Kate's Brief History

March is Women’s History Month. I used to do more marketing around that theme when my first book, Ruth by Lake and Prairie, was still newish...

Naperville had two bankers listed in Holland’s 1886 Directory, both of which were also merchant tailors first. Last time, we looked at Georg...

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...

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...

The DuPage River of our downtown Riverwalk is technically the West Branch. The East Branch breaks away around 95th Street. Joseph Naper’s fi...

On the west side of Main Street is an alley known as Rubin’s Way where the “Parade of the Century” goes by on one side, watched by Nap...

Margaret Barnes Yonker, otherwise known as “Peg,” passed away in fall of 2016 at the age of 93. While not a Naperville native with family...

On or around July 15, 1831, Joseph Naper and a bunch of other folks started a little community on the banks of the DuPage River. I always ta...

On Monday, President’s Day, the Naper Settlement tweeted about the “urban legend” of Abraham Lincoln speaking from the roof of the Pre-...

Here’s another look back at our town 100 years ago, when the Naperville Chamber was founded. Of particular note this time around is...

  This week marks the anniversary of the date that Joseph Naper along with his family and friends arrived at the banks of DuPage ...

While most local citizens are aware that Joseph Naper founded what became known as Naper's Settlement and was later incorporated as Nape...

Learning more about the founding families of Naperville is especially pleasant during these beautiful spring days as there are so many out-...

With National Library Week occurring this month, Kate's been busy at several events meeting readers and writers of all ages. Many of t...