Waukegan Illinois History & Facts

Waukegan, is the most populous city in, and the county seat of Lake County, Illinois, United States. An industrial suburb of Chicago, Waukegan is situated approximately 26 miles (42 km) north of Chicago’s city limits. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 89,321,ranking it the seventh most populous city within the Chicago metropolitan area, and the tenth most populous city in Illinois.

Waukegan has a significant working-class population, as well as some poor areas within the city. Additionally, Waukegan has a moderately sized middle-class community that exists within the city.

The site of present-day Waukegan was recorded as Rivière du Vieux Fort ("Old Fort River") and Wakaygagh on a 1778 map by Thomas Hutchins. By the 1820s, the French name had become "Small Fort River" in English, and the settlement was known as "Little Fort". The name "Waukegance" and then "Waukegan" (meaning "little fort"; cf. Potawatomi wakaigin "fort" or "fortress") was created by John H. Kinzie and Solomon Juneau, and the new name was adopted on March 31, 1849.

Waukegan had an abolitionist community dating to these early days. In 1853, residents commemorated the anniversary of emancipation of slaves in the British Empire with a meeting.Waukegan arguably has the distinction of being the only place where Abraham Lincoln failed to finish a speech; when he campaigned in the town in 1860, a fire alarm rang, and the man soon-to-be president had his words interrupted.

During the middle of the 19th century, Waukegan was becoming an important industrial hub. Industries included: ship and wagon building, flour milling, sheep raising, pork packing, and dairying. William Besley's Waukegan Brewing Company was one of the most successful of these businesses, being able to sell beyond America. The construction of the Chicago and Milwaukee Railway through Waukegan by 1855 stimulated the growth and rapid transformation and development of the city's industry, so much that nearly one thousand ships were visiting Waukegan harbor every year.During the 1860s, a substantial German population began to grow inside the city

Famous Peoples From Waukegan Illinois

Harrison Bankhead

Bankhead became associated with the Chicago jazz scene in the early-1980s.Early in his career, he performed with Fred Anderson on tour and at Anderson's Chicago club, the Velvet Lounge. Bankhead has worked with Oliver Lake, Roscoe Mitchell, Von Freeman, Malachi Thompson, 8 Bold Souls, and Hamid Drake, and is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.

His first album as a leader, Morning Sun/Harvest Moon, was released on Engine, a sub-label of ESP-Disk, in 2011, and featured sidemen Edward Wilkerson, Jr., Mars Williams, James Sanders, Avreeayl Ra, and Ernie Adams. He followed this with Velvet Blue, with Wilkerson, Williams, and Ra, whose name and title track pay tribute to Fred Anderson and the Velvet Lounge.

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