This line (which eventually became the Burlington) laid tracks from the West Chicago area to Batavia, and then Aurora in 1850. Charles Branch, with the G&CU at West Chicago.įrom the 1874 Atlas & History of DuPage County, Illinois.īatavia and Aurora residents were involved in the building of a different railroad, the Aurora Branch. Charles to Geneva, thus connecting Geneva, by way of the St. Another company built a two mile long track from St. Charles to a junction with the G&CU just north of present-day West Chicago. Any community without access to this new, speedy means of transportation would be at a serious disadvantage. For example, the 40-mile mail run by train in 1850 from Chicago to Elgin took three hours, while the 44-mile mail run by stage from Chicago to Aurora to Sugar Grove over mud roads took 16 hours. They realized that the new railroads were going to transform the area. The decision to lay tracks directly northwest from the West Chicago area to Elgin upset residents of the Fox River communities of Batavia, Geneva and St. The railroad arrived in what is now West Chicago in November 1849, and reached Elgin in February 1850. The laying of its track west from the city began in 1848, with the intent of reaching the Fox River, Rockford, Freeport, and Galena.
The G&CU (which eventually became the Chicago & North Western) was Chicago’s first railroad. Because several railroads were the principal cause for the creation of West Chicago, a brief survey of the activities of those companies is in order. The town itself, however, did not begin to form until 1849-1850, when the tracks of the new Galena & Chicago Union Railroad reached the vicinity.
A few settlers owned property in the area of present-day West Chicago as early as the late 1830s. West Chicago was the first Illinois community created by the coming of railroads.
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