History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 132

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340

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One obstacle encountered by the new school can be discerned by reading the following open letters that ap- peared in the Northwestern Journal of Homeopathy for October, 1850 :

DR. SHIPMAN : During the session of 1849 and 1850 I at- tended a course of lectures at the Rush Medical College in Chi- cago, and was desirous of attending the ensuing course, and receiv- ing the honors of the College, as I should have been entitled to do had none but the ordinary tests of qualification been applied to me. But wishing to have the matter fully undestood previous to securing tickets for another course, I addressed the following to the Secre- tary of the faculty, and received the accompanying reply :

ST. CHARLES, Ill., September 12, 1850.

DR. N.S. Davis-Sir: I am a homeopathist from a conviction of the truth of the principles and the efficacy of the practice of homeopathia. With these views, will you graduate me if I com- ply with the ordinary requisitions of the faculy ?

Yours, etc.,

M. DANIEL COE.

CHICAGO, September 16, 1850.

MR. DANIEL COE-Dear Sir: I am directed to inform you that the faculty of Rush Medical College will not recommend you to the trustees for a degree so long as they have any reason to suppose that you entertain the doctrines, and intend to trifle with human life on the principles you avow in your letter. To do other- wise would involve both parties in the grossest inconsistency,

Very respectfully yours, N. S. DAVIS, Secretary of the Faculty of Rush Medical College.

There is no need of recounting the various arguments used pro and con relative to this correspondence ; it demonstrated, however, that homeopathists could not graduate from Rush Medical College ; and the fact must have been apparent to them of the necessity for a college of their own, where the adherents of the homeopathic school could pursue the requisite course of study and graduate as doctors of medicine. To dis- cuss the necessities of the new school of medicine, a homeopathic convention was convened, and the Gem of the Prairie thus commented upon the science whose ad- herents were about to assemble : "That although old- school practitioners at first regarded the 'infinitesimal philosophy ' as a delusion, and that it was still regarded by the great body of them as a system of quackery, it had gained a strong position, and was growing daily, both in this country and in England. In fact, it recog- nized homeopathy as something which could not be ignored or sneered out of existence."

A preliminary meeting was held at the office of Messrs Skinner and Hoyne,* at the corner of Lake and Dearborn streets, on June 3d, 1851. Prof. L. Dodge, of Cleveland, was called to the chair, and Dr. T. G. Com- stock, of St. Louis, appointed secretary. The special de- sign of the meeting was announced to be the formation of a Western homeopathic association. A committee on credentials was appointed, consisting of D. S. Smith. M. D., Chicago; L. M. Tracy, M. D., Milwaukee, and George E. Shipman, M. D., Chicago, who presented the following resolution as a basis of the action of the con- vention:

*Hun. Jonathan Young Seammon, Hon. William B. Ogden and Hon. Thomas Hoyne were among the earliest of the homeopathic laymen.

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Resolved, That those present shall be considered members of this convention who have conformed to the existing medical insti- tutions of the country, or who have been engaged in the practice of medicine five years, (being avowed believers in, and practitioners of, homeopathy,) or who shall have passed an examination before the committee.

This resolution was passed, and, under its provisions, the following gentlemen were reported by the commit- tee as qualified to seats in the convention: Lewis Dodge, M. D., Cleveland; T. G. Comstock, M. D., St. Louis: H. C. Foote, M. D., Galesburg: A. Giles, M. D., Southport, Wis .; Dr. M. D. Coe, St. Charles; Dr. A. P. Holt, Lyndon; Dr. William Vallette, Elgin; Dr. W. C. Barker, Waukegan; D. S. Smith, M. D., Chicago; L. M. Tracy, M. D., Milwaukee; George E. Shipman, M. D., Chicago.

The convention met at Warner's Hall on the follow- ing day, and Dr. I. S. P. Lord, Batavia; John Granger, M. D., St. Louis; Thomas J. Vastine, M. D., St. Louis; Prof. Charles D. Williams, M. D., Cleveland; John Wheeler, M. D., Cleveland; M. S. Carr, M. D., Peoria; Dr. N. Clark Burnham, Peoria; E. H. Kennedy, M. D., Galena; D. T. Brown, M. D., Waukesha; G. WV. Critten- den, MI. D., Janesville; E. H. Clapp, M. D., Farmington, were reported to the convention and elected members thereof. By-laws and constitution were drafted and adopted and the " Western Institute of Homeopathy " thereby created. The following officers of the Institute were then unanimously elected: L. M. Tracy, M. D., Milwaukee, president; D. S. Smith, M. D., Chicago; T. G. Comstock, M. D., St. Louis; Lewis Dodge, M. D., Cleveland, and A. Giles, M. D., Southport, vice-presi- dents; George E. Shipman, M. D. Chicago, secretary. On the evening of June 5, Prof. Lewis Dodge delivered an address before the Institute and a public audience.

The antagonism between the two medical schools remained quiescent, until the friends of homeopathy considered that official recognition was due the practi- tioners thereof, and on March 14, 1857, a petition numer- ously signed by prominent citizens of Chicago, was presented to the Common Council, requesting that some portion of the new City Hospital might be allotted to the homeopathic physicians, for the treatment of patients according to their school of practice. The pe- tition was referred to the Board of Health, and this body, upon July 9, 1857, appointed two medical and surgical boards for the City Hospital, constituted as follows:

Allopathic Board :- Consulting physicians: Drs. N. S. Davis and G. K. Amerman; physicians and surgeons, Drs. R. N. Isham, John Craig, DeLaskie Miller, W. Wagner, J. P. Ross, George D. Schloetzer.

Homeopathic Board :- Consulting physicians: Drs. A. E. Small and A. Pitney; physicians and surgeons, Drs. H. K. W. Boardman, Reuben Ludlam, D. Alphonso Colton, S. Seymour, N. F. Cooke, George E. Shipman.

To the first board, three-fourths of the hospital were allotted ; to the latter board, one-fourth. But the des- ignation " Allopathic Board " caused a perfect Pan- dora's box of discussion and objection. The regular physicians objected to being called a board of " other diseases" allos, other ; pathos, disease ; and also to practice with those whom they classified as irregular practitioners. Correspondence abounded ; pamphlets were prolific ; the Cook County Medical Society de- nounced the homeopathists, perhaps a little " ex cath- edra ; " and the homeopathists erected bulwarks of sta- tistical facts against which the darts of the regulars hurtled harmlessly ; one pamphleteer getting rather worsted because of a Hellenic typographical error. In fact, the Montagues and Capulets of the medical pro-

fession had a decided tourney, and the Board of Health. unable to discern any way of bridging the pathological abyss and of acceding to the petition referred to them, took refuge in inaction; and the hospital remained. not alone unprovided with physicians, but without furniture. The Common Council also evaded the issue by declar- ing the city too poor to make the expenditures requisite for the establishment of the hospital, and then, in 1858. leased the building to some " regular " physicians, who established therein a public hospital, cared for the county poor and gave clinical demonstrations, princi- pally to the students of Rush Medical College. In 1863 the General Government confiscated the building and transformed it into a general hospital, with Surgeon Brockholst McVickar in charge, and with George K. Amerman and J. P. Ross, as acting assistant surgeons. .The hospital was shortly afterward changed in its scope of treatment, and soldiers afflicted with ophthalmic or auricular diseases were alone received there; Dr. Joseph S. Hildreth being in charge; the hospital remaining under his administration until the close of the civil war, when it became the DeMarr Eye and Ear Hospital; subsequent to which it became the County Hospital.

HOMEOPATHIC PHARMACY .- The first homeopathic pharmacy was established by Dr. David Sheppard Smith, at his office, in 1844. The rapid growth of homeopathic practice necessitated the establishment of a depot in Chicago, and Dr. Smith procured a supply of the medicines of this school, which he furnished to his brother physicians as required. The pharmacy was an unpretentious affair, but was fully adequate to the purpose for which it was designed; enabling the homeop- athic practitioners to prescribe "secundum artem," for their patients. About 1854, Dr. Reuben Ludlam he- came associated with Dr. Smith, and the business amounted to several thousands of dollars annually. In 1856, Dr. George E. Shipman started a pharmacy at 94 La Salle Street, but the management was, shortly after its inception, transferred to C. S. Halsey, who removed the pharmacy to 108 Wells Street, and associated with him Benjamin Cowell, Jr. No homeopathic dispensary appears to have been regularly established before the year 1858.

The first Homeopathic Hospital was established in 1854, by Dr. George E. Shipman, at 20 Kinzie Street, a little east of State; the funds being supplied by private subscription. The impetus to the founding of the hos- pital was given by Madame Wright, who promised Dr. Shipman $1,000 a year toward the maintenance of the hospital, if it was established. Dr. S. W. Graves, a homeopathic physician, was among the first of those who died in the hospital; he being seized with the cholera while in attendance upon his patients and, hav- ing neither intimate friends nor relatives in the city, went to the hospital. Of this physician it is authori- tatively stated, that, in the unremitting exercise of his duties among those afflicted with the cholera, he went almost without sleep for fourteen nights and partook of the merest snatches of food, taken irregularly: and thus from the enfeebled condition of his constitution, fell au easy prey to the disease; a martyr to his profession. In January, 1855, Mrs. Peter Nelson, assumed the position of matron of the institution, which she retained until its close. In the commencement of May, 1855, a species of "ex post facto" organization of the hospital was made by a meeting of homeopathic physicians, hehl at the office of Dr. D. S. Smith, on LaSalle Street, near Madison; the site of which office is now occupied by the Mercantile Building. At this meeting J. 11. Dun- bam was president, Dr. D. S. Smith, vice-president, and

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Dr. George E. Shipman, secretary. The following gen- tlemen were elected to attend the patients at Dr. Ship- man's hospital: Physicians: George E. Shipman, D. S. Smith and Reuben Ludlam.

Surgeons: H. K. W. Boardman and L. A. Douglass. The following gentlemen were also appointed a Board of Directors; J. H. Dunham, Hon. J. M. Wilson, Hon. Norman B. Judd, Orrington Lunt, J. S. Doggett, Dr. D. S. Smith, Dr. George E. Shipman, George A. Gibbs, William H. Brown and Thomas Hoyne.

In addition to the physicians thus appointed, and who took monthly tours of service in the performance of their duties, a large proportion of the other homeop- athic physicians, then in the city, attended the patients, and so successful was this exercise of their skill, that of three hundred and twenty-one patients treated in the twenty-eight months prior to the closing of the hospital, but nine died; and of twenty-seven small-pox cases, clinically treated, but one terminated fatally, and this case was the first admitted to the hospital.

Upon the death of Mrs. Wright, her trustees could not recognize the, verbal arrangement made with Dr. Shipman, and the homeopathists of those days being but a small fraction of the population of the city, the treasury became depleted. A vain effort was made by the . attending physicians to tide over the financial dearth by contributing $500 of their own sparse funds, the rent of the hospital also -having augmented from nothing to $1,000 per annum. Dr. Shipman therefore

determined upon its suspension, and on May 1, 1857, the hospital was permanently closed.

HAHNEMANN COLLEGE .- As recounted in the history of homeopathy, the urgent need for a homeopathic college was early experienced by the practitioners of that science, and David Sheppard Smith determined on supplying the want. Accordingly, in 1853, a draft for a charter was sent to a member of the Legisla- ture of this State, in whose hands it failed of fruition. Dr. Smith then went to Springfield and endeavored to find the missing charter, contemplating making a per- sonal effort to secure its legalization, but the charter was nowhere to be found. Meeting Hon. Thomas Hoyne, Dr. Smith explained the predicament, and Mr. Hoyne took the Doctor to the law-office of Abraham Lincoln, where Dr. Smith drafted a new charter, and exerted himself to achieve its passage; which was ac- complished in January, 1855. The trustees under the act of incorporation were: D. S. Smith, M. D., Hon. Thomas Hoyne,* Orrinton Lunt, George A. Gibbs, Joseph B. Doggett, George E. Shipman, M. D., Hon. John M. Wilson, William H. Brown, Hon. Norman B. Judd, and J. H. Dunham. The trustees upon organi- zation installed J. H. Dunham, as president; D. S. Smith, M. D., as vice-president, and George E. Ship- man, M. D., as secretary and treasurer.

* Dr. Smith and Mr. Hoyoe were de facto the Hahnemann College for many years, but the infusion of new material into the board, gave it an acces- sion of modern vitality, and imparted the vigorous growth it now enjoys.

THE DRAMA, MUSIC, LITERATURE AND ART.

EARLY AMUSEMENTS.

To mock reality with puny show; to counterfeit emotion, and enact such scenes as thrill the human heart, are means of recreation from the constant theme of how to gain subsistence, as old as history. The monarch and the serf, the savage, the savant,-all grades which go to make the total sum of social life, find entertainment in dramatic art.

It is gratifying to record that the first systematic venture in the way of diversion, by the residents of Chicago, was of an intellectual character. During the winter of 1831-32 a debating society was formed by the few white men then in this section, most of whom were located at the fort. Col. J. B. Beaubien was chosen president of the society. There is no record of the transactions of this body preserved, and mention can be here made only on traditionary statement.

The little band of pioneers who braved the hard- ships of life in a new country, depended upon their own resources for entertainment. Charles Cleaver, who came to Chicago in 1833, remarks:

"Some of the young folks would like to know what amusements there were, and how we spent our evenings. The storekeepers played checkers, while waiting for customers, and, after closing, played cards. Those religiously inclined went to prayer-meeting at least once a week. Then when boarders and travelers were satis- fied as to the inner man in the old Sauganash hotel, Mark Beaubien would bring out his fiddle and play, for those who wished to trip the light fantastic toe. To be sure, there were no theatres, no concert-halls, or read- ing-rooms. * * * The fact is, in the winter of 1833-34, amusements of any kind were few and far between, although we made the most of what there were."

In 1834 instructive and entertaining meetings were held by the Chicago Lyceum, although those assemblies partook but slightly of the nature of amusements.

The first public entertainment given by a profes- sional performer in Chicago, and to which an admission fee. was charged, took place February 24, 1834. Read- ers will observe that this statement conflicts with several historical sketches already published, but our proof is indisputable. The information is gained from the Chi- cago Democrat, which was established November 26, 1833. In its issue of February 18, 1834, appeared the following advertisement:

EXHIBITION.

" Joy hath its limits. We but borrow one hour of mirth from months of sorrow."

The ladies and gentlemen of Chicago are most respectfully informed that Mr. Bowers, Professeur de Tours Amusant, hasarrived in town and will give an exhibition at the house of Mr. D. Graves on Monday evening next [ February 24].

PART FIRST.

Mr. Bowers will fully personate Monsieur Chaubert, the cele- brated Fire King, who so much astonished the people of Europe, and go through his wonderful Chemical Performance. He will draw a red hot iron across his tongue, hands, etc., and will partake of a comfortable warm supper by eating fire-balls, burning sealing- wax, live coals of fire and melted lead. lle will dip his fingers in

melted lead, and make use of a red hot iron to convey the same to his mouth.

PART SECOND.

Mr. Bowers will introduce many very amusing feats of Ventril- oquism and Legerdemain, many of which are original and too numerous to mention. Admittance 50 cents, children half price. Performance to commence at early candle light. Seats will be re- served for ladies, and every attention paid to the comfort and con- venience of the spectators. Tickets to be had at the bar.

The scene of this entertainment was the hostelry of Dexter Graves, known as the Mansion House, and located at Nos. 84 and 86 Lake Street.

The next performances of which any record is pre- served were given at the Travelers' Home, a hotel kept by Chester Ingersoll, on Wolf Point, during June, 1834. A traveling showman named Kenworthy announced, through the Democrat of June 10, the conclusion of his Chicago engagement in these words :

Mr. Kenworthy (the ventriloquist) respectfully requests the honor of a parting interview with his Chicago friends on Wednes- day evening, June II, at "Bromback Hail," better known as the Travelers' Home. He will be at home at 7 o'clock P. M., and will offer for the amusement of his visitors his whims, stories, adven- tures, etc., of a ventriloquist, as embodied in his entertaining mon- ologue of the Bromback Family.

During the next two years it is probable that profes- sional showmen visited Chicago, as Bowers and Ken- worthy did, but we have been able to find no direct proof of the presence of such men.

On Wednesday, September 14, 1836, the town was thrown into a fever of excitement by the arrival of the first circus, which was under the management of Oscar Stone, who was somewhat famous as an equestrian. An eye-witness of that notable event relates :

" They pitched their tent on Lake Street. * Just west, and adjoining, stood the old New York House * * a two-story building, with eaves to the street, in the style of country taverns of those days. * In the rear stood its large barn, which was a necessary attach- ment to a hotel in Chicago at that time. As the circus tent stood a little way back from the street, it was near the barn, which was made use of as a convenience for passing the horses to and from the tent. The circus- I think it was called 'The Grand Equestrian Arena '- was not so extensive as Barnum's, nor did it have separate tents for horses or anything else. But the per- formance was wonderful. One rider, by the name of Stone, was put forward by the management as the greatest living equestrian ; and so he was, for aught the boys knew. In fact, we believed it implicitly. MIr. Stone, in closing the performance, would appear in In- dian character. This was very thrilling; at least the advertisements said so. But the redeeming feature of the show-that upon which we dwelt with ever- recurring pleasure and satisfaction-was the singing of 'Billy Barlow,' in costume."

The Chicago American of September 17, 1836, said : "A traveling circus has been some days in town, and is doing a fair business. It commenced Wednesday (Sep- tember 14, and has been crowded to suffocation every afternoon and evening since. The length of time the company will spend with us depends upon patronage."

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EARLY AMUSEMENTS.

An admission fee of twenty-five cents was charged, and the youth of Chicago exercised the customary shrewdness in compassing the all-important end of se- curing the necessary sum daily. The exhibition was continued for several weeks.

The American of November 5, 1836, remarked : "The Boston Arena Company have been exhibiting since last Tuesday (November 1), to crowded houses. It is the best establishment we have ever seen traveling the country." On referring this item to old residents, it is ascertained, with as great a degree of certainty as is possible to attain when memory alone is relied upon, that this circus was the same as that previously men- tioned, though under another name, and perhaps with increased attractions. One who attended the perform- ances recalls the fact that two anaconda serpents were exhibited, being the first animals placed before the public in Chicago by professional showmen.

The fire of 1871 swept from existence nearly all of the the records, public and private, which had been gradually accumulating from the date of the founding of the city. Encountering such a grave calamity at the very outset of our work, it is not possible to proceed with the measure of detail, or the preciseness of statement, which usually characterizes historical methods. Among the irreparable losses was the destruction of a private diary kept by J. H. McVicker from the commencement of his dramatic career, and which, were it now avail- able, would be invaluable in this connection. Relying, therefore, upon newspaper files and scanty official rec- ords, and, where these fail, upon that most treacherous of all aids, human recollection, the task of preparing an historical sketch of the drama in Chicago is under- taken.

As fortune would have it, among the papers stored in the original vault of the City Hall, prior to the con- flagration, were a few of the applications for licenses desired by theatrical managers and showmen, covering a period of nine years from 1837. The despised vault proved to be the only compartment worthy of the name. The tempest of flame assailed its walls in vain, and from the ruins there were dragged forth a few faded papers, which now possess a double historic value. They are not only originals of early official documents; they are the few originals that passed the ordeal of October, 1871, and still exist.

By virtue of the restrictions contained in the char -: ter of 1837, those persons who wished to give public entertainments were obliged to obtain a license, and pay for the privileges appertaining to the franchise a sum determined upon by the Common Council.

The first application presented to the Council for permission to entertain a Chicago audience with dra- matic performances is here quoted from the original document:

" CHICAGO, May 29, 1837.

" To His Honor, the Mayor, and Members of the City Council: -We, the undersigned (Messrs. Dean & Mckinney), managers of the Eagle-street Theater, Buffalo, N. Y., humbly petititioo [sic] that you will grant a license (or permite) [sic] to open a theater in some suitable building within said city, for the term of one or more months, as the business may answer-the sum affixed for license to be per week or for the season-to commence from the time of the opening of the theater. Yours respectfully,

"DEAN & MCKINNEY, "per E. K. TROWBRIDGE, Agent.

" The object of this early application is to form an estimate of the Natural Expense of Bringing a company to this place.

" D. & MICK .. "E. R. T."

A memorandum upon this document reads: "Granted. Sroo per year." It will thus be observed that the

Council ignored the request to state the sum demanded " per week or for the season." It was manifestly the purpose of Messrs Dean & Mckinney to remain in Chicago but a short time, as an expedient to fill a sum- mer date, and the amount demanded for a license was so great that, coupled possibly with the heavy expense of bringing a company from Buffalo, the managers determined not to undertake the hazardous experiment. Messrs. Dean & Mckinney never brought a company to Chicago, and on the authority of an old resident, we state that Mr. Mckinney managed a theater in Detroit, Mich., during the year 1837. It is not probable that he then visited Chicago in any capacity. Mr. Dean was here several years later, as will be shown, though not as a manager of a local theater. No money was paid into the city treasury by the firm referred to, and the first license authorized was never issued.

Second upon the list of applications stands the fol- lowing.

" To the honorable Mare and Common Counsel of the City of Chicago : The petition of the undersigned subscriber of the city of Chicago respectfully represents - that your honorable body to grant him a licens to arect a Show of flying Horses for amuse- ment and excise to all who may wish to patronise the same and your petitioner further says that it will be conducted in quiet and decent manner and therefore prays that your honorable body will grant the same.

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History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 132

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas Number of Pages: 1340

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340