Robert Bacon

Written by Caroline Lauber

Dr. Robert J. Bacon, Sr. (1921-2009) was born in Como, Mississippi on the Taylor Plantation. His family moved north as a part of the Great Migration to Illinois where they settled in Lake Forest. His...

Ed Cook

By Caroline Lauber

The home of America Bridgeman Sales, widow of early Lake Forest police officer Walker Sales, served as a landing place for both visiting and relocating relatives from the South. Joining her at 321 Gra...

Samuel Dent

Samuel Dent was born enslaved around 1835 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. A butler in home of Edmond Elliot, he escaped in April 1862 when the 19th Illinois Infantry advanced on Decatur and Tuscumbia. Dent app...

A Call To Serve: Sergeant William Fletcher

William Fletcher was born in Lake Forest in 1880, to Charles and Eliza Fletcher. He was employed for years by C. G. Wenban & Co. He was a veteran of the Spanish American War, and had served on the...

Slaughter-Whittingham Family

By Michelle Bentley and Nik-ki Whittingham

Minnie was born August 21, 1886, to the late Joseph and Lucy Waters.  She was preceded in death by her brothers, Ammon, Bradford, Charlie, Wilford, George, and one sister, Ellen.  She depart...

Walker Sales

Walker Sales was one of the earliest members of the Lake Forest police force. Born in 1864 in Morganfield, Kentucky, to Emily Sales, he came to Lake Forest around 1890, after years working as a farm l...

Lawson-Jordan Family

The Lawson-Jordan family was honored as a Centennial Family by the History Center in 2022. The following is taken from the presentation for that award. 

Sloan’s Repair Shop and the Sloan Family

Location: Bank Lane between Deerpath and Illinois

Clifford and Mollie Sloan moved to Lake Forest between 1904 and 1910, residing in the community for nearly 30 years. Both born in Georgia, they were married in Chicago in 1904. Clifford M. Sloan...

Peter and Anna Williams

Peter Williams (1834-1917) was one of the earliest African Americans to settle in Lake Forest, coming north from enslavement in Alabama. He described his life experiences in an 1896 program at the Fir...

Lake Forest Tailors and Just Nice Things

John Foster ran Lake Forest Tailors at 730 N Western Avenue. Foster had jazz playing in the shop and people stopped in, just to chat, listen to jazz, and learn from him. He was recognized as a great f...

The Matthews Enterprise: Black-Owned Businesses in Early Lake Forest

Locations: Western Avenue across from the train station and 635 East Illinois Road

According to his daughter Harriet, in 1886 Julian Matthews arrived in Lake Forest “in a boxcar full of fine Virginia horseflesh.” Matthews was born enslaved in Virginia in 1863. By the 1880s, he was l...

Smith Hayes and Political Influence

Location: Illinois Road between Oakwood and Bank Lane

Smith Hayes was born enslaved in Mississippi in 1845. He joined the Union Army in 1864 at Vicksburg, serving in the 72nd Illinois Infantry, Company C as a Private, Undercook. After the Civil War he ma...

Judge Mary Maxwell Thomas, Ret.

In August of 1987, Mary Maxwell Thomas was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to fill a vacancy as a Circuit Judge of Cook County, Illinois. In 1988 she was elected to that vacancy by over a mill...

Mary Williams Casselberry

Pushing Medicine Forward

Granddaughter of a midwife, daughter of a nurse, medicine was in Mary Williams Casselberry’s blood, so to speak. After graduating with honors from DuSable High School in Chicago, she pursued this inte...

Joseph Hairston

Joseph Hairston (1887-1959) was born in Virginia and moved to Lake Forest sometime before 1910. He initially worked as a laborer before serving in World War I. Following his service, Joseph began work...

Clarence P. McIntosh

Breaking Barriers

A grandson of one of Lake Forest’s earliest Black residents, Civil War veteran Henry McIntosh, Clarence P. McIntosh made the most of his opportunities. A standout athlete and student at Lake Forest Hi...

Wayman H. McIntosh

Wayman H. McIntosh (1900-1982) was a trainer for football at Lake Forest College during the early 20th century. First pictured in the 1936 yearbook, “Mack” earned a mention to commemorate his many yea...

Deeply Rooted and Rising High

African American Experiences In Lake Forest

Our Black history begins in the very first seeds of Lake Forest, dating to the 1860s.  Rooted in the town’s founding as a haven centered on property ownership and higher learning, African Am...

Building Lake Forest

Deeply Rooted and Rising High: African American Experiences in Lake Forest

Since the 1980 census, the population of Lake Forest residents identifying as African American has hovered around 1%. These numbers, along with conventional wisdom equating Lake Forest with white subu...

Building Neighborhoods

Deeply Rooted and Rising High: African American Experiences in Lake Forest

Today, Lake Forest’s Black residents live all around the city, but historically, this was not always the case. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, African Americans built homes mainly in specific neigh...

Building Opportunity

Deeply Rooted and Rising High: African American Experiences in Lake Forest

Since its beginnings, Lake Forest has benefited economically from its deeply rooted African American community. The town’s system of landed estates depended upon the expertise of a skilled service sta...

Building Community

Deeply Rooted and Rising High: African American Experiences in Lake Forest

After putting down roots, the African American community blossomed, creating cultural institutions that have left imprints on Lake Forest society. Early residents founded two churches, the African Met...

Robert McClory: Congressman and Bike Trail Namesake

Not many cyclists know the paved path parallel to the railroad tracks connecting downtown Lake Forest and Lake Bluff is officially the Robert McClory Bike Path. It is named for former U.S. Congressman...

Sylvester Lind: Founder and Four-Time Mayor

Sylvester Lind was a Scottish immigrant who came to Chicago in 1837, in the early days before it was a big city, and found work as a carpenter. He eventually had his own business in Chicago selling lu...