History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 31

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 31

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" J'assing cast, toward the mouth of the river, was the Lake House in course of construction, east of which was the residence of Dr. Kimball, who was a partner of Mr. Pruyne in a drug store on South Water Street. Mr. Pruyne was State Senator. Opposite Dr. Kimball's was Hunter & Ilinsdale's warehouse. Adjoining on the west was Newberry & Dolc's warehouse, and on one part of the latter building was the hat store of McCormick & Moon, of Detroit, Mr. Moon being the partner of the Chicago store. In the back part of the store was Jesse Butler's tailor shop. In turn- ing the corner of Dr. Kimball's residence, away to the northeast, among the sand-hills, close by the lake shore, stood a small yellow

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CHICAGO IN 1833-37.

house, occupied by Parnick Kelsey as a boarding-house, ostensibly run by Eve, l'arnick's wife, for Mr. Kelsey was a sub-cuntractor in removing stumps and grubs, preparatory to the grading of the street on the North Side, through the swamps and bogs, which at that time rendered traveling almost impossible. But as Mrs. Kelsey had all the boarders that she could accommodate, I was obliged to seek other quarters.

"Dearhorn Street at the time I write was the " lively " street. for Garrett's auction-room was located there, on the west side of the street, close to Cox & Duncan's clothing store, just opposite to which were Mr. Greenleaf's auction-rooms. To the latter place I was wont to go of evenings and bid off town and city lots, having the next day in which to secure a purchaser, and in case 1 failed to sell for an advance of my purchase I returned at night and paid Mr. Greenleaf a dollar and the property was offered again for sale.

" The winter of 1835-36 was a gay one for Chicago. Mr. Jackeax had a dancing-school at the New York House once a week, which called out the elite of the city. Lincoln's coffee-house was the popular drinking place, situated, I think, on the corner of St. Clair and Wells streets. Mr. Lincoln had a favorite horse, an iron grey, and quite fleet on foot, particularly so when in pursuit of a prairie wolf. Many a time in the winter of 1835-36 I have seen Mr. Lincoln mount his horse when a wolf was in sight on the prairie toward Bridgeport, and within an hour's time come in with the wolf, having run him down with his horse and taken his life with a hatchet or other weapon.

" In 1833. Mr. Kingsbury, the original owner, offered all the land, and a great deal more than is now included in the Kingsbury estate to Captain Joseph Naper, for $goo. Fortunately for the heirs the doughty Captain couldn't see the bargain, and Mr. Kings- bury was constrained, much against his will, to hold on to what he had. The land thus offered for $900 included a good portion of the four blocks that surrounded the court-house square, including the Kingsbury and Ashland blocks.

"* The most historic lot in Chicago undoubtedly is the one oc- cupied by the Tremont House. It has been in the ' raffle-box." swapped for ponies, refused for a barrel of whisky, and when an old settler wants to give you an idea of the city when he first stuck his brogans in the mud, he will somehow associate the price of the Tremont House lot with it ; and any old settler will tell the year of your arrival by giving him the value of the lot at that particular time. One old codger will tell you, 'When I came here I could have bought the lot the Tremont Hlouse stands on for a cord of wood.' That means 183t. Another puts the value, with the preliminary remark, at a pair of boots. That means t832 A third fixes the price at a barrel of whisky. That means 1833. The fourth adds a yoke of steers and a barrel of flour. That means 1834. A fifth talks about $500. That means 1835. A year or two afterward it was worth $5,000, and now it is nearer $500,000. In 1833 Captain Luther Nichols refused to give Bap- tiste Beaubien forty cords of wood for it, and wood was then worth $1.25 per cord.

" John Noble still has in his possession the original deed, signed by the County Commissioners, conferring on him a title to the lot occupied by the ' Tivoli,' on the southwest corner of Clark and Washington streets, for the sum of $61 in lawful money. The deed Is dated June 14, 1832. Many regard this as the most valna- ble lot in the city, and is worth in the neighborhood of $3,000 a front foot."

The following description of the metes and bounds is as appears in a deed of a piece of property situated on Chicago Avenue, adjoining the river, conveyed by John Noble to James B. Campbell and George E. Walker. It reads as follows :

"The following described tract or parcel of land. situated, lying and being in the county of Cook, in the State of Illinois, and being the one equal and undivided half of a lot or parcel of land transferred by Mark Noble, Sr., and wife, to James B. Campbell and George E. Walker, by deed bearing dale the 28th day of August, 1833, and the said lot or parcel of land is bounded by the following meles and bounds, to-wit : Beginning at a hickory stake on the east side of the road on the North Brauch of the Chicago River, on the dividing line between Section 4 and river, in Township 39 north, Range t4 cast, thence cast along said line two chains and twenty links to a hickory stake cornered and running from a large basswond with three hacks, south eighty-five, west twenty-two links; thence north cight chains eighty-one links: thence west crossing a sluice to a white oak standing on the river bank, blazed on the south side, nine chains ninety-two links : thence southeast along the shore of said river to the place of beginning, containing 10,04 acres, more or less."

Gurdon S. Hubbard, the oldest living settler, still a

resident of Chicago, was, in those days, a bold and suc- cessful land speculator.

At the first sale of canal lots in 1829 in Section 9, he bought two lots, one on the northwest corner of Lake and LaSalle streets, and the other on the southwest corner of LaSalle and South Water streets. They were eighty by one hundred feet in size, and were bought for $33.33 each. In 1836 the lots would have found ready purchasers at $100,oco. Mr. Hubbard disposed of a part of the property during the excitement, and the re- maining portion after the crash, on a falling market ; nevertheless, he realized in the aggregate, 880,000 on his investment of $66.33.

A chronicler in the Sunday Times, October 24. 1875, tells the following story concerning another large and successful operation, which illustrates how the mania raged in New York, and how that Eastern "bonanza" was worked by local operators in Chicago:

"Early in the spring of 1835, about the month of March, Mr. llubbard purchased, with two others, Messrs, Russell and Mather, what has since been known as Russell & Mather's addition to Chicago. This tract comprised eighty acres, and was bounded on the south by Kinzie Street, on the east by the river, on the north by Chicago Avenue, and then ran west to llalsted Street and be- yond. For these eighty acres they paid $5.000. At that time one section of the prospective city was as desirable as another, but time has developed that this particular eighty acres was one of the most undesirable within the entire territory now embraced within the city limits. A few months after the purchase Mr. Hubbard had occa- sion to visit New York City, and to his surprise found the rage for Chicago real estate at a point where it might be called 'wild.' llaving sought and received the consent of one of his partners, who lived in Connecticut, he looked ttp an engraver, gave him such a sketch of the lay of the land as he could call up from memory, had a plat prepared, and from this plat, without any actual subdivision of the land, sold half of it at public auction for the sum of $80,000. This within three or four months after paying 85.000, News of this transaction reached Chicago in the course of stage-coach time, but it was generally discredited, until Mr. Ilub- bard returned with the positive confirmation ; and the-well, then. every man who owned a garden patch stood on his head, imagined himself a millionaire, put up the corner lots to fabulous figures, and, what is strange, never could ask enough, which made him mad because he didn't ask more."

William S. Trowbridge, now a resident of Milwau- kee, came West in 1835. He was a land surveyor and, during the excitement, made Chicago his headquarters, surveying lands in the region round about. Early in 1836 he was sent up to survey and plat the city of She- boygan, which embraced a section. Having completed his work he entered for himself an adjoining section in- tending to settle there. On his return he found the ex- citement at fever heat. So soon as it was known that he had secured this claim on suburban property, di- rectly adjoining the city which he had just built on paper, anxious buyers appeared, and in less than one week he had sold out his claim at a profit of $1,500. He immediately returned to Sheboygan and entered another section, adjoining the city on another side, with which he returned to Chicago, and which he readily sold out on better terms than the first. As he stated, he thus continued the business until he had "Sheboygan cor- nered." Out of this peddling of wild land he realized what, to him, then a quiet young man of an unspecula- tive turn of mind, seemed an independent fortune. Un- like most young men of the time he withdrew with his modest gains, and settled in the town of Milwaukee, where he has since lived the quiet life of moderate affluence which comes to the few whose judgment is not obscured or warped by sudden and unexpected fortune thrust upon them.

A correspondent to the New York Evening Star wrote from Chicago in January, 1837, as follows :

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HISTORY OF EARLY CHICAGO.

" I am now in a large hotel, in a large city ; for Chicago cun- tains a population of 6,000 souls. I have just returned from a stroll to the lake shore, where two years ago I so gladly landed after a long and perilous voyage. I can scarcely recognize it as the same spot. Where 1 then walked over the unbeuken prairie, the spacious avenue is now opened, crowded with carts and wagons, and occasionally a showy family rolling and dashing in the hurry of trade or the pomp of native 'sucker.' stumbling, as I do, over bales and boxes on the sidewalks, or gaping at the big signs and four-story brick houses. I am boarding at the I'nited States Hotel, where I pay only two dollars per day for self, and a dollar and a half for horse. There is one noble ship (the ' Julia Palmer ') and two others, four brigs, and I know not how many steamboats and schooners, regularly plying between this and Buffalo, A lot 1 was offered for Sugo at my first visit (1834) has now upon it a splendid forwarding and commission store, and sold this spring (the naked lot) for $9,000."

From the files of -the same paper, May 27, 1837, the following extracts from letters to the Star, written from Chicago, in the fall of 1836, are taken ;

" Well, we have arrived at this place, or city that is to be- this nest of emigrants, merchants and speculators -- where nearly all the Western towns are hatched, and from which their brond mi- grates to every part of the Union, in the shape of town and village lots. Men make fortunes here in less time than I could box the compass-I say men, for there is a melancholy disproportion of numbers between the sexes. Harry is now suffering under the ef. fects of his dinner parties, Hle there caught the disease of specu- lation, which I fear will terminale in a collapse of his pocket before he gets back. Strange indeed for one who entered this elimate so pure in thought and purpose ; but so it is. He thinks and talks of nothing but emulating the virtues and enterprises of a certain great modern D. D., by hunting up a town site equal to ' Marion City ' !! or of the hundred and one great towns at the mouth of Maumee River! ! and selling the lots out to his friends at the East at a profit of $200,000. Ile seems determined, and wishes me to say that if you will speak well of the place he will name a street after you."

Twa items from the Chicago American show the price of real estate when the excitement was at its height. August 15, 1835, it said: " Fractional Block No. 7 sold last June for $1,300; August i it was sold for $1,950. 1.at No. 1, Block No. 2, sokl in June for $5,000, and was resold in August fur $10,000. Lot No. 8, in Block No. 16, sold in June for 8420, and was re- sold in August for $700." October 17, 1835. the American announced the sale of a lot fronting on Dear- barn Street, next the corner of Water, about fifty-five feet deep, for $11,000.

In a letter from Charles Butler, published in the American, September 3. 1836, it is stated that in the year 1833 one-fourth of Kinzie's addition was offered to him for 85.500, then 1836, worth $100,000; another tract of land in Chicago of forty acres, worth in 1833 $400, was then worth $200,000; and that the Hunter property (so-called was purchased in the spring of 1835 for $20,000, resold during that year for $100,000 and was worth, at the time he wrote, $500,000.

The Milwaukee Advertiser, July 14, 1836, had the following editorial squib, illustrative of the Chicago craze: "I say," said one gentleman to another, in Chicago, "what did you give for your portrait?" "Twenty-five dollars, and I have been offered fifty for it."

The end of the excitement came unheralded. An act passed by Congress, June 23, 1836, " regulating the deposits of the public money, made it the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to discontinue the use, and discredit the issues of such banks as should at any time refuse to redeem their notes in specie. This was a death-blow to wild-cat banking, and resulted, in the following May, in a general suspension of specie pay- ment throughout the country and the total failure of most of the Western banks which had run thus far, and floated their bills entirely on credit .* All payments to

tite viovernment, under the law, were to be made in specie or bank notes redeemable in specie, on demand. It followed that, with credit greatly extended and prices already enhanced a hundred-fold above what could be measured by the entire amount of specie in the country, in the process of adjustment to the arbitrary conditions of the law, a collapse in prices occurred sufficient to bring the valuation of all property to a speciestandard. Unfort- unately, the debts of the sanguine speculators did not shrink proportionately, with the sudden decrease in the value of their securities. Prices of lots valued in Chicago in 1836 at a thousand dollars suddenly fell to the specie value of three years before-perhaps fifty dollars; while the note that the last speculative buyer had given for it remained $1,000, as before. Wide- spread ruin was the consequence, and the bubble burst May, 1837. When the town of Chicago became a city. many of its inhabitants, who had reveled in suppositi- tious wealth for past years, were in sackcloth and ashes, mourning over city lots from which all value had de- parted, or bewailing the existence of notes of appalling magnitude, which were the only reminders of the glori- ous times gane by, which the law had not rendered valueless.

MINOR ANNALS OF THE TOWN.

The following letter, written by Enoch Chase, from Milwaukee, dated August 2, 1883, is of historic value, showing, as it dues, something of the geography of the surrounding country and concerning the town itself front 1834 to 1836.

" In July, 1831. 1 arrived in Detroit, Mich, From Detroit to Tecumseh there were two lines of stages-the l'ioneer and the Op. position. From Tecumseh to Niles there was a tri-weekly line of innd-wagons. From Niles to Chicago the mail was carried on horseback. During the winter of 1831-32 the line of mud-wagons hauled off and the mail was carried weekly from Tecumseh 10 Chi- cago on horseback. Early in the spring of 1832 Mr. Savary of White Pigeon put on a daily line of post coaches from Tecumseh 10 Niles, and the travel was brisk from the opening of navigation on Lake Erie till the Sae war broke out (about the middle of May) which put a damper on emigration for that year.

" In May, 1832, the Michigan Militia was called out to prevent the Indians from passing through Michigan to Detroit. But when we rendezvoused at Niles, an express met us with the information that the Indians were retreating to the north and that our services were not needed. We were, therefore, disbanded and returned home. The inhabitants of Branch and Hillsdale counties consti- tuted a battalion of three companies under the command of Major II. Jones-less than eighty men in all; and not a half dozen able- bodied men left at home in the two countles,

" In the month of October. 1834, I made my first visit to Chi- eago. The country along the Chicago road from Coldwater 10 Michigan City was tolerably well settled. The travel from the lat- ter place to Chicago was along the beach of the lake, and after a northeast storm, when the sand was packed by the waves, the drive was just splendid; but when the sand was dry and loose, it was just horrible. A good team would make the distance in six hours when the way was all right, and it was a six days' good drive when the way was all wrong.

** The first hotel west of Michigan City was some ten miles out; the second was Bennett's, about ten miles farther; the third was Denis Ifard's; the fourth was the Widow Bangs's; the fifth, Maur's, at the Calumet, and the sixth, Mr. Merrick's, about half way between the Calumet and Chicago.

" The beach of the lake took the main travel in 1835-36. There was another route by the way of Bailey Town and Thornton, which the undersigned drove over in February, 1837.

"Chicago, in October, 1834, at the time of the Indian pay- ment, was a lively place. There were two hotels. The Sauganash, which was situated near the junction of Lake and South Water streets, was kept by Mark Beaubien, who said he ' kept tavern like h-1:' and a log tavern on the north side of Lake Street. The South Branch was crossed by a bridge, and if I recollect right the bridge was covered with poles or puncheons [as split logs were called] instead of planks. "Besides the log cabin on the West Side, kept by Mr. Stiles, there was a blacksmith shop. That was all. On the North Side were John Kinzie's house and a few others.

. See History of Banking in this volume,

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CHICAGO IN 1833-37.

A similar bridge crossed the river about half way between the forks of the river and the lake. On the South Side there was one house south of Lake Street, which was situated on the west side of Clark Street just south of Lake. On Lake and South Water streets was the main village. Lake Street boasted one briek block, which belonged to either "Yankee" Ilubbard, "Horse" Hubbard or " Indian " Hubbard, I forget which. It was quite an imposing structure. Clybourne's butcher shop was not far from it. Jim Kinzie's store, P. F. W. Peck's store, Harmon's and Loomis's were all on South Water Street.

** It seems to me that the Indians were paid on the north side of the river nearly opposite Fort Dearborn. I had occasion to go west as far the crossing of the Desplaines River. Between Stiles's log tavern on the west side of the South Branch and the tavern at the crossing of the Desplaines River, there was not a vestige of civilization except the wagon tracks, and it seemed to me the dreariest road I ever traveled. The prairie mud of the North Branch was drier.

" Of all the men in the early days that I was acquainted with, Including Clybourne, John H., Robert and James Kinzic, Crouch, Rossiton Darwin, Stiles and G. S. Hubbard, the latter alone sur- vives.

" Chicago is a wonderful city, and has been lucky In having far-seeing citizens who gave her a start on the road to prosperity. While the early settlers of Milwaukee were wrangling about which side of the river should be most prosperous, the citizens of Chicago acted as a unit to promote the interest of the whole." But while Chi- cago is the most enterprising, Milwaukee is the most beautiful city on the American continent ; and lel those who doubt the truth of this assertion come and see for themselves.

" In the spring of 1835, the only houses between Chicago and Milwaukee were those at Grosse l'oint, Sunderland's, west of Wat- kegan, and Jack Vicaw's, at Skunk Grove. Myself and party, on our way to Milwaukee, staid the first night at Quilmette's, near Grosse Point ; the second night at Sunderland's, and the third night we camped in the Milwaukee woods. From Sunderland's to Mil- waukee woods we followed an Indian trail. We found a bridge over Koot River and Oak Creek, but the Kinnekenick we lorded.

" The above short sketch will give you a slight idea of the country from 1831 to 1835. While Chicago was well known to the people of the United States in 1831, I never heard the word Mil- waukee spoken till 1334. When on my way from Milwaukee to Coldwater, Mich., in May, 1835, I heard the leading citizen of Michigan City discussing the merits of Milwaukee and the Terri- tory of Wisconsin. The conclusion they came to was that it was a cold, bleak, inhospitable country which would never be inhabited except by Indians and Indian traders. Little did they imagine that in less than half a century the territory west of Lake Michigan would contain white Inhabitants enough to constitute an empire."

POSTAL AFFAIRS,-The post-office in 1833, John S. C. Hogan, Postmaster, was kept in a small log building near the corner of Lake and South Water streets. At that time there was but one Eastern mail per week, to and from Niles, Mich., which was carried on horseback. The building was twenty by forty-five feet in size, was partitioned off so as to serve as a post-office on one side, and as the store of Brewster, Hogan & Co., on the other. John Bates, Jr., still living in Chicago, was the Assistant Postmaster, and assorted the mails, deliv- ered the letters, and was the executive factotum of the place. John 1 .. Wilson also became au assistant in the summer of 1834. John Bates, Deputy Postmaster at that time, in an interview October 31, 1883, said :

"The Eastern mail was carried once a week, on horseback, by a little, short, stocky Frenchman, whom we called Louis, In 1834 or 1835 the pony mail express of Louis was abolished, and John S. Trowbridge took the contract to haul the mail between Niles and Michigan in a wagon, Trowbridge afterward 'went West.' and at one time was Mayor of Little Rock, Ark. The receipts of the post-office in 1833 were from $15 to $20 per quar- ter. I never knew him by any other name. The mail came onee a week ; speculation set in, and the village began to grow Dur- ing the last of it the mail used to weigh thirty to forty pounds, and was so big that Louis had to walk, and the bags on the horse's back spread out like wings, making the pony look like some kind of a queer bird. Chicago was then the central office for a sweep of a hundred miles around. People came thirty or forty miles to inquire for a letter, and, if they did not get one, they looked sick. Men from the "Yankee settlement ' on Hickory Creek, Naperville, and other outside places used to come up, with a list of all the names

" Chicago had her sectional wrangles, too. See " Bridges."

in their place, and take the mail in a lump. L.etter postage was then twenty-five cents on each letter, and sometimes we had to trust for the postage.""

JOHN STEPHEN COATS HOGAN was of Irish parentage, and was born in New York City February 6, 1805. llis father died while he was quite young, leaving his mother with five small chil- dren and little wherewith to support them. The subject of this sketch was, at the age of seven years, adopted by Mrs. Coats, a friend of his mother, he having been named after her only son, who had died. He remained with his foster mother until old enough to go into business for himself, and finally came to Chi- cago as early as 1830. Mr. Hogan here engaged in mercantile pursuits, being at one time sutler of the Fort Dearborn store, and,

Juf C Stryand

In 1831, receiving the appointment of Postmaster. He also acted as a Lieutenant of volunteers during the Black Hawk War. Mr. Hogan's popularity and easy companionship served to elect him to the office of Alderman, when the city was incorporatedl in 1837. During this year, his wife, formerly Anna Maria, the eldest daugh- ter of Jonathan N. Bailey (Postmaster), died in Chicago, leaving one son, John C. Hogan, long afterward a resident of California. Alderman Hogan's qualities, which made him successful as a local politician, did not serve to add greatly to his material possessions, and the hard times of 1837 found him with his means somewhat extended, and left him in an embarrassed condition. In March, 1848, Mr. Hogan married Mary S., the widow of John Ainslie. advocate, late of Edinburgh, Scotland. One child, Mary, sulse- quently the wife of Profewor T. S. Noble, of Cincinnati, was born to them. During the gold fever MIr. Hogan crossed the plains and resided in Sacramento for over a year. Afterwards he lived in St. Louis and Memphis, as business man, editor and politielan, re- turning to Boonville, Mo., in the summer of 1868. Here he died on December 2. of that year. Mr. logan was a kind, cheerful,

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 31

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