Kate's Brief History

In honor of Women’s History Month, let’s take a look at the woman-owned businesses that were listed in the 1886 Holland’s Directory. At leas...

At the time when Holland’s Business Directory was published in 1886, Dr. Hamilton Daniels and his son William operated a drug store on Washi...

If you do any research into DuPage history, at some point you will read   A History of The County of DuPage Illinois   by C. W. Richmond &am...

Joshua Erb was born in 1803 in Pennsylvania Dutch country. The “Dutch” is actually a reference to “Deutch,” the German word for “German” and...

While William Henry Hillegas built an upstanding reputation in the Naperville community, it’s his son that the guides on the ghost tours tal...

Joseph Sanford Ferry arrived in DuPage County in 1838 as a nine-year-old when his parents, Sylvanus and Rhoda, moved from New York via Terra...

In 1832, George and Salome Strubler emigrated from Alsace, France to Warren, Pennsylvania with their young son, George Jr.. Two more sons, P...

Highlighted in this atlas are three farms owned by families named “Stolp.” The name may be familiar to people who have been to the Paramount...

W.H. Wright’s farm looks tidy and prosperous, but who exactly was W.H. Wright?  Naperville’s history features a number of Wrights. One of th...

At sixteen years old, Fred Long emigrated from Stuttgart, Germany in 1853 and was living in Naperville by 1856. There is no record of his pa...

Naperville has named a street, a school, and several other locations “Ellsworth” in honor of two men who were influential in town. Father Le...

Miledje Square is a pleasant little park in the Miledje Square subdivision. The 80-home community is east of Naperville North High School ...

When the Napers arrived in 1831, the land was part of Cook County. In 1839, Joseph Naper was instrumental in establishing the county of Du...