Libertyville: Five Names and One Famous Farmer-Statesman

The village northwest of Chicago went through five names before settling on Libertyville. An English settler named George Vardin platted it as Vardin's Grove in eighteen thirty-six. The community voted to rename it Independence Grove during the sixtieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, then discovered another Independence Grove already existed in Illinois.

When the post office opened in eighteen thirty-seven, the name became Libertyville. It changed once more to Burlington when the town became the Lake County seat, then reverted to Libertyville in eighteen forty-one when the county seat moved to Waukegan. That final name stuck.

A century later, in nineteen thirty-five, Adlai Stevenson purchased a farm along the Des Plaines River nearby. The two-time Democratic presidential candidate and United Nations Ambassador called the Libertyville farm home for the rest of his life, earning the national press nickname The Man from Libertyville.