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 7
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The following is a list of the private bankers and brokers doing business in Chicago :
R. K. SWIFT. · J. M. ADSIT.
JONES & PATRICK. F. G. ADAMS & Co. SHELDON & Co. N. C. ROE & Co. DAVISSON, MCCALLA & Co.
E. H. HUNTINGTON & Co. GEO. SMITH & Co.
Several of these firms are doing a large business. R. K. Swift is doing a very extensive business in foreign exchange, and has arrangements to draw on every principal city in this country and Europe .*
We have tried to obtain the figures showing the actual amount of exchange drawn on New York and other American cities, and the cities of Europe ; but some of our bankers, like a portion of our busi- ness men, are unwilling to furnish such facts, lest, as we infer, other capitalists should send their money here for invest- ment. Their narrow policy, we trust, will be of no avail in that regard, for they will always have as much business as they can possibly do ; and the fact that the legal rate of interest is ten per cent., and that the money market has never yet been fully supplied, together with the certainty that Chicago will not be "finished " for the next century at least, will induce a still larger number of Eastern capitalists to in- vest their money in Chicago. There is not in the wide world a city that furnishes opportunities for safer investments than Chicago-whether the money is employed in banking operations, or is loaned on real estate security.
PRICE OF LABOR.
In a city growing as rapidly as Chicago, labor is always in demand. Especially is this true where every department of busi- ness is equally active and increasing. In dull times, and in cities which have passed the culminating point of their prosperity, master mechanics can select their journey- men, and do somewhat as they wish. For
* It is a significant commentary upon the risks and instability of banking, that of all the banks and private bankers in Chicago in 1853, only one, J. M. Adsit, is now, March 1876, here, and doing the same business.
43
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
the last year or two, so great has been the demand for labor, that those who worked by the day or week were the real masters, for good mechanics could command al- most any price they chose to ask.
The following table, carefully prepared, shows the price now usually paid to jour- neymen in this city. The range is large, but is not wider than the difference in the skill and capacity of different men in every occupation :
OCCUPATION.
EARNINGS PER WAGES PER WEEK AND FOR DAY. PIECE AND JOB WORK.
Blacksmiths &Iron wkr- Blowers and Strikers .. .
$1.25@$2.00
88@ 1.00
Butchers ..
1 00@ 3.00
Choppers and Packers .. Carpenters.
1 250 2 00
Cabinet Makers
1.00@ 2.00 $ 9 00@$18.00
Upholsterers.
9.00@ 18.00
Coopers.
9.00@. 12.00
Day Laborers.
1.00@ 1.50
12.00@ 20.00
House Painters ..
1.25@ 1.75
6.00@ 15.00
HarnessMkrs & Sadd ers Masons and Plasterers .. Marble Cutters
1.50@ 2.00
1 75@ 2.00
Machinists.
12 00@ 18.00
Printers, comp 30c 1,000
12.00@ 18.00
Rope Makers ..
1.50
1.50@ 2.25
ShipCarpente's &Joiners Ship Caulkers.
2.25@ 2.50
Stone Cutters.
1.75@ 2.00
Shoemakers
6.00@ 12.00
Trunk Makers.
8.00@ 15 00
Tailors
7.00@ 11.00
Cutters.
10.00@ 16.00
Tanners
1.00@ 1.25
Curriers
9.00@ 12.00 14.00@ 15.00
Wire Workers & Weavers Wagon& CarriageMak'rs Painters|
1.00@ 1.50
1.25@ 2.00
1.2 @ 2.00
CHICAGO WATER WORKS.
A supply of pure water is essential to the health, and therefore to the prosperity of any city. The citizens of Chicago have great reason to congratulate them- selves upon the near completion of one of the finest specimens of engineering. that can be found in any city. The Chicago Water Works will very soon be the pride of all our citizens. No better water can be found than Lake Michigan affords; and increased health and blessings without number will attend its introduction throughout the city.
We are indebted to E. Willard Smith, Esq., resident engineer, for the following description of the works :
The water is taken from Lake Michigan at the foot of Chicago avenue. A timber crib, twenty by forty feet, is sunk six hun-
dred feet from shore. From this crib a wooden inlet pipe, thirty inches interior diameter, laid in a trench in the bottom of the lake, conveys the water to the pump- well. This well is placed under the En- gine House. The end of the inlet pipe is of iron, and bends down to the bottom of the well, which is twenty-five feet deep, and at ordinary stages of the water in the lake contains fourteen feet of water. The pipe acts as a syphon.
The water flows by its own gravity into the well, whence it is drawn by the pump- ing engine and forced into the mains, and thence into the reservoir in the South Di. vision, from which it is distributed into the distribution pipes in the various parts of the city.
ENGINE.
The engine is located in the main build- ing. It was built at the Morgan Iron Works, in New York, and is a first class engine, low pressure, of two hundred horse power. Its cylinder is forty-four inches in diameter, and has a piston with a nine-foot stroke. The fly wheel is an immense casting of iron, twenty-four feet in diameter, and weighing 24,000 pounds. The working beam is of cast iron, thirty feet long and four feet deep. It is sup- ported by a hollow iron column instead of the usual gallows frame, four feet in diameter, and forming also an air vessel for the condenser. There are two water pumps, one on each side of this centre col- umn, of thirty-four inches bore, six-foot stroke. These pumps are furnished with composition valves. The boiler, which is located in the north wing of the building, is a marine boiler of the largest size, being thirty feet long and nine feet in diameter, furnished with an admirable arrangement of flues, and possessing an extraordinary strength of draught. The consumption of coal by the boiler is very small, and it proves very economical. The engine was put up under the care and direction of Mr. De Witt C. Cregier, the steam engineer of the company. The cost of the engine was only twenty-five thousand dollars. This engine is capable of furnishing over three million gallons daily, which is a supply for one hundred thousand persons.
1.00@ 2.00 1.67
Hatters,.
1.50@ 2.00
44
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
DUPLICATE ENGINE,
At the opposite end of the main build- ing is a duplicate engine, of about one-half of the power of the other, which is kept in reserve in case of any breakage or acci- dent happening to the other. This engine was manufactured by H. P. Moses, of this city ; it is a non-condensing or high-pres- sure engine. The engine pump works horizontally, on a heavy cast-iron bed plate, supported by masonry. The steam cylinder is eighteen inches internal dianie- ter, with a piston of six-foot stroke. The pump is double-acting, and of the same diameter and stroke as the steam cylinder and piston ; it is placed behind the steam cylinder. The steam piston passes through both heads of the steam cylinder, one end connecting with the pump, and the other with the crank or fly wheel. The fly wheel is an iron casting, twelve feet in diameter.
ENGINE HOUSE.
The engine house is built of brick ma- sonry, in the modern Italian style. The main building is fifty-four feet front and thirty-four feet deep, with a wing on each side, each forty-four feet front and thirty- four feet deep.
The main building is carried up two stories high, making an elevation of thirty feet above the principal floor, The wings are one story higlı.
The roof is composed of wrought iron trusses covered with zinc plates.
In the centre of the front of the main building a tower is constructed, fourteen feet square at the base, and one hundred and forty feet in height, surrounded by an ornamental cornice of metal. This tower forms a striking feature of the building. It also serves as a chimney for both boil- ers, and also has a chamber in the centre, separated from the smoke flues, in which is placed the standing column.
RESERVOIR BUILDING.
This building is two stories high. The principal floor is placed three feet above the surface of the street. The exterior for the first story, (fifteen feet above the principal floor,) is made of cut stone, with rustic joints, surmounted by a cut
stone string course. The second story is faced with pressed brick and rustic quoins of cut stone. The architraves of the doors and windows are of cut stone. The main cornice is of cast iron, projecting four feet from the face of the wall, and sup- ported by ornamental cast-iron consoles.
This cornice forms a balcony, which is surrounded by an ornamental iron railing.
The tank is supported by a brick column and brick arches, and is capable of hold- ing five hundred thousand gallons of water.
The building when completed, with the tank, will be about ninety feet in height. This tank is designed to hold only a night supply for fifty thousand inhabitants. As the population of the city increases, it is proposed to erect similar reservoir build- ings, with tanks, etc., in each division. The surface of water in the tank will be eighty-three feet above the lake. The reservoir is situated immediately south of Adams street and west of Clark.
RIVER PIPES.
The river pipes conveying the water across the river are made of boiler iron plates, riveted together, and are twelve inches in interior diameter. About thirty miles of distribution and main pipes are laid in the streets, extending over a large portion of the city-connecting with one hundred and sixteen fire hydrants at the corners of the streets.
STANDING COLUMN.
The standing column is a cast-iron pipe, twenty-four inches in diameter, placed vertically in the engine house tower. It is connected with the pumps and main pipes, and serves as a regulator in keeping up a uniform head of water in the reservoirs.
OFFICERS.
The present Board of Water Commis- sioners consists of John B. Turner and Alanson S. Sherman, Esqrs. Horatio G. Loomis, Esq., has lately tendered his resig- nation of the office of Water Commission- er, and his successor is John C. Haines, Esq. William J. McAlpine, Esq., is the Chief Engineer of the Water Works, and Mr. E. Willard Smith, Resident Engineer;
45
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
Mr. Benjamin F. Walker, Superintendent; Mr. Henry Tucker, Treasurer; and Mr. De Witt C. Cregier, Steam Engineer.
It is proper to say in this connection that the plans for the Water Works were furnished by Mr. McAlpine, and the archi- tectural designs for the several buildings above described, by Mr. Smith.
The cost of the work will be three bun- dred and sixty thousand dollars. The same work would now cost four hundred and twenty thousand dollars.
The works are now calculated to supply a population of fifty thousand persons with thirty gallons of water each, every twenty- four hours, which is equal to one million five hundred thousand gallons daily. The work is so planned as to beeasily extended to meet the wants of one hundred thousand population by laying more pipe, and build- ing more reservoirs.
BREAK-WATER AND DEPOT BUILD- INGS OF THE ILL. CENTRAL R.R.
This great work commences at the South Pier, four hundred feet inside of its ex- treme east end and extends south one thousand two hundred and fifty-seven feet into the lake; thence west six hundred and seventy-five feet on the north line of Ran- dolph street; thence southwest one hun- dred and fifty feet; thence to a point oppo- site the American Car Factory, making fourteen thousand three hundred and seventy-seven-in all sixteen thousand four hundred and fifty-nine feet. From the Pier to the engine house the break- water is twelve feet wide ; thence down to the Car Company's works half that width. The upper portion of the crib work is built of square timber twelve by twelve, locked together every ten feet, and the intermediate space filled by stone, piles being driven on the outside to keep it in place. The first piece of crib work sunk, in building the break-water, has a very stout plank bottom. The water line of the crib work, south of Randolph street, is six hundred feet east of the east side of Michigan avenue, and the outer line of the crib work, between Randolph street and the river, is one thousand three hundred and seventy-five feet. The area thus en-
closed and rescued from the dominion of the lake, is about thirty-three acres. Upon this area the Illinois Central Railroad pro- poses to erect, first, one passenger station house, four hundred and fifty feet Jong, by one hundred and sixty-five wide, including a car shed. The northwest corner of this building will be occupied exclusively for offices and passenger rooms, and will be forty by one hundred and twenty feet, and three stories high. A freight building six hundred by one hundred feet; grain house one hundred by two hundred, and one hundred feet high, to the top of the ele- vators, calculated to hold five hundred thousand bushels. Three tracks will run into the freight house ; eight tracks into the passenger house, and two tracks into the grain house. The basin lying between the freight and grain houses will be five hundred by one hundred and seventy-eight feet and will open into the river. All these buildings are to be constructed of stone, obtained from Joliet. The cost of the breakwater will be not far from five hun- dred thousand dollars, and of the build- ings not far from two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The work was com- menced in December, 1852, and will be finished during the year 1854-Mr. Mason having been detained as much by legal difficulties as natural obstacles.
The extreme length of the pile bridging for the railroad track is two and a half miles. Of this, one and a half miles, par- allel with Michigan avenue, is double track, and the remainder is single. For the single track, two rows of piles are driven inside the breakwater, and four for the double track. These piles are well braced and bolted together, and form a very substantial structure for the railroad track.
It will be impossible to give anything like an accurate description of the Com- pany's works until they are completed ; for as day by day the great commercial promise of Chicago brightens, the extent and breadth of the Company's works will be increased in proportion, or at least so far as their depot accommodations will allow them. What was estimated to be sufficient a year since, has now been found
46
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
inadequate. And the next six months will develop further change and increase.
The Michigan Central Railroad either rent the privilege of using the road of the Illinois Central in entering the city, or, what is more probable, share the expense of building the breakwater. The works are planned on a magnificent scale, but they will not do more than accommodate the vast business of the two companies which occupy them. We have very in- definite ideas of the amount of business which the opening of the Illinois Central R. R. will bring to Chicago. As soon as it is finished, a daily line of magnificent steamers will be put on the Mississippi river to run regularly between Cairo and New Orleans. Till the roads crossing the Illinois Central are completed east to Cin- cinnati, almost the entire travel between New York and New Orleans will pass through Chicago-and it will always be a favorite route between the North and the South.
MICH. SOUTHERN & ROCK ISLAND R. R. DEPOT.
These Companies are preparing to build a splendid depot between Clark and Sher- man streets, near Van Buren street. All the plans and arrangements for the build- ing are not completed, and we therefore are obliged to omit a description in detail. It will cost at least sixty thousand dollars.
GALENA & CHICAGO UNION RAIL- ROAD DEPOT.
This Company within the next week or two will put under contract a new freight building north of the present depot and east of Clark street. Its dimensions will be three hundred and forty by seventy-five feet, and two stories high. It is expected to cost twenty-five thousand dollars. Still another freight building is to be imme- diately erected east of the present freight depot. It is to be two hundred and fifty by sixty feet, and two stories high. The upper part of the building is especially designed for storing grain. It is to be finished in the best style, and will cost about fifty thousand dollars.
The Company are also preparing to en-
large their engine house and machine shops, at an estimated cost of twenty thousand dollars.
Several of our other roads are maturing their plans to erect depots ; but they are not sufficiently complete to allow us to make a notice of them.
COOK COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
This fine building stands on the public square. It was completed during the last summer, and is an ornament to the city. One hundred and ten thousand dollars, expended in building it, were borrowed on the bonds of the county having from seven to eighteen years to run, at ten per cent. interest, payable semi-annually. Sixty thousand dollars of these bonds were taken by Col. R. K. Swift, of this city, and the balance of the money was furnished by Eastern capitalists.
TELEGRAPHS.
We might present a large number of statistics in regard to our Telegraph lines, but it is sufficient to say that we are in telegraphic communication with all the principal towns and cities in the Union. The important incidents that occur in Washington, New York and New Orleans, up to six o'clock in the evening, or the foreign news when a steamer arrives, may be found the next morning in the columns of the Democratic Press.
OMNIBUS ROUTES.
The two principal omnibus proprietors in the city are S. B. & M. O. Walker, and Parker & Co. There are in all eight routes, on several of which each company has a line of omnibuses. The total length of the different routes is twenty-two and one-half miles. The number of omni- buses now running is eighteen, making four hundred and eight trips per day, and eight hundred and two miles run by the different omnibuses. The proprietor of the Bull's Head Hotel, also runs an omni- bus regularly to State street market. During the summer several other lines are to be established, and many more omni- buses will be employed. Parker & Co. have eleven omnibuses engaged in carry-
47
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
ing passengers from the hotels to the different railroad depots.
BRIDGES, SIDEWALKS, ETC.
There are bridges across the Chicago river at the following streets : Clark, Wells, Lake, Randolph, Madison, Van Buren, North Water Railroad Bridge, Kinzie and Chicago Avenue. A new and elegant pivot bridge, similar to that across the river at Lake street, is to be built at Clark street during the present season. It will be a great and much needed im- provement.
The total length of the sidewalks with- in the city is one hundred and fifty-nine miles, and of planked streets twenty-seven miles. There are four miles of wharves, and six miles of sewers already put down.
We think these facts show a laudable degree of enterprise in a city not yet quite seventeen years old. These improve- ments will be greatly extended during the present summer.
CHICAGO GAS COMPANY.
We have a very efficient Gas Company, and now that the city is well lighted dur- ing the night, our citizens would be very unwilling to plod along in darkness, as in former years. From the recent report of the company it appears that during the last year there has been laid in the city twenty-one thousand two hundred and sixty-five feet of four inch, four thousand two hundred and ninety-nine feet of six inch, and three thousand eight hundred and fourteen feet of ten inch pipe, making, in all, five miles two thou- sand nine hundred and seventy-eight feet; and the total amount laid throughout the streets of the city is thirteen miles six hundred and thirty-eight feet, the whole cost of which has been eighty thousand seven hundred and thirteen dollars and three cents. Up to January 1st, 1853, there had been placed with all the neces- sary connections, five hundred and seven -. ty-four meters, at a cost of fourteen thou- sand four hundred and eighty dollars and ninety-seven cents. During the last year, two hundred and seventy-nine have been
set, at a cost of seven thousand three hundred and thirteen dollars and twenty- six cents-making the total amount twenty-one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four dollars 'and twenty-three cents. January 1st, 1853, there were five hundred and sixty-one private consumers, during the last year two hundred and seventy-nine have been added, making a total of eight hundred and forty, with an aggregate of seven thousand five hundred and thirty-two burners. There are two hundred and nine public lamps, which have consumed during the year, one million three hundred and sixty-six thousand one hundred and forty cubic feet.
Extensive improvements have been and are being made at the works. The new gas holder will be finished in the spring. The tank is one hundred and four feet in diameter, twenty feet deep, and con- structed of heavy masonry. The holder will be telescopic, in two sections, and will hold three hundred and fifteen thou. sand cubic feet. The amount expended during the year in enlargements and im- provements at the station is forty-two thousand eight hundred and nineteen dol- lars and eleven cents, and the total expenditure on account of station works to date is one hundred and thirty-five thousand seven hundred and seventy- four dollars and twelve cents. The total amount expended for real estate to date has been twenty-six thousand one hundred and five dollars and forty-seven cents, of which twenty-one thousand five hundred and forty-two dollars and seventy-five cents have been expended within the last year.
The amount of coal used last year ex- ceeds that of the preceding by six hun- dred and fifty-eight tons one thousand and ninety-four lbs. In 1852, eight mil- lion nine hundred and eleven thousand one hundred cubic feet of gas were made, and in the last year fourteen million four hundred and twelve thousand three hun- dred and eighty feet, showing an increase of five million five hundred and one thousand two hundred and eighty feet.
The receipts for the year have been as follows :
48
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
Private Consumers. $39,991 45
Public Lamps 3,963 94
Coke and Tar. 2,311 49
Rent and Sundries.
175 94
Making a total of. $46,442 82
Which sum exceeds the receipts of the former year sixteen thousand and twelve dollars and sixty-four cents.
At the beginning of the last year, the stock issued amounted to four thousand two hundred shares ($105,400); since then four thousand one hundred and thirty-six shares ($103,400) have been added to the capital stock-making a total of eight thousand three hundred and thirty-six shares ($208,400). The number of stock- holders is sixty-six, of whom thirty-three reside in Chicago, holding three thousand four hundred and sixty-nine shares ($86,725). The funded debt of the Com- pany is seventy thousand dollars, in bonds bearing interest at the rate of seven per cent. per annum.
HEALTH OF CHICAGO.
Till within a few years it has generally been supposed that Chicago was a very unhealthy city. There never was a more unfounded assertion. Before the streets were thrown up, it was very wet and mud- dy at times ; but since our main streets were planked we suffer no more from this cause than most other cities. The ground on which the city stands is nearly level, and but a few feet above the lake, yet there is sufficient slope to drain the streets, and if an efficient system of sewerage is adopted, as we trust it soon will be, this objection, which has done so much to injure Chicago, will not have even a shad- ow of foundation.
The following table shows the compari- son of deaths with the population since 1847, from which it appears that the past year has been one of remarkable health :
NO. OF DEATHS.
1847
520
POPULATION. 16,859
1848
560
19,724
1849
1.509
22,047
1850
1,335
28,620
1851
843
1852
1,649
38,733
1853
1,207
60,662
The diseases proving most fatal during past year are given as follows :
Consumption
198
Teething_ 111
Scarlet Fever 34
Diarrhea
30
Dysentery
59
Typhoid Fever
27
Deaths by accident or design :
Drowned 26
Killed. 20
Suicide 5
Poisoned
1
Found dead
1
Total 53
We are willing that these figures should be compared with those of any other city in the Union.
It should be remembered that in the years 1849 and 1850 we had the cholera in Chicago, and to that cause must be attributed the increased bills of mortality for those years.
The statistics of the last year show a mortality but a very small fraction above one in sixty. It will be observed that here, as in Eastern cities, that terrible disease, the consumption, claims the larg- est number of victims; but we think facts will bear us out in the statement that it is not a disease indigenous to this part of the country. Most of those who die with it in this city, come here with it from the Eastern States, or have a hereditary taint in their constitution. We heard Dr. Mott, of New York, then whom there is no higher authority in this or any country, . express the opinion that in the centre of a continent this disease does not generally prevail. Our observation since residing in Illinois, confirms this opinion: The pure invigorating breezes, sweeping over the broad bosom of our magnificent lake for hundreds of miles, are a never- failing source of energy and health to those who make homes in the Garden City.
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