American Ingenuity: The History of the Cooper & Hostert Ford Agency of Mokena

  The automobile is an integral part of American life. From getting to and from work or school, or even taking a road trip cross country, it’s impossible to imagine our lives without cars, and nothing says American auto like Ford. An old company with 118 years already under its belt, it should only be natural that such a time-honored concern would have a long-seated connection with Mokena, one of the oldest communities in northeast Illinois. Founded in 1916, the Cooper & Hostert Ford agency was famous not just in Mokena, the community it called home for decades, but throughout the wide expanse of greater Will County. Going all the way back to the start of this illustrious village business, tracing the roots through the years like a family tree, we come to the two men who started it all, Elmer Cooper and Barney Hostert.  

   The scion of a deep-rooted Orland family, Elmer Lucerne Cooper was born in that locale on July 14^th, 1879. As a tiny one and a half-year-old, he, his parents and brother moved to a farm at the far southern edge of the township, about two miles north of Mokena, at what is today Wolf Road and 179^th Street. There Elmer came of age, a boy amongst rural and agricultural surroundings, attending school in the nearby one-room Maue schoolhouse. He married 21-year-old Ella Caroline Lauffer, the daughter of a well-established Homer Township family in February 1902, at which time the couple moved to Goodland, Indiana, where they farmed for around five years. During the Coopers’ sojourn in the Hoosier state, they also welcomed two children to the world, Florence and Harold. Ultimately coming back to this neck of the woods, the young family rented a farm belonging to Mokena’s Kropp family, having stood a few yards north of today’s intersection of Wolf Road and Route 6. Tilling the soil at this spot was no easy task; Elmer began to seek help with the job, and came to hire Barney Hostert, who moved in with the family. First recorded living with the Coopers by a census taker in 1910, Hostert was a 19-year-old native of Homer Township. 

 

   Having forged a bond under the hard work of a farmer’s lot, the dream of private enterprise loomed large for these two entrepreneurs. This pair of men, who would come to shine so prominently in Mokena’s history, set about to open the first garage and auto dealership in the village. What led the partnership to enter this burgeoning business cannot be reconstructed through the fog of time, but it is known that the two pooled their resources and constructed a brand-new building in town to serve as their headquarters. Located immediately north of the sprawling Mokena Hall on Front Street, the new structure facing First Street was the store front of the Cooper & Hostert Ford agency, their doors opening for the first time on Thursday, September 21, 1916. In assembling their staff, Fred Hentsch, a young Mokena resident, was taken on as a mechanic. Rounding out the shop, the new firm also had permission from the village board to set up a gas tank in front of their building. 

 

   The new business didn’t have to wait long for its inaugural customer. On their first day, the car of George Mager, a local farmer, happened to break down nearby, and he received prompt service at the garage. So impressed was he by his treatment, that Mager remained a steadfast customer 30 years later. The agency made its first auto sale to Charles Liess, a Mokena baker and village trustee. He bought a 1916 Model T Ford that cost him $360. In this era, new cars for sale were shipped to the village via the Rock Island railroad, and they arrived CKD, or “Completely Knocked Down,” meaning that each vehicle arrived over the rails in pieces, which were then built by Cooper & Hostert in the garage on First Street. Reflecting the rural atmosphere that was Mokena in their time, the agency also sold Ford tractors as well. 

 

  At the very beginning, it would be remembered that “patronage was good and business increased.” With things going so swiftly, an obstacle reared its head that nearly derailed everything. The Cooper & Hostert Ford agency started business at a time when the world was in great unrest, with World War I raging in Europe. The United States entered the fray less than a year after the concern opened up shop, and Barney Hostert was summoned for service in the army in 1918. Completing a soldier’s training, the war ended before he could get to it, sparing him the horrors of combat. When Barney was away, Elmer Cooper carried on business affairs by himself, all the while being earnestly helped by his worthy assistant, none other than his 13-year-old son Harold. Almost 30 years later, the Coopers looked back fondly and said that “Boys will be boys, and at a certain age, they all seem to know a great deal; so father and son had many interesting moments in making decisions.” 

 

   With the war over, Barney Hostert came back to his business in Mokena, and promptly married Viola Lauffer, the younger sister of Ella Cooper, around 1919. Together they had five children, namely Bernice, Charles, Eleanor, Arthur and Norma, all of whose names are still well-known in community circles to this day. 

 

  In 1920, Cooper & Hostert were so busy that they had sold 67 cars in the first six months of that year. Commerce hummed along at such a pace that their little building on First Street was bursting at the seams, and so it was that the firm bought its neighbor immediately to the south, the old Mokena Hall, in the summer of 1923. They didn’t have to work too much on converting the rambling building into a garage and auto dealership, as the previous tenants, the partnership of Hentsch Brothers had previously had a go in the business here, specializing in Chandlers, Chevrolets, and Reo trucks. Once Cooper & Hostert got settled into the Front Street building, they retained ownership over the previous workspace just behind the building, converting it into a place for storage. 

The Cooper & Hostert Ford Agency of Mokena, seen here in 1928. The old building was lost in a disastrous 1993 fire, and stood at what is today 11020 Front Street.

 

   As a sign of his stature in the village, in 1928 Elmer Cooper was called one of the “enterprising and progressive business men of Mokena.” A well-respected local enterprise combined with a prominent location in town led the garage to become a social focal point for the community, even serving as something like an informal city hall. For decades, the building served as a polling place, not to mention the bench in front of the building that was a gathering spot for villagers, who game to gossip, discuss (and cuss) local politics, and everything in between. Elmer Cooper’s granddaughter, Dolores Barenz, remembers the garage’s work area being open to any who visited, and that it was “a meeting place for men during the day.” If no cars were in the showroom, the youth of Mokena’s Methodist church, of which the Coopers were active members, would use it as a meeting place. The showroom was also the site of many a successful bake sale by the Methodist ladies, usually held about once a month on Saturdays. All of this combined activity made the building busy as a beehive on Front Street. 

Elmer Cooper (left) and Barney Hostert (right) sit on the bumper of an auto at the Front Street garage circa 1930. The stripped-down car to their right was used for a form of polo played near Marley in this era. 

 

   Mokenian Dave Bergman, who started working for Cooper & Hostert in 1953, has many fond memories of Elmer Cooper, describing him as “a great guy, a super guy” and as someone who was never known to visibly get mad. Dolores Barenz says that he was “a gentle man, very outgoing, generous, and community minded.” Both he and Barney Hostert were the types who would help anyone in need. Barney had the interests of Mokena foremost in his mind, and was also known to always have a characteristic plug of tobacco in his mouth. 

 

   The two proprietors wore many hats around town, the compiled list of which is impressive. Elmer Cooper became a director in Mokena school district 159 in 1924, a post he held for 30 years, not to mention his later seat as treasurer of the Mokena Chamber of Commerce and involvement with the Mokena Lions Club. Aside from these local organizations, Elmer also worked for the Will County Health Department as an investigator in the 1940s, and was a Republican precinct committeeman for many years. Both Elmer Cooper and Barney Hostert were active with the village’s chapter of the Modern Woodmen, a fraternal organization that claimed a high membership in this area. Barney gave countless hours of his time to the Mokena Volunteer Fire Department, where he was appointed assistant chief in 1932. 

 

   As a young man, Elmer Cooper’s aforementioned son Harold received an education at the Ford factory in all the workings of their vehicles, and came to join his family’s business as chief mechanic, while also working as the firm’s bookkeeper. In the fall of 1946, the Cooper & Hostert Ford agency celebrated its 30^th year in business. To mark the occasion, an open house was held at the garage, which quickly turned out to be a major event in the village, as 500 guests swamped the Front Street location, no small feat, as this number represented a good percentage of Mokena’s population at the time. 

A cozy gathering inside the Cooper & Hostert garage, February 1946. Gathered around the stove left to right are Harold Cooper, Roy Lembke, Vernon Haag, and Peter Mancke.

 

   Within two years, it was time to expand, and an addition was built to the west side of the garage, running the entire length of the building, increasing capacity in the shop as well as making space for a new show room. Less than a year later, the show room was given a new ceiling and walls of knotty pine. While the concern was busy, its number of staff stayed a small and close-knit one, counting only six regular employees in the early 1950s. 

Barney Hostert puts gas in a 1956 Ford Fairlane Victoria at the garage. (Image courtesy of Richard Quinn)

 

   After 40 years of working in and for our village, Elmer Cooper passed away in February 1956 in what would’ve been his 77^th year. As a gesture of respect, Mokena’s businesses closed during his funeral. Just over three years later, Barney Hostert also crossed the great beyond at the end of 1959. After the passing of his father, a historic shift occurred, when Harold Cooper took over the proprietorship, whereas upon Barney’s passing, his share of ownership passed to his wife, Viola. There was no better candidate to take the helm, as the younger Cooper had practically grown up in the garage at his father and uncle’s sides. He was regarded by villagers as an eminent Mokena businessman in the same way as his father, and in 1944 had been elected clerk of Frankfort Township, an office he held for decades, not to mention the post he held in local civil defense during the World War II years. Still very much a family operation, his wife Myrtle would come to take over his position as bookkeeper. 

The Cooper & Hostert Ford Agency in a circa 1957 likeness. (Image courtesy of Richard Quinn)

 

   As the Cooper & Hostert Ford agency entered the 1970s, business still marched forward, but Harold Cooper wasn’t getting any younger, and neither were his countless loyal customers, who were starting to ease out of driving age. The many burdens of maintaining the company ultimately led him to sell it in 1974. Merle Cooper of Orland and Ralph Sjo of Frankfort were the buyers, who kept the concern up for a year or two, until they went bankrupt. 

 

   The old garage housed various other concerns, and ultimately burned in a calamitous fire in the spring of 1993. After having weathered two world wars, a great depression, and countless other changes over the decades, the flames couldn’t erase the memories that live on in the hearts of countless villagers of this distinguished local business. Not only are the garage and its welcoming open doors so fondly remembered, but so too are all the Mokenians who called this place home. 

These Weathered Stones: The History of St. Mary's Cemetery

  It’s an idyll, a postcard perfect image in our community, the singular country church along a narrow, tree shaded lane. Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church is one of our community’s most prominent landmarks. Bearing witness to over 150 years, it is nestled in the congregation’s cemetery. It’s probable that every Mokenian could show you this spot, occupying a prominent place on Wolf Road, but the historic section of this graveyard is easy to overlook, being tucked back far from the road. To visit this place and its hallowed grounds, is to be face to face with the forefathers of our community.

 The cemetery of St. Mary's on a winter's morn. (Image courtesy of Carolyn Galik)

   As Mokena entered the 1860s, it was a small, rural community that was about to turn ten years old. Our country was gripped in the carnage-filled days of the Civil War, and on the home front, this was a time of great spiritual activity for our residents. Reflecting the ethnic makeup of its members, the German United Evangelical St. John’s congregation was officially founded in March 1862, while the handful of local Catholics, also mostly of German origin, began to form their flock. Several of them donated a large piece of land to the bishop of the Chicago diocese for the purpose of building their own church, foremost among those with generosity in their hearts were the Enders family, upon whose farm the lion’s share of the expanse was located. Luxemburg born carpenter Bernhard Folman, was not only a member of this new congregation, but also the builder of the little church, using timber from local forests to complete the job, which was finished in 1864. All in all, it cost this group of the faithful about $1,400 to build the sanctuary. As the first services were held here, nine families made up the parish, numbering in total 50 souls. 

 

   In the shadow of this time-honored church rest a unique array of figures from our community’s long history. The ground was first broken here on September 12^th, 1865 to inter the mortal remains of John Schmidt. The unforgiving tides of time have not left us with any further information on him; whether he was a married man with a family, what his occupation was, or even how old he was when he crossed the great beyond have all been long since forgotten. 

 

   From this original tract, the grounds of the cemetery were expanded at least twice, the most recent addition taking place at the end of the 1990s with the annexation of a parcel to the northwest along Parker Street. Two of the most notable graves in the historic section are those of Mathias and Margaret Enders, the aforementioned founders of the St. Mary’s congregation. The bones of Mathias, the family patriarch, rest beneath a regal stone obelisk covered with patches of green lichen. A native of Prussia in what is today Germany, he was married in Lockport by an Irish priest to Margaret Summers in 1841, during the earliest days of Will County’s history.

 

   The parents of six children, it appears that the Enders clan set down roots in what would later become Mokena at some point in the 1840s, a far-away time in which our village and even the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad were but a distant dream. Coming into possession of a large farm by the end of the decade, the Enderses tilled the prairie soil as rugged farmers. Tragically, Mathias Enders would perish in a bizarre accident in the spring of 1887 when he was jolted from a horse-drawn, lumber-filled wagon and run over by the same. When one examines his life and that of Margaret Enders, these prominent figures in the history of Mokena, it quickly becomes clear that their ages are a thorny issue. Documentation shows that Mathias Enders entered this world in the years following the Napoleonic Wars, his birthdate showing up in various records as occurring alternately in 1816, 1817 and 1818, while his tombstone in St. Mary’s Cemetery confusingly indicates a birthdate of September 16^th, 1825. The issue of Margaret’s age is no clearer. Subsequent federal census records place her birth in Bavaria in the early 1820s, recorded variously as 1820, 1822 and 1823. However, once she reached her senior years, the year reached even further back, and the society pages of the Joliet News reported her 100^th birthday on May 7^th, 1914. Whether her adult children and their families were inflating her age out of a sense of Methuselah-like honor, or if she managed to obfuscate her true age to a variety of census takers to mask the fact that she was considerably older than her husband, remains a mystery.

 The grave of Mathias Enders. (Image courtesy Michael Philip Lyons)

   Margaret Enders’ advanced age, whether authentic or not, led her to become something of a celebrity in Joliet, where she had come to live with her daughter. While her vision had suffered greatly over the years, she was still able to sew and knit by touch, and while her hearing was also no longer the best, she was not a fan of new-fangled cars, which she referred to as “dreadful, shrieking automobiles.” The tried-and-true creed of “early to bed, early to rise” was the secret to her longevity, while her friends chalked it up to her steadfast refusal to worry. It probably also helped that her immediate family kept details of the then-raging World War I from her. Margaret Enders ultimately passed away on June 29^th, 1916 at the claimed age of 102, and found her final resting place in the churchyard of St. Mary’s next to her husband. 

 

   Not far from the Enders plot, is a monument bearing the gothic, German language script that records the name of Nikolaus Schuberth and the dates of his life. Like his fellow St. Mary’s parishioner Margaret Enders, Schuberth was a native of Bavaria, and first saw the light of day there on August 6^th, 1840. At the tender age of seven, he along with his parents and four siblings set down their roots in the yet-unformed Frankfort Township, part of the great German migration to this portion of Illinois. A family of sturdy, hardworking folk, they eventually owned a homestead on what is today 191^st Street, which at that time was barely worthy of being called a farm lane. 

 

   In 1864, the Schuberths became one of the founding families of St. Mary’s parish. The older brother of Nikolaus, John Schuberth, came to run a well-known hardware store on Front Street in this era, and not one to live in his shadow, the younger brother established a saloon not long thereafter in a new building a few doors away, which extant records indicate was located at the northwest corner of Front and Division Streets. By 1879, this business had become a hostelry known as the Union Hotel. Aside from his work as a barkeep, Nikolaus Schuberth also served as Mokena’s constable for a spell in the 1870s. While on patrol one night in the spring of 1874, he discovered a fire in the grain elevator in the nick of time, being able to have the flames extinguished before the rest of the rambling structure was consumed. 

 

   The austerity and harsh reality of 19^th century life, when no one was guaranteed to reach old age, is evidenced by those from the Schuberth family who rest in St. Mary’s cemetery. Nikolaus’s infant son John is here, as is his daughter Maria who crossed the great beyond at about six years of age, and his wife Karolina, who died in 1882 at 35 years. Joining her in this lot is Nikolaus Schuberth himself, who perished as a 52-year-old on July 24^th, 1892. 

 

   A visitor’s attention will also be drawn to the graves of Anton and Rosalia Kohl, whose twin headstones are so weathered that one has to trace their ancient inscriptions with a fingertip. Early arrivals to the Mokena region by way of Bohemia, this husband and wife stand at the top of a long family tree that many in our community have found themselves a part of. Having maintained a farm in Frankfort Township along today’s 88^th Avenue during the Civil War era, Anton Kohl was interred here in September 1870, having reached 70 years. 79-year-old Rosalia followed in April 1881, after having succumbed to some long-forgotten illness. 

                        The weathered headstones of Anton and Rosalia Kohl.

 

   Nearby is the ancient headstone of Thomas Hauser, a Bavarian immigrant who was struck down in the prime of his life in 1870. A farmer who tilled the land in the northeast portion of the township, by 1860 he and his wife Catherine were the parents of 6 children who ranged in age from thirteen to one. The Hausers’ route to Mokena was a roundabout one, as some of their children were born in New Jersey and New York before they ultimately landed in Illinois in the 1850s. 

 

   As both St. Mary’s Church and cemetery saw their beginnings during the days of the Civil War, the darkest in our country’s history, it’s only fitting that two soldiers from that conflict, both heroes of the Union, have found their final resting place here. Interred beneath a shiny granite monument mere footsteps from the church is George Smith, who was born August 15^th, 1838, in what is today western Germany, and made the long, arduous trek to America with his brothers in 1857. Like so many of their countrymen, they found a home in Mokena, which in this era was just starting to come into its own along the new Rock Island railroad. Using the iron horse to his advantage, Smith took a job working in the community as a section hand, helping troubleshoot issues and fix whatever problems arose with the rails, while also doing some farming.    

   When our country was plunged into crisis with the secession of the southern states in 1861, George Smith’s patriotism for his adopted land knew no bounds once war broke out, and he promptly volunteered for service, mustering into the newly formed 20^th Illinois Volunteer Infantry on June 13^th of that year. While shouldering a musket in Abraham Lincoln’s army, Smith saw the shot and shell fly at the battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, was present at the fabled siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and numerous other engagements. 

   A veteran of hard combat, it’s hard to imagine anyone suffering more for their country’s cause during these dreadful years than George Smith. Two of his fingers were shot off, not to mention the serious wounds he took to the leg and shoulder. To round out these horrors, Smith carried a rebel ball lodged above the roof of his mouth to the grave; a grievous injury that he agonized from for nearly 40 years, and that was said to have led to his ultimate demise in June 1903. 

The resting place of Civil War hero George Smith.

 

   A brother in arms was Henry Folman, a neighbor who served in the same regiment. Folman, the 19-year-old son of the church’s builder, and a member of one of the parish’s founding families, took up arms with the 20^thIllinois Volunteer Infantry in October 1864. Upon his enlistment, the 20^th had been so decimated by casualties that a new company of the unit was formed, of which the young Folman was appointed sergeant. He appears to have been lucky enough to have escaped the carnage of battle, serving away from the front lines. 

   Beholding the earthen tomb of this old soldier, who ultimately breathed his last in 1924, it is plain that he was proud of the role he played in coming to America’s rescue during its greatest trouble. His rank and regimental affiliation are plainly etched on the marble cylinder above his remains. In the years after the war, Henry Folman was one of the countless Union warriors who joined the Grand Army of the Republic, a powerful fraternal organization made up of Northern Civil War veterans, not unlike today’s VFW or American Legion. A metal marker from the GAR placed on his grave by his comrades still holds watch today, rusted but vigilant. 

 

   Not to be forgotten are the victims of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic who are interred in this historic cemetery. They were all Mexican-born laborers for the Rock Island railroad, who lived in converted boxcars on a sidetrack east of town. The virus was first noticed in their camp in the middle of October, and it decimated their numbers. Before all was said and done, at least six of the workers and their family members had perished. Father Theodore of Joliet, who was the priest in charge of St. Mary’s parish at the time, buried all of them. No markers were ever put over their graves, and while their names were all recorded in the church registry, the hastiness with which they were written has made them all but impossible to read. Nearly 103 years after their deaths, they are nameless to us. 

 

   This sampling of but a handful of those interred at St. Mary’s Cemetery barely scratches the surface of all of the historic personalities that one can find in this place. Beholding their places of eternal rest, when the conditions are just right, one can feel their stories.