Editing Waukegan, Illinois (section)

=== Founding and 19th century ===
The site of present-day Waukegan was recorded as ''Rivière du Vieux Fort'' ("Old Fort River") and ''Wakaygagh'' on a 1778 map by [[Thomas Hutchins]]. By the 1820s, the French name had become "Small Fort River" in English, and the settlement was known as "Little Fort". The name "Waukegance" and then "Waukegan" (meaning "little fort"; cf. [[Potawatomi language|Potawatomi]] ''wakaigin'' "fort" or "fortress") was created by [[John H. Kinzie]] and [[Solomon Juneau]], and the new name was adopted on March 31, 1849.<ref>Callary, Edward. 2009. ''Place Names of Illinois''. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, p. 368.</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Chicago and North Western Railway Company|title=A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected with the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OspBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA136|year=1908|page=136}}</ref>

Waukegan had an [[abolitionist]] community dating to these early days. In 1853, residents commemorated the anniversary of [[Emancipation of the British West Indies|emancipation of slaves in the British Empire]] with a meeting.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = West India Emancipation|date = August 18, 1853|journal = The National Era (Washington, DC)}}</ref> Waukegan arguably has the distinction of being the only place where [[Abraham Lincoln]] failed to finish a speech. When he was campaigning in the town in 1860, he was interrupted by a ringing fire alarm.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Waukegan has City's Din Amid Rural Scenes|last = Fitzpatrick|first = Rita|date = June 29, 1947|journal = Chicago Daily Tribune}}</ref>

During the middle of the 19th century, Waukegan was becoming an important industrial hub. Industries included ship and wagon building, flour milling, sheep raising, pork packing, and dairying. William Besley's Waukegan Brewing Company was one of the most successful of these businesses, being able to sell beyond America.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1328.html|title=Waukegan, IL|website=encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org|access-date=January 11, 2019}}</ref> The construction of the [[Chicago and Milwaukee Railway]] through Waukegan by 1855 stimulated the growth and rapid transformation and development of the city's industry, so much that nearly 1000 ships were visiting Waukegan harbor every year.<ref name=":1"/> During the 1860s, a substantial [[German Americans|German]] population began to grow inside the city.<ref name=":1"/>

Waukegan's development began in many ways with the arrival of industries such as United States Sugar Refinery, which opened in 1890,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20100427/news/304279991/|title=Waukegan saw business boom in 1890|last=Dretske|first=Diana|date=April 27, 2010|website=Daily Herald|language=en-US|access-date=January 11, 2019}}</ref> Washburn & Moen. This barbed-wire manufacturer prompted both labor migration and land speculation beginning in 1891,<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Wild Activity at Waukegan: the Town is Fairly Overrun with Enthusiastic Acre Speculators|date = January 25, 1891|journal = Chicago Daily Tribune}}</ref> U.S. Starch Works, and Thomas Brass and Iron Works. Immigrants followed, mostly from southeastern Europe and Scandinavia, with large groups from Sweden, Finland, and Lithuania.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Places|url = http://www.waukeganhistorical.org/places|website = Waukegan Historical Society|access-date = October 10, 2015}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|title = Waukegan: It's Working Man's Town – and How! City Glories in Smoking Stacks along Lake|last = Kirkpatrick|first = Clayton|date = January 31, 1951|journal = Chicago Daily Tribune}}</ref> The town also became home to a considerable Armenian population.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Armenians in Waukegan – St. George Armenian Church|url = https://sites.google.com/site/stgeorgearmenianchurch/armenians-in-waukegan|website = sites.google.com|access-date = October 10, 2015|archive-date = November 22, 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151122144742/https://sites.google.com/site/stgeorgearmenianchurch/armenians-in-waukegan}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Mirak|first=Robert|title=Torn Between Two Lands: Armenians in America, 1890 to World War I|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1983|location=Cambridge, Mass.|page=79}}</ref> One member of this community, Monoog Curezhin, even became embroiled in an aborted plot to assassinate Sultan [[Abdul Hamid II]], reviled for his involvement in [[Hamidian massacres|massacres of Armenians]] in the [[Ottoman Empire]]. Curezhin lost two fingers on his right hand while testing explosives for this purpose in Waukegan in 1904.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Armenian Plotter is Taken: Chicagoan Admits Having Been Assigned to Kill the Sultan|date = August 20, 1907|journal = Chicago Daily Tribune}}</ref>

[[File:Waukegan Illinois 1920.jpg|thumb|A map of Waukegan in 1920]]