Local spots named after Revolutionary War figures

<h3 class="breakHead">Clark: </h3>

The Chicago street, as well as the Illinois county, are named after Revolutionary War General George Rogers Clark, who led the daring takeover of Kaskaskia on July 4, 1778, during the Illinois Campaign. Four of his five brothers were also Revolutionary War officers. The baby brother, William, born in 1770, became famous as the leader of the Lewis & Clark Expedition in 1804-06.

<h3 class="breakHead">Montgomery: </h3>

The village in Kane and Kendall counties is named after Richard Montgomery, a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. In September 1775, he led the "Invasion of Canada." After victories at Fort St. Johns and Montreal, he was joined by Colonel Benedict Arnold's forces in an attack on Quebec City. He was killed on Dec. 31, 1775.

<h3 class="breakHead">Warren Township: </h3>

The Lake County township is one of 30 across the nation named after physician Joseph Warren. Early township settlers came from the town of Warren, New York, which was named in honor of the Revolutionary War patriot who was killed June 17, 1775, in the Battle of Bunker Hill. On April 18, 1775, Warren sent William Dawes and Paul Revere on the famous "midnight rides." The next day, he led militia in the Battle of Lexington and Concord. Though he was recently commissioned as a major general by the Provincial Congress, the 34-year-old volunteered to fight as a private in the Battle of Bunker Hill. He fought to hold the defenses, giving time for the militia to retreat. After he was killed, there were reports that his body was mutilated by the British.

According to a past exhibit at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Paul Revere, a silversmith, had created a wire fixed dental bridge for Warren. Nine months after the battle, when the British forces are pushed out of Boston, colonists dug out the shallow mass grave where soldiers were buried. Revere was able to identify his friend's jawbone by the dental work, performing one of the earliest forensic identifications of human remains from dental records in America.

<h3 class="breakHead">Wayne Township: </h3>

According to the DuPage Historical Society's 1985 book "DuPage Roots," Wayne Township is believed to be named in honor of Major General Anthony Wayne. Early in his Revolutionary War military career, his Pennsylvania regiment came to the aid of the Continental Army during its unsuccessful invasion of Canada. In July 1779, he led a daring nighttime light infantry attack on the British, taking their outpost at Stony Point, a key crossing point along the Hudson River in New York. After the war, he led the early federal army in the Northwest Indian War, including the final decisive win, Battle of Fallen Timber. Veteran of the 1794 battle included later historical figures, explorer William Clark and William Henry Harrison, the first governor of the Indiana Territory and the ninth U.S. president.