A publication of the Des Plaines History Center VOLUME 45, NO. 1 JANUARY-MARCH 2011

COBWEB

DES PLAINES’ CIVIL WAR CAMP│PROFILE OF A SOLDIER │GREENHOUSES IN DES PLAINES│

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By Stephen M. Kahnert The pavilion walls at Lake Opeka capture the names of Des Plaines residents who died serving their country, including three volunteers who served in the Union Army dur-ing the Civil War: Henry Emerson, Theodore Rogers, and James Sad-dler. A few miles away is a Civil War encampment barely known today: Camp Slemmer. A few months after the April 1861 start of the War Between the States, a training camp was established in Des Plaines for army regulars, as opposed to volunteers. From August to November 1861 hundreds of men joined the 16th U.S. Infan-try encamped in Des Plaines. A regiment newly created by President Lincoln, it was named for and led that summer by Ma-jor Adam J. Slemmer, leader of the spring 1861 standoff at Fort Pickens, in Florida. From the Chicago Tribune of October 17, 1861 regarding Camp Slemmer: “It is located at Maine Station on the Northwestern Railway on a beautiful plain a few rods from the Des Plaines River. The camp is skirted on the east and the south by handsome growth of timber … There are now about 300 regulars in the camp.”

This description places Camp Slem-mer east of the river, south of the railway line and north of the current Methodist Campgrounds. That wedge has been called North West-ern Park and Poyer Woods across the years. Major Slemmer, West Point class of

1850, arrived in Des Plaines in July 1861, stayed six weeks, then was posted to a role with higher visibility, Acting Inspector General of the De-partment of the Ohio. A short time later, a November 4, 1861 Tribune article brought news of the camp’s closure: “Departure of the Sixteenth U.S. Infantry …

which has for the past three months been in camp at Desplaines [sic] Sta-tion … broke camp early on Satur-day, and arrived in [Chicago] at about 2 p.m. of that day, taking tem-porary quarters at the Wig-wam…” The Wigwam was where Abraham Lincoln won the Republi-can Party’s nomination in downtown Chicago 18 months earlier. A great grandson of President Thomas Jefferson, Major Philip Sidney Coolidge, led the 16th U.S. Infantry out of Des Plaines that day to their next posting at Co-lumbus, Ohio. Thirteen months after leaving Des Plaines the 16th U.S. Infan-try took part in the Battle of Stones River near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the morning of De-cember 31, 1862. Stones River was one of the deadliest Civil War engagements with one third of Union and Confederate combat-ants, 24,000 men, killed or wounded.

Major Slemmer, who had returned to command the 16th that day, was wounded and did not fight in any other battle of the war. He died of heart failure in 1868 serving with the U.S. army in Wyoming territory. There’s another connection to Des Plaines on that Tennessee battle-field: Chaplain Augustus Co-

DES PLAINES’

CIVIL WAR TRAINING CAMP GREAT GRANDSON OF THOMAS JEFFERSON LED 16TH U.S. INFANTRY

“TO MAKE A GOOD INFINTRY, IT IS ES-

SENTIAL THAT IT SHOULD PASS SOME

MONTHS IN A CAMP OF INSTRUCTION.

THE SOLDIER MUST BE TAUGHT TO TAKE

CARE OF HIS ARMS AND ACCOUTRE-

MENTS, TO MARCH, TO FIRE WELL, TO

BUILD HUTS, TO HANDLE THE AXE,

SPADE, AND SHOVEL, TO MAKE CAR-

TRIDGES, FASCINES, HURDLES, AND

GABIONS, SUITED TO FIELDWORKS, TO

COOK, AND TO CONSIDER HIS KNAP-

SACK, HAVERSACK, &C., AS PART OF

HIMSELF.”

COLONEL H. L. SCOTT

MILITARY DICTIONARY, 1861

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1381 Prairie Ave. Des Plaines www.prairieleeframe.com

nant. Twenty-five years before the Civil War began he worked a farm on the banks of the Des Plaines river. He and wife Betsey became the first couple of record married in our city. Eventually he became a Unitar-ian minister who spoke out power-fully against slavery. During the Battle of Stones River, on the eve that Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, the 19th Illinois for whose soldiers Co-

nant was chaplain, lined up to the left of the U.S. 16th Infantry’s posi-tion at a spot later called ‘The Slaughter Pen’. Within six weeks Augustus Conant would be dead from dysentery after ministering to many wounded sol-diers who survived the skirmishes of December 31 and January 2. There was no fighting at Stones River on January 1, 1863. ●

Top right: Adam J. Slemmer Above: Map of Maine Township, 1862. The gray area at the center of the map indicates the area that is the present day downtown Des Plaines. The approximate location of Camp Slemmer is indicated by a yellow circle.

“THE SIXTEENTH IS COMPOSED OF EXCELLENT STOCK FOR

SOLDIERS, AND UNDER THE TUITION OF PROPER INSTRUCTORS

WILL UNDOUBTEDLY BECOME A CRACK REGIMENT OF THE

UNITED STATES REGULAR FORCE. IT IS COMPLETELY ARMED

WITH REGULATION MUSKETS, AND FURNISHED WITH CAMP EQ-

UIPAGE OF THE BEST QUALITY. IT IS SUPPLIED WITH THE USUAL

REGIMENTAL BAND. THE UNIFORMS ARE ALSO OF THE REGU-

LATION STAMP, DIFFERING BUT SLIGHTLY FOM THOSE USED BY

VOLUNTEERS, WITH WHICH OUR CITIZENS HAVE OF LATE BE-

COME SO FAMILIAR.” CHICAGO TRIBUNE

NOVEMBER 4, 1861

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DES PLAINES' GREENHOUSE HERITAGE

“WHAT IS

WRONG

WITH DES

PLAINES?”

By Mike Schwass and Laura Young This was the curious topic of a 1936 WPA-sponsored* public speaking class. Residents at the time were sur-prised when a garden club member declared in its defense that Des Plaines was known to some as the “Flower Center of the World.” The state-ment sparked a lively discussion con-cluding with the plan to form a “Get Ahead Committee” to encourage local merchants to add the slogan to their business stationery. The Journal arti-

cle read: “The point in view was for the committee to present to the public a new name for the city, who, instead of calling our com-munity “A Dangerous Place to Live,” would call it the pleasing and picturesque “Flower Capitol of the World.” Admittedly an improvement, but was it warranted? Indeed it was. The then-thriving greenhouse industry owed its start to the work of Solomon Garland, who arrived in Des Plaines in 1861, devoting his extensive home-stead to farming and six large green-houses. For decades the Garland name was synonymous with beautiful flowers and produce. His sons War-ren, Frank and Solomon, Jr. went on to establish numerous greenhouses of their own. Another son, George, es-tablished Garland Manufacturing, spe-cializing in greenhouse construction. George was credited with several pat-ents which improved the durability, usage, and cost effectiveness of the structures. Solomon Jr’s. wife, Minnie established the first flower shop on Ellinwood Street in 1920. Why Des Plaines? As the Garlands learned, climate, wa-ter availability and the exceptional soil

quality of the Des Plaines River valley created ideal conditions for growers. Further, the proximity of the railroad provided access to coal for the boilers which heated the “hothouses” through the winter months. In fact, many greenhouse men got their start apprenticing with the Garlands before establishing businesses of their own. Among these men were Henry Blewitt, who studied landscape archi-tecture in London prior to coming to the U.S., and George Hoefle, who went to work for Frank Garland after becoming an orphan at age 16. Hoefle later established a flower shop on River Road. His daughter Gladys and son-in-law Harvey Busche assumed ownership of the shop which later sported the Busche name.

*In 1933, as part of his Second New Deal, Franklin Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to provide jobs for millions left unemployed by the Great Depression. While well known projects of the WPA include build-ing roads and bridges, the Works Pro-gress Administration also put actors, mu-sicians, writers, and photographers to work. A WPA mural of the greenhouses is now a part of the Des Plaines History Center collection.

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Despite the ideal conditions and ex-panding industry, growers experienced their share of hardship. In 1918, a devastating snow storm hit the area, creating twenty foot snow drifts which prevented trains from bringing sup-plies, including essential coal, to local residents. Several greenhouses were lost as a result. Despite these setbacks, the industry boomed in the 1920s when more commercial flowers were grown in Des Plaines than anywhere else in the country. This attracted more growers, including Al Klippert who purchased 10 acres on dusty Oakton Road in 1925 where he grew carnations and chrysanthemums. Viola and Nick Schaul grew flowers on 20 acres at the southwest corner of Touhy and Lee until eminent domain forced bisection of their property to establish the Northwest Tollway. Premier Rose Gardens, founded in 1929, helped establish the city’s nick-name, “City of Roses” for the two million roses it grew annually on its 80 acres. During the Great Depression many growers survived by trading their flower stock for carrots, onions, beets and other vegetable crops. Pre-

mier was a godsend during this time for the jobs it provided, paying $11 per week for greenhouse work. They also financed other growers, including Andrew Benson’s orchid nursery. Benson’s orchids were cross polli-nated by hand, with plants being tended by hand until their first blooms appeared, five to seven years later! The labor of love paid off as Benson’s variety of orchid boasted 15-18 blooms per plant. Amling’s was also a local leader in rose production. Their success with rose grafting enabled them to export 25,000 rose bushes annually to Cali-fornia where grafting had not yet been successfully achieved. With all those roses, one would think the city would smell like Eden. Unfortunately, the manure needed to fertilize them of-fered a far more potent aroma for those nearby! Numerous industries existed alongside the greenhouses. Greenhouse con-struction firms Lord & Burnham and M. Winandy & Sons joined Garland Manufacturing. Glaziers thrived, tasked with the never-ending installa-tion and repair of glass. Those who delivered coal struggled to meet the demand of the growers. In 1936,

18,000 tons of coal were used by the six rose growing establishments alone! That industry employed 152 men, pro-ducing 18 million roses, nearly all of which were delivered by truck. The life line of the delivery business was Nellessen Express who picked up the flowers before dawn for transport to the markets on South Water and Wa-bash in Chicago. Local florists also thrived. Notable among these was Fred Pesche, who emigrated from Luxemburg in 1911 and established Pesche’s Florist in

(Continued on page 7)

Images, left to right: Allied Florist Meeting at Pesche’s, early 1960s.

Pictured are Adeline Pesche, Flor-ence Dahm, Bette Klippert, Alma Pe-sche, and Helen Wietor Leider.

Employees of Des Plaines-based Lord & Burnham greenhouse con-struction company on a job in Car-mel, Indiana.

Chrysanthemums at the Hoefle greenhouse on River road, 1920s. Maine Township High School, lo-

cated between Thacker Street and Ashland Avenue, with the green-houses of Charles F. Arnold's florist

business in the foreground, circa 1915.

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Above: Dedication of Civil War memorial at the Town of Maine Cemetery, 1901 The Soldiers’ Monument at the Town of Maine Cemetery was unveiled in October 1901. The dedi-cation ceremony included music by the Des Plaines Military Band and a speech by Peter M. Hoffman. Members of local Grand Army of the Re-public posts were in attendance as well as the La-dies Relief Corps and Daughters of Veterans.

Born in Diedricheim, Ger-

many in 1837, Peter Reiter came to America as a young

man and settled in Des Plaines.

Reiter served in the Union infantry during the Civil War

from 1862-1865. His regi-ment was assigned to the 7th

Division, 17th Corps. Army

of Tennessee, later Wagners Division 4th Corps. Army of

Cumberland. The regiment participated in a number of

expeditions and skirmishes,

and participated in the siege of Vicksburg in 1863.

Reiter’s service earned him

citizenship in 1882 and he re-

mained in Des Plaines where he became a janitor at North

Division School. In his obitu-

ary, it was noted that Reiter

was well liked by the stu-

dents .

The Reiter homestead was a familiar sight in downtown

Des Plaines; it was located at

836 Pearson and was con-structed of brick from the

Whitcomb brick yard. The home was razed in the early

1970s to build a parking lot

for St. Mary’s Catholic Church. Reiter died on Feb-

ruary 5, 1922 and is interred at Town of Maine Cemetery.

Photographs Top left: Peter Reiter, far left holding an American flag, marches with the G.A.R. in a Des Plaines’ Independence Day parade circa 1907. Top right: Reiter in an undated photograph, circa 1918.

PROFILE OF A CIVIL WAR SOLDIER:

PETER REITER

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1924. Pesche had 11 children who all worked in the business at one time or another. This family business contin-ues at its original location at 170 South River Road, and is the last place in Des Plaines where people can get fresh flowers straight from the grower. The boom of the 1920’s began its de-cline with the advent of air cargo transportation during WWII, which enabled growers in warmer climates to ship nationally. High taxes and heating costs faced by local growers made it hard to compete with warm climate growers who enjoyed lower produc-tion costs. As profits declined, many businesses were forced to sell their land to developers or re-focus their efforts on serving the local market.

But what became of the Garlands? Nearly 150 years after Solomon Gar-land established the first greenhouses, many Garland descendants continue to live on the old family site although you likely know them by a different name. Robert Schwass, who worked in the greenhouses as a young man and lived his full 93 years as a resident of Des Plaines, built his home on Gar-land Place, part of his maternal grand-father, Solomon Jr’s. homestead. Robert and his wife Catherine (Kay) raised six children, including Jim, Mary and youngest son Michael Schwass who proudly continue to live on the original Garland land to this day. ●

IN MEMORIAM Mike Schwass, longtime Des Plaines resident, motivational speaker, and friend of the History Center, passed away on September 10, 2010. This article was completed several months before Mike’s passing, and the History Center is pleased to share it in this quarter’s Cobweb.

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Front page photograph: Busche’s Floral Shop on River Road, 1946 DPHS photograph P1559

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