PEORIA MAGAZINE April 2022

heavy equipment for steel mills and 240-ton coal haulers. Indeed, the company professes to be the world’s leading manufacturer of specialty transport carriers, often built to order. Marketing Manager Nathan Kress, 44, is the son of Rita and founder Ted Kress, who died in 2003, and the grandson of Ralph Kress, a former Caterpillar engineer who was inducted into the National Mining Hall of Fame and is known as “the father of the off-highway truck.” This 185-year cabin was the scene of many Brimfield firsts

The Brimfield Library is the town’s community center, in many ways

“The town’s been very supportive and we have plenty of room to expand.” Meanwhi le, “with good access to Peoria, we attract workers from Caterpillar and Komatsu but we also pull people from the country, such as from the Kewanee-Galva area,” he said. “Being a mile from the interstate is also good for shipping product.” The downtown has amodest business district complete with pharmacy, bank and a new dentist’s office. “We lost our grocery three years ago but there’s a Dollar Store now,” said Cheryl Harlow, director of the Brimfield Public Library, which is more than a reading room for the community. “We’ve had to pivot. It’s not just about books anymore,” she said, pointing out an array of online services. The library also has helped area youth compete in robotic contests and is maintaining an oral history project, she said. “We lost so many people during COVID that it made me want to do this.” History is important in Brimfield. Philander Chase, who started the Zion Protestant Episcopal Church in town in 1845, also founded Jubilee College, one of the pioneering educational institutions in the state of Illinois. The college closed in 1862 after Chase died but you can still tour the refurbished buildings on the grounds of Jubilee College State Park, 3,200 acres of woods and prairie located between Brimfield and Kickapoo, just off U.S. Route 150. Next door to the village hall and across the street from the library is

the L.L. Guyer Log House, a two-story building built in 1837 that served as a general store and meeting place shortly after the town was founded. Restoration efforts, led by the historical society, are underway but the house is already a focal point during the village’s Christmas Walk and annual Old Settlers Days weekend (Aug. 12-14), now sponsored by the Brimfield Men’s Club, a force for change in the town. The event harkens back to the early 20th century, when it brought big crowds and political dignitaries to Brimfield. “A History of Brimfield 1836-1936” by Henrietta Memler is among the books you can find at the Brimfield library. Along with documenting the town’s big fire of 1886, Memler made a prediction for the future: “In these days of increasing leisure, the time will come when people will feel it is a privilege rather than a hardship to live in a community away from the noise and constant activity of the city.” Some locals would suggest that time has already come.

Brimfield Mayor Dan Fishel can’t find a stranger in town

He said current work orders could allow company employment to swell to 220. “Right now, second shift isn’t staffed the way we’d like it,” Nathan Kress said. The biggest challenges the firmmust confront are finding workers with the skills the company needs and “supply chain challenges that everyone is facing these days,” he said. Still, being in a place like Brimfield has its advantages. “This is a good location,” Kress said.

Steve Tarter is a Peoria Magazine contributor who was born in England, raised in Boston, moved to Peoria to attend Bradley University and decided to stay. He has spent a career in journalism and public relations.

APRIL 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE 69