In 1837 William Dwyer, his wife Mary, and her brother, Dr. Richard Murphy, claimed the property on this site and established the Dwyer Settlement. The Dwyer homestead included a tavern and one of the three stage stops along the Green Bay Trail in Lake County, and it became a center of social activity that nurtured political, intellectual, and religious ties in the newly settled area. The settlement was the site of St. Ann’s Church and Cemetery, founded in 1844 as the first Catholic parish in the area. William Dwyer served as the first road supervisor for this portion of Green Bay Road and also as a tax collector. Dr. Murphy, a physician, was appointed the first magistrate for the area and, as deputy to the Federal Marshal, recorded the Lake County census for 1840. He served for six years in the Illinois State Legislature from 1839 to 1845, drafted the first Illinois public school law, and acted as chair of the state finance committee. Dwyer and Dr. Murphy were instrumental in the 1839 formation of Lake County through the division of McHenry County and in moving the county seat from Libertyville to Waukegan. The tavern was the first polling place in the area and the site of the first Shields Township meeting on April 2, 1852. The settlement gave this area a permanent character, and from it grew the community now known as Lake Bluff.