Breese was named after Sidney Breese, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois. The community traces its beginnings to ancestors who came when it was only a wide place in the road, and it honors the sacrifices they endured and the challenges they overcame to build sacred structures and pass on their abiding faith. In 2008, the city continued to grow and flourish, carrying on that faith through worship, celebrating the milestones of life, and giving thanks. Agriculture provided for the needs of the early settlers in the area, and mine whistles shaped daily life: "We lived by the mine whistles, set our clocks by them, went to work by them, mourned our dead by them."