Schaumburg, IL 25 miles NW of the Loop. Schaumburg differs from many of the othernorthwestern suburban towns in that itdid not start around a railroaddepot. The area, which was very marshy, attracted its first settlersfrom eastern states in the mid-1830s. Trum- bull Kent of OswegoCounty, New York, was the first Yankee arrival. He was soon joined notonly by other easterners but also by Germans, many of whom came fromSchaumburg-Lippe, between Dortmund and Hannover. They settled alongthe Chicago–Elgin Road (Irving Park) and other local highways. These farmers organized a German Lutheran congregation as early as1840, and in 1847 they built their first church. A few years laterthere was a controversy over the name for the little town that wasemerging near the church; some wanted it to be Lutherville, but in theend it became known as Schaumburg Center. It grew very slowly, for thearea, though fertile, was swampy, and there was no railroad depot toopen the communications with Chicago and stimulate rapid growth. By the end of the nineteenth century the population of the wholetownship was only about 1,000. The township, which by 1900 boastedthree cheese factories, continued to grow very slowly during the firsthalf of the twentieth century, as did the little town. The construction of the Northwest Toll road in 1956 wrenchedSchaumburg from its isolation. Schaumburg-area farmers took an activerole in industrial, commercial, and residential development. Soon alarge number of streets, often at dizzying angles to avoidquadrilateral monotony, spread out from the old center, until by 1980the population numbered 53,305 and the land was almost entirely builtup. I-290 came to border Schaumburg to the east, cutting it off from theforests and sloughs of the Ned Brown Forest Preserve; to the north itextended as far as the old Algonquin Road, once an Indian trail andthen the route of the Chicago–Galena stagecoach. In the northeasternarea emerged Woodfield Mall, opened in 1971 and one of the region'slargest shopping centers. It was not by chance that the mall developedclose by both I-290 and the Northwest Tollway. While Schaumburg'sdramatic growth came with the automobile, the community now has a raildepot and is a regional public transportation center. Schaumburg todayis a mature community, with a small industrial area in itssouthwestern section and a great variety of churches, schools, andopen places. Its German origins are now muted, though they live on inroad names like "Biesterfield." (SHUDDER!!!!mmissppelledd) While Woodfield defines Schaumburg to outsiders, residents havereturned to the old crossroads at Plum Grove and Schaumburg Roads todevelop a new town center in the 1990s. Local shopping, a publiclibrary, public recreational facilities, the government center, and abandstand now provide residents with a service core. Schaumburg, IL (inc. 1956) Year Total(and by category) Foreign Born Native with foreign parentage Males per 100 females1960 986 — — — 1990 68,586 9.6% — 95 62,156 White (90.6%) 1,487 Black (2.2%) 38 American Indian (0.1%) 4,414 Asian/Pacific Islander (6.4%) 491 Other race (0.7%) 1,649 Hispanic Origin* (2.4%) 2000 75,386 18.9% — 95 59,391 White alone (78.8%) 2,526 Black or African American alone (3.4%) 77 American Indian and Alaska Native alone (0.1%) 10,697 Asian alone (14.2%) 43 Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (0.1%) 1,307 Some other race alone (1.7%) 1,345 Two or more races (1.8%) 3,988 Hispanic or Latino* (5.3%) above by David BuisseretBibliographyGould, Alice. Schaumburg: A History of the Township. 1982. Hurban, Renie. Schaumburg: A Pictorial History. 1987. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1117.html Palatine, IL Cook County, 26 miles NW of the Loop. In the early nineteenth century,this was a rather swampy area, through which Salt Creek (then as now)passed. To the northwest was Deer Grove, so named for the numerousdeer that it sheltered; "English Grove" lay due west, and Plum Groveabout two miles to the south. Plum Grove was particularly important tothe Potawatomi, who continued to visit area burial sites after theywere removed to Iowa in the 1830s. Early settlers tended to choose these forested sites. Thus George Elasettled near Deer Grove in 1835, while Ben Lincoln and Ben Portertraveled from Vermont to Plum Grove. In 1853, the Illinois & WisconsinRailroad was constructed across the township. A town emerged aroundthe railroad depot, built just south of the Salt Creek swamp. Somepeople wanted to call it Yankton, but the name Palatine was adopted,after a town in New York. By the time Palatine was incorporated in 1866, it was already acommunity of some size, with a Methodist church. While the earliestsettlers were Yankees, there was an influx of Germans beginning in the1850s. By 1869 a substantial Lutheran church could be built. TheseGermans were mostly farmers, who joined the earlier settlers inbringing their produce to the Palatine depot for shipment to Chicago.Some commuters also began to settle in the little town, but itremained very rural down to World War II, in spite of the constructionof the Northwest Highway in the 1930s. All that changed in the 1950s, particularly with the construction ofthe Northwest Toll Road in 1955, a couple of miles south of Palatine'ssouthern boundary. The whole area was opened up to rapid automobiletravel, and residential building accelerated. The streets weregenerally laid out in irregular patterns, to avoid the excessivelyrectilinear appearance of many of the suburbs nearer Chicago. By 1970virtually all the land had been taken up, and the only large open areawas the Palatine Hills Golf Course, on the northwest edge of town.Beyond that lay the Deer Grove Forest Preserve, a substantial remnantof the forested area that had drawn Indians and Europeans to theseparts in the first place. Palatine, IL (inc. 1869) Year Total(and by category) Foreign Born Native with foreign parentage Males per 100 females1900 1,020 — — — 1930 2,118 11.2% 39.1% 100 2,118 White (100.0%) 1960 11,504 3.1% 19.1% 94 11,482 White (99.8%) 1 Negro (0.0%) 21 Other races (0.2%) 1990 39,253 8.3% — 95 36,824 White (93.8%) 334 Black (0.9%) 55 American Indian (0.1%) 1,316 Asian/Pacific Islander (3.4%) 724 Other race (1.8%) 1,443 Hispanic Origin* (3.7%) 2000 65,479 21.8% — 99 54,381 White alone (83.1%) 1,407 Black or African American alone (2.1%) 147 American Indian and Alaska Native alone (0.2%) 4,953 Asian alone (7.6%) 27 Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (0.0%) 3,327 Some other race alone (5.1%) 1,237 Two or more races (1.9%) 9,247 Hispanic or Latino* (14.1%) above by David BuisseretBibliographyPaddock, Stuart R., et a! l. Palatine Centennial Book. 1991. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/945.html Elk Grove Village, IL Cook and Lake Counties, 20 miles NW of the Loop. Elk Grove Villagediffers from many other suburban towns in that it did not emerge as anineteenth-century market town, or around a railroad depot; indeed, itdid not come into existence as a center of settlement until around1940, roughly at the place where Touhy Avenue intersects with route53. This was in the southeastern corner of the old Elk Grove township,which took its name from the huge grove that is now the Ned BrownForest Preserve. Bounded on the west by Salt Creek, and on the east bythe line of the present Arlington Heights Road, this forested areaattracted not only Potawatomi hunters, but also, from the mid-1830sonwards, Yankee settlers. The open prairie areas often tended to bemarshy, but the early Yankee farmers were joined in the late 1840s byGermans, and together they eventually drained much of the area roundthe future site of Elk Grove Village. No railroad traversed this part of the country, and it remained veryrural right down to the Second World War; indeed, it is only on themap of 1941 that we begin to discern the development of a little town.At that time the future O'Hare Airport, a mile or so to the southeast,was beginning to emerge as a center for the manufacture of Douglastransport aircraft; eventually it would become the major hub of UnitedAirlines, which would make its headquarters in Elk Grove Village. Holiday Inn/Centex Industrial Park, 1968 All this lay in the future in 1941, and as late as 1956, when ElkGrove Village was incorporated, the population numbered only 125.After that development was rapid. Following a plan proposed by theCentex Corporation of Dallas (Texas), curvilinear streets were laidout, and by the late 1950s and 1960s a whole suburb came into being,complete with schools, churches and shopping centers; in 1958 thisgrowth was much encouraged by the construction of the NorthwestTollway, cutting across the northern edge of the town. The Northwest Tollway also clipped off the northern section of the oldgrove. But in general the Elk Grove Forest Preserve, established in1924, succeeded not only in resisting such encroachments, but even inrecovering land previously lost. By 1994 the great grove had largelyrecovered its historic outline. By 2000 Elk Grove Village had reachedthe limits of territorial expansion, with 34,727 inhabitants. Elk Grove Village, IL (inc. 1956) Year Total(and by category) Foreign Born Native with foreign parentage Males per 100 females1960 6,608 2.3% 16.9% 98 6,606 White (100.0%) 2 Other races (0.0%) 1990 33,429 9.4% — 97 30,644 White (91.7%) 197 Black (0.6%) 27 American Indian (0.1%) 2,292 Asian/Pacific Islander (6.9%) 269 Other race (0.8%) 1,194 Hispanic Origin* (3.6%) 2000 34,727 14.3% — 95 29,874 White alone (86.0%) 490 Black or African American alone (1.4%) 33 American Indian and Alaska Native alone (0.1%) 3,051 Asian alone (8.8%) 15 Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone (0.0%) 797 Some other race alone (2.3%) 467 Two or more races (1.3%) 2,165 Hispanic or Latino* (6.2%) above by David Buisseret BibliographyBuisseret, David, and James A. Issel. Elk Grove Village and Township. 1996. Wajer, Mary Hagan. Elk Grove: The Land and the Settlers, 1834–1880. 1976. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/421.html