This is a reprint of a “From the Local History Room” column that first appeared in July 2014 before the launch of this weblog.
Before West Campus: the Menheusen Prairie
By Jared Olar
Library assistant
It has been about eight years since the former Pekin Community High School West Campus has been demolished, and even now it’s natural that the land on which it stood is still referred to as “West Campus.” For those who went to school there, it will probably always be “West Campus.”
However, before it was the location of Pekin’s high school, the land had another name, as is seen in the minutes of the meetings of the old Pekin School District School Board.
The November 2013 issue of the Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society Monthly reprinted the “Proceeedings of the Board of School Inspectors of the City of Pekin” from the years 1912 and 1913. During those years, the school board made plans to build a new high school – what eventually would come to be known as West Campus.
At the meeting of March 29, 1912, the school board passed an important resolution:
“Inspector Aydelott offered the following resolution: Be it resolved … that for the purpose of building a new Lincoln School building on the present Lincoln School grounds at a cost of ($40,000.00) Forty Thousand Dollars; for the purpose of making an addition to the Garfield School at a cost of Ten Thousand ($10,000.00) Dollars and for the purpose of building a new High School Building on what is known as Menheusen Prairie, corner of Broadway and Eighth streets at a cost of Fifty five Thousand ($55,000.00) Dollars, we call an election to be held on the 15th day of April A.D. 1912 to vote on issuing bonds in the sum of One Hundred five Thousand ($105,000.00) Dollars.”
A few months after the bond issue was approved by Pekin’s voters, at the meeting of Nov. 12, 1912, “On motion of Inspector Aydelott the Committee on School Site were authorized and instructed to petition His Honor the Mayor and Board of Commissioners to vacate the street on what is known as Menhuesen (sic) Prairie for school purposes.”
The land on which the high school was built – the Menheusen Prairie – was bounded on the north by Ann Eliza Street, on the east by North Ninth Street, on the south by Broadway, and on the west by North Eighth Street. It was bisected from west to east by Margaret Street, which is the street that the school board asked the city to vacate so the new high school could be built there.
At the time that the December 1909 Sanborn fire insurance maps of Pekin were drawn, this property had only three structures: a small “Voting House” at 18 N. Eighth St, the corner of Eighth and Margaret; a residence at 110 N. Eighth St., the corner of Eight and Ann Eliza; and a small outbuilding on the same lot as the residence. According to David Perkins of the Tazewell County Genealogical & Historical Society, the residence at 110 N. Eighth St. reportedly was moved to Washington Street to make way for the new high school.
How did this property come to be known as “the Menheusen Prairie”? It got its name because it was a stretch of meadow and farmland owned by a family of 19th century German immigrants from Ostfriesland, in what was then the German kingdom of Hanover. In old records, this family’s surname is spelled variously “Menhusen,” “Manhusen” and “Menheusen.” The Menheusen Prairie was located in the old German ethnic district of Pekin popularly known as “Beantown” from the great number of gardens grown by the German newcomers to Pekin who had settled there.
The Menhusen name first appears in the 1870 Pekin City Directory, on page 48, which lists “Menhusen B., laborer, bds ne cor Third and Ann Eliza.” There are no Menhusens in the 1876 Pekin City Directory, but the 1887 directory, page 53, shows “Menhusen Albert, grinder Pekin Plow Co. res. 400 N. 8,” and “Menhusen Barthold, teamster, res. 400 N. 8.”
Albert and Barthold were brothers, sons of Meinert “Barney” Jannsen Menhusen and his wife Fentje “Fannie” Bartels Strunk, who had come to Tazewell County from Hamswehrum, Ostfriesland. Meinert died in 1904 and is buried in San Jose.
Like his father Meinert, Barthold Menhusen (whose name also appears in old records as “Bertold” and “Bardelt”) was commonly known in Pekin as “Barney.” He married Catrina Rickelfs in 1871 in Tazewell County and had four children with her. Catrina apparently died prior to 1880, however, because that year he remarried to Fulka Schipper, also a German immigrant from Ostfriesland. The 1880 U.S. Census shows “B. Manhusen,” age 28, a farmer, with his wife “Fulka,” age 34, with Barney’s children Anna, age 10, twins John and Fanny, age 8, and Jeana, age 7. At the time of the 1880 census, Barney and his family were living on Margaret Street – apparently on the land that came to be called the Menheusen Prairie.
The 1887-88 Pekin City Directory, page 172, shows “Barney Menhusen” operating a saloon at 220 Court St., while page 86 lists his residence at 110 N. Eighth St. That is also where he was living at the time of the 1900 U.S. Census, which lists “Barney Menhusen,” a “constabler” (sic), born February 1852 in Germany, with his wife “Fulka,” born May 1848 in Germany (her death record says she was born Oct. 7, 1846), and an adopted son, “Barney,” born August 1889 in Illinois.
Barney had died by 1903, however, because the 1903-04 Pekin City Directory, page 111, shows “Menheusen, Mrs., wid Barney, r 110 N. 8th.” The 1905 Pekin City Directory, page 114, shows “Menheusen, Foelkers (sic), M., wid Barney, r 110 N. 8th.” However, the 1908 Pekin City Directory, page 152, shows “Menhusen, Mrs. Folke, r 1308 Somerset,” while page 153 lists her adopted son Barney A. Menhusen at the same address, indicating that Barney’s widow and adopted son had moved a few years prior to the construction of the new high school. Folka apparently remained at 1308 Somerset until her death on Sept. 12, 1931.
