BOECKER, FUEL AND GRAIN FAMILY

Three generations of Boeckers have operated the Boecker Coal (Fuel) and Grain Co. for 114 years at Fifth Avenue and Ellsworth Street.

On Nov. 1, 1982, Leonard (Len) Boecker terminated his 65-year career in the family enterprise by selling his oil business to Will-DuPage Farmers’ Services of Joliet. Len’s grandfather B.B. Boecker Sr. was operating a lumber and hay business when he purchased Musselman’s Coal and Grain Co. The two tall grain elevators on the site were among the town’s landmarks. By 1880 he had a grist mill, producing feed and adding another product to the business.

B.B. Boecker’s son, Theodore (Tip), took over the business in 1907, and 10 years later, management of the company was assumed by Tip’s two sons — Theodore Jr. (Ted) and Len. They began to sell oil as well as coal in 1922, and changed the firm’s name to Boecker Fuel and Grain Co. Because coal is so expensive now there is no longer any call for it, and the sale of it has been discontinued.

In 1964, Ted and Len built the Boecker office building on the corner of their property, at 190 E. Fifth Avenue. Five years ago, Len bought out Ted’s interest in the business, and in 1979, the one remaining elevator was removed from the property.

The fuel and grain business is a thing of the past now, but a fourth generation Boecker, Len’s son, Peter, operates Lenny’s DuPage Asphalt Co. from the office building. Behind the office building, the old weighing station still stands — a memento of the century that the Boeckers served farmers, merchants, and townspeople with essential services.