History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 131

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875

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1882-83 -Henry J. Goodrich, president; George H. Leonard, Frank M. Webster (elected), Thomas W. Johnstone, Samuel Pullman, William M. Berry (hold over), trustees; Edward W. Henricks, clerk. Appoint- ed : Leander D. Condee, attorney ; William I .. Church, comptroller; George Willard, treasurer; Christopher McLennan, engineer and superintendent of public works; Charles 1 .. Norton, village hall assistant ; George H. Waite, collector ; Nicholas Hunt, captain of police; Charles E. Rees (elected), police magistrate; W. W. Stewart, prosecuting attorney ; M. B. Arnold, health officer; Charles A. Pendleton, fire marshal ; E. S. Hawley, tax claim agent; William H. Colehour, harbor master.t

1883-84 .- George H. Leonard, president; Frank M. Webster, Henry J. Goodrich (holl over), Alexander R. Beck, Alvin C. Mason, George A. Follansbee, (elected) trustees ; Edward W. Henricks, clerk ; Charles E. Rees, police magistrate. Appointed : A. W. Green, attorney; Daniel A. Peirce, treasurer ; Christopher McLennan, engineer and superintendent of public works; Charles L. Norton, comptroller ; George H. Waite, collector ; Nicholas Hunt, captain of police ; M. B. Arnold, health officer ; Charles A. Pen- dleton, fire marshal until July, 1883, when he resigned, and James Crapo was appointed; George Phillips, sealer of weights and measures.

POLITICAL .- Of the views of the inhabitants of Hyde Park as expressed at their election, their status is largely Republican; during their various projects for the enhancement of the town or village sometimes the rule has prevailed to vote for men not for measures; at other times the converse has been the case, but when exclusively partisan principles have been the questions under consideration, Republicanism has been largely manifested until the last two elections. In measures pertaining to the accession of business and property interests, the improvement of their natural advantages and conserving their rights, inherent and adventitious, the citizens of Hyde Park have been vigilant and far- sighted ; a public improvement had hut to be demon- strated as a bona fide improvement, to meet with their hearty support; a corporation had but to tread, upon their corporate or individual toes, under an alleged con- ferring of benefits, to meet with persistent and deter. mined opposition. It is not to be supposed that in the magnitude of interests involved, in the vast amounts of real estate and monetary transactions, no individuals in authority have been benefited during the progress of improvements advocated by them that augmented public interest ; it is not reasonable to imagine that an individual will entirely forget his private welfare in his efforts for the corporate weal ; but the instances where private advancement has been allowed to dominate, irrespective of the public good, are extremely rare, and have usually been so distinctively marked as to leave no doubt of the cupidity. perhaps turpitude, of the

POPULATION. - In 1851 the inhabitants of Hyde Park could have been conveniently carried in a streel car without crowding ; in 1861, taking the voie polled * -seventy-one-as a basis, the number of inhabitants may be estimated at three hundred and fifty; in 1862, Mr. Horne states that there were about five hundred people residing in Hyde Park. The subjoined table will therefore show about the ratio of progress in the population of this village :

VOTES FOLLED.

1861. April 2

350

1862, November 4.

500

1870. Census ..

3.6.44

1874. April 21.

1,097

6,000

1877, April 17

1.535 10,000

1879. April

2,022 13,000

1680. Census

15.724

188t. April 5.

2.56z

20,000

1882. April 4.

2.717 25,000

1883. April 3.

5 050

35.000

1884, (estimated)

45,000

The population of the hamlets of Hyde Park is de- termined by the census of 1880 to have been ; South Chicago, 1,962; Colehour, 1,098 ; Irondale, 926 ; Roseland, 772; Kensington, 250; Riverdale, 635. The discrepancy of these figures to the inhabitants of some of these places now will readily be perceived; and arguing from this hypothesis, the estimate of 45,000 population in 1884, will be reasonable and war- ranted by statistical facts. One fair sample of the increment of population since the census of 1880, will give some idea ol the phenomenal growth of the village. Kensington is represented by the census to have had two hundred and fifty inhabitants; the schoul census of July, 1883, polled one thousand two hundred and seventy-eight inhabitants,

POLICE .- Commensurate with the growth of thevil. lage has been the necessity for augmentation of the force requisite to preserve law and order, arrest evil-doers, and guard life and property. Alexander Brown and Libori- us Goldhart, the first Constables, had sinecures in their positions, and the unfortunate who offended against the law in those days was secured in an old wooden lockup that formerly stood on the common between Fifty-first and Fifty-second streets, and so near the lake that it was washed away. The present jail is constructed upon approved detentive principles, and is adequate for the purposes for which jails are constructed. The first police magistrate was Charles E. Rees, commissioned May 8, 1874, and the first offender whose name ap- pears on the village record in January, 1871, was James Rafferty, of Irish nationality, aged forty, habitat Chicago; was fined, and paid Sto for the luxury of being drunk. At this time Hyde Park had five policemen. Captain George W. Benford was the first captain of police of the village, commissioned January 21, 187t, and en- tered upon his duties January 28 of the same year. retaining the office until its abolishment on March 9. 1875 ; the office of sergeant of police then being supreme in the force, and this position P. F. Ryan filled. His autocracy lasted until November 20, 1875, when the office of captain was again created and Ben. ford re-appointed ; he re-entered on his duties Decem- ber 1, 1875. Upon April 25, 1876, the office of cap- tain was once more abolished, and Sergeant P. F. Ryan became the police dictator, holding that position until May, 1877, when he was appointed captain, which po- sition he occupied until April 7, 1879. when he

" Dicil May 1, 3B&t ; William 3. Berry elected to fill unexpired term. t Position abalasbed.

HISTORY OF HYDE PARK.

517

resigned and Joseph Snyder was appointed captain, remaining therein until April, 1881, when Captain Nicholas Hunt was appointed. The places of deten- tion comprise one at Hyde Park, one at South Chicago and one at Kensington. The force is composed of Captain Nicholas Hunt; Sergeants Owen Sheridan, Ken- sington ; Richard Dunphy, Hyde Park ; John Mergen- thaler, South Chicago; Douglas Hogan, Oakland, with six station-keepers and thirty-one patrolmen, an aver- age of one patrolman to one thousand people. The number of arrests from January 1, 1871, to October, 1883, were ten thousand five hundred, but an insignifi- cant per centage of which was for serious offences. The present administration compares favorably with

wheel Babcock double-tank chemical engine. The hose carriages were placed in livery stables, and the boys who "ran wid der masheen " were the policemen. One of these carriages was kept at Oakland; the other at Hyde Park, and the expense attendant on their maintenance was $60 per month; the livery-men fur- nishing horses and drivers. The chemical engine was placed at South Chicago and was handled by an organ- ized company. On June 18, 1875, the Board of Trus- tees inaugurated measures for organizing a volunteer fire department, by selling the hose-carriages and pur- chasing three hand hose-caris and two double-horse hook and ladder trucks, with hose reels attached, and companies one, two and three were organized, with

899748

L.G.HALLBERG ARCT.

W,BERTRAM SC

VIEW OF HYDE PARK WATER WORKS

those of the past, viewed from a financial standpoint : Fines collected in 1880-81, $807.02 ; fines collected in 1881-82, $3,151.00; fines collected in 1882-83, $5,524.00; the years 1881-82-83 being those of Nicholas Hunt's administration. The service yet need some means of rapid transit between the patrolman and the various lock-ups, the ground to be watched by the patrolman being so extensive as to need his constant presence there ; all sorts of depredations could be committed during his absence with a petty offender, conveying him to a place of detention, those places being so far from the beats of the officers.

FIRE DEPARTMENT .- Prior to 1873 the means of extinguishing fires were such as happened to be pre- sented by an excited assemblage at the scene of the conflagration, and the general method of putting out a fire was to let it burn out and try and protect the neighboring buildings. In 1873, however, the Trustees purchased two four-wheel hose carriages and one four-

the names, Oakland Hose Company No. 1 ; Hyde Park Hose Company No. 2, and Protection Hose Company No. 3, the latter located at the corner of Fiftieth and State streets. The engine-houses were : of No. I, a barn; of No. 2, a place that had formerly been a blacksmith shop; of No. 3, a barn."

The various fire marshals who have held office since the inauguration of the department are : George Herbert, appointed May 1, 1875; A. D. Waldron. appointed August 1, 1875-Mr. Waldron had one assistant, Thomas Davies; Thomas Hogan, appointed June 10, 1878-he had two assistants ; first, M. Haley ; second, William Kirby; Thomas Davies, appointed June 11, 1879-he had one assistant, H. Hackenbrock ; Charles A. Pendleton, appointed June 10, 1881 ; James L. Crapo, appointed June 2, 1883.

WATER SUPPLY .- The water consumed by the

· Fuller particulars of these, and companies subsequently organized, will be found in the narratives of the several specific settlements.

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518

HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY.

villagers was originally derived from the lake by means of water-carriers, who hawked it around the settlements for ten cents per barrel. This primitive method lasted until the erection of water works by the town of Hyde Park, which then supplied Hyde Park and the town of Lake. This method was maintained until August 1, 1882, when the Hyde Park water works were formally started and have since continued in successful opera- tion. The dissolution of partnership in the old works was completed in the spring of 1882, by the sale, to the town of lake, of the one-half interest owned by Hyde Park to them for $48,000; the design and con- struction of the new works was committed to the care of John A. Cole, the consulting engineer of the village, and by him completed in July, 1882. The cost of erecting the new building was $15,915; the cost for machinery $43,843; and the cost of laying main from the works to Cottage Grove Avenue about $62,800. The village likewise has the crib and inlet-pipe, the esti- mated value of which is $15,000, making the value of the water works at their first operation about $:37,- soo, of which amount about $70,000 is for building, grounds and machinery. The value of the whole water-work system, piping, etc., is estimated at about $556,222.

A portion of the design-submitted by John A. Cole-of the new water works, and in view of the necessity of constructing a tunnel under the lake in the near future, was the sinking of four shafts to a depth of forty-two feet below the level of the lake, two of them being in the engine room of the water works, one near the corner of the water works of the town of Lake and another near the lake shore; connecting these three first mentioned wells is a tunnel one thousand feet long that comes to within twenty-five feet of the last mentioned well, ard from thence is connected with the crib by one thousand six hundred feet of pipe, and by these wells and the inlet-pipe at the crib the water is syphoned into the tunnel. The shaft near the lake shore is the land extremity of the tunnel in course of construction, and when that is completed the interven- ing space of twenty-five feet will be tunneled and the wells connected.

The building wherein the pumping machinery, boilers, etc., are located, is on the southeast corner of Oglesby Avenue and Sixty-eighth Street, with a frontage on the avenue of about two hundred and ninety- five feet, and with a depth of some one hundred and thirty-two feet. The engines are four and are thus described in the report of G. Howard-Ellers, late consulting and superintending engineer : " Horizontal, direct acting, compound, condensing, steam-jacketed engines, so constructed and arranged on their bed- plates and frames as to be capable of working together in pairs, with the duplex principle of valve-movement, or, by disconnecting the duplex mechanism, each engine can be operated separately, or as an independ- ent pumping-machine by itself. The four low-pressure cylinders have diameters of forty inches, and similarly the four high-pressure cylinders have diameters of twenty inches, and hence the relative proportion of the respective areas of the steam-pistons are as four to one-both the latter and the pump-plungers having a stroke in common of thirty-six inches." In general terms it may be said that the design is after Worth- ington, the makers being the " Cope & Maxwell Manu- facturing Company," of Hamilton, Ohio. Steam is supplied by four cylindrical boilers, of the return tubular pattern, each boiler having a diameter of sixty-

three inches, a length of sixteen feet, and containing fifty-eight tubes of four inches in diameter. The water furnished by these works since their inaugural opera- tion has been as follows :

Gallens.

August, 1882.

62.757 910

October. 1882

55.266 645

November, 1882 .. 59.315-339

December. 1882.

42,084/ 23

January. 1883.

48.434.743

February, 1883.

54.989.132

March, 1883.

61,024.518

April. 1883.

56,991.300

June. 1883 ..

62.371,575

Juty, 1853.

76.387,136

August. 1583.

87.323.312

September, 1883.

74,463,477

October. 1883.

59.824-548

Total.

910.359-404

Making an average of 60,690,626 gallons pumped per month. The demand upon the water works engines is very much greater during the summer- months, when the extensive system of parks require a supply of water.

But still the ohjection was found to the means of obtaining water that was made in Chicago; impurity and an undue quantity of foreign substances in the water, and to obviate this detriment it was determined to excavate a tunnel under the lake. The contract for this work was awarded to John C. Robinson and Anderson Minor in November, 1882, the contract price being twenty-one dollars per lineal foot for the tunnel complete, and sixty-five dollars per vertical foot for the vertical shaft. The whole work of excavation and tun. nelling is under the design, care and management of John A. Cole, consulting engineer,

Has the gentle, or ungentle, reader ever been into a tunnel under water? Let us accompany the general inspector, John Braydon Toohy, down to the termina- tion of the work at present performed. This article upon which you have to sit is not a triumphal car, but a car whereon are put the materials used for the con- struction of the tunnel. It is wheeled along the rails on to an elevator in the mouth of a bricked well. This well is the vertical shaft, has an interior diameter of eight feet and its walls are composed of three and four rings of solid brick-work, laid up in hydraulic cement mortar, made of one part each of cement and sand. The descent upon the Crane elevator occupies but a few seconds and the voyageurs are on the base of the shaft, some sixty feet below its mouth, which base con- sists of a solid bed of concrete two feet thick, and this in turn, rests upon the bed rock, excavated and prepared for the purpose. From this shaft there is a western tunnel leading to beneath the water works and fifty feet in length, and the day when the reader is supposed to have made the descent-November 3. 1883-the eastern tunnel was driven one thousand eight hundred and eighty-three feet under the lake; the whole length of the tunnel being required to be five thousand feet. The horizontal tunnels are six feet and three inches perpendicularly and six feet laterally and are lined with brick masonry, four, three and two rings thick. A flooring is laid in the bottom of the tunnel and on this rails are spiked, and this tramway is the connect- ing link between the miners at one end of the tunnel and the elevator at the other; and over it are conveyed the clay removed in the process of excavating, and the bricks, cement, etc., used in making the tunnel proper.

September, 1882.

53.993-374

May, 1883 ..

55 231.370

519

HISTORY OF HYDE PARK.

The excavation is done by four miners and their attend- down the clay tunnel to the dimensions to be occupied ants; the first gang of whom go in to work at 11 P. M. by the exterior of the brick-work. The clay is placed upon a car, with side-boards and ends, and run through the tunnel onto the elevator and there is astounded by seeing the light from which it has been excluded for hundreds of years. The work proceeds rapidly and well ; the officials representing the village speak highly of the thorough manner in which Messrs. Robinson and Minor perform their work, and the cheerful alacrity with which they respond to any unusual calls upon their workmen and material ; the officials take pride in watching the work, the contractors take pride in hav- ing it supervised; consequently the tunnel is very apt to be an excellent one. The following are the officials at the water works : John A. Cole, consulting and superintending engineer ; John Braydon Toohy, gen- eral inspector of work of tunnel; Louis I .. Edwards, inspector of materials for tunnel. Mr. Toohy is on duty all the time watching the construction, and the materials used all pass under the inspection of Mr. Edwards. James Wallace, water inspector and tapper; George F. Morgan, water pipe inspector; Robert Hawk- ins, engineer in charge of the pumping station, and Joseph Pullman and A. O. Parker, assistant engineers. To distribute the water throughout the village there were, on May 1, 1883, the following lengths and sizes of pipe : and drill three auger holes in which are placed dyna- mite cartridges, and the clay is then blasted; then the picks are used and a rough similitude of a tunnel made ; then follow a gang at 5 A. M., who shape the tunnel and make it ready for the brick layers, who follow at 3 P. M. and brick-up the tunnel made in the clay by the two gangs who preceded them. This work proceeds at the rate, on an average, of twenty feet per diem and the tunnel is expected to be finished by about July 1, 1884, and to cost about a quarter of a million dollars. The tunneling is performed in a stratum of compact, tena- cious, blue clay, and the intention is to have about twenty-five feet of this clay between the exterior of the brick tunnel and the bottom of the lake. During the work but little trouble has been experienced from springs of water in the clay, or sand-pockets; the larg- est of the latter being struck while working in the upper formation of clay, about August 9, 1883, and was one hundred and twenty-five feet long. When a cavity such as this is encountered it is filled up with brick and cement, so that there is no intervening space between the exterior of the tunnel and the surrounding clay; not for the purpose of keeping the clay from falling upon the tunnel, but to prevent the force of the water breaking the tunnel, because of there being no superincumbent mass of clay to re-enforce the resist- 68.505 linear feet of 4 inch pipe. 53.853 linear feel of 6 inch pipe. 29.180 linear feel of 8 inch pipe. 14.958 linear feet of 10 inch pipe. 37.291 linear feel of 12 inch pipe. 48,881 linear feet of 16 inch pipe. 2,651 linear feel of 20 inch pipe. 8,223 linear feet of 24 inch pipe. ance of the tunnel to pressure from the inside. Those who remember the hydrostatic paradox of our school- days will easily conceive that there is considerable pressure exerted by a column of water some sixty-five feet in height and with a diameter of eight feet. But all this time the reader has been jaculated through the brick tunnel, like a monster human pea in a Brobdig- nagian pea-shooter, by the propelling power of the inspector behind ; and the traveler upon the car is con- strained to "hunch" himself together to avoid being scalped by the long tube that extends along the roof of the tunnel, but which is plainly perceiveable by means of the electric lights which illuminate the tunnel. The lights are of the Western Edison species, and miners wonder how it was possible to do without the incan- descent light. This threatening tube, whose close prox- imity to the explorer suggested premature baldness, is the lungs of the tunnel; by its means the miners breathe, and because of its operation the air nearly two thousand feet under the lake is as pure and as fresh as needs be. This tube is connected with a strong exhaust fan in the upper world, and this fan sucks up the air out of the tunnel and fresh air moves down the shaft to replace it. "Nature abhors a vacuum," and the fan creates one; here is the present terminus of the tram- way where the gnomes are working, put your hand before the tube of which mention has been made- quite a powerful suction ! Prior to the introduction of the electric light into the tunnel oil lamps were used and the interior of this exhaust tube was found to be coated with oily soot, similar to the incrustation upon the interior of a stove pipe through which the smoke of soft coal fires has exuded. This fact not alone demon- strates the effectiveness of the means of ventilation ; so thorough, that it collects the little particles of plum- bago floating in the atmosphere; but likewise testifies to the evil effects of using oil-lamps in mines, for the lungs of the workmen must have just the same deposit as that upon the interior of the ventilating pipe. These workmen who are making mud-pies from the ceiling, walls and floor are the miners, and they are trimming

Making 263.542 linear feet then composing the general water-service system of the village of Hyde Park, with provisional outlets at the same date of sixty-eight single, and two hundred and eighteen double, nozzie hydrants. The service is daily ren- dered more complete and effective, and new lines of piping are constantly being laid to meet the demands of the inhabitants.

HEALTH .- The salubrity of the village of Hyde Park can best be exhibited by the following extract from the report of Dr. M. B. Arnold, health officer : Annual death-rate for 1,000 inhabitants-1882-73, 14; 1881-82, 16.64; 1880-81, 18.45 ; 1879-80, 8.4.

TOWN AND VILLAGE ANNALS .- The first road viewed by the Commissioners, on April 9, 1861, and surveyed by Alex. Wolcott, was Sixty-seventh Street (Ogden Avenue) from the center of Section 22 east to the lake. The first claims against the town audited and allowed aggregated $102.07; among them were accounts of C. Stickney and Paul Cornell, auditors, $3 each ; and Strong Wadsworth, fifteen days as assessor at $1.50 per diem; listing, ninety-six days at ten cents; listing one hundred and six men under military law, $1.06. November 5, 1861, at the second town meet- ing, held at the railroad depot, $50 was decreed to be spent upon "the road leading from the house where George W. Waite now lives to the house owned by Judge Barron, near Dutch Settlement," and that $50 be spent upon the road known as the Vincennes Road. The earliest sidewalk improvements receive mention in the proceedings of September 7, 1861, when Jacob Bockee, C. B. Waite and Charles H. Atkins were elected commissioners to make assessments on property by such improvements, Such improvements were : a four-foot wide sidewalk on the south end of

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520

HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY.

Block 21 across Jefferson (Avenue) and Adams (Washington Avenue) streets; the excavation of a ditch along Madison Sircet (Avenue), on both sides from Elm (Fifty-fifth) Street to Chestnut Street ; thence northeast through the low land in Block 29 to the culvert corner of Oak (Fifty-third) and Adams (Washington Avenue) streets; the enlarge- ment and deepening of ditches from said culvert to Jefferson (Avenue) Street and on the east side of Block 21 and enlarging and clearing out ditches on Washington Street (Hyde Park Avenue), on both sides of the railroad track, from Oak (Fifty-third) Street to Elm (Fifty-fifth) Street; also clearing out Cornell Street, from Oak to Elm. hy grubbing out the brush and stumps and plowing furrows on each side of the street ; also the erection of a small pier, or break- water, on the lake shore, about half-way between " the present piers," to protect the park from washing away, which was not accomplished.

On November 4, 1862, John McGlashen, E. S. Williams and P. Law were appointed a committee to purchase half an acre of ground for clay-bed, and the board of auditors were authorized to pledge the faith and credit of the town to the amount of $100.

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 131

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas Number of Pages: 875

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875