A Tale of Two Townships

Before there was Northfield, there was Northfield Township—and that begins the story of our town.

As remote an outpost as our Village was in the 1850’s, settlers did know their land was in Cook County, one of 54 counties organized in 1831 by the State of Illinois. (Today, Illinois has 102 counties.)

Also, as early as the 1860’s, settlers were already calling their new home “Northfield.”

That’s because, in 1848—a few years before our pioneers arrived—the State of Illinois gave settlers a say in how they ran their local government. They could either follow the dictates of a centralized Board of Commissioners; or, they could form their own township, defined as a piece of land six miles square, within the county where they lived. As a township, settlers could elect their own officers and make their own rules. Cook County’s pioneers decided to do that, organizing both Northfield and New Trier townships on April 2,1850.

The 3.23 square-mile area that is now Northfield—but back then an unsettled swamp— was split between the two townships, with the west three-quarters of our village in Northfield Township. The dividing line runs along what we know today as Central Avenue.

What do townships do? In our modern era, townships make real estate assessments, help maintain roads, sewers and bridges, and provide social service referrals and food pantries.

But in those early days, the local township with its tax-collecting power was a settler’s only hope in getting primitive roads and drainage ditches built, and regulating out-of- control cattle, horses, and hogs.

It was also an important first step in our town’s identity and name.

Communities like Wilmette, Winnetka and Glencoe in New Trier Township were organized almost sixty years ahead of Northfield. When Winnetka—meaning “beautiful land” in Potawatomi—was incorporated in 1869, Northfield was just a backwoods no-man’s land; or, in the words of New Trier Township’s history, “a swampy peat bog that often burned for weeks at a time, sending clouds of black smoke over the marsh-like Skokie swamp.”

With no identity or name, the township name of “Northfield” simply stuck with early settlers.

As for the origin of each township name, pioneer John Happ is believed to have named New Trier Township as a way to honor his homeland, Trier, Germany. And Northfield Township? In the words of an early Northfield Township history, “…the eastern part of the area was virgin forest, which thinned in the western sections to reveal the prairie land north of Chicago (reason for the township being called Northfield).”

Everyone seemed to like the name Northfield. In fact, when New Trier and Northfield townships were formed in 1850, all the settlers within Northfield Township used that name. Farm families in Glenview called themselves “south Northfield” and “west Northfield.” Northbrook settlers were “north Northfield.” But gradually, as these towns incorporated and adopted their own names, there was only one Northfield left: our little 3.2 square-mile community to the east.

The name stuck. And, by the way, our little town did have to fight to keep its name in 1927. But that battle over what we should be called became an important rallying point that helped Northfield forge its identity. We all agreed: we wanted to be Northfielders. And we can thank Northfield Township for helping us know the name we wanted, and getting us off to a strong and promising start.

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