Witness to a century and a half of Pekin’s history: the Farmers National Bank building

By Jared L. Olar

Local History Program Coordinator

As Pekin’s Bicentennial Year continues, this week we’ll take a look back over the history of a downtown landmark that has witnessed almost three-fourths of Pekin’s 200 years: the old Farmers National Bank building at 333 Court St., the northeast corner of Capitol and Court.

The Tazewell County Assessor’s website says the Farmers National Bank building was constructed in 1910, but that was only the date of a major remodeling project that revamped a structure that has existed at least since the 1870s if not earlier. The building, of course, is named for the former Farmers National Bank, one of Pekin’s major financial institutions that operated from 1875 to 1932.

The site on which the Farmers National Bank building now stands has a connection to Abraham Lincoln: in the 1850s a Pekin attorney and justice of the peace named James Harriott (who also served as Pekin’s third mayor in the early 1850s) had his home and law office in the building then located at the northeast corner of Court and Capitol streets. Harriott, who came to Pekin in 1849 from Jersey County, Illinois, was elected a judge of the 21st Judicial Circuit in 1857 and was reelected judge in 1861. As a Pekin attorney and Justice of the Peace, Harriott had dealings with Abraham Lincoln. For example, Harriott was Justice of the Peace in the 1853 case of People v. Thomas Delny, a child rape case that Lincoln successfully prosecuted as Tazewell County State’s Attorney pro tempore.

The 1861 Root’s City Directory of Pekin says Dr. Daniel A. Cheever, homoeopathic physician, then had his office and residence and office at the northeast corner of Court and Capitol, though it’s not clear if the building on that corner in 1861 is the same one in which Farmers National Bank opened 14 years later.

Curiously, the 1871 Sellers & Bates City Directory of Pekin does not mention any business at that location in its business directory, but Farmers National Bank makes its debut in Pekin city directories in the 1876 Bates City Directory, published one year after the bank opened. The 1876 directory lists the bank’s officers as Jonathan Merriam (1834-1919), president, Samuel H. Jones (1823-1907) of Springfield, Ill., vice president, and Alvin B. Hoblit (1844-1920), cashier.

The Farmers National Bank building wears its original facade in this photograph from the 1870s, probably taken on the day of the bank’s opening in 1875 or perhaps a few years later.

Farmers National Bank of Pekin made its debut in Pekin city directories in 1876, a year after the bank opened for business at the northeast corner of Court and Capitol.

Jonathan Merriam (1834-1919), founding president of Farmers National Bank and later of the Illinois National Bank, served as a Lieut. Colonel in the 117th Illinois Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War.

Alvin Bailey Hoblit (1844-1920) was Farmers National Bank’s first cashier, and later went on to found the State Bank of Bloomington, serving as the bank’s president.

The 1974 Pekin Sesquicentennial, pages 34-35, devotes just two paragraphs to Farmers National Bank. Here is the first paragraph:

“In 1875 the Farmers National Bank was incorporated under the National Banking Law with $50,000 capital. The bank opened with Jonathan Merriam as president, S. H. Jones as vice-president, and A. B. Hoblit as cashier. Other familiar names associated with this enterprise in later years were those of C. R. Cummings, vice-president around 1869 (!), and James M. James, agent of the immense Cummings Estate, president after the turn of the century.”

C. R. Cummings was elected Pekin mayor but left before the end of his term, moving to Chicago where he became a railroad tycoon. Contrary to the Sesquicentennial, Cummings was never a Farmers National Bank officer, but instead was a stockholder and served for a while on the board of directors. His agent, James M. James, was for many years vice president of Farmers National Bank and became bank president in 1911. Upon James’ death on 5 May 1918, the entire city shut down for his funeral, and James Field is named in his memory.

At the center of this detail from an 1877 aerial view map of Pekin, which looks to the south, is a sketch of the Farmers National Bank building at the northeast corner Capitol and Court streets. This view shows the rear (north) side of the Farmers National Bank building.

In this detail from the May 1885 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin, the Farmers National Bank building is shown to be numbered as 401, 401 1/2 and 403 Court Street, with the bank at 401 and Charles M. Stickley’s harnessmaking business at 403. Stickley also ran a livery stable at 103 Court St. No. 4.

The 1887 Pekin City Directory included this advertisement for C. M. Stickley’s livery and saddlery. His saddlery and harnessmaking business was at 403 Court St., which today is number 335 Court, in the old Farmers National Bank building.

A year after Farmers National Bank appeared in the 1876 city directory, we have a simple sketch of the building in an 1877 aerial view map of Pekin. Then eight years after that, the first Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin is dated May 1885 and shows Farmers National Bank at “401” and “401 1/2” Court St., because the addresses were numbered differently in those days. Sharing the same building, at “403” Court St. (renumbered “335” Court by 1892) was the harnessmaking business of Charles M. Stickley (1851-1935). Stickley also ran a livery stable at 103 Court St.

Returning to the city directory record, we find that Farmers National Bank took out a full page advertisement in the 1887 Pekin city directory, which lists the bank’s officers then as Frank E. Rupert (1840-1911), president, Flavel Shurtleff (1842-1920), vice president, and Charles H. Turner (1859-1945), assistant cashier. The 1887 directory ad’s list of names is almost a “Who’s Who” of Pekin’s prominent men at the time.

Farmers National Bank took out a full page advertisement in the 1887 Pekin City Directory. The ad’s list of officers, directors, and principal officers is almost a Who’s Who of Pekin’s prominent men at the time.

Detail from the Jan. 1892 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin showing the Farmers National Bank building at 333 Court St., which the bank shared with Charles L. Brereton, merchant tailor, and the Kuecks Bros. saddlery harnessmaking business of Charles and William Kuecks.

This vintage photograph from the 1890s shows the Farmers National Bank Building and other downtown buildings on the northside of the Upper 300 block of Court Street.

The Jan. 1892 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map and an 1890s photograph show that Charles L. Brereton (1860-1947), merchant tailor, had moved into 333 1/2 Court St. in the Farmers National Bank building, while Stickley’s harnessmaking shop was now being operated by the brothers Charles and William Kuecks (a family better remembered as undertakers and funeral home owners).

In the 1893 Pekin city directory, the bank purchased a front cover advertisement. From then on, Farmers National Bank had a front cover city directory ad almost every year, up to and including the 1930 Polk City Directory of Pekin. The city directories from 1893 to 1904 continue to show the bank at 333 Court, Brereton’s tailoring at 333 1/2 Court, and Kuecks Bros. saddlery and harness at 335 Court.

Farmers National Bank placed its 1893 directory advertisement on the front cover. Shown is a detail from the front cover of William Henry Bates’ personal “correction copy” of the 1893 city directory.

In this detail from the March 1898 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin, Farmers National Bank is shown in the west half of the building, with Charles L. Brereton’s tailoring business occupying the east half, and the Kuecks Bros. saddlery and harnessmaking business at 335 Court.

This detail of the Nov. 1903 Sanborn Map of Pekin shows little change at the Farmers National Bank building.

Although this detail from the Dec. 1909 Sanborn Map shows a “carpets” store at 333 1/2 Court St., the 1909 Pekin city directory says that space was occupied by a Five-and-Dime store operated by F. M. Conrad and E. R. Boxberger. The drug store shown here at 335 Court was owned and operated by Carl E. Kraeger, druggist and pharmacists, who first appears at that location in the 1908 city directory, replacing the old Kuecks Bros. saddlery.

In the 1908 directory, however, we find Brereton’s tailoring shop replaced by F. M. Conrad’s and E. R. Boxberger’s Five-and-Dime store. The Conrad & Boxberger Five-and-Dime appears at that location only in the 1908 directory, and the Dec. 1909 Sanborn Map shows a carpet store at 333 1/2 Court instead. The 1908 directory also shows that the building space formerly occupied by the Kuecks Bros. saddlery at 335 Court was now the home of a drug store operated by Carl E. Kraeger (1882-1965), who in 1920 was one of the five co-founders of Pekin’s Rotary Club. City directories continue to list Kraeger’s drug store at 335 Court until the 1926 directory, but in the 1928 we see that Kraeger’s has become the Hackler Bros. drug store.

Carl E. Kraeger (1882-1965)

The most important event in this building’s history was the extensive remodeling and refurbishing project of 1910-11, which replaced the buildings Victorian Era façade with the brown brick façade it has borne ever since. The remodeling eliminated the bank’s old corner entrance. This project is commemorated in the stone inscription on the front of the building that gives the dates of Farmers National Bank as 1875 to 1911.

A colored photograph of Farmers National Bank from about the 1910s, donated to the library’s Local History Collection by the late Fred Soady.

A sample Farmers National Bank of Pekin $5 bank note, issued 19 July 1915, from a currency auction website. This bank note was signed by the bank’s officers T. W. Mott and A. A. Sipfle, and bear’s the bank’s national charter number, 2287.

This detail from the Oct. 1916 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin shows the effects of the 1911 remodel of the Farmers National Bank building that expanded the bank’s space into 333 1/2 Court St. Apart from upstairs offices, the rest of the building, at 335 Court St., was the home of Carl E. Kraeger’s drug store.

The Farmers National Bank building and other downtown buildings are decorated for Christmas in this vintage photograph from the early 1920s.

An interior view of Farmers National Bank and the bank staff in 1925. The 1926 Pekin City Directory says the bank’s officers then were Arthur A. Sipfle, president, Vincent P. Turner, vice president, Frank F. Riese, vice president, T. W. Mott, cashier, and Nicholas J. Friedrich, assistant cashier.

The Sept. 1925 Sanborn Map again shows Farmers National Bank at 333 Court St. and Carl E. Kraeger’s drug store at 335 Court St.

The interior of Farmers National Bank as it appeared in October of 1927.

The Farmers National Bank vault from an October 1927 Peoria Transcript clipping.

The 1930 Pekin city directory listed the bank’s officers as Arthur A. Sipfle (1874-1952), president (whose wife Mary Caroline was a sister of Carl E. Kraeger), Vincent P. Turner (1853-1933), vice president, Frank F. Riese (1862-1931), vice president, Thaddeus W. Mott (1889-1968), cashier, and Nicholas J. Friedrich (1891-1974), assistant cashier.

Farmers National Bank’s last Pekin City Directory advertisement appeared in the 1930 directory, when the bank officers were Arthur A. Sipfle, president, Vincent P. Turner and Frank F. Riese, vice presidents, T. W. Mott, cashier, and T. J. Friedrich, assistant cashier. In the 1932 directory, the bank is listed only in the Street and Avenue Guide, but has no listing in the main part of the directory, and the bank, which failed in 1932, did not buy its usual front cover and inside pages directory advertisements that year.

The next city directory, which was published in 1932, had no Farmers National Bank ad on its cover, nor was there even an entry for the bank in the main part of the directory – only a short listing in the Streets and Avenues Directory section of the book. The reason for that is mentioned in the 1974 Pekin Sesquicentennial’s second paragraph about this bank, on page 35:

“Farmer’s National was a financial bulwark for Pekin until 1932, when it closed its doors, supposedly not because of any depression-related crisis or shortage, but simply because it ‘was not making any money’ – we’ll let readers interpret that for themselves. Most depositors eventually got back almost the full amount of their money, but at the time, the closure (sic) smashed public morale, tied up much-needed moneys, and took cash out of circulation for years.”

That summary account of the bank’s closing and the effect it had on Pekin is essentially correct, but contemporary newspaper accounts show that the Sesquicentennial’s comment “supposedly not because of any depression-related crisis or shortage” is not quite correct. The officers and directors made clear on the day that they announced the bank’s closing that the factors leading them to decide to close the bank were all Depression-related. The bank didn’t run out of money, nor was there a run on the bank, but it is undeniably due to the Great Depression that Farmers National Bank failed.

The stock market had crashed less than two and half years before, commencing that period of severe financial woes known as the Great Depression. This period proved exceptionally difficult for Farmers National Bank. The bank’s troubles began with the collapse of farm prices, which put a great strain upon John Fitzgerald (1857-1930) one of the bank’s directors who was engaged locally in the farm loan business. Fitzgerald’s solution was to resort to improper financial dealings that amounted to embezzlement from the bank, for which he ended up serving time in prison.

If Farmers National Bank’s troubles had ended there, it would not have had to close. But the shadow cast by Fitzgerald’s fall, at a time when the national and local economy were depressed, resulted in less business available for the bank: fewer customers, fewer loans, fewer investors, few savings accounts. By the end of 1931, the bank’s officers and directors saw the handwriting on the wall and, ominously, did not send their year-end Bank Statement to the Pekin Daily Times for publication. The bank closed its doors at the end of business, Thursday, 7 Jan. 1932, and later that night, around midnight, the officers and directors agreed the bank would not open for business the next morning.

That afternoon, the Pekin Daily Times ran the banner headline: “FARMERS BANK DECIDES TO LIQUIDATE,” with the subheadline, “’Believe No Depositor Will Lose A Single Center,’ Says Official Statement.” To try to assuage the fears of depositors, the newspaper published “What The Bank Statement Dec. 31 Would Have Been,” along with a statement from Herget National Bank and American National Bank saying that those banks “have reason to believe that all depositors will be paid in full.” F. F. McNaughton, the Daily Times’ publisher, also wrote an editorial that tried to assure everyone that everyone who had money in the bank would get their money. Their assurances proved correct, though in the short term the bank’s failure caused great trouble for many, and for a while the City of Pekin’s government was unable to access about $1 million of city funds that had been deposited at Farmers.

As announced by a blazing Pekin Daily Times front page headline on Friday, 8 Jan. 1932, the Great Depression claimed another victim on 7 Jan. 1932, when the directors and officers of Farmers National Bank closed their doors and decided not to reopen the next day. (Note: the money referred to in the “Beat Moeckel With Gun Trying to Get Him To Tell Where Money Was Hidden” story on the right had not been deposited in Farmers National Bank.)

After the closing of Farmers National Bank, the building continued to house not only the Hackler Bros. drug store at 335 Court St., but also provided office space to local attorneys, real estate agents, doctors, dentists, and others in the main office building.

Then in early 1948 came this building’s second major event since the opening of the bank in 1875. On the night of 2 Feb. 1948, a fire of undetermined origin tore through the Farmers National Bank building, completely destroying the Hackler Bros. drug store and the second floor offices in the rest of the building, causing about $150,000 in damage, but the fire spare the main floor offices. Newspaper reports say the blaze was reported at 10:45 p.m. and Pekin firemen, assisted by the Peoria Fire Department, fought the blaze for about seven hours. The hands on the bank’s familiar old clock were frozen to 11:08 p.m., when the fire department cut power to the building.

The front page of the Tuesday, 3 Feb. 1948 Pekin Daily Times trumpeted the news that the top floors of the old Farmers National Bank/Hackler building had been destroyed the night before by a fire of undetermined cause. The fire displaced several attorneys, dentists, insurance agents, and other businesses that had operated from the former bank building.

The fire not only destroyed Hackler Bros., which reopened at 401 Court St., but also displaced attorneys Al Black and Dale Sutton, Elliff and Elliff, and J. M. Powers, dentist Dr. Alan E. Stewart, Dr. Robert Dunlevy, M.D., insurance agent James Cedarquist, Justice of the Peace August Lauterbach, the Pekin Finance Co., JoAnn’s Beauty Shoppe, and the offices of the Cummings Estate occupied by I. E. Wilson.

The building’s owner, Eugene F. Lohnes (1892-1951), who is best remembered as the proprietor of Central Book & Toy at 345 Court St., seems to have passed away before he could have the building’s repairs completed — but repaired it was all the same. By the time of the 1950 Pekin city directory, we only find a listing for Marvin Hecht’s Bonny Shop, a women’s clothing store, at 335 Court St. – Hackler’s was already up and running at 401 Court St. by then. The directory does not show anything else in the Farmers National Bank building that year, but in the 1952 directory we find 333 Court St. reoccupied with several offices.

In 1965, the Farmers National Bank building once again became the home of a local bank. On 8 May 1965, the community-owned Pekin National Bank opened in this building, with Milo A. Miller as president and Gerald E. Conaghan as managing officer and cashier. Pekin National Bank continued to lease the old Farmers National Bank building until 1972, when it moved to a new building of its own at 329 Court.

Pekin National Bank, in the old Farmers National Bank, is shown in this Ralph Goodwin photograph from Nov. 1966.

This Pekin Daily Times photograph by Dan Hostetler accompanied an announcement that the building had been selected the 1985 Thomas Marigold Award winner.

Later this building was acquired by Robert Metzler, and housed the U.S. Army Recruiting Office on its main floor (even today, green Army decals are still visible in one or two windows), with other office spaces on the second and third floors. Over the past two or three decades, the former Farmers National Bank building has had a series of owners, with the current owner listed at the County Assessor’s website being Luis A. Preciado. After everything, the familiar 113-year old brick façade still looks as it did when it was installed in 1911.

This photograph of the Farmers National Bank building from the Tazewell County Assessor’s website was taken 7 Feb. 2002.

This Tazewell County Assessor’s website photograph of the Farmers National Bank building was taken in the summer of 2013.

Basic plan of the Farmers National Bank building from the Tazewell County Assessor’s website.

#abraham-lincoln, #al-black, #alvin-b-hoblit, #arthur-a-sipfle, #august-lauterbach, #c-h-turner, #c-kraeger, #c-m-stickley, #c-r-cummings, #carl-e-kraeger, #central-book-toy-store, #charles-h-turner, #charles-kuecks, #charles-l-brereton, #charles-m-stickley, #columbus-r-cummings, #conrad-and-boxberger, #cummings-estate, #dale-sutton, #dr-alan-e-stewart, #dr-daniel-a-cheever, #dr-robert-dunlevy, #e-r-boxberger, #eugene-f-lohnes, #f-f-mcnaughton, #f-n-conrad, #farmers-national-bank, #farmers-national-bank-building, #farmers-national-bank-building-fire, #farmers-national-bank-failure, #flavel-shurtleff, #frank-e-rupert, #frank-f-riese, #fred-soady, #gerald-e-conaghan, #hackler-bros-drug-store, #hechts-bonny-shop, #i-e-wilson, #j-m-powers, #james-cedarquist, #james-field, #james-harriott, #james-m-james, #james-morris-james, #joanns-beauty-shoppe, #john-fitzgerald, #jonathan-merriam, #kraeger-drug-store, #luis-a-preciado, #marvin-hecht, #metzler-building, #milo-a-miller, #nicholas-j-friedrich, #pekin-bicentennial, #pekin-finance-co, #pekin-history, #pekin-national-bank, #pekin-rotary-club, #people-v-thomas-delny, #robert-metzler, #samuel-h-jones, #sanborn-maps, #t-w-mott, #thaddeus-w-mott, #thomas-delny, #u-s-army-recruiting-office, #vincent-p-turner, #william-h-bates, #william-kuecks

Two Pekin service clubs to mark their centennials

By Jared Olar
Library assistant

Two of Pekin’s community service organizations – the Pekin Rotary and Pekin Kiwanis clubs – will reach their centennial milestones this month.

Undaunted even by COVID-19, during this time of “shelter in place” and quarantines both clubs have conducted their regular meetings online using the Zoom app.

Enthusiasm for social clubs and service organizations was very high in Pekin in 1920, only two years out of the First World War. Several social clubs then active in Pekin (such as the Tazewell Club) no longer exist, but the Pekin Rotary Club and the Pekin Kiwanis Club, which both were christened in the spring of 1920, are still going strong today.

The Pekin Rotary Club – one of tens of thousands of clubs that belong to Rotary International – was organized in April 1920, and held its first meeting Wednesday night, May 12, 1920. Consequently, Pekin Rotary is able to boast that it is the longest serving community organization in Pekin.

Pekin Rotary’s debut was reported in the following day’s Pekin Daily Times, in a story headlined, “Pekin Rotary Club formed last night.” The story announced, “At a meeting and banquet held at the Tazewell Hotel last night the Pekin Rotary Club was formed, L. C. Moschel elected president and Phil H. Sipfle, secretary.” The meeting’s keynote speaker was James Graig of Chicago, former governor of Rotary’s 12th district.

Shown here is a detail from the May 13, 1920 Pekin Daily Times story
on the organizing meeting of the Pekin Rotary Club which had taken
place the evening before.

The very first Rotary Club had been founded by Paul P. Harris and three of his friends in Chicago on Feb. 23, 1905, only 15 years before Rotary came to Pekin. The name “rotary” was chosen because the club’s meetings would rotate among the members’ business offices.

Pekin’s Rotary Club was started by five businessmen: Harry Wilmot, Walton T. Conover, Frank Beyer, Carl E. Kraeger, and Louis C. Moschel. The club began with 25 charter members, and Moschel served as the club’s first president for four consecutive annual terms before he was succeeded by Carl G. Herget in 1924. For much of its early history, Pekin Rotary met weekly in the old Tazewell Hotel located at the corner of Fourth and Elizabeth streets near the courthouse.

In its early years, the Pekin Rotary Club held its regular meetings in the old Tazewell Hotel on Elizabeth Street in downtown Pekin.

According to Rotary member Gary Gillis, the club has planned a Rotary Centennial Week this month, which includes a 6 p.m. May 12 gathering of members at the Busey Bank parking lot, where the Tazewell Hotel used to be. The plans, of course, depend on public health considerations and whether or not the Illinois governor’s “shelter in place” order is still in force.

With a motto of “Service Above Self,” the purpose of Rotary is to encourage business persons, professionals, and community leaders to be active in works of service and charity. Its service projects and programs over its history have included tree planting, fishing derbies, the Pekin Mobile Diner, scholarship awards, and the sponsoring and hosting of foreign exchange students.

The Pekin Kiwanis Club was organized about the same time as Rotary, but had their first meeting 11 days after Rotary’s first meeting. The Pekin Daily Times printed a story in its May 20, 1920 edition with the title, “Pekin Men Put Kiwanis Club Over the Top,” in which it was reported that “The Kiwanis Club of Pekin is in progress of formation with a membership of over fifty representative men of this city.” According to that news story, Pekin’s Kiwanis Club was the 19th Kiwanis Club in Illinois. Kiwanis was founded in 1915 in Detroit, Mich. – the name is derived from a Native American phrase, Nunc Kee-wanis, meaning “We trade [our talents].}

Pekin Kiwanis held its organizing meeting on May 24, 1920, and a story reporting that meeting appeared on page 8 of the following day’s Pekin Daily Times. “With over forty men present last night the Kiwanis Club of Pekin was formerly (sic – formally) organized in the circuit court room of the Tazewell court house,” the story said. W. S. Prettyman was elected temporary chairman for the organizing meeting.

Shown here is a detail from the May 25, 1920 Pekin Daily Times story on the organizing meeting of the Pekin Kiwanis Club which had taken place the evening before.

At the meeting, Dan Wentworth, lieut. governor of the Illinois and Eastern Iowa districts, explained the club’s purposes and aims, “declaring that the organization stood for the square deal, for service ‘to the other fellow,’ for the Golden Rule in business, and for the building up of the community, the state and the nation.” Kiwanis and Rotary thus have much the same purpose and aims.

At the first meeting, the following officers were unanimously elected: Jesse Black Jr., president; J. C. Aydelott, vice president; Ben P. Schenck, treasurer; and seven directors, W. S. Prettyman, H. J. Rust, Nelson Weyrich, R. E. Rollins, Louis Albertsen, O. W. Noel, and J. T. Conaghan.

The first regular meeting, where the club charter was presented, was then set for Wednesday evening, June 2, 1920, at the Pekin Country Club house (then located where Pekin Community High School is today), with plans made for weekly luncheon sessions.

The long years of service to the community of Rotary and Kiwanis are memorialized by the Pekin Park District, which oversees Rotary Park at the former site of Garfield School and Kiwanis Park near L. E. Starke School.

#carl-herget, #gary-gillis, #jesse-black, #louis-c-moschel, #pekin-kiwanis-club, #pekin-rotary-club, #william-s-prettyman

Nearly a century of service – Rotary and Kiwanis

By Jared Olar
Library assistant

While Illinois is celebrating its bicentennial this year, and the Pekin Area Chamber of Commerce will celebrate its quasquicentennial (125 years) next month, there are two other Pekin community organizations that have almost, but not quite, made it to their centennials: the Pekin Rotary and Pekin Kiwanis clubs.

Enthusiasm for social clubs and service organizations apparently was very high in Pekin in 1920, only two years out of the First World War. Several social clubs then active in Pekin (such as the Tazewell Club) no longer exist, but the Pekin Rotary Club and the Pekin Kiwanis Club, which both were christened in the spring of 1920, are still going strong today.

The Pekin Rotary Club – one of tens of thousands of clubs that belong to Rotary International – was organized in April 1920. The first Rotary Club was founded by Paul P. Harris and three of his friends in Chicago on Feb. 23, 1905, only 15 years before Rotary came to Pekin. The name “rotary” was chosen because the club’s meetings would rotate among the members’ business offices.

Pekin’s Rotary Club was started by five businessmen: Harry Wilmot, Walton T. Conover, Frank Beyer, Carl E. Kraeger, and Louis C. Moschel. The club began with 25 charter members, and Moschel served as the club’s first president for four consecutive annual terms before he was succeeded by Carl G. Herget in 1924. For much of its early history, Pekin Rotary met weekly in the old Tazewell Hotel located at the corner of Fourth and Elizabeth streets near the courthouse.

In its early years, the Pekin Rotary Club held its regular meetings in the old Tazewell Hotel on Elizabeth Street in downtown Pekin.

With a motto of “Service Above Self,” the purpose of Rotary is to encourage business persons, professionals, and community leaders to be active in works of service and charity. Its service projects and programs over its history have included tree planting, fishing derbies, the Pekin Mobile Diner, scholarship awards, and the sponsoring and hosting of foreign exchange students.

The Pekin Kiwanis Club was organized about a month after Rotary. The Pekin Daily Times printed a story in its May 20, 1920 edition with the title, “Pekin Men Put Kiwanis Club Over the Top,” in which it was reported that “The Kiwanis Club of Pekin is in progress of formation with a membership of over fifty representative men of this city.” According to that news story, Pekin’s Kiwanis Club was the 19th Kiwanis Club in Illinois. Kiwanis was founded in 1915 in Detroit, Mich. – the name is derived from a Native American phrase, Nunc Kee-wanis, meaning “We trade [our talents].}

Pekin Kiwanis held its organizing meeting on May 24, 1920, and a story reporting that meeting appeared on page 8 of the following day’s Pekin Daily Times. “With over forty men present last night the Kiwanis Club of Pekin was formerly (sic – formally) organized in the circuit court room of the Tazewell court house,” the story said. W. S. Prettyman was elected temporary chairman for the organizing meeting.

Shown here is a detail from the May 25, 1920 Pekin Daily Times story on the organizing meeting of the Pekin Kiwanis Club which had taken place the evening before.

At the meeting, Dan Wentworth, lieut. governor of the Illinois and Eastern Iowa districts, explained the club’s purposes and aims, “declaring that the organization stood for the square deal, for service ‘to the other fellow,’ for the Golden Rule in business, and for the building up of the community, the state and the nation.” Kiwanis and Rotary thus have much the same purpose and aims.

At the first meeting, the following officers were unanimously elected: Jesse Black Jr., president; J. C. Aydelott, vice president; Ben P. Schenck, treasurer; and seven directors, W. S. Prettyman, H. J. Rust, Nelson Weyrich, R. E. Rollins, Louis Albertsen, O. W. Noel, and J. T. Conaghan.

The first regular meeting, where the club charter was presented, was then set for Wednesday evening, June 2, 1920, at the Pekin Country Club house (then located where Pekin Community High School is today), with plans made for weekly luncheon sessions.

The long years of service to the community of Rotary and Kiwanis is memorialized by the Pekin Park District, which oversees Rotary Park at the former site of Garfield School and Kiwanis Park near L. E. Starke School.

#carl-herget, #illinois-bicentennial, #jesse-black, #pekin-kiwanis-club, #pekin-rotary-club, #william-s-prettyman