JOSHUA ERB FAMILY

At the invitation of William Penn, the first Erbs emigrated from Switzerland to America in the year 1722 settling on a farm in Lancaster County, PA where the Erb Covered Bridge still stands proudly over the Cocalico Creek.

A descendant of the forefather of the Naperville Erbs, Joshua Erb who was born in PA in 1807 heard about the fine farmland in Illinois so he and his wife Sarah, traveled west to Columbus, Ohio, which was at the end of the railroad line in 1847. From there they traveled by covered wagon until they reached Naperville.

He settled on a farm north of Naperville for which he paid $1.50 per acre. For his family, he erected a spacious home where Cress Creek Commons now stands. In years to come, he continued to purchase additional parcels of land until he owned most of the property west of Warrenville Road as far as the DuPage River and bordered on the north by the road as it turned westward to Warrenville…a total of approximately 1200 acres. 

John Y. Erb, Joshua’s son, married in 1860 and in the same year purchased 285 acres of farm land from his father and erected a home in the middle of this tract of land. At that time, the farm was known as Forest View. In 1867, land was donated by the family for a church, cemetery, and the Erb School.

In the early days of the school, the children would attend classes only 3 or 4 months of the year with the remaining time being spent working in the fields. Marshall Erb, grandson of John Y. Erb, often told stories to his grandchildren about riding his pony to school very early each morning to get the wood stove burning by the time the teacher and students arrived. For this, he received 10 cents per day.

John W. Erb, the only son of John Y. Erb, married in 1907 and lived in the Century House on Forest View Farm as it proudly stands today. His wife, Estella, organized the first Home Bureau in DuPage County and was the first charter member.

John had a large Holstein dairy herd, hogs, sheep, and horses. His crops included corn, hay, and oats. His hobby was horses, and he was very proud of his team. Each Sunday, he would hitch the team up to a wagon or bobsled and make the trip to town to show them off. His children…Marshall, Gladys, Homer and Ellis had memories of cold winter rides into Naperville snuggled in the back of the bobsled under layers of fresh straw and a horsehair blanket. John also enjoyed taking his sons to the horse market that was held on Chicago Avenue near the old Pre-Emption House. The farmers would bring their horses to town one Saturday each month. The buyers would come from surrounding towns and Chicago. The farm boys would have to run the horses up and down the street as fast as they could so that the prospective buyers could determine if the horses had good wind and were of sturdy stock.


During the depression, John W. Erb lost a large herd of Holstein cows and hogs to hoof and mouth disease. At the market, oats were bringing 12 cents a bushel and corn was at 19 cents per bushel. John was forced to sell part of his farm to a wealthy Chicago businessman around 1938. After the sale, he was heartbroken and died at the age of 59 from pneumonia.

Marshall M. Erb, the great grandson of Naperville’s pioneer, Joshua Erb, and his wife, Alice Sigmund Erb purchased the farm from his mother in 1943 and continued in his proud legacy of farming. 

Today, over 150 years later, the farm remains in the Erb family and was the setting for the 1991 Farmers Pig Roast in the memory of Alice and Marshall Erb.

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