History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 163

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

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In the summer a system of lumber inspection was adopted by the Board, and during the year sixty more were added to the list of members.

The early history of the Board of Trade was uneventful and uninteresting, except that it is the history of an institution which has, from the small and apparently insignificant beginnings here chronicled, come to be the great central force which controls the business of half a continent and an important factor in the commerce of the whole civilized world. The crude efforts, often blindly made, to systematize business methods and unify the business interests and energies of the city, did not then show, save to the few gifted with extraordinary prescience, the wonderfully intricate and powerful instrumentality in directing and controll- ing trade and commerce it has since become. Nearly all the modern means, methods and facilities for transacting business or carrying on either local trade or foreign commerce, had their inception in the Board, and were in their perfection evolved from its action.

The inspection, warehousing and shipping of grain. in well-defined and standard grades ; the standards of inspection of flour, pork, beef, lard, butter, lumber, etc .. were all primarily established and ultimately perfected through its action. The rapid dissemination and inter- change of reliable commercial news and market quota- tions was evolved from the mutual necessities of the boards of trade in the business center, of the world. The system of gathering all important commercial statistics has been carried to a point of comprehensive- ness and accuracy far beyond that of the Government bureau of statistics. It has also become an essential agency in the direction of State and national legislation on all commercial questions. Its resolutions and sug- gestions, although made in less high-sounding phrase. with less all-absorbing frequency, and with less youthful fervor than formerly, carry with them now a tone of

586

HISTORY OF CHICAGO.

authority which seldom passes unheeded. Much of the commercial law of to-day has grown out of questions brought to the notice of the courts through the transac- tions of its members and the rules established by the Board. The statutes pertaining to inspection, ware- housing, and many others were the direct outgrowth of its action. The daily gathering on the floor, the Babel of trade, where more business is done than in any like place in the world, is, although the most conspicuous, thus seen to be but one of many phases of its executive work. In all great crises the Board has come to be the true index of the patriotism, the benevolence and humanity of its members, no less than that of their com- bined business force. Witness their acts of humanity when Chicago went up in fame and smoke, and their never failing loyalty and patriotism in the dark and troublous times of the Rebellion. The history of these years will in future volumes constitute the brightest pages in its annals.

In the efforts to facilitate legitimate trade, it will be curious to note how has been necessarily evolved the most tempting facilities for speculative trade, even to the point of gambling, pure and simple. So long as a trade involved the necessity of an actual delivery or receipt of the goods sold or bought there was little inducement for speculators to overtrade, since the con- summation of each trade involved the expenditure of such large amount of labor and time. T'be storing of wheat in specified grades of an acknowledged standard, and the issuing of warehouse receipts for the same, placed wheat on the list of speculative articles so soon as the receipts came to be acknowledged as a delivery on a sale, thus mobilizing the article to that extent that large deliveries could be momentarily tendered on a sale at any specified hour. Such delivery had not before been possible. Thus the reader who follows the history

of the Board through the subsequent years will observe how the spirit of speculative gambling has been a nat- ural outgrowth of the necessities of legitimate trade. and how, with the establishment of acknowledged grades of inspection, and their mobilization for specu- lative purposes through their representation by ware- house receipts, one after another. the various food products, as they came to be stored in sufficient quan- tity, have been added to the speculative list. Wheat. corn, rye, barley, oats, flour, pork, lard, butter, oil, have come successively to add volume to the speculative material, and the volume of speculative trading has grown in a tenfold ratio to that of the increasing basis. Reports of daily transactions on the Board have ceased to show the volume of legitimate trade, except when correlated with other known facts. It is not now un- common, on an excited market, for the entire avail- able stock of one of these articles to be sold and resold a dozen times in a single day.

Speculative trading in grain and provisions, as now developed, was entirely unknown during the period treated in this volume. It is of purely Western origin. and its birthplace was the Board of Trade of Chicago .. It will not be the least interesting part of its future his- tory to trace it from its legitimate birth, through all its stages of development, to the present reckless and riotous period of its life. This early sketch may therefore be deemed of more than passing interest. since it is but the necessary introduction to what in the succeeding years will prove a most interesting historic topic concerning the development of Western trade and commerce, and the unique experiences of Western business men.

The principal officers of the Board of Trade of Chicago, from its organization to 1857, were as below given:

YEAR OF INCUMBENCY.

PRESIDENTS.

VICE-PRESIDENTS.

SECRETARIES.

TREASURERS.

SECRETARIES AND TREASURERS.

Thomas Dyer.

Charles Walker. / John P'. Chapin.

1849-50

Thomas Dyer.

John P. Chapin. /

W. L. Whiting.

John C. Dodge.

1850-51

.1551-52

Charles Walker. Charles Walker. George Steel. Thomas Hale.

/ Charles Walker. John I'. Chapin. John P. Chapin. Thomas Ilale.

John C. Dodge. John C. Dodge.

Thomas Hale. Thomas Hale.

John C. Dodge .* C. P. Hilliard.

1834-55

George .\. Gibbs. ..

W. D. Houghteling.

James E. Dullaha.

IS55-56

Hiram Wheeler.

C. B. Pomeroy.

W. W. Mitchell.

1856-57

(i. C. Martin.

W. W. Mitchell.

1557-55.

C. II. Walker. C. II. Walker.

(. W. Noble.

W. W. Mitchell.

'Alr. Dodye resigned in February, 1853. Mr. Dullaba served by appointment the unexpired time.

Subjoined are personal sketches of the several presi- dents of the Board. Hon. Thomas Dyer is mentioned in the political chapter, he having filled the office of Mayor of Chicago,

C'HARLL- WALKER, the eldest son of William W. and Lucretia Walker, was born at Plainfield, Otsego Co. N. V., February 2. 1802. Here and at Unadilla Fork- he both attended and taught school. At the latter place he clerked in a store and also engaged in business for himself. In 1824 he removed to Burlington Flats, con- tinuing as a merchant, and gradually adding to his other business a grist mill, a saw mill, a potash factory and a tannery. In a few years he was doing the largest busi- ness in these branches in that section of the country. lle established himself at this point with a capital of

$1,350, 81,000 of which was borrowed. Mr. Walker continued in business at various points in the State, en- gaging in the grain and cattle trade, and by close and judicious management he prospered finely until 18es. During that year, however, all his savings were swept away, a large amount of cheese, butter and pork which he had shipped to the South being greatly damaged at sca. In the autumn of 1834 he sent his brother Almond to Chicago with a large stock of boots, shoes and leather, and during the succeeding spring he arrived himself, although he did not make the city his permanent home. He at once invested in real estate and other- wise showed the confidence he felt in the future supremacy of Chicago. In 1836 Mr. Walker admitted E. B. Hulbert to partnership, the firm name being (.

1552-53 .

1853-54 .

C. H. Walker.

587

THE CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE.

& A. Walker, and their business being the importation of farming implements from the East, besides carrying a general stock of goods. He weathered the storm of 1837, and in 1839 shipped the first grain from Chicago to the East. It consisted of thirty-nine bags of wheat, which he sent to his mills at Burlington Flats, Otsego County. During this period Mr. Walker divided his time about equally between Chicago and the State of New York, but by 1845 his business had so increased at the former point that he decided to remove hither. Accordingly he formed a partnership in Utica, N. Y., with Cyrus Clark, his brother-in-law, under the firm name of Walker &-Clark, for the purpose of receiving Western produce. In May, 1845, he removed his family to Chicago. Although the crisis in the grain trade seriously affected Mr. Walker's business, his house con- tinned to hold its position as the leading grain and pro- duce establishment in the West. In 1851 C. Walker & Son. of Chicago; Walker & Kellogg. of Peoria, and Walker & Clark, of Buffalo, were the largest grain pur- chasers in the United States. At this period a severe attack of cholera inade it necessary for Mr. Walker to leave the active management of his affairs to his eldest son, Charles H. Walker, who continued the business under the firm of C. Walker & Son, and C. Walker & Sons, until 1855, when the father was obliged to retire from business altogether. The management of the house was now left to his two sons and others, who con- tinued the same under the firm of Walker, Bronson & Co. During the year 1856-57 the firm handled over 5,225.000 bushels of grain. As is usually the case with men who have successfully managed their private affairs, Mr. Walker was called to several public posts of responsibility. He was one of the original directors of the Chicago & Galena Union Railroad in 1847-48, tak- ing an active part in its management from first to last, and also in 1856 acting as president and one of the main directors of the Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska line, which was intended to be a continuation of the Galena road. Mr. Walker was the second president of the Board of Trade, serving for three years from 1849. His death occurred June 28, 1869. Mr. Walker was twice mar- ried-the first time to Mary Clarke, at Unadilla Forks, and the second time to Nancy Bentley, at Lebanon Springs, N. Y.

C. H. WALKER, the eldest son of the above, who as- sumed the managment of his father's extensive interests when he retired from business, was himself president of the Board of Trade in 1856 and 1857. Mr. Walker is now a resident of St. Mary's Parish, La. George C. and William B. Walker, also sons of Charles, are mem- bers of the prosperous commission house of George C. Walker & Co. There is one other child living, a daughter, now Mrs. Cornelia W. McLaury.

GEORGE STEEL was born in Forfarshire, Scotland, in 1797, one of a family of twelve sons, and removed to Canada about 1828, engaging as a contractor on the Lachine Canal. In 1837 he came to Chicago, having entered into a contract for constructing a portion of the Illinois & Michigan Canal. He built the works at Utica, known as the Clark Cement Works. After the stoppage of work on the canal, Mr. Steel came to Chi- ( ago and began business as produce and general com- mission merchant, and established a pork-packing trade on South Water Street, between what is now Fifth .Vv- enue and Franklin Street, on the site of the AAlston Manufacturing Company. At that time fifty hogs was a large day's packing business. His office and ware- houses were at the foot of LaSalle Street on South Water. In 1856-57 a buikling was erected on this site and a

room finished in the third story for the use of the Board of Trade, that being the first room constructed ex- pressly for the Board. The room was fifty by eighty feet in size, but was soon found to be too small for the purpose intended, and the Board removed to Newhouse's building, just west of the Steel building. Mr. Steel built the first steam elevator in Chicago to receive grain from canal and railroad. The elevator had a capacity of about one hundred thousand bushels. It was on the corner of North Franklin and River streets. It was burned about the year 1854. Mr. Steel was married in Montreal, about 1830, to Anna Stein Morrison, and was the father of nine children, seven of whom are still living-Jane, James, Marjorey, Mary, George, Susan, and William. In 1852-53 Mr. Steel was president of the Chicago Board of Trade. His death occurred in Chi- cago, in March, 1865. During his life he was a very popular man, and is remembered by his few surviving associates as one of the typical business representatives of the early period in Chicago.

THOMAS HALE, president of the Board in 1853, was a forwarding and commission merchant. He owned large warehouses both on North and South Water streets, and was one of the leading men of the city. Mr. Hale was one of those who signed the call in 1848 for the formation of the Board of Trade, but with the exception of this one office does not appear as a public functionary. S. T. Hale and Martin C. Hale are his sons. Mr. Hale died some years ago.

GEORGE AUGUSTIN GIBBS, son of Dr. Norrin E. Gibbs, a pioneer of Rochester, N. Y., was born in Rome, of that State, September 13, 1811. His mother, Sophia Gibbs, was a descendant of General Patterson, of Revolutionary fame. The subject of this sketch was given an academic education at Rochester, but at the age of nineteen, quitted school to engage in business for himself. In IS40 he came to Chicago as the agent for a forwarding line in Buffalo. He remained in that business for some time, but finally formed a connection with the firm of B. W. Raymond & Co., which later became known as George A. Gibbs & Co. About this time, in company with Edward W. Griffin, he built what was afterward known as the old Galena Elevator, and which was the first of its kind built in Chicago. In 1854-55 he was president of the Chicago Board of Trade and was for years a prominent member of that body. Mr. Gibbs was three times married ; first in IS31 to Miss Bertha Strong, daughter of Judge Strong. of Rochester. By this marriage there were four chil- dren, two of whom died in infancy, and two, William S. and James S. Gibbs, are now both well-known residents of Chicago, the latter being the present cashier of the Illinois Trust & Savings Bank. His second marriage was to Miss Mindwell Woodbridge, daughter of Dr. John Woodbridge, of Hadley, Mass., during this mar- riage one child was born but which also died in infancy. He was last married to Miss Anma Milford, daughter of Major Milford, an okl resident of Chicago. In 1865. December 8th. Mr. Gibbs died, leaving no issue by his last wife, who survived him until in July, 1881, when she too deceased.

HIRAM WHEELER, member of the firm, Munger. Wheeler & Co., has been in the grain and warehouse business for forty-five years. He came to Chicago in 1849, having previously been engaged in the lake trade at St. Joseph and Niles, Mich. Two sons, Charles H. and G. Henry Wheeler, are now members of the firm. Hiram Wheeler was elected president of the Board of Trade in 1855.

SCIENTIFIC DESCRIPTION OF LOCALITY.

GEOGRAPHICAL.

Chicago is situated at the embouchure of the Chi- cago River, near the southwestern corner of Lake Michigan. The geodesic position of various points in the city has been determined as follows :

Steeple of Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Name on Wolcott Street, between Huron and Superior streets, 41º 53' 48" north latitude; 87º 37' 47-73" longi- tude:

Dome of Chicago city hall, or court-house, 41º 53' 6.2" north latitude; 87º 36' 1.2" longitude.

Center of the base of iron light-house, 41º 53' 24.9" north latitude; 87º 36' 59" longitude.

Tall chimney of the Illinois Central Railroad Com -. pany's machine shops on the lake shore, 41º 51' 50.5" north latitude; 87º 37' 21.27" longitude.

These observations were made under the auspices of the United States Topographical Engineers, anterior to 1870. .

The observations made by the United States Signal Service have determined the following geometrical data :

Station on Washington Street, one square from city hall, ante-fire, in 1871. latitude, 41º 52'; longitude, 87° 35'-

Station in Major Block, southeast corner of Madison and LaSalle, determined by Captain Powell, in 1881; latitude, 41º 53' +"; longitude, 87º 37' 45".

The position of old Fort Dearborn is of record in the archives of the War Department as 41º 52' latitude; 87º 35' longitude.

'T'he center of the telescope in the Dearborn Observ- atory, situated within the Douglas University buildings on Cottage Grove Avenue, is 41º 50' 1" latitude; 87º 36' 41.7" longitude, or 5 hours 50 minutes 26.78 seconds west from Greenwich; or 10º 33' 40.4" longitude; or 42 minutes 14.69 seconds west from Washington. This observation was taken by Prof. T. H. Safford, and is authenticated by Prof. Elias Colbert.

The Ephemeris, or American Nautical Almanac. gives the location of Chicago, as latitude, 41º 50' 1"; longitude, 5 hours 50 minutes 26.78 seconds, or $7º 36' 26".

'The latitude is, of course, north; and the longitude west from Greenwich.

METEOROLOGICAL.

The height of the barometer above mean tide is 661.17 feet.

The mean annual rainfall for eleven years ending December 31. 1882, is 33-92 inches, and excessive rain- falls during this period have been on September 9, 1875. 3.52 inches; on the night of July 25, 1878. 4.14 inches; on July 16, 1879, 3.25 inches, and on November 11. ISS1. 3.18 inches.

The maximum temperature, since the establishment of the station of the United States Signal Service on November 1, 1870, and prior to July 24, 1883, was

+99°, on July 29, 1874; the minimum temperature. during the same period, was 23" on February 24. 1872. The mean temperature for ten years from 1872 was 49° 4'.

Phenomenal meteorological occurrences have been: the continuance of navigation during the entire year of 1882, and the opening of navigation on May 1, 1883; a storm on August 5, 1875, wherein the wind attained a velocity of forty-five miles an hour; a storm on June 25, 1877, when the wind registered on the anemometer fifty miles an hour, and on May 6, 1876, when the city was visited by a tornado which accomplished damage to the amount of about $250,000, during the few minutes of its passage. But Chicago has been singularly free from the devastating cyclones that have cut swathes of ruin in all the conterminous country, and the reason- able solution of this fact appears to be that the light. humid atmosphere of the lake absorbs the approaching cyclone and disseminates it. The force of a cyclone, as the force of dynamite, requires repression and compres- sion to educe it.

No more favorable opportunity will be presented. in the course of this history to allude to the duties per- formed by the observer at the signal station, in carrying out the rules imposed by 'the United States Signal Service. He has to record, encipher and transmit to the Chief Signal Officer observations of the barometer, thermometer, hygrometer, anemometer and anemoscope; the kind, amount and direction of clouds; the time of the beginning, ending and amount of precipitation dur- ing storms; the depth and temperature of rivers and lakes; carefully note and record all atmospheric phe- nomena; prepare weather reports for the information of the public; attend to the hoisting and lowering of cautionary signals, and generally have a hundred eyes, like Argus, and a hundred arms, like Briareus, to see and annotate such matters meteorological, as will fore- tell coming storms and record the passage of those that assume entity. This subject is adverted to that the public may have some little conception of the sleepless watchfulness and care that obtains at the multifarious stations of the United States Signal Service all over the continent; and of the unceasing vigilance, that is the prerequisite to liberty for mariners to set sail without forebodings of impending shipwreck .*

No reference has been made. in this brief allusion to meteorological phases of Chicago's existence, to any observations that may have been made prior to the establishment of the United States Signal Station; there were observations, made cursorily, but no meteorolog- ical record is of value unless it is uninterrupted: casual observations are liable to omit the very phenomena, or occurrence, that is of prime importance; and another reason for ignoring sporadic data is, that such matter- are treated in the course of the history or are noted in the chronological table.

Sufficient elaboration, however, has been given to the thermal status of Chicago's climate, to exhibit that the newspaper claim of its eligibility as a summer resort, is not without foundation in the truth-telling figures.

* To Sergeant Witham Norrington, the observer at the signal station in Chicago, the collaborator is under obligations for valuable information.

5SS

589

GEOLOGICAL.

registered upon the various thermometers during the summer months.

TOPOGRAPHICAL.

The authentic topography of Chicago is limited in consequence of the first survey not having been made until 1821, and then only of the shore-line; in fact, the surveys have nearly all been directed to this particular portion of the city, the interest of the general and municipal governments being concentrated upon the harbor, the river and the pier. When real estate specu- lation was rife in the city, then, of course, additions and subdivisions were made con amore, but these surveys were sectional, not general, and the results of such surveying are not included in this article: which contemplates merely the configuration of the shore-line and the accre- tions and erosions that have been occasioned by the

and from Chicago Avenue to the north bank of the Chicago River, of about ninety-eight acres.

The surface configuration of the ground is thus accurately described by John M. Van Osdel:

" From the fort, at Rush-street bridge, south on Michigan Avenue, the surface nf the ground was, as it is now, about nine or ten feet above the surface of the lake. The surface drainage was from Michigan Avenue west to the river, and from State Street west was nearly a level plain, elevated some two or three feet above the river. The topography of the North Division was similar, the surface declining from Rush Street toward the west. The surface water cut large gullies in the soil, known as sloughs; three of these sloughs opened into the main river. One at State Street was about sixty feet wide at the mouth and extended in a southwesterly directinn to the site of the present T'remont House. Another had its outlet between Clark and I.aSalle streets, and extended inland across Lake Street. The third and most formidable one was on the North Side, near Franklin Street, being eighty feet wide at the river and extending north through the Kingsbury and Newberry tracts to Chicago Avenue."*

of trus copy, com oriist records.

U. S. Engelaar Olles, Chicago, IL.

Major of Engineers U.s .army.

SCALE11 INCH-AGU FL

constant current that sets toward the mouth of the harbor from the straits of Mackinaw. The same forces that caused the bar across the mouth of the river in times of yore, have made hundreds of acres of land upon the north side of the pier, and the detritus and deposit that was formerly a formidable obstacle to navi- gation has become dry land, and a valuable accessory to Chicago's greatness.

From 1821 until 1869 the lake eroded the shore south of the pier to a width of three hundred and twenty feet; but the piling driven along the lake front retarded this incursion, and then caused a deposit until the land lost has been more than recovered. That the soil along the lake, south of Thirty-ninth Street and as far west as Grand Boulevard, is " made land," is easily perceivable from its arenaceous character and the conchological remains with which it is replete. The accompanying plat* clearly shows the accretions alluded to, and which demonstrates that at a line near the north bank of the river the various accessions, in lineal feet, have been as follows: From 1821 to 1833. 420 feet; to 1838, ;So feet; to 1843, 1,036 feet; to 1849. 1,400 feet: to 1854. 1,520 feet; to 1864. 1,650 feet; to 1869. 1,758 feet; to 1876. 1,900 feet, and to 18So, 1,860 feet; this augmentation making an area, from the survey line of 1821 eastward,

* Taken from tracing- furnishedl by the kindness of the Chief of Engineers, U'united States Army, ant un hle in the office of the thief Engineer Officer, Military Devision of the Missouri.

GEOLOGICAL.

Chicago lies on an apparently level plain which sur- rounds the whole of the head of Lake Michigan ; the plain having a gradual, average ascent of from five to fifteen feet in a mile in its recession from the lake. The smooth surface of this vast prairie was leveled by the former waves of the lake, which left the oldest beach line at fifty-two feet above its present level. Upon this level the surface deposit is either black muck, or, in places, lake sand. For several eons the lake occu- pied three different levels, the highest of which-men- tioned above-was not as high as around Lake Erie, and this level was that which the lake occupied at the close of the drift period. Then the water fell to about its present level and remained there for ages, while a dense forest in some places and extensive marshes in others, covered the surface where Chicago now stands and over a region to twenty miles north of the city. This was the Quaternary period, and the mastodon roamedt where the churches and schools of Chicago now stand. At the close of this epoch, the lake rose thirty feet, and there remained for ages, throwing up a great beach line, and covering the bones of the master-

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History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 163

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