DuPage County, Illinois: History
Prior to European-American settlement, the area that is now DuPage County was inhabited by the Potawatomi people. By 1800, the Potawatomi had established 4 major villages along local rivers within the county, and had a network of trails crisscrossing the area. The first European-American settlers arrived in what is now DuPage County in 1832, and the Potawatomi population was forced out of the region only one year later after ceding their land in the Treaty of Chicago. DuPage County was officially formed on February 9, 1839, out of Cook County. The county took its name from the DuPage River, which was, in turn, named after a French fur trapper, DuPage. The first written history to address the name, the 1882 History of DuPage County, Illinois, by Rufus Blanchard, relates:
The DuPage River had, from time immemorial, been a stream well known. It took its name from a French trader who settled on this stream below the fork previous to 1800. Hon. H. W. Blodgett, of Waukegan, informs the writer that J. B. Beaubien had often spoken to him of the old Frenchman, Du Page, whose station was on the bank of the river, down toward its mouth, and stated that the river took its name from him. The county name must have the same origin. Col Gurden S. Hubbard, who came into the country in 1818, informs the writer that the name DuPage, as applied to the river then, was universally known, but the trader for whom it was named lived there before his time. Mr. Beaubien says it is pronounced Du Pazhe (having the sound of ah, and that the P should be capitalized). This was in reply to Mr. Blodgett's inquiry of him concerning the matter.
The first white settler in DuPage County was Bailey Hobson who, with Lewis Stewart, built a house in 1831 for the Hobson family at a site about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of present-day downtown Naperville. Hobson later built a mill to serve surrounding farmers. Today, the Hobson house still stands on Hobson Road in Naperville, and the location of the mill is commemorated with a millstone and monument in today's Pioneer Park.