Chicago: Its History and its Builders, Volume 2 E-Book

Josiah Seymour Currey

• Herausgeber: Jazzybee Verlag
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1014

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Maybe there has never been a more comprehensive work on the history of Chicago than the five volumes written by Josiah S. Currey - and possibly there will never be. Without making this work a catalogue or a mere list of dates or distracting the reader and losing his attention, he builds a bridge for every historically interested reader. The history of Windy City is not only particularly interesting to her citizens, but also important for the understanding of the history of the West. This volume is number two out of five and covers topics like Douglas and Lincoln in Chicago, the Great Fires, the Civil War, Evanston and the Universities.

Leseprobe

Chicago

Its History and its Builders

Volume 2

JOSIAH SEYMOUR CURREY

Chicago: Its History and its Builders 2, J. Seymour Currey

Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck

86450 Altenmünster, Loschberg 9

Deutschland

ISBN: 9783849648855

www.jazzybee-verlag.de

[email protected]

CONTENTS:

CHAPTER XXI - DOUGLAS IN CHICAGO   1

CHAPTER XXII - LINCOLN IN CHICAGO   24

CHAPTER XXIII - THE LINCOLN- DOUGLAS DEBATE  41

CHAPTER XXIV - PUBLIC LIFE OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS  61

CHAPTER XXV - PRIOR TO LINCOLN'S NOMINATION   81

CHAPTER XXVI - REPUBLICAN CONVENTION OF 1860  105

CHAPTER XXVII - CIVIL WAR MEMORIES  124

CHAPTER XXVIII - CHICAGO IN WAR TIME   149

CHAPTER XXIX - LATER EVENTS OF THE CIVIL WAR  170

CHAPTER XXX - DEEPENING THE CANAL  197

CHAPTER XXXI - SEWERAGE PROBLEMS  221

CHAPTER XXXII - THE GREAT FIRE   241

CHAPTER XXXIII - CHICAGO FIRE— continued  264

CHAPTER XXXIV - THE UNIVERSITIES  286

CHAPTER XXXV - FIRE DEPARTMENT AND FIRE LOSSES  311

CHAPTER XXXVI - RAILROAD RIOTS OF 1877  340

CHAPTER XXXVII - THE NORTH SHORE   360

CHAPTER XXXVIII - EVANSTON   378

CHAPTER XXXIX - NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY.397

CHAPTER XL - SOCIALISM AND ANARCHISM IN CHICAGO   417

CHAPTER XXI - DOUGLAS IN CHICAGO— THE OLD UNIVERSITY

AN INTERVAL OF FOUR YEARS

THE four years following the events narrated in the last chapter of the preceding volume were years of intense political excitement. The deep feeling of resentment prevailing throughout the North caused by the enactment of the Fugitive Slave law was not allayed, but settled into a permanent conviction that slavery must be exterminated. Even Lincoln had at last awakened from his conservatism, and had declared that the country could not continue to exist "half slave and half free." Talk of disunion among the Southern statesmen already filled the air, and one of the remembered phrases of Lincoln's "lost speech" was that memorable utterance, "We won't go out of the Union, and you shan't."

Douglas had been the chief instrument in carrying through the bill organizing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, one clause of which repealed the Missouri Compromise. This was May 30th. 1854. The Missouri Compromise had for thirty-four years been the main reliance of the conservative element in its efforts to quiet the fears of further slavery extension. The repeal had once more brought the slavery question to the fore as the chief issue in the politics of the nation.

In the year 1851 the population of Chicago was nearly sixty-six thousand, having more than doubled in the four years under review. The raising of the grades in the streets, so marked a feature of city improvements in later years, had not yet been attempted. The principal streets were dusty in dry periods and muddy in wet, and were often almost impassable. Ineffectual attempts to better conditions were resorted to by means of planking the streets, but the planking needed constant repair and soon became useless. The city was then reached by a number of railroads, the Galena and Chicago Union and the Chicago and Rock Island from the west, the Chicago and Alton from the southwest, the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana, and the Michigan Central, from the east. The Illinois Central and the Chicago and Milwaukee railroads were not completed until the following year.

The newspaper press of the city was represented by the Chicago Democrat, John Wentworth's paper, William Bross' paper, the Chicago Democratic Press, the Chicago Journal and the Chicago Tribune. The telegraph had been in use for some years.

THE NORTH MARKET HALL MEETING

In August, 1854, Senator Douglas arrived in Chicago from Washington, and soon after he was asked to address the citizens on the questions of the day. The meeting was to be held at North Market Hall, on the evening of the first of September. William Bross was at this time editor of the Chicago Democratic Press, and though bitterly opposed to Douglas on the question of the extension and perpetuation of slavery, was extremely anxious that the senator should be heard, and an opportunity given him to explain his position. There was a strong tendency among the people of Chicago to break away from his leadership, and the growing anti-slavery element were only too glad to have him among them so that he, as one of the most influential statesmen in the Democratic party, could be made aware in the most direct manner of the sentiments of his constituents, on the burning issues of the time.

Mr. Bross in later years related in detail the particulars of this great meeting, in an article printed in the Chicago Tribune, for August 25th, 1877. "Three or four days before the meeting," wrote Governor Bross, "I called upon him [Douglas] at the Tremont House, and requested him to write out a copy of his speech for me, and I would publish it in full. Though the Press had persistently opposed, and perhaps denounced him bitterly at times, he received me with great courtesy and politeness,... thanked me for my offer, but said he never wrote out his speeches before delivery; he let the reporters write them out, and then corrected them where necessary." It was learned that the Democracy had determined to fill North Market Hall at an early hour with their partisans, "thus preventing other people from gaining admittance, pass resolutions strongly endorsing the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and Senator Douglas, and have that go out as the opinion of the people of Chicago."

MR. BROSS UNDERTAKES TO REPORT DOUGLAS' SPEECH

"The substantial and order-loving people were urged to turn out early," said Governor Bross in the article referred to, "and thus defeat the schemes of the political tricksters. The meeting was held in the open air on account of the hot weather, and there was an immense gathering of people, perhaps the largest up to that evening ever held in the city. We then had no shorthand reporters here, and unwilling to trust any one else, I went there myself to report it. I was at once invited upon the stage, perhaps by Mayor Milliken, who presided, and, receiving a pleasant greeting from Senator Douglas, I sat down and composed myself for the work before me.

"The very first sentence he uttered was considered an insult to the people and the press of the city. He charged them with not understanding so plain a proposition as the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the press with persistently misrepresenting and maligning him. The statement was received with groans and hisses, and for perhaps two or three minutes nothing else could be heard. When comparative quiet was restored, he spoke for perhaps eight or ten minutes, and then the laughing and hooting were repeated. This thoroughly enraged the senator, and his language and manner became exceedingly offensive.

"Finding no use for my pencil during the uproar, I slipped down from the stage and circulated among the people, to see in what temper they were. This I did several times, and always found them happy and in the best possible humor. Never before or since have I seen a larger proportion of our solid, substantial, leading citizens at a public meeting. I knew as well as I could know without being told it, there were more than a thousand revolvers in the crowd. All would laughingly tell me, 'Bross, we shall have no mob.' And yet. I feared it, for had some Democrat told one of our respectable citizens he lied, he would have instantly been knocked down; and when once a fuss began the pistols would have done their work fearfully. I knew that the human mind is so constituted that the change from the best of humor to the most intense anger requires but an instant.

TROUBLE ARISES BETWEEN DOUGLAS AND BROSS

"Little did I suppose that I was so soon to illustrate this principle myself, for on returning from one of my short visits through the crowd, and while the hooting and yelling were loud and long, Judge Douglas turned round, and paused for a moment. Knowing he could not and would not be heard, with the best of motives and the politest and most pleasant language I could command, I said, 'Judge, would it not be best to print your speech? You cannot be heard; allow me to suggest that you retire.' With all the force and power he could command, he said: 'Mr. Bross. you see that your efforts in the Democratic Press to get up an armed mob to put me down have been entirely successful.' In an instant, I sprang to my feet and with very emphatic gestures, said, 'Judge Douglas, that's false — every word of it false, sir!' 'It will do very well,' he replied, for you. with your armed mob about you. to make an assertion like that.' 'It's false, sir — not a word of truth in it,' I replied; and, a little quiet being restored, he turned to address the people.

"I have often wondered at myself for the part I acted in this little drama. There was not more than one or two besides myself on the stage who were not warm personal friends of Judge Douglas, and to hurl the word 'false' at him might have cost me my life: but I knew I had done all I could to give him a quiet hearing, and I took not a moment's thought, and repelled the charge on the spot. After continuing his efforts to be heard for half an hour longer, with no success, his friends put him in a carriage, and he rode away amid the jeers of the crowd."

A DOUGLAS SYMPATHIZER'S ACCOUNT

The biographer of Douglas, James W. Sheahan, says in writing of the meeting' at the North Market: "We never saw such a scene before, and we hope never to see the like again. Until ten o'clock he stood firm and unyielding, bidding the mob defiance, and occasionally getting in a word or two upon the general subject. Had he exhibited fear, he would not have commanded respect; had he been craven, and entreated, his party would in all probability, have been assaulted with missiles, leading to violence in return. But, standing there before that vast mob, presenting a determined front and unyielding purpose, he extorted an involuntary admiration from those of his enemies who had the courage to engage in a personal encounter; and that admiration, while it could not overcome the purpose of preventing his being heard, protected him from personal violence. The motive, the great ruling reason, for refusing him the privilege of being heard, was that as he had, in 1850, carried the judgment of the people captive into an endorsement of the fugitive slave law, so, if allowed to speak in 1854, he would at least rally all Democrats to his support by his defense of the Nebraska bill. The combined fanatics of Chicago feared the power and effect of his argument in the presence and hearing of the people. They therefore resolved that he should not be heard. So far as this occasion was concerned, the object was successfully attained, and if there were any doubts as to the fact that the course agreed upon had been previously concerted, the experience of the following few weeks served to remove all question on that head."

BROSS' REVIEW OF THE MEETING

In the next issue of the Democratic Press, Editor Bross stated that the people present at the meeting "did not mob Judge Douglas," as it had been charged, that "the people were noisy and refused to hear him, thereby resenting the imputations he cast upon them," and that the fault lay with Douglas himself, who "lost his balance and forgot that he was the representative of the people.... Mr. Douglas came before his constituents rather as a master than as a servant. The spirit of a dictator flashed out from his eyes, curled upon his lip, and mingled its cold irony in every tone of his voice and every gesture of his body."

OTHER NEWSPAPER COMMENTS

The Illinois Journal, of Springfield, commenting on the meeting said, "We have heard from private sources that there were ten thousand people present; and that they evidently did not come there to get up a disturbance, but simply to demonstrate to Senator Douglas their opinion of his treachery to his constituents. This they did effectually, and Mr. Douglas now fully understands the estimate in which his conduct is held by his townsmen at Chicago. It is said that Mr. Douglas felt intensely the rebuke he had received."

The same paper gives a report of the speech, at least such portions as lie was able to deliver between the interruptions. It is interesting as a specimen of "stump oratory," and as showing the excited state of public opinion on the burning questions of that day. "You have been told," said Douglass, "that the bill legislated slavery into territory now free. It does no such thing. [Groans and hisses — with abortive efforts to cheer.] As most of you have never read that bill [groans], I will read to you the fourteenth section. [Here he read the section referred to, long since published and commented on in this paper.] It will be seen that the bill leaves the people perfectly free. [Groans and some cheers.] It is perfectly natural for those who have misrepresented and slandered me, to be unwilling to hear me; I am here in my own home. [Tremendous groans, a voice — 'that is, in North Carolina' — 'in Alabama' — 'go there and talk,' etc.]

"I am in my own home, and have lived in Illinois long before you thought of the state. I know my rights, and, though personal violence has been threatened me, I am determined to maintain them. [Much noise and confusion.]" These fragmentary remarks are continued to a considerable length in the report, which is concluded as follows: "The questions now became more frequent and the people more noisy. Judge Douglas became excited, and said many things not very creditable to his position and character. The people as a consequence refused to hear him further, and, although he kept the stand for a considerable time, he was obliged at last to give way and retire to his lodgings at the Tremont House. The people then separated quietly, and all, except the office-holders, in the greatest of good humor."

In the store of splendid memories of the men and the movements of the war period and of the period preceding the war, Mr. Carr recalls the following picture of the great Senator: "The author of this work," he says, referring to his Life of Douglas, "remembers Senator Douglas as what the politicians of to-day would call a good mixer. There was no company in which he could not be a congenial companion. In company of the great at Washington and in the cabin of the frontier, with grave senators, with cabinet officials, and with the plain people — farmers and mechanics and laboring men — he was equally at home. He was genial and cordial, interested in everything that concerned those with whom he came in contact, to such a degree as to make them feel that he was one of them.

"Genial as he was, cordial as he was, entering into and enjoying all the social relations and sports of those early days, he was always dignified. While he was amused at the vagaries and the excesses of those who took part in the social gatherings of the time, and their extravagant demonstrations, and enjoyed them, he himself never gave way to them to such a degree as to be a leader in them. He maintained such reserve as was becoming in one of such character and attainments. He would enjoy and laugh at stories, but there is no record of his having told one. He appreciated and enjoyed a pun, but he never made one."

EARLY PAVING AND GRADING

As the city emerged from primitive conditions, the increase of street traffic required improved roadways. The general level of the city's site was but a few feet above the level of the lake and river, and in times of Hoods or even in ordinary wet weather the soft and yielding soil was soon changed into quagmires, through which it was difficult to drive a wagon or carriage. In Bross' History of Chicago, he says:

"We had no pavements in 1848. The streets were simply thrown up as county roads are. In the spring, for weeks, portions of them would be impassable. I have, at different times, seen empty wagons and drays fast in the mud on Lake Street and Water Street on every block.... Of course there was little or no business doing, for the people of the city could not get about much, and the people of the country could not get in to do it. As the clerks had nothing to do, they would exercise their wits by putting boards from dry goods boxes in the holes where the last dray was dug out, with significant signs, as 'No bottom here,' 'The shortest road to China,' etc. Sometimes one board would be nailed across another, and an old hat and coat fixed on it, with the notice, 'On his way to the lower regions.' In fact there was no end to the fun; and the jokes of the boys of that day — some were of larger growth — were without number."

A story is told of General Hart L. Stewart, a citizen of early Chicago. One day as he was going along Lake street, his head and well known hat appeared above the surface of the mud. Some one called out to him, "General, you seem to be in pretty deep!" "Great Scott," he replied, "I've got a horse under me!"

The planking of Lake street was ordered by the Common Council January 22d, 1849. The planked roadway was forty-eight feet wide. Even before that time it had been found utterly useless to lay a stone pavement, which would soon sink in the yielding earth. The experiment of laying plank roadways had proven successful in many places, and the Common Council determined to plank the principal streets of the city. In 1849 and 1850 planking was. laid down on Market, State, North and South Clark, La Salle, Wells, East and West Madison, and West Randolph streets, in all about three miles of planking, at a cost of thirty-one thousand dollars. But the plank roadways were short-lived, and the street paving problem soon came to be a leading public issue.

Intimately associated with the paving problem was that of the raising of the grades of the streets; indeed, from the earliest days street paving, whenever there was occasion to relay it, was usually accompanied by the raising of the level of the surface. In 1855 the grade was raised sufficiently to cover sewers. Again in 1857 another elevation of the surface was found necessary. After much public discussion it was decided to fill the streets to a height of ten feet above the lake or river level, with some slope towards the water. Even so there was a strong sentiment in favor of a still greater height, but it was supposed that difficulty would be experienced in obtaining the requisite earth for the filling. As a matter of fact there has always been found in the subsequent building operations more earth from excavations for foundations and basements than was necessary for street filling. This excess has supplied much of the filling required for the lake front east of Michigan avenue. The whole space between Michigan avenue and the piling upon which the Illinois Central Railroad was carried from Twelfth street to the terminal station at the foot of Lake street, a space of considerable width as all the old maps show, has been gradually filled with surplus earth taken from the excavations for buildings. The debris from the ruins of buildings after the great fire of 1871 also added largely to the material used for filling the lake front.

Raising the grade of the streets was one of the remarkable features of the city's growth, this being a necessary step in drainage and for providing a firm foundation for the pavements, but the process extended over many years, and was done in piecemeal fashion, and at great inconvenience to business men. The Chicago Tribune of April 9th, 1857, took up the subject vigorously. "What effect is this new grade going to have on buildings already erected in this city?" it asked. "The streets and sidewalks must lie raised some seven feet above the natural surface level. In other words, every house now built must be raised about the height of the Mayor above its present foundation, or be entered through doors cut in its second story. [It will be remembered that "Long John" Wentworth was the mayor at this time.] The proposed grade would damage immensely all our citizens who have built those magnificent brick and stone blocks within the past three years. These buildings have been erected to correspond with the present grade. The grade would throw their floors some four feet below the sidewalks, while their second floors would be five or six feet above the street surface, and their cellars would become dark pits or dens underground....

"It will be a costly job to raise all the streets and sidewalks of Chicago six to eight feet within the space to be drained by sewers — a space of more than twelve hundred acres. Where are the millions of cubic yards of earth to come from to fill them up to the second stories of the present buildings? And how many millions of dollars is it going to cost the tax payers? What sort of 'up and down' sidewalk will the establishment of this new 'thirteen or fourteen' foot grade create during the next twenty years?"

RAISING HEAVY STRUCTURES

A prominent instance of the difficulties to be met with in raising the grade was the new five story brick hotel, on the south east corner of Lake and Dearborn streets, known as the Tremont House. At first it was built to the grade of the period, but as there was now and then a new grade established it at last left the ground floor of the hotel three or four feet below the surface of the street in front. About this time there came to the city an enterprising young contractor who had had experience m raising buildings in the east, by the name of George M. Pullman, and he became actively engaged in the work of raising heavy buildings. Raising frame buildings was a comparatively easy task, but it was considered a most remarkable feat to accomplish the raising of so heavy a building as the Tremont House; it was successfully done, however, by young Pullman. It was the first brick building raised in Chicago, and the raising cost the proprietors, Ira and James Couch, forty-five thousand dollars. It was raised without breaking a pane of glass, although the building was one hundred and sixty by one hundred and eighty feet in size. Guests of the hotel were not conscious of the slightest jar throughout the entire proceeding.

Afterwards an entire block on Lake street, between Clark and La Salle streets, on the north side of the street, was raised at one time, business in the various stores and offices proceeding as usual. The facility with which buildings, light and heavy, were raised to the grade established became the talk of the country, and the letters of travelers and correspondents for newspapers abound with reference to the work going on and the odd sensations of going up and down as one passed along the streets.

NICHOLSON PAVEMENT

During the month of July, 1857, there was completed the first piece of "Nicholson Pavement" that had been laid in Chicago, a kind of paving which afterwards attained a remarkable vogue here. The Nicholson pavement was made by setting up on end blocks of wood on a suitable foundation, usually of well packed earth, covered with a layer of planking, between each row of which there was placed a narrow strip of wood to keep one row apart from the other, and in the space thus left a filling of tar and gravel was added to produce an even surface. The blocks of wood were sections of three or four inch sawed planking, and when the pavement was completed it presented a most pleasing appearance to the eye, and indeed seemed to promise a lasting service. The wearing quality of the Nicholson pavement, however, was not as great as had been anticipated, and although extensively constructed it was gradually superseded by macadam or stone block pavements. The latter in fact held the preference for a long term of years, and was more extensively built than any other style of pavement in use.

On Lake street the Nicholson pavement could be seen in all its glory; there were no car tracks on the street, and when the pavement was new, for it was renewed several times, it presented a most inviting appearance and was the especial pride of the Chicago people of that day. The attention of visitors was called to the wonderful pavement as soon as they arrived, and it was considered, with the water works and the grand view of the lake on Michigan avenue, one of the sights of the city. Lake street was preferred above all other streets as the route of processions, which were much more numerous in those days than they are to-day. Lined as it was with gorgeous retail establishments it was the busiest and most attractive street in the city. During the war it was the favorite highway for passing troops, and the citizens often saw marching regiments either starting for the war or returning to their homes, the discharged troops usually reduced in numbers and sadly lacking in the fresh and tidy appearance they bore at the time of their departure.

At the time of the Great Fire of 1871, the Nicholson pavement, which by that time had been laid on many of the business and residence streets of the city, suffered much injury from burning material from the adjacent buildings. Masses of hot bricks and flaming woodwork falling upon it burned cavities in the surface, and left the pavement charred and partially burned away in many places. This gave rise to a report, frequently repeated by correspondents, that the street pavements in Chicago took fire and were the means of carrying the flames across and along the streets. But this was not the case, as the wooden blocks composing the pavement were too deeply imbedded to become the means of spreading the conflagration.

GENERAL TRADE IN THE EARLY FIFTIES

Some consideration of the trade conditions existing in Chicago in the fifties is appropriate in this place. When William Bross issued a thin volume in 1876, published by Jansen, McClurg & Co., and called it a "History of Chicago," he crowded within a limited space a great variety of interesting facts regarding the city's development. Much of what he wrote was from his own knowledge and observation, and written as the history is by a man of superior intelligence and possessed of a fluent style, it has a special value for the historical investigator.

Bross came to Chicago in 1847, and writing of this period he says that "the business of our merchants was confined mainly to the retail trade. The produce that was shipped from this port was all brought to the city by teams. Some of them would come one hundred and fifty miles. Farmers would bring in a load of grain and take back supplies for themselves and their neighbors. Often has it happened that they would get 'sloughed,' or break their wagons; and between the expense of repairs and hotel charges, they would find themselves in debt when they got home. During the 'business season' the city would be crowded with teams. We have seen Water and Lake streets almost impassable for hours together.

"The opening of the canal, in 1848, made a considerable change in the appearance of the city, and when the Galena railroad was finished to Elgin, the difference was very striking. The most of those old familiar teams ceased to visit us, and we heard some few merchants gravely express the opinion that the canal and railroads would ruin the city. The difference they have made is simply that between a small and a large business, between a retail and a wholesale trade. One of the jewelry establishments of the city, in 1845, did a business of three thousand dollars; last year [1852] the same house sold goods to the amount of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Drug stores, whose sales eight years ago were from five to six thousand dollars, now do a business of from fifty to a hundred thousand."

THE APPRECIATION IN REAL ESTATE

In a historical review written by Mr. Bross, in 1853, he makes some interesting and startling comparisons between the values of lots between the time that the first sale of lots took place in 1833, and those of the year under review. "Our citizens." he says, "have all noticed the splendid drug store of J. H. Reed & Co., No. 144 Lake Street. The day it was opened, October 28th, 1851, we stood in front of the store, conversing with the owner of the building, Jeremiah Price, Esq. Pointing to one of the elegant windows, said Mr. Price, 'I gave one hundred dollars in New York for that center pane of French plate glass. That is exactly what I paid Mr. J. Noble for this lot, eighty feet front, on a part of which the store stands, when I purchased it in 1833.' That lot cannot now be bought for $64,000. Wolcott's addition, on the North Side was bought in 1830 for one hundred and thirty dollars. It is now worth considerably over one and a quarter millions of dollars.

"Walter L. Newberry bought the forty acres which forms his addition to Chicago, of Thomas Hartzell, in 1833, for $1,062. It is now worth half a million of dollars, and what is fortunate for Mr. Newberry, he still owns by far the largest part of the property. So late as 1834, one-half of Kinzie's addition, all of Wolcott's addition, and all of block one, original town, were sold for twenty thousand dollars. They are now worth, at a low estimate, three millions of dollars. Any number of similar instances might be given of the immense appreciation of real estate in Chicago.

"From the great appreciation which these figures show, many may be led to suppose that no more money can be made on real estate in Chicago. Exactly the reverse is true. As compared with the original cost, lots near the center of the city cannot be expected to appreciate so rapidly as in years past; but that they will steadily advance, there can scarcely be a doubt. Let any business man study carefully the facts contained in these articles; let him remember that within the lifetime of thousands who read these pages Chicago will contain her hundreds of thousands of people; and then let him calculate, if he has the courage, what real estate then will be worth in the commercial center of the Mississippi valley."

INCREASE IN VALUATIONS, 1839 TO 1853

In a table included in the review above referred to, Mr. Bross shows the remarkable advances each year from 1839 to 1853. The valuations include real estate and personal property. The table, giving only round numbers, is as follows:

1839          $1,829,000

1840          1,864,000

1841          1,888,000

1842          2,325,000

1843          2,251,000

1844          3,167,000

1845          3,669,000

1846          5,071,000

1847          6,189,000

1848          9,986,000

1849          7,617,000

1850          8,101,000

1851          9,432,000

1852          12,035,000

1853          22,930,000

TRADE REVIEWS IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRESS

By the end of the year 1854 Chicago had attained to the rank of the greatest primary grain port in the world. This term is defined by J. L. Scripps, whose article in the Democratic Press is here referred to, as follows: "We say 'the largest primary grain depot in the world,' because it cannot be denied that New York, Liverpool, and some other great commercial centers, receive more breadstuff's than Chicago does in the course of the year, but none of them will compare with her in the amount collected from the hands of the producers."

During that year the shipments of grain from Chicago had reached the great total of 15,804,423 bushels, nearly half of which was corn, while wheat and oats constituted about one-fourth each of the total amount. It must be remembered that it was during this year that the cholera prevailed to such an alarming extent that the time is referred to as "the great cholera year." More extended mention of the ravages of this dreadful visitation is made in another part of this history.

THE GREAT PROGRESS IN RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION

The rapid growth of railroads by the end of 1855 had riveted the attention and interest of the Chicago people. There were nearly three thousand miles of railroads in operation in the state of Illinois at that time. The list of the railroads including their branches, and the number of miles operated by each of them, is given as follows:

MILES

Chicago & Milwaukee Railroad                131

Chicago, St. Paul & Fond du Lac Railroad               82

Galena & Chicago Union Railroad                  326

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad           310

Chicago & Rock Island Railroad                     840

Chicago, Alton & St. Louis Railroad         260

Illinois Central Railroad                          620

Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad                      20

Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad     272

Michigan Central Railroad               282

New Albany & Salem Railroad                 281

Total                                      2933

This showing was dwelt upon by the writer in glowing terms, and after giving a list of the receipts of the railroads centering in Chicago, the total of which to the end of the year 1855 was over thirteen millions of dollars, he says that he thinks this "will do very well for a city which only four years ago had only forty miles of railroad completed and in operation." It is added that there are ninety-six trains arriving and departing daily, but "when the spring business opens" the number will be increased to "about one hundred and ten."

At the end of the year 1856 the reviewer from whose work we have quoted above found that four of the principal railroads had carried 639,666 passengers westward from Chicago, and 532,013 passengers in the opposite direction, thus showing "that these four railways alone have taken west 107,653 more passengers than they brought back — people enough to redeem another sovereign State from the dominion of the panther and the savage, and to add another star to the banner of our glorious Union "

INTERRUPTION TO PROSPEROUS CONDITIONS

With the close of the year 1857 the reviewer whom we have been following, in spite of his usual optimism, recognizes the havoc and losses suffered during the panic of 1857. The business of the railroads, as that of every other branch of industry, fell off, and the figures shown are materially less than for the previous year. "Amid all the panic and disaster of the last year," says the writer, "with all the Satanic efforts of certain journals in New York and other cities to destroy all railway values, the earnings of twelve railroads centering in this city for 1857, fell short of their aggregate earnings in 1856 $1,558,550, which is ten per cent, less than their receipts in a year of great prosperity and progress. In all the dark days through which we have passed, the Daily Press has steadily labored to inspire confidence and hope, and the result of careful comparisons in every department of business show that our positions were correct. We have the satisfaction also of knowing that our reasonings have saved many of our readers from despair and utter ruin."

It is also shown that at the end of the year 1857, despite the baneful effects of the panic, the railroads of the state had increased their mileage, which now stood at nearly four thousand miles of track, and the total earnings of the railroads amounted to eighteen and a half millions of dollars. During that same eventful year the number of bushels of wheat received was twelve and a half millions, of corn seven million, four hundred and nine thousand bushels, of lumber four hundred and sixty millions of feet, and of vessels arriving in port seven thousand, five hundred and fifty-seven. "It is a source of great satisfaction that the tide of population is largely and steadily westward," says the review writer. "The change will, in almost every instance, secure for the people who emigrate a great increase of property, and thereby afford them the means of greater physical comfort and a more generous expenditure for their intellectual improvement and social elevation. Who can estimate the influence which the two hundred thousand people who sought homes west of the Lakes during the past year will have upon the social progress and the physical development of the Mississippi?"

PANIC CONDITIONS OF 1857

Hopefulness and intelligent optimism was the key note of public sentiment in those days, and combined with the great natural advantages possessed by Chicago in an eminent degree, the consequences of the panic conditions were not so severely felt as in many other parts of the country. "With a large surplus of last year's crop still in hand," says the writer of the review, "the west is abundantly able to meet all her liabilities, and have sufficient means to make large and substantial improvements in the future. We are on the eve of a great, permanent and propitious social advancement, and let every western man summon all his energy to act his part wisely and well."

But in Colbert's history, written many years later, the author records a much more serious condition of affairs from the effect of the panic than is allowed by the writers of the contemporary period. Colbert says that the effects of the panic on the real-estate market "were fearful, and the building business suffered correspondingly." The depreciation in prices of lots was great and continued during the following two years. Buyers of real estate at the high prices prevailing before the panic had depended upon a continuous advance in values to enable them to provide for their deferred payments, but found that they could not sell even at a ruinous sacrifice. "Great numbers of workers left the city for want of employment, and those who remained were obliged to go into narrowed quarters to reduce expenses. This caused a great many residences and stores to be vacated, and brought about a reduction in rents on those still occupied."

PANIC OF 1857

The area of the city had been increased in 1856 to eighteen square miles by the extension of the southern boundary to Thirty-fifth street. Land values had increased to an excessive range of prices, caused by the prevailing mania for speculation. The remoter causes of the general panic of 1857 were to be traced to the business men of the East. While the panic of this year was not the worst experienced in the United States it was remarkable from the fact that it prevailed in all the civilized countries of the world. A writer in Moody's Magazine for April, 1911, in reviewing this period says that the panic was both a financial and a commercial disturbance. "It was world-wide in extent, but its effects were more severely felt in the United States than elsewhere. It was due to speculation excesses, and, in America, was intensified by bad banking practices, a free commercial morality, an inflated currency, and a sudden loss of commercial confidence induced by the calling of loans and capital by European investors in American securities."

There were many important events taking place in other parts of the world during this period. The war in the Crimea was brought to a conclusion which resulted in an extensive readjusting of the international relations of European nations. The rebellion of the natives of India against British control added to the disturbances of financial conditions abroad, and these events "widely influenced subsequent American history and made the year 1857 memorable."

THE PANIC IN CHICAGO

The year of the panic during the fifties witnessed a serious check to the industrial development of Chicago, and indeed to the entire western country. It is one of the most remarkable characteristics of this community that no matter what check or disaster occurs the hopefulness and boundless energy of its people quickly repair the deficiencies and they march resolutely on in their predestined course.

"The recent season of panic and revulsion through which we have passed," writes the reviewer of the commercial situation in the Democratic Press at the close of the year 1857, "will prompt to greater caution, and therefore greater safety in the future. With all its evil effects, it has clearly demonstrated that there is a solid basis for the prosperity of our city and the West generally."

THE OLD UNIVERSITY

To Stephen A. Douglas is due the credit of founding the first University of Chicago, now known as the Old University of Chicago. In 1855 a number of citizens visited Judge Douglas with plans for a university, and asked him for help. He gave them ten acres of ground lying along Cottage Grove avenue, at Thirty-fourth street, not far from the place where the Douglas monument now stands. On these grounds was erected a white limestone building in 1857, and here for seven years the work of the new institution was done. In 1865 another large building was put up, and was called Douglas Hall, the older hall being named Jones Hall, after William Jones, the father of the present Fernando Jones, who had made generous gifts to the institution. Within three years of its opening there were twenty students in the college, forty-eight in the law department and one hundred and ten in the academy.

DOUGLAS AND THE UNIVERSITY

In Clark E. Carr's volume entitled "Stephen A. Douglas," the author pays this deserved tribute to the memory of Douglas for his services in connection with the University of Chicago in its formative period. "To the building of a great university in Chicago Senator Douglas devoted much of his thought and energy from 1856 to the close of his illustrious career. He appreciated the value of learning and gave a large portion of his property to place within the reach of the young of Chicago and of the West the advantages of higher education. In the midst of great political excitement at a time when in the political arena of the whole great nation he was the central figure, midway between his repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the great debates, he found time to establish what he hoped and intended should be a great university. He was not satisfied with merely establishing such an institution, but as a member of its Board of Trust and in other ways he contributed to its success.

"He had a high conception of what an institution so situated and with such environment should be, and did everything in his power to bring it up to such a standard of excellence as he hoped to see it attain. Had he survived to the allotted years of man, no doubt much that he hoped for would have been attained by the institution he founded. But he lived only five years after the institution he founded was so established.

"It remained for wise, brave, able, and generous men, after the lapse of thirty years, to take up the work Senator Douglas so nobly attempted, and carry it forward to the most complete and triumphant achievement that has ever been reached by any institution of learning in so brief a period. In the University of Chicago, the dream of the great Senator has been far more than realized. That he hoped to see reared a great university upon the foundation he laid cannot be doubted, but it is scarcely within the bounds of possibility that he could have had any idea of the success to which the institution has attained. Familiar as we are with its history and appreciative as we are of its usefulness, we must revere the memory of him in whose heart and brain it was conceived, and by whose initiative a University of Chicago was first established."

When Douglas died in 1861, the university lost the president of the board of trustees and its chief patron; both trustees and faculty showed their honor for him by attending his funeral in a body. As his successor, William B. Ogden was elected president of the board, and served until his death in 1877, when N. K. Fairbank was elected to that office.

The Dearborn Observatory, containing at that time the largest refractor telescope in the world, was given by Mr. J. Young Scammon, who was a regent of the university. The observatory was named after Mr. Scammon's first wife, who was a member of that family from whom Fort Dearborn and Dearborn street were named. The group of three buildings, comprising Douglas Hall, with its lofty tower, Jones Hall, and Dearborn Observatory, seemed very imposing to the citizens of fifty years ago, and was visited in May, 1867, by the delegates and guests of the meeting of the national missionary and publication societies of the Baptist churches of the North, then holding their annual session in Chicago. Arranged in a large group on the wooden sidewalk on Cottage Grove avenue, in front of the University, the delegates and some of the citizens of Chicago were photographed as we here see them.

From the opening of the university women had been allowed to attend the classes, though without formal recognition or degree. In 1875 they were admitted to the institution on an equality with men, with the same privileges and rewards. In the same year Rush Medical College, the oldest medical school in the West, was made a part of the university.

The management of the affairs of the University was in the hands of a board of trustees, a board of regents and an executive board, while the law department had its own board of counselors. The law department became in 1873 the Union College of Law, the Northwestern University sharing control over it. This is the present law school of Northwestern University.

Ever since 1865 the university had struggled with financial difficulties, being loaded with a debt incurred in building Douglas Hall; to pay for this the whole property had been heavily mortgaged. Finally in 1886 an insurance company which had taken the property under a mortgage seized it for foreclosure, tore down the buildings, and had a street cut through and residences erected on the lots formed. The telescope was taken out to be used by Northwestern University at Evanston.

In the building of the new University of Chicago, the early benefactors of the former institution have been remembered. On the walls of Scammon Court and of the cloister leading to Mandel Hall are placed bronze tablets. The Douglas tablet bears a bas relief portrait of Senator Douglas and these words:

In Honor of Stephen A. Douglas

Who in 1855 Generously Contributed

To the Founding of

The First University Established

In Chicago, This Tablet Is

Erected in June, 1901, by the Decennial

Class of the University of Chicago

The memory of Mr. Scammon and his wife is perpetuated at the University not only in Scammon Court, the large quadrangle of the School of Education, on the walls of which there is a bronze memorial tablet, hut in Scammon Garden, where the home of Mr. and Mrs. Scammon used to stand. In this garden on summer nights, among the trees and shrubbery in the midst of which the old house stood. plays are given by the students with no scenery hut the setting of greenwood and lawn which they find there.

The Ogden Graduate School of Science, made possible by the terms of Mr. Ogden's will, is a magnificent memorial to one who did much for the early university and, unknowing, provided a great foundation for the later one.

By a resolution adopted by the trustees of the University of Chicago the alumni of the old institution are recognized as alumni of the present one, thus carrying on in a vital way the traditions of the Old University of Chicago.

REMINISCENCES OF THE OLD UNIVERSITY

A former student of the old University of Chicago, of the class of 1868, supplies some interesting details of life at that institution in the war period, which are inserted here, in his own words:

"'The University of Chicago of 1910, with its fine buildings, extensive grounds and wealth, largely overshadows its predecessor, and being located in another part of the city seems almost to be wholly disconnected with it save in name. One writer says of it, 'The first University of Chicago ceased to exist in 1886; it had never been a very vital force educationally.'

"The old university was situated on a ten-acre tract given by Stephen A. Douglas on the west side of Cottage Grove avenue, between Thirty-fourth and Thirty-sixth streets, and in its day was an institution of which Chicago was very proud. Among its students were the sons of many prominent men and members of wealthy families of the state and city, and it bade fair to become one of the leading universities of the country. But bad judgment on the part of its financial agents loaded it down with a large debt by building extravagantly, which embarrassed its friends and was the source of some irritations and difficulties among its managers. This resulted in the property being sold under a mortgage, its great telescope passing to the Northwestern University at Evanston, and its beautiful and substantial buildings taken down, the grounds platted and sold for private residences, so that not a vestige remained of the old university, nor a remnant to mark the spot where it had been.

"During the Civil War the grounds of the University were hedged in on its north and west sides by Camp Douglas with its high board fence, in which was confined an army of Confederate prisoners, a constant reminder to the students of the grim war then going on. That this undoubtedly had some influence upon the patriotic spirit of the boys one little event will show. It was in the fall of 1863, political feeling ran high, and one morning after the election of B rough as governor of Ohio by a very large majority, the students were gathering in the chapel for prayers. Whenever a student came in who was known to have decided views on political questions a round of applause would greet him. So enthusiastic became the crowd that even due propriety during the prayer seemed for the time to be forgotten. Dr. Burroughs was not present on the occasion, Professor A. J. Sawyer presiding in his place. After the prayer had been concluded Professor Sawyer directed that all the students who took part in the unseemly disturbance should rise. For a moment all was hushed, no one moved. Then James H. Shankland, a member of the sophomore class from Nashville, Tennessee, a hot bed of secession, though he himself was loyal to the Union, stood up to his full height, as sober and repentant apparently as George Washington was when he cut down the cherry tree, and looked the professor full in the face with an expression that Shankland could so well assume. He seemed by his manner to beg pardon for his offense, but said not a word. Upon this there broke out another outburst of applause that must have aroused the occupants of Camp Douglas. Thereupon the professor announced that he had seen some of the men join in this disturbance, and should give them two demerit marks and one demerit mark to those who acknowledged their offense. This announcement was followed by general applause. There was a spirit of patriotism and loyalty in the university that no number of demerit marks nor fear could suppress.

"The faculty at this time was composed of Rev. J. C. Burroughs, D. D., President, William Matthews, LL. D., Professor Mixer, Professor Joseph Breck, Professor A. J. Sawyer, Professor Edward C. Johnson, Alonzo J. Howe, and tutor George W. Thomas. Notwithstanding that the institution was open to both sexes, there were no young women in attendance until a time subsequent to the war. Women in college and women employees in those days were almost unknown. There was but one woman employed in the Treasury department of the United States during the war. The equality of women in the institutions of learning and in business offices was not a mooted question to any great extent. The question in those days that was uppermost in men's minds was the war and its issues.

"There was a military company, wholly voluntary, connected with the University. Arms were provided for this company and it was fully organized and regularly drilled. Charles Parker of the junior class, who had been an officer in the United States service, was its captain, and he was an excellent drillmaster. Parker returned to the army as a lieutenant, and James H. Roe of the sophomore class succeeded him as captain of this company, in the spring of 1864. In response to a call for "one hundred day men," the 134th regiment of Illinois Volunteers was organized, largely composed of Chicago men. Company G of this regiment practically absorbed this company previously formed at the university. Joshua Pike of the junior class was its captain, James H. Roe its second lieutenant. The sergeant-major of the regiment was Charles D. Hancock of the Academic department. Among others from the university who enlisted in this regiment were C. S. Hostetter, S. E. Massey, Philip Dinkle, John A. Miller, Frederick A. Smith, and Edward P. Savage. The little that was left of the university was at the depot of the Illinois Central to witness the departure of the boys, and the college was lonely and 'stale,' after they had gone. The literary societies, the Athenaeum and the Tri Kappa, seemed lifeless affairs. The class room was not what it had been, the cream of the university seemed merged in the departed regiment.

"It could hardly be expected that a University no older than this was would become 'a very vital force educationally.' Every large as well as every small educational institution has its small beginnings, the greater the struggle to get a start and to keep it upon its feet the greater the credit to those who organize and stand by it until it can stand alone. Few institutions of this kind can show a better beginning than this one. It ceased its existence not for lack of students or from any deficiency of its faculty, but because of bad management financially. Too much money was spent in its buildings, and too much wrangling among those engaged in the management of its affairs were the prime causes of its final dissolution.

"Among its students of the war times were the following whom we shall refer to by their later titles and the stations in life filled by them: Rev. Henry C. Mabie, D. D., Rev. William W. Everts, D. D., Rev. Joseph P. Phillips, Rev. E. O. Taylor, a well known temperance lecturer, George R. Wendling, a widely known lecturer on religious questions, Rev. Edward P. Savage, now for over twenty years the head of the Minnesota Children's Aid Society, Joseph F. Bonfield, Dorrance De Bell, a judge in Will County, Henry A. Gardner, a lawyer of Chicago, Ferd W. Peck, Philo A. Otis, well known in Chicago, Frederick A. Smith, judge of the Circuit court of Cook County, C. C. Kohlsaat, judge of the United States Circuit Court, and James H. Shankland, a prominent lawyer of Los Angeles, California.

"This forms a very respectable list from a new college. Its department of law, the prime mover in the formation of which was Hon. Thomas Hoyne, was under the charge of Judge John A. Jameson, Henry Booth, and Harvey B. Hurd. Prom the class of 1866 in this department was graduated, among others, Frank G. Hoyne, Norman T. Gassette, General Joseph Smith Reynolds, and Robert T. Lincoln. From the class of 1867 was graduated Hon. A. C. Bardwell, of Dixon, James H. Gilbert, D. G. Hamilton, R. C. Givens, John C. Wallace, Judge Gwynne Garnett, Judge E. H. Gary, Judge F. A. Smith, Colonel F. A. Riddle, Robert E. Jenkins, John A. Hunter, and others."

THE RIOTS OF 1855

Dr. Levi D. Boone was elected mayor of the city in the spring of 1855, on the "Know Nothing" ticket, the only time that the party of that name ever won an election in Chicago except in the case of some minor offices. During the period when Dr. Boone was mayor party feeling ran high. "It was one of the hottest and most unreasoning political periods in the history of the country," says the writer of an article published in later years in the Chicago Times. "The temperance question was alive; the Catholic question almost precipitated a religious war, and Know-Nothing-ism hung on the outer wall a banner inscribed, 'Put none but Americans on guard.' " Each of these questions was well calculated to rouse fierce popular passions, and in fact a large and clamorous element became prominent in the public affairs of the city and menaced its peace and welfare.

Almost immediately after Mayor Boone was inducted into office he was called upon to exercise his authority in the suppression of a riot. During the preceding winter the state legislature had passed a stringent temperance law, to be submitted to the people for their approval or otherwise. Mayor Boone believed that the measure would be ratified, and judged that it would render the transition easier from "wet" to "dry" if some of the liquor sellers and beer saloon proprietors could be induced to quit the business before being compelled to do so. He therefore recommended to the City Council that the license fee be raised from fifty dollars per annum, as it then stood, to the rate of three hundred dollars; but that no license be issued for a longer period than three months. By that time it was anticipated prohibition would have been voted, and those few saloons which had survived the large increase in the license fee could be easily dealt with. This he believed to be a wise measure of precaution, since it would "root out" the lower classes of saloon-keepers, leaving only the better men in the business.

The saloon-keepers throughout the city naturally regarded the measure, which had been passed by the Council, as oppressive, and united their efforts to defeat its object. The City government was at that time completely in the hands of the "Native American party," that is, the "Know Nothing" party, and every man of of the eighty or ninety patrolmen on the force was a native American. At the same time that the enforcement of the ordinance was attempted there was discovered among the municipal regulations a Sunday law, which had become a dead letter, but now it was sought to enforce this regulation also. Most of the saloon-keepers were foreigners, and, in the temper the people were in at that time, no consideration was to be shown to them. Some of the saloon men defied the authorities, which action on their part resulted in a large number of arrests. It was agreed to try one ease and let the others be settled by the precedent thus established.

The case decided upon tor the test was called on the 21st of April, before Squire Henry L. Rucker, who was Police Magistrate and held his court in the courthouse. It will be remembered by old residents that a street was named in honor of Squire Rucker which in later years was changed to Center avenue. Soon after the beginning of the session of the court a great commotion ensued in the neighborhood. The saloon interest had massed itself in a solid body on the North Side, and headed by a rife and drum proceeded to the courthouse forming a noisy mob threatening to interrupt the further course of the trial. The mob gathered in force at the intersection of Clark and Randolph streets, and completely obstructed both thoroughfares opposite the Sherman House. Cyrus P. Bradley was the chief of police at that time, and Luther Nichols captain of police. Darius Knights was the marshal. Mayor Boone gave orders to "clear the streets and disperse the mob." This was done without any serious consequences resulting except a few arrests.

In the afternoon of the same day another mob assembled on the North Side with the declared intention of releasing the men who were on trial. Meantime the mayor strengthened his position by swearing into service a hundred and fifty extra policemen, thus placing a force of about two hundred and fifty men at his command. The mob approached the north end of Clark street bridge, and a portion got across the river. The mayor sent word to the bridge-tender to swing the bridge at this moment, thus dividing the mob into two parts. The police having made suitable dispositions the bridge was opened again for passage, upon which the remainder swarmed across the river and joined their fellows on the south side. Here they were met by a solid phalanx of the police, but the leaders of the mob urged the men on crying out, "Pick out the stars," "Shoot the police," which was followed by a brisk fusillade of shots. "For a short time," says the account printed many years afterward in the Chicago Times, in a series of historical articles, "things were exceedingly lively round the Sherman House. Quite a number of rioters were seriously wounded, but so far as can be ascertained, only one was killed, though a few days later there were several mysterious funerals on the North Side, and it was generally believed that the rioters gave certain victims secret burial."

MILITARY COMPANIES CALLED OUT

This affair caused intense excitement throughout the city, and a call was made upon several companies of the local militia to aid in preserving order. An Irish company, known as the "Montgomery Guards," an American company known as the "Chicago Light Guards," and a battery of artillery consisting of two guns responded to the call. The latter was in command of Richard K. Swift, the banker. Mayor Boone asked Swift to protect the courthouse with the artillery, but as he was in doubt as to how the four sides could be protected with only two guns, the warlike mayor drew a diagram showing him that by placing one gun at the corner of La Salle and Washington streets, and the other at the corner of Randolph and Clark streets, he would be able to command all the approaches to the square in which the courthouse was situated. These measures were effectual and no further collisions occurred. Much was due to the firmness and ability shown by the Mayor on this occasion. "Mayor Boone", says the account already quoted from, "being a man of nerve and decision, took the riotous bull by the horns, the moment he made his appearance, and knocked the brute insensible at the first blow."

The result of the referendum vote on the proposition to prohibit the sale of liquors was voted on by the people throughout the state, as well as in the city of Chicago. The result was adverse to the proposition, and the situation then reverted to its former state. Thus the "lager beer riots," as they were called, passed into history.

THE KNOW NOTHING PARTY

An echo of the Know Nothing movement was found some years afterward in the proclamation issued by Governor Letcher of Virginia soon after that state had cast in its lot with the Southern Confederacy. On May 3d, 1861, Governor Letcher, in his proclamation to the people of Virginia, said that the authorities at Washington had used "every artifice" which "could inflame the people of the northern states and misrepresent our purposes and wishes," that "these misrepresentations have been carried to such an extent that foreigners and naturalized citizens, who but a few years ago were denounced by the north and deprived of essential rights, have now been induced to enlist into regiments for the purpose of invading this state." This allusion to the old Know Nothing party shows how weak were its principles, which within a few years after its collapse gave a weapon into the hands of the Southern "Fire-eaters," when such an appeal as the proclamation above quoted from was made to the southern people.