Historic Millburn

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Time Line of Historical Events in and around Millburn

Please note that this is a work in progress

1818, December 3: Illinois becomes a state
1835: Saw mill is built by Jacob Miller about two miles east of future Millburn
1836: Jacob Miller adds a grist mill to his operation.
1837: Money panic causes New England families to look westward to the frontier.
1838: Strang brothers stake a claim to land
1839, March 1: Lake County is created by separation from McHenry County.
about 1840 (some say September, 1841): Rev. Flavel Bascom organizes a church in Millburn. Log cabin is used both as a school and a church.
December, 1841: Andrew Sleuman buys land from the federal government that will become the village.
1844: Rev. William Bradford Dodge comes to Millburn
1845: Frame and sided houses begin to replace the log cabins in Millburn area
1846, February 18: Rev. Dodge becomes leader of Lake County Liberty Association, anti-slavery society.
1847, June 1: New church building dedicated
1848, January 24: Robert Strang becomes Postmaster of first Millburn Post Office
1849: Lake County is divided into townships, replacing the former precincts. Millburn is at junction of four: Antioch, Newport, Warren, and Avon. [Read historical account written in 1852]
1850: Census shows Lake County population to be 14,226
1850: Peter, John and George Strang go to California to pan for gold
1852: John Strang returns, marries, and begins new home
1853, June 27: William Fullom becomes Postmaster of Millburn
1853, December 14: John Thayer becomes Postmaster of Millburn
1854, June 4: Alexander Jamieson drowns in Mill Creek
1855, March 5: Meeting held to form Millburn Mutual Insurance Company.
1856: Robert Strang builds corner store.
1856, December 30: Samuel Smith becomes Postmaster of Millburn
1858: Dr. Homer Leonard, Millburn's first doctor, comes to town and sets up an office.
1859, February: Millburn Agricultural Association organizes to put on fairs and promote agriculture.
1859, October: First Township Fair and Stock Show held at Millburn. Fifteen Hundred people attend.
1861, April 22: The war spirit comes to Millburn and men enlist at the meeting house. Subscriptions are raised to help the volunteer's families.
1862: Richard Pantall builds first part of store later to become our Martin's Gen'L Store museum.
1862, Saturday, August 30: Millburn ladies feed the men of Company D, 96th Regiment, an elegant supper prior to their departure for training.
1862, September 6: Ninety-sixth Infantry mustered into service. Many men from Millburn area.
1862, December 8: John Chope, Company D, 96th Regiment, becomes the first local man to die during service in the War of the Rebellion.
1863, June 6: Millburn's farmers meet to band together and vow to honor only National currency for their produce and discourage circulation of other funds.
1864, April 20: Richard Pantall becomes Postmaster of Millburn.
1865: Dr. David B. Taylor comes to Millburn and begins practice.
1865, February 16: Illinois Legislature charters the Millburn Mutual Insurance Company.
1865, June 30: Ninety-sixth Infantry discharged.
1867: After a bumpy start, a new church building stands in Millburn.
1867-8: Millburn cemetery is moved to current location. Over 80 remains moved.
1867, October 2: Agricultural Fair at Millburn.
1869: Masonic Lodge locates in Millburn.
1873: Church parsonage built
1881, November 12: Millburn Literary Association organized. Will go on to publish the Millburn Constellation.
1881, December: Plank sidewalk from town past the cemetery is finished
1882, January: Dr. H. O. Leonard begins vaccinating students at local schools against small-pox
1882, March: William Hockaday sells most of his farm to William Chope for $40 per acre. The federal government sold this same land for $1.25 per acre only forty years before.
1882, July: Street lights are installed
1882, July: Dr. Thompson, of Waukegan, opens an office in Millburn.
1882, August 19: J. H. Hughes, Millburn Undertaker, announces that he has added an "ice casket"
1882, December 18: Ten day musical institute held at Millburn.
1884: Dr. Leonard sells out to Dr. Tombaugh
1885, January: Rabid dog kills livestock
1885, November: Millburn Street Light Society formed "to run them properly"
1885, December: Storekeeper Sammy Smith dies
1886, January: Mrs. Belva Lockwood, candidate for President of the United States, speaks at Millburn.
1886: Wisconsin Central Railroad builds line several miles west of Millburn and depot at what will become Lake Villa.
1886, September: Lake Forest University plays Millburn home baseball team to tie score 20-20, game called after 10 innings due to darkness.
1886, December: Four Hundred tickets are sold for the Hampton Students' concert at the Church.
1887: Edward Martin comes to Millburn to help in Pantall's Store.
1893, March: Butter factory begins operation
1896, January: Millburn Mutual Ins. Co. offers reward for arrest of arsonists
1897, May: Dr. Fahrney contracts workers to install 1,700 rods of field tile on his large farm.
1898: Dr. Jamison starts Millburn Farmer's Line telephone company
1898, October 28 and 29: 28th Annual Convention of the Lake County Sunday School Association held in Millburn. F. W. Moody, President.
1900, May: Sneak thieves steal cash from sleeping man in Millburn
1901, January 8: The large Fahrney Farm in Millburn goes out of the dairy business
1901, February 7: Farmers Institute held in Millburn
1901, May 16: Congregation locates minister that took $100,000
1901, June 1: Horse thief takes horse, buggy, and harness from Millburn stable.
1901, October: New steel bridge is built over Mill Creek at east end of town.
1901, November 6: Rev. Sheldon A. Harris is expelled from membership for his part in savings and loan scandal.
1902, June: Millburn Church celebrates sixtieth anniversary (read booklet)
1903, November: Jane Strang McAlister dies leaving a very large estate to her relatives. Before her death, Mrs. McAlister founded a hospital in Waukegan, the predecessor to Victory Memorial Hospital.
1904, February 12: Chicago alderman William Mavor dies. Is a Strang son-in-law.
1904, April 1: Tornado damages homes and barns in Millburn area
1904, April 1: Robert Strang dies. Easter services delayed one week. (obituary)
1904, May 13: Wife accidentially shoots and kills husband.
1904, June: Millburn Post Office closes, Rural Free Delivery is begun
1905, February 15: Auction at the Fahrney farm draws largest auction crowd ever in Lake County. Enraged cow attacks crowd.
1911: Lake Villa Township created from lower sections of Antioch Township and northern sections of Avon Township.
1916, July 15: Former Millburn man, Ralph Spafford, is killed at railroad grade crossing in Antioch.
1919, September: Ida Mae Runyard begins teaching the last school year at Hockaday School.
1919, October: Millburn Consolidated School is formed.
1920: Dodge school students of Annie McCredie hold first annual Memorial Day service at Millburn cemetery.
1926: Route 45 paved with concrete. See what it looked like before.
1927: Public Service Company (now ComEd) brings first electric lines to Millburn. Many homes not electrified until after 1940.
1927, January: Ed Martin's store held up at gunpoint.
1927, July 14: Thieves invade hen house and steal 100 chickens.
1928, May 16: Five men rob the Beck family near Millburn and kill William Beck, Jr., during the robbery.
1928, October: Murderers of Millburn farmer sentenced to die in electric chair. First use as sentence in Lake County.
1928, November 19: Former Millburn resident is lost at sea.
1930, June: Ken Denman becomes editor of the Illinois Association of Future Farmers of America newsletter. Bob Hughes elected vice president at same meeting.
1935, January 12: Millburn Church burns to the ground
1935: Grubb School closes. Students will attend Oakland School to the west.
1936: UDSA Farm Security Administration locates a Homestead Project near Millburn.
1936, January 23: Big snowstorm hits Millburn.
1937, June 6 (3?): New brick Millburn Church dedicated
1938, September: Murder and suicide at Le Voy farm in Millburn.
1940, September 6: Millburn Church celebrates 100th Anniversary. Read newspaper coverage beginning in July.
1946: Concrete bridge replaces steel and plank bridge over Mill Creek.
1955, January: Newly elected President of Millburn Mutual Insurance Company dies only minutes after election.
1955, March 12: 100th Anniversary meeting of Millburn Mutual Insurance Company
1956, August 8: Strang's Corner Store celebrates 100th Anniversary.
1955: Masonic Lodge torn down.
1958: Ed Martin retires from storekeeping. Store building rented out.
1964: North Shore Gas Company brings natural gas to Millburn homes
1976: Bicentennial celebration.
1979, September 18: Eighteen homes placed upon National Historic Register
1979, December 6: HMCA becomes an Illinois not for profit corporation.
1981, June 3: Jake Strang home placed on Illinois Register.
1985: Richard Martin wills the Martin General Store building to the Historic Millburn Community Association, Inc. to become a museum.
1992: Traffic lights installed on Highway 45 in Millburn.
1992, November: Property owners in Millburn annex into Old Mill Creek.
1997, March 5: Martin's Gen'L Store goes on the World Wide Web.
1998: Millburn Church sells the parsonage to a private owner.
2001, December 4: Martin's Gen'L Store museum building is struck by an automobile.
2002, All Year Long: Martin's Gen'L Store museum is closed for reconstruction.