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The principal Indian trails crossed the river at Wilmington. The river itself was part of a great water highway system. The Indian village here was a winter resort of the Potawatomi tribe, which belonged to the Nation of Three Fires, the other tribes being the Ojibway and Ottawa. Pontiac, Chief of the Ottawa Tribe, came to the Wilmington area in 1762, after the French-Indian War. To maintain his tribal rights he rejoined his old tribe and spent his last years here. He was assassinated at Mount Joliet in 1769 by an Indian brave during peace negotiations. This led to bitter, savage conflicts which ultimately led to the extinction of the Illini tribe at Starved Rock.
The most prominent or best known Indian of this area was Shabonna. He was born on the Island in the vicinity of Wilmington in 1774. His father was a war chief of the Ottawa and had come here with Pontiac. He was a great speaker and had obtained generous settlements for the Indians at treaty councils. He was, in fact, appointed as one of the men to represent the tribe at the reading of Wayne's Treaty at Greenville in 1775. Shabonna died July 17, 1859, at the age of 85. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Morris, along with his wife and several grandchildren.
In 1834 Thomas Cox, one of the earliest settlers of Will County, acquired from the government about 400 acres of land in Sections 25 and 36, including the Island, and built a saw mill. Water power was soon utilized and later he added to it a corn cracker, a gristmill, and a carding machine. These improvements gave the town a wide reputation and Cox's mills were patronized by many who lived more than fifty miles distant. The pioneers of Kankakee, Grundy, and Livingston Counties brought their corn and wheat to Wilmington to be ground, often consuming a week's time in the trip.
 In the spring of 1836 Cox surveyed, and laid out in lots, the town of Winchester, which in 1838 was changed to Wilmington; and in 1836 Col. Peter Stewart built, on the North side of the Creek, the house known as the Stewart residence and laid out Stewart's Addition. This same year Elias Brown built a two story frame house and opened a hotel and Henry Brown opened a store. Messrs. McIntyre and Williams opened a store in Mr. Stewart's house and in this house also, Miss Agnes Fonda taught the first school. This house also was one of the depots of the underground railroad during the Civil War.
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The selected portions of information in this section, were taken from the materials listed below. The information from both these works has been combined and edited for content, and any omission of details or names, was not done deliberately or with any malice. This also being an early history, prior to 1975, as information on Wilmington City's more recent progress and developments was not available at this time, and may be added at a later date.
Sources: provided by the Wilmington Historical Society
"City of Wilmington" Centennial brochure, 1936.
"Wilmington---The Island City", by Myra Cosgrove, Compiled March 1975
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