A CELEBRATION OF A VILLAGE SESQUICENTENNIAL 2005

Beginning with February issue of the ECHO and continuing through April 2005, you are being offered a look at Elkhart's history.

April 2005

Elkhart is
E is for energy for together we get it done
L is for love that we have for our neighbor and everyone
K is for kindness to all, whoever might be the blame
H is for heart, which is a big part of our name
A is for our ancestors who passed the grueling tests
R is for our residents who truly are the best
T is for the tears for the many we have laid to rest.

On April 5, our general election was held, and our new mayor is Steve Anderson.
Retaining her position as clerk is Gwen Rosenfeld, newly elected trustees are Lyle Fout and Brian Hinds and retaining his position is Tim Gleason and the other three trustees are James Gleason, Jeff Kutz and Charlie Matthews.
In March of 2005, our fire department moved its service to their new building, which they built just north of the Hurlbut Township building out on the Frontage Road. We have some brave men who serve as our volunteers with Mason Boyer as our chief and Paul Hayden is our Assistant chief. The volunteers are, Dustin Camp, Justin Camp, Chris Anderson, Tim Van Pelt, Beau Johnson, Rexx Davis and Matt Vlahovich. The captain is Jay Akers and our chief medical officer is Stanley Anderson.

Our new Firehouse on Frontage Road


As this last chapter goes to press, the village board has signed papers with the intent of purchasing the firehouse building that sets on Main Street. It will be used as a village office, and village meeting hall and there is space enough for all the vehicles that the village owns which was needed very much, as most of our vehicles have had to set out in the weather. The village has never had their own building as a village hall since 1861 when we incorporated. We have always had our meetings in the township hall all these many years. I am sure that all past and present mayors, clerks and trustees of the village say a big thank you to the Elkhart township officials throughout the years for their generosity to the village boards throughout the years.

Our Sesquicentennial committees have had meetings since last August to plan for all the fun and excitement of the four-day celebration to be held July 21-24. Committees were formed and help will be coming from many more residents who will help when asked, (they just don’t like coming to meetings!).

Plans are now in the making for our famous rides on Elkhart Hill, carnival rides for the younger group, a pageant, one for the young and one for the adults, great souvenirs, food and entertainment and “The Bearded Brothers of the Brush, and ‘Sisters of the Swish’ tee shirts, mugs and souvenirs plates. We have a beautiful afghan for sale (by the Historical Society) with memories of the village on it. We are having a parade with many floats, and a classic car show, Rte 66 will have a booth and the Vietnam War Memorial is here for 4 days. We are having a room full of memories of which you can look through many scrapbooks, etc of residents who have saved it all, or perhaps just an antique, but it will be worth your time to plan and stop in for a few minutes and get the” taste of Elkhart”. We want you to also feel that it is also a place to come in and rest while you are here. They have a video of our 1955 Centennial celebration. Check it out and see what YOU looked like 50 years ago!

We have a souvenir book with everything about Elkhart’s past businesses and residents and its present businesses and residents. It has a complete history of our village and its people. The many articles we have compiled will keep you entertained for hours. This committee worked for many months compiling articles and pictures and histories. We hope we did not miss anything or anybody. And if we did we apologize, it was not done intentionally. The book is a bound 140 pages, full of pictures and articles and is selling for $10.00. We hope you purchase one for yourself and all your relatives that grew up here. For those of you out of town, feel free to send you request for as many as you want to Gwen Rosenfeld 405 South Gillett, Elkhart, Il 62634 along with postage of $2.00 for a total of $12.00, (for one book) and it will be on its way to you. Otherwise the book is for sale at a number of businesses around town.

A CELEBRATION OF A VILLAGE

EPITAPH
April 11, 2005

Today the village is 150 years old. That is a long time!! But I hope reading these summaries each month; you have/do feel the emotion some of us here have about our village.

We all want to see it grow but we still want to maintain our small village atmosphere.

It has taken us 150 years to grow from just 23 acres to over 1,175 acres. It was not done by one person but by many families throughout the years who came and fell in love with the village and its people.

We seem to grow in spurts, as a small child does, but that’s ok, it takes many years to reach adulthood and we still have an arm or leg to complete.

Let’s all continue to grow together, play together, and pray together. Together we make one heck of a team.

That’s all there is folks, now we have to start today making our history of tomorrow. Let’s all do one heck of a job on it and make us and all who come after us, proud.

Thank you all for the wonderful comments I have received. It was a pleasure doing these articles for the last twelve months.

I do hope to see one and all at our celebration this July 21, 22, 23, 24 and also all of you past residents that are reading this on the internet, and by the way, thank you for reading us each month, we always enjoyed hearing from you. Come on home for a few days and help us celebrate in July. We’ll be expecting you.

The end of our story (for now) - Gwen

Last Month's Edition >>