The Second Annual Election (April 18, 1890)
The second Corporation election was held April 18, 1890. Charles J. Bethke won re-election as President with 115 votes, defeating challenger Sergt. Harvey (46 votes). 161 total votes were cast — a significant increase from the 114 cast in the 1888-east-dundee-first-election|first election two years earlier. Ernest Luther won the Clerk's race with 160 votes.
Trustees elected to full terms:
- Henry Rover — 90 votes
- Jno. Steffen — 81 votes
- John Moeller — 71 votes (defeated: Chas. Bauer 75, Hy. J. Petze 68, Fred Houdman 78)
Organizing the Fire Department (July–August 1890)
At a Special Meeting on July 10, 1890, the village formally organized its fire company. The fire marshal's surety bond was set at $500, with Henry Rover as surety. The following men were appointed firemen by motion of Fred Roehl, seconded by Joseph Steffen: John Mohr, Fred Benner, Emil Bohen, and Chris Wesl.
An extensive Fire Marshall Ordinance was adopted around the same period, running 16 detailed sections. Key provisions:
- The Fire Marshall held "sole and absolute control and command over all persons connected with the fire department" while on duty (Section 5)
- He was required to examine the engine and engine house twice yearly and report to the board before the first day of April each year (Section 8)
- He was required to submit a full annual report to the Clerk before April 1 each year, including number of fires, accidents, buildings destroyed and injured, names of owners, and insurance carried (Section 11)
- The Fire Marshall could "direct the firemen to tear down or remove any building, erection or fence for the purpose of checking the progress of any fire" (Section 15)
- Section 16 gave the Fire Marshall power to blow up or cause to be blown up with powder or otherwise any building or erection during the progress of a fire for the purpose of extinguishing it
Railroad Disputes Continue
At the Special Meeting of July 10, 1890, the president was instructed to notify the Chicago & North Western Railroad Co. to comply with the Railroad Ordinance. This echoed earlier, unanswered demands from 1887–1888. In August 1890, the Railroad Ordinance itself was amended: all railroad companies with tracks on Main Street, Edwards Addition, and Railroad Street were required to maintain grade-level crossings.
Fiscal Budget, 1890–1891 and 1891–1892
The April 1890 appropriations ordinance established the following departmental budgets for fiscal year April 1, 1890 – April 1, 1891:
| Department | Appropriation |
|---|---|
| Streets and Public Works | $3,000 |
| Bridge Department | $100 |
| Sidewalk Department | $600 |
| Health Department | $20 |
| Fire Department | $200 |
| Police Department | $720 |
| Department Salaries (general) | $100 |
| Elections | $10 |
| Street Lighting | $200 |
| Court and Legal Expenses | $200 |
The Sidewalk Petition Wave (Spring 1891)
In March and April 1891, multiple neighborhoods filed formal petitions with the board requesting sidewalk construction. Two petitions are recorded from the same period:
- Petition from residents of King Williams Street in Edson Walters Addition (signed by Edwin E. Boxberger, George Brunning, Tagore Murphy, Fred Rackers, John Carlisle, and Saul Tucker): requesting a sidewalk running north along the east side of Block 1.
- Petition from Jacob Tingh and others requesting a sidewalk on the north line of Block 11 in Edwards Addition.
New Ordinances: Cattle and Barns (Spring 1891)
In May 1891, the board directed the clerk to draft two new ordinances:
- An ordinance regulating cattle and other animals — likely restricting livestock from public streets
- An ordinance removing barns from public streets
Electric Light Franchise (1892)
In April 1892, the board voted to grant an exclusive franchise to the Dundee Electric Light Company to supply electric lighting to East Dundee — one of the village's most consequential decisions of the era. The franchise was formally passed on April 11, 1892, and the lighting ordinance followed on June 28, 1892.
On July 19, 1892, the Dundee Electric Light Company sent a letter to Village Clerk E.C. Luther formally accepting the franchise:
"The Dundee Electric Light Co. hereby accept the franchise granted said Dundee Electric Light Co. on April 11th, 1892, also ordinance for lighting said East Dundee passed June 28th, 1892."
— Ed. Hawley, President, Dundee Electric Light Co.
The board subsequently voted to procure 3 additional electric lights beyond the original arrangement (Henry Rover's motion, carried yeas 6 nays 0). The arrival of electric street lighting marks a major modernization milestone for the village. (See also: 1892-east-dundee-electric-light-franchise)
The Great Property-Line Petition (August 1892)
In August 1892, a major civic controversy surfaced over inaccurate property surveys. A petition signed by Charles J. Bethke and 106 others — essentially a substantial fraction of the entire village population — was presented to the board, alleging:
"the streets of said Village have become in part obstructed by extending the lines of various lots into the streets & highways of said Village"
The petitioners asked the board to formally adopt a new official survey and replat of the village streets, conducted by surveyor Edwin Mann (retained by the board in 1891; billed $184.50 total for the work, paid in installments through February 1892), and to order the removal of all fences and obstructions within the corrected street lines.
The board referred the matter to a committee, which was instructed to travel to Elgin to consult with surveyors on the official plat. This property-line dispute likely arose from inconsistent or informal lot sales in the village's early years.
The petition was formally adopted at the August 15, 1892 meeting — Fred Roehl moved to accept the plat of East Dundee as surveyed by Edwin Mann, seconded by John Miller, carried 6–0. (President Bethke, himself one of the petitioners, withdrew from voting on the original motion at the earlier July 1892 meeting.) The board later ordered the new plat recorded at the Kane County seat in Geneva. Surveyor Adin Mann — likely a relative of Edwin Mann, or possibly the same person rendered two ways across different meetings — also submitted a claim tied to the same plat work in September 1893, the two names not yet reconciled.
Village Boundaries Ordinance (September 4, 1893)
The board formalized the legal boundaries of the village in an ordinance adopted September 4, 1893. The boundaries were described in detailed metes-and-bounds language beginning at the center of Barrington Avenue and running through township and range coordinates, section lines, and lot lines referencing Walters Addition, Edwards Addition, and other named subdivisions. The Fox River formed the western boundary. The description referenced the existing approved map and plat of the village.
The same September 4, 1893 meeting also passed the Village Seal Ordinance, establishing East Dundee's first official corporate seal — "Illinois" around the outer edge, "corporate seal" within the inner edge — with an embossed impression of the new seal recorded directly in the ledger. The vote was 5–1 (Fred Rath dissenting; Henry Rover, Fred Conrad, William Bohn, John Miller, and John Foelschow in favor). A companion section instructed the Village Clerk to file a copy of the ordinance, with an accurate map of the village, with the Kane County Recorder in Geneva — tying the new seal directly to the Mann plat's formal adoption.
D.H. Haeger and the Millrace (January–April 1893)
The Nolte-era millrace nuisance disputes of 1887–1888 (see 1887-east-dundee-village-governance) resurfaced in 1893 with a new twist: the millrace's owner was revealed to be David H Haeger|D.H. Haeger. At a Special Meeting called January 26, 1893, Fred Rath moved that "the millrace owned by D. H. Haeger in the corporation of the Village of East Dundee be condemned as a public nuisance and that the judiciary committee be authorized to have the same abated" — carried 6–0. The clerk formally notified Haeger of the condemnation in early February.
Haeger's response, two months later, was cooperative rather than adversarial. On April 1, 1893, he submitted a written offer to the board: "I hereby agree to fill up the approaches and construct the culvert in Maiden Lane free of charge, after the corporation has placed the culvert pipe — said pipe to be put in immediately." The board accepted, ordering a bridge built over the Maiden Lane creek crossing with the village furnishing the necessary tile, under the Superintendent of Streets' supervision. This is the clearest documentary link yet between the Haeger family and East Dundee's civic infrastructure — predating the previously-known Finance Committee reference by several years and showing Haeger as both the source of a public nuisance complaint and its cooperative resolution.
(For an earlier, unresolved thread on the same waterway: a March 4, 1889 board discussion floated the village buying the millrace outright for $1,000 — $500 from adjoining property owners, $500 from the Corporation — but no purchase appears to have followed; ownership had passed to, or remained with, Haeger by 1893.)
The Dundee Rapid Transit Company Streetcar Franchise (1893)
A proposal for an electric streetcar line reached the board in stages across 1893. The Dundee Rapid Transit Company — directors Frank Clauman (also rendered "G. Frank Calman"), Edgar C. Hawley, and William Fay — first petitioned for a street railway franchise around late April 1893, referred to the Streets, Alleys and Bridges committee. The petition was then tabled and withdrawn at the company's own request (counsel Eugene Clifford appearing on its behalf), only to be re-entered in full a few weeks later, alongside a separate Second Avenue petition over a Chicago & North Western railroad crossing.
The board subsequently drafted and passed a full franchise ordinance for the company (at least 14 sections survive in the transcription, covering pole spacing, track removal obligations, and right-of-way terms), and by late July 1893 the clerk announced the Dundee Rapid Transit Company had filed its written acceptance of the franchise ordinance along with a bond. The bond was referred to the Judiciary committee for review — the last stage recorded in this volume, which ends in September 1893 before the line's actual construction (if any) would appear in later records.
East–West Dundee Bridge Liability Resolved
Village attorney John A. Russell delivered a legal opinion, dated February 3, 1893, resolving an unspecified liability dispute between East and West Dundee over their shared river bridge — part of a broader pattern of Russell providing per-matter legal counsel to the village (he was paid $70.00 for services around the same period, one of the larger individual claims in the volume, and the board later considered retaining him or a successor as a permanent village attorney rather than engaging counsel case by case).
Leadership Transition: Henry Peters Becomes President
By May 1893, Henry Peters had become President of the Corporation of East Dundee, replacing Charles J. Bethke, who had served since the first election in April 1888. The exact date of the transition (either the April 1892 or April 1893 annual election) is not yet confirmed from the record book pages reviewed.
The new board included Trustees: Henry Rover, Fred Rath, John Miller, John Foelschow, Fred Conrad, and William Bohn.
Name correction, 2026-07-17: this list previously read "Fred Ruth ... John Folleshow ... William Bohin." The full Vol.1 transcription confirms Fred Rath, John Foelschow, and William Bohn against six or more clean, repeated appearances each in the September 1893 meeting minutes — see `docs/name-spelling-register.md`.
Henry Guldan: Six Years on the Force
Throughout the entire period covered by this record book — from June 1887 through at least 1893 — Henry Guldan remained East Dundee's only police officer. His annual compensation grew modestly:
- 1887: ~$50–58
- 1890 bills: $38.09 (partial period)
- 1892 bills: $58.00
- 1893 bills: $57.00
Liquor Enforcement (1893)
On May 1, 1893, the board appointed a committee to investigate complaints that Louis C. Rabe had been selling liquor on Sundays. The committee — chaired by Fred Rath, with Fred Conrad and John Foelschow as members — was to report back at the next meeting. The outcome is not recorded in the pages reviewed. (Corrected 2026-07-04 from an earlier misreading of "Louis D. Ruth" / "Fred Ruhl" — see we-were-always-a-bar-town and `docs/name-spelling-register.md`. This is unrelated to William Ruth's 1887 Blacklist case.)
A Loose Artifact: Liquor Control Commission Permit Card
Found loose inside the record book was a printed Village of East Dundee Liquor Control Commission Application for Employee Permit — a small card bearing fields for Name, Address, Social Security Number, Age, Phone, Name of Tavern or Bar, Employer, Approved by, Permit No., and Date. The card's format (Social Security Number field, formal commission structure) dates it to the mid-20th century, decades after the ledger entries surrounding it. Its presence inside the 1887–1893 record book suggests the book remained in active use or storage well into a later era. (See also: east-dundee-liquor-control-commission)