(upbeat music) - Will you consider this?

This central Illinois area is full of wonderful history and legacies for that matter.

And my guest today, Mr. Dick Oakford has the story of the legacy of your grandfather, Aaron S Oakford.

Welcome, Mr. Oakford.

- Thank you.

- We hear the name Oakford quite a bit, so let's start out with, your grandfather was born in a log cabin?

- Yes.

- Okay.

In Limestone, - Limestone County.

It was a log cabin that is now still standing.

It's been moved to a farm near the airport and it's been cited, but the logs are still there.

So it never gets cold or hot inside.

It's still a log cabin inside.

- Really.

And he was one of how many children?

- It was just, he had three other sisters that never married.

- Mm-hmm.

Okay.

So Aaron S Oakford.

So he was born in Limestone, and I guess, is it where the Air Guard facility is right now, or that's where the property was back then?

- I'm not sure exactly.

- And what year was that?

- Well, he was born in 1845.

- All right.

Wow!

So pre-Civil war.

- Yeah, yeah, - Yeah, wow.

And then his family moved to Peoria, which was I guess, kind of a long distance from Limestone into Peoria back in those days.

- Yes, he was seven years old and his father had a, he ran a grocery store, retail grocery store on Washington Street, and he used to stand on the steps of that store and watch Abraham Lincoln campaign for his election.

- [Christine] Wow.

- So that was kind of exciting.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

So then your grandfather, so he got to witness the grocery business and then when he was a young man, he only had one year of school, one year of high school?

- He attended Greeley school.

He was the oldest graduate of Greeley - Okay.

- Grade school.

And he had one year at Peoria High School.

He started the tradition of five generations of Oakfords that have attended Peoria High School.

- [Christine] Hmm.

- He had to go, he went one year, and he had to get out and go to work at HH Potter retail grocery store, which at that time was the largest grocery store on Washington Street.

And he did everything, broke up chunks of cane domino sugar and, delivered groceries in the horse and wagon, and just all of the operation of a retail store.

And until HH Potter wanted to retire, that's where he worked.

And then he, when he retired, Potter retired.

he bought the company, bought the store with another clerk there that the two of 'em, Wright, his name was Wright.

(clears throat) - [Christine] So it was Wright and Oakford at that time?

- At that point in time.

- [Christine] Uh-huh.

- And then eventually in 1868, and that was in 1868 when he bought the store, and about 1870 they were involved with the wholesale end of it in, out of that retail store.

So that grew and grew and they stopped the retail business.

And he started the wholesale business.

Totally 100%.

And he moved about three more times before the present building that still stands, which is the Maxim Building on Washington Street.

- Okay.

- Next to the museum.

- [Christine] Mm-hmm.

- And (clears throat) so that's, they service 460 stores and- - In the 1800s they did that?

- Yeah, late 1800s.

- Just imagine, imagine that.

Wow.

- Lot of retail grocery stores, (indistinct) early 1900s too, as well.

- Mm-hmm - And had a revenue of 1,500,000 a year.

- Which, who knows what that would be today.

- Today.

- Okay.

- So it was a lot at that point in time.

(Dick laughs) - It really was.

So then he was quite a benevolent person.

He really, yes, he was doing well, but he was also reaching out and he noticed things and people, I read the book, it seems that people really listened to what he had to say and how he weighed in.

- They did.

- So they did explain what was the first thing that he reached out to the community to do, to help out?

- Golly.

The first thing?

Well, he...

He was a congregationalist - Mm-hmm.

- And he convinced his church to help him support a mission house.

And he did that.

He got a mission house and that little house used to be a tavern, but it became a mission house and eventually the neighborhood house.

- [Christine] Wow, so he was the founder of Neighborhood House.

- He was the founder of Neighborhood House and the President.

And there were four generations of Oakford's on that board for over 125 years.

And Judy Oakford, my brother, Art's wife, was the last Oakford that was on that board.

My son was president at one time, Paul.

But he was president and he paid all the bills and expenses just to keep it, make sure it was kept in financial good, good sound financially.

And he, his wife, then his second wife, - Right.

And tell, explain the story why he had a second wife.

The first one died.

- His first wife died very young.

So this was a niece of the first wife - Mm-hmm.

- And a flower girl in their wedding.

- Wedding.

Right.

- Of the first wife.

- Okay.

- So, (chuckles) that my aunt always, she said she figured out that he was his own grandpa.

And I'm not sure how he did that.

(both laughing) - We'll have to draw that one out and see how that works out, yeah.

- Yeah.

But so his second wife, Mary Lyons Oakford, did all the operations of Neighborhood House, that was her pet project.

She was very active in the community as well, but he, they even wanted her on the board, he said no, she said, "No, one Oakford is enough", but she did bring the first playground area to the neighborhood house.

And so Neighborhood House has been going for 128 years, probably now.

- Right.

- And it's been December 8th, our mayor Rita, proclaimed it Neighborhood House Day.

And so he did a lot of reaching out to other people.

He was very sensitive to the needs of other people.

- Mm-hmm.

Well, he had his finger in a lot of different things.

Banking.

He also was helped start up a bank in town?

- Yes, he did with Ferd Luthy and William White.

He was the first vice president.

And he became, because of the banking business, John Proctor asked him to be his trustee and the president of the Benevolent Fund.

- [Christine] Mm-hmm.

And Proctor as in there's- - John Cleveland Proctor.

- Right.

- Proctor Hospital.

They built that from Cottage Hospital.

And that is where I was born.

- Oh, okay.

- In the old Proctor Hospital.

- Mm-hmm, and that was just, that was kind of on the south side, wasn't it, right?

- Yeah, yeah.

- [Christine] And then Proctor Center, - That was built after Proctor died, the recreational center, - Mm-hmm.

- But the retirement home was down there on Spring Street.

- Right.

- Which is now St. Augustine Manor.

- Right.

- And he liked that so much that that's where he went to live and that's where he died.

- Where John C Proctor died.

- John Proctor died.

- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

And how did he make all his money?

I forget.

I read that, but I forget.

- Well, he was a farmer, he had many farms in the state of Illinois.

He developed a lumber company and he had some other interest.

He didn't have any family except for one brother.

So he left all his money to the benevolent fund that my grandfather - Was managing.

- Managing.

- [Christine] Right, right.

- So they built a lot of things.

That he built that a school for nursing education.

And my grandfather gave the first commencement speech there.

So... - And he had some pretty interesting information in that commencement speech.

Do you remember it or do we need to look it up?

(Christine laughs) - Yeah, sure.

If that's the one, or if that's, are you're thinking of the commencement speech that he gave to Lincoln Grade School?

- Oh, it might have been to Lincoln Grade School.

Yeah.

- After, 'cause he was, he talked about Peoria High School, and he mentioned in his commencement speech that he attended Peoria High School in the basement of the Methodist Episcopal Church where he could sit and watch the mice and the rats scatter around on the plank floors.

And he told the Lincoln School kids that it wasn't the nice school with all the nice auditorium and the ball fields like Central has now and Manual has now, but they had brainy teachers.

- There you go.

- And he learned a lot and it was a major impact on his life, that one year in high school.

And he made the comment, several times I think throughout his life that, maybe he had too much sense or maybe he didn't have enough sense to register a kick.

(Christine chuckles) So we all know that he had a lot of sense because he accomplished a great deal.

(Christine coughs) - 'Cause he did so well, yeah.

- In the community.

And he is to be distinguished as the Peoria High School outstanding alumni.

(Christine sneezes) - Excuse me.

That came from nowhere.

Okay, excuse me.

- That's all right.

- I don't wanna take that honor away from him.

No, as a distinct and a distinguished alum - [Dick] Alumni.

Distinguished alumni of of Peoria High School.

Yeah.

- Wow.

- And that'll take place on October 12th.

- All right, well that's quite an honor.

So, you, so your dad was one of his sons?

- That's right.

- Okay.

- That he was the son of the second marriage.

- Okay.

- So he's a half brother of Wilson Oakford and Edwin Oakford and Searight Oakford and my Aunt Elizabeth.

- All right, and so your dad, I mean, it's pretty overwhelming to try to live up to somebody like your grandfather.

- Yeah.

- So, you know, and I said to you earlier, so with a name like Oakford and being in this community for so long, you really couldn't mess up anywhere along the line, could you?

(Dick laughs) A lot was expected of you.

- That's for sure.

But it didn't work.

- Oh, no, it didn't.

(Dick laughs) - No, he did do an awful lot.

He, people seemed to come to him when they had a problem and they needed a solution and he took it on 100%, wrapped himself into it and he came up with a solution.

And all the print that I've read and researched that he never did this for his glory.

It was always because that's what he thought a good citizen should do.

- Right.

And he lived up to that.

So, then when he turned 80 years old, I'm looking, when he was 80 years old, there was a big birthday party for him.

- They did that.

- Was it a surprise?

- It was a surprise birthday party that 250 citizens came to that.

- [Christine] Uh-huh.

And (indistinct) was the organizer of that.

- [Christine] Okay.

- At that time he was in the real estate business.

- [Christine] And that was at the Peoria Country Club.

- Peoria Country Club - Did he help found the country club too?

- He was an early member.

- Okay.

- He founded, he was a founding member of the Creve Coeur Club.

- Okay.

All right.

- But, it was interesting that they asked for $3.50 for the meal as well as for the gift for each, - For the birthday present.

- For the birthday party.

- Uh-huh, okay.

All right.

- Which now would be what?

- A lot more.

A lot more.

(laughing) Okay.

Inflation.

- Yeah.

- But they named him Peoria's most useful citizen.

- [Dick] Yes.

- And they just came up with that moniker for him?

- Well, I not sure where it originated, but he was named several things.

Most useful citizen, Peoria's first citizen, - The grand old man.

- The grand old man.

- When he was younger, he was the sugar kid or something.

- He was the king of sugar.

- Okay.

- Domino Sugar named him that, 'cause he sold so much sugar, of their sugar.

And he also was the most air minded citizen when in 1926 I believe, that the airplanes started to be built.

They took him up in a plane over Peoria and they took and up near Chicago area, they flew him over there.

And he was very much concerned about the infrastructure that in the economy, - Mm-hmm.

- He felt that was the strongest point that kept this, a strong economy going.

And that was rail and water and highway and air.

He had the first barge load of Florida grapefruit come all the way from Florida on a barge.

- When he was wholesaling?

When he was in the wholesale business?

- Yeah.

Uh-huh - All right.

Wow.

- And so he was, he really was concerned about the infrastructure as the foundation of a good, strong economy in Peoria.

- Mm-hmm.

So what do you think he'd think of the world today?

Or?

- I don't know.

I don't, you know, he...

I think that he would say to me, "Richard", and he'd say to all people, "Only you can decide what to do next".

- Mm-hmm.

Well, and that you did mention - Yeah.

- That when people did come to him, he'd give them suggestions and ideas, but he would never decide for them.

- He was written up as a good mentor for young people to, if they wanted to get ahead.

- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

- Yeah.

- So who's around central Illinois left today, who's kinda like your grandfather.

Who- - [Dick] Well, Rutherford, I think we could fit kind of in that category.

- Mm-hmm.

All right.

- As a benevolent person.

- And there's a lot who've done a lot of good around here.

- Yeah, that's right.

- But they don't have the Oakford name to live up to.

- No.

(laughs) - And you did tell me, so you did a lot of research and newspaper articles and things like that, but you also got some help from some of your neighbors at Lutheran Hillside Village.

- That's right.

- What were they telling you?

- Five of the people that I've acknowledged in there live at Lutheran Hillside Village.

So I considered a Hillside Village book.

- There you go.

Okay.

And did one of them work at, no, one of 'em worked at the store or was a nanny?

- There was a, there, one of the residents, his mother worked at the Oakford Company and his grandfather worked at the Oakford Company.

- Okay.

- And then there's another one that lives up in Evanston, Illinois, that she's the one that the great-grandfather took care of the horses for the Oakford and Fahnestock company.

- [Christine] Okay.

- And she, and there's a little a picture of - There is a picture in.

- A horse and the child, and that family lived above the garage of Oakford and Fahnestock.

- Where they kept the horses?

- Where they kept the horses.

- Yeah, okay, yeah.

- And he liked horses so much that even after automobiles came into existence, he still stuck with the horses.

- He did?

- Yeah.

- [Christine] For how much longer though?

- Until he died, he never bought a car.

- (gasps) Really?

- Yeah.

- That's very interesting.

Okay, so then I see you also had some Blue Ribbon baking chocolate.

So they- - Yeah, that was the one that his mother worked at Oakford Company and he happened to have that label - Okay.

- And he gave that to me.

- Wow.

What fun.

- Yeah.

- So were there any surprises that you found out about your grandfather that you hadn't heard through word of mouth history?

- Well, you know, a lot of it was a surprise.

Growing up, I don't remember my father talking about his father.

- Mm-hmm.

- I don't remember my uncles or my aunt talking about my father.

So, and I think that goes back to my grandfather never talked about himself.

- Okay.

- So I guess I can understand that.

But I've, after researching and doing some reading and telling other people, they all said, "You need to write this down for your kids and grandkids".

- And that's how it came about.

- Yeah.

- But then how did the publishing come about?

- Well, I just- - I mean, I see all these little notes.

So this is how you started writing the whole thing, right?

- Oh yeah.

(chuckles) - Okay.

But then you, then you actually got it published and this is the second version of it.

- Right.

I have a good friend, Merv Renick that's acknowledged in there that he acted as my publisher.

- All right.

- And he's written several books himself, so, yeah, he did that.

And so they all were very kind in helping me out.

- Mm-hmm.

Well, it's important to record this kind of history - Yeah.

- Because it does get lost.

And what do you hope will be the most important thing?

Yes, your family knows about it and now we know about it.

But what do you think is the most important thing that will come out of this?

That we hang on to history and build from this?

- Well that too, but I think mostly, it's the character that Aaron Samuel Oakford was.

A very Christian man, and...

I think that's the what I think I like to remember most.

- [Christine] Okay.

Yeah.

- You know, in the Bible, Jesus says, "Feed the hungry".

And he did that with Neighborhood House.

- Mm-hmm.

- And he says, "Heal the sick".

He did that with the Proctor Hospital and building the school for nurses.

So it's that, that feeling and that character, that I think is what I like to think about.

- Well, and then if someone who was born in a log cabin - Yeah.

- And two centuries ago and came up and could do, make that much of a difference.

Kinda like a Mother Teresa.

You know, one person can do that many things.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

He did enjoy beauty.

We didn't touch on that where he worked on a committee in the Peoria Heights Development Committee, - [Christine] Mm-hmm.

- And they were responsible to build Grandview Drive.

- [Christine] Oh, okay.

- So I think that was a surprise to me.

'cause I didn't know that.

- All right.

- Even though he bought 18 acres on the drive where I grew up, - Your dad built a house on that property?

- Yeah, yeah.

'Cause he died before he could get there, get to building it down there.

- Mm-hmm.

(clears throat) - But, that and Springdale Cemetery, he had a hand in that and Cedar Street Bridge and the YWCA.

- So pretty much everywhere we look around Peoria, Aaron Samuel Oakford had already weighed in and helped make it even what it is today.

- That's right.

- United Way.

- Mm-hmm.

- [Dick] He started it and was treasurer of that.

- [Christine] Okay.

Just amazing.

- And the bank is now PNC Bank.

- [Christine] Okay.

Well there you go.

- So there's a lot of things that we still have that are going on.

- A lot of legacy.

Well thank you so much for sharing your story, your love of your grandfather who you didn't even really get to know, but, - That's right.

- Very interesting.

And now more people around central Illinois can, can appreciate what they see and what he did for us.

(up-tempo music) - Well thank you Christine.

This was fun.

- Thanks so much Dick.

Dick Oakford.

Quite a family story.

Thanks for joining us.

And, remember, be well.

(up-tempo music) (up-tempo music continues)