Mount Prospect incorporation held up by need for a baby
Babies have always played an integral part in the life of Mount Prospect - in more ways that you might normally imagine.
In 1917, the state of Illinois required that a community have at least 300 residents to incorporate. The citizens of Mount Prospect dearly wanted to incorporate and become an "official" municipality like the neighboring towns of Arlington Heights and Des Plaines.
But there were only 299 people living in the small railroad community at that time. So they had to wait for another baby to be born and hope that none of their more elderly residents died in the meantime.
The entire community was literally waiting for a woman to give birth so that the incorporation papers could be submitted to the state, according to many published (and verbal) accounts from the time.
It is generally accepted that Norman William Pohlman, son of John Pohlman, Mount Prospect's railroad depot master, and Anna Louise Meyer Pohlman, was that "magic" baby. He was born on Jan. 31, 1917.
"The baby was born. So, the next day the papers went to Springfield and soon the village became a reality," St. Paul Lutheran Church's pastor, Rev. J.E.A. Mueller recalled in 1960.
Shortly thereafter, that important infant citizen's father, 26-year-old John Pohlman, was named one of Mount Prospect's original trustees, serving until 1927.
According to an internet genealogy site, Norman Pohlman went on to become a district sales manager for the Chicago and North Western Railroad, following in his father's footsteps. He died in 1997 in Florida at the age of 80.