SVM Sterling Rock Falls Living - Fall 2021

For nearly 150 years, a church’s First order of business has been faith and fellowship

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Publisher/Ad Director Jennifer Heintzelman Magazine editor & Page design Rusty Schrader Published by Sauk Valley Media 113 S. Peoria Ave. | Dixon, IL 61021 815-284-2222 Have a story idea for Sterling-Rock Falls Living?

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Doing justice to our local history Local residents make a winning case for historic preservation by giving a former judge’s home a new lease on life.

inside The First order of business: Faith

For well over a century, First Lutheran Church of Jordan has been opening its doors to devoted members who gather at their holy home away from home for faith and fellowship with friends and family.

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Story by Cody Cutter | Sauk Valley Media

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t’s 8 a.m. on a Sunday; a handful of cars and trucks converge upon a small church on state Route 40 north of Sterling.

They come from garages, barns, homes and farm fields, all for a weekly celebration of all that is good, and God, in their lives.

This year, the congregation of First Lutheran Church of Jordan has even more reason to celebrate: the church’s sesquicentennial. Though some churches have faced their share of challenges in keeping the faithful devoted to services, this small, rural church a few miles past Oakwood Cemetery has persevered long enough to celebrate 150 years of providing spiritual guidance and inspiration for the faithful.

CHURCH cont’d to page 6 At right, The First Lutheran Church of Jordan, as seen in a watercolor painting by a former Sterling High School art teacher.

The painting is displayed in the church.

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CHURCH cont’d from page 5

ALEX T. PASCHAL/APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

A small door used to be tucked away just off to the left of the altar which, as longtime parishioner June Pervis tells, led to an outhouse.

For longtime churchgoers June Purvis, 88, of Coleta, and Janet Koett, 87, of Milledgeville, their beloved church is like a second home. They’ve prayed there, sang there, and made friends there.

Their own friendship goes back a long way, and much of it revolved around life at the church.

“My dad used to take me to Janet’s mother’s house every Sunday morning, and I rode with them to Sunday School,” Purvis said. “Then my folks would come later.”

Like the rest of the congregation of about 20 folks each Sunday morning, Purvis and Koett enjoy chatting with fellow church members before the music cues to begin service at 8:30.

“The church is special to me because this is the only place I’ve ever gone to church,” Koett said. “This is home. We come here for our spiritual uplift every week. If I don’t come to church, then the whole week’s off.”

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June Purvis (left) has many fond memories of her time at First Lutheran, a place she and many of her faithful friends, like Janet Koett, consider a second home. “My dad used to take me to Janet’s mother’s house every Sunday morning, and I rode with them to Sunday School,” Purvis said. “Then my folks would come later.”

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Janet Koett of Milledgeville, 87, has been a congregant at First Lutheran since fifth grade. “The church is special to me because this is the only place I’ve ever gone to church,” she said. “ ...We come here for our spiritual uplift every week. If I don’t come to church, then the whole week’s off.”

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CHURCH cont’d from page 6 “I can always remember growing up here,” Purvis added. “There were a lot of kids that were our age that were here from different families. Most of them are gone.”

“The church is special to me because this is the only place I’ve ever gone to church,” Koett said. “This is home. We come here for our spiritual uplift every week. If I don’t come to church, then the whole week’s off.”

“I can always remember growing up here,” Purvis added. “There were a lot of kids that were our age that were here from different families. Most of them are gone.”

The church has been a big part of Arlyn “Lee” Hinrichs’ life too. He and his wife, Kathy, were married there 50 years ago and today he wears many hats at the church. Multiple generations of

his family have come for more than 100 years.

“This is my home church,” Hinrichs, 72, said. “I was baptized here. I was confirmed here. This is just home to me and where I like to go to church. We’re just like a family here. We’re not very big, but in a way we’re all kind of shirttail related somewhere along the way.”

The loyal congregation is served

by Pastor Susan Davenport, who was installed June 13 to take over for the retiring pastor Carol Soderholm. Davenport, like her predecessor, does double-duty with the local churches: She conducts sermons first at Jordan and then later in the morning at Trinity Lutheran Church in Milledgeville.

Sometimes people who can’t make it to Trinity for its 10:15 service will come to Jordan.

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ALEX T. PASCHAL/APASCHAL@SHAWMEDIA.COM

Light streams through the stained glass window across from the altar of the First Lutheran Church of Jordan. The country church has been a fixture in rural Sterling for 150 years.

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The church has special “dress up” days on the third Sunday of each month, and guest singers each month. Recent themes have included hat wearing in May, tie or scarf wearing in July, patriotic attire during July, baseball attire in August (which wound up entirely being Chicago Cubs’ blue and red), and vintage fashions in September. Formalwear will be the theme for October, when members break out their Sunday best: suits for the men and dresses for the ladies.

“We always used to wear dresses, and you used to always have a hat,” Koett said. “Not anymore.”

December’s theme will be Christmas colors.

There won’t be a theme for November as that’s the anniversary month, but the anniversary celebration will continue. The Nov. 7 service will coincide with the anniversary date of the church’s establishment on Nov. 4, 1871. The Rev. H. Jeffrey A. Clements, bishop of the Northern Illinois Synod, will conduct the sermon, a joint one which will include the congregation from Trinity Lutheran. Additional details will be announced on the church’s Facebook page (find “First Lutheran Church of Jordan, Sterling, Illinois”).

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First Lutheran’s first services were held in a schoolhouse until John Wolfersperger donated land for a church, on the condition that both German and English services were offered.

He would later leave the church in protest when only German was used.

By World War II, English services had become the norm. Above, one of the church’s German bibles is on display at the church, as well as its first English bible (left).

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Sunday School was started in 1877, and 20 years later the church added a two-story parsonage to the building. The Holy history church’s original front entrance is where the stained glass winFirst Lutheran Church of Jordan is a member of the Evandow looks out today from behind the pews. gelical Lutheran Church of America and the Northern Illinois For 80 years, a large pipe organ served the church. One organSynod. The church also was once a member of the Wartburg ist, Rosie Schipper, played it for 52 years, from 1928 to 1980. The Synod of Illinois. Maple Ridge Cemetery is located next to the organ was replaced in 1986 with an electric clachurch, but is maintained by Jordan Township. vinova, which was more affordable and offered The cemetery predates the church, with its first greater flexibility for those who played it. It also burials in the late 1850s. didn’t require someone to keep it pumped up.

Established 150 years ago as the First EvanKoett recalled one day when a young boy gelical Lutheran Church of Jordan, its first serpumping the organ’s bellows, Purvis’ cousin Harvices were held at Capp School near the corner old Wolber, fell asleep during a service before the of state Route 40 and Capp Road, about 1/4-mile organ blew loud to start a song and startled him. south of present church. John Wolfersperger “There was a little stool that he used to sit donated land for a church north of Maple Ridge on,” Koett added. “He could pump that organ to Cemetery, but he did so on the condition that keep the air flowing to get the music out.” both German and English be used for services.

Many more changes have taken place through Ultimately, this wound up not being the case as the years. The original steeple was replaced by a Pastor Susan Davenport only German was used, and Wolfersperger later bell tower in 1954. Some changes took longer than left the church in protest. Services continued in others, as tradition trumped the march of progress. The church German until about the 1920s, when English sermons became used the same black-covered hymnal books from 1899 to 1958. the norm, with German used on select weeks until a full conSeveral mementos from the church’s history are on display version to English was necessitated during World War II. in the parsonage for visitors and members to see, such as old When it opened its doors, the church went 3 months withGerman bibles, the original altar and the first English bible out a pastor; C.B. Thummel led the congregation of 12 until used for services. the Rev. John Stall became its first pastor. By November 1872, membership neared 100, with 96 people attending. The first CHURCH cont’d to page 13

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Festivities, food, and family

Purvis, Koett and Hinrichs have all made special memories at the church through the years.

Koett always looked forward to the annual Christmas programs.

“We always had a big Christmas program,” she said. “All of the Sunday School kids were all involved with it and were dressed up in robes as Wise Men. The church was always clear full of people coming to watch the Christmas program. Some people would always pass around a sack to the kids with candy in it, and there was always an orange in the sack.”

“You’d get an orange, or an apple, and you’d also get this ribbon candy, and then you’d get – I called them haystacks,” Hinrichs added. “They were chocolate and white with peanuts, and we’d always look forward to that.”

Chicken dinners were a favorite for Purvis, and one memory in particular sticks out.

“They had great big pots of potatoes that they’d peel and mash to make mashed potatoes.

The mashers were probably about [a foot] long, but the bucket was so big that Rosie Schipper’s

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Another change: The Lord’s house has fewer guests these days. When the church celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1971, it had 304 baptized, 209 confirmed, and 195 communing members. They celebrated with a beard-andmustache contest. As the years went on, more women began taking on leadership roles. In 1977, Arlene Wetzell became the first woman elected to the church council. In 1992, the Rev. Norma Vander Meer became its first female pastor, and she oversaw a memorable event in the church’s long history: representation as pedal pushers for The Lutheran Hour Ministries Float at the annual Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California.

husband, John, attached something else to it so that it had a long enough handle to mash the potatoes. It’s very possible that it’s still here.”

Hinrichs enjoys the pre-service camaraderie, catching up with other members in the hour leading up to the sermon, during which a sharing of the peace moment happens to wish fellow churchgoers that peace be with them.

If the church is like a home, then its members are like a family, and like family, they to help and support each other through tough times.

“We have a very dedicated group that comes to church,” Hinrichs said. “We’ll be back [in the lobby] and talk for a long time, and then it’ll be 8:30 and we’ll still be talking, and then everybody hurries in and starts to sit down.”

Coffee hours, which were a monthly occurrence before the COVID-19 pandemic, served as an extension of getting to know one another.

“Everybody would look forward to that,” Hinrichs said. “The women would get just silly and bring in food, and then we’d bring in food and then we’d have another coffee hour the next Sunday sometimes. It’s an old German-Lutheran tradition that you cannot run out of food.”

They can all remember a day long ago when the chapel’s pews were separated with men on one side and women and children on the other; it wasn’t until the children reached 18 years old when they got to “cross over.”

Even though the pews aren’t as full as they were 50 years ago, Purvis, Koett and Hinrichs all want to see their little church survive long after they are gone.

“There’s something about coming to church every Sunday morning,” Hinrichs said. “It’s just part of your life. You look forward to coming and seeing the people, look forward to hearing the message from the minister, singing the songs, and just being part of the church.”

rch of jordan hu

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More info The First Lutheran Church of Jordan, 20314 Hickory Hills Road, north of Sterling, has its weekly sermon at 8:30 a.m. every Sunday. Find First Lutheran Church of Jordan, Sterling, Illinois, on Facebook or call 815-625-5407 for more information.

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early 150 years ago, the westernmost stretch of West Third Street in Sterling had the look and feel of today’s ritzy subdivisions: d. large and stately houses owned West Third Street in Sterling, circa 1900, as seen in a vintage postcar by prominent people, canopies of trees lining the road, and if someone wasn’t meant to be on that street, they weren’t.

Today, that’s all changed: West Third Street is a busy road through town. Some of the trees remain and others have sprouted up, but many are gone, felled by disease and chainsaws. As for the houses, some have been razed through the years and the ones that remain are showing their age.

Story Judge James Emmett McPherran’s house drafted by Cody Cutter could have been one of those casualties, Sauk Valley had it not been for a team of local residents Media determined not to let time pass judgement on the two-story Italianate brick home at 601 W. Third St. For more than 30 years, the Dillon Foundation, The McPherran House in Sterling, Richard Dombroski and Scott Hibbard have worked as it looks today, after extensive to save this piece of local history. renovation and restoration work.

PHOTO COURTESY SCOTT HIBBARD

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CODY CUTTER/CCUTTER@SAUKVALLEY.COM

Richard Dombroski, retired owner of Dombroski Builders in Morrison, and Scott Hibbard, owner of Hibbard Builders, have spent a combined 30 years restoring the McPherran House on West Third Street in Sterling.

The restoration has taken awhile but, the results are worth the wait. Looking at the McPherran home now is like looking back in time. It’s as close to its 1878 appearance as possible, and now does double-duty as residential rental property and office space.

“With Richard and I, we’re restoring it, and we’re keeping it in the history of the town,” Hibbard said. “It’s not getting bulldozed or destroyed, so you become a caretaker of the history of this area and the people who live here.”

After the home’s last occupant died in 1990, the Dillon Foundation and its president, Pete Dillon, bought the house and property. Nearly 10 years later, Dillon contracted Dombroski, owner of Dombroski Builders of Morrison, to perform exterior work on the home. Once that was done, the Dillon Foundation put it on the market and sold it to Thomas Loos in 2018. Loos hired Hibbard to perform interior and remaining outdoor work that would take another 2 years.

MCPHERRAN cont’d to page 17

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MCPHERRAN cont’d from page 16 “I’m glad to see that they continued it on,” Dombroski said.

The home sat empty during most of the 1990s, and nature took its course — and toll: the roof leaked, a corner of the foundation was unstable, and parts of the floor were rotted out. While someone with a trigger-finger on a bulldozer could have had it knocked down, the Dillon Foundation kept its story alive with a new chapter.

“It is important to me to have the community see the evolution of the restoration,” Hibbard said. “Meaning, Pete Dillon and the Dillon Foundation saved the house from being remuddled (when a house’s original character and integrity are lost in the renovation process) or abandoned by purchasing the property and restoring the exterior, and Tom Loos took it through the finish line.”

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The deep, rich tones of millwork throughout, a winding staircase, and ornate woodwork hearken back to the McPherran House’s early days, when a craftsman’s skills could transform a home into a work of architectural art. The stairwell was reconstructed piece by piece. Portraits of two of the former homeowners, Marcus and Clara Thackaberry, adorn the first-floor hallway and stairwell area.

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Restoration projects can be a time-consuming, labor-intensive, and exacting process. People who undertake the work have to be part craftsman, part detective as they peel back the layers and figure out how the home’s original builders did their job — “It’s interesting to see other people’s work as you go in to try to modernize and repair something,” Scott Hibbard said. “You can’t rush into it ... You’ve got to take your time and figure it out.” Added Richard Dombroski: “Obviously it was challenging, but it gave us a chance to do stuff you hadn’t done before. You can’t just go to the store and get similar porch railings or spindles like this, so there was a lot of custom shop work.” That custom work paid off, though. When the dust settled and the paint dried a house that has called Sterling home for nearly 150 years was looking as good as new.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SCOTT HIBBARD

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Original owners The first claim to the property was granted to original settler James C. Woodburn, who then sold it to Hugh Wallace by 1842. Wallace, who was Sterling’s only lawyer at that time, developed the neighborhoods around the area. The Chicago and North Western Railroad came through Sterling in 1855, and ran behind where the McPherran House would be built more than 20 years later. Jacob A. Mead bought the lot in 1858 that would later belong to Judge McPherran by 1867.

McPherran, a 33-year-old Pennsylvania native and newly married, had lived in Sterling for 5 years before buying the property. Like Wallace, McPherran was a lawyer, and after a brief stint with a firm in town, began his own practice. He also served in the Illinois General Assembly as a Democrat from 1873-74, and was the first president of the Sterling Public Library board.

The McPherrans previously lived at the northeast corner of West Third Street and Avenue F before moving across the street in 1878 into the new and much larger brick home they would enjoy their remaining years.

At the time they moved into their new home, the family consisted of James, Sarah, their children — Mabel, Edgar, Ralph and Charles — and a servant, Lizzie Dargus, who was a 19-year-old immigrant from Prussia.

When James died on Dec. 11, 1903, he also had been director of the Wallace School board, alderman, a Knight Templar, and master of chancery (someone appointed by the court to assist in its work) of the Whiteside County Circuit Court – earning him the “judge” title in his name.

The difference is in the details — and doorknobs.

Little touches, such as this ornate knob, help give the McPherran House the vintage look of a home built during the 19th century.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SCOTT HIBBARD

MCPHERRAN cont’d to page 20

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MCPHERRAN cont’d from page 19 The funeral was at the home, and he was buried at Riverside Cemetery. Sarah, who died in 1931, sold the property in 1910 to Marcus and Clara Thackaberry, retired farmers from south of Tampico.

The Thackaberrys brought along their two youngest children, Lucille and Margaret, to Sterling. Even though they were retired from farming, they still had a collection of crops and animals in their large back yard, Hibbard said. Clara died in 1937 and Marcus in 1956. Margaret continued to live in the home, and was rejoined by Lucille in 1958. Margaret was a school teacher for many years, retiring in 1964. Lucille died in 1983, and Margaret a year later. Lucille’s husband, Roscoe Theibert, was the home’s last resident for many years before dying on Feb. 28, 1990.

A new lease on life As Northwestern Steel and Wire expanded across Avenue G by the 1950s, some of the more prominent residents along West Third Street decided they didn’t want to live in the shadow of a steel mill. As soot settled in, they moved out.

Dillon, who at one time was president of the steel mill that his family started in 1879, realized the historical importance of these homes and wanted to try and save them, Hibbard said, and the Dillon Foundation bought the McPherran house to save it from becoming another rental property.

“There was so much intact inside the house that hadn’t been

destroyed or wrecked,” Hibbard said. “Typically, with rental property investors, they take a big building like this and turn it into three or four apartments.”

“They’ll tear it all out and want it cheapened,” Dombroski added.

Restoration work began in 2001, with Dombroski in charge.

The biggest outside project involved tuckpointing the bricks, where old mortar between the bricks is removed and replaced.

The bricks were also given a good cleaning, removing years of soot — and those weren’t just any bricks; they came directly from Sterling’s founder, Hezekiah Brink, who owned a brick yard where Platt Park is today.

The tuckpointing took a lot of work with mortar mixed by hand, Dombroski said, but he was fascinated with learning about how the original bricklayers did their work. He could see where it was originally done in two different ways.

“From its history, you kind of got to know the people who worked on it originally,” Dombroski said. “You could see where somebody worked here, and somebody worked there, and when they did the brick work, they started out on the ground level and tried to make it look pretty good. Well, when they got up high where people couldn’t see, they kind of got a little sloppy with some pieces.

“There were a couple of guys doing it, one guy was on one end and another guy was on the other end. The guy on one end was a conscientious guy, he did good down below but was just couldn’t quite get it when he was up high.”

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MCPHERRAN cont’d from page 20 Another big project was work on the roof, siding, windows and decks. With Italianate architecture, many pieces were designed as oneof-a-kind; you just don’t go down to a home improvement store and buy replacement pieces off the shelf.

They had to be restored with precision or custom made.

“Obviously it was challenging, but it gave us a chance to do stuff you hadn’t done before,” Dombroski said. “You can’t just go to the store and get similar porch railings or spindles like this, so there was a lot of custom shop work.”

One of the house’s interesting features was a speaking pipe between the dining room and the master bedroom; an easier method of summoning someone upstairs than yelling through the house.

Restoring a parquet floor can be a painstaking process, but the results are worth it. The work in progress (top), under the home's bay window, shows how hundreds of pieces of hardwood have to come together to shape up into a floor that makes a statement. The work was done

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF SCOTT HIBBARD

MCPHERRAN cont’d to page 22

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MCPHERRAN cont’d from page 21 Once ownership passed to Loos, Hibbard was hired to complete the remaining restoration.

He worked with Dombroski to go over what was done and what was left to do.

As they were talking about the history behind the place, Dombroski mentioned something profound to Hibbard that he took to heart: “Every building needs a purpose.”

“You can spend a lot of money remodeling a business building, or an old home like this, or a commercial building,” Hibbard said, “but if you don’t have somebody using it, it’s pointless.”

The finish line The Dillon Foundation sold the property for $69,000 in August of 2018 to Hibbard and Loos, owner and president of Action Plumbing Co. in West Chicago. Hibbard’s business and that of McCloud & Associates Architects moved their offices into the main floor of the house later that year, and Loos soon bought Hibbard’s share. The second and lower levels are rented residential space.

Loos is a sixth-generation plumber with a local connection; in 1890, his great-great-great-grandfather founded John G. Loos & Sons plumbing in town. He and Hibbard worked on many proj-

ects together, and decided to take a stab at the McPherran home when the time was right.

“I fell in love right when I walked in the door, even though the inside had construction, trim, paint cans,” Hibbard said. “You love it as soon as you walk in. You see the trim, you see the door knobs. People walk though this door, and I don’t think they look at the door knobs, or how the stone is cut on the marble fireplace, (all seven of them) or how the floor is laid out. That’s the stuff I instantly go to. You see that, and you see how it’s laid out.”

Floors, walls, doors and the inner workings now were Hibbard’s responsibility, and he set forth to make the interior look like it did when the McPherrans and Thackaberrys roamed th home. The project isn’t just a home improvement project, it’s a historical renovation, so getting as close to the original as possible has been a must.

Hibbard enjoys reading about the history of the projects he works on, and the McPherran home’s story intrigued him. He enjoyed digging through the McPherran home’s history and spent hours looking at photos to try and recreate the look and feel of the home’s history.

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MCPHERRAN cont’d from page 22 “It’s interesting to see other people’s work as you go in to try to modernize and repair something,” Hibbard said. “You can’t rush into it like you’re putting on vinyl siding. You’ve got to take your time and figure it out.”

The doors and stairwell wound up being among the most notable projects.

The exterior doors were re-cut and fitted with beveled glass, the doorknobs were redone and the stairwell was taken apart piece by piece and redone; each piece was labeled, numbered, and sent off to get chemically stripped and stained.

Portraits of Marcus and Clara Thackaberry hang in the hall, and a family photo of them with their children hangs at the base of the stairwell near the front door.

But the project wasn’t done yet.

A big addition was made to the property: A carriage house was built just off the driveway leading to the back of the house, where the Thackaberrys had a small rental house.

While most of the work on the McPherran home is done, there still are a few minor repairs on Hibbard’s to-do list, and he hopes to have them done soon.

“One of the things that made this project successful is that Tom was totally committed to doing it right,” Hibbard said. “You have to have someone that’s committed that way. You had Pete committed to it. You had Tom committed to it. That’s why you have this finished product.”

Their commitments have led to the McPherran home’s continued survival. Not all homes on the south side of West Third Street from Avenue G to downtown Sterling have survived.

Along with the Thackaberry’s rental home, the Wheeler Mansion at 505 W. Third has been gone for a few decades, and most recently, storm damage in July caused the two-story house at 507 W. Third (formerly home to the PADS homeless shelter) to be razed.

With the careful and professional work done by Hibbard and Dombroski, the McPherran home has many more years left in it.

“You hope it lives longer than you do, if you do good work,” Hibbard said.

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Di

t’s been awhile since Dick Houston laced up his basketball sneakers and ran, pivoted and squeaked across the Rock Falls High School basketball court with his teammates.

But even after all those years, he can still 20 2 , 1 on ust o remember when the ball was in their court H ck — and boy, did they run with it Houston and his classmates were part of the first Rockets basketball teams to make shooting hoops a big deal in Rock Falls. Their successes begat even greater accomplishments in the decades to come, but those then-young hoopsters such as Houston, Lyle Bogott, Kenny Onken, Doug Unger and Bill Ebenezer achieved something special 75 years ago this school year that no Rockets team has matched.

The 1946-47 Rockets basketball squad ran the table during the regular season with a perfect 21-for-21 showing in the win column. No other Rock Falls teams had played more than 20 games and won them all before the postseason, and none had won a regional tournament championship before.

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HOUSTON cont’d from page 25 Even though the 1946-47 Rockets lost in the sectional tournament championship game to end their season, they are among the top hoops teams to be inducted in the high school’s athletic hall of fame.

Today, Houston is a one-man team when it comes to memories of the team’s days as king off the court. After Bogott’s death in January, Houston is the last surviving player from that historic team. At 92, Houston and his wife of 67 years, Marian, split their time between their longtime house in Rock Falls and North Fort Myers, Florida, where they spend their winters. His “man cave” back home is a treasure trove of accomplishments and memories over 75-plus years of being a student, and teaching and coaching — most of those years at Rock Falls High School. The team photo from 1946-47 hangs above his desk. Other mementoes aren’t far away, such as the hall of fame induction plaque.

HOUSTON cont’d to page 27 Dick Houston and his teammates on the 1946-47 Rock Falls High School basketball team accomplished a feat not matched thus far in Rocket hoops history: it went undefeated in the regular season and finished 25-1 after winning a regional championship. “We were kings,” he said. “It was a great thing. We were riding high.”

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HOUSTON cont’d from page 26 “We were kings,” Houston said.

“Everyone knew you because the town was smaller. It was a great thing. We were riding high.”

Without several stars from a solid 1944-45 NCIC championship team, many of them three- or four-sport athletes, the 1945-46 team just went 9-16 — but that was to change soon.

Given the circumstances of the time, the 1946-47 roster had players who had seen a lot of the world.

That’s because several of them had gone off to fight in World War II before returning stateside.

“They all got back and came back to school,” Houston said.

“If we had beaten Rockford to go to the [state] tournament, Unger would have been 19 and would have been too old to play. We had a big advantage, a ‘college freshmen’ nucleus here. We played a tough schedule, too, all while the NCIC had big schools like DeKalb and Ottawa.”

It must have been meant to be ... Before they walked side by side in life they were side by side in the 1947 high school yearbook: Marian Simester and her husband to be, Dick Houston.

Today the couple has been married 67 years.

HOUSTON cont’d to page 28

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HOUSTON cont’d from page 27 When their military service ended, several players went back to high school to earn their diploma. Bogott came back from the Army. Harrington and Unger returned from the Navy. Onken, Unger’s half-brother, transferred from Morrison. Also on the team were Don Stevens, Marvin Courtright, Wayne Smith, Cal Morgan and manager Eddie Fritz.

Houston had the tough task of being a starter on the previous year’s team, but when the veteran trio returned, he moved into a sixth-man role, typically the first off of the bench.

Houston didn’t mind, though, knowing that year’s Rockets were going to be extra special.

“I accepted what it was, and I was happy to get in,” Houston said. “I remember one time they put me in a game and Harry Kidd, the sportswriter, wrote in the paper, ‘Houston came in the game, he was calm and cool and collected.’ I underlined that back when I was a kid. You didn’t have any other publicity. If you got your picture anywhere, you were something.”

The annual alumni game opened the season, and the older players went down in defeat, 38-11, and the victories just kept coming.

Hall Township of Spring Valley, who joined the NCIC the same year the Rockets did just 4 years prior, was always a tough team to beat, Houston said. Early wins over tough conference teams Hall Township and Ottawa gave them more confidence that they were going to be something special with

a high-energy fast-break offense.

“We had a good fast-break,” Houston said. “In practice, Hinders would throw the ball up on the board, we’d rebound it, and we’d have it down on the other end in the basket in 2-1/2 to 3 seconds. It was against nobody, we were just running through the thing. It would be a rebound out to the side and the guy would run and shoot. We’d do that maybe 10 or 15 times every night.

“Then we’d play against defenses. They’d just be in position, and we’d take the rebound and they’d play against us, and we’d attack them. We had a really good machine functioning.”

The Rockets won the Geneseo Holiday Tournament to open 1947. In between that feat, they beat their arch rivals, Sterling High, twice: 60-26 in Sterling and 76-28 in Rock Falls.

“The last game we played them, we hammered them,” Houston said. “They had an average team. They had the brother of the guy that ran the clothing store [Sullivan’s] in downtown Sterling, Curt Brandau, was the coach that year.

We just demolished them. They had good athletes in other sports.”

Rock Falls played Dixon three times that season, and the Dukes gave the Rockets their closest games. In their first meeting on Jan. 31 in Rock Falls, the Dukes led for almost all of the game until the final 2 minutes. On two occasions, Rocket go-ahead buckets were waved off, but finally Onken scored a shot that counted for the win.

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HOUSTON cont’d from page 28 “Dixon was really tough,” Houston said. “They had a really good team. We scored two or three times and they called them off with penalties of some sort. We didn’t get them, and then he finally scored to win it. They felt cheated, but I remember their coach [Lee Davison] wrote Hinders a letter admitting, I guess, that we were the better team.”

One of the Rockets’ biggest wins came Feb. 28 in a surprise situation. Hinders arranged for a scrimmage against Clinton High School in Iowa in a non-game situation. However, when the Rockets arrived, they found that the Riverkings intended for their meeting to be a full-fledged game. It was a bit of a shock, but the Rockets took on this sudden challenge and came away successful against a tough squad.

“They were ranked third of fourth in the state at that time,” Houston said. “We went down there and it was a game situation. They had referees and everything. We went down there for a practice. We didn’t have a crowd. We beat them not too bad at all, and didn’t have much problem with them.”

ol hoops players in the late ho Sc gh Hi lls Fa ck Ro r fo e Lif riousness, Houston said. se d an n fu of e ar sh its d ha town to 1940s mes, several players went up

night ga After the Friday and Saturday be there d where the newspapers would an w, no is II s PJ’ ere wh ll ha a pool street, Houston Greasy Spoon was across the for them to read. Richardson’s the milk bar. at first for pool and a treat at re the nt we s kid er ng you d said, an ost every factory in Rock Falls, alm at d rke wo s kid the of st mo On the flip side, l of them, hour. Houston worked at severa an ts cen 40 as low as for s me someti ce had German Lawrence Park Island that on including a canning factory on al students in Rockford working there. Sever nt Gra mp Ca m fro r wa of ers prison school. Houston rk ethic as early as elementary developed their blue-collar wo ol during lped bale paper at Merrill Scho he o wh nts de stu l era sev of e was on 300-pound bale monthly. free time; the school put out a

HOUSTON cont’d to page 30

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HOUSTON cont’d from page 29

played catch-up the rest of the way, but East ended their season and advanced to the state finals.

“They got fouls on Harrington right away,” Houston said.

“They had a big 6-foot-4 center [Lou Proctor], and they were a good team. The big schools were supposed to win back then.

Everybody assumed that.”

In the 44-36 defeat, Bogott led Rocket scorers with 14 points and Unger chipped in eight more. Houston felt that one issue that hurt the Rockets against East was the officials’ treatment of the two head coaches. E-Rabs coach James Laude was given a little more preferential treatment, Houston thought.

“Coach Laude was running up and down the sideline, and Hinders was very fragile as he had back surgery,” Houston said.

“He got up and he started to protest, and they went, ‘Get over there and sit down or we’ll throw you out!’ That just demolished his whole mindset. He just sat on the bench, so crushed by how they treated him, I think. He didn’t function on the bench the way he normally would have. He didn’t know how to react to being treated so ungentlemanly.”

Hinders, according to Houston, wasn’t a tough coach at all, a soft-spoken man free of foul language, someone who would fit in well with today’s high school coaches. Before coming to the high school, Hinders coached at the junior high, where his 1943-44 eighth-grade team took third place in the state elementary tournament with most of the same kids who later had high school success.

In the regional tournament held at the Coliseum in Sterling, Rock Falls opened postseason play with a 72-21 win over Amboy, a 59-48 win over Community Catholic (now Newman), and endured another tough game with the Dukes before winning 53-46 to take the championship on March 7. In the game, Unger led the Rockets with 18 points, Bogott had 15, and Houston and Harrington each had seven points.

The Rockets’ fast-break style proved once again to be no match for the Dukes.

“I had a really good game,” Houston said. “We were coming down on a fast-break one time. Bogott was in the middle and had the ball, and there was a guy between us. He threw me a bounce pass, and I took it right on my hip and I went up to the basket and put it up left-handed and made it before I crashed into the chairs. To do it left-handed in those days was huge, and I did it all in one motion.”

Rock Falls moved on to the sectional tournament at West High School in Rockford. They opened play with a 57-33 win over Rochelle before taking on Rockford’s East High, a regional power that was in the middle of a 4-year run as state qualifiers.

“We murdered them in the first game, just murdered them,” Houston said.

Midnight struck on the Rockets’ season in the sectional championship. The Rockets opened that game with a 7-0 lead, but with Harrington dogged with foul trouble early on, it hurt the team’s chances against a much larger E-Rabs squad. They

HOUSTON cont’d to page 31

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taught and coached at Rock Falls High School from 1943 to his untimely death in 1963; he also served as athletic director throughout most of these years. He also coached baseball and football early in his career. On the basketball court from 1943 to 1951, Hinders’ teams went 121-71 with winning seasons in all but 2 years; his teams won NCIC championships in 1945, 1947 and 1951. As a high school athlete, Hinders finished in third place in pole vault at the track and field state championship in 1926 for Shannon High School. He also patented a style of basketball score books.

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, who owned the single season scoring records with 441 points upon graduation, went to Monmouth College and later taught and coached at Byron and Dixon high schools.

Bogott was 12-29 in 2 years in Byron, but saw much better success coaching the Dukes between 1955 and 1959. Bogott’s teams were 67-27, won NCIC championENEZ ships in 1956 and 1959, when they finished 22-4 and won a regional title. Bogott, who died on Jan. 4, 2021, taught for 33 years.

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Of the members of the 1946-47 basketball team, only Dick Houston came back to his alma mater to coach the sport. Houston, who came to Rock Falls in 1958 after a successful season as an assistant coach at Lexington High School, coached underclassmen basketball early in his teaching career for the Meteors — the nickname which RFHS underclassmen teams were known by at that time.

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“He didn’t know how to react to being treated so ungentlemanly,” Houston said.

While the Rockets from 75 years ago didn’t win the amount of postseason hardware that other memorable teams did years later, Houston knows of one other special team that might not have had playoff success but perhaps most people have forgotten, he said. That’s the 1944-45 squad that he and Bogott were a part of, one that went 19-6, won the NCIC title, and defeated the much larger New Trier High School of suburban Winnetka during the DeKalb Holiday Tournament. Hinders coached that team, which also included John Bohms, Dick Livingstone, Jim Elhoffer, Ed McDaniels, William Wescott, Bob Brainerd, Bob Yount and Larry Nielsen.

Houston is the last survivor of the that team as well.

In the New Trier game, Houston hit two “big, long ones” in a 47-27 win. He probably would have excelled if a 3-point line was around then, he said. “That was a really big deal back in those days, because they were big and they were suburban.”

After attending college at DePauw and the University of Illinois, and a 2-year stint in the Army, Houston began his teaching and coaching career in Marseilles before moving downstate to Lexington, where he was an assistant coach on the Minutemen’s 1957-58 rural county and conference championship winning squad, and also was head football and baseball coach. He returned to Rock Falls in 1958 — 1 year after the Rockets’ basketball team finished second at the state tournament — to teach history, physical education and driver education, and coach several sports along the way, including underclassmen basketball and football, and track and field. He was also head cross country and golf coach during the 1960s.

Among his memorable coaching moments, in Houston’s second year back at his high school alma mater, he was an assistant coach for the 8-0 undefeated freshman-sophomore football team — which became the unbeaten 9-0 varsity conference champions the following year — and coached NCIC cross country conference champion Addly White.

Houston taught at Rock Falls High until 1988, and his basketball skills lasted just as long. During a special school event in March 1986, when reigning Super Bowl champions, the Chicago Bears, came to town for a “Bears vs. faculty” game, Houston played and sank a shot from halfway across the Tabor Gymnasium court.

Houston remains proud of the accomplishments he and his teammates achieved to make their years at Rock Falls High School a memorable ones, not only for the team but their hometown as well. They made high school hoops a local attraction for not just adults, but also for young kids who may have looked on thinking they wanted to be the next Lyle Bogott, Doug Unger or Dick Houston. Some of those kids grew up to be stars on the 1957-58 second-place team — including Gary Kolb and Ken Siebel – who, in turn, inspired another generation of Rockets to excel in athletics.

For now, Houston has his place in Rocket athletic lore, and he’s carrying on the legacy and memories his teammates helped create.

LLOYD H

HOUSTON cont’d from page 30

also went on to attend Monmouth, and later Northern Illinois University. He had a lengthy hoops coaching career which saw his teams attain a 318-275 record at ElaVernon (now Lake Zurich), Elburn and its successor Kaneland, and Stevenson of Lincolnshire High School. He was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1989. Ebenezer’s greatest coaching successes came as an assistant coach at Proviso East High School in Maywood from 1965 to 1973. There, he helped coach Pirates teams to a 147-44 record, five regional titles, three sectional championships, and the 1969 state championship that went 30-1. As a head coach, Ebenezer, who died in 1993, won regional titles in 1963 for Kaneland, 1980 for Stevenson, and led Elburn to a 30-2 record and a district title in 1955.

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ou could say that Ashley Zell grew up as a flower child.

In a way, she still is. She believes in the power of love — in fact, at a young age she fell in love with the business that she and her husband would someday own — and if you want to wear a flower in your hair, she can help with that, too.

Ashley and husband Rick are the new owners of Lundstrom Florist, but long before they took over the longtime floral fixture on Sterling’s business landscape, Ashley was a fixture at the flower shop herself.

Years ago, she would wander through the greenhouse, a bright-eyed young girl admiring nature’s handiwork and help-

By Cody Cutter Sauk Valley Media

LUNDSTROM cont’d to page 34

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LUNDSTROM cont’d from page 33 That was more than 20 years ago, and the flower shop remained near and dear to Zell’s heart for all these years.

She once even dreamed of working there. That dream came true, and then some.

The Zells purchased the flower shop at 1709 E. Third St. on May 1, and the couple is learning not only about matters of business, but matters of the heart. When customers say it with flowers, they can say a lot: “I love you,” “I miss you,” “I’m happy for you.” They’re symbols of love and loss, celebrations and congratulations.

Ashley, a Sterling native, once thought her mom would buy the shop and she would work for her, but the script flipped and Ashley put down roots in the business, but one thing didn’t change: Her mom is still part of the store’s story.

Kim Conklen, Ashley’s mother, has been tending to flowers at the shop for 25 years, and she’s not the only member of the family to help. Ashley’s sister, Cecily Harris, works there too, one big happy family under a greenhouse roof.

Ashley Zell (right) has been part of the Lundstrom landscape for years.

When she was a kid, she used to help her mom, who worked there, and dreamed about someday working at the greenhouse and gift shop. Her dream came true and now she not only works there, she and husband Rick (left) own it.

LUNDSTROM cont’d to page 35

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LUNDSTROM cont’d from page 34 “We definitely saw the potential,” Ashley said. “My mom’s been here so long, and she was at the age where she wasn’t going to buy it. We wanted this to be a bigger part of the community, a place for gifts, too, and for people to do stuff, too.”

In the few months since the Zells took over, they’ve spruced up the outside to stand out to the hundreds of people who drive by it on one of the city’s main thoroughfares, and they’ve overhauled the inventory of gifts to attract a wider age range of customers. Flowers continue to be the big staple, as always, but the Zells One of also want to make their place a oneAshley’s favorite stop shop for any important holiday plants is this “Mother or occasion. of Thousands” plant which Walk in the store and you’ll find tables and shelves filled with fresh plants, seasonal decorawill drop its little babies from tions and plenty of other goodies that’ll make a house a home. The Zells keep an eye on knowing the edges of the leaves to what customers are looking for — it’s all part of the learning process that comes with running a sprout and spread. business.

ALEX T. PASCHAL/APAS“We never stop learning,” Ashley said. “I feel like we learn something every day. There’s always CHAL@SHAWMEDIA. something new and trendy for a birthday, or for a bride, or for a gift.”

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LUNDSTROM cont’d from page 36 Keeping the flower shop an important part of the community is something that the Zells are serious about. Ashley remembers the days helping out in the shop as a child, cleaning flowers on busy holidays and high school dance dates under then-owner Geri Froeliger. Froeliger sold the store in 2005 to Julie Grell, who ran it for 16 years before selling it to the Zells.

Those early days are still fresh in Ashley’s mind.

“Geri was so awesome,” Ashley said. “I always wanted to be like her. I always wanted to have that strong-willed, independent woman type. She’d be upstairs and there would be three women running around downstairs, and she would just know what everybody was doing. I was just amazed by her and work ethic, and I fell in love with everything else.”

While Ashley and her family handle the plants, Rick tends to the office and paperwork. He, too, enjoys the chalWith lenge and excitement of owning a small business.

Halloween That also includes learning the various names of rner, right around the co flowers and plants, and their routine cleaning tions some spooky decora when needed.

Zells e Th y. are out on displa “I’ve never been my own boss, per se, but en e inv tory at have overhauled th it’s nice to be able to do things the way we want pieces that Lundstrom, adding to be doing them, and run it the way we want al to a wider they hope will appe to run it,” Rick said. “It’s a learning experience. range of customers.

[I’m] new to the flower business, but it’s nice to APASALEX T. PASCHAL/ see it, evaluate it, and better it.”

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LUNDSTROM cont’d from page 37 Back Along with the stock they have in store, the shop also does cemetery placements of flowers, when phone letters 4 e er w rs pre-orders of memorial pieces and winter wreaths for grave sites, gift baskets, arrangements be m nu Lundrt be Ro , rs be m for weddings, and even surprise deliveries to customers. and 3 nu fesis th t ou g in nd While it may be fall right now, flower shops are already thinking Christmas, Valentine’s strom was ha ndstrom’s has Lu . rd ca s Day and even Mothers Day. Christmas containers will be in stock soon, and even more es sin bu tive n for a long yuletide items will be announced. Their Facebook page has been busy with plenty of tio ca lo e m sa e th been in ess has changed updates on new items and sneak peeks of what’s to come. time, but its addr 18th 5 20 m fro s, ar ye They are “definitely prepared” for the holidays, Ashley said, an important lesson they through the ird St. learned after their first holiday at the helm: Mothers Day. Ave. to 1709 E. Th L/APAS“So much was going on and we were so busy, she said. “We couldn’t keep ALEX T. PASCHA DIA. ME AW CHAL@SH flowers in the building. It’s like an explosion would go off.”

COM When it comes to other occasions, the team is ready to help whether it’s celebratory or somber. When a loved one dies, helping people express their grief through flowers can be a daunting task, but the Zells have risen to occasion.

“I just try to listen and make it as personal as possible,” Ashley said.

“When they’re upset, sometimes they’ll say something that person did not like, or something that person did like. Even if it’s one tiny thing, you can open up a conversation to where they can start to personalize the conversation. Some people may not want anything to do with it, and I’ll still try to help them to make it as easy as possible. What don’t you want?

What do you want to spend? Or, what do you want it to say? Sometimes they’ll just be in and out because they don’t want to deal with it. I get people that tell me, ‘I never thought I’d ever have to do this.’ So you just do it.”

“When you leave families happy when they come in crying, that makes you feel good, big time. Especially when it’s people our age,” she said.

LUNDSTROM cont’d to page 39

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customer paid a visit in mid-September to place an order and told Sometimes customers look for other ways to express themselves. Ashley how they still had the original receipts from an order one of their older relatives placed there more than 50 years ago.

One of Lundstrom’s longest-running gift lines are Willow Tree The Zells hope to someday inspire similar stories, but in figurines, small, human sculptures that can convey order to make today’s receipts a future generation’s a range of emotions. The line, according to wilmemory, it means working with the commulowtree.com, speaks “in quiet ways to heal, nity to keep family shops like the Zells’ thrivcomfort, protect and inspire.” The faceless ing with a “shop local” mentality. Special figures express themselves through their St. in Sterling, dstrom Florist, 1709 E. Third Lun event promotions, such as a recent Back gestures — the way a head is tilted or nday through n from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mo ope is to School event for teachers, are a step the hand placed, a turn of the body, its urday; closed ay, and 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sat Frid in that direction. Also helping attract form is its function. They are often a ter, Mothers Day, ristmas, New Year’s Day, Eas Ch on new customers: hosting special best-seller for moments of care and Labor Day. To help Day, Independence Day and s her Fat events, one of which was a yoga class , compassion, and there are more busy holiday season on-time delivery during the ure ens on Sept. 11 on their back lot conductitems around the shop that can help nksgiving, Christers at least 1 day prior to Tha ord ce pla ed by Rhuomai Studio of Dixon. The as well. ine’s Day, Easter, Administramas, New Year’s Day, Valent entry costs were donated to the Darky, “People will come in here with Da y, Memorial fessionals Week, Mothers Da Pro tive horse Lodge veterans retreat center in that shock of hearing the news about Labor Day. Find s Day, Independence Day and her Fat Springville, Tennessee. something, and they want to do someok, Instagram (@ Lundstrom Florist on Facebo “There are so many people our age thing but don’t know what to do,” Ashley romflorist21@ lundstromflorist), email lundst that are going to be the next generation of said. “We’ll walk around with them, ask ist.com gmail.com, go to lundstromflor running these businesses in town,” Ashley them, ‘Who is this for?’ and we’ll find the re or call 815-625-0080 for mo said. “We all need to get along, get together, and right gift.” information. help each other.”

One of the more uplifting and fascinating Helping people is what the Zells and their family strive moments the Zells have experienced with customers involve to do best — that, and putting a smile on people’s face. the shop’s long history. According to Sterling’s first documented plat “Stop in, say hi,” Ashley said, “and let us know how we can make map, from 1871, greenhouses took up the entire block of their pressomebody happy.” ent location. In 1904, the business became Lundstrom Florist. One

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