From Morton Times Newspaper Know your local history — name that Mortonite Posted May. 14, 2014 @ 8:00 am Eleven years after the Farmers State Bank was opened here in Morton and advertised a 3 1/2 ton burglar proof safe, paying 3 percent semi annually on accounts that could be opened with a minimum of $1, our hero of this week’s mystery story was born on Jan. 4, 1932, on a farm south of Morton. He married a girl that graduated from Woodruff High School and Bradley University. She is the daughter of a cattle buyer associated with the Peoria Union Stock yards from Dunlap Illinois. They raised four girls, all members and active in 4H. As a matter of fact, one girl showed her steer at the National Western Livestock Show in Denver, Colo., in 1979. She won Reserve Grand Champion Steer in that event held annually. All siblings reside in the greater Morton area. Stockyards may not be a familiar term for younger folks but it is the place where farmers took and sold their livestock, hogs, cattle and sheep and from there the animals were shipped by rail or by truck to meat processing plants. Our friend Jerry Klein, a Peoria Journal-Star legendary reporter, wrote, “In 1952, Peoria was rated as the eight largest hog market in the nation with an annual sale of $80 million with a 12,000 hog capacity or roughly a small city of bleats, moos and oinks.” During my first year in this country, my farmer sponsor decided that we haul a truck load of cattle to the Chicago Stockyard in 1957, that was an impression I have never forgotten. At that time Chicago was considered to be the largest livestock center in the nation, if not in the world, located on 345 acres on the near south side of Chicago. It closed in 1971, and relocated in Joliet, but never rose to its glorious past. During the mid-70s when I worked for MBI one of our Plainfield Sales rep’s sold a cattle barn along a train track inside of Chicago on which cattle were loaded and put on fast trains to the east coast. I was there during construction and never forget how close the Sears Tower was to this track. It appeared to be within touching distance. (For more stockyard information open Google and type in Peoria Union Stock Yards and look for a dissertation by Deborah Dougherty) Our local mystery champion was not only a softball catcher in high school and a sergeant in the United States Army he also served 16 years on Morton’s Village board with, among others, Harriet J. Anderson, and Mayor Hertenstein. In the spirit of community service he declined wages for all those years. During their tenure they built the fire station on Detroit Street for a fraction of the cost to tax payers as compared to later acquisitions. Another huge tax dollar savings was achieved during his time in office with the creation of a “Self Insured Gas Alliance” together with neighboring communities, and much is owed to him for furthering the arts and cultural events in Morton. But agriculture especially agricultural evolution took precedence. When our mystery man grew up, most corn was still picked by hand or, if you will, harvested by corn pickers. An experienced corn picker was an individual who could on a good day pick 100 bushels of corn by hand plucking the ear from the stock, throwing it into a wagon, haul the wagon back to the farmstead and then scooped the ears into an elevator to be stored in a corn crib. Backbreaking work. Annual corn picking championships were held where some pickers picked up to 150 bushels per day. Later during the winter months corn shellers traveled from farm to farm and shelled the corn from the corn cob. The corn was then hauled into the towns elevators and the corn cobs were used for animal bedding or used as fuel in stock tank heaters to keep the water from freezing, so animals could drink. About the time when I arrived in the USA mechanical corn pickers had replaced the manual pickers and one heard here and there that combines were used to shell the kernels off the cob right in the field. That was a time when innovation on the farm was unstoppable and prompted our luminary to host the Farm Progress Show at the somewhat tender age of 32, making him the youngest farmer ever to invite the Tri-State Farm Progress Show sponsored by the farm magazine Prairie Framer, hosted by none other than Don McNeil, host of the Breakfast Club of the WLS Radio in Chicago, to his farm. For this event, 365,000 people flocked to Morton to see the latest in farm machinery and even a model home was constructed just for that event called the “Prairie Lady.” Reliable sources say that this attendance record has never been surpassed by any other event held in Morton’s history. True to innovation, 35 acres were set aside and planted with 268 different varieties of corn, while 300 acres of corn were made available to harvesting equipment dealers to demonstrate their wares. Eight area churches fed the visitors. Imagine the waiting time if all the out of town visitor’s would have dropped in on local restaurants. Quickly, back to combining corn in the field it had a flaw, namely it contained too much moisture and needed to be dried. This presented an opportunity for another well known Morton Industrialist, Elmo Batterton. He invented and manufactured a large capacity continuous flow grain dryer in his Meyer Morton Company of which the first one built was acquired by our celeb and his brother and was operating until recently drying corn. Such was the mechanical evolution on the farm. I like to add that in today’s agricultural world the evolution marches on with sophisticated micro electronics and many other sciences, while countless industries owe their very existence from getting started on the farm. I can attest to that because I worked in such an industry for 40 years. If you think that you know who our mystery person is call or write to me. 256-5103 or rudyheu@gmail. The first 10 correct answers will be invited for Eli’s cafe for a cup of coffee. If you are interested in viewing all previous article open my web site a1constructionadvice and click on the archive page. — Submitted by Rudy Heusuk - See more at: m.mortontimesnews/article/20140512/NEWS/140519832?sect=Top%20Stories&map=12690#sthash.TGIJa8AU.dpuf
Posted on: Wed, 14 May 2014 15:32:20 +0000
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