Caryl Towsley Moy
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For over 45 years Genevieve Towsley was a highly respected journalist and historian in Naperville, Illinois. Through her weekly columns she chronicled and influenced the changes in Naperville from a rural community to a major and prosperous suburb. She was always a talented wordsmith, whether telling about one of the city's founding families, of an atomic physicist newly moved to Naperville or her pioneer childhood in Idaho. Her many historic articles were so well researched that they were collected and published in one volume, "A View of Historic Naperville" that is in its sixth printing. She was described as courageous and a woman of valor, for she often wrote about controversial issues. Because of her feature stories, the community's Centennial Beach became integrated,and there is a business corridor instead of a dog racing track north of the city. She championed the saving of an historic church which led to the establishment of the Naperville Heritage Society. She loved to bake as much as she loved to write and became famous for her caramel pecan rolls,This and other favorite recipes are included in the book. Her daughter, Caryl Towsley Moy, professor emerita, University of Illinois at Springfield, punctuates Naperville's Genevieve stories with her own memories of this unusual woman. Donna DeFalco, longtime Naperville resident and former Naperville Sun reporter, assisted in editing the book. The Idaho Childhood chapter is written by Genevieve herself..
Caryl Towsley Moy, PhD, is the daughter of Genevieve and Myron Towsley. Following her retirement as professor from the University of Illinois at Springfield she had considered writing her mother's biography. To confirm facts and stories with her own memories, she contacted The Naperville Sun where Genevieve wrote for over 40 years. She went to Naperville to get a long computer list of Genevieve's articles and to begin the task of reading microfilms of selected titles. As she arrived, the receptionist noted that very morning she had seen a large cardboard box with the Genevieve Towsley name on the side of it, sitting on the loading dock.It turned out to contain nearly 90% of her original articles! This fortunate find provided the main resource for the details of this memoir. Caryl earned her B.S. degree at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in home economics. She married her high school sweetheart, Richard Moy; they had two sons. After teaching for ten years she took a sabbatical to get an MA at the University of Chicago School of Social Work. In 1970 when the family moved to Springfield, she became the founding president of a family planning agency, survived ovarian cancer and she began her career in higher education. In 1972 she was recruited to what is now the University of Illinois at Springfield. In the 21 years she taught there, her family sociology and human sexuality courses were popular, she received her PhD from Southern Illinois University and she co-authored the textbook, "Communication Basics For Human Service Professionals." Her honors include selection by a committee of historians as one of 12 Springfield women who made a difference and for being an outstanding founding faculty member,an oil portrait of her hangs in the university's hallway.
Excerpt from Chapter 14, The Journalist Becomes An Historian
As much as she treasured doing research on Naperville’s earliest families, homes and businesses, it was her interviews with old timers that gave her the most joy and put “life” into her articles. I remember how animated she would be at the supper table after her interviews with amazing folks such as Truman Myers, former livery driver, postmaster and talented bass singer, as well as pioneering photographer and merchant, Eli Stark. Another great source for her historic stories was Mae Ballou Beckman, local benefactor and philanthropist, whose father made his fortune during the Gold Rush.
Of all the stories she shared, my husband’s favorite is the one Mother gleaned from Augie Germann, the talented Naperville businessman who was born in the “Brew House.” The Kroehler Company was at one time the world’s largest furniture manufacturer. Its first plant was established in Naperville. Peter Kroehler arranged to bring in many German artisans to get the factory started. Many Naperville families with German names relate to that endeavor. An observant German entrepreneur by the name of Peter Stenger felt such a collection of countrymen needed a good beer. He immigrated bringing with him a master brewer and set up the Stenger Brewery. The old limestone building still existed when Dick and I were growing up. Using Naperville’s great spring water, the beer was a great success and was becoming popular in the Chicago area, much to the benefit of Herr Stenger. He suggested to his master brewer that if he would marry his daughter that he would inherit the thriving business. The brewer was apparently not attracted to the offer because he fled a thousand miles away to Golden, Colorado and started his own business.
Genevieve, always the professional journalist, called the incumbent president of the brewery to confirm the facts. He did confirm that she had “Grandpa’s story.” The brewer’s name was Adolf Coors.
As she became a writer of increasing note, several local businesses asked her to write their company’s history. Naperville National Bank was one of these. There was a separate section of The Sun about the bank on its 25th anniversary that was attractively printed with a glossy finish. As she was preparing that story, I’m sure she had some grateful memories. That was the bank, newly opened in 1934, which lent Mother and Dad money to build their Julian Street home. Both of the town’s other banks had closed during the Depression and never reopened.
When another local business, Beidelman-Kunsch Funeral Home, thought their family had been in business in Naperville for 120 years, John Kunsch asked Mother to write their history in 1983. The funeral home, along with Oswald’s Pharmacy, is one of the oldest continuously operating businesses in Naperville. Because the funeral home’s beginnings were based on hearsay, they asked a secretary, Elizabeth Schmitt, to see what she could find in old newspapers at Nichols Library. She found two articles that stated that the business was started in 1861, not 1863, as they had believed and advertised. They were rather sheepish to admit this mistake, but Mother told them it made little difference at that point and assured them she would still write their story. Following that article, she was supplied with high quality Beidelman-Kunsch ballpoint pens for her writing, which she enjoyed for many years.
When Cock Robin, originally Prince Castle, was 40 years old, she wrote that company’s story in 1971, which carried many memories for her. While working in the offices of the Naperville Creamery company, the forerunner of Prince Castle, she met Dad.
Of course it was a given that she would write the history of The Naperville Sun in 1965 when the paper was 30 years old. There was an addendum to that story in 1975 to highlight its amazing development through the ye
