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The name  Gurnee is said to have come from a Louis J. Gurnee, who did surveying for the railroad. However, one of the first settlers in the Chicago area was Walter S. Gurnee, a Democratic political leader and one time Chicago mayor who came from the east in 1836. Some believed that the village was named for him.

The first school in Gurnee was a one room log building put up in about 1840 and located along the river. It was not long before a larger school was needed, so a new two room brick building was erected about 1868. By 1892 this building housed the eight grades of grammar school and two years of high school. Students wishing to continue their education boarded and roomed in Waukegan or traveled by horse and buggy daily. Tuition to Waukegan High School was $25 a year.

Gurnee's first Christian church, known as the Gurnee Disciple Church, was organized in the 1850's and met in the grade school until 1879, when a church was built adjacent to the school. The school and church could share the hitching rails as well as the plumbing out back. Baptism ceremonies were held in the river.

Charles Lamb, an early resident of Warren Township, organized the first telephone system in this area. His 'central' was located in his home on west Grand Avenue. Among his other businesses was conducting the local undertaking business and managing the Warren Cemetery. Marion F. Schryver learned the trades through Mr. Lamb, and in later years brought the phone and undertaking business into Gurnee.

The telephone operation was located above McClure's Garage. Mrs. Loretta Ray was the operator for many years. This was a set-up of party lines with as many as eight families to a line. It wasn't always easy to get an open line, but in the case of emergency one could certainly ask for the line. And then--if the need for the line wasn't critical--one might pick up a bit of news while waiting! Parties weren't issued numbers. The individual family had its own combination of long and short rings. Cost for the phone was twelve dollars a year. In the event of a fire, a call to the operator would alert her to open all the lines and then make a long, long ring. This would bring all the able-bodied men with their buckets to help put out the fire.

Gradually the Illinois Bell Telephone area came nearer to the Mutual Telephone area. A few people had both phones, mostly for business reasons. They were often asked to relay messages from people on one line to a relative or friends on the other line. During the depression there were very few active phones in the village, but they were generously shared. When the Warren Mutual Telephone Association was dissolved, Illinois Bell Telephone Company took over their lines, poles, etc.