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Former Des Plaines farm boy turns 107

A picnic that drew five generations of one family played out last weekend in Rolling Meadows, carrying on a tradition that dates back 80 years in the Northwest suburbs.

But that wasn't the biggest milestone the large, extended family observed.

Members of the Grewe family, whose grandparents and great grandparents grew up on a farm in Des Plaines, gathered around the last surviving member of the original nine Grewe children - Art, who turned 107 on Aug. 20.

In all, more than 70 family members turned out to the picnic held at Kimball Hill Park. They ranged from a 3-month-old to Grewe himself, still the patriarch of the family and who now lives in Bellevue, Iowa, with his son, Dale.

"He's always the center of attention," said Carol Grewe of Rolling Meadows, who helped organize the event. "He loves to see all the nieces and nephews, and just talks and talks."

Grewe's parents, Fred and Sophie, farmed 62 acres of land on the Des Plaines side of Mount Prospect Road at Algonquin roads, on what is now UOP.

Art Grewe, like his older siblings - there were eight boys and one girl, in all - worked on the farm, which grew vegetables for the Campbell Soup company in Chicago and other wholesalers on Market Street.

When asked what his favorite memory of those years on the farm are be, Grewe doesn't hesitate.

"Riding the tractor," he says. "I would be plowing all day."

Eventually, Grewe learned to fix the tractors, and he would be sent to surrounding farms to help repair their farm machinery.

The family sold the farm in 1925 to other farmers and moved to Oakwood Avenue in Des Plaines. The farm ultimately was developed by Universal Oil Products in 1952. But Grewe remembers the farm sale and auction of its machinery vividly, all in the summer of 1925.

"That was the year I got my first paycheck," he says.

Grewe found work as a mechanic, first for REO Trucks and later for a Chrysler dealership in Des Plaines. He drove a truck for the Cook County Highway Department, and also worked as a custodian at Maine South and Maine North high schools.

Through it all, Grewe's large, extended family remained a constant, and perhaps, because of their hearty farm stock and strong work ethic, all but one sibling lived well into their 90s.

Grewe's son, Dale, describes his father as being in overall good health. He uses a walker and needs a hearing aid, but he is still sharp and interested in local news.

"He still putzes around in the garage, and he likes to take rides out to see the farms around here," his son says. "And he reads a newspaper every morning."

Back in 2008, when Grewe turned 100 and celebrated with his family in Des Plaines, he described his recipe for a long life this way:

"First of all, I had a good wife, to whom I was married 52 years," Grewe said. "I'm a Sox fan and watch lots of baseball on TV. I eat lots of fruit and vegetables, but never fill up. And I have a lot of friends."

At last Sunday's picnic, Art Grewe, 107, has a photo taken with his grandniece Sally Cihock, right, and Nicole Cihock. the family picnics started in 1935. Courtesy of Paul Liston
Fred and Sophie (Bergman) Grewe, Arthur Grewe's parents. Courtesy of Christopher Liston
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