Terry Emma: Win a Mercedes Benz and Welcome an Antique Car Back to Geneva at The Concours

The Geneva History Center will participate in the this weekend with a raffle to win a Mercedes Benz Gullwing battery operated toy car along with the Concours display of a 1926 Sunbeam Sports-Tourer once owned by Geneva resident Sam Insull Jr.

Equipped with cycle-type wings and Sunbeam’s popular Sports-Tourer body in Dark Smoke Blue livery, the car was sold as a new car in 1928 to a dentist from Newcastle, Australia.  The car was first restored in the late 1950s while still in Australia. In 1960, Sam Insull Jr. of Geneva acquired and imported the car. The car resided in Geneva for 20 years.

The Concours d'Elegance Committee offered to showcase the car at the history center and invited us to participate with a raffle for a toy car donated by Mercedes Benz of St. Charles.

Raffle tickets will be sold in front of the at 113 S. Third Street from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, $5 each or $20 for five. The winner will be drawn at 4 p.m. and does not need to be present to win.

The committee asked me to do some research on Sam Insull Jr. and the Geneva connection to this antique car. The long version can be found in the Concours program but here is a brief recap of the Insull story of great power, wealth and tragedy.

Sam Insull Jr. —"Junior" as he was known—was the only child of immigrant, innovator and investor Sam Insull and broadway actress (Alis) Gladys Wallis. Insull’s father was probably the most powerful financial figure in Chicago, heading Commonwealth Edison company and other utility enterprises. He was responsible also for the building of the Chicago Civic Opera House in 1929.

Junior became president of his father's company, Midland Utilities, in 1928. A few years later, he reached the height of his career and became vice chairman of Edison Public Service Company of Northern Illinois and People's Gas.

During the Great Depression the Insull empire collapsed, wiping out the life savings of 600,000 shareholders. This was notably the city’s most spectacular financial collapse. The next few years were a nightmare for Junior. In 1934, his wife, Adelaide Pierce, died leaving him to care for his 3-year-old son, Sam Insull III.

Junior was “good and broke.”  As reported in the St. Charles Chronicle, March 7, 1940, Insull filed a petition in probate court asking permission to sell his executor’s interest in the estate of his father for $50.

It is not known exactly when the Insull family moved to Geneva, but the Aug. 13, 1937, County Seat Paper reported that Junior was living at 208 S. River Lane and had just purchased a larger lot from Edmond and Kate Raftery (owner of The Little Traveler) to build a house at 225 S. River Lane. As a side note, it was especially exciting to see the name Thomas Emma, my grandfather, as a previous owner of that same lot in 1920. 

He was a member of in Geneva, a trustee of the Museum of Science and Industry, trustee emeritus of the Field Museum of Natural History and a lay trustee of Loyola University of Chicago.

Junior was remembered fondly by many Geneva residents as being dressed impeccably in a dark suit, overcoat and felt hat and carrying a handsome leather briefcase as a regular passenger on the train to Chicago each day. 

In 1977, Junior’s net worth was estimated at $200,000, including insurance, two antique cars (one of which was the 1926 Sunbeam) and 100 shares of Commonwealth Edison Stock which he held purely for investment, not for sentiment. 

Junior died in January 198 at Michealsen Health Center in Batavia and at the time was survived by his wife, Margaret Baynes, and a son, Samuel Insull III, both of Geneva.

Junior said his son “felt the burdens” of the family name. Sam Insull III was divorced, lived alone and made his living as a free-lance lawyer and real estate man. He died in Geneva in 1997 alone at his home on River Lane.

Stop by the history center this Sunday to take a look at "Junior's" car as it returns to the streets of Geneva and purchase your chances to win the Mercedes Benz toy car. It will make a great Christmas present for your kids or grandkids.  All proceeds from the raffle will benefit the Geneva History Center to keep stories like this preserved in our archives.