History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 133

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

USA > Illinois > Cook County > History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time > Part 133

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. Manual of Memorial Baptist Church.

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HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY.

is absolutely free from debt." The pastors of the Church have been as follows : Dr. J. A. Smith, December. 1868 -April, 1869; Dr. J. B. Jackson (acting) thence tintil October, 186g; Dr. William Hague, October, 1869- November, 1870; Drs. Northrup, Arnold, Mitchell, Smith, Jackson and others, November, 1870-Febru- ary, 1873 : Rev. A. J. Frost, February, 1873-October, 1875; Dr. Northrup and others, October, 1875-May, 1876; Dr. J. B. Jackson farting). May. 1876-July, 1877: Dr Alfred Owen, July. 1877-July, 1879; Drs. Galusha Anderson, T. J. Goodspeed and others, July, 1879-Ortober, 18;9; Rev. J. T. Burhoe, October, 1879 1883: supplies during 1883; and January, 1884, Rev. N. E. Wood. I. D, of Beaver Dam, Wis., took charge. Tor deacons of the Church at the present time are Jesse Clement, H B. Hrayton, E S. Hovey, E. M Barton, A. 1. Howe, E. A. Beach, John D. Greig, Willard A. Smith; the trustees are H. A. Rust, Phil- ander Pickering, John R. Bensley, George W. Bell and 1) E. Livermore, and the congregation numbers three handred and two, and the Sunday-school four hundred and sixty. The organ now in the church cost $5,000, and the bell, presented by' II. A. Kust in memory of his son, Harry .A. Kust, cost $1,000.

In augmenting its population and providing for the spiritual watts of a portion of Oakland's residents, prominently st ids

THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY ANGELS which was founded in ISSo, the corner stone having been laid in September of that year. Prior to the Catholics of the Oakland district having any church edifice wherein to worship. they met at Grossman's Hall on Cottage Grove 'Avenue, near Thirty-seventh Street and at the first service. on February 22, INNo, there Were about thirty people present ; and the Church had a Sunday. school allenilince of about thirty -five scholars. For about two months prior to the completion of the rhnich, the congregation worshiped in the edifice sub- sequently consecrated and dedicated as the Memorial B.rptist Chures : bat on Deremhier 19, 15No, the church was dedicated unl the congregation had a building of their own. The erection of the church commenced in the latter part of August, 18So ; is built in the old English-Gothic style of architecture, and is an elegant, chaste strucin'e, creditable alike to the taste of the pastor. the Key. Denis Aloysius Tighe, and of the architect, Greg. Vigeant. The interior Is singularly free from the florid chromaticism that is so unhappily predominant in many churches; and the decorations and ornaments evinre a cultured taste, carefully and intelligently displayed. The sanctuary has a hand- some altar, and upon the wall hang copies of Raphael's Guardian Angel ; the Crucified Savior; the Mater Dolorasa and the Ecce Homo, all of which were painted by Miss Lizzie Tighe, the sister of the pastor, and presented to the Church; they are excellent copies, a result of the careful study of the artiste at St. Mary's, Notre Dame, and St. Xavier's Academy. Upon either side of the sanctuary are the customary altars to Saint Joseph and the Virgin. The church Seats six hundred ; has a six-hundred dollar Mason & Hamlin organ, and cost $r2,ooo; the church, lot and parsonage costing in all about $zr,ooo ; and this too, when, on the arrival of Mr. Tighe to take charge of the district, as he observed, " he hadn't the price of a match-box." The Church also has about one thousand communicants and an average attendance at the Sun- day-school of one hundred and twenty-five; it is situated on the south side of Oakwood Boulevard, near

Langley Avenne, and has a neat and commod :: parsonage on the east of the church.

The pastor, Denis Aloysius Tighe, was born ut: Angust 1, 1849, at Ballymote, County Sligo, Ireland and pursued his studies for three years at St. John's College in County Mayo, leaving Ireland and landing in America in 1866. Mr. Tighe then continued lis studies in the University of Notre Dame, Indiar .: graduating in the class of 1869-70, and pursurg 1 theological course subsequent to his graduation .. 1!e was ordained by Bishop Foley, at the Jesuit College rn July 18, 1874, and was assigned to St. James's Parish as assistant 10 the late Bishop Reirdon, Then the degree of Magister Artem was conferred by his Alma Mater On November 1, 1877, Mr. Tighe was assigned to the parish of Hyde Park and South Chicago, which then comprised the district from Thirty-ninth Street to the Indiana State line, and during this pastorate he pur- chased the land and built the church of St. Patrick 1l South Chicago, and also bought the land on which the parochial residence of St. Thomas now stands. In 1883 Mr. Tighe was assigned to the parish of the Holy Angels, where he now is ; and the success that has attended his ministrations is shown in the Church and its attend- ance, and the reverence and love that his parishioners feel for Denis Aloysius Tighe. Mr. Tighe is a young man, a careful and close student, retiring in his demean- or, quict and thoughtful in his speech and an earnest advorate of a vital Christianity rather than defunct dog- mis; believing that works exhibit faith, he has achieved what he has in the short time of his ministration, and the results stand-his monument and his advocate.

THE FORTY-FIRST-STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH - l'his Church exemplifies the result that may accrue from small beginnings. In 1869, a Sunday-school was organized by a Christian lady at her home, which she for some time conducted and maintained by her indi- vidnal effort. The attention of the Presbyterian league of Chicago was adverted thereto, and they con- sidered that where the Sunday-school successfully existed a congregation could be collected ; and accord- Ingly, as a site for a future church they bought the two kat in the vicinity of the Sunday-school, on the corner of Forty-first Street and Prairie Avenue, having a fron.t- age on the former street of one hundred and eighty feet, and a depth of one hundred feet. Upon these lots a building was erected, costing $9.500, with the property ; and in the spring of 1870, the Sunday-school was moved to this building, and Sunday services were held there. In the spring of 187r, the Young People's Mission Association, connected with the First Presby- terian Church, took charge of the school and the huilding and lots were transferred to the trustees of the First Church in trust for the Y. P. M. A., who assumed the indebtedness on the realty, to the amount of about $7,000. The success attendant upon the efforts of the congregation was not great, as the fire of 187 1 impeded the settlement of the vicinity and in many cases seri- ously crippled the finances of the members, but the Sunday-school was maintained and Sunday services were held with passable regularity, whereat Rev. E. R. Davis, Dr. Van Doren, A. McCalla, Captain Black and others officiated. In 1874, a new building, costing $1,850, was erected, and the same year Rev. Edward ?'. Wells, occupied the pulpit. On February 1.4. 1875, a meeting was held to organize as a Presbyterian Church, Rev. E. R. Davis presiding, and Revs. E. P. Wel , Arthur Mitchell and Jotham Swale were present The Forty-first-street Presbyterian Church was org .

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HISTORY OF HYDE PARK

ized with nineteen members and G. F. Bissell, W. P. Black, E. S. Wells, H. D. Penfield and S. D. Foss, elders, and George A. Springer, Frederick W. Springer, Sylvester D. Foss, Irus Coy and William L. Moss, " secretary-trustees. Edward P. Wells was installed pastor of the Church on May 23, 1875, and resigned therefrom March 21, 1878. In 1876, an addition was built to the church. Since July, 1878, Rev. Arthur Swazey, of Chicago, supplied the pulpit from year to year until July, 1883 ; from that date until November, 1883, there was no particular supply, but during No- vember, Rev. R. B. Clark became the officiating min- ister, and now occupies the pulpit. The present elders are George A. Springer and William L. Moss. the elders elect, at date of compilation, have not qualified; the present trustees are, George A. Springer, George H. Mckay, Edward Springer, Osborn J. Shannon and Irus Coy. The congregation numbers about three hundred and filty, the Sunday-school about two hun- dred and twenty-five, and the present valuation of the church property is $15,000.

THE FIRST HOTEL was the Oakland House, at the corner of Oakwood Boulevard and Cottage Grove Avenue ; then it was a perfect rural tavern with accom- modation for man and beast, and was a favorite stop- ping place for riding or driving parties. It is now elevated above stores and metamorphosed into a pri- vate boarding house.

OAKLAND HOSE COMPANY NO. 1 was organized June 18, 1875, with the following officers and members : Truman S Gillett, captain ; Thomas Davies, foreman ; B. W. Shibley, J. Henry Oliver, Thomas S. Brady, first, second and third assistants, respectively ; Simon Lauderbach, pipeman ; C. S. Ford, Charles Nichols, John McFarland, James L. Crapo, first, second, third and fourth assistant pipemen ; Leander D. Condee, secretary ; James J. Shibley, treasurer; Walter W. Ford, George H. Van Pelt, Consider H. Willett, Will- iam Dell, P. J. Neagel, J. E. Fleming, Charles H. Jack- son, Benjamin B. Robinson, Benjamin Branch and Richard Pratley, privates. The present officers and members are : Charles H. Jackson, .captain ; Edward B. Adams, lieutenant ; Fletcher Hope, Matthew H. Smith, Lawrence Ebersol, Adam Miller, Charles A. Pendleton, Harry Courser and William H. Lawrance, privates. The present hose-house, costing $780, was completed December 21, 1875, when a ball was given commemorative of the occasion. The equipment con- sists of one double-horse hook and ladder truck with hose reel attached, and seven hundred feet of linen and two hundred feet of cotton hose. It is situated at the corner of Drexel Boulevard and Cottage Grove Avenue.

THE FIRST SCHOOL at Oakland was at Cleaver Hall, and the first teacher Miss Josie M. Mulligan, assisted by Miss Keeler. Cleaver Hall was then situated at the southeast corner of Fortieth Street and Drexel Boule- vard. The residents of Oakland, however, wished to have a school district of their own, and petitioned that School District No. 3-bounded on. the north by the city of Chicago, on the east by Lake Michigan, on the south by the center line of Sections two and three (Forty-third Street) and on the west by Indiana Avenue-might be created. It was so set apart Octo- ber 4, 1869. At an election held December 6, 1869, at said school-house, A. R. Miller, G. H. Miller, W. H. Rand, Francis Munson, F. P. Van Wyck, James M. Hill, Thomas Swan, O. A. Smith, Charles Cleaver,

"William L. Moss furnished the data from which this history of the Church is compiled.

Henry Brookes and A. C. Leich, legal voters of said district, met and elected William H. Rand, James M. Hill and George Trumbull directors of said district. Mr. Rand was elected president, and Mr. Hill secre- tary of said board. The following table shows the number of votes cast, at certain school elections, in the years designated : October 11, 1870, 13; 1871, 8; 1872, 9; 1873, 19; 1874, 20; 1875; 24; 1876, 110; 1879, 231. At the first meeting of the board of direc- tors, December 6, 1869, it was decided to continue the services of Miss Mulligan at $12.50 per week, and those of Miss Keeler at Sio per week ; also to continue to rent the school-house of Charles Cleaver at the rate of $400 per annum. In 1870 J. Herrick was appointed principal at $1,000 salary per annum, and Miss Mulli- gan was placed in charge of the primary department at $60 per month; the liberality that has always been a characteristic of this district early exhibited itself. October 13, 1870, the present site of the school-house, Lots 1 and 2, Block 15, of the re-subdivision of Blocks 15 and 16, Cleaverville, were bought for $16,000; and a school-house built thereon, costing about $7.000 that was occupied about November, 1871. In 1872, Miss Ella G. Ives was principal, which position she retained for over three years. April 14, 1875, the school-house was burned, and the school reverted to Cleaver Hall again ; $5,300 was received on the insurance of the building. In 1874. the present Oakland public school was erected, the contract price for which was $15,756, and was furnished and occupied in the winter of the same year. On July 24, 1876, Charles I. Parker, the present principal, was appointed to that position. In September, 1872, the number of persons under twenty- one years of age in the district was four hundred and twenty-six, one of whom was colored ; in August, 1873, there were five hundred and thirty-two persons under twenty-one in the district. In 1883, there were three thousand and twelve persons in the district, five hun- dred and sixty-seven males and six hundred and thirty- one females under twenty-one, and seven hundred and seventy-four males and one thousand and thirty-eight females over twenty-one. In 1881, the district having over two thousand inhabitants, an election was held April 16, to select a Board of Education in lieu of a board of directors. The board so chosen were, Charles M. Hardy, president ; " Woodbury M. Taylor, secretary, William H. Rand, Henry J. Goodrich, John R. Hod- son and William Turkington. The present Board of Education are : C. M. Hardy, president; Woodbury M. Taylor, secretary ; William l'urkington, John K. Hod- son, C. W. Needham and John Roper. The school district is now bounded by Thirty-ninth and Forty- third streets, Grand Boulevard and Lake Michigan ; at what date the western boundary was changed from Indiana Avenue to Grand Boulevard is uncertain, but presumptively about 1875. A new school is now in course of erection, at the corner of Forty-second Street and St. Lawrence Avenue, to cost $35,000; and the total estimated value of school property is $125,000. The tax levy for 1882 was $14.950. The average attendance during the year was six hundred and twenty-five. The teachers are: Charles I. Parker, A. B., A. M., principal ; Frances L. Potter, Florence M. Holbrook, A. B., R. Louise Ray, Sarah B. Colvin, Elvira Bannister, Mary L. Bass, Laura J. Potter, Iola M. Jones, Belle Wylie, Martha A Fleming, Kate E. Lyon, Isabel E. Richmond, Clara M. Newbecker, Emma C Barrett, Carrie C. Lewis and Mary H. How-

. To Mr. Taylor's patience in unearthing hidden scholastic records, etc. the public is indebted for many facts herein presented.

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HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY.

liston, and the lowest salary is $750 per year. The results of the facts and figures exhibited are that the Oakland school is one of the best scholastic and aca- demic institutions in the State. The cause is not hard to find; liberality in remuneration, after careful and exhaustive examination demonstrate the efficiency of the teacher. As one of the board remarked: " It is not intended that the school-teachers, of the Oakland dis- trict shall be those who teach to pass an interregnum of graduation and matrimony ; but those who are accomplished teachers by profession." Of the three thousand and twelve persons who were in the school district in 1883, there were only six who could not read and writer and they were foreigners and could both read and write in their own language. It seems like painting the lily to add further evidences of the excel- lence of the school and its management ; but the ana- lytic mind always requires statistics or tangible evi- dence. In the school is a library of four hundred and fifty volumes ; in the primary department this year some four hundred and fifty books, additional to those used in the curriculum, were purchased; these being entertaining as well as instructive, to make the study pursued thorough yet involuntary. The primary depart- ment is the one where the most exhaustive, pains-taking care and assiduous watchfulness is manifested ; hence the work in the high school department has a solid sub- stratum underlying the studies there perfected. The State has testified the excellence of the work of the school by several subordinate premiums and by the second premium of sweepstakes for high school work at the State Fair of 1882 ; also the following diplomas at the same Fair : for graded school, third year work ; for graded school, fourth year work ; for graded school, fifth year work ; also a diploma for sweepstakes of first to eighth grade, best exhibit of writing. Charles I. Parker likewise received an individual diploma for the best exhibit of school-work, by the school of which he is principal. At the State Fair of 1881, diplomas were awarded for the best Greek, for the best civil govern- ment work, and for the best high school exhibit gener- ally. Thus the statement of the Board of Education would seem amply justified ; that, "As the result of the employment of a principal and teachers whose superior qualifications as educators are supplemented by their ambition and zeal, the Oakland school has no superior in the State." It is in fact, a school unstinted eulogium of which does it but simple justice. It meets with recognition from the Illinois Industrial University, the faculty of which institution, after personal examination, appoint accredited high schools, whose graduates nay be admitted to the University without further examin- ation. The Oakland high school is one of the high schools thus accredited.

But little remains to be said of Oakland; its Grand Drexel and Oakwood boulevards, its clear, healthful atmosphere, its palatial and domestic residences, its rapid and frequent communication with the city by trains and street cars, all recoininend the locality more strongly than mere verbiage could do; and that these recom- mendations have decided weight, is shown by the large number of new buildings erected during the past year.

FORRESTVILLE.

This is a hamlet with undefinable boundaries, and the most practicable demonstration of the locus in situ is, that it is comprised within the school district. This embraces the region bounded by Forty-third

Street, Cottage Grove Avenue, Forty-seventh Street and Indiana Avenue; is known as District No. 7, and the directors are : George W. Silsby, president; J. S. Barker and E. P. Hotchkiss, clerk. The district was taken from District No. 2, in May, 1873, and a school of thirty seven pupils was organized May 19. 1873, in a private house on Forty-fifth Street, with Miss Alice J. Quiner as teacher. In September, 1873, Miss Alice Draper became principal, and Miss Quiner remained as assistant. In 1874 the school was moved to Cot- tage Grove Avenue, between Forty-fourth and Forty- fifth streets ; the number of pupils, sixty, rendered a change of quarters imperative. In 1875 the school was removed to the present school building, corner of Forty-fifth Street and St. Lawrence Avenue.

DER KINDERGARTEN .- An innovation on the cus- tomary method of imparting instruction was made in this school in December, 1878, by the establishment of a Kindergarten by Mrs. M. E. Mann. In that month forty-three children attended. January, 1879, Miss Allie Hayward came as assistant and pupil, and in the fall of the same year Miss E. J. Hayward came in the same capacity. In December, 1880, Miss E. J. Hay- ward took charge of the Kindergarten department, and has conducted it since that time with various assis- tants until December, 1882, when Miss F. Hayward, the present and only paid assistant, was engaged. Of this scholastic adjunct, a friend of Freebel, and a con- noisseur in kindergarten instruction, said that it ranked second among those he had seen in America.

The instructors in the other departments of the school are : George W. Davis, principal ; Misses Lydia S. Davis, E. J. Spencer, Carrie Smith, assistants; and Miss J. Wheeler, instructress in drawing. There are at present one hundred and thirty pupils in the school, which, with the library, apparatus, furniture, lots, etc., is valued at $18,800. The tax-levy for 1882-83 was $7,000, and the population of the school district is as follows : Under twenty-one, two hundred and eighty- six; between six and twenty-one, two hundred and three ; over twenty-one, three hundred and forty-seven; total population, six hundred and thirty-three.

One other distinctively local possession remains to be mentioned, the Forrestville Hose Company.

FORRESTVILLE HOSE COMPANY NO. 6 .- November 7, 1878, this company was organized, and the hand hose cart that had been used by Company No : was turned over to them. In addition thereto they now have eight hundred feet of linen hose. The hose house situated at the corner of Forty-sixth Street and Evans Avenue, cost six hundred dollars, and the present members of the company are: Frank Elliott, captain; W. R. Ellwell, J. W. Munson, P. Cummings, J. W. Simpson, J. W. Elliott, James S. Elliott, L. R. Vesey, Hugh Williams and C. P. Sheville, privates,

The residence mansion of Wilbur F. Storey is situ- ated on the corner of Forty-third Street and Vincennes Avenue, within the boundaries of this Forrestville School District ; hence the presumtion is not unreason- able that the district will not be deficient in fashiona- ble, aristocratic and costly residences.

SPRINGER and FARREN SCHOOLS are situated in District No. 2, Township 38 north, Range 14 east. The former school is situated also in District No. 9, whose boundaries are: Commencing at Thirty-ninth Street and Grand Boulevard, thence south to Forty- third Street on said boulevard, thence west to Indiana Avenue, thence south to Forty-seventh, thence west to State Street, thence north to Thirty-ninth Street, and

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HISTORY OF HYDE PARK.

thence east to place of beginning. No powers, how- ever, are exercised by any trustees having jurisdiction under District No 9; because of the issuance of an in- junction, pending the decision of the litigation to deter- mine whether District No. 9 is District No. 9 or only a fragment of District No. 2. The difficulty seems to have arisen when the separation between the towns of Lake and Hyde Park occurred ; at that time the school district remained undivided, and District No. 2 now embraces part of the town of Lake and part of the town of Hyde Park, and its affairs are administered by the fol- lowing Board of Education : William Fallon, president ; A. H. Champlin, William H. Christian, secretary ; John W. Clark. John Farren, James Lawless, Michael Mc- Inerney, Michael J. McCarthy and Charles Olschner.

Springer School is situated on the corner of Wabash Avenue and Forty-first Street, and was built in August, 1873. The number of pupils at its opening were seventy-five; at the end of the year 1882 there were one thousand and eighty enrolled. James H. Brayton has been principal, and Miss Tammie Curtis assistant, since its establishment. The value of the school and property is about 836,000; the average number of pupils eight hundred, and the teachers are : James Henry Brayton, principal: Katherine S. Kellogg, Tam- mie Curtis, Harriet S. Kellogg, Sarah Muletts, Eva Spencer, Isabel Smith, Mrs. Nellie Jo ·nson, Julia Dun- don, Mary Springer, Mrs. Mary Hoar, Ada Lewis, Alice Drake, Belle Dodd and Ada Parker, assistants.

Farren School is located at the corner of Wabash Avenue and Fifty-first Street, and was built in 1882, at a cost for building and property, of about 837,000. The average number of pupils is five hundred, and the teachers are : Homer Bevans, principal; Mrs. Mary E. Thresher, Florence S. Meek, Nettie H. Ingersoll, Annie Rickard, Emily A. Broadbent, Mary B. Whiting, Mary Moran, Tena C. Farren, Nellie K. Dempsey and Mary T. Bowes, assistants. The computed population of the portion of District No. 2 embraced by the village of Hyde Park is as follows : four hundred and sixteen males and four hundred and twenty-three females between six and twenty-one years of age; one hundred and eighty males and one hundred and eighty- four females under six years of age ; total population, twelve hundred and sixty-four males and eleven hun- dred and ninety-two females, aggregating twenty-four hundred and fifty-six persons. The proportion of tax- levy is about $16,000

OAK RIDGE SCHOOL .. - School District No.5 embraces the territory bounded by Forty-seventh Street, Cottage Grove Avenue, Sixty-third Street, and Indiana Avenue. The old school district extended from Thirty-ninth to Sixty-third streets, with the same eastern and western boundaries as at present ; the dis- trict was successively diminished by the setting off territory to the Oakland and the Forrestville school districts, and the appropriation of territory for the park. James H. Ely, who kindly furnished the par- ticulars herein presented, states that, in 1856, when he settled at the present corner of Fifty-second Street and South Park Avenue, there were living in the vicinity H. O. Stone, John McGlashen, S. A. Downer, Elisha Bailey, William Klinger and George Parker, and that there were not to exceed six buildings between Twenty- second and Sixty-ninth streets, along the present South Park Avenue. The old school was first held abont 1851, in a building near South Park Avenue, just south of " The Retreat ; " a Miss Lowe was one of the first teachers, and the number of scholars was from eight to

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 133

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