Editing Wilmette, Illinois (section)

====Early settlement after the Ouilmettes====
[[File:Advertisement for Wilmette subdivision.jpg|thumb|left|Advertisement for an early subdivision in Wilmette]]

A number of early settlers worked small farms in the area, many of them near the lakeshore.  Mary Dennis, Max Dusham, Charles Beaubien, Simon Doyle, Wendal Alles, Joel Stebbins, and Arunah Hill were among the most prominent members of this thinly settled community, and some of their descendants remained in the area for generations. In the 1850s and 1860s, more prosperous entrepreneurs from New York State and the Eastern seaboard bought out many of these settlers. Among them were Alexander McDaniel (who had arrived in the 1830s, then returned from the California gold rush with money to invest), John G. Westerfield, Henry Dingee, and John Gage.<ref name=images/> During this period, Illinois more generally was experiencing a high degree of land speculation and settlement.<ref name="shea"/>

The [[Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad]] tracks were built in 1855,<ref name=images/> facilitating the settlement of what would become the North Shore. Several large owners of land within the former reservation saw the opportunity to develop a community, and offered to build a station at their own expense if the railway would agree to stop in Wilmette<ref name="shea"/> The offer was accepted, and in 1869, the Chicago and Milwaukee Railway (later the Chicago and North Western) began service to the station.  The first station burned, but the second one had been finished by 1874 and is still in existence today.<ref name=images/><ref name="shea"/> This was a predecessor of today's [[Wilmette station]].<ref name=images/>

In 1871 Central School, the community's first public school, was established in a [[one-room school]]house.<ref name=images/>

The community was officially incorporated on September 19, 1872, as the Village of Wilmette, at Andrew Sherman's house on Greenleaf Avenue.  John Westerfield, whose large farm on the lakeshore occupied the area where the original Ouilmette cabin had been, was elected as the new village's first president.<ref name=images/>

[[File:Chicago and Northwestern Depot (8618676620).jpg|thumb|1874 station building, now used as a restaurant space<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kaspari |first=Peter |date=2024-01-12 |title=Wilmette commission not fine with Small Cheval's sign |url=https://www.therecordnorthshore.org/2024/01/12/wilmette-commission-not-fine-with-small-chevals-sign/ |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=The Record |language=en-US}}</ref>]]

In 1875 Wilmette's Protestant denominations partnered to construct the Union Evangelical Church at the northeast corner of Wilmette and Lake Avenues, an arrangement that would ultimately fail, as the groups came to construct their own churches.  The largest denomination, the Methodists, were left with ownership of this first church building<ref name=images/>

In the 1880s the Royal Arcanum Hall, a barn-like building on the northeast corner of Wilmette and Central Avenues, served as a gathering place for local residents, while the train depot served as a polling space during elections.<ref name=images/>

=====Village of Gross Point=====
Much of the area that is today known simply as west Wilmette was once a very distinct community.<ref name=images/>

German-speaking Roman Catholic farmers from the Mosel Valley near Luxembourg in what is now Germany, many of them from in and around the city of [[Trier]] (for which the [[New Trier Township, Illinois|New Trier Township]] would later be named), had begun settling the area in the late 1830s. They developed a cohesive farming community and were active in the governance of New Trier Township (established in 1850), which built roads, schools and drainage ditches. Due to the rural area, it was a difficult place for the Chicago diocese to staff with priests. Eventually, Fr. William Netstraeter was appointed in 1872, and he would serve the faith community for five decades, as well as become a Wilmette trustee for two terms (i.e. mayor) and help found New Trier High School.<ref>"Outdoor mass marks blending of 2 parishes in Wilmette" Glenview Lantern (July 4, 2019) p. 11</ref> In 1874, the community was incorporated as the Village of Gross Point, using the traditional voyageur name for the area immediately north of Chicago.<ref name=images/><ref name="WHMuseum">{{cite web| title = About Our Historic Building| publisher = Wilmette Historical Museum| url = http://www.wilmettehistory.org/building.html| access-date = January 15, 2008| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080108054731/http://www.wilmettehistory.org/building.html| archive-date = January 8, 2008| url-status = dead}}</ref> Some prominent Gross Point family names include Hoffmann, Braun, Bauer, Schneider, Schaefer, Schaefgen, Reinwald, Bleser, Schwall, Engel, Steffens, Lauermann, Thalmann, Loutsch, Rengel, Nanzig, and Borre.  For the next half-century, Gross Point would remain a separate entity from Wilmette.<ref name=images/><ref name="WHMuseum"/> Gross Point remained a small community, with its population never exceeding 500.<ref name=images/>

Taverns were a major business in Gross Point. At least fifteen operated along Ridge Road, the village's eastern boundary, directly across the street from St. Joseph's. These were controversial: many in surrounding communities, especially Evanston (home to the [[Women's Christian Temperance Union]]) bitterly opposed the saloon trade, and made several attempts—ultimately successful—to shut it down.<ref name=images/> Upon the passing of the [[Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], there was attempted attack of the St. Josephs rectory where Fr. Netstraeter lived, as he was an advocate for prohibition.

[[St. Joseph Catholic Church (Wilmette, Illinois)|St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church]] was established in 1845 at the corner of Lake Avenue and Ridge Road. In 1873, the church opened a school. Many of the children in Gross Point attended school at St. Joseph, where they were taught by nuns from Milwaukee's School Sisters of St. Francis until 1981; the Archdiocese of Chicago closed the school in 1986, but parish families reopened it a decade later. The German language was frequently used in the classrooms up until [[World War I]], when the school abandoned this practice due to anti-German feeling in the United States.<ref name=images/> Prior to then, because Masses were only celebrated in German, English-speaking Catholics petitioned the Archdiocese of Chicago to open a second parish in the area, which would become St. Francis Xavier Church in 1904. Upon the death of Fr. Netstraeter in 1924, it was discovered that he bequeathed a large monetary sum of his estate for the construction of a new church. The money was temporarily borrowed by Cardinal [[George Mundelein]], but returned in 1938 and was used to construct the current, St. Joseph's church, which opened in 1939. St. Francis Xavier Church would be merged with St. Joseph Parish in 2019 with much controversy.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Wilmette churches celebrate coming together as new parish|url=https://www.chicagocatholic.com/chicagoland/-/article/2019/07/10/wilmette-churches-celebrate-coming-together-as-new-pari-1|access-date=September 11, 2020|website=Chicago Catholic|language=en-US|archive-date=August 11, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200811163121/https://www.chicagocatholic.com/chicagoland/-/article/2019/07/10/wilmette-churches-celebrate-coming-together-as-new-pari-1|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1897 Gross Point opened up a small public school west of Ridge Road on Wilmette Avenue. The Gross Point Public School was housed in a two-room, two-story brick building built on that had been donated by the Nanzig family. Its building would later become the home of the American Legion Post 46.<ref name=images/>