History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 91

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 91

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).

. Report of Board of Public Works, fur year ending December 37, 1883.

only constructed to Kile's tavern, ten miles. By the latter part of 1850, fifty miles of plank road had been built out of Chicago, at a total cost of $150,000.

As the railroads centering in Chicago came into general use, the plank roads, as beaten ways of travel, were abandoned. The city was furnished with a new and more perfect system of commercial arteries. It is merely intended in presenting the few facts above given, to bring forth another proof of Chicago's enterprise in the way of public improvements and commercial growth.

As a specimen of the unbounded confidence with which the plank roads were looked upon as a means of developing a country, the following communication is given, taken from the Democrat of February 16, 1848. It is an earnest and honest argument in favor of plank roads and against the building of railroads at that time:

" Will you be so kind as to allow me lo say a few words Through your paper, showing the very many advantages our country will derive by the introduction of plank roads over that of railroad communication ? The former can be brought into every street and allcy, lo every warehouse and manufactory in our city-in the country all sections are alike benefited by them. They do not enhance one man's property and depress ihal of another. The farmer can take his produce to markel when his time is of little or no value. When a sudden advance in the staples of the country takes place there is no railroad directory to reap the benefits of it, by refusing to carry only that which they may be interested in. Such has been the operations in a neighboring Siate. * . * 110 railroads give the same facilities for traveling that plank roads do. even to those living by the side of them ? Their stations are gener- ally ien and twelve miles apart. They will only lake in and pm out passengers at these places. Our plank road passengers travel at the rale of ten miles an hour, which is as fast as they are con- veyed (and with ten limes the safety) on the Michigan Central Rail- road. The charges made by the railroad for the transportation of produce are more than it would cost the farmer by plank roads, and very little less than common roads. On the Michigan Central Rail- road they charge sixty-two and one-half cents per barrel for Bour, and fifty cents per hundred pounds for merchandise between Kala- mazoo and Detroit, r40 miles. On a plank road a Iwo-horse leam will haul three and one-half tons Iwo and one-half miles an hour for ten hours oul of fourteen; which experience has proven lo be the most economical rale of speed teams with heavy burdens ought to travel. From an examination of the statistics it would appear that the whole number of leams arriving in our city during the past year was not far from seventy thousand. Now, in place of the railroad now agitated, construct three hundred miles of plank road. divided lo the best advantage, say northwest and southwest. This will not cost more than $500,000, about what it will cost to build a good railroad to the Fox River, for which the annual receipts for The next ten years could not be less than $200,000, supposing the average number of Icams arriving per annum to be 130,000 (a cal. culation not large, as the population of northern Illinois doubles in about six years), which al $1. 50 per leam would givethat sum- sufficient to keep the roads in repair, divide thirty per cent divi- dends, and when the road is worn out (ten years hence) we would have a cily containing seventy thousand inhabilanis. . Then we might lalk of a railroad. One of the reasons most argued with those in favor of the proposed railroad to Fox River is that if we don't build one, Milwaukee will. The people of that city are not able to build a railroad of any length; if they were, they are not so simple."

By 1854 Chicago had completed the Northwestern Plank Road to the town of Maine, seventeen miles. Seven miles from the city the Western road branched off and was finished seventeen miles from Chicago. The Southern Plank Road left the city at Bull's Head, on Madison Street, and passed through Lyonsville to Brush Hill, sixteen miles. From Brush Hill the Oswego Plank Road extended fourteen miles to Naperville. The Southern Plank Road was commenced on State Street, at the south line of the city, and was finished to Comorn, ten miles south of the city. The Blue Island Avenue road extended from the village of Blue Island north to the heart of the city, on the west side of the river, about thirteen miles. The Lake-shore Plank Road, under contract, was an extension of North Clark

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Street, and was to run parallel with the lake shore for five miles.

FERRIES AND BRIDGES .- In June, 1829, the Com- missioners of Peoria County established a ferry "across the Chicago River, at the lower forks, near Wolf Point, crossing the river below the Northeast Branch." The precise locality is where West Lake Street crosses the river. The keepers, Archibald Clybourne and Samuel Miller, were to pay a tax of $2, and execute a hond in the sum of $200 for the faithful per- formance of their duties. Rates for ferriage were fixed as follows: Foot passenger, six and one-fourth cents; man and horse, twelve and one-half cents; Dearborn sulky chair, with springs, fifty cents; one-horse wagon, twenty-five cents; four-wheeled carriage, drawn by two oxen or horses, thirty-seven and one-half cents; cart with two oxen, thirty-seven and a half cents; head of neat cattle or mules, ten cents; hog, sheep or goat, three cents; hundred weight of goods, wares and mer- chandise, each bushel of grain or other article sold by the bushel, six and one-fourth cents; "and all other articles in equal and just proportion." The rates estab- lished were one-half the sum that "John 1 .. Bogardus gets at his ferry in Peoria." The main landing was on the South Side, from which passengers could be ferried over to either the North or West Side. By the spring of 1831 the business of ferrying was confined to the individual exertions of travelers who found themselves obliged to navigate the torpid waters of the Chicago River and its branches. This lack of enterprise, how- ever, was partially overcome by the energy of Mark Beaubien, who, in April of that year, purchased a scow from Mr. Miller for $65. His bond of $200 was secured by James Kinzie, and in consideration for the privilege of running this ferry, Mr. Beaubien was to transport the people of Cook County free, the emolu- ments of his office coming from strangers. Some of his friends go so far as to say that for a time Mark con- sidered the office a sort of sinecure. However that may be, it is possible that he was brought to a realizing sense of his importance as a public functionary by the order of the Commissioners that he should ferry citizens of Cook County over, "from daylight in the morning until dark, without stopping." T'his effectually put an embargo upon any more "fast running " of Mr. Beau- bien's horses with ambitious redskins, which is the rumored cause of Mark's dereliction of duty.

After Mark Beaubien had been running his ferry for less than a year the citizens of the young town decided that they had left such a primitive affair behind them, and feeling, furthermore, that it would be well to utilize the United States troops then stationed at Fort Dear- born, they conceived the idea of throwing a bridge over the South Branch, just north of the present Ran- dolph-street crossing. This feat was accomplished by Anson H. and Charles Taylor, assisted by the militia. To effect its construction the citizens contributed $286.20 and the Pottawatomies $200, making a build- ing fund of $486.20. The bridge was a floating concern, built roughly of logs, and three years' travel upon it created alarming havoc. Early in January, 1836, a petition to the Trustees was extensively signed, asking for the removal of the bridge and the building of a good "draw," at Lake Street. The "undersigned " found that the bridge was "much decayed and in a ruinous condition," and that lives were endangered so long as it was not repaired ; also that it could not be repaired because there were defects in the original plan of construction, viz., that it was too narrow and had no draw to admit vessels to pass ; that it should not be

repaired because its present site was not upon a traveled thoroughfare. The bridge was a dangerous " public nuisance," they said, and a good substantial draw- bridge should cross the South Branch, at Lake Street so as "to unite and continue said street through the town." The prayer of the petitioners was not granted, although offered up by such men as J. B. and Mark Beaubien, G. W. Snow, H. G. Loomis, F. Moseley, Josiah C. Goodhue, George Davis, Stephen F. Gale, Philip Dean and John T. Temple. In March, 1836, the Town Trustees issued an order for the building of drawbridges at Kinzie and Randolph streets, but in May they deemed such works inexpedient. The South Branch bridge was repaired, however, at considerable expense several times, before its removal in 1840.

In the summer of 1832 Samuel Miller, the original possessor of the old ferry scow, built the first bridge over the North Branch. It was located near the south- cast corner of Kinzie and Canal streets, in the vicinity of the present bridge of the Chicago & North-Western Railway Company. It was formed of stringers and only fitted for foot passengers. Even up to the sum- mer of 1833 the structure was useless for teams.

The first drawbridge thrown across the river was at Dearborn Street, and was built in 1834 by a shipwright named Nelson R. Norton, who in a letter, says :

"I came to Chicago November 16, 1833, Soon after I arrived' I commenced cutting the lumber for a drawbridge, on the land adjoining Michigan Avenue, afterward owned by Iliram Pearsons. In March, 1834, I commenced building it, and I think it was com- pleted by the 1st of June. The first steamboat that passed through it was the old . Michigan,' with a double engine, commanded by Captain C. Blake, and owned by Oliver Newberry, of Detroit."

Mr. Norton is evidently in error as to the time of the completion of the bridge, since the Democrat states that it was formally accepted by the Trustees in August, the first proposals having been received in February. At the time the Dearborn-street bridge was completed. the bridges across the North and South branches also belonged to the corporation, and a committee had been appointed during the previous December, consisting of G. W. Dole, Madore B. Beaubien, and Edmund S. Kim- berly, to see that they were properly repaired. In Sep- tember the corporation paid $166.67 on account of repairing. The Dearborn-street structure was a primi- tive affair and received the blows of passing vessels and the curses of pedestrians and drivers. From various sources it is learned that it was about three hundred feet long, and the opening for the passage of craft about sixty feet. It was of the " gallows pattern," and for five years, the frames, one at either end, stood like instru- ments of death to frighten the timid stranger at night. Upon one occasion when hoisted it "would not down " at any one's bidding, and for forty-eight hours the gal- lows frames held the draw suspended in mid-air. The bridge was repaired in 1835 and 1837, and the Common Council ordered its removal in July, 1839. Many citi- zens were so afraid that the Council would rescind this action, that a large crowd gathered upon the river before daylight, the next morning, and going to work with a will, in a very short time chopped the bridge to pieces, This step was only one in the progress of the bridge war which had been raging for several years. During the spring of that year two ferries were running, one at Clark and the other at State Street. The latter was supported by private subscriptions. The feeling finally reached such a pass that in April some envious sup- porter of the Clark-street ferry cut the rope of the State Street institution with an ax. This ferry was the famous " Velocipede," the approach to which is thus noticed by

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the American the day previous to the cutting : " The access has been made solid and clean by the laying of a nice board or platform, on which the Chinese foot of the most delicate of nature's handiwork may step with perfect impunity from the vulgar mud and Brobdig- nagian gravel." This ferry, with its wretched approach, was used at State Street until August 29, when it was transferred to Dearborn Street. It consisted of a scow, large enough to accommodate two double teams, oper- ated by a rope which was fastened to a windlass, on each side of the river. The boat was propelled by one man with the aid of such of the passengers as chose to assist, George Brady and Samuel Carpenter were ferrymen.

The bridge and ferry troubles commenced when Chicago became a city, continued through many vari- ations of heat and cold (mostly heat), for a period of five years, and culminated in 1840. The cause of this sectional warfare between the North and South sides is thus detailed by a writer in the Chicago 'Times:

"Every night there came up out of the south a greal fleet of prairie schooners that anchored on the Reservation. li often num- bered five hundred, and came laden with wheat and corn and all sorts of produce. All the warehouses were in thal day built on the north bank of the river. The South Side opposed the Clark-street bridge, in order that their prairie schooners might not reach those warchouses, and thus be compelled to trade on the south bank. The old Dearborn bridge, the first drawbridge ever built in the city, had been demolished in 1839, and a scow ferry substituled. Al Clark Streel there was another ferry ; these were not of the most approved pattern. They were simply scows hauled to and fro by ropes. The North Side warehouses were in sore distress. They needed a connection with the other two towns. The Council was evenly divided. Al the time when the question was al its height, Messrs. Newberry and Ogden presented to the Catholic ecclesiasti- cal authorities the two blocks now occupied by the cathedral. It was said at the time 1hal the present was lo influence votes on the bridge question. It undoubtedly was. The North Side won her bridge. "Mayor Raymond cast the deciding vole."

Subsequently the subscription to the fund of $3,000 was completed by residents of the North Side, and on April 18, 1840, the work of driving piles for the Clark. street bridge was commenced. Mayor Raymond, in his inaugural address, March 7, 1842, refers to the bridge question thus :

" I will take the liberty of referring to a subject which agitated the Council through the whole municipal year of 1839. This was the bridge question. As the contract for the construction of the present Clark-street bridge was the last official act I was called upon lo ratify during my connection with the Council of thal year, it is quite natural that I should have a ready ear to any commen- dation of, or complaint against, either the plan or location of the bridge ; and I am gratified to find so large u portion of those who were previously hostile to any bridge, now satisfied with this one; although many now, as well as then (myself among the number), would prefer it on Dearborn Street, and think if this had been erected there and had caused as little hindrance lo the passage of bonts as The present one has thus far been, the community generally would have been as well satisfied as with the present location. But I should deprecate the idea of a change in location, so long as this bridge answers so good a purpose, and in the present slale of our finances should consider it an unwarrantable expenditure to make any change."

The building of Clark-strect bridge may be said to have terminated the bridge war. It was found that the weight of public opinion was adverse to the existence of a bridge as low down as Dearborn Strect, and that ferries were both inconvenient and expensive. The $3.000 required to build the bridge was raised by those principally interested-citizens of the North Side-by subscribing to seven per cent stock at par. " If thrown upout the market," says the American, " the stock would not have sold for more than fifty cents on the dollar." This was the first floating swing bridge ever constructed in the West, and, as it was mainly the work of William B. Ogden, it is perhaps unnecessary to add that it was

well done. Nine years after its building, the ice jam of 1849 swept it away.

In 1840 a low float-bridge was built at Clark Street, a sort of pontoon arrangement. To open it, one of the floats was pulled around by means of a chain and wind- lass.

During the next year the float-bridge at Wells Street was constructed. The greater share of the funds con. tributcd to build it came from Walter L. Newberry. This bridge with those structures at Randolph, Kinzie and Clark streets were swept away by the flood of 1849.

The public demanded with the building of the Clark- street bridge, that the ferries should be free, In May, 1842, the Common Council passed an ordinance oblig. ing all persons who ran ferries on the Chicago River to . obtain licenses. One of its provisions was: "The ferryman may receive all such sums of money from private subscription for the support of said ferry as he can obtain." N. Scranton had been operating a ferry since August, 1844, and according to his own statement, had been conducting his business at a loss. In June, 1842, he was tried for violating the ordinance, noticed ahove. Henry Brown appeared for the city, and Justin Butterfield and B. S. Morris for Mr. Scranton, Through his attorneys, he claimed that he was running his ferry- boat "because the ordinance of 1787 for the govern- ment of the Northwest Territory declares that the nav- igable waters of the Mississippi and St. Lawrence and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways and forever free," and that he had the same right to run his boat across the river as owners of ves- sels had to run theirs up and down it. The jury ren- dered a verdict for the defendant. He offered to pay a license of $100, provided he be allowed to charge one cent for cach person (ladies excepted), and such sums as the Common Council should prescribe for familes paying by the month or year; or to run a free ferry for strangers, on receipt of such a sum as could be obtained by private subscriptions and $30 per month from the city. The city would not accede to these propositions, and in July Mr. Scranton discontinued his ferry. But he was not a man who could remain long idle. Accord- ingly he constructed a pleasure boat, "Commodore Blake," its figure head a Roman gladiator, with helmet, shield and sword. In company with Z. Woodworth, he also commenced to operate the "Chicago and Michigan City lines," composed of sloops "C. Blake " and "Sea Gull," which crafts left every day from the foot of Rush Street.

The Common Council ordered the construction of a bridge at Wells Street in November, 1846. It was at once commenced, the structure being completed in July, 1847. The bridge consisted of a floating draw of boiler iron, one hundred feet long from the pivot to the opening point, making a clean passage-way between the fenders of eighty-one feet. The total length of the bridge was two hundred and two feet, costing $3,200. There were two tracks for teams, and a sidewalk, on either side, for foot passengers. In the spring and sum." mer of 1847 there were constructed, besides the Wells- street bridge, that at Madison Street, and a second across the South Branch at Randolph Street. The latter was a semi-floating draw, with a self-regulating apron. It had two tracks in the center for tealas and a sidewalk on either side for passengers. It cost about $5,000, The Madison-street bridge, built upon a simi- lar plan, was one hundred and nincty-five feet in length and twenty-six feet wide, with a draw eighty feet wide in the clear, and resting on boiler-iron floats. This bridge cost about $3,200.

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Thus in 1848 there were float-bridges at Clark, Wells, Randolph and Kinzie streets. They were all swept away by the flood of 1849. William Bross, in his "History of Chicago," says: "When it was necessary to open the bridge for the passage of vessels, a chain, fastened on or near the shore on the side of the pier at some distance from it, was wound up by a capstan on the float-end of the bridge, thus opening it. It was closed in the same manner by a chain on the opposite side of it." It is quite evident, however, that some of the bridges at first were not even operated with a chain. In March, 1848, the rope attached to Madison-street bridge was carried away by a schooner, and this sort of accident was of no infrequent occurrence. It was as obvious to the Common Council as to other common people that a rope did not fully answer the purpose, as it would not sink rapidly enough. They therefore re- solved that " the Street Commissioner of the West Divi- sion be authorized to procure a chain for the bridge." Of old " Bill," the Lake House ferryman, the Detnocrat, of December 12, 1848, has a word to say:

" He works his ferry with as much ease and assurance as the captain of one of the largest crafts upon the lake his floating palace ; and we can assure our readers the task is not without its difficulties, and withal not unaccompanied with danger, if not 10 life and limb, at least to the reputation of the ferryman. Sometimes the wind blowing strong up the creek, a brig comes bowling along with fore-sail, top-gallant and jib set. An impatient citizen is on the south Side with visions of roast beef and de-seit 10 match in lis mind's eye and hunger knocking at the walls of his stomach. Bill sees the brig. The captain halluos: ' Let go your d-d rope.' The citizen cries: 'Come over; you have time enough,' but Bill thinks 'it's better to be sure of the line; if that breaks, the gentle. man loses his dinner, and I may lose my place.' So he very prop- erly "let's go all ;' and the impatient citizen has to wait just iwo minutes and a half, at which he grumbles some, when Bill runs the old boat's nose ashore and gives him a chance 10 s'ep aboard. But Bill sakes it coolly. He works at his rope, and with the conscious. ness of having done hisduty, he leis the landsman have his * pipe ont,' as he can afford to be generous as well as just. Old Bill is a man-of-war's man. He has been thirty.six years in the service of Uncle Sam, although he drew his first breath under the shadow of the British lion. His hair has grown gray while he has been fighting the battles of his adopted country ; but his eye is not yet dimmed. He can tell a vessel's rig. although she lies away in the ofing. or read her name upon the stern or head when a lubberly landsman couldn't see a letter. You can see this in the tidy way in which the boat is kept. The painters are coiled men-of-wsr fashion. The deck is nearly swabbed every morning, and once or twice in the day, besides, this wet weather. Old Bill is one of the steadiest men we have ever known, and we hope he will continue to wear his blushing honors thick upon him and remain, many years to come, the best ferryman in Chicago."

In June, 1856, a contract was entered into for the construction of an iron bridge at Rush Street, said to have been the first iron bridge in the West.

In 1857 the Madison-street bridge was built of iron. 155 feet lang and cost $42,000, and was the first swing bridge ; its predecessors being the float bridges described. The various bridges built, by years, is as follows: In 1860, South Halsted Street, of wood and iron, cost $8,500; in 1862 a similar bridge was built at Clybourn Avenue over the North Branch and one at Wells Street across the main river. In 1863 the iron bridge at Rush Street was destroyed; its reconstruction was commenced in November, 1863, and completed in January, 1864; during this year also the State-street bridge was finished. In 1865 the North Avenue, North Branch, bridge was built; also the Fuller Street and Randolph Street bridges and the State-street viaduct was finished. In 1866 the North Halsted Street, North Branch, and Clark Street, Main River, bridges were built; and, in 1867, those of Chicago Avenne, North Branch, and Van Buren Street. In 1868 Lake Street,

Twelfth Street, Eighteenth Street and Main Street bridges were built; and, in 1869-70, Division Street, Indiana Street, Polk Street, Western Avenue and Throop Street were provided with bridges, and the Wells-street viaduct was constructed. In 1870 Kinzie Street, Adams Street and Archer Avenue bridges were built; and in 1871 Erie Street, Twenty-second Street and Reuben Street bridges were erected. The fire of 1871 destroyed the bridges over the river at Rush, State, Clark, Adams, Wells, Van Buren and Polk streets, at Chicago Avenue, and the viaducts over railway tracks at Wells and State streets; the Adams-street viaduct was also partially destroyed; the damage to, and destruction of these various bridges, etc, is intelligently estimated at $204,310. Contracts were immediately entered into to replace the loss and damage, and this was performed in nearly every case during the year 1872. At the present date there are sufficient bridges over the river, the great want is to provide some means to obviate the detention to traffic occasioned by their being swung open during the season of navigation.

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 91

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