Philander Barclay in 1919. Studio portrait by George E. Birdsall. Photo from The Oakparker, November 11, 1927.
The Barclay Blog
A detailed exploration of the life of Philander Walker Barclay (1878 - 1940),
bicycle mechanic and Oak Park's first Village Historian.
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Philander Barclay as he appeared in the Oak Leaves, November 13, 1903.
Looking northwest from North Boulevard and Euclid Avenue. The Water Tower and Reservoir played a supporting role in at least a few Halloween pranks from long ago. Photo from 1886. (Illinois Digital Archives, Oak Park Public Library, Philander Barclay Collection.)
Halloween in Days of Yore
By Anna-Maria Manuel
Published October 31, 2022
Updated and expanded November 14, 2022
Trick or treat!
On Halloween evening in Oak Park in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, it seemed more trick than treat.
It was an evening of pranksters at their “finest.” The “art” of the practical joke was on full display. General hi-jinks and mischief-making were not uncommon.
While going through issues of The Oakparker, a local newspaper, looking for articles about or by the Village Historian, Philander Barclay, I ran across his letter to the editor from November 15, 1935, in which he referenced the Halloween article written by Warren Stevens for the October 25, 1935 issue. [1]
Warren and his wife, Helen, were friends with Barclay. The Stevens lived “across the alley” from Barclay. According to Helen, “He [Barclay] and Warren loved to talk with one another late at night. . . . They’d sit up and talk till all hours.” [2] It is likely the young Stevens gave Barclay the same attentive audience that the young Barclay had given members of the Borrowed Time Club, many moons before. Thus, the stories of old-timers recorded by youthful historians.
1. Philander W. Barclay; The Oakparker Mail Box; “Town Buzzes Over Oakparker Feature Story”; The Oakparker; November 15, 1935; pg. 34.
2. Doug Deuchler; “The Legend of ‘Poor Phil’”; Wednesday Journal; March 17, 1993; pg. 43.
Warren Stevens Recounts Barclay’s Recollections
Barclay’s recollections of what youngsters in the 1890s did on Halloween were detailed in Stevens’ article, “Painted Cow, ‘Stabbed’ Lion, Faked Suicide, Stopped Trolleys Among Hallowe’en Pranks ‘Way Back When.” [3] The title pretty much summed it up.
A cow owned by a resident, who wasn’t well liked by local youths, was painted “a poisonous green from nose to tail.”
The lion in question was the famous Golden Lion from the drugstore owned by Barclay’s father. Pranksters, using red paint, made it appear that the gilded lion, displayed on a pole high above the ground, had been stabbed. The following morning, people “could not avoid seeing and drawing the plain inference that the lion had been shot where lions sit down and had scampered up the pole to find refuge.”
Oak Park’s water reservoir, which was located at Oak Park Avenue and North Boulevard (now the site of the Avenue Bank Building, home to U.S. Bank and other businesses), was the location of a faked suicide. Clothing, a hat, and “a note bidding farewell to the world” were found on the fence surrounding the reservoir that supplied water to Oak Park. Village officials suspected a hoax, but kept the public's health in mind. So, “for several weeks purveyors of bottled water did a landoffice business” in Oak Park.
Railroads were a popular target of Halloween pranks. Stevens reported that tracks were greased or soaped for “several hundred yards,” startling engineers when “drive wheels spun alarmingly.”
3. Warren Stevens; “Painted Cow, ‘Stabbed’ Lion, Faked Suicide, Stopped Trolleys Among Hallowe’en Pranks ‘Way Back When”; The Oakparker; October 25, 1935; pgs. 41 & 48.
Halloween pranks, including elaborate ones, weren't limited to Oak Park. This image from the Nebraska State Historical Society shows the Halloween-evening aftermath — numerous vehicles on the roof of Tottun & Martin — in Sargent, Nebraska.
(Image from: https://www.agupdate.com/midwestmessenger/lifestyles/halloween-pranks-of-the-1800s/article_02490002-bdbb-11e7-99d3-87b1060b13a8.html. Accessed November 1, 2022.)
Other reports of Halloween “fun”
Wanting to read more about mischief on Halloween evenings long ago, I checked a smattering of local papers from the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Jokesters certainly unleashed their pranks on Halloween evening.
After Halloween 1890, the Oak Park Reporter described the mischief in the village like this:
Gates and other inanimate objects seemed imbued with life and quietly stole away from their abodes. Real estate and other signs changed their places of habitation, and no one knows anything about it. Beans and shot were plentifully used and not a few panes of glass were broken. The sign of Wm. D. Ray, electrician, quietly took a stroll to the water tower, climbed to the top and there fastened itself to the dismay of its owner. Lumber, posts, blocks, etc., were laid on the sidewalk, which caused a number to see "stars." Barrels, kegs, boxes and the like were scattered around, and a thousand-and-one other things happened. [4]
According to a story in the Oak Park Daily Reporter-Argus from November 1, 1906, “A Harlem [now Forest Park] youth went to great pains to drag a cart from Oak Park into the center of River Forest, where he met a police officer and had the pleasure of pulling the vehicle back again.” [5]
The aftermath of Halloween “celebrations” even made the classified ads. An ad placed in the “Miscellaneous” section of the Oak Leaves read: “ON HALLOWEEN boys took porch rocker from my place and hung it on telephone wire rear of Paul Blatchford's, corner Superior and Euclid; will party who removed same please notify F. E. Hoover, 521 North Euclid av.” [6]
4. “Hallowe’en”; Oak Park Reporter; November 7, 1890; pg. 4.
5. “Quietude Feature of Last Night's Hilariousness”; Oak Park Daily Reporter-Argus; November 1, 1906; pg.1.
6. Classified Ads; Miscellaneous; Oak Leaves; November 26, 1910; pg. 31.
Dr. John Alexander Dowie chose the wrong time to speak at Hoard's Hall — Halloween evening. (Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Alexander_Dowie. Accessed November 1, 2022.)
Dr. John Alexander Dowie
The “Dowie Incident,” involving Dr. John Alexander Dowie, occurred on Halloween evening, 1899.
Dowie, an evangelist, faith healer, and the founder of Zion, Illinois, moved to Chicago in 1890 and became known for his “Divine Healings.” Most of his healings were staged, “using audience plants and other dubious methods.” [7]
According to Stevens’ Halloween article, Dowie came to speak at Hoard’s Hall (southwest corner of Lake and Marion streets). Halloween celebrators welcomed Dowie with a stink bomb released in the meeting hall, then pelted the building with “eggs, tomatoes, and other objects.” [8]
Barclay remembered that evening as a “cold, wet, rainy night when everybody in the old town was on the job to see the fun.” The next morning, “every grocery store in the village [had run] out of tomatoes and Nordenholdt's [sic] [9] bakery shop didn't have a ‘bun’ left.” [10]
The sub headline of the Oak Park Times article about Dowie’s visit to Oak Park said: “Halloween Revelers Besieged Him [Dowie] in Hoard's Hall and Called Him the Divine ‘Heeler’ — Stale Eggs and Some Stones Are Thrown and Some Windows Broken.” [11]
The Oak Park Vindicator reported:
A perfect fusillade of bad eggs and stones filled the air. Most of the articles found marks, however, in the persons of his [Dowie’s] muscular followers and henchmen.
A lively scrimmage followed. Blows were struck, ancient eggs were broken on the heads of the Dowie guards, and two men were severely injured by a ‘billy’ in the hands of one of the retainers of the “overseer of the Christian church.” [12]
The crowd was “2000 strong” at its largest. Police finally cleared out the area at about 1 a.m. However, Dowie, concerned about his safety, refused to leave the until later, when a Chicago police escort arrived at the hall to safeguard his departure. [13]
7. Wikipedia, John Alexander Dowie; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Alexander_Dowie; accessed Oct. 30, 2022.
8. Warren Stevens; “Painted Cow, ‘Stabbed’ Lion, Faked Suicide, Stopped Trolleys Among Hallowe’en Pranks ‘Way Back When”; The Oakparker; October 25, 1935; pgs. 41 & 48.
9. Should be Nordenhold’s. Spelling checked in the Oak Park Directory; January 1,1888; pg. 51.
10. Philander Barclay; “Old Days and New”; Oak Leaves; July 24, 1931; pg. 40.
11. “Hot After ‘Dr.’ Dowie”; Oak Park Times; November 3, 1899; pg. 3.
12. “Dowie in Oak Park”; Oak Park Vindicator; November. 3, 1899, pg. 1.
13. “Hot After ‘Dr.’ Dowie”; Oak Park Times; November 3, 1899; pg. 3.
If you happen to time travel back to a Halloween evening during Oak Park’s “horse-and-buggy days” — as Philander often referred to the late-19th and very early-20th centuries — don’t fear cackling witches, ghosts in the shadows, and a black cat that crosses your path. Beware the human jokers, pranksters, and mischief-makers. Oh . . . and if your garden gate has gone astray, you might want to check out the water reservoir.
“There is a little green gate at the water-works waiting for an owner. It was fished out of the pond the morning after Halloween and has not been called for as yet.” [14]
14. Oak Park Reporter; November 23, 1888; pg.4.
The ever-popular Halloween prank of gate theft was even depicted on an antique Halloween postcard. (Found at EndlessEphemera's Etsy store, accessed November 14, 2022.)
For more about the history of Halloween pranks and the shift to Halloweens with less mayhem:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-halloween-was-all-tricks-no-treats-180966996/