McHenry County Blog

In 1963, my mother and I attended the Illinois Crime Commission’s summer hearings held in the old county board room at what is now Woodstock City Hall. It was twice the size of the current Woodstock City Council Chambers.

Crime Commission Executive Director Charles Siragusa had investigated a bookmaking operation in Crystal Lake and presented diagrams of Crystal Lake businesses (like the magazine shop on Williams Street) from which bets were phoned to a room on the second floor the Pinemoor Hotel southwest of the First Congregational Church. At the time, we knew the Pinemoor as a great place for pizza. (It still it near the “V” in the Crystal Lake Plaza.)

The owner of the Pinemoor was Harry Snell, our Republican precinct committeeman. He told the commissioners he didn’t know what was going on upstairs.

Algonquin Township Precinct 7 was huge. It went from Route 14 to the the McHenry-Kane County line east of McHenry Avenue. Most of the homes were in Crystal Lake and Lakewood. The current Lake in the Hills and Algonquin subdivisions west of Randall Road did not exist then. They were farms.

In 1964, my father ran for the office of McHenry County Auditor. It was the first year that the county had enough population to have one–over 80,000 people.

He ran against McHenry County Board Chairman Harley Mackeben, who was on the board by virtue of his position as Grafton Township Supervisor.

My father and mother ran a leisurely campaign in the then-90,000 person county, telling people who asked whether he would quit his Barley and Malt Institute job that he wouldn’t, that the job only require part-time work, which was subsequently proven correct.

Mother and Dad campaigned in the little northern and western towns on weekends, going into the small bars and stores and introducing themselves.

Dad lost the two-way race by about 300 votes, preparing the way for me to become McHenry County Treasurer in 1966 in a 3-way race (33%+, 33%, 33%-) by 72 votes with about 13,000 cast.

Lots of people obviously thought they were voting for my father.

I heard again and again when they met me, the 20-something, in the Treasurer’s Office.

The same year, Dad decided that he would make a more appropriate precinct committeeman than Harry, ran against him and won.

In 1967, Dad, who had opposed the formation of a junior college district in 1963, called a meeting in the cafeteria of Crystal Lake Community High School that led to the formation of a committee that successfully created McHenry County College with a ten-cent tax rate. The committee promoted a college that would be one-third funded by student tuition, one-third by local property taxpayers and one-third by the state. (Needless to say, state government did not come through with the promises made by state officials who spoke to McHenry County college proponents.)

The referendum passed on April 1, 1967, and Dad was elected to serve on its first board.

More tomorrow.

= = = = =
Links to all the articles are below:

Biography of Calvin L Skinner – Part 1 – Second Son, School Years

Biography of Calvin L. Skinner – Part 2 – College, Marriage, First Jobs

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 3 – First House, Elected President of the Easton, Maryland, Town Council

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 4 – Storm Sewer Grates, Miles River Yacht Club, Slot Machines, Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 5 – Switching Parties, Moving to Salt Lake City, Middletown and Crystal Lake

Biography of Cal L Skinner – Part 6 – The Early Crystal Lake Days, Dipping Feet Slowly into Political Arena

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 7 – Running for County Auditor, Precinct Committeeman, Calling the Meeting that Led to McHenry County College

Biography of Cal Skinner – Part 8 – The Star Reporter, Daughter Ellen Bored in High School, Prohibited from Attending MCC Classes

Biography of Cal L Skinner – Part 9 – Responsible Republicans’ Slate, County Board Reapportionment

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 10 – Unsuccessful County Clerk Try, County Airport Fight, Wife’s Death

Since I have an article about the McHenry County Treasurer’s office below, today is as good a one as any to post this sign.

It’s a political sign that helped me (barely) win the 1966 Republican June primary election for county treasurer two days after my 24th birthday.

It’s 8½ inches wide and 7 inches high.

It says,

There were made out of 8½ by 14 inch goldenrod card stock.

They were printed on a mimeograph machine. This one didn’t get inked as well as it should have.

Then, they were cut in half.

You will not the hard charging elephant, which the national Republican Party has replaced with a stylized one with rounded edges.

I like the older, more energetic elephant.

The campaign had about a third of the precinct committeemen supporting me. I remember Nunda Township Supervisor Ted Sterns, after whom Sterns Woods is named, telling me that I should wait my turn, that I was young, that I had time.

(A neighbor across the way from his basket show on Woodstock Street said he ran a bookie joint. He said there was an incredible amount of traffic in and out of the little building that was torn down to be part of the Crystal Lake City Hall parking lot.)

Another precinct committeeman from McHenry Township told me I would be eaten alive by the tigers in the courthouse.

When I campaigned at the small grocery store in Fox River Grove, the Republican precinct committeeman called to complain that I had not asked his permission. Ted Mandale was a Goldwater Republican who later moved to Lake Forest where I reconnected with him and his wife Ruth after I became more conservative.

Because the election was held the second Tuesday of June, I had plenty of time to knock on doors—some 4,000, I think. The county’s population was about 90,000 at the time.

With nightfall being pretty late, I found that I could knock on doors until 8:45 without scaring people. Of course, it helped that I was young. I sensed many of the older women gave me the same benefit of the doubt they would have given their grandsons.

In any event, I put these little posters up all over McHenry County. Supporters of the other two candidates, Harvard Police Chief Gene Brewer and Hartland Township Supervisor and county board member Ray Murphy thought there must be at least six people putting them up.

But it was just me.

I even put one on a telephone pole outside the police department door. It stayed up for years, but was probably a bad idea, because Brewer probably just got more energized every time he saw it.

After Earth Day in 1969, Jack Schaffer and I pretty much agreed that signs on poles and in rights-of-ways were something that no longer seems appropriate.

The right-of-way avoidance continued until Don Manzullo ran for congress in 1992. Apparently he had more signs than he could find supporters to give permission to place on their properties. Maybe it was because he was running against Schaffer and McHenry County was his “home town.”

Signs have been illegally put in road rights-of-way ever since.

My father designed the sign, by the way.

Since I have an article about the McHenry County Treasurer’s office below, today is as good a one as any to post this sign.

It’s a political sign that helped me (barely) win the 1966 Republican June primary election for county treasurer two days after my 24th birthday.

It’s 8½ inches wide and 7 inches high.

It says,

There were made out of 8½ by 14 inch goldenrod card stock.

They were printed on a mimeograph machine. This one didn’t get inked as well as it should have.

Then, they were cut in half.

You will not the hard charging elephant, which the national Republican Party has replaced with a stylized one with rounded edges.

I like the older, more energetic elephant.

The campaign had about a third of the precinct committeemen supporting me. I remember Nunda Township Supervisor Ted Sterns, after whom Sterns Woods is named, telling me that I should wait my turn, that I was young, that I had time.

(A neighbor across the way from his basket show on Woodstock Street said he ran a bookie joint. He said there was an incredible amount of traffic in and out of the little building that was torn down to be part of the Crystal Lake City Hall parking lot.)

Another precinct committeeman from McHenry Township told me I would be eaten alive by the tigers in the courthouse.

When I campaigned at the small grocery store in Fox River Grove, the Republican precinct committeeman called to complain that I had not asked his permission. Ted Mandale was a Goldwater Republican who later moved to Lake Forest where I reconnected with him and his wife Ruth after I became more conservative.

Because the election was held the second Tuesday of June, I had plenty of time to knock on doors—some 4,000, I think. The county’s population was about 90,000 at the time.

With nightfall being pretty late, I found that I could knock on doors until 8:45 without scaring people. Of course, it helped that I was young. I sensed many of the older women gave me the same benefit of the doubt they would have given their grandsons.

In any event, I put these little posters up all over McHenry County. Supporters of the other two candidates, Harvard Police Chief Gene Brewer and Hartland Township Supervisor and county board member Ray Murphy thought there must be at least six people putting them up.

But it was just me.

I even put one on a telephone pole outside the police department door. It stayed up for years, but was probably a bad idea, because Brewer probably just got more energized every time he saw it.

After Earth Day in 1969, Jack Schaffer and I pretty much agreed that signs on poles and in rights-of-ways were something that no longer seems appropriate.

The right-of-way avoidance continued until Don Manzullo ran for congress in 1992. Apparently he had more signs than he could find supporters to give permission to place on their properties. Maybe it was because he was running against Schaffer and McHenry County was his “home town.”

Signs have been illegally put in road rights-of-way ever since.

My father designed the sign, by the way.