As mentioned in the previous blog post, several individuals now living in the Naperville area shared with us their past experiences at Seager Park. Park visitors will be able to hear excerpts from the interviews by means of an audio box that will be installed near the interpretive center within the next few months.

Seager Park in the early 1900s
Did you know that the existing 30-acre Seager Park was once part of a 150-acre campgrounds used for religious meetings and summer camps? And that the founding of the church camp occurred in the mid-1800s?  By the early 1900s, the campground included a large, open-air worship center named the Ebenezer Tabernacle, a hotel known as Bethany, a camp store, 65 summer cottages, a bridge over the ravine, and a lake large enough in which to swim.  The camp was so popular that a train stop was estblished for the camp. 

Walter Hagemann, who was born on the farm just south of Seager Park in 1920 and lived there until 1978, recalls seeing camp visitors transporting their luggage in 2-wheeled push carts from the train stop to the camp.  His favorite time of year was spring, with the beautiful violets and wild tulips blooming in the woods at Seager Park.  Summers were busy and lively at the camp even through the Depression years in the 1930s, he said. World War II seemed to diminish the camp activities, however, and in 1947 it was sold to another church, beginning a new era.

The Camp Seager era: 1950s to 1980s
During the 1940s and 1950s, Mayor A. George Pradel lived with his family as a young boy near Seager Park. He recalls playing in the woods at Camp Seager, as it was called, and at Hagemann’s Farm.  Hagemann taught him to milk a cow. Pradel remembers seeing cows occasionally wandering across the street to Camp Seager, buying milk from Hagemann’s Farm for 40 cents a gallon, hayrides, and tractor rides.

Mayor Pradel has fond memories of the sights, sounds, and tastes of Camp Seager: singing around the campfire, kids playing games of baseball, tag, and pom-pom pull away. He was delighted when the camp counselors invited him and his friends to make a lanyard and enjoy lemonade and cookies.

Later, in the early 1960s, Mayor Pradel and his wife lived in one of the Seager cottages for a few seasons. Winters were tough, without heat or running water in the cottage. They loved the quiet of the snow, being out in nature, and being able to live economically.

Also during the 1960s, the Hagemanns’ daughters, Connie and Jennifer, grew up on the farm and experienced Camp Seager as campers for several summers. Their memories include taking the bus from camp to Centennial Beach each afternoon, appreciating the uniqueness of the remaining Victorian cottages on the property, looking forward to their summer friends who came to the cottages each year, and shopping at the camp store.

From the 1964 to the early 1980s, the Grosshuesch family lived in the caretaker’s house at Camp Seager and with the help of their seven children, managed the grounds year round and ran the camp in the summer, including meal preparation and clean up, mowing, etc.  Spike, one of their sons, recalls spending hours at the camp with his friend, Rick Lietz, during junior high and high school. They remember the Tabernacle as a huge building, 3 stories high. The kitchen building had a large dinner bell that rang for each meal. Favorite camp games were shuffleboard, horseshoes, and tetherball. Fall was their favorite time of year, even though their chores did not end. Raking leaves at Camp Seager always created enormous piles of leaves, which, of course, were perfect for jumping into.

More stories to come with the re-opening of Seager Park
With the re-opening of Seager Park, and the addition of an interpretive center, the Naperville Park District invites the community to learn more about the history of the land, its people, and the wildlife and natural surroundings that have been preserved for the future.

Photos of Hagemann's Farm in the 1900s, south of Seager Park

Connie (Hagemann) Highland, Walter Hagemann, and Jennifer (Hagemann) Berthold