Why 'it's easy to get caught up' in new Glen Ellyn history book
Dan Anderson gets a mischievous twinkle in his eye talking about an idea to memorialize Emily Rieck in Glen Ellyn.
She's the German native and elegant dresser better known as Madame Rieck, one of his favorite and apparently misunderstood characters from the village's past.
"In fact, I could make a case for building a statue to Madame Rieck and putting it in downtown Glen Ellyn," he says. "A lot of people raise their eyebrows when I say that because she's running a brothel, for Pete's sake, but there's a story here."
To Anderson, Rieck's story proves why history isn't a regurgitation of dates and facts. Beyond the seedy surface, there's a "dynamic, constantly evolving set of so-called facts that grow, clarify and confuse all at the same time," the author writes in his new collection of stories about Glen Ellyn's history, the second in a series. "You can see why it's easy to get caught up in the history of a community," Anderson says. "These kinds of stories really suck you in."
In the page-turning series, Anderson makes a convincing case for that statue. The downtown quickly flourished in the early 1900s. He credits Rieck for introducing her wealthy Chicago clientele to Glen Ellyn, previously a farming community and then a vacation spot around man-made Lake Ellyn.
"Some share of those fellas ended up moving their families to Glen Ellyn," he said. "We had a huge boom here between 1900 and 1928 when the stock market crashed. And some share of our prosperity and our success came about because our town was exposed to people in Chicago who discovered it to be a great place."
After a reformist mayor shut down her Chicago operation, Rieck converted her palatial Glen Ellyn home on the coroner of Crescent Boulevard and Riford Road into a brothel and her parlor into a gambling room. Her clients discretely followed, thanks to the arrival of the Chicago, Aurora and Elgin railroad. "They discovered what a lovely place Glen Ellyn is," Anderson said. "You've got to remember in the 1890s, early 1900s, Chicago was a dirty, dusty, bustling, not very fun place to be."
Rieck also shares the title of the book - "A Romp through Glen Ellyn History … from the first shot fired at Gettysburg to the inside story on Madame Rieck's brothel" - to draw readers into other, er, charming stories. See: the volunteer spirit during war or the station in the Underground Railroad at a farm on Crescent Boulevard.
"It wasn't too hard to put together interesting stories," said Anderson, who used to work in magazine publishing.
He compiled the first volume in 2009, again with a gripping title - "24 Tales of Murder, Mayhem, Infidelity, Pranks and Other Intriguing Tidbits of Glen Ellyn History." It's compiled largely from a series of articles for a local newspaper he helped write about a decade ago to publicize the Glen Ellyn Historical Society. It's sold so far nearly 2,000 copies, with proceeds supporting the nonprofit group. He also donated a few to dentists' waiting rooms.
"It's great way to take your mind off your impending root canal," he quips.
Despite his intimate knowledge of the village's roots, Rieck is originally from southwestern Michigan. In the late 1960s, he moved here with his wife, a born and raised Glen Ellynite who encouraged him to get involved with the historical society.
"There's the lovely lady," he says pointing to her picture in the back of the book.
He strives to record the village's past, knowing what it means to lose those memories.
Midge has early-stage Alzheimer's, but she "can still turn a phrase with the best of them." She wrote some of those original articles and helped proofread the book, dedicated to to her.
"For Midge ... Glen Ellyn's own," her husband wrote.