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Pioneers who traveled from Troy, New York, by way of Fort Dearborn-newly
renamed the City of Chicago-set down their roots in what was to be Cuba
Township in Lake County. Others, primarily from Vermont, upper New York
State and Massachusetts, most notably from that state's Great Barrington
in Berkshire County, settled in what is now Cook County. Their settlement
was originally called Miller Grove but was later renamed Barrington Center.
It was established at the point where Sutton Road crosses Illinois Route
68.[4]
William Butler Ogden became interested in connecting the developing
northwest to Chicago's growing port facilities. He gained control of
the Chicago, St. Paul & Fond du Lac Railroad (later the Chicago & North
Western Railway) in 1854 and pushed its tracks to the northwest corner
of Cook County, where a station named Deer Grove was built.
Many area
farmers feared the railroad would bring too many saloons and Irish Catholics
to the area. In response to the opposition, Robert Campbell, a civil
engineer working for the Fond du Lac line, purchased a farm two miles
northwest of Deer Grove and platted a community there in 1854. At Campbell's
request, the railroad moved the station building to his new community,
which he called Barrington after Great Barrington, Massachusetts, the
original home of a number of area farmers.
The prosperity of the Civil
War era increased Barrington's population to 300 in 1863. In order to
provide a tax mechanism to finance improvements, Barrington incorporated
on February 16, 1865. Homer Willmarth became the first village president.
The village prospered as many Chicago grain merchants whose homes were
destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 decided to construct opulent
Queen Anne–style residences along Barrington's tree-shaded streets.
Although the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway was built through Barrington
in 1889, the village continued to serve agriculturally based trading
interests into the twentieth century. Dairy farming was the major activity
on the meadows and woodlots surrounding the community. Fueled by post–World
War I prosperity, however, a number of Chicago business leaders built
their residences on large woodland tracts around the village, bringing
an end to dairying. Barrington, and its close villages are considered
to be some of the wealthiest in the country.[5] The village opposes the
use of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway to prevent rail congestion
in Chicago, prefering freight trains to be routed through more diverse
communities.[ |
