DeKalb, IL: Lincoln Highway Interpretive Mural

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When I found a parking space next to the Country Store to take pictures of the C&NW Depot, I noticed this mural on the side of the building. A gazebo in Rochelle has information on the Lincoln Highway, including the web site
http://www.drivelincolnhighway.com. I learned that this is one of several interpretive murals in towns along the highway. (Update: Patrick Murfin has written a history of the Lincoln Highway.)

I was surprised that IL-38 was the Lincoln Highway. I was born and raised in Fort Wayne, IN, and I was taught that US-30 was the Lincoln Highway. In DeKalb US-30 is about 11 miles further south.

Looking at a map on a sign in the Rochelle gazebo, it is obvious that the original route sometimes meandered so that it went through larger cities. Then later "cutoffs" such as between Sugar Grove and Sterling in Illinois and between Fort Wayne and northwestern Indiana were built to shorten US-30. Now I'm left with the question of why were the towns along the C&NW bigger than the ones along the CB&Q?