Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Hancock County, Volume I, Part 126

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. cn; Currey, J. Seymour (Josiah Seymour), 1844-1928. 4n; Scofield, Charles J. (Charles Josiah), 1853- 4n
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 744

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BOARD OF EQUALIZATION, organized under act of the General Assembly, approved March 8, 1867; after various changes now (1911) consists of 25 members chosen by popular vote-one from each Congressional District-with the State Au- ditor as ex-officio member and Chairman. It meets annually on the first Tuesday after August 10th, its duty then being to examine abstracts of as- sessments from the several counties and equalize the same in order that equal rates may be im- posed upon property according to value in all parts of the State. For this purpose property is divided into five classes, viz .: Personal property ; town and city lots; land other than town lots; railroad, telegraph and telephone stock and prop- erty; and capital stock of franchise corporations. Separate committees are appointed to deal withı these classes, besides a committee of general equalization. Each member receives a salary of $5 per day while in session, and the Board chooses its Secretary, the necessary number of clerks and other employes, and provides for printing and distribution of copies of proceedings after each session. The most difficult problem the Board has to meet is the equitable assessment upon capital stock and franchises of corporations. After the work of the Board is completed, the Governor, Auditor and State Treasurer fix the rate of taxation requisite to meet the appropria- tions made by the General Assembly.

BOARD OF HEALTH, created by act of the Legislature in 1877, with supervision of measures for protection of the health and lives of the people, matters pertaining to quarantine, and in- vestigation of the sanitary condition of hotels and lodging houses in cities having over 100,000 inhabitants. In 1899 its jurisdiction was extended over the examination and licensing of surgeons and physicians, reporting the standing of medical colleges, and, by a later act, it is required to keep a record of all births and deaths within the State;

is also charged with the examination, licensing and registration of embalmers, the appointment of agents for the distribution of diphtheria anti- toxins, is empowered to investigate the water of cities having a population of 2,000 or over, to supervise measures for the prevention and re- striction of consumption, investigate fraudulent medical colleges and otherwise protect the public health.

BOARD OF PHARMACY, created by an act of 1881, is composed of five members, registered pharmacists of at least ten years' experience, em- powered to examine all applicants and issue cer- tificates to the same when entitled to receive them, and to prosecute violations of the pharmacy act. The Board is required to hold meetings for the examination of applicants for registration, and is empowered to issue three grades of certificates -to apprentices, assistant and registered phar- macists.

BOARD OF PARDONS. This Board was cre- ated by act of the Legislature on recommenda- tion of Governor Tanner in 1897, under provision of the Constitution (Art. 5, Sec. 13) empowering the Governor to "grant reprieves, commutations and pardons, after convictions, for all offenses . . subject to such regulations as may be provided by law"-the object being to reduce the personal. labor of the Governor in this department. All applications for pardon are required to be pre- sented to the Board, and, after investigation, reports are submitted to the Governor, with such recommendations as may be agreed upon by a majority of the Board. Before the adoption of this policy, all petitions were submitted to the Governor. The Board is non-partisan, consisting of three appointive members, of whom only two may belong to the same party. Regular sessions of the Board are held quarterly, but in case of emergency, special meetings may be held under call of the Governor or Chairman. The duty of administering the parole law is also imposed upon the Board. The present Board (1911) con- sists of G. De F. Kinney, Charles G. Eckhart and Ethan Allan Snively (Chairman). The Board vis- its each penitentiary once each month for the purpose of investigating the records of prisoners petitioning for parole.

CARTER, Orrin Nelson, Judge, was born in Jef- ferson County, N. Y., January 22, 1854. When ten years of age he removed with his parents to Du Page County, Ill. He attended the district schools in his native State and in Illinois and continued his studies at Wheaton College. where he was graduated in 1877. He was married to

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Miss Nettie J. Steven August 1, 1881. Mr. Carter was admitted to the bar in 1880; was county superintendent of schools in Grundy County from 1880 to 1882, and state's attorney from 1883 to 1888. In 1889 Mr. Carter removed to Chicago and became attorney for the Sanitary District, in which capacity he served from 1892 to 1894. In the latter year he was elected County Judge, to which office he was twice re-elected, and served eleven years, resigning' in 1906 to become Justice on the State Supreme Bench, which position he now holds. His home is in Evanston.

CENTENNIAL OF STATEHOOD. Illinois was admitted as a state of the Union by an Act of Congress passed on December 3, 1818. In an- ticipation of the Centennial anniversary of this event, the most important in the history of the state, the Illinois General Assembly in 1913 cre- ated the "Illinois Centennial Commission." The duties of this commission were to fittingly ob- serve the one hundredth anniversary of the state's admission to the Union on the Centennial date. The commission was composed of fifteen mem- bers and a suitable appropriation was made for the preliminary work. Dr. Otto L. Schmidt of Chicago was made president of the commission and Mrs. Jessie Palmer Weber was made secre- tary. Hon. Hugh S. Magill, Jr., was appointed director of the Centennial celebration. The com- mission adopted plans for local celebrations, meet- ings, pageants, etc., to be held throughout the state during the Centennial ycar. The acts cre- ating the commission also provided for the "prep- aration of publications putting in permanent form the record of the state's progress in all lines of development," and for the "erection of a per- manent memorial building for the use of the his- torical and educational departments of the state, where shall be preserved the historical relics of the state, containing a memorial hall where shall be placed statues of Illinois' illustrious men." It was also provided especially that there should be erected bronze statues of Lincoln and Douglas on the capitol grounds. In later enactments it was provided that "a commemorative history of the state of Illinois" should be compiled and pub- lished. In 1917 the General Assembly passed an act with especial reference to the building men- tioned in the previous acts, with additional par- ticulars. It provided that a Centennial Memorial building shall be erected in the City of Spring- field on the grounds south of the capitol building, purchased by the Centennial Building Commission to cost when completed approximately $850,000. The building shall be planned to provide for a

memorial hall, a Lincoln memorial room, state library, state historical library, state museum, a repository for state archives, department of public instruction and such other departments as may be determined by those having the work in charge." The act referred to also provided for a "Centennial flag" with an arrangement of stars to indicate that Illinois was the twenty-first state to be admitted to the Union. A special coin was authorized by Congress June 1, 1918, to com- memorate this anniversary, consisting of 100,000 silver fifty-cent pieces bearing the head of Lincoln on the obverse side of each coin and the seal of the state of Illinois on the reverse side. Under the rul- ing of the Centennial Commission these coins were disposed of at one dollar each and the profit used in promoting the work of the commission. The war in Europe occupied the minds of the people almost to the exclusion of other interests during the Centennial year. The great part that Illinois was called upon to perform monopolized public attention, and for that reason the interest that would have been taken in the various observances as planned by the commission was lacking to a large extent. The year passed with but few of the great celebrations which had been intended to be held. But the people still have the noble memorial building and the statues of the great sons of Illinois as enduring marks of this great anniversary.

CHERRY MINE DISASTER, THE .- The most serious mining disaster which up to this time had ever occurred in Illinois was that of the fire at the coal mine of the St. Paul Company at Cherry, Ill. In this disaster 287 miners lost their lives. On the afternoon of November 13, 1909, a fire was accidentally started at the mouth of the mine which quickly filled the shaft with smoke at the bottom of which there was a full force of miners at work. Prompt steps were taken to give an alarm and rescue the workmen. A party of cleven citizens and mine employees at once descended the shaft and had succeeded in bringing out 185 men after making six trips, but on the seventh the rescuers were themselves over- come and all perished. The fire had made so much headway that the interior of the mine became a blazing mass, and further efforts were abandoned. It was then decided to be necessary to seal the mouth of the mine in the hope of extinguishing the fire. Meantime two men hav- ing experience in mining accidents were sum- moned from Pittsburgh, Pa., and soon after ar- rived, bringing with them "oxygen helmets" de- signed for emergencies of this character. These

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men with another who volunteered for the work descended into the mine still filled with gas, and after several hours' search, succeeded in finding twenty-one miners who were still living after seven days' entombment, having barricaded them- selves in a side passage. These they brought forth and all were revived after reaching the surface. Prompt measures were taken for the relief of the widows, orphans and others left helpless by the disaster, and generous responses were made from all parts of the state. The legis- lature appropriated $100,000 for the relief of the families and dependents of the miners who lost their lives. A few months afterwards awards were made from the Carnegie "hero fund" to the families of the eleven men who lost their lives in the work of rescue, and to those who reached and rescued the entombed men after a week's imprisonment in the mine.

CHICAGO HEIGHTS, a village in the southern part of Cook County, twenty-eight miles south of the central part of Chicago, on the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern and the Michigan Central Railroads; is located in an agricultural region, but has some manufactures as well as good schools-also has two weekly newspapers. Pop. (1900), 5,100; (1910), 14,525.

CHICAGO PLAN, THE. The Chicago Commer- cial Club from 1907 to 1909 had a "City Planning Committee," which published in 1909 an exhaust- ive study of an extensive series of improvements in the streets, parks and transportation systems of the city. An elaborate treatise was prepared under the auspices of the committee by Daniel H. Burnham and Edward H. Bennett, architects, en- titled "Plan of Chicago," which formed the basis of a newly awakened interest among the people secking relief from the congestion incident to the rapid growth of the city. The text of this treatise was ably cdited by Charles Moore. This move- ment came to be popularly known as "The Chi- cago Plan," and from that time to the present has been under constant discussion, and official action has followed in recognition of the plan in many important particulars. On the first of November, 1909, Mayor Fred A. Busse announced the appointment of 328 citizens as members of the first "Chicago Plan Commission" and desig- nating Charles A. Wacker as chairman. On January 13, 1911, Walter D. Moody was appointed managing director. Mr. Wacker's connection with the Plan of Chicago is a thrilling example of civic devotion and loyalty; he has been the guiding spirit in working out this great scheme of mu- nicipal development. In this work he has had the

invaluable aid of Mr. Moody's efforts, who with tireless energy has employed efficient publicity methods through the press and from the lecture platform. The first step has been taken in the widening of Twelfth Street (the name of which has now been changed to Roosevelt Road), at a cost of $4,500,000. This has been followed by the great project of connecting Michigan Boule- vard with the Sheridan Road along the shore of the lake north of the river. This improvement is estimated to cost $13,000,000. The Ogden Avenue improvement, to connect Union Park and Lincoln Park, is the next step in the working out of the plan.

CICERO, a city and township of Cook County, adjacent to and west of the city of Chicago, and lies between Oak Park on the nortlı and Berwyn on the south; is a popular residence section and has long resisted annexation to Chicago. Pop. (1910), 14,557.

DENEEN, Charles Samuel, Governor, was born in Edwardsville, Ill., May 4, 1863. He received his early education in the public schools of Leba- non and was graduated from McKendree College in 1882. He taught school in Jasper and Madison counties, during which time he studied law. In 1885 he went to Chicago, Ill., and completed his legal studies in the Union College of Law. He taught for a time in the public night schools of Chicago. He has always interested himself in politics, local, state and national, representing his ward in the city and county committecs of his party for many years, and for ten years was a member of the Republican State Central Com- mittee. He was elected in 1892 to the General Assembly, in 1895 was appointed attorney to the Sanitary District of Chicago, was elected State's Attorney of Cook County in 1896, and continued to hold this office until he was elected Governor in November, 1904. He was inaugurated January 9, 1905, and elected to a second terin which began January 18, 1909. Mr. Deneen was married May 10, 1891, to Bina Day Maloney of Mt. Carroll, Ill. He has a law office in Chicago, where he also has his residence.

DUNNE, Edward Fitzsimmons, Governor, was born at Waterville, Conn., October 12, 1853. He was one year old when his father moved to Peoria, Ill., where his father attained political and busi- ness prominence. In his boyhood he attended the public schools of Peoria, and upon his graduation from the Peoria High School he was sent to Ire- land and became 'a student in the University of Dublin, remaining there for three years. Return- ing to Pcoria, he took up the study of law, and

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in 1876 entered upon a course at the Union Col- lege of Law in Chicago. In 1878 he was admitted to the bar and engaged in the practice of law in Chicago. He was elected Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County in 1892, and was twice re-elected to the same office. In 1905 he resigned from the bench and was elected Mayor of Chicago, serving for two years. In 1912 lie received the Democratic nomination for Governor of the state and was elected by a plurality of 124,000 votes. He was inaugurated Governor February 3, 1913, and served four years in that office. Mr. Dunne was married August 16, 1881, to Elizabeth J. Kelly of Chicago. As judge, mayor and governor he won a high reputation for uprightness and in- tegrity.

THE EASTLAND DISASTER. The foundering of the passenger steamer "Eastland" at her dock in the Chicago River in 1915 was the most re- markable disaster that ever occurred on the Great Lakes. This disaster resulted in the loss of 812 men, women and children, who perished within a few minutes after the lines had been cast off at the beginning of the steamer's voyage. This tragic event took place on July 24 in tlic year mentioned above. Practically all of the fatali- ties were those of individuals whose residence was in Chicago. A report of the Eastland Dis- aster Relief Committee was issued in June, 1919, in which is given a complete record of the eases and a full account of the disaster. The steamer Eastland was one of four passenger steamers that had been chartered by the Western Electric Com- pany of Chicago to convey the employees of that company to Michigan City, Ind., on their annual outing, accommodations having been provided for 7,000 men, women and children. The steamer was to have left hier dock at the foot of La Salle Street, on the south side of the river, at 7:30 A. M., to be followed by the other steamers at half-hour intervals; but by 7:10 there were ap- proximately 2,500 persons already on board, and the officers decided to sail at once, as all available space was occupied. The lines were cast off and the steamer began to move slowly into the stream. As the great vessel swung away from the dock it was noticed that she gradually listed over toward the middle of the river, but presently she swayed back to an almost even keel, then began to list again, and turned over and lay flat on her port side in some eighteen feet of water, with the keel only a few feet from the dock. At first the people aboard thought there was nothing unusual in this movement of the boat, and it was not until tables and chairs were overturned that

the passengers became alarmed. Then the cheer- ing and shouting suddenly ceased and gave way to a mad panic among them and a wild scramble for safety. Still the boat turned over very slowly and a large number of those on the star- board side, next the dock, elambered up the land- ing place with the assistance of those ashore and thus saved their lives. Meantime the steamer settled on the bed of the river with a large por- tion of her hull remaining above water. Several hundred of those on deck were thrown into the water by the capsizing of the boat towards the middle of the river, most of whom either swam ashore or were rescued by the prompt arrival of small boats from other vessels. But many hun- dreds on the lower decks were penned in and drowned or crushed to death. Some of the im- prisoned ones were able to escape complete sub- mergence within the staterooms until holes were eut in the side of the boat which remained above water and were brought out in safety. Hundreds of others were found dead by the rescuers when they were finally reached, the water having over- whelmed them in their places of refuge. The bridges at Wells and Clark Streets were thronged with thousands of people going to their daily tasks who had witnessed the disaster and great numbers of willing helpers at once arrived on the scene, though it was difficult to afford any help under the circumstances. Alarms were at once sent to the police and fire departments, some of them even before the steamer had completely turned over, and all the newspaper offices were notified. None of the other steamers of the ex- eursion fleet left their docks and the excursion was abandoned. The Western Electrie Company suspended operations at the works until such re- lief as it was in its power to give had been provided. The people of Chicago sprang at once to the relief of the living and a large fund was raised. Entire families had perished in this ap- palling , calamity. Parents had gone to their death leaving families of children; sons and daughters had been drowned, leaving their par- ents childless. All the bread winners of other families were lost, leaving numerous dependents. The mayor at once appointed a committee con- sisting of fifty-seven members and it was decided by this committee to place the relief measures in the hands of the Red Cross. The officers of the Western Electric Company appropriated $100,- 000 for the relief of those families some of whose members had perished, besides paying out some $75,000 in death benefits from the regular fund reserved for that purpose. The total amount of

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the relief funds paid in to the Red Cross in this work was $386,000. The hull of the Eastland was raised a few weeks later and towed to· a shipyard on the North Branch, where extensive alterations were made. Its upper decks were removed, as it was decided that the boat lacked sufficient stability for further use as a passenger vessel. It was finally sold to the United States Navy and remodeled into a destroyer, its name changed to "Wilmette," and it now belongs to the training fleet in service on the Great Lakes. In consequence of the Eastland disaster the ex- cursion business out of Chicago for that season was almost completely annihilated, and it has only been slowly recovering in later seasons. There has been exercised since that time greater care in the navigation of the lake passenger boats, regulations have been more stringent, and government inspections, which had become slack before the disaster occurred, have become more rigid, and the likelihood of future disasters re- duced to a minimum.

FOREST PARK (formerly Harlem), a village and suburb of Chicago, on the line of the C. & N. W. R. R., 9 miles west of the terminal station; is a favorite residence section. Pop. (1910), 6,594.

GRANITE CITY, in Madison County, located five miles north of St Louis on the lines of the Burlington; the Chicago & Alton; Cleveland, Cin- cinnati, Chicago & St. Louis; Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis (Illinois), and the Wabash Railways. It is adjacent to the Merchants' Terminal Bridge across the Mississippi and has considerable manu- facturing and grain-storage business; has two newspapers. Pop. (1900), 3,122; (1910), 9,903.

HARVEY, a city of Cook County, and an im- portant manufacturing suburb of the city of Chi- cago, three miles southwest of the southern city limits. It is on the line of the Illinois Central and the Chicago & Grand Trunk Railways, and has extensive manufactures of harvesting, street and stcam railway machinery, gasoline stoves, enameled ware, etc .; also has one newspaper and ample school facilities. Population (1900), 5,395.

HIGINBOTHAM, Harlow Niles, merchant, was born near Joliet, Ill., October 10, 1838. He was the son of Henry D. and Rebecca (Wheeler) Higin- botham. He attended the Lombard University at Galesburg, Ill., and a commercial college at Chi- cago, Ill. In 1862 he enlisted for service in the Civil War, in the Mercantile Battery of Chicago, and was chief clerk in the quartermaster's de- partment from that time until the end of the war in 1865. He was married December 7, 1865, to Rachel D. Davison, who died in 1909. After

his return to private life, Mr. Higinbotham en- tered the employ of Field, Leiter & Co., dry goods merchants, and in 1868 was admitted as a part- ner in the firm. At the time of the Chicago fire in 1871 he proved of great service to the firm in getting out of the store and saving a large quantity of costly goods. For many years he was recognized as the most efficient credit man in the trade, and easily became the most promi- nent figure in the great establishment of Mar- shall Field & Co., which had succeeded to the business of Field, Leiter & Co. In 1890 Mr. Higin- botham was chosen by the stockholders of the World's Columbian Exposition as one of its forty-five directors, and in 1892 was elected presi- dent of the board. He continued as president until the day of his death nearly twenty-seven years later, for it must be remembered that the affairs of so great an enterprise as the World's Fair have required many years to wind up its affairs. In an estimate of the services rendered by Mr. Higinbotham a writer has said: "It is clearly scen that the chief figure in the galaxy of honorable men who brought the great Exposition through its difficulties to its glorious accomplish- ments was that of Harlow N. Higinbotham." In 1901 Mr. Higinbotham retired from Marshall Field & Company after thirty-six years of service, a large part of the time acting as one of the leading pillars of the establishment. He was president of the Field Museum of Natural His- tory from 1897 to 1909, and was the founder and active head of the Chicago Home for Incurables until his death. He died April 18, 1919, from the effects of an accident in the streets of New York City. One of the many tributes to his character and worth may be mentioned in this brief sketch. Mr. Higinbotham, it was said, was one of the best citizens Chicago ever had. The city owes a great deal to him for his splendid work, especially during the World's Fair period.

ILLINOIS TRACTION SYSTEM, THE. With- in the last few years the growth of the Illinois Traction System has given this state what is perhaps the finest example of the modern com- pletely equipped electric railway in existence. The state of Illinois is 385 miles in length from the northern to the southern boundary, 218 miles in width from the Indiana state line to the Miss- issippi River, and comprises a total area of 56,650 square miles. Its pre-eminence in the production of at least two of the principal grain crops of the country, corn and oats, and the high rank it` maintains in others; its immense production of bituminous coal; its primacy in manufacturing,

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Hancock County, Volume I, Part 126

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. cn; Currey, J. Seymour (Josiah Seymour), 1844-1928. 4n; Scofield, Charles J. (Charles Josiah), 1853- 4n Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 744

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. cn; Currey, J. Seymour (Josiah Seymour), 1844-1928. 4n; Scofield, Charles J. (Charles Josiah), 1853- 4n
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 744