First in a series

UNCLE LAR’S PIZZA

Many past and current Plano residents are familiar with Uncle Lar’s Pizza on Main Street, where we begin the first in a series of profiles of historic Plano businesses.

On August 29, 1983, Larry and Norma Albright opened Uncle Lar’s, carrying on the pizza recipe from B&W Pizza. Walter and Dorothy Kreminski had owned and operated B&W from the 1960s into the late 1970s, with a recipe brought from Tony Weed’s Pizza in Aurora. Larry Albright had worked at B&W, which was located at 209 W. South Street (Route 34).

Initially, Uncle Lar’s was on the corner of Main and West Streets, next to the Plano Bowling Alley. According to the Albright’s daughter, they started out with just two picnic tables and one oven.

A few years later, Uncle Lar’s was thriving and needed more space. They relocated to 108 W. Main Street where they still serve up pizza and more.

Larry and Norma ran Uncle Lar’s together until his passing in 2003. Norma continued the business until Jerry and Selaine Stegmann purchased Uncle Lar’s in 2017. Jerry passed on in 2022. The restaurant is now owned and operated by Selynda and Ryder Kern, and Chad and Kristen Humbers. Uncle Lar’s interior features historic photos of Plano and they still use the same recipe that the Albrights passed down.

An interesting footnote is this anecdote from Plano native and lifelong Uncle Lar’s Pizza fan, Beto Guajardo, now the CEO of Blaze Pizza. He tells of traveling to New York to visit the cheese supplier for Blaze restaurants and meeting company officials. He discovered that the supplier, Lactalis American Group, also sold cheese to Uncle Lar’s. Later, a Lactalis executive who’d met Beto, visited Chicago and decided to drive out to Plano where he enjoyed pizza from Uncle Lar’s. He snapped a photo in front of the restaurant and sent it to Beto, creating a special full-circle pizza moment.

His Reaper was not Our Harvester

Many have heard that Cyrus McCormick had a connection to Plano. Some websites mistakenly report that McCormick invented the Plano harvester, or that the reaper he patented was manufactured in Plano. The McCormick name is famous. We learned about the McCormick reaper in school because it was a significant advance in grain harvesting. But his reaper was not Plano’s harvester.

Cyrus McCormick got his start when he modified and patented the reaper his father invented. The reaper took the farmer from cutting grain with hand tools to reaping with a machine pulled by horses while farmhands followed, gathering the loose grain into bundles and tying them. Not primarily an inventor, McCormick used his business acumen to found and operate the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company to produce reapers and other farm implements, eventually gaining fame and fortune.

Plano, meanwhile, is the birthplace of the harvester. The harvester cut the grain and, in contrast to the reaper, deposited the grain on the machine’s platform where one or two people riding on the harvester could bind the grain and drop it to the ground to be stacked into shocks. The backbreaking work of gathering the grain from the ground and binding it into sheaves was exchanged for a quicker, less strenuous bundling process accomplished while riding on the harvester. This is Plano’s legacy.

The first successful harvester, one that did not break down shortly after it began its work, was manufactured in Plano. Brothers C.W. and W.W. Marsh invented the harvester with the aid of Plano’s John Hollister and Lewis Steward. The machine became another huge leap forward in grain harvesting. The first harvester factory opened in Plano in 1861 and by 1863 was selling the machines.

So why does Cyrus McCormick sometimes receive credit for Plano’s invention? Most likely it was the formation of International Harvester in 1902 that resulted in the confusion. Five companies merged to form International Harvester in order to reduce the fierce competition that had long characterized reaper and harvester manufacturing and sales. Two of the companies, Plano Manufacturing Company and Deering Manufacturing, had their origins in Plano, though by the time of the merger both were based in Chicago. McCormick Harvesting Machine Company was also among the five companies. Cyrus McCormick had been dead for 18 years by this time, but this joining of Plano’s namesake company with the McCormick firm is likely the cause for the confusion and misplaced credit for the invention of the harvester.

Cyrus McCormick can have his due credit for the reaper, but the harvester is an invention Plano can be proud to call its own.

WWI veteran’s medal finds its home

On February 7, 2023, Plano Historical Society members Anne Sears and Linda Hess, along with Sears’ sister Barbara, were presented with a medal honoring their grandfather’s service in World War I. Louis Sears was a pilot during the war, training pilots in the U.S. as well as serving briefly in France. His medal, along with several others, was recently found in storage at the Kendall County Circuit Clerk’s Office.

Medals had been awarded to the veterans during a 1919 picnic in Yorkville but some veterans apparently were not present to receive theirs.

Anne Sears plans to donate the medal and a photo of Louis Sears in his flight suit and helmet for display at Plano Historical Society’s museum.