Chicago City (part 50 of 57)

The activities of the University of Chicago are now so broad and complex that it is impossible to more than hint at their character. Its score of huge buildings on the Midway Plaisance cover twentyfour' acres of ground, being generally constructed of limestone in the Gothic style. It has more than five thousand students (nearly half from Illinois), and the university is broadly divided into graduate, law, medical and divinity schools, senior and junior colleges and the School of Education. The university management has always paid much attention to the physical culture feature of education, both men and women being included in its benefits. Bartlett gymnasium, Marshall field, and smaller grounds for outdoor sports and exercise, have given the University of Chicago a high reputation for turning students into the world who are physically strong and dependable. Its educational scheme also includes a paternal solicitude for thousands of ambitious and poor students, many of whom have supported themselves while pursuing their studies. The employment bureau connected with the university furnishes such pupils with about $30,000 worth of work yearly, their employment being in such institutions as department and shoe stores, newspaper offices and the postoffice. The university educates through such departmicnts as those of philosophy, political economy, sociology, history, mathematics, heusehold administration, the sciences, and languages and literature; but its work is far broader, and therein it becomes an exponent of the modern university idea. Its mental extension work is prosecuted through its publications, its lectures and its correspondence study department. Original researches by its faculty in science, history, philosophy and all other fields of scholarship, and explorations to the orient and other ancient countries, have carried its name to the educated of many lands. But one of the greatest features of the university work is at home, and may be called a phase of its mora! extension. It centers around the University settlement in the southwest corner of the stock yards district. In that poor and stifling Cjuarter it forms and conducts among the unfortunate classes studyhour groups, kindergarten classes, dramatic clubs ; opens library and social rooms ; encourages economy by introducing penny savings banks ; furnishes the ignorant with redress through such organizations as the Legal Aid Society, and tones the physiques of tired workers by founding gymnasiums in the small city parks and in other localities. This phase of extension work is a part of the modern idea as to what constitutes the province of the modern university, and is most creditably illustrated in the Chicago institution.

Chicago has also a number of professional schools unconnecterl with any university, and two technical schools of the first class, which are, also independent institutions - Armour Institute and Lewis Institute. The name of the Armour family, as identified with the moral and educational benefactions of Chicago, was first consecrated by Joseph F. Armour, younger brother of Philip D., and a man of strong and lovable traits of character. At his death he bequeathed brothers, and Philip D., who was the executor of the estate of the deceased, not only founded the mission upon his brother's bequest, but more than doubled the amount from his private means. He erected the Armour fiats, on Armour avenue, which have proved a large source of constant revenue in support of the family benevolences, but in 1892 personally furnished the means for the founding of Armour Institute, at the corner of Thirty- third street and Armour avenue. With Dr. Frank W. Gunsaulus. its active president from the first, he was the great personal power behind its development into one of the greatest technical schools in the country, now enrolling eighteen hundred students and having ninety teachers on its faculty. Its main building is a large five-story structure, at the locality named, and the central feature of its organization is a technical college, giving a four years' course in mechanical, electrical and civil engineering, and empowered to grant degrees like other similar institutions. It is provided with well equipped laboratories, an extensive library (twenty thousand volumes "> and n '{^^^^.^ gymnasium, its outdoor athletics being conducted on Ogden field - the grounds named being presented by J. Ogden Armour. Its departments also embrace an academy, or preparatory school, and schools of music and architecture. With the growth of the institute its work has expanded into several of the Armour flats, and two of its departments are conducted in distant parts of the city. The artistic and technical branches of the architectural course are conducted at the Art Institute, while the technical work of the course in fire protection engineering is pursued at the Underwriters' laboratory, on East Ohio street, north side. Armour Institute also provides evening classes and summer schools for those whose duties prevent them from pursuing regular day courses, or who desire to perfect themselves in certain specialties. During his lifetime Philip D. Armour expended some $4,000,000 upon the institute, and in April, 1901, his widow and son presented it with $1,000,000.

The main building of the Armour Institute was completed in 1892 and the work of instruction begun in September, 1893. In the College of Engineering four years' courses in mechanical and electrical engineering were first organized, and soon afterward a union was effected with the Art Institute for the purpose of developing the course in architecture, by which was established its School of Architecture. In 1899 the course in civil engineering was added, in 1901 that of chemical engineering and in 1903 that of fire protection engineering. The engineering courses all lead to the degree of Bachelor of Science. In September, 1902, the institute completed a massive four-story building, machinery hall, whose name is sufficiently descriptive of its purposes. Other buildings are the assembly and dining halls, the latter being a red brick structure at the north end of Ogden field. In view of the unusual development of Armour Institute and its great prominence as an educator of young men, an official statement of its aims is here presented in an extract from its first public announcement : "This institution is founded for the purpose of giving to young men an opportunity to secure liberal education. It is hoped that its benefits may reach all classes. It is not intended for the poor or rich, as sections of society, but for any and all who are earnestly seeking technical education. Its aim is broadly philanthropic. Profoundly realizing the importance of self-reliance as a factor in the development of character, the founder has conditioned liis benefactions in such a way as to emphasize both their vakie and the student's self-respect. The institute is not a free scliool ; but its charges for instruction are in harmony with the spirit which animates ahkc the founder, the trustees and the faculty, namely, the desire to help those who wish to help themselves."

for the education of girls and women, both in the literary and domestic courses. Eclectic courses are -also offered, making the Lewis Institute the virtual union of a literary, scientific and technical school. At the conclusion of the preparatory course, or entrance from an accredited high school, it offers either literary or scientific work for two years; or an engineering course to the degree of M. E. ; or an engineering training, during the first two years, with literary or scientific branches during the balance of the course; or the literary student may pursue some line of work not strictly in his course. This latitude of choice is calculated to turn out broad-minded students, and, if they are undecided as to the future, it enables them to make a thorough investigation ' and a test of individual abilities and tastes. The institute grants the degree of Mechanical Engineer for four years of college work, the title of Associate in Arts for a two years' course, and the academy certificate for four years in the academy.

Lewis Institute is the posthumous creation of Allen C. Lewis, a generous, thoughtful and benevolent hardware merchant of Chicago. The last years of his life were spent in a search for health in this country and abroad, and as his thoughts dwelt more and more upon the ambition to donate some permanent benevolence to posterity he took into his confidence and counsel his sympathetic brother, John Lewis. The last three years of the invalid's life were spent in Holland, Belgium and France, and in these countries, even more than in the United States, he witnessed the bitter struggle for existence among those who had enjoyed no special training in the mastery of practical vocations. In the case of young women, this truth impressed him with especial force. Upon his return to Chicago the plan of founding an educational institute to meet this demand commenced to take definite shape, and, with the death of his wife, child and other near relatives, noth- ing stood in the way of devoting virtually his entire fortune to its reahzation. At his death in 1876 he thus disposed of nearly his entire estate, valued at $600,000, his will providing for the investment of that sum until it should be increased to at least $800,000. In 1894 the trustees appointed by the bequest found an available fund of nearly three times the amount of the original gift, and after some difficulty secured the present site on the southeast corner of Robey and Madison streets. With an abundance of working funds the erection of the building and the development of the educational scheme progressed rapidly, few institutions of the kind in the country being able to show so marked a growth in a lifetime of little more than a decade. The institute was opened in September, 1896. Its departments of electrical engineering and household economics are especially strong, and it has a fine library of about 15,000 volumes and 1,000 pamphlets. Books are loaned only to students, but the reading room is thrown open to the public. George N. Carman has been director from the first. The total number of students is now 2,598, of whom 1,262 belong to the evening and 1,336 to the day classes. Of the college students (319), 128 are men connected with the engineering department and 131, both men and women, with the department of science and arts. The academy students number 827 and the summer pupils 190.

Armour Institute and Lewis Institute are fine illustrations of another modern development of the educational scheme - that by which men and women are made cultured members of society, but masters of the practical work upon which it rests. The Public library, the Crerar library, the Newberry library, the great universities, and to a large extent all the other institutions mentioned, all have their influence on the practical activities of life, elevating them to a higher plane, and consecrating labor through the education of the intellect, the imagination and the heart.

vocal and instrumental talents were formed, it was not until the German element had acquired considerable strength that a society of this character was supported enthusiastically and sub- stanti.illy. In 1850 Julius Dyrenfurth founded the I^hilharmonic Society which, for a number of years, was a favorite with lovers of musir. In the early fifties Jenny Lind, Christine Nilsson, Adchna Parti. Ole lUill and others scarcely less noted, sustained and strenj^thencil the local enthusiasm, and soon afterward Frank Lumbard commenced to organize societies and choirs as a Chicane) leader in the field. He is best remembered, however, as the singer of patriotic songs and the organizer of concerts during the Civil war. In the summer of 1S71 Crosby's Grand Opera Mouse, standing on the site of what was afterward Central Music Hall, was transformed into one of the finest temples of art. music and the drama in the country, and extensive preparations were made to open the season, on the evening- of October 9th, with a series of grand symphony and popular concerts by Theodore Thomas and his orchestra of sixty pieces. Hie world knows what happened that day; at night the beautiful opera house was a fragment of the Chicago ruins. On the 7th of October, of the following year, however, the Thomas Orchestra opened the Aiken theater, on Wabash avenue and Congress street, the second house of amusement to be erected after the o-reat fire, and in 1874 Central Music Hall arose on the site of the Crosby Opera House. The latter was somewhat a misnomer, as the hall was de\'oted more to lectures and religious services than to concerts. General steps in the progress of music in Chicago are marked by such events as the Peace Jubilee concerts of 1873. ^^^ ^Y Gilmore's band, with a musical background of one thousand voices; the seventy-second saengerfest of the North American Saengerbund (18S1), under the direction of Hans Balatka, one of the most famous leaders and violinists in the countrv. and the May festivals of 1882 and 1884. The latter, conducted by Theodore Thomas, in the old exposition building on the lake front, constituted an era in the luusical cator in Chicago and the west. When the Auditorium hall was dedicated December 9, 1889, the outpouring in honor of the elevated cause which he represented was the impressive and brilliant climax of what had alread}^ been acknowledged as a national event. Present at the opening of this, the grandest of all the world's edifices devoted to music and drama, were Benjamin Harrison, president of the United States; the governor of Illinois, Joseph W. Fifer; the mayor of Chicago, DeWitt C. Cregier; Ferdinand W. Peck, the founder of the temple; Adelina Patti, Frederick Grant Gleason, W. L. Tomlins and Theodore Thomas. Here were foremost representatives of the power of the state, and masters of the harmonies, science and technique of music, in their highest impersonations. It vv^as the strongest object lesson which Chicago had ever given to the country at large that it had become a great musical center of the nation. From this time for years, the Auditorium became the headquarters of the Thomas Orchestra, and the electric generator of a superb inspiration which not only was a constant power during the life of its noble founder and leader, but the current has been passed onward in its full intensity through the management of Frederick Stock, Mr. Thomas' friend, assistant and disciple. Theodore Thomas died March 4, 1905. He Hved to see the raising of a grand popular subscription (amounting to $750,000) for the establishment of his orchestra, and his last acts as a conductor were in connection with the dedication of the beautiful hall which has since been its home. Sixty of the seventy years of his life were passed in America, and, in the words of one of his long-time Chicago friends, "It is easily within bounds to say that no other musician during these years has done so much as he for the development of musical taste in the United States."

Eliphalet Wickes Blatchford, for more than half a century a prominent business man of Chicago and a leader, as well, in the development and conduct of many institutions of en- ^ " noblins^ influence, is now retired from the most burdensome of the broad activities in which he was so long one of the energetic forces. His keen, practical insight, his sound judgment, and his disinterested counsel are still valued and generally utilized, and his personality is strong, inspiring and elevating.

Mr. Blatchford was educated with the law in view, and but for the accident of ill health in his earl}- manhood would undoubtedly have made a mark in that field, as his mind is eminently logical and judicial. He is a native of New York, born at Stillwater, on the 31st of May, 1826, and is a son of Rev. Dr. John and Frances (Wickes) Blatchford. He 'is also a grandson of Samuel Blatchford, D. D., who came from Devonshire, England, to New York in 1795. He himself commenced a preparation for a professional career first at Lansingburgh Academy, New York, and then at Marion College, Missouri, finally graduating at Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois, in the class of 1845, fi'^m which college in later years he received the degree of LL. D. After graduating he was employed for several years in the New York law offices of his uncles, R. M. and E. H. Blatchford, men of distinction in their profession, but his health becoming precarious on account of the confining office work, he relinquished his plans of professional life and returned to the west in 1850, and engaged in the manufacture of lead in St. Louis. After a time he associated himself with Morris Collins, of that city, and in 1854 the firm of Blatchford & Collins founded a branch of their prospering business in Chicago. Mr. Blatchford assumed the management of the business in this city, and with the dissolution of the firm a few years afterward became a permanent resident of Chicago. This was the commencement of an extensive manufactory of lead pipe, sheet lead and shot, and linseed oil. to which other related manufacturers were added. Since his retirement from the active management of the business, Mr. Blatchford's younger brother, Nathaniel H., has been at the head of its affairs.

From being a stanch Whig in his earlier manhood, Mr. Blatchford graduated to Republicanism, at the formation of that party in 1856, and during. the period of the Civil war was among the most patriotic of Chicago's many patriotic citizens. A large portion of his time was devoted to the northwestern branch of the United States Sanitary Commission, of which he served as treasurer during the war. The broad scope of his usefulness is indicated by an enumeration of the offices which his fellows have called upon him to fill : Trustee of Illinois College (1866-75) ; president of the Chicago Academy of Sciences; member and for seventeen years president of the board of trustees of the Chicago Eve and Ear Infirmary; trustee of the Chicago Art Institute ; executor and trustee of the estate of the late Waher L. Newberry, and since its incorporation, president of the board of trustees of the Newberry Hbrary; trustee of the John Crerar hbrary; one of the founders and president of the board of trustees of the Chicago Manual Training School; life member of the Chicago Historical Society; for nearly forty-two years president of the board of directors of the Chicago Theological Seminary; during his residence in Chicago an officer of the New England Congregational church ; a corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and from 1885 to 1898 its vice president ; a charter member of the Chicago City Missionary Society, and of the Congregational Club of Chicago, and a member of the Chicago, Union League, University, Literary and Commercial clubs, of which last he has been president.

On October 7, 1858, Mr. Blatchford was united in marriage with Miss Mary Emily Williams, daughter of John C. Williams, an old and honored resident of Chicago, and the seven children born to them are as follows: Paul, Amy (married Rev. Howard S. Bliss, D. D.), Frances May, Edward Williams, Florence, Charles Hammond and Eliphalet Huntington.

literary character, aside from the four million for a free public library. But, although he left no direct relatives, it was not in his nature to forget his mother's cousins in New York and his numerous friends. They were remembered in countless acts of affection and practical helpfulness during his lifetime, and at his death found that he had bestowed upon them the princely sum of $600,000. Chicago and many Chicagoans have reached a higher plane of life through the rich character and the wisely bestowed riches of junn Crerar.

Mr. Crerar was born in New York in 1827, his father being a native of Scotland who died in the American metropolis when the son was only a few months old. Little of his early life in New York City has come down to the local historian, but it is known that a long and patient clerkship was at length rewarded Nvith a partnership in the mercantile house of Jessup, Kennedy & C<». The training of his business and intellectual faculties also appear to have always progressed together, and while still a resident of New York he served as president of the Mercantile Library Association. Mr. Crerar came to Chicago in 1862, as representative of the railway supply firm mentioned, and soon after established himself as head of the house of Crerar, Adams & Co., engaged in the same line of business. Pleasant and genial, Mr. Crerar was still a man, of decided views and outspoken in their expression, although affable in their presentation. His energy and broad judgment went far toward the building up of the great house which he founded, and he was also prominent in the development of such institutions as the Pullman Palace Car Company, the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company, the Illinois & Joliet Railroad Company, the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank and the Liverpool, London and Globe Insurance Company. As his business and financial interests expanded, his higher nature also broadened and found expression in his generous contributions of both personal strength and means to such causes as are represented by the Chicago Relief and Aid Society, Chicago Presbyterian Hospital, Chicago Orphan Asylum, Chicago Historical Society and the Young Men's Christian Association. The Second Presbyterian church of Chicago also partook of his bounty and gained the advantage of his counsels through his connection with it as trustee and elder. The only public position which he ever held was that of elector from the First district of Illinois at the presidential election of 1888. At his death, in the following year, his remains were interred in Greenwood cemetery, Brooklyn, New York, where, also, were buried his parents and two brothers. Upon the tablet which, marks his grave is inscribed "A just man and one that feared God," but to these characteristic traits of his Scotch character were added those of a fine culture, which came from his deep study and enjoyment of literature, art and music, and the broad sympathy possessed by one whom the world had not soured but mellowed.

His mother, Mariana Bryan, was a Virginian. He was at Dinwiddie's School preparing for the University of Virginia at the beginning of the Civil war, and his subsequent education for several years was under private tutors in Germany and France. .

He became a resident of Chicago in June, 1865, and was for some years a partner of his uncle, the late Thomas B. Bryan, in the real estate business founded by the latter in 1852. For many years his attention has been given mainly to the management of estates as executor or trustee, and \o public interests.

Mr. Lathrop is president of the Graceland Cemetery Company, president of the Chicago Orchestral Association and trustee of the Art Institute, and of the Newberry library, and for two years was president of the Chicago Relief and Aid " Society. In politics he is a Republican, with independent tendencies, the only office which he has held of a public nature being that of commissioner of Lincoln Park.

Mr. Lathrop was married in Washington,, D. C, on the 21st of April, 1875, to Miss Llelen Lynde, daughter of Judge Asa O. Aldis, and resides at yy Bellevue place. He has served as president of the University Club, and the Saddle and Cycle Club, of Chicago, and is a member of the Chicago, Chicago Literary, Chicago Golf, Onwentsia, the Cliff Dwellers and South Shore Country clubs of this city, as well as of the Chicago Historical Society. He is also a member of the Century Club, of New York, and of the Metropolitan Club of Washington.

John Frederick Eberhart, A. M., LL. D., first superintendent of schools for Cook county, perhaps the oldest -life member of the National Education Association and now approaching his eightieth year, is in all the gradations from kindergarten to normal, have placed him among the real founders of the splendid educational systems of the west. He was born in Hickory township, Mercer

Dr. Eberhart is the descendant of a very old European family, and furnishes an excellent illustration of the value of good blood and breeding. The genealogical records show that as early as 1266 an Eberhart officiated as Bishop of Constance. On the 13th of March, 1265, was born Eberhart the Noble, who was the most daring and successful warrior of Wurtemberg, was of royal family, and cstal> lished the present kingdom, with Stuttgart as its principal city. After the Thirty Years' war in Germany, many representatives of the family came to America, and their descendants are now found in every locality, with many variations in the spelling of the name, but a strong similarity in characteristics and appearance. In l)oth Europe and America, they have furnished many preachers and teachers, and are leaders in every community where found. In 1727 Joseph Eberhart came from Switzerland and Settled in Pennsylvania, locating in what is now Lower Milford township, Lehigh county, in 1742, and becoming a prosperous farmer. Before his death, in 1760, he divided his one thousand acres of land between his six sons. He was active in organizing and sustaining the Great German Reformed church and reached an advanced age.

When John F. Eberhart was eight years of age the family removed to Big Bend, Venango county, and here his time was divided between work upon the farm and at the winter school. At the age of sixteen he commenced to teach his first school, which was located at the mouth of Oil creek, on the site of the present Oil City, his salary there being $8.50 per month, with "board" divided among his patrons. During the following summer he took special lessons in writing and drawing, thereby qualifying himself to teach those specialties, which accomplishments proved a valuable aid to him in working his way through college. After spending two terms at Cottage Hill Academy, Ellsworth, Ohio, he entered Allegheny College, Meadville. Pennsylvania, and graduated therefrom July 2, 1853.

In the most strenuous and literal sense of the word, Dr. Eberhart "worked" his way through college, but, notwithstanding this double burden of hard study and self-maintenance, he took high rank among more than three hundred pupils, both as a student and an athlete. A proof of his standing in the latter capacity was that he was one of two students who was able tO' lift a brass cannon in the Meadvilie arsenal weighing nine hundred pounds. Among the alumni of this college may be mentioned William H. McKinley, Governor- Loundes of Maryland, Postmaster General Gary and Judge Worthington, of Peoria. On September i, following his graduation, he became principal of the seminary at Berlin, Somerset county, Pennsylvania, and among his pupils, who afterward attained distinction, was Hiram W. Thomas, founder and many years pastor of the People's church, Chicago. To the great mutual regret of principal and students, as well as the management of the institution, Mr. Eberhart was compelled to resign before the close of his second year and start for the west, on account of ill health.

Mr. Eberhart arrived in Chicago April 15, 1855, but soon proceeded to Dixon, Illinois, where he spent the summer in hunting, fishing and other out-door recreation. This started him on the road to g'ood health, which he maintained in after years largely through his custom of spending a portion of each season in out-door sports. While at Dixon he edited the Dixon Transcript, and also bought an interest in the publication, but soon abandoned the journalistic field of politics. He then lectured for a time before various institutions of learning on chemistry, natural philosophy, meteorology, astronomy and kindred topics, after which he traveled for a year in the interest of various school-book publishers, and then assurned the publication and editorship of the Northmestern Home and School Journal, in Chicago. During the three years in which he filled this dual position, which so forcibly demonstrated his rare combination of executive ability and scholarly acumen, he conducted many teachers' institutes in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin, being employed in the Badger state by Dr. Henry Barnard, then chancellor of the Wisconsin State University, and afterward the first United States Commissioner of Education. In Illinois he held the first institutes in many of the northern and central counties, and assisted in establishing a graded system in most of the larger cities. This work broug'ht Dr. Eberhart into intimate contact Avith many distinguished educators of the west, and also marked him for signal preferment in Chicago and Cook county.

Dr. Eberhart had become especially identified with the formulation of free-school principles into the laws of Illinois. In 1855 he first attended the state legislature to assist in the founding of the present law, which was passed in the following year, and for sixteen years thereafter was present at every session to further necessary amendments and those required by the advancement of the times. He was also present at the constitutional convention of 1870, in the same faithful capacity, and, as he adds, "Legislation was always kept ahead of public intelligence and sentiment, and thus served in itself as an educator." In 1859, when the public schools were without either system or efficiency. Dr. Eberhart was elected school commissioner for Cook county, the title of his office being soon afterward changed to superintendent of schools. This position he continued to hold consecutively for ten years. Although there were twice as many teachers outside of Chicago as within, there was little interest shown in the country schools. The compensation of the new commissioner was two dollars per day for one hundred days, but he took a horse and buggy and commenced to make the rounds of schools, which had been heretofore virtually neglected. At the end of the one hundred days he found that his transportation expenses had eaten up his salary, but he went right on with the good work. The second year the board of supervisors made the compensation three dollars per day for two hundred days. He was also allowed one dollar for each certificate issued and two per cent commission on all school moneys paid out. The supervisors, through the superintendent's persistence and persuasiveness, also voted fifty dollars for holding the first session of the Cook County Teachers' Institute at Harlem (now Oak Park) on April 11, i860. It was attended by seventy-five teachers; another institute was held in the fall, at Englewood, and thereafter two each year. Frequent meetings of teachers were also held in dififerent parts of the county ; a standing committee on education was appointed from the members of the board of supenasors, of which Paul Cornell, of Hyde Park, was first chairman, and, emboldened by his progress. Dr. Eberhart finally asked the county board for $600 with which to defray the expenses of a "three-months' teachers' institute." which was but a familiar name for a County Normal School. The matter was referred to the standing committee on education, and finally was enthusiastically taken up by E. J. Whitehead, then a young attorney who had been chosen to its chairmanship. The latter at length reported to the board of supervisors a resolution for the appropriation of $2,500 per annum for two years to be applied to an experimental nonnal Vol. I - 11.

school. Largely through the instrumentality of Heber S. Rexford, Blue Island secured the location, and in September, 1867, the school was opened with Professor D. S. Wentworth as principal. Two years afterward the institution was transferred to Englewood, and in September, 1870, it took possession of the present Normal School building. The original intention of the institution had been to fit teachers for the country schools, which formed the most lax portion of the county system, but it soon became evident that it was destined to have a wider field ; and the great credit for pointing out its broader destiny undoubtedly lies with the head of the county educational system, Dr. Eberhart, who retired from office in December, 1869. He had no further ofhcial connection with the schools until 1878, when he was chosen a member of the County Board of Education. As president of that body, he found himself in a position to exert his influence in favor of adding a kindergarten department to the Cook County Normal School, and, with Mr. Wentworth, the principal, and Albert G. Lane, county superintendent, as most worthy allies, he finally succeeded in the incorporation of the Chicago Free Kindergarten Training School as a part of the general normal system. Its first class graduated in December, 1881. Dr. Eberhart was also instrumental in amending the educational law of the state so that free kindergartens could be established in connection with the common schools. So far as known the first kindergarten founded under this provision was that established at Chicago Lawn, Dr. Eberhart being at that time president of the school board of directors. This closed a very important phase of Dr. Eberhart's career as an educator, and it has been thus characterized by Professor W. L. Steele, president of the Illinois State Teachers' Association :

"The Hon. John F. Eberhart did valiant service for the cause of education by carrying the gospel of the free school to those who had never heard of it, by warming into life and activity those grown lukewarm, by preaching the doctrine of union graded schools to the larger towns where their educational energies were being dissipated by the independent system, by organizing county institutes, and by his educational paper, the Northwestern Home and School Journal. A veritable missionary was he."

connection with the Cook County Normal School, speaking of the Bine Island institution as "the pioneer," and concluding: **In thus practically demonstrating the feasibility of this new and most successful mode of increasing the supply of superior teachers. Cook county has rendered the state a very eminent service." Orville T. Bright, county superintendent of schools, in his report for 1896-8, says : "Mr. Eberhart's entire time was given to the schools. He was a college graduate and a man of great force of character. He estal> lished regular and thorough examinations and conducted successful teachers' meetings and institutes. Mr. Eberhart drafted the law making possible the establishment of the county normal schools, and toward the close of his last term secured action from the county supervisors of which the Cook County Normal School was the result. In 1862 the 'first report of the. Cook county schools by the commissioner' was issued, and an interesting document it is, containing thirty-five pages. The first report for Cook county, like the present issue, pleads for school libraries and for the adornment of schoolhouses. 'The schoolhouse should be made as much like the home as possible, the children should love it,' sounds familiar enough now. It was not so common forty years ago. And this : 'I am often beset by persons requesting a third grade certificate for ^ome special district, at the same time setting forth that the scholars are all small and backward - they know they can teach them, etc. It is my honest conviction that it requires better qualifications to teach a primary school well than it does to teach a more advanced school ; and had I the employment of teachers, if I should make any difference in salaries, it would be in favor of primary teachers.' This also was very advanced ground forty years ago, and speaks volumes for the splendid work of the first Cook county superintendent."

Among the other important works with which Dr. Eberhart was identified while actively engaged in the educational field were those which included his participation in the organization of the Illinois State Teachers' Association in 1855; the drafting of the state law authorizing the establishment of county normal schools; organization of the State Association of School Superintendents in i860, of which he was president; and his prominent identification with the American Institute of Instruction and of the National Teachers' Association. In its earlier years he was a very active member of the last nained association, and in 1864 at a meeting held in Ogdensburg, New York, with his Chicago friend and co-worker, S. H. White, he was received as a Hfe member. At that convention he was chairman of the nominating committee, and was appointed by the association to respond to the address of welcome delivered by the eminent United States Senator King in behalf of the citizens of Ogdensburg. Not only Professor White, but others who joined at the time as life members, have all passed away, and at the convention of the association held in Cleveland, in June, 1908, Dr. Eberhart was the Nestor of those present at the proceedings.

It is also due to Dr. Eberhart to state that the school section (640 acres) in township 38, range 13, Cook county, was not sold at from $10 to $20 per acre, as was the case with other school lands in the county, and that the beautiful grounds of the Normal school consist of twenty acres, instead of the one and one-half acres which were originally offered.

At different times during his educational career Dr. Eberhart received offers of important positions, such as professorships or presidencies of leading institutions. In 1855 he was offered the presidency of the college at Naperville. Early in his career he was also called to St. Louis to assist in the organization of its first high school, and at the conclusion of his work was proffered the principalship. In 1866 Senior Sarmienta, generalissimo of the revolutionary armies, who finally established the Argentine Republic, visited the United States to study its government, especially its public school system. Meeting Mr. Eberhart at a convention of the National Educational Association he became the intimate and admirer of the young American educator and offered him the national superintendency of schools of the Argentine Republic. But neither then, nor at a later date, did he see fit to abandon the splendid work undertaken and accomplished in Cook county. After a quarter of a century of devotion to this cause he turned his attention to operations in real estate, became the chief promoter of Norwood Park and Chicago Lawn, and handled thousands of lots and hundreds of acres of city and suburban property. He still resides in the latter, is a large land-holder and an honored citizen, but his strongest title to the gratitude of Cook county and the state of Illinois rests in his invaluable work as a founder and developer of their public and normal school systems of education.

Dr. Eberhart has retained his love for out-door sports, and was, until a comparatively recent period, an expert with both shotgun and rifle, having brought down every kind of game from a moose to a water fowl, and landed every kind. of fish from a 700-pound shark to a two-ounce trout. He was the founder of the Nippersink Club and its president during the twenty years of its existence. The organization, which was limited to twenty-five members, embraced such men as S. M. Moore, Marshall Field, Eugene S. Pike, Colonel George R. Clark and Messrs. Reid and Murdoch. Mr. Eberhart was also an early member of the Young Men's Christian Association, and was one of the founders of the People's church, over whom Dr. H. W. Thomas presided until his retirement from the active ministry. Dr. Eberhart was at one time president of the board of trustees of that organization, and his creed, as defined by himself is as follows : "I trust in an All-Wise Creator and Disposer of Events, and I believe in the religion of Jesus Christ, as epitomized in His Sermon on the Mount : 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them ; for this is the law and the prophets.' "

On December 25, 1864, Dr. Eberhart was married to Miss Matilda C. Miller, daughter of the late Joseph C. Miller, who came to this country from Toronto, Canada, when his daughter was an infant. Mrs. Eberhart was educated in the schools of Aurora and Chicago, and is the mother of four children, the eldest of whom, John J. Eberhart, is his father's partner in the real estate business.

cation, IS one of Chicago s many-sided citizens who never tires of laboring for its advancement. He is a native of Kusel, Rhenish Bavaria, born on the 5th of December, 1856, son of Christian Ludwig and Dorothea (Emrich) Schneider. His father, who was editor and publisher of a newspaper in the Fatherland, died in i860, and the mother in 1865. The family is of old and distinguished ancestry, it being traced in an unbroken line to 1585.

Otto C. Schneider partially completed his education before coming to the United States, attending the Latin school in his native city until he was fourteen years of age. One of his first steps after locating in Chicago was to take a short course at the well-known Dyrenfurth's College in 1870. He then became an apprentice in ' a drug store,, removing to St. Louis after the fire of 1871 and completing his training in that city. Completing a course in the St. Louis College of Pharmacy in 1875 he passed the required examination for registry before the Missouri State Board of Pharmacy. In November, 1877, Mr. Schneider returned to Chicago, being then within a month of his majority. Two years later he opened a drug store on the corner of Clark and Van Buren streets, which he continued for about four years. Disposing of that business, he commenced the manufacture of tobacco, his entrance into this field being determined largely by his marriage to a daughter of August Beck, well known in that line. In 1892 he bought out the firm of August Beck & Co., and remained sole proprietor of a large and profitable tobacco plant until 1899, when he sold the concern to the American Tobacco Company. The succeeding three years were passed at Wiesbaden, the famous hot springs resort in Germany, and in 1902 he returned to Chicago to devote his' energies and talents to its betterment in many lines of work and thought.

Mr. Schneider was first appointed a member of the Chicago Board of Education in 1895, this period of his service being concluded in 1898. Under appointment by Governor Tanner, he served as Lincoln Park commissioner the first ten months of 1899, or until his retirement from business and his departure for Europe. Since 1906 he was a member of the Special Park Commission, and in May, 1907, he commenced his present term of service on the board of education under appointment by Mayor Busse. He has been successively elected its president May 29th and July 16, 1907, and July 15, 1908, and no incumbent of the office has given more disinterested or efficient service. A man of signal business and executive ability, as well as of broad education and thorough culture, he has donated his entire time gratuitously to the school system of Chicago, being regularly at his desk from 9 o'clock a. m. until 4 o'clock p. m. daily. Among the many improvements in the educational department which standto his credit are the establishment of free telephone service for the entire public school system, b}^ which the city has been saved $20,000 annually; the suppression of fraternities and sororities of the high schools; the expansion of the compulsory feature to cover the paro- chial and private schools of the city; a thorough investigation (ji the physical and sanitary condition of the public school buildings, with resulting safeguards and improvements, and a vast improvement in the financial condition of the board, including an advancement in salaries from first-year grade teachers to assistant superintendents.

A thorough American, Mr. Schneider is still an ardent admirer of the poet, Schiller, as are thousands v^ho were not born on German soil. He served as president of the five-day commemoration of the death of the great genius, which was held in Chicago May 5-9, 1905, the elaborate exercises being conducted at the Auditorium. Two volumes were published commemorative of the occasion, which were edited by Mr. Schneider, who was also a contributor to the "Marbach Schiller Book," published at the birthplace of Schiller and also commemorative of the hundredth anniversary of his death. Mr. Schneider is also a contributor to the Chicago Glocke, a German monthly publication devoted to the interests of higher literature and art. He has been a member of the Germania Maennerchor since 1885 and was its president from 1897 to 1899; has been president of the German-American Historical Society since 1908; was president of the Chicago Chess Club in 1906-07; has been a member of the Union League since 1895, and is also identified with the Chicago Turn Verein and the Chicago Schwaben Verein.

On the 4th of October. 1883, ]Mr. Schneider was wedded to Miss Emily Beck, daughter of August Beck, the tobacco manufacturer who became a business man of Chicago in 1855; served as consul of the Grand Duchy of Hessen from 1866 to 1871. and has been honored with the order of the Cross of the Knight (first class) of Phillipp, the Magnanimous. The children of this union were as follows: George August, born September 26, 1884, and Clarence Edgar Schneider, born April 8, 1888.

versity, from grade teacher to superintendent of high schools, from instructor in Greek and Latin to college president, he has left the mark of an earnest student, an apt instructor, an intelligent organizer and a judicious director." This is very high appreciation, and yet a review of Dr. Nightingale's career as an educator shows the estimate to be just and well balanced, and that his present position as county superintendent of schools is merited by both personal fitness and professional ability.

Of New England ancestry, birth and training, Augustus Frederick Nightingale, a son of Thomas J. and Alice Nightingale, was born at Quincy, Massachusetts, November ii, 1843. From the public schools of Quincy he passed first to Newbury Academy, Vermont, and in 1866 graduated at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, as valedictorian of his class. Since then the following higher scholastic degrees have been conferred upon him: A. M., 1869; Ph. D., 1891 ; LL. D., 1901.

From graduation until now, a period of over forty years, Dr. Nightingale has held an increasingly important position in educational affairs of the middle west, and latterly of the nation. He was professor of Latin and Greek the first two years out of college, at U^pper Iowa University; was president of Northwestern Female College, Evanston, Illinois, in 1868-71 ; professor of Latin and Greek in Simpson College, Iowa, 1871-72; was superintendent of the Omaha public schools in 1872-74, and since that time has been a leader in the educational work of Chicago and Cook county. For sixteen years, from 1874 to 1890, he was principal of the Lake View high school. For two years following he was assistant superintendent of the Chicago public schools, and from 1892 to 1901 was superintendent of the high schools of the city. In 1902 he was elected superintendent of Cook county schools, and holds that office by reelection in 1906.

Dr. Nightingale has made his influence felt in the broader fields of education by his activity in various associations and educational movements. He has served as trustee of the University of Illinois since 1898, being president of the board in 1902-03. He was president of the Nebraska State Teachers' Association in 1873, and of the Illinois State Teachers' Association in 1887, and president of the secondary department of the National Educational Association in 1888. In the systematizing of the work of secondary schools and co-ordinating their work, Dr. Nightingale has long been one of the conspicuous educators of the country. From 1895 to 1899 he was chairman of the committee of the National Educational Association on college entrance requirements, and in 1898 was president of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. He is author of "Requirements for Admission to American Colleges." As an editor he is best known for his work on the "Twentieth Century Text Books," one hundred volumes. He has excellent command of English and his scholarship is of high rank among American educators. He has been appointed by Governor Deneen a member of the Educational Commission to revise and perfect the school laws of Illinois.

Dr. Nightingale married, August 24, 1866, Fanny Orena, daughter of Rev. C. H. Chase, of New Hampshire. Their children are Mrs. W. Ruffin Abbott, Chicago; Harry Thomas Nightingale, Urbana, Illinois ; Mrs. Harrison M. Angle, Brooklyn, New York ; Mrs. Vaughn Lee Alward and Mrs. Winter D. Hess, of Evanston, Illinois.

I70 Chicago And Cook County

The spiritual needs of a new community are ever paramount to the educational, although American pioneer history indicates that the founders of cities and states in the western world have usually established churches and schools as contemporaneous institutions. Early separating religious affairs from those of government and drawing a sharp line between public schools and private churches, the forefathers at the same time recognized the fact that, broadly speaking, morality and intelligence walk together, and that the forces which conduce to these desirable traits should be put in operation as soon as possible.

The history of denominational and unsectarian, but nevertheless religious, growth in Chicago has generally followed the course of all such development in the west, although it has included special marked forces which will be noted. Obviously, the prime cause for the establishment of new churches is the increase and expansion of population and the desirability of having a house of worship within a reasonable distance of the place of residence. Various disagreements over the questions of administration and doctrine also cause disrupting factions in the original organizations and the establishment of new societies. In large centers of population,, like Chicago, with the rapid settlement of outlying districts, the mother churches establish missions for the propagation of their faith, and these, in turn, become independent bodies with branches of their own. In common with all the large western cities (but in a more potential degree), Chicago is a city of diverse nationalities. It has now within its limits as many who were born in Germany, or whose parents were natives of the fatherland, as are inhabitants of the entire city of Cologne, the seventh in the empire. On the same basis, it has two-thirds as many Irish as are in Dublin, more Bohemians than the population of Pilsen (the second city of Bohemia), and nearly as many Swedes as there are in Gothenburg, Sweden's second city in population. Old-world conditions and events have caused large emigrations to Chicago and the west, such as the German revolution of 1848, the Russian massacres and revolutions of recent years; but the influx, as a rule, has been continuous and steady. The result has been the establishment of an unusually large number of churches, the membership of which in each case is of the same nationality; such as the Swedish and German Evangelical churches and the Lutheran organizations, distributed mainly among the Germans, Swedes, Danes and Norwegians. Something like one hundred and twenty-five thousand Poles and fifty thousand Russians are chiefly divided among the Catholic churches and the Russian Orthodox church, the organizations being based upon racial lines. There is also quite a large number of Greeks, who have their orthodox churches in the sections of the south and west sides of the city, where they mainly reside.

A cause of many church divisions in Chicago and throughout the country, which is now inoperative, was the question of slavery, which for many years caused many divisions in the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational churches. The great Chicago fire, while a purely local cause, had a wide effect on the growth of the city churches. It wiped out millions of dollars of property, scattered congregations and drove thousands of them into suburban districts; the former lines of demarkation between most of the churches on the north side and those in the central districts of the south side being almost obliterated. The edifices which replaced those swept away by the conflagration were, in common with those of a secular character, of a more substantial and metropolitan character, some of them architecturally superb. The result of the great fire, with the grand and world-wide outpourings of sympathy and assistance, was a New Chicago in the religious field, as in all others. Thereafter not only were the houses of worship grander and more enduring, but the moral and spiritual effects of the historic event transformed what was outwardly a vast calamity into a spiritual l)lessing.

The beginnings of the religious history of the locality now covered bv Chicago are contained in the missionary labors of Father Jacques IMarquette, the brave and gentle Jesuit priest who came among the Miami Indians of this region in the fall of 1673. It is yet a question under discussion whether IMarquette ever set foot on any portion of the present site of Chicago. During his last illness, however, in the spring of 1675, it is said that his successor to the Illinois mission, Father Claude Allouez, entered the Chicago river and was welcomed by a band of Indians to his new labors. From that time on for many years the Indians at and near Chicago were never without the spiritual ministrations of some zealous Jesuit father, and in 1796, Rev. Stephen D. Badin, who three years before had been ordained in Baltimore as the first Catholic priest to be consecrated to the church in the United States, honored Chicago with his presence. He came again in 1822 and baptized Alexander Beaubien at Fort Dearborn, his being the first recorded baptism within the present city limits.

The first Protestant to preach a sermon in Chicago was the Rev. Isaac McCoy, a Baptist minister from a mission school near Niles, Michigan. He wrote: "In the fore part of October (1825) I attended at Chicago the payment of an Indian annuity by Dr. Wolcott, United States Indian agent, and, through his politeness, addressed the Indians on the subject of our mission. On the 9th of October, I preached in English, which, as I was informed, was the first sermon ever delivered at or near that place." In the following year Rev. Jesse Walker, superintendent of the Fox River Methodist mission, came to Chicago and probably preached, as that good and zealous pioneer of the faith never lost an opportunity to spread the circumstances, that he has had occasion to record it in detail. One summer day of 1828 he arrived at Fort Dearborn arid the little settlement of some half dozen houses called Chicago. At the time, so he noted, there was a great rivalry for popularity between John Kinzie and John Miller, and after putting up at the latter gentleman's house, Mr. Scarritt sent word to the lieutenant of the garrison that (with his permission) he would preach to the soldiers and others at the fort. Evidently not thinking it good policy to show any religious partiality, the commandant returned word that he should neither forbid nor sanction the holding of such services. "Not to be outdone ty the honorable lieutenant on the point of independence," continued Mr. Scarritt, "I declined going to the garrison under such circumstances, and made an appointment for preaching at Miller's at night. Most of the citizens and some of the soldiers were present and gave respectful attention; but in the matter of congregation we received rather more than we bargained for. During religious services a gang of boatmen, with their vociferous 'Yo-hes,' commenced landing and rolling up barrels near the door. This was a trick of Kinzie's, so Miller said, out of spite to him for having the honor of entertaining the missionary, and for the agency he took in promoting the religion of the place."

Within two years Methodism had taken such root in the locality that the Illinois Conference established the Chicago Mission District covering the country from Peoria to Chicago, with Rev. Jesse Walker as superintendent. In June, 1831, the superintendent visited Chicago with Rev. Stephen R. Beggs, who preached several sermons at the garrison, and in the fall was appointed by the bishop as the regular local preacher. Rev. William See, a blacksmith and regularly ordained clergyman, also preached in Chicago, as occasion offered. Services were generally conducted in the fort at this time. In January, 1832, the first quarterly meeting was held and was largely attended for that time, the provisions which sustained the throng being drawn by ox-team from Plainfield, forty miles distant. "It was a season long to be remembered," exclaimed Mr. Beggs. "Everyone seemed to be baptized and consecrated anew to the great work to be accomplished in the village that was destined to become a mighty city." In May, 1832, Mr. Beggs brought his wife to Chicago, and remained for about a year, the meetings of his growing society being held during a portion of the time in the log schoolhouse. Mr. Walker succeeded to the Chicago mission, and "Father Walker's log cabin," standing on the west side of the river, near the meeting place of the north and south branches, became church, parsonage, and the general center of local Methodism. In 1834 Mr. Walker became superannuated, and died in the following year, his splendid missionary labors in Illinois marking him as one of the grandest of Methodist pioneers in the west. He was succeeded by Henry Whitehead, the local elder, who was the first minister licensed to preach in Chicago, but it appears that the appointment was only temporary, since Rev. J. T. Mitchell became the regular clergyman in the winter of 1834-5. The first church of the society was built under the direct supervision of Mr. Whitehead, at the corner of North Water and Clark streets. It was a tiny wooden affair, with the usual sharp steeple, but although work was commenced on it in the summer of 1834, it was not completed until 1836. Two years afterward the church was removed across the river on scows to the corner of Clark and Washington streets, which was the establishment of that denomination, on one of the most valuable pieces of property ever controlled by a church in the west.

In the meantime the Catholics, the Presbyterians and the Baptists had effected permanent organizations, over which resident clergymen presided. Father St. Cyr, a French priest, with only a smattering of English at his command, was sent from St. Louis by the bishop of the Missouri diocese, upon petition of the one hundred Catholics then in Chicago and vicinity. The good Father accomplished the journey partly on horseback and partly afoot, and celebrated his first mass in Mark Beaubien's log cabin on Sunday, May 5, 1833. Father St. Cyr at once made preparations for the erection of a house of worship. He was unable to raise the $200 required for the purchase of a lot on Lake street, near Market street, and on the advice of Colonel J. B. Beaubien, selected a canal lot n^ar the southwest corner of Lake and State streets. The first St. Mary's church was erected thereon - a plain little wooden structure like a district schoolhouse, surmounted by the cross of Christianity. The lumber was scowed across from St. Joseph, Michigan, and after faithful work the church, at a cost of about $400, was ready for occupancy in October. All the villagers took a keen interest in the enterprise. Deacon John Wright, a strong supporter of Rev. Jeremiah Porter, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, assisted in raising the frame of the building, and the leading citizens of Chicago took the liberal attitude that established religion, of whatever denomination, was good for the community. Before the church was plastered or painted, before the little open tower by which it was afterward surmounted had been placed thereon, a company of Indian women cleaned the inside of this modest house of worship in honor of those who were to attend t-he dedicatory exercises, and one hundred communicants filled the rough wooden benches which served as pews.

schooner which was anchored in the harbor to the mouth of the river, around Fort Dearborn, and up the sluggish stream to a small tavern bn the west side, near the junction of the north and south branches. The Presbyterian mission at Fort Brady (Sault Ste. Marie) had been disbanded by the transfer of troops to Fort Dearborn to meet the threatened dangers of the Black Hawk war. As the former post commandant of Fort Brady had also been transferred to Fort Dearborn, and invited Mr. Porter to accompany him to Chicago, the latter was now on the ground of his new missionary work. At the boarding house he met many of the business men of the place, and among others, John Wright, who, with Philo Carpenter, was for many years a stanch Presbyterian and a tower of strength in all Christian work in the city of Chicago. Captain Seth Johnson, the former commandant at Fort Dearborn, had been a devout supporter of religion, and with his departure the cause seemed dark to Mr. Wright and his fellow workers. ,His welcome to Mr. Porter was therefore in these words: "Well, I do rejoice, for yesterday was the darkest day I ever saw. Captain Johnson, who had aided us in our meetings, was to leave us, and I was almost alone. I have been talking about and writing for a minister for months, in vain, and yesterday, as we prayed with the Christians about to leave us, I was almost ready to despair, as I feared the troops coming in would be utterly careless about religion. The fact that you and a little church were, at the hour of our meeting, riding at anchor within gunshot of the fort, is like the bursting, out of the sun from behind the darkest clouds." Temporary arrangements were therefore made for preaching in Fort Dearborn, its carpenter shop being emptied, cleaned and provided with seats, and on the next Sunday morning after his landing (May 19, 1833) Mr. Porter delivered his first sermon in Chicago. In the afternoon, by invitation of Father Walker, he preached in the log schoolhouse on the west side of the river, at Wolf Point, and was greeted by an enthusiastic and overflowing congregation. At six o'clock he presided over a prayer meeting at the fort, listened to Father Walker "after candle lighting." and would have had one of the fairest Sabbaths of his Hfe had it not been marred by the following sight, as described in his journal : "The first dreadful spectacle that met my eyes on going to church was a group of Indians sitting on the ground before a miserable French dram shop, playing cards, and as many trifling white men standing around to witness the game." The Methodists, under Jesse Walker, were very cordial, and Mr. Porter continued to preach at the fort and Wolf Point for the accommodation of the garrison and villagers. On Wednesday, June 26, 1833, he organized the First Presbyterian church, with twenty-six members, seventeen of whom were connected with the garrison and had been members of his church at Fort Brady. Of the latter was Major DeLafayette Wilcox, who, with Messrs. John Wright and Philo Carpenter, were chosen elders. Mr. Carpenter had organized Chicago's first Sunday school the year before, and this was afterward reorganized by Mr. Porter. With a separate organization effected, efforts were now set on foot for the erection of a home, which was finally built on the southwest corner of Lake and Clark streets. It was about thirty by forty feet, cost $600, and, notwithstanding that the mercury stood at twentyfour degrees below zero on the day of the dedication (January 4, 1834), it is on record "that a respectable audience was on hand." The prayer of consecration was offered by Rev. A. B. Freeman, of the First Baptist church, which had been organized during the preceding fall.

Since the arrival of the first Baptist family in Chicago - that of Dr. John T. Temple - the denomination had been gathering strength. The doctor, who was an/ enterprising and broadly educated Virginian gentleman, for some time after his coming (July 4, 1833) had attended the Presbyterian services at Fort Dearborn, but, through correspondence with the American Baptist Missionary Society, he had secured the appointment of a Chicago missionary. With one hundred dollars he then headed a subscription for a building which should be devoted to religious and educational purposes, and in the fall a two-story frame, known as the Temple building, was completed near the corner of Franklin and South Water streets. With the exception of Rev. Jesse Walker's log house at Wolf Point, this was the first "house of worship" built in Chicago. The upper story was used for school purposes and the lower floor by the Methodists, this time until Mr. Freeman's death these two ministers preached once each month to congregations in some distant village, on such occasions the Chicago congregations uniting to hear the brother who remained at home. Mr. Freeman effected a distinct organization of the First Baptist church October 19, 1833, ^v'^^"* ^ membership of about twenty-five, and during his sixteen months of ministerial labors in the large territory of which Chicago was the center, he became known for his faithfulness and tenderness toward all men, his heroism in the discharge of duty, as well as his kindness to animals. In December, 1834, while returning from one of his missionary trips to Long Grove, fifty miles south of Chicago, where he had preached and administered baptism, his horse was taken sick, eighteen miles from the village. For two nights and one day Mr. Freeman watched with the suffering animal until it died. His duty to man and beast performed, he walked to Chicago. Overcome by exposure and fatigue, he was prostrated by typhoid fever and died ten days thereafter, December 15, 1834. The circumstances under which death came to him, better than words, portray his character and devotion to duty. Rev. Jeremiah Porter preached his funeral sermon in the Presbyterian church.

Thus did all denominations, Protestant and Catholic alike, show a brotherly interest in each other's interests, realizing that they were struggling for a foothold by which each might accomplish good in its own way. Death, more than all else, levels all such distinctions, and in the case of Mr. Porter and Mr. Freeman, the bmtiierly bond had been warm from the first.

however, that Father O'Meara was appointed priest to them. Bv 1836 the German CathoHcs had gained such accessions that Father St. Cyr obtained an assistant of that nationaHty. Now, as to Father O'Meara. He and his parishioners, largely composed of Irish canal laborers, worshiped in the original St. Mary's church, which he removed from the corner of Lake and State streets to Michigan avenue and Madison street. In some way he had acquired personal title to the church property and he even defied his ecclesiastic superiors to oust him. Moreover, his habits were notoriously intemperate, and, as Father St. Cyr refers to him many years after, "he proved to be a notorious scoundrel." When, therefore, the recalcitrant priest removed the church to another location, a large faction of the congretion refused to follow him. At this crisis of affairs the bishop and vicar general arrived in Chicago with the avowed intention of excommunicating O'Meara, besides forcing him to surrender to the church the misappropriated property. Many of the canal laborers then declared that if their favorite was excommunicated they would clear the church and take possession of it themselves. "The bishop and vicar general hearing this," says an account written by an eye-witness, "went among these men, addressed them on the subject, reminding them of their allegiance to the church; told them that they knew no distinction of nation or habit among Catholics, but that the only distinction which must be maintained was between the worthy and unworthy, the faithful and unfaithful sons of the church, and concluded by warning them that if they offered the slightest resistance to any public ceremony enjoined by the church, they would themselves incur the guilt of sacrilege, and be accordingly subjected to the very pains and penalties of excommunication which they wished to avert from another. This had the effect of calming them into submission and the priest, learning this, consented to assign over to his superiors the property of the church, which he had unlawfully held from it and to leave the town on the following day, so that all proceedings were stayed against him." Father St. Cyr took' his honorable departure from Chicago in 1837, and Father O'Meara left in disgrace in 1840. The church was reunited by Rev. Maurice de St. Palais, under whom, in 1843 (December 25th), was completed the St. Mary's brick church, corner of Madison street and Wabash avenue. St.

Under Bishop Quarter the growth of Catholicism in the diocese was remarkable. When he arrived in Chicago it contained but one church arid two priests; two years later, at the first diocesan synod, thirty-two priests were in attendance and nine were unable to be present. In 1846 three Catholic churches were also erected - St. Patrick's, St. Peter's and St. Joseph's - the last two for German communicants, St. Peter's being on the. south side and St. Joseph's on the north side. The University of St. Mary's of the Lake is also to be credited to Bishop Quarter, a charter for the college being granted in December, 1844 (the year of his coming to Chicago). The university building, with seminary attachment, was opened to the Catholic world July 4, 1845, and was the first institution of higher learning in the city. He also instituted the first community of Sisters of Mercy in 1846, and among the organizations of a less denominational nature which he founded may be mentioned the Chicago Hibernian Benevolent Emigrant Society, having for its object the protection of Irish immigrants. According to his desire, the remains of the revered bishop were deposited in St. Mary's cathedral, which he himself had consecrated less than three years before.

In 1850 the French Catholics again separated from the mother church to form St. Louis Society, and worshiped for about two years in the old St. Mary's church, which then stood at the rear of the cathedral and was used as a convent by the Sisters of Mercy. A faction of St. Joseph's church formed a new organization, St. Michael's, and erected another house of worship on the north side, and in the following year St. Francis separated from St. Peter's to accommodate the German Catholics of the southwestern section of the city.

west, was a small room fitted up in the old College Holy Name ^^ g^ diary's of the Lake, in 1846, to serve as headquarters of the north side parish placed in charge of the priests of that institution. In 1848 a building was erected on the southwest corner of the college grounds, corner of Rusli and Supei8o CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY rior streets, and was opened for services in November, 1849. I^ was known as the Church of the Holy Name and was erected under the auspices of Rev. Jeremiah A. Kinsella, rector of St. Mary's College, who, in 1 85 1, also built a small church at the corner of State and Superior streets. The erection of these houses of worship gave so decided an impetus to the settlement of Catholics on the north side that Bishop Van de Velde assented to the building of a large brick church at the latter location, which should be used as the cathedral of the diocese. The substantial church, of Milwaukee cream brick, was opened for the celebration of its first mass on Christmas day of 1854. The fire of 1871 reduced this fine edifice to ashes, but it was replaced by the present stone cathedral, with its magnificent high altar of marble, and its architectural magnificence, which stamp it as one of the noteworthy religious edifices in America. The total cost of its construction and reconstruction (1891-93) was a quarter of a million dollars and the completed structure was dedicated November 17, 1876. While it was in process of construction - that is, for three years - the headquarters of the bishopric were transferred to St. Mary's parish on the south side. That church had also been destroyed by the fire, but Bishop Foley had purchased the Plymouth Congregational edifice, on the corner of Wabash avenue and Eldredge court. Mass was first celebrated therein October 6, 1873, and from that time until the completion of the cathedral of the Holy Name it was used as a pro-cathedral. That year and event are also significant of the permanent transfer of centralized Catholicism from the south to the north side, but, although St. Mary's is somewhat shorn of its ecclesiastical dignity, around it cluster all the tender memories of the early times and it stands as the only outward evidence of the continuous life of the Roman Catholic church as an organized body in Chicago. Its noteworthy history embraces the es-. tablishment of the first Catholic church for colored people in the city and one of the first in the north, the faithful of that race meeting in the basement of St. Mary's for their initial services in 1881. After Bishop Foley's death in 1879 the strong standing of Chicago in the Roman Catholic church was recognized by raising it to the dignity of a metropolitan see and appointing Rev. Patrick A. Feehan (former bishop of Nashville) as its first archbishop.

1908, occasioned a grand outpouring; of Catholics, one of the oldest, most noted and most faithful of them, Hon. William J. Onahan, delivering the chief address relating directly to the church. As he had attended his first mass in it as early as 1855, his interesting and tender narrative came from the lips of an authority. "In the year 1903," said Mr. Onahan, "the charge of the church and parish was given over by Archbishop Quigley to the Paulist fathers,- who were cordially welcomed to Chicago by priests and people. The parish house has since been the headquarters of the missionary band of the Paulist fathers for the west. It is scarcely necessary to dwell here on the services oi these fathers in the special line of mission duty to which they' are given. Their wonderful zeal and power, especially in the field of conversion, has passed into a proverb. The missions given to non-Catholics have been rewarded by the happiest results.

"Old St. Mary's means something greater and more significant than merely a church and parish. St. Mary's was the mother church - the creator, it may be said - from which sprang the subsequent marvelous spread of Catholicity in Chicago, and from Chicago through Illinois and the west in general. How wonderful has been the growth of religious activity from this fountain source is seen today. The statistics alone demonstrate how unequaled, how unexampled has been its progress. Think of it! In Chicago, in 1833, a single priest and an humble little frame chapel, where now, in 1908, we have an archbishop, several auxiliary bishops, four hundred priests, nearly two hundred churches, schools, colleges, innumerable convents and religious houses, noble hospitals and multiplied institutions of mercy, and charity, and institutions for the care and mitigation of every form of human infirmity. All this wonderful exhibit is not of concern alone to Catholics. It is, indeed, to their glory and credit; but it concerns the entire community. What we have done has not been for Catholics only - it has been for all, since all have shared in the benefits - the city, society, humanity, have all been gainers."

The expansion of Catholicism in the west division of Chicago showed marked activity after the fire, which had little immediate effect upon that section of the city other than to draw the attention of thousands of homeless people to its ample acres as available for residence sites. Long before, several notable institutions of the faith had been created in this section of Chicago, among others that of the

Church of the Holy Family, under the care of the Jesuit priesthood. In 1857 Bishop O' Regan invited Father Arnold Damen, of the Missouri diocese, and a member of the Society of Jesus, to take charge of the Cathedral of the Holy Name, but the latter, after local investigation, decided that his duties lay on the west side of the river, and even in what was then a sparsely settled section of it south of Van Buren street. The result was the purchase of the block between Eleventh and Twelfth streets, fronting on May, and the erection of a large wooden chapel, which was occupied as the Church of the Holy Family in July of that year. In the face of a financial panic and depressing times, funds were raised for the grand edifice which was dedicated in i860, which passed almost unscathed through the great fire, and which still stands. In 1862 a clergy house was erected and in 1870 St. Ignatius College was opened - an institution which has sent out numerous bright young men who have been making history for Chicago and the country. Father Damen, pioneer of his order in Chicago, has the love and veneration of thousands, and the parish of the Holy Family church is now one of the most numerous and united in the country.

The old St. Louis church, established in 1850, for the separate worship of French Catholics, passed through much stress and storm caused by disagreements between their bishop and their- pastor and the income of a strong element of Irish Catholics. The original building was consumed in the great fire, but the French Catholics had again come into their own by the formation of the parish of Notre Dame de Chicago and the completion of a church for them in 1865, located on the west side, corner of Halsted and Congress. The site of the church has been shifted three quarters of a mile to the southwest, but the French are still in the ascendancy. The growth of the western division of the city has resulted since in the founding of such fine and substantial edifices as the massive, twospired Church of Our Lady of Sorrows on West Jackson boulevard, near Kedzie street, and the buildings of St. Mel's parish on Washington, boulevard, at the corner of Forty-third street.

From first to last the Catholic church in Chicago, as everywhere else, has been zealous, not only in the establishment of its own parochial schools and institutions of higher learning, but in the founding and maintenance of hospitals, which, as far as aid to the sick and injured is concerned, have been conducted along unsectarian lines. But interesting- as is the development of all the local activities of the church, it is impossible to present more than the general features; and the same may be said of all denominations.

is generally admitted that the Methodists were the first Protestants to secure a firm foothold in the community, through the faithful labors of Jesse Walker and Stephen R. Beggs. The nature of those labors, as well as the building of the first church on the north side of the river and its removal to the corner of Clark and Washington, in 1838, has already been described. Two years before, the society (known as the Clark Street M. E. church) had been stricken from the list of missions and recognized as an independent organization. It had been incorporated in 1835 as the Methodist Episcopal Church of Chicago, and it was not until 1857 that the name was formally changed, by legislative act of reincorporation, to the First Methodist Episcopal church. This organization has been the mother of Methodism in Chicago, and holds that relation to the local faith even more distinctively than St. Mary's does to Catholicism. In 1845 the growth of the society made necessary the erection of a brick church and in 1858 this was displaced by what, for those days, was an elegant marble structure, four stories high. The lower, or main floor, was given up to stores, the second to offices, and the two upper stories to religious purposes. Prior to 1850 the Canal Street Methodist and the State Street Methodist churches had been founded by colonies from the mother body and through her financial assistance, and the Welsh and German residents of the city, also received substantial support in the formation of pioneer churches on the west and north sides. The First Swedish Methodist Episcopal church was organized as the Scandinavian Mission early in 1853 and in the following year a building was erected on Illinois street near Market, north side. As illustrative of this faith in the good missionary offices of the First church, is the fact that, in 1865. an appeal was made by the West Indiana Street church lor pecuniary aid, and a resolution was promptly passed that this application should be first on the list - after the lot on Indiana avenue, which was being purchased for what is now

Trinity Methodist church, had been paid for. In fact, nearly every Methodist church in the city, which has found itself in any special straits, has received assistance from the First Methodist church, which, before the great fire, had given away $70,000. The fine marble block which it had erected was ruined by the conflagration, but by the fall of 1872 the present building was standing on its site, and the generosity of the First Methodist church has since in no wise abated.

The Methodist Church block, now in the business heart of the city, is still the heart of Chicago Methodism, and in a large measure that of the west. It has been the scene of many notable denominational gatherings and none which caused a more profound sensation in the home church than that which assembled to try Dr. Hiram W. Thomas on the question of his orthodoxy. The trial of Dr. Thomas brought being the presiding elder of the Chicago district. Rock River Conference, of the Methodist Episcopal church. The result, both of his trial and the appeal to the conference jury, which was decided two years afterward, was to expel Dr. Thomas from the ministry and membership of the church. The groundwork of the accusations was laid while he was pastor of the Centenary Methodist church, on the west side, from 1877 to 1880, although his pulpit utterances had given rise to much criticism by the orthodox members of the church during the three years (1872-75) that he occupied the pulpit of the First church. His early theological studies had been under Charles Elliott, president of the Iowa Wesleyan University, and when little more than eighteen he commenced to preach. In 1856 he joined the Iowa Methodist conference, filled numerous appointments throughout the state and also served as chaplain of the state penitentiary, and in 1869 came to Chicago to fill the pulpit of the Park Avenue Methodist church. While preaching in Iowa his liberality had occasioned comment, but not until he commenced his pastorate of the First Methodist church of Chicago did it cause general criticism. The climax was reached at the delivery of his sermon in 1874 on the trial of Dr. Swing for heresy, in which he took exception to the doctrines of foreordination and perdition. In the fall of 1875 the orthodox op- position resulted in his transfer to Aurora, and at the Alethodist conference of 1878 his utterances were discussed and he was asked to give assurances that his objectionable teachings would be discontinued, or that he retire from the Methodist pulpit. Although he declined to do either, but stated that he would continue to do the best he could as a Christian minister, he continued his pastorate at the Centenary church, with the result that he was expelled from the denomination.

or for two decades. Services were first held in Hooley's theater, then in the Chicago Opera House, and finally at McVicker's theater, the People's church growing continually in numbers and influence until Dr. Thomas' advancing years and declining strength made it necessary for him to drop his heaviest physical burdens. Those who have ever come under his kindly and magnetic spell and his broad fraternalism are still under their influence, and wnll recall with gratitude the words of the Northzvestern Christian Advocate, published soon after his expulsion from the church, in 1881 : "Now that the struggle is past, we say cordially that Dr. Thomas is in a position (we wish it had been voluntary on his part) where every Methodist can, without embarrassment, give him all kindness and brotherly love. He can think, say, write and urge all that is nearest his heart, without a word of Methodist criticism as to himself personally. Fie is now in the ranks of, or near to, those from whom Methodists can receive criticism and antagonism tKvithout flinching. We congratulate the non-Methodist public in having a preacher who is far more evangelical than the average independent teachers. He has brains and reading and attractiveness. W'e sincerely hope and pray he may have thousands of disciples and converts, and that he may live many years and do a hundred times more good than even he had hoped to do. The world needs earnest teaching, and we shall be glad to know that the People's church is gathering heavy sheaves."

avenue and Locust street, north side. In 1847, when the mother church had been located on the south side of the river for some 5^ears, various citizens of the north side desired to have a place of worship nearer their homes and organized the Indiana Street chapel, with headquarters in a little frame building on the south side of that thoroughfare between Clark and Dearborn. The society grew rapidly, and, in 1863, with the spread of population north, erected a substantial building on the site of the "Moody church," Chicago and La- Salle avenues. This was burned in the fire of 1871 and the parish threw up a temporary chapel on its site which became noted as "the first church after the fire." The lot was purchased by D wight L. Moody's supporters, however, and the magnificent Grace church of the present was completed in 1873, at LaSalle avenue and Locust street. It represents one of the strongest Methodist organizations in the country and has itself been the founder of numerous missions, several of which have developed into independent congregations, notably Wesley, Elsmere and Christ churches.

establishment of the Young Men's Christian Association were centralized in the rooms of the Methodist Church block, corner of Clark and Washington streets. He was a Massachusetts man, and commenced his active life in Boston, as a successful salesman, his energy, tact and attractiveness making business success assured, had he elected to follow it. Joining the Congregational church in his twentieth year, his early attempts in Boston and Chicago to address prayer meetings were such failures as to prompt his friends to advise him to serve the cause in some other way. Following that advice, for the time, he took a Sunday school class at the First Methodist church and was soon an active promoter of a small mission. He also became interested in the work of the Bethel Home, and while distributing religious literature among the sailors, met a Presbyterian elder from Rochester, likewise engaged, and the two worked together for a number of months. Near the north side market he further collected a motley crowd of juveniles in a deserted saloon, and instructed them in morality with such hearty good will that the school was removed, as a large establishment, to North Market Hall and was there maintained for six years, afterward being installed in a saloon which he rented for the purpose. He soon determined to devote his entire time to the work. With regard to his first labors in Chicago Mr. Moody once said : "When I began my Christian course I tried to work in the churches of Chicago and I was told I had better not speak. I went into the dark lanes and got meetings there. I kept my mouth shut. I did not let the church close it. Take a bold stand for Christ. You will never be good for much for God's service until the world calls you crazy. If the world has nothing to say against you, you are not much of a Christian." Mr. Moody's great power as an evangelist was finally proven in his work for the Young Men's Christian Association, which had been organized in 1858, largely through Cyrus Bentley and John V. Farwell, but which so languished during its early infancy as to be on the verge of complete prostration. When the young man Moody, who had already been recognized b}^ the First church as a good mission Sunday school worker, entered the ranks of the association, he at once connected himself with its practical measures of relief, and as chairman of the committee to visit the poor and sick he found broad scope for his broad and tender ministrations. His absolute sincerity and infectious earnestness within the succeeding few years also brought him into the class of effective speakers, and his power and eloquence as an orator increased continually with the vastness of his practical Christian works, until the truth became recognized that he was one of the greatest Christian agents of his time. At the breaking out of the war he was chairman of the devotional committee of the association, and active throughout the period of hostilities in connection with the Christian and Sanitary Commission, being president of the executive branch of the latter for Chicago. Locally his labors were chiefly centered in Camp Douglas, where he erected the first camp chapel of all time, and afterward organized prayer meetings and revivals attended by thousands of soldiers, by wearers of both the blue and gray. In 1865 an employment bureau was established, largely through Mr. Moody, and two years afterward Farwell Hall was completed and occupied by the association. It was burned in the following year, rebuilt in 1S6S-9, and again destroyed in the great fire. In the meantime his purely evangelical labors had found a home in the famous Moody Tabernacle, corner of Illinois street and La Salle avenue, but the 1871 fire made a clean sweep of this, as well as of his house and furniture. He saved nothing but his bible from his household effects. Within thirty days a low wooden building had been erected at Ontario and Wells streets and became known as the North Side Tabernacle, where his congregation was accommodated until the basement of the new structure on Chicago avenue was completed. After the fire Mr. Moody carried his work abroad as an evangelist, and, with the assistance of his co-worker, the lamented Sankey, preached Christianity and himself into the hearts of British and Americans alike. From that time until his death in 1894 the Chicago avenue church was supplied with resident pastors of marked ability and Christian virtues.

Presbyterianism in Chicago was perhaps more strongly affected by the slavery question than any other denomination, although in its early period its experience was uniform with that of the other sects, the division and subdivision of its members into organizations being mainly determined by the growth and shiftings of population. In some instances the dividing line was also determined by Old and New church usually joined the standard of Congregationalism. In 1842 the First Presbyterian church became so overcrowded that a number of its members formed another organization and under a young Cincinnati minister. Rev. Robert. W. Patterson, inaugurated the Second church. Services were first held in the Saloon building, one of the finest public halls in those days, the Unitarians throwing their church open to the new society on Sunday afternoons. Under Dr. Patterson's pastorate the church waxed strong and dedicated a house of its own in 185 1. The material of the edifice was a soft, bituminous limestone, and, with the sun and general exposure, the petroleum was gradually drawn to the surface, giving the building the name of the "spotted church," which, as the years passed, became the "old spotted church." It stood at Washington street and Wabash avenue, and was considered a handsome building, notwithstanding its odd appearance, at the time of its destruction by the great fire. Dr. Patterson occupied the pulpit of the Second Presbyterian church the first twenty-three years of its life, and not only was the prime promoter of the society into one of the most flourishing in the northwest, but became a leading figure of his denomination at large. He was especially opposed to the proposed secession from the general conference of the church, because it refused to consider slavery as a proper subject upon which to take formal action. Just before the fire the location of the church was changed from Washington street and Wabash avenue to the Olivet Presbyterian church, Wabash avenue and Fourteenth street, and Dr. Patterson severed his connection with the society in 1872, a year after the union of the Second and Olivet churches. At this time it stood as one of the most active beneficiaries of the denomination in the city. For the immediate benefit of the church had been spent some $200,000, and for other purposes $150,000. The first mission Sunday school was organized and carried on for twenty-five years by members of this church, Olivet, Westminster and Lake Forest Presbyterian churches had sprung from it, and it had given paternal strength to North, Calvary and Hyde Park churches. Up to the time of the fire the Second Presbyterian church had expended about $175,000 on charities and benevolences, and it has fully maintained its reputation for generosity established early in its history.

The great fire which swept away the church, Sunday school and mission buildings of the First Presbyterian church on Wabash avenue, between Congress and Van Buren streets, caused a removal further south, and a great income of energy and Christian helpfulness. I'our years after the erection of the edifice on Indiana avenue and Thirtyfirst street, the Forty-first Street Presbyterian church was organized and for some years was sustained by the First church.

pastor of the church, as moderator, and Professor Francis L. Patton, who held the chair of theology at the Seminary of the Northwest (now AlcCormick Seminary), as prosecutor. Westminster and North Presbyterian churches had been organized by certain members of the First and Second, to accommodate the New School Presbyterians of the north side, and just before the fire they had consolidated as the Fourth church. The five vcars during which Dr. Swing had preached to the congregation of the Westminster church had been characterized by a remarkable growth and by a sustained interest in his eloquent and scholarly discourses. His popularity led to the consolidation of the two societies and although the building in which the united church worshiped was destroyed the fire, the enthusiastic supporters of Dr. Swing provided accommodations for the continuance of services at McVicker's theater. There he continued to preach for fourteen months, or until the completion of the new edifice at the corner of Rush and Superior streets, which was opened January 4, 1874.