Business built on lumps of coal
Howard Franzen Jr. once was regarded as "one of the last of the true old lumbermen" by Hines Lumber officials, and his family members are cherishing that description.
Mr. Franzen, whose family had started Des Plaines Lumber and Coal in 1911 in downtown Des Plaines, was a third generation lumberman. He died Friday at the age of 66.
It was approximately 15 years ago when Des Plaines Lumber expanded to Naperville, and later was bought by Hines Lumber, that company officials recognized Mr. Franzen's deep ties to the lumber and coal industry.
His grandfather, Barney Franzen came from Germany, settling in Des Plaines. When he started the business near the railroad tracks, he sold coal, sewer pipe, cement and rough lumber, and delivered them by horse-drawn wagon.
By 1922, he had moved the business six blocks to 1000 Lee St., again near train tracks. It was there that the company built the five cement silos - to store coal, sand and gravel - that became an iconic symbol in Des Plaines.
For years, residents of Des Plaines looked to those silos for a sure sign of the holiday season: a pair of illuminated Christmas trees perched on top.
"They were a beacon for the community," says Howard Franzen III of Antioch. "They were so high that they could be seen from anywhere around the city."
His father grew up in the family home above the lumber yard and began working in the business at the age of 12. The son recalls that one of his father's earliest jobs was to break up the coal for storage in the silos.
"The coal would come in on the train, in two ton blocks," the son says. "They had to take a sledgehammer to break it up and get it into the silos."
The business survived the Great Depression, and Mr. Franzen's father ran it nearly single-handedly during World War II. However, after the war, his cousins returned and together they grew the company, especially during the suburb's boom years of the 1950s and 1960s.
Its history was documented in a book published for Des Plaines' sesquicentennial celebration, and History Center officials have preserved company artifacts as part of their museum's permanent collection.
Longtime Des Plaines residents remember the former business as the place where they went for coal for heating, before gas furnaces made the coal business obsolete. The Franzen family, however, still cherishes their lumps of coal.
Mr. Franzen's son has a collection of pieces he found around the lumberyard as a boy. He puts them on flatbed cars that stop in front of Des Plaines Lumber and Oil as part of a model railroad layout for his son.
Besides his son, Mr. Franzen is survived by his wife, Diane, and daughter, Sara, both of Des Plaines, and two grandchildren. Services are at 11 a.m. today at Christ Church, 1492 Henry Ave., Des Plaines.