The Marengo Ridge conservation area, located north of the town, was formed by the retreating of the Wisconsin glacier roughly 24,000 years ago. Native Americans lived around the area prior to European settlers. When early settlers came to the area it proved difficult to farm. As a result, numerous blocks of timber were spared and still remain on the landscape.
The first European settler of Marengo was Calvin Spencer. He is the namesake of Calvin Spencer park. He arrived in the spring of 1835 with his wife and sister. In the autumn of that same year, Moses Spencer, the father of Calvin, also moved to Marengo with his wife who died shortly thereafter, becoming the first death in the town.
In Marengo Township the first school was taught by Caroline Cobb in 1839, but prior to this ( ). 1'. Rogers taught in a small log schoolhouse, marly opposite the Calvin Spencer residence in the village of Marengo.
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History of McHenry County, Illinois1922 · page 422Read the page →
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sable, after buying the Simpkins claim, later sold it to another settler, and moved to Seneca Township. In the fall of 1835, I. Bache came in from Pennsylvania, and purchased a claim upon which he resided until 1840. Amos B. Coon came to Marengo Township October, 1835, from Bradford. Penn., but after a short stay went to some one of the Southern states. In 1837, however, he returned and for very many years was engaged in an active practice as an attorney. Theophilus Renwick was another settler of 1836, and in 1837, M. B. Bailey arrived in Marengo,
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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Marengo Township, decade by decade
4 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
![4th of July [1896] celebration in Marengo showing clowns with cannon, simple ferris wheel](https://images.townratings.com/story/20817/8976694b6abfa00566e9-s.jpg)
c. 1896
1933