Historical Sketch of Highland Park, Illinois

[The following is from the Highland Park Code of 1919: Commission Form of Municipal Government, 1919. Spelling and punctuation are as written in original text. Scanned page images are available.]

The land upon which the present city of Highland Park is situated, together with the surrounding country, belonged originally to the Pottawattomie Indians, from whom, by treaty in 1833, the United States government secured a tract along the shore of Lake Michigan north from the present town of Kenilworth, and including all of the present township of Deerfield. The Indians were permitted to remain until 1836, at which time the land was thrown open to settlement. Meanwhile, however, beginning in 1833, "a narrow black trail running to the north" was surveyed and blazed from Chicago to Milwaukee, and from there on to Green Bay. The trail was improved as far as Milwaukee by rough puncheon and log bridges over unfordable creeks and streams, and trees were cut out to a width of two rods. However, no grading was done for years afterward, and in the early days people used the beach as a highway in fair weather, as it was far smoother and better for travel than the narrow unimproved trail and the directions were unmistakable. By this beach road mail had been carried between Chicago and Milwaukee before 1832, but the blazed trail, as reference to it in journals and letters of the day proved, was the main highway through to the north. It was called Green Bay road, or Military road, and in the late forties the mail was still carried along it. The mail carrier was mounted then and the charge to carry a letter was six cents. The government built log houses along the Green Bay road at frequent intervals for wayfarers and most of these became the rude taverns of the day. Among many such was the old Green Bay House of Highland Park now gone. It stood just east of the present railroad right of way, about four hundred or five hundred feet south of Moraine road. It was the only one of these taverns within the confines of Deerfield township and in it many important community meetings took place. The last of the inn-keepers of the Green Bay House was Dr. Peter Mowers, who left it in 1854, for a home of his own situated on the present Green Bay road west of the railroad right of way. This home of Peter Mowers was perhaps the first frame house erected in Highland Park, and is incorporated into the house in which his daughter, Mrs. St. Peter, now lives.

The next big road of the district ran west of Deerfield Corners, through Wheeling, Halfday and Libertyville (then Independence Grove) and was known as the Milwaukee Post road. On this road ran the first stage, established in June, 1836, a common lumber wagon, for both passengers and mail, drawn by four horses and driven by William Lovejoy, who built and kept the first tavern at the upper crossing of the Des Plaines. The Corduroy or Telegraph road was also in existence before 1841, running through the village of Deerfield. The earlier name meant that the bridges were corduroy; the road was mainly along the sandy ridge.

Authorities seem to differ as to the earliest settler in this country, but Captain Daniel Wright, who lived on the Des Plaines river about 1834 or 1835 is supposed to have been the first white resident. In the region covered by Deerfield township, Michael Meahan was the first, 1835, followed by Jacob Cadwell, coming in the spring of 1836, with his five sons. Other settlers soon followed, mainly composed of a good class of Germans and Irish. Mrs. Philip Brand, mother of the Brand family so well known here, appears to be the oldest living citizen in point of residence, having come to this township in 1836, when ten years old.

The first land entries made within the present limits of Highland Park were those of John and Peter Fennerty, who entered in February 16, 1841, a large tract running from Green Bay road on the west, to the lake on the east, and from Elm place on the north of Lincoln avenue on the south. This, it will be seen, embraces all of our business section and a large part of the residential district. The Fennertys were undoubtedly land speculators and not residential owners, for their names do not appear among those actively connected with the early developments of this region. In the same year, large tracts of land were entered by Benjamin Hastings, Francis Galligher and Robert Daggett, and in 1844 by James Duffy and Dr. William B. Egan. The descendants of these five men are among the present residents of Highland Park. The first white settler east of the track in the section now covered by the city of Highland Park was a Matthias Stoltz, a squatter, who came in the early thirties, building a log cabin on the present southeast corner of Hazel avenue and Lake avenue. He later moved to West Central avenue and died about 1879 or 1880.

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The first church in Deerfield township, St. Michael’s, on the Corduroy road, in Meahan’s settlement, was built in 1844 on land given by Michael Yore. It served four townships. In 1855 the movement of population caused the church to be moved north into Shields township, and the old building was sold for a dwelling. Another Roman Catholic church, St. Mary’s of the Woods, on Green Bay road, was built somewhat north of its final location on the Birch farm, and stood for eight or nine years without a roof, the congregation being too poor to finish it. In the meantime, the people worshiped mainly in the house of Martin Leonard, whenever the priests from Grosse Point could come. The huge black walnut cross was erected by Father Weyinger, August 15, 1853, and Father Henry Fortman, who also came from Grosse Point, said mass. This church was abandoned in 1873, at which time a Roman Catholic church was erected at the corner of Laurel avenue and McGovern street. The log building then came into use as a school, but finally fell into decay. The original church was considered as a mission, but in 1893, the Highland Park congregation was made into a parish and Father John Madden was its first pastor.

Lake county was separated from McHenry county by an act of the general assembly, approved March 1, 1849, and county commissioners were appointed to lay off townships. Within the year a meeting was held to determine the name of this township. Seventeen votes were cast by the Germans for the name of Deerfield, while the Irish cast thirteen votes for the name of Erin. The first township meeting and election for township officials was held in Green Bay House the first Tuesday in April of 1850.

The number of votes cast at this election was seventy-one. The assessed value of the property in this township for 1850, including both real and personal property was $56,740.00, and the amount of taxes computed for collection was $753.40. The first township postoffice was in the Meahan settlement under the name of Emmett, in 1846. The Highland Park postoffice was originally established January 13, 1849, under the name of St. Johns, changed to Port Clinton March 19, 1850, and again to Highland Park December 14, 1861.

Highland Park, upon its present site, was preceded by two other towns. Of these, the first was founded by a German, John Hettinger, who bought the land with his partner, John Peterman, laid out the village of St. Johns, incorporating into it their Christian names. The site was the bluff on both sides of the first ravine north of the main south entrance to the present Fort Sheridan reservation. Scientists assert that more than three hundred feet of the bluff upon which this town stood has since been carried away. John Hettinger constructed four five-room frame cottages for rent, bringing the lumber from Chicago. These were considered palatial residences and far better than any north of Evanston at that time or for some time thereafter. In 1846 the first school was opened in a log house and was taught by Elvina Strope of Chicago for about three months of the year. Business activities like-wise grew rapidly. There was a pier four hundred and fifty feet long, a furniture factory and a brick warehouse; also a furnace foundry, machine shop and a brick yard on the beach. Later a Mr. Dole of Chicago had a brick yard, store and warehouse on the bluff with Antonie C. Hessing (who was finally to become a well known Chicago politician) as a local and general manager.

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Port Clinton, the second village, laid out in 1850 by one Jacob Clinton Bloom, a real estate speculator, bordered the lake about a half mile south of St. Johns. The Steele brothers, who were about the first inhabitants, opened a general store near the present junction of Sheridan road and Broadway. A little farther south on the lake, just north of a large ravine, they built a pier six hundred feet long and a steam saw mill on the beach. A logging chute and a roadway were constructed; also a grist mill, a brick yard, a copper shop, a tanning establishment, and other shops and buildings, including a school house, where a Methodist minister held religious services on Sundays. The Green Bay road had now become a stage line running regular Concord coaches, with rack behind and four horses. The Green Bay House was one of the relay stations and it is said that Parmelee, the famous transportation king of Chicago, was the promoter of this line.

In 1853 the Port Clinton Land Company was founded. The plan of the Steele brothers was to run a road west to Halfday, planking it with lumber from their mill, and to bring in grain from farmers along the Corduroy road and ship it to Chicago by boat. The road was made and planked for a few miles, and the grain warehouse had been partially built on the beach, when the terrible cholera scourge in 1854, caused the death of Andrew Steele and his wife, among many others. This calamity coupled in the same year with the building of the steam railroad, resulted in the abandonment of the great Port Clinton dream. A government lighthouse was, however, secured through the influence of Stephen A. Douglas, at the time a member to Congress, and built in 1855 on the point of land opposite the junction of the present Broadway and Sheridan road. This lighthouse was maintained until 1860 when, owing to the bad state of the country, and the coming Civil war, the enterprise was given up. At the time of the Civil war, the following men enlisted from the district now covered by Highland Park:

George Hesler, Mr. Sasch, Peter Loesch, Frank Loesch, John Loesch, Stephen Kline, Thomas Moroney, David O’Brien, Ed. Whalen, Edward Barlett, William White, John Mooney, Thomas Mooney, Thomas McCraren, John Danner, George Richards, Martin Mowers, Martin Conerton, Martin Foy, John Mahan, Milo Paine, Mr. Appleton, Mr. Yager, Robert Thursk (enlisted May, 1862, Illinois 89th Volunteers), Peter Baker (joined Merril’s Ind. Horse Brigade, 1861; mustered out in 1864, re-enlisted and served until end; now living in Minneapolis, Kansas), Henry Baker (enlisted in Board of Trade Battery in 1864; served until end).

The first road east and west through Highland Park was begun in 1854 or 1855, and finished two years afterwards. It was called Deerfield road and was not graded. Central avenue was the first graded road and Port Clinton, afterwards part of Sheridan road, the next. After that the graded streets were all on the west side of the railroad for some time.

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The name of Highland Park was given to our city by Walter S. Gurnee at the time the railroad station was built here in 1854. The Illinois Parallel Railway Company was chartered by an act of the legislature of Illinois, February 12, 1851, with a right to construct a railroad from Chicago north to the Wisconsin state line, along the lake shore. The act provided that the road should run through Waukegan (Little Fort) and should not run at a greater distance from the lake than ten miles. On March 13, 1851, the legislature of Wisconsin chartered the Green Bay, Milwaukee & Chicago Railway Company to construct a railroad from Milwaukee south to the state line, through Racine and Kenosha, and north to Green Bay. Our legislature, on February 5, 1853, changed the name of the Illinois Parallel Railway Company to the Milwaukee & Chicago Railway Company. The Milwaukee & Chicago Railway Company formally opened January 11, 1855. Later on the name was changed to the Chicago Northwestern. The first notice in the shape of a printed time table appeared in the Chicago Daily Journal Saturday evening, February 10, 1855, as follows:

Chicago Station, corner of Water and Kinzie street on the west side—on and after Thursday, January 4, 1855. Passenger trains will run as follows:

Leave Chicago, 8:30 A.M.
Arrive Waukegan, 10:30 A.M.
Leave Waukegan, 3:30 P.M.
Arrive Chicago, 5:30 P.M.

Stages connect immediately upon arrival for Milwaukee, passing through Kenosha and Racine, arriving at Milwaukee the same evening. The Chicago & Milwaukee railway passes through the newly laid out towns of Chittenden (Rose Hill), Evanston, Winnetka, and Port Clinton. Freight received at the station and forwarded. Fare to Milwaukee $4.00.
S.J. JOHNSON,
Chief Engineer.

All the engines burned wood.

On May 29, 1867, Walter S. Gurnee, an early mayor of Chicago, bought out his associates in the Port Clinton Land Company and sold all of the property, about twelve thousand acres, to the Highland Park Building Company. This company was chartered by the state in 1867 and was composed of Harry B. Hurd, William M. Everts, Cornelius R. Field, E. Haskins, William H. Lunt, Henry Booth, H.S. Bontell, James E. Tyler, C.M. Shipman, Jesse O. Norton, George L. Wrenn, and Frank P. Hawkins. This company caused a plat to be made in 1869 covering the entire tract from Walker avenue to the north line of Ravinia. This company opened all the platted streets, appropriated a tract of land ten acres on the lake front at the foot of Central avenue for a public park, which was dedicated to the city, and built a fine hotel, one thousand feet long, containing one hundred and twenty-five rooms, at that time the finest hotel outside of Chicago for summer purposes, called Highland Hall. In 1869 a charter for the city was granted by the legislature.

The purpose of the city government was to secure a charter with the authority to regulate saloons and drive them out. There were eight within the limits at that time, which were all closed out in 1869 by the first administration. Highland Park and Port Clinton had, up to this time, formed a part of the town Deerfield (composed of what is now Deerfield and West Deerfield) and they had had no corporate existence, so that Highland Park, as a separate city, and corporate body, commenced in 1869. There was a station, a post office and express office, a hotel (the Highland Park Hotel, built in 1852 by Mr. Ayers), a dozen houses, a store and saloon on the west side, and only two houses on the east side from Port Clinton to Ravinia. The first mayor of Highland Park was Frank P. Hawkins, who was also the last mayor under the aldermanic form of municipal government, forty-five years later. The Highland Park Building Company put up a store on the northeast corner of Central avenue and St. Johns, with an assembly hall which was first called Central Hall. It was in this hall that the main political and social meetings of the town centered. All the Protestant denominations in Highland Park worship together in Central Hall under the name of the Highland Park Religious Association, with the Reverend George L. Wrenn as first president. The association was organized October, 1869. Two years later, the Baptists withdrew and organized on May 13, 1871, and in October, 1872 built the church they now occupy. The Presbyterians next withdrew and organized June 2, 1871, but the church building was not completed until 1874. This building was replaced by a new one dedicated November 3, 1912. In February, 1874, the Trinity Episcopal Church was organized and the religious association then dissolved. The Trinity church edifice was completed January, 1877. This building burned and another was erected and opened April 7, 1901. The Ebenezer Evangelical Church, known as Bethany Church, was organized in 1878, building in 1882, and the United Churches was organized on February 5, 1896, opened the church June 28, 1896. The First Church of Christ Scientist, was dedicated 1905.

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The first public school was opened by Miss Mary Everts and Miss Mary Hughes in Central Hall in 1869. In 1870, a brick building was erected at the corner of Elm Place and Sheridan road (then Port Clinton avenue). The Lincoln Avenue School was built in 1887, a half block east of the present structure, which was opened on February 12, 1909. A high school was opened in 1887 in the rooms over Brand Brothers paint shop and continued there until the school moved to the present site in 1900. In addition to these, numerous private schools have been established within the limits of the city, of which the largest, the Northwestern Military Academy, was opened in September, 1888, by Colonel H. P. Davidson in the old Highland Hall. This structure burned down during the same autumn, but in 1889 a new building was constructed which the Military Academy continued to operate until May 1, 1915. At that time the main structure was again destroyed by fire and the institution has since been removed to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. In 1886 the six hundred and twelve acres of land known as Fort Sheridan was acquired by the Commercial Club of Chicago, presented to the United States government for military purposes, and occupied as such on November 8th. In 1871 the A. O. Fay Masonic Lodge was formed, and the Independent Order of Foresters in 1883.

Telegraph lines were not in operation until 1868. Telephones came into use in December, 1895, and in 1895 and 1896 the Bluff City Electric Railroad built a local line in Waukegan, running south as far as North Chicago. In 1898, it was extended to Highland Park and the following year it reached Evanston.

In 1899 the village of Ravinia, lying immediately to the south, was annexed to the city of Highland Park.

At present the city of Highland Park covers approximately four square miles of territory and has a lake frontage of more than four miles. The population is about seven thousand.

On May 29, 1909, by a vote of the people living east of the track, the Highland Park East Park District was created and the following commissioners elected: F. W. Cushing, Ward W. Willits, Joseph L. Fearing and W. C. Egan. At the first meeting of the board, W.C. Egan was elected president. He served four years and was succeeded by F. W. Cushing. The purpose of the organization is to beautify and improve the east park district for the benefit of the public. The organization owns fifteen hundred feet of beach. In honor of the Pottawattomie Indians the bridle paths and ravines are to be named after the famous chiefs and members of this tribe.

There are, within the limits of the city, five public grammar schools, and a Roman Catholic parochial school. The public high school, to which extensive additions were completed in 1914, now comprises five large buildings of the most modern sort, with a capacity of one thousand students, under the name of the Deerfield-Shields High School, and provides a thorough higher education for children of the townships of Deerfield and Shields. At the south end of Highland Park on Sheridan road, lies Ravinia Park (opened in 1906), a unique musical center, where symphony concerts and grand opera are performed out of doors during summer months. There are two eighteen-hole golf courses: Exmoor at the western extremity of Vine avenue (opened in 1896) and Bob-o-Link, near South Green Bay road (opened in 1917). The Highland Park Club, established in the early seventies, occupies a large building lying across a ravine near Lake Front Park. On South St. Johns avenue stands the old Railroad Men's Home, founded in 1890, the handsome new building dating, however, from 1915. On North Sheridan road, opposite Moraine road, stands the Moraine Hotel, built in 1900, which now covers several acres of ground, and offers accommodations to several hundred guests. A public bathing beach at the foot of Lake Front Park was opened by the Ossili Club of Women in 1913, and taken over by the city in 1917. In August, 1918, the Highland Park Hospital was opened on West Homewood avenue with a capacity of twenty patients and equipment of a thoroughly modern sort.

Just south and west of the Highland Park city line is a large Cook County Forest Reserve and plans for various Lake County reserves on the immediate neighborhood of the city are now on foot.

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Local History: Historical Sketch of Highland Park, 1919

Written by Miss Blanche Mason from the Narrative of Mrs. Eva Truax