Joseph Naper

Married Almeda Landon August, 1823 in Buffalo, New York. They had seven children, Robert, Elizabeth, William, Thomas, Mark, Bertha, and Maria.
Charter member of Euclid Lodge and first Senior Warden, serving in 1848, 1849, and 1850. He also served as Senior Steward in 1858 and 1859.
Was a shipbuilder, politician, and businessman. Born in Vermont, Naper traveled with his parents during his youth to Ashtabula, where he helped his father, who was a ship builder. The Naper ships plied the Great Lakes with Fort Dearborn on Lake Michigan being one of the ports they regularly visited. On an early trip, Naper acquired lots near the fort, as did many of the first settlers to reach the Chicago River port.

On a later trip on the Telegraph, a ship Joseph Naper built, he was joined by his brother, John Naper. Both families and five other families settled in the area, first known as Naper's Settlement, which later became a part of DuPage County. Joseph platted the town of Naperville, surveying the property and was elected to the Illinois legislature for the first time in 1836. Here he laid the groundwork and supervised passage of the bill which broke DuPage County away from Cook County in 1839. Also serving on the committee was Abraham Lincoln, then a newly elected legislator from the Springfield area.

Joseph Naper returned to the Illinois legislature in 1852. His actions again provided a means for establishing new communities in the State of Illinois.

He served as a captain in the Black Hawk War and was one of the DuPage County men who served in the Mexican War of 1846. He became the first village president of Naperville in 1857.

He was one of the stockholders in the Old Plank Road, which connected Aurora, Illinois with Chicago. As with many of the early pioneers, Naper engaged in a number of businesses and trades as he helped in the development of the new county.

For the benefit of the younger generation of Naperville, as well as for the older ones who remember the kind-hearted Captain Naper, who was Euclid's first Senior Warden, afterwards, in 1852, Worshipful Master; and from whom our city derived its name, warrants more than a passing notice. The life of the deceased was closely identified with the history of the Lodge.

Captain Naper was born in Bennington, Vt., from which place his father's family removed at an early day to Ashtabula County, Ohio. Early discovering an inclination to a sea-faring life, he became a sailor, beginning his career as a cabin boy on a steamer on Lake Erie, and soon rose to the position of commander. Subsequently he became master of the "Pioneer," one of the steam vessels on the lakes, which plied between Buffalo and Detroit from 1828 to 1830.

He followed the lakes until 1831, when, with his family, he came to this place, then an uninhabited wilderness, and erecting a dwelling upon the present site of Holtreich Sieber's residence, corner Mill St. and Jefferson Ave., became the first white settler in DuPage County.

Having secured to himself a large tract of land, embracing the greater part of the present city, including the stone quarries now operated by the Dolese & Shepard Co., by his liberal inducements to others, he soon drew around him a flourishing settlement, which received and retained the name of it's honored founder - "Naper's Settlement". He first surveyed and laid out the town into streets, and his plat of it bears date of February 14, 1842.

In 1831 he also built a trading house, and carried on quite an extensive trade with the settlers and the Pottawatomie Indians. The latter were quite numerous here at that time, but he always maintained the most friendly relations with them.

Characterized by a spirit of benevolence, by strict integrity, and by high-souled qualities, he won the esteem of his fellow creatures and was often called to fill places of public confidence and trust. He was elected the first representative of this county to our State Legislature from 1836 till 1842, and a second time from 1852 till 1854. He was President of the Village of Naperville and ex-officio Supervisor in 1857.

Captain Joseph Naper was Captain of the first military organization formed in DuPage county, a company of volunteers raised in defense of their homes against the attacks of marauding Indians under Blackhawk, on the settlements in Northern Illinois in the summer of 1832, seventy-two years ago.

He was connected with the army during the Mexican war, served as Quarter-Master and acted as aid to General Taylor at the memorable battle of Buena Vista. Returning from the battlefields of Mexico, with health impaired by the arduous campaign, he never afterwards fully recovered his accustomed vigor, although he lived in the enjoyment of comparatively good health until near the time of his death.

He was the chairman of a committee of three to superintend the school which was established and built in 1831 on the corner of Washington St. and Benton Ave., opposite the grocery and bakery now conducted by Joseph Bapst.

He was also interested in the erection of the Academy building, which stands at the west end of Van Buren avenue, constructed of stone, 40x50 feet and three stories high. The funds were contributed by a stock company, and operations began in 1850. John Collins Sr., who was the second candidate to be initiated in Euclid Lodge, done the carpenter work. The basement was made, then there was no more lumber, thus it stood all winter. In the spring of 1851 work was resumed and the second story or floor was made, but there was no lumber, and was left again one winter. In 1852 the exterior was finished and the roof and belfry put on. The upper rooms were finished first, the one on the north side being especially fitted for Euclid Lodge.