Narrator: Harold Weary Interviewer: Jim Jirak Date of Interview: Interview Location: Interview Length: 22 minutes
JIM JIRAK: [conversation already in progress] . . . folks and where did they come from?
HAROLD WEARY: My name is Harry Weary. I was born in Republic County, Kansas, on the 7th of October, 1908. My grandparents home, which is a mile west and two miles south of the little town of Chester, Nebraska. But I was born in Kansas. The Nebraska-Kansas line ran just south of the town. My mother's name was Viva Gerbat. She was born in 1886 in Nemaha, Nebraska — Nemaha County, Nebraska. My father Irvin C. Weary. He was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania in 1884 near the town of Carlisle. My grandparents — mind you, of course, my Weary grandparents being in Pennsylvania, I never knew my grandmother at all. My grandfather I only saw a couple of times. But I did know my grandparents Gerbat. The Gerbat farm, as I described before, was right on the old Pike's Peak trail. In fact, as a youngster, I remember going across the highway into a pasture area that had never been broken. There was two distinct ruts of the old Pike's Peak trail. It came across a little creek in that pasture. The ruts were still plainly visible. Some of them were as much as ten, eleven inches deep. This is rather interesting. My father had said when he first came to my grandparents home, the prairie south of their house was also unbroken and the tracks went right up over the hill towards the southwest. That kind of gives a little idea of my beginning. I went to school in Chester in the little town of Humboldt just east of Chester. My university,I was at Nebraska Westland in Lincoln, Nebraska, and then went to the University of Nebraska where I got my master's degree. After graduating from Nebraska, I was interviewed and came to Chicago where I worked for the Drover's Journal Publishing Company in the stockyards where I met my wife Irene Eitman. We were married in 1937. We had three children, Maria Salane. who is still with us, Sharon Elizabeth, whose married name is Fruck and Ronald Earl. His wife is Joyce Ann Colmine. , • . ,
JIRAK: When did you move to Mount Prospect then?
WEARY: We moved to Mount Prospect in October 1962. I just finished up my 29th year here. We have always lived at 513 South George Street since we came here. I was with United Airlines and came up at that time the airlines moved to Mount Prospect.
JIRAK: You say you've lived there all your time here in Mount Prospect since you first came. When you first came to town, what do you recall being the downtown area?WEARY: Well, the downtown area at that time, I would say, was the same as it was today. There's been quite a few little changes in the town. For instance, Reefer's Drugstore moved from the north side of the tracks to the south side of the tracks. We had a National Tea and an A & P Store who have gone long ago. A number of other changes, but mainly in the businesses, not so much in the buildings in the downtown area. Most of those changes have come later. There was a number of new buildings, of course, that went in on the north side of Northwest Highway since we've been here. And our principal store was the Jewel store at the corner of Mount Prospect Road and Northwest Highway. Goldblatt's store was our principal up in the Plaza area. Randhurst was in the process of being built at the time we came out and became the major marketing place thereafter. Marketplace on the south side where the Zayre store was was one of the principal stores for miscellaneous items. Wille Hardware Store was the place where we got our hardware and miscellaneous items. That's about the way that I remember it. Going back to our area, which is the southeast side of Mount Prospect, some of the big changes there. The fact is, I remember that soon after we came or about the time that we came there was an accident on the railroad at Mount Prospect Road and Northwest Highway where one of the United Airline employees was killed. As a result of that, they made some changes there. Going up over the railroad track, going south, was a big hump. I guess Northwest Highway was about five feet lower than the railroad track there. So it was a dangerous corner. When we bought our property, the woman that sold it to us told us to be very careful at that corner because it was dangerous. There had been a lot of accidents there. They filled in Northwest Highway and also Mount Prospect Road north of the tracks and we now have a more or less level area there, much improvement, and as far as I know, we've had practically no accidents at that corner since. The other thing in our area was Weller Creek. If you wanted to get south from our place to the south side, you either had to go over to Emerson and cross the bridge there or you had to go over to Mount Prospect Road. There were no bridges in between. Sometime later they put in the bridge on William Street and later on we got our bridge on George Street. So that gave us two crossings closer than what we had had before. There were a number of changes at Lions Park. New buildings went up there. There was a small building as I remember when we first came in, but they enlarged it and put in a new building there, improved the park, put in the swimming pool, tennis courts and things like that after we arrived. That kind of gives a general idea of what I remember of the early days.
<w*
JIRAK: Could you tell us just a little bit about how far south, at the time that you established your home there at 513 South George, can you tell us how far south the homes extended at that time?
5
WEARY: Yes. That was all filled in over to along Albert Street. Between the homes on the east side of Albert and Mount Prospect Road was all a cornfield when we came in. That whole area was cornfield and that was not built up until many years later. In fact, I remember them telling the people along Albert Street when they started putting in the new homes there and plowing up, they were infested by rats that came out of the cornfields there. It was quite a menace. So that was all changed after we came. But south of us, that was all pretty well developed.
JIRAK: Can you tell us, Mr. Weary, what you may remember about some of the factories that were in existence at that time? There were a few as I recall.
WEARY: At that time, there were practically no factories. Over on Central we had the Belling works, and that's about the only thing that I can remember too much of any manufacturing angle itself.
JIRAK: Do you recall if the Crow Foot Company — they were a machine tool manufacturer, I believe, on Northwest Highway? Do you recall anything of that?
WEARY: No, I don't recall anything. The fact is, I wouldn't have anything to do with them so I probably wouldn't have remembered them. Not only from the manufacturing point of view, that was s practically gone by the time I got here, I'm sure.JIRAK: Now other than stores and businesses, can you tell me a little bit about your recollection of the police department? Who might have been police chief at the time and likewise with the fire department?
WEARY: Oh, let's see. I should remember the police chief. He was quite a celebrity here in Mount Prospect at the time we came in. He just died recently.
JIRAK: Whittenberg are you speaking of?
WEARY: No. Oh, what was his name? I know it so well and it just won't come. My main interest, I think, in the beginning early days was the Mount Prospect Library. Now this came back in the days of Parsons when he was library president and working with them. He asked my wife if she'd be bookkeeper for the library. Of course, this was back in the days when the library was in the senior center, in what is now the senior center. So she said she would do it if I would help her. So it turned out she typed up the checks for the payrolls and the bills and I put them together and prepared the statements for the library. Most of them went back, started back about twenty-two, twenty-three years ago. When
the new library was built, it had more employees. It got to a
^
point where one person couldn't do it as a sideline. So at that
time, Marge Reesey was hired as bookkeeper and became kind of an
office manager for the library. I still stayed with the library as a financial consultant and accounting consultant, which I have been doing since that time. I've seen many, many changes in the library over this period of time. We've had our ups and downs, times when we didn't know where the next dollar was coming from. But somehow or other, we managed to pull through, and I think we have a very excellent library at the present time. I think of parades and decorations and so forth, the main thing that I remember is the Fourth of July parades that we've had for years here, which were always very interesting affairs. We used to bring our grandchildren to see them. That's going back quite a ways.
JIRAK: Before we get off the subject of the library, I'd like to ask what was your involvement with the genealogy collection and how you happened to attach your name to that?
WEARY: I was the first president of the Northwest Suburban Council of Genealogists, which at the beginning met here at the library. We organized it. There was about five or six of us that got together and organized the genealogy group. I guess because I was the only male in the group, I got the assignment to be the first president. So because of that and because of my time that I had donated to the library, the genealogy section was named in my honor — an honor I greatly appreciated.JIRAK: How did you become interested in genealogy? How far back does that go?
WEARY: My interest in genealogy went back to the time of the death of my mother. As usual after a death in the family, all the cousins get together, you know, and they start rehashing what they know about the family. I found out that none of us knew anything about our family. We had no idea of where we originated or what our ancestors had done. So I decided I was going to find out where we came from, and that was my undoing. Once you get into genealogy and get started, the more you learn, the more you want to know. And so it's developed now. At this time, I'm trying to write up histories of my families. I have researched them and got all of my family back before 1800, some of them back into the 1600s. It's interesting to know where they came from, what they did, how long they've been in the United States. In fact, my great-grandparents on my mother's side were the last ones to come over, and they came over in 1854. All my other ancestors came over before 1800. I have, I think, certificates for six ancestors who were in the Revolutionary War, and I have about six or seven more that were here and I haven't been able to establish whether or not they were actually involved in the war or not.
JIRAK: Can you tell us where your ancestors came from?
WEARY: My ancestors who came over last came from Switzerland. My family name came from Germany and it appears we were French Heugonots out of the Alsace region of France when it was taken over by France and they moved across into Germany at that time. We are French. Gerbat is a French name. We have English, Scotch, and Irish. So I'm a duke's mixture.
JIRAK: Very good. I think that's very interesting. All right, sir. Let's see, I think we're about ready to wrap this up, but I would like to ask you first, what would be your fondest memory of downtown Mount Prospect as you remember it when you first came here in those early years?
WEARY: That's a difficult question. I suppose one of the fondest memories is the changes in Lions Park. We've enjoyed Lions Park immensely over the years. We've gone to concerts there and lots of recreational deals, especially with the grandchildren. We could take them over to Lions Park, so I think that's maybe one of the memories that I have from Mount Prospect. Of course, as we've just gone through, the changes in the library have been very, very interesting to me. The changes in United Airlines, where I worked for thirty-one years and have been retired for eighteen years, and their development has been very interesting to me.
JIRAK: That's good. Harold, we certainly thank you for your time and effort in working with this interview, and we appreciate your signing consent forms to have these place among the archives forfuture youngsters and adults to read something about the history of their home town.
WEARY: I consider it a privilege to have been asked to do this. I'm much behind this idea of developing information, particularly from the Historical Society where I'm a director. I think it is great for the children of the village to know what has happened in their village, not only from the point of view that it gives them a background here, but I think it leads them into an interest in all history — the history of the country, the history of the world and so forth.
JIRAK: That's very important. We thank you very much again. And that will conclude our interview. Thank you.
10Narrator: Harold Weary Interviewer: Jim Jirak Date of Interview: Interview Location: Interview Length: 22 minutes
JIM JIRAK: [conversation already in progress] . . . folks and where did they come from?
HAROLD WEARY: My name is Harry Weary. I was born in Republic County, Kansas, on the 7th of October, 1908. My grandparents home, which is a mile west and two miles south of the little town of Chester, Nebraska. But I was born in Kansas. The Nebraska-Kansas line ran just south of the town. My mother's name was Viva Gerbat. She was born in 1886 in Nemaha, Nebraska — Nemaha County, Nebraska. My father Irvin C. Weary. He was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania in 1884 near the town of Carlisle. My grandparents — mind you, of course, my Weary grandparents being in Pennsylvania, I never knew my grandmother at all. My grandfather I only saw a couple of times. But I did know my grandparents Gerbat. The Gerbat farm, as I described before, was right on the old Pike's Peak trail. In fact, as a youngster, I remember going across the highway into a pasture area that had never been broken. There was two distinct ruts of the old Pike's Peak trail. It came across a little creek in that pasture. The ruts were still plainly visible. Some of them were as much as ten, eleven inches deep. This is rather interesting. My father had said when he first came to my grandparents home, the prairie south of their house was also unbroken and the tracks went right up over the hill towards the southwest. That kind of gives a little idea of my beginning. I went to school in Chester in the little town of Humboldt just east of Chester. My university,I was at Nebraska Westland in Lincoln, Nebraska, and then went to the University of Nebraska where I got my master's degree. After graduating from Nebraska, I was interviewed and came to Chicago where I worked for the Drover's Journal Publishing Company in the stockyards where I met my wife Irene Eitman. We were married in 1937. We had three children, Maria Salane. who is still with us, Sharon Elizabeth, whose married name is Fruck and Ronald Earl. His wife is Joyce Ann Colmine. , • . ,
JIRAK: When did you move to Mount Prospect then?
WEARY: We moved to Mount Prospect in October 1962. I just finished up my 29th year here. We have always lived at 513 South George Street since we came here. I was with United Airlines and came up at that time the airlines moved to Mount Prospect.
JIRAK: You say you've lived there all your time here in Mount Prospect since you first came. When you first came to town, what do you recall being the downtown area?WEARY: Well, the downtown area at that time, I would say, was the same as it was today. There's been quite a few little changes in the town. For instance, Reefer's Drugstore moved from the north side of the tracks to the south side of the tracks. We had a National Tea and an A & P Store who have gone long ago. A number of other changes, but mainly in the businesses, not so much in the buildings in the downtown area. Most of those changes have come later. There was a number of new buildings, of course, that went in on the north side of Northwest Highway since we've been here. And our principal store was the Jewel store at the corner of Mount Prospect Road and Northwest Highway. Goldblatt's store was our principal up in the Plaza area. Randhurst was in the process of being built at the time we came out and became the major marketing place thereafter. Marketplace on the south side where the Zayre store was was one of the principal stores for miscellaneous items. Wille Hardware Store was the place where we got our hardware and miscellaneous items. That's about the way that I remember it. Going back to our area, which is the southeast side of Mount Prospect, some of the big changes there. The fact is, I remember that soon after we came or about the time that we came there was an accident on the railroad at Mount Prospect Road and Northwest Highway where one of the United Airline employees was killed. As a result of that, they made some changes there. Going up over the railroad track, going south, was a big hump. I guess Northwest Highway was about five feet lower than the railroad track there. So it was a dangerous corner. When we bought our property, the woman that sold it to us told us to be very careful at that corner because it was dangerous. There had been a lot of accidents there. They filled in Northwest Highway and also Mount Prospect Road north of the tracks and we now have a more or less level area there, much improvement, and as far as I know, we've had practically no accidents at that corner since. The other thing in our area was Weller Creek. If you wanted to get south from our place to the south side, you either had to go over to Emerson and cross the bridge there or you had to go over to Mount Prospect Road. There were no bridges in between. Sometime later they put in the bridge on William Street and later on we got our bridge on George Street. So that gave us two crossings closer than what we had had before. There were a number of changes at Lions Park. New buildings went up there. There was a small building as I remember when we first came in, but they enlarged it and put in a new building there, improved the park, put in the swimming pool, tennis courts and things like that after we arrived. That kind of gives a general idea of what I remember of the early days.
<w*
JIRAK: Could you tell us just a little bit about how far south, at the time that you established your home there at 513 South George, can you tell us how far south the homes extended at that time?
5
WEARY: Yes. That was all filled in over to along Albert Street. Between the homes on the east side of Albert and Mount Prospect Road was all a cornfield when we came in. That whole area was cornfield and that was not built up until many years later. In fact, I remember them telling the people along Albert Street when they started putting in the new homes there and plowing up, they were infested by rats that came out of the cornfields there. It was quite a menace. So that was all changed after we came. But south of us, that was all pretty well developed.
JIRAK: Can you tell us, Mr. Weary, what you may remember about some of the factories that were in existence at that time? There were a few as I recall.
WEARY: At that time, there were practically no factories. Over on Central we had the Belling works, and that's about the only thing that I can remember too much of any manufacturing angle itself.
JIRAK: Do you recall if the Crow Foot Company — they were a machine tool manufacturer, I believe, on Northwest Highway? Do you recall anything of that?
WEARY: No, I don't recall anything. The fact is, I wouldn't have anything to do with them so I probably wouldn't have remembered them. Not only from the manufacturing point of view, that was s practically gone by the time I got here, I'm sure.JIRAK: Now other than stores and businesses, can you tell me a little bit about your recollection of the police department? Who might have been police chief at the time and likewise with the fire department?
WEARY: Oh, let's see. I should remember the police chief. He was quite a celebrity here in Mount Prospect at the time we came in. He just died recently.
JIRAK: Whittenberg are you speaking of?
WEARY: No. Oh, what was his name? I know it so well and it just won't come. My main interest, I think, in the beginning early days was the Mount Prospect Library. Now this came back in the days of Parsons when he was library president and working with them. He asked my wife if she'd be bookkeeper for the library. Of course, this was back in the days when the library was in the senior center, in what is now the senior center. So she said she would do it if I would help her. So it turned out she typed up the checks for the payrolls and the bills and I put them together and prepared the statements for the library. Most of them went back, started back about twenty-two, twenty-three years ago. When
the new library was built, it had more employees. It got to a
^
point where one person couldn't do it as a sideline. So at that
time, Marge Reesey was hired as bookkeeper and became kind of an
office manager for the library. I still stayed with the library as a financial consultant and accounting consultant, which I have been doing since that time. I've seen many, many changes in the library over this period of time. We've had our ups and downs, times when we didn't know where the next dollar was coming from. But somehow or other, we managed to pull through, and I think we have a very excellent library at the present time. I think of parades and decorations and so forth, the main thing that I remember is the Fourth of July parades that we've had for years here, which were always very interesting affairs. We used to bring our grandchildren to see them. That's going back quite a ways.
JIRAK: Before we get off the subject of the library, I'd like to ask what was your involvement with the genealogy collection and how you happened to attach your name to that?
WEARY: I was the first president of the Northwest Suburban Council of Genealogists, which at the beginning met here at the library. We organized it. There was about five or six of us that got together and organized the genealogy group. I guess because I was the only male in the group, I got the assignment to be the first president. So because of that and because of my time that I had donated to the library, the genealogy section was named in my honor — an honor I greatly appreciated.JIRAK: How did you become interested in genealogy? How far back does that go?
WEARY: My interest in genealogy went back to the time of the death of my mother. As usual after a death in the family, all the cousins get together, you know, and they start rehashing what they know about the family. I found out that none of us knew anything about our family. We had no idea of where we originated or what our ancestors had done. So I decided I was going to find out where we came from, and that was my undoing. Once you get into genealogy and get started, the more you learn, the more you want to know. And so it's developed now. At this time, I'm trying to write up histories of my families. I have researched them and got all of my family back before 1800, some of them back into the 1600s. It's interesting to know where they came from, what they did, how long they've been in the United States. In fact, my great-grandparents on my mother's side were the last ones to come over, and they came over in 1854. All my other ancestors came over before 1800. I have, I think, certificates for six ancestors who were in the Revolutionary War, and I have about six or seven more that were here and I haven't been able to establish whether or not they were actually involved in the war or not.
JIRAK: Can you tell us where your ancestors came from?
WEARY: My ancestors who came over last came from Switzerland. My family name came from Germany and it appears we were French Heugonots out of the Alsace region of France when it was taken over by France and they moved across into Germany at that time. We are French. Gerbat is a French name. We have English, Scotch, and Irish. So I'm a duke's mixture.
JIRAK: Very good. I think that's very interesting. All right, sir. Let's see, I think we're about ready to wrap this up, but I would like to ask you first, what would be your fondest memory of downtown Mount Prospect as you remember it when you first came here in those early years?
WEARY: That's a difficult question. I suppose one of the fondest memories is the changes in Lions Park. We've enjoyed Lions Park immensely over the years. We've gone to concerts there and lots of recreational deals, especially with the grandchildren. We could take them over to Lions Park, so I think that's maybe one of the memories that I have from Mount Prospect. Of course, as we've just gone through, the changes in the library have been very, very interesting to me. The changes in United Airlines, where I worked for thirty-one years and have been retired for eighteen years, and their development has been very interesting to me.
JIRAK: That's good. Harold, we certainly thank you for your time and effort in working with this interview, and we appreciate your signing consent forms to have these place among the archives forfuture youngsters and adults to read something about the history of their home town.
WEARY: I consider it a privilege to have been asked to do this. I'm much behind this idea of developing information, particularly from the Historical Society where I'm a director. I think it is great for the children of the village to know what has happened in their village, not only from the point of view that it gives them a background here, but I think it leads them into an interest in all history — the history of the country, the history of the world and so forth.
JIRAK: That's very important. We thank you very much again. And that will conclude our interview. Thank you.
10
