January 1, 1909: "I am a Citizen of Chicago"

The John T. McCutcheon cartoon shown above (click on for a larger image) appeared in the Chicago Tribune on January 1, 1909.

In Chicago, one hundred years ago, New Year's Day...
was a day much like any other day.

The first Chicago baby of the year was born at 12:01 am to 20-year old Mary Vietka of 248 West Chicago Avenue. Unfortunately, Mrs. Vietka didn't make it to the county hospital and the little girl was born in the police ambulance.

Poor Mrs. Annie Raffty didn't start out the year very well. Her remains were found in the furnace of an apartment building at 5412 Cornell Avenue. It seems her husband had taken exception to her flirtation with a porter on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad and expressed his displeasure by strangling her, beating her and then shoving her body in the furnace to cover the crime.

It was President Theodore Roosevelt's last New Years in the White House and he was eagerly looking forward to his upcoming African safari. President-elect William Howard Taft expressed his "most earnest wish...for the preservation of the peace of the world and for the continuance of friendly relations which this nation enjoys with all other nations of the earth."

The Powers' Theater was having a Happy New Year Matinee. William H. Crane was starring in "Father and the Boys," written by George Ade. Continuous vaudeville was offered at the Haymarket and at 2:15 in the afternoon Litt and Dingwall's Great Melodrama, "In Old Kentucky" would be presented at the McVicker's. Harry Lauder was playing his bagpipes at Orchestra Hall.


Sports fans were happy that New Years. The Cubs were two-time world Champions and White Sox owner Charles Comiskey was "negotiating" with some south side property owners over land for his new ball park - Comiskey Park would open in 1910. One of the most popular tunes of 1908 was "Take Me Out To the Ball Game."

A devastating earthquake had struck Messina, Italy on December 28th and killed hundreds of thousands of people. Chicago remembered how the world had responded to its suffering from the Great Fire in 1871. Representatives of the Red Cross were stationed at the entrances of many hotels and restaurants with small boxes in hand and requesting donations for the unfortunate Italians.

Chicago had spent $1,000,000 to usher in the New Year. It was an enthusiastic celebration all over town:

New Year's Day, however, is a time for looking ahead and in 1909, like no other year before, the city would be "Looking Forward," as the Chicago Tribune trumpeted:

The city really is looking forward to an era of tremendous accomplishment, and what is more important, it is moving forward with a firmness and definiteness of direction which is the result of its wise consideration of the past and its thorough study of conditions. It has awakened with the whole nation to the necessity for conservation and coherent development of resources and it is realizing now as never before the wisdom and economy of studying the needs of the city as a whole and coordinating all civic effort so that unity and harmony shall be more and more approximated as the community grows. The city beautiful plans of the Commercial club, the harbor commission's exhaustive deliberations, the work preliminary to subway development, the deep waterway project, unification of interurban transportation facilities, commercial, ethical, social, aesthetic, which are being developed and furthered with great zeal and practical effectiveness, express the vitality of the civic feeling of our time.

Chicago is indeed leaving her nonage. The headlong and often heedless energy of the past is giving place to a more constant force which will produce better and more lasting results. The generous enthusiasms of the past, which we must honor, are revived and find a wider scope, a firmer footing. Best of all is the fact that the community is beginning to realize itself in a new sense of unity, without which Chicago would never be really a city, a great social entity, of which its members might say with a Roman pride,

"I am a citizen of Chicago."

Recommended reading:

The Plan of Chicago



In honor of 2009 (and the hope that goes with it), I hereby proclaim every reader of this blog to be a Citizen of Chicago.

A Very Happy New Year from "Chicago History."

Prarie School in Session: John Van Bergen Book Review

It is essential that I preface this review by flatly stating that my architectural education has been sorely lacking. Translation: I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. That being said, I am now going to offer up a review of The Work of John S. Bergen, Architect by Martin Hackl. (I am nothing if not nervy.)

A previous post titled, "Out of the FLW Shadow" introduced Hackl's magnum opus on Van Bergen and extensive companion website. I refer you now to that post. So why are we back on the topic? Because I have received a copy of the book and wanted to relate some first-hand impressions. Sometimes a book review, particularly a positive one, is not based on an extensive knowledge of the topic, but an acknowledgement of the author's passion, recognition of the subject's relevancy, and the book's readability. Hackl gets high marks on all three criteria.

The Work of John S. Van Bergen is a self-published tome, obviously run off of his computer. But, Hackl is no hack. It is not crudely produced. Make no mistake; this is an extensive, well-done documentation of the work of an architect of the Prairie School who deserves to be remembered. Color photos, old family photos of previous owners, original floor plans, advertisements and engaging narrative set Hackl's work apart. There's also a ton of history peppered throughout the book. I like that alot. I also enjoyed Hackl's writing style and for someone who knows little about the subject matter, that alone makes it a grabber. For example, I recently received a December, 2008 Addendum to the Third Edition which I had previously received. There was an update to the recent renovations done to the Flori Blondeel House built in 1914 of which Hackl was less than enthusiastic: "Warning! Due to the graphic nature of these pictures, anyone sensitive to the destruction of good architecture, or possessing even a smattering of good taste, should view them at your own risk!" See; he's even got a sense of humor about the whole thing.

Nothing of significance was ever created without passion and Hackl is dripping with it. I admire him for following through on a topic that he found interesting when others said, "Who cares?". I praise his years of research to fill a void in Chicago architectural history. Do I recommend the book? Of course I do. The hefty pricing ($60.00) may deter those who are not academics or architectural scholars or live in Oak Park, but I understand that it is difficult to put a price on one's life work. Personally, I would like to see the book professionally published and more available to the masses. But, that's just me...and what the hell do I know.

On Chicago

"Nothing promotes efficiency in a plant better than an extra man for every job, waiting in a long line at the hiring gate."

Cyrus Hall McCormick (1809-1884), Inventor of the mechanical reaper.

Labor organizers called a national strike for an eight-hour work day on May 1, 1886. In Chicago, workers held a parade and rally with over 80,000 participants. The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions initiated the call for a national strike and the Central Labor Union organized the event in Chicago. The Knights of Labor and the International Working People's Association supported the Central Labor Union in planning Chicago's parade and rally.
On May 3, 1886, striking employees of the McCormick Reaper Works clashed with replacement workers. Police retaliated against the striking employees, killing two.

August Spies witnessed the bloodshed and was inspired to compose the "Revenge" broadside, which called for a unified response from the anarchists and workers of Chicago. The deaths at the McCormick factory inspired the rally at Haymarket the following day.

(From: PBS, American Experience, Chicago: City of the Century)

For more information, see the link sets in the right column on Cyrus McCormick and the Haymarket Riot.

History For Sale

If you've got an extra $450,000 hidden away, you could own the ultimate Chicago history collectible: 7244 South Prarie Avenue, Al Capone's Chicago home. The home was purchased by Capone in 1923. There are more details about the house here. See the links in the right column and the Al Capone Museum for more on Capone.

Photo Credit: CHS DN-91356

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays from "Chicago History"

IT'S such an old, old wish,
you know, seems like it
must come true -
This "Merry Christmas!" that
I wish -with all my heart to you.

To all my dedicated readers - and you know who you are - I wish you a wonderful, peaceful day.

From: The Old, Old Wish by Wilbur Nesbit (Chicago, 1911)

Card: "Port City of Chicago, Christmas Ship"

A Little Old Chicago Holiday Cheer

The tree is decorated; the presents are wrapped. It's time to call up a few friends and invite them over to celebrate the holiday and raise a glass to the coming new year (or just the fact you all survived 2008). But, keeping with our topic, I've looked up a couple old Chicago drinks that you might find interesting.



THEODORE THOMAS PUNCH:

1/4 Burgundy
1/4 Moselle (a light Rhine wine)
1/2 champagne

These fractions are proportions to be used in mixing any quantity of this punch.

Maestro Thomas was the first conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and was a favorite guest on Prarie Avenue.
(From: Prairie Avenue Cookbook by Carol Callahan)

CHICAGO COCKTAIL: Fill the mixing glass half full of broken ice, add one or two dashes of Angostura Bitters, three dashes of Curasao and one-half a gill of Brandy. Stir well, strain into cocktail glass; add an olive or cherry, squeeze a lemon peel and drop it into the glass, and pour a little Champagne on top. Before straining the mixture into the cocktail glass, moisten the outside borders of the glass with lemon juice and dip into pulverized sugar.

ARMOUR COCKTAIL: Into a mixing glass half-filled with shaved ice, pour half a jigger of Sherry, half a jigger of Italian Vermouth, three dashes of Orange Bitters; mix well, strain into cocktail glasses and add a piece of orange peel. Charlie Roe and Jim Schwenck [The Home Bartender's Guide and Songbook], those two good mixers, in their home bartender's book, tell us that people "Back-o'-the-Yards" used to drink this before breakfast and then go out and beat up a policeman, but we think it's nothing more than a bracer for old ladies.
(From: Dining in Chicago by John Drury)

Recommended reading:"Drinking the Chicago Way," Wall Street Journal, December 20, 2008
"Classic drink lives on through the Internet," Chicago Tribune, August 24, 2008
"Taking a Walk on the Southside," Serious Eats, August 22, 2007

A Christmas Story

A Chicago lover went to visit his girl one evening recently, but for some reason, possibly that the fire had materially changed his condition in life, she received and treated him cooly. He remained standing in the parlor a few moments; but finally made a movement toward the door, remarking that "he guessed he'd go." "Oh!" said she, starting from a beautiful condition of semi-unconscious, "won't you take a chair?" "Well, I don't care if I do," was his reply, and he took the chair, thanking her kindly, and carried it home. He says it is a good chair, made of walnut, with stuffing and green cover - just what he wanted.

But he is down on that girl, and declares he wouldn't marry her...
not if her father owned a brewery.

From: Chicago Tribune, December 25, 1871) I typed it word for word; I kid you not.

Chicago History Caught in the Web

We're coming up on Christmas week, and I sincerely doubt many people will be reading blog posts. (Thus the early posting.) But, being the dedicated cyber scribbler, here I am nonetheless. Posts will be abbreviated over the holiday season, until after the first of the year, but I'll be around.

"Chicago History" is a bit of a construction zone of late, what with all the new links and redesign. Work continues with much more to be done. Thank you all for your patience. (If you are interested in how to easily convert your Blogger blog to three columns, visit Three Column Blogger.)

Anyway, I ran across a few Chicago history stories this past week and want to pass them on before we all get totally Santa sidetracked. I'll make this brief...

BibliOdyssey is featuring a series of fantastic sketches of theaters of Art Deco California. "California?" you say. "Wassup with that?" The designs are by Chicago (born, raised, and taught)architect S. Charles Lee.

Marty Hackl (author of The Work of John S Van Bergen, Architect and the companion website) recalls J. Ogden Armour’s “summer home” on his blog. Watch for an upcoming review of Marty's book.

Dump Site has a Public Service Announcement regarding Richard Nickel's house at 1810 W. Cortland. Please read and help if you can.

The Chicago Public Library Digital Collection is, of course, a great repository of pictures of Chicago's past. The photo to the left is a ca. 1900 photo of the Library, now the Chicago Cultural Center.

Author Neil Harris discussed The Chicagoan: A Lost Magazine of the Jazz Age on WFMT's Critical Thinking with Andrew Patner. The first of the two-part discussion is available now on Critical Thinking's website. Part two will be aired on December 22nd. Don't worry if you are wrapped up in ribbons and bows; you'll be able to listen to the archived audio of the program on their website at a later date.

And you think the stores seem empty today? The Chicago Tribune has cracked open its archives for a look at "Selling Christmas during the Great Depression" with 30 great advertisements. Somehow having the words "Christmas" and "Great Depression" in the same sentence just doesn't seem right.


The 1933 Chicago World's Fair was themed "The Century of Progress." But The Smithsonian's "Around the Mall" blog reminds us how very unfair The Fair was. It was Annie E. Oliver's efforts to include Jean Baptise du Sable, Chicago’s first non-Native American settler, that resulted in a special display at the Fair. Read all about how the World’s Fair Exhibit Championed Black Chicago.


Top Five Books is featuring David M. Sokol's new book, The Noble Room: The Inspired Conception and Tumultuous Creation of Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple. An excerpt from the book is available on the website. Hat tip to PrairieMod for the heads up on the Unity Temple article in the Chicago Tribune.

And, finally...
Yes, it is true. Loving Frank is going to be made into a movie. Variety says so.

Santa Photo: Chicago Daily News, 1902

On Chicago

Chicago, October 4 [1896]

CHICAGO! Chicago, queen and guttersnipe of cities, cynosure and cesspool of the world! Not if I had a hundred tongues, every one shouting a different language in a different key, could I do justice to her splendid chaos. The most beautiful and the most squalid, girdled with a twofold zone of parks and slums; where the keen air from the lake and prairie is ever in the nostrils, and the stench of foul smoke is never out of the throat; the great port a thousand miles from the sea; the great mart which gathers up with one hand the corn and cattle of the West and deals out with the other the merchandise of the East; widely and generously planned with streets of twenty miles, where it is not safe to walk at night; where women ride straddlewise, and millionaires dine at mid-day on the Sabbath; the chosen seat of public spirit and municipal boodle, of cut-throat commerce and munificent patronage of art; the most American of American cities.,and yet the most mongrel; the second American city of the globe, the fifth German city, the third Swedish, the second Polish, the first and only veritable Babel of the age; all of which twenty-five years ago next Friday was a heap of smoking ashes. Where in all the world can words be found for this miracle of paradox and incongruity?

GEORGE WARRINGTON STEEVENS, (1869-1900)English journalist
Reprinted in AS OTHERS SEE CHICAGO, edited by Bessie Louise Pierce
See also: The Land of the Dollar by G. W. Steevens (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1897)

You've Come a Long Way, Baby!

The "Gay '90s" were not always so gay for women. There were lots of restrictions both public and private. A woman in 1890's Chicago could not enter restaurants unescorted, hold a public office-or vote, for that matter-, and was considered, for all practical purposes, a ward of her husband or father. The Progressive Era (usually given in history texts as the period from 1900-1920 but, running from 1890-1925 for the women’s movement) gave life to reform efforts. But, men's attitude toward women and restrictions on personal habits illustrate just how far women had to go to gain equality.


Clifton R. Wooldredge (1854-1933)was a Detective in the Chicago Police Department. In 1901 (and later in 1906) Detective Wooldredge published a not very humble account of his life on the Force, which began in 1888: Hands up! In the World of Crime: or 12 years a Detective. Ten of those years were spent policing "the Levee."

The memoir is a really fascinating first-hand account of life in Chicago at the turn of the century, but among the "1700 Arrests — 125 Criminals Sent to Penitentiary —$75,000 Worth of Lost and Stolen Property Recovered — 75 Young Girls Rescued from Lives of Shame" is the little story of the arrest of Jennie Ward. Detective Wooldredge and the Judge obviously subscribed to Lucy Page Gaston's philosophy that, "Girls will be girls, but they should be restrained."



While strolling along Wabash avenue one December day in 1896 Detective [Clifton] Wooldredge met another stroller. It was a woman who said she was Jennie Ward. She was not very different from other women, but she attracted more attention because she was smoking a cigarette.

The detective would perhaps not have noticed the woman so much if she had been smoking a cigar, but a cigarette was the limit. He arrested Jennie and took her to the station.

When she was arraigned for trial the court said; "Who is this prisoner?"

"This person is Jennie Ward, your honor," answered Wooldredge.

"Ahem! Quite a young girl," the court observed, as he inclined the judicial head and critically regarded the prisoner.

"Quite young," Wooldredge replied, "but a 'beaut,'though; just see how she's dressed. You can hear her clothes in Europe. They're actually - disorderly, for a fact. It's really deafening, the noise they make."

"There's nothing disorderly in those accusations, and the clatter of her raiment does not substantiate your allegation that Miss Ward was not peaceful last evening," the court said, with a frown as black as a Herodic heart and as threatening as a cold tip from the weather man's map.

"But, your honor, I saw her coming down Wabash avenue Sunday smoking cigarettes like a college dude. She spotted me and doused the glim, but I pinched her."

This was surely enough to satisfy the court. He fined Jennie $1, remarking, as he entered up the assessment, "I don't know what the equal suffragists will think, but as the thing being smoked was a cigarette I guess they won't make a disturbance. Now, if it had been a pipe — but then."

The court did not muse further, and Jennie paid the tax.

Recommended reading:Victoria's Past (see section on "Issues of the Day.")
The Smoldering Fire: The slow-burning history of the anti-smoking crusade
"The Smoking Gun" by Robert Loerzel (Chicago Magazine, January, 2008)
"Lost Cause: A Portrait of Lucy Page Gaston" by Frances Warfield (1930)
Coffin Nails: The Tobacco Controversy in the 19th Century (HarpWeek)

A Cautionary Cartoon

The above cartoon appeared in the Chicago Tribune on May 2, 1886 - two days before the Haymarket Riot. Subtle...

Credit: Barnacle Press Comics 101

Gastronomica Literati: Schlogl's

Schlogl's is my favorite I-really-wish-I-could-visit-but-I-can't-because-its-not-there-anymore restaurant. I've talked a bit about the literary roundtable that it was known for, (see posts on Henry Sell),but like the Fine Arts Building, I never tire of it and am always looking for additional references.

Joy of joys, I recently found two.

The first comes from John Drury's Dining in Chicago published in 1931. (No, not that John Drury)It's full of old cocktail recipes, history, gossip,and restaurant reviews. I absolutely love it! We'll talk more about John Drury in future posts, but here is the wonderful section on my historic happy place:

SCHLOGL'S

Meet the Literary Lights!
Robert J. Casey, newspaperman, explorer, humorist and mystery-story writer, has his nose buried deep in a German apple pancake as big as an elephant's ear; Lew Sarett, poet, sturdy woodsman and Indian authority, is making short work of the Southern hash; Henry Justin Smith, managing editor of the Chicago Daily News and author of "Deadlines" and other novels of newspaper life, prefers two boiled eggs, toast and jelly; Vincent Starrett, the handsome bibliophile and essayist, obviously likes his Southern ham with corn fritters, while Howard Vincent O'Brien, literary critic and novelist, goes in for ham and eggs; but big Gene Morgan, the columnist, swears by the corned-beef hash with poached egg.

See them eating, the literary lights of Chicago. It is Saturday noon at Schlogl's. They are crowded about the big round walnut table in the right-hand corner -- talking, laughing, joking and shouting "Hey, Richard!" whenever the waiter is needed. Women are forbidden here. Therefore, male camaraderie prevails, the atmosphere is thick with smoke from many a cigar and pipe, everything is informal, diners take their time and tell stories, and the Hamburger steaks and Wiener Schnitzel are plentiful and appetizing.

Other regulars who come to the "round table" -- although, of course, not all at any one time -- include John T. Frederick, novelist and editor of The Midland magazine; Dr. Morris Fishbein, author of "Medical Follies;" S. L. Huntley, writer, epicure, and creator of the popular comic strip, "Mescal Ike;" the drama critics: Lloyd Lewis, of the Daily News; Gail Borden, of the Times; and Fritz Blocki, of the American; Charles Layng, short-story writer and globe-trotter; Phil R. Davis, lawyer, Loophound, and sometime poet; Jack Brady, "the public-editor;" Hal O'Flaherty, foreign news editor of the Chicago Daily News; Paul Leach, political writer and author of "That Man Dawes;" George Schneider, lawyer and bibliophile; Le Roy T. Goble, the advertising man and connoisseur of the arts; and the Midweek magazine group: Robert D. Andrews, editor, and two of his star contributors, Sterling North and Upton Terrell.

What the Mitre tavern in Fleet Street was to the writers of Dr. Samuel Johnson's day, Schlogl's is to the scribes of Chicago's "Newspaper Row" at the present time. Also, it is one of the oldest restaurants in town, having been founded here in 1879 by Joseph Schlogl as a combined restaurant and weinstube, or wine-room. The interior is the same as on the day it was first opened, only the ornate tin ceiling, the walls and the large oil paintings depicting monks drinking wine in old cellars have become a bit musty and smoky with age -- which is appropriate. The walnut tables, walnut panelling and walnut service bar are kept well-polished by Richard and his two assistant waiters, Charley and August.

Schlogl's had its beginnings as a literary lounge in the days when Carl Sandburg, Sherwood Anderson, Ben Hecht, Robert Herrick, Edgar Lee Masters and Maxwell Bodenheim foregathered here. Others came after them -- Bart Cormack, playwright and author of "The Racket;" J. P. McEvoy, of 'The Potters" fame; Pascal Covici, the publisher; Charles Mac Arthur, who wrote "The Front Page" with Ben Hecht; Clarence Darrow, attorney and writer; John V. A. Weaver, author of "In American;" Harry Hansen, the literary critic; John Gunther, foreign news correspondent and novelist; J. U. Nicolson, author of "The King of the Black Isles;" the drama critics, Ashton Stevens and Charles Collins; Gene Markey, man of letters and bon vivant; Robert
Morss Lovett, of the New Republic staff; James Weber Linn, columnist; Mitchell Dawson, poet and lawyer; Irwin St. John Tucker, poet and rector of Chicago's "poet's church;" Kurt M. Stein, who writes in the German-American dialect; Edward Price Bell, dean of foreign correspondents of the Chicago Daily News; Don Lawder, now of the New Yorker; Sam Putnam, literary critic; W. A. S. Douglass, contributor to the American Mercury; Junius B. Wood, the foreign correspondent; and Horace Bridges, the essayist...

...You will find the autographs of all these literary notables in what has become known as "Richard's Book" -- a copy of "Midwest Portraits," containing literary recollections of the Schlogl gang, written by Harry Hansen and presented by him to Richard Schneider, who waits on the "round table." No other restaurant in the world boasts a book like this, wherein is described the restaurant itself, and the people who eat in it, and having in its end sheets the autographs of those written about.

Naturally, the "Who's Who" of the American literary world would not come here unless the cuisine were such as to meet the approval of fastidious men of letters. This place serves food that the most cosmopolitan of epicures would revel in. The Stewed Chicken a la Schlogl can be gotten nowhere else. Millionaires who can afford sirloins and tenderloins come here for Hamburger steak, which is fried in butter and prepared as only Chef Paul Weber, who has been here for thirty years, knows how to prepare it. The steaks and chops demand more than just this mere listing of them. There is also savory Wiener Schnitzel and Hasenpfeflfer, roast young duck, and bouillabaisse. Too, the Schlogl pancake is deserving of a chapter to itself.

When accompanied by a lady, you eat upstairs in an old dining room, where the ceiling is cracked, the wall-paper is beginning to peel in places and warmth in winter is provided by an old coal stove. All is atmospheric and thrillingly ancient -- except George Kling, who has a youthful alertness in seeing to the culinary needs of the distinguished ladies and gentlemen at his tables.

You haven't dined in Chicago unless you've eaten at least once in this historic restaurant. If you're in any way literary, you are probably on your way over there by now.

Schlog's German-American
37 North Wells Street
Open for luncheon and dinner (closed on Sunday)
A la carte only -- and expensive, but worth it
Maitre d'hotel: Richard Schneider

The second reference to Schlogl's (a picture, actually) comes from an article by Robert Schmuhl, titled "History, Fantasy, Memory: Ben Hencht and a Chicago Hanging," that appeared in the Illinois Historical Journal, Autumn, 1990. This is the first time I have seen a picture taken at Schlogl's.



Postscript:


37 North Wells Street is now the location of the Tokyo Lunch Box and Catering.

Say it ain't so, Joe!

Hizonnah Number One: William Butler Ogden and Opportunity

William B. Ogden, who was elected Chicago's first Mayor, in 1837, was born in Delaware County, New York, June 15, 1805. Just after the Revolutionary War, his father settled in what was then known as the Upper Delaware country, and opened a new home in the wilderness. In the home thus formed, Chicago's first Mayor was born, and in the wilderness he spent his early boyhood. He chose the profession of law, and, while pursuing an academic course with that end in view, he was called home on account of the death of his father. His father left considerable property, and its management was left to this son.

In 1834, Mr. Ogden took a warm interest in the project of constructing the Erie Railroad, and was chosen a member of the New York Legislature to advocate that measure. In June, 1835, he located in Chicago, and having previously purchased real estate here, he entered upon the management of his property. In 1835 and 1836, his operations in real estate were very extensive, as he early saw that Chicago was destined to become a great city. He weathered the financial crash of 1837, and when the city was incorporated he was elected Mayor...

Mr. Ogden made the following reply at one time to a lady who, having been born rich became suddenly poor and desired to know how her children might possibly get along in the world:

"I was born close by a saw-mill, was early left an orphan, was cradled in a sugar-trough, christened in a mill-pond, graduated at a log school-house, and, at fourteen, fancied I could do anything I turned my hand to, and that nothing was impossible, and ever since, madam, I have been trying to prove it, and with some success."

(From: Political History of Chicago: (covering the Period from 1837 to 1887) by M. L. Ahern, 1886)

I love old books. They can really give you a strong "feel" for the historical period in which they are written. One might also think that the closer an author is, time wise, to a topic the more accurate his writing. That is not always the case. And, the above quote contains a good example:

"In June, 1835, he located in Chicago, and having previously purchased real estate here, he entered upon the management of his property."

William B. Ogden was the brother-in-law of Charles Butler (Butler married Ogden's sister, Eliza). In 1833 Butler traveled to Chicago and, like just about everyone else, became interested in real estate. He bought some land and then returned to his home in New York. (see Charles Butler, excerpts from diary entries, Aug. 3, and 4 1833)

In 1835 Ogden did indeed arrive in Chicago, but at the request of Butler, to inspect and oversee Butler's property. Butler had purchased land for approximately $100,000 but when Ogden went to inspect it, he was horrified to find himself knee-deep in mud and sinking fast in a wild field. "[You have] been guilty of an act of great folly in making [this] purchase," he wrote to Butler. (qtd. Chicago: City of the Century by Donald L. Miller, p. 70)

But Ogden did the job for which he was sent. He hired some men to drain the land and clear it. When he sold the land at auction he recouped the $100,000 - on a third of the property. Ogden thought these westerners were insane, but he also knew a good opportunity when he saw it. Ogden briefly returned to New York, but in the summer of 1836 he moved to Chicago. He made a great deal of money and served as Chicago's first mayor, 1837-1838, defeating John H. Kinzie.


Recommended reading:For more on the life and accomplishments of William B. Ogden, see the link set to the right.
Mayors (Encyclopedia of Chicago)
Charles Butler Obituary, New York Times, December 14, 1897
The Ogden family in America, Elizabethtown branch, and their English ancestry; John Ogden, the Pilgrim, and his descendants, 1640-1906 (1907)[Great source of information on both Ogden and Butler]

On Chicago

"It is the most perfect presentation of nineteenth-century individualistic industrialism I have ever seen. Chicago is one hoarse cry for discipline."
--H. G. Wells(1866-1946)

(From: The Future in America: A Search after Realities, 1906) Chapter IV, "Growth Invincible: The Tail [spelling is correct] of Chicago"

Friday is Chicago quote day at "Chicago History," and I think the Wells quote about the city is a good one. But, I think his observations of the city at the turn of the century are even better. I have decided to lengthen the quote...a lot.

The following selection is a good example of a primary source on Chicago history. As indicated, the statement is from Future in America. An excerpt of the article is also found in "AN ENGLISH SOCIALIST'S REFLECTIONS, 1906" From: The Development of Chicago, 1674-1914 By Milo Milton Quaife, 1916. I encourage you to explore both books.

In smoky, vast, undisciplined Chicago Growth forced itself upon me again as the dominant American fact, but this time a dark disorder of growth. I went about Chicago seeing many things of which I may say something later. I visited the top of the Masonic Building and viewed a wilderness of skyscrapers. I acquired a felt of memories of swing bridges and viaducts and interlacing railways and jostling crowds and extraordinarily dirty streets. I learnt something of the mystery of "floating foundations" upon which so much of Chicago rests. But I got my best vision of Chicago as I left it.

I sat in the open observation car at the end of the Pennsylvania Limited Express, and watched the long defile of industrialism from the Union Station in the heart of things to out beyond South Chicago a dozen miles away. I had not gone to the bloody spectacle of the stockyards that "feed the world," because, to be frank, I have an immense repugnance to the killing of fixed and helpless animals; I saw nothing of those ill-managed, ill-inspected establishments, though I smelt the unwholesome reek from them ever and again, and so it was here I saw for the first time the enormous expanse and intricacy of railroads that net this great industrial desolation, and something of the going and coming of the myriads of polyglot workers. Chicago burns bituminous coal, it has a reek that outdoes London, and right and left of the line rise vast chimneys, huge blackened grain elevators, flame-crowned furnaces and gauntly ugly and filthy factory buildings, monstrous mounds of refuse, desolate, empty lots littered with rusty cans, old iron, and indescribable rubbish. Interspersed with these are groups of dirty, disreputable, insanitary-looking wooden houses.

We swept along the many-railed track, and the straws and scraps of paper danced in our eddy as we passed. We overtook local trains and they receded slowly in the great perspective, huge freight trains met us or were overtaken; long trains of doomed cattle passed northward; solitary engines went by—every engine tolling a melancholy bell; open trucks crowded with workmen went cityward. By the side of the track, and over the level crossings, walked great numbers of people. So it goes on mile after mile—Chicago. The sun was now bright, now pallid through some streaming curtain of smoke; the spring afternoon was lit here and again by the gallant struggle of some stunted tree with a rare and startling note of new green.

It was like a prolonged, enlarged mingling of the south side of London with all that is bleak and ugly in the Black Country. It is the most perfect presentation of nineteenth century individualistic industrialism I have ever seen—in its vast, its magnificent squalor; it is pure nineteenth century; it had no past at all before that; in 1800 it was empty prairie, and one marvels for its future. It is indeed a nineteenth century nightmare that culminates beyond South Chicago in the monstrous fungoid shapes, the endless smoking chimneys, the squat retorts, the black smoke pall of the Standard Oil Company. For a time the sun is veiled altogether by that.

And then suddenly Chicago is a dark smear under the sky, and we are in the large emptiness of America, the other America—America in between.


"Undisciplined"—that is the word for Chicago. It is the word for all the progress of the Victorian time, a scrambling, ill-mannered, undignified, unintelligent development of material resources. Packing- town, for example, is a place that feeds the world with meat, that concentrates the produce of a splendid countryside at a position of imperial advantage, and its owners have no more sense, no better moral quality, than to make it stink in the nostrils of any one who comes within two miles of it; to make it a center of distribution for disease and decay, an arena of shabby evasions and extra profits; a scene of brutal economic conflict and squalid filthiness, offensive to every sense. (I wish I could catch the soul of Herbert Spencer and tether it in Chicago for awhile to gather fresh evidence upon the superiority of unfettered individualistic enterprises to things managed by the state.)

Want of discipline! Chicago is one hoarse cry for discipline! The reek and scandal of the stockyards is really only a gigantic form of that same quality in American life that, in a minor aspect, makes the sidewalk filthy. The key to the peculiar nasty ugliness of those Schoellkopf works that defile the Niagara gorge is the sarqe quality. The detestableness of the Elevated railroads of Chicago and Boston and New York have this in common. All that is ugly in America, in Lancashire, in South and East London, in the Pas de Calais, is due to this, to the shoving unintelligent proceedings of underbred and morally obtuse men. Each man is for himself, each enterprise; there is no order, no prevision, no common and universal plan. Modern economic organization is still as yet only thinking of emerging from its first chaotic stage, the stage of lawless enterprise and insanitary aggregation, the stage of the prospector's camp.

But it does emerge.

Men are makers—American men, I think, more than most men— and amidst even the catastrophic jumble of Chicago one finds the same creative forces at work that are struggling to replan a greater Boston, and that turned a waste of dumps and swamps and cabbage gardens into Central Park, New York. Chicago also has its Parks Commission and its green avenues, its bright flower-gardens, its lakes and playing- fields. Its Midway Plaisance is in amazing contrast with the dirt, the congestion, the moral disorder of its State Street; its field houses do visible battle with slum and the frantic meanness of commercial folly. Field houses are peculiar to Chicago, and Chicago has every reason to be proud of them. I visited one that is positively within smell of the stockyards and wedged into a district of gaunt and dirty slums. It stands in the midst of a little park, and close by it are three playing- grounds with swings and parallel bars and all manner of athletic appliances, one for little children, one for girls and women, and one for boys and youths. In the children's place is a paddling-pond of clear, clean, running water and a shaded area of frequently changed sand, and in the park was a broad asphalted arena that can be flooded for skating in winter. All this is free to all comers, and free too is the field house itself. This is a large, cool Italianate place with two or three reading rooms—one specially arranged for children—a big discussion hall, a big and well-equipped gymnasium, and big, free baths for men and for women. There is also a clean, bright refreshment place where wholesome food is sold just above cost price. It was early on Friday afternoon when I saw it all, but the place was busy with children, reading, bathing, playing in a hundred different ways.

And this field house is not an isolated philanthropic enterprise. It is just one of a number that are dotted about Chicago, mitigating and civilizing its squalor. It was not distilled by begging and charity from the stench of the stockyards or the reek of Standard Oil. It is part of the normal work of a special taxing body created by the legislature of the State of Illinois. It is just one of the fruits upon one of the growths that spring from such persistent creative efforts as that of the Chicago City Club. It is socialism—even as its enemies declare.

Even amidst the somber uncleanliness of Chicago one sees the light of a new epoch, the coming of new conceptions, of foresight, of large collective plans and discipline to achieve them, the fresh green leaves, among all the festering manure, of the giant growths of a more orderly and more beautiful age.

Prophetic words from Wells. Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago would be proposed in 1909.

Photo credit: Stockyard, Library of Congress

Nothing New Under the Sun

Everyone is writing about Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich these last few days, and it is putting Chicago history front and center on the nation's political stage. Ah, corruption; thy name is Chicago.

John Aloysius Farrell, a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and writer on the Thomas Jefferson Street Blog, recalls a City Council scam of the 1890s that involved Clarence Darrow and the sale of public-utility franchises: "Blagojevich Calls to Mind Clarence Darrow and Chicago Corruption."

Farrell notes in the article that he is writing a new biography of Darrow. Darrow, who arrived in the city in 1887, is undeniably linked to Chicago's history. Haymarket, the Pullman Strike, the Eastland Disaster and the Leopold and Loeb murder trial are all prominent on Darrow's resume. I'll be watching for the book's release. In the mean time, I've posted several links on Clarence Darrow in the column to the right.

Photo credit: "Clarence Darrow by Don Wootton (1926)" Spartacus Educational

Money Better Spent: McCutcheon on the Cost of War

Any of this sound familiar?


(Please click on for a larger image.)

John T. McCutcheon, August 14, 1921, Chicago Tribune

The Life and Times of Florence Kelley in Chicago, 1891-1899: New Website From NU School of Law

Tenement house manufacture is rapidly spreading in Chicago and entering a large variety of industries. Wherever the system enters, the trade becomes a sweated trade, carried on in the worst and most unwholesome premises, because it falls into the hands of the very poor.

Shops over sheds or stables, in basements or on upper floors of tenement houses, are not fit working places for men, women and children. Most of the places designated in this report as basements are low-ceiled, ill-lighted, unventilated rooms, below the street level; damp and cold in winter, hot and close in summer; foul at all times by reason of adjacent vaults or defective sewer connections. The term cellar would more accurately describe these shops. Their dampness entails rheumatism and their darkness injures the sight of the people who work in them. They never afford proper accommodations for the pressers, the fumes of whose gasoline stoves and charcoal heaters mingle with the mouldy smell of the walls and the stuffiness always found where a number of the very poor are crowded together.
Florence Kelley, Factory Inspectors of Illinois Report (1895)

The Northwestern University School of Law (who gave us the amazing Homicide in Chicago, 1870-1930 site) has announced the launch of The Life and Times of Florence Kelley in Chicago, 1891-1899, a 25,000-plus document page interactive website dedicated to one of Chicago's most important social reformers at the turn of the 20th century. Kelley earned her law degree from Northwestern University in 1895.

Florence Kelley (1859-1932) was a social reformer and political activist who championed government regulation to protect working women and children.

Kelley was born into a Pennsylvania Quaker family (the daughter of Congressman William Darrah Kelley) that had strong beliefs on women's rights and abolition. After graduating from Cornell University in 1882, Kelley left the United States to study law and government at the University of Zurich.

In 1884, now living in New York City, Kelley married Lazare Wischnewetzky, a socialist Russian medical student. They had three children, but the marriage didn't last and the couple divorced. Kelley, along with her children, moved to Chicago in 1891 where she joined Jane Addams, at Hull House along with other social reformers such as Mary McDowell (the "Angel of the Stockyard") and Edith Abbott.

On a snowy morning between Christmas 1891 and New Year's 1892, I arrived at Hull House, Chicago, a little before breakfast time, and found there Henry Standing Bear a Kickapoo Indian, waiting for the front door to be opened. It was Miss Addams who opened it, holding on her her left arm a singularly unattractive, fat, pudgy baby belonging to the cook. (Florence Kelley, Autobiography, 1927)

Kelley's work in Chicago is the focus of the new site. According to Leigh Buchanan Bienen, senior lecturer at Northwestern University School of Law, "Kelley’s work in Chicago had not received the attention it deserves."

The documents include Kelley’s “Hull House Maps and Papers,” published in 1895. The maps of Chicago streets near Hull House are based on Kelley’s leadership in “A Special Investigation of the Slums of Great Cities,” a nationwide economic study that was commissioned by the U.S. Congress to assess the extent of poverty in urban areas.

Leading the effort in Chicago during the spring of 1893, Kelley and other Hull House workers administered an extensive survey to every house, tenement and room in the district surrounding Hull House. Later the information was used to create the maps, which are color-coded according to nationality, wages and employment history of each resident. The data collected were published in the national economic study published by the United States Bureau of Labor.

The Kelley Web site also includes dozens of books and data sources that can be searched with the unprecedented ease and speed of today’s technology.

Photo Credit: A section of the Hull House Wage Map of Chicago: Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science
A link set has been added for further reading on Florence Kelley.

Out of the FLW Shadow: The Work of John S. Van Bergen, Architect

In 1909, young John S. Van Bergen went to work for Frank Lloyd Wright in his Oak Park Studio and little has been written about him since. Van Bergen, along with Wright's secretary Isabel Roberts, were given the task of closing up the studio when Wright left for Europe with Mamah Cheney. Van Bergen supervised the Robie House and the Thomas Gale House for Wright and designed homes reflecting the Prairie School architectural style in Oak Park and River Forest in Illinois. But the deep shadow of FLW combined with a devastating fire in Van Bergen's California home, have left the architect in relative obscurity.

Oak Park resident Martin Hackl wants to change all that. The Work of John S. Van Bergen, Architect is the amazing website companion to Hackl's 218-page biography and catalog of the architect's work first published in 2001.

At the beginning of this project, I had almost no idea about who John Van Bergen was, except what I read in the scant material available. As I saw and learned more, I found out that most of what was written about Van Bergen was inaccurate or incomplete. Nothing written gave nearly the full credit that he deserves. What one reads about Van Bergen is almost always in the context of, or in direct comparison to, Frank Lloyd Wright. Some have gone so far as to claim that all Van Bergen's work up to World War I was as an apprentice to Wright and that these buildings are actually by Wright. Utter nonsense! Elsewhere, Van Bergen is described as an architect who spent his life as an apprentice, a follower, a student, or a crude imitator of Frank Lloyd Wright.

However, I noticed that the few of his early buildings that I saw looked somewhat different than those by Wright. Of course Wright's strong influence was there, but these "Van Bergens" had something different than "Wrights". They had a subtly different character. They seemed to me to merit further study and yet, no one else had done that. I wondered why.

Unfamiar with Van Bergen's work? Here's a sample located at 436 N. Elmwood Avenue in Oak Park. The home is known as the Flori Blondeel House #3 and was built in 1914. It is also Martin Hackl's former home.

More on John S. Van Bergen and his work can be found at:
PrairieMod

Credits:
Photos and quotes courtesy of Martin Hackl

Follow the Internet Road Followup

I've been inspired to write a rare weekend post. Reader Harry Heuser's comment on the Follow the Internet Road post encouraged me to, (cough), follow my own advice:

"Oboler was a proud Chicagoan (as evidenced by "My Chicago"). In a 1951 article titled "Windy Kilocycles," he went so far as to claim that radio drama "began at midnight, in the middle thirties, on one of the upper floors of Chicago's Merchandise Mart," its "pappy" being Wyllis Cooper. The man sure knew how to re-write history."

Harry writes the blog Broadcastellan: Keeping up with the out of date, and being a big fan of old radio shows (a hold-over from my days [1985-1993] as Managing Editor of Filmfax), I thought I would check out the referred to article and episode and pass it on. This is really pushing the envelope of the scope of "Chicago History" - I try to stay pre-1930 as much as I can - but, still...

The Arch Oboler article, titled "Windy Kilocycles," can be found here. You can listen to Oboler's play, "My Chicago," at Arch Oboler's Plays "2 Episodes" (07-26-45) and (10-04-45).

Visiting Rich Samuel's website, Broadcasting in Chicago: 1921-1989, really brought back some memories: Kukla, Fran and Ollie, Super Circus (I had a Mary Hartline doll!)and Ding Dong School were an important part of my early childhood. I think I'm going to get "misty" here...

Anyway... thanks, Harry, for prompting me to travel down what has turned out to be a very nostalgic "Internet road."

On Chicago

"The legend has it that a small flame, in shanty town, destroyed the Garden City in two awful nights and days. The high winds did their carrier's work. The Garden City vanished. With it vanished the living story, it had told in pride, of how it came to be. Another story now began - the story of a proud people and their power to create - a people whose motto was "I will" - whose dream was commercial empire. They undertook to do what they willed and what they dreamed."

Louis Sullivan
Autobiography of an Idea



Louis Sullivan: The Struggle for American Architecture (Official Whitecap Films site)

Recommended reading:
Culture and democracy;: The struggle for form in society and architecture in Chicago and the Middle West during the life and times of Louis H. Sullivan by Hugh Dalziel Duncan. (I just purchased a copy of this book. Looks good.)

Follow the Internet Road

Google Images has a HUGE set of Chicago pictures from Life Magazine posted. (Hat tip to Weird Chicago) An initial "Chicago" search, which will bring up images from everywhere, has 146,000,000 shots, so you have to whittle it down a bit. Type in "H. H. Holmes," for example (always a Chicago crowd pleaser)and we're down to 161,000. Not all of them are great, but each picture is linked to a website and some interesting things pop up. I clicked on a Holmes picture that was from a 1943 Harper's Magazine article. A little "update" box on the right linked to a "Light's Out" radio program of August 3, 1943 titled, "Murder Castle." The Arch Obler episode, who took over the series from Wyllis Cooper in 1936, was based on the Holmes case. Isn't this fun!!!!? And, yes; Obler (1909-1987) was a Chicagoan as was Cooper.

Follow the links, my friends. You never know what little gems you will find.

Some Things Don't Change

Clare Briggs cartoon that appeared in the Chicago Tribune, December 23, 1922.



(Note to Readers: Consider this a "Wordless Wednesday" post. I'm sick. See ya tomorrow...)

Readin' Da Funny Papers: Clare Briggs

While I was working on my Thanksgiving post, I stumbled on the following 1908 cartoon from the Chicago Tribune and became curious about the artist: (click on for larger image)



(More early Thanksgiving related comics can be found on the Barnacle Press website.)


"Danny Dreamer" was drawn by Clare Briggs (1875-1930), who had gained notoriety for his Chicago American daily comic strip, (beginning in 1903) "A. Piker Clerk." Mr. Clerk was a gambler and everyday he would bet on a Chicago horserace. The next day's cartoon would reveal whether he had won or lost based on the actual horse racing results. The strip was short-lived and was cancelled in 1904 due to complaints that it promoted gambling. But, Briggs gained real national fame for his Chicago Tribune comic strips that appeared in the paper from 1907 to 1914. (Briggs lived in Chicago for 17 years before he returned to New York. His later work was syndicated.)


In addition to "Danny Dreamer," Briggs drew:
Ain't It a Grand and Glorious Feeling?
The Days of Real Sport
Movie of a Man
Someone's Always Taking the Joy Out of Life
There's at Least One in Every Office
Real Folks at Home
When a Feller Needs a Friend
Mr. and Mrs.

Recommended reading:
Various cartoons penned by Clare Briggs are available on the Barnacle Press website. In addition, check out the Sundays Chicago Tribune comic page samples from 1914-1915.

Clare Briggs Photo Gallery (Really great!)

Clare Briggs

Clare Briggs bio from Drawgerpdia

"Oh Skin-nay, c'mon over! Smooch is gittin' a hair cut." (Post on The Fate of the Artist blog.

Newspaper Cartoon Artists, 1898-1909: See the links at the bottom of the page for Lothar Meggendorfer, Karl Pommerhanz and Victor Schramm, three German artists whose work also appeared in the Chicago Tribune at the turn of the century.