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Fire Barn # 5
Elgin Eagle Beer
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Grove Ave 
at Nite.
North on Grove
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Modern Elgin
Grove Ave. (Mod)
Aerial View
Elgin Skyline
Greetings From Elgin
Greetings From Elgin (1975)

Elgin Dairy Farm 

Many of the early settlers in Elgin were farmers, with wheat being their largest crop. In the 1850’s the demand for wheat began to decline and farmers were faced with a choice: readdress their business practices or face extinction. The answer would become one of Elgin’s biggest revenue producers: milk. Chicago needed a constant and sizable stream of fresh milk and Elgin took up the challenge.

In 1852, Phineas Smith would ship a bottle of milk from his farm, land owned by Dr. Joseph Tefft that would eventually become Lord’s Park, to a Chicago hotel. By 1858 he would be joined by over 20 other farmers were cumulatively sending over 21,000 gallons of milk to Chicago. By the 1890’s the ranks of milk, butter and cheese factories within a 50 mile radius of Elgin increased to over 200. "Elgin Dairy" milkmen were common occurrences in Chicago.

By 1891, David W. Wilson had established The Elgin butter district, a board designed to regulate and set prices for dairy products would meet once a week on South Grove Avenue. The board’s motto was "Elgin Makes the Price, We Tell You What It Is".

These activities would attract the attention of Gail Borden, of Borden’s Evaporated Milk fame and John Newman, owner of The Springbrook Dairy, who owned or controlled the output of over 50 dairies.

Ed. Note:  The woman who sold me this card was a retired Elgin School District teacher.  As she was selling it to me, she said with a straight face, "they tore that building down, you know!"  (??????????)

      

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Walton Island
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Elgin Nat'l 
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West & Front Wing
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National House
Elgin Watchmakers College
Il. Watch 
Case Factory
Eppenstein's Home
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N. Y. World's Fair
My Elgin's All Right
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Gifford Park
Veteran Monument
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Scenic View
Upper Lake
Band Stand
Audubon Museum
Pavilion At Night
Pavilion in Wintertime
Bear Pit
Trout Park
Trout Park  Amusement Park
Sulfur  Springs
(Wing Park)
Pavilion,
Wing Park
Swimming Pool
Band Concert
(Wing Park)
Weldwood Country Club
Central Park
Bridge over Tyler Creek
Windmill on Aurora Elgin RR
Hotels
Kelley Hotel
Hotel Fosgate
Fox Hotel
Misc.
Dairy Cows
Interurban
 Hiawatha
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Other Elgins
Elgin, Texas
Elgin, Minnesota
Elgin Oregon
Elgin, Arizona