Several times this decade, Myrtle Miller walked the old family farm in Dundee Township, anticipating a nostalgic visit.

What she found instead was lawn clippings, garbage and other trash strewn across the property at the Wanzer Farm.

"People in the area just don't appreciate what went on here long before," said the 76-year-old Algonquin resident. "I can't understand the disrespect given to the old, country properties."

For Miller, each year that passes evokes more pride, more respect for her ancestors that came from Germany to rural Illinois in the 1870s and made their way of life by operating dairy farms near Carpentersville and Algonquin.

"What courage to leave their homeland and come here," she said. "I have such a sense of awe over what they were able to accomplish, as well as their work ethics."

To help protect and preserve their former farmstead and one-room schoolhouses, Miller has been diligently handing over copies of pictures and records to the Dundee Township Historical Society.

Replicas of dog-eared, faded photographs show the Wanzer farm on Binnie and Randall Road in its hey-day. Miller's paternal grandfather bought the dairy farm on Binnie and Randall roads, which has been abandoned for about 10 years.

Only a chicken coup remains at the site. A Menards store planned for the property will soon wipe away any semblance of the farm.

When Miller heard that Centerville School was also going to be leveled to make way for future development- burned to the ground as a practice drill for firefighters- she intervened.

By Miller's urging, as well as others in the community, the old school near her grandfather's farm was moved across the street and left alone.

Stories of the Klahn Farm, also known as the Maple Grove Dairy Farm on Route 31, where Myrtle's maternal grandparents settled, will be kept at the Dundee Historical Society.

Same goes for the Meadowdale one-room schoolhouse- where Miller, her sister, brother and mother attended. Ten attendance books- with roll calls and recorded grades that date back to 1886- are at the historic society, thanks to Miller's grandfather, a former trustee at Meadowdale.

The building, which was transformed into "The Country School" knit shop, is now for sale, and Miller can only guess what will happen to the historic building.

As much as Miller sometimes feels alone in her plight to preserve history, many towns subscribe to her same philosophy.

Known as one of the suburb's most quaint downtowns, gleaming with historic structures, St. Charles only recently developed an historic preservation commission.

The city formed the commission to prevent buildings from a similar fate that The Farnsworth Mansion suffered six years ago.

The mansion, which belonged to Gen. John Farnsworth, a famous Civil War general, was reduced to a pile of rubble to make way for a 40-home subdivision off Route 31 near Mount St. Mary's Park.

"There was no historic ordinance in place- no way to stop this from being torn down to make room for a subdivision," said Kim Malay, who oversees the historic preservation commission.

"So we asked to have all of the stone to reconstruct the mansion and put it toward public use like an architectural museum. And we formed the historic commission.

Malay said the debate over the 100 pallets of limestone blocks taught the commission just how much architecture means to the people of St. Charles.

"We were getting calls almost everyday from supporters of preserving the mansion, saying that we've made their day," Malay said.

While it's still standing, the Teeple Barn in Dundee Township would probably have collapsed by now if not for the help of county and local history buffs.

The Kane County Board stepped in with $200,000 this year in riverboat casino money to build an octagon-shaped compression ring to save the only 16-sided barn in Illinois, a rare structure that dates back 113 years and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

AgTech, the not-for-profit group whose mission is to transform the circa 1845 barn near Randall Road and I-90 into a regional agricultural education and tourism center, found out about the emergency repair after an architect's recent inspection.

High November winds last year ripped two rotting boards from an octagon-shaped compression ring at the 80-foot peak that holds the 16 side of the landmark together.

The Teeple Barn was listed as one of the 10 most endangered historic places in Illinois for 1999 by the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois.

An additional $120,000 is needed to complete the roof project and ensure the barn is safe, said Marianne Nelson, executive director of AgTech. The additional funds will pay for repairs to other damaged parts of the barn's roof and restore a decorative cupola that was blown off during a tornado years ago.

In South Elgin, the village board and the South Elgin Heritage Commission worked together to acquire the Peaslee home, a rare cobblestone building circa 1836, and turn it into the village's first historic center. The oldest home in the village, the Peaslee house was deemed the best example of a pre-Civil Ware cobblestone building in the Fox Valley area by the Elgin Real Estate Board.

Last year, Elgin found a way to hold onto a 700-pound school bell from the former Grant Elementary School, which shut down last summer.

Built in 1886, Grant is the oldest grade-school in Elgin Area Unit District 46. The school still has fireplace mantels in some classrooms that remind visitors how the school used to be heated. Coal chutes can still be seen on the outside foundation. Original wooden cabinets still hold text books in many of the 13 classrooms at the school.

But in light of the vintage amenities, school authorities several years ago declared the K-6 school's structure too dilapidated to make it worth the cost of renovations.

The 112-year-old school bell, which hung from a three-story hanging rope, is showcased at the new Illinois Park Elementary School, where one-third of the students who attended Grant were transferred last year. The 700-pound bell was moved for free through donations from several community members with ties to grant. They donated their construction equipment and labor to move the historic bell, which would have cost U-46 between $3,000 and $5,000- a price officials said the district could not pay.

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