The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

* V- , Ay OUST*..10" PLAINDEALER CENTENNIAL EDITION-PAOE S Business Districts - Yesterday And Today \.y Main street business section today, looking east from railroad tracks. (Continued from page 3) Fremont House. This house was burned in 1853. The next was the burning of the school house in West McHenry on the night of March 15, 1861. The last and most destructive of all was the burning of Hon. Richard Bishop's carriage factory, together with blacksmith shop, wagons, carriages and a large amount of farming tools and material for manufacturing into such, on the night of July 19, 1873. George Said This In 1876 The town of McHenry today can hardly be surpassed by any town in the state for all prerequisites which go to make a people free and independent. Our people are comparatively free from debt, have good comfortable buildings, such as for comfort will compare favorably with the best im­ proved farms in eastern states and a failure of all kinds of crops in any one season has never been known here. Plenty of something is always raised to insure an adequate supply for the home demand. Our town is divided into school districts and good schools established, where all children in the town have rights to free instruction in a common school education. We have six churches in town with two Catholic, two Methodist, one Baptist, one Universalist and one Congregationalist. The Catholic church at Johnsburg is one of the finest edifices of the kind in the state. At this village are four stores, two saloons, two blacksmith and wagon shops and a marble factory, hotel, shoe shop, two churches and a high school. The village of McHenry has now one very extensive lumber yard, two very fine flouring mills, a planing mill, four blacksmith shops, a carriage and two wagon factories, three shoe shops, three saddle and harness shops, two merchant tailor stores, two jewelry stores, two furniture stores, four agricultural warehouses, four storehouses, one pickle factory and canningjyorks, one bakery, two drugstores, two meat markets, one printing office, three hotels, two livery stables, one photograph gallery, four halls for public gatherings, one Masonic hall occupied by chapter and Blue lodge, three steamboats, one brewery, one cooper shop, seven saloons, one news room, two brick yards, one gunsmith shop, four physicians, three lawyers, and mechanics the number unknown. The village of McHenry was incorporated in 1872. First town board of trustees elected Hon. Richard Bishop, Hon. F.K. Granger, H.C. Smith, Jas. B. Perry, Esq. John King, Joseph Benfield, Michael Kelter, Clerk Henry Wightman, marshal. First Telegraph Message Telegraphic communication between McHenry and the rest of the world established and first message sent over the line Oct. 31, 1873, Hon. F.K. Granger seq^tkgvto Hall, Patterson & Co., of Chicago a communication and receiving an answer from them on that date. A very correct idea of the business of this town may be gathered from freight and express receipts. The express matter passing through the McHenry office for the months next preceding July 1, 1876, yielded a net profit to the company of $1,225.60 and the railroad receipts on incoming freight from Chicago to McHenry were for May of this year $1,329.18 and for June, $1,387.78. The McHenry Plaindealer, the only newspaper in McHenry, published by J. Van Slyke, editor and proprietor, is second to no paper in northern Illinois, either in mechanical execution or editorial ability. It has now been running nearly a year and is issued weekly to nearly one thousand sub­ scribers. I now conclude my history of the town of McHenry with these remarks. I find it necessary in the short space and time allowed, to be as concise as possible. Many matters and personal interests I would gladly have noticed, but for reasons assigned I have been compelled to pass them by. My object has been to comply as nearly as possible with the requisition oi Ix.v, governor of the state of Illinois and the President of the United States, and furnish a concise history of our town to be placed on file as our centennial report for July 4, 1876 and be perpetuated among the archives of the State and Nation. All of which is respectfully submitted, GEO. GAGE. (Editor's note) "Mr. Gage was modest as to his own imprint on local history. West McHenry, for­ merly called Gagetown, sprang into existence with the arrival of the railroad in 1854. George Gage owned the site of the town and was * instrumental in securing the railroad. Says the 1936 centennial booklet on McHenry: 'Gradually the business was drawn from the east side, til now the villages^, are about equal rivals in the merits of commerce'. West McHenry was so strong for a time, after the railroad was built, that in 1882, McHenry, Illinois, lost its post office to West McHenry. That lasted for a year. Finally, through the efforts of Congressman Elwood, another post office was established in McHenry in 1883. McHenry's post office history dates from 1837 with Dr. Christy Wheeler as the first postmaster in a log building near the present Riverside hotel. He was succeeded after the first year by H.N. Owen. The third postmaster was John W. Smith in 1843." m. North side of Main street in 1883. Building on left was Smith and Snyder Lumber yard office building; tall structure was the original Gilbert building. Last building in row, in background, is the Gage House, built in 1858, and the center of social activities in the middle 1800's. Lower right is the Northwestern hotel, still standing and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Earl Conway. Mrs. Conway, the former Helen Weber, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Weber, who operated the hotel for many years AU. SLATS M AMPOO» M • * 4 0111! Green street, McHenry, in 1975, looking north from bridge. RADICOM, INC. "Keep In Touch The Radicom Wav" In October of 1963 RADICOM, INC. opened its doors for business in Libertyville, Illinois. Harold Race, President of RADICOM, INC. designed his store to be a complete communications headquarters; offer­ ing new and used equipment and a highly trained ser­ vice staff. Since then RADICOM, INC. has changed locations, moving to McHnery in April of 1969. Jim Race, vice-pres., and Phil Bartmann, sales mgr., now spearhead the sales division which services the Chicago-land and Southern Wisconsin ferea. While Harold heads the service department for both com­ mercial accounts and C.B. and marine. Green street in 1925, looking north from Empire theatre OFFERING YOU THE FINEST IN COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT! C.B • COMMERCIAL • VHF MONITORS • Over 1000 VHF Monitor Crystals In Stock! • MARINE RADIOS w/ moctor ELECTRONICS. INC. AtttT'T-r of Motorola. Inc • ANTENNAS • Antenna Specialists • Avanti • Hy-Gain • Newtronics • Francis • ACCESSORIES RMiCON Riverside drive business district today, looking north from Riverside hotel. Brand Names Like: • R0BYN • REGENCY • ROYCE • SBE • JOHNSON • MIDLAND • PACE • ELECTRA • T-BERRY • PEARCE SIMPSON C Riverside drive in 1936, with Linus Newman directing traffic. We feature a "COMPLETE" SERVICE DEPT. Two-Way Communications NEW & USED EQUIPMENT "WE SERVICE WHAT WE SELL!" RADICOM, INC. Sales & Service 2604 N. CHAPEL HILL RD. McHENRY,, ILL. (815)385-4224 Market Place shopping center i