Bensenville Dist 2 history

The first permanent white settlers in the Bensenville area came in 1833 from New England.

By 1834 Hezekiah Dunklee was joined by the rest of his family.

By 1835 numbers of Hanoverians, Prussians and Pomeranians began arriving.

The Korthauer Log House was built in Bensenville in 1844.

The Fischer windmill on Grand Avenue was also begun in 1847.

By 1848 the group split, with Reformed members leaving to begin St John’s Church, on a site north of Irving Park Road.

The Schmidt house on Church Road was built in 1854 from stone hauled by oxen from Aurora.

In 1858 another split occurred, when the Franzen family built Immanuel Church across the street from Zion.

In 1862 the present landmark Zion Church was built with brick, but most dwellings were constructed with framing lumber.

In 1872 a group, including Dedrich Struckmann, Henry Korthauer, and Frederick Heuer, purchased the present site of Bensenville.

On April 5, 1884 a public meeting was called at the Korthauer Hardware Store where a committee was appointed to investigate the advantages of incorporation.

School District 2 was formed in April, 1885, a year after the village of Bensenville was incorporated with George Cogswell as the first president and Herman Korthauer as the first clerk.

By 1900, almost 100 pupils attended Green Street School, a facility that had been staffed by two teachers and a principal.

In 1903 concrete walks were built to replace the town’s wooden sidewalks.

The bank of the Franzen Brothers, later called the First State Bank of Bensenville, was started in 1911.

On the second floor of this landmark structure, the first Bensenville High School was started in 1916.

The new Green Street School opened in 1917 with four teachers and the principal, Leo Fredericks.

Created in 1921 by a flour company, Betty Crocker became the most famous and most trusted advisor to American cooks.

In early 1925, Community High School District 100 was organized.

A dispute over boundaries for the new District 100 was settled by action of the State Supreme Court in 1926.

The Board of Education purchased Tioga School in 1930.

In 1931 there were no funds for teachers’ salaries, so payments were delayed.

In 1932 the Plentywood Farm restaurant opened in log buildings constructed from trees cut on the property.

Mr Fenton was superintendent of District 2 and 100 until his death in 1943.

The two-million-square-foot building constructed nearby for this manufacture was the largest all-timber plant in the world, until fire gutted it on July 18, 1944.

Beginning in 1946, the Douglas-Old Orchard location was converted into an airport, soon to be called O’Hare Field.

In 1950, her brand-new picture cookbook hit shelves, with sales that rivaled that of The Bible.

In 1959 the Mohawk Country Club became a part of a 700-acre industrial park purchased by the Chicago, Milwaukee and Pacific Railroad.

Following Frederick Fenton's death, Wesley Johnson was named Superintendent, a post he held until 1964.

The current Blackhawk Middle School opened on Church Road in 1965 and the former high school became Chippewa Elementary School.

Gene Hoffman, Chairman of the Social Studies Department at Fenton High School, was elected to the Illinois General Assembly in 1968 and continues to serve in the Illinois House.

The next superintendent was Doctor Martin Zuckerman who served until 1971 when Doctor James Coad was named Superintendent for both District 2 and District 100.

By 1981 land zoned for industrial use occupied 25% of the developed area of the village.

The two districts voted to split and establish separate administration in 1983.

Doctor Coad continued to serve as Superintendent of Schools for District 2 until he retired in 1988.

In July 1999 Doctor Donna C. Joy became the District’s eighth Superintendent of Schools.

Doctor William Jordan met the profile of the community’s ideal superintendent and took over the reins in July 2003.

Mohawk School was closed in December 2011 and merged with W.A. Johnson School in the expanded and renovated school.

Since 2012, we’ve completed $80 million in facility improvements across our three schools, and we’ve done it without passing a referendum to increase residents’ property taxes.