History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 150

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

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POST-OFFICE .- On December 27, 1853, Corydon F. Stewart was appointed Postmaster of Calumet Post- Office. This gentleman was also the first Justice of the Peace, appointed to that position in 1858. On October 7, 1837, the name Calumet was changed to Ainsworth Station, and William B. Martin* appointed Postmaster the same day. On January 28, 1858, Michael Doyle was appointed Postmaster, and he retained the position thirteen years, being succeeded on May 31, 1871, by Elam G. Clark. On May 31, 1871, also, the name Ainsworth Station was changed to South Chicago, On October 30, 1879, John A. MeIntosh, the present Post- master, was appointed.t In 1855 the towns of Lake, Hyde Park and Calumet had but one polling place, all the citizens voting thereat, and in 1857 the polling place was Burkey's Tavern, Englewood. " At this place, in 1857," says the Independent, "Fred Wright was elected Supervisor, and Gerber, Doyle and Schaffer, Street Com-

. William B. Martin was the first agent of the L. S. & M. S. R. R., and the first occupant of the passenger depot erected In 18$5. + The First Assistant Pustmaster-Lieneral courteously furnished these par- ticulart.

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HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY.

missinners. Mr. Doyle at the same time was Treasnrer. The convenience of those living six or seven miles dis- tant was, they thought, duly considered; moreuver they believed they should have more than their portion expended in their town; for which reason Calumet severed its connection with the town of Lake, and in the same year a slice of territory from the town of Wortu was annexed to it, which more than compensated for the separation from the town of lake. And al- though the land remained in its former state, the popu- lation had become largely increased, and in a curious manner valiant, as may be seen in their celebrating the anniversary of their first election at the Holland settle- ment in a substantial free fight. At this election Mr. Kile was elected supervisor, and Messrs. Kruger, Doyle and Murray L'ommissimmers, which offices they filled toll 1862, when the town of Calumet was annexed, by a wie of the people, to Hyde Park."

As to Michael Doyle, the veteran settler, Postmaster, official and resident, he was born in the Barony of Arklow, County Wicklow, Ireland, in the parish of Inoher Doyle, in 1817. This parish was named after his ancestors, but after the year 1333 nothing remained to the owners of the territory of their own land, and the O'Doyle sept hed to pay rent for their property. In 1846 Michael Doyle was married to Catharine Cullen, and with her immigrated to America the ensuing year and resided in Mamaroneck, N. Y. Subsequently they removed to New Haven, Conn., Cleveland, Ohio, Mil- waukee, Wis., and to South Chicago, Here Michacl Doyle took an active interest in business of various %indlsant wis infantis in pmddh affairs In ali h's

counter the inter ad, commable and terriis antsare that blightel and used .hr wled . regom Travelers wlan had passet dus was Indere, began in hold their

sprees of bom spun were bringle naad paled up m n lesterug mas of compton. Sal war the North- western Fertilizing Congiem Their twin abomination, the Unich Ko lering Con jemy, soon pickled tu the j dyment of the 1 rings Credit-was torn down and removed ; but the ather stretched itself belund its vested rights and refused to budge, January 1. 1873. fire destroyed their works, and then the municipality cante down upon the'n and arrested them far introduc ing the Muff they could no longer handle " l'o harass the company Daniel Hates Horne was made Justice of the Peace and established at South Chirago, in 18;2. One case is sufficient to rite to exhilat how Mr. Horne proceeded. A train of rar- laden with stercoraceous malter on the P., F. W. & C. R. R. was stopped, and all the men on the train taken before Justice Horne. He asked them if they were aware of the nature of the stuff they were instrumental in introducing anıl whether they knew that it was in vidation of law ; they all con- fessed to a rognizance of the acts for which they were arraigned and to an intelligent violation of the law, and ple d gurdy to the charge against them. the intro- dijetin 11 th la itin matter Whereupon Justice 11 yer myont tivo Savo apiece, Messrs. Wangh and

Ralston were present, and immediately upon the pass- ing of judgment, stated that they would appeal the case. Justice Horne smiled " a smile that was childlike and bland " and remarked that no appeal was possible from a judgment pro confesso. The Fertilizing Com- pany did not let the train-men, or their employés, plead guilty any more, Leonard Swett honored Mr. Horne by asking if that man llorne couldn't be got rid of. But then the hands of the village authorities were tied by Judge Farwell's injunction, and they were compelled to supinely allow the Fertilizing Company to have its own way. Then Judge Farwell dissolved his injunction, an appeal taken to the Supreme Court," and in eighteen months the celebrated "Stink Case " was decided adversely to the plaintiff, and the growth of South Chicago was not impeded by fetiil and noisome vapors. Daniel Haines Horne went to Hyde Park in 1862, and estimates the population of the village there as about five hundred persons. Hle states that, in 1868, Granville S. Ingraham, William S. Ingraham and D. H. Horne bought 1,800 acres in Sectiuns 5, 6 anıl 18, now covered by South Chicago, at $5 an acre : the property rose next year to $25 an acre and they parted with the realty. " At that time, " said Mr. Hoyne, " there was hardly a man living in South Chi- cago, that wasn't connected with the Fertilizing com- pany ; for if he was not making his living out of the company, he couldn't stand the stench gratis." About 1874 the Northwestern Fertilizing Company yielded up its empyrenmatic ghost.

In 1869, the embryo of the lumber interest of South Chicago was cast upon the waters by Charles Mears, who being unable to get his vessel-drawing three feet of water into the river, beached, and threw overboard his menber ; which after many days washed ashore. In 1870, Mr. Hannahs came to South Chicago with twelve by twelve, and assorted, lumber and inaugurated it humber vards. Mr. Hannahs supplied the luother with which the first house in South Chicago was constru t. l. G. B. Hannahs, of the firm of Hannahs & Lyon, o m- her merchants, is the son of the pioneer lumber yard constructor The lumher interest of South Chicago thus mattgurated is now represented by .A. K Beck A Company the successors of .A. R. Beck, the successor af the South Chicago Lumber Company : established m 1876, l'his firm has a dockage front of seven hurd ed and fifty fert and handled twenty million feet of I unber in 1883, bestles some eighteen nullion laths, shingles, ete. Hannahs & Lyon have a dock front uf 1 !! lunulred and fifty feet, and sold lumber the past year amounting to over one hundred thousand dollars Getty & Blanchard have a dockage of some six her dred feet, and are rated as employing a quarter of a milhon dullars capital by the mercantile agency , their business in Chicago, however, makes the greatest nupi sentation in this capital, The South Chinap >vards t 1 business to the amount of about ten mikum lect Imber the past year. Spencer & Trowbridge we're only established in town in the winter if 1882, All have two hundred and fifty feet of water front . in fon months from the time they commeneed business they handled three million feet of lumber, and slow thousand dollars worth of timber, etc Large as been the amount of lumber handled the lumber trud South Chicago is in its veriest incipiency, as 1 bo be smisfactorily demonstrated that rafts can be tongil safely across the like, that comment eco tuwing expenses ran le male la han Contar

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HISTORY OF HYDE PARK.

at South Chicago, that the advent of the new railroad lines seeking admission there with those now hav- ing depots there will provide comprehensive and quick transportation, and that lumber yards at South Chicago are just as convenient and more economical than those up the tedious Chicago River. Chicago merchants are particularly prone to see any advantage that energetic action will bring to their business, hence many are negotiating for lumber yards along the slips constructed from the Calumet River. As adjuncts of the lumber interest there are twolarge planing mills and a wood working company located in South Chicago. And in connection with the traffic to South Chicago, it may be mentioned that the first vessel for this trade, the " Mary Ellen Cook, " was built by Pardee, Cook Blanchard & Company.

In 1864. E. D. l'obin came to South Chicago, and started a small retail coal business. He is now one of the wealthy men of the town, and there are some half dozen firms engaged in the retail business, the largest of whom are James Beynon & Son. But the coal interest is represented hy Langdon, Richardson & Company, who have a yard on Harbor Avenue, wherein are all the latest improvements in machinery for handling coal by the cargo, and where, at their three hundred feet of dock, they can unload 1, 100 tons of coal from one vessel in one day, and upon the track running by the yard they can ship in cars 500 tons. They received during the year 1883. 80,000 tons of coal at their yards. Many prominent Chicago firms engaged in the coil business-are favorably impressed with the advantages proffered by South Chicago, as a sort of clearing-house for the coal market-and are now nego- tiating for sites for large coal yards.

NORTH CHICAGO ROLLING MILL .- The greatest in- dustry, however, that promotes the welfare of South Chicago is the gigantic rolling mill, one of the largest in the United States. On March 28, 1880, the first spadeful of earth was thrown up in the commence- ment of the work in laying the foundations of these buildings. A trip through the North Chicago Rolling Mill may not be uninteresting nor uninstructive, and the various factors of laborious processes will be per- ceived that render necessary the erection of buildings of such magnitude as those of this company. The area of the land occupied is seventy-three acres, and has a frontage on the Strand of three thousand feet, a front- age on the Calumet River of one thousand five hundred feet, and on Lake Michigan of two thousand five hun- dred feet. The land has been raised about six feet above its primitive grade. Upon the exterior of the massive pile of buildings-whereon are a bewildering night-mare of chimneys and flues-lays the company's slip, one thousand feet long, one hundred feet wide and eighteen feet deep ; wherein the vessels lay and dis- charge their cargoes. The company employ six vessels to transport their iron ore, which is all brought from the Lake Superior mines ; and the facilities for unload- ing these vessels while laying in the slip are so perfected, that, from three vessels, seven hundred tons of ore per hour can be handled ; and as the electric light is used for illuminating the yards and works, night is no imped- iment to the progress of the work. Beside the slip is the yard where the ore is piled preparatory to its use in the mill, and it is divided into sections by stone walls, four feet thick and eight feet high, along which cars run, for the transportation of the ore to the part of the mill where it is needed for use. The compartments, or sections, thus made in the yard are used as receptacles for the various kinds of ore used in the mill. In the

yard also, and connecting with the various railroads, are the company's tracks, over which their thirteen locomo- tives travel, switching and hauling the numberless cars used in bringing material and transporting their pro- duct. Fifty carloads of coke are used daily in the mill. The house used for storing the coke stands in the yard and has a capacity of four thousand tons. A little dis- tance from the store-house is an immense elevator for hoisting coke and ore to the top of the furnaces. 'These materials are brought in wheelbarrows to the elevator, which hoists them in five seconds to the top of the fur- nace, seventy-one feet from the ground. Of these fur- naces, each of a capacity of twelve hundred tons per week, there are four ; twenty-one feet across and sev- enty-one feet high. The limestone, coke and ore are poured in from the top and when the furnace is "charged," or filled with a proper proportion of each substance, it is fired. Each of the four furnaces is sup- plied with three Whitwell hot-blast stoves, which are sixty feet high and twenty feet across, filled with brick work, which has openings all through it. This fur- nace is super-heated by means of gas, and after a sufficient heat has been communicated to the brick work, air is driven through the interstices into the fur- naces ; the air becoming heated in transit to a tempera- ture of thirteen hundred degrees. Only one stove is used in this blow-pipe operation ; the two others being heated while the one is in use; after that in use has become cooled to about one thousand degrees, the hlast is transmitted through one of the others, and the one whose use was discontinued is reheated to the requisite temperature. To furnish the power to drive the air " through the stove into the furnaces, eight large engines, of four hundred horse-power each, are used with fifty-four inch cylinder stroke, and eighty-four inch bore ; which are furnished with steam by seventy-two boilers, forty- eight inches in diameter and thirty-six feet long, of the ordinary cylindrical pattern. The boiler chimney is fifteen feet in the clear and one hundred and seventy- five feet high. The seventy-two boilers are heated by gas generated in the furnaces, and is supplied from a gas main seven feet three inches high by twelve feet wide, by means of a number of thirty-inch brick flues leading to the gas-burners, from which the gases pass under the boilers to be consumed, and to manufacture steam by their caloric disintegration.

The furnace is supposed to have been fired and the hot blast turned on at the base of the furnace. The lime- stone unites with the other impurities, silica, etc., and rises, in the form of a richly colored glassy slag. to the top of the molten mass. The iron falls to the bottom and is drawn off into channels cut in the sand on the floor of the furnace, the large, main channel being called the sow, and the smaller lateral channels pigs, hence the term pig-iron. But if Bessemer rails are to be manufactured, the iron is drawn off in iron ladles, holding ten tons of molten iron each, and drawn by an engine to the Bessemer converter. Of these there are three, each of ten tons capacity. The Bessemer de- partment contains machinery of the most improved character, and complete efficiency for handling the huge masses of material manufactured there. Upon the ten-ton receptacle arriving near the converter des- tined to receive it, it is seized by a hydraulic crane and lifted over the mouth of the converter and emptied in- to it. Through tuyeres in the bottom of the converter blasts of hot air are forced through the molten mass, at a pressure of twenty-five pounds to the square inch ; this is the peculiarity of the Bessemer process, the de- carbonization of the iron by the current of air, and its

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HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY.

subsequent recarbonization by the addition of spiegelei- sen, or "looking-glass iron." The steel is kept at a liquid state by the combustion of a part of the iron, and is then run into ingots weighing twenty-five hun- dred pounds each. The supply of air furnished through the tuyeres requires the employment of two horizontal engines, furnished with steam by twelve boilers, and two hydraulic pumps furnish the power utilized by the cranes, etc., in the Bessemer department. The steel ingots, thus manufactured, before they be- come cold are carried by an engine to the rail-mill, where they are heated to a higher temperature, rolled into a " bloom," and from that, by successive passages through the diminishing apertures in the heavy " rolls," into rails ; each ingot forming a rail one hundred and twenty feet long, which is cut into four lengths, of the customary rail-lengths-thirty feet. Six hundred tons per diem of these rails can be made. The only rail made at these mills is the Bessemer stcel rail, although the company have mills elsewhere where iron rails are manufactured. The annual product of the rail-mill is about one hundred and fifty thousand tons.

The following exhibit will give some adequate idea of the enormous quantity of material used, and manu- factures completed at the South Chicago mill of the North Chicago Rolling Mill Company. Material con- sumed in a year : Iron ore, 325,000 tons ; coke, 200,- ooo tons ; coal, 125,000 tons ; limestone, 150,000 tons ; making a total of 800,000 gross tons, or fifty-four thou- sand car-loads, being one hundred and seventy-eight car-loads for each working day in the year. The manufactures are : Pig iron, 200,000 tons ; steel ingots, 170,000 tons ; steel rails, 150,000 tons ; aggregat. ing 520,000 tons. The gross weight of the ma- terial and manufacture thus handled in a year is one million three hundred and twenty thousand tons. The number of men employed in the mill is two thousand, and the amount of wages paid per year is one million dollars. The total horse-power of the machinery used is thirteen thousand ; and the total number of boilers employed in the manufacture of steam is one hundred and eight. The cost of the works is three million dollars ; the capital stock of the com. pany is five million dollars, and the officers of the com- pany are O. W. Potter, president ; N. Thayer, Jr., vice- president ; S. Clement, treasurer, and R. C. Hannah, secretary.

THE SOUTH CHICAGO STEAM BOM.ER WORKS are located on Ninety-fifth Street, a short distance west of Commercial Avenue, The firm comprise John C. Keenan and Robert Lundall. By these works the stand-pipe of the Hyde Park water works was manu- factured, and though their specialty is making and riv- eting boilers ; ladles, etc., for manufactories are made, the Calumet Iron and Steel works procuring all their work of this kind there.

THE MORDEN FROG & CROSSING WORKS are lo- cated near Commercial Avenue and the Rock Island depot, and will be opened about January 1, 1884. The company controlling them represent $500,000 capital, and consist of William J. Morden, president and general manager; J. M. Blackburn, secretary ; George A. Ives, treasurer; F. P. Davidson, superintendent, and E. I .. Bremermann, engineer and draughtsman. The num- ber of men to be employed in the new works are two hundred and fifty; the main building has an area of 300 feet by to2 feet; an adjunct is 246 feet by 33 feet, and the boiler house is 26 feet by 40 feet. This latter build. ing will contain two 54-inch boilers, 16 feet long, with thirty-six 4-inch flues; the steam generated by them will

operate the, nominally, 80-horse-power Corliss engine, a fifteen-hundred pound steam-hammer and heat the buildings. The works will require, among other mate- rial, thirty steel rails of thirty feet each daily-the com- pany use no castings in their frogs or crossings-and, as these rails weigh sixty pounds to the yard, it is evident that there will be used 18,000 pounds, or nearly one ton, of steel rails per diem. The works have a line of rail- road that connects with the Western Indiana Belt rail- road.

THE SOUTH CHICAGO WROUGHT - IRON GAS & STEAM-PIPE FACTORY is situated at the corner of Ninety- second Street and Anthony Avenue, and has an area of about 100 feet by 200 feet; and, employing about 130 men, they daily convert into various sizes of pipe ten tons of iron. The firm operating the works is Field. house, Dutcher & Belden.

THE ROBERT AITCHISON PERFORATED METAL COM. PANY is thus described by Edward Fleischer: The Robert Aitchison Perforated Metal Co. can truthfully lay claim to being the oldest manufacturing establishment in South Chicago. Other establishments have existed and passed away when South Chicago was in its infancy, but the above firm have continued since they came; and the steam from the exhaust pipe of their engine has been puffing away through panic times, hard times, and good times. They came to stay, and with that intention, bought from the South Chicago Canal & Dock Co. their present site, consisting of two acres bounded hy Ninety- fifth Street, C., R. I. & P. R. R., Escanaba and Muskegon avenues, South Chicago at that time consisted of land and water, in about equal proportions, and when the wind blew strong from the east, their building bore a close resemblance to a fort in mid-ocean. The melo- dious bull frog winked his eyes, croaked, and defied the wheels of progress to force it away from the halls of its ancestors, As railroad accommodation to reach the city was, at that time, very meager, some of those em- ployed at the works slept in the building, and, after per- forating metal all day they became a prey to the perfor- ating musquito at night, which, like all game in South Chicago, at that time, were very large. The originators of the above business in the Northwest, were Robert and Andrew D. Aitchison, who, in 1868, commenced the manufacture of perforated metals. Their first press was worked by foot power, and at that time the trade was kicked in earnest. Notwithstanding the up-hill work at the beginning of their enterprise, their reputation for work soon became known to the trade. To meet in- creasing orders, they built heavier machinery and sub- stituted steam for foot power. Two years after com- mencing business they removed to North Jefferson Street, Chicago, where they continued to do an increas- ing business for several years. While there they suffered greatly by being burned out. Refitting their establish- ment, they once more commenced operation. Wishing to avoid the inconvenience and danger of having heavy machinery located in the upper stories of a building, they removed to their present site in South Chicago. Here their facilities have been greatly enlarged to meet their rapidly growing trade. Nine power presses are now running, and at special seasons are inadequate to meet the demands of their customers. The partnership con- tinued until 1879, when the above company was organ- ized. The following are the present officers: Robert Aitchison, president; John McWade, vice-president; Robert I). Aitchison, secretary; A. B. Condit, treasurer; A. D. Aitchison, superintendent perforating works; Andrew Drysdale, superintendent of foundry. The annual sales of the works amount to $100,000. They

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HISTORY OF HYDE PARK.

not only make perforated metals-their specialty-but manufacture mantels and castings of all kinds at their foundry; the South Chicago Foundry, a distinct enter- prise from the metal works. They employ from forty to one hundred men.

SUTCLIFF & BIRD'S FOUNDRY is situated on South Chicago Avenue near Ninety-fifth-street bridge, and al- though not ranking with the massive enterprises of South Chicago at present, will undoubtedly do so be- fore long : as they work themselves and have the de- sirable faculty of attending strictly to business.

BENJAMIN, FISCHER & MALLERY likewise have ex- tensive works for the manufacture of machinery and stationary engines that are growing restricted in com- parison with the demands upon their capacity.

THE SOUTH CHICAGO FORGE & BOLT WORKS are on Ninety-sixth Street near the Calumet River, and are operated hy the Chicago Forge & Bolt Works; officers. A. E. Adams, president ; Fred M. Steele, sec- retary, and Louis Wilkinson, superintendent. The com- pany have a capital of $125,000 and employ two hun- dred men. In addition to the bolts made, there are about one hundred car-axles forged at the works, and tools of all sizes and shapes. The various buildings are constantly being enlarged by accessions and as rapidly as they are built, in a short time the enlarged accommodations are found to be too limited.

Among other factors of the prosperity of South Chicago may be mentioned the car shops of the Balti- more & Ohio, and New York, Chicago & St. Louis railroads, Of the necessities of the town, whereby a company is created and carries on a successful business, the South Chicago Dock Company may be cited as an ex- ample. The pile-driving and dredging performed by this company are integers of the slip and dock system, that renders otherwise inaccessible points in South Chicago vantage grounds for yards and warehouses. Some of the work performed is as follows : The South Chicago Dock Company completed 12,000 feet of dock. age on the west side of the Calumet River, between One Hundredth and One Hundred and Sixth streets. The Calumet & Chicago Canal and Dock Company constructed last year a slip 1,500 feet long, admitting three abreast any lake vessels, and 1,800 feet of outer hreakwater, extending south from South Chicago har- bor. Its dockage between the Fort Wayne bridge and the North Chicago Rolling Mills on the west bank be- ing now all rented at six dollars per foot, the company have begun a similar system on the east side of the river, to accommodate the coal business arising from the location of the coal-distributive station for the West on the east side of the river in Block 109, lying north of the Baltimore & Ohio bridge. Thus what was con- sidlered the great impediment to the prosperity of that region is demonstrated to be its great natural, practical utilization. The fenny character of the soil and its low-lying situation were deemed fatal obstructions to either comfortable residence or prosperous transaction of business, but this very moory characteristic renders it easily dredged, and the sump taken from the morass being deposited upon the adjacent bank of the pros- pective slip, raises such bank above the conterminous level and makes it available for all purposes. The dockage being the primal consideration, as making the points of warehousing interests easily accessible, the squashy nature of South Chicago soil is its principal recommendation, especially as the vast pile of the roll- ing mill edifices at the mouth of the river satisfactorily testify to the powers of sustentation of the subsoil. Just the sagacity of the inceptors of the Calumet &

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 150

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