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This lovely lady was the daughter of William & Mary Meissner. They settled here after their marriage but in 1861 moved to New Ulm, Minnesota, in an ox cart. Matilda was born there a year later. Because of Indian unrest and massacres they returned to Palatine and Matilda was raised on a farm on Quentin Road. She married Richard Foreman in 1883 and had five children. Her family lived on a farm at Dundee and Hicks Road until 1907 when they moved into town at Oak and Slade Streets. Her husband became ill and was sent to an asylum in Elgin. Matilda worked as a housekeeper and laundress to take care of herself. She died in 1947.

Photos courtesy of Vietta Mickus (granddaughter of Matilda Foreman)

Cora Foreman is Matilda’s daughter, and the sister of Ella Foreman Bedurske. Cora married William Mess. She was born in 1892 and lived to be 98 years old. William Mess served in World War I.

May is the third of Matilda’s daughters. She died at a young age. There was also a son, John.

These girls are dressed in the pigeon breasted style of the early 1900’s and have Gibson girl hairdos.

Matilda Foreman is the matriarch of this family of four generations of women. Her daughter, Ella Bedurske, is sitting to her left. Vietta Mickus, Ella’s daughter, is sitting on the grass holding her daughter, Petronelle Smith. A copy of this photo was given to us by Vietta along with many other family photos. Matilda died in 1947, not too long after this photo was taken.

Vietta Bedurske is on her lap. Bill Bedurske on the right in back. Lynn and Frances Foreman are two of the other children. From Genoa City. We’re missing one name here.

Charles S. Cutting was born in Vermont n 1854, the son of Charles A. Cutting & Laura Averill. In 1863, the Cutting family moved to Minnesota and then to Salem, Oregon. Charles attended the University of Oregon though he did not graduate. He worked at a newspaper for about a year and a half before coming to Palatine in 1874. He taught at the Wood Street School for a year and then became principal of the school. He started a two year high school in the grammar school building, then the only high school between Jefferson Park (now Chicago) and Woodstock. In 1876, he married Annie Lytle. Though he continued as principal he began studying law under Judge Josiah Knickerbocker. In 1880 he was admitted to the bar and went into law practice with Rollin Williamson of Palatine. In 1887, he was elected to the Cook County Board of Education and held the office of Master of the Chancery to the Circuit Court of Cook County. In 1895, the Cuttings moved to Austin, Illinois, now a part of Chicago. From 1899 to 1913, Cutting held the position of Judge of the Probate Court. He did not run again in 1913 and became a part of the law firm of Cutting, Moore, & Sidley. The Cuttings had one son, Robert Myron. Robert became a lawyer and an automobile manufacturer. Charles Cutting belonged to numerous civic and social organizations and served in many official capacities. He was a Knight Templar, Oddfellow and 32nd degree Mason. He also taught at Kent College of Law. He always remained interested in Palatine and especially in the high school he founded. He gave many gifts to the school’s library. The auditorium, now Cutting Hall Theater, was named after him. He often visited Palatine and spoke here on many civic occasions. He died on April 17, 1936, at age 82.

This is Ella and Gus’s wedding picture. Ella grew up on the Foreman farm at Hicks and Dundee Roads. Her parents were Matilda and Richard Foreman. Gus came from the Wauconda area and was a carpenter. He came down here to work and was hired to build a barn on the Foreman farm right about where Walgreen’s is now. That’s how he met Ella and married her. They stayed in Palatine Township and raised a family of their own. Their daughter, Vietta Mickus, generously gave us copies of this and many other family photos from four generations.

The standpipe stood on the corner of Colfax Street and Hale Street for over 30 years until it was torn down in 1928. It was replaced by a new well and miles of new mains. In 1960 a fire station was built on this property.

Several of these ladies were staff members at Camp Reinberg in Deer Grove Forest Preserve. Several of the building from John Wilson’s private park there before it became a forest preserve were used for the camp. Joan Zielinski, Edna Busa, Mrs. Busa, Mrs. Zielinski are standing from left to right. The last two women on the right are Ida Foreman and Ella Bedurske. Ella was caretaker Gus Bedurske’s wife and lived in Deer Grove.

This photo was taken in Deer Grove Forest Preserve in 1922 or later. The woman standing at the right is Harriet Nichols. Her husband, Charles, was the warden of the preserve, the first in Cook County. He beame ill and died in July of 1922. A month later, Harriet was appointed to her husband’s position. Harriet was born in Vernon Township in 1968. The couple had one son and lived in Deer Grove during the time they worked there. Palatine claims her as the first woman forest preserve warden. She died in Florida in 1952.
Gus Bedurske, the forest preserve caretaker, is driving the wagon.

Bill Bedurske, and for a time his brother Donald, owned this hamburger stand on the corner of Dundee Road and Quentin Road. This photo was taken in 1942. Bill entered the service during World War II. The stand was at the corner of Dundee Road and Quentin Road. Bill sold hamburgers, ice cream, pop, and penny candy among other things. He also sold gas for a time. Sometimes his mother and sister helped out.

Matilda & Richard Foreman owned this farm at the corner of Hicks Road and Dundee Road on the west side of Hicks. They had 40 acres north of Dundee and 40 acres south. The barn was built by Gus Bedurske who married Ella Foreman. When the Deer Grove Forest Preserve bought the north section, the barn was torn down and the house moved across Dundee to Elm Street a block over from Hicks Road.

Henry Schierding was a farmer in Palatine Township. He later moved to the village and opened a general store at Slade Street and Brockway Street. He lost his first wife in 1867 and married Henrietta Matthei a year later. Henry died in 1894. Henrietta had a large home built at the corner of Brockway Street and Wilson Street. It was the showplace of Palatine. As she grew older she sought a warmer climate and moved to Pasadena, California, to live with her daughter, Matilda, in 1912. Her son, William took over the house. He was a physician and an oculist. In 1900 he married Clara Breese; the couple had two children, Esther and Henry. He held an 80th birthday party for his mother in 1917 when she returned to Palatine for a visit. By 1920, he was gone from Palatine. He may have moved to Chicago. He died June 16, 1936 and is buried in Mt. Greenwood Cemetery on the southwest side of Chicago. The fountain in the yard of the house is said to have come from the 1893 Columbian Expostion in Chicago. About 1929 or 1930, the house was torn down. A few stores were going to be built there. The concrete foundations were laid in and remained there for many years. The depression stopped the building from being completed. In the 1950’s, Jewel Tea took over the property and built its first store here in Palatine. In the late 1960’s, Jewel built a bigger store on Plum Grove and the old one became an S & H Green Stamp store. Later still it became Mia Cucina’s restaurant. Once again a mall of stores and condos above was scheduled to be built there and the restaurant closed down and buildings on the rest of the block were torn down. A downturn in the economy again stopped construction and the building stands empty and alone on the corner of Brockway Street and Wilson Street.

The bus cost 10 cents to take you from town to the Deer Grove Park. “Buss” is an old German spelling for “bus”.