USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume I > Part 24
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
Some of the best brain and brawn of Chicago were expended in the conception, organization and prosecution of this great work, and it is therefore extremely difficult to select participants for special Vol. I-16.
242
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
mention. But it is generally conceded that none were more prom- inent from the conception to the virtual completion of the system than Lyman E. Cooley, the eminent engineer, and Frank Wenter, the energetic and broad-minded president of the board, during the first three years of constructive work, and a trustee from the organ- ization of the board until five years after the completion of the main canal. Mr. Cooley's record is even more of a pioneer nature; for, in his capacity as an engineer, as early as 1885, he commenced to agi- tate the necessity of a sanitary canal, and as a member of the Citi- zens' Association drew up the report which resulted in the crystaliza- tion of a drainage and water supply commission and finally the sani- tary district itself. He was consulting engineer to the city and the sanitary district commission, and in 1889 represented both municipal and civic interests when the bill was passed by the legislature which created the Sanitary District. He determined the physical boundaries of the district; was its first engineer; afterward served five years (1891-5) as a member of the board; was consulting engineer in 1897; for a year previously was one of the experts who devised the system of intercepting sewers upon which depends the thorough flushing of the sewage into the drainage canal, and in 1901 was one of the em- inent engineers engaged upon the scientific completion of the works of the Sanitary District. All in all, it would be impossible to find a man who has been earlier or more prominently identified with all phases of this remarkable project and accomplishment than Mr. Cooley.
The sanitary problem having been virtually solved at the expen- diture of over fifty million dollars, the management of the canal sys- tem brought to the foreground the enormous earning power of the waters which had been drawn from Lake Michigan. Its current should be converted into electricity to assist Chicago in lighting her streets and structures and operating her manufactories. It is impossible, and would be useless, to give the details by which the Sanitary District of Chicago, in the face of opposition from the Economy Light and Pow- er Company and even the municipality, acquired the right to sell the surplus power of the canal at rates which will soon net the board about $500,000. . The most complete and yet condensed statement of the situation, and also of the general progress of this feature of the canal enterprise, was made by the Citizens' Association in June, 1908.
243
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
After a thorough investigation of the whole matter, the committee made a report which upheld the sanitary board in all its main con- tentions. It narrated how in 1903 the Sanitary District was author- ized by the legislature to develop the water power created by the flow of the drainage canal and as the first step erected the Lockport power plant at a cost of $4,000,000. Then came the negotiations and con- tentions with the city for permission to build transmission wires through its streets and alleys; the bringing of test cases in the courts and the final decision (after the report of the Citizens' Association was made ) upholding a former decision that the legislature had con- ferred upon the Sanitary District full authority to construct trans- mission wires anywhere within the city limits.
The present and prospective operations of the electrical plant of the Sanitary District are thus described :
"Since January (1908) the Sanitary District has installed three generators capable of producing continuously 16.500 horse power and for peak service 20,600 horse power. It is installing two additional generators capable of producing continuously 11,000 additional horse power and with an estimated peak capacity of 13,000 horse power. In six months the plant should be capable of producing continuously 27,500 horse power, and for peak service 34.350 horse power. This will be increased to 30,000 and 37,500 horse power within two years when the flow is increased by widening the river. Within two years the district can safely contract for the sale of power aggregating 50,000 horse power.
"The district is supplying to the city and other customers at night 9,300 horse power and during the day 1,000 horse power. Its elec- trical energy now is being furnished to the city at the rate of $15 a horse power, which is less than one-half what it formerly cost the city to generate its lighting power by steam.
"There is no apparent reason why the Sanitary District cannot within a few years duplicate its power plant at Hickory creek. The only obstacle in the way of this plan is the plant of the Economy Light and Power Company at Joliet, which company's lease from the state expires in 1916, after which time the Sanitary District, with the co- operation of the state, will be in a position to install a plant at Hickory creek and double its output of power.
"If the Sanitary District is not hampered in the future in its ef-
244
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
forts to sell its surplus power its net income from the sale of power, by the time it has made arrangements for the sale of its whole product, should amount to at least $500,000 a year. This estimate is based upon the productive capacity which should be attained within the next six months. With the widening of the Chicago river this income can be largely increased, and ultimately, by the development of the power available at Hickory creek, the total capacity should be increased to 80,000 horse power, which should insure the Sanitary District a net revenue from its water power of at least $1,500,000 per year.
"We are informed by the trustees of the Sanitary District that it is and will continue to be their policy to furnish to the city and other municipalities within the borders of the Sanitary District all the power that can be used by them; and to sell to private consumers only the surplus that remains after providing for municipal needs."
But the stretch of territory bordering the canal-way from Robey street to Joliet, thirty-two miles, has already been christened the "Val- ley of Manufactures," as it undoubtedly will be within the next dec- ade. The district owns a right of way on either side of the canal varying from 270 to 1,000 feet, or nearly 6,000 acres of land, and the leases already made to manufactories bring an income of some $75,- 000 per year. As illustrative of the extent of some of the leaseholds- the Corn Products Company, which has plants in Chicago, Waukegan and Peoria, is perfecting a $5,000,000 establishment near Summit and building the town of Argo to provide homes for its 2,000 employes. At Lockport the Western United Gas and Electric Company has se- cured a site from which it will supply gas to forty towns and cities in the immediate territory. The International Harvester Company has over 20 acres under lease at an annual rental of $9,000 for fifty years, many of the leases covering this period. Farming lands have been leased for one to four years, and several railroads are paying for water privileges, by which tanks are supplied for filling locomo- tive boilers. Besides there are sixty miles of dockage to be leased. The railroads vie with the canal, also in furnishing transportation. Three main lines parallel the canal, and an electric line is in operation connecting the towns along the route-Summit, with a population of 700; Argo, which will probably be consolidated with it; Willow Springs, population about 400; Lemont, with 2,500 people; Lockport,
-
245
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
2,700, and Joliet, 40,000. At Summit the canal is adjacent to the clearing yards of three of the great railroads centering in Chicago, touching also the Chicago Junction, Chicago Terminal Transfer and the Indiana Harbor belt roads. The sanitary board is developing a plan for a huge warehouse at Summit, through which freight may be transferred from water to rail; docks will also be built at intervals connecting railroads by car ferries, and a city warehouse is in con- templation at Washington street by which manufacturers in the canal zone may distribute their goods. Considering the further fact that millions of cubic yards of limestone are piled along the canal banks ready for the stone crusher and the builder, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that within the present generation the Chicago Drainage and Ship Canal will be the main artery of one of the grandest mani- facturing districts in the world.
This transformation of the hydraulics of the canal into light and industrial power will eventually vastly add to the value of the real estate controlled or owned by the district. Even though this feature is of comparatively recent origin, since its development the valuation of the property, as equalized by the state board, has increased fully $100,000,000. In 1890, the year after the organization of the dis- trict, the valuation was given as $217,458,360.00; in 1900, the year of the formal opening of the canal, it was $269,287, 109.00; in 1902, the year before the district was authorized to develop its water power, it had increased to $393,080,042.00, and in 1907, with the enterprise still in an unsettled state, it had taken a bound to $499,727,415.00.
The completion of the Illinois and Michigan canal, in 1848, was the practical commencement of the grand system of internal water- ways by which it is proposed eventually to bring the great lakes into connection with the Gulf of Mexico and make Chicago the greatest interior cosmopolis of history. The drainage canal of the twentieth century is the elder brother of the old water trough of sixty years ago, and is the great head or inlet of the projected inland waterway system which is to strive with the growing network of railways to relieve the congestion of riches so patent in the Mississippi valley. The canal is considered the first gigantic step in the construction of the fourteen-foot waterway from the lakes to the gulf. In 1907 practical steps were taken, both by Illinois and other interested states, looking to the active prosecution of the work, and in March of that
246
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
year President Roosevelt appointed an Inland Waterways Commis- sion and gave it his usual hearty and practical support. The esti- mated cost of the Lakes-to-Gulf system is $100,000,000 (exclusive of what will be spent in the further development of the Chicago canal), of which $31,000,000 will be for the section from the ter- minus of the Chicago drainage district to St. Louis. Joliet will be a most important center of improvement in the grand scheme, and the horse power which will be developed at that point is estimated at 43,000, with an annual income of from two and a half to three mil- lion dollars. As the state of Illinois owns the major part of the in- terests in the Joliet level and the remainder is divided between the Chicago Sanitary District and the Economy Light and Power Com- pany, it is believed that eventually the entire cost of the improvements contemplated by the grand waterway from the main channel of the district above Joliet to the head of the Illinois river at Utica (over sixty miles), can be paid from the sale of power and light. Thus it is planned that, with comparatively little burden to the taxpayers of Chicago or Illinois, the drainage canal shall be transformed into a ship canal and become the commencement of a great national water- way.
Lyman Edgar Cooley, the Chicago civil engineer, has achieved a reputation which is even more than national, his advice and wise
LYMAN E. professional counsel having been sought and util- COOLEY. ized in the furtherance of great projects which are international in their scope. He was born in Can- andaigua, Ontario county, New York, on the 5th day of December, 1850, being the son of Albert B. and Aksah (Griswold) Cooley. The Cooleys (originally Cowleys or Cooleighs) are of English an- cestry, a collateral branch being the Wellesleys, of which the first Duke of Wellington was the most distinguished member. The Ameri- can ancestor came to New England prior to 1636, and the great- grandfather, John Cooley, removed to western New York from Con- necticut late in the eighteenth century. The late Judge Thomas M. Cooley, of Michigan, was also of this family.
After a course of study at the Canandaigua Academy, Mr. Cooley taught in that institution in 1870-2, and then pursued his professional studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, New York, from which he graduated in 1874 with the degree of C. E. In 1874-7 he
247
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
served as professor of engineering at Northwestern University, and in 1876-8 was associate editor of the Engineering News. In 1878 he performed his first active work of construction as assistant to William Sooy Smith, on the construction of the railway bridge across the Missouri river at Glasgow, Missouri. From 1878 to 1884 he served as assistant United States engineer under Major Suter on the Missouri and Mississippi river improvements, with headquarters at St. Louis. During this period he had charge of local improvements and surveys in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee, and was chief assistant in general charge of the work on the Mis- souri river below Yankton.
Returning to Chicago in 1884, Mr. Cooley became editor of the American Engineer, but in 1885 severed his connection with that journal and gave his attention largely to the great sanitary matters which agitated Chicago, and which required the best available en- gineering talent to solve them satisfactorily. As a member of a sub- committee of the Citizens' Association, in September, 1885, he drew the report which originated the public agitation in favor of a sanitary canal, and aided in securing the organization of a drainage and water supply commission, of which he was chief assistant, in 1886-7. In 1888 he was appointed consulting engineer to the city and to the Sanitary District Commission, representing the city and its civic organizations at Springfield in 1889, when the bill was passed through the legislature. He acted as engineer to the commission which deter- mined the boundaries of the sanitary district in 1889, and in the fol- lowing year served as its first chief engineer. In 1891 he became a member of the board of trustees, serving until the expiration of his term in December, 1895, and acting as consulting engineer of the sanitary district in 1897. Previously ( 1888-91) he had also served as consulting engineer of the State Board of Health. In 1896-7 Mr. Cooley was a member of the expert committee appointed by Mayor Swift, which devised the system of intercepting sewers along the lake front now nearing completion, and in 1901 was also among the em- inent experts engaged upon the comprehensive plan for the comple- tion of the works of the sanitary district of Chicago.
There are few engineers in the country who have a more prom- inent connection with the internal waterways of the United States and the vast projects under way to make them international highways,
248
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
than Lyman E. Cooley. In 1895 he was appointed by President Cleveland a member of the International Deep Waterways Commis- sion, his American associates being Dr. James B. Angell, of Michi- gan, and John E. Russell, of Massachusetts. Mr. Cooley had charge of the investigation, and surveys have since been made for ocean navigation from the Atlantic seaboard to Chicago and Duluth, via the Great Lakes. Of the association to promote this project, he is the American vice president. In 1897-8 he made an examination, in company with a group of contractors, of the Nicaragua canal project, and in the latter year acted as advisory engineer to Governor Black's commission, in the investigation of the $9,000,000 expenditure on the Erie canal.
4
During the construction of the Cheesman dam, which controls the flow of the South Platte near the outlet of South Park, Mr. Cooley was consulting engineer of the Union Water Works Company of Denver, Colorado. This dam, which is of granite masonry and 225 feet high, required four years in its construction. He also projected the water power dam across the Mississippi river at the foot of the Des Moines rapids, Keokuk, Iowa, which is to be thirty-five feet high and over a mile long. He has reported upon water power projects in several states, and upon river improvements and flood protection, and has had much to do in economic investigations of transportation matters and the appraisement of public utilities. He prepared the re- port of the Internal Improvement Commission of Illinois upon the Lakes and Gulf Waterway, and promoted the legislation passed by the general assembly in 1907 by which the state undertakes to co- operate in this enterprise.
Mr. Cooley has been a prolific and valued writer upon what has been called waterway literature, his work, entitled "The Lakes and Gulf Waterway," being the most complete and authoritative literary production on the subject. He is also in demand as a lecturer on technical subjects, having repeatedly appeared in this capacity at the Universities of Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Western Society of En- gineers, National Geographical Society, Chicago Academy of Sciences and the Chicago Press Club.
On December 31, 1874, Mr. Cooley was united in marriage to Miss Lucena McMillan, and the children born to them have been as
1
2.49
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
follows: William Lyman, deceased ; Charles Albert and Rebecca. The family residence is at Evanston, Illinois.
Isham Randolph has done as much active and practical work in the construction and development of the sanitary and ship canal as ISHAM RANDOLPH. any member of the engineering profession who has been connected with it-one of the most momentous public achievements of modern times. He was born on a farm called New Market, Clarke county, Virginia, on the 25th of March, 1848, son of Robert C. and Lucy Nelson (Welford) Ran- dolph. His father was a physician and his mother a woman of ex- cellent education, both parents being people of unusual culture and strength of character. The boy was chiefly educated by his mother. outside of her gentle and effective instruction obtaining about two years of mental training in two private schools of his native state.
Mr. Randolph's tastes were early indicated, and by persistent study and actual work he eventually became remarkably proficient in his profession. From the position of axman in the employ of the Balti- more & Ohio Railroad Company he was advanced to an employe of the engineering corps, and after serving in various responsible posi- tions, he was invited to become the chief engineer of the Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad; upon these duties he entered in May, 1880. In 1886 he assumed the same position with the Chicago, Madi- son & Northern Railway, and on June 7. 1893, was chosen chief engineer of the Sanitary District of Chicago. In this post of eminent responsibility he earned a national reputation, but this faithful and able service was accomplished at the expense of his private interests, and, to the deep regret of his associates and the public, he resigned his office in August, 1907, to devote himself to private practice. His services with the great project which he has so materially furthered are still retained as consulting engineer.
On June 15, 1882, Mr. Randolph was united in marriage with Miss Mary H. Taylor, and the children born to them have been Robert Isham, Oscar DeWolf, Spotswood Wellford and George Tay- lor. The family have long had a pleasant home in the beautiful suburb of Riverside. Mr. Randolph stands very high with his professional co-workers, being a member and ex-president of the Western Society of Engineers, and a member of the American Society of Civil Engi- neers and the Chicago Engineers' Club. He is also well known as a
250
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
valued contributor to the engineering journals of the country. He has been a member of the Episcopal church since 1875 and is senior warden of St. Paul's Episcopal Church at Riverside.
Zina R. Carter was president of the Sanitary District of Chicago in 1903 and had been a member of the board of trustees from the ZINA R. district since 1895 and for eight years was chairman
of the finance committee of the sanitary board. He
CARTER. is thus one of the prominent figures in connection with the sanitary district both during the work of construction of that great enterprise and since it has become a sanitary and commercial feature of Chicago's life.
Zina R. Carter was born in a log cabin in Jefferson county, New York, October 23, 1846, son of Benajah and Isabel (Cole) Carter. He was brought up on a farm and attended school for a brief period and after he came west worked on a farm in DuPage county, Illinois, for several years. His introduction to Chicago was signalized by the opening of a store on the west side, the firm of Zina R. Carter and Brother, being still in existence. His connection with public life is ex- tended. In addition to his services with the canal board he was alder- man from the old tenth ward, was candidate for mayor in 1899 and is now a member of the Civil Service Commission, having been ap- pointed by Mayor Busse in 1907. He has been a member of the Chicago Board of Trade since 1872 and was president in 1898, hav- ing also filled all the other official positions of the board.
251
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
Social, Benevolent and Reformatory Agencies
Carlyle often bewailed the machine-like tendencies of the age and the sinking of the individual in the organization. His attitude was partially borne out by the facts, but was, at the same time, largely determined by his peculiar personality, which was distinctively ex- clusive, not to say repellant. He failed to place sufficient stress on the strength of the social instincts, which are far stronger and more general than the intellectual or reformatory. As this is a labor-saving age-that is, an age in which man aims to accomplish more with a given expenditure of labor than ever before-it is clearly perceived by thoughtful and active men and women that a greater influence in a far shorter period of time may be exercised upon a compact body of individuals than if it were separated into scattered units. In the formation of societies, either for sociability or co-operation, the fundamental truth is illustrated that "man is a gregarious ani- mal," and thoroughly believes that in "union there is strength."
In the establishment of every new community, one of the first acts of its members is to "get together" and organize a church, a society, or other association, for the exchange of views and co-opera- tion in work. It is of record that soon after the organization of the Methodists of Chicago into a religious class and before the formation of the old St. Mary's church by the Catholics, the few civilians out- side Fort Dearborn joined with some of the choice representatives of the garrison in the formation of a debating society. Colonel J. B. Beaubien was its president. Diversion, as well as intellectual im- PIONEER SOCIETIES. provement, appears to have been within the scope of this pioneer of Chicago societies, and its first meetings were held in the winter of 1831-2. The first temperance organization was known as the Chicago Temperance Society, which was founded in 1832, and was the predecessor of many associations engaged in that field of reform, such as the Washi- ington Temperance Society, instituted in 1840; the Bethel, or Mar- iners' Temperance Society of 1842, and the Junior Washington
252
CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
Temperance Society, founded in 1843. The Washingtonian Home, one of the best known institutions for the reformation of inebriates in the country, was founded in 1864.
In 1834 the Chicago Lyceum was founded, and for a decade the cream of-Chicago's sociability and intellectuality gathered around it, and from it radiated many elevating influences. As stated by the late Thomas Hoyne, who was one of its early members, "Not a man of note, not a man in the city of any trade or profession, who had any taste for intellectual and social enjoyment, but who belonged to the Lyceum." Its meetings were generally held in the old court house, corner of Randolph and Clark streets, in the hall of the old Saloon building or in the Presbyterian church. The Lyceum was virtually merged, with its library, into the Young Men's Asso- ciation, the latter becoming the father of the Chicago Public Library.
In the organization of the Chicago Harmonic Society, founded in 1835, the musical element in the city was first marked for signal en- couragement and gratification, its concerts in the Presbyterian church and Saloon building being events among the cultured people of the city.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.