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 9
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Before the commencement of this im- portant enterprise, in 1852, there was very little flax raised by our farmers, and in the spring of that year Messrs. Scammon & Haven imported several thousand bushels and sold it to the farmers at cost, in order that they might be able to supply their mill by the time it could be put in opera- tion. They paid for seed during the past year from one dollar to one dollar twelve and a half cents, and are now selling oil at eighty-five cents. Before this mill was established, flax seed was scarcely known in this market, and what did arrive sold at sixty to seventy-five cents per bushel. It will be seen, therefore, that the amount of business done by this mill is a clear gain to Chicago, and the region of country that is tributary to the city. It is a great con- venience to our painters to be able to pur- chase a first rate article of oil in our city. The neighboring towns and cities also find it for their advantage to purchase their oil of Messrs. Scammon & Haven, as they are sure to get an article of very superior quality.
The machinery is propelled by an engine of fifteen horse power, and the processes by which it is manufactured are exceed- ingly interesting and curious. Between three and four thousand barrels of oil cake were sold in this city and shipped East by Messrs. Scammon & Haven during the past year.
Another important department of this establishment is the manufacture of putty. About two hundred thousand pounds were manufactured during the past year.
The total amount of capital invested is between twenty-five and thirty thousand dollars
SOAP AND CANDLES.
The large amount of packing at this place, especially of beef, affords a good
opportunity for the extensive manufacture of soap and candles. There are several large establishments in the city, besides numerous small factories. As we are not furnished with data for giving the total business of the city in this line, we take one of the principal establishments, that of Charles Cleaver, Esq., situated at Cleaverville, upon the lake shore south of the city. The manufacture and sale by this establishment last year was as follows: Candles, pounds. 495,000
Soap, pounds 682,000
Lard Oil, gallons 43,500
Tallow, pounds 884,300
Lard, pounds_ .334,341
In connection with his business Mr. Cleaver has imported within the year three hundred and fifty tons of rosin, soda, etc., etc.
MACHINERY.
It is a source of gratification that Chicago is not only able to nearly supply the de- mand for machinery within her own limits, but contributes largely to aid in the erec- tion of mills and factories at other locali- ties, some of which are far from being in our immediate vicinity. Engines, boilers, and machinery of all kinds are continually going out from the shops, while the demand increases faster than the facilities for sup- plying it. As we stood in a boiler shop but the other day, the hammers were ring- ing upon the rivets of seven boilers, four of which were for mills in Michigan, one for a town in Indiana, one for Davenport, Iowa, and one for Rockford. We have gathered the following facts in relation to several establishments.
Charles Reissig has a steam boiler fac- tory from which last year the finished work sent out amounted to twenty-eight thou- sand dollars and the value of material pur- chased was eighteen thousand dollars. The number of boilers made at this shop last year was one hundred and seventeen, which, together with the other blacksmith- ing, afforded constant employment to about twenty-five men.
Messrs. Mason & McArthur employ at their works on an average forty men. They build gasometers, purifiers, governors, and all the wrought iron work for the gas
56
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
works; also steam boilers, water tanks, together with sheet iron work and black- smithing in all its branches. The amount of business carried on by them may be es- timated from the fact that they expended last year for iron and labor thirty-eight thousand dollars.
P. W. Gates & Co., proprietors of the Eagle Works, are large manufacturers of railroad cars, steam engines and boilers, and machinery of all kinds. They have a capital of fifty-five thousand dollars in- vested. The manufactured work of last year amounted to one hundred and ten thousand dollars, giving employment to one hundred and fifty men. Among the articles turned out by them were one hun- dred and twenty-five railroad cars and twenty steam engines.
H. P. Moses is the proprietor of the Chicago Steam Engine Works, on the South Branch, the oldest machine shop in the city. He is confined to the manufac- ture of steam engines, mill-gearing, etc. Last year he constructed thirteen engines, ranging from ten to one hundred horse power, their value amounting to $55,000. He employs sixty-five men, and his en- gines have a good reputation. There are now in his hands nineteen engines which will be finished within the next three months. We will remark here, that he is now building one to run our presses, which will be a model engine of its size. It rates in common parlance at ten horse power, but with the boiler we shall put up with it, its builder says it will run up to twenty.
LEATHER MANUFACTURE.
In this department we are furnished with statistics of the operations of three establishments. That of W. S. Gurnee tanned last year eighteen thousand hides, out of forty-five thousand handled, in which was consumed nearly one thousand eight hundred cords of bark. The tan- nery, with yards, drying sheds and other buildings, occupies two acres on the South Branch. The establishment employs fifty men, and a large steam engine is used to drive all necessary machinery.
Messrs. C. F. Grey & Co. tanned, last year,
thirteen thousand eight hundred and nine- teen hides, and the sales of leather amounted to sixty-two thousand dollars. They employ upon an average thirty-two men in this part of their business. We mention here that the firm of S. Niles & Co., in which they are partners, have manufactured since August 1st, 1853, about eighteen thousand pounds of pulled wool, taken from pelts purchased for tanning.
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Another establishment which employs twenty-five men furnishes us with the fol- lowing figures of their business for the last year : Number of hides and skins tanned, 6,984 ; sides of harness leather, 3,395 ; bridle, 1,479 ; collar, 965 ; upper, 4,577 ; calf skins, 1,636 ; belting, 281.
STOVES.
We have but one establishment of long standing, the Phoenix Foundry, of Messrs. H. Sherman & Co., which has been doing a large business for several years, and be- come well known by the extent of its ope- rations and the quality of its wares. We are not able to state how many stoves were sent out from this foundry last year, but the proprietors employ constantly fifty men, and cast, daily, six tons of metal. Connected with the sales room on Lake street is a shop for making furniture for stoves, where, in the fall and winter, a number of tinsmiths are employed.
Vincent, Himrod & Co. have established a stove foundry during the year, from which they are prepared to turn out from four to five thousand stoves per annum, and will, within a short time, enlarge their works so as to manufacture double that number.
AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.
In addition to the manufacture of plows, already mentioned, we have factories for making threshing machines, corn shellers, fanning mills, and other farming utensils, but we are without figures to exhibit the amount of business.
J. S. Wright has commenced here the manufacture of Atkins' Self-Raking Reap- er and Mower. Last season, the first of the enterprise, he turned out sixty machines. He has now in hand three hundred ma-
57
HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
chines, which will be finished in time for the coming harvest, and furnished at one hun- dred and seventy-five dollars on time-one hundred and sixty dollars cash. The estab- lishment at present employs about seventy- five men, but will be greatly enlarged during the year, as it is the intention of the manufacturer to build one thousand machines in time for the following season.
McCormick's Reaper Factory has been in successful operation for so many years, and the machines constructed have at- tained such a world-wide celebrity, that it is unnecessary for us to more than briefly notice it here. It occupies extensive buildings and grounds on the north side of the river, near the mouth of the harbor, and the time was when its tall chimney formed, perhaps, the most prominent land- mark for vessels approaching the harbor. Now we have hundreds as large and high, like volcanic craters belching forth clouds of smoke, suggestive of the mighty toil of the elements beneath. The number of reaping and mowing machines manufac- tured and sold in 1853, amounted to a lit- tle less than one thousand five hundred, which, at an average price of one hundred and thirty dollars, gives one hundred and ninety-five thousand dollars as the amount of sales. The number of combined reap- ing and mowing machines turned out during the present year will be at least one thousand five hundred, furnished at one hundred and fifty dollars each. The num- ber of men employed at the works is about one hundred and twenty.
[From our COMMERCIAL REVIEW for 1853, only the conclusion and the note ap- pended to the third edition of 5,000 copies of " Our Pamphlet " are here quoted. ]
CONCLUSION.
It is scarcely necessary for us to reca- pitulate the facts which we have already stated. Business men will not be slow to draw their conclusions in reference to the prospects of Chicago. No one who has studied her unrivaled commercial posi- tion, and the richness, beauty and extent of the country by which she is surrounded,
can doubt for a moment that Chicago, at no distant day, is destined to be- come the great central city of the conti- nent. In the centre of one of the most. fertile agricultural regions 'on the globe ; surrounded by exhaustless mines of lead, iron, copper and coal ; having a water communication with the Atlantic and the: Gulf of Mexico, and holding the key to a coasting trade of three thousand miles, with more than a dozen railroads branch- ing off for thousands of miles in all direc- tions, every element of prosperity and. substantial greatness is within her grasp. She fears no rivals, confident that the en- terprise and energy which have heretofore marked her progress will secure for her a proud and pre-eminent position among her sister cities of the Union. She has to wait but a few short years the sure devel- opment of her "MANIFEST DESTINY."
NOTE.
The past has been an eventful Summer for Chicago. The Spring opened with an unusual degree of prosperity. Improve- ments of all kinds were going forward with great rapidity, and business of all. kinds was very active. So healthy was the city that the Board of Health had not. thought it necessary to make regular re- ports.
The week succeeding the 4th of July was excessively hot, and on Friday, Sat- urday and Sunday, July 7th, 8th and 9th, the cholera came upon us like a thunder- bolt. The most extravagant stories were widely circulated in reference to its fatality in the city ; a portion of our citizens, with- out stopping to investigate the facts, fled in " hot haste," and for a week or two. everything was at a stand.
When time had been allowed to investi- gate the facts, it was found that Chicago had not suffered so much from the disease as some other neighboring cities. The re- ports of the City Sexton showed that the total deaths on the days above named had averaged only from forty to forty-four, and thirty-six was the highest number that. had died of cholera on either of the days. above named. During several of the suc- ceeding weeks the deaths by cholera aver -.
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HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
aged from twelve to twenty. This, for a city of seventy thousand inhabitants, is not a large mortality. When the statistics for the year are made out, we are satisfied that Chicago will fully maintain the posi- tion she has heretofore acquired, of being one of the healthiest cities in the Union.
By the first of August business began to revive, and it has been steadily increasing, till we now find our streets crowded to overflowing. Our merchants, our me- chanics, and manufacturers of all kinds, have all the business they can possibly do. Let those who love to work, and who know how to do it, come to Chicago. There is not a spot in the wide world where honest industry is so sure of a com- petence-we might say, a fortune. Our railroads are pouring an immense flood of trade and travel into the city, and Chicago is making rapid progress in wealth, popu- lation and substantial improvement, Our
best informed men are satisfied that the coming new year will find at least eighty thousand people in Chicago, and by an- other year from that time the footings will be very handsomely beyond a hundred thousand.
We owe an apology to our friends for delaying this edition to so late a day in the season. The truth is, our job office has been so crowded with work that it was impossi- ble to get anything done for ourselves. Our presses now run by steam, and we have otherwise largely increased our facili- ties to meet the wants of our growing city. The public may rest assured that no effort shall be spared by the editors and pro- prietors of the Press to advance the inter- ests and secure the commercial supremacy of the Empire City of the Mississippi Valley.
CHICAGO, Oct. 7th. 1854.
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HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
1854.
From our Commercial Review for 1854, published early in 1855, the following ex- tracts are taken. They were written by my associate, the late J. L. Scripps.
CHICAGO THE GREATEST PRIMARY GRAIN PORT IN THE WORLD.
A little over one month since, the Dem- ocratic Press announced the important fact that Chicago had already attained the rank of the greatest Primary Grain Port in the World. The statement was accompanied by figures and estimates showing the grounds upon which the claim was based. That article has been copied and commented upon throughout the Union, and gone the rounds of newspaper doubt, ridicule and criticism. We are now enabled to present our read- ers with the actual figures which establish that position beyond the reach of a doubt. From the published tables of grain re- ceipts for January 1st, 1855, we compile the following statement of
TOTAL RECEIPTS OF FLOUR AND GRAIN.
Wheat, bu. 3,038,955
Corn
7,490,753
Oats
4,194,385
Rye
85,691
Barley
201,764
15,011.540
Flour (158,575 bbls.) into Wheat. 792,875
Total .15,804,423
In like manner may be presented the shipments for the season, viz :
Wheat, bu.
_2,106,725
Corn
6.837,899
Oats
3,229,987
Rye
41,153
Barley
148,421
12,364.185
Flour (107,627 bbls.) into Wheat 538,135
Total_ .12,902,320
These figures leave a balance for City consumption, etc., etc., of nearly three millions of bushels, of which it is not at all improbable that some portion may have been shipped without representation in our columns. But a small amount is requisite to make up full thirteen millions of bushels, actually exported, though this is immaterial, as in either case the position claimed is sufficiently established. That there may be no ground for incredulity we proceed to lay before our readers the
statistics, gleaned from authentic sources, which confirm this statement, In the table which follows we have in all cases reduced flour to its equivalent in wheat, estimating five bushels of the latter to one of the former. The exports from the European ports are an average for a series of years-those of St. Louis for the year 1853, those for Chicago and Mil- waukee for the current year, and those for New York are for the first eleven months of the same year. With these explanations we invite attention to the following table :
CITIES.
Wheat, bu.
Ind. Corn, bu.
Oats, Rye & Barley.
Total, bu.
Odessa
5,608,000
1,440,000
7,040,000
Galatz & Ibrelia 2,400,000 5,600,000
320,000
8,320,000
Dantzic
3,080,000
1,328,000
4,408,000
St. Petersburg.
all kinds
7,200,000
Archangel
do
9 528.000
Riga
do
4.000,000
St. Louis
3,082,000
918.384 1,081,678
5.081,468
Milwaukee
2,723,574
181,937
841,650
3,787,161
New York
6,812,452 3,627,883
9,430,335
CHICAGO
2,644,860 6,837,899 3,419,551 12,902,310
By comparing the exports of the differ- ent places mentioned in the above table, it will be seen that the grain exports of Chicago exceed those of New York by 3,471,975 bushels-those of St. Louis by more than two hundred and fifty per cent. -those of Milwaukee nearly four hun- dred per cent. Turning to the great granaries of Europe, Chicago nearly doubles St. Petersburg, the largest, and exceeds Galatz and Ibrelia, combined, 4,582,310 bushels.
Twenty years ago, Chicago, as well as most of the country from whence she now draws her immense supplies of bread- stuffs, imported both flour and meat for home consumption-now, she is the largest primary grain depot in the world, and she leads all other ports of the world, also, in the quantity and quality of her beef ex- ports ! ! We say the largest primary grain depot in the world, because it can- not be denied that New York, Liverpool, and some other great commercial centres, receive more breadstuffs than Chicago does in the course of the year, but none of them will compare with her, as we have shown above, in the amount collect- ed from the hands of the producers.
What a practical illustration the above facts afford as to the wonderful, the scarcely credible, progress of the West- what an index it furnishes to the fertility
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HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
of her soil and to the industrious and en- terprising character of our people-what a prophecy of the destiny that awaits her when every foot of her long stretches of prairie and her rich valleys shall have been reduced to a thoroughly scientific tillage! How long, at this rate, will it be before the centre of population and of wealth will have arrived at the meridian line of our city, and Chicago will have vindicated her right to be recognized as the great commereial metropolis of the United States? We verily believe such is the destiny that awaits her .*
The following article was written for the Democratic Press by Rev. J. A. Wight, for many years editor of The Prairie Farmer, now of Bay City, Michigan. I insert it for the permanent value of the facts it contains.
A TOPOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF CHI- CAGO AND VICINITY.
Capacity for Drainage-Character of Soil, with its adaptation to Culture.
SOIL.
The soil upon which Chicago is situat- ed, together with that of its immediate vicinity, is, like that of the whole western country, alluvial. The chief difference which obtains between it and that of the rolling prairies inland, is the probable result of the fact, that it is of later depos- ite, corresponding in this respect to its greater proximity to the Lake Shore. It consequently exhibits marks of rawness, as if, at no distant period, it had lain under water. The surface consists of a loam, varying not much in thickness from one foot, of an exceeding fineness, as if ground in a mortar, generally black in color but possessing in its native state no very decided strength.
This soil is underlaid in some places with sand, especially along the Lake Shore, of from one to five feet in thick- ness, when we come upon a bed of reddish calcareous loam, extending downwards to the blue clay, which underlies the bed of the Lake, and all the country adjoining. Near the rivers, and westward from the Lake Shore, the sand is mostly wanting, except in mixture with the loam, which latter is often eight or ten feet in thiek- ness. The blue clay before spoken of. is
of exceeding pureness and tenacity, and extends downward from twenty to one hundred feet in depth. The calcareous subsoil is far superior in quality to the black soil above it, possessing, in fact, great resources for production if prop- erly free from water, and aerified. The chief characteristic of the soil, mechanic- ally considered, is its fineness. To this all its good and bad qualities are attached. As a consequence, it is in the best con- dition to promote an active growth of vegetation, but packs closely, and holds water with great tenacity, and resting as it does on a close subsoil, it must of necessity be wet until provided with a suitable drainage. It is to this mechanical condition of the soil that the region owes its character of wetness, and not to its want of height above the Lake, or of variety in service, as will easily be seen when another topic is considered. That is
HEIGHT OF LAND.
The general idea of Chicago and vicin- ity is, that it is "low." "not higher than the Lake," and consequently undrained and undrainable. The eye says that "it is a dead level ;" and as the evidence of the eyes is considered beyond appeal, its character so passes. There is, however, an authority on such subjects higher than the eye, and to that we resort. That au- thority is an instrument called a " level," and as this instrument has traveled over every part of the region, and noted its observations in figures, we shall have no difficulty in reaching correct results.
Beginning then at a point four miles north of the mouth of the Chicago river on the Lake Shore, we find the bank of the Lake varying within the compass of a half mile, from twenty to forty feet above the Lake. Starting thence due west on a section line, and going one-half a mile, we find the height-always above the Lake-to be twenty-one and a fourth feet; thenee still west to the bank of the North branch of the Chicago river, the height is six feet and thirty-nine hundredths. Still west two and a half miles the eleva- tion is twenty-nine and a half feet.
Taking another and parallel section line, two and a half miles north of the mouth of the Chicago river, we find the Lake Shore elevated seven and a half feet; due west of this the river bank is eight and a fourth feet ; while at one and a half miles still west we have a fraction less than twelve feet, and at two and a half miles twenty-seven feet eleva- tion.
On the parallel section line half a mile north of the mouth of the river, and where that line crosses the city limit, the elevation is twenty-three and a third feet.
* These facts did much to advertise Chicago. Even then it would scarcely have been believed that in successive years Chicago would be proved to be the largest lumber, beef and hog market in the world. Such has long since been the fact.
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HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
Coming south and taking Madison street, which commences about half a mile south of the mouth of the river, and following it westward till it crosses the city limit, the height is a little over ten feet, and at a point three miles still west, it is twenty-three and a third feet.
Following Twelfth street westward, the bank of the river is six and a half feet. At two miles west, the height is ten feet, and three miles, nineteen feet.
On the parallel section line commenc- ing three and a half miles south of the mouth of the river and at the southern city limit, the elevation is fifteen and a fourth feet, and one mile still south it is sixteen and a half feet.
At the junction of the Southern Michi- gan and Rock Island Railroad, the eleva- tion is twenty feet, while the head of Blue Island is seventy-six feet.
Within the city proper, the height of Michigan and Wabash avenues varies from ten to fifteen feet, while the bank of the river is from five to eight feet.
It is a truth, however, that there is an ebb and flow of the Lake, extending through periods of from five to ten years, equal to three or four feet. These periods of ebb and fiow correspond entirely with the succession of wet or dry seasons which prevail, and which succeed each other. During the succession of five or eight years of continued wet weather, there will be a continued rise of the Lake which will give way during a similar period of drouth.
Our later built stores and dwellings, all have or may have cellars beneath them. At present grades those along Lake and Water streets are from four to six feet, but as the grade rises year by year, as new buildings arise, the height of cellars increases in a corresponding ratio ; and there is no doubt that buildings on these streets, erected five years hence, will have six and eight feet cellars-a thing which might just as easily have been secured five years ago as five years hence, had proprietors and city functionaries been as quick to see forward as laterally and back- wards. Our dwellings might have cellars of any height we desire.
From this view it will be seen that our reputation of being a wet city is not due to want of elevation. For all practical purposes, we are as well off as New York or New Haven ; and in fact as well off as though lifted a hundred feet more into the atmosphere. Had we a coarse gravely soil, our streets would be as dry as our rivals say we ought to be. Five years since, if you walked out upon an adja- cent prairie, you might pass land which you would pronounce to be on a " level with the Lake," " a dead level," and "in- capable of drainage." To-day it as dry as Rock Prairie. The "level " came along,
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