At the time of statehood, written records indicate that only Native Americans resided in the area now known as Kane County. However, settlers soon began to take over this land, and resident tribes were forced to the west of Iowa. In 1832 a Sauk leader and warrior named Black Hawk (Makataimeshekiakiak) gathered together members of the Sauk and Fox tribes in an effort to regain their homelands. To aid against this uprising, United States Army troops under the command of General Winfield Scott were sent from the east to Chicago, where they were delayed by a cholera epidemic. While there were no battles in Kane County, Scott's men marched through the area on what is now Army Trail Road and forded the Fox River north of the present city of St. Charles near the Blackhawk Forest Preserve. Black Hawk's band was defeated at the Bad Axe River in Wisconsin.

Within two years the trail from Chicago made by the army wagons was followed by permanent settlers and the way was paved for new development in the Kane County area.

On January 16, 1836, the Illinois legislature formed a new County and named it after Elias Kent Kane, the highly-respected attorney who helped draft the Illinois constitution and was the first Secretary of State. Kane was later elected to Congress and represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate until his death in 1835.

The new "Kane County" included what is now DeKalb County and part of the northern portions of Kendall. DeKalb subsequently separated from Kane County in 1837 and Kendall in 1841.