| Downers Grove
is a suburb located 19 miles (31 km) west of Chicago
in DuPage County, Illinois. The population was 48,724
at the 2000 census. The US Census Bureau estimated the
population in 2004 to be 49,302. Downers Grove was founded
in 1832 by Pierce Downer, a religious evangelist from
New York. Its other early settlers included the Blodgett,
Curtiss, and Carpenter families. The original settlers
were mostly migrants from the Northeastern United States
and Northern Europe. The first schoolhouse was built
in 1844.
During the American Civil War,
119 soldiers from Downers Grove served in the Union
Army; at least one of these was interred in the cemetery
downtown. There was an abolitionist presence in the
village, and some of the older homes are thought to
have been stops on the Underground Railroad. The Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy Railroad was extended from Aurora
to Chicago through Downers Grove in 1862, boosting its
population.
The town was incorporated in
March 1873. Its somewhat unusual spelling ("Apostrophe-free
since 1873") remains a minor historical mystery.
In April 1947, a Burlington Railroad Nebraska Zephyr
passenger train wreck killed two people, including the
engineer. The eastbound streamliner struck a large piece
of farm equipment which had become loosened from its
flat car, and was protruding onto the adjoining track
from a westbound freight. Part of the train crashed
through a wall of the Main Street Station.
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