USA > Illinois > The era of the Civil War, 1848-1870 > Part 42
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32 Prairie Farmer, August 6, 27, 1864; Chicago Times, January 13, 1865.
33 Illinois State Journal, December 7, 1864; Central Illinois Gazette, December 9, 1864; Prairie Farmer, December 17, 1864.
34 Chicago Tribune, October 30, November 1, 22, 1866; Jacksonville Journal, November 2, 1866.
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mazoo, Michigan, "regent" or president; and the institution was formally opened on March 11, 1868, with an enrollment of seventy-seven students and four instructors.35
Grave doubt existed as to whether a great university could rise from the monotonous prairies of eastern Illinois. Turner, the educational pioneer, was bitterly disappointed with the choice of Urbana and with the prospects for his pet project. It was properly pointed out, however, that the best interests of the state now required the promotion of the establishment at Urbana, and the steady application of this policy has produced a great middle west state university.36
35 Reports General Assembly, 1867, 1: 443-445 ; 1869, 2: 1-352.
36 The Chicago interests still urged a polytechnical branch in that city and in 1868 offered the university $250,000 in bonds for the establishment of such a branch; although the university accepted the offer, the city found itself unable to carry out its proposal. Chicago Tribune, May 29, June 1, August 4, Novem- ber 19, 20, 1868; Illinois State Journal, November 23, 1868. In 1870 Turner and Jesse Fell and Bloomington friends labored to influence the constitutional convention to establish a first-class university.
XXI. PLAY AND THE PRESS
T T HE use of leisure by a given society furnishes a mensure of the height of its culture ; surely nothing is a better index of the crudity of the frontier than the simple pastimes of the pioneer when temporarily freed from his task of conquering the wilderness. When, therefore, after three decades of state- hood, the atmosphere of the frontier passed from the settled portions of Illinois, the refined amusements of a more highly civilized society filtered in to shape the cultural development of the state.
True, the wedding, with its festivities, the funeral, to which friends were invited by formal printed invitations, and the revival with its pervasive appeal still relieved the monotony of the rural community. A stirring reminder of the effective use of the rifle in the hands of the pioneer, who each week had devoted a day to target practice at the head of a turkey kept for the occasion, still persisted in the annual hunt of Upper Alton; the rival teams often brought in a bag of two thousand pieces of game which furnished a lavish barbecue for the as- sembled townspeople.1 Another survival of an early sport was found in the fall races with their entry fees in corn. As late as 1851, too, Chicagoans found a touch of bygone days in the band of Potawatomi encamped on the prairie outside the city; for "their tents gleaming in the twilight, and the red glow of their camp fires, and their blanketed forms passing here and there, render it quite like a border scene, in earlier days." 2
Into the towns, however, more highly developed amuse- ments found their way to meet expanding needs. In thesc over- grown villages there was still much opportunity for continued expression of zestful living, and a conscious demand began to
1 Alton Courier, October 10, 1853, September 28, 1854; Belleville Advocate, September 12, 1850.
2 Chicago Daily Journal, March 29, 1851.
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arise for the satisfaction of more directly cultural aspirations. This made for a hospitality toward all devices that promised to clear from the intellectual horizon some of the provincialism of the frontier.
Thus it was they embraced the opportunity to learn some- thing of the surrounding country by taking the steamboat out on Lake Michigan and up or down the Illinois and Missis- sippi rivers. In the summer of 1849 two boats began to run between Galena and the falls of St. Anthony carrying visitors to Fort Snelling, to "a town called St. Paul's, which contains five hundred inhabitants," and to nearby fishing and hunting grounds.3 With the completion of railroad lines and the cele- brations that followed in each case, rail excursion trips were planned and well patronized.
In most instances, however, the outside world was brought to the eager seeker after diverson. Exhibits of wax figures, the forerunner of the dime museum, were financially success- ful and were carried from place to place. Picture exhibitions were arranged and extensively patronized-" Bayne's pano- rama," the "Panorama of Eden," the " Classical Panorama of Roman History," a "Panorama of China," and the "Mov- ing Mirror of the Overland Route to California"-editors confidently recommended them to "those who have an eye, and a heart for fine delineations of beautiful scenes in this world of ours." 4
An increasing realization of the importance of native artis- tic self-expression became evident, and in 1859 Chicago had so developed that it could plan a formal art exhibition. G. P. A. Healy, "the very pioneer of true artists in the Northwest," in 1862 initiated a movement to establish a free art gallery in Chicago; in 1865 it secured incorporation papers and organ- ized to facilitate the collection of funds. In 1868 the " Acad- emy of Design" brought together the largest collection of works of art ever exhibited in the northwest. By that time the Art Journal of Chicago was acknowledged to be "in some respects, superior to any other published in the United States." 5
3 Illinois Journal, February 14, August 7, 1849.
4 Chicago Daily Journal, March 31, May 22, 1851.
5 New York Herald, March 11, clipped in Chicago Tribune, March 14, 1868 ; Chicago Evening Journal, November 17, 1865.
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Over the dusty roads of midsummer, the circus came to town : it might be Rockwell and Company's Mammoth Circus with two hundred men and horses, "the best managed and only perfectly organized Equestrian Establishment in the United States ; " perhaps it was Welch, Delavan, and Nathan's; or Raymond and Company's Mammoth Menagerie; or E. F. and J. Mabies' Grand Olympic Arena; or Crane and Com- pany's Great Oriental Circus ; Dan Rice's Hippodrome, or any one of a host of others. Five of these performed at Springfield in two seasons, each one usually giving two daily performances in tents accommodating fifteen hundred to two thousand people. There was a magic about their appeal to old and young alike; no matter how wretched the performance, the newspapers heralded them with enthusiasm, and the people paid their an- nual tribute. At length criticism began; a Jacksonville paper made bold to ask: "We would like to know on what pretext the people is asked to patronize these performances. Is it because there will be a mutual benefit derived in a pecuniary point of view ? Is it because they come to elevate our morals, or improve our intellects ?" 6 When in 1853 Bar- num's Grand Colossal Museum and Menagerie toured Illi- nois, papers in the northern part denounced his show for not coming up to the promises of the posters, but the papers of the state capital generously pronounced it "more than worth the price." 7
During the fifties culture was imported into the state through the lecture platform by an array of talent. Horace Greeley, "the fearless champion of the masses, the poor and down-trodden of all nations," came to Illinois for frequent lectures. Emerson, Henry Ward Beecher, John Mitchell, the Irish patriot, Frederick S. Douglass, the former slave, Elihu Burritt, the advocate of universal peace through a congress of nations, George D. Prentice, the Louisville poet, humorist- editor, and politician - all carried their gospel to the prairie state. Lucy Stone, the woman's rights advocate, was offered $100 in 1853 to speak at Alton in the largest hall with "a larger audience than we can get into it" but was compelled
Morgan Journal clipped in Illinois State Register, May 13, 1852.
7 Ibid., September 1, October 6, 1853.
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to decline; a fortnight later, however, she lectured in Chicago on " the Bible position of woman " and on "social and political disabilities of woman." 8
Special lectures on astronomy, electricity, physiology, and chemistry always seemed to attract attention. War times interrupted this lecture work but with the close of the struggle Wendell Phillips and Julia Ward Howe favored Illinois with their visits while William Lloyd Garrison toured the country to announce the discontinuance of the Liberator as having per- formed its mission. In 1869 Mark Twain, already "the well known humorist," lectured in Chicago on the " American Van- dal abroad." It is doubtful, however, whether such lectures met a warmer welcome than the spiritualist lectures and mediums who after 1850 were busily distributing their propa- ganda; their influence was evidenced by the commotion which followed the numerous instances of " spirit rappings " reported in the early fifties.
Illinois also had a coterie of busy lecturers of her own. Probably Jonathan B. Turner of Jacksonville College was one of the busiest, turning from his propaganda on industrial edu- cation to speak on the "millenium of labor," on "wisdom and knowledge," or on some literary or religious topic. Editors, clergymen, and politicians were drafted for lecture work. Abraham Lincoln was one of the conscripts who got off easily; although he was scheduled for a lecture in Jacksonville in 1854 and in 1859 delivered one there on "discoveries and inven- tions," yet on the eve of his presidential nomination in 1860, he was able to say that he had " never got up but one lecture, and that I think rather a poor one." 9
The wide range of lecture offerings was made possible by the library associations and the literary institutes that appeared in every town in the early fifties and established reading rooms and organized lecture courses. In 1850 there were 152 libraries in the state but only 33 were public libraries. These were scattered over northern Illinois, with three each in Cook, Du Page, and Adams counties. Quincy had a ten-year old 8 Aurora Beacon, May 1, 1851; Alton Courier, December 23, 30, 1853; Chicago Weekly Democrat, January 7, 14, 1854.
9 Morgan Journal, January 26, 1854; Belleville Advocate, February 23, 1859; Tracy, Uncollected Letters of Abraham Lincoln, 141.
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library of 2,000 volumes. Then began a widespread movement for local libraries; in 1852, Springfield and Alton organized library associations. The forerunner of these more ambitious undertakings was the lyceum or debating society, a democratic force for intellectual improvement that required little in the way of talent or material equipment. Sometimes its members attempted ambitious discussions on education, temperance, or " Resolved that the geological assumption of the earth's im- mense pre-Adamic age is supported by reliable data " with a clergyman representing each side of the question.10
All these movements paved the way for more serious achievements. In 1856 Chicagoans organized the Chicago Historical Society, which after a year reported a collection of eleven thousand volumes, largely the gifts of members and friends.11 In 1858 upon the recommendation of the State Teachers' Association an Illinois Natural History Society was organized at Bloomington to conduct a scientific survey. Chi- cago in this case again had in 1857 anticipated the state with the establishment of the Chicago Academy of Natural Sciences. The state society, however, tried a new departure by engaging a traveling agent to arouse interest by public lectures and to collect specimens for the museum at Normal University. In 1870 Illinois could boast of seven historical, literary, or scien- tific libraries ; by that time 3,705 public libraries with 924, 545 volumes placed Illinois ahead of all the states except New York and Pennsylvania.12
In the course of time a steady improvement was made in the musical and dramatic entertainment offered to Illinoisians. In the forties Chicago and Springfield had theaters in which local and traveling companies offered their performances; in Chicago Uncle Tom's Cabin drew unprecedented crowds when- ever presented. The other towns had few theatrical facilities
10 Ottawa Free Trader, November 4, 1854; Johnson, Illinois in the Fifties. Eighty-six sunday school libraries with 12,829 volumes constituted a strong force for education by reading.
11 An effort to organize an Illinois historical society in 1848 ended in failure. Chicago Daily Democratic Press, April 4, 1856; Chicago Press and Tribune, November 26, 1857.
12 Including private libraries there were 13,570 institutions with 3,323,914 volumes. The public libraries included one state, seven historical, literary, and scientific ; fifty-three town or city, seventy-nine circulating, 135 law, 1, 122 school or college, and 2,080 sabbath school. Ninth Census, 1: 474 ff.
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and had to be content with Shakespearean readings, with ama- teur performances, or with the efforts of roving performers. With the fifties the choice of entertainers included General Tom Thumb, "Yankee " Silsbee, the impersonator, Winchell, the humorist, Antonio Kaspar, the magician and juggler, and their kind, who were universally received with favor. "The Fakir of Siva," who for three days in 1852 held soirées mys- terieuses at the Springfield courthouse before capacity audi- ences, left town without paying his bills ; but most of the people regretted his departure for different reasons than those that motivated his creditors.13
Until 1857 Rice's Theater monopolized the field of the English drama in Chicago, but then soon found itself com- pelled to yield the field to the modern theater erected by James H. McVicker. In both Chicago and Springfield the Germans were credited with being " far more enterprising than the native portion of our population in the way of amuse- ments." 14 In 1859 they supported three successful theaters in Chicago beside numerous so-called concert halls, and in Springfield they were more persistent in providing creditable dramatic entertainment than the English speaking citizens.
Entertainment of all sorts was placed at the disposal of music-loving citizens, though families and companies of stroll- ing singers or musicians pretty well monopolized the field until 1850. The best known groups were the Antoni, the Newhall, and the Peak families, and the Columbians, and the Alleghanians, "universally acknowledged to be the best of the kind now travelling in the United States." 15 ,Negro minstrels-the Campbell Troupe of Ethiopian Performers, the Sable Melodists, the Algerines, and others were always greeted with marked approbation. Instrumentalists of all sorts were also favorably received; in 1853 eight hundred people went to the Springfield courthouse to hear the Swiss bell ringers, whereas on the previous night only some twenty
13 Illinois State Register, April 29, May 27, 1852.
14 Illinois State Journal, November 30, December 3, 1861; Chicago Demo- crat, August 15, 1859.
15 The Peak family terminated a thirty year musical career in 1869 by which time they were said to have accumulated a million and a half dollars. Cairo Evening Bulletin, June 28, 1869; Ottawa Free Trader, November 30, 1850.
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persons attended "the able and instructive lecture of Prof. Daggy upon the Science of Astronomy." 16
On occasions the people of Illinois were favored with really rare musical treats. In 1851 the "Jenny Lind mania" prevailed throughout the state, and the merchants and business men of central Illinois on a sudden impulse went to St. Louis to hear the concert of the Swedish nightingale. Attempts to arrange a concert in Chicago in the later part of the year resulted in failure. The following season Ole Bull, the renowned violin- ist, attracted many Illinoisians to St. Louis. On several occa- sions in the years that followed not only he but also Adelina Patti and Marietta Piccolomini submitted their offerings to the music lovers of the state.
The effect was to stimulate effort at musical self-expression, and instruction in every department of music received its begin- ning. The music teacher and the dealer in musical instruments began to thrive; although it was still possible in 1853 to say that in Menard county just outside Springfield only one piano could be found, yet at the same time, "Professor" VanMeter at Alton was conducting a course in music with 500 pupils, 150 of whom performed in graduation recitals before crowded houses.17 Bands were organized in various towns, although Grierson's band of Jacksonville was unique in that the members "played by the card instead of their own conception of what each particular piece of music ought to have been." 18
These efforts at musical expression began gradually to take on an organized form. In 1850 there was a "Union Musical Association " in Morgan county; and, receiving an inspiration from the numerous German musical unions, philharmonic or choral societies began to appear in different towns. At Spring- field in 1852 an Illinois musical convention held a several days session before which Professor Johnson of Boston delivered lectures and gave instruction; after that date such conventions were held with some regularity.
Chicago naturally became the musical center of Illinois. In the early fifties, when the Germans there had several musical
16 Illinois Journal, September 24, 1853.
17 Illinois State Register, September 22, 1853; Alton Courier, February 10, 1853.
18 Illinois State Register, July 1, 1852.
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societies, Julius Dyhrenfurth was laboring to develop a local orchestra. In 1852 the Chicago Philharmonic Society was formed, but, like other efforts, was not financially successful. The turning of the tide came in 1858: Julius Unger had a successful season in charge of Chicago's first full orchestra, which Henry Abner had organized in 1857; the Musical Union for vocal and instrumental music was organized and secured a hall opposite the courthouse for meetings and insti- tutes; a Mendelssohn society was organized to rehearse and present choruses from the German composers under the con- ductorship of A. W. Dahn; and after two previous experi- mental seasons, Chicago came in 1858 to give grand opera a regular place upon its musical program.
The Chicago Musical Union steadily grew in its influence ; at different times it produced the "Creation," "Elijah," and other oratorios, besides miscellaneous choral concerts. In 1859 it successfully presented the "Messiah " to celebrate the cente- nary of Handel's death. There were then two music halls in the city, one capable of seating over fifteen hundred people, in which musical entertainment was provided almost every night.19
The war suspended active musical development, although the Philharmonic Society gave a regular series of concerts, and progress was made in operatic production. With the return of peace, Chicago had not only the most brilliant amuse- ment year in its history, but the first distinctive western opera season. Crosby's Opera House was opened for a notable season, and the impresario Grau was finally given full recog- nition for the brilliant array of talent with which he made the city acquainted. The honors were also shared by Leonard Grover's German operatic troupe which held forth at McVick- er's theater, while a three weeks engagement of English opera opened in the hall of the Academy of Music. Another brilliant year followed in 1868, with sixteen weeks of English, German, and Italian opera and French opéra bouffe, with Edwin Booth and Edwin Forrest on the boards, and with a series of con- certs inaugurated by the Orchestral Union, an organization
19 Chicago Press and Tribune, October 13, December 24, 1858, April 30, 1859; Chicago Democrat, August 15, 1859.
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built upon the ruins of the Philharmonic Society.20 In 1868, also, Chicago was honored by its selection for the sixteenth annual festival of the North American Sängerbund, which was formally inaugurated "with speeches, processions, fireworks, artillery and music." 21 This festival was conducted by Hans Balatka of Chicago, the chosen leader not only of the German musical societies but of the Philharmonic Society and of the Oratorio Society.
Musical organizations catered to the social instincts of certain selected and highly trained groups; general opportu- nities for good fellowship were contributed by the social organi- zations that came into vogue. Club life had not found a real place as yet, but fraternal orders and secret societies became very popular.22 The natural clannishness of a group having common traditions expressed itself not only in St. Andrew's, St. George's, and Hibernian societies, in the Société Française, and German clubs, but also in New England societies and Sons of the Pilgrims, the Excelsior Society, composed of natives of New York, the Sons of Penn, and similar groups that held at least annual meetings which involved considerable ceremony following sumptuous banquets.
The mystery of the secret society had an especial charm. Usually it was the Masonic order or the Odd Fellows, who were to be found in most of the cities; but even more com- pelling was a society which issued notices that "The Q. Z. K. in the , 2° 38 3/4' will meet at the 6th rendezvous at the hour of the changes on the regular night of the calls of the Hing Hong." 23 This mysterious element was one expla- nation of the remarkable popularity of the know nothing political order and of the Sons of Temperance.
The appeal of the secret society was resented by the clergy, whom President Blanchard of Knox College aroused in a pam-
20 Chicago Tribune, December 2, 1865, November 20, 1868. Dr. Florence Ziegfeld opened the Chicago Academy of Music in 1867 and in 1868 gave his first pupil's recital.
21 Ibid., June 17, 1868.
22 In the rural districts the general store and post office continued as "a village club." See Johnson, Illinois in the Fifties.
23 Ottawa Free Trader, February 9, 1850; Illinois State Register, October 2, 1851. There were ninety-four Odd Fellow lodges and 4,035 contributing mem- bers in Illinois in 1851.
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1 phlet entitled "An Argument on Secret Societies;" he classed not only the social orders but the Sons of Temperance as "anti-Republican in their tendencies and subversive of the principles both of the Natural and Revealed Religion." 24 Blanchard abandoned this foe, however, to fight the battles of freedom; and not until after the Civil War and after fifteen years of silence, did he launch the new crusade; first he placed the Congregational General Association of Illinois on record as in opposition to secret societies, and then started an interdenominational movement which laid its plans to over- throw the secret order in conventions at Aurora in 1867 and at Chicago in 1869. Gradually, however, his opponents came out in direct attack upon " Blanchard's monomania ;" and his propaganda, openly scored as an amusing pastime like barking at the moon, began to lose ground. The Masons, the special objects of attack, failed to decline in popularity and in 1869 boasted seven hundred lodges and over forty thousand mem- bers in Illinois. 25
People began to step out into society in the cities, which became centers of gayety with banquets, balls, parties, and masquerades. The governor's levees set the pace for con- servative folk; at a levee in honor of Douglas' reelection to the senate in 1853 supper and music and dancing were gener- ously provided for the 1,500 guests who attended. Soirées, cotillion parties, and balls were held periodically in every town with quadrilles, schottisches, polkas, and an occasional waltz before the supper interval. In 1854 the New Year's festival at Alton was a "promenade concert" with a band from St. Louis, to which seven hundred persons paid the admis- sion of seventy-five cents and competed for seventy-five prizes.26
While the middle class was finding wholesome amusement along these lines, no provision met democratically the needs of all classes. For this reason the rougher elements and youths
24 Western Citizen, October 1, 1850.
25 Chicago Evening Journal, May 28, 1866; Ottawa Weekly Republican, June 7, 1866; Chicago Tribune, June 5, 1867, June 11, 1869; Aurora Beacon, October 3, November 7, 1867, June 17, 1869; Joliet Signal, June 29, July 20, 1869; Cairo Evening Bulletin, May 4, 1869.
26 Illinois State Register, January 20, 1853; Alton Courier, January 2, 1854.
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from fourteen to sixteen avidly responded to the appeal of the disreputable dance hall, which made its appearance in Chicago and spread to the other cities during the Civil War. The need which these dance halls emphasized caused some to advocate free places of public amusement in which innocent and elevat- ing entertainment could be found. The idea of the modern institutional church appeared in a suggestion of a proposed "social union," "to combine religious teaching on the sabbath with weekly literary exercises, musical soirees, gymnastic per- formances, meetings for debate and political management, a library and reading room, social parlor, dramatic exhibitions, lectures, a museum, art hall, bathing rooms, refreshments, mineralogical cabinet, and chemical and philosophical appa- ratus; " 27 but such an institution was quite too ambitious for those days of long ago. It was nevertheless noted that "those cities which extend the largest amount of patronage to amuse- ments, do the greatest amount of business and attract the most visitors." 28 Chicagoans, therefore, felt themselves justified in the expenditure of a half million dollars a year for the city's formally organized amusements.29
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