History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 135

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 135

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

High School .- Davis R. Dewey, principal; Maria A. Waite and Mary Noble, assistants. Average attend- ance fifty-five.

Kenwood Sch sol .- (In this school the high school is held), Hyde Park Avenue and Fiftieth Street : valuation, $24,000; teachers-Hattie A. Burts, Winifred Smale, and Clara B. Newkirk. Average attendance, eighty- four.

Greenwood Avenue School .- Greenwood Avenue and Forty-sixth Street ; valuation, $32,000; teachers- Helen G. Farwell and Sara J. Fleming. Average at- tendance, sixty-four.

Fifty-fourth Street School .- Fifty-fourth Street and Frederick Place; valuation, $35,000; teachers-Annie E. Butts, Mary H. Garrigan, Louise 1. Starr, Louise L. Danforth, Nellie D. Healey, Mattie Green and Amelia S. Parsons. Average attendance, two hundred and sixty-seven.

South Park School. - Fifty-seventh and Monroe streets; valuation, $9,000; teacher, Helen Danforth. Average attendance, thirty-two.

Woodlawn School .- Lincoln, south of Everett Street; valuation, $6,000 ; teachers-Fannie B. Rexford and Hadassah M. Fleming; average attendance, forty-three.

Cornell School .- Drexel Avenue, between Seventy- fifth and Seventy-sixth streets; valuation, $18,000; teachers-Annie Burke, Hattie L. Kinney, Emma L. Stickney, Maria McCornack, and Joanna Hogan. Average attendance, one hundred and sixty-one.

Madison. Avenue School .- Madison Avenue, between Seventy-fourth and Seventy-fifth streets; valuation, Szt,ooo; teachers-Sirah Milner, Mary M. Haire, Adeline Juhnson, and Annie Symons. Average attend- ance, one hundred and twenty-five.

South Shore School .- Seventy-fifth Street and Rail- road Avence; valuation -, furniture, $75; teacher, Maria A. Faire. Average attendance, twenty-six.

There are also school lots at Park Side, corner of Seventy-first Street and Eldred Avenue ; and at Brook- line, corner of Seventy-fourth Street and Langley and Evans avenues. The Board of Education consist of Hugo Boss, Homer N. Hibbard, Henry McKey, John C. Scovel, Ja nes S. Smale, president, and George H. Leonard, secretary ; Leslie Lewis, Superintendent of S.hools; Emma HI. Springer," clerk of board.

The high school is one wherefrom the graduates can enter the Industrial University without examina- tion as to their proficiency. The school has an Agassiz Association, organized September, 1882, which has performed excellent work in natural history ; their collection-all of which was presented by members- comprises: Birds, 17; eggs, 50; reptiles and animals, 10; skulls, bones, etc., 20 ; woods, 15; minerals, 100; fossils, 55 ; marine specimens, 20; miscellaneous, 115. The officers are : Alden L. Bennett, president ; Gouv- erneur Calhoun, vice president ; Sidney H. West, secretary ; Antoinette B. Hollister, treasurer, and Harry I .. Fulton, curator. The society was inaugurated at the suggestion of Davis R. Dewey, principal, and it has received his hearty support and assistance, The school last year received second prize in Latin, German and physics from the Illinois State Fair Association. The remainder of the schools in the district furnish * instruction perhaps commensurate with the intelligence and culture of the majority of the inhabitants of the district ; and no higher eulogium could be uttered.

THE FIRST POST-OFFICE established in the hamlet of Hyde Park was in 1860. George W. Waite being commissioned on March 23 of that year. Joseph W. Merrill succeeded him, with a commission dated May 28, 1863 ; next was Hassan A. Hopkins, commissioned June 30, 1866; then Goodrich Quigg Dow, commis- sioned December 8, 1873, the salary at that time being $450. In October, 1877, the appointment became presidential and Mr. Dow was re -. ppointed on the thirty-first day of that month and year, and again com- missioned December 15, 1881. The present assistant of Mr. Dow is John Henry Pittaway. There are five mails received and dispatched daily ; those to the East and South are direct mails, the others go via Chicago.

THE FIRST STORE in Hyde Park was kept by Hassan A. Hopkins, on Hyde Park Avenne, a little south of Fifty-third Street. It was a little grocery store about ten feet square. He came to Hyde Park in the winter of 1856, in the employ of Paul Cornell as book- keeper, at which time, he states, there were but two prominent citizens in the place, Michael Purcell and Dan (or John) Hogan, squatters on the land of the Illinois Central.

In an interview with Mrs. Eliza Denison Jame- son, that lady stated that she first came to Chi- cago in the spring of 1856, and visited Hyde Park in the spring ensuing, to determine upon its eligibility as a residence site. At that time there was nothing but sand hills, prairie, trees, and wild flowers. Judge Jameson's house was built in 1857; but, being unfortunately erected upon the wrong lot, he sold it, and had the one built wherein he now resides, which is situated exactly twenty feet from the edge of the lot, in compliance with a stipulation imposed by Paul Cor- nell on all purchasers of lots. In the spring of 1858

.Aliss Springer furnished much important information that is presented concerning the schools,

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HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY.

Mrs. Jameson arrived in Hyde Park. The train ran down to the locality now the corner of Cornell Avenue and Fifty-sixth Street, and dumped her baggage upon the turf; there was not even an inclosure at that time. The depot was situated at the corner of Fifty-first Street, and was moved to a point diagonally opposite its present location in the summer of 1858 by Mr. Cornell to accommodate the guests of the Hyde Park House. Immediately in the vicinity of the station wild flowers grew in profusion, and the park, that Mr. Cornell had established and cultivated upon the lake front near Fifty-third Street, needed very few flowers that were not indigenous for its embellishment. This park was maintained by Mr. Cornell for the benefit of prop- erty owners, actual and prospective, and possibly actuated by a prophetic spirit. It was long since washed away by the erosive waves of the lake, although breakwaters were built to try and protect it It was a little secluded in Hyde Park then ; and a little path that led by Judge Jameson's house-corner of Fifty- third Street and Cornell Avenue-to the depot, was so seldom trodden that Mr. Jameson's little daughter, seeing a man pass there one day en route to the depot, called to her mother to see the rara avis. Upon the veranda of the judge's house one could stand and plainly see the arches of the Illinois Central depot, near the foot of Lake Street ; there was nothing to break the sky-line of observation between Chicago and Calumet. Then, also, there were but seven families living at Hyde Park in addition to J. A. Jameson's, those of Warren S. Bogue, Chauncey Stickney, Paul Cornell, Dr. A. B. Newkirk," Charles Spring, Sr., Charles Spring, Jr., and Dr. J. A. Kennicott, at Kenwood. Airs. Jameson also remembers the boarding-house of primitive construction, and of as primitive menu, kept by Mrs. Garnsey, widow of Nathan Watson. The first death in Hyde Park, within Mrs. Jameson's recollec- tion, was that of Curtis S. P. Bogue, whose death resulted from injuries received in the accident u on the Illinois Central. In the summer of 1858-59 many of the people who had been employed by Mr. Cornell, took lots in part payment for their services, and made a temporary settlement there; but they shortly sold their property and drifted away. The residents of Hyde Park then were exclusive. yet sociable-they still possess the same characteristics-and were suffi- ciently intellectual to furnish themselves with mental and bodily amusement. The little church provided by Paul Cornell was a representative Utopian church edifice ; there union services were occasionally held, and when ministers of specific denominations could be amassed upon one Sunday, the Presbyterians would meet in the morning, and the Episcop.ilians in the evening, and the utmost harmony prevailed. The Acadian character of such society can be more easily described than imagined; possibly, however, their political and property interests may have been so dominant as to preclude any rampant dogmatism. In the spring of 1859 Leonard Jameson built a house on Fifty-third Street, at the corner of Washington Avenue, and therefrom was constructed a sidewalk, running eastward, upon scaffolding, beneath which sidewalk was quite a depth of water. Near where the First Presbyterian church now stands was a large slough. Mr. and Mrs. Jameson used to be fond of walking to Egandale, and one day on the way thither they came to this slough. The Judge clambered along the fence, . Dr. A. B. Newkirk died at Falls Chy, Neh., in December, 1883. The funeral services were held I'mm the residence of his brother-in-law. Joseph N. Barker. Jake Avenur, Kenworl, And were conducted by Revs, D. S. Johnson, E. C. Kay, and Charles H. Biaby.

traversing the slough, with the baby and deposited it ; Mrs. Jameson, following the Judge, took care of the baby ; the Judge returned and took the baby-carriage to pieces and, carrying it over piece-meal, assembled it on the other side, and the reunited family and baby- carriage proceeded rejoicing to Egandale.

OAKLAND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

JOHN RUSSELL. HENSLEY was born May 1, 1533, In Springville, Kirie Co .. N. V., of Eaton and Sophia ( Russell) Kersles, why were among the carly settlers of that county. The fall's served in the War of 1512. Having received an academic cil. 4. tion, young Birnsley, in 1851, became a clerk in a general store " his na isr sillage. In 1854 he bought ont his employers, and in 18:7 suhl out, and came West, going to ImiPage County, III whrire he came to Chicago the ensuing year. Here be went into general commission business, which has been continued up in the present tiene, the firm being now known as Bensley limos. In 15's he added the sale of live stuck to his grain, flour, promluse and provision business, establishing a separate hrm ( Beasley lies. & ( )at the Stock Yans for that purpose, which also continues. In ilk Find of Trade, of which he has been an active niemter since Psis, he was a member of the committee of arbitration in Ists, of the board of directors in 1872, vice-president in 1576 and 18;3, and president in tagb. Ile was appointed by the Governi. in 1;\. a member of the committee of appeals, on grain inspector. andin 16:7 was elected a member of the committee of appeals al the Board of Trade, serving two years, In 1550 he was one of the most active promoters of the enterprise which resulted in the creation of the new Found it Trade building at the head of Lasalle Street. la 1531, he was elected a real-estate manager by the Board of Trade. and in that capacity has been prominent in carrying forward that work. He secured from the Common Council the vacating of the necessary portion of LaSalle Street, and purchased for $250,000 the whole block, and deeded to the Board of Trade abe real estate on which the new building is being huih. Interested parties enileavored to block the movement by an appeal to the courts but the Supreme Court of Illinois confirmed the action of the Common Council. The new building will be 175x225, and the office part will be ien stories high. For us erection $1.500,000 were bat. ruwed, and it will be completed in August, 1554. Mr. Hensley was elected president ed the "Call Board " in 1581, and re-elected in 1882. Hle is president of the newly organized Western lesur- ance Company, with a capital stock of $300,000, all owned hete. Mr. Bensley is creilited with one of the most remarkable feats of commercial management known to this generation. Upon the faiture of Meticoch, Everingham & Co., in June, 1883. he was appointed receiver by the court ; and though the affairs of the firm seemed involved in inextricable confusion, and about twelve suits had been begun in five States, he completed the almost hopeless sask of settlement in thirty-two days. Ile collected and paid $4.500,000 on secured debis, and $750,000 on the Temninilig $1,500,000, or fifty per cent, which was highly satisfactory to all the creditors, and better than the unsecured liad expected, The members of that firm were enabled to resume in three months after failure. Mr. Bensley renuwed to Hyde Park in 1868, and was elected one of its trustees in 1875, and again in 1876 and also in 1877. In 1876 and 1877 he was chosen president of that widespread municipality, covering a greater area than Chicago, and entbracing fourteen villages, with a total population of perhaps 50 000. He has been twice married, and has two surviving children by the second marriage-Martha S., born June 27, 1872, and John K., Jr .. born June 5, 1875. Their mother was known before m.ir- riage as Augusta F., daughter of Elijah Fuller, of Wyoming County, N. Y.

RÓBERT DEMPSEY BOYD, physician, was born April 29. 1847, in Uniontown, l'enn., of Joseph and Elvira [MeMillaint Boyd. The family moved to La Salle County, IL., in 1654, where the elder Boyd still resides, and where Mrs. Bout died in 19;5. Having received an academic education, R. D. Boyd removed 10 Chicago in 1869, where he commenced business as a druggist, In 1875 he began to study medicine in Rush Medical College. where he graduated in the class of 1878. He then sold out by store and entered on the active practice of his profession. After nearly four years' residence in Albany, Ill., Dr. Boyd returned to Chicagn in (SB1, and located in Ilyde l'ark, where he still remains, and where he has succeeded in building up a lucrative practice. ta 1873 Dr. Boyd was married to Mary Arreil, of Monongahela City, who died in 1860, leaving one child, Kalph Boyd, born in 1875. Dr. Boyd is a member of the I'resbyterian Church.

ALDEN FINNEY BROOKS was born April 3, 154o. m Williamsfield, Ashtabula Co , Ohio, of Charles and Isabel t'l'homp- soni Brooks, lle received an academic education in | 1 .. I' ckand'. institution at l'atteville, Wis., from 1557 to 1559. Being in power

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HISTORY OF HYDE PARK.

health he made the journey to Eureka, Cal., on font in 1859. In #86t he returned home and enlisted early in t 862 and served to the close of the war. For the last nine months of service he was on the staff of General George 11. Thomas, as topographical engineer. with rank of First Lieutenant. In 1867 he went to New York City and studied a year In the National Academy of Design, having carly evinced a taste for painting, and having already done some work in that line, for which, indeed, he Inherited an aptitude, lle also took lessons from Edwin White, the distinguished his- torical painter, for a year, In 1870 he came to Chicago, and npened his first studio, and was burnt out in the great fire. lle soon re-opened. and has been here ever since, with the exception of the season of 1581-82, which he spent in Paris, as a pupil of t'arolus Duran, where he exhibited in the Salon his painting. " Les Favorites," While hume on furlough in 1864, he was married 10 Miss Ellen T. Woodworth, of Wayne, Ashtabula C'o., Ohio, by whom he has had four children-Bessie. December 23, 1866; Fannie, November 22. 1869 : Carrie, January 15, 1871, and Merle Thompson, May 9. 1873. Mr. and Mrs. Brooks are members of the Congregational Church of Ilyde l'ark, where they have resided since 1975.

FREDERICK STEPHEN BURROWS was born February 21, 1844, in Cincinnati, Ohio, being the oldest son of John A. D. and Louisa (Dudley) Burrows. The father, who for many years was head of the firm of Burrows & Thompson, the largest grocery house in its day In Cincinnati, died there of cholera in ts50, The mother was a daughter of Colonel Ambrose Dudley of Lexington. a xoklier of the War of 1812. Educated for two years in Kenyon College, he left It in his junior year. 1862, to enlist in the goth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, serving three years, and being mustered out a Sergeant Major. In 1866, he began business as a jobber in groceries in Cincinnati, and in 1876 transferred his operations to Chicago, where he has since remained, and where he is now the Western agent for P. Lorillard & Co., of Jersey City, N. J. Feb- ruary 7, 1874. he married Eva J., a daughter of John J. Wads- worth, of Erie. l'enn, They have two children : John W., born in 1876, and Ethelbert Dudley, born in 1880. They have resided in Hyde Park since 1880. Mr. Burrows is a member of the Masonic fraternity and a Republican in politics.

ROBERT H, CHERRY, general yard master for the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, took charge of these yards on Stony Island Avenue, two miles south of Grand Crossing. Octo- ber 23, 1883. Ile has the superintendence of fifty men, and the capacity of the yard is 550 cars, Mr. Cherry came to Chicago in 1871, and emharked in the jewelry trade five years. He then en- gaged with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad' as yard clerk, and continued until 1883. when he obtained his present position. lle was born at l'ittsburgh, l'enn .. September 30, 1854, and was raised there. In 1877 he married Miss Lillie II. Ilanson, of Chicago. They have two children, Flora H. and Edith May.

LUCIUS BURR CONVERSE was born November 23, 1835. in Litchfield, Ohio, of Dr. William and Elizabeth A. (Hurr) Converse. In 1845 the family removed to Princeton. III., where the father opened a drug and general store in partnership with a cousin, Henry J. Converse, of Boston, under the style of Converse & Co. In that store L. B. first learned commercial business. In 1856 he graduated at Bell's Commercial College, in Chicago. From 1862 to 1865 he was in the employ of Hower & Ilighee, dry goods deal- ers, of Cleveland, Ohin, as book-keeper ; and in the latter year opened a wholesale hat and cap business as Innis, Converse & Co., which continued until 186g. He next went Into banking, with a general store, in company with his brother, James W., in Brooklyn, Iowa, as Converse Brothers. In 1874 they came to Chicago, in- vested their spare funds In real estate, and took positions under their father. the president of the Dime Savings Bank, where 1 .. B. remained until 1879. Since then he has filled the position of book- keeper for commercial houses, disliking the risks of business on his own account. Mr. Converse was married June 20, 1371, to Mary I .. , a daughter of Russell Cole, of Oberlin, Ohio, from whose col- lege she graduated with highest honors September 20, 1862. Mrs. Converse is an active member of Plymouth Church, and is interested in nearly all the benevolent enterprises of the South Side, and is also president of the ladies" society known as Friends in Council. Mr. Converse is an attendant with his wife at the services of l'lymouth Church, and is a Republican in politics, They reside at No. 4001 Drexel Boulevard.

WILLIAM D'ARCY FRENCH was born in 1826, near Bryantown, Md. His father was D'Arcy A. French, a native of County Limerick, Ireland, who, half a century ago won some notice in educational cireles in Washington as a teacher of lan- guages. Ilis mother, Christiana J., a member of the well-known Spalding family, of Maryland, was born at the ancestral home at Pleasant Hill, Charles Co., Md. After some eight years' resi. dence in Washington, I'enfessor and Mrs. French removed in 1842 to Galena, Ill. There, about 1844. young French began life on

his own account with a brief experiment in mining, which he soon exchanged for a clerkship in a mercantile house. In 1854 he came to Chicago and served E. Ilempstead in the same capacity about five years, In 1859, supplied with a large stock of goods by Mr. Hempstead, he went to lastings; Minn., where he grew into a jobber in groceries, as well as a buyer and shipper of grain, on his own account. Returning to Chicago in 1865, he went into the general commission business, which he exchanged about 1873 for . brokerage in produce. Ile is a member of the Board of Trade and the Call Board, and is president of the Open Board. In 1857 he married Sarah P. Hosworth, of Chicago, who died at their home in Hyde l'ark in November, 1862, where they had resided since 1878.

HENRY JEFFERSON GOODRICH was born January 23. 1Szo, In Worcester County, Mass., of Phineas and Nancy (Pierce) Goodrich. The father was a railroad contractor and builder, a de. scendant of l'hilip Goodrich, the original immigrant to New En- gland, whit settled in Connecticut. Receiving an academic education at Fairfax, Vt., from 1557 to 1859, young Goodrich studied law for a short time under Judge White, of St. Albans, but resumed more general studies under Rev. N. S. Dickinson, at Foxboro, Mass .. 1960-61. Meanwhile he had taught school and studied law, and in 186t was admitted to the llar. In 1864 he spent one year at Indianapolis, then settling in Chicago in 1865, he became a partner of J. Esaias Warren. The firm of Warren & Goodrich was dis- solved in 1870, and Mr. Goodrich has been for the most part alone since then until 1853, when the firm of Goodrich, Tuttle & Co. was formed. Ilis specialty has been the investigation of titles 10 real estate, valuation thereof for insurance companies and other lenders, for purposes of railroad condemnation, and the like. Ile went to reside in Hyde Park in 1877, and in 1882 was elected its president. Though a Democrat, and a member of the Central Committee of that party, he received the support of the less partisan Republicans and discharged his official duties in the interest of all classes. Dur- ing his year of office several public improvements of great value to the municipality were inaugurated or completed. The water, sewer. age and street departments received a fresh impetus. New engines were placed In the water works and a tunnel projected to run about a mile and a half into Lake Michigan. The movement for adjust- ment with the general government of the lines of the Calumet River with a uniform width of two hundred feet was inaugurated. By that means was secured the needed encouragement for the establishment of large manufacturing industries in that section. Altogether It was a year of arduous labors, occupying his undivided time and eliciting the appreciation of his fellow-citizens, irrespective of party. Mr Goodrich is a member of Blaney lodge, A. F. & A. M., Past High P'riest of Fairview Chapter, and a member of Apollo Commandery. With his father-in-law, Robert Morris, I.E .. D., he was one of the original founders, in 1868, of the Holy- Land Exploration Society, now numbering perhaps fifty thousand members all over the world. He was married in 1866, to Miss Charlotte F., a daughter of Dr. Morris, of LaGrange, Ky., by whom he has one child. C. Maude, born in 157t.

CALEB GOODWIN was born in 1822 in Hartford, Conn .. being the fourth child of Caleb, Sr., and Harriet (Williams) Good- win. The parents were both of early New England stock, the mother being a lineal descendant of William Williams, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, representing Connecti- cut. Having received a grammar-school education, young Good- win, at the age of fifteen, became a elerk in a book-publishing house in Hartford, where he remained until 1844. He then came West and settled In Galena, in the general trade, with an older brother, under the style of W. & C. Goodwin. In 1849, having sold out his interest to his brother, Caleb Goodwin came to Chicago. After some years in the employ of others, he began a commission business on his own account about 1858, which continued perhaps five years, Since 1863 he has been continuously in the employ of two or three Chicago publishers, being at present with John Morris, successor to Culver, Page, Hoyne & Co. In September. 1847, Mr. Goodwin married Elizabeth, a daughter of Samuel Brookes, an carly settler and the first florist of Chicago, They are the parents of eight children, four sons and four daughters, and have five liv- ing grandchildren. Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin are members of the South Cungregational Church, and have resided in Oakland since 1853.

WILLIAM HENDLEY GORE was born in 1851, near Zanes- ville, Ohio, of Townsend and Ann Amanda ()loge) Gore, The father was a member of the Legislature from 1860 to 1864, and removed to Illinois in 1965, settling near Morris, Grundy County. In 1878 young Gore went to Kansas, where, in 1871), he began the business of sheep-raising, about thirty-five miles from Wallace, in which he still retains an interest, the firm being known as Gore Brothers. In the summer of 1882 he became a member of the firm of 11nbbard & Gore, druggists, at the corner of Thirty.ninth Street and Cottage Grove Avenue. Mr. Gore was married February 2. 1582, to Mary Bulkley, of Morris, III., by whom he has had one

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, HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY.

child, Anna Louise, born November 1, 1852. He became a men- ber of the Masonic Order in 1575 ; am is a Republican in polities.

GEORGE CHARLES HICK was born in 1835. in Yorkshire, England, son os Charles and Mary ( Wilcock) Hick. Ile derives his descent from Samuel Hick, the village blacksmith and Quaker disciple of John Wesley, Mr. G. C. Blick came to the United States in 1871, and settled in Chicago, where he weot Into the business he still follows. Hle imports grease and oil used by tan- ners in the stuffing and finishing of leather, being the only mer- chant in the West engaged in that special line. In 1858 Mr. Hick married Elizabeth Martha Townsend, of Yorkshire, England. On the mother's side, she is descended from the Kipleys, also noted disciples of Mr. Wesley. They are the parents of four children- William Arthur, born in 1859: Herbert Ripley, born in 1805 ; Aimie, born in 167t ; and Lottie, born in 1878. MIr. Hick has resided in Byde l'ark since 1876,

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 135

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