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Torode Family
Nicholas Torode is the French man for whom Franzosenbusch was named, "The Frenchman's Grove".
Nicholas Torode was born on the French-speaking Channel Island of Guernsey (in France), where he married and all his children were born, except his son Philander. In 1819 he emigrated to the United States, finally settling in Ohio in 1820. Nicholas Torode emigrated to America that all of his children might have the right of suffrage, and share alike in the property he possessed upon his death.
In 1835 he visited northeastern Illinois. He purchased a tract of land in 1835 and moved to this tract in 1837. He was one of the first settlers of the then "York Township". Although he was a natural mechanic he set out to farm his new land, but he remained quite capable of working with machines. Nicholas became the first in the area to quarry limestone. Soon he was contacted by Sherman King to collaborate in the construction of a saw mill. Using limestone as the building material King used in the construction of a SAW MILL on the Salt Creek. This was also the site of the future Graue GRIST mill. See F. Graue.
In 1845 he had buried his wife and his oldest son, Nicholas, Jr. Previously he had buried his sons. George in the State of Ohio and John I. His third son, Philander, married Miss Affa of Fullersburg. Mr. and Mrs. Philander Torode had one child, a son.
In 1846 Torode donated the ground for the first public cemetery in the township -- The Torode Cemetery. Later known as the York Township Cemetery, York Township, DuPage County. It was located on the west bank of Salt Creek, north of 22nd Street and west of York Road, now Oakbrook, Illinois. It was destroyed around 1961. Remains moved to other cemeteries including Butler, Clarendon Hills and Fullersburg. Nicholas Torode, Sr., was the first one buried in this cemetery in 1846.
The late Nicholas Torode's homestead place, now Philander's was situated about midway between Elmhurst and Fullersburg, in the middle of Fruit Grove on the east bank of Salt Creek. He had a stone quarry on his farm, from which were quarried the first stone in the town of York, his residence being constructed of stone from this quarry and built in 1843.
A Chicago Tribune article from 1957, Torode Homestead Displaced By TriState, describes the final fate of the Torode Homestead. Comments by Miss Edith Torode, great-granddaughter of Nicholas Torode are included in the article.
To see what Torode's Wood may have look like, see Torodes Woods as preserved today by the DuPage Forest Preserve District.
The primary sources of information are:
Last Modified: 04/28/2002