Village of Indian Head Park History

  1. Early History
  2. Beginning of Subdivisions
  3. Finding & Distributing Water
  4. Joining the Corporation
  5. Transfer of Corporation Assets
  6. Our Village Today

Early History 

Before the area, now known as Indian Head Park, became a village, it was one of the last remaining camp sites of the Native American tribe, the Potawatomi. In 1833 thousands of Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Ottawa gathered in Chicago to relinquish their land in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin in the Treaty of Chicago. Over several years the Potawatomi left Illinois in small groups. As the last Potawatomie left Chicago, they camped on the Joseph Vial farm along what is now Plainfield Road west of Wolf Road, or Timber Trails Subdivision.  On May 5, 1930 the La Grange chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution held a commemorative ceremony to dedicate a historic marker noting the last camp site of the Potawatomi in Cook County. During the ceremony, Alice Vial read entries from her grandfather Joseph Vial’s diary that described life as a pioneer. Joseph Vial’s great grandchildren Muriel and William Vial drew the ribbons to unveil the granite boulder used as the historic marker. This marker still stands at the northwest corner of Wolf and Plainfield Roads.

The marker reads: Last Camp Site of the POTAWATOMIE INDIANS in Cook County 1835; Erected by LaGrange Illinois Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution MAY 15th 1930.

Known as Lyonsville in the 1830's, the Indian Head Park area was near the center of what was then Cook County, which encompassed the entire area of today’s Cook County, all of present-day DuPage County, and parts of Will and Lake Counties. Because of Indian Head Park's central location, the first Democratic Convention in Cook County was held in the surrounding area in 1835. Lyonsville Congregational Church, located at the southeast corner of Joliet and Wolf Roads, is the oldest Congregational Church in Cook County and was once a stop on the Underground Railroad during the Civil War from 1861 to 1865.

National Society Daughters of The American Revolution 1930 Ceremony

Daughters of the American Revolution - LaGrange Chapter 1930