100 years ago: A female candidate for mayor brings O’Fallon politics to a boil

Looking back at stories that appeared in the O’Fallon Progress 100, 75, and 50 years ago:

100 years ago, April 2, 1925

With but a few days until the final date for the filing of candidates for the city election on April 21, the political pot is beginning to bubble in O’Fallon. For the first time in the history of our city the ballot will be graced with the name of a woman who has decided to make the race for mayor at the solicitation of friends.

This announcement came Tuesday when Mrs. Rea Thompson, of East State street, filed a petition as the mayorality candidate on the Independent ticket. Up to the time of going to press no other candidate has filed for the office although several possibilities are being rumored.

Mrs. Thompson, in an announcement to the press, states that she is making the race on a platform which is simple and easily understood. In this she sets forth that if elected she intends to keep the oath of office entrusted in her by serving the city to the best of her ability, favoring public improvements, enforcing the laws of the city, state and nation, seeking no credit, but to carry out the wishes of the citizens, as a mayor or public official should do, she says.

Other candidates who have filed are James Coughlin, alderman for the second ward; Oren Joseph, alderman for the third ward and Erwin C. Schobert, for city treasurer; Ernest Lewedag, for city clerk. All are running as Independent candidates.

A complete ticket, from mayor on down, is to be elected this year. Ralph Kampmeyer, who has served as mayor on the Farm-Labor ticket for the past four years, has not announced as to whether he will be a candidate for another two-year term. Other officials who were elected on the same ticket and whose terms expire are H. L. Siekmann, city clerk; John Thompson, treasurer; Fred Gill, John P. O’Brien and John Streck, alderman in the first, second and third wards, respectively. None of these have filed up to now but a meeting of the Farm-Labor party is expecting to be called before the final filing date which is next Monday.

(Thompson’s entry in the mayor’s race apparently prompted Kampmeyer to decide to run for re-election. He won. O’Fallon would have to wait until 1985 to elect its first, and to date, only woman mayor - Kristi Vetri.)

75 years ago, March 30, 1950

The first report of chicken thefts in this area for some time came Saturday from the Richard Schaeffer farm, just 30 feet outside the southern city limits where sneaks made a big haul some time during Friday night.

Schaeffer reported to the sheriff’s office that 80 chickens were taken from his poultry house between 11 o’clock Friday night and 7 a.m. Saturday. The poultry, all big White Rock 6 to 6-1/2 pound pullets and laying hens netted the thieves some 500 pounds of good chicken since Schaeffer had just recently culled his flock, retaining only the choice pullets. Schaeffer stated that it was one of the finest flocks he has had in his some 40 years of farming.

He is offering a reward of $50 for information that will lead to the arrest and conviction of the guilty parties. Entrance to the poultry house, which was locked, was gained by prying a window and removing four iron bars on the inside. No effort was made to open the padlocked door, the loot being taken through the window.

Tracks revealed that to get the stolen chickens to a waiting car or small truck, the thieves had to carry them through a pasture for some 150 yards, lift them over a fence to a conveyance parked on O’Fallon-Shiloh road.

Mr. Schaeffer stated that he will appreciate information from anyone who may have traveled O’Fallon-Shiloh road late Friday night and noticed a vehicle parked on the right side of the road, midway between his place and the Joseph Louis farm home.

(The Schaeffer farm was just southwest of Highway 50 and Lincoln Avenue in O’Fallon.)

50 years ago, April 3, 1975

Mrs. Mamie Dittemore, a teacher at Marie Schaefer Junior High School and chief negotiator for the O’Fallon Classroom Teachers’ Association, has resigned her position as negotiator. In her letter to Superintendent of Schools Harold Landwehrmier, she says her reasons for leaving the negotiating team are twofold.

“The animosity that exists from both committees in itself is enough to hamper further positive negotiations. And sending a chief negotiator in as nothing more than a pawn to do as a few others demand is not my idea of anything other than using a new personality to accomplish the wants of the same people involved in last year’s negotiations,” the letter read.

Mrs. Dittemore said that OCTA President Edna Stief and association member Vern Beckmann were the two persons she referred to as “a few others” in her letter. She feels as though Mrs. Stief and Beckmann have been using her during the recent negotiations meeting with board members.

The two sides met in January to set up guidelines for the negotiations which are scheduled to start April 15. Mrs. Dittemore said her eyes were opened at the meeting.

“I was doing nothing more than running back and forth checking with Edna on everything. I got the feeling I was being used,” Mrs. Dittemore said.

Mrs. Stief and Beckmann, when contacted for a statement, said the matter was an internal organizational matter and could not comment on the resignation or Mrs. Dittemore’s statement without permission of the association.

Mrs. Dittemore said she felt negotiations could have gone smoother than last year had some changes been made.

“When I was first contacted to take the position of negotiator, I was told the association wanted a new philosophy and personality. After a while I could see that they had a new personality but it was the same words as last year coming out of the mouth,” Mrs. Dittemore said.

Mrs. Dittemore, who was on the salary negotiations committee for three years, said she had never encountered any problems during those three years. However, she said this year the “animosity between the two sides is unreal. Mrs. Stief and Vern had the only say in association matters. They attended some Illinois Education Association (IEA) meetings and a lot of the teachers took their word as God’s,” she said.

The largest conflict which forced Mrs. Dittemore’s hand to resign was the rejection by the association of her idea in presenting the association’s demands to the board.

“I felt the association could present its package of wants and needs to the board to begin the negotiations. The board could take it from there. Nobody was going to be sold down the river in the negotiations because the association has to vote on its approval,” Mrs. Dittemore said.

Mrs. Dittemore also said she had her “eyes opened” while serving as chief negotiator for the OCTA. “I was no more chief negotiator for the association than the mailman walking down the street,” Mrs. Dittemore said.

The junior high school teacher said she is contemplating dropping out of the IEA next year, stating that the IEA offers little to anyone. “I really can’t see what they’ve done for us. It’s all ‘me, me, me’ in the IEA and if anyone gets sacrificed along the way that’s tough,” Mrs. Dittemore said.

Mrs. Dittemore said the majority of teachers don’t know what’s happening in the association but feels they will soon realize the situation.

“I really don’t know what it’s going to take for the teachers to see what’s going on but I hope they find out soon before it’s too late,” she said.