If Walls Could Talk: The Historic House at 11042 Front Street

  History is everywhere, and if one were to ask just where to find it, the possible answers would leave the inquisitor’s head spinning. Gettysburg, Valley Forge, and Tombstone are but a few of the places one would be told to look. Limiting the locations to just those in Illinois, we’d even hear of Grant’s Galena or Lincoln’s Springfield. However, we don’t even have to leave home to find it, for if we stay within the gates of Mokena, we’d find 11042 Front Street, a place steeped in well over a century and a half’s worth of local verve. 

   To understand the decades of history at this ageless location, we must first part the fog of time and look to a gentleman named Moritz Weiss. He came into the world on January 10^th, 1830, and was a native of picturesque Neuenbürg in the kingdom of Württemberg, in what is today southwest Germany. The son of an esteemed doctor, the young man became a pharmacist in his homeland before spending time practicing his trade in various locales in Switzerland. Good fate brought him to America, and then to our community in 1854, then a mere hamlet located along the newly built Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. 

 

   After he got settled in his new home, Moritz Weiss married Julia Gall in October 1856, an estimable Mokena lady who was described at least once as “one of the best hearted women in town” as well as having been immortalized by history as being the proprietor of the village’s first inn, along with her late first husband, Carl. After their marriage, the historic record indicates that they continued to keep up a rooming house together, counting six lodgers in the summer of 1860, including young Samuel Tinley, Mokena’s Rock Island agent. During the tumultuous years of that decade, one that would be fraught with civil war, Caroline Emilie Fischer, a Mokena infant whose father wasn’t on the scene, was taken in by the Weisses and raised as their own. The only child of Moritz and Julia, she would be called the “light and sunshine of their pleasant home.” 

 

   At some point long disappeared into the pages of posterity, Moritz Weiss hung out his shingle and gained the honor of being Mokena’s first pioneer pharmacist. He was successful in his business, and decided to upgrade in the prosperous years immediately after the war. In February of 1867, Weiss bought a lot on the northeast corner of Front and Mokena Streets from Leonard and Sarah Rudd for $550, or around $10,200 in today’s money. By the summer of 1868, he had built a brand-new building on this site that would contain space for his pharmacy on the first floor, and living quarters for his family directly above. The new place was considered a jewel in Mokena during an era when there was much construction. Barely two years after the shop opened, trouble struck when, in the words of the Joliet Republican, “some scamps who had been off on a drunk” hurled a huge rock through the pharmacy’s front window under the cover of darkness one Saturday night, causing no small amount of damage. Julia Weiss was scared out of bed by the racket, and in going to investigate the commotion, received for her trouble a nasty cut on her foot from a shard of glass.

         The former pharmacy of Moritz Weiss is seen here at left in this circa 1910 image.

 

   A journalist of the time would later describe the Weiss pharmacy as having “a full supply of bitters and sweets and a general assortment of soothing syrups, worm lozenges, plasters and nursing bottles.” The same writer noted, while painting a vivid picture of the Mokenian, that Moritz Weiss was “fat and jolly” and was possessed of a “merry whistle.” Another contemporary beamed that he was “a man of liberal education and of good judgment”, both of these points being backed up by the fact that he owned a substantial personal library. Weiss was also well involved in local affairs, having taken the office of justice of the peace, as well as Frankfort Township clerk and treasurer. 

 

   That the earliest years of this landmark took place in a world completely different from ours is best demonstrated by the fact that at the end of 1881, the newly formed village board ordered Weiss to clean up a cesspool that had formed in his yard, a problem begat by the lack of indoor plumbing the era. The problem wasn’t completely solved, as nearly two years later in August 1883 the town board of health noted that there was too much manure on site, not to mention an unsanitary outhouse. 

                            The final resting place of Moritz Weiss in St. John's Cemetery.

 

   Pharmacist Weiss died in town on February 7^th, 1882 after a battle with dropsy, and as a show of his stature in the community, the cortege that carried his earthly remains to St. John’s Cemetery was one of the largest that Mokena had ever seen. After her husband’s passing, Julia Weiss retained ownership of the pharmacy property for decades. She later married a Jolietan named Louis Blaeser, and hence the place was known by some Mokenians simply as the Blaeser building. Happenings here for most of the last two decades of the 19^thcentury are hard to put into focus, although the building still seems to have served the servants of Hippocrates, with local Civil War veteran Dr. William Becker maintaining his office here in roughly this time frame. 

 

   An enterprising young pharmacist named Richard Hensel, a 28-year-old Mokenian by way of Chicago, moved into this address in March 1896 with his goods, and the Mokena post office followed him a little over a year later. The druggists kept coming, as Dr. D.P. Teter set up shop here in the spring of 1904. Teter had spent ten years in Omaha, Nebraska and received his diploma from the Baltimore Medical College, before also attending post graduate courses at the Johns Hopkins School in Chicago. In the summer of 1905, the whole place almost literally went up in smoke. While the cause of the nasty fire was never gotten to the bottom of, the blaze started behind the prescription case, and wiped out Dr. Teter’s entire stock of drugs, while one local newspaper also said that the “furniture and building (were) badly scorched.” Luckily, the building’s bones were good, and it sprung back from the fire better than ever. 

 

   By the dawn of the 20^th century, Julia Blaeser was in the eighth decade of her life, and was considered the doyenne of Mokena. After she passed away in May 1911, the reading of her will revealed her generosity to those she loved, and ultimately her niece, Julia Schiek, inherited the old drug store on the corner, moving in with her elderly mother Elizabeth in the fall of that year. 

 

   As Father Time marked the passing days, Willard Martie later opened an ice cream shop and pool room in this historic spot, holding his grand opening in August 1927. Going into the venture with partner Walter Homerding, the 22-year-old Martie was the son of prominent Mokenian Edward Martie, a village trustee and future mayor. The dealings at the shop weren’t completely on the up and up, however, as a Prohibition era raid by a special investigator from the Will County state’s attorney’s office in the fall of 1930 netted such contraband as two barrels of beer and four and half jugs of moonshine that had been secreted away on the property. The state’s attorney had been tipped off by some concerned Mokena women, who reported that the illegal booze was being peddled to underage boys, and that illicit gambling was also taking place on the premises.  While Gus Braun, Martie and Homerding’s employee, plead guilty to the charges and was hit with a stiff $200 fine, it remains unclear what consequences the ice cream shop’s proprietors felt. For posterity’s sake, Willard Martie denied the rumors and stated to the village News-Bulletin that they had no basis in reality. 

             The historic Blaeser building on the northeast corner of Front and Mokena Streets.

 

   Going forward, in the spring of 1943 the property was purchased by L.S. Janes of the Sears & Roebuck firm, who was taking it off the hands of Mokenians William Helenhouse, August Hentsch, and George Knudson, its mortgage holders. Mr. Janes immediately go to work sprucing up the old place, which by the World War II years was regarded as being somewhat rundown, with the News-Bulletin even calling it a “dilapidated eyesore.” Nevertheless, the paper acknowledged that the newly re-furbished building would be a “real asset to the community” and called the work a “fine improvement” to the historic building. It was made over into three apartments, the first inhabitants of which were Mr. and Mrs. John Feltenhouse, the former working with the WLS radio transmitter northeast of town, local Rock Island telegraph operator Mr. Frogge and his wife, as well as Mr. Janes’s mother. 

 

   Thus it remains to this day, a silent witness to decades of local flavor. This time-honored landmark has stood for nearly 150 years at Front and Mokena Streets, at a place that some villagers have even called “the Times Square of Mokena.” May it stand for 150 more years. 

A Ghost in the Flowers: The Haunted History of 11210 Front Street

  It’s the time of year when leaves crunch under foot, the days get shorter and monsters and goblins again make their appearance on the streets of our burg. It’s the season when it’s easy to get goosebumps; not just from the chill of the air, but also from the mysterious tales that tend make their rounds this time of year. Every town has a ghost or two, some loom prominently in the narratives of their communities, while others lurk in the shadows, and only reveal themselves to a select few who are in the know. Mokena has been host to stories of paranormal activity over the years, and there is one in our midst that is currently ongoing. Just ask Kim McAuliffe, owner of An English Garden, a quaint flower shop on Front Street. 

 

   Situated in a historic house that has seen at least 150 years in our community, more than a few unexplainable incidents have happened in the shop over the years. As Kim was in the process of acquiring the property back in 2012, more than one person in the community approached her and let her know that the place was supposed to be haunted, with the source of the paranormal activity being an upper room that had once been a bedroom. 

   After she moved in and some remodeling was being carried out, Kim McAuliffe was pushed by a pair of invisible hands while coming up the basement stairs. Not one to be scared, she immediately reprimanded whoever or whatever it was that shoved her. She told it to stop, and that this wasn’t nice behavior; after all, she was pumping new life into the property and making it beautiful. 

 

   To Kim, it’s definitely easy to feel an otherworldly presence in her shop. Despite the shoving incident, it seems happy and content there, and seems satisfied with what she’s done to the place. On the other hand, she has a friend who has felt an ominous force in the old house’s basement. This is corroborated by Ashley Schuldt, a Mokena resident and former employee at An English Garden. While generally not afraid of basements or small spaces, she reports an oppressive feeling there, specifically in the southeast corner. She also recounts how items once fell off a counter in a room in the historic house’s second floor, as if swept off by an unseen hand. 

An English Garden, a quaint flower shop at 11210 Front Street. Does this historic house have a resident ghost?

 

   If one looks closely at the past of the old house where Kim McAuliffe keeps her flower shop, one will find a long and interesting narrative. If ghosts are what we think they are, namely the spirits of people who have abruptly and perhaps violently lost their lives, some candidates rear their heads for the identity of this local phantom. The first is one Henry Miller, who owned the property as far back as 1899, at a time when the oldest portion of the house was already around forty years old. He and his wife sold the place to their daughter Minnie Crager and her husband George in August 1901; within days Henry Miller was dead after being hit by a train west of town. 

 

   Not too long after the dawn of the 20^th century, the Schenkels moved in, a family that would be indelibly linked to this property for decades. The clan’s patriarch, Conrad Schenkel, was born February 20^th, 1860 in Odernheim, a winegrowing village in Germany’s Rhineland. With his parents, he made the arduous journey to America in 1873, whereupon they settled in Chicago, a mere two years after the Great Fire. In 1881, all roads then led to Mokena. The Schenkels appear to have been a farming family at first, when later Conrad found work with the Rock Island railroad. In June 1907, he was appointed the village’s sole constable by the village board, ultimately wearing the star until 1919. In his years in this position as town lawman, he broke up countless fights, locked up many a miscreant in the village calaboose, trailed many suspicious characters, and even held watch for pranksters on many a cool Halloween night. 

 

   When Conrad’s wife, Kate Schenkel passed away in 1911 after a battle with cancer, the historic record indicates that it happened in this house. Less than a year later, Kate’s mother, Katherine Burger, died of old age on the premises, after having made her home there for the previous three years. 

 

   Another candidate for the energy that still remains in the flower shop would be Conrad and Kate Schenkel’s adult son, Edward. Having served as a village trustee from 1916 to 1928, Edward Schenkel lost his life in April 1935 when a spurned lover shot him to death in a Joliet saloon in a sensational murder suicide case.  Maybe something is keeping him bound to his family’s erstwhile home? As intriguing as Edward’s story is, at this late date it is still unknown whether or not he ever lived here during the time his parents did. 

 

   After Conrad Schenkel passed away in Chicago in 1930, the property made its way into the hands of his son John, who would keep the place until he died in 1953, who like his mother and grandmother, appears to have departed in the house. 

 

   There is much to ponder about the old place where Kim McAuliffe keeps An English Garden. Does a ghost roam the house, or is there a much more benign, natural explanation for the phenomena that has been experienced here? No matter how you look at it, just be aware that when the sun sets and you feel the cool bite of the fall air, things do go bump in the night in Mokena. 

Holy War: The 1899 Baptist/Methodist Fight

   Churches are the foundation stones of a community. They are sanctuaries of peace, a place where tumult and strife are left outside. Their congregations are made up of town folk, people from all walks of life who come together for a common purpose. However, the flock of a church is flesh and blood; people who are not perfect, and from time to time it is only natural that disagreements among them should arise. One such falling out happened in Mokena in the distant days of the 19^th century, involving our community’s Baptist and Methodist congregations. The strife eventually reached such a fiery, caustic head, that only a judge could solve the issue. The final outcome would have profound results for one of the parties involved.  

   To peel back the layers of this story, one must turn back the pages of history to the earliest days of our village. As early as 1855, a mere three years after the town was first platted, a Methodist congregation was holding services in the Mokena schoolhouse, a sort of local multi-purpose building when class wasn’t in session. It’s possible that the framework of this early assembly was descended from an even older one, as a group of pioneer Methodists had begun meeting around 1837 in the Hickory Creek settlement, the community that was the precursor to today’s Frankfort and Mokena. 

 

   The hamlet of Mokena on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad was growing bit by bit, and in the years immediately after the Civil War, the Mokena Methodists began to raise money through subscriptions to build their own church. In later years, a story would be passed down that the funds came from the sale of a stray horse. After the long, tedious work of collecting money was over, the brand-new sanctuary was dedicated on December 15^th, 1867, proudly occupying a prominent spot just east of their old meeting place in the schoolhouse on Mokena’s Public Square, a piece of land in the north end of village reserved for schools and churches. There they joined the quaint edifice belonging to the German United Evangelical St. John’s Church. 

 

   As the years marched onward, the Methodists enjoyed a comfortably sized congregation and shining, prominent place in the community. The membership of their Baptist kin was a trifle smaller, but had no less secure a place in Mokena. After the establishment of a local Baptist society sometime around 1851, predating the arrival of the railroad by one year, this group of the faithful eventually held their meetings in the town schoolhouse, just like the Methodists. Upon the completion of their peers’ church building in 1867, the Baptists entered into a neat arrangement with them to share the use of the sanctuary, with each congregation worshipping on alternate Sundays. The record of the years indicates that much was done hand in hand with the Methodists; a Sunday school was even conducted in unison with them during the 1870s. 

 

 

 

Seen here around 1910, the Methodist church stood on Second Street at the current location of St. John’s Christian Community Center. In 1899, the ownership of this building was bitterly disputed with the local Baptist congregation. 

 

 

   Somewhere in time, at a point long since lost to the ages, a bitter dispute arose as to who the rightful owners of the church were, and a straw broke the proverbial camel’s back, landing the two feuding parties in the court of Will County Circuit Judge Small in December 1899. Excitement was great in the case, with the Joliet papers being keenly interested in the proceedings. The Republican declared that “the war in Mokena has begun”, while the News promised that many witnesses would be called to testify, among them would sure to be some of the oldest settlers of the community.

 

   A big point in the Baptists’ defense was that not a few of them who had been on the scene since day one, were under the firm impression that the building was erected for both congregations jointly. One of the first witnesses called was George H. Cooper, member of a prominent local farming family. Under his examination on the stand, he refuted that Baptists’ claims, saying that in all his years of affiliation with the Methodists, he had only ever heard of the sanctuary as strictly belonging to them. A tricky attorney attempted to trip him up on his own words, trying to coerce Cooper into saying that the Baptists had a right to use the building. He remained stoic as a rock on the stand, and “denied positively” ever having made this remark. One of the main foundations of the Methodists’ defense was that when the money to build the church had been raised over thirty years before, that it was solely taken up in their name, while the Baptists stuck to the claim that theirs was a “union church.”

 

   After a period of deliberation, Judge Small made his decision just before Christmas, ruling that the church in Mokena was property of the Methodists. After the dust settled from the episode, the Baptist congregation, without a real home of their own, withered and died. Their Sunday school chugged along on life support, being conducted in the vacant Geuther building on Front Street, but they lost their meeting place when Frank Hirsch turned the place into a saloon at the end of 1902. 

 

   After that point, there is no further mention of a Mokena Baptist congregation on our collective timeline. The original group of worshippers disappeared into the fog of history, and any invoking of their name over the decades was always done in the past tense. It wasn’t until the fall of 1954 that the Parkview Baptist Church was formed in town, holding their first services in the VFW hall on Wolf Road, before building their own sanctuary on LaPorte Road and Scott Street a year later. Needless to say, this time there no plans for sharing their property with anyone else.