John Pohlman was the one of the first of Mount Prospect’s early leaders to be born and raised in the community, long before it was incorporated as a village.

He was born in Mount Prospect in 1889 and was raised with his 15 siblings in the large Victorian farmhouse built by his father, William, and his mother, Sophia Kuhlman, in view of the railroad tracks in approximately 1873.

William farmed the surrounding land for many years. He was still listed as a farmer in the 1900 census. The family home still stands at 221 S. Owen St., although it was sold to a developer in 1927.

John and his siblings studied reading, arithmetic, geography and history at the Central School — along with scores of Willes, Busses, Moehlings and Meyns. At the age of 6, John became one of the first five students to attend the new school that opened in 1896 and was located fairly close to his home.

St. Paul Lutheran School did not open until 1913 and St. John Lutheran School, which had been established in 1854, was very far away by foot or horse.

When he was 20, John became the stationmaster for the Chicago Northwestern Railroad in Mount Prospect. His tenure in the local station lasted 45 years.

“I started in the ninth month, the tenth, 1910,” he recalled in a 1969 interview. “At that time, I think we had three trains in the forenoon and one around 3:30 and then again about 6:30. That was last. If you got hung up on the other end, you would never get home.”

That same year, John moved out of his parents’ large house and built his own house south of the train station in “Waldemar Krause’s Addition to Mount Prospect.” It was a new 40-lot neighborhood and Pohlman was the first to build a house there.

In 1915, he would bring his bride, Anna Louise Meyer, to live in the house and their oldest child, Norman, would be the “magic” baby that allowed Mount Prospect to incorporate in early 1917. Norman was followed by two siblings, Elroy and Aurelia.

By this time, John was already well established as a village leader since he was one of the organizers of the Mount Prospect Improvement Association, a charter member of the Mount Prospect Volunteer Fire Department and a charter member of Saint Paul Lutheran Church.

He was the secretary of the fledging fire department when it was organized in 1913. He even helped to write its constitution and bylaws.

It’s not surprising that, with all of this public involvement, John was one of the townsmen tapped by Cook County Commissioner William Busse to serve as a trustee when the people of Mount Prospect voted to incorporate in February 1917. After all, it was the birth of his son who had made incorporation possible. John was 26 when he took office on April 28, 1917.

John often told the story of how he came to be on the first “Citizens’ Ticket” that ran unopposed.

“Commissioner Busse had already picked five men for the board and had two old friends arguing over who should be the sixth,” he said in an undated newspaper article. “The Old Man came down to the station and said, ‘John, you know when to keep your mouth shut and when to listen. I’d like to have you on the board.”

The men drew lots to see who would get a 2-year term and who would get a 4-year term on that initial board. John got a 4-year term, but he actually continued to serve until 1927, receiving $1.50 per meeting.

John continued to serve as stationmaster until 1956 and lived until 1975.