Wheaton

Wheaton is a city located in DuPage County, Illinois, approximately 25 miles (40 km) west of Chicago and Lake Michigan. Wheaton is the county seat of Dupage County. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 55,416. more...

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It is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Illinois Technology and Research Corridor.

Founding

The city dates its founding to 1837 and 1838, following the Indian Removal Act, when Erastus Gary laid claim to 640 acres (2.6 km²) of land near present-day Warrenville. In 1837, Warren Wheaton laid claim to 640 acres (2.6 km²) of land in the center of town. Jesse Wheaton later made claim to 300 acres (1.2 km²) of land just west of Warren's. In 1848, they gave the railroad three miles (5 km) of right-of-way, upon which railroad officials named the depot Wheaton. In 1850, ten blocks of land were platted and anyone who was willing to build immediately was granted free land. In 1853 the lots were surveyed and a formal plat for the city was filed with the county. The city was then incorporated in 1859 with Warren serving as its first President. The city was re-incorporated on March 1, 1890 when the first mayor of the city was selected, Judge Elbert Gary, son of Erastus Gary and founder of Gary, Indiana.

Establishment as county seat

In 1857 the state legislature authorized an election to be held to decide the question of whether the county seat should remain in Naperville or be relocated to centrally located Wheaton on the railroad tracks. Naperville won the election by a vote of 1,542 to 762. Hostility between the two towns continued for the next decade and another election was held in 1867, of which Wheaton narrowly won by a vote of 1,686 to 1,635. At a cost of $20,000, the City of Wheaton quickly built a courthouse to house a courtroom, county offices and a county jail. The building was dedicated on July 4, 1868.

However, animosity between the two towns continued, and in 1868, as records were moved from the old Naperville courthouse to the new one in Wheaton, Naperville refused to turn over remaining county records, prompting a band of civil war veterans from Wheaton to conduct what has come to be known as the Midnight Raid on the Naperville courthouse. As Wheatonites fled back on Wheaton-Naperville Road, Napervillians were able to secure some last remaining records, which were taken to the Cook County Recorder in Chicago for safekeeping. During this time, Naperville was mounting a lawsuit against Wheaton accusing election judges of leaving their posts during the vote. As the courts deliberated the fate of the county seat, the records were destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Shortly thereafter, Wheaton was officially proclaimed the county seat.

Read more at Wikipedia.org