Vesta Accumulator Company Building

Designed to be a Book of Reference and Authority for every important incident connected -with the early settlement of Chicago and Northern Illinois, containing data of City, State and National Con- Ventions, Campaigns, Elections and Administrations, important Public Meetings, complete Lists of Officials, Biographical Sketches of Noted Men, Valuable Public Records, Mayors' Messages, Resolutions of the Common Council. Official Election Returns, Tables of Population and of Voters by Wards and Nationalities, Occupations, Valuation, Taxation, Summary

Passage source: Politics and Politicians of Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois : Memorial Volume, 1787-1887; a Complete Record of Municipal, County, State and National Politics from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, published 1887.

Beginning with the arrival of the first actual settler of Chicago in 1779, an attempt has been made to give in the following pages, on political lines, a clear idea of the unprecedented advancement of this great center of Western civilization, the rapid increase of population, and the speedy building up of business and society on a well-laid and secure foundation. The book will be found a non partisan medium of reference for many facts, incidents and reminiscences of national, state and « city campaigns and conventions. It is hoped that it will com- ^ mend itself to every person identified with politics, or interested Cf in the political history of our country and of municipal gov- -J' ernment. Chicago is recognized as the great political center; r nearly the center of population - the "Convention City." Illi- '"' nois has furnished two of the greatest Presidents four terms, 7 and for a quarter of a century the greatest campaigns have centered here, radiating from Chicago. Next year will be the one hundredth since the adoption of the ordinance of 1787, whereby the Northwest Territory was ceded to the United States, out of which territory the State of Illinois was formed. On the 4th of <a March, 1887, Chicago will have been incorporated as a city fifty ^ years. We thus have both a centennial and semi-centennial an- Sh niversary worthy of commemoration. In this connection the book will be found to comprise a complete municipal history, aj from the organization of Cook county, the incorporation of the original town of Chicago, the foundation of the city govern- ^ ment in 1837 UP to an<^ including the municipal election of 1886, ^ with sketches of the various Mayors and administrations ; inaugural messages, resolutions and ordinances of the City Council, official election returns, redistriction of the city by wards, val- "3"^ uable statistical tables, an account of the building of the City !5T Hall, county statistics, etc., etc. The increase of population ^ from 4,170 in 1837 to 75°>000 m 1886, with no cessation in 01 growth, is evidence that Chicago is destined to be one of the greatest, if not the chief city on the American Continent. ^ > In the compilation of this work the author has consulted upward of 100 books, files, pamphlets, and records, and is under obligations to the Hon. George H. Fergus, Hon. John Wentworth, ^ Hon. J. Young Scammon, Hon. George W. Julian, Mr. D. W. Lusk, of Springfield, A. T. Andreas & Co., Chicago, and many other distinguished writers and publishers, for valuable matter ' - embodied herein.

Passage source: Politics and Politicians of Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois : Memorial Volume, 1787-1887; a Complete Record of Municipal, County, State and National Politics from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, published 1887.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Chicago City - 902,150 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.