History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 30

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 30

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Lands entered under pre-emption laws, from May 28 to June 30 ..

$ 33.066 90 * At public sale, from June 15 to 30, inclusive 354.278 57

By private entry, from August 3 to 31, inclusive .. .. 61,958 57

By private entry, from September 17 to 30, inclusive. 10,654 71

$459,958 75

As the interior became settled the mania for land spec- ulating spread throughout the newly settled country, and Chicago becanie the mart where were sold and resold monthly an incredible number of acres of land and land-claims outside the city, purporting to be located in all parts of the Northwest. It embraced farmning lands, timber lands, town sites, town lots, water lots, and every variety of land-claim or land title ever known to man. The location of the greater portion of property thus sold was, as a rule, except so far as appeared in the deed, unknown to the parties to the trade; and, in many cases, after the bubble had burst, the holders of real estate, acquired during the excitement, on investi- gation failed to find the land in existence as described. Town lots were platted, often without any survey, all over Wisconsin and Illinois, wherever it was hoped that a town might eventually spring up, or wherever it was believed that the lots could be floated into the great tide of speculative trade.

The following are a few of the many paper towns advertised in the Chicago papers during 1836 ; Lots in Warsaw; in Michigan City ; in Koshkonong, Wis .; in Macomb, MeDonough County ; in Winnebago, on Rock River ; in Oporto, opposite Dixon's Ferry ; in New Boston, Mercer County ; in Liverpool, Ind. ; in Oquaka; in Concord-fifty lots ; in Calumet , in Rockwell; an addition to the town of Stephenson ; lots in Sheboygan, Wis. ; in Wisconsin City," now Port Washington, Wis. ; also Ottawa C'anal lots, which the American, November 19, 1836, stated were sold at $21,358, being $3,266 in excess of the valuation ; also canal Port lots in Vienna, Will County.

The leading advertisers were: John Bates, Jr .; Thompson & Wells; Higgins, Montgomery & Co .; R. K. Richards, agent of Chicago and New York Land Com- pany office, in July, 1836, over the drug store of W. H. & A. F. Clarke, corner Lake and Clark streets ; A. Garrett, auction room, on Dearborn Street. Mr. Garrett's room was the most popular resort of the speculating crowd. The American, October 31, 1835, stated that during the

. The following description ol " Wisconsin City," and what became of it, is given as the probabsie history of nearly all the paper towns and cities platted and sold during thene exciting times. " They [the proprietors] forthwith laid out the town and named it . Wisconsin Cny.' The original pint was an the north side ol Sauk Creek, along the lake shore, on the site of the present village of Port Washington. The streets were laid out north and south, and cast and west from the bluffs to the lake, all except Lake Street, which ran diagonally in a nurtheasterly direction along the shore. The street nearest the creek, destined lor docks and wharves when the dredging was completed, was named Canal Street. The parallel streets in order, gueng north, were Main, Washington and Jackson, carh having a width of sisty-six feet, except Main, which was eighty feet in width ; Lake Street Intersected Canal Street at its foot and ram along the lake front, City Street starting at the intersection of Lake and Canal streets ran due north and south, intersecting Main, Washington and Jackson streets ; west and parallel came in order Franklin, Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Mont- gomery and Clay streets, all of the regulation width of uxty-six leet except Wisconsin, which was eighty feet wide. The public square was in the block bounded by Washington on the south, Wisconsin on the cast, Jackson on the north and Milwaukee on the west. Alleys twenty feet in width running north and south, intersected each block, The lots were 6ox,so feet in snc. The names ol the proprietors al this embryo city, as appears in the recorded plat, were Solomon Junean, Morgun 1 .. Martin, G. S. Hauner, Allen O. T. Breed, Wooster Harrison, Calvin Harmon, G. S. Hosmer, Thomas A. Homes and William Payne, all non-residents except General Harrison. The land seems sa have been ceded by the Government to Harrison and sold to his partners, whom he let into the speculation on easy terms. Some sixteen acres of land were cleared and several buildings erected ; a tavern, two stores, and several dwelling. hnuses, among them that of the " fuiher ol the city," General Harrison, which s still (s281) standing. A dam was built on the creek some distance from the city and a saw-mill erected. The first transfer of property by deed appearing on the records was a part of this tract. It bears date December 1, 1835, and conveys to Thomas A Homes an undivided half of about eleven acres, the co- nideration being Sion, In January, 1836, Holmes sold about four acres of the lot to Solomon Juneau lor Sson. In February, 1876, Levi Mason bought two " Prices went up rapidly but culminated in the crash of 1837. The highest point was reached in August of that year. On the ad of that month Solution and one-half acres of a tract adjoining the town plat for $600 per acre. Junenu wold to onr Jasper Rintwick one 'city But " (Lot 17, Block 19) for $300, equivalent to nearly $1, 8no per acre.

" The decadence of Wisconsin City was ns sudden as its growth had been rapid. The crash of 1837 brought it to a dead halt, and it was abandoned entirely escept by Harrison, who remained there when not in Milwaukee, to look after the ruins of what had been the darling hope of his life. The present village of Port Washington, after forty-five years, is built on the old plat, and along the streets then laid out, and, in its beaoty, isthe counterpart of the Wis consin City that poor Harrison built on paper and in his fancy so many years ago. Not until 1842 was any attempt made to revive the deserted village."

. . These sales by auction were made in a building on the west side of Dearborn Street, nenr Water Street, The building was erected by John Bates, and afterwards occupied by him in his business as an auctionser,

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CHICAGO IN 1833-37.

ten months of the year he had sold $1.800,000 of prop. erty, real and personal, and that he had fitted up a large room, "equal to any in New York or Philadelphia." A single advertisement of R. K. Richards, July 2, 1836, offered for sale lots in Chicago, Joliet, Penn, Dorchester, Tremont, and Pekin ; also lots in Dearbornville, Con- stantine, Mottville Mills, St. Joseph and Milwaukee.

The American, July 2, 1836, said, " The rapidity with which towns are thrown into market is astonishing. Houses are born in a night, cities in a day, and the small towns in proportion."

The speculative mania was not confined to Chicago or the West. A superabundance of paper money, issued under divers State laws, had flooded the whole country, in volume far in excess of the requirements of legiti- mate trade, and was seeking outside investment in all quarters. In the great money centers of the East, New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, a furore of speculation in all commodities and in real estate was at its height, before the Western mania was fairly started. The rumor of the fortunes made in a day at Chicago in the pur- chase of Western lands soon reached New York, where, among capitalists, the excitement became but little less intense than at home. There a new speculative demand grew up which proved an outlet for the avalanche of new towns that were being thrown into market. But for this, the craze might have spent itself sooner ; as it was, Eastern capitalists, after once embarked in the trade, became the most reckless and wildest speculators and held the excitement at fever heat until the collapse, which began at the East, forced them to take an obser- vation, which resulted in a sudden and complete stop- page of monetary supplies from that source. The trade was thrown back upon its own resources, and fell into a state of languishment at once, from which it went into a rapid decline, ending before the close of the year in absolutte death. Although innumerable fortunes were made, few survived the wreck, and no class suffered more in the final crash than the non-resident speculators, who, in fact, were about the only ones who ever put much real capital into the business.

The first historic lecture ever delivered in Chicago was by Joseph N. Balestier, before the Chicago Ly- ceum, January 21, 1840. Speaking of the " Land Craze," he said:

" The year 1835 found us just awakened to a sense of our own importance, A short time before, the price of the best lots did not exceed two or three hundred dollars; and the rise had been so rapid, that property could not, from the nature of things, have acquired an ascertained value. In our case, therefore, the induce- ments to speculation were particularly strong: and as no fixed value could be assigned to property, so no price could, by any established standard, be deemed extravagant. Moreover, nearly all who came to the place expected to amass fortunes by speenlat- ing. The wonder then is, not that we speculated so much, but rather that we did not rush more madly into the vortex of ruin. Well indeed would it have been had our wild speculations been confined to Chicago; here, at least, there was something received in exchange for the money of the purchaser. But the few miles that composed Chicago formed but a smail item among the subjects of speculation. So utterly reckless had the community grown, that they chased every bubble which floated in the speculative atmos phere; madness increased in proportion to the foulness of its ali- ment; the more absurd the project, the more remote the object, the more madly were they pursued. The prairies of Illinois, the for- ests of Wisconsin and. the sand-hills of Michigan, presented a chain almost unbroken of supposititious villages and cities. The whole land seemed staked out and peopled on paper. If a man were reputed to be fortunate, his touch, like that of Midas, was supposed to turn everything into gold, and the crowd entered blindly into every project he might originate. These worthies would besiege the land offices and purchase town sites at a dollar and a quarter per acre, which in a few days appeared on paper, laid out in the most approved rectangular fashion, emblazoned in glaring colors, and exhibiting the public spirit of the proprietor in

the multitude of their public squares, church lots, and school fot reservations. Often was a fictitious streamlet seen to wind its ro. mantic course through the heart of an ideal city, thus creating water lots and water privileges. But where a rral stream, however diminutive, did find its way to the shore of the lake-no matter what was the character of the surrounding country-some wary operator would ride night and day until the place was secured at the Government price. Then the miserable waste of sand and fens which lay unconscious of its glory on the shore of the lake, was suddenly elevated into a mighty city, with a projected harbor and light-house, railroads and canals, and in a short time the circumja- cent lands were sold in Ints, fifty by one hundred feet, under the name of 'additions.' Not the puniest brook on the shore of Lake Michigan was suffered to remain without a city at its mouth, and whoever will travel around that lake shall find many a mighty mart staked out in spots sultable only for the habitations of wild beasts.

" if a man were so fortunate as to have a disputed title, it made no great difference where the land lay, or how slender was his claim, his fortune was made; for the very insecurity of the purchase made it desirable in the eyes of the venturous. A powerful auxii- iary to the speculative spirit was the sale of lands by auction. When bodies of men, actuated by a common motive, assemble together for a common object, zeal Is apt to run into enthusiasm; when the common passion is artfully inflamed by a skilful orator, enthusiasm becomes fanatieism, and fanaticism, madness, Men who wish to be persuaded are already more than haif won over, and an excited imagination will produce almost any anticipated result. Popular delusions have carried away millions at a time; mental epidemics have raged at every period of the world's history, and conviction has been ever potent to work miracles. Now the speculating mania was an epidemic of the mind, and every chord struck by the chief performers produced endless vibrations, until the countless tones of the full diapason broke forth in maddiening strains of fascination. The auctioneers were the high-priests who sacrificed in the Temple of Fortune; through them the speculators spread abroad their specious representations. Like the Sibyls and Flamens of old they delivered false oracles, and made a juggle of omens and auguries,

"But the day of retribution was at hand; the reaction came- and the professional speculator and his victims were swallowed up in one common ruin. Trusting to the large sums due to him, the iand operator involved himself more and more deeply, until his fate was more pitiable than that of his defrauded dupes.

" The year 1837 will ever be remembered as the cra of pro- tested noles; it was the harvest to the notary and the lawyer-the year of wrath to the mercantile, producing, and iaboring interests. Misery inscribed its name on many a face but lately radiant with high hopes; despair was stamped on many a countenance which was wont to be . wreathed in smiles.' Broken fortunes, blasted hopes, aye, and blighted characters: these were the legitimate off- spring of those pestilent times. The land resounded with the groans of ruined men, and the sobs of defrauded women, who had entrusted their all to greedy speculators, l'olitical events, which had hitherto favored these wild chimeras, now conspired to hasten and aggravate the impending downfall. It was a scene of woe and desolation. Temporary relief came in the shape of Michigan money-but like all empty expedients, It, In the end, aggravated the disease it pretended to cure-it seemed a sovereign panacea, but it proved a quack specific. I.ct us turn from this sickening spectacle of disaster and ruin. Mad as her citizens had been, Chi- cago aus Chicago stili. Artificial enterprises had failed, but nature was still the same. There stood Chicago ' in her pride of place '- unmoved and immovable. Though mourning and desolate, she could still sustain an active population. Need I add that SHE ItAs DONE IT ?"

The delinquent tax-list, published in the American, October 1, 1836, showed a large number of lots owned by non-residents. The taxes levied and remaining un- paid were ridiculously small, in comparison with the high market valuation then current. Doubtless many of the visionary owners, who counted their wealth in these lots by thousands had not the wherewith in ready money to pay the taxes on their possessions, small as they were. Of two hundred and twenty lots advertised in Section 16, one hundred and fifty-five were taxed less than one dollar each ; forty-two, from $1 to $5 ; ten, from $5 to $10; twenty-two, from $10 to $25 ; and one at $39. In Wolcott's addition, one lot was taxed $10.50; three, from $7.50 to $to; and others at less than $7 each. In North Branch addition, no single lot adver- tised was taxed as high as one dollar. In Waubansia

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HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

addition, the three lots advertised were assessed, re- spectively, 82.50, $3.50 and $7.50. In the original town, Section 9, the lots were assessed-one for $50.50; two for $30, one for $19, thirteen from $17 to Sto, and eighteen for less than Sto. At that time it is apparent that the most valuable property, in the practical eyes of the assessors, was on the old town plat.

The following extracts, letters and personal reminis- cences, more or less relevant, will give the reader a more distinct idea of the occurrences, and the people, while the excitement was at its height, than could be obtained from an unbroken narrative.

The incipient stages of the disease, as it began to show in old residents, is told in a short letter, dated August 18, 1883, from Dr. Horace Chase, now a resi- dent and a leading citizen of Milwaukee. He writes :

"Soon after the sale of lots in Chicago, in t833, 1 think, Robert Kinzie, on his way to Detroit, stopped at Marsh's trading. post, near Coldwater. There happened to be several of us pres- ent, and Rob, finding an audience he took for green-horns, began to boast about Chicago, and what a great city it would become. " Why,' said he, ' I bought some of the best lots in Chicago for twenty dollars apiece, and, by G -- , those lots are worth sixty dollars apiece to-day.' It seemed to us utterly abeard that a lot should be worth sixty dollars, when two hundred dollars would buy one hundred and sixty acres of land of the best quality, and in 1833 there were tens of thousands of such chances in Michigan. Not a single person in the crowd believed Bob's yarn."

John S. Wright,* in his most valuable book, "Chi- cago : Past, Present, and l'uture," gives his own experi- ence during the speculative era. He died in Philadel- phia, September 26, 1874. His remains rest in Rase Hill, Chicago. From his autobiographical sketch, pp. 289, 290, the following interesting extracts are taken :

" In 1832, at the age of seventeen, my father took me to Chi- cago with a stork of merchandise. The town then contained some one hundred and fifty people (exclusive of the garrison), two framed stores and no dwellings, except those built of logs. After remain- ing a few weeks, examining the country south and west, and satis. fying myself that he had made the right location, he left me tri shift for myself. In 1834 he removed his family to Chicago and lived until 1840, having his first convictions strengthened year by year that it was rapidly to become one of the largest cities of the country, and of the world.

" Though a mere boy. I, too, became impressed with the ad- vantages of the point which was the western extremity of the great lake navigation, with a certainty of its connection by canal with the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, and which was the natural com. mercial center of a country so fertile, and so easily tilled, and so vast in extent. In the winter of 1833 and 1834, I induced a wealthy uncle to take some purchases which I harl made, expecting to share in the profits. Ile took them, and has made out of those and other opera- tions, through me, several hundred thousand dollars, but all the benefit to me, directly or indirectly, has been $100, Ile came to Chicago in the spring of 1835, and the next day after his arrival said, if I would sell his fut-one of those which I had bought fifteen months previously for $3.500-for $15,000, he would give me one hundred dollars ! I sold the lot that day for cash and the $100 was reckoned into my credit in our final settlement in 1838. * . . In 1834 1 began to operate in real estate on my own account, and in February, 1835, went to New York to buy merchandise, and sold for $10,000 an eighty-acre tract which had cost 84,000, the profits of which more than paid for all my other purchases. There. after increasing my operations, I sold in the spring of 1836, to

" The extracte here given might, in the absence of other information, lead to a misapprehension concerning the character of Mr. Wright. Although a born trader and a bald speculator, he was a man of rare virtues, and during his long residence in Chicago was identified with nearly every enterprise and mens. ure calculated to promote its prosperity or elevate the educationat, mental, moral, or religions standards of the city. The benefactions of this wonderfully energetic citizen permeated nearly every channel of Chicago life, and showed in every phase of her carly growth. The building of the carly railroads, the development of manufactures ; the first Presbyterian Church, Sabbath schools, and the common school system of the State, the Press- - to all these he devoted his energies, and gave of his means in no stinted measure. Frequent mention of him appears elsewhere in this volume-sen church history, schools, mitronds, manufactures, the Press. etc. An old friend, Rev. J. Ambrose Wight, at the close of a long leiter, daled February 1, 1876, deservedly eulogistic of him, thus sums up his business character: "Chicago-old Chicago-knew Mr. Wright's peculiarities well enough. He saw further Into a subject in the begin- ning than most men. Hot once in it, he seemed to lose his ability to handle it, and often his interest in it ; and the outcome sometimes Ihrew undeserved oblo . guy on the whole undertaking. Had he been able to carry things through as he began them, he had probably been a millionaire, and alive 10-day."

various parties in New York, real estate for over $50,000, receiving about two-thirds of the pay cash in hand, and giving my individual obligations to make the conveyance when I came of age, the July following. My father would have been my hcir, in the event of my death, and they knew he would fulfill my contracts. I had, then. in 1636, acquired a property of over $200,000, without any assist- ance even from my father, never having used his money for my operations, the store being his, and for conducting it only my ex- penses had been paid. My uncle was the only relative who could have aided me, and he never would, even temporarily. So far from it, he was in my debt continuously from 1834 to our final settlement in 1838. But i837 brought ruin to me, as it did to nearly all who owed anything ; though it was not so much speculation in real estate as engaging in mercantile business that involved me. At that age it seemed desirable every way to have regular occupation to promote good habits, and in accordance with my father's wishes, I purchased in 1836 a warehouse and dock-lots, to engage in the shipping business, which cost $23,500. My whole indebtedness was about $25,000. I had nearly Sze,cco due to me, which was supposed to be well secured, it being chiefly the final payments on property of which over half the cost had been paid. To provide ample means for business, I sold in the autumn of 1836 a tract ad- joining the city for $50,ouo, quick pay. This trade was unfort- unately broken up by the merest accident, and thereafter I had no opportunity in self at what was deemed a fair price. I came in possession of the warehouse May 1, 1637 ; and though having small cash resources, I thought best to commence husiness, hoping there would soon be a favorable turn But all went down, down, and I was soon inextricably involved. The money used to buy those lots for business, not speculation, would have carried me through. Ity 1840, my property had all gone ; one piece that had been worth $100.000, went for $6.coo; another that had been worth $12,000 went for Sqon, and so on."

J. D). Bonnell, a young man of far more ardent hope than his financial condition would warrant, came to Chicago in 1837. He subsequently found a safe haven in Lake City, Minn. From that place he wrote to the Chicago Times a letter dated March 15, 1876, from which the following is quoted :

" My first entry into the city of Chicago was forty years ago, August 25. 1835. approaching the city on foot from the south. On emerging from the oak openings, I came upon the hotel of llollis Newton, and on entering the house I found the landlord at home, and alone. Asking him how far it was to Chicago, he informed me it was three miles, and in answer to whether there was any house on the way, he said yes-that Mr. Clarke's house was about half way. On his asking where I came from and for what I came, I answered that I had made a claim in Thorn Grove for my parents, who were soon coming on, with ox teams, from Ohio, and that I was going into the town to learn what I could find to do. He im- mediately proposed to sell me his tavern stand with the forty-acre lot upon which it stood. for $500, so that he could go on to a farm, for he was 'd-d sick of keeping tavern on that sandy beach, where his eyes were constantly full of sand.' But 1 declined to make any bargain with him, and jogged along over the sand hills for Fort Dearborn and Chicago, where 1 arrived in the evening, having walked from Thorn Grove via Thornton, thirty-three miles, to Chi- cago, that day ; which, if taken into consideration, away back in . those days, when there was scarcely a road at all, was a good day's walk. And yet, by the lloosiers on the Chicago & Cincinnati road, there was much teaming in ' prairie schooners,' in bringing corn-meal and bacon to the Chicago market, and loading back with salt.

"On arriving at Chicago I stopped over night at the Mansion House. In the morning 1 commenced looking over the town and prospecting for a hoarding-place, and to learn what 1 could find to do. The hotels were all pretty full, and their prices ranging too high for my finances, I walked across the street, where the first thing that attracted my attention was the sound of a violin. On entering a small wooden stucture, their stood behind a rudely con- structed counter Mr. Dalton, a recent arrival frem Columbus, Ohio, a former tailor there, but who had now opened a liquor shop, and played the fiddle to attract customers.

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 30

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