Arlington Heights not first choice for name of village

Ronald Bradley, who lived all his long life in Arlington Heights, could easily have lived all his life in a town called Bradley. That was Arlington Heights' first -- short-lived -- name. The town was briefly called Bradley in honor of Ronald's great-grandfather, Peter Bradley.

Peter Bradley was a great friend of William Dunton, who founded Arlington Heights. After Dunton got the Illinois and Wisconsin Railroad to run its rails through his farm, he recognized his opportunity to capitalize on his coup. He laid out 80 acres of his homestead claim into streets and building lots.

His new town would be eight blocks north to south and four blocks east to west, he decided. The first boundaries matched Euclid Street on the north, Arlington Heights Road on the east, Sigwalt Street on the south, and Highland Avenue on the west.

When William Dunton drew up his first map, he generously scrawled "Bradley" across its center. Unfortunately for the Bradleys, however, Illinois already had a town of their name near Kankakee.

The Arlington Heights Historical Society owns an original map that shows a line drawn through the name "Bradley" and the name "Dunton" written below in William Dunton's handwriting.

In many ways Dunton was a more appropriate name. It was William Dunton's father, Asa, who chose to file claims for himself and his two sons on the high ground that would become Arlington Heights instead of one of the more popular area groves.

But there would have been some charm involved in the choice of Bradley. The Bradley family was the first to live in what would become one of Arlington's storied houses at 310 N. Dunton, the site of the first public library in town. The Arlington Heights Memorial Library has long been one of the town's defining features.

The story of Ronald Bradley's other grandfather bites even more deeply into the mystique of the area for its Indian lore. He was brought to the United States from England by his father. The great-grandfather, in Ronald's words, "took up with a biddy."

"She was no good," Ronald continued. His great-grandfather got rid of her by going himself back to England, leaving behind two sons, 10 and 12. "They were raised by Indians," Ronald told me, and participated in what he repeatedly called the "Indian Insurrection."

I'm not quite sure from the old tape whether they fought with the soldiers at Fort Dearborn or with their Indian attackers. But both of the boys were named on a plaque at the Chicago World's Fair Fort Dearborn exhibit as participants in the battle.