Longtime residents remember Sugar Grove

Sugar Grove will celebrate its 50th anniversary as a village with games, food, dance contests and other events this Friday and Saturday at Volunteer Park.

The Daily Herald asked three long-time residents to reminisce about the town they call home.

Delmar Krieghbaum, age 83

In Sugar Grove: 63 years

"I met my (late) wife Ruth here and got married in 1945. I came here to drive semi-trailer trucks with livestock to the stockyards in Chicago."

Contributions: Served for 50 years as a volunteer on the fire department, from 1946 to 1996. He was appointed chief in 1962, only the second chief to be appointed.

Fire department memories: "When I became chief I asked the trustees for a panel truck and we used it as an ambulance. It had a fold up cot, we called it 'load and roll.' We went on a lot of calls, there was no 911 system in those days.

"We had three fire phones, one in my house, one in the blacksmith shop and one in the general store. It rang all three places. My wife answered the phone a lot. When she took a call she would push a button and the siren on top of the fire department building, which was on Main Street, would sound ten times.

"I never lost a fireman during my time as chief and I'm proud of that. My theory was safety first. We didn't risk lives to save a burning building if we didn't think it could be saved."

Krieghbaum was chief in 1972 when 13 women joined the volunteer fire department to provide personnel during the days when many men were at work.

"It worked out well for quite a while with the girls. They did what had to be done."

Sugar Grove memories: "I remember when we had 200 people in the village and not many streets. We had a great young adult club. We would put on a variety show. We raised enough money to pay for street lights."

Krieghbaum currently serves as secretary treasurer of the Kane County Fire Department Association, which pays benefits to the surviving spouse when a firefighter dies.

Helen Jorgensen, age 77

In Sugar Grove: 43 years

"I moved here in 1964 with my husband and three sons. We were from Michigan originally. My husband was an air traffic controller and he was transferred to Naperville. We moved here a while later."

Contributions: Served on the volunteer fire department for over ten years and as editor of the Sugar Grove News from 1969 to 1991.

"We saved a house once. A lady had left candle wax burn. I went on a lot of ambulance calls. I usually drove the ambulance. My sons were in school, or I had neighbors who would watch them when we had to go on a call. Everyone got along.

"We started the Sugar Grove News when a neighbor wanted news on the local elections. I typed the articles on an electric typewriter at my dining room table. We used stencil sheets and Ruth Frantz had a mimeograph machine with a crank. We took it to the Methodist church to collate and staple. Sometimes the Boy Scouts would deliver it, or some family would do it. It was all volunteer."

Sugar Grove memories: "We have a good neighborhood. At one time, we had six or eight traffic controllers living here in this neighborhood. Some of them were in Naperville first and then moved here. There were a lot of children and everyone got along really well. There are at least seven families on our street that have been here 43 years. In some cases, the children live here now."

Ruth Frantz, age 77

In Sugar Grove: 44 years

"I grew up in Aurora, but my family is descended from Levi Todd, who came to the area in 1854. He owned the farm where Scott Industries is now on Route 30 near Dugan Road. I married Groff Frantz. He's been here since he was a small child, since 1925. We put two families together and had nine children. We raised our seven children in a house on the east side of town. We moved back to our apartment after the children were grown. It's in a building that was once a blacksmith shop. My husband bought the building after World War II and made it a machine shop. Now my husband is retired, he restores antique motorcycles."

Contributions: In 1984 when the township celebrated its sesquicentennial anniversary, she helped found the Sugar Grove Historical Society and serves now as treasurer. With Frank Damon, she wrote a short history of Sugar Grove. This history was a help to Patsy Mighell Paxton, who wrote "SinQua Sip, A History of Sugar Grove Township."

Sugar Grove memory: "There were about 325 people in Sugar Grove when I moved here. I liked the small community. You got to know everybody."