The first issue of the Monroe Evening Times was published on October 13, 1898. Fifty years later the paper printed a large issue that is mentioned here by Mr. Gloege. Another twenty-five years later the Times printed the largest issue in its history of more than 120 years. It contained many sections and more than 100 pages with reprints of many old photographs. The advertisements for the long-time Monroe businesses contained their history. All of this makes that newspaper a valuable resource for anyone interested in Monroe history. The following letter from Emil H. Gloege (1879-1958), a retired Monroe photographer who was living in Pomona, California, was printed two months after the golden anniversary issue.
“Belatedly let me, too, congratulate you on the 50th anniversary of The Times. Friends sent me a copy of the souvenir edition, which I read from “cover to cover” without stopping. Though not as old as some of its citizens, I do remember nearly all the people, places, and events of Monroe mentioned.
“Many of the illustrations of old Monroe are from negatives I presented seventeen years ago through Carl Marty to the future Green County Historical Society as there was talk then that such society was soon to be formed. These negatives were some of the tens of thousands of H. G. White’s which I selected when the older ones were to be destroyed. The later ones were moved to the Joshua Zweifel studio, which later came into my possession when I purchased the studio.
“I can well remember when about one half the square was a hodge podge of wooden shacks — when the brick house (Churchill) on the west side of the square was still used as a private residence. [That house is shown in the photo printed here.] The gable end building on the east side of the square where a Mr. (William) Edwards had a shoe repairing shop upstairs [in the] building where Father, H. L. Gloege, conducted a grocery business immediately after his discharge from the Civil War. [That photo is on the top of page 23 in the same book.]
“The three-story building shown in the same picture where Monroe’s first banking business was established was demolished to make room for the ultra-modern Hoehn building which had the most wonderful lighting system ever heard of. The kerosene lamps were all fed from a tank through pipes that ran the length of the store.
“The photo of Gen. Nate Twining reminds me of a small kid in what later became a kindergarten. I went to the general’s grandfather, Prof. Nathaniel C. Twining, as every grade from ‘E’ class, first room, through high school was in the same building and Prof. Twining belonged to all of us. I have tried, but never succeeded, in locating a picture of the school house which stood where the present Lincoln School stands before the three-story school was erected about 1871. [The three-story school is the top photo on page 98 in the gray Pictorial History of Monroe. It is also on the cover of the blue Monroe Area Pictorial History.] Hattie Corson, pictured on page 20, with Addie Caughey (called Coy), Jimmie Sykes, and Nell Schoenfield were teachers in the ‘First Room’ during my time there.
“I see the Arabut Ludlow house has undergone a face lifting for the third time. The windows on the south side were replaced with a pair of two story bays. Later these were removed and the house restored to its original lines. At that time, no moulding could be found to match that in the rest of the rooms. To the rescue came Jesse Robertson who still had the plane by which the original moulding was made. In regard to the Willis Ludlow house recently purchased by the Legion [This building is shown on the bottom of page 114 in the gray book.] you give the date as having been built by Lewis Starr in 1862. This seems to be an error the date being 1857. My father told me many times on passing the place that he had worked on the house the first year he was in this country, 1857 was the year he came — in 1862 he was in the army.
“The best historian Monroe ever had was Mrs. Lizette (Jesse) Robertson, who knew the town from its earliest day having come here with her grandmother as a child. By the way, this grandmother was a real first-generation DAR and her remains remain buried in the old cemetery west of the square now the county Normal school.”
I enjoy these early recollections of the early residents of Monroe who give us an insight into what the city was like in those early days. It sometimes gives us a different perspective than what the history books do.
— Matt Figi is a Monroe resident and a local historian. His column will appear periodically on Saturdays in the Times. He can be reached at mfigi48@tds.net or at 608-325-6503.
