Editing Mundelein, Illinois (section)

=== Pre-incorporation ===
[[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] of the area, such as the [[Potawatomi]] people, were trading with [[Fur trade|French trappers]] as early as 1650. The Potwatomi had settled on a camp on the south end of Diamond Lake. Natives lost possession of land in the area in 1836 and were forced west of the [[Mississippi River]]. Peter Shaddle was the first European settler in 1835, and built a log cabin which is now owned by [[University of Saint Mary of the Lake]]. He later sold his claim to settlers from [[New York (state)|New York]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Judy |first=Wiemer |date=January 27, 2000 |title=THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF MUNDELEIN IN FOUR PARTS |url=https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&t=&sort=YMD_date%3AD&fld-base-0=alltext&maxresults=20&val-base-0=%22mechanics%20grove%22%201837&docref=news/0EB770328B6EE6C1 |url-access=subscription |url-status= |work=[[Naperville Sun]]}}</ref>

Later settlers from [[England]] named the town "Mechanics Grove", due to the settler's occupations of [[millwright]]s, [[wheelwright]]s and [[Carpentry|carpenters]]. The town's first school opened in 1837 and a church the following year.<ref name=":0" />

The town name changed to "Holcomb" in the early 1850s, for a settler named John Holcomb. He migrated from [[New York (state)|New York]] in 1847 and was a civic and spiritual leader in the community through his participation in the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]] and for his service in township offices.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Partridge |first=Charles Addison |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ecy90AEACAAJ |title=Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois: And, History of Lake County |date=1902 |publisher=Munsell Publishing Company |language=en}}</ref> In 1885, he donated 20 acres of land to the [[Wisconsin Central Railroad (1871–1899)|Wisconsin Central Railroad]]. In the same year, the town name was changed to Rockefeller, after American businessman [[William Rockefeller Jr.]], who was a major stockholder in the Wisconsin Central Railroad. Rockefeller was incorporated on February 1, 1909<ref name=":1">Killackey, p. 2</ref> in a referendum in anticipation of an [[Economic expansion|economic boom]] after the [[Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad]] built a spur line terminating in Rockefeller in 1904. Residents from nearby [[Diamond Lake, Illinois]] were included in the vote in order to meet the minimum resident requirements at the time, although they later withdrew from the village.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |date=2004 |title=The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago |url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/855.html |url-status= |access-date=June 18, 2024 |publisher=[[Chicago Historical Society]]}}</ref>[[File:Sheldon School.jpg|thumb|Photograph of Sheldon School|left]]