07/30/2024
The following was created based on some research by Kris Murray (Sauk Valley Community College), the December 1991 copy of the Owners Manual (Northwestern Steel and Wire Newsletter), and Dana Fellows.
Some History of Silver City
Postwar Boom and Northwestern's Expansion
The United States found itself in a postwar boom. Those strong economic times favored the steel industry – so much so that Northwestern began a major expansion program that would continue for several decades. With NSW's expansion, President P.W. Dillon looked to other areas of the country to fulfill this need. Northwestern sent word out to the south, north, and east. Soon, eager workers flooded in from Tennessee, Texas, Minnesota, Virginia, Arkansas, and other areas. Unfortunately, many of these people found a severe housing shortage in Sterling and Rock Falls when they arrived. But P.W. found a temporary solution so that his workers and their families would have a place to live. This place came to be known as "Silver City."
The Creation of Silver City
Silver City was a community of homes made from converted railroad boxcars in the mid-1940s, and consisted mainly of steelworkers, their spouses, and children. The men were hired to work at Northwestern Steel and Wire Company during the boom time following WWII.
The first Silver City was built in early spring of 1947, located at the end of Green Street, which dead-ended at Avenue G next to where the Sterling side of the Avenue G Bridge is now located. On the west side, it dead-ended at a gate that led onto mill property. On the other side of the gate was a large field, filled with a huge sand pit (where children often played), and along the banks of the Rock River, where the 24-inch mill still stands, was where the second Silver City was located.
Features of Silver City
The largest number of boxcars documented in the first Silver City was between 100-110, not the two or three hundred that many people remember. A Sterling City Census taken in 1949, at the height of the Silver City experience, lists 102 boxcars and the names of each resident. The boxcars in the first Silver City were not all metal or all wood; they were a mix of both. Some were all wooden, some all metal, and some had metal ends and wooden sides. What is undisputed is that they were very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. Many children recall waking up with icicles hanging off the bolt heads inside the cars.
Life in Silver City
Mr. Frank Aguilar's family lived in Boxcar #1. His mother ran a small store inside their boxcar to help newcomers with their incidentals, such as soap, toothpaste, and hair oil.
It was not until the boxcars were moved to the second location in 1953 that they were painted silver to reflect the sun's heat. Prior to this, they were all painted green. This was documented by several interviews and pictures, as well as by La Cerne Thompson, who worked for the mill in its Rock Falls machine fabrication plant. He spent two years, from 1947-1949, putting windows and doors in all the boxcars to try and ventilate them, as the heat in summer was almost unbearable.
Approximately 65% of the residents in Silver City were Hispanic. Although some came from migrant labor camps in Colorado, Kansas, Ohio, Wisconsin, and other places, the vast majority came from small backwater towns in Texas's Rio Grande Valley. The perception that many of these people were undocumented workers from Mexico was proven false by research. Most of them were second and third-generation American citizens. After their first few years in Sterling, both the workers and their children quickly learned the language.
Movement and Changes
The second Silver City came into being in 1953 when the land for the first one was cleared to make way for the new 24-inch mill. Many, but not all, of the boxcars were picked up by railroad cranes and moved further west to a much smaller area south of Highway 2, close to Speedball Park and south of where Willie's Restaurant and the Latin American Social Club are now located. Some residents actually went to sleep in one location and woke up in another, and several workers came home to find their boxcars missing and had to ask friends what had happened to them.
Approximately 30% of the workers were Anglo from Arkansas, southern Illinois, the Ozark Mountains, the Arkansas and Mississippi Deltas, western Kentucky, and Covington, Tennessee. Research did not support the early perception that large numbers of workers were southern Highlanders (Hillbillies) from Appalachia. However, it was discovered that Frank Martinez made many trips in a two-ton truck to south Texas at the mill's request to bring back workers. Many families came to Sterling either on the Greyhound Bus or the train, which, at that time, provided passenger service.
Diversity and Community
Contrary to the rumor that there were many African Americans living in Silver City, only two families were documented to have lived in the second location from 1953-1955. This information was provided by Billie Johnson, an African American woman whose brother was a local sports hero and whose son was the first Black student elected student body president at Sterling High School. She was aware of only one other Black family living there at the time but could not remember the family's name.
Permanent Housing: Fairview and Steelton
Northwestern again played a large part in securing permanent housing for its workers. Two large housing projects were built in the 1940s and 1950s, solely for NSW employees and their families. The first was Fairview, which contained about 250 housing units. Fairview was located on the south edge of Rock Falls, near what is today Dillon Park and Dillon School. Melvin's family moved out of Silver City in 1952 when his father bought a house in Fairview. "As a matter of fact, the house we bought is still in our family. My nephew now lives there," Melvin noted.
In a second project started in 1950, Northwestern built another 100 houses in an area called Steelton. Steelton is located north of the Truck Scales and the 14-inch Mill. Employees were required to make a down payment of approximately $750, and monthly payments were deducted from their paychecks. The two-bedroom houses were set on slabs and included a living room, kitchen, and bath with a septic tank. Bob's father bought a home in Steelton in 1952. "My dad paid $5200 for our house in Steelton, and his monthly payments were $50. Today he still lives in that same house," Bob mentioned. Bob said it took a little while to get used to the luxuries of indoor plumbing and a telephone when he moved into their new home in Steelton.
Northwestern's Concern for Employees
Frank says that the company's concern for its employees was evident in the building of the two housing projects. "I believe the combination of a housing shortage in the area plus the expansion of the mill caused the need for something like this. And I think it was a very humane thing of Northwestern to create Steelton and Fairview so the employees could afford to buy their own homes." Silver City, Fairview, and Steelton were all important elements of Northwestern's history because their existence was primarily due to the success and expansion of the company following World War II. Without the employees that lived in Silver City, Northwestern and this community would not be what they are today.
