Carpentersville was first settled by Charles Valentine Carpenter and his brother, Daniel. In 1837, the two brothers, en route to the Rock River, made camp along the east bank of the Fox River to wait out the spring floods that made continuing their oxcart journey impossible. They ended up staying in the area to settle what was then called to extend its tracks from East Dundee to the area and built an iron bridge with his own funds to accommodate the rail line. By 1912 Carpenter's two companies employed 2,000 people. Star Manufacturing remained in Carpentersville until 1977. For the next hundred years, Carpentersville did not grow as rapidly as other Fox River communities which had more direct rail connections to Chicago. Until the 1950's, Carpentersville consisted of a street grid along the Fox River centered around Main Street, which was the only highway bridge across the Fox River between Algonquin, IllinoisAlgonquin and Dundee. In the mid-1950s, Leonard W. Besinger began a subdivision named Meadowdale north of Carpentersville. By 1956 Besinger had accumulated more than 2,600 acres along Illinois Route 25 between Boltz Rd and Illinois Route 68. Other area residents thwarted his attempts to incorporate Meadowdale as an independent town. So Besinger had Carpentersville annex the property. The Meadowdale Shopping Center, which was anchored by a Wieboldt's Department Store and featured an indoor ice skating ring, overshadowed the commercial district along the River. In 1956, to reflect this population shift, Dundee Community High School relocated from its former site on Illinois Route 31 to Cleveland Avenue (now a Middle School). In 1967, a second high school, named for Irving Crown, opened on Kings Road on the northern edge of Meadowdale. The two schools have now merged. From 1958 to 1969, Carpentersville was home to the Meadowdale International Raceway, a 3.27 miles long automobile race track located west of Illinois Route 31 which was also started by Besinger. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpentersville%2C_Illinois