Fairbury's newest park

Fairbury's newest park is the Munz Nature Park, located on South First Street just north of the bridge across Indian Creek.

According to a June 16, 2018, Pantagraph article, the land was donated to the Prairie Lands Foundation by the family of Conrad and Catherine Munz of Fairbury.

In that article, Prairie Lands Foundation president David Hammer said, "I think it's a nice enhancement of additional green space for the community. It's a place where people can ride their bicycles and walk around. There will be some benches to sit and enjoy nature. People could do some great bird watching, too."

This park is just over 5.5 acres and features a half-mile walking trail. Indian Creek forms part of the border of this park. The new park was dedicated on June 18, 2018.

The park features several areas of different types of vegetation native to Illinois. Over the years since it was created, many volunteers have planted trees and plants in the park.

Conrad Munz Sr. and his son Conrad Munz Jr. were early entrepreneurs and businessmen in Fairbury. Their businesses included a sorghum mill, a sand pit, and an ice delivery business.

The elder Munz was born in 1841 in Sulgen, Switzerland. He was the son of Jacob Munz and Elizabeth Altweg. In 1871, Conrad Munz Sr. married Catharina Blumer in Switzerland. Conrad and Catharina moved from Switzerland to the Forrest, Illinois, area two years later. Son Conrad Munz Jr. was born in Forrest in 1887. He married Ida Metz in 1914.

In 1888, Conrad Munz Sr. moved his family from Forrest to a 200-acre farm just south of Fairbury. He grew sorghum on his farm and built a factory to convert sorghum to molasses.

In 1895, Conrad Munz Sr. dug a hole on his farm to bury a dead horse for John Bolliger. He noted that gravel and sand were found just below the topsoil. This discovery prompted the formation of the Fairbury Sand and Gravel Works, which was in business from 1895 to 1940. Conrad Munz J. was the proprietor. At its peak, the sandpit could pump 100 to 200 cubic yards of sand daily. The resultant pond was commonly called Munz's sandpit.

Conrad Munz Sr. suffered a major accident in Forrest in 1897. He fell under the wheels of a moving train car, which cut off his right leg above the knee. He was fifty-six years old when the accident occurred. He survived this horrible accident.

In 1907, the molasses factory burned down. A  new and larger factory was built. The new factory could produce thousands of gallons of molasses per year. This new factory had a tall brick smokestack. The second factory eventually burned down, leaving only the tall brick smokestack. This smokestack was removed just a few years ago. It was just east of the golf course clubhouse.

In 1908, Conrad Munz Sr. embarked on another business enterprise. He built a large ice house just north of the Munz sandpit. The ice house was sixty feet by one hundred fifty feet and divided into four sections. Each section was filled separately during the winter. The ice house was built right next to the Munz sandpit to minimize the distance the ice had to be moved from the sandpit.

Each year in the winter, ice was cut from the Munz sandpit. An inclined ramp moved the ice from the sandpit to the ice house. The ice blocks were packed in sawdust to prevent them from melting. Each day, a horse-drawn wagon would carry the ice blocks up and down the streets of Fairbury. The ice delivery man would take a block of ice to each home and place it in the icebox. The homeowner often displayed a tag on the door telling the delivery man what size block they wanted. The ice was usually sold in twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five, and 100-pound blocks.

The block of ice was usually placed in the top of the insulated icebox. Food was stored in the lower compartments. The older iceboxes were made of wood with tin inside to contain the water. Later, iceboxes were insulated steel boxes. Several Fairbury homes had a special icebox where the delivery man did not have to come into the house. He first opened a door outside the house. He then slid the ice block right into the icebox inside the home. One of the homes with this special ice box was at 518 South Third Street. 

The 1920 Blade newspaper pronounced Conrad Munz Jr. as Fairbury's new Ice Baron. He bought out his competitor, M. M. Jacobs, and renamed the business the Fairbury Ice Company.

In 1925, Conrad Munz Jr. bought the Perlee cold storage building at 6th and Walnut. He converted it into a combination ice house and cold storage building. Stanley Perlee built this structure in 1881 as cold storage for his produce business.

In 1930, the Blade published the first advertisement for an electric refrigerator. It was a General Electric brand that sold for $205, which in today's dollars would be $3,122. Nussbaum Brothers, the "Scientific Plumbers and Contractors, " sold the refrigerators."

In 1931, Conrad Munz Sr. died at age 90. In the mid-1930s, Conrad Munz Jr. started selling about sixty electric refrigerators a year.

In 1945, ice-cutting operations ceased. Electric refrigerators had largely replaced iceboxes. The warehouse next to the sandpit was abandoned and burned down in 1948. In 1956, the old ice house at Sixth and Walnut was torn down to make room for an implement storage facility.

In 1961, Conrad Munz Jr. died. His death ended the era of home delivery of ice to stock the iceboxes of Fairbury citizens.

In June 2021, a historic mural was installed in the Munz Nature Park. This mural chronicles the lives of Conrad Munz Sr. In addition to photos of Conrad Munz Sr. (1841-1931) and Catherina Blumier (1849-1926), the mural also includes old photographs of the sorghum works in 1906, the beginning of digging the sandpit, and a 1941 photograph of cutting ice on the sandpit.

If you have not visited Fairbury's newest park, it is easy to visit and take the half-mile walking tour around its perimeter.

(Dale Maley's weekly history feature on Fairbury News is sponsored by Dr. Charlene Aaron)