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"George C. Marshall, the architect of the post-World War II Marshall Plan for rebuilding Europe, also served as secretary of state, secretary of defense and Army chief of staff. The first U.S. five-star general who was viewed as the foremost American soldier of World War II, Marshall was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 for his work in the Marshall Plan.
Less well known, however, is that Marshall lived in Wayne, which straddles the border of DuPage and Kane counties, in 1935-36.
In 1933, the then-Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur sent Marshall, then a colonel, to Chicago to serve as senior instructor for the Illinois National Guard. For two years, Marshall and his wife lived in the city before seeking a more rural setting. In the fall of 1935, they rented a farmhouse in Wayne, and Marshall commuted downtown each day.
Marshall remained in Wayne until 1936, when he was promoted to brigadier general and transferred to Vancouver, Wash.
Marshall's time in Wayne is mentioned in his official biography but had received scant local attention. However, an incident in December 2009 at the Dunham Woods Riding Club in Wayne sparked an interest by DuPage County Historical Museum Foundation President Timothy Elliott in finding out exactly where Marshall's home had been.
Elliott was at the club with a client, John Kulczewski. Both men had read Marshall's biography, and Kulczewski mentioned that Marshall had once lived in Wayne. This piqued the interest of Elliott, a Glen Ellyn resident who practices law in Wheaton, and he set about to find the location of Marshall's former home.
After consulting with local historians, Elliott found the location, on Dunham Road about a half-mile south of Army Trail Road. However, the home where Marshall was known to have stayed, a guest cottage on the old Haskin farm, had been razed long ago. A subdivision sits on the land, though two stone posts that marked the entrance to the front walkway still stand.
Even without the house, Elliott and the rest of the DuPage museum's board wanted to mark the location. So the board partnered with the historical society to install a plaque in front of the site where Marshall stayed in the 1930s.
"Who is George Marshall, and why should we bother to commemorate a place he lived almost 80 years ago?" Elliott asked a group gathered at the plaque's unveiling ceremony last week.
"He was a great leader, a great soldier, a great diplomat and a great man, and he represents a combination that I would submit is truly and uniquely American: a soldier whose greatest contribution to mankind was the rebuilding ... of an entire continent. He became the very face of that program. He was both a military man and a humanitarian."
A replica of the plaque also was unveiled at Dunham Woods. At that event, Redd Griffin of the Illinois State Historical Society said Marshall was worthy of a plaque, given that "decades of democracy can be attributed to Gen. Marshall's thoughts, words and deeds. He is acknowledged for his character, vision and impact on history."
Elliott noted that Marshall largely avoided the spotlight during and after his career. In fact, the only biographer he ever sat for was with the Army's official biographer. As a result, Marshall's legacy may be underappreciated.
The plaque, which cost about $2,000, was funded by the museum board and the historical society.
"For me, this has been a three-year effort, searching for Gen. Marshall in the western suburbs," Elliott said."
You can park on White Thorn Road (T intersection) and cross the busy Dunham Road to get up close. The stone posts are a bit down the road to the south.