Chicago City (part 46 of 57)

David S. Wegg, when he had grown to sufficient strength and maturity to make his labor serviceable, worked in his father's carriage shop and acquired proficiency at the trade. He aspired, while yet a lad, to a higher avocation, and took every opportunity to obtain an education. By hard reading before and after the hours of the day devoted to manual labor, he qualified himself for teaching. While fulfilling his duties as teacher in the schools of St. Thomas, he began the study of the law, and devoted every spare hour and holiday to diligent reading. Having thus, in the intervals of labor, become familiar with the elementary principles of the law, at the age of twenty-five years he came to Madison, Wisconsin, where his uncle, Chief Justice Lyon, resided. Availing himself of the kind offer of this relative to live in his family, he en. tered the Law Department of the University of Wisconsin, and graduated in the summer of 1873. He was immediately employed by the law firm of Fish & Lee, of Eacine, and soon became a partner. In 1875 he accepted an offer of partnership from ex- Chief Justice Dixon, at Milwaukee. The firm of Dixon, Hooker, Wegg & Noyes will be remembered as one of the most brilliant and eminent law firms of the Northwest. During the time that Mr. Wegg remained in this connection, his labors were most engrossing, and the experience gained most valuable. He appeared in litigated cases and developed an aptitude and capacity for forensic practice. When this partnership was dissolved on account of the ill health of Judge Dixon, Mr. Wegg entered the firm of Jenkins, Elliott & Winkler, which was largely employed in railroad interests and made the law of corporations a specialty. From this agreeable and lucrative association Mr. Wegg was called to the position of assistant general solicitor of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway company. The duties of this position required his almost daily attendance in the courts of the various States traversed by the road. He tried cases almost without number, prepared briefs, argued appeals and gained signal success and reputation as a learned, sagacious and skillful lawyer. In 1885, Mr. Wegg took charge of the law department of the Wisconsin Central railroad company and moved to Chicago, where he has since resided. Here, without relinquishing the legal duties which the department required, there was added a vast financial and managerial responsibility. The company undertook the immense task of obtaining an entrance into Chicago, where every available avenue of approach seemed to be occupied by powerful corporations that did not look kindly upon the advent of a competitor. In the prosecution of this enterprise it became necessary to organize a new corporation - the Chicago & Northern Pacific railroad company. Mr. Wegg was made its president, and upon him rested, without the title of manager, the vast responsibility of its financial and constructive, as well as legal, management. He purchased the right of way, conducted condemnation proceedings, negotiated bonds, built a magnificent depot and attended to the thousand details of the immense undertaking with the skill of a trained expert and the prudence and sagacity of a practical lawyer. More recently, when the Northern Pacific railroad company acquired possession of the Wisconsin Central, Mr. Wegg was elected a director of that great continental corporation, a position which he has recently voluntarily relinquished. Eloquent advocates, astute pleaders and learned lawyers have been produced in every country where the common law has prevailed. In America these have not infrequently shown qualities of the highest statesmeuship when called into councils of state. It is only within the last decade or two that the needs of the great corporations engaged in transportation by rail have brought to the front men combining the highest legal ability, financial skill and executive power. They are not numerous, and when found command salaries as munificent as those paid to the highest in civil life. Among these so rarely endowed Mr. Wegg will freely be accorded a foremost place.

As a lawyer, a professional colleague who knows him well says : " I think he is the best lawyer I have ever known." He seems to have assimilated the principles of jurisprudence and to be able to supply from his intellectual reservoir a correct solution to any new combination of details that will stand the test of severest criticism. In the earlier years of his practice he excelled most of his competitors in his skill in the presentation of railroad cases to juries, while before the court his mastery of legal principles, familiarity with precedents and power of logical and forcible argument made him well nigh invincible. He has been trustee of large estates and has held many responsible positions of trust and confidence with corporations other than those mentioned. As counsel his services have been in great demand, and he has been extensively retained in important and complicated litigations in New York and other eastern cities.

Mr. Wegg has a physical constitution well suited to bear the strain of his mental exertions. He is strong and sturdy, of more than average weight, and in the enjoyment of perfect health. His complexion is light, his eyes blue, and his expression mild and cheerful. He is courteous in his bearing, and in his intercourse genial and winning, but there is in his massive head and clear-cut features an impression of reserve power.

Outside of professional studies he is well informed, and in some lines of literature and science an adept. He is a free and interesting conversationalist, an agreeable comrade, and a most fascinating companion. He is a member of the Literary Club and Union League Club, of this city; the Milwaukee Club, of Milwaukee, and the Manhattan, of New York; but the demands of business, - that inexorable taskmaster of gifted men, - leaves little leisure for the indulgence of social intercourse. He loves better to devote what time can be snatched from engrossing duties to the domestic circle.

As soon as Mr. Wegg had assured his professional success, some five years after entering upon practice, he married. The lady of his choice was Miss Eva Russell, daughter of Mr. Andrew Russell, of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, a native of the " Badger State." The marriage took place in 1878. Mrs. Wegg reinforces the English blood of the family with bonnie Scotch, that has brought to the household two sturdy sons, bearing the names of Donald Russell and David Spencer, the former born in 1881 and the latter in 1887.

Mr. Wegg is no partisan, but professes a stalwart Republican attachment. The family belongs to the Episcopal parish of St. James, of which Mr. Wegg is an attendant and supporter.

Moses Purnell Handy

Moses P. Handy was born at Warsaw, Missouri, April 14, 1847. He is descended, on the paternal side, from an old family, which has bdeu prominent in Maryland and Virginia for over two hundred years. The American progenitor of the Handy family was Samuel Handy, a planter in Somerset county, Maryland. He came to America in 1635, sailing from Gravesend, England. Mr. Handy's great great grandfather, Captain George Handy, was prominent in the revolutionary war. On April 8th, 1777, he loaned to the Continental Congress $8,000 in specie, which was not repaid until after his death. He was a shipmaster, and owned many vessels, which he placed freely at the disposal of the government. Four of these were seized by the British, and one of them was burned in an attack on Handy Hall, the plantation of Captain Handy. Hisfather, and his father's father, also suffered with the early colonists, the senior, Colonel Isaac Handy, being one of the most eminent officers in the French and Indian wars. James Henry Handy, Captain George's grandson, the grandfather of Moses P., was conspicuous in public affairs and the treasurer of the fund raised for the establishment of the first public school in the National capital, among the subscribers to which were Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams and James Monroe

On his mother's side, Mr. Handy is descended from Moise Chaille, who was one of the Huguenots driven from France by the persecutions of the Capets. From this Moise Chaille, Mr. Handy gets his cognomen of Moses, which is an old family name.

Moses P. Handy was born while his father, Rev. Isaac W. K. Handy, D. D., was a missionary in Missouri, in which capacity he traveled all over the State, organizing Presbyterian churches. Subsequently Dr. Handy filled important pulpits in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, and became known as one of the most eminent divines in the Southern Presbyterian church. When Moses was less than a year old the death of his mother obliged Dr. Handy, for the sake of his four small children, to return to the eastern shore of Maryland, of which State he was a native. At a tender age, Moses showed the bent of his mind. At four he read fluently, and at seven began to edit a paper, to which his father was the sole subscriber. He was educated at Portsmouth,

Virginia, and was a student at the Virginia Collegiate Institute when the war broke out. His father was imprisoned for political reasons in Fort Delaware, and the family removed to Delaware to be near him. When Dr. Handy was released by exchange, Moses went south and at the age of seventeen joined the Confederate army. Through the interest of friends he was made courier, with the rank of lieutenant on the sta5 of General Stevens, chief of engineers in Lee's army.

When the war ended, Handy found himself penniless in Richmond, and tried his hand at various means of subsistence. He was school teacher and book canvasser by turn, meantime writing his experiences on the "Retreat from Richmond" for The Watchman, a paper edited in New York by Rev. Dr. Deems.

In 1867 he walked into the office of The Christian Observer in Richmond, and demanded employment from Rev. Dr. Converse of that paper. In vain was he assured that there was no vacancy. He had but the traditional quarter of a dollar in his pocket, and with characteristic persistence, he refused to take no for an answer. Luckily the mailing clerk failed to appear that day, and young Handy acted as his substitute, asking only his board as his compensation for his services. In a few days he had made himself so useful that when the missing clerk appeared Handy was given another clerkship, at a salary of ten dollars a month and his board. Some months later he reported a speech by Hon. Henry Wilson, afterwards vice-president of the United States, at Orange Court House for the Richmond Dispatch, securing a beat on the other papers which, with other good work, secured for him a regular position on the local staff of the Dispatch, He quickly gained a reputation as a brilliant reporter, and his feats are among the traditions of the Richmond newspaper men. On one occasion he secured a full report of a colored convention in " Chimborazo," one of the worst districts in the city, the denizens of which had threatened to murder any white reporter who might dare to attend the meeting. A daredevil Virginian, who enjoyed the danger of the adventure, kept guard over Handy with a loaded revolver, while he took his notes. When the meeting was over the two placed themselves back to back, and, under cover of their revolvers, made good their retreat.

Mr. Handy became city editor of the Dispatch in 1869, and passed rapidly through the various grades of editorial service on that paper. He took a prominent part in the reconstruction movement which elected Walker governor of Virginia, and brought that State back into the Union. But while a staunch supporter of the conservative party, he was always noted for that perfect fairness to both sides which has always marked his work, both in the gathering of news and in commenting upon it.

The Capitol disaster in Richmond in April, 1870, nearly cost Mr. Handy his life. The court of appeals had met to decide the relative claims of the two rival mayors, one of whom was H. K. Ellyson, proprietor of the Dispatch. The floor of the courtroom gave away, hurling four hundred human beings forty feet into the room below. He was buried under the debris, and that he was not among the killed was due solely to the fact of his having been stunned by a blow from a falling beam as he went down, thus being saved from suffocation.

Mr. Handy served for two years as the general manager for the southern branch of the American Press association, and acted as a correspondent for several of the leading northern journals.

He took an active part in politics, representing Richmond on the Conservative State committee. He organized the first political club in the first militia organization in the State after the war, and was president of the convention which nominated Gilbert C. Walker for Congress. Mr. Handy, in 1873, was a candidate for an elective public office for the first and only time in his life. He sought nomination by the Conservative par- ty, which was equivalent to an election, for the office of Commissioner of Keveuue, the most lucrative office in the State, but was defeated by one vote. That same year President Grant appointed him honorary commissioner to the Vienna Exposition. Mr. Handy, however, stayed at home.

In 1873 he sprang into national fame as the only newspaper correspondent who had witnessed the transfer of the steamer Virginius by the Spanish authorities to the United States government. Owing to the excited state of public feeling on account of the outrage upon, and massacres of, American citizens by the Spaniards in Cuba, the time and place of the surrender were kept a profound secret. Mr. Handy, who had been sent to Key West, Florida, by the New York Triburie, obtained an inkling of the event and succeeded in smuggling himself on board the American man of war, to which the surrender was to be made, and was the only civilian who witnessed the affair. His account was telegraphed to his paper, the Tribune, which was thereby enabled to plume itself on one of the notable beats in the history of American journalism. The other New York paper stopped their presses when the Tribune appeared with the story and issued extra editions, reprinting Handy's story from the Tribune. His signal success resulted in a flattering offer to join the Tribune's editorial staff, then a galaxy of the most brilliant of American journalists. Mr. Handy did some noble work on the Tribune, among his feats being an exposure of the Louisiana election frauds in 1874, when he unearthed Kellogg's check book and the letters he had received from Carpenter and Butler. Kellogg announced his intention to shoot Mr. Handy on 'sight, but made no effort to see him.

Toward the end of the year 1875, Handy left New York to take the editorship in chief of the Kichmond Enquirer. In this capacity he took a prominent part in the political campaigns of the State. In 1876, he was appointed a commissioner from Virginia to the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. While in that city, Col. A. K. Mc- Clure, who had long watched Handy's career, made him associate editor of the Times. He represented that paper in New Orleans during the Tilden-Hayes controversy, and his articles on the action of the "visiting statesmen" in the Louisiana Returning Board investigation, attracted attention alike for their thoroughness and their dispassionate fairness. His various political letters in the Times soon made the initials "M. P. H." famous all over the United States. Late in 1880, Mr. Handy became managing editor of the Philadelphia Press, and, as usual, success followed his efforts. Wide acquaintance with journalism and journalists, backed by the liberality of the proprietor, enabled him to surround himself with some of the best talent in the country. Mr. Handy worked hard, and greatly improved this journal, quadrupling its circulation in three years. Overwork caused his health to give way early in 1884, and his physician ordered him to Europe to recuperate. In three months he returned to this country and represented the Press in the early part of the presidential campaign of that year, during a portion of which he was Mr. Elaine's guest at Bar Harbor.

In August, 1884, Mr. Handy severed his connection with The Press, having arranged with a syndicate of capitalists and active young newspaper men to purchase the Evening News of Philadelphia. The purchase was effected, and The News Publishing Company was organized with Mr. Handy as its president and editor-in-chief of the reorganized paper, whose name was changed to the Daily News.

Under Mr. Handy's management the Daily News soon made its mark in journalism, being quoted all over the country, and the special features introduced by it were copied everywhere, until now they are a matter of course with all the bright evening newspapers, of which the Daily News was the prototype. Mr. Handy's health again failing from his hard work on the News, he went back to his old field of political correspondence in 1887. But the rapid jumps from city to city, with uncertain hours for food and sleep, still further injured his heahh. Mr. Handy, therefore, went abroad again, and remained until his shattered health was completely restored .

When Director-General Davis, of the World's Columbian Exposition, was in search of a man to assume charge of the organization of the Department of Publicity and Promotion, the name of Moses P. Handy naturally presented itself, because of his wide acquaintance with journalism and journalists throughout the world, as well as his wonderful executive ability and power of organization. The tender came simultaneously with that by President Harrison of the Consul-Generalship to Egypt. The major, however, decided to cast his fortunes with the Fair. His task was really the creation of a department, for the field was entirely unexplored ; methods as well as forces had to be originated, and the territory to be covered was the globe. How thoroughly the work was accomplished has been best shown by the universal interest which was created in the enterprise. Major Handy was the first department chief appointed ; the first to have his organization perfected ; and the first to hand in his final report to the director-general. He was a member of the National Commission to Europe, which was sent by the Exposition management, to arouse the interest of foreign countries in the Exposition and to encourage those in power to make liberal appropriations for the representation of their nations at the great fair. That this work was well done is shown by the magnificent displays other countries made at the Exposition, which was the marvel of the world. Major Handy's boast is, that although the scope of his department was greatly increased, its expenditures were forty per cent of the original estimate of expenses.

Major Handy is well-known as one of the best after dinner speakers in America or indeed in the world. For ten years he was president of the famous Clover Club of Pb,iladelphia, which, under his direction and by means of the unique method of doing things originated by him, became the foremost dining club of the world. Major Handy is also a member of the Grid-iron Club, of Washington, and vice-president of the Fellowship Club, of Chicago. He is a member of the Chicago, Argo, Union League and Union Clubs of Chicago ; the Lotus Club, of New York, and the press clubs of several cities. Major Handy is also a member of the Masonic order, a Knight Templar, and belongs to the Sons of the American Revolution and a number of other organizations, both charitable and beneficial.

Major Handy was married, in 1869, to Miss Sarah Matthews, daughter of George H. Matthews, of Cumberland county, Virginia. Among her ancestors were Samuel Matthews, the first governor of Virginia chosen by the people, and Thomas Miller, the first clerk of Powhattan county. She, as well as her husband, has made her mark in literature, being particularly distinguished for her widely copied vers de societe.

Thomas Wetherill Palmer

Thomas Wetherill Palmer comes of a sturdy stock, his ancestors on both sides having been among the early settlers of the continent which Columbus opened up to civilization. His mother's people were Rhode Islanders, being directly descended from Roger Williams; while her father was a native of Massachusetts, having been_ one of those who fought with Warren at Bunker Hill. After the revolution he was appointed by President Jefferson to a federal judgeship in the territory of Michigan, within

Thomas, the father of Thomas W. Palmer, was born in the State of Connecticut, but was a pioneer in the settlement of the Northwest, and the year 1809 found him already on the frontier line, conducting a lucrative trade with the Indians at the post of Detroit. Twenty-one years later (June 25, 1830) Thomas W. Palmer was born. The boy literally grew np with the country, and by the time that his manhood approached, territories had become States, forests had given way to cities, society had taken root in the land of the savage, and the spire of the church and belfry of the school were rising from the bosom of the prairies.

Young Palmer enjoyed the benefit of a fairly good scholastic education, being assiduous in his studies, and passing through the course at St. Glair college, where he completed his preparatory studies. He graduated from the University of Michigan with the customary degree. After graduation lie passed some months in foreign travel, and while abroad he made a pedestrian tour through Spain, acquiring that familiarity with the language and people of the country which was destined to prove of no little value to his own government. Returning to this country Mr. Palmer entered upon mercantile pursuits, being for some time engaged in business in Wisconsin, and subsequently conducted some large enterprises in Detroit, where he now resides. His success as a merchant was the result of diligence and probity, which qualities have also secured the esteem of his fellow citizens. Later in life Mr. Palmer became an active participant in politics, exercising potent influence,, and filling many positions of trust with fidelity to the public and honor to himself. He was a msmber of the Board of Estimates of the State of Michigan, and later served in the legislature for several terms as a member of the upper house. Having brought to each and every station an enlightened intelligence and strong sense of duty, he was next chosen as one of Michigan's representatives in the senate of the United States, occupying that high position for the full term of six years.

In 1887 Senator Palmer was chosen president of the water-ways convention, which convened at Sault Sainte Marie, under the auspices of the Duluth chamber of commerce, and in that position rendered valuable assistance to the cause of lake navigation. In 1889 he was appointed by President Harrison minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary to the court of Spain.

When the act of Congress was passed for the institution, at Chicago, of a World's Fair, in commemoration of the discovery of America by Columbus, President Harrison selected ex-Senator T. W. Palmer as a member of the Board of National Commissioners. His recognized native ability and long experience pointed to him as one pre-eminently qualified to fill the office of president of that august body, and he was elected thereto at its first session. How faithfully and how well he discharged the duties of that arduous position is a fact of which the Nation is justly proud. To his position he brought the extraordinary combination of rare tact, ripe experience and unswerving integrity. Honored by his countrymen, beloved by his associates and approved by his own conscience, he once more retired to private life after the close of the great Exposition, justly proud that his last acts as a public man had been in harmony with his entire public career - sans peur et sans reproche.

John Tilghman Dickinson

The important and laborious position of Secretary of the National Commission of the World's Columbian Exposition was unanimously bestowed upon Colonel John T. Dickinson, of Texas, a gentleman yet in his early manhood, possessing rare qualifications and exceptional genius. The ability and efficiency which Colonel Dickinson brought to the discharge of his duties, exemplified in the great success and universal popularity of the Exposition, shows that the Commission did not err in its choice. Circumstances had brought him into the management of a great Inter-State Military Encampment, an international musical contest held in Austin, and later to that of the international Fair Association, with its Texas-Mexican Exposition at San Antonio,the marked success of which, owing largely to the energy and ability of their secretary and manager, pointed him out as a suitable man to be associated with the managers of the World's Columbian Exposition.

Colonel Dickinson is a member of the bar of his native State, but has never engaged in the practice of law. His tastes led him to adopt the newspaper profession. While yet a lad at school he edited and managed an amateur boys' paper, known as the Boy's Companion, and while a student at the University of Virginia, he was editor of the University Magazine. The experience gained in these youthful essays in editorial work, developing an adaptation for the magic power which moulds opinions, naturally inclined him to pursue an editorial career, and in 1879, when only twenty-one years of age, he assumed editorial control of the Daily Telegram, the leading Democratic newspaper of Houston, Texas.

Colonel Dickinson is said to resemble in personal appearance the late Henry W. Grady, of Georgia, and like him is an ardent believer in the magnificent destiny of the "New South," an enthusiastic advocate of the interests and glory of that portion of our country, and especially of those of the "Lone Star State." He became a representative of her institutions, attracting to himself popularity among the people of his State, and the favorable notice of careful observers in other parts of the country. While representing his newspaper at Austin, the capital of the State, in January, 1881, he was elected secretary of the house of representatives of Texas. So satisfactory were his services, and so efficient his labors, that the following year he was chosen secretary of the Texas State Capitol Board, composed of the Governor and heads of the State departments. He held this . office in connection with the secretaryship of other important State boards from 1882 to 1888, during the entire period of the construction of the Texas State Capitol building, which is one of the finest structures of the kind in the United States. Filling these public positions, his services in connection with the Military Encampment and Fair Association of Texas which have already been mentioned, attracted the attention of the Chicago World's Fair committee, which employed him to aid in the effort to have the Columbian Exposition located in Chicago. After interviewing members of Congress in several States in behalf of Chicago,he joined the committee in Washington, whose labors after an unexampled contest with the representatives of New York, St. Louis and Washington, were successful.

After the passage of the Act of Congress, approved April, 1890, provid ing for the appointment of two World's Fair commissioners, to be selected from the two leading political parties in each State and territory, General L. S. Ross, then governor of Texas, recognizing his peculiar fitness for the position, nominated Colonel Dickinson as the Democratic commissioner from the "Lone Star State," and he was accordingly appointed by the President of the United States, in accordance with the terms of the law. At the first session of the World's Columbian Commission, held in Chicago in June, 1890, called for the purpose of organizing under the Act of Congress, Colonel Dickinson was unanimously elected secretary of the commission. Since the date of his election, there have been many sessions of the World's Columbian commission held in the city of Chicago, and at each session the one hundred and eight commissioners, composing the National body that supervised and controlled the manage- ment of the World's Columbian Exposition, have given emphatic and hearty evidence of their approval of the method, system and policy pursued by Secretary Dickinson in the discharge of the onerous, important and arduous duties devolving upon him as the National secretary of the greatest Exposition the world has ever seen.

Col. Dickinson was born in Houston, Texas, on the 18th of June, 1858. His father, John Dickinson, was a Scotchman from Kelso on the Tweed, but a resident of the United States from childhood. He was one of the leading business men and planters in southern Texas. His mother, Elizabeth Tilghman Dickinson was a native of the Old Dominion and descended from the prominent families of Virginia and Maryland. They were splendid people, in fine circumstances, and gave to their only son the best educational advantages to be procured. He was under the best teachers in Houston, Texas, and for some years studied in the most thorough schools in Leamington, England, and Dundee, Scotland. From thirteen to sixteen he had his first practical experience of business in the general offices of a railway company in Houston, Texas. He then attended Randolph - Maoon College, at Ashland, Virginia, from 1874 to 1876. He spent the next three years at the University of Virginia, where he graduated in several of the academic departments, and took the degree of Bachelor of Law in June, 1879. During the succeeding summer he pursued the course of instruction at the Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York.

The military title which he appropriately and gracefully wears, was acquired by service on the military staff of Governor John Ireland, of Texas, from 1884 to 1888.

Col. Dickinson married on the 15th of June, 1893, the charming and lovely widow of the late John Mattocks, a prominent lawyer and Democratic politician of Chicago. Mrs. Dickinson is a daughter of Jacob Harris, one of the old citizens of Chicago.

In personal appearance, Col. Dickinson is a man of fine physique, courtly bearing, kind hearted, as brave as he is generous, with democratic ideas, tastes and convictions, impressing all who meet him as a man of energy and of dignity of character, although approachable andthe mostgenial of associates.

Index

mentioned, 382. First Presbyterian Church of Woodlawn Park, historical sketch of, 381. First Scandinavian Congregational Church, m e ntioned, 343. First Swedish Baptist

Jewett, M. A., 27. Jewitt, Samuel H., 175. Jewett, Thomas L., 175. Jewett and Adams, 175. Jewett, (John N.) and Jewett Bros., 175. Jewish Manual Training

Source changes here: from Historical Review of Chicago and Cook County and Selected Biography. A.N. Waterman ... Ed. and Author of Historical Review, by Waterman, Arba N. (Arba Nelson), published 1908; 184,050 words in this source stream.

Preface

The three vohimes which arc herewith presented to the pubhc under the title of "Historical Review of Chicago and Cook County, and Selected Biography," represent the results of the labors which have been bestowed upon this undertaking since the plan was originallv announced.

In addition to the "Historical Review," the prospectus announced the publication of a collection of individual biographies of citizens whose attainments and positions give them a distinction that is acknowledged without question.

The reader will find that this original plan has been broadened with the progress of the work. Special articles are published on the Chicago of today, and the scope of the entire work has been so enlarged that the volumes might afford a commentary on the history of this community that can be found in no other publication.

The high character of form and content, maintained throughout the work, is in accordance with the original plan and is befitting the general subject here treated. The mechanical features of the publication leave nothing to be desired. The volumes are bound in durable covers of rich material, the engraving and typographical work are high class, and the quality of excellence has been emphasized in every phase of preparation.

By A. N. Waterman

Michigan. Nicollet had been some twenty years Nicollet. in Canada, during the greater portion of which he had lived with the Indians and become thoroughly habituated to their mode of life. Rumors of a strange people without hair or beard who came from the West to trade at a large village located upon the banks of Fox river in Wisconsin, had reached the French authorities in Canada, and thither, in 1634, Nicollet, who had for a time been an interpreter at Three Rivers, was sent as an ambassador with instructions to learn the character of the people "without hair or beard who came from the West," and the route by which they had voyaged to the large village upon the banks of the Fox. The Canadian authorities thought the beardless traders to be Chinese or Japanese, and Nicollet carried with him a ceremonial robe of damask silk embroidered with birds and flowers. Leaving Three Rivers, Canada, in July, 1634. that or the succeeding year he passed across the northern waters of Lake Michigan and down Green Bay to the mouth of Fox river, which he ascended to the portage between it and the Wisconsin, from whence he may have gone down to the Mississippi. He seems to have visited the Pottawatomies and the Illinois Indians, and to have made a treaty with the Winnehagoes. Vol. I - 1.

The Jesuits, whose zeal and courage as missionaries have never been exceeded, in 1660 founded a mission at Keeweenaw Bay on Lake Superior, but Chicago is not known to have been reached by any of the indefatigable order or any white man until the coming of Marquette in 1674. The fur traders of Montreal were equally energetic, but far less scrupulous and actuated by different motives in their explorations and dealings with the Indians. Many agents of the traders adopted the life and habits of the Indians - lived with them in their wigwams, journied, fished, hunted and intermarried with them. Known as "Coureurs des bois", they were in most instances the first white men who looked upon the lakes, rivers, plains and forests of this great region. They found here a situation such as will never again be presented to the gaze of man - a most fertile domain equaling in extent half of Europe, without cultivation and unoccupied save by a few thousand savages. That before the coming of Marquette, some of these traders and adventurers, for whom the unexplored and the unknown had the attraction which in all ages it has possessed, may have wandered to, reposed or laid down to die upon virgin soil now occupied by the city of Chicago, is not only possible, but probable.

No complete history of any man or any region has been or will be written. The mystery of the past, the uncertainty of the future, and the incomprehensibility of the present are ever with us.

and following the course of the Great Lakes, in the Marquette, spring of 1673, arrived at the head of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Thence up Fox river and from it by a short portage to the Wisconsin, they sailed down the last-named to the Mississippi, which they reached June 17, 1673. Turning southward they voyaged upon the great river for more than a week, when, perceiving on the west bank an Indian trail, they disembarked and followed it until they came in sight of three villages. The Indians treated them kindly and gave them a feast of four courses. The next day six hundred of the natives accompanied them back to the Mississippi. Continuing their voyage down the "Father of Waters," passing the Illinois, the Missouri and the Ohio, they reached the Arkansaw, where they were again entertained and warned by the In- dians aj^ainst going farther down the river. Upon the 17th dav ui July they began the tedious task of return, n^wing all day against the swift current, and sleeping at night upon the low and unwholesome shore or in their canoes anchored upon the river. Reaching the Illinois they entered its mouth - Marquette rightly conjecturing that its ascent could be more easily made and thus the lake of the Illinois (Michigan) more quickly reached. Near the present site of the city of Utica they came to an Indian village then called Kaskaskla, consisting of seventy-four lodges, whence they were escorted by a band of young Indians to Lake Michigan and, pYoceeding northward, at the end of September arrived at Green Bay.

October 2^, 1674, Marquette with two Frenchmen, Pierre and Jacques, left the mission at Green Bay, intending to go again, as he had promised, to the village of the Kaskaskias. Sailing southward along the west shore of Lake Michigan, about the first of December, they arrived at the Chicago river. Here they seem to have remained until about December 12th. The good father, in the journal he kept, says: "During our stay at the mouth of the river, Pierre and Jacques killed three buffaloes and four deer. * * They contented themselves with killing three or four turkeys out of many which came around our cabin." At this time they seem to have been "cabined" about five miles up the river and near where the street now known as Ashland avenue crosses the west fork of the Chicago river. Of this he says: "Being cabined near the portage five miles up the river, we resolved to winter there, * * * being too much encumbered and my disability not allowing me to fatigue myself too much." At this lime there seem to have been two Frenchmen, LaToupine and another who styled himself a" surgeon, forty-five miles from where IMarquette and his companions had built their cabin. These Frenchmen sent to the voyagers corn and buffalo meat, and in every way endeavored to be helpful to the black-robed priest. Marquette says: "One may say they have done and said all that could be expected of them: the surgeon having stayed here to perform his devotions." It is evident the "staying" by the surgeon "to perform his devotions," gave Marquette greater joy than the food which the Frenchmen bestowed. March 23rd Marquette writes: "The Holy Virgin Immaculate has taken such care of us during our hibernation that we have not been in want of provisions, having still a great bag of grain left, some meat and some grease (lard and tallow mixed), we have also lived very easily, my illness not having prevented me from saying the Holy Mass every day; we have not kept Lent except Fridays and Saturdays."

The foregoing appears to us to be in accordance with the preponderance of the evidence. There are those who contend that Father Marquette at no time went up the Chicago river and never made the portage from it to the DesPlaines and thence reached the Illinois ; that upon his return from his voyage down the Mississippi he visited a large Indian village near Utica and was by the Illinois Indians guided to the south end of Lake Michigan; that the succeeding year he entered the Calumet river and ascended it for a distance of some five miles. However this may be, the first written report we have of the condition of any portion of the territory now occupied by the city of Chicago is by the pen of Father Marquette.

At the time he visited these shores and for more than a century afterwards, the Chicago river near to a place now known as the southern end of Pine street, turned from its easterly course and ran southward to the present line of Madison street, whence it proceeded to Lake Michigan. North of the Chicago river, the land in the vicinity of the lake was then to a considerable extent covered with timber, while to the west of the river there was a good deal of marsh. For nearly a hundred years after the visit of Marquette and the voyages to this region of Joliet, LaSalle, Tonti and other distinguished Frenchmen, the country around Lake Michigan, as well as the territory stretching westward to the Pacific, was as unsettled and its few inhabitants as uncivilized as when Marquette first looked upon these shores. Many things contributed to this : First, there was here no demand for lands to till, no push of settlers eager for homes. Most important, perhaps, was the discovery that the Mississippi, instead of turning to the west and emptying into the Gulf of California, continued its southern course and found an outlet in the Gulf of Mexico, thus affording a water communication with Europe, uninterrupted by the ice of a Canadian winter. This known, the Montreal traders had either of two routes to the Father of Waters - the first discovered, by way of Green Bay, the Fox and Wisconsin rivers to the Mississippi; the second, a portage from Lake Erie to the Wabash, down it to the Ohio and thence to the mighty, mysterious stream.

that, coming from tlie unknown northwest, seemed by the finger of God designed to hold together the Canadian forests, the fertile western prairies and the warm lands of the south, for the use of the subjects of His Christian Majesty, the King of France.

Regret is sometimes expressed that the Indian names of places have not been retained. In great part they have. Beginning with Ohio, nearly all of the northwestern states have Indian names. The principal rivers retain the names given to them by the natives. The French called the most easterly of the great lakes Frontenac, after the great governor of Canada; all - save Superior - of the five great inland bodies of water, have Indian names. The Indians knew nothing of writing or spelling ; they had no rules for pronunciation. The French gradually adopted some one of the various pronunciations they heard and when they had occasion to write it out, used such letters as represented to them the sound of the name given. Th.e various writers may have heard different pronunciations and may not alike have understood the spoken word. The most we know of the Indian names as spoken by them, two and three hundred years ago, is that our present pronunciation, probably, is a near approach to the name by which many of the red men knew and called the rivers, lakes and lands upon which they sailed and over which they wandered before the coming of the pale face.

Chicago, in the old French maps, is most frequently spelled "Checagou." The DesPlaines river is sometimes called the Chicago. In Gontan's map of 1703, the name is spelled "Chegakou." Upon a map of the discoveries of LaSalle, near the southwest shore of "Lac des Ilinois" is "Cheagoumenan." Colonel DePeyster, a British officer, in 1779. writing of the place, spells the name "Eschkagou." Lake Michigan is frequently put down as ''Lac des Illinois," sometimes with the addition "ou Missihigamin." On a map attached to a history of Canada, this lake is marked "Magnus Lacus Algonquinorum sen Lacus Foetetium." Upon a map made in 1688 Lake IMichigan is marked "Lac des Illinois ou Michiganin ou Lac Dauphin."

On a map made in 1688 by Raffeix, Ontario is called "Lac Ontario ou De St. Louis," and beside it is "Lac Erie-Du Chat" ; on another map Ontario is called "Lac Ontario ou des Iroquois." The Indians seemed to have called the lake "Ontario" or "Skanidario" (Beautiful Lake). Lake Erie is upon one map called "Lac Erie ou de Conti." Ottawas was sometimes written "Outaouacs." Joliet, when, in company with Marquette, he first saw the Mississippi, called it Buade, in honor of the family name of Governor Frontenac. Descending this to the Ohio, he found this known by the Indians as the Ouabouskigou ; the Arkansas he named Bazire after a merchant of Quebec and the Illinois, the Outrelaise, in compliment to a. friend of the wife of Frontenac. The river St. Lawrence was known by the Indians as Hochelage.

In 1498 on account of the discoveries made by the Cabots, Great Britain claimed the territory now occupied by Chicago. Later on this territory was claimed and settled by the "French. In 171 7 by decree of the Royal Council, the country now known as Illinois was placed under the government established by France for Louisiana. In 1765 the claims of Great Britain to this territory were confirmed by treaty with France and a portion of the state of Illinois thus became a part of the English colony of Virginia. In 1774 by the act of Parliament known as the Act of Quebec, the state of Illinois would have become part of the Province of Quebec, but that in 1662, under a charter granted by Charles the Second, the colony of Connecticut was given a strip of territory extending north and south substantially from the 41st to the 42nd degree of north latitude (this strip being the width from north to south of the colony of Connecticut), and extending from the west line of the present state of Connecticut to the Pacific ocean, so far as Great Britain had power to grant. This grant included the region now known as Chicago and extended as far north as Evanston and south to the present south line of Kankakee county.

Under James the Second, an attempt was made to revoke the charter of Connecticut. To prevent this, the charter was hidden in the celebrated tree known as the "Charter Oak" of Hartford, Connecticut.

The territory now occupied by Chicago was also during and after the Revolutionary war claimed by Virginia, on account of the capture of certain English forts in Illinois and it is said the territory was also claimed by New York on account of the victories by the Iroquois over the Illinois Indians in and about the region now known as LaSalle county.

Old State Street Bridge Looking North Public Library

it was and is, therefore, quite correct to say, as the Indians did, that the first white inhabitant of Chicago was a negro, Jean Bablisle Point de Saible, described as a large man, a trader, and pretty wealthy, said to have been born in St. Domingo and to have gone from there to Peoria, living with the Indians until about the year 1779. when he came to Chicago and here built a cabin on the north bank of tlie river, between where it turned to the south and its mouth. lie is spoken of as our first landed proprietor - his cabin appearing to have been the first house built in Chicago. After living here seventeen years, he sold his cabin to one Le Mai, a French trader, and returned to Peoria, where he died; the cabin was in 1S04 purchased from Le Mai by Mr. John Kinzie.

That Chicago was included in the treaty by which Great Britain acknowledged the independence of her revolted colonies is due to George Rogers Clark, who, in 1778, went from Kentucky to Virginia to obtain authority and assistance for wresting from the English, Fort Chartres, Kaskaskia and Vincennes in Illinois, Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, made him a colonel with authority to enlist recruits, and supplied him with arms, ammunition and other necessaries. Over the mountains Colonel Clark marched to the Monongahela, whence he proceeded by boat to within a short distance of the 'Mississippi, where he disembarked and marched to Kaskaskia, halting a few miles above the town. July 4th, 1778, he advanced upon, surprised and captured it in the evening after dark. The French town of Vincennes surrendered to one of his lieutenants shortly afterwards. Thus all of Illinois came for a time under the control of the revolted colonies. Colonel Hamilton, the commander of the English forces at Detroit, afterwards recaptured Vincennes, and Clark, in February, 1779, marched from Kaskaskia to capture Hamilton. In the evening of the 23rd, Colonel Clark marched into \'incennes and firing began. In the afternoon of the next day the fort in which Hamilton's force was entrenched surrendered. The possession thus acquired was recognized in the treaty of peace made at the conclusion of the war and Chicago thus ceased to be British territory.

How many people know that Clark street, upon which the court house of Cook county stands, was named after George Rogers Clark? Ought not the state of Illinois to erect a monument to the memory of

In 1784 Virginia ceded to the United States her rights over the territory northwest of the Ohio river, and in 1787, by act of congress, a territorial government was created, the ordinance providing for the future division of the territory into not more than five nor less than three states. This ordinance, as affecting the destiny of Chicago, is next in importance to the capture by Colonel Clark of Kaskaskia and Vincennes, for in it was contained the provision that "there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory otherwise than in punishment of crimes whereof the offender shall have been duly convicted."

There may have been a fort on the Chicago river prior to 1803. Franquelin, a young French engineer in Quebec, in the seventeenth century, from sketches and reports of early explorers, made a number of maps of the western territory claimed by France. One of these, said to have been prepared in 1688, has upon the southwestern border of "Lac des Illinois" (Michigan), at the mouth of a small stream coming from the northwest and emptying into the lake, a designation with the words "Fort Checagou."

An agent of the state of Pennsylvania, appointed in 17 18, seems to have mentioned in his report a fort, not regularly garrisoned, at the mouth of the "River Chicagou." By the treaty of peace made at Greenville, Ohio, in August, 1795, the Indians ceded to the United States various tracts and among others "one piece of land six miles square at the mouth of the Chicago river emptying into the southwest end of Lake Michigan, where a fort formerly stood."

At the building of Fort Dearborn, an Indian agency house was built for the use of United States Indian agents, and in 1805 Charles Jouett, a native of Virginia, an educated and for a time a practicing lawyer, was appointed agent. He had been for a season, under appointment by President Jefferson, Indian agent at Detroit. He was a man of great muscular strength and entire integrity, who enjoyed the confidence of three presidents and was faithful to every trust reposed in him. The government of the United States instituted the factory system of supplying the Indians with useful articles, withholding whisky from and giving to them a fair equivalent for the furs they had to sell. In doing this the government was principally actuated by motives of philanthropy and expediency. It was also moved to the course it took by a belief that the white traders made immense profits which could and should be received by the national treasury. That governments can make money by going into mercantile business has been for centuries and still is a cherished faith that "springs eternal in the human breast." The United States government could and did make laws designed to secure for itself a monopoly of the trade; it had unlimited capital and unequaled opportunity for security in the carriage of goods to the red men and furs from them to the markets in the far east; but it could not and did not make the business pay expenses, not even by excluding the salaries of agents from the item of expense. The system, after some twenty years of trial, proved a failure.

In July, 1803, Captain John Whistler, with a company consisting, December 3, 1803, in all of 69 men, came to the mouth of the "Chicago river" and at a place then having no other of these were occupied by French traders with their Indian wives. Up to 1812 there \vas little change in the condition of this small frontier post. In that year, on the i8th of June, under long-continued provocation, such that a renunciation of independence and an incorporation into the British empire would have been preferable to its endurance, the United States declared war against Great Britain. The British government had long been expecting the declaration, and its agents had been studiously ingratiating themselves with the Indians, with a view to their assistance in the impending war with the United States. The Indians had for some years been under British influence and received presents from agents of the English authorities each year.

Reports of murders of settlers by Indians became frequent. Upon a farm near to Chicago, two members of the Lee family were murdered by Winnebagoes ; a son and an employe of Mr. Lee escaped by pretending to be going to feed the cattle. That night all the settlers around the fort remained within its walls. The Indians prowled about for several nights, but nothing came of this other than the loss of a few sheep. August 9, 1812, a special messenger brought orders from General Hull for Captain Heald to dispose of the public proplo CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY erty as he thought best, abandon the fort and march to Detroit. On the 13th Captain WeHs, Indian agent at Fort Wayne, arrived with thirty friendly Miamis for the purpose of assisting Captain Heald on his march to Detroit. On the night of the 13th, all the ammunition and such muskets as could not be carried were destroyed; the whisky on hand was thrown into the lake ; at the same time the stores of blankets, broadcloths, paints, calicoes, etc., were distributed to the Indians in accordance with a previous agreement that they would furnish an escort of safety. At nine o'clock on the morning of the 15th the march began. Captain Wells, with fifteen of his friendly Miamis, leading, the other fifteen Miamis being in the rear. The women and children rode in wagons or on horse- back. Mr. Kinzie marched with the soldiers. As soon as all were out of the fort, the Pottawatomies rushed in, set the fort on fire and began to shoot the cattle. The little band proceeded along the shore of the lake for about a mile and a half, some four or five hundred Indians behind a low ridge of sand to the west, accompanying the column. The women and children had reached the place where Prairie avenue and Eighteenth street now are, when Captain "Wells perceived that an attack was about to be made; an attempt to prevent this failed, the defensive force was divided, the Miamis fled, and the Pottawatomies obtained possession of the wagons and baggage. A hand-to-hand conflict ensued, the savages killing many of the women and children. A remnant of survivors succeeded in gaining an elevation on the prairie, to which the Indians did not follow. The Indians having made signs for Captain Heald to come forward, he did, and an agreement was made under which the whites surrendered upon a promise by the Indians to spare their lives. Of the number who had left the fort, only twenty-five men and eleven women and children remained; the loss of the Indians was about fifteen. Captain Heald gives the number of whites killed as thirty-eight soldiers, two women and twelve children.

Whoever desires may now see at the corner of Prairie avenue and Eighteenth street a beautiful bronze monument erected by the late George M. Pullman to mark the"^pot where less than a hundred years ago five hundred Indians nearly annihilated the entire white population of Chicago.

that surrendered, the Indians i)ut to death every \v<juiided prisoner save Captain and Airs. Heald, Lieutenant llehu and Mrs. liehn. The American army suffered at the hands of the British and their In.han alhes two defeats at substantially the same time, Detn^it having been surrendered by General Hull upcjii the day Vovi Dearborn was burned. The attack has been attributed t(^ the failure t<j turn over to the Indians the ammunition and whisky at the fort. That an agreement to do this was made seems incredible, and that upon consultation it was determined not to put into the possession of the savages ammunition with which to kill whatever and whomever they might see fit, or whiskey, under the influence of which they w«re likely to become infuriated demons, was a wise resolution. As a rule, the Indians who occasionally came to the fort were not unfriendly to the garrison or the traders. They coveted whiskey, guns, ammunition, colored cloths, blankets, shining trinkets and whatever aroused their curiosity. But for the long-continued inlluence of British emissaries, they would have been no more dangerous than an equal number of Europeans living without the restraint of law.

The Indians were a flesh-eating people, and flesh eaters have a natural desire to kill. They loved excitement, noise, revelry, the chase. The young men were vehement, full of passion, vigorous, ready for anything that gave full play to their love for fighting, that offered an opportunity to scream, strike, subdue and triumph over a fallen foe or an innocent animal. Whether Captain Heald, in the abandonment of the fort, or in the disposition of his little force, took the wisest course, it is impossible to say. Nothing is easier than, after the event, to point out mistakes made before. Most military historians are able to show how Napoleon could have won all the battles he lost.

In July, 1816, after the termination of the war with Great Britain, Captain Bradley arrived at Chicago with two companies of infantry, and built upon the site of the destroyed, a new Fort Dearl)orn, which was occupied by United States soldiers until 18J3. "the frontier" having been, by advancing settlements, pushed back to the Mississippi, the keeping of an armed force at Chicago was thought to be no longer necessary. The new fort ha\ing been completed, the remains of the victims of the massacre are said to have l)een gathered and buried. Exposed as the corpses of the unburied dead for four years had been, a prey for wolves and other carnivorae, how much that could be identified as human relics, the snow and ice of winter, the drifting sands of summer, torrential rains and furious storms had left, no one knows. But what does it matter how the corse be shattered, ground to powder, buried in the sea, or scattered by the winds of heaven, when the soul that alone lifted it above the fate of common clay, has forever passed out of its clasp. There was an hour when to the little band that stood between the sand and the lake, these two companies of infantrymen would have seemed messengers from heaven. The agony of that hour passed and four years thereafter not all the hosts that shook the earth at Austerlitz and Waterloo could restore to life, heal a wound or stay a pang of the unburied dead who perished in that fateful hour.

The fort in the fall of 1828 again received a garrison which remained until the spring of 1831; and, in the terror consequent upon the Black Hawk war, frightened settlers sought safety within its walls. In June, 1832, a garrison was placed in the fort and it remained, an occupied military post of the United States until December, 1836, when it ceased to be held by any portion of the army.

Inserted in the northeast corner of the warehouse opposite the south end of Rush street bridge, is a tablet marking the spot where the old block house stood.

In 1 8 18 IlHnois became one of the United States. In the division of the state into counties, Chicago became a part of Pike county, and John Kinzie was recommended for justice of the peace of the county. By December, 1823, Chicago had been placed in Fulton county. January 13, 1825, Peoria county, including Chicago, was set apart from Fulton. In 1831 Cook county was organized and placed in the fifth judicial circuit.

As to whether the circuit court of Cook county was opened and the first trial before it had in September, 1831, or not until May, 1834, there is a difference of opinion as to which, owing to the great fire of 1 87 1, neither pleader nor historian can bring the record of its first proceeding into court or before the bar of public opinion, and thus have settled the question when the circuit court of Cook county, in which causes determined and pending have reached beyond the number 286,000, was first convened and, 'being ready to proceed to

Whoever takes time to look over papers and accounts relating to mercantile transactions in Chicago from 1803 to 1S20 will have his attention called to the prominent part which whiskey played in the commerce of those days, as well as to the comparatively low price at which it could then be obtained; while in a letter written Julv 17th, 181 7, complaint is made that "the best Indian corn will not command over two dollars per bushel." Was this due to a trust combination of distilleries. and railroads?

When, in 1809, the territory of Illinois was, by act of Congress, set off from Indiana, it was divided into two counties, Randolph and St. Clair ; the latter comprised the northern portion of the territory. From time to time, as population increased, new counties were created, and thus the district now known as Chicago has been within one hundred years successively in the counties of St. Clair, Madison. Crawford, Clark, Pike, Fulton, Peoria and Cook.

There was not in Chicago or Cook county a voting precinct until 1823. An election was ordered to be held on the last Saturday of September, 1823, at the house of John Kinzie, to choose a major and company officers of the Seventeenth Regiment of Illinois Militia. The first election, of the actual holding of which an official record remains, appears to have been held August 7, 1826, eighty-two years ago, for the purpose of electing a governor, lieutenant-governor, and a member of Congress; thirty-five votes were cast, all for the same persons. The present political machines ought to ascertain how such unanimity was secured. There may have been other elections between this and 1830; but if so, no certain account of them remains. An election seems to have been held July 24, 1830, for the election of a justice of the peace and constable, at which fifty-six votes were cast. In August, 1832, Cook county included the region now known as the counties of Will, McFIenry, Dupage and Cook, and had therein three election precincts. At the first general election held after the organization of the county of Cook, for congressional, state and county officers, there were cast at the three precincts one hundred and fourteen votes, of which the Democratic candidate for congress received ninety-four and his competitors twenty.

who, as a representative in Congress from the state of IlHnois, brought before the general government the subject of aid for a canal connecting the great lakes with the Mississippi ; the result of which was the granting in aid thereof of more than three hundred thousand acres of land along the Illinois river to Lake Michigan, embracing a large portion of the site of the present city of Chicago.

Beyond question, the construction of the Illinois and Michigan canal, thus assured, was of great importance in the growth at Chicago of a great city. Not only was attention thus called to this place and the extraordinary fertility of the vast surrounding area, but the means of communication thus to be opened up through the great lakes to the Atlantic on the east and by canal and river to the gulf on the south, constituting the longest line of inland waterway transportation that mankind had ever known, fired the imagination, enlisted the enthusiasm and inspired the hearts of myriads of adventurous spirits, for whom life had just begun, the world was all before and hope stood at the helm. It was, moreover, an age of canals.

The New York and Erie canal, first suggested by Governor Morris in 1780, on the 26th of October, 1825, was made navigable from tidewater on the Hudson to Lake Erie. On that day there was telegraphed by continuous discharge of cannon along the route from Buffalo to New York City, the news that the first barge, bearing Governor Clinton and his coadjutors, had left the lake on its way to New York City. No such message had ever before been announced over such a distance in such a manner. The Erie canal opened up boundless possibilities; it transformed immense regions, created cities, made fortunes; why should not the Illinois and Michigan canal do the same? It did and was of first rank in creating the metropolis at its eastern terminus. On the i6th of April, 1848, the canal was formally opened and on the 24th a boat arrived laden with sugar, shipped from New Orleans. This was transferred to the steamer Louisiana and, by the lakes, arrived at Buffalo two weeks before the spring opening of the Erie canal had enabled a boat from New York City to reach that port.

In 1824 Colonel Rene Paul, of St. Louis, a very competent engineer, was employed with a corps of men to make a survey and estimate of the cost of a proposed canal connecting the Chicago river with the Ihinois at LaSalle. This he did, completing the work in

1825. estimating the cost of five routes surveyed, the highest estimate being $716,110, the lowest $639,946. In 1833 it was ascertained that the cost of the work would be $4,043,000. After further surveys, in 1836 an estimate of $8,654,000 as the cost of a canal ninety-six miles long, sixty-six feet wide at the surface, thirty-six at the bottom and six feet deep, was made, and July 4. 1836. amid imposing ceremonies, the great work was begun. Up to 1842 the canal had cost $5,139,492.03, and was yet uncompleted. It was determined that the canal should be completed upon the shallow cut, or cheap plan. A loan of $1,600,000 was effected, which was afterwards paid out of the proceeds of a special two-mill state tax. A few hundred thousand dollars more were expended, and the canal, called completed, and opened as before stated. In 1852 congress appropriated $30,000 for the dredging of the canal channel.

In 1823, eighty-five years ago, there was levied in Fulton county, of which Chicago was then a part, the first tax upon property in the settlement, from which was realized the sum of $14.42. August 4, 1830, a plat of the town of Chicago was made and published. The population in 1833 amounted to between three and four hundred. In that year the town was incorporated and in November rules for the regulation of the ordinary affairs of the town were adopted. March 4, 1837, Chicago, by act of the legislature, became a city. The population was rapidly increasing, so that at the first city election, March 31, 1837, seven hundred and nine votes were cast, the population shown by the first city census, taken July i, 1837, being 4,170.

Although the actual construction of the canal was not begun before July, 1836, the donation of lands by Congress and the determination to build, as before suggested, turned attention to Chicago and directed the western tide of emigration to this point. Coupled with this was a wild speculation in lands and town lots, which arose in 1834 and came to an end in May, 1837. In the course of the land craze, thousands of enterprising spirits were drawn hither, the adjacent country was visited, and knowledge of the vast domain of most fertile lands in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa ready for tillage, that could be had at one (hollar and a ([uarter an acre, set in motion a tide of individual, peaceful emigration to the garden spot of the world such as was never seen before and never will be again.

The canal was neither projected nor built to advertise Chicago, to cause the expenditure here of large sums of money or to draw hither a great number of laborers. It was inaugurated and carried through as a commercial enterprise, the construction of an artery for trade, a link in an inland waterway upwards of three thousand miles in length. Opened in 1848, in 1854 the competition of the Rock Island Railroad compelled the trustees to reduce the moderate tolls first imposed.

In September, 1833, a so-called grand council of Indian chiefs was assembled at Chicago to consider as to a treaty to be made whereby the lands that for an unknown and unknowable time had been roamed and fought over, hunted and fished upon by tribes called by the whites Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawatomies, Illinois, Winnebagoes. Sac and Fox Indians, should forever pass away from their occupation, and they go across the Father of Waters to a country far away, which they had never seen, and as to which they knew nothing save that it was toward the sunset, where the great light is lost and from which it never comes. Thus they were told the Great . Father had said and thus it must be.

It is today easy to be sentimental over the wrongs and the fate of the Indian. It was harder for our fathers to be just and kind to him than it is for us to thus treat the negro. No superior race has been just to an inferior, Man is naturally as devoid of sentiment as the savage beast out of whose loins he sprang. Such sentiment as he possesses has come through the influence of woman, who, perforce, tender to her babe, develops a tenderness toward all things. The fierce young warrior was kind neither to the dog he kicked, the mother whom he neglected, the squaw who obeyed his command, nor the enemy w^hom he scalped. He loved fire water, demanded whiskey, coveted powder, guns, knives; hated restraint and labor. The five thousand savages assembled at Chicago to negotiate a treaty they could not refuse to enter into, had no sentimental feeling concerning the opalescent lake, the green fields that ran thence to the Father of Waters, or the graves of their ancestors. They did not like to be' disturbed, to be driven away by hostile Sioux, fierce Iroquois or the Great Father. They wished to be let alone. They called for fire water and they got it. Fur traders and others of whom they had received many things and promised much, got, for those days, a great deal of money, more than a hundred thousand dollars. Altogetiier tlie United States seem to have paid to and for the Indians about eight hundred thousand dollars, of which $10,000 was equally divided between two semi-civilized Indians, who had long lived with the whites, $280,000 in annuities running through fourteen years; $150,000 for the erection of mills, houses, the purchase of agricultural implements, etc., and $70,000 for educational purposes. The treaty was signed by the three white commissioners and over seventy Indians, each of the latter signing by a mark. That the Indians would sign the preparerl treaty was, of course, inevitable ; there was no other thing for them to do. Nevertheless, they were treated with a consideration precious to the savage heart. All came to the great council. Not a squaw, papoose or dog remained away; and all feasted royally day after day upon the bread and meat the Great Father provided ; sung, danced, raced, gambled, howled, traded and squabbled until they were weary; and, by such persuasion, coupled with furs sold to the traders, cloths and whiskey obtained therefor, they reached the mental condition in which they could and did calmly listen to what the Great Father had to say, deliberately consider the same and freely agree thereto.

In volume I of Andreas' most excellent "History of Chicago." is a letter written by an intelligent English traveler, Charles J. Latrobe, who was present on this occasion. While it is too long to be reproduced here, it is something which no one who wishes to understand the real character of the Indian, the whites with whom he mostly came in contact, and the dealings of the government with each, can afford to overlook.

The government would have been glad to have set off to each Indian family one hundred and sixty acres of land, built a home thereon and given therewith agricultural implements, seed and cattle ; but this was not that for which the Indian was fitted or cared. They would not have been desirable neighbors for the whites, and (juarrels between the two, leading to bloodshed, would have inevitably followed. The Indian had back of him, running through unnumbered centuries, a heritage of war, fishing, hunting and nomadic wandering. To settle down upon a quarter section, cultivate and obtain his living from it was entirely foreign to his thought. To him such a life would have been slavery, an existence of which he had no real C(~>nvoi. 1 - 2.

ception. Nor would he steadily work for wages. His wants were few - whiskey and a feast. His pleasures simple - hunting^ fishing, fighting, athletic games, some dancing, much noise and a drunken carouse. To this there were exceptions, but not enough to affect the mass. Most Indians, without reflection, were thoroughly in touch with the modern teaching that opportunity for play is to be continuously sought, and that there is no danger of degradation in what is called recreation.

Chicago is pre-eminently a railroad city, railroads having done more to promote its growth and prosperity than any other agency. The opening for traffic of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in England in 1829 first impressed upon the English public the fact that a great transformation in the conveyance of men and merchandise was at hand. There is reason for thinking that the first railway in America upon which a steam locomotive proceeded along a track drawing after it loaded cars was built in South Carolina. From 1830 there was in Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York a furor for the building of railroads, and before the Illinois and Michigan canal was begun, the construction of a railroad from the lake to the Mississippi was considered. Canals were old, had existed for thousands of years; the operation of them was well understood. The contemplated channel was to be a link in a continuous waterway from New York City to the gulf, so that cargoes without shifting might be moved from New Orleans to the Atlantic ocean. A canal was therefore decided upon. By 1831 interest had been awakened and steps taken looking to the building of railroads in Illinois. The construction of a railroad to be operated in connection with the canal was discussed. Judge Sidney Breese, in 1835, wrote recommending that a railroad be built by the state extending from the junction of the proposed canal with the Illinois river to the meeting of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. He estimated that its cost would be $7,000 a mile, and that allowing fifteen miles an hour as the maximum speed, a train leaving Ottawa in the morning would, upon the morn of the next day, arrive at Cairo. In 1836 a charter for a railroad from Chicago to Galena, known as the Galena and Chicago Union, was obtained. Mindful of the reliability, as propelling powers, for thousands of years, of the horse, ox, ass, reindeer, mule and dog, as well as the great and uncertain cost of the contemplated railroad, the sagacious incorporators obtained authority to operate the road by steam or animal power, and if necessary to increase the capital st(x:k from $100, 000 to $1,000,000.

In February, 1837, a survey was made of the proposed line running due west from the south end of North Dearborn street to tiie DesPlaines river. In June, 1837, work ceased. In 1838 work was resumed only to be, for want of funds, discontinued before the close of the year. Nearly ten years elapsed before active construction again began. In March, 1848, a contract for the building of the first thirty-two miles from Chicago was let. Locomotives were purchased and brought through the lakes by boat to Chicago. November 20th, seventy years ago, a load of wheat was carried by rail ten miles from the DesPlaines river to Chicago. How many million loads have since come across the prairies to this city, no one knows. At this time no other road had reached Chicago. The western terminus of the Michigan Central had been, for the time, fixed at New Bufifalo, Indiana, an extension to Chicago being contemplated. The first line to reach this city from the east was the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana, now known as the Lake Shore, w^hich was completed to Chicago February 20, 1852. Of all the railroads entering Chicago, the Illinois Central is the only one to which for construction in Illinois a subsidy was given. The United States gave to the state of Illinois a strip of land 200 feet wide from LaSalle to Cairo, for road bed. side tracks and stations of a central railroad, and in addition 2,595,000 acres of land in alternate sections lying near to the contemplated main line of the road and its branches. This grant the state in 1851 gave to the Illinois Central Railroad Company, upon the agreement of that company to pay annually seven per cent of its gross earnings to the state.

Epidemics of belief as well as epidemics of disease have occurred in all ages. In 1837 there was in Illinois a wild enthusiasm for the making of internal improvements by the state. There were then in Illinois more than thirty million acres of most fertile land, ready for the plow, waiting k»r cultivation. At a dollar and a quarter an acre they were a drug in the market. And why? Because of lack of facilities for transportation. Upon the rich black loam of the prairies a permanently good wagon road could not be built save at an expense that rendered such an undertaking then impracticable.

It was perceived that railroads would solve the problem. A Macedonian cry for railroads went up. But capital was timid - it always is - "Why wait for capitalists to be convinced?" "Relief today is what we need, not twenty years hence when we may be in our graves." "In no other country can railroads be so cheaply built." "There are neither mountains to climb, rocks to pierce, nor forests to fell." "Let the state, with its unbounded credit, build the roads we need, obtain the immense revenue such roads will yield; our lands thus not only be freed from taxation, but their value increased a hundred fold," were arguments addressed to the people and to them appeared unanswerable.

In August, 1836, an internal improvement convention was held which devised a scheme of internal improvements at the expense of the state to be, as was stated, "commensurate with the wants of the people." The governor, at the meeting of the legislature in January, 1837, recommended a general and uniform system of internal improvements, in which the state might take a third or half interest, which would secure to her a lasting and abundant revenue, to be appHed upon the principles of the plan proposed, "until the whole country shall be intersected by canals and railroads and our beautiful prairies enlivened by thousands of steam engines drawing after them lengthened trains freighted with the abundant productions of our fertile soil." On the 9th of January the committee on internal improvements, by its chairman, Edward Smith, presented a report twelve pages in length, in which among many other equally eloquent and forcible arguments for the object which the governor and the committee had at heart, it was said : "That it was the legislator's duty, by his example to calm the apprehensions of the timorous and meet the attacks of calculating opposers of measures which would multiply the population and wealth of the state. * ^' * That the practicability of removing obstructions to the navigation of our rivers could not be doubted ; that a general system of internal improvements was then, within the policy and means of the state, demanded by the people as expressed by their highly talented representatives lately assembled in convention ; * * * that the cost of building railroads * >i< * by analogy with similar works in other states could be calculated with the utmost precision without previous surveys, $8,000 per mile being the estimate."

Chicago And Cook Couxty 21

system of internal improvement" was approved by Governor Duncan. This act appropriated $10,200,000, of which $400,000 was "toward" the improvement of the Great Wabash, lUinois, Rock, Kaskaskia and Little Wabash rivers ; $200,000 to counties throug^h which no road or improvements were projected, and $9,650,000 for railroads. At the meeting of the legislature in 1839, Governor Duncan in his final message declared the internal improvement system by the state impolitic, and that the mistake already made must be corrected or disaster would surely follow. The incoming governor, Thomas Carlin, in his inaugural message, said : "The signal success which has attended our sister states in the construction of their extensive systems of improvements can leave no doubt of the wise policy and utility of such works. * * * ji-, the principles and policy of this plan contrasted with that of joint stock companies and private corporations, I entirely concur." The new legislature made, for internal improvements, specific appropriations amounting to about $1,000,000. The governor was also authorized to negotiate a loan of $4,000,000 to carry on the work on the canal, while the committee on internal improvements reported that in its opinion - "It is inexpedient for the legislature to authorize corporations or individuals to construct railroads or canals calculated to come in competition with similar works now in course of construction under the state system of internal improvements."

For an undeveloped state, the population of which then was about 250,000, the appropriations were enormous and the undertaking most injudicious. Only the projected road from Meredosia on the Illinois river to Springfield was completed. The actual construction of this road cost the state $1,000,000. It did not pay running expenses and after having been operated for five years at a loss, was in 1847 sold by the state for $21,000. By December, 1839. Governor Carlin had seen a great light, and on the ninth day of that month, by his order, the legislature was convened in special session, he having ascertained that the debt of the state already amounted to $14,000,000, and unless it halted in its career, the state would soon be confronted with a debt of over $21,000,000, the interest upon which would annually amount to more than $1,300,000, while its yearly revenue did not exceed $200,000. The truthfulness of the statement made by the governor was apparent, and the legislature, largely composed of the same per- sons that, with unbounded confidence in the wisdom of the system of state creation and ownership, by a vote in the house of 8 1 to 25, inaugurated in 1837, in 1840 repealed the act of 1837. Alas! that acknowledgement and repentance of folly does not terminate its effect.

The vast system of internal improvement paid no revenue; it was for a time impossible for the state to discharge its obligations, and it became a defaulter. The state banks in which it held a controlling interest failed. Nevertheless there was never a time in which the majority of the people favored repudiation and as soon as possible payment was resumed and in time the entire debt paid off. The financial difficulties, the loss and ruin caused by the embarking by the state in the business of transportation and banking, could not and did not fail to affect private business in Chicago. With the bonds of the state selling, as for a time they did, at fourteen cents on the dollar, capitalists were unwilling to invest in any Illinois enterprise. Governor Ford, who succeeded Governor Carlin, afterward said, "It is my solemn belief that when I came into office I had the power to make Illinois a repudiating state."

Undoubtedly the influence of Governor Ford was potent for honest and full payment in accordance with the letter and spirit of the state bonds, and it might have been equally powerful if exerted in the opposite direction. But the people, disappointed as they were by the utter failure of the state internal improvement undertaking, and weighted with a debt incurred therefor equal, relatively, to $500,000,- 000 at the present time, neither lost hope nor integrity.

Butterfield, Burley, Jones, Hoynes, Smith, Eastman, Peck, Gooding, Pearsons, Gale, Hogan, Calhoun, Bates, Blodgett, Brown, Balestier, Wentworth, Kingsbury, Stewart and others, who understood and felt the honor involved in a promise to pay whether given by a state or an individual, the confidence reposed in the integrity of a promisor, and theii dishonor of a breach of plighted faith, had never a thought of repudiation. The incoming tide to the northern and middle counties was composed of men and women and families seeking for land on which tu build homes, lands to till, farms to own, an honest, God-loving, high-minded, upright community in which to dwell; desiring schools in which their children should be taught, churches at which they might gather for worship; demanding a reign of law, the preservation of order, protection of life and property, the fulfillment of obligations, peace and security; Illinois rose, like a giant refreshed by sleep, lifted the burdens folly had gathered, and paid to the uttermost farthing the debt delusion had incurred.

Before Caesar crossed the Rubicon, ere Euphrates heard the plaintive song of Israel, when the foundation stones of the pyramids were in their native beds, the wild bird flew, the red deer fed undisturbed by the hunter's rifle and the green grass grew on the prairies untouched by the iron plow that was in time to rend its sward; the western world was young, as 'twill never be again, but it was no longer unknown. They were coming, coming, not the devouring hordes of Alaric or devastating Huns, but a mighty host of Christian men, women and children, to turn wild lands into fruitful fields.

When the great migration from the east began there were no railroads leading into Illinois or any western state. Our fathers knew little of the iron horse, and if they had known more could not have waited for the building of a way suited to its whirling feet. They devised the prairie schooner, a two-horse wagon, having a raised canopy covered with sail cloth, which carried all their belongings and in which, when it rained, the family slept. The emigrant seldom patronized hotels; first, because inns were few and far between, second, he could not afford to do so. A coffee pot and a frying pan, a wash dish, a half dozen cups and plates, a few knives, forks and spoons, some bedding, a few towels and a chair or two. constituted the traveling equipment. Flour and meat could be purchased from settlers who were to be found all along the route each ten to twenty miles, and in the eastern portion more frequently. Salt, pepper, vinegar, molasses, saleratus and dried yeast cakes they took from home. The roads were neither very good nor very bad; at seasons of long continued rain the procession had to halt. These sturdy pioneers had never heard that all who toil must go to the sea side or the mountains in summer and to California or the south in winter. The absolute necessity for vacations to toilers was a gospel that had not been preached to them. Along every main road that led westward through New York and Ohio, the prairie schooners moved. Tidings of a land where it was not necessary to cut down and burn up heavy timber, devote years to uprooting and dragging away stumps and pick stone for a lifetime in order to have a good farm, had come to them, and this land they were getting to as fast as the condition of the path and the strength of men and horses would permit. "What sought they thus afar?" Not "the spoils of war" nor "freedom to worship God." Spoils they thought not of; freedom to worship God they had in New England, for which they cherished an ardent affection. They sought for better lands and easier conditions under which homes could be created; they hoped for gain, for wealth acquired by honest toil and self-denying frugality. They toiled and they saved and because they did, Chicago is. The town is a great convenience to the country; the country an absolute necessity for the town. We who ride in automobiles and Pullman cars think the journey of these emigrants must have been dreadful. Years afterward, old ladies, young in heart, who well remembered the trip, spoke of it as the pleasantest experience they ever had. It was the spring-time of life; they looked upon new scenes, the air was fresh, clear and invigorating. Hope stood at the helm and love rode in the wagon. It may be that sometimes as the caravan halted at a stream they were to cross in the morning, these church-going, psalm-singing homeseekers, stood on the bank and sang :

The toil, economy and success of the frugal souls who came west neither riding in chariots nor driving furiously like Jehu, enabled the state of Illinois to gird up its loins, pay its debts and Chicago to become the metropolis it is.

Tmi Mew Torc Public Ubrary

Chicago was made a city, and as such, at its first election in 1837, Wilham B. Ogden was chosen mayor. No abler or more useful man has ever been at the head of the city government ; nevertheless there was during his incumbency in Chicago, as elsewhere, a great financial depression. Merchants, banks and manufacturers failed in all parts of the country; real estate and much other property greatly declined in value. Yet, although according to public opinion, the population of the new city fell from 4,180 in 1837 to 4,100 in 1838, the United States census of 1840 showed an increase to 4,479, while the commercial statistics were - imports for 1837, $373,667; 1838, $579,- 174; 1840, $562,106; of exports, 1837, $1,008,297; 1838, $785,504; 1840, $1,813,468. In 1838 thirty-nine bags of wheat were exported by steamer; in 1839 the export was 16,073 bushels, and in 1840, 304,212 bushels.

For some years there was a public well in Kinzie's addition, at which those who lived in its vicinity could obtain water; others were supplied by peddlers, wlio brought water from the lake and sold it by the gallon or bucket; so that although there may have been in those days thirsty souls who did not get what they desired to drink ; neither the laborer nor the good housewife looking at the river and the lake exclaimed "Water, water everywhere, and all the boards did shrink; water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink." In 1842 there was put into operation a steam pump and water raised by it was conveyed through bored logs to residences and business houses.

In the early part of the nineteenth century, immigration into the southern portion of the state was largely from Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia, and in great part composed of persons favorable to the institution of slavery. Indeed, the immigrants in many instances brought a few slaves with them and continued to claim and hold them as such notwithstanding the provisions of the ordinance in 1 787. The influence of these immigrants was such that at the admission of the state and the making of the constitution of 1818, it is probable a majority of the people favored the introduction of slavery and the creation of a slave state. The ordinance of 1787, however, stood in the way, and the convention limited itself to a constitution which in effect recognized slavery as already existing and providing that it should not thereafter be introduced into the state. A statute made in 1807, while Illinois was a territory, provided that owners of negroes and mulattoes above the age of fifteen years, or any citizen of the United States purchasing the same, might bring them into the territory, provided that within thirty days the owner or master should take them before the clerk of the court and have an indenture between the slave and his owner entered upon record ''specifying the time which the slave was compelled to serve his master." This statute also provided that, "The children born in this territory of a parent of color" (thus - either parent) "owing service or labor by indenture should serve, the males until the age of 30 and the females until the age of 28 years." The existence of slavery in this state was also recognized by section three of article six of the constitution of 1818. There- were at all times in the southern and middle part of the state manj^ persons determinedly opposed to slavery, while in the north the great majority of all immigrants looked upon human bondage with abhorrence; particularly was this the case in Chicago and the immediately surrounding country.

There was in 1842 a state statute forbidding any black or mulatto person to give evidence against or in favor of any white person, and providing that no black or mulatto person should be permitted to live in the state until he should produce to the county commissioner's court, where he or she is desirous of living, a certificate of his freedom; nor until he should have given bond with sufficient security in the penal sum of one thousand dollars that he would not at any time become a charge to said county or any other county in the state, as a poor person; and providing further that if any person should harbor such negro or mulatto not having such certificate, or should hire or give sustenance to such negro or mulatto not having such certificate of freedom and given bond, he should be fined in the sum of five hundred dollars ; and providing further that every black or mulatto person found in this state, not having such a certificate, should be deemed a runaway slave or servant, and that it should be lawful for an inhabitant of the' state to take such black or mulatto before some justice of the peace, whose duty it should be to commit him to jail, and in three days advertise him at the court house door for hire from month to month for the space of one year; and further providing that if any slave or servant should be found at a distance of ten miles from the tenement of his or her master or the person with whom he or she hves without a pass * * * from his or her master, employer or overseer, it should Ijc lawful to apprehend him or her and carry him or her before a justice of the peace to be by his order punished with stripes not exceeding thirty-five; and further provided that if any slave should presume to come and be upon the plantation or at the dwelling- of any person whatsoever, without leave from his or her owner, it should be lawful for the owner of such plantation or dwelling house to give or order such slave or servant ten lashes on his or her bare back. These laws remained upon the statute book until 1865.