tiles. Before European settlers arrived, there was a
Native American village in what is today downtown Aurora, on the banks of the
Fox River. In 1834, following the
Black Hawk War, the McCarty brothers settled on both sides of the river, but subsequently sold their land on the west side to the Lake brothers, who opened a mill. The McCartys lived on and operated a mill on the east side. Aurora was established with the building of a post office in 1837. Aurora began as two villages: East Aurora, incorporated in 1845 on the east side of the river, and West Aurora, formally organized on the west side of the river in 1854. In 1857, the two towns joined, incorporating as the city of Aurora. Representatives could not agree which side of the river should house the public buildings, so most of them were built on or around
Stolp Island in the middle of the river. As the city grew, it attracted numerous factories and jobs. In 1849, after failing to attract the
Galena and Chicago Union Railroad building west from Chicago, the
Aurora Branch Railroad was chartered to build a connection from Aurora to the G&CU at a place called Turner Junction, now
West Chicago. Additional lines were built, including a direct line to Chicago, and in 1855 the company was reorganized into the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. The CB&Q located its
roundhouse and locomotive shop in Aurora, becoming the town's largest employer until the 1960s. Restructuring in the railroad industry resulted in a loss of jobs as passenger traffic dropped and the number of railroads decreased. The Burlington Railroad ran regularly scheduled passenger trains to Chicago. Other railroads built lines to Aurora, including the
Chicago & Northwestern Railway to
Geneva, the
Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway to
Joliet,
Chicago, Milwaukee & Gary to
Rockford, and the interurbans
Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad,
Aurora, Elgin and Fox River Electric Company,
Chicago, Aurora and DeKalb Railroad, and
Aurora, Plainfield and Joliet Railroad. With the exception of the EJ&E main line on the east side of the city and the former Burlington lines, all lines have been abandoned. The heavy industries on the East side provided employment for generations of European immigrants, who came from
Ireland,
Great Britain,
Scandinavia,
Luxembourg,
Germany,
France,
Romania and
Italy. Aurora became the economic center of the
Fox Valley region. The combination of these three factors—a highly industrialized town, a sizable river that divided it, and the Burlington railroad's shops—accounted for much of the dynamics of Aurora's political, economic, and social history. The city openly supported
abolitionism before the
American Civil War.
Mexican migrants began arriving after the
Mexican Revolution of 1910. Socially, the town was
progressive in its attitude toward education, religion, welfare, and women. The first free public school district in Illinois was established in 1851 here and the city established a high school for girls in 1855. During this period in the city's history, Aurora was also hit with one of the strongest earthquakes ever
to strike Illinois, a M 5.1, on May 26, 1909 Later, the city developed as a manufacturing powerhouse which lasted until the early 1970s, when the railroad shops closed. Many other factories and industrial areas relocated or went out of business. By 1980, there were few industrial areas operating in the city, and unemployment soared to 16%. Brian Howard, an employee of
Harris Corporation, was charged in the incident. On February 15, 2019, police responded to
an active shooter situation in west Aurora to find that a former employee at the
Henry Pratt Company had opened fire on fellow employees after being terminated from the company. Six people died, including the perpetrator who was shot and killed by responding police officers. Six others were injured, including five police officers. It was the first major shooting in the town's history. ==Geography==