Time Machine: An electric runabout in Cedar Rapids

George and Mary Ilten were 90 and 87, respectively, in 1956, when their children decided their dad was too old to be driving a car.

George, the retired owner of Ilten Hardware Co., 219 Third Ave. SW in Cedar Rapids, had neuritis, a nerve disorder, so even walking was difficult for him.

Given that reality, the Iltens’ son, Verne, dreamed up a different mode of transportation so his parents could get to their church, about one-tenth of a mile away from their home in southwest Cedar Rapids.

Verne, who also was in the hardware business, built them an electric vehicle, decades before today’s electric vehicles were zooming around.

He took three wheels from a motor scooter, a Pontiac steering mechanism, two 12-volt batteries, a B-29 airplane starter, and some sheet metal and built a two-seat runabout for his parents.

The runabout’s maximum speed was “walk.”

It wasn’t licensed for street use, so George got permission from his neighbors to cross their yards en route to Trinity Lutheran Church, 1363 Third Ave. SW. George had filled many roles at the church — janitor, deacon, trustee — since the church’s founding in 1883.

The Iltens kept their runabout in their garage where their car once sat. George plugged the vehicle into an electrical outlet, from a socket in the front dash, to recharge the batteries after an outing.

The Iltens

Mary Wernwag was born in Blairstown in 1869. George was born in 1866 in Cook County, Ill., moving with his family to Cedar Rapids in 1880 when he was a teenager.

In 1891, George was working as a tinner in the Alansing C. Churchill hardware store in Cedar Rapids when he married Mary in April at her home church in Blairstown.

The announcement of their marriage proclaimed “the groom has for years been engaged in the hardware store of A.C. Churchill & Son and has the fullest confidence of his employers. He is a frugal, industrious young man, steady and sober, and has shown excellent taste in the selection of a bride.”

George built a cottage for him and his wife at 423 Seventh Ave. SW.

The businesses

In 1892, George Ilten partnered with his brother, Edward, and A.W. Taege to open the Ilten & Taege hardware store on Second Street SE.

The new partners sold hardware, put in a tin shop and began carrying a line of stoves. They also planned to offer roofing and install furnaces.

After 22 years, the business moved to First Street, between First and Second avenues SW.

In 1924, when Oscar W. Ilten — George’s nephew — bought the business, he retained the Ilten & Taege name, but closed the hardware business, concentrating on furnaces.

A.W. Taege — who was married to George Ilten’s sister, Emily — then decided to reopen the hardware store as Taege Hardware with LeRoy Jahnke and George Ilten as his partners. Jahnke left the business after seven years.

When Taege died Dec. 15, 1936, George renamed the business Ilten Hardware. When he retired in 1940, he sold the business to his son, Verne Ilten.

In April 1940, the city approved a plat for dividing lots along 15th Street SW, from First to Eighth avenues SW, property that abutted Trinity Lutheran Church and was identified as being owned by George Ilten.

The 50s

In April 1941, The Gazette ran a story on a series of “the 50s” that George and Mary Ilten had experienced.

April 7 was George and Mary’s 50th anniversary. George had been in the hardware business in Cedar Rapids for 50 years, and he and Mary had lived in the same neighborhood for 50 years. Not only that, but the Iltens had been Gazette subscribers for 50 years.

In 1956, while using their runabout, they were able to keep an eye on the construction of Trinity Lutheran School at 1361 Seventh Ave. SW.

Ground was broken for the school May 20, 1956. The cornerstone was laid Sept. 15. The school building was dedicated June 23, 1957. It had six classrooms, a gym-auditorium with a capacity of 800 people, an activities room, a kitchen and dining room.

The old Trinity Lutheran School at 317 Sixth St. SW was purchased by the Electrical Workers Building Co. for use as an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall.

Mary Wernwag Ilten died at age 89 on Jan. 6, 1959. George Ilten died May 4, 1964, at the Lutheran Home in Vinton.

Comments: [email protected]