After more than a year delay, Hecker is moving forward with its 125th anniversary celebration while simultaneously looking back at village history. 

The celebrations honor the village’s incorporation, which took place 125 years ago in 2020. Early 2020 saw the first half of what was supposed to be Hecker’s year-long celebration, with a January banquet and February fish fry. With the pandemic making its way to the U.S. last March, the Quasquicentennial planning committee had no choice but to postpone the second half of the celebrations – including a firemen’s muster, parade and picnic. 

“It was frustrating,” said Hecker Village President Charles Kujawski, who is also co-chair of the planning committee. “We had a lot of unknowns and deceptions on the timing of it. We were actually looking at rescheduling the picnic for May of this year, but the (COVID-19) limitations weren’t fully lifted in May anyway, so it actually worked out good that we’re pushing it to September.” 

The parade starts at 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 4, with a festival-like picnic to follow at Hecker Community Center Park.

People won’t have to wait until September to celebrate, though. Hecker’s 125th Firemen’s Muster takes place at noon Saturday, July 17 at Back Street Wine & Dine, 310 E. Back Street. 

The planning committee chairmen are Kujawski and father-son duo Arnie and Aaron Eckart. When planning the 125th anniversary events, the three looked back to Hecker’s centennial celebration for guidance, which Aaron Eckart believes will make the Quasquicentennial even more special. 

Besides the banquet, the other three events were also part of the 1995 centennial celebration. 

“I feel like events like these bring everybody together,” Eckart said. “Every 25 years we have these events to help commemorate our anniversary. (For) people that maybe weren’t as involved or weren’t involved in 1995, it’s given them a chance to become involved in 2020 and 2021 to help us celebrate these events.” 

For those involved in the 1995 celebration, this year is also providing them a means to reflect on how the village has changed over 25 years. When reflecting on this, Eckart said since 1995, the Hecker Shopping Center and the school have left, as well as many other small organizations and businesses. 

“The world has gone ‘go big or go home,’ sort of,” Eckart said. “The smaller stores are going away, and more people have moved to bigger towns. The little towns are starting to not be as much interest to people anymore.” 

He said he finds this an important reason to celebrate small towns and villages, and he is proud that his community is still going strong. 

“Along with the downfall of businesses and the school closing, I feel that Hecker has reinvented itself and adapted to these times,” Eckart said. “(It) is on the rise as we have several new and upcoming businesses in town.” 

One such business is Back Street Wine & Dine. Back Street opened in 2016 after Hecker saw its centennial. A Dollar General will also be making its way to the southern end of Hecker in the fall. 

This year, Hecker is adding something new for its anniversary celebration. A men’s softball tournament takes place this Friday through Sunday on the Hecker Community Center grounds. After it was no longer able to be hosted in Fults, Hecker offered its village for the tourney.

Eckart said this tournament will be reminiscent of when the Quarry League played in town. 

“It’s actually one of the first tournaments we’ve had over here in a long time … so it’s pretty neat,” Eckart said. “We’re very excited to … bring back some of these smaller events that kind of disappeared over time.” 

Eckart and Kujawski said the overarching goal of the Quasquicentennial is to help preserve Hecker’s rich history. 

“The village was laid out in 1840 as a town called Freedom,” Kujawski said. “It wasn’t incorporated at that time, but (somebody made) an approach to being incorporated, so they decided to incorporate in 1895. That would allow them to get some monies from the state and get better infrastructure, including stone-type roadways instead of dirt roads.” 

As the Republic-Times previously reported, the people of Freedom ran into an unexpected problem during the incorporation process.

“There was already a town in Illinois called Freedom, so the post office would not let them use that name and they had to come up with another name,” Kujawski explained. “Basically, the people of the town of Freedom were fond of a Civil War colonel named Friedrich Hecker, who was from the Summerfield, Illinois, area. So, they decided to name the town Hecker in honor of him. It was incorporated as the Village of Hecker in November of 1985.” 

The planning committee could not have begun to put forth such a huge 125th celebration, and therefore meet their overarching goal, without their sponsors. 

Over 40 entities – spanning from individual families to businesses and organizations – are sponsors. Kujawski said the committee hopes to enhance two very special sponsors in the aftermath of the celebrations. 

“Our goal is to preserve history, obviously, but once the events are all done, the initial thought was to donate remaining funds after the events to the Hecker Community Center Park and the Village of Hecker Park,” Kujawski said. 

For more information on Hecker’s 125th anniversary events, visit Hecker’s website or the Hecker Illinois Quasquicentennial Facebook Page. To register for the Sept. 4 parade, go to hecker.Illinois.gov/parade.