CHICAGO ILLUSTRATED. II\\I I _________________ /1 I /1 iii' - Ill I''Ill'I E4 I r2 o4 ~) ti a ~ i'j I. ________liti !(t l(J((Jf[; I __________ III; IlIJ I \-\ —\ II __________ I II III I Iii ii __________________________ __ f \\i,iIIi(t/!/'I ltt_________ il jJ,i _________ 1 'I/if - it' ittitfi/itlll Ill. i-I i I (7i It Id 0 I!' i j, 1 '([2[,IVIIIISA,llll O-DVDIHD CHIICAGO ILLUSTRATED. I' ________ liii ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 0 i I I i I il I:, fi ( ffl~~ _____ FRAGO AN OLDE. FROM AN OLD VIEW, ~ - HiLDS - 18 o~0. CHICAGO ILLUSTRATED. _ _ _ _ _ ~ _~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~;; \\i:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ____ ______ _ ~ ____~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.-ERECTED IN 1852. Corner of Wabash Avenue and Washington Streets. i I : i l I I I —- -, I ..Ill CHICAGO ILLUSTRATED. U) I~\~ I I I I CHICAGO ILLUSTRATED. ____________ 1/ 1/11/" iiIIll!4 _ I H~~~~~0 (% 0 0 0 EA ~ H M 0 ~~~~~~~~~~II No better water can be found than that with which our City is constantly supplied. It is taken from Lake Michigan, at the foot of Chicago Avenue. The Water Works buildings are constructed of brick masonry, in the modern Italian style. The main building is fiI'ty-four feet front, and 34 feet deep, with a wing on either side-each 40 feet front, and 34 deep. 7" I. CHICAGO ILLUSTRATED. THE BLOCK HOUSE, FORT DEARBORN. (Tort, doizn iv, 1856.) . I ( CHICAGO MAGAZINE. nt tst as'it is. MARCH, 1857. INTRODUCTORY. THE Association in whose name this Magazine is published, have undertaken this work, they trust, with a consciousness of its responsibilities and the difficulties that must be encountered. But the self-evident importance of a pulblication of this kind, is their justification and their reliance for the support that will be needed for its continuance. We are conscious that the world is full of Magazines, and various periodical publications, enlisted for the advocacy of every department of human knowledge and human progress; that there are a number of very valuable and popular monthlies, which flow into every ramification of society, forming an apparent monopoly of magazinedom, so that, it would seem, there is not room enough even for one more in the world's literary omnibus. Well, if it be so, we are content to take an outside passage, for we belong to that particular genus of enterprises that likes an open sea of experiment-an open range, with vision unchecked, in a pure outside atmosphere. Like the outside rider, on the slow coach of exploration over our new western regions, in days not long gone, we are conscious of our position; that we are in a great country, where there is room enough for all, the largest liberty for every body, and every thing, with a fair chance of success to all; and in the characteristic Western phrase, "the largest number of persimmons to the longest pole." Our title sets forth that this is to be a CHICAGO MAGAZINE, and that it is to portray the WEST AS IT IS. There is a concentration of glorious destiny in a happy baptisnm. No genius wearing the cognomen of Scroggs, can ever bear the standard of pre-eminence in this age; and John Smith, we will warrant, though he inay help to fill the police reports, and may ascend to the dignity of a Justice of the Peace, will never be President of the United States; and Laura Matilda is hopelessly environed in her sphere of the sentimental noval. If we have attained the true region of manhood in the selection of our title, we shall consider our christening propitious, and an assurance that the battle is half won. We believe failure was never yet wedded to Chicago. And the Chicago Magazine has a ring of vitality about it, which will distinguish it from all soft metal-has a pre-ordained character of respectability, and a guarantee of success-while Literary Magazine, or even Western Magazine, will go quietly to the death-bed of indifference. The WEST AS IT IS, is a pass. word that will go like the electric chain of thought from one end of the Union to the other. "CHICAGO" and the "WEST AS IT IS," have become national, whatever may be the conclusions of philosophers in regard to the character of political parties. We propose to fill these pages with such matter in the aggregate as will make this VOL. I. NO. 1. THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. publication a Chicago-Western Magazine. We shall infuse into it those elements of character that will make it known as a product of this locality. We shall aim to make it a iade-miecue, between the West and the East-a go-between, carrying to the men of the East, a true picture of the West, which will satisfy their desire for information on the great topics connected with this part of their common country. We therefore bespeak for our work, a place in the Eastern market, and some offset there to the competition we must meet with in the circulation of Eastern periodicals in the Western field. The West will learn to patronize this monthly for the love of its own ideas;-the East will read it to get that knowledge of us, which they cannot get from any other source. The first great department of our work is therefore to portray and illustrate the West. We shall gather every month, from the thousand objects of interest in its past history, present growth, future promises, and in its natural scenery, subjects for these illustrations. Some one or more important town will be daguerreotyped monthly in features, and recorded in history upon our pages. The Historical part of the work is a leading one. We have opened in this number the first pages of Chicago history. This will be continued till the picture is filled up, ground-work, outline, principal figures, minute detail, the horizon and landscape in the distance, and the over-arching of its glorious future. Every town and locality has its unwritten history. The time has come, is rapidly passing, when this history should be made up, and recorded; before the men now living, in whose memory it is treasured, shall die, and the record perish. It is one of the objects of this Magazine to preserve these unwritten histories. The commerce of the Wrest is becoming the controlling power of the nation. We shall speak for that commerce all that an enlarged support from that money-power will enable us to speak. According as we shall thus be made able to do, we shall post up the Great Ledgers of Trade and Finance of the West, and transcribe for constant use its Day Book of transactions. The Railroad enterprises of the West, are the main-springs of its progress. Into our record of Improvements they must therefore enter largely. We have it in our purpose, if our Railroad companies will grant us the facilities, to give the history of each, with illustrations and views of all the important towns and places of interest on their respective lines. The information that we shall be enabled to give in this connection, and in regard to the advantages of settlement, will be of great value to the Emigrant. All people in the East who expect to make homes in the West, and those who already have friends in those homes, now made and making, will be profited readers of this Magazine. This publication is issued by a professedly Mechanical Institution. An institution of this kind in this fast and expansive country, is homogeneous with every progressive idea. It is not out of the line of its privileges, when it becomes the sponsor of a work of the amplified character of this periodical. We have already, by natural affinity, the sympathy of all the mechanical classes. No one comprehends the vastness of the me chanical enterprises which have grown up within a few years in the West-those of CHIcAGo being the prototype of all. The mechanical establishments, improvements in their various branches, inventions in new machines, and devices to secure to man a com plete control of all the physical powers of nature-will receive marked attention and be amply illustrated in our pages. - t We have not room, in the limits of an introductory, to particularize the features of this Magazine. Indeed, we know not to what length, or extent, or in what direction we shall be called to go. We have a distinct plan in our minds, set forth here-the working out of that plan we shall leave for future months, with the full conviction that if we can push ourselves forward far enough to get the eye and the ear of the public, we shall be understood, and shall receive such a recognition as we shall merit. 10 L __ hiAfl~\~ - ----- ~~\;;/ - PART 1.-ANTECEDENT. t WE have undertaken the task of writing the HISTORY OF CIIICAGO. This historv must be, in the main, a narrative of events which have transpired within the memiory of the present generation. It ( ^i ~ P ~ will be the history of one of the most remarkable facts in the growth of comnunities, which our nation, perhaps the world, filrnishes. It will be a history without antiquity, and will therefore require no searching into the records and delving into the mysteries of by-gone and nearly forgotten times. The past is only shadowed forth upon its pages-a back ground of a living picture of the works of living men. We have n! en among us whom we shiall consult for the purpose of making up the material of this history, who have seen all that there is of Chicago, from the first rude huts, to its present princely palaces. There are men among us, whose energy is helping to-day to swell that tide of business which HISTOIRY OF CHICAG-O. 12 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. is the astonishment of every new beholder; who trafficked with the Indians when they were the chief customers of the Chicago trader; who afterwards supplied the first white settlers with the common necessaries of life,-having progressed with Chicago, and grown with its growth, from the insignificant demands of a border village, to the magnitude and the commerce of a great city. We have men, too, who suggested the first ideas of progress and improvement, in the infancy of the city, which have, from their magnitude, become the wonder of all the world; and their mature energy is now pushing on those plans of improvement farther and farther in the career of success. From the recollection and experience of men like these we shall be able to draw resources for making up the history of Chicago, portraying it as it has been, and as it now is. But though the History of Chicago, as a place and City, must date within the memory of men now living, it has nevertheless an antecedent history, which has a peculiar interest, as the foreshadowing events of a future greatness, of which they were the germ. The men whose personal identity is merged in the growth of Chicago, must be tolerated in the frailty of cherishing the highest regard for the minutest details of its past. But they are not alone the people who have a lively interest in all these details. As this city has become more widely known, from its commercial character, and its commanding and central position in a wide expanse of country, which has changed with marvelous rapidity from an uncultivated state to the condition of a populous region,-,a desire must be everywhere present to learn the story of its progress, at every step, from its earliest days, onward. In laying out before us our task, to make our sketch complete, we propose to trace the wandering steps of the native Indian upon this soil, and to note also the first imnpressions of the civilized white race, as devoted missionaries "to save the souls of men," or as traders, seeking their own good through gain. This is the antecedent history, which will be valued for its own sake, as well as the proper basis for a complete history of our enterprising city. While it is confessed that our citizens are not admirers of relics, and are emphatically men of the present, yet they feel more than a common interest in all the remembrances that encircle the enthusiastic Jesuit missionary in his wanderings here to and fro, and in his efforts to plant in this region the first germs of civilization and Christianity. They love also to cherish the recollection of the Indians, as the original occupants of this soil; and in all that they were, and in all that they did, they feel a deep interest. They contrast in their own mninds the change which a few brief years have made, since the Indians built their wigwams on the prairies where our streets now run, and the princely homes of our people rise in their stead; for it seems that the echo of their measured footsteps, and the sound of their paddles in our river and lake, have but just died away. And never a year passes over now, but some of the remnanits of the tribes who wandered here but a generation ago, come back to visit what was once the home of their childhood; and they go about our streets with heedless step, followved by the eyes of the curious, indifferently noting our land-marks of progress, much as if one were seeking among the cities of the dead the graves of his ancestors. In the execution of our task, we propose then to speak of the ANTECEDENTS of Chicago, which will relate to the times when the Indians were the lords of its soil, and the time when the French voyagee-s and missionaries traveled our prairies and on our brief river, and when they essayed to teach the natives Christianity and its duties, civilization and its arts. This will include a recital of the events which preceded the occupation of Chicago by permanent settlers. We shall then proceed to the work of portraying CHICAGO AS IT WAS, when the settlement was first commenced, when population increased, when improvements began to be made, when it assumed the position of an important city; and thus continue a panorama of its wonderful progress. And our task will be completed, when, in contrast with what it has been from time to time, we shall have drawn a faithful picture of CHICAGO AS IT IS, gilded with all its bright promises of the future. THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. 12 At the period in the history of the discovery and settlement of this continent, when the English were taking possession of the Atlantic coast, from Massachusetts Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, the Puritans monopolizing the rock-bound coast of New England; and when the Spanish were establishing their claims and settlements on the coast of Florida, through the Gulf of Mexico, and in Central America,-the French were extending their colonies up the valley of the St. Lawrence, and pushing their discoveries into the heart of North America by the great Lakes, and over the valley of the Mississippi. The English colonies had made but little progress inland, and had only founded settlements at several points along the course of the largest rivers of the eastern coast; when French zeal for the propagation of the Catholic faith, and French enterprise in exploration and discovery, and in enlargement of empire, had made them familiar with the great central lakes, and the great rivers which drain the interior of the continent. Niagara had not been reached by the Dutch explorers, over the land covered by their own grants, ere the French had discovered the Falls of St. Anthony. given it a name after one of their own patron saints, and jotted it down on their rude mnaps. The English had hardly reached the fishing stations of the Conne.cticut and the Merrimac, in their line of continual progress, when the French were sailing on the waters of Lake Superior, and regaling themselves with its delicious whitefish and trout. And while Eliot was preaching his first sermons to the Narragansetts, seven miles from Boston, the Jesuit missionaries were indoctrinating the Ottawas and Chippewas at the Falls of Lake Superior. During the same period, the Spanish had possession of the coast of Florida, and had already founded empires in the West Indies and Mexico. But English colonization seemed not so rapid fnd diffuse, and contended against more vigorous obstacles in nature, yet had in it more of the elements of strength and ultimate prosperity-and proved in the end the adage, that the race is not always to the swift. This view of facts teaches us, that though this section of country is now more than of anything else the off-shoot of the Puritan ideas, and we are accustomed to trace all our beginnings in national existence, and all our good things in the constitution of society to this original stock, yet here, in the very first things of our history we are out of the Puritan jurisdiction. The first explorers of Lake Michigan, the first white men to pitch their tents on the Chicago prairie, and to haul up their boats upon our river banks and lake shore, were the French Jesuit missionaries and fur trade adventurers. And this they were doing while New England colonies were being planted, while Cotton Mather was persecuting witches and Quakers in Boston, and teaching the true elements of popular civil government, and William Penn was inculcating his peace principles upon the Delaware Indians. Thus on this continent was sustained the rivalry of the three great nations of Europe in possessing the lands of the native Indian. The commerce with the East Indies, which had been successfully carried on by the English and the Dutch, excited also the avarice of other nations, stimulating them to compete for the trade in that direction which had been monopolized by the former. One of the great impulses which had led the French to extend their discoveries into the far West was, therefore, the same as that which led Columbus to undertake his first voyage of discovery, namely, a shorter passage to the East Indies. The French were the first to gain a knowledge of the great Lakes, as their enterprise had first possessed their outlet, the St. Lawrence. Vague rumors, through intercourse with the natives, had given them some indefinite knowledge of a great river, far in the West; and through these lakes and this great unknown river they anxiously expected to find a navigable water course across the continent, which would open a shorter route to the trade of China and the Indies which might be monopolized by themselves. So strongly had this conviction fastened itself upon their minds, that many names given to their oldest towns were borrowed from those of China. In pursuit of this phantom, as well as by the zeal to extend the true faith by the Jesuits, was Lake Superior, to its farthest extremity, made known to the French, before Lake Michigan was explored south of Green Bay. HISTORY OF CHICAGO. 13 Another motive which governed the French in pushing their explorations in the West, was the desire for extension of empire in the New World. Louis XIV. was on the throne of France, the king who had sought the glory of hii nation by thie extension of power, and gained among his subjects the sobriquet of the " Grande Monarque." While flattering his subjects at home with the inipient Napoleonic ideas of supiene jurisdiction in Europe, his admirers and satellites in the New World sought his special favor by like schemes of French supremacy and empire on the Western continent. By a right, recognized by the law of nations, the discovery of a river gave to the discoverer the right of jurisdictien to the territory drained by that river and its branches. Therefore, by this law, the discovery of the Mississippi from its head waters, by their explorations from the North-West to its mouth, the French claimed and maintained possession of the Father of Waters, and the immense valley watered by the thousand streams flowing into it. For the promotion of this plan of extension of empire, as we shall see farther along in this brief sketch, a line of military posts and settlements, interspersed with mission stations, was established from Quebec, along the shores of the lakes, along the course of the upper rivers of the Mississippi, and extending to the mouth of that river, encircling all the colonies of the English upon the Atlantic shore. Soon this scheme of colonial extension excited the jealousy and suspicion of other colonies, as well as national antipathies, involving colonists and Indian tribes in a prolonged border warfare, continuing at intervals for a century; until filally settled by the complete extinction of the French title to all the territory in Canada and the North West, east of the Mississippi, and its annexation to the British possessions;-a turn in the tide of affairs in the New World, which shaped its ends evidently for the ushering in of the glorious destiny upon which it has more recently entered. The various Indian tribes in the days of the French were, of course, the real occupants and owners of the soil. The number of French settlers scattered over this wide region, was comparatively few; and the number mustered into the military service was barely enough to keep up the establishment of forts; while the strength relied upon for defense, as well as the support of settlements, was borrowed from alliance with the natives; and the attaches to the Jesuits missions made up but a fair show of the native population All these classes readily mingled and amalgamated with the Indian race, so that in time they lost in a great measure their own identity, and formed another distinct class, designated at the present time as the half-breeds. It was probably in consequence of this ready assinmilation, that the Fren,:h settlements lost their national characteristics sooner than those of the English. The latter have ever stood out well-defined, national and peculiar, the genuine offspring of European society, while the French have either been absorbed in the native, or merged into a type different from the original stock. The same process of fading out seemed to have followed the propagation of their religions ideas by the French teachers of theology, in their application to the unlmixed native race, for in shaping them to accommodate the lower tastes of the savage, they took on so much of the Indian, that the Indian predominated, and but little was left of the doctrines and practices inculcated by the earnest missionaries. On the contrary, the half-breeds seem to have been the best receivers of both the faith and civilization, taught by those missionaries. We shall better understand the history of these times and the times which followed, by a geographical location of the Indian tribes. Those inhabiting this region, designated by names with which they are familiarly known at this day-were the Ottawas, ill the northern part of the peninsula of Michigan, the MNiamnis, in southern Michigan and Indiana, lying around the head of Lake Michigan, and including for their northern point of possession, the territory embracing the present locality of Chicago. These were the Indians the French found here, and with whom father MIARQUETTE labored; probably having at this very point, a mission station. This tribe extended around the Lake; and at St. Joseph, as is well known, was another Indian town and Jesuit mission. After the tim e 14 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. of the first French visits, the Poftawatomies crowded hack the Miamis, and they became the Indians of Chicago. In after intercourse with the traders, up to the time of the massacre in 1812, the Pottawatomies were the native population, and were the parties to the treaty with Wayne in 1795, by which a tract of land six miles square, at the mouth of Chicago river, was ceded to the United States-the first extinction of Indian title to the land on which Chicago is built. The Illinois, the tribe fromn which the State has taken its name, who seem to have been a race of a higher order than the average, (the term Illinois, being translated, means emphatically mien?, or men of men,) and of whom frequent mention is made in the accounts of the Jesuits,-occupied all the territory of Illinois west of the Wabash, to a line runnling north-east from the Mississippi, near the mouth of the Des Moines, through the town of Ottawa, to the lake shore. Above this line were the Pottawatomies, the Sauks anid Foxes, and other wandering tribes. The Winnebagoes occupied that part of what is now Wisconlsin, lying along the Lake shore, including Lake Winnebago. The Menominiees occupied tie territory still further north, around Green Bay, and between it and Lake Superior. The Chippewas were on the south shore of Superior, west of the MIenominees. The Sioux were a great and power'i,l tribe, of the Dahcota race, which roamed the country west and south-west of Lake Superior, in the present Territory of Minnesota. The first knowledge we have of any white man visiting these upper Lake regions, was in 1654, when two young fur traders, from the lower Canadian settlements, smitten with the love of adventure as well as gain, joined aband of roving Indians, and in their bark canoes, followed these native wanderers five hundred leagues into the unknown West. In about two years they returned, (through the then western route to the Lakes, Ottawa river and Lake Nippissing,) accompanied by a fleet of fifty canoes, manned with five hundred natives, who were welcomed on the cliffs of St. Louis, near Montreal, by a salute of ordnance from the castle. These young men came with reports from that unknowni world-of the vast Lakes of the Huron, Superior and Michigan, then seas without names-of the Indian tribes that dwelt upon their shlores-of the tribes north of those Lakes, which have to this day remained excluded from intercourse with the white man-of the powerful tribe of the Sioux, who dwelt farther west-of the Foxes and Mouscatens who dwelt at the south-of the richness of this wilderness in furs arnd skins, -and many wonders of lands and strange people. These reports were sustained bv the representation of red men and their canoes, flocking the river and thronging its shlores, who had come from this far off land to solicit intercourse and commerce with the Frenchmen, and missionaries for all this boundless West to return with them. The traders, as well as the enthusiastic religionists, were eager to accept of this invi tation. But the claims of the Cross seemed the stronger of the two. Old missiona ries who had been in the forests of Maine, and in the wilderness of the Hurons, joined the returning convoy, with all the appurtenances of the combined enterprises of a re ligious establishment and a trading post; but on its return the convoy was attacked by a band of hostile Mohawks, dispersed, and some of the old missionaries killed. Un daunted still, the two strong elements of human character-the love of gain and the love of souls-lured other adventurers westward against dangers and death. Traders soon after penetrated as far as Green Bay, and two of them passed the winter of 1659. on the banks of Lake Superior, and returned to the East the niext summer, as their two adventurous predecessors had done, with an escort of three hundred Indians and sixtv canoes, enriched and well laden with furs and peltry. Other missionaries were inspired with the desire to carry the cross into the wilderness. Father RENE MESNARD, from a number of aspirants, was selected. He departed immediately, without preparation, as if his Master's business admitted of no delay; and as soon as the rude means of travel could convey him, he appeared upon the southern shore of Lake Superior-the first messenger of the true God in all that part of his creation. Here he remained eight HISTORY OF CHICAGO. 15 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. months, when, in attempting to comply with an invitation from a wandering branch of the Hurons, who had gone still farther west, to visit theil, he strayed away from his canoe men at a portage, and was never after heard of; perishing, probably, while lost and wandering in the pathless wilderness. In August, 1665, Father CLAUDE ALLOUEZ, the first successful missionary to the West, whose name must ever be remembered with reverence, departed from his retreat at Quebec, to his field of labor in the far West, by the route of the Ottawa river. He reached the rapids between Superior and Huron, at St. Marys, in September. Immediately advancing into the great Lake, which all the natives reverenced as a deity, he sailed by the bluffs of sand, and the "pictured rocks," objects which attract the attention of every modern traveler in the first part of his journey up the shore of the Lake. Proceeding through the Bay of St. Theresa-Keweenaw-vainly seeking for a "mass of pure coo(per," of which he had heard rumors at that early day, which more fortunate men of this generation have found-he came at length to his destination, at a village of the Chippewas, on the now Shagwanegon Bay. Here he found the Indians preparing for a war with the formidable tribe of the Sioux. In the name of his earthly king, as well as King Jesus, he commanded peace. He offered them the alliance of the French, with their friendship and commerce -promised them protection against the inroads of the Iroquois, whose warlike nature had spread terror from the seat of their power, in western New York, through all the tribes of the West; he pledged them that the common highway of communication between them and their eastern friends, along the lakes and rivers, should be kept open-swept clean of the pirates and marauding bands who invested the way for plunder or the destruction of life. He preserved the peace, and held in bonds of amity the savage communities about him. A mission was established at the Bay, where he held his principal councils. At other points on the southern shore, and at the Falls of the Straits, he would meet his new friends of the wilderness, ministering to them in spiritual things, and advising them in all temporal affairs, and assisting them in establishing trade between them and their white neighbors. Here gathered to him, from time to time, the Indians from the West, seeking his friendship and sympathy. Here came the Chippewas, pitching their tents around his chapel-abiding, for a time, and receiving instruction-and then, away to their hunts. The scattered Hurons and Ottawas sought here his protection. The Sauks and Foxes traveled here on foot, brinlging their skins of deer, beaver and buffalo. From the unexplored Lake Michigan came the Winnebagoes; the Pottawatomies, and the Miamis, from the locality of Chicago, bringing him knowledge of the country from the South-and, even the peaceful and manly tribe of the Illinois, from the interior of our State, sought sympathy from this good Father ALLOUEZ, who would be a father to all his heathen children. From them hle first heard of the great, green prairies, and the boundless fertile tracts of this beautiful part of the world. Says he, of this land described by the peaceful Illinois: "Their country is the best field for the Gospel. Had I leisure, I would have gone to their dwellings to see with my own eyes all the good that was told me of them." And here, too, he received the stern Sioux from the south-west of Superior, from whom he first learned the existence of the great River, the name of which he reported as "Messippi.', ALLOUEZ here resided for two years, opening the way of further discovery, and gathering, at different points, little colonies of French and Indian converts. Thus preparing the way, he gave impulse to every successful enterprise of discovery and settlement, which spread the French possessions over the West. He then returned to Quebec, to urge the prosecution of his enterprises upon the attention of his religious sympathizers at the East, and secure the influence of the Government. Other helpers had recently arrived from France; among them, CLAUDE DABLON and JAMES MARQUETTE. These companions proceeded to the Sault Ste. Marie, being the falls between Lake Superior and Huron, and established there the Mission of St. Mary-a place yet well known, and remarkable as the rapids over which fall the outlet waters of 16 HISTORY OF CHICAGO. 1 Superior. This was the first permanent settlement made anywhere in the regions of the Western Lakes. The design of discovering the Mississippi, of which rumors had been gathered from the Indians, of its magnificence, and the wonders of the country bordering upon it, was avowed by MARQUETTE, in 1669. The West now began to assume a position of importance in the view of the French Ministry, for the reasons before set forth. NICOLAS PERROT was sent out as the agent of the Government in the West. He first explored Lake Michigan as far as Chicago; he and his party being the first white men who had ever beheld this locality. Soon after this expedition, in 1671, by his invitation, there was assembled a congress of all the tribes of the North-Western Indians, at the settlement of St.Mary's. In ceremonies impressive and appropriate to the savage mind, PERROT took formal possession of all the North-West, from the head waters of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, in the name of the Government he represented, and assured the natives of their being placed under the protection of the French king. The country was explored and missions and settlements established by ALLOUEZ, DABLON, MARQUETTE, and their associates, at Manitou Islands, Mackinaw, Green Bay, at the mouth of the Fox on Lake Winnebago, at Milwaukee, and many other points. The project of the discovery of the Mississippi was then, in 1673, entered upon in earnest by MARQUETTE, having been joined by JOLIET, a gentleman from Quebec, first heard of in connection with this expedition. His scheme had been favored by TALON, the Intenrdant of New France, the name by which Canada was then known. The friendly Indians spoke with alarm of the intended expedition, declaring "that the river abounded in monsters that would devour both men and canoes, that excessive heats pervaded it which would cause sure death, that the natives dwelling upon its shores were cruel and terrible, and killed all strangers who came to them." But no such alarms could deter him. With JOLIET as his associate, and five Frenchmen as companions, and with two friendly Indians as guides, MARQUETTE left the village of Fox River, above Green Bay and Lake Winnebago, on the 10th day of June, 1673, on this first expedition to discover the route of the Misssisippi. They carried their canoes on their backs across the narrow portage between the Fox and the Wisconsin rivers, the ridge of land that divides the waters which flow each way to distinct and distant outlets to the ocean, one to the south, the other to the north-east. The guides soon returned, intimidated by the fearful unknown into which they were about to enter. Solitarily, gloomily perhaps, with doubtful forebodings of the future, yet with determined perseverance, these few representatives of the Christianity and the civilization of the glorious age of France, pursued their journey through regions never before visited by white men. All before them was a dark unknown, associated in their minds with all the fearful creations of the human fancy, conjured up in the savage and ignorant mind; and they themselves half ready to believe in chimeras dire, of ghosts and dragons, and monsters unknown to other lands, and of a race of men more terrible than the wildest beasts. It is hardly possible for us to realize now, the physical and moral courage necessary to sustain adventurers, stepping into the bounds of a void so dark and fathomless to their comprehension. Down the Wisconsin they sailed on-and out upon the Father of Waters, of the wonders of which, in the strange language of mystery, they had heard from the Indians, entering, as the voyagers express themselves, "the Great River with a joy that could not be expressed." After a number of days sailing down the stream, they met with the first signs of human presence, in footprints on the sandy beach of its western shore. A foot path was discovered leading back into a beautiful prairie. MARQUETTE and JOLIET were all of the company who had courage to follow this path. The remainder were left in the canoes, to protect themselves by keeping at a safe distance from the shore. Traveling six miles back from the river over this broad prairie, they discovered an Indian village on the shore of a smaller stream. This was on the Des Moines, in the now State of Iowa, and HISTORY OF CHICAGO. 1 7 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. these adventurers were the first white men who set foot on the soil of that State. They were welcomed with rejoicings by the natives, who ran to meet them with the pipe of peace, declaring themselves to be of the tribe of Illinois, saying in the words translated "we are men." This was the tribe of whom ALLOuEZ had heard such good report, who were doubtless favorably prepossessed by their present visitors. Here they renlained six days, commnunicating to them the gospel first, as preached by MARQUETTE; afterward the knowledge of tile French nation, and their being taken under the protection of its government, the subjugation by its arms of the dreaded Iroquois, their perpetual enemies, of whom they and all western tribes stood in constant fear. In turn the visitors were feasted on dog meat, hominy and fish. Thus were established relations of peace and harmony, which were ever kept up with the Illinois tribe, they being ever favorites of the French missionaries. They proceeded on their voyage down the river, describing the towering rocks at Alton, the mouth of the Missouri river, first known to them by the Indian name of Pekitanonii, describing its turbid current as it now appears, the same from age to age. And as they journeyed, they made note of their passage in such terms, that their progress may be traced to-day. They passed the Ohio, whose banks were sprinkled with the villages of the Shawnees. They proceeded as far south as the river Arkansas, meeting there with hostile tribes, and those who carried guns, and with tribes who spoke another language, unknown to themselves or their interpreters; and ascertaining withal that the river did not flow into the Pacific ocean, as they had possibly hoped, neither into the Gulf east of the explored coast of Florida, and therefore not yet discovered at its mouth, and must be secured to their nation by their own explorations, they concluded to turn back report their progress, and solicit the co-operation of their government. On their return, they entered the mouth of the Illinois river, ascended that stream, meeting again with the Illinois tribe, who entreated MARQUETTE to come and reside with them. He speaks in rapturous terms of the Illinois country,-" as without paragon for the fertility of its beautiful prairies, covered with buffaloes and stags-for the loveliness of its rivers, and the abundance of wild ducks, swans," &c. The Indians furnished the party with guides, and they returned by the river as far as possible to navigate their boats, and thence over the portage from the Des Plaines to the Chicago river, thence to the lake; a route used in those days as a line of communication between the southern rivers and northern lakes. Thence they proceeded by the lake shore to Green Bay, where they arrived by the end of September, having made this voyage of exploration in a little more than three months. Thus was first brought to the knowledge of the civilized world, the course of the Mississippi river, and the geographical character of a large portion of its fertile valley. This expedition dispelled for ever a dark cloud of ignorance and desolation which had from the creation overhung this delightful portion of the world, opening it up to the dawn of the sunlight breaking upon the New World. JOLIET returned soon after to Quebec, and announced the discovery. TALON, in a communication to his government at home, announced the fact that "Sieur Joliet had discovered the Great River, and had proceeded within ten days' journey of its mouth, and that he kad ascertained that a voyage could be made in a barque from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of Mexico, there being only one carrying place of half a league, from Ontario to Erie. That he also supposed that up some of the large branches of the Great River from the West, a communication could be made with the California seas on the Pacific." M. TALON also mentions that he had sent by his secretary the map which JOLIF.T had made, and the observations he had been able to recollect, as he had lost all his minutes and journal in the shipwreck he had suffered within sight of Montreal. He left with the missionaries at the Sault Ste. Marie copies of his journal, but we find no further mention made of his notes of the trip. MARQUETTE'S unpretending narrative was printed in a collection of voyages published in Paris in 1681. 18 HISTORY OF CHICAGO. MIARQUETTE returned and preached the gospel to the Miamis around Chicago. An autograph map which was about this time prepared by him, giving the route of his explorations and the geography of the Lake region, as then understood, was deposited ini St. Mary's Collegec at Montreal. It has been preserved to the present time, an interesting relic of the past. A fac sim?,ile of the main part of this map forms a part of this page. ' LAC fvPo1UR oV X Few_ DE D e TA?A LES GRANDES < ~~~~~~LAC 0 E:S". - I Li NO IS; KA0KASKA A'. ~: ilLtN OIS K~l HKA$EA A - PI E / I/ ( %,, r[ ~. i~ -r~% i/ I~,'4 M.LRQUETTE'S MAP. This map was evidently intended to show the route and the extent of the explorations of MARQUETTE and JOLIET. In the full sized autograph, the Mississippi is only traced as far south as the mouth of the Arkansas, the limit of their discovery. This river was named at that time River '9/%' ~ de la Conception; afterwards it was named by LA SALLE,' Colbert, from the name of his patron, the French Minister of Finance. The route traced from the Illinois to the Lake, seems to represent a continuous stream joining the Lake at Chicago. It is probable that MARQUETTE may have supposed that there was a connecting river between the two; for in early times, in high water, persons have been known to have passed in canoes from the South Chicago Branch, through the s lough north of the Canal, formerly known as Mud Lake, thence to the Des Plaines, and down that river to the Illinois. And it is very probable that when MARQUETTE returned this way, it was by these high water streams. Lake Michigan was then called Lake Illinois, from the tribe in the middle part of the State, which they supposed 19 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. at the time to be located on the lake. The eastern shore of Lake Michigan, as well as the southern shore of Lake Huron, were then unexplored, and their boundaries only traced by dotted lines. MARQUETTE after this seems to have spent his labors with the Indians around the head of Lake Michigan, probably visiting occasionally his favorite Illinois, and returning to his old scene of labors about St. Mary's. On the 18th of May, in the year 1675, as he was passing with his boatmen on one of his trips up Lake Michigan to Mackinaw, he proposed to land at the mouth of one of the rivers oni the Michigan shore, to perform mass. He went a little way apart from his men to pray. He had entertained a pre sentiment that he should soon die, and his canoe-men remembering what he had said, as he staid longer than they supposed necessary, they sought him, and found him dead where he had been to pray. They dug a grave in the sand on the beach at the mouth of the river, and buried him there, where his body wou.d have been exposed by the floods of the river. CHARLEVOIX, another French traveler, visited the spot fifty years after, and found that the stream had cut through a high bluff, and left the grave of the lonely missionary undisturbed, the waters retiring, as he superstitiously affirms, in awe ofthe remains of the good man. Tl.is is the river Marquette, called so fiom his name. His body was aeterwards taken up, found to be in a perfect state of preservation, and removed with all the pomp and state of the barbarian life in those times, accompanied by a large crowd of natives, and a number of hundreds of canoes, which conveyed the remains to the Mission at the Point of St. Ignace, on the main land north of the lsland of Mackinaw, and there deposited them in the tomb of the Chapel. This exploration of MARQUETTE and JOLIET, aroused a deep interest in the West among the French people in Canada, and France. It had now become a matter of national importance to extend their discoveries, and the government was willingly enlisted to further any future enterprises of the kind. At this time there dwelt near the outlet of Lake Ontario an enterprising and enthusiastic young man of noble family, who was destined to fill an important place on the theatre of Western developement,-ROBnERT DE LA SALLE. On his descent from the upper lakes, JOLIET had passed by the walls of Fort Frontenac-now Kingston-where LA SALLE resided, telling the news of his discoveries. LA SALLE was the manl of all the world to be inflamed at the recital of such intelligence, and to enter with all his soul into the future which that emergency required. Already had he gained the sympathy of his government by the explorations on Lake Erie, and the persevering urgency of his views of a passage across the Continent to China and the East Indies, and the connection of the French possessions by the establishment of a line of forts from Ontario to New Orleans, and had received a grant of the fortifications and lands about Frontenac, by letters patent. He immediately repaired to France, and by his own and the influence of the Governor General of Canada, with COLuERT, the Minister of Finance, he had an audience with the king. He obtained a monopoly of the traffic in skins with the Indians, and a commission for perfecting the discovery of the Mississippi. On the 14th of July, 1678, he sailed from France to Quebec, with his lieutenant TONTI, an Italian, and thirty men, destined for the explorations in the West. He arrived at Fort Frontenac, his home, in the latter part of the month of September, 1678. Here he was soon after joined by Louis HINNEPIN, a Franciscan friar, of the Recollet order. This person proved to be a man of great ambition, energetic and daring, but unprincipled, caring more for the attainment of his own great ends than the truth. He was appointed by his religious superiors to accompany LA SALLE, and joining him in October, participated in the preliminary arrangements for the journey. These two men, by whom the great harvest sown by MARQUETTE, was to be reaped, were of an entirely different character from their predecessors. LA SALLE was a man of honor, withal a man of the world, moved by wordly ambition, the desire to make to himself a great name, and with his reputation gain wealth; and we have no evidence that he cared any thing for the desire to save souls which had actuated ALLOUEZ and MARQUETTE. The re 20 HISTORY OF CHRICAGO. ligious character of the expedition was sustained in the person of HENNEPIN, as before mnentioned. The ideas ofthe French government were unquestionably better served in these two men-and it is no wonder that their labors have made a more decided impression upon the current events of the world. LA SALLE sent men forward to prepare the minds of the Indians in advance for his contemplated settlements, line of forts, and the opening of a systemn of trade with them in furs, &c. On the 18th of November be embarked in a vessel or canoe, of ten tons burthen, said to be the first wooden ship which sailed on Lake Ontario. He was a month in making a passage as far as Niagara Falls. He transported his stores around the Falls to anIroquois village on Lake Eric, and established there a magazine and fort. During the winter and spring he here built a large vessel, called the Griffin, which was destined for the upper lake trade. It was the 7th of August, 1679, after many delays and misfortunes which seemed ever upon his track, before this vessel, the first that ever sailed over Erie, Huron and Lake Michigan, was ready to depart. He made a successful trip, though "troubled by dreadful storms," seeking shelter on the 27th of August in the barbor of Michilimackinac (Mackinaw). Here he founded a fort. He proceeded to Green Bay in September, where finding an abundance of furs, he resolved to load the Griffin and send her back with a cargo of this kind of merchandise for a new supply of stores and articles for traffic with the Indians. TONTI was sent to the various mission stations to gather up stragglers to fill up the expedition, for the proposed Mississippi exploration, to join him at the head of the lake. He was nearly six weeks in making the trip ill canoes from Green Bay to the mouth of the St. Joseph, on the Michigan side of the Lake, arriving there the first of November. Here he built a fort. Hearing nothing from the Griffin, he started firom this place, on his "glorious undertaking," ascending the St. Joseph to its shortest portage from the upper branches of that stream to the The-auki-ki (the Kankakee),-making a (letou?r completely around the head of Lake Michigan finding a cut-offof the natural route through Chicago! He descended the Kankakee to the main channel of the Illinois, and about the last of December reached a village of the Illinois Indians, near ttie town of Ottawa, of about one hundred cabins, the inhabitants then being absent. Here he supplied himself with corn from their stores, and proceeded on his way. At this Indian village TONTI afterwards built a fort, and the - - I,,=locality is now known as Rock __=__________ -- ~Fort. This is a rocky elevation ..' __________________six miles south of Ottawa, being sixty or seventy feet perpendi cular on three sides, and con taining about six hundred acres surface. On the 4th of January, __ ___ 1680, they entered the head of -3 i --— id~~~ —~ -Peoria Lake, meeting with na ___- tives in large numbers. They ROCK FORT. were received hospitably, and spent some time with them. Being pleased with his intercourse with the natives, and fearing the influence of adjoining tribes in disturbing the amicable relations between them, LA SALLE resolved upon making a stop here, and building another fort. Thus far the expedition had been under a cloud. His own enterprising genius had alone sustained his cause. The little ship, with a rich cargo of furs in which his fortune was invested, was evidently lost on its return trip,-for it was never heard of afterwards. His men were getting discontented, and there were signs of mutiny and a dissolution of the corps of explorers. Hie built the fort, and the state of his own feelings under this pressure may be learned from the name given to that fort-Creveceeur (Broken Heart). In this desperate extremity, he did all that was in the power of man to do, to preserve his 221 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. scheme from ruin. He organized the Mississippi exploration party, and appointed HENNEPIN to its head, who in February proceeded down the Illinois, turned up the Mississippi, and followed its course towards its source, to the Falls of St. Anthony at least, for they were rightly located and described by him, and then received the name which they have ever borne. This.party were taken captives by the Indians, and roaming through those distant wilds during the Summer, returned in the Autumn of 1680 to the mission at Green Bay. LA SALLE, leaving a portion of his men in the best condition possible under the circumstances, at Fort Crevecceur, in the month of March, with musket, pouch for powder and shot, and skins for moccasins, set out with three of his companions on foot, for Fort Frontenac, at the outlet of Lake Ontario, for the purpose of obtaining a new supply of men and means to prosecute his "glorious enterprise" to its completion. What a journey was that to be made on foot, even in this day, with civilized men covering the whole course!-then a pathless wilderness, the season, the time of snow and overflowing streams and marshes, through dark forests, through intricate thickets and tangled wildwood, with no food but such as their guns could supply, and through tribes of savage men and haunts of wild beasts, with no other protection than those guns and their own arms could afford. His route was for fifteen hundred miles along the southern shores of Lakes Michigan, Erie, and Ontario, through a tract never before traveled by white men. At home he found his worst fears realized. Ihtis vessel was lost, his agents had cheated him, and his goods had been seized by creditors. But he was not crushed. He gathered up a new supply of goods and provisions, and another company of men, and arrived at his posts again on the Illinois river, in December or January, 1681, finding them deserted. His faithful associate TONTI had been left in command; and, according to orders, had constructed the post at Rock Fort, before mentioned, which was called St. Louis. But evil disposed Indians, of other tribes, had roused suspicion among the quiet Illinois, and the Iroquois making inroads upon them, he was at length compelled to abandon his posts, and flee to Lake Alichigan for protection among the Pottawatomfies and MIiamiis. LA SALLE was therefore again compelled to return back. He met with TONTI at length, at Mackinaw, where, gathering up again their scattered company and a new outfit of supplies, they turned again to the south, to the final successful issue of their expedition. When all things were ready, the company, consisting of twentythree Frenchmen, eighteen Indians, and ten women and their children as followers, they started from St. Joseph, (not as before by the Kankakee,) but this time by the Chicago river, traveling on foot over the portage, conveying their baggage onl sledges. The passage of this conmpany by this route, is the occasion of the first mention ever made in history of Chicago by name. In the narrative of this trip, given at its termination, in the document called the Proces Verbal of the taking possession of the territory of Louisiana at the mouth of the Mississippi, when the great valley was transformed into a part of the territory of France, the following passage occurs:-" Onil the 27th of December, 1681, M. de La Salle departed on foot to join MAI. de Tonti, who had preceded him with his followers and all his equipage, forty leagues into the Miamis' country, when the ice on the river Chekagou, in the country of the Mascoutens, had arrested his progress, and where, when the ice became stronger, they used sledges to drag the baggage, the canoes, and a wounded Frenchman, through the whole length of this river and on the Illinois, a distance of seventy leagues." It was about the 5th of January, 1682, when they thus passed over the Chicago river, TONTI having waited here for LA SALLE and for the freezing up of the river, so that they might get their baggage through on the ice. They pursued the course directly down the Mississippi; and on the 6th of April, discovered the three passages by which this river discharges its waters into the Gulf; and on the 8th, at a dry place, at its confluence with the sea, took place the formal process of annexation, mentioned in the "P,'o ces Verbal," before alluded to. 22 IIISTORY OF CRICAGO. 23 Neither our limits nor our sphere of narrative, as the antecedent history of Chicago, will allow us to follow further the fortunes of LA SALLE; his romantic adventures and final assassination, in the lower Mississippi country. We have, as briefly as possible, traced the origin and progress of the first French settlements so far as they encircled Chicago in their current of influence, or have de veloped the country of which this city is confessedly the center of attraction. The discoveries and primitive settlements of ALLOUEZ, MARQUETTE, JOLIET, HENNEPIN and LA SALLE, placed all the West, for a time, under the dominion of the French, in con trast with the possession of the Atlantic Colonies by the English. It was a part of the great plan of the French Government, in organizing these explorations, as we have before stated, to secure the ascendancy of their jurisdiction here, by hemming in the English colonies; to maintain possession by their chain of settlements, and to perpetuate their power by an alliance with the Indians, and by establishing military posts along the whole line of their possessions. To this end, we know that in a short time after the expeditions of LA SALLE, just mentioned, the plan which he began was so far carried out that there were posts on Lake Erie-at Detroit, at Mackinaw, at St. Joseph, Chicago, St. Louis, at Rock Fort, Crevecceurbelow Peoria, Fort Chartres, Fort Massac on the Ohio, not far above its mouth,-also, forts on the lower Missis sippi; and, as we have good evidence, settlements with military and mission stations, along the Illinois, at Green Bay, Milwaukee, on the shore of Lake Superior, St. Mary's, and other places-for good authority has identified thirty-five military forts extending along this line of commnunication, from Fort Frontenac to New Orleans. Soon after the expeditions of La Salle, the colonial warfares commenced, and were fed almost incessantly by the conflicts of hostile tribes, thus putting a check to the growth of settlements in the far West-and Chicago, for the period from 1681 to 1795, more than one hundred years, during the time of the French possession, and after its cession to the English, has almnost perished from history. French settlements were maintained in Southern Illinois, where we have a country as old as any of the Eastern States; but Northern Illinois remained the hunting ground of the red men, the home of the Indian, till after this State, sustained by a population in the Southern portion, kept up by emigration by way of the Ohio and Southern rivers, was admitted into the Union. During this time, we only know from incidental circumstances, that in these dark days of French possession, there was a fort near the mouth of our river,-that there were Indian villages at the Calumet, and on the Des Plaines-that here were the roving grounds of the Pottawatomies-and that from the head waters of the Illinois to the Chicago River, was the common portage for the trade and transit of the goods and furs between the Indians and the traders from the Illinois River and the Lakes, and that the shipping place for these goods was from the port here at Chicago. The few white men who came here, were here not for the purpose of making settlements or the material for history, but simply as transient traders, to gain what they could in a rude traffic for furs and skins. These men, of course, had little or no use for education beyond keeping accounts, and could not be expected to leave any traces of adventure. This state of things continued till the close of the general Western Indian war, soon after the termination of the war of the Revolution. The Indians were first excited to commit depredations upon each other and upon the French or English settlers by the intrigues of the French and the English against each other, until at length the French were conquered. Not long after this occurred the war of the colonists against the English for independence-and English intrigue still stirred up this border Indian warfare; and so embittered did it become, that after peace was declared, it broke out in a general war of the Western Indians against the United States. This war was continued till the year 1795, when, having been effectually chastised by Gen. Wayne, the chiefs of the several tribes assembled by his invitation at Greenville, Ohio, and there effected a HISTORY OF CHICAGO. 23 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. treaty of peace, which closed the war of the West. In this treaty the Indians ceded to the United States numerous small tracts of land, where forts and trading posts were established. Among these was one described as "One piece of land, six miles square, at the mouth of Chickajo (Chicago) River, emptying into the south-west end of Lake Michigan, wlieie a fort formerly stood." In the same treaty, a free passage by land or water, is secured from the mouth of Chicago River to the commencement of the portage between that river and the Illinois, and down the Illinois to the Mississippi. In this treaty is contained the first land trade of this city, the first step in that order of business which distinguishes Chicago above every other city of the nation, the first link in the chain of title to the thousands upon thousands of transfers that have been made of the soil thus parted with by the Indians. Not many years passed after this "tract and parcel of land," six miles square, had been ceded to the United States, ere the energetic proprietors thought it practicable to enter upon actual possession. A trade was already established with the Indians, which needed protection; and in those regions remote from civilization, peace could not well be maintained among the tribes, without a show of that restraining force which was at command. Accordingly, in 1804, the government built the first United States fort occupying this locality. It stood nearly on the site of the fort erected in 1816, and finally demolished in the summer of 1856. It was somewhat different in its structure from its successor. It had two block houses, one on the south-east corner, the other at the northwest. On the north side was a sally-port, or subterranean passage, leading from the parade ground to the river, designed as a place of escape in ali emergency, or for supplying the garrison with water in time of a siege. The whole was enclosed by a strong palisade of wooden pickets. At the west of the fort, and fronting north on the river, was a twostory log building, covered with split oak siding, which was the United States factory, attached to the fort. On the shore of the river, between the fort and the factory, were the root houses, or cellars of the garrison. The ground adjoining the fort on the south side, was enclosed aid cultivated as a garden. The fort was furnished with three pieces of light artillery. A company of United States troops, about fifty in number, many of whom were invalids, constituted the garrison. It received the name of Fort Dearborn, by which it was ever after known as long as it continued a military post. Such was the old fort previous to 1812. Through the kindness of Mrs. J. H. KINzIE, who furnished the sketch, we are enabled to present a view of this Fort as it appeared previous to that year. OLD FORT DEARBORN, ERECTED IN 1804. 24 HISTORY OF CHICAGO. This fort stood upon the slightly elevated point on the south side of the river, near the lake shore, formed by a bend in the river just before mingling its waters with those of the lake. We see by the course of the river as it now appears, where it has not been materially changed by the work of improvement in the harbor, that just before reaching the ground of the old fort, it takes a turn to the north until opposite the fort, then cours - ing directly east into the lake, forms the mouth of the harbor. This latter part, from a point north of the fort directly to the lake, is a channel cut by the Engineers of the government in 1833, to make the harbor of Chicago. Previously, the channel continued in its circular course, around the elevation on which the fort stood, half surrounding it, and flowing southerly, parallel with the lake shore, for nearly half a mile, till at last it lost itself in the lake, its mouth being choked by sand bars, obstructing the entrance of the smallest class of sail vessels. On the left bank, passing up the river, was a long low strip of land, a sandy beach and drifting sand bars, which had been formed in past days by the combined action of the two currents of the lake and river, it being the barrier or dividing ridge between the two. This tongue of land, reaching far south against our present Michigan Avenue front, was an elongated appendage of the North Side, and could only be reached by crossing at some point the Chicago river. When to open the mouth of the harbor, the channel was cut through this tongue of land, and the piers were erected, the current of the lake, caused probably by the prevalent winds which had formerly turned the channel of the river south, and had piled up this sandy barrier between them, striving still to do its will, soon filled up the open space north of the pier, and at the same time rapidly swept away. the remains of this belt, and made sad encroachments on the main land, until the fine Lake Park, an endowment to the city, extending from the old fort grounds to the next section line, nearly a mile in length, had been nearly swept away. And the encroachment steadily progressed against all the plans and piling of lake shore property owners, until arrested by the heavy stone crib work of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, laid as a protection to their track on the lake shore. This fort then occupied one of the most beautiful sites on the lake shore. It was as high as any other point, overlooking the surface of the lake; commanding as well as any other view on this fiat surface could, the prairie extending to the south, the belt of timber along the South Branch and on the North Side, and the white sand hills both to the north and south, which had for ages past been the sport of the lake winds. It stood upon a flattened mound, formed by the curve of the river at its base on its three sides. On the apex of this mound-shaped elevation stood the buildings of the old fort, its two block houses on opposite corners, enclosed by palisades, and a green grassy slope extending each way, and on the north and east side down to the edge of the ever quiet waters of Chicago river. Up to the time of the erection of this fort no white man had made here his home. The Pottawatomie Indians had here undisputed sway. Their villages were near by. In addition to the garrison, there soon gathered here a few families of French, Canadians and half-breeds, consisting of that floating class which hang about a military post, o r an Indian trading station. Whatever there was of civilized society, which has connected those days of the past in a bright chain of identity with the present, was sust a i n e d in the Kinzie family. An d such was the nucleus of a community formed in the c e n t e r of the North-We st, bu t half a century ago, shut out from communication with all the world, except by the waters of the lakes, passedover but once or twice a year by a single sail vessel; or by Indian trails to other almost as isolated communities, at St. Louis, Detroit, or Fort Wayne. It was certainly a way-mark in the wilderness far in advance of civilization. They were a little world unto themselves. They pursued in an even way, the narrow routine of pioneer life, furnishing few incidents of sufficient note vo fill up a page of history, from the time of the erection of this fort, till the one great inci 2 25 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. dent, which blotted it out and its little surrounding community, the massacre in 1812. The author of "WAxUBUN," remarks as the naive saying of the Indians, "the first white man who settled here was a ilegro." Point-au-Sable, a native of St. Domingo, from a life of wandering, made his advent here amnong the Indians in 1796, as a character of some consequence. He had mnade the Indians believe he had been a chief among the white men and probably expected some such honor among his new friends. He made some improvements, merely driving the pre-emption stakes of civilization,-when he left in disgust or discouragement, and ended his days with Clamorgan, at Peoria, a St. Domingo negro friend, who had obtained large Spanish grants of land about St. Louis. A Frenchman by the name of Le Mai took possession of Point-au-Sable's improvements, and commenced trading with the Indians. Le Mai's establishment, a few years after was purchased by JOHN KINZIE, Esq., then an Indian trader in the St.. Joseph country, Michigan, who came with his family to Chicago to reside, in 1804, the year in which the fort was built. JOHN KINZIE was the first permanent white resident of Chicago, the first man to establish permanent trade, and improvements, and to leave the impress of his enterprise and the marks of civilization on the first things from which Chicago has sprung. For nearly twenty years he was with the exception of the military, the only white inhabitant of Northern Illinois. If any person is entitled to the honor of being styled the FATHER OF CHICAGO, that person is unquestionably JohN KINZIE. JOHN KINZIE was born in Quebec, Lower Canada, in the year 1763. He was the only child of his mother by a second marriage. His father died when he was but an infant. His mother married for her third husband, a Mr. Forsyth, and removed with him and her young son, to New York city. John was educated at a school at Williamsburg, Long Island. While quite young he left his home, without the knowledge of his mother, and traveled alone to Quebec, to fulfill a long-formned determination of visiting his native place. Here he found a protector, and in his family a home for three years, before being discovered by his parents. On removing from New York to the West, by way of Quebec, they accidentally found their long lost child. He moved with them to Detroit, where he commenced at an early age his adventurous life as a pioneer in the West. His taste led him, as he grew older, to live much of his time on the frontier. He entered early into the Indian trade, and at first established trading posts at Sandusky and Maumee. About the year 1800, he had so far extended his operations, that he opened establishments in the St. Joseph's country, the region bordering upon the river by that name, which empties into Lake Michigan from the east, nearly opposite Chicago. In this year he married Mrs. McKillip, the widow of a British officer, and this lady was the mother of JOHN H. KLNZIE, Esq., our present respected citizen. His place of residence in Michigan, was at Betrand, a trading post near Niles, which was known by the term, Parc aux Vaches. In the year 1804, when the first fort was built, he removed to Chicago, to make here his home, still prosecuting the Indian trade. He was also sutler to the fort. MR. KINZIE made the point at Chicago, the center of an extended system of trade with the Indians. He established posts at several distant points, which he sustained from the central one here, and from which he received large stocks of furs, contributing to the stores of the general depot, until shipped off by the vessels that came here semiannually for the purpose, and keeping up the supply of goods necessary for the trade. He had a station at Milwaukee among the Menominees; another at Rock River for the Winnebagoes, another on the Illinois and Kankakee Rivers with the Pottawotamies, and other stations in the Sangamo country, then called Le Large, and on the head waters of the Kaskaskia, for the Kickapoos. Each of these stations had its superinten dent, and corps of operators called engages; and its trains of pack horses and equip ment of boats and canoes. And by means and conveyances like these, were the furs and peltries, which had accumulated at the several stations, brought to Chicago, and the 26 HISTORY OF CHICAGO. goods necessary to the' balance of trade," transported in return. Manly goods were sent up the Illinois river, from as low as St Louis, gathered up from the Indians along the course of the Mississippi as well as the Illinois, and were taken across the portage between this latter river and the lake, by cattle teams. Chicago was thus made the depot of this carrying trade, which was the slow pace progress of the preceeding generation; the present generation proving its right to the claim of being a fast people by its rail cars running over the same track plodded by old JOHN KINZIE'S cattle team, driven by Ouilemette and his successors, from 1804 to 1820. The lake trade was at the same time carried on by a small sail vessel, coming in the fall and spring, bringing the season's supply of goods and stores for the fort, and taking away the accumulated stock of furs and peltries. Such was the character and extent of the first regular business established in Chicago. At the head of this trade was JOHN KIxzIE, senior. He, without interruption, and with few incidents to change its routine, pursued his line of business from 1804, till the breaking out of hostilities with the Indians, which resulted in the massacre of 1812. By his uniformly consistent, kind and straightforward course with the Indians, he gained their confidence, and bound himself to them in strong ties of friendship, to which he was indebted for the preservation of himself and family, firom the horrid fite of his white neighbors of the fort, at the time of the massacre. After the close of the war, he returned again to Chicago, and re-opened the trade with the Indians. Here he continued to reside till his death in 1828. MR. KINZIE'S residence was the first house built in Chicago. A part of it was the same rude structure put up by the so called first white man, the negro Jean Baptiste Point-au-Sable, about the year 1796. It was enlarged and improved by LE MAI, of whom MR. KINZIE purchased, who further improved it, internally and externally, until he made it a respectable family mansion. It stood on the north side of the river, fronting the fort. Between this house and the fort, there was kept up a foot ferry, and a little boat swung in the stream awaiting the pleasure of any passenger. A foot path on each side, from the gate of the fort, or the door of the mansion, to the platforms at the water edge, from which the passenger stepped into the boat, marked the course of travel firom one side to the other. This ferry occupied nearly the same crossing as the iron bridge structure now in process of erection, in the place of the Lake House Ferry. Mans. KixZIE describes the house as a long low building, with a piazza extending along its front, a range of four or five rooms. A broad green space was inclosed between it and the river, and shaded by a row of Lombardy poplars. Two large cotton wood trees stood in the rear, one of which still remains, though seared and dry, as it died last year, a perishing land-mark of the early days. A well cultivated garden extended to the north, at the rear of the dwelling. Surrounding this "first house," were a variety of out buildings, such as the primitive wants, and the condition of the family required, as dairy, bake-house, stables, and lodging rooms for the Frenchmen and attaches of the trading post. North of the homestead and along the lake shore, which then was considerably inland of the present shore, was a low range of sand-hills, sprinkled over with stunted cedars, pines, and dwarf-willows. This was the boyhood home of JOHN H. KINZIE. Here he resided to the age of eight years, when the family home was broken up by the Indians, at the time of the destruction of the fort. This scenery of his early life, is now impressed upon his mind in a vivid living picture. In the language uttered by him in casual conversation upon those early times of Chicago and his own life-every feature of the old home is distinct in his recollection. The Lombardy poplars which perished long ago, and the cotton woods which weie but saplings, and trees planted by his own hands, which have stood until the more recent days as mementoes of the past-the rough hewn logs which formed the walls of his home, the garden and its shrubbery, the fence paling that surrounded it, and the green lawn at the front of the house gently descending to the water of the river-the tiny boat floating idly at the foot of the walk-and as the crowning mark of this picture, stood inon the op 27 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. posite shore, upon the highest part of the elevation, the old fort, the whitewashed walls of the block houses, the barracks and the palisades, glistening in the bright sun; while a gentle slope of fine green grass extended from the enclosure to the very water brink. It was a beautiful sight. Over all this rose the few pulsations of human progress as seen in an occasional stray Indian with his canoe, or pony, and pack of furs; a French Canadian loitering here and there; a soldier pacing his rounds about the fort, or idly strolling over the prairies, or hunting in the woods. There was a deep repose in all this scenery, a quietness, which it was impossible to conceive could have been superceded within half a centurv by' one of the busiest cities in the national Union. I II 28 POETRY. THE DROP OF DEW. I come at the hour of soft repose, To bathe the brow of the fainting rose; To fill the cup of the tiny flower, And gem the leaves of the maiden's bower. Ask ye my home?'Tis in realms afar, "Neath the fair, meek smile of the fairest star; On a fleecy cloud that is yet in viewList ye the tale of a DROP OF DEw. I am the breath of the mother's prayer, As it softly floats on the twilight air; HIer mnoan of anguish is borne to oe, "My son, would God I had died for thee." The half-breathed thoughts of the maiden's heartThe tear, the sunlight, all formn a part The last faint sigh that the mar-tyr drew 'Neath the frown of God, was a Drop of Dew. I amr the essence of things of light; The wild-bird's lay in the hush of night The merry voice of the streamlet's flow; The dirge of Autumn, in murlnmurs low; The breath of flowers, when bright ones twine The May-day garland, are mine-all mine. The songs of home that our childhood knew; Ah! a holy thing is a Drop of Dew. I came where the scoffer's hand had sown Another's birthright, and called his own. He asked not Heaven for timely rain, }3ut cursed in anguish the parchinlg plain. That curse arose, and returned-a blight; For mildew came on the breath of night; No bright green blade from the dark soil grew; Ah! a fearful thing is a Drop of Dew. Children of Earth! it is mine to know The highest joys that ye prize below; From my pure, bright home in yon azure sky, I come, as a holier One, to die. Sinless and featless, I die to save A dearer life from an early grave, While stars of even that smile on you, Light with their beauty the Drop of Dew 'Tis sweet to live, when our lives impart Some kindly warmth to a genial heart, Some sunny smiles, to a dear one's eye; But sweeter far, for the loved, to die. I deck the lily with brightest charms, But rise ere noon from its fragrant arms; I know that Death will my life renewMuch may be learned from a Drop of Dew. It was mine to fall as a blessing where The Suffering, Sinless, had knelt in prayer Those fearful drops, it was mine to see, That fell in thy garden, Gethsemane! Thus has my nmission forever sped; I kiss the brow of the tombless (lead, I gem the graves of the loved and trueSuch is the life of a Droo) of Dew. 29 )~ fI xx <~~<~;>~~~ ~ ~ x ~>~~x~~~;~~ /~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~< ~~~ /~~~>~~~ ~ffi~;~~~~;~~~~x~'~ >x>~~~~~<~x%;z#x~~<~ ~;%~%~y~~~~~; ~ ~((;;(;;~<~~x~7x<~?~~ffi ffiffi ~ ~~~;~~~~~ffiffiffiffiffi~~~ ~ <~~~;~ffl ~~~ ~'~ffiffi~xx~ ~ ~~ffiffi ~ ~<~ ~~~~~~~<~~M ~~~~~~ ffi~~~~~;~~~~\ /~~:>~~::~~~~~~~~ '~ ~~~~~~#;; ~~ ~ ~ 47 ~~ ~ ~ xx# BIOGRAPHIES. 31~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HON. WILLIAM B. OGDEN, THE FIRST MAYOR OF THiE CITY OF CIHICAGO. Mr. OGDEN is a native of Delaware County, N.Y. He was born in the town of Walton, on the 15th of June, 1805. He is of the Eastern New Jersey Ogden family. His grandfather was engaged in the Revolutionary War. His father, ABRAIAM OGDEN, when eighteen years old, left Morristown, N. J., soon after the close of that war, intending to settle in the new City of Washington, the future Capitol of the United States. He had proceeded on his journey as far as Philadelphia, when he met a brother or relative of his friend the late Governor Mahlon Dickerson, of New Jersey, who gave him such a glowing account of the Upper Delaware Country, and of the immense forests of pine timber upon the banks of the Delaware, promising great prospective wealth from its accessibility to the Philadelphia market, that he was induced to accompany Mr. Dickerson to that then wilderness country, where he finally settled, and passed a life of active usefulness, engaged in such employments as were best suited to develope and build up the home of his adoption. He was regarded as a man of sound judgement and good business tact. He was social and domestic, fond of reading, yet very hospitable in his disposition. His advice was sought and valued, especially by those younger than himself. His active usefulness was much impaired by a stroke of paralysis in 1820. He died in 1825. The mother of Mr. WILLIAM B. OGDEN, was a daughter of an officer of the Revolutionary War, Mr. James Weed, of New Canaan, Fairfield County,Connecticut. Mr. Weed seems to have been very patriotic, or somewhat warlike in his tastes, for we find him at the early age of fourteen years, volunteering in the "French War." At the termination of the Revolutionary struggle, like most of his brother officers, he was out of cash and out of business. Several of these officers, including Mr. Weed, determined to colonize and settle upon and around a "Patent" of land which one of their number held upon the Delaware river. This land was a primitive forest, west of the Catskill mountains, eighty miles (these were not railroad days) beyond the Hudson, and sixty miles beyond the then Western frontier, or any carriage road. It was a great undertaking; yet these brave men had the conrage to seek an independent home with their families in the wilderness. In 1790-2, they took their families, upon pack-horses to their forest homes; established a settlement in that "Sequestered Section" of the State, as it was af terwards called by Governor Clinton, where, though neither remarkable for numbers or wealth, patriotism found a home, amid dignified courtesy and genuine hospitality. The society formed and developed through the influence of these pioneers, was distinguished through all the surrounding country, no less for its general intelligence and intellectual cultivation, than for its moral and religious character. It was here that the parents of the subject of this sketch were married, and the earlier years of the latter were passed. Allusion has not been made to the ancestors of Mr. OGDEN, from any feeling that worth v parentage can confer honor without regard to the character of the offspring. The writer holds that such ancestry only add to the dishonor of him who is not true to his inher ited blood. But when worthy parentage is blessed and honored by corresponding qualities in the child, any biography of the latter is deficient, which does not acknowl edge the indebtedness of its subject to its parent stock. Mr. Ogden, when a lad, was large for his years. When not more than ten or twelve years old. he was very fond of athletic exercise, and the sports of robust boyhood. It was his delight to hunt, to swim, to skate, to wrestle and to ride. These were the sports suited to his "Sequestered" home; and if they trespassed too much upon histime, it was from no indisposition to study, or want of fondness for books. He must have been very fond of these sports in his early youth, for he recollects that his father was obliged to limit his hunting and fishing excursions to two days in the week. As he grew older, ~ BIOGRAPHIES. 31 the advice of his father awakened in him a consciousness of the necessity of greater appli cation to books, and of the duty of preparing himself for the serious business of life. His father's counsels were not unheeded. Permitted by his indulgent father to choose his future occupation, he determined to acquire a liberal education, and devote himself to the practice of the law. No sooner had he made this determination, than, with the decision of character and earnestness which have marked all his subsequent life, he set to work to fit himself for his chosen profes sion. He had but little more than commenced his academic course, when the sudden prostration of his father's health, required him, though only sixteen years of age, to return home, to take his father's place in the management of the latter's'business, and the care of the family. It was with no little regret that the young OGDEN bade adieu to the Academic Halls; yet he could not hesitate between inclination and duty. The management of his father's business exacted great activity and energy from its youthful conductor. It took him much over the country, and frequently to the large cities, and in it lhe acquired that taste and inclination for diversified business pursuits, which have rendered his subsequent life one of untiring activity. Although his father's business required great attention, it did not absorb all his strength. Hle found opportunity to cultivate his mind by reading; and being a ready observer, and his mind of a strong practical turn, he did not fail to profit by every tour he made. Travel proved to him, as it always does to persons of thought and observation, ain efficient educator. It enlarged his views, expanded his thoughts, and increased his powers. Yet at this time he had inot seen very much of the world. He was only twenty one years of age when he was induced to engage as a partner in a mercantile firm, and enlarge his operations. These were moderately successful, but did not satisfy his ambition. After spending a few years more in his native county, his unwearied exertions being rewarded by only moderate gains, hlie determined, in 1835, to turn his attention westward. He arrived at Chicago in June, 1835, having then recently united with friends in the purchase of real estate in this city. He and they foresaw that Chicago was to be a good town, and they purchased largely, including Wolcott's addition, and nearly the half of Kinzie's Addition, and the block of land upon which the freight houses of the Galena and Chicago Union Rail Road now stand Before leaving his native state, at eighteen, the age at which Military service was at that time required of young men in the State of New York, Mr. OGDEN entered upon that service. He was elected a Commissioned officer, the first day of doing duty; and the second, was appointed Aid to his esteemed friend, Brigadier General FREDERIC P. FOOTE, a gallant and polished gentleman, long since deceased. The late Hon. SELAH R. HOBBIE, the distinguished Assistant Post Master General of the United States, for so many years, and from boyhood the intimate friend of Mr. OGDEN, was a member of General FOOTE'S Staff, at the same time, as Brigade Inspector, with the rank of Major. Mr. OGDEN succeeded his friend Major HOBBIE, in the office of Brigade Inspector, and did its duties for several years. In General JACKSON'S time, iMr. OGDEN was made Post Master of his village-(Walton), and so remained until after his removal to Chicago. The year before coming to Chicago (1834), Mr. OGDEN. was elected to the Legislature of the State of New-York, especially to advocate the construction of the New-York & Erie Rail Road and to obtain the aid of the State for that great work, which then commanded, his hearty exertions and in which he has ever since felt a deep interest. HIe spent the winter of 1834 —S in the Assembly at Albany-but it was not until the following year that aid was granted by the State. Chicago was selected as his place of residence, because of its prominent position at the head of Lake Michigan, or rather, because of its being the Western tei-minus of Lake navigation. His attention had been more particularly drawn to it by his brother-in-law, CHARLES THE CHICAGO IIAGAZINE. 32 BIOGRAPHIES. 38 BUTLER, Esq., and his friend, ARTHUR BRONSON, Esq., of New York, both of whom had visited Chicago, in 1833, and made purchases here. At first Mr. OGDEN'S principal business in Chicago was the management of the real estate which he and his friends had purchased; but gradually, and almost accidentally in the beginning, he established a Land and Trust Agency in Chicago, which he carried on in his own name from 1836 to 1843, when it had so increased that he associated with himself, the late WM. E. JONES, Esq. Since then the business has been carried on success ively by OGDEN, JONES & Co., and OGDEN, FLEETWOOD & CO., in which last name it is still managed. The business has become so large, that it may be called one of the Institutions of Chicago. Mr. OGDEN was very successful in his operations in 1835 —6; but he became embarrassed in 1837 —8, by assuming liabilities for friends, several of whom he endeavored to aid, with but partial success. He struggled on with these embarrassments for several years. Finally, in 1842 —3, Mr. OGDEN escaped from the last of them; and since, his career of pecuniary succss has been unclouded. They were gloomy days for Chicago when the old Internal Improvement System went by the board, and the Canal drew its slow length along, and operations upon it were finally suspended, leaving the State comparatively nothing to show for the millions squandered in "Internal Improvements." His operations in real estate have been immense. He has sold real estate for himself and others, to an amount exceeding ten millions of dollars, requiring many thousand deeds and contracts which have been signed by him. The fact that the sales of his house have, for some years back, equalled nearly one million of dollars per annum, will give some idea of the extent of their business. He has literally made the rough places smooth, and the crooked ways straight, in Chicago. More than one hundred miles of streets, and hundreds of bridges at street corners, besides several other bridges, including two over the Chicago river, have been made by him, at the private expense of himself and clients, and at a cost of probably hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mr. OGDEN'S mind is of a very practical character. The first floating swing bridge over the Chicago River was built by him, for the city, (before he ever saw one elsewhere) on Clark street, and answered well its designed purpose. He was early engaged in introducinginto extensive use in the West, MceCormick's Reaping and Mowing Machines, and building up the first large factory for their manufacture-that now owned by the McCormicks. In this manufactory, during Mr. OGDEN'S connection with it, and at his suggestion, was built the first Reaper sent to England, and which at the great Exhibition of 1851, in London, did so much for the credit of American Manufactures there. He was a contractor upon the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and his efforts to prevent its suspension, and to resuscitate and complete it, were untiring. There is no brighter page in Mr. OGDEN'S history, than that which records his devotion to the preservation of the public credit. The first time that we recollect to have heard him address a public meeting, was in the fall of 1837, while he held the office of Mayor. Some frightened debtors, assisted by a few deminagogues, had called a meeting to take measures to have the courts suspended, or some way devised by which the compulsory fulfilment of their engagements might be deferred beyond that period so tedious to creditors, known as the "Law's Delay." They sought by legislative action or "Relief Laws," to virtually suspend, for a season, the collection of debts. An inflammatory and ad captandum speech had been made. The meeting, which was composed chiefly of debtors, seemed quite excited, and many were rendered almost desperate by the recital by designing men, of their sufferings and pecuniary danger. During the excitement, the Mayor was called for. He stepped forward, and exhorted his fellow citizens not to commit the folly of proclaiming their own dishonor. He besought those of them who were embarrassed, to bear up against adverse circumstances with the courage of men, remembering that no misfortune was so great as one's own personal dishonor. That it were better for them to conceal their misfortunes, than to proclaim them; reminding them BIOGRAPHIES. 38 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. that many a fortress had saved itself by the courage of its inmates, and their determination to conceal its weakened condition, when, if its real state had been made known, its destruction would have been inevitable and immediate. "Above all things," said he, do not tarnish the honor of our infant city." To the credit of Chicago, be it said, that this first attempt at "Repudiating Relief," met, from a majority of that meeting, and from our citizens, a rebuff no less pointed than deserved; and those who attempted it received nimerited contempt. Since then has our State needed all the exertions of its truest and most faithful citizens to repel the insidious approaches of the Demon of Repudiation. When Mississippi repudiated, and Illinois could not pay, and with many sister States had failed to meet her interest, there were not wanting political Catalines to raise the standard of Repudiation in Illinois. The State seemed almost hopelessly in debt; and the money for this immense indebtedness, except so much as had been expended upon the Canal, had been wasted, chiefly in the partial construction of disconnected pieces of Rail Roads, which were of no value to the State or people. The State was bankrupt, and private insolvency was rather the rule than the exception: Many were discouraged by their misfortunes, some of the hopeless were leaving the State on account of its embarrassments, and emigration was repelled by fear of enormous taxation. Then it was that the wiley demagogue sought to "beguile" the simple and unsuspecting, and to preach the doctrine of repudiation as a right, because "no value had been received" for the money which our public creditors had loaned us, and on account of the hopelessness and utter impossibility of our ever paying our indebtedness. Mr. OGDENx then, though his party in its State Convention, refused to adopt a resolution which he submitted, "Repudiating Repudiation," in common with the great mass of his Northern fellow citizens, did not hesitate to proclaim the inviolable nature of our runBLIC FAITn, and the necessity of doing our utmost to meet our obligations, and redeem the credit of our noble State. In politics, Mr. OGDEN, though not much of a partizan, has always been a Democrat of the Madi.Aonian School. He has not hesitated to oppose the nominations of his party, when, in his opinion, the public interest required it. He has often been in the City Council,and frequently solicited to be a candidate for official positions. He was nominated in 1840, by the canal party, for the Legislature, and in 1852 by the Free Democracy'for Congress. This nomination he declined. In the recent struggle, he was found with Freedom's Hosts, in support of the nominees of the Republican Party, believing in common with the great mass of the North, that the encroachments of slavery upon teritory dedicated to freedom by the plighted faith of the nation, must be resisted; and that the "principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence, and embodied in the Federal Constitution, are essential to the preservation of our Republican Institutions." Mr. OGDENx is a man of great public spirit, and in enterprise unsurpassed. To recapitulate the public undertakings which have commanded his attention, and received his countenance and support, would be to catalogue most of those in this section of the Northwest. He has been a leading man-President or Director, or a large stockholder, in so many that we shall not undertake to make a list of them. Among the prominent places he has occupied, we recollect the following: In 1837, at the first election under the city charter, he was chosen Mayor. He was the first and only President of Rush Medical College. He was President of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad Company from its resuscitation on its present basis, until its construction, in part, and earnings, had raised its stock to a premium, when he resigned. He was President of the National Pacific Railroad Convention of 1850, held in Philadelphia; of the Illinois and Wisconsin Railroad Company; of the Buffalo and Mississippi Rail Road Company, in Indiana, until merged in the Michigan Central; of the Chicago Branch of the State Bank of Illinois, at Chicago; and is President of the Board of Sewerage Commissioners for the City of Chicago. 34 BIOGRAPHIES. 35 It was Mr. OGDEN who first started the resuscitation and building of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad. He negotiated for the purchase of the charter, and assets of the Company, of the proprietors in New York, in 1847, and was the first President of the Company. He was indefatigable in his exertions to commend the enterprise to public attention, and secure its commencement and energetic construction. But for the exertions of J. Y. SCAIIMON, Esq. and himself, it could not have started when it did. It was their exertions, in the country, and in Chicago, that obtained the necessary subscriptions to justify the commencement of the undertaking. Without them, it would not have moved for years. In 1854-5, Mr. OGDEN visited Europe, and was away from Chicago for about a year and a half. He was an accurate observer while abroad of men and things. TheInstitutions and great public works of Europe did not escape his attention, and some of them were carefully examined by him. It was the Canals of Holland, and especially the Great Ship Canal at Amsterdam, that first suggested to him the practicability, as well as importance and necessity of a channel for the free flow of the waters of Lake Michigan, through the Chicago and Des Plaine rivers, into the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, in aid of navigation in those rivers; and at the same time furnishing free, direct, and unbroken steamboat navigation between the Mississippi river and all its tributaries and Chicago. His letters ficm Europe were published in the Chicago Democratic Press at the time, and have attracted attention to this great subject, which has already many strong friends. While in Europe Mr. OGDEN gave attention, also, to works of art, and purchased quite a number of pictures and other matters of taste and art, most of them the productions of American artists of merit abroad, and which, not only adorn the walls of his mansion, but do credit to their authors, and are valuable contributions to the im provemenit and gratification of the public taste in this new world. Mr. OGDEN is a man of commanding person, and most agreeable manners-of extensive general information, and cultivated taste. We have never known a more amiable or gentlemanly man in his intercourse with others. His strong practical sense, and great presence of mind, make him at home almost everywhere. He is rarely at a loss Although his education has not been such as to make himn a belles lettres scholar, or an accomplished orator, he writes well, and is always listened to with attention when he addresses an audience; and few, if any men, oxert more influence in a public body, upon any practical subject, than he does. As a traveling companion, we have never seen his equal. His prudence and foresight, and his love of doing the agreeable to others, relieves his compagnons de voyage of all care. It is natural for him to love to aid others. It affords him great satisfaction to be of service to his friends. Amidst the pressure of his enormous business, he finds time to relieve the distressed, and to aid the deserving; and many a family in Chicago, who are now basking in prosperity, owe their success to his kind assistance; many a poor widow and orphan have been preserved from want by his care and foresight. Mr. OGDEN is now immensely rich; yet he retains the same fondness for enterprise, the same love for building roads, and developing the country, which have characterized his previous life. He is now President of the Chicago St. Paul and Fond du Lac R. R Co., and of the Wisconsin and Superior Land Grant R. R. Co.; and under his auspices Chi cago will, ere long, in all probability, be brought into direct communication with Lake' Superior; and should he live long enough, we should not be surprised to see him build ing the Northwestern Railroad to the Pacific Ocean. Mr. OGDEN has never married. In 1837 he built a delightful residence, in the center of a beautiful lot, thickly covered with fine native growth forest trees, and surrounded by four streets, in that part of the city called North Chicago; and there, when not ab sent from home, he indulges in that hospitality which is, at the same time, so cheering to his friends, and so agreeable to himself. BIOGRAP]IIES. 35 -t i - $ ~~~~~ 1. II~ — :IGAHE.3 WILLIAM H. BROWN. To write a sketch of some living men which shall be truthful and at the same time readable, which shall present their virtues in due relation to their faults, and as relieved by theni, without injustice to the feelings of the parties concerned, is not an easy matter. Some men are like the head of a certain statesman, of which the phrenologist could make nothing, because he could find no "bump" about it-it was symmetrically smooth in every part-while others exhibit sucl decided traits of character, that inequalities are a matter of necessity. Their virtues and their failings, alike exhibit themselves decidedly, and in natural correspondence with each other. Mr. BROWN the subject of this sketch is a man of marked and decided traits. What he knows, he knows; what he says, he means; and whatever subject comes before him, elicits, without much delay, a plump and square opinion. Such men must of necessity cross somebody's track in the course of their lives, and will come to be somewhat differently regarded by different classes of people. While therefore this sketch will endeavor to set forth Mr. BROWN as he is, as far as it goes, it cannot of course enter upon such a discussion as would be called for were he not vet moving among us. Mr. BROWN is a native of the State of Connecticut, and was born about the beginning of the nineteenth century. His father was a native of Rhode Island. His profession was that of the law, which he practiced for some twenty-five years, at Auburn, New York, with decided talent and success, and then removed to the City of New-York, where a few y)ears since, he died. The son William, gained his education as many young men of his time were accustomed to do, while the country was not as well supplied with schools of a high grade as at present, partly in the office of his father, and at various schools; but not extending it in youth, far beyond what are considered good business acquirements. He studied law with his father and then engaged in its practice with him. In December 1818, about The timne of his majority, as we infer, he came to seek his fortune in the farther or extreme West, as it then was; and opened alaw office in the old French town of Kaskaskia, in this State. His inducement to select Illinois as the State of his residence, he declares to be, that it had, in the summer of that year, adopted a frie constitution; without which he would by no means have taken a residence in it. In the spring of 1819, he was appointed a Clerk of the United States Court, which office he held for the period of sixteen years. The seat of government being removed to Van dalia, and the law requiring the Clerk of the Court to keep his office at the Capitol of the State, Mr. BRowN followed it thither in Decemnber 1820. He immediately purchased one half the proprietary interest in a Newspaper then published, and called " Thte Illinois lntelligencer." This paper dated back to 1815, and was the first Newspaper ever established in the Territory. Mr. BROWN entered upon its editorial duties, and continu ed in that connection until February 1823. His partner in the paper was Mr. Wm. Ber ry, who was a member of the legislature of 1823; which legislature passed a resolution for a convention, to alter the constitution of the State, with a view to the introduction of slavery. The means by which this resolution went through the legislature, were of a very high handed character, which the reader will find somewhat illustrated on pages 52-3 of Ford's History of Illinois. Mr. Berry voted for this resolution, while Mr. Brown the editor was against it, and denounced it in such terms as he thought applicable to the case. Having prepared an article for the paper, which exposed the scandalous measures by which the resolution had been carried through the House of Representatives, and having taken proofs of it, preparatory to its insertion, these proofs were surreptitiously taken from the office; and being read by the parties implicated, a storm was at once raised, such as is not uncom mon, even in our day, when this same question of slavery is at stake. The usual rem BIOGRAPHIES. 37 35 TilE CIIICAGO MAGAZINE. edyfor such impertinent boldness was at'once proposed; viz. a mob, which should demol ish the office, and send Mr. BRowN about other business. Luckily Mr. BRowN had friends, and his friends had pluck; and their rally saved the office. The paper containing the awful exposition appeared; and was deemed such an indignity to the august body whose doings it had censured, that a resolution was adopted citing the author to their bar. To this citation Mr. BROWN declined to answer; giving as his reason, that the constitu tion secured the liberty of the Press; and so the resolution went over as unfinished business, and the wounded honor of the House was committed to the tender mercies of time for its healing. The partnership in the Illinois Intelligencer, however, came to an end, by the sale of Mr. BROWN'S interest; and the paper advocated the convention-or in other words the introduction of slavery for the next year. By some reasons, nevertheless, not made public, the paper was given into other editorial hands, some eight months before the vote was taken, and during that time, did good service in the canvass for freedom. As Mr. BRowN had embarked in the cause of freedom in the State, and had determined to leave it, should the folly of re-introducing slavery prevail, he now gave most of his time to writing and working against that policy; and did much toward securing the verdict rendered in the two thousand majoritv which forbid its establishment; for which we who now dwell here, and our posterity, will owe him a debt of gratitude and honor. In December 1822, the subject of this sketch was married to Miss Hiarriet C. Seward, daughter of Col. John Seward deceased, then of Motgomery Co., Illinois. Mrs. Brown is the mother of four living sons, and one daughter; of whom three are now in active business, and two in the course of their education. Mr. BROWN removed with his family to Chicago in October 1835, having been appointed cashier of a branch of the State Bank of Illinois, which had been created here in the winter of 1834. This position he had accepted with some reluctance, under the impression that his previous pursuits had not been of a kind to give him that knowledge of financial matters, required in the charge of such an institution. In urging upon him the appointment, one of the principal stockholders remarked, that he possessed one qualification very necessary; in that he could say no, as easily as most men could say yes. As soon as the proper arrangements could be completed, the bank commenced operations, and continued as the only institution of the kind till the year 1843. At the time of Mr. BROwN's arrival in the State, its population was not over 40,000; and none or next to none of them lived north of the present limits of Bond County. When he came to this city, it was a village of about two years growth, and contained about 2000 people. All Northern Illinois was a wilderness, and two years later the whole north half of the State was included in one congressional district; and sent Hon. J. T. Stewart, of Springfield to Congress; electing him over his competitor Stephen A. Douglass, who on that occasion made his first appearance on the stage in pursuit of political honors. The writer of this sketch cast his first vote in Illinois against Mr. Douglass at that time, and made one of the five majority which defeated him. The Bank prospered well under Mr. BROWN'S management, and might perhaps have been prospering yet, had the state of the country been any wise settled and healthy. But the serious derangements commencing in 1836, or rather back of that period, in the financial affairs of the nation, carried away bank, and business, East and West; and the Illinois State Bank did not escape. It suffered great losses, and these with adverse legislation induced the stockholders to wind it up. The Chicago branch suffered with the rest; for real estate was forced upon it in place of money. Yet in the aggregate, it was so managed that the profit and loss would have shown a balance on the right side. In the conduct of such an institution, through times such as these, there were two things which it were impossible to secure together. One was the safety of the institution, and the other the good will of all the community. Every body was in a condition of 38 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. BIOGRAPHIES. 39 suffering, and wanted money, with an intensity that could take no denial; and the very urgency of the want, pointed, in no inconsiderable number of cases, to the very reason which made it unsafe to accommodate them. The Cashier of a bank must of necessity look to the safety of his trust. If he is faithful to that, no matter whether no is an easy word to him or not; he is forced to make the two letters which compose it, current in his institution. No, is not a popular word, with men who wish to borrow money, especially if they wish to borrow it very much; as those then did, who wanted to borrow it at all. Mr. BRowN's peculiar qualification already mentioned perhaps conduced more to the safety of his trust, than to his popularity for the time being. But integrity and decision vindicate themselves sooner or later, and he has lost little in the long run. Indeed the men who supposed themselves to suffer from lack of a decision in their favor, would now often choose him as the very man to take charge of a trust of their own, had they one, requiring sagacity and decision united with integrity in its management. The building, in which the bank was kept, stood at the corner of La SIlle and South Water Sts.; and is well remembered by all the oldest residents of the city. It has only disappeared within the last four or five years. While the bank was in operation, Chicago was confined principally to the vicinity of the river. The dwellings even, did not stretch far away from the center. In the spring of 1835 a three story brick building, probably 117 Lake street, was erected, and finished in the fall, and then filled with goods by Breese and Shepherd. It was the general impression that the stand was too far from the ceoteir of business, and would prove a bad speculation. Mr. BRowN has been a professor of religion in connection with the Presbyterian Church for many years. He sustained the office of ruling elder in that connection in Vandalia, and has held the office from 1835, or nearly the entire period of his residence in this city; and is as well acquainted with ecclesiastical, as with legal buisness. He has constantly been a stanch supporter of his own branch of the church; and a reliable helper in any thing properly claiming his aid in any other connection. The first church edifice of the Presbyterian connection was erected upon the alley (m Clark Street; between Lake and Randolph, on the West side of the street, where the firm of S. H. Kerfoot & Co. are now situated. The building fronted towards Lake St.; and a large slough run diagonally thro' the lot in front of the Church, which, on rainy Sabbaths, and in wet times, was bridged by benches from the church. The writer of this, has a distinct recollection of thus reaching the interior of this place of worship. This church, was at the time, the only one erected by any denomination; though the Baptist, Methodists, and Episcopalians, all had a church organization; and the Catholics had a small Chapel near the corner of Washington St. and Michigan avenue. A few families lived on the north side ofthe river, and a few stores of goods had been opened there. The town had no side walks; and mud of no very certain depth, was plenty, and easily reached. Nothing like a harbor existed; and vessels were accustomed to lie outside, and unload by lighters. In 1840'Mr. Brown was appointed School Agent; an office which involved the care of the funds for School purposes in this city. His election was almost accidental; being by a majority of one only of the Whig party, with which he always acted. His aceptance was on condition, that his services should be gratuitous; and this very likely contributed to keep him in the office, at a time when party greed watched for every post of profit, however small, very much as hungry dogs watched for bones, without regard to their size, or the sort of animals to which they belong. Perhaps the city never made a more fortunate hit, either by blunder or design; for the state of our Schools hitherto had been most deplorable. The School fund was all unproductive; having been let for the most part, to parties who had failed to pay, either principal or interests. There were BIOGRAPHIES. 39 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. no school houses fit for use, and the whole matter of Schools was in a decidedly helterskelter condition. The real era of a change dates with the election of Mr. BROWN to this office of School Agent. Confidence began at once to revive; for all parties even the hunfigry ones, felt that the fund was now safe. It was no small labor to collect the scattered fragments of the fund, and put them in shape to be productive; but it was accomplished: and though Mr. B. devoted twelve or thirteen years to this business, in connection with his other affairs; loaning it out as it was collected, he never made an uncollectable debt. The Schools gradually assumed tone and character; suitable houses were built, and the system as it now is, gained shape and consistency. At the time of his resignation of the office of School Agent, in view of his gratuitous services, the Common Council of the city passed the following resolutions: Wlhereas, In the resignation of WM. H. BROWN, late School Agent, the community have lost the services of a faithful, diligent and meritorious officer; one who for the long period of thirteen years has bestowed a paternal care-to the fostering and judicious management of that sacred trust-the School fund; and Whereas, Although the unsolicited expression of public approbation may not add one iota to the already established character of the individual, who is the object of it; yet we believe that a testimonial of this nature, may afford to any honorable mind a feeling of pleasure and gratification on retiring from office, with the unbiased verdict of well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thereupon be it resolved by the Mayor and Aldermen of the city of Chicago in Common Council assembled. That we tender to WM. H. BRowN, late school Agent, our fullest expression of respect and approbation, for the correct and judicious manner in which for such a long period of years, he has fulfilled the duties appertaining to his late position. Resolved, That in the economical execution and careful attention, with which the late agent has performed his official requirements, we have presented, for the future guidance of his successor an example well worthy of imitation; and in which we discern the very unusual occurrence of a public office being held by one individual for so long a period, more for the promotion of a laudable and praisworthy object, than for the emoluments attached to it. Re.solved, That for the more fully carrying out the intention of this Preamble and Resolutions, they be entered on record and a copy presented to the subject of them." Mr. B. was one of the first Inspectors of Common Schools, elected under the city charter; and was in that Board for twelve or thirteen consecutive years. This Board of inspectors has been the instrument and agency; and in good degree the cause of our present School System. He was a constant and punctual attendant at its sittings, and a leading and influential member of it; and is entitled to his share of the credit of what it has done. In the winter of 1846, in connection with a few others, Mr. BROWN purchased the original charter of the Galena and Chicago Union Rail Road, from the Estate of E. K. Hubbard, Esq., then lately deceased. Measures were immediately taken to put on foot a working Railroad in the Northwest. Alittle piece of road had been built before Mr. Hubbard's death, but it was never worked, and went to decay. To start this Galena Road was an undertaking of no small labor. The country was poor: there were no Rail Roads anywhere in the West; and nobody had much faith in them, nor in fact in anything else. So completely had all confidence been wrecked, in the great revulsions of 1836 and onward, that nobody was willing to embark in any new scheme, either with effort or capital. The extent to which this was then true, cannot be conceived of now, by those who have no experience in that chapter of our history. This Galena Road was therefore looked upon as a very doubtful affair; and any amount of writing and cvpher 40 BIOGRAPIIIES. 41 ing, and conventioning and speech-making, was necessary to get it started. The farmers in the country, who had felt in all their bones, as well as pockets, the need of some means of getting to market with their crops, were much more alive to it than our city property holders; who had saved what little they had out of the fire, so to speak; and who did not like to risk it again beyond their fingers' ends. But the farmers were poor and able to take but little stock; and as the citizens would not risk much, the road wasbegun on a rather small scale. Mr. B. became one of the largest subscribers to the stock, and is yet one of the most extensive of its stockholders. He has always been a Director of the Road, and is now its Vice President. He has therefore had ample opportunity to aid in giving shape to the policy under which that Road has been managed. Mr. BROWN was the very man to have a hand in that undertaking. Cautious to a degree verging on exccess: knowing the full value of every dollar that passes through his hands: and constitutionally determined that every.dime shall do its own duty, he was the very man to aid in the beginning of a road, without adequate mnleans and without confidence, and carry it forward, step by step, to success. The first twelve miles of the road only cost about $6,000 per mile; but the first twelve miles told the story, for they showed that the road could be built, and would pay. This road has been the goose that has laid our golden eggs. It is the mother of all the rest in our Northwest. Mr. B. is a man of capital. He had acquired a competency before his removal to this city, and since that time, with the exception of the perilous years succeeding 1836, has been constantly adding to the amount. He early became possessed of considerable tracts of real estate, which has of late, very rapidly enhanced in value. He has entered into no rash speculations, nor made any desperate pushes for fortune. He takes care of what he has; and adds to it when he can do so with safety. He has never entered so largely upon building as have some others, but has expended considerable sums in that way at one time and another. His late residence, at the corner of Pine and Illinois streets, North Side, he erected at a cost of ten thousand dollars, in 1836; and it was, at that time, considered the beat house in the city. He is now building a residence, with front of Athens marble, on Michigan Avenue, to cost about thirty thousand dollars. As to his present possessions, he is not a man who makes any exhibition of his property. His answer to a question regarding it, was, that the inquirer would have "to guess as to the amount." Our guess therefore is, that it will not fall below $500,000, and may go to twice that sum, or even above that. Mr. BROWN is personally a tall, well formed man, with a slight stoop of the shoulders; with a keen dark eye, and hair once black as the raven, but now inclining to iron-grey. When young, he is said to have been a very fine looking man, and we can well believe it, for he holds his honors very well as yet. Mr. BROWN is a giving man; being applied to, perhaps, in aid of more charities than any one man in the city; and perhaps he answers to as many, or more, than any man. But he is not ntatuerally a giver, for his motto is, to keep what he has; and his native answer to all applications, when that answer does not flow through the channel of his christian principles, would very likely be his easy No! His manner is often b6tsqqte; but his heart is kindly; and though he who comes to him for an object not wholly explained, may be chilled by the perpendicularities of a nervous impatience, which explodes suddenly: he has only to wait for the flow of kindness and good sense, which is sure to come, to be reassured. Mr. BRowN has the talent of good common sense; one most certainly of which the world has need, as fully as of any other; this, with his inflexible integrity, gives him a position in regard to trusts, both public and private, held by few men in our city. iHe is now in the midst of well ripened middle life, and yet in active duty-a large part of it connected with these trusts, of various kinds, put into his hands. We say of him, as Horace said of Augustus-we forget the Latin of it-but the meaning of it is, "Late may he go hence." BIOGRAPHIES. 41 3 - 4 —,; $7. ~~~ ;;;;2LX;,.:X xjy4~A< ~: ~ ~ II(~ ~ Am I I I I I I 4 i I 'i i i i ii :i l 1, I i ii i i I I I I i I i I I i t i I I ;i I i i II I i i I ii i' i i i .I BIOGRAPHIES. 51 CHARLES WALKER, ESQ. The subject of this sketch is a descendent of an old and wealthy English family of some note, who, in CROMWELL'S time, were portioned upon the Tweeds and called by the significant name of Borderer.s; members of which were among the earliest adventurers to this country, for we find mention made of his more immediate ancestors, as settlers in the Eastern part of New England, as early as 1640. Col. WILLIAM W. WALKER, the father of C}IARLES, is a native of Massachusetts. His father, who was a noted cattle dealer, at an early day moved his family to Ringe, NewHampshire, from which place Col. WALKER emigrated at the age of 21, having little, or no capital, save his trusty axe and that hardy education which ever characterised the early sons of New England. Admiring the country of Central New York, he located in Plainfield, Otsego County, then but a wilderness. Here he became acquainted with a Miss LUCRETIA FERRELL, also a native tf Massachusetts, whom he subsequently married, and with whom he has now lived upwards of fifty-five years. Though an Octogenarian, COL. WALKER is still in the full enjoyment of all his faculties, having in his life-time filled many important political stations, been prominent and active in the Church, ready to lend a helping hand to all worthy benevolent objects, and at the same time secured to himself a competence and the universal respect and esteem of his fellow citizens. CHARLES is the oldest son of WILLIAM W. and LUCRETIA WALKER, and was born February 2, 1802. The country being new, as we have before stated, his educational advantages were necessarily very limnited. To a new log school house, which a few enterprising farmers had built, the young lad was sent, at the early age of six years. to gain those elementary lessons, which have been turned to such practical account through a long life of usefulness. Inheriting a vigorous constitution, and withal an active and inquiring mind, together with uncommon dilligence, he not only performed an unusual amount of manual labor upon his father's farm, but made most rapid progress in his studies. Improving his advantages to the utmost during three months in the year, he studied with his teacher during the day, and with his parents during the long winter evenings. Though as a boy among boys in these juvenile days, his vigor of mind and decision of purpose was such, that notwithstanding his limited advantages, we find he was qualified for, and entered upon the duties of teacher at the early age of 15; and from that time forward continued in the same vocation during the winter months until he attained his majority, with uncommon success. He may well, we think, look back upon that era of his life, with peculiar pride and pleasure, as he now recognizes the names of many of his old pupils among the distinguished men, of the East and West. While thus engaged, then 18 years of age, he commenced the study of law, but soon found the sedentary habits of that profession not suited to his temperament, with the advice of his physicians he relinquished that idea and turned his attention to more active pursuits, we next hear of him riding through the country, during the summer months, making purchases of sheep and cattle for his father. At twenty-one, his health being then much impaired, he resolved to enter the mer cantile business, and to that end hired himself out to a friend as clerk for a short time, at the very moderate salary of eight dollars per month. It did not, however, re quire a long clerkship for him to become a complete master of that merchant's method of doing business, and in two months he had fully determined to start in business for himself the following spring. In the spring of 1824, with $1.350 aggregate capital, compiled of $350 of his own private funds, $500 given him by his father, being in fact his own earnings, and $500 loaned of a neighboring farmer, he started for the city of New York, with no letters of credit, reference or recommendation; and the following May opened his store upon the economical plan of doing his own work, and soon after made his first purchase of grain. The next spring, when he went East to make his purchases, he made his first appearance at the Bull's Head Cattle Yard, New York, where the Bowery Theatre now BIOGRAPHIES. 51 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. stands, with a fine drove of fat cattle. By close and judicious management business prospered till 1828. But shipping in the fall of that year a large amount of cheese, butter and pork, to a southern market, the cheese became damaged at sea, and through the mismanagement of agents, and the misapplication of funds, nearly all the accumu lated fruits of four years laborious toil were swept away. But by attending personally to the sales in New York, and the purchases at home, business flourished till'32, when a sudden decline in the price of provisions occasioned another heavy loss. But from 1833 to'34, large operations in all the leading products, attended by a steady and gradual rise, brought to a successful termination all his business operations. In the spring of'33, being in New York, he accidentally became a purchaser from a cargo of raw hides from Buenos Ayres, which he was enabled to obtain upon favorable terms; but upon getting them home, and finding they were somewhat injured and could not be turned into the New York market without serious loss, he hit upon the expedient of manufacturing them into boots and shoes, and disposing of them at the fall Indian payments at Chicago; in furtherance of which plan, his brother, Mr. ALMOND WALKER, was in due time sent on, who opened his assorted stock of guns, boots, shoes and leather, at Fort Dearborn, in the autumn of 1834. By this adventure his attention was turned toward the West, where he soon saw and appreciated her undeveloped resources; and early the ensuing Spring-now twenty-one years ago-he was on his way to this city, with ready means, enlarged and liberal views, an extensive business experience and acquaintance, in the vigor of manhood, with a wide spread and favorable reputation at the East, to unite his fortunes with the destinies, and contribute his energies to the development of the unknown resources, of this, then lake shore village. Among his first operations here was the buying of several lots of real estate, among which'was the purchase of JOHN S.WRIGHT, Esq. the corner of Clark, and South Water Street, in connection with Capt. BIGELOW, of Boston, and JONEs, KING & Co., of Chicago, for the sum of $15,000, cash; which was considered by many at that time, a most visionary speculation. Some days subsequent to making this purchase, after reconnoitering in the country, he publicly avowed the then bold opinion that Chicago was destined to be the great city of the inland seas, and in test of his faith in this prediction, immediately set about making this city the principal point for his future operations. In May,'35, while on his way to Chicago, being detained at St. Josephs, there being no regular means of conveyance across the lake at that time, he made several purchases of hides from the fiat boats and butchers' stalls for the Eastern market, to which were subsequently added purchases made in and about Chicago; this shipment, it is believed, is the first ever made from the State of Illinlois to any point as far east as Utica or Albany. The next year he established business in Chicago with the late E. B. HURLBURT, Esq., under the firm of "WALKER & Co.," upon South Water street, for importing implements of husbandry and household utensils from the East, together with a store of general merchandise, taking in exchange the various products of the West. During this period he was much of the time riding through the country, on horseback, as far north as Green Bay, locating government lands at the Four Lakes,(now Madison) Beloit, and other points on the Rock and Milwaukie Rivers. The next year came the terrible financial revulsions of'37, when ruin and desolation swept the whole country, those who sat in the high places of wealth and affluence were drawn irresistably into the maelstrom of utter insolvency. Banks, like business men, came down with a crash, and the depreciation of currency produced ruinous confusion in the mediums of exchange. But Mr. WALKER was one of the very few men, extensively engaged in business~, wosodu gis h tr;tog ehdt extensively engaged in business, who stood up against the storm; though he had to bring to bear his best energies and most expert financial skill, for maturing liabilities pressed hard upon him, and his name was largely endorsed upon the paper of other men; had not his reputation in Eastern comnmercial circles been of the best char 52 BIOGRAPHIES. acter, he would certainly have been swamped with thousands of others. But he found, in this emergency, that the relation he thus held as an important commercial medium between the merchant and artizan of the East, and the pioneer husbandman of the West, of immeasurable advantage. The extensive and favorable business reputation he enjoyed among the leading men and Banks of the East, as well as the confidence of the dealers of the West, enabled him to greatly enlarge his operations. To prevent the necessity of purchasing Eastern drafts at ruinous rates, he adopted the plan of purchasing the products of the country with the depreciated currency of the West, and made his extensive shipments of products the medium of exchange through which to meet his Eastern liabilities. Thus he was enabled to prevent the entire stag nation of business at home, preserve his reputation abroad, and in a few years of almost unprecedented vigilance and activity, to entirely overcome all his embarrassments. The next year his firm purchased a few bags of grain of the surrounding farmers, which were sent to his mills in Otsego county, New York; this shipment of wheat, we believe, was the first ever made from Chicago to so Eastern a market. During this period, though making Chicago the principal theatre of his labors, he was yet a resident of the State of New York, dividing his time nearly equally between this city, his home in Otsego Co.; New York City, and traveling on business. In'39 the famous struggle between the old Safety Fund, and the so-called Red Dog, or free banking system, was at its height. As a Representative from his native county he was sent to the Legislature. Carrying with him the same comprehensive and far-seeing views as a legislator, that ever characterized him as a business man, he was instrumental, in no small degree, in carrying through, though opposed by the great preponderance of the money power of the State, that deservedly popular system of redemption and exchange, which has since that time bcen in effect. Each succeeding year his business in Chicago continued to increase, so that in 1840 his shipments had so much enlarged, that in the purchase of hides and skins alone, he not only exhausted his supply of merchandize, but was obliged to bring money from the East. In 1842, he established a partnership with CYRUS CLARK, Esq., of Utica, under the firm of WALKER & CLARK, for receiving Western produce; to bring himself nearer the chief point of business, he resolved to close out his affairs in Otsego County, and in May, 1845, he removed his family to our city. In 1847 came the great crisis in the grain trade which carried down the oldest and best houses in the Union. Though not escaping without some most terrible losses that would have intimidated ordinary men; with a courage undaunted by reverses-with a nerve and will, equal to the emergency, his craft was guided to a safe anchorage from the fearful breakers that engulphed his less fortunate competitors; and his firm continued to hold its position as the leading grain and produce house in the West. In 1851 it was found that C. WALKER & SON of Chicago, WALKER & KELLOG of Peoria, and WALKER & CLARK of Buffalo, were the largest purchasers of grain from the farmers in the United States. So that the few bags of grain, which in 1839 were sent on their eastern journey and the few bushels of 1824, had in 1851, grown to 1,500,000 bushels. At this period a severe attack of that malignant disease, the cholera, destroved his health and compelled him to leave the financial management of the business to his oldest son, who continued the same under the firm of C. WALKER & SON and C. WALKER & SONS till 1855, when he retired from the business altogether, leaving it to his two sons and others, who continue the same under the firm of WALKER, BRONSON & Co., prosecuting the business with all the vigor of its founder, this firm have, during the past year, handled over five and a quarter millio)s of bushels of grain, an amount, we think, which will bear comparison with that of any other establishment in our own country or in Europe. Mr. WALKER retires, we understand, the oldest grain merchant in the Union, having steadily remained in one of the most hazardous speculations in the world over thirty-one years. Acting upon the principle that he who can so cheapen and 99 make efficient the avenues of trade, as to bring the productions of the country so much nearer a market, that the farmer can receive but one penny more the bushel for his grain, brings millions to his country, he feels amply repaid for the great risks he has run; and whatever benefit may have accrued to himself, that he has rendered an ample equivalent to those whom he has served. While thus engaged as a pioneer in his own peculiar business he has been none the less efficient in promoting works of public utility. Prominent in all those great schemes which do so much towards developing the resources of the country, he has ever been one of the foremost in opening up and turning to account those great thoroughfares which vein our broad prairies, and wind their deep channels through our hills and valleys, and which, with each throb of animated industry, quicken into life new avenues of trade, turning their accumulated wealth to swell the commercial tide that has so strongly set to the heart of our western metropolis. When the Galena Rail Road was resuscitated, in 1847, Mr. WALKER was chosen one of its Directors. He entered into the project with all his heart. In its gloomiest days his faith never faltered; his confidence in the ability of the country to build the road, never failed. When it was found that more subscriptions were necessary, he, as one of a Committee for soliciting additional subscriptions, traversed the country westward, and as far north as Beloit. His courage never wavered. When, in its darkest days, at a meeting of the Board, all confidence seemed to have departed from a majority of the Directors, he, with two or three others, remained firm in his confidence that the work would go through without failure. "A Committee of the Believing" was appointed to take measures to prevent immediate disaster, composed of himself, J. Y. SCAMMON, Esq., and one other. Their measures were successful; and when, on the return of its President, Mr. OGDEN, from New York, it became necessary that the Directors should become individually liable for a large sum of money, to secure the iron to lay the first division of the Road; Mr. WALKER did not hesitate to be among the first to do so; and to the credit of the Board, be it said, that all the Chicago Directors, but one, pledged their individual liability for the progress of the work. Mr. WALKER has remained in the Directory from the first, taking an active part in the construction and management of the road. In February, 1856, the enterprise of pushing forward, across Iowa the counterpart of the GALENA RAILROAD, was projected; and the CIIICAGO, IowA & NEBRASKA RAILROAD was organized, having its eastern termination at the young and growing town of Clinton, on the western bank of the Mississippi. Of this company Mr. WALKER is one of the main directors and its president, and if the work be prosecuted, and who doubts it will, with the same sound sense, and untiring vigor that has characterised the whole life of its President, what better guarantee could be given of its ultimate success? Though now ostensably retired from business, and impaired in health, he still stands foremost among the public-spirited men who seek to blend schemes for their own ad vantage with plans of the greatest public utility. During the past summer, he has, in connection with others, erected and put in operation at Beloit, Wis., an excellent paper mill and a large reaper mianufactory, and from a superior quality of clay upon his own farm in Morris, Ill., he has commenced the manufacture of "Greens Mountain Ware," expecting, in time, to supply Chicago and the North-West with a quality of stone ware equal to any in the United States. Hle is also largely engaged in farming in the interior. Animated by the conviction,that hlie who-does the most towards opening up and diffusing the great channels of trade, so that the poor man's labor will gain a level with the eich man's capital, is a practical philanthrophist, he has been in theory and practice a thorough utilitarian. In private life a plain man and thoroughly democratic, he recites the incidents of his boyhood and early struggles with a degree of well-earned satisfaction, and none is more ready in every consistent way, with kind words or material countenance and aid, to cheer onward honest and persevering industry. From the first a 54 TIIE CIIIICAGO MAGAZINE. %I BIOGRAPIIIES. 55 faithful and influential member of the Church and most exemplary man, we think we do no injustice to any other citizen to say, that while we are frank to concede there are others who have added to themselves greater wealth, to none is Chicago more indebted for her unexampled prosperity than to him. n closing this brief notice of one so highly esteemed, we may fitly add the words of another: "In the internal improvements which have done so much to develop the exhaustless resources of the State-in Rail Road enterprises, which have poured a flood-tide of wealth and business into our commercial metropolis of theNorth West, in every public work, whose intention and effect was to build up and promote the healthful growth of the city, he has ever been in the foremost rank of public spirited men. In short, taking into consideration the varied incidents of his active life, his indomitable perseverance and industry, and the financial ability he has exhibited, Mr. CHARLES WALKER has had few equals and no superiors, as a skillful business man and a good citizen." THE ASTROLOGER. A little river wound inward, inward; as though the lake had forgotten the great law of attraction which the ocean is continually enforcing. "It is going backward,' said the Astrologer, as he suffered his little canoe to be drawn in by the sluggish current. "This seems like a reversion of nature's laws; and yet, it cannot be, for all move on in harmony. I will fo llow and see whither it may le a d. Only a gentle sweep, as though the lake had gone out to meet the river; how strange! how deep! Ah! hither shall mighty ships come, I see it now; here shall the st or m-winds be baf - fled; here shall commerce, the crimson life-tide of the nations, find a new and vigorous pulsation. O., thanks! thanks! ye infinite powers, I have been led hither bv the mighty stars; the light of their eyes hath been my guide, and I have found one of the germinal spots of earth. -Here will I cast the horoscope of a mighty city, I will fore-read the hidden destiny, that I may see in the far future, from the regions of the infinite read by page as it unfoldeth to my vision. "Yes, blessed is he who readeth the fut ure, for he shall join with the orbs of light to aid in its unfolding. He shall question destiny aright, and in that, lieth the secret of joy and sorrow. Blessed is he who is permitted to ask the first question from the Book of Fate, for all answers that follow must be shaped by that first interrogation." The b lue waters of the great Michigan lay sparkling in the starl ight, and my ri ads of l ights were da ncing to and fro on the wavelets, born of the soft embrace of the twilight breezes and the crystal floo d. N o sound broke the mighty silence, save the g entlest wh i sper of the z ephyr in its w antoil caress of its star-gemmed mistress, and the measured plash of a solitarv oar. Far out upon the bosom of the lake in a frail bark the nightly watchers saw a human form, dark as the shades of night, but with an eye bright as their own burning fires, a reflex of the divinity within. Now the birchen canoe became a thing of seeming life, as it shot like an arrow towards the shore; and anon it paused, and the oars lay idle. and the sable occupant looked up and counted the stars that blazed above him, and an invocation, chanted low and sweetly, rose from his parted lips"Oh! Acyone, mighty ruler among the spheres, Look down with glorious radiance on thy child; Wanderer from the islands of the sun-lit sea, Through these Northern realms so broad, so wild, All over earth I know there yet lie hidden Gems of the mighty future not unfolded, I come, as mightiest orbs my course had bidden Ere this poor being was by nature moulded. Point out the germ spot where the mighty nations, Shall gather forces, as the heart rules being, And call to life the infinite creations, Shadowed by these starry eyes the future seeing." Again he bowed himself to the oars, and arrow-like the frail bark sped to the shore. .. - --, o. - BIOGRAPHIES. 55 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE He drew a square upon the sand with one of his oars, and cutting off the outer angles, arranged the twelve houses of fate, just as the astrologers of Egypt, his mighty ancestors, had done for the Pharaohsof old. In the East he set the house of life, in the West the house of death, in the North the house of fortune, in the South the house of honors. "A star of the first magnitude among the nations!" exclaimed he, as he marked the concentration of lights in the celestial scheme. Lo! the sun from the East in the sign Taurus, marks the strength of life, I foresee the mighty forces of being, evolved, with a power and rapidity before unknown. Tides of life inflowing from distant orbs, foretell a mighty destiny; new lights which have not yet been absorbed by earth, are conspiring with the mighty ruler of the heavens, to bring into being, forces that man hath not hitherto controlled, and these shall minister to the myriads that shall gather here. This lake shall see ships walk its surface like things of life, breathing with iron lungs, which s end i the heated life-tide like the purple tide through human veins, to propel the almost conscious enginery, and those mighty leviathans of the deep, shall bring hither the people and the wealth of all nations as willing tribute. All over the mighty praries, that spread out like another ocean, gemmed with flowers, the foot-prints of angels, shall these myriass pass, but the city shall be the great palpitating heart, through which the lifetide shall incessantly pour,for renewed util ity and force. "Iron muscles shall yet bind it to the world around. The great lake shall be wedded to the ocean with an iron ring, and iron nerves shall thrill in sympathy with the remotest nations of tle globe. Ships laden with the fruitage of every clime shall enter through thy portal, Oh! thou migh ty water; and the children of the West shall bring hither their tribute, and the gateway shall yet be opened even to the Pacific shores. 'Gemini, in the house of thy children, over which the genial influence of Jupiter presides, indicates the multitudes of thy "Thus geometry taught me-that he who first asked a question of a square, and took from it an angle, determined what remaining answers the square should be able to give. All reflex is only an answer to the first propulsion which becomes a question answered by the second. Wouldthat men could read the law and apply it wisely. B ut to the stars; let me look up and read th e might y l ore.t " Thus, thus! l et me understand the confiuence of light. Let me mark the angles at which th e hi ghest influxes will occur. M.en litt l e know the laws of light, nor why the stars have so long been ques ti oned in regard to destiny. Light is th e gre at interrogator of the universe, a nd we judge of the answers it will elic it by the angles of incidence. Thu s t he sun ques tions the earth at all angles less than a right angle, to call for th the answer of vegetation, the o rder of verdure, of flow ers, of fruitage. It questions at obtus e a ngles, and cold and stormn-w inds answer, an d fleecy clouds gather blackness, and snow, and tn w a nd he voice of a temp est answer back the interrogatory. Oh light! light! Thou great eye of the Infinite! Loot ki ndly, beamingly, on this new germinal spot of earth, and let the life called forth here be only a reflex o f t hy direct and loving appeal, even as a mother's l o ok of love blesses her child. Let the mighty city, w hich shall yet spring up here, I f or esee, fr om th e great confluence of the r ays commingling here from countless orbs, bear fruits of the highest manifestation of the divine principle concentered in man, the child of matter and of highest spiritual force." "Man is the microcosm. In him center all th e law s of the Universe, and hence he may q uestion the heavens above and the earth beneath, and the waters under the earth, while they also question him in return, and evoke the mysteries of his power. How significant the first question whether propounded by a star or an atom? The magii of old believed, and thus it hath come to me through long ages, that some star proposed the first question to humanity at the moment of birth; and hence, predetermined the infinite succession of answers that must follow." THE ASTROLOGER. "how like a coiled serpent some of these interrogation points become. But they question, and they will be answered." A shudder, a groan of anguish escaped him as he watched the results of the questions, propounded to appetite and passion, by the serpent Cunning; the answer of fire, of ashes mingled with blood. He writhed in agony for a moment as he muttered, "yes, even so, when the reptile asks nature of her powers, it only obtains for answer, poison with which to envenom its sting-for thus only does it question." The smouldering ashes drank up the blood, and the vision was again unrolled. A man whom the higher necessities of being had taught to question nature more uprightly, at length pitched his tent upon the sands, and his household gods were in time gathered around him. In the old garden of the nation, where the choicest germs of humanity had been planted, and braced by northern winds, and inured to a sterile soil, that they might bear transplanting to the utmost ends of the earth, he had learned how to question nature, and to comprehend her answers. In him the seer beheld the human might that should endure through ages, for the answers that his questions should call forth, would place his posterity among the mighty. Like a germinal spot in a seed, around him gathered more and more of the vital energies that encompassed him, and the shores of the lake resounded to the tread of human feet, and white winged ships, like huge birds, danced on the bosom of the deep. On-on-rolled the vision. Homes rose in the green waste. The smoke of the daily household offering ascended to heaven. Temples arose-some consecrated to mammon, some to knowledge, some to the spirit of worship, and some to sensual pleasure. Nature was questioned by humanity in a myriad of ways; but too often the serpent, the prone creeping elements in man's nature, performed the interrogatory, and the answer corresponded to the question. In the public mart, men bought and sold for greed more than for use. They did not offspring, and the wisdom which shall fall upon their heads. But let them beware, for th e ray s of S atu rn a lso commingle, inciting to craft and to avarice, and the eyes of the star of pleasure look down upon thy sons and daughters with luring smile. "Blessed shall they be who shall learn to question avarice aright, and make it yield a willing tribute to the infinite capacity of humanity. Oh, Jupiter! thou benign symbol of wisdom, look thou kindly upon the Saturnine children that may flow hither from among the nations of the earth and teach how their energies may be questioned aright. "In the house of riches and honors and chief dignities, Arctus, from the northern heavens, looks down with strength on the nativity, and even Saturn lends his most benign rays to aid the influence which Jupiter sheds upon his favorite, while the Sun, ascending to the zenith, looks with eyes of love, that call forth all the wealth and power, and grandeur of being. "And not until the great orb shall sink' forever be low the mighty deep shall th dou, Oh, city of destiny! enter the house of de ath, and thy life shall cease only with the life-pulse of the nations." The Astrolog er bow ed himself tQ the earth, and whi le the night-dews fell upon h is crisped locks, a dreamy trance enfolded him as a mantle, and the centuries unrolled before his clearer vision. He saw a rude cabin rise before him upon the soft, green turf, and rude implements supplied the means of life to one who appeared in outward guise like himself. He walked like a faint shadow of the past, and a dim dream of the future between the shores of of the mighty ocean of prairie, and the dan-. cing billows of the lake; but poor Au Sable knew not how to question their mighty energies. -He stood there, a single interrogation point, able only to ask of the garden a little maize, and a few vegetables, and of the water a tribute from its finny tribes. "Oh! for more powers with which to question nature!" sighed the entranced sleeper. At last a hunter came. He was a bolder, aye, and a more subtle interrogator. "Strange," whispered the Astrologer, L 57 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. companion, strong in her love, glorious ill her self-abnegation, clear and cultivated in intellect, and beautiful as an appropriate outward answer to all questions of inward grace and harmony; he encountered a bund le of hoops and crinoline, beflounced with silks and laces, from the midst of which peeped out a painted face, decorated with artificials, and perfumed with the "odor of a thousand flowers." And of these, the great question of questions was to be asked; the life, the strength, the virtue, the glorious aspiration s o f the ages! Could it fin d incarnation through such as these? 'Just heavens!" groaned the Astrologer, as he turned in agony,',Oh! where is the primal word locked up, that shall ask of these poor gewgaws the mighty question that shall open their human souls, and fill them with a divine hunger." He imagined himself wandering among the haunts of men, and seeking among all the schools for that primal word of power. Lawyer s tal ked of equal righits, doctors told him that health was the magic word. He entered the charmed circle, and spoke with the voice of authority, but only a few responded to the question of rights. Rights involved duties, and they were too feeble to desire them; they should stagger and fall under the burthen. Then he pronounced the mystic word Health. A few, and they, the children of toil, responded blushing to the invocation, but the rest turned away in disgust. Then he entered the temples dedicated to the Most High. Surely in their sacred teaching, among their royal priesthood he should find the word of power which he sought. They were busy about creeds, and building churches whose spires should reach the skies, and they had l]gun to emulate the world in its pomp and pleasures, and worldliness sat in the seat of humility. Yet had they done more than all others to question humanity aright, but even they had forgotten the primal word, and could not answer his agonizing appeal. "Oh! city of my desire,"he cried, "where shall I find the mighty question whic h shall bring back health, peace and purity to my ask whetther their commoditie s were dentand ed by the highest good of being, but w hether they could que s tion man's desire, and stimulate his energies to bring them gold. For, said they, "If we do not thus question their appetites a nd p assions, others w ill, and get the golden answer." Hence these sad victims, whose lower n atures had been thus made to answer unlawful question ing, becam e unable to answer the noblerquestions which science and art, m iniste ring to true prospe rity and virtue, had designed man to answer, as the first question proposed by hunger to all his productive energ ies. So the rich man's gold had to ans wer to questions of theft, and beggary, and prostitu tion, a nd sickness and prosecutions, and pris ons, and poor-houses. He comp lai ned of the tax, but forget t hat it was his first question to human passions, that had l ed to their subsequent questioning of his substance. Perhaps he si lenc e d the questions of his conscience by again repeating, "If I had n o t done it some others would." He entered the schools a nd found that t he teac hers were little mor e skillful. They fed a ppetites before they were hungry; they gave answersbefore they were questioned; a nd the disciples sat before them like poor dyspeptics at a costly banquet. They were hungry, but they could n ot eat such viands as were set before them. They wanted to see forms; to k n ow about things; to become familiar with the elements arou n d them; ever y fibre of their young bodies yearned for sym metrical development; but books wer e thrust into their hands, and silence was enjoined when they lo nged to question, and t hei r deep-lovin, se ntiments were suppressed by stern rule. Ol0! how hard, and formal, and unquestioning these poor disciples came from common schools and college halls. The sum of their learning consisted in having disciplined themselves to ignore nature, and to spurn her holiest teachings. So man, as the first interrogator, asked of woman, beauty as the outward svymbol of health and love. Woman's answer becamre more feeble according to the falsities of the questioner, till at length, instead of clasping her to his bosom as a 58 TilE SALT LAKE VALLEY. 59 beloved." A little child looked out of the window, and lisping said, "my mother!" "Mary, mother of Jesus, pity us," repeated a poor crippled beggar, as he passed by on the opposite side. Then he remembered that Jesus was the son of Mary, and that her answer to the angel of annunciation had been: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word." And thus, through one mighty question proposed to woman, the Son of God came to earth. It was not' a question proposed to the outward forces, not a question to health, nor to intellect, nor to power; but the sublime question-was to her as mother, whether it should be her crown of suffering and glory to become the natural and spiritual parent of those who, like their elder brother, the gentle Nazarine, should be the spiritual children after accord with her first questionings. Society now for the first time understood the cost of questioning woman falsely. Then it was revealed to his interior comprehension, why Christ was not born after the manner prescribed by human law, else could not all the outcast children of humanity have been dra wn to him by the bond of universal sympathy. Slowly, s l owly the glor y of the fair city now unfolded. All occupations began to answer to the primal wants of man. A new splendor gathered aro und it, and he saw its golden glory like t h at of the new Jerusalem as it came down from God out of Heaven. It was the sheen of the waters called forth by the rising sun, that thus glimmered upon his awakening senses, and the Astrologer awoke to ask the first humble question of the spot where now stands this mighty citv. of the Lord Almighty. He looked at the beautiful child, whose eyes of blue and curls of gold seem borrowed from the angels. "My mother," again lisped the child of beauty, and the Astrologer passed on with the primal word on his lips. "It was God's fkst question in the scheme of redemption; it must be the first question in all social institutions. He gave it to the lawyer, and bade him use it in remodeling laws; he gave it to the doctor, and bade him use it in restoring health; he gave it to the minister and bade him use it as a charm to drive out pride, and envy, and worldliness; he gave it to the State as a purifier from all unjust institutions. During th e last session of Congress wh i le the attention both of government and people was engrossed by most serious political affairs, there arrived at Washington the bearers of a new State constitution, soliciting the admission into our union of the distant territory of Utah. The requestthen made was hardly noticed amid the Then came back glory and strength, and beauty to the children of earth. Then home became the sacred spot, the holy of holies to the life of man; the mother became the priestess through whom knowledge, purity and power descehded to the earth. Intemperance, pollution and poverty were soon banished, for then society came to consider that she who had borne a child, whether in a manger, without any recognized legal paternity, or is the honored wife of the highest, was now, and henceforth must be held sacred from all profanation, because she was to be the mighty questioner of a human soul, and all its answers must there W1. A Report ofth e Exploring Expedition to Ore gon and North California in the year 1843-4 b y Brevet Capt. J. C. Fremont; Washington 1 815. 2. The Mormons; London, 1851. 3. The Great West (Vol. II. Arts. 44-5,) It. Howe: Cincinnati, 1853. 4. Exploration and Survey of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah, by Howard Stansbury, U. S. A: Washington, 1853. 5. The Historyof the Mormons, by Lieut. J. W. GuTn inison; Philadelphia, 1853. 6 Utah and the Mormons, by Benjamin G. Ferris. late Secretary of Utah; New York, 1854. 7 Die 31ormonen, von Moritz Busch; Leipzig, 1855. THE SALT LAKE VALLEY. 59 * TIIE SALT LAKE YALLEY AND ITS PEOPLE. 11 Visa est enira mihi res digna consultations, may,ime p?-opter periclitantium enumerum, Xu7ti enim omnis aetatis, oninis ordinis utriusque seus etiant vocantu?- in periculum et vocabunter. 11 C. Plini Caccili Secundi Epistulae xc?,,i. 60 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. and the hundreds of miles of untimbered slope stretching from the foot of the Rocky Mountains to the Western settlements of the States and including the northern portion of the Great American Desert. Southward are vast tracts of mountainous arid and desert country, extending through the Territory of New Mexico and peopled by treacherous tribes; and on the west a salt plain whose hundreds of miles of absolute desolation, show only "a crow and a grasshopper" in a day's march.e Add to this, that for five months in the year accumulated snows fill the canons and elevatedpasses of the mountains and forbid all travel, and it is not wonderful that until late years little save vague and exaggerated rumor was heard of this lonely region. Baron La Hontan, Captain Stansbury in forms us, in 1689, during uncertain wander ings westward from the upper Mississippi, heard accounts of "a salt lake three hundred leagues i n cir cum f erence," and more over of" six noble cities" of the Tahuglauk. Humboldt, in his Views of Nature, (page 207,) deems it probable that the Great Salt Lake of Fremont's map (Lake of Timpan ogos as laid down on his "great map of Mexico, executed in 1804,") is identical with the Lake of Teguayo the ancestral seat of the Aztecs. It is possible that the etymol ogical resemblance between the Tahuglauks of La Hontan's informants and Humboldt's Teguayo might lead to a final identification of both with the Great Salt Lake; but to admi tted. The i nterest al way s f elt in this stra nge region and its stra,nger people, becomes more i ntense as the hour of decision draws near, and m ay re nd er not out of place some retmarks upon the Country, History, Religion, and proper disposition of the Mormons. Some two thousand miles directly west of New Y ork and twelve hundred from the far inland St. Louis: separated by more than three hundred leagues from the adva nced settlem e nts of the States, and by near two hundred of lonliest travel from the n ea rest towns of Oregon, California, and New Mexico; high up in the valley of the Sierra Nevada and Wasatch mountains, lie s the " Fremont Basin," now wit h som e mar,i n of surrounding country, beter known as the T erri tory of U tah. It is a vast elevated plateau n of an extent," says Humboldt " sc arcely to be met with in any part of the world," a find ing its parallel only in t he h eart of A sia, the country of the Azoff and C aspi an an d the T iticaca Basin in South America. Of an exten t va rio u sly and vaguely estimated at 128 000, 137 000, and 250,000 squ are miles; walled in bv snowy ramparts of mountains, and lying at its lowest elevation 4200 feet above the level of the se a, it is complete in itself, with its own systems of rivers flowing into centr al lakes, an d having no communica tion with the ocean. In the north-east corner of this basin and at the western foot of the Wasatch mountains lies the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, if valley it may be called, isolated from isolation. Upon the north lies the easternmost of three sections or terraces of Oregon, a region of broken and barren mountain spurs, incapable of furnishing sufficient food for a sparce In dian population, and offering no induce ments to the settlement of the industrious white man. To the eastward is the higher plateau of Inner California, lying 6000 feet above the level of the seat between the Wasatch and the Rocky Mountains, with little exception, also sterile and untenable; V views Nature; Bohn's edition, p. 34. GOuizot's Earth and Man. retur n. "Father Escalante," says Humboldt, "in his wanderings from Santa Fe, del Nuevo Mexico, to Monterey, in New California, discovered Fremont's' Great Salt Lake' in 1776, and confounding together the river and the lake called it Laguna de Timpanogo." So it is named on the old maps. There follow fifty years of silence. It was not until the year 1824 that Wm. H. Ashley, a fur trader, penetrated into this region and founded an Establishment one hundred miles south-east of the lake. This Establishment was, after the collection of many furs, abandoned about the year 1830. The imperfect and unscientific observations *Captain Startsbury. 60 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. conflict of excitidg events, but a question' soon to be decided upo.,i is, Sball Utah be TilE SALT LAKE VALLEY. 61 n rIess the boat moved on, plunging her bows into the black and sullen waters. As we passed withi' the shadows of the obscure and frowning mountains, the eye wa s strained in vain to catch some evidence of life. The sense of isolation from everything living, was painfully oppressive. Even the chirp of a cricket would have formed some link with the world of life; but all was stillness and solitary desolation."* Such we may conceive to be the appearance of the Great Salt Lake, a body of intensely salt water, 130 miles in length, and from 70 to 80 broad, according to Secretary Ferris, but 70 miles in length according to Lieut. Gunnison, whose figures are more probably correct. The length of the shore line (291 miles) given by Captain Stans bury, in his report accords better with this last statement as well as the dimensions by Humboldt of 60 miles in length by 40 in width. Owing to the shallows and flats, however, any exact estimate of the size of the lake seems exceedingly difficult. The country surrounding the lake, is exceedingly diverse in its character. To the north swampy and low; on the east along the western foot of the Wasatch range for a length of three hundred miles, and a breadth of one or two, irrigated and highly productive; on the south above the alkaline barrens," very fertile in the valleys of the Jordan and Tuilla. But on the west a traveler along the barren plain, might deem himself in some land of necromancy. Desolation broods alike over arid earth and dazzling sea. The gigantic shapes of the mirage stalk across the horizon in shadowy awfulness. Fairyislands of matchless beauty rise, cool and green before the distempered imagination and fancied lakes, float in the dim and unattainable distance. But of actual vegetable or animal life, there is scarce anything. The region seems accursed. There is but one like it, and that lies sunk deep in the bosom of old Asia, beside the cradle of the human race,e-the dread site of the Cities of the Plain. Tahe Climate, Soil and Productions are scarcely less anomalous. For five months in the year, hardly a drop of rain falls, and o f superstitious trappers, however, rather increased the mystery, and the veteran hunter by the wilderness camp fire beguied the evening hour and entertained his less experienced comrades with strange legends of the lonely and weird salt sea. It was said, among other things, that there was a fearful whirlpool in its midst, through which the else overflowing waters found a subterranean outlet-a belief by the way which Lieut. Gibbon found to prevail among the South American Indians in regard to Lake Titicaca as regards a subterraneous outlet.* It was not until the summer of 1843 when the daring and adventurous Fremont broke into the charmed circle with the appliances of modern science, and by subsequent travel, encircled the entire basin, that ally definite idea was had of the appearance and character of this isolated region, which a peculiar people have since populated and made their own. It was a day to remember, that bright autumn morning when the explorers launching their frail inflated bark, pushed out into the clear green waters, "th e first ' That ever burst Into that silent. sea;" If we except not the mythical La HIontan, Tahuglauks, who in old years clove the liteially" barren foam" with boats, "in which two hundred men may row." A day to remember —with its clear blue above, and its rugged horizon peering over piled masses of mountains, white with eternal snows. A scene most impressive-that desolate lake-its bared shore of shelving beach or lofty promontory-its naked islands rising high above the heavy brine in austere grandeur of undraped and rugged gray rock, with no sign of life upon land or wave, save the scream of flocks of wild fowl s eeking their secluded island fastnesses: "Apricis Statis gratissiml'morgis." The night brought a more fearful gloom. "The silence of the grave was around us, unrelieved by the slightest sound. Not the leaping of a fish, nor the solitary cry of a bird was to be heard, as in profound still * Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon. Part 11. Page 101. 61 THE SALT LAKE VALLEY. * Captain Stansbury's Report. THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. for five more the snows lie thick upon the ture will meet with some serious obstacles mountains. The great elevation of theval- in Utah. The quantity of arable, that is, ley-4200 feet, and the lofty and snow capped mountains of 8,000 and 10,000 feet high, which surround it, render the climate far from equable. Cold winds from the high snows bring down unseasonable frosts and chill midsummer. Capt. Fremont found ice every night through the month of August. The close approximation of hot and cold air frequently results in destructive hailstorms and violent winds, which as is said, sometimes bear the spray of the Lake into the city-a distance of twenty-two miles. Great diurnal variation of temperature is caused by the presence or absence of the sun's rays. The naked masses of rock reflect an intense heat whilst shone upon, but as suddenly lose it upon the withdrawal of the sun's rays. Captain Stansbury, during his survey, found that the cloudy days and nights of summer, required great-coats and fires for comfort. The atmosphere is light and during some parts of winter remarkably clear. The soil of the valley is composed "chiefly from the disintegration of the feldspath c ic rock, mixed with detritus of the limestone,"exceedinglypr6ductive when irrigated, but too porous to retain water through the long summer droughts. A narrow margin along the western foot of the Wasatch Mountains is sufficiently irrigated by streams from the melting snows, which presently disappear and leave a barren and dreary waste of shorle. Volcanic products pervade the soil.' Hot, warm, and cold springs, gaseous, alkaline, sulphurous and chalybeate are numerous along the base of the hills; often in such close proximity that one may thrust his hands, the one into a cold and the other into a hot spring Near the Bear river there is said to be a hot sulphur, a tepid salt, and a cold fresh spring within a space of thirty feet in diameter. Alkaline salts pervade the regions, poisoning the waters of some springs to such an extent as to destroy cattle coming to drink, and even efflorescing upon the surface of cultivated lands, whitening the ground like hoar frost and destroying the crops. From these facts it appears that Agricul often injure the grain crops and depri ve the pie plant of its acidity. On the othe r hand, this so il when irrigate d yields readily sixty bushels of wheat to the a cre, an d bv drilling a single bushel over th ree acres of land, " the enormou s yield of one hun dred and eighty bushels" was prod u ced. Pot atoes are produced in like quantities and of excellent quality. The same is true of melons, squashes, beets and other roots which are improved bv alkaline products in the soil. As a grazing country, it can be more generally used. ".The valleys" says Lieut Gunnison, "furnish perennial pasturage." The hill-sides furnish the bunch grass only during the warm months of the year." But the " perennial pasturage " of new countries is seldom of long duration. The superfluous growth disappears as grazing increases and the winter supply fails. Whether this will be the case with the notable'; Bunch Grass," remains to be seen. This germinates in autumn, grows under winter snows and drying on the stalk in spring, remains in that state a self-cured hav, nutritious and sweet through summer. A grass, similar to this as regards autmnn germination, is said to be found on the bottom lands of Southern Illinois. Of other indigenous productions, a few are worth of notice. The following edible roots and forest trees are mentioned by FREMONT: The " Sego" (Calochortus Luteus) a bulbous root about the size of a walnut, very palatable and nutritious and much sought for by Indian and White man:-the "Kooyah" or Tobacco Root, (Valeriana Edulis) " the principal edible root among the Indians inhabiting the upper part of the streams west of the mountains," of a bright yellow color, strong taste and odor, poisonous before being baked in the ground for two davs, but then 62 of irrigable land is small, and irrigation is expensive even under favorable conditions. Crops liable to injury by late frosts in. sprin, and early ones in autumn, such as Inthan corn cannot be raised with profit. The efflorescing alkalies burn up sometimes, and GETTING AIIEAD. 63 -- rnil ofnutriment;"-the" Kamas" (Camassia esculenta) having somewhat the taste of preserved quince;- the Nut Pine, (Pinus -Vonopyllus) bearing a nut oily, agreeable, and very nutritious:-wild flax:-a large thistle (circium virginianum) of edible root: together with limited quantities of cedar, pine, dwarf maple, oak, cotton wood and aspen, with great abundance of Artemesia or "Wild Sage." Wood, both for firing and building is very difficult to procure. It is found in the deep gorges and canons of the hills, and must often be transported from ten to twenty miles. The prevalent adobe of Spanish America is used, however, in the construction of houses, and rock and coal are abundant when made accessible by railway. The animal life of this valley is even less various than its vegetable. Rabbits, Antelopes and Deer, Bear, and Panthers are found among the hills. Trout are caught in the swift running streams of the canons, and Pike, Bass, Perch, and Chub in the mor e quiet waters of the plains. No living thing is found beneath the waters of the lake; but innu merable w ild fowl- Pelicans, G eese, Brandts, Teal Ducks, Cranes and H erons - abou nd upon the island s and furnish as yet game, and boat loads of eggs to th e s porting saint. Numerous species of the lizard and locust tribe, swarm upon the land and furnish loathsome subsistence to the miserable " Digger;" whilst the atmosphere of the lake teems with minute and troublesome insects, and its shores are heaped with insectile exuvial accumulated in immense masses. But of all, most painfully curious, is the miserable Digger, the lowest type of the Indian race. "Dispersed," says Fremont, "in single families: without firearms, eating seeds and insects; digging roots (and hence their name:)such is the condition of the greater part." Devouring lizards and crickets-every reptile and worm they can lay hands uponto appease hunger, without courage or reason sufficient for self preservation; hurrying away at the approach of man with sidelong glance behind, like a wild animal; starving through winter in caves or miserable huts, and crawling out to banquet ra venously on the ve ry grass of spring time, their whole faculties se em con ce ntrate d o n the satisfaction of th eir i mmedia te wants, nt and to range no higher. "Others are a degre e higher a nd live i n com munities upon some lake or riv er th at supplies fish and r epu lse the miserable Digger." But the whole aboriginal popula t ion is sparse, needy and degrad ed, almost below human conception of fellow man. As regards its geological character, the coun t ry is made u p of " metamorphic ro cks, consisting of talcose, and m ica slate of horneblende rocks, a nd a few specimens of granitic or ssienitic c haracter. These metamorphic rocks are "distinctly stratified and highly inclined." Upon these rests a coarse conglomerate or sandstone, which supports in t ur n a carboniferous limest one, abounding with fossils, especially corals. Iron and coal are found, though at some distance from the lake, and there is some gold near the California borders. Slate is found, suitable for roofing, upon an island of the lake. Alum and saleratus are natural products, and salt may be easily manufactured from the intensely briny lake, which furnishes 20 per cent. of pure chloride of sodium, while that of the New Well at Syracuse, contains but 17.35 per cent. Such is the Salt Lake Valley into which the Mormon immigration began in 1847, now near ten years ago. Of their origin and the sequence of events, which led them thither, as well of their strange theology, more hereafter. Some people imagine that success in life is a lottery ticket that happened to draw the prize, or a good hand in a game cut bv mere accident. But a peep into the chronicles which Time is constantly inditing, and which he sometimes employs me in writing out for him, will convince even the most skeptical, that there is method in success as well as in some people's madness. Why! just look up the street, and read the signs on the shops, and every one would head a history full of romance, if all the incidents and ante-incidents connected with the struggles, the failures and the success e GETTING AHEAB. 63 GETTING AIIIEAD. 64 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. terms with his teachers for, rogue though he was, and up to all sorts of current mIischief, there were two leading traits of character that always brought him through a favorite. He would never tell a falsehood of that business and it s pr esent manager could on ly be photographed in clear light. Supposing we play clairvoyant for an hour, and r ea d a page under the heading C. B. Dale & Co., Book se ller s and stationers. May be we haven't read the name right, for our spectacles are a little blurred, but it doesn't matter about the name if we get the history. And if we should make a trifle of a mistake in dates and facts, its all the same if we get hold of the main plot of the story, and show in our moral (we shall be sure to have a moral and a good one,) that as the poet said, to secure favor or success; we ho pe o ur glasses will not lead us to think his moral sense is at all blurred. It would be just like them, and, ther e the y shall be wiped clean on this s'nlk pocket-hand kerchief. Where were we? 0 I see now. He wouldn't tell a lie, on any account, and he would get his tasks justass thor oughly the n as he attend s t o business now. That was what his mother had taught him, his gentle widowed mother, who had given up her youth and beauty as a holy of fe r ing to h er children, laid upon the altar o f daily toil. She had coined her life blood into bread for thei r sustenance; and her aspirations for personal success had all been forgotten in her prayers for her dear ones. The angels bear such holy worship to the Highest, as the purest oblation that mortals can offer. She had been trained in New England, that primary school of American life, from which the candidates for success are prettv sure to graduate with honor. Mrs. Dale had left New England because she was poor and homeless, and the West held out fairer prospects of success in maintaining independence for herself and children. The der some peoples' portraits. As I was saying, (I may not read dates quite correctly, but if I see distinctly,) it was about eighteen years ago last summer, that Charley Dale used to be seen in the Capitol City of one of our then western states, engaged of a morning feeding poultry in the back yard of his Uncle's premises, milking cows or tending baby for his Aunt's especial benefit; though we fear baby sometimes found occasion for a sharp remonstrance when too long committed to his guardian care. For though Charley is to be our hero, we must admit he was just the least bit of a rogue. Charley was an adept in turning somersets, walking on the fence, hopping backwards on one foot, making kites and balloons with which he gratified the soaring aspirations of half the little boys in town, greatly to the inconvenience of the cook, who declared he used up oceans of paper. Occasionally he turned limner, and got up pictures of elephants, and other marvelous beasts, which he traded for pins, thus early developing the spirit of traffic which indicated a leading trait of character. Delineating the elephant too, is still a favorite game as some of his friends might testify. But you know the poet's declaration bread of depe n dence, howeve r generousl y offered, was too bitter for her to eat awhile her own energies could supply the means of subsistence. Teaching and sewing had been her resource till her eldest son and daughter were no longer dependent, and then an honorable and responsible station in one of the public Institutions was tendered her and her daughter. It was accepted, and Charley undertook to earn his board by assisting his Aunt in the nursery and assuming the responsibility of tending the chickens and milking the cow. He managed to secure a small revenue from several of the neighbors for driving up their cows which fed in the same pasture with his Uncle's. His performances in bringing them from the pasture, would have elicited the admiration of the best trained gymnastics in the land. He always managed to be on the best 7 I THE CIIICAGO MAGAZINE. 6,4 11'Tis not in Fortune, not in rank, 'Tis not in wealth like London Bank," to give a man success. But we must not give our moral now for that would render the story quite needless, and the moral is sure to be'needed as much as the name ull 11 The child is father. of the man." ET/ A "Well Charley," said he, "how would you like to be a clerk in my store?" The boys blue eyes glowed like flame as h e looked up with surprise a nd joy m ingled in his countenance. " I should like it very much ind ee d sir," said he, his diminutive frame swelling to its utmhost capacitv. He was but little bigger even then than Tom Thumb. " Could you come to my room in the morning and get the key to the store, and unlock it and sweep it out and dust the counters before my breakfast time?" " Yes sir," was Charley's deci de d answer. "Well then, ask your un cle and i f he is willing you may come to-morrow morning and see what you can do." "My uncle has nothing to do with me,', was his emphatic replv. " I shall ask my mother and she will let mie come I know. I am tired of tending cross babies," he added with a swell of importance. Before sunrise the following morning Charley knocked at Howard's sleeping room and called for the key. When he came in he found his store swept and dusted and arranged in the most perfect order, and his clerk awaiting the advent of customers with all the importance of a man of business. At the sound of a footstep he was on the alert, and Howard amused himself by watching the tact and ready apprehension of the lad in finding out the secrets of trade without seeming to be ignorant of anything connected with his new avocation. Arrangements were soon made with his mother and the boy commenced his apprenticeship with a determination to master every detail. Here was the beginning of his career, and that beginning would not have been made but for the New England energy imparted from his mother. He had early learned to be truthful, honest, and self-denving, and his mother's word was his law. The key to many a glorious career is simply early discipline through Toil and Want, angels that minister to us in sad disguise, but in the end we learn to know them and to bless their kindly ministrations. The new business throve well for the employer in the hands of his clerk, who seemed Sometimes he rolled over on his hands as though they were the spokes of a wheel, sometimes he turned a somerset in the grass, startling the old crumpled horn who seemed determined to have the last green spire by the Wayside, and then coming to his feet, he would bring the cows all into file and then hop backward on one foot by wayofvariety. Eevery motionwasfaught with the grace of exhuberant life, and touched with the nicest shade of character. He never soiled or tore his clothes by his tumbling; the last somerset being made on the last patch of green grass near the city, and his walking became exceedingly proper before he reached his Uncle's gate. "There is character in that performance," remarked one gentleman to another as they followed him at a little distance. "That boy knows what he is about every time. He never soils his clothes nor tears them, but sport he will have in the cheapest way. I have watched him for a week and he never forgets himself. I am going to try and secure him for a clerk." "What that morsel of hunmanity! He wouldn't lift Webster's Dictionary without endangering his toes." "Never fear. He would invent some method of getting it in place if it were twice as large as'himself. Depend upon it, he has that genuine yankee endowment tact,and that is the secret of success. He is the son of a poor New England widow who has come out west to earn her bread independently, and she has taught her boy his first lesson in self-reliance and propriety, with a thoroughness that none but a New England Mother attains. He brings the cows, tends the chickens; and nurses the children for his Uncle's folks-to pay his board, and I think he would prefer larger business. Here he comes. I am going to see what he will say for himself." Mr. Howard was a bookseller who was just transplanting himself and his business to the West, and he knew full well the value of New England training; for his own energies had been developed through the necessities incident to that rigorous cli GETTING AHEAD. 65 mate and ungenerous soil. THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. to call about him a spirit of activity, and as people say to attract all sorts of fishes to his net. He never forgot a lacking book that was twice called for, nor failed to offer for sale those that had too long cumbered the shelves. Fortunately for after life, Howard was a man of thorough business habits himself, as well as a person of com r displaying a wealth of br own ringlets andl blushes t hat forever sealed the fate of our hero. He caught a glimpse of her whi te musl in bonnet as he went out at the g ate like Adam dr ive n from Paradise. Whe ther he wrote sonnets or not doth not w o appe ar quite clea r to your Clairvoyant, but he became powerfully effected wi th the beauty of t he sc en e ry of the country, and often walked there of an evening for the benefit of th e fresh air, so much more salubrious than in a populous city. Sometimes he peeped into the paradise from which he was so unkindly barred, and sometimes his cousinly devotion proved a passport with Harry through the gates into what seemed to him a celestial city. At last by some magical incantation, or leger demain of some sort, he got Mary to cast a kindly glance or two upon him, and then he grew so bold as to write. What a luxury to watch at twilight for a full half hour, by the wall that shut in the desire of his heart, just to throw over a dainty effusion, penned with the utmost care, and receive a little three cornered note in return. Mary was afn orphan, and that rendered her still more charming, and increased his indignation at the " ogress," as her most excellent teacher was so unjustly denominated. I trust he has long since repented of such flagrant injustice. But Mary's imprisonment was relieved by one annual vacation, spent with her dear old grandmother a little out of the city, and this was duly improved by our hero. Here the vexed current of true love began to grow smooth under the kindly indulgent eye of the dear old grand mother, who looked with favorable eyes upon the youth, and permitted Mary to treat him with cordiality. It is said that if matches are made in heaven, some people have few friends there. But Charley was evidently a favorite, for prehensive judgement in ref erence to the world of trade, and Charley, from his indefatigable efforts to succeed, in a few years became a full confident in all his opera tions. The publishing business offered to How ard such inducements that he finally re moved to a larger city and added this as a supplementary business to his already pros perous establishment. Charley was grad ually inducted into all the details of pub lishing and selling at wholesale, and finally rendered himself so thoroughly master of every department of the business that at twenty-one, Howard made him general over seer in both departments whenever he found it necessary to be absent, and gave him a salary of a thousand dollars per annum. He had never forgotten mother or sister, and his love of acquiring money had grown strong through his desire to relieve them from all hardships, though it had not eradicated his natural generosity. For them no sacrifice would have been too great had they required it, but now they were above want and he could lay the foundation of his own future. Charley had a crony whose sir name too, was Dale, and he had a sister attending ooarding school in an adjacent village. The rules forbade the young ladies receiving attentions from gentlemen, and none but their relations were allowed to visit them. So Harry, who had drawn largely upon the credulous fancy of his chum in regard to the angelic beauty of a certain" Blue eyed Mary," generously volunteered to smuggle him in as a cousin who had every right to see his sister. Mary was not aware of the plot, and had kindly yielded to the entreaties of her friend to stay and be just intro up to this time, there had scarcely been a ripple in the silvery tide of love on which he then embarked with Mary. She was the heiress of a small fortune, but that he held sacred, and refused to merge it in his own. She was little more than a child wife when he took her to the little cottage ducstranger, sto he darted away across the r, but when she saw a stranger, she darted away across the garden, 66 GETTING AHEAD. ne had hired, so that they might enjoy the truest luxury of life, a home. But she had such womanly ways, and entered upon her new duties with such a desire to become a skillful housekeeper, that all went on harmoniously. He loved music, and birds and flowers, and these little graces of life shut out a multitude of temptations to evil. Business was all the time promptly attended to. He never had to apologize for late hours on the score of a late breakfast, nor to stay at home and tend a sick wife, who had been made sad and heartsick by finding that her husband was no longer her lover. (Stick a pin there, for I have un iintentionally torn a hole in the vail that covers society.) BGentlemen who apprehended his ta lent s a s a man o f business, offered t o l o an him all that he might r equire, but he chose to remain independent of obligation. A friend with whom he open ed a correspondence ac ce pted a part nersh ip on th e terms propose d by his former part ner, and his busin es s wen t on wi thou t any interruption. At the close of the year, not a book remained upon the shelves which he brought on at the commencement of his business, so there was nothing to be deducted firom the profits of the sales for dead books. The first dividend showed the partner's share equal to his investment. The next year it was doubled bv his untiring energy and ceaselessvigilance. Now, after the lapse of a little more than four years, the sales amount to more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. I suppose you think that by this time he has forgotten birds and flowers and music, and that Mary has quite forgotten her pride in her little domestic cares. No such thing. He comes home and waltzes with his little daughter while mothplays on the piano, enjoys a game of horse with Charley junior, whistles to the mocking bird, crows to the baby, and stirs up as musical and agreeable a confusion generally, as though his business only amounted to a thousand a year. I stopped in a few evenings since to make a friendly call. We sat in the parlor for a time, and I remarked that they kept the same neat unostentatious furniture that graced it four years ago, but they had added a few costly articles,as well as a multitude of little gems of art that looked wonderfully like love-tokens from Charley to his blue eyed Mary. I had hardly examined and admired them all when he said, "Come, let's go to the nursery and see the babies." I followed, and there, all lapped in the arms of slumber lay the rich man's choicest treasures. Bless me, I nearly forgot the moral, but may be you can make it out if you are good at guessing; if not, I will tell you the secret. His success was not accidental, but has resulted from thoroughness, energy, and a After a few years he began to think of business on his own account. He was conscious of a capacity sufficiently matured to warrant such a step and spoke of it to his employer, who offered to raise his salary, which had already reached fifteen hundred, to two thousand a year, but he declined. An acquaintance had proposed a copartnership which he thought advantageous, and he resolved to test his own ability in the management of business. He removed to another city, rented a store;'by a little forecast secured the whole building for a term of vears, and by renting what his business would not require saved half the ordinary rent. He selected his stock of books carefully, secured the best clerks, established a system of perfect order, and then with his customary vigilance looked out for trade. He had been faithful to his employer, and it was an easv matter to serve himself as devotedly. Here is where some men have failed. They have served others with so little fidelity that they do not know how to serve even themselves. Charlev Dale had laid all his plans for opening correspondence with country merchants, and thus establishing a wholesale business, when the news suddenly came that his partner had died of cholera. This was for a time a sad recoil. He had but little capital for so large a business as he had opened, and he dreaded to involve himself in debt while there was the least shadow of uncertaintyv. 67 appy home. 68 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. indirect address and mutual admiration of the scenery, the ice of ceremony is broken, and we feel almost like a family, and the trusty, courteous Captain seemi already like a father. Now, pace the deck, expand your lungs, drink in the inspiring gas, as it presses upon you in the breeze. Now, the weather, the trip, the company, and now politics in its all engrossing relation to slavery are the topics of remark and discussion. What a little world we are, afloat out of sight of land, the bright blue sea all around; here are home, comfort, families, civilization, children, and good living, for the geese and turkeys below occasionally squalk to inform us they are on hand for many a good dinner. On one of the hottest days of last July, it was a great relief to leave behind the dusty, sweating and roaring city to enjoy the fresh bracing air of the lakes, snugly quartered in the apartments of good Lady Elgin, as noble a matron as orders her floating palace upon the inland seas. Happy the passenger who, as the receding city sinks down from his view, leaves buried there his feverish cares, and now surrenders himself to healthy recreation. That stranger party mutually survey each other's person, dress and general deportment, taking estimate of the character and social position of their fellow voyagers. Soon by STRAITS OF MVACKINAW. the stream. The rapids no longer forbid the entrance of ves se ls in to the great lake above. A noble ship canal, one mile long, the workmanship of which is magnificent, has been constructed along the shore of the Falls, which now brings the vast region washed by the Superior into connection with the Ocean. Sault St. Mary, at the Rapids, is a curious, little, old, decayed village, that has been growing for two hundred years, since the Jesuits there planted a station, and gathered around them a motley group of Indians and half-breeds. This is most of the population now. The dress and physiognomy you see, and the language you hea Z, ~~~~~~r Thirtv-six hours of sail have borne us over the mighty waters of Lake Michigan, and we now realize the wise Providence which has placed in the center of our Continent such fountains of purity and fertility, for without them this great internal basin would be a desert, dismal with barrenness and disease. And still the King of Lakes is before us, superior to all. Passing through St. Mary's river we saw the necessity of the appropriation which President Pierce vetoed, and Congress passed over him, as we found the steamer Superior and two sail vessels aground upon the "Flats," a wide shallow expansion of 68 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. A TRIP TO LAKE SUPERIOR. LAKE SUPERIOR. in the streets, seem to place you in a for- and no mines. On our return while the eign country. boat was locking through the canal, several The making of the canal gave a tempo- of the passengers tried the hazardous ex rary flush of building and business, but there periment of going down the rapids in a cais but very little thrift left. They have no noe. They went down safely; but a short lands under cultivation in the back country, time before several persons had been drown __ T. MARY. who are upon no unfriendly.terms with their brethren of the military post on this side of the river. As you enter the Superior you are struck with the exceeding clearness of the water, such that you can see the bottom at great depth, every fissure in the rock, and every - glittering pebble; and the reflection of the heavens from below seems not flat but con cave, the apex resting upon the bottom of the lake. The first one hundred miles of the Southhern shore is a drift of sand, nearly white, soft, perfectly bare, at some places rising immediately from the lake shore a naked wall from thirty to three hundred and sixty-six feet high, called the Grand Sable. It is very strange that such shifting sand should stand up in such a bank; and when - the sun shines upon it there is a peculiar glow of richness and beauty, the bright sil ver sand in contrast with the dense green foliage of the forest that stands in the back ground. Next came the Pictured Rocks, a range ed in the same undertaking. And lying by there a while, the natives gathered around the vessel, in fantastic costume, and had a regular Indian dance with singing and the banjo-a pow-wow indeed. Fort Brady partakes of the spirit of the place, its houses dilapidated, the cannoncarriages rotting in their tracks, and a petty squad of foreigners for soldiers hardly deserving the name of a U. S. Garrison. Here we saw as a specimen of the dignity of manhood; two soldiers mounted astride a huge cannon upon its wheels, facing each other, with their thick woolen over coats on under a burning sun, their feet and hands tied below and above with a paltry tow string; and this was maintaining the disci pline of the U. S. Army for leaving prem ises without permission, just as certain ofthe " Fustest families of Virginia," in delapida t;.on, have to keep up appearances by the aping of gentility. Opposite this place, on the Canada side, is an old trading fort in good repair, and al so a Military post furnished with a few men, 69 THE CHICAGO MAGAZINE. of sand-stone wall, perpendicular from the waters edge, two hundred feet high, exitending for many miles, the top of which is not a mountain or a ridge but a plateau, covered with thick woods and occasiona1 l swamps. Once in a while a ravine occurs, studded with trees, and here and there sturdy pines force their roots into the crevices on the face of the rocks. Iron rust has exuded and run along down the surface of the wall. Once in a while, avalanches of stone have slid down and been broken into irregular shapes. An enormous cavern had b een worn into the rock with a beau tiful arc hed passage way, one hundred feet high, large enough to receive a schooner in full sail. As you look into the cave, rays of light are seen crossing it, admitted through a side arch which pierces the butment of the caverns. As we sailed by, for miles this huge mouth of the Moun tain Rock, opening to drink from the lake, presented various magnificent appearances. With the sun shining upon these rocks, to gether with the effect no ~ ~~of the iron rus t and the ! R 411 t rees, they present a grea t variety and gor I |!J~ll l geousness of pictures, such that you can hard ly dispossess yourself uof the idea that they are reality. Here are the ruins of an old [i 1, l city with dilapidated walls and relics of for a mit}liJill I tumer greatness, with i0 8I'xig;here an d there an an tique house standing !! pI a l t he doriaes, gn thee an ing windows, doors and chimneys and even the curling smoke. s ol T hen a T emple is seen J i /i't h1in a receding portion ~I i l |j I of the shore, of in umense proportions, i;llll withcolonades, gothic f -liii! )~