www.boonecountyjournal.com In Our 19th Year 815-544-4430 The Boone County Journal Feb. 6th., 2015 1 FREE COUNTY LOCAL NEWS, OPINION & HISTORY Real Journalism for a Real Democracy www.boonecountyjournal.com Published Every Friday • Feb. 6th., 2015 • Vol 19 • Issue 41 No. 977 Fellow & Son A “Machine Shop” By James Middleton Oh, what wonders could emerge from Fellow & Son Machine Shop. For anyone with a mechanical interest to their musings or anyone that was handy with their hands or someone who imagined how their life could be improved by mechanization and invention, they could idle away hours in a machine shop. In Belvidere in the later 19th Century, the machine shop was Fellow & Son. The photograph shown here was shot, perhaps, in the 1890s when the shop was one where farmers and local residents would come if they needed to repair work done on anything made of any metal or if they needed a set of harness hames made or if they needed pipes made to convey water from a well to their house. Fellow & Son could manage the job and perform the task. What more could anyone ask from a machine shop? The structure that housed the business was found at the base of the State Street Bridge on the south side of the bridge. That site being the physical center of town, it was certainly a handy location to do business. The building was at a crossroads and that was long before there was a “side” perception of the village. Anyone that travelled through downtown Belvidere would sooner-or-later, pass Fellow & Son. Fellow and his son were both adept in the operation of a forge. They could bend steel and iron using vices and various other winches to hold the metal secure and then to supply heat and pressure to reshape the steel into almost any sort of bend or contortion that a customer wanted. For many decades leading through the middle 19th Illinois where this type of work was done. Some might know that similar skill was applied by those Century, the place to go if someone needed a machine part Today, many machine shops have gone the path of that marched with General William Tecumseh Sherman on to be made or needed a machine to be created was to visit a buggy whips and are little longer needed. A century ago his march to the sea near the end of the Civil War. His small shop like Fellow & Son. This shop came about soon owners of machines or those that had hired the making of a “machine” workers heated and bent southern rails making after the end of the Civil Was in the middle 1860s and the machine would keep that machine operating for as long as them into what the soldier called “General Billy’s hairpins.” shop prospered at their same location through to the end of they could. But with the economic explosion that occurred Fellows did not merely sell pumps, he and his son made the century. after the end of World War II and extended into this pumps. One must remember, the photograph was shot in Not only did the shop work with iron and steel to repair Third Millennium, manufacturers of consumer products, the 1890s. There was no Internet, there were no department harnesses for carriages but they also repaired mole boards automobiles and home appliances have imposed the idea of or building supply stores where pumps or other steel and for steel plows and other farm implements that were just “planned obsolescence” and established a life expectancy iron machines could easily be bought. Most customers had then becoming popular. But what was also so much a part in business and home machines used today. to go to a machine shop where the machine or item could of the industrial revolution was the manufacture of machine Though Fellow & Son had a growing business at the be made, by hand, to suit their needs. parts that were used to make other machines. The trend State Street Bridge in Belvidere for a number of decades, Machine shops were an invention that emerged out of also applied to creating items and machines for use in the only the memory of their machine shop is what is left. the 19th Century. Machine shops came about in response home. By the early 20th Century homes were becoming Though the business is gone, perhaps for some that remain to the growing effects of the industrial revolution. As modernized. in Belvidere, they will agree, the Fellow & Son machine industrialization grew and expanded across the country Though later versions of machine shops sustained shop is not forgotten. the need for machine shops or shops within a shop became through much of the 20th Century, the work done there The Journal wants to thank the Boone County Historical even a greater need. Tool and dye makers were needed changed. Some machine shops began to specialize during Society for allowing use of the photograph and we also want as were those that could create parts or gears of shafts or the middle and latter 20th Century shortening, bending or to acknowledge a number of websites under Wikipedia.com for the like to improve upon a larger machine; all of this was lengthening the frames of trucks and heavy trucks. There providing research material used to produce this piece. needed in the 1890s. have been many such shops in select cities across northern system could be modified to produce students that are better entrants to the workforce need not only have the basic skills- A Vision prepared to perform in a global job market. District #100 reading, writing, math-but that is the 21st Century business superintendent Dr. Michael Houselog said, “This view of world, possessing a range of applied skills directly related Of the Future education in the 21st Century is part of our approach to to the workplace is critical to success.” Further, with magnet schools. Our goal is to identify how graduates can those skills, Ms. Johnson offered that employers ranked a By James Middleton be successful citizens.” number of skills as important for high school and college He suggested that district administrators must learn from student to possess, such as “professionalism, teamwork, For decades there has been vocal criticism of the business professionals what is needed. He also suggested oral communication, ethics and social responsibility and American system of public education. This criticism that public schools need to be transformed with a broader reading comprehension.” dates back to October 4, 1957 when the Soviet’s launched emphasis on technology but not necessarily a singular The women detailed the first two skills, professionalism Sputnik, the first man-made satellite into orbit around focus on technology. Further, Dr. Houselog added, “We and teamwork. Professionalism requires that one possess the Earth. After the satellite entered into a low orbit, the need to better understand the current culture and to better a non-judgmental manner, should aid co-workers and criticism rose to orbit school districts led by parents and benefit from the opportunities.” He concluded, “We need should apply problem-solving techniques to improve the educators who were worried that the Soviet education to look deeper at how we teach.” job and the workplace. Of course, these methods must be system was far better than the American system in how Two educators, Megan Johnson and Joy Bauman understood by the student and that was where the school science and mathematics were taught. delivered the message of 21st Century learning at the district and the teachers came into the question. Today, the criticism has focused on the difference rescheduled Board of Education meeting. The original The skill of teamwork requires that students work between the Chinese and the American system of public January meeting was cancelled because the Board did not effectively with others. Student must understand how to education. In a more local setting, some industrial leaders have a quorum when the meeting was called to order. share responsibility, to use problem-solving techniques, to and others have complained that so many of the people that The two women began their presentation of education in work out differences with others and to avoid contributing apply for jobs here are underprepared to be an asset to the the 21st Century by asking why students need something to unproductive group conflicts. corporation where they want to work. Corporate leaders different. The answer that was explained that today’s Ms. Johnson pointed to a quote from Forbes magazine, complain, because of the low level of knowledge that many learners are different than yesterday’s learners. Ms. “Half of today’s jobs did not exist 25 years ago and, while applicants exhibit, they must reeducate where the public Bauman said that today’s learners want a voice, they want 72% of educational institution believe recent graduates school system had failed to train. to be involved in the fast-paced world and need a wide Because of this concern, administrators in the Belvidere range of skills to participate. School District #100 are investigating how their education One of the women added, “Employers report the new continued on page...2 2 Feb. 6th., 2015 The Boone County Journal 815-544-4430 In Our 19th Year www.boonecountyjournal.com Vision from page...1 Moving Forward (college) are ready for work while only 42% of employers agree, according to a McKinsey study.” Finally, Forbes With added, “39% of adults under the age of 25 are either unemployed or underemployed.” Ms. Bauman added, “By 2020 (five years ahead) “Modernization” there will be 55 million new jobs.