[2] Gurler was also the president of the DeKalb County Farmer's Institute, the predecessor of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

In approximately 1857, a local banker, Ellzey Young, had the home built for himself and his new bride, Alida Ellwood.

[5] According to that document the Gurler House, as it eventually would become known, began its history as an 80-acre (32 ha) tract of land sold by the U.S. government to Steven S. Jones on April 13, 1844.

It is possible that Jones was a land speculator who gathered up pieces of property scattered across northeast Illinois.

[5] The 1878 collection "Past and Present of Kane County, Illinois," described Jones as a St. Charles attorney born on July 23, 1813, in Barry, Vermont.

This entry on the property abstract confirms the widely held and long standing belief that the house was constructed in 1857.

It is thought that this money could have given the Youngs enough cash to build the Gurler House over a more humble home such as a log cabin.

The story is a very interesting one, with many twists and turns, to be found in a history prepared by Northern Illinois University Students and currently resting on the piano in the Gurler House community room.