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 19
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The first two financial crises, as we have seen-viz., that of 1797 and of 1817
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HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
-were due to the wars and the condition of the country that resulted from those wars.
The period of twenty years having once been established, it is proper to inquire, right here, what were the causes that produced the third and the fourth, tlie conditions that may produce others at the recurrence of every twenty years, and the means by which the country may hope to avoid them.
During the time between one financial crash and another, it may be stated gen- erally that nearly the entire property of the nation changes lands. The wealthy men die, and with them the economy, industry, and prudent foresight by the exercise of which their estates were accu- mulated. Their sons and sons-in-law get possession of their property. Commenc- ing where their fathers left off, they launch out into foolish extravagance. The promoters of wild speculative schemes flatter them by parading their names as the patrons of this and that great enter- prise, and visions of untold wealth lead them to plunge into debt without limit. The fact is, they did not earn the wealth in which they revel, and they don't know how to take care of it. Not to divide the business public too closely, we mention but one other class who, if we mistake not, contribute largely to those conditions which are sure to produce a crash in the financial affairs of the country. These are the men who commence life entirely poor immediately after a financial revolu- tion. They begin to accumulate by the most careful economy and the most ener- getic toil. That first thousand dollars, of which all have heard, require the sweat of many a hard day's work to earn, But they earn it. The ring of their hammers late and early-no eight-hour days for them-has been heard by the merchant and capitalist. They deserve and have good credit. Business and profits steadily increase, and at the end, say, of fifteen years from the last crash, they are worth ten, twenty, perchance, here and there one, a hundred thousand dollars, or more. Speculation sets in, and many around them are becoming millionaires. Why should they not share in the golden harvest ? They "pitch in." Go outside of their legitimate business to speculate in new cities, outside lands, and great companies expected to coin fabulous fortunes. These men who commenced poor-always the majority in business circles-join with the sons of the wealthy, and an insane desire to become suddenly rich seizes all classes. Nearly everybody gets in debt, one borrowing from another all the money he will lend, or, what is more generally true, one buying from the other, at fancy prices, all the property he will sell, and
"holding it for a rise." While all is going on swimmingly, some mammoth bubble, like the Ohio Life and Trust Com- pany, bursts, and in a few weeks, or months at most, bankruptcy stares the whole country in the face. Liquidation must then do its work, and in half a dozen years a new race of business men have grasped those enterprises which in a few years more restore the country to a solid basis of prosperity and progress.
Those of our readers whose memory, and especially whose business experi - ence, reaches back forty years, will rec- ognize the accuracy of the facts here detailed. If the succession is to con- tinue, the next financial crisis will occur in 1877. How far the condition of the country now warrants the expectation of such an event, let eacli one determine for himself. Especially will it be wise for all prudent men to watch carefully the course of financial events for the next four years. A crash can only come when nearly everybody is largely in debt, and if, forewarned by the past, people keep expenses and ventures within their means, the country will escape the repetition of the bankruptcy that has occurred every twenty years in all our past history. It is with the hope that, warned by the past, some, at least, of the readers of this article may ride in safety through all the finan- cial storms that may befall us. When everybody is rushing into debt, it is a sure sign that it is best for wise, sane men to get out of it.
It follows that, if one could foresee a crash, his best policy would be to sell all out a year or two before it occurs ; have his cash in hand, and, when liquidation has done its worst, buy all the property he can and hold it. When the whole country lives within its means, and people are at work, wealth is sure to accumulate and values to appreciate. This rule has no exceptions ; but of its application to the present or to the future, each reader must judge for himself. Of 1877 we make no predictions, beyond what the principles above stated will warrant.
I did not then and do not now regard the crash of 1873 as at all to be compared to those of 1837 and 1857 ; as property did not then and since generally change hands. I compare it to the "squeeze " of 1854, and others like it. I do not look for it next year though it must be confessed that a very large class of people would be only too glad to get their property out of their hands and their outstanding notes and obligations in them. In this instance the crash may be delayed for some time ; but as prices of almost everything have been steadily settling since 1873, they may reach bottom in 1877. It may be well to drop this hint, Look out for breakers one or two years after specie resumption.
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HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
REMINISCENCES OF EARLY CHICAGO.
AN INTERESTING LECTURE BY GOV. BROSS.
A GOSSIPY DESCRIPTION OF SCENES AND INCIDENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE GARDEN CITY.
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From the Tribune, January 24, 1876. LECTURE BY THE HON. WM. BROSS
Gov. Bross spoke yesterday afternoon at McCormick Hall, his subject being " What I remember of Early Chicago." Following is his discourse in full:
The charter of the City of Chicago bears date March 4, 1837, and the first election for city officers was held on the first Tuesday in May, 1837. Not a few of the men and women who saw it when an Indian trading post, with Fort Dearborn to defend the settlers, are still among us, and the ladies certainly would not feel complimented were they called old. Hence whatever is said about "The Early Times in Chicago" must be regarded as relative, for the city has not yet numbered 38 years. As I first saw Chicago in Octo- ber, 1846, and commenced my permanent residence here on the 12th of May, 1848, I can scarcely be called an old citizen, and yet in that time it has grown from a city of about 18,000 (later in the season the census gave us 20,023) to nearly, if not quite, 450,000-an increase never before equaled by any city in the history of the world. From a city then scarcely ever mentioned, she has become the fourth in rank and population upon the American Continent.
But granting for the moment that I am an old citizen, I recognize the duty of placing on record-as myself and others have doubtless often been urged to do- what I know personally of the history of Chicago. Though this may require a too frequent use of the personal pronoun, your Directors are responsible if I bore you with it. If each citizen would do it, the future historian could select what best suited his purpose, and Chicago would have what no other city has-a history from its earliest times, written by its living inhabitants. In 1854 I prepared and pub- lished some notes on the history of the Town of Chicago-in fact, going back to the discovery of the site by the French
Jesuit missionaries, Marquette and Joliet, and I shall devote the hour to giving you a supplement to what used to be called "Our Pamphlet " of 1854. This was ably continued by my friend, Elias Colbert, in 1868; but neither of them pretends to give much of how Chicago appeared to the vis- itor in the " earlier times " of its history.
CHICAGO IN 1846.
Your speaker, as above stated, first arrived in Chicago early in the morning of the second Sabbath in October, 1846, now of course nearly thirty years ago. We landed from the steamer Oregon, Capt. Cotton, near the foot of Wabash avenue, and, with others, valise in hand, trudged through the sand to the American Tem- perance House, then situated on the north- west corner of Wabash avenue and Lake street. Soon after breakfast a tall young man, made apparently taller by a cloth cloak in which his gaunt figure seemed in. danger of losing itself, and whose reserved, modest manners were the very reverse of what we had expected to find at the West, called on the clergy of our party and in- vited one of them to preach and the rest. of us to attend service in the Second Pres- byterian Church. That cloak would now be well filled by its owner, the Rev. Dr. Patterson, who has grown physically as well as intellectually and morally with the growth of the city, to whose moral welfare he has so largely contributed. Of course we all went to what by courtesy, as we thought, was called a church. It was a one-story balloon shanty-like structure that had been patched out at one end to meet the wants of the increasing congregation. It stood on Randolph street, south side, a little east of Clark. It certainly gave no promise of the antique but splendid church that before the fire stood on the corner of Washington street and Wabash avenue, or that still more elaborate and costly building, the Rev. Dr. Gibson's church, at the corner of Michigan avenue and Twentieth street.
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HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
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That afternoon and Monday morning afforded ample time to see the city. The residence portion of it was mainly between Randolph and Madison streets, and there were some scattered houses as far south as Van Buren, on the South Side, four or five blocks north of the river on the North Side, with scattering residences about as far on the West Side. There were perhaps half a dozen or more wooden warehouses along the river on Water street. The few stores that pretended to be wholesale were on Water street, and the retail trade was exclusively done on Lake street. Stores and dwellings were, with few exceptions, built in the balloon fashion. To some of my hearers this style of building may al- ready be mysterious. Posts were placed in the ground at the corners, and at proper distances between them blocks were laid down singly or in cob-house fashion. On these foundations timbers were laid, and to these were spiked, standing on end, 3x1 scantling. On these sheath-boards were nailed, and weather-boards on the outside of them; and lath and plaster in- side, with the roof, completed the dwell- ing or store. This cheap, but for a new town, excellent mode of building, it is claimed, was first introduced, or, if you please, invented, in Chicago, and I believe the claim to be true. Of course the fire made sad havoc with them at times; but the loss was comparatively small, and they were quickly and cheaply rebuilt. True, Chicago was ridiculed as a slab city; but, if not pleasant, to bear ridicule breaks no bones. When our merchants and capital- ists had grown rich enough to build per- manent buildings, of course they did it. Then there were not as many bricks laid in walls in the whole city as there are now in single blocks anywhere near the busi- ness centre of the city. Chicago need not shrink from comparing them with those in any other city upon the continent.
My first objective point in Northern Illinois was Batavia, on Fox River, 40 miles distant, where some Orange County (N. Y. ) friends resided. As Frink & Walker's stages did not pass through the town except on the road along the river, the problem was how to get there. The streets were full of farmers' teams, and in half an hour's tour amomg then we found a man who, for a small sum, agreed to land us there Monday evening. It was nearly noon before we got started, and as two of my traveling companions lived 3 or 4 miles west of Fox River, and were bound to get home that night, they soon began to use all their arts to urge our Jehu onward. At the old tavern on the west side of the Aux Plaines near the bridge, they treated the old farmer freely, and again at Cottage Hill, Babcock's Grove, and other places; but sooth to say, the
whisky, though it had a marked effect upon the old man, must then, as now, have been " crooked," for the more he got of it inside of his vest the slower he stubbornly determined to drive his team; but he as- sured us he would "root along," and get to Batavia that evening, and he did. Of course, an account of my journey to St. Louis and up the Ohio homeward has no place in this lecture.
MORE ABOUT TRAVELING, IN 1848.
As a specimen of traveling, in 1848, I mention that it took us nearly a week to come from New York to Chicago. Our trip was made by steamer to Albany; rail- way cars at a slow pace to Buffalo; by the steamer Canada thence to Detroit; and by the Michigan Central Railway, most of the way on strap rail, to Kalama- zoo; here the line ended, and, arriving about 8'o'clock in the evening, after a good supper, we started about 10 in a sort of a cross between a coach and a lumber box-wagon for St. Joseph. The road was exceedingly rough, and, with bangs and bruises all over our bodies, towards morn- ing several of us left the coach and walked on; very easily keeping ahead. In this tramp I made the acquaintance of John S. Wright, then, and for many years afterward, one of the most enterprising and valuable citizens Chicago ever had. He gave me a cordial welcome, and a great deal of valuable information. On Sabbath he called and took me to church, and embraced many opportunities to in- troduce me to Mayor Woodworth and other leading citizens, giving me a lesson in courtesy to strangers which I have never forgotten. I beg to impress it upon you all as a duty too much neglected in the hurry and bustle that surround us on every side.
The steamer Sam Ward, with Captain Clement first officer, and jolly Dick Som- ers as steward, afterwards Alderman, brought us to the city on the evening of the 12th of May, 1848, and here at 121 Lake street, with Dr. Scammon's drug store on one side and Lock's' clothing store on the other, the stranger from the East settled down quietly as a bookseller. The city had added 4,000 to its population in the year and a half after I first saw it; but it had changed very little in appear- ance. It was still pre-eminently a slab city. The Illinois and Michigan Canal had been opened the month before, and during the summer packets were put on, and, running in connection with steamers on the Illinois River, quite an impetus was given to travel through the city. To them it did not present a very inviting aspect. The balloon buildings above spoken of were mostly dingy and weather beaten. The only two stone buildings in the city
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HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
built of blue limestone, brought as ballast from the lower lakes, stood on Michigan avenue between Lake and South Water streets, on the site now occupied by the Illinois Central Railroad offices. They were the aristocratic mansions of the city. There were a few brick residences and stores, but these were the exception. It was curious to notice how long some of the old balloon buildings would escape the fire. The old store in which Mosely & McCord commenced business, between Clark and LaSalle streets, on the north side of Lake, was built when the proprie- tors could look south to Blue Island with not a building in front to obstruct the view. There it stood, with the sign " Mosely & McCord " just below the roof, till it was all surrounded by brick build- ings, and the insurance on it had cost ten times what the building was ever worth. Subtract the few scattering brick buildings on South Clark street, in the vicinity of Twelfth street, and the dingy shanties in that vicinity on Clark street and Third and Fourth avenues will best represent what most of Chicago was in 1848,
BUILDING STONE.
And here I may as well mention the sources from which our fine building materials are derived. Till after that year it was supposed we had no good rock for building anywhere near the city. The blue-limestone quarries from which the stone for the two dwellings above men- tioned were taken, were thought to be our best and cheapest source of supply Besides these, there had been brought from the lower lakes some sandstone flagging. It lay in front of the Laflin residence block, corner of Washington street and Michigan avenue, where it served for a sidewalk up to the time of the fire in 1871. Discussions, held for a long time by the Trustees of the Second Presbyterian society, when it was proposed to build a new church edifice in 1849, result- ed in their determining to use stone found near the western limits of the city. The location has become somewhat famous as the site of our first artesian well. The rock is a porous limestone, with sufficient silex mixed with it to make it very hard. It seems to have been formed under a bed of bitumen, or coal, for the pores in the rock are filled with it, and hence some of the less porous stones in the church were of a pale creamy color, while others were so filled with pitch or bitumen that it oozed out in hot weather, and they were as black as tar. Hence it was called the speckled or spotted church, a name which, referring to an unfortunate occurrence in its after history, my friend Sam Bowles said was derived from its speckled moral- ity. The same rock was used in rebuild-
ing the church at the corner of Twentieth street and Michigan avenue. The use of this rock was really the first important event of the kind in the building history of tlie city.
While this material was regarded as a most exc llent one for church purposes, giving them an antique and venerable appearance, it was not considered the thing for the Cook County Court House in 1852 or '53,-I did not have time in this, as in some other cases, to look up the exact date. Our wise men of that ancient period, after due deliberation, determined to use a rock found at Lockport, N. Y.,- a bluish-colored limestone. Fortunate it was that official plundering had not then, as now, been reduced to a science, or the entire county would have been forever swamped in the debt contracted for the money to build it. This was regarded as the cheapest and best rock that could be had for building-for such structures- and was the second really progressive step in the building of the city.
During all this time it is remarkable that no one had thought of the limestone quarries through which the canal had been cut for several miles this side of Lockport. The reason probably was that some of the strata were not well crystal- ized and rotted readily; but tens of thou- sands of cords of it that showed no signs of decay lay scattered along the canal. In 1852 or 1853 some one, if I mistake not ex-Mayor Sherman, built a store on Randolph street, - it was afterwards removed to Clark street opposite the Court House,-facing it with this stone. Everybody was delighted with its beauti- ful color. It was found to become very hard when seasoned, and pronounced a marble by President Hitchcock, of Am- herst College. It very soon came into general use. In December, 1853, the Illi- nois Stone and Lime Company was formed, with A. S. Sherman, now of Waukegan, as its efficient manager. The next sum- mer, Harry Newhall built two very fine dwellings of it on Michigan avenue between Adams and Jackson streets, and M. D. Gilman followed with another next to Newhall, and after that its use became general. It is conceded to be one of the best and most beautiful building materials in the world. Cheaply quarried and easily accessible by water, Chicago owes much of her prestige and prosperity to these Athens marble quarries. From it also Chicago constructs the best sidewalks in the world, for, resting on an inner and outer wall, they are unaffected by frost, and are always smooth and pleasant to the pedestrian. Before, and especially since the fire, Chicago has drawn upon the beautiful sandstone quarries of Ohio; the red sandstone of Connecticut and of Lake
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Superior; she has cheap access to the marble deposits and the granite of Ver- mont, Massachusetts, and Minnesota, 150 miles west of the head of Lake Supe- rior, and it is now conceded that no city in the world has a better variety of build- ing material or is making a more judicious and liberal use of it.
OUT OF TOWN, CORNER MADISON AND STATE.
Going back to 1848, after remaining a week at the City Hotel, corner of State and Lake streets, I was admitted to a most excellent home, that of the late Rev. Ira M. Weed, corner of Madison and State streets, where Buck & Rayner's drug store now is. This was considered far south, and as the sidewalks were not all good, the best that could be found was south on Dearborn to Madison, where a very large sign on a paint shop, where the Bank of Commerce now is and directly opposite The Tribune office, reminded me to turn eastward. The sidewalks, where such luxuries were indulged in, lay in most cases upon the rich prairie soil, for the string pieces of scantling to which the planks were originally spiked, would soon sink down into the mud after a rain, and then as one walked, the green and black slime would gush up between the cracks to the great benefit of retailers of blacking. One's disgust can be under- stood when it is stated that this meant some minutes of active personal service in the morning, for this was long before the pro- fessional bootblack was born-certainly before he made his advent in Chicago.
In March, 1849,-I think March was the month,-my family having arrived per steamer Niagara the August previous, we commenced housekeeping on Wabash avenue between Adams and Jackson streets, in a cosy little house at the modest rent of $12 per month. In May following I bought of Judge Jessie B. Thomas 40 feet on Michigan avenue, commencing 80 feet south of the corner of Van Buren street, for $1,250. The Judge had bought it at the canal sales in the spring of 1848 for $800, on canal time, viz .: as Dr. Egan afterwards directed in taking his pills, one-quarter down, balance in one, two and three years. I paid the Judge his profit, and what he had advanced on the first payment, and assumed the balance due the Canal Trustees, and took the deed to me directly from them. It was in a safe place during the fire, and of course is now a very ancient document.
In the fall of 1849 I bought a small wood house that I found moving along on Wabash avenue, and moved it on my lot. In this modest home we spent some six very happy years. Judge Manierre lived on Michigan avenue, corner of Jackson street, where the Gardner House now is.
Harry Newhall lived on the block north. Mine was the only house on block 9, ex- cept a small tenement on the rear of & neighboring lot, where lived an African friend and brother named William. There were at first
NO SIDEWALKS
for a considerable distance north, and hence we were not troubled with prome- naders on the avenue. The lake shore was perhaps a hundred feet east of the street. There my brother John and myself, rising early in the morning, bathed in summer for two or three years. We had an excel- lent cow-for we virtually lived in the country-that, contrary to all domestic propriety, would sometimes wander away, and I usually found her out on the prairie in the vicinity of Twelfth street. I saw a wolf run by my house as late as 1850. An incident in the purchase of the lot will illus- trate the loneliness of our situation. The rule of speculators at the canal sales was to buy all the property on which the speculator could make the first payment, and then sell enough each year to make the others. Judge Thomas had followed this plan, and advertised a large list of
. property in the spring of 1849. He sold to myself and the Rev. Dr. Patterson ad- joining lots at $1,250 at private sale; but it was agreed that these should be sold with the rest, so as to attract customers, as Michigan avenue had become somewhat popular as a prospective place of residence. When my lot was struck off to me for some $1,300, Harry Newhall came across the room, and said, "Bross, did you buy that lot to live on ? Are you going to im- prove i'? " "Yes," was the reply. "' Well," said he, "I'm glad of it; I'm glad some one is going to live beyond me. It won't be so lonesome if we can see somebody going by night and morning." We then lived, as above stated, on Wabash avenue, between Adams and Jackson streets.
REAL ESTATE.
In the winter of 1851-'52, my friend, the late Charles Starkweather, insisted on selling me 14 acres of land immediately south of Twenty-sixth street, and east of State to Michigan avenue. Capt. Clem- ent and myself went out of town to look at it, going across lots south of Twelfth street. It was away out on the prairie, and I made up my mind that the price ' ($500 per acre) was too much. I could raise the $1,000 to make the first payment; but where was the 6 per cent. on the bal- ance for the next ten years to come from? Capt. Clement took the property, paid the $1,000, and, in seven months, sold it for $1,000 an acre, clearing in that time $7,000 on an investment of $1,000. But the Captain let a fortune slip through his
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