The Village of Montgomery, Illinois

M ontgomery, Illinois is a village that sits on both sides of the Fox River, in Kane and Kendall Counties, some 40 miles west of Chicago. In the fall of 1835, Daniel S. Gray, from Montgomery County, New York, visited the area where his brother Nicholas Gray had located in the previous spring, and in 1836, after his family moved from New York State, he built the first wooden house in the area. Gray also bought land grants from the federal government and the new settlement he founded was originally called Graystown. Eventually, Gray convinced other settlers to call the small village Montgomery after the New York county where he and several other settlers had come from. Over time, the industrious Gray founded many companies in Montgomery, including a tavern, store, warehouse, foundry, combine, and fabrication shop and one of the best stone grain mills in the county. On February 17,