McKee / Hadley / Brummel / Wolsfeld family history

James McKee, son of David McKee, blacksmith for Fort Dearborn and one of the early settlers of the Big Woods, built the large farmhouse that once stood on Eola Road, in 1889-90. After James' death in the 1903 Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago, the house and 185-acre farm came into the Hadley Family upon James' daughter, Katy, marrying Rutherford Hadley, who worked for the first DuPage County Highway Department.

In 1929 George Brummel, of the German family descended from Heinrich and Maria Stickling Brummel who settled in the Big Woods area in 1871, leased the farm from Philip Hadley, Rutherford's son, who also worked for the County Highway Department until 1962. At this farm the Brummels tended 160 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat and were also dairy farmers. George and his wife Magdaline Bauer Brummel had three daughters -- their work was never ending! Jean Brummel Vose, the youngest of the three daughters, remembers that neighbors would take turns having "peaching days" and "corn days" to help with the harvests. Everyone was neighborly and very helpful.

In 1950 George retired from farming and the Hadleys then leased the farm to Robert and Millie Brummel Wolsfeld. Millie was a cousin to Jean Brummel and her family. The Wolsfelds, while raising two daughters, leased the property until 1968 when the project to build the National Accelerator Laboratory began. The Wolsfelds then leased the land from NAL for two years after the acquisition. Millie recalls when there were gates at Butterfield and Eola Roads and at Batavia and Eola Roads. They had a key to get in and out of the gates. When they had company, the Wolsfelds would meet their guests to open the gate. The Wolsfelds have the distinction of being the last family to leave the site.

Jean Brummel Vose currently lives in Geneva, and the Wolsfelds relocated to Earlville.

The large, historic farmhouse from Eola Road was moved in 1971 and attached to the eastern end of the Kuhn farmhouse to form "Aspen East."

Click on individual photographs for more information.

Farm families