The last Indian treaty made in Illinois was completed in 1833. This treaty with the Potawatomi tribe gave the Indians two years to move out and opened the northeast section of the state for settlement. John and Catherine Cloes, the first to claim land within the area known as Lake Bluff, arrived in 1836 with their son Henry. They laid claim to 100 acres of land fronting on the lake and going west to the Green Bay Trail.

In 1849, John Cloes and two neighbors left to seek their fortune in the California gold rush. He died in Sacramento leaving his wife, Catherine, to raise their seven children and manage the homestead. In 1837, William and Mary Dwyer claimed the land just north of the present-day Central School. They opened and operated a stage coach stop and tavern along the Green Bay Trail. Some of the other early settlers were Henry and Angeline Ostrander, James Cole and William Whitnell.