There is no clear indication of the origin of the name "Niles." A "Chicago Tribune" article from 1929 opined that the name referred to the "Niles Weekly Register", a popular newspaper published in the 1820s and 1830s by fervently nationalist (and abolitionist) Quaker Hezekiah Niles out of Baltimore, Maryland. His son William Ogden Niles published the newspaper from Washington, D.C. until it ceased publication in 1849; the Odgen family had longstanding connections with the Chicago area. Another belief is that the name "Niles" was named after Niles Construction which did much of the building early during the city's founding. Alternatively, soldiers from Niles, Michigan reinforced Fort Dearborn during the Black Hawk War, and afterward may have sent word back about the rich farmland to the north. Three early families of settlers came from Niles, Michigan with troops or had relatives at Fort Dearborn. An early history of Cook County, Illinois reported that every two weeks a half-breed Indian traveled to Niles, Michigan for mail. By 1834 a twice-weekly stage connected Chicago and Niles. The North Branch Hotel was built in 1837 and the White House tavern in 1847. By 1839, a traveling German preacher visited Dutchman's Point every two or three weeks.