Walter Smith Gurnee (1813-1903)

He was born at Haverstraw, New York. He lived for a year in Detroit before moving to Chicago in 1836 where he established a saddlery and hardware store. The leather business, Gurnee & Matteson, grew into one of the largest tanneries in the west. From 1843 to 1845 he was City Treasurer of Chicago and in 1848 he was a founding member of the Chicago Board of Trade. He served two terms as Mayor of Chicago between 1851 and 1853. In 1857, he became President of the Chicago & Milwaukee Railroad and he fought against the merger of the Illinois Central and Michigan Central Railroads. Foreseeing the value of property on the north shore he invested heavily in what is now Winnetka and Glencoe (where he built "The Castle"), and the village of Gurnee in Lake County, Illinois, is named for him. In Chicago during the 1850s he lived at Terrace Row on Michigan Avenue on the block between Van Buren and Congress Streets. After his failure to become re-elected as Mayor in 1860 he moved back to New York, living between 626 Fifth Avenue and his country estate, the old Stebbins house near Sleepy Hollow. He married his cousin, Mary Coe, and they were the parents of six surviving children (listed).