History :

This is the largest town in the County, located on the Illinois Central Road, in one of the most beautiful and fertile farming districts in the State. The town took its start in 1854, on the projection of the railroad through that point. Most if not all of the territory now embraced in the city was at that time owned by the Hon. Zenas Applington, and it was him who gave the place its present name, in honor of Marco Polo, the great Venetian traveler. The name has at least one important advantage over more common names in this, that there is not another Polo in the Northwest, if at all in the United States. In January, 1855, we are informed that the railroad was completed through Polo, and at that time there were but six buildings in the place. Bu from that time to the present the growth and prosperity of the place has been steady, and no town on the Illinois Central Road can show greater evidences of thrift than can Polo. The town commands a trade for many miles east and west from one of the richest farming portions of Ogle County.