History · Algonquin

Algonquin’s history is
mostly unwritten

The public archives hold just one old photo of Algonquin. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.

1890established
1old images & papers
5recent photos
VelieHillClimbingContestStickney, 1910 · Wikimedia Commons

The story

from WikipediaRead it all ↗

Long before Europeans settled in Algonquin, the Potawatomi originally inhabited the land. Algonquin was the location of Indian burial mounds known in the 1800s as the Algonquin Mounds. By 1834 the first settler of Algonquin, Samuel Gillilan, came to the area from Virginia. Settlers Dr. Cornish, Dr. Plumleigh, Eli Henderson, Alex Dawson, and William Jackson arrived shortly thereafter. There was some dispute regarding the original name of Algonquin, and numerous other names were suggested including Denny's Ferry, Cornish Ferry, Cornishville, and Osceola. But Samuel Edwards suggested the name Algonquin and on December 23, 1847, the name Algonquin became official.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

built from the dates on the items below
1890Established
1910VelieHillClimbingContestStickneyCommons
1920–1999Nothing yet. Family albums go here.
Be one of the first

Start Algonquin’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Algonquin’s history is told.

1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewVelieHillClimbingContestStickney, 1910: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Famous people from Algonquin

See all 7 →
By decade

Algonquin, decade by decade

1920s–
1990s
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
📷 Add from your album

Then & now

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as VelieHillClimbingContestStickney (1910) and it appears here side by side.

🔁 Retake this view · +15

From Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.

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Algonquin

Illinois · IL
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