Newspaper Clippings for
November, 1978
from the pages of the Waukegan News-Sun 11 November 1978
Church bells ring in Millburn
When Millburn Congregational Church on Rte. 45 and Grass
Lake Road burned in 1935, the church bell was cracked and
rendered useless. Came World War II and the bell was
donated to the ware effort and used as scrap metal.
Two active members of the church of which the Rev. Donald
McPeek is pastor are Peter and Joyce Lukas of Wadsworth.
Lukas serves as a member of the church board of
directors.
In 1976, Mrs. Lukas was stricken with cancer. She underwent
treatment at the University of Wisconsin Clinic, in
Madison. The disease was arrested in May 1977.
Lukas was so grateful for his wife's recovery that he
wanted to make a lasting donation to the church in her
honor.
Mrs. Lukas is a native of Kilbourne in Southern Illinois.
The family was vacationing there when Lukas found a huge
bell in a church yard. The bell had been cast in 1892 and
was badly in need of repair.
Lukas, who is retired from U. S. Steel Co., repaired and
repainted the bell and then enlisted the aid of LeBaron
Steel Co. in providing a crane to raise the bell to the
tower at Millburn Church.
The tower was constructed by George Swanson, Ray Macier,
Kevin Hauser and Edward Young, all church members. The
Lukas son-in-law, George West, made a steel cross for the
top of the tower.
And the bell is tolling once again in Millburn.
