The first European-American settlers in this area arrived in 1833 when three Babcock brothers took claim to a large tract of land that included what is now the five corners intersection of St. Charles Road, Geneva Road and Main Street on the north side of Glen Ellyn. The large area they claimed was called Babcock’s Grove, and it included part of what would become Lombard. In 1834, the Churchill family (encompassing three generations and a total of 28 individuals) arrived and staked their claim along a trail that later became St. Charles Road and another trail that became Swift Road. Additional families, mostly from the New England area, soon arrived.
The Stacy family arrived in 1835 and purchased land on what is now Geneva Road, where they constructed a wayside inn in 1846, “a sort of tavern for the land-seekers and travelers.” (This building still exists, on its original foundation. In the 1970s it was carefully restored and now is Glen Ellyn’s only museum: Stacy’s Tavern Museum.) By the early 1840’s a small town had formed around the intersection of the three roads and Stacy’s Tavern. This community soon became known as Stacy’s Corners. By the late 1840s, this little town had two general stores, two blacksmith shops, a wagon shop, a harness shop, a stagecoach inn, a match factory and a little Baptist Church. This was the original town of Glen Ellyn.
In the late 1840s, the residents of Stacy’s Corners tried to persuade the new railroad to lay tracks through their community. But the hill leading up to Stacy’s Corners was too steep. A mile south, Dr. Lewey Q. Newton owned land in a valley that was perfect for the railroad. He sold a right of way through his land to the railroad in 1848. He also built a train station at his own expense to ensure that trains would stop. This shifted the heart of the community a mile south of Stacy’s Corners. This train stop originally was called Newton Station and it led to what we now call “downtown”. The first train passed through in 1849. In 1851, David Kelley became station agent and postmaster. He learned that a town called Newton Station already existed in Illinois, so he renamed our town Danby after his birthplace in Vermont.
By the beginning of the Civil War, DuPage County’s population had grown to 15,262. The little town of Danby sent 70 of its men, about 20% of its population, to fight in the war, with most serving in the Eighth Illinois Cavalry. Marcellus Jones, from Danby, is credited with firing the first shot at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Baseball was introduced to Glen Ellyn by two University of Michigan alumni, Lawrence Cooper and Doc Harcourt. A local club known as the Rustics played against the Excelsiors (which later became the White Stockings) in 1865 and lost 102 to 2.
The quiet village of Danby changed its name in 1874 to Prospect Park, after some of the men who returned from the Civil War altered the town’s reputation to “rowdyish” with their behavior. In the 1880’s Prospect Park was evolving from a farm town into a suburb of Chicago.
Successful businessman and author Thomas E. Hill settled here in 1885 with his wife Ellen. In 1889 Hill joined forces with several other prominent citizens in town to acquire 600 acres of swampy land just northeast of downtown. This swamp was fed by several small streams and a spring. They built a dam at the north end of this land, creating an impoundment. Hill named this scenic lake after his wife, using the Welch spelling of her name. The consortium of developers went on to build a large hotel overlooking the lake and a large pavilion off Riford Road just north of the hotel that reportedly encompassed five mineral springs. The hotel opened in 1892, shortly before the Great Financial Panic of 1893 which led to a major depression affecting the entire country. It also led to the demise of the hotel after just two years of operation.
In 1891, after Thomas Hill had served a term as Village President, the town changed its name to Glen Ellyn recognizing the significance of Lake Ellyn and the village’s lovely glens. Also in 1891, a fire burned the west side of Main Street from Crescent to Pennsylvania, which represented a major portion of the commercial district. This was a time when the Village had no fire department and no municipal water system. These came in 1907 after a fire destroyed the hotel over the lake, which had been empty for some time.
