By the History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff
In the earliest days, the current West Lake Forest area was known as Meehan’s Settlement, after some of the area’s first European-American settlers, Michael and Bridget Meehan. The Meehans were Irish immigrants who came to the United States in 1832. They built a cabin south of the present-day intersection of Telegraph and Half Day roads in 1835. Earlier that year, the Treaty of Chicago had been ratified and was forcing the removal of Native Americans from the area.
West Lake Forest's early residents like Michael Meehan faced considerable challenges in establishing their farms.
As a landmark and way station, the Meehan house would guide pioneers passing through on the way to their newly purchased land in Lake County. Bridget Meehan even had a horn, which she blew at intervals to greet the newcomers, and to direct them toward their destination. She knew they would stop at the Green Bay Tavern, located south of present-day Highwood, for dinner, and so calculated the right time to start to blow the horn. Long before GPS and Google maps, and even before many detailed maps of the area had been drawn, this was really quite helpful.
West Lake Forest's early residents like the Meehans faced considerable challenges in establishing their farms. The prairie sod was tough, and the roots of the grasses were deep, requiring multiple teams of oxen to plow so the wheat, flax seed, oats or corn could be planted. The self-scouring steel plow, invented by Illinois resident John Deere in the late 1830s, greatly improved the efficacy of this process on the prairie.
Later farmers raised sheep and stock; many eventually turned to dairying. Wood was chopped and used for nearly everything: housing, fuel, marking off property, penning in animals – and to sell at market.
The Meehans cultivated 225 acres of land and brought some of the first domesticated animals to the area. In the spring of 1836, Michael Meehan reportedly traveled down to Bridgeport, where he purchased seed oats and potatoes for $1 per bushel, and a young pig for $10.Isolated a day's journey from town and a mile or more from the nearest neighbor, settlers endured the hazards of their new terrain. Wolves presented a threat to both sheep and citizens – early settler John Doyle's children recalled a pack surrounding their cabin one scary night. In the early days, few had horses, so trips to Chicago or Little Fort (as Waukegan was then known) for supplies were often made on foot. A big snow, such as the long winter of 1842, could cut the inhabitants off almost entirely, given the relative lack of roads and the conditions of the ones that existed.
Speaking of roads: another early name for the West Lake Forest area was Corduroy. Pioneers knew Illinois Route 43 (Waukegan/Telegraph Road), the road adjacent to the Meehan cabin, as the Corduroy Road because tree trunks resembling ridges of corduroy were used to elevate the road surface crossing the sloughs of the north branch of the Chicago River.
The Meehan cabin also hosted the first town meeting, when early settlers voted 17 to 13 to name their township Deerfield instead of Erin.
For more about the early history of Lake Forest, visit the History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff, either in-person at 509 East Deerpath or online at www.lflbhistory.org