Early settlements, long predating the creation of the township, included Monaville and Stanwood.

Lehmann encouraged the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company to lay its new railway through the area, and in 1886 the new line opened with a station in Lake Villa.

The railroad acted as a spur to enterprise beyond the farming which was the mainstay of the larger region.

Over the past decade the township landscape has become increasingly marked by subdivisions and strip malls, with a corresponding reduction in farm- and woodland.

However, large areas of green space have been preserved by the Lake County Forest Preserves; units include Duck Farm, Grant Woods, Hastings Lake, and MacDonald Woods.