Events are being
planned from April through October, 2006.
Founded in 1837, DeKalb remained
a small community until the arrival of the
Chicago and Northwestern Railroad
in 1853. DeKalb received its charter in 1856.
DeKalb's central location brought easier
shipping of crops and access to larger markets.
Agriculture was the primary economic activity
until the 1873-4 when farmer
Joseph Glidden
developed
barbed wire
and began commercial mass production of his new
invention. Glidden sold half of his interest to
hardware merchant
Isaac L. Ellwood
and together the two formed the Barb Fence
Company. Two months after Glidden filed his
application for a patent, lumber salesman
Jacob Haish
also applied for a patent and on June 25, 1874,
ran interference papers against Glidden's
patent. After 18 years of legal wrangling,
Glidden's patent was declared the "Winner". The
industry gave DeKalb a place in history and the
nickname "Barb City". In 1865
H. B. Gurler
moved to DeKalb, and later attempted to create
high-grade milk. Gurler began shipping his "Pure
Milk"
to Chicago in 1895. The founding of Northern
Illinois State Normal School in 1895 added
education to Dekalb's landscape. Agriculture
again came to the forefront with the creation of
the DeKalb County Farm Bureau in 1912, the first
organization of its kind. In the 1930s the
DeKalb AgResearch Corporation marketed its first
hybrid seed corn.
