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The Thatcher Woods unit was originally the homesite of David Thatcher who established a mercantile business in Chicago in 1838. It was so successful that after 16 years, in 1854 at the age of 44, he retired to River Forest and built the house that now serves as Trailside museum. Subsequent owners sold 182 acres of Thatcher's original estate to the Forest Preserve District in 1917. The land comprising the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) and Thomas Jefferson Woods was part of a 117 acre parcel purchased in 1837 from the federal government by Ashbel Steele, a merchant from Derby, England who became River Forest's first permanent settler. In 1917 the Steele family sold 55 acres to the Cook County Forest Preserves. Steele, Thatcher, and later owners of the Thatcher site who converted the home to a school never plowed the soil or allowed cattle to graze. As a result the area's ecological landscape remained largely in its pre- settlement condition at the time of purchase by the Forest Preserve District. |