McLean County, Illinois - Chapter 8: Modern Normal, 1924

The development of the town of Normal from a straggling village into a modern little city with every convenience and facility of many a larger place, may be roughly traced back to a period of 25 years ago. At that time began the era of building of pavements, concrete sidewalks and modern systems of sewerage disposal. This development had its reflex effect upon property values in Normal, and thus added to the revenues with which to continue and expand this spirit of development.

It may be worth while to attempt a picture of Normal in the earlier days of its existence as a corporation. It was of course built up around the Normal University, and its whole sustenance in fact was drawn from the students of that institution and those who indirectly depended upon it. The student populations were housed in many "clubs," or co-operative boarding houses, where some property owner, often a woman, would take a number of students for boarding and rooming them. The club commissary would be in charge of a steward who had charge of the buying of provisions and collecting from each member of the club his or her proportionate share of the cost of the raw materials. The woman who owned the house would do the cooking and serving of the meals for an agreed upon consideration.

other interests in which greater or less numbers of men and their families depended for their livelihood. These were the nurseries and the horse business. The nurseries were numerous, and at one time Normal as a nursery center had few rivals in the United States, at least in the middle west. Hundreds of acres surrounding the town proper were set out in nursery stock, and during the two main shipping months of the year, April and October, the nursery grounds and packing houses were exceedingly busy places, employing scores of men in getting the stock from the grounds and packing it for shipment to all parts of the country. In later years, the nursery business declined to some extent, owing to widespread competition, but there are still several nurseries in and near Normal which have a flourishing business. The oldest of these is the Augustine nursery, which has been in successful operation for nearly a half century. The very earliest nursery in this vicinity was run by Nelson Buck, and Jesse W. Fell, with his brothers, Joshua, Thomas, Kersey and Robert, managed several acres of nursery grounds. But the man best known in the nursery history of McLean County was Franklin K. Phoenix, who ran a large nursery for 20 years prior to the '70's. Then there were Cyrus W. Overman, W. H. Mann, and Dr. H. Schroeder. Jesse W. Fell was noted for his penchant for planting trees, and his habit made Normal one of the best shaded towns in the country, a true atmosphere for scholastic population.

The other business enterprise which grew up alongside of the educational center of Normal was that of the importing, breeding and dealing in heavy horses. This business was of slow growth, like many others, but when it had attained its peak the town of Normal became the draft horse center of the state if not of the middle west. There were several firms and individuals who engaged in the trade to the extent of hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. The principal men who made Normal famous as a horse center were the Dillons. There were several of the Dillon brothers, and all had interests in the business. There was Isaiah, Levi, Doff and Melvin Dillon, who for 25 years maintained great barns filled with heavy draft horses imported direct from France and England or other European countries, or bred from the horses which they had imported. The plan on which they worked was to go to Europe and buy up several scores of fine draft animals of the Percheron, Clydesdale, Norman or Belgian stock, then ship them here to their barns, where they were kept until certain specified dates, when great auction sales of the horses would be held. These sales were usually held in February, or perhaps again in the autumn. Buyers would come here from all parts of the country, and the competitive bidding for the animals was- spirited and profitable for the sellers. For several days after each of these sales, the outgoing freight trains would contain carloads of horses bought here and shipped to distant points.

The town of Normal in these days of the early university, of the first nurseries and the horse barns, was an overgrown village with but meager physical improvements. It had no electric lights, practically no sewerage system, no street pavements, and was connected with Bloomington by a crude railway with dummy engines drawing small cars, then by mules as the locomotive power. Long after street paving and sewerage systems in Bloomington had been constructed on modern lines, Normal was still floundering in the mud. The first use of electricity in Normal was that from a home-made plant of small capacity and meager equipment. This plant was destroyed by an explosion and fire, and afterward the town concluded to buy its current from the Bloomington & Normal Electric Lighting Company.

The municipal affairs of the town had got into a rut, this condition having resulted from many years of loose financing in which each year the expenditures were greater than the income. There was no chance of the town undertaking a list of improvements such as pavement and sewer building unless relief could be secured from this overhanging debt.

Beginning with the year 1900, we will trace the history of the town administration and try to outline the changes which took place and which marked the modern era in Normal. The names of two men who were mayors at this period stand out prominently: Otto Seibert, who was reelected mayor in 1900, had already served two terms. With him were elected as councilmen Edward Metcalf, James Hoselton, George H. Coen, R. M. Huffington and Charles J. Cole. Mayor Seibert was re-elected each year afterward up to and including 1904. The next council contained the same men, with the exception of Thomas Sylvester, who succeeded Huffington. The following year, 1902, new members of the council were elected in the persons of D. C. Smitson, Frank Custer and George Warner, Jr. In 1903 a new council came in, composed of R. M. Huffington, E. G. Sage, J. W. Evans, J. K. McGowan and Charles Shadle. The last council that served with Mayor Seibert was composed of Messrs. Metcalf, Hoselton, Huffington, Shadle and J. W. Evans. Mayor Seibert had been a business man in Normal for many years, and he might have been reelected as mayor for still further terms had he not voluntarily retired. The hold-over deficit which had been the bane of many council still hung on at this period.

A change in the mayor's tenure of office, and also of the councilmen, took place at this time under a new state law, they being elected for two years instead of one. Edward J. Metcalf was the first mayor elected under the two-year rule, and with him the council were J. C. Hoselton, R. M. Huffington, J. W. Evans, L. A. Hinton and J. E. Crew. The same council served under the second year of Mayor Metcalf, except that J. H. Riley was elected to succeed Evans.

The year 1907 was an important one in the history of modern Normal, for that year the citizens organized to elect a council that they thought would start the town on a new era. 0. L. Manchester, professor of economics in the Normal University, was put up for mayor, with the backing of the Normal Improvement Association, an organization of progressive citizens. He was elected, and along with him were elected as councilmen, A. J. Bill, 0. R. Ernst, F. E. Putnam, Prof. James Adams and Prof. F. D. Barber. This administration tackled the problem of the old deficit in city finances. This deficit amounted to about $14,000, or about the whole municipal income from one year's taxes. After looking over the situation, the council took the advice of Jacob P. Lindley, the town's attorney, and decided to convert this floating debt into a bonded indebtedness. It could not be done the first year, and in fact it was not until 1912 that the question of issuing bonds for this sum was put up to the people at the election. It readily carried, however, for the vote in favor of the bonds was 179, and against, 83. The old debt was covered by the bonds, and in due time the bonds were paid off by increased assessments, and thus the "hoodoo debt" which had been hanging over the city for many years was taken care of. The Manchester administration also sought out properties which had previously escaped taxation, and in this way added considerable to the city's income.

Mayor Manchester and his progressive council had not been in office long before they set about on a program of physical improvements. They outlined a set of proposed street pavements which covered most of the principal streets of the city. Prior to that time there were only two blocks of brick pavement in the town, they being on Beaufort and North, in the business section. The people seemed to have confidence in the administration, for they backed the pavement program. Not that all the councilmen were re-elected, for the year 1908 saw a whole new council elected in the persons of George W. Bentley, L. A. Hinton, Ira C. Simpson, Jesse H. Riley and Ray Fairfield. The following year Bentley, Riley, Hinton and Fairfield were re-elected, while the new councilman was E.

C. Buck. The following year, 1910, a change in law permitted of the election of six councilmen instead of five, for a term of two years instead of one. The men elected were Ray Fairfield, L. A. Hinton, J. H. Riley, T. T. Hunter, G. W. Bentley and E. C. Buck. Mayor Manchester was re-elected the next sprng for a two-year term, and with him Bentley, Riley, J. E. Hatfield and Dr. H. G. McCormick. The year that the bonds were approved, the members of council elected were Fairfield, McCormick and Hunter. Only one change occurred in the council next year,

This was 1914, and that year one of the most important additions ever made to Normal came up for consideration, it being B. M. Kuhn's addition, known as Cedar Crest. Mr. Kuhn had platted a large vacant tract at the south end of Normal, where his home had stood for many years. He laid out curved drives, and displayed plans for building many new homes. The council finally admitted this addition, and it now contains many fine modern homes. It is at the south end of Broadway, which was one of the finest streets improved under the Manchester paving program.

When Mayor Manchester was re-elected for the last time, in 1915, it was the first time women had voted in the city election, and there was the largest vote ever cast. By this time the people recognized the work that had been done - the old hoodoo debt discharged, many streets paved and sewered, the water works rebuilt and many other improvements made. The salary of the office of mayor is only $300 per year, and it was recognized that this was small compensation for the time and work which the office entails. In the second year of Mayor Manchester's last term, the councilmen elected were George T. Lentz, William S. Sylvester and J. L. Wolcott.

John A. Goodwin, who had previously been in the council, was chosen mayor. With him were elected C. L. White, Frank S. Foulk, George Pickering and C. E. Johnson. Mayor Goodwin occupied the executive office in one of the most trying periods in the history of the city, for it was the two years during which the United States was engaged in the World war. Ordinary business of the city had to be largely suspended, while the energies of the city fathers as well as of other citizens, were devoted to war work. The mayor and council assisted notably in drives for the Red Cross, liberty loans and in many other ways. Normal was the scene of notable accomplishments in war work during these two years. The new councilmen in the second year of Mayor Goodwin's administration were Roy Bryant, Wm. Sylvester and C. E. Johnson.

Mayor Goodwin declined to stand for re-election in 1919, and the office was filled by the election of Frank S. Foulk, former councilman, who is still mayor (1924). The first council elected with Mayor Foulk were George Pickering, Roy Bates, James Hanna, H. W. Adams, Harry Bomgardner. The members elected to council in 1920 were Bomgardner, Sylvester and Palmer Q. Moore.

Mayor Foulk was re-elected in 1921 and again in 1923. Messrs. Bates, Pickering and Enos Stewart were elected to council in 1921, and in 1922 those elected were J. W. Kirkton, Alva E. Briscoe, and Warren White. In this year, E. A. Tobias was elected for the first time city clerk, an office he still holds. The councilmen elected in 1923 were Pickering, Park C. Gillespie and Charles E. Clark. For the election of 1924 the council members elected were W. H. Johnson, R. E. Herr and Warren White. The city clerk chosen was E. A. Tobias, and the police magistrate was Fred Goff.

Two organizations stand out in their influence for the good of Normal in the past 20 years. They are the Woman's Improvement League and the Normal Commercial Club. The Woman's Improvement League was formed some 15 years ago or more, and has accomplished many notable things. One of these was the creation and construction of the Jesse Fell Memorial gateway at the Normal University in honor of the man who had most to do with the early history of Normal and the location here of the great university.

much for the community since it was formed. It has rented club rooms and furnished them for the comfort and convenience of its members, which include most of the leading business and professional men of Normal.

Coincident with the growth of the spirit of public improvement, the business and commercial interests of Normal have expanded. The business section of the city some 25 years ago included about two blocks of stores of one kind and another, most of them rather old and out of date and representing comparatively small stocks and furnishings. Today, the retail section of the city has spread out to take in parts of two other blocks, and the general character of the stores has improved and been modernized to a very noticeable extent. The lines of business have also been enlarged, several prosperous stores now existing handling merchandise which a few years ago could not be secured in Normal at all. There are two banks where for many years was only one. A weekly newspaper of live contents and enterprising editorship has for many years flourished. Several professional men in various lines have built up profitable clientage. Where formerly the people of Normal thought they had to go to Bloomington for any of their requirements in many lines, they now patronize Normal stores and shops.

No doubt the establishment of the summer school at the University has had much to do with modern business life in Normal. Formerly there were three months of the year when Normal was practically "dead," for the student population had vanished and the townspeople lived only in anticipation of the opening of the next fall term of school and the returns of the transients. Now, those days have gone forever. The summer time sees even a larger student population than the winter terms, and things are as lively during the heated period as in other seasons. Consequently merchants and tradesmen can figure on a trade more evenly spread over the whole year than they formerly could, when all their profit had to be made in nine months.

Normal has one large and up-to-date country club, the Maplewood. This club acquired the old homestead of W. A. Watson and improved the residence into a modern country club house. The large grounds were made into golf links, one of the best courses in the state. The membership of the club is largely made up of Normal people, although many Bloomington people also belong.