The Village of Stickney rose on what was once Mud Lake, which stretched from Harlem Avenue to Kedzie Avenue at one time. The village was named after Alpheus Beede Stickney, a native of Maine, who was the first president of the Chicago Great Western Railway.

The village was incorporated on December 16, 1913 and in l919 was still largely farmland and had only about 100 houses. The village was somewhat secluded with a forest preserve on Its western boundary at Harlem Avenue, with Forest View and the canal and expressway on its southern boundary, with the sewage treatment plant and industrial areas on its eastern boundary, and with the city at Berwyn and town of Cicero on Its northern boundary. The village is located ten miles north of Midway Airport, ten miles west of downtown Chicago and eighteen miles southeast of O'Hare international Airport.