By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
Sometimes it’s fun to dive into local history and find out what was happening in the community “back in the day.” Here is what was happening in the Delavan-Darien area and beyond….
25 years ago…
In 1995, plans for Delavan to host the World Clown Congress in 1996 fell through. Promoter Ruben Madsen abandoned his plan to bring the event to the city due to financing issues between the city and Madsen. Common Council President Will Kahabka, head of the World Clown Council committee, said Madsen was having trouble raising the required funds in time to make the event happen. The Congress would have been the second of its kind and the first in the United States. One had been held previously in Sweden in 1993.
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50 years ago…
Plans for the route of Highway 15, which would eventually become Interstate 43, were presented to the public in early November that year. The highway was already complete from Milwaukee to Highway 12 in Elkhorn. In 1970, plans to extend the highway to the county line were discussed with the route very close to what later was constructed.
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75 years ago…
Three Walworth County men, all former war workers, pled guilty in federal court in Chicago on charges for attempting to extort $40,000 from the president of Harvard (Ill.) State Bank. Two of the men were from Delavan and one was from Elkhorn. The men asked for the money or the president was threatened with violence.
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100 years ago…
The Walworth County Fair was advertised to be the largest ever gathering of the Walworth County Agricultural Society in 1920. The fair was called the biggest and greatest fair in the world. It wound up leading the nation in attendance and number of exhibits.
See the Sept. 17 Delavan Enterprise for more historical highlights from Delavan-Darien and beyond.
