**- LAWRENCE J. GUTTER Collection of Chicogoana THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO The University Library ROBERT CAVELIER, SIEUR DE LA SALLE. Bronze Monument erected in Lincoln Park by the Hon. Lambert Tree. THE STORY OF CHICAGO BY JOSEPH KlRKLAND CHICAGO DIBBLE PUBLISHING COMPAiNY 1892 COPYRIGHTED BY DIBBLE PUBLISHING CO. 1892. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CHICAGO: DONOHUE & HENNEBSRRY, PRINTERS AND BINDERS, PREFACE. The best a historian can do is to approach accuracy before venturing upon publication; and, after publication, to approach it more and more nearly; for to reach it is beyond his utmost scope. The degree in which he can do this latter is dependent on the trouble his readers may take in pointing out to him his errors of omission and commission. "A word to the wise is sufficient;" and these words are addressed to all who are interested enough to read, wise enough to criticise and friendly enough to correct, for the benefit of posterity, this " Story of Chicago." THK AUTHOR, TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. A THOUSAND CENTURIES: Lake Michigan flowed toward the Gulf of Mexico; i How the waters came to change direction; 2 Threatened destruction of Lake Erie; 3 When Chicago was submerged; 4 Aspect of the ancient shore line; 5 The divide emerges from the waves; 6 Vanished races; 7. CHAPTER II. THE ABORIGINES; GOD'S IMAGE DONE IN COPPER: Meaning of the name Chicago; 8 The Portage; 8 Indian Traits; 10 John Dean Caton; n Scalp Hunting; 12 Massacre at Starved Rock; 13 Lost Records; 14. CHAPTER III. THE RECORDED STORY BEGINS: Coming of the French; 15 Race of the Races; 17 Joliet discovers the Portage; 18 Marquette's winter at Hardscrabble; 18 La Salle arrives; 19 Travelers' tales; 20 Knightly honor assailed; 21 First lake vessel; 21 La Salle's ceaseless struggles; 22 Final catas- trophe; 23. CHAPTER IV. A SINGLE CENTURY: Last days of first explorers; 26 Kaskaskia in the North; 27 Kaskaskia in the South; 28 John Law's Mississippi scheme; 29 New road to the sea; 30 Indian atrocities; 32 Chicagua for a Rendezvous; 32 English succeed French; 33. CHAPTER V. ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR: Red Coat 1812; 34 England's savage allies; 34 Kinzie and Cly- bourne ancestors; 35 Kentuckians in Illinois; 36 Clark takes Kas- kaskia; 37 Chicago from 1778 to 1794; 39 Hamilton takes Vin- cennes; 40 Clark's Winter march; 41 Clark defeats and takes Ham- ilton; 42 Anecdote about Clark; 43 Todd our first Governor; 44. viii THE STORY OF CHICAGO. CHAPTER VI. THE DAWN OK THE DAY WE LIVE IN: The Washingtons buy land; 46 William Murray tries to buy Chi- cago; 47 Chicago's first squatter; 47 Pointe de Saible and Guarie; 48 Antoine Ouillemette (Wilmette); 48 Ordinance of 1787; 49 Captain John Whistler; 50 Major Whistler; 50 Julia Person Whistler; 51 Old Rush Street Rope Ferry; 52 Quiet years from 1804 to 1812; 53 Double murder at Hardscrabble; 54. CHAPTER VII. THE CLOUD, CONE-SHAPED AND COPPER-COLORED: Trouble far away; 56 Trouble close at hand; 56 Capt. Heald's dilemma; 57 Bad blood in the Garrison; 58 Indian Council; 59 Heald's decision and action; 60 Brave William Wells arrives; 61 View from the roof of the Block-House; 62 The same spot 80 years later; 63. CHAPTER VIII. BATTLE AND MURDER AND SUDDEN DEATH: Flag of distress; 64 John Kinzie's course; 64 Line of March; 65 Chart of Chicago in 1812; 65 The Boat Party; 65 Indians attack the train; 66 How all might have been saved; 66 Mrs. Helm's story and its difficulties; 67 Private Jordan's story; 67 Capt. Heald's letter, 68 Killing of Wm. Wells; 68 What Nile's Weekly Register reported; 69 Tortures of dying prisoners; 69 -Fate of survivors; 70 The Mas- sacre Tree; 71 Last leaves on the old tree; 71. CHAPTER IX. THEY MADE A SOLITUDE AND CALLED IT PEACE: John Wentworth's discoveries; 72 Capt. Heald's Son; 73 The Heald side of the story; 73 Hon. Darius Heald in 1881; 74 Fables attributed to Mrs. Helm; 74 Tradition handed down by A. H. Edwards; 76 Sauganash to the rescue; 76 The Kinzies after the battle; 77 From 1812 to 1816. Desolation; 78. CHAPTER X. AFTER DARKNESS, LIGHT: Years following the Massacre; 79 Early suggestion of Ship Canal; 80 Rum and the Fur Trade; 81 Slow growth for many years; 83 Gurdon Hubbard's early experiences; 84 General Cass' Treaty for ix CONTENTS. Michigan lands; 86 Aspect of North Side from 1816 to 1830; 87 Kinzies arid their home; 88 Winnebago Scare and Danville Volun- teers; 89 The last of John Kinzie and the Old Homestead; 90. CHAPTER XI. 1820-30, AN OBSCURE DECADE: The unpromising state of things sixty years ago; 92 Wild game within city limits; 94 The Kinzie race; 95 Less known early names; 95 Descendantsof the captive girls; 97 TheClarksandClybourns; 98 The Beaubiens; 99 Original capitalists; 100. CHAPTER XII. THE VANISHING RACE: Treaties with the Sauks and Foxes; 102 The Black Hawk War; 104 The last Chicago Indian Treaty; 105 How Chicago looked to a stranger; 106 White men's interest in the Treaty; 107 The last of old Shaubena ; 108 The Farewell War dance in 1835; no Present state of the same tribes ; 1 1 1. CHAPTER XIII. VERY HARD WORK: Beginning of the Illinois and Michigan Canal ; i i 2 Persistence under difficulties; 113 Original Town surveyed; 114 Sale of the School Section; 1 1 6- Ferriage ; 118 Clark Street Bridge built; 120. CHAPTER XIV. THE KEEL LAID: Schools and Teachers; 122 Protestant Churches; 124 Volun- teer Fire Company; 125 Catholic Worship ; 127 St. James Church; 128 Postal Service; 129 The first Newspaper; 130 Medical Prac- titioners; 131 Cholera of 1832; 131 Refugees from the Fort ; 132 The first lawyer ; 133. CHAPTER XV. NOT AT ALL HARD WORK: Pianos arrive; 135 Music; 136 Social Gaiety, 137 Kinzie- Whistler wedding; 137 Scanty of food in 1834; 138 Dances and prayer meetings; 139 Unfathomable mud; 140 Experiments in street pavement; 140 Changes in established grade; 141 Earliest Public Exhibition; 141 Field -sports; 142 Primitive Postal service; 143 William B. Ogden; 144 Personal memories of the Ogden home; 145 Arnold's ride to Danville; 146. x THE STORY OF CHICAGO. CHAPTER XVI. FAIRLY LAUNCHED : Estray Pen and Jail on Public Square; 149 John Dean Caton's admission to the Bar; 150 The first Town Census of Chicago; 152 Launch of the Clarissa; 153 Garrison finally withdrawn; 154 Bogus Towns and Cities; 156 Traditional city lot sales; 157 Progress of the excitement; 158 Balestier's lecture on these times; 160 Foolish State legislation; 161. CHAPTER XVII. THE HARD TIMES Or 1837-40: Legislative scheme of Public Improvements; 163 Wisdom of Gov. Duncan; 165 Specie payments suspended; 165 Public works stopped; 165 Banks fail; 166 State Treasurer too poor to pay postage; 166 State debt and assets; 166 Canal cholera; 167 Personal reminiscences; 167 " Red dog," Wild-cat" and "Shin-plasters"; 168 Scrip of various kinds; 168 Struggling to keep faith; 170 Utter failure of Internal Improvement scheme; 171 Ogden's firmness; 172 Position of Chicago Branch State Bank; 172 Stubborn business courage; 173 Where men used to congregate, 173 Real Estate values; 174 Cost of living; 1 74 Collection of small debts; 1 75 Not all bankrupt, 1 76 " Wigwam lost, Mokopo here!"; 176. CHAPTER XVIII. NEVER SAY DIE: Delegation to Whig convention at Springfield; 178 Reviving con- fidence; 179 Alleged row between Long John and Captain Hunter; 180 Stage-coach days; 181 First regular Theatre; 181 Cemetery at Clark Street and North Avenue; 182 States emerging from their troubles; 182 Boston Capital; 183 Canal commissioners appointed; 184 Shallow cut adopted; 184 Wisconsin tries to gain Chicago; 184 The Canal's many benefactions; 185 The story of a typical family migration, 187 Achievements of "the forties"; 189 The Lake Street hydraulic works; 189 Primitive water-piping; 190. CHAPTER XIX. RIVER AND HARBOR CONVENTION: The Mexican War; 191 Previous River and Harbor bills; 192 Polk's veto; 192 Chicago furious; 193 Calling of the Convention 194 Strangers in attendance; 195 Lincoln a Delegate; 196 Horace CONTENTS. xi Greeley; 196 Thurlow Weed's account; 197 The Resolutions; 198 Weed's mistake; 199 General Webster; 199. CHAPTER XX. LAND-TRAVEL AND WATER-TRAVEL: Opening business on the Canal; 201 The first engine that ever turned a wheel in Chicago; 202 The "Pioneer;" 203 Running a rail- road line through the water; 203 Galena railroad begins to run; 204 $20,000 from George Smith; 205 High water all over the West; 205 The old Portage overflowed; 206 The great flood of 1849 > n Chi- cago; 206 Accidents and incidents of the flood; 207 Losses; 207 A costly bridge; 209 Rush Street Ferry; 209 The great drawbridge question re-opened; 210 First City Hall built in State Street; 211 First Regular Theatre; 212 Mr. McVicker in song and dance act; 213 Beginning of the City's Musical Life; 214 Ogden's lesson to Prin- diville; 214 Gov. Bross' description of those days; 215. CHAPTER XXI. THE COMING POWER: Chicago's struggles in starting the first railroad; 216 Bad faith in dealing with Galena; 21 7 Michigan Southern and Central come in; 217 -Terrible accident at Grand Crossing; 218 The Illinois Central; 218 State percentage of Illinois Central earnings; 219 Mr. Lincoln's little story; 219 Threatened destruction of Michigan Avenue; 220 The line of Crib protection; 221 Foreign capital to the rescue; 221 The makers of the Illinois Central; 222 Streets generally begin to be num- bered and paved; 222 Burning of Rice's Theatre; 223 First General Charity Hospital; 223 Douglas silenced by Anti-Fugitive Slave-Law mob; 224 Sale of a black man at auction; 225 Rescue of fugitive slaves; 225 Distinguished Abolitionists; 226. CHAPTER XXII. THE CITY COMES TO HERSELF: Nature's bounty to Chicago; 227 Her commercial position; 227 Built of material taken from her own sub-soil; 228 Lake breezes temper both cold and heat; 228 Drawbacks of a level site; 229 Drainage, water, river, fire and streets; 229 Chowder in the bath-tub; 230 Line of drainage established; 230 First effects of Drainage; 231 The city lifted above the sewers; 231 Law of street grades fixed; 232 Raising of old brick buildings; 232 First work of George Pullman; 233 Begin- ning of Palace Cars; 233 The Sleeping Car System; 234 The Cholera; xii THE STORY OF CHICAGO. 1852 to 1855; 234 Incidents of the epidemic; 235 Dr. Dyer's good story; 235 The Lake Street Fire of 1857; 236 The first Steam Fire Engine; 236 Riotous Firemen; 237 Fate of the river banks; 237 River and Harbor History; 238. CHAPTER XXIII THE STUMP-TAIL CHIMERA. Banking and Currency system a failure; 242 Chaos of Bank notes; 243 One day's collections on the C., B. & Q; 243 The hard-money "Democrat;" 244 Periodical Convulsions; 244 Ohio Life & Trust fails for $7,000,000; 245 Tribulation of the Illinois Central; 245 Hard times come again; 246 Gresham's Law; 246 Illinois Banking and Currency act; 247 Geo. Smith and the Georgia Banks; 247 Chi- cago on the Slavery Question; 248 Free Kansas meeting in 1856; 249 Injustice to Justice Taney; 249 Lincoln-Douglas Debates; 249 Douglas' strong Unionism; 250 Chicago under cloud and storm; 250 Beginning of Street Railroads; 251 Disappearance of Fort Dear- born; 251 First iron drawbridge; 252 Railroad miles and earnings in 1857; 253 Union Stock Yards started; 254 Progress in the fifties; 255 Birth of the Republican party; 255 Wreck of the "Charles Howard;" 256. CHAPTER XXIV. To ARMS, YE BRAVE ! Republican Convention of 1861; 257 Sewardandthe New Yorkers; 257 Lincoln on his own candidacy; 258 Seward's chances and mis- chances; 258 Scenes in the Wigwam; 259 The balloting; 260 Union mass-meeting at Bryan Hall; 260 Only 150 militia men in 1860; 261 First call for volunteers; 261 i2th and igth Regiments; 262 23d, Irish- American; 262 Hecker-Jaeger Regiment; 262 24th, German-American; 264 37th, Fremont Rifles; 264 39th,Yates Phalanx; 264 42d, Infantry; 264 5ist, Chicago Legion; 264 57th, National Guards; 264 58th McClellan Brigade; 265 65th, Scotch Regiment; 265 72d, Board of Trade; 265 82d, German-American; 265 88th, Second Board of Trade; 266 Sgth, Railroad Regiment; 266; goth, Irish Legion; 266 ii3th, Third Board of Trade; 266 I27th, 3,000 miles, 100 engagements; 266 Cavalry; 266 i6th and i7th Cavalry; 267 Artillery; 267 Stokes Board of Trade Battery; 267 Death-Roll of Honor; 268 Typical Memoir of one Chicago officer: 268 Camp Douglas; 269 Prisoners' Aid and Relief; 270 Camp Douglas Conspiracy; 270 Sanitary Com- mission; 271 Love and Gratitude of those old days; 271. CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTER XXV. THE SIXTIES AT HOME: Loss of the Lady Elgin ; 272 The bones of the ship now visible 273 Other wrecks ; 273 Population not checked by war ; 274 Lake Tunnel crib; 274 Lake difficulties overcome, 275 Beginning of Lincoln Park; 276 Sectional jealousies; 276 Removal of the cem- etery; 277 Enlargement of the River Forks; 277 Inception of the Union Stockyards; 279 Of the Clearing House, 279 The river again foul; 280 The remedy; 280 The two tunnels; 281 Federal affairs ; 281 Greenbacks; 281 Money that rustled but did not rattle; 283 The old banks died hard; 283 Unfailing value of city securities; 284 Farewell to George Smith , 284 Where did the old rags go ? 285 Greenback inflation; 285 Laborers on top ; 285 End of the stormy sixties; 287 Delusive confidence; 287. CHAPTER XXVI. THE GREAT FIRE : The great drought before the great fire ; 288 Condition of the city in 1871; 288 The feast spread; 289 Condition of the fire depart- ment; 289 The O'Leary house and stable ; 290 Testimony of the O'Learys; 291 Delay in giving the alarm; 291 The attack outflanks the defence; 291 First loss of a steam fire engine; 292 Flames jump over the south branch ; 292 Battle on the court-house roof; 293 Use of gunpowder; 293 Cook county record office; 293 Fierce speed of the flames; 293 Fire crosses the main river; 294 Failure to defend the waterworks; 294 Whose fault? 295 One woman's story; 296 Men- tal phenomena; 297 Pitiful struggles; 298 Outpouring of the world's pity; 298 First relief committees; 299 The Chicago Relief and Aid Society; 299 -Special police sworn in; 300 Militia and regular troops come; 301 Sensitiveness regarding U. S s soldiers; 301 First new supply of water; 301 Summary of losses and compensations; 302 Rebound of hope; 302 Even Gov. Bross underestimates the recov- ery; 302 One man's recollections; 303 How the streets looked to a newly arrived Chicagoan; 304 Particular ruins; 304 North Side des- olation; 305. CHAPTER XXVII. A NEW STORY OF THE FIRE: Books about the fire; 306 Fate of the county records; 307 American Record System; 307 Maps and plats of city property; 308 xiv THE STORY OF CHICAGO. -The abstract makers and their work; 308 The real estate dilemma; 309 A clue to the labyrinth; 310 John G. Shortall's story of a night; 310 Fate of an old landmark; 311 First apprehension of the coming catastrophe; 311 The fugitive crowd; 312 Lucky failure of a well-meant effort; 312 Stocktons to the rescue; 313 Books on the truck and rain of fire on the books; 3 1 3 The great bell falls unheard; 314 Help of the jail-birds; 314 Back again to the fire; 314 Exas- perating fatality; 315 Exhausted nature breaks down; 315 The loss averted; 316 The combined savings; 316 Chance for extortion; 316 Honorable conduct; 317 Chicago worthies; 318 Accumulations since the fire; 320 Government weather-signal officers; 320 Interview with ex-Mayor Cregier; 321 Interview with Chief Fire Marshall Williams; 321. CHAPTER XXVIII. DERRICK TIME : Splendid conduct of Insurance Companies; 322 Trepidation of the timid; 322 The Burnt Record Act; 323 Words hearty and timely; 323 Buildings put up by the R. & A; 323 Doubts all proved to be vain; 324 Mayor Medill and the city problem; 324 Fire limits extended; 325 How serious is the loss of old buildings? 326 Early reconstruction; 326 Civic finances and their prospects; 327- -Schneider's saying about metropolitan securities; 327 Timely liberality of the State Government; 328 The Rookeries, old and new; 328 Unparal- leled achievement of the city; 329 Kerfoot's Block; 329; Gradual clearance of the obstructed streets; 330 Rehabilitation of the news- papers; 330 Failure of Congressional efforts at relief; 331 All poor, busy, hopeful and economical; 331 Relics of the Court House fire; 332 East-bound trains; 332 The blessed mother-in-law; 333. CHAPTER XXIX. SOCIAL RE-ORGANIZATION : Thirty-nine churches burned; 335 Scattering of Congregations by the Fire; 335 North, South and West Side circles; 335 Hospital- ity and Benovolence; 336 None rich by inheritance; 336 Absenteeism not favored; 337 One circle in the far future; 337 No true Aristoc- racy in Chicago as yet; 338 Development of Clubs; 338 The Chicago, the Standard and the Fortnightly; 339 The Literary; 340 The Union; 340 The Illinois; 340 The Union League; 340 The Iroquois; 341 Relief and Aid Society; 341 Its most devoted servants; 342 Home for the Friendless; 342 Nursery and Half-Orphan Asy- lum; 342 Old Ladies' Home; 343 Historical Society; 343 The CONTEXTS. xv Athenaeum; 344 Young Men's Christian Association; 345 Humane Society; 345 Secret Societies; 346 Union war Veterans; 346 The Art Institute; 346 Chicago as an art centre and art market; 347 A glance back at a primitive time and place; 348 The Declaration of Independence read from a pocket-handkerchief; 349. CHAPTER XXX. PANIC OF 1873. FIRE OF 1874. WHISKY RING: One bank safe failed in its duty; 350 Consternation first and delib- eration next; 350 Banks begin again to pay out money; 351 Strin- gency two years later; 351 Clearing-house certificates not used; 352 Collapse averted; 352 Failures; 352 Food products a better financial basis than stocks and bonds; 353 The great savings-bank disaster; 353 State, Bee-hive, Fidelity and German Savings- Banks; 354 Building Societies and their mission; 354 Relics of the past made foundations of the future; 355 A new blow on the old sore spot; 355 Last straw on the backs of the Insurance Companies; 356 Citizens' Association to the rescue; 356 The companies forgive but do not forget; 356 The new army of fire-fighters; 357 Bursting of the Whisky Ring; 357 Let no guilty man escape; 357 Enormous seizures of property; 358 Sensational trial, verdict and sentences; 358 Strongmen broken down; 359 Indemnity to "Squealers"; 359 -Seeming financial disaster, but real return of health; 359 Uniform integrity of the Mayors of Chicago; 361. CHAPTER XXXI. THE BEAUTY SPOTS: The luxury of the poor and the rich; 362 South Park Commission; 363 Its Fire losses; 363 Early purchases and improvements; Drexel Statue; 364 Hardship of boulevarding some streets at the cost of others; 366 Pay-as-you-go policy; 366 Equipment needed by a park; 367 Table of areas and distances; 367 Beginning of West Side Park System; 367 Douglas, Garfield and Humboldt; 368 Great boulevards on the West Side; 368 Future beauties; 369 Acres and miles of West Side system; 369 Lake Shore Drive, the glory of the North Side; 370 Primeval sand-hills; 371 Exclusion of shore railways; 371 Blossom- ing as the rose; 372 Miles and acres of the Lincoln Park Syetem; 373 Original cost and present debt; 373 Successive Commissioners; 374 Park system still beyond present needs; 374 Increasing means and decreasing demands; 375 Bought and paid for; a free gift to the future; 375. xv i THE STORY OF CHICAGO. CHAPTER XXXII. RlOTS AND THEIR SUPPRESSION : A city of homes safe from certain dangers ; 376 Trade Unions necessary and proper; 376 The Pittsburgh Riots ; 376 First troubles in Chicago ; 377 Assembling of forces for defence; 377 Outbreak and bloodshed ; 378 Points to be defended ; 378 Gen. Torrence's disposi- tion of forces ; 379 Military supports police ; 379 United States Reg- ulars ; 380 Unanimity in the defenders , 380 The threatened avalanche scattered at the start , 381 Fear of the mob succeeded by jibes at the military; 381 Thankless task of the militia; 382 The Anarchists' movement ; 382 The prime movers ; 383 Their folly ; 383 Differ- ence between labor-unionists and anarchists ; 384 Trouble at McCor- mick's Reaper works ; 384 The "Revenge" circular; 385 Parson's speech at the Haymarket ; 385 Explosion, wounds and death; 386 Arrests; 386 Trial, conviction and punishment; 386 Judge Gary and Prosecutor Grinnell ; 386. CHAPTER XXXIII. PULLMAN: The grand plan and its originator ; 388 An unpromising spot ; 389 Magical transformation ; 389 The workers and the work 390 ; Corliss Engine ; 390 Architecture ; 300 Sewerage and disposition of sewage ; 390 Water supply ; 391 Pullman sewage farm ; 391 Lesson regarding Chicago sewage ; 393 Growth of a car ; 392 A train a day produced; 392 Health of the town 1393 Temperance ; 393 Personal liberty; 393 Free public opinion ; 394 Religion; 394 Aspect of the town ; 394 Flats and other homes ; 395 Statistics of population ; 395 Savings in bank ; 396 Spontaneous good order ; 396 The labor troubles of 1886 Arrival of the walking delegate ; 397 Mr. Pullman's reception of the committee ; 397 His answer; 397 Finality of the inter- view ; 398 The strike is on ; 398 Attempted socialist intervention ; 399 Foundrymen come forward ; 399 End of strike ; 399 Piece-work at Pullman; 400 Perhaps a key-bearer; 400 The cap-stone is peace ; 400. CHAPTER XXXIV. THE THRIFTY EIGHTIES: Vastness of the million; 401 Then and now; 401 Chicago in 1891; 401 Her relative position; 402 Other World's Fairs; 403 Growth of Chicago since the fire; 403 Present growth and what it means; 404 Demand again overtakes supply; 404 Good-bye to Gur- don Hubbard; 404 The Newberry fortune; 405 Walter L. New- CONTENTS. xvii berry's Chicago history; 405 His public acts; 406 Personal character- istics; 407 Mr. Newberry's will; 408 Judge Skinner; 408 Litigation; 409 Location of permanent library; 410 Dr. Poole's remarks; 411 The building itself; 411 John Crerar; 412 A few of his business connections; 412 Mr. Crerar's will; 413 The Crerar Library; 413 A message from beyond the grave; 414 The Armour Mission and its founders; 414 Its ways and means; 415 Manual Training School; 415 William B. Ogden's will; 416 Fate of his well-meant charitable effort; 416 Difference between New York and Chicago charitable bequests; 417. CHAPTER XXXV. THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION: Undertaking of the World's Columbian; 418 Act of Congress; 418 Conditional on certain funds; 419 Funds provided; 419 Inn. keepers, etc., pledged against extortion; 420 Naval reviews; 420 The true anniversary; 420 President's proclamation; 421 Four organiza- tions; 421 Fifteen great departments; 421 General officers; 422 Board members; 422 Statistics of previous fairs; 423 How Chicago compares; 423 Action of States and Territories; 423 Action of the general government; 424 Government exhibits; 424 Outlays hitherto and in the future; 425 Action of foreign nations; 425 A mile square of land and more if needed; 425 The lake and the water courses; 425 Statue of Liberty; 426 General architectural scheme; 426 Machinery Hall; 426 Fisheries island; 427 General Miles in charge of military features; 427 Troops and Indians; 427 Possi- ble sham battle; 427 Pride in showing how few soldiers we need; 428 Lady managers; 428 Lady delegates; 428 Their powers and duties; 429 First meeting; 429 Speeches by Mrs. Felton and Mrs. Palmer; 429 Mrs. Palmer's report of her foreign trip; 430 How roy- alty and aristocracy look at the movement; 430 Princess Christian; 431 Mrs. Palmer's address to the Commissioners; 431 The Auxiliary; 432 A Congress of Congresses; 433 Building plans and costs; 434 Other necessary outlays; 434 $17,000,000 to be laid out; 434 Fire department; 434 Building materials; 435 Sewerage; 435 Aspect of the ground in December 189-1; 435. CHAPTER XXXVI. ON NEW YEAR'S DAY, 1892: Chicago bent on business; 437 The idle man a lonely man; 438 Doing only one's duty is not enough; 438 The beauty of it; 439 Debt-paying, peace and plenty; 439 Suppose labor were exceptional; 440 Effect of success not all good; 440 Woman in her new place; 441 xviii THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Men judged by acts, not by thoughts; 441 Ecclesiastical trials; 441 Two creedless churches; 442 Central church; 443 People's church; 443 Non-partisan movement whereby ballot-box frauds were stopped; 443 No Chicago fortunes based on public plunder; 445 New York Chicago's elder sister and senior business partner; 445 Chicago not yet the ideal city; 445 Smoke, dust and mud; 445 Remedies possi- ble; 446 Money growing plenty; 446 Village-like characteristics; 446 Patience under wrong; 447 Seats in street cars given up to women; 447 What's all this? 448 Overcrowding of streets arising from over- building of houses; 448 John W. Root and the Chicago construc- tion; 450 Colbert's record of 40 years' growth; 451 Each historian laughs at his predecessor; 451 On the shining height; 451. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, XIX. INDEX, 453. ILLUSTRATIONS BUILDINGS. CHURCHES. First Baptist Church, 122. First M. E. Church, 248. First Universalist Church, 246. St. James Church, First, 136. " New, and Parsonage, 254. Second Presbyt. Church, 252. See also Fire Scenes. RESIDENCES. Burch, I.H., residence of, 241. Kinzie House, old, 75. " mansion (Wau-Bun), 88. Ogden residence, 304. Palmer, Potter, residence, 439. Pullman's house and massacre tree. 70. Torrence, General, residence of, 349. See also Fire Scenes and Pullman, Scenes in, MISCELLANEOUS. Art Institute, 338. Block House. Itslastdays,81. Calumet Club, 341. Cook County Hospital, Har- rison St., 450. Court House, F ; rst. 153. Second, 245. Ft. Dearborn 1803-4, 53. (Wau-Bun), 80. (Interior), 162. Green Tree Hotel, 96. Illinois Central Passenger sta- tion (1855), 226. Lake House, 162. Log cabin. 17. Masonic Temple, 444. Peck's store, 126. Relic House, 334. Rush Medical Coll. , first, 232. " Saloon " building. 143.210. Sauganash Hotel, 109. Temple building, 126. Union Club house. 340. Union League Club house, 339. United States Hotel and South Branch bridge, 118. Waterworks, city (i 8*4), 229. " (1891), 254. Woman's Christian Temper- ance Union, 442. "Wigwam." The, 258. See also Fire Scenes; Pullman, Scenes in: and World's Co- lumbian Exposition. FIRE SCENES. Armour's Block before and after the fire, 313. Bookseller's Row before and after the fire, 317. Chamber of Commerce before and after the fire, 307. FIRE SCENES. Continued. Court House before and after the fire, 314. Crosby's Opera House before and after the fire, 327. Clark and Lake Sts.. S. E. cor., before and after the fire, 298. Dearborn St., North from Adams, Oct. 17, '71, 294. Field & Leiter's store before and after the fire, 310. First building erected after the fire, 329. First M. E. Church after the fire, 297. First Merchants in burnt dis- trict, 333. First National Bank before and after the fire, 319. General Ruin, Oct. 17, '71, 300. Historical Society's Building before and after the fire, 318. "Kerfoot's Block," 329. Lake and Clark Sts., S. E. cor., after the fire 298. Lake St. from Michigan Ave., before and after the fire, 311. Marine Bank after the fire, 298. Michigan Ave., North frcm Madison St. before and after the fire, 332. Michigan Southern Depot be fore and after the fire, 301. Ogden Residence, 304. Portland Block before and af- ter the fire, 312. Postoffice before and after the fire, 328. Rumsey, Geo., residence of, be- fore and after the fire, 331. Rush Medical College befoie and after the fire, 308. St. lames' Church before and after the fire, 316. St. James' Church from Huron St. after the fire. 305. St. James' Church from Rush St. after the fire, 297. St. Paul's Universalist Church before and after the fire, 304. Second Presbyterian Church before and after the fire, 306. Shepard's Building before and after the fire, 302. Sherman House before and after the fire, 303. Tribune building before and after the fire, 299. Union Building before and after the fire. 326. Unity Church before and after the fire, 330. Washington Street and Court House, Oct. 17, 1871, 292. FIRE SCENES. Continued. Washington St., West from Wa- bash Ave., Oct. 17, '71, 295. Waterworks, City, before and after the fire, 296. Where the fire started, 290. Burnt District, 289. PARKS. Douglas Park, Scenes in, 371, 372 and 373. Garfield Park, Scene in, 374. Lincoln Park, Bear-pit in, 370. Floral Design in, 366. In the Palm House, 365. Scene in, 368. Sea Lion Pond, 362. Washington Park, the Floral Globe, 364. Fountain, 369. Gates Ajar, 363. (See also "Statues.") PORTRAITS. Ackerman, W. K., 221. Adams, C. W., Master U. S. N., 286. Geo. W., 383. J. McGregor, 323. Aldrich, W., 113. Anderson, G., 128. P. B., 128. Andrews, E., Surgeon U. S. V.. 282. Armour, Geo.. 129. Joseph F., 415. Philip D., 415. Armstrong, T. R., 112. Arnold, Isaac N., 146. Atkinson, S. F., 137. Baker, W. T., 422. Baldwin, W. A., 112. Ball, S. R. and wife, 128. Balsby, J., 121. Bangs, Mark. 358. Barnes, S B. and wife, 136. Barney, Mrs N. A., 136. Barrett, S. E., Major U. S. V., 286. Barry, Wm., 348. Bascom. Rev. Flavel, 225. S., 113. Bassett. G., 120. J., 121. Bates, John and wife, 128. John, Jr., 129. Beaiibien, John B., 86,142. Mark, 121. W. S. and wife, 120. Beecher. J., and wife, 129. Beers. C.. 120. Beggs, Rev. S. R., 177. XX THE STORY OF CHICAGO. PORTRAITS. Continued. Bennet, B., 105. Berg, A., 120-136. Mrs. A., 118. Beveredge, John L., 342. Bigelow, Mrs. J., 105. Bishop, Mrs. L. J., 129. Black, Gen. John Charles, 266. William P., 382. Black Hawk, 103. Blackman, E., 105. Blatchford, E W., 408. Blodgett. Judge H. W., 167. W. H. and wife, 129. E. A., Capt. U.S. V., 282. Bonfield, Capt. John, 379. Bonney, Charles C., 435. Boone, Daniel, 36. Levi D., 112,360. Mrs. T. L., 120. Botsford, Jabez K., 211. J. J. and wife, 129. Bowen, C., 113. Jas., 263. L , 113. Boyer, N. A. and wife, 136. Bradley, Cyrus P., 198. W. H., 409. Brainard, Dr. D., 132. Braith, A. F., 121. Brajo, Mr. and Mrs., 128. Brayman, Mrs. E. W.. 120. Brayton, Jas. H., 383. Breese, R. B., 105. Judge Sydney, 218. Bridges, Gen. Lyman, 267 T. B., 129. Bross, Gov. Wm., 105. Brown, L., 128. N. H., and wife, 120. S. D., 136. T , 128. W. H., 172. Bryan, A. B., 113. Thos. B.,263, 270. Burley, A. G., 174. 128. Mrs. A. G.,128. A. H., 174, 263. Butterfield, Justin, 175. Calhoun, John, 130. Mrs. John, 113. John B., 219. Campbell, G., 112. Carbriden, J., 137. Carrington, N. S., 128. Carpenter, A. E., 112. Mrs. A. E.,137 Philo, 113, 117. Carter, Thos. B., 129, 239. Carver, B., 112. Castle. E., 105. Caswell. S. and wife. 136. Caton. Judge John Dean, 138. Mrs. John Dean, 139. Mr. and Mrs. W. P., 128. Cavelier, R. de La Salle, 21. Chacksfield.C., 128. Chalmers, T., 120. Chapin, John P., 360. Chappell, Elisa, 123. Chesbrough, E. S.. 275. Chetlain.Gen. A. L.,265. Church. Thos., 196. W. L.. 120 PORTRAITS. Continued, Churchill, J. and wife, 128. Clark. Geo. Rogers, 41 . G. R., 105. H. W. and wife, 128. John K., 97. N., 136. W. H., 120. Clarke, W. H., 275. Clancey, W. B. and wife, 136. Cleaver, Chas., 128, 137. Cleavland, W. R., 112. dowry, R. W., Lt.-Col. U. S. V., 282. Clybourne, Archibald, 99. Mrs. Archibald, 99, 137. Cobb, S. G. and wife, 104. Silas B., 104, 211. Mrs. Silas B., 104. Coffing, Mrs. C., 129. Colbert, Monsieur, 33. Collyer, Rev Robert, 259. Colvin, H. D.. 263, 360. Conner, Miss C., 128. Cook, Hon. D. P., 113. G. C. and wife, 121. T. and wife, 129. Couch, James, 137, 182. Mrs. James, 137. Crary, C. A., 112. Cregier, Hon. DeWittC., 361. Crerar, John, 412. Crook, George, Maj.-Gen. U. S. A.. 282. Curtis, James, 204, 360. Mrs. James, 112. Miss P., 105. Cushing, N., 136 Daggy. Peter, 224. Dauchy, G. K., Capt. U. S. V., 282.' Davis, C.W., Col. U.S.V., 286. Mrs. E., 112. Geo. R., 357. Dr. N. S., 422. Dee, Mrs. D., 129. Demock, Mrs. M. A., 112. Denker, Theo. E., 383. Derrickson, R. P., 137. DeWolf. C.,105. Henry, 271. William, 264. W. F., 355. Dexter, A. and wife, 129. Wirt. 336. Dickey, T. Lyle. 213. Dickman, A.i 112. Dobbins, T.,113. Dodson, C. B. and wife, 120. Dole, G. W., 204. Dore. John C., 263. Douglas, Stephen A., 165. Downs, A. G. and wife, 121. A. S. and wife, 121. N. D. and wife, 136. W. R., 104. Mrs. W. R., 136. Drake, G., 104. Drummond, Judge Thos., 209, 26H. Ducat. Gen. Arthur C. 265. Dugan, T., 137. Dyas. Dr. G.. 137. Dyer, Chas. V., 235. PORTRAITS. Continued. Dyer, Clarence H., Maj. U.S. V., 286. Thomas, 360. Eagan, E. B. and wife, 129. Earle, Mrs. M., 120. Eastman, Zebina, 112, 226. Ebert, John, 203. Egan. Mrs. E.. 120. Dr. Wm. B., 114. Engel. Geo., 385. Erskine, Col. Albert, 268. Fairbank, N. K., 256. Farnham, G. M., Captain U. S. V., 286. Farwell, John V., 324. Fearn, Walter, 435. Fergus, Robt., 143. Fielden, Paul, 385. Fischer, Adolph, 384. Fittz, Mr., 104. Follansbee, C., 120. Mrs. C., 112. Foote, J., 136. Mrs. J., 121. J. H.. 121. Forbes, Eliza, 123. Stephen, 122. Foster, Geo. F., 160. Mrs. G. F., 137. Fowler, Mrs. F. H., 112. Fuller, H. and wife, 104. Furness, W. E., Maj. U. S. V., 286. Gage, Mrs. E., 104. Lyman J., 352. Gale, A., 137. Gary, Judge Joseph E., 38(. Garrett, Aug., 360. Gates. P. W., 120. Mrs. P. W., 112. George III., 45. Gibbs, A., 120. Gleason, McB., 137. Goodhue, JosiahC., 149. Goodkins, S. R., 137. Goodman, Thomas, 113. Goodrich, Judge Grant, 263 Gould, Mr. E., 113. J. N., 137. Graff, P. and wife. Ii3. Graham, E. A., 113. Grannis. A., 105. Grant, Mrs., 112. Gray, C. M., 360 Mrs. C. M., 113. G. W., 137. J., 137. Mrs. J.. 112. J. H.. 120. Mrs. J. H., 113. M., 137. Miss. 129. W., 129. Greeley. Horace, 197. Green, R. and wife, 113. Greenebaum, Mr., 105 Greiner. John B., 383. Grinnell, Julius S., 382. Groesbeck, A., 137. Gunn, Dr. Moses. 259. Gurley, Jason, 157. Gurnee, Walter S.. 360. Haines, John C., 129. 360. ILLUSTRATIONS. xxi PORTRAITS Continued Hallam, Rev. Isaac W., 128. Hamilton, Andrew, 388. P. S., 104. Richard J., 116. Hammond, Chas. G., 324. Hancock, J. S., 105 Harding, A. J., Capt. U, S. V., 286. Harmon. E , 120. Isaac D., 137, 240. Isaac N., 105.240. Harper, Mrs. J. M., 113. W., 136. Harris, Jacob, 113. Mrs. J. E., 105. Harrison, Hon. Carter H.,360. Hart, R., 113. Hayes, S. I., 309 Heacock, W. C., 104. Heald. H. N. and wife, 128. Rebekah, 58. Healey, G. P. A., 346. Heartt, George, 104. Mrs. Jane, 105. Heath, Monroe, 360, 378. Henderson, Mrs. H. E., 129. Higgins, Judge Van H., 263. Hilliard, L. P.. 136. Hing, J. and wife, 104. Hjortsberg, Max. 399. Hoard, S. and wife, 136. Hogan, J. C., 177. Holden, Mrs. Betsey, 348 C., 105 C. C. P., 192. Mrs. C. C. P., 105. C. N.,121, 161. Mrs. C. N., 121. J. and wife, 121. P. H., 348. Hooker, Mrs. L. W., 120. Hough, R. M., 263. Hoyne, Thomas. 194. 263. Hubbard.Gurdon S.. 83,120,404 Huggins, E., Capt. U. S. A., I 283. Hughitt, Marvin, 347. Hugunin, L. G., 113. Huntington, Alonzo. 196. Kurd, Mrs. H. B., 136. Hurlbut, Henry H., 89. Hyde, J. N., Surgeon U. S. '' N.. 286. Ingalls, R.. Bvt. Maj. Gen. U. S A., 282. Ingals, Dr., 112. Ingham, George C., 382. Isherwood, Harry, 185. Jackson, H. W.. Major U. S. V., 286, 413. J. and wife, 128. Jenks, Mrs. J., 105. Jenney, W. L. B., Major U. 5. V.,282. Jennings, J., 113. S. H., 113. Johnson. Dr. Hosmer A., 338. J.,105. Jones, Fernando, 120, 309. Mrs. Fernando, 120. Jones, J., 105. N. A. and wife, 128. Jouett, Charles, 44. PORTRAITS. Coniinmd. Judd, Norman B., 154. Judson, Mrs E., 113. Keeler.VV. B.,Col. U. S.V.,286. Kehoe, M.. 128. Kidder, H. M., Col. U. S. V., 282. Kimball, A. F., 128. Mark. 128. King, Henry W., 336. Tuthill and wife, 113. Kin/if, Gwenthlean H., 96. John Harris, 94. Mrs. Juliette A., 57. R. A., 95. Kirkland. Joseph, 305. Kobles, Miss S. C., 104. Labaska, K.. 129. Lander. J. and wife, 129. Lane, E. B. and wife, 129. Lange, O. G.. 105. Mrs. O. G., 137. Larned, Edwin C., 263, 337. LaSalle: SeeCavelier. Leake.Gen.Joseph B., 260, 282 Lee, T., 137. Leiter, Levi Z , 354. Lincoln, Abraham, 164, 200. Lind, Sylvester, 137, 231. Lingg, Louis, 384. Lipp, R., 129. Little Turtle, 60. Lloyd, Alexander, 360. Locke, Rev. Clinton, 344. Louis XIV., 214. Loomis, John Mason, Col. U. S. V., 286. Ludwig. Chas. H., 383. Luff.W. M.,Maj U. S.V.,286. Macham, W., 136. MacVeagh. Franklin, 447. Manierre, Edwin, 128. George, 263. Marshall, J. N. and wife, 129. Mason, Geo., Maj. U. S. V., 286. Mrs. H. P., 136. Roswell P., 217. 360. McCagg, Ezra B., 325. McClaughry, Mai. U. S. V., 286. McClintock, J., 120. McCluer, J. E., 137. McCormick, Cyrus H., 448. McDonnell, C., 104, 112. Mrs. C., 104. McGraw, J. and wife, 136. McKay, Mr., 104. McVicker. Dr. Brock, 113. Mrs. Brock, 137. Jas. H., 223. McWarren, J.. 137. Mrs. J.,129. McWilliams, J. G., Capt. U. S. V., 286. Meacham. R., 104. Meadowcroft, R. and wife, 121. Medill, Joseph, 262, 360. Wm. H., 268. Merrill, Mrs. A., 112. Me-tee a, 86. Midgley, R., 120. Miles, Gen. Nelson A., 427. Milliken. Isaac L., 360. Mills. J. K. and wife, 128. PORT K AITS. Continue J. Miner, Mrs. R., 104, 282. Mitchell, J. B. and wife. 128. Munger, D. S., 112. Morgan, Mrs. A.E., 105. Morris, BucknerS., 1?6, 360. Morrison, D. and wife, 121. E. and wife, 104, 105. Moses, Judge John, 410. Mrs., 137. Murphy, Mrs. H. A., 113. Myers. S., 120. Myrick. Mr. and Mrs., 128. Neebe, Oscar, 385. Nevin, P., 105. Newberry, Julia R., 407. Mary L., 406. Walter L., 405. Newton, J. S. and wife, 105. Nichols, Mrs. E., 129. L., 137. S. J., 104. Norton, Mrs. D., 104. O'Connor, J., 112. Ogden, Mahlon D., 112, 194. Wm. B., 115, 360. Olsen, Mrs M.A., 121. O'Neil, Thos. and wife, 136. Osborne, Frank S., 383. W., 112. Wm. H., 220. Otis, E.. Capt. U. S. V., 282. Page, Peter, 195. Palmer, Potter, 353. Mrs. Potter, 440. Parsons, A. R., 384. Peacock, E.. 137. Peck. Ebenezer, 131. W. L., 137. Perkins, O. P.. 105. Pitney, F. V.. 137. Polk, W., 137. Poole.Wm. F., 409. Porter, F. H., 113. Mrs. F. H., 105. Jeremiah, 124. Pratt, Mrs E., 137. Prindiville Redmond, 203. Prophet. The, 55. Proudfoot. Lawrence, 276. Pullman, George M., 389. Quirk, David, 378. Randall, S. G., 383. Raymond, B.W.,112, 156. 360. Reed, A. H.. 383. J. C., 112. J. H., 112. Reeves, E. F., 120. Rice, John B., 212, 360. Richmond, T. and wife, 138. Robb, Col., 112. Robins, R., Capt. U S A., 282 Robinson, Alexander, 78. Roche, John A., 361. Rogers, W. B., 120. Root, John W., 450. Rumsey, Julian, 263, 360. Runnion, D., 112. Russell. M. J., Lieut. U. S. V., 286. Ryerson, Joseph T., 337. Saint Cyr, Father I. M. I., 127. Sandford, Harry T., 383. Satterlee, M. L. and wife. 104. XX11 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. PORTRAITS. Continued. Sawyer, H., 113. Saunders, R. P., 187. Scammon, J. Young, 128, 179, 205. Schneider, Geo.,263, 325. Schofield, J. M., Maj.-Gen. U. S. A., 282. Schwab, Michael, 385. Scott, W. and wife, 137. Scoville, H. H.. 112. Sexton, J. A., Capt. U. S. V.. 282. Shaubena, 104. Shelby, J., 120. Sheridan, P. H., Gen. U. S. A., 282. Sherman and his officers, 417. Sherman, A. S., 137, 360. F. C., 360. Francis T., Brig. Gen. U. S. A. 282. Frank, 195. H., 137. Shipman, Dr. G. and wife, 104. D. B., 128. S. V., Col. U. S. V., 282. Shortall, John G., 315. Skinner, Judge Mark, 180, 263. Richard, 269. Small, J. and wife, 129. Smart, E., 121. Smith, E., 105. Smith, Geo.. 243. J. F., 105. Mrs. M. A., 112. Snowhook, W. B., 239. Sollitt, J., 113 W., 129. Mrs. W., 121. Speer, Mr. and Mrs. J., 1-21. Spies, August, 384. Spry, Mrs. B.. 121. J. and wife, 121. Stewart. Gen. Hart L., 105, 255. Stockton, J., Brig. -Gen. U.S. V., 286. Stone, W. H., 120. Stokes, Gen. James H., 26<). Sturtevant, A. D., 105. Mrs. A. D., 113. Sumner, O. P. and wife, 104. Surdam, J. R. and wife, 120. Sweeney, J., 112. Talcott, E. B , 120. M. and wife, 105. Taylor, A. H., 137. Taylor, G. D., 105. Taylor, L. D., 137. N. C., 104. R.. 137. Tasker, Mrs.. 120. Tear, J., 120. Tecumseh, 55. Temple, J S. and wife, 105. Thomas, H. H.. Capt. U. S. V., 286. Thompson, A. H. and wife. 105. Tinkham, E. I., 345. Todd. Chas. B., 383. Torrence, Gen. Joseph T., ZT'. \ PORTRAITS. Continued. Trumbull, Lyman, 351. Tucker, Joseph F., 222. Turner,]., 121, 128. Mrs. J., 121. Tuthill, Brig-Gen. Richard S., 261. Tuttle, F., 120. Upton, Geo. P., 213. Van Arman. John, 263. Van Osdel, J., 113, 356. Van Vlack, E. B., 105. Vedder, F. H. and wife, 112. Vial, R., 104. S., 105. Vincent, A., 129. Wadhams, S., 112. Wait, H. N., Paymaster U. S. N., 282. J. W., 137. .Iker, A Walker, A. F., Col. U. S. V., 286. Chas., 173. S. B., 112. Wallace, J. S., 120. Walsh, C. and wife, 113. Ward, J., 113. Warner, S. B., 129. Mrs. S. B., 121. Washburne, ElihuB.,284. Hempstead, 361. Washington, Augustine, 46. George, 46. Lawrence, 46. Waterman, A. N., Col. U. S. A., 282. R., Lieut. U. S. V., 282. Wayman, S. and wife, 104. W., 121. Wayne, Gen. Anthony, 50. Webster. Gen. JosephD., 199. Wells, H. G , 121. Mrs. H. G., 136. Capt. William, 62. Wentworth, Elijah, 128. John, 237, 360. Wheeler, W., 121. Whistler, Wm., 51. Mrs. Wm., 52. Whitehead.H. and wife, 136. Wicker, Chas. G., 263. Wier, G. E. and wife, 136. Wilcox, C., 118. Willard, A. J. and wife, 121. E. W., 263. Miss Frances, 141. J. H., 113. Williams, Norman, 414. Wilson, J., 112. John M., 263. Winne, A., Lieut. U. S. V., 286. Wolcott, Alexander, 121, 192. Mrs. Alexander, 121. Wood, A. C., 206. Woodruff, Mr. and wife, 112, 120. Woodward, C., 136. Mrs. C., 104. Woodworth, Mrs. J., 136. Worthington, D. and wife, 121. Yates, H. H.. 113. Gov. Richard, 263. Yoe, P. L.,263. PULLMAN, SCENES IN. Arcade Building, 395. Daughters of Workers, 399. Fire Department, 392. Hotel Florence, 393. Lake Vista, 394. Main Administrative Build- ing, 398. Railway Station, 391. School Building, 400. Watchman at Gate, 397. Water Tower, 388. STATUES. Douglas Monument. Grant Monument in Lincoln Park. La Salle Statue in Lincoln Park. Lincoln Statue in Lincoln Park. Linnaeus Statue in Lincoln Park. WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EX- POSITION. Administration Building, 419. Agriculture Building, 433. Art Palace, 424. Electrical Building, 432. Fisheries Building, 429, Government Building. 420. Horticultural Building, 431. Illinois State Building, 423. Machinery Hall, 430. Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, 4^6. Mines and Mining. 432. Transportation Building, 424. Women's Building, 428. MISCELLANEOUS After the Storm, 11. Anarchist Case, Jury in, 383. Beaubien's Fiddle. 135. Beaver at Work, 79. Beaver Dam, 12. Black Partridge Medal, 61. Buffalo Rock. 28. Canal Scrip Bank Notes. 169. "Chicago Construction," 449. Chicago in 1812, 65. Chicago in 1840 (Schoolcraft's View), 85. Chicago in 1845, 214. Chicago in 1850,215. Chicago in 1889, 65. Chicago River, Plan for Im- proving Mouth of. 93. "Chicagou" (wild onion), 8. Chimera, stump tail, 242. Clark Street, Evolution of, 147. Clark Captures Kaskaskia, 37. Couch Family Tomb in Lin- coln Park, 183. Dawn, 92. Dearborn St. bridge, 119 Douglas monument, 250. Park, scenes in : See Parks. Drummer Boy, The, 257. Explorers on the lakes, 16. French settlements. 29. Great Lakes, elevation above tidewater, 5. ILL USTRA TfONS. xxui MISCELLANEOUS. Continued. Fac similes of Autographs, etc. Caldwell, Wm., 77. Heacock. R. E.. 133. Kinzie, James, 97. John ,87. Miller. Samuel, 97 Playbill of 1849. 212. Scrip, canal, 169-71. Fire Engines. Double Decked, 152. Long John, 236. Side Brake, 152. Flag of distress, 64. Flat Boat, The, 31. Flood of 1849. 208. GarBeld Park, scene in: See parks. Garlick, wild, 8. " Go on with your dancing; but remember," 37. Grand Boulevard, 375. Grant monument in Lincoln Park. 438. Haymarket, 381. Hennepin's Niagara, 7. " His last cent," 163. Hook and Ladder Truck, 152. Hospital tent, scene in, 287. Illinois Farm. 188. River Valley, 6. MISCELLANEOUS. Continued. Indian Girl, 106. Mound, 9. Squaw, 102. War dance, 110. Indians on the move, 111. " Lady Elgin," wreck of, 273. Lake St. fire of 1834, 134. Lalime, Jean, remains, 101. La Salic statue, in Lincoln Park, Frontispiece. La Salle St. tunnel, 280. Leek, wild, 8. Lincoln Park, scenes in: See Parks. Lincoln statue, 277. Linnreus statue, 402. Locomotive, First, 202. Mackinaw, Straits of, 228. " Madeira Pet," 238. Massacre Tree and Pull- man's House, 70. Mayors of Chicago, Suc- cession of, 360. Michigan ave. in 1849, 241. Moonlit Graves, 91. Mound Builders, Relic of, 8. Newberry Library Build- ing in Construction, 411. Niagara Falls. Father Hennepin's Sketch, 7. MISCELLANEOUS. ContinutJ. Niagara Rapids at Work, 2. Niagara, retirement of, 3. Ogden Wentworth Ditch (Mud Lake) in 1890, 19. Old Judge and the Young Candidate, The, 151. Pipe, Relic of the Mound Builders, 8. Police Patrol, 387. Prairie Avenue in 1891, 437. Prairie Wolf, 148. Red Coat, 1812, 34. Sherman and His Officers. 417. Scalp, The. 30. Sleeping Car, The first, as it looked in 1891, 234. Stacked Guns, 272. Stage Office, 181. Starved Rock; near Utica 111., 23. Stock-Yards, View in, 278. Storm Cloud, 10. Stump-tail Chimera. 242. Tablet on Site of Fort Dear- born, 82. Union Defence Committee, 263, Valley Forge, 43. Waubansa Stone, 155. Wolf Point in 1830, 98. A THOUSAND CENTURIES. NMISTAKABLE testimony of Nature's land- marks and watermarks shows us that at some past day the surface of Lake Michigan was more than thirty feet higher than now, and the floods of Lakes Superior, Huron and Michi- gan flowed southwest by the Illinois and Mis- sissippi to the Gulf of Mexico, instead of northeast by Niagara, Ontario and the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic. Also that the course of the mighty stream was over the then submerged flat where now stands Chicago; and that a great part of it, following the general course of the little West Fork of our South Branch, past the Bridgeport quarter, over the nearly dry expanse we call Mud Lake (traversed now by the canal, the Alton and the Santa Fe Railways and theOgden-Wentworth ditch), poured in a fine flood across the "Divide" between Summit and River- side, a mile beyond present city limits, into the bed of the Des Plaines. To-day that " Divide" is but eight or ten feet above the surface of Lake Michigan ; therefore when that surface was thirty feet higher its outlet had twenty feet or more of depth ; and, as the gap of low land now shows, it was two miles wide. One easily pictures the grandeur and beauty of the southward moving mass as it starts toward Joliet Lake, the Illinois valley and the Gulf of Mexico. Where was Niagara then, and why did it not, as now, afford a "line of least resistance " for the drainage of the great Northwestern water- shed ? Lake Michigan flowed toward the Gulf of Mexico. THE STORY OF CHICAGO. How the came it; change d tion. Niagara was doubtless a brawling stream meandering along near -the tops of the hills whose feet it now washes. The Falls themselves, which have worn their way upstream perceptibly even within historic times, were necessarily somewhere near the declivity at Lewiston where the high ground ends and the Ontario flat begins. There is a far greater fall from Lake Erie to Ontario than from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, and a shorter course in which to make the drop there- fore a swifter current. Other things being equal, the faster water flows the faster it deepens its channel. At a certain speed it makes soil by deposit, at another speed it gnaws, scours, carries away. So are mount- ains brought low and valleys filled up. NIAGARA RAPIDS AT WORK. Starting with the time when they were on equal terms; when our Western stream let us call it Joliet river, to coin a term and the Niagara were carrying each the same quantity of water; Niagara, with its quicker fall, over at least equally friable material, must gain upon Joliet. The former underbids the latter and draws more and more from its income. The more it gains, the more it may, for it has the stolen capital to gain with. Slowly, slowly, the Niagara cataract plows its backward furrow- kicks its way uphill toward Lake Erie. Each step gained steals a hairbreadth from the lake levels, each hairbreadth lessening the supply for the Joliet river. Slowly, slowly, Lake Michigan recedes, each pause TIME UNKNOWN. 3 marked by a long roll of beach-sand, miles in length, parallel to the pres- ent lake shore ; and lo ! those long ridges stretch through Chicago suburbs to this day, visible to the eyes of all and puzzling to the mind of the thoughtless. Niagara is still plowing its furrow, and the lakes are still losing their hairbreadths of depth. To our posterity will one day come a CHART SHOWING RETIREMENT OF NIAGARA SINCE 1843. serious question how shall this exhaustion be checked? Shall it go Threatened de . on until Lake Erie tumbles bodily over the edge, and Buffalo, Erie, section of * Lake Erie. Cleveland, Sandusky and Toledo are left far inland and harborless ? Happily this is not our present problem. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Instead of the far future let us turn to the far past and take a look at our chosen spot of earth as it was in the days when Lake Michi- gan was brim full and flowed southward over Chicago's submerged plain. 4 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks. Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight. Stand like Druids of old, with voices sad and pathetic. Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms . Loud from its rocky caverns the deep- voiced neighboring ocean Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest. When Chicago g e a d s . s Here is the southwestern bend of Lake Michigan, and now is an era centuries ago a score, a hundred, a thousand no matter how many, for Nature takes no account of time. "A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." Taking Waukegan Point as a starting place and walking south- ward, the shore of the old unknown epoch is much like that of the known until we come to the southern point of the loo-foot bluff of Lake Forest, Highland Park, Highwood, and Lakeside. At Winnetka the high ground begins to trend to the westward, and in these old days the water does likewise, lapping the shore at the foot of the long south- western hill which starts in the Wilmette suburb. Here we go, in fancy, about southwest, at the water's edge, leaving an elevated marsh ("The Skokie") on our right and coming to where a little stream (North Branch) empties between high banks (Norwood Park). The marsh and the stream, nay, even the lake itself, are teeming with wild-fowl; myriads upon myriads rise and circle about, filling the air with their hoarse cries and the noise of their wings. Wild geese and wild swan, duck, pelican, crane, throng and crowd each other, unknow- ing as yet the extinction that awaits them. The marsh is their breed- ing-place and the lake their highway between the Arctic and the Tropic.* Next our course is southward for some seven miles (Montclare, Galewood, etc.), after which it turns more toward the west (Austin, Ridgeland, Oak Park, etc.), and then again southwest, f At this part of our progress we find ourselves on a narrowing spit of land, between the lake on our left and a brook (Des Plaines) on our right. At last (Riverside) they join, and the stream is lost, yet not in the lake itself, but in a vast river flowing placidly from the lake toward the southwest. Looking across the stream we see the low-lying shore of the lake begin again, some two miles away to the south, whence it trends away southeastward, continuing low and inconspicuous for a stretch of six miles, when it rises gracefully in a hill that forms a picturesque blue * Even at this writing ( 1890) the Skokie is very fair shooting-ground during the springand autumn, and the writer, only a year ago, heard and saw a large flock of wild geese, bewildered by a coming storm. Hying low over the roofs of the Chicago houses; certainly not more than 100 feet high, for their frightened "Honk! Honk!'' could be plainly distinguished, and the city light was strongly reflected from their broad, flapping wings. tObserve the accompanying map, giving the city and suburbs, the present lake shore and the old. The lat- ter is meandered by levels carefully observed and recorded under the auspices of the Chicago Drainage Com- mission. TIME UNKNO WN. island (Washington Heights) to finish off our landscape with a genu- ine mound rising, with its trees, a hundred feet above this brimming lake. If, finding we can go no further dry-shod, we turn up the high bank of the smaller stream (Des Plaines) we shall soon come to a beaver- dam and hear the loud "pat, pat, pat" on the water of the huge flat As P ect of the tails of these industrious rodents as they swim hither and yon upon im. their absorbing tasks.* A few miles further inland we should meet droves of antelope and deer of all kinds, even the carriboo or reindeer; innumerable wild turkeys, and the vast herds of buffalo covering the ground, "so that when they moved it looked as if the surface of the earth were in motion." But we have seen what we came to see and will drop the curtain on the mimic landscape. Uncounted ages pass. Yearsin companies, regiments, brigades, and armies go by unmarshalled and unmarked. The lake, drawn upon at its northern extremity, becomes a stingy provider for our river Joliet, and its stream grows perceptibly lower and feebler. The long, broad pathway (Illinois valley) it has cut for itself, with flats, terraces, lakes and rapids, is out of all proportion to its needs; it is like the garment of "the lean and slippered Pantaloon," that is "a world too wide for his shrunk shanks." Verily, the Joliet is falling into its dotage. It is still a gay stream, and floats with dignity along the "twelve-mile level " to its end (Lockport) and then tumbles loudly and merrily down over the limestone strata, 77 feet in ten miles, to its first temporary resting-place (Lake Joliet), but it is no longer a superior, an equal, or even a respectable rival to Niagara, which has grown large and lusty upon its competitor's decay. * Remains of beavrr dams rre fi8i>o) still visible all about. THE STORY OF CHICAGO. The divide emerges (rom the waves - More years, years, years, in endless procession. How are the mighty fallen ! The Joliet has ceased to surpass even the insignificant Des Plaines. Humbly it mixes its waves with its old servant and later hand- maid. When the north wind blows and the lake is piled up at its south- erly end, the summit feels the passage of something like its old-time burden ; but when the soft south prevails, especially if the Des Plaines has snow about its head, then it crowds out its former master and posi- tively sends part of its own stream lakeward. More years and ages in their slow, untiring course; and the time comes when the lake is never high enough to send even a wave over the Divide. There is a dry bar there save when the Des Plaines sends down a flood that overtops it and surges eastward through Mud lake. The Joliet river has ceased to r ILLINOIS RIVER VALLEY. (SHOWING ABRASION OF Son. AND ROCK.) exist. The lake is falling so that almost every century shows fresh reaches of sandy, ridge along its edge. For the nature of earth and water is such that sand and gravel are formed and deposited along a surf-beaten shore, while clay and other lighter floating stuff, that roily water holds in suspension, can only find the bottom in deeper depths where there is a calm stratum through which the silt may sink. There- fore is it that we everywhere find a clayey subsoil near our sandy surface. While the water was deep the settlings made the clay ; when the shore encroached on the waves, it came in the shape of sand. TIME UNKNOWN. 7 Still there is none to note the change except the wild fowl, the beaver, the buffalo and their almost harmless " natural " enemies, the wolves, bears, foxes and coyotes. But at some time in the course of ages, a new visitor appears, a biped, slight, erect and tall rare and unterrifying in appearance, yet the forerunner of doom to the flocks and herds of air and earth. The first comers are of a semi-civilized race now lost to knowledge and even to tradition. They were hardy and indus- trious, for they opened the copper-mines of Lake Superior and worked them for untold years, and to this day their tools and their works are found there deep under ground, surrounded by masses of half-mined metal. Suddenly and simultaneously they dropped their implements and fled, and whence they came and whither they went is one of the world's insoluble riddles. Were they the peaceable Aztecs, spreading out so far as to be the miners and the mound builders, and driven back by the terrible red man, a better fighter and poorer worker than them- selves ? Quicnsabe? They could not write, and so they are forgotten. Words are the only things that live forever. After them are centuries of Red Indian nomads a terrible race, a repulsive race, a vanishing race yet perhaps worthy of a short chapter to itself. Vanished races. NIAGARA FALLS. As SKETCHED BY FATHER HENNEPIN IN 1698. Meaning of the name. CHAPTER II. THE ABORIGINES GOD S IMAGE DONE IN COPPER. S the lake receded from its ancient shore it left behind it one slender two-toed foot- print a rivulet with two branches. The north branch, coming in at the Skokie, pre- served a southward course nearly parallel with the deserted shore-line, while a south branch, with various creeping affluents, started north- ward from the abandoned "Divide" and met the the other half way, after which the two made eastward to find their parent body, the lake. Puny, struggling creeks they were, at the best, flowing almost as often inward as outward, according to the vagaries of the winds and waves of stormy Michigan. The wild onion, leek or garlic, -chicagou." Among the weeds on the banksof these weedy creeks there was, and is to this day, a worthy plant ; graceful, humble and inconspicuous to the eye, repellant to the nose, hardy and persistent, and valuable in its unpretending way. It is the wild garlick, leek or onion.* The lowly creek has drawn to itself the name of the lowly plant as rendered in the Indian tongue, "Chickagou," a name with many an alias. " Che-cau-gou " ( Hennepin's story of La Salle's expedition in 1680); "Chicagua" (Samson, geographer to Louis XIV.); "Chikagu," "Chikagou," "Chicagu" (St. Cosme, visiting the locality in 1699); " She- caugo," meaning "playful waters," and " Choc-ca-go," meaning " desti- tute" (Pottawatomie?); "Chickahou" (La Hontan); "Shegahg," meaning "skunk," or "She-gau-ga-winzhe," meaning " skunk weed or wild onion" (Chippewa dialect of the Algon- quins); "Eschikagou" (Col. De Puyster, English commandant at * Allium Fricoccum; lance-leaved garlick, wild leek, 9 inches and higher, 10 to 12 white flowers. Leaves lance- olate, oblong, flat and smooth, s to 8 inches long. Bulb oblong. Pipe. Relic of the Mound Builders. THE INDIANS. 9 Michilimackinack, 1779); " Chicagou, or Garlick Creek" (William Murray, attempted land-grabber, 1773); " Gitchi-ka-go," meaning " a thing great orstrong" (dialect of the Illinois tribes). All these and doubtless others are variations of a single word. Only one thing is certain namely, that the word denotes something "strong," whether like a giant or like a leek is not important. Those who love Chicago will take it in one sense ; those who love her not may choose the other. Unbiased observers have called her strong in both senses of the word. Giants have their faults and onions have their vir- tues. Brave, generous, devoted, faithful Tonty, in his memoirs, speaks of the abundance of the wild leek or onion throughout the country, and says that he and his companions were sustained by the plants of this nature which they grubbed from the ground while journeying northward from the Illinois in 1680-81.* INDIAN MOUND. (Now part of St. Louis, Mo.) A little bulb, strong, hardy and wholesome, sustaining the famish- ing wanderer: A great metropolis, powerful, kindly and gay, feeding the hungry world let who will, rail at either. Chicago should forestall criticism by adopting the Chi-ca-gou, from root to flower, as her civic emblem. " Gare a qui touche." Touch it who dare ! Our earliest information regarding the two-pronged brook, Garlick creek, otherwise Chicago river, is to the effect that many Indian trails led to it from all directions. We might have guessed this ; similar causes produce similar results, and innumerable paths, trodden by men of all colors, are bent toward it to this day. It is the spot where one great cwca system of water travel comes into almost perfect touch with another. Nowhere on the continent, perhaps nowhere in the world, is there a point where two so vast natural highways approach each other, sepa- rated by so slight a barrier. The Atlantic voyager entering the St. * " In the woods we fcund a sort of garlick, not so strong as ours, and small onions very like ours in taste." Jtmtil. JO THE STORY OF CHICAGO Lawrence past icy Labrador, when he has sailed and portaged to the very head of free navigation nearly two thousand miles comes to a point where (at high water) he may pass, without disembarking, on a descent of another two thousand miles to the semi-tropical Gulf. So hither came the trails. Why was not this then (as it is now becoming) the greatest of meeting-points, the place where the common interests of humanity brought thousands or millions into friendly con- tact, each profiting by the prosperity of all, and all by that of each ? Simply because these trails were those of the American Indian. Copper, among metals, is hard to weld with any other metal ; and among human beings, the color seems to carry the quality. No more intractable material has ever come from the crucible of animate nature. Proud and yet vain ; haughty to the last, even when helpless ; inde- THE STORM CLOUD. fatigable in destruction and ineffectual in construction ; pitiless though so pitiable, despising pain in himself and enjoying it in others; cruel to Indian Traits. a pitch of insanity ; brave when he has the advantage, but not steadfast in adversity and defeat ; cunning without wise foresight ; greedy rather than acquisitive; incredulous though superstitious ; he could seize but not keep ; see but not learn ; conquer and destroy but overrun but not cultivate; impoverish but not enrich : there was terror ; where he passed there was desolation, solitude and called it peace."* As either master or servant no more perfect failure ever existed. He acknowledged no superior, and he controlled no inferior except his own helpless, enslaved womankind. * " Solitudinem faciunt : pacem appelljnt." Tacitus. not subjugate ; Where he went " They made a THE INDIANS. n He was a natural drunkard, and self-denial was beyond his utmost mental and moral scope. In short, the most indocile, intractable, unlovable, unmanageable of the tribes of the sons of men, was the American Indian. The advocates and apologists of the Indian are many and merciful ; but the consensus of opinion among those who know him best upholds the derogatory view. McKinney (" Indian Tribes ") says : "Theirgreat business in life is to procure food and devour it, to subdue enemies and scalp them." Chief Justice Caton,* himself personally intimate with the Pottawatomies and Ottawas who had their residence about Chicago AFTER THE STORM. when he came here (1833), and preserving friendly relations of mutual respect and esteem with men of both tribes (with whom he tramped, camped and hunted) until they were moved westward, says (Fergus' Historical Series, No. 3): It is emphatically true of all our American Indians that they can not exist, multiply and prosper in the light of civilization. Here their physical vigor fails, their reproductive powers dimin- ish, their spirit and their very vitality dwindle out, and no philanthropy, no kindness, no fostering Caton. care of government, of societies, or of individuals, can save them from an inevitable doom. They are plainly the "sick man" of America; with careful nursing and the kindest care we may prolong his stay among us for a few years, but he is sick of a disease which can never be cured. No sooner is such an estimate of the Aboriginal character ventured, than a cry of protest arises, and a hundred examples are adduced of quite opposite characteristics. Here, connected with our own annals, have lived individual Indians whom it would be slanderous to describe in such bitter words. Judge Moses, while holding views quite in con- sonance with those here expressed, says, in his valuable History of Illinois (vol. I, p. 37): In not a few instances, these untrained, unreasoning children cf nature, knowing no guide but instinct, displayed a fidelity to treaty obligations which might well put to shame the civilized, Christianized Caucasian. Later in these pages we shall have the satisfaction of dwelling upon the friendship of individual members of the savage race, "Faithful *John Dean Caton, late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois, is still living in Chicago, in full vijjrr rf mind and mem~ry. To his personal recollection of facts and incidents, his broad judicial views of the course of events, and his scholarly taste and judgment, this story is greatly indebted. 12 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. among the faithless found." Black Partridge, Winnemeg, Topenebe, Little Turtle, Shabbona these names (and others) bring up feelings of gratitude for favors rendered by the red men to the white, which make it a painful task to give deliberate judgment against their race. One circumstance, unnoted by the Indian apologists, has great weight; it is this: Among all the tribes of savages met by the various immigrations of Europeans, a thousand differences of arms, implements, manners, THE BEAVER DAM habits and customs were observed ; some more barbarous, others less ; but there was one trophy, one weapon, one trait, invariable and universal: scalp Hunting, the bleeding scalp, the sharp scalping-knife, the rage for scalping. This means much. It means that killing was not a mere means to an end, but the end aimed at. It means that simple, sheer, unadulterated, unmitigated murder was the ideal grace of manhood. The brain-pan of man, woman or child yielded its covering, torn away warm and quivering ; and the possessor was sure of the honor and favor of his fellows men, women and children. Savagery the world has always known, and isolated instances of wholesale destruction of non-combatants in the drunkenness of victory ; THE INDIANS. ij but there is no record of a whole race, consisting of many tribes, spread over many lands, enduring for many generations, where such diabolism was the general ethnic trait. Not only was this cruel, it was suicidal. Even the tribes were unstable and evanescent, for each took every opportunity to destroy its neighbor and possess his lands. Defeat meant extermination, not sub- jugation, which might aggrandize the victors, nor even a slaughter of warriors and possession of women and children. Not theirs was the thrifty nature which impelled the Bible patriarch to inculcate such profitable warfare as that prescribed in Deuteronomy xx : 14. Their perversity was our opportunity. If they had stood together and cherished each other, it is difficult to see how in many centuries we could have made the headway we have made in less than three. Justice Caton, in his sketch already quoted, "The last of the Illinois" (Fergus 1 Historic Series, No. 3), gives a picturesque account, derived from an eye witness, of the extinction of the great tribe which gave its name to the Illinois river (or took its name from the river, no one can say which), through the irruption of the terrible Iroquois from the far east, followed by a characteristic dash made by near neighbors from the north on the helpless and starving few who survived the other attack. This final blow was delivered by theOttawas,* and Pottawatomies, prob- ably as late as 1807. The precipitous hill near Ottawa, now called "Starved Rock," is the piaceof the finishing stroke where the miserable remnant was destroyed, 1 * sex, age or infancy bringing no exemption from the common doom. Was any shame felt or obloquy incurred on account of this cowardly outrage? None. There is where the racial infamy puts itself in evidence. It is not that awful wrongs are done by one Indian tribe to another, but that when done they bring no ill name or reprobation upon that branch from the rest. Men are to be judged, not only by their own acts, but also by the esteem in which they hold the acts of their fellows. Theodore Roosevelt (Winning of the West, vol. i) says: The inhuman love of cruelty for cruelty's sake which marks the Red Indian above all other savages, rendered these wars more terrible then any others. For the hideous, unnamable, unthink- able tortures practiced by the red men on their captured foes and on their foes' tender women and helpless children were such as we read of in no other struggle hardly in the revolting pages that tell of the deeds of the Holy Inquisition (p. 86). Any one who has been in an encampment of wild Indians and had the misfortune to witness the delight the children take in torturing little animals, will admit that the Indian's love of cruelty for cruelty's sake, can not possibly be exaggerated Among the most brutal white borderers a man would be instantly lynched if he practiced on any creature the fiendish torture which in an Indian camp either attracts no notice at all, or else excites merely laughter (p. 86). The expression "too horrible to mention" is to betaken literally, not figuratively The nature of the wild Indian has not changed. Not one man in a hundred and not a single woman escapes * In the Jadian tongue this word is pron">mccd with the accent on the second syllable, " Ot-taw-wa." J4 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. torments which a civilized man can not look another in the fac - and so much as speak of. Imr-ale- ment on charred stakes, fingernails split off backwards, finger joints chewed off, eyes burned out these tortures can be mentioned, but there are others equally normal and customary which can not even be hinted at, especially when women are the victims (p. 95). Enough. Cruelty is part of their blood. All other wrong things can be forgiven, but not cruelty. A crime is necessarily an exceptional act: A vice may be a virtue turned away or carried to excess: Perse- cution may arise from a mistaken sense of duty: Folly we can con- done as being sharers in follies. But as for him who finds pleasure in giving pain, let him be anathema. It is vain to hope to interest the world in such a people. To- day is too late and too soon for it to be accomplished too late in that Lost Records. a U the Indian's ancient history is irretrievably lost, and we know not whence he came or who it was (copper-miners and mound-builders) whom he ousted. He attempted no written record ; he had no general spoken tongue and no persistent traditions. It is too soon, in that his later doings are not yet forgotten. Romance has not yet had time to disguise his lazy, dirty domestic tyranny in a garb of patriarchal dignity; his awful cruelty in a halo of heroism. The Indians were nomads, with evident common interests which they had not sense enough to recognize or humanity enough to act upon. Their "numerous trails" led them to Chicago, and away again. To meet was to fight, to fight was to destroy. Identity of wants, needs and perils was no such solvent as could compact them together. As well try to boil flints into a pudding. Nothing of their past, worth knowing, can be known. Their present shows no progress ; their future, as Indians, gives no hope. CHAPTER III. THE RECORDED STORY BEGINS. HUS far, we have given the results of the study of natural objects, deduction, specula- tion, judgment of effects from cause and cause from effect. Now (beginning 1670) we enjoy recorded history. Both sources of knowledge are valuable, each has its dis- tinct and separate advantages. The latter kind is the fuller in detail and more human in its interests; the former is, perhaps, on the whole more trustworthy. The testi- mony of the rocks and hills can not lie, nor can it be biased by interest, vain-glory, prejudice, bigotry or greed of gain. Nor can it forget. In 1535 and again in 1540, the French, under Admiral Cartier, sailed up the St. Lawrence to Montreal. This was forty-three years after Comjn ofthc Columbus' momentous summer trip ; and eighty-five years before the ] terrible winter landing on Plymouth Rock. In 1603 and 1612 Champlain led the third and fourth French expedition into Canada, and there, at Quebec, the gallant French established, by occupation, a foothold which to this day they have never abandoned. Politically, France now holds only the Islands St. Pierre and Miquelon, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (together with fish-curing rights on the north shore of Newfoundland), but by direct descendants, by patronymics, by religion and by persistence of manners, customs and language, the French still cling to America, not only in Canada, where they form the mass of citizens in a great province, but even in our own state and city, where they are honored sharers in our national and civic liberties. How firmly and faithfully they have preserved their nationality among us may not be generally known ; but there is within the borders of Illinois, a peaceful, happy, prosperous, French-speaking community, the lineal descendants and heirs of the gallant pioneers of two hundred years ago.* * Mason's " Kaskaskia " and " Old Fort Chartrcs," Fergus" Historical Series, No. 12. 15 ^E_ ^ ^ -///A- ^p^ ^^ EARLIEST RECORDS. The French, taking the a century The English at Jamestown, Va., in 1607. The French at Quebec in 1612. The Dutch at New York in 1614. The Puritans at Plymouth in 1620 Such were our starting posts and times, water-road to the interior, beat the others and more, for Joliet saw the Chicagou in 1673; even then finding French hunters and trap- pors here before him. Next arrived the Virginians, when in 1778 (during the Revolutionary war) the heroic, dashing soldier, George Rogers Clark, led his amazing expedition across the Alleghanies and down the Ohio, took Kaskaskia, Fort Chartres, Vincennes, and, in effect, all Illinois from the British, who had taken it from the French fifteen years before as we shall see in due course. It was really not until well within the present century, that the New York and New England stock has come in by the Erie canal, the lakes, and, above all, by the " prairie schooner "or covered wagon, but it seems to have come to stay. The three first named all came with royal support, with grants, with officers of rank, with many ships and much money. The last came by their own almost unaided strength, and fought the awful fight almost alone. The breaking waves dashed high On a stern and rockbound coast. The woods against a stormy sky Their giant branches tossed And the h;avy night hung dark The hills and waters o'er Wh:n a band of pilgrims moored their bark On the wild New England shore. Anvdst the storm they sang And the stars heard, and the sea ; And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang To the Anthem of the Free! Race of the Races. 1 8 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Who shall say how much of the firmness of our fiber comes from their labors, privations and dangers and the fortitude that gave them their victory ? Before the Pilgrims even stepped on shore, the French had gained firm foothold. Champlain set a good example to the emigrants by taking his family with him in 1612, and in 1622 the Jesuits began their thankless task of converting the Indians to Christianity. They "came over in great numbers, bearing the cross and the olive-branch, preach- ing the Gospel and extending civilization." In 1639, Nicolet visited J the et poruge. ers the west shore of Lake Michigan. In 1673, Sieur Joliet and Father Marquette, his priestly scribe, started from Green Bay, ascended the Fox, made portage across the Wisconsin Divide and descended the Wisconsin to the Mississippi. On this they floated far down (to the Ar- kansas ?) and then they paddled back to the mouth of the Illinois, and up the latter (pausing at the Indian village of Kaskaskia where they were "well received") and entered the Northern fork (Des Plaines), which they called the " Chicagou," and so on to our own Chicago streamlet which they called the Portage river, a name which clung to our South branch until about 1800. Through this they reached Lake Michigan (called by them the " Lake of the Islinois ") and they sailed along the lake shore to Green Bay, whence they had started. Joliet went on to Montreal, where he reported his discoveries, the most impor- tant of which was the Chicago Portage. Of this he said, with an accu- racy which time has only confirmed, that it would be possible to go from Lake Erie to the Mississippi in boats "by a very good navigation.'' " There would be but one canal to make, by cutting half a league of prairie to pass from the Lake of the Illinois to the St. Louis River which empties into the Mississippi." In 1674 Father Marquette started again from Green Bay and coasted along the west shore of Lake Michigan, on which he observed and reported features which may still be recognized by his description. ^"r"? s He reached " Portage River," and on December 14, 1674, he stopped at Hardscrabbie. a ca |- ) | n fi ve m ji es f rom jts mouth " and near the portage," where he was detained all that winter by illness. Five miles from the lake would bring him to a spot very near the City Bridewell, or House of Detention, on which ground he may have been the first prisoner as well as the first recorded Chicago resident. But we can not even now say that we have identified the absolute pioneer of our million souls, for, as we are told, the "cabin belonged to two French traders, Pierre Moreau (La Toupine) and a companion, who was not only a trader but a surgeon as well." So just as we seem to have arrived at the very frontier and starting-point of Western EARLIEST RECORDS. 19 civilization, behold, it has been the familiar stamping-ground of French trappers who were there before us.* La Salle visited the place in 1682, nine years after Joliet, and speaks slightingly of the latter's " proposed ditch," saying, " I should not have made any mention of this communication if Joliet had not proposed it La without regard to its difficulties." Here peeps out the conscious or uncon- scious jealousy of the rival explorer. Just now (1890), 208 years later, we are proceeding to carry out, in all its fullness, the suggestion of Joliet, and to falsify the slur of La Salle. OGDEN-WENTWORTH DITCH (MUD LAKE) IN l8oO, The last entry made by poor Marquette, after his journey with Joliet, illustrates the tremendous missionary zeal of the Jesuits, and the paucity of result from their efforts, as follows : Had all this voyage caused but the salvation of a single soul, I should deem all my fatigue well repaid. And this I have reason to think, for, when I was returning, I passed the Indians of Peoria; I * Judge Caton has taken the pains to fix the spot whereon that cabin must have stooi. He puts it at the point where the West Fork joins the South Branch. Here, in 1833, he saw good ground, with a growth of timber, just the place which the "two French traders" would choose. And on this point there was an old cab n belonging to Col. Beaubien, with an older garJen adjoining. When (in 1836) he built his first house, which stood so far out of t:> wn (corn er of Clinton and Harrison strests, at about the present centre of the city) that the real Chicagoans living near Fort Dearborn called it ** the prairie cottage," he tramped out to the Beaubien cabin and brought away some ancirnt shrubs, which he set out in his own grounds. They grew and bore currants, perhaps reproducing :he fruit of old France on the s^il of young Chicago. 20 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. was three days announcing the faith in their cabins, after which, as we were embarking , they brought me, on the water s edge, a dying child, which I baptized a little before it expired, by an admirable Providence for the salvation of that innocent soul ! It is amusing to read La Salle's vivid and unmistakable portraiture of our own South Branch, Mud Lake and the Divide at Summit, which he calls the " Portage of Chicagou : " This is an isthmus of land at 41 degrees, 50 minutes north latitude, at the westof the Islinois lake [Lake Michigan] which is reached by a channel formed by the junction of several rivulets or meadow ditches [Chicago River]. It is navigable for about two leagues to the edge of the prairie, a quarter of a mile westward. There is a little lake divided by a causeway made by the beavers, about a league and a half long, from which runs a stream, which, after winding about a half-league through the rushes, empties into the river Chicagou [Des Plaines] and thence into that of the Isli- nois. This lake [Mud Lake] is filled by heavy summer rains or spring freshets and discharges also into the channel [West fork of South Branch] which leads to the lake of the Islinois [Lake Michigan] the level of which is seven feet lower than the prairie on which the lake [Mud Lake] is. The river of Chicagou [Des Plaines] does the same thing in the spring when the channel is full. It empties a part of its waters by this little lake [Mud Lake] into that of the Islinois [Lake Michigan] and at this season, Joliet says, forms in the summer time a little channel for a quarterof a league from this lake to the basin which leads to that of the Islinois, by which vessels can enter the Chicagou [Des Plaines] and descend to the sea. There is a strong temptation to linger over the first fragmentary tales of our now famous pla-e. Those narratives have themselves a sad yet picturesque interest ; they are stories of adventure, danger, daring, death; of a brave struggle carried on by knightly soldiers and zealous priests, with deadly enemies, animate and inanimate. Every fighting traveler, from Ulysses and ^Enaeas to Henry Stanley, has found a n audience ready to hang entranced on his words. Every bearer of the cross among the heathen, from the first crusader to the latest martyred missionary, carries our hearts in his scrip. The older and more settled and commonplace the world becomes, the more irresistible are the annals of its wild youth. As the unknown nooks become more and more rare, we grow almost frantic in our craze for new depths to sound, new heights to climb. The tendency to dwell upon these romantic episodes must be resisted, in order to fix undivided attention upon Chicago itself. Let us simply sketch the career of one man, worthy to be studied as the typical representative of the best class of bold, chivalrous, devoted, intelligent explorers. Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was well-born, well-bred and well-educated. Like other young Europeans whose birth was greater than their means, he came to America to seek his fortune. At the same time the fortune he craved was not of money, but of rank, place, fame, honor. He was ambitious for France, and tried to add a whole empire to the realm of his king. His adventures began in fresh youth, and ended before middle age. His first voyage (in 1666, when he was twenty-three) was to the Saint EARLIEST RECORDS. 21 Lawrence ; his last (in 1684, when he was forty-one) was aimed at the mouth of the Mississippi, which it failed to reach Although bred by the Jesuits, he became, from some unknown cause, opposed by them. Among the other trials of his knightly honor is one (recounted in Margry, Vol. I, p. 380) which recalls the well- known adventure of the heroic Joseph, first of the name. It is said to have occurred in Montreal on his first arrival from France, and to have been brought about by his enemies the Jesuits, through the agency of the ^'sSu'edl 10110 ' wife of one of the king's high officials, whose guest he was, one Bazire, among the richest men of the place, the lady herself being a beautiful devote of the " Society of Jesus " and high in its " Holy Family." She is said to have gone directly from the scene of her failure to the church, where she took communion without first eoine to confessional, a fact which, as we may suppose, establishes beyond question the assumption that she had acted under ecclesiastical orders and therefore had no sin upon her soul. It is almost needless to add that this recital (in the utmost detail) is furnished by an abbe who belonged to a rival order, inimical to the Jesuits. An impolite, impulsive fellow our hero was, using no arts to mask his fiery ambition ; none of the well-known Napo- leonic devices by which men might be lured to build up his glory in the delusion that they were advancing their own ends. A man like La Salle makes few friends, but those friends are more than friends; they are lovers adorers. He makes many enemies, and they are as intense in their hatred as are the others in their love. Tonty, an Italian soldier of fortune (called "main de fer," from the fact that he had lost a hand in the service of France and wore a metal substitute), was his devoted squire, his brave right arm, later his sincere and unceas- ing mourner. It is related that in one of his rare cries of distress, after some staggering blow, La Salle said to Tonty, " Alas ! If I could only have you in command of every fort I build ! " They built (1679) in the Niagara river, the first of lake vessels, the " Griffin," and sailed herthrough Lake Erie, the Detroit river, Lake ' St. Clair and Lake Huron to Lake Michigan, loaded her with furs and started her homeward, to pay off La Salle's debts and provide for his future needs and she came back to him no more. He never heard of her again, unless a bit of wreck and a package of spoiled furs, which a ROBERT CAVELIER, SIEUR DE LA SALLE. 22 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. storm washed up not far from Michilimackinack, may have told him all that even tradition has to say of her fate. Building forts, one named " Miamis" on the St. Joseph, near Lake Michigan, and one at Kaskaskia on the Illinois (the latter prophetic- ally named "Crevecoeur" Broken-heart), LaSalle divided his forces between them, set out eastward on a vain search for the " Griffin," and actually traveled, almost alone, over snow and ice, land and water, all the way back to Montreal, between March i and May 6, 1680. Here he instantly made new arrangements " to go on with his discoveries," and on August loth set out on his second expedition ; only to find that the Iroquois had attacked, defeated and almost destroyed the Indians friendly to him. When he reached "Fort Broken-heart" he saw their mutilated bodies lying unburied in their deserted village, while his own comrades, including the faithful Tonty, were utterly lost to sight and knowledge. At Michilimackinack he found Tonty and learned that Fort Crevecoeur and Fort Miamis had both been destroyed by white traitors f h' s wn command, even before the coming of the Iroquois. He heard, also, that creditors and enemies in Montreal had conspired against him, and stopped his supplies. Eastward again he sped, arriving in time to meet the traitors of his own band, returning loaded with the spoils of his forts, and also in time to kill two of them and carry the rest home in irons. " Once more into the breach." He set things straight and started westward again ; this time going by Chicago and the Des Plaines, whither Tonty had preceded him. With incredible pluck and perse- verance he pushed on down the Illinois and the Mississippi to its mouth, took possession of the entire valley in the name of France, and set out on his return ; the first European to descend and ascend the Father of Waters. Reaching the Illinois River, he built a stockade (Fort St. Louis) on "The Rock" (Starved Rock near Ottawa), and put Tonty in command. Friendly Indians soon began to gather around it, and a large settle- ment of red men and whites, trappers and traders, grew up there with Chicago-like rapidity. This was the climax and culmination of the hero's fortunes ; the one bright, brief season when his dreams seemed to be coming true. He called the place a "terrestrial paradise." A change of administration (from Fronteuac to Le Bar) at Montreal brought an enemy into power and stopped our hero in full career, by seizing his property, cutting off all supplies, detaining his agents, encouraging his Indian enemies, the Iroquois, and even appointing another commandant for Fort St. Louis on Starved Rock ! EARLIEST RECORDS. 2j The indefatigable man started at once for Montreal, thence for Paris where the King and the great Colbert set him right; gave him new powers, new ships, men and supplies and started him off once more in triumph for "New France ;" this time to strike the other end of the 4,000- i.iile line by entering the mouth of the Mississippi and by that road re- joining his beloved Tonty and the other waiting friends on the Illinois. Between the two voyages he had traveled every foot of the fearful solitude between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Gulf of Mexico; much of it many times over. He had spent all his own means, all the money his friends would advance him, all the treasures his king placed in his charge ; had fought and starved and suffered without a pause and almost without a murmur now the fruit of all seemed just within his grasp. His pilot missed the Mississippi, wandered on and landed in Mata- gorda Bay. He was in unfriendly desolation, without path or guide ; he knew not where to turn for home, friends or help ; he could not even find the Mississippi. He set out on a search for it and somewhere in those dreary, swampy wastes Texas, Louisiana or Arkansas he was killed by traitors of his own band ; and no man knows to this day the place of his grave. Final Catastro- phe. 24 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Who does not feel his eyes grow moist in sympathy with the wan- ing strength of his weary limbs? The heart throbs with intense pity at the picture. It is one of the most perfect and complete tragedies in all history indeed fiction itself can invent nothing more pathetic. As a bit of quasi history which may interest the few who are curious as to the life of the last two hundred and twenty five years in this region, I have drawn a retrospective table, somewhat like the Old Testament genealogies ; only reversed. The writer well knew Gurdon Hubbard (1856), who well knew John Kinzie (1818), who knew Joseph LeMai (1804), who knew Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable (1794), who knew the Chevalier Rocheblave (1777), who knew the Chevalier St. Ange de Bellerive (1765), who knew Philip Francis Renault (1743), who knew Pierre Aco.(i725), who knew Father James Gravier (1706), who knew Tonty the true, LaSalle the brave and Joliet the pioneer of us all. It is a short list a baker's dozen just a pleasant dinner party of thirteen. (And yet a much shorter one is possible ; George II , born 1683, died 1760 ; his grandson George III., born 1738, died 1820 ; and Victoria, granddaughter of George III , born 1818, still living.) On the next pa^e follows a more extended chain, identifying each link and presenting con temporaneous occurrences elsewhere. LOUIS XIV. CHAIN OF ACQUAINTANCE: FROM JOLIET TO KINZIE ; FROM THE FINDER OF THE PORTAGE TO THE FOUNDER OF THE CITY. ABBREVIATIONS : " E. G. M.," Edward G. Mason ; " K. P. R.," Kaskaskia Parish Records ; " F. C. R.," Fort Chartres Records ,'S. J.," Society of Jesuits; "b.,"born; "d.,"died. M *6?3 '673 168. 1699 1695 1687 169311712 1699 J tit} oliet Marquette, S. J LaSalle Tonty St. Cosme Pierre Aco . . ravier, S. J. Marest, S. J 1716 1723 1720 1720 1725 1729 1763 1725 Boisbriant. 1743 Renault.. . . 1778 1796 1803 1818 '833 736 d ^rancoise Le Brise. ,'Artaguiette 729 D 1 :'- --i St. Ange deBellerive. ^ocheblave. William Murray.. 1890 J rirardot. . leSiette. j Georpe Rogers Clark IJohnTodd 796 Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable. Joseph Le Mat. John Kinzie. . . . Gurdon Hubbard. , ohn Dean Caton . French. French. French. French. French. Indian. French and Indian. French. French. French. French. French. French. French. French. French and English. English. English. French, English and Indian. French and English. English and Indian. English and Indian. English. 'assed up Illinois river and down Chicago riverto Lake Michigan. Wintered on South Branch near Mud L?.ke. Founded Kaskaskia Mission. Died on Marquette river. Most distinguished and most unlucky of explorers. De- scribed Chicago and the Portage. (Margry.) Most faithful of friends. "Main de fer." "Iron Hand." Otherwise "Cinq Hommes." Mentions a visit to "the house of the Jesuit Fathers at Chicago," 1700. (E. G. M.) Christian In,!:. m. b. at first Kaskaskia; citizen of sec- ond. (E. G. M.) At Chicago Sept. 8, 1700. Kept a journal. Tells of re- moval of Kaskaskia fr -m the Illinois river to the Mis- sissippi. Studied Indian tongue and wrote a gram- mar of it. Moved with mission from the Illinois river to the Mississippi. (K. P. R.) First commandant at Fort Chartres. Appointee of John Law. Director -General in the " Mississippi Scheme." Owned land still shown on our maps as belonging to "the Renault heirs." (F. C. R.) "Perennial Godmother and occasional Mother." (K. P. R.) Commandant at Fort Chartres. Tortured to death by Indians. A boal-song, with his name for chorus, long heard on the Mississippi. 'rominent in Kaskaskia. Cape " Girardeau " on the Mississippi probably named for him. (F. C. R.) ,-,.,. c lommandant. Anxious to tight the Sacs and r-oxes | Wrote to de Lignerie, commandant at Green Bay. St. Louis founded 1763. New York finally taken by England fr^m Hol- land, 1673. Penn founded Philadel- phia in 1680. eorge II. b. 1683 ; d. 1760. Parthenon destroyed. 687- English National debt begun, 1689. Saleoi Witchcraft, 1692. Bank of England char- tered, :6g4. Deerfield massacre, 1703. B. Franklin b. 1706. Detroit founded. Frederick the Great b. Louis'xiV.d. 1715. New Orleans founded, i?'8. The French bring ne- gro slavery into Illi- nois, 1720. John Law's Mississippi Scheme ; a *' boom " for Kaskaskia. Peter the Great d. 1725. Isaac Newton d. 1727. George Washington b. 1732. George III. b. 1738 ; d. 1820. French fort ress o f Louisburg taken by volunteers from New England, 1745. Braddock sdefeat, 1755 Black Hole of Calcutta, who replied suggestinga rendezvous "atCnicagou." ! Declaration oPf n de- Officer of French troops. Fought against Braddock and '* Wachension " (Washington) in 1755. Later, commander under the English. Surrendered Kas kaskia to George Rogers Clark, who sent him, pris- oner of war, to Virginia (1779). (E. G. M.) Made a purchase from Indians of an indefinite tract of land, including "Chicagou, or Garlick creek,*' as one of the boundary points. Claim was urged before Congress until iSoi. (Andreas' Hist. Chicago.) Clark took Illinois from the British for Virginia, and so saved Chicago from being a Canadian village. Todd kilted in battle with Indians. (Todd Papers and E. G, M., Chicago Historical Society.) "A handsome negro, well-educated, and settled at Eschikagou, but much in the French interest." (Col. Du Puyster, English commandant at Fort Mrchili- mackinack, writes thus July 4, 1779.) (Andreas.) Grignon calls him "a trader, pretty wealthy, and drank freely.' 1 He built the cabin which became the "Kinzie mansion." French trader with Indians. Bought the cabin of Fointe de Sable, which stood at about the junction of Pine and Kinzie streets. pendence. 1776. Capture of Burgoyne, 1777. Voltaire d 1778. French Alliance, 1778. Yorktown taken. 1781. Peace with England, 1782. London Yinifs started, 1788. United States Constitu- tion adopted, 1789. French " Reign of Ter- ror,'" 1792. Lincoln b. 1809. Victoria b. 1818. INVENTIONS AND DIS- COVERIES. Steam Engine, 1761. Illuminating gas, 1792. Cotton Gin, 1793. Steamboat, 1807. Friction Match, 1829. Railroad, 1830. Photograph, 1839. Postage Stamp, 1842. Telegraph, 1844. Bought Le Mai's cabin in 1804; enlarged and changed Sewing Machine, 1846. it from time to time, and lived there till his death, m\cZf8m*i*GoU,,B& 1827. Bessemer Steel, 1858. Indian trader, and most distinguished of early city Petroleum. 1858. fathrr Phonograph. 1870. latne "' Telephone. 1876. Cameto Chicago in 1833. Chief Justice of the Supreme \ a tural Gas. 1883. Court of Illinois. Aids i.i the compilation of th:s Electric Light and Pow history. ; er, 1850 to 1890. CHAPTER IV. A SINGLE CENTURY. EGRETFULLY we turn our eyes away from the romantic era of discovery, ex- ploration and poetic narrative. Joliet, Marquette, LaSalle, Tonty and Hennepin were explorers and soldiers or priests, and all were traveled men and practiced writers. All were natives of France, ex- cept Joliet, born in Quebec, and Tonty, an Italian. They entered, open-eyed and expectant, on this wonderland, as Aladdin into his palace, or like favored children sent in alone to the Chi'istmas Tree. The commonplace would have been a surprise to them. Toil, danger, exposure, trial and privation are not favorable to long life. Rapidly our heroes fade from sight. Poor Marquette never recovered his health; he died May 19, 1675, on the first explorers, eastern shore of Lake Michigan, beside the river which still bears his name, and two years later a party of Indians came up in the depth of winter, exhumed his remains, placed them carefully in a birch bark case, and carried them to St. Ignace (north shore of the Straits of Mackinaw), where they were buried under the floor of the mission-house.* La Salle was murdered by his own men March 19, 1687. Joliet died in 1700, and Tonty (after a vain hunt for the body of his master) in 1705, both far from the scene of those of their exploits in which we are interested ; the spot which has been made noteworthy by the building of one of the world's half dozen largest cities. Few and poor are the words they allot to the wild garlick Portage, for they could not foresee what has occurred there. Humanity alone gives life to inanimate things, as the soul vivifies the body. A dull, undistinguishable field or hamlet may chance to be taken for a battle-field, and so become the Mecca for innumerable pilgrims. When some sluggish rivulets, marshes, woods and sand- hills, and a stretch of low lake shore grow into the place of joy and sorrow, hope and fear, life and death, for thousands or millions, then * In 1877 Cecil Barnes, of Chicago, in company with the village priest. Father Jacker, found this long-lost tomb; unearth'ng some wrought nails, a hinge, a large piece of birch bark anJ two human bones. (Hist. Sac. Doc.) THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. every yard of its surface, every year of its past, takes on an interest of its own. If the people had never come, the place would never have emerged from its obscurity. As it is, we linger long and lovingly over its beginnings, as we should do, if we could, over a tale of the first stumbling steps and imperfect accents, the early haps and mishaps, pleasures and pains of a Shakespeare or an Abraham Lincoln. With the disappearance of the very first comers, occurs almost a hiatus in the Story of Chicago. The curtain falls, and for nearly a cen- tury what play there is takes place behind the scenes. But a busy life was going on just below the southwestern horizon, and, thanks to the Chicago Historical Society, and especially to its latest president, Mr. Edward Mason, we are not without means of studying it and construct- ing a chain of events and persons, link by link, connecting the portage of 1673 with the metropolis of 1890. Mr. Mason says (Fergus' Historical Series, No. 12) : When Father Marquette returned from his adventurous voyage upon the Mississippi in 1673, by the way of the Illinois, he found on that river a village of the Illinois tribe, containing seventy- four cabins, which was called Kaskaskia. Its inhabitants received him well, and ob- tained from him a promise to return and instruct them. He kept that promise faithfully, undaunted by disease and toil- some journeys and inclement weather, and, after a rude wintering by the Chi- cago- river, reached the Illinois village again, April 8, 1675. The site of this Indian settlement has since been identi- fied with the great meadow south of the modern town of Utica in the State of Illinois and nearly opposite to the tall cliff, soon after known as Fort St. Louis and in later times as Starved Rock. RIVER MAP. Marquette started the mission, and gave it the name of the " Immacu- late Conception of the Virgin," doubtless relying on her divine protec- tion. Nevertheless, it led a chequered life, for the terrible Eastern Indians (the five nations we knew so well in the valleys of the Mohawk and theGenesee, the Tonawanda and Alleghany) disdaining opposition, human or divine, came westward and wiped off the face of the earth the mission and almost the whole tribe of friendly Illinois. It seems as if Heaven itself could not withstand the devilish Iroquois ! It was after this raid, that La Salle, returning to the place where he had left a great, prosperous, peaceful settlement, found only desolation and the unburied bodies of the dead. About 1700, the mission, with its surviving Indian adherents, moved down the Illinois and the Mississippi to a new location ; a river which enters the Mississippi some 100 miles above the junction of the Kaskaskia in the North. 28 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Ohio, and south of where St. Louis now stands. To this river and settle- ment was also given the name of Kaskaskia, and confusion has arisen through the possession of the same name by places 300 miles apart. Father James Gravier set out from Chicago on the 8th of Septem- ber, 1700, for the Kaskaskias on the Illinois, and found that village on the point of migrating southward under Father Marest. Father Gravier studied the Indian tongue and reduced to a system such grammatical rules as could be traced out. Father Marest has left Kaskaskia ii theSout'-.. BUFFALO ROCK. us one of the rare bits of real knowledge we possess regarding the true state of the relations which existed between the missionaries and the savages. He says : Our life is passed in roaming through thick forests, in clambering over the mountains, in paddling the canoe across lakes and rivers, to catch a single poor savage who flies from us and whom we can tame neither by teachings nor caressings .... Nothing is more difficult than the conversion of these Indians. It is a miracle of the Lord's mercy. (Moses' Hist. 111., vol. i, p. 89.) In 1718 the French sent an expedition under a Canadian gentle- man named Boisbriant, holding the office of Commandant of the Illinois, to erect a fort near Kaskaskia. The expedition came by way of Mobile and the Mississippi ; selected a point 16 miles north of Kaskaskia, built the fort and named it Fort Chartres, after a branch of the Royal family of France. There were mission and parish records kept both of Kaskaskia and at Fort Chartres, and these records, or the perishing remains of them, were unearthed and rescued from rapidly encroaching destruction in 1880 by the enterprise of Mr Mason; and it is to the hints they contain, supplemented by isolated remarks in histories, THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 2 9 biographies and accounts of voyages and travels, that we owe what we know of Chicago and its surroundings in the i8th century. If the Kaskas- kia Mission had remained in its old place, only some 80 miles down the Illinois Valley, then our grasp upon the two- branched stream- let would be firmer and more con- stant. But the Mission went away to the south- ward, and, what is worse, opened new and nearer avenues to the sea. Mobile and New Orleans were the most acces- sible ports; through them "John Law's Mis- sissippi Scheme" took a hand in settling the great valley, and by its aid there grew up even in Kaskaskia and FortChartres an excitement which, it is safe to say, was the very first "town lot boom" in all Western America. Most of us have heard of John Law's bubble; know that its iridescence shone on Illinois. Even intercourse with Canada found an easier route than via Chicago. It was down the Mississippi to the Ohio, up the Ohio to the FRENCH SETTLEMENT. Scheme, THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Sew road to the sea. THE SCALP. " Ouabache " (Wabash), up the Wabash to some point (probably near Huntington, Ind.) where portage could be made to the head waters of the Maumee, down the latter to Lake Erie and so on to the Niagara, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence. But the main intercourse with the outside world was by way of New Orleans, and every year bateaux laden with Illinois staples floated gaily down the current, consigned to John Law's " Compagnie de 1'Occident " or its successor the " Compagnie de 1'Inde." Flour, bacon, pork, hides, tallow, wines (highwines?), leather, lumber- how familiar it sounds ! A hundred and fifty years have changed the direction, destination, manner and mass of our trade but not the material. The Indians were persistently murderous and predatory. Their apologists say we had no right to their lands. Not so. In the first place we had the same right to the lands that they had; the right of conquest. What claim had any tribe to as much waste as they could roam over once a year, except that it had destroyed a weaker tribe and taken its territory ? The priority of claim at the moment of La Salle's arrival was with the Illinois. Soon they were causelessly attacked and ruthlessly slaughtered by the Iroquois ; and a little later, for the very reason that they were wounded and helpless, the Sacs and Foxes fell upon them and completed their ruin. Should we then look on the title of the Sacs and Foxes, so law- lessly and cruelly acquired, as a sacred right, not to be disputed even when our allies, the surviving Illinois, were on our side? In the second place, we had a kind of right, which is above and beyond the Indian nature ; the right of agricultural employment; the right which inheres in the many to gain support on the best part of the earth's surface, even though the few should try to exclude them from it. Indian idleness disdains to dig ; asks that a square mile or more shall be allotted to each savage in order that he may, without labor, live on its spontaneous yield. The answer is, No ! He that will not work, neither shall he eat. The greatest good of the great number shall ore- vail. They must swallow their own medicine. Let him who taketh the sword, perish by the sword. Suppose, for a moment, that those dogs in the manger had been allowed to tear each other to pieces, and the ever-changing victors among them to rule and ruin what they coulu spoil rather than use, while we, the strongest of all stood by like the patient ass, "respecting their rights !' Rcductio ad absurdum. E X 3 2 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. The records of distant, isolated Kaskaskia throw little gleams of a lurid light on the state of things: In 1722, an entry is made which strikingly illustrates the perils which beset the people in that little village, on the great river which was their only means of communication with the nearest set- tlements, hundreds of miles away. It reads as follows: " The news comes this day of the death of Alexis Blaye and Laurent Bransart, who were slain upon the Mississippi by the Chickasaws. The day of their death is not known." Then in a different ink, as if written at another time, is added Indian Atroci- below: " It was the 5th or 6th of March, 1722." And this state of things is sadly emphasized by the entry immediately following: "The same year, on the 22d of June, was celebrated in the parish church of the Kaskaskias, a solemn service for the repose of the soul of the lady Michelle Chauvin, wife of Jacques Nepven, merchant, of Montreal, aged about 45 years, and of Jean Michelle Nepven, aged 20 years, and Elizabeth Nepven, aged 13 years, and Susanne Nepven, aged 8 years, her chil- dren. They were slain by the savages from 5 to 7 leagues from the Wabash." ..." In 1724, the I2th of April, were s'.ain at break of day by the Fox Indians, four men, to wit: Pierre Du Vaud, Pierre Bascau, and two others." (Mason's " Illinois in the i8th century.") Sad it is to confess that in taking what we must, what it was our duty to take, we have often been untruthful, unfaithful, deceitful and cruel. But compared with their immemorial treatment of each other, our deceit has been spotless candor, our cruelty heavenly mercy. Not that this is a justification; it is but an apology, and a poor one. In spite of the diversion of the channels of trade, "Chicagou" was before the eyes of the settlers. About 1725 the pestilent Sacs and Foxes having grown bolder and bolder in their murderous raids, even killing settlers close to Fort Chartres ; its commandant, De Siette, wrote to De Lignerie, commandant at Green Bay, urging a combined attack, whereby the Fox tribe should be exterminated. De Lignerie answered saying that this would be well, provided that the Foxes did not exterminate us in the attempt, and suggesting a meeting for conference "at Chicagua or the Rock" (Starved Rock on the Illinois), which indicates that there was a settlement or trading-post here then. The outcome is shown in the words of Mr. Mason : Soon the French authorities adopted the views of the, commandant at the Illinois (De Siette), and the Marquis de Bjauharnois (grandfather of the Empress Josephine), then commanding in Canada, notified him to join the Canadian forces at Green Bay, in 1728, to make war upon the Foxes. A battle ensued, at which the Illinois Indians, headed by the French, were victorious. But Chicatrua for a hostilities continued until De Siette's successor, by a masterly piece of strategy, waylaid and Rendezvous, destroyed so many of the persistent foemen, that peace reigned for a time. Du Pratz, an old French writer (quoted by Andreas' Hist. Chicago, vol. i, p. 69), a resident of Louisiana from 1718 to 1734, says of the "Chicagou" or Illinois route in 1757: " Such as come from Canada, and have business only on the Illinois, pass that way yet ; but such as want to go directly to the sea go down the Wabache to the Ohio, and from thence to the Mississippi." He predicts, also, that unless some curious person shall go to the north of the Illinois river in search of mines " where they are said to be in great numbers and very rich," that region " will not soon come to the knowledge of the French." Well, the lead deposits of Galena and the coal at La Salle were searched for and exploited, and, for these reasons and others, it happens that the Chicago portage is not lost sight of even to this day. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. jj It is well for our sympathetic hearts that the curtain of oblivion, shutting out this epoch, is almost impenetrable. Even so, we can see and hear quite enough the glare of burning cottages, the sharp crack of the rine, the. twang of the bow-string, the savage war-cry, " Hu-hu-hu- hu !" * of the Indian ; the shriek upon shriek of the tortured victim ; the swaggering " brave " flaunting fresh, bloody scalps covered with the gray hair of old age ; the long, soft lock of woman ; the short, silky curls of the child, new born, or unborn. The thought of these things makes us glad that the i8th century is past and that we are not in it or of it. The royal game of war went on in Europe and the cards ran against France. So it chanced that Canada and the Illinois country, thrown into the jack-pot, passed to the English gfamester. In KaskaskiaEngiishsu J _ & 6 French. lived one Chevalier de Rocheblave ; an officer in the French army who fought against Braddock and "Monsieur Wachenston," in 1755. He was part of the force of Louis XV., surrendered with Fort Chartres, in 1765, and later (1778), appeared as commander under George III. to surrender Kaskaskia to a greater George, George Rogers Clark ; a soldier of the nation of the greatest George who ever lived, George Washington, as will appear in the next chapter. * Judge Caton describes the war-whoop as a shrill, unearthly, falsetto yell, broken by rapid blows of the open hand upon the open mouth. COLBERT, THE GREAT FRENCH MINISTER. Red Coat, 1812. England's savage Ames. CHAPTER V. ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. ETROIT, founded early in the last century and ceded to England in 1763, was the headquarters of her alliance with the Indians against us in the war of the Revolution. Vain is it for English historians to treat lightly that infamous alliance. Did she know their nature and their manner of warfare ? Yes ; Lieut. Gov. Abbott (English) wrote to Gen. Carle- ton (English) against their employ- ment. Did she engage them to fight ? Surely : She had no other use for them. Then to fight whom ? Civilized warfare is waged solely against armed forces ; where was the armed force against which these savages were to act ? Gates, Schuyler and Arnold at Sar- atoga ? Washington on the Delaware? Marion in the Carolinas? Absurd ! The nearest of these was 800 miles away. The royal orders were "to drive back the settlers across the Alleghanies." (Roosevelt, Vol. II, p. 5.) But why drive back the settlers if they were, as Britain claimed, British subjects? And what does the driving back of settlers by savages mean? Carnage! The English commandant at Detroit was Colonel Henry Hamil- ton, Lieutenant Governor of the Northwestern region, which included all the British possessions outside of the Colonies and of Canada ; in other words, from the Ohio river to Lake Superior. Hamilton, who was nicknamed bythe "buckskins"( frontiersmen), the " hair-buyer general," avers that he did all that he could to induce the Indians to bring in pris- oners instead of scalps, but he does not pretend that he succeeded. Scalps were certainly publicly bought and sold in Detroit while he com- manded the red-coats and their worthy allies, the red-skins, and the Haldimand mss. tell of his receiving scalps with solemnity at the coun- cils held to greet the war parties when they returned from successful raids.* *A tale is preserved of one savage swindler who, by dividing a large scalp into two, got so aoiece for them. ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO DURING THE REVOLUTION. jj Red death marked their pathway. In case of defeat, happy was the man who fell and died; woeful the fate of him who was captured alive. Colonel William Crawford, who commanded an unsuccessful expedi- tion against the British and Indians, was tortured slowly to death in the presence of one fellow prisoner and one white man (Simon Girty) who was an officer commanding the Indians for the English. These men describe poor Crawford's death heaven forbid that we should even copy the description. Roosevelt says: The captured women and little ones were driven far off exterior. The weak among them, the young children and the women heavy with child, were tomahawked and scalped as soon as their steps faltered. The able bodied, who could stand the terrible fatigue and reached the journey's end, (j m2 j e an< j suffered various fates. Some were burned at the stake, others were sold to the French or British Clybourne traders and long afterwards made their escape or were ransomed by their relatives. Still others were kept in the Indian camps, the women becoming the slaves or wives of the warriors, while the chil- dren were adopted into the tribe and grew up precisely like their little redskinned playmates.* It happens that we of Chicago have some direct connections with one of these Indian massacres and captivities. To quote Andreas' History of Chicago (Vol. I, p. 73): Isaac McKinzie and his family were living in Giles County, Virginia, near the Kanawha River. A band of Shawnees from Ohio, in one of their hostile incursions, attacked his cabin, which they destroyed, and murdered all his family except his two daughters Margaret, a little girl of ten, and Elizabeth, two years younger. The girls were carried captive to the great village of the tribe at Chillicothe, where they were kept in charge of the chief. After about ten years of captivity they were taken, or found their way, to Detroit. Margaret becanr.e the wife of John Kinzie and the mother of his three elder children, William, James and Elizabeth. . . . Elizabeth subsequently mar- ried Jonas Clybourne, of Virginia, the fruit of this union being two sons. Archibald and Henley. . . . Archibald Clybourne reached Chicago, August 5, 1823. Descendants of both the captive girls are still among us and we shall have occasion to speak of them in due course. In the meantime " Kinzie street " and " Clybourne avenue " may keep us in mind of this link connecting us with the days of Indian war, massacre and captivity. One word more concerning the connection between civilized Eng- land and the savage tribes. Such an alliance is more than wicked ; it is unmanly, unsoldierly, cowardly in its employment of others to do cow- ardly acts. It should be classed with poisoning the enemies' drinking water, firing hot shot at their hospital, or hanging the bearer of their flag of truce. No more disgraceful story can be found in English his- tory from its first page to its latest, even including the spoliation of India and the "opium war" with China. Turn we from this matter, which makes us ashamed of our lineage, to a pleasanter, more honorable and more distinguished and important narrative ; the story of one of our real home-born heroes, George * Occasionally we come across records of the women's afterward making theirescape. Very rarely they took their half-breed babies with them. De Haas mentions one such case where the husband, though he received his wife well_ always hated the copper-colored addition to his family. The latter, by the way, grew up a thoroughbred Indian, could not be educated, and finally ran away, joined the Revolutionary army and was never heard of afterwards. j6 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Rogers Clark, after whom our great thoroughfare, Claik street, is named, a fact unknown to many Chicagoans of all ages. Clark, Daniel Boone, John Todd and others like them, were the first settlers of Kentucky and wrested that garden of the earth from the human wild-cats that had made it their fighting-ground from time im- memorial. Needless to say that they hated everything Indian with a holy hatred. Clark seems to have had the most ambition, the most patriot- ism and the broadest grasp of mind of any of these bold Kentuckians. The others were content to defend themselves and their fire-sides from the lurking foe ; he looked outward .and planned achievements of wider From "Cyclopedia of United State. Hl.tory.-'-Copytinht. SCOpC and of TCSultS which W6 3rC 18l, by Harper * Brother!. DANIEL BOONE. enjoying to-day. In 1778 Clark traveled all the way from Kentucky to the James River, to lay before Patrick Henry, Virginia's first governor, a plan for seizing Fort Chartres, Kaskaskia, Vincennes and perhaps Detroit itself, and so adding to Virginia all the country northwest of the Ohio. He told of the outrages of the Indians under English influence, and prom- Kemuckians jn ised the sympathy and support of the Kentuckians and other settlers who still survived, all embittered to the last extent and all good fighters. He added that the Kaskaskia settlement, being French, was surrounded by friendly Indians.* Also that among the French themselves we should find a most friendly feeling, especially when they should be apprised of the alliance with France just then accomplished by Franklin. Virginia gave Clark arms, ammunition and supplies, a commission as colonel, and leave to recruit men where he could. She also gave John Todd, of Kentucky, the appointment of "County Lieutenant, or Commandant of theCounty of Illinois," and a letter of instructions under Patrick Henry's own hand, as we shall see hereafter. Clark made the long tramp across the Alleghanies, down the Monongahela and the Ohio, at the Falls whereof (Louisville) he paused to perfect his arrangements. Then he started once more down the river, but quitted it before reaching the Mississippi, knowing that the enemy * The savages, though always treacherous, never felt the ferocity against the French which they cherished towards the rest of the pale faces They murdered many a " robe noir "black-coat, alias Jesuit but not every one they could lay their hands on. ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO DURING THE REVOLUTION. 37 would be on his guard on that side. He landed at old Fort Massac (then deserted), and struck across the woods and prairies of southern Illinois, arriving on the Kaskaskia River, three miles above the town, on July 4, 1778. To quote Roosevelt again : They kept in the woods till it grew dark and then silently marched to a little farm a mile from lh-. town. The family were taken prisoners, and from them it was learned that the townspeople wer^ then off their guard Rocheblave, the Creole commandant, was sincerely attached to the British interest He had under his orders two or three times as many men as Clark, and he certainly would have made a good fight if he had not been surprised. It was only Clark's audacity and the noiseless speed of h!s movements that gave him a chance of success. . . Inside the fort the lights were lit, and through the windows came the sound of violins. The officers of the post had given a ball, and the mirth-loving Creoles, young men and girls, were dancing and reveiing within, while the sentinels had left their posts Advancing into the great hall where the revel was held, Clark leaned silently, with folded arms, against the door-post, looking at the dancers. An Indian lying on the floor of the entry gazed intently on the stranger's face as the light from the torches within flashed across it, and suddenly sprang to his feel, uttering the unearthly warwhoop, "Hu hu hu hu!" Instantly the dancing ceased; the women screamed, while the men ran toward the door. But Clark, standing unmoved and with unchanged face, grimly bade them continue their dancing, but to remember that they now danced under Virginia and not Great Britain. This picturesque and dramatic scene is told as taken down from the lips of Clark himself, some ten years or so after the event. The simple Kaskaskians had been taught to dread the " buckskins" as rather more terrible than the redskins themselves, and Clark pur- posely left them that whole night in their terror and confusion, while he took captive Rocheblave and all his forces. Next morning a deputation of the chief men waited on Clark, only daring to beg for their lives, which they did, says Clark, "with the greatest servancy [saying], that they were willing to be slaves to save their families." They were vastly relieved to find their captors soldiers and gentlemen, bringing not slav- ery, slaughter and spoliation, but freedom and citizenship to all who would accept it. Doubtless the Catholic church had been closed during the Eng- lish rule, and when Clark told the priest (Gibault), in answer to his question, that " An American commander had nothing to do with any church except to save it from insult, and that by the laws of the Republic his religion had as great privileges as any other," the volatile Creoles "returned in noisy joy to their families, while the priest, a man of ability and influence, became thenceforth a devoted and effective champion of the American cause." (Roosevelt.) The news, through Clark, of the alliance between France and America, and the enthusiastic advocacy of Clark's new friends, soon converted Cahokia; and Pere Gibault volunteered to go to Vincennes, on the Wabash, to get his fellow-Frenchmen to join the Americans, their natural allies. No sooner said than done; on August i, 1778, he returned with the news that the entire population gathered in the church Go on wiih your dancing," said Clark, "but remember" faftJ7. ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO DURING THE REVOLUTION. 39 to hear him had taken the oath of allegiance, and that the American flag- floated over the fort. But where, meanwhile, are Hamilton and his forces? Encouraged by the great and wicked success of his war-parties, he had planned an attack on Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh), but the startling news of Clark's seizure of his own outposts put an end to all thoughts of seiz- ing ours. He must retake Vincennes, first, to interpose between Clark and his base in Virginia. From Vincennes he could easily sally forth against the presumptuous Clark and wipe him out. The Indians must all be aroused to fresh scalp-hunting. Even distant Mackinaw and St. Joseph, on Lake Michigan, were notified to incite the lake Indians to harass the Illinois country. Now for a glimpse of Chicago. At this time (1778) and for some years before, Jean Baptiste Point de Saible was living on the Chicago river at a point now covered by Kirk's huge soap factory; close to the corner of Pine and Kinzie streets. Of him Colonel Arent Schuyler De Puyster, commandant at Mackinaw, writes (July 4, 1779): "Baptiste Point de Saible, a hand- some negro, well settled at 'Eschikagou, but much in the French inter- est." Elsewhere in his volume of " Miscellanies" De Puyster writes :Cnica g o from 1778 to 1794. " Eschikagou is a river and fort at the head of Lake Michigan." Point de Saible was a Haytien mulatto who, with a friend named Glamorgan, came north and lived with the Peoria Indians up to about 1779, when he came to his Chicago home. Andreas (Hist. Chicago, Vol. i, p. 71) says: " Here he lived until i 796 seventeen years. All that is known of his life during that long period is gathered from the 'Recollections' of Augustin Grignon, of Butte des Morts, near Oshkosh, and published in the third volume of the Wisconsin Historical Society's collections." Mr. Grignon says: At a very early period there was a negro lived there (Chicago) named Baptiste Point de Saible. My brother, Perish Grignon, visted Chicago about 1794, and told me that Point de Saible was a large man ; that he had a commission (or some office, but for what particular office I can not now recollect. He was a trader, pretty wealthy, and drank freely. I know not what became of him. About all that can be added to the few particulars related above is that in 1796 he sold his cabin to one Le Mai, a French trader and returned to Peoria, where he died at the home of his old friend Glamor- gan. This cabin Le Mai sold to John Kinzie in 1804. So do we touch home once more after one century and a quarter of wanderings. Point de Saible's trading-post was necessarily one of the settle- ments Hamilton ordered to be harried. Indeed the Haldimand mss.* *Sir Frederick Haldimand succeeded Sir Guy Carleton as Governor of Canada in 1778. He is best known as Gen- era] Hal Hmand. H's papers were presented to the British Museum in 1857 by his grand-nephew William Haldimand; and copies are now in the Canadian Archives at Ottawa. 40 , THE STORY OF CHICAGO. speak of an effort made at about this time to prevent a settlement at Chicago. But Point de Saible seems bravely or cunningly to have stood his ground and to have out-stayed the harassers. A favorite old- time Chicago joke is that her first white inhabitant was a black man. At least he was not a scalper, nor the ally of scalpers, as we see by De Puyster's unfriendly allusion. Now, in September, 1778, Hamilton, " hairbuyer-general," and his red hair-lifters, begin their grand task of exterminating George Rogers Clark and the " buckskins." The first step is the recovery of Vincennes. See the conquering hero comes ! He led the main body in person, and throughout September every soul in Detroit was busy from morning till night in mending boats, baking biscuit, packing provisions in kegs and bags, pre- paring artillery stores and in every way making ready for the expedition Fifteen large bateaux and pirogues were procured ; these were to carry the ammunition, food, clothing, tents, and espe- cially the presents for the Indians. Cattle and wheels were sent ahead to the most important port- ages on the route to be traversed ; a six pounder gun was also forwarded. (Roosevelt.) Thanks, Colonel Hamilton ; you were unconsciously bringing Colonel Clark just the things he needed. To be sure, your force oust- nurrtbered ours three to one, for you had a herd of Indians on your side, but, on the other hand, on our side were Clark and the " Buckskins," as Hamilton takesY 011 shortly found out, to your cost. The trip was uneventful ; but one little circumstance crops out in the narrative worth remarking. Their course was down the Detroit river, across Lake Erie, and into the Maumee river at its mouth (Toledo), then up the Maumee until within nine miles of the head waters of navigation on the Wabash about Huntington, Ind. Roose- velt quotes Hamilton's ' Brief Account" as follows: This stream was so low that the boats could not have gone down it had it not been for a beaver dam four miles below the landing, which backed up the current. A passage was cut through the dam to let the boats pass. The traders and Indians thoroughly appreciated the help given them at this difficult part of the course by the engineering skill of the beavers and none of the beavers of this particular dam were ever molested, being left to keep their dam in order and repair It, which they always speedily did whenever it was damaged Vincennes fell into Hamilton's hands, without a fight, just seventy- one days after he left Detroit, being only defended by the local Creole militia. His spies brought him word that Clark had only 1 10 men under him. Had the commanders been reversed, the larger force would have hurried on to Kaskaskia and captured the smaller in short order. But the way was long, the country flooded and the winter severe. Besides, as Hamilton was firmly established between Clark and his home base, why should he not, instead of climbing the thorny tree, wait till the fruit should fall ? He intended to make a grand campaign in the spring. He would rouse the Southern Indians, the bloody Chickasaws, Cherokees and Creeks; and he himself, re-inforced from Detroit, would take the ILLINOIS A.VD C dIC AGO DURING THE REVOLUTION. 41 field with 1,000 men, re-conquer Illinois, sweep Kentucky and destroy all settlements west of the Alleghanies perhaps take Fort Pitt itself! But his " spring" never came. Clark made a spring of his own a tiger spring. He had had no reinforcements or supplies, nor so much as "a scrip of the pen" from Virginia since he left Governor Henry a year before; nor did he need any. On February 7, 17/9, he marched out of Kaskaskia at the head of a Spartan band of 1 70 men, to travel across the snowy wastes, the dismal forests, the half-frozen floods, 240 miles to surprise a fort held by the enemy's chief commander, with infantry, artillery and abundant supplies. The buckskins had no tents, but passed the nights around huge camp-fires, where they feasted on the game they had killed during the day; on bear's ham, buffalo hump, elk-saddle, venison haunch, wild turkey breast, etc.* This was not bad; but when they came to the flooded lands of the Little Wabash, their trials were fearful. The two branches of the stream were now in one, five miles wide, and three feet deep in the shallowest part of the plains over which they flowed. Clark built a pirogue, and on they waded, ferrying where the stream was over ,ii -i rr i i ill! ii. Clark's Winter chin-deep. He built a scanold to hold the baggage and the weaklings March. who gave out, until he could send back the pirogue to go on with the job of ferrying them over. On the 1 7th they reached the Embarras [our "Am- bro"], but could not cross, nor could they find a dry spot on which to camp. At last they found the water falling off a small, almost submerged hillock, and on this they huddled through the night. At day-break they heard Hamil- ton's morning gun from the fort. They did not dare to fire a shot for fear of warning the enemy of their coming, and on the morning of the 2Oth the men had been without food for nearly two days, "drenched, weary and dispirited." They captured a small boat with five Frenchmen, and learned the welcome news that no suspicions had been aroused at the fort. In the evening they killed a deer just in time. On the 2ist, in a continual rain, they ferried across the Wabash. The captured Frenchmen said they could not possibly proceed, but Clark led the way in person for about three miles, the water often up to their chins, and camped on a hillock for the night. Another day of similar struggle, " the strongest wading painfully * Everywhere in the early French narratives (see Margry, etc.) there occurs mention of the Wild turkey; " faulct tfittdt" as they called them, and " dindon" is French for turkey to this day. From " Cyclopedia of United State* Hist-try. "Copyright, 1,1-1. by Harrwr A Hrntber*. GEO. ROGERS CLARK. 42 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. through the water, the weak and famished in the canoes." A journal (whereof a copy is still in existence) ends, " No provisions yet. Lord help us !" Heavy frost that night, ice forming an inch thick. " But the sun rose bright and glorious, and Clark, in burning words, told his stiffened, famishing, half-frozen followers that the evening would surely see them at the goal of their hopes. Without waiting for an answer he plunged into the water and they followed him, with a cheer, in Indian file. On a spot of dry land, the strong and tall get ashore, build great fires and go back for the exhausted; and a captured Indian canoe "manned" by three squaws, gives them half a quarter of buffalo, with some corn, tallow and kettles; just in time again! Finally they came to a copse of timber from which they saw the town and fort not two miles off ! Clark, with characteristic courage and decision, determined to summon the town, so he sent a letter to the people of Vincennes by a stray French citizen whom they caught out shooting ducks. The French Creoles took Clark's proclamation and discussed it eagerly, but did not warn the garrison. Clark marched into the place at seven in the evening, and the firing began at once. Then, as soon as the moon set, Clark had an entrenchment thrown up anduke? ts within rifle shot of the strongest battery, and as soon as dawn made the guns visible, sharp-shooters made them indefensible. He summoned the fort at noon, using the time of truce to get breakfast, the first reg- ular meal they had had for six days. Hamilton declined to surrender, and the firing began again, the backwoods men vainly beseeching Clark to let them storm the fort. During the fray a party of Hamilton's Indians returned to the town from a successful scalping expedition, whereupon the " buckskins" fell upon them and killed or captured nine; and Clark, to strike terror to the besieged and to express his views of the scalping business, had six of the miscreants led out in view of the fort, tomahawked and thrown into the river. In the afternoon the fort surrendered. Hamilton and the rest of the officers were sent to Virginia as prisoners of war, the others were paroled, the spoils of war amounting to tens of thousands of pounds sterling were distributed among the soldiers, who "got almost rich," and Vincennes, Kaskaskia and all the lands so acquired have been ours from that day to this. That was the winter passed by Washington and his Continentals at Valley Forge with so much fortitude, suffering and loss. An enthu- siast has said that Valley Forge was child's play compared with the cap- ture of Vincennes, and surely he was not without reasonable grounds for his belief. At any rate we Westerners should never beat a loss to know ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO DURING THE REVOLUTION. 43 "Why Clark street Clark County Clarksville ? What Clark do they refer to ? " George Rogers Clark, sometimes called " The American Hanni- & O bal," was a natural frontier fighter, like Standish, Boone, Marion, Todd, Kenton, John Brown and a thousand others whose names are passing VALLEY FORGE. or passed away. They were men bred by their dangers to be fearless, by their privations to be stoical, by their toils to be tireless and by their sacrifices to be patriotic. Coming of the world's most aggressive race, they were shaped by hard environments into the sharpest form. Clark's later days were embittered by what he considered unjust treatment on the part of Virginia and the United States. He had had certain large land grants made to him, and claimed, besides, reimburse- 11 TT'*'ii/n\ ill Anecdote about ments for certain outlays and losses. Virginia had (i 782) ceded the Northwest territory (now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wis- consin) to the United States, and averred, with seeming reason, that Clark's claims should be paid by the party that profited by his services. The General Government took the opposite view, and between the two stools the claimant fell to the ground or at least was never satisfied in full. The legislature of Virginia voted a sword of honor to Clark and commissioners were appointed to present it. It is related (probably with truth) that on being apprised of their approach the old veteran, in full regimentals, limped out (he had a wound in the hip) and took a stately position on his grounds fronting the Ohio. He heard their presentation address, grasped the sword, drew it from the scabbard, 44 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. stuck the point in the ground, shivered the blade and threw the hilt afar into the river, saying: " What I want from Virginia is not compliments, but justice. Go back to them that sent you and tell them I said so."* It is scarcely going too far to say that it is to George R. Clark we owe the fact that we are to-day other than a Canadian city. If Hamil- ton's territory had remained inviolate, what plea could our Commission- ers at the treaty of Versailles have made for the Detroit river as a boundary ? A century of gratitude makes dim the faults of a benefactor. To-day we do not ask whether George Rogers Clark passed his later years in drink and the breaking of most of the ten commandments. We remember his benefactions ; and as to his failings well, we wish either that he had been not quite so blamable or his judges not quite so critical (we do not care much which), so that he might have lived with- out disappointment and died without bitterness. John Todd, Clark's fellow-soldier at Kaskaskia and Vincennes, and later, by Governor Patrick Henry's warrant, "County Lieutenant or Commandant of the County of Illinois," was killed in the battle of the Blue Licks, Kentucky, fought by Todd, Daniel Boone, Thomas Mar- T( Gove?nor flrst shall (father of Chief Justice Marshall), and their brother Kentuckians, against a superior force of Indians. Says an eye-witness: "When last seen he was reeling in his saddle while the blood gushed in profusion from his wounds." Patrick Henry's commission and long letter of instructions to Todd were written on the first five pages of a blank book which was dispatched by a trusty messenger who carried it from Williamsburg, then capital of Virginia, across the Alleghanies to Fort Pitt, and thence down the Ohio till it found Todd, probably at Vincennes just after its capture by Clark and the rest. Todd kept the precious book and used the unwritten part of it to record his proceedings as Governor, his trials and troubles, his doings and dealings. Should not such a volume, however old and worn, be interesting to every Chicagoan ? Should he not look at it with a thrill of respect for its venerable pages and of gratitude to the great souls of i 776 ? All who answer " Yes" to these questions can testify to their inter- est, and secure to themselves a keen delight by simply calling at the George Rogers Clark left no children. His brother William was the man who explored the way to Oregon in 1804 in what is known as " The Lewis and Clark expedition." William's grandson, Charles Jeffers in Cl irk. ii a frontiers- man, as becomes his ancestry (but with the modern improvement of a scientific education) and is a frequent and welcome visiior in Chicago. He confirms the sword stjry regarding his grand-uncle, but insists on a slight modification as to the destruction of the sword, for he says t^e weapon, unbroken, has descended to his own possession. ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO DURING THE REVOLUTION. 45 rooms of the Historical Society, corner of Dearborn avenue and Ontario street, where the very book itself is in keeping, and where Judge Moses, the custodian, is proud to display it, together with thousands of other relics and mementoes of the great days past but not forgotten. GEORGE THIRD. The Wa land " CHAPTER VI. THE DAWN OF THE DAY WE LIVE IN. i AND speculation began early George Washington, while Colonial Surveyor for Virginia, made notes of desirable tracts and devoted his earnings to their pur- chase, to the entire satisfaction of all con- cerned ; thus laying the foundations of his fine fortune, that wealth which enabled him to serve his country without pay, as he did all through the Revolutionary War. Another kind of speculation was the purchase, or attempted purchase, from the Indians, of unsurveyed lands. Thomas Lee, Lawrence and Augus- tine Washington (relatives of George) and others formed the "Ohio Company," which aimed to get control of a large tract south of the Ohio river, in the Kanawha valley region, now part of West Virginia. ^i^^M^H^^^^B^ From " C'yHop.1i* of United StttM History." Copyright, 1881, by Harper A Hrothen. -""\W- ^^ From "Cyclopedia of UmKil SUM HUtory." Copyright. IStil.by Harpr A Brother*. LAWRENCE WASHINGTON. WILLIAM AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON. Still another case was that of the grant applied for (1772) by Thomas VValpole, Benjamin Franklin and others for land for which ten thousand four hundred and sixty pounds were paid to the Six Nations Indians under the Fort Stanwix Treaty. 16 THE DA WN OF THE DA Y WE LIVE IN. 47 All these glittering plans were crushed by the breaking out of the Revolutionary War, and the investors lost largely. Even the far West, our own present habitation, was the scene of a great and determined effort to secure control of lands, wherein Chicago was included. Two companies were formed, one "The Illinois Land Company" and the other " The Wabash Land Company," both devised and attempted at Kaskaskia by one William Murray, a name which, if its owner had succeeded, would be the leading entry in all the tens of thousands of "Abstracts of Title " with which Chicago lawyers and real estate men are so familiar. William Murray was one of the English who came to Kaskaskia after the surrender of the country by France to England in 1765. In 1 773 he formed " The Illinois Land Company " and for that company held a council with all the Indians he could muster at Kaskaskia; the proceedings of which are reported in a pamphlet (now in our Historical Society), published in Philadelphia in 1796. He gave the Indians a long list of goods and chattels* and took from them their signature to a document pretending to describe and convey a tract by metes and bounds which were really a lot of fictitious lines between points, some real and some imaginary, which lines after all inclosed nothing. Our only interest in this so-called purchase lies in the fact that one of the real points named in the boundary was " Chicagou or Garlick WilliamMurra Creek." He and his successors pressed this claim before Congress per- tr chic'a" K o buy sistently until it was finally rejected in 1801; the ground then held and ever since maintained being: Deeds obtained by private persons from the Indians, without any antecedent authority, or subsequent information [confirmation?] from the government, could not vest in the grantees men- tioned in such deed any title to the lands therein described. So it all failed and the promoters are heard of no more. William Murray, first of Chicago real estate agents, met the fate which has since overtaken many another who made the mistake of "biting off more than he could chew." Failing to find our earliest city-father in Murray, we seek elsewhere. Looking the records over, we conclude that Jean Baptiste Pointe de Chicago's erst Saible (already named) must hold the ronor of exercising the earliest ownership which is kept up continuously to our own time ; holding it, however, by allodial, not feudal tenure ; that is to say, by right of the plow and not by right of purchase from the lord of the manor or holder of eminent domain; in our case Virginia up to 1784 and the United States from that time to the present. * Here is the curious list: " 250 blankets; 250 strouds [a thick kind of cloth]; 250 pairs of stroud and half-thick stockings; 150 stroud breech-cloths; 500 pounds cf gunpowder; 4,000 pounds of. lead; one gross of knives; 30 pounds of vermilion; 2,000 gun flints; 200 piunds of brass kettles; 200 pounds of tobacco; 3 dozen pill looking-classes; .... 10,000 pounds of flour; 500 bushels of Indian corn; u horses; 12 horned cattle; 20 bushels of salt; 20 guns and five shil- lings in money." 48 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Another man was here during a part if not the whole of Jean Baptiste's occupancy; one Guarie, whose trading cabin was on the west side of the North Branch, near the forks. Guarie's holding was also allodial, and when the late Gurdon Hubbard came here in 1818 the remains of the corn-hills cultivated by him were still visible. Moreover, and Guane. Mr. Hubbard testifies that the North Branch went by the name of " River Guarie," just as the South Branch was called "Portage River," even down to 1800. Other traders were then here, however, though the place was of far less importance than St. Joseph, Mich. A St. Joseph trader, named Burnett, speaks of it casually in letters written in 1790, 1791 and 1798. In 1791 he gives this suggestive bit of "local color." "The Pottawat- omies at Chicago have killed a Frenchman about twenty days ago. They say there is plenty of Frenchmen." * Pointe de Saible, Le Mai and Guarie have disappeared and left no sign. Not so another Frenchman who was for a time their contempo- rary Antoine Ouillemette. Major Whistler found him here when he arrived in 1803 to build the first Fort Dearborn. Ouillemette remained Amoine ouiiie- here and hereabouts for the next thirty years, and was the only white ' inhabitant during the four years following the massacre of 1812. He lived about the Fort until 1829, with his wife, a Pottawatomie ; when he obtained, through her, a reservation at Gross Point (Evanston), which he cultivated until 1835, at which time he moved with the tribe to Council Bluffs. The fine suburb "Wilmette" perpetuates his name and marks the place which he fenced and cultivated. In 1784 Virginia ceded to the United States her rights over the territory northwest of the Ohio river, and in 1787 the celebrated ordi- nance was passed by Congress whereby the territorial government was organized, and certain articles were adopted to be " considered as arti- cles of compact between the original states and the people and states in the said territory, forever to remain unalterable unless by common consent." Among other things the following principles were announced: Freedom of opinion in matters of religion; right to the writ of Habeas Corpus and trial by jury; proportionate representation ; judicial pro- ceedings according to the common law; bail except for capital offenses where proof shall be evident or presumption great; no cruel or unusual punishments. " No man shall be deprived of his liberty or property but by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land," and should the public exigencies make it necessary for the common preservation to take any person's property, or to demand his particular services, full compensation shall be made for the same. * For further details, extremely interesting, concerning the "dark hour before the dawn" of Chicago, see Captain Andreas' mastcily history, 3 vols. 8vo. published by himself in 1884. Also the excellent " Fergus' Historical Series." THE DA WN OF THE DA Y IV E LIVE IN. 49 Schools should forever be encouraged. Good faith should be observed toward the Indians, and their lands and property never be taken except by their consent. Congress alone should dispose of the public lands. Non-resident proprietors should not be taxed higher than resi- ordinance of dents. Navigable waters should be common highways and forever free. The boundaries of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio were fixed. Then followed the immortal clause, big with fate, which has shaped our destiny and must influence it forever. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; provided always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original states, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor as aforesaid. So vital and far-reaching have been the consequences of this clause in our organic law, that it seems appropriate to reproduce, with Judge Moses' consent, a fac-simile of the original, in the hand of Nathan Dane. (Moses 1 Hist. 111.) So far, so good. Here was our paper title ; but more was needed to make a full title by possession and occupation ; that was yet to cost a lone struo-ale and many battles. The next step was the treaty of o Q^ J 1 /~* Greenville, Ohio, with twelve Indian tribes, concluded in 1/95, by Gen- eral Wayne ("Mad Anthony"), who had before this inflicted crushing defeats upon them. By this treaty the Indians, for their southeastern SO THE STORY OF CHICAGO. boundary, accepted a line running from where Cleveland stands now to a point on the Ohio opposite the mouth of the Kentucky. They also ceded several isolated bits for trading posts, among others, " One piece of land, six miles square, at the mouth of Chicago river, emptying into the southwestern end of Lake Michigan, where a fort formerly stood." One of the many signers of this treaty was "Little Turtle" (" Meshekunnogh- quoh"),* whose son-in-law, Captain William Wells, was among the killed at the Fort Dearborn massacre of 1812. This treaty is the first official recognition given by the United c^iop^.ofumie^st.^Hi.torj-."-^^^! States government to the name GEO. ANTHONY WAYNE. Chicago,"f and it is pursuant to this cession of land that Captain John Whistler was sent here nine years later (1803) with a company of soldiers to build a fort, Old Fort Dear- born, which was burned after the massacre of 1812. captain John Captain Whistler had an eventful life. He was a British soldier under General Burgoyne, and was included in the surrender of the invading army at the battle of Saratoga. Most of the prisoners of war taken then were marched to Boston, where they were held as prisoners until the close of the war. Of him, Captain Andreas says : After the war he married and settled in Hagerstown, Md., where his son William was born. He enlisted in the American army and took part in the Northwestern Indian war, serving under St. Clair and afterward under Wayne. He was speedily promoted, rising through the lower grades to a lieutenancy in 1792, and became a captain in 1797. He rebuilt th^ fort in 1815 [after the massacre and destruction of 1812] and removed to St. Charles, Mo., in 1817. In 1818 he was military store- keeper at St. Louis, and died at Bellefontaine, Mo., in 1827. He was a brave and efficient officer, and became the progenitor of a line of brave and efficient soldiers. His son, George Whistler, was with Captain John when the family came to Chicago, being then three years old. This is the Major Whistler who became a distinguished engineer in the service of Russia. Another son, Lieutenant William Whistler, with his young wife (Julia Person^), came to Chicago with Captain Whistler. He will be 'This Indian name, like most others, is variously spelled by different authorities. + General Dearborn, in his letter to General Wilkinson ordering the construction of the fort, spells the word " Chikago." * This Mrs. Whistler was horn in Salem, Mass., July 3, 1787. Her maiden name was Julia Ferson, and her parents were John and Mary (La Duke) Ferson. In childhood she removed with her parents to Detroit, where she received most of her education. In May. 1802, she was married to William Whistler (born in Hafferstown, Md., about 17^1), a second lieutenant in the company of his father. Captain John Whistler, U. S. A., then stationed at Detroit. (Fergus 1 Historical Series, Xo. 16.) THE DA WN OF THE DA Y WE LIVE IN. mentioned later as one of the last commandants of Fort Dearborn, hold- ing that post until 1833. He lived until 1863 ; his wife lived to be ninety juiia Person years old, dying at Newport, Ky. ( in 1878. She visited Chicago in 1875, when (at eighty-seven) her mind and memory were of the brightest ; and conversation with her on old matters was a rare pleasure. Mrs. General Philip Sheridan is her grand-neice and cherishes her relationship as a patent to high ran kin our Chicago nobility. No portrait of John Whistler is known to exist. A daughter of Will- iam and thischarmingold lady was born in 1818, and named Gwenthlean. She was married at Fort Dear- born, in 1834, to Robert A. Kinzie, second son of John Kinzie the pioneer. Mrs. Gwenthlean Kinzie is now living in Chicago, and has been consulted in the preparation of this narrative.* To return to the first Chicago fort. John Wentworth, in his his- torical sketch of Fort Dearborn (Fergus' Historical Series, No. 16), delivered on the occasion of the unveiling of the Tablet in the wall of Hoyt's wholesale grocery store (south end of Rush street bridge), quotes Mrs. Julia Whistler as follows, regarding the settlement in 1803 : The United States schooner Tracy ... on arriving at Chicago, anchored half a mile from the shore, discharging her freight from boats. Some 2000 Indians visited the locality while the vessel was here, being attracted by so unusual an occurrence as the appearance in these waters of "a big canoe with wings." There were then here but four rude huts, or traders' cabins, occupied by white men, Canadian French with Indian wives. . . There was not at that time, within hundreds of miles, a team of horses, or oxen ; and, as a consequence, the soldiers had to don the harness and with the aid of ropes, drag home t'.ie needed timbers. . . Col. William Whistler's height, at maturity, was six feet and two inches, and his weight at one time was 260 pounds. * On mentioning to Judge Caton that Mrs. Robert A. Kinzie was again living here after a long absence, the vener- able Chief- Justice, after a moment's thought, said: '*Yes! I remember the marriage, and that the britle was one of the rost beautiful women you can imagine. I have never seen her since that time. Ladies were nut plentiful in this part of the world then, and we were not over-particular about looks, but Gwenthlean Whistler Kinzie would be noted for beauty anywhere, at any time." And on loo'.:in-j at the lady herself one can well believe all that can be said in praise of her charms in her girlish years 16 when she was married. (A portrait of Mrs. Kinzie is given further on.) THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Old Rush Strr Rope Ferry. One of the four cabins was the log house so long held by Jean Baptiste Pointe de Saible, sold by him to Le Mai and during this same year bought by John Kinzie. Another was the Guarie house on the West side. The third was a cabin near the Fort occupied by Ouille- mette, and the fourth was held by one Pettell, of which and of whom .only the name survives. The old fort (1803- 4) covered about the same ground as that occupied by the new (1816), built after the massacre of 1812. The block house of the latter stood at the southwest angle of the fortified inclosure. Therefore, to "locate " both the forts, one must stand with his back to the Tablet in the wall of Messrs. Hoyt&Co.'s warehouse andlooknortheastward. He will perceive at once that the river has been widened and that in cutting away the southern bank a large part of the old fort ground has disappeared; for the south end of Rush street bridge is now somewhere near the middle of the space formerly inclosed. Here is where the old "rope ferry" was established about 1837 and maintained even down to 1857 a rope stretched across the river, lying on the bottom when a tug or vessel passed, raised out of water by a windlass and made the guide of a flat boat which plied back and forth in a slow and dignified fashion. Thousands of Chica- goans still living remember the poor device ; and when they see the surging crowd of wayfarers and vehicles that now speed to and fro over the splendid, four-track, iron, steam swing-bridge, they smile at the recollection of the barge they used to pull across with their own hands, seizing the rope and walking the length of the barge to push it forward.* * In 1857 a passing vessel ran down the rope while a barge-load of passengers was crossing and several were drowned. This put an end to the ferry, and a bridge was built net such an one as the present, but a wooden structure, high enough to allow lugs and small craft to pass under. MRS. WILLIAM WHISTLER. THE DA WN OF THE DA Y WE LIVE IN. jj From 1804 to 1811, the characteristic traits of this isolated corner of earth were its isolation ; the garrison within the stockade and the ever-present cloud of savages outside, half seen, half trusted, half feared ; its long summers (sometimes hot and sometimes hotter), and FT. DEARBORN, 1803-4. (Fergus 1 Series, No. 16.) its long winters (sometimes cold and sometimes colder) ; its plenitude of the mere necessaries of life, meat and drink, shelter and fuel, and its destitution of all luxuries ; its leisurely industry and humble prosperity ; Kinzie.the garrison sutler, Indian trader, silver-smith and fiddler, vying with the regular Government agent in the purchase of pelts and the sale from 18 of rude Indian goods. In 1805 Charles Jouett was the United States Indian Agent here. How much of his time was spent here and how much elsewhere we do not know. He resigned the post in 1811 and was re-appointed in 1817, after the re-building of the fort. It is proba- ble that the United States' agent was at a disadvantage in dealing with the Indians, as he would have to obey the law forbidding the supplying them with spirits; wnich law the other traders practically ignored. Then there was the occasional birth of a baby in the Kinzie house, the fort or somewhere about, as there were several women here ; soldiers' wives, etc. Those born in the Kinzie mansion and in the officers' families we know about.* But these were not all. There were at least a dozen little ones who first saw the light in this locality, whose play-ground was the parade and river-bank, whose merry voices must have added a human sweetness to this savage place, whose entire identity, even to their very names, is lost. The one thing we know of them is when and how they died, and that will appear later on. These quiet vicissitudes and calm excitements were about all the news which even a newspaper reporter if there had been one could have conjured up in the reign of quietude. Ellen Marion Kinzie (l-ter Mrs. Alex. Wolcott) was born in December, 1805; Maria Indiana Kinzie, (later Mrs. David Hunter), in 1807 ; Robert Allen Kinzie, February 8, 1810. John Harris Kinzie had been born at Sandwich, Canada, July 7, 1803. Two children were a'.so born to Lieutenant William Whistler, who came to the Post with his young bride in 1804. One was John Harrison Whistler, born in the fort October 7. 1807. The other was also a son, who died young. The daughter, Gwenthlean, was born at another station in 1818. THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Ill 1812 the peaceful quiet was rudely startled, then threatened, then destroyed. The first breach of the peace was the killing, by Mr. Kinzie (in self-defense), of one John Lalime, Indian interpreter at Fort Dearborn. This was early in 1812. It had, however, nothing to do with the friendliness or enmity of the red-men. The second event was of a different kind. A man named Lee, who lived on the Lake Shore near the fort, had inclosed and was farming apiece of land on the north-west side of the South Branch within the present "lumber district," about half-way between Halsted street and Ashland avenue. It was first known as " Lee's Place," afterward as " Hardscrabble." It was occupied by one Liberty White with two other men and a boy. To quote Mrs. Kinzie (Wau-Bun, p. 205): In the afternoon [April 6, 1812] a party of ten or twelve Indians, dressed and painted, arrived at the Lee house, and, according to their custom, entered and seated themselves without ceremony. Something in their appearance and manner excited the suspicions of one of the family, a French- man [Debou], who remarked : " I don't like the looks of these Indians they are none of our folks. * * * They are not Pottawatomies." Another of the family, a discharged soldier, said to the boy [a son of Mr. Lee]: " If that is the case, we had better get away, if we can. Say nothing but do as you see me do." As the afternoon was far advanced, the soldier walked leisurely towards the two canoes tied near the bank. The Indians asked where he was going. He pointed to the cattle which were standing among the haystacks on the opposite bank and made signs that they must go and fodder them and then they would return and get their supper. He got into one canoe and the boy into the other. When they gained the opposite side they pulled some hay for the cattle .... and when they had gradually made a circuit so that their movements were concealed by the haystacks, they took to the woods and made for the fort They had run a quarter of a mile when they heard the discharge of two guns successively. They stopped not nor stayed until they arrived opposite Burns' place [North State and Kinzie streets], where they called across to warn the family of the danger, and then hastened on to the fort. . . . A party of soldiers, consisting of a corporal and six men, had that afternoon obtained leave to go up the river to fish. They had not returned when the fugitives from Lee's place arrived at the fort. . . . The commanding officer ordered a cannon to be fired to Double Murder warn them of their danger. Hearing the signal they took the hint, put out their torches and dropped scrabble. down the river toward the garrison, as silently as possible. It will be remembered that the battle of Tippecanoe, the preceding November, had rendered every man vigilant, and the slightest alarm was an admonition to " beware of the Indians." When the fishing party reached Lee's place it was proposed to stop and warn the inmates. All was still as death around the house. They groped their way along, and as the corporal jumped over the small enclosure he placed his hand on the dead body of a man. By the sense of touch he soon ascertained that the head was without a scalp and was otherwise mutilated. The faithful dog of the murdered man stood guarding the remains of his master. They retreated to their canoes and reached the fort unmolested about eleven o'clock at night. The next morning a party of citizens and soldiers volunteered to go to Lee's place. . . The body of Mr. White was found pierced by two balls and with eleven stabs in the breast. The Frenchman lay dead, with his dog still beside him. THE DA WN OF THE DA Y WE LIVE IN. 55 Here we pause on the eve of the darkest day in Chicago's infancy. The unspeakable Indian is all about her, destitute, drunken, lazy, greedy, cruel, treacherous. Her own citizens have been industrious, temperate, economical and thrifty, and so have got stores of good things, food and clothing, flocks and herds, houses and furniture. He has remained in poverty in spite of his bounties, they have prospered without any. War has been declared between England and the United States now is the time to follow the counsels of Tecumseh and his brother, the Prophet; to be rich with the palefaces' possessions now for the war-dance, the scalp-dance, the war-path, the war-whoop. Hu-hu-hu-hu-hu-hu !!! From "Cyrlowpdift of L'utWd States Histnrv." CopyriRbl- 1881, b- Hiiro * Rmthrn. TECUMSEH. From " Cyclops-ilia of United SUt History." Copyright, 1881, by Harper A Brother*. THE PROPHET. CHAPTER VII. Trouble far away. Trouble close at hand. THE CLOUD, CONE-SHAPED AND COPPER-COLORED. ATURDAY, August 9, 1812, was a stirring day at the lonely little hamlet. In the great world things had been happening about which far-away Chicago knew little and cared less. What had she to do with Napoleon's European System, British "orders in council" or the American Em- bargo? France forbade American ships to trade with any other European state; England forbade them to trade with France, and the United States retaliated by forbidding her ships to sail from her ports for either nation yet the Indians went on bringing furs to Kinzie's store and taking out Kinzie's merchandise without let or hindrance. In- solent Britain asserted and maintained a right of search for her deserters on all ships bearing the American flag; even attacking and defeating (by surprise) an American frigate (the Chesapeake), with one of her own (the Leopard), on the high seas, and taking off some of the alleged sub- jects of His Majesty, George Third yet the canoes paddled freely up and down the Chicago, the Guarie and Portage. Why should Chicago care for what might be doing on the Atlantic or its shores, by George Third, George Prince Regent, George Canning, or James Madison? What had she to do with them or they with her? Wait and see ! On this momentous Saturday, Winnemeg, a friendly Pottawottomie chief, brings startling news. The United States (June i2th) had declared war against Great Britain. On July i6th, Fort Mackinac had surrendered to the British. Now General Hull, commanding at Detroit, sends orders by Winnemeg that Captain Heald shall evacuate Fort Dearborn " if practicable " and proceed to Detroit with his com- mand, over land, first disposing of the public property as he shall see fit. A terrible responsibility here falls upon poor Heald. Evacuate the post but how? He has but seventy men, all told, many of them on the sick-list. How care for the women, the children, the sick and helpless, not to speak of the pitiful accumulations of their thrift and industry? Then there are thousands of dollars' worth of goods public and private property, including arms, ammunition and liquor. 56 THE CLOUD, CONE-SHAPED AND COPPER-COLORED. 57 Indian and alcohol combine into a spontaneous explosive, a fulmi- nate that needs no spark. The whisky would make the savages crazy with ferocity, and the arms would make them dangerous, formidable, irresistible. Truly an awful dilemma. Winnemeg at first advised that the fort be held to await re-inforce- ments. Next instantaneous departure, before the savages could collect and decide on aline of action, getting safely away while they were occupied with the huge spoil. John Kinzie approved this course. Both knewthe Indian better than did Heald. The first full, circumstantial and com- plete account of this troubled time is that given by Mrs. John H. Kinzie (Juliette A. Magill, of Middletown, Conn., daughter-in- law of John Kinzie) in a pamphlet published for her, in 1844, by Ellis & Fergus, saloon buildings, corner of Lake and Clark streets, Chicago.* To the narrative thus happily pre- served, the researches of John Wentworth MRS - and others have added letters, reminiscences, War Department Docu- ments (favored by Hon. Robert Lincoln, Secretary of War) and other valuable bits of information. All these are drawn upon to aid in the present task of writing this "Story." Mrs. Kinzie says, concerning the views of Winnemeg : Of this advice, so earnestly given, Captain Heald was immediately informed. He replied that . . . inasmuch as he had received orders to distribute the United States property, he should not feel justified in leaving it until he had collected the Indians of the neighborhood and made an equitable division among them. . . The order for evacuating the post was read next morning [Sunday, August loth] on parade. ... In the course of the day ... the officers waited Capt. Heald's upon Captain Heald to be informed what course he intended to pursue. When they learned hi? Dilemma, intentions, they remonstrated with him on the following grounds: First, it was highly improbable that the command would be permitted to pass through the coun- try in safety to Fort Wayne. ... In the next place, their march must necessarily be slow, as their movements must be accommodated to the helplessness of the women and chi'dren, of whom there were a number with the detachment. Of their small force some of the soldiers were super- annuated, others invalid. Therefore, since the course was left discretional, their unanimous advice was to remain where they were and fortify themselves as strongly as possible. The unhappy commander fell back on his orders, general and special, adding that he had "full confidence in the friendly professions of the Indians, from whom, as well as from the soldiers, the capture of * Mr. Robert Fergus, of that firm, is still living in Chicago, and is the head of the Fergus Printing Company, Pub- lishers of the Fergus Historical Series so often quoted and to be quoted in these pages. His knowledge of events here since his arrival (1836) is authority for many of the facts and incidents herein set forth. Concerning this particular nar- rative, Mr. Fergus says that Mrs. Kinzie remarked, with regard to its incorporation by Judge Henry Mrown in his His- tory of Illinois, that the Judge had no right or authority to make that use of her work. She, herself, afterward incorpo rated it as chapters 18, 19 and 20, in her novel " Waubun," published in 1856. The Fergus Company proposes to republish the original pamphlet as No. 30 in the " Historical Series." THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Mackinac had been kept a profound secret." The fact was that they knew it before he did ; Tecumseh had sent the news by runners, with urgent appeals to them to go on the war-path. The under-officers were silenced and unconvinced ; incensed by what they thought a mad project. Nothing short of the habit and tradi- tion of soldierly obedience kept them from open revolt. To quote Mrs. Kinzie again : Upon one occasion, as Captain Heald was conversing with Mr. Kinzie upon the parade, he remarked: " I could not remain, even if I thought best, for I have but a small store of provisions." " Why, Captain," said a soldier who stood near by, forgetting all etiquette, " You have cattle enough to last the troops six months " '' But I have no salt to preserve it with " " Then jerk it," said the man, " as the Indians do their venison."* This ill-feeling between the commandant and his subordinate offi- cers was not a new thing. Irritation is unfortunately a common circum- stance at frontier army posts, where isolation, idleness and enforced companionship are unavoidable. It is vain to try to find out who was m j n the wrongr in the case now in question. The quarrelers are all dead; the Garrison. & some killed during the fight then impending, some wounded, and later butchered, in the usual Indian fashion; one. Captain Heald himself, though wounded in the hip, dying (probably in consequence of his wound) in 1832, twenty years later. Precious days were passed in consultation and preparation, during which the cloud "cone-shaped and copper-colored," like any other cyclone grew and brooded. Mrs. Kinzie, evidently using the traditions handed down to her directly from her husband's father, says : The Indians became daily more unruly. Entering the fort in defiance of the sentinels, they made their way without ceremony to the officers' quarters. On oneoccasion an Indian took up a rifle and fired it in the parlor of the Commandant, as an expression of defiance. . . . The old chiefs passed back- ward and forward among the assembled groups, with the appearance of the most lively agitation, while the squaws rushed to and fro, in great excitement, evidently prepared for some fearful scene. Subjugation and oppression of their white sisters was already a familiar idea among the squaws. Some six months before this, two Calumet Indians, coming to the fort on a visit, saw Mrs. Heald and Mrs. Helm playing battledore. One of them named Nau-non gee said to the interpreter : " White chief's wives are amusing themselves very much. It will not be long before they are hoeing in our corn-fields." *This is done by cutting the meat in thin slices, placing it upon a scaffold and making a fire under it, which dries it and smokes it at the same time. REBEKAH HEALD. THE CLOUD, CONE-SHAPED AND COPPER-COLORED. 59 This taunt was forgotten, until the experience of the female survivors of the massacre recalled it to mind and gave it bitter significance. As before observed, Wau-Bun is the main source of knowledge regarding these days. (It should be reprinted and have its place in every Chicago library.) Following its lead, with minor corrections and abbreviations, we go on with the narrative. August 1 2th, a large number of Indians were assembled from the neighboring villages and Captain Heald held a council with them, attended by Mr. Kinzie ; his own officers declining to accompany him because they had secret information (discredited by him) that a massacre of all the officers was planned for that occasion. When he and Mr. Kinzie moved out to the meeting-ground, the others took possession of IH, CONE-SHAPED AND COPPER-COLORED. 61 chiefs and the rank and file of their followers. But they were powerless to avert the coming doom. The young bucks were scalp-hungry and blood-thirsty; they had been too long deprived of their natural pabulum. After the pow-wow, Black Partridge, a chief friendly to the whites, visited Captain Heald on a strange mission. He had received from Gen. Wayne, at the time of the treaty of Greenville (1795), a medal which he had worn ever since. Now that he was going to war, he wanted to give back his medal. From *' Cyclopedia of United Suto Hitlory. BLACK PARTRIDGE MEDAL. 'opyright, IS8I, t>y Hirper A Brother*. Mrs. Kinzie reports his words thus: Father: I came to deliver up to you the medal I wear. It was given me by the Americans, and I have long worn it in token of our mutual friendship. But our young men are resolved to imbue their hands in the blood of the whites. I can not restrain them, and I will not wear a token of peace when I am compelled to act as an enemy."* On the same day, August i2th, a cheering sight greets the anxious eyes of the fort-dwellers. As the sun is sinking in the West, there comes along the lake shore, stretched out beside the yellow sand hills that extend southward clear down to the woods now marking the suburb of Hyde Park, a band of thirty friendly Indians, Miamies, headed by William Wells, a good and brave soldier who knows the Indians as well as they know each other. They have tramped all the way from Fort Wayne, 150 miles, charged with the kindly, dangerous task of escorting the entire Chicago community back along the pathless forest they themselves have just come through. Captain Wells at least is not blind to the nature of his task, for he grew up in the family of "Little Turtle" ("Me-che-kan-nah-qua"), fought on his side in his victories over Harmer (1790) and St. Clair This most un-Indian speech shows the thumb-marks of many hands. One is' tempted to guess it back into its original words. " B'joo! Here! Take 'urn medal. No can help. Partridge lontf time friends. Now no can help. Young braves want to kill. Want get scalp. Partridge no can help. No want medal. You keep! B'joo! *' (B'joo was the old salutat on of these Indians; doubtless corrupted from the " Ronjour " of the French. I Brave William Wells arrives. THE STORY OF CHICAGO. View from the roof of the Block House, (1791), and fought against him at the battle of 1794 when Wayne was victorious. Wells' wife was a daughter of Little Turtle. Her Indian name was Wa-nan-ga-peth. Mrs. Heald, wife of the commandant at Fort Dearborn, is Wells' niece, being the daughter of his brother Samuel. No, it is not ignorance, it is brave self-devotion, even to the death, that brings William Wells on this mission. He finds all in turmoil and the confusion of divided counsels. The order for removal " if possible" has arrived from General Hull. It is impossible to stay, but is it possi- ble to go ? Two courses of comparative safety had been open; one, to go at once and leave the wolves to gorge on the carrion left behind, the other to stay and defend the place to the last. The third course; to wait some days and then go, is the fatal one and the one decided upon before Wells' arrival. Suppose the veteran, tired with the tramping, the trifling and the turmoil, to mount to the top of the block-house at the northwest corner of the stockade and, in the shadow of its motionless flag, pause to look about him ; what does he see ? A lonely, weedy streamlet flows east- ward past the fort ; then turns sharp to the right and makes its weak way by a shallow, fordable ripple, over a long sand- bar, into the lake a half-mile to the south- ward. At his feet on the river-bank stands the United States Agency Store- house. Across the river and a little to the eastward is the old Kinzie house, built of squared logs, by Jean Baptiste Pointe de Saible, nearly forty years ago; nowrepaired, WM. WELLS. enlarged and improved by its owner and occupant, John Kinzie. A canoe lies moored to the bank in front of the house ; when any of the numerous Kinzies wish to come to the fort they can paddle across ; when anyone wishes to go over he can halloo for the canoe. Just west of Kinzie's house is Ouillemette's cabin, and still further that of John Burns. Opposite Burns' place (near South State St.) a swampy branch enters the river from the south; and on the sides of this branch there is a group of Indian wigwams ominous sight! The north side of the river is all wooded, except where little garden patches are cleared around the human habitations. The observer may see the forks of the stream a mile to the westward, but lie can not trace its branches, either " River Guarie " to the north or THE CLOUD, CONE-SHAPED AND COPPER-COLORED. 63 " Portage River" to the south, for the trees hide them. Near him, to the west and south, sandy flats, grassy marshes and general desolation are all he can see. (Will that barren waste ever be worth a dollar in acre ?) Beyond, out of sight, past the bend of the South Branch, is Lee's Place with its fresh bloodstains and its two grassless graves. And so his eye wanders on across the sandy flat, across the Indian trail leading south and the lake-shore trail which he himself came over, and finally rests with relief on the lake itself, the dancing blue water and the sky that covers it. It is said that he who is about to die has sometimes a "second- sight," a gift of looking forward to the days that are to follow his death. Suppose the weary and anxious observer now to fall asleep and in dreams to be gifted with this prophetic foresight, and to discern the change that fourscore years are to bring. It is 1892 ; close at hand he sees the streamlet, now a mighty channel, a fine, broad, deep water-way running straight, between long piers, out to the lake ; and stretching inland indefinitely ; bordered by elephantine The Mme spot elevators ; spanned by magnificent draw-bridges each built of steel and 8oyea ' moved by steam; carrying on its floods great propellorsof 100,000 bush- els grain capacity. Looking north, west and south he sees serried ranks of enormous buildings towering for miles on miles, each one so tall as to dwarf the fort and block-house to nothingness. He sees hundreds of miles of paved streets, thronged with innumerable passengers and vehicles moving hither and thither, meeting and impeding each other so that sometimes so many try to pass that none can pass; all must wait until the uniformed guardians of the peace bring order out of chaos. Every acre of ground in sight is worth millions of dollars. His dreaming ears must be stunned by the thunder of com- merce, his nostrils shocked by the smells of the vast food-factories, his skin smutched with the smoke of the fuel burning all about him to keep these wheels in motion. Bewildered and dumfounded ; even more wearied than he had been by his waking view, he would fain turn his eyes to the East and rest them on the shining calm of the great lake, the dancing blue water and the sky that covers it. CHAPTER VIII. Flag of distress. John Kinzie's course. BATTLE AND MURDER AND SUDDEN DEATH. HE departure was set for August During the preceding night Captain Wells learned from his Miamis that the Indians had resolved on slaughter. Nevertheless march they must, and at nine o'clock A. M. the great south gates (about at the spot where now is the northern end of Michigan avenue) were opened and the doomed party passed through them for the last time. Captain Wells, true to his Indian traditions, had blackened his face in premoni- tion of death. The garrison fifrs and drums, by prophetic choice of the band-master, struck up the dead march. Captain Wells led the way with half of his Miamis, the rest forming the rear-guard to the column. According to Mrs. Helm a scene of riot and disorder began even as they left the fort. The Indians went to killing the cattle running at large. She reports Ensign Ronan as saying to her: "Such is to be our fate to be shot down like brutes!" "Well, sir," said the com- manding officer, who overheard him, "are you afraid ?" " No," replied the other, " I can march up to the enemy where you dare not show your face." And as Mrs. Helm proceeds: " His subsequent gallant behavior showed this to be no idle boast." Mrs. Helm, in the dispute between Heald and his subordinates, evidently took sides with the latter. John Kinzie had been warned by To-pee-nee-be, a friendly chief, to keep clear of the column from the fort, and he did send his family in a bateau to proceed parallel with the marching force but a little way out in the lake. At the same time he himself bravely chose to march with the land party, hoping to help them in their extremity. The boat party consisted of Mrs. John Kinzie and her four younger children John H. (9); Ellen Marion, afterward Mrs. Wolcott (7); Maria Indiana, afterwards Mrs. David Hunter (5); and Robert Allen (2), all of whom were her children by Mr. Kinzie. Her elder daughter, Margaret (McKillop) Helm, wife of Lieutenant Helm, accompanied BATTLE AND MURDER AND SUDDEN DEATH her husband and the troops. In the boat also were " Grutte,"* nurse to the children (afterwards Mrs. Jean Baptiste Beaubien), a clerk of Mr. Kinzie's, two servants, a boatman and two Indians as a guard. Irjtthe marching column there were at the head Captain Wells and fifteen of his Miamis; next (probably) the wagons with the sick, the women and children, the camp equipage and the supplies; and, march- ing beside them, such troops as were able to travel on foot; the rear being brought up by the remaining Miamis. On their right were five hundred Indian braves, their escort, their safeguard, their promised help and protection. The train took the best Line of March. 1812. Chart of Chi- cago in 1813. beaten track, which lay along the lake shore (not far from Michigan Avenue), until it diverged to the eastward of the sand hills which began about Twelfth street. The Indian "escort," on reaching the point last named, veered westward, passed out of sight behind the sand hills and hurried on to form an ambuscade. Mrs. Kinzie says (Wall bun, p. 223): The boat started, but had scarcely reached the mouth of the river, which, it will be recollected was here half a mile below the fort [about Harrison street] when another messenger from To -pee nee be arrived to detain them where they were. In breathless expectation sat the wife and mother. She was a woman of uncommon energy and strength of character, yet her heart died within her as she folded her arms around her helpless infants and gazed on the march of her husband and eldest T ne Boat Party, child to certain destruction . . They had marched perhaps a mile and a half [Fourteenth street] when Captain Wells who had kept somewhat in advance with his M'amis, came riding furi- ously back. " They are about to attack us," shouted he; "form instantly and charge upon them." Scarcely were ttc words uttered, when a volley was showered from among the sand hills. The troops were hastlty brought into line and charged up the bank. One man, a veteran of seventy win- ters, fell as they ascended. Captain Heald, writing from Pittsburgh, October 23, 1812, says that after marching to the top of the sand hill and firing one round * Hurlbut says that thii wjrJ is useJ by mistake f jr " Joiette." (Chicago A //////.) 66 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. the troops charged, and the Indians (as might have been expected) gave way in the front and joined those on the flanks. The real fight- attack ing lasted only about fifteen minutes. The Miamis gave no help. The thetrain. * , , . , , 1-1 , i Indians closed in around the wagons and seized upon "the horses, provisions and baggage of every description," whil^ he drew off the remnant of his force and " took possession of a small elevation on the open prairie out of shot of the bank or any other cover." All this seems like the conduct of a brave fool. To charge upon an enemy that outflanks you, is only excusable when either, first, his courage depends on his formation, and the centre being pierced all will fly (a suggestion quite foreign to Indian tactics, which are for individual fighting) ; or, second, when, having nothing to protect, you may cut your way through to safety certainly not this case, when you have everything to protect and no safety to reach by cutting through. Any smart boy could have seen that the safety of the train was the main thing at stake, and, besides, that the loss of the train meant also the loss of the troops. Heald ought to have planned, long before he set out, what should be done in every possible contingency. The train massed on the shore, the lake protecting rear and flanks, would have been nearly impregnable. There was no shelter for an advancing force, and Indians (no matter how numerous), donotattack in Howthcymight . n- * r ha savi en tne P en where they must sustain more loss than they can inflict. If it be true that Captain Wells called for the charge, then his was the first error, but all should have been planned in the alternative fashion so familiar to soldiers: " The enemy can try such and such means of attack [or defence, as the case may be]. If this be his plan, then that is our best counter-move," etc. And the first general order should have been : "If we are attacked, rally on the wagons and defend them to the last shot and the last man." Suppose the wagons to be wheeled into a kind of semi-circle, with flanks on the lake, and a few rifle-pits dug in the yielding sand and thrown out to advantage; these things would have prevented the immediate slaughter, baffled the hostile Indians and given the friendly some precious hours, days, or even weeks, in which to parley for rescue or ransom. At any rate, nothing worse than what was done could possibly have been contrived. The sickening story is best given by condensing Mrs. Helm's narrative. The troops were but a handful, but they seemed resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possi- ble. Our horses pranced and bounded as the balls whistled among them. I drew off a little and gazed upon my husband and father, who were yet unharmed. . . . The surgeon, Dr. Van Voorhees, came up. He was badly wounded. His horse had been shot under him and he had received a ball in the leg. He said, " Do you think they will take our lives? I am badly wounded, but I think not mortally. Perhaps we might purchase our lives by promising them a large reward. Oh, I can not die! I am not fit to die! If I had but a short time to prepare death is HATTLE AND MURDER AND SUDDEN DEATH. 6j awful!" I pointed to Lieutenant Ronan; who, though mortally wounded and nearly down, was fighting with desperation on one knee. " Look at that man," 1 said. " At least he dies like a soldier." " Yes," replied the unfortunate man, " but he has no terrors of the future. He is an unbeliever." The difficulties in the way of giving absolute belief to all this are obvious. Captain Wells had ridden back from the front and called on Mrs. Helm's the troops to charge, which they did. The charge led them some dis- dMcuitiel tance from the train. Is it to be supposed that Mrs. Helm and Mrs. Heald on horseback accompanied the foot soldiers' advance ? Nothing is more improbable. Captain Heald says the Indians closed in on his flanks and rear as he advanced ; and it would seem that these must have been those Mrs. Helm speaks of. But in that case, how came her husband, Lieutenant Helm, and her step-father, John Kinzie, to be with her and "yet unharmed ?" Captain Heald, in his letter of October 23d, already quoted, says : We had proceeded about a mile and a half when it was discovered that the Indians were about to attack us from behind the bank. I immediately marched up with the company to the top of the bank [too yards], when the action commenced. After firing one round we charged, and the Indians gave way in front and joined those on the flanks. In about fifteen minutes, . . . finding that the Miamis did not assist us, I drew off the men I had left and took possession of a small elevation in the open prairie, out of shot of the bank or any other cover. The Indians did not follow me but assembled in a body on the top of the bank. Thus it appears that Captain Heald and the survivors of the troops were separated from Dr. Van Voorhees, Lieut. Helm, Mrs. Helm and Mr. Kinzie, at the time Mrs. Helm describes ; by the main body of the Indians. But then how about her pointing out Lieutenant Ronan fighting desperately on one knee? The simplest explanation is to sup- pose that the soldiers, in their fighting advance, became divided, part going forward with Captain Heald, part turning back with Kinzie, Helm, Ronan and Van Voorhees. Another eye-witness (writing only nine months afterwards) is Walter Jordan, one of Captain Wells' expeditionary force which went over from Fort Wayne to convoy the garrison to safety. He merely says: On the I5th, at 8 o'clock, we commenced our march with our small force which consisted of Captain Wells, myself and one hundred Confute Indians, Captain Heald's one hundred men, ten men, ten women and twenty children in all two hundred and thirty-two. We had marched half a mile when we were attacked by six hundred Kickapoo and Wynbago Indians. In the moment of trial our Confute savages joined the savage enemy. Our contest lasted ten minutes, when every man, woman and child were killed except fifteen. Following the ordinary rules of evidence we put most faith in the testimony given nearest to the time of the occurrence. It is reasonable to presume that Heald and Jordan told the truth as they understood it. Fr aT n "l%^. When Mrs. Helm's narrative conflicts with theirs we may reasonably suppose that during the twenty-four years that elapsed before it was taken from her lips, it had suffered the usual vicissitudes which befall tradition and memory.* John Wentworth (Fergus 1 History, Series No. 16, p. 16) says that in 1836 Mrs. Helm married her second husband, Dr. Abbott, of Detroit, at Chicago. Mrs. Kii.zic (Waubun, p. 201) gives 1836 as the date of her first preparation of the narrative. She does not say how and when she go: Mrs. Helm's story; but this seems to make it clear. 68 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Proceeding with Captain Heald's letter (which is not quoted in Waubun) we learn that after he and the survivors had taken refuge on the small elevation in the open prairie, and the Indians had assembled on the top of the bank, they made signs for him to approach them, which he did, alone, and was met by the Pottawatomie Chief Black- Bird, with an interpreter. " After shaking hands, he requested me to capt. Heaws surrender, promising to spare the lives of all the prisoners. On a few etter- moments' consideration I concluded it would be most prudent to comply with his request, although I did not put entire confidence in his promise." Returning to Mrs. Helm's story, following the interview with the bleeding Dr. Van Voorhees, we read : At this moment a young Indian raised his tomahawk at me. By springing aside I avoided the blow, which was intended for my skull, but which alighted on my shoulder. I seized him around the neck, and, while exerting my utmost efforts to get possession of his scalping knife, which hung in his scabbard over his breast, I was dragged from his grasp by another and an older Indian. The latter bore me, struggling and resisting, toward the lake. Notwithstanding the rapid- ity with which I was hurried along, I recognized, as I passed them, the lifeless remains of the unfortunate surgeon. Some murderous tomahawk had stretched him on the very spot where I had last seen him. I was immediately plunged into the water and held there by a forcible hand, not- withstanding my resistance. I soon observed, however, that the object of my captor was not to drown me, for he held me firmly in such a position as to place my head above water. This reassured me, and, regarding him attentively, I soon recognized, in spite of the paint with which he was dis- guised, the Black Partridge. [This indicates that she did not leave the shore with the troops' charge.] We must condense the recollections of the half-crazed sufferer. The firing died away, and her preserver brought her on shore, where her drenched clothes, the heavy sand and the hot sun were terrible. When she took off her shoes to get the sand out, a squaw snatched hern from her, and she had to stumble on as best she could without them. She met Mr. Kinzie. who told her her husband was but slightly wounded, and they plodded wearily back toward the fort. They gave her a barebacked horse, but she could not ride him, and, supported by Black Partridge and another Indian, Pee-so-tum, she dragged her faint- ing steps to one of the wigwams of the Pottawatomies' camp on the creek, which emptied into the river where now is the south end of State street bridge. Pee-so-tum held dangling in his hand a scalp which, by the black ribbon around the queue, she recognized as that of Captain Wells ! Another part of Mrs Helm's narrative tells how Captain Wells died. After the futile charge of the troops, he turned his horse toward the Indian camp near the fort (State street, north of Marshall Field's Killing of store), pursued by the foe. He loaded and fired back at them as he wiiiiam wens. fled( Iying fla( . Qn his horse His horse was k;lled and he seve rely wounded when Winnemeg and Wau-ban-see came along and tried to save him by supporting him along between them. But the Indians BATTLE AND MURDER AND SUDDEN DEATH. 69 had now come up, and Pee-so-tum (a "friendly") stabbed him in the back and took his scalp. Jordan's letter throws light on the treatment of his body. Thanks be to God, I was one of those who escaped. First, they shot the feather off my cap; next, the epaulette from my shoulder, and then the handle from my sword. I then surrendered to four savage rascals. The Confute chief, taking me by the hand and speaking English, said: " Jor- dan, I know you. You gave me tobacco at Fort Wayne. We won't kill you, but come and see what we will do with your captain." So, leading me to where Wells lay, they cut off his head and put it on a long pole, while another took out his heart and divided it among the chiefs, who ate it up raw. Then they scalped the slain and stripped the prisoners, and gathered in a ring, with us fifteen poor wretches in the middle. They had nearly fallen out about the divide, but my old chief, the White Raccoon, holding me fast, they made the divide and departed to their towns. Niles Weekly Register (April 3, 1813) says that Mrs. Helm had arrived at " Buffaloe" and given the account of her sufferings during six 1,1 i T i- i i Weekly Regis- montns or slavery among the Indians and imprisonment among their ter Reported, allies; adding that, for five days after she was taken prisoner, she had not the least sustenance, and when she demanded food a piece of Col. Wells' heart was offered her. All this is, however, at variance with Mrs. Helm's own story as quoted by Mrs. Kinzie in Waubun, as follows : The wife of Wau-bee-nee-mah, a chief from the Illinois river, . . . seeing my exhausted condi- tion, seized a kettle, dipped up some water from a stream, threw into it some maple sugar, and, stir" ring it up with her hand, gave it me to drink. . . The whites had surrendered after the loss of about two-thirds of their number. They had stipulated, through the interpreter Peresh Leclerc, for the preservation of their lives and those of the remaining women and children, and for their delivery at some of the British posts, unless ransomed by traders in the Indian country. It appears that the wounded prisoners were not considered as included in the stipulation and a horrible scene ensued on their being brought into camp. An old squaw . . . seized a stable fork and assaulted one miserable victim, who lay groaning and writhing in the agony of his wounds, aggravated by the scorching beams of the sun. . . Wau-bee-nee-mah stretched a mat across two poles between me and this dread- ful scene. I was thus spared in some degree a view of its horrors, although I could not entirely close my ears to the cries of the sufferer. The following night five more of the wounded prisoners were tomahawked. Mrs. Helm then reverts to the scene of the fight itself and gives (.manifestly at second-hand) an account of it which mainly confirms Captain Heald's, but conflicts with the statement that she had seen Kin- zie and Helm on the lake shore after the struggle began. She says that our troops, "after their first attack by the Indians," charged and suc- ceeded in breaking through the enemy and gaining a rising ground, " not far from the oak woods." From here Lieutenant Helm sent Peresh Tortures of dy- ing prisoners. Leclerc, the half-breed boy, to propose the terms of capitulation. " But in the meantime a horrible scene had been enacted. One young savage, climbing into the baggage-wagon containing the chil- dren of the white families, twelve in number, tomahawked the children of the entire group." And so perished all the little ones who had been born at and about the fort since its building. The mind refuses to picture the doings within the wagon-tilt ; all we know is that the innocents were alive when the fiend entered at one end, and dead or dying when he emerged from the other. He was an Indian ; that is all. THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Captain Heald gives the killed in the action as, thirty-eight soldiers, two women and twelve children. Niles Weekly Register (June 4, 1814), gives the names of nine soldiers who had arrived at Pittsburgh, N. Y., from Quebec, and adds the following details obtained from them. Fate of survi- vors. MASSACRE TREE AND PULLMAN'S HOUSE. " Hugh Logan, an Irishman, was tomahawked and put to death, he not being able to walk, from excessive fatigue. August Mott, a German, was killed in the same manner for alike reason. A child of Mrs. Neads, the wife of John Neads, was tied to a tree to prevent its following its mother and crying for victuals. Mrs. Neads afterwards perished with hunger and cold. Mrs. Corbin, wife of Philin Corbin, in an advanced BA TTLE AND MURDER AND SUDDEN DBA TH. 77 state of pregnancy, was tomahawked, scalped, cut open and had the child taken out and its head cut off." Truly, the suffering of one generation is the price paid for the enjoyment of the next. The " Massacre Elm " (a cottonwood, by the way), still stands in the middle of Eighteenth street, a stone's throw from The Massacre the lake, in the midst of one of the most fashionable portions of Chicago, Eighteenth street and Prairie avenue. The boundaries of the fight are ill-defined, but it is clearly established that it included this spot. There is where the Kinzie family stated the occurrence to have taken place ; and Indian relics, beads, etc., and an ancient single-barrel brass pistol have been found in the vicinity. (Andreas, Vol. i, p. 31.) The tree is of an age to have been in existence in 1812, and therefore surely stood where the musketry must have shaken its leaves and where dying eyes of men, women and children may have looked on it in the last agony. It all happened less than eighty years ago, within the lifetime of thou- sands now living. Our picture well sets forth the contrasts of time ; the gaunt, dead tree, fit memorial of death and desolation, relieved against an elegant, gay and hospitable mansion, the home of George M. Pullman, citizen of metropolitan Chicago; builder of Pullman, the model working- village ; and originator and controller of the famous world-wide system of trade and transportation. The memorable, historical tree is dead at last, having borne its last leaves in 1887, the very year of the death of Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard, La st Chicago's last connecting link with the time which this story has now reached. In these four-score years dance-music has taken the place of the whistle of hostile bullets ; and the free laugh of the children of the rich has succeeded to the scream of those hapless little prisoners in the baggage-wagon the sudden end of a sunny ride which they had doubtless entered upon as a rare treat in their monotonous experience. aves on the old tree. CHAPTER IX. John Went- worth's Dis- coveries. THEY MADE A SOLITUDE AND CALLED IT PEACE. : APPILY, joyfully, we add to Mrs. Kinzie's record, given in " Wau- bun," some almost equally valuable r matter not available to Mrs. Kinzie; in fact, not committed to paper until within ten years before this present writing. Number sixteen of Fergus' prec- ious" Historical Series" is devoted to the grand work done by the late John Wentworth for the occasion of the unveiling (in 1881) of the memo- rial BlockhouseTablet which adorns the north wall of the Hoyt Grocery warehouse, facing Rush Street bridge from the south. Mr. Went- worth reaped and gleaned the whole field with a power, energy, industry, perseverance and completeness emblematic of his manly character. He it was who obtained (through Robert Lincoln, then Secretary of War) every scrap and word which the Department records show concern- ing the two forts Dearborn ; including rosters of the force prior to the massacre, and letters from Captain Heald after it. Also, extracts from the files of Niles Weekly Register, printed in Baltimore, already quoted. Also, two special letters from A. H. Edwards, of Sheboygan, Wis., who had known and talked with actual survivors of the massacre. All these thrilling bits of realism, with many more, are included in the appendix to his Blockhouse speech ; published as Fergus' No. 16. Besides these, he in some way got knowledge concerning the descendants of Captain Heald ; corresponded with them, and to crown all actually produced and presented to the meeting, in person, the Hon. Darius Heald, of O'Fallon, Mo., son of Captain Heald who commanded at the massacre. From Darius Heald's reports is condensed the following account of Captain Heald and of the occurrence from his point of view. THEY MADE A SOLITUDE AND CALLED IT PEACE. 73 Nathan Heald was married in Louisville, Ky., in i8n(as herein before told), to Rebekah Wells, daughter of Col. Samuel Wells, and niece of Capt. William Wells. They started at once for Fort Dearborn and captain went all the way on horseback, she riding a beautiful trained bay mare, on which the Indians always looked with longing eyes, and which they tried to steal more than once. She was riding this mare when the attack took place, and though many bullets struck the rider none wounded the steed. The Indians got both, and soon surrendered the almost dead Mrs. Heald ; but never, then or thereafter, would part with the mare though every attempt was made to buy her. There were (says the son) only twenty-five or thirty fighting men in the fort, the others being on the sick-list. The weather was very hot. All were satisfied with the order to vacate, except "the sutler or storekeeper, interpreters, traders, and that whole class who felt that their occupation would be gone if the fort should be abandoned. They are the persons who have handed down all the reflections upon Captain Heald's conduct in leaving the fort." When the soldiers had proceeded about one and a half miles from the fort they were surprised and surrounded by about six hundred Indians, who had formed in a horse-shoe or semi-circular shape upon the bluff. The troops were upon the lake shore. Captain and Mrs. Heald were riding together. Captain Wells was somewhat in advance, dressed in Indian costume, riding with his Indian forces. Captain Wells first noticed the design of the Indians, and rode back and informed Captain Heald, who at once started for the most elevated point on the sand-hills, and endeavored to mass his wagons, baggage, women and children and sick soldiers so as to make a better defense Thc Heald side whilst the fight was going on. At the first attack Captain Wells' Indians made their escape. Early of ihe story. in the fight Captain Heald and his wife became separated. Captain Wells rode up to Mrs. Heald with blood streaming from his mouth and nostrils, and told her that he thought he had been fatally wounded, and requested her to inform his wife that he had fought bravely and knew he had killed seven Indians before he was shot. Soon his horse was shot, and as the horse fell his foot was caught in the stirrup, and he was held under the horse for some time. Whilst in this position he killed his eighth Indian. He was released from this position just in time to meet his death from a bullet in the back of his neck. The Indians immediately scalped him, cut out his heart and flour ished it about on a gun-stick, then divided it into small pieces and ate it whilst warm, Mrs. Heald being a witness. She was led back to the fort as a prisoner. Captain Heald received a wound in the hip which always troubled him, and, it is believed, caused his death in 1832. He drew a pension in consequence thereof. Having but about a half dozen men left in fighting condition, Captain Heald surrendered. The Indians returned to the fort, plundered and burned it. The next morning an Indian chief, Chandonais, who was a half-breed, having possession of Captain Heald as a prisoner, sought out the captor of Mrs. Heald and pur- chased her. She had supposed that her husband was killed. Chandonais took Mrs. Heald to her husband. She had received six wounds. When the Indians were leading her away as a prisoner, one of the squaws attempted to take a blanket from her, when she, with her riding-whip, struck her several times, which act of bravery, under the circumstances, greatly excited the admiration of the Indians. The next day Chandonais took all the warriors with him for the purpose, it was said, of burning a prisoner, leaving Captain Heald and wife in charge of the squaws and a small Indian boy. That evening, through the assistance of the boy who accompanied them, and probably with the assent of Chandonais. they made their escape in a birch-bark canoe to Mackinaw, and finally to Detroit, when Captain Heald surrendered himself as a prisoner of war. This narrative calls for a little sifting. In the first place, we have Captain Heald's own report, showing his immediate advance up the bank and charge upon the Indians, and showing no endeaver "to 74 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. mass his wagons," etc., for a better defense. In the next place the cir- cumstances of brave Captain Wells' death are quite different from those given by Mrs. Helm. Mrs. Heald's account appears most credible. In the third place, this narrative ignores the stay of the fugitives at St. Joseph before going to Mackinaw ; a matter of but small moment. It was at this interesting point of the narrative that Mr. Went- worth paused and surprised his audience by the presentation of Darius Heald, who was received with great cheering. He exhibited a large ornamented shawl or blanket pin into the rim of which the Indians had made a hole so as to wear it in the ear or nose. This might have been made by John Kinzie; " Shaw-nee-aw-kee ; the H H n e 'aki a m U ,88i. silversmith." He then exhibited his mother's bridal comb, a shell cut in the shape of an eagle, plenteously studded with gold to represent the eagle's wings. Mr. Heald said he had heard his mother say that, whilst she was writhing on the ground with pain from her many wounds, she saw an Indian chief strutting about with that comb in his hair. Difficulties multiply as we go on trying to reconcile Mrs. Helm's story as reported by Mrs. Kinzie with other narratives, with itself and with probability. Mrs. Kinzie distinguishes it (beginning at page 224) by quotation marks, starting each new paragraph by new marks. But a little further on (page 235) the narrative (still using the quotation marks) begins to speak of Mrs. Helm in the third person, and describes her anew as Mr. Kinzie's step-daughter, who had recently come to the post and was personally unknown to some of the Indians. The inter- nal evidence indicates that Mrs. Helm's tale stops at the point where the killing of five more of the wounded is announced as before mentioned. That is the last place wherein the pronoun " I " is used. The following pages, in Waubun are probably a resume of the traditions of the Kinzie family. All the narratives upon examination and comparison appear con- fused and contradictory. For instance, a letter from " Buffaloe," dated March 8th, and published in Niles Weekly Register (Baltimore), of Sat- urday, April 3, 1813, says that Mrs. Helm, wife of Lieutenant Helm, who escaped the butchery of the garrison of "Chicauga " by the assistance ted to Mrs. o f humane Indians had arrived at " Buffaloe," and adds that the account Helm. of her sufferings during three months' slavery among the Indians and three months' imprisonment among their allies would make a most inter- esting volume The correspondent will mention one circumstance alone : During five days after she was taken prisoner she had not the least sustenance and was com- pelled to drag a canoe ^barefooted and wading along the stream) in which were three squaws, and when she demanded food some flesh of her murdered countrymen and a piece of Colonel Wells' heart was offered her. MADE A SOLITUDE AND CALLED IT PEACE. 75 Now turning back to Mrs. Kinzie's narrative, in the quoted part, we find Mrs. Helm, after the battle was over, again in the Kinzie mansion disguised in the dress of a French woman, conducted by Black Partridge to the house of Ouillemette, later hidden and nearly smother- ed under a feath- er bed, and on the third day af- ter the battle ac- companying her parents, the Kinzies, to St. Joseph, where she staid with the Pottawatto- mie chief Robin- son for several months, being treated with all possible k i n d- ness and hospi- tality. Thence she went to De- troit OLD KINZIE HOUSE. After their arrival at Detroit, Mrs. Helm was joined by her husband, where they were both arrested by the British commander and sent on horse-back, in the dead of winter, through Canada to Fort George on the Niagara frontier. . . Notwithstanding their long and fatiguing journey. . Mrs. H., a delicate woman of seventeen years, was permitted to sit waiting on htr saddle, without the gate, for more than an hour. . . By an exchange of prisoners they were liberated and found means to reach their friends in Steuben county, N. Y. This accounts for her presence at " Buffaloe," but where do the five days of starvation, the canoe, the bare feet in the brook, the bit of Cap- tain Wells' heart, etc., come in? Did the correspondent make it up out of whole cloth ? Did he take her tale of the sufferings of others anc' report it as her personal adventures ? Or, did the little lady with her rugged and terrible experiences and her seventeen years have also a cumulative memory and a colossal imagination? The other account (at second hand), was sent to Mr. Wentworth by Mr. A. H. Edwards, of Sheboygan, Wis., and is published in the His- torical series No. 1 6, p. 54. It bears internal evidence of authenticity and reads as follows : 76 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. I am acquainted with some facts derived from conversations with one who was there and witnessed the fight and killing of many of those who lost their lives on that memorable day. She Tradition hand- was a daughter of one of the soldiers and was one of the children who, with her mother and sister, cddownbyA. occupied one of the wagons that was to convey them from the fort. She told me she saw her father when he fell, and also saw many others. She, with her mother and sister, were prisoners among the Indians for nearly two years, and were finally taken to Mackinac and sold to the traders and sent to Detroit. On our arrival at Detroit in 1816, this girl was taken into our family, and was then about thirteen years old and had been scalped. She said a young Indian came to the wagon where she was, grabbed her by the hair and pulled her out of the wagon, and she fought him the best she knew how, scratching and biting until finally he threw her down and scalped her. She was so frightened, she was not aware of it until the blood ran down her face. An old squaw interfered and prevented her from being tomahawked by the Indian, she going with the squaw to her wigwam, and wae taken care of and her head cured. This squaw was the one that came often to their house. The bare spot on the top of her head was about the size of a silver dollar. . . . The person was Isabella Cooper. Her account, as given to me, and also her mother's, was that as soon as the soldiers were disposed of, the Indians made a rush for the wagons where the women and children were. . . She saw her father's scalp in the hands of one of the Indians afterwards. He had sandy hair. . . . She saw Wells when he fell from his horse, and his face was painted. As already told, Mr. Kinzie("Shaw-nee-aw-kee") found himself once more in the mansion, on the north bank of the main river, about where the junction of Pine and Kinzie streets now is. Thither came his family, whose canoe had turned back from the river mouth (Jackson street), and Mrs. Heald, who had been, with difficulty and danger, saved and hidden in the canoe, crying and groaning with six or seven bullet wounds. Mrs. Helm, too, sought refuge there ; also one of the garrison who had escaped the general fate. The two last-named were disguised as " Weem- tee-gosh " (French engages), and were thus able to pass as part of the Kinzie family. This was not without dreadful perils, for the house was visited by angry savages from the Wabash, arrived too late for the blood, the scalps and the spoil, and determined not to depart empty- handed. Just when the situation seemed hopeless; sulky red-skins in their war paint all about, and when even the faithful Black Partridge had lost all hope, help came. Mrs. Kinzie says: At this moment a friendly war-whoop was heard from a party of newcomers on the opposite bank of the river. Black Partridge sprang to meet their leader. "Whoareyou?" "Aman. Who are you ?" " A man, like yourself; but tell me who you are ?" " I am the Sauganash ! " [English- man.! " Then make all haste to the house. Your friend is in danger; you alone can save him." Sauganash to the rescue. Billy Caldwell* for it was he entered with a calm step and without a trace of agitation. He deliberately took off his accoutrements and placed them with his rifle behind the door, then saluted the hostile savages; " How now, my friends ! A good day to you ! I was told there were enemies here; but I am glad to find only friends. Why have you blackened your faces ? Is it that you are mourning for the friends you lost in battle ? Or is it that you are fasting? If so, ask our friend here and he will give you to eat. He is the Indians' friend, and never yet refused them what they had need of." Thus taken b> surprise, the savages were ashamed to acknowledge their bloody purpose-. They, therefore, said modestly that they had come to beg of their friends some white cotton in which to wrap their dead. * Half-breed son (by a beautiful Pottawattomie girl) of Colonel Caldwell, an Irish officer in the British army. Born at Detroit about 1780; educated at a Jesuit school ; fought for the English \\ the War of 1812 ; tall, strong, able, bold; secretary to Tecumseh ; later a chief of the Pottawattomics ; stout enemy and faithful friend ; long a resident of Chicago ; made justice of the peace in 1826 ; had 1.600 acres of land granted him on the North Branch about six miles from the main riTer; helped in the great removal of Indians in 1836 : died at their new home. Council Bluffs, September 18, 1841. THEY MADE A SOLITUDE AND CALLED IT PEACE. 77 Although Billy Caldwell, " The Sauganash," was an aid to Tecum- seh and fought through the war on the English side, yet, on this and other occasions he showed himself to have a heart white rather than red; and, the war once over, he was a firm, strong and consistent friend of the race of his father. No portrait of him is known to exist, but through Mr. Hurlbut we are fortunate enough to obtain a fac-simile of his signature. Three days after the massacre the Kinzie family, thus increased by the few refugees who had joined them, resumed their interrupted journey across the lake to St. Joseph. There they were kindly enter- TheKmzies tained by Robinson (Che-chee-bing-way) the Pottawattomie chief. battie! hc With them, finally, were Captain Heald and his wife, with their many and grievous wounds ; also Mrs. Helm, whose husband was later freed by his captors and joined her at Detroit, as elsewhere told. Mr. Kinzie made a few brave efforts to secure some fragments of his scattered possessions. His daughter-in-law, in Waubun, says that in his excursions in this business he wore the costume and paint of the tribe in order to escape capture and death at the hands of those still thirsting for blood. She does not say what success he had doubtless pitifully small. Then he followed his family to Detroit, where he was received as prisoner of war by the British General, Proctor, paroled, and later re-arrested and confined at Fort Maiden, at the mouth of the Detroit river, where, according to Mrs. Kinzie, he had another thrilling experience : On the tenth of September, as he was taking his promenade under a guard of soldiers, the whole party were startled by the sound of guns on Lake Erie, at no great distance below. What could it mean? It must be Commodore Barclay firing into some of the Yankees. The firing con- tinued. . . Neither he nor his guard observed the lapse of time, so anxiously were they listening to what they now felt sure was an engagement between ships of war. . . . "Let me stay." said he, " till we can learn how the battle has gone." Very soon a sloop appeared under a press of sail, round- ing the point, and presently two gunboats in chase of her. "She is running she bears the British colors she is striking her flag! Now," turning to the soldiers " 1 will go back to prison contented. I know how the battle has gone!" The sloop was the Little Belt, the last of the squadron captured by the gallant Perry on that memorable occa- sion. ..." We have met the enemy, and they are ours." Many and various are the scattered narratives, anecdotes and tra- ditions of the dark years following the destruction of the first effort to occupy the wild Garlick Portage. Probably every hardship reported was true of some person at some time. Certainly many of them are THE STORY OF CHICAGO. ALEXANDER ROBINSON (IN OLD AGE), Chief of the Pottawattomies. Chippewa and others. not true as to the identical persons named. The safe plan is to "shun around" the quicksands of doubt and uncertainty and return to the unquestioned record ; though by so doing we miss some charming sto- ries of Mrs. Kinzie's; romantic, pathetic, trag- ic. All should read them in "Waubun." The bitter fight is over. The dead have got through with their agony ; the survivors have begun their terri- ble experience of cap- tivity. The bodies of the slain lie unburied where they fell ; proba- bly some within a stone's throw, and all within a rifle-shot, of the " Massacre Tree," in Eighteenth street I all, that is, except the wounded prisoners carried down to the Indian village to the place where Chicago women now do their shopping and there slain by inches for their captors' delight. The fort is burned; the Kinzie m'ansion deserted; the Indians themselves scattered afar, for it is only where the carcase is that the young eagles are gathered together. The carcase is used up. They have killed the goose that laid the golden egg ; the last of their spoil 816, De 2 soia- is wasted, the last surviving prisoner ransomed and his ransom squan- dered what can they do next ? Go to work ? Out of the question t Kill and rob another settlement ? Yes ; if they could only find one. Doubtless they do what they can not help doing, half do it, half starve, half live on carrion, and pray the Great Spirit to send them a new sup- ply of palefaces. One white man remains; Ouillemette, who lives with his Indian wife and half-breed children in his cottage, or in the Kinzie mansion, or wherever he will. There is room enough in the vast soli- tude. All is once more as lonely as it was when Joliet and La Salle encamped on the stream " convenient to the portage " a century and a half before. It is 1816. Nearly four years have passed since that wild debauch of delight to the many and death to the few. The persist- ent whites are coming again to the spot where, in spite of war, pes- tilence and famine, fine and flood, Chicago is to stand. From 1812 to 1816, tion. CHAPTER X. AFTER DARKNESS, LIGHT. HAVERS have beautiful fur, luckily for the speedy settlement of the West, and unluckily for the beaver. Where this harmless, exem- plary pattern of industry and ingenuity dwells, thither comes his enemy, man, bent on his destruction and taking the cruelest of methods to compass it, for he uses the beaver's impulse of well-doing to betray him. He baits his trap with the victim's sense of .duty. He makes a breach in the dam which the colony of rodents has toilsomely built, well knowing that as soon as he departs the eagerly dutiful builders will rush to repair the injury; then he sets the horrid steel jaws around the spot where the work must be done! It is like using a baby's cry to draw its mother into an ambush. Well does the poet declare beauty to be a fatal gift. The beaver, the buffalo and the seal are doomed to perish, while the porcupine and the rat endure. Up to a score of years after 1810, there could have been no agri- cultural immigration to northern Illinois. The Indians were still here ; and, though six miles square, including Chicago, had been ceded to the government (treaty of Greenville, 1795), even that was unoccupied, save by Indians and a few half-breeds like Ouillemette. Possibly, too, Jean Baptiste Beaubien, who married Josette La Framboise, may have lived in the Kinzie house before the return of John Kinzie in 1816. There can be little doubt but that Josette La Framboise Beaubien is the person mentioned as " Grutte " in the Waubun narrative. No such name as the latter is known in either language, and Josette, coarsely written, may well be mistaken for Grutte ; for example: Years following the Massacre. 8o THE STORY OF CHICAGO. If this be accepted, it shows that Mrs. Kinzie must have had some written record to aid in the construction of her narrative, for by sound " Josette" could never have been transmuted to " Grutte," whereas in manuscript the two are easily confused. We present the picture of the new fort as given in Waubun. This view was criticised by Mr. Hubbard ; chiefly regarding the tortuous course given by it to the river. But the general facts of the scene are doubtless preserved. NEW FORT AND RIVER, AS GIVEN IN WAUBUN. Canal. In 1814, President Madison, in a message to Congress, recommended to"* ship to its attention the importance of a ship canal to connect Lake Michi- gan, at Chicago, with the Illinois and the Mississippi, the mouth of which latter we had obtained by the cession of Louisiana (Blanchard, p. 317), and it was in pursuance of this policy that the post was re-established. Captain Hezekiah Bradley with two companies arrived July 4, 1816, and at once proceeded to rebuild the fort over the charred remains of its predecessor. At the same time he collected the bones of the massacred victims and buried them in the garrison cemetery which was in what is now the Lake Front park. The second Fort Dearborn was a square stockade inclosing bar- racks, officers' quarters, magazine and provision store. It had bastions (angular earth-works) at the northwest and southeast angles and a block-house at the southwest. This block-house stood, the last relic of the fort, up to 1857, when it gave way to the march of improvement. Its location (as before mentioned) was at about the spot now marked AFTER DARKNESS, LIGHT. by a fine tablet, set ( 1881) with appropriate ceremonies, in the north wall of Hoyt's grocery warehouse, facing the south end of Rush street bridge. This is one of the innumerable services rendered to Chicago by the Historical Society. The old block-house, surviving as it did down to 1857, is a pleasant memory to thousands of the Chicagoans of to-day THK BLOCKHOUSE IN ITS LAST DAYS. The first business established here after the re-occupation was, of course, the fur trade, a business degrading to all parties connected with it. The Indian trapped the beaver, the pale-face trapped the Indian, using for bait not duty but drink. To quote from a letter written in 1695 from Cadillac, commandant at Michilimackinac, to a friend in Quebec: (Hurlbut's Chicago Antiquities, p. in.) What reason can one assign that the savages should not drink brandy bought with their own money? . . . This prohibition has much discouraged the Frenchmen here from trading in the future. It seems very strange that they should pretend tlial the savages would ruin themselves by drinking. The savage himself asks why they do not leave him in his beggary, his liberty and his idle- ness; he was born in it and he wishes to die in it it is a life to which he has been accustomed since Adam. Do they wish him to build palaces and ornament them with beautiful furniture ? He would not exchange his wigwam and the mat on which he camps like a monkey for the Louvre! In 1803, William Burnett, of St. Joseph, writes (Hurlbut, p. 70): Mostly all the skins that were made at this post was in part for rum. Consequently, had I mine, I might have got my share of what was going, and that for the best peltries. At the agency dwelling of the American Fur Company (John Jacob Astor) at Mackinaw in 1821 the expense account shows "31^ gallons Teneriffe wine, 4^ gallons of port wine, 10 gallons of best Madeira, 7^ gallons of red wine, 9 gallons of brandy and one barrel of flour." This recalls irresistibly Falstaff's "one pennyworth of bread to all this intol- erable quantity of sack." Mr Hurlbut says of the Rev. Isaac McCoy, whose work, " History of the Baptist Indian Missions," was published in 1840, that he was a man of ability, who ignored self and devoted his life to the cause of humanity in the service of his Divine Master. Mr. Rum and the Fur Trade. 82 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. McCoy and his wife spent laborious years among the Indians, facing danger as well as hardship and privation. He entered on the service as early as 1817, was active (though not present) in the Chicago Indian IS BUILDING OCCUPIES THE SITE OF OL BRT DEARBORN. WHICH EXTENDED * ','TTLE ACROSS HIGH. WE. AND SOMEWHAT WTO THE RIVER AS IT NOW (//w,*r). Chicago names, and names leading up to one still more identified Slow growth for many years. 84 THE STORY OF CHfCAGO. with all that is ancient and honorable with us Gordon Saltonstall Hubbard. In 1818, young Hubbard (sixteen years old) indentured himself for five years to the American Fur Company (John Jacob Astor's enter- prise), and about November I, 1818, reached Fort Dearborn. Here he stayed three days with John Kinzie, at the North Side residence, and then the party pushed on westward, up the South Branch to Bridgeport, through Mud Lake and over the portage into the Des Plaines, carrying their packs and dragging their bateaux. They launched their craft and floated down the Illinois to the mouth of the Bureau river, where Mr. Hubbard was assigned to duty. They did not see a white man between Chicago and the Bureau. They spent the winter trading with the Indians, and in the spring of 1819 they paddled the bateaux, now loaded with furs, all the weary way up to Lake Michigan and on to Mackinaw. There the peltries were packed and forwarded to New York, where their values swell the great Astor fortune of to-day. Hubbard's next visit to Chicago was in 1821, when he found there the same inhabitants as before; including Kinzies and Ouillemettes. From that time to our own days up to within four years of the present writing the life of "Our Gurdon," as he was affectionately called, was a part, and a large part, of our civic history. Here were his headquarters for interior trading, for importations and for shipments. Eastern goods came West, and Western products, beginning with furs and ending with flour, went East through his Chicago establishment. Everybody knew him and he knew everybody in the good old simple- hearted ways of the time and place. In 1827 he bought from "Big Foot," the chief of the Pottowattomies, at Lake Geneva, fifty ponies, which he loaded with " trading goods " and led due south to the Wabash river, establishing " trading posts" all along the line. The path he thus made and traveled was known as " Hubbard's Trail," and for many a year was the road and the only road along the now prosperous and crowded country traversed by the Eastern Illinois railway. He made his inland station at Danville, but his own time was spent on the trail, "his home was in the saddle." A letter written by Mr. Hubbard to Mr. Ballance (History of Peoria) gives a vivid picture of the times of 1818 ; a startling picture, when we consider that the occurrence was the experience of a man who bards' early h as been an intimate friend to those now living in Chicago; a man who experiences. died among us so late as 1887. He says : . . . I was in Peoria in 1 818. As we rounded the point of the lake above Peoria we noticed that old Fort Clark was on fire just blazing up. Reaching it we found about 200 Indians congregated, enjoying a war dance, painted hideously, with scalps on their spears and in their sashes, which they had taken from the heads in the war with Great Britain, from 1812 to 1815. They were dancing, rehearsing their deeds of bravery, etc. These were the only people then there or in that vicinity . . A warrior, noticing me (then a boy of 16), asked Mr. Des Champs who I was. He replied that AFTER DARKNESS, LIGHT. I was his adopted son, just from Montreal; but this was not credited. The Indian said I was a, young American and seemed disposed to quarrel with me. . . The Indian remained in the bow of the boat, talking to me through this man, who interpreted, saying among other things that I was an American, and taking from his sash scalp after scalp, saying they were my nations. He saw that I was frightened. I was never more so in my life fairly trembling with fear. His last effort to insult me was taking a lung haired scalp * * * made it very wet * * * and then shaking it so that it sprinkled me in the face. In a moment all fear left me and I seized Mr. Des Champs' double-barreled gun, took. good aim and fired. The man . . . just as I pulled the trigger, struck up the gun and thereby saved the life of the Indian and perhaps mine also. . . . Des Champs and all our men came running to their boats. After a short consultation among the old traders, Des Champs ordered the boats to push out and we descended the stream three or four miles and camped on the opposite side of the river. That was my first experience of hostile array with my red brethren. Yours, etc., G. S. HUBBARD. (Blanchard's Northwest, p. 330 ) In 1817 Samuel A. Storrow, Judge Advocate U. S. A., passed through Fort Dearborn, and describes his visit as follows : SCHOOLCRAFT'S VIEW OF CHICAGO IN 1820. On the second of October, after walking three or four hours, I reached the River Chicago, and after crossing it entered Fort Dearborn, where I was kindly entertained by Major Baker and the officers of the garrison, who received me as one arrived from the moon. . . The River Chicago (or in English, Wild Onion River), is deep, and about forty yards in width. . . Traces yet remain of the devastation and massacre committed by the savages in 1812. I saw one of the principal per- petrators (N'es cot-no meg). Schoolcraft (the distinguished Indian chronicler) writes (1820) as follows : We found the post (Fort Dearborn), under the command of Capt. Bradley, with a force of 160 men. The river is ... utterly choked up by the lake sands, through which, behind a masked margin, it oozes its way for a mile or two, till it percolates through the sands into the lake. . . I took the sketch* . . . from a stand-point on the flat of sand which stretched in front of the place. This view embraces every house in the village with the fort; and if the reproduction of the artist may be subjected to any criticism, it is perhaps that the stockade bears too great a proportion to the scene, while the precipice observed in the shore-line of sand is wholly wanting in the original. . . . Having partaken of the hospitalities of Mr. Kinzie, and of Captains Bradley and Green, during our stay at Chicago . . . we separated . . . Gov. Cass and his party, on horseback, * A cony of this r.':-:ch h herewith presented, by permission of Mrs. Hurlbut. 86 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. General Cass' Trratv for Michigan lands taking the old Indian trail to Detroit . . . myself, with two canoes, to complete the circumnavi- gation of the lake. . . Within two miles of Chicago we passed, on the open shores of the lake, the scene of the massacre of 1812. The greatest event in Chicago during the third decade of this cen- tury was the treaty of 1821. This compact was made by Lewis Cass and Solomon Sibley, as Commissioners, with the Ottawas, Chippewas and " Pattiwatimias." (Mr. Schoolcraft acted as Secretary to the Com- missioners.) The land secured was a tract extending from Grand River south to the southernmost point of Lake Michigan, and reaching east- ward until it joined with the pre- vious cessions on the Detroit and Maumee in 1817. Though the treaty did not include Chicago, it gave her a continuous way to the sea- board for the first time in her history. The price paid was $1,000 a year, forever, to the Ottawas, and $5,000 to the Pottawatomies ; and $2,5003 year for a term of years to provide instruction in blacksmithing, agri- culture, etc. The treaty shows the names of sixty-four Indians (each ME-TEE-A. spelt out in English letters and fol- lowed by a cross made by the Indians) and Lewis Cass and Solomon Sibley; all being witnessed by sixteen citizens, among whom we recognize Alex- ander Wolcott,* John B. Beaubien and John Kinzie. By some unusual good luck we have (through Mr. Hurlbut) a portrait of one of the Indian signers, Me-tee-a; who opposed the transfer of the land in eloquent words closing as follows : " Behold our warriors, our women and children. Take pity on us and on our words." Yet,/ after all, he could not resist the temptation to see his X among the rest. He sought immortality, and lo ! are we not giving it to him? It was with much regret that livers of old Chicago saw the ancient name of " Wolcott'' changed to the awk- ward " North State " street : and still worse, the southern pan of Wells street, named for the heroic Captain, sacritised to the absurd " Fifth Avenue." AFTER DARKNESS, LIGHT. 87 We give also a portrait of Jean Baptiste Beaubien, copied from a miniature in possession of the family, traditionally said to be taken for that pioneer. Still no growth in the infant metropolis. From 1816 to 1830, Chicago gained only some twelve or fifteen houses and a population of less than 100. (Chicago Magazine, May, 1857.) In 1819 the agency house (called "Cob-web Castle" for reasons easily to be imagined, seeing that it stood vacant for long, lonely years), was built at about the Noithsw*, *> J J ' 1816101830. junction of State and North Water streets, where the North-Western Railroad freight house now stands. That and the old Kinzie mansion (Pine and Kinzie streets) were the only buildings now known to have stood on the North Side in those days, and the whole tract was cov- ered with trees. Kinzie had inclosed a field on the North Branch near where Chicago avenue now crosses it, which he cultivated for hay- making. That John Kinzie had never regained the comfortable compe- tency he lost in 1812 we may know from the following letter, written in 1821, to his son (John H.) at Mackinaw, when the latter was indentured to the American Fur Company. Nothing gives me more satisfaction than to hear from you and of you. It does give both myself and your mother a pleasure to hear how your conduct is talked of by everyone that hopes you every advantage. Rather let that stimulate you to continue the worthy man, for a good name is better than wealth and we can not be too circumspect in our line of conduct. . . I have been reduced in wages, owing to the economy of the Government. My interpreter's salary is no more and I have but fioo to subsist on. It does work me hard sometimes to provide for your sisters and brothers on this and maintain my family in a decent manner. I will have to take new measures. I hate to change houses, but I have been requested to wait Conant's arrival. We are all mighty busy, as the treaty commences to-morrow and we have hordes of Indians around us already. Adieu I am your loving father. This is said to be the only letter of John Kinzie's known to exist. (A large and invaluable collection of his papers were, in 1857, given to the Historical Society by John H. Kinzie, and perished with the His- torical Society building in the great fire of 1871.) No portrait of him has ever been found. He assisted in negotiating the treaty of 1821 before mentioned; addressing the Indians to reconcile them to it, and signing it as sub- agent, which post he filled under his son-in-law, Dr. Alexander Wolcott, Indian agent. In 1825 he was appointed Justice of the Peace for Peoria county. About 1827 he finally quitted the old home. Captain Andreas' remarks on John Kinzie's characteristics are as follows: The esteem in which Mr. Kinzie was held by the Indians is shown by the treaty made with the Pottawatomies September 20, 1828, the year of his death, by one provision of which they gave to Eleanor Kinzie and her four children by the late John Kinzie $3,500. in consideration of the attach- 88 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. ment of the Indians to her deceased husband, who was long an Indian trader, and who lost a large sum in the trade by the credits given them and also by the destruction of his property. The money is in lieu of a tract of land which the Indians gave the late John Kinzie long since and upon which he lived. There is no doubt that the Indians had a warm feeling for the Kinzies. At the same time it seems probable that the treaty in question, like all other treaties, was carefully arranged by the whites and submitted to the Indians for ratification. The Indians did not give any money ; all payments came from the United States, and were made to such persons (other than Indians) as the commissioners thought best to care for. As to the land given by the Indians to Mr. Kinzie and on which he lived, where was it ? The Indians had parted with the Chicago tract, six miles square, nine years before Mr. Kinzie arrived at Fort Dearborn. It is true that in May, 1795, the Ottawas (not the Pottawattomies) conveyed land in Ohio to John Kinzie and Thomas Forsyth; but he certainly never lived on it. He also lived at Parc-aux-Vaches, on the St. Joseph river, from 1800 to 1804. It is possible, though not probable, that the Indians made him a grant there. Every one who visited the hospitable "Kinzie mansion" was glad ' n the S ir a Home. to do so again. Let us follow the good example. KINZIE MANSION AS GIVEN IN WAUBUN. The structure as put up by Pointe de Saible, and passed through the hands of Le Mai to John Kinzie, was a cabin of roughly squared logs. In Kinzie's time it was beautified, enlarged, improved and sur- rounded by out-houses, trees, fences, grass-plat, piazza and garden. "The latch-string hung outside the door,"* and all were free to pull it and enter. Friend or stranger, red man or white, could come and go, eat and drink, sleep and wake, listen and talk at will. A tale is told of * This odd expression of welcome came from the old style of door-fastening ; a latch within, lifted by the hand or by a string which was poked through a gimlet-hole, so that it could be pulled from the outside. To " lock ' ' the door, the household simply pulled in the string and kept it inside. AFTER DARKNESS, UGH T. two travelers who mistook the house for an inn, gave orders, asked ques- tions, praised and blamed as he does who feels, "shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?" and who were keenly mortified when they came to pay their "scot" and found that there was none to pay. In front (as the picture shows) were four fine poplars; in the rear, two great cottonwoods. The remains of one of these last-named were visible at a very late period. [Who knows just how lately?] In the out-buildings were accommodated the dairy, baking-ovens, stables and rooms for "the Frenchmen," the Canadian engages who were then the chief subordinates in fur-trading, and whose descendants are now well- known citizens, their names perpetuating their ancestry Beaubien, Lafratnboise, Porthier, Mirandeau, etc. Captain Andreas says: The Kinzie house was no gloomy home. Up to the very time of their enforced removal, the children danced to the sound of their father's violin, and the long hours of frontier life were made merry with sport and play. Later, the primitive court of Justice Kinzie must have been held in the " spare room " if spare room there was. Hurlbut, in his delightful, hu- morous, gossipy, fault-finding mon- ograph, " Chicago Antiquities," * says (p. 478): The last distinguished guest from abroad whom the Kinzies entertained at the old house was Governor Cass ... in the summer of 1827 . . . This was during the Winnebago Indian excitement. . . Gurdon Hubbard says, "While at breakfast at Mr. Kinzie's house we heard singing, faint at first but gradually grow- ing louder as the singers approached. Mr Kinzie recognized the leading voice as that of Bob Forsyth, and left the table for the piazza of the house, where we all followed. About where Wells street crosses, in plain sight from where we stood, was a light birch-bark canoe, manned with thirteen men, rapidly approaching, the men keeping time with their paddles to one of the Canadian boat-songs; it proved to be Governor Cass and his secretary, Robert Forsyth, and they landed and soon joined in." This visit of Governor Cass was just before the " Winnebago scare" of 1827. He it was who informed the lonely, unarmed and HENRY H.HURI.BUT. ,,88 5 .> defenseless post of Fort Dearborn of the Winnebago uprising. Gurdon Hubbard at once proposed to ride down the " Hubbard Trail" for help. The others objected, for fear that they might be attacked before his return ; but it was finally decided that he should go, and go he did. At * " Chicago Antiquities" was published by the author in 1881. Only 500 copies were printed, a few of which still _ remain (1891) in the hands of his widow, Mrs. i._, iu ut, 17 Wimhrop Place, Chicago. Winnebago Scare and Danville Volunteers. po THE STOR Y OF CHICAGO. Danville he raised, within about a day, fifty volunteers, armed and mounted, and started for Fort Dearborn. They reached the Vermilion, then at flood, and running " bank-full " and very rapidly. The horses, on being driven in, would turn and come back to shore. " Hubbard, pro- voked at the delay, threw off his coat, crying : " Give me old Charley ! " Mounting the horse, he boldly dashed into the stream, and the other horses were crowded after him. " The water was so swift that old Charley became unmanageable ; but Hubbard dismounted on the upper side, seized the horse by the mane, and swimming with his left hand, guided the horse in the direction of the opposite shore. We were afraid he would be washed under or struck by his feet and drowned, but he got " -" over. The brave rescuers arrived; and staid, petted and feasted by the Chicagoans of that day, until a runner came in from Green Bay, bring- ing word that Governor Cass had made peace with the Indians. According to Mr. Hurlbut, as the old master neared his end the older homestead also went to decay. The very logs must have been in a perishing condition after fifty years of service, and the lake sand, driven by the lake breezes, piled itself up against the north and east sides. Then, too, the standard of comfort had changed. Son-in-law Wolcott had rooms in the brick building of the unoccupied fort. Colonel Beaubien had a frame house close to the fort's south wall (now Michigan avenue and River street), and thither the Kinzies moved. What more natural than that the ancient tree, as it tottered to its fall, should lean over toward the young saplings that had sprung up at its foot ? It is the way of the world. It was in i827thatMr. Kinzie and whatever then formed his house- K e inzieandhe hold quitted the historical loe house for the last time. In 1820 it was Old Homestead. (says Andreas) used fora while by Anson N. Taylor as a store. In March, 1831, Mr. Bailey lived in it and probably made it the postofifice, its first location in Chicago, as he was the first postmaster. The mail was then brought on horse-back from Detroit about twice a month. Captain Andreas says : After 1831 and 1832, when Mark Noble occupied it with his family, there is no record of its being inhabited. Its decaying logs were used by the Indians and immigrants for fuel and the drifting sand of Lake Michigan was fast piled over its remains. No one knows when it finally disappeared, but with the growth of the new town this relic of the early day of Chicago passed from sight to be numbered among the things that were. Mrs. Robert Kinzie says now (1891) that she is sure that the house was standing when she was married in the fort (1834) and she thinks long afterward. She scouts the idea that those solid logs were used for fuel by the Indians or immigrants. See "The Winnebago Scare," by Hiram W. Beckwith, of Danville. Fergus' Historical Series, No. 10. AFTER DARKNESS, LIGHT. 9' Rufus Blanchard, in his " Northwest," prints an interesting note : The following account of Mr. Kinzie's death has been learned from Mr. Gurdon S. Hubbard: " He remained in full vigor of health in both body and mind till he had a slight attack of apoplexy, after which his health continued to decline until his death, which took place in a few months, at the residence of his son-in-law, Dr. Wolcott, who then lived in the brick building formerly used as the officers' quarters in the fort. Here, while on a brief visit to Mrs. Wolcott [Ellen Marion Kinzie] he was suddenly attacked with apoplexy. Mr. Hubbard, then living in Mr. Kinzie's family, was sent for and on coming into the room of the dying man he found him in convulsions on the floor in the parlor, his head supported by his daughter. Mr. Hubbard raised him to a sitting position and thu; supported him till he drew his last breath. The funeral service took place in the fort and the last honors due to the old pioneer were paid with impressive respect by the few inhabitants of the place. " Mr. Kinzie's remains were first buried in the post burying-ground on the lake shore south of the old fort (about Michigan ave. and Wash- ington St.), whence they were later removed to a plot just west of the present water works (Chicago Avenue and Tower Place), and finally to Graceland where they now rest. CHAPTER XI. I82O-3O. AN OBSCURE DECADE. years ago. 887 saw depart from among us the last man who could give personal testimony to the condition which prevailed in the later years of what may be called pre- historic Chicago. Gurdon Hubbard, a fountain of knowledge about the past, was the greatest loss his beloved city has ever suffered ; and it seems doubtful if any one person can at any time occupy so high a relative position as was his. Pity that we did not fully appreciate this fact sooner. "Blessings brighten as they take their flight" We have before given the view of things hereabouts, taken by an excellent observer and unprejudiced recorder, Mr. Schoolcraft. Others, in fact all others, have left a less flattering presentation. No hesita- t ' on should be felt in dwelling upon so humble an origin for so proud a growth as ours. The greatness of Abraham Lincoln would be less a world-wonder if he had been born in a palace and trained in colleges and courts. William H. Keating (Narrative of an Expedition, etc., London, 1825) writes under date of 1823 : We were much disappointed at the appearance of Chicago and its vicinity. . . The coun- try near Chicago offers but few features upon which the eye can dwell with pleasure. There is too much uniformity in the scenery; the extensive water prospect is a waste uncheckered by islands, unenlivened by the spreading canvas, and the fatiguing monolony of which is increased by the equally undiversified prospect of the land scenery, which affords no relief to the sight, as it con- sists merely of a plain in which but few patches of thin and scrubby woods are observed scattered here and there. The village presents no cheering prospect, as, notwithstanding its antiquity, it consists of but few huts, inhabited by a miserable race of men. scarcely equal to the Indians from whom they are descended. Their log or bark houses are low, filthy and disgusting, displaying not the least trace of comfort. In 1825 John H. Fonda says of Chicago (Hurlbut, p. 212) : We entered the Lake Peoria and were met at the landing by a number of Indians, from whom we learned that it was more than two hundred miles to the nearest trading-post on the Lake, which was Cki-ca-a go. . . . We paddled along until we came to the Des Plaines river, from which we passed into a large slough, or lake, that must have led us into a branch of the Chicago river, for we followed a stream that brought us opposite Fort Dearborn. At this period Chicago was merely an AN OBSCURE DECADE. 93 Indian Agency; it contained about fourteen houses, and not more than 75 or loo inhabitants at the most. An agent of the American Fur Company, named Gurdon S. Hubbard. then occupied the fort. The staple business seemed to be carried on by Indians and runaway soldiers, who hunted ducks and muskrats in the marshes. There was a great deal of lowland, and mostly destitute of timber. The principal inhabitants were Mr. Hubbard, a Frenchman by the name of Ouillemet and John B. Beaubien. It was the winter of 1827 that the U. S. Quartermaster came to me one day and asked if I could find my way to Chicago. ... He intrusted me with the not mailbag, but a tin canister covered with untanned deerhide that contained the dispatches and letters of the inhabitants. . . . One noon we arrived at Fort Dearborn, after being on the way more than a month. It was in Jan- uary, 1828; and, with the exception that the fort was strengthened and garrisoned, there was no sign of improvement since my former visit. Mr. Hurlbut has unearthed and copied from an old Maryland peri- odical three letters dated at " Fort Dearborn, Chicago, 111. " in 1830. PROPOSED PLAN fOR IMPROVING THE MOUTHMr CHICAGO RlVtft Drawn by F.H.rrison Jr.U.SA8.st Civil Engineer Feby. 24^ 1830- Wo Howard U.S Civil Engineer They give account of sports participated in by persons designated only by initials, whom Mr. H. identifies as Captain Martin Scott (killed at Molino del Rey), Dr. Clement A. Finley, Major Robert Kinzie, Dr. Philip Maxwell, James Grant, Mr. Beaubien, Mr. Clybourn, Lieutenant John G. Furman of the 5th U. S. infantry (who died at the fort in the same year), and Lieutenant James Thompson, also of the army. The first letter describes a deer-hunt with dogs and horses, which occurred in "the thick woods on the north side." They found two deer before reaching the line of the present Chicago Avenue. The second tells of a woli'-hunt in the previous December, on which occasion THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Wild game within city limits. they found and killed three wolves and three raccoons somewhere on the South Side near the South Branch. The third tells of high water, when the water in Mud Lake was divided and part flowed east with the lake and part west into the Illinois. The writer adds: Here, after the waters have subsided, vast quantities of aquatic fowl congregate to feed on the wild rice, insects, etc., that abound in it. Swan, geese and brant, passing to and fro in clouds, keep an incessant cackling; ducks of every kind, from the mallard and canvas-back down to the tiny water-witch and blue-winged teal. . . while hundreds of gulls hover gracefully over, ever and anon plunging their snowy bosoms into the circling waters. ... Of these we may hereafter send you some account; and when the " rail-road " is finished between Baltimore and Rock River, perhaps you may come out and take a week's sport with us. This is interesting, not only for its disclosure, of the wild state of our great West Side at that late date, and by the abundance of wild game there; but also for the jocular allusion to a possible (or impossible) " rail-road " all the way from Baltimore to the Rock River ! The writer unconsciously names the factor destined to be of incalculable weight in the future of the unpromising tract he is hunting over. 1830 may be said to be the birth-year of the American Railway system, and that sys- tem to be the main source of the greatness of the West, especially that of Chicago. Not for eighteen years will the first locomotive press the soil of the city, and not for twenty-five years will the first train arrive from the East. But nevertheless the little seed is planted, and the great tree, with its infinite branches and its immeasurable fruits, is growing ceaselessly and resistlessly from this time forth. Now, leaving the squalid physical aspect of the place, we will observe the course of human life other than as already set forth. John Harris Kinzie, son of John and Eleanor (Me Killop) Kinzie, who was born in Canada, July 7, 1803, and was brought to Chicago with the family on its first arrival, became, in 1826, pri- vate secretary to Governor Cass, and later aide-de-camp with the rank of col- onel. August gth, 1830,31 Middletown, Connecticut, he married Juliette A. Magill. This marriage was not only fortunate for Colonel Kinzie, but also a happy thing for Chicago, as Mrs. Kin- zie became one of the best known and most admired of the city's early mat- rons, and also its historian in no slight degree through her chatty narrative "Waubun," published in 1856. Many of Chicago's citizens cherish to this day loving memories of this, the city's very earliest literary woman. AN OBSCURE DECADE. pj Robert Allen Kinzie, born at the old fort February 8th, 1810, shared the family's varied experiences (carrying on the fur-trade with the Indians), and in 1834, at the fort ( married the daughter of Col. William Whistler, who built the old fort in 1803, an d in 1832 came out again to the new fort, one of its latest com- manders. This daughter has been before mentioned as still living in Chicago, and it is with great pleasure that the . e \ The Kinzie circumstance of her marriage is re- Race . called, with the interesting recollec- tions of the venerable Chief Justice Caton, also happily yet among us. Never until now has Mrs. Kinzie consented to the publication of her likeness. Ellen Marion Kinzie, whose birth has been before mentioned as taking place in the old Kinzie mansion in 1804, was married July 20, 1823, to Dr. Alexander Wolcott, then Indian agent at Chicago, who died there in 1830. In 1836 she married, at Detroit, the Hon. George C. Bates and she died at Detroit in 1860. 1828 saw the fort once more garrisoned, Major John Fowle being in command, and having for his lieutenant David Hunter, who soon after married Maria Indiana Kinzie, second daughter of John, born in 1807. In 1879 Genl. Hunter wrote to the Calumet Club " Old Settlers' Reception," as follows: More than half a century since, I first came to Chicago on horseback from St. Louis, stopping on the way at the log cabins of the early settlers and passing the last house at the mouth of the Fox river. I wars married in Chicago having to send a soldier one hundred and sixty miles on foot, to Peoria, for a license. The northern counties in the State had n' t liicn b.'en organized, and were all attached to Peoria countv. My dear wife is still a'ive and in good health, and I can certify a hun- dred times over that Chicag > is a first-rate place from which to get a good wife. Beside the course of the main branch of the Kinzie stock, and the Hubbarcls, all of whom were kept in view by their connection with the army, there were the James Kinzies, John K. Clarks, Clybourns and Beaubiens; including men and women quite as worthy and as note- worthy as any of their fellow-citizens. As has been already told, two girls, Margaret* and Elizabeth McKenzie, were (during the Revolutionary times) stolen by the Indians Lessknown J early names. from their home on the Kanawha river, in Virginia. They were kept by* their captors (Ohio Shawnees) until womanhood, when we first find them in Detroit. There Margaret (whether a wife or not) bore three THE STOR Y OF CHICAGO. children, William, James and Elizabeth, to John Kinzie. (This was before his marriage with Eleanor [Lytle] McKillop.) William Kinzie did not come to Chicago. James (born 1793) moved west- ward soon after 1812, and seems to have dealt in ardent spirits as a busi- ness. In 1821 he was "detected in selling large quantities of liquors to the Indians at and near Mil- tvalky," and in 1829 he built a tavern on the west side, near the forks of the river, afterward known as the Wolf Tavern, kept by Elijah Wentworth. In 1833 James built the Green Tree Tavern on the northeast corner of North Canal and West Lake streets, " its name MRS. GWENTHLEAN H. KINZIE. (,8,,.) being taken from a soli- tary oak which stood near." (Andreas.) He held various offices of trust and honor School Trustee, Sheriff (the first of Cook County), THE GREEN TREE HOTEL. (Slill standine in 1891.)* Town Auctioneer and Town Trustee. He moved to Racine in 18^35 and died in Clyde, Wisconsin, in 1866. (Andreas.) It was in regard * Now 33, 35 and 37 Milwaukee A ve. Doubtless the oldest structure in the city. AN OBSCURE DECADE. 97 to James Kinzie that it has been said " the smartest of the Kinzies was a McKenzie," his irregular origin being suggested as an explanation. Captain Andreas (p. 96) mentions one David Hall, of Virginia, " half brother to James Kinzie," as being James' partner in the Green Tree Tavern. This would indicate that poor Margaret, after her reclamation by her father, had married, in Virginia, a man named Hall, and born him a son. We hear of her, directly, once more, as appears in the next chapter. Elizabeth Kinzie was married, in 1826, by John Kinzie, J. P. (her father), to Samuel Miller, who kept a tavern known as the Miller House, situated on the North Side near the forks of the river. It was probably the oldest of the houses (on the right) shown in the accompanying cut of Wolf Point, the Forks, etc. Samuel Miller had been in partnership with Archibald Clybourn (his wife's cousin) in 1829, and they were authorized to keep a ferry across the river " at the lower forks." Descendants of the captive girls. In the same cut a bridge seems to occupy the place of the ferry-boat, spanning the stream of the North Branch, just above the forks. The ferry was established by law (records of Peoria county), the citizens of Chi- cago to be carried free, and all other persons to be subject to a charge for ferriage, "one half the sum that John L. Bogardus gets at his ferry at Peoria." Reverting now to the captured girls before mentioned, Margaret and Elizabeth McKenzie, we will trace the line of Elizabeth, the younger. In Detroit she was the wife of one Clark, a Scotch trader, and mother of his two children, John K. and Elizabeth. Then, after the father of the stolen girls came to Detroit, reclaimed his lost daughters and took them and JOHN K. CLARK. 9 8 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. The Clarks and Clybourns. their children with him to Virginia, Elizabeth married Jonas Cly- bourn, to whom she bore two sons, Archibald (1802) and Henley. John K. Clark came early to Chicago, and his half-brother Archibald Clybourn followed as soon as he was old enough, arriving in 1823. Finally the two good sons brought out their parents, Jonas and Eliza- beth Clybourn, and the family settled (1824) on the west side of the North Branch, at about the place where the North Chicago rolling-mills now stand, opposite the west end of Clybourn Place bridge. WOLF POINT IN 1830. (Hurlbut, p. 503.) Archibald Clybourn was a remarkable man in many ways. He married (1829) Mary Galloway, who had come hither with her father, James Galloway, in 1826, she being then fourteen years old.* Captain Andreas gives Mary Galloway's early impressions of Chicago so fully, and with so much of local color, that they deserve transcription : Mrs. Clybourn described the appearance of Chicago in the winter o( 1826 as a black and dreary expanse of prairie, with occasional patches of timber. At the mouth of the Chicago river, which was then at the foot of Madison street, stood the cabin of Jean Baptiste Beaubien, and his shanty ware- house somewhat nearer the lake. Where the river turned to the south, at the point where Rush street bridge now crosses the stream, was Fort Dearborn. On the other side of the river, nearly opposite the fort, was a double log house, occupied jointly by John Kinzie and Alexander Wolcott, and near this the blacksmithishop of Daniel McKee and Joseph Porthick (Porthier). At the forks of the river, a cabin used for a store, owned and occupied by James Kinzie and David Hall, of Virginia. At Hardscrabble there were five or six cabins, several of which were occupied by the Lafram- boises, of whom there were four: Francis, Sr., Francis, Jr., Joseph and Claude. Another was occu- pied by Mr. Wallace, and another by Barney Lawton. . . . The Clybourns were on the North Branch Jonas and his wife, his sons Archibald and Henley, and John K. Clark, their half brother. Archibald Clybourn (under the authority of Peoria county) was the first constable for the Chicago region, and later justice of the peace. * The Galloways started from Sandusky, Ohio, in a small schooner, bringing their household stuff and *' a large quantity " of goods to be sold to the Indians. The schooner was wrecked (by a drunken captain) on the Island of St. Helena, near Mackinaw, and the passengers, with part of Galloway's goods, saved and brought to Chicago in one of the Fur Company's boats The little colony, goods and all, found refuge at Hardscrabble, up the South Branch, in a log cottage belonging to Chief Alexander Rubinspn perhaps the same cottage where two whites were killed by the Indians in 1812. A stirring tale is told of the defense of their cabins by Mary and her mother, left alone therein during a long and fearful winter night in 1830. AN OBSCURE DECADE. 99 He and his sons were the early butchers, and their successors are engaged in the same trade to this day, 1891. He carried on large deal- ARCHIBALD CLYBOURN AND WIFE. ings in cattle, and when the "Black Hawk \Var" (1832) brought crowds of frightened settlers into the fort, " the Glybourns and John Noble and sons fed nearly the entire population until the pioneers could return to their scattered homes." (Andreas, p. 104.) The Beaubiens' connection with Chicago began very early. Jean Baptiste (third of the name since the immigration from France early in the 1 8th century) was born in Detroit in 1780, visited Chicago in 1804, and (as his son averred) bought a cabin and field south of the fort in 1812.* He married an Ottawa Indian woman, who became the mother TheBeaubiens - of his sons Charles, Henry and Madore. In 1812 he married Josette, daughter of Francis Laframboise, a French trader, living on the South Side. She was the mother of Alexander Beaubien. In 1818 Jean Bap- tiste was made agent of the Fur Company. He moved into the com- pany building just outside the south wall of the fort (about Michigan avenue and South Water street); where he lived until 1840, when he moved to his farm on the Desplaines. He was the first president of the village debating society, which met inside the fort, and included in its membership nearly every able bodied man in town. Later he was colonel, and still later general of the Cook County *This occupation was sworn to by Jean Baptiste's son, Madore, as the basis of a claim on behalf of the former for a " pre-emption right " on land about Michigan avenue and Lake, Randolph and Washington streets. After some fifty years of litigation this claim has failed, the final di-.mis.sal from court occurring during the time of writing this chapter. 700 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Original capitalists. militia. He died in Naperville, in 1863. Mark Beaubien, brother of Jean Baptiste, came here in 1826. Here is his own story: I came with my family by team; no road, only Indian trail. I had to hire an Indian to show me the road to Chicago. I camped out of doors and bought a log house from Jim Kinzie. There was no town laid out; didn't expect no town. When they laid out the town my house was laid out in the street. When they laid the town I bought two lots where I built the old Sauganash, the first frame house in Chicago. The "Sauganash" stood on the lot (Lake and Market streets), later occupied by the " Wigwam," where Lincoln was nominated. Mark was, if not the first, the most noted and popular of Chicago inn-keepers. Town elections took place at his house. Merrymakings were held there, and dancing went on, to the sound of Mark's violin. He loved his fiddle dearly and at his death bequeathed it to the Calumet Club, where it is still proudly shown and highly prized. Captain Andreas says of him: Mr. Beaubien is described as being, in his prime, "a tall, atheletic, fine appearing man, Frenchy and polite, frank, open-hearted, generous to a fault, and in his glory at a horse race." His favorite dress on great occasions was a swallow-tail coat with brass buttons, and if in the summer, light nankeen trousers. His quaint old song, in regard to the surrender of General Hull at Detroit, in 1812, of which he was a witness, was sung with much gusto. . . . His last visits to Chicago were in 1879 and 1880, at the Calumet Club receptions to old settlers . . . The children of Mr. Beau- bien, as given in the Chicago Times, March 26, 1876, were Josette, Mark, Oliver, Joseph, Emily, Soliston, David, George, Napoleon, Edward, Helena, Elizabeth, Gwinny, Frances, Monique and one infant that died unnamed, children of his first wife, Monique Nadeau, of Detroit; and Robert, Frank, Mary, Ida, Jimmy, Jesse and Slide!, children by his second marriage. He died on the i6th of April, 1881, in Kankakee, 111., at the house of George Matthews, who married his daughter Mary. In 1825 the assessment roll of John L. Bogardus, assessor of Peoria county, shows for that year the following names and possessions in the Chicago precinct: Taxpayers' Names. Valuation. Tax. $ I OOO $ IO OO Clybourne James, 625 6 25 Clark John K 250 2 5O ^O OO Clermont Jeremy, .. loo I OO 6 Coutra, Louis, 50 5 7 500 5 oo | IOO I OO 50 5 IO McKee, David, IOO I OO jj Piche, Peter IOO I OO 12 2OO 2 OO 572 5 72 400 4 oo Total property, $9,047, of which $5,000 belonged to John Jacob Astor. There are the surnames and the estates. Now let the civic aris- tocracy come forward and pick out their ancestors One of the penalties of having grown from 100 to 1,200,000 in two generations, is the necessity which compels most of us to look east, north- east and southeast for the roots of our family trees. Still, there are some of the old names yet extant; and we can, at least, cling to them in the nomenclature of our streets, avenues, squares, parks, public places, AN OBSCURE DECADE. 201 schools and buildings. Our city directory for 1881 shows Kinzies, Clybourns, Beaubiens, Laframboises. None of these can claim (as do the Virginia descendants of Pocahontas) to share in the blood of our predecessors in local dominion (the Indians), except one branch of the Beaubiens, but there are other names, among our best society, where a strain of that historic race exists. NOTE. The killing (in self-defense) of John Lalime by John Kinzie has already been men- tioned. Since the writing of that part of our story, a discovery has been made which connects 1812 with to-day in an interesting way. On April 26th, 1891, some human bones and the bottom of a pine coffin, all far advanced in decay, were unearthed at a point near the southwest corner of Cass and Illinois streets (the old Saint James Church lot), which point is either identical with or wonder- fully near to the grave of Lalime, as described in the following letter written by Mr. Hubbard: Chicago, June zsth, 1881. Hon. John Wentworth . . . Mrs. Kinzie says that her husband and La Lime . . . had had frequent altercations; that at the time of the encounter Mr. Kinzie had crossed the river alone, in a canoe, going to the fort, and that La Lime met him outside the garrison and shot him, the ball cutting the outside of his neck. Mr. Kinzie, closing with La Lime, stabbed him and retreated to the house, covered with blood. . . . She, i.n haste, took bandages and with him retreated to the woods, where she dressed his wounds, returning just in time to meet an officer, with a squad, to seize her husband For some days he was hid in the bush and cared (or by his wife. La Lime was an educated man and quite a favorite with the officers, who were greatly excited. They decided he should be buried near the bank of the river, about the present terminus of Rush street and within 200 yards of Mr. Kinzie's house, in plain view of his front door and piazza. The grave was enclosed by a picket-fence, which Mr. Kinzie, in his life-time, kept in perfect order After a full investigation by the officers, whose friend the deceased was, they acquitted Mr. Kinzie, who then returned to his family. . . . Mr. Kinzie never, in my hearing, alluded to or spoke of it. Knowing his aversion to converse on the subject, I never spoke to him about it. . . . Yours, G. S. Hubbard. (Fergus' Hist. Series, No. 16.) On July zist, 1891, the writer presented these relics to the Chicago Historical Society, with reasons for thinking them authentic. Doctors Hosmer and Freer pronounced them the bones of a white male, of mature age, slim in build, five feet four inches high ; also judged them to have been interred a long time, probably the 79 years called for. Judge Blodgett, John C. Haines, Fernando Jones and others testified as to the position of the ancient grave, and Mr. Jones said that Robert Kinzie had expressed to him (many years ago) his gladness that his brother John had caused " the little Frenchman" to be placed in St. James church-yard. Old St. James parishioners agree that no burials were known to have been made in the church-yard where these bones were found. The fact of the body's being coffined shows that this was not a hasty, secret burial. Sure it is, that Lalime was buried within a stone's throw of where these bones were found, and at a time just about as distant in the past as the day when they must have been buried, and that no other remains which might have been Lalime's were ever unearthed. Remains unearthed April z6th and presented to the Historical Society, July ai, 1891 Treaties with the Sauks and Foxes. CHAPTER XII. THE VANISHING RACE. OOD-BYE Indians! No longer can the prairies be left in possession of men who will not cultivate them. The law of sup- ply and demand has migrated to the west- ern frontier, supplanting monopolies both savage and civilized. A few nomads, without the thrift which would provide for each an extra axe or blanket, a habitation fit to keep out the weather, a plow and a beast to pull one, still. less a winter's sup- ply of food and fuel, have held, hitherto, thirty thousand square miles -twenty million acres of fertile land, worth a hundred million dol- lars to a coming host of farmers. Fate has decreed that the Govern- ment shall pay the savages certain annuities goods, tools, schooling and money which, properly used, would give to each of them axes, plows, blankets, houses, horses, food and education for all time to come and that thereupon the eager farmers shall go to plowing the land ; turning it up to the sun for the first time since the sun has shone on it, and the wild wanderers have tramped over it. The savage tenure of the land was like that grip ascribed to the poisonous centipede, said to be hardly felt while he crawls along your skin unmolested, but suddenly deep, tenacious, bloody and fatal when you try to shake him off. Black Hawk was a half-breed, a subordinate chief of the Sauks and Foxes, under Keokuk, head chief. The treaty of St. Louis (1804) which conveyed to the United States all their lands in Illinois, Black Hawk repu- diated, saying that but four chiefs of the tribe had signed it, and they only when drunk. July 15, 1830, Keokuk made another treaty convey- ing all their lands east of the Mississippi, in both Illinois and Wiscon- sin, Black Hawk being no party to the trade. The Indians were bound to vacate their villages and cross the river in 1831, and Keokuk, with all whom he could influence, kept the bargain. Not so Black Hawk; he determined to maintain, by force, his hold on his old Rock River home. This had been their home since the time of the advent of Jolietand LaSalle, and here were the graves of their ancestors the few of them 105 THE VANISHING RACE. 103 who may be supposed to have died at home between their terrible raids on their neighbors. The veteran doubtless thought, though he did not say : " How can man die better Than facing fearful odds For the ashes of his fathers And the altars of his gods ?" While Black Hawk and his tribe were away on their annual hunt, white specula- tors seized their vil- lage all their wig- wams and their corn land. Even yet the old chief by his acts keeps his hold on our sympathies. His people agreed to allow the intruders to cultivate half the 700- acre field while " the squaws " should cul- tivate the remainder; an arrangement which necessarily led to speedy hostilities. John Reynolds was then Governor of Illinois, the capital town being Kaskas- kia. On the petition of eight of the squat- ters he called ouc the militia to maintain HLACK HAWK. the "rights" of the whites at Black Hawk village, and wrote to General Clark* (superin- tendent of Indian affairs) at St. Louis for aid in removing the Indians. The Illinois militia contingent was raised to 1,600 and assembled at Beardstown, and General Gaines, with them and what United States Regulars he could muster, marched to the place and took possession of the wigwams and cornfield; the Indians, helpless and hopeless, having * Brother of our old hero, Georjje Rogers Clark. 104 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. The Black Hawk War. abandoned all and retired across the Mississippi. Moved with compas- sion for the wretched fugitives encamped on the other bank of the river under a white flag, Governor Reynolds and General Gaines sent them food enough to keep them alive, and on June 30, 1831, Black Hawk signed a new treaty confirming the provisions of the former one. Next followed an instance of the perversity by which the Indian always puts himself in the wrong. A band of Black Hawk's men went U p to p ra j r i e H^!Z'~ " ' This sheet of " memorial portraits." and the others facing pages 105, 112, 113, 120, 121, 128, 129, 136 and 137, are fac similes oi those exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876, by C. D. Mosher, photographer ; now obtained from Alfred Brisbois, successor, 125 State Street, Chicago. 104 ^f3* THE VANISHING RACE. 105 cago served as a harbor of refuge. At Plainfield, on the Dupage, lived the Rev. S. R. Beggs, who has written a book giving his experiences. His house was fortified and the residents and fugitives assembled there. A rescuing party, under Col. Hamilton, started out from Chicago (forty miles) and convoyed them in. Mr. Beggs adds: There was no extra room for us when we arrived in Chicago. Two or three families of our number were put into a room fifteen feet square, with as many more families, and here we stayed crowding and jamming each other for several days . . . The next morning our first babe was born, and during our stay fifteen tender infants were added to our number. One may imagine the confusion of the scene children crying and women complaining within doors, while without the tramp of soldiery, the rolling of drums and the roar of cannon added to the din.* Only a handful of Black Hawk's band survived the "war." (A few who escaped across the upper Mississippi were met and killed by their old foes, the Sioux.) Black Hawk himself was delivered up as prisoner of war and in 1833 was sent to Washington. At the Hast he was received with flattering attentions, especially from ladies, to which he (wily savage!) responded with "Pretty squaw ! Pretty squaw ! " He was released and returned to his people, and in 1838 he died at his home on the Des Moines River (lowaville), where his remains lie; buried in a sitting posture, after the manner of his tribe. Mr. Blanchard calls him "The last native defender of the soil of the North West." It was 1833, and 5,000 or more Indians were assembled at Chi- cago, around the fort, the village, the rivers and the portage, to treat for the sale of their entire remaining possessions in Illinois and Wis- consin. The commissioners on the part of the Government were George B. Porter, Thomas J. V. Owen and William Weatherford, and T he last ch,- the Indians present were the tribes of the Chippewas, Ottawas and Treaty" ' Pottawatomies, with chiefs and warriors, squaws and pappooses, ponies and dogs. All who chose could come, and we may be sure that few and regretful were the stay-at-homes ; for a treaty meant a feast, and a feast, soon or late, became an orgie. Mr. Hurlbut quotes largely from Charles Joseph Latrobe's " Ram- bles in North America," and from his selection we will condense the following realistic sketch : A mushroom town on the verge of a level country, crowded to its utmost capacity and beyond. A surrounding cloud of Indians encamped on the prairie, beneath the shelter of the woods, on the river- side or by the low sand hills along the lake. Companies of old war- riors under every bush, smoking, arguing, palavering, pow-wowing, with no apparent prospect of agreement. * It seems possible that the Reverend gentleman, upon strict cross-examination, might have abated a few of the 6f teen babies and somewhat of the roar of the artillery. Seeing that the whole number of fugitives, old and young, from Plainfield was 125, the sudden arrival of fifteen little strangers would indicate a remarkable unanimity not to say a con- spiracy among parents; and considering that there was no enemy within 100 miles, the indicated cannonade is. to say the least, excessive. io6 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Ho\v Chicago looked to a stranger. Within the palisades of the little fort lived the main part of the enlightenment of the place, in the small group of officers attached to the slender garrison. On the north side of the river some temporary plank huts gave shelter to the Commissioners and their attendants. Next in rank were certain storekeepers and merchants, looking for profits incidental to such extraordinary occasions as this. You will find horse-dealers and horse-stealers, rogues of every description, white, black, brown and red ; half-breeds, quarter-breeds and no breed at all ; dealers in pigs, poultry and potatoes ; men pursuing Indian claims, some for tracts of land, others for pigs which the wolves had doubt- less eaten, but which, no matter, the Indians might be made to pay for . . . sharpers of every degree, peddlers, grog-sellers, Indian agents and Indian traders, and contractors to supply the Indians with food. The little village was in an uproar from morning to night and from night to morning; for during the hours of darkness . . . the Indians howled, sang, wept, yelled and \vhoopedintheirvariousencampments . . . One chaos of mud, rubbish and confusion. Frame and clapboard houses were springing up daily under the active axes and hammers of the speculators. . . . Races frequently occurred on a piece of level sward without the village. . . . " Stim- ulating," betting and gambling were the order of the day ... I loved to stroll out, toward sunset, across the river [North Branch], and gaze upon the level horizon over the surface of the prairie. Not far from the river lay many groups of tents constructed of coarse canvas, blankets and mats, and surmounted by poles supporting meat, moccasins and rags. Their vicinity was always enlivened by various painted Indian figures dressed in the most gaudy attire. Randolph, Lake and Water streets and their crossings, from State to Market, must have been a very pan- demonium in our view, but to the Indians a very paradise ; for here, without labor or self-denial, they could freely enjoy the food and drink which it usually takes labor and self-denial to provide. Why should they hurry ? This might go on forever, for aught they cared. To the opening speech of Commissioner Porter, which stated that their great father in Washington had heard that they wished to sell their land, they promptly replied that their great father "must have seen a bad bird which told him a lie ; for that far from wishing to sell their land, they wished to keep it." And when further pressed they looked at the sky, saw a few wandering clouds, and straightway adjourned sine die; as the weather was not clear enough for so solemn a council. In vain the signal gun from the fort gave notice of an assemblage of chiefs. After weeks of delay, a council fire was at last lighted in an open shed on the north bank of the river. The relative positions of the commissioners and other whites before the council fire and that of the Red Children of the Forest and Prairie were to me strikingly impressive. The glorious light of the setting sun, streaming in under the low roof of the council house, fell full on the faces of the INDIAN GIRL. THE VANISHING RACE. 107 former as they faced the west, while the pale light of the east hardly lighted up the dark and painted lineaments of the poor Indians whose souls evidently clove to their birthright in that quar- ter. . . The business of arranging the terms of an Indian treaty, whatever it might have been 200 years ago, while the Indians had not, as now, thrown aside the vigorous intellectual character which distinguished many among them, now lies chiefly between the various agents, traders, credit- ors and half-breeds, on whom custom and necessity have made the degraded chiefs dependent, and the Government agents. When the former have seen matters so far arranged that their self-interest and various schemes and claims are likely to be fulfilled and allowed, the silent acquiescence of the Indian follows as a matter of course. Following out the suggestion contained in the final words above quoted, and looking up the treaty itself as recorded in the " Book of Indian Treaties," one comes upon some curious facts. The chief open- ing for questionable practices seems to have lain in the " reservation " of funds, not demanded or received by the Indians, but allotted to everyone who could get his claim allowed by the Commissioners. $100,000 was to go from the Government " to satisfy sundry individuals in behalf of whom reservations [of land] were asked, which the Commissioners refused to grant," according to " Schedule A." Next $150,000 to satisfy claims made against the said United Nation [Indians] which they have admitted to be justly due, according to " Schedule B." Now, turning to the details of the treaty, we find under the two Schedules some 500 or more names of persons to receive from $100 to $17,000 apiece. Searching through the long list we come to several old friends. Beside persons of Indian blood, like the Ouillemettes, Beatibiens, Chief Robinson, Billy Caldwell, Indian children of John K. Clark, etc., we find "Margaret Hall" and her children and grand- children, designated by names which identify this as the line of the elder of the "captive girls" so often named, including William and James (Kinzie) and David (Hall), her sons, remembered to the amount of $5,000. Again James Kinzie, by himself, $5,000 and $300. Also, John H., Ellen M. (Wolcott), Maria (Hunter) and Robert A. Kinzie, $5,000 each, and Margaret Helm, $2,000. Indeed, everybody near by, except the Clybourns, seems to have got a slice. Mr. Hurlbut says : One gentleman . . . was present at the treaty and was familiar with the whole proceedings whose ideas of the business scarcely accorded with those who would commend the actions of our Government officials on that occasion. . . "It is all clear upon my mind [he says], and I pre- sume I know it better than any other man that can be found at this date. . . You or hardly any other man can imagine what was done, or how ridiculous the whole thing was carried on or closed up. It should have been conducted upon principles of truth and justice, but the whole thing was a farce, acted by those in office in our Government."* At first blush, the allotments of money to the Kinzie claimants seem to bear out the slurs of Mr. Hurlbut's anonymous correspondent ; but further examination brings more light. We have seen how, on August I5th, 1812, all the savings of John Kinzie's long life of toil, The Senate, in ratifying the treaty, directed that the claims should be examined by a commissioner and only such amounts be paid as should be found justly due. (This may have been the expectation when the claims were inserted.) hue men s interest in io8 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. danger and privation were taken from him by violence, and how he then went from comparative riches to absolute poverty, from which he never emerged. The old homestead, sanctified by the memory of long and boundless hospitality to all comers, white or red, fell into disrepair, squalor and neglect, and the fine family, those who survived of it, sought refuge with a humble fellow-townsman (Beaubien), who enter- tained them as best he could, thus following the example of beneficence set to us all by our first pioneer, his guest, John Kinzie (Shaw-nee- au-kee). The loss so suffered was surely not less than $30,000, and now for twenty years it had been borne in helpless silence. Meanwhile the respect and affection entertained for " Shaw-nee-aw-kee " by the Indians had been of immense value to the Government and citizens of the Union ; not merely in their daily intercourse, but in the negotiation of two great treaties, yielding incalculable benefit to us and our kind forever. Both parties to this latest treaty were in a measure bound to make good the Kinzies' loss; the Government, because it had failed to give its citizen the protection against alien enemies which he had a right to claim ; the Indians, because they were the aliens who destroyed the property. On the whole, one is disposed to wish that the sums named may have been paid, together with such of the other " reservations " as were equally well founded. Apropos to all this ; one observes that old Shaubena (called "Sha- bonee" by Hurlbut), who had been the constant and invaluable friend of the white man all the latter part of his life, whose name appears as a signer to the main treaty and to each supplementary article, has no place T shL a u S bena ld in tne "reserved" lists. True, we find a separate clause aimed toward giving him two sections of land ; but that clause was stricken out by the Senate at the confirmation of the treaty. White friends "chipped in," bought him a few acres near Morris, and built him a house. There he died in 1859. Probably if more had been given him he would have died sooner, for he was an Indian, and his own worst enemy. The money paid and the goods delivered, the Indians shook the dust off their feet and departed; the dust-shaking being literal, for once, as 'they joined, just before starting, in a final "war-dance." For this strange scene we fortunately have as witness ex-Chief Justice Caton, previously quoted herein. He estimates the dancers at 800, that being all the braves that could be mustered out of the 5,000 members then present of the departing tribes. The date was August 18, 1853. He says : They appreciated that it was the last on their native soil that it was a sort of funeral ceremony of old associations and memories, and nothing was omitted to lend to it all the grandeur and THE VANISHING RACE. 109 solemnity possible. . . . They assembled at the Council House [northeast corner of Rush and Kinzie streets]. All were naked except a strip of cloth around the loins. Their bodies were covered \vithagreatvarietyofbrilliantpaints. On their faces particularly they seemed to have exhausted their art of hideous decoration. Foreheads, cheeks and noses were covered with curved stripes of red or vermilion, which were edged with black points and gave the appearance of a horrid grin. The long, coarse black hair was gathered into scalp locks on the tops of theirheads and decorated with a profusion of hawks' and eagles' feathers, some strung together so as to extend down the back nearly to the ground. They were principally armed with tomahawks and war-clubs. They were led by what answered for a band of music which created a discordant din of hideous noises, produced by beating on hollow vessels and striking sticks and clubs together. They advanced with a continued dance. Their actual progress was quite slow. They proceeded up along the river on the North Side, -^ '^- s ,. '* HIE SAUGANASH HOTEL. stopping in front of every house to perform some extra antics. They crossed the North Branch on the old bridge, about Kinzie street, and proceeded south to the bridge which stood where Lake street bridge is now, nearly in front and in full view from the Sauganash Hotel [Wigwam lot, Lake and Market streets]. A number of young married people had rooms there. The parlor was in the second story fronting west, from the windows of which the best view of the dance was to be had, and these were filled with ladies. The young lawyer, afterward Chief Justice, had come to the West in 1833, and less than a year before this had gone back to Oneida County, New York, and there married Miss Laura Sherrill ; and they are probably the oldest Chicago couple now living. They were among the lookers on from those upper windows ; a crowd all interested, many agitated and some really frightened at the thought of the passions and memories that must be inflaming those savage breasts and that were making them the very picture of demoniac fury. Although the din and clatter had been heard for some time, they did not come into view, from this point of observation, till they had proceeded so far west [on the North Side] as to come on a line The Farewell War Dance in 1835. 110 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. with the house . . . All the way to the South Branch bridge . . . cameMhe wild band, which was in front as they came upon the bridge, redoubling their blows, closely followed by the warriors who had now wrought themselves into a perfect frenzy. The morning was very warm and the perspiration was pouring from them. Their counte- nances had assumed an expression of all the worst passions . . . fierce anger, terrible hate, dire revenge, remorseless cruelty all were expressed in their terrible features . . . Their toma- hawks and clubs were thrown and brandished in every direction ; . . . and with every step and every gesture they uttered the most frightful yells. . . . The dance consisted of leaps and spas- modic steps, now forward and now back or sidewise, the whole body distorted into every imagin- able position; most generally stooping forward with the head and face thrown up. the back arched INDIAN WAR DANCE. down, first one foot thrown far forward and withdrawn and the other similarly thrust out, frequently squatting quite to the ground, and all with a movement almost as quick as lightning. . . . The yells and screams they uttered were broken up and multiplied and rendered all the more hideous by a rapid clapping of the mouth with the palm of the hand. . . . When the head of the column reached the hotel, while they looked up at the windows at the "chemokoman squaws," ... it seemed as if we had a picture of hell itself before us and a carnival of the damned spirits there confined . . They paused in their progress, for extra exploits, in front of Dr. John T. Temple's house, near the northwest corner of Lake and Franklin streets . . . and then again in front of the Tremont, on the northwest corner of Lake and Dearborn sts., where the appearance of ladies in the windows again inspired them with new life and energy. Thence they proceeded down to Fort Dearborn . . . where we will take a final leave of my old friends with more good wishes for their future welfare than I really dare hope will be realized. The Indians were conveyed to the lands selected for them (and accepted by a deputation sent by them in advance of the treaty) in Clay County, Missouri, opposite Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The Missourians were hostile to their new, strange neighbors, and two years later they were again moved ; this time to a reservation in Iowa, near THE VANISHING RACE. in Council Bluffs. Once more the fate of the poor waif, "move on, move on," was theirs, and then they halted in Kansas for many years. At the present time (1891) it is hard to trace the Indians who departed hence fifty-six years ago. They are lost tribes. The report for 1890 of the Commissioner of Indian affairs gives Pottawatomies of various descriptions scattered in many places. The same is true of the Ottawas and Chippewas. The larger part of the Pottawatomies (known of old as the " Woods Band" in contradistinction to the "Prairie Band") have renounced tribal relations and are known as the "Citizen Band." They number scarcely two thousand souls and occupy a thirty-mile square 575,000 acres in Oklahoma. The Commissioner's report says but little about them, giving more attention to the "Prairie Band," since they are still a tribe and so "wards of the nation." They number only 462, and hold in common 77, 357 acres in Kansas, where they are cloinsr fairly, but are pestered Present state * *" J O J' l of the same with the dregs of the "Citizen Band" who fall back on the tribe like Tribei the returned prodigal only unrepentant, and still fit company only for the husk-eating swine. Of the "Citizen Band" Special Agent Porter says: The Pottawatomies are citizens of the United States, thoroughly tinctured with white blood. Nearly all of them speak English and read and write. Some of them are quite wealthy, being good farmers, with large herds of stock. Their morals are below the standard, considering their advanced state as a civilized people. So, once more, "Good-bye, Indians." It was said of old " The first Chicago white man was black;" and it may almost as truly be said " The last Chicago red man is white," seeing that they are behaving them- selves so much like their neighbors. , X k!^' INDIANS ON THE MOVE. CHAPTER XIII. Begin the and gan ning of Illinois Michi- Canal. VERY HARD WORK. F the decade from 182010 1830 was a dull and moveless one, the next was humming with coming things. Some of the most important and far-reaching occurrences of our history date back to the fourth decade. The canal now took shape, for in 1827 Daniel P. Cook, Illinois' representative in Congress, had obtained the passage of the bill granting alternate sections of land for six miles on each side of the line to aid in its building.* It was long years after the canal was "begun," in the sense of preliminary arrangement, before it assumed physical form. To use the Western phrase, the "wind-work" had to be done before the earth-work could begin. It was a struggle to get the land- donation bill through Congress; another to decide on the plan, size and location ; another to get money for the work. The last was only accomplished after, by another struggle, the State had been induced to guarantee the bonds. The first earth-work was the building of "Archer's Road" (now Archer avenue) from Chicago to Lockport an outlay ($40,000) which was a great aid to the canal, but which was opposed as a "job" because Colonel Archer, canal commissioner, had property at Lockport. At last, on July 4, 1836, there was a grand celebration of inaugura- tion. A gay crowd, composed of citizens and invited guests, assembled in Court House square, the signal being given by three guns fired from the fort. The officers of the day were J. B. F. Russell, marshal ; and as aides, E. D. Taylor, Robert Kinzie, G. W. Snow, J. S. C. Hogan, H. Hubbard and W. Kimball. At n A. M. the steamer Chicago started from Dearborn street, loaded with excursionists, and followed by the schooners Sea Serpent and Llewellin and other craft, all towed by horses. * For this service we owe him much thanks, and our chief acknowledgment thus far is the naming our county after him when it was organized in 1831. Senators Thomas, Edwards and Kane were also efficient in forwarding the great measure, and the two latter were honored by giving their names to Edwards and Kane counties. 112 VERY HARD WORK. The land procession moved on foot, on horseback and in carriages, and all assembled at the " New House" at Canal-Port (Bridgeport). In the good old fashion, the exercises were opened by the reading of the Declaration of Independence. This was done by Judge Smith. Next came an eloquent address by Dr. William B. Egan, our early wit and humorist, still regretted by a thousand old friends and admirers. Gurdon Hubbard followed, recalling and describing to his hearers the condition of the place when, eighteen years before, he had ascended the lonely Portage Creek in a canoe. Then the crowd adjourned to the canal site where Colonel Archer "turned the first shovelful of earth." Does any reader suppose that all was now plain sailing ? Far frbm it. The pinch was yet to come in fact, several pinches. The incredibly foolish " Internal Improvement Act," of 1837, was passed Abraham Lin- coln, member of the legislature, one of its warmest supporters and wild inflation followed. By 1839 a million and a quarter had been laid out and the commissioners were at their wits' end to find means to proceed. The scheme was adopted for issuing " Canal Scrip," in denominations running from $i to $100, and some $400,000 of it were given out in all when, about 1842, Illinois failed to pay the interest on her debt; money was gone, credit was gone, and work was suspended. More than four and a half millions had been spent, and nothing finished. Pausing only long enough to catch its breath, enterprise began again. Arthur Bronson.of New York, and William B. Ogden, Justin But- terfield and Isaac N. Arnold, of Chicago, were a self-constituted council of war to carry on the fight. A well known scrap of soldier-wisdom is that toward the end of every well contested battle there comes a pause, a crisis, wherein he who takes the initiative wins the clay. So it was here. To quote Mr. Blanchard (p. 449): "Work was now resumed on the canal, and under the able and honest administration of these trustees [Capt. Wm. H. Swift, U. S. A. ; David Leavitt, of the Am. Ex. Bank, N. Y., and Jacob Fry, of Illinois] it was finished April 19, 1848, and on May i, 1871, the last dollar 'of the canal debt was paid, and the canal itself, with its unsold lands, and nearly $100,000 surplus in the treasury, was given up to the State." HON. D. P. COOK. Persistence under dif- liculties. THE STORY OF CHICAGO. One of the "alternate Sections" granted by the Act of Congress of 1827 chanced to be Section 9, Town 39 North, in Range 13 East of the 3d Principal Meridian, and that was the tract embracing the very centre original Town o f the coming metropolis, for its boundaries are Chicago avenue on the surveyed. north, State street on the east, Madison street on the south and Halsted street on the west. On this square mile the Canal Commissioners Dr. Jayne, of Springfield; Edmund Roberts, of Kaskaskia, and Charles Dunn pro- ceeded, in 1830, to lay out the town; James Thompson, a St. Louis sur- veyor, being employed to do the platting and measurements. Of course the commissioners did not include the whole Section a square mile must have seemed too absurdly large for Chicago. They established and named, as the North and-South streets, State, Dearborn, Clark, LaSalle, Wells, Franklin, Market, Canal, Clinton, Ijefferson and Desplaines; as East- fand-West streets they made Kinzie, Carroll, Water, Lake, Randolph, Washington and Madison. This makes about three -eighths of a square mile ; say two hundred and forty acres. One would like to have been an unseen observer of the conclave which named these streets. Being State officers, they naturally fixed first on State for a name. At the same time they were good enough to honor the pioneer, Dr. Alexander Wolcott, by giving his name to the continuation of State street, north of the river. The locality (being one wherein the Fort was by far the most im- portant factor) almost compelled the choice of Dearborn for the next. Then some one very likely Mr. Edmunds, of Kaskaskia insisted on the honored patronymic of the early hero, George Rogers Clark, the captor (1778) of Kaskaskia, and thus savior of the whole Northwest. Two other Chicago worthies followed, LaSalle (1682) and Wells (1812), after which (the supply of local heroes seeming to fail) they fell back on National dignitaries. Franklin, Clinton and Jefferson came in for their share, interspersed with Market, Water and Canal for especial local reasons. DR. \VM. B. EGAN. VERY HARD WORK. For the lateral streets, similar principles prevailed. Kinzie came in for local distinction, Water and Lake for physical reasons, and Carroll, Randolph, Washington and Madison for national con- siderations.* Many lots were sold at auction the same year (1830) and brought from ten to two hundred dollars each. Directly south of section nine, in every township, lies section sixteen.f By the 1 munificence of the general government, its noble gener-i osity and far - seeing shrewd-j ness, it has given, at one stroke, ' one-thirty-sixth of all its do- mains to the cause of educa- tion, by dedicating the section numbered sixteen in every township to the public (free) schools of that township. This was begun in 1802, when Ohio (first of the States carved out of Virginia's concession) was admitted to the Union, and has been fol- lowed up by further legislation. 'Attention is invited to the carefully prepared folding map, bound up with this volume ; which gives first the meandering line which was the wild, lonely, bird-haunted lake shore in the forgotten ages when Michigan flowed southward, as described in Chapter I. Besides this, the map gives the succeeding lines of city limits, with the date of each enlargement down to the last hitherto. tit is well worth while to learn the admirable system pursued in the United States government surveys ; whereby every acre of the broad domain is separately traceable; being fixed and named (or possible to be named) distinct from every otheracre. First, the township (six miles square) is designated by p. certain number, in a certain range, east (or west) of a certain meridian; next, each section (a mile square) is desig- nated by number in that township. Thereafter the parts of the section are identified by the points of the compass. To illustrate: The "Canal Section* 1 above-mentioned is (and for- ever will be) "Section 9, Township 39, North, in Range 14, West of the sd Principal Meridian ; " and the portion platted *; (so far as it lies east of Market street) is the southeast quarter of that section. An understanding of this system should be given in every school in the land. It is simple, yet too vast to be more than indicated here. A plat giving the location and numbering of the sections in each township is here presented. Every township and every section (except where interfered with by lakes, or by the ** narrowing " of the earth as it approaches the pole) is like every other. The system was devised in 1802, by Col. Mansfield, then surveyor of the North-Western Territory. His name deserves to be known, for his services to us all are inestimable. JfOJtTir -{ \" -- 1 i~ t- _ h- - - J >... -{ \~ < >-- -a 0- -1 *- 1 - i fr J 7- -1 &- -* 5-- 4- a -i & 2 O-- --2 t- -2 2- ---a 3 a 4- 3 r> --a 9- -3 & t T- --2 6 --S &- 3 !-- --3 2 3 3- 8 4 --9 5 -a 8 --- SOUTH PLAT OF ANY TOWNSHIP. THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Reference to the plat of any township will show the relative places of Sections 9 and 16. The latter in Town 39, 13, 3, is bounded by Madi- son, State, Twelfth and Halsted streets. Thus it will be seen that in our favored spot the two most valuable square miles of land were a free gift from our country for public uses, the first for the Illinois and Michi- gan canal, our primal source of material prosperity; the second for our free school system, the perennial spring of moral progress. The sale of the school section was the greatest administrational blunder or crime in our annals. The tract (640 acres) was divided into 142 blocks perhaps 5,000 lots among the most valuable both for wharfing and building purposes in the present city. Suppose these to have been leased instead of sold (say upon fifty-year leases, in order that lessees should have proper inducement to build upon them), they would now constitute an educational " foundation " beside which Oxford, Edinburgh and Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, Cornell and Colum- bia, all shrink to insignificance. At a rough guess the sum may be placed at $100,000,000. In view of such a terrible sacrifice of public interest to private train, it seems as if it miver. Major Lydecker (Blanchard, p. 540) gives the general facts of the change. Congress, in 1833, voted $25,000 for improving the "harbor at Chicago, on Lake Michigan." A direct cut was made through the sand spit from the bend in the river to the lake. A "revetment " (facing or retaining wall) was placed on the north side of the cut, and from the * Ex-Gov. Bross says : "The bridges over the Chicago river in 1848 were a curiosity. One end was fixed on a pivot in the wooden abutment, and the other was placed upon a large square box or boat. When it was necessary to open the bridge for the passage of vessels, a chain, fastened on or near the shore on the side of the pier, some distance from it, was wound up by a capstan on the float end of the bridge, thus opening it. It was closed in the same manner by a chain on the opposite side of it. Our present (1876) excellent pivot bridges were introduced, and I think invented, by City Superintendent Harper, about 1850, or soon afterward. t Between 1870 and 1875 the United States "River and Harbor" appropriations were used to build the outer pier, which runs parallel with Michigan avenue some quarter of a mile or so out in the lake; and in 1875-80 the north out- side pier was built to furnish a harber of refuge in northeasterly gales. The total expenditure from 1833 to iS8o was $1,008,005, representing 14.500 lineal feet of piers and breakwaters nearly two and three-quarter miles. Almost all the work has been done under the direction oi Major Lydecker, Engineer, V. S. A. ftt * ^*- ,7* VERY HARD WORK, 121 outer extremity of the revetment a pier was built out into the lake about 1,000 feet, the beginning- of the present "North Pier," which has been repeatedly lengthened since that time. This pier at once began to catch and hold back the sand, "which, moving south along the lake shore under the influence of the littoral current, would soon have closed the outlet and left matters as bad as before." * While the north pier was in progress the cut was widened to 200 feet and revetted on the South Side. At about the same time the old channel leading southward was closed by a line of cribs filled with stone and sunk across its course. Judge Caton remembers the fact that as these cribs were sunk, the current, in its effort to follow its old course, cut the sand away from under their eastern edges, so that they lay in a slanting position; and to this day, at low water, one may see the old crib timbers sloping downward toward the deep water, along the face of the Goodrich steamboat dock east of Rush street bridge. Man having shown his courage and strength, nature gracefully yielded the point, ceased her resistance and even lent him her help to satisfy his fruitful desire. A great freshet in the spring of 1834 effectu- ally established the new channel, and on July 12, 1834, the schooner Illinois was pulled over the bar and sailed up the river amid the accla- mations of the citizens. The builder of Dearborn street draw-bridge says: "The first steamboat that passed through it was the old Michigan, with a double engine." No doubt that the schooner with all her spars, together with the steamboat with her double engine, could have been snugly stowed away out of sight in the hold of one of our modern 2,500 ton propellers, endowed with a carrying capacity of 100,000 bushels of grain ; but we must creep before we walk. So, we were coming along. The streets so-called were a sea of mud when it rained and a storm of dust when the dry southwest wind raged. The most approved vehicle for society ladies was a stout ox cart with hay in the bottom. The cart could back up to the door of the fair passenger to allow her to mount, plod through the mire to the house of feasting and back up to its door to discharge its pleasure-seek- ing load. Many a dame now among us remembers those expeditions and is quite ready to admit that there was as much pleasure in them as in the more elegant style of modern merrymaking certainly, for those who were then young and now are young no longer. Lake schooners in the river ; prairie schooners in the roads, mud in the streets, music in the parlors and hope in the hearts Chicago is fairly going ahead at last. * The prevailing-southwest wind, blowing the waves obliquely toward the eastern shore of the lake, causes a northward current on that side, while the equilibrium is restored by a back-flow along the west shore, where the pro- tection of the land measurably lessens the effect of the wind upon the water. CHAPTER XIV. Schools and Teachers. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH. THE KEEL LAID. 5 URN ING now once more from the physical to the moral aspect of the awakening community, we come to the beginning of its peda- gogic life. Stephen Forbes, in June, 1830, was employed by J. B. Beaubien, Lieutenant Hunter, and others, to teach the children then living in and around the fort. He lived and kept school in a large, low, five-room structure built of logs squared on two sides. It a, stood near the river outlet (Madi- son street), was known as the Dean House, and belonged to J. B. Beaubien. Mr. Forbes taught the boys in one room, Mrs. Forbes scholars num- the girls in another. The bered about twenty-five ; two the children of a soldier in the fort, the rest mainly French and half-breed Indians. This is usually called the beginning of school teaching in Chicago, because schools were continuously maintained thereafter. There had been before sporadic and occa- sional efforts in the line. In the winter of 1810-11, Robert A. Forsyth, aged thirteen, essayed to open to John H. Kinzie, aged eleven, the gateway of all human knowledge, using as a key a spell- ing book which by chance had arrived at the little frontier post.* In 1816, William L. Cox, a discharged soldier, taught John H. Mrs. Kinzie (Fergus' Scries No. 10) says that her husband "loved to describe his delight when, upon one occasion, among the stores brought by the annual schooner, a spelling book was drawn forth and presented to him. His cousin, Robert Forsyth, at that time a member of his father's family, undertook to teach him to read, and . . . the exercises gave to the pupil a pleasant association with the fragrance of green tea, which always kept that spelling boo fresh in his mind." 123 THE KEEL LAID. 123 Kinzie, R. A. Kinzie and their sisters, Ellen and Maria, and three or four children from the fort, in a small log building behind the Kinzie house, at about the present crossing of Pine and Michigan streets. Again, in 1820, a small school is said to have been kept by a sergeant, within the fort. Very touching seem these little strug- gles toward knowledge. They suggest the eager leaning of a sun-loving plant, in a dark room, toward any ray of light that peers through even a crevice looking to the free sky. John Watkins, writing to the Old Settlers' reception in 1879, says: I asrived in Chicago in May, 1832. . . I commenced teaching in the fall, after the Black Hawk War, 1832. My first school-house was situated on the North Side, about half-way between the lake and the forks of the river. The building belonged to Colonel Richard J. Hamilton, was erected as a horse-stable and had been used as such. It was twelve feet square. My benches and desks were made of old store-boxes. The school was started by private subscription. Thirty scholars were sub- scribed for. But many subscribed who had no children. So it was a sort of free school, there not being thirty children in town. During my first quarter I had but twelve scholars, and only four of them were white. The others were quarter, half and three quarters Indian. . . .In the winter of 1832-3, Billy Caldwell, a half-breed chief of the Pottawatomie Indians, better known as the Sauganash, offered to pay the tuition and provide books for all Indian children who would attend school if they would dress like the Americans, and he would also pay for their clothes. But not a single one would accept the proposition con- ditioned on the change of apparel. I will now give you the names of some of my scholars: Thomas, William and GeorgeOwen; Richard Hamilton; Alexander, Philip and Henry Beaubien, and Isaac N. Harmon. (Wells' sketch.) In the autumn of 1833, Miss Eliza Chappel (afterward Mrs. Jeremiah Porter, of Green Bay) opened an infant school of about twenty children, in a log house on South Water street, a short distance west of the fort enclosure. Some of the garrison children attended. In the latter part of the same year, Mr. Granville Temple ' / Sproat came from Boston and opened an English and classical school for boys at the corner of South Water and Franklin streets, in which, the spring of 1834, Miss Sarah L. Warren (afterward Mrs. A. E. Car- penter, of Warrenville, Wis.) was engaged as assistant. In 1834 an appropriation was made to Miss Chappel from the 134 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Protestant Churches. Town School Fund (proceeds of lots) and the school taught by her at that time, in the First Presbyterian church (west side of Clark street, between Lake and Randolph streets'* was properly the first public school of Chicago. (Wells.)* A bit of " local color" appears in the following extract from a letter written in 1858 by Mrs. W'arren-Carpenter. My salary was $300 a year, and I think the gentleman teacher's. $600. ... I boarded at Elder Freeman's. His house must have been some four or five blocks southeast of the meeting- house, with scarce a house between. ... I used to go across without regard to streets. It was not uncommon in going to and from school to see prairie wolves, and we could hear them howl any time in the day. We were also frequently annoyed by Indians, but the greatest difficulty was mud. No person now can have a just idea of what Chicago mud used to be; rubbers were of no account. I got me a pair of gent's brogans and fastened them tight about the ankle, but would go over them in mud and water, and was obliged to get a pair of men's boots made. So the home-faring young school mistress, only fifty-seven years ago, walked at will, picking her steps through the mud, scaring the wolves and being scared by the Indians, over ground now covered by the huge Ash- land block, the Fullerton block, the Portland block, McVicker's theater, the Palmer House and the Pullman building, or other equally ponderous and important edifices. The many, many prints of those "gents' brogans," estimated as real estate, are worth per- haps scores of dollars apiece. Education, public and private, being thus fairly under way, need e followed no further at this point. The school leads up naturally to the Church ; and it chances to join on, in the case of Chicago, with peculiar fitness; for Minister Jeremiah Porter, already named as having married Schoolmistress Eliza Chappel, was almost, if not quite, the first Protestant clergyman regularly carry- ing on public worship here. He came here with the troops from Fort Brady, in 1833, and on Sunday, May igth, of that year, having had the garrison carpenter-shop cleared, cleaned and furnished with seats, Mr. Porter preacher his first sermon, taking as his text John xv, 8. The good man happily kept a journal from which much interesting informa- * Miss Chappel became Mrs. Porter in 1834. In a letter to Mr. Hurlbut, dated Fort Sill, Indian Territory, in 1873, Mr. Porter says of her: " She began to teach in her native town of Geneseo, N. Y., more than fifty years ago, and now, after being the mother of nine children, and laboring in the hospitals of our country for four years [probably war times] and then carrying on the Rio Grande Female Seminary for three years, she is now, at this very hour, teaching at this post, from love of teaching and doing good." There ought to be some good men and women in Chicago, seeing that the virgin soil was tilted by such gardeners ! THE KEEL LAID. '25 PECK S STORE. tion can be had. Among the early entries is this : "The first dreadful spectacle that met my eyes [on his first Sunday] was a group of Indians sitting on the ground before a miserable French dram-house playing cards, and as many trifling white men standing around to witness the game." (This seems to point toward our friend, Mark Beaubien, whose " Sauganash" was directly in Mr. Porter's road to and from the West Side.) Mr. Porter's sleeping-room (which was also his study ) was over the store of P. F. W. Peck, built in 1831 on South Water street, corner of LaSalle. This little building stood for many years. Mr. Hurlbut gives a picture of it (from a photograph by Hesler in 1855), which is here reproduced. It is the small wooden building on the right, showing two win- dows, one above the other. The lot is that now occupied by the store of Crerar, Adams & Co. The upper room is fre- quently mentioned in early records as the place for holding meetings of various kinds. Among other good uses, it was the occasional meeting-place of the first Sunday-school, organ- ized August 19, 1832, by Luther Childs, Mrs. Seth Johnson, the Misses Noble and Philo Carpenter. The Sunday-school library had about twenty small volumes, and this was fully one apiece for all the scholars and teachers. John S. Wright (ar. 1832) was librarian and used to carry the library to and from the school tied up in his handkerchief. P. F. W. Peck's name heads the roll of the first Chicago fire com- pany, which was organized on September 19, 1835, a year after the first serious fire is recorded. This disaster was the burning of three build- ings at the corner of Lake and LaSalle streets. The harrowing tale ("Democrat," October 12, 1834) says that the total loss was $1,200. "There was in the house $220 in money; $125, being in Jackson money, was found in the ruins; the remainder, the rag currency, was destroyed." This throws a curious bit of "side light" on the currency troubles of those days, and shows that the Jacksonian " Democrat" was, as in duty bound, a " hard-money " organ. The Illinois Methodist Conference in 1831 sent the Rev. Jesse Walker to take charge of "The Chicago Mission/' accompanied by Rev. Stephen R. Beggs. They traveled on horseback (like so many devoted clergymen of their devoted, zealous and mighty organization) and arrived early in June from Plainfield, forty miles away, preaching 126 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. ' TEMPLE BUILDING. their first sermons June 151)1 and i6th. " Father Walker " was not permanently settled in Chicago until 1832, and held his first quarterly meeting in the fall of 1833,* in a building long known as " Father Walker's log cabin." It stood on the West Side, near the junction of the north and south branches. " It served as parsonage, kitchen and church." The First Presby- terian Church held its meetings in this primitive temple for some time, because some of the church people objected to going to the fort to worship. The first Baptists known to be in Chicago were Mrs. Heald, wife of the unfortunate commander of the fort at the time of the massacre of 1812 ; and the Rev. Isaac McCoy, before mentioned as the faithful missionary to the Indians, and advocate of temperance. His journal reports that he attended the Indian payment made here in 1825, and adds: "On the Qth of October, 1825, I preached in English, which, as I am informed, was the first sermon ever delivered at or near that place." The First Baptist Church was organized October igth, 1833, by the Rev. Allen B. Freeman. The Society started with nineteen members only, but they seem to have been zealous and liberal souls, for they at once proceeded to build a church. It was a plain, wooden two-story house, near the corner of Franklin and South Water streets. FIRST CATHOLIC CHURCH. Its tipper story was used as a school, the lower for meetings. It was called "Temple Building, "and was used by Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists in common until the others could provide places of their own. It took its name from the excellent Dr. J. T. Temple, who built it and allowed the infant churches to use it, paying such rent as they could afford. The Rev. Jesse Walker's log house on the West Side was the only place of worship earlier than this. * This would seem to give a slight priority to the Methodists ; though their organization up to the fall of 1833 was, perhaps, strictly speaking, a mission rather than an independent, self-supporting church society. THE KEEL LAID. 727 The year 1833 was also the initial year for Catholicism in Chicago or, rather, for a new connection with the Holy See, for the faith itself was professed here 150 vears previously, when Father Marquette offered it to the unresponsive savages. In 1833 St. Mary's Catholic Society was organized by Father St. Cyr, a French priest, sent from the diocese of St. Louis. The petition which led to this mission was written in French and was signed by T. J. V. Owen (nine in family), J. Bt. Beau- bien (fourteen), Joseph Lafram- boise (seven), Jean Pothier (five), Alexander Robinson (eight) and other familiar names. The first church building was put up on a " Canal-land" lot (near the south- west corner of Lake and State streets); and the Catholic Indian women cleaned and made ready the building for its first mass, and Catholic Indians joined in the service. A tower, open to the air, was built later, from which a bell, about the size of an engine bell, called the faithful to prayer, the earliest " church-going bell " which made itself heard in Chicago. Later, the church bought the lot on the southwest corner of Wabash avenue and Madison street, and to this day the massive warehouse on that lot is called " St. Mary's Block." (We have already seen how the block Superior and North State streets devoted to the Cathedral, "Church of the Holy Name"- - came to be given by Mr. Ogden and Mr. Newberry.) The first Episcopal service held in Chicago was in October, 1834, when the Rev. Palmer Dyer preached, by invitation, in the Presbyterian church, to St. James Episcopal Society, which was organized at or about the same time. The next service was held in the Baptist church, October igth, by the Rev. Mr. Hallam, who was the first pastor of the Society. After this, services were held in a building provided by John H. Kinzie, which stood at the southeast corner of Kinzie and State streets, and was later known as Tippecanoe Hall. In 1836 Mr. Kinzie gave the church two lots at the southwest corner of Kinzie and Cass . 128 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. [.Jan Chu mes rch. streets, whereon a pretty wooden church, in 1837. It is a relief to the dullness of history to record that Dr. Egan (the wit of the town for many years), in answering Mrs. J. H. Kinzie's natural question, " How do you like our church?" said: " Very much, indeed ; but won't the people think it is a little vain in John to put his initials so conspicu- ously over the pulpit?" He pre- tended to misread the " I. H. S." as " I. H. K. ;" and what sharpened the point of the joke was that St. James was sometimes called "the Kinzie Church." But St. James' people could afford to be laughed at, for the edifice cost, complete and furnished, $15,500, and, with a parsonage costing $4,000, was all paid for before a year passed. jothic style, was built in REV. ISAAC W. HALLA.M. With 1830 a third great n- lightening force began its COL se in Chicago the mail service. ." r r. Wentworth says (Fergus' Hst. Series No. 7) that in that year Elijah Wentworth, Jr., carried the mail between Chicago and Niles, Michigan, once a month, the post- master being Jonathan N. Bailey, and the location of the office the old Kinzie mansion on the North Side. His daughter married John S. C. Hogan (ar. 1832), who in his turn became postmaster, the office : being then in the log cabin (north- east corner of Lake and South Water streets), built by him for the fur-trading business of Brewster, Hogan & Co. Mr. Hogan, besides being postmaster, fur trader, justice of the peace, alderman, lieutenant in the Black Hawk War, and possibly ELIJAH WENTWORTH. THE KEEL LAID. 129 deputy sutler in the fort, was a land agent and a poet ! Mr. Hurlbut quotes the following effort in the line of the two latter vocations : THE EARTH FOR SALE. There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet As that neat little vale on the banks of Salt Creek. A pre-emption right, for sale by the subscriber very cheap, it is only thirteen miles from Chicago. March 24th, 1834. Mr. Hurlbut adds that Mr. Hogan was one of the many who, over- loaded with mortgaged realty, went down in the crash of 1837. Mr. John Bates, Jr.- (ar. 1832), who took charge of the postoffice for Mr. Hogan in 1833, called Mr. Hogan "the best educated man in Chicago." Mr. Hurlbut further says that he was indulgent with his customers, and that he (Hurlbut) lias in his possession various notes of hand, given for goods, by Indians and half-breeds. "If any auto- graph-hunter of the present era wishes to invest in any such sort of stock, applications will be in order to purchase at a discount some of the veritable and rare signatures and obligations of a departed race." Dr. J. Nevins Hyde, in his interesting brochure, " Early Med- ical Chicago," gives the following item of mail news : Dr. Temple(i833) secured a contract for carrying the mail between Chicago and Ottawa. He obtained an elegant thorough-brace post-carriage from Detroit, which was shipped to this port via the lakes, and on the first of January, 1834, drove the first mail coach with his own hand from this city to the end of the route. On this trip he was accompanied by the Hon. John Dean Caton. There was no mail matter for transportation in the bag on this first trip. Judge Caton says he piloted the company which first went through and established the station, and that the party suffered greatly from cold. John Wentworth (ar. 1836) says : One of our most reliable places of entertainment was the postoffice while the mail was being opened. The mail-coach was irregular in the time of its arrival, but the horn of the driver announced its approach. Then the people would largely assemble at the postoffice. . . . The postmaster would throw out a New York paper and some gentleman with a good pair of lungs and a jocose temperament would mount a dry goods box and commence reading. Occasionally I occupied that place myself. Mr. Bates followed the practice of firing a gun just outside the north door of the postoffice building at nine o'clock every evening, to inform Chicago that bedtime had arrived. (The custom has, un- fortunately, been abandoned.) In 1833 Mr. Bates was married by R. J. Hamilton, Esq., to Miss Harriet E. Brown, of Springfield, Mass. JOHN BATES, JR. 130 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Again we come across a link binding one part of the chain of progress with another. Mr. Bates' marriage was announced in the first number of the first Chicago newspaper. In old Rome, the time of the happening of great events was fixed by identifying them with rulers' names : "Dum Flaminius Consul erat," etc. So does Mr. Hurlbut introduce the Press to Chicago. " It was while Andrew Jackson was Chief Executive, John Reynolds was Governor of Illinois, and Thomas J. V. Owens was President of the newly incorporated town of Chicago, that the first printing press was set at work here, and the first Chicago newspaper made its appear- ance." In simpler phrase, John Calhoun, in September, 1833, shipped from Sackett's Harbor, New York, for Chicago, his print- ing press, type and other material, and a small lot of paper, in charge of two appren-* tices. With his own hands he made ready his printing office ; and, his money being quite exhausted by freight charges and other outlays, he borrowed from Col. Thomas J. V. Owen enough to relieve him of his difficulties. (He afterward ex- pressed deep gratitude to Col. Owen for many acts of kindness.) His "Chicago Democrat" appeared Nov. 26, 1833 ; a six- column, four-page sheet, the printed matter eighteen and a half by four- teen inches. The paper was demo- cratic, but its editor disclaimed selfishness which might exclude "such articles as may be temperately written on any subject that the editor may deem suitable for newspaper discussion." It proudly stated the population of Chicago at over 800, and said that goods had been trans- ported from New York in twenty-three days, at a cost of $1.63 per 100 $33 a ton! It favored the early commencement of the canal. A First bound volume of the " Democrat " is preserved in the Chicago His- torical Society's collection. The nearest points where newspapers were then published were Galena, Springfield and Detroit, and on one occasion the " Democrat" THE KEEL LAID. was suspended for two weeks, until paper could be brought hither by stage from St. Louis. The river was still closed from the lake and vessels lay in the offing, discharging their cargoes by small boats. In 1836, J. D. Caton, Ebenezer Peck, Hiram Hugunin and others (leading democrats) furnished money to buy a new outfit and enlarge the paper. In the fall, Dr. Daniel Brainard became its editor, and later, in the same year, John Went- worth took charge as editor and proprietor. The first of Chicago medical practitioners were necessarily those connected with the army. We find in the roster of Captain Heald's company of the First Infantry, i S 10, John Cooper, surgeon's mate. He was succeeded by Dr. Isaac Van Voorhis, killed in the mas- sacre. The latter was a young man of great merit and promise.* The next physician of whom we have any account was Dr. Alex- ander Wolcott, also of the army, who married (July 23, 1823) the elder daughter (Ellen Marion) of John Kinzie, who was born in , the first white child in Chicago. Dr. Wolcott died in the fort in 1830. titioners. He was a man much respected and long lamented. " Wolcott Street" (now unfortunately named " North State") was called after him. In May, 1830, arrived in Chicago Elijah Dewey Harmon, who had been volunteer surgeon on board the "Saratoga" at the Battle of Platts- burgh in 1814. He was installed at the fort as post surgeon, to which duty he added such private practice as came to him. On the night of July 10, 1832, arrived, by the steamer "Sheldon Thompson," General Scott with his command and the cholera. In a letter written in 1860 by the captain (A. Walker) of the Sheldon Thompson, the facts are given which may be summarized as follows: The first death occurred about 4 i>. M. of the gth, and twelve others between that time and the steamer's arrival at the close of the, loth. The yawl boat took General Scott and some other officers ashore ; after which three more dead were committed to the deep, where their bodies (weighted to the bottom of the lake) were visible from the deck * Small attention should bejjiven to the fanciful (hysterical ?) account of Mrs. Helm, given a quarter of a century after the occurrence, wherein she attributed unmanly words to the poor martyr, bleeding to death in a hopeless struggle with a cruel foe. The narrative contains elements for its own discrediting. EBENEZER I'ECK. Cholera of 1833. THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Refuges from the Fort. next morning. The fort was full of refugees driven in by the Black Hawk scare, who were all now driven out to make room for the soldiers with their more deadly enemy. In the next eighteen hours, eighteen more victims died; which were buried in their blankets in pits dug near the southwest corner of Wabash avenue and South Water street, side by side, the earth from one grave serving to fill up its neighbor. In four days fifty-four more died ; making in all eighty-eight out of that one boat-load of troops.* The number of buildings outside the fort was five, of which three were log tenements. Major Whistler, Captain Johnson and others, with their families, found refuge where they could ; some in tents, some under boards placed across the fence, etc. The view from the steamer's deck Was chiefly a beautiful prairie, spangled with flowers and studded with trees. To get fuel with which to sail back to Buffalo they pulled down one of the log houses. The two companies already in the fort were separated from the newcomers and put under the care of Dr. Harmon, who attributed his success in treating them to abstinence from the use of calomel. Dr. H. had a disagreement with General Scott, who "required" him to devote his attention exclusively to the troops ; a requisition which the sturdy doctor declined to comply with. He served all alike and well, and his descendants are among Chicago's best citizens at this day, 1891. Harmon Court was named in his honor. A most distinguished doctor, a typical man, identified with Chi- cago from his arrival in 1833 to his death in 1860, was William Bradshaw Egan. He was an Irish- man, and one of the brightest of D that bright race. He was a clas- sical scholar, a worshiper of poetry, especially that of Shakespeare ; a wit, a humorist, a favorite public speaker, a member of the State legislature ; and, above all, a lover of and believer in Chicago through Judge Henry W. modgeu remembers these occurrences, ar.d adds that though his father's family (then living u Page), flying from the Indians, had taken refuge in the fort with the rest, yet on that memorable day they .d would have got out even if there had been a solid army of Indians encompassing the place on every DR. DANIEL BRAINARD. THE KEEL LAID. jjj cloud and sunshine, through good report and evil report. Egan avenue and Egandale bear his name and mark some of his shrewd investments. The rapidly increasing list of physicians men able, educated, brave, devoted, untiring, belonging to a profession which renders to the poor more unpaid service and help than does all the non-professional world put together makes it impossible to give more than a passing look at this branch of the story of Chicago. The surgeon of most world-wide distinction among us was, perhaps, Daniel Brainard, who came here in 1835. Justice Caton gives some characteristic and amusing anecdotes of Dr. Brainard in Andreas, vol. i, p. 461. The first lawyer who lived in the place now called Chicago did not come there as a lawyer. It was Charles Jouett, of Virginia, who was Indian agent in 1805, and again in 1817. Still later he sat on the bench in Kentucky and Arkansas. Primitive law or, at least, a kind of justice perhaps more righteous than law was administered when in 1825 John Kinzie was commissioned to the old constitutional office of justice of the peace. If he heard causes, or even kept a docket, no record or memory has perpetuated the fact. Russell E. Heacock, born in Connecticut in 1781, licensed as an attorney in Indiana in 1808, came to Fort Dearborn in 1827. He was commissioned justice * of the peace in 1833, and was in Captain ^^^^^^ Andreas' opinion, the first to hear trials in form. Governor Bross, however, says that a term of Circuit Court was held or provided for in September, 1831, "at Fort Dearborn, in the brick house, and in the lower room of the said house." He also says that a term was lawyer. ordered in 1832 in a room in the house of James Kinzie, "provided it can be done at a cost of not more than ten dollars." It was Judge Young who came (accompanied from Galena by lawyers Mills and Strode) just in time to give notice of the disturbed state of the Indians which led to the Black Hawk War. Heacock's office as lawyer and justice of the peace was at the corner of Lake and Franklin streets in 1835- On the organization of the town in August, 1833, John Dean Caton was elected Corporation Attorney, and it is probable that he was about the first lawyer to make his living by the practice of his profes- sion in Chicago.* Between that primitive beginning and the time of his becoming Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State, the * Chief Justice Caton was born in Orange County, M. Y., March 19, 1812. His father and grandfather were of old Maryland and Virginia stock; the latter (Robert Caton) an Irishman by birth, having served in the Royal army, but settled on a Maryland plantation before the Revolution. The name is still distinguished in Baltimore. Judge Caton relates that the schooner in which he came around the lakes was the " Queen Charlotte," une of those captured by Perry in the battle of Lake Erie. She had been sunk in Put-In Bay for twenty years, and tiien raised, repaired and sailed again. One would like to know where her bones were finally laid ! '34 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. experiences of Mr. Caton would make an interesting volume, and it is to be hoped that the venerable jurist will make use of the enforced leisure of his later days to compile and publish such a volume. His literary power and experience, as well as his vast fund of reminiscence, indicate this as a duty and pleasure. Lawyers, and good lawyers, now began to gather here in numbers, and from that day to this the supply has been fully equal to the demand. A bar which has included such men as Lincoln, Douglas, David Davis, Isaac N. Arnold, Mark Skinner, Thomas Drummond, Thomas Hoyne, Edwin Larned, Leonard Swett, Emory Storrs, and all the host of able counselors now living, is worthy of the confidence which has always been felt by Chicago citizens in the professional guardians of their rights and liberties. " Law, Physic and Divinity," is the trio designated of old as the learned professions, to which the progressive intelligence of the world has. added that of Instruction. The first practice in each of these lines has now been sketched (reversing the order of precedence) so far as it seemed to belong to and illustrate the emergence of Chicago from darkness to light, from savagery to civilization. It is needless to say that each branch of liberal knowledge has been treated by others more fully than the limits of this mere "story" will permit. LAKE STREET FIRE OF 1835. (p. 125.) CHAPTER XV. NOT ALL HARD WORK. may now hang up his fiddle, for the first piano has come to Chi- cago, brought, it is said, by his brother, Jean Baptiste Beaubien, in 1834. John Wentworth, in his address to the Old Settlers (Calumet Club, May 19, iSSi), presented the old fiddle to the Club, with a loving tribute to the. memory of its owner. He said: " Mark Beaubien died at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. George Mathews, at Kankakee, on the nth of April of this year. Upon his death-bed he requested that his fiddle be given to me. At every other reunion of Chicago's Old Settlers Mark Beaubien has been present, and played upon it. The fiddle is here now; but the arm that wielded the bow is palsied in death. . . . And now I present it to the Calumet Club, for he was ever honored here. . . . As he has passed away, I take pleasure in presenting to you Frank Gordon Beaubien, his oldest son. ... He was born in Chicago, and so is younger than the fiddle, which his father brought here in 1826. How long he had it before he came here, I can not say. Three generations have listened to its music here. . . . The late Jean Baptiste Beaubien was a little higher toned than Mark, and brought the first piano to Chicago. Like the fiddle, that piano has been well preserved; and, after long use in Chicago, it is now doing service in the family of his grand-daughter, Mrs. Sophia (Beaubien) Ogee, at Silver Lake. Kansas, daughter of the late Charles Beaubien." Other pianos, owned by Mrs. J. B. F. Russell, Mrs. J. H. Kinzie, Samuel Brooks, Mrs. Judge Caton, etc., followed in rapid succession ; and now (1891) the piano business of Chicago is one of the largest in the country. The sales may be estimated at 25,000 a year, and one only wonders where the ceaseless stream can find place and players; for a piano is not like a penny whistle, easy to buy and to learn, quickly used up and joyfully forgotten. It is a permanent possession to some one in some place, one may almost say (barring fire) for all time. (The Historical Society has one nearly or quite a hundred years old.) Music, the very sign and badge of cultivation, showed great vital- ity in the rising city, for the Harmonic Society (direct ancestor of the 135 Pianos arri re. '36 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. M usic. Philharmonic of glorious memories !) gave its first concert on Decem- ber iith, 1835, at the Presbyterian Church, at the southwest corner of Lake and Clark streets.* The first organ was bought and brought out by St. James Church, and an amusing account is given in the "Chicago Magazine" of August, 1857, of the difficulties of the early choir ; partly to get those to sing who could sing, and partly to get those not to sing who could not. As in all American communities, the Church and the School were the main agents in sociability, as well as in piety, morality and philan- thropy. Doubtless there was promiscuous merrymaking here in " the thirties," but it was not, like the Church and School intercourse, system- atic and constant. A young man or woman was "in society" if he belonged to a leading church especially St. James, for here, as in most English-speaking countries, the Episcopal Church, the established Church of England, the Church upheld by the tra- ditions of the most dis- tinguished aristocracy in the whole world, assumes (and not without reason) the lead in social li(e. To this day, there is not so easyatfd certain an "open sesame " to best society in every young American city as good standing in a good church of some one of the leading denominations. Other fellowship there was, where all decent folks could meet on common ground. As early as 1831 a debating club met in the Fort. Charles Cleaver, who arrived from London in 1833, tells (Fergus 1 Hist. Series, No. 9) of society meetings held at the Presbyterian Church at Clark and Lake streets. He says there was a successful fair there, and that in the winterof 1834-5 a piano, which had been brought from Lon- *The church was built here ("a lonely spot, almost inaccessible on account of surrounding sloughs and bogs ") in 1833, by contributions and labors of its founders. Some squared the logs, some turned the pillars for the pulpit, some worked in the mortar-bed ; all " bore a hand.*' A curious incident connected with its construction was this : After the lot was selected, but before it was built upon, some squatter or squatters, desiring to establish a pre-emption claim which would have to be bought off, started work one nii$ht and before morning had a small frame set up on the Lake Street front. But the church was a "church militant" and also a "church triumphant," for during the following night several yokes of oxen were noiselessly collected and securely hitched to the structure; and the next morning saw it standing in the street, far enough from the church lot to throw no cloud upon its title. FIRST SAINT JAMES CHURCH. NOT ALL HARD WORK. 137 don by Mr. Brooks, was taken from the store, where it had been since its arrival in 1833, and Mrs. Brooks, assisted by George Davis (who taught a school) and others, gave several concerts, to the great delight of the citizens. Mr. Davis sang " The Mogul," " The Bluebottle Fly," and other songs, and Mrs. Brooks drew loud applause with " The Bat- tle of Prague " and such martial pieces. Judge and Mrs. Caton smile at the recalling of those times, and the venerable ex-chief justice, from memory, adds to the song reper- tory "A Medley," also sung by Mr. Davis, whereof the only words he recalls are : " Without feet you can't have toes To march to the battle-field.' He says that Davis was a splendid fellow, the life of every party of any kind. Also that at one meeting of the State Legisla- ture George Davis went to Spring- field, quite without any political backing, and announced himself as candidate for clerk of the House. That evening he sang songs at the American Hotel, where the mem- bers most resorted, and next morn- ing was elected unanimously ! It was in 1834 that a marriage took place, memorable in several ways. It joined together the two historic races, Kinzies and Whist- lers. Robert Allen Kinzie married Gwenthlean Whistler, grand-daughter of the builder and first commandant of the first fort, and daughter of one of the last commandants of the second. The wedding took place in the fort, and was, of course, followed by a dance. The beauty of the bride has already been spoken of, and the interesting fact that she to-day is in Chicago, in the full vigor of her faculties, as are also two at least of her early contemporaries, Judge and Mrs. Caton, whose latest portraits are kindly placed at the disposal of this " Story," which would scarcely be complete without them. In vain do we try to get the bill of fare of the wedding feast. Of ice-cream and oysters there were surely none. Home-made confectionery, cakes, pies, "sweetmeats," perhaps a few precious Eastern apples, cold meats, poulty and game, and such convivial Social gayety. Kinzie-Whisc- ler Wedding. 38 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Scarcity of food in 1834. liquids as the garrison could furnish this was probably all that the union of all the housewifely forces could provide, and good and ample it was, and gay the talk and laughter.* But think of Chicago gaiety without a jeweler, confectioner or a dry goods store; a theatre, a pavement, a railway or horse-car; a car- riage, private or public; a street number; an electric or gas light or even a kerosene lamp; a telegraph, a telephone, or even a daily mail; a bank or insurance company; a daily paper, a postage stamp or a water pipe ! Without even a friction match, ex- cept as a rare and curious novelty. Flint-and-steel was the reliance for starting fire, or more usually a coal borrowed from a neighbor, in cases where the "covered fire" had not happened to "keep" overnight. The winter of 1834 proved remarkably severe, and flour ran up to $28 a barrel. Potatoes could not be had, nor butter. The entire fare at last came to be beef, pork and corn meal, with a little molasses to sweeten life. Mr. Cleaver says : " If a stray hoosier wagon, or prai- rie schooner, as we used to call them, happened to find its way so far north, with a few crocks of butter, dried apples, smoked bacon, EX CHIEF JUST.CE cATON. hams, etc., the whole village would be after the wagon, to get hold of some of the precious commodities. On the yth of May a schooner arrived, laden with flour and provisions from Detroit. . . Her freight was fortunately consigned to an honest man, who preferred to sell it at a fair price $10 a barrel though he was offered $25 a barrel for the whole cargo." This "honest man " was George W. Dole. Professor Elias Col- bert, in his Historical and Statistical Sketch (1868), says that in 1832 Mr. Dole began the great provision business (the most profitable, on the whole, of all branches of Chicago trade) by packing pork and beef for Eastern markets. He became, in fact, the father of the packing, the shipping, the warehouse and the elevator systems. For his conduct regarding the relief of the famine of 1834 his name should be remem- * Mrs. Caton relates that every year her parents sent her out some barrels of Oneida county apples precious beyond words. One year they were belated and got frozen, and to this day she can scarcely bear to speak of her loss. NOT ALL HARD WORK. 139 bered as worthy to be coupled with that of Joseph Stockton, whose actions during the Great Fire of 1871 are hereafter to be recounted. The Lake House was built in 1835, a marvel of elegance and magnificence, which people came from afar to admire ; and Mr. Cleaver says that in 1836 the boarders passed a jocular resolution that they would not have any but " rich men " staying there, putting the standard of opulence at the princely sum of $10,000. Checkers was a common game in the stores in the daytime as well as in the evening, for storekeepers had plenty of leisure while waiting for customers. After closing for the night more serious dissipation was prevalent cards and drink; but this, being only low masculine vagary, does not belong in the cat- egory of society. Prayer meeting was once a week in the churches ; the now prevalent and fashionable "Wednesday evening meeting" coming down to us from those days in unbroken course. For sixty years, doubtless, not a Wed- nesday evening has passed in Chicago without from one to thirty of these pious seasons of happy reunion. In the evening at the old Sauganash (even after pianos arrived) Mark Beaubien would bring out his fiddle and play for dancing ; and it is said that if a string broke he would do well as ever on the other three ; if two gave out he went along with the remaining two, and if he had but one left he even made shift to keep the bow scraping on that. No theatres, concert halls or reading rooms yet. The latest New York papers were twenty or thirty days old. A visitor at the Cleaver house, seeing a shelf filled with some old books, asked if they kept a bookstore. One fine night in the winter of 1833 everybody in Chicago turned out for a frolic on the frozen river. One fine night in summer Mr. Cleaver caught a muskallonge, five and a half feet long, in the North Branch, spearing it by the light of a torch set in the head of the boat. There was very little visiting done among the ladies, as they had all they could attend to at home, servant girls being very scarce. The houses in those days were not well calculated for com- pany, most of them being 16x20, a story and a half, with a lean-to. . . . The house we lived in that winter, on the corner of Kinzie and Rush streets, was about as large as any in town ; but, MRS. CATON. Dances and prayer meet- ings. 140 THE STORY OF CHJCAGO. unfortunately, it was not completed, being neither lathed nor plastered . . The thermometer marked twenty degrees below zero. Fortunately, we had warm clothing, and would almost roast in front of a huge wood fire in the large chimney, while our backs were covered with thick cloaks to keep from freezing. I actually had my cup freeze to the saucer while sitting at the table at break- fast. . . . Pots were boiled hanging from a hook over the fire, and bread baked in a baking pot with hot wood ashes above and below it. . . . The water was brought from the river in pails. The one unequaled, universal, inevitable, invincible thing then pre- vailing about Garlick creek otherwise the Chicago river was MUD. Mr. Cleaver says that mired wagons were an every-day sight in the streets. A stage-coach, stuck fast and abandoned on Clark street, just north of Randolph, staid there for days, and near it was stuck a board bearing the inscription, " No bottom here." A lady, whom he saw trying to cross Randolph at LaSalle, left both shoes in the mire, and only Unfathomable . ' . reached the sidewalk in her stockings. The only way for " fashionable young ladies" to get from the North Side to the Presbyterian church was by a dirt-cart with buffalo robes thrown on its floor, and he once saw these fashionable young ladies dumped in front of the church because of the driver's having forgotten to put in the bolt. A slough starting northward from about State and Adams streets grew deeper and wider till it emptied into the river near State street bridge. Another in Clark street, south of Washington, the village wished to drain ; but it had not the $60 needed. The council applied to Strachan & Scott for a loan, but could not get it until it was guaranteed by E. B. Williams (President of the Town Board), when it was borrowed; prob- ably the first dollar of Chicago public debt. The first effort at drainage was a curious experiment. Lake street was excavated to the depth of three feet, deepest in the middle, and planks were laid from sidewalk to centre. This did admirably in dry weather. When it rained the wheels worked the planks into mud, until it would splash up between them into the horses' faces. After two or three years the opposite plan was tried, and the street " turnpiked " Experiments m to a ridge in the middle, which did very well, especially in dry m times. As the streets rose the houses did likewise, and cellars began to be possible, for up to this time there could be none on either South, or West Side. This was the beginning of an emergence from the mire which has gone on until now, when the bottoms of our deepest cellars scarcely reach the original surface of the soil. It will amuse anyone curious in such things to peep into any modern excavation for a street? sewer in the central South Side and see the strata of street grading and. paving which make the walls of the dug-out ditch. From this time forward to about 1875, Chicago's steps upward were slow, halting and toilsome somewhat like those of the lady whom Mr. Cleaver saw leave her shoes in the mud and wade ashore in her stockings. To us who watched them they seem absurd, to newcomers NOT ALL HARD WORK. 141 almost incredible. A street was raised, say six feet. Then each house- holder looked upward from his front door as from the bottom of a r established gully. He was said to live "under the sidewalk." Next, one owner, Brade - building anew or raising his house, or (as was sometimes done) mak- ing his second story the main floor and using his first as a cellar, had his sidewalk laid where it belonged, whereupon his neighbor had to build steps to reach it. " The ups and downs of life in Chicago " was a perennial joke for many a year.* Our invaluable printed record, Volume I of the "Chicago Demo- crat," on February 18, 1834, made an announcement as follows: EXHIBITION. Joy hath its limits. We but borrow one hour of mirth from months of sorrow. The ladies and gentlemen of Chicago are most respectfully informed that Mr. Bowers, Pj-ofesseur de Tours Amusants, has arrived in town and will give an exhibition at the house of Mr. D. Graves on Monday evening next. PART FIRST. Mr. Bowers will fully personate Monsieur Chaubert, the celebrated Fire King, who so much astonished the people of Europe, and go through his wonderful chemical performance. He will draw a red-hot iron across his tongue, hands, etc., and will partake of a comfortable warm sup- per by eating fire-balls, burning ceiling-wax, live coals of fire and melted lead. He will dip his fingers in melted lead, and make use of a red-hot iron to convey the same to his mouth. PART SECOND. Mr. Bowers will introduce many very amusing feats of ventriloquism and legerdemain, many of which are original and too numerous to mention. Admittance, 50 cents, children half-price. Performance to commence at early candle-light. Seats will be reserved for ladies, and every atten- tion paid to the comfort and convenience of the spectators. Tickets to be had at the bar. " D. Graves" was Dexter Graves (father of Mrs. Edward Had- dock, and therefore ancestor of some of our richest citizens), and his resi- - T ,, i r T i i Earliest Public dence was the " Mansion House, north side of Lake street, between Exhibition. State and Dearborn (now 84 and 86 Lake street). This performance was the first given by a professional " artist " whereof we have any record. After this they no doubt came along in quick succession and with good patronage, for these were the years of Chicago's first " boom." Mr. Cleaver quotes as a current saying, " If you leave a shill- ing on the doorstep over night, you find it grown to a dollar next morning." The first "one-horse shay" was, according, to Mr. Hurlbut, one in which Philo Carpenter and his bride rode into the village early in 1834; the first pleasure-carriage, that brought from the East by Colonel Jean * One of the earliest "ups and downs '' was the rise and fall of the first lighthouse, on the south bank of the river, a stone's throw west of Rush Street bridge. Isaac D. Harmon, the seventeen-year old son of Dr. Elijah D. Har- mon, before mentioned, wrote an amusing letter to his absent brother (October 31, 1831). " We have had a flattener pass over the face of our prospects. The lighthouse that, the day before yesterday, stood in all its glory, the pride of this wonderful village, is now ' doused? . . . Cracks have been observed in it. . . . Jackson said 'You can't get it down.' My father told them it leaned 10 one side. They laughed at him. . . . About nine o'clock in the evening down tumbled the whole work with a noise like the rattling of fifty claps of thunder. The walls were three feet thick, and it had been raised fifty feet in height. The first thing father said when he went out was, ' Does It lean any now ?' " THE STORY Of CHICAGO. Field s|K>rt>. Haptiste Beaubien, which the villagers greeted on its arrival by turning out in procession. Mr. Hurlbut also tells of some wild, harum-scarum horse-play car- ried on without reference to the rights and feelings of others, by a dozen or so of persons he names, whom he classes together under the name of "the club." They played prac- tical jokes ; they stole the cannon which had been re- covered after being sunk in the river ever since the mas- sacre ; they freed the wild animals in the menagerie and rode some of them about from one dramshop' to another. In short, they were the drinking element; and, by consequence or by re- markable coincidence, none of the names he records are among those which now r (1891) appear among Chi- cago capitalists and leaders. Wild game, once so plen- tiful, grew, between 1830 and 1840, quite rare. Mr. Cleaver, being a true Briton, was a sportsman. Just after his arrival in 1833 he came upon a multitude of prairie chickens in a grove of fir-trees about where Division street reaches the lake. He once shot a wild goose on the main river near the Rush street crossing. In the fall of 1834 a party of a hundred or more went eight or ten miles out (Graceland), and, spreading themselves from the North Branch to the lake, hunted southward. Some few deer and a few wolves, scared by the noise, swam the river near La Salle street, ran through the vil- lage and escaped to the South Branch woods; a few others were shot by the hunters, but the whole hunt was considered a failure and was the last of its kind. Still, the wolves were prevalent for several years more and Fernando Jones now points out the very spot where he killed one in Dearborn street, just south of Madison, opposite the present site of the " Tribune" Building. NOT ALL HARD WORK. J43 SALOON" HI ILDING. The brick " Saloon Building " was built (southwest corner of Lake and Clark streets) by Col. J. B. F. Russell, in 1836. It was not what a " saloon " has now come to mean, a drinking-place. The liquor-dealers have made suc- cessive (and temporarily suc- cessful) attempts to escape the odium attaching to their trade by taking new names for their shops. The tippling- house or rum-shop has been re-named the gin-mill, the bar- rel-house, the wine-shop, the public house, the bar-room, the saloon, the sample-room, etc., and fifty years ago a "saloon" was simply a secular meeting chamber. The one in ques- tion was the finest hall west of Buffalo, and was used for distinguished occasions. It was there that Stephen A. Douglas, in 1838, had the first " joint debate " ever held in northern Illinois; being a political discus- sion with John T. Stuart, his competitor for Congress. The postoffice was in that building for a time, and it was in its upper story that our present veteran printer, Robert Fergus, began business as junior in the firm of " Ellis & Fergus." The postoffice was for many a year the general meeting place of friends and fellow- citizens. There was the only place for paying postage. Everyone must carry his letters thither to post, and call there for any he should receive. Not only were there no. carriers and no lamp-post boxes ; there were no postage stamps, no envelopes, no postal cards, no registered letters or money orders. Postage (single rate) was 6* cents for distances up to 30 miles; 10 cents up to 80 miles ; 12^ cents up to 150 miles; 1 8^! cents up to 400 miles, and 25 cents beyond this. Letters were charged not by weight, but by number of sheets ; a single one of any weight going at single rate, and a double or triple, no matter how light, calling for double or triple payment as the case might be. In the absence of envelopes, the large letter sheets were folded (the art of neat folding ROBERT PKRCUIS. Primitive 1'ostal Service. 244 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. being a part of elegant training) and sealed ; usually with a wafer, though sealing wax and a crested seal were the more elegant devices. An aristocrat is said to have resented a wafer-closed letter with the words " The fellow sends me his spittle ! " The fractional charges above named were based on the Spanish coins then prevalent ; halves, quarters, eighths (shillings), sixteenths (sixpences), as no dimes or half-dimes came into general use until near 1850. It was pretty poor stuff and alas! very scarce; especially in the years to be chronicled in a succeeding chapter; the year 1837 and its melancholy train. No Chicago annalist can pass over 1835 without dwelling on a notable event, the arrival of William B. Ogden. He was then thirty years old, and had already made for himself a name in his native State, New York, having been member of the legislature and advocate of the projected New York and Erie Railroad. Charles Butler (who had mar- ried Mr. Ogden's sister) had, with Arthur Bronson, of New York, and others, bought from the Kinzies and their connection, David Hunter, a large part of the North Side.* He employed Mr. Ogden to come to Chicago and manage this prop- erty. Arriving in a "wet spell," Mr. O. found the tract to be an unbro- ken field, covered with a coarse growth of oak and underbrush, marshy and muddy from the recent rains. " It had neither form nor comeliness, and he could not, in its then primitive condition, see it as possessing any value or offering any advantages to justify the extraordinary price for which it had been bought." The Government land sales, instead of glutting the market, helped it, for it brought out crowds of Eastern niiam buyers, bitten by the land craze of 1835, and these made Ogden's auc- B. Ocden. _. . 111 tion a great success. ' I his result, although it was astonishing to him, yet seemed to fail of making the impression on his mind of the future of the town which was to become the scene of his after life, and in the development and growth of which he himself was to become an active and most important factor." He returned to the East, but came back in 1836, from which time forward, until he went back to New York to end his days, his history may almost be said to be the history of Chicago. It is not best, at this point in our story, to give more than thus much of an introduction to this great man, and to add some of his per- sonal characteristics. He was generally thought one of the handsomest of men. Tall and stalwart ; large of brain and eye ; with manners at once * Mr. Bronson and associates, in 1834, bought half of Kinzies' addition, the whole of Wolcott's addition, and block No. i (north of the river) of the original town (canal trustee's subdivision), in all 182 acres, for $20,000. In May, 1835, Mr. Butler paid for the same property $100,000. Mr. Ogden came out and held an auction sale of lots in the summer of 1835, when about one-third of the whole was sold, bringing more than $100,000. (See an interesting letter from Charles Butler dated December, 1881, published in I Andreas, p. 139.) NOT ALL HARD WORK. 145 dignified, courtly and cordial ; to meet him was to be charmed, to talk with him was to admire and wonder. His dwelling, up to the great fire, occupied the entire block bounded by Erie, Rush, Ontario and Cass streets, and was the home of elegant hospitality. He was a bachelor, and his establishment was managed by Mr. Edwin H. Sheldon (himself one of the best, most cultivated and most lovable of men), and Mrs. Sheldon, Mr. Ogden's sister. No one once admitted to that gay circle can ever forget it Among the hosts of his distinguished visitors were Van Buren, Webster, Marcy, Bryant, Emerson, Miss Martineau, Fred- erika Bremer, etc. The writer recalls a visit there when Mr. Ogden, with Samuel J. Tilden (his friend, associate and counsel), were looking over maps and consulting on the possible extension of the North-Western Railroad. Tracing its future course to Fond du Lac, St. Paul, etc., Mr. Ogden ran his hand in what seemed only a visionary course, away up to Lake Superior itself, and then off westward (Northern Pacific) and eastward j, ersona) Mem . (Sault Ste. Marie and the St. Lawrence), saying nothing, but intimat- o^ ing that his broad views took in as romance all that has since become reality. Afterward he led the visitor into the drawing-room, where were the younger members of the family and their friends ; and, sitting down at the piano, sang to his own accompaniment a sweet, pathetic ditty running : O come to me and bring with thee The sunny smiles of former years, If smiles so bright can lend their light To cheer a brow long used to tears. We will not let one sad regret, One thought of grief our meeting chill. For thy dear sake I'll strive to make This altered cheek look cheerful still. ***** Then come to me, our theme shall be . The friends we love, not those we mourn. We'll not destroy one present joy Lamenting joys that ne'er return. The sunny rays of boyhood's days And early prime we ne'er may see, . But hours of bright and pure delight We've yet in store then come to me. We were prone to connect this little ballad, the only verses we ever heard of his singing, with a youthful romance, the crushing whereof by the hand of death clouded his early life and kept him a bachelor. When he himself died his will showed by some of its provisions that long years had not dimmed the memory of her whom he had loved and lost. Mr. Ogden had friends and foes about him. What strong man has not? But the one thing which Chicago found hardest to forgive was THE STORY OF CHICAGO. his final departure and return to the State of his birth and early life. This occurred about 1865, though for some years before he had been spending more and more of his time in New York. An incident of Mr. Ogden's life may be here related, partly as illustrative of the times, and partly because it introduces another Chicago worthy, Isaac N. Arnold. Mr. Ar- nold was also one of the grand citizens dating from "the Thirties," whose life and words and works force us to say with a swelling of the heart, "There, were giants in those days." A firm in Danville had failed, owing $10,000 to Mr. Ogden. It also owed Hub- bard & Co. a large sum, and whichever should reach the spot first, with the necessary legal process, would fare best in the distribution of assets. Mr. Arnold, as attor- ney for Mr. Ogden, hired the best saddle horse in Chicago, a stout gelding, and started out bright and early to ride on " Hubbard's Trail " over the one hundred and twenty miles of lonely prairie which then (1837) intervened between the two towns. On the morning of the second, day, at Rexford's cabin, on the Calumet, Arnold found himself in company with Henry Hubbard, with his fast trotter hitched to a sulky. Neither party hurried his beast, but Hubbard kept ahead, the gray following. Each was evidently saving up for the final twenty miles or so. They stopped for the last night at a tavern about fifteen miles from Danville. Before' either started next morning, a stranger accosted Arnold, told him of a grievance he had against Hubbard, and added : " I hearn say it's a tight race between ye which '11 git t' Dan- ville first. Now, stranger, I'll help ye. But don't let on. Let him start ahead ; I'll put my boy thar on your gray an' let him follow slowly behind, not too far, so your gray kin be seen, but the rider not be known. I've got a pair of colts I kin hitch up, an' I'll take ISAAC N. ARNOLD. NOT ALL HARD WORK. '47 ye by another road into Danville, thirty to sixty minutes ahead of that feller." So said, so done. When Hubbard arrived he found Arnold, with the sheriff, in possession of the coveted assets. (Fergus' Histor- ical Series, No. 17.) Hubbard, Ogden, Arnold, Wentworth, Dole, Skinner, Scammon, Brown, Peck, Egan, Brainard, Judd, Calhoun, Wilson such were the men (all gone now) who "ran things" in Chicago in the days of canal building. It took all their courage, industry, foresight, self-confidence, and power of inspiring confidence in others in short, their qualities of greatness to carry it through. As some rhymester says, in an early issue of the Chicago "Tribune:" This notion surely is an awful staggerer. Down to the Gulf they'd carry great Niagara! And, by forestalling all its feeding torrents, Make a dry bridle-path of the St. Lawrence! KVOI.UT10N OK CLAKK STRBE'I . CHAPTER XVI. FAIRLY LAUNCHED. ITHERTO, the question for the historiographer has been "What can I find out?" Now comes the period when he has to ask "What can I leave out?" The latter, needless to say, is the more puzzling problem. Still there remains much to be told of the days of small things; times strangely primitive, when it is considered that they are within the lifetime of a large proportion of our contemporaries. Great human interest attaches to the adjective " first." The first feeble cry of the babe, the first totter- ing steps of the child, the first short trousers of the boy and long skirts of the girl, the first consciousness of beauty and dawn of love, the first month of married life, the first earnings of labor and accumu- lation of capital, the first sermon, client or patient, the first battle or bereavement in short, the opening incidents in every earthly career have a thrill of their own, out of proportion to that belonging to a thousand greater things that may follow. The poet says: There are gains for all our losses, There is balm for all our pain; But when youth, the dream, departs. It takes something from our hearts And it never comes again. Perhaps a more appropriate quotation, for the incipient doings of a great city, is the couplet from Longfellow's " The Building of the Ship : " She starts, she moves, she seems to feel The thrill of life along her keel." To do justice to the beginnings of Chicago, both writer and reader must be inspired with the kindly sentiment that hovers over those first cries, first steps, first failings and successes. The decade beginning with 1830 was the mere childhood of the city. Well past the middle of that decade there was a fine grove of trees along the east side of the South Branch from Madison street southward, and on October 6, 1834, a black bear was shot in those woods, near the present corner of Market and Jackson streets. This 148 PRAIRIE WOLF. FAIRLY LAUNCHED. 149 Square. grove was the hiding place of the wolves which infested the village, and at about the same time a grand hunt was effectual in killing forty of the "varmints." (Bears and bulls still haunt the vicinity.) For vagrant domestic animals, provision was made as early as 1831, when a log " estray pen " was erected at the southeast corner of Ran- dolph and LaSalle streets on the vacant lot (outside of town) which E jan on Pubuc had been set apart for county purposes. This was the first " public building" in all Chicago, and the second was like unto it in location, material and purpose, being nothing else than a log jail built on ,the same spot two years later. It is now occupied by the city offices, board of aldermen, etc., a fact which has given rise to the jocular remark that its use and purpose never have changed.* On November 7, 1833, an or- dinance passed the Town Board for- bidding the throwing into the river of any dead animal, under penalty of $3 for each offense. On Novem- ber 10, 1834, the Council paid $95.50 for the digging of a public well at the corner of Cass and Michigan streets. The laws and ordinances about fire were strict in 1835 and sometimes very oddly worded. No person was allowed "to endanger the public safety by pushing a red- hot stovepipe through a board wall," and all were forbidden to carry "open coals of fire through the streets except in a covered fire-proof vessel." The latter provision, in the absence of matches, was deemed a hardship not endurable and was repealed soon after its passage. Judge Caton recalls July 12, 1834, as an era in his youthful expe- rience. It was the beginning of his judicial career, his election to the office of Justice of the Peace, the only public office he ever held, except those of Alderman of the city (1837-8) and Justice of the Supreme Court, of the 81316(1843-56). The first-mimed election was an ani- Some political rhymester, wishing to slur a city administration to which he was opposed, wrote a lampoon, of which the closing stanza runs : In that same spot, as all may see. Are housed, at public charge, The dangerous )>cs:s that should not be Allowed to run at large. JOSIAH C. GOODHUE. THE STORY OF CHICAGO. mated contest, bringing out every last voter in the precinct, from Clybourn's to Hardscrabble and beyond, perhaps taking in the Calumet crossing. The Government piers had been built and the beginning of a channel had been cut across the immemorial sand-bar, but as yet it had never been used. On this memorable day the schooner Illinois chanced to be lying at anchor in the offing, and the friends of young Caton (George W. Dole and others), to the number of a hundred or so, got ropes to the schooner and absolutely dragged her in by main force over the. bar through the unfinished dug-way. Then they decked her with all the bunting in the village and, hoisting sail, sailed triumphantly up the stream to the forks the first vessel that ever penetrated Chicago River. And when the votes were counted the tally showed: John Dean Caton, 182 ; Josiah C. Goodhue, 47. The venerable jurist recalls another incident and relates it; albeit at the time of its occurrence it was one he did not care to dwell upon. He had studied law in New "York State, and came out thinking he knew a good deal of it. To get his license to practice he rode on horseback all the way to Pekin, on the Illinois River, where he found Judge Lock- of the Supreme Court, holding Circuit Court. It was the last B * r - day of term, and he waited till Court adjourned, after which he pre- sented himself to Judge Lockwood in chambers, and stated his busi- ness. The Justice introduced him to Stephen T. Logan (partner of Abraham Lincoln), John T. Stewart, John J. Hardin (killed at the battle of Buena Vista), and Dan Stone, Circuit Judge, and later they went to the tavern for supper. After supper Judge Lockwood strolled out for a walk in the moonlight, taking the young candidate along; and suddenly stopping beside an oak stump, began asking him questions on the theory and practice of the law; the stump their bar. The examina- tion ended, Judge Lockwood spoke the words of fate: "Young man, you've got a good deal of law to learn if you want to make a reputation at the bar. But if you work hard I think you'll succeed. I shall give you your license." And nine years later the young man sat on the Supreme Bench beside his friendly examiner. In the same year (1834) there was a "cholera scare," and a meet- ing of the Town Trustees was held " to make suitable arrangements to prevent the introduction of the dreadful and fatal disease." Doctors William Clark and E. S. Kimberly were authorized to establish a hos- pital outside the limits, to prescribe for the sick, and instruct the super- visor in regard to the preservation of public health. The supervisor was authorized to compel "every male person in the said town, over the age of twenty-one years, to work on the streets and alleys within the corporation for the purpose of cleaning them," and a failure to work FA1RL Y LA UNCHED. i 5 i or furnish a substitute was punished by a fine of five dollars for each offense.* A similar enactment to-day would produce an amusing exhibi- tion ; nearly worth a repetition of the " scare," provided its result was the same for the cholera was averted. THE OLD JUDGE AM) THE YOUNG CANDIDATE. On August 13, 1835, the Board provided for the establishment of the first public cemeteries (not counting the garrison burying ground on the Lake front), which were located as follows : Ten acres on the North Side (Chicago Avenue, near the lake), and sixteen acres on the isth Annual Report of the Board of Public Works (1890), p. 430. THE STORY OF CHICAGO. South Side, about where Twenty-Third Street crosses Wabash Avenue. During the spring freshet of 1849 two coffins were seen float- ing down the river, supposed to have been from some small burying ground on the North Branch, in the Waubansia addition. On September 19, 1835, the town board ordered the purchase of two fire engines (of course the old-fashioned hand-brake machines, to be The first Town Census of Chi- cago. DOUBLE DECKED FIRE KNGINE AND HOOK AND LADDER TRUCK. dragged by men strung out on a long loop of rope) and 1,000 feet of hose. This was the beginning of the great fire department which has served us so often well and once so ill from that day to this. On October 7, 1835, John Dean Caton, who had been the town attorney in 1833 and 1834, was paid $75 for such service. The first census of Chicago was reported in the "Democrat" of Novem- ber 25, 1835, showing 3,265 persons, 398 dwellings, 4 warehouses, 29 dry goods stores, 19 grocery and provision stores, 5 hardware stores, 3 drug stores, 19 taverns, 26 groceries (probably liquor stores) and 17 lawyer's offices. The latter doubtless averaged two or more occupants apiece. Suppose there to have been 34 lawyers here then, there were nearly four times as many as now (1891 ), in proportion to the total population. Miller's tan- nery, still remembered by Judge Blodgett as existing in 1832 on the North Side near the forks of the river, is not mentioned. Possibly it had been closed. In fact Judge Caton remembers that the old tannery, as early as 1833, was used as a justice court, for it was there he tried his first case. He was employed to prosecute a man for stealing some money. Proof was wanting and the accused likely to get clear, when young Caton noticed a lump on the side of the fellow's leg inside his stocking. He seized it and held fast until it was exposed, and the identical roll of stolen bills came out, from which he took $10 as his fee, and handed the rest to the loser. SIDE BRAKE KIKE ENGINIi. FAIRL Y LA UNCHED. '53 In 1835 the first county court house (brick, one story and basement) was built at the northeast corner of the Court House square, southwest corner of Clark and Randolph streets.* May 12, 1836, the sloop Clarissa, the first Chicago built vessel, was launched amid great excitement. Her builder was Nelson R. Norton (ar. 1833), who has already been mentioned as builder of the first draw- bridge, the "lifting leaves," at Dearborn street. The arrivals and ton- nage of shipping were as follows: In 1833, 4 vessels, 700 tons; in 1835, 250 vessels, 22,500 tons; in 1836, 456 vessels, 58,000 tons; 1890, 10,507 vessels, 5,138,253 tons. Launch of the Clarissa. -:-^:_^ THE FIRST COURT-HOUSE. The total taxes collected for 1836 were $11,659.54; for 1837, $5-905- I 5 I for 1838, $8,849.86; for 1839, $4,664.55; for 1840, $4,721.85. The population of the city grew as follows: 1830, 50; 1831, 100; 1832, 200; 1833, 350; 1834, 2,000; 1835, 3. 26 5; 1836, 3,820; 1837, 4,179; 1838,4,000; 1839,4,200; 1840,4,470; 1890, 1,098.570. The exports and imports by 'lake were as follows: Exports. Imports. 1836. . $1.000.64 $ 325.2O1 QO 1837 11,065.00 373,677.12 1838. . 16.04.4.71; C70. 17461 1830. . 33. 843.00 630.980 26 l84O . , 228. 631;. 74 562, 106 20 * The question has been seriously raised whether the county, having received that block for county purposes, had any right or power to alienate the west half of it to the city, as it has done, for city purposes. Some citizen of the county outside the city might apply for a writ of ejectment, and demand that the city should either pay rent or move its build- ing off. But possession is nine points in the law, and identity of interests would be likely, in the view of the courts, to give the city the tenth. 154 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Garrison finally withdrawn. The "American," on July 9, 1836, calls attention to a pool of water at Lake and La Salle streets, inhabited by frogs. " It smells strong now, and in a few days will send out a horrible stench." This spot is now (1891) directly over the south entrance to the La Salle street tun- nel ; consequently some thirty feet over the heads of the thousands of cable-car passengers who daily pass and repass between the North and South sides. During all this decade, no system of street numbering was in use. In October, 1836, the Town Trustees met with delegates from the three districts to take measures for organizing the City of Chicago. A committee was appointed to draft a charter which was adopted by the citizens, was passed by the State Legislature and approved March 4, 1837. Under this charter the elec- tion was held and William B. Ogden elected Mayor. There were six wards, and the aldermen elected were Goodhue, Hogan, Caton, Pierce, Ward and Jackson. Nor- man B. Judd was elected city attor- ney. The whole number of votes cast at this election was 709. On December 29, 1836, the garrison was finally withdrawn from Fort Dearborn, and after its thirty- three years of stirring vicissitude it passed into a useless old age which lasted a score of years before its abandonment as a Government pos- session. In fact one of its build- ings a great, barn-like, wooden hos- pital was standing, in use as a storage warehouse, up to 1871, when the Great Fire obliterated it with nearly all else that was ancient in Chicago. An exception to this destruction and to the fast gathering cloud of oblivion, is to be found in an old red granite boulder, with a rude human face carved on it, which stood in the center of the fort esplanade, and which is now (1891 ) one of our few antiquarian treasures. It is nearly eight feet high by three feet in greatest diameter and weighs perhaps 4,000 pounds. In prehistoric times the Indians used its concave topfora corn mill, and for many, many weary hours must the patient and long- suffering squaws have leaned over it crushing the scanty, flinty corn of those days into material for the food of braves and pappooses. NORMAN B JUDD FAIRL Y LA UNCHED. '55 Many persons have looked on it as a relic of prehistoric art the sacri- ficial stone of an Aztec teocalli perhaps but Mr. Hurlbut gives the cold truth; more modern though scarcely less romantic. He says it was set up in the fort, and soldiers, sick and well, used it as a lounging place. Some- times it served as a pillory for disorderly characters, and it was a com- mon expression or threat that for some offences the offender would "be sent to the* rock." Waubansa was a Chicago Chief, and a soldier sculptor tried to depict his features on the stone ; and (to quote Mr. Hurlbut): The portrait pleased the Indians, the liege friends of the chief, greatly, for a party of them, admitted within the stockade to see it, whooped and leaped as if they had achieved a victory ; and with uncouth gestures they danced in a triumphant circle around the rock. In 1837 .... Daniel Webster paid a visit to the West and took Chicago in his route The conveyance was a ba- rouche with four ele- gant creams attached. Mr. Webster was ac- companied by his daughter and son. Every wheel-vehicle, every horse and mule in town, it is said, were in requisition that day, and the senator was met some miles out by a numerous delegation from this the ne~v city, who joined in the pro- cession .... It was the Fourth of July . the column came over Randolph street bridge, and thence to the parade ground within the fort. There were guns at the fort which were eloquent, of course, though the soldiers had left some weeks before. The foundation of all this outcry about Mr. Webster is, that the base and platform upon which that gentleman stood when he made the speech within the fort was the rock, the same Wau- bansa stone Justin Butterfield (who stood directly in front of the senator) swung his hat and cheered the speaker. The "statue" was pierced to form the base of a fountain, and was set up as one of the curiosities of the great Sanitary Commission fair, held in 1865, in Dearborn Park, in aid of the sick and wounded in the war for the Union. In 1866 it was adopted as a relic by the Hon. Isaac N. Arnold member of Congress during the war, and one of the staunchest and ablest of patriots and most devoted of friends to the soldiers who moved it to his house in Erie street. Mr. Arnold's home was burned with the rest in the Great Fire of 1871, and old "Waubansa" passed through the flames with the same unmoved look which he had preserved through his earlier vicissitudes. After- WAVBANSA STONE. THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Bogus Towns and Cities. ward a lot of "fire relics" were grouped about him and a photograph taken, wherein, for the first time, he looks abashed as if conscious of the contrast between his uncouthness and the carvings which surround his ancient lineaments. The stone stands open to public view in the grounds adjoining the new home (100 Pine street, North Side) which Mr. Arnold built after the fire, and in which he lived up to the time of his lamented death in April, 1884. (Only the lack* of space, which excludes individual biographies, prevents the giving of a life of this great and good man. ) To "blow least two meanings: to inflate, and to explode. (Falstaff says, "A Plague of sighing and grief ! It blows a man up like a bladder.") It was Chicago's fate in about those days to be blown up in both senses of the word. The process of inflation is interesting, and would be amusing if it were not that explosion follows on inflation as effect on cause. The great gift of land to help build the canal, and the con- gressional grant of money to open the harbor, caused an influx of ready cash, while the fact that there was to be a canal and a har- bor indicated (in a faint degree) the coming value of the location. Therefore Chicago's inflation had a better basis of actual value than had nine-tenths of the " paper cities" which sprang up on all sides in the drunken days of 1835 an ^ 1836. Thousands of lots in "cities" which had never been surveyed, were sold to people who had never been within a thousand miles of the locality. Fifteen town sites were advertised in a single number of the Chicago " American," of which many of the names are unknown to-day, and the sites (if real) are still in a state of nature. When such follies were prevalent, how much more excusable were the vagaries of Chicago, which had, as time has proved, a basis of solid value ? In 1830, lots in the " original town" (Canal Trustee's first subdi- vision) were sold at from $25 to $iooeach. Alexander Wolcott bought eighty acres bounded by Chicago avenue, State street, Kinzie street and BENJAMIN W. RAYMOND, Builder of First Fire-proof Store. FAIRL Y LA UNCHED. '57 the North Branch at $1.25 an acre ; and a year or so later, Robert A. Kihzie bought " Kinzie's Addition" (Chicago avenue to Kinzie street, between State street and the Lake) at the same rate. The first lots sold in the original town, after being for two or three years tossed from hand to hand by luckless owners bought and sold and "swapped" like Indian ponies suddenly arose (as Captain Andreas says) to the dignity of realty. Bought at $60 to-day they bring $80 to-morrow and $100 the day after, while to our backward glance they were even then worth thousands ! Of the Tremont House lot (southeast corner of Lake and Dearborn streets) Mr. J. D. Bon- nell, in a letter to the " Times," dated March 15, 1876, says that one may hear varying stories as to the prices at which it might have been bought ; for instance : A cord of wood, that means 1831; a pair of boots, that means 1832 ; a barrel of whisky, that means 1833; a yoke of steers and a barrel of flour, that means 1834; five hundred dollars, that means 1835 ; five thousand dollars, that means 1836 or 1837. Mr. Bonnell doubtless states the case in caricature, for no lot in the original town was sold by the canal trustees for any such trivial sums. An extreme case is that of the " Opera House Block" lot, southwest corner of Clark and Washington streets, of which a deed, dated June 14, 1832, is still in existence, showing its sale for $61. Still, Mr. Bonnell's price for the Tremont corner in 1831 is not much further out of the way than it is in 1835, 1836 and 1837 ; the last must be multiplied by five, and so must the first; for J. B. Beaubien, at the sale of 1830, bought the property (two lots 160 feet square), with eight other lots, for $346 ; an average of $38.44 per lot, or $76.88 for the two. It has often been said that some Chicago lots were run up, in 1836, to a price higher than they would bring to-day; but the facts scarcely bear out that extravagance. Father St. Cyr wrote to Mr. Wentworth in 1880 that the lot on Lake street west of State promised him for the Catholic Church in 1833 for $200 was sold in 1834 for $300, to Dr. Egan, who, in 1836, sold it to Eastern speculators for $60,000. The * Indian word for exchanged. JASON GURLEY, Landlord of the Mansion House. Tradil lots: unal city .les. 1 5 8 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. lot was 80 by 150 feet, and, supposing the reverend father to have been correctly informed, and the price named to have been the " top notch," the sum falls still below present values. In 1834 the dropsical disease was firmly seated and land agents were plenty. In 1835 the Government land sales aggravated the malady. Those sales went on as follows : May 28 to June 30, sales under pre-emption 8 33,067 June 15 to June 30, public sale, John Bates, auctioneer 354,278 August 3 to August 31, private sales 61,958 September 17 to September 30, private sales 10,655 Total *4S9,95 8 The "Chicago American," August 15, 1835, reports sales of fractional Block No. 7 (Kinzie, Kingsbury & North Branch): In June, for $1,300; on August i for $1,950. Of Lot i, Block 2 (southwest corner of Dearborn and North Water): In June, $5,000; in August, $10,000. Lot 8, Block 16 (northwest corner of State and Lake streets): In June, $420; in August, $700. Skipping the convulsive leaps meanwhile, the lots of 1830, 1831, etc., sold in 1836 thus: Fifty feet front on South Water street, by 150 on Dearborn, brought $25,000. Captain Andreas quotes from the "American" Pro ressofthe (April, 1836): " There is a piece of land in Chicago costing $62 in 1830, which has risen in value one hundred per cent, per day. It was sold last week for $96,700. one-quarter down and the remainder in six, twelve and eighteen months, at ten per cent." Charles Butler, of New York, in a later issue of the same paper, says: In 1833, one quarter of Kinzie's addition was offered for $5,500, worth then $100,000. In 1833. forty acres of land worth $400 could not be purchased in 1836 for less than $200,000. In 1834 the " Hunter property " was purchased for $20.000. In the spring of 1835 it was resold for $100.000. It is now (September, 1836) worth $500,000. The Government land office had been opened here in 1835; sales, 370,000 acres; in 1836, 202,000; in 1837, 15,600. It never, up to its close in 1846, had a single year equal to 1835. Lots and lands were sold at auction by Augustus Garrett, who announced on October 27th, 1835, that he had sold, since January 4th, $1,800,000 of real and personal property. Ex-Lieutenant Governor William Bross, in his History of Chicago, gives a table showing the first sales of lots (1830) and the prices they brought; adding a column giving a careful estimate of the value of the same lots in 1853 when he wrote. Part of that statement is herewith pre- sented, with the addition of columns showing frontage and location, and a rough estimate of present (1891) value : excitement. FAIRL Y LA UNCHED. '59 -"S i c *;> |3* fc-a.c m o ui u~> O O O N O o O w> O N N r^. f> O "~* *t co co oot -, en 1-1 *-C_ co~* i u * - 1 h their presc . 88 3 8 8 [ 3 .0 il B.S >-> CO W Q fi O 1"^ " O f~> cOQ 01 O O - f - ^ O S 1 *" 1 2 K - be a c o U 1 1M" *^__l___!_,_i_,l.* r> c* c * : h itute strce roperly cons ice 1852. GINAL, TOWN. ), Buyers' names, prices, and later values. STREETS. g. : : c -j= : -g. : : : : : :::::?:: .^*' : :* c If i|ff Pffll sllEsjiJ |S1 |p orated in their rights of way and hence do not now p i firm has been continuously in Real Estate business sii J? S ^ S U, COCO 4 JcOCOCOCOCOTt--1- aj " CO u : i^g"y)>r.ir> nO"-tin*-*i^ ^ OOOOOOOOOOOOO O 'r> !*! a "o o o. J ^C = tfl f| U (/) U I Z 55 all e 2 S en u 1 8 C>c Ni ~''-'O - >c v ococococ'iM >- '>-'Or^-r^cotrnoOc') N4r)vri B< o e^ 4 : 2 *t" co r j^co c* co ^f o co c ccenc' cc^cc c2 rtoj^rt rtcfl r3cc rt t*} 100 N r^* ^^ r^ en \/^ t^ O a 'e f Z S PURCHASERS. "^ "Q 5 c_ c i if Skii I i i i us = s A -g 5 ^ S cd|SESsl s = S a' IH 3 Si 1 * it, < iS ! "; * These properties have been abso values are estimated as street frontage anc The estimates in the final column are i i6o THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Balestier's Lec- ture on these times. One of our very few and very precious scraps of local personal tes- timony half a century old, is the address of Joseph N. Balestier (a con- nection of the Kinzie family) delivered in the "Saloon Building" before the "Chicago Lyceum," January 21, 1840, whereof a copy for publication was asked by Grant Goodrich, William B. Ogden, Sidney Sawyer, Mark Skinner, David Hunter and John S. Wright. The lec- ture survived the vicissitudes of time and fire in a curious manner. An article in the Chicago "Tribune" of November 25, 1872, gives the circum- stances as follows*: The bosoms of the auditory fluttered with honest pride as young Balestier went through his manuscript and held the mirror up to the struggling, forlorn, but hopeful Garden City. ... It was neatly enough brought into typography by Edward Rudd, and, with the not unbecoming self-satis- faction of an author so honored, Balestier took a fair copy, wrote on the margin of the title page a pleasant note to General George P. Morris, of the New York "Mirror," asking his acceptance of the small brochure "from one of his corres- pondents." The little pamphlet had a mail journey of three weeks before the great New York editor turned over its modest pages, with much the same feeling, probably, with which a New York journalist of to-day would glance at the cheaply- printed, cheerful chirpings of a local lyceum lec- ture at Sitka. This identical copy, so addressed, drifted back again beyond the lakes, to be stitched into a bound volume in the State Library of Wisconsin, where a summer rambler among the interior lakes of our sister State came across it the other day. ' Mr. Balestier says that in 1835 the cities of the East were visited with an epidemic madness. It was suddenly discovered that the Amer- ican people had labored under serious misapprehension regarding the value of land, especially that which lay in cities and villages. The price of real property rose a hundred or a thousand-fold. Paper cities flourished, and the public mind became utterly diseased. This unwholesome spirit was confined to no classes. It extended into every walk of life. The farmer forsook the plow and became a speculator upon the soil instead of a producer from beneath the sod. The mechanic laid aside his tools and resolved to grow rich without labor. The lawyer sold his books and invested the proceeds in land. The physician "threw physic to the dogs," and wrote promissory notes instead of prescriptions. Even the day laborer became learned in the mys- teries of quit-claim and warranty, and calculated his fortune by thousands. When the mass of the community thus abandoned or neglected their proper pursuits, it may readily be assumed that the ignoble few who were willing to work received an ample reward for their pains. The price of labor was exorbitant; the simplest service was purchased at a dear rate. Even the barbers, who, since the days of Abraham, had shaved for sixpence, discovered that they had been working at half price. The great increase of consumers and the proportionate decrease of producers rendered the price of provisions-enormous. . . . Credit, reckless and indiscrimi- For this article, the lecture itself and other interesting matters connected therewith, see Fergus' Historica Series, No. i. GEO. F. FOSTER, Sail Loft, North Water Street. FAIRLY LAUNCHED. 161 nate, was the master principle of those wild and maddening days. . . . Already had the banks, which greatly multiplied at this period, issued sufficient paper promises to create a spirit of wild extravagance; but the property of the country rose too rapidly to be represented by an inflated bank-note circulation. Individuals, in humble imitation of the banks, issued their notes without stint or limit. ... If old-established communities were thus frightened from their propriety, it can scarcely be supposed that the rising village of Chicago should escape the contagion. The wonder, then, is, not that we speculated so much, but rather that we did not rush more madly into the vortex of ruin. . . . Here, at least, there was something received in exchange for the money of the purchaser. But the few miles that composed Chicago formed but a small item among the subjects of speculation. The prairies of Illinois, the forests of Wisconsin and the sand hills of Michigan presented a chain almost unbroken of supposititious cities and villages. The whole land seemed staked out and peopled on paper. . . . Not the puniest brook on the shore of Lake Michigan was suffered to remain without a city at its mouth, and whoever will travel around that lake shall find many a mighty mart staked out in spots suitable only for the habitations of wild beasts. This picturesque language _. ~ ; . becomes of redoubled interest when we reflect that it was uttered only five years after the occur- rences described. As "Mr. Bales- tier spoke the words, one might readily have found the town- sites he described, the long rows of lot stakes standing stark in their lonely desolation. In 1836 and 1837 the Illinois legislature, carried away by the spirit of the age, entered on a sys- tem of "public improvements;" canals, railways, turnpikes, etc., which was perhaps the craziest exploit of even that crazy time. Bonds were voted and sold, railroads loca- ted and begun, and other wild things done; all a full generation in advance of the needs of commerce and the. ability of finance. Abraham Lincoln, then a member of the legislature, in spite of all the native common sense he afterward showed, was not too shrewd to be taken in by the transparent folly ; he was not only a party to the movement, but an enthusiastic leader in it. This was really after the general " craze " had nearly culminated ; and, though it seemed an effort to make up for lost time, still its reign was so short as to be, though positively disastrous, yet harmless compared to what might have been its results if begun earlier. Suppose the State bonds to have been voted in 1835 instead of January, 1837, the millions which would have found a market would perhaps have been either finally repudiated, or have remained a burden to this day ; when, in fact, Illinois is quite out of debt. At the same time the melancholy wrecks that mark that old error, instead of being CHARLES N. HOI.DEN, " Red Log Grocery," South Water Street. Foolish Legis State lation. Z62 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. few and scattered, would have covered the State. Having in it all ele- ments of failure, the sooner the whole scheme failed the better. The Milwaukee "Advertiser," of June 14, 1836, gives a reported conversation between two Chicago men : " What did you give for your portrait ? " "I gave twenty-five dollars for it, and have been offered fifty already." The balloon was certainly " blown up" in the first sense, and about ready to be " blown up" in the second. INSIMF. OF OLD FORT LAKE HOUSF. IN THF. DISTANCE. CHAPTER XVII. THE HARD TIMES OF 1837-40. HAT goes up must come down, sooner or later, according as it is built solidly or flim- sily. An Eastern proverb says that "the arch never rests," even the vaulted stone goes always down, down till it finds earth- level again how much more the bubble or the house of cards ! Many panics, depressing and disas- trous, have swept over our land; never one so wide-spread, so complete, so terrible as that of 1837. Some have been merely financial, or industrial, or commercial; but this " squeeze," for various reasons, reached every branch of every business. In the East, Jackson's withdrawal of the Govern- ment deposits from the United States Bank caused (or rather precipi- tated) its failure, and that great collapse dragged down every public banking institution within its influence. In the whole West a season of prolonged drought brought even the tillers of the virgin soil to actual want, and a huge speculation in public lands fell in ruins with the depression of agriculture. In Illinois, a system of public works based on public debt had been instituted which contemplated (besides the Illinois & Michigan Canal) the outlay of $9,350,000 in railroad building, and $850,000 in other things; in all $10,200,000, as follows : Railroads: Cairo to Galena (Central) $3,500,000 Alton to Mt. Carmel 1,600,000 Northern Cross 1,800,000 Branch of the Central to Terre Haute 650,000 " Alton 600,000 Peoria to Warsaw 700,000 Belleville to Mt. Carmel 150,000 Bloomington to Mackinawtown 350,000 Great Western Mail Route (highway) 250,000 Improvement of the Wabash, Illinois, Rock, Little Wabash, & Kaskaskia rivers 400,000 To counties in lieu of railroads and canals 200,000 To show how universal was the craze, it should be noticed that Stephen A. Douglas (Democrat) framed and introduced the bill; Abraham Lincoln (Whig) supported it; and when Governor Duncan (Whig) wisely vetoed the measure, both houses passed it over his veto, 183 Legislative scheme of Public Im- provements. 164 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. The total length of railway proposed was 1,341 miles, a point only reached just about twenty years later, 1857. But the projectors were not only twenty years too soon in their plan ; they were also all wrong as to their method, that of State construction and ownership. Governor Duncan, in his message of 1835. used the wise words: " 1 would most respectfully suggest the propriety of leaving all such works, wherein it can be done consistently with the general interest, to individual enter- prise ; " which advice, Judge Moses truly observes, had it been .heeded, would have been the means of averting manv serious evils which after- THE HARD TJMES OF 1837-40. ,6 5 ward befell the State. Governor Duncan suffered the fate usually awaiting the man who is right when the rest of the world is wrong. In the next election for Governor his name was not even mentioned, and when he did become again a candidate (in 1842) he was defeated. The public often admits itself to have been mistaken, but seldom forgives the man who has convicted it of its mistake. It will be observed that all plans for railways were conceived in the view of local convenience, the idea of through lines not having yet taken root. So thoroughly was this the case that counties through which no road or canal was to pass were to be appeased by an appropriation of money. A separate act aimed at the completion of the canal, authoriz- ing the sale of $1,000,000 worth of. canal lands and an additional loan of $500,000. The capital of the State bank was increased to $2,000,000, and that of the Bank of Shaw- neetown to $1,400,000. Then, says Judge Moses, in his excellent History of Illinois: The legislature adjourned March 6, amid the plaudits of a grateful constituency. Only the so-called misguided and narrow-minded minority were received with coldness and made the subjects of public censure. The adjournment was followed by an era of speculation. There was about to be realized in rich fruition the rose-colored future of prosperity depicted by the governor in his message of 1835, in which he alluded to railroads and canals "bearing with seeming triumph the rich productions of the interior to the rivers, lakes and ocean, and almost annihilating time, burthen and STKI'HF.N A. DOUGLASS space.' In 1838, the pinch having come, suspension of specie payments was authorized by law. But the issue of irredeemable currency by the State banks went on, and so did the " internal improvements," not one of which, except the canal, was ever other than a bill of expense. In 1830 ' pended. the State debt reached $13,230,550. Still, at the same time, Ohio owed nearly $15,000,000; Indiana $14,000,000, and even little Michigan, with a population of only 212,276, owed $6.000,000! In 1840 Illinois had 476,183; and it was in that year let all loyal Illinoisans plume them- selves on this in the midst of deep financial tribulation and frantic political strife, the legislature, without distinction of party, tried heroic expedients for paying interest on the State debt, going so far as to lay an additional tax of ten cents on the $100 (later raised to 35 cents on the $ i oo) for that express purpose, and at last pledging $804,000 of pub|u . bonds for $261,500 of cash, (i Moses, 443.) Meantime the work on the st pp ed - internal improvement scheme was discontinued. To quote Governor Ford's history of Illinois, " The channels of trade had been obstructed, and the vitality of business seemed almost extinct." In February, ' 166 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. 1842, the State Bank and the Shawneetown Bank "exploded with a great crash," leaving more than $3,000,000 of irredeemable currency afloat. The tide of immigration ceased to flow into the State, and there could hardly be found suf- ficient money to pay taxes. Produce could not be sold for cash at any price, and was valuable to the owner only as a sort of circulating medium available in trade. The following were the " mar- ket prices" in Central Illinois for leading articles, namely: Wheat, 40 to socents per bushel; corn, 10 to 12; pork $1.50 per hundred. It required forty pounds of butter (selling at from 5 to 8 cents per pound) to buy the farmer's wife a calico dress of eight yards the usual size of the pattern at Bank> fail. that time the price being from i8J|" to 37^ cents per yard; twenty-five dozen eggs would only pur- chase one dollar's worth of coffee, five pounds. Ten bushels of corn would scarcely outweigh in value eight pounds of sugar, and the hog had to be a large one that would liquidate the price of a pair of boots. Everybody was in debt, and there was only " produce " to pay with, at these starvation prices. The newspapers were filled with notices of bankruptcy and of sales by trustees and sheriffs. (I Moses, 452-3.)* Judge Caton, looking back on those days, says, " I had to take for law fees anything I could get in farm products. I could buy pork at $1.50 a hundred pounds, but the $1.50 was very hard to get." Governor Ford, elected in 1842 as a Democrat, but essentially an independent, said in his first message that there was not enough S tM teT 7S u a e v mone y m tne State treasury to pay postage on State correspondence, and the postmaster refused credit. Auditor's warrants were selling at 50 cents on the dollar; State bonds, 14 cents. In the same breath Ford advocated payment of every dollar of public debt, and the com- pletion (on a diminished scale) of the canal, Verily, " there were giants in those days." The State surrendered to the banks the stock in them which it had held, receiving in return the bonds which it had issued for such stock, and the banks began redeeming their circulating notes as best they might doubtless taking bad currency in payment of bad debts s S btand finally retiring and cancelling them all. The State debt had been reduced by these means until on January i, 1845, it stood as follows: Illinois and Michigan Canal debt $4,741,783 Internal improvement, banks and State house 6,712,886 $11,454,669 To this must be added accumulation of interest from July, 1841 (the date of latest payment), amounting to $2,323,199.! The total assessed value of the State's real estate for 1844 was fifty-one millions, personal property sixteen millions. It would not now be hard to find three or four Chicago men able to join hands and buy, at assessed valu- ation, everything there was in the State, pay its debt, complete its canal and have enough left to give their families three meals a day after all. The lowest prices for grain ever reached in Chicago during recorded times were in 1843, when white winter wheat was worth but thirty-eight cents per bushel; corn eighteen cents. t The sum of this indebtedness, $13,777,868, is just about the present total debt of Chicago (1891), $13.545,400. But the disparity of assets and liabilities becomes very glaring when we compare the assessed valuation of the State in 1841, $67,000,000, with that of Chicago tonlay, $219,354,368. The State owed nearly one dollar in five of total valuation; the city owes less than one dollar in sixteen, under an assessed valuation notoriously inadequate. THE HARD TIMES OF 1837-40. ,67 The summer of 1838 showed an accumulation of miseries. Drought that evil whose touch is death in a farming region pre- vailed over the whole West. No rain fell from July igth until Novem- ber. Streams dried up and springs yielded poor water. Fatal fever broke out in Chicago. Work on the canal was nearly suspended by a strange disease called, for want of a better name, " canal cholera." It carried off its victims in a few hours and many of the dead lay along the road near Bridgeport, unburied for days together ; all the well being afraid of catching and spreading the deadly epidemic. Judge Blodgett served on the canal as "rod man" in the engineer- ing force, near Lemont. He says this disease was like yellow fever, and came from the malarious ex- halations of the upturned soil, the hard work in the hot sun, and the unwholesome living on pork and poor bread. Work" began at half- past six in the morning, at ten a pail of whiskey was passed and each man given a "jigger" from a tin cup. At noon an hour was allowed for dinner, at three or four another "jigger" was served, and work stopped at six. The fever victims would be seized with black vomit at night and die next morn- ing, and they would bury them as soon as might be. There was but little drinking, except the "jig- gers," and he never heard of any unburied dead. The writer, a resident of Michigan in 1840, remembers the distress, the utter absence of specie, the prevalence of the worthless " Michigan money " (dreadfully scarce, poor as it was) ; the feeling deepseated in a small boy's hea,rt, that "hard times "were the natural state of man and that anything else must be a delusion, foolish, insane, temporary and evanescent. He even remembers a political caricature used in the Harrison campaign of 1840 to show the consequences of the Demo- cratic (" Locofoco") rule of Jackson and Van Buren. It displayed a mass of struggling, poverty-stricken wretches standing in Wall street while one building showed the legend, " Bank. No specie payments made here;" another, "Custom house. Nothing but specie taken here." Canal cholera. JUDGE BLODGETT. Personal reminiscences. i6S THE STORY OF CHICAGO. The " Michigan currency" went by the epithets opprobrious and appropriate of " red-dog," "wild-cat," " shinplasters," etc. It is said Red-dog,- that a certain man, having this money offered to him, exclaimed : " Oh "Wild-cat" , . . . . ^ T f , . se e here ! can t you give me something else ? if you ve got any good Eastern counterfeits, I'd rather have them !" Turning now to Chicago, how did she stand the pressure of ill luck ? There was plenty of it. As Mr. Balestier says : The professional speculator and his victims were swallowed up in one common ruin. Trust- ing to the large sums due to him, the land operator involved himself more and more deeply, until his fate was more pitiable than that of his defrauded dupes. The year 1837 will ever be remem- bered as the. era of protested notes; it was the harvest to the notary and to the lawyer, the year of wrath to the mercantile, producing and laboring interests. Misery inscribed its name on many a face lately radiant with high hopes; despair was stamped on many a countenance which was wont to be wreathed in smiles. Broken fortunes, blasted hopes, aye, and blighted characters; these were the legitimate offspring of those pestilent times. The land resounded with the groans of ruined men and the sobs of defrauded women who had entrusted their all to greedy speculators. It was a scene of woe and desolation. Temporary relief came in the shape of Michigan money but, like all empty expedients, it, in the end, aggravated the disease it pretended to cure. Let us turh from this sickening spectacle of disaster and ruin. Mad as her citizens had been. Chi- cago was Chicago still. Artificial enterprises had failed, but nature was still the same. Professor Colbert, in his history of Chicago (p. 21), says: When the crash came in the autumn of 1837 the selling value of real estate fell almost to zero. For three or four years it was scarcely possible to realize anything on so-called property and not till after 1842 was there a sign of recovery. In 1841 sale was made of a number of lots on the east side of Michigan avenue, between South Water and Randolph streets, the average price being five dollars per front foot. In the Chicago Magazine for April, 1857 (p. 139), we read that in 1839, at the sale of the Fort Dearborn land, lots on Michigan avenue sold still lower than those above named ; going at $5 1 for 48 feet. John S. Wright, an excellent citizen and conservative man, said in after years: " By 1840 my property had all gone. What had cost me $100,000 went for $6,000; what had cost $12,000 brought but $900." In June, 1837, the City scrip was issued in denominations of $i, $2 and $3, bearing interest at one per cent, per annum, receivable for taxes not exceeding $5,000. At the same time some Chicagoans were sturdy anti-inflationists, for J. S. C. Hogan resigned the office of Town Treasurer rather than be party to the borrowing by the town of $2,000. No specimens of this currency are now known to exist. In these years was issued the "Canal Scrip" in various shapes and forms. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of the old stuff are in the vaults of the Historical society, and four varieties of its issues are here reproduced, that "old residenters" maybe reminded of the aspect of " money " which they were once so eager to get hold of and, a little later, to get rid of. The earliest in date is August i, 1839, and is a broad, dignified- looking bill, reminding one of the Bank of England's five-pound note. various kinds. THE HARD TIMES OF 1837-40. Its vignette is a steamboat ; with one of the old " sash-frame " engines, used before even the "walking-beam" was introduced. It is a ninety-day draft for $100, dated at Lockport, drawn on the Branch State Bank at Chicago, signed by W. F. Thornton, president, IDGOG; JJOOCDOGGOQ: tate ,Ai!tu &> me enter 3C i?* ^ r TREASUSBR'S Ui'KICK OK 7 UK ILL'-. ^ Mir 11: ('AXAl. l^trfstf '*i\ t <-i' * / . / .- / /''"<. f i X, ^ / t^r The second bill is a check, dated at Lockport, October i, 1839, drawn on the Chicago Bank to the order of David Prickett, treasurer, and signed by W. F. Thornton, president, and Jacob Fry, acting com- missioner. Its vignette is doubtless borrowed from the Erie Canal (then about eighteen years old), as it shows a canal boat and team 170 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Strupplinp to keep faith. engaged in passing a lock. The bill is severely plain compared with the earlier issue. It bears the name of P. A. Mesier's Lith., 28 Wall street, New York. This is probably the issue which Judge Blodgett remem- bers as having been conterfeited not, however, successfully, for he says that the counterfeit bills were easily detected because they were so muck better than the genuine. Number three is the most pretentious of all, and bears the name of Woodruff & Childs, Cincinnati. It is in a form resembling a modern bank bill. It is dated at the office of the Board of Public Works, Springfield, March 18, 1840, and directs the Fund Commissioner to pay to the order of J. Beall, Commissioner of the Board, $100, with interest from June 1 5, 1 840, at six per cent, per annum ; signed J . Hogan, Pres't, and Wm. Prentiss, Sec'y. Its vignette is a curiosity, showing as it does a railway train of the earliest construction. Each of the three , /,:/. <- ;7. . $387 oo 1 5 75 $4.62 In 1891 1 8 I OO I I 2 I 2 f a typical family for them on the Du Page, near where Naperville now stands. David n>'s"<'n- was to send word to Israel as soon as he got news of their arrival. This news came by the Indian who carried the mail between Chicago and Detroit, who passed the teams somewhere on the road ; and McKee met the party down at the Calumet crossing, where they arrived one Saturday night. Never, in the whole journey, had the good Puri- tans traveled on a Sunday ; but now, their own provisions being exhausted, and all they could get at the Calumet being not enough to last them till Monday, they were forced to come on to the fort and set- tlement on the Sabbath. Here Israel met them and told them that he had picked out a spot which, for soil, timber, water and locality, he thought could not be beaten. They had from the start resolved to get on the waters con- necting with the Mississippi, for they looked to the Gulf for the great future outlet for farm products. The head of the party was one Jones, a stout old Cromwell, who was his own judge of what was right and best, find his own general to make his judgment prevail. He had a brother already here, who, without any instructions, had pitched upon a spot further down the valley, on the Bureau River. This was nearer the Mississippi and the Gulf, and to that location the leader's face was firmly set. But Israel was also firm, so the colony divided ; three families staying on the Du Page and the rest going on to the Bureau. Both sections did well, the Joneses founding Princeton, and the Blod- getts, Naperville. Israel went back to his claim (thirty miles west by south), to finish the cabin, and his family stayed with the McKees. Mrs. McKee got up 188 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. a tea-party in honor of Mrs. Blodgett, inviting every white woman in the neighborhood, who, when assembled, made a company of six : Mrs. Graves, Mrs. Hamilton, Mrs. Owen, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. McKee and Mrs. Blodgett.* The canal was started and everything a farmer could raise found ready market. Young Henry worked and studied, and in course of time had a year of schooling at the East. Then he returned and taught school a year, and served a time on the engineering corps on the canal. Israel was a corporal in Captain Naper's company of mounted volun- , -*--- ILLINOIS FARM. teers for the Black Hawk War, but the company saw no field service. He grew rich on his farm, dying full of years and of honors, and his son became, as all the world knows, first a distinguished lawyer, and later a Federal judge, attaining a degree of distinction on the bench almost unique in its eminence. Such is the story of a single migration and "growing up with the country; " not differing from others except in that one of its members reached an exceptional elevation through exceptional powers. An interesting narrative of the times has survived in an interesting way. It is Sylvester Marsh's testimony before a Senate Committee on Education and Labor : Chicago grew very fast, and in 1835 there must have been 2,500 people there. We then went down to the Wabash country, as we called it, and bought cattle and hogs and drove them up for market. In 1836 they commenced buildingthe canal and in that year I packed 6,ooohogs there, mostly * Twenty years and more after this, Mrs. Blodgett, being in Chicago, went to call on one of the other ladies, who grew quite eloquent on the absurdity of the claim of later comers to be classed as old settlers. Said she, "You and I, Mrs. Blodgett, know better ; for we saw the very tegunment of it all ! " XEVER SAY DIE. 189 forborne consumption. The contractors took the pork for their men. The State failed to pay in 1838-9 and work on the canal was stopped. State bonds went down to 25 cents on the dollar and the State issued what was called " Canal Scrip" to pay the contractors what was owed them for work they had done. That was afterward redeemed, dollar for dollar. . . One section of the canal land was right in the heart of old Chicago. It was sold in June, 1836, for a quarter down and the balance in one, two and three years ("Canal time"), and I think there was but one man in the city that made his second payment, P. F. W. Peck. . . Everybody burst up the banks and everybody else went up. The Canal went along for a while. Contracts were entered into by the State and work went along until 1839, the State trying every way to pay, and about that time they stopped. From 1836 to 1842, when the United States bankrupt law was passed, there was no responsibility. No man had anything hardly that he could call his own. "The Forties " saw the beginning, in a small way, of nearly all the great institutions Chicago now enjoys. In 1841 the first water-works were built. The first propeller was launched in 1842, in which year the exports were for the first time greater than the imports. The first book compiled, printed, bound and issued is said to have been in 1843. The first meat for the English market was packed in 1844. The first permanent public school building was built in 1845. In 1846 the River and Harbor convention met, and Chicago was made a port of entry. ^'-"th?!-! In 1847 the first permanent theatre was opened (Rice's; south side of Randolph street between State and Dearborn streets), and McCor- mick's reaper factory was started. In 1848 the first telegram was received, being a message from Milwaukee, and later the " Pioneer" our first locomotive, was landed from the schooner "Buffalo" and started out on- the Galena railway. In the same year the Board of Trade was established and the canal opened. In 1849 the "Chicago & Galena Union Railroad " was opened to Elgin. Surely this is a fair decade's work for a " ruined city," and yet we know that these are merely typical and conspicuous enterprises which, great as they are, would shrink into insignificance if one could see the thousands of individual achievements O which were going on unmarked meanwhile. Concerning the water supply, the " American," of June 10, 1842, says: The whole outlay of the company has been about $24,000. A large brick building has been erected [northeast corner of Michigan avenue and Lake street] with a pier running into the lake. The steam engine is of 25 horse-power. The working barrel of the pump is 14 inches in diameter and 44 inches stroke double action. The suction pipe by which the water is drawn from the lake is also 14 inches in diameter and 320 feet in length. The pump raises upward of 25 barrels of water per minute, 35 feet above the level of the lake. There are two reservoirs each of the capacity of 1,250 barrels, a space of about 50 minutes is required to fill each of the reservoirs. The reservoir is of The Lake street ,,.,,.. .. hydraulic sufficient elevation to throw water into the second story of any building in town. About two miles works. in length of pipe are now laid down. The machinist under whose direction these works have been put into such complete and successful operation, is Mr. Ira Miltimore. It was for a long time con- fidently predicted that his undertaking would prove a complete failure. These predictions were to him a source of constant and harassing anxiety. It can scarcely be imagined how keenly intent were his feelings, when the works were on the point of being put into operation. His feelings at that moment were assuredly not to be envied They were to be envied when the regular evolution, the easy play, the harmonious action of every part of the machinery announced the triumph of skill. The 25 horse-power engine was so far in advance of the city's hydraulic needs that in 1842 a contract was made with James Long 190 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. whereby he agreed to run the pumps gratis for ten years for the privi- lege of using the spare power in operating a flour-mill. In pursuance of this agreement, Mr. Long built a brick mill, with three run of stone, and actually ran it for ten years, doing a good business. His son still remembers seeing an Irishman with a "pod auger" boring out length- wise the logs needed to convey the entire water supply of the young metropolis, and even as this chapter is being written a log of water pipe has been dug up (in excavating for the foundations of the Cook County Abstract building, No. 98 Washington street), which is in good condi- tion and, like other relics, connects old things with new in an amusing fashion. Mr. Long had his own troubles to keep the insufficient appa- ratus at work. He said : " In winter the pipes would be disarranged by the heaving of the frost, and I had frequently to spend hours at a time to caulk up the joints by throwing on water and thus freezing up the cracks before we could make the pumps work." . . Chicago had no start no life until the legislature passed what we called the relief law; that is, they gave us as much of the land as we had paid for. If a man had bought four lots and paid the full value for one, the relief law gave us one lot and then gave us up our notes. (Andreas, p. 501.) This calls to mind a remark of Judge Lockwood, remembered by Justice Caton. While prices were " booming," many bills in chancery were filed by buyers to compel the " specific performance " of contracts to convey land. Said the Judge : " The day will come when they will be as anxious to get out of contracts as they are now to enforce them." CHAPTER XIX. RIVER AND HARBOR CONVENTION. r EXAS was annexed in 1845, a d Zachary Taylor with 4,000 regulars marched across the country to the Rio Grande, thus neces- sarily creating a state of war with Mexico, which claimed Texas, though in revolt, as part of its territory. The Mexicans at- tacked Taylor's forces in May, 1846, and were defeated at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. President Polk asked for 50,- ooo volunteers, and Governor Ford called on Illinois for thirty companies to serve one year ; the men to choose their own company and regimental officers. Two companies were allotted to Chicago, and w Captain Lyman Mower and Captain Elisha Wells unfurled the flag and enrolled the volunteers who came forward freely and soon filled the ranks. A second call was made in 1847, one regiment only being required from Illi- nois, one company from Chicago. In the three companies appear some well-known names, notably Murray F. Tuley, now a Circuit Court Judge, Charles C. P. Holden and one or two others. These were fol- lowed by other companies and innumerable scattered enlistments; the entire number from Illinois reaching 6,315. They volunteered freely, did their work well and suffered severely in killed and wounded and still more by the other casualties of the march and the hospitals. Their names were honored and cherished for their patriotic sacrifices, though the feeling toward them was necessarily dif- ferent from that entertained for their brothers-in-arms of fifteen years later; who fought not simply for the glory of their land but for its very life. Hither comes Chicago's canal at last. Now what will she do with it ? True, she has an opening from her two-branched streamlet to the lake ; a narrow, shallow, unstable ditch through a sandbar, and a short pier to check the beach-sand from choking it at once. This has been 191 Mexican ar. 1 9 2 THK STORY OF CHICAGO. CHARLES C. I'. H01.DE.S. Previous River and Harbor bills. Folk's veto. the work of small appropriations by Congress in its annual " River and Harbor Bills."* These acts began with the first Congress after the adoption of the Federal constitu- tion, wherein the Nation, from and after August 15, 1789, assumed care, support and control of " all light- houses, beacons, buoys and public piers, erected, placed or sunk at the entrance of or within any bay, inlet, harbor or port of the United States, for rendering the navigation thereof easy and safe." This bill was signed by Washington, and succeeding acts for like purpose were signed by Adams, Jefferson and Madison. The first distinctively Lake harbor bill was signed by Monroe. Other like bills were signed by John Quincy Adams, Jackson and Van Buren ; the appropriations under the two latter (both of them Democrats, and "strict constructionists ") amounted to $7,800,000. Next follows the Mexican War for slave territory, and James K. Polk, of Tennessee, to administer the government and favor the "pe- culiar institution." Polk makes the discovery that measures of this kind are both unwise and unconstitu- tional! The River and Harbor bill, passed and presented to him for signature, had twenty-three items looking toward our northern lakes and rivers, inluding a lump sum of $80,000 for Racine, Little Fort * The appropriations were as follows: In 1833, $25 ooo; in 1834, $30,000; in 1835, $30,000 ; in 1836, $25,000; in 1837, $30,000 ; in 1838-9, $40,000 ; in 1842, $30.000 ; the last expended under the supervision of Captain (afterwards General) George B. McClellan. The constructions were the north pier, 3,000 feet lonp, and the south pier, 1,800 feet. This year (1846) the sand had begun to form a dangerous bar outside the end of the north pier, and the available channel had shallowed up to ten feet and less of depth Now came Folk's veto of the appropriation needed to pre- vent it from closing entirely. AI.KXANDKR WOLCOTT. RIVER AND HARBOR CONVENTION. 193 (Waukegan), Southport, Milwaukee and Chicago. But he had his war on hand, and vetoed the bill, saying: Some of the objects of the appropriation are local in their character and lie within the limits of a single State; and though in the language of the bill they are called harbors, they are not con- nected with foreign commerce, nor are they places of refuge or shelter for our navy or commercial marine on the ocean or lake shores. . . It would seem the dictate of wisdom under such circumstances to husband our means and not waste them on comparatively unimportant objects. One does not wonder at the fury excited by this insolence, or the disastrous defeat suffered by the Democrats in the next election, when Taylor was elected over Cass. The Chicago "Journal " says (August 12, 1846): Thus discourses James K. Polk in his veto message on the Harbor bill, and the sentiment is an insult to the country: " Husband our means forsooth!" Are not millions being squandered by this same James K. Polk for the invasion of Mexico and the extension of slavery? Are not steam- boats being bought and chartered daily, at enormous prices, to enrich his favorite prodigals? Are not the Treasury doors unbarred whenever the " open sesame " is whispered by the slave driver? C And yet Mr. Polk outrages the intelligence of the people, his masters, by claiming, when a pittance is asked for a great Northern interest, that we must " husband our means." That the object for which we ask them is comparatively UNIMPORTANT! . The same spirit and energy that forced emancipation of the whole country from Great Britain will throw off the Southern yoke. The North and West will look to and take care of their own interests henceforth. . . . We shall see. The spirit of freedom yet lingers about Bunker Hill, Bennington and Saratoga, and there are children yet living of the fathers whose bones are bleaching there. They have ever been willing to allow more than justice to their Southern brethren, but they will not allow them to be their masters they will have justice. The fiat has gone forth Southern rule is at an end. The infant city, born but ten years before these stirring utterances, evidently came early to its voice. Within the next twenty years the spirit of Bunker Hill did arise, and the yoke was thrown off. The same kind of irritation was felt all over the North. In New England it took a form fairly typified by Lowell in his " Biglow Papers;" which are dialect verses like the following : On'y look at the Demmercrats, see wut they've done Jest simply by stickin' together like fun; They've sucked us right into a mis'able war Thet no one on airth ain't responsible for; To the people they're oilers ez slick ez molasses. An' butter their bread on both sides with The Masses, Half o' whom they've persuaded, by way of a joke, Thet Washin'ton's mantelpiece fell upon Polk. A non-partisan convention was called, largely through the initiative of William Moseley Hall,* who from 1845 to 1848 was agent at St. Louis of the Lake Steamboat Association, connecting by Frink & Walker's stage lines, and later by Illinois & Michigan canal packets with Illinois In 1882 the Fergus Printing Co. got together all the matter in existence regarding this convention and pub- lished it as number 18 of their inestimable " Historical Series." It forms a fine book of 200 pages and should be owned and read by every Chicago man; as should, in fact, the whole series. With it are printed late letters of William Moseley Hall, recalling with pardonable pride the part he took in the River and Harbor movement. Also disclosing something that is less pleasant to think of. namely, that even his cash outlays ($576) in its behalf have never been refunded to him; and that he is now old and not rich he would be glad to receive them. 194 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. river steamers to St. Louis. He, Calling of the MAHLOX D. OGDEN. in harmony; for we see Wentworth, "Journal"), Hoyne, Kinzie, Sher- man, Newberry, Hubbard, Couch, Magie, Alonzo Huntington, Peck, Gurley, Frink, Walker, Page, Egan, Brainard, Calhoun, Cobb, and numberless men then more newly arrived, though now (1891) numbered with the dead, or classed with the others as "old settlers." Preliminary meetings were also held in Buffalo, Michigan Citv * an d other places, each passing res- olutions and sending delegates. The great event was fixed for July 5, 1847. A grand civic and military procession was the open- ing function, with artillery and infantry, city officials, a ship on wheels with all sail set, fire depart- ment, citizen societies, etc., and bands and banners innumerable. ' with our Robert Fergus, William Duane Wilson, of Milwaukee, and Thomas Sherwood, of Buffalo, called a meeting at Rathbun's ho- tel in New York on September 28, 1846, reported in following day's New York "Herald." The next step was a Chicago meeting at the Court House on November i3th, called by William B. Ogden, S. Lisle Smith and George W. Dole, and presided over by Mark Skin- ner, with E. B. Williams and B. W. Raymond as vice-presidents, and Geo. W. Meeker and Mahlon D. Ogden as secretaries. J. Young Scammon, Isaac N. Arnold and Norman B. Judd offered appropri- ate resolutions. Besides those men- tioned there were numerous others soon engaged, all parties working Goodrich, Manierre, Wilson (of the THOMAS HOYNE. (What a feature of those old days RIVER AND HARBOR CONVENTION. *95 was the fire department, with its shining apparatus and red-shirted, leather-hatted citizens! In the afternoon, at a competitive show, "Red Jacket" threw a stream over the top of the public square flag-staff.)* The procession halted at Dearborn Park (Michigan avenue, Ran- dolph and Washington streets) where a monster pavilion had been erected, capable of seating 5,000 people, and well filled with delegates and spectators at every session. The attendance was large and distinguished, reaching to about three thousand delegates. Among them we find the names of Schuyler Col- fax, Abraham Lincoln, Anson Burlingame, Oliver Newberry, Edward FRANK SHERMAN. PETER PAGE. Attendance. Bates, J. De P. Ogden, David Dudley Field, Philip Hone, Horace Greeley, Thurlow Weed, James Brooks, John C. Spencer, Erastus strangers in Corning, John L. Schoolcraft, Andrew White, etc. Noteworthy letters were received from Thomas H. Benton, Silas Wright, Henry Clay, Martin Van Buren, Daniel Webster and others. The convention sat July 5th, 6th and yth, and with much adroitness avoided the Scylla and Charybdis of political partizanship, Whiggism and Democracy, which threatened it on either hand. This must have been particularly hard, for the very occasion of their being called together was a political act by a partisan president whom some of the members supported while others opposed him. * The " Evening Journal " of the 6th grows fairly incoherent with enthusiasm, and holds forth in a single sentence a third of a column without taking breath on the "dangers that throng our waters and rise like the mists from their surface, festering in many a living heart " THE STORY OF CHICAGO. egate. One little circumstance shows " ragged edge." It is this: David Dudley Field, a distinguished New m a Dei- York Democrat, addressed the con- vention on Tuesday, and on the afternoon of the same day a resolu- tion was passed which expressed regret at "the ill-feeling which had been evinced while Mr. Field was speaking"; and pledged the conven- tion to regard, in future, the rights of all members who should confine themselves to the rules. Later in the same session this entry appears: "Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, being called upon, addressed the convention briefly," Horace Greeley, in his letter written that evening to the New York "Tribune" expressed himself as follows : how near they hovered to the Horace Greeley. ALONZO HUNTINGTON. Hon. Andrew Stewart, of Pennsylvania, was next called out and made a vigorous and ani- mated speech in favor o* Internal Improvement. . . It pleased right well a majority of the convention, but brought up in opposition Mr. David Dudley Field, of our city, who favored us with an able and courteous speech in favor of " strict construction." . . He denied the right of the Federal Government to improve the navigation of the Illinois river, since it runs through a single state only, or of the Hudson above a port of entry. The convention, or rather a portion of its members, manifested consider- able impatience during the latter portion of this speech, which is to be regretted, for Mr. Field was perfectly courteous and not at all tedious. For my part I rejoiced that the wrong side of the question was so clearly set forth. When he had concluded the convention adjourned to dinner. In the afternoon Hon. Abraham Lincoln, a tall specimen of an Illinoisan, just elected to Con- gress from the only Whig district in the State, spoke briefly and happily in reply to Mr. Field. Mr. Greeley's whole letter is delightful reading, full of jest and anecdote, poetical quotations, good-natured thrusts at his oppo- nents and serious against the position then widely held though it now seems to THOMAS CHURCH. (Health Officer.) arguments us RIVER AND HARBOR CONVENTION. '97 absurd that it was only foreign and strictly inter-state commerce which the Government had a right to help by light-houses and river and harbor improvements. Thurlow Weed also wrote capital letters to the Albany " Evening Journal." With all the vigor of capitals and ex- clamation points, he boasts of coming " from Albany to Detroit (nearly 700 miles) in FIFTY-ONE HOURS!" and adds, "We are, they tell us, the only persons who ever per- formed the journey in so short a time." He reports several speeches, but unhappily not Lincoln's. Tom Corwin's is a gem of fun and sarcasm. Turning to Mr. Wentworth, Representative in Congress from this district, he continued: "Gentlemen; when he and I can agree on any subject, there must be harmony: I might say that the gentleman is latitudi- narian on the subject; perhaps this is owing to his longitude. He goes his whole length." Horace Greeley must have been pleasant to listen to; Mr. Weed reports him as saying that he had cherished the hope that his reputation as a bad speaker had become national, and regretted to dis- cover it had been only local. . . . He was accustomed to look to the Thurlow results of such meetings as these. His ears heard coldly the shouts which ascended in commemoration of victorious battles, but he loved to hear the triumphs of such victories as the Erie and Welland Canals. Weed prophecies that in ten years Chicago will exceed Albany He says they rode out a few miles to get a glimpse of the prairies. We found the road all the way occupied with an almost unbroken line of wagons, drawn gen- erally by two yokes of oxen. These teams are called " prairie schooners." Felix Grundy McCon- nell, among his last acts, asked the House of Representatives to " Resolve, that this is a great country and constantly increasing." One needs to visit Chicago to realize and confess that the proposition is one of undeniable truth. It is said here that the article in the Union [Washington] throwing cold water on the conven- tion, kept Senators Breese and Douglas, with other leading Locofocos, away. But a large number of the " bone and sinew " of the Democracy of the West are here. Weed's account. THE STORY OF CHICAGO. The Resolu tions. A noteworthy incident in the convention is the deep and strong impression made by its chairman, Edward Bates, of Missouri. He was unknown, and when his name was proposed to the meeting for its chair- man, a buzz of questioning went around: "Who is he?" But at the close of the proceedings he made a speech of such high and fervid eloquence as to do what it is rare for a single utterance to effect, namely ^^^^^^^ make his name and fame suddenly ^^^01 9^^ conspicuous. Judge Caton was absent from the convention, hold- ing court elsewhere, but he well remembers that " Bates' speech " was the theme of talk all over the State. Thurlow Weed says : When the labors of the convention closed, and six hearty, spontaneous cheers rent the air in honor of their president, more than four thou- sand delegates separated to return home and speak of Edward Bates with enthusiasm as one of the ablest and most eloquent men they had ever heard. It was the occasion of deep and universal regret that his masterly speech was not reported. It was made at the close of the session, when some of the reporters had retired and others had put away their materials. After Mr. Bates was fairly on his feet, all were too intent and absorbed as listeners, to think of reporting. The achievement of the convention was, naturally, the passage of a series of resolutions, submitted "to their fellow-citizens and to the Federal government." The gist of the resolutions was that river and harbor improvements were within the c6nstitutional scope of the Fed- eral power, wherever the interests of two or more States were involved, and being within Federal jurisdiction they were excluded from State interference; that hitherto the interior interests had not had care pro- portioned to that given to the seaboard; that the time had come when this should be rectified; and that the convention disavowed any attempt to connect its objects with the fortunes of any political party. Then an executive committee was appointed to make known to Congress the principles and views of the convention. Chicago then contained 16,000 inhabitants, and Thurlow hazarded the following glowing prediction : " On the shores of these lakes [Erie, St. Clair, Huron and Michigan] is an extent of country capable of sup- porting and destined to receive, in the course of half a century, at least * Mr. Bates was a member of Congress from Missouri in 1825. He seems to have been one of those fine Ameri- cans, the Whigs from slave States; a class of men independent, able, influential and respected, but soon left in the lurch by their constituents. CYRUS P. BRADLEY. Health Officer and Fire Marshal. RIVER AND HARBOR CONVENTION. I 99 a quarter of a million inhabitants." It does seem incredible that a man like Weed, speaking in 1847, should have limited the number of persons Wecd , s in "the extent of country" on all the shores of all these lakes, in 1897, mislake - to 250,000! The fact will be about fifty times the estimate. Such was the great River and Harbor Convention. The " Journal " was always loudly urging it to "deeds, not words," but words like these, uttered as these were, are deeds. The following Congress, however, did nothing, and it was not until 1852 that the next appropriation was made, when Congress allotted $20,000 to be used on the inner harbor. It is probable that the great flood of 1 849 swept away so much sand that the threatened closing up of the channel was averted for some years to follow. From 1848 to 1854 the Govern- ment work at Chicago was under the able and upright charge of Lieutenant (afterward General) Joseph D. Webster. Lieutenant Webster married one of Chicago's most beautiful women, Miss Ann E. Wright, and from that time forward ..... . . GENERAL JOSEPH IX WEBSTER. to his death in 1878 remairfed one of its favorite citizens. During the Union War he was a soldier dis- tinguished for his services, especially at the battle of Shiloh, where as Chief of Artillery on Grant's staff he massed the guns in such a manner General * . . . , . Webster. as to serve a good purpose in checking the enemy s triumphant advance at the close of the first day's fight. Whether in war or in peace, he was a blessing to his country and an ornament to his city. Of him it may be truly said : ., None knew him but to love him None named him but to praise." William Moseley Hall, who had taken the initiative in assembling the convention wished to get it to give its advocacy and approval to George Wilkes's plan for a national railroad to the Pacific. He was overruled in this; but after adjournment a special meeting was called at which a vast audience listened to an excellent speech from him upon the subject, and adopted his resolutions. It is doubtful, however, if the State at large, with its recent experience of State railroad building, would have considered favorably any plan having more of it in view. 2OO THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Later events have thrown such a halo about the name of Abraham Lincoln that we hail his bodily appearance on the stage of our city's history with a thrill and a quickening of the pulse. Even so slight a part as he took in the canal convention becomes moment- ous. We would give much to know the very words he uttered about our city and its future, our lake and harbor, our rights under the law and constitution; although those words seemed to their hearers not worth reporting. The nearest approach to a real view of the unpretending per- sonality then on his way to un- measured greatness is a picture taken about ten years later, in Chicago, by a man still living and plying his trade among us, Alex- ander Hesler. As will be noticed, the picture is of the roughest, both as to subject and to artistic appear- ance (being a late copy from a very old plate), but it is left with all its marks of age and authenticity. The picture is obtained from Mr. Hesler, with an interesting little tale about its origin. It was in 1857 that Mr. Lincoln began to be famous as the standard-bearer of Northern sentiment in the West. He happened to be in Chicago and some of his lawyer friends came to Hes- ler's studio and told the photographer that Abe couldn't afford to pay for his picture, but if he would take it they would each buy one, and perhaps he wouldn't lose anything by it in the long run. He consented and Lin- coln came. " He was the greenest specimen of a country lawyer I had ever seen. He had been to a barber and his hair was plastered clear down over one side of his forehead to his eye-brow. I ran my hands up through it on each side the way you see it and he said: ' That's better. My folks would never know it for me the way the barber had fixed it.'" Mr. Hesler afterward reduced the picture to about the size of a postage stamp, and prepared it with a gummed back to attach it to let ters, circulars, etc., and did an immense business with it. He received one order from Boston for 200,000 of them, and in three days had it filled and dispatched. He is still in business (70 State Street) and keeps a large variety of historic views, beside his regular portrait studio. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. CHAPTER XX. LAND-TRAVEL AND WATER-TRAVEL. 'ATER is a good thing in its place, else the canal would not have been begun in hope in 1832, carried on in hardship for the next sixteen years, and finished in triumph in 1848. The grand opening on April i6th of the latter year has already been de- scribed. During that season its operation (in spite of deficient equipment, scarcity of water, and a leaky stretch between Jol- iet and the Dupage!) was more than had been hoped. Tolls collected at Chicago were $52,000; at La Salle, $35,000, to which should be added other tolls, and $400,000 received from sale of lots in the "canal trustees' subdivisions" in Chicago. The trustees, under whose good management the canal went on from May, 1845 to November, 1848, received $1,949,042 during that time, and paid out $1,719,859. Times were again good and plenty. Sales of lands and lots were enormous. In the decade which followed the opening, the total receipts from all sources were about $7,000,000, half of it from land sales. Captain Andreas gives the fol- lowing figures from the work done by the boats: Wheat, five and a half million bushels; corn, twenty-six million bushels; pork, twenty-seven million pounds; lumber, five hundred and sixty-three million feet, and coal, fifty thousand tons. Quietly, however, an enterprise took root and began to grow, which in its maturity was destined to dwarf even the canal to comparative insignificance. On October 10, 1848, there was landed from the brig " Buffalo," a small, nameless engine, the first of the mighty army of iron giants which have made Chicago. The machine, or its rusty carcase, is still in exist- ence here in the city which it has helped to build ; and more than one of the men who unloaded it from its marine conveyance are still among us. The anonymous little stranger weighed ten tons, h?d been built by Baldwin, the veteran Philadelphian engine builder, for the contractors on the Rochester & Tonawanda Railroad in New York and used by them. aoi money opening bus- inessonthe 202 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. The unloaders were John Ebbert, Redmond Prindiville, Wells Lake, George W. Waite and George C. Morgan. Of these the first two are known to be still living (1891). John Ebbert was master mechanic of the road for many years, and is now out of business. Mr. Prindiville is a leading business man, full of vigor in body and mind. He remem- bers the arrival of the strange new engine, and his own share, he was the youngest of the party, in giving her to Chicago soil. She looked big, though but a little thing compared with the leviathans of later days. She 'The first en- gine that ever turneda wheel in Chicago." FIRST LOCOMOTIVE, THE " PIONEER," AS SHE IS iN 189! had but two driving-wheels instead of the four, six or eight now used. Having what was called "inside connections," her cylinders (9 by 14 inches) were set at an angle up against the boiler. She was in good order; smoke-stack housed and "bright-work" covered with tallow. She was lodged on deck, crosswise of the brig. The landing place was the Railroad yard, west side of the North Branch, just south of Kinzie Street ; and there were plenty of timbers and ties at hand, and jack-screws to do the lifting ; so they jacked her up level with the rail, laid a track from deck to dock (where a track had been laid ready to receive her) and easily ran her ashore on her own wheels, and pushed her out to the little machine-shed where Ebbert (engine-driver as well as master-mechanic of the road) put her in shape and lighted her fires for the first time, next day. The job was not a hard one and took less than the whole of that bright autumn Sunday a great day for us to look back upon. LAND-TRAVEL AND WATER-TRAVEL. 203 She was not christened for a long time afterward. When the rail- way got more engines, and it was necessary to be able to distinguish them, John Van Nortwick (presi- dent) asked what she should be called. " Call her the Pioneer, of course," said Prindiville, and Pio- neer she was and is, and should be for centuries to come. One of our parks should have her, set in a glass case and attended more carefully than any white elephant that ever was knelt before in the Royal Tem- ple at Bangkok. The "Galena & Chicago Union Railway," as Chicago's first oper- ating road was named, runs in a straight line west from its Kinzie street station to the Desplaines. It is said that at the time of the first survey, which was made (1837) by James Seymour, the surveyors waded sometimes in deep water. Augustus Burley says that it was thought necessary to lay the road on piles, and that the road-bed was so constructed for some miles, he himself having seen long lines of the pile-heads sticking out of the ground in places where is now dry land, covered with buildings. These things illustrate the change which has been wrought in the character of the region by the institution of a great system of sewerage. * The stretch of road first built (and for a very long time it seemed doubtful if any more ever would be built), was from Kinzie street to Oak Ridge, eight miles west, REDMOND PRINDIVILLE. The ' Pioneer. 1 Running a railroad line through the water. JOHN EDBF.RT. and we were glad at night to reach the hotel at Barry's Point and dry ourselves by the large fireplace." Mr. Seymour says (Fergus' Hist. Series No. 16): " We began our survey at the foot of Dearborn street [North Side] and ran three lines nearly due west to the Desplaines river. Much of ihe time we waded in water, 204 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. JAMES CURTIS. (Mayor in 1847) and two miles further to the Desplaines, where there was yet no bridge or station. The entire equipment consisted of five flat cars, one box car and the Pioneer. On Novem- ber 2Oth, by invitation of the direct- ors, a number of stockholders, newspaper men and friends of the enterprise to 'the number of about a hundred took a "flying trip" on the primitive train, which had been provided with temporary seats. A crowd assembled at the starting point to admire the spectacle. At the western terminus (ten miles out) a farmer's wagon with a load of wheat was in waiting; the wheat was taken on board and constituted the first installment of the vast flood of farm, mine and forest products which has entered Chicago by rail ; a mass nearly large enough to bury the great city above its roofs and spires if it were all here at one time. Captain Andreas says: About a week after the line was opened for Galena Railroad traffic the business men of Chicago were electrified begmstorun. by the announcem ent that over thirty loads of wheat were at the Desplaines river waiting to be transported tothe city. (!) The expected receipts of the road would amount to $15 per day all win- ter. (!) Wheat-buyers were informed (partly with the view of increasing the passenger traffic) that they must now take their station at the Desplaines river instead of at the Randolph street bridge. The total earnings of the road from the com- mencement of business in January, to December I, 1849. were $23,763.74. From December I, 1849 to December I, 1850, $104,359.62. By January, 1850, the main line had been extended to Elgin, forty-two miles west of Chicago, which, with side- tracks, gave a roadway of forty-four miles. The amount expended on this superstructure was $164,- 131.87. Mr. Prindiville says that as long as the road only reached the Des- plaines it was " hard sledding," be- cause a farmer who had hauled his grain perhaps fifty miles already would not give it to a railroad to haul it the last ten. These were the GEORGE W. DOLE. LAND-TRAVEL AND WATER-TRAVEL. 2C 5 trying times. All the cash was gone, and the road partly done and not earning expenses ! But, as usual in Chicago, when things look darkest it is nearest dawn. J. Young Scammon, in his memoir of William B. Ogden (Fergus' Hist. Series, No. 17), says: A meeting of the directors was called. It looked blue. To go ahead would endanger the stock. Mr. Ogden was embarrassed Most of the other directors were fearful. Thomas Dyer lost faith. The writer called him a doubting Thomas A committee was appointed consisting of Scammon, Collins, Walker, Dyer and Raymond, to have charge of the sub- ject. This committee gave the writer carte-blanche. He applied to George Smith, the only banker in the place who could make such a loan, for $20,000, for six months, to enable him to go on with the road. Mr. Smith declined. He was asked why; if he had not the money. He replied, " Yes, but I do not wish to lose it. I have no confidence in the road. . . . Mr. Scammon, I will lend you the money. Make out your note." The writer did so, and the money was placed in the treas- ury of the company, no other person in the road except those connected with the loan and the treas- urer, Frank Howe, knowing whence it came. . . . The road was pushed on and completed to Elgin. ... It did not cost much money in those days to build a flat railroad on level land. As soon as the road was completed to Elgin it began to be profitable, and from June, 1849, to April, 1850, it earned $48,331, with operating expenses only $18,519; less than forty per cent. The shrewdness of the "grangers" along the line may be judged from the prophecies of some of them: "The landlord told us he was against railroads. They were bad things for farmers and hotel-keepers, but good for big fellows at the ends of the road." Another de- nounced railroads as " un- democratic institutions that would ride rough-shod over the people and grind them to powder. " Water, so good as a servant, is terrible as a master The flood of 1849 has already been mentioned. That was a spring of floods, when the heavens were opened and the fountains of the great deep broken up. A New York girl, now a Chicago matron, happened to be one of a party who, in May and June, made the trip then rare in steam- boats down the Ohio to Cairo, up the Mississippi to St. Louis, and $20,000 from George Smith. J. YOUNG SCAMMON. High Water all over the West. 2O6 THE STOK Y OF CHICAGO. The old Portage overflowed. of^llic -cai[o. thence up to Peru on the Illinois river, where they took a canal-packet for Chicago. At Cairo they saw a whole village of houses standing in water up to their second stories. On the Mississippi there were houses floating down stream, one of them with a live cat clinging to its ridge- pole. The voyage on the canal was delightful. Colonel E. D. Baker was on board, handsome and dignified, the young girl's beau ideal of a hero. "Oliver Twist " had just come out, she was reading it and Colonel Baker talked with her about it ; a circumstance never to be forgotten. "The portage," the ancient water-way between Lake Michigan and the Illinois and Mississippi byway of -Mud Lake and the Des. plaines, once more took on the aspect described by Joliet when at high water one could pass from lake to river without leaving the canoe. The Desplaines was wild and out of all bounds. It poured its floods east- ward over the divide at Summit and into the South Branch until that, too, took the bit in its teeth and galloped lakeward like a sea-horse with waving mane. A momentary bar to its wild career was the ice which covered the river and wrapped each vessel and floating thing in its close embrace. But the stronger 'the dam and the longer the delay, the greater the rush when at last the waters tore themselves free. The beast gath- ered weight and strength by what it swallowed. On a small scale, and due to another of the elements, it was a foretaste of the wild rush of winged destruction which swept the city (moving in the same direction, by the way) some twenty- one years later : namely, on Oc- tober 8th and gth, 1871. Mr. Rufus Blanchard says (" Northwest," p. 566): The river soon began to swell, the waters lifting the ice to within two or three feet of the sur. face of the wharves. Between 9 and 10 A. M. loud reports as of distant artillery were heard toward the South, as if the ice were breaking up. Soon to these were added the sounds of crashing timbers; n ChU ^ nawsers tearing away the piles around which they were vainly fastened, or snapping like pack- thread on account of the strain upon them. To these succeeded the cries of people calling to the parties in charge of the vessels and canal boats to escape before it would be too late ; while nearly all the males and hundreds of the female population hurried from their homes to the banks of the river, to witness what was by this time inevitable a catastrophe such as the city never before sus- tained. A. c. WOOD. (Builder of Old St. James Church ) LAND-TRAVEL AND WATER TRAVEL. 207 It was not long before every vessel and canal boat on the South Branch . . was swept with resistless force toward the lake. As fast as the channel at one spot became crowded with ice and vessels intermingled, the whole mass would dam up the water, which, rising in the rear of the obstruction, would propel vessels and ice forward with the force of an enormous catapult. Every lightly built vessel would at once be crushed as if it were an eggshell ; canal boats disappeared from sight under the gorge of ships and ice, and came into view below it in small pieces, strewing the surface of the boiling water. At length a number of vessels were violently precipitated against Randolph Street Bridge, which was torn from its place in a few seconds, forcing its way into the main channel of the river. The gorge of natural and artifical materials ice and wood and iron kept on its resistless way to the principal bridge in the city the Clark street. This had been constructed on piles and it was sup- posed would prevent the vessels already caught up by the ice from being swept out into the lake. But . . . the moment this accumulated material struck the bridge it was swept to utter destruc- tion, and with a crash the noise of which could be heard all over the city; while the ice below it broke up with reports as if from a whole park of artillery. This graphic picture leaves out Madison street and Wells street bridges, yet we know that they went with the rest. Perhaps, being mere " float" bridges they did not make even a ripple on the torrent. At the place where the river, east of State street, bends to the north- ward, a new jam occurred, held by the ice in the curve, and the stronger vessels which had withstood the pressure higher up. Mr. Blanchard says that several canal boats and, in one instance, a schooner with rig- ging all standing, were sucked under the jam, only to reappear in frag- ments below. The ice that held the entangled craft soon broke away, and, as the way out to seaward now was clear, several bold men, armed Accidents am) with axes, made their way out to mid-stream, cut the vessels loose from the'nSSd. ' the gorge and let them drift on to clear water and safety. He names R. C. Bristol, Alvin Calhoun, Cyrus Bradley and Darius Knights as prominent, and says that some ten or twelve large craft floated down the stream, their preservers proudly acknowledging the cheers of the crowds on shore. The vessels either caught on to the lake piers, by hawsers, or were brought up by dropping their anchors. The " Journal " states the number of craft in port as follows: four steamers, six propellers, twenty-four brigs, two sloops and fifty-seven canal boats. There >was some loss of life. A boy was crushed to death at Randolph street bridge and a little girl was killed by the falling of a topmast. A son of Mr. Coombs was lost at Madison street bridge; James L. Millard had his leg badly broken on board his vessel; one poor fellow on a canal boat out on the lake waved his handkerchief as a sig- nal of distress, but there was no boat which could go to his rescue; the vessels being disabled in their rigging and the steamers in their machinery. The losses were stated by the " Democrat" as follows: Damage to the City (bridges, etc.) $ I5,''o "Vessels 58,000 Losses. " Canal boats 30,000 " Wharves 5,oo $108.000 208 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. LAND-TRAVEL AND WATER-TRAVEL. 209 The losses seem to us rather trivial, seeing that a single bridge or vessel of these latter days might well exceed their total. The statistics of craft in port are interesting, showing as they do the proportions of which our marine was then composed. The great invention of John Ericsson the propeller was already making its slow but sure progress toward the dominion of the waves. The regular river crossings being all destroyed, passengers made their way over the wreckage, which the "Democrat" of March i4th calls "one of the most costly bridges ever constructed in the West, and the only one Chicago now boasts of. ... Many ladies were not afraid to venture over this novel causeway, beneath which the water roared, falling in cascades from one obstruction to another; the whole forming Ac08 " ybridse ' perhaps the most exciting scene ever witnessed here." The "Journal" says, " No mails left the city last night. All egress is prevented by high water and impassable roads." Now followed necessarily a partial embargo of North, South and West Sides as to each other. Numerous volunteer ferries sprung up; boats paddling across carrying passengers at one cent each. A canal boat spanned the south branch at Randolph street and a schooner at Clark street, which allowed foot passage at the same rate. Scranton's old ferry at State street was at once re-established, and between the Lake House and the fort the old rope ferry (which many of us remember as still run- ning in 1857) ran gaily and freely as usual. About this primitive institution the "Democrat" of JUDGE HAMMOND. December 1 2, 1848, says : Sometimes, the wind blowing strong up the creek, a brig comes along with foresail, topgallant and jib set An impatient citizen is on the South Side, with visions of roast beef and dessert to match in his mind's eye. Bill sees the brig. The captain halloos, " Let go your d d rope." The citizen cries : " Come over, you've got time enough." But Bill thinks " It's better to be sure of the line ; if that breaks, the gentleman loses his dinner and I may lose my place " So he lets go all and Ferry, the impatient citizen has to wait just two minutes and a half, at which he grumbles some when Bill runs the old boat's nose ashore and gives him a chance to step aboard, but Bill takes it coolly. With the consciousness of having done his duty he lets the landsman "have his pipe out," as he can afford to be generous as well as just. At this time the continual and inevitable contest between lands- 210 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. The great drawbridge question re- oppned. men's rights and sailors' rights came to judicial adjustment. In June, Madison Street bridge was reopened for travel, and, two weeks later, Clark Street bridge. Autumn saw the completion of the Wells and Kinzie Street structures. Lake Street bridge was begun and its oppo- nents applied to Judge Drummond, of the United States District Court, for an injunction, relying on the right of the general Govern- ment to keep from obstruction the navigable waters under its control The complaint was dismissed; the learned Judge holding that "the SALOON BUILDING. right of free navigation is not inconsistent with right of the State to provide means of crossing the river by bridges or otherwise, when the wants of the public require them." Even after this, the bold navigators stuck to the old idea that the prior right was theirs ; that whenever they approached a bridge it must fly open for them, no matter who wished to use it. Therefore it fre- quently happened that a vessel, to save the cost of towage, would "warp through" bridge after bridge ; that is, carry a cable along the shore, hitch it to a pile, and then drag the craft slowly forward by wind- ing up the line on the vessel's capstan. E. MacA'rthur charged the Madison Street bridge tender with keeping the bridge open " an hour longer than was necessary," and proved the fact; yet was not the offender disciplined. It was not till 1852 that bridge-tenders were LAND-TRAVEL AND WATER-TRAVEL. 11 brought under law and compelled to give bonds ($500) for the faithful performance of their duties. Still later were all sail vessels made to em- ploy tugs. It is only within the last two decades that bridge-tenders have been authorized and empowered to keep bridges open for land travel at certain times, warning navigators to halt until their turn should come. As late as 1860 Clark Street bridge was so low above the water that not even the smallest tug could pass without the swinging of the bridge. What a change has taken place since then may be imagined and one may also imagine a possible future time when bridges shall be perma- JAHKZ K. BOTSFORD. SILAS B. COBB. nent structures of arched stone and iron; when all loading and unloading of lake craft shall be done in the outer harbor and only lighters and towing-barges shall navigate the rivers and penetrate the interior of the huge metropolis. In other words, when our river above Rush Street shall be like the Thames "above bridge," that is, further up stream than London bridge. In 1848 the first municipal building was put up. The City Govern- _ . First City Hall ment had up to this time "hired a hall to talk and act in. In 1837 it bum in state Street. had been in the Saloon building, Clark and Lake Streets. In 1842 they moved to Mrs. Nancy Chapman's building, opposite the jail, at the corner of Randolph and La Salle Streets. Captain Andreas says: The public square at this time was fenceless, and presented such a dilapidated and barren appearance that citizens were urged to improve the park by individual exertion. In April a number of citizens did turn out with shovels, mattocks, etc., and planted a few trees and built a fence- 212 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. But . . . the " Democrat, " in May, noticed that " the fence around the public square on Clark Street stands like a good many politicians we wot of but half whitewashed." J. Young Scammon and William H. Darns did much about this time to improve the appearance of the square. The market building (put up in 1848) occupied the middle of State Street, facing Lake Street from the south. It was of brick with stone basement. The ground floor had thirty-two stalls, and the second story had rooms for the council Stage Manager, Mr. .\. It. Clarke. EXTRAORDINARY NOVELTY! . Of the Engagement of nnilnil ibo IT. S- A this Evening, SATURftil, NOT. J.Otli, 1849, Will be iclci) ffie^rageoj-nt the Tdaxamilliaia Count do Mow, Mir. Clifford. CHARLES DB MOOR, BIS MR MURDOCH. Francia do Speidelberg, GrioiiD, Moor, Young Libertines | Afterwards IfeVickef; Warwick. Borgws. BOSS, , Roller, Kotcnlci, Bumio, Clark*. \A\ S: 1 Bobbon. I Beaver. fihjfturle, A Commisnr ' Adams. EUpard. Hcrnin, Daniel* Meeker. Darts. Amcli*. PAS DE DEUX BY MISSES EMMONS. g**ji* fiiU. Tbo wliole to cjncUdc wilh the Fftrca of ITwding, Fli c bl 7 , Mr. McVickr. Warwick. Bhipvd. ISr fiat. Metktr. The following Song* ad Dance Incident to tho piece. Jir. "Htigio for * Hn.Dooi" ia B. ' r JOHN B R1OE. meetings and other municipal pur- poses. One may fancy the atmos- phere in that council chamber, during an August meeting, over the market and under the heat of the sky and of political agitation! The building was removed in 1857. In 1848, by the way, Clark Street was numbered from South Water Street to Randolph. We can not leave behind the great decade of the forties without a glance back at the city in its physical aspect. " The" theatre the house built on the south side of Dearborn Street, east of Randolph, by John On MondajTEvening, Mr. 'Murdoch's Benefit. r 25 ta iMbroiorea'jFewons, 26stt LAND-TRAVEL AND WATER-TRAVEL. T. LYLE DICKEY. B. Rice, in 1847 and burned in 1850 was the chief place of public amusement. Here had appeared many actors, some famous already and some whose names have be- come " Familiar in our mouths as household words" in the years which have since elapsed. Here James H. McVicker and Mrs. McVicker appeared on the evening of May 2, 1848, he playing Mr. Smith in the farce of " My Neighbor's Wife;" and she taking the part of Louisa in the Yankee comedy of "The Hue and Cry." The world was satisfied with the good old system of "stock com- panies" then, and Andreas reports that for 1849 as being composed of Mr. and Mrs. Rice, Mr. and Mrs. McVicker, Mr. and Mrs. D. Clifford, Mrs. Coleman Pope, Jos. W. Burgess, N. B. Clark, William Meeker, J. H. Harwick and C. H. Wilson. Messrs. Beaver & Beck- with were the "scenic artists," and Perry Marshall, treasurer. He also gives the bill of the play for Sat- urday, November 10, 1849, when Mr. Murdock played " Schiller's Robbers." The bill was of the fa- miliar, old-fashioned kind ; one's feast for the evening was all simply set before him, ungarnished and undisguised; not as in the cumber- some and troublesome fashion of 1891. , We reproduce the interest- ing play-bill. Meanwhile, music, another branch of the fine arts, one in which Chicago has always kept an ad- vanced place, was taking firm hold on public favor and support. Mr. George Upton, more closely con- nected with the art than any other Chicagoan, gives some items connected Mr. McVicker in song and dance act. GEORGE P. UPTON. 214 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Beginning; of the City's Musical Life. with the times now under notice ; the very epoch of the arrival of a man whom he calls the father of classical music in the West : George Dyh- renfurth. Mr. D. arrived late in 1847, an d on December 27 attended the New England Festival, where George Davis, Frank Lumbard and others sang. On the same day there was a concert at " the theatre," where the celebrated Sig. Martinez played the guitar. On February 14, 1848, Mr. Dyhrenfurth made his own first appearance in Chicago as an amateur violinist. On September 13, 1849, he played at the City Hall for charity, and appeared during the following year on various occasions. Then came a great day in Chicago's musical history Octo- ber 24, 1850; when the first Philharmonic subscription concert took place at New Tremont Hall under his direction. The series numbered eight concerts, and formed the beginning of an organized musical cul- ture which has affected and benefited this city through all its later life. Ogden's lesson to Prindiville. CHICAGO IN 1845, '' R OM THE WEST. Apropos to the endless subject of gains made from Chicago real estate speculations, the following story from Captain Prindiville is characteristic. William B. Ogden (when they were both engaged on the Galena Railroad) offered him a five-acre piece on the West Side for $1,000, "canal time." Prindiville hadn't the money. But Ogden would trust him for a year for the first payment. Still the younger man hung back. Well, Ogden would take the land back at the end of the year if Prindiville didn't like the bargain. No, he did not see where he was to get the cash to make the payments and wouldn't promise what he might not be able to carry out. Ogden broke out: " Why, Redmond, that is not the way to get along. When you are dealing with Chicago property, the proper way is to go in for all you can get, and then go on with your business and forget all about it ! It will take care of itself." Another man took the bargain and made $4,000 on it in six months. We are, luckily, also able to see Chicago as it appeared to Gov- ernor Bross's backward gaze when he wrote his history in 1876. He LAND-TRAVEL AND WATER-TRAVEL. 215 says that in 1848 he lived with the Rev. Ira M. Weed at Madison and State Streets (the "Buck & Rayner corner"). That was considered GOV. "far south," and he by custom selected the best sidewalk (that on Dear- born street) to make his way out there. The sidewalks, where such luxuries were indulged in, lay in most cases on the rich prairie soil, for the string-pieces of scantling to which the planks were originally spiked would soon sink down into the mud after a rain, and then as one walked, the green and black slime would gush up between the cracks. ... In 1849 I bought of Judge Jesse B. Thomas forty feet on Michigan Avenue, south of the corner of Van Buren Street, for $1,250. The Judge had bought at the canal sales in 1848 for $800 on " Canal Time ; " a quarter down, balance, one, two and three years. The lake shore was perhaps one hundred feet east of the street, and there my brother John and myself, rising early in the morning, bathed in summer for two or three years. We had an excellent cow for we virtually lived in the country that, contrary to all domestic propriety, would sometimes wander away, and I usually found her out on the prairie in the vicinity of Twelfth street. I saw a wolf run by my house as late as 1850. The rule of speculators at the canal sales was to buy all the property on which the speculator could make the first payment; then sell enough each year to make the others. . . . When my lot was struck off to me, Harry Newhall came across the room and said, "Bross, did you buy that lot to live on ? Are you going to improve it" "Yes." "Well, I'm glad of it ; I'm glad some one is going to live beyond me. It won't be so lonesome if we can see some one going by every night and morning." Bross- d- ' CHICAGO FROM THE LAKE, 1850. Citizens' strug- gles in start- ing the first railroad. CHAPTER XXI. THE COMING POWER. ||H|vEHOLD the strong new helper! "The fifties" were eminently the years of railroad beginnings on a large scale. January i, 1850, saw neither more nor less than thirty-three miles of railroad completed from Chicago; being the first difficult, stumbling, halting steps of the Galena line. It would take a volume, instead of a chapter, to tell of the efforts required to finish even so much of the work, and another volume to tell of those expended in its ultimate entire completion. The best short story of it is to be found in Mr. Scammon's and Mr. Arnold's obituary sketches of William B. Ogden, published in Fergus' Hist. Series, No. seventeen. Mr. Scammon begins with tne public meeting at Rockford (half way between Chicago and Galena) in 1846, where Judge Drummond presided and where there were present among others the following Chi- cago men: William H. Brown, afterwards president of the road and of the Chicago Historical Society; B. W. Raymond, Isaac N. Arnold (also a president of the Historical); Gen. Hart L. Stewart, Mr. Ogden and himself, Mr. Scammon. In 1847 Mr. Ogden and Mr. Scammon traveled (probable by stage) the entire distance from Chicago to Galena, stopping along the road, holding and addressing meetings and "going into the highways and byways to compel them to come in" to partake of the feast. The main Galena advocates of enterprise were Messrs. Drummond, Hoyne, Hempstead and Washburn.* The Galena People, even then, feared that their city would never be the better for the road, and only the most solemn promises, public and private, sufficed to overcome their fear. The promises were kept as long as Ogden and Scammon were in control. Afterwards they were disregarded, to the lasting injury of Galena and the regret of those who, in perfect good faith, had uttered the misleading words. Before the road could be completed to Galena, the great Illinois * The two latter names are recalled to mind by that of the Mayor of Chicago at this time (1891) Mr. Hempstead Washburn, son of Elihu B. Washburn. 216 THE COMING POWER. 217 Central road, reaching from Cairo to Dunleith; from the southernmost to the northwesternmost point of the State; laid out its line which took in two of the stations of the Galena road; namely, Freeport and Galena. Thereupon the Galena Company halted its road at Freeport and arranged to run unbroken trains from Chicago through Freeport to Galena. The line was completed; but being under two companies, and besides, going beyond Galena to Dunleith, a point on the Mississippi (Galena was on the Fever river, a small affluent of the Mississippi), it failed to benefit Galena. The next road to connect with Chicago was the " Michigan South- ern & Northern Indiana," now the Lake Shore. On February 20, 1852, the first train arrived, greeted by cheers and cannon firing, this being the first eastern connection by rail: Not all rail, however, as the link from Buffalo to Toledo was not made until 1857; meanwhile the eastern connection for both the Southern and Central roads was by means of Lake Erie steam- boats. And in the very year of its establishment of a through all-rail connection with the east, the Mich- igan Southern Company went to protest, its property was seized, and the new Board of Directors, holding its first meeting, was compelled to borrow a few chairs to take the place of those held by the sheriff. Three months after the Southern began to run in, namely, on May 21, 1852, the Michigan Central made its way to the city, by utilizing from Calumet, fourteen miles out, the track of the Illinois Central. There was a bitter fight between the two Michigan roads, the right of one road to cross the tracks of another (as the M. C. R. R. did those of the M. S. & N. I. R. R. ) was not yet established and regulated bylaw. It was soon so established, the settlement being hastened by a deplor- able calamity which occurred at the crossing (the point now known as "Grand Crossing," within city limits) on April 25th, 1853. The South- ern, being the first in the field, denied to the other the right to cross its tracks at all; and strove by injunction to prevent it. During the legal contest it ran its road as if the other's did not exist, passing the Bad faith in dealing with Galena. KOSWKI.I. H. MASON. Michigan Southern and Central come in. 218 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Terrible ace dent at Gra Crossing. The Illinois Central. crossing point at full speed. This recklessness led to the natural result; two trains came together and as usual the innocent suffered from the wrong-doing of the contestants. Eighteen persons were killed out- right and some forty of the injured were brought to the city. An in- dignation meeting was held and a demand made that every train should come to a full stop before crossing, at grade, the track of another road. That became the rule and so continues to this day. The great Illinois Central now looms above the horizon. The State had received from the general Government a grant of alternate sections of land in a strip six miles wide on each side of a railroad to be built from Cairo to Dunleith (on the Mississippi, opposite Dubuque), with a branch from the main line to Chicago. This splendid gift was largely the result of the efforts of Syd- ney Breese, Stephen A. Douglas, James Shields, John Wentworth and William H. Bissell, all Illinois members of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States. Judge Breese, senator from 1842 to 1848, said in a letter he wrote to Stephen A. Douglas in 1851 : " When my last resting-place shall be marked by the cold marble, which gratitude or affection may erect, I desire no other inscription than this: " HE WHO SLEEPS BENEATH PRO- JECTED THE CENTRAL RAILROAD." The total quantity of land thus set apart was 2,595,000 acres- more tnan 4,000 square miles, or a piece over sixty-three miles square. Owing to the character of the Prairie State, nearly every acre is arable land; therefore there are whole States which have not as much produc- ing capacity as this single public benefaction.* Here come in some considerations usually overlooked in discussing this land grant. The first is this: The Government, when it gave the alternate sections, doubled the price of the alternate sections which it retained. Then these retained sections found prompt sales at the doubled price. Where, then, did the Government lose anything by its At the same time the donation sinks into insignificance when compared with some other subven- tions. It amounted to 3,700 acres per mile of road. The grants to the Union Pacific, twelve years later, were 12.800 acres per mile, and a subsidy in Government bonds was added fit the rate of $i*,ooo, $32.000 and $48,000 per mile; the object being to apportion the subsidy in ratio to the cost of the several sections. (Ackerman's " Early Illinois Rail- roads.* 1 Fergus' Hist. Series, No. 23.) JUDGE SIDNEY BREESE. THE COMING POWER. 219 bounty? The second is, that the grant was to the State; and the State, before it surrendered it to the railroad company, stipulated that the latter should pay, forever (in lieu of all other taxes), the large slice of seven per cent, of the gross earnings it might gain from the opera- tion of its road.* Where, then, did the State sacrifice anything? In fact, the sums paid to the State Treasury, under this provision, are enough (with proper economy) to run the entire State Government. It is largely due to this fund that Illinois is one of the few States entirely free of a State-debt. The payments made by the Illinois Central to the State are as follows : 1855,129,752; 1856,177,632; 1857, $145,646; 1858,1132,006; 1859, $132,104; 1860, $177,557; 1861, $177,253; 1862, $212,174; 1863,1300,394; 1864, $405,514; 1865, $496,489; 1866, $427,075; 1867, $444,007; 1868, $428,397; 1869, $464,933; 1870, $464,- 584; 1871, $463,512; 1872, $442,856; 1873, $428,574; 1874, $394,366; 1875, $375,7 6 6; 1876, $356,005; 1877, $316,351; 1878, $320,431; 1879, $325,477; 1880, $368,348; 1881, $384,582; 1882, $396,036; 1883, $388,743; 1884, $356,679; 1885, $367,788, 1886, $378,714; 1887, $4M,374; 1888, $424,955; 1889, $460,244; 1890,8486,281. Total paid to the State, $12,620,915. (Cents are omitted.) Judge Caton recalls the fact that when some local authority en- deavored to levy a local tax, in spite of this provision, on the ground that the State could not barter away the right of a minor munici- pality to levy taxes for its support, Mr. Lincoln argued the case for the Road, and won it. Also that he charged his client $5,000, which the local authorities paid, but which the directors objected to and ordered should be reclaimed from the counsel. Also that Mr. Lincoln told one of his quaint stories regarding the matter (which has never appeared in print); which was about to this effect : A farmer, much annoyed by the trespassing of an unruly bull be- longing to a neighbor, drove the beast away, and cut off its tail as it departed. Some one suggested that the owner might object, where- upon the farmer replied that, object as he might, the tail would never grow on again. Even so, the lawyer opined that that particular $5,000, * Judge Caton suggests that this lien being seven per cent, of the Road's gross earnings (deducting nothing for expense of operation) is at least equivalent to a sixth of its capitalized valuation. Also that this consideration should make the State favor every increase of the road's capitalized value, and encourage it to invest still more money in income- earning property. If, for instance, the corporation should add six millions worth of realty (Lake Front) to its possessions, one million of the increment would, in effect, belong to the State, to have and hold forever. State percent- age of Illinois Central earn- ings. JOHN u. Mr. Lincoln's little story. 220 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Threatened de- struction of Michigan Ave. however much its payment might be objected to, would never find itself back in the company's treasury. (This may not be exactly the story, but it is sufficiently near to show the general drift and application.) Now, as to the relations of the Central with the City of Chicago. Many old Chicagoans remember though a larger number, being newer comers, never knew, heard or cared anything about it that from the time the North Pier was built and the southward current of sand retained on its upper side, the resulting eddy began and continued to eat away the land south of it. First the great sand spit disappeared and deep water was where dry land had been before. Then the lake shore itself was encroached upon, the broad strip outside of Michigan avenue grew narrower and nar- rower. The coffins in the old Fort burying-ground stuck out grimly into the air, as the waves kept up their ceaseless sound and motion below. A plank facing and vari- ous other weak expedients were used to check the ominous waste that was going on; but there was a conflict of jurisdiction; the neigh- boring owners called on the munici- pality to interfere, the latter rather thought it was the business of the State, (holder of "eminent do- main"), and all would have been glad to shoulder it on the General Government, which by building the pier had caused the abrasion. Meanwhile the waves paused not at all "to parley or dissemble" but merrily continued their destructive play. What -\vas to be done ? It was a question of millions of money to be laid out, or other millions lost in Lake Michigan. The city and the citizens could not, if they would; the State and the Nation would not if they could. And, at last, in a storm, the waters actually washed away a part of the eastern edge of Michigan avenue itself; the lake park having already largely disap- peared. As usual in Chicago, when at the last extremity, help came. The Illinois Central had money and needed access to business. The city had no money; and it needed the business the road would create; but its most present and urgent need was defence against Lake Michigan. WILLIAM II. OSBORN. THE COMING POWER. 221 Therefore the road was offered, not land, but water; no track, but a right to build a track through the pathless waves, and the privilege of protecting that tract, which in its turn should protect Chicago. So said so done. The Illinois Central Company spent two millions of dollars of its capital in a two-mile stretch of stone cribs sunk in the lake, four or five hundred feet outside the shore line; and then drove two double lines of piles inside the cribs whereon to lay its tracks. Perhaps one in fifty of Chicago's present citizens remembers the years in which they used to look across "the basin" at the piling track and the stone crib beyond it, and sail, row, swim and skate there as the seasons dictated; only thinking (those who thought at all) how lucky it was that there was a power strong enough and liberal enough to pro- vide the young city with such a grand benefaction. Those days are past. Chicago pocketed the benefit and forgot its source.- The city saw that the Cen- tral had finally also been benefited (though it was once afterward, in 1857, utterly bankrupt and in the hands of assignees), and grew to feel as if Chicago had done it all; as if she had been the author of her own well being and the giver of the prosperity of the Illinois Central. The fact is, Chicago never contrib- uted appreciably toward the cost of building any of the roads which have done so much for her, either as a municipality, or (except a little in the early days of the Galena) by investments from the funds of private citizens. The chief service Chicago men rendered or could render was the bringing in of foreign capital. In the case of the Central it was a three-sided arrangement, wherein the general Government, the State and the railroad corporation joined, and wherein a fourth party, the public, was the chief beneficiary, after all. Three servants plowed, planted and harvested, and the master eats the crop grumbling. Roswell B. Mason, later Mayor of the city, and still (1891) an honored citizen, was the first president of the Illinois Central Railroad Company. It was under his wise guidance that the Lake Shore pro- tection was effected between 1852 and 1855. 1 1856 the Central took the initiative in the matter of suburban traffic, since grown to such The line of Crib Protection. WILLIAM K. ACKERMAN. Foreign capital to the rescue. 322 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. The makers of tbe Illinois Central. great proportions. On June ist of that year it started its Hyde Park train ; and in his daily telegram to Wall Street that evening, John B. Calhoun, the local treasurer, used this sententious phrase: "The Hyde Park train made its first trip to-day. Nary passenger, up nor down." The next administration of the Illinois Central was a memorable one for power and enterprise. William H. Osborn, who became presi- dent in 1856, was a man whom every man who came in contact with him pronounced one of the ablest men Chicago has ever seen. John W. Foster was Commissioner of the Land Department; a scien- tist, a man of wit and humor, and of varied accomplishments. William K. Ackerman, successively Secre- tary, Treasurer, Vice- President and President, is still (1891) an honored Chicago citizen; noted for executive ability and high standard of per- sonal and business honor and recti- tude. Peter Daggy, now (1891) one of Chicago's old and well- JOSEPH F. TUCKER. Streets general- ly begin to be numbered and paved. known citizens, Commissioner of the Land Department. John M. Douglass, who only lately died in Chicago, full of years and of hon- ors, was Counsel and later Presi- dent. J. F. Tucker, beginning in the freight office, became success- ively General Freight Agent, Gen- eral Superintendent, Master of Transportation and Traffic Manager. Through the dark days of the Illinois Central these men and others like them were its preservers from utter ruin; and when it once more saw better days it was to them that it owed its permanent prosperity. With the beginning of this decade began the general numbering of streets and also the use of the plank pavements of inglorious memory. In dry weather the planked streets were not very bad; nor would they have been if unplanked. In "wet spells," the planks were unfortunate'y not submerged; they were afloat, and under the impact of wheels and hoofs sent up streaks and shoots of vileness indescribable. Grand opera began in a way that sadly prefigured much of its later history. Captain Andreas says : On the evening of July 30, 1850. an Opera Company consisting of Mr. Manvers, Mr. Giubelei, Mr. Lippert and Miss Brienti, assisted by a home chorus and orchestra, began the first season of THE COMING POWER. 22J opera ever given, or rather ever attempted, in the city. The piece for the opening night was "Sonnambula" and the place of presentation was Rice's first theater, located on Randolph street. A fair audience was present and everything progressed smoothly until the rising of the curtain on the second act. At this juncture the alarm of fire was given, and in an hour the theater lay in ashes, involving a loss to its owners of over $4,000. Undaunted by his ill-success, Mr. Rice soon purchased a lot on Dearborn street and began the erection of a new theater. Another account of the accident says : The audience started to its feet in terror. . ' . . Serious injury to many might have ensued had it not been for the presence of mind of Manager Rice. Hastening to the footlights, he cried: "Sit down! Sit down! Do you think I would permit a fire to occur in my theater? Sit down! "... Soon the building was cleared ot its audience. J. H. McVicker was on the stage at the time. He began to pull down scenery, hoping to save something, but the flames spread so rapidly that everybody was driven away. . . . He was compelled to go to the Sherman House in his stage costume. He lost everything except the clothes then worn by him. The opera company visited Milwaukee, where a brief season of their so called Italian opera was given. The lines were rendered in Italian by those of the party who could speak that tongue, and in English by those who could not. An incident is related by Mr. McVicker which illustrates the trials of those days. The price of admission in country towns was twenty- five cents. At St. Charles one of the citizens waited on Mr. McVicker and said: "See here, my family is five in number the old woman and three children. I think you ought to let us see the show for a dollar." Mr. McVicker assented. The next day his patron returned and said: "See here; your show put my boy asleep last night, so he didn't see any of it. I think you ought to give me back a quarter. McVicker ar- gued that he had received but twenty cents each, but the man silenced him by saying: " Well, I know; but it's worth twenty-five cents to carry a boy home when he's asleep." The quarter was refunded. Rice's new theater was on Dear- born street, south of Randolph. Tremont Hall.a lame dancing room on the second floor of the Tre- C5 O mont House, facing Lake street, was used by local and traveling com- panies between the times of Rice's first and second theaters. There the infant prodigies and real artists Kate and Ellen Bateman, appeared on November 18, 1850, and on two later evenings, with suc- cess. The first general charity hospital went into operation in 1850, being located in the Lake House (already called the "Old Lake House"), and in charge of those sterling citizens, Mark Skinner, Hugh T. Dickey and Dr. John Evans. Dr. N. S. Davis lectured for its benefit and Dr. Brainard served it as surgeon all gratis of course, for who can set bounds to the charitable work of the medical profession ? Burning of Rice's Theatre. JAMES H. Me VICKER. First General-' Charity Hos- pital, 224 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Douglas silenced by Anti-Fugitive Slave Law mob. The same year, 1850, saw occurrences elsewhere which had at least a reflex influence on things in Chicago. The famous and infamous fugitive slave law passed then, and Douglas, one of its adherents, came back to Chicago, his home, and on Oct. 24, 1850, made, in defence of the measure, what has been called the ablest speech of his life, a speech which silenced, if it did not convince, the already half-rebellious demo- crats. To anticipate a little, letlis look on to his return home in 1854, and his effort to defend his Kansas-Nebraska bill. An article appearing in the " Times " (Democratic), Aug. 19, 1877, tells the story fully, and from it (as copied by Andreas) we quote : The " Little Giant " determined to face the music, and it was announced that after his arrival in Chicago he would take occasion to address his constituents on the issues of the day, and, may- hap, make a few personal explanations. From numerous orthodox pulpits the fiat went forth that this anti-Christ must be denied every opportunity to pollute the pure atmosphere of Illinois with his perfidious breath. . . It was on the evening of Sept. I, 1854, that he was an- nounced to speak in North Market Hall (where the county jail now stands). . . Under such circumstances as these, assembled the meeting on that September evening. During the after- noon the flags of such shipping as was owned by the more bitter of the " fusionists" (a name early given to the men of both parties who joined hands against disunion, afterwards "republicans") were hung at half mast; at dusk the bells of numerous churches tolled with doleful solemnity. A little before eight o'clock Mr. Douglas began to speak. And still the crowd increased, completely filling up Michigan street as far east as Dearborn and west as Clark. The roofs of the opposite houses were covered and the windows and balconies filled, for the ' ' Little Giant" had a way of making himself heard at a great distance On the questioning of some statement of the speaker by a person in the crowd the rumpus began in earnest, and for two hours pandemonium raged. It was reported at the time that the " Little Giant" was pelted with rotten eggs. This feature is now called in question by trustworthy witnesses who substitute rotten apples. . . . From the date of Douglas' rebuff Chicago men never ceased to be on the extreme verge of anti-slavery excitement, and Chicago became the center of the Western movement which resulted in making Kansas a free state. The limits of a " story " do not permit a statement in detail of the development of political opinion in the years which intervened between the killing of Lovejoy in 1837 and the firing on Sumter in 1861. They were years of progress of revolution. At least as early as 1838 an anti-slavery meeting was held in the " Saloon Building," where the Rev. Flavel Bascom, of the First Presbyterian Church, and Charles V. Dyer, Philo Carpenter, Robert Freeman and Calvin DeWolf were leading spirits. A mob was then feared, a mob not of the kind which assailed THE COMING POWER. 225 Douglas in 1854, but one of the opposite stripe, the Southern sympa- thizers. In 1842 a black man, named Edwin Heathcock, was arrested on the ground of being in Illinois without free papers, as prescribed by the " black law." He was committed by Justice Kercheval and confined in the log jail at the northwest corner of Court House square. He was advertised to be sold Monday, Nov. 14, 1843, and then, in the pres- ence of a crowd which blocked Randolph and La Salle streets, actu- ally put up and "cried" by the sheriff (Lowe), who explained to the crowd that it was only duty, not choice, that put the job on him. For a long time nobody bid, and it seemed as if the poor, shivering fellow would have to go back to the wretched log jail. A voice was raised from the opposite side of the street: "I bid twenty-five cents." It was the voice of Mahlon D. Ogden. The man was " knocked down " to him and he handed up a silver quarter-dollar to the sheriff; and then said: " Edwin, I have Sale of man a tion. a black t auc- You are my man Now go where you REV. FLAVEL 11ASCOM. bought you my slave ! please!" In 1848 the Democratic party divided on the Free Soil issue, and Cass lost his election to the presi- dency in consequence. In 1850 the colored people met in convention at Chicago, and resolved not to fly to Canada, but to remain and defend themselves. In 1851 the last Chicago fugitive slave case was tried, and the black man remained free. The claimants were called upon by lawyer Collins, to prove, by other than "hearsay evidence" that Missouri was a slave State, and while they were engaged in the effort to do so, the great crowd passed the negro over their heads and prevented the constable from following him. Zebina Eastman (then living at the town of Lowell) sent the first passenger on the "Underground Railroad " (organized assistance of slaves escaping to Canada) in 1839. It was a "strange, famished and terrified negro," caught in a barn near Lowell and forwarded to Dr. Dyer in Chicago, who smuggled him on board the steamer Illinois, bound down the lakes for Buffalo. Captain Blake, of the Illinois, 226 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Abolitionists. found among the firemen the "new hand" gun, knife and all and exhibited much fury, vowing to kick him ashore at the first point he stopped at. " So when he reached the Detroit river he made a grand circuit, as if to show off his boat to a crowd of admiring Southerners on board, and then ran it into a port on the Canada shore, where he had no passengers to leave, but where he furiously dragged the negro from the lower regions and "kicked him off into freedom ! " To many readers all this will seem like Greek. What do they know about escaping slaves and the "Underground Railroad"? But such persons may be assured that their ignorance is only the conse- quence of the fact that they came on the scene a few years late. Those of the past generation (now them- selves rapidly passing over to the majority) can recall the days of all this turmoil, malice, mob-law and murder, and find the present smiling, prosperous calm almost a matter of surprise; such a contrast is the con- dition of "the nineties" to that of "the forties." ZEBINA KASTMAN. - . 7 -- . _.- ILLINOIS CKNTRAL PASSENGER STATION; 1855. CHAPTER XXII. THE CITY COMES TO HERSELF. H 1C AGO is often said to have been built by nature rather than by any human inter- ference. Now begin the days when her various and infinite natural advantages come most fully to light. From the earliest times her position was conspicuously favorable. She stands just where water-travel and N ?y u to e chicag marine freightage intrude furthest into the bosom of the continent. All men may sail to her, no man can sail past her. Short- sighted observers fell into the error of think- ing that certain places reached by river had a better outlook. Cairo, for instance, was pitched upon as the place for the greatest city of the continent, as being near the geo- graphical center and at a great river centre and being joined by the Ohio with the Alleghany range, by the upper Mississippi and Missouri with the Arctic and the Rockies, and by the lower Mississippi with the Gulf. These very circumstances were fatal to greatness. Craft arriving from either direction could sail on in either of two other directions without pausing. Three mighty cataracts there, or some other impassable barrier, would have made Cairo what its founders hoped ; but wherever men can sail freely by, they are apt to do so. A warehouse in mid-ocean would do no business save in ship chandlery and marine stores. Lon- don is the head of marine navigation on the Thames, Liverpool on the Mersey, Paris on the Seine and New York on the Hudson. Cairo is a mere passing point. This is the first of Chicago's natural advantages; the one without which all her others would have been of small worth, but which itself would have been of little value without some others easy to name. First, the productiveness of her back country. As the lakes and sea H cu"iSo~n. in front of her are insatiable, so the land behind her is inexhaustible. What next? Measureless forests of excellent pine and hardwood, near by, to the northward; limitless mines of steam-coal still nearer to the southward; great quarries of good lime-stone only eighteen miles distant on the canal; iron mines accessible by sail from Lake Superior. And, as if all this were not enough, the city rests upon layers of its own 228 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Built of materi- al taken from her own sub- soil. building material; a bed of brick clay comes close to the surface almost everywhere, and where it is covered it is usually with a layer of fine, sharp building-sand. It is an every day experience with builders to take enough sand from the cellar to made the mortar and plaster for the whole house. The docks, too, almost construct themselves; thus: A man owning a water lot establishes a brick-yard and takes his clay from his own land, moulds and burns his brick and sells them at a profit. When this is done, he has his dock ready excavated, and all he has to do is to put up his piers and wharves and let in the water. The city has in- numerable " slips" along its dock front, a great many of them con- structed by this simple device. It was in 1852 that the convenient canal stone was first largely used. STRAITS OF MACKINAW. A competent geologist, Professor Hitchcock, examined and analyzed the stone (a magnesian lime-stone) and named it "Athens Marble, "but of late years it has been usually called " Lemont stone," from the dis- trict whence it largely comes. The quarries are inexhaustible. An im- mense quantity of the stone will be taken out of the new "drainage channel." The proximity of the great lakes offers pure lake water and pure ^ a ^ e a ' r> anc ^ tnose w ^o have ever lived in such proximity are apt to feel cow p a e nd b heat. as if human life would be impossible in places not so blessed. The coldest winds in winter and the warmest in summer come not over the lake but over the prairies. The coolest airs in summer are, of course, the lake breezes ; and in winter the lake never freezes over to any great extent, consequently any wind which passes over its surface can not remain very far below the freezing point. Lake breezes THE CITY COMES TO HERSELF. 229 All these physical glories and beauties did not befall without phys- ical drawbacks. A prairie city, Chicago had a site almost marshy. The prairies are anything but craggy and romantic the picturesque and the productive do not co-exist. Her long, deep, quiet rivers are very far from being trout streams ; being what they are, they could not be strung up the slope of a hill. Her hundreds of miles of level streets are hard to drain, and her peaceful, tideless waters are hard to keep pure. In tidal London, the great dock gates can open but twice a day. In Liverpool the Mersey is navigable only about half of the twenty-four hours; in Chicago all hours are alike fitted for business. Drawbacks of 3. level lite. tire, and streets. CITY WATER WORKS (1854). The excellent report of Mayor D. W. C. Cregier, for 1890, gives, with innumerable other items of interest, a short historical recapitulation D [e r "rfv e e 'r. Wa " of the drainage, water supply, river, fire, sanitary and street systems. On the subject of water, quoting Mr. Chesbrough, the report says: In 1851, when the population was about 35,000, the present works were commenced. Under the directions of the Board of Water Commissioners. John B. Turner, A. S. Sherman and H. G. Loomis, the pumping works were located on the lake shore on the north side of the Chicago river. The works were put in operation in February, 1854. They consisted of one reservoir, containing about half a million gallons, and eight and three quarter miles of iron pipes, beside the pumping works. The population at this time was about 70,000. The increased growth of the city after that time and the introduction of sewerage, together with the establishment of packing-houses, distiller- ies etc., caused such a change in the quantity of filth flowing into the lake that complaints began to be made of impurity and offensiveness in the supply from the pumping works. What, however, was at first apparent only to the most sensitive organizations sodn grew evident to all, and in the course of two or three years more a remedy for this state of things could no longer be neglected. 2JO THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Chowder in bath-tub. At this time, be it remembered, the water was taken into the pump- ing well (at the east end of Chicago Avenue) directly from the lake shore, a few piles being driven around the inlet, about close enough together to exclude a young whale. The small fry of the finny tribe passed freely inward, and if they were lucky they passed out again; if unlucky, they were sucked up by the pumps and driven into, the pipes; where they made their way into the faucets of priv- ate houses even the hot water faucets, in which case they came out the cooked, and one's bathtub was apt to be filled with what squeamish citi- zens called chowder. At about this time a most sensational article ap- peared in the " Times," gravely asserting that we were like cannibals, eat- ing our ancestors. For, it said, the cemetery, being on the lake shore a half mile north of the pumping works, was subject to overflow and abrasion by the waves; wherefore the fishes were fed on the dead at the ceme- tery, were sucked into the pumps, and were then fed to the living in the city! Of course this was nonsense, but it was a kind of nonsense that fastened public attention and made easy the next step in our civil life, the tunneling the lake and bringing the water from the pure depths two miles from shore. It was a bold, a startling project, success- fully put in operation. Appended is a table with some interesting figures: Year. Gallons per day (j ciph- ers omitted). Gallons per day to each person. Miles of pipe in use. Population (3 dpliers omitted). Cost of wk s - at close of war ( ? ciph- ers omitted) Tons of Coal used. Collections: (j ciphers omitted). l82 S 72 QI 820 v/ 1 02 18^0 3 877 8s OOO 2 724 T 2 = 1860 4 7O4 45 O 01 100 1,013 2,621 T 31 1890 152.372 126.8 1,205 I.2OO 16,902 46,190 2,109 The report treats at length of drainage. In the year 1849 Madison Street, east and west, and State Street, north and south, were decided on as the summit in the south division, the streets of that portion north of Madison and west of State Street to drain into the main river. The portion east of State to slope east and drain into the Lines of drain- | a k e The part south of Madison and west of State to slope west and discharge into the South age establish- ed. Branch. Nothing was done in the way of drainage, except open ditches, until the year 1850, when triangular-shaped wooden box sewers were built in Clark, LaSalle and Wells Streets from the main river to the alley south of Randolph Street. The cost of these sewers was $2,871.90, wholly paid for by the property benefited. By act of the Legislature in 1852, Henry Smith, George W. Snow, James H. Reed, George Steele, H. L. Stewart, Isaac Cook and Charles V. Dyer were made Drainage Commissioners for Cook County. The commission found awaiting its attention nearly 100,000 acres of swamp THE CITY COMES TO HERSELF. 231 land ; much of it considered worthless, as its surface was but from five to twelve feet above lake level. They saw that all it needed was ditch- ing to reclaim it. In two years, at an expense of only $100,000, large i tracts were made available which had been thought uninhabitable. These tracts lay within four miles north, eight miles west and ten miles south of the city. The change in the flooded flat traversed by the Galena track west from Kinzie Street was doubtless due to this work. A board of sewerage commissioners was organized in 1855, con - sisting of William B. Ogden, Joseph D. Webster, and Sylvester Lind, with Ellis S. Chesbrough as Chief, and William H. Clark Assistant Engineer. The following was the system agreed on. It has remained in force ever since and will continue perhaps as long as Chicago stands. It will be observed that it follows essentially the old plan as to levels and slopes; State Street the summit line north and South, and Madison Street the summit east and west : The South Division east of State Street was drained by a main sewer in Michigan avenue, from the river to Sixteenth Street, the summit being at Van Buren Street ; that part south of Van Buren Street discharging into the lake at Twelfth Street, the part north of Van Buren emptying into the main river [near Rush Street bridge] ; the portion lying south of Washington Street west of State to be discharged into the south branch at various streets ; north of Wash- ington by two foot sewers in each north and south street, emptying into the main river. From the outset Mr. Chesbrough insisted on constructing sewers to discharge by gravity; this necessitated raising all streets from one to three feet above the natural surface of the ground, in order to have sufficient cover over the top of SYI.VESTKK I.IMI. the sewers to protect them from frosts and traffic. At the end of 1856 there were in operation six miles of sewers; at the end of 1890 there were seven hundred and eighty-five miles. This shows that on even the south side, with its ready access to river and lake, the ground had to be raised from one to three feet 1 merely to give the requisite cover to the sewers. So it seems like the constructing of a network of sewers on the surface, and then filling up streets and house-lots to a point high enough to use those sewers by draining into them ! No wonder the house-owner stood aghast and even strove to prevent the carrying out of such a ruinous " improve- ment!" Take a great brick hotel like the Tremont House ; how was it to live when the street which had been level with its front door was raised half way up to its second story windows ? of 232 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. Law of street grades 6xed. Raising of old brick buildings. One of Judge Caton's numerous reminiscences of occurrences on the bench refers to the changes of street grade in their relation to pri- vate rights. Lake Street was ordered to be raised, and the Couches, owners of the Tremont House, prayed an injunction to stay the work; which had already been begun. The crisis was so important that the judge was induced to hold a special term of circuit court (which, as a a Justice of the Supreme Court, he could do at his own discretion) to hear the cause. Court opened, and Beckwith, for the claimants, and Arnold, for the city (evidently expecting several days of wordy war), came into the room, each armed with a formidable pile of law books. Scarcely had they got under way when the judge, instead of listening to their speeches, began to ask questions regarding the facts of the case and the points of law relied upon. Then he asked that the papers in the case be handed him, and without consulting any authorities ad- journed court and retired to his room in the Tremont House, the very property concerning which the suit was brought, and overlooking the street-filling which was objected to. Before he slept he had com- pleted his examination and written his opinion. Next morning he walked over to the clerk's office, found it locked, tossed the whole mass of documents in through the transom over the door, and went back to the hotel; on his way telling the contractor he could set his men at work, he had decided the case. Before the court hour arrived he had started out of town. His opinion was in favor of sustaining the power of the city over the street grades, and that has been the law from that day to this. The case was not even appealed. With the trouble came (once more !) the remedy. A contractor was found willing to raise the whole great, high building (the Tre- mont House) to its new grade, without even interrupting its business The cellar was vacated, huge timbers were introduced and placed so as to take upon themselves the weight of the sustaining walls, 5,000 jack-screws were placed under the timbers and a small army of men detailed to work by word of command, one man to four screws. Then, at a signal given by the whistle of the foreman, each man gave each FIRST RUSH MEDICAL COLLEGE. THE CITY COAfES TO HERSELF. 233 jack-screw one half-turn ; and the whole structure, by imperceptible steps, rose in the air, the bricklayers building up the walls as fast as there came spare space wherein to lay a course of brick. It was said the guests did not know they were mounting toward the sky. How- ever that may be, not a wall was cracked, not the slightest accident or untoward event took place to interfere with the entire and perfect success of the novel experiment. Soon after, the entire brick block of stores facing south on Lake street, and reaching from Clark to LaSalle street, was similarly treated, and these were only specimen instances of a great undertaking; the lifting of a whole city out of the Slough of Despond on to dry ground. The extent of that particular raising was from six to eight feet. Others have occurred at especial times and places, so that many parts of the city now tower fourteen feet above original levels. Men's feet are above the place where passed the heads of their predecessors. This enterprise benefited Chicago indirectly, thus : A young man, born in central New York in 1831, grown up without wealth and educated without help, having a widowed mother dependent on him for support, had bravely undertaken a large contract for the rais- ing of buildings along the Erie Canal to the new plane made neces- First work of sary by the canal enlargement then recently affected. The knowl- edge of the great task to be done in Chicago in the direct line of his experience brought him out to the West, and he became the lead- ing house-raiser in Chicago. The man was George M. Pullman. After making much reputation and a little money in his original business, he turned his attention to the greater job of improving the system of long-distance travel, and began, in a small way, the enter- prise which has revolutionized the passenger-carrying of the country, and, to some extent, of the whole world. It was in 1859 that he made a contract with Governor Matteson, of the Chicago & Alton railroad, to fit up two old passenger cars on that road as sleeping-coaches. This was the first step ; the next was in 1863 when he hired from the same Company the use of an old repairing shed, secured skilled workmen and built the first " Palace car," a com- bined day and sleeping coach. (Previous sleeping cars had been mere bunking coaches, used only for the night.) The car took a year in completion and cost $18,000. Like our friend the old-new locomotive, it was christened the "Pioneer" and like that is still in existence, being preserved for the sake of the vista of enterprise which opened with its birth. The next great step was the formation of a running arrangement with the Michigan Central Railroad for the use of Pullman's cars on 234 THE STORY OF CHICAGO. The Sleeping Car system. that line for a term of years. The fact was soon apparent that any road using those cars took the cream of patronage away from any rival road not doing so, and from that day to this the course of the sleeping coach and its originator has been onward and upward, until to-day (1891) the Pullman Palace Car Company controls more than 2,000 cars running on 14,000 miles of rails, while all rivals and imitators combined have perhaps as many more in their fields of operations. In 1880 Mr. Pullman devised and built the model town of Pullman (now within the corporate limits of Chicago), which will be treated herein, when reached in due chronological order. The early fifties were cholera years. The deaths by this strange epidemic were as follows: In 1851, 216 out of 669 total deaths; in 1852, 630 out of 1652 ; 1853, 113 out of 1205 ; 1854, 1424 out of 3834; in 1855, ~ CAR AS IT LOOKS IN l8gl. The Cholera; 1857 to 1855. 147 out of 1983. A few items from the record of 1850 may recall to our minds the aspect of that half-forgotten terror. Captain Andreas quotes from "an old settler who was participator in the horrors whereof he wrote and had a narrow escape from death himself": One Sunday morning in May, or perhaps June, on my way to church, I was crossing Rush Street ferry when I overheard a fellow-passenger telling another that Captain Jackson had died of cholera As the ferry landing was within a few rods of the Jackson dwelling, being one of the houses within the fort, I hastened thither. I found William Jones alone with the corpse. The face was a shade darker than usual and around the mouth were the dark purple spots which I soon learned to be the unmistakable deathmarks of that dreaded disease. Mr. Jackson had been attacked the previous afternoon while engaged in his usual employment of driving piles along the river; he hastened home and died within a few hours. I think the death of Mr. Bentley, the father of Cyrus Bentley, soon followed that of Deacon Jackson. L. M. Boyce, a prominent druggist, died in his house alone, his family having just left for the country. The Rev. W. H. Rice, pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist church . . . was intend- ing to preach and was hastening for that purpose. I assisted him into the house of Mr. Pillsbury on Dearborn street, a few doors south of where the Tribune building now stands. Dr. D. S. Smith attended him. . . . He continued thus through the day when he again began to fail and soon died. When Mr. Price was attacked the weather was very warm and so continued till there came THE CITY COMES TO HERSELF. 235 one of our Lake Michigan chilling breezes. It was to this that I attributed his relapse, for I had noticed that deaths were more numerous after these sudden changes from hot to cool. . . That summer I boarded with Mr. T. C. James. One day when I went in to dinner, Mrs. James asked me to go into another room and look at one of her daughters, a girl of fourteen, who had just begun to complain and had lain down. I saw at a glance it was cholera. She died in about seven hours. Another daughter was taken while returning from the funeral'and died before morning. Judge Caton was holding court in Ottawa on a certain afternoon. James H. Collins, his intimate friend and former partner, argued a case up to adjournment of court ; apparently in good health and spirits. He went to his room at the Fox River house and Judge C. went to his own home. About day-break some one came to the judge's door and called him, saying that Mr. Collins had died of cholera. Judge Caton went at once to the hotel where he found the report to be true ; thence he went to the telegraph office (he was an officer of the company, car- ried an office-key and was himself a pretty good operator), and as he entered he heard Chicago calling Ottawa, the message being ad- dressed to Mr. Collins, telling him that a servant had just died of cholera at his house. The judge took the message, replied, in tele- graphic custom, " O. K. ;" and wired back to the sender the news that Mr. Collins was dead. Hospitals were established and quarantine to isolate the sick on arrival. In June, 1854, an incom- ing train arrived, carrying Norwe- CHARLES v. DYER. gian emigrants, among whom the disease was raging. Six were dead on the train, and a seventh died a few minutes after being taken out. Dr. Dyer used to tell this story at the expense of his profession: " Deeming it requisite to establish a quarantine to prevent the introduction of the disease, we organized an amateur board of health, and hired a warehouse to be used as a hospital. Hearing that a steam- boat was coming into port with eighteen cases of cholera on board, we went out to the vessel and removed the patients to the improvised hos- pital. On viewing the sick, nine were decided to be beyond medical aid, and the remaining moiety were decreed to be favorable subjects for pathological skill; but, unfortunately, the nine upon whom we lavished all the resources of science died, and those who were esteemed to be about in articulo mortis all got well." Incidents of the epidemic. Dr. Dyer's good story. 236 THH STORY OF CHICAGO. Tie Lake Street Fire of 1857. The first Steam Fire Rngine. The fire department, in its volunteer stage, nas been already spoken of. In 1850 "fire limits" were established, and no wooden buildings were allowed to be built between Randolph street, the main river, Wabash avenue and the South Branch. Up to 1855 fire alarms were struck by the bell of the First Baptist church, Washington and LaSalle streets, but in February of that year the large bell was hung in the steeple of the Court House, a watch was set there, and whenever the watchman detected a fire the bell was rung; and by day flags, and by night, lanterns, were hung out to show in which direction citizens were to look for the danger. In 1857 a dreadful calamity occurred; the memorable "Lake street fire," wherein the loss of property was only some half million dollars' worth, but there were twen- ty-three lives sacrificed, many of the dead being lead- J o ing citizens. Water was scarce and the flames raged long and fiercely, but as morning approached they were getting somewhat un- der control, when suddenly the walls and upper floors of Barnum Brothers' dry goods store on Lake street o fell, burying more than a score of men who were en- gaged in removing goods from the lower floor. Among the well-known citizens crushed to death were: Ezra H. Barnum, E. R. Clark, John High and Alfred H. P. Corning.* The fire department on this occasion showed its inefficiency, dis- organization and incapacity to deal with any serious fire. Two engines, (No. 6 and 10) were out of order and did not work, having been injured while competing for a silver trumpet. Hundreds of feet of hose had been burst on the same festive occasion. A movement for a paid fire department was instituted, supported by the best of the firemen and opposed by the worst. The better counsels prevailed though not with- out danger of serious rioting. The first steam fire-engine, the " Long John," was bought, tested at the foot of La Salle street and approved a death-blow to the volunteer system. Engine Companies No. 4, 10 and 14, Hose companies Nos. 3 and 5 and Hook and Ladder No. 3 * The writer was at work at the fire, heard the crash, and saw some of the blackened and distorted corpses brought out next day. LONG JOHN FIRK I-.NCINE. THE CITY COMES TO HERSELF. met on Clark street, traversed the principal streets and marched into Court House Square, to show defiance of law and order. The mayor (Wentworth) was equal to the occasion. He dispatched a force of 200 RKHOUS policemen with orders to arrest the demonstrators for riot and disor- derly conduct. A few arrests were made and the rest of the rioters fled, leaving their apparatus to the police, who took the machines to the armory and locked them up, arrangements being made with special policemen to man them in case of fire. On August, 2, 1858, the paid fire depart- ment was established. Concerning our highly- prized, praised and perse- cuted river, Mr. Cregier's report is full of interest. In July, 1856, the first clearance from Chicago di- rect from England was made, the vessel being the "Dean Richmond." Her trip was probably not profit- able ; she got no return freight and was sold abroad. In 1857 the "Madeira Pet" left Liverpool April 24th and arrived July i4th in Chicago. The long and ex- pensive voyage via ocean, St. Lawrence river, Welland canal and the lakes made a loss of time, wages, insur- ance and interest, which more than counterbalanced the gain by relief from cost of trans-shipments. The original plan concerning river-banks was to arrange them in levees, sloped and paved like those on the great rivers. Therefore, "water lots" were not sold. The river-side streets extended to the stream itself. But this system, excellent for the light draft Missis- Fate o