Leap year weddings popular with brides

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Updated: January 29, 2012 2:38AM

What was happening during the month of January 100, 75, 50, and 10 years ago?

January 1912

The police magistrate offered to marry all single women over 25 years old free of charge during leap year.

Dishes rattled, doors slammed and pictures moved in some homes, but little damage was reported from an earth tremor that shook Elgin in the morning of the 2nd.

Motormen and conductors on the streetcars claimed that the hobbled skirt was delaying service. Women wearing this fashion were taking too long to get on and off the cars.

The Elgin Country Club purchased a motorized bus to meet the Highland Avenue streetcars and carry passengers to the club grounds.

Representatives from 10 Elgin charitable organizations met to coordinate relief efforts. (They formed Associated Charities, the forerunner of today’s United Fund.)

January 1937

Federal agents raided a huge still and rectifying plant in a garage building at 114 Douglas Ave. The largest still ever seized in Kane County, it had been in operation three months. An estimated 20,000 gallons of mash were on hand at the time. A wrecking crew later destroyed all the equipment.

About 200 Elgin commuters were shaken up and some slightly bruised when a Milwaukee Road train on which they were returning home was derailed at the Fox River switch.

More than 150 ice skaters competed for trophies on the upper lagoon at Lords Park. The meet was sponsored by the Elgin Skating Association. Fourteen boxers advanced to the semifinals from a Golden Gloves tournament at the Masonic Temple.

Used car bargains on sale at the Hubbell Motor Co. — 1929 Auburn, $87.50; 1930 Jordan, $87,50; 1930 Studebaker, $97.50.

January 1962

First Congregational Church dedicated its new education wing.

The city acquired a new, 1,000-gallon-per-minute fire engine pumper equipped with a “Mars” light that threw a beam a good three blocks.

An influenza outbreak cut attendance at schools and filled with Sherman and St. Joseph hospitals to capacity.

January 1987

Four hundred to 500 pigs were believed to have been destroyed in a barn fire on Coombs Road west of Elgin.

Police were busy investigating four murders in a five-day period.

Pamela Jensen of Elgin was appointed the first woman judge in the 16th Judicial Circuit, and Joanne E. Jones became the first woman to work as an Elgin police officer.

January 2002

Channing YMCA closed its pool to reduce expenses and announced the closing of the facility in June.

E-books were growing in popularity at Gail Borden Public Library.

A fire gutted Leitner’s Bar and Restaurant on St. Charles Street.

The U46 Board of Education voted to return the controversial novel “Forever” to middle school libraries.

More than half of Elgin High School juniors scored below minimum standards for reading, math, writing, social science, and science of the Prairie State Achievement Examination.