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No. 142 | A JWC Media publication
NEWS
Genealogy may be history at library By Sheryl DeVore
T
he Winnetka-Northfield Public Library’s decision to re-purpose the genealogy room into a meeting and programming room has caused an uproar among the community of volunteers who have worked in that space for many years. The library has been home to the North Suburban Genealogy (NSG) volunteers for approximately 45 years. Many of the volunteers are certified genealogists, and the basement genealogy room houses an extensive collection of books, microfilm and reference materials. The board’s decision in April stemmed from a need for more flexible space that will serve the larger community, explained Mary Hastings, spokeswoman for the library. In the past year, the library opened The Studio, a popular media and art room that is located Continues on page 12
Far from a one-horse town From launching Girl Scout cookies to housing first known serial killer, Wilmette boasts colorful past Ouillmettes’ cabin in 1836 was a man named Alexander McDaniel. ncorporated in 1872, Wilmette’s He, too, was a trader. history includes its affiliation McDaniel—who sought with an Indian chieftain that fortune in the California Gold didn’t exist. Rush of 1849—went on to become The mythical Wilmette Indian one of Wilmette’s founders in (a village logo once depicted an 1872. Indian chief ) was concocted by Wilmette would swell with new those trying to sell area property. pioneers — types who would forge According to Wilmette Historical the young nation and challenge Museum curator Patrick Leary, religion, tradition and the status there was no Chief Ouilmette. quo. Indeed, the first village north “There never has been,” Leary of Chicago became a center for said. “There’s an Archange Ouil- seeding food, ideas and innovation. mette—formerly Archange Che- Wilmette became home to invenvalier— who was half Potawatomi tors and entrepreneurs—and arguand half French. ably the world’s first known serial “She had married a French fur killer—and host to an American trader named Antoine Ouilmette, president. and they had lived at the mouth “There are phases in the history of the Chicago River and ulti- of Wilmette’s population,” Leary mately moved up here to what is said. “Up until recently, there was now Wilmette. Their cabin was a steady expansion. The early setlocated approximately where the tlement period includes Germanwater plant and Gillson Park is speaking Catholics settling west now.” of Ridge Road and, then, mostly The Ouillmettes didn’t stay for British descendants settling east life. The couple decided to move Wilmette.” After the railroad was built in West to be with Mrs. Ouillmette’s Indian relatives in Iowa. the 19th century, a community and But Wilmette had not seen the a culture sprang forth. Leary’s Former Saturday Night Live star Julie Sweeney calls Wilmette last pioneer. One visitor to the studies show that Wilmette was home. Photography By J.Geil By Scott Holleran
I
quiet until the 1890s—repeatedly rejecting becoming part of Evanston—when it started paving streets and adding infrastructure. In the 1920s, in the area known as Gross Point (a story unto itself ), there was ethnic and religious division between Gross Point’s beer-drinking, German Catholic farmers and the puritanical Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in Evanston, a powerful religious group mixing feminism with fundamentalism. The Temperance Union scorned the Gross Point farmers’ alcohol consumption. Leary said that they looked down upon saloons serving alcohol. Then, the Constitutional dictate against alcohol (in the form of the 18th Amendment) came down. By the time the law was repealed, Wilmette’s farms had thinned following a postwar housing boom. The most iconic structure to emerge from that early period is the Gross Point Village Hall on Ridge Road between Lake and Wilmette, on the west side of the street between Washington and Schiller, where Leary said the Wilmette Historical Museum relocated in 1995. “It really speaks to the peak of the German-speaking farming Continues on page 12
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