Everyone is aware of Dr. Herman Schroeder, the German immigant who built the Schroeder's Opera House, the Villa Marie and who "discovered" coal in McLean County. A full history of Dr. Schroeder is found on the McLean County Museum of History's website. http://mchistory.org/research/resources/herman-schroeder-and-baroness-maria-von-buchau-schroeder.php
But one part of Dr. Schroeder's story is missing there, and that is the story of his only son who lived beyond infancy, Frank Frement Schroeder. Dr. and Mrs. Schroeder had seven sons. Frank was forty years old in 1901 and the father of four little children with his wife, Elizabeth Grogan. On May 23, 1901, just one day after Herman Schroeder celebrated his 81 birthday, Herman was at the Villa Marie with a group of workers. They heard a loud argument and ran to see what was the trouble.
They found Elizabeth Schroeder and her little daughter Florence being chased by Frank Schroeder. Frank was in a terrible rage and when his father tried to correct him, Frank attacked his father with the knife he was carrying, stabbing him in the abdomen. Luckily, the elderly man was wearing a truss, which prevented the knife from wounding him fatally.
Dr. Schroeder told the Pantagraph reporter that the assault began when Elilzabeth Schroeder told her husband to stop beating four year old Florence. He then attacked her and chased her through the park. Dr. Schroeder said that Frank could be very bad when under the influence of alcohol. Dr. Schroeder was at a loss to know what to do; they had sent Frank for treatment to the doctors in Dwight, but he continued to drink. His mother was in the hospital with heart problems that had been aggravated by the shock of the great fire of 1900. She would be distraught to think that her son was in the jail.
This would not have been the first time Frank was in jail for harm to his family. In 1893 Frank was living in very hard circumstances and went to his mother's home at the Villa Marie and asked her for money at knife point. She called for help and collapsed in shock. Dr. Schroeder brought charges against Frank and Frank spent fifteen days in jail in May of 1893. A year later he was married to Elizabeth Grogan.
Frank Schroeder had four children with Elizabeth and they continued to live in Founders' Grove at 1325 E Grove. Frank and Elizabeth parted ways in 1917, when it is said he moved to Rockford. Elizabeth continued to live in the house at 1325 E Grove, designating herself as a widow in the 1920 census.
Dr. Schroeder was always anti-temperance, but it seems that his son's unhappy experiences with alcohol convinvced him that there were some people who just shouldn't drink.