Chapter 4: 'Iron Horse' Comes to Niles Township

As the stream of German migration into this region swelled, more and more tiny clearings opened in the woods, each centered by a log dwelling.

They were definitely German settlements, German speaking, with ties to the Fatherland. They were still isolated; distances to anywhere were measured by mud and swamp. But by mid-century the accompaniments of a pioneer American community began to appear: a school, a church, a mill, a store.

In what is now the Village of Niles the first school was held in 1838, near the present intersection of Touhy and Harlem. It had four pupils from the Ebinger and Ruland families and was taught by a Scotchman named Ballentine. Its second teacher was a Miss Phillips who was paid $2 per child per term, the bachelors chipping in to help maintain it.

The third teacher, Miss Cordelia Wheaton, found her profession more profitable, for she was paid $l2 a month and board. In l849 John Odell gave a plot of land at Milwaukee and Harlem, material was donated, and John Ketchum, brother of Mrs. Ruland, put up a new schoolhouse for $25.00.

The earliest school board must have comprised all the men in the neighborhood: John Ruland, John Ketchum, Dr. Hoffman, and the three Ebinger brothers. The little building was used only eight years; then a brick one was erected at a cost of $1,000.00.

By 1860 teachers' salaries had leaped to $51 a month for the head teacher, Mrs. Hinman, and $25 for her assistant, Mrs. Langdon. So says an early settler writing in an old report. But $51 seems unbelievable. Country school salaries in general reached no such amount for another 40 or 50 years.

The first schoolhouse in the settlement to the east was not built until 1858. It was a half mile south of the center of the present Village of Skokie, at the junction of Howard and Carpenter. It was a plain one-story frame, and served not only for school but also for church and Sunday school services.

Later it was lifted and a lower story of brick built beneath it. This was old Fairview school and was in use until about 1940. One of its first teachers was George C. Klehm.

In Niles the Methodists began the first English-speaking church in the old schoolhouse in 1872 or 1873. It was attended for a time by settlers from miles around.

The North Branch Hotel was built in Niles by John Marshall and Benjamin Hall in 1837 - a hotel out there in the woods in 1837 when our now populous township is unable to boast even one!

In Niles Center the earliest store was combined with a hotel on the southeast corner of Lincoln and Oakton where a filling station now stands. "Farmer" Henry Harms built it in 1857.

In the 1850's a post office was opened in Niles Center with Henry Harms as Postmaster.

The incorporation of the township came in 1850. On April 2 of that year, a town meeting was held for the election of officers and the name Niles was chosen. The origin of that name is one of the common questions asked of librarians.

The Chicago Tribune of August 25, l929, has this information to offer: "Where the name came from is a matter of conjecture. There was no family by that name among its settlers. But the city of Niles in Michigan, one of eight spots in the country with the name, was christened in l829, and its namesake was the Niles Register, a newspaper of widespread political influence at that time, published in Washington., D.C.

A fact that makes it seem likely the Illinois town had the same source is that William Ogden Niles was connected with the Register as late as 1840, and Ogden is a name with a Chicago book-up." Samuel Ferris was the first supervisor.

Neighboring settlements also were feeling the need to organize. Prior to 1850 Evanston and vicinity was included in the old Gross Point district. In 1850 the Township of Ridgeville was organized and included the present Evanston and Lake View.

In 1857 Evanston Township was incorporated and the Ouilmette Reservation was made a part of it, but in 1859 the latter was detached and made a part of New Trier Township. These rapid changes indicate the steady growth of population.

One of the first duties of the new officials of Ridgeville Township was to appoint a committee to draft an ordinance preventing livestock from running at large and invading grain fields. They ruled that all cattle and horses should be restrained during December, January and February, and hogs and sheep at all times.

Now again an event occurred that changed the face of our township. The Iron Horse came snorting through the valley and the forests went to feed him.

The trunk line of the St. Paul Railroad (now Milwaukee Road) was laid through Niles and Morton Grove, and the Northwestern Railway through the settlements west of them. As the locomotive burned wood exclusively, the giants of the forest were cut for their fuel.

A German-language newspaper, "Der Westen," of a later date, has this vivid description: "Through the forest resounded constantly the ring of the wood-cutter's ax. Everyone threw himself upon the ax handle, and endless trains of firewood were daily forwarded to Chicago." Among those who here laid the foundation for later prosperity was the famous millionaire Amos J. Snell. He acquired hundreds of acres of woodland and built himself a lumber kingdom." (Snell and his acquired wealth, and his mystery murder, will figure in the next chapter of this history.)

Wood also was almost the only fuel used in Chicago at this time. Except at the center of the city it was the chief building material, increasing the market for the forests. The trees went, and fields appeared in their place. More money was in the pockets of the farmers.

Farm dwellings, some commodious, took the place of the little log cabins. Passenger and freight transportation linked the communities with the rapidly growing city by the lake. Niles Township was out of the woods.

- Originally published in The Villager, Thursday, June 5, 1958, pp. 16-17

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