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November 30, 2022

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Dear Village Resident,



You're invited to our Annual Christmas Tree Lighting Festival on Saturday, December 3 from 3:30 - 5:30 PM at Horse Fair Park. Visit with Santa, enjoy a hay ride & storytelling, crafts, refreshments and the tree lighting at 5:00 PM!


The enclosed pavilion will be heated. Free admission but please bring donations of non-perishable food and toiletry items for the food pantry. Click here to see the flyer.

T's Toffee Holiday Sale


Visit Theresa & Lance at T's Toffee Annual Open House Holiday Sale on Saturday, December 3 from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. You can pre-order by phone or email and pick up on the day of the sale. Watch Facebook for updates. Located at 8815 Hidden Trail. View the flyer with more information here.

Holiday Gift & Craft Sale


You are invited to the 18th Annual Christmas Gift sale located at 1856 Red Oak Lane in the Red Oak Estates subdivision. It's a shopping experience you'll truly enjoy! 12 crafters with creative baskets, beautiful crafts, gift items and more! Starts Thursday, Dec.1st from 3 p.m. - 8 p.m. and Friday & Saturday December 2 & 3 from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Entrance to subdivision is opposite the Village Municipal Center on Meyer Road - look for signs on Route 12. See the flyer here.

Paint & Sip at Magic Moon


Join them for a a fun, beginner-level painting class this Sunday, December 4th from 2pm - 5pm.

Perfect for a holiday decoration, and a creative night out with friends. Customize the ornaments on this beautiful Christmas tree, and add your own message. Includes 8x10" canvas, and all painting supplies. Drinks from the Wine Bar available for purchase at the event. Painting clothes recommended! See the Facebook event here, sign up here or call 616-528-2355.

Momma P's Salsa


Why not include some salsa with your holiday gifts, or serve the most delicious salsa at your holiday parties? Click here for the flyer. Email them at mommapsalsa@gmail.com or text at 847-668-7665 to place an order.

Santa Paws Pet Photo Event


This Saturday, December 3 from 11am to 2pm Natures Feed is hosting their annual pet photo event. Donations benefit Helping Paws Animal Shelter. Photography is provided by BreeNies Photography. Natures Feed is located at 2440 Westward Drive.


Christmas Flowers


Order your Christmas arrangements, poinsettias & centerpieces from Birds of Paradise to make your holiday festive. Located at 2404 Spring Ridge Drive, hours are Thursday and Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

While supplies last, when you visit Birds of Paradise, their hat line is currently 10% off.

Toys for Tots


The 75th Annual Toys for Tots campaign is underway! You can help less privileged children have a happy Christmas by dropping off new, unwrapped toys or books for kids of all ages, at any one of these Spring Grove locations:  Eclipse Hair Salon, New Leaf Home Furnishings, Sport Decals, Spring Grove Elementary or the Spring Grove Fire Protection District. Click for the list of all McHenry County drop off locations, toys will be accepted until December 10th.

Thank you!

The "Letters to Santa" mailbox will be at Main Street Park until Christmas. If you have a photo of Spring Grove you would like to share, email it here.

Hatchery Park Pump House


Thank you to the Spring Grove Public Works Department for building our new pump house shed, to Scott from Point Ready Mix for donating the concrete that was needed for the floor of the pump house and base for a new light pole and to Platinum Terrain for excavating the site. The old pump house, which pumps water to supply all the ponds, was over sixty years old, falling apart, and sinking into the pond.

Recycle Christmas Lights


If your lights have lost their twinkle, don't throw them away - recycle them at the Municipal Centre! Located at 7401 Meyer Road, Monday - Friday 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM. Click here to see which kinds of lights and cords are accepted.

Rec Basketball Registration still open!


Recreation Basketball and Little Dribblers registration is still open!


Click here for the Little Dribblers registration form and here for the Youth Basketball form. View fees and more information.


The Rec Program is looking for volunteers for various positions, email them here.

2023 Kindergarten Screening & Registration


Scheduling will begin Monday, November 28th, deadline is Wednesday, December 21st. Screening will take place at the school your child will attend, either Richmond Grade School or Spring Grove Grade Elementary. To schedule please call (815) 678-4717 Richmond, (815) 678-6750 Spring Grove.

Volunteers Wanted


The Community Engagement committee had some amazing events in 2022, we hope you were able to attend and have a great time! The Committee will meet one last time this year to go over the calendar and ideas for 2023, would you like to volunteer? Please join them on Monday, December 12th at 6pm at the Village Hall. If you are interested in volunteering but are not able to attend the meeting, please email them here.

Fall Cleanup and Burning


Just a reminder yard waste collection by Flood Brothers will end this week and burning of landscape waste is no longer allowed in McHenry County.

Flood Brothers will pick up up to 8 cans or bags of landscape waste per week with your regular pickup, for more information visit their website. Burning of landscape waste is only allowed in the Village of Spring Grove on weekends in October and November. See burning regulations here. Raking, blowing or otherwise allowing leaves to be deposited upon or left on the streets or sidewalks of the village is prohibited by Village Ordinance.

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Spring Grove Police Department

Press Release


Click here for the updated Police Department Press Release.

Blast from the Past - Turkey Street

John W. enlistment photo

Civil War issued eating tin

Monument is EP Cemetery

We learned about early settler John Sanborn, his wife Mehitable, and daughter Levina & her husband Sam Orvis, but there is much more to learn about the Sanborn family and their descendants. Today we’ll talk about one of Levina’s two brothers, John Winthrop Sanborn.

 

John Winthrop lived from 1842 to 1920. He was six weeks old when his grandfather, Winthrop, (who came here in 1838 with his son John), died and was buried in the field that eventually became the Sanborn-Orvis Cemetery.

 

When he was 20 years old, John W. volunteered his services in the Civil War, enlisting in August of 1862. He served three years and was discharged in August 1865. His Civil War diary is still with his descendants, along with his issued bayonet, enlistment photo and stamped discharge papers. He served in battles with General William Tecumseh Sherman.

 

When his father died in 1866, the property was divided between his mother and the three surviving children, Levina, John W., and Ben. John Winthrop got 270 acres across from the old homestead. In 1869 he married Olive Walker, and they built a house a little farther south and across the road from the old homestead. Later they built a new house just north of the first house and up on the hill. They had six children: Guy, Harry, Clyde, Wade, Mable, and Lillian. Neither house exists, but a cement barn still stands outside the Wilmot Farms Subdivision on Wilmot Road where the second house once stood.

 

John did general farming and dairying, breeding Holstein cattle. He was the township collector, road commissioner, and school director. His descendants still have metal inscribed J.W.S. milk can label.

 

In December of 1902, Olive died at home of “Brights disease” at age 57. In 1904, 62-year-old John married 38-year-old Kate Patterson Shotliff, a widow with five children. They had a son (his 5th son) in 1906, and named him John Bryan, keeping the John Sanborn name going. They also had a daughter in March 1907, named Olive May, who only lived for ten days.


John W. worked with the Prohibitionists, and “fought the saloon element”, according to a 1922 profile of him. In 1910 the Wilmot Agitator newspaper printed, “When [saloon] licenses won in the town of Burton last spring, some of the saloon men were inclined to rub it in to John Sanborn, he having been prominent of the losings side. The old veteran pickled his wrath and bided his time. This week he had revenge. On his advice, all of the saloon keepers of Spring Grove were caught doing business last Sunday, taken to Woodstock and fined.” (Ironically, his son, John B., awoke one day and found himself on the train tracks but couldn’t recall how he got there. He vowed never to drink again and pledged total abstinence, which he made good on and lived until 1979.) Prohibition began in 1920, the year John W. died, and no one was more pleased with the new amendment than he was.

 

Apparently, John Winthrop could be a stubborn man. There was bad blood between him and his sister Levina’s husband, Sam Orvis. The feelings were mutual, and they clashed over things like property lines. John’s feelings were so strong he refused to be buried in the Sanborn-Orvis Cemetery where Sam and Levina were laid to rest. That is why we find him and his wife, Olive, buried in the English Prairie Cemetery.

 

(I would like to give a special thanks to John Sanborn (the12th) who contacted me and shared stories and these photos and more of the Sanborn clan!)

 

Story by Laura Frumet

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