HR1051 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR1051 LRB098 21050 GRL 58781 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The phenomenal growth of Waukegan Township, located 36 miles north of Chicago and 60 miles south of Milwaukee, can be attributed to industry, Lake Michigan, and the railroads; toward the middle of the 19th century, Waukegan Township became a thriving center of industry; and

WHEREAS, The Washburn and Moen Manufacturing Company of Worcester, Massachusetts established a wire mill, the Waukegan Works, along Lake Michigan; the land for its Illinois operation was purchased on January 16, 1891 at the recommendation of its advisers, Philip W. Moen, Charles G. Washburn, Fred H. Daniels, and Edwin Lenox, and included much of the Elisha Wadsworth Estate; in March of 1891, construction of the Mill complex was started on a 40 acre plot; by September, a galvanizing operation began; in November, the company's subdivision, The Waukegan Highlands, was platted west of the mill; the first wire was drawn in December; and

WHEREAS, In 1892, the company, a principal manufacturer of Glidden barbed wire, introduced Waukegan Barbed Wire, invented by John D. Curtis; and

WHEREAS, The establishment of the plant led both an industrial and population boom, with workers from Worcester and immigrants from Finland, Sweden, and Eastern Europe moving to the Washburn and Moen subdivision; Slovenian workers called the area "the Kompanija" - the Company District; first named South Waukegan, the community that rapidly developed near the mill was later incorporated as North Chicago; and

WHEREAS, The first wave of industrialization attracted Eastern Europeans, Finns, and Swedes; during the 1920s, the next round of manufacturing expansion, Waukegan's population went up about 75%, drawing upon African-Americans and Southern whites; by 1955, there were around 19,000 manufacturing jobs in the Waukegan-North Chicago economic complex; all the workers who came for those jobs were critical to growing thriving communities; and

WHEREAS, The American Steel and Wire Company, which later became the United States Steel Corporation, acquired the Mill in 1899; by the 1950s, the company had become one of Lake County's largest employers; and

WHEREAS, Many companies, including American Steel & Wire (United States Steel), Cyclone Fence, Fansteel, and Chicago Hardware Foundry, among others, forged not just metals, but the means of growth and support for Waukegan Township; and

WHEREAS, In 1980, the Steel Worker Retirees Club was created to further the interests of retired steelworkers and their spouses and better the communities where they live; and

WHEREAS, The Steel Worker Retirees Club welcomes any person as a member who was in good standing with the United Steel Workers of America at the time of their retirement; and

WHEREAS, The Steel Worker Retirees Club includes any person as a member who was a retiree, spouse, widow, or widower of a former employee of United States Steel, Waukegan Works, Cyclone Fence, and the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway; and

WHEREAS, The Wire Mill Workers Retirees Club has been an integral part of the communities of Waukegan and North Chicago; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we recognize and congratulate the members of the Wire Mill Workers Retirees Club and their families at their annual reunion dinner; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the Wire Mill Workers Retirees Club as an expression of our esteem and respect.