2. At the turn of the century, the main street was a “wide dirt swath bordered by pencil straight wooden businesses and trees that have since been leveled”.[2] Winters were colder than they are now; Grace Harris remembers that sometimes the school was so cold it took until noon for the stone fireplace to heat up the one-room schoolhouse, and lunches were kept in the potbellied stove so that they wouldn’t freeze. Bathroom facilities were outside, the boys at one end of the school and the girls at the other.[3] For the first few decades of the century, mail came by stagecoach from Chicago. People would gather at the post office waiting to see if they would get any mail, though most people rarely did. There was no direct mail delivery to Wauconda until after the 1930s.[4] Wauconda was known in this era as “quite a Saturday night town”, and lots of folk would come here to dance at places like the Oakland Hotel.[5] According to Harris, the Oakland “was the big hall of the town. . . . Everything was held there.”[6]

            3. Parsonage built for the MethodistChurch

            4. In this year the licensing fee for running billiards and pool tables was $10 per year per table.[7]

early 1900s: 1. By this time Wauconda was a top resort village.[8] Bangs Lake was dredged and sanded to make it suitable for beaches.

            2. 18-year-old Harry Geary was working at the Creamery and living on the third floor of the building, in a room he shared with hired hands

            in the summer. The Davis family, who managed the factory, lived on the second floor. A steam-driven engine rotated the churn and there

            was a horse barn behind the building which housed five horses. Some blacksmithing was done at the cheese factory by Charley Davis

            (who also served as the rural postmaster on occasion.) Years later, Geary remembered the Creamery as “a kind of a meeting place for the

            farm boys around here to talk about politics and crops or just plain settin’ and spittin’. And whittlin’ was always going on . . . much to the

            disgust of Davis’ wife, who thought he should be tending to cheese making.”[9]  

                 3. Ice cream socials were popular in the summers; in winter, skating parties and sleigh rides pro-vided recreation.

            4. Some of the area’s roads were so bad that stretches of them were simply abandoned in the spring.[10] This is one of the reasons that

            residents were so keen to get the railroad.

1901:   1. 1 July: Village Board agreed that all dogs found unmuzzled on the streets of the village between 10 July and 15 September were subject to shooting by village authorities.

            2. Death of Mary Oats Cook. The Cook house passed to her youngest daughter, Lucy, whose husband, Will Clough, had been farming it as Mary grew older. In the years that followed, the Clough family moved out. Lucy’s brother Arthur lived there until his death in 1906 (whether he moved in with his family after the Cloughs left or had lived there all along is unclear).

1902:   1. 5 May: An ordinance was passed by the Board granting Edward W. Stees, and his heirs as assigns, the right to built and maintain a railroad through the village.

            2. 3 November: An ordinance was passed granting the same right to W. D. Ball, Willard T. Block, Charles Lenhart, Frederick D. McKinnon and Edwin B. Smith.

            3. 5 December: death of Thomas Vedder Slocum in the Lincoln Hotel fire, Chicago[11]

1903:   (2 June) Village reforestation program established with the purchase by the village of sixty elm trees from Klehm's nursery, at a cost of

            $15.

1904:   (19 March) Volo Church destroyed by tornado

1905:   At age 15, Leslie Brooks Paddock began working the printing press at the Wauconda Star.

1906:  1. John Spencer’s saw and grist mill at the foot of Mill Street near the lake burned.[12] Many people at the time said it was the worst fire the village had seen. This shelved plans for an electric train-car. 

            2. Village’s first speed limit signs were posted, and some cement sidewalks were to be put in.

            3. Death of Arthur Cook; his family were the last of the Cooks to live in the Andrew C. Cook House; after this, the house was rented out.

1907:  1. John J. Brown (of McHenry) and Annie Margreth Stilling (of Johnsburgh, McHenry Co.) married at St. John’s Church. They moved into the Cook house, where they lived until 1919; two of their children were born in the house.[13]

            2. The old village hall (now the Citizens’ ActivityCenter) built by the Brumm Brothers. Village president at the time was H. T. Fuller.  

            3. Arthur Kirwan moved his tavern to 202 S. Main St.

1908:   1. Roller skating on cement sidewalks was banned.

            2. Wauconda Star purchased by Frank Carr. He changed the name to the Leader.

3. Graduating Class of WaucondaHigh School consisted of Minnie Meyer, Grace Toynton (later Mrs. George Harris), Bessy Clough (later Mrs. Rollin Hallock), and Mertie Kuebker (later Mrs. Homer T. Cook)—“all the boys had gotten bored and dropped out.”[14] At this point WaucondaHigh School was a three-room building at Main St. and Barrington Road, with eighth grade and high school taught in the same room by the same teacher.[15]

1909:   1. Emil Dahms became clerk; he served until 1928. 

2. Palatine, LakeZurich, and Wauconda railway line conceived by Robert Wynn—“the organizer of a not-too-successful trolley company in Waukegan”—as part of a scheme to build a trolley line from Waukegan to FoxLake and then to Rockford.[16] Wynn planned for a ‘T’ line which would extend from FoxLake through Wauconda, LakeZurich, and Palatine to terminate in Elgin. Along with Wynn, a Waukegan attorney named Justin K. Orvis “organized the Waukegan, Rockford, and Elgin Traction Company to connect with the Chicago and North-western railway lines.” The two men “barnstormed [sic] the area with the virtues of Wauconda as the ‘Midwest’s Natural Playground’. Due to promotion done by the pair, soon Charles A. Patten, a Palatine banker, became interested in helping out with the railroad’s finan- cing. Right of way for the railroad was donated by Wauconda farmers and on August 25, 1910, the Wauconda Leader reported that $20,000 was raised while only $2,000 was needed for the train.”[17]

1910:   1. Population at this time: 368. “[T]he community had achieved some prominence as a vacation spot for blue-collar Chicagoans enjoying the waters of Bangs Lake. Numerous summer homes ringed the lake and a small commercial center developed.”[18] Vacationers would take the train out to Barrington and then take a coach the rest of the way; Ambrose Bangs drove the coach.[19]

            2. Robert Wynn’s “failure in Waukegan doomed the Rockford line before it got off the ground,” but he found considerable enthusiasm for the proposed T-line.”[20] Rand Rd. (Rte. 12), "the old mail route to Janesville . . . remained a muddy or snow-clogged track" and "residents searched for a way to ease travel to Wauconda. . . . As grain prices rose, Wauconda citizens quickly contributed almost $20,000 for the line. Construction began almost immediately from Palatine, but economic and engineering difficulties delayed the entry of the restructured steam line . . . into Wauconda."[21]

3. The Slocum homestead sold by Marietta Slocum, the last of the family to live there, to Herman H. Hoelseler for $13,000. Marietta and her second husband, Charles Gardinier, are believed to have moved to California, where she died in 1921. Their only child, Daisy, married a Davis but is not believed to have had any children of her own.

4. Blackburn and Broughton Hardware established by George Blackhorn and Lyle Broughton “in a small wooden frame building.”[22]

1911:   1. Will Clough, husband of Lucy Cook, hanged himself in the barn. The writer of his obituary, who was a friend, wrote, "We believe that

            the loss of few men could be more keenly felt by all of us."[23]

            2. P, LZ, & W railway reached Deer Park.

1912:   (November) P, LZ, & W had reached Lake Zurich.[24]

1913:   1. 4 May: Palatine, Lake Zurich, and Wauconda Railroad (aka the Old Maud) finally pulled into Wauconda.[25] This was the occasion of the first Wauconda Day parade. Ambrose Bangs (then 83) drove the train. The railroad hauled agricultural products, delivered the mail, transported local passengers, and brought vacationers and day-trippers out from Chicago--to the town and to "the many picnic groves along the line."[26]  However, the "underfunded and poorly constructed line did not help develop Wauconda", which remained a small town.[27] The engines, as well as much of the equipment, were leased: The number one engine, 'Maud', and the number three engine, 'Betsy', were leased from NorthWestern; the number two engine, 'Molly', was on loan from the F, J, & F line.[28] Still, the railroad led to the town's flourishing as a resort, and Wauconda residents depended on it for supplies and for mail.

            2. J. H. Patterson built the Wauconda Lumber Yard. The yard was operated by three people, including Velda Bangs, the first bookkeeper.

1914:   1. 23 February: Brown & Boehmer Auto opened on Main St. "They started out just repairing horse-and-buggies", according to Steve Boehmer.[29]

            2. Public Service Company was granted by Ordinance the right to lay and maintain pipes to distribute gas though the village.

3. 19 December: According to Baptist records, the first meeting to discuss possible federation with the Methodists, took place on this day. Initially, the congregations would maintain their own properties and retain their denominational connections, but one pastor would serve both churches, first a Methodist, then a Baptist.[30]

1915:   1. 15 March:High school district established

2. Death of Charles Davlin. He was one of the first in Wauconda to own a car.

            3. Methodist & Baptist congregations united to form the Federated Church. The Methodist church building was used for worship services and Sunday school, and the Baptist building was used as a community centre. This worked well until the early 1930s.

4. August: Kuebker purchased 66 acres bordering on the lake and fixed it up to serve as Cook’s Grove, one of the earliest beaches on Bang’s Lake; admission: 25¢ per car.

            5. The P, LZ & W was losing money and the idea of extending it to Elgin was abandoned.

6. By this time the school board was renting (for $350 a year) room on the second floor of the village hall for area high-schoolers to go to class.

1916:   1. 20 May: Referendum held on selling $20,000 worth of bonds to finance a new school building. “The records of the exact vote are missing . . . but evidently the townspeople bought the idea.”[31]

2. May: Bids opened for an architectural firm to build the new building. Lewis and Daugherty had the winning bid and Otis Potter was hired as general contractor. The building they erected, at the corner of Slocum Lake Road and Maple, still stands; it now houses Wauconda Grade School, "though a modern facade hides the original exterior."[32]

            3. Graduates of Wauconda Township High School this year were Ralph Alverson, Winnifred Brown, and Harry Kirwan.[33]

1917:   1. Wauconda voted to outlaw the sale of liquor, two years before nationwide Prohibition.  

2. Graduates of Wauconda Township High School in this year were Mary Daley, Martha Hughes, Grace Jacobson, Della Kirwan, Mable Matthews, Frances Meyer, Gertrude Schaeffer, and Neva Toynton.[34]

            3. Grace Toynton married George Harris, janitor of the local schoolhouse and caretaker of Wauconda's two cemeteries (Wauconda Ceme- 
            tery and Transfiguration.)

4. Beginning of a flu epidemic that lasted into 1918: “Schools, churches and theaters were closed. All public gatherings were forbidden. Many died.”[35]

1918:   1. "During a snowstorm a train derailed at Putnam's Crossing in Lake Zurich and the rail broke, leaving the engine rolled over and on its
             side. Most of the passengers got out of the coach."[36] 

            2. May: By this month, there were 40 Wauconda men and one local woman serving the country in WWI; Arthur Daley was the first Wauconda resident to die in the war.[37]

3. 7 June: After several accidents “and [a] coal famine that stranded Old Maud in Wauconda, the line was sold for only $68,000 at a junk sale” to a group of Wauconda businessmen.[38]  Apparently it continued to run, however (see 1920, 1921, 1924).

4. Graduates of Wauconda Township High School this year were Edna Gossell, Yvonne Herren, Robert Lung, Marion Matthews, and Ruby Peterson.[39]

1919:   1. $1,420 was spent on an addition to the new high school.

2. 2 June: Village’s first demolition order approved by the Board; it ordered Al Orrock to remove his building on Mill Street within thirty days following the issuance of a public nuisance order.

3. Graduates of Wauconda Township High School in this year were Harold Brooks, Wilma Farnsworth, Effie Francisco, Marion Johnston, Esther Mickey, Grace Mueller, John Olinger, Martha Peterson, Matilda Ryan, and James Young.[40]

1920:   1. The Cook farm was at this time in the possession of Raymond Lusk, great-grandson of Andrew C. Cook.
            2. 2 February: Special election held at the Village Hall for electors to decide for or against an Issuance of Bonds in the amount of $52 to 
            pay for the construction of village water works. Votes were 46 against and 113 for the project.

            3. Wauconda had one telephone, housed in the general store.[41] Grace Harris remembers that the store “had china in the front and big kerosene cans in the back for people to fill smaller cans with.”[42]

            4. 5 July: P, LZ & W conductor Paul Harris, 29, caught his foot while jumping from the coach and was pulled under the wheels and killed.[43]

            5. Tile factory in town was destroyed by a tornado; it was never rebuilt.           
            6. An electric 'Wauconda' sign was hung over Main Street. "It was up for several years, but it was just one more thing that had to be kept  
            up."[44]           

            7. Graduates of WaucondaTownshipHigh School this year were Sarah Eddy, Priscilla Fenton, and Ralph Stroker.[46]

1921:   1. P, LZ, & W sold again, to Myron Dietrich, a foundry owner who had a summer house in Wauconda. "He renamed the line the Chicago,
            Palatine, and Wauconda because of a feud with Lake Zurich officials."[47]

            2. Graduates of Wauconda Township High School this year were Alvin Case, Harriett Foss, Milo Gilbert, Myron Hughes, Clarence Jenks,

            Mildred Jenks, Ralph Meyer, Bessie Mueller, Arthur Stroker, and Eugene Stroker.[48]

1922:   1. Fire-fighting equipment was moved about this time from the engine house, which had burned; it was now kept in the back of the old
            Village Hall.
            2. Main Street was paved. “Before this it was a dirt road. They oiled it in the summer. We took off our shoes and my mother would
            complain if we got into the oil because it was hard to get it off our feet before we went to bed.”[49]

            3. Graduates of Wauconda Township High School this year were; Robert Blackburn, William Brooks, Arthur Dillon, Edna Hazelton, Clarence Meyer, Hattie Powers, Kirk Werden, Harold Wheelock, Ralph Whitman.[50]

1923:   1. Sorensen’s (now Vickie’s Personal Touch) was the most frequented store in this year.

            2. Graduates of Wauconda Township High School this year were Frederick Anders, James Carr, Edith Case, James Dowell, Lois Gilbert, Marvin Hughes, and Marion Kupar.[51]

1924:   1. Cook's Grove inherited by Mertie Cook, daughter of August Kuebker.

2. P, LZ, & W lost its government mail contract because of its failure to meet timetables. The line was already nicknamed the 'Palatine, Lake Zurich, and Walk-the-rest-of-the-way' because of its unreliability.[52]

            3. Rand Road completed. The P, LZ & W went into its final decline, the primary reason being that more people had cars and local roads
            had been greatly improved. Richard Whitney suggests that the railroad aided in its own demise by carrying supplies for the paving of Old
            Rand Rd.  "It just wasn't needed anymore, and the town wasn't as isolated." Service terminated on 14 August.[53]

            4. About this time the Creamery was closed down.

1925:   1. Wauconda’s Volunteer Fire Department formed (again, this was probably the same group of people, just a new name and by-laws). Several of the members of the Wauconda Township Historical Society recall that in the early years of the fire department, volunteers would leave their jobs and customers when the bell rang and go running to the station.

            2. Ela High School district formed, enabling children from Ela township to go to their own school.

            3. Graduates of Wauconda Township High School in this year were Berniece Gossell and Clayton Steel of Wauconda; Dorothea Stroker of Evanston; Margaret Roesslein of Chicago; and Vera Basey and Margaret Fink of Champaign.[54]

            4. June: Auction held for the sale of lots on the Slocum lakefront in the Williams Park subdivision.[advert, Libertyville Independent, June
           19, 1924]
1926:   1. Phil's Beach, one of the town's finest, opened by Phil Froehlke, one-time operator of the Boat House; admission: 50¢ per car. This
            beach was notable for having lifeguards from the beginning.

            2. Graduates of Wauconda Township High School in this year were Harold Rudinski, Beryl Gilbert, and Irvin Moody of Wauconda; Myrtle Darrell of Crystal Lake; Fern Wilson of Palatine; Elizabeth Fink of Decatur; Warren Powers of Elmherst; Lawrence Frank of Lake Zurich; and Calvin Prior of Loyal, Wisc.[55]

1927:   1. Art Boehmer's shop began dealing in automobiles; the business exists today as Boehmer Chevrolet on Liberty Street. 

            2. Graduates of Wauconda Township High School this year were Chesney Brooks and Arthur Koser of Wauconda; Hazel Anders of

            Wilmette; Grace Branding, Helen Frank, and Verna  Rudsinski of Lake Zurich; Margaret Hughes of Bloomington; Georgia Vasey and

            Emma Vogt of DeKalb; Clifford Wilson of Round Lake; and Alice Washo of Chicago. [56]

            3. Blackburn & Broughton built a brick building on the same location as their previous building.

            4. November: Work began on new building for Homer Lincoln’s barber shop (206 S. Main).

1928:   The Oakland Hotel, which had sat empty for several years after being deemed unsafe, was torn down.[57] Lumber from the building was

             used to build summer cottages.

1929:   1. The right-of-way for Route 176 was purchased through Wauconda. This route travels through the center of town and is named locally Liberty Street.

2. A group of Wauconda residents (including Ray Paddock, Homer Cook, Dr. Werden and Dennis Putnam) decided, in effect, to colonize the Island Lake area. They purchased land, planning to dam up Mutton Creek and create a lakeside development similar to Wauconda.

early 1930s: 1. To accommodate Rte. 176, the land on which the Methodist Church building stood was needed. Since the two congregations were already Federated, it was agreed to add on to the Baptist building across the street and meet as one church. The two buildings were re- modelled into a single structure.[58] 

2. The land on which the old train depot stood was purchased by Frank Dickson, who gifted it to the Federated Church (this land forms part of the park).[59] George and Grace Harris bought the depot itself and had it moved to Maple Street, near the grade school. In 1976, the renovated depot was still being lived in.[60]

3. The plans of Homer Cook et al. to create a lake and develop a community in Island Lake fell apart with the coming of the Depression. “[T]he newly created lake became a private fishing preserve for an exclusive group of sportsmen from Chicago.”[61]

            4. The engines of the old P, LZ, & W, which had been left near the engine house in Wauconda since the line's demise, were finally sold for
            scrap.

1931:   1. 1 January:Lions Club organized                              

            2. Village of Wauconda ordinance created the Wauconda Fire Department, recognizing the volunteers and equipment as the village’s fire department. From this point on, minutes were kept of meetings and activities.

            3. The Wauconda Fire Department began raising funds to purchase its first motorized fire apparatus, a 500-gallon per minute pumper purchased from Peter Pirsch and Sons in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Fund raisers such as the Lions’ Club annual carnival and raffles brought in the money, which was put into an account with the Wauconda Trust and Savings. A month before they were to take possession of the machine, however, the bank joined thousands across the nation in shutting its doors, and all the money was lost. Fortunately, they were able to strike a deal with the Pirsch company, and in November, the pumper was delivered. (This pumper is still owned and maintained by the fire department.) The engine that held this pump was named ‘Old Betsy’, and it still works, though it is no longer used to fight fires.[62]

4. Genevieve Wells began teaching at the Murray School, located on the southeast corner of Fairfield and Dixon Rds. At the time, the school had no running water, electricity, or indoor plumbing. “Teachers that were women were not allowed to be married. I guess the school boards didn’t want to take a chance of hiring a married woman. She could become pregnant and then have to take time off work.”[63]

            5. Wauconda Lumber Yard sold to George Perkins & Sons of Rockford and Marengo.

1932:   Downstairs area of the old Creamery building was converted into an apartment for Claire Meyer. “While Claire Meyer lived at the creamery she kept a cow tied to a tree south of the building and was known to the children of the area as the ‘witch’, and the factory as the ‘witches’ [sic] house’. We don’t know if she was amused or annoyed by this. . . .”[64]

1935:   (25 September) new Federated Church building dedicated.

1936:   1. Bessie Clough inherited the Cook House at the death of her mother. She later sold it to her cousin, Homer T. Cook.

            2. Glenn Blackburn, George’s son, began working at the hardware store.

1937:   (16 September) Creation of the Wauconda Fire Protection District. It was probably at about this point that the company’s original Niagara

             hand pump disappeared; nobody is quite sure what happened to it.

            (8 November) contract signed between the Wauconda Fire Department and the Wauconda Fire Protection District.

1939:   1. 4 May: George Mollenkemp appointed first chief of police

            2. Population in this year: 550. According to Illinois: A Descriptive and Historical Guide, the mainstay of economic life in Wauconda

            was farming, but “[s]upplementary incomes are gleaned from summer colonists.”[65]

            3. Wauconda Women's Club set aside $35 for the purchase of books to start a public library. The books were originally housed in the high
            school library. 

4. Death of Arthur Kirwan. His son, Harry, who had helped with the business for years, took over the tavern.

1940s: 1. State government started a consolidation program to bring various school districts together. There was a clause that allowed anyone who was dissatisfied to opt out and be part of a different district. This resulted in a lot of land grabbing and hard feelings. Some of the problems created are still with us today.[66]

            2. Cook house inhabited at this point by Ronald Paddock, longtime president of Wauconda National Bank and Trust Co; he and his family were renting the house from a Mr. DeWolf.[67] I do not know when DeWolf purchased it or whether he had any connection to the Cook family. Paddock’s daughter remembers that they did not use the upper floor, and all of the family slept in what is now the parlour.

1940:   Glenn Bacon, grandson of Timothy (see 1868) purchased the Bacon farm. He and his wife lived there, raising hogs, Jersey cows, and grains.

1941:   Wauconda Fire Department became a corporation.

1945:   Ed, Tony, and Hank Jachec bought 3½ acres and opened up Honey Hill Beach. Several years later they put in a slide with a 40'–50' chute, which was one of the highest in the country. The owners believed this was one of the reasons their beach became so popular.

1946:   The end of WWII sparked growth in Wauconda, whose population in this year was 650. “The movement of large numbers of World War II veterans into the area by auto were the main factors which brought expansion to Wauconda. . . . Many of the new residents were ex- soldiers from Chicago’s West and Northwest Sides, living in converted summer cottages.”[68] Wauconda’s reputation as a resort town continued to bring vacationers in – Barbara Parelius Davenport remembers that before the current rte. 12 was completed, “the traffic [on Main St.] was terrible. Cars would be lined up bumper to bumper on the weekends out past the house. People were waiting to get into the beaches.” Over time, some of the summer people also turned their cottages into year-round residences and stayed in the community. In the next six years, the population nearly doubled. Around Slocum Lake, too, converted summer cabins formed the nucleus of new subdivisions going up.

1947:   1. Cook House purchased by Roger and Emily Parelius. Their son, also Roger, was born there in 1948. Parelius’s daughter, Barbara Davenport, remembers that the property had a big red barn with ‘Fair Acres’ painted on it in white letters. It also had the following out- buildings: a chicken house, granary, tool shed, hog house, corn crib & silo. At the time of purchase, there was a  small hand-pump in the kitchen bringing water in from a well or cistern. Roger Parelius used electricity to pump water into the house. Near the house there was an orchard with apple, pear, and cherry trees. The Parelius family renovated the unused upstairs, turning it into an apartment. The first renters were Russell and Beatrice Lutz; they were followed by Ray and Myrtle Boerup (Myrtle was the aunt of Arlene and Darlene Vickery). They also fixed up one of the outbuildings, which they rented to Bob Neis.

            2. George Lincoln began his career as a barber, working in his father’s barber shop. He eventually assumed ownership.

1948:   1. Transfiguration parish enlarged to include a rectory and convent as well as Wauconda’s only parochial school, which opened this year.  This parish is one of the oldest parishes in the Catholic Diocese of Chicago.

            2. Fire Station #1 was built at Rte. 176 and Maple Avenue. Equipment was moved to the new station from the village hall.

            3. Phil’s Beach taken over by Tom Reilly, Phil Froehlke’s son-in-law.

4. Wauconda Library by now was in need of expansion, having acquired more and more books as donations came in. Two rooms were rented above the Wauconda Sport Shop on Main Street and called the Wauconda Public Library. This arrangement brought difficulties, as the library's resources had to go to paying rent rather than acquiring and operating the library.

1949:   1. Kisselburg’s Funeral Home opened.

2. Village government of Hainesville, which had gradually died away after the town’s losses in the late 1800s, was reactivated. Remaining residents moved to reincorporate, only to discover that it was unnecessary—Elijah Haines had been granted a perpetual charter.