JOHN MARTIN FREDERICK LEVERENZ JR.

On top of a hill that reaches down uo meandering Springbrook Creek, three generations ago Leverenz's worked the earth with horse-drawn plow, wrestling the elements and drawing sustenance from the land.

In 1861, from a part of Germany known as Alsace Lorraine, Frederick Leverenz (1839-1917) brought his wife Lizette (1835-1893). They settled on a farm at the northeast corner of Naperville-Plainfield Road and 87th Streets in 1870. Of their seven children, three survived them. Their son Johann Martin Carl (1872-1952) married Mary Barbara Rudolph (from Berlin, Germany; 1881-1972) in 1899. Mary bore two boys and five gir~s.

In the winter Johann and neighbors A1 Eichelberger, Henry Pfister and Mart Hughes formed a butchering ring. They would gather at one farm and help butcher hogs and cattle, then go on to the next neighbor. The meat was cured in liquid brine and smoked. No refrigeration was available, so the hams were wrapped in cloth and buried in the oats bin to keep then preserved in the summer. They prepared liver sausage, blood sausage, and pork sausage with beef7 also head cheese and rendering the lard. Johann would take wheat uo the mill in West Chicago and have it ground into flour. From milk they would separate the cream and make butter and cottage cheese.

Johann's eldest son, John Martin Frederick Leverenz, Jr. was born January 23, 1913. John only had to walk a mile to get to Springbrook Elementary School, and Reba Steck (the same one the present elementary school is named after) taught all eight grades. Me attended Washington High School, which still stands today as Washington Jr. High School. After graduating in 1930 he went co North Central College during two depression years.

Some of Johns recollections:

"When I was real young I had to cultivate. I sat on (the cultivator) as the horses pulled it, and I used my feet to control the shovels. When I got older I used three horses and could do three rows at once!"

“Pa had an old blind work horse. One day I was learning to ride my bicycle. I could balance real good, but didn't know how to use the brakes. I got the bike going down the hill.Then I saw the old mare just standing in the middle of the road dozing! Boy, was she surprised when I zipped right under her belly!”

"When I was a boy, Lindburgh ran a mail route from St. Louis to Chicago. He would fly over our place every day. I'd run out to wave, and he would tip his wings to wave back." This early experience inspired John to learn to fly. He bought a Cessna 150 and taught himself. He built a hangar on the farm and put a grass runway right through the middle of the field to en3oy his hobby.

He continued in the tradition of his father and grandfather and farmed the homestead. He found many Indian artifacts along the creek and clear springs which bubbled to the surface near the creek. They were probably of Pottawattoml origzn, as the Pottawattomi Indians resided in this area before the first settlers arrived in the 1830's.

John became the president of the City of Lights motorcycle club in Aurora, and in the early 1940's John made a dashing figure. He met Jean Marie Anderson at a dance in Chicago at the old Aragon Theater, and swept her off her feet. They were wed in 1945. John and Jean had four children; Lorna, Sallie, Jody, and John III., Lorna and Johnny died as children. Sallie and Jody still live in the area, wedded with children.

When John was a young man he and his brother Grant went into custom farming, buying an Ann Arbor hay bailer and corn picker. At a time when most farmers didn't have this new, powerful equipment John and Grant traveled far and wide with their services. They often hired friends to help with the work. Alan Diehl recalls "I was just a kid of about 13 years when I worked for them one summer. We'd go up around Glen Ellyn. It was so far I'd get homesick!"

Later, as John saw the need for recapturing flood plains and marshes for farming, he started his own business, John Leverenz Trenching. John got a 1952 Ford digger and a 1940's Willy jeep equipped with a trencher and was ready for action. John laid miles of drainage tile for neighboring farms in DuPage and Will Countys so farmers could extend their tillable land, including the area where College of DuPage and Oakbrook Shopping Mall are now located.

No biography of John would be complete without mentioning Pompano Beach, Florida. John traveled to Florida first as a driver for Miss Margaret Fry and her daughter when he was only 15. Pompano was unlike anything the midwestern farmboy had ever seen. He fell in love with the wild, exotic habitat of Florida and determined to make it a part of his life. He saw his chance in the 1930's, and purchased land from Jim McNabe, the original land baron of the area. John returned every winter to clear the land and build a cottage. He battled coral snakes, rattlers and black widow spiders and found a fast friend in old Doc Windsor. John liked to capture the strange, unusual creatures and bring them to the Doc for identification. One coral snake he found was so large the Burry Museum in Pompano had it on display for many years.

Eventually, John brought his family down to share the mysteries of the magical tropical kingdom he had discovered and helped to tame.

John was involved with the Wheatland Plowing Match for many years. Alan Deiht recalls that Harry Clow instigated applying an old Hawaiian BBQ technique in '66 and '67. A large hole was needed, 5-6 feet deep, with 1-2 feet of big rocks poured in. John's digging equipment was just the thing for the job. The farmers used hedge posts, which burn hot and long, to start a fire a day ahead and burned them down to coals. Then they hung huge roasts of beef, wrapped in wet burlap, over the sides of the hole, covered it with a 6 inch layer of soil and let it cook overnight. John dug one pit ahead of time for the first day of the Match, and then another so they could start roasting for the second days' feast. John continued to dig BBQ pits for the Match for several more years.

John collected all manor of things, especially farm implements and tools. Many of his friends chuckle at the mention of this. He was infamous for his penchant for collecting. He collected so many things he stuffed barns, garages and sheds. In more recent time he and his family began the long task of sorting and selling...and donating items from his unique collection.

As the Wheatland Plowing Match has held a warm place in the hearts of the Leverenz family and their relations from way back, a two-bottom horse-drawn plow and a two-ear wooden corn chopper will one day be on display at the Wheatland Plowing Match Association's long-awaited site. You can see some of Johns farm tools as par5 of the sculpture in downtown Napervitle on Jefferson Avenue. A horse-drawn carriage that John stored high in the gables of a farm building will be in Plainfield parades courtesy of its new owner, Earl Lamberts' daughter, Darlene Lambert. The Northern Illinois Steam Power Club in Hampshire Illinois displays a massive Budda power plant once used to power an entire quarry operation, compliments of John.

John was baptised in the Zion Lutheran church, and Frederick and Lizette Leverenz are amoung the first settlers to be buried there. Sallie Leverenz was amoung the last to be wed there, in 1984. The old church is anticipated to be par5 of the re-creation of an 1800's farm community. The Thomas Clow Farmstead at the Riverview Farm Preserve, owned by the Forest Preserve of Will County, will have Johns' old three row corn planter, a corn sheller, and a fanning mill.

John and Jean have been married 54 years and still live on the original Leverenz farm which is now a part of the Springbrook Prairie Forest Preserve.