Moving to the 20-Acre Farm In 1926, they bought a 20-acre farm on land which is now O’Hare Field (O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, IL). Here he built a new brick house and a barn and had a well drilled in the middle of the field so he could water the sod with 2-inch pipes and sprinklers. He began buying Reo, Federal and Diamond T trucks and later Dodges. He always had two trucks—one on deliveries and the other in the field to load. He amassed a clientele of about 50 cemeteries and some landscapers—notably Clauss Brothers who landscaped the 1933 World’s Fair with Mueller’s sod.
Rick Pump, Jr. and his wife Nicole, pose for this photo with their four chil- dren: (standing from left to right) Brookelyn 8, Ashtyn 2, and Prezleigh 5. Nicole is holding baby Kingston.
Bill cut sod in 6-1/4-inch by 72-inch strips by hand—first undercutting the sod with a sharpened sweep attached to a wooden handle and then using a butcher knife with a handle for a cutoff. Te rolls were rolled by hand and dandelions were pulled by hand. He delivered these rolls in a 1919 Available truck—hand-packed and hand-loaded.
He put 150 rolls on the truck, which equaled 52 square yards, and this was considered one load. Sometimes he would put 300 rolls on the flatbeds when he was busy. William and Louise had three children—LeRoy, Winifred and Alvera.
In the spring of each year he would go to the cemetery offices to shake their hands and tell them he was still in business to sell them sod. Each one had a blackboard where they would post the price for decorating the graves (sod went around the perimeter and flowers in a raised bed in the interior). Tey would redo every grave the following year. When he saw that they raised the price for decorating the graves, he would tell them the price of sod went up also. In the depression years, he would get thirty dollars a load for fifty-two yards. Bill had many Jewish cemeteries in Forest Park who were amazed that he was a farmer of German extraction who spoke high German like they did. Many became his friend for life.
Expanding the Sod Business In 1950, the City of Chicago began condemning 1,000 acres of farmland for the expansion of O’Hare Field and William’s farm stood right in the middle. Incidentally, the letters ORD on your airport luggage tag stands for Orchard Place, a small town that was near O’Hare Field. William bought a 156-acre farm along with his son LeRoy, to expand the sod business. He made sure the farm was on a major highway (Route 20) and had a creek running through it for irrigation (DuPage River). William never lived to raise sod on this farm. He died on his farm in 1950.
TPI Turf News September/October 2019
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