1: an uninformed citizenry, and that new radio technology had become
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  Speaker 1: for spreading the news. It also briefly struck me that
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  Speaker 1: my grandparents reported owning a radio at a time before
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  Speaker 1: electricity had reached their farming community. But then I remembered
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  Speaker 1: they had had a radio for several years before nineteen
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  Speaker 1: thirty that didn't need to be plugged in. Their neutri
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  Speaker 1: doin five ZHO five tube table model radio made by
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  Speaker 1: the wm J Murdoch Co. In nineteen twenty five, was
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  Speaker 1: powered by a large four point five vault battery. And
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  Speaker 1: I know all this because that same large blockie radio,
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  Speaker 1: in its wooden case, measuring twenty six inches wide and
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  Speaker 1: twenty oneminous one slash two inches wide by thirty two
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  Speaker 1: inches deep, with its three large tuning dials and a
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  Speaker 1: horn speaker on top, now sits in the collections of
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  Speaker 1: the Little White School Museum. My grandfather, you see, was
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  Speaker 1: what we'd call today an early adopter who got a
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  Speaker 1: kick out of new technology. His son, my uncle Earl,
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  Speaker 1: was born with what was probably muscular dystrophy, which in
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  Speaker 1: those days was basically untreatable. But despite his twisted body's treason,
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  Speaker 1: Uncle Earl's mind was unaffected. He basically taught himself to
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  Speaker 1: read and write. He too, loved technology and begged for
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  Speaker 1: a radio, and thus the neutrodin set technology in those
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  Speaker 1: days first moved very slowly and then all at once.
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  Speaker 1: Electricity first arrived along the banks of the Fox River
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  Speaker 1: here in Kendall County from Aurora when the interurban trolley
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  Speaker 1: line was built in nineteen oh win and I always
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  Speaker 1: figured that meant that folks along the line were able
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  Speaker 1: to tap onto its electrical service. But except in a
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  Speaker 1: very few special circumstances, that wasn't true. In fact, the
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  Speaker 1: trolley folks were barely able to generate enough electricity to
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  Speaker 1: run the line at least most of the time. The
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  Speaker 1: January third, nineteen twelve Kendall County Record explaining the electrical
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  Speaker 1: power at the Yorkville end of the line is so
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  Speaker 1: weak that the cars have trouble in getting up speed
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  Speaker 1: enough to get out of town, let alone the lighting
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  Speaker 1: of lamps in the evening. Electricity and electrical service in
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  Speaker 1: homes and businesses had long been an interest of area folks.
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  Speaker 1: Of course. In the Kendal County Records October twenty ninth,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy four, Oswego News column correspondent Lorenzo Rank wrote,
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  Speaker 1: Electricity and everything connected with it is no longer mystery.
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  Speaker 1: Moses J. Richards has succeeded, doubtless by severe study in
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  Speaker 1: getting the definite comprehension of its properties, workings, and the
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  Speaker 1: laws governing it. He ought to write a book or
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  Speaker 1: go out lecturing on the subject. It would be a
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  Speaker 1: great benefit to mankind. The Richards went on to invent
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  Speaker 1: all kinds of things before settling the sliding door hardware,
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  Speaker 1: still manufactured by Richards Wilcox in Aurora. Lighting streets with
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  Speaker 1: electric arc lights started fairly early, with Aurora in eighteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty one, Naperville in eighteen ninety, but providing home and
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  Speaker 1: businesses with power here in Kendall County waited until eighteen
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  Speaker 1: ninety eight, when Yorkville's steampowered electric plant went into operation,
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  Speaker 1: first to light the streets and then to provide power
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  Speaker 1: to homes and businesses. In nineteen four the trolley company
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  Speaker 1: eventually agreed to install some street lights along its route
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  Speaker 1: down Oswego's main street south of Washington Street, but that
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  Speaker 1: was it. It wasn't until February nineteen twelve that the
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  Speaker 1: Aurora based Western United Gas and Electric Company was granted
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  Speaker 1: a fifty year franchise to provide manufactured gas and electrical
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  Speaker 1: service to Oswego by the village. Board pipes from Western
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  Speaker 1: United's rivers, the Street coal gas plant, and the huge
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  Speaker 1: gasometer pressure tank on Hrd's Island in Aurora were run
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  Speaker 1: down the west side of the Fox River to Oswego.
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  Speaker 1: The next year, wires came down from Aurora, and the
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  Speaker 1: electrical firm of Smith and amp Benjamin worked throughout Oswego
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  Speaker 1: hooking up folks to the new electrical system. Many homes
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  Speaker 1: and business in the village had installed gas lighting systems
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  Speaker 1: fueled by small ascetlene gas generators, at least one of
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  Speaker 1: which was invented and made in Oswego, and electricians found
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  Speaker 1: the existing gas piping made good conduit for wiring buildings.
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  Speaker 1: In May nineteen twelve, Fred G. Young, the private owner
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  Speaker 1: of Yorkville's power plant, sold it to the Public Service
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  Speaker 1: Company of Northern Illinois, which promptly closed it and ran
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  Speaker 1: service lines over from Juliette. What about the county's rural
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  Speaker 1: residents who were thirsting for electrical appliances and lighting. Yorkville's
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  Speaker 1: plant was large enough to supply some farms close to town,
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  Speaker 1: but not many of them. It would take a couple
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  Speaker 1: decades and a financial depression to get everyone hooked up
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  Speaker 1: who wanted the service. On May twentieth, nineteen thirty six,
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  Speaker 1: Congress passed President route Zevelt's Rural Electrification Act, part of
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  Speaker 1: the President's New Deal. It offered federal loans to help
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  Speaker 1: bring electricity to rural areas, and local residents didn't waste
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  Speaker 1: any time using it to get electrical lines installed all
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  Speaker 1: over Kendall County. On July first, the Record reported from
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  Speaker 1: Oswego ten farmhouses south of town have been wired for
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  Speaker 1: electricity and are enjoying electric service. The farmers east of
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  Speaker 1: town have signed contracts and work will soon be started there.
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  Speaker 1: Things moved really fast, with the Record reporting November eleventh,
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  Speaker 1: Oswego Township has been quite thoroughly electrified and many of
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  Speaker 1: the motors, washing machines, flat airrans, radios, and other electrically
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  Speaker 1: operated gadgets that have been purchased, even including electric corn poppers.
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  Speaker 1: Things went just as fast elsewhere in Kendall County, and
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  Speaker 1: within months electrical service was considered a necessity. From there,
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  Speaker 1: our idea of what our technological necessities has only grown
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  Speaker 1: something likely to continue for far into our future. Looking
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  Speaker 1: for more local history, visit Slash the