The Groves of Cook County

Outside Chicago, the suburbs of Palatine and Schaumburg were once covered in groves. Pioneers knew them as Deer Grove, Plum Grove, Englishman’s Grove, Missionary Grove and others.

Maps identify properties belonging to Myra’s future father-in-law, Thomas Bradwell. Property belonging to her uncle Morgan Johnson is also visible. Morgan was married to Myra’s maternal aunt, Wealthy Johnson. The Johnsons followed the Colbys to Cook County from New York in the 1840s.

A black-and-white map of Schaumburg Township from 1851 shows the location of the Colby farm, just south of Plum Grove.

Myra’s father, Ebenezer Colby, owned 80 acres in Section 12 of what was then part of the Salt Creek Precinct, according to Jane Rozek, former keeper of the History of Schaumburg Township blog.

The Colby farm lay near what is now the intersection of Golf and Meacham roads in Schaumburg.

A few miles north, James Bradwell’s father, Thomas Bradwell, had property in Englishman’s Grove. He also owned other properties, which his servants maintained. An Englishman by birth, Bradwell considered himself landed gentry.

“If a man needed money for the purchase of land he could usually obtain it from Bradwell. No note or mortgage was given; but Bradwell required that the land be placed in his name as well as the borrower’s.”

—History of Palatine, Ill.: Centennial Book, 1855–1955