USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Stories and sketches of Chicago; an interesting, entertaining, and instructive sketch history of the wonderful city "by the sea" > Part 6
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The winter was long and intensely cold, and the popula-
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STORIES AND SKETCHES OF CHICAGO.
tion of the surrounding country so sparse that no traveler could be found sufficiently reckless to traverse it.
There were then no mail routes, post routes nor post offices at Chicago, and the only means its inhabitants had of knowing anything of the world was by sending a half- breed Indian once in two weeks to Niles, in Michigan, to procure all the papers, both old and new, that could be had. " Great caution," says Colonel Hamilton, " was exercised in reading the old first, that we might be properly advised of events in the world as they occurred.
"The trip was made on foot, and usually occupied a week. The arrival of 'the mail' was an event of quite as much interest then as it is now; but notwithstanding our exclu- sion from the world, we were not unhappy, and doubtless enjoyed ourselves as well as its inhabitants now do."
"A debating society was formed, composed of most of the male inhabitants of the fort, over which presided J. B. Beaubien with mnuch efficiency and dignity. Although not very conversant with 'Jefferson's Manual,' he had no oc- casion to use it, as every member was disposed to be orderly and behave himself; and each and all felt bound to contrib ute as much as possible to the general sum of knowledge and usefulness.
"To vary the amusement, a dance was occasionally got up at the house of Mark Beaubien, Esq., and for those who had no taste for such amusements a religious meeting was gen- erally held once a week in the fort by Mark Noble, Jr., and his wife and two daughters, and Mrs. R. J. Hamilton, who were all members of the Methodist Episcopal Church."
Col. Hamilton has paid a just tribute to the zeal and piety of Mr. Noble. He was the principal speaker at all these religious meetings, and his exertions in the cause of truth were greatly blessed. He was a young man of practical common sense and great ability, and well fitted for a stan-
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dard-bearer on the borders of civilization. It will be seen that the Methodists were zealous workers in the great cause in Cook County and Chicago as early as 1831.
Gen. Winfield Scott in Chicago-His Official Report to Gov. Reynolds-An Interesting Bit of History.
The following is taken from the Louisville (Ky.) Adver- tiser of July 27, 1832:
HEADQUARTERS N. W. ARMY, ) CHICAGO, July 15, 1832. SIR-To prevent or correct the exaggerations of rumor S in respect to the existence of cholera at this place, I address myself to your Excellency. Four steamers were engaged at Buffalo to transport United States troops and supplies to Chicago. In the headmost of these boats, the Sheldon Thompson, I, with my staff and four companies, a part of Col. Eustis' command, arrived here on the night of the 10th inst. On the 8th all on board were in high health and spirits, but the next morning six cases of undoubted chol- era presented themselves. The disease rapidly spread itself for the next three days. About one hundred and twenty persons have been affected. Under a late act of Congress, six companies of rangers are to be raised and marched to this place. Gen. [Henry] Dodge, of Michigan, [Senator,] [then embracing Dodgeville, Wis.] is appointed Major of the battalion, and I have seen the names of the Captains, but I do not know where to address them. I am afraid that the report from this place, in respect to cholera, may seri- ously retard the raising of this force. I wish, therefore, that your Excellency would give publicity to the measures I have adopted to prevent the spread of this disease, and
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STORIES AND SKETCHES OF CHICAGO.
of my determination not to allow any junction or com- munication between uninfected and infected troops. The war is not at an end, and may not be brought to a close for some time. The rangers may reach the theater of opera- tions in time to give the final blow. As they approach this place, I shall take care of their health and general wants.
I write in great haste, and may not have time to cause iny letter to be copied. It will be put in some postoffice to be forwarded forthwith.
I have the honor to be, your Excellency's most obedient servant, WINFIELD SCOTT.
HIS EXCELLENCY GOV. JOHN REYNOLDS.
Early P. O. Days- "Long John" Perched on a Dry-Goods Box, Reads to the Cit- izens the New York Papers.
" Long John " facetiously describes the early post-office days as follows: One of our most reliable places of enter- tainment was the Post-office, while the mail was being opened. The Post-office was on the West side of Franklin street, cornering on South Water street. The mail coach was irregular in the time of its arrival, but the horn of the driver announced its approach.
Then the people would largely assemble at the Post-office and wait for the opening of the mails which at times were very heavy. The Postmaster would throw out a New York paper, and some gentleman witli a good pair of lungs and a jocose temperament would mount a dry-goods box and com- mence reading.
Occasionally I occupied that position myself. During ex- citing times our leading men would invariably go to the Post-office themselves, instead of sending their employes.
THE NEW POST OFFICE-See page 156.
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The news would be discussed by the assemblage, and oftentimes heavy bets would be made, and angry words passed. If it was election times, there would be two papers thrown out, of opposite politics, two reading stands established, two readers engaged, and the men of each party would assemble around their own reader.
This condition of things would last until the mails were opened, when the gathering would adjourn until the next blowing of the driver's horn. This gathering afforded the best opportunity for citizens to become acquainted one with another.
How a New Silk Dress was Exchanged for a Fortune!
I was introduced, says an old settler (in the early days of Chicago), to a Lieutenant in the army, who had just 1 come to take charge of the Government works in this city. He had great confidence in our future, and expressed his intention to invest all his means here. He was eventually ordered away to some other station, but kept up his interest in Chicago.
His taxes became high, too high in proportion to his pay as an army officer and the support of his family. His wife had once placed the price of a new dress in a letter which was to leave by the return of a mail which brought her husband an exorbitant tax-bill.
He expressed his intention of ordering, by the same mail, the sale of his Chicago property, as his means could endure his taxes no longer.
His wife ordered her letter from the mail, took out the money, and, saying that she preferred the Chicago property to a new dress, insisted that he should use it to pay his
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AMUSING AND OTHERWISE.
Chicago taxes. The next summer he visited our city, and rented his property for enough to pay the taxes.
That lady lost her dress for that year, but she gained thereby one of the largest and most celebrated (Kingsbury) estates in our city.
The narrator wisely adds: I mention this fact to warn our ladies that they should never ask for a new dress until they find their husband's tax-receipt in his wallet; and at the same time, I would also caution husbands not to try to carry so much real estate as to make their poorly-clad wives and children objects of charity when they make their appearance in the streets.
Hon. Isaac N. Arnold's Story of Abraham Lincoln.
The Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, a long, and honored resident of Chicago, tells the following interesting incident con- cerning the early surroundings of the Garden City in con- nection with young Lincoln, Gurdon S. Hubbard, and others:
In 1832 John Dixon kept the ferry across Rock River, and the latch-string of his hospitable home was never drawn in against the stranger. The Black Hawk war was pend- ing, and settlers and whole families had been killed and scalped upon the prairie.
The National Government sent Gen. Scott with some regular troops to Chicago, and to these were added some companies of Illinois mounted volunteers, called out by Governor Reynolds, to aid in protecting the settlers and chastising the Indians.
Among the regulars who met on the banks of Rock River, at the crossing then called " Dixon's Ferry," under the im-
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mediate command of General Atkinson, were Lieutenant Colonel Zachary Taylor, subsequently President of the United States; Lieutenant Robert Anderson, the hero of Fort Sumter; Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, and Private Abraham Lincoln, of Capt. Iles' company of Illinois Mounted Rangers.
These facts I received from John Dixon, a hale man of more than eighty years (of Dixon, Ill.) Anderson and Davis were young lieutenants, just from West Point, and Lincoln was a tall and boyish-looking young man of twenty-two. So far as I know, our fellow-citizen, Gurdon S. Hubbard is the only living citizen of Chicago who was engaged in this expedition against Black Hawk.
When Major Anderson visited Washington, after his evacuation of Fort Sumter, he called at the White House to pay his respects to the President. After the Chief Mag- istrate had expressed his thanks to Anderson for his con- duct in South Carolina, Mr. Lincoln said:
" Major, do you remember of ever meeting me before?
"No," replied Anderson " I have no recollection of ever having had that pleasure."
" My memory is better than yours," said Lincoln. "You mustered me into the United States service, as a high pri- vate of the Illinois volunteers, at Dixon's Ferry, in the Black Hawk war."
Father Dixon, the ferryman, and guide of the United States forces, and even then well known by the Winneba- goes as "Nachusa," or "Whitehead," says that in all the marches, whenever the forces approached a grove or depres- sion, in which an Indian ambush might be concealed, and scouts were sent forward to examine the cover, Lincoln was the first man selected; and he adds that while many, as they approached the place of suspected ambush, found an excuse
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for dismounting to adjust girths or saddles, Lincoln's sad- dle was always in perfect order.
" Nachusa " adds two or three other facts in regard to Lincoln : One was that while the little army was en- camped around the ferry, every evening, when off duty, Lincoln could be found sitting on the grass, with a group of soldiers, eagerly listening to his stories, of which his supply seemed, even at that early day, inexhaustible; and that no one could induce the young volunteer to taste the whisky which his fellow-soldiers, grateful for the amuse- ment which he offered them. often pressed upon him.
The Hon. John Wentworth's Early Experience in Church Matters-Not Able to Rent but Half a Pew-His Description of Parson Hinton's Sensational Lectures on "The Devil."
Not feeling able to sustain the expense of a whole pew, I engaged one in partnership with an unpretending saddle and harness maker (S. B. Cobb), who, by a life of industry, economy, and morality, has accumulated one of the largest fortunes in our city, and still walks our streets with as little pretense as when he mended the harnesses of the farmers who brought the grain to this market from our prairies.
The church building in those days was considered a first- class one, and we had a first-class pew therein, and the an- nual expense of my half of the pew was only $12.50, more than it would have been in the Savior's time.
People wonder at the rapid increase in the price of real estate at the West; but it bears no comparison with the in- crease in the price of gospel privileges. A good clergy- man is well worth all that a liberal-hearted congregation may see fit to pay him. But the people ought to cry out against the reckless waste of money, steadily increasing
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in the erection of extravagant church edifices. And the pride in such matters seems to eat up all other considera- tions.
During the recent panic, a Christian lady of this city, with a large family of children, whose husband was sud- denly reduced from opulence to penury, astonished me by observing, with tears in her eyes, that her most grievous affliction was that she would be compelled to give up her pew in the church, which was the most expensive in the city, and take one in a cheaper edifice. And yet our peo- ple sing in every church, " God is present everywhere."
At the close of service one day, Parson Hinton said he thought Chicago people ought to know more about the devil than they did. Therefore he would take up his his- tory, in four lectures.
First he would give the origin of the devil.
Second, state what the devil has done.
Third, state what the devil is now doing.
And fourth, prescribe how to destroy the devil.
These lectures were the sensation for the next four weeks. The house could not contain the mass that flocked to hear him, and it is a wonder to me that those four lectures have not been preserved. Chicago newspaper enterprise had not then reached here.
The third evening was one never to be forgotten in this city; as it would not be if one of our most eminent cler- gymen, with the effective manner of preaching that Mr. Hinton had, should undertake to tell us what the devil is doing in this city to-day. The drift of his discourse was to prove that everybody had a devil; that the devil was in every store, and in every bank, and he did not even except the church. He had the devil down the outside and up the middle of every dance; in the ladies' curls, and the gentle- men's whiskers. In fact, before he finished, he proved con-
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COHEN
3
A
VIEW ON DEARBORN AVENUE BEFORE THE FIRE.
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clusively that there were just as many devils in every pew as there were persons in it; and if it were in this our day, there would not have been swine enough in the Stock-Yards to cast them into.
When the people came out of church, they would ask each other: "What is your devil?"
And they would stop one another in the streets during the week, and ask, " What does Parson Hinton say your devil is?"
The fourth lecture contained his prescription for destroy- ing the devil. I remember his closing: "Pray on, breth- ren and friends; pray ever. Fight as well as pray. Pray and fight until the devil is dead !
The world, the flesh, the devil, Will prove a fatal snare, Unless we resist him, By faith and humble prayer.
In this grand contest with his Satanic Majesty, he, our leader, fought gloriously, but he fell early in the strife. We, his hearers, have kept up a gallant fight to this day, but, judging by our morning papers, the devil is far from being dead in Chicago.
An Amusing Indignation Meeting-How State Senators Were Tortured in True Indian Style and Blown to Atoms.
The Hon. Grant Goodrich is responsible for this story, graphically illustrating the anger of young Chicago on a certain occasion : In the winter of 1834-5, Gurdon S. Hub- bard, John H. Kinzie, and others visited the Legislature at Vandalia, to urge the passage of a bill to commence the work on the canal.
They succeeded well in getting it through the House of Representatives, and securing the pledges of votes enough
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to carry it in the Senate ; but two Senators who had agreed to support it changed their minds, and secured its defeat.
The indignation at Chicago was hot and fierce, and she must give some signal expression of it. A cannon was pro- cured, effigies of the offending Senators made, and placed on the bank of a cellar, where the Tremont House now stands, and John and Robert Kinzie, and others, performed around them the ceremonies which the Indians practiced around prisoners, devoted to mockery, torture, and an ignominious death, after which one was shot into fragments from the mouth of the cannon.
The other one was laid upon a rude bier, and carried upon the ice in the river, escorted by Geo. White, as master of ceremonies, the town bell-ringer and the only negro here. The effigy was then placed over a can of powder, which was exploded, up-heaving the ice, and blowing the Senator high in the air, and tearing him into fragments, amidst the shouts and jeers of the multitude.
We were compelled (says the Judge) to furnish our own amusements, and this is a specimen of the way in which it was done.
Laughable Court Work-Regulating the Price of Boarding, Horse-Feed, and ' The Drinks."
The Commissioners' Court, under the act organizing the county, was opened March 8, 1831.
The first record we have is that "Samuel Miller, Gholson Kercheval, and James Walker, Commissioners for Cook County, were sworn into office by J. S. C. Hogan, Justice of the Peace. William See was appointed Clerk of the Commissioners' Court, who, after being duly sworn and giv- ing bonds 'according to law, the Court proceeded to busi- ness.'
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" Archibald Clybourne was appointed County Treasurer, and an order passed that the 'S. W. fraction of Sec. 10, in T. 39 N., R. 14 East of the third principal meridian, be en- tered for county purposes.'
" At the next meeting, March 9, the Treasurer is author- ized to borrow one hundred dollars, with which to enter the land before mentioned, and he is directed 'not to give more than six per cent. interest.' It is also ordered that Jesse Walker be employed to enter the land, that Jedediah Wooley be nominated to the Governor for County Surveyor, and that there be three precincts in the County of Cook, to-wit: 'The Chicago Precinct,' the 'Hickory Creek Precinct,' and the 'Dupage Precinct.'
" The boundaries of these three precincts were established, Judges of Election appointed, and the times and the places of holding the same. Grand and Petit Jurors were selected, and some other minor business transacted, when the 'Court adjourned until Court in course.' "
April 13, 1831 .- A special term was held. The record says : "Court was called at the hour of 10 o'clock in the morning, and Samuel Miller and Gholson Kercheval, being present, formed a quorum, and proceeded to business.
" Ordered, That there be a half per cent. levied on the following description of property, to wit : On town lots, on pleasure carriages, on distilleries, on all horses, mules, and neat cattle above the age of three years ; on watches, with their appurtenances, and on all clocks."
Elijah Wentworth and Samuel Miller were licensed to keep a tavern in the town of Chicago, and taxed therefor the sum of $7 and $5 respectively. The following financial measure was also adopted, and as one of the " quorum " on this occasion was also one of the prospective "tavern-keep- ers," we have a right to presume that the tariff was fairly adjusted :
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" Ordered, That the following rates be allowed to tavern- keepers, to wit :
Each half-pint of wine, rum, or brandy
25 cents.
Each pint dc
3712 "
half pint of gin.
1834 "
pint do. 3114
gill of whisky 614 “
half-pint do
121%
pint do 1834 ..
For each breakfast and supper
25 66
dinner.
3712 66
horse feed 25
Keeping horse one night. .50 66
Lodging for each man, per night. 1212 66
For cider or beer, one pint .. 614 "
one quart 1212 "
The first licensed merchants in Cook County, as appears from the licenses granted at this time, were B. Laughton, Robert A. Kinzie, Samuel Miller; and the first auctioneer, James Kinzie. Russell E. Heacock was licensed to keep a tavern at his residence.
Initiatory steps were taken for the establishment of a ferry across both branches of Chicago River, at the forks, over which the people of Cook County, with their "traveling apraties" (according to the record), were to be passed free.
Rates of ferriage were specified for outsiders, and a ferry scow was purchased from Samuel Miller for sixty-five dol- lars.
At the next meeting of the Court, Mark Beaubien filed his bond for $200, with James Kinzie as security, and having agreed to pay into the Treasury fifty dollars, and "to ferry all citizens of Cook County free," became the first ferryman of Chicago.
During vacation of Court, permits to sell goods were ob- tained from the Clerk by Alexander Robinson, John B. Beaubien, and others.
At the next term of Court, June 6, Jesse Walker, who
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STORIES AND SKETCHES OF CHICAGO.
had been commissioned to enter the land selected for county purposes, reported that he had been refused permission to enter the same, and paid back the money put into his hands for that purpose.
The fees received by the members of the Commissioners' Court at this time were, as appears from appropriations made them, at the rate of $1.50 per day for actual term time, which were paid in county orders.
Old Jack, the Singing Ferryman-A Floating Music Hall.
An interesting institution, says Mr. Wentworth, was the ferry-boat between the North and South sides. It was a general intelligence office. Business was done principally upon the South Side, while most of the dwelling-houses were upon the North Side.
The ferryman knew about every person in town, and could answer any question as to who had crossed. The streets had not been raised to their present grade, nor the river deepened or widened, and the boat was easily accessi- ble to teams. It was pulled across by a rope, and was not used enough to kill the green rushes which grew in the river.
If a lady came upon the South Side to pass an evening, she would leave word with the ferryman where her hus- band could find her. Bundles and letters were left with him to be delivered to persons as they passed. He was a sort of superannuated sailor, and if he had not sailed into every port in the world, he had a remarkable faculty of making people think he had.
His fund of stories was inexhaustible, and he was con- stantly spinning his interesting yarns to those who patron- ized his institution. Like most sailors, he could not pull
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unless he sung, and to all his songs he had one refrain with a single variation. His voice was loud and sonorous. If he felt dispirited, his refrain was, " And I sigh as I pull on my boat." It he felt jolly (and people took particular pains to make him so), his refrain was, “ And I sing as I pull on my boat."
All night long this refrain was disturbing the ears of those who dwelt near the banks of the river. Song after song was composed for him, in the hope of changing his tune, but it would not be long before he would attach to it his usual refrain. One of our musical composers com- posed a quadrille, which our young folks used to dance in the evening on the ferry, during certain portions of which they would all join in old Jack's refrain, and sing, " And we'll dance as we ride on the boat."
There was a little boy who took great delight in Jack's company, whose parents lived on the margin of the river near the ferry, and as in the last of his sickness he was burning with a violent fever, nothing would quiet him but the sound of old Jack's voice. Old Jack had just sung, " And I sigh as I pull on my boat," when the boy whispered his last words to his mother, " And I die while Jack pulls on his boat."
Jack heard of this, and his lings became stronger than ever. Racking both his memory and his imagination for songs, all night long he sung, with his plaintive refrain, "Charlie dies while Jack pulls on his boat." A distinguished poetess, traveling at the West about this time, was tarrying at the "Lake House," and heard of the incident. She wrote for a New York magazine some beautiful lines ap- propriate to the last words of the child and the circum- stances. These were reproduced in our Chicago papers.
Old Jack went to church one Sunday, and the clergyman preached from the text: " Whosoever shall be ashamed of
.
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Me and My words, of Him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when He shall come in His own glory."
After church was over the clergyman took Jack to task for making so much noise on his ferry-boat, and told him he was going to have him removed.
" You can't do it," said Jack.
" Why not?" said the clergyman.
" Your sermon, sir, your sermon! You said we must make a practical application of it."
" How can you apply that to your position?"
"In this way," said Jack; "the Mayor appoints a ferry- man. I will just tell him, he that is ashamed of me and my boat, of him will I be ashamed when I go to the polls on the day of election."
Jack was not removed. But he went one fall to the South with the robins; but, unlike the robins, he returned no more. He probably saw the coming bridge.
A Wedding Reminiscence of the Great Fire.
A wedding fixed for the week after the great fire was postponed by a letter of the lady to her lover, who was in an Eastern city. She was the daughter of a wealthy mer- chant, and in the letter, after telling him of the fire, she wrote :
" Our wedding will have to be postponed for at least one year, as I am in no condition at present to be married; not that I love you less than ever, for you know that better than I can tell you, but that we have no house to live in and my father is rendered almost destitute by the fire. His place of business was, as you know, in the burnt district, and was. swept away in company with a number of others the second night of the fire. We expect to have a new house built in
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