Sidney Dilks

Class of 1928

Sidney Barr Dilks was born in Geneva, Illinois, and spent some of his childhood in Michigan. The family settled in Roberts, Illinois, when he was seven, to take over the operation a hotel in town. Sid was the only person in his family to go to college. It was important to them that he get an education. “My mother primarily was the one who got me interested in it, going down [to the University of Illinois].” To pay for school it was important for Sid to find a job that would help with expenses. “I didn’t have too much, we didn’t have too much money, so I went down prior to enrolling down there and went to several fraternities, tried to get a job working in the kitchen or waiting on tables for my meals. The first one I went to was the Delta Phi fraternity and I met the cook who was there and her husband who was the caretaker for the house... the thing I liked about that, working there... the cook always saw that you got the best food there was there.”

While the fraternity job provided for meals, money for tuition had to be earned in the summer.  “Each summer I’d go back there [Roberts] and work and make enough pay to pay for tuition, which wasn’t very large at that time, I don’t remember what it was, but it wasn’t too much tuition at that time.  The rooms were only $20 a month." 

There were other creative ways in which students found to pay for college.  “In order to make ends meet, I always had to mail, I mailed my laundry home and that’s what you done in those days.  I sent it back to Roberts and then they’d mail it back to me.” 

Activities

Like many other University of Illinois students, Sid attended the football games for entertainment.  “And that was when Red Grange was there.  I’ll never forget it rained so much before and when they opened the stadium they had not cleared away all the dirt and there no grass around there.  It rained and people was getting stuck in the mud in their shoes and leaving their overshoes there at that time.  And I can remember the first, just hardly got set down in there when Red Grange made his first touchdown…Of course, they were supposed to get beat, but they didn’t.  University of Michigan was the contender and they was supposed to have a good team but Illinois really beat them.  He made four touchdowns in a row and then I think they took him out for a while…Oh there was a large crowd there because that was just the opening of the stadium at that time, first game played there.” 

“And Paul Prehn, he was the wrestling coach down there, I met him.  He had place down on Green Street there, Green and Sixth, where he had a little hang out for people there, you know.  (Pause)  Then after that he retired as coach and Hek [Harold] Kenney from Lowdale Illinois became the head wrestling coach at that time.” 

Sid was part of the Granada Club: “That was right next door to the Delta Phi fraternity there and they, that was kind of an independent group of people.  But life there was about the same as it was in a fraternity house.”  The Granada Club helped to expose Sid to different groups on the campus, “Well of course I did meet a bunch of people who were of all different races, particular at this Granada Club.  They had no sense of keeping people out, you know, if they wanted to live there they could, it was kind of like a fraternity, similar to that.  I met all sorts of people.” 

Politics on Campus 

“Yes, I’ll tell you the first vote I cast was down at Illinois, down when I was a student there, and my folks had belonged to the Republican party, and that’s the way I was brought up.  But Al Smith was running for President at that time, he used to be Governor of New York, and he was Catholic and he was on the Democratic ticket and the other people there on the other side was telling about if he ever got in he’d have the Pope over here running the country.  Well I thought if he could be that silly that I was just going to vote for him, and I did, and I voted for Al Smith that time, and it was the first vote I ever cast.  It was just the remarks about it– " 

Law School 

After receiving his bachelors from the University of Illinois, Sidney began his first year of law school at UI and joined Gamma Eta Gamma, a law fraternity.  “If you got into law school, why, they always had to, they gave you a cane to use...  to designate that you were going to be a lawyer. I have no idea but that’s what they did, they always had them.” 

Sid remembers life at the Gamma Eta Gamma house during winter:  “Yeah, they had, well they didn’t have any windows on, they just had the screens over, and sometimes you’d wake up in the winter time and have a little snow on the top of you.”  Sid transferred to St. Louis University to finish his law degree. 

Jobs after College 

After graduation, Sid returned to his hometown of Roberts, Illinois, to find work.  Because of the Depression, jobs were scarce.  “I couldn’t find a job any place at that time. When I got out of school, I passed the bar exam both in Missouri and Illinois.  And when I came back here I went to all the law office in the area trying to get a job.  They said, 'No we can't afford to hire anybody or pay anybody but if you want to work for nothing, you can come in and get a little experience.'  Well instead of doing that I went out and I bought a little truck for about $25 and I went out and bought chickens and eggs and cream in the country..." 

"Then across the street from where I was living in Roberts was the Chairman of the Ford County Democratic Center Committee, and he came to me one day and they were looking for candidates to run on the ticket.  My folks were Republicans at the time and they said, asked me if I wanted to run for the States Attorney on the Democratic ticket and they said you probably couldn’t get elected because it’s about 4 to 1, Ford county was at that time.  But they said if you ever get enough money you can open an office, why these people know who you are.  So I said, ‘yeah, I’ll run.’  So all the time I was out buying chickens and eggs and cream out in the country I was campaigning and I got elected.” 

After University of Illinois

Sidney Dilks graduated from the University of Illinois in 1928.  He received his law degree from St. Louis University in Missouri in 1931.  From 1932-36, he was elected and served as the State's Attorney for Ford County, Illinois.  He practiced law in Paxton, Illinois from 1931-90.  Sid married Ruby Ramshaw and has one son. 

The tapes and complete transcript of this interview, conducted on October 16th, 2000,   are available for research use in the Student Life and Culture Archives.

 

 

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