.

" A SECOND FIFTY YEARS "

THE CHICAGO LITERARY CLUB

FEBRUARY 21, 1994

THE CLIFF DWELLERS, CHICAGO, IL

The Genesis of this paper was a small claim following the death of a well-known Chicago corporate executive, Daniel Peterkin, a retired Chief Executive of the Morton Salt Company, who had owned a large and attractive home on Geneva Lake (commonly known as "Lake Geneva", Wisconsin), which I, first, visited as a teenager and where I have spent significant portions of my summers since 1963. At the urging of one of my father's oldest friends, and a law partner of his for upwards of twenty years (A. Winfield - "Win" - Craven, Jr.), I had become a "Nonresident Member" of the Lake Geneva Country Club, giving me golf, tennis and eating privileges for a very modest amount of quarterly dues. My father's friend, who was a former President of the Club, made one of those offers that a bachelor building his life in Chicago cannot turn down:

"John, find three friends with whom you like to play golf, and I will see that all of you get into my Club."

I did just that, and the four of us had a fine time for several years, until the pattern was broken in 1966 by my marriage. At that time I told Janis that this Summer deal at the Lake Geneva Country Club could end, if she wished, in favor of our creating relationships in some suburb of Chicago other than where my or her parents lived. While our feelings about not living close to a parent or an in-law were mutual, as Janis had spent several happy Summers of her childhood with friends of her own family on nearby Delavan Lake, abandonment of my Lake Geneva Country Club was not, to her, an acceptable suggestion. Over the ensuing years, the length of time of each Summer that we spent on and about Geneva Lake grew. In due course, my father's good friend wanted to get out of the chores of being the Club's pro bono lawyer, as he had been for many years, and he inserted me into that role, which, in turn, led to my becoming a Governor of the Club for some 19 years.

Well down the passage of those years as a Club Governor and its pro bono lawyer in my own right, and following an uneventful first mortgage financing of the Club that I supervised, Mr. Peterkin died, and his Estate's administrator sent to the Club a copy of a 1928 First Mortgage Bond due in 1948 that appeared to be one of a Series evidencing the creation in 1928 of a significant debt obligation of the Club. Of course, that Mortgage Bond was sent to me, with the usual request, "What do we do?"___

By this time, I had spent some time as the Club's Treasurer. I had become aware of no then outstanding long-term debt of the Club other than some Club debt for which I had, just, supervised the mortgaging of the Club's premises to a local bank in connection with a long-term line of credit that the Club needed for seasonal working capital needs and needed capital improvements. While I was negotiating for that line of credit, I had seen the title policy issued in connection with the mortgage, and I had seen several years of the Club's financial statements. None reflected any such mortgage borrowing. Neither the Club's bookkeeper nor its CPA knew anything relevant to the matter.

The face amount of the one Mortgage Bond sent to me was not large. Mr. Peterkin's widow was well provided for. His children had ample means. The Estate administrator that had sent the Bond to the Club for payment, had not treated its collection as an urgent matter; it had found the Bond in the decedent's safe deposit box and sent it to the Club, asking for whatever it could get. On my part, I did not want my Club to pay anything, because I did not know how many more of these Bonds were outstanding, presentable for payment at any time, to the embarrassment of all as concerned with the Club's current operations as I was.

So, one cold Winter Saturday morning like those that we have had this Winter, I sat at a table in the in the conference room of the Club's outside accountant's office and started reading old corporate minute books. As a business lawyer, I have, in my time, read a lot of old minute books; however, none had been or, since, have been as interesting as those that I read that cold Saturday. I, rather quickly, found my way towards an answer. In 1928, just before the 1929 "Crash", the then members of the Lake Geneva Country Club authorized an issue of First Mortgage Bonds, to pay for extensive Clubhouse renovation and enlargement, the construction of which was to be completed in June, 1929.

The 1920's were halcyon years for some, especially those in the greater Chicago area who were able to take a ride on the paper values in the public markets for stocks. I am of one the next generation - one who grew up on stories of those times. The 1920's were, of course the years of "Prohibition". Clubs such as the Lake Geneva Country Club became recognized "watering holes". The new Clubhouse, financed by the Bond issue in which I was interested, was a product of that period of paper prosperity.

In the 1920's, Club had a reputation for being quite a sociable place. In 1946, the then historian of the Club, of whom you will hear more hereinafter, wrote, "The years of 1911-1933 were probably its most glamorous years." Until recent years, the Lake Geneva Country Club was among the small number of Clubs of which one could identify oneself in the "Social Register" as being a member. For many years, The Chicago Tribune had an article every year, disclosing who , in Chicago was newly "in" or "out" of the Social Register. One year, within my memory, the Club, itself, was "dropped" from the Social Register, an event that "The Trib" duly noted.

The 1930's, especially after the 1932 drop of the stock markets, led to significant belt tightening in second home communities such as the Geneva and Delavan Lakes area. That belt-tightening had a major impact on the maintenance of the elaborate homes in that area. Most went the ways of subdivision and demolition. It was not until the late 1960's that the Geneva/Delavan Lakes area began to resurrect itself into financial health - too late to preserve much of its architectural values and, certainly, too late to prevent the creation of a multitude of residential and commercial structures in densities that, now, we recognize to be unacceptable. There is much irony in the fact that the only significant impediment to that development process has been the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (the "DNR"). Pressures on the local governmental authorities, whether or not they are elected, for "this or that worthwhile project" are too great for them to withstand.

While "Prohibition" had ended in 1932, the sociable nature of the Lake Geneva Country Club did not; however it was not immune to the belt-tightening that went on around it. It, fortunately, had a new Clubhouse, which meant that the maintenance expenses necessary to its ongoing use were minimal - a blessing that was not available to too many of the owners of the second homes of famed Chicago Families that surrounded both lakes. In the 1930's labor was inexpensive, and the Club was able to maintain its employed staff, but at reduced wages for reduced hours.

The coming of the Second World War changed that pattern. Male staff became less available, and the wage and benefit structure of the entire Chicago area changed. The necessary consequence to second home areas, such as the Geneva/Delavan Lakes communities, was deferral of all maintenance other than that required by emergencies. Virtually all properties around both lakes suffered from that deferred maintenance for far too long for the good health of any structure.

The "War with Japan" ended August 14, 1945, while the Lake Geneva Country Club was in its 50th year of operation; the 50th Anniversary of its incorporation would be January 23, 1946. By the end of 1945, the few remaining members of the Club, then led by "General" Lawrence Whiting, who is better known in Chicago for the many years of his management of the old "Furniture Mart" at 666 (now "680") North Lake Shore Drive, started to organize a 50th Year Celebration for Labor Day weekend of 1946.

(FOOTNOTE: Lawrence Whiting appears to have been a "Kentucky General", as the only rank mentioned in his "Who's Who" entries is Lieutenant Colonel in the First World War, when he was in charge of personnel for the A.E.F. (American Expeditionary Forces). In the Second World War, while he was a "Special Consultant" to the War Department on personnel matters, and he probably had the "perks" of general rank, he was not one. He does not, actually, appear to have, himself, claimed that rank, but he seems to have been pleased to hear himself referred to as such. As he was based in Chicago during the Second World War, using the accounting staff in his own office in The Furniture Mart, he took charge of the affairs of the Club. Per Bill Petersen, Lawrence Whiting had been a football star at The University of Chicago who had pursued, and won, as his wife, a daughter of the Countiss Family, early members of the Club, and he was the model for a prominent character in Edna Ferber's "So Big", in which there is a vivid description of a Lake Geneva weekend of the protagonist at "Stormwood" on Lake Geneva. I am told that the elaborate lakefront residence described therein is the so-called "Countiss Property"; which Whiting obtained after he married a Countiss daughter. Any reading of "So Big" by anyone who was acquainted with Whiting will lead the reader to believe that its protagonist was modeled after him.)

Promoting the 50th Anniversary Celebration to come, "General" Whiting (then the Club's President) sent a printed letter to the Club's membership. In addition, local newspaper articles survive in the Lake Geneva Public Library. In the photographs in the latter, the mid-40's dress of the men and women and their cars are of an entirely different era than the present; looking at them is much like watching an old movie. "The General", who was more than a little flamboyant, also took it upon himself to promote the Club's Fiftieth Year with the writing of a "Club History" that survives, largely intact, into the annual Year Books of the Club that have been used since 1965, when the Club's 70th Anniversary led to another Celebration.

(FOOTNOTE: When I told a fellow Club member (Mrs. William - Maggie - Gage), who has co-authored a useful, interesting and well-researched history of the homes that surround Lake Geneva, that I was about to extend "The General's" 1946 work product into the present time, she told me not to count on the accuracy of what "The General" had created - that what "The General" had published so widely in 1946 as historical truth, and the Club took as such in 1965, is not. My own reading has led my to conclude that she was right, on several matters, both large and small.)

What was written by "The General" has become generally accepted as having been reliable lore. Even with its inaccuracies and florid style, it provides pleasure. Some excerpts follow:

When Newport, Rhode Island, became the great Summer Capital of the United States in the early 1880's, Lake Geneva was well on its way to becoming the Western Summer capital. . . . The Lake Geneva Colony began to be both rich and famous. . . . The Lake was beautiful. The Summer Colony was made up of a very wealthy and very social and pleasant group of people. . . . It was not unusual that this group should want to have the things at Lake Geneva that their friends and schoolmates had at Newport and Lenox and Myopia. They were a distinguished group, not only because of their wealth and social position, but because of their individual accomplishment. When someone suggested that Newport had a Golf and Country Club, they thought (that) they, too, should consider having one. They had wealth . . . and they were the Newport of the West; but they did not have a Country Club; and they did not know how to play golf.

* * *

Lake Geneva and Chicago - A Tale of Two Cities - and intertwined with them is the history and development of Lake Geneva Country Club, the first golf course in the State of Wisconsin and one of the earliest in the Midwest. By the 1870's, Chicago was a busy and thriving banking and mercantile center for the entire midwest and the men and women who were actively developing its economic, social and cultural institutions needed a quiet place to relax to refresh and renew themselves.

Undoubtedly, it was the lovely vistas, the cool clear water and the peace and solitude that first attracted the Sturges (Family) to Lake Geneva. By 1870 (a Sturges son) had broken ground for "Maple Lawn", the first of the large summer estates that would soon dot the shoreline; and (a) brother had rented a home in the village and the family's good friends (the Rumseys), had rented another nearby. With the arrival of direct train service from Chicago in the summer of 1871, friends and relatives were enjoying visits and looking for homes or rooms of their own to rent. Following the Great Chicago Fire that fall, a number of these residents and visitors spent the winter in the village of Geneva and undoubtedly began thinking seriously of purchasing property for themselves.

The reference to "the village of Geneva" in "The General's" Club History is interesting and, I surmise, historically accurate, as those who have looked below the surface publicity are aware that the source of the name "Geneva" is not Switzerland, but Geneva, New York. The lake adjacent to Geneva, Switzerland, is Lac Leman, not Lake Geneva. The name of "the village of Geneva", Wisconsin has been "corrupted" into "Lake Geneva", and the name of the Wisconsin lake to which it gave access followed that style.

With respect to motivations, General Whiting would have been more accurate, had he recognized that The Great Chicago Fire of October, 1871, and the labor unrest typified by the Pullman Strike of 1894 had motivated those who could afford a second home to arrange for one that was beyond the reach of such calamities. I surmise that any study of the development of the South, West or North Suburbs of Chicago would identify the normal human desire to attempt to get out of urban Chicago into areas of greater safety. The Geneva Lake area was, simply, farther out than were those "collar" suburbs, and one had to have more wherewithal to obtain and to maintain a lifestyle there. That the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad completed a line to and through "the village of Geneva", at the East end of Geneva Lake, in the Summer of 1871, just before the Great Fire, had been felicitous. This line was, soon, extended to Williams Bay, at the Northwest corner of Geneva Lake. The Southwest corner of Geneva Lake was later to develop, because its public transportation was only a mediocre, long-vanished, interurban rail line via the Wisconsin town of Walworth to the terminus of another main line of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad in Harvard, IL. There is irony in the fact that Harvard, since it is located in Illinois, is eligible for METRA service today, and neither Lake Geneva nor Williams Bay has had rail service for more than 25 years. (As the tracks have been removed, such service never will return.) With the cessation, more recently, of rail passenger operations into Walworth, WI, on The Milwaukee Road, Harvard has become the preferred destination of railroad commuters to Chicago's Loop and its Northwest Suburbs. (I, myself, am an occasional weekend commuter to and from Harvard, IL.) The reason for Lake Geneva's Chicago, rather than Wisconsin, connections is simple. Until very recent years, all transportation of any quality has been to Chicago, not to Milwaukee or to Madison. Only in recent years, within my memory, have the roads from Geneva Lake to Milwaukee been anything but difficult. The Milwaukee wealthy, seeking second home sites, went West, to Oconomowoc and to Pine Lake, or North into the Wisconsin Lake Country or to Door County, not to the Southwest, into the area served well from Chicago by the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad.

Returning to "The General's” written "history":

“The energy and competitive spirit of these early Chicagoans did not die away with the move to their Summer homes at Lake Geneva. Soon they had involved, not only themselves, but local residents, in organized sailboat races, leading to the formation of the Lake Geneva Yacht Club; Summer fairs, which eventually led to the formation of the Lake Geneva Garden Club; and worthwhile non-athletic activities, such as fund-raising projects for the local churches which they joined; the Good Road Association, which developed the first round-the lake- road; and the Lake Geneva Lake Level Association.”

The reference to involvement of local residents has irony, as the By-Laws of the Lake Geneva Country Club, until the Depression caused abandonment of this phrase in 1932, contained:

“No resident or Summer resident of Walworth County (in which the Club is located) will be considered a guest of a member. Any Director may authorize the presence in the Club House and on the grounds of residents of Walworth County, accompanied by a member, but such persons shall not have the privileges of the dining room or the golf links.”

To suggest to "The General" that this attitude would, ultimately, result in a "town vs. gown" problem would not have been well-received by him, in spite of the fact that, he took pride in what he, himself, referred to as "Lake Geneva's justly famous (in 1873) old hotel, The Whiting House" (of which, today, there remains no trace). (As "The General's "Who's Who" entries report him to have been born in Nebraska in 1890, I speculate that the name correspondence is coincidental.) On the other hand, the Lake Geneva Yacht Club and the Lake Geneva Garden Club are alive and well. The Lake Level Association has changed its name, but it, still, performs the valuable function of taking the lake level down, in the Winter (to reduce ice damage) and to keep the lake level even, in the Summer (to reduce erosion from wave action from power boats and the prevailing sailors' breezes from the Westerly directions). Those breezes have caused the Lake Geneva Yacht Club to generate Olympic and America's Cup quality sailors such as Buddy Melges. With public roads, the need for the Good Road Association vanished.

If one reflects on the original life style of the then well-off, it was quite different than it is, now. Here, I do not speculate, as this is an excerpt from a memoir of my mother, who spent splendid parts of several girlhood Summers prior to 1922 in her grandfather's Victorian second home on the West shore of Geneva Lake:

Early Monday morning was exciting. After an early breakfast, my uncle went to the city (Chicago) for a five-day working week - "commuted" is the exact term, - and this was how it was done. The chauffeur went down the hill to the boathouse and started the motorboat. As it idled, my uncle, in dark city clothes, stepped lightly down the path to the pier, accompanied by my aunts and me. He stepped into the boat, and so did I, and we were off to Williams Bay, the town where the train stopped for the commuters from that end of Lake Geneva. It was a two-hour run to Chicago. On Friday, late in the afternoon, we called for him again in the boat. I always went along." . . .

“My aunts had one serious endeavor that took them outside the home: their Red Cross Class in first aid. It was the beginning of World War I, and genteel young women did their bit. These classes were held at a small military academy across the lake (ultimately, Northwestern Military Academy, which survives, today). The young women dressed in uniforms - khaki dresses, fairly long and belted, Boy-Scout type hats and high laced shoes. They crossed the lake in the motor boat, navigated by the chauffeur, and spent the morning in class. The boat had to wait for them. Other ladies from all around the lake did the same, but they arrived in large vessels, imposing looking steam yachts, with captains aboard. But we did not feel ashamed - it was like driving a small sports car amid over-sized Cadillacs. Quite acceptable. . . .”

My mother's grandfather died in 1921, and his house, built as Villa Palatina by George Weiss, a Chicago brewer, but renamed by my great-grandfather as "Forest Glen" was located where Lower Gardens, now, is, between Williams Bay and Fontana. It burned beyond repair before the end of the following Winter. In my early reading of the Club's minute books, I found, to my astonishment, that this great-grandfather of mine (Edward G. Uihlein) and the "uncle" referred by my mother (Edwin A. Seipp), had been members of the Club. My great-grandfather had emigrated from Germany, via St. Louis, to Chicago shortly before The Great Fire. While he had not been one of the "Lake Geneva Gentlemen" Founders that "The General" venerated in his Club History, my great grandfather had been an early Club member, from at least as early as 1912, until his death in early 1921. Since my great-grandfather had been born in Germany, spoke with a distinct accent of "The Old Country" and was a great joiner of German fraternal and cultural organizations, he could not have been the usual "clubbable" man. With his extensive horticultural interests (including the Presidency of The Chicago Horticultural Society), I cannot imagine him with any time to have any implement in his hands other than a workman's gardening tool, let alone a golf club.

My great-grandfather, a contemporary and friend of then Illinois Governor Peter John Altgeld, having declined to run as a Democratic candidate for the Chicago City Council, was prevailed upon by Governor Altgeld to be a West Side Park Commissioner. In that capacity, he became a strong backer of the world-famous landscape architect, Jens Jensen, starting in 1885-1887, when Jensen was a key employee of the West Side (Chicago) Park District. In 1888, the change to a Republican Administration in Springfield drove my great-grandfather (and Jensen) out of Park District affairs.) In 1899, after my great-grandfather had bought the Weiss house and property, he, promptly, retained Jens Jensen, to design and create in what is, now, Upper and Lower Gardens an extensively landscaped park, to be open to the general public at all times. As Jensen returned to the Park District in 1905, work for my great-grandfather must, by then, have been completed. Shortly after my great-grandfather's death in 1921 and the burning of his Lake Geneva home in 1922, the most park-like portion of his property- Upper Gardens - was developed into one of the early, and better, subdivisions on the lake. (A history of that subdivision was written and published in "The Walworth Times" by a local resident, Julie Bak; what she wrote was revised and later privately published with the aid of several descendants of my great-grandfather.) As my great-grandfather had committed all his gardens to public use during his years of occupancy (1899-1921), many postcards of his lake frontage survive, some copies of some of which I found in, and bought out of, a local "antique" store that was selling them as artifacts from a local tavern, where they had hung for many years. They have been enlarged be me, framed and are on a wall in my own Geneva Lake "second" home.

(FOOTNOTE: My brother is married to Sandra Keep, the eldest daughter of an Albert Keep. Mr. Keep and she are descendants of the brother of the Albert Keep who was the President of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad that caused that railroad to be extended from Lake Geneva to Williams Bay. He became a member of the Lake Geneva Country Club in 1897; since his stock certificate was not delivered to him, he must, soon, have died, as only his widow was a member of the Club in 1912, when the first good records of membership started to be kept. Edward Uihlein's (my great grandfather's) name first appears in that 1912 list of Club members; his shares were repurchased by the Club in 1926. Edward Uihlein's son-in law, Edwin Seipp, a Club member from 1916 to 1922, while related only by marriage to me, was a blood uncle of William O. Petersen, one of our Chicago Literary Club's members and the owner of the justly famous Black Point - once German Point - on the South shore of Geneva Lake, close to the Military Academy of which my mother wrote. As had George Weiss, the original owner of Forest Glen, both the Uihlein and Seipp Families controlled substantial brewing interests. They have intermarried to such an extent that Bill Petersen and I have become blood relatives, not through our forebears, but through generations younger than we.)

I return to "General" Whiting's written "history":

With all this energy, it is not surprising that, by the early 1890's, many of (the early Chicagoans) had had appetites whetted for a new sport. For a number of years, many of the sporting enthusiasts had heard friends and family back East speak in glowing terms of the recently introduced game of golf.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, Mr. Charles MacDonald had started the Lake Forest Golf Club, as it was informally known, and had also been responsible for laying out a nine-hole golf course in Belmont, Illinois (now Downers Grove).

The latest issue of the occasional magazine published by the Chicago District Golf Association provides this variation on "The General's" story, quoting an 1899 document:

"Now something has been found which will keep the businessman busy in his idleness and at the same time keep him home."

The CDGA's publication goes on, beyond that quotation:

Our roots include the seven crude golf holes on Sen. Charles B. Farwell's Lake Forest estate, and the Lake Zurich Golf Club, where organizers buried a few corpses on the course, thereby legally preventing the railroad from taking the land for its own use. In the Western area, the hand of MacDonald was evident first at the Belmont Club, now the Downers Grove golf course. and then in Wheaton at the Chicago Golf Club. And, in the South, the Midlothian Club's 27 holes soon became a part of a real estate golf project requiring a housing investment of about $125,000, quite a sum in those days.

The golf holes on the Farwell Estate evolved into the excellent Onwentsia Club. The Chicago Golf Club is alive and well in Wheaton. The Midlothian Club is alive but has suffered from the departure of the railroad executives of the Chicago area that were the core of its membership. I have played all three courses in recent years, and each round was a pleasure, no matter how errant my shots (and errant shots are especially costly at Chicago Golf).

(FOOTNOTE: Yes, Lake Geneva Country Club is deemed, by all to be a Chicago District golf club; it is not the only one not in Illinois. Point o' Woods, in Southwestern Michigan is another.)

Returning to General Whiting's written "history":

It can easily be imagined that conversation on the Northwestern's Lake Geneva Express (called The Millionaires' Special by local residents) turned more and more to this game (of golf). N.K. Fairbank was one of those whose interest had been aroused, and, across the road from his estate, "The Butternuts", a five-hole course was laid out on his farm in time for the Summer of 1895.

By mid-Summer, a nucleus of interested golfers were looking for property on which to build a permanent course. On October 1, 1895 (three men) arranged for a lease of an 80-acre plot on the lake shore owned by (a local farmer) who had been one of the first settlers in Southern Wisconsin, having obtained his land from the US Government in the early 1840's.

On December 30, 1895, per the original minute book, "eleven distinguished Chicagoans were in Chicago . . . for a meeting of the Lake Geneva Gentlemen for consideration of plans for a country club." . . . This group of friendly and stout-hearted men decided to formally organize a golf club - an exceptionally good golf club - and to name it the Lake Geneva Golf Club, and to incorporate it under the laws of the State of Wisconsin. . . . On January 24, 1896, the Charter was granted and the Lake Geneva Country Club was a going concern.

(A member) laid out a six-hole course with provisions for the addition of three holes and the course was ready for the 1896 season.. The first club house was planned and built by a local contractor during the Spring of 1896. . . . On Decoration Day, May 30, 1896, the Club was formally opened with an appropriate celebration. . . . . From the very beginning it was understood that the club membership was to be small and that it was to be a family club - a club where generations of one family would enjoy the day together.

While the Club is rich in history and tradition, its directors and members continue to look to the future. The excellent golf course, continually updated and refined, as well as the numerous tennis courts attest to this fact. . . . The future indeed holds promise.

While "The General's" style was too florid and flamboyant for my taste, I read on, as I had not found what had happened to the 1928 Series of First Mortgage Bonds that had triggered my search. "The General", who had been a Club member since 1926, had, after having been the Club's Secretary-Treasurer since 1935, become the Club's President in 1946. One total casualty of the Second World War had been the Lake Delavan Golf Club, which had ceased all operations at the end of 1939; its members were assimilated by the Lake Geneva Country Club. Absent that "merger", it is doubtful that the Lake Geneva Country Club would have lived to its 50th Anniversary. At July 31, 1946, the Club had 196 members of all types, with only 80 with full membership status, as the 71 members from the failed Lake Delavan Golf Club were, then, still deemed merely Associate (and second class) Members, without full privileges. Several names that I, now, recognize had become members, including my mentor, Win Craven, and men and women that are own my contemporaries had become Junior Members. The future of the Club, indeed, appeared to be as "promising" as "The General" had thought.

The minutes of the Club of the July, 1947, Meeting of its Governors reflect the first sign of member unrest. The "Old Guard" among the Governors of the Club refused to accede to something that "The General" wanted: a formal appraisal of the value of the Cub's premises. When his request therefor was denied, in favor of an informal valuation by the Club's property insurance broker, "The General" asked that a formal "No" be entered. That his Board declined to follow his lead on what appears, in the written record, to have been a minor administrative matter was not a minor matter, at all. What the Club's minutes do not reflect is that, with the reorganization of the Military Services that followed the active hostilities of World War II, the "Army Air Force" was to become the United States Air Force, and a new Military Academy, comparable to West Point and the Naval Academy at Annapolis, was to be created for it. "General" Whiting wished that this new Military Academy be located in Southern Wisconsin, immediately South of Geneva Lake. "General" Whiting had persuaded then Governor Kohler of Wisconsin to propose this site to Washington. "General" Whiting wished that the acreage of the Club be the new Military Academy's access to Geneva Lake.

Contrary to most social clubs, the Lake Geneva Country Club had remained a Wisconsin "business" corporation and had not elected to convert to "nonprofit" status, in large part because there have always been a large number of shares outstanding in the names of persons who are no longer members, and at least a majority vote of all of the outstanding shares was necessary to effect such a conversion. "General" Whiting had, since he became the Club's Secretary-Treasurer in 1935, been buying shares of the outstanding stock of the Club from former members, with the result that he had obtained a minority stockholder's position that was many times larger that of any other member.

Needless to say, the vast majority of "The General's" fellow members, especially the Club's "Old Guard", thought "the General's" plan to be a poor idea. The 1947 vote in a Governors' Meeting on an apparently minor administrative matter - a proper appraisal of the Club's property - was a "tip of the iceberg". I speculate that "The General" planned to use the formal appraisal that he, then, sought in negotiating a sale of the Club's real estate to the United States Air Force, that a significant number of his fellow members recognized the feasibility of such a sale, and they took drastic, but unminuted, measures to stop it.

As for Mr. Peterkin's 1928 First Mortgage Bond - at the July, 1947, Governors' Meeting, a "Young Turk" Governor had asked for a meeting of the Club's membership to discuss the Club's problems, one of which, one has to assume, was the fact that the then $50,000 balance of the outstanding 1928 First Mortgage Bonds issued by the Club was about to become due and payable. Since the Club's deferred maintenance and other working capital requirements would not permit their timely payment, the Club's members could, at the end of 1948, find their Club out of their own control. As many of these bondholders were no longer members of the Club, they could be expected to want to be timely paid.

A "Survey Committee" from among the Club's Governors (which included Mr. Peterkin) was appointed, to report on a feasible refinancing program for the outstanding Bonds prior to the end of the 1948 season (October). In addition, any Club stock coming available was to be purchased, not by any Club member, but for the Club's Treasury, at $2 per share.

In June, 1948, the Survey Committee, now referred to by the Club's then Secretary (Augustus K. - "Sonny" - Maxwell, Jr., son of a former long-time Club President) as its "Refinancing Committee", was authorized to proceed with a reorganization of the Club. Shortly thereafter, there is minuted a "finding" that, in spite of an $8,000 deficit in results of operations for the year-to-date, the Club was "solvent" (i.e, either its assets exceeded its liabilities or it was able to pay its debts when due). If the Club were to be unable to refinance its outstanding First Mortgage Bonds by November 1, that finding could no longer hold true. In September, 1948, the Club's Governors authorized the Refinancing Committee (now, the "Reorganization Committee") to proceed with the reorganization of the Club. There are no minutes of any action in the Club's affairs from September, 1948, until, June, 1949, when a Special Meeting of the stockholders of the Club (at which a quorum was stated to be present) authorized a reorganization of the Club, including a new issue of 15-year First Mortgage Bonds due November 1, 1963, and a new issue of Class A shares, to be sold to existing members. The "Young Turks" among the Club's members, led by Frederick Gartz, with the co-operation of "The Old Guard", had taken control of the Club from "The General". While the actual vote of the stockholders must have been carefully recorded, the minutes do not reflect who voted, "Nay." One can assume that "The General" was a vocal minority. Afterwards, while he remained a Club Governor, "The General" remained silent, at least so the occasional minutes of Governors' Meetings reflect, to the end of his service as a Governor in 1955, when his twenty years of service as a Club Governor ceased, without the customary resolution of gratitude that he had, often, prepared for others that preceded him. Until as late as 1963, whenever the customary annual vote of the stockholders was called for, to approve the contents of the Club's Year Book (which contained the changed By-Laws of the Club to which he had objected 15 tears before), he voted, "Nay". (After I joined the Club in 1963, conversations on the subject of "The General's" actions were avoided.) As the recapitalization and reorganization of the Club that took place included a refinancing of the 1928 First Mortgage Bonds that had led to my search, why did Mr. Peterkin still have one? The answer, I found outside of the corporate minute books, in a separate folder in the Club's outside accountant's office that I came across, by chance.

A committee of senior members of the Club, one of which was Mr. Peterkin, appears to have set about repurchasing, at par, all of the 1928 First Mortgage Bonds remaining outstanding. I suspect that this committee wanted a secured bondholders' position, having priority, if necessary, over "The General's" substantial stockholder interest. The Club created a reserve for the purpose of repaying those members, once the dust of the dispute had settled and the Club was solvent enough to pay them fifty cents on each dollar of par. Ultimately, all of these Mortgage Bonds were collected by the committee, and the committee, ultimately, was paid by the Club with the proceeds of a bank loan - a bank loan to which I had seen reference, when I had negotiated for a later financing. I suspect that the one Mortgage Bond that turned up after the death of Mr. Peterkin had been mislaid by him, or had been kept by him as a memento, rather than as an asset having any redeemable value. I so advised the Estate administrator, and that was the end of its claim.

In 1950, my mentor, Win Craven, became a Governor, and, for 20 years, the actions of the Board reflect the his "fine" hand in the handling of all of the details that are expected of good lawyers. In 1952, using his advice, the most senior Governors dealt, again, with "The General", who was, by then, an excellent "guard-house lawyer" looking after his own personal, not the Club's, best interests. They tried, and failed, to persuade him to do what all the other Club members had done - to subscribe to the new Class A share issue. He refused, on his own behalf and on behalf of his son and daughter. Ultimately, the Board of the Club permitted "The General" and his children to remain members without having bought the Class A shares required of all other members. (See "Epilogue, below, for the conclusion of "the General's" interest in the Club.) At that time, the Governors also declared themselves to be trustees of any outstanding old common shares, such as those of "The General". One good reason for so doing could have been the absence of sufficient Club funds to effect purchases hereof.

In 1953, Daniel Peterkin became President of the Club. By 1954, a formal committee structure was put in place by him, and, probably because of fear of loss of control of the Club to some successor to "The General's interests, the directors formally resolved:

" . . (All) members of the Board of Governors shall be Resident Members."

In 1954, with respect to the continued proposed local siting of the Air Academy, a member with political connections was asked to ask then Wisconsin Governor Kohler to withdraw his outstanding request for that siting. The Club's then President (still Mr. Peterkin), representing the Geneva Lake property owners most likely to be affected by that siting, was directed so to advise Governor Kohler and President Eisenhower.

(FOOTNOTE: In that year, Norman L. Cavedo, Sr., having been a Club member since before 1940, became its Secretary-Treasurer, starting a long term of Club leadership, and Janis' and my good friend, Bill Petersen of the Seipp Family of Black Point, became a member.)

In 1953, the plans of Wisconsin State Senator William Trinke, who was, also, a successful local real estate developer, for the development of the property on the entire East boundary line of the Club had come to light, and the lodging of formal objections to that development had been authorized. In due course, the Trinke Estate development proceeded; however, only quite rarely has any resident of that subdivision, ever, been nominated for Club membership, and, in 1957, the Club's Governors authorized the expenditure of funds for the completion of the steel fence (a "spite fence"?) along the full one mile length of the property line between the Trinke Subdivision and the Club, except as an opening was required for the "Shore Path", as the Wisconsin State law requires access for the walking public around any lake.

(FOOTNOTE: In this period, Alfred T. Carton, son of one of the earliest members of the Club and a name partner of Gardner, Carton & Douglas, where I have spent the greater part of my own professional career, was converted from a Nonresident Member to a Resident member, meaning that he had purchased local lake front property. As this paper is written, one of his sons, Robert Carton, has been an active member of our Chicago Literary Club for many years.)

In 1954-1956, reflecting advances of technology, the water tower adjacent to the Clubhouse was taken down, "for salvage"; several old outbuildings were removed; there was a discussion of a fix-up of the parking lot (finally, done in 1993); and a member requested availability of golf carts. Typical of all well-off country clubs in those years when high school boys earned Summer money by caddying, this request was denied. 1958 brought another study of the use of golf carts. A fleet of them was authorized at the end of the following year, thereby forever changing the local style of caddie-supported or hand-pulled cart play. By 1963, when I became a Club member, caddies were, rarely, available, and gas - later, electric - carts became the norm.

(FOOTNOTE: I, myself, have an electric cart, and an engineer friend tells me that, with occasional replacement of batteries and tires, it will last, literally, forever; no high school boy can hold out that promise.)

In 1957, there is a minute of a discussion of the 1948 First Mortgage Bonds, due to be paid in 1963. Their repurchase, at fifty cents on the dollar, as was to have been done for the 1928 Bonds, was authorized, and a new "Committee on Refinancing" was appointed. Another extensive remodeling was in prospect that would require more than the Club's anticipated cash flow. The Club was thought to be sufficiently prosperous that the renting of upstairs rooms to members was eliminated, and the latest upstairs bedroom was to be converted to a room dedicated to Governors' Meetings.

With the change to golf carts came the authorization for the first private boat slips on Club property. Now, while there are well over 20 piers strung along the shore of the lake in a manner that is not aesthetically sound, there is always demand for them that exceeds the supply.

(FOOTNOTE: I confess that I have Slip No. 1, a "perk" left from the days when I, myself, was President of the Club, and I was at the top of the list of the members seeking a slip assignment. Within my memory, my own sail boat has been the only sail boat so docked.)

One of the Club's most popular members, Frank O'Neill, was elected "Commodore of the Lake Geneva Country Club", an honorary position that has never been filled by another person, before or since. Mr. O'Neill had caused a Club "SEAL" and a "burgee" to be designed for the Club, as if it were a true yacht club, featuring the cross national symbol of Geneva, Switzerland. As the design of that "burgee" has made its way onto the Club's match books, golf shirts, stationery, club ties, etc., generally accepted lore has, again supplanted history. (Clearly, Frank O'Neill thought, as have thought his predecessors, the Swiss connection to be better than that of the Finger Lakes District of New York State.)

(FOOTNOTE: In 1957, the Annual Meeting of the Garden Club of America took place at the Club. While the Lake Geneva Country Club had been one of the original members of the Chicago District Golf Association, it was not until this time that the Club became a member of the Women's Western Golf Association. This membership, in due course, led to several Junior Women's Western Golf Association Tournaments at the Club. In addition, this period brought to the Club the first of the annual benefit parties for the Lake Geneva Fresh Air Association (Holiday Home).

In 1958, a member who, before the Trinke subdivision, had access only over the Trinke property to his "shooting hutch" on the modest protrusion above the surface of Geneva Lake known as Duck Island obtained permission to build a bridge from his island to the solid shore land along the 8th hole of the Club's golf course. In later years, an owner of that property obtained additional permission for a path and location of his "sanitary farm" - meaning "septic field" - in the fairway of that hole. Still another member vastly expanded and improved the one time "hutch". The Wisconsin DNR would, now, never approve a structure that is so far from conforming to present generally accepted environmental practices. Yet, for the last 25 years or so, that interesting structure has housed the Henry Bates Family and their numerous progeny, several of whom have become among the most active members of the Club.

(FOOTNOTE: In 1961, Clarence Peterson became Manager of the Clubhouse, a tenure that continued for 30 years. In 1962, Ray Geschke became the Club's Golf Professional, a tenure that, again, reached 30 years. In both cases, as this paper is written, the good health of each has permitted him to be a frequent visitor to the Club during the Summer months.)

In 1959, attention was given, again, to the Club's then outstanding $40,000 of 1948 First Mortgage Bonds, issued to refinance those issued in 1928 that had caused me to initiate my search. An assessment was authorized, for the purpose of repurchasing any Bonds that were to become available, but again at only fifty cents on the dollar of face value. That effort failed.

In 1961, a Bond Committee was appointed that included Russell Zimmerman, as Chair, Hartley Laycock and my mentor, Win Craven, who, now, was President of the Club.

(FOOTNOTE: Brent Starck (Sr.) was then Chair of the Club's Finance Committee. (His brother, Philip Starck had been a Governor of the Club in 1945-1946, at the time of the Club's Celebration of its First Fifty Years, and his father, P.T. Starck was a Director of the Club in 1934-1935. His eldest son, Brent R. Starck, is, as this paper is written, President of the Club, with the expectation that he will serve is such through the Centennial Celebrations of 1995.)

Later in 1961, an assessment was authorized, to pay off the First Mortgage Bonds, in full, when due in 1963. In the same time frame, the Governors passed a resolution that no Club property was to be sold to a Club member.

(FOOTNOTE: In the context of later events, one can deduce that two prominent Club members Norman Cavedo, while acting as Club President, and Richard Kinzer had indicated an interest in taking the Club out of its then financial pressure by purchasing the several unimproved acres on the South of the Club's property, in order to add to a 22 acre portion of the Hatch Farm property then controlled by them, thereby creating a larger and more economically viable new real estate subdivision intended by Mssrs. Cavedo and Kinzer to be appealing to Club members. Their smaller subdivision that ensued has developed far more slowly than they anticipated. This 22 acre parcel had been Club property until 1922, when, to pay off then Club indebtedness, it had been sold to a then active Club officer and Director (the then owner, Mr. Rehm, of the large property adjacent to the Club, on the West, that has, since become the attractive "700 Subdivision"). Such vehement objections from then Club members arose that Mr. Rehm resigned as a Club director and officer, remaining off the Board until the financial straits of the Club in 1931 caused his reelection. Without knowing any of this history, I, myself, was one of the earliest purchasers of the Cavedo/Kinzer lots, and I have had a second home in the middle of their development since 1980.)

By May, 1962, it became clear that the assessment to pay off the 1948 First Mortgage Bonds had caused so many resignations that a significant effort had to be made to increase membership. Among the other efforts, there was an increase in the number of authorized Nonresident Memberships from 15 to 25. In May, 1963, the funds necessary to pay off the remaining balance of those 1948 Bonds were obtained by a standard real estate mortgage at a new local bank in the town of Lake Geneva (then controlled by Mr. Cavedo). At the same meeting at which that mortgage loan was authorized, I and my three friends were voted in as new Nonresident Members.

The circle had closed completely. The bank refinancing that resulted in the satisfaction of the last of 1948 First Mortgage Bonds sold to Club members to refinance the 1928 Mortgage Bonds that had caused me to start my search went into place at the same time that my mentor, Win Craven, had approached me to put together a golfing foursome. The Club's difficulty in meeting what was, originally, a 1928 Bond obligation created openings in its membership, several of which were made available to me.

The pattern of my Summers that started so casually in 1963 has become an exceeding important part of my own life and that of my own immediate Family. This process started without my knowing that, once upon a time, my mother had spent some of her favorite Summers at her favorite grandfather's prominent and famous, in its time, Geneva Lake home. The Club of which I and my immediate Family became a part, without knowing of my mother's and grandparents' 20-year connection with Geneva Lake, is about to complete its Second Fifty Years.

The first twenty of that Second Fifty Years, once I learned of what had taken place, caused me to conceive of writing this paper. The next thirty of the Second Fifty Years were years in which I, myself, participated actively; they will be included in a history of the entire Second Fifty Years that I plan to complete and publish to my fellow Club members before the 1995 Season of the Club starts, as it always does, on Memorial Day Weekend.

(FOOTNOTE: I recognize that some of what I have herein written is not suitable for my fellow Lake Geneva Country Club members. That this paper will, ultimately, find its way into Chicago's Newberry Library does not trouble me, as coverage of a fraction of the life of a private country club in Southern Wisconsin is not likely to attract any "politically correct" researcher. I close with the observation that, in contrast to virtually all clubs of its vintage, including The Chicago Literary Club, the Lake Geneva Country Club has had female members almost from its inception; its membership practices include:

(a), if a couple divorces, the Club membership follows the person that was the original member, whether male or female, meaning that a husband of such a woman must go through the entire membership process, no matter how long he had, through the membership of his wife, the privileges of the Club; and

(b), if a widow or a divorced woman member marries, her new husband must go through the entire membership process, as well.)

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EPILOGUE

Reading later minute books of the Club. I found that, on September 26, 1970, I became a Governor of The Club (on the nomination, I am sure, of Win Craven). On February 23, 1971, with no recorded discussion (and none recalled by me, Win Craven was authorized to offer $2 per share (the then price for the sale of "new" shares to new members of the Club) for all of the outstanding shares of the Club owned by "The General", his son and his daughter, with that amount to be applied to his ("The General's") long-unpaid bills from the Club (probably for dues and assessments only, not for "house account" items). On May 2, 1971, Win Craven reported on the then inconclusive state of his negotiations. On June 13, 1971, Mr. Craven reported that he had purchased on behalf of the Club all stock owned by the Whiting Family and that "The General" was excused from the payment of dues or assessments accrued for his account but remaining unpaid, whereupon, the following resolutions were adopted:

WHEREAS, General Lawrence H. Whiting has tendered his resignation as a member of long-standing of the Lake Geneva Country Club because of poor health and his inability to use the privileges of the Club;

AND WHEREAS, General Whiting has played a prominent role in the life and history of the Club, serving as its president and its Secretary and contributing other valuable services to the Club during his many years of membership;

AND WHEREAS, the Lake Geneva Country Club wishes to formally express its gratitude to General Whiting;

NOW, THEREFORE, in recognition of General Whiting's services and devotion to the Club, it is hereby:

RESOLVED, that the resignation of General Lawrence H. Whiting as a valued member in good standing of the Lake Geneva Country Club is hereby accepted with sincere regret and deep appretiation for his long years of service to the Club;

RESOLVED, FURTHER, that a copy of this resolution be sent to General Whiting.

I am confident that the drafter of these resolutions, Win Craven, did just that.

* * *

In June, 1994, a Chicago judge, Jerome T. Burke, published a novel, much of which was set in and about Lake Geneva in 1895-1996. In addition to references to the demolition of The Whiting Hotel, in the town of Lake Geneva, there is mention of the organization of the Lake Geneva Country Club that year and of golfers and social events there.

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Corrected version of June 13, 1994