USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Discovery and conquests of the Northwest, with the history of Chicago, Vol. II > Part 47
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675
The Future of Chicago.
tribute, and the most favored by geographical condi- tions will, in the near future, win the race. Of these four cities just mentioned, Chicago was the latest one started from nature's wilds, and up to 1860 was the smallest in numbers. Since that date she has grown rapidly and in a very brief space of time has left the others behind in population, and even in wealth. She is now the second city in America and, with New York, stands in open rivalry with London and Paris. Lon- don owes her greatness to her commerce on the high seas, protected by the British navy. Chicago, situated far in the depths of a continent, does not need such protection. The railroads that concentrate here are the avenues of her commerce, added to which are her partial commercial advantages through the great chain of lakes to the east, and her drainage canal to the Mississippi. No other city in the world has such a vast area of productive lands all around her and such facili- ties for extending her streets without crossing streams or without heavy grades. Both national grandeur and urban grandeur are appreciated in proportion as they excel and supersede. The great cities of Europe and America now have natural advantages pretty nearly balanced. National pride and ambition must decide the issue. If British progressiveness and ingenuity exceed American, London will ever, as now, be the largest city in the world. On the other hand, if Ameri- can progressiveness and ingenuity exceed British, either New York or Chicago will ultimately be the largest city in the world. On this latter hypothesis we have the issue narrowed down to New York and Chicago.
Which shall win the prize ?
PREHISTORIC CHICAGO.
Immediately after the treaty of Paris, of 1783, which guaranteed the independence of the United States, Washington, with characteristic forethought coupled with deep penetration, began to take meas- ures to provide against foreign aggression. With this end in view, in 1784, he wrote a letter to Benjamin Harrison, the newly appointed governor of the North- west Territory, urging upon him the necessity of bind- ing together all points of the Union, especially the west with the east, in order to prevent the formation of commercial and consequently political connections with either the Spaniards of the Floridas, or the Brit- ish of Canada. To effect this he advised the survey of the Potomac and James rivers, and portages from them to the Ohio river at the mouth of the Muskingum, and also from that river to the sources of the Cuyahoga river, for the purpose of opening water communica- tions for the commerce of the Ohio and the lakes to the seaboard. In a letter to Richard Henry Lee, in the same year, he says : "Would it not be worthy of the wisdom and attention of congress to have the western waters well explored, the navigation of them fully ascertained and accurately laid down, and a com- plete and perfect map made of the country, at least as far westerly as the Miamis, running into the Ohio and Lake Erie, and to see how the waters of these communicate with the river St. Joseph, which empties
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GEORGE H. LAFLIN.
George Hinman Laflin, one of Chicago's oldest and most success- ful business men, is a native of Connecticut, born in Canton, Conn., January 19, 1828. His father was Matthew Laflin. His mother was Henrietta Hinman.
Mr. Laflin was the founder of the well known wholesale paper house of G. H. & L. Laflin, afterward Laflin & Butler, and now known as the J. W. Butler Paper Co .; Mr. Laflin himself retiring from busi- ness in 1872.
Mr. Laflin has seen Chicago grow from an insignificant village to what it now is, the acknowledged metropolis of the West and the sec- ond city in the Union. He recalls with pleasure "the early days " of
fort Lafting
Chicago, and loves to recount his experiences as a member of the old "bucket brigade," which at that time constituted an important fac- tor in Chicago's volunteer fire department. He was also a member of the famous old Red Jack fire engine company.
Mr. Laflin was married on September 3, 1851, to Mary Minerva Brewster, who is a direct descendant of the famous Elder William Brewster.
Mr. Laflin came to Chicago in 1838, and lived in old Fort Dearborn, where his father had rented of Lieutenant Levansworth a house in the barracks. He has a very fine summer home in Pittsfield, Mass., where his children were born. He resides there six months in the year.
(57)
Joseph medill
Late Editor Chicago Tribune.
677
Prehistoric Chicago.
into Lake Michigan and with the Wabash; for I can- not forbear observing that the Miami village * points to a very important post for the Union."
In another letter to Mr. Lee, in 1785, he says : " However singular the opinion may be, I cannot divest myself of it, that the navigation of the Missis- sippi, at this time, ought to be no object with us. On the contrary, until we have a little time allowed to open and make easy the ways between the Atlantic states and the western territory, the obstructions had better remain.+ There is nothing that binds one coun- try or one state to another but interest."
From this letter it would appear that Washington attached more importance to the upper lake country and its connections with the James and Potomac rivers than to the lower Mississippi. From this view he took, it is evident that he knew nothing of the Chicago river and its easy portage to the Mississippi river by the way of the Illinois river, the success of which has but recently been achieved by the drainage canal.
The part Spain subsequently took in closing the mouth of the Mississippi against the commerce of the west raised a danger signal from another quarter. General Wilkinson, who had been appointed by Wash- ington to the command of the western army after the death of General Wayne, seeing the difficulties of the western people, particularly the people of Kentucky, in sending their produce to market, commenced intriguing with Spain to bring about a plan of a western independ- ent confederacy forming an alliance with Spain, which power was to grant to this confederacy a place of
* Near the present site of Fort Wayne.
t By these obstructions he meant the closing of the Mississippi river against the commerce of the west.
678
Prehistoric Chicago.
deposit at New Orleans and a highway to the sea by way of the Mississippi river. Spain took kindly to this proposition, as she considered this confederacy would be a bulwark to protect her Floridas and her Mexican
Norwood Park
SCALE OF MILES
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(MAP No. 1)
Map No. 1, taken from United States geological surveys, shows what Chicago was before the lake shore had receded to its present locality.
possessions, also her territory west of the Mississippi river. In accordance with these plans a city was laid out in prospect on the west bank of the Mississippi river, and, in compliment to Spain, was named New
Chicago River
Lagrange
Desplaines Outlet
The Vicinity of CHICAGO As it was in ** 1851; Being a Fac-Simile of
JAMES H. REES' MAP OF THAT DATE.
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Prehistoric Chicago.
Madrid .* This incipient city was destined, as Spain thought, to become the great metropolitan center of the immense west, and ample provisions were made, laying out public squares for state buildings and parks for pleasure grounds, and also public grounds for the erection of theaters and churches. Before the Ameri- can revolution Great Britain had made a conquest from Spain of the Floridas, and she had conveyed the same back to Spain, hence fears had arisen in the minds of American statesmen that Great Britain was to be rewarded for this with the island of New Orleans, as the city and its surroundings were then called; and in- asmuch as Great Britain had still retained possession of Detroit, various surmises as to her future policy were made, which, happily for America, never came to maturity. + All these plottings and counter-plottings did not take into account the part that Chicago was destined to play, simply because they were done and executed during the age of prehistoric Chicago, which never had a history till John Kinzie came there to set- tle in 1804. Spain, with unwarrantable ambition, had built an immense city on paper, wherewith to rival some site where Young America was destined to set his stakes, unhandicapped by political or religious intolerance, and this site was Chicago.
St. Louis was settled and had grown to a promis- ing village under the regime of Spain before these altercations between the United States and that power, as just told, had taken place, and history gives us no clue as to the reason why St. Louis instead of New Madrid was not then considered the most propitious place for the great Spanish city of the west. The fact
* Wilkinson was not the only traitor to America whose designs aimed at a western confederacy. Aaron Burr was equally guilty, but the part he took was more subtle and less systematic. His actions were confined to personal applications to those who he thought might favor disunion; both of them were arrested and tried for treason.
+ Col. George Morgan, of New Jersey, was the instrument by which this grant was procured from Spain.
(9)
680
Prehistoric Chicago.
that St. Louis is now an immense metropolis and that New Madrid is nothing shows the unwisdom of Spanish forecast at that time. Fifteen years later Louisiana was purchased from France by the United States,
O
SCALE OF MILES 1 2 34
Jefferson Park
Chicago River ...
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(MAP No. 2)
Map No. 2 is also a government map. It shows Chicago many centuries later than Map No. 1, as this city was, even within the memory of men now living. The chief point of interest in this map is to show the lines of accretions. Both these maps are correct cartographic illustrations of previous geological conditions of Chicago.
Spain having ceded that province to that power in 1801 by the treaty of San Ildefonso, which cession included the entire territory west of the Mississippi and the island of New Orleans. The negotiations for this
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Desplaines Outlet
Washington Heights
681
Prehistoric Chicago.
purchase were executed at Paris by Robert Livingston and James Monroe on the part of the United States, and Barbe Marbois on the part of France. Had this purchase never been made, Chicago would have been near the western limit of the United States, and con- sequently but an outpost of the commerce of the coun- try, and St. Louis would have been on the eastern verge of whatever nation might own the country west of the Mississippi river.
Both of these cities have an equal interest in the centennial celebration which is to take place in 1904 at St. Louis, albeit St. Louis is the proper place to hold this celebration.
VALEDICTION.
During the years that I have been at work in writing the foregoing volumes, I have felt that, in a certain sense, I have been conversing with my readers; with many of whom (in Chicago) I have had the honor of a personal acquaintance. Much of this work is contemporary his- tory, and on that score will be more valuable than if written subsequently to the time when the events of which it treats transpired. So recent has been the time since Chicago has had a history, that only its beginning had to be taken by the writer from the records that preceded his own observa- tion and that of his friends whom he has interviewed. The first steps taken to build a city at the mouth of the Chicago river date from the time when General Wayne, who conquered "Little Turtle," chief of the Miamis, and obtained from him a deed of land six miles square at the mouth of the Chicago river, "where a fort formerly stood,
built by Durantaye in 1785." This deed was obtained at
the treaty of Greenville, June, 1795. (See Vol. I, p. 304.) Here is the foundation on which was built Chicago history. The building of Fort Dearborn, finished in 1804, was the first link in its chain. The advent of John. Kinzie, who came to Chicago the same year, was the next. He died previous to the writer's advent to Chicago. With John H. Kinzie, his son; Gurdon S. Hubbard, L. C. P. Freer, Isaac N. Arnold, Mark Skinner, C. C. P. Holden, Zebina Eastman and many others who came soon after John Kinzie, the writer was famil- iarly acquainted, and has conferred with them as to the early history of Chicago. Chicago now contains, in round num- bers, 2,000,000 people, and the work done to bring Chicago up to this point has been mostly of a physical character. It is but a few years that artistic and educational influences have lent their aid to put on the Praxitelean touches to constitute a city worthy of its eastern progenitors. These touches consist of the University of Chicago, the North- western University, Lewis Institute, the Art Institute, Acad- emy of Sciences and Armour Institute. These are but pio- neers in the work of making Chicago what it ought to be, and what it surely will be when it takes upon itself the responsibilities that numbers and wealth and the present age of invention and higher standard of civilization will demand. Portraits which best represent the interests of education and the amenities of social life are herewith printed.
RUFUS BLANCHARD.
CHICAGO, January, 1903.
A.F. Nightingale Contuld. Hancon Horatio Stina
Anual Balloary
Chas Henrotin
Chalu Calbolden Alberts Beaumone Ossian InThree
. F. Juley Mrs. Kerfo
Bordlow.
EngulfHay.
Victor @ Alderson
Francs W. Shepardson Stephen forragens
Edwin. B. Sheldon aaron M. Mckay
F
below Thomaston RWPatterson
Edward. 8
Starrey . B. Hurd
Vidar Coming Cantinaw Heures. -
wolup Brayn Bryan Lathrop
Edward Never
lian K. Highly.
INDEX.
GENERAL.
Anti-Slavery Agitation in Illinois, 125
Armour Institute, 668
Art Institute, 339
Ashburton-Webster Treaty, 374
Associated Press,
56
Astoria Established by John Jacob Astor, 373
Black Laws of Illinois, . 289
Brown, John, in Chicago 299
Cahokia, 553
Chicago Academyof Sciences, 497
Chicago American, 242
Chicago & North-Western Ry., 100
Chicago Chartered as a City, . 9
Chicago Chronicle, . 240
Chicago Daily News and Record, 259
Chicago Evening Journal, 248
Chicago Evening Post, 245 Chicago Fire Department, 158
Chicago Inter-Ocean, 237 Chicago Library Association, 467 Chicago Manual Training School, 493
Chicago Public Library, 478
Chicago Relief and Aid Society 152 Chicago River and its Bridges, 149
Chicago Times-Herald, 243
Chicago Tribune, History of, 229 Chicago, The Future of, 674
City Limits of Chicago, 16
City Press Association, 65
Columbus, Death of, . 429
Commercial History of Illinois 2:25
Congress of Religions, 449
Datum, Table of, from 1854 to 1899, 170
Die Freie Presse of Chicago, 247
Drainage Canal of Chicago, . 172
Early Commerce of the Lakes, 187 Evans, John, Founder of Evans-
ton, 642
Field Columbian Museum, . 190
First Mayor of Chicago, Elec- tion of, . 10
Flood of Chicago, 1849, 20 Garrett Biblical Institute, .
642
Grade of Chicago Streets First Established, 15
Gray, Capt. Robert, Circum- navigates the Earth, 371
Gray, Capt. Robert, Sails up the Columbia River, 371 Great Fire of 1871, 70
Horse Railroads, First in Chi- cago, 52
Illinois Admitted into the
Union as a State, 559
Illinois and Michigan Canal, . 163 Illinois Central Railroad, . 578 Illinois Organized as a Terri- tory, 558
Illinois Staats Zeitung, 253
Illinois under American Rule, 555 Illinois under English Rule, . 554 Illinois under the French, 551 Iroquois, The-Their Influence
on the United States 561
John Crerar Library, 545
Kinzie, John, . 608
Kinzie, John-His Autograph Letter, 607
Kinzie, John Harris, 609
Kinzie, John and Arthur-Sons
of John Harris Kinzie, . 612
Kinzie, Mrs. Juliette Augusta, 610 Kinzie, Mrs. Nellie Kinzie Gordon-Daughter of John Harris Kinzie, 613
Laffin, Mathew, 543
602
Lake Shore Drive Laid out, . Lake Tunnels, Description of, 48 Lewis and Clark's Expedition to the Pacific Coast, . .
372
Index.
GENERAL-CONTINUED.
Lewis Cass, Gen., 609
Lewis Institute, 659
Louisiana Purchased by the United States,. 371
Louisiana Transferred from France to the United States 385
Mackinac, The Commercial Center of the Northwest, . 609
Mayors of Chicago, List of, 17
Mission of the Immaculate Conception, 552
Naming America, 386
Newberry Library,
569
Newspapers, List of, in 1900, .
8
Northwestern University, .
635
Old Mackinaw in 1818,
313
Oregon, .
369
Oregon Boundary Established
by Treaty, 380
Palmer, Potter, 598
Park System, .
601
Population of Chicago,
18
Postoffice in Chicago,
175
Prehistoric Chicago,
676
Press of Chicago,
5
Ptolemy,
392
Public Surveys, 487
Railroads Entering Chicago on Their Own Track August
1, 1900, 227
Railroad System of the North-
west, .
94
Red Jacket,
566
Republican Convention of 1860, 113 Rocheblave, Governor of
Illinois under England, . . 554 Russia Relinquishes All Ter- ritory South of 52° 40' 369
School System of Chicago Established, 12
Settlement of Illinois,
.
333
Sewerage System of Chicago Inaugurated, 13
Skinner, Mark, 604
Skinner, Richard, 606
Slave Sold at Auction in
Chicago, 283
St. Die Pamphlet, 388
State Street Widened, .
599
181
Stone, H. O., Reminiscences of,
Taxes,
18
Todd, John,
555
Tunnels of Chicago, 24
Underground Railroad,
269
University of Chicago, 615
Utrecht, Treaty of, 373
Valediction, 682
Van Buren Street Tunnel, 31
Wards and City Limits, 12
Public Debts of Chicago,
18
Washburne, E. B.,
123
Water Supply of Chicago,
34
Water Tunnels and Intake Cribs, 49
Whitman, Marcus, 382
World's Columbian Exposition 386
Yerkes Observatory,
219
Young Men's Association,
463
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Aboriginal Iroquois Fort, . 563
Art Institute, . .
. 342, 344, 345, 346, 347, 349, 350, 351, 353, 354, 355,
356, 357, 359, 360, 362, 363, 365, 366 Chicago Academy of Science, 498
Chicago in 1853, .
112
Chicago Public Library,
486
Chicago University Buildings, . . 617, 619, 621, 623, 625, 627, 629
Chicago's First Fire Engine, . 159 Early News and Periodical Store, 560
Early Surveys around Chicago, 490 Field Columbian Museum, . 191 Field's Museum Views,
202, 207, 209, 211, 213, 215, 217 First Building in Burnt Dis- trict, 93
Index.
ILLUSTRATIONS-CONTINUED.
First Chicago Postoffice, . . First Map of North and South America, 391
Kaskaskia State House,
554
Lake Tunnels,
51
Main Entrance to Academy of
Science,
532
Map of Chicago and Vicinity in 1851, 678
Model of the Moon,
219
Newberry & Dole Warehouse, 18
Newberry Library,
577
175
Newberry Library Views, . .
571, 573, 575 Northwestern University, . . . 643, 645, 647, 649
Seal of Chicago,
16
Stage Office,
228
The Art Institute of Chicago,
338
The First Passenger Station
in Chicago,
111
World's Fair Illustrations, 441-449 World's Zone of Commerce, . 110
PORTRAITS.
Andrews, Edmund, .
525
Kinzie, Juliette A.,
610
Laflin, George H .. 676
Bonney, Charles Caroll, .
449
Laflin, Mathew, 542
Bross, William, 505
Brown, John,
299
Bryan, Thomas B.,
440
Carpenter, Philo,
273
Chamberlain, Thomas C., . 537
Columbus, Christopher,
434
Crerar, John, 545
De Wolf, Calvin,
275
Dyer, Charles V.,
295
Eastman, Zebina,
312
Field, Marshall,
196
Freer, L. C. Paine, 289
Gage, Lyman J.,
435
Gordon, Nelly Kinzie, 612
Goudy, William C., 531
Harper, William R., 614
Harrison, Carter H., Sr., 438
Higinbotham, Harlow N.,
436
. Hurd, Harvey B.,
310
James, Edmund Janes, 637
Jefferson, Thomas, 368
Jones, John, 297
Kennicott, Robert,
506
Kinzie, John H.,
609
and Monument, 368
Lincoln, Abraham, 122
Livingston, Robert R., 384
McCagg, Ezra B., 500
Medill, Joseph,
676
Newberry, Walter, . 568
Palmer, Mrs. Potter, 439
Palmer, Potter, .
598
Pinkerton, Allan,
304
Ptolemy, Claudius, 390
Rogers, Henry Wade, 641
Scammon, J. Young, 502
Schneider, George, 291
Sheppard, Robert D. 639
Skinner, Mark, 604
Stimpson, William, 508
Velie, J. W., 526
Walker, George C .. 528
Washburne, E. B., 123
Washburne, Hempstead,
437
676
Leiter, L. Z.,
Lewis, Allen C., . 659
Lewis, Captain Meriwether,
Blatchford, Eliphalet W., 510
1814
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