The Brothers of Shannon's Tavern

Read Part One . 

Tim Tschannen and Bonnie Tschannen Wegman related some of the history of their grandfather John’s children. John Tschannen was 20 years old when he emigrated from Switzerland with his family. He met his wife Dora, who was coming from Germany, on the boat traveling to America. They were married here. 

Of John and Dora’s children, Ernest was the oldest. He led a most colorful life, never afraid to try something new. When he was 19, he traveled to Idaho where his uncle had a ranch. There he spent a lonely three months, herding sheep in a remote outpost where his only human contact was the camp tender, who periodically brought him food and moved the wagons. 

He earned $90 a month. One winter he ran a trap line on horseback on the rim of a canyon 300 ft. above the ground. He trapped bobcats, coyotes and badger.

After he had enough adventure to last for a while, he moved to South Bend, Indiana to paint autos. Moving on, he worked in a foundry in Michigan for three months before he came back to Montgomery to work for Richards Wilcox. 

During his time at Richards Wilcox he earned extra income by selling tobacco to his coworkers at lunchtime. He saved his money and invested in oil wells in Southern Illinois, and other speculation, including cattle that he kept on a farm in Oswego. 

Always interested in trying something new, his next business was a dance hall on Hurd’s Island in Aurora. He hired girls to come in and dance with the patrons. There are no reports on the financial success of that, but no doubt it won out over shepherding.

When Ernie and his brother Art opened a pool hall in 1924, they hired Fritz, who was recovering from an accident, to work there during the day while Ernie and Art worked at night. 

The pool hall was first located on the southwest corner of Main and Webster streets. It later moved to River and Mill streets, and when prohibition ended, a Pabst Blue Ribbon beer distributor loaned Ernie $500 to buy a liquor license.

The three brothers became partners. They gave their saloon a proper pub name: “Shannon’s.” It worked. It became the typical small town, blue-collar watering hole where local factory workers stopped in to hoist a cool one after work. On Friday nights they cashed their paychecks before heading home, or next door for a carryout.

Their restaurant on the corner next to the tavern was famous for its Friday night fish fries. They did a brisk carryout business as well, and the tantalizing smell of Pabst Blue Ribbon mingled with fresh fried fish was irresistible, and guaranteed long lines out the door waiting for seating. 

Theirs was one of the first locations in the area to have air conditioning, provided by a big swamp cooler. A water tank was built into the ceiling above the top floor, where water was pumped up from an artesian well in the basement. During the summer, the building was a cool oasis. The three brothers operated the tavern until 1940, when Ernie bought them out.

Ernie was drafted into the army during World War II at the age of 42. He went through basic training in Texas, and finished all of the requirements, even earning a sharpshooter medal. But at graduation, the commanding officer, noticing his age, recognized that he was out of place in “a young man’s army.” Soon, a grateful Ernie was honorably discharged and on his way home.

Both Fritz and Ernie had lived in the two spacious apartments above the tavern before they married. Eventually, these apartments were remodeled to provide sleeping rooms for temporary pipeline workers. There were two rows of bedrooms, with one separate kitchen area for each set of rooms.

In 1944 Ernie married Louise Reed, twenty-one years his junior. His lovely young bride was a granddaughter of the Carpenter family; one of the first families to settle in the area in 1832. They became the parents of three children: Randy, Suzanne and Tim.

Ernie was a hearty man, with a lifetime of fascinating experiences he drew on to entertain his customers. He had a gregarious personality, and a large frame to match his sense of humor. He was also a kind and generous man, never hesitating to reach out to someone who needed his help. His loyal customers always found a warm welcome at Shannon’s. 

John Tschannen, Jr. was a bartender, working for Ernie most of his life. He once had a gun held to his head during a robbery in which four others were shot. He saw a few other robberies during his years there, but fortunately only one came so close to being fatal. He and his wife had three children: Paige, Tom and John Jr. 

The youngest Tschannen son, Herb, came home from the army and started school to learn watch making. He and his wife Evelyn Murphy moved with their small children into the barracks on Lancaster Avenue. This was a development of temporary housing for the returning soldiers attending school on the G.I. Bill.  Herb and Evelyn’s family grew to include four children: William, Bonita, Steven and Elizabeth.

After Herb graduated, his brother Ernie helped him start a business. Tschannen’s Jewelry Store was a prominent feature in the heart of downtown Aurora for many years. From the plate glass window at the front of his store on Galena Blvd., off Broadway, he had a front-row seat overlooking the city’s busiest corner, as he worked behind the counter.

During their youth, young Fritz and two local boys, Emmett Smith and Clarence Waite, had been out hunting, when somebody’s gun discharged and Fritz was accidentally shot in the leg. Because of the standard medical practice at that time, the leg was amputated at the knee. 

As a result, he limped along on an artificial leg for the rest of his life. The patrons at Shannon’s and later at the VFW in Montgomery remember him predicting rain by the pain he always felt just before a rainstorm.

In 1945, Fritz and his partner Pat Paterson ran the Sinclair Station and icehouse at Route 31 and Webster Street.  This became a popular hangout and the scene of many card games.

Fritz and his wife Catherine were parents of one son, Fritz, Jr. For many years, Fritz, Sr. worked as a bartender at the VFW. The family bought the house Jim Yard built on River Street, and a younger generation of the Tschannen family still lives in the house.

Since Shannon’s Tavern played such a prominent role in the village for so many years, there are many stories yet to be told. A future article will be devoted to some of these interesting events. Watch this column for the next installment.