So fundamental is Joe Naper to the establishment of Naperville that it is widely taken for granted that the Vermont sea captain was the area`s first white settler.
Not true. When Naper and his band of pioneers arrived in 1831, there were already at least two other settlers in the area, both of whom would go on to play important roles in the development of Du Page County`s oldest town.
Stephen J. Scott, a Maryland expatriate, discovered the Du Page River south of present-day Naperville while on a hunting trip with his son Willard in 1830. So impressed was he with the land`s potential that he immediately struck a claim and built a log cabin. Technically, however, his claim was in Will County.
Later that same year, Hoosier Bailey Hobson became Naperville`s first official settler when he began work on a cabin near today`s Pioneer Park. Bitter cold prevented him from finishing, but he returned in the spring. He then built the county`s first flour mill.
Hobson`s mill would draw farmers from far and wide, helping to establish Naperville as the area`s commercial center. The Scott family would also make key contributions to the town`s economic development. Stephen Scott started Naperville`s first bank, and Willard Scott opened a prominent dry goods store. But it was Joe Naper, a hard-luck sailor turned landlubber, who is best remembered today.
Naper`s career on the treacherous Great Lakes was hardly praiseworthy, as he ran one ship aground and lost another in a collision. So, with his father`s shipbuilding business in bankruptcy (thanks, in part, to Joe`s misfortunes), Naper decided to build a town.
In February, 1831, he traveled to Du Page County, where he hired Stephen Scott to clear the 10 acres of land that would become the nucleus of ”Naper Settlement.” Naper returned in July with his family; his brother, John, and his family; and four other families–about 50 people in all.
”What made Joe Naper unique was all the planning he had done,” says Peg Yonker, a 30-year Naperville resident and part-time historian.
”Not only was he very careful to bring all kinds of provisions, but he also brought along the parts to construct a saw mill. With a saw mill, they were able to produce lumber–something that attracted other settlers.”
Consequently, Naper Settlement grew quickly. Under Naper`s direction the town`s streets were mapped, and on Sept. 14, 1831, a school was established. Twenty-two students attended that first year and were taught by a teacher who records show was paid the princely sum of $12 a month. By 1832 the population had nearly reached 200.
Another of Naper`s gifts was his ability to get along with the neighboring Indians. That gift had its biggest payoff in the Black Hawk War of 1832, when the chief of the Potawatomi tribe sent word that Sauk Indians were preparing an attack.
”There were massacres in nearby settlements that were really quite horrible,” Yonker says. ”Naper Settlement could easily have been next if it hadn`t been for that warning.”
While the men took up arms, the women and children set out for the safety Chicago`s Fort Dearborn. Heavy rains had left the roads all but unpassable, but somehow the party made it to Chicago in just 36 hours. The same trip–on good roads–had taken the original Naper company three days the year before.
By all accounts, it was a wretched journey. In their haste, the group had not packed provisions of any kind. An 1857 history of Du Page County records that ”the children became sickened from exposure and thirst. Being unprovided with a drinking vessel, Mrs. Hobson frequently took her shoe from her foot and dipped the muddy water from the pools by the roadside, which they drank with apparent satisfaction.”
Peace was restored and Naperville continued to prosper, incorporating in 1857. The town served as the county seat from 1839 to 1867, when that distinction shifted to Wheaton, after a controversial election. But despite that change, Naperville continued to be an important stopping point on the road to Chicago.
A major contributor to this status was the Pre-Emption House, a huge wooden frame inn and tavern built in 1834 that stood at Chicago and Jackson Avenues, where Bob Horsley`s Clothiers stands today.
”The streets have been widened on both Jackson and Chicago, which makes it hard to visualize just how big a building it was,” says Mary Lou Wehrli, a Naperville resident whose ancestors once owned the Pre-Emption House. ”But it was really the social and commercial center of the town. There was a tavern, there was the inn and there were horse markets on Saturdays. It was an integral part of the community.”
When Wehrli`s great-grandfather, Sam Hiltenbrand, bought the Pre-Emption House in 1893, a man and his horse could be put up for 35 cents a night. That fee included oats for the horse and a glass of whiskey for its rider.
Not surprisingly, the Pre-Emption House figures prominently in the extensive collection of oral histories conducted by members of the Naperville Heritage Society.
Virgil Miller, who was interviewed in 1979 at age 74, remembered working as a boy at the horse market. He was paid a nickel for each horse loaded from the stockyards.
The horses ”just had rope halters on them for shipping, and we would tie three or four together and take them up, tie them to the fence . . . and go down so we could get another nickel.”
Ralph Netzley, interviewed in 1977 at age 70, like many others, remembered having been told as a child that the Pre-Emption House`s regular guests included Abraham Lincoln.
Wehrli and other historians have spent years researching whether the future president actually did register at the Pre-Emption House, but Wehrli argues that the legends certainly make sense, even without conclusive proof.
”The Pre-Emption House was the logical stopping point for anyone who was traveling from Springfield to Chicago,” she says. ”You add to that the fact that it was the county seat for a while, and it seems quite likely that Lincoln would have stopped in Naperville to meet town officials or conduct business.”
Hiltenbrand died in 1927, but his estate wasn`t settled for 20 years, partly because of the Depression. Finally, in 1947, the Pre-Emption House was torn down to make room for the expansion of Cromer Motors. At the time it was demolished, the old wooden building was said to have been the oldest inn west of the Alleghenies.
”It was in terrible condition,” Wehrli says. ”In those days, people just weren`t into conserving old buildings. There was really only one resident who tried to save it, but that wasn`t enough.”
Today, however, there is plenty of interest in Naperville`s history and landmarks. The Naperville Heritage Society continues its oral history project and operates a research library on the grounds of the reconstructed Naper Settlement.
One of Wehrli`s projects for the society is the recreation of the Pre-Emption House floor plans.
Wehrli`s father, Donald Wehrli, was 1 of 13 children reared by Hiltenbrand`s daughter, Gertrude, and her husband, Frank Joseph Wehrli. All but one of those children are still living, and Wehrli is interviewing each about their memories of the Pre-Emption House.
”They were actually raised there, so we`re trying to reconstruct a floor plan of what everything looked like on the inside,” Wehrli says. ”It was such a big building and such a long time ago that it`s not a simple project.” So far she has completed nine interviews.
The purpose of Wehrli`s research is not merely academic. Once an accurate floor plan is completed, it will be combined with historical drawings made of the building`s exterior by a Conservation Corps crew in 1934. When the interior and exterior of the building are mapped out, the heritage society hopes to rebuild the Pre-Emption House on the grounds of Naper Settlement.
”It really would be a spectacular addition to the village,” Wehrli says. ”It really would open a lot of doors to the public`s understanding of life in early Naperville.”
The years leading up to the demolition of the Pre-Emption House were ones of slow and almost insignificant growth for Naperville. Residents largely stuck close to home.
”I`ll tell you, there was always enough work here for those who wanted to work,” Miller said. ”All these houses that were built on the west side and the south side and the east side was built by money that was earned right here in Naperville.”
One of the few issues to spark great debate in turn-of-the-century Naperville was the temperance question. In 1908, the Women`s Christian Temperance Union organized 500 women and children who marched through town for a dry Naperville.
The citizenry wasn`t convinced. When the alcohol issue finally came up for a vote at a 1914 town meeting, it was resoundingly defeated.
Naperville saw two of it banks close and soup kitchens open in the Depression. But that didn`t stop the town from pulling out all the stops for the centennial celebration of Joe Naper`s arrival in 1931. The festivities were culminated with the dedication of an abandoned quarry that had been converted into Centennial Beach.
After World War II and the Korean War, however, the sleepy little town woke up. Government and business leaders teamed to court new industry.
Their early successes in bringing Bell Laboratories` Indian Hills Laboratory and Northern Illinois Gas Co.`s research lab to town sparked the flood of construction that became Naperville`s High-Tech Corridor.
Along with the industry came equally dramatic growth in population. After having grown from 5,100 residents in 1930 to only 7,000 in 1950, the city exploded to 13,000 in 1960, 20,000 in 1970 and more than 42,000 in 1980. City officials estimate the current population at about 72,000.
To house such growth, Naperville itself had to grow. Starting with the annexation of 1,500 acres in 1960, the city began to snap up territory like a hungry land baron. In 1970, Naperville covered 12 square miles; a decade later, it straddled 22 square miles.
Today, technology–not Bailey Hobson`s flour mill–attracts new settlers to Naperville. But one thing hasn`t changed in 150 years: The city has always been the area`s commercial center.
