W eekend SV
Saukvalley.com
Your source for news and sports 7 days a week
Serving Lee, Whiteside, Carroll, Ogle and Bureau counties Saturday&Sunday, September 19-20, 2015 $2.00
Which teams got one step closer?
MILITARY K-9 SHOWS OFF SKILLS TO STUDENTS STERLING, A2
WEEK 4 COVERAGE, INSIDE
SMALL BUSINESS
SILVER LININGS | A WALLACE STREET RETROSPECTIVE
Built around a boxcar
Effort on to bring resource back home
Martinez delivered dozens to Sterling, a better life
Counties, cities partner with college on service BY PAM EGGEMEIER peggemeier@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5570 @pam_eggemeier
BY CHRISTOPHER HEIMERMAN cheimerman@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5523 @CHeimerman_SVM
STERLING – It’s only fitting that Francisco “Panchito” Martinez’s house was built around a boxcar. He spent his life helping Hispanics build bigger, better lives. His father was killed in a car accident, his mother taken by pneumonia. So, at age 15, Panchito was taking care of his family of migrant workers in San Benito, Texas. “There wasn’t insurance, welfare programs, or what have you, especially for minorities,” said 72-year-old Sterling resident Frank Aguilar, whose mother, Celia, was Panchito’s sister. The meandering line of work brought Panchito to Sterling, where he stumbled upon an opportunity for steady, goodpaying work at Northwestern Steel and Wire Co. Missing her brother, Celia took Panchito’s advice. She and her husband, Antonio, brought their family to Sterling and triggered what would be a historic pattern. “She’s the one who started it,” Aguilar said, laughing. “We all piled into the car: my older sister, my baby sister, my mom, my dad, my uncle. We never went back. Two days later, my dad was working at the mill.” MARTINEZ CONTINUED ON A10
Photos submitted
ABOVE: Francisco “Panchito” Martinez holds his grandson, Faneca, in his Sterling home – built on a boxcar on Griswold Avenue. Martinez was vital to what his nephew, Frank Aguilar, calls a mini-exodus from the Rio Grande Valley in the 1950s. Martinez would drive a stake truck to the southern tip of Texas and bring back family, friends and those he grew up with, to work at Northwestern Steel and Wire Co. TOP: The Martinez family is shown outside the Griswold Avenue house that was built on a boxcar from the Silver City settlement.
Where did the boxcars come from?
More inside
Opinions vary on exactly how many boxcars made up Silver City. Even former mill President Pete Dillon, grandson of the man who acquired the boxcars, doesn’t dare to venture a guess. Some say there were hundreds. A 1948 phone directory lists 68 boxcars, but prevailing opinions indicate that, at the community’s height, there were at least 100. What Pete Dillon was able to divulge was where the cars came from. Many railroad routes wended through or near the Sauk Valley, most significantly Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) and Chicago and North Western Transportation Co.
As Lucy Moreno puts it, their West Sixth Street house “was always Grand Central Station,” a tribute to the fact that just because you moved off Wallace Street didn’t mean you left any bonds behind. Page A11
BOXCARS CONTINUED ON A9
About Silver Linings Sterling’s Hispanic roots sprung from the Wallace Street neighborhood of the early 20th century. The arrival of the Silver City boxcar settlement in the late 1940s made it a melting pot. Northwestern Steel and Wire Co. was the lifeblood of the neighborhood, providing jobs and the means to a better life, as well as a common thread found in the fabric of the modern-day Sauk Valley. This is the second of a 4-week series from SVM Night News Editor Christopher Heimerman about Wallace Street and Silver City that will be published in SV Weekend editions. To read all of the Silver Linings stories published so far, go to saukvalley.com.
Pride sometimes clouds truth
I
t’s easy to get lost in the old Wallace Street neighborhood. The sights, smells, camaraderie and love make me yearn for a bygone, simpler era. And for the mothers who raised children numbering in double digts, and those children today, pride is like armor. But over the past few weeks, I’ve seen some chinks in that armor. Some don’t remember the old neighborhood exactly the same. That’s not surprising, some 70 years later. Whereas the overwhelming consensus insists that
christopher HEIMERMAN Heimerman is the Night News Editor at Sauk Valley Media. He can be reached at cheimerman@ saukvalley. com or 800-798-4085, ext. 5523.
everyone got along in the old neighborhood, and that, at worst, kids would be kids, some were quite forthcoming when discussing the anglo residents of Silver City. Little did he know at the
time, but then-paperboy Alex Delgado, now 75, was something of a freelancer, getting the inside scoop. He remembers being 13 years old and contending with anglo mill workers. “These hillbillies who were already working at the mill at 18 or 19, they’d come and knock you right off your bike,” Delgado said. “They’d bash in windows. You almost had to be around five or six guys, because they’d beat the hell out of you if they caught you alone.” HEIMERMAN CONTINUED ON A11
Officials from Lee and Whiteside counties are working with Sauk Valley Community College to reestablish a Small Business Development Center in the area. A partnership has been formed among the two counties, the college, State Rep. and representatives from the Tom Demmer cities of Dixon, Sterling, and Rock Falls to bring the services back to Sauk. The college discontinued its sponsorship of a small business center several years ago, and Whiteside County has paid $5,000 a year to participate in the center at Illinois Valley Community College in Oglesby. RESOURCE CONTINUED ON A4
STERLING
Organizers hope ‘peace chain’ can span bridge Public can create links, promote nonviolence BY ANGEL SIERRA asierra@saukvalley.com 800-798-4085, ext. 5695 @_angelsierra
STERLING – The peace chain’s coming. The YWCA of the Sauk Valley is inviting area community groups, schools, churches, businesses, organizations and families to help create a “peace chain” that will span First Avenue Bridge as a symbol of peace and a platform for the agency’s annual Week Without Violence. The goal is to get enough links so the chain can stretch across the bridge, from Knutsen Cabinets & Countertops at 101 E. Second St. in Sterling to Anytime Fitness at 107 S. First Ave. in Rock Falls, where it will wrap back toward the pedestrian bridge. PEACE CONTINUED ON A3
Isolated storms
VOLUME 8 ISSUE 3 52 Pages
Today: 70/47 For the forecast, see Page A9
Business
Rock Falls man carries on his family’s tradition of sharpening blades. See Page C1
Community Worms were a hot commodity at the Whiteside County Sheriff’s Department’s Fishing Derby at Lake Carlton. An SVM photo essay appears inside. See Page C12
Index Births................ C5
Lottery .............. A2
Business........... C1
Markets ............ A5
Classified .......... B6
Obituaries ......... A4
Comics ............. A8
Opinion............. A6
Community ..... C12
Scoreboard ...... B3
Crossword Saturday ......... B10
Scrapbook ....... C3
Crossword Sunday ............. B5
Support groups .. C5
Dave Ramsey ... C1
Weather............ A9
Dear Abby ........ C6
Wheels ........... B12
Sports .............. B1 Travel .............. C10