History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 45

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

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" The fourth remark concerns a very important advantage and which some will, perhaps, find it hard to credit ; it is that we can quite easily go to Florida in boats, and by a very good navigation. There would be only one canal to make by cutting only half a league of prairie, to pass from the lake of Illinois, (Lake Michi- gan) into the St. Louis River, (the Desplaines and Illinois). The route to be taken is this : the bark should be built on Lake Erie, which is near Lake Ontario ; it would pass easily from Lake Erie to Lake Huron, from which it would enter the lake of Illinois. At the extremity of this would be the cut, or canal, of which I have spoken, to have a passage to the St. Louis River, which empties into the Mississippi. The bark having entered this river would easily sail to the Gulf of Mexico. Fort Catarokoni, which the Count de Frontenac has erected on Lake Ontario, would greatly favor this enterprise, because it would facilitate the communication from Que- bec and Lake Erie, from which this fort is not very far distant; and but for a water-fall which separates Lake Erie from Lake Ontario, a bark built at Catarokoni could go to Florida hy the routes of which I have spoken. The fifth remark regards the great advan- tages there would be in founding new colonies to such beautiful countries and such fertile soil."

Further Joliet says :

" The river to which we have given the name of St. Louis and which has its source not far from the extremity of the lake of the Illinois, seemed to me to offer on its banks very fine lands, well suited to receive settlements. The place by which, after leaving the river, you enter the lake, is a very convenient bay to hold ves- sels and protect them from the wind."

For more than one hundred and thirty years after Joliet, among other things, vainly called the attention of the French Government to the importance of ob- taining communication between the lake of Illinois and the Mississippi River, the idea disappeared. But it was not lost ; for when the country began to experience

* " Relations" of Father Dablon, Historical Magazine, p. 237.

165

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HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

the force of advancing civilization, the idea took shape in the halls of legislation, and was recorded, in various forms, in the public prints. In 1810, Peter B. Porter, member of Congress from New York, and naturally interested in canal schemes, drew the attention of the Government to the question. There the matter rested for four years, when President Madison, in his inaugural of 1814, ad- verted to its importance. The Niles Register of August 6, 1814, said :

" By the Illinois River it is probable that Buffalo, in New York, may be united with New Orleans by inland navigation, through Lakes Erie, fluron and Michigan, and down that river to the Mississippi. What a route ! How stupendous the idea ! How dwindles the importance of the artificial canals of Europe compared to this water communication. If it should ever take place-and it is said the opening may be easily made-the Terri- tory (of Illinois) will become the sent of an immense commerce, and a market for the commodities of all regions."

Then the idea slumbered for two years longer. With the exception of a few river towns and settle- ments, the West and Southwest was still a wild, unde- veloped country. But if there is anything which marks the pioneer of the West, and particularly of the North- west, as a peculiar people it is the prematureness of their enterprise in all public works. Therefore it was that, in 1816, the first step was taken toward the construction of the Illinois & Michigan Canal. By the treaty held at St. Louis, August 24, of that year, the Pottawatomies relinquished their title to the strip of land from Ottawa . to Chicago, covering in a breadth of twenty miles, the navigable route to the Illinois and Desplaines · rivers and the portage of the Chicago River.

Soon afterward Major S. H. Long, U. S. E., passed over this route, " leading," as he says in his narrative, "through a savage and roadless wilderness, via Fort Clark, and the valley of the Illinois River, to Lake Michigan." In September, he and his party ascended the Illinois to the head of Lake Peoria in a small keel boat, and passed through extensive fields of wild rice springing from the river-bed and rising several feet above the water's surface. The current was so sluggish as to weigh down the straws, and the river continued in a similar condition until, in later years, the frequent passage of steamboats prevented the upward growth of the rice.

Reaching Chicago it was found that the river by that name "discharged itself into the lake over a bar of sand and gravel, in a rippling stream, ten to fifteen yards wide, and only a few inches deep." The little Calumet, about fifteen miles south of Chicago, entered the lake, but at that time it was effectually blocked up by a high and dry sand bar. Major Long's may be called the first scientific exploration of the future route of the Illinois & Michigan Canal, and among the measures which took up the attention of Illinois, the moment it became a State, was the proposal, from Governor Bond, for a regular preliminary survey along the route of the lands obtained from the Indians. Con- gress by act of March 30, 1822, granted the State per- mission to cut a canal through these public lands, donating ninety feet on each side of it. It also appro- priated $10,000 for the surveys. The proviso attaching to these acts of liberality was merely that "the State shall permit all articles belonging to the United States, or to any person in their employ, to pass toll-free for- ever." This action of the National Government was most gratifying to Govenor Cole, the successor of Governor Bond. He was an earnest advocate of a jndi- cious system of internal improvements, and proposed various plans for the accumulation of funds to carry on the work; such as a revenue from taxes on the mili-

tary bounty lands, fines and forfeitures, etc. He even urged the importance of opening communication with - Lake Erie by the Wabash River, through Indiana, and the Maumee, in Ohio; and the building of the Illinois & Michigan Canal with all other proposed improve- ments in the borders of his own State, found in him one of their ablest supporters. Early in the legislative ses- sion of 1822-23, resolutions were adopted in the House authorizing the committee on internal improvements to enquire into the practicability of a canal. empowering the Governor to employ engineers to examine the port- age between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River, and estimate the cost of making a communication between its waters. From them originated a bill, embodying the Governor's views, as well as those of many other cham- pions of internal improvement, and approved February 14, 1823. It provided for the appointment of commis- sioners to survey the canal route, estimate the cost of the improvement and report to the next Legislature. They were also to invite the attention of the Governors of Indiana and Ohio, and through them the legislatures of those States, to the. Govenor's plan to obtain com- munication with Lake Erie. The commissioners named were Thomas Sloo, Jr., of Hamilton County, and Theophilus W. Smith, Emanuel J. West, Erastus Brown, and Samuel Alexander.

In June, 1823, Major Long, while his expedition . was on its way to explore the source of the St. Peter's River, Minnesota, again visited various localities on the route of the canal .*

He thus describes his visit to the famous portage between Chicago and Desplaines rivers:

"The south fork of the Chicago River takes its rise about six miles from the fort, in a swamp which communicates also with the Desplaines, one of the head branches of the Illinois. Having been informed that this route was frequently traveled by traders, and that it had been used by one of the officers of the garrison, who re- turned with provisions from St. Louis a few days before our arrival at the fort, we determined to ascend the Chicago River in order to observe this interesting division of waters. We accordingly left the fort on the 7th of June, in a boat which, after having ascend- ed the river about four miles we exchanged for a narrow pirogue that drew less water; the stream we were a scending was very nar- row, rapid, and crooked, presenting a great fall; it continued so for about three miles, when we reaced a sort of swamp. designated by the Canadian voyagers under the name of le petit lac. Our course through this swamp, which extended for three miles, was very much impeded by the high grass, weeds, etc., through which our pirogue passed with difficulty. Observing that our progress through the fen was very slow, and the day being considerably advanced, we landed on the north bank, and continued our coursealong the edge of the swamp for about three miles, until we reached the place where the old portage road meets the current, which was here very distinct toward the south. We were deligted at beholding for the first time, a feature so interesting in itself, but which afterward we had an opportunity of observing frequently on the route; viz .: the division of waters starting from the same source, and running in two different directions, so as to become the feeders of streams that discharge themselves into the ocean an immense distance apart. Although at the time we visited it, there was scarcely water enough to permit our pirogue to pass, we could not doubt that in the spring of the year the route must be a very eligible one. Lieutenant Hop- son, who accompanied us to the Desplaines, told us that he had traveled it with ease, in a boat loaded with lead and flour. The distance from the fort to the intersection of the portage road and the Desplaines is supposed to be about twelve or thirteen miles; the elevation of the feeding lake above Chicago River is estimated at five or six feet; and it is probable that the descent to the I)es- plaines is less considerable. The portage rond is about eleven miles long: the usual distance traveled hy land seldom, however, exceeds from four to nine miles; in very dry seasons it has been said to amount to thirty miles, as the portage then extends to Mount Juliet, near the confluence of Kankakee. When we consid- cr the facts above stated, we are irresistibly led to the conclusion that an elevation of the lakes of a few feet (not exceeding ten or twelve,) ahove their present level woukd cause them to discharge their waters, partly, at least, into the Gulf of Mexico; that such a

* Major Long's Expedition, p. 165 and 167.

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THE ILLINOIS & MICHIGAN CANAL.

discharge has at one time existed, every one eonversant with the nature of the country must admit; and it is equally apparent that an expenditure, trifling in comparison with the importance of the object, would again render Lake Michigan a tributary to the Mexi- can Gulf. Impressed with the importance of this object, the Legis- lature of Illinois has already caused some observations to be made upon the possibility of establishing this communication; the com- missioners appointed to that effect visited Chicago after we left it, and we know not what resuits they obtained, as their report has not reached us; but we have been informed that they had consider- ed the elevation of the petit lac above Chicago to be somewhat great- er than we had estimated it. It is the opinion of those best ac- quainted with the nature of the country, that the easiest commu- nication would be between the little Calamick and some point of the Desplaines, probably below the portage road; between these two points, there is in wet seasons, we understand, a water eom- munication of ten or twelve miles. Of . the practicability of the work, and of the sufficieney of a supply of water no doubt can ex- ist. The only difficulty will. we apprehend, be in keeping the communication open after it is once made, as the soil is swampy, and probably will require particular care to oppose the return of the soft mud into the excavations."

In the autumn of 1823 Colonel Justus Post, of Mis- souri, chief engineer, accompanied by several of the commissioners, made a tour of exploration along the route of the canal, but nothing definite was accomplished until the next year. During the fall of r824 Colonel Rene Paul, of St. Louis, an able engineer, was also em- ployed, with a necessary corps of men, and, accom- panied by one commissioner, attempted to complete the proposed survey. The party was divided into two com- panies. Five different routes were surveyed, and an estimate made on each. The plan of construction was on the scale of the New York & Erie Canal, the high- est estimate being $716,110, and the lowest $639,946. In January, 1825, the commissioners made their report to the Legislature, sending also a copy to President Adams, that the subject might be kept before the coun- try as a national measure of utility. A few days later, on the 17th of January, the act was passed to incorpo- rate the " Illinois & Michigan Canal Company." Ed- ward Coles, Shadrack Bond, Justus Post, Erastus Brown, William S. Hamilton, Joseph Duncan, John Warnock, et al., were constituted its president and di- rectors. The capital stock was placed at $1,000,000, and the dimensions of the canal were to be such as would admit of the passage of boats thirteen and a half feet wide, drawing three feet of water. The toll was placed at half a cent per mile per ton. But the canal association did not succeed in organizing a working company ; so that the Legislature of 1826 deemed it proper to annul the act of the previous year. This ac- tion, however, was not understood to be an abandon- ment of the canal project, but merely a measure which should cut away all "entangling alliances," and enable any future management of the enterprise to build their work upon a new basis. . In January, 1826, a memorial was reported to Congress for another grant of land. As remarked by Governor Coles, in his address of Decem- ber, 1826, in the then fluctuating condition of the money market it was impossible to obtain a loan on long time. A liberal land grant from Congress was what was re- quired and expected. The Governor even suggested, " considering the favorable manner in which our appli- cation for a grant of land was received by Congress at its last session," that the Legislature should " com- mence this great work of improvement, predicated on a liberal grant of land being made by Congress, previous to the meeting of the next General Assembly." Through the persistent efforts of Daniel P. Cook, Representative in Congress, assisted, for several years, by United States Senators J. B. Thomas, Ninian Edwards and Elias K. Kane, an act was passed March 2, 1827, granting to the

State for canal purposes " a quantity of land equal to one-half of five sections in width, on each side of the pro- posed route, each alternate section being reserved to the United States. This splendid gift of Congress* amounted to about 284,000 acres, of which over 113,000 acres were fertile prairie land. The obtaining of this magnificent land grant made the building of the canal a certainty, and in after time was the means of lifting the State from the slough of financial despair. It made possible and necessary the survey of Chicago Town, and flour- ishing villages were eventually born along the route of the proposed improvement. In 1828 another law was passed providing for the sale of lots and lands, for the appointment of a board of canal commissioners and for the commencement of the work.t Nothing was done under this law except the sale of some land and lots, and a new survey of the route and estimate of cost, by the new engineer, Mr. Bucklin. The granting of this domain in 1827 may be said to have been the first general recognition of the growing importance of the Northwest. Owing to the evident lack of home capital, however, the Legislature attempted nothing further to aid in the construction of the canal for two years after obtaining the congressional grant. In January, 1829, an act was passed for the appointment, by the Governor, of three commissioners who were to serve two years, and were to be granted, in addition to their usual pow- ers, the right to establish towns along the surveyed route. The dimensions of this canal were also fixed. The commissioners selected were Dr. Jayne, of Spring- field, Edmund Roberts, of Kaskaskia, and Charles Dunn. They proceeded at once to lay out towns at each end of the route. They first platted the town of Ottawa, at the junction of the Fox River with the Illi- nois, and in the autumn of 1829, ordered James Thomp- son, onet of their surveyors, to lay out the town of Chi- cago, at the lake terminus of the canal. The commis- sioners thus having stuck their first stakes, in providing for towns at each end of their line, found it necessary to revise their surveys.§ Those of 1830-31, under Dr. William Howard, chief engineer of the topographical bureau, established the fact that the greatest elevation of ground on the plane along the proposed canal route, between the Chicago and Desplaines rivers, was only fourteen feet above the surface of the lake, the average height being ten feet; that at a distance of thirty-four miles from the lake, the surface of the Desplaines is on a level with Lake Michigan, and then begins to gradu- ally fall, the descent between a point at the junction of the Kankakee River and the Illinois to LaSalle being at the rate of two feet per mile. From LaSalle to the . mouth of the Illinois the fall was ascertained to be only one and a half inches per mile; hence it was argued that a moderate supply of water from the lake in low stages would render this portion of the river as naviga- ble as the Mississippi. The country between the lake and the river is a level prairie, the soil a stiff blue clay, with a substratum of "hard pan." The plan was, by means of a deep cut over thirty miles in length, to bring the waters of Lake Michigan directly to that point in the Desplaines where the levels coincide. This was

to constitute the summit level. At that locality, how- ever, the rock appeared so near the surface, it became evident that the cost would be great, and discourage- ment was thrown upon the whole plan, although all the

* See report of Boston Investigating Committee of 1844, pp. 26 and 68. t Fondl's Illinois.

* The only statement to the contrary is found in a letter of James M. Bucklin, chief engineer, in 18th, who says that when he arrived at Chicago, " Capt. Hope" had laid out the town.

§ Major Long's letter to Chicago Canal Convention of 1863

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HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

investigations of engineers up to that time and in later -years went to establish the fact that, albeit an expensive work, it would prove the most effective. But these considerations of economy induced the Legislature in February, 1831, to pass an act for appointment of other commissioners who were to find out if the Calamic (Calumet) would not do for a feeder, and to improve the mouth of the Fox River at Ottawa. They were also to report whether a railroad would not be preferable to a canal between the Chicago and Desplaines rivers. Upon second thought the State decided to build neither railroad nor canal, at present, and in March, 1833, repealed the acts of 1829 and 1831. For the next two years nothing was done towards building the canal. The discouraging discovery had been made in 1833 that it would require $4,043,000* to construct the canal ; consequently, as there was little money and less credit in the State, all public improvements languished for a time.t Finally, however, on February 10, 1835, an act was approved authorizing the Governor to nego- tiate a $500,000 loan for the construction of the canal ; to cause certificates of stock to be used and to appoint another board of commissioners. The dimensions of the canal were to be forty-five feet wide at the surface, thirty feet at the base, and deep enough to float boats of at least four feet draft. The Governor was also author- ized to negotiate bonds for the prosecution of the work, pledging the canal lands as security for their redemp- tion. But owing to the small value then attaching to these lands the bonds were not easily negotiated. In 1835, therefore, Colonel Strode, of Galena, suggested an amendatory act, pledging the faith of the State to the redemption of the bonds. This pledge was given in 1836, under Governor Duncan's administration, another canal bill being approved on the 9th of January. Gur- don S. Hubbard, William F. Thornton and William B. Archer, and subsequently J. B. Fry, were appointed com- missioners. William Gooding became chief engineer. Upon the day of the passage of the bill the citizens of Chicago assembled and resolved that twelve guns should be fired for each man that voted for the measure, and that the two weekly newspapers should publish their names in "large capitals," while the names of the opponents of the bill were to be printed only in "italics.": The work was to be constructed on the plan of the " deep-cut," or direct supply of the canal from Lake Michigan through the Chicago River and its South Branch. Further and more minute surveys were insti- tuted and estimates in detail were furnished of the probable cost of the work upon an enlarged scale, viz., for a canal sixty feet wide at the surface, thirty-six feet at the base, and six feet deep. The estimate of the entire cost of such a canal was $8,654,000. To facili- tate its construction, " Archer's Road " was at once laid out from Chicago to Lockport, at a cost of $40,000, that amount being raised from the sale of lands. The justness of this expenditure was questioned, since Colonel Archer had an extensive property in Lockport which the road seemed designed to benefit. At length, however, all was ready for the formal inauguration of the work.

Thus after nearly twenty years from the time " the right of way " was obtained from the Pottawatomies, by repeated assaults upon the Legislature and Congress, upon the public treasury and private purse, the advo- cates of the Illinois & Michigan Canal saw their labors about to be commenced, and considered that result a sufficient reward for all their trials. On July 4, 1836,

* Report of the Illinois & Michigan Canal, 1844-

+ Report suggesting the bill prepared by George Forquer, Senator from Sangamon County.

the commissioners ordered the work to be inaugurated at Bridgeport. Upon the appointed day Chicago was in a great state of excitement. The citizens and invited guests assembled in the public square, at the signal given by three cannons from the fort. Part were to go by boat, and part were to form in procession and move, by the Archer road, to the head of the proposed canal. The officers of the day were : J. B. F. Russell, marshal ; aides, E. D. Taylor, Robert Kinzie, G. W. Snow, J. S. C. Hogan, H. Hubbard, and W. Kimball. At 11 o'clock A. M., the steamer " Chicago " started from Dearborn Street, her decks being crowded. The schooners " Sea Serpent," "Llewellyn" and other craft, towed by horses, followed in her wake. On foot, in carriages, or on horse- back, the procession also moved to the appointed place, by the land route. Early in the afternoon a large assembly was present at the " new house," on Canal-Port. There Judge Smith, a true friend of the enterprise, read the Declaration of Independence, which was followed by an eloquent address delivered by Dr. W. B. Egan. Gurdon S. Hubbard also spoke, contrasting the condition of the settlement with what it was eighteen years before, when he first ascended the river in a canoe. After these ad- dresses the people moved to the spot where excavation was to be commenced. Colonel Archer, acting com- missioner, made a brief address and broke the first ground. Judges Smith and Brown, of the Supreme Court, and Commissioner G. S. Hubbard delivered the closing addresses. The crowd then dispersed ; and the actual work of construction was soon to commence.

Following closely upon this auspicious event was the famous " Internal Improvement " act of 1837. In addition to the task of supplying a thinly-settled West- ern State with a railroad system sufficient to meet the requirements of a populous Eastern commonwealth, the act authorized the granting of a $4,000,000 loan for the further prosecution of the canal. Extravagant expecta- tions were thus raised that could not have been realized in the palmiest days of the State's financial health. Though as a matter of convenience, the canal loans were kept distinct from the internal improvement funds, they all failed with the temporary loss of the State's credit and the repeal of the act. In 1837 the commissioners were authorized to sell lands, and the Governor was authorized to negotiate a loan of $300,000 to carry on the work for 1837 and 1838, provided " said loan shall not be made until the whole of the means available under existing laws shall have been exhausted." But the "deep-cut " was going on, and by 1839 over one and a quarter million of dollars had been expended. Every available means were required to supply the en- terprise with the alarming amount of funds demanded. This proviso of 1837 being considered somewhat " cramping" in its nature, was repealed in January, 1839, and a few days thereafter the fund commissioners of Illinois (who disbursed the internal improvement fund) turned over the $300,000 to the canal fund. And still the hungry enterprise called for more money to keep it alive ; so that April 11, 1839, the commissioners of the canal concluded to issue a large amount of checks, or scrip, payable in ninety days, out of the canal fund. The lesser denominations of scrip, or the " at-sight " checks, were used principally by the contractors to pay off their workmen. Those of larger denominations, such as $50 and Stoo, were used chiefly in the dealings be- tween the commissioners and contractors. What were termed " irregular" checks, in contradistinction to the " regular " issues of May and August, 1839, were also thrown upon the money market. If a contractor wished the commissioners to pay him a specified amount, or

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History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 45

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