USA > Illinois > Cook County > Growth of Cook County; a history of the large lake-shore county that includes Chicago, Vol. I > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21
9773 J63g v. 1
Growth of Cook County Vol. I
By
Charles B. Johnson
Published By BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF COOK COUNTY, ILL.
LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
977.31 J63 v. |
ILL. HIST. SURVEY
This copy of Growth of Cook County, Volume I, is a gift to your library from the Board of Commissioners of Cook County.
Additional copies of Volume I can be ob- tained at the office of Board of Commissioners, Room 537, County Building, Chicago 2, Ill- inois. Price is $4.50 per copy, or $4.75, post- paid. Make checks payable to Treasurer of Cook County.
Because the writing of this history is done during the spare time of the author, Volume II cannot be expected for some time.
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
http://archive.org/details/growthofcookcoun00john
Sprin
BARRINGTON
PALATINE
WHEELING
NORTHFIELD
D
TRIER
K
E
EVANSTON
M
1
NE
NILES
ROGERS PARK
NORWOOD
3
PARK
LAKE
LEYD E
2
JEFFERSON
VIEW
-
ORTH
C
RIVER
GROVE OAK
PARK
EST
I
PROVIS
0
BER- WYN
CICERO
-
5
OUT H
Soll
G
LYON
S
STICKNEY
HYDE
PARK
Celumel
P
ALOS
W
0
R
H
Channel
ORLAND
BREMEN
THOR N
N
KEY
TOWNSHIP LINES
CITY OF CHICAGO
RICH -
BLOOM O
C.C. H
....
LEMONT
....
7
NEW
HANOVER
SCHAUMBURG
ELK GROVE
COUNTY OF COOK SHOWING CITY OF CHICAGO AND TOWNSHIP LIMITS
LAKE
CALUMET
Columel
Growth of Cook County Vol. I
By
Charles B. Johnson
c
H
0
SEA
OOK
MARCH
1031
LINOIS
A HISTORY OF THE LARGE LAKE-SHORE COUNTY THAT INCLUDES CHICAGO
COPYRIGHT 1960 BY CHARLES B. JOHNSON ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF COOK COUNTY, ILL.
PRINTED BY NORTHWESTERN PRINTING HOUSE, CHICAGO
AND 572
777.31 J 63 g V. I Y
I'll Hist Surv.
Preface and Acknowledgments
"History will record."
All of us have heard or read this trite statement many times. Yet it may or may not come true. Someone must do the record- ing, and if too much time elapses between recordings, many interesting and significant facts will be lost forever.
Spectacular happenings, such as wars, flights into space, great disasters, and revolutionary medical discoveries are cer- tain to be recorded in detail, which is proper.
But lesser things that happen to us in our daily lives and in our local governing units often go unrecorded, or are re- corded so piecemeal as to be practically worthless.
Are such things too trivial to bother with? Some are, and can be ignored. But on the other hand, life, for most of us, is made up of a series of little things, all of which are important to us. Upon the welfare of the individual depends the strength of a nation.
Surely, then, the more significant points of history at local levels should be recorded in comprehendible form, giving us an insight to the factors that have had much to do with making
iv
elund
09 4798
us what we are. Understanding this environmental background, we, as individuals, and as a community, should be more able to intelligently chart our futures.
Those to whom we are indebted for making possible this history are, first of all, our employers-the members of the Board of Commissioners of Cook County, Illinois. They have directed that we, as public relations director and historian for Cook county, devote our spare time to writing the county's history. These board members are:
DANIEL RYAN, President
JAMES F. ASHENDEN
WILLIAM N. ERICKSON
FRANK BOBRYTZKE
FRED A. FULLE
CHARLES F. CHAPLIN
CHRIST A. JENSEN
ELIZABETH A. CONKEY
JOHN MACKLER, JR.
JERRY DOLEZAL
CLAYTON F. SMITH
JOHN J. DUFFY
EDWARD M. SNEED
ARTHUR X. ELROD*
JOHN J. TOUHY
* (Elrod died July 22, 1959 and his place on the board had not been filled when this book went to press.)
There naturally are hundreds of others to whom we owe thanks for many helps, both large and small. Many of these kind people are mentioned in the text. Our apologies to those helpers we have failed to name.
If there is any one person to whom we owe thanks more than to another, however, it would be Betty Baughman, refer- ence librarian for the Chicago Historical Society, of which Paul M. Angle is director.
Miss Baughman, sensing a researcher's slightest wonderment, will produce pertinent information from obscure recesses within her domain. She even will admit one to the almost sacred "well" where the researcher is permitted to handle century-old newspapers that are so fragile they sometimes fall apart at a mere touch.
Miss Baughman's helpfulness goes even beyond this, how- ever. When the writer is discouraged and wonders why he ever agreed to start such a monumental project, she is ready with encouragement, saying:
"But this needs to be done. You just can't drop it. If there is anything we can do to help you, please tell us."
Joe Benson, Municipal Reference Librarian in the City Hall, has said virtually the same thing, and he, too, has spent much time in helping further the project.
To Joe's assistants, including Helen Berwanger, Dick Collins, Dick Wolfert, Celia Turnoy and Smart Strong, we also are deeply indebted. The same also holds true for Miss Margaret Scriven and Mrs. Elaine Sawyer, librarians; Mrs. Paul Rhymer, curator of prints; Grant Dean, library cataloger, and Walter Krutz, photographer, all of the Chicago Historical Society. We are grateful, also, to the staffs of the John Crerar and Chicago Public libraries.
Photographers, besides Krutz, who have lent valuable assist- ance include Elmer J. Majewski, head of the Cook county highway photographic department and his able assistant, George R. Bostick; Bob Murphy, Saverio Salerno and the late Harry Sawyer. Bill O'Malley, publicist for the Cook County Forest Preserve District has produced from his files some of the county pictures we have used.
To the Chicago daily newspapers-Tribune, News, Ameri- can, and Sun-Times-we are deeply indebted for making avail- able to us their vast news files.
A few of our many other helpers have been County Auditor Lee J. Howard and his top assistants, Ernest C. Marohn, Roland Erickson, Joseph Horkavy, Cornelius Buckley and the late John W. Koch; Albert J. Neely, director of the child welfare division of the county welfare department; William J. Morti- mer, superintendent of the county's highway department, and his able assistants, Andrew V. Plummer, James F. Kelly, Hugo
vi
Stark, John Skuba and John J. "Bud" McCleverty. Edwin A. Beck, head of the county highway map department, and Clar- ence "Cub" Higgins, map maker and artist, not only have designed and drawn the Chicago fire map reproduced in this volume, but have contributed in a score of other ways in helping with illustrations.
Assisting in re-typing, proof reading, and contributing valu- able suggestions have been Maude McDonald, Mary Schlemm, Helen Gleason and Daphne "Dee" Benos.
Aiding in other ways have been John J. Altman, chief deputy county clerk; A. L. Hornick, William G. Donne, LaSalle DeMichaels, Mrs. Claire Page, Thomas J. McGovern of the assessor's office, John M. Szymanski, Dr. Ben L. Boynton, Dorothy A. Boland, county purchasing agent; Andy Petersen, assistant purchasing agent; Andrew G. Reynolds, county "store- keeper;" Attorneys Edward G. Bicek and Maurice H. Spira, Dr. Warren Johnson, assistant warden at County hospital; and State Representative Joseph L. Lelivelt of Cook county's fifth district.
Still others are Assistant Corporation Counsel Brendan Q. O'Brien of the City of Chicago; Assistant State's Attorneys Roman R. Stachnik and Martin G. Luken, Jr., John Crane of the county clerk's office, Adelaide Koch, Victoria Hurt, Eva Warren, Anne Keren, Robert Mathie, John Kane, Edwin Con- nelly, Charles McMullen, Charles Perlongo, William Brilliant. Bernard Anderson, Edward Eulenberg, John Drexler, John Callaway, Don Bresnahan, Lawrence Kiske, assistant vice presi- dent of the Chicago Title and Trust Company; Glenn Quasius, Dudley and Desolee Yeiser, Peter Blue, William Bromage, William H. Kling, Dr. A. John Brinkman, Ray Bingenheimer, and the late Claude A. Noble.
Encouragement also has come from our daughters, Elaine and Rosalie, and from our son, James Byron "Jimmy," who proudly have proclaimed to friends that their dad was writing
vii
the history of Cook county, thereby compelling their father to finish a task once started.
Lastly, we are deeply indebted to the tolerances of our beloved wife, May, who has seen many a dinner grow cold while we stayed downtown to work on this history.
In compiling this history, we have enjoyed a free rein in both selection of materials and expression. That we have given our employers, the members of the county board, and par- ticularly President Dan Ryan and Past Presidents William N. Erickson and Clayton F. Smith a favorable portrayal is because they are richly deserving.
As spare time, tenure of office, personal pride, and health avail, we shall do the second and final volume of this history. It should include such major subjects as highways and trans- portation, public welfare, juvenile home, jails, forest preserves, and, to a certain degree, schools. Also included should be biographical sketches of outstanding figures on the county board, both past and present, and a recount of some of the historic meetings of the board itself.
Charley Johnson
CHARLES B. JOHNSON
viii
What Others Think
The author of GROWTH OF COOK COUNTY, Volume I, appreciates the following letters received from two outstanding citizens, each an authority in his own field. Each studied a copy of the manuscript.
The gentlemen are Paul M. Angle, director of the Chicago Historical Society, himself a renowned historian, and Joe Ben- son, Chicago Municipal Reference Librarian whose library in City Hall is flooded with requests for information on Cook county history.
Dear Mr. Johnson:
I have just now completed the reading of your manuscript, "Growth of Cook County," Volume I.
I compliment you on an excellent job. I know better than most people, the need for a book which will supplement and bring up to date the existing historical record of Cook County, and it seems to me that within the limits you have set yourself in your first volume, you have met that requirement admirably. I like particularly your accounts of Cook County's courthouses, the Cook County Hospital, and the Oak Forest Hospital. I assure you that these institutional histories, when printed, will be consulted by readers long after you and I have gone to our respective rewards-or punishments.
I believe that this volume, and the one which I hope will follow it, have far more value than appears at first glance. The average Chicagoan tends to think of local government in terms of the city, and perhaps, the park district. He has no real comprehension of the governmental functions which the county performs. Any work which tends to bring these functions to his attention will serve an extremely useful purpose.
ix
I note your generous acknowledgment of obligation to the Chicago Historical Society. It is most gratifying to know that the Society has been able to make an effective contribution to a work which will certainly endure for many years.
Pane m. angle
PAUL M. ANGLE Chicago Historical Society
Dear Mr. Johnson:
Your first volume on Cook county indeed makes a welcome addition to the limited amount of county literature that has been available to us. It will be read with interest and pleasure by the general reader of local history and will be of very real value to teachers and librarians as a source for the study of Cook county. Most schools now include as a part of their cur- riculum a project intended to inform students of their local historical traditions. No school in the area now can afford to be without copies of your book.
The officials and residents of Cook county owe a considerable debt of gratitude to you for recording their history in so read- able a volume. May I add that the staff of the Municipal Refer- ence Library are particularly grateful that you have produced a book that will be so very helpful. We must admit that the benefit of assistance we were able to give you will be more than returned to us as we use your very excellent book.
Sincerely yours,
Joe Benson
JOE BENSON Municipal Reference Library
x
x1
Contents
Chapter 1: A STATE WITHIN A COUNTY 1
Chapter 2: DE SABLE WAS HERE 18
Chapter 3: HOW COOK COUNTY GOT ITS NAME 42
Chapter 4: COUNTY GOVERNMENT TAKES SHAPE 58
·
Chapter 5: CHE-CAU-GOU, MEANING "GREAT" . 72
Chapter 6: EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT 91
Chapter 7: COOK COUNTY'S COURTHOUSES 112
Chapter 8: A CHICAGO FIRE AFTERMATH . 131
Chapter 9: WORLD'S LARGEST HOSPITAL
163
Chapter 10: OAK FOREST HOSPITAL .
252
xii
GROWTH OF COOK COUNTY
CHAPTER 1
A STATE WITHIN A COUNTY
T HIS is not a story to try to impress upon others the national and world importance of the county of Cook which has a popu- lation that all but staggers imagination.
(Cook county, which includes Chicago, had a 1950 census of 4,508,792. Some have estimated this may be increased nearly a million by 1960. The county's population is greater than that of all the rest of the state of Illinois combined; it is greater than that of any one of 40 states in the United States, and greater than that of any one of 32 nations among the members of the United Nations.)
This importance has been recognized since this county, on the south-west shore of Lake Michigan, started bursting at its seams a hundred years ago. Cook county forever is outgrowing its clothing and it expects never to stop.
Rather than dwell further upon this largeness, let us attempt to assemble in handy form the most significant highlights of Cook county's romantic and vigorous growth, starting with the time when the area was as yet undiscovered by civilized man and was inhabited only by tribes of wild Indians that
warred among themselves.
Here shall be included the notable achievements of the Cook county government, itself, the importance of which almost invariably is overlooked by writers who chronicle only the affairs of the city of Chicago.
Written more as a reference work than as a "best seller," we are not dramatizing the degraded doings of notorious crim- inals and other characters whose shadows, tho only temporary, cast palls over an ever-advancing, healthy community that is typically American.
Chicago and its 116 robust, incorporated suburbs which comprise a major portion of Cook county did not just happen to be where they are and what they are. There were overpower- ing, natural reasons for their location and growth. These we shall develop as we go along.
As we begin this account, the New World had just been discovered, with North America a treasure vault waiting to be unlocked. That civilized man could gain access to the great interior of the continent even before its outer areas could be fully explored was due to the presence of the mighty St. Law- rence river and the five Great Lakes that nurture this natural waterway.
Jacques Cartier had discovered the St. Lawrence for the French in 1535, but no further exploratory efforts had been made until early in the 1600s. Then came Samuel de Cham- plain who established a New France in Quebec.
As we enter the era of exploration that had a direct bearing upon the location of Chicago and Cook county we find that Champlain and his men already had pushed their explorations into the Great Lakes. They even had touched upon a few of the shores, but they did not know all of the shore lines and knew nothing first-hand of what surrounded and lay beyond these great inland seas.
2
The French wished to establish stronger claims and holds upon this vast interior country. Not only were they growing apprehensive of the awakening English, but they wanted fur- ther to tap the new country's rich resources of fur and potential minerals, and they harbored the undying hope that somewhere thru this vast domain of unchartered lakes and rivers could be found a "northwest passage" leading to the "China Sea."
The selfless Catholic missionaries, whose work was entwined with that of government, likewise wished to invade this wilder- ness to spread Christianity among the savages, even tho it often was to mean extreme hardships and, sometimes, martyrdom.
Also, the stout young ranger, Etienne Brule, had reported in about 1615 to his superior and teacher, Champlain, that the Indians of the Great Lakes knew of a water route to Florida.1 This, then, was the shadow cast by forthcoming events-those that in time were to lead to the establishment of Chicago and Cook County.
Here we must touch briefly upon certain French exploits that had a direct bearing upon the "back door" discovery of the site of Chicago.
In 1634 Champlain, in Quebec, sent Jean Nicollet to find the "great sea to the west." Nicollet's perilous journey by canoe took him and his party across Lake Huron and thru the Straits of "Michilimackinac" (Mackinac) into Lake Michi- gan, thence down along the northwest shore of that lake to Green Bay where they made friends with the Winnebago Indians.
Nicollet was disappointed that these savages were not of the yellow race who might tell him something of the China Sea which he believed to be nearby. But he did explore their country, traveling up thru Lake Winnebago and on up the Fox river to its source near the present site of Portage, Wis-
1. The Great Lakes, Hatcher, Oxford Press, 1944, p. 93.
3
consin. At that point he was only a mile or so from the Ouisconsin (Wisconsin) river that drains southwesterly into the Mississippi.
Although the Indians at Portage told him of the nearness to a "great water," apparently meaning the Wisconsin and Mississippi waterway that leads to the gulf, Nicollet possibly misunderstood their meaning. At least, he did not bother to go farther to find out. Instead, he turned back and eventually reported that by traveling only "three more days" he could have reached the "Eastern Sea"-his term for the Pacific ocean.1
Thus Nicollet barely missed discovering the upper Missis- sippi waterway that would lead, not to the China Sea, but down to the "Southern Sea" and to "Florida." Nicollet had succeeded, however, in pushing forward an historic route that other ex- plorers soon were to follow.
The last figurative mile, the one with which Nicollet could not be bothered, was walked some 25 years later by Pierre Esprit Radisson (whose fingernails had been torn out by the torturing Mohawks of the East) and his brother-in-law, Medard Chouart.
In fur-buying partnership, this pair headed a party that had set out in quest of new territory and had followed the Nicollet route to Green Bay where they spent the winter and spring of 1658-59. In their travels about Wisconsin they went up the Fox river and over the divide into the waters of the Wisconsin and Mississippi. Thus they added a link to the exploratory chain that was to be so significantly lengthened 15 years later by Louis Joliet and Marquette.
Short Cut Called Chicago
Frontenac, governor of New France, commissioned Louis Joliet in 1673 to explore the "great river" that lay "in the
1. Ibid. (See last previous reference), p. 93.
4
west." The French by now had good reason to believe that this river might be the upper reaches of the Father of Waters, the mighty Mississippi, the lower portion of which had been discovered by the Spaniard, Hernando De Soto, in 1541.
If they could find an easy connection between the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence river system and the Mississippi river system they might find it advantageous to channel a big portion of their Great Lakes fur trade to France by the Mississippi route. (The building of the Erie canal a century and a half later was to by-pass the Niagara Falls bottleneck on the St. Lawrence.) At the same time the French reasoned that by so doing, they could strengthen their hold on the great interior of the new country.
Joliet's route led him past St. Ignace on the Straits of Mack- inac where he was joined by Father Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit missionary who had been stationed there for two years.
So together, Joliet and Marquette, accompanied by a small retinue of helpers, departed St. Ignace on May 17, 1673 and in their canoes followed the trail previously laid out by Nicollet and extended by Radisson and Chouart. They crossed the north- west corner of Lake Michigan to Green Bay and then paddled up the Fox river to its source. On June 10 they portaged across the narrow divide at the latter place and entered the Wisconsin river.
A short float down the Wisconsin brought them to the "Great River" which they explored all the way down to a point shortly below the entrance of the Arkansas river. There they encountered Indian tribes who carried steel axes obtained in commerce with the Spaniards at the south end (mouth) of the Mississippi.1
Joliet and Marquette thus drew the proper conclusion that the "Great River" did lead on down to the Gulf of Mexico,
1. Bancroft, History of the United States, Vol. 2, p. 332.
5
and since they were faced with the tremendous task of paddling back upstream against the strong current, they turned back. A major portion of their discovery still lay ahead, however, for on their return they learned from the Indians of a shorter route to Lake Michigan.
Pleased with this prospect, they heeded directions and entered the Illinois river, following that stream up past the Kankakee river and thence northeasterly in what is known as the Des Plaines river.
When in September they reached a small stream (Portage creek) that empties into the Des Plaines near the present villages of Summit and Lyons, they turned eastward into it and paddled upstream some 800 feet to its source, Mud lake.
By paddling some five and one-half miles thru swampy Mud lake, they came to its eastern end from whence they portaged their canoes and equipment about one and one-half miles over the water divide to the then west fork of the south branch of the Chicago river.
Another hour of paddling brought them down the length of the river and Joliet and Marquette found themselves back again in Lake Michigan.1 They and their five boatmen thus became the first white men of accepted record to have crossed the portage, tho scattered historical notes indicate that other voyagers and fur traders may have preceded them.
Canal Possibility Foreseen
That Joliet fully realized the great significance of their dis- covery of this short cut is borne out by his recorded observa- tion that a canal of "but half a league" (about one and one- half miles) thru a prairie would permit a "barque to go with facility to Florida."
Joliet and Marquette continued the fag-end of their journey
1. Data based, in part, upon information contained in a Chicago Historical Society book-The Location of the Chicago Portage Route of the Seventeenth Century, by Knight and Zeuch, 1928.
6
by way of Lake Michigan to Green Bay. Marquette decided to winter there at the Mission of St. Francis Xavier, previously founded by Father Allouez. Joliet proceeded on alone to Quebec and reported his momentous findings.
Marquette, however, still was not done with the Chicago area, his next goal being the conversion to Christianity of the Indians on the Illinois river. (When he and Joliet had come up that river they found a large settlement of Indians near what later became known as Starved Rock, and Marquette promised then to return and found a mission among them.)
Due to ill health, Marquette was unable to leave Green Bay until Oct. 25, 1674. Then, accompanied by two companions, Pierre Porteret and Jacques, he returned to the Chicago area by way of Lake Michigan, arriving in December. In his notes Marquette referred to the Chicago river as "Portage river," and on Dec. 14 wrote: "Being cabined near the portage, two leagues up the river, we resolved to winter there, on my inability to go further, being too much embarrassed and my malady not permitting me to stand much fatigue."
Thus we learned that a building apparently stood near the present site of West 26th and South Leavitt streets, close to the small west fork (now filled in) of the south branch of the Chicago river. If this cabin was built by French fur traders, it may have been the first Chicago building constructed by white man. (Notes of early missionaries state that some of the early Indians of the area lived in cabins which they, themselves, built.)
The Marquette cabin was owned by two French fur traders, Pierre Moreau and his unnamed partner who was a "surgeon." The pair at the time was staying and trading with the Indians near Starved Rock on the Illinois river, nearly 100 miles away, but hearing of Marquette's arrival at their Chicago portage house, the one who was the "surgeon" visited Marquette and his companions, taking them provisions for the winter and
7
IN · HONOR · 0 LOUIS.JOLLIET.&.PÈRE.JACQUES. MARQUETTE
11-11.
THE FIRST WHITE MENTO PASS - THROUGH
THISTALET .
CHICAGORIVER
. ACED. 61 .THE LLINGIS SOCIET. OF . THE COLONIAL DAMES OF
AMERICA
SEPTEMBER 073
UNDER THE-AUSPILES . OF .THE CHICACO HISTORICALSOLT) 1025
Top-Photograph of bronze plaque on Michigan avenue bridge, Chicago, placed in 1925 by Illinois Society of the Colonial Dames of America. Depicted are canoes bearing first white men of accepted record to pass thru Chicago river. Time was September, 1673. Standing is explorer Louis Joliet; seated (center) is Father Jacques Marquette. Courtesy Chicago Historical Society.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.