By Ricky Rieckert
Dear subscribers, restaurant, and/ or business readers, and all:
On behalf of this great newspaper, I welcome you, with open arms and, among other things, pleasant reading of the history of the great city, Aurora.
Here we go:
Brothers Joseph and Samuel McCarty, ages 24 and 22, founded Aurora in 1834.
They started the McCarty Mills on an island in the middle of the Fox River, now downtown Aurora, opened the first church on Fox Street, East Downer Place and Lincoln Avenue, and later lived in the McCarty mansion after starting in a log cabin. The McCarty mansion later became The Knights of Columbus, and now is the Warehouse Church. The first U.S. Post Office in Aurora was opened n 1837. Aurora is now the second largest city in Illinois with a population of approximately 200,000.
Aurora is known as the Aurora Borealis, The City of Lights, the first city in the United States with public street lights.
A little about the author of said knowledge: I was born in July 1959, at St. Joseph Hospital, at Lake Street and West Park.
My mother had to get me out of there quickly, because of the female babies and female nurses wouldn’t leave me alone.
Thanks, Mom.
I was baptized at St. Mary’s Church on East Downer Place (formerly, Fox Street) and Root Street.
The parish members were mainly of Irish descent. I was baptized by the past monsignor, Edwin Wright.
God Bless him, he ended his career at Blessed Sacrament in North Aurora. Rest in peace, fellow White Sox fan.
Remember, for a future quiz, what year did the White Sox last win the American League pennant?
Answer: Next week.
Keep on reading. I want to thank Jason Crane and Carter Crane for the opportunity to serve the future of this paper and the future of each and everyone of you, faithful reader.
Any complaints to my article, don’t send.
Compliments should be addressed to the chief editor.
Remember, I just started at a mere 100,000 dollars per year for 52 editions.
Not bad for a guy who writes a little jive, here and there.
For real, I don’t get paid at all.
I like people! What’s wrong with that?
Hope to see all of you, next week.