USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume I > Part 17
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A thorough American, Mr. Schneider is still an ardent admirer of the poet, Schiller, as are thousands who were not born on Ger- man soil. He served as president of the five-day commemoration of the death of the great genius, which was held in Chicago May 5-9, 1905, the elaborate exercises being conducted at the Auditorium. Two volumes were published commemorative of the occasion, which were edited by Mr. Schneider, who was also a contributor to the "Marbach Schiller Book," published at the birthplace of Schiller and also commemorative of the hundredth anniversary of his death. Mr. Schneider is also a contributor to the Chicago Glocke, a German monthly publication devoted to the interests of higher literature and art. He has been a member of the Germania Maennerchor since 1885 and was its president from 1897 to 1899; has been president of the German-American Historical Society since 1908; was president of the Chicago Chess Club in 1906-07; has been a member of the Union League since 1895, and is also identified with the Chicago Turn Verein and the Chicago Schwaben Verein.
On the 4th of October, 1883, Mr. Schneider was wedded to Miss Emily Beck, daughter of August Beck, the tobacco manufacturer who became a business man of Chicago in 1855; served as consul of the Grand Duchy of Hessen from 1866 to 1871, and has been honored with the order of the Cross of the Knight (first class) of Phillipp, the Magnanimous. The children of this union were as fol- lows: George August, born September 26, 1884, and Clarence Ed- gar Schneider, born April 8, 1888.
For an entire generation Dr. A. F. Nightingale has been identified in a conspicuous manner with education and the schools of Cook
A. F. county and Chicago. More than this, to quote from an editorial from the Chicago Evening Post
NIGHTINGALE. of November, 1906, "Dr. Nightingale has made education and the organization and direction of educational activities his life work. He has been remarkably successful. In almost every field of the work, from the primary to teaching the classics in a uni-
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versity, from grade teacher to superintendent of high schools, from instructor in Greek and Latin to college president, he has left the mark of an earnest student, an apt instructor, an intelligent organizer and a judicious director." This is very high appreciation, and yet a review of Dr. Nightingale's career as an educator shows the esti- mate to be just and well balanced, and that his present position as county superintendent of schools is merited by both personal fitness and professional ability.
Of New England ancestry, birth and training, Augustus Fred- erick Nightingale, a son of Thomas J. and Alice Nightingale, was born at Quincy, Massachusetts, November II, 1843. From the public schools of Quincy he passed first to Newbury Academy, Vermont, and in 1866 graduated at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, as vale- dictorian of his class. Since then the following higher scholastic degrees have been conferred upon him: A. M., 1869; Ph. D., 1891 ; LL. D., 1901.
From graduation until now, a period of over forty years, Dr. Nightingale has held an increasingly important position in educa- tional affairs of the middle west, and latterly of the nation. He was professor of Latin and Greek the first two years out of college, at Upper Iowa University; was president of Northwestern Female College, Evanston, Illinois, in 1868-71 ; professor of Latin and Greek in Simpson College, Iowa, 1871-72; was superintendent of the Omaha public schools in 1872-74, and since that, time has been a leader in the educational work of Chicago and Cook county. For sixteen years, from 1874 to 1890, he was principal of the Lake View high school. For two years following he was assistant superin- tendent of the Chicago public schools, and from 1892 to 1901 was superintendent of the high schools of the city. In 1902 he was elected superintendent of Cook county schools, and holds that office by re- election in 1906.
Dr. Nightingale has made his influence felt in the broader fields of education by his activity in various associations and educational movements. He has served as trustee of the University of Illinois since 1898, being president of the board in 1902-03. He was presi- dent of the Nebraska State Teachers' Association in 1873, and of the Illinois State Teachers' Association in 1887, and president of the secondary department of the National Educational Association
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in 1888. In the systematizing of the work of secondary schools and co-ordinating their work, Dr. Nightingale has long been one of the conspicuous educators of the country. From 1895 to 1899 he was chairman of the committee of the National Educational Association on college entrance requirements, and in 1898 was president of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. He is author of "Requirements for Admission to American Colleges." As an editor he is best known for his work on the "Twentieth Cen- tury Text Books," one hundred volumes. He has excellent command of English and his scholarship is of high rank among American edu- cators. He has been appointed by Governor Deneen a member of the Educational Commission to revise and perfect the school laws of Illinois.
Dr. Nightingale married, August 24, 1866, Fanny Orena, daughter of Rev. C. H. Chase, of New Hampshire. Their children are Mrs. W. Ruffin Abbott, Chicago; Harry Thomas Nightingale, Urbana, Illinois ; Mrs. Harrison M. Angle, Brooklyn, New York ; Mrs. Vaughn Lee Alward and Mrs. Winter D. Hess, of Evanston, Illinois.
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Denominational and Religious Growth
The spiritual needs of a new community are ever paramount to the educational, although American pioneer history indicates that the founders of cities and states in the western world have usually estab- lished churches and schools as contemporaneous institutions. Early separating religious affairs from those of government and drawing a sharp line between public schools and private churches, the fore- fathers at the same time recognized the fact that, broadly speaking, morality and intelligence walk together, and that the forces which conduce to these desirable traits should be put in operation as soon as possible.
The history of denominational and unsectarian, but nevertheless religious, growth in Chicago has generally followed the course of all such development in the west, although it has included special marked forces which will be noted. Obviously, the prime cause for the establishment of new churches is the increase and expansion of pop- ulation and the desirability of having a house of worship within a reasonable distance of the place of residence. Various disagreements over the questions of administration and doctrine also cause disrupt- ing factions in the original organizations and the establishment of new societies. In large centers of population, like Chicago, with the rapid settlement of outlying districts, the mother churches establish missions for the propagation of their faith, and these, in turn, become independent bodies with branches of their own. In common with all the large western cities (but in a more potential degree), Chicago is a city of diverse nationalities. It has now within its limits as many who were born in Germany, or whose parents were natives of the fatherland, as are inhabitants of the entire city of Cologne, the seventh in the empire. On the same basis, it has two-thirds as many Irish as are in Dublin, more Bohemians than the population of Pilsen (the second city of Bohemia), and nearly as many Swedes as there are in Gothenburg, Sweden's second city in population. Old-world
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conditions and events have caused large emigrations to Chicago and the west, such as the German revolution of 1848, the Russian mas- sacres and revolutions of recent years; but the influx, as a rule, has been continuous and steady. The result has been the establishment of an unusually large number of churches, the membership of which in each case is of the same nationality; such as the Swedish and German Evangelical churches and the Lutheran organizations, dis- tributed mainly among the Germans, Swedes, Danes and Norwegians. Something like one hundred and twenty-five thousand Poles and fifty thousand Russians are chiefly divided among the Catholic churches and the Russian Orthodox church, the organizations being based upon racial lines. There is also quite a large number of Greeks, who have their orthodox churches in the sections of the south and west sides of the city, where they mainly reside.
A cause of many church divisions in Chicago and throughout the country, which is now inoperative, was the question of slavery, which for many years caused many divisions in the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational churches. The great Chicago fire, while a purely local cause, had a wide effect on the growth of the city churches. It wiped out millions of dollars of property, scattered congregations and drove thousands of them into suburban districts; the former lines of demarkation between most of the churches on the north side and those in the central districts of the south side being almost obliterated. The edifices which replaced those swept away by the conflagration were, in common with those of a secular character, of a more sub- stantial and metropolitan character, some of them architecturally superb. The result of the great fire, with the grand and world-wide outpourings of sympathy and assistance, was a New Chicago in the religious field, as in all others. Thereafter not only were the houses of worship grander and more enduring, but the moral and spiritual effects of the historic event transformed what was outwardly a vast calamity into a spiritual blessing.
The beginnings of the religious history of the locality now cov- ered by Chicago are contained in the missionary labors of Father Jacques Marquette, the brave and gentle Jesuit priest who came among the Miami Indians of this region in the fall of 1673. It is yet a question under discussion whether Marquette ever set foot on
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any portion of the present site of Chicago. During his last illness, however, in the spring of 1675, it is said that his successor to the Illinois mission, Father Claude Allouez, entered the Chicago river and was welcomed by a band of Indians to his new labors. From that time on for many years the Indians at and near Chicago were never without the spiritual ministrations of some zealous Jesuit father, and in 1796, Rev. Stephen D. Badin, who three years before had been ordained in Baltimore as the first Catholic priest to be con- secrated to the church in the United States, honored Chicago with his presence. He came again in 1822 and baptized Alexander Beau- bien at Fort Dearborn, his being the first recorded baptism within the present city limits.
The first Protestant to preach a sermon in Chicago was the Rev. Isaac McCoy, a Baptist minister from a mission school near Niles, Michigan. He wrote: "In the fore part of October (1825) I attended at Chicago the payment of an Indian annuity by Dr. Wolcott, United States Indian agent, and, through his politeness, addressed the Indians on the subject of our mission. On the. 9th of October, I preached in English, which, as I was informed, was the first sermon ever delivered at or near that place." In the following year Rev. Jesse Walker, superintendent of the Fox River Methodist mission, came to Chicago and probably preached, as that good and zealous pioneer of the faith never lost an opportunity to spread the PIONEER METHODISM. gospel. His successor, Rev. Isaac Scarritt, cer- tainly did deliver a sermon, and, under such trying circumstances, that he has had occasion to record it in detail. One summer day of 1828 he arrived at Fort Dearborn and the little settlement of some half dozen houses called Chicago. At the time, so he noted, there was a great rivalry for popularity between John Kinzie and John Miller, and after putting up at the latter gentleman's house, Mr. Scarritt sent word to the lieutenant of the garrison that (with his permission) he would preach to the soldiers and others at the fort. Evidently not thinking it good policy - to show any religious partiality, the commandant returned word that he should neither forbid nor sanction the holding of such services. "Not to be outdone by the honorable lieutenant on the point of inde- pendence," continued Mr. Scarritt, "I declined going to the garrison
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under such circumstances, and made an appointment for preaching at Miller's at night. Most of the citizens and some of the soldiers were present and gave respectful attention; but in the matter of con- gregation we received rather more than we bargained for. During religious services a gang of boatmen, with their vociferous 'Yo-hes,' commenced landing and rolling up barrels near the door. This was a trick of Kinzie's, so Miller said, out of spite to him for having the honor of entertaining the missionary, and for the agency he took in promoting the religion of the place."
Within two years Methodism had taken such root in the locality that the Illinois Conference established the Chicago Mission District covering the country from Peoria to Chicago, with Rev. Jesse Walker as superintendent. In June, 1831, the superintendent visited Chicago with Rev. Stephen R. Beggs, who preached several sermons at the garrison, and in the fall was appointed by the bishop as the regular local preacher. Rev. William See, a blacksmith and regularly or- dained clergyman, also preached in Chicago, as occasion offered. Services were generally conducted in the fort at this time. In Jan- uary, 1832, the first quarterly meeting was held and was largely attended for that time, the provisions which sustained the throng being drawn by ox-team from Plainfield, forty miles distant. "It was a season long to be remembered," exclaimed Mr. Beggs. "Every- one seemed to be baptized and consecrated anew to the great work to be accomplished in the village that was destined to become a mighty city." In May, 1832, Mr. Beggs brought his wife to Chicago, and remained for about a year, the meetings of his growing society being held during a portion of the time in the log schoolhouse. Mr. Walker succeeded to the Chicago mission, and "Father Walker's log cabin," standing on the west side of the river, near the meeting place of the north and south branches, became church, parsonage, and the general center of local Methodism. In 1834 Mr. Walker became superannuated, and died in the following year, his splendid missionary labors in Illinois marking him as one of the grandest of Methodist pioneers in the west. He was succeeded by Henry Whitehead, the local elder, who was the first minister licensed to preach in Chicago, but it appears that the appointment was only tem- porary, since Rev. J. T. Mitchell became the regular clergyman in
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the winter of 1834-5. The first church of the society was built under the direct supervision of Mr. Whitehead, at the corner of North Water and Clark streets. It was a tiny wooden affair, with the usual sharp steeple, but although work was commenced on it in the summer of 1834, it was not completed until 1836. Two years afterward the church was removed across the river on scows to the corner of Clark and Washington streets, which was the establishment of that denomination, on one of the most valuable pieces of property ever controlled by a church in the west.
In the meantime the Catholics, the Presbyterians and the Baptists had effected permanent organizations, over which resident clergy- men presided. Father St. Cyr, a French priest, with only a smatter- ing of English at his command, was sent from St. Louis by the bishop of the Missouri diocese, upon petition of the one hundred Catholics then in Chicago and vicinity. The good Father accom- plished the journey partly on horseback and partly afoot, and cele- brated his first mass in Mark Beaubien's log cabin
FATHER ST. CYR. on Sunday, May 5, 1833. Father St. Cyr at once made preparations for the erection of a house of worship. He was unable to raise the $200 required for the purchase of a lot on Lake street, near Market street, and on the advice of Colonel J. B. Beaubien, selected a canal lot near the southwest corner of Lake and State streets. The first St. Mary's church was. erected thereon-a plain little wooden structure like a district schoolhouse, surmounted by the cross of Christianity. The lumber was scowed across from St. Joseph, Michigan, and after faithful work the church, at a cost of about $400, was ready for occupancy in October. All the villagers took a keen interest in the enterprise. Deacon John Wright, a strong supporter of Rev. Jeremiah Porter, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, assisted in raising the frame of the build- ing, and the leading citizens of Chicago took the liberal attitude that established religion, of whatever denomination, was good for the community. Before the church was plastered or painted, before the little open tower by which it was afterward surmounted had been placed thereon, a company of Indian women cleaned the inside of this modest house of worship in honor of those who were to attend the dedicatory exercises, and one hundred communicants filled the rough wooden benches which served as pews.
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Twelve days after Father St. Cyr arrived to take charge of St. Mary's parish, the Rev. Jeremiah Porter, a thoroughly educated
PRESBY- Massachusetts gentleman and a graduate of And- over Theological Seminary, was rowed from the
TERIANS.
schooner which was anchored in the harbor to the mouth of the river, around Fort Dearborn, and up the sluggish stream to a small tavern on the west side, near the junction of the north and south branches. The Presbyterian mission at Fort Brady (Sault Ste. Marie) had been disbanded by the transfer of troops to Fort Dearborn to meet the threatened dangers of the Black Hawk war. As the former post commandant of Fort Brady had also been transferred to Fort Dearborn, and invited Mr. Porter to accom- pany him to Chicago, the latter was now on the ground of his new missionary work. At the boarding house he met many of the business men of the place, and among others, John Wright, who, with Philo Carpenter, was for many years a stanch Presbyterian and a tower of strength in all Christian work in the city of Chicago. Captain Seth Johnson, the former commandant at Fort Dearborn, had been a devout supporter of religion, and with his departure the cause seemed dark to Mr. Wright and his fellow workers. His welcome to Mr. Porter was therefore in these words: "Well, I do rejoice, for yes- terday was the darkest day I ever saw. Captain Johnson, who had aided us in our meetings, was to leave us, and I was almost alone. I have been talking about and writing for a minister for months, in vain, and yesterday, as we prayed with the Christians about to leave us, I was almost ready to despair, as I feared the troops coming in would be utterly careless about religion. The fact that you and a little church were, at the hour of our meeting, riding at anchor within gunshot of the fort, is like the bursting, out of the sun from behind the darkest clouds." Temporary arrangements were therefore made for preaching in Fort Dearborn, its carpenter shop being emptied, cleaned and provided with seats, and on the next Sunday morning after his landing (May 19, 1833) Mr. Porter delivered his first sermon in Chicago. In the afternoon, by invitation of Father Walker, he preached in the log schoolhouse on the west side of the river, at Wolf Point, and was greeted by an enthusiastic and overflowing congregation. At six o'clock he presided over a prayer meeting at the fort, listened to Father Walker "after candle lighting." and would
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have had one of the fairest Sabbaths of his life had it not been marred by the following sight, as described in his journal: "The first dreadful spectacle that met my eyes on going to church was a group of Indians sitting on the ground before a miserable French dram shop, playing cards, and as many trifling white men standing around to witness the game." The Methodists, under Jesse Walker, were very cordial, and Mr. Porter continued to preach at the fort and Wolf Point for the accommodation of the garrison and villagers. On Wednesday, June 26, 1833, he organized the First Presbyterian church, with twenty-six members, seventeen of whom were con- nected with the garrison and had been members of his church at Fort Brady. Of the latter was Major DeLafayette Wilcox, who, with Messrs. John Wright and Philo Carpenter, were chosen elders. Mr. Carpenter had organized Chicago's first Sunday school the year before, and this was afterward reorganized by Mr. Porter. With a separate organization effected, efforts were now set on foot for the erection of a home, which was finally built on the southwest corner of Lake and Clark streets. It was about thirty by forty feet, cost $600, and, notwithstanding that the mercury stood at twenty- four degrees below zero on the day of the dedication (January 4, 1834), it is on récord "that a respectable audience was on hand." The prayer of consecration was offered by Rev. A. B. Freeman, of. the First Baptist church, which had been organized during the pre- ceding fall.
Since the arrival of the first Baptist family in Chicago-that of Dr. John T. Temple-the denomination had been gathering strength. The doctor, who was an enterprising and broadly educated Virginian gentleman, for some time after his coming (July 4, 1833) had at- tended the Presbyterian services at Fort Dearborn, but, through correspondence with the American Baptist Missionary Society, he had secured the appointment of a Chicago missionary. With one hundred dollars he then headed a subscription for a building which should be devoted to religious and educational purposes, and in the fall a two-story frame, known as the Temple building, was completed near the corner of Franklin and South Water streets. With the exception of Rev. Jesse Walker's log house at Wolf Point, this was the first "house of worship" built in Chicago. The upper story was used for school purposes and the lower floor by the Methodists,
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Presbyterians and Baptists until the completion of the Presbyterian church in the following January.
When the Rev. Mr. Freeman, with his wife, arrived in Chicago on the 16th of August, 1833, he found the Temple building com-
FIRST BAPTIST
pleted, but on the first Sunday preached to Rev. Jeremiah Porter's congregation at Blackstone's
CHURCH. Grove, twenty-eight miles south of Chicago. From this time until Mr. Freeman's death these two min- isters preached once each month to congregations in some distant village, on such occasions the Chicago congregations uniting to hear the brother who remained at home. Mr. Freeman effected a distinct organization of the First Baptist church October 19, 1833, with a membership of about twenty-five, and during his sixteen months of ministerial labors in the large territory of which Chicago was the center, he became known for his faithfulness and tenderness toward all men, his heroism in the discharge of duty, as well as his kindness to animals. In December, 1834, while returning from one of his missionary trips to Long Grove, fifty miles south of Chicago, where he had preached and administered baptism, his horse was taken sick, eighteen miles from the village. For two nights and one day Mr. Freeman watched with the suffering animal until it died. His duty to man and beast performed, he walked to Chicago. Overcome by exposure and fatigue, he was prostrated by typhoid fever and died ten days thereafter, December 15, 1834. The circumstances under which death came to him, better than words, portray his character and devotion to duty. Rev. Jeremiah Porter preached his funeral sermon in the Presbyterian church.
Thus did all denominations, Protestant and Catholic alike, show a brotherly interest in each other's interests, realizing that they were struggling for a foothold by which each might accomplish good in its own way. Death, more than all else, levels all such distinctions, and in the case of Mr. Porter and Mr. Freeman, the brotherly bond had been warm from the first.
The continuous history of the Catholic church in Chicago dates from Father St. Cyr's celebration of mass in Mark Beaubien's log
ST. MARY'S.
OLD cabin May 5. 1833. his parishioners being composed almost entirely of French Roman Catholics. The English-speaking Catholics increased so rapidly,
Vol. I-12.
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however, that Father O'Meara was appointed priest to them. By 1836 the German Catholics had gained such accessions that Father St. Cyr obtained an assistant of that nationality. Now, as to Father O'Meara. He and his parishioners, largely composed of Irish canal laborers, worshiped in the original St. Mary's church, which he re- moved from the corner of Lake and State streets to Michigan avenue and Madison street. In some way he had acquired personal title to the church property and he even defied his ecclesiastic superiors to oust him. Moreover, his habits were notoriously intemperate, and, as Father St. Cyr refers to him many years after, "he proved to be a notorious scoundrel." When, therefore, the recalcitrant priest re- moved the church to another location, a large faction of the congre- tion refused to follow him. At this crisis of affairs the bishop and vicar general arrived in Chicago with the avowed intention of excom- municating O'Meara, besides forcing him to surrender to the church the misappropriated property. Many of the canal laborers then de- clared that if their favorite was excommunicated they would clear the church and take possession of it themselves. "The bishop and vicar general hearing this," says an account written by an eye-wit- ness, "went among these men, addressed them on the subject, re- minding them of their allegiance to the church; told them that they knew no distinction of nation or habit among Catholics, but that the only distinction which must be maintained was between the worthy and unworthy, the faithful and unfaithful sons of the church, and concluded by warning them that if they offered the slightest resist- ance to any public ceremony enjoined by the church, they would- themselves incur the guilt of sacrilege, and be accordingly subjected to the very pains and penalties of excommunication which they wished to avert from another. This had the effect of calming them into sub- mission and the priest, learning this, consented to assign over to his superiors the property of the church, which he had unlawfully held from it and to leave the town on the following day, so that all pro- ceedings were stayed against him." Father St. Cyr took his honorable departure from Chicago in 1837, and Father O'Meara left in disgrace in 1840. The church was reunited by Rev. Maurice de St. Palais, under whom, in 1843 (December 25th), was completed the St. Mary's brick church, corner of Madison street and Wabash avenue. St.
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