Last of Des Plaines’ farmers dies

Life story

~Raymond Steil, 1914-2011

One of the last surviving farmers from the Des Plaines and Niles area, one whose grandparents settled the area before the Civil War, has passed away.

Raymond Steil died on Saturday. He was 97.

His son, Robert Steil, vividly remembers growing up on the farm that his great grandfather, Deitrich Steil, originally purchased in 1860. He later would divide up the 120-acre farm into two, 60-acre parcels, one for each of his sons.

“When I was a kid, everyone around here was farmers,” said Robert Steil, who broke the farming chain in his family to become a Washington, D.C. lawyer.

His grandfather, John Steil, received 60 acres along Dempster Street, just east of Milwaukee Avenue, that originally was part of Des Plaines. Over the years, its mailing address changed to Niles, Robert Steil said.

“The original farmhouse is still there and the last remaining half-acre,” he said. “You can’t miss it on Dempster. It’s different from everything else around it.”

He recounts some of the family’s stories, including one of his great grandfather telling of being able to see signs of the Great Chicago Fire from their farm.

“It was so bright, you could read a newspaper by the light,” Robert Steil said, recalling the story handed down through generations.

He also shared one of his father’s favorite stories, of running down the street as a 4-year old to welcome his father home from World War I.

Raymond Steil originally grew onions and pickles on the farm, but eventually broadened his crops to include sugar beets, winter wheat, corn and tomatoes.

“They never had a roadside stand,” he said. “He was part of a generation of ‘truck gardeners,’ who drove their vegetables to market daily, in Chicago’s South Water Market.”

Steil originally hired Polish immigrants to work as laborers on the farm, but during World War II, he employed German prisoners of war encamped at Camp Pine in Des Plaines.

Neighborhood developers started buying farmers’ land that surrounded him, and in 1957, Raymond Steil sold off a piece of his farm that later would become part of Morton Grove. He sold the last remaining portion in 1961, land that eventually became homes in Niles.

“I vividly remember helping my dad take down the barn, in 1961,” Robert Steil said. “It was sad, but my dad moved on.”

After completing the sale, Raymond Steil purchased a 240-acre dairy farm in Harvard, where he commuted every day for 10 years. He rode the tractor and baled hay until he was in his 60s.

During his retirement years, Steil loved to contribute the history of the farming community — and of his family’s contributions — to local historical societies.

“He was a farmer, through and through,” his son said. “It was in his blood.”

Visitation will take place from 3 to 9 p.m. Friday at Oehler Funeral Home, 2099 Miner St. in Des Plaines. A funeral service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Matthew Evangelical Lutheran Church, 9081 N. Maryland St. in Niles.