Lee County Genealogical Society

Here is a bit of trivia, probably not known by anyone around the Dixon area.

Question: What does Page Park in Dixon IL and the Patti Page have in common besides the name Page in their name? The answer is that they both are named for the Page family that lived in Lee County.

If you don’t know who Patti Page is, she a best-selling female singer during the 1950s, Patti Page had several hits including “The Doggie in the Window” and “Tennessee Waltz.”

The Page Family came to Lee County, IL with my Fellows ancestors in 1834. My great-great grandfathers, (Simon Fellows) sister, Julia Fellows, married John Ham Page. The two oldest sons of John and Julia Page, Charles Page and George Page, would become the founders of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company in Switzerland. It was after the end of the Civil War that Charles Page would travel to Zurich, Switzerland to become vice consul for the United State’s Department of State. While in Switzerland Charles saw the opportunity to start a condensed milk company. Along with his brother, George Page, they began the process of making condense milk. In 1888 George Page came back to Dixon IL and started a plant for the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company. William B. Page, another brother, was the first superintendent and was in charge of the plant operations. In 1905 the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company merged with Nestle and the company was known as Nestlé and Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company, retaining that name until 1947, when the name just Nestle was used after the Nestle and Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company merged with yet another company. During the early 1900’s many members of the Page family remained in the milk business. Several members opened milk companies around the United States. Jim Page, the grand-son of William B. Page would be in charge of the Page Milk Company near Tulsa Oklahoma, where the company sponsored a morning radio show.

Patti Page was born in Muskogee Oklahoma and her real name is Clara Ann Fowler, she began singing at a radio station in Tulsa Oklahoma but was introduced as Little Patti Page, the same radio show that was sponsored by the Page Milk Company. Over a period of time Patti Page started picking up addition gigs and her singing became a professional career. In 1946 she was very well known locally as Patti Page, not Clara Ann Fowler. One night a well known saxophone player and band manager heard Patti Page sing and asked her to join a band he managed. Not being very well known at Clara Ann Fowler, she asked Jim Page for permission to use the stage name of Patti Page and Jim Page agreed.

This story was first shared with me by one of my Page cousins in 1996, and later retold by another cousin. Over the years I researched the story and confirmed it with some Internet research. There is a lot more information on the Page’s, Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, and Patti Page on the Internet.

Alto Township Schools
Taken from the book
Pictorial History of Lee County Schools
Dana Fellows ~ 2007

 

Carey School, District #133Carey School was located on the southwest corner of Steward Road and Hayes Road in Alto Township.
Carey became part of District #271 in 1948 and was closed soon thereafter.

 

 

 

 

Finnestad School or Carlson School, District #135
Finnestad/Carlson School was located on Woodlawn Road, north of Elva Road, on the east side in Alto Township.
Finnestad/Carlson became part of District #271 on July 1, 1948 and closed in 1951.

 

 

 

Grimes School, District #138
Grimes school was located on McGirr Road, east of Steward Road, on north side of the road in Alto Township.
Grimes became part of District #271 in 1948. In 1954 it closed and became part of Steward, District #220.

 

 

 

Peterson School, District #137
Peterson School was located on the southwest corner of Reynolds and Woodlawn Roads in Alto Township. The first Peterson school was built in 1885 on ½ acre of land given by Nels Peterson that was located on his farm. The original building burned down and a new building was built in 1915. (Lee, IL – Then and Now 1874 – 1974)
Peterson School became part of District #271 in 1948. The school closed in 1952 and was remodeled and used as a home.
After Peterson school closed, the students probably attended school in Lee, IL.

 

Prestegaard School, District #139
Prestegaard School was located on Herman Road, west of Woodlawn Road, on the north side of the road in Alto Township.
The Prestegaard School was built in 1865 on land that detached from the O. J. Prestegaard farm. He deeded it to the school district for as long as it was used as a school. The school closed and the students probably attended school in Lee, IL. (Lee IL – Then and Now 1874 – 1974)
In 1948 part of the Prestegaard School district annexed to District #271 and part was annexed to District #425 in Dekalb County.
The building was sold in the 1950’s to Otto Oleson. In the middle of the night, sometime in 1967, an arsonist set fire to the Prestegaard School, destroying it. (Lee, IL – Then and Now 1874 – 1974)

 

Steward School (Built 1881), District #136
Steward School is located on the southwest corner of Perry and Steward Roads in Alto Township and in the Village of Steward.
The first school was built about 1859. Later the building was moved to the main street and was used as a store and later as a post office.
In 1881 a two story school was built at a cost of $7000. This building served the area until it was destroyed by fire in February of 1903. Classes were moved to empty store buildings and the church. Almost immediately a new school was erected in Steward. After the Steward school that was built in 1881 burned in 1903 the school board immediately approved the building of a new school. The new school was completed in November, 1903.

District #136 & #252
Another school was built in 1926. The new school, built in 1926, had a much larger gymnasium. An article in the 1970 Rochelle News Leader described the gym in the old school as being so small that the free throw circles intersected with the half court jump circle. In the 1940’s two, closed country schools buildings, were moved across from the existing school to provide more classroom space. They were both replaced later by two quonset huts. The school received additions in 1935 and 1962. The addition in 1962 included a music room, cafeteria, health room, class rooms and office space. The two quonset huts were removed after the additions were done. In 1998 more demolition and remodeling was done on the building.
Steward also had a High School, District #252. High school in Steward originally only consisted of two years and then later three years. The first, four-year high school class, graduated in 1932. In 1948 Steward School became part of District #271. In 1954 Steward was detached from District #271 and organized as Steward Elementary District #220. In 1955 high school students were bused to Rochelle High School.

 

 

Thorpe School, District #134
Thorpe School was located on Locust Road, north of Elva Road, on the west side of the road in Alto Township.
The school may have closed about 1945 and part of Thorpe School District became part of District #271 in 1948.

Lee County Genealogical Society is on Facebook. If you don’t have a Facebook account they are really easy to set up. It is our hope that this Facebook page will help bring members together and help with their family research. Visit the  LCGS Facebook Page .

The Lee County Genealogical Society is now an affiliate of the Family History Center in Salt Lake City.

Here is a short cut of a list of favorites on their site.
http://www.fhlfavorites.com

Welcome to our new site. I have updated the site for the Lee County Genealogical Society to make it easier for people to help keep the site updated. We use to use Joomla for the site but the new site is done using WordPress. Both products are very nice but we decided that WordPress was easier for others to learn how to add information to the site.