George R. Busse Oral History

              Narrator: George Busse
Interviewer: Budd Wilder
Date of Interview:
Interview Location:
Interview Length: 78 minutes

BUSSE: [Remarks joined in progress] . . . 117 South School Street, Mt. Prospect, Illinois.

WILDER: And where were you born, George?

BUSSE: In Mt. Prospect.

WILDER: And when?

BUSSE: August 14, 1928.

WILDER: And who were your parents?

BUSSE: George L. Busse and Hilda Marie Rohlwing Busse.

WILDER: And your grandparents?

BUSSE: Were George Busse and Marie Ohlerking and then do you want to stop it? [tape
 interrupted] Do you want to ask me again?

WILDER: Yes.  And what are your grandparents names?

BUSSE: My grandfather's name on my father's side was George Busse, and his first wife's name was Mary Ohlerking and his second wife was Martha S. Schaefer.

WILDER: And you were born in Mt. Prospect?

BUSSE: Right.

WILDER: Where?  In your home?

BUSSE: In the home at 111 South Maple Street.

WILDER: Oh!  So you lived here all your life?

BUSSE: All my life.

WILDER: You haven't moved away at all?

BUSSE: No, except for Service.

WILDER: _________.  We don't count that.  And your address is 117 South School Street?

BUSSE: Right.

WILDER: You lived at 111 South Maple when you were a child?

BUSSE: Right up until I had went into the Service in 1951.

WILDER: Then what other address have you lived in the village?

BUSSE: Just 111 South Maple and 117 South School Street.

WILDER: Oh, really?

BUSSE: Right.

WILDER: You built the house?

BUSSE: Yes.  Came back after the Service and we built the house here.

WILDER: They have a question, when you first came to town, what was considered the downtown?  What do you remember most about the downtown?

BUSSE: What I remember most about the downtown is it was very small, just a small strip on Main Street facing west and a small Edward Busse building on the corner I should say it would be the northeast corner of Emerson and Northwest Highway.  Then the old building, the Busse Building, where Olde Town Inn is in on West Busse Avenue.  That was all that was there.

WILDER: Yes.  And north of the tracks.

BUSSE: Yes. North of the tracks.  South of the tracks the only building there was I. E. B. Zander Real Estate, which was on the corner of Northwest Highway, and, I think, that's Milburn that goes through there.

WILDER: Was Kruse's there, too?

BUSSE: Yes.  Kruse's was there.  That's true.  That was on the south side of the tracks.

WILDER: Prospect and . . .

BUSSE: And then Herman Mein had a blacksmith shop.  First of all, when I was real little, he had a blacksmith shop where the Carriage House Restaurant is now on the corner of Northwest Highway and West Busse Avenue.  Then he moved over to South Emerson Street, just down a ways from Kruse's tavern.

WILDER: Oh, I see.  Then we had nothing much on the west side of Main Street then?
BUSSE: No, nothing.  That was sort of --the Old Mehling house was there.  And there was a gas station, Mehling Standard Oil Gas Station, on the northwest corner.  That was a really old-fashioned gas station.

WILDER: When was that constructed?  Do you remember?

BUSSE: Oh, golly.  It was before my time.  I really can't put a date on that gas station.  But when I was young, I remember it as being sort of old-fashioned at that time already.  The pumps and stuff.

WILDER: From my recollections, West Busse Avenue had the bank.

BUSSE: Yes.  The bank was . . .

WILDER: Was that on the corner?

BUSSE: Yes. When I was young, the bank was in the corner where the restaurants have been lately.

WILDER: The northwest corner.

BUSSE: The northwest corner.

WILDER: Next to that was what?

BUSSE: Busse Biermann Hardware Store.

WILDER: The hardware store was next to that?

BUSSE: Then there was a . . .

WILDER: Where was the bowling alley?

BUSSE: The bowling alley was where Olde Town Inn is now.

WILDER: And that fronted on the street?

BUSSE: That fronted on the street, and then it went straight back north and now they have some sort of light industry in there, but there were six alleys.  You had to have pin spotters, I mean, young boys.  I spotted there a couple times.

WILDER: Oh, did you?

BUSSE: Yes, sure.

WILDER: Great.  Then next to that as you go west ws probably what?  The barber shop?
BUSSE: West of that was Wille.  Fred Wille had a small store in there.  Gosh, I don't know what.  He was an accountant or bookkeeper.  I don't know what he had in the downstairs, if it was just his office and he lived upstairs.  I know he and his family lived upstairs.  Then next to that was a
small building, which was a barber shop as long as I can remember.  It was Moehler's and then there was Ed McGill in there, and now it's a beauty shop, I guess.

WILDER: Yes.  The little old building.

BUSSE: And then there was, of course I shouldn't forget Wille's Tavern.

WILDER: Right.

BUSSE: We shouldn't forget.  That's been there for years.

WILDER: No.  Adolph.

BUSSE: Yes.  Adolph Wille, a grand old man.

WILDER: He must have had that for his whole lifetime.

BUSSE: Must have.  As long as I can remember, it was Wille's Tavern.  It was a funny thing.  I can remember sitting in Ed McGill's Barber Shop.  At nine o'clock sharp, he'd come around the corner and the regulars would be waiting for him to open the door.

WILDER: Nine in the morning?

BUSSE: Nine in the morning.  They'd be sitting on fenders and sitting in their cares, and as soon as he came around the corner, they'd all get up and follow him in.

WILDER: No kidding?

BUSSE: Oh, yes.

WILDER: That's when you were a kid?

BUSSE: Well, even when I was a little older.

WILDER: And you didn't, of course?

BUSSE: No, no, no.  I just watched them.

WILDER: That would have been a good instruction on how to nurse a beer all day long.

BUSSE: Oh, they could over there.  I never was there that often, but I understand that some of these guys could nurse a beer all morning.  It was a social place.

WILDER: Really.  I went in there four or five years ago, and there was quite a crew in there.  All regulars.

BUSSE: Yes.  That's for sure.

WILDER: It was funny.  I walked in the place.  I just wanted to get a drink before going to a meeting or something, and some guy turned around to me and said, "__________."  I said, "What did you say?"  And he laughed hysterically.

BUSSE: I've got to say something about Kruse's Tavern, though.  I suppose this has been said many times, but they had the best hamburgers in the northwest suburbs for years.  When I was a kid and older, Kruse's Tavern was the place to go get the hamburgers.  Just a huge hamburger and it was delicious.

WILDER: Did they sell food?

BUSSE: Yes.  Always. More short order.  Of course, now it's gone into Mr. P and Me, and a couple of other places where they've done, I think, more dinners.  I think Kruse's was more short order.  Blue plate specials and stuff like that.

WILDER: We've got a picture in the calendar of Mr. Kruse and Mrs. Kruse sitting at the bar.  I didn't know there was anything more than the bar.  I know my dad would never had gone in there because he didn't believe in drink, and he was a little discouraged when his kids turned out to use it.

BUSSE: When I was a kid I'll just mention this I think I knew everybody in town and I think there were, when I was real little, about a thousand people.  Then it got to be about twelve hundred.  It would have been in about the early '30s, no mid-'30s when I really start realizing what the town was.  I can remember the population was a thousand or twelve hundred.  Some of the things I can remember on the east side of Mt. Propsect here down on George and Elbert Street it was Elbert street.  There was an old orchard, apple orchard.  It had some of the greatest Golden Delicious apples, and us kids would run over there in the fall and help ourselves [laughter].  It must have been an old farm.

WILDER: We'll leave that in.  That was on the south side of Central.

BUSSE: Yes.  South of Central between Central and Northwest Highway, maybe in about, I guess, the 100 block, between George and Mt. Prospect Road.

WILDER: The streets were all in.

BUSSE: Yes, the streets were all in.  Yes, it was all sub-divided, and it was just a place for kids to go.

WILDER: Was the Zenith Towers in?

BUSSE: The Zenith Towers were there, yes.

WILDER: As far as you can remember, they were always there?

BUSSE: They were there before I can remember.  We always marveled at them.  That was the highest thing around here.  I guess some of the younger boys at that time climbed it every once in a while.  But I never did it.  I never tried it.

WILDER: Okay, George [laughter].  Going back to downtown, starting at East Busse Street on Main, what do you recall as being Meeske wasn't on the corner.

BUSSE:  No.  On the corner was the Wilhelm Busse house when I was little.  That was a big frame house that they moved over on . . .

WILDER: On the southeast corner?

BUSSE: On the southeast corner, correct.  The southeast corner had this large frame home, which I think was Commissioner Busse's house or his son, William Busse.  They eventually moved that over onto Emerson Street, where the village hall is now.  Prior to that, the commissioner it must have been the son's house when they moved it over there the commissioner built a big brick house that was on the southwest corner of Emerson and Busse.  So those two houses were there.  Then the commissioner, even before that house was there, I think, he had a sunken garden, sort of a park.

WILDER: I remember seeing pictures of that.  Beautiful thing!

BUSSE: Yes.  Really nice.  It had a pond what would you call them?  They used to call them fish ponds with flagstone around it and terraced and everything else.  I can remember his grandchildren, Yankie Hart and George Miller and some of those, had to mow the lawns, mow the grass and stuff like this and help keep it up.  I think when the house moved over that sort of destroyed the sunken garden, and then they ended up building a gas station on the corner.  It was a Texaco.  I think that was it.  Years and years ago I got pictures of it in 1923 and '25 before the commissioner built the sunken garden, my grandfather had a real estate office on the southwest corner of Northwest Highway and Emerson Street--an old frame, just a box type store or office. 

WILDER: On the southwest corner?
BUSSE: Southwest corner of where whatchacallit is now, the candy store.  It's Fanny May.

WILDER: That would be the northwest corner.

BUSSE: Oh, I meant northwest.  That's what I meant, northwest.  Northwest corner.  Yes.  Northwest corner.

WILDER: But the garden was there before.  It went all the way to Northwest Highway?

BUSSE: Yes.  It went all the way to Northwest Highway, but that was after my grandfather, who was the commissioner's next youngest brother, moved his real estate office over to 12 East Busse Avenue.

WILDER: Okay.

BUSSE: Okay?  And then when he moved it over then the commissioner had his house on the corner of Emerson and that would be the southwest corner of Emerson and Busse Avenue.  He had a big yard.  Then it worked right into the sunken garden and that went all the way to the highway.  And it was low; it was deep.  It was a fun place to play.

WILDER: Yes.  That's quite a bit of territory.

BUSSE: Yes.  And he had quite a place there.  And his home was big.  Well, both those homes now are on the north side of Central Road just before you get to Mt. Prospect Road.

WILDER: Right.  They were on the house walk two years ago.

BUSSE: Oh, were they?  That'd be interesting.

WILDER: You didn't go on that?

BUSSE: No.  I didn't see those.  I should have gone over and seen those.

WILDER: There was a house walk.

BUSSE: The commissioner was a great guy.  He was a patriarch.

WILDER: Now Commissioner Busse was what relation to you?

BUSSE: He would have been my great-uncle.  My grandfather and the commissioner were brothers.  He was my great uncle.  And my dad's uncle, of course.

WILDER: And then Commissioner William Busse, his son was William?

BUSSE: Yes, William.  And he ran . . .

WILDER: The bank.

BUSSE: The commissioner started the bank, then he moved his son in.  His son died what we would consider young.  I hate to say it in age, but it was young because it's been so long ago.  Well, it was during the war.  It was right as the war was ending because they called William Busse, Jr.�you William�back from the Service because his father had died, and that was the commissioner's son had died.  The commissioner was still living.  But anyhow, what I ws going to say, the commissioner started the bank, brought his son in, and then the comissioner was like chairman of the board and he was�I guess you probably got this all already, but to me he was quite and entrepreneur.  He started the bank, he started Busse Motor Sales in Mt. Prospect, Busse Bruderman in Park Ridge.  Busse Biermann Hardware, he started that.

WILDER: Bredemann?

BUSSE: Bredemann.  It used to be Bredermann, but now they call it Bredemann. 
   
WILDER: Okay.  We know it as Bredemann.  They used to live across _________.
BUSSE: See, Earl Busse ran the Park Ridge Buick dealership and that as the commissioner's younger brother.  Then when the commissioner felt that the town should start growing, my grandfather had the old Art Rooney farm, I believe it was called, and it went all the way from, I believe, School or Owen Street east to Mount Prospect Road and, I believe don't hold me to this north of Evergreen, between North Evergreen and Central Road.  He had that whole piece.  He called the brothers together and said this is the story I always heard at least he called the brothers together and he said, "I think Mount Prospect is going to start growing now and we should sub-divide some land and make it available for people to move into Mt. Prospect."

WILDER: What year would this have been roughly?

BUSSE: It would have been in about in '23 1923 or maybe even '22.

WILDER: [inaudible]

BUSSE: Yes.  Oh, yes.  It didn't go too far initially.  So they sat around and the commissioner said to his younger brother George, "You got the farm up there.  Why don't we sub-divide that?"  And they though, "Well that's not such a bad idea."  You know, my grandfather was sort of an entrepreneur, too.  He was always willing to buy and sell.  Then they said, "Well who's going to run the sub-division or get into real estate and run the business if we're going to sell lots and put in roads and stuff like this?"  So the commissioner looked at my grandfather and said, "Look, it's your land.  You're it."

WILDER: Sounds good.

BUSSE: That's the story my dad told me for years.  That's how our branch of the family, the George Busse family, got into real estate.

WILDER: Neat.  That's neat.  And that was a farm?

BUSSE: That was a farm.  It was a regular farm.  The house is still there on George and Busse, the second house north of Busse.  William Mott got in there and did a beautiful job of remodeling it, and everybody since then has done such a you wouldn't, if I showed you a picture of the farm.  My dad told me stories when he and his brother Gilbert slept upstairs when they first moved into the farm.  The windows were so loose and that they'd wake up in the morning and there would be a snow drift in their roon.  So there's no comparison from what it was to what it is.

WILDER: It was really nice because that was on the house walk two years ago, too.  That was so interesting.

BUSSE: I saw that.  It was beautiful.  They've done a super job.  My dad, we took him there two years ago before he passed away and he just couldn't believe it.

WILDER: Oh, he got to see it?

BUSSE: He got to see it.  He hadn't seen it for a number of years.  I think he saw it when the Motts were there years ago, but not for a long time.

WILDER: So that was his father's house?

BUSSE: That was his father's. His father moved in from Elk Grove Township.  My grandfather had a farm on Golf and Arlington Heights Road.  Right in that area.  And then he bought this farm.  Like I said, my grandfather moved around a lot.  He was a true realtor.  If somebody offered him a little more for his house, he sold it and he'd move.  The story my dad told me is that he moved his father, he wasn't with him that long but his father, my grandfather, moved thirteen time, I guess, in and round Mount Prospect.

WILDER: Thirteen times!

BUSSE: Yes, and I haven't moved once and my dad never moved out of the house he walked into when he was married.  So he wasn't as good a realtor as my grandfather.

WILDER: I guess no if that's the criterion.

BUSSE: He always mad some money.  If he could make a buck, he'd move.  That's his story.  I don't know.

WILDER: Somebody should have told him that he's supposed to sell other people's houses and no his own.  That's interesting.  Do you remember the farm that was on the north side of Central?

BUSSE: Yes.  That was the Louis Busse farm.  I remember ice skating in the pasture there where Sarafin and Hatlin built those homes in there and North Owen I think it was right around North Owen, between North Owen and North School that's where the low area was.  In the summer it would flood and if the water lasted long enough, we'd have a nice ice skating pond there.

WILDER: What street was this?

BUSSE: It was north of Central.  Probably my guess would be, the way I remember it, we'd come off of Central at about Owen or School and go across, then to his pasture and there'd be a nice ice skating pond.

WILDER: Now, where was the house located?

BUSSE: The house was located more to the�I think it even came off of Rand Road.  It was probably where Mitchell Buick is about now, where their building is.

WILDER: Okay.  That's where I picture it.

BUSSE: Right in there.

WILDER: We used to buy our eggs there back in the �30s for a penny apiece.

BUSSE: Is that right?

WILDER: You know, something like that.

BUSSE: Yes.

WILDER: That thing sticks out in my mind.

BUSSE: Yes.  That was Louis.

WILDER: I wasn't too old at the time.  We moved out here . . .

BUSSE: I think his name was Louis Busse.  Wasn't it Louis?

WILDER: I'm not sure that that's it.

BUSSE: I'm not sure that's it now, either, but I always thought it was Melvin.

WILDER: Melvin?

BUSSE: Yes.  He had a son named Melvin.  A nice guy.

WILDER: I never heard of him.

BUSSE: Yes.  He wasn't very active in anything.

WILDER: But on Main Street in beautiful downtown Mount Prospect in the �30s, there was a house on the corner on the south . . .

BUSSE: Oh, yes.  Getting back to that.

WILDER: The southeast corner.

BUSSE: Southeast corner.  On the northeast corner was that little square old bank building.  It was an original bank building, then it was a library, I think, and then it was a delicatessen Golden's Delicatessen.

WILDER: Golden had that?

BUSSE: Golden had that for a while and then he built the building where . . .

WILDER: V & G

BUSSE: The V & G.  Yes, V & G, sure.  And then Kerkov was right next to them.

WILDER: Yes.

BUSSE: Built that building.

WILDER: Kerkov I guessed owned it.

BUSSE: Yes, he owned it all at one time.

WILDER: He rented it to V & G.

BUSSE: Then across the street was the old Busse Building.  Actually there ws two Busse buildings there.  The bank, when they moved from the little square office, they moved across the street and built this two-story building.  And then across the street from that on the southwest corner�I really don't remember anything there but the gas station that I mentioned and the old house.  Then there was�I should remember this�there was the old Kroll's Tailor Shop, which is now a barber shop.  Do you remember that building?

WILDER: Further up on Busse?  Further up on Busse on the south side.

BUSSE: Futher up on Busse on the south side.

WILDER: Yes.

BUSSE: It was in that old dark building.  It looks a little . . . 

WILDER: There were two buildings, I think, there.

BUSSE: Yes.  Then a little later bill Mein.  I was pretty young then when he came, and he built a grocery store.  It was a two-story building.  That's still there.  Now there's a hobby shop in there.

WILDER: An Meyn had the blacksmith shop you're talking about on Northwest Highway.  

BUSSE: Meyn had the blacksmith, yes.  That was way before well, not way before, but a number of years before.  Then he moved.  Then . . .

WILDER: Did he live in that house that's still there?

BUSSE: No.  No that was the Mehle house.  Always the Mehle house.  Herman Meyn lived on the corner of where the Reverend Grothier lives, kitty-corner from the bank now on the northeast corner of Maple and Busse.  But after Meyn left his blacksmith shop on the corner of Busse and Northwest Highway and moved over onto Emerson Street, noth on South Emerson, there was�I think Winkelmann initially had a Sinclair Station there.  I think it was a Sinclair.  It was Winkelmann's Gas Station.  Then he went with somebody else.  But anyhow, the way I remember it, after Mein left, they built a gas station on that corner.  Then Clarence Winkelmann came in there and then his sons followed him Don Winkelmann, who's passed away, too, now and Doug, who's still living.  Those two worked the gas station with their dad later on as they got older.

WILDER: Now you're talking about Emerson now?

BUSSE: No.

WILDER: You're talking about Main.

BUSSE: Main.  No, talking about the corner where the Carriage House Restaurant is now.

WILDER: Right.

BUSSE: Okay.  Where the Carriage House Restaurant is now, if come back going east on Busse you run into the barber shop, that old two-story building.  It's like that English-style building where there's a barber shop on the lower floor now.  That was Kroll's Tailor Shop.  K-R-O-L-L's, I believe.  And then east of there yet, Bill Meyn built a building later on and put a grocery store in there, and now it's a hobby shop. [tape interrupted]

WILDER: Okay.  So that was Winkelman's Gas Station where the Meyn Blacksmith Shop was?

BUSSE: Where the Meyn Blacksmith Shop was.

WILDER: Where the Carriage House Restaurant is?

BUSSE: Where Carriage House Restaurant is now. [tape interrupted]

WILDER: That was Sinclair?

BUSSE: I think it was Sinclair.  I don't know why I remember that.  I guess the dinosaur or something.  I think it was Sinclair.  I really don't know.  He ran a gas station there for years.  Then the Winkelmans moved to the corner of Central and Northwest Highway.

WILDER: I remember them being there.  Moehling had the gas station down on Main and . . .

BUSSE: Yes.  One of the Moehling boys.  I'm not as familiar with the names, but there used to be old John P. Moehling.  He was quite active in the community and quite a guy.  He and the commissioner were quite active in matters in the village.

WILDER: Back to the east side of Main Street between Central and Northwest Highway.  I'm trying to see what you remember about it.  There was a house there.  Then was there Meeske's as you go south?

BUSSE: Oh, I see.  Going south from Busse.

WILDER: On the east side.

BUSSE: On the east side of main.  There was the old Busse house and then came the oh, gosh, I'm not sure if I can go back that far but there was an old William Busse grocery store there.  That was the commissioner's son.  I don't know if he had set him up in that.  That was prior to well, then they started the bank and then the commissioner's son finally moved into the bank.  But he had a grocery store initially, the commissioner's son.

WILDER: Right next to the house.

BUSSE: Next to the house.  Then they tore that down and then they built that, I guess you would call it an English tudor style buildings you know with the peaks and the . . .?

WILDER: Yes.  Right.

BUSSE: Then they built that building.  Then there was nothing and then there was John P. Moehling, I should say.  He had a building there, and I forget what was in there.  I really don't know.  But that building is old on the corner there, and they reconstructed that.

WILDER: That's one of the original houses in town.

BUSSE: Yes, I think it was.  What always amazed me, years ago, is how they moved buildings and moved houses around.  My dad would tell me about how he and his father made my grandmother Rohlwing, when she moved into town, built a big barn behind her house on 111 South Maple Street, because she had to have horses.  Then her sons and son-in-laws would come in and bring her hay and oats for the horses and clean the barn out and stuff.  She came into town with two daughters.  She had the two youngest daughters.  My mother was the youngest and my Aunt Anna, which was married shortly after they moved into town.  What I'm getting at is that they took that barn after the cars came in and they didn't need a barn anymore, swung it around and faced it onto Elm Street and built a house, and that house is still and finished it out into a house and that house is still standing there.

WILDER: That house started out as a barn?

BUSSE: It started out as a barn.

WILDER: What would the address be?

BUSSE: It would be about, let's see, 110 or 112.  It's a two-story.  I think it's a yellow-sided house now.

WILDER: Well, it's just a block over here.

BUSSE: Yes.  Just a block over.

WILDER: So it would be down . . .

BUSSE: Yes.  I think it's about even with this house.  It's, I would say, about 108 or 110 South Elm Street.

WILDER: That's interesting.

BUSSE: Yes.  And they did that a number of times.  And then they would skid homes in.  Say a farmer sold out and they wanted to move into town, sometimes they'd move his house into town.  They'd either bring it in in winter when they could put it on skids or they would roll it into to town by taking, my dad would say, like a telephone pole and just put one in front of the other and just keep moving it in.

WILDER: They had to be well-built in those days, didn't they?

BUSSE: Oh, gosh.

WILDER: Imagine building on these.

BUSSE: I guess they weren't as fancy and they just hung together.

WILDER: I guess so.  I can't imagine that.  There must have been a lot of cracks in the plaster.

BUSSE: Oh, gosh, I can imagine.

WILDER: But they did.  They moved a lot.  Of course, they moved a lot of these houses in town here in the last thirty years, which were amazing feats.  Did they move the house or did they tear them down, the house behind the Moehling house on Northwest Highway?  Maybe they tore that down.

BUSSE: I think they tore that one down.  Like the St. Paul Lutheran School, when they first started.  That would have been about 1911 when Pastor Mueller came in.  He started schools right away.  Then the next year or two they built these one-room school houses.  When the one-room school house got filled, they built another one.  I think they had two or three on the north side of Busse Avenue between . . .