Apartment building owner markets to newlyweds

"I think the school district should ban football to stop all those injuries."

"Do you think that explorer really reached the North Pole like he says?"

"That's one of the most unusual reasons I ever heard of for getting a divorce."

These are just some of the comments people might have made after reading the newspapers of a century ago. Here's a look at those stories and others that made Elgin area news during September 1909.

Football flack: Would Elgin High School have a football team or not?

"I hate to make the boys give up the game, but recent accidents have added to the resentment about football," said the superintendent.

"I like to see a football game and I know several members of the Board of Education do," he added. The support of the faculty and students helped sway school officials to retain the sport.

Catching anything? The answer to that question from local fishermen a century ago might have been a resounding "yes" after the addition of than 5,000 black bass to the Fox River.

Procured though the federal government, the fish were placed in the river at various points from Aurora to Elgin by the Fox River Bait Casting Club. The group, which had stocked the Fox River with more than one million fish in recent years, said it would monitor the development of the fish so that none were removed by sportsmen until they were fully grown.

Going north: Did Dr. Frederick C. Cook and two Eskimo companions really reach the North Pole as the newspapers were reporting or was the story a hoax?

To get an authoritative answer to the question, Elgin residents turned to Professor William Payne, the respected astronomer who was overseeing the construction of the Elgin National Watch Company Observatory - now the Elgin Unit District U-46 Planetarium.

"There can really be no shadow of a doubt that Dr. Frederick Cook reached the North Pole," Payne responded. He added that Cook was able to tell for sure about his location because his observations of the sun would prove it.

School vandalism: School had barely begun for the fall, but someone didn't want Elgin's Wing School - now the Burnham Schoolhouse Apartments - to remain in session.

A broken beer bottle stuffed with cotton and with fumes of kerosene was found after someone had hurled the device at a basement window. The incendiary device managed to ignite and burn some wooden fixtures by the time firefighters arrived. Schools officials said they were not aware of any students who might have committed the crime and, and although they had discharged several custodians recently, none of them were suspected.

Whoa, pardner: "That isn't anyway to treat a horse," was the message three Elgin men sent to a local teamster who was apparently abusing his animal.

Stopping the man's wagon by the side of a rural road, they ordered the somewhat inebriated driver to unhitch his steed and wear the harness himself. After the driver pulled the wagon loaded with three barrels of water for a short distance, the do-gooders allowed him to re-hitch his rested animal and proceed.

New marriage, new home: Who said people a century ago didn't use creative marketing? The owner of a recently completed apartment building on Walnut Avenue on Elgin's west side decided to advertise the brand new units to newlyweds only.

Only a few hours after the newspapers came out, the new landlord said he had rented three of his units and expected the fourth to be under contract very soon.

Supernatural split: Finally, "cruelty, but not what you think of as the normal type" was the reason an Elgin woman asked for a divorce from her spouse.

The woman said her husband possessed "ghostlike gifts that can compel her to sit for hours at a time without complaining."

"He is a master of his will and mine," she said in the formal charges. "He was born with the power and each day it becomes stronger."