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The property at 2302 Main Street goes a little farther back than most of downtown Spring Grove. The first house there was built around 1840 by a Mr. Church. Almost 40 years later, in 1878, Courtland Hastings and Frances Hoffman, who married in 1876, purchased the house and acreage. They had two children, Alice, born in 1877 and Homer P. who lived from 1879-1881. They farmed and raised cows and sheep. Courtland won second place prize for the “best and quickest shearing” of his sheep at the Northern Illinois Sheep Breeders Association gathering in 1885. In 1902 the Hastings sold the property to John Kattner for $825.
John Kattner was born in Johnsburg, the son of August Kattner (1830-1878). August died helping a neighbor while scalding pigs. John had 7 siblings (his brother Joe, had the Kattner farm one mile east of Spring Grove on Main Street). John married Barbara Etten in 1906 at age 39 and his first daughter, Regina, was born in 1908. He had five other children and was 52 when the last was born in 1920.
The house where the Hastings lived was the oldest building in Spring Grove in 1902, but John built a new larger home to raise his family and removed the Hastings house. John’s occupation was a “buyer of livestock”. He had a small calf slaughterhouse on the Nippersink Creek, across the street from his house and he would sell the meat. In 1902 on the road to Solon Mills, John “ran into Mr. and Mrs. Johonnott” with his large stock wagon. Luckily no one was hurt but Mr. Johonnott’s carriage was “badly demoralized”. In 1936 the house was put in unmarried daughter Regina’s name.
In 1943, Regina, “a spinster”, sold a strip of land 15 feet in width and “4 chains and 15 links in length”, running north and south, from the west end of her property to St. Peter Church. This would be the driveway to St. Peter’s cemetery, which opened in 1911 and is located behind the house. This gave the church a second driveway to the cemetery for a better traffic flow. John died in 1943 and Barbara died six years later in 1949. They were parishioners of St. Peter Church and are both buried in the cemetery in their backyard. In 1951 Regina sold the property to Walter and Anna Kowalski.
Walter Kowalski was part owner of the Spring Grove Farm Store at 1923 Main Street. Called “Walt and Terry’s” by the locals, they sold Allis Chalmers tractors and repaired farm equipment, lawn movers, etc. At some point, Walter built a two-story addition with large picture windows on the front of the house. What they gained in extra room, they lost in aesthetics. The square addition took the space of the front porch and second story windows. Although the fancy gable pediment is missing, scalloped siding still peeks out on the gable from the back of the addition, as if it doesn’t want to be forgotten.
Story by Laura Frumet
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