USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > History of Chicago : historical and commercial statistics, sketches, facts and figures, republished from the "Daily Democratic press" ; What I remember of early Chicago, a lecture, delivered in McCormick's hall, January 23, 1876 (Tribune, January 24th) > Part 12
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
Twenty years ago Chicago was an insig- nificant town at the southern end of Lake Michigan, importing nearly all her pro- duce from Western New York and North- ern Ohio. Last year she shipped 21,583,221 bushels of grain, and her total receipts were over twenty-four and a half millions. Half a dozen years ago she had only a single railroad some twenty miles long entering the city; 'now she has 3,676 miles completed and in opera- tion, and the earnings of these lines for the last year amount to the enormous sum of $17,343,242.83. The increase of earn- ings during the past year is over four mil- lions of dollars. More than a hundred trains of cars arrive and depart daily. Her trade in lumber exceeds by far that of any other city in the world, amounting to 456,673,169 feet. Ten years ago lier manufactures were in their infancy and were scarcely worthy of commendation. Last year the capital invested amounted to $7,759,400, and the value of manufac- tured articles to more than FIFTEEN MIL- LIONS AND A HALF OF DOLLARS. Half a dozen years ago Chicago was reproached as being a city of wooden shanties; last
y ar she invested in magnificent stores, many of them with superb marble and iron fronts, elegant palatial residences and other improvements, $5,708,624. And wonderful as has been the progress of the city, it has not been able to keep pace with the improvements of the country by which she is surrounded.
The statistics of the movement of pop- ulation westward show that people enough found their homes west of Chicago during the past year to form two entire States. Nor is this a movement of mere human bone and muscle; it is a concentration upon our rich rolling prairies and amid our beautiful groves of a vast host of active, vigorous, intelligent men, who plant schools and churches wherever they settle, and bring with them all the ele- ments of an enterprising Christian civili- zation-a deep, controlling, ever abiding reverence for liberty and for law. They are laying the foundations for an empire of whose wealth, intelligence and power the sun in all his course has never seen the equal. Ere the next quarter of a century shall have rolled away, the beautiful val- leys of the Upper Missouri, the Yellow Stone, the Platte, and the Kansas, uye, and even that of the Red River of the North, will all have been settled, and this ever-deepening current of emigration will meet an equally resistless stream from the Pacific coast, and roll back in mingling eddies from the summits of the Rocky Mountains. Fourteen States as large as Ohio, but on an average more wealthy and populous, will have grown up on the magnificent country between the Lakes and the Rocky Mountains, and how many will repose upon the "Pacific slope " we dare not attempt to predict.
During the last year our steamers have run without interruption to the head of Lake Superior, and our exports to the Atlantic seaboard have largely increased. Nor is this all. The Dean Richmond was loaded with wheat at the wharves of Chi- cago and Milwaukee and discharged lier cargo into the warehouses of Liverpool. The practicability, and the profit too, of direct trade with Europe have been dem- onstrated; and as soon as navigation
74
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
opens, other vessels will follow in the track of the Dean Richmond; and in the judgment of those who have most care- fully studied this subject, a very few years will render the departure of vessels for the grain-consuming countries of Europe so common as scarcely to excite remark. Our Canadian neighbors are becoming fully convinced that their best interests require greater facilities for the transit of western produce to the ocean-and the enlargement of the Welland Canal and the construction of the Georgian Bay or the Ottawa Ship Canal is now regarded as a prime necessity of commerce. Our rail- way lines are constantly being extended through the magnificent country west of us-a country whose mineral, agricultural and commercial resources no man has yet had the nerve to estimate. To the citi- zen of Chicago who has at heart the material, social and religious welfare of the millions who are to succeed us, every aspect of the horizon east, west, north and south, is full of promise and joyous hope. Presenting our congratulations to the readers of the Press, we offer to them, to all, the inspiring motto, COURAGE ! ONWARD ! ! .
The following little address contains some facts which perhaps will excuse its insertion here:
EXTENT AND RESOURCES OF THE NORTHWEST,
TRADE WITH CANADA, ETC.
Remarks of Wm. Bross, Esq., at the Great Railway Celebration at Montreal, Wednesday, Nov. 12th, 1856, in response to the toast "The City of Chi- cago," as reported in the Montreal Gazette, Nov. 13th.
War. BROSS, EsQ., Editor of the Chicago Democratic Press, responded. Hethanked the last speaker for the flattering mention that had been made of Chicago, and said: This is eminently, Sir, a practical age. And while this is true, it is not wanting in those elements which appeal to and arouse the nobler and more generous emotions of the soul. The facts and the figures, which represent the onward pro- gress of our Christian civilization, so far from being dry and uninteresting, are themselves eloquent and absorbing, and even the most exalted genius has not dis- dained to embody them in our literature,
and to celebrate their benign influence upon the happiness of mankind in the magic numbers of poetry. Next to Christianity itself, commerce has the most direct and powerful influence to bind to- gether, in a community of interest and feeling, all the families of our race, and to cultivate those kindlier sympathies which teach man to recognize a brother in his fellow man in whatever land or clime he may be found.
This celebration is intended to honor the opening of another great thoroughfare from the teeming prairies of the West to the Atlantic seaboard. While others have enjoyed the pleasing task of dwell- ing on the social themes suggested by this event, and believing as I do in the elo- quence of facts and figures, will you per- mit me, Sir, to notice its great commer- cial importance. Canadian enterprise was never more wisely employed than when it devoted its energies to complete another highway from the Mississippi to Montreal and Quebec, and to Portland in Maine, the most eastern, as she certainly is one of the fairest stars in our glorious galaxy of States. Permit me, in this con- nection, to notice briefly the extent and rapidity of settlement, and the resources of the magnificent country of which Chi- cago is the commercial centre, and which you have bound to your city by iron bands by the completion of the Grand Trunk Railway. Let any one study carefully the map of the Northwest, and he will find within the bounds of the United States, lying between Lake Michigan and the Rocky Mountains, and within the reach of the trade of the lakes south, say the latitude of Alton, 700,000 square miles of territory-enough to form four- teen States as large as Ohio. It is very easy to repeat these figures, but let us make some comparisons in order that we may form some just and definite concep- tion of their magnitude. All the States east of the Mississippi, except Wisconsin, Illinois and Florida, contain only about 700,000 square miles. Again, England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, constituting the British empire, leading, as her posi- tion is in the civilization, wealth and power of the world, contain only 115,000 square miles, and yet they have a population of 26,000,000. The countries of Turkey, Austria and France contain in the aggre- gate 861,000 square miles, and sustain a population of 84,000,000.
The climate of the region under con- sideration is exactly fitted to produce a hardy and enterprising people. Its min- eral deposits of iron, lead, copper and coal are unsurpassed in extent and rich- ness, and, unbroken by mountains, its agricultural resources are exhaustless and truly amazing. It is said by competent
75
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
authority that every acre will maintain its man; but giving ten to each, within the next half dozen centuries, if peace and prosperity crown the land, it is destined to contain 450,000,000 of people. Such is the vast and magnificent country with which you have become socially and com- mercially connected at all times and in all seasons by the Grand Trunk, the Great Western, and the Michigan Central Rail- ways.
The rapidity with which the borders of this immense region-for at least five- sevenths of it is still the home of the pan- ther, the buffalo and the savage-is one of the most astonishing wonders of the age. Within half the lifetime of many who hear me, there were not ten thousand white inhabitants in all this territory; their number now will range from onc and a half to two millions. Twenty years ago Chicago was a small town at the southern end of Lake Michigan, and at night the howl of the prairie wolf might be heard from all its dwellings; now it is a city of more than a hundred thousand inhabi- tants. Twenty years ago Chicago import- ed nearly all her pork, beef and flour; this year she will export 20,000,000 bush- els of grain, and her beef, both in quan- tity and quality; leads the markets of the world. Five years ago the State of Illi- nois had completed 95 miles of railways; now she has more than 2,400. At that time there was but one railway, forty miles long, entering Chicago; there are now ten trunk and a great number of branch lines, and counting in most cases but a single State beyond our own, there are now more than three thousand miles of railway centering in the city, and on these more than a hundred trains of cars arrive and depart daily. The carnings of these roads last year reached the enor- mous sum of $13,300,000, and this year they will amount to from 17 to 20,000,000 of dollars. What is a matter of special pride is, that some of these lines are among the best paying roads in the Union. But the country is increasing, if possible, much faster than Chicago, its commercial metropolis. Only some seven or eight years ago, Minnesota was organized into a territory, and her white inhabitants were told by a few hundreds; now she has at least 130,000, and will knock at the door of Congress at the next session for admission as a sovereign State.
But, Sir, it may be interesting to you to know what the extent of the trade between the ports of Canada and Chicago is. And here let me acknowledge my in- debtedness for these figures to J. Edward Wilkins, Esq., the very able and excellent Consul of Her Britannic Majesty at Chicago:
IMPORTS.
1
Vessels. Tons.
1854
5
1,193
£ 5,178 2 6
$ 24,855
1855
77
16,617
28,856 6 8 138,520
1856, to Nov. 1, 95
22,664 40,892 8 4 194,843
EXPORTS.
Vessels.
Tons.
1854
6
1,482
£16,429 7 6
$ 79,101
1855 __
.61
13,010 173,922 1 8
834,826
1856, to Nov. 1, 97
23,377 174,838 5 9 829,223
These figures, it should be borne in mind, represent the trade in British ves- sels alone. The exports from Chicago to Canadian ports are much larger than the figures here given, as produce is shipped largely by the Collingwood and the Michi- gan Central lines, by Ogdensburg and by independent American vessels. The total amount of sales this year at Chicago to Canadian merchants is estimated by Mr. Wilkins at about $2,500,000. This large trade lias sprung up mainly within the last two years, and owes its success to the. enlightened statesmanship of those who framed and secured the passage of the reciprocity treaty. But, Sir, we, of Chi- cago, hope that this trade is but in its in- fancy. The Creator when he formed the great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, intend- ed that the commerce of the mighty and teeming West should be borne on their broad bosom to the ocean, and I think, Sir, it requires no great amount of geo- graphical and philosophical sagacity to discover that while Chicago is to be the great central commercial city of the North American continent, Montreal is to be one of the great commercial emporiums of the seaboard. That is virtually your position. It needs but the enlarging of the Welland Canal and the construction of another great work, the Georgian Bay and Ontario Ship Canal, to secure for Montreal this proud position beyond a peradventure. We have an earnest of what can be done. Only a few weeks ago the Dean Richmond was loaded at Chi- cago and Milwaukee, passed out through your magnificent river and canals, and landed her cargo of wheat on the docks of Liverpool. This, Sir, I regard as one of the greatest triumphs of commercial enterprise. But let not the merchants of Montreal fear that, if the Georgian Bay Canal be built, and the Welland enlarged, the rich trade of the West will go by her. So far from that, it will make one of its chief depots here. Lines of propellers will bring the produce of the West here, and from them it will be transhipped in Ocean going steamers. May we not hope, Sir, that Montreal merchants will give us such a line next year on the opening of navigation? Let it be understood that Chicago merchants can import speedily and surely goods from Europe by this line, and our word for it, it will not be three
76
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
years before Montreal will secure the lion's share of the trade of the West. I am well aware, Sir, that these remarks may be condemned, and perchance excite the ridicule of my friends on the other side of the line. The far-seeing sagacity of DeWitt Clinton planned, and New York enterprise built, the Erie Canal, thus securing for a time for the great American metropolis the vast trade of the mighty West. But, Sir, there is enough for them and for you. Com- merce knows no national lines. Protect her, and she blesses alike the loyal sub- jects of the British Queen and those who recline proudly beneath the Stars and
Stripes of our own glorious Union. Aye, Sir, she has bound us, and may she con- tinue to bind us together in a community of interest and feeling, and accursed be the hand that would sever these bonds, so productive of everything that promotes the onward progress of Christian civiliza- tion. I give you, Sir, in conclusion-
" Montreal and Chicago - England, Canada, and the American Union; in all efforts to promote the arts of peace, and to secure the advancement of our race in intelligence and Christian civilization, may they be 'NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND INSEPERABLE. '"
-
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
1857.
From our railway review for 1857, pre- pared by myself, the following synopsis is taken.
The following list embraces the trunk roads actually completed and in operation, with their branch and extension lines, centering in Chicago:
Miles.
Chicago and Milwaukee 85
Kenosha and Rockford 11
Racine and Mississippi 86
Chicago, St. Paul and Fond du Lac 131
Milwaukee and Mississippi, Western Divis'n 130 Galena and Chicago Union 121
Fox River Valley co
Wisconsin Central 8
Beloit Branch
20
Beloit and Madison 17
Mineral Point ..
32
29 Dubuque and Pacific
Galena (Fulton) Air Line 136
Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska 36
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. 210
Burlington and Missouri 35
Quincy and Chicago
100
Hannibal and St. Joseph
65 Chicago and Rock Island 182
Mississippi and Missouri, 1st Division
55
do
do
2nd
do
20
dc
do
3rd do
13
Peoria and Bureau Valley
47
Peoria and Oquawka. 143
284
Illinois Central. 704
Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne and Chicago 383
Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana 242
Cincinnati, Peru and Chicago 28
282 Michigan Central
New Albany and Salem
284
11 Trunk and 20 Branch and Extension lines 3,953
The above table shows an increase to the Chicago system of railroads during the past year, of 277 miles. Though fall- ing very far short of the progress of each of the past few years, considering the season of disaster and panic of the past few months, it is all and even much more than could have been expected. Most of this increase has been added in the State of Iowa.
Adding the length of the completed lines in the central part of the State to that portion of the lines in the above table that lie within her boundaries, we find that Illinois has TWO THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE MILES OF RAILWAY completed and in operation. The exact figures may vary a trifle from this result, but the difference cannot be
a dozen miles either way. In 1850 Illinois had only 95 miles of railway completed. Such a result in so short a period is a just cause of honest pride to every citizen of our noble State.
The number of trains arriving and de- parting daily does not differ materially from that of the previous year, when we found them to be one hundred and twenty. There is not an hour in the day unbroken by the screaming whistle of the locomo- tive, and some hours the screeching is scarcely interrupted for a moment.
The earnings of the railroads centering in the city, all things considered, it is believed will fully meet expectations. When it is remembered that six years ago the earnings of all our railroads did not exceed $40,000, 40 miles of the Galena road only being completed, this result is truly astonishing. No other country in the world has ever witnessed such progress.
The following table shows the earnings of all the railways centering in Chicago for the year 1857 :
$ 522,731.92
271,608.44
429,305.39
441,408.94
2,117,904.97
30,000.00
23,581.51
51,660.05
19,830.65
1,889,586.49
49,044.58
337,323.89
1,681,101.57
296,155.74
998,309.47
2,293,964.57
1,652,727.95
2,186,124.97
2,656,471.36
631,868.00
-$18,590,520.26
TOTAL EARNINGS.
Passengers.
8,465.29
28,720.07
1,552.21
30,618.45
145,422.12
742,949.84
147,911.35
442,434.18
1,064,978.46 1,037,987.55
653,916.61
833,053.80
1,316,478.21
1,447,526.78 1,130,819.25
(our estimate.)
Chi. & Mil.
Rac. & Mis.
C., St. P. & F. .
Mil. & Mis., 1/2-
G. & C. U ..
F. R. Val.
Min. Pt. .
Du. & Pa.
C. I. & N.
C., B. & Q.
B. & Mo ..
C. & R. I.
Miss. & Mo. ..
C., A. & St. L.
Ill. Cent. .
M. S. & N. I. ..
Mich. Central __ N. A. & S ..
Total.
53,787.48
31,592.96
78,125.33
Freight.
178,452.66
$239,308.19
726,909.58 1,321,737.67
14,465.87
22,676 09
11,630.39
17,836.38
173,011.04
882,384.16
148,244.30
18,890.73
55,967.57
32,068.86
190.998.56
Mails, etc.
11,544.54
69,258.72
650.35
273.89
448.05
16,497.92
589.75
(our estimate.)
(vide receipts in full)
592,565.81 1,280 522.76
Q. & C ..
523,806.43
941.175.14
P., F. W. & C ._
77
Chicago, Alton and St. Louis.
Total.
78
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
Several new lines have been added to the above list during the past year, but in order that we may form definite ideas of the aggregate effect of the panic on our railways, we present the earnings of the twelve roads then reported for each year.
EARNINGS.
1856.
1857.
C. & M.
$ 650,000.00
$ 522,731.92
C .. St. P. & F.
137,303.67
429,305.39
G. & C. U.
2,456,045.80
2,117,904.97
F. R. V. .
50,000.00
30,000.00
C., B. & Q.
1,627,029.61
1,899,586.49
N. C., 6 m.
215,222.79
347,323.89
. C. & R. I ..
1,751,704.60
1,681,101.57
C., A. & St. L.
1,000,000.00
998,309.48
Ill. Cent.
2,469,533.67
2,293,964.57
M. S. & N. I.
3,114,756.06
2,186,124.97
Mich. Central
3,128, 154.10
2,656,471.36
N. A. & S.
743,492.53
631,868.00
Total.
$17,343,242.83 $15,784,692.60
This table certainly affords us a most gratifying result. Amid all the panic and disaster of the last year, with all the satanic efforts of certain journals in New York and other cities to destroy all rail- way values, the earnings of twelve rail- ways centering in this city for 1857, fell short of their aggregate earnings in 1856 $1,558,550.23, which is some ten per cent. less than their receipts in a year of great prosperity and progress. In all the dark days through which we have passed, the Daily Press has steadily labored to in- spire confidence and hope, and the results of careful comparisons in every depart- ment of business show that our positions were correct. We have the satisfaction also of knowing that our reasonings have saved many of our readers from despair and utter ruin.
MOVEMENT OF PASSENGERS.
The movement of passengers, as might be expected, falls short somewhat of that of the previous year; but the results show a steady and very large western move- ment. The following table shows the passenger traffic on our two great eastern lines:
WEST
EAST.
Thro'. Way. Total. Thro'. Way. Total.
M. S. & N. I ... 105,370 192,211 279,581 54,621 182,347 236,968 Mich. Central .. 108,995 178,630 286,415 64,746 169,227 233,973
Total. 214,365 370,841 565,996 119,437 351,574 470,941
This table shows that our two great eastern lines brought to this city 94,998
passengers more than they took east from it. The figures of the four principal lines leading west from this city give the fol- lowing
RESULTS.
WEST.
EAST.
Thro'. Way.
Total. Thro'. Way.
Total. .
C., St. P. & F.
43,518 46,199
89,717 35,046
45,026
80,073
G. & C. U .....
57,786 196,802 254,786 37,724 178,880 916,010
C., B. & Q ...
16,091 183,610 199,701 14,205
5 182,577
196,882
C. & R. I.
31,784 171,073 207,857 25,851
156,407 182,259
Total. 149,179 597,684 752,061 112,826 562,990 675,224
According to these figures, these four lines of railway carried west 76,837 pass- engers more than they brought back to the city. If we estimate the immense numbers that come down the Ohio river in steamers, and thence up the Missis- sipppi, at an equal number, and add a reasonable number for those who crossed the State on the east and west lines south of this city, and also those who went west on the Wisconsin lines, and further, remem- ber the vast numbers who annually emi- grate West in their own wagons, TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND people at least, dur- ing the past year, found happy homes west of Chicago. These people are the intelligent, the enterprising, and the in- dustrious, sifted out from the old station- ary communities of the Eastern States, and from the nations of Europe. All comment as to the rapidity with which the Western States are growing in wealth, population, and power, is entirely unnec- essary.
As this is the last of our leading statis- tical articles showing the business of the city for the past year, it may be well to make a summation of the facts, that we may view them all at a glance. We pre- sent, therefore, the following
GENERAL SUMMARY.
Total number of miles of railway cen- tering in Chicago Feb. 20, 1852 40
Total number of miles now completed and in operation.
3,953
Increase in 1857
277
Total number to be completed in from six to ten years
7,234
Total number of miles of railway in the State of Illinois now in operation (Only 95 miles were completed six years ago.)
2,775
Total earnings of all the railways cen-
tering in Chicago for the year 1857 $18,590,520.26 Increase in six years. 18,550,520.26
Total number of trains arriving and departing daily 120
79
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
Total number of passengers carried
west by four principal railways lead- ing out of the city ..
752,061
Total number remaining West above those who returned on these four lines
76,837
Total number moved West on two Eastern roads above those who re- turned East
Population of Chicago in 1852.
Total vote at the last municipal elec- tion_
16,123
Estimated population from the above returns-allowance being made for the great numbers of of unnatural- ized people among us_
Total receipts of grain in Chicago for the year 1857-flour being reduced to wheat, bushels ..
Total shipments of grain from the port of Chicago for the year 1857, bushels
Total receipts of wheat for the year 1857, bushels.
Total shipments of wheat for the year 1857, bushels
Receipts of corn for the year 1857, bushels
Shipments of corn for the year 1857, bushels
Total number of hogs alive and dressed received in Chicago for the years 1856-7.
Number of barrels of beef packed in 1857
42,100
Receipts of lumber at the port of Chicago for the year 1857-being the largest lumber market in the world -- feet
459,639,189
Total number of vessels, steamers, etc., in the port of Chicago during the past winter.
250
Total number of vessels arriving in the port of Chicago during 1857 __
7,557
Total tonnage of the vessels arriving in the port of Chicago during the past year ..
1,753,413
Amount of capital invested in build- ings, public improvements, etc., past year
$6,423,518
It is a source of great satisfaction that the tide of population is largely and steadily westward. The change will in almost every instance secure for the peo- ple who emigrate a great increase of property, and thereby afford them the means of greater physical comfort and a more generous expenditure for their intel- lectual improvement and social elevation. Who can estimate the influence which the two hundred thousand people who sought. homes west of the Lakes during the past year will have upon the social progress and the physical development of the Mississippi Valley? They are not the ignorant starveling serfs of grinding des- potism, nor yet the poor degraded "white trash " of the Southern States, but intel- ligent, energetic, honest freemen, who plant schools and colleges and churches wherever they go. They bring with them skill, and strength, and capital too, and under their intelligent, ceaseless toil our magnificent prairies will be made to yield up their golden treasures as earth never yielded them up before. Let the stream of human energy continue to flow west- ward with equal power for the next twenty years, and still there will be ample room for the suceeeding score of years for as many more to find rich, happy homes between the Lakes and the Rocky Mountains.
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.