Pete Swanson

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Pete Swanson was a busy successful stone mason of the area which was to become La Grange Park. Although he was doing well financial with all the masonry work available, he saw an opportunity to make even more money and enjoy himself. The area was dry, but that did not stop him from setting up a "blind pig" (an illegal tavern) in his home. The residents of the area quickly grow sick of the carousing patrons of the Swanson tavern.

Alphonse Kemman and David Lyon led a successful effort to incorporate the area as La Grange Park. On July 14, 1892, a referendum passed calling for the incorporation of the Village of La Grange Park. This first act of the newly formed Village was to pass an ordinance declaring the Village dry. It remained dry until the 1970's.

Numerous sources were used in the compilation of these entries including but not limited to:

"Progress, Pride, Growth, 1905 - 1980, 75^th Anniversary --Village of Hillside", C.1981 published by Village of Hillside, Hillside, IL, by Ruth Lommatzsch and Ann Hoogstra
DuPage County Genealogical Sociey - issue of March 2000 #151
Images of America -- La Grange and La Grange Park, Illinois by RoseAnna and Robert Mueller, Arcadia Publishing
La Grange Centennial History 1879-1979, William J Cromie, Editor, La Grange Area Historical Society, 1979

Other specific references are notes within individual entries.

Please feel free to contact me at j.arbuthnot@sbcglobal.net. I will route your email through our other researchers.

Last Modified: 01/21/2003