USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Discovery and conquests of the Northwest, with the history of Chicago, Vol. II > Part 14
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Chicago Postoffice.
On the accession of James Buchanan to the presi- dential chair in 1857, Wm. Price was appointed post- master. He retained the office but a few months, when, owing to the deadlock between Senator Douglas and the administration on the validity of the Lecomp- ton constitution in Kansas, and kindred toils, it was deemed necessary to remove him, which was promptly done, and Mr. Cook, who was a friend to Buchanan's measures, was restored to his position, which he retained till the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860,* who appointed John L. Scripps, whose editorship of the Chicago Tribune is still fresh in our memories. Mr. Scripps, on account of ill health, declined an appoint- ment under Mr. Lincoln's second term, and Samuel Hoard was appointed as his successor. He retained the position till President Johnson took the executive chair, made vacant by Mr. Lincoln's death, when Robt. A. Gillmore was appointed, but was accidentally drowned in the year 1867, and Frank T. Sherman was appointed to fill the place during Mr. Johnson's term. On the accession of General Grant to the presidency in 1869, Francis A. Eastman was appointed to the place. He resigned in 1873, and Gen. John McArthur was appointed by General Grant to the place, who took pos- session of the office February 14, and held it till March 10, 1877, at which time Hon. F. W. Palmer was ap- pointed to the position by President Hayes.
At the great fire of 1871 it is worthy of remark that while nearly all private property in the burnt dis- trict was destroyed, the mail was all saved by dint of hard work, not exempt from danger to the employes of the departments. It was established on the northwest
*Previous to this time Hon. John Wentworth, when representa- tive to congress in 1853, had obtained at the first session of the thirty- third congress in the civil and diplomatic appropriation bill, approved August 4, 1854, the first appropriation for the Chicago postoffice in the following words: "For the accommodation of the custom house, postoffice, United States courts, and steamboat inspectors, a building of stone, 85x60 feet, sixty feet in height from the foundation, to cost not more $88,000." And it is worthy of mention that this is the only building whose walls survived the great fire of 1871.
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Chicago Postoffice.
corner of State and Sixteenth streets, from where, after two months, it was removed to the Wabash ave- nue Methodist church, corner of Harrison street, where it remained till the fire of 1874, when it again fled before the devouring element-saving all the mail-establishing itself at the postal station, corner of Washington and Halsted streets, in the west division, and no interruption was caused by this fire in the de- livery of letters. These quarters were retained about a month, when the office was established in the Honore building, corner of Dearborn and Adams streets, where it remained till fire again invaded their quarters, Jan- uary 4, 1879, when they, with all the mail saved, took flight to the northeast corner of Washington and State streets, in the basement of the Singer building, where it remained till April 12, 1879, at which time the office was established in the government building, occupying the square between Adams, Jackson, Clark and Dearborn streets.
The expenses of the office in 1836 were $300, and its commissions the same year were $2,148.29. Ten years later, in 1846, the expenses were $5,234.39, while the receipts were $7,228.51. Ten years later, in 1856, the expenses were $41,130.56, and the receipts $65,- 804.51.
Since the fire, beginning with 1872, the total. amount of money order transactions received and paid out have been as follows: For 1872, $7,937,751.20; 1873, $10,632,069.08; 1874, $14,507,431.83; 1875, $14,741,- 446.65; 1876, $12,930,824.88; 1877, $13,157,085.33; 1878, $15,598,765. 14; 1879, $16,892,975.92; 1880, $18,366,974.56; 1881, $18,993,585.86; 1882, $19,925,812.56; 1883, $20,331,- 223.62; 1884, $20,169,101.34; 1885, $19,975,030.52; 1886, $19,917,186.72; 1887, $19, 495,136.20; 1888, $19,257,063.02; 1889, $18,793,515.06; 1890, $19,338,771.82; 1891, $20,396,- 166.90; 1892, $22,003,175.94; 1893, $23,609,126.10; 1894, $25,512,426.24; 1895, $30,127,376.62; 1896, $31, 150,655.32; 1897, $39,822,460.86; 1898, $50,476,215.72; 1899, $61, 742,-
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Chicago Postoffice.
824.76. The sale of stamps, stamped envelopes and postal cards for the same period has been as follows: For 1872, $715,010.27; 1873, when postal cards were first introduced, $788,006.29; 1874, $840,388.48; 1875, $970,886.47; 1876, $955,417.70; 1877, $953,148.08; 1878, $1,006,352.10; 1879, $1,074,237.62; 1880, $1,347,724.26; 1885, $1,955,123.75; 1890, $3,318,989.45; 1895, $4,867,- 432.08; 1899, $6,347,320.21.
Mr. Palmer remained postmaster through the ad- ministration of President Garfield and his successor, Chester A. Arthur.
Grover Cleveland was the next president, and ap- pointed S. Corning Judd as postmaster, May 5, 1885, who held the position until November 19, 1888, when Walter C. Newberry was appointed by Mr. Cleveland to take his place. He held it until the election of Ben- jamin Harrison to the presidency, who appointed James A. Sexton as postmaster, April 6, 1889, who held the position until the second term of Mr. Cleveland. Washington Hesing was then appointed postmaster by him, November 25, 1893.
Wm. Mckinley was next elected as president, and on March 19, 1897, appointed Chas. U. Gordon as post- master, who is the present incumbent.
The present location of the postoffice is on Michi- gan avenue, at the head of Washington street, where it will remain until the new government building, now in course of construction, is completed.
The great Chicago fire marked the beginning of an increase in the growth of the city, hitherto unknown. Improved methods in every department of commerce came into use, and the postoffice service kept abreast of them. New responsibilities had to be provided, far too numerous for historical detail.
The delivery and collections of mail were materi- ally improved in 1899. The number of collections was increased to 2,051 daily throughout Chicago. The de-
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Chicago Postoffice.
livery service was increased to 3,577. The carrier force was increased to 1,500 carriers.
The clerical force was increased to 1,289. All told, the Chicago postoffice has 2,789 employes.
The receipts for the postal department for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1900, were $6,609,218.72; the expenditures for the same year were $2,591,219.77.
"Not a sparrow falls to the ground but is noticed by the department." If a person makes any complaint, either with or without cause, it goes into the postoffice records. But to the credit of the department be it said that only a small percentage of them are well founded. In 1899 there were 1,289 letter carriers and 1,500 clerks in the department, and it is an extremely rare thing when any one of all this number commits an indiscretion for which he loses his place.
No commercial house, large or small, can make so good a showing-a proof that public service can be honestly and economically performed under a proper system of tutelage.
REMINISCENCES OF H. O. STONE.
He was the father of H. O. Stone, now a well known citizen of Chicago. The elder Mr. Stone gave these records to his son in 1869, who has furnished them for this work. They are of a historical charac- ter, as to the rugged pioneers of Chicago, a race of men now only living in history-nor can they be repro- duced, for want of the conditions to do it. Mr. Stone was descended from good old English stock, planted in western New York, when that locality was called the far west, peopled by hunters and bold, dashing adven- turers who had prophetic inspiration into the future destiny of the great interior. The war of 1812 fired the savage heart of the entire frontier. He armed himself with a scalping knife and a rifle to take a hand in the general melee in favor of his father from over the wave, who had never tried to drive him from his hunting grounds, which the Americans had done; but the Indian did not stop to consider that his British father had no incentive for doing such a thing. Though born in England, Mr. Ebenezer Stone did not hesitate to practically swear allegiance to America by enlisting to fight on her side in this war. In this service he was sometimes brought in contact with Indians on the war path, some of whom licked the dust under the un- erring aim of his rifle.
This venerable pioneer, Ebenezer Stone, at last came to Chicago, and died in 1845 at the home of his son, H. O. Stone, father of the present H. O. Stone (now living). There are still persons living who re-
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Reminiscences of H. O. Stone.
member the old versatile tin trunk peddler, who traveled from house to house in the country with two tin trunks, one on each side, depending from the end of a shaft fitted to the shoulders. These trunks were filled with such trinkets as constitute the stock of a thread and needle store of our day, and Mr. H. O. Stone was one of this class of itinerant merchants. Previous to this occupation he had worked at shoe making, tanning and several other industries, and later he became a builder and repairer of boats on the Lack- awanna canal, also a bowsman on the New York and Erie canal.
Next we find him at Clinton, Mich., where he en- tered eighty acres of government land, settled down to farming, having married Jane Ann Lowry, of Erie, Pa., in 1833 in Detroit, Mich. Soon after this he was drafted to fight Black Hawk under Gen. Joseph Brown, whom his father and brother were under during the war of 1812. They met 700 Pottawattomie warriors near Niles, Mich., who were in full war dress and war paint. General Brown called out a whole regiment of about 1,000 armed men, which almost depopulated the vicinity of men subject to draft. The Pottawattomies offered to join them, but while they were parleying, a message came that Black Hawk had been conquered at the battle of Bad Axe, Wisconsin, when they were discharged. Mr. Stone then returned to his farm, but as the price of wheat was only thirty-one cents per bushel, payable in dry goods (not groceries), he sold out, sent his family back to Erie, Pa., and started for the far west. His destination was unsettled, but he had decided on three objective points, Chicago, Gales- burg, Ill., or Galveston, Tex., reaching Chicago by wagon part of the way over prairies, and part of the way by lake from Michigan City, and stopping over at a way station called Baileytown. The only hotel here was built of logs, where the meals were good, but the lodgings were on shelves patterned after steamboat
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Reminiscences of H. O. Stone.
berths. Prairie hay instead of mattresses was used, and for covering but two Indian blankets, though the weather was very cold. This was called Mrs. Bailey's hotel, which was a fair pattern of all the western hotels at that time. Mrs. Bailey also had one hotel west of Chicago at a place called Berry's Point.
The stage was filled with Chicago merchants re- turning from New York or Detroit. The latter, being a depot for Indian goods, was a more important place than Chicago. Among the passengers were J. S. C. Hogan, first postmaster of Chicago, and Henry King, of the firm of Jones, King & Clark, hardware and stove dealers. The Chicago merchants were stylish in their dress and liberal in their expenditures for drinks, which gave Mr. Stone an impression that business was good in Chicago. He arrived there in the evening of Janu- ary 11, 1835, and stopped at the corner of Lake and Wells streets, where Mark Beaubien kept a hotel. He now became a citizen of Chicago, and business was the imperative question. To this end he concluded to buy land, and made application to a Yorkshire Englishman named Blanchard to purchase a lot. Mr. Blanchard's price for the lot he wanted was $60. Hoping to get it cheaper, he delayed the matter a day when, to his sur- prise, Mr. Blanchard raised the price of his lot $10. Not purchasing the lot at that time, the price was raised $10 for each day's delay till it increased to $90, when he concluded to purchase it. The lot was located on the school section, and he had to wade through water three feet deep to get to it, which showed he had great faith in the future of Chicago. He had but $60 left, and to recuperate his finances he took a job of cutting the timber for the north pier on the north branch of the Chicago river, receiving $16 a month and board in the woods, finishing the work March 1. Dur- ing this time he made the acquaintance of J. D. Caton, then a justice of the peace, office on Dearborn street, who subsequently became a judge of a Chicago court,
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Reminiscences of H. O. Stone.
a gentleman well known and respected by a large circle of business men in Chicago. The purchase of land claims offered a good chance for speculation at that time, and he, in partnership with a man named John Rogers, engaged in that business. For this pur- pose they hired a few half breed Indians to take them to Milwaukee in a wagon with provisions for three months, camping out each night and cooking their food in the open air before a camp fire. Three days of this toilsome journey brought them to Milwaukee, where a trading post was kept by Mr. Juneau, after whom a county in Wisconsin was subsequently named. Here Mr. Stone and his companion slept on the floor in the same room with several traders and trappers. There was but one house in Milwaukee at that time besides the trading post. Not wishing to stop here, they started northward the next morning on a trail through the dense forest through a deep snow. They had their own team, consisting of two Indian ponies purchased of Mr. Juneau, and hired an Indian to accompany them. In this way they traveled fifteen miles the first day, when night overtook them. They staked out their ponies, built a fire, cooked their supper and, wrapped in their blankets, slept soundly until morning, when they arose, built the necessary camp fire and cooked their breakfast. The Indian then started for the ponies, but only one of them could be found, the other having returned home. Their capricious Indian guide not wishing to continue with them any longer, blacked his hands with charcoal and made some hideous hiero- glyphics on his cheeks, and making a grunt started back to Milwaukee.
In this emergency Mr. Stone took one-half of the goods, and with the remaining pony started northward on the trail, leaving Mr. Rogers to watch the other half, consisting of tools, guns, provisions, etc.
The next night he reached Sack creek, and camped with a half breed. Next morning he returned by the
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Reminiscences of H. O. Stone.
same route he came to where he had left Mr. Rogers, finding him safe at his lonely post with all the goods.
The two now started northward together, and reached a place called Waubun in three days, at which place Mr. Stone made a claim at the mouth of a river where a saw mill had been built, being the first one in that desolate wild. Brown and Payne were the pioneer owners of it.
The next June Mr. Stone started for Chicago to attend the first great land sale by the government, to be held on 16th and 17th at that place. Here he sold his Chicago lot at auction for $348, for which he had paid $90 a few months before, John Bates, auctioneer.
Mr. Stone then commenced a business for which Chicago has ever since been noted-grocery and provi- sion store on North Water street, buying his goods in New York. Soon after opening his store he went to northern Wisconsin to attend a government land sale June 16, 1836, where the land claims that he, with Mr. Rogers, had made were to be sold, together with claims of many other parties; but he did not succeed in buying his claims, as a pool of rich bankers had bought them, paying for them and for all other claims in the vicinity sixty cents an acre, which was much higher than Mr. Stone could afford to give. After the sale was over Mr. Stone, together with the company of bankers and other speculators, started back for Chicago, loaded down with camp equipage and provisions. In this com- pany were William Jones, George Smith, the famous Scotch banker, Erastus Brown, Alexander Fullerton and Alonzo Huntington. For the next twenty-seven years he kept his store running, during which time in May, 1839, he made the first shipment of wheat east, consisting of 780 bushels in bags, on C. M. Reed's steamers, for which he received seventy cents per bushel. He was in Chicago during two Indian pay- ments, when 7,000 Indians camped on the adjacent prairies. At that time Captain Baxter, of Fort Dear-
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Reminiscences of H. O. Stone.
born, with a few men captured Ash Cabway and son for killing an unknown man and shooting Mr. Lyman. These victims had spent the night in a wigwam of In- dians, where they were betrayed and shot, a very un- usual thing at that time. The Indians had a trial, but through the influence of Juneau, of Milwaukee, were not convicted. This is all Mr. Stone says of the tragedy. There might have been some extenuating circumstances about the matter, not known to Mr. Stone, but it shows the summary manner in which crimes might be either punished or compounded at that time.
EARLY COMMERCE OF THE LAKES.
The initial step to build up Chicago, from the first, was to provide cereals to an eastern market, that nature produced in abundance in the country surround- ing this favorite spot. The great chain of lakes, at which she stood at the extreme limit, were an avail- able highway for this purpose. Mr. Oliver Newberry, who had early been known under the sobriquet of Ad- miral of the Lakes, was quick to see this, and prompt to execute plans to make the most of the situation by building docks at Buffalo, Detroit and Chicago, and also a fleet for lake service. He had served in the war of 1812 against England, during the first part of which France under Napoleon was fighting the same power, and consequently an indirect ally to America. This made our soldiers look upon Napoleon as our friend, as well as the friend of humanity. Mr. Newberry shared this sentiment, and consistent with this conviction named five of his vessels in honor of our august ally, as he considered Napoleon. These names were Napo- leon, Marshal Ney, Prince Eugene, Austerlitz and Marengo, thereby associating the pioneer commerce of Chicago with a patriotic compliment due France, the first friend of our nation.
Their first warehouse was built at foot of Clark street on the river, thus introducing the warehousing system in Chicago. Mr. George Dole was then con- nected with him as a partner .*
*See on p. 19 of this volume a picture of this warehouse, with an article from the Democrat of July 16, 1834, on this first arrival of the Newberry vessel.
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Early Commerce of the Lakes.
His vessels and steamers touched at Green Bay, where the firm was Newberry & Goddel, at Sturgeon Bay and Milwaukee, where Alexander Mitchell was his agent, and at Racine, Kenosha and Waukegan.
A majority of the early settlers of the states of Wisconsin and northern and central Illinois came with their families and effects on his vessels, and yet recall his generosity and forbearance if short of food or freight money. His vigor, energy and enterprise were a great factor in the early and rapid settlement of the agricultural districts of those states from 1826 to the advent of railways after 1850.
Oliver Newberry was born at Windsor, Conn., in 1789, removed to Oneida county, New York, in 1804 with his father, entered the army in 1812, was dis- charged in 1814, settled in Ohio at once, and in 1816 opened a grocery and ship chandlery in Buffalo, and in 1822 removed to Detroit, where he established a ship yard, mercantile warehouse and docks and, as contrac- tor of Indian and military supplies for the government post and agencies, accumulated the capital to carry out his many schemes for the improvement of trans- portation on the lakes.
Oliver Newberry died a bachelor in 1860, aged seventy-one years, leaving a record of probity, energy and executive ability sufficient to accomplish his am- bitious purposes, which have become historical.
In the conduct of his great enterprises he bought land in Chicago and established his younger brother, Walter L. Newberry, here. Walter acquired much of this property, and became a partner in the house as Newberry & Dole, changed to Dole, Rumsey & New- berry, then Rumsey Bros., and still, after seventy years, represented by the Rumseys on our Board of Trade.
Walter L. Newberry became a banker under the firm name of Newberry & Burch-then one of the founders of the Merchants' Loan and Trust Co., an or-
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Early Commerce of the Lakes.
ganizer, director and president of the Chicago & Galena and the Dixon & Fulton Air Line railroads, now the great North-Western Railroad Company.
As president of the school board, the Chicago His- torical Society and an early city alderman he was a faithful servant of the people, and by will endowment that magnificent monument to his memory, the New- berry Library, was given to Chicago. .
Walter Cass Newberry, now an honorable citizen of Chicago, was a nephew and protege of Oliver Newberry, born at the Newberry homestead in Oneida county, in 1835; came to Chicago in the interest of his uncle's shipping in 1853; in 1858 was recalled to Detroit, and became a member of the firm soon after attaining his majority. As joint executor, administered his uncle's estate, and in 1861 went into the Union army, and from a private, under six intermediate commissions, was dis- charged with the rank of a brigadier general. Return- ing to Chicago after the war, he became a railroad con- structor, merchant and warehouseman. He served the government as postmaster of the city he had seen grow from 50,000 to 1,000,000 inhabitants.
He was elected to congress from the North Side district, and has served the people in any capacity for improved government and advanced citizenship when called upon.
It will thus be seen that the Newberrys have been a factor in Chicago's greatness, among other pioneers who honor the records of her early days.
THE FIELD COLUMBIAN MUSEUM.
The logical sequence of a great exposition is a great museum. The South Kensington museum, of London, was the sequel of the World's Fair of 1851, the first of the great international expositions. The National museum at Washington received its most important impetus and its largest accessions from the Centennial Exposition of 1876. While none of the national museums of Paris rests distinctively upon any one of the French international expositions, those of the Louvre, of Cluny, and of the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers have constantly gathered accessions from these sources.
Purely commercial exhibits, shown at expositions, are usually prepared for immediate practical service, have a present convertible value, and are the property of individuals who expect from them immediate and future profit. When the exposition closes, these exhibits resume their place among the active assets of their owners. But a large proportion of the most interesting and instructive exhibits have no such commercial value. They were prepared simply to demonstrate or illustrate some element of the condition or progress of a people or of the world. Their mission is not to promote exchanges, to induce people to buy or sell. It is to teach science, history and art, and the economics of human life. They are records of achievements, not of promises to be fulfilled. They are not militant, but triumphant.
Many of them were prepared especially for exposi- tion uses, and their fitness for purposes of instruction
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FIELD COLUMBIAN MUSEUM.
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The Field Columbian Museum.
remains unimpaired long after the occasion which called for their production has passed away. No small part of the value of their exhibits comes from their aggregation, and from the skill which has added to their efficiency by accurate classification and scientific arrangement. Every student knows, and every visitor sees that great loss would follow the distribution of material gathered from the four quarters of the globe at an unstinted outlay of thought, labor and capital, expended upon a universal international exposition.
These facts were patent to all those whose wisdom conceived and whose energy promoted the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. It was well understood that other opportunities would develop when the Exposition had finished its course. It was, however, natural that, in the earlier days of the enter- prise, interest should be concentrated upon questions which bore upon the making of the Exposition, even to the exclusion of others which concerned the gathering of the aftermath.
If the illusion exists in any mind that the idea of a museum was suddenly born or quickly realized, it should at once be dispelled, for the project was seriously con- sidered as early as 1890. At various times and by different persons it was discussed in public and in private with more or less definiteness of purpose. The first public expression upon the subject is believed to have been made in a communication from Prof. Freder- ick W. Putnam, of the Peabody Archaeological museum, at Cambridge, Mass., printed in the Chicago Tribune in May, 1890. On two occasions, in the same year, Professor Putnam, whose position and experience gave weight to his utterances, spoke in favor of a museum, and in November, 1891, upon the invitation of the Hon. William T. Baker, he addressed the Commercial club upon this subject.
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