This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Patch Passport: Travel Back in Time in Barrington

Travel Back in Time with the Wednesday Patch Passport, which shows you the history and roots of your community.

Let’s play Barrington Jeopardy!  The answer is Hough, and Ela and Cook.  What are Barrington thoroughfares?  Well, yes.  In this case, the question we were looking for is: Who are Barrington’s early settlers?”

Surprised?  Barrington history is full of unexpected facts and perhaps, legends. 

According to Dean Maiben, of the Barrington Area Historical Society, Warren Hough owned a farm at what is now, Hough Street and Lake Cook Road. George Ela kept the first post office, was elected to the legislature, and moved a store into the village after the train came through and Daniel Cook helped subdivide the land near the new train station circa 1856.

Find out what's happening in Barringtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Before the village began to take shape, there were rolling hills, fertile fields, and Native American Villages.  Most settlers heading west had stopped at Fort Dearborn in Chicago.  The Barrington area was still a place of violent unrest and most didn’t want to move away from the protection of the fort.

By 1833, the U.S. Government reached a treaty with the tribes, opening the territory to settlers in 1836, but there were those who couldn’t wait that long. 

Find out what's happening in Barringtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Maiben sites a fur trapper as the first white settler in the area.  “There was a fellow named Emit Flint who had a fur trapping cabin on a place we now know as Flint Creek,” said Maiben.  "He took a couple of Indian wives and the Indians weren’t happy about that, so somebody found him in his cabin with seven arrows in his chest and that ended the first white settler of the Barrington area.”

Official records name Jesse F. Miller and William Van Orsdal of Steuben County, New York as the first pioneers of the Barrington area, which was located at what is now Illinois Route 68 and Sutton Road.

The settlement was originally called Miller’s Grove due to the preponderance of Millers, a family of loggers by trade. The family had moved from Indiana where the lumbering business had become overcrowded, enticed by the number and variety of hardwood trees in the area.

The Village of Barrington was defined by the arrival of the railroad, extending the line from Des Plaines to the northwest corner of Cook County in 1854.  “Before that time, what people would do is fill a wagon of milk cans and haul it down to Des Plaines,” said Maiben. 

The train station was first located at the corner of Ela and Dundee-Wheeling Roads, and named Deer Grove.  Citizens were concerned that saloons and ne’er-do-wells might settle into the area so Civil Engineer William Campbell bought a two acre farm two miles northwest of the station and platted a community there.  Two summers later, the station was moved into the village and named Barrington at Campbell’s request.

During the Civil War, the population grew to 300 citizens and the village was incorporated.  According to Maiben, the area became a favorite of wealthy industrialists of Chicago, as a summer retreat from the city.  After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, many moved to Barrington permanently, building opulent, well appointed homes on tree lined, dirt streets, which turned into mud baths when it rained.  Residents were forced to balance on crossed boards to traverse the mess.

Barrington continued to grow and thrive; even in the time of the Great Depression as a result of the Jewel Tea Company’s decision to build, it’s new office, warehouse and coffee and tea delivery system through Barrington, providing 100s of jobs in 1929.

In 1934, Barrington gained a bit of infamy when a running gun battle took place on Park Avenue between FBI Agents and Baby Face Nelson.  Nelson escaped with nine bullet holes in his body but died later that evening.  Two agents were also killed in the melee and a plaque near the entrance to Langendorf Park commemorates Agent Herman Hollis and Inspector Samuel P Cowley.

Today, Barrington is a bucolic community that retains much of its 19th century charm, which The Barrington Historical Society among others hopes to secure for future generations.

Do you have a recommendation for Barrington Patch readers? Share it on our Facebook page and we will include it in our Patch Passport to Barrington!

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?