Streetcars in Kewanee and Galva, Illinois is a 100-page paperback book with over 50 pictures written by the late Fred Rozum. It covers the history of streetcars in Kewanee from 1903 to 1935 and the interurban operated by the streetcar company between Kewanee and Galva from 1906 to 1932.
The book will be available for purchase at the Robert and Marcella Richards Museum at 211 N. Chestnut during Hog Days 2008 weekend (Labor Day weekend). The museum will be open from 10:00 to 5:00 on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
The cost of the book is $16 including tax. To receive it by mail will cost an additional $3.00 for postage and handling. Anyone who would like to purchase a book by mail should send a check for $19.00 to the Kewanee Historical Society, 211 N. Chestnut St., Kewanee IL 61443. If purchasing more than one book, just add $1.00 for postage for each additional book. Example: two books would be $36; three books would be $53; etc.
Following Hog Days 2008 the book will be available at the museum, which will be open as usual on Thursday and Saturday afternoons for the rest of September from 1:30 to 4:00. The book will also be available at B and B Printing, 214 S. Main; Heartfelt Gifts, 224 N. Main; and Office Specialists, 212 N. Tremont, all in Kewanee. The Galva Historical Society has agreed to sell the book at its museum at 906 W. Division
The author of the book, the late Fred Rozum, a longtime resident of Phoenix, Arizona, visited our museum five years ago with the idea of writing a book about Kewanee streetcars. Upon learning that we had considerable material, especially pictures, Rozum decided to make Kewanee streetcars the subject of his second book on Illinois trolley systems.
Rozum's first streetcar history was about the Bloomington-Normal system that he published in 1999. Rozum's interest in electric railways, as well as steam railroads, led him to write that book about the streetcars that he remembered from his youth. Rozum grew up in Bloomington-Normal where he graduated from high school in 1943 and then Illinois State University following military service in World War II.
Following the Bloomington book, Rozum began research on the Galesburg streetcar system. That led him to Kewanee, whose system was begun in 1903 by a Galesburg company, which envisioned an interurban between Galesburg and Kewanee. Fortunately for Kewanee, Rozum decided to write the Kewanee book first, and then if he had the energy he would complete a Galesburg book.
However, Rozum died on April 28, 2008, before he could begin the Galesburg book but with his Kewanee-Galva book virtually complete. Larry and Pat Lock, curators of our museum, agreed with the Rozum family to get Fred's work ready for publication and the Kewanee Historical Society board agreed to publish the book.
According to Lock, Rozum's book is based on the "daunting task of looking at 50-some years of the Kewanee Star-Courier on microfilm, which he secured through interlibrary loan and was able to read at the Phoenix Public Library."
While Rozum's avocation was railways, his vocation was in education. Rozum was a special education teacher who became director of the McHenry County special education district and then special ed director in the office of the Illinois state superintendent of schools. He later moved his family to Phoenix where he became Arizona's director of special education. Following retirement he started a railroad memorabilia store at a popular railroad park in Scottsdale, Arizona.