USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Political history of Chicago (covering the period from 1837 to 1887) Local politics from the city's birth; Chicago's mayors, aldermen and other officials; county and federal officers; the fire and police departments; the Haymarket horror; miscellaneous > Part 7
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28
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A LIVELY FALL CAMPAIGN.
32 years old. He is an officer of the Switchmen's Benev- olent Association.
Sketches of other candidates on the ticket are found elsewhere.
FRAUDULENT TICKETS.
MANY A TICKET PEDDLER ENTITLED TO FIVE YEARS IN THE PENITENTIARY.
On the day preceding the Fall election of 1886, the following correspondence between the Election Commission- ers and Richard Prendergast, judge of the County Court, was published :
CHICAGO, Oct. 31. To Hon. RICHARD PRENDERGAST, Judge of County Court :
Dear Sir,-Members of the Election Commission have been interrogated regarding the legality of using and offering to voters at the election of the 2d prox. so-called split or mixed tickets with headings indicating them to be straight tickets, and the proper methods of canvassing such tickets by the judges of election after voting. We would respectfully request of you a written opinion touching these matters, for publication and distribution to the judges of election.
DANIEL CORKERY, NORMAN BRIDGE, THEODORE OEHLNE. Commissioners.
CHICAGO, Oct. 31.
TO THE BOARD OF ELECTION COMMISSIONERS :
Gentlemen,-The subject of split, mixed, or crooked tickets or ballots is treated of by the law. I divide my answer to your inquiry into two parts. First, as to the split tickets themselves, second, as to the duty of the election judges.
1. Every ticket purporting to be that which it is not, and given to a voter for the fraudulent purpose of procuring him to cast a vote not intended by him, is not merely a dishonorable trick, but is also a crime. Every person who shall thus, or in any other way, inten- tionally practice any fraud upon any elector to induce him to deposit a ballot as his vote when he did not intend so to vote is guilty of a felony, punishable by not less than one nor more than five years in
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FRAUDULENT TICKETS.
the penitentiary. Those who causc, advise, or direct the fraud are equally responsible with those who actually perpetrated it. This particularly refers to forged, counterfeit, or deceptive tickets-that is, a ticket framed, headed, printed, or prepared so as to deceive the voter into the belief that it is the ticket he desires, when in fact, there may be on it one or more names of candidates whom he does not desire or intend to vote for. Thus, to illustrate, a ticket headed " Regular Democratic Ticket " without the name of Mr. Schweisthal on it, or a ticket headed "Regular Republican Ticket " without the name of Mr. Davis printed thereon, or a ticket headed " United Labor Party Ticket" without the name of Mr. Stauber thereon, or a ticket head- ed " Cook County Labor League Ticket" without the name of Mr. Dunphy thereon would fall under the prohibition of law. Headings not apt or liable to deceive voters may be used on split tickets. Thus any person or persons may without violating law, if no other fraud be practiced, prepare and offer to voters tickets with such headings as " Citizens' Ticket," or "Peoples' Ticket," or "Independent Voter's Ticket," or with any other non-misleading heading, because such head- ings are not at this time deceptive. So tickets without heading or dc- scription of any kind may be prepared and offered ; indeed, scratched or split, tickets are recognized by law. Section 80 of the act provides for the counting of such, but the main point is that what are known as counterfeit or deceptive split tickets are fraudulent, and to procure a voter to vote such contrary to his intention is a crime, as before stated.
2. The judges of election must take from each voter and deposit the ballot he offers without any question or inquiry whatever as to its contents. So far as the judges of election are concerned, it makes no difference whatever what the ticket is or what it is not, nor how it is prepared, nor whether it is straight, regular, crooked, split, pasted, scratched, or anything else. The question for them is, is the person offering to vote duly registered and qualified ? If so the paper or ballot he offers must be taken by the judges and deposited and counted as his vote, altogether irrespective of what it contains or what it does not contain. The judges have no right whatever to question the make-up of a ticket, and every name on every ballot deposited in the ballot-box must be regarded by the judges of election as the name intended by the voter and so canvassed and counted. The fraud, the crime, arising out of the deception prac- ticed on the voter is a matter with which the judges of election have absolutely nothing to do. That is a matter left by law with
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THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
other officers. Whether the voter has been deceived or not is a matter with which the judges of election, as such, have nothing to do. They must take, deposit, and count as the ballot, and vote of the voter, that which he offers, irrespective of whether he has been deceived or not. I remain, respectfully, yours,
RICHARD PRENDERGAST.
4
THE SOCIALISTIC PARTY.
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The socialists of Chicago claim to have been very act- ive in organizing trade and labor unions among the several nationalities. Their agitations they represent culminated in the movement for shorter hours of daily work from and after May 1, 1886; all working people in the stock yards and the building trades in Chicago working eight hours, and the wage-workers in many occupations regulating their hours of work and their wages by resolutions of their respective trades. The leaders define socialism in Chicago as trades unionism and independent political action. They say that mostly every useful occupation of wage-work is organized as a trade union or an assembly of Knights of Labor; and the issues of capital and labor are brought within the range of practical politics by the united labor party, which is dissolving the old party organizations of Chicago. The socialistic tendency is stated to be universal among all working people, in a word reaction against monopolistic abuses of capital.
In 1857 the German Workingmen's Association was started in Chicago and at once its influence was felt in politics. In 1866 the first National Workingmen's Con- vention was held in Baltimore, and the national platform was adopted favoring eight hours as a legal day's work. In Chicago the eight hour agitation was pushed hard, and on May 1, 1867, a great demonstration proved that the wage- worker was in dead earnest. The stone-cutters however, only succeeded, it would seem, as they alone secured the eight hours. Aldermen were elected in favor of eight
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THE SOCIALISTIC PARTY.
hours but resolutions passed by them have been dead let- ters.
While the Greenback movement was in progress the socialistic movement made great strides among the Ger- mans and Bohemians principally. The Greenback and socialistic tickets it is claimed polled fifteen thousand votes when Hoffmann was elected Sheriff on the Republican ticket. In the following city and county elections the Democrats gained with the help of the socialists. Mayor Harrison was elected in 1879, the socialists say, by twelve thousand of their votes, and they elected four members of the Legislature and four aldermen.
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CHICAGO'S MAYORS.
WILLIAM B. OGDEN.
William B. Ogden, who was elected Chicago's first Mayor, in 1837, was born in Delaware County, New York, June 15, 1805. Just after the Revolutionary War, his father settled in what was then known as the Upper Dela- ware country, and opened a new home in the wilderness. In the home thus formed, Chicago's first Mayor was born, and in the wilderness he spent his early boyhood. He chose the profession of law, and, while pursuing an aca- demic course with that end in view, he was called home on account of the death of his father. His father left con- siderable property, and its management was left to this sen. In 1834, Mr. Ogden took a warm interest in the pro- ject of constructing the Erie Railroad, and was chosen a member of the New York Legislature to advocate that measure. In June, 1835, he located in Chicago, and hav- ing previously purchased real estate here, he entered upon the management of his property. In 1835 and 1836, his operations in real estate were very extensive, as he early saw that Chicago was destined to become a great city. He weathered the financial crash of 1837, and when the city was incorporated he was elected Mayor. His latest resi- dence was in Westchester County, N. Y., having purchased a very handsome villa there.
Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, on the occasion of the presenta- tion to the Chicago Historical Society by Mrs. Ogden of a portrait of her husband read an address replete in the
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THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
most interesting recollections of our subject. Mr. Ogden made the following reply at one time to a lady who, having been born rich became suddenly poor and desired to know how her children might possibly get along in the world :
"I was born close by a saw-mill, was early left an orphan, was cradled in a sugar-trough, christened in a mill-pond, graduated at a log school-house, and, at four- teen, fancied I could do anything I turned my hand to, and that nothing was impossible, and ever since, madam, I have been trying to prove it, and with some success."
Illustrating Mr. Ogden's affectionate and liberal dispo- sition, Mr. Arnold recalls a dismal night in winter when he sat in Mr. Ogden's house. The latter was absorbed in his memories. .
"The fire burned low, the hour grew late, but still he kept on speaking of the past; and finally he went to his own room and soon returned with a parcel of carefully preserved, but long-ago faded flowers, a ribbon, a glove, some notes and a little poem - all tenderly cherished relics of one from whom many and long years before he had been separated by death, and around whose grave, amidst all the active and absorbing scenes in which he was living, his memory still lingered fondly and faithfully. He never forgot the Sabbath chimes with which he once had min- gled. Half a century after her death, when making his will, he remembered the romance of his youth, and made liberal and generous provisions for the nearest surviving relatives of one to whose memory he was so faithful."
BUCKNER S. MORRIS.
The second Mayor of Chicago, elected in 1838, was born August 19, 1800, at Augusta, Ky. Dickinson Mor- ris, his father, was County Surveyor of Bracken county, Kentucky, and a native of Delaware ; his mother, Frances, was a native of Virginia. In 1824 he commenced study-
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CHICAGO'S MAYORS.
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ing law, and began practice in 1827. At the age of twenty- nine he was elected to the legislature, and was reëlected. He was a conservative Whig in politics at this time. In 1834 he settled in Chicago. In 1837 he was active in the organization of the city. In 1840 President Lincoln and Mr. Morris were chosen electors by the Whig State Con- vention, and worked for Harrison and Taylor against Van Buren. In 1851 he was elected Judge of the Seventh Illinois Circuit, and served until 1855, when he refused a reelection. While judge, George W. Green was convicted of murdering his wife, upon evidence furnished by Doctors Blaney and Bird, as to the presence of strychnine in her stomach. It was a remarkable case, and occupies a prom- inent place in the annals of jurisprudence. In 1860 he was a candidate for the governorship of Illinois in the interest of the Bell and Everett ticket. In 1864 Judge Morris was &. rested for conspiracy to release the prisoners at Camp Douglass, and burn and sack the city. He was, however, most honorably acquitted.
BENJAMIN W. RAYMOND.
The third and sixth Mayor of Chicago, elected in 1839 and 1842, was born at Rome, Oneida county, New York, in 1801, and came to Chicago in 1836. After many vicissi- tudes Mr. Raymond erected in Elgin the first woolen fac- tory in the state. He was elected Mayor of Chicago on the Whig ticket. During his term Mr. Raymond gave his entire salary to sufferers along the canal. In 1842 he was reelected Mayor. He was one of the first board of direc- tors of the Galena railroad ; was one of the builders of the city of Lake Forest, and in 1864 was President of the Elgin National Watch Company, in the organization of which he was the most prominent.
ALEXANDER LLOYD.
The fourth Mayor of Chicago was elected in 1840.
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THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
Originally a storekeeper, he eventually became a prominent contractor and builder. Like many of Chicago's best citi- zens he did good service in the Chicago Volunteer Fire Department. He was elected on the Democratic ticket, and was a prominent figure in the politics of his day.
FRANCIS C. SHERMAN.
Francis C. Sherman, Chicago's 5th, 26th and 27th Mayor, elected in 1841, 1862 and 1863, was born in New- ton, Connecticut, in 1805. In 1834 he came to Chicago, and shortly after his arrival he built a frame dwelling on Randolph street, between LaSalle street and Fifth avenue, which he opened as a boarding house. This modest hotel was originally about twelve feet high, eighteen feet wide and thirty feet long, but he did a flourishing business. In 1835 he moved to what was then called "out on the prairie," but which is now Adams street, and commenced to manufacture brick, and in 1836 built for himself the first four story brick building erected on Lake street. He remained in the brick business fourteen years, and in 1850 retired with a comfortable fortune. In 1860 he erected a splendid edifice for hotel purposes corner, Clark and Ran- dolph streets, and christened it the "Sherman House." In 1862 he was nominated for the mayoralty on the Demo- cratic ticket, and was elected over C. N. Holden, and served two terms.
AUGUSTUS GARRETT.
The seventh, eighth and ninth Mayor of Chicago was elected in 1843, 1844 and 1845. He came to Chicago in 1836, having left his wife in the East for the very good reason that he could not afford to bring her with him. In an incredibly brief period it was evident that Mr. Garrett's sun rose in the West. He was wealthy before he hardly realized it, and in 1848 when he died, his large for-
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CHICAGO'S MAYORS.
tune for those days he bequeathed to his wife, who gave the bulk of it to the Garrett Biblical Institute.
JOHN C. CHAPIN.
The tenth Mayor of Chicago was elected in 1846. He was one of the foremost of Chicago's commission merchants during his time, and first filled a public office in 1844, when he represented the First Ward in the city council.
JAMES CURTISS.
The eleventh and fourteenth Mayor of Chicago was elected in 1847 and again in 1850. He gained prominence as a lawyer, and many an unfortunate can thank Mr. Curtiss for the lively interest he manifested in their behalf. He represented the Third Ward in the city council in 1846.
JAMES H. WOODWORTH.
The twelfth and thirteenth Mayor of Chicago (now dead), elected in 1848 and 1849, was born December 4, 1804, in Greenwich, Washington County, New York. In 1827 he went to Springfield, Erie County, Pennsylvania, and for four years was a justice of the peace. In 1833 he came to Chicago and conducted a dry goods business up to 1840. In 1839 he became a state Senator. In 1842 he entered the legislature, residing at that time in LaSalle County; pur- chasing the Hydraulic Flouring Mill, he supplied the city for ten years with flour and water. He was three years in the council and served as Mayor in 1848 and 1849. In 1853 he became one of the water commissioners. In 1854 he was elected to congress. With Stephen A. Douglass he obtained an appropriation for the building of the Chicago Custom House and Postoffice.
WALTER S. GURNEE.
The fifteenth and sixteenth Mayor of Chicago was elected in 1851 and 1852. He came to Chicago in 1836.
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THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
At present he resides in New York. He was a merchant of the old school, being a saddler and tanner, and was pro- prietor of one of the largest tanneries in the West. He is one of the original Directors of the Board of Trade.
CHARLES M. GRAY.
The seventeenth Mayor of Chicago was elected in 1853. He was one of the pioneers of Chicago, arriving here in 1834. His first enterprise was the manufacturing of grain cradles, and he was subsequently with Cyrus McCormick at his reaper works.
ISAAC L. MILLIKEN.
The eighteenth Mayor of Chicago, was elected in 1854. He began his career in Chicago as an humble blacksmith. He served two terms in the city council, representing the second ward. He was on the judicial bench a year before he was selected for Mayor. As a police magistrate he served with credit to himself. Mr. Milliken still makes Chicago his home, and, if the occasion demanded it, could shoe a horse with his old-time skill.
LEVI D. BOONE.
Elected in 1855 the nineteenth Mayor of Chicago, and a grand nephew of Kentucky's pioneer, was born Decem- ber 8, 1808. His father dying from a wound received at the battle of Horseshoe Bend, our subject climbed a difficult ladder. He graduated in medicine at twenty-one, and in 1830 located himself in Hillsboro, Montgomery County, Illinois. He served as surgeon in the Blackhawk war. In 1836 he came to Chicago. In 1848 he was made city physician. For six years he was alderman of the Second ward. In 1855 he was elected Mayor by the Native Ameri- can party. Although he subscribed liberally to the war for the Union, and assumed risks otherwise in the cause, he was yet arrested in 1862 for complicity in the escape of a pris-
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CHICAGO'S MAYORS.
oner from Camp Douglas. The charge arose from the pay- ment of a small sum of money to a Confederate prisoner, which was left by his mother for him in the hands of Dr. Boone. The doctor was released at once, of course.
THOMAS DYER.
The twentieth Mayor of Chicago was elected in 1856. He was a member of the firm of Warehouse, Newberry & Dole. In 1848 he was President of the Chamber of Com- merce.
JOHN WENTWORTH.
The twenty-first and twenty-fourth Mayor of Chicago, elected in 1857 and 1860, was born at Sandwich, New Hampshire, March 5, 1815, and belongs to Puritanical stock. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1836, and he obtained its degree of LL.D. in 1867. He came to Chicago October 25, 1836, and while he studied law con- tributed to the Chicago Democrat, which he soon owned. In 1843, having been admitted to the bar, he was elected to congress. When the war broke out Mr. Wentworth used all his efforts to unite the Anti-Slavery Extension Democracy, the Abolitionists and the Whigs. He supported John C. Fremont for president in 1856, and although for- merly a thorough Democrat, was elected Mayor twice on the Republican ticket. He was Mayor when the Prince of Wales visited Chicago and made such an impression on the latter, that upon his return to England he sent Mr. Wentworth two of the best Southdown bucks that could be found. Our subject is the largest Mayor Chicago ever had ; stands six feet six inches in height, weighs three- hundred pounds, and has the reputation of being one of the most healthy and industrious men in this city.
JOHN C. HAINES.
The twenty-second and twenty-third Mayor of Chicago, elected in 1858 and 1859 was born May 26, 1818, in Deer-
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THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
field, New York. In 1835 he came to Chicago and so well succeeded as to purchase, in 1846, with Jared Gage, the Chi- cago flour mills. In 1848 he was elected a member of the city council and served for six years or more. In 1869 he was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention, which brought forth the Constitution of 1870. In 1874 he was elected a member of the Illinois Senate. He created a widespread sensation in the House at Springfield prior to John A. Logan's election.
JULIAN S. RUMSEY.
The twenty-fifth Mayor of Chicago, was elected in 1861, and is still a resident of this city. He was a member of the firm of Newberry & Dole, and was several times elected President of the Board of Trade. His many benevolent deeds will long outlive him.
JOHN B. RICE.
John Blake Rice, Chicago's twenty-eighth and twenty- ninth Mayor, elected in 1865 and 1867, was born in the village of Easton, Talbot county, Maryland, in 1809. In 1847 he settled in Chicago and built a theater on Dearborn street, between Randolph and Washington streets, which was really the first dramatic establishment in Chicago. He managed the theater until 1857, and many of the old settlers can recall with pleasure the entertainments that were given in the quaint but attractive little temple of art, under Mr. Rice's careful and judicious management. In 1865, during the political excitement occasioned by the Rebellion, he was nominated by the Union party for the office of Mayor, and was elected by an almost unanimous vote.
ROSWELL B. MASON.
The thirtieth Mayor of Chicago, was elected in 1869, and was in office at the time of the big fire. He is still in Chicago and is about eighty years of age. As a railway
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CHICAGO'S MAYORS.
builder, engineer and executive he has held high rank, and built the Housatonic and Vermont Valley roads in 1858. Just prior to his election as mayor he was superin- tending the construction of the Illinois Central and the Michigan Canal roads.
JOSEPH MEDILL.
The thirty-first Mayor of Chicago, elected in 1871, and distinguished journalist, was born April 6, 1823, and is of Scotch-Irish parentage. His father, William, and his- mother, Margaret, were born in Monaghan county, Ireland. He was educated at the Massillon Academy in Ohio. In 1844 he commenced studying law with Hon. Hiram Gris- wold, continued under Seymour Belden, and was admitted to the bar in 1846. He practiced a short time with George McIlvaine in New Philadelphia, Ohio.
In 1849, abandoning law, he established the Coshocton Republican, and up to 1852 maintained it as a free-soil. Whig paper. He then founded the Daily Forest City and supported Scott for president, but when he was defeated, Mr. Medill desired a new party to be known as the National Republican party, and in 1853 merged his journal with the True Democrat of John C. Vaughan, and christened the combination the Cleveland Leader. In 1853-4 he was one of the twelve to organize a Republican party. In 1854-5 he sold his interest in the Leader, and with Dr. C. H. Ray and John C. Vaughan, purchased the Chicago Tribune, which was established in 1847. The paper was a success forthwith. In 1869 he became a member of the Constitutional Convention of Illinois. The president ap- pointed him on the civil-service mission in 1871. In the fall of this year, amid the smoking ruins of Chicago's greatness, he was elected Mayor on the Fire Proof ticket. In 1873 he went to Europe and wrote letters of great value on many topics for the Tribune. In 1874 he became its 7
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THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF CHICAGO.
editor-in-chief. Mr. Medill is accorded the credit of ob- taining for soldiers in the field during the war for the Union, the right of exercising the elective franchise.
L. L. BOND.
Hon. Lester L. Bond assumed the very responsible position of Mayor at the time when in 1873 Joseph Medill visited Europe on account of ill health. At the expira- tion of his term, he was nominated for two years more as a universally recognized tribute to his ability and integrity, but although he received 18,500 votes, he was defeated by Harvey D. Colvin, who was the standard bearer of the Peoples' Party. During Mr. Bond's brief term as succes- sor to Mayor Medill, the city was in a state of panic, the city's employees being paid in scrip, but Mr. Bond, by tak- ing a decided stand against the issue of the detestable paper, gallantly maintained the credit of the city. During the same unexpired term of Mr. Medill he brought order out of chaos in the fire department by thoroughly reorgan- izing it, and the community magnificently appreciated his conduct by leaving the organization undisturbed to the present day. He also settled the long-standing claims of the gas companies, after a system that has not been changed one iota ever since. The two acts specified were not all he fathered to stamp the administration as one of the purest and ablest of modern times.
Lester Legrand Bond was born in Ravenna, October 27, 1829. His father, Jonas Bond, removed from Connecti- cut to settle in Ohio in 1824, where Miss Elizabeth Story, a relative of the distinguished jurist and author, Judge Story, of the United States Supreme Court, became his bride. Our subject attended a select school in Ravenna four years, and subsequently studied in Elsworth Academy until the age of eighteen. He now jumped into the field to help his father, who was a farmer and manufacturer. Dur-
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CHICAGO'S MAYORS.
ing the summer he worked hard, and in the winter went to school. Early in life young Bond evinced an affection for mechanics, and the fact is apparent today in his prac- tice ; Mr. Bond being probably the best patent lawyer in the United States. In 1850 he began the study of law with Francis W. Tappan, in Ravenna, and continued with General Bierce and Jefferies, the former of whom was reputed to be one of the ablest criminal lawyers in North- eastern Ohio. He was admitted to the bar in October, 1853. In 1854 he came to Chicago with no capital, and but two acquaintances, and struck bad luck at once by joining a young man in the commission business, only to be left to pay the obligations of both.
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