USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Discovery and conquests of the Northwest, with the history of Chicago, Vol. II > Part 42
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tract of land received from the government, showing in the same every sale that had been made by the de- partment up to that date; the town lot plats, with the record of every lot sold entered therein; the volumes of bound books showing in detail the sales to each and every purchaser, from the first sale made to date; the books of the cashier's department, from its inception to date. Then there were great numbers of volumes of duplicate contracts showing condition of each tract of land sold on time, and indeed every book of record obtainable inside the office of that department, except some of the trustees' papers, which were in charge of Peter Dazzy, trustees' clerk, and in his safe for special safe keeping. They were all burned, while the safe, with a lot of silver plate stored in it, was melted.
The land department occupied their car at Sixteenth street until late in November, when it moved to Cen- tralia, where it transacted its business for nearly a year, returning to Chicago in 1872 and occupying the building which had been erected, partly for its use, at the old number, 48 Michigan avenue. Peter Daggy was then commissioner. The department had sold up to December 31, 1871, 2,228,317.31 acres, leaving unsold 366,682.69 acres, all of which has since been sold.
Charles M. Dupuy, John Wilson, A. E. Burnside, J. W. Foster, W. M. Phillips, J. M. Redmond, John B. Calhoun, P. Daggy, L. P. Morehouse, Ben Moe and E. P. Skene were the land commissioners from January 1, 1855.
Col. Roswell B. Mason, chief engineer and builder of the road, appointed March, 1851, turned over to the company a completed railroad 706 miles in length, in 1856. The work where he left off was taken up by careful and skilled men. David A. Neal, in Colonel Mason's time, performed his part in the Herculean task with skill and fidelity. George Watson, John H. Done, James C. Clarke, S. J. Hayes, John C. Jacobs, L. H. Clark, John Newell, William Harper, C. A. Beck, Charles H. Comstock, and many others, under such
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leaders as J. N. A. Griswold, Wm. H. Osborn, John M. Douglas, James C. Clarke and Stuyvesant Fish. Mr. Fish was elected president May 18, 1887, and still holds that office. Back in the '60's it was found that in order to make the road paying property for its stockholders, addi- tional feeders must be had for the main line, which was capable of handling much more business than naturally came to it from its own territory. With this end in view, the directory began looking around for tributary and other feeders with the following results: In Illi- nois, 1,276.47 miles; South Dakota, 14.95; Minnesota, 29.99; Iowa, 712.58; Wisconsin, 91.31; Indiana, 82.83; Kentucky, 506.28; Tennessee, 252.38; Mississippi, 497.13; Louisiana, 87.74; Alabama, 7.84; being a total mileage owned and controlled by it, outside its main line, of 3,559.50 miles, or a total mileage of both, of 4,265.50 miles. These roads are located in eleven states. To operate this great system requires 27,189 employes, which is the number now employed in the service of the company. Number of passenger cars now in use, 725; freight cars, 38,498; work cars, 462. Number of engines for all work, 891.
The charter of the company reserved to the state of Illinois, in lieu of taxes, 7 per cent of the gross receipts of the 706 miles of railroad originally built thereunder. The sum so paid has been this year (1901) $815,093, which, if capitalized at 3} per cent, would give $23,288,371, as representing the proprietary inter- est of the state of Illinois in the Illinois Central rail- road. The total charter tax paid into the state treasury of Illinois, up to April 30, 1901, has been $19,209,320.79.
When this corporation came into existence, April 10, 1851, it found an impoverished state, with a state debt of more than $16,000,000. This debt has long since been paid, through this and other corporations, and to-day it is among the foremost states of the Union in wealth and population. The Illinois Central railroad has been the chief factor in bringing about this result.
POTTER PALMER.
Potter Palmer, the descendant of two old and dis- tinguished New England families, whose combined names he bore, was born in 1826, in Albany county, New York. His father was a prosperous farmer of standing and influence in the community, and he was the fourth of seven children. At the age of eighteen, having acquired a good English education, he left home and took a minor position in the combined store and bank of Durham, Greene county, New York. Meeting with encouraging success here, he moved, first to Oneida county, thence to Lockport, Niagara and finally to Chicago, where he arrived in 1862.
Having by this time saved up quite a little capital, he invested it in a dry goods house on Lake street, which, in an incredibly short time, he developed into the largest business of the kind west of the Alleghenies, having added to it a wholesale department.
While still a young man, having made a fortune and acquired a fine place in the business world, with the prestige of a successful career, he was obliged, by the advice of his physicians, to give it all up, and go to Europe for a needed change. This was a serious blow to a man of his energy and ambition, but he accepted it with courage and sold out his splendid business to two young merchants, Messrs. Field & Leiter.
Returning refreshed and reinvigorated, he did not go back into mercantile life, but began his career as an investor in Chicago real estate, and builder-up of the city of his adoption.
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His first investment was in nearly a mile of front- age on State street, then a narrow, crooked; way, with shabby frame structures devoted to small and ignoble uses. After studying the situation, Mr. Palmer decided that the main trend of business would be north and south, rather than east and west, as it then was on Lake street, the main retail center. State street seemed the most central and natural channel for a future thoroughfare, and had already some lines of street cars. Seeing that it was capable of a grand des- tiny, he bought up all the property for sale as far as Twenty-second street, nearly a mile of frontage. The story of the years of persistent effort to increase the width of the street has been forgotten. It meant labor- ing with the city council to secure ordinances for the widening of the street in the face of opposition from other owners, many of whom were men of wealth and position, but who did not sympathize with the grand end aimed at, or who were not generous enough to give the few feet necessary from their lots to make the new and splendid thoroughfare, now such an inestimable boon in the congested heart of the city. After the ordinances were passed-for many were necessary, as only a few blocks could be acted on at a time, so fierce was the opposition, many owners refusing to follow the generous example of Mr. Palmer-he immediately moved back his buildings, gave from his long frontage the twenty feet required for the widening of the street and had it graded and paved ready for use.
It was only when the great fire swept away its buildings that many of the jogs and irregularities were removed which still defaced and clogged this artery of business. Mr. Palmer not only worked indefatigably for this wide and handsome street for the retail busi- ness of the Chicago of the future, but he opened the way to immediate realization by forcing the situation and building a succession of fine business houses (far surpassing any then existing in the city) on the new
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thoroughfare, and these the principal merchants were obliged to occupy because they could not afford to allow rivals to take possession of such splendid and better located quarters with superior facilities for busi- ness. As soon as his first building was completed, which was on the corner of State and Washington, it was at once leased by Field & Leiter at $50,000 a year, which was then much the highest rent paid in the city, and this corner has since become inseparably connected with this firm (later changed to Marshall Field & Co.). Ross & Gossage, the next largest dry goods merchants, occupied a store in the next block, and the other mer- chants quickly followed, without hesitation, as soon as buildings were ready for them. The evolution of the business center was immediately an accomplished fact. Chicago thus owes its largest business artery to the foresight of Potter Palmer, who had the courage and indomitable perseverance to undertake, entirely alone and unaided, this gigantic enterprise. In all his deal- ings with the city council, and with recalcitrant owners, no hint of unworthy methods tarnished the luster of his good name. Almost two millions of people-the present population of Chicago-are indebted to Mr. Palmer for his clear vision and his courage, and the immense increase in value of State street property, as well as for the architectural beauty of the street, the credit for which can be ascribed to him only.
A cruel fate for the second time intervened just as Mr. Palmer was beginning to reap the benefit of his enterprise. The great fire of 1871 destroyed the busi- ness portion of Chicago, and much of the residence district, and Mr. Palmer's thirty-two buildings were burned, many of which were only just finished, and were on a scale of expense and beauty which he thought commensurate with the future needs of the city.
Mr. Palmer lost no time in lamentation. His loy- alty to the city of his choice never wavered. His faith in the future of Chicago was unimpaired. With the
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loss of his buildings (which were mainly uninsured, because his theory had been that it was cheaper to insure himself), and the entire sweeping away of his large income, his resources were crippled. Upon his land, which, when divested of its buildings, was valued at over $4,000,000, he borrowed from the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co., of Hartford, $1,700,000 (the largest individual loan ever made up to that time, and proving the esteem in which Mr. Palmer was generally held), wherewith to undertake the laborious task of rebuilding. The immediate demand for building mate- rials with which to reconstruct the destroyed city was so great that not only did prices rise greatly, but it was impossible for American firms to fill the orders for the structural iron required in the new buildings. In this emergency Mr. Palmer was made chairman of a committee to go to Washington and lay before congress a petition from the citizens of Chicago, asking that the duty on imported structural iron required in the rebuild- ing of Chicago should be done away with, and those materials admitted free of duty from foreign countries. After a little effort this legislation was secured, and Mr. Palmer had the gratification of bringing back to the desolated city the good news of sympathy and help extended to it by the congress of the United States.
Mr. H. H. Honore (father of Mrs. Palmer) was one of the original projectors who organized the scheme and secured the legislation to create the park system. Mr. Palmer, though now occupied in rebuilding, found time to take a prominent part in building up the South Park and boulevard systems. He was an active mem- ber of the South Park commission for many years, and aided in laying out and beautifying Jackson and Wash- ington parks and the connecting boulevards. These latter were soon extended to reach the west parks and Lincoln Park; and the whole system now forms one of the great ornaments of the city and affords pleasure grounds for its vast population.
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Lake Michigan furnished a sublime opportunity for putting in the finishing touches in the outlines of the new Chicago. The south shore was sure to be intercepted by large manufacturing plants, but the north shore seemed destined to be covered with pal- aces and villas, parks and pleasure grounds for public and private uses. A boulevard along the north shore would command access to all these beauties of art and nature combined, Lake Michigan on the east, with its grand panorama of water and sky, extending itself to where the sea meets the horizon. Mr. Palmer saw in such a frontage the possibility of a new and much needed residence section. He, accordingly, bought largely on the Lake Shore Drive and adjacent to it, all of which was then a portion of the lake covered by water, with a road extending on piles across its front. Mr. Palmer immediately employed dredges and pumped the pure lake sand from the bed of the lake into the vacant property, which was thus filled with absolutely clean and wholesome sand, and formed an admirable foundation for the structures which were to be erected. To the improvement of the Lake Shore Drive, building his own home upon it, and the development of the adjacent streets, Mr. Palmer gave the remaining years of his life. A charming resident district was created by the man who had the clear vision to perceive its natural advantages and the nerve to take upon his willing shoulders another herculean task, which, like the widening of State street, could only have attained its highest possibilities by being taken in hand in its immaturity, and pushed forward upon well organized plans until the end was attained and the general public could profit by the results.
While occupying himself with his own independent projects for the betterment of the city, Mr. Palmer was not narrow in his aims, but was always a liberal contributor to its institutions and charities. With all of the public institutions, before the fire, and most of
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them later, he was identified. He was the largest con- tributor to the permanent exhibition held for many years on the lake front, to the old Academy of Design which ceased to exist after the fire, also to the Academy of Sciences.
He was among those who helped to plan and carry into execution the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. He was elected one of the first vice-presidents when its board was organized, and was a member of its first board of directors. He was a member of the com- mittee of grounds and buildings, of its fine arts com- mittee, and a large investor in stock of the company. In his palatial home he had an art collection not sur- passed in grandeur in the United States. It consisted of curios, books, objects of virtu, precious stones and many things in the line of art, which had been accumu- lated in America and the Old World in the travels of Mr. Palmer and his wife.
His picture galleries have been, not only a center of art influence, but have been constantly thrown open for the benefit of charities, and for gatherings of inter- ested friends to organize and launch humanitarian and social projects of all kinds. Thousands of dollars, amounting probably to $100,000, have been raised for charities by entertainments given in this hospitable mansion, without mentioning the numberless times it it has been opened for art students and others. His special joy was to make his home beautiful and attract- ive, and he loved to dispense a consistent hospitality, and to make it a center of happy influences. There, with his family around him, whom he loved with an ideal affection, he peacefully passed away, leaving a void at the fireside which can never be filled.
MARK SKINNER.
Mark Skinner was born in 1813, at Manchester, Vt. His father, Richard Skinner (born at Litchfield, Conn., 1778), was a lawyer of distinction in Vermont, having held at various terms the offices of prosecuting attorney, probate judge, a seat in the legislature, gov- ernor, member of congress and chief justice of the state. Frances Pierpont, the mother of Judge Skinner, was born in New Haven, Conn., in 1782. She was descended from John Pierpont, who settled near Bos- ton in 1640, the first of the name in this country. The subject of this sketch, Mark Skinner, graduated at Middlebury college in 1833, soon after which he spent one year at the New Haven law school. He came to Chicago in July, 1836, and was soon admitted to the bar, and formed a partnership with George A. O. Beau- mont, from Connecticut, with whom he continued in business until 1844. In 1840, he was city attorney for Chicago. In 1842, he was elected one of the board of school inspectors; in 1844, United States district attorney.
January 30, 1841, he with Walter L. Newberry, Hugh Dickey, Peter Page, Walter S. Gurney, who afterward became mayor of Chicago, and other public spirited citizens, organized the Young Men's Association, which ultimately grew into the Chicago Public Library as it now is. In 1846, Mr. Skinner was elected member of the general assembly, in which capacity he was appointed chairman of the committee on finance, and introduced the bill for funding the
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state debt and paying it in full, dollar for dollar, which through his influence, passed the house and became a law. At that time it was a question whether to repudi- ate or to pay it, and preserve the credit of the state. This was a critical period in Illinois history, and too much credit cannot be awarded the committee for its action in this bill. Meantime it should not be forgotten that the Illinois Central railroad did much to relieve the state from this incubus .*
In 1847 Mr. Skinner formed a partnership with Thomas Hoyne, and was soon after elected judge of Cook county court of common pleas.
He was one of the charter members of the Chicago Historical Society, organized in 1856, and he was fore- most among them in his efforts to make it a success. He was very constant in his attendance at their meet- ings, and on these occasions the writer of this article calls to mind his earnest advocacy of introducing young blood into the society, for the purpose of carrying on the work after its early members had passed away. In this work it ought to be mentioned that J. Y. Scammon was his peer. Both of these gentlemen were foremost in their action to help in the building up of every literary or artistic institution that could benefit pres- ent and future generations. It is fortunate for Chicago that such men, and others who could be named, helped to found so many prominent institutions that now decorate our city. As previously told in this volume, it was due to Judge Skinner's legal acumen in draw- ing up the will of Mr. Newberry, that the provisions for the immense Newberry Library were made incon- testable. Judge Skinner was a warm friend of John H. Kinzie, at whose house he married Elizabeth Magill Williams, May 21, 1841, a cousin of Mrs. John H. Kinzie. Judge Skinner was one of the organizers of the Home of the Friendless, established in 1858, and its president in 1860-61. Mrs. Skinner was a member of its first
* See History of Illinois Central R. R., p. 578, Vol. II, of this work.
THE KINZIES.
In the spring of 1804 John Kinzie and his wife Eleanor Lytle Kinzie, each mounted on a horse, threaded their way through the deep forests of Michigan, along a bridle track marked by blazes on the trees. This track led from Detroit to Chicago, passing through Charms (now Niles), Mich., an old French trading station. The whole effects of this newly married couple were lashed to the backs of their horses, includ- ing their first baby, for whom a swaddling pocket was made, and suspended to the horn of the saddle. In this pocket the baby was lulled to sleep by the motion of the horse. Each night they camped in the wilder- ness, and it is presumed they took good care that the wolves that howled around them should not get hold of "Johnny." On their arrival at Chicago, Mr. Kinzie purchased the French trading establishment of M. LeMai, which he improved from time to time, till it became the old Kinzie Mansion, as it was called in history, situated on the north bank of the Chicago river, opposite Fort Dearborn, close by where Rush street bridge now is. In this home the baby, John Harris Kinzie, spent his childhood till nine years of age, at which time the Chicago massacre of 1812 occurred, the details of which have already been told in Vol. I, of this history.
After the massacre John Kinzie and his family were sent to Detroit as British prisoners of war. The United States and England were then at war with each other, and in that war the Chicago massacre was,
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indirectly, executed on British account. Peace was restored by the treaty of Ghent, between United States and England, in 1814, and in 1816 John Kinzie with his family returned to Chicago. John Harris Kinzie, one of the subjects of this sketch, was then thirteen years old. Two years later, in 1818, he was taken to Mackinac by his father, and indentured to the Ameri- can Fur Co. for five years, during which period he. made his home with Robert Stuart, at the same time having the social advantages and friendship of Ramsey Crooks and family, both families being old friends of the Kinzie family. Mrs. Stuart, a well educated woman, took great interest in young Kinzie, and in her evening instructions to him, orally and by means of books well selected, made up to him as good educa- tional privileges as boys have at the present day.
Mackinac was then the great commercial empo- rium of the northwest, the bulk of their commerce being trade with the Indians in furs. Chicago was an outpost, Prairie du Chien was another, and Mr. Kinzie was transferred to the latter outpost in 1824. Here, while employed by the American Fur Co., he became thoroughly conversant with the Winnebago language, and wrote a grammar of this language,* which, after his death, was presented to the Chicago Historical Society.
Meantime Gen. Lewis Cass, then governor of Michigan, having invited him to become his private secretary, he left the employ of the American Fur Co. to accept the position, and became a member of the governor's family in Detroit, and as an aide on the governor's staff was entitled "Colonel." While acting in this capacity he was stationed a part of the time at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, among the Wyandot
* Grammar of the Indian language may seem an impossibility to persons not acquainted with Indian literature; but Schoolcraft, from his thirty years' experience among the Algonquins, says that the Indian language is capable of as perfect analysis as the English or French language.
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and Huron Indians, branches of the Iroquois tribes. Here he compiled a grammar of their language, which was essentially different from that of the Winnebagos, who belonged to the Algonquin division of the North American Indians.
In 1829 he was appointed government agent for the upper bands of the Winnebago Indians, making his headquarters at Fort Winnebago, near Portage City, on the Wisconsin river. Mr. Kinzie married, August 9, 1830, at the house of Judge Sanger, in Utica, N. Y., Miss Juliette Augusta Magill, daughter of Arthur William Magill, of Middletown, Conn., a prominent banker, and on the maternal side a great-granddaughter of Gov. Roger Wolcott. Mr. Kinzie took his bride to Fort Winnebago, where they remained until 1834, when they removed to Chicago with their first-born child, Wolcott, occupying a house called Cobweb Castle for two years, when they built the brick house on the corner of Cass and Michigan streets, in which he sub- sequently lived. This house was the birthplace of six more children, who, together with more than that number of adopted nephews, nieces and cousins, made a lively group of youngsters. Mr. Kinzie played the violin, attuned to Mrs. Kinzie's piano music. The tip- toe work of the boys and girls did the rest to furnish the fireside merriment of the long winter evenings. These recreations were far better to give character to youthful minds than the public shows of modern days.
Mrs. Kinzie became the authoress of "Walter Ogleby," "Waubun " and "Mark Logan." "Wau- bun," was a book well known among literary per- sons in the United States, and even in England to a large extent. The history of the Chicago massacre contained in it was detailed to her by eye-witnesses, which makes it authentic and above criticism. Its style has been approved by the best literary critics and reviewers. Mrs. Kinzie's classical education, her brill- iant conversational powers and personal attractions
Juliette A . Anigie
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made her home in Chicago the social center of litera- ture and art, where she was looked up to as a model to be imitated. She may truthfully be called the pioneer of art and literature in Chicago, as the writer well knows, who sometimes had the honor of being enter- tained in her home.
The Indians always had a keen sense of justice, and at Fort Winnebago they soon learned that Mr. Kinzie's dealings with them were frank, open hearted and friendly. It is not strange that they should have looked upon him as a man of superior intellect and sound judgment, especially as he was a man of com- manding figure, above six feet in height, with large dark blue eyes, dark hair, and made up in a way to inspire respect from both Indians and white people. Many present citizens of Chicago well remember Mr. Kinzie, among them the writer. He spoke thirteen dif- ferent Indian languages, which showed how extensively he had become acquainted with them and had won their confidence. They honored him with the same Indian name, Shaw-nee-aw-kee,* that they gave his father, whose memory was still fresh in their minds.
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